Concrete issue 174 23 02 2005

CONCRETE HOUSING GUIDE FOR 2005

SPECIAL PUU-OUT SUPPLEMENT INSIDE

REDISCOVERED

PageS

NO SMOKE WITHOUT FIRE PUTS FORWARD MOTION TO BAN SMOKING IN THE

HIVE Katharine Clemow Deputy Editor Voices have been around campus since it was learnt last week that a motion had been proposed at Union Council to ban smokIng In the Hive. The popular hang out spot plays host to large numbers of students who meet to chat, have a drink and a bite to eat, and often also a smoke.

Since the catel'in'g block

was refurbished last sum- too should become smoke mer and became entirely free. non-smoking, the Hive has 路 The motion was probeen one of just a few places posed by Academic Officer around campus you could Chrts Ostrowsld, who Is not light up with impunity. On a smoker but has no prob1\iesday, February 8th. how- lem with the habit Wmself, ever, it was suggested that it and seconded by Helen

Davis, Sports Officer.

Mr Ostrowski said he was acting In response to the many people who have approached Wm since he took up office In September who don't want smokin'g allowed in the Union House cafe.

The motion was opposed

by Finance Officer James Drakeford for a number of reasons. He says that 'the Hive was 'specifically designed to provide a nonsmoking area with 80 seats and a smoking area with 60

seats' and has 'a natural ventilation system using air currents to take smoke away from the non-smoking area and to remove it from the area itself effectively and efficiently.'

While he doesn't smoke 路 he is concerned on behalf of the economic welfare of the Union that the 'design was specifically undertaken, at considerable expense, so as to create a non-alcohol but smoking space for those students who by choice or cultural background do not wish to congregate in an alcohol space to smoke.' He goes on to say that 'if the Pub is the only indoor smokIng space it is likely that the mechanical extraction system will have to be upgraded to make it a pleasant place for both smokers and nonsmokers.'

Mr Drakeford states that according to national statistics. over 40% of students smoke and 'the non-smoking social space In the University already occupies well over 70% of the social areas available to students.'

Student feedback to the proposed ban has taken a variety of forms. One student who Is studying an MA In Creative Writing says he More on the potential ban See page two

路NORWICH BACKS CAMPAIGN FOR NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT Katharine Clemow Deputy Editor On Friday tht 18th nationally and internationally respected peace campaigner Bruce Kent was In Norwich talking about the need to end the threat of nuclear weapons to every country In

the world. Braving the wintry weather Kent and Ws fellow activists talked about the history of nuclear weapons, saying why they think the manufacture and use of warheads shouJd be banned. and asking people to sign the petitions urging Tony Blaire to set an example of how a Government can

desist can pull away from using the threat of weapons against thetr enemies.

The talk was held at the charity stall on Hay Hill in the city and was Initially well attended but the area cleared when the rain started though the half-term crowd of shoppers and other p_eople browsing the market

were drawn back by the arrival of !an Glbson.

Norwich North MP Glbson, best known for Ws outspoken stance on Top-Up Fees, also feels strongly about the need for the for an end to the manufacture and often-used threat of nuclear weapons. He supports the campaign to bring about the

end of the nuclear era saying the weapons are a 'waste of money and effort and the resources being used on them should be going towards the NHS Instead.'

He goes on to say that there Is no longer a Cold War ana nuclear capabilities are used as threats from one country to another with the argu-

ment boiling down to 'ours Is bigger than yours'. He also points out that only a few years ago Tony Blaire himself was a member of CND and 'it's no good blaming Iran and Iraq when you have nuclear weapons yourselfl' Mr Gibson Is just one of Kent's campaign See page four

NINE TEAMS MAKE KNOCK OUT AT BUSA SEE SPORTS PAGES

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JOAD ON THE ROAD

COMETH

LECTURER RUNS FOR RESEARCH

Saturd ay th e 26''' is t h e fir s t clay o f thi s yea r·s Fa irTracle Fo rt night. After th e s u ccess of las t year's UE:A -foc u sed ce le bra ti o n o f a ll th ings equit a ble. T h e Big Fa ir Tra d e g ro u p and t h eir assoc ia tes h ave ta l<e n th e s t ru ggle fo r globa l tra de jus ti ce int o th e city p roper.

Ma n y co m pa n ies have coni ri b ut ccl towrd s th e va ri o u s end eavo urs to m a k e Norwich a Fair Trade it y and las t yea r man y n ightd u bs. s u<"h as Mt"n'y a n d Ti m e. a long with ou r own LCH nights. played host to Fa irTrade fundraising on the most popu lar cl u b nights.

The decision by th e Council to play host to a fortnight of city-wide f~'l ir ­ t radt' aware n ess has been welcomed by manv full -time fair! radcrs. such as the cit~'s Bannana Link. Tilt" various Union societies. such as SPEAK and SEED. will also be or~anising their own conthbutions towards t he fundraising.

With the massivt" nation wide suppm-t tor tllt" Make Poverty History campaign. whit·h t h ~: Union rt"ccntlv voted to support. hopes for this year's Fair! rncle Fortnight are even higher.

PARTY DIVERSELY UE:As ann u a l Int ern a ti o n a l Party has been givt" n a 2005 elate. On Wednesday the 2 Ma rch. As u sua l. th e event is a n eage rly awa it ed pa1-t of th e UEA socia l calcncler a n d thi s years celebra tion of our the varous inte rn a ti o n a l cu ltures wi ll featu re anoth er s tunning lin t" -up o f ac ts.

There will be Ba rb er S h o p Quartet . gos p e l c h oir.

Ca poe ira and U1cre will be J a panese cu is ine for chowing clown o n .

Na ti o na l dress is en co uraged (a !thou g h h om e s t u d ents a rc d isco u raged from wea ring rolled up tro u st" rs with h an ki es on th eir h eads) . a nd so m e o f th e cloth in g h as proved to be a hig hlig ht a t past event s

Concrete 1\'ec/n e.~<i" '··

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Philip Sa inty

Dr. J oacl Raymond. Lectu rer in t h e sch ool of LIT. will be r u n n ing in t hi s yea r 's Lo ndo n Marathon to raise money for World Cancer f{escarch Fund - UK (WCRF Ul\) and hopes sta fT and students at the Univers ity wi ll sponsor him in his endeavou r.

Joad has re t urned to the UEA t hi s academic year after conducting research at Princeton University in th e US. l lis decision to run sponsored in the Marathon is clue to his brother in -law having been recently diagnosed with an inoperabk

Fl'imwn· 23 . 2005

bra in t u mo u r.

WCRF UK is a ch m ty co mmitted to "savin g lives by fundi ng can ce r research and providing educat ion programmes that expand o ur u nderstand in g of t 11(' importa n ce of our food a nd I;festyle choices in the can cer process" . The chari ty is instrumental in p roviding support an cl advice. bot h in the prevention of cancer. and to the l~m1ilics of those d iagnosed with cance r. The charity on;anises a funclra ising team for the London Marathon each year - last year th e event raised over 1:40.000.

Joad would be grateful for any sponsorship that staff and stude nts can afford to give

CON

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BRITISH STUDENTS GIVEN UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY Nadia Bennich Internal ional Editor Environmentally-conscious a nd socially aware students from th e Ul\ have the chance to take part in a uniqu e and exciting event which will lake place in Scotland l his summer.

Around 600 youn~ people between the ages of 18 ancl 25 \vill be selected from around the world to par1 ie ipate in the third World Youth Congress which \vill be held in S I irling from Satu rday th e 30th of Ju ly until Monday the 8t h of Au gust.

The Wo rl d Youth Co n gress was la unch ed by th e ed u catio n a l c h a rit y Peace C h ile! In ter na ti o n a l (PCI) in 1999 a ncl occurs every two yea rs. This yea r's eve n t is b ein g organi sed an d fu nd ed by th e Scotti s h Execu tive wit h th e support o r oth e r gro u ps in cl u di n g Scotti s h You th Pa rlia m en t a n d o th er yout h groups.

Young p eople have been acti ve ly involved in sett ing up th e a gen da for th e event.

Th e Wo rld Youth Congress

s tresses the important lead ership role young people can fulni in areas such a pm•e r ty eradication. peace. equal ity and e nvironmental issues. and provides a forum for dynamic incli\'icluals to share th e ir skills and experience.

Scotland's Deputy Minister for Education and Young People. Euan l{obson. enthused: 'The World Youth Congress is a major opportu ni ty for young people to make t heir voices hea rd on an international stage. l look fOJ-warcl to hear ing t h ese views" lie acl cled "I would urge any enviro nmen ta lly a n d socially a wa r e youn,g people to s ig n u p and j oin u s at Scotland 2005.

Scot land is a m od ern o u tward -looking cou ntry with a s tro ng comm itment to its yo ung peo ple a nd h e ri ta ge so it is fi tti ng th a t we s h ould be chose n to h ost t hi s prestigious even t ...

The Wo rld Yo ut h Con gress· m a in t h em e fo r t h e upco m ing eve nt is 'You n g people wo rking for a s u sta inabk world co mmu ni ty ' a n d t h e programme refl ects the UN's Millennium

De\C·lopment Goals which mciudes focus on pove1iy. equality. community a n d lt ealt h. Th e programme includes three clays of work ing on projects across Scotland includi n g. for example. schemes to he lp inner city communities.

As a result of the information and ideas gener ated by tll(' event. de legates will pre pare a nd present a po licy document tn the UN Ge n eral Assemb ly in New York in September.

T h e Wo rld Youth Congress says t hi s docum e nt is expected to h ighlight h ow yo u ng people from a ll across th e world 'can play an integral part in fu ture interna t io n a l susta in a bility'.

T h e evt" nt is free to a tt end \vi th a ll acco mmodati on. mea ls a nd eq u ipment provided b u t delega tes mus t p ay for t h eir t r a ve l t o Scotland.

If you wou ld like to ap p ly to be a part of t h e third World Yo uth Con g ress. or for m ore information about t h e eve nt. please visit www·.scot lancl2005.0J-g . T h e clcaclline fo r app lica tio n s is 3 1'' March.

A Terrible Idea Continued from page one thi n ks 'It's a terri ble idea. an infri nge m ent of civi l liber ties and peo ple ~ l wu lcl just wa lk rou n d th e Hive if t h ey don·t li ke the smoke'. llis o pinio n is co u n tered by a s tu d ent who pre ferred t o remain a n onymo u s but is in LLT 3 . Tm for the ban as p assive smok ing is a known ca u se of ca ncer a nd a s m o ky a tmos phe re. whi ch aggr eva tes my m ed ica l co n d itio n .'

If th e ba n p roceeds t h ere have bee n fea rs th a t t h e !live w ill lose r evenu e \vith s mo kers ea ting in th e Pub .

But Mr Ostrows ki says h e was . pro mpted to wri te

UNI RADIO SEEKS NEW STARS

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LIVEWI

1350AI'f

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Sa ra h Smith Livewire. t h e un iversit y ra dio s ta ti on . has rece ntly b ee n running a co mpetit ion ai m ed a t a ll th e new a nd o rigina l mu s ical ab ili ty o u t th ere loca lly .

T h e U vewire : Unsign ed co mpe tit io n was crea ted to expose and nurture t h e r aw ta lent in mu s ic o n ca mpu s and in th e city. Th e compet ition was run in assoc ia tio n wiU1 XFM ancl was sponsored by m u sic uploacl s it e brightskies .com. Th e stati o n as ked for people to se nd in th eir dem os for judging by th e Li ve wire mu s ic tea m . th e clos in g el a te was th e Tuesd ay 22 nd Februa ry. th e m o ti o n by 'the s h eer number of people' a nd 'th e re is no way it can a ffect th e union fin a n cially' as a t th e m o m ent p eople wh o don't like s m okin g a r c b e in g exclud ed from ea ting t h eir lun ch in the I li ve. He a dds th a t w h en t h e exec m et to d iscu ss the issue before th e coun cil m eeting 'there wer e very s trongly h e ld opin io n s on bot h sid es s u ch a s "all s m o king s h o ul d be ba nn ed in a ll p laces a t a ll ti m es a nd h ave a 5 m etre exclus ion zo n e by the d oo rs ".

In ca ses s u ch as th ese th er e is n ever a s olution th a t s u its everyone but s mokin g wo ul d d e fin ite ly s ti ll b e ~owed d uring LC H nigh ts ·.·

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Th ose wh o m ade th e cut were in vited into th e Livewirc tudi o lo p lay li ve. a perfo rma n ce th a t was p lay across Norwich as we ll as glob a ll y on www. li vcwire 1350 .com.

And for t h e u ltimat e win ner? A d ay's reco rding sess ion a t th e Mill Record ing Studio. a n E .P mi xe d a nd master ed . as we ll as t h e oppo rt unity to play a t a n ·exclu s ive Livewire : Unsigned eve nt. As well as a ll t h is. s o n gs t h a t th e tea m liked pa rti cu larly we re playlis ted.

a nd a t gigs . any tim e alcoh ol is on s ale in th e I li ve . and it has b ee n d ecided th at a policy ballot will be h eld and t h e exec ag r eed th at t he wo rding will be "This unio n resolves th a t th e middl e noor of uni o n h ou se wi ll beco m e a no -s m o kin g a r ea except wh en a lco hol is be ing s erved th er e".

If this wordin g is acce pt ed by uni on council on T u esday 2 2"'' th e policy b a ll o t will b e h e ld o n Thurs d ay I 0 '" Mar ch .

Mr Os trowsk i was n omi n a ted by th e cxec to ove rsee the YES campa ig n a nd Mr Dra kcford to h ead u p th e NO campa ig n with each receiving a pproxima tely £ 100 to s p end .

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Concrete

\Vedne.wlm 路. Fehruan ?3 . 2005

Messages of Support Continued from page one

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路Right to Choose?

Smoking in the Hive is bound to be a 路contentious issue. Tobacco is just one of the drugs students tend to make use of during their time at University.

But it's not just students that are burning away the daylight hours, since the Hive became the only catering outlet on campus that allows smokers to puff in peace, it has also become a favoured haunt of those lecturers that enjoy a crafty fag. This has also made for lucrative business in the Union .

Considering the volume of smoke that often greets visitors on entering the bui ldi ng, it is clear that some people wi ll be ave rse to entering. Also, there are the hardworking staff to consider, most of those who work on reception don't smoke and they have to put up with it all day.

The health issues surrounding the debate on public smoking are highly contested, with various evidence being cited on both sides. The Government is obviously concerned about the impact of smoking on the health service (though any attempt to make people live longer is laughable considering the current attitude towards pensions). Smokers are right to feel victimised, it is unfair that they be discriminated against, especially for doing something they enjoy.

In light of all the, highly contenious, arguments, a Ballott of all students is the only fair solution. Union House, to all intents and purposes, belongs to us all and so we should all have a say in the conditions that exist there.

To ensure the vote is fully representative, then make sure you do register your opinion on the 17th March.

Spiked Recent incidences of drink spiking on campus are real cause for concern.

That the most recently reported case, on the 4th February, affected two males is a stark reminder that everyone should be aware of this issue.

The use of drink spikes is now being done purely for a perverted sense of fun , with no other sinister motives in mind.

This doesn't make it any better or excusable and the people doing this, whatever the motive, need to be brought to task. In many ways, it has become more dangerous than an attempt at robbery, as the perpetrator will not hang around once the spike has been adminstered, making them harder to catch.

We all need to start looking out for each other while we're out enjoying ourselves. The drinks don't spike themselves and we need to be very wary of people hanging around them.

severa l high profile fi gures to support Kent and his campa ign. Tlw organisC'rs of th e eve nt received messagC's of support from t h e Lord Mayor. Councillor Joyce . Divers. Dean of NorwiC' h Cathedral Gra ham S mith . and Norwich South MP and llom c Secretary Charl es Clarke.

The petitions being offered by th e supporters of the ban on weapons to passe rs by in th e city were s igned by a wid e number of Norwich residents. yo un g and old . men and wo men. die -hard ac tivists and th ose who had only just learned of th e ca mpaign . They \vi ll be prese nted to Downing Street as part of the Nuclear Non Prolifera tion Trea ty Conference in May which is held on /\lbe rt Einstein's birthday as a away of re m e mb e rin g him as th e m an who fathered o ur un derstand ing of the ato m an d thereby made nucl ear weaponry possible.

Ch a ir of th e CND Davida Higgin says 'U1e forthcomin g mee ting ... \vi ll be a testing ti me for th e Treaty. which is a corners tone of internation a l security a nd is now und er

threat. particu larly from the U.S. Our Governm ent su pports th e Traety in its entirety. whi ch includes a pledge

to work in good fa:ith for the of nu clear a bolition weapons.

Bru ce's vis it [gave] us a great opportunity

to insist that Government h o n our its pledge . at th e Con fe ren ce and afterwards.路

STUDENTS BREAK LANGUAGE BARRIER STUDY SHOWS INCREASE IN EXTRA-CURRICUlAR lANGUAGE LEARNING Rob Smith A s urvey h as revealed more s tud ents a re ta k ing la n gu age courses at univers ity. but th a t the m aj ority o f these students a re taking non-accredit ed co urses . The s urvey. carri ed out by the Assoc iation of Univers ity Language Centres and featured in th e Times Higher Education Supple m ent. polled 40 ins titutions on th e number of s tud ents studying languages. reveali ng U1 e increase in popularity of lea rning la nguages

The s urvey showed that th e numb e r of s tud ents studying a foreign lan gu age h as ri sen by over l 000 to 53.008 for the 2004-5 acad emic year. Th is is co mpared to just und e r 52 .000 for 2003 -4. However. the num 1:5er of s tud ents s tudying on acc redi ted lan guage co urses which cou nt toward s their final degree h as dropped from 27.572 to 22.123.

Univers ities only receive funding for th ose s tud ents who e nrol on d egree-level language courses. There is no finan cial assistance for those who choose to s tudy a la n g u age as a n optional extra . This h as led to worri es

lliat language departments \vi ll b e und e r -fund ed as fewe r s tud e nts ch oose to take langu age degree cours es. There is a lso a concern llia t unive rs ities in the UK may choose to cut back on la n gu age provi ion in res ponse to lliese fi gures.

Many students at UEA choose to s tudy a langu age in a ddition to llieir regular modu les. Andy. DEV 3 chose to study Arabic as an extra option . "I was considering go ing to Cairo for my year ab road and so I felt Arabic was llie obvious choi ce for an extra modu le. " he said. "I also feel lliat Arabic is a fa scinating lan gu age which is

spoken by a huge number of people across llie world . A la ngu age is hu gely h elpful on a CV and so I \vis hed to study one during my time at UEA. " A third year s tude nt representa tive a lso stated "A number of the students I represen t learn a language in add ition to the regular course requirements. They recognise the importance of h aving a second or even third la ngu age in th ese times of multi-culturalism.

Studying a language in a ddi tion to one's co urse s hows initia tive and drive to an employer."

NESTLE TALKS DEEMED A SUCCESS DEBATE REINFORCES UNION'S BAN OF SWEET GIANT"S PRODUCTS lsobel Dyson As reported in a previous iss ue iss ue of Concre te . a d ebate co ncerning Nestle took place last month to deal \villi issues concerning llie confectionary company .

Nestle, and U1e ban of its products in Union -run cam pus ouUets .

The d ebate was organ ised by the UEA Politics Society. Polistic . who invited a representative from Nestle to attend the debate.

The eve nt was h eld as an opportunity for students to s peak \villi a representa tive from Nes tl e and discove r mo re a bout llie company's policies through a direc t so urce. The d ebate also provided a chance for NesUe to respond to accusations that the company had promoted th eir baby m il k to Th ird World countries as an alternative to b reast m ilk and alsci to contest th e ban of their products in Union outlets.

The successfu l d iscu ss ion was record ed by Nexus and continued an hour after

llie planned fini s hing time as members of the floor fired questions to bolli s ides.

Beth Broc kett . a Resea rch Associate in the Centre for Social and Economi c Research on the Global Environment and a form er Ba by Milk Action volunteer. was not a representative as previously reported. but mad e a strong case agains t nestle.

The representative from Nestle a dmitted that the company had promoted Nestle baby milk to Third World countries in llie past. but m a intained that they

n ow s tri ctly kee p to the cod es outlined by the World Hea lth Organisati on ban ning aggressive marketing of baby m il k formu la. They also claimed to protect th e healili of people in developing countries . Nestle also stated its position as a valua ble emp loyer in Th ird World co untries and as a vital aid to llie economi es of certain countries.

Belli Brockett proposed that Nestle were not as strict in their adherence to the WHO as t h ey c lai m ed because their practices had not changed sufficiently.

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Wednesdoy, February 23''. 2005

CiET FOLKED AT UEA McLIBELLISTS VINDICATED BY EUROPE Miranda Poppet Folk Correspondent The Inter-Varsity Folk Dance Festival (IVDF), the longest-running folk dance festival in. the UK, takes place this coming weekend between the 25'" and 27'" February. IVDF 2005 is being hosted by UEA, with the help of the UEA FolkSoc. and is supported by Norfolk County Council. The event will consist of eight ceilidhs and dances. one concert.and over 40 workshops held over th e weekend .

Entertainments are provided by a number of local and national acts. T ickled Pink and Xim Ceilidh dance bands will be performing on the Friday night and a 12-

hour ceilidh marathon is kicked off on the Saturday

by UEA's own · folk band.

Elassar.

Workshops are running. throughout the event and are highly eclectic, offering a worldwide selection of dances as well as crafts and music.

Amongst the courses on offer, there is the opportunity to learn African Drumming, Maypole Dancing, Capoeira and Bubble Blowing.

More information about the event, including ticket prices, timetables for t h e main events and a provision a l timetable of workshops, can be found on the festival's website, www. ivfdf2005.org.

EU COURT RULES IN FAVOUR OF ACTIVISTSHAVING LEGAL SUPPORT

FREE BUS SERVICE J eff Clayton Tansport Correspondent UEA's Transport Co-ordina Dewar. tor, Dawn rumounced a free bus service for the Un iversity last week. The move comes "as part of the UEA's ongoing Travel Plan Strategy" and from Thursday 17 February 2005 unW the end of the academic year. bus travel on First route 25 between Costessey Park & Ride and the UEA will be free.

The 25 Service operates every ten minutes between the Campus and the Park & Ride s ite between ?am and ?pm from Monday to Saturd ay. The journey normally takes around ftfteen minutes.

The journey is free upon produ ction of your camp us card when boarding the bus.

The Park & Ride site is located on th e A47 Southern bypass. a djacent to the Norfolk Showground . While car parking ch arges do actu ally come into force at Costessey in late March with the commen cement of the new P&R service to the city to be operated by Konect there is currently no ch arge for car parking.

The UEA's Sustainable Transport Action Group (STAG) h as been pos itive a bout the improved service.

Rupert Read. representing th e group said: "STAG welcom es this exciting new development, and co ngratu lates Dawn Dewar for having bro ught it a bout. We ea rnestly hope that this scheme will persist and will be fully fman cially s upporteel indefinitely by the University, a nd not just for the next few m onths."

Legal Editor e European Court of Human Rights has historically ruled that Helen Steel and Davicl Morris. th e 2 defendants s u ed for libel by Donalds more than 10 ago in the infamous trial. should h ave allowed access to legal rep resentation.

David Morris and Helen Steel were originally members of London Greenpeace (a pressure group not related to the organization Greenpeace), which began a campaign in the mid 80s against McDonalcls by hand ing out anti-McDonald's leaflets in a London branch. leaflets, entitled "What's g with McDonald's: everything they don't want to know". contain ed accusations of low wages. animal cruelty and many other malpractices.

80s, By th e late McDonalcl's had infiltrated the group and by 1990 served writs upon 5 of its members for defamation.

Whilst the other 3 apologised, Steel and Morris refused and so were taken to co urt. Before the start of th e trial their ap plications for Legal Aid were refused on the grounds that such Aid was unavailable for defamation cases. This was despite the fact that David Morris was receiving income support and Helen Steel earned just £3500 a year.

Consequently. th e two were forced to defend themselves.

In contrast, McDonald's were represented by a s pecialist QC costing £2.000 per clay and a Solicitor at a cost of £1000 per day .

Another reason given for the refusal of Legal Aid was that th e defendants a ppeared perfectly capable of defending th emselves , a bizarre

assumption given tl1at they t h e European had been refused the right to Hu man Rights in trial by jury on the basis against the that "ordinary" people could Government for the refusal not be expected to under- of Legal Aid, a case for stand s u ch complex scientif- which, ironically enough , ic argument. The trial lasted Legal Aid was granted to the Judges at a total of four years, causing d efendants . the defendants a great deal Strasbourg ruled that the refusal of Legal Aid had of expense and stress. so mething that the court refused breach ed the defe ndants' to adjourn proceedings to rights to a fair trial and freeaccount for. dom of expression under the At the original trial at the E uropean Convention Human Rights.

High Court. the judge ruled that whilst McDonald's were "It was a nightmare "culpably responsible" for fighting th at case." said animal cruelty and exploit- David Morris of the original ing children with its a dver- trial. "But it was a tising practices. parts of th e chance to expose the leaflet were untrue (such as of McDonald's. Our the claim that food served by object has always been to McDonald's cau sed cancer) . en courage people to stand and therefore defamatory. up for themselves and to Th e defendants we re take control of th e ir ordered to pay £60,000 resources. not multinational damages. later reduced to companies or Govemments .

This should encourage £40 ,000.

The defendan ts the n pie to better defend thembrought a separate action at selves."

Co.crtte Wednesday, February 23"', 2005

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UEA s·OCIETY PROVIDES MISSING LINK FOR LCR SAFETY STUDENT FIRST AlDERS HELP UEA STAY SAFE Sarah Watson LINKS, the student wing of the UK's leading first aid organisation. St. John's Ambulance, Is a society that offers first aid training for those wishing to learn.

Though few realise it, LINKS plays an important role at the LCR where they help the revellers g e t

through their night safely.

While many people would not know what to do If someone collapsed in front of them, or had an injury that needed tending to, there are students at UEA that pos-

saving skills and First aid training.

As well as gigs and sports occasions or events, the LINKS crew Is on hand for the university and St. John members also use their skills locally, for example on the SOS bus

Friday and Saturday nights.

As part of a wider organisation, St. John's Ambulance provides cover for many events nationwide. A LINKS team will be at the Silverstone Grand Prix this July.

This year, training is the responsibility of Drew Welch, a member of St. John's for the past nine years. "The average LCR first aider will complete 6 days training. but also

IRAQI PEOPLE CHOOSE SHIITE ALLIANCE TO RULE ~~.;_ Alyssa Morrisey

Final votes were tallied last week for wrapping up the US-led Iraqi national elections. A Shla-dominated group backed by religious leader, Grand Ayatollah All Sistani, known as the Shia list, won the elections with the most votes.

Wishes were granted for the US and Britain on January 30 when millions of Iraqi citizens cast their ballots with fewer disturbances than expected. In ail, Iraqi fighters carried out 175 attacks, killing 44 people.

The US state department called the event 'a positive and significant accomplishment', and President George W Bush congratulated "the Iraqi people for del)ring terrorist threats and setting their country on the path of democracy and freedom.', he added, The United States and our Coalition partners can all take pride in our role in making that great day possible.' With the 47 percent Shia lead lower than expected, they will likely be forced to build coalitions with other groups.

A total of 12 parties have qualified for seats on the 275 temporary-member national assembly, whose main task is to approve a new constitution. Twentyfive seats must be designated to women.

Kurdish parties accounted for 26 percent of overall votes, while a group led by Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, known as the Iraqi list, received nearly 14 percent of the votes. The Shia list Is expected to hold 132 seats in the national assembly. Voter turnout was calculated at just under 60 percent.

This is merely the first step. The assembly will agree on candidates for Prime Minister, paving the way for another election in December 2005. Afterwards the country hopes for a selfsustained, free democracy.

'We will have an assembly which Is elected by the people and a government which is completely legitimate.· Says Ahmed Chalabi. a veteran Iraqi politician who seeks the nomination for Prime Mirtister. Chalabi provided information about weapons of mass destruction before the US-led invasion on Iraq began in 2003.

While Kurds and Shiltes shared the victory. Sunni participation dwindled. The incredible two percent turnout of voters in the Anbar province of the 'Sunni triangle' indicated that most Sunni voters were encouraged to boycott. or were deterred by threats of violence against polling places from insurgents.

As Tony Blalr and the Bush administration congratulate themselves on their most recent victory in the War on Terrorism. doubt

lingers over the legitimacy ~d effectiveness of the election. Many believe that it has no bearing over Iraqi's long term future.

'George Bush will be the major victor in this election, using it to claim legitimacy for his occupation of Iraq.'

Says Phyllis Bennis, author of several books including Before and After: Us Foreign Policy and the September 11 Crisis. This election does not mean that the invasion and occupation of Iraq Is legitimate. Democracy cannot be Imposed at the point of a gun.'

Blair. who called the election ·a blow right to the heart of the global terrorism' has been accused of using political gains in Iraq to confront opponents who persistently criticize his involvement In the occupation .

Also. many fear that the underrepresented Sunni Muslim minority could inspire a civil uprising: 'Elections against the will of Arab Sunni Muslims will establish the newly born Iraqi state as their enemy,' Says Dhaflr al-Ani, an Iraqi political analyst and former politics professor at Baghdad University.

Similarly, the weeks following the election were marked by increased violence, killing scores of soldiers and Iraqis. Last Friday. at least ~7 people were killed and dozens more injured during attacks on Shla Mosques at prayer time throughout Baghdad.

the details of alcohol and drug intoxication. This year we have 25 fully qualified first aiders and 7 first aid assistants. Seven of our members are now qualified to use airway management equipment, oxygen therapy and Entonox - otherwise known as laughing gas for pain relief."

A number of LINKS mem-

at Work' qualification, opening the gateway to training at a higher level. depending on experience and time commitment.

In retum for the training they receive. first alders volunteer to be 'on duty', mainly at the LCR - where 80% of incidents are a direct result of excess alcohol consumption - 50% of the cases seen

by LINKS Involve treating minor injuries. For all intoxicated casualties, several possibilities need to be ruled out. like head injuries. a recent seizure or hypoglycaemia (low blood sugar) In diabetics. If the casualty is afflicted in such a way, it may be necessary to call 999: 7% of LCR casualties leave in an ambulaoce. First aider Henry tended to "a lad who was presumed to be drunk, but after analysing what had . happened we realised he'd just had a seizure and needed to go to A&E urgently" .

"There is a lot to be gained from being a part of LINKS" says vice chair. Cara Phillips.

"Apart from the first aid training and the opportunity to practice these skills by helping fellow students, there's a programme of socials and frequent trips to the bar after weekly meetings. making it a fun and sociable society to be involved in."

IH£ AWARDS ARE Ol'fN !0 TWO AGE GIOIWS· 16·19 AND 10·1& fEAR DlDS. CLOSING OAf[ fOR U !RifS IS APiilllO 1005.

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8 concrete.news@ uea.ac. uk

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Concrete

\\led! ll'sdar. Felm wrr 23 . 2005

NORWICH IS AUCTION ADDICTED Tom Hutchings With 44 perce n t of th e popu la tion regis te r ed . Nonvich h as offi c ia lly beco m e th e eBay ca pita l of th e UK. Whil e m a ny decide to u se it as an a u cti on roo m for ge tting rid of unwa nt ed gift s. old toys o r ju s t m e r e junk. m a ny. including UEJ\ s t ucl e nt s . are c hoos ing to lea ve a lifes tyl e fund ed by eBay" s o pportuni ti es .

Ma tt. C MP PGI . found that will 1 no job and a he ft y wor ldoad he wa s un<1ble to afford llic Apple iBool; he s o despera te ly ·needed· for hi s co urse - h e turned to e Bay. ··1 s old my Tel eca s ter elec tTi c

g uit a r with s ome ac ces so ri es. my m obile phone and my hi -fi"" sa id Ma lt. .. It was th e pe rfec t solution ... He now regrets sellin g hi s g uit a r but m a n aged to ge t his mu ch ·need ed· co mput e r.

The popula rity of eBay amongs t s tudents is widely rega rd ed as a result of th e un s ta ble fin a nc ia l situa tion s th ey find th e mse lves in.

S eeking a s teady s upply of cas h Aclam. EC03. told Con crete ·-you can oil e r wh a t you h ave to millions of people. not ju s t some b loke down the pub ... But th ere are two s ides to eBay. selli ng a nd buying. "There is jus t so much choi ce and a lways a c h a n ce fo r a b a rgain·· he a dd ed .

S tud nt s a lso h ave a re put a ti o n fo r buying junk but th e o ther s tud e nt fa vo urit e. gig ti c kets. have a lso found a ho m e on th e a u c tion site a s ti ckets fo r a cts a t th e LC H a rc preva lent. These aren't Thursday di sco li cl;ets but ti ckets for some of th e bes t gigs th e Eas t of Engla nd s ees . Ju s t typin g ·uEA" into e Bay ·s searc h e n g in e proffe rs a hu ge lis t of ti ckets fo r sale a nd . wh en gigs a re sold out. prices ca n be ridi c ulou s.

C urrent fa vourites include tickets fo r Ath lete .

Eras ure and The Hives with some touching £3 5 per li ck et. One se ller claim s that th ey will a lso give th e buyer a phone number to ca ll to

DRINK WATCH POLICE URGE ALL STUDENTS TO BE VIGILANT Robin Smith On th e 4th o f f e bruary . three m a le UEA s tud e nt s we re th e victims of drink s piking wh ile att end in g th e ··c lub Retro·· nigl1t a t th e LC R. During the course of " th e eve nin g. o n e of th e stu -

de nt s began to feel dec idedly un we ll a nd went outs ide to throw u p. Thi s was th e !<1s t t hing h e can rem ember fro m th e ni l(h t. It is a lso re ported th a t a rri encl of thi s s t ucl e nl s urfe red s imila r sympto ms. i\t th e sa m e nig ht. a m e mb er of th e Concrete team al s o s uffered clue to drink s piking. He left hi s drink un a tt end ed for a fe w

minut es. bu t o n hi s return fo un cl lha l it las ted diffe rent.

Wi se ly . h e did n ot fini s h it but soo n bega n lo feel clreacl ful. T h e e ffects of thi s s pik ing las ted we ll into th e n e,"'\1. clay.

The poli ce wi s h lo a d vise s tud ent s lo be vi gila nt a nd loo k aft e r o t h e 1·s a rou ncl th e m. Under n o c irc um s ta n ce s hould a drink be !ell

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arr<m ge ·· possibl e·· b<1cks tage passes . whi ch is somewhat qu esti o na b le. but co mpa red lo s imila r ti cket offers . it h a s

ra ised th e price co n s id e ra b ly.

Th e possibilities fo r s tu d ent" s evolve m e nt \vi th eBay

a re e ndl ess a nd only crea tive ideas will s ee its lim its pu s h ed to th e m a:'< . Wh a t \vill b e n ex1:? Exam papers?

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un a tt ended. even if it is on ly fo r a minut e. Whils t drink s piking is often seen as a cla nge r whi ch pred omin a ntly a ffec ts women. it is clea r fro m thi s incident th a t it ca n ju s t as eas ily h a ppe n to men.

Drinks a re spiked for a va ri ety of reaso n s : robbe ry . hu m ilia ti o n o r even sexual assa ult . If a nyon e feels th a t th ey h ave bee n lhe \ric tim of a drink -s piking in c id e nt th en th ey s ho uld see k immedi a te m edi cal attenti on fro m th e firs t-a id s ta ff on duly a t C'very LCR. The s a m e a pplies if yo u feel that your f1·ie ncl h as h a d th eir drink spiked: s tay with th em and m ove

th em lo so m ewh e re safe .

It is al so impera tive lhal th e poli ce a re informed a ft er eve ry case as th ey m ay be a ble lo ca tch th e cul p rit res po n s ible. Membe rs of th e Ente rta inme nts s ta ff h ave b ee n m a d e awa r e o f th e issu e a nd \vi ll be o n h an d lo offe r h elp if a n inc id e nt occ urs.

The Wo m en ·s group o n ca mpu s h as a n o ngo in g ca mpa ign to ra ise th e awa rC' n css o f ch-ink-spiking. Ir a nyb od y wo uld like to ge t in vo lved th ey can ta lk to th e Wom e n' s Office r.

Ka t Bowkcr. in Uni o n II o u se.

If a nyone \vitnessecl a nything s uspi c iou s at t h e LC H

lha l night. or fell that th eir clrinl; was a lso s piked. th ey ca n co nt ac t PC Be ll o n 01 593 42 42 42 . The re is a lso a we b s ite d evoted to thi s iss u e whi c h is run by th C' Roo fi e fo undati o n.

Th e a d d ress is www.roo fi e.com .

Th e r e is a ls o a 24 h o ur h e lplin e. Th e numb e r is 0800 7832980 .

Cotcrtte Wednesday,Februa·ry 23"', 2005

www.concrete-online.com

(ER HUNT lAWS THROUCiH BUT CONSIDERED UNCLEAR

concrete.news@uea.ac.uk

LIBS DEMONSTRATE A STUDENT APPEAL '-

Claire Bull

new legislation appears to be anything but clear cut. While it rules out Political Editor the traditional form of hunting with a pack of hounds, Hunting with dogs finally there are many loopholes ilJegal on Friday which hunt supporters will February. Like it or doubtless take advantage of. it. this ban has been These will also make it an about for several incredibly difficult law to now. and many have police effectively. Financially the number of hours stretched police authorities parliamentary time devot- have already indicated that to it fairly ridiculous. It is they will not be shifting their surprising that it focus away from reducing . as such an crime on the streets to moniIssue at this time. toring potential fox hunters. compared with mat- The overall impression is such as the protection of that the Issue is being treatnation from acts of glob- ed as of secondary importerrorism and reform of tance, primarily affecting public services, it Is pret- rural Britain and, conseinslgnlficant. · quently, only a relatively The Labour party prom- small section of society. · to ban hunting with Hunting rabbits or rats in the 1997 election instead of foxes will be and it has been allowed under the new law, argued that this legis- as will the use of one or two needed to get passed dogs to flush out a fox, so to satisfy dlsgrun- long as it is shot. Drag or Labour backbenchers trail hunting will still be are already unhappy allowed to take place as well, about the lraq war and the which involves hounds folintroduction of top-up fees. lowing an artificial pre-laid It has also been argued that scent. Consequently. hare animal rights barely feature coursing, which is celebrated in this new law, and that it Is at the annual Waterloo Cup, final heave from the has been made illegal. But Labour left to rid Britaln of there is nothing to stop this such an anachronistic spec- sport continuing, so long as tacle. Many suggest that this only rabbits are killed in the could cost Mr Blair thou- future. sands of votes at the forthThe League Against Cruel coming election in key rural Sports, which has long camseats which could swing to paigned for this change in the Conservatives who fully the law, · Is already training oppose the ban. its members to gather Anti-hunt campaigners . detailed evidence of any illeanticipated the change in the gal hunting. A spokesman with joy, whilst hunt said recently. "We will only supporters campaigned up be out of business when peoto the last minute to get the ple stop inllicting cruelty on legislation overturned. The animals in the name of latest legal challenge failed sport". The plan clearly is week. There are two furthat this sort of pressure appeals by the group will take over the Alliance to be duties involved with monitoring hunts to ensure they remain within the law. On the other side of the argument many thousands of those who hunt, and those

Sam Webber

Hunt met in Malmesbury.

Gloucestershire last week said, "We are not going away.

We will keep these hounds going, we will keep this community going and in the end we will come back and again when hunting Is legal".

A defiant message indeed and o~e which the government, however big a parliamentary majority, ought to be concerned about so close to a general election.

As controversial as this legislation is, and it has divided the 3 main vu•~u'=•

drawn under this issue of hunting with dogs Rural Affairs Minister Michael said last week, "From now on if people to set out to hurt a wild mal with dogs, whether it a fox. a mink, a hare deer, they will be the law. The hunting munity has always said are law abiding members society and I expect them keep their word".

Hopefully there will be Umited disturbances the coming months as directly affected adjust practices to adhere to new legislation. This have been a botched to outlaw a tradition that been in place in Britain hundreds of years, but perhaps now more serious matters can be liilly discussed ahead of the looming general election.

Those opposed to the ban undoubtedly be Conservative in the forlorn hope that hunting with dogs will be restored. Whilst it is bag', there is in reality a still to play for.

9

With an election forthcoming, campaigning has begun to win student votes. There seems to be a trend amongst students towards voting Liberal over Labour.

At the beginning of February Charles Kennedy, leader of the Liberal Democrats, began his campaign to win student votes.

At a speech to students at the LSE Kennedy spoke of the importance of the student vote: keen to remind students they had been failed by labour. Chris Lomax the Liberal Democrat chair of youth and students said "Most students voting in 2005 will be doing so for the first time . We need to tell them that Labour betrayed them in 1997 over tuition fees. and again in 2001 over top-up fees ."

A recent survey showed that the Liberals have 3% more student votes than Labour. although trends over the last 6 months have shown Labour increase their percentage of the vote by 3% and the Liberals lose 1% of their votes. If these trends continue the balance may tip, and Labour may once

again hold the majority of support: 75% of students in the Poll said they expected Labour to win in the General Election.

Both the Liberals and Conservatives are trying to cash in on Labour's introduction of top up fees

through their alternative policies.

The Liberal Democrats are calling for reintroduction of maintenance grants, abolition of top up fees, and a promise that students will become £3,075 better off under their

polices. The Conservatives are offering to abolish tuition fees as well as ending means testing for student loans and. like the Liberals, bringing back grants for poorer students .

The Conservative shadow education secretary Tlrn Collins has also promised universities major investment to the sum of £21 billion .

Within the UEA there are no active party-based societies for the Liberals or Labour, while the Conservative and Green Party do have some followIng. This is unusual for a university. and is perhaps a reflection of student apathy towards 'party' politics.

Perhaps students feel let down by Labour: as it appears that the lack of support for party politics within the university reflects a general trend of disengagement with parties amongst students. But it seems nation wide there Is no problem with student apathy, as 71.9% of students said they would vote In an upcoming election.

The fight for student votes will be centred on selective issues which students feel extremely volatile over. The coming months are set to show all parties fighting for the student vote.

NATIONAL STUDENT EMPLOYMENT WEEK 2005

;o~~ ~~~~ Thursday 24 February 1100-1400

in the LCR Part-time work, summer work, voluntary work and work experience local and national employers and voluntary organisations. Help with CVs, tax and NI issues. list of exhibitors at www.uea.ac.uk/ccen •.~····

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UEA. NORWICH

careers centre

10

concrete. news @uca.ac.uk

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THE NEW UNIO ACADEMIC OFFICER Dan Pearson

I am about to to graduate in Politics and I have represented SOC, at school board and Union Council level. Over the past year I have served as chairman of the Un ion Council and my role there has enabled me to take an ove rview of a range of views and opinions. In the se roles, I have seen how students can have a direct impact upon decisions made within the Union and University.

I will ensure that we still maintain levels of student representation that allow us to be effective as a union. As the University is changing, we need a strong voice to represent the varied views of our diverse student population. I want reps to have th e means and support to convey their information back to the student population .

With the increase in tuition fees, I want to support you in getting the most out of your degree.

Finally. I won't make unattainable pledges. my pledges are all clear. Th e Student Union is a strong and proud vo1ce on campus. it lobbies hard to gain the facilities, services and goods that students want. Your voice will be heard, my door '"' 11 always be open and together we can ach1eve a great deal Tl1ank you for choosing me to represent you over the next year.

FINANCE OFFICER Ben Williams

LIBERATIONS OFFICER Steve Williams

As an international studen t, t know how challenging and exciting it can be moving to another country to study. This journey ca n also be intimidating in many ways, as you do not know what to expect.

I want international students to trust the Internation al Officer to rep rese nt them during their time he re. I will also draw attention to any relevant issues affecting or concerning the international students. I want th em to feel that their voices are being heard and that th ey too can make a differen ce. I will personally make every effort to be a spokesperson for you and to represent you in th e best possible manner.

Therefore. any matters or issues you might have, I will bring forward to the union.

I also want them to experience th e dynamic city of Norwich. away from campus li fe and raise awareness of other organisations offering services to intern ational students. Howeve r, most importantly I want the inte rn ational office r to be someone they can tru st. both approachable and reliable and listening to their matters ranging from personal to academ ic with strict confidentiality. Finally, I want yo u all to feel at home here at UEA and in the city of Norwich.

Hi , my name's Steve Willi ams and I'm a 2nd year ENV student, and I'm very pleased to be taking up the position of Liberations Officer for 2005/06. I am eager to raise the profiles of the re spect ive ca mpaigns involving lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans students; black and ethnic minorities students; and students with disabiliti es. I will make sure the University and the Union are complying with the new Disabilities Discri mination Act which comes into force in Septemb er, ensuring students with a who le range of disabilities have adequate access to th e services they deserve. I will also co-ord inate Liberations Week in 2006 , campaigning for th e issues that matter most to these groups. I will work with the new Welfa re Officer, Emma Kelly, to continue the Union's Mental Health Campaign , which has gone from strength to strength. Finall y, my door is always open to listen to what students have to say: pop in to the Non-Sabbs office . email me at su. liberations@uea.ac.uk or grab me and say hello if you see me walking by! Thank you to everyone who voted for me: I am looking forward to working with and representing the diverse cultures here at UEA.

\l hilll'.w/ur. Felmwn· 9 . ?005

XEC 2005-06 WELFARE OFFICER Emma Kelly

A new student to UEA . Ben graduated from As Welfare Officer, I wou ld aim to get as many Leicester with a BA in Economics and Law. He people involved in University life as possible is currently studying as a Postgraduate in lP and am particularly interested in helping sociLaw. He has been involved in the Unions at eties to work in collaboration to organise Leicester and at UEA and, being responsible for fundraising events and campaigns. the Union's £10 million turnove r. has succeeded As someone who has experienced living and in securing arguably one of the most lucrative worki ng abroad , I am very keen to make sure posts. His aim over the ye ar is to "enrich the life the needs of internatio nal students are not negof all students" , which he hopes to do by providlected. I will work closely with the International ing an effective and student friendly-system of Society and also aim to create more opportuniservices, maintaining ethical buying standards ties for students to be able to meet informally to and making business processes more transparpractise their English . I have worked extensively ent to ensure that full accountability is possibl e. with adults and young peopl e with disabilities He also has the wellbeing of international stu and aim to work closely with the Libe rati ons and dents in mind as he wants to fu lly extend the Women's officers to ensure th at all stud ents are 'buddy' system. represented and their conce rn s met.

Ben is not afraid to ~ I ke un 1vers ity as enjoyseveral issues either!' ible. My three years effect1ve and realisti g ing experience. but I situation . With resp · feel isolated in such the 'student experien re t . a pus 1ron t. I wi 11work hard to the University is fully equipped to _deal with any he·p you deal with whatever concerns you may situation the students h ~· ft d' f e~ r_: ~fll fl!i"!\'11!!.1 W?J~Iy with other Union i e •o ....s tlt~ ~l~k1l't r t~cil and othe1 serv r.;P faced w >~h In add1t1on ta.eff tflis. ~ provide 'he 'leces"ary facil "es to support .;~ll J t the Adv :e Centre. 'l o, cl r t(l ~pt you st Jdent end eavour' be they ne>\ 0r 'Xisl1ng '1<. J r .;t =!' 1ckly and effic1er! y.

INTERNATIONAL OFFICER Zara Siddiqi

Concrete

SOCIETIES OFFICER Eddie Shields

Eddie SH IELDS - "Defending YOUR Interests" Hi, I'm Eddie. I'm a second year biologist from Lancashire. I have been active on the Union Council fo r the last year and have enjoyed the opportunity to represent my fellow students.

Since co ming to UEA I have noticed that a lot of smaller societies are facing the same challenges. If elected I would faci litate th e co-opera tion between similar societi es enabling th em to more effect ive ly achieve their goals. Although I have many ideas on ways to improve the role of societies office r I am always open to new ideas and can always be contacted at e.shields@ uea.ac.uk.

I hope yo u will allow me to make the difference.

COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER

Andy Higson

The ability of the Union to make a difference to a student's time at University is massive. From the commercial services we offer to the campaigns we run. they are only a success if you are part of them. As well as being a member of Union Council for the last two years, I have been your Environment Officer this year. I have campaigned on a rang e of issues before and during University. I will bring my experience, passion an d enthusiasm to this role and to our Students Union.

Campaigning for the interests of students must be an integral part of the activities of our Students Union . I will ensure th e Union is active. I wi ll campaign for more funding from th e University and I will run the campa igns th at you want. 'it's your Union' doesn't mean anything unless you re: i1wolved 1n •' and mak.ng the decis1or s. I w111 work to mtrod .c8 a new Ethical Issues offi~r ..md .crease :;e profle of Union Coun~il.

Tl , J ''en Cii'l . 1iy d > !s Jnb I you know \ 11! , ar j tr Uniol' v.. t' r;, pt Fd1tr.; vote" 1r 1 ~ ' ke Jr

re. V RONMENT OFFICER Jenny Gellatly

As some 13,000 students we have a vital role to play in ensuring our Union and university are as envi ronmentally responsible and accountable as they possibly can be . We, as students, can lead the way in promoting environmental sustainability. We can set an example for other universitie s. businesses and for society as a whole.

I will ensure that as many people as possible hear about, and have the opportunity to get involved, in the activities of the Union. I wil l work hard to implement the Union's policies.

Using my previou s experience of environmental campaigns and projects I will ca rry out thi s vital role as your Environmen t Officer with passion and enthusiasm.

I will work to extend and improve the Unive rs ity's recycling facilities and enco urage all students to take part in the scheme. as well as looking into a pilot composting scheme for the University. I wil l promote more organic and Fairtrade produ cts in the Union outlets and continue to support the Nestle boycott. I will also support alternatives to the multi-million pound car park. We need better transport to the university. We do not need 800 extra cars on Bluebell Road.

Prof.

Roderick Mulhapton Filkington-Phipps, Rodders to his friends, senior economic adviser to the World Bank and the IMF gives iafor

leaked Fellowship Against Ghastly Smokers (FAGS) document haa been anonymously posted to The UEA Enquirer. It outlines propo ala to rid our society altogether of human chimneys.

Entitled A Thousand Years Smoke Free, it haa met with cautious acclaim from many sections of OUJ'" campus community. It highlights a number successes so far; including the achievement of ghettoisint persistent smog-suckers into areas uch u the Reel Bar and half of The Hive, but believes there is much further to go.

It Is till possible. highlight the FAGS. for non moker to come Into contact '\\ith smoke every day. Further ban on campus are propo ed and. instead of th Hive and the bar. a square metre of lurf next to the lake will be allocated for moklng. to be used

INTERNATIONAL BUSH WHACKERS '>

www.concrete-o nline.com

Concrete

Wednesdm·. Felmwrv 23 . 2005

CUT SHORT Fair-trade fortni ght will kickoff at the beginning of March, with two weeks of themed events all aro und the campu s and the city. For more in forn at ion read the article on page 2 . Plan s are still bei ng developed , so emai l th e Stud e nt Union if

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JENNY GELLATLY ELECTED In a tight run election for Environment Officer, Jenny Gellatly sees victory with 758 final votes

N

ow, Junk mail is a bitch.

A pointless , forestkilling, la ndfill-swelling, t ime-wasting bitch. But you can cut down on it by signing up to the free Mailing Preference Service , s upported by th e Royal Mail, at: http :f fwww .m ps .org. ukf m psr Your address and surname and hey presto, you will be removed from up to 95% of direct mailing lists , easy as that. it won't sto p you getting mail fro m compan ie s you've bought things from before , or mail which is not addressed to you, but it sho uld mea n a few less trees a re being ra mmed th rough your letter box each month .

Yo u can also enter the surname s of the myste rious figures that used to live in your house years ago, and mail addressed to them will be cut down too. While you 're at it , s ign up for the Telephone Preference Service too , at htt p : f f www .tpson line .org . ukftpsf , wh ich makes it illegal fo r.co mpa ni es to call you fo r telemarketing purposes.

Other effective ways to get rid of junk mail include: making sure you tick the 'don't send me mai l' box when you fi ll in surveys and forms; posting mail you don't want 'back to sender' (this is free of charge); or chaining a large rabid dog next to your letter box.

If all this fails , you can recycle almost all junk mail , both on and off campus.

Jenny

ed as next year's Environment officer. Jenny was competing agamst two third year students , Ruth Cole and Stevie Al t man, both with a buil t u p re pu tat ion at UEA a lready.

Ruth Co le has in fac t a lready s erve d as Envi ronme nt office r last yea r, d uring wh ich s he bro u g ht ab o ut so m e impo rt a nt changes a nd le ft fo r he r yea r a broa d ha vi ng co mpl eted he r ma n ifes to in full. But Je nny was always a n equ ally Gallatly: Environment Officer for st ro ng ca ndid ate , and he r campaign academic year 2005/6 saw he r w in tro u gh an d be justly elected for the next aca dem ic yea r. ith 171 9 votes cas t in Jen ny ran with a po licy co nce ntrating to ta l, it is Je nn y o n the need to imp ro ve the campus recyGe ll atly, a fir st yea r cl ing sche m e and to achieve a yes vote o n D eve l o p m e nt the u p a nd u pcoming Nestl e Boyco tt Stu di es s tu den t , who has bee n electdecisi o n.

W

Jenny now faces a lot of pressure, but will certainly be very comfortab le in her new role . She has had plenty of experience working for environmental organisations, spending over a year at the Centre for Alternative Technology, Europe's leading Eco Centre. She has even worked on recycli ng ca m paigns before, he lping to in troduce schemes in the 11 schoo ls in her local area.

"We have good recycling facilities at t he university but they are not be ing used properly, and th ey ca n be extended" "We have good recycli ng facilities at th e uni ve rsity but they are no t be in g used pro pe rl y, and th ey ca n be exte nded" Jenny to ld Turf during th e electi o n run u p. Sh e was a lso kee n to in s ure th at th e Nestl e Boyco tt stays in place whe n it is voted upon next yea r. "Nes tl e has to cha nge th ei r behavio ur and meet WHO standa rd s befo re we can drop the boycott or el se our moral stance wi ll be defea ted " s he expl a ined Je n ny's vic to ry, th o ug h we ll di s se rved , was ga ined thro ugh th e seco nd vote sys te m of th e electio n . Th e f~r s t vo tes ca me thro ugh with Ruth Co le in the

LOVIN' IT NO LONGER Mclibel pair finally receive justice from the The British Courts Steel and David Morris, two wo rk ing clas s e nv iro.nm enta l act ivis ts , s uccess ful ly s ued the Briti s h go ve rnm e nt fo r [ 13, 750 a nd [10 ,300, res pect ively. The Euro pea n Co urt fo und t hat the Brit ish gove rnm e nt had vio· lated Steel and Mo rri s' h uman right s to a fair trial and freed o m of ex press ion. Th is vio latio n occu rred d urin g the lo nges t run· ni ng trial in Briti sh hi s tory, in whi ch th e fast food co nglo m e rate Mc Do na ld' s s uccess fu ll y s ued Steel a nd Mo rris for libe l.

Th e tro ubl e s tarted on Se pte mbe r 20, 1990 whe n St ee l a nd Mo rri s we re se rved writs for libe l by th e M c D onal d 's Co r po ratio n aft er dis t ributing pamph le ts enti tl ed "What's Wrong Wit h McDonald's?

Everything they don't want you to know".

Steel and Morris were not even th e autho rs of th e pa m ph let, which pendula was prepa red by

momen tou s d ec is io n was reac hed in th e Eur o pean Co urt of Hu man Ri ghts in Stra s bo urgh , whi ch will li kely have s ignifica nt re percu ss io ns fo r bo th UK lib el law and the cond it ion s und er which co rpo rati o ns may purs ue libe l cl a im s in Eu ro pe.

Last week, on February 15th , Hel en

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TREE OF THE FORTNIGHT H ave you see n th e blindin g black fi ss ures scatted up the bright whi te trunk o f th e Sil ve r Birch o f late ? If you have the n you would have alrea dy guessed Fe bua ray the 23rd ' s Tree of the Fo rtnigh t. Th e Betu la pendu la , known to so m e as th e s ilve r birch (and to a few as the Eurpoea n White Birch) is loo kin g fa nta bul o us at the mome nt . Ju st for a m o men t try ig noring the fact that the sa p of th is tree used to be brewed into a n alco ho lic beve rage, a nd in stead enjoy the sight of its simp le yet ele gant leaves.W hen o ne sees a tree like th is one ca n't he lp but wo nd e r why o ur spec ies ever gave up its arbo rea l exis te nce. What joy it wo uld su rely brin g to li ve o ut o ne's who le life neve r havi ng to leave the branches o f a Silver Birch. Go and vis it one as soo n as you have a free moment. See how the bark peels of like pape r.

Not too much now, tha t bark is too precious fo r peel ing.

Height: soft Spread: 20ft Shape: Slene r and ro u ~d ed .Foliage: 1 to 3 in ch glossy gree n leaves with sawed ed ges.

Flower: Catkin s 1 to 3 in ches lo ng.

Fruit: Sm a ll o utl et s in s id e ca tkin s

Betula

lead, 587 to Jenny's 537· But when Stevie went o ut in th e fi rst round and his votes were split the majo rity went Jenny, ending 757 to 727.

Turf got hold of her just afte r the results came in, and found out what her next steps would be. "I think I was in shock for a while and then very exc1ted an d ever s ince then hundreds of ideas have been running through my head about what needs to be done an d how to do them I" . She said she was looking forward to working wi th the othe r candida tes and as many peop le fro m the u niversity as poss ib le.

O n th e o th er two ca ndida tes ru nn in g s he sa id "lt was a cl ose ca ll. Ruth, Stevie a nd I seem to all be o n a s imil ar envi ro nm e ntal wave le ngth and I ho pe we and o th e r stud en ts, g roups and staff will be a ble to work together o n id eas fo r a mo re enviro nm entally fri end ly Union and universi ty.

En viro nmental iss ues have bee n continu ingl y gaining pro fil e rece ntly, both aro und the glo be an d also on th e UEA ca mpu s. So next yea r Je nny wi ll no dou bt be at fr o nt line o f many im po rtan t process es at th e un ive rsity. The anti ca r park proposa ls , the nes tl e boycott, the stru ggling recycli ng schem e a nd th e fa irtrade moveme nt will a ll need Je nny 's s up · po rt . As th e said to Turf, "\t' s going to be an excitin g yea r."

a budget o f [ 35 ooo wh ic h th ey fu ndraised , and represe nted th e m selves at all times. Thi s diffe rence in resou rces fo r deali ng with the 40 ooo pages of d ocum e nt s a nd 130 w itnesses was no t acknowled ged by the Britis h courts wi th m o neta ry assis tan ce, o r even all owin g fo r a few days rece ss fo r Ms. Steel , whose d octo r d iagn o sed he r with st ress an d exha ustion from the proceed ings. he di s parity in resources was o ne o f t he reason s the Euro pean Co urt dee m ed th e o rigin a l trials unfair. Th e Brit is h Governm ent mu st now inves ti · gate its libe l la ws, to see if there is a ny int e rnal bi as in favo ur o f wea lt hy clai mant s .

The great sign ifican ce of the rulin g is th e precedent it se ts co nce rni ng a citi ze n's a bi lity to crit ic ize large co rpo rati o ns. In a letter to the Da il y Te legraph in Sep tem be r o f 2004, Steel an d Mo rri s s tate "tha t multinati o nal corpo ra tio n s s ho uld not have the right to s ue fo r libel, in co m mo n wi th th e restrict io n placed o n gove rnm ental bod ies , in order to all ow free de bate o n ma tters of publi c in teres t. Thi s is parti cularl y impo rtan t g iven the m ass ive ad ve rti sing bud get s o f co rp ora ti ons a nd thei r power and influ ence in society."

Th e precedent set in Stras bourg h may make la rge co rp o rations much more hesitant to sue those who criticize them in the fut ure, and may we ll widen the scope of pub lic debate concerning the adverse effects co rpo rations can have within society.

T

GreenPea ce Lo nd o n, a nd th e s ubsequ e nt tri al was a publi c relati o ns d isaste r fo r Mc Do nald' s.

Mr. Ju stice Be ll , pres idin g ove r th e o rigin al 313 da y cou rt case, fo und the lea fl ets co rre ct in ass e rting that Mc Donald 's " pre te nd ed to a posi t ive nu tritio nal be nefit whi ch th e food d id no t ma tch" , "exp lo it[ed] chil dren " a nd that they were "culp ab ly res pon s ib le fo r animal c rue lty".

Furth e r d am na t io n s of McDon ald 's we re revea led in th e a ppeals process, bu t desp ite a ll this the British Co urt s ruled particu lar claims made in the pamphlet s were unve rifiable and orde red Steel an d Morris to pay [40 ooo in damages to McDonald's for li bel.

The case was seen by many as an in timida ti ng example of the difficult ies and potentia ll y severe repercussions fac ing citizens who oppose large corpo ratio ns like Mc Do na ld's. McDona\d's spe nt an aggrega te [10 m on th e court case. In co mpa ri so n, Stee l a nd Mo rris ope rated on

Report by Brendan Mc Ewen

www.concrete-online.com The University has stopped issuing receipts for printing jobs after pressure from the Union. With the student body becoming more environmentally aware everyday and with the momentum of many other waste reducing schemes, it has long been observed that much paper could be saved with this change. The end to the issuing of receipts is only a temporary measure, as it is feared that some people may wish to keep a proof of printing invoice. But if there is no complaint it will become a permanent measure.

The University has announced that from Thursday 17 February 2005, until the end of the academic year, the 25 Bus route betw~n Costessey Park & Ride and the UEA will be free. This new development has been negotiated by Dawn Dewar, who was brought it by the University to develop the UEA Travel Plan Strategy and who has overseen many improvements in the transport system around the campus. Although the new free route is not often used by students, it should benefit all those commuting faculty.

The plans to build a new wind farm in north Norfolk received another setback last week as further objections were made. Entertrag applied to build six 120m turbines at in area of Guestwick but residents there and from surrounding areas have signed a 700 name peti· tion against the proposal. The scheme has also been rejected by North Norfolk District Council and doubts have been voiced on the suitability of the roads to be used for bringing in the turbine parts.

Broadland Council have the final say.

Members of Norfolk County Council's planning regulatory committee gave their backing to the building of a new A140 bypass to the east of Long Stratton. The decision is not quite yet final, as permission to be given from the Secretary of State. The [21.8m dual carriageway is set to remove 13,000 vehides a day from the village, but residents near the construction have justified complaints. They say they will have a 70mph "race track" just lOOm away and want it to be a single lane built further east.

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BJ0RN TO BE BADLY WRONG

I JJ» The proportion of students at U EA who voted in the Union elections last week =

The famous environmental sceptic comes to UEA to give his view on the world ast Wednesday, Bj0rn Lomborg, one the most controversial figures in the environmental movement, came to UEA to give two lectures about his work.

The 40 year old Danish statistician is best known for his book, "The Skeptical Environmentalist", in which he argued that, contrary to what the media and environmental groups are telling us, our global environment is actually improving. On its release in 2001, the bestseller sparked an enormous amount of debate.

Lomborg became almost a swear word in most environmental circles .

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Much of the scientific community said that his use of science and statistics was biased and his conclusions fatally flawed .

However, many others endorsed the book, saying it gave a much needed balance to the environmental debate.

Considering the reputation of UEA as a world leader in climate change research, Lomborg's agreeing to lecture here was a confident and , some would say, brave move. As he told Turf after the lectures: "Most people think I have little horns and I'm an evil guy, but I' m on the same side, I want to do good, as I would imagine the vast majority of people out there want to do" .

Lomborg argued his case to the packed lecture halls with confidence and impressive-looking data . He said that air pollution is decreasing, fossil fuels are abundant, forests are not reced ing and the number of people in the world starving is going down . Global warming is real and important, but it's not going to be as severe as some predictions suggest, and it will be cheaper for us to adapt to climate change rather than try and minimise it through measures such as the Kyoto Protocol, which he believes will have virtually no impact.

He believes that, as economic growth in the developing world makes the people there richer, they wi 11 follow the developed world ' s path towards cleaner air and water, stronger environmental regulations, and more efficient technology.

Lomborg believes that only once we realise that doomsday isn't nigh can we "stop having a gun to our head" and make more rational decisions .

This part of his argument provoked some criticism from the crowd. Some questioned Lomborg's use of global statistics, which might obscure what is happening on a regional level, and his selection of climate change models that don't include any extreme events such as the melting of the Greenland ice caps, which many climate experts now believe is likely to occur.

Carlos Peres, a tropical forest ecology expert and ENV faculty member, told Turf that he was highly critical of Lomborg: "He does not understand and deliberately misrepresents basic ecological concepts, and repeatedly uses selective evidence to make a questionable point...he is careless beyond belief with a priceless heritage" .

Despite his optimism, Lomborg did not suggest the world is perfect. As he put it: "things are getting better, but things are not fine ". In that case, and given our limited resources, where should we put our money to help the

The proportion of citizens in the USA who are African American = The death rate of children in Haiti (the most impoverished nation in the western hemisphere) due to diarrhea =

The amount of money that a citizen living in the developing world was valued at for the calculation in Lomborg's Copenhagen Consensus (where a Western citizen was valued at $7 million)= Price of the new luxury Sedan, with mas saging back seat, mini-fridge in the armrest, a surround-sound aud io system and a voice-activated phone = most people? This was the idea behind the 'Copenhagen Consensus', where Lomborg brought together a group of leading economists to debate how best an extra Sso (£26) billion could be spent, to increase global welfare.

They were asked to compare and rank projects in ten different areas . The panel decided that fighting HIVfAIDS should be the world's number one priori· ty, as you get the most benefit for your buck, an estimated 28 million cases prevented by 2010. Climate change was right at the bottom, apparently costing almost as much as you got back in return.

According to Lomborg: "for the cost of just one year of Kyoto we could ... give clean drinking water and sanitation to every single human on earth". iven Lomborg' s previous criticism of the Kyoto Protocol, this result was bound to raise some eyebrows. Some in the audience questioned whether it is right to just use economics to decide where the world should turn its eyes and bank accounts, and whether it is even possible to compare these projects purely in terms of money.

Tim O' Riorda leading E a researcher and turer told Turf

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reservations Lomborg' s ods: "If you p tise like· that lose the essence of how deal with globa problems, which you bring thin together and look them in terms

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next 20 years because we think there are other priorities, we' re stacking up a whole host of problems ... all of the issues he's looking at cannot be separated out from the implications of climate change which are happening now, never mind what'll happen in so years time".

In an ocean of arguments, counterarguments, and passionate outbursts, it was hard to know what to believe. Some people think that Lomborg, a vegetarian and former Greenpeace activist who professes to never owning a car, is doing the environmental cause more harm than good and should keep quiet. But, as Lomborg argues, a wider and more farreaching debate is what is needed to ensure we make the best decisions we can .

Whether you think Bj0rn Lomborg is a visionary or a disgrace to science, one thing is for sure: he got everybody in those lecture halls talking about the world outside their own little bubble of interest.

If nothing else, hopefully we can all agree that that is a good thing.

The amount of bounty money offered by Islamist guerrillas for the capture of a western soldier =

$100,000

The weight at birth of Rumaisa Rahman , born last year in Chicago, the smallest surviving baby in the world = The amount of o-zone depleting substances that The Environment Agency's has deemed a "reasonable" amount to be recovered from reprocessing fridges (a figure which only half the plants a meeting)= The weight of the new water powered car, available from a variety of on line educational supply stores for $195 =

Report by Luc;y Hellier

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22 co ncrete.fas hi onli festy le@ uea.ac. uk

THE STRESSES OF MODERN LIFE

H

ow are you feeling at the m oment~ As we near the end of the spring semester deadlin es a nd exams are loom ing. Your last student loan payment seems an awfully long time ago, b ut your next one isn't due for months. Not on ly that, but you seem to be the only person in the whole university who didn't get a valentine's card last week. Are you feeling a little stressed out?

The myth of student life is that we don't have a care in the world, that we slee p from one party to the next, but the reality is very different.

Recent researc h carried out by the Mental Health Found ation has shown that the mental health of students is s ignificant ly worse than that of the general population , and that this figure is rising. Students get stressed for many reasons, including bein g away from hom e for the first time, uncertainty about the future, money problems, relationship prob lems or work press u re.

The new system of student finance and the saturation of the job market by graduates a ren't help ing matters , and everyone probably admits to feeling stressed occasionally.

The mental manifestations of stress range from being unable to concentrate and having poor memory to gett in g a ng ry easi ly an d fee li ng depressed . A common symptom of anxiety is feeling tired al l the time, but then not being able to s leep, which in turn is frustrating and can lead to more stress. Physica ll y, s tress can wreak a ll sorts of havoc on your body, causing symp toms from sweating and hyperventilating to d iarrhoea and indigest ion. Al l of these symptoms are due to the release of adrenaline by your body in response to stressful s ituations.

Adre nali ne also s u ppresses t he immune system, so people who are chronically stressed are more susceptible to il lness than la id-back peop le. What's more, adrenaline makes your blood pressure rise , and if it is high the whole time this is known as hypertension. Although you do not necessarily feel ill with hypertension , it is extremely bad for your heal th , and over a long period of time it can lead to things like kidney damage , heart attacks and strokes.

So what is the use of adrena li ne if it makes us fee l so il l? Why do we get stressed? Wel l, think back to our ancestors the early Homo Erectus , not so long ago in evolutionary terms, who were a ll living out on the savannah. For them stress was a good thing. If you were minding your own business gather ing nuts and berries, and suddenly came across a sabre-toothed tiger, then the stress response would kick in .

Your heart would beat faster, you wou ld breathe deeper and your blood pressure wou ld rise, al lowing you to get more blood and therefore oxygen to your muscles so you cou ld ru n away. Your stomach would stop digesting food so as not to waste any valuable blood, you wou ld sweat to coo l yourse lf down when you were running, and your senses would become more a lert , making you on edge. As you probably know, this is called the 'fight or flight' response, and is all due to your body releasing and reacting to adrenaline. When you run away from, or fight the tiger, you burn off the adrenaline, and when it is all over you can relax again, back to gather in g nuts and berries.

Now zip on back to the 21st century. You have an essay due in at 9.00 tomorrow morning. Your bank account is 11 p away from its overdraft limit and you can't even afford to call your mum and cry down the phone. Everyone around you seems so coo l and so happy, so you put a brave face on it, and even though you can't afford the time or the money, when everyone goes to the LCR that night you go wit h them to take your mind off it all. Except you can't take your mind off it. You feel sick al l night , and you keep snapping at all your mates. When you get back and try to work you can't conce ntrate, bu t when yo u get into bed you can't sleep e ither. Stress was not designed to cope with moder n-day life, and modern-day humans are not coping with stress.

This scenario will seem familiar to pretty much everyo ne reading this article, and it is important to remember

,., Anger Fear of madnes s ,., Fear of impending death 1• Feelings of being outside yourself ,., Feelings of be ing cut off from rea lity '' Feeling worried all the time 1: Feeling tired ,., Feeling irritable '' Irritability 1' Poor memory ,., Bad sleeping pattern s 1• Unable to concentrate 1,

The next step is id entifying what stresses you out. If you can't put your finger on it exactly, t ry carrying a notebook around with you and writing down whenever you feel an.y of the stress-related symptoms coming on , and what you think the trigger was.

After a while you should start to notice a pattern. Of course this may not be necessary, as it may be all too obvious to you what is stressing you out, but you still need to acknow ledge it to yourse lf, which can be difficult if you are trying to avoid thinking about what scares yo u. But doin g al l of this can help yo u to face the stressful situation head on and break the cycle of avoidance and denial.

Once you have identified the s ituations that make you stressed, you have two ways of coping. You can

like this the whole time then stress has gone too far. If adrena line is constantly floating aro u nd your body, it makes you feel ill , and therefore stresses you out more, creat ing a vicious cycle. Without gett ing rid of th is adrenaline your blood pressure never drops, your heart rate never s lows down and you can't stop sweating and fee ling sick. Like I said before, long-term st res s is bad for your health.

So what can you do about it?

First ly you need to acknowledge to yourself that you are stressed. Look again at the symptoms of stress in the box on this page. If you fee l some of these most of the time then you may well be chronically stressed.

Physica l sympto m s : ,., ,., ,., ,., ,., ,., 1:

,., ,., ,., ,., ,., ,., ,.,

Abdominal discomfort Breathing heavily Diarrhoea Difficulty in swallowing Dizziness Faintness Frequent urination Headache Ind igestion Muscle tension and pain s Racing heart Sweating Tightness or pain in chest Tingling in fingertips

take a problem-focussed approach, or an emotion focussed ap proach , or a co mbinat ion of both.

T

he problem-focussed approach means identifying what is making you stressed and then dealing with it head-on. For example, if you are getting anxious ove r an assignment that is due in , then sit down , finish it and hand it in, and then it is not there to stress you out any more. If you are in a re lationship wh ich is causing you stress, then end the relati ons hip , thereby removing the s tres s trigger. Th is approac h sounds quite cold-hearted, and it certainly requires a lot of strength. lt may mean say ing no to the LCR and staying in to do an essay you hate instead, but it is extremely successful. You can't be stressed about a problem if the problem is not there any more.

Emot ion-focussed peop le deve lop ways to deal with the emotions they feel when they become st re ssed . Th is means using relaxation strategies like deep steady breathing while countin g to ten.

This is particularly effective in the ear ly stages, and can prevent a stressful situation turning into a panic attack. Massage can work wonders in rel iev in g stress, particularly long term st ress whic h has pent-up over years (of course the effectiveness does depend on the masseur... )

Wednesdav. Fehruary 23'ol. 2005

HEALTH EDITOR, CLARE AITCHISON, ADD RESSES STRESS IN STUDENT LIFE AND EXAMINES WAYS OF COPING WITH IT

O ne ext remely im po rta nt weapon in the fight against stress is exercise. You may not feel like pumping iron in the gym surrounded by He-men, but try going for a run or dancing. Remember the savannah-dwelli ng ea rl y h uman who ran away from the t i ger~ Th is is what we are supposed to be doing with our

~hna:;~~?- The myth of student life is that we don't ~~r~sbs~rsn°ofre s tressed th d 1· from t ime have a Care in the WOrld ... but the reality Ex:r~i ;:~:me. to time. also an But if you iS Very d iffe rent extremely are fee l ing _;;_..:....;-'---------------------~:--- good outlet for

Symptoms of stress: ~ ~ogi ca l sym pto ms:

Concrete

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any feelings of aggression we may feel towards the trigger of our stress, a nd of cou rse it has countless other hea lth benefi t s (but that's another article). A particula rl y popular form of exercise is sex. As long as you r partner is not the cause of the stress in the first place few peapie are more relaxed that when in that post-coita l glow. O f course please refer to my last article in the sex issue regarding protection , as catching an STD could be the cause of a whole lot more stress!

Problem-focussed and emot ionfocussed approaches each have their place, and the most successful stress-buste r will use the right approach in th e right situation. The problem-focussed approach is generally the most effective, but there are situat ions, such as the annoying flatmate , when it is not rea lly p ract ical or possible to get rid of the problem , in which case some deep breathing can at least get you over the worst of it.

The above tech ni q ues w ill he lp most people who are s uffer ing from normal levels of stress caused by triggers in everyday life . But occas ionally, so me people suffer such severe long-term stress that it actually causes a nervous breakdown and descent into seve re depress ion.

Depression is due to a chemical imbalance in the brain and depressed pe op le are tired all the time, unable to s leep, constantly on edge, and have constantly negative

th o ug ht s. If yo u have severe de pression you may feel more and more hopeless , and more and more tired unti l one day you cannot get out of bed.

De press ion is an ill ness JU St like any ot her. Th e sympto m s can include a change in appetite, waking up in the middle of the night unable to get back to s leep and in the worst cases, thoughts of suicide. Jus t as with any illness, dep ression needs to be treated by a doctor with m edication which can he lp to resto re the chemical imbalance in the brain.

Cognitive behavioura l therapy is a lso extremely successful in breaking the cycle of negative thoughts , and you can be referred for th is by yo u r GP. One of the major obstacles in treat ing depression is admitting that you have it in the first place. Mental illness is such a taboo, and to admit that yo u are feel ing dep resse d when everyo ne aroun d yo u seems to be having such a wonderful time may seem virtually impossible. University shou ld be the happiest days of your life, and if underneath it all you feel like crying the whole t ime the n it is easy to fee l li ke a fa ilu re. But look back at the statistic at the top of this article. Students have more men tal hea lth problems than an yone else in the population. You are not alone. People try to hide their stress an d their depress ion, a nd your fr iends who seem the most la id back may just be in the deepest denial. Admitt ing to them that you are st ressed could open the gate for them to admit it too, and could turn a shallow friendship based on part ies and fun in to someth ing much deepe r.

Where to go for help Saneline: A te lephone helpline for anyone affected by mental health prob lems: 0845 767 8ooo Open 12 noon - 2am The Samaritans: 08457 909090 Student Welfare Office: Upstairs in Un ion House The University Counselling Service.

Cotcrttt Wednesday, February 23'

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2005

23

Ngoc Blch Luong twelve Highnesses in charge of controlling all affairs on earth , They are the Rat, Buffalo, Tiger, Cat, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig. Each year, one Highness will operate all the activities of humans. Ciao thua (at 12.00 p.m . on 30th Decemberlunar calendar) is the moment when one Highness hands over his man· agement on earth to another. On Ciao thua's riight, there is a great sense of expectation. People make offerings to see off one Highness and welcome another. The offerings ~

~

ince the gth of February billons of people in some Asian countries have been celebrating the New Year.

In Vietnam, this is the Year of the Rooster. The New Year, is called Tet in Vietnam. lt is the most sacred festival, equivalent to New Year's, Thanksgiving, or Christmas in Western countries.

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report to the Jade Emperor on the affairs of all households on earth . lt takes a week for the Kitchen God to complete his mission in Heaven, and then he will return to welcome the coming new year. Like Santa Claus, the Kitchen God brings joy and happiness to people.

During preparation time, every household buys different kinds of flowers to decorate their houses.

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should have five different kinds of fruits , so-called "Mam ngu qua" (five-fruit tray), which symbolizes the five basic elements of oriental philosophy: Metal, Wood, Water, Fire and Earth.

Furthermore, votive objects such as paper, money and clothing will be burnt, as it has been widely believed that those things are going to be transferred to their loved ones who are in the world beyond .

When the hands of the clock

upcoming year. Business people in particular therefore have a very strong belief in Xong dat.

During the three first days of Tet, people keep visiting and saying best wishes to each other. The first day ofTet (Mung Mot) is the day to visit grandparents, parents and relatives. The second day (Mung Hai) is for visiting friends and on the th ird day ofTet, peo~~··

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pie go to visit their teachers, colleagues.

Children receive "Tien li xi" (lucky money in small red envelopes) from older people, with a promise that they will be good always and study harder.

There are plenty of delicious foods to offer visitors. Banh chung (square glutinous rice cake, filled with green bean paste and pork,

wrapped in rush or bamboo leaves and boiled), jellied meat, boiled chicken, kohlrabi, sour onion and cauliflower are specific characteristics of Northern people and Banh tet (cylindric glutinous rice cake filled with green bean paste and pork) , pork cooked in coconut milk with salt, sweet-and-sour · pickled

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scallion heads and spring roll (vegetables, boiled meat and pickled scallion heads rolled in a rice paper) make a good dish in hot weather for Southerners. In the Central hignlands of Vietnam, the menu for Tet also has Banh tet, beef cooked with garlic and ga lingale, pork bologna, fermented pork roll. After the main course, visitors try different kinds of fresh fruits (watermelon, in particular is symbolic ofTet for all three areas: the North, Central highlands and the South of Vietnam) .

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'Th e New Year, is called Tet in Vietnam. lt is the most sacred festival, equivalent to New Year's, Thanksgiving or Christmas.' · Tet in Vietn'am starts on ti:le first day of the first lunar month.

This is the reaso.n why Tet starts on different days each year (normally the end of January and beginning of February).

Tet is a time for family reunions.

People who work, study or live abroad return to Vietnam. The atmosphere ofTet makes them feel nostalgic; they all hope to get back to re-unite and enjoy Tet with their own families or at least try to celebrate the festivities in traditional ways if they cannot come bas;k to their home country.

People have three days off for Tet holiday; however, it might take a month to prepare before Tet, as there are many things to do such as .painting and decorating the house, buying new clothes, and making everything new in order to welcome the greatest festive. According to custom, on the 23rd December (lunar calendar), every family needs to give offerings to Ong Tao (the Kitchen God) to return to the Heaven . The offerings should have a carp as it is the Kitchen God's means of transport to return to Heaven. His mission is to make a

Visitors will be absorbed by the ocean of flowers . There are three main kinds of flowers; Oao (the peach), Mai (apricot) and Quat (kumquat), which symbolises a comfortable life and happiness.

While northern people cannot miss a twig of peach in their homes, people in the central and the south of Vietnam must have apricot or kumquat to welcome Tet. The warm pink of the peach embellishes the dry cold weather in the north whilst the bright yellow branches of apricot mix the sunlight of the central and southern areas. Bunches with dense clusters of kumquats represent prosperousness and all generations of a family. Fruits represent grandparents, flowers represent parents, buds represent children, and leaves represent grandchildren.

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n Ciao thua (New Year:s Eve), offices and schools all close but shops stay open late. Most big cities, especially Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Hue, are decorated with street lights. Ciao thua is seen as the most sacred time since it is the passage from the old to the new year. In the Vietnamese belief system there are

approach midnight, blazing fireworks are let off in the biggest cities. Having let the Old Year out and the New Year in, full glasses of wine or beer are raised to wish each other a happy new year.

After that, hundreds of people overflow onto the streets; they go to pagodas, temples or churches to pray for propitious things.

The old custom of Xong dat (First-footing) is still observed .

Tradition says that the first per· son to enter a house on New Year's Day will have a strong effect on the host's business success for the

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concrete.fas hio nl ifestyle@ uea.ac. uk

MOONCUPPING FOR BEGINNERS icture this: it's Friday night in the Union bar.

I' m getting rapidly plastered an d , as I begin to reach an inhibition -free stage, I'm quizzing a sim ilarly inebriated female friend on personal matters. My boyfriend turns round from his own conve rsat ion. "What are yo u talkin g about?" he asks, "l t sounds interesting."

My friend and I fix him with twin stares. " Periods," we reply, as one.

My boyfriend's interest whistles ou t

ness enterprise - once you've purchased one for [18, there 's no need to go back and buy yourse lf a replacement for another decade (unless you have a baby in the meantime and require a wider cup). In that time, you'd spend around [320 on tampons or sanitary towels.

Thu s, their manufacturers generate enough profits to splash out on advertising.

And what beautiful adverts they are.

Th ey show women prancing throu gh parks in white linen trousers - the obvi ous garment to don when losing bright

Tampon adverts show women prancing through parks in white linen trousers -the obvious garment to don at 'that time of the month.'

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of him about as quickly as air from a bal loon that's been stabbed by a machete.

You see, periods simply don't get talked about all that often . Girls get taken aside en masse in school to have the menstrual cycle explained by a nurse; at some poin t after this (or, if they're significantly unlucky, at so me point before) they start having their period, and th en they're supposed to surreptitiously get on with it.

Perhaps this ridiculous hush-hush squeamishness is why, up uniil that Friday ni ght, I had never heard of a menstru al cup. I thought you cho se between tampons and towels and , if you're feeling particularly fancy, between towels wi th and without wings . Sudden ly, I'd been presented with this concept of a reusable si li co ne cup that yo u was h out as often as yo u would cha nge a tampon , with nothi ng to dispose of other than the menstrual fluid itse lf. No waste to wrap up in plastic and send to a landfill. No moment of panic when you're hanging out in a n all-male household and you're not entirely sure how to ask, "So lads, where s ha ll I put my used sanitary towel then) " Th e average woma n uses more than 11,500 tampons o r towels in her lifetime. If every woman used a menstrual cup instead , the environmental consequences would be phenomenally positive. The problem is, these cups are no t the brightest busi-

red blood at a rate of knots . They s how discreetly packaged tampons which look exactly like sweets- keep an eye on your sanitary protection, girls , or your other half might end up wi th his mouth full of cotton. Oh , and make sure you wrap, wipe or flush away every trace of you r bl ood, because tho se adverts s uggest men strual fluid to be a lovely sky blue colour, and you mustn 't disgust anyone with the truth. On the strengt h of such advertising, somehow we feel compelled to purchase these products over A and over. woma n In conon her trast, the period ... sa les of th e obviously humble menstrual cup rely mainly on word of mouth.

And as sco res of women never talk about th ei r periods , merely dealing with them furti vely fo r a hand ful of days each month , it 's hardly surpri sing that many of us have never stumbled across an environmentally and body friendly alternative. However, after seven years of filling my bin and my bod y with rubbish on a monthly basis, I wa nted to try ou t a menstrual cup .

Conuete

www.concrete-online.com

Gabrielle Barnes discovers the weird and wonderful

world of 'Mooncupping', a new concept that could radically change 'that time of the month:

There were three op tion s to choose from : the Keeper (rubber), the Di vacu p or the Moon cup (both silicone) . I plumped for the Mooncup , and du ly decided to buy one from an Internet si te .

This caused instant conflict in our househol d .

I don 't pos sess a debit ca rd , and debit cards are a fai rly vital part o f the whole purchasing-goods-online shebang .

My male housemate , however, does have a debit card . "No, no, no," came his emphatic response to my plea. " I do not want a Mooncup coming up on my statement, thanks very much. " Of course, he caved in without too much effort on my part. Talk at most boys for long enough about blood is suing from your vagina , and they will do pretty much anything just to get you to s hut up . n the interim, I did a little more research on exactly why the tampon is a product best avoi ded.

Th e first an d most obv ious concern is Toxic Shock Syndrome.

Whilst one should be cautious where any foreign body is left to rest in the vagina for a period of time, TSS has never been linked to the use of menstrual cups, presuma bly because of their smooth, nonabsorbent silicone surface. TSS has been co nn ected to tampon usage because of the absorbency of their fibres, which are thought to allow the Staphylococcus bacteria to breed. lfTSS and the sheer vo lum e of month ly waste aren't enough to dissuade you from tampon use, then consider that tampons often leave detached fibres deposited in your vagin al walls and uterus . Oh , and the chlorine bleach ing process, which was once used to turn sanitary products a hygienic white, actually released carcinogenic di oxin s as a by-produ ct .

Manufacturers finally stopped this process a decade ago, yet th e al ternative bleaching methods still theoretically generate dioxin traces . The regular exposure of even low levels of dioxins over a lifetime of tampon use poses a risk that many, if they were made aware of it, wou ld not be willing to take . I certa inly fel t very uneasy aft er

I

Wednesday. Febmary 23"". 2005

perusing vario us scientific journal articles and on line environmental documents , and looked forward to the arrival of my Mooncup .

Delivery was swift , and soon I had my own menstrual cup in its natural cotton ribbon -tied bag with which to frighten the bejeebus out of vis itors to our household . lt is not an especia ll y attracti ve item - it is surprisingly large , holding up to one fluid ounce of the three fluid o unces that a typ ica l woman loses ove r the course of her period ; it does not come in pretty colours ; it is springy and fl exi bl e, and everyone you s how it to knows that at some point you are going to put it in yo ur unmentionable .

So along came m y period , and with it a good ten minutes of contorting â&#x20AC;˘ myself into interesting positions on the bathroom floor, trying to find the easiest method of Mooncup insertion. I've only used tampo ns twice in my life , so I am fairly unpractised in the s ubtle art of this kind of manoeuvre. You fold the cup to insert it, and then rotate it once when it's in positio n so that it opens out and crea tes a seal. I failed in rotating it the first time, so it leaked a littl e. The re is a reason why this company only offe r a refund if you've hone stly tried the cup for three full cycles: it ca n be tricky to get the hang of. Much like a thirteen-year-old struggles when she first tries to use tampo ns , actually. lt just takes practice.

Once I had worked out how to use my menstrual cup properly, I was impressed. I no longer had to deal with the rustling sounds made by my na ppyesque sa nitary towel s. I couldn't feel that it was there at all, which surprised me to the point that I found myself taki ng trips to th e toilet to check it hadn't somehow magically fallen out and tumbled down my trouse r leg. Happily, every time I found it safe ly in place.

Removi ng the cup was a lso something of an adventure . I pulled the stem down (a similar function to the string on a tampon) and then had trouble grasping the base of the cup to sq ueeze it flat and break the seal. I had reached the stage o'f utter exasperation; was about to pu ll up my jeans and ca rt myse lf off to a nurse to have the damn thing extracted, when I suddenly remembered that you are supposed to 'bear down' with your muscles to push the cup low eno ugh for easy remova l. Worked like a charm.

he next bit has caused a number of girls (and boys) to sh udder in revulsion as I have merrily relayed it to them over lunch in Zest. The fluid is no longer soaked up into a bleached-white pad or tampon to leave a rust-coloured stain. Instead, it is co llected , very mu ch red, very much wet , and very much blo od, in your little silicone cup .

I have to admit , the concept did make me a bit woozy. That talk we got given by the school nurse when we we re e leve n yea rs old? it caused me to throw up ove r my Head of Year's shoes. When I was sixteen , we had to pass around a condom in Guidance class: this, in conjunction with being shown 'the coil ', ca used me to faint . We were given a rather graphic STD talk when I was eighteen that necessitated my taking a little lie down on the common room floor, in front of the entire sixth form . I am what you might term a Grade-A wuss . However, th e thought of where al l the sanitary towels that I would otherwise be using might end up - their plasti c linings lasting far beyo nd my life span - made me feel distinctly more ill than that tiny scrap of blood did . Anyway, it's a natural part of you and nothing to be sca red of. If I can do it, girls, you really must be able to!

The cup should be removed and rinsed about four times in 24 hours. If you 're using a public toi let , take a bottle of mineral water in with you, or just wipe it with a tissue and clean it thoroughly later. Between periods, it must be boiled for five minutes for sterilisation- make sure you set this saucepan aside, to avoid finding your housemates cooking pasta sauce in it, blissfully unaware.

On a final note, I have come across horrifying tales of women keeping their blood aside to dilute for use as plant food, which one can only hope they don't apply to their garden vegeta bles.

More spine-chilling still , some lad ies have been known to create paintings from their menstrual flu id ... / personally wasn't too ave rse to just tipping it down the toilet .

T

For more info, check out.. .. www.mooncup.co.uk www.d ivacup.co. u k www.thekeeper.com www.wen.org.uk (Women's Environmental Network)

CONCRETE WNW.CONCRETE-ONLINE.COM Projed Ma1111ger: Philip Sainty

webtnm@concrete-online.com D;~ve Thompsoa lames II.Jnks

concrete.editor@uu.ac.uk Editor: Philip Saiaty concrete.editerial@uu.ac.uk Deputy Editor: Killl;uine Clemow

Photogr;~pher:

concrete.news@uea.ac.uk Editor: Helen Pike Deputy Editor: Oily Haywood Hullll Editor: Clare Aitchison lnterntional Editor: Nadia Bennich legal Editor: Juliet Harris Political Editor: Sam Webber

HOROSCOPES Aries Mar 21 - Apr 19 You will fmd yourself inexplicably drawn towards bingo halls. in search of the giddy thrills gambling induces . Save your '---..;.;:m!.--_ - ' pennies my child, your dalliance in games of chance will only lead to woe and poverty.

You're just not lucky petal .

1-:::::iii;;o;=;;;;;;;::--, Cancer Jun 22 - Jul 22 Being a sage Cancer. you've become just too mature to stand a......;:...__ _....;.......J living with all those other grubby stu dents. but no one will help you keep things spick-and-span. Teach them all a lesson by rubbing raw chicken on their cutlery.

Libra Sept 23 - Oct 23 The mid -semester stress fest has certainly taken its toll you on . No healthy diet contains that many cups of coffee . Give your jittery nerves a rest. take them to the spa and- spend a fortune on massages then do a runner.

r - - - - - - - , Capricorn Dec 22 Jan 19 You've always been a thrill seeker. and this fortnight is no exception .

You'll find yourself com mitted to cycling to uni every day with not a thought for the hazardous weather conditions.

You'll soon realise what a mistake this Is.

Lucky Words: bonus ball

Lucky Words: just desserts

Lucky Words: caffeine hiatus

Lucky Words: skid marks

You've made good on several months worth of promises to yourself and finally dragged your wobbly rear down to the gym. Don't get put off by the cold weather! Keep up those early morn ing jogs and you'll feel all sexy come summer luvvy.

Scorpio Oct 24 ¡ Nov 21 ; _\.

You can't spend your : ... . .,.~ days indoors watch.... , . , lng Trisha and eatL - - - - - . . . J ing porridge .

You need a change of pace sweetie. Waste all your time in the Hive smoking cigarettes and skipping lectures like the rest of the student body.

Aquarius Jan 20 Feb 18 You may be content to wake up each morning'in a sea of empty cartons. dirty laundry and fag ash but spare a thought for those you inflict yourself upon. A quick hoover now and then won't make you any less bohemian.

Lucky Words: keepie uppie

Lucky Words: smoker's paradise

Lucky Words: clean living

....------, Taurus Apr 20 - May 20 Aren't you the cat that got the cream?

Things are going swimmingly for you. ' - - - - - - - ' and they're not about to change. Just go with the flow and let the serendipity lead you where it will. Stop worrying about your essays and start enjoying yourself poppet!

Jun 21 A new arrival in your social sphere cause all kinds of controversy.

The ' - - - - - - - ' only lesson to be learned from this is that you're just not meant to hav~ friends .

Virgo Aug 23 - Sept 22 This fortnight you'll get the chance to show all those who doubted you just how wrong they were. Bide your time and make the most of this. revenge is sweet!

Lucky Words: lone deranger

LuckyWords: wha-ha ha ha ha ha

Editor: J;~mes (onway Depllly Editor: Hunah Newtn

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Sagittarius Nov 22 - Dec 21 Jump on every band wagon you can this fortnight honey.

There's only so much individuality in the world and you're hogging it all so fall in line busterl

Pisces Feb 19 - Mar 20 Moping around and feeling unloved won't make beautiful people fall at your feet.

Love the one you're with. stop chasing after the impossible and get some acheivable action!

Lucky Words: mobs rule!

Letters ...

concnte.blrl@lta~t.ak

..,......,---, Leo Jul 23 - Aug 22

Lu c k y Words: extra s prinkles

will

concrete.features@uea.ac.uk Editor: Ross Cirainger Deputy Editor: Simon Sberidan

concrete.editorial@uea.ac. uk 25

www.concrete-online.com

(oiCI'Itl Wednesday, Febmary 23' , 2005

Lucky Words: Carpe canem

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

Dear Concrete,

Dear Concrete,

Following the Student Union elections, I'd like to thank everyone who helped with my campaign back home, particularly everyone who voted for me, Rowena Boddington for reading my hustings speech and most especially Jenna Panter and Laura Copsey for their tremendous efforts with distributing poster , visiting residences and producing a rather fabulous banner- cheers guys!

What a pity that the last meeting of Union Council passed a motion forcing every club and society in the Union to have 'an active member' on Union Council next year, if they wish to receive funding. An active member was defined as a member who comes to 1 in 3 meetings.

Running from abroad has not been easy - surprisingly stressful and without the fun - but it was a good experiment for Union politics. For the record, I didn't submit anythi ng to Concrete's article because I didn ' t know about it (not getting a candidate info pack because I was backpacking at the time), not through lack of effort!

That said, I don ' t wish to take anything away from Jenny's deserved win. I was very impressed with both Steve and Jenny' manifestos and wish Jenny all the best in the role - I hope she enjoys being Environment Officer as much as I did.

Many thanks, Ruth Cote

Currently 43 club and societies do not have an active member of Union Council. If this academic year l in 3 of an extra 43 members bad turned up, not one meeting of Union Council would have been quorate. There would have been no possibility of keeping the Executive accountable, no representation from any school or club and society reps and no budget passed. It would be impossible to repeal any such deci ion as well , as no meeting will have a quorum to be able to decide thing .

Furthermore, there i nothing to stop people from leaving as soon as the meeting has started (agai n endangering quorum). I assume that those clubs and societies without Union Council reps do not have anyone who wants to be a Union Council rep. How does it serve the tu dents of UEA to have people at Union Council who do not wish to be there and who may want debates to finish early?

It is also the ea e that motion passed was in direct violation of the Constitution of this Union.

I do not see how democracy is best served by forcing people to attend meetings. So let' enjoy the last Union Council meeting this year as it will probably be the last, further weakening our Students Union.

Andy Higson, Environment Officer

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26 concrete.sport@uea.ac.uk

www.concrete-online.com

Concrete

WednesdCII'. Februarv 23", 2005

UEA Female footballers are untouchable as team runs away with title Women 's Football: BUSA Midlands Division Two 8 : Nottingham 2 (2), UEA (17)

Vicky Roberts

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The Wo men's F ootball Club have had a storming BUSA season, and prior to t heir final fixture were unbea ten and at the top of their Midlands Division Two table.

The final m a tch was an away trip to Nottingham to face th e team a t U1e foot of th e ta ble. Notting ham 2.

The m a tch got off to a quick s tart. both teams looking to a ttack and get th e fi rst goal.

However. it wa s UEA in con fid en t m ood that opened th e scoring after only 2 m inutes on the clock . After U1at th e

goals began to now. wi th No ttingh a m 's d efend ers un a ble to co pe with th e lightning pace and ball control of UEA's two forward s.

S ally Ham m erton and Lara Eclwa rcl s. The Nottingh am goalkeeper tried to keep h er lea rn in it with some good s aves but by half-time the sco re was 12 -0 and dead as a contes t with the m ajori ty of th e goals comi ng from th e two UEA forwa rds outs printing th e Nottingha m onto d e fen ce. la tc hi n g th rough -balls from miclfielcl .

Nottin gh a m put up a b rave fi ght during th e second h al f. s coring tWice. Th e firs t can1e from good count-

er -a ttac k pl ay wh il st th e second came from the pena lty s pot a fter the h om e tean1 were awa rd ed a d ebateable pena lty.

Hammerton and Eclwa r cl s h ad num er ou s chances in th e second half. and we re u n lucky n ot to sco re m ore as s hots con tinu ally we nt just wid e of the far pos t.

J ess Bou c her also m a de it on to th e score s heet with a curli n g s hot from th e edge of th e penalty area. and Vicky Roberts scored on the follow-up after th e goalk eep er parried a shot from Ha mme rton.

Player o f th e m atc h Kris te ll Hirn had a fm e game in mi cl fi e lcl. as d id Jess

m a kin g so m e Bou che r. cru s hing s liding tackl es and b reaking d own th e No ttingh a m attac k.

The UEA de fence controlled their h a lf. Lisa Earl having ye t anoth er s uperb gam e in central d e fe n ce . a nd Ka re n Holloway again playing well in the right back position s he h as retained all season .

The m a tc h ended 17-2 to UEA. con firming their pos ition und e feated ch a mp ions of the Mid lands 2B Divis ion .

UEA now ha ve the BUSA play-offs to look

fo rward to . a nd a place in t he BUSA Shield . The team must fancy th eir chances in the knockout competition a nd th ey take on North umbria in the la st 16 as th ey a im to brin g home mu ch need Th e re is a ls o the Sunday Leagu e title to co n tinu e to play for. UEA are cur-

a nd wi th gam es in h an d over t h e tea m s a bove th e m. a lthou gh the lead ers No n vic h C ity Ca na ri es a ppea r to h a ve th e titl e wra pped up.

On 2 0 F'ebmary. th e tea m began th eir campaign in th e S und ay Leagu e Cup . a nd will be h optng to retain the trophy they won last season .

FOOTBALL WOMEN MIDLANDS DIVISION TWO (B) UEA

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BADMINTON PERFORMANCE OF THE DECADE Impressive win for UEA in season make or break game as team book places in the last 16 of the BUSA Shield knockout stage Men's Badminton: BUSA Midlands Division Two A: UEA (6), Nottingham Trent 2 (2)

Dan Treloar The UEA Men's Badminton team are t hough to the BUSA Shield after a hardfought victory over Nottingham Trent on Wednesday 2nd February. lt was an excellent win fo r UEA after los in g th e away fixture 5-3 , with anythtng less than a wtn meaning fm is hing in the bottom half of the ta ble.

The top two places were already beyo nd reach, with Loughborough p redic tably sweeping to victory tn th e divis ion . closely followed by th e Unive rs ity of Nottingham. leaving the 3rd pla ce fi ght as the real ba ttle .

UEA s tarted well with Alex Wya tt qu ickly winn ing his fLrs t s tngles, losing only a h a ndful of points on the way . b ut Greg Clin ton Ta rested los t a hotly con tested and dra ining m atc h

aga inst t11e Tre n t no. 1.

The doubles saw the UEA 2nd pai r of captain . presid en t and spiritual leader of the ba dmin to n cl ub . la in Bayes , a nd partn er Dan Treloar disappotnttngly lose a close game agains t the Trent 2 nds, wh ils t the bril lia nt firs t year pa iring of J oe Webb and Ch ris Armstrong cla imed a good victory over th e l s ts. At 2 -2 , th e m atch was s till in the balance, b u t the reverse s ingles brought a cru s hing vi ctory for Greg Clinton-Tarested to make up for his close defeat tn the Alex Wyatt firs t gam e . secured a t least a draw for UEA tn winning his s econd s ingles of th e clay. leavtng the score 4 -2 with th e reverse doub les to fo llow.

The ftrs t year pair were hot favouri tes to beat the Trent 2nd d oubles pairing. b ut after a convincing first s et victory. contrived to lose

t h e seco nd ~~~~~~~~ ch ange of ends . la in Meanwhil e. and Dan d u g d eep to come back a nd Ba yes a n d Da n pull off their best Tre loar faced an u p hill s tl1..l ggle to and most s urpris ing wtn of th e season tn d e feat th e 1sts. a n epic fm al game, having lost 15· 1, 15- 12, resulting in 15 - 1 to the same som e ra th er exup a ir in beran t ce lebra Nottinghan1.

A tion s. The fLnal score of 6 -2 ba ttling per formance saw t h em salva ge s om e looked con vinctng. b u t th e m a tch was as clos ely fough t pride tn taking ten potnts from th e T rent pair. bu t as any this season . unl ess on e of the te a m s The last rou nd of m a tch es could com e back to wtn . th e on the 9 th February saw tra ve l to season wou ld end tn disa p - UEA Lo u ghbo rou gh . o ptimistic pointmen t.

The s piri t tha t has grown tha t, a t th e very least. a good clay would be h a d by al l. tn the team this year s howed After a drop tn form , Alex as lain and Dan pulled off a massive s hock tn the seco nd Wyatt was d ro pped a n d replaced by 2 nd team cap set to level the game, wh ils t ta in Tony Hughes . A 'close' Joe a nd Chri s rea s s e rte d m a tch end ed with t11e Eas t th em selves to claim the vie· tory for the team tha t pu t Anglian s tuden ts beaten 8 -0.

UEA have s ince had conthe ti e beyond do ubt. Witll the d ec id ing s e t loo kin g firmatio n of their qu al ifica tion fo r the n ational knockbleak for the 2nds at the

SILVERWARE A REAL POSSIBILTY FOR UEA The strong home record of the Men's Fencing Club could bring home the BUSA Shield to East Anglia Sarah Smith An impress ive win against

Lough bor ough last Wednesday s ees the Men 's fen cing team t hrough t o t h e play-off rounds in t he BUSA shield.

The tean1 ma de up of Ben Rac kh am . Paul Sou th am , Steven Domek . and Adam F'e rguson wo n a ll three wea pon s to b eat Lou gh borough 13 5 · 9 1.

This victory maintains th e tea m 's unb ea te n home reco rd s ince 2 003 as well as

•

pla cing the tea m into s econd position in tl1e leagu e this year. an improvem ent from th ird pla ce last year.

UEA travel to Hull tn the last 16 of the BUSA Shield .

FENCING MEN MIDLANDS DIVISION ONE (A) Birmingham

PWDLGDPTS 8 8 0 0 520 24

UEA 8 6 0 2 127 18 8 6 0 2 16 18 Oxford 2 LeiceS1er 8 4 o 4 85 12 Loughborough 8 4 0 4 11 12 Cambridge 8 3 0 5 -120 9 Warwick 8 3 0 5 ·160 9 Nottingham 2 8 2 0 6 ·219 6 S'shire (Stoke) 8 0 0 8 -260 0 • Uf'A qualify for BUSA Shield

out s tages o f th e BUSA S hie ld . afte r Derby co uld only m anage a dra w agai nst already d oo med Lincoln, to throw away tl1eir ch ances.

UEA h ave been dra wn a t home agai n s t UWE Bristol. and this makes the team th e most s u ccessful m en 's badmin ton team a t UEA in a d eca d e. a fantastic a chievement with hopes of mo re to

com e in the final stages of the season .

BADMINTON MEN MIDLANDS DIVISION TWO (A) !.:borough 2

P W D 10 10 0

L GO PTS 0 64 30

Nottingham 2 UEA Notts Trent 2 Derby

10 10 10 10

8 4 4 3

0 0 0 1

2 38 6 ~ 6 -16 6 ·16

Lincoln

10 0

1

9 -64

24 12 12 10

• UEA qualify for BUSA Shield as best 1si team in group.

NAIL BITING FINISH One point between the top two schools in Ziggurat Games Marc Dudley Sports-Edi tor It c ouldn' t be closer after MED I AHP u sed t h eir seco n d j o ker in an e ve nt t h ey won.

Victory in th e Wome n 's Squas h. means one point is all th a t s eparates th e top two schools. and with on ly fi ve even ts to go. this years competition is gotng to go clown to the wire to d ete rmin e which faculty is UEA's best s porting school.

Ziggurat Standings (after 16 of 21 events) 1 MED/AHP 2 BIO

3 ENV 4 DEV 5 AHP/CMP 6 CAP 7 EDU 8 LAW 9 MTH/NAM 10 PSS/SWK 11 HIS 12 LLT 13 ECOIPHI/PSI 14 AMSIFTVILIT 15MGT 16 WAMIMUSIC

= =

(JJ) Two Jokers played (J) One Joker Played

1328lJJ) 1327 JJ) 1217 J) 1193 JJ) 1139 (JJ) 989 (J) 981 (JJ) 972

g

~~~)

634 (J) 582 402 (J) 335 (J) 310 242

CoiCI'Itl Wednesday. February 23"', 2005

www.concrete-online.com

concrete.sport@uea.ac.uk 27

HARD WO KPAYS OFF FOR UEA UEA Athletes show fine form in several cross-country and indoor BUSA events across the country David Mckinlay It has been an excellent

two -weeks for UEA with some athletes competing in four events over the last fourteen days.

On Saturday. February 5th. UEA sent a squad to the BUSA Cross Country Championchips at Bodington Fields, Leeds.

Some of the best distance athletes in the country took part including Olympic semi finalist Rick:y Soos. In the Men's 4k short course race, which saw a very tightly acquitted field.

Steve Downey finished in 44th position. followed by Calum Nicol in 47th pl{lce. After eight months out injured, Ali Mcgeoch-Willlams took a hard earned 72nd position. while Andrew Staphnill concluded the teams performance in 82nd. In the 10.6k long course race John Dowding finished first for UEA running into 159th place out of several hundreds of competitors, with Matt Chidley in 180th.

Richard Hammond and Paul Smart were not far behind in 190th and 20lst places respectively. Although several of our top athletes are on international placements this year, Sarah Ainslie and Elsie Downham proved that they were on top form in the Ladies long course event of 6km finishing in the well deserved 120th and 182nd places.

A week later. UEA sent two men's and two women's teams down to the 57th annual Hyde Park Relays, Europe's biggest student road relay championships.

A six leg course for the men and a four leg event for the

women. the 5.2km and 3.5km. proved particularly testing in wet and blustery conditions. Out of 96 teams and over 600 competitors in the men's event. the 'A' team finished 13th. the best any team from UEA has ever done and was followed up with the best 'B' team performance ever in 35th position. Not to let the blokes take all the credit. the ladies also did unbelievably well.

The 'A' team just missed out on last years lOth place. finishing strongly in 13th. The Ladies 'B' team however slaughtered last years 'B' team position of 29th to finish with an impressive 21st position.

Not to say that the distance runners have been doing all the running recently. our sprinters have been in action too at the East of England Indoor Championship~Ktngs Lynn and several open tings at the Birmingham National hidoor Arena.

Andrew Mccullagh once again proved that he is not only the fastest person. but the furthest jumper in the East by regaining both his 60m and Long Jump titles on Sunday 13th February.

He achieved a personal best time of 7.1 seconds and jumped well within himself with a distance of 6.27 metres to ease into victory in both events. This was on the back of an excellent race in Birmingham where he reached the 'A' fmal in a race that turned out many of the fastest times of the y:ear.

Nick Horton also proved that he is rurming brilliantly and a good prospect for the Indoor Track BUSA Championships next we~:k-

end by pulling out a 22.9second 200m to come 2nd in his final at Birmingham.

This was especially good considering his lane draw and the camber which is supposed to take half a second off indoor times.

At Wattisham Airfield. the venue for the Sui Cross Country in the East Anglian Cross Country League. UEA performed tremendously again. In the ladies 5km event Sarah Ainslie showed her potential by winning her first league meeting. whilst Elsle Downham also pulled out an extra special performance to secure an excellent seventh position. Not far behind were Katie Craven and Lynne Harrtngton who finished 13th and 14th respectively. Calum Nicol drove the men's 'A' team on and fmished in an excellent 5th. despite taking a wrong turn and losing a considerle distance on the leaders.

Glen Richardson's fine form continued with an excellent 12th position with John Dowding and Matt Chidley following closely in 16th and 17th respectively. The 'B' team were hot on their heels with Richard Hammond In 24th. Ali Mcgeoch-Willlams in 25th and Paul Smart. a little sore from his fourth encounter in two weeks. in 30th.

Tom Donnelly.

Thomas Lang and Tom Hunt all finished very strongly in 31st, 34th and 36th positions respectively.

Borgel Greenaway fmished in 48th position with Louis HoldingParsons and the legendary Jimmy Green rounding off an all round excellent day for UEA Athletics in 60th and 65th positions.

QUALITY DISPlAY IN ASHES Kevin Rowe The UEA Futsal club travelled to York to play the annual 'Ashes' competition, in hope of showing their opponents how much they have progressed in the last year.

This year. UEA took 2 teams while York fielded 4 teams. 2 of which were made up by former committee members of their club. The tournament took a league format and each team played one another on a single occasion. The two UEA sides were a good mix of experience and new blood. and the tournament kicked off with UEA Futsal A facing York Presidents A and UEA B facing York A The sides achieved mixed results with UEA Futsal A gain.i.Qg a 3-0 win while the B team collapsed to a 2-0 defeat.

Fortunes improved for UEA in the next round of games with the first team recording two l-0 victories and UEA B winning 3-1.

Next up was the crunch

game, UEA taking on UEA If the 'A' team took the points. it was likely they were to go onto win the tournament, while UEA B desperately needed a win to continue their winning form. The game was a thriller. and an excellently worked goal Involving Andy Hide and Stephen Robinson ended UEA A's hope of a flawless tournament. The 'B' team were high in confidence and beat York B by 3 goals to l in admirable fashion with the experience of Tom DonneUy. Nick Williamson and Andy Wilson shining through. The final games would prove vital as both UEA teams were still in with a shot for the title and although UEA A fought well and went a goal up in their final game against York B. a defensive error in the dying seconds led to the points being shared.

Unfortunately for UEA the B-side also suffered the same setback with a last minute equaliser cancelling out their 3-2 lead .

The tournament fmished with UEA A coming second

place. losing out by a single goal. The excellent goal difference was down to outstanding defensive work and a superb display by goalkeeper Domln1c Kloos - the German shot stopper! UEA B also narrowly missed out, coming third only on goal difference also.

Their strength lay with the attackers who notched l 0 goals, although a commanding performance by Jeff Knott. supported by Chris Brice. could not prevent them conceding 7 goals. Overall, UEA was very pleased with the performance and York now recognises UEA are a quality futsal side and the matches will prove good practice for the u,pcoming tournaments in Essex, Sheffield and Belgium.

OPEN 24 HOURS A DAY 7 ·DAYS A WEEK 20 Snooker tables 3 pool tables 2 American-pool tables Satellite TV Video Games £250 jackpot machines Hot and cold food available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week Licensed bar ·at low prices 1Oam·11 pm, 12·1 0.30pm Sun

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ISTUDENT MEMBERSHIP £3J St Mary's Plain, Norwich Tel: 627478 Only 5 minutes from Norwich market

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UEA Sports clubs hard work is rewarded as they reach knockout stages of the BUSA competition Marc Dudley Sports-Editor With the league stages over, UEA now look forward to the knockout stages of the BUSA competition.

Nine of t he univers ity's sports cl u bs have managed to q ualify for the knockout stages. and the students of East Anglia mus t be h oping one team can finally bling home a trophy to UEA. The undefeated women 's and men's 2 nd XI footba ll teams must be in with a ch a n ce \vith both teams scaling goals for fun in th eir BUSA leagu e campaigns.

The men's team travel to Leicester. whilst the women

fa ce th e ir tough est test yet when they take on Northumbira from the ftrst division a t Colney Lane.

UEA's n etba ll and women's hockey teams travel southwards to take on UC L a nd Biighton respective ly. UCL have won eight of th eir te n m atc h es in th e group stage. whilst Biighton are und efeated in the divis ion below UEA. so both team will have to be at th e ir best on Wednesday.

Hope full y. o n e of our sports clubs can biing home some s ilverware this year and Concrete will be follow ing each team in what will hope fully be a successful season for UEA.

BUSA Knockout Fixtures Wed 23rd Feb (subject to change) BUSA Shield. Last 16 Men's Baksetball: Men's Badminton: Men's Fencing: Women's Football: Women's Hockey: Women's Netball: Me n 's Rugby: Women's Rugby: BUSA Vase. Last 64 Men's Football:

Leeds

VS

UEA (16th Feb)

(Result not in when going to print) UEA vs UWE Bristol Hull vs UEA UEA vs Northumbria Brighton vs UEA UCLvs UEA Liverpool JM vs UEA Salford vs UEA

Leicester 3 vs UEA 2

For all BUSA Final Tables & Knockout Results visit www.busa.org.uk

GOT A SPORTS STORY FROM YOUR CLUB? E-MAIL US AT CONCRETE.SPORT@UEA.AC.UK ACROSS

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