InQuire 16.2 by InQuire Media

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“Your campus, your voice” Monday 19 October 2020 16.2

Exclusive: Khaliq Martin on UKC response to racism

The climate clock: we haven’t long left

Opinion page 7

Flying home during lockdown

Features page 12

The Shining at 40 By Tarini Tiwari Newspaper News Editor

“Everything I say is substantiated by black, queer feminist socio-political theories,” student Khaliq Martin disclaimed before he started discussing how he founded the Afro-Diasporic Legal Network or ADLN. He spoke at the launch for DecoloniseUoK’s book Towards Decolonising the University: A Kaleidoscope for Empowered Action. Martin highlighted his Bahamian upbringing meaning he “was cognisant of colonial systems engrained in society”. Upon coming to the University of Kent, he “was flabbergasted that there was nothing, besides the brilliant black people at DecoloniseUoK/UKC” by way of an organisation for black Law students. “[T]hat’s how ADLN started. I was able to create sustainable structures such as a black discussion series. There’s joy in integrating and finding your place while still being cognizant of colonial structures.” InQuire sat down with Khaliq Martin to talk about the ADLN and the university’s response to the concerns they have raised. Tarini Tiwari: I wanted to first ask you to elaborate more on your call to action that you released to the university. Just in your own words discuss what you were requesting the university to incorporate in order to make campus more inclusive. Khaliq Martin: Yeah, absolutely. So, after we saw throughout the global context people having conversations about Black Lives Matter, we saw different ways people were protesting not just in Canterbury or in London. We acknowledged that these protests and even the ways that we show up to not just pay homage

but grieve and mourn the people who have been impacted by state-sanctioned violence. We understand that protests and things like that can be incredibly cathartic, can be incredibly therapeutic, and can allow for the processing of that grieving. What we at ADLN and certainly a lot of black students (more than it appears to be) were saying was “Hey, this is cool, it’s nice that we were able to pop up and do something,” but we were critical about what was next. A lot of us who were first, second or final year students were upset about the ways that anti-black racism has been allowed to occur. We were like “Okay, we understand the importance of this space to grieve and mourn, but how are we actually addressing some of the ways that anti-black racism shows up at our university?” So, there are folks like myself who did a mini action, and it was Baby Shark in comparison to what’s happening in the global context, but we were interested in having a conversation with the rest of the student body in a communal way by postering certain questions like “Hey, we know that the complaints process not just for racism but for various forms of discrimination is ineffectual,” and this is known throughout multiple departments so it’s not new knowledge. Another poster said that the curriculum isn’t diverse, and again this is not new knowledge because student organisations such as DecoloniseUoK have been reporting this for a long time. We also had a significant question surrounding black students’ treatment by campus security, and the different ways that they were showing up for us while they weren’t giving the same energy to our other non-black counterparts when complaints were raised against them. This is something that I have also personally experienced. So, we had that mini action and we saw a clear disparity between how certain folks were allowed to take up space, you know, as a part of this institution, and how folks who

were a part of that action were immediately policed by campus security, as in the freedom of expression, the freedom of being allowed to protest, was immediately denied within minutes, and that was something that we did not necessarily expect but wasn’t entirely surprising. Despite that, we were still interested in a conversation, a very critical conversation to say “Okay, the question still stands: how are we ensuring black students’ safety at our university but still addressing some of these issues of anti-black racism at our university that have not gone away?” So, I think us at the Afro-Diasporic Legal Network were very much open to having that conversation with other societies to say “Hey, what are some issues you folks have faced or are currently facing?” And we saw how some of that was emerging from, say, the previous UKCACS (Afro-Caribbean Society) statement that was published in the summer. We had conversations with those folks and we suggested recommendations that we’d seen globally and those folks gave their feedback on it. Then, we submitted it to the student community. And, sure enough, we got some endorsements from different societies and individuals. We also got endorsements from outside of the institution because they recognised these as pivotal steps that would change the institutional structure, the student culture and the student community. But also, it was very apparent that what we were asking for was the bare minimum, right? If we study the global context, a lot of these conversations are ones that people had five or seven years ago. And so, we got the institution and the student union to publicly endorse the demands. They immediately wanted to have private meetings about this. We said no. One reason is because it does not allow for the accountability that folks within the ADLN or even the Continued on page 3...

Entertainment page 15

The destruction on our doorsteps

Science and Technology page 18

Plus: Lifestyle page 11 Combating ‘maskne’

Culture page 17 Neuromancer retrospective

Monday 19 October 2020 InQuire

News Committee

Editor-in-Chief Tímea Koppándi

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Editorial Tarini Tiwari Newspaper News Editor

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Lucy O’Brien Newspaper Opinion Editor

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Samuel Watson Newspaper Features Editor features@inquiremedia.co.uk

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Inaccurate law school statistics depict “lack of intelligence” in BAME students By Tarini Tiwari Newspaper News Editor

The University of Kent’s Decolonise the Curriculum initiative was closed down this summer and culminated with the publication of their book, Towards Decolonising the University: A Kaleidoscope for Empowered Action. To launch the book, the organisation held a webinar on 1 October that featured members, black Kent Law students and the founders of the Afro-Diasporic Legal Network. The talk got off to a rough start, with a technical issue meaning the audience could not see the video playing. “Is something meant to be happening?” was one of many confused questions put into the chat feature as the minutes ran on in silence. As the talk got properly underway, Dr Suhraiya Jivraj, founder and leader of the Decolonise the Curriculum initiative and DecoloniseUoK (occasionally known as DecoloniseUKC) talked about how the book has been underway for two years and discussed the “agonising” process of turning all your thoughts into cohesive prose. The webinar then gave way to different speakers, including prominent faculty members within the School of Law. This included Dr Will R Mbioh, a lecturer in European Union law, Public law, Equity and Trusts. Dr Mbioh spoke mainly about the importance of diversifying Kent Law School but also the difficulties that come with such an undertaking. “The challenge of making KLS more inclusive requires an environment that is conducive to that,” he said. This was an important statement that gave context for later speakers who made clear that they did not feel the University of Kent was such an environment. Dr Mbioh went on to talk about how students from BAME communities usually come to Kent Law School “with some disadvantages”. He said that “the issue of the curriculum matters in terms of the success the students have,” as they have to find it accessible in order to be able to understand it. “We aim to demystify the curriculum,” he concluded by saying. At this time, InQuire posted a question into the chat feature that requested clarity on why DecoloniseUoK had been shut down if lecturers such as Dr Mbioh felt “demystifying the curriculum” was imperative to students’ success. Other attendees had similar concerns, with one audience member asking “in what ways will staff ensure that the effort to decolonise curriculum is a continuous process and not a one time reactionary event?” All questions surrounding the sustainability of such ideologies without an organisation to monitor it were acknowledged but never answered. The discussion then shifted to ex-Kent Law students who were also contributors to the book. Jasmyn Sargeant spoke of her Trinidadian pride but how, when coming to the University of Kent, she was advised to “stay out of trouble and be a good migrant”. Afua Hirsch, a prominent mixed-race British lawyer and journalist, comments on the notion of the “good immi-

Corrections We will report any inaccurate information published as soon as the error is discovered. Editorial corrections will be printed on this page. For more information, contact Tímea Koppándi at editor@inquiremedia.co.uk

grant”, describing it as when one assimilates “without were assured that their responses would be completely bringing too much attention to one’s own blackness”. anonymised”. Sargeant went on to explain how, retrospectively, “me The focus groups yielded interesting results. “The trying to conform to stay out of trouble repressed me, notion of a one-size-fits-all student experience is outand I was being held back from my success”. She endmoded. Students report that they attend university ed by imploring young black law students to speak up with the hope of achieving personal growth but that the against injustices towards them. “If you see problems, opportunities for enhancement including employabilit’s your right to want to address them”. ity and so on, that are on offer can often feel daunting The next speaker was Anthony Otobo-Martins, anand unsuitable especially when students are struggling other ex-student who spoke about the inequalities to keep up with study and other commitments”. This in job opportunities for black students explanation was followed by a quote from a ty of Kent i s r ive n (males especially), as well as some focus group participant. “I do not want yU of the casual racism he faced as o b to speak up in class because I do ot a student at the University of not want to be that one brown Kent. “It’s a fact that black kid who talks. It feels like semmen in particular are the inar leaders and lecturers are most underrepresented in more social with students most top corporate roles. that look like them”. There are 800 partners The manifesto is a long in Magic Circle firms, explanation of how the and only 6 are black”. university can train both Otobo-Martins destaff and students to be scribed spending all his more accommodating of free time in the library, BAME students, and highsaying “you need to work lights campus security as twice as hard as mediocre an important aspect of this. white candidates to achieve According to the manifesto, the same marks”. improved training for campus When talking about his time at security “could combat any student the University of Kent, Otobo-Marperception that they may be acting as tins explained that he was perceived as less an ‘arm of the police in their behaviours and intelligent as a result of being black. “The BAME atpractice’”. A focus group participant remembered a tainment statistics inaccurately display a lack of in“student being escorted out of the building in case he telligence in black students. There is a false narrative ‘got aggressive’. He hadn’t done anything other than that black students are less capable ask staff a question and it felt like he was being targetthan their white counterparts.” Going ed or having assumptions made about him because of into specifics, he recounted a casual how he looked”. discussion with a white peer. “I like In the chapter Success, Pitfalls and Next Steps, Dr you Anthony, because you’re black Suhraiya Jivraj talks about the incident that launched but you don’t have a black brain,” he DecoloniseUoK as a movement. “A central universialleges he was told. “I graduated in ty presentation was being delivered that highlighted the top 2% of my class at Kent Law ‘black and Asian’ students as having ‘attainment gaps’ School, and yet I was nowhere near followed by a haze of graphs and stats. Instinctive the smartest black student there. discomfort rose within me as my racism radar picked Excel in your field and hold the door up on what seemed to me as crass racial stereotyping open for others to follow”. about the behaviours and achievements of ‘Indian The talk actually focused very little students’ vs ‘black students’ vs ‘East Asian’ students”. on the book itself, but it is available to Jivraj said she found these statistics reductive, that download as a PDF or for purchase as “the problem — disparities in achievement of degree a paperback. grades — sounded too much like it lay at the door of The book opens with an explanathe students and not the institutions”. tion of DecoloniseUoK’s manifesto. Between the book launch and the book itself, SuhraiHere, it states that we “need a diverya Jivraj and the students and faculty of Kent Law sity of perspectives, particularly from School highlighted what they felt to be severe racial scholars of colour and from the global inequalities and disparities at the University of Kent. south”. The global south is the antithesis to the global north and encompasses “developing” regions, including South America, Africa and large • The irony is not lost on the team that last isparts of Asia. The manifesto goes on to say that Kent’s sue’s corrections notice gave the incorrect Well Being and Student Support teams ought to be name for the Editor-in-Chief. Readers should aligned with the “diverse student population” and that of course contact with Tímea Koppándi for there should be more focus and information on “Black matters concerning corrections, rather than Scholarships”. George Knight. In discussing the manifesto, the book touches upon • The review of I May Destroy You in the previthe difficulties DecoloniseUoK encountered when ous edition had offset text at the end. It should read “I May Destroy You is available to stream trying to organise focus groups. Many students from on BBC iPlayer”. BAME groups said they “feared being under some kind • Armaan Latif was mistakenly credited as “Arof “surveillance’”from the university even though they maan Fital” in the Life in Lockdown section.

Meet the team

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InQuire Monday 19 October 2020

UCU Re-Ballot Just Short of The Mark Photo by Jeanne Bigot

News By Daniel Esson News Writer Early 2020, last academic year, feels like a lifetime away. Four weeks of strikes followed near-instantly by lockdown and an abrupt end to face-to-face teaching seems rather exciting compared to how this academic year has started. Last year’s industrial action negotiations were brought to a hard stop by the pandemic. In the wake of this, the trade union representing staff has gone to the ballots again. InQuire spoke to Iain Wilkinson, a professor in the School of Sociology and the newly elected president of UKC’s University and Colleges Union (UCU) branch, to get a better understanding of the situation. He told InQuire that the branch felt compelled to ballot members because, despite the fact the University is “ahead of schedule” on its cost cutting plans, they are still threatening some sections of academic and professional staff with compulsory redundancies. The ballot itself was unsuccessful — Professor Wilkinson said that, while the vote was overwhelmingly in favour of local industrial action (79% voting yes, 21% voting no), turnout was only 44.9%, meaning the vote is not binding, and action cannot be taken as a result of this ballot. This low turnout, however, is not necessarily emblematic of low engagement in the union.

The Trade Union Act 2016 mandates a minimum of 50% turnout for a vote to be binding, thereby encouraging those who don’t support strike action to abstain from voting, rather than taking part and voting against. This result was disappointing for the UCU, especially since Professor Wilkinson explained to InQuire that he calculated the branch was only around 23 votes short of getting a binding result. He explained reasons for the disappointing turnout: “UCU gambled with organising a vote under COVID-19 conditions (which has to be done by post), as this meant that a number of members did not receive ballot papers in time to vote due to them being posted to university rather than home addresses (for health and safety reasons, campuses were inaccessible through most of the summer and academics could not readily collect post sent to their work addresses). It was also difficult for us to campaign to get the vote out through the month of August as many colleagues were on holiday at this time”. These outside factors limited engagement such that Professor Wilkinson assured “if we need to ballot members again we are confident that we will meet the required threshold”. This is not to say, however, that UCU are itching for another chance to ballot, as Pro-

fessor Wilkinson said: “We very much hope that we will not have to do this. We have recently received an offer to enter negotiations with University management over arrangements that might be set in place in order to remove the threat of redundancy from staff working in areas of the university that are targeted for cost-saving cuts. We are now in the early stages of these negotiations”. He assured that the UCU “are operating here in good faith”, and are de-

“UCU gambled with organising a vote under COVID-19 conditions” termined to negotiate a solution which is beneficial to the working conditions of staff and the learning conditions of students. Of course, the administration’s intention to drastically cut costs to dig the university out of the £60 million deficit could once again come into conflict with the union’s mission to protect staff and working conditions.

Continued from page 1... student union can give the student body because it’s nine societies that are interested in these demands as well as other individuals and societies that might have endorsed the demands. So, we were like “A private meeting does not keep us accountable and it does not keep you [the university administration] accountable. This is a communal effort, this was a communal initiative, you need to tell the entire student body in a communal way how you plan to implement these demands.” So, there were initial conversations afterwards of how we were going to do it. I think after the second or third meeting it was incredibly clear that they did not want to do it. They were uncomfortable doing it, and I think folks need to be critical about why they were uncomfortable doing it. They used certain things like “I don’t think it’s going to resolve or address anything if we have a town hall.” And, we kind of questioned like — you were willing to create spaces such as the My Campus Is Racist- In Conversations and even that had certain problematic things that had to be addressed before it was launched, but we saw ways that the university prioritised certain events, you know, from an institutional lens, from a senior management lens, and they were able to do that within days or weeks, right? Like the statement of solidarity that they pushed out that black students were very much critical about, like “Hey, this was not consulted on by [any] of the societies. So, we immediately found that there were issues that they did not want to do this in a communal and collective way. They did not want to centre and prioritise black students when black students had brought up these particular issues. And, I think ever since that initial meeting — and in that meeting they were also calling us oppositional — we’ve just not engaged in talks. TT: Just to clarify a couple of things, when you’re talking about your protest being shut down within minutes, was that in reference to outside The Registry where posters were pulled down by campus security? KM: Yeah, so, there were posters in a central space of the university, beginning from Jarman all the way up to the law school and even The Registry — there were posters everywhere. They drove in white trucks across university lawns within 2-5 minutes to take those down immediately. And we found out from our community liaisons that the reason why was a very specific poster that questioned why black students were being over-policed. It is very clear that campus security did not want to engage in a conversation that scrutinised them and brought to light conversations on black students being over-policed. TT: You said that the university allowed for some people and voices to take up space and prioritised them over black voices. Could you be more specific about who the university is giving priority to and who is being allowed to take up space instead of black students? KM: We found out that when there was a BLM protest that occurred in the city centre that there was some sort of conversation where guidance from security was given in order for folks to conduct that action. And, I understand that folks may want to have those conversations about taking up space in a safe and compliant manner, especially in the context of COVID-19, but if we look at the historical context of social movements and their intentions of being disruptions against institutional structures, we need to be cognizant that if there

are allegations of security over-policing black students, why are they part and parcel of the way that you show up and take up space in the first place? Who is now being excluded or what ways are these forums or these protests being effectual if, again, you have folks in certain partnerships or certain conversations? So, I guess to answer this question what we saw is — and it was very clear to draw this parallel — campus security is very much okay with that form of taking up space because it was outside of the institution and, again, it did not question whether or not there were accounts of black students being over-policed. As soon as folks who aren’t a part of the union but are taking up space directly on campus start to scrutinise the actions of campus security, you see an entirely different response. I think folks need to be very critical about that. So that’s what I’m referencing. We saw ways that when you operate in collaboration with the institution, on the institution’s terms, I imagine just taking up space in a particular way, often those were prioritised and other forms were not. TT: Is the university’s public endorsement of the book by DecoloniseUoK performative activism? KM: I would say yes. So, for folks that attended the institutional racism event (My Campus Is Racist- In Conversations) where Karen Cox and a few other folks were speaking as panelists, Karen Cox immediately referenced the fact that the university has engaged in initiatives to decolonise the university but she was completely unaware that it disbanded. She made reference to the fact that we’re doing things to change the university, but when asked if she had actually read the demands, she appeared taken aback and she confused it with an entirely different document, she confused it with the document put out by the Kaleidoscope Network which was under DecoloniseUoK and should now be subsequently disbanded. So, we’re seeing ways that the university constantly attempts to coopt and market decolonising initiatives but are equally uninterested in implementing and initiating projects that would actually do the work of decolonising the university in the first place. There have been folks who have asked for an audit to investigate the historical links of slavery that are attached to this university and certainly colonialism and they have not agreed to do this, despite the fact that Cambridge University announced just last week that there would be a two-year investigation of conducting that work, and that information should be released by Autumn of 2021. So, we’re seeing how other universities are actually doing that work while our university is failing to do so while continuously co-opting that initiative. Actions like this become incredibly contradictory, incredibly hypocritical. How are you constantly trying to co-opt this work Photo by Beth Roo

but you’re not actually doing the work? So, one hundred percent it is performative and I don’t think that contradiction, among other contradictions, will go away any time soon until the university — especially senior management — actually commit to doing the work, and then we can subsequently hold them to account based on that commitment. And I think that’s what ADLN is doing at the moment: you want to endorse some of those demands and that call to action? We’re going to hold you to that commitment TT: This leads very seamlessly into my final question, which is that the ADLN has talked about taking matters into their own hands now that the university is being unresponsive. So, what does that involve? What is your plan of action for the year to come? KM: There’s a book called Let Your Motto Be Resistance. And in that it describes the action of organising as being able to unite people under a common set of beliefs to create — ideally — democratically elected structures that can be sustainable and can implement certain actions and projects, etcetera. There’s a rich history of black and indigenous student organising that has acknowledged that, you know, these spaces that have been hegemonic to white men and have rarely ever done the work to dismantle themselves and de-prioritise folks that are white and folks that are male in their intersection. So, I don’t expect the university to do the work of decolonising itself and denouncing oppressive structures. I don’t expect the university to supply students and create the sustainable students they need to ensure black students are safe on campus. What that then means is that myself, who is an international law student who is paying £15K needs to do the work to create sustainable structures to make sure I’m okay so that I can finish the journey and get my degree without problems. And it’s not just my burden to bear — it is the burden of a lot of other folks in similar situations who have commonalities with problems in their experiences with accommodation and security. And, folks who will continue to see structural things that don’t make any sense at an institutional level. I just finished a complaint that I had with accommodation — and at this point it has to be my seventh — and they conducted an investigation and they found that they were in breach of a protocol. And, all they really did was apologise and say “I hope the rest of your experience is positive”. For us at ADLN, we’re worried that if it wasn’t for me having the wherewithal to address this complaint and seeing what the complaint process is like, it may have never been addressed. I’m very much wary of how many institutional, procedural things are occurring that are to the detriment of students and their student experience. There is a multitude of institutional failings, and I think for these failings to be resolved, they need to first be acknowledged and addressed at some level. So, I think ADLN is interested in acknowledging some of these institutional failings so that they can be fixed, and creating supportive structures so that they can help black students if the university refuses to do so, and encouraging students to take up space in their own way.

Monday 19 October 2020 InQuire

News

Students “Cash Cows” as university moves online By Laura O’Callaghan News Writer Students have been branded as “cash cows” by one undergraduate as they claim the move to online learning does not appear to add up to the £9,250 tuition fees. With lectures this term delivered online and seminars a mix of online and in-person, the university has stated it has safety as its top priority. However, some students are left wondering where their tuition fee payments are really going this term with some of them not even stepping foot on campus. Louis French, an English Literature Postgraduate student, said “[online teaching is] good as long as it keeps us safe” but also viewed paying the full fee amount as “unfair as it’s not really worth it”. Mr French went on to mention the difficulties with blended learning: “it’s difficult to interact as everyone’s on small screens. You can’t really talk about

a text as everyone has different editions and you can’t simply point to a line as no one can see it”. In-person interaction with peers has previously been marketed by the university as key to the student experience, but online teaching has become a barrier for that. However, this new way of learning is proving to be beneficial to other students. Ellie Plews, a second-year American Studies student said that “online seminars, for me, are generally working really well and in a way it perhaps gives students more confidence to speak up and contribute”. Jay Davies-Pyke, an Organisational and Business Psychology Postgraduate student, can also see the benefits stating, “online does make things a lot easier in terms of meeting with supervisors”. Nevertheless, the anxiety over what students are missing out on is still at the forefront of their minds. Mr Davies-Pyke expresses “that the lack of face-to-face social contact is going to make uni

suck this term. How are you going to make new friends over Zoom?” While seminars are being delivered both in-person and online, lectures are being conducted entirely online which Miss Plews says “take twice as long to complete and not to be able to interact with lecturers is proving quite hard”. The reality of paying full tuition for online learning is still frustrating students. Miss Plews says that “it’s perhaps the best that it could be but for us to be paying full tuition for limited or no in person teaching hours is insane”. Miss Plews further goes on to indicate her view that “students have just been used as cash cows and I think the university needs to seriously implement some form of compensation back to students”. The Goodwill Payment Scheme was offered to students who were affected by the strikes last year but some claim that it did not represent the contact hours lost. Mr French lost over twenty hours of

teaching to only be paid back the highest instalment of £120, saying “it’s just not good enough”. While this blended way of university teaching does seem to be working for some and has been promoted by the university as the safest method until a vaccine is introduced, students have been left won-

“I think the university needs to seriously implement some sort of compensation back to students.” dering where their tuition fee payments are going. Online learning has its restrictions and interactivity is a major part of it — students want that interaction with their peers and seminar leaders but feel this online system is not fulfilling that need.

Kent Union committee election roundup: By Alex Charilaou and Alejandro Javierre News Writer and Website News Editor

With the University of Kent’s removal of the faculty system last year, Kent Union’s Executive Committee has lost nine faculty representative postions. To ensure the Executive Committee is no less representative, Kent Union has opened up eight new positions for student representatives. Of these, four are reserved for undergraduates and four for postgraduates. Here is a roundup of the election results. Similar to what happened in the KU Officers’ Elections in February where only one person ran for VP Postgraduate Experience, only one postgraduate candidate has stood. The candidate, Ramzi Abou Ismail, was last year’s Postgraduate Network representative, meaning he has some experience representing postgraduates at a Executive Committee level. He has been elected as the only postgraduate Open Place Member. Six candidates ran for the four undergraduate vacancies. Two of them, Ciaran Middleton-Blakeman and Juliana Sarmento, did not provide manifestos and have not been elected. Sustainability is the focus of several candidates: Louise Jones and James Bonthron in particular ran with this issue in mind. Louise wants to maintain the emphasis KU puts on sustainability, while James emphasises ditching single use plastic cutlery, divesting from fossil fuels through the use of biomass and embracing organically farmed meat across the University. Both these candidates have been elected. The final two candidates who have been elected as undergraduate Open Place Members are Joe Williams and Caroline Van Eldik. Joe’s main concern is making sure students are properly compensated for teaching changes this year, while Caroline wants to keep

the Union “accountable”. The Postgraduate Network had one candidate running, Lucas Steinbach, who seeks to give postgrads a voice to defend their interests. He plans to continue running events and collaborate with other groups and organisations like the careers service, as well as supporting students’ ideas. He has been elected for the role. Maheshwaran Loganathan was the only candidate to run for both the International Network and the Team Kent Network. On the first, he wants to improve communication with international students, especially regarding contradictory COVID-19 information for Tier 4 Visas. On the latter, he is focused on issues of transportation and high kit costs. He has been elected into both roles. Two candidates ran for the Sustainability Network Chair: Rhea Bawa, who wants to raise awareness of the UN Sustainable Development Goals that Kent Union has subscribed to, and Romaine Lafiteau, who ran on her previous Union experience. They have filled both vacant spots. There were three candidates for the role of Women’s Network representative: Niamh Pierce, Rhiann Shillabeer and Joanna Law. Niamh’s goals include promoting women’s careers by organising networking events and raising awareness of gender pay imbalance and combating sexual harassment with better education and more transparent reporting. Rhian’s manifesto has a focus on increasing the representation of women on campus, both in academia and generally. Joanna wants to improve safety on campus, by relocating campus security to potentially high-risk areas of campus, and improving mental health services for women by checking for hormonal contraception when seeking help for mental health issues. All three candidates have been elected. There were also three candidates for the Acces-

sibility Network representative: Sebastian Lofblad, Rowena Beaumont and Paul-Georg Ender. Sebastian’s aims include increasing wheelchair accessibility campus-wide, working on Inclusive Learning Plan awareness, and increased manually generated subtitles in lecture and seminar recordings. Rowena’s primary manifesto objectives are to increase awareness of the link between disability and mental health, as well as more engagement with deaf and blind students as well as greater accessibility measures for disabled students. PaulGeorg’s manifesto calls for greater COVID measures for disabled students and the de-stigmatisation of visible and hidden disabilities. They have all been elected. For the BAME Network, there were four candidates that have all won: Charlie Skeete, Yasmin Ali, KG Banjoko and Sylvia Osoba. Charlin aims to provide a voice for BAME students across campus, by enabling wider inclusion and intersection of all BAME students. Charlin is also pushing for all Union policy to be made with BAME students in mind, to prevent issues that disproportionately affect them. Next is Yasmin, whose manifesto includes continuing to decolonise the curriculum, as well as ensuring that a diverse curriculum is mandatory rather than optional. She also wants to increase mental health support for POC students by hiring more POC specialists. Sylvia Osoba plans to run networking events in and out of London across industries such as STEM, law, and politics, in addition to more activities focused on CV development and events around BAME history yearround. Finally there is KG Banjoko, who was one of the BAME Officers two years ago. Her manifesto also includes increasing networking events with BAME professionals and a continuation of decolonisation, as well as bi-monthly events to celebrate BAME student leaders.

The Mature, Part-time, Commuting & Carer Responsibility Network’s only candidate was Ben Dawkins, former President and Treasurer of the Mature Student Society. He suggests working to create societies within local towns to encourage commuting students to link up, as well as investigating full-time student exclusive benefits for part-time students, such as council tax exemption. He has been elected into the role. Sophie Knappett ran for the Activities Network and won, with a focus on increased society integration and ease-of-access for students, as well as increased postgraduate involvement within societies, by improving communication between Kent Union and different student demographics through measures such as open forums. Finally, there is the solo University Council representative, Zarafshaan Tahir, who did not submit a manifesto for the position. They have been elected nonetheless.

InQuire Monday 19 October 2020

Kent Union Black History Month By Rory Bathgate Newspaper Editor

to provide a powerful display of the peaceful protests that students held in June, in solidarity with similar moveTo celebrate Black History Month, Kent ments worldwide. Union have put on a series of events On 22 October, the University of Kent throughout the month of October, both BAME Network are welcoming Profesin person and online. In a statement sor Sir Hilary Beckles to give an online on the Kent Union website, VP Weltalk titles British Universities as Archifare & Community Aisha Dosanjh and tect of Slavery and Violent Colonialism: VP Student Engagement Undoing the Harm. TyAldo Manella said “With ing into the recent diathe emergence of new logues surrounding movements and the rethe decolonisation birth of hard conversaof public spaces, partions we are witnessing ticularly universities, history first hand and the talk promises to so this Black History provide particular Month looks to acknowlinsight into systemic edge Black history as it was racism. Sir Hilary is originally intended, with an international exconsiderations of the current pert on social justice, landscape and by highlighting Photo by Kent Union having advised the Unitthe influential people who have ed Nations and published shaped our lives as we experience them numerous texts on Caribbean slavery. today”. This year’s Black History Month Additionally, The Gulbenkian is holdcarries the theme of “Black 365”, the ofing a number of BHM screenings such ficers explaining that “racial emancipaas Black Panther, Rocks and Miss Junetion is an ongoing process. Therefore we teenth which will be followed by panel emphasise the need for us to be standdiscussions. More details on page 20. ing up for our peers and appreciating Black history for all 365 days of the year The full list of Black History - not just 31 days in October”. Month events can be found on the The #BlackLivesMatter Kent Student Kent Union website. Protests has also been hosted in Keynes

News University experts: follow government guidelines to avoid “hundreds of thousands of deaths” By Olivia Tulett News Writer The recent announcement of new new government distancing guidelines have left people confused by what applies to them as individuals and the long-term impact of such regulations being put in place. Still, Professor Martin Michaelis and Dr Mark Wass of the University of Kent’s School of Biosciences explained in a recent article why we nationally must adapt our behaviour to live with COVID-19 and why it is imperative to do so before seasonal flu arrives. Michaelis and Wass began by expanding on why we have to continue to follow the ever-changing government guidelines. “Restricting private meetings to six members from multiple households was announced on 22 September, as the government looked towards planning a “normal” Christmas in the coming months. The recent changes to guidelines are due to the increasing R rate, rising to a value greater than one. If left to rise, we would see a large increase of coronavirus cases, overwhelming the NHS, and a mass struggle to get the virus under control”. The experts believe this would therefore lead to “hundreds of thousands of deaths”. “With public places and office workers being encouraged to return, the risk of transmission increases dramatically.

The autumn’s lower temperatures and humidity may also increase coronavirus stability and spread. We must understand that our society’s behaviour determines the further of the pandemic”. Public places and places of work includes universities. A New York Times investigation cites 1,500 students in isolation at Manchester Metropolitan University at the time of print. What Michaelis and Wass continue to explain is the need to adapt our lives to keep the economy going while still staying safe. “Coronavirus will not adapt to our economy. Instead, we must update our behaviour including social distancing, strict hygiene methods, face coverings, self-isolating when experiencing symptoms and when contact has been made with infected individuals. We need to be responsible for our actions, identifying and avoiding high-transmission risk situations”. “In addition, further measures must be taken. Flu vaccinations do not directly affect the coronavirus, but reduce the double burden imposed by COVID-19 during flu season. When we see the spread of common colds, we should not be relieved that it is not the coronavirus, we should be concerned we are failing to prevent the spread of infectious diseases”. Professor Martin Michaelis and Dr Mark Wass also explained the issues regarding people who are asymptomatic.

They remarked that “transmission by individuals who do not have symptoms and may never have symptoms is a major issue with coronavirus as significant transmission can occur before it is noticed. This is why mass screening programmes will be critical in the future. In the absence of sufficient testing capacities, however, the only thing we as a society can do is responsibly modify our behaviour to minimise spread.” “Lockdowns in the Southern Hemisphere prevented their flu season. If we get things right, this will not only protect us from COVID-19, but also from common colds and the flu”.

“we should be concerned we are failing to prevent the spread of infectious diseases”. The experts concluded by saying “it is in our own hands whether we will have a proper Christmas or not. The spread of common colds will be a good indicator of whether our measures are working or not. If we prevent the cold and flu season, we will also prevent coronavirus spread. This would go some way towards making Christmas 2020 as normal as we could hope following the prior twelve months”.

Monday 19 October 2020 InQuire

Christmas Cancelled? Evie Goodwin

he government’s suggestion that students may be banned from returning home for the Christmas holidays seems to me nothing but an empty threat, yet the damage has already been done. We were told to enjoy the pubs, go out to eat (at a discounted price) and return to university. We were promised blended learning, an ambiguous concept to ensure that our (very expensive) education will not be jeopardised or watered down. Now, as Education Secretary Gavin Williamson vaguely hints that students may be forced to stay locked up in their accommodation over Christmas, the list of idle threats and nonsensical guidelines spewed out by our government grows even longer. Upon returning to university students have been disappointed by courses being conducted fully online, with many lectures being pre-recorded, recycled from previous years, or simply non-existent. The numerous headlines demonising students for daring to move out and begin their adult lives have insinuated that we’re to blame for an impending second wave of COVID-19, creating an extremely hostile environment between younger and older generations. The threat of confining students to their accommodation over Christmas is the final nail in the coffin. But it is not these empty threats that are most disruptive; the suggestion that young adults, many of whom may have experienced extreme isolation or feelings of loneliness in their first term, could be somehow banned from returning back to their families for the holidays is idiotic and cruel. A rule preventing students from travelling home or parents from collecting them is unrealistic and, ultimately, unenforceable. These irresponsible suggestions have served no other purpose than to create undue fear and stress in students, whilst further weakening young people’s trust in the government. For the sake of the argument, let us imagine that some ruthless system is put in place to lock us inside of our flats and houses. The motorways are shut, neighbourhood watch patrols every student-infested street, and the Trainline app mysteriously vanishes off everyone’s phones. For returning students who may already have an established support network and close friends to live with, the prospect of missing Christmas at our family homes may be more bearable, albeit slightly shabbier. But for new students, it would be devastating. Fellow non-freshers, try to cast your

ancient minds back to those hedonistic first months at Kent. If you were very lucky, you may have instantly clicked with randomly allocated flatmates and breezed through first year, evading arguments over sticky floors and awkward kitchen conversations. You might have even ventured out to a different floor or house, collecting new BFF’s through your course or society, maybe even the queue to Venue. But the reality of university rarely lives up to the glossy pictures in the prospectus. It’s often lonely nights in a new city and an intense workload to get used to. This is tricky at the best of times. Now combine this with a 10pm drinking curfew, an inability to socialise outside of your flat and no chance of meeting like-minded people in a lecture or seminar. This is a recipe for poor mental health and some very unhappy first years. Being denied the option to return to the familiarity of home for Christmas after that would be simply unjust. There is no denying that controlling the virus is extremely important, and precautions must of course be taken to try and keep communities safe, especially in the lead up to winter. But isolating young people from their families will do much more harm than good. Photos by Pixabay

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Empty threats: baning students from returning home for Christmas is cruel and unenforceable.

I’m enjoying online learning

Opinion

The effectiveness of online learning in post-lockdown education has been, and continues to be, a central issue in academic and student discourse right now. Offering a more positive take on Kent’s introduction of ‘blended learnng’, Amitesh Das comments on his experience with virtual university. Photo by Unsplash

began writing this article right after my online seminar where I contributed to a discussion about Critical Discourse Analysis from the removed setting of my house. As boring as the topic might be, the seminar wasn’t. After hearing the voices of dissatisfaction on campus over this new style of ‘blended learning’, I picked up this article to voice a slightly different take, which I’m sure many others can relate to. I actually enjoy online teaching. But first you must know my situation. I’m a third year Film student, who’s studying as an overseas student (the same as a UK national, except we pay more for the same thing). I have no specific learning needs, and I enjoy a certain level of privilege in terms of access to technology: I am living on campus so I have no issues with my internet, I have a working laptop with a mic and webcam, and a comfortable space to work in. Right – let’s get started. Online lectures are my new favourite thing. Gone are the times when the slideshow or lecturer is too fast, or both; I can pause my recording. Showcased in a podcast manner, this new style of lecturing makes sure that I don’t have a race to note down all the points on the slide, while the lecturer babbles about how great this film is. If I don’t enjoy it, I can even skip the slide. Such a luxury as being able to pause in lectures has helped my learning experience immensely. One of my modules even splits the lecture into 4-5 parts, with some parts being a video to watch, or a little article to read. This helps with lecture interaction, something which I think is far more useful than a person talking to you about a

topic for an hour. While the concept of an online lecture was easy to digest, the thought of an online seminar did cause some metaphorical stomach rumbles. I couldn’t help but be nervous about online meetings: the breaking of speech, and the incomplete sentences were annoying. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the way people were interacting with it. Breakout rooms felt like magic when I was first introduced to them, and the discussions had in those close interactions with people were insightful, informative and unique.

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The disdain for universities will not make the situation any better, or any safer.

Even though I’ve had an astonishingly satisfactory experience with my degree until now, there are some glaring holes in this form of teaching. Anybody who is even slightly technologically disadvantaged will not feel the same as me: internet issues do occur for those with unreliable connections, resulting in poor buffering rates for lectures, loss of flow in seminars, and overall disinterest in a course they’re paying for. What’s worse is that the connection problems lead to nobody understanding what they’re saying, which in-turn leads to this comically awkward situation where the lecturer just says “okay” and moves on. While I do acknowledge the problems with this medium, I will continue to defend this form of teaching as an alternative to the ‘normal’ way. It takes

a bit of getting used to, but at the end of the day, it’s still just as draining of a course, with the same amount of contact hours and private study hours. Which brings me to the final point about price. I pay approximately twice the amount that a UK national does, and I don’t agree with a partial tuition refund just because it’s an online course. I’m engaging the same way I was, and so are the lecturers: I’m getting answers to emails, getting my lectures, my seminars delivered, and everything else that comes with my course. Where is the issue with that? I fail to understand the issue of ‘greater engagement’ that in-person teaching lacks. I don’t want my tuition fee to reduce, which might lead to the staff being paid less, or even worse, being laid off for something that is nobody’s fault. Our hospitality and teaching staff are paid a pittance anyway as it is. If I were to think back to my seminar today, it felt normal. It wasn’t normal if I compared it to the past 2 years, but it does attempt to mimic it. Nobody knew that a pandemic would affect us for so long, but it has – and that’s just the reality we have to live in. Universities have taken the same course they’ve been teaching for years and adapted to deliver it online, which involves a major adjustment on their part as well. Academics who struggle with switching a tab now have to organise a breakout room on Zoom – while the threat of a pay-cut is looming over their heads. The change is something that nobody wanted, hoped for, or could even imagine. The disdain for universities will not make the situation any better, or any safer. In a time where coronavirus could kill me or anyone my age, I don’t want to get out of the house for a seminar that I can engage with online. An online course might not be ideal for some, but neither is the situation. In life, sometimes the second-best becomes the best.

InQuire Monday 19 October 2020

Opinion

The climate clock: we haven’t long left

ike something from a SAW movie, New York City now bustles under the watchful glow of doomsdays eye. A countdown clock that estimates 7 years and 100 days in the future the world will be a whole 1.5 degrees Celsius hotter. What does this mean? Well if you’re new to environmentalism, which would require you to live under a rock, you’d be inclined to believe that 1.5C is nothing to worry about. Some data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) should help remedy that false assumption. Not long after the timer is up, ships will be able to sail directly over the North Pole in Arctic summers. This means the world’s air conditioning will have almost entirely disappeared. Gone. The sheer volume of cubic metres of ice that this entails is quite incomprehensible in size, all of which will increase sea levels dramatically, decreasing habitable land mass and forcing mass migrations. Given how poorly Europe has dealt with the refugee crisis, you can safely assume that this single repercussion will plunge national politics into further crisis. Pre-industrial temperatures currently sit at about 1C of warming and already we are feeling the ramifications. The colour of ice caps has changed. This

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The world’s leaders and global conglomerates have been given the facts. They know full well what’s at stake, and yet we are all still plummeting towards man-made disaster.

subtle change alone has catastrophic ramifications. A simple shift from white to grey means less sunlight is reflected of the ice cap and more is absorbed, leading to an increase in the rate they melt. At 1C the worlds coral reefs over half. The oceans greatest CO2 capture just halves. In other words, 71% of the world’s surface is not able to perform one of its most important functions as easily. T h e ‘ g o o d ’ news is that only at 2C is climate change completely irreversible. The bad news is that at 1.5C we lose or cripple all of the Earth’s best natural defence mechanisms. This clock is our lifeline. The world’s leaders and global conglomerates have been given the facts. They know full well what’s at stake, and yet we are all still plummeting towards man-made

disaster. Simple and plain, this tells you just how short our window of opportunity is. Before this clock is up, the UK will only have one more election. One more. In that time frame, the elected PM will have 3 years tops to enact change that will recede an entire century of post-industrial CO2 emissions. The time for environmentally conscious leaders has passed. We must demand environmentally centric leaders. We must demand environmentally centric businesses. And we must hold all institutions capable of making an impact accountable until we achieve carbon-neutrality. Most importantly, we MUST shift our own attitudes. No act is too small when it comes to environmentalism. Any and every time we bring environmental consciousness into our daily lives we help solve the problem. This problem is not ‘too big’ to be our responsibility to help solve, we contribute to it every day and it is our duty to act accordingly.

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We must demand environmentally centric leaders. We must demand environmentally centric businesses Most importantly, we MUST shift our own attitudes.

One problem with this is recognising what constitutes a politician posing as environmentally-conscious and one that generally cares. Don’t fret, there is an elegant solution to this. A politician can only be conscious of the environment if they are trying to shift the economic viability of sustainable energy. The single most effective policy to bring about this desired shift: a carbon tax. Not carbon permits. Not carbon passes. A simple charge per metric tonne of CO2 emissions applicable only to businesses over a certain size threshold, as to mitigate impact on small businesses. Demand a carbon tax! Demand MPs who care! Demand a PM who cares! Care yourself! The clock is ticking. We must act before our time is up. Photo by Pixabay

Tom Nice

How will Coronavirus affect Generation Z’s future? George Knight

n 27 July 1936, President Franklin D. Roosevelt approached the end of his election acceptance speech with the quote: “To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected”. He was referring to what is now considered the formative moment of their generation, the Great Depression. This global economic downturn irreparably changed nearly every person in the western world. The ‘Silent Generation’, who grew up through this financial hardship, would evolve to became more risk-averse, economically frugal, and conformist. They revolted against their parents’ hedonistic youth in the 1920s and attempted to avoid the horrors caused by the past from reoccurring in their future. The only generation since them to demonstrate such similar qualities are late Millennials and Generation Z. Both the modern and depression-era youth share an experience of growing up amongst instability, societal crisis, and rapid change. Gen Z may not have experienced the impoverishment of their ancestors, but the impression of economic pressures remain the same. In 2014, analysis from Bloomberg suggested that 73% of Gen Z and Millennials had been directly affected by the Great Recession of 2008. Whether graduating into mass unemployment or growing up with an uncertain future, these generations had

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Students were both the most affected by the virus’ first wave and will have the longest negative effects.

their values guided towards cynicism from early on. Compounded by the growth of scepticism towards media, proliferated through increased social media channels, the latest generations already had critical values installed pre-COVID-19. When COVID-19 struck in 2020, it is unsurprising that Gen Z was pessimistic. Forbes recorded in August that 72% of Gen Z surveyed believed the worst of COVID-19 was yet to come, with only 20% feeling hopeful for the future. Just as their ancestors before them, Gen Z seemed to show little hope for what is coming next and are preparing for further struggles. Their predictions are not unfounded either. According to the Resolution Foundation, Millennials in the UK have still not recovered from the previous recession; a 2018 report even suggests that those who graduated a decade before still face pay scarring and lower wages. Additional reports from the same year also suggest that younger people are more likely to face ‘working-age poverty’ than any previous generation and around a third of all Millennials will never own a home. This is the reality looming ahead of the most recent cohort of university students. These students were both the most affected by the virus’ first wave and will have the longest negative effects. They were the ones on average most exposed to the virus due to their lower page jobs, many of which they were forced to take due to mass unemployment within the professional sectors. These lower-paid jobs will potentially, as they did for Millennials, decrease the amount of valuable hard skills experience required for career development which in turn will lead to

reduced job performance and wages overall. Despite the overriding challenges that will undoubtedly plague Gen Z’s future, it is worth considering the positives. Due in part to the increased time for education, Gen Z looks to be the best-educated generation ever, especially with more finalist students returning for postgraduate courses due to lack of jobs. Gen Z is also more entrepreneurial and technology literate, so are better adapted than their Millennials counterparts for working with non-face-to-face business. Gen Z’s scepticism also makes them realists, meaning they are better suited for the evolving job market they approach which will demand change. I hope to see our generation embrace gratitude above all else. Having an appreciation for the things taken for granted before COVID-19 will help us be more resourceful, a desirable quality for the eco-focused future. It will help us gain more from the world, but also more from the people, experiences, and places that are meaningful; guiding us towards a more balanced, compassionate, and healthy future. When President Roosevelt drew his acceptance speech to a close, he exclaimed “this generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny” and like him, we should look out from our world today with the hope and determination to reach our full potential. Rather than submitting to the trials of COVID-19 and recession, Gen Z should use its unique set of skills to build a new society as our ancestors did, free from the struggles that we have witnessed. Photo by Unsplash

Editorial Editor-in-Chief Tímea Koppándi

Monday 19 October 2020 InQuire Have something you want to say? Write a letter to newspaper.editor@inquiremedia.co.uk and be featured in the next InQuire newspaper

Newspaper Editor Rory Bathgate

Website Editor Emily Webb-Mortimer

Patience is required

Is your mental health discourse helping?

The Arts are viable! No need to panic and retrain

COVID-19 is an issue that we cannot ignore, and something that will stay with us for some time. The vast majority of institutions are trying to create a sense of normality, of returning to a normal pace. Yet some of us still feel unsafe around crowded areas, shops and even the simple act of leaving their home, makes some feel uncertain. It is for these reasons that we have to acknowledge that things haven’t passed us. We remain in a state of dependency of each other, and the care that we place on our health and that of those around us. It is a difficult thing to ask when we have lost so much of our way of functioning, and some of us have never experienced that. In a time when we all feel like we have been robbed of our experiences and joy, all that one wants to do is protect the little freedom that we might have. When that is taken away, and you lose that opportunity to retain the occasion of meeting up with a large group of friends, going out partying, watching a show etc, we start thinking that every institution is against us. Gradually, we lose the amount of care for others, for us and we resist in order to maintain the illusion of normality. We cannot pretend things are back to normal. Therefore, patience is required. Understanding that all of us has lost something that we loved doing, that we are all struggling the same, and that we should support each other instead of being inconsiderate. We need to take time with those around us, even though it is a difficult thing to do, and have patience with ourselves and our feelings.

“Ugh I’m so OCD about cleaning up spills”. As someone who has come to terms with my obsessive behaviour over the years, it is upsetting when someone makes references that portray it as a quirky personality trait. Let’s make this clear for the last time: no, you are not “a little bit OCD.” Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is a horrible, pervasive mental prison. Wanting your room to be tidy is called neatness. OCD is feeling racking guilt, nausea, fear if you do not perform tasks according to your routine, whatever that may be. One of my favourite streamers recently cancelled a stream because she spilled a mug of coffee on a heater, and for the rest of the evening experienced horrifying anxiety and panic attacks. No one wants that. To stress to the point of physical sickness over your inability to control every part of your surroundings. But this is the reality of OCD. The same goes for all mental health disorders. “Depressed” is thrown around far too often to mean “really sad”. Those who have suffered clinical depression will tell you it is so much more than that. ADHD is not a funny way of saying you have a short attention span: it robs sufferers of intention, and hinders good people from being able to function, causing great pain and distress. Next time you feel like using one of these words so lightly, say the full condition. “I’m a little bit Obsessive Compulsive Disorder” exposes the absurdity of the statement. It has taken me a long time to come to terms with my behaviour, and one of my biggest regrets is never seeking proper, professional guidance. If you need help, or worry that you suffer from an undiagnosed condition, please reach out to those around you.

When was the last time you heard someone say “you know what’s boring? films” or “computer engineering is a competitive subject, we should make that worse”. Well the government apparently decided that it had been too long since you had heard either of those things and wanted to remind everyone either training or working in the arts how little they think of them. When they stopped caring about the National Health Service, they paid its staff in claps. When they stopped caring about those in the service industry, they opened the dangerous petri dishes of the lethal blight in restaurants and bars. Now that they do not care about the people creating the art they have been consuming to stop themselves going mad during our being sequestered, they have told us it cannot be helped. They would have us surrender and accept that arts will die out, to become the joyless dystopia the Conservatives threatened us with when they were elected over a decade ago. But if the history of the world has taught us anything, it is that those that have a passion for art – the actors, writers, painters, musicians and everyone else – is that we are a tenacious lot. There have been hard times before, worse times, and there will hard times, worse times, again. What remains, what always remains is that people will always seek out art, always want art – especially when things seem as hopeless, dark and strange as they do now. I will not, and I expect no one else to either, “retrain” for the sake of saving the skin of some old men that did not care enough about me to implement any anti-COVID measurements strongly or quickly enough or save the industries that employ hundreds of thousands across the country. People that have spent their entire lives training to be in the arts in the first place.

Photo of the week by Ainy Shiyam

Friday 29 September 2017 InQuire

Lifestyle

Life & Beauty

Makeup musts for mask-wearers

By Katie Daly Writer

Photos by Alexander Krivitskiy, Unplash

or the past few years, makeup trends have focused on beaming highlights and lip looks. Thanks to the likes of Kylie Jenner liquid lipsticks, high-shine glosses and liners have taken the industry by storm. Whilst COVID-19 has stolen many of our everyday norms, it has also significantly altered the way we are approaching our beauty routines and cosmetic needs. Now, it is all about the eyes and enhancing the features that are on display. Below is a guide to the easiest eye makeup tips and tricks to makeyour eyes pop, and keep you looking fresh.

Preparation is key

Puffy and dehydrated eyes are a symptom of student life; whether it is late night study sessions or too many pink gins, a well nourished eye area is crucial. Eye masks packed with vitamin-c and hyaluronic acid will do the trick, especially if kept in the fridge. Simply apply them before base application and your under-eye concealer will glide on like a dream. As a base try using an eye cream targeted towards your skin concerns for lasting hydration. A brightening eye cream or gel will lighten the load of those

dark circles and provide a beautiful base for primers.

Here are a few recommended products: - PIXI BeautifEYE Vitamin-C eye patches - £22 (30 pairs) - Simple Kind to Eyes Soothing Balm - £4.02 (15ml)

To wing, or not to wing

Enhancing shape means liner is a must. For a sharp and edgy look, liquid or gel liner with a clean feline flick is the way to go. An all time favourite is a smoked out, feline shape achieved with an eye pencil. And you can build it up for a more dramatic night look and pull the shape out and up to elongate the eyes. Feeling bold? Line the lower lash line with a colour. Berry or gem tones are perfect for Autumn-Winter.

A few recommended products: - NYX Professional Matte Liquid Liner - £10 (15g) - Charlotte Tilbury Pillow Talk Eyeliner - £19 (1.2g)

Don’t betray the brows

The days of the slug brow may be over, but let us not neglect their powers of framing the face. A lightly defined, fluffy brow is in, and this can be achieved with a sharp brow pencil gently tracing the natural shape. Finish with a quick comb through with gel to keep the brows lifted and fluffy.

Recommended products: - Soap and Glory 2-in-1 Brow Archery Sculpting Crayon and Setting Gel - £10 - MAC Brow Set - £16.50

Must have mascara

Your mascara needs to be long-wearing and humidity proof to prevent the warm air from your mask melting it and leaving dark smudges around your eyes. Curl the lashes, and apply two coats, wiggling the brush from root to tip to avoid clumps.

Recommended products: - Charlotte Tilbury Pillow Talk Push up Lashes £23 (10ml)

- Benefit BADgal Bang Waterproof Mascara – £22.50 (8.5ml)

The finishing touches

And lastly, the inner corner highlight, or ‘eye strobing’. A top-trick for making any eye-look pop. Opt for pearl and champagne tones and you cannot go wrong. Additionally, highlighting the waterline with a white or nude liner will make eyes brighter and bigger. Perfect for achieving the Bambi eyes of our dreams.

Recommended products: - By Beauty Bay Crayon Eyeliner in Vanilla - £5 - Wet ‘n’ Wild Colour Icon Stick in Champagne Room - £4.25 Hopefully at least one thing in this article has been enlightening on how you can redirect your makeup to your now most prominent and actually visible features.

Friday 29 September 2017 InQuire

Lifestyle

Travel

Student friendly at home workouts By Jena Butler Writer

ost students have two things in common: we are on a tight budget and our bedrooms are, for at least one year of our studies, tiny. For those of us looking to get in better shape and feel more energetic and active in our days at university we turn to working out a few days a week. But for the majority right now (during COVID-19) gyms are not always the best option and exercising from home does not feel the same. At home workouts are one of the most convenient ways to keep fit and should not be a last resort. And with not enough space to stretch out on the floor excuses can be easily made. Hopefully these tips can help improve that mentality:

Keeping Quiet

Low impact workouts are not only good for our joints/injuries but also for keeping neighbours happy. Crunch squats, planks, downward dog push-ups and lunges are all great. Nobody wants to jump or squat around their bedroom at the best of times and especially when your roommate is watching Bake Off next door! So why not try searching for apartment friendly/low impact workouts on YouTube and follow along.

Use What You’ve Got

If you can get hold of a resistance band or dumbbell that is great. However, for those times you are without or can not afford it try experimenting with what you have in the house. Baked bean tins, empty bottles refilled with water and bags of rice are perfect. Just make sure the weight is equal if you are using one for each hand. If not, do one set per side, then switch!

Slow & Steady Wins the Race

Just because you are not sprinting around or flying through a round of burpees does not mean you are not improving your fitness. Slowing down and performing your movements, encouraging mind muscle connection, and really squeezing is sometimes much more beneficial. Plus, you will be sure to sweat. Perfect exercises to try this technique include glute bridges, lateral raises (use tins if you don’t have any weights) and wall sits.

Switch It Up

Use a chair for arm dips and a bed for incline press ups. Try using a timer if you are use to counting reps: 30 seconds work and 10 seconds rest. If you have a tea towel at hand, try searching on YouTube for some fun workouts you can do with the resistance created. Moving your body is meant to be fun and this is sometimes why a workout program will not work if it is repetitive. Side note: take extra care if using furniture, nobody wants to step up onto an Ikea coffee table and go crashing through it.

Combating ‘maskne’

By Olivia Tulett Writer

hilst we are sure breakouts are the least of our worries right now, they are something which can make us feel self-conscious and knock confidence. Now we are in this new age where wearing masks in public spaces is compulsory, a handy guide to dealing with ‘maskne’ could be a useful read right? Here is an article to help you feel confident in your skin, whilst staying safe.

“Why am ‘maskne’?”

experiencing

There has not been a great deal of research into the causes of why masks can irritate our skin, dermatologist Joshua Zeichner states that ‘maskne’ can be caused by a build-up of sweat, bacteria and facial oil that is trapped under the mask. The types of skin problems that people seem to experience include redness, whiteheads and irritation in the areas of the face covered by the mask.

Tips and tricks for combatting these breakouts: Wear thinner makeup If you naturally experience redness, breakouts or discolouration, it can be tempting to smother your skin in layers of high coverage foundation and concealer. But, when wearing a mask, you will want to allow your skin to breath as much as possible in order to combat the breakouts. We recommend keeping your base makeup thin or if you feel brave enough, going foundation free. Find comfort in knowing that other people cannot see those areas of your skin under your mask anyway; and this offers you the perfect opportunity to spice up your eye looks!

you wear Wearing a mask that fits looser in the front will allow your skin to breath. And why not try a natural cotton mask as this fabric tends to be more breathable (which is kinder to your skin compared to synthetic fibre masks).

Wash face

“Why am I experiencing ‘maskne’?”

your

Wash your mask after every wear to ensure that oil and makeup buildup from the day before is not sitting on your skin. You could also ensure that you are using washing detergents that are suitable for sensitive skin.

Moisturise Ensure you are moisturising your face in the morning. This will create a barrier between your skin and the mask.

Hygiene Make sure you wash your hands before putting on/removing your mask to prevent bacteria from your hands being transferred to your face.

Male skincare Now of course, these issues are not limited to being experienced solely by women. Men can develop ‘maskne’ too, especially if they have facial hair as it can retain the sweat and oil that is

Photo by Visuals, Unsplash trapped by the mask. Washing your face day and night, moisturising, and using an oil free aftershave balm can really help in keeping whiteheads and clogged pores at bay. You can also address the breakouts with a few of our favourite products. The ‘Glow Tonic’ by Pixi is great for oily skin as it ensures any makeup residue or oil buildup is gone and your skin is left feeling squeaky clean. Though this is more of an investment product for a student budget a little goes a long way; and you can always buy a travel sized bottle from Cult Beauty on their website if you want to try before making the plunge and buying the full size. For those of you looking to be a bit more frugal, products by The Ordinary are a great alternative. You

can find a ‘regimen guide’ on their website which helps you to curate a collection of products that will address your particular skincare concerns. If you have any tips of your own or find that the tips in this article worked well for you then get in touch @inquirekent on Instagram.

The type of mask

And always remember to: ● Stretch out before and after a workout. ● Utilise free workout accounts on YouTube - favourites are MadFit and Pamela Reif. ● Consider signing up for a society. Kent’s yoga memberships are only £9 for students and then £1 per class you attend. ● Walking is your best friend: start listening to podcasts or get your coffee from somewhere further for a change.

Photo by Valeriia Miller, UnSplash

Monday 19 October 2020 InQuire

Feature

pandemic travel: the long journey home

Photo by Nick Morales | Unsplash

Tarini Tiwari Newspaper News Editor

Lockdown has thrown the lives of everyone into chaos. But for InQuire’s own Tarini Tiwari, the journey back home to Mumbai showed just how difficult the world has become in the past seven months.

Saturday, 14 March: I was sat in the audience at MTS’ production of Evita when my friend from back home messaged to tell me I should try to arrange a flight to get out of the UK. Rumours were flying of India imposing a travel ban. I brushed it off, telling her my university was still open and I didn’t want to leave before the end of term. Still, I felt a knot tighten in my stomach. The last thing I wanted was to get stranded at university over Spring Break. I texted my parents to tell them what I’d heard. They were about to board a flight after having gone to The Hague on holiday, and told me not to worry. A ban that restricted all travel, even for citizens, seemed next to impossible.

the TV in our apartment in Mumbai and I was in my Turing College room, checking the news updates on my phone. As soon as his speech ended, I called my mum, tears already streaming down my cheeks. The travel ban had been extended to 15 April. The worst part about that phone call was the silence on the other end of the line. My parents had no words for how guilty they felt, and that only made me feel worse. I didn’t want them to spend all their time agonising over how their daughter was stranded on the other side of the world, and yet here I was, completely isolated. My housemates had all gone home, and I found myself the only resident of a house built for nine people. That night, I grabbed my scissors and cut off all my hair. It was a rash decision, but for a short while it made me feel excited about something — a feeling I hadn’t had for a long time.

company to make sure they were still operating (National Express had halted its services) as well as the medical centre to get a certificate to say I was showing no symptoms of COVID-19. At the time, it was unclear what documentation one needed in order to fly internationally.

A ban that restricted all travel, even for citizens, seemed next to impossible.

Monday, 16 March: I was with my performance group for my Drama module in Eliot Hall. We weren’t able to book a rehearsal space that day and therefore found ourselves in the Photo by Ainy Shiyam cold, echoing chamber at the heart of Eliot College. I had spoken to my parents earlier that day, checking in on them considering my dad had fallen extremely ill. So, when he called again as my group and I worked on our staging document, I was confused. “Tarini, where are you?” my dad asked with an urgency in his voice. “I need you to step outside, this is important,” he continued, before informing me that India was banning all international flights at noon on Wednesday. I spent the next few hours calling friends, emailing Visa Compliance (the faceless office that determines whether or not international students get deported), pulling down my suitcase and throwing together some clothes before my mum texted to say I should hold off on packing. “The fee to change the booking is £1200, so maybe we should hope they lift the ban on March 31 like they’re planning to.” I didn’t stop crying that night. I understood my parents’ logic and I understood their optimism, but I knew deep down that this would not be the case. Wednesday, 25 March: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the nation to update them on the domestic COVID-19 situation. My parents were sat in front of

Tuesday, 7 April: The days were passing slowly. I slept a lot because when I was awake, I would cry or stress-binge junk food. I felt completely unmotivated to work on my essays and spent most of my time on TikTok or Netflix. Everyone was in lockdown, but I was totally alone. No family, no friends, nothing. I would cry on FaceTime to my mum, saying how desperately I needed a hug. I’m quite an introverted person, but this forced isolation was overwhelming and very anxiety-inducing. My anxiety and OCD went through the roof, and for a period of time I think I was verging on depression. I started to find ways of coping, like going on walks or baking cakes. As the sun burned bright in the blue sky, I dragged the sofa out onto the back porch and read in the warm April afternoons. This specific day, my parents called to say they had managed to book me on a flight for 17 April. I immediately called a taxi

Everyone was in lockdown, but I was totally alone. No family, no friends, nothing.

Photo by Tarini Tiwari Wednesday, 8 April: The flight was cancelled. I broke down once more, asking my parents why they had gotten my hopes up yet again. Looking back, I know that they were getting hopeful just as much as I was. But at the time, I just needed somebody to blame and they were there. Monday, 4 May: I was cooking lunch in the kitchen while talking to my grandmother on FaceTime when I got a notification announcing India’s repatriation mission: Vande Bharat. Flights would start on 7 May (clearly allowing for plenty of time for passengers to plan… not) and would bring stranded citizens back from all over the world. I immediately contacted the High Commission of India in London to see what I could do to get on that plane. I was met with confusion; it seemed as though they had found out about these flights at the same time as the public. Still, I scrambled to get things in order: going to the bank to make sure I had enough cash, thinking

InQuire Monday 19 October 2020

about packing, and making sure I didn’t buy any more groceries so as to not waste food if I had to leave suddenly. Thursday, 7 May: The first Vande Bharat flights were pushed back due to delays in testing all the crew members. The first flight out of London Heathrow would now be on 9 May. I was watching Glee and eating ice cream straight from the tub when the man I was in contact with at the High Commission messaged to

Feature ed with face shields and gloves. The flight felt like something out of a sci-fi movie: our food was left in cold cardboard boxes on our seats, and crew members in hazmat suits patrolled the aisles to ensure

ly visible through the large windows. As I heaved my suitcase behind me, jet-lagged and emotionally drained, I saw him wave to me from the other side of the glass and broke down crying. A staff mem-

Most of my stuff had to be left behind.

Saturday, 6 June: The next phase of quarantine was largely uneventful. I had a track and trace app on my phone that I had to download by law, and I just stayed in our apartment taking exams and feeling grateful that I hadn’t developed any symptoms for the disease. Of course, it was incredibly scary, and much of my family is still unaware that I ever tested positive. For the grandparents especially it would be unnecessary stress, so they still don’t know it happened. On the last day of my quarantine, someone from the municipality called to ensure I felt totally healthy and so did my parents. Soon after, my app showed I was clear to move around again.

say I would be put on the waiting list for the flight. I wasn’t a high-priority passenger because I’m young, healthy, with a valid visa, accommodation and no ailing relatives back home. All I could do now was wait. This was and would continue to be the worst part of my travel experience — the constant uncertainty of what was to come next. Friday, 8 May: I decided to get some things together in case I was suddenly put on the flight the next day.I stayed in all morning because I’d been told Air India would call me and would need my credit card details for the payment if I was booked in. In the 10 minutes where I stepped out to get some things from Coop, they called me. If anybody passed an exhausted-looking brunette (I had not been sleeping well as I constantly worried Air India would call while I was asleep) shouting her card number down the phone in Keynes Car Park, now you know who that was. I rushed back to the house and started packing. Most of my stuff had to be left behind. Donation drives were either closed or only operating once a week, and there was nobody to give my things to for safekeeping. I finally got the time to cook dinner at around midnight and fell asleep at 3:00 am for half an hour before I heaved myself out of bed to head to the airport.

Photo by Tarini Tiwari we kept our masks on. Actually, when you factor in how much the crew had to chase after rule-breaking passengers, it was more like a mix between a sci-fi movie and a primary school classroom.

The sad reality is, if I wanted to break quarantine nothing was stopping me. The UK government did nothing to ensure that people were quarantining properly.

Saturday, 9 May:

Sunday, 10 May: The dates are a bit blurry here because of the time difference, but I did technically land at 3:00 am on the Sunday so we’re going with that. After filling out countless forms that declared me symptom-free and getting my temperature scanned every 5 minutes, I found myself in baggage claim. We were brought in in small groups to enable distancing, and a woman came up to me to ask if I knew what the quarantine rules were. This was the first international flight into Mumbai since the beginning of lockdown and we knew nothing. “We flew back

Photo by High Commission of India The Heathrow experience was, to be quite honest, no less stressful than it usually is. Granted, Heathrow is always stressful, but that’s besides the point. There were distancing measures in place, and the terminal felt like a ghost town but, on the whole, I was suffering more from a lack of sleep than I was from the COVID-19 restrictions. Masks were mandatory on board the flight and we were also provid-

pm, my mum called to say she had good and bad news: the good news was that I was coming home, but the bad news was that I was COVID-19 positive. She and my dad had spent hours ensuring I could serve my quarantine at home and not be kept in the hotel for another 14 days. “She will break down,” my mum begged the doctor in charge of testing for the area, “She’s spent too long trying to come home.” I got to leave at about 5:00 pm with my parents after crying in my mum’s arms in the parking lot. I was one of many Indian asymptomatic patients, but was now gearing up for another 14 days of isolation.

because my father-in-law died, and if we have to quarantine in a hotel, we’ll miss the funeral,” she said. My heart broke. I had complained so much about being alone that I had barely considered those whose loved ones were dying on the other side of the world. My dad had come to the airport and was waiting outside the arrival lounge, his tall frame easi-

ber pointed me to a plastic chair, and I collapsed into it, crumbling from seeing my dad after almost 5 months. I finally plucked up the strength to go to the desk where they were organising quarantine locations and, since my dad had already booked my hotel stay, I was waved past to head to the exit. Members of staff from all the hotels where passengers were arranged to quarantine were waiting downstairs. Seeing a glimpse of my tear-stained face behind a mask and face shield, they led me to a chair and told me to relax until the shuttle bus arrived. When we were led out of the airport, my dad signalled that he’d follow in the car to bring a suitcase full of summer clothes and a hot dinner my mum had made. Security suddenly surrounded me, acting as though I was trying to break quarantine despite being escorted by hotel staff. My dad finally decided he needed to get closer, as I shrank and sobbed from the overwhelming feeling of three large men shouting at me at 4:30 am. I will never stop being grateful for the privilege I had to spend my two-week quarantine in a comfortable hotel room. Still, the story was far from over. Friday, 22 May: I was in the last day of my quarantine, which could only mean one thing: time to get tested! I was brought into the hallway (the first time I had left that room in two weeks) and made to sign some forms that said I was consenting to be tested for COVID-19. The previous fortnight was a blur. I caught up on sleep, revised for my exams, FaceTimed my friends and family, and generally just tried to relax for the first time in six weeks. I was in the home stretch (literally) at long last. Each day, two men in hazmat suits would come and take my temperature. Each day, I had no fever. I was also provided with the same food every day. Someone would leave a tray on the table outside my door (pressed against the doorframe so that I couldn’t leave) and it was always dal (Indian lentils), rice, three rotis (a thin flatbread), some sort of vegetable and a salad. Same food, twice a day, for fourteen days. Still, I had a large room all to myself and it was very comfortable. I was extremely lucky, but still desperate to go home. The test was painful. A man stuck a swab down my throat and up my nose, which stung for a few hours afterwards. But what was, objectively, worse than getting tested was waiting for the result. Saturday, 23 May: I was all packed and ready to go. I couldn’t wait to hug my parents tight. They called at noon to say they were in the lobby and were waiting for my results. Then radio silence. Finally, at around 3:00

When you factor in how much the crew had to chase after rule-breaking passengers, it was more like a mix between a sci-fi movie and a primary school classroom. Friday, 18 September: We’re skipping ahead in the story now. I decided, after much deliberation, to fly back to the UK for Autumn Term. I didn’t want to miss out on more of the university experience than I absolutely had to. The flight back was far less stressful because I knew what to expect, but still draining from wearing a mask and face shield in an already enclosed space. It feels as though you’re breathing week-old air. This quarantine was more daunting as I’d be in student accommodation. There is only so much one can do to isolate from four other girls in a small house, but we set up systems where we didn’t share food or drinks and avoided getting too close where possible. It was frustrating that I couldn’t go to the shops myself or go see my friends, and when my housemates went out I wanted to come along. The sad reality is, if I wanted to break quarantine nothing was stopping me. The UK government did nothing to ensure that people were quarantining properly — not even a phone call. As an unofficial quarantine expert, I feel the need to say that you really shouldn’t travel if it isn’t necessary right now. Besides the obvious safety risks, it’s so very tedious; take it from someone who’s had the privilege of travelling a lot in normal circumstances. Plane journeys aren’t all that great in the best of times, so stay home, go on some nice walks and avoid airports like the plague…pun not intended.

Monday 19 October 2020 InQuire

Film & Television

Entertainment

Emily in Paris takes us on a very clichéd tour through the City of Love

By Jena Jade Butler, Writer

There is a lot to be discussed when it comes to Netflix’s new hit series, Emily in Paris. Ironically, I sat down to watch the show with the intention of doing my French homework. Everyone loves a background show and I had decided that this was to be my new show to not watch. Having said this, by the time Emily leaves Chicago for her new job in Paris, I was more interested in her attempts at French than my own, and not always for the most positive of reasons.

French aren’t happy about it. With its poor dialogue and painfully stereotypical representations of Parisian lifestyle, I can see why it is not hitting the mark. There is something a little too naive about positioning Emily as the happy go lucky girl next door whilst every Parisian is contrasted as moody and unwelcoming.

Starring and produced by Lily Collins (Love, Rosie), and written by Darren Starr, responsible for the iconic Sex and The City series, the show follows American Emily and her (mis)adventures to life in Paris whilst working in a marketing firm. Think The Devil Wears Prada except one only has to do a quick search of Emily in Paris to discover that the

Attempting to “increase social engagement”, Emily creates an Instagram account which soon becomes the key to her success as heads begin to turn. The reality being here – as most of us know – it takes a lot more than a picture of a croissant to get thousands upon thousands of followers. It is safe to say the show is let down by its obsession with

the French clichés and Emily’s overt need to Americanise everything. As expat Monica de La Villardière pens for Vogue, “You are so spoilt, Emily, and you don’t even realise it.” Having said this, the show has everything the casual viewer is looking for. It makes you want to have passionate sexual encounters with your neighbour, wear Dior on the Seine and drink champagne in a chateau. For those who have seen The Politician, Emily In Paris works in a similar, quirky fashion and with a little less melodrama too. Each episode ends on a juicy cliff-hanger and a romantic scandal. The whole show is a muddle of lovers (and vibrators) and there is no apology for it: Emily is the 2020 female protagonist we love to see! Instead of the classic love-triangle utilised in teen drama, Emily in Paris creates a sort of love-pentagon instead. When the CEO of a luxury perfume company is mesmerized by her entrance, one can’t help but roll their eyes. As much as I’d like to believe that there are 10 French men ready to seduce me on every corner, her romantic encoun-

Photos by Netflix

ters are a bit out of reach. And yet, I feel like this is what sums up the show perfectly. Waltzing in from America, one

can’t help but watch her every move and what she is wearing, especially with the spectacle of a Paris backdrop. Somehow I was wooed back each episode and just as you think she’s got the guy, just as you’re wondering how basic the whole mysterious chef thing is, the show ends, leaving us ready for more French tropes and Emily’s annoying charm next season Emily in Paris is available to stream on Netflix.

The Devil all the Time explores the cycle of violence within a dysfunctional family By Emma Sopheah Ojukwu, Writer

The Devil all the Time is a sin soaked post-war tragedy story set in mid-west America from the end of World War II to the 1950s, narrated by Donald Ray Pollock, the author of the novel the film is based on. Pollock’s southern drawl is beguiling and could turn the burliest of men into an attentive child listening to their favourite bedtime story. His soothing narration juxtaposes the interminable violence that begins to haunt the family that the story revolves around – The Russells.

another, not leaving breathing room for purgatory. Especially with the addition of Sandy and Carl (Riley Keough, Jason Clarke), serial killers who end up coming into contact with Arvin in his teenage years. They have to murder him, but they underestimate a boy who has been through so much pain and trauma.

Strangers in the tightly knit town of Knockemstiff, Ohio are immediately cast out by people who have lived off the land their entire lives. Willard (Bill Skarsgård), a young man discharged from combat duty, is faced with living in a place that won’t allow him to grow. His son, Arvin (Tom Holland), becomes the victim of bullying and even after his father gives him the go ahead to fight back, poor Arvin cannot get himself to do it. Willard decides the best way to teach his son, is to set an example. In front of his son, he ruthlessly beats up two men that had been bothering his wife. This is our first look into what this character is willing to do to fight for his family, a fight that ends with his wife dying of cancer. Even after he devotes his life to the church he builds in his backwoods, Willard becomes hysterical and dies by suicide. The narrative then follows Arvin, now situated in his grandparents’ home with his stepsister, Lenora Laferty (Eliza Scanlen), a righteous girl who is also removed from society. Her devotion to church is admirable but when a new pastor arrives, Preston Teagardin (Robert Pattinson), he takes advantage of Lorna and she takes her own life as well. All the characters seem too close to one

The soundtrack and music ties in with the film’s themes of religion and belief. The very prominent diegetic folk song Washed in the Blood performed at the beginning of the film by Roy Laferty (Harry Melling), a patron of the church, acts as a curse cast on each of the char-

Photos by Netflix

acters for the remainder of the story, and Laferty’s devilish delivery is inspired by Hell itself.

The film is shot beautifully by Lol Crawley, who adds a dirty texture and colour lent by the ST 35mm and makes each shot visually alluring. The grimy browns and green will make viewers wonder if Arvin and the rest of these characters will ever escape the evil backwoods of their hometown. The Devil all the Time is available to stream on Netflix.

InQuire Monday 19 October 2020

Entertainment

Film

Enola Holmes is a silly but enjoyable watch By Megan Warwick, Writer

Photos by Netflix

I was flicking through Netflix on the first freezing cold day of Autumn, tired of watching reruns of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, when I stumbled across Enola Holmes. Not knowing anything about it, I took the risk and clicked play. The film was an easy watch, following Sherlock Holmes’ younger sister, Enola (Millie Bobby-Brown). Throughout the film, Enola proves herself to be as witty, clever, and strong as her older brother, with skills ranging from anagram solving to combat. The plot is detailed

but not too complex, with a few twists here and there, managing to throw the audience off guard but never completely shocking anyone. At points it felt too family friendly for my age, but a film I definitely would have loved as a child.

Enola Holmes is very much portrayed as a badass. She disarms a man twice her size in combat, all while wearing a floor length dress that is bound to be

a hindrance. She refuses to conform to the traditional expectations of women, which had me cheering her on as she fought for her freedom throughout the film. Millie Bobby-Brown plays a solid Enola, tough but not inhumane. She can take on a murderous hitman, but she still needs her mother. However, Bobby-Brown’s constant fourthwall-breaks, exclaiming directly to the camera, “Hi, I’m Enola Holmes!” got old fast. We get it. Henry Cavil interpretation of intense Sherlock was closer to Robert Downey Jr’s portrayal than Benedict Cumberbatch’s modern version. The latter is, in my head, the definition of Sherlock Holmes, and throughout it

proved to be a hard performance to live up to. Sam Claflin as Mycroft was superb, being arrogant, ignorant but still cunning, with the constant sneer on his face exactly as I imagine Mycroft to be best played.

The film did feel very Sherlock-y, from the 1900-appropriate fashion and beautifully sculpted buildings, to the expensive looking horse and carriages. The score was very reminiscent

Millie Bobby-Brown plays a solid Enola, tough but not inhumane. She can take on a murderous hitman, but she still needs her mother. of previous Sherlock films too, constantly reminding the audience that they were in the universe of the great detective. However, the action scenes lasted longer than they should have, and the recurring flashbacks of Enola’s mother (Helena

The Shining’s 40th anniversary: Cabin fever in a COVID-19 context

Stanley Kubrick’s genius as a director comes with parallels between the collapse of a nuclear family and the foundation of the US as a nation itself. The Overlook Hotel in which Jack Torrance moves in with his family as a winter caretaker was built on a Native American burial site. As Jack attempts to write his novel as the months pass, he slowly turns on his wife Wendy as she shows concern for their son Danny’s mental health.

Jack escapes into a 1920s ball within the hotel and the former alcoholic descends into madness, stating he would “sell his soul for a glass of beer”. From here, the spirits of the hotel encourage him to “correct” his family with an axe. Whether these spirits are possessing the hotel themselves or simply the family’s delusions are left for the audience to decide.

What is crucial is how manipulation of patriarchal angst and alienation can lead to violence. After all, the Torrance family are an all-American nuclear family to almost comical levels. Throughout the film, Jack begins to suffer from serious writer’s block, leading him to resent Wendy, who plays the archetypal passive wife. As he begins to lose his sanity, Jack becomes increasingly violent towards his family. The Torrance’s self-isolation from the outside world mirrors one of the biggest crises that was ignored at the height of the COVID pandemic, specifically that domestic violence helpline calls doubled during the

quarantine period. The true horror of the film is that the power structure of violence towards women is still common today. Jack is nostalgic for the 1920s when men had complete control over their wives legally and socially. Nostalgia for the fifties is similar to our time, even though it was a era with racial segregation and suppression of rights for minorities. Kubrick is making a statement about the victims of US imperialism and comparing the US itself to the Overlook Hotel; built on Native American graves.

While this is my interpretation, theories on The Shining’s meaning are endless, with some even claiming the film represents Kubrick secretly telling the world he shot the ‘fake’ moon landing. This is ridiculous, but any theory can keep you second guessing because Kubrick was so meticulous. He shot the record number of takes for one scene, with 127 separate takes, and his directorial decisions infamously led to Shelly Devall (Wendy) experiencing frequent panic attacks. Paired with Jack Nichol

Enola Holmes is available to stream on Netflix.

Photos by Warner Bros

By Ed Streatfield, Writer

Never has a horror film been so eerily pertinent as The Shining on its 40th anniversary. In the age of COVID-19, isolationism and cabin fever are lived daily experiences for many of us. This makes the multifaceted message of the film, about the potential evil within us all and the cycle of inherited trauma within the nuclear family, a remorseless reflection for the viewer.

Bonham-Carter) felt less integral to the plot and more about showing that, ‘Hey! We have Helena Bonham-Carter as part of the cast, isn’t that cool!” Overall, the film is a bit of family friendly fun. Something to watch to whirl the hours away on a windy afternoon, and to take a break from some of Netflix’s more serious content. I’d say give Enola Holmes a go, but don’t expect the moon because you won’t even get the stars if you aim too high.

son’s unhinged performance, the acting in The Shining is full of anguish, the lead’s faces contorting like tragic greek theatre masks. Utilising clinically symmetrical cinematography and Freudian nightmares, The Shining creates one of the most transcendentally unnerving experiences in all of film. It exposes not only its own beauty, but also that of horror as a genre itself. It helps viewers confront their most complex fears and that is something we should face up to now, more than ever. The Shining is available to stream on Amazon Prime.

Monday 19 October 2020 InQuire

Culture

Top 6 lockdown reads by women By Megan Warwick, Writer

6. The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary

Over the never-ending and gruelling lockdown period, I set myself the task to read as many books by women as humanly possible. From vintage classics to total trash, I tried to stretch into as many genres as I could handle. Here are the books I found the most enjoyable, and least exhausting. 1. I See You by Clare Mackintosh Genre: Detective thriller drama I was recommended this novel because I was writing a piece of creative writing about stalking for my course. I usually find modern day detective novels a drag — give me Raymond Chandler over Peter James because the 30s detective stories win my literature love any day. But Claire Mackintosh completely changed my opinion with this intense story of stalking on the London underground. As a former detective, Mackintosh doesn’t miss a beat on tension and knows what she is talking about when it wcomes to portraying a police unit. This book left me reeling for weeks after reading it, constantly checking over my shoulder when walking through a busy street. Photo by Little Brown Book Group Read if: You want to have your mind boggled and be faced with twists you were never expecting. 2. Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton

Photo by Faber & Faber Genre: Romantic, slightly sombre coming of age story Having already written a review for InQuire on the phenomenal writer Sally Rooney, I will save repeating myself and just say that these two books were my saviours of lockdown. On days it felt like there wouldn’t be a light at the end of this lockdown tunnel, these books were a godsend of romantic beauty. I cannot recommend them enough and anyone who knows me will say I do already.

Photo by Flatiron Books Genre: A unique blend of weirdness and sweetness

4. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

A weird tale of two friends who share a flat but do not meet. I was sceptical when I first started reading, wondering how a story this fake could feel believable. But O’Leary’s quirky characterisation of the two lead characters make the reader believe that these two individuals are the types of people who would share a bed without ever sleeping together.

Genre: Empowering female drama

Read if: You want to fall in love with book characters

Read if: You want to cry happy and sad tears.

What with everyone hyping over the success of the film, I have been keen to read the book and felt like this would be as good an opportunity as any. Having loved the 1995 film version of Little Women, the book did not leave me disappointed. It was bitterly sad in the right places but also completely comedic in others. It goes without saying that Alcott writes each of these not so little women amazingly; the novel has truly earned its place as a classic.

What I’m reading next… • • • • • •

Feminists Don’t Wear Pink by Scarlett Curtis Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People about Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge Women Don’t Owe You Pretty by Florence Given The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid The Likely Resolution of Oliver Cook by Jane Rileyw

Read if: You want to feel great about yourself and great about womankind. 5. The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis Photo by Signet Classics Genre: Short stories that are comwwedic and terrifying If you’ve ever read any Lydia Davis, you’ll know she’s quite undefinable. I wanted a book that I could read before bed and would only take me ten minutes so I could still get a good night’s sleep. Davis did the opposite; although her stories were short, they kept me up all night pondering over their meanings. The author has the unique talent of being able to say so much in just a sentence, each story packed with intrigue and detail.

Photo by Penguin Genre: Autobiographical romantic comedy with touches of devastating sadness What with studying a module in Non-Fiction people, I decided to dive into autobiographical fiction writing. I was recommended Alderton by a friend who also recommended me Normal People, so I dived straight in. This is a book that teaches you a lot about yourself, about others and about how others see you. It is about love, but not purely in the romantic sense. There is love in friendship, love in family and, without sounding too much like Love Actually, love all around. Read if: You’re stuck in a slog and want to go on an emotional rollercoaster. 3. Normal People and Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney

Photo by Penguin

Photo by Bloomsbury Circus

Photo by Vintage Classics

Read if: You want to switch out of autopilot when walking to work/uni.

Photo by Random House

InQuire Monday 19 October 2020

Culture Photo by Epic Comics

cination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation”. Modern readers will recognise it as a vision of the internet, as filtered through the author’s unconventional, philosophical voice: “Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the nonspace of the mind, clusters and constellations of data. Like city lights, receding”. As a hacker, Case spends much of the narrative “jacking in” to this virtual realm, often referred to as “the matrix”, through which he can access various computer systems. Case’s hacking heists are no straightforward endeavours. Operating not with a keyboard and mouse but with his mind – at several moments he notes the relative uselessness of his body compared to the tool that is his brain in his line of work; a tool damaged, repaired and augmented throughout by adrenaline, narcotics and terror. In this way, the hacking in Neuromancer is less of a commentary on the capability of technology, and more of a glimpse inward at the relationship between humanity and virtual reality; and how far one can lose humanity within it. In much of science-fiction, ultra-rich corporations act as the antagonists, from Weyland-Yutani and Tyrell to the likes of Robocop’s OmniCorp. In Neuromancer, this is found mainly in the all-powerful Tessier-Ashpool, which provides much of the threat throughout the

Photo by Warner Bros.

Cyberpunk 1984: Revisiting Neuromancer Photo by Warner Bros.

By Rory Bathgate, Newspaper Editor

ecades before CD Projekt Red began production on their new title Cyberpunk 2077, before The Matrix and even Blade Runner, William Gibson had a stark vision of humanity’s tech-driven near future, and established the genre of Cyberpunk. Its leading principle is that of “high tech, low life”, and this is established firmly by Neuromancer. Centred around a washed-up former hacker named Case, the novel loses no time in establishing its bleak setting: “The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel”. Pollution scars the Earth, while much of humanity live in mega-cities brimming with technological marvels, but largely devoid of natural life. Case himself hails from the unimaginably large urban conglomeration that covers much of the US East Coast, aptly named “The Sprawl”. As a genre, its political significance has perhaps never been greater. At the same time as we all carry phones in our pockets, and play video games that thirty years ago would have blown minds, there has never been a larger wealth inequality, nor have we been closer to destroying the natural world entirely. A chilling scene occurs early in the novel in which a character, stunned, points towards a taxidermy horse and proclaims “It’s a horse, man. You ever see a horse?” Gibson doesn’t go out of his way to address the lore of the world – expository dialogue is mercifully rare throughout – but through contextual references such as this he makes it clear that for all its shiny features, the world of Neuromancer is hellish. In highlighting these struggles nearly four decades ago, it proves to be truly ahead of its time. The sci-fi landscape which Gibson inhabited was a far-cry from the one readers know today. Dominated by the likes of Robert Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke, the grandfathers of so-called ‘hard sci-fi’, the genre was pervaded by a right-wing sense of individualism and reliance on technological revolution. Gibson himself had focused on the link between hard science fiction and fascism for his master’s degree, and was driven to write genre pieces for the left-wing counterculture with which he aligned himself. His political roots are also reflected beautifully in his writing style. Far removed from the clinical, logical prose of many of his contemporaries, Gibson writes with poetic fervour and imbues scenes with desperate, abstract emotion.

As hinted at before, the novel invariably draws comparison to Blade Runner. While they share many similarities – the sprawling cityscapes, matched only in their futuristic architecture by their sheer dismal dirtiness – the two are best considered as coincidental companions. Though Blade Runner is based on Philip K. Dick’s seminal text Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, it was with the film that the rainy, neon, retro-futuristic look was firmly established. The cold, glittering streets of Ridley Scott’s film, dominated by ghastly advertisements, are startlingly close to the holographic haunts of Neuromancer’s satellite retreat Freeside, or the illusory pursuits of its post-apocalyptic Istanbul bazaar. In a 2003 blog post, Gibson said that upon seeing Blade Runner for the first time “I figured my unfinished first novel was sunk, done for. Everyone would assume I’d copped my visual texture from this astonishingly fine-looking film”. The similarity between the two – aside from the shared connection of “French comics, bigtime” that Gibson says Scott and he discussed – is proof of the cultural potency of the novel’s subject. Released at the cusp of the technological era, the eyes of the world turning to micro-chips, home computers and rumblings of the early internet, both pieces tap into the growing concern for just how large a role tech would soon play in everyday life. For Blade Runner, this comes in the form of the Replicant; “more human than human” genetically engineered organisms that call into question the moral and theological limits of human invention. Although Neuromancer places great importance on the ethics and legality of AI, and the concept of consciousness in servitude to corporations, it also focuses heavily on the pervasiveness of human augmentation made possible by advances in technology. From blades hidden in fingertips and nervous systems rewired to produce the perfect mercenaries to hyper advanced cosmetic surgery that obscures age and renders the concept of solid sexual and racial identity redundant, tech pervades Gibson wields Photo by Ace Books the tech within the novel like a scalpel to expose aspects of society that are still raw today. And then you have Cyberspace. Gibson calls it “A consensual hallu-

novel. Based around a complex and incestuous hierarchy, the “industrial clan” holds complete dominance of an insidiously large amount of worldly affairs. Assisted in their aims by the immortality of suspended animation, and led by a complex strategy of internal acquisition, the family present a chillingly realistic threat throughout. As the world’s billionaires simply grow in wealth, and the gap between the healthcare accessible by the 1% vs general population becomes wider, the world edges ever closer to fulfilling Gibson’s nightmarish endpoint to rampant faith in capitalism. Tessier-Ashpool aren’t, however, the sole problem here; they are simply top of the pecking order. Throughout, the reader is reminded that corporations are kind in the world of Neuromancer, and frightfully hard to get rid of; governments can be overthrown, but a board of directors is always replaceable. Like the Hydra of Greek mythology, two heads grow where one was cut off. The cliched nature of the characters must be acknowledged, but also given proper context. First and most importantly, Neuromancer laid out the framework for so many seminal sci-fi pieces, and has been referenced, parodied, and straight up ripped off so many times that many of the concepts within might feel familiar or even played out.

“...Gibson wields the tech within the novel like a scapel to expose aspects of society that are still raw today.” But one must remember that at the time of writing, readers would have been approaching many of these concepts for the first time. Fiction centred around AI has in particular become somewhat overdone in recent years, especially with the rise of voice assistants and algorithm technology. When it was published, such concepts were relegated to speculative journals and the dreams of programmers. Then again, Neuromancer also relies on tried and tested aspects of science fiction; legally grey space stations, conflicted protagonists and mysterious government branches pervade the narrative. Secondly, it must be remembered that Cyberpunk takes partial inspiration from the pulpy noir novels of the 30s and 40s. Gibson nods knowingly to crime fiction with his portrayal of the gangsters, back-alley deals and slick heists, with Tessier-Ashpool in particular resembling something of a crime family. It is a testament to Gibson’s skill that despite all of this, the ideas presented still feel innovative and exciting today. Sure, you might have read about AI before, or come across body augmentation a fair few times in fiction. But you’ve never seen it done quite like this, I can guarantee. Neuromancer is not just the first great Cyberpunk novel. Nor is it solely a bible for sci-fi fanatics, a text from which some of the very best pieces in the genre have drawn inspiration from (though it is surely that). Indeed, even if it had inspired nothing after its publishment, had stood alone all these years, it would stand as one of the most truly remarkable, breathtaking sci-fi novels ever written. Pick up a copy and lose yourself in what could be our future; and hope like hell that it isn’t.

Science and Technology

Monday 19 October 2020 InQuire

“We need to take accountability for destruction on our doorsteps.” Exclusive interview with Inkcap founder Sophie Yeo By Ben Mott, Newspaper Science and Tech Editor

ne of the greatest differences between humans and our fellow tenants of the Earth is our ability to know what is happening thousands of miles away, in the furthest corners of our home. Here in the UK, we know Arctic ice sheets are breaking, 2000km away; we know the last orangutans are clinging on for life, often literally, nearly 12,000km away in the Bornean jungle. We also know Amur Leopard numbers have risen from around 30 at the turn of the century, to over 80 now – a recovery happening 8000km from our island nation, in far-east Russia. This wealth of knowledge on far-away places is a wonderful thing, but the almost mystic novelty, which such distant locations carry can, forgivably, lead us to near negligence over issues happening right under our nose. Over a quarter of our native mammals are threatened with extinction; centuries of over-grazing have depleted our biodiversity. Britain’s forest cover, at 13%, is one of the lowest in Europe. How can we demand action on environmental issues happening countless miles beyond our border until we keep our own house in order? This is a question Sophie Yeo is seeking to address. As lockdown unfurled in Britain, bringing life as we knew it to standstill, the opposite was happening on this environmental journalist’s laptop. Inkcap was born: an essential summation of UK environmental news, which might not hit frontpage elsewhere. In this interview with the Environmental, Conservation, Sustainability (ECS) Society, Yeo offers informed perspectives on pressing issues in UK conservation, from rewilding to HS2, and gives an insight into her Inkcap project. Ben Mott: Can you tell me a little about Inkcap? Sophie Yeo: I’ve been an environmental journalist for seven years, and for most of that time I was writing exclusively about climate change. I felt that, while the media’s coverage of climate change was improving, nature journalism was lagging behind in both quantity and quality. Most articles focused on distant ecosystems, like the Amazon and the Arctic. This is obviously important, but there are also complex and interesting debates taking place about the landscapes and wildlife in the UK, and these weren't being regularly addressed with much depth or nuance. I also believe that we need to take accountability for the destruction happening on our own doorsteps. So I decided to set up Inkcap as a place where readers could go for indepth journalism focusing explicitly on nature in this country. BM: What do you hope to achieve with Inkcap? SY: I want to improve the quality of nature journalism in the UK, creating a space for depth, nuance and discussion. There are so many

The Lynx UK Trust is working to return the Eurasian Lynx to Britain, after it’s exticntion here in 700AD. Photo by Uriel Soberanes on Unsplash

HS2 has faced intense criticism for its clearing of important natural sites. Photo by Ethan Wilkinson on Unsplash

fascinating conversations happening right now about how to restore the natural world, and I think these deserve to be in the spotlight. Inkcap articles are rarely about science alone: issues like equality, access, economics and politics are all central to a healthy environment, and they are central to what I write. It’s also about drawing attention to issues that won’t necessarily make the news elsewhere, and holding people accountable for where we’ve failed to protect nature. BM: Rewilding is gaining momentum across the UK, with sea eagles breeding successfully for the first time in over 200 years, bison coming to Kent in 2022, and potential for lynx re-introduction in Scotland. Why is it so important, and what’s behind its recent growth in popularity? SY: The idea of rewilding has been around for a while, but it definitely seems to have exploded in popularity within the last few years in the UK especially. I think that this way of talking about nature has inspired people in a new way. It invokes a landscape-scale vision for the future, and seems to have created new possibilities for what the natural world could be. So much of what we do seems like tinkering around the edges in the face of incredible destruction, improving the planet bit-by-bit, and rewilding has encouraged people to think beyond this, towards a world where nature is allowed to flourish beyond its enclosures. BM: We recently found out from the RSPB that the UK had failed to meet 17 of its 20 Aichi biodiversity targets. How important is this, and how concerned should we be? SY: The UK’s failure to make progress on these international targets shows the extent to which nature has been put on the backburner by successive governments. Nature is not seen as a priority. There always seems to be something more urgent, whether it’s the economy, Brexit or COVID-19. Meanwhile, the problem will only get worse – a healthy and inspiring environment needs to be the strand that runs through everything we do. Separately, it shows the importance of holding the government accountable on targets. One thing I’ve learned, through reporting on climate change and nature, is that you shouldn’t celebrate when the target is set but when it’s met. BM: Boris Johnson has committed to protecting 30% of the UK’s land in the next decade; we are at 26%, but some argue our National Parks are depleted of biodiversity despite protections, that barren overgrazed land lies where temperate rainforest should. Do we need a radical rethink of how we manage protected areas in this country? SY: People value the land for a variety of reasons: it is a source of beauty and inspiration, it is home to thousands of species of plants and animals, it provides us with food, and it is one of the pages on which our cultures and histories are written. But I think, through all of these uses and more, there are opportunities to increase the presence and vibrancy of nature. National Parks are critical, as one of the few spaces in the UK where large tracts of land are relatively uninterrupted by human use, and therefore offer precious ecological opportunities. BM: HS2 has drawn significant criticism for its impact on the en-

vironment. Is a trade-off between infrastructural development and biodiversity always inevitable? SY: Development will inevitably have an impact on nature – even brownfield sites can be a haven for wildlife, which tends to move in whenever a tract of land is abandoned, as the rewilding around the Chernobyl nuclear plant has demonstrated. Roads and railways carve up the land. Even when the losses are offset by restoration or planting elsewhere, you’ve still lost the original, which was possibly a special place for someone and contributed to the overall fabric of the natural world, even if it didn’t have any rare or unique ecological characteristics. This isn’t just a modern phenomenon: humans have been cutting down trees, killing megafauna and cultivating land for millennia, in the attempt to build societies where humans reign supreme. That’s not to say that we shouldn’t make any trade-offs. People need shelter, food and medicine. But it’s important to think about how we can minimise these needs and meet them in the most nature-friendly way possible. BM: Finally, which species would you personally be most excited about seeing returned to the UK? SY: I think an encounter with a lynx would be pretty thrilling. You can find Inkcap on Twitter @inkcapjournal and subscribe to the newsletter online: https://inkcap.substack.com. The ECS society are on Instagram @e.c.s_kent_society, and on Facebook @ ECS – Environment, Conservation, Sustainability.

The Aichi targets are a set of 20 goals outlined by the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) in 2011, reassessed every decade, seeking to halt and repair damage to the natural world through a range of socio-environmental measures. Find out more on the CBD website.

InQuire Monday 19 October 2020

Science and Technology

The InvestEggator: the latest agent fighting wildlife crime By Ben Mott, Newspaper Science and Tech Editor

estled in the soft sand of a Costa Rican beach are dozens and dozens of sea turtle eggs. Before long, the porcelain-like membrane will start to splinter as cracks decorate the surface, and the baby inside will stumble out. From the hundreds of eggs a breeding female will lay, only a handful of hatchlings will make it past their first birthday, largely due to predation by sea-birds and small mammals – and even crabs. The long, slow journey from nest to sea leaves younglings exposed on the beach. However, one of those eggs will not face those challenges. Indistinguishable to the untrained eye, one is an impostor: inside the shell, it is not a turtle waiting to emerge, but rather a GPS tracker, hoping to remain hidden. Conservation scientist Kim Williams-Guillen developed the InvestEggator (the name given to the decoy egg) with Nicaraguan NGO Paso Pacifico, drawing inspiration from popular TV shows such as The Wire and Breaking Bad. Multiple decoy eggs were planted in 101 nests at four beaches around the Costa Rican coast. 5 successfully transmitted regularly, allowing the research team led by UKC PhD candidate Helen Pheasey to track the eggs to their “handover point”. A handover point marks a place along the trafficking route where the smuggled object passes from small-scale poachers to middle-men, who then transport the object to the final destination.

A juvenile sea turtle makes her way across the beach. Photo by Alfonso Navarro on Unsplash

How robots are beating lockdown and paving the way to a sci-fi future By Jamie Neil, Website Science and Tech Editor

Although one egg wound up 137km inland, the eggs generally remained in the local area, where Pheasey, co-author of the study, says they are consumed as street food, bar snacks, or even omelettes. “The country has a long-standing tradition of eating eggs, but they are of low monetary value and don’t fulfil a livelihood or protein requirement,” she added. All seven species of sea turtle are endangered, some critically, like the Hawksbill turtle, and trading them is illegal. However this study was carried out in Ostional, on Costa Rica’s pacific coast, where, in contrast to the rest of the nation, it is legal to trade the eggs of the Olive Ridley species for a limited time. During the first 36 hours of the “arribada” – the 5-day mass nesting event – eggs can be harvested from the beach, and then traded around the country. Beyond that period, it is illegal to do so. This in-situ legal framework enables innovative approaches to be tried and tested before deployment in the fight against the illegal trade. There are also suggestions that within the legal trade, illegal products are being laundered. Exposing trade routes is therefore essential wherever possible to combat illegal trade.

“The technology is now small enough to be hidden in a range of wildlife products” Whilst preventing poaching is sometimes an effective short-term relief to illegal trade issues, focusing efforts on uncovering and dismantling trafficking networks is far more efficient. Poachers are driven largely by financial necessity, and as long as poverty and wealth disparity exist, poachers will too. “Trafficking is a much more serious crime as it may be the case that larger volumes of eggs are moving to more distant locations. Being able to curtail this means there are opportunities to disrupt a larger trade,” Pheasey told InQuire in an email interview. According to Pheasey, this offers opportunities to focus demand reduction campaigns in the local area and prevent the illegal harvester from having a consumer base, thus easing the pressure on the species threatened with extinction. Sea turtles are under attack from numerous anthropogenic sources – most notably by-catch, where they are accidentally entangled in industrial fishing nets– so alleviating any of the pressures they face is a positive step in the fight for their future. Beyond the initial success of this research, there is exciting potential for extrapolating decoy eggs to other illegal wildlife trades. “The technology is now small enough to be hidden in a wide range of wildlife products,” Pheasey says. “The main thing is how to make the housing realistic enough to mimic that of the species in question and how to deploy the fake in amongst a batch of real items”. One species which could benefit hugely from the InvestEggator is the South American hyacinth macaw, the largest flying parrot. As it is illegal to buy or sell wild-caught individuals, eggs are snatched from nests, before being flown to Europe where they are passed off as captive-bred. Resultantly, they enter the legal trade, where an individual can sell for as much as $15,000. Classed as ‘vulnerable’, their populations are decreasing: tracing the networks utilised in this trade could be key to dismantling it. The same goes for sea turtles and other oviparous (egg-laying) species threatened by illegal trade, who might just have been offered a lifeline.

and artificial intelligence laboratory have partnered with AVA robots to build a robot capable of sterilizing an approximately 370 m2 warehouse in just half an hour. Along with this and the claim that it’s able to kill 90% of all COVID-19 traces, it seems quite the impressive machine. The way it achieves this is through the use of a type of UV rays called UV-C, something which is dangerous to us humans, but to the robot is simply an effective tool. The robot has been tested in Boston greater foodbank, which a team of scientists had previously mapped out for the robot. In doing so robots have once again helped us fight COVID-19. It appears that robots may be part of the wider solution to helping us beat this pandemic. With the virus still prevalent and potentially seeing a resurgence, and Scotland returning to a lockdown status 1, I for one welcome our robot overlords. Joking aside, it seems as though the future is bright for these amazing machines.

erhaps one of the most fundamental parts of any science fiction story is the inclusion of robots. These mechanical manservants range from the helpful kind, fluent in over six million forms of communication like C-3P0, to those left behind to clean the earth’s environment like the adorable Wall-E. These amazing machines are, however, no longer bound to the realms of science fiction, but have now begun to leave the pages of fiction behind. Robots varying from those that roam around the house to do the hoovering, those created to disarm bombs and even the many probes we have sent to space, an environment we are not suited for. All have been helping, and continue to help, humans in meaningful and potentially lifesaving ways. One of the ways that robots have been helping us is with the COVID-19 pandemic. Scientists at the University of Liverpool have been using a robot to run their experiments from home to get around lockdown lab closures. Such experiments include the search for more efficient catalysts for reactions to convert water into hydrogen. The robot has in fact been incredibly beneficial, with the scientists working with the robot stating in the report in the journal Nature that it “performed 688 experiments within a ten variable experimental space” all over the course of 8 days. The success of this robot has sparked the Royal Society for Chemistry (RSC) to research the viability of robots in the lab, to allow for more experiments to be completed over a shorter time. This is but one of the ways robots are helping humans fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Robots aren’t just helping in the lab; they’re also helping us clean. Scientists at MIT’s computer science

A helping, hopefully sanitized, hand. Robots must follow ‘hands, interface, space’ guidlines. Photo by Photos Hobby on Unsplash

Monday 19 October 2020 InQuire

What’s on... Black Panther Tue 20 October 2020 ROH: Giselle Wed 21 October 2020 Rocks Thu 22 October 2020 The Trial of the Chicago 7 Fri 23 October 2020 Free Gig Fri 23 October 2020 HELD Sat 24 - Sun 25 October 2020 EOS: Frida Kahlo Sat 24 October 2020 Family Film: 100% Wolf Sun 25 October 2020 Uncle Vanya Tue 27 October Sun 1 November 2020 Miss Juneteeth Thu 29 October 2020 Funny Rabbit Comedy Club: Jayde Adams & Rich Wilson Fri 30 October 2020 Strange Creatures Fri 30 October 2020 On the Rocks Fri 30 October Tue 3 November 2020 John Lennon Tribute UK: Lennon Retrospective Sat 31 October 2020 ROH: Manon Lescaut Wed 4 November 2020 ROH: Manon Lescaut Wed 4 November 2020

Prices Full - £8.95 GulbCard Member - £6.70 Senior - £7.95 Registered Disabled - £7.70 Student - £3.00 Student GulbCard Member £2.50 Unemployed - £7.70 Under 25 - £6.00

Photos by The Gulbenkian

Free student gigs The Gulbenkin is proud to announce that commencing Friday 23 October, free gigs will be held in the Gulbenkian Theatre in partnership with student societies. Along with the great deals for students this autumn, the gigs are part of The Gulbenkian’s promise to provide truly exciting entertainment for Kent students. To stay up to date and find even more events, visit thegulbenkian.co.uk

InQuire Monday 19 October 2020

Missing: this article By Rory Bathgate Newspaper Editor

This article is missing. Not the actual article you are reading of course, but one just like it. This is a placeholder article to help describe what the actual article was like, in case someone finds it. Ooh this bit was political. Almost too political, real biting stuff that made you chuckle but also really hit home. Got you questioning the state of the world in a darkly humorous way. Take our word for it, there were some real observational corkers in this section. To back this up we had a quote from a very significant person. “Important point made by me, an important person”. They did not say that, but the gravity was the same. No, we are not going to say who we interviewed – you will just have to wait until the article is found. Trust us, it will be worth it. No guesses either. No not them, they weren’t available… not them either. The article had a great image like the one pictured to the right. Not exactly that image of course: this is just an artist’s impression. But it was around that shape and size, and had more colour. The subject was quite startling, and terribly eye-catching. Not to say this image is bad per se, it just lacks the emotional quality the original image had. It also had a graph like the one pictured, with some really interesting data that reflected on society in thought-provoking ways. One bit was highlighted to accentuate the point (not pictured) and drive home the urgency of whatever statistics it presented. This graph is comparatively rubbish, and unclear. If you find the article, please let us know by sending an email to the address it gives.

Satire

Sport Why is sport being targeted? By Joe Acklam Newspaper Sports Editor In the most recent set of regulations for stopping the spread of the pandemic, we learnt that spectators would not be allowed at elite sport for potentially the next six months. Yet at the same time we have also seen the government promote attendance of places such as cinemas and theatres. Whilst I understand the pressure those industries are under, how is sport any different? The English Premier League is amongst the richest sports leagues in the world, but just a few divisions below we have seen two football clubs go out of business in the last year in Bury FC and Macclesfield Town, and many others threaten to join them. All of these events were set in motion long before the coronavirus pandemic. But with a huge drop in revenue there is no way that many more clubs do not join them if we do not see fans back in the stadiums before the spring. I am not oblivious to the potential risks of spreading the virus by letting thousands of people into one space, but surely it is safer for them to be in an outdoor stadium, and be socially distanced, than it is for them to be in an indoor theatre for several hours? It obviously does not have to be full stadiums immediately, but prior to the new regulations being announced there were numerous successful test events for fans to be socially distanced. I was lucky enough to attend one such event in Yeovil, and with the amount of precautions being taken I don’t see why as little as 10% of capacity could not be feasible at sporting events. It is because of the Premier League that the government feels football should be able to sort itself out, as if it can spend billions this summer, then surely the industry is wealthy enough. However, the Premier League can spend like it can because of the mammoth television deals that mean it does not rely heavily on matchday income. But the further down the pyramid you go, the more reliant clubs become on ticket receipts. This has, in part, been acknowledged by the government as the National League has received £10 million, but clubs in Leagues One and Two have received nothing, even if their revenues are no higher and owners no richer than those in the leagues beneath them. The proposed Premier League bail out of the Football League is likely to have negative impacts down the road for the clubs receiving the money. Current suggestions of conditions that the Premier League would demand all seem to reduce the revenue of Football League sides in the long run, for example supporting the Premier League in reducing the level required to receive a work permit as a footballer post-Brexit. Such a move will reduce the amount received in sales from Football League clubs to bigger clubs as the number of players who can be bought is higher. Another is the inclusion of Premier League ‘B’ teams in the football pyramid, which would reduce the amount of cost effective loans players which EFL clubs could receive and also gate receipts for matches. This has been shown in the existing EFL Trophy in which attendances are way down since Premier League youth teams have been competing for the past few seasons. None of these things would be necessary if at least some fans were allowed in the stadium at sporting events, as at least some money would be coming in. But on the course we are currently charting, there will be scars on the sport we once knew when we are finally able to see it again.

Monday 19 October 2020 InQuire

BUCS to go ahead in term one without Team Kent

By Joe Acklam Newspaper Sports Editor Although normal league and tournament play is still set to commence in 2021, British University Colleges Sport (BUCS) have announced that there will be some official sport played this term. As there are many potential difficulties to competing at the moment, the events are all opt-in, and so there is

no mandate for all universities to compete. In an official statement, BUCS said “We appreciate that universities are facing significant challenges at the moment, and not everyone will be quite ready to return to sport. We acknowledge and support the decision of universities who would rather wait until Term Two to engage in the official

Photo by Cassie B. ing place without the presence of any teams from UKC. Kent Union have decided that for the safety of the student body, they would not be allowing sport societies to join the opt-in competitions, and were keen to stress that they were far from the only student union who had made this decision. Therefore, Kent students will have to wait until 2021 to take part in BUCS competition. After asking Kent Union whether they intended to allow sport societies to enter these competitions, VP Student Engagement Aldo Manella responded with the following statement: “We understand the desire to get back into a competitive sport and how important physical activity is as a means of having fun and keeping healthy at University. As we monitor the pandemic’s continuing impact across the country and other universities, COVID-19 remains a league and knockout competition”. considerably large risk to our students. To help with the safety aspect, all For this reason, our teams will not be competitions will be localised by reparticipating in Term 1 BUCS compegion, and fixture frequency will depend titions as we believe it to be too high a upon the uptake of teams in each rerisk to student safety. This is not only gion. Decisions will also be influenced reflected by us but by other Unions as by local restrictions. Fixtures comwell”. menced from 5 October and end by 16 December. However, all this action will be tak-

Who won the window? By Joe Acklam Newspaper Sports Editor This summer, Premier League football clubs seemed undeterred by mass financial uncertainty through spending a cool £1.45 billion on new players. Only 11% down on the previous summer, the question is:, who used these astronomical amounts of money the wisest? The obvious first contenders for the crown would be the free-spending Chelsea, who brought in seven players to turn their fourth placed finish from the previous year into a legitimate title challenge. Based on the four games played so far this season, it would be fair to say that they are more pretenders to both window winners and title challengers. Although I generally like Chelsea’s business, if you spend over £200 million on players to add to a squad that was already in the Champions League, you should probably have more than just an outside shot at the title if things go wrong elsewhere. They have added some potentially very strong firepower in Kai Havertz, Hakim Ziyech, and Timo Werner, with only Havertz having really showed any of his quality so far. They fixed a big hole at left-back with England international, Ben Chilwell, and made a start in central defence with veteran central defender, Thiago Silva. Kepa Arrizabalaga has also been replaced

by Edouard Mendy. However, their defence still looks, both on paper and on the pitch, very shaky and they will need another big window to truly bring them into contention for the title. For me, they can’t have won the window. Based on their start to the season it is probably tough to look beyond Aston Villa. Villa stayed up by the skin of their teeth last season, and even that is an understatement given the mess-up from Hawkeye in their game against Sheffield United which ultimately kept them up. However, this year they are sitting in second in the table with three wins from three so far this season, so something must have happened. That something specifically has been dropping £45 million combined on two players from the Championship and then adding two from top 6 clubs to round off what has been quite a successful window on current evidence. The big buy was obviously Ollie Watkins from Brentford to help solve their striker issue from last year, in which two players signed from the Jupiler League failed to cut the mustard and academy graduate Keinan Davies filled in when needed. A hat-trick in a crazy 7-2 win over champions, Liverpool, combined with 26 goals for Brentford last season make him seem a strong addition, if pricey. Matty Cash also joined from the Championship, this time from Nottingham Forest, and has shown real promise and attacking

verve from full-back so far this season. Emi Martinez was excellent for Arsenal after Bernd Leno got injured against Brighton, but left the Gunners after ten years in search of regular first-team football. Ross Barkley has got the talent to be great for Villa, he just needs to be vastly more consistent than he was at Everton and parent club, Chelsea. Runners-up are Newcastle. This one is possibly impacted by the limited planning time they had, given there was a fairly lengthy dalliance with becoming the sports washing partner of Saudi Arabia, meaning that Newcastle wouldn’t have known if they were buying in Louis Vuitton or Sports Direct this summer. In spite of that, they were able to bring in some genuine Premier League quality for pretty good value. Newcastle definitely found the better deals in the bargain bin, having picked up Ryan Fraser, who looked nailed on to join Liverpool once his Bournemouth contract expired until he downed tools and gave them cold feet, and then Jeff Hendrick both on free transfers. Newcastle also bolstered their ranks with two players from relegated sides, Bournemouth’s Callum Wilson, who is a proven goal scorer at the highest level, and one half of Norwich’s promising full-back duo in Jamal Lewis. Newcastle have not been much more exciting this year than last, but the squad is now easily good enough to steer clear from the depths

Photo by Nathan Rogers on Unsplash of negativity amongst supporters that would be created by a relegation battle, even if nobody would be in St. James’ Park to voice their disappointment. But there can only be one winner, and that has to be Everton. The biggest credit that can ever be given to an Everton transfer window is that their signings made sense. The normally erratic club signed three top quality midfielders in Napoli’s Allan, Watford’s Abdoulaye Doucoure, and Real Madrid’s James Rodriguez. A deadline day addition of central defender Ben Godfrey from Norwich may or may not pan out, after his rude awakening in the Premier League last season. But Everton usually sign players they either do not need or who are not good enough for them. Carlo Ancelotti has clearly changed that. Allan and Rodriguez he has worked with before at previous clubs, so he knew who he was signing and Doucoure has been a top Premier League defensive midfielder at Watford for several years. The fruits of their labour have been plain to see already in their four victories, and we will truly see soon how good they are as they play rivals Liverpool next, but so far life is sweet for the toffees.

InQuire Monday 19 October 2020

Sport

Photo by Sam Wren

Women’s Hockey open season with back-to-back wins By Helena Bilney, Rosie Kemp and Pip Tombs Writers On Saturday 26 September the University of Kent Women’s Saturday Squad kicked-off their season in style. With this being their first game of the season and as many of the players had not played together before, a 7-1 win over Blackheath and Elthamians’ Fifth XI team has put a spring in their step. There was a positive atmosphere among UKC and although relaxed, they were also hungry to get back in action and seize victory. This brand-new side were like a duck to water. There were many moments of positive play and strong highlights since they dominated the score board with a tsunami of goals. As one might expect, UKC were at times slightly rusty. Despite this, everyone demonstrated sharp closed skills and strong basics. Most of the goals came from deflections and little ‘dinks’ into the goal, a sign that they moved the goalie well and worked as a unit in the “D.” The first half began with UKC’s pushback, and once play had started it became apparent that UKC worked well as a team and had the upper hand. Half time saw UKC up by two goals. In the second half Blackheath and Elthamians upped their game and scored a straight strike after just entering the “D”. After this UKC caught their second wind and re-found their feet in front of goal, with the number of goals creeping up in favour of UKC. One of the main highlights of the game was when back four Lauren Soden-Bridger, Lily Jaques, Grace Gale and Pip Tombs performed a fabulous transfer around the back, changing the direction of the play. This also

showed how UKC’s defence played as a tight line and beating Blackheath and Elthamian’s’ press. Three of UKC Saturday’s goals were scored by Ellie Benson, and the other four by Ellie Richards. However, due to the positive score line, UKC sought to use the short corners as opportunities to try out new attacking routines, although they were unsuccessful in converting them into goals, something they will have to work on as they battle it out against Marden Russets Ladies 4th XI. With COVID-19 affecting all manner of sports, UKC Women’s Hockey club see this Saturday league as positive step to their return to BUCS in January. It

will give the club an opportunity to cement greater ties across all teams, since the Saturday Squad is distinct in being an amalgamation of players from various teams. All in all, this was a strong start to the season and, if this week was anything to go by, as a club we can hope for future great results too.

The University of Kent (UKC) Women’s Saturday team took on Marden Russets Ladies 4th XI Saturday, 3 October 2020, and came away with a 4-0 win. The opposition definitely tested the ladies’ fitness this week with an extremely fast-paced game from both sides but the defence stayed strong to keep them at bay. In the first half UKC saw a brilliant opening goal from Jasmin Clarke who

had a break into the “D” and took a shot right from the top of the circle into the far corner of the goal. Despite giving away a short corner, the defence (Rosie Kemp, Lily Jaques, Lauren Soden-Bridger and Pip Tombs) alongside their goalie and Captain, Ro Foister, managed to clear it away with no trouble. Consistent marking and tracking back meant Marden Russets rarely found their way into UKC’s defensive circle and by the end of the first half, with another tactical dribble past their defence from Clarke, Kent were two goals up. Spirits were high at half time, which gave them a chance to recover, so UKC continued to put on the pressure in the second half. Despite Marden Russets stepping up and having a few breaks into their 25, UKC managed to find their way into the circle again with both Daisy and Pip scoring goals. The midfield worked tirelessly to get the ball onto the attackers’ sticks, with brilliant runs from Benson. Determined efforts to win balls back and intercepting Marden Russet’s 16s were rife from Vicky Batchelor, Emily Wilmot, Rachel Grieve and Lila Fabio. UKC’s Man Of The Match this week went to Emily Bromley-Ellis for consistently putting pressure on the opposition and carrying the ball far up the pitch. What a fantastic united effort by UKC Women’s Saturday Squad, who now await to play Gore Court Ladies 3rd XI.

Photo by Armaan Latif

Sport www.inquiremedia.co.uk/sport

InQ Quire

Waiting For Weights

Students have been left wanting after facing long delays to book gym slots and struggles to complete proper workouts in the gym.

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free up. The lifting area is particularly hard to use at the moment due to it being limited to 10 people at once. In a statement, Kent Sport said “after all the hard work that we have done in

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slot is not available until the following week. This is frustrating for those who aim to work out multiple times a week. Additionally, when actually getting to the gym students have claimed they

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“I’ve given up with Kent Sport, instead I go into town and use Pure Gym”.

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are faced with long queues to enter and once in there, find there is a lack of equipment to use. Given they are stuck with limited time in the facility, with slots limited to one hour, there is no time to wait around for equipment to

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We have been hearing from students across the university who have got in contact with InQuire to speak about the struggles they are currently having with Kent Sport. Since students have returned, Kent Sport has reopened its facilities in order to work in a Covid Secure way, in line with government regulations. However, its new system is not up to scratch according to those who use it. The major complaint of many students is the antiquated booking system that is

needed in order to attend the gym. Students must figure out how to book the session they need on Kent Sport’s website. However, slots to use the gym are proving hard to get, with many saying they go to book but find that the next

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By Jaden Shepherd Website Sport Editor

saying “I’ve given up with Kent Sport, instead I go into town and use Pure Gym”. Lewis Amaira, another 3rd year and member of the American football team said that Kent Sport “either need to reduce the price of full membership or have a full rethink of how Kent Sport runs during coronavirus”. Kent Sport told InQuire that there are 2,340 fitness suite slots available each week and that they “have worked tirelessly over the summer with the Safety, Health and Environmental department (SHE unit) and Estates to ensure we provide the SAFEST environment possible for our members and we have had to meet a number of requirements to allow us to open”. They admitted that there is a problem with “no shows” taking up gym slots and they are working on the issue, and that the free weight area in the gym does become busy but advised members to ask a member of staff for alternative exercises that can be carried out in the wellness area. On long queues they stated there are members of staff on reception managing the queues but that members should be arriving 10-15 minutes before their booked session.

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Photo by Aslan Ntumba

order to open, it is disappointing that the focus isn’t on how safe our members are feeling with all the protocols / procedures we have in place which is some of the feedback we have been receiving”. Some have questioned the reasoning behind giving all 1st years who live on campus free membership to Kent Sport this year. Before the current situation, the gym already suffered with over-crowding at peak times, with long waits for equipment. The addition of so many more gym members has the potential to make the problem much worse. Students normally pay up to £195 for sports membership with Kent Sport in order to gain access to the university gym, sports fields and attend fitness classes. Those playing for a sports team need membership in order to train on Kent Sport facilities, or can use Pay to Play, a membership option that allows students to pay £4.50 for every time they use the facilities. But students have been left feeling short changed as they have found that many of their practice times have been cut heavily. One student stated that they pay £150 only to be able to train for one hour a week. Some have called for partial reimbursement of their membership due to the poor service they are getting, while others say they have switched to using other facilities. George Livett, a 3rd year student, admitted that he had switched