gair rhydd - Issue 882

gair rhydd

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CARDIFF'S STUDENT WEEKLY

freeword - EST. 1972

ISSUE 882 NOVEMBER 17 2008

£225,000 THE SUM THAT CARDIFF UNIVERSITY INVESTS IN ARMS COMPANIES IS REVEALED >> page 3

Shocked student returns home to find her landlord's gardener attempting to steal her belongings Landlord allegedly 'couldn't remember' criminal gardener's details

Emma Jones News Editor A student received a nasty surprise last Sunday when she arrived home to discover her landlord's gardener attempting to steal two laptops, a purse and a camera.

Katy Morris, a second year psychology student, caught the burglar in her bedroom. When she challenged the man, he said he was looking for

his work card, to which Katy replied, “What, in my room?” It was then that she noticed her laptop was missing off her desk.

She then tried to get the attention of her male housemate but the greenfingered thief made a swift exit and had disappeared before anyone could give chase.

Katy managed to save her laptop, which the thief abandoned upon discovery, but he had also concealed her purse and camera, which she didn’t

realise until he had gone.

Surprisingly, there were seven people in the house when the man broke in. One housemate, Ray Hartnett, a second year accountancy student, said he had noticed someone entering the house but assumed he was the friend of a housemate, as he went straight upstairs and seemed to know where he was going.

Alicia Thomas, another housemate, said: “As we have such a busy house it's not uncommon for friends to just

PHOTO: JAKE YORATH

CAUGHT IN THE ACT

Cardiff University Breakdancing Society took to the streets last week to raise money for future events >> page 4 come in - stupid, I know.”

The police arrived at the house three hours after the burglary.

When the landlord was questioned about the supposed “gardener” who had broken in, he displayed a distinct lack of knowledge about who he had employed, Alicia stated. He allegedly claimed that he 'couldn’t remember' where he had hired him from and that he didn’t have a number for him.

According to Alicia, “The gardener was in his late 20s and was losing his

hair. He was quite chavvy and had a gold tooth.”

She added: “Basically it took this to happen for us to stop being lazy and lock our doors every time, even if we are all in.”

"I've had a heart, liver, lung and kidney transplant" - Features, page 16

02 NEWS

NOVEMBER.17.2008 NEWS@gairrhydd.COM

gr NEWS.............. 1 EDITORIAL & OPINION...........8 EM CETERA..... 11 POLITICS......... 13 LETTERS.......... 15 FEATURES....... 16 TAF-OD............ 20 SCIENCE & ENVIRONMENT.21 JOBS & MONEY............ 22 TED HANDSOME..... 25 XPRESS........... 26 FIVE MINUTE FUN................. 27 LISTINGS......... 28 SPORT............. 30 gair rhydd has been Cardiff University's independent student newspaper since 1972.

CARDIFF GETS TURNED ON: Rob Brydon and Ruth Jones, the stars of Welsh comedy Gavin and Stacey, switched on Cardiff's Christmas lights last Wednesday. They lit up a dazzling display of decorations to illuminate the city and mark the beginning of the festive season.

Not Permitted Nurses stripped of parking permits express safety concerns in yet another blow for Heath students Christofer Lloyd Investigations Nurses at the Heath campus are facing transport difficulties and concerns over their safety following the loss of their parking permits.

Since the beginning of this academic year, nurses have seen more and more of their parking permits revoked by the council, leaving them with limited parking options.

Rather than being able to camp onsite, students are typically forced to park 15 minutes away in an unlit field, or spend £10 a day, every day to park.

Students who must return to their cars after dark have expressed concerns over the safety of parking in an unlit field, but many feel that they have little choice.

Rachel Jones, a 2nd year Nursing student from Aberdare has to drive up to an hour to get to the Heath: “When we first started, everybody who wanted a parking permit was issued with one” she said. “I applied for a new one when mine expired this year. In October they sent me a letter saying that I had been rejected.”

Rachel appealed this decision to Vinci car parks, the private company who issue the permits, who informed her that the decision was made by the hospital.

Upon asking the Heath hospital about the decision, she was told they

didn’t know anything about it.

Rachel also questioned why a student who lived 10 minutes away received a permit, when she has been denied one.

She said: “It used to cost me £1.05 a day to park. Now it costs me over £10 a day and I only get a bursary of £500 a month. There is somewhere we can park with limited spaces that costs £2 a day, but it’s about 10-15 minutes walk from the Heath and there is no

lighting”.

The issue is compounded by the recent loss of a bus service that used to operate for students .

Rachel saod: “we feel, as students, that we have been discriminated against by the NHS.” The news comes as another blow to Heath Park campus students, whose problems include dated social space facilities and ongoing communication issues with the University.

NUS: on the road to reform (again) The National Union of Students (NUS) is one step closer to reform following an extraordinary conference last Wednesday in which sabbatical officers from all over the UK came together and voted in favour of revised reform proposals.

Conference passed the revised reform proposals by 614 votes to 142, easily meeting the two thirds majority required to change the constitution.

The decision must be ratified a second time before reform can begin, which can occur at a further Extraordinary Conference or at Annual Conference in April.

The seven hour conference saw the proposal of fifteen amendments, six of which were passed.

The amendments which passed included a proposal to elect an International Students' Officer to the National Executive Council (NEC) and a proposal to commission an independent Equality Impace Assessment to identify the impact of the proposed new constitution.

Addressing delegates at the start of the conference, NUS president Wes Streeting said, “The reform of our national Union is necessary and long overdue”.

Wes went on to say that a “scandalous mismanagement of resources” meant that the need for reform was urgent, saying, “Given our precarious financial position, all it takes is for a few big Unions to leave and our financial model is screwed and our national Union is in decline”.

Last year a motion for NUS reform failed to be ratified during a second vote at the 2008 National Conference.

NEWS 03

NOVEMBER.10.2008 NEWS@gairrhydd.COM

Arms up

Cardiff University's investment in arms companies has increased since 2006 despite pressure from the Union Sarah Powell News Editor Despite continuing student opposition, Cardiff University are still investing money in companies heavily associated with arms manufacture, and recent information has shown that the amount being invested has actually increased.

Currently the University holds investments with arms manufacturers BAE Systems, General Electric and Smith Group in the form of shares and bonds with a value of £225,000. BAE Systems claims to be 'the largest European defence company'. gair rhydd first reported on this issue in November 2006 (Issue 827) after information that the University was investing in such companies was revealed by the Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT) group who obtained it through the Freedom of In-

formation Act. It was revealed that the University employed external managers to coordinate their finances, and therefore because the money was being invested indirectly, this did not conflict with the university’s ethical practices.

After the publication of this information, a mandate was put into motion in December 2006 by Student Counci urging the University to withdraw investments from the companies involved in arms manufacture. This included those invested by external managers employed by the University to manage their finances (Issue 830).

However, it has since been revealed that the University has disregarded this, and is still using external managers to invest money in arms manufacture. Added to this, there has been an increase in the money invested, from £170,000 to the current amount of £225,000.

This has come under criticism from

students. Mia Hollsing, President of Socialist Students and a member of Student Council said, “It is disgusting that the University invests its money in arms manufacture at the same time as students generally oppose wars and many are, or have been, active in the anti-war movement.”

She also added, “It is no excuse for the University to say they have external fund managers. At the end of the day it is their money and they decide what to do with it.”

In response, a University Spokesperson has said, “The University holds no direct investments in any companies with defence interests. The University has ethical practices and places its main bank accounts with the Co-operative Bank which is well known for its ethical policies.”

The University said that their officers are willing to meet with Students’ Union representatives to discuss investment policies.

Natalia Popova asks students: what are your views on Cardiff University's investment in arms companies?

"It’s not what a university should be investing money in. It would be better to invest the money in sports infrastructure. I also think we should have a say in where the money goes."

Nick Bowley

1st Year Marine Geography

"It depends on who BAE has contracts with."

Doug Beattie 1st Year Psychology

"I didn’t realise they did that. I would prefer the money would go to a company which was in harmony with my ethics."

Mary Stevens

3rd Year European Politics and International Relations

It’s good. Especially with the Middle East situation.

We need defence. If it protects me and my friends it’s okay.

Tom Ellor 1st Year Psychology

I wasn’t aware that they did that. It would be nice to know where all the money goes.

Luke Franks 1st Year Psychology

04 NEWS

NOVEMBER.17.2008 NEWS@gairrhydd.COM

Broke and breaking

Former UWIC student petitions to save Cardiff pub Jack Doran Reporter

Eleanor Joslin News Editor

A charity break and busk in Cardiff’s Capitol shopping centre has raised £100 for the Cardiff City Kingz breakdancing event in December.

On Saturday November 8, around a dozen breakdancers showed off their talent busking for money to help pay for the December 6 event which will crown a breaker 'Cardiff City King'.

The event will be hosted by Aesthetics, Cardiff University Break Society, Cathays Community Centre, the British Bboy Association and volunteers, all who want Cardiff to have an exciting b-boy jam with a competitive atmosphere.

One of the volunteers, Amelia Thomas, said: “We want to run the event so people can get the real essence of what breaking is really about and it’s important to promote the posi-

tive interaction of hip hop.”

Cardif City Kingz w i l l feature one-on-one battles between individual breakdancers and four-on-four battles involving sixteen crews as well as an open circle for anyone, no matter what their ability, to break in. Crews from as far as London will be competing for the crown. £150 has now been raised but a further £100 is needed to pay for the

judges, prizes, techies and paint for the graffiti jam required for the upcoming breakdancing event. All additional proceeds will be donated to the Cathays Community Centre.

Amelia, who has been breaking for eighteen months, said: “People don’t really have a clear idea of what breaking really is. The event will give people the chance to come and see what it’s all about and maybe to start training too.”

Race Equality Policy reviewed Eleanor Joslin News Editor The current Race Equality Policy for Cardiff University is under review to make sure the University meets certain legal requirements and future work priorities.

The Draft Race Equality Scheme 2008 – 2011 will review the Race Relations Act that came into effect eight years ago. This Act placed a duty on public authorities to work towards the elimination of discrimination and to

promote racial equality.

The 2000 Race Relations Act also stipulated that at all university events there must be an awareness regarding the need to ‘eliminate unlawful discrimination, promote equality of opportunity and to promote good relations between people of different racial groups.’

The Act also specified that a Race Equality Policy must be prepared and its progress and impact on students and staff must be continually monitored.

This policy, which Cardiff University has been following, will now be supervised by the Draft Race and Equality Scheme. The review aims to ‘attract support and retain a diverse mix of staff and students, create an inclusive learning and teaching environment, eliminate racist bullying, harassment and violence and to promote good relations between staff and students from all backgrounds.’

Cardiff University’s current policy states that the University ‘recognises that through promoting a culture of

equality, dignity and respect it provides an environment that is vibrant and welcoming, which provides an opportunity for every member of its community to reach their full potential.’

Future priorities of the Draft Scheme include ‘promoting the development of an inclusive curriculum which meets the different needs of a wide range of students, working towards inclusive teaching methods and raising student awareness of the scheme.’

until summer 2009.

The decision to extend this for a further 12 months follows extensive discussions with the British Medical Association (BMA) Cymru and the postgraduate deanery.

There were also medical student demonstrations outside the University Hospital of Wales, sparked after the requirement for pre-registration doctors to be resident at a hospital was

removed from the Medical Act. It is estimated that this would have cost newly qualified junior doctors approximately £4800 a year, on top of average debts of £20,000 acquired throughout their undergraduate training.

Welcoming the decision, Dr Richard Lewis, Welsh Secretary of the BMA, said that it "demonstrates the Welsh Assembly Government's com-

mitment to value the role of junior doctors." He added that it will "ensure Wales becomes the destination of choice for medical training."

"We have shortfalls in posts in Wales and this will go some way towards creating the culture which is necessary to attract the best medical talent for the future."

Free housing for junior doctors Nick Bullock Reporter All first year junior doctors training in Wales will now be able to stay in free hospital accommodation until July 2010.

Health Minister Edwina Hart had previously agreed to extend the provision of free on-site housing for doctors in their foundation year in Wales

John Inverdale is the thousandth signature on a petition to save a Cardiff pub Sports journalist and UWIC alumnus John Inverdale showed his support for the campaign to save The Vulcan pub.

Last December, Cardiff based developers MA Rapport announced plans to replace the historic pub with a multi-storey car park, offices, flats and retail space. The Vulcan is subject to a demolition order to be carried out in June of next year.

In the city filming for last Saturday’s South Africa game, Inverdale claimed he must have visited the pub during his student days and was happy to support the campaign. Further support has come from Welsh Assembly Members Jenny Randerson (Cardiff Central) and Leanne Wood (South Wales Central).

Built in 1853, The Vulcan is a piece of Cardiff’s history. Spokesman for the campaign, Graham Craig said “The Vulcan is one of the few remaining links that Cardiff has with its precoal boom days. We’re in danger of losing everything that makes this city a bit different”.

Blood donor appointments Eleanor Joslin News Editor Cardiff University’s Student Union hopes to have made their blood donation days more efficient with the new system of organised appointment times.

In previous years, donors have sometimes had to wait in long queues due to the popularity of giving blood but now there are more days and more appointments times available.

Joanne Allan, the deputy recruitment manager for the Welsh Blood Service said: “This new strategy makes it a lot quicker and easier for our donors.”

The organised appointments will be available until November 19 in the Aneurin Bevan room. There will also be an open session on November 28 for people who do not want to make an appointment.

Claire Williams, blood donor and Student Union Finance Officer, said: ''Donating is really worthwhile. After all, I might need it one day.”

NEWS 05

NOVEMBER.17.2008 NEWS@gairrhydd.COM

Credit crunch causes surge in healthcare applications Lucy Morgan Reporter An increasing number of graduates are turning to careers in health care as the credit crisis cuts the number of jobs available within the financial sector.

According to a recent survey of over 200,000 students who graduated last year, the number entering the financial sector fell by 2.7% compared with a 1.1% rise the previous year.

Furthermore, between 2004 and 2008, the number of nursing students rose by 43.7%.

It is believed that this significant shift in graduate career choices is predominately down to the credit crisis.

With the collapse of financial institutions around the world, it is now much harder for graduates to find well-paid employment in this area.

When Lehman Brothers went bust earlier in the year, 5,000 of those who lost their jobs were graduate trainees who had only been working there for a week.

However, as Mark Hill – chief executive of the Higher Education Careers Services Unit – says, "The good news is that we can see significant gains across diverse professions such as nursing, engineering and social work, demonstrating the value and opportunities a degree continues to present".

Tuition freeze Students see red over Nathan Allen Reporter It has been announced that there will not be a rise in undergraduate tuition fees for five years.

The current fee for undergraduate study is capped at £3145 a year and will not rise, except by inflation, for at least another five years, despite university Vice Chancellors lobbying for an increase in the upper limit.

Chief executive of the Higher Education Funding Council for England, Prof. Dave Eastwood, says that Higher Education providers should not get too expectant of a rise: "institutions would be foolish to plan on an assumption that there will be an early rise in the fee cap," he said, "I think it's inconceivable that the cap will rise significantly before 2013."

It has been reported that certain leading research universities have suggested that fees be increased to between five and eight thousand pounds.

This would however come at extra cost to the Government who subsidise student loans, of which a larger amount would be needed.

The London School of Economics believes that if fees were to rise to £5000, the cost to the Government would be £1.2bn.

The world's financial problems plus comments by Prof.

Eastwood imply that next

year's review will not report until after the next election, theoretically eliminating it from the electoral battles.

Households with higher incomes are likely to fare worse, as they are not entitled to assistance from the Treasury, whilst the number of grants available is being reduced and the upper income limit being increased to £50,000 for the next academic year.

top-up fees Steve Wright Reporter Last week saw thousands of students across the country stage demonstrations protesting against the top-up fee system of student finance.

The ‘Students in the Red’ day, organised by the NUS, was aimed at persuading the government to scrap the current top-up fee system in order of a fairer option.

The action involved a range of protests, including driving around Liverpool town centre in a ‘big red bus’ releasing helium balloons to create a virtual ‘mountain’ of debt.

In Gateshead, students hung a banner from the Millennium Bridge spelling out the average student debt - £25k. In Exeter, paper chains of debt were created around the campus Tiananmen Square monument.

NUS President Wes Streeting described the current funding system as ‘‘completely unfair’’. ‘‘All students have to pay £3,145 a year in top-up fees, but they face a postcode lottery when it comes to financial support. ‘‘We want a national bursary system, so that poorer students get financial support based on how much they need it, not on where they study. ‘‘Students and parents also deserve a full, frank and public debate

about the current fees system ahead of a general election before families are saddled with even more debt by those who want to see the cap on fees lifted.’’

The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills denied that lack of finance was preventing students from attending university. ‘‘Undergraduates starting degree courses do not have to pay tuition fees before beginning their studies and only start repayments once they have left university and are earning over £15,000 per year,’’ said a spokesman. ‘‘We are committed to ensuring finance is no barrier to going to university.’’

Cardiff University pioneers kidney research Eleanor Joslin News Editor Cardiff University is leading a new research study that could see the failure rates of end-stage kidney disease treatment decrease.

With £230,000 secured from the Baxter Extramural Grant Renal Discoveries program, this will fund the study for three years.

The multidisciplinary team at Cardiff University will be studying the effects of bacterial infection to get a better understanding of the patient’s immune responses. For patients with end-stage kidney disease, a bacterial infection is one of the most common reasons for treatment failure and fatality.

Clinicians and researchers from the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Immunology will be working

with the team to investigate the potential to regulate bacterial infections in susceptible patients.

The primary investigator of the department, Dr. Matthias Eberl, said: ''As treatment failure in these patients correlates with the severity of the inflammatory response and antibiotic resistance is becoming a problem, we need to understand why some patients are more prone to treatment failure than others.”

06 NEWS

UNION WATCH

Sian Symons rounds up the week in student media

Prince William and Harry Italian Job attempt to save the world gone wrong CAMBRIDGE VARSITY Princes William and Harry visited Cambridge University last week for a two-day seminar on how to save the world.

The event, hosted by University of Cambridge Programme for Industry (CPI), looked at world issues such as social change, security, global warming, pandemics and the role of science.

These workshops were designed especially to aid the Princes in their preparations to take on a larger role in public life.

A spokesman from Clarence House said: “They really enjoyed it and found it very interesting and extremely informative.”

William and Harry attended the two-day seminar as prominent members of the Royal family and as patrons of various charities that are involved with such issues.

The Princes were treated to traditional Cambridge hospitality throughout the trip. They stayed in Trinity College, where their father Prince Charles was a student, were shown around the Cambridge landmarks and also found time to have a quick drink in one of Cambridge’s many pubs.

BRISTOL EPIGRAM Six security staff, two police cars and a police helicopter were deployed to arrest a University of Bristol student after a drunken attempt to recreate the stunts from the film The Italian Job on university property.

First year student Alex Fiallos, 18, was arrested after a twenty minute rampage across the grounds of Wills hall.

He drove over lawns and onto pavements at speeds of up to 40 mph in the early hours of the morning.

When Fiallos tried to drive down a steep flight of steps, in homage to the famous stunt from Michael Caine's 1969 movie, the prank went spectacularly wrong.

The student crashed the car causing the radiator to explode, bursting the front tyres and exploding the two front airbags. A current resident of Wills hall told Epigram: "The stairs were all crumbled and had cracks all over them. The car was still there the next morning and its front wheels were all torn up."

A spokesman for Avon and Somerset Police confirmed that their "investigations led to the arrest of an 18-year-old man. Alexander Fiallos, from Ealing, London, who was later charged for driving with excess alcohol.”

Residents confirm that Fiallos has not been back to Wills since the incident.

The Harrow educated fresher was given the brand new £10,000 Mini by his parents the day before the incident.

Student house party leads to police investigation EXETER EXEPOSÈ

Exeter students have been handed severe punishments for causing a public nuisance after a house party went out of control.

Twelve students who organised the event were given Noise Abatement Notices by the Environmental Health

Department and seven days community service each.

150 students were packed into two adjoining student households within the residential area behind Exeter prison.

The combined party received numerous complaints from local residents due to the noise level of the crowd.

NOVEMBER.17.2008 NEWS@gairrhydd.COM

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Police, University Estate Patrol and the city’s Community Patrol were called out six times between 10:15pm and 2:29am, before police closed the party at the request of one of its organizers.

The twelve hosts from both houses were then called to a Major Disciplinary Hearing at the University, where they were reprimanded.

Oxford club under scrutiny

OXFORD CHERWELL A student club night featuring naked wrestling in KY jelly, topless girls and a 'fetish snake show' has sparked an investigation by police this week.

The probe into a potential breach of license was launched after revelers visiting the Kukui nightclub, on Wednesday October 29, were astonished to find that a virtual sex show had been laid on as entertainment.

The event, organised just days before the start of Oxford University Student Union's Gender Equality Week, had been billed as "one of the naughtiest nights of the year," and has been condemned by students who attended.

One undergraduate described how she entered the venue and found herself surrounded by raunchy performers.

"There were girls covered in jelly and wrestling with each other," she said.

"They were only wearing small tshirts, which they then ripped off and continued as good as naked except for tiny thongs."

She added that there had also been a topless woman only partially covered by a 12 foot long snake she was carrying, while others put on performances of topless fire-eating.

Rachel Cummings, OUSU VicePresident for Women, launched a scathing attack on the night and condemned it as hugely inappropriate.

"It's unacceptable for club organizers to use women in this way," she said. "Such acts demean women in a city where they have fought for their rights to be taken seriously as intelligent, autonomous individuals”.

A spokesperson for the Licensing Authority of Oxford City Council confirmed that an investigation into the legality of the performances had been conducted in conjunction with officers from Thames Valley Police.

However, he said that officials were now satisfied that no crime had been committed.

NOVEMBER.17.2008 NEWS@gairrhydd.COM

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WORLD NEWS 07

Cyberspace Junkies

Also in the news...

Charlotte Laken Reporter

Jack Doran Reporter

China could become the first country to classify internet addiction as a clinical disorder and plans to register the condition with the World Health Organisation.

With the world’s largest online population of 253 million people, both China’s urban and rural internet cafés are crowded with people participating in gaming sessions. Research shows nearly half of China’s online population are aged between 18 and 30, with 42 per cent of those claiming to feel addicted to the internet.

Beijing’s Health Ministry is expected to adopt a new manual on internet addiction next year, based on the research of Chinese psychologists. It will recognise the condition as similar to compulsive gambling or alcoholism.

“China finds itself at the forefront of this research because we were among the earliest to set up clinics… we had a sufficient sample of patients so that we could carry out proper scientific analysis,” said Tao Ran, who set up China’s first internet addiction

Boar-ing Game

Dead

clinic at the Military General Hospital in Beijing.

By studying more than 3,000 people over four years, Dr Tao concluded that an addict spent 6.13 hours online each day. Many addicts have sleep disorders and cease to communicate with family or friends, instead opting to live in front of a computer screen,

drifting through cyber chat rooms and playing violent internet games.

Dr Tao says the condition is often merely a symptom of deeper psychological problems. His clinic treats patients who may also suffer from depression and a fear or unwillingness to interact with others. Common to all his patients are family problems.

ugly Tequila - an alcoholic gem Owain Bury Reporter

Owain Bury News Editor A one-eyed, three-legged, hairless pooch that won the title of World's Ugliest Dog this summer has recently died.

Gus, a nine-year-old Chinese crested dog, lost his battle with cancer last week, after winning the annual contest in June at the Sonoma-Marin Fair, California.

His owner Jeanenne Teed from Gulfport, Florida, rescued him eightyears-ago, just after her divorce, when she discovered he was being kept in a crate in someone's garage. She said: "He was the most hideous thing I had ever seen."

That night he curled against her on her ex-husband's side of the bed, and she could not give him away.

Since being crowned with the su-

Unlike drugs, the internet does not create dependency, and Dr Tao places his success rate of curing patients at about 70 per cent. He said: “The increase now is not as rapid as it was a few years ago. However, this was the first such clinic in China when it opened in 2005. Now there are several hundred across the country.”

perlative title he has become a celebrity, appearing on many US talk shows.

Jeanenne put the $1,600 prize money towards chemotherapy for the dog, and also put up her October mortgage to pay for it, but it did not save him.

One leg had been amputated because of a skin tumour and he lost an eye in a catfight.

Since June he has lost half his body weight and the cancer in his back leg twisted his spine. The vet announced that he only had a few days to live.

Jeanenne took a blanket-wrapped Gus to the beach where they had celebrated winning the competition, and just a few days later, she held him in her arms as he died.

She has now planted a butterfly bush with golden flowers on his grave in her garden.

"Something beautiful," she said, "to grow out of all that ugly."

Scientists in Mexico have successfully turned their national beverage Tequila into diamonds.

Researchers from the National Autonomous University of Mexico found that when the heated vapour of 'tequila blanco' was deposited on a stainless steel base, it formed diamond films.

The tequila diamonds formed so far have been too small to be used in jewellery such as rings, but they have other potential uses.

Scientist Miguel Apatiga said they could be used to "detect radiation, coat cutting tools or, above all, as a substitute for silicon in the computer chips of the future."

Experiments began thirteen years ago and synthetic diamonds were created by a technological process, unlike natural diamonds that are formed geologically from gases like methane.

Diamonds were eventually made from liquids when it was noticed that the ideal compound for the process consisted of 40 percent ethanol and 60 percent water, the same proportion used in tequila.

Mr Apatiga said: "One day I went to the campus shop and bought a bottle of cheap tequila. I used it under the same experimental conditions as for a test with ethanol and water and obtained positive results."

He said: "It's true that the fact it's tequila has a certain charm. It's a Mexican product and Mexican researchers developed the project."

A football match in Gloucestershire was cancelled after wild boars invaded the pitch.

Having escaped from the nearby Forest of Dean, the hogs squeezed through a gap in the fence at Soudley Recreation Ground.

Setting their sights on the well kept pitch, they ploughed the turf up with their snouts, leaving great pot holes and the Saturday fixture against Charfield unplayable.

Having spent £1000 on pitch refurbishments only last April, the club owner is said to be ‘as sick as a pig’.

Superg-loo A 35 year old man sent his dignity down the toilet as he found himself glued to a public toilet.

The incident occurred as a result of a crafty prankster covering the stainless steel public convenience with superglue.

The emergency services, unable to free the poor gent, were forced to take him to hospital with the loo still firmly attached.

It was only when doctors applied special chemicals that the West Midlands man was freed.

Obama is Toast

The 44th President of America has ‘miraculously’ appeared on a piece of toast.

The toasty phenomenon has before seen the likes of the Virgin Mary and Jesus appearing in bread form, the former selling for $28000 at auction.

However, this is the first time a politician has had the honour of being immortalised in toast.

Needless to say, the toast is available on e-Bay having so far attracted only one bid of $20.

OPINION 09

NOVEMBER.17.2008 OPINION@gairrhydd.COM

freewords Est. 1972

Cardiff University, hold out your arms It is two years since gair rhydd first broke the news that Cardiff University has huge investments in arms companies, and the latest acquisition of information relating to Cardiff's investment in arms shows that little has changed. gair rhydd's front page coverage of Cardiff University's investment in arms in November 2006 led to a motion passing at Student Council that urged the University to withdraw their investments from the companies involved in arms manufacture.

It is clear, however, that the University completely disregarded the Union's calls for it to abandon its investments in arms.

And, contrary to their claims, all of the evidence suggests that their investment in arms companies has actually increased.

Are they really listening, then?

They certainly want to make it appear that they are. The University issued a statement this week saying that its representatives are prepared to meet with Students' Union representatives to discuss its investment policies.

However, there is a widespread feeling emerging throughout the student body that the University is excellent at making a gesture of listening, but very poor when it comes to actually taking action.

The well-documented problems at the Heath Park campus and the Invest in Sport campaign, which both appear to have fallen on deaf ears so far, are fine examples of this.

The University must show that it is actually listening to the demands of its students and meeting them, and stop fobbing us off with rhetoric.

Even the most basic of requests that Heath Park students have lecturers who actually attend their lectures, for example - seems to return little response.

And as years go by, the same problems seem to remain: where is Medclub? Where are the quiet rooms? Where is the new gym?

Where is the environmental manager? Where is the commitment to students?

If the University is serious about listening to students and serious about its own ethical policies, then it will make one simple, meaningful gesture, and abandon all of its investments in arms companies.

Editor Ben Bryant Deputy Editor Hazel Plush Co-ordinator Elaine Morgan News Emma Barlow Emma Jones Sarah Powell Sian Symons Eleanor Joslin Editorial and Opinion Jamie Thunder Emma Davies Columnist

This mess we're in

Governments pump billions into banks and wars, but aid to developing countries is sorely lacking.

Piers Horner thinks we've got it all wrong T

o be honest, I have been a bit bored with the events surrounding the current economic crisis.

Day in, day out, the news over the past couple of weeks has been dominated by this or that change in the markets; this or that meeting to discuss how the wealthiest nations of our planet were facing the possibility of becoming a little less wealthy, and what could be done to reverse that.

On a personal level, I have not seen much of a change to my own circumstances, or indeed those of my friends and relatives. Oh hold on, I did notice the other day that milk was a bit more expensive. But that’s about it. Slightly more expensive milk is not, to me, earth-shattering news, and does not deserve the amount of media attention the crisis has received recently.

The money to help the neediest is clearly available; it's just not spent Of course, I’m being flippant. For some people, the economic crisis has been, and is likely to be, a big deal: elderly people who may now have even more trouble than usual paying for heating and food costs over the winter; people who have lost jobs; and those who have had their homes re-mortgaged. In these cases, the effect is indeed serious, and I would not wish to play down their anxieties, nor argue that they should not be supported at this time.

But somehow it doesn’t seem to ring true that this is why world governments have been willing to suddenly make prodigious amounts of money available to prop up banks and the like. Why, one might ask, when the plights of the elderly, of homeowners, and of people who are made redundant are regularly ignored, should our leaders become so concerned about them now?

My suspicion is that the response has more to do with maintaining the overall wealth and living standards of the developed nations, even though

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BANK AID OR BAND AID: should we help banks before people? both of these start off from a high level. This is really what rankles when we compare our response to these relative to our response to other world issues.

So far, as we are already aware, the UK government alone has been willing to make available – albeit as a loan of sorts – (potentially) around $500 billion to bail out banks, while the US was willing to make $700 billion available for this purpose. That is clearly a lot of money, especially on the backs of the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts.

The bail-out isn't just to help those affected by the financial crisis Ah yes, the wars! Lest we forget – conservative estimates of the immediate cost of conflict in Iraq to America alone stand at around $600 billion, with indirect costs expected to run into trillions.

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To compare, it has been estimated that only a small proportion of this kind of money could provide funding for a global immunisation project over the next ten years to protect children all around the globe, saving millions of people as a result.

Similarly, the World Bank originally estimated the cost of achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), (agreed in 1999 to help alleviate poverty and improve health, education and sanitation for the citizens of Third-World countries), to be between $40 and $60 billion a year over 16 years. That makes $960 billion, shared out between all the developed nations who signed up to the MDGs. We currently appear to be far from achieving these goals, which would help save people and improve immeasurably the living conditions of many millions.

Further comparisons are similarly illuminating: during the 2004 Tsunami in which approximately 250,000 people were killed and many more displaced, the UK donated £75 million.

It seemed generous back then (com-

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paratively it was, and it was gratefully received) – yet when compared to the amount we are willing to shell out to bail out our banks or go to war in another country, this amount suddenly pales into near-insignificance.

Currently, the World Food Programme is asking for $140 million to provide food to millions of people suffering from malnutrition and starvation in Zimbabwe. Is it likely to be able to raise this money to save those who may otherwise starve to death? If past appeals are anything to go by, the answer is a resounding no, and it is for this reason that the enormous amounts of money being currently made available to address the economic crisis make me so annoyed.

Clearly, providing development aid is not just a matter of pumping money into a situation, but estimates of the cost of providing support for a particular cause often take into account (for example), costs of corruption.

Besides, even if the costs are significantly underestimated, they are shared between all the developed nations and are, therefore, still likely to represent a far smaller contribution than countries have been willing to make in the current economic conditions.

Furthermore, one could argue that it is not entirely clear after this episode whether our money is in more responsible hands going to corrupt dictators or city investors.

A small proportion of the Iraq war's cost could save millions of lives

I am not arguing that the economic crisis should not be addressed or that those who are affected by it should not be helped out, but what this all appears to demonstrate to me is that the money is available to help out those who are truly the neediest in the world – the fact that it’s not spent is simply due to a lack of willing on part of the developed nations.

That may not come as news to us, but it is still a sad state of affairs to be reminded of.

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10 OPINION

NOVEMBER.17.2008 OPINION@gairrhydd.COM

Read the small print

Will new food labelling rules lead to healthier choices? Laura Harman thinks that we just don't care enough to change

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he European Union has set down legislation stating that nutritional information on products should be in “the principal field of vision” and that the text should be three millimetres high.

When I first heard of this I thought: “How can this be considered a topic for discussion?” Surely nobody would disagree that statistics such as 220 million children overweight across the globe in 2005 prove that obesity is a problem growing larger and larger (sorry…).

I researched some of the responses to this announcement and was derisive of Coca Cola’s attitude towards the change, which they said would “make the brand subordinate.” Typical, I said to myself. Who would expect a company unconcerned with the rights of its workers (I watch a lot of Dispatches) to care about the health of its consumers?

What use is this change when people don't care?

However, I then found some mockups of the labels that will need to be used if this legislation is implemented. Coca Cola are right when they say that these new methods simply aren’t viable. Not only are the labels confusing and, frankly, unrecognisable but, in some instances, require extra packaging. For example, Nestle produced an illustration of the changes which they would have to make on their

JAMIE OLIVER: See? Vegetables aren't so scary packaging. The result is almost twice which will cause health problems. We the height of the original label. It just are aware that eating too many calodoesn’t seem justifiable to me to in- ries, without any exercise, will cause crease waste – already a problem – for us to gain weight. It really isn’t a difficult concept. the sake of slightly befuddling label.

Those who do want to look at the The reason for the change to the presentation of the nutritional infor- labels – to find out, for example, what mation is to allow people to be more percentage of the day’s calories are in aware of the content of the food that it – will do that anyway. Those who are they are eating. It is meant to show not interested in whether something is more clearly the daily allowances – of good for them will not be enticed by a calories, of sugar and of fat. It is meant slightly larger font. It is easy to simply to help consumers to choose wisely look for the familiar brand, regardless with consideration to the healthiness of a label shouting “THIS IS UNof their diets when shopping. ‘Meant’ HEALTHY. BUT DON’T WORRY, YOU TRUST US.” is the key word here.

This is the crux of the matter: what Everyone knows that – taking healthy eating to its simplest form – use is this change when people just they need to eat fruit and vegetables; don’t care? How do you actually make they know that failing to eat these will people care?

So many people are disparaging probably result in vitamin deficiencies

of the work that Jamie Oliver does to bring healthy food to the forefront of the public conscious. Jamie’s School Dinners, Jamie’s Return to School Dinners, Jamie’s Ministry of Food – all of these have received criticism.

Channel 4 received complaints that Jamie was too aggressive in his method; he is particularly criticised for his swearing when working with families.

Yet surely this just shows the strength of passion behind his programmes?

People also complain about his right to tell people how to feed their children.

“Who is he to tell us what to cook,” they ask, “when he has the money to buy pure, good food?”

The truth of the matter is, though, that a certain amount of unwillingness to cook that kind of food is laziness.

Oh, I know that people say “We don’t have the money”, “We don’t have the food” but, really, vegetables are incredibly cheap – especially if you buy them locally. And why wouldn’t you, when it is better for both your pocket and your planet?

The new labels are confusing and unrecognisable Stir-fries (that staple of all of our student diets): rice, vegetables and, if you want it, a bit of meat. Just the easiest thing to cook, and so cheap if you buy fresh vegetables.

So, here we come to a problem.

People just don’t care. People don’t want to be told that they are slowly

poisoning their children. And what good is a bit of writing, already easy to see, going to do to change this? To be honest, I think that all the initiatives that have come from the Government can be topped by Jamie Oliver’s drive and passion for good, healthy food.

Everyone knows that they need to eat fruit and veg After all, how can you trust a government that brings back school lunches with great fanfare because a celebrity chef has humiliated them into doing it, when only a few years before they systematically shut down school kitchens?

When I was in primary school our lunch lady, Beryl, was possibly the loveliest woman in the world. She worked incredibly hard to get our lunches out to us and they were always well-made, traditional meals.

If we didn’t eat vegetables, we didn’t get pudding. And she knew us, so it was definitely a threat that was carried out. And do you know what?

We really didn’t mind that, because we were used to vegetables: we understood their importance, we wanted them.

Wow, so, to bring this back to the point, the new legislation is really rather useless because attitudes towards nutritional information need to change before we try to force it upon people. That, and, leave poor Jamie alone!

Election Maintenance Allowance?

Matthew Foster weighs up efficacy of the EMA bonus scheme

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tudents from lower income households blatantly have no desire to learn. If your parents earn less than £30K a year, you need bribes to get you into the classroom. What else is going to tear you away from getting wasted on street corners with your hood up robbing old ladies?

Err, maybe that thing called a brain some us have? Throwing money at us, however, is the Government’s current plan. With no ulterior motive, honest.

Well, now the Liberal Democrats have (finally) condemned the bonuses paid out by the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) scheme for those students who attend all exams and classes, costing the country £100 million a year. These bonuses, by the way, are on top of the up to £30 a

week.

Now, I have absolutely no problem with the EMA. In fact, I fully support it, as I received £30 a week myself in sixth form. And, as shocking as it is to some, I actually did need this money to get to and from school. No, it isn’t just to do more shopping with – some people use it as it was once intended, so let’s get that one out of the way.

Of course, only lower income households need this incentive A recent poll shows I am not some freak on this one either, as 61% of students receiving EMA said that they

wouldn’t be able to carry on at college without it. I am not for one moment suggesting this statistic is entirely accurate, but I am convinced that at least half of those asked told the truth. This said, I do confess that the ridiculous £100 bonuses received twice a year just for turning up to my exams were spent in TopMan and River Island.

What else were they for?

The Government claims they are an ‘incentive to achieve’ and are there to safeguard the ‘contract between the learner and the learning provider’. Of course, only lower income households need this incentive. Teenagers with wealthy parents incentivise themselves, right?

Well, not necessarily, and finally the Liberal Democrats have spoken out about it. Which is surprising re-

ally, as I didn’t think Nick Clegg had much to say at all. Don’t panic, though – the world hasn’t gone completely topsy-turvy: the critique came from his Children, Schools and Families Spokesman David Laws. Phew.

As shocking as it is to some, I did need this money to get to school The extra money could be used to "make a real difference" in other areas, he said, such as closing the funding gap between schools and colleges. £100 million a year could definitely go some way towards stopping the postcode lottery we are all so sick of

hearing about.

It just seems the Labour Government has lost sight of why the EMA was ever introduced and are now using it for something else. Originally, it was meant to ensure that students weren’t kept from higher education by financial constraints.

In the last four years, however, the bonuses thrown out on students on top of the essential money have increased from £44.9 million to over £100 million. Shockingly, this is in line with the Government’s ever decreasing popularity over that time.

But no, throwing money at teenagers who will soon be able to vote is not buying votes. It is an incentive to learn. It has nothing to do with regaining Labour’s traditional working class voters. Honest, miss.

OPINION 11

NOVEMBER.17.2008 OPINION@gairrhydd.COM

Just kidding

Alex Evans wishes people would get the joke

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re jokes about prostitutes funny? In particular, jokes about murdering prostitutes? It’s tempting to reply with a resounding 'no, you sick tool', but I genuinely think it is possible.

Almost anything can be funny in my book – although I acknowledge that the flipside is that almost anything can be offensive.

But why does the coin always fall the wrong way?

I am referring to a remark on a recent episode of Top Gear. During a stint which involved driving a lorry, spokesman and symbol of political correctness Jeremy Clarkson came out with: “this is a hard job... change gear, change gear, change gear, check mirror, murder a prostitute, change gear, change gear, murder. That's a lot of effort in a day.” No doubt he was referring to the Suffolk Strangler, the truck driver who murdered five prostitutes in 2006. Was this funny, flippant or flagrantly offensive?

Humour has been turned into a byword for offence Well, there are many threats to society these days: terrorism; global economic implosion; the fact that October was really, really cold. But

the worst, in my eyes, is political correctness. It is something that the media has picked up on many times, but something which is so undeniably relevant here. I happen to believe that Clarkson was, as always, hilarious.

I'm not a truck driver, nor a prostitute, I hasten to add. But the worrying thing is not that those groups could be offended, but that this joke could cause offence at all.

It is not possible to live life without being offended I realise I probably seem a little deluded at this point. It certainly was risqué, and Clarkson was pushing his luck, even by his usual standards. But it was funny, damn it. Even if you didn't find any humour in it whatsoever, you could, it must be hoped, at least see that it was just a joke. The biggest problem with British society today is that no one knows how to laugh, or what a joke is. We're all so quick to label people like Clarkson as inflammatory, inciting hatred and downright offensive. How did this happen? When did people forget how to take a joke? Has the legendary British humour packed up and left?

The heart of the problem lies in the institutions of modern Britain. I know

that the sense of humour of the British people still exists; it runs through every pub and club piss-up, every bit of matey ribbing and digging made at the expense of one another when people get together. I'm willing to bet that there were far more who found Clarky and co. funny than offensive. After all, Top Gear manages a cool eight million viewers on a good week. However, it is the rampant bureaucracy, the ridiculous censorship culture which has been pushed upon us by a twitchy and overly-sensitive Labour government, and the excessive and exhaustive hyperbole with which the media exacerbates the problem constraining humour and turning it into something it's not: a byword for offence.

We're too quick to label people as inflammatory and simply offensive It is not possible to live life without being offended. It is not possible for any broadcaster, even the BBC by that old fashioned notion of 'serving the public', to remove the potential for offence from every broadcast. If it was, we'd all be watching Pixar films on a constant loop. Laughter though, softens the blow. Not everyone will

find everything funny, and some people will be offended. Tough. They shouldn't spoil it for the rest of us. The next time Top Gear, Coronation Street, or perhaps even Radio 2 targets me as a lazy, over-boozed student, I might be offended. But everyone else will laugh – that’s the nature of humour

CLARKSON: the future of comedy? itself. And that's how it should be.

So let's stop focusing on the small minorities of people who spoil the fun, and learn to laugh again. When Jeremy Clarkson becomes Prime Minister and hunts down all bureaucrats, I'm certain things will change.

Relax. That last bit was a joke.

A plea for change

Some lawsuits leave Paul Stollery baffled, angry and a bit afraid

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omeone tried to sue God. They actually tried to sue God. No, I'm not on about the terrible film starring the annoying Scottish guy with the stupid beard. Recently a judge threw a case out of the courts against God. It has surfaced that last year a man filed a lawsuit against the Almighty One, who stood accused of causing ‘widespread death, destruction and terrorisation of millions upon millions of the Earth's inhabitants’.

These lawsuits waste large amounts of money No points for guessing where this one took place – God Bless America indeed. However, the slightly more alarming fact is who filed the case: Senator Ernie Chambers. Everything’s fine, no wars or crises today, what should I do? Hmmm, I'll sue God. And the reasoning behind this completely and utterly frivolous lawsuit?

He wanted to prove a point... about frivolous lawsuits.

The Nebraska State Senator said that there were far to many lawsuits being filed that shouldn't make it anywhere near the courtroom nowadays,

so being the responsible politician he is, he decided to file one himself. In the process of doing so, he wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal costs, mostly picked up by the American taxpayer, who I'm guessing will in term file their own case against the Senator, to reclaim their money (the circle of life, it appears).

He also wanted to prove that America is indeed still the land of the free, and therefore the courts doors are open to anyone: "Thus, anybody can file a lawsuit against anybody -- even God," Chambers proudly stated as if he had

just discovered the theory of relativity.

Well done Ernie, well done.

Upon reading this I immediately Googled 'man sues god', in the hope of finding a few interesting facts for this oh-so-fantastic article. Naturally I saw the IMDB page for the 'comedy' (that ironically got sued itself), but I also stumbled across another interesting article, apparently God has been served before. A Romanian prisoner who went by the name of 'Pavel M' also attempted to sue God, for 'failing to save him from the devil'. I admit, my faith is wavering due to the fact

that these guys aren't crackling yet.

In 1995, a man sued himself This got me thinking that this must be the most blatant disregard for the legal system, and also the biggest waste of time in the system’s history.

But apparently I was wrong.

In 2005, the Music Association of America sued Gertude Walton for downloading music from Limewire (who on earth would have the audacity

GOD: did not comment on the case

to do that?). Sounds normal enough, but there was just one problem: Gertude died twelve months before the case was even filed. That's right, they sued a dead woman.

In 2000, Cleanthi Peters sued Universal Studios as she had suffered extreme fear, mental anguish and emotional distress in the Halloween Horror Nights. She sued because the haunted house was too scary (wahmbulance for Cleanthi).

In 1995, and this is my personal favourite, Robert Lee Brock sued himself. He was in prison at the time and had no money or income for the foreseeable future, so any successful lawsuit would be paid by the state.

Genius if you ask me.

Back to the original point; stop suing everyone. We've all seen the adverts with 'real people and real cases' (they're not real people, just very ugly actors). Simple fact is if you're a professional electrician, you should know what ladder to use. If you're that fat, don't wear high heels. If you're that stupid, don't leave the house.

In my opinion, the gene pool needs cleaning somewhat, so let the idiots do as they will. The world will be a far better place.

12 COLUMNIST

NOVEMBER.17.2008 OPINION@gairrhydd.COM

Media's moral guardian?

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’m going to come right out and say it – I actually quite like the News of the World. I fully accept that in having admitted this, I have relinquished all claims to journalistic integrity, but there you go. We all have our crosses to bear. I love the tacky headlines, the gaudy pictures, the sexual outrage. What I love most of all is the fundamental hypocrisy of it all.

Is it just me? It can’t be. I fail to see how anybody can fail to be amused by a kiss-and-tell exposé told out in a slightly scandalised fashion, framed by photos of the less-than-discreet participants in their sexiest undergarments. Oh, and let’s not forget those essential vital statistics of the lovely ladies, either. Frankly, it’s bloody fantastic – as cheap thrills go, it’s up there in the bargain bin.

When does something trangress from private to public?

It’s also not something that you can take too seriously. If you’re looking to the News of the World for your moral compass, you’re so far off course that you may as well be on Pluto. It’s not a morality pamphlet – more like sex, sleaze and sensationalism – it’s light entertainment at best.

To be honest, though, I’m really not convinced that to serve as a moral benchmark should be a function of the media in general, anyway. Just one of

I

like getting drunk. Does this make me a bad person? Personally I don’t think so, seeing as I’m generally a well-behaved inebriate – I’ve never got into a fight and never trashed anything apart from my own bedroom. Hell, I’ve not even been thrown out of a bar.

Unfortunately, while I’m confident that I’m not a bad person as a result of my friendship with the wine bottle, I’m afraid that soon I’ll be a poor per-

the truth when he claimed that there was no Nazi element to the proceedings, especially as this was the legal outcome of his court case, thus meaning that the charge against him is that of participating in an S&M orgy.

The Daily Mail is of course the last bastion of objectivity

PAUL DACRE: he sends my moral compass haywire the points on which Paul Dacre and I would beg to differ.

The editor of the Daily Mail has lashed out at Mr Justice Eady, the High Court judge who, in July, ruled in favour of Max Mosley in his lawsuit against the News of the World over those infamous ‘Nazi orgy’ allegations. Apparently Eady has a “subjective and highly relativist moral sense”.

Ah yes, the Daily Mail is of course the last bastion of objectiveness – I’d forgotten about that, obviously.

Aren’t morals, by and large, a subjective matter anyway, though? Okay, killing people is bad – that’s probably

!"#$"% son. A committee of Home Affairs MPs is calling for a ban on the sale of cheap alcohol – bye bye, happy hour; au revoir, drinks offers. Talk about spoiling the party.

On one hand, I can see that drinking does unleash the antisocial, Hydelike beast in some people, and that raising alcohol prices could help to combat that – I can use my head and follow reason to that conclusion. On the other hand, though, it seems a bit like punishing everyone for the ac-

about as close to objective as you’ll get when it comes to morals – but what about animals? Some people think it’s morally wrong to kill animals for food. I, however, think that they just taste quite nice. So we’ve got a difference of opinion there when it comes to morals. Oh dear.

Dacre feels that the media has a duty to "take an ethical stand”. What an admirable view: somebody give the man a badge. Taking an ethical stand is problematic, though, because there will always be the question of where to draw the line. I’m going to assume here that Mosley was telling

)*,

So, if S&M orgies in which all participants are fully consenting are ethically a Bad Thing, what about normal orgies? Or one-on-one S&M sessions? Are these both morally suspect in their own right, or is it only when the two combine that we should sharpen our pointy sticks and enlist in the angry mob?

Dacre believes that “acceptable standards of social behaviour” ought to be reflected in the media, but when does something transgress from being a personal, private matter and become something deserving of being thrown out into the open to invite disapproval from the general public? It’s enough to make me glad I’m not famous – it’s a sexual minefield out there.

What I find most worrying about Dacre’s views, though, is his assertion that the “wretched Human Rights Act” (his words, not mine) significantly diminishes the freedom of the press.

The wretched Human Rights Act? Oh, you mean that thing which says about how you’ve got the right not to be tortured or punished for things you

didn’t do? Yes, far less important than free press, I agree – it would be ridiculous to suggest otherwise, wouldn’t it?

Dacre’s not just the editor of the Daily Mail – he’s also editor-in-chief of the Mail on Sunday. I know it might be a struggle to recall this, but please do try – which big controversy did the Mail on Sunday stir up recently?

That’s right: the whole loathsomely over-covered Brand and Ross furore.

I’d love for somebody could explain the logic of this to me – it’s shocking of Russell Brand to have talked about having slept with Georgina Baillie when it actually happened, but it’s fine for a Sunday paper to make Nazi allegations about Max Mosley’s sex life?

Aren't morals a subjective matter anyway?

Goodness me, I’m all confused now. Maybe Dacre needs his moral compass realigned, or maybe it’s just that his view on the difference in the situations is, well, subjective.

No matter how Dacre sees it, newspapers don’t exist to tell you how to live your life. If you’re soul-searching for a solution to a moral dilemma, I can tell you for free that you’re not going to find it in the News of the World – or the Daily Mail, for that matter.

You won’t even find it in gair rhydd – 'Moral Compass' wasn't something we were running the last time I checked.

What an amazing name for a section, though.

&'(()'*+

tions of a select band. It’s sort of like the adult version of having to attend

a class detention because the naughty kids were playing up, whereas you were just sat there, quietly getting on with your work.

Torquay police have actually implemented a scheme that I quite like (God, it really does pain me to say something positive about the place): drunk people caught urinating in public are given the choice to either clean it up themselves, or get arrested.

Okay, so it’s not going to help violent crime, but it’s at least a small-scale so-

lution to one small part of the problem of drunken misbehaviour. Plus, I like the idea of instant karma it entails.

Tarring everyone who likes to drink with the same brush just isn’t fair. I’m fully aware of how childish it is to denounce something in such a fashion (as my dad would say: “life seldom is”) but it’s true. Can you imagine how vile Solus would seem without the romantically softened edge that a few drinks can provide? No, neither can I.

POLITICS 13

NOVEMBER.17.2008 POLITICS@gairrhydd.COM

Labour bounce back to win Glenrothes

Rachelle Simons analyses the latest by-election in Glenrothes and what it means for the Labour party

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fter epic speeches, voting queues and bulletproof glass across the Atlantic; the focus now turns to a town in central east Scotland. Glenrothes, a former mining town which has been a Labour safe seat for 60 years. So why has retaining this seat become such a victory? With the Labour candidate grabbing 55% of the vote, Glenrothes provided a much need boost to a demoralised party.

The by-election victory functions as a vote of confidence in Labour. The victory puts out a positive message to voters: that Labour are not finished yet. However, as the issues debated were local, the victory may not stand national scrutiny. Significantly, this by-election has come as a surprise, with bookmakers and politicians alike predicting a victory for the Scottish National Party (SNP). Thge party's

First Minister Alex Salmond, who visited Glenrothes 13 times and co-opted Obama’s slogan ‘Yes We Can!’, has since been accused of complacency.

Tricia Marwick, the SNP member of Scottish Parliament said: ‘I saw people coming out to vote for Labour who haven't voted for 20 years. I need to

The by-election functions as a vote of confidence in Labour think about that’.

The by-election looks like it might end the upswing of the SNP. The Scottish National Party usually draws a swing of 10% over Labour, with the

biggest swing in the last election in Glasgow East being 22%. In Glenrothes the Labour party managed to curb the swing to 4.96%. In Scotland the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives are merely fringe parties, with the Conservatives earning just 7% of the vote. It has been gleefully pointed out that if the SNP had achieved their objective of an independent Scotland, the bailing out of HBOS would not have been possible.

Labour’s elected candidate, Lindsay Roy, has been a major factor in the success of Glenrothes. As the local school principal he commanded respect in the constituency where one voter stated, “most have been taught by him”. Also described as “exceptionally strong and dynamic”, he has represented Scotland in international teaching conventions. Having never planned to be a politician, he seems uncomfortable when grilled on policy

positions, but seems to tow the patriotic party line on Brown: “With Gordon Brown, Britain is strong. With Gordon Brown, Labour has won here in Glenrothes and central Fife”.

The campaigning has been successful in other ways. Both Gordon and Sarah Brown have made visits to Glenrothes to join in the campaign from their adjoining constituency.

Sarah Brown has been somewhat controversially hailed as ‘winning Glenrothes’.

Additionally, Prescott and a group of Labour Students buoyed by Political Weekend in Sheffield have joined the campaign. It has been suggested that the win has been on account of Gordon Brown’s recent upsurge following the international respect he has gathered for his handling of the credit crunch. A Guardian vox pop suggested that in fact it had less to do with issues in Westminister than the issue

of the care homes in Glenrothes. Labour have claimed that under the SNP, rates have been raised from £4 a day to £11 an hour, yet the SNP insist this is voluntary and paid by only 10% of the local population.

Britain "can't wait" for ID cards

As the Government persist with the condemned ID card scheme, Jacqui Smith claims that many Brits "can't wait" for the cards. Emma McFarnon reports

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pparently, Britain “can’t wait” for ID Cards to come into force. The Home Secretary Jacqui Smith recently announced that although the cards won’t be available to everyone until 2012, people have been telling her that they can’t wait that long.

In response to this “public demand”, plans for the ID cards have been amended to allow people to pre-register for an ID card within the next few months.

This is a frightening development when we consider the potentially catastrophic impact of the National Identity Scheme (NIS), not to mention its under-developed and un-tested technology. The scheme has been met with a barrage of opposition since proposals for the card came in May 2005.

in any part of the system could quite easily deny a person access to their rights, rendering them an “un-person” in the eyes of the NIS. Criminals will always find a way round the ID cards.

It's been routinely proven that the government cannot be trusted with our personal information, why should we believe things have changed?

So in light of this, how do ID cards reflect on the government? We could argue that Jacqui Smith is just downright stupid. Phil Booth, national coordinator of the NO2ID campaign points out that in claiming that people want I.D cards, “she must be ignoring twice the number of people who are coming up to her and saying 'I don't want my details on any database whatsoever'”.

What’s more concerning however, is the emergence of what critics deem

The NO2ID campaign has accused the system of “stalking”. The government’s proposal to log all our personal data in up to 50 categories of information about ourselves has sparked great controversy. Similarly, the use of biometrics has been criticised for being fatally flawed. With fingerprint recognition working for just 81% of a tested quota group, and facial recognition being successful just 69% of the time, the technology which the Home Office has hailed to be “truly effective and secure” is nowhere near accurate enough.

‘So what’s the point of them?’ I hear you ask. Well, the government tells us that these magic little cards will help tackle problems such as terrorism, identity theft, illegal immigration and benefit fraud. However, a failure

a 'database state': a government attempting to watch and manage society through the use of computers. Are we moving towards Orwell’s 1984? The NO2ID coordinator seems to think so: “were an individual to spy on you like this, it would be called stalking. It is a crime”.

I don’t know about you, but this is giving me the heebie-jeebies. Is our government seriously endorsing a database that records our religious beliefs and details of our financial and medical history "just in case" we ever become of interest to the authorities?

Apparently so, and it will cost us a predicted £5.1 billion over the next ten years. I can’t be the only one who wants to tell them: "less liberty does not imply greater security”.

Rifts emerge in Parti Socialiste

Olivier Poncelet considers the disarray of the French left wing party

D

ue to inner divisions, the major left wing French political party, the Parti Socialiste (PS) is experiencing a major crisis. The congress that starts on the 14th of November in Reims is supposed to unite the party and put it back on track in preparation for the next presidential election.

New leaders of the PS will be elected during the congress. Party members voted last Thursday over six motions to find out what issues were thought to be most important. Finally, the motion led by Ségolène Royal - the former candidate to the presidency - won, but only with 29% of the vote, highlight-

ing the deep divisions that have been tearing the PS apart since the end of the presidency of Mitterrand in 1995.

Mitterand remains the only left wing president.

Having hoped to find a leader in Lionel Jospin, the socialists suffered a major defeat in 2002 when they didn’t even manage to reach the second round of voting, letting Jean-Marie Le Pen (who belongs to the far right party “le Front National”), compete against Jacques Chirac. These conflicts have prevented the party from renewing its ideas and from proving itself capable of seizing power on a national scale.

The failure of Ségolène Royal in 2007

is partly due to these divisions, since she had no back-up from her own party. Instead of gathering everyone to find out where they had failed, the main leaders of the party kept seeking a way to undermine the others, leaving Nicolas Sarkozy without any opposition.

Despite the need to modernise, a handful of people have ‘clogged up’ the party. They have been dubbed the 'elephants' and have been accused of creating a ‘glass ceiling’, which has prevented any newcomers within the party bringing forward new ideas.

This has led the party to become an empty shell. François Hollande has

been the head of the party for ten years, remaining in the post despite the defeat of 2002, and the conflicts caused by the referendum over the European constitution in 2005.

The dysfunctions within the party cannot simply be explained by the conflicts between socialist leaders.

Structurally, a major problem of the party resides in the fact that it does not know how to behave when it comes into contact with power and authority.

Being an heir of trade unionism and revolutionary ideology, the party has never really acknowledged the fact that it has now become a governmental party. Moreover, it is continually

reluctant to admit that the economy has changed, and some of its leaders still do not know what to think of the ‘free market’.

The current crisis is a major one for the PS. Ségolène Royal will surely become the head of the party, but it hardly seems possible that she can find a way to unite the party around her, and renew its thoughts before the next presidential election. Whilst Sarkozy is surely pleased to witness the PS falling apart, the French Republic is suffering.

LETTERS 15

NOVEMBER.17.2008 LETTERS@gairrhydd.COM

letters@gairrhydd.com Poppy Day Forgotten?

Walking to and from lectures today, (11/11/08 - ring any bells to anyone?) I was actually amazed and slightly disgusted at the number of students wearing a poppy. I counted about 4 (including myself) and I must have passed a few hundred people.

I know Remembrance Sunday was on the 9th, but Remembrance Day is on 11/11 and always has been, always will be. It's hard to miss anyone that watches the news, weather, X-factor etc. will have seen people brandishing the little red poppies - surely you must remember why? I know I wasn't the only one who had to sit through the annual

the

'lest-we-forget' assemblies at school, and yet the amount of people choosing to support this cause actually saddens me.

However, the University should also take some shame. The only place I saw poppies for sale in a university building was at the SU (even then it was only at the entrance, not in the shop). Having said that I admit I have not been to every university building in the past week, but I noted their absence in all that I have attended, including Bute, Glamorgan, Law and Optometry.

Now I know this letter may set off a big debate about supporting war etc, but I do not support war. Poppies are not to support wars, they are to support the service men and women who have fought and DIED for this

country - that's right, sacrificed themselves, many from different religions, races and walks of life, many younger than ourselves, so why is it that many of us can't even sacrifice as little as 10p and the 20 seconds it takes to put a poppy on a coat to show support? Yes, the First World War was now 90 years ago so it wasn't our grandfathers but our great-grandfathers who fought, hell it wasn't even my great grandfathers (my roots lie in another country completely). Poppies are to remember those that have died in all conflicts serving their country including both Gulf Wars. Like it or not we must realise that these conflicts have shaped this country into what it is today (for better or worse). Lest we forget? Looks like

we already have...

Nicola Szostek Third Year student

Bio-hazards I hate to get repetitive, and I know this subject has been debated endlessly, but just why is it that Bioscience students seem to get the raw end of the deal at this university, especially when compared to Humanities students?

This is mainly a complaint about our facilities. I know that Humanities students have to have lectures all over the place, and that really has to be hard for the poor little mites, but at

Comments from the week’s news, opinion, features and sport at www.gairrhydd.com Students Need Jobs Thomas Carroll ------One student who took part in the survey said: “It’s going to change everything. I was planning on taking my time to get a job and I’ll have to take whatever job is available.”

I’d love to know how this person was planning on surviving without a job (even, god forbid, a part time restaurant job). If they were planning to rely on either overdrafts, the dole or the Bank of Daddy then perhaps this is the slap of reality they needed.

Welsh Words In Wales Julia Tucoulat ------I don’t agree at all with Isaac and was truly impressed by Gair Rhydd’s answer. I am French and am currently doing my full degree in Cardiff Uni. I, personally, do think that, as I’m living in Wales, it is normal that a page of the

University newspaper is written in Welsh and not translated.

In fact I would have expected the newspaper to contain more Welsh articles as we are studying in the capital of Wales. However, I find things great the way they are. I’m not saying that Isaac’s idea of translating it is silly but it would probably (as gair rhydd answered) lead to people considering that Welsh is not a real language. I think that it is our duty to make the effort of learning Welsh if we want to understand it. After all, there’s just one page written in Welsh. It should probably be the other way round; Welsh people could complain about the newspaper being mainly written in English. And, as a matter of fact, they don’t.

Anyway, this is my opinion, I perfectly understood what Isaac meant and that his letter wasn’t directed against the Welsh culture and traditions…

Canuck Says White Men Get All The Luck

Thomas Carroll ------To answer your first question, the main reason that every PM and party leader has been a white Christian is because the UK is predominantly white and Christian, as are the members of the political parties. No surprise then that the leaders that emerge are of the same ethnic background.

Furthermore, it’s unlikely that the PM will ever be non-British, thus largely ruling out the idea of a non-white, non-Christian before large scale immigration began. But that’s irrelevant because there is no reason (other than being a racist) that you should ever think a white PM is somehow better/worse than an ethnic one. You need to get your priorities right if you think a politician's skin colour is more important than his or her policies and abilities.

I’ll agree that most of the top 25 corporations are mainly run by men but why does that really matter?

My life won’t be in anyway differ-

least they don't have to cram into a lecture theatre at the museum, or use desks that flip down for each individual seat and like to take the fingers off unsuspecting students.

It makes me laugh when I walk past the Main Building, that nice big white thing that they put on all the prospectuses. 'Cardiff School of Biosciences', it says on one door – I have never had a lecture in there.

Instead, we're stuck in the building that looks like a concrete block straight out of the 1960s.

I'm not going to start on the prices in our café, or the staff who are so disinterested you may as well be punching them in the face.

Rebecca Robinson Second Year Biosciences

forum

ent if it’s 25 men, 25 women or an even mix taking home more profit than they can handle. Will you sleep better knowing that a tiny handful of women are running a few companies instead of men?

As for positive racism/sexism, first of all you talk about how it’s the Christians who've had all the advantages in Britain, totally ignoring how Catholics in the UK were treated like dogs up until recently. Now, if I walk into a job interview and announce that my ancestors were discriminated against by the white Protestant majority and demand a job, I don’t think I’ll get very far. And rightly so.

“Making it out as if you, a member of the majority, are the victim, is just plain wrong.”

If I ever find out I didn’t get a job because of the colour of my skin/gender/nationality then I am a victim of discrimination. Plain and simple. You can sugar coat it all you want, but it’s no different from a white person getting a job only because the other candidate was black.

Finally, A Brit on Pole Mig31 ------Alonso faded??? He’s the driver that scored most points since Spa!!! He’s proved he really is responsible for major performance gains wherever he goes.

And Raikkonen; if he gets the car the way he wants it next year with slick tyres - we’ll see if he’s faded!

Sports Mania Jez ------To be honest, I'm glad no money is spent on sports.

I don't care about sports, and how many people at this uni actually do sports for their degree? You can get enough exercise walking around the city rather than wasting money on a taxi or bus, and the uni's money can go towards the societies that a far larger portion of students participate in.

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16 FEATURES

NOVEMBER.17.2008 FEATURES@gairrhydd.COM

Transplants Transform What other charities say about presumed consent...

The British Heart Foundation Cymru

“We welcome the opportunity to actively support the Donate Wales – Tell a Loved One campaign. The BHF is the UK’s leading heart charity, fighting to eradicate early death from heart and circulatory disease – Wales’ biggest killer.

Heart transplants offer the best chance of long term survival for critically ill heart failure patients.

Unfortunately there is a shortage of donor hearts for use in transplantations. As the nation’s heart charity, BHF has a role to play in increasing the rate of organ donation to make sure that those patients requiring new hearts have the best possible chance of survival."

British Medical Association

“Each year in Welsh hospitals, doctors see people die waiting for an organ transplant. Yet surveys show that the majority of the public support organ donation. We need to square the circle. BMA Cymru Wales gives its full support to the Donate Wales – Tell a Loved One campaign to raise the number of people on the Organ Donor Register."

Welsh Kidney Patients’ Association

“We wholeheartedly support and welcome this campaign, launched by the Kidney Wales Foundation, to raise organ donation awareness in Wales. We have 2,200 members across Wales. Approximately 400 of those are awaiting a kidney transplant. The WKPA is sure that the campaign will highlight the acute shortage of organs and the need for people to tell their loved ones that they have joined the Organ Donor Register.”

Live Life Then Give Life

“We are proud to be a supporting member of the new Welsh organ donation awareness campaign.

Each of us has the ability to save lives in the future, but only if we do something about it today. We are urging all of the Welsh public to get behind this campaign by signing up to the Organ Donor Register and telling their loved ones of their wish to give the greatest gift of all – the gift of life.”

Diabetes UK

“Transplant treatments have been shown to be effective for a number of people with diabetes who are struggling with their condition.

Diabetes UK would encourage everyone to join the organ donor register and to let their relatives know.”

The British Liver Trust

“We wholeheartedly support the Donate Wales – Tell a Loved One campaign. We would like to urge everyone to sign up to the Organ Donor Register. There are currently more than 300 people waiting for a liver transplant in the UK. The number of patients on the liver transplant list has increased by 58% since 1998, and last year almost 100 people died while waiting to receive a liver transplant. Donating an organ is the greatest gift you could ever give someone so sign up today.”

To join, or for more information on Cardiff University’s campus campaign team: E-mail: leni@donatewales.org Visit: donatewales.org Text 'GIVE' to 64118

gair rhydd speaks to Cardiff medic, Allis

breaking four organ transplants...

I

'm now 30 years old and I was born with Cystic Fibrosis.

The main problem with Cystic Fibrosis is that it causes progressive damage to the lungs.

However, about 10% get liver disease too, and unfortunately I was one of them. By the time I was 15 my liver was cirrhosed and I needed a liver transplant.

I sat 11 GCSEs while at the same time waiting 18 months for the call to say that there was finally a liver available for me. I found out after the operation that if the organ hadn’t become available when it did, I would have had between 3 days and 3 weeks left to live.

I was told I would have had between 3 days and 3 weeks to live The liver transplant was a success but the general anaesthesia during the lengthy operation had done further damage to my lungs. Two years after the initial liver transplant, I received a new heart and a new pair of lungs. As my original heart was unharmed, I was able to donate my heart to someone else who needed it for a Domino transplant.

Having recovered, I returned to University to finish my first degree in Neuroscience at Cardiff University, graduating with a 2:1 with honours. I then went on to study Medicine at Cardiff University, School of Medicine. About half way through my fourth year I had to leave due to kidney failure and had to start haemodialysis three times a week.

I was on dialysis for fifteen months before receiving a kidney donated by my father in December 2006. They initially refused to offer me a kidney transplant, regarding it as too risky for me to have a general anaesthetic, as it would have meant a lifetime of dialysis. I had to give up my medical studies, as I was too ill.

After six months of persuasion the doctors agreed to my suggestion of having the kidney transplant under a spinal/epidural anaesthesia which meant I would be awake whilst they inserted the new kidney. I chatted away and listened to my iPod during the operation! Going against doctors' advice was a big risk, but life is all about risks. Thankfully, it was a success and I was out of hospital in three days.

After the transplant I became more and more involved with the charity Kidney Wales Foundation, before eventually becoming an ambassador for the charity. I led a successful campaign last year for five months called the 'People Like Us' campaign run by Kidney Wales.

The campaign had four key aims,

one being very close to my heart – to increase the number of people on the organ donor register and introduce legislation for presumed consent.

The campaign secured a £100,000 grant from the Welsh Assembly Goverment to promote and increase awareness of Organ Donation. Using this funding, the Tell a Loved One campaign was set up.

In September this year, I resumed my medical studies at Cardiff University. I've been back for almost three months now and I’m really enjoying it. I'm still very passionate about organ donation – without those families making that difficult decision of donating their loved ones' organs and people making the effort to register as an organ donor, I wouldn't be here today.

After my transplant, I found out that my liver came from an eleven year-old girl who died horse-riding and helped to save seven people by donating her organs. I wrote a letter of thanks to the family after the operation, expressing my gratitude and explaining that the liver meant that I was able to return to University and live my life.

About a year later I received a letter from the family explaining that it had helped them so much to know that those who had received the organs now had a future because of their little girl. They also said that it had confirmed that they'd made the right decision by donating her organs.

I also keep in touch with the gentleman who has my heart. He's doing well and my family and I have been to stay with him and his family twice and they've also visited me here in Wales.

I would advise anyone who’s currently waiting for an organ transplant to always remain positive and focused. It's easy to lose hope but I’m a firm believer in positive thinking.

It's worked for me anyhow. Waiting for a transplant is hard; those waiting for a kidney can at least take solace in the thought that they can have renal replacement therapy or dialysis until a suitable kidney is found. With a heart, lungs or a liver, there is an automatic time limit imposed on your life.

I chatted away and listened to my iPod during my kidney transplant!

I've lost many friends on the waiting list for a transplant and losing them was awful. I remember whenever the phone went late at night or in the middle of the night I'd always get my hopes up that an organ was available. When you can see your time is running out, you become so desperate that you start hoping around Christ-

mas, Easter or bank holidays that this could be your chance, as there's often more accidents around that time. Unfortunately someone has to die before you get that chance of a transplant, except for live donation which is only performed with kidneys.

You become so desperate that you start hoping around Christmas as there's more accidents I've always been an ambitious person and have succeeded at most things I've wanted to do, even if some of them took longer to accomplish than it would have for people without Cystic Fibrosis. Having gone through so much, I'm probably a stronger, more determined person and I also think I'm more focused upon achieving what I want out of life.

I've recently just come back from London after winning Cosmopolitan magazine's Ultimate Survivor award, which was presented to me by Vernon Kay. Looking on the positive side, I would never have had that opportunity to meet him without going through all my transplants!

I think that organ donation is something which hasn’t directly affected most people, neither do they know anyone who’s waiting for or has received a transplant. This results in the majority of the public being unaware of the severity of the situation. When asked, nearly 90% of Wales claimed to support organ donation yet only 27% are on the Organ Donor Register.

We all live busy lives and it is something many haven't got round to doing or haven't thought about. That’s why its so important to raise awareness of the issue through real life stories on TV, radio and newspapers highlighting the positive effects that a transplant has and the dramatic change it can have on a person's life and their family. What people don't realise is just how likely they are to need a donated organ at some point in their lives, whether it be a kidney or a heart.

After months of listening to evidence from different groups, much deliberation and trips to Spain, the Assembly’s Health, Well-being and Local Government committee recently rejected the idea of presumed consent. The committee decided that switching the rules around would be a “distraction” from efforts to encourage more people to sign up.

Its report also suggested that public opinion was not ready to make the switch. It’s about time that we saw

FEATURES 17

NOVEMBER.17.2008 FEATURES@gairrhydd.COM

The 'tiredness ming Lives disease' son John, about her record- Emma McFarnon investigates the frequently misunderstood illness, ME

M

yalgic Encephalopathy, or Chronic Fatigue syndrome as it’s more commonly known, affects more than 250,000 people in Britain alone.

The neurological disorder causes severe and debilitating fatigue, disordered sleep, painful muscles and memory loss.

For some sufferers the effects may be minimal – but in a large number lives are changed drastically, with social lives being severely restricted and employment often becoming impossible. Sufferers can be housebound for months, sometimes years, and tend to follow a fluctuating pattern of good and bad periods of health. Relapses or exacerbations can be a regular occurrence, often precipitated by infections or stressful events.

More than 250,000 people are affected

SURVIVOR: Allison receiving her award from Vernon Kay better leadership on this issue. For the report to conclude that presumed consent is not seen as a priority at this time is like telling a family that their loved one’s life is not seen as a priority.

While the committee says that now is not the time to introduce presumed consent, our campaign supporters are left thinking ‘when will be the correct time?’ Is it really necessary for more people to die whilst the health committee deliberates further?

I think it is an issue that hasn't had enough time or money spent on it in Wales until last year when the Health Minister, Edwina Hart AM started listening to our plea during the 'People Like Us' campaign.

The Minster and the Welsh assembly are keenly working with charities to raise awareness of the issue of Organ Donation. The Tell a Loved One Campaign is a unique campaign with 9 different charities working together with the Welsh Assembly to increase the number of people on the register.

We've been fortunate too that many Welsh celebrities such as Colin Jackson, James Hook and Max Boyce came onboard to help spread the word and make a very successful TV advert to highlight the problem.

The Minister's response to the health committee pointed out that the report did not reflect the range of different views on the question. In

short, that the health committee had ducked the issue. I'm pleased we have a Minister who has the strength to move forward in these issues.

From my experience, though many students tend to be quite clued up on organ donations and its benefits, there is still a long way to go. Talking to my fellow medics, many of them are still unaware of the benefits of transplantation and have not thought about being an organ donor. Kidney Wales are currently looking to set up a campaign team within the University to help raise awareness of the shortage of people on the Organ Donor Register.

The Labour Students are already onboard and we are hoping to set up a sign-up station and a public debate on presumed consent at the university during early December. Kidney Wales are currently trying to get more students involved with the campaign, so hopefully reading real stories like mine will inspire people to register.

It literally takes a couple of minutes to do and, of course, please discuss it with your nearest and dearest as they can still overturn your decision.

Signing up to donate is free, simple and only takes a few minutes.

Either visit donatewales.org or text 'GIVE' to 64118.

There is currently no accepted cure and no universally effective treatment, and although there has been some research pointing to genetic susceptibility, what causes the disorder remains unclear. ME is officially recognised as a neurological disease, so why are so many doctors failing to treat it accordingly?

For many years, there was a debate as to whether it was actually an illness at all. Despite many influential bodies such as the Department of Health and the Royal College of Physicians now being in agreement that the condition is ‘real’, many GPs remain unsympathetic to patients, failing to respond to ME as a serious illness. Research published in the British Medical Journal

claims that many General Practitoners still view ME patients as workshy and lazy, failing to make the effort to recover quickly. Dr Charles Shepherd, medical adviser to the charity ME Association, says GPs' attitudes are rooted in the "deeply conservative character" of the health profession, and that more needs to be done to challenge existing prejudices around the illness: "In my training I was told that ME was nonsense, a figment of patients' imagination, and unfortunately this attitude still prevails". But with such large numbers of adults and children being affected by this debilitating disorder, there is no doubt that things need to change.

I spoke to Rachel Marshall, a graduate from East Anglia undertaking an MA in Culture & Literature, who suffered from ME for five years.

From the age of fourteen to nineteen, Rachel was unable to go to school or even take a short walk into town, and at times had to sleep for up to twenty hours a day.

“What people don’t understand,” she says, “is that it’s not just a case of being tired. It’s physical pain that affects the muscles and nerves, it's like constantly having the worst bits of flu.” Being stuck at home 24/7 meant Rachel missed out on her teenage years, and found it difficult to make friends.

Many GPs view sufferers as workshy and lazy Due to the fact that she was unable to attend school, Rachel inevitably fell behind and was only able to take four GCSEs and two A-levels, for which

she had to work incredibly hard whilst battling with ME. Even now this causes problems, because she has to explain to any potential employer why her CV looks bare in comparison to those unaffected.

It's like constantly having the worst bits of flu When asked how she felt about people who are still ignorant enough to deem ME the ‘yuppie flu’, she told me: "It makes me so angry. No one would miss out on the opportunity to go out, make friends and live a normal life if they had the choice." Indeed, when talking with her we both agreed that a change in attitude towards ME is long overdue.

Luckily, Rachel is now much better and can participate in most regular activities so long as she is careful: "If I go out one evening, I’ll get tired and have to leave much earlier than everyone else, and it will take it out of me for the rest of the week, but I’m so grateful to be able to do normal things now."

It’s time that we became more aware of this disorder because effectively we are all susceptible to it, and as it most commonly affects people age 20-40, us students are in the risk category. Moreover, an eradication of prejudice surrounding ME is vital. It is recognised as a neurological disorder, and it’s time we started treating it accordingly.

If you are concerned that you may have ME, visit your GP. Remember that you are entitled to a second opinion if you feel you are not being listened to.

18 FEATURES

NOVEMBER.17.2008 FEATURES@gairrhydd.COM

Square-eyed Students

With World TV Day commencing this week, Lucy Roden questions whether students are still the reigning Eggheads of daytime TV...

W

inter and the credit crunch are both well and truly upon us, leaving more of us content with swapping boozy nights out for cosy nights in front of the TV with housemates.

Typically known as members of the couch potato nation, nearly a quarter of us Britons spend as much time watching television as we do at work during the average week.

But do us students really live up to Britain’s couch potato stereotype and waste that much time in front of a TV when University is a time for socialising, meeting people and trying new things?

In many households television is used as a way of organising the week

November 21st annually marks World Television Day. British television is probably most famous for its never-ending runs of soap operas (a blissful world where the most offensive insult is ‘you big wally’).

According to sociologists, good oldfashioned soap operas provide a focal point for many British families.

"In many households it is used as a way of organising the week, with set soaps every day providing a routine for the whole family - something which is very important," said Charlotte Cornish, Research Manager at the Future Foundation, an organisa-

tion that aims to understand consumer minds.

Although too much screen-gazing inevivtably brings about negative health effects, maybe we do mooch about on the sofa for real social purposes. A first year Cardiff student agrees with this: “sitting down and watching the soaps together is something we’ve always done in my family. It’s a chance for all of us to catch up on what the whole family has been up to and spend the night chatting,.”

So, despite having a reputation for considering Diagnosis Murder as breakfast TV, maybe us students aren’t as lazy as we’re perceieved to be. We have busy social lives and many of us are juggling studying for a degree, part-time work, and sports or societies “I don’t think students are entirely disinterested in watching TV but having to pay an individual TV license in your first year probably puts a lot of viewers,” says Kylie Crump, 2nd year in Cardiff.

Indeed the £139.50 yearly TV license fee seems to be a big reason why many students aren't too concerned about missing out on the lastest TV. The government TV Licensing Agency is very keen on cutting down on the numbers of students who try to avoid paying a licence fee.

Ludicrous as it seems, students living in University halls aren’t covered by one TV licence for the whole flat because of separate tenancy agreements, therefore have to take out their own TV license if they decide to have a TV in their room. As generally skint

members of society, surely the government should be helping us out rather than making money out of fiddly tenancy agreements.

Jessica Wood, a Cardiff Fresher, seems to have found a way around the excessive expense, “I would rather spend my money on something other than paying for a TV licence, so I didn’t bother to bring a telly with me to Uni. I don’t miss out on

Good old-fashioned soap operas provide a focal point for many families programmes I really love because of 4oD and ITV player.”

Jessica seems to represent many of us who don’t spend hours lounging in front of the TV, but use the internet catch-up services for our favourite programmes that have already been aired on live television. The luxury of being able to fit must-see shows to suit our oh-so-busy social calendar is one akin to the discovery of baked beans on toast, I’m sure you’ll agree.

No one can argue that we aren’t a voyeuristic nation that love nothing better than a good night in front Eastenders with a chinese, but for those of us who don’t fit the lazy student stereotype, we would rather catch up with shows online, have an X factor night when we’re really skint and concentrate on making the most of the University experience.

SQUARE-EYED: are we students really that addicted to trashy TV?

Susanna Byers looks at some of the strangest shows on TV...

T

he television: that infamous invention that impacts our lives without us even realising. It’s an invention that provides hours of procrastination for us ‘hard-working’ students. Apart from the news and the occasional dabble in culturally educational programmes; my viewing time mainly consists of Desperate Housewives, Lost and Dick van Dyke’s Diagnosis Murder.

In my teenage years I remember the exploding popularity of candid camera. One of the funniest clips I have seen comes from those cheeky Germans who hid a camera in a bed shop focused on a supposed waterbed. It was in fact a bed-like tank filled with water, with a sheet over the top. Much hilarity ensued as the camera filmed the potential bed buyers test their future rock solid ‘mattress’!

The French take a different approach as one young man takes to the streets and randomly runs into things, and an

old woman takes to the streets to seduce passing unsuspecting males by merely grabbing their scrotal area. Of course, I cannot talk about candid camera without reminiscing upon the UK’s Dom Joly in the world of Trigger Happy TV: lo and behold we have a whole generation haunted by that notorious Nokia ring tone…

Does anyone else remember Tarrant on TV; the show that gave the British public the opportunity to see clips from the weird and wonderful shows from abroad? As I recall, the Swedes featured many a time ‘bearing all’. They had the show Blind Date, exactly like ours, minus Cilla Black and minus clothes!

With their reputation for bizarre but hilarious ideas for television, Chris Tarrant gave much airtime to the Japanese. Ideas such as binocular football and ‘head elasticated marshmallow eating’ competitions often featured!

Also, how can we forget that colour-

ful betting game show from the shores of Japan: Banzai? Remember Mr. Shake Hand Man? Who knew you could shake Jennifer Love-Hewitt’s hand for 97 seconds without her letting go? After that, the cringe-y weighing of a man’s genitals to bet whether they weighed 80oz or 100oz: productive viewing I‘d say.

It's a programme comparable to a warped teenage boy's wet dream Equally as productive is the Brazilian water tank game, where big- breasted beauties in short, white dresses get put in a water tank which gradually fills up with every answer they get wrong.

Team this with some horrendously tacky camera angles and a fat, moustache-clad presenter, it’s a programme

comparable to a warped teenage boy’s wet dream.

Then again, if it’s humiliation you’re after, have you ever tried to watch the UK’s own humiliation game show, Distraction? A competition designed so that the contestants are distracted in one way or another to avoid answering questions correctly. Distractions included peeing, piercings, and paintballing! (I’m not ashamed to say I had to look away when piercing was involved.)

A whole generation is haunted by that Nokia ringtone...

During my delves into world TV I discovered that pain appeared to be a reccurring theme. I’m sure most of us are familiar with the insane ‘let’s hurt ourselves for fun’ stunts that Johnny Knoxville and the Jackass crew at-

tempt.

Cycling through glass, trying crazy skateboard stunts and general dangerous and painful banter is the name of the game: much like Wales’ very own ‘lads will be lads’ Dirty Sanchez, who have become famous in the same vein as Jackass.

Of course this is merely touching upon some of the strange and peculiar programmes you can find on TV today.

With the dawn of the digital and Sky era, there is no end of possibilities to what cringe-worthy, painful or downright hilarious viewing we can have from right across the world (I haven’t even mentioned the escapades of Jerry Springer, or the poo machine I remember from Eurotrash.)

For now though, I shall leave you to indulge in your watching pleasures, while I get back to mine: the legendary Dick is about to solve the mystery!

God Bless Dick!

FEATURES 19

NOVEMBER.17.2008 FEATURES@gairrhydd.COM

To give, or not to give?

November 17 sees the start of Anthony Nolan Week, dedicated to getting people on the bone marrow register. Huw Davies dispels some of the myths about donation

R

ight, it's time I paid my debt to society and helped to make someone's life better.

What can I do? Give blood? Sure, sign me up. Organ donation? What the hell, I'll be dead anyway. Bone marrow donation? Uh...doesn't that hurt?

No, not really. For a start, the process only requires signing up to the bone marrow register first, and although you have to give a blood sample, that doesn't mean you'll definitely donate your bone marrow. Only one in a 1,000 registered actually do, and only one in a 100 even reach the stage of having to give another blood sample to test their compatibility. For the rest, the subject is gone from their lives forever.

versities, and its Cardiff branch is no exception. On Wednesday, December 3 there will be a clinic in University Hall's residence bar between 2pm and 6pm, at which students can join the register.

To date the ANT has collected 391,000 blood samples from donors, but still more are needed to meet increasing demands and to increase the chances of a good match. Every potential donor is greatly appreciated.

And what happens if you sign up at Uni Hall Bar and it turns out your bone marrow might indeed be needed? Here's what happened to Jenny Dawes:

There are 120,000 terminally ill people worldwide needing a donor

The ANT has collected 391,000 blood samples Secondly, if you do have to donate your bone marrow it won't bring you intense pain. Honest. The rumours of a sharp needle being stuck into the base of your spine and leaving you in excruciating agony are only partly true: yes, there is a needle in your pelvic bone, but no, there is no excruciating agony.

You are under general anaesthetic and all that follows is a bit of tiredness and a stiff lower back (although the donor does spend a night or two in hospital as a precaution).

Yet this is the hard way. The other method involves just a few injections and an outpatient procedure, in which blood is passed from the donor to a machine that takes the required stem cells and returns the rest of the blood to the grateful donor. He or she may feel some flu-like symptoms and muscle pain during the four-hour process, but no more than that, and it soon passes.

Only 1 in 1,000 registered donors are requested to donate And so the myth forming the main reason more people do not join the bone marrow register is dispelled: it doesn't put you in a world of pain.

You can now go forth and save a life.

But why take my word for it when you can take that of medical student Jenny Dawes? Being President of the Bristol branch of Marrow, the student division of bone marrow donation charity The Anthony Nolan Trust (ANT), she

should know a bit about the donation process – and what's more, she's done it herself.

"It didn't hurt, no. I had injections for five days running up to my donation. They made me feel like I had a bit of a cold, but nothing bad.

"On the fifth day I went to London and stayed in a hotel with my mum.

[Once in the hospital] you get hooked up to a machine. The injections make your marrow make more stem cells so they spill out into your bloodstream.

You sit on the bed for five hours while your blood comes out, filters through a machine that takes what it needs and gives the rest back. It's really boring.

"The boredom was the worst bit. I was perfectly awake and could do everything except move from the bed.

I just took my laptop and watched DVDs." Not too painful a procedure then.

But with the donation taking place in London, it surely can't have been fun to organise it all.

"The ANT sort out everything. They send you train tickets, they put you up in a hotel and they find someone to go with you. I was thinking I'd have to sort it all out. I literally had to turn up at the station and get on a train. It's really easy to do."

Still, why bother at all? You may happen to like your bone marrow. But there may be someone who would like it more; someone dying of leukaemia, who urgently needs a bone marrow stem cell transplant – and your help – to survive. There are 120,000 terminally ill people worldwide in need of a donor, including patients suffering from leukaemia, lymphoma and sickle cell anaemia.

But even if your sympathy levels are in overdrive, you may be wondering why it's worth signing up to a donation register when you're likely to be one of the 999 in every 1,000 whose bone marrow isn't required. Why? Because it's about having a selection: sometimes beggars have to be choos-

ers, and when a successful transplant relies upon there being a good match between donor and patient cells, you want as much choice as you can get.

Charity begins at home, and because the most likely source of compatible cells is in the patient's immediate family, 30% of those needing a transplant receive bone marrow from a relative.

But this is not always possible, and so they need a stranger from the register – and the more there are, the better their chances.

"It didn't hurt...I just felt like I had a bit of a cold."

Monday, November 17 marks the start of Anthony Nolan Week. Marrow, the ANT's student division which recruited a third of last year's donors, is planning a major awareness and registration campaign across its 30 uni-

"I joined the register in my first year at university from a marrow clinic, and about a year later I got a letter to say they had a match and asking whether I would still like to be a donor. They sent me a blood sample kit and they arranged for me to go to the local hospital to do blood samples. Three weeks later I was away in Scotland and I got a phone call. I didn't really think about it because they said it would take about three months, but it was only three weeks.

"It was quite weird. I was a bit nervous because it's the unknown. I was pleased I could make a difference, though; that I had the opportunity. You might never do it. You're on the register until you're 60. Mine was an urgent case."

Jenny went to London, started the injections beginning the process and for the happy recipient of her bone marrow, the rest is history. She doesn't know who he is, though. She isn't allowed to.

"I know it's a man," explains Jenny. "He sent me a card saying 'thank you', which was really, really nice. It was anonymised and came through the ANT to me. He can make contact after two years if he chooses to.

"I know that my recipient is doing really well now. I know the transplant works. That is such a lovely feeling."

Now surely that feeling and a person's recovery from leukaemia is worth a cold and some muscle pain.

Isn't it?

For more information, e-mail cardiffmarrow@hotmail.com, join the Facebook group 'Cardiff Marrow' or visit www.anthonynolan.org.uk

20 TAF-OD

NOVEMBER.17.2008 TAF-OD@gairrhydd.COM

Cyfrifoldeb at iaith

Cymrwch gipolwg ar esiampl ieithoedd leiafrifol Ewrop gyda Sara Orwig.

Y penwythnos hwn, cefais sgwrs ag un o’m ffrindiau gorau am ddysgu Cymraeg i’n plant yn y dyfodol. Roedd hi o’r farn y byddai hi’n dysgu Cymraeg i’w phlant petai hi’n byw yng Nghymru, mwy na thebyg petai hi’n byw ym Mhrydain, ond doedd hi’m wir yn gweld gwerth yn ei dysgu’n rhygl i’w phlant petai hi’n byw mewn rhan arall o’r byd. Fodd bynnag, rydw i’n siwr y byddai’n dysgu Cymraeg i’m mhlant dim ots lle y byddwn ni’n byw.

Ydi hyn yn fy nghwneud i’n eithafol? Efallai byddai mwy o wybodaeth o werth i chi. Mae hi o deulu Saesneg, wedi symud i Gymru, sy’n medru’r Gymraeg ond Saesneg yw iaith yr aelwyd. Rydw i o deulu Cymraeg cryf, ac yn cael ffrae os ddefnyddia i air Saesneg o’u blaen os oes gair Cymraeg i’w gael. Roedd hi’n gweld, hyd yn oed os y buaswn i’n byw dramor, y byddai fy mlant yn siarad Cymraeg â gweddill y teulu, tra byddai ei phlant hi yn gorfod siarad Saesneg â’i theulu hithau.

Gwelaf y Gymraeg fel rhan o’m etifeddiaeth, nid dim ond iaith arall.

Hefyd, byddai siarad y Gymraeg yn amlwg yn gwneud fy mhlant yn ddwyieithog, sydd o fydd wrth ddysgu ieithoedd eraill. Yn ogystal, byddwn i’n teimlo’n euog os na fyddwn i’n dysgu’r Gymraeg i’m mhlant gan y byddwn i’n teimlo fy mod i’n helpu’r iaith i farw yn hytrach na brwydro iddi fyw. Be allai ddeud, dwi’n hoff o’r ‘guilt trips’ ma – dwi’n teimlo’r run peth os dwi’m yn ailgylchu bob dim.

Roedd y sgwrs hon yn agoriad llygad i dynged yr iaith. Darllenais lyfr Bethan Gwanas, Y Gwledydd Bychain, yn ddiweddar. Ynddo, mae hi’n trafod tair gwlad tebyg i Gymru – Gwlad y Basg, Llydaw a Norwy. Roedd agweddau’r tair gwlad yn ddiddorol iawn i’w cymharu â Chymru.

Gwlad y Basg oedd gryfaf o bell ffordd. Mae’r balchder a’r brwydro dros eu hiaith yn ysbrydoliaeth. Euskera yw enw iaith y Basg, ac mae tua 32% o bobl y dair sir lle mae’r iaith yn gryf (yn Ne y wlad, yn Sbaen) a tua 23% o bobl y siroedd arall yn medru ei deall. O’i gymharu a Chymru, mae’n debyg mai tua 20% o’r boblogaeth sy’n medru’r Gymraeg. Ond roedd mwy na’r ffigyrau’n dangos

cryfder teimladau’r bobl tuag at yr iaith. Yn yr 80au a’r 90au, cafodd nifer fawr o weision sifil, fel athrawon, ei rhyddhau o’u gwaith am flwyddyn neu ddwy i ddysgu Euskera, ar gyflog llawn – rhywbeth na fyddai’n digwydd yn Nghymru, dwi’n siwr! Mae gwersi Euskera’n hawdd i’w cael, arlein, yn y nos neu’r dydd, a chyrsiau preswyl hefyd. Mae’r gwersi’n rhad, ac os ydych yn cyrraedd lefel arbennig, rydych chi’n cael eich arian yn ôl.

Mae ymarferion sgwrsio hefyd yn cael ei cynnal, o’r enw ‘Mintzapraktika’.

Mae rhwng tri a phump o bobl person yn cael ei rhoi at ei gilydd, yn dibynnu ar eu diddordebau, gyda o leiaf un siaradwr rhugl yn eu mysg. Nid yw’r siaradwr rhugl yma’n cael ei dalu am ei waith – maen nhw’n gwirfoddoli er mwyn cadw Euskera’n fyw.

Yr iaith oedd yn bwysig, nid y gost ychwannegol o’i chadw’n fyw, er fod y ffaith bod Gwlad y Basg yn economaidd gryf efallai yn effeithio ar hyn. Enghraifft dda a rhoddodd Bethan Gwanas oedd cyfaill yn gofyn i rhywun a oedd wedi clywed CD newydd Euskera. Nagoedd? Cynnigodd y ffrind brynu’r CD iddo – ddim

ei fenthyg, ddim gwneud copi, ond ei brynu. Roedd nofelau’n gwerthu mewn niferoedd mawr – gwerthodd nofel Bernardo Atxaga 20,000. Bydd nofel Gymraeg yn gwerthu tua 1,500 wrth wethu’n dda. Mae papur dyddiol Euskera, Berria, yn gwerthu 20,000 o gopïau y diwrnod, a does gan Gymru ddim papur dyddiol ers i Y Byd gael ei wrthod am grant eleni. Pan aeth hi i siop gydweithredol Eroski, a gweld y labeli bwyd mewn pedair iaith – Sbaeneg, Euskera, Catalaneg a Galisieg – gofynnodd i'r ferch oedd yn gweithio yno a oedd y gost ychwannegol yn poeni pobl. Edrychodd y ferch arni’n rhyfedd – yn amlwg yr iaith oedd yn bwysig ac nid y gost.

Ar y llaw arall, mae Llydaw. Mae’r Lydaweg yn ‘hen’ iaith – mae 61% o’r siaradwyr rhygl yn 60+, a dim ond 0.2% o'r bobl ifanc sy’n medru’r iaith.

Mae ysgolion Llydaweg i’w cael, ond eleni, dim ond 12,333 o blant oedd mewn ffrydiau dwyieithog. Nid yw’r cyfryngau’n helpu chwaith – mae France3Ouest yn darlledu 100 awr o Lydaweg y flwyddyn, a TV Breizh yn darlledu 5 awr yr wythnos, er ei fod wedi bod yn darlledu 20 awr nôl

yn 2000. Mae gorsafoedd radio i’w cael hefyd, sef Radio France Ouest/ Radio Breizh Izel, sy’n darlledu 14 awr yr wythnos i orllewin Llydaw, a Radio Kreiz Breizh sy’n darlledu i ganolbarth Llydaw, 24 awr y dydd mewn Llydaweg a Ffrangeg, er mae’n debyg nad oes llawer o Lydaweg i’w glywed. Nid yw pethau ysgrifennedig yn gwethu’n dda chwaith, tua 400 i 600 copi sy’n cael ei prynu. Fodd bynnag, mae Llydaweg yn iaith lafar yn bennaf - ni all nifer o’r hen bobl ei ddarllen er eu bod yn siaradwyr rhygl, oherwydd mai fersiwn safonol yw’r iaith ysgrifennedig, tra bod yr iaith sy’n cael ei siarad yn amrwyio rhwng ardaloedd. Yn wahanol i Gymraeg ac Euskera, nid oes cadarnleoedd i’r Lydaweg, er y bydd hi i’w chlywed weithiau yn Rennes a Nantes.

Er bod Norwy yn wlad llawer mwy na Chymru, mae hi’n debyg o ran maint y boblogaeth. Mae eu hiaith yn debyg i Swedeg a Daneg, oherwydd mai Sweden a Denmarc oedd yn rheoli yn y gorffennol. Mae dau fath o Norwyeg, sef Bokmal (iaith llyfr) a Nynorsk (Norwyeg newydd). Mae 86% o blant ysgol gynradd yn derbyn

eu haddysg drwy Bokmal, gan ddysgu Nynorsk yn hwyrach ymlaen. Nid yw pobl yn gweld ei bod hi mewn perygl, ond eto efallai nad ydyn nhw’n gweld y perygl eto. Mae pawb yn medru’r Saesneg, ac o ganlyniad mae nifer o fewnfudwyr Saesneg yn dewis peidio dysgu Norwyeg. Mae dylanwad Saesneg i’w weld yn gryf yn y trefi a’r dinasoedd, mewn enwau siopau ag ati.

Os nad ydyn nhw’n ymwybodol o’r perygl, sut allan nhw wneud yn siwr y bydd yr iaith yn byw?

Un peth sy’n ddiddorol i’w nodi yw’r ffaith nad yw llywodraeth Sbaen na Ffrainc yn cydnabod ieithoedd lleiafrifol yn swyddogol, sy’n golygu nad yw’r Llydaweg na Euskera’n cael help gan y llywodraeth y wlad, dim ond cynghorau lleol a phobl sy’n gweld bod yr iaith yn bwysig.

Sut mae hyn i gyd yn berthnasol i Gymru? Yn wahanol i Norwy rydym ni’n ymwybodol o fygythiad Saesneg.

Oherwydd ein bod ni’n rhan o Brydain, roedd rhaid cyflwyno’r Saesneg i Gymru, ond i ba raddau? Erbyn hyn mae pawb yn ddwy-ieithog, ond oherwydd mai iaith leiafrifol yw Cymraeg, mae nifer o bobl yn ei gweld hi’n wastraff amser i ddysgu iaith â dim ond 611,000 o siaradwyr. Gwelir canlyniad hyn ar ddiwylliant Cymreig – y diwyllaint sy’n eich gwneud chi’n Gymraeg erbyn hyn, nid yr iaith.

Mae'n debyg ei bod hi’n anghywir i ddweud "Cymro-Cymraeg", gan eich bod chi’n ei gweld nhw’n uwchraddol (o leiaf yn ramadegol) i ‘Gymro di-Gymraeg’; Cymro Cymraeg ei iaith fyddai’r peth cywir i’w ddweud, debyg.

Er bod sefyllfa Cymraeg i’w weld yn gryfach na sefyllfa Llydaweg, nid yw’r tân sydd i’w weld yn Euskera i’w weld yma. Faint ohonnym ni fyddai’n gwirfoddoli i siarad â dysgwyr yn hollol ddi-dal, dim ond er mwyn gweld yr iaith yn para? Yn sicr y gost yw’r rheswm bod nifer o gynlluniau i gryfhau’r iaith yn cael ei stopio, a’r rheswm nad oes mwy ohonnom ni’n prynu CDs a nofelau Cymraeg. Ydw i’n eithafol felly? Efallai y dylsem ni gymryd esiampl y Basgiaid yn ein hagwedd ni tuag at y Basgiaid. Yn sicr dilyn esiampl y Basgiaid fydd yn cadw Cymru yn Gymru.

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SCIENCE & ENVIRONMENT 21

The Human Papilloma Virus

Priya Raj on raising awareness of this all too often forgotten STI

M

ost students have heard of the famous STI's such as HIV, gonorrhoea, Chlamydia and syphilis: but few have heard of HPV. Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) is an example of a sexually transmitted infection transmitted specifically by skin contact.

Approximately 130 HPV types have been identified, with the high risk papilloma viruses types 16 and 18 being responsible for more than 70% of all cervical cancers. Cervical cancer is a malignant cancer of the cervix uteri, the 12th most common cancer in women in the U.K.

Types 16 and 17 are responsible for more than 70% of all cervical cancers HPV lesions are thought to arise from the proliferation of infected basal keratinocytes (a type of skin cell) Infection typically occurs when basal cells in the host are exposed to the infectious virus through a disturbed epithelial barrier as would occur during sexual intercourse or after minor skin abrasions. HPV infections have not been shown to be cytolytic, rather viral particles are released as a result of degeneration of desquamating cells.

Most people who develop HPV are asymptomatic and may unknowingly spread the disease. Since the HPV virus can survive for many months and at low temperatures without a host, an individual with plantar warts can spread the virus by walking barefoot.

The most visible types of HPV are skin warts (common, plantar or flat), that develop on areas of the skin such as the hands, arms, legs and bottom of the feet. HPV infections of this type are very common, harmless, non-cancerous, and easily treated.

When symptoms such as bleeding after sexual intercourse, between menstrual periods and after the menopause occur however, these are a serious cause for concern.

The development of HPV-induced cervical cancer is a slow process that generally takes many years. During this development phase, pre-cancerous cells can be detected by regular cervical cytology Papanicolaou screening, commonly known as "Pap" smear testing. The Pap test is an effective strategy for reducing the risk of invasive cervical cancer. The Pap test involves taking cells from the cervix, putting them on a small glass slide and examining them under a microscope to look for abnormal cells. This method is 70% to 80% effective in detecting HPV-caused cellular abnormalities.

Due to the intimate nature of the test many female students brush it aside claiming to be far too busy; it

is of utmost importance, however, they are tested, especially if sexually active. Hannah James, a third-year Biology student, suffered some of the symptoms described and so attended her local GP clinic. “It was quite scary really. but the nurses were lovely," she said,."they reassured me that it was in my best interests…” It was lucky Hannah attended as she was discovered to

have genital warts: “ I’m glad I went, there would be no way of otherwise knowing.”

This September the United Kingdom launched a new national vaccination against human papilloma virus. With a risk of 75% of women becoming infected with human papilloma virus at some stage in their lives, it was decided that all 12 and 13 year

old girls would be offered the vaccination through their schools with the hope that it will reduce the incidence of cervical cancers caused by HPV. The overall idea is to protect girls before they become sexually active.

The vaccination, Cervarix, is composed of a course of three injections in six months, into the muscle of the upper arm.

Cervarix contains inactivated extracts from two different types of the human papilloma virus: types 16 and 18. Cervarix stimulates the immune system to produce antibodies against these types of the virus and is given to prevent the pre-cancerous changes and cervical cancer that they can cause.

It is not known exactly how long the protective effect of the vaccine will last for. Long term follow-up studies are currently ongoing.

For those who choose to be sexually active, condoms may lower the risk of catching HPV, if used on a regular basis and in the right way. However the infection can infect areas that are not covered by a condom—so condoms may not fully protect against HPV. Regular pap tests are without a doubt the way forward to screen for cervical cancer. If you have any further questions then contact the Cardiff University Health Centre, located next to the Union.

Total Thought Reform

Tom Baumer on the psychology of brainwashing

E

ver found yourself sitting in a lecture, and as you glance around you notice many of your peers have a strange, almost mesmerized appearance to them as they stare at the lecturer? Or how about when you are busy shopping and various religious groups hand you flyers and ‘spread’ their news?

These situations, albeit perfectly normal, may have something a little more sinister to them. Perhaps a better way to explain is to use a well documented example: In March 1997, the world was stunned by the news that thirty-eight followers of a belief system known as Heaven’s Gate had committed mass suicide. It was reported that they had been coerced into suicide by their group leader Marshall Applewhite.

He claimed that the earth was about to be destroyed and, by dying, their souls would board a spaceship, which was hiding behind the comet Hale-Bopp.

Nearly 50 years earlier, a host of innocent American prisoners of war captured in Korea were convinced by their captors into confessing to germ warfare. Some even pledged allegiance to their enemies’ communist beliefs. Furthermore, a handful were

chologists as thought reform. Firstly, an individual is isolated from normal society and their access to information removed. Over time, their belief structure is repeatedly challenged and systematically broken down to the point that the target's identity is totally lost. Gradually, their mind is indoctrinated with new set of behaviours, attitudes and beliefs.

Brainwashing is known by psychologists as thought reform

so instilled with communism that they refused to return to capitalist America when released from prison.

These are extreme examples of what is popularly considered as brainwashing and what is known by psy-

Clearly experiments involving brainwashing are less than ethical, however, neuroscientists have begun to consider brainwashing in more detail. Is there a neuronal explanation for the supposed phenomenon of brainwashing? Ultimately, how reliable is total thought reform?

The nervous system is by far the most complicated system in the body and theorising on brainwashing is partly speculative. It is widely accepted that the brain is highly changeable in itself and even more at a young age. As a result, it is fair to argue that

people in their teens and twenties are more vulnerable to thought reform, thus providing a gateway for various groups to wean their way in.

Learning involves forming new neuronal pathways containing dendrites, axons and synapses. Repetition is an integral part of the brainwashing technique because connections between neurons are strengthened when exposed to frequent and intense incoming signals. Neurological science can show that brainwashed individuals will have more fixed neuronal pathways and a reduced ability to rethink their beliefs.

It has also been postulated that brainwashing may be capable of producing spiritual experiences in susceptible individuals by repeated stimulation of the temporal lobe. This is unproven but, if true, would contribute to apparent success of brainwashing within cults, and could be applied to members of any belief system, including the major world religions.

Unfortunately nobody knows exactly how the brain works and, if you take theories about brainwashing too seriously, then perhaps, just perhaps, you’ve been brainwashed by this article.

22 JOBS & MONEY

NOVEMBER.17.2008 JOBS@gairrhydd.COM

Students who mean business

With Enterprise Week running from the 17-23rd November, there's never been a better time to find out more about setting up your own business. Aimee Steen spoke to some students who already have

This week marks the start of Student Enterprise week, an event aiming to promote the entrepreneurial skills of young people.

Cardiff University Students' Union's very own Student Enterprise Unit is here to help budding tycoons unleash their potential. The friendly staff are there to help you develop entrepreneurial and enterprising skills for setting up your own organisation or working in somebody else’s. When else are you going to get the opportunity for tailored business support, advice, and guidance - all for free?

Newly available is ‘Centreprise’, an empty office space that students can book out. The facility, situated on the ground floor of the SU, hosts a hot-desk office space with a meeting room, which student businesses can use as well as gaining access to office services and additional information regarding accounts, legality issues and more.

Anyone can do it - you don’t have to be a Business student! All sorts of people, from Chemists and Literature students to those studying Mathematics have started businesses with the help of Student Enterprise.

helped you get your business started?

Why did you choose to set up techtom?

TECHTOM: chic geek because I was increasingly being asked to provide IT and technical services to clients, people who I hadn’t known previously (friends of friends etc). I chose to set up in this area because I saw that there was a demand for my services. The business has grown by word of mouth. I am involved in PC and MAC resale, including all accessories. Facilities are available to repair laptops and desktops.

The business was started in early 2007

How has Student Enterprise

Tom Hill: net wizard Tom Hill runs techtom, which specialises in the retail and resale of computer goods, along with installation of networks and VoIP systems. The business caters for individuals, as well as small to medium sized enterprises.

This week's jobs: 013 Data Entry Clerks/Telephone Interviewers £5.73 per hour (£6.25 on Saturdays)

Ref 016 Extras/Supporting Artists Rate of pay variable, but meets NMW

Local company requires pleasant, well-spoken, patient students for market research work. Various shifts available including evening & occasional weekend work.

Cardiff based company supplying extras/supprting artists etc to the films & TV industry requires reliable, committed, punctual, confident & friendly people to play extras in the background on film & TV programmes.

015 Charity Collector £6 p/h plus generous commission

017 Warehouse Person £5.73 per hour

Charity raising funds for children with learning difficulties requires friendly, outgoing collectors to work as part of a team for 2/3 days per week.

No experience necessary.

Local company which delivers crisps, confectionary and drinks requires a flexible warehouse person for 10 hour per week. To start asap until June 2009.

Further opportunities are available in the Jobshop, Cardiff University Students' Union

Student Enterprise has provided me with the opportunity to attend a number of different workshops run during term time, and I have gone to a number of presentations delivered by successful young entrepreneurs, picking up useful knowledge. I enjoyed the pizza, too! More recently, Cardiff Student Enterprise have set up ‘Centreprise’; a hot-desking environment which will provide me and students with the facilities to meet clients and work in a pretty cool environment. I shall have nobody asking where they can find my office: it’s in the Students' Union!

What was the most difficult part of starting techtom?

I was daunted by the prospect of registering my business formally; there are many government organisations that you might have to notify, should you start working for yourself or setting up a limited company for example.

What would you say to anybody looking to start their own business?

If you have an idea for a business, put yours through the girls in the enterprise centre, who have a wealth of knowledge, and plenty of contacts.

The best thing is that it is all free.

There are a number of Welsh Assembly initiatives, one of which provides a business mentor - someone can meet with you regularly to give advice and ‘hold your hand’ through what can be a minefield of information.

Check out www.techtom.net or email tom@techtom.net for more info

Josie West: musical duck Josie West runs Dinky Ducklings Music and Movement, which provides children from 3 months to 5 years old with exciting classes to enhance their pre-school development. Dinky Ducklings also runs Pop Princess Parties for all ages.

Why did you choose to set up Dinky Ducklings?

I set up the business this summer, creating the website first and then promoting as soon as I arrived back in Cardiff. I've had the idea rattling around for a while, but decided to go for it as I had nothing to lose. I’ve had a lot of experience with children and childcare and I am very interested in children/babies’ rapid development,

so after some research and work experience in a similar local business at home, I decided this is what I wanted to do. I love looking after kids, and the smiles on their faces during a session with Dinky Duck is incredible. At the parties I get to run around and pretend I'm a six year-old Pop Princess…it's fantastic!

How has Student Enterprise helped you get your business started?

Student Enterprise has given me reams of good quality advice. They opened my eyes to the insurance and legal documents I needed to invest in, which is incredibly important when working with children. They also advised me on improving the website and promotion techniques to get me started. But most of all, they gave me a huge amount of encouragement- it's hard work starting a business on your own and very easy to give up when the going gets tough. Student Enterprise showed real interest in the idea and how much potential it had to become successful, which really kept me going.

What was the most difficult part of starting Dinky Ducklings?

Can I say the first 'bit'? It’s so hard to start, to promote and make people believe you’re great... With a business like mine, parents generally only really trust word of mouth, so it’s very difficult to get your first chance to prove yourself and get that word of mouth started. It's easy to do all of the website and admin, but once you’re ready to go, it’s a very daunting procedure waiting to hear if anyone’s interested!

Luckily, after a bit of patience, someone went for it and the word (fingers crossed) is starting to spread…

What would you say to anybody looking to start their own business?

Just go for it: if you don't try, you’re not going to get anywhere! And if eventually, after all the hard work you can give, it doesn't work, at least you can say you gave it a go and you've learnt something for the next venture you go for. Also, don't give up- like I mentioned previously, it’s so, so easy to give up than to work a bit harder to get it started. I got knocked down hundreds of times but then the next time I tried, I got a customer who loved the idea and she’s due for a party next month!

Check out www.dinkyducklings. co.uk or email Josie@Dinkyducklings.co.uk for more info

JOBS & MONEY 23

NOVEMBER.17.2008 JOBS@gairrhydd.COM

Kicked off the ladder Thought you'd be able to use the credit crunch to your advantage and get a foot on the property ladder? Think again, says Tom Victor

I

hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it seems the one slice of comfort we might have taken from the credit crunch is slowly slipping from our grasp.

With the vast majority of students being first time buyers, the fall in house prices looked like the silver lining to the cloud of fewer job opportunities and the plethora of other setbacks caused by the miserable economic climate. Unfortunately, they’re taking that away from us, too.

While the actual prices for firsttime buyers are lower, the overall costs involved in getting a foot on the property ladder have risen.

As banks across the country are feeling the effects of the credit crunch, many are asking for greater deposits to be put down by first-time buyers.

This leaves us with fewer employment prospects, as companies lack the finances to offer as many new jobs as in recent years, and we can look forward to years of cheap and nasty rented accommodation, or living with your parents that bit longer (the two are not mutually exclusive, mind), even if we get our hands on one of the few jobs going.

According to figures from the Na-

tionwide bank, the average house is worth14.6% less than it was one year ago. However, while homeowners are suffering from the fall, the logical scenario of first-time buyers reaping the benefits could not be further from the truth.

According to the Council of Mort-

gage Lenders (CML), the average deposit for mortgages placed by firsttime buyers has risen from £14,500 to £19,000 within the space of a year: a jump of a huge 31%. It seems that lenders are less willing to let buyers off with smaller deposits, a suggestion backed up by the CML’s claim

that 100% mortgages, whereby buyers are not required to place a deposit at all, are “not so widely available.”

Luke Rees, a third year English Literature student, is concerned that students will be short on options when looking for accommodation after graduation.

Luke said: ‘I think the increase in deposits will make it much harder for people to get that important first foot on the property ladder. Personally, either I won't move out of my parents' house, or I’ll be renting for years before I can afford my own property.’

It seems that the demand for higher deposits has simply encouraged firsttime buyers to rely on their parents for support. While for some this merely entails living at the family home for longer, others have decided to spread the economic strain by relying on parents to help them out with payments.

In 2006, some 38% of first-time buyers relied on some level of assistance from their parents. However, as the amount needed for deposits has risen, even more of us are turning to parental support.

So what does the future entail?

It seems that, until the strain on the economy eases, first-time buyers will have a significant wait to get on the property ladder. And even when the effects of the crunch lessen, we will most likely be rewarded by the cost of houses rising yet again. Happy days!

Playing your cards right

What are you going to do after uni? Become a doctor? A teacher? How about a poker player? Tom Victor speaks to Cardiff graduate and poker pro Paul Senter about his career choice

T

wo years ago, when he was halfway through the final year of his Computer Science degree at Cardiff University, Paul Senter decided on his career path. However, he didn’t have to prepare himself for any interviews or apply for any specific jobs. He just needed to spend more time in front of his computer playing poker.

“To be honest,” he says, “the poker harmed my degree at first. I was staying up late several nights a week, and missing my morning lectures.”

Still, he now has the luxury of calling himself a professional poker player: a job which many of us would love, but few could do. On most days he plays online from 8:30pm until 5am, and he believes that the freedom offered is one of the main benefits of his job.

“The best thing about playing poker for a living is that you’re free until 8:30pm. Until then you can pretty much do whatever you want. On top of that, you don’t need a ‘proper’ job to supplement your income.”

The freedom doesn't even stop there: Paul has absolutely no restrictions on where he lives, although the job can involve a lot of travelling.

Earlier this year, for example, Paul qualified for a tournament in Rio de Janeiro. For an original stake of under £50, he won free flights and accommodation in the Brazilian city, and appeared on Brazilian television. The £1000 he won for his placing in the

tournament was just a bonus.

Of course, he realises that few will be fortunate enough to consistently live the lifestyle which he got a glimpse of in Rio, himself included.

"You have to understand," he says, "that when you get knocked out of the tournament, that's it. Most of the time, if you're playing in a tournament abroad, you will have had to shell out your own money on flights and ac-

commodation. People shouldn't need to rely on cashing in the tournament.

That causes them to put too much pressure on themselves to do well that particular week, and you can't rely on winning every time."

Furthermore, he urges those interested in playing poker for a living to be prepared for disappointment: "As well as the heartbreak of getting close to a big win and then missing out, you have to learn to deal with long periods without cashing. Sometimes you can go for two weeks at a time without making any profit, and you can't let this affect you. As long as you keep playing to your potential, the next win won't be far away."

So what advice does Paul have for anyone considering poker as a career choice? The most important thing is to keep your feet on the ground. A surprising amount of players start off on the wrong foot, gambling more money than they can afford to lose, and it's surprising how far a little common sense can take you.

For example, if you are consistently making money in low-stakes tourna-

ments, then there is nothing to say that you will be as successful when playing for higher stakes: There's no need to change a winning habit.

Budding players would also be well-advised to look at sponsorship options if they're wary about putting their money on the line.

"If you're confident that you have the self-discipline to succeed," says Paul, "then you don't need sponsorship. You should only get sponsored if you think you're capable of playing at higher levels than your bankroll allows. Equally, if you keep losing money in certain situations and you don't know why, many sponsorship programmes offer a mentor system to help you develop the weaker parts of your game."

So, if you're hoping to go down the same career path as Paul and take up poker for a living, it's important to realise that the profession has its downs as well as its ups. Still, when one of the upsides is the ability to earn a year's salary in one night, it's easy to see why more and more students are turning to poker.

presents

the battle continues... ... which side will you choose?!

19th November

at

Queue jump tickets ÂŁ3, FREE ENTRY for first 2 hours. Tickets available on the door after free entry period, subject to capacity.

ÂŁ2 DBL Vodka and redbull

www.sinbinwednesdays.com

PROBLEM PAGE 25

NOVEMBER.17.2008 TEDHANDSOME@gairrhydd.COM

Ted Handsome He's a ruddy good lad

A letter about being smug Dear Ted, Like many other disgustingly precocious and smug little bellends, I felt the need to constantly comment and pass judgement on the ins and outs of the US election through an infuriatingly trite set of media. Clearly the most suitable method for letting all my guilt-ridden, middle-class friends know that I’m okay with a black man running for office in the US is through joining groups on Facebook and changing my status to match. However, now that bloody America have only bloody gone and voted in a black guy, not only are my snotty, self-righteous International Politics essays calling America racist now obsolete, but I have nothing to fill my days with! How the blue jazz tits am I supposed to annoy the holy cock out of my mates, if I can’t drone on and on about something that I have no influence over anyway?

Yours, Jeremy Axewound Dear Jeremy, I know exactly what you are going through. It took me a good few years to get over that whole Falklands scenario, and I’ve never really forgiven

I hope that all these macramé nitwits take the same level of interest in the British election the Argentineans for it, the bloody lazy, beef-eating, maté-drinking, football-punching gaucho wankers that they are. However Jeremy, get over it I did, and all the more healthy I feel because of it. You see Jeremy; all of your friends think that you are a dick.

A dick because of your oh-so-fashionable-and-credible political beliefs,

your Palestinian scarf, and your stupid fucking woollen hat that doesn’t even cover your utter shit-show of a haircut. If ever I meet the people designing these ridiculous garments for Topman, I will kick their, albeit well-groomed, bollocks through the top of their head, the useless fucking specimens. I hope to high heaven that all these mealy-mouthed, macramé nitwits who are unerringly PrObama will take the same level of interest in the British election, or they’ll simply show themselves to be the celebritychasing, starstuck bumwipes they try and lampoon for reading OK! or Hello magazine. Even if they do vote, they are still supporting an inherently racist system that hasn’t allowed a nonwhite, non-Christian within smelling distance of any office of any real importance. How’s your middle class guilt now, shitstab?

Yours, Ted

A letter about my resurrection Dear Ted, Weren’t you meant to be dead or something? I swear to God, I remember reading that you’d decided to kill yourself or some other ridiculous plot device. In fact, there definitely was an obituary that I read. Also how am I writing this letter to you if there’s been no indication that you were due to return? And why are you writing in a student paper if you are such a big shot?

I do hope you can answer some, if not all, of my questions.

Yours, Terence Quim Dear Terence, All right, you’ve caught me red-handed. As you may well be aware, old Theodore Handsome is no stranger

to the wrong side of the law, as it were, and unfortunately, there’s only so many horses you can force to fight each other before the Old Bill will inevitably stick their mucky beaks into my personal business. Blair’s Britain, am I right? No I’m not, now fuck off back to your Daily Mail and the ‘Have Your Say’ section on the BBC website. Where was I? Oh yes, so PC bloody Plod had his eyes on me, and for once in my adult life I tried to be a decent human being, until I accidentally, a little bit may have made some accusations about some Cardiff students who decided to throw the bloody book at me! They blinded me with legal mumbo-jumbo and the jig was very much up. I was terrified. A pretty little thing like me in gaol? I’d have an arsehole like a wizard’s sleeve quicker than you can say, pretty much

anything really. Prisoners don’t tend to fuck about when it comes to nonconsensual sex. I needed the perfect alibi, and, quite frankly, I’d used the best ones up. Fake death was the only real option available to me. Unfortunately, it turned out that all that was really needed was an apology, and so the extravagant ruse that I’d created was unnecessary to say the least. That said, I’d already bought the canoe, the stupid hat, the ugly wife and the flat in Panama, so it would be wasteful to not use it.

Anyway, long story short, I’m back and ready to start slapping the shit out of you awful awful bastards in the student fraternity.

Yours, Ted

Handsome's Week

T

his week, I have mainly been using the media witch hunt to justify my campaign of hate against Bob fucking Monkhouse.

Seeing as how any moron can take anything out of context and call for them to get the sack, I thought I'd use my platform here in the paper to call, not for the sacking of, but the desecration of Bob Monkhouse's grave. Yes, that Bob Monkhouse, the inoffensive MOR comedian that would never say

'boo' to a goose. Precisely.

So, I call on my many fans to rise up. Rise up and bring me the decomposing head of Bob Monkhouse! If not the head, then a least a forearm or a couple of fingers.

As you may well have figured out by now, I'm using satire and sarcasm to elucidate a silly point. However, out and out racism veiled behind 'political incorrectness' is so repugnant that you wonder how such backward individuals can exist in our wonderfully multi-

cultural society.

You have to wonder whether these utter dog eggs have figured out how to use rudimentary tools or have evolved opposable thumbs yet. I'd almost have more respect for you if you just admitted you were racist instead of being a coward and hiding behind such a meaningless term as 'political incorrectness'. But you haven't so I think you are a pack of twats. Good day.

Ted on...

...Prince Charles turning sixty

O

ld Charlie and I don’t tend to occupy the same social circles any more, so I feel I can freely say that I can’t think of a more useless twat since Catherine of Aragon’s refused to give Henry VIII that boy he so greatly desired.

The jug-eared fuckwit has seemingly made a living out of being a befuddled old curmudgeon for too long, and I think it is finally time that we called him on it, quite frankly. Nobody wants to hear your nonsensical views on the environment for the same reason that we don’t want Al Gore talking about being an inbred German bumlord who has no idea over the paternity of his sons. You will never be King, and instead you will have to watch your prematurely balding son take over, and for NOBODY TO GIVE A JAZZ TOSS, because you remain part of an outdated institution that has outlasted its welcome. Where is M. Guillotin when you need him?

Once again the supposedly leftleaning socialist haven that is the BBC have resolutely managed to avoid this damning judgement so often tossed at them by the trogolodytes at the Daily Express et al. Instead, they've turned into a bunch of toadying little swines sucking up to Her Maj and her dimwitted progeny following that whole advert nonsense that happened a while ago. If I wanted to watch a jugeared idiot making no sense on the televsion, I'd rent Dumbo on VHS. Of course, there was that nonsense with that bimbo in the Mercedes that put a dampener on the mid90s. I remember being most upset by the whole affair, mainly because the whole chest-beating and gnashing of teeth that ensued meant that many of my favourite cartoons were postponed in lieu of televised hagiographies and eulogies by middle aged dullards with nothing going on in their lives. She was a useless sponger, somewhat of a trollop, and if she weren't able to pull those ridiculous

doe eyes to the camera, then nobody would remember her name, let alone buy a poorly crafted memorial plate with her ghastly visage on it from the back of the Sunday Express magazine.

This brings me quite nicely onto the kind of collossal sheeps' minges that buy this worthless arse from these magazines. What precisely are you trying to achieve? Will you ever eat off this plate? No, you fucking utter waste of carbon molecules, you won't. And when you drag your withering frame onto the set of Antiques Roadshow, hoping that this shameful piece of utter knob is anything other than a swift kick in the gonads for my eyes, I hope that whichever fading TV star will laugh in your stupid fucking face, you utter, utter helmet.

Seriously, what is the point of Antiques Roadshow? Nobody cares if your great-great-grandad stole this worthless piece of shite from whichever foreign country he was invading at the time is worth £10 or £10,000 simply because it doesn't affect us.

The only slight gleam of pleasure I get is when the pig-eyed sacks of shit have their dreams shattered when they are told that the ugly vase that they found in a skip isn't worth the several grands' worth they first thought and so try and backtrack saying it has too much 'sentimental value'. Sentimental value? Never value anything that you couldn't pick up and run with at a moment's notice. I'm sure that the treasure trove of love letters and 'baby's first' albums are all well and good, but could you reasonably collect them and escape your house if it was on fire? No you couldn't, you utter fucking moron, which just proves what an utter shit-show our culture has become.

26 XPRESS

NOVEMBER.17.2008 XPRESS@gairrhydd.COM

Cardiff's Student Radio Station Available online 24/7.

Just Added

Mainstream show of the week:

A selection of the best songs added to the playlist this week, all of which can be heard on mainstream shows.

Laura, Dora and Lucy Show

Dan & Petch's 80s Hour of Power

1. The Futureheads - I Wouldn't Be Like This If You Weren't Here 2. Gym Class Heroes - Guilty As Charged (feat Estelle) 3. Flashguns - Time House Blue 4. Red Light Company - Scheme Eugene (Xpress Acoustic Session) 5. Underground Railroad - 25 Acoustic Session)

A great mix of comical anecdotes, the latest indie chart tunes plus loads of fun and games mean Laura, Dora and Lucy provide the perfect hangover cure following a messy Saturday night at Come Play. As well as chatting about that week's weird and wonderful goings-on, some great features include Lucy's pick of surreal news stories that didn’t make the pages of The Guardian. This mainstream show is the answer to all your entertainment needs on those lazy Sunday afternoons. Oh, and to let you in on a secret... Lucy is actually a boy called Luc, just in case you were wondering.....

Sunday: 12:30pm till 2:00pm

Specialist show of the week:

Dan and Petch present an eclectic mix of 80’s music, including hair metal, rock, hip-hop, movie tunes and much much more. Basically any 80s music you can think of they have it and will play it. Features include 80s movie pick of the week, which not only provides the perfect excuse for a film night but also means you get to hear the movie tracks.

So although it might be late for some of you, they play awesome, making it well worth a listen.

Designed for Cardiff. Defined by You.

Thursday: 11pm till 12am

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Mainstream

Mainstream

Mainstream

Mainstream

Specialist

Specialist

9am-10:30am Alice and Mel Breakfast Show 10:30am-12:30pm Loud Noises 12:30pm-2pm Show and Tell with Amy 2pm-2:30pm Quiz 2.30pm-4:30pm Sports Show 4:30pm-6pm Lee Macaulay on Xpress

Specialist

6pm-7pm The Xhibition 7pm-8pm Transmission 8pm-9pm Gig "n" mix 9pm-10pm Holly & Carys Show 10pm-11pm Superstar DJs Here We Go! 11pm-12am Anything Alternative 12am - 1am Richard Gale Show

9am-11am Three Girls & a Gay 11am-12:30pm Hilary and Heather Show 12:30pm-1pm The Xpress Debate 1pm-3pm Madame Audrey's Lunar Cake Shop & Delicatessen 3pm-4:30pm B.A.M in the Afternoon 4:30pm-6pm Rich & Britt Afternoon Show

Specialist

6pm-7pm Kat, Kimba & Ruth Show 7pm-8pm Tom & Billy Show 8pm-9pm Andrew Rhys Lewis Show 9pm-10pm CUTV on the Radio 10pm-11pm Hedonism 11pm -12am Pete Blackley Show

Friday

Saturday

Mainstream

Mainstream

11am-1pm Al & Steve Show 1pm-2.30pm 2 Girls, 1 Mic with Sally & Susie 2.30pm-4:30pm TNT 4:30pm-6pm Ben O'Clock Radio

Specialist

6pm-7pm International Superhits 7pm-8pm The Hype Machine 8pm-9pm The Argument 9pm-10pm The Essential Gig Guide 10pm-12am Flo Jam Sessions

10am-11am Hair of the Dog 11am-12pm Wake Up with Henry & Oscar 12pm-2pm Jack and Tom Delusion

Specialist

2pm-3pm PushPop 3pm-4pm Naomi & Beth Show 4pm-5pm 3 Man Bundle 5pm-6pm Milo Mitchem Show 6pm-7pm Frankie & Tegan Show 7pm-8pm Ruari & Liam Show 8pm-9pm The Pigeon Hole 9pm-10pm Alice & Monique Show 10pm-11pm Ian Hall Show 11pm-12am Richard Gale Show

9am-11am 3 Man Bundle 11am-1pm Gossip Girls with Seetal & Lily 1pm-2.30pm Point Blank 2.30pm-3pm The Weekly Summit 3pm-4pm Louisa & Beth Afternoon Show 4pm-6pm Luke & Ed Show 7pm-8pm The Housemasters 8pm-9pm Lean Eyon Show 9pm-10pm The Take Over 10pm-11pm Martin Sharpe Show 11pm-12am - Rhys James

Sunday

9am-11am Filing the Gap with Emma & Alexis 11am-12:30pm Kat & Ash Show 12:30pm-1pm The Trawlermen's Sweethearts 1pm-2pm Star and Moo Show 2pm-4pm Sporties 4pm-6pm Sam & Greg Show 7pm-8pm Curly Joe and Ginger's Countdown Conundrum 8pm-9pm Xposed 9pm-10pm Thursday Night Annihilation Appreciation Society 10pm-11pm Subversion 11pm-12am Dan and Petch's 80s Hour of Power 12am-1am Peter & Coralie Show

Mainstream

11am-11:30am The Beautiful Hesitation 12:30pm-2pm Laura, Dora & Lucy Show 2:30pm-2:40pm Across the Corridor - Xpress's Weekly Soap: How many times can the fire alarm go off in one night?

3pm-5pm The Student Radio Chart Show 5pm-6pm Crapbox

Specialist

6pm-7.30pm Classical Show with Hannah & Co. 7:30pm-9pm Jazz Society Show 9pm-10pm Are You Sitting Comfortably?

www.xpressradio.co.uk

Do you want to get involved?

Didn’t join any societies in the first few weeks? Well never fear because Xpress is here. If you are interested in becoming either a producer or getting involved with the news team then now’s your chance.

Just e-mail your interest to producers@xpressradio.co.uk or newseditor@xpressradio.co.uk and we'll be in contact soon.

FIVE MINUTE FUN 27

NOVEMBER.17. 2008 FMF@gairrhydd.COM

found on facebook Housemate done something stupid?

Send more oddities!

sudoku.

1. Log on to the book of face 2. Join the group ‘Found on Facebook’ 3. Upload embarrassing photos 4. Pick up gair rhydd on Monday and laugh

Quick Crossword Across

Down

1. Tortilla chips topped with cheese (6) 4. Popular Ford model of the 1970s/80s (6) 9. Idlers (7) 10. Argue a case in court (5) 11. Wind instrument with a piercing tone (4) 12. As a whole (7) 14. Senior years (3,3) 16. Car or bicycle for pleasure trips (6) 19. Procedure carried out by a forensic pathologist (7) 21. 1998 Gwyneth Paltrow thriller (4) 23. Representation, reflection (5) 24. Easy-care (fabric) (4-3) 25. Registers, or goes into (6) 26. Fooled (6)

1. Kate ___, singer whose debut album was Made of Bricks (4) 2. Stole another's work (7) 3. Chronically overweight (5) 5. All-powerful leader (7) 6. Excerpt from a Teenage ___, 1967 Keith West hit (5) 7. Small children (8) 8. Occasion noted for hats and horses (5) 15. Assimilate into the ways of another country (2,6) 17. Lived (7) 18. ___ Bellingham, Loose Women presenter (5) 20. Pamphlet or leaflet, especially one which is political (5) 21. West Indian republic, capital Port-au-Prince (5) 22. Black ___ Peas, band with singer Fergie (4)

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1

HARD

EASY

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11 13

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YOU

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Spotted Glyn?

18 20

21 22

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25

- spot

Have

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Glyn, BB7 screen god, is studying Welsh and Spanish at Cardiff University. Snap a picture of him and send us your sightings!

Join the Gair Rhydd G-spot Facebook group and upload!

28 LISTINGS The Listings Top Five... ...ways to stay awake in the most boring lectures We've all had those lectures that we wish would just end. We had a heavy night before and wished we hadn't done the good student thing and gone in.

You have fallen asleep and everyone is laughing at you even the lecturer. Well why not try out one of our ideas for staying awake: 1. Read Gair Rhydd We all know where they are, so why not pick one up on the way to your lecture and have a read. You might even learn something.

2. Get a Coffee If you know you're feeling tired before the lecture even starts, drop into the shop on the way and get a nice STRONG coffee to keep those heavy eyelids open.

3. Pop a Pro Plus Yes! It works for me, especially after a night out and no sleep. Use with care, though!

Monday 17th Nov

NOVEMBER.17.2008 LISTINGS@gairrhydd.COM

Tuesday 18th Nov

FUN FACTORY @ SOLUS One of the Union's indie, alternative, 90s classics and ROCK nights!!

7pm-2am, free entry.

GET LOST @ LIQUID Better still. GET LOST ON THE WAY to Liquid, and go elsewhere...

9pm - 3am, £3.50

DIGITAL @ OCEANA A cattle market for the loose-legged among us who're looking to pick up a morning regret...

9pm-3am, £3 and your soul.

CHIC BEAT @ REVOLUTION I haven't noticed the Rough Hill duracell bunny promotions team out quite as much this week... maybe they've developed a conscience and sense of self worth?

9pm - 3am, £4 - £5

VODKA ISLAND @ TIGER TIGER Another generic student night, but with an added touch of raaaa! Don your Jack Wills and boogie on down with the sloanies.

Free before 9pm, £3 after SAD SONGS FOR DIRTY LOVERS @ BUFFALO BAR Indie, Alternative & Punk club night where you can buy a pint of lager for £2, upstairs in Buffalo.

10pm - 3am, free entry.

RWCWD @ ST DAVIDS HALL The Orchestra of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama wanna show you their musical shizzle!

Contact venue for details.

50TH ANNIVERSARY TIME @ CIA The one and only Cliff is in town. YUP, YOU HEARD ME! Cliff Richard!! Of Summer Holiday and Millenium Prayer fame. He's celebrating his 50th Anniversary - join him...

7.30pm, contact venue for details.

AESTHETICS @ BUFFALO Finest hip-hop music from the old days to the new - there's no room for bullshit here kids, just the best tunes! Hot Damn!

8pm - 3am, £3 - £2 nus PARENTHETICAL GIRLS @ CLWB IFOR BACH Parenthetical girls are playing with guests Ladybird and Zissou. Chepstow's Zissou are enamoured with 'high - octave sparkle'.

Quite what that means I'll leave for you to find out.

7.30pm, £6 MUD @ THE BASEMENT The resident DJs are back out in force this week, kicking up a storm with their catchy beats. Frottage for your eardrums.

9pm- 3am, £3 YEAR OF THE PUG @ CLWB IFOR BACH Fun and frolics with Xpress alumni DJs. 10pm - 2am, £3 - £2 nus

Wednesday 19th Nov

SIN BIN @ SOLUS This night is DEFINITELY the place to be on a Wednesday night... So dirty it makes fruity ginge Lohan look like Mother Theresa.

Free entry 7-9, £3 after SHOTGUN RULES @ REVOLUTION Popular student night.

9pm - 2am, £2.50 COCK AND BULL @ TIGER TIGER It's so naughty! It has cock in its name!!

Free entry, 8pm WAVE AGAINST THE MACHINE @ THE BASEMENT Rock 'n' Rave, 90's school rave and all the classics.

9pm - 3am, 11pm CAGE THE ELEPHANT @ CLWB IFOR BACH US punk rock band who've previously toured with Queens of the Stone Age. But they don't actually have any elephants, caged or otherwise.

7.30pm, £7 HAYLEY WESTERNA @ ST DAVID'S HALL At the age of 12 she was busking on the streets of Christchurch with her sister when she got noticed by a journalist and it all went from there... Blah blah blah, ragsto-riches PR bullshit.

7.30pm, £24.50 MCFLY @ CIA Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!

McFlyyyyyyyy! Wee everywhere.

7.30pm, £16.00

4. Send a sneaky text We all do it, so let's not deny it. The best way to stay awake is to have a chat with a friend. You may not be completely concentrating, but hopefully something will go in even if it's just the gossip you're finding out.

5. Write your shopping list Your tummy is rumbling and all you want to do is eat and sleep... why not jot down the things you fancy to eat for the week! At least it still looks like you're taking notes...

Students’ Union, Park Place, 02920 387421 www.cardiffstudents.com ! Med Club, Neuadd Meirionydd, Heath Park 02920 744948 ! Clwb Ifor Bach ros, Bakers Row 02920 399939 www.clubmetropolitan.com ! Dempseys, Castle Street 02920 252024 ! Move, 7 Mill Lane 02920 225592 !

Jazz, 21 St. Mary Street 02920 387026 www.cafejazzcardiff.com ! The Riverbank Hotel, Despenser Street www.riverbankjazz.co.uk ! St. David’s Hall, Millennium Centre, Cardiff Bay 0870 0402000 www.wmc.org.uk ! The New Theatre, Park Place 02920 878889 www.newtheatrecardiff.co.uk ! The Cardiff International Arena, Mary Ann Street 02920 224488 ! The Millennium Stadium Can’t miss it. www.millenniumstadium.com ! The Point,

LISTINGS 29

NOVEMBER.17.2007 LISTINGS@gairrhydd.COM

Thursday 20th Nov

C-Y-N-T @ CLUB IFOR BACH A regular student night? Er, no! Will blow your frilly socks off.

10.30pm - 4am, £3 MISCHIEF @ TIGER TIGER Mischief? You want mischief? I'll give you mischief... Sweaty spam flaps! Scrotum head! Muff features!

9pm - 2am, £4 - £5 THE STANTON WARRIORS @ SUB 29 BAR Dom and Mark are creating their own mix of break beats this week.

10pm, £7 PAUL WELLER @ CIA Former Jam and Style Council front man has re-discovered himself as a solo artist and woman. Pauline Weller at your service. £30 GUERILLA TACTICS TOUR @ THE POINT North Wales 80s punk band popsters.

7.30pm, £17

Friday

21st Nov LUSH @ SOLUS R’n’B, poppy stuff, funky house & electro.

Free entry 7-9pm, £3 after.

VOODOO @ RISA Student night.

9pm-3am, £4 THE DUDES ABIDE @ CLWB IFOR BACH Shake your indie fringes!

10.30pm, £3.50 NME ROCK 'N' RIOT TOUR @ SU Primal Scream and support are going to be rocking out the union. Primal's music has been described as 'sheer classic', so I'm guessing they're a bit like Bette Midler or Lou Reid. £22.50 WE TRASH PARTIES @ BUFFALO BAR Resident DJs mixing up a blend of indiedisco and cool disco tunes for us all to enjoy.

8pm - 4am, £4 free before 11pm

Saturday 22nd Nov

COME PLAY @ SOLUS Possibly the best established night at the Union. Better music this year too. Bring wetwipes.

9pm - 2am, £3 FRIZBEE @ CLWB IFOR BACH A North Wales Trio rocking Cardiff's legendary venue.

8.30pm, £6 CLWB CARIAD - VINAL VENDETTAS @ CLWB IFOR BACH Welsh all-girls DJ collective are running the club tonight. They include Radio 1 in Wales's Bethan Elfyn.

10pm - 3am, £4 SPUNGE @ BARFLY Spunge are playing with guests More than Normal and Haddonfield. Spunge are Ska Punk Rockers, and the soundtrack to my late teens... Ah, sweet miss-spent youth.

7.30pm, £10

Sunday 23rd nov

THE LIVING ROOM @ CLWB IFOR BACH More resident DJs trying to entertain you.

8pm, £2 10 FOOT CWTCH @ 10 FEET TALL Rowan Liggett will be having an open mic session with the chance to even earn booze. Sounds like a good place to be.

8.30pm - 3am, £3 THE VIEW @ THE POINT A youthful Scottish 4-piece. Their music consists of swirling melodies and unexpected crescendos.

7.30pm, £14.50 TORN @ BUFFALO BAR Resident DJs rock out childhood classics and rubix cube beats. What the flip are they?!

10pm - 4am, free.

STRIKE DJ @ METROS DJ Stiffy and Sticky 10pm - 3am

(The Welsh Club), 11 Womanby Street 02920 232199 www.clwb.net ! Barfly, Kingsway, Tickets: 08709070999 www.barflyclub.com/cardiff ! MetIncognito, Park Place 02920 412190 ! Liquid, St. Mary Street 02920645464 ! The Philharmonic, 76-77 St. Mary Street 02920 230678 ! Café The Hayes 02920 878444 www.stdavidshallcardiff.co.uk ! Chapter Arts Centre, Market Road, Canton 02920 304400 www.chapter.org ! Wales Sherman Theatre, Senghennydd Road 02920 646900 www.shermantheatre.co.uk ! The Glee Club, Mermaid Quay 0870 2415093 www.glee.co.uk !

Cardiff Bay, 02920 460873 www.thepointcardiffbay.com ! Tommy’s Bar, Howard Gardens (off Newport Road) 02920 416192 !

30 SPORT

NOVEMBER.17.2008 SPORT@gairrhydd.COM

THE WORD ON... ...Cardiff University's investment in sport Josh Pettitt suggests investment in elite sport INVESTMENT IN Elite sport is the key to increasing participation and enjoyment at all levels for students at Cardiff. The university teams already compete at an extremely high level in a number of sports, coming 16th in the BUCS rankings of 2007. With the help of a little funding Cardiff could secure a reputation among the sporting elite.

Although sporting repute might not be the current students’ leading priority it would certainly be at the forefront of the minds of its prospective students. The endorsement of elite sport can only succeed in improving Cardiff’s waning reputation of the last few years.

The Times newspaper stated recently that: “sports facilities seem to be at the centre of every ambitious university's plans.” Perhaps the university is guilty of losing some of this

much-needed ambition.

Some might say that the university doesn’t have the necessary assets to fund an ambitious sporting revival, and yet Cardiff has just finished building its £21 million optometry building and its £31 million brain and bodyimaging unit. Needless to stay Cardiff is not exactly strapped for cash.

Participation in sport is a habit that is inspired from the elite down.

I’m not against mass participation, indeed this is the ultimate goal, but elite sport is the initial building block for the future of sport at Cardiff. If the

funding of elite sport is prioritised then the University will develop a sporting habit. This habit will perpetuate the importance of sport in the lifestyle of the wider student body.

However if the AU elects to campaign for “sport for the masses” it would only provide the university with an excuse to provide an inadequate stop-gap. Although regular small investments might prove successful in the short term they can only disguise the larger failings that undermine Cardiff’s wealth of sporting talent. The University urgently requires a dramatic and complete overhaul of its current shabby and minimal sporting facilities and only the motivation and reward of elite status will merit such an investment.

Participation in sport is a habit that is inspired from the elite down. If the university continues to turn a blind eye to its archaic facilities, elite sport

and subsequently all sport will fail at Cardiff.

The University is guilty of losing some much-needed ambition.

In order to improve Cardiff’s sporting facilities, and consequently its overall reputation, Cardiff desperately needs to rediscover its lost ambition in order to continue its sporting success.

Investment in elite sport would require funding on a similar level to that of Cardiff’s commitment to eye care.

With the rest of the body to look after, this surely isn’t too much to ask.

Alasdair Robertson argues for mass participation I DO not pretend to underestimate the importance of BUCS and elite sport to the university as a whole.

There is no denying that a successful rugby, football, hockey, netball or any other team is of vital importance in defining the university's reputation and no doubt helps to attract the best students.

However I would argue that we must prioritise the funding of mass participation over elite sport. If we can encourage a healthy and sports-aware culture then elite sports will follow suit. The university cannot spend a large chunk of its budget on facilities that will benefit a small percentage of the university’s population and neglect the larger, and predominantly uninterested student body.

Furthermore the university cannot afford to invest to the extent that it needs to in the current economic cli-

mate. How do we decide which sport to throw money at? Is it fair to specialize in one or two sports that we consider more important than others and how do we decide which are the most important?

Make sport a part of university and teams will flourish.

Singling out one sport for investment would be hugely unfair. Investment in sport needs to reach the wider student body rather than the elite few.

With such investments the university also promotes the important message

that leading a healthy lifestyle is of great importance at a time when the UK faces something of a crisis with regard to its health.

It is also the case that each university develops an area of excellence in which it attracts the best students.

Cardiff excels in journalism, optometry and psychology for instance whereas Loughborough is famed for its excellence in the sectors of sport and design.

Cardiff, as a university of great repute, undoubtedly needs top facilities in sport. But not to the same extent as national sporting academies such as Loughborough or UWIC, privileging the elite. We need more gyms so that the wait for an exercise bench isn’t half an hour and we need access to better pitches for IMG sport so that students don’t have to travel to games that are invariably cancelled.

Indoor training facilities and undersoil heating don’t produce better players, they simply massage egos. Make sport a part of university culture and teams will flourish.

Singling out one sport for investment would be hugely unfair.

The best sporting nations don’t necessarily have the best facilities but they have the largest participation rates. India in cricket and Brazil in football are the prime examples. Promote an active lifestyle, promote sport and inevitably elite sport will follow.

SPORT 31

NOVEMBER.17.2008 SPORT@gairrhydd.COM

SPORT COMMENT

Australia Warne out

Gatland's Legacy

AUSTRALIA'S RECENT defeat to India in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy has led to fevered excitement amongst English cricket fans concerning the prospect of regaining the Ashes in the Summer of 2009.

There can be no doubt that since the retirement of Australian cricketing legends Glen McGrath, Shane Warne, and Justin Langer the team has struggled, culminating in this recent test series defeat.

Captain Ricky Ponting has come under fire for a failure of strong leadership and tactical naivety. Indeed, his decision to use part time spin bowlers on the penultimate day of the last test cost the team the small chance they still had of victory.

Only two batsmen, Mike Hussey and Simon Katich averaged over 40, while the bowling attack has arguably

WALES ARE a proud rugby nation, but the patriotic Welsh public have often relied on outdated memories of the glorious Seventies for their identity within rugby culture.

However, the arrival of Warren Gatland has signalled a movement away from such romanticised nostalgia. He has set out to create a memorable rugby legacy of his own and for once it is not anchored in the attacking flair that has been the hallmark of Welsh sides of the past.

Gatland’s sole mission is to achieve results. Never has Wales been dealt a greater dose of realism than under the Kiwi’s watchful eye. Unlike the Grand Slam team of 2005, when the successful Welsh team faded into obscurity, the 2008 team have been given the challenge of beating the world champions in their own backyard this summer.

Alex Bywater Sports Writer

never recovered from the loss of its world-class performers. Although the current side has an abundance of talent in pace bowling, including Brett Lee and Stuart Clark, it is clear that since the loss of Warne to retirement Australia has suffered from a shortage of spin bowlers to add variety to a one-sided attack.

Bowlers including Stuart McGill, Cameron White and the recent debutant Jason Krejza have all tried and failed in their attempt to fill the gaping

void left by Shane Warne.

With the Australian team in disarray there has been speculation that Warne will come out of retirement for the 2009 Ashes. Although the cricketing world would love to see the last hurrah of one of the greatest characters of modern cricket, it would undermine the team in the longer term. The call for the return of an ageing legend is a troubling message to young upcoming spinners in the Australian setup.

English cricketing legend Sir Ian Botham predicted recently that England will regain the Ashes with ease: “We have the bowlers - the one thing Australia are lacking. They have Brett Lee. But after that, there's nothing; there's no spinner and no Glenn McGrath. There's no threat.” Scathing criticism indeed. Whether Australia grants Warne one last attempt on the holy grail of cricket or rely on one of their younger prospects to mature into a world-beater, the Ashes will be a fascinating contest.

Josh Pettitt Sports Editor

Last weekend James Hook almost single-handedly demonstrated the progress that Wales have made in their removal from the stereotype of glorious losers. After throwing a wayward and overly ambitious pass, a literal throwback to the days of misadventure, he soon knuckled down to the harder work of grinding out the more important win.

Gatland’s first challenge, before conquering the southern hemisphere, is to create an environment in which playing style takes a back seat to winning. In his post match interview Gatland was quoted as saying: “good teams nail big moments and we should be furious… we had a chance to beat the world champions and we let ourselves down."

The culture of Welsh rugby has been forever dominated by an expansive and aesthetically pleasing game.

However Gatland will not allow this to scupper his ambition for his new winning tradition.

Farewell Goal King Cole No Ordinary Joe Richard Williams Sports Editor ANDREW COLE, one of the Premier League’s greatest strikers, retired last week after a glittering career in English football.

Cole played for 13 English teams, but is best known for his spells at Newcastle United and Manchester United.

However, his retirement has not been met with widespread acknowledgement and celebration of one of the best strikers to have graced English football during the last two centuries.

Of his 289 goals from 646 appearances, 187 came in the Premier League. Only one man, Alan Shearer, has surpassed Cole’s record. Yet, Cole

never succeeded in international football.

A striker with a goal scoring record as significant as Cole’s should have picked up more than the 15 caps he won before he retired in 2002.

Cole’s decision to retire, after being overlooked by the then England manager Sven Goran Eriksson for the 2002 World Cup squad, signalled a sad end to an international career which barely began.

Cole only netted once for England.

It was this statistic which led Glen Hoddle to criticise Cole’s lack of potency in front of goal, claiming the striker needed half a dozen chances for him to score once.

The Nottingham born striker, who recently departed his hometown team in his final foray in the professional

game, delighted Manchester United fans with his performances in front of goal.

Cole’s partnerships at Old Trafford with Dwight Yorke and Teddy Sheringham led to five Premier League titles, two FA Cup wins and the celebrated Champions League win over Bayern Munich in 1999.

Despite all of this, Cole has retired with a whimper, rather than a fanfare.

His career may have been a great success, but there is an underlying theme of an opportunity missed.

This is no more apparent than on the international scene, where a great goal scorer could have become a legend were it not for the choices of managers to overlook him.

Norris celebration blues Tom Victor Sports Writer IPSWICH MIDFIELDER David Norris caused controversy last week with his goal celebration after scoring in his side’s victory over Blackpool.

After finding the net, Norris crossed his wrists in a gesture believed by some to be a tribute to his friend and former Plymouth team mate Luke McCormick.

McCormick is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence after killing two children in a car crash while driving under the influence of alcohol on his way home from Norris’ wedding.

Norris has since claimed that his actions were misunderstood, and his club has fined him, with the sum of the fine being donated to charity.

This is not the first a footballer has got into trouble over a goal celebration. Indeed, the criticism aimed at the former Plymouth midfielder might be explained by the similarity of his actions to those of Australia international Tim Cahill earlier this year.

After scoring for Everton against Portsmouth, Cahill performed a nearidentical celebration in an ‘emotional reaction’ to the imprisonment of his brother for grievous bodily harm.

Other controversial goal celebrations include Robbie Fowler jokingly responding to comments made

about his alleged drug use in matches against Everton. Equally ill advised was Paolo di Canio, who followed a goal for Lazio with a fascist salute.

In such situations it is difficult for football’s governing bodies to decide what action to take. As a result, while they have arguably erred on the side of caution with regards to David Norris’ celebration, the most viable decision has probably been made.

Scott D'Arcy Sports Editor JOE CALZAGHE should have silenced the critics when he beat Roy Jones Jr. by an unanimous decision in Madison Square Garden in the early hours of Sunday morning.

After all he beat one of the best pound for pound fighters in history, well in his prime at least. In fact he didn’t just beat Jones, he demolished him with a show of stamina and confidence that surely cements his status as one of the best British boxers ever. His record certainly befits that label with 46 fights unbeaten, winning World Championship belts at both Super-middleweight and Lightheavyweight.

He cut Jones above the eye midway through the fight and the result never looked in doubt. The stats tell the story: Calzaghe threw 985 punches, more than double Jones’ tally, and landed 35% of them. That is a staggering work rate, and it perhaps got to Jones psychologically.

But Jones also seemed to get his tactics wrong. Like Hopkins before him he sat back an tried to soak up the best of Calzaghe’s attack. While the Welshman may not have the knockout power he used to, it was foolish of Jones to underestimate Calzaghe’s stamina and confidence, with taunts straight out of the Prince Naseem book of showboating.

However, there will sadly always be a question mark over Calzaghe’s claim to greatness as, even after the victory over Jones, there are the voic-

es calling for one more fight, as if he still need to prove himself. Double Light-heavyweight Chad Dawson has stepped forward to challenge and Antonio Tarver and Bernard Hopkins have also been named as potential opponents.

Ricky Hatton got it spot on when he said in an interview on BBC Radio Five Live: “There’s always a new contender coming through.” So exactly how long will Calzaghe have to go on for to silence the dissident voices?

Ultimately, if Calzaghe hangs up his gloves these voices will haunt him, as is obvious in his uncertainty over retirement, but if he fights even once more there is a risk he will lose it all. And, although he demonstrated he is fit enough for another, there really is nothing further to prove. Fighters rarely know when to quit, but no-one could begrudge Calzaghe for opting for the fairy-tale ending of retiring, unbeaten, at the top of his game.

32 SPORT

NOVEMBER.17.2008 SPORT@gairrhydd.COM

Optom blinded Grace Le Breton IMG Reporter Law A 24-1 Optometry

PHOTO: NATALIA POPOVA

LAW A, as usual, delivered a highly polished performance in what turned out to be an exciting match. Having been forced to concede games already in this phase, Optometry trail Law considerably in the tables and, it transpired, on the court.

Frustratingly for Optometry, the score did not reflect their level of play; a strong Law attack met with a fierce Optometry defence, who with more practice could have posed a real threat. However, a great performance from Law’s wing-attack Katie Grace in the centre meant their shooters were at leisure to increase an already massive goal difference.

An awkward fall by Optometry’s Centre threatened to halt the game late in the first half, but accurate shooting from both Law shooters put pay to any resistance from Optometry, despite the fact that their goal-keeper was in fact a Law player.

The score at half time stood at 18-0, but this did nothing to deter Optometry, who in the true spirit of IMG needed only to score a goal to be back in the game. This they accomplished early in the second half; Law responded with a series of tactical defence moves, meaning that Optometry never got the ball into the D to shoot, despite centre Emma Houldey’s consistent efforts.

Law highlighted themselves as frontrunners in this year’s competition as much for their stylistic flair as their proven ability to score goals.

Good work from their goal-defence Sarah Wreford facilitated numerous interceptions, on which the attack fully capitalised . Optometry’s defence did cause problems for their opponents; goal-keeper Maddie Blanks got a hand to the ball, albeit unsuccessfully, on a number of occasions.

Ultimately, Law’s superior fitness and technical prowess won the game from the start, but Optometry can go away safe in the knowledge that a good effort on their part impinged on Law’s scoring spree - even if it was only by one goal.

PHOTO: NATALIA POPOVA

IMG ROUNDUP

Results

Football Earth Soc 4-3Pharm AC Gym Gym 10-0 Numatics Opsoccer 8-1 Philosophy Magnif. XI 0-3 Real Ale Madrid Socsi Fc 5-1 Cardiff Crusaders AFC History 5-0 Momed FC SAWSA 5-0 Psychology AFC Cathays 0-10 Carbs J-Unit 3-3 EUROS FC Locomotive 3-3 Samba Tigers

Bio fuel for Jets Julia Howard IMG Reporter

Cardiff Jets 16-2 Biology NEWCOMERS CARDIFF Jets secured their third win of the group stages with a deserved victory over Biology. Play from both teams was confident and clean, considering the wet and slippery conditions of the court.

Play started in favour of the Jets, taking an early lead within minutes of the first centre. The odd fall delayed play, but a good series of strong passes allowed the Jets to score in succession. Biology upped their defence and the play was consistent between two teams, with the game moving up and down the court, but neither team successful in its attempt to shoot.

However, the Jets utilised their strong attacking stance and were again successful in scoring, bringing the score to 9-0 near the end of the first half. A strong centre from the skilful Biology centre, which was well followed up by a quick-fire attack from Biology, allowed their competent Goal Attack to score an impressive shot a fair distance from the hoop within the goal circle. This increased the motivation of the Biology team

and lead to a successful defending tactic from them as the whistle was blown for half time, the score 9-1.

Tactical changes were made by both teams at half-time, with both producing strong teams for the start of the second half. The centre was played by the Jets which led to a successful series of goals from their impressive goal attack, with excellent play from the rebounds allowing the Jets to keep possession of the ball whilst in their opponent's half. Biology composed their defence and played some confident passes, playing in their goal shooter. Biology made some consistent, positive attempts on goal which were unfortunate not to score.

The strong defence of both teams made possession fairly equal, but towards the middle of the second half the Jets were able to push on and successfully score again on the rebound.

More attempts on goal were unsuccessful by Biology but although their morale was unaffected, the Jets continued to establish their lead and went on to score a few more times.

Finally, a tactical centre was played

by Biology, which was followed by a strong attack from the wing defence.

This allowed the successful positioning of the goal attack within the goal circle, who received the ball with confidence to go on to score the last goal of the match in a fairly one-sided affair.

Law A 4-2 KLAW Jomec FC 0-9 Economics Automotive 11-2 Law C Uni HallStars 4-0 Liability FC

Netball

Optom 3-29 Psychology A Gym Gym 0-20 Christian Union Psychology A 31-1 Jomec Numatics 17-9 Economics B Biology 2-16 Cardiff Jets A Carbs B 4-11 Pharmacy A English A 19-3 Automotive Optom 1-24 Law A Cardiff B 12-11 Cardiff Jets B J-Unit 0-20 SAWSA

SPORT 33

NOVEMBER.17.2008 SPORT@gairrhydd.COM

IMG ROUNDUP Silence of the Lamb

Alasdair Robertson talks to new IMG chair James Lambden about his plans for IMG this year because of a lack of qualified referees so we need to get the ball rolling.

Have you already outlined a system that you intend to put in place to solve the issue?

transport there simply isn’t the room within the budget as paying for transport for all teams would cost £30,000 plus. What I will be suggesting to teams is that they club together to book coaches if they need to in order to save money.

Group Positions after Week 3 IMG NETBALL

As you said, there is no rugby tournament this year. When do you feel that the tournament will be up and running?

THIS WEEK gair rhydd interviewed new IMG Chair James Lambden on his thoughts for the year ahead and his response to his controversial comments in last week’s edition.

First of all James, let's clear up your views on the article in last week's edition where it is claimed that you said BUCS sport is more important than IMG in terms of finance.

I’m not keen to comment upon the

issue really but what I will say is that I feel my comments were taken out of context and that I remain 110% committed to the betterment of IMG sport.

What do you consider to be your immediate priority in the role?

I’d have to say that refereeing/umpiring is the main priority. There are problems regarding the system in all sports and the issue needs sorting out before next year. At the moment we don’t even have a rugby tournament

If we’re being realistic next September is the target. The refereeing and coaching courses take too long to complete for any competition to begin this year.

Another contentious issue is the venue for IMG football. Traveling to Trelai is difficult for students without cars so will there be a change in venue or some form of subsidised transport?

I’m afraid the venue will remain as Trelai until the end of the year but I am doing my utmost to secure Pontcanna as the venue for next year's tournament. With regard to subsidised

Moving on, how do you feel the Athletic Union can improve its commitment to IMG sports overall?

Well, the AU continues to make a good commitment to IMG in terms of funding however I don’t feel funding is the main issue. The only area the AU can improve its commitment is in the provision of new facilities. When the AU funds a new facility it needs to ensure that it services the needs of both BUCS and IMG. Finally, what do you hope to have achieved by next September when you leave the post?

As I mentioned before, refereeing is a priority as is making sure we have a contact rugby tournament. I would also like to sort out some form of overall sponsorship for the league and to offer some form of kit deal for all teams to reduce costs. I’m also aiming to put on an IMG ball and an IMG fair for teams to advertise for players and referees. Overall though I think the main issue is organisation. I aim to have a system in place by next year that doesn’t need reforming each year and one that effectively runs itself so that the next IMG chair, who we hope to have elected in March, will be able to get straight on with the running of the leagues.

Pharmacy eat their CARBS to go joint top

D

L

Diff

Pts

Law B

4

4

0

0

46

12

2

Cardiff A

3

2

1

0

36

7

3

Medics A

4

2

0

2

24

6

4

Dentistry

4

2

0

2

16

6

5

Pharmacy B

4

1

1

2

-21

4

6

Medics B

4

1

0

3

-19

3

7

Socsi B

3

0

0

3

-22

0

8

Navy

4

0

0

4

--36

0

P

W

IMG NETBALL

Pharmacy A 11-4 CARBS B PHARMACY PROVED too strong for CARBS’s B as they strolled to an emphatic win.

Despite the end result, the skill level of both teams was fairly evenly matched. Pharmacy maintained a higher tempo of netball throughout the game, which ultimately proved too much for CARBS to handle.

Pharmacy’s well timed runs off the

ball meant they made use of all their players and provided the shooters with plenty of chances to score.

However, within the first half CARBS displayed moments of good netball too. The defence was strong and they managed to stick on their players and deflect the ball away from the hoop. Despite the tight marking Pharmacy’s attack broke away and scored. Nonetheless CARBS’s reaped the rewards from their man marking, and with similar possession between both teams the score at half time was CARBS B 3 and Pharmacy 5.

CARBS’s attack showed good movement in the shooting D by Seren

Dipody and Shelley Shanti, who constantly converted opportunities into goals. Although goals were few and far between, the quality was ever present. Play was controlled by the midfield, with pinpoint passes finding their mark and great support from Jemima Rogers finishing off the attacking moves in style.

The second half proved to be CARBS’s downfall, allowing Pharmacy to further their lead. The game became rather rushed and sloppy, but the Pharmacy team continued to drive up the court with quick strong passes, securing an overwhelming 11-4 win for Pharmacy.

Group B D

L

Diff

Pts

1

Economics A

4

4

0

0

121

12

2

Socsi A

4

3

0

1

-10

9

3

Psychology B

4

2

0

2

13

6

4

J-Unit

5

2

0

3

-53

6

5

Sawsa

4

1

0

3

12

3

4

1

0

3

-14

3

3

1

0

2

-45

3

4

0

0

4

--42

0

6 7

Cardiff IWC English B C-Plan

IMG NETBALL

Group C P

W

D

L

Diff

Pts

1

Law A

4

4

0

0

73

12

2

Psychology A

3

3

0

0

69

9

3

Christian Union

5

3

0

2

63

9

4

Cardiff B

3

2

0

1

1

6

5

Cardiff Jets B

3

1

0

2

-11

3

6

Jomec

5

1

0

4

-83

3

7

Optom

3

0

0

3

-51

0

8

Gym Gym

2

0

0

2

--62

-3

P

W

D

L

Diff

Pts

IMG NETBALL

Group D

1

Cardiff Jets A

3

3

0

0

26

9

2

Pharmacy A

3

3

0

0

16

9

3

Engin Numatics

3

3

0

0

12

9

4

Carbs A

2

2

0

0

25

6

5

Carbs B

3

2

0

1

2

6

6

English A

3

1

0

2

14

3

7

Economics B

4

1

0

3

-14

3

8

Earth Soc

2

0

0

2

--16

0

9

Biology

3

0

0

3

-16

0

10

Engin Auto

4

0

0

4

-26

0

P

W

IMG FOOTBALL

Group A D

L

Diff

Pts

1

Real Ale Madrid

3

3

0

0

16

9

2

Gym Gym

3

3

0

0

13

9

3

Earth Soc

3

2

0

1

1

6

4

Opsoccer

3

1

1

1

4

4

5

Magnificent XI

3

1

1

1

0

4

6

Pharm AC

3

1

0

2

2

3

7

Numatics

3

0

0

3

-16

0

8

Philosophy

3

0

0

3

--20

0

P

W

IMG FOOTBALL

Group B D

L

Diff

Pts

1

AFC History

3

3

0

0

18

9

2

Carbs

3

3

0

0

17

9

3

SAWSA

3

2

0

1

2

6

4

Socsi FC

3

2

0

1

1

6

5

Momed FC

3

1

0

2

-3

3

6

Psychology

3

1

0

2

-3

3

7

Crusaders

3

0

0

3

-16

0

8

AFC Cathays

3

0

0

3

--20

0

IMG FOOTBALL

PHOTO: NATALIA POPOVA

Laura Parry IMG Reporter

W

1

8

Yes. We are trying to put in place a system where referees will be paid and I also intend to advertise for referees at an IMG fair in freshers’ week next academic year. I would like to put players from the first and second years through coaching and refereeing courses so the leagues support themselves and in rugby alternate the games between Monday and Sunday so that players can referee and play in the same week.

Group A

P

Group C P

W

D

L

Diff

Pts

1

Locomotive

3

2

1

0

11

7

2

J-Unit

3

2

1

0

5

7

3

Samba Tigers FC

3

2

1

0

2

7

4

Law B

3

2

0

1

10

6

5

J-Soc

3

1

0

2

0

3

6

Euros FC

3

0

1

2

-15

1

7

Euros FC

3

0

0

3

-3

0

8

Men Utd FC

3

0

0

3

--10

0

P

W

IMG FOOTBALL

Group D D

L

Diff

Pts

1

Law A

3

3

0

0

17

9

2

Automotive

3

3

0

0

13

9

3

Uni HallStars

3

2

0

1

12

6

4

Economics

3

2

0

1

6

6

5

KLAW

3

1

0

2

-2

3

6

Liability FC

3

0

1

2

-6

1

7

LAW C

3

0

1

2

-19

1

8

Jomec FC

3

0

0

3

--21

0

34 SPORT CARDIFF Ladies' 1sts................7 GLAMORGAN Ladies' 1sts.......12

CARDIFF'S VISIT to local rivals Glamorgan proved unsuccessful despite an impressive performance away from home.

In the opening stages, Glamorgan’s back-line created an overlap, managing to make a run down the outside to score a fine try in the corner. Despite missing the conversion, Glamorgan had made a perfect start to the game.

Conditions were slippery but Cardiff’s back line held well with some good running from Rosie Hutton. Cardiff stole a Glamorgan lineout through Nikki Bamber after a perfect lift from Angharad Jones and Jen Hawkins as they tried to impose themselves on the match.

Cardiff’s brilliant defence held out Glamorgan on a number of occasions. Glamorgan’s fly-half attempted to launch attacks repeatedly, but the awaiting defence was up to the challenge.

In particular, full-back Alice Forster collected a kick well on one occasion, making a deft side-step before launching a Cardiff attack.

Cardiff’s Claire Molloy made a good run for the Glamorgan line but was stopped short. The supporting forwards ensured that they won the ball four phases straight, but they couldn’t force their way over the line.

Going into half time, Cardiff lost a scrum due to the Glamorgan pack being too strong and wheeling round.

PHOTO: NATALIA POPOVA

BASKETBALL: Rising high

Numerous kicks followed from Glamorgan but all were collected by Forster with precision.

An early chip and chase in the second half by the Glamorgan scrum-half saw Cardiff concede a second try in the corner, this time converted.

As Cardiff searched for a respone, Nick Shekhan’s brilliant interception took the Glamorgan defence by surprise but unluckily she could not turn it into a try, falling 10 metres short of the line.

After another run from Forster, following a kick into the Cardiff 22, she sustained a knee injury and had to be taken off, forcing a reshuffle. Blanche moving in at outside centre allowed Shekhan to resume her favourite position of full-back.

With captain Becky Blakeway punching holes in the defensive line, Cardiff gained some valuable ground in an attempt to fight their way back into the match.

Towards the end, Cardiff scrumhalf Roz Lambe broke, causing trouble for the Glamorgan defence, allowing Molloy to squeeze through and force towards the line, placing the ball just over for Cardiff’s only try.

Pushing on for the last remaining minutes, Cardiff fought bravely, creeping closer to the touch line but a try-scoring attempt was kicked into touch.

Glamorgan held on and won 12-7 despite Cardiff’s late fight back. With a number of players out of their comfort zones in different positions, and Jennifer Blackburn debuting at prop, Cardiff can take many positives from the game.

Cardiff edged out PHOTO: CHRISTINA MACKIE

Alexandra Quinnel Rugby Reporter

NOVEMBER.17.2008 SPORT@gairrhydd.COM

GOT WOOD?: Sally Wood is wrestled to the floor

Bragging rights Tom Barnett Sports Reporter CARDIFF Men's 1sts...............74 UWIC Men's 1sts....................62 CARDIFF HAD the edge in a tough match, showing enough class and guile to beat a strong UWIC side.

Cardiff made a fast start and had scored within the first minute. However, it was a few more minutes before the first period started to see regular scoring.

The lead changed hands several times in an enthralling end-to-end tussle before Cardiff started to pull away.

Their consistent attack demonstrated the sort of craft that helps to attract a healthy crowd to these games. At the end of a strong first period, Cardiff had laid a solid foundation. They were 19-11 up thanks largely to significant performances from Marsh and Hughes.

The first few minutes of the second period saw continued exhilarating play from Cardiff, with a series of threepointers from star performer Kritikos gaining acclaim from the crowd.

Cardiff raced into a 36-17 lead, but the physicality of UWIC started to show through. The visitors bulldozed into Cardiff’s advantage, thanks to

some sloppy defensive work and ended the second period with a strong series of scores, going into half-time at 38-29.

UWIC picked up where they left off in the third with a strong start.

However, Cardiff fought back when a foul on Tumelty saw him score both penalty shots to help stop the rot.

The third period was once again highly physical, with a number of collisions between players. The most notable of these saw a foul on Pitt, resulting in concerned faces around the court.

Despite the high impact play, scoring was relatively low in the third period. UWIC eventually gained control over Cardiff and looked like they could pull off a comeback, cutting the deficit to 8 points at 53-45.

With tensions high, Cardiff pulled out a brilliant and professional display in the fourth period, echoing the sort of stunning play they were delivering in the second period.

Once again, Kritikos scored a number of significant three pointers.

Indeed, while Cardiff scored numerous three pointers through the match, UWIC only managed a single effort all game, which had a significant bearing on the final result.

Cardiff pulled away in the fourth and while there was a late fight back

by UWIC, it was too late and Cardiff secured another solid victory.

SPORT 35

NOVEMBER.17.2008 SPORT@gairrhydd.COM

Bristol hit for six Narrow defeat CARDIFF Ladies' 2nds...............6 BRISTOL Ladies' 1sts................0

Bristol's best chance of the game fell to their striker, but pressure from 'keeper Ruth Daly led to her blasting the shot over the bar to the relief of the Cardiff defence.

Jojo Rennie was rewarded for her hard work with her first goal of the seaon, striking the ball into the goal after more fine play and a great pass from Ronchi.

Rennie finished off Cardiff's goal rout placing the ball coolly into the bottom corner after a one-two with Jenkinson. Despite a host of chances in the last ten minutes, including midfielder Grace Moore striking the post, all of the goal scorers missed opportunities to take a hat-trick But overall it was a fine team performance and solid defending, including a man-of-the-match display from Ronchi, made Cardiff deserved winners.

PHOTO: GRAHAM HAINES

CARDIFF SECONDS dominated a well-fought game to run out easy victors in their league clash with Bristol seconds.

Cardiff got the game off to a good start, attacking from the start. Bristol’s inability to clear the ball effectively led to numerous chances but Cardiff were unable to capitalise early on.

The first goal inevitably came from Cardiff after 20 minutes of pressing play, when a piercing run down the right from winger Francesca Ronchi led to the ball falling to Captain, Sarah Stimpson, who tucked it into the bot-

tom corner.

Cardiff continued their domination despite periods of scrappy play, and doubled their lead on 30 minutes, through Natilie Jenkinson's shot into the top corner, once again assisted by Ronchi.

Bristol failed to capitalise on the few chances they had, allowing Cardiff to go into the second half feeling confident. Once again Cardiff took a while to take advantage of their good attacking play, the next goal coming 15 minutes into the half, when Stimpson doubled her tally with a fierce shot after a poor clearance.

Goals then came thick and fast with three more in the next twenty minutes.

Jenkinson scored her second with a fine lob over the keeper from outside the area, after great link-up play from Ronchi and right-back Miki Burdus, who threatened throughout.

Susanna Byers Lacrosse Reporter

CARDIFF Ladies' 1sts................7 CAMBRIDGE Ladies' 1sts..........8 CARDIFF LOST narrowly to a strong Cambridge side despite showing glimpses of their potential.

Due to scuppered travel arrangements Cambridge started their game without their goalkeeper, leaving the Cardiff team over eager to get on the score sheet. Cardiff panicked and wasted some vital scoring opportunities before Sue Chandler opened Cardiff’s account with a free shot on a literally open goal. With the eventual arrival of the Cambridge keeper, Cardiff settled down to play a steadier game.

However Cambridge took advantage of Cardiff’s erratic play and broke through the defensive line with some incisive and rewarding drives.

Cambridge finished the first half the stronger with five goals to one in favour of the away side.

Cardiff settled their early nerves

and began the second half with far more cohesion and confidence. Man of the match Lucy Clare kept Cardiff within touching distance with some incredible saves. With a tight zonal defence, led by Jenny Nuttall and Rosie Scott, Cambridge struggled to find space in which to score. Lisa Paul and Sam Olney led the attack with several fast breaks, linking up well with the attackers who finished play with some brilliantly taken goals.

The industrious Emily Winkworth made a welcome return to the team and, with the rest of the home side, fought well to dominate possession in the second half. Despite having played excellently in patches the final score left Cardiff deflated with an 8-7 loss. However, co-captain Lisa Paul remains positive: “It was a really encouraging game against the toughest university team in the country and it was a great game for everyone involved.”

Although defeated, the home side can take consolation from a narrow loss to strong opposition. Co-captain Sam Olney commented: “This match proves our ability and we can build on this performance in our upcoming games.”

RUGBY: Rucking brilliant

ROWING: Making more waves

Roaring success Challengers Matthew Hetherington Sports Reporter

CARDIFF UNIVERSITY rowing club enjoyed a successful start to the year’s races, after mixed results during the summer regatta season.

At the Henley royal regatta the men’s squad eight narrowly missed out on qualifying. Andy Haines, Mike Haines and Laurence Birdsey reached the semi-finals of the Prince of Wales Challenge Cup in their quad, off the back of stunning races against the Combined Services RC and a Leander and Henley composite.

They were beaten by the eventual winners, California RC. While the women’s eight was knocked out in the first heat at Women’s Henley, in what was the fastest race in that category,

by Oxford, the eventual winners.

At the National Rowing Champion-

ships Andy Haines and Mike Haines won U23 double scull, with Haines also placed 2nd in U23 singles in an agonisingly close race, just 1.04 seconds off the winner. Laurence Birdsey finished 3rd in Open Lightweight double and 5th in Open Lightweight pair. Catriona Kay, Emily Parry, Beth Smith, Sophie Crampin and Penny Challans came 5th in the women's coxed 4, the first time a Welsh based crew has reached a final at Nat Champs for over 20 years.

At pairs head Beth Smith and Emma Cockcroft’s time of 13.59.2 won their category just 14 seconds behind elite class winners and Beijing Olympic finalists Natasha page and Beth Rodford. Amy Nihad and Vicky Williams finished 3rd in the W.S.3 category only 16 seconds behind the other Cardiff crew.

The crews then raced at home on the Taff in Cardiff Small Boats Head, where Cardiff collected a range of

pennants, winning the Women’s Senior 2 coxed fours, the Women’s Senior 4 coxed four and the novice men’s coxed four.

At Fours head in London, one of the most demanding races of the head season, Cardiff acquitted itself well in tough competition.

Five Cardiff University rowers, Emma Cockcroft, Beth Smith, Catriona Kay, Emily Parry and Penny Challans became the first Welsh crew ever to win a division at the event, racing as Rhwyfo Cymru.

Vicky Williams, Amy Nihad, Emmeline Mudford, Laura Watkins and Matthew Hetherington placed 7th in W.S.3.4+ with only Oxford, Cambridge Tethys and Edinburgh crews ahead of them, with seconds separating the top pack.

Jessica Watts, Alex Shepherd, Jess Lloyd Jones, Sarah Baker and Emily Evans placed 11th at the head of the middle pack of the same division.

Tomos Morgan Rugby Reporter

CARDIFF Men's 1sts...............23 IMPERIAL MEDICS Men's 1sts..3 IMPERIAL PROVED little trouble for a Cardiff team running high on confidence and with pole position in the league within their sights.

After the two successive losses at the beginning of the season, things are beginning to click for Cardiff firsts.

For the past few weeks the forwards have been hailed for their valiant performances on the pitch taking the game to their opponents. They dominated the scrum, troubled their opponents at the line out, and stole the show with a clean sweep of tires.

The most flamboyant of these scored by flanker Stuart Henry. Securing the ball from kick-off, he dealt his

PHOTO: CHRISTINA MACKIE

Sarah Stimpson Football Reporter

first opponent a mighty hand-off and sidestepped his way past the Imperial fullback for a spectacular try. The two other tries came from the unlikely front row duo of prop Ian Thomas and hooker Ross Grimstone.

The backs should have added to the rising points tally, courtesy of a rumbling pack, but mistakes started to creep in to the team’s fluidity. Cardiff began to make a mockery of a frail Imperial defence and Giancarlo Hallfield should have claimed the last try of the afternoon but carelessly fumbled the ball on the opponent’s try line.

With a host of players making their first team debuts, this week’s game demonstrated the growing health of the rugby club.

This win puts Cardiff in joint first place in the league table. With the pack firing on all cylinders and the tightest defence in the league Cardiff are well on their way to a swift promotion.

Sport 14 gairrhydd

gairrhydd

INSIDE: BUCS continues, the IMG round-up,FEATURES@ the Word On .COM gairrhydd facilities at Cardiff and sport comment

PHOTO: JAVIER CHOI

FEATURES

OCTOBER.22.2007

MAKING WAVES Delyth Marshall Windsurf Reporter

CARDIFF WINDSURFERS proved that they are the university to beat this year with impressive wins in all categories at the second event of the Student Windsurfing Association series held in Nottingham last weekend.

Southampton University, the reigning BUCS champions, and Bristol University brought along their strongest team of both racers and free-

stylers, who were favourites to win above Cardiff. However, the Welsh side entered a small team of experienced racers and with the gusty conditions there were some exciting results on the day.

Representing Cardiff in the men’s freestyle and racing was President Seb Willis and James Goody. Due to an unfortunate draw both Willis and Goody found themselves competing against each other in the first freestyle heat alongside the reigning BUCS winner Joe O’Callaghan and Southampton‘s Stefan Hilder. Willis and Hilder both

moved through the heats to the semifinal to face more stiff competition, although the reigning champion was out. Willis’s consistency in technical aerial tricks over Hilder’s flips and loops led him into the final.

Again Willis’s variation of aerial spocks and flakas in front of the judges landed cleanly won over the judges leaving him on top of the podium. The men’s racing competition proved to be the fastest and most competitive seen in the SWA, with both Willis and Goody from Cardiff making it into the semi-finals, where an unfortunate mo-

ment for Goody as he rounded a buoy cleared the way for Willis to the final.

Not to be outshone, Goody showed the crowd how to wipe-out in style with board and rider nearly ending up in the crowd.

The final saw Willis set off well and keep his leading position at the turning mark, with the competition behind him he came first giving his second win of the day. The advanced Cardiff ladies’ team of Gemma Lewis and Beth Sangwine also proved that they would be tough to beat. Sangwine was drawn against strong competition and

was unfortunate not to progress into the final. Lewis was to shine in the women’s heats, showing the other racers why she holds the gold medal in BUCS racing last year. After winning all but one of her heats Lewis faced a strong Southampton and Cambridge team in the final.

Keeping a cool head Lewis set off in strong winds and kept her competitors in sight as she powered through to take the win with ease. With these results Cardiff currently lead the SWA series, which continues in Cambridge in late November.

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VIEWS EXPRESSED ARE NOT NECESSARILY THOSE OF THE PUBLISHERS THE GAIR RHYDD IS WRITTEN, DESIGNED, TYPESET AND OUTPUT BY STUDENTS OF CARDIFF UNIVERSITY ! ALI & CERI SITTING IN A TREE... ! ALI CONFESSES TO WEARING HOTPANTS WHILST DRESSED AS A SMURF !LIZ 'THE MOUTH' WRAY IS UNUSUALLY QUIET THIS WEEK ! WE WANT THE OLD LIZ WRAY BACK ! ALI ENJOYS BLOODSPORTS ! JOSH: "I'M ON LAMBY'S SIDE. I HATE IMG" ! EMMA LOVES GASH