gair rhydd - Issue 894 pt1

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CARDIFF'S STUDENT WEEKLY

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ISSUE 894 APRIL 27 2009

creativewords EXCLUSIVE: Volume V of the anthology of creative writing by students at Cardiff University

MY TAXI DRIVER DID THIS TO ME

PHOTO: BEN BRYANT

Jamie Thunder Sub Editor A Cardiff student is on crutches after being run over by a taxi driver yards from his home in Roath.

Paul Stollery, a second-year business student, had to have two pins in his ankle after the incident, which occurred in the early hours of Friday April 3rd. The driver also took his mobile phone.

After a night in Walkabout, Paul took a taxi alone from Greyfriars Road to his house on Shirley Road, a journey that usually costs around £7.

But when he got out of the taxi he was shocked to be confronted with a £20 charge.

“I refused to pay,” said Paul, who admits he wasn’t sure whether the meter was running. “And as you can imagine things got a bit heated.

“I had my phone in my hand and the driver grabbed it, and as he drove off he ran over my ankle.”

By chance he was found by a friend soon after, and Paul used his friend’s phone to call the police and an ambulance from the roadside.

However, police dismissed his claims because the taxi driver, who is an independent driver registered with the council, had called them first.

“I’d had quite a bit to drink and I’d been reported for ‘fare-dodging’, so they just thought I was another drunk student causing trouble,” explained Paul. “He had also accused me of being aggressive, which I wasn’t.”

Continued on page 3

LIBERAL DEMOCRATS LEADER NICK CLEGG TALKS TO GAIR RHYDD >> page 14

‘Simply not very good at teaching’

Computer Science lecturer accused of poor teaching methods Just 1 in 8 students pass second-year module Students told to ‘live with it’ by staff panel

Eleanor Joslin News Editor Many complaints have been made about the lecturing style of a Cardiff University Professor of Computer Science, with students blaming the lecturer for their high failure rate in the module.

The Professor and leading researcher teaches a second-year module, which only ten out of 80 students passed. Many feel that the exam did not represent course content, it was

not assessed fairly and that the professor taught the module inadequately.

A second-year Computer Science student, who wishes to remain anonymous, told gair rhydd: “The lectures consisted of the lecturer walking in and spending the entire time writing his blackboard lecture notes up word for word on the whiteboard with no extra explanation, and he was oblivious to students who wanted to ask questions.”

Continued on page 5

02 NEWS

APRIL.27.2009 NEWS@gairrhydd.COM

gr The Countdown is over

Carol Vorderman opens the new Trevithick library

NEWS.................1

Jamie Thunder Sub Editor PHOTO: Ben Bryant

EDITORIAL & OPINION.............9 COLUMNIST......13 POLITICS..........15 LETTERS...........19 FEATURES........21 JOBS & MONEY.............25 XPRESS............26

LISTINGS..........28 SPORT..............31 gair rhydd has been Cardiff University's independent student newspaper since 1972.

FREE INSIDE THIS WEEK: Volume V of creativewords, a pullout of creative writing by Cardiff University students.

Union reception gets a makeover Emma Jones News Editor Students may have been subject to some disruption this week as the second floor of the Students' Union gets a makeover.

The new and improved reception area is due to be unveiled next week.

Students' Union President Andy Buttons-Stephens said: “An exciting new reception will be opening early next week for students. We want to create an informative, exciting and vibrant reception area that not only greets students into their Union, but also acts as an area that can better showcase student events, campaigns and activities.

“The brief we gave to the designers included the above, but we also wanted to streamline the operations out of the reception area (such as security) and make more effective use of the space.”

He added: “We're extremely pleased with the concepts that the designers have come up with and look forward to the brand new area opening!”

WORK IN PROGRESS: the all-new reception last week

Away on a placement? Heading abroad? In bed with a hangover?

www.gairrhydd.com ...NEWS, LIVE DEBATE, FEATURES, SPORT, QUENCH, EXCLUSIVE CONTENT & MORE

PHOTO: Natalia Popova

FIVE MINUTE FUN..................27

Cardiff University Honorary Fellow Carol Vorderman opened the redesigned Trevithick Library at the opening ceremony last month.

The library was redesigned as part of the University’s Information Services’ Library Review. Its new features include a research lounge, open study spaces, group study rooms and a computer ‘bar’.

After Carol cut the ribbon and toured the new facilities, she said: “It is fantastic to see investment in modern facilities which not only look stylish but are also practical and really cater for the needs of students and inspire research and learning.”

The new library will give students much more flexibility as self-service book issue and return units have been installed.

The staff and students that will benefit from these new facilities

include those from the Schools of Computer Science, Engineering, Physics and Astronomy as well as the Manufacturing Engineering Centre.

Other speakers at the launch in March included Professor Malcolm Jones, the Pro Vice-Chancellor, the University’s Estates Division and Janet Peters, the University Librarian who said: “The change in Trevithick illustrates our vision for the libraries of the future.

“The study habits and needs of students are changing and Information Services is working to provide the modern, high-quality infrastructure required to meet those needs.”

Cambridge graduate Carol Vorderman is well known for her intellect but told gair rhydd that despite her success on Channel 4’s Countdown, she has never harboured any ambitions to become a part of Cardiff University's Trevithick library staff.

She said: “I wouldn’t have been a librarian as I would probably have done something with computers.”

NEWS 03

APRIL.27.2009 NEWS@gairrhydd.COM

It's not fare Students subjected to intimidation and continued from front page

When the ambulance arrived, Paul noticed that his ankle “was the size of a tennis ball”. He had surgery at Heath Hospital on the Saturday, and was told he would be on crutches for around the next six weeks.

The taxi driver claims he took the phone as payment, but it was later returned to the police. This is a grey area

in the law as to commit the offence of theft there must be evidence that there was intent to permanently deprive, and it is unclear in this case whether such intent was there.

After seeking legal advice, Paul decided not to pursue his claim as he was told that his evidence would be compromised by the fact he had been drinking.

PC Bob Keohane, Student Liason

Officer for Cardiff, said: “Ideally we would talk to people when they are sober, and in this case, as the taxi had driven off, waiting until the morning would not have hindered any investigation.”

A complaint was lodged on Paul’s behalf about the conduct of the operators and a report will be filed with the taxi driver’s insurers.

pizza in the back of the taxi when the driver stopped abruptly at the bridge near Richmond Road and asked them to get out of the car.

She told gair rhydd: “The driver told us we were making a mess but hadn’t said anything when we got in the taxi. He was quite aggressive.”

They were a long way from home and one of the girls shouted at the taxi as it drove off.

“He pulled the car back beside us, jumped out and came at me. He didn’t look like he knew what he wanted to

do. He slammed my pizza out of my hand.”

The girls went home and called the police.

“They did not seem very interested despite me having the number plate, company name of the car and a description of the driver,” Sally explained.

Sally only realised her wallet was missing the morning after.

She described the experience as “Quite frightening” and urges students to be extra vigilant.

PHOTO: Ben Bryant

aggression from Cardiff cabbies

Student loses wallet after taxi ride home turns sour Emma Barlow News Editor Two female students were subjected to intimidating behaviour by an irate taxi driver who threw them out of his taxi.

Sally Wood, a second year Law and Criminology student was threatened and lost her wallet when her journey was cut short in the early hours of Thursday April 23.

Sally and her friend were eating

Professor Paul's Marvellous Medicine

JUST TRYING TO GET HOME: Paul's ankle was run over by his taxi

Easter break-in

New Dean vows to make Cardiff Medicine School 'the best in the UK' Sarah Powell News Editor The new Dean of Medicine at Cardiff University has revealed his hopes to make Cardiff the best ‘all round’ medical school.

Professor Paul Morgan, the newly appointed Dean, plans to build on Cardiff’s reputation for medical teaching and research by making improvements to the School.

Speaking of his plans, he said: “Major investments in a new lecture theatre complex and a Medical Education Centre are already in progress. The new Medical Education Centre will house library, tutorial, student training and social facilities, as well the administrative centre of the School of Medicine.

This will help Cardiff University create a Medical School fit for the 21st Century.”

Professor Morgan, who took up his new post on the 1st April, has high hopes for the Medical School:

“My first priority is to ensure that Cardiff University provides excellent medical training for our students and continues to produce excellent doctors.”

He added, “As Dean, I will do all that I can to balance the main priorities of the Medical School - teaching, research and engagement with the public.

“My aim is to make the School of Medicine the best all-round medical school in the UK.” The School of Medicine at Cardiff is one of the largest in the UK and is already internationally recognised for its vast medical research, which spans from basic science to clinical practice in hospital and community settings.

However, the school has been plagued by a catalogue of problems since Cardiff University's 2004 merger with the University of Wales, which culminated in the School of Medicine receiving the lowest student satisfaction rating in the entire UK for Medicine, according to the 2008 National Student Survey.

RHYMNEY STREET: A Cathays crime hotspot

Chris Lloyd Investigations A third year Journalism, Film and Media student had his Rhymney Street house burgled while he and his housemates were home for four days over Easter.

Thieves made off with numerous electrical items, including games consoles, speakers, an electronic amp and two electric guitars.

The residents believe that the burglars entered through a back window, though when they returned to their house, all doors and windows were closed.

Throughout the year there have been a number of burglaries around Cathays.

In January, gair rhydd reported

the mugging of a Cardiff student on Rhymney Street.

In Issue 878, gair rhydd covered a South Wales Police investigation which discovered that a quarter of Cathays houses had unlocked doors allowing thieves to walk straight into houses and steal property, which they may sell to fund drug use.

At the start of the year, third-year English Language and Communication student Meme Sgroi, who also lives on Rhymney Street, was burgled too.

She said, “I tried to get in one day and my key wouldn’t turn in the lock… I thought my housemates must have latched the door.”

When they eventually got back in her housemate couldn’t find her laptop.

Meme said it was only when the

police came round a few days later handling out burglary protection packs that they realised they’d been burgled and that the burglars had put the latch on the door, which the police officer said was a common burglary tactic.

“We had had our bathroom window open at the time and they [the burglars] had squeezed through. They would have taken more but they were disturbed when my housemate, then I later, shouted through the letterbox,” Meme said.

In the burglary protection pack, the police provided ‘Smartwater’, a liquid with a unique code allowing people to security mark their belongings, a book about burglary prevention and a Smartwater sticker, which the police were distributing to everyone living on Rhymney Street.

04 NEWS News in brief: More concern over council's plans for Bute Park road Emma Jones News Editor With the campaign to stop a road being built through Bute Park still ongoing, concerns have been raised that Cardiff Council have further plans for the land that they are not revealing.

The council have been planning to build a £1.4 million access bridge and elevated highways into the Grade 1 listed park for quite some time.

But the Bute Park Alliance, who are campaigning to stop the developments in Bute Park, suspect that Cardiff Council have other developments planned which could cause greater damage to Cardiff’s green spaces.

Now, Oscar nominated animator Joanna Quinn has put her name to the campaign to halt the road.

She said: “Despite a large and growing amount of public opposition, the council has continued to push these plans forward without undertaking proper comprehensive and open public consultation at the offset.”

Arla Gamper is a Cardiff University student. She said, “I find it very worrying that Cardiff Council are making plans for developing the city parks without a full consultation into what the people of Cardiff would like. Cardiff’s green spaces provide a vital asset to the city for both visitors and residents, it is vital that we do everything we can to protect them.”

The bloody burglar caught red-handed Emma Barlow News Editor A burglar who left bloody fingerprints all over the house he stole from has been caught by police. gair rhydd reported last term on the incident which occurred on 17 Glynrhondda Street a month ago.

Described by police to the residents of the burgled house as a 35 year-old alcoholic, the man is also believed to have been known to police from previous convictions.

The man denied stealing anything from the house occupied by ten students, but admitted to charges of breaking and entering and trespassing claiming he was extremely drunk.

However, upon searching the man's house, the stolen games console was found.

APRIL.27.2009 NEWS@gairrhydd.COM

All hail the brand new ale

Real Ale Society launch locally produced drinks in the Taf Sarah Powell News Editor The Real Ale and Cider Society celebrated the launch of locally produced ale and cider at the Taf on Tuesday April 21.

Over 80 students gathered at the Students’ Union pub to celebrate the fruition of a motion passed at the AGM in March.

There were three locally produced drinks on offer; two varieties of cider made by Gwynt y ddraig in a town

near Pontypridd, as well as the highly anticipated S.A Brains Ale ‘Bread of Heaven’, poured from a newly installed hand pump on the bar.

Mr. Schluessel has been told that provision of the ale will be based on the quantity sold, ensuring him that if the drinks are a success with students then the Taf will look into expanding the variety of ales and ciders.

The event began at 7.30pm as Schluessel poured the first pint watched by a crowd of students.

Speaking to gair rhydd afterwards,

Fruit and vegetable co-op resumes Sarah Powell News Editor The Fruit and Veg Co-Op has recommenced after the Easter break, and students are being encouraged to make use of the innovative facility.

The market operates every Tuesday between 11am and 4pm from ‘Buffers Bar’ in Solus. Students pay £2.50 for a bag of seasonal produce and then collect it the week after.

A typical bag includes fruit, vegetables and salad, but this depends on which items are in season throughout the year.

The Co-Op was conceived by SIFE (Students In Free Enterprise) Cardiff and the Riverside Market and it is backed

by Student Enterprise through a Welsh Assembly Grant.

Volunteer roles are readily available to anyone who wants to get involved with distributing leaflets, putting posters up and helping with unloading and distributing.

The Co-Op aims to enable students to get quality, seasonal produce, whilst encouraging students to avoid larger supermarkets so that suppliers can get a fair payment.

For more information visit the facebook page, Your Cardiff Uni Co-Op.

Mr. Schluessel’s elation was clear as he said the ale tasted “in good condition.”

He spoke highly of the ale, and encouraged others to try it, even if Real Ale is not normally their choice beverage; “Bread of Heaven is a nicely put together best bitter, and it’s very quaffable!”

Don Jeffrey, the Packaging Manager from S.A Brains Brewery, attended the event and told gair rhydd of his support for the venture, also mentioning his hope to see more Brains ales

sold at the Taf in future.

The event marks the success of a long campaign for the Real Ale and Cider Society; Ian Hill, the previous President of the Society, told gair rhydd of his own attempts to encourage the Taf to provide real ale and cider, which were unsuccessful.

He spoke of his happiness at the success of the night, “I think it’s brilliant that we now have Real Ale in the Taf; it’s a good product, it’s economically viable, and above all, it tastes better!”

Emma Jones News Editor

portunity to visit exciting destinations and it can be a life-changing experience. To make sure you get the most out of your travels it’s really important to do some simple preparation in advance of your trip to reduce the risk of anything going wrong – and allow you to cope better if it does.”

In a study of 872 Cardiff students last year, the Foreign Office found that 49% don’t always take out travel insurance before a trip abroad, whilst 30% admitted to running out of money on their travels due to bad budgeting.

Katie Norris, a third year English Literature student at Cardiff, is one of the University Brand Ambassadors employed by the Foreign Office who are working across the UK to promote the ‘Know Before You Go’ campaign.

Katie will be on the second floor of the Students’ Union offering students travel advice from the ‘Know Before You Go’ campaign next Thursday May 7.

Know Before You Go travelling The Foreign Office's initiative to help travellers stay safe has launched the latest phase of its campaign to assist young travellers on their gap years and trips abroad.

The ‘Know Before You Go’ campaign aims to ensure that students are properly prepared before they head overseas by offering advice about travel insurance, visas, vaccinations, currency and more.

Students can register the details of their trip on a service called LOCATE, which enables the Foreign Office to track down British nationals in an emergency such as a tsunami or terrorist attack.

Alice Draper from the Foreign Office said: “Travelling is a great op-

Architects announce Eco Ball Chris Tarquini Reporter On Tuesday April 28 a unique event will be hitting Cardiff, the 2009 WSA Eco Ball.

The event is the creation of two second year architecture students Joe Armitage and Libby Needham, who promise the event will “captivate its guests and involve them in a vibrant eco atmosphere.’

The dress code will be ‘green tie’ and there will be awards for the ‘best sustainably dressed,’ which will be presented by Grand Design star Kevin McCloud.

Other high profile guests include Welsh Assembly Minister for the environment, sustainability and housing, Jane Davidson, as well as renowned architect Bill Dunster, creator of the first ever carbon-zero development.

Guests will enjoy a locally-sourced three-course meal and can take part in a variety of eco-friendly activities.

Including an ‘eco-paint’ area where tired dancers can decorate an eco ball canvas or relax and view a variety of films and showcases from environmental groups who will outline their visions for an eco-friendly future.

Generators powered by bio-fuel and decorations made entirely by recycled materials have impressed Kevin McCloud who described the event as ‘brilliant’, ‘pioneering’ and ‘turning effectively a giant shindig into a giant piece of research.’

The ball is an attempt to show that architecture and sustainability can go hand in hand and encourages students to engage in an eco-friendly lifestyle.

For more information on tickets and the event itself visit www.cardiff. ac.uk/archi/ecoball

NEWS 05

APRIL.27.2009 NEWS@gairrhydd.COM

Cracking down on late lecturers

Students blame lecturer for their exam failure Continued from front page.

EMPTY LECTURES: Soon to be a thing of the past?

Jamie Thunder Sub Editor Students at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) can now report late lecturers and cancelled classes by text thanks to a new scheme launched by the Students’ Union.

The LATE campaign was introduced in February in response to increasing numbers of complaints from course representatives about lecturers being late to lectures.

Posters for the initiative, supported

by Deputy Vice-Chancellor Kevin

Bonnet, carry the slogan ‘If you’re on time, why is your class LATE?’ and the number to text. Students are encouraged to text if their lecturer is more than ten minutes late or if their class is cancelled at short notice.

A weekly report is then prepared for each Faculty Dean to inform them of any issues.

MMU Students’ Union President Nicola Lee said that the campaign was launched to find the scale of the problem, but that they only receive “a few texts a day”.

“It’s no different from the work course reps do,” she said. “It just

makes it a bit easier.”

The University and College Union, however, disagrees, calling the measures “snooping” and claiming that they “encourage [students and lecturers] to spy on each other”.

But with around 40% of MMU students believed to commute to study, the Students’ Union insists that the scheme is an important way of ensuring that students’ time and money are not wasted: “Of course lectures are sometimes cancelled, but we need to make sure students don’t miss out on learning because of it.”

Vice-chancellors accept pay freeze

He continued: "Students feel that this is not an adequate or effective way of teaching, and it is certainly unacceptable when we are paying over £3000 a year for tuition fees.”

Another second-year Computer Science student agreed that the lecturer simply wrote up his Blackboard notes and, in addition, claimed that this resulted in a steady decline in attendance throughout the year.

He said: “Everyone seems unhappy with the situation. A lot of students feel that the exam only covered the last two or three lectures, and most people feel that the lecturer set this to spite the students.”

The issue has been raised at the last four student-staff meetings, but the second-year student explained that when the lecturer was questioned he “simply used the poor attendance as an excuse for people failing the exam, even though many students who attended all of his lectures failed as well.”

The course representative said that he felt that the attitude of the staff panel meetings was to “live with it.”

According to comments from Computer Science students and graduates, the lecturer's teaching methods have been a point of controversy for a number of years. A Computer Science graduate and former staff-student panel member revealed that the issue of the Professor's lecturing style was raised every year between 2004 and 2006. He said: "The school showed no intention of doing anything about it. And it seems that nothing has changed."

In addition, a third-year student, who also wished to remain anonymous, took the predecessor to the Professor's module last year, and said that the lecturer merely “copied notes

from his notebook of scribbles to the whiteboard and expected us to copy it all down.”

Dr Roger Whitaker, the recently appointed Head of School, sent all the second-year Computer Science students an email about their complaints regarding the module and exam.

He said: “Since the [exam] results were compiled I have personally interjected to ensure that appropriate and fair resolutions are proposed to the examination board on behalf of year two students.”

He also said he had “considered the students’ problems and request for a non-capped exam within the options to propose to the external examiner.”

It is not yet clear what practical steps the school will take to resolve the issue of the lecturer's poor teaching methods. The course representative noted, however, that he is a “key researcher who brings a substantial amount of money to the department and the University. In my opinion this is why he has not been made to stop teaching.”

In spite of this, he admitted that the Professor “does seem very good at what he does and he seems to know the course content well but he is simply not very good at teaching it.”

The 2008 research assessment exercise ranked Cardiff's research quality in the field of Computer Science at 25th out of 82 institutions.

A spokesperson for Cardiff University said: “Cardiff School of Computer Science is committed to providing teaching of the very highest standard and received an excellent report in the most recent Quality Assurance Agency review of teaching quality.

“The School takes any complaint against its teaching and examination standards very seriously.”

The Professor was unavailable for comment.

Cardiff's VC not a participant in freeze on salary Steve Wright Reporter Following the recent outcry over extortionate self-awarded pay rises, vice-chancellors at a number of top UK universities have accepted a pay freeze.

This move comes amid pressure from lecturers and students, who have called the pay rises ‘distasteful’ in light of the current financial situ-

ation, and the cutbacks being made by students and staff across higher education.

Cardiff University's Vice-Chancellor, Dr David Grant, who was revealed last month to have received a 12% pay rise to £235,000 a year, is not among the vice-chancellors to accept a pay freeze.

Last month, it emerged that many vice-chancellors have salaries of over £200,000 and that the average pay rise for 2007-08 was 9%.

The institutions involved in the pay freezes are UCL, Leeds, Manchester Metropolitan, Chichester, Exeter, Newcastle, Warwick and York St John.

Rick Trainor, principal of King’s College London and outgoing president of Universities UK, warned off the current situation: ‘If we do not act decisively now, the result…will be a recurrent deficit of approximately £14 million, against annual revenues of £450 million.’’

PAY FREEZE: No thank you, says Dr David Grant

06 NEWS

APRIL.27.2009 NEWS@gairrhydd.COM

UNION WATCH

Eleanor Joslin rounds up the week in student media

Justice for student partially Illegal drugs aid paralysed by attackers concentration

CAMBRIDGE VARSITY

Oxford Crown Court

OXFORD CHERWELL

Two teenage muggers have received a combined jail sentence of 16 years for a brutal attack against Kentaro Ikeda, a postgraduate student at St Edmund's Hall, which left him partially paralysed and seriously brain damaged.

Judge Terence Maher said that Craig Knowles and Thomas Mack, both 18 years old, had effectively stolen Kentaro’s life from him.

He told Oxford Crown court: “It is no exaggeration to say this is an offence of the utmost gravity which has had life-changing consequences for the victim. All this from a few mo-

ments of nauseating brutality."

The teenagers had been drinking heavily before they pulled Kentaro off his bike as he cycled through University Parks last summer. They then hit him over the head, leaving him lying on the ground semi-conscious and badly bleeding as they ran away with his laptop, mobile phone and bike.

They then sent text messages to their friends with boastful comments such as “mate, you missed out... we saw a Chinese man on the way back and beat the shit out of him.”

Kentaro suffered partial paralysis as well as serious brain damage. He needs constant care at a rehabilitative centre near Tokyo where he now lives.

Despite his awful injuries, which

have left him in a wheelchair, he said: “I remain optimistic for the future and one day I would like to resume my studies.”

His mother also commented on his behalf, saying: “He feels that both his attackers should be given appropriate sentences as his life has been very much changed due to this incident.”

Thomas Mack denied the charges against him but will face 7 years in prison and Craig Knowles will serve 9 years, after admitting to the charges of actual bodily harm, grievous bodily harm with intent, and robbery.

Detective Chief Inspector George Bain condemned their behaviour and said: “These two men have left the life of a promising academic changed forever.”

One in ten Cambridge University students have admitted to taking drugs to help them study.

A survey conducted by Varsity revealed that students have been using non-prescription drugs to improve their concentration and alertness.

A third-year student who started using a concentration-enhancing drug several weeks ago said: “Modafinil has undoubtedly aided my concentration.”

Since then she has been taking a 100mg tablet every day and she complained that “after a Modafinil-fuelled library day I find it very hard to engage with people socially”.

Despite this side effect, the popularity of this drug has risen as it in-

creases alertness, motivation and the ability to concentrate on degree studies for a prolonged period of time.

Prescription-only medication such as Adderall, Modafinil and Ritalin are usually prescribed to patients who suffer from narcolepsy or chronic sleep disorders but the survey showed that many students have now started using them too.

The Home Office has warned that it is “a serious criminal offence” to possess such prescription-only drugs but it is becoming easier to obtain them as various online pharmacies sell it without a prescription and also offer generic variants of the drug, known as Modapro and Modalert.

The survey also revealed that a third of the respondents would take such stimulating drugs if given the opportunity.

Vice-Chancellor's 'obscene' salary sparks outrage MANCHESTER STUDENT DIRECT

After months of economic recession, the University of Manchester’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Alan Gilbert received a pay rise of 6.2% last year.

This increased his annual salary to £291,000 and he also received an added bonus of £3,000 for his pension, almost the equivalent of a home student’s annual tuition fee.

Wes Streeting, the NUS President,

was outraged by this huge salary: “It is obscene for vice-chancellors to be lining their pockets with such huge pay increases while calling for students to be charged even higher fees.”

In addition, the University’s lecture hours for Law students have been cut from 30 down to 20, which increased the cost of their tuition to a third for each hour of teaching.

Many Law students rallied against this over the Easter Holidays as the cost of tuition seems to be extremely disproportionate to the amount of tuition they receive.

Gilbert’s salary co rresponds with the other Russell Group heads: universities that are research focused pay a premium to vice-chancellors because their management role is more intensive compared to other universities.

However, he now earns £97,030 more than the average vice-chancellor and the University defended this, saying that he has “overall responsibility for the executive management of the University and for its day-to-day direction.”

Vice-Chancellor Professor Alan Gilbert

WORLD NEWS 07

APRIL.27.2009 NEWS@gairrhydd.COM

Oh no she didn't: Miss California makes a statement Richard Wood Reporter The Miss USA competition was blighted by controversy last week when the runner-up, Miss California, said that “a marriage should be between a man and a woman”.

One of the judges, blogger Perez Hilton, had asked for her views on the subject.

Both Miss California – Carrie Prejean – and Hilton blamed her failure to win on her answer. “It did cost me my crown,” said Prejean, while Hilton said “She lost it because of that question. She was definitely the front-runner before that.”

Miss Prejean said that she had no regrets over the comment. “I wouldn't have had it any other way. I said what

I feel. I stated an opinion that was true to myself and that's all I can do,” adding “It is a very touchy subject and [Perez Hilton] is a homosexual, and I see where he was coming from and I see the audience would've wanted me to be more politically correct.”

Hilton also explained in an fairly vicious online video blog that “She lost not because she doesn’t believe in gay marriage. She lost because she’s a dumb bitch.”

Miss Prejean’s grandmother weighed in on the debate with “I don't know why that gay guy Perez was even judging a contest with a bunch of girls. That doesn't make any sense.

He should be judging a Chippendale's contest."

California added an amendment to its constitution last November outlawing gay marriage.

Also in the news...

Sarah Powell News Editor

Bulletproof bra

MISS CALIFORNIA: State of confusion

In fir a surprise Band bailout

A 57-year-old Detroit woman avoided serious injury when her bra deflected a bullet shot at her from next door.

The woman told police that she saw a group of men breaking into a neighbour's house on Tuesday morning. When the men saw her, one of them fired a shot at her, a police spokesman said.

The woman's underwire deflected the bullet; "It did slow the bullet down," said Detroit police spokesman Phillip Cook. "She sustained injuries but they're not life threatening."

The suspects in the shooting drove away and have not yet been caught.

Text Everest A Nepali telecom company plans to provide mobile phone services to the top of Mount Everest to benefit climbers on the world’s highest mountain.

Hundreds of climbers depend on expensive satellite phones to contact their families due to the lack of communication facilities in the remote Himalayan region.

The Director of the satellite service wing of Nepal Telecom has promised to set up mobile towers to bring the summit of Everest into network coverage.

TICKLY COUGH? X-ray reveals fir tree in man's lung

Emma McFarnon Reporter A man in Russia has stunned doctors after they found a tiny fir tree growing in his lung.

Doctors operated on 28-year-old Artyom Sidorkin to remove what they believed to be a cancerous growth, but were amazed to discover that it was in fact a 5cm tall fir tree.

Before removing the major part of Mr Sidorkin’s lung, surgeon Vladimir Kamashev investigated the tissue taken in a biopsy. "I thought I was hallucinating," said Dr Kamashev.

“The branch was green, as if it had just been taken from the wood. It's still a mystery how the tree got in there."

Some people think Artyom – who studies plants for a living – breathed

in a plant while he was working in the woods.

Others believe he inhaled a seed which then grew into a tree inside his lung, but biologists are sceptical about a plant growing inside a human body.

Olga Baranova, a university professor, told reporters, "It is absolutely impossible for a green plant to grow from this small seed inside a man's body. In order for a plant to start growing from the seed, it needs a lot of conditions - light, then water and certain temperature".

Mr Sidorkin, now recovering after the operation, said in reports: "To be honest I did not feel any foreign object inside me. I'm just so relieved it's not cancer."

Part of his lung - along with the tree - has been kept to be studied further.

News shark

Officer Roseland: A stimulating offer

Adeniran Haastrup Reporter

Philadelphia Indie rock band Officer Roseland is in the preliminary stages of applying for Federal Government bailout.

The band had offered to pay fans to download their new album “Stimulus Package” released in February which includes through their website mystimuluspackage.org.

Due to high demand the band could not afford to keep up payments. The bands funds were depleted quicker than expected because of excessive global downloads.

The band had offered fans two options to receive their stimulus Payment.

The first option was TAKE which gave fans the $1each and GIVE where

the band donated the $1 payment to charity Dan Diadone of Officer Roseland said “We knew this was an interesting idea that hadn’t been done before, but we never expected it to take off as quickly as it did.

The band has drawn criticism from some fans who claim that being paid for downloading an album is adding to the demise of an already decaying music industry. Diadone counters by claiming that Officer Roseland had given music fans what they wanted, even though they didn’t already know it The band's website now features an appeal to fans who have not received their payments that they should be patient and they would be paid as promised and the concept is not a hoax. The band is no longer offering the stimulus payment but the album is still available to download for free.

An Australian country newspaper officer has been left puzzled after a live shark was left on the doorstep.

The Port Jackson shark was left during the night outside the office on the coast of a southeast Victoria state.

Constable Jarrod Dwyer told state radio, "We picked the shark up and put it inside a bucket and then drove it down to the breakwater and released it back into the water," he said.

Authorities have vowed to charge the person who left it with animal cruelty.

© 2009 Accenture. All rights reserved.

Giving something back.

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Graduate careers in consulting Accenture can offer you a truly rounded career. You can move up within our business, work with great people and enjoy bigcompany benefits—but you won’t have to sacrifice your principles.

In fact, our people contribute to the wider community in lots of different ways. In their spare time.

From their pay packets. Using their business and technical skills or through project work.

We take our broader social responsibilities very seriously in everything we do. It makes good business sense. It’s important to our people and our clients—and we know how important it is to you.

For a long time now we’ve used our skills, expertise and resources to benefit the wider world. You can find out more about our Corporate Citizenship initiatives and how you can get involved on our website.

Visit accenture.com/ukgraduates

To join us, you’ll need a genuine interest in business and technology and, typically, a predicted or actual 2.1 in any degree discipline and 320 UCAS points or equivalent.

In return, you’ll be rewarded well, with a salary of £31,000 plus an additional £10,000 bonus.

Accenture is committed to being an equal opportunities employer.

OPINION 09

APRIL.27.2009 OPINION@gairrhydd.COM

freewords Est. 1972

A rousing election When students receive poor marks in their coursework or exams, it is all too easy to pass the buck. A student's opinion of a lecturer can turn remarkably quickly if they receive an unfavourable result, and personal failure may quickly cloud objective judgment of the situation.

At times, it is much easier to blame others than to admit inadequacy.

However, there are occasions when lecturers themselves may fall short of the mark. This week's story about the failure of some seventy out of eighty computer science students in a module, when coupled with the testimony of all of the students gair rhydd spoke to, seems to indicate that at times the teaching standards of the lecturers themselves can be inadequate.

The significance of the story is that the problems that this year's students faced are by no means unique. The lecturer in question has drawn complaints from the student body for several years now, his teaching methods raised time and time again by the staff-student panel. Were this an isolated incident, it would be much less of an issue. However, by all accounts, little has changed for some time.

University is not a place where students should be spoon fed. It is a time for being pro-active, taking the initiative, exploring possibilities and broadening the mind. Lecturers are not teachers and they should not be treated as such.

Yet there must be a balance. Just as students must be pro-active and take responsibility for the outcome of their degree, lecturers should accept a degree of responsibility for the results of their students. And where feedback is so bad for so long, their teaching methods must be examined.

Corrections and Clarifications In the story 'Promoted To Power' on page one of gair rhydd 893 (March 23 2009) it was stated that Daniel Jefferys is the house mate of President-elect Eddy Carey. Daniel Jefferys is only Eddy Carey's friend, and not his house mate.

In the same story on page six it was stated that Glam nightclub provided Emma Jones with 'Printing and payment for campaign t-shirts'. This should have read 'Payment for printing of campaign t-shirts'.

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

Statistically speaking Richard Wood questions whether the ONS survey on social trends really deserves all the interest delve much further into the data.

For example, this article is supposed to be student-focused. But despite the chapter based on Education, about the only thing directly relevant to students is the section on numbers in further education. I can tell you that there are now 1.09m men and 1.46m women in undergraduate or postgraduate education, compared to 588 thousand men and 491 thousand women in 1991.

Why do we collect this data if not to divulge the truth?

T

HOME SWEET HOME: sticking around for longer

he annual ‘Social Trends’ Office of National Statistics (ONS) report has uncovered a number of interesting figures.

The first, headline-making, stat is that 52% of men aged 20-24 live with their parents, along with 37% of women. Other less student-relevant facts include the fact that 50,000 visits were made to Latvia in the survey last year (2007) compared with 4,000 in 2003, and that the British public travelled a collective 508 billion miles.

Having downloaded the 283-page (let’s repeat that - 283-page!) report, I have at my fingertips massive amounts of completely useless information.

And I love useless information. Such as that the heads of divisions of the judiciary are, without exception, white males. Granted there are only five of them, and I have no idea what a head of a division of the judiciary does.

There’s also the stunning divulge-

Paul Stollery Emma Davies Columnist Emma Davies Politics Gareth Ludkin Sport Scott D’Arcy Alasdair Robertson Josh Pettitt Richard Williams Liz Wray Letters Helen Langdon Features

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ment that most passengers on buses are people under 30 and over 60. Who would have thunk it? 24% of males say they spend their time playing computer games and 97% of volunteers say that they get satisfaction from seeing the results of their assistance.

This data is useful for headlines but not much more We spend a collective £838bn a year, enough to stimulate the American economy provided we don’t spend anything on food, heating, water, or indeed anything else.

It’s a goldmine of data. Unfortunately, the problem with this report is actually that it doesn’t go far enough.

It provides vague numbers that are good for soundbites but to do anything useful with them we must, generally, Natalia Popova Online Editors Graeme Porteous Tom Barnett Proof Readers Lucy Morgan Emma McFarnon Daniella Graham Neil Fairbrother Laurel Burn Emma Davies Adenrian Haastrup Contributors Chris Lloyd, Steve Wright, Richard Wood,

This is actually a very interesting stat, reflecting a huge change in the social and educational landscape for women even since the early nineties.

It also appears to show success for the government’s attempts to get 50% of school-leavers into university, despite it still being a stupid target.

And it’s got nothing to do with housing figures, has it? I wanted to find out how many students live with their parents, or how many of the 52% in that first statistic are at university, but I can’t, despite the survey clearly having the data to be able to do so. I can’t even tell you how many of the 1.46m women in university education are in that 20-24 bracket.

I noted with interest that “The full report is available as an interactive PDF file where Excel spreadsheets containing the data used in the publication can be accessed and downloaded by clicking on the relevant chart or table” but was disappointed to find that said spreadsheets only contained the same data that was already in the chart or table.

Although the university attendance figures are an interesting statistic, it’s essentially irrelevant to anyone already at university. Unless you’re studying sociology or similar, in which case you will be as frustrated as me at the lack of meaningful statistics and cross-references.

My own opinions on the housing matter are thus: There probably are

Emma McFarnon, Adeniran Haastrup, Rhys Howells, Oliver Franklin, Corey Shefman, Darryl Light, Alex Evans, Damian Fantato, Robin Morgan, Jennie Summers, Simon Lucey, Daniella Graham, Anna Davidson, Emma Bennett, Chris Tarquini, Ben Wesley, Liz Wray, Catrin Davies, Jamie Thunder

more students living at home because there are more students. There probably is not a significant change in the percentage of students living at home. Most of the apparent increase in young people living at home can be explained by extortionate house prices and the lack of interest in getting married before 25, or indeed at all.

But this is utterly meaningless, logical conjecture based on personal experience and anecdotal evidence, which is in no way refuted or supported by the utterly useless ‘Social Trends’ report by the ONS. Come on, government, what the fuck is this stuff for? I have no idea whether I can obtain the information I desire through a FOI request or not, but I do know that this report is a media exercise devoid of any further use and, in essence, an utter waste of time.

The 'full report' just contains the same data as in the charts

Why do we collect this data if not to divulge the truth of what happens in this country, to protect us from the hypothesisers, doomsayers and hyperbolists, to arm ourselves with facts and figures, unassailable truth? Unfortunately, thanks to the efforts of the willing but incoherent ONS, we only get vague, generally useless truths from surveys of this kind – good for a headline and not much more.

In this age of databases for everything, where, as Gordon Brown put it, “online businesses have higher standards of transparency than the public services”, there is no excuse for this.

These statistics can and should be compiled in public, online, searchable databases. The only possible defence is that personal details may be identifiable by specific enough searches, but until the government stops leaving USB sticks and laptops on trains, I don’t think that’s quite good enough, do you?

Address Cardiff University Students' Union, Park Place, Cardiff, CF10 3QN Web www.gairrhydd.com Email info@gairrhydd.com Advertising 02920 781 474 Location 4th Floor Cardiff University

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10 OPINION Canuck in Cardiff

Corey Shefman talks royalty

W

hen I arrived in the UK from Canada back in September, it was somewhat reassuring to be able to flip over my new British coins and see the same friendly face smiling back at me. Sure, the coins were funny shapes and sizes, but all I had to do was turn them over, and there was Her Majesty, Elizabeth II herself.

You see, for us colonials, the monarchy is something that mostly exists in our imagination. For us, it still rings of knights and nobles, chivalry and pageantry. When the Queen comes to visit Canada, it’s a major national event. Come on, it’s the Queen! And when one of our own is offered an honour by the Queen... well let’s just leave Lord Black of Crossharbour out of this one.

So imagine my surprise when I started talking with some of my new British friends about how cool it must be to have the monarchy be part of your daily life and they nearly uniformly looked at me like I was completely out of mind. It seems that you Brits have been spoiled.

Having been graced with royalty in your backyard for so long, many, if not most people here (from what I’ve seen anyway) see the monarchy as little more than a tourist attraction and shockingly, many see it as a waste of taxpayers’ money.

Of course, those same people are often shocked to learn that the Royal Family is almost entirely self-sufficient, with Parliament only paying allowances to the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh, and even then, only for official state functions (which any Head of State would be required to carry out anyways).

In fairness, there is something of a nascent republican movement in Canada as well, though it’s mostly on the fringe. As a proud monarchist however, I’m not going to try and give you reasoned arguments about the importance of the monarchy.

While I certainly could point out that without a monarch the British Government and Parliament as it currently exists would no longer have legal authority to act, that could easily be remedied by enacting a written constitution (something which is long past due in this country anyway).

My point is the monarchy isn’t something that functions in our day and age for any rational purpose. It’s there to reassure us in times of distress and to remind us of our history – warts and all.

The British monarchy has had a profound and irreplaceable impact on the course of history in the last four hundred years. To turn our backs on that history, no matter how much we don’t want Charles to be King, would be to turn our backs on our own history.

APRIL.27.2009 OPINION@gairrhydd.COM

Amoral dilemma

Rhys Howells asks whether releasing documents surrounding CIA torture tactics is enough

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ast week the US released four memos detailing torture techniques approved by the Bush administration which the CIA were allowed to use, and also the justification for the use of torture on terror suspects and Al-Qaeda members.

This is a good step forward into restoring the West’s morals, rights and principles. Yet Obama has said that CIA agents will be exempt from prosecution, which is a far more important step than stopping the practice of torture. Amnesty International sums up his actions best in saying that “the Department of Justice appeared to be offering a "get-out-of-jail-free card" to individuals who were involved in acts of torture”.

administration has broken international law and those responsible should be prosecuted.

Now who should be prosecuted?

Is it the CIA agent who performed the torture, the Head of the CIA, the Head of Department of Justice or Bush himself? Personally, I don’t distinguish the difference between those who gave and those who followed the orders. The Nuremberg trails established the precedent that “We were only obeying orders” isn’t a defence

against war crimes. All those at any level who were responsible for the acts of torture should be charged.

A sinister tactic I keep seeing when people try to defend the torture of terror suspects, is to attempt to dehumanise, to take away their humanity and make them sub- human, or that these people deserved to be tortured. There is no such thing as a sub-human.

In the 21st century, when we have satellites which can read a newspaper headlines, high-power optics includ-

ing night visions and infra red, remote un-manned spy planes and long range listening devices, and even the laptop I’m writing this on, could in the right hands gain access to any other computer in the world. Why are we still using medieval methods for information gathering?

And if the British or any other government were aiding, or knew but were indifferent to torture going on, they should also be prosecuted as tortures or as culpable collaborators.

We should not be using medieval methods in the 21st century Torture is illegal under international law. Just look at the UN’s Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The law applies to all member states and can’t be overturned by the administration. The UN has no exceptions on this matter, be it if during a war or if under threat of an attack. It’s quite clear that the Bush

TORTURE: Do Obama's admissions go far enough?

Raising the pay issue Oliver Franklin defends teachers' right to fair pay

T

he National Union of Teachers (NUT) made headlines this week by calling for a 10% pay rise despite the economic downturn. At the union’s annual meeting here in Cardiff, members backed a motion to seek a pay increase of £3000 or 10%, depending upon which is greater.

The union said it would not allow the tough economic climate at the moment to be used as an excuse to cut teachers' pay. This has sparked controversy due to the expected tightening of next year’s Budget, due to be unveiled this week by the Chancellor.

Ian Murch, a teacher from Bradford and member of NUT, argued that teachers have been mistreated on pay for a long time, before the economic downturn really began.

"While real pay was rising in most of the economy, we experienced a cut

in the real value of our pay of more than 6%".

So do teachers deserve the pay rise they are asking for? The NUT argues that low salaries are dissuading the most talented graduates from pursuing the profession, and this is undoubtedly the case. Like many of the public services, teaching is a drastically underpaid profession when compared to many private sector industries.

I hope there is a re-evaluation of pay accross the public sector The issue of the recession is not an excuse to argue against a pay rise; if anything, the recent economic downturn is proof that Britain needs

to shore up its future stability as an economy, and a primary force behind this has to be a focus on world-class education in order to produce the best workforce possible to drive the economy forward.

Furthermore, the teaching industry as it stands lies divided between public and private funded schools, with the latter in the financial position to poach the best teachers with the attraction of higher salaries.

In order to dispel or at least diminish this imbalance then, the government needs to radically change their approach to teacher pay and regulations in order to provide a more dynamic and rewarding professional environment, which is fit to attract the most productive minds.

Perhaps 10% seems like a bit much, and the issue cannot be as simple as granting the NUT’s requests, but it

is certainly an issue that needs to be investigated and addressed. As the impact of the downturn hits the jobs market, a great number of graduates may now be re-evaluating their career path, so now seems like the perfect time to do something for their, and the country’s, future.

Britain needs to produce the best workforce possible So as all eyes settle on Alastair Darling for his budget this week, let us hope to see a dynamic and concerted re-evaluation of not just teaching, but pay across the public sector. After all, it's not often that you can say that a pay rise is in not just one person’s, but everyone’s interest.

OPINION 11

APRIL.27.2009 OPINION@gairrhydd.COM

1-800-LATE AGAIN

We're too indifferent to report late lecturers, says Darryl Light

E

very student at university occasionally turns up late to lectures – be it by five, 10 or even 15 minutes sometimes.

How about lecturers, though? Is it acceptable for them to start a lecture late?

Not according to Manchester Metropolitan University Students' Union, which has introduced a new scheme where students can text a hotline to report a lecturer who is more than 10 minutes late starting a lecture.

The hotline was set up after several students complained, and the Union President, Nicola Lee, commented: "We were approached by some students saying that their lectures had not been rearranged. I don't think it’s disrespectful for them to say that their lecturer is late; it will just improve relations.”

Most students are more interested in where to go out Comments from the deputy vicechancellor, Kevin Bonnet, agreed that lecturers needed to “set an example” to students about good time-keeping,

best learning experience they can on what are often complex subjects.

Routinely mentioned in the defence of late lecturers are the students who often turn up throughout the first 10 minutes of a lecture, which often disrupts the other students. But these lagging students are often the same few people and, at the end of the day, it is their choice to turn up at all, as students are increasingly becoming consumers in the education industry.

Obviously late lectures are a problem, as they impact upon contact time in modules for which some students have few lectures as it is. But will this text hotline have an impact?

HE'S LATE, HE'S whereas one of the lecturers found the idea “embarrassing”. But should lecturers be held accountable for arriving on time and providing the education they are paid to provide?

I often hear people grumbling about lecturers being late or even cancelling lectures at short notice, which is just not acceptable. I tend to find most

LATE: For a very important lecture lecturers start and finish promptly, but some have a reputation for turning up late or finishing early – as if there is something more important they should be doing and the lecture is just a distraction.

Considering the amount of money students invest in their education, lecturers should be aiming to provide the

Students moan to each other, but rarely do anything In my experience, while students are happy to moan to each other about lecturers, very often they do little about it.

Who can say that they put a lot of consideration into the forms given out at the end of the year to provide feedback on the lecturers’ performance?

Typically everyone will just tick the

boxes and try to get out ASAP. And, of course, if a student has a major issue with a member of staff, they can already email or approach one of the heads of their academic school.

For some lecturers it is as if lectures are a distraction

Some departments have even set up student councils where students meet with some of the school’s heads to discuss improvements to the overall teaching of their subject.

I don’t think introducing something like this at Cardiff would have much of an effect, with most students being generally quite apathetic about issues concerning their education and more worried about where to go clubbing.

Until the student population becomes more active in vocalising their views on standards of the education they are receiving, there will be little change. Maybe when fees increase – which seems to be inevitable – there will be a greater demand for a quality education, which starts with lecturers ensuring lectures start and finish on time.

How Burger King burgered up Alex Evans on how racial mockery crossed a border too far

S

tereotyping, and within that, making light of an entire nation’s population in one swift blow, is dangerous. However, it can also be hilarious.

I am talking about this week’s news that a Burger King ad campaign mocking Mexicans is to be pulled amidst much anger, outrage and/or whining.

The advert in question shows a diminutive Mexican enveloped in the nation’s flag, alongside that symbol of American greatness: a tall, commanding Texan. Cue complaints from the Mexican ambassador, arguing that their flag, protected by law, is being “inappropriately displayed” and derided.

are), but that the advert isn’t actually very funny.

There exists a golden rule with the stereotyping of entire races, the mocking of the collective population of a given nation or being risqué in any way: if it’s funny, it’s fine.

One episode of The Simpsons – that veritable staple of Western entertainment – involves a Union Jack be-

ing set alight, stamped on and covered in dirt. Offensive? Potentially. But it was downright hilarious. Similarly, anything which makes fun of the cowardly, garlic-loving, soap-dodging French is comedic gold. Let’s not even start on Irish jokes.

The point is that these stereotypes are funny. They don’t have to be particularly true as long as they’re amus-

The real problem is that it just isn't very funny The real problem with this is not that the advert is stereotypical (although it is), or that a large corporation is mocking several million people in the hope of selling a few more sat-fat-stuffed Whoppers (which they

LITTLE AND LARGE: The Texan and the Mexican

ing, and they form the cornerstone of our entertainment and interaction.

Even in this country, we have a system of national mockery – and it works.

The Scots make fun of the English; the English make fun of the Irish; everyone makes fun of Wales.

I broadly support the PC movement, but it has begun to malfunction Without this, pub talk would be reduced to a dull monotone of cautious conversation. Comedies would drown in a sea of careful political correctness, and the world would be worse off for it.

Of course, there are many in this touchy-feely, sensitive society who don’t share this sense of humour, seeking to stamp out the embers of laughter with their over-zealous regulation of any form of entertainment.

Yes, the PC movement has happened and in many ways I support what it set out to do; mocking for the

sake of mocking borders on insulting, and mocking races without being funny is just being offensive. Roy Chubby Brown, for example, is simply a fat man being racist. On the other hand, Jimmy Carr’s dry one-liners are the epitome of mickey-taking mockery and this is the where the real heart of the matter lies.

The PC machine has begun to malfunction, consuming everything in its path, no matter how offensive, no matter how funny. Most of the time, TV companies apologise and issue press releases when there aren’t even any complaints. This kind of ridiculecaution simply mustn’t continue, lest all our humour be lost for fear of offence.

Burger King’s unfunny ad gaffe actually presents us with some hope, however. There have been complaints; there have been press releases. This is a good sign, because it shows that people will not tolerate unfunny mockery and borderline-racist jesting.

Our sense of humour is alive and well; the only issue here is that Burger King’s advert just wasn’t funny. They should’ve made fun of the Germans instead.

COLUMNIST 13

APRIL.27.2009 OPINION@gairrhydd.COM

There goes the fear again T

here’s one defining characteristic of late April and early May in Cathays, one thing which sets this time of year apart from the rest. It’s not the burgeoning sunshine which we hope will start to bronze our willing shoulders. No, it’s the heady scent of panic beginning to float around.

It’s approaching deadline time again. Enter The Fear, a phenomenon which has rightfully earned its capitalisation.

I hate to admit that Lily Allen’s got something right, but it’s inescapable; even humanities students, the perpetual bane of the 'proper' student’s academic life, are suddenly realising that they’d actually better get some work done. Nobody is immune from The Fear.

Procrastinators' Anonymous is a great way to procrastinate Why the panic, though? We always knew these essays and exams were coming. They’ve been lingering in the background all term; it was always going to come down this. Always. It shouldn’t come as such a nasty shock to realise that a few pages of size 12 Times New Roman or a frantically scribbled transcript per module are expected of us.

It’s not even the first time that research and revision have been demanded: just think back to last semester, or last year. Hell, if you are, like

scatterbrain like me.

But is Facebook really what stops students from spending their time studying? No, it’s not – not solely, anyway. Sure, there’s a correlation there, but it doesn’t seem like the study takes into consideration the students’ other activities. You could probably find a similar, if not stronger trend within the grades of binge drinkers. Or students committed to sporting activities.

Or student media (if I fail my degree, that’s what I’m blaming it on).

You promise yourself this is the last time, but it will happen again THE FEAR: It's coming for you me, an ancient third-year, think back a year even further.

The thing is, as soon as the postdeadline hangover has faded, the stress is all forgotten. You’ll promise yourself that this is the last time you’ll leave it all so late, the last time that you’ll end up rushing your way through everything with just hours to scrape through as you dredge every pathetic word from the raw depths of your soul, but there will be a next time. There always is.

We’re panicking, of course, because we’ve spent the majority of last term doing anything but the work we were supposed to be doing. If we’d put in a reasonable amount of studying on a consistent basis throughout the semester, maybe all this wouldn’t seem so insurmountably daunting.

Heroes T

he point of an advert is to make people want to buy your product, to believe in your company. Not to make everyone within smashing distance of a television set take up their hammers and aim. That memo obviously bypassed Halifax.

It all started back in 2000 with Howard. Howard Brown, to use his full name: you probably knew him as something more along the lines of

'that irritating twat off of the telly'.

Loveable Howard, singing like a sex bomb about how he'd give you extra. And it didn't stop there, oh no; Howard was then allowed to bring some of his friends along for the ride.

They were all sailing away to the happy land of cheap mortgages and and expontentially growing savings. Hah, they were wrong there.

For a while, you thought it was okay to turn on the TV again – a bit like the

This isn’t to say that every student is a lazy dunce who needs to be chained to a desk in order to get anything done; it’s just that student life has so many distractions. There is just far too much fun to be had away from the library – far too many shiny things, if you will.

A study at Ohio State University recently revealed that students who use Facebook tend to have lower grades and spend less time studying than those who don’t. It was only a study of 219 people, so it’s hardly the best sample of students as a whole, but part of me is questioning what the hell took them so long to realise this. Facebook leads to procrastination, which in turn leads to less time spent doing academic work. It’s a simple formula, even for a non-scientifically-minded

and

Yes, there is a big difference between studying for one to five hours per week (Facebook users) and studying for 11 hours per week (non-users) but who’s to say that all of that nonstudying time was taken up by using Facebook? To put it simply: if you’re prone to distraction, you’ll find it anywhere.

These essays and exams shouldn't come as a surprise Once a procrastinator, always a procrastinator; you will always find something more appealing to be doing than your essays. I could (read that

as 'should') be writing an essay right now. There’s actually even a website for chronic procrastinators – yes, as in for procrastinators rather than procrastination: Procrastinators’ Anonymous.

Try Googling it. Ironically enough it’s a brilliant way to procrastinate for a while as you laugh at the seriousness with which it’s all taken.

This is the problem with The Fear, see. Running from it seduces you into evasion of duty through procrastination. If you’re really unlucky, it can even suck you into pure escapism.

Last week I started planning a trip to the USA thanks to The Fear. I looked up the flights: it’s approximately £370 for a return flight from Heathrow to Omaha, with a flight change in Chicago. If you get travel authorisation online, you don’t need a visa.

I went into painstaking detail planning this trip to the American midwest. I probably would have started finding out about hotels as well, but by this point it had hit me that planning trips I had neither the money nor the time to execute was the height of ridiculousness. For about 15 minutes, though, I had a plan to get away from The Fear, even if only in my imagination. It was exhilarating! I nearly went to America!

The one good thing about The Fear is that is does, eventually, stop you from going too far. Just about. Rule #74 of Being a Student states that everything falls into place at some point along the line. This is why, despite the panic, the stress and the caffeine-fuelled all-nighters, the word counts are always met and the exams are always attended. Maybe a little Fear is a good thing. But just a little.

Villains

HALIFAX: Villains

aftermath of Jaws. Howard and co. had sailed away; the Bad Thing was over. Maybe you even got lulled into a false sense of security by that fun Barclays advert with the waterslide.

Then it started again.

The latest Halifax advert has gone back to the normal 'bank advert formula'. But it's still excecrable, because now they're using Bright Eyes as their soundtrack. My blood nearly began to spurt from my ears, but I

eventually realised that it could have been worse – at least Howard 'I sometimes feel like a popstar' Brown wasn't involved.

One can only assume that with the current recession, they can't afford to pay their staff salaries for being both bankers and sham karaoke laughingstocks. Thank God for small mercies, eh?

No wonder the banks are so unpopular these days.

14 POLITICS EXCLUSIVE

APRIL.27.2009 POLITICS@gairrhydd.COM

Is it time for a Libe

Speaking exclusively to politics editor Gareth Ludkin, Nick Clegg b too many years in the shadows of Labour and the Conservatives, d

T

he Liberal Democrats offer a tempting hand, but for a party who haven’t seen power since David Lloyd-George in 1916, do they offer a truly trustworthy or credible alternative? The deepening economic crisis could prove the catalyst for a complete overhaul of government.

Straight-talking, passionate, and honest, Nick Clegg is looking to take his party to a monumental victory at the next general election with some broad, sweeping reforms that could open the door to a more liberal Britain.

ter perhaps but nothing to cause any real excitement. After the pub, he visited the central library and RHS Cardiff Flower Show before the main event that evening, when he spoke alongside the Welsh Lib Dem Leader Kirsty Williams, answering questions from the public and fellow Liberal Democrats.

In this whistlestop tour of Cardiff he did, however, spare a moment to talk to gair rhydd to discuss his views on the future of the Liberal Democrats and his passion for politics. He spoke with warmth and honesty throughout the interview and was captivating in what he said. His enthusiasm for local politics was clear as he spoke of the need to bridge the “massive” gap between politics and the public.

Critical of unaccountable politicians and officials who continually fail to listen or deliver the change people want, Nick Clegg said, “One of the reasons I came into politics was a feeling that too much power has been taken out of the hands of people, families [and] communities”. Too many decisions have been made from “on high” in Westminster and Cardiff, he said.

Local politics

Strolling into the 150year-old Vulcan pub, Nick Clegg introduced himself with confidence and self-assurance. He chatted comfortably with local campaigners who have been fighting to halt the closure of the historic pub while lunchtime drinkers looked nonplussed as they continued to nurse their drinks. The occasional glance was paid to the tall Lib Dem leader as he pulled a pint of Brains for the cameras and the small crowd.

"I don't think Britain is a fair place"

MAIN IMAGE: Nick Clegg pulling a pint in The Vulcan INSET: Admiring his masterful creation

Surrounded by his aides, the brief visit to one of Cardiff’s oldest pubs was short and inconsequential - something else to put on the local newslet-

Criticism of the centralised and out of touch system of government holed up in Westminster has become a recurring theme of Nick Clegg’s vision for the Liberal Democrats who would bring in drastic changes to the way in which politics is run by giving more power to local communities and constituencies. Nick Clegg believes in empowering the public to make real change in their communities, which they are often out of touch with.

“I think what’s central to a liberal philosophy in life is that you should be giving people and communities as much control over their own lives as possible. There seems to be a kind of unsettling homogeneity to so much of our life,” said Mr. Clegg, “I think people have a real longing for local authenticity; in their politics, in their pubs, in their post offices and their playing fields, it’s all the same. People want to find a sense of identity in their own area, and that is something, which is absolutely central to what Liberal Democrats are in politics for.”

The Liberal Democrats want to give power back to the people, and to re-engage those who have previously felt alienated by politics. Promising to listen to the needs of the public, Nick Clegg set his councillors and

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eral Democracy?

believes that it's time for a different approach to government. After do the Liberal Democrats now offer a believeable alternative?

MPs a challenge. Between October and June 4th, the date of local and European elections this year, Liberal Democrats were to knock on 1 million doors. Hardly many in a population of 67 million, but definitely a step in the right direction for a party who are more keen than ever to engage the public in political discussion.

Nevertheless, what will convince us that the Lib Dems will be any different to Labour or the Conservatives? Gordon Brown spun a similar yarn that he was going to listen to the needs of the public when he was first elected. YouTube is Gordon Brown’s answer, through which he answers the public’s questions but for Nick Clegg a face-to-face local approach seems more to his liking.

Looking to the future Having promised to spend much more time away from Westminster, Nick Clegg seems to be living by his promise. In 10 months he has visited over 90 different towns, cities, and constituencies. This reflects a commitment to doing things differently to shake up the political system, with a more devolved style of government away from Westminster.

Too much power has been taken out of the hands of people, families and communities “I think there’s so much cynicism and anger about how politicians conduct themselves at national level and I think there’s so much fear about the

effects of a sort of footloose fancyfree global economy that people increasingly want to seek safety in their own communities.”

Nick Clegg, who is known for his no-nonsense style of leadership, holding no punches in his criticism of the government, has become a popular leader in the 18 months since his election as party leader. Having inspired a sense of renewed purpose and determination within the party he is confident that the party can now push Labour into 3rd place once again in the June local elections.

After recording a record 6 million votes at the last election, more than any other liberal party in Europe, and with more MPs in Westminster than they’ve enjoyed for generations, the image of the Liberal Democrats as a weak party that lacks any political punch could well be changing.

A wasted vote?

A vote for the Liberal Democrats has often been considered a wasted vote and one you might as well spend on Labour. However, this is something that is no longer valid according to Clegg who believes that “Something very big is happening in British politics.

“The old establishment of Labour and the Conservatives, who think they’ve got a sort of cosy grip on the whole system. That’s breaking apart.”

Clegg believes that the time is nearing for a Liberal party to take over the leadership of the country, time to do “something different”, something he stressed throughout the interview.

“We’ve had blue, red, red, blue politics, we’ve got ourselves into a terrible mess, they keep making the same mistakes. No one believes anything would be different under the

Conservatives. We would have just as bad if not a worse recession under the Conservatives given how utterly craven they are in their relationship with the City of London.”

All three parties have become increasingly centralised along the political spectrum in recent years, with Liberals remaining an idealistic party.

There's nothing obviously wrong with that. However, many question the capacity of the Liberal Democrats to bring about change, especially on some of the core issues for which they have often been criticised for borrowing from both sides of the political spectrum.

The Liberal Democrats have taken a tough stance on tax policy, which has become something Nick Clegg is particularly keen to debate and criticise leading into the next general election. The Lib Dems are keen to help those on the lowest incomes and take a tough stance on the wealthy with the eradication of tax havens.

“I don’t think Britain is a fair place there are far too many people on low incomes who are really struggling to get by whilst very wealthy people can pay fancy accountants to run a coach and horses through the tax system” he said.

Criticism came last week, however, after the Lib Dems introduced a new pledge for a £10,000 tax-free allowance that would make the low paid £700 better off every year, which Nick Clegg claimed would spread the tax burden more fairly. However, this would mean the abolishment of the Child Trust Fund, Health in Pregnancy Grants and the Tax Credit system.

Financial Secretary to the Treasury Stephen Timms called the policy change “another example of a policy on the hoof by the Lib Dems”, and with it being the second change to tax

policy in a year Timms suggested that it’s proof that Nick Clegg is “out of his depth and incapable of making serious proposals for serious times.”

We've had blue, red, red, blue politics, we've got ourselves into a terrible mess “I think there’s now a real appetite for something different,” argues the Lib Dem leader, “I think people are desperate for something different, a different approach to crime, a different approach to education, a different approach to how we run our universities, our schools, our hospitals. How we look after our environment, how we protect rather than trash our civil liberties, and very importantly as well, a very different approach to the way we do politics. I think now that on all of those issues we are the only party that actually has the radical sets of ideas about how you would change things, change things in a meaningful way.”

There was a real sense as I spoke to Nick Clegg that he really believes that the Liberal Democrats could come out from the shadows of Labour and the Conservatives, especially at such at troubling time for the Labour party who have taken a huge number of knock backs in the past few months.

With huge questions over the stability of the party and its ability to govern, now could well be the perfect time to make radical change happen.

‘Make It Happen’ is the party’s slogan, and will lead them into the next general election.

Five things you may not have known about Nick Clegg: He speaks five different European languages He studied at three universities: Cambridge, Minnesota and College D’Europe He was a trainee journalist on the American magazine The Nation He used to lecture part time at Cambridge and Sheffield Universities His enjoys drinking tomato juice

Akin perhaps to Barack Obama’s ‘Yes We Can’, there is a real sense that Nick Clegg wants to change things for the better.

“I don’t think Britain is fair, I think its over centralised, I think it's too illiberal, I think there’s far too much spying on people, snooping on people, too much erosion of civil liberties. I think that the way we treat our young people, the way that we mess them up in prison and our criminal justice system needs to change. I think there’s a desperate, desperate need, and a real appetite to do things differently.”

The current turbulent climate of British politics is not one that encourages great faith in politics, or indeed politicians. Gordon Brown has had a tough ride in the past few weeks, attempting to salvage a crumbling British economy in the face of global instability, scandal and attacks on his leadership. Nick Clegg believes that the Liberal democrats can instead promise “hope”, particularly for students who are increasingly being lumbered with more and more debt.

“We’re the only party in British politics now saying that you shouldn’t be saddling students with debt when our economy is swimming in debt.

The answer to debt is not more debt.

We are the only party saying that we should be scrapping tuition fees,” said Clegg.

Speaking in long prose with great clarity and confidence, 7 minutes was by no means enough time to get to the bottom of Nick Clegg’s passion for politics and belief in the Liberal Democrats, who now pose a much more credible option than they used to.

They play the right notes, but whether they can deliver what they preach or whether it’s just a lot of idealistic hot air is another matter.

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G20 fails to deliver

Damian Fantato condemns the G20 event as useless and a complete waste of time and money. Will the comuniqué ever produce results?

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don’t know if you noticed, but something happened in London over the holidays. It involved a group of world leaders meeting up for a bit of a chin-wag.

Some people seemed to be getting extremely angry about this, Someone even had a heart attack (though it later turned out that he had suffered abdominal bleeding after being brutally attacked by a policeman whose job it was to protect him).

None of these agreeements are groundbreaking

The reason I speak of the G20 summit in such terms is because it is very rare that something can be so hyped and yet so useless, so full of self-importance and yet so ineffective.

Several leaders – most noticeably Gordon Brown - were claiming that this summit would save the world; that it would completely change world finance, and that it would be a new Bretton Woods. Understandably, many people took the opportunity to protest against something – it’s not

often that so many important people are in the same place – but the crowds of protesters were filled with so many disparate voices that they failed to convey a coherent message, and therefore nobody actually knew what they wanted (apart from wanting to want to kill all bankers). They might as well not have bothered.

The conclusions that the G20 summit reached were so banal, so unbelievably predictable, that they could probably have been reached over the phone without the extra cost both financial and environmental. What did the G20 summit actually decide? For a start, more money would be spent: $500billion would be given to struggling economies, $100billion to international development banks, $250billion would be given to support world trade and a $250billion overdraft was created for the IMF (makes you think twice about the size of your overdraft, doesn’t it?).

The summit also agreed to introduce global regulation for hedge funds and decided upon a common approach for cleaning up toxic assets. The most important step was the agreed sanctions against tax havens that failed to comply with new anti-secrecy agree-

ments. None of these agreements are groundbreaking. Most of them simply copy what many countries had already been doing on a larger scale.

As a result of these agreements, once the financial crisis is over, the world is going to find itself saddled with debt mounting into the trillions and no lasting institutional change.

Life will continue as normal but we’ll all be a bit poorer. We’ll also be much

No two leaders came to the table with the same ideas of what to do hotter since, as Greenpeace pointed out, the summit failed to put aside any of the $1.1trillion it spent for environmental projects.

To a certain extent, this was inevitable. No two leaders arrived at the summit with the same ideas of what should be achieved over the hour-long summit (that’s right, it only lasted about an hour). The broad divisions were between those wanting tougher regulations and institutions (Merkel and Sarkozy amongst them) and those

wanting to spend now and talk later (Obama and Brown). But concrete conclusions could have been met and, just to dispel the myth that I’m only hear to criticise, here’s what I think they should have talked about: free trade.

The dismantling of all trade barriers would have transformed the lives of millions of people around the world.

Europe spends £40billion subsidizing its farmers, whilst America spends £14billion. The developing world

cannot compete with these sums and as a result they have nowhere to sell their exports to, leaving them stuck in the poverty cycle. President Obama has shown how unwilling he is to help these countries by claiming to want to ‘aggressively defend’ America’s ‘rights and benefits’. It seems he might not be the man for the job after all.

What do I want? The complete dismantling of all trade barriers that impede the development of poorer countries! When do I want it? Now!

CONTROVERSY: Police clash with campaigners

UN conference crumbles

After Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called Israel a "totally racist" country, Robin Morgan is critical as the key message of the conference is lost

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lown wigs donned, red noses thrown about, and... racism.

In what might have looked liked a child’s party, there was a more sinister tone to the proceedings of last week’s UN racism summit in Geneva. The presence of Iran’s Prime Minister, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who would be leading the forum as the only state leader attending, created tension and disapproval amongst many Western states.

The potential of the conference was obvious – a chance to discuss the progress on fighting racism since the previous forum in Durban in 2001.

But the entire process was marred by a war of words in the days running up to its opening, with the US leading boycotts over claims that Zionism is linked with racism.

In the melée it seems the main topic of the conference was forgotten, and the story had shifted towards the planned boycotts. On the day of the forum, more drama hid the issues deeper and deeper underground.

Famous for claims that Israel should

be “wiped off the map” coupled with Holocaust denial, Ahmadinejad would not be the first choice for many to lead a forum on anti-racism. As soon as he began speaking, two protestors in clown wigs disrupted the speech, and minutes later dozens of delegates left as he described Israel as “totally racist”. The walk-outs were predicted and even planned in certain sectors, if the likely event of Ahmadinejad offending... well, anyone. But what did they actually achieve?

It seems that those on either side of the fence, Iran’s sympathisers and then the mostly Western delegates, used the forum to get their views across. However, it was not the views that the conference was intended to be tackling. The UN will be frustrated, as their conference was the platform for yet another missed opportunity to actually discuss these issues, in exactly the way that the UN was intended with its creation.

The US led the boycotts after the draft still reiterated discussion involving ‘foreign occupation’ – a term previously used in the 2001 Durban

forum – to describe the situation regarding Israel and Palestine. This preemptive decision was imitated by a number of other countries, and then following Ahmadinejad’s comments, many other delegates staged the walkouts, causing the scene for debate into more of a jilting at a wedding.

The real issue was overshadowed UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said: “The best riposte for this type of event is to reply and correct, not to withdraw and boycott the conference." It is a sad state of affairs for international relations if debate has been replaced with headline-grabbing actions.

Of course, there obviously was a message behind the walkouts. But the importance of using a forum and an international organisation such as the UN is crucial to any significant decision being made regarding the crisis occurring in the Middle East. I digress, of course, from the real story. But so

did the rest of the news. The conference was no longer about discussing the progress of fighting racism, but became about the inability to debate racism, or the refusal to take part in such a debate.

Ahmadinejad claimed that those states who boycotted the forum displayed their "arrogance and selfishness". The blind hypocrisy of this statement is tantamount, from the leader who graced an anti-racism conference with the purpose of branding Israel as a racist nation. There is no doubt that the situation in the Middle East is in a horrendous state – but in a conference that did outline in a draft the importance of the need to protect "all those under foreign occupation", the outspoken Iranian Prime Minister has overshadowed the real issue with more grandiose statements.

The walkouts may have brought more attention to the conference than originally thought. This of course is a positive point if the message still manages to be heard. However, it’s much more likely that the war of words (amongst other things) will be the

main focus of this story. Either way, Western-Muslim relations has taken yet another blow.

Barack Obama’s invitation of an “open hand” to the Muslim world was offered only if they were willing to “unclench their fist”. It seems not even the ‘saviour of America’ can aid these recent events. It may have sent a better signal, however, if the US had not led the calls for a boycott to the forum.

RACIST?: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

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A return to Cold War?

Jennie Summers considers the threat of nuclear war as nuclear arms proliferation continues to grow in unstable political times

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ensions surrounding the nuclear question are now at their highest point since the end of the Cold War. With Iran rumoured to be within two years of full nuclear capability and the Democratic People’s Republic of (North) Korea (DPKR) testing a ballistic missile designed to reach as far as Alaska and then promptly throwing out international nuclear inspectors, now must be the time to address nuclear proliferation and even the threat of nuclear war.

President Barack Obama has begun to do just that, making clear his aspirations for a nuclear-free world.

But can even the immensely popular Obama tackle this perennial and potentially deadly issue?

Considering the predictions before the end of the Cold War of 50+ countries obtaining a nuclear armoury, we might count ourselves lucky that only eight countries are currently known to possess a nuclear arsenal.

More worrying though is which particular countries possess nuclear weapons. For instance, a standoff between arch-enemies Israel (which already has a number of nuclear weapons) and Iran (which is allegedly well on its way to acquiring them) could

end in nuclear war.

Consider, for example, that Israel back in 1981 bombed a nuclear reactor in Iraq ‘in self-defence’ in anticipation of the country arming itself within five years. Recent reports suggest that Israel could repeat these actions with Iranian reactors within days. Such an act aimed at Iran would be seen as nothing less than provocation of a country whose President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has repeatedly hinted at his ambitions to wipe Israel off the face of the earth.

Proliferation must be considered as well as nuclear disarmament Elsewhere in Asia another nuclear power, Pakistan, is teetering on the edge of becoming a ‘failed state’.

There is every possibility that an organisation like Al-Qaeda or the Taliban could exploit the chaos in Pakistan to obtain the weapons for themselves; goodness only knows what would happen if non-state actors were able to get their hands on such materials.

The signs are not all negative how-

ever. The United Nations Security Council members (whose permanent members Russia, China, USA, Britain, and France all have nuclear capabilities themselves) managed after several days of wrangling to come out with a strong message of condemnation regarding the DPKR launch and a tightening of existing sanctions upon them. The ability of such a diverse membership to come to an agreement bodes well, as the Council, frequently the meeting place for forging international cooperation, is likely to be central to any progress made on nuclear issues.

Moreover, Mohammed El Baradei, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (linked to the United Nations), is “extremely pleased” with the reversal in American policy moving away from the confrontational style of the Bush era to one of “dialogue and mutual self-respect”.

Beyond the rhetoric though, what actual steps could ‘the world’ take to lessen the danger of nuclear disaster?

The key as ever in world politics is compromise. Nuclear proliferation must be considered alongside nuclear disarmament if we are to see real progress; countries like Iran and DPKR will not halt efforts to manufacture nuclear missiles if those al-

MUSHROOM CLOUD: A very real possibility Evidently President Obama recogready endowed with them do not reciprocate by beginning to reduce their nises this fact, and perhaps the secustockpiles. For too many years the rity summit he calls for could yield a Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty has new treaty that really sets the process prioritized, preventing countries get- on the right track. Now is the time to ting their hands on the nuclear button, make such a move, particularly with whilst failing to forge ahead with dis- the looming spectre of terrorists wielding nuclear weapons on the horizon. arming those already equipped.

Piracy problems for Somalia There is much more to be done and many more problems to face before piracy in Somalia can be crushed, argues Simon Lucey

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very year, 22,000 ships pass through the Gulf of Aden to or from the Indian Ocean carrying about 8% of the world’s trade. Since Somalia’s demise into a violence-ridden, anarchic, rotten state, the hungry and desperate have taken to pirating this vast source of trade.

Finally this has received media coverage due to the attack of the US ship the Maersk Alabama and its captain, Richard Phillips, who was taken hostage. The dramatic scenes of the pirates being shot by US forces took the world’s imagination by storm; however this case was simply a byproduct of the state on the land.

The problem of Somali piracy was underlined by new figures from the International Maritime Bureau that showed that incidents of piracy have almost doubled in the first quarter of this year compared with last year. The ransoms paid in 2008 alone were estimated at $150m - it is clearly a lucrative business for those who dare.

As of a result of the escalated pi-

racy, at least nine countries have sent naval vessels to patrol the region, however this has proved insufficient and the sea bandits who are so often confronted with violence and death on the dry land seem eager to take the high risk on the seas.

It seems logical to move some NATO troops to Somalia The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has announced a four-point plan for dealing with the pirates, including improving the situation in Somalia and freezing pirates’ assets.

How she wants to ‘improve the situation in Somalia’ is currently unclear.

In the short term the response seems to be quite simply to send more warships to the region, whilst the international community scrambles to find a united response to the pirates.

France has lead the response taking tough action against the pirates, cap-

turing more than 70 in the past year and killing three others. Meanwhile Kenya is trying a number of the Somali pirates in detention as many of the ships have been going to or coming from its main port, Mombassa.

Many of these ships have been delivering food aid to Somalia.

The pirates are not well-equipped or particularly devious, but the raw underbelly of world trade has been left open for a few shrewd individuals to exploit. The warships that have been sent to protect the trade are woefully insufficient, while thousands of NATO troops are fighting and dying at the hands of the Taliban with little prospect of success in the war in Afghanistan.

It seems a logical decision to move a substantial part of this force to the Gulf of Aden where they can have a positive impact in preventing pirates.

The pirates would have been a lot less successful had they hopped on board the Maersk Alabama and been confronted by thirty marines. This would buy Hillary Clinton valuable time to

work on her long-term plan of bringing stability to Somalia.

The drama of the piracy is simply a symptom of the rotting away of the Somali state leading to one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world today, reflected in the unacceptable suffering of innocent civilians including a 15-21% rate of malnutrition over the last decade.

The establishment of a new government led by President Sheik Sharif

Ahmed at the end of Janurary 2009 is the latest of at least 15 attempts to establish a national government in Somalia, and retake power from the powerful warlords who currently command the country. In order for Clinton et al to end piracy it seems they will have to divert their attention onto dry land and help the President to restore order in a devastated country and end the suffering of millions of people.

COVERT: Pirates set sail in search of loot