InQuire 17.7

InQuire The University of Kent’s student publication

www.inquiremedia.org

Entertainment: Page 22

Spiderman: No Way Home Sticks The Landing

Monday 31 January 2022 17.7

James webb telescope: could it discover alien life in the next five years?

Science & Tech: Page 10

EXCLUSIVE: INQUIRE SITS DOWN WITH VICE-Chancellor cox

Tarini Tiwari, Editor-in-Chief

Alex Charilaou, Newspaper Editor

What's Going What' On At The Beaney?

News Page 2

"I don't believe people need to go on strike to achieve their aims"

I

nQuire sat down with ViceChancellor Karen Cox to discuss her policies, routines and some controversies surrounding her time in the role.

When asked what a typical day looks like as Vice-Chancellor, Professor Cox said “There's quite a bit of internal work.

I meet with other colleagues across the university, I might be meeting with students, I might be meeting with members of the governing bodies.

There's also quite a lot of external activity as well. And that could be anything from meetings with other ViceChancellors, meetings with Universities UK, which is the representative body for universities, regional meetings of universities in the region, schools and colleges, local authority, NHS Trusts, local businesses.”

KentVision has been the subject of a great deal of controversy at Kent over the past few months. InQuire asked what guided senior management’s decision to move from SDS to KentVision. According to Professor Cox, the decision wasn’t hers, but was made in 2012 when it was decided that SDS was “no longer going to be fit for purpose.” Delving into more detail into the production process of the system, Professor Cox had the following to say: “It's been a really difficult project to get implemented because of the length of time that it's taken. And over that time, people have become fed up, a bit disenchanted with it, [with] the bits not working. So yeah, I think it's one of those IT projects where it started a long time ago and cost more time and more money than anybody ever imagined.

So if you think of 2012 to April 2021.

That's a long time. And we wouldn't wish to be in that situation again. So yes, it was launched. Yes, it has caused problems. We've had a new project manager in now and I know the team are really focused on making sure that

"There are no plans for

compulsory redundancies, they would always be our last resort, but I haven't got a crystal ball." as the academic year unfolds, that we're making sure that it's functional and working. And actually, the ultimate aim is to have a joined-up system that works for staff and students, but I absolutely recognise that it's been really difficult for everybody.

“From April, it became clear that there were elements of functionality that just were not working.

That’s where we've had to get a new approach, new people and really think: we're going to have to apologise for what's happened, we're gonna have to really focus on what do we need to do right now and get a

roadmap out there, and reengage with staff over how it needs to be working?

What needs to happen? Yeah, so you know, if you were starting again, you wouldn't start from where you were in 2012. Yeah. Work-in-progress.”

Later, KentVision was brought back into the conversation. Professor Cox, while Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Nottingham University, was a project sponsor for Project Transform, a digital infrastructure undertaking that ultimately had to be apologised for by Nottingham’s Vice-Chancellor. We questioned Professor Cox on whether it was fair to draw parallels between Project Transform and KentVision.

“So, they're completely different projects.

And big IT installations across what Nottingham was, a

Photo from University of Kent

global university including China and Malaysia, was really challenging and difficult. And yes, there were issues about how that was rolled out and implemented. But there were also lots of things that were really positive about it as well. So, I think there’s more than one side to that, but – and, you know, University of Nottingham can speak for itself – it does have a functioning system that is working for it that will continue to need to be developed. But that was really challenging. And I think when I speak to people across different sectors, they all have war stories about big IT implementation. I'm not saying that makes it right. But it makes me think that actually one of the biggest challenges facing organisations is when they want to put big IT systems in, because so often, it takes longer, costs more, and it's more challenging than anybody ever imagined. And you have to be really thoughtful about the lessons learned. So yes, I was involved in that project. And yes, it was difficult. And yes, I came to Kent and it was like, oh, no, this is the same project here but with completely different scale, completely different cost. And, similar issues in terms of some of the implementation and rollout. And, again, I think individual institutions have to then say, well, in the context we were in, what do we need to do if we're ever going to do anything like this again, but really, what do we need to do now to make sure that we fix it?”

KentVision purportedly cost £4 million and was a subject of the recent UCU industrial action, where staff questioned the use of money on a system they identified as ineffective as opposed to using it for better pay for teaching staff.

In regards to senior management’s continuing negotiations with the UCU...

Continued on page 6.

Culture: PageEntertainment: 18 Pages 18-19

Turkey Shepherd's Pie: A Cosy Classic

Lifestyle: Page 15 Opinion: Page 8

Is democratic government in Hong Kong now long gone?

Sport page 24 No more novak: Lack of vaccination catches up with Djokovic

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Monday 31 January 2022 InQuire

Editorial

Meet the team

W

Committee

elcome to InQuire… again! It’s 2022, and this calendar year I’m encouraging all you passionate readers to come get involved with the best student publication around.

This academic year has been an amazing chance to prove ourselves as capable, passionate journalists who work to truly represent the students across our campuses. However, we’re a smaller team than we’d want to be.

If you’ve returned to campus after Christmas and wondered what societies to join, join InQuire! If you’re in your final year and have never written an article in your life, join InQuire!

It’s a space where you can learn so much about the university, make new friends, practice using Photoshop, attend really fun socials and discover topics you never thought you’d be interested in.

2022 marks the last few months of my time at Kent and as Editor-in-Chief, so if there’s one thing I hope to see before I go it’s greater interest in the publication and the incredible work being done. The months to come will see Kent Union elections coverage, Varsity coverage, multiple awards ceremonies for student media and loads of day-to-day opportunities to write about what you’re passionate about.

I joined InQuire pretty much exactly two years ago in the spring term of my first year, and within weeks I couldn’t imagine a life without the society. Joining a new student group halfway through the year can be daunting, but I can assure you that we’ll be here every step of the way to ensure that you get the most out of the experience as possible. At the end of the day, you might read this and then chuck the copy of InQuire you picked up into the recycling. However, if I can convince even a few of you to get involved with what I believe is the best society at Kent, it’s all worth it.

Tarini Tiwari Editor-in-Chief

editor@inquiremedia.org

Alex Charilaou Newspaper Editor

newspaper.editor@inquiremedia.org

Jake Yates-Hart Website Editor

website.editor@inquiremedia.org

Ainy Shiyam Head of Photography & Design photography@inquiremedia.org

Grace Bishop Head of Media & Events

media.events@inquiremedia.org

Johnathan Guy Head of Technology

technology@inquiremedia.org

Editorial

Tarini Tiwari, Editor-in-Chief

Nathan Collins-Cope Newspaper News Editor

newspaper.news@inquiremedia.org

K

ent Union elections are coming up, and I'd really encourage as many people as possible to get involved. What's important to say about these is that they are what you make them: don't expect change to happen if you don't work for it.

Another thing to say about Kent Union elections is that while it's true that it'll look good on your CV and give you "employable skills" (quite a cynical reason to run for an election), it's also an opportunity to properly change the way this institution works. If you are a careerist, please don't run. Kent Union needs people with ideas, drive and a bit of fight, not a CV-filler.

If you become an officer, you have much more power than you will be led to believe. You will be a leader of the student body at Kent, and you can make connections with people both inside and outside the organisation which might make your job a lot easier. Use these, and do what you can to secure more power for the students at Kent - that will be your job.

If you're worried about standing, or have any questions, speak to the team at Kent Union.

They will help you understand more about each role's commitments, and will give you the information you need to make a decision about what you want to go for.

A big however here. If you are not running, you will be equally important both during and after the election. Sabbatical officers are your elected representatives: you should be applying pressure where possible for them to do the things you want them to do, or explain where necessary why they can't. They have decided to run in the leadership election, part of their job is receiving criticism and responding to it. Things will not get done without pressure from outside. You, students, must be that. Good luck!

Gharam Al-Zubi Website News Editor

website.news@inquiremedia.org

Sam Webb Newspaper Opinion Editor

newspaper.opinion@inqiremedia.org

Dan Esson Website Opinion Editor

website.opinion@inquiremedia.org

Priya Hawes Newspaper Features Editor features@inquiremedia.org

Rashida Hassan Website Features Editor

website.features@inquiremedia.org

Grace Bishop Newspaper Lifestyle Editor

newspaper.lifestyle@inquiremedia.org

Katie Daly Website Lifestyle Editor

Alex Charilaou, Newspaper Editor

website.lifestyle@inquiremedia.org

O

h, hi again! Long time, no see! I hope everyone at the university enjoyed their well-earned winter holidays and are back feeling refreshed and ready for another gruelling term of deadlines and hangovers.

But at InQuire, we’re trying our darndest to break up the monotonous studying with some exciting events over the next few months, starting with The Big Fair on Thursday 27 January, which gives students another chance to discover more about the university’s publication and get involved in all the fun.

On 28 January, we’re hosting the first social of the term, and it’s an important one: next Friday, InQuire will be hosting a party to celebrate the release of our brand-new website, which took over six months to design. Rebooting the website was one of my most important aims in my manifesto when I applied for the role as Website Editor in 2021, and so the occasion feels momentous - it’s been nearly a year in the making.

The new website, and what InQuire hopes to bring to it, solidifies that we are a new generation of editors and writers, interested in publishing pieces that reflect our creativity just as much as our dedication to creating awareness on current events. This couldn’t have been achieved without the help and dedication of everyone at InQuire, especially our Head of Technology, Johnathan Guy, who developed the whole site - see you never, WIX! You will not be missed.

So, what’s next for InQuire, I hear you ask? Well, there’s plenty to look forward to. Kent Union elections are this term, and so is Varsity; the editorial team will be handing over their roles to a whole new generation later in the year; and, well, there’s just always a story to write.

We at InQuire are excited for what this new year will bring us, and hope that you all come along for the ride.

Ed Streatfield Newspaper Entertainment Editor newspaper.entertainment @inquiremedia.org

Elena Martyn Website Entertainment Editor website.entertainment @inquiremedia.org

Juliette Moisan Newspaper Culture Editor

newspaper.culture@inquiremedia.org

Eleanor Summers Website Culture Editor

website.culture@inquiremedia.org

Johnathan Guy Newspaper Science & Tech Editor technology@inquiremedia.org

Jamie Neil Website Science & Tech Editor science@inquiremedia.org

Samuel Leah Newspaper Sport Editor

newspaper.sport@inquiremedia.org

Omar Ahmed Website Sports Editor

website.sport@inquiremedia.org

Harvey Blazquez Newspaper Satire Editor

newspaper.satire@inquiremedia.org

Tahmid Morshed Website Satire Editor

website.satire@inquiremedia.org

Jake Yates-Hart, Website Editor Corrections

Enquiries

We will report any inaccurate information published as soon as the error is discovered. Editorial corrections, including factual errors, missing photo credits etc., will be printed on this page. For more information, contact Tarini Tiwari at editor@ inquiremedia.org

Mail and Office: Student Media Centre, Above Venue, Kent Union, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7NW Additional copies may be found online at issuu.com/inquiremediagroup or on our website: www.inquiremedia.org Please report suspicious activity at our distribution racks by emailing editor@inquiremedia.org. © MMXXI InQuire Media Group, in partnership with the Canterbury Media Group. All rights reserved.

There are no corrections for 17.6 that we are aware of.

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If this is incorrect, and/or you have spotted something, please contact us at editor@inquiremedia.org so that a correction can be issued in 17.8.

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InQuire Monday 31 January 2022

News

"Authoritarian" policing bill faces resistance in Parliament

By Nathan Collins-Cope, Newspaper News Editor

I

n the wake of the peaceful disruption caused by groups like Extinction Rebellion, Black Lives Matter and Insulate Britain, the government are attempting to clamp down on protesters. The now infamous Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill is a mammoth piece of legislation, ranging from overhauling sentencing guidelines on assault against emergency workers to extending the scope of evidence allowed when looking into sexual assaults alleged against people in positions of authority. But its most contentious parts are in relation to proposed increases in police powers - an attempt by the Conservative government to curb the effect of activism.

The bill, which passed the Conservative-dominated House of Commons in the latter part of 2021, would empower the police to dictate when protests start and finish - even in the event of them being populated by one person (with insolence resulting in fines as big as £2,500). It also uses vague language when talking about police power over protest control, saying they can intervene on “intentionally or reckless

causing a public nuisance” – wording which has been seen as many as giving forces arbitrary powers. Furthermore, it would allow the police to have sole adjudication on the routes of marches, as well as giving them the capability to entirely cancel protests if they pre-determine the action to be “too noisy”. Liberty, a prominant civil rights organisation, have called this particular section of the bill “full of dangerous proposals that strip away people’s fundamental human rights.”

Indeed, the public backlash against the legislation has been palpable, with ‘Kill The Bill’ protests going on up-and-down the country, with a portion of the population in Bristol showing their displacement with the bill in March 2021. Reports of police provoking violence in the city led to a clash between them and protestors.

Activism under the same name, but with a more cordial tone, took place in Parliament Square, London during January 2022. “Part of this bill [has a section about] noise and annoyance.

What we want to show is: being who we are is not annoying” said Marvin Newton, one of the key organisers.

“I guess the civil rights [movement] must have looked a bit annoying.

I guess the suffragettes must have looked a bit annoying. I guess fighting for the environment must be a little

bit annoying. Let’s show them what annoying looks like in the most creative and colourful way. We are non-violent!”

Newton’s action was planned to coincide with the bill’s vote in the House of Lords (17th January 2022), which saw major setback for the government. On the sections concerning police powers, Labour and Liberal Democrat peers joined forces to defeat the bill by 261-166 votes, with a large portion of the Conservative Lords abstaining from the vote. The significance of this has been highlighted since the party dominates the chamber, indicating that the Tory peers were also feeling sour towards bill.

An amendment added by the Liberal Democrats, stripping the police of their power to place conditions on protest on the grounds of noise, also passed with a majority. On a side note, the part of the bill which would make misogyny a hate crime in the England and Wales also passed.

A government spokesperson came out in defence of the protest limitations.

“This bill upholds the right to

peaceful protest, while providing the police with the necessary powers to stop disruptive protests from disproportionately infringing on the rights and freedoms of others.” This was further reinforced by former Conservative Justice Secretary, Robert Buckland, who stated that the it strikes the “right balance between freedom of expression and the right of the public to go about their daily lives. We’ve seen

too many examples where protestors have caused significant disruption to everyday life.”

The bill will now go back to the House of Commons, and likely ping-pong in between the two houses in the coming months, as the government have showed signs of their intentions to continue the fight for these more controversial parts of the bill to pass.

The story continues to unfold.

Photo by XR

Kent Secures Award-Winning Journalist for the CfJ

By Nathan Collins-Cope, Newspaper News Editor

T

he University’s Centre for Journalism has welcomed Dhruti Shah, an acclaimed author and journalist, as an Honorary Fellow. The award-winning multimedia journalist has been at the centre of authoring topical, talked-about stories nationally and beyond. She has a career spanning a number of newspapers, highlighted by her almost decade-and-a-half long tenure at the BBC. Her prolific career also led her to co-author ‘Bear Markets and Beyond’, a book which seeks to educate people on business terminology and jargon.

Under her new remit, Dhruti will be delivering a masterclass titled ‘Journalism stripped back – the art of telling a good story’ for University of Kent Journalists. She will also be

meeting with BBC graduate apprentices joining the Centre for Journalists this month, as part of training for their professional qualifications from the National Council for the Training of Journalists.

The esteemed addition to the CfJ team talked of her warm feelings for the coming work she will be doing. “I feel lucky to have been asked to come on board as the Centre is one of the best places in the UK for young journalists to train. To be affiliated with it during a new chapter in my own journalism practice is exciting. I can’t wait to meet the students and apprentices and not just talk to them about my craft but hear their stories too.”, Dhruti told the University News Centre.

The head of the Medway-based Centre for Journalism, Ian Reeves, was also excited. “Dhruti’s track record in innovative storytelling, her fascinating

work in different forms of journalism and her passion for diversifying newsrooms make her a great fit with our own aims. Staff and students at the Centre for Journalism will learn a lot from her, and we’re all very much looking forward to the collaboration.”

Dhruti is someone who expressed passion about social mobility, intending raise people from all backgrounds up into journalism.

She is a trustee of the John Schofield Trust, an organisation that, in it’s own words, helps “aspiring and early career journalists access and navigate the profession by providing world-class mentoring and training”.

In addition to her already busy schedule, Ms Shah also does work as an international Elevate scholar (with a focus on newsroom leadership) for the International News Media Association – a pressure group which

represents the interests of news media publishers to governments, regulators and any other industry bodies.

Publishers represented include the Daily Mirror, The Guardian, The Sun and Kent Messenger.

On top of this, our University’s new Fellow also lends support to the Dart Centre for Journalism and Trauma, a project of Columbia University in New York.

This organisation acts as a think tank for journalists who cover conflict, violence and tragedies globally.

From all the journalists and team at InQuire, we would like to extend a warm welcome to Dhruti Shah.

Photos from University of Kent News Room

Interested in mastering skills in diplomacy and engaging in real world issues? Kent Model United Nations are running their annual conference between 4th-6th February, where they will be holding three different committees for young people to get involved in: United Nations Refugee Committee, United Nations Women Committee & United Nations Crisis Committee. Students can sign up to be a delegate and take part for £10. The link for this as well as more information can be found on the University of Kent Politics & International Relations News Website. All are welcome.

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Monday 31 January 2022 InQuire

News

The Election Section Socialist Gabriel Boric Breaks Fifty Years of Free-Market Orthodoxy in Chile

By Alex Charilaou, Newspaper Editor

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n 19th December, Chile held the final round of what had become an increasingly acrimonious and polarised presidential election. Two candidates emerged from the first round of voting: Gabriel Boric, a former student leader who had become a household name over Chile’s various protests and strikes in the last few years, and the far-right José Antonio Kast. With the biggest turnout in Chilean history, and the largest margin of victory in a presidential election, the socialist Boric claimed an eleven-point victory over his far-right opponent. At 35, he becomes Chile’s youngest elected president.

His victory was by no means assumed, and it marks the beginning of an unexpected chapter for a country that was, until just forty years ago, a military dictatorship. The Chilean

constitution – a holdover from the committee for the new document), General Pinochet era – has been the deciding Chile’s future. Boric founded subject of a series of severe protests this alliance along with Daniel Jadue, and demonstrations in recent years, the Marxist mayor of Recoleta who leaving 36 people many assumed would become dead and tens of the Left’s presidential thousands injured candidate.

He was or detained. defeated by Boric in Pressure grew the primary on the Chilean government such that a referendum was held on whether the Chilean people wanted to draft a new constitution. 78% of the country voted Yes. In an upending of political expectations in Chile, the left alliance won over half of seats on the new Constitutional C o n v e n t i o n (the drafting Gabriel Boric: from Reuters

process.

After the Left’s victory in the Constitutional Convention elections, it was assumed Boric would win the first-round of voting. This did not happen. Perhaps due to a reactionary backlash against the progressive victory on the Constitutional Convention, as well as a latent conservatism among Chile’s elderly, José Antonio Kast – a far-right politician whose father was a member of the German Nazi Party in the early 1940s – won marginally over Boric.

Both candidates displaced the traditional parties of the centre-right and centre-left, who dropped to a distant third and fourth place. This surprise performance by Kast led to a bitterly fought campaign in the second José Kast: from Reuters r o u n d ,

which could have seen Kast become President, setting back minority rights, destroying Chile’s welfare state and ensuring the shelving of the newly founded Constitutional Convention.

Nevertheless, Boric won. He becomes Chile’s first left-wing leader since Salvador Allende, who was forced out of power by a US-backed coup in 1973, leading to almost twenty years of right-wing military dictatorship under Pinochet.

Given the circumstances of his election, as well as the continuing Covid-19 pandemic ripping through Latin America, his in-tray is full. His term in office will oversee the codification of Chile’s new constitution, as well as delivering a programme of social democratic reforms (among them a wealth tax and greater workers’ protection) through a fractious legislature and unwilling bureaucracy. If Chile is the cradle of neoliberalism, perhaps too it will be its grave.

Emmanuel Macron Besieged From All Sides In Run-Up To French Presidential Election

By Juliette Moisan & Alex Charilaou, Newspaper Culture Editor & Newspaper Editor

E

mmanuel Macron, the embattled President of France, is facing stiff opposition from all sides in the run-up to April’s tworound presidential election.

December’s opinion polls show five candidates are polling over 10%, with dozens more candidates hovering below the double-figure mark. Only two candidates can make it onto the second-round, in with a chance of becoming the next President of the Fifth Republic. Of the five candidates polling 10% or more, four are firmly on the right. Les Républicains (LR) – the party most directly connected to France’s bourgeois Gaullist tradition – is fielding the

conservative Valérie Pécresse as their presidential candidate, after a rumbunctious primary where she defeated the more radical-right Eric Ciotti. Ciotti – who believes in the antisemitic Great Replacement theory and advocates the relinquishment of citizenship for those “not willing to integrate to Franco-Christian ideals” – did not win the nomination, but his relative success in the primary will no doubt shape Pécresse’s offer come the election. It is symptomatic of the droitisation of Les Républicains (and French politics as a whole) that has taken place in recent years.

Pécresse has tacked more firmly to the right on issues from immigration to culture war issues than

previous LR candidates, including former President Nicolas Sarkozy.

She is currently one of the two mostlikely candidates to make it onto the final ballot alongside Macron, even if Macron is still the frontrunner.

If Valérie Pécresse is elected, it is rumoured that she would appoint Eric Ciotti as her Minister of the Interior (the French equivalent of Home Secretary). She has a solid team behind her, made up of the “Four

Muskeeters”, four men firmly on the right, including Ciotti and Xavier Bertrand. Many leaders of the right have gotten closer to her, and many of them believe in her ability to win the election. Frank Louvrier, Sarkozy’s former advisor, said in an interview that he believes she can win: “of the right, she is the only alternative.”

In addition to Pécresse, Macron is facing two serious challengers from the far-right. Marine Le Pen, the far-right leader of the once-fascist National Rally, made it through to the second-round in 2017, but was easily defeated by Macron with a margin of 2 to 1. Though she has occasionally polled ahead of him at points in the last few years, her momentum was halted by the announcement

of Éric Zemmour’s candidacy.

Zemmour – a far-right pundit and thought-leader who some commentators have described as the French Donald Trump – promises to “save France” from the mires of progressive ideology, the totem of which is the Parisienne liberal or communist out of touch with the rural masses...

Continued on the following page.

Flag by Rafael Garcin Emmanuel Macron:

by Ludovic MARIN Pecresse from img.20fn.com Le Pen from Reuters Melenchon by EPA Hidalgo by www. breakingnews.com

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InQuire Monday 31 January 2022

News

Have you heard? We've got a new website! Head over to inquiremedia.org to check it out. It's a great way to stay in touch with campus and Canterbury news outside of the two week cycle of the paper. Special thanks to Head of Technology Johnathan Guy, who has dedicated his free time over the past few months to ensure InQuire's online presence is polished and pristine.

Continued from page 4

name cannot be on the ballot come the election. Zemmour currently only This constituency is a generative one has about 200 signatures, and, given for Zemmour and Le Pen, to whom the how little time he has left to get the only threat to neofascist supremacy is remaining ones, he might be excluded one another. Though both candidates altogether. were polling around 15% at the end of The fifth candidate polling over 10% last year, Le Pen has reclaimed a lead at this early stage of the election this month. In the French system, campaign is Jean-Luc Mélenchon of you must get endorsements from 500 the left-wing La France Insoumise mayors (there are tens of thousands (LFI). Mélenchon was the fourthin France) to become a candidate; if placed candidate in both the 2012 y o u fail to do so, your and 2017 contests, becoming the highest-ranking left candidate in the most recent election, beating France’s traditional centre-left Socialist Party candidate by almost 15% of the vote.

His platform includes rewriting the French constitution, introducing a raft of social democratic reforms including the definancialization of France’s economy, and an ecological transition. Much of Mélenchon’s 83-point manifesto mirrors other social democratic revival projects in the UK and US in recent years. While his ideas Zemmour by Christophe Simon are fairly popular with

O

n 20 January, United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken had a meeting with ministers from Germany, France and the UK to devise a plan to deter possible Russian invasion on Ukrainian land.

Blinken took to Twitter to lay out the US stance regarding growing tension in the East, writing, ‘we stand with the Ukrainian people and remain committed to supporting Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.’

The United States alongside their European allies encouraged dialogue with Russia to de-escalate tensions.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz urged Russia to be cooperative, highlighting that Russia will suffer economic and political consequences if an invasion of Ukraine were to be attempted.

French President Emmanuel Macron

decades have left progressive parties without a stable coalition of support.

A growth in populism across the board has also led the working-class base to become allured to the far-right, while many young or metropolitan liberals have taken to Macron.

These two facts are connected through the multiplicity of left candidates is a symptom of competing strategies and confused messaging.

There are currently six declared candidates ranging from the centreleft to the far-left, not including Mélenchon. Amongst them, some are more popular than others. Anne Hidalgo – the current Mayor of Paris and candidate of the traditional centreleft Socialist Party – has slumped in the polls from 8% in October to just 3% now, but she made some strides when she supported the idea of a ‘Progressive Primary’ between left-ofcentre candidates. The aim of such an election would be to decide a single candidate to represent the left to avoid splitting the vote and having a left presence on the second-round. While a number of candidates have agreed

this could prove beneficial, some are still against the idea. Green candidate Yannick Jadot – polling at around 7% – is firmly against the primary. His absence, by Hidalgo’s own admission, would make the process pointless.

Christiane Taubira, a prominent figure from the centre- left seen by some as a great potential President, has said she would be willing to partake in the primary and would abide by its outcome, even if she still has not made her candidacy official.

It’s currently unclear who will face Macron in April, and anything could happen at this point of the campaign.

Despite his unpopularity, increasing move to the right and lax handling of the Covid-19 crisis, he is still the frontrunner. Whether a candidate to his right or his left will get through to the second round is unclear, but in either case it is certain it will mark a substantial shift of political gravity in France.

Ukraine: Rising Tension Between the West and Russia

Image from Swarajya Magazine

By Gharam Al-Zubi, Website News Editor

young people, some argue that he has been trying to get elected for too long and that he is no longer a credible candidate. Moreover, as the only widely known figurehead of LFI, he is perceived as having limited backing from other political figures or parties.

Therefore, it would be hard for him to lead a consensus. He recently commented on this himself, bringing up his worries about the election and his ability to get the last 100 mayoral signatures for his candidacy to be valid. Since the Communist Party has its own candidate – Fabien Roussel, stuck below 3% in polls at the moment – for this election, their support will not go directly to Mélenchon, dividing an already-fractious left field.

There are two reasons the Left (in a very broad sense) are doing poorly at this stage in the election.

Firstly, the deluge of candidates has split the Left vote, meaning no individual candidate can achieve a sufficient plurality, or gain the momentum needed to get their campaign off the ground. Secondly, a number of processes in the last few

also asked the European Union to devise a plan that aims to reduce the tensions between Moscow and the West, which are broadly the result of 100,000 Russian troops, tanks and heavy weapons being stationed on the Ukrainian-Russian border. Although Russia denies any sort of invasion or attack plan, the United States maintains its suspicion that Russia is planning for a pretext that would make way for an attack on Ukraine.

It all started when last month, Russian President Vladmir Putin said on a news conference that the United States deceived Russia by breaking their over 30-year promise that NATO would not expand towards the East.

Ever since this agreement was made in 1990 to the former Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, several Eastern countries joined NATO, and four of them, Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, share borders with the Russian Federation. The nation

claims that having NATO military at its borders threatens their security.

Consequently, Russia has made a series of demands from western countries which includes a promise from the NATO Ukraine would never be admitted. This demand made many people believe that the Russian presence on the Ukrainian border serves as a threat to the west of what would happen if their demands were not satisfied.

The tension between Russia and Ukraine dates back several years. In 2014, following the overthrow of the pro-Russian government in Ukraine, Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula. This annexation led to the death of 13,000 people and the displacement of two million people and with many left fearing that this invasion may reignite historical tensions.

Oleksii Reznikov, Ukraine’s Defence Minister called on western countries

to impose sanctions the Federation, saying that a Russian invasion opens up a great possibility of a refugee crisis in Europe.

There has been a worldwide response following the military build-up at the Ukrainian border. Secretary Blinken flew to Ukraine to express the United States' close ties and support with Ukraine, while the United Kingdom sent anti-tank missiles to Ukraine and urged Moscow to withdraw before any bloodshed. The United States, Turkey and Denmark have also agreed to send naval warships, anti-tank missiles and other weapons to Ukraine.

Germany on the other hand said that it will keep all sanction-related options on the table but has rejected to send a weapon delivery to Ukraine.

On 19 January, Joe Biden said that the western powers are still thinking of ways to respond to a “minor incursion” from Russia.

Biden’s remarks on the minor

incursion caused some concern from Ukraine. Ukraine’s President, Volodymyr Zelenskiy responded to President Biden’s remark by tweeting, ‘We want to remind the great powers that there are no minor incursions and small nations. Just as there are no minor casualties and little grief from the loss of loved ones,’ A day later, Biden revoked his words saying that any invasion would receive ‘severe and coordinated response, economic response as discussed in details with our allies, as laid out very clearly with President Putin,’ He also added that a Russian invasion of Ukraine is imminent.

In a recent development, the UK has begun to withdraw some staff from its embassy in Ukraine.

6

Monday 31 January 2022 InQuire

News

Continued from page 1 Professor Cox said “we present the issues as we see them, sharing our financial information, sharing where we want to make sure that people understand what is available to them in terms of their pensions, but also what constrains us in terms of that if we don't get the current pensions disputes sorted out, we're all going to have some significant increases in contributions, both employees and employers that are just unaffordable for everybody.”

In terms of the local dispute regarding redundancies, Professor Cox said “UCU have raised a dispute with us about the university not being able to commit to saying it would not ever do compulsory - well, for the next two years, 2022 and 2023 – there would be no compulsory redundancies.

We're having conversations around that. There are no plans for compulsory redundancies, they would always be our last resort, but I haven't got a crystal ball. I can't see that far into the future… And yes, we have had staff leave the university, but we've not had the compulsory redundancy situation in relation to what what they've been raising. But we've got to talk about these things and get to a position of well, what can we agree on?

And what can we share with staff? So they're the conversations we're having at the moment.”

The 2019/20 university financial statements highlighted a means of preventing a “financial squeeze” through the Kent Voluntary Severance Scheme, where “2018/19 saw 147 staff leave, with a further 166 departures agreed during 2019/20.” The statements at the time declared £10.2 million in severance expenditure, but that this would “ultimately result in a reduced staff cost base moving forward,” i.e. long-term savings through reduced salary payments.

In the same year, Professor Cox announced that she would be taking a temporary 20% cut in her salary, reducing it from £277,000 to £221,600.

InQuire followed up by asking how the management would try to minimise disruptions for students should the local or national disputes result in further industrial action. Professor Cox first said she is “disappointed that strike action is taking place” and that “I don't believe people need to go on strike to achieve their aims, because we are wanting to make sure that we talk about these things and come to, come to a resolution, but people are quite within their rights to take industrial action and strike action as part of that.

So I accept the position.”

In terms of mitigations, she highlighted “making up for the missed lectures, workshops and laboratories where we can, and then engaging in conversations with students if they're particularly affected. So they're the kind of proactive things that we would be doing. But some of them have to be reactive because we don't know who might be taking action at what time, we do know, when action would be taking place. And at this point, nothing else has been announced. But that doesn't mean to say something might not be announced in the future.”

A pressing issue for students over the past few years has been free speech at universities, and whether there are instances where it’s fair to bar someone from speaking on campus. Especially in the context of

the Higher Education Bill, InQuire sought Professor Cox’s opinion on the matter. According to her, “I don't think that we've ever said we wouldn't enable anybody to speak on campus. I think for me, free speech is really important as part of democracy.” Rather, she feels universities “have to sometimes put mitigations in place, that might be, you know, having particular approaches to an event, security for an event or ticketing for an event.” At the same time, Professor Cox stated “I think though, one has to recognise that, you know, there are a variety of views and that actually one person's view can be very challenging and difficult for another group. And you've got to be sensitive to that and clear about how you uphold that.”

Following on from this, InQuire asked if there are any instances where the Vice-Chancellor would agree with not platforming a speaker. She responded that her default position would be “looking to make sure that we could support speakers or invites to speakers” but that if during the event someone was actually moving “out of the law then we would have to call a halt to that. But I wouldn't have as a starting point that we would automatically no platform, certain people, certain groups, but again, I think these things always have to be looked at on a case by case basis.”

In the summer of 2020, the University of Kent held a talk titled “My Campus Is Racist” as the Black Lives Matter movement gained prominence in the UK. Professor Cox was asked what they and senior management are doing in order to improve racial equality and support of students of minority backgrounds at Kent.

“It's been really important hasn't it, the issues that have been raised over the last sort of year or so particularly with the publicity that I think was quite rightly shone on the issues raised by the murder of George Floyd. And I think that caused a lot of people, organisations to take a step back and say, what are we doing in this space?

So I think the university is taking that really seriously. I wouldn't sit here and profess that we've got it all right, or we're doing all the right things, but we have embarked on a journey of really trying to, first of all understand where students and staff are coming from, made a commitment to and signed up to the Race Equality Charter, which sets out a set of activities and actions that universities can take to address race and equality, whether that's in the way that we deliver our education, or the way that working practices

unfold. And we've also launched our antiracism strategy, working with staff and students and external support to bring that about and recognising we don't have all the expertise and the answers, as well as drawing on expertise and experiences internally and externally.

So we've got those two frameworks for us to kind of both have the public commitment. But now we've actually got to make sure that we carry that through. My senior team heads up the equality, diversity and inclusion work that we do in this space. We've got staff network and student networks and forums that are also working their way through it as well. But it's not about what we say it's about what racially minoritized staff and students say about what it's like to be here. And I think that's one of the most powerful things that we can do is actually listen and then learn and then do things differently.”

In Autumn of 2020, students in the Afro-Diaporic Legal Network made claims to InQuire that the “institution and student union immediately wanted to have private meetings” in regards to supporting the ADLN’s call to action.

They alleged that “the statement of solidarity that [the university] pushed out that black students were very much critical about… 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.” It’s worth noting that these claims were not substantiated at the time, and there have not been updates to these allegations in the year that’s followed.

Professor Cox said it was “quite right” that “people are marching and protesting about” women’s safety in town and on campus. “I think in Canterbury, one of the things is that the city is relatively small, so we can work together across both universities, across other colleges, with the police, but also with the nighttime economy as well. There's things that we've been doing around looking at Campus Security, and also about promoting how to report incidents and issues and putting in better support and advice as well in our student support teams.

But we're always happy to

Reclaim These Streets protestors in Canterbury. Photo by Tom Shytermeja.

engage with students around what they think will make things better.”

A question for a lot of students is what has led to Kent’s slip in the league tables in recent years. According to Professor Cox, “It's a very difficult thing to think about: how can we change our position in the tables by looking at the data, so you need to understand them.

But we also recognise that it's actually some of the underlying fundamentals that we've got to get right. So, Kent has slipped down the league tables because we've not necessarily always been addressing what students are wanting. So, our NSS scores have been challenged. And we've got to look at that. But interestingly, that's one of the things that's meant we've gone back up in The Guardian league tables, because of the work that's gone on in really challenging circumstances. So, our students were giving us feedback that – even though it had been difficult through COVID – they had very much welcomed the support provided by their tutors, lecturers and support staff.

We're really pleased with that.”

In the academic year 2020/21, students were charged the full tuition fee amount. InQuire wanted to know whether Professor Cox felt students had received between £9,250 and £19,000 across education, use of facilities and student experience. “I think that we have to recognise that for some the move to online was really challenging. But, we sought to maintain quality and standards of education, and access to support. I recognise you can't do all the sports and societies online or that, you know, where you can do things, it's different. But I do believe that we focused on standards, quality, and trying to maintain all of that in an environment where, you know, the fees are really challenging. But I have to say, I've been impressed with, with the way that actually universities responded to a situation that initially seemed really difficult. How are we going to manage this? How are we going to continue to deliver our teaching and courses, making sure students can graduate, they don't have to put their lives on hold? How are we going to support students not face to face? How are we going to ensure their mental health is looked after? They get the support and advice for careers that they still want? And, and the creativity with which people engage with that. And I recognise everybody's had to make sacrifices because it isn't what people expected. But it's great we're back face to face now. It's so nice.”

InQuire wanted to know what Professor Cox made of calls to further democratise University of Kent, and the demand to give students greater power over the decisions made at the University. “I'd like to understand a little bit more about what that means,” she started, “I mean, I have no problem at all with people raising issues wanting to be involved. Students sit on the university's governing body, so they have a role and a voice and represent students there and as part of decision-making.”

InQuire clarified that one of the one of the more concrete calls of subsections is, for instance, more students on the University Council.

“Right. So there are already three students on the University Council, as well as four elected members of staff. There are also three members of the executive and what we refer to as lay members who are not staff or

students, and they are in the majority.

And that give the governance elements to those people who don't have a vested interest in either being a member of staff or student in the organisation.

They are part of the overall governance and decision making. So, if we were to have more elected members, whether that was staff or students, we'd have to start to look at the balance, and then you get a really big group. It's already 25+. And then it gets quite challenging in terms of, you know, being able to engage in discussion, debate and decision-making. So, there is a balance to be struck between size, representation, and good governance.

And I think that the governance reviews that we've had, which are external, would suggest that it's effective – it does need to constantly be kept under review, of course. But that element of having lay members in the majority is a feature of good governance, right across society. It's a feature of the way that you get that ability to have a bit of distance between the institution and who you're serving.”

For the sake of clarity, InQuire asked whether the Vice-Chancellor would or would not support greater democracy on boards like the University Council.

“I support democracy! I think you asked about elected positions. I mean, we can have more elected students, but then we would have to adjust on the other side. So, I think I'm not saying I do or don't support anything, because I haven't had an argument or a case presented. And it wouldn't necessarily be presented to me as Vice Chancellor. So, I think it would be really interesting to think not about governance elements, but about what democracy looks like, and what are the responsibilities that come with that? How do students get engaged directly in what's happening to them, and how it's happening? And how can universities like us facilitate that?”

To conclude, InQuire asked what Professor Cox would consider to be her greatest personal achievement so far as Vice-Chancellor. “So, there are two things. One is the personal journey that I've been on as ViceChancellor, because it's a huge privilege to work in an organisation that you're only going to be steward of for a short period of time. So, it’s a huge privilege, and I think one of the things that's been really interesting for me is that you learn a lot about yourself, what motivates you but also how to be incredibly positive and resilient because these jobs come at a cost. You also have to enjoy it, and you have to believe in the institution. So that's been a huge learning curve for me. Another thing I'm proud of is the launch of the medical school. I'm really proud of the way that we've done that for the region for the people of Kent and Medway, and worked with our colleagues at Canterbury Christ Church to make that happen, but with our NHS partners as well. I'm really proud of the way we went through COVID and the way that staff and students responded to that. I think they're probably the things that I was proud of and the things that we wanted and you don't achieve these things on your own. But they're the things that I'll I've looked back on so far and think I'm really proud of the way that we delivered that.”

Thanks from all the InQuire team to Professor Cox for taking the time to speak to us.

7

InQuire Monday 31 January 2022

Opinion

Starmer’s Shadow Cabinet reshuffle indicates that Labour may no longer be the party for the many

By Alex Charilaou, Newspaper Editor

W

ho in the shadow cabinet can you name? It’s not as if its particularly powerful: by definition, they’ve not won power. The real importance of the shadow cabinet in Britain is as a limit to what is politically possible. Where the politics of Corbyn’s shadow cabinet shifted the public dial on a number of economic and social issues, Keir Starmer has completed the process he began eighteen months ago of foreclosing the possibility of radical change in Britain.

Those benefitting from his reshuffle are right-wing ghouls: shallow pools of vacuity libidinally attached to a politics of cruelty. In a botched reshuffle early this year, Starmer had already managed to replace the soft-left Anneliese Dodds (inoffensive, but broadly unskilled politically) with Rachel Reeves, an exbanker who had boasted as Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary in 2013 that Labour would be ‘ t o u g h e r than the Tories

on benefits’. An investigation by the University of York has shown that Conservative welfare cuts led to 45,000 preventable deaths between 2012-2014 alone. Tougher than

that? Bafflingly, she wasn’t the worst of Starmer’s appointees.

Yvette Cooper, the new Shadow Home Secretary, was responsible as Gordon Brown’s Work and Pensions Secretary for an abhorrent and humiliating system of means testing that wrongly found thousands of sick people fit to work.

Her oversight of the department led directly to the ultimately lethal series of cuts under Conservative ministries.

As Shadow Home Secretary under Ed Miliband, she routinely tacked to the right of (then Home Secretary) Theresa May on immigration, pressuring the government to reduce benefits for foreign workers and using racist dogwhistles about immigration under New Labour being ‘too fast’. It is a completely retrograde step to reappoint her as Shadow Home Secretary, even despite the fact her predecessor was completely ineffective and lacked public cut-through (Nick ThomasSymonds is now Shadow Trade Secretary. Nobody is quite sure why). The only relief of considering Cooper a potential replacement for Priti Patel is… well… it’s Priti Patel.

Not quite la barre infranchissable.

Lisa Nandy, infamous for her love for towns, has been demoted from Shadow Foreign Secretary (replaced by David Lammy) to shadowing Michael Gove as Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Secretary.

This one kind of makes sense, though it’s kind of puzzling she wasn’t out

of the brief sooner: in her Chatham House speech in April, she quoted avowed-Trotskyite CLR James seconds before Sinophobically suggesting the UK ought to crack down on ‘the rise of China’, an indistinct threat outlined by the US State Department and a nervous global billionaire class.

David Lammy will be worse, though.

At the end of December, he apologised for nominating Jeremy Corbyn in the 2015 leadership election, claiming that he oversaw a toxic, antisemiticenabling culture in the party. In 2018, at the height of

Photo by Rwendland/Wikimedia Commons

Labour’s antisemitism crisis, Lammy was tweeting about Corbyn as a ‘mate’ and even in early 2020 introduced Corbyn’s final speech as leader with ‘I can’t wait for every single sentence’.

He rakes in thousands of pounds a year from companies like Deloitte and Facebook for ‘training’, all while making out to be a progressive warrior of the people. The moment that his appointment collides with reality will b e a disaster for the

Labour Party– the electorate broadly despises the chummy-corporatism and woke superficiality he represents.

For the sake of completion, some of the other reshuffle beneficiaries: Wes Streeting (Blairite former NUS President) becomes Shadow Health Secretary, and immediately sets about reassuring those in power that ‘Labour would use private providers to cut NHS waiting lists’, further savaging what little public provision we have in Britain. Ed Miliband – at this point the most left-wing member of the shadow cabinet– was demoted from Shadow Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to a new climate-specific role, presumably because he defied Starmer’s anti-nationalisation stance in mid2021. He was replaced by the right-wing ‘moderate’ Jonathan Reynolds. Louise Haigh, former City of London private insurance Public Policy Manager, is the new Shadow Transport Secretary.

In an article for the Yorkshire Post on Labour’s new approach to rail, she did not mention public ownership at all– it has been quietly dropped.

Starmer’s new ‘streamlined’ shadow cabinet will eventually become a sad little footnote in British politics. As soon as the media move on from Partygate, as cats move on from balls of string, the cloud will lift, and the Tories will once again become election winners.

Starmer’s shadow cabinet– completely empty of ambition, imagination or charisma– will come to symptomize a particularly sorry era: a return to contrite, milquetoast 90s triangulation.

The ‘red team’, almost as much as the people actually in power, have no answers to the pressing problems of the 2020s: the sooner Labour rediscovers its soul, the better.

Photo by Remy Steineggar/World Economic Forum

Tony Blair’s knighthood: taking the rough with the smooth

By Nathan Collins-Cope, Newspaper News Editor

I

know what you’re thinking. "That war criminal – that man got a knighthood?" One of the highest honours the British state can bestow on someone, and they chose to give it to George Bush’s warmongering lapdog.

As that is what he is most remembered for, isn’t it. Iraq. But he wasn’t always such a divisive and infamous individual.

He was once the charismatic, fresh face of a new form of socialism. One which projected himself as honouring Labour’s historic pursuit of championing workers rights, while attempting to cast away the bad taste that the pre-Thatcher Labour party had left in the mouth of the British people. The last time they had been in power, strong unions had brought the country to near paralysis, with the government being coy in their actions to resolve these issues.

With his historic landslide victory in 1997, Blair was quickly to prove his stuff.

He secured peace in Northern Ireland by playing a key role in the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, ending decades of

bloody conflict on the streets across the British Isles. This achievement cannot be understated, as this conflict had taken a massive toll on the lives of people in Northern Ireland, the Republic and indeed the rest of the UK, stocking racial tensions with every attack. Blair’s dovish side shines through in this instance– a side which understandably easily forgotten, given it seems to be buried in later years. However, he was also not afraid to take more hard-line approach if needed to resolve conflicts, seen as part of NATOs intervention in the 1999 Kosovo War. After Kosovar and Albanian Muslim identities were suppressed by the Yugoslav state from 1989, who prioritised Serbian and Christian values, an ethnic conflict erupted, with the Kosovo Liberation Army seeking to establish Kosovo as its own independent state. Blair was instrumental in persuading the NATO leaders into getting involved, helping bring this concentrated conflict to an end, and bringing freedom to Kosovo.

This included ordering 50,000 British soldiers to be made available for a ground offensive, most of the available

army.

Although these early victories, along with his intervention during the Sierra Leone Civil War are without a doubt his crowning achievements in office; it may have unfortunately inflated Blair’s moral hubris, especially surrounding foreign policy. It emboldened him to come to resolve issues independently from his cabinet, concentrating decision-making, and therefore any blame, towards himself. They also strengthen Blair’s relationship with the USA, which could be what led to his almost blind support in their misguided campaign to remove fictional weapons of mass destruction from Saddam Hussein’s hands, despite the invasion not being permitted by the UN Security Council. It gave him a taste of glory on the world stage, by riding the coat tails of the American international policy– which resulted in the eventual destabilisation of the Middle-East.

His inflated ego was indeed noted by those who worked closely with him. Richard Wilson, the UK’s highest ranking civil servant from 1998 to 2002 described Blair as ‘always exploring who he was and about how far he could push

the boundaries of his own achievement.

And I think that was privately, inwardly the centre of his own ambition’. ‘[Margaret] Thatcher knew she was a remarkable figure, but she didn’t dwell on it too much. There was a much bigger element of ego in Blair’.

Blair’s dovish tendencies was not the only thing he abandoned as he settled into his role. He and then chancellor Gordon Brown stepped away from Labour’s traditional socialist allegiances in favour of city fat cats. They further entrenched Thatcherite, neoliberal economic policies, and removed government oversight for the money men. Blair later admitted that his government had no idea what they were doing in this regard, which speaks a lot to his arrogance in this area.

It is unfair, however, to say that Blair abandoned the Labour base. He raised taxes of the wealthiest, introduced a national minimum wage as well as employment rights and brought about constitutional reform in the House of Lords, scrapping the outdated hereditary peers controlling the chamber. It is true that these changes

did not go far enough in the battle for great equality and representation, but they did help to blur the lines between formally distinct classes, and could have marked the beginning for more radical change. They are definitely better than his bright idea of bringing in tuition fees.

Only originally at £1000 per year– but this act meant it was easy for the Tories to later justify the ridiculous price hikes that students are paying today.

Does he deserve the knighthood then?

It would be unfair to cast him out into the cold completely. His obsession with his legacy did bring amount to a good deal of positive change. Nonetheless, if anyone deserves an outdated, colonial honour, I suppose it is him. The unbridled audacity of his interventionism reeks of neo-imperialism, and the world is still seeing the fallout of it today. The boom-and-bust nature of our economy he set out to fix has been reinforced by his actions in government. Ultimately these long-term evils tip the balance enough to make his incremental change seem almost like token gestures of any government with an ounce of good will.

The views expressed in each article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of InQuire Media. To publish a response, contact newspaper.opinion@inquiremedia.org

8

Monday 31 January 2022 InQuire

Opinion

Covid-19 hasn’t decimated the working classes: the elites have

By Sven Stears, Opinion Writer

T

here can be no greater proof that the world hates the working class than the last 2 years. When the pandemic first struck, I’d just been freshly promoted into a new job, heading up direct sales for a very small company based in Bristol. It wasn’t a well-paying job, though seeing as it was my first job of any serious responsibility since getting sober, I was glad for it. It’s not the most blue-collar of positions, but it wasn’t many months previous that I was cold-calling for the same company on a zero-hours minimum wage contract. For a time, I was happy with the progress.

For a time.

We sat in our office, casting an eye over the news. It was the second time in my life I knew exactly where I was when the rolling broadcasts started. For 9/11, a TV was wheeled into my classroom, this time we could all access the news through our phones. Our leader, with all the glory of a defenestrated hamster, took to his little podium, puffy cheeks inflated with a dither of bad news. The government was finally implementing

measures to secure the health of the nation: ‘work from home if you can’.

My entire office was flat packed into cars, transported and set up in the homes of its employees in less than 24 hours. I have never seen a group of C-Suite execs keener to get their hands dirty. Both of our managing partners were seen doing heavy lifting, carrying computers from their capitalist alters, making sure the work could continue. Blood for the blood god. Never in the history of our company was anyone allowed to work from home. It would never cross the minds of senior management to let anyone be removed from the all-seeing eye of activity monitoring supervisors.

My computer - a potato with a monitor - was included in this flurry of surprise home-working-mobilisation. It put me in a strange position. I had to approach my live-in landlord and ask to set up an office in the shared space of the flat we cohabited. A space I paid to use. Initially he refused.

I remember being taken aback by this – in the same conversation he told me that I wasn’t allowed to fall back on rent, even during a pandemic. I had to argue my case to have a PC in the living roomon the desk opposite his own computer.

Initially I was told I would have to put it in my room. My tiny, bed only, box room. Which he had taken the desk out of. He relented eventually, and my home office was set up, but the irony of being expected to earn money without having the work that went into it facilitated fairly has stuck with me.

Over the course of lockdown, it became apparent that direct sales to organisations scrambling to stay afloat themselves was a fruitless task.

Communication chains were broken, personal numbers unavailable, spending priorities shifted. Forming relationships with new businesses was just too risky. I fed this back to the business owners, and after several months requested furlough. I told them at this point I was only costing them money, and the idea of any success in the current environment was a rapidly fading pipedream. This was of course denied, and I was told how paramount I was to the company. I just needed to try harder. A few months later still, and I received a very unhappy call from my direct superior telling me just how unhappy they were. They accused me of slacking- and demanded that I evidence my working. Which I did. Evidence that

did not put any more money across the till, but just backed up my earlier point about how dead the sector was.

I had been dejected at work for a while, and had already been accepted onto a Master's course. I had decided that I would go back to university and make some personal changes. I’m not one to sit idle, and work was clearly going nowhere. My boss had heard about this through the grapevine and berated me for ‘abandoning ship in a moment of crisis’. I was made redundant, and they didn't speak to me at all over the course of working my notice. I now find myself moving forward with my studies, and working as a chef to support myself (and my savings). It’s been almost a decade since I last worked in licensed trade, and little has changed.

We serve customers who would rather you didn’t exist, so long as you disintegrated into the floor after they have been served. Customers who don’t cover their faces. Who pull you in to speak inches from your face. Who vomit in the corner and don’t warn anyone.

Who shout at you for being cautious.

Who start fights for being refused entry.

But the wine must flow. The party must be had. Your ailing mother’s health can

go fuck itself.

There is a litany of examples of how few shits are given for the global workforce. We are merely the sacrificial lamb so that money can change columns in a spreadsheet we never get to see. The attitude of every single boss, landlord, or consumer has consistently been ‘I don’t care about your struggle, so long as I get my money's worth’. Rent must be paid. Goods must be exchanged. The customer is always right. I’ll tell you this now, for free. The customer is always an arsehole.

We exist as tiny nameless parts in a large unflinching machine that no-one is steering. The only constant in the world, same as it has always been, is the ineptitude of the ruling classes. A blistering incompetence matched only by the ignorant cruelty. If you’re reading this- and I mean actually reading itletting the weight of it sink in, with the immense pressure of 150,000 deaths forcing down upon you, please, learn one thing. There is enough money to go around. Kindness is a resource we seem to be lacking. Find a way of mining that, and you might just change the world.

Is the option of democratic government in Hong Kong now long gone?

By Hyunseok Ryu, Opinion Writer

H

ong Kong held its elections to the Legislative Council (LegCo) in December, the legislature responsible for making and amending laws in the city. The election has been labelled a sham by many, as Carrie Lam – the Chief Executive of Hong Kong – used Covid as an excuse to delay the election. This gave Beijing time to further encroach itself into Hong Kong’s political affairs, cracking down on prodemocracy groups, and passing the National Security Law which effectively removed the distinction between Hong Kong and China, ending the ‘one party, two systems’ principle. Meanwhile, pro-democracy individuals and groups were persecuted, and candidates who expressed any anti-Beijing sentiment were disqualified from running for office, many also being arrested.

Whether it was rising stars like Joshua Wong and Agnes Chow, or the prodemocracy newspapers Apple Daily or Stand News, nobody was safe as Beijing eliminated its opposition. In 2019, protests were also met with violence by the police and in one case, a group of suspected gangsters attacked citizens returning from a peaceful protest. The police were late to arrive on the scene, failing to provide significant protection, leading to further criticism of Chinese rule. These cases are nowhere near exhaustive, and Beijing’s oppression will undoubtedly find further victims.

The LegCo election had the lowest turnout in Hong Kong’s history. Voters have become jaded and disinterested,

with any liberatory fervour in opposition to Beijing increasingly neutered and subordinate. Though some segments of democratic activism survive, the antiauthoritarian movement in Hong Kong is defeated. Pro-democracy voices are in an extremely tough situation. They can’t run for elected office unless approved by China, and anyone with fierce opposition to the regime must be extra cautious not to attend pro-Beijing shops or eateries, in order to minimise indirect support for the Chinese government.

In spite of this, support for prodemocratic movements remains a divisive issue both in Hong Kong and globally. After all, Hong Kong does officially belong to China, and there are a host of arguments which support Chinese rule based on ethnic and economic grounds. But to this, I only highlight the sheer level of oppression and brutality utilised by Beijing in order to keep control over the island.

The majority of Hong Kong residents support the pro-democracy movement, whether through radical reform or a cautious reduction of Beijing’s control.

In 2019, with a 71% turnout, a landslide victory was achieved by pro-democratic parties as they won

Photo by Dimitry B/Flickr 388 of 452 seats with a combined vote share of 57%. However, this lack of support for China has only led to more authoritarian efforts by the CCP. Beijing’s actions have started to become costly for both Hong Kong and China’s economy. Many firms choose to be run from Hong Kong not just for its low tax rates and commitment to freedom of business, but also because they could connect to China’s markets while maintaining a western approach to the free market. Hong Kong was used as a hub to connect both Western and Chinese trade with the rest of Asia, but this relationship is eroding.

Companies are instead moving to Singapore as the risks of operating are much lower, and the liberties previously guarenteed in Hong Kong are disappearing. However, the greatest tragedy in this is how unidentifiable Hong Kong has become for its citizens, marking the personal dissociation caused by Beijing’s tightening grip, especially for younger citizens.

The transformation of Hong Kong goes beyond political changes, and it’s a fundamental deconstruction of the identity, values, and lifestyle of Hong Kongers.

An Orwellian regime seems to be underway in the city: scanning Photo by Etan Liam/Flickr a QR code means the

government is probably tracking you; at universities, there are patrols by guards and increased police monitoring while student groups are being shut down.

Parents are forced to see their children develop under a course of indoctrination laid out by the CCP. Beyond this, the future of the young is also being undermined. Not only is the Hong Kong they know being attacked, but their prospects are also becoming increasingly strained. If they wish to have similar freedoms, they’ll need to relocate to countries like the UK or accept reduced liberty under the Chinese regime. As journalist and activist Claudia Mo said, ‘it’s their future, it’s their Hong Kong, they have every right to fight [for] it’. Instead, their future is being stolen. When Hong Kongers flooded out onto the streets, prepared to support pro-democratic politicians, and stood in solidarity with those rejecting Beijing’s encroachment, they showed their refusal to give in to Beijing’s manipulation of identity and nationalism. Fighting for the future their children deserve, they seek to reinstate the political and cultural freedoms that have made Hong Kong successful and retain their unique identity.

We saw history being made, the end of the ‘one country, two systems’ principle, and one of the greatest battles for the soul of the city. Hong Kong may have fallen against the sheer strength of Beijing, but history will remember the courage of Hong Kongers’ fight against tyranny in order to keep their identity.

No matter how futile or bleak it may seem, Hong Kong’s valiance endures.

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InQuire Monday 31 January 2022

By Alice Stone, Opinion Writer

T

he metaverse is a new concept shaping our image of the future.

Facebook’s announcement of their beta version being introduced in 2021 signified a new exciting meta era for the internet. Or, if you’re plagued by cynicism as many of us are, the beginning of a dystopian future further ruled by the digital world.

Explaining the metaverse can be difficult because, to some extent, it already kind of exists. Every social media, online game and even your email has an ‘avatar’ that you only inhabit whilst online. MMOs (massive multiplayer online games) such as World of Warcraft, Fortnite and Minecraft already offer alternative reality sandboxes to exist within.

However, advocates of the metaverse suggest we take it even further, engaging in social events such as concerts, parties and even grocery shopping through augmented reality.

It implies that ‘real life’ should be lived online, even though that is already largely how we live. Whilst this could present a dystopian reliance on technology to live, for others who are physically disabled or find it harder to get out due to issues such as mental health, it would make it easier for them to experience events they may otherwise have trouble attending.

Upon hearing Mark Zuckerberg talk about the metaverse, you could assume that it is the inevitable next step of humanity: the headlining words on the Meta introduction website reading ‘Connection is evolving and so are we’. It shows their stance very clearly, implying it as being some next evolutionary stage that we are reaching.

But this is a confident position for a company whose demonstrations so far have indicated it as a mere pipe dream rather than an achievable reality. Most VR headsets remain clunky, and the holographic avatars shown engaging in demo videos still seem unachievable with current technology.

Facebook (now Meta) and other companies are still researching smart glasses, which allow you to interact with the world around you. When you remember how harshly Google Glass was ridiculed back in 2013, it makes you wonder; what's so different this time?

The idea of our lives being lived online through the metaverse is a concept many, especially older generations, find inherently dystopian.

In terms of the future of politics, this rings especially true. If augmented realities become further widespread in daily society, it may become easier to manipulate a reality to tell your version of the truth. Nowadays, the internet accounts for an essential proportion of political campaigns as we live a large part of our lives online.

To many, the internet is their modern gospel, and our complete acceptance of it presents its own scary shift into dystopia. People believe things they read online, served up to them on a perfectly constructed algorithm, often without analysing the source of where that information has come from.

Politicians hold Twitter, Instagram and Facebook accounts, platforms with billions of users, where they can directly engage with their supporters and influence their opinions in a way that they have never been able to before. The idea of the metaverse coinciding with this huge control that social media and the internet already have on shaping political opinions is truly terrifying. Politics and technology are tied together, they both feed into and influence each other. And for a successful campaign, an online presence is essential.

But the fact that corporations such as Meta own these platforms, often dictating what they allow to be hosted, presents a further problematic influence that they could have over our political climate. An incorporation of what the metaverse offers in the future suggests an era where a political campaign could, potentially, be entirely carried out online, meaning these corporations would have even greater influence on how we engage with parties and leaders. It suggests that strange, parasocial relationships we form with public figures and politicians online could become even more intense.

The metaverse may allow us to socially become closer whilst remaining physically distant which, especially in a pandemic, is an attractive idea. Although, it is hard not to think that it could only make it harder to distinguish between the real and augmented worlds. It could forever taint our view on reality, which may in turn further corrupt the political landscape. We seem to be entering an era where the distant warning to ‘not to believe everything you read on the internet’ seems scarily far away, where our lives online could end up mattering more than those in real life.

Photo by Timothy Moenk/Flickr

The metaverse: a note of caution

Opinion

Will Russia invade Ukraine?

Photo by EPA

By Kat von Behr, Opinion Writer

of security support for Ukraine, the first shipment of which has already ill the frozen conflict heat up arrived, so while they remain uncertain again? Months after the initial about further increasing theirmilitary movement of Russian troops obligations, they have demonstrated near the border with Ukraine, there is a certain “commitment to Ukraine's still no definitive answer. sovereign right to self-defense".

Talks between US and Russian officials What is clear is Russia’s capacity to have continued this week as fears over start a military operation. While the a Russian invasion of Ukraine continue consensus is that they would need more to spread. Yet, a breakthrough does not troops than presently deployed to take seem any closer – and we should not and hold territory in a total land invasion, expect one anytime soon. President Russian forces have surrounded Ukraine Putin’s representatives are standing on three sides. Such a full-scale invasion by his demand for a hard guarantee could see Russia seizing two-thirds of that Ukraine never be allowed to join Ukraine. Not to mention, Russia could NATO. The US has continued to reject still achieve a fair few of its potential this proposal, with US Deputy Secretary military goals without a full attack. of State Wendy Sherman adding that Following Friday’s talks between the they “will not allow US and Russia, the anyone to slam impression seems closed NATO’s to be that some open-door policy”. of the tension has So, where does been relieved, Ukraine, pushed to creating some the sidelines during breathing room for these negotiations, further discussion. stand?

Despite this, The ongoing war Russia has in the Donbas region c o n t i n u e d of Ukraine has been to escalate in at a stalemate for the situation some time. Still, the in Ukraine, recent escalation of propped up by fighting (provoked disingenuous by the use of the insistenceing that Ukrainian military’s their military Turkish-made movements poses Bayraktar TB2 UAV UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace meets his Ukrainian counterpart. Photo by EPA. no threat to the against military formerly Soviet units from the selfcountry. declared Donetsk People’s Republic) that Russia will face huge sanctions The military build-up could be a and Russian military build-up at the should they try to invade. But that is not to misdirection, a last-ditch attempt to border have led to concerns that Russian say that President Biden’s administration push through Putin’s NATO demands, forces will intervene to “defend Russian is planning to help bring Ukraine into but given the Russian President’s lack citizens” in Ukraine. the alliance: they are unconvinced about of transparency, an invasion of Ukraine While they have been careful not to expanding US military commitments would be neither surprising nor difficult. threaten invasion overtly, the Russian and, more importantly, are afraid of As the US and Russia continue their government has suggested that any the consequences of greater Russian fruitless negotiations, Ukraine has further escalation could lead to severe hostility. certainly been left in the lurch, used as consequences for Ukraine – making the Experts cannot agree on what this a pawn in the foreign relations of great most of this implication to try once again means for Ukraine. The US claims to have powers, while suffering the corruption to prevent NATO encroachment into information that Russia is attempting to of its own public officials. The US and what they perceive as Russia’s rightful conduct a false-flag operation to create a the rest of the NATO member states sphere of influence . Russia’s deputy pretext for an invasion. At the same time, need to agree on their priorities and deal foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, went if Putin were to order military action, he with the consequences. Either decide to as far as to say “the security of the whole would almost guarantee international appropriately help a country considered European continent” would be in danger intervention, effectively undoing his the poorest in Europe, or yield to Russia should Russia’s demands on NATO attempts to stop NATO from expanding out of fear of a 21st century Cold War. not be met. Ultimately, President Putin eastwards. The US has already approved opposition to the worst parts of the ‘new wants a return to 1990s levels of NATO an additional $200m dollars worth normal’ an uphill battle.

W

military presence, and what better way to win a freer hand in Eastern Europe than by deploying 100,0­00 troops to sites close to the Ukrainian border. Putin’s true motives will most likely remain unclear until it is too late, but the acceptance of Ukraine into NATO would mark an unquestionably complete rejection of the former USSR, a power that the President and many nationalistic Russians have much nostalgia for. ‘Losing’ Ukraine to the West could mean an admittance of Russia’s waning influence in former Soviet states.

Considering the US has repeatedly asserted that it will not let Moscow prevent Ukraine from associating with NATO, it seems highly unlikely that they will concede. And they have made clear

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Monday 31 January 2022 InQuire

Science and Technology

James Webb space telescope: could it discover alien life within the next five years?

By Geraud Sansom, PhD, Science Writer

C

heers rang out at mission control as the primary mirror of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) folded into place on the 8th of January 2022. After a successful launch on Christmas Eve 2021 from French Guiana above an Ariane V rocket, this marked the final major milestone in the deployment of the world’s most expensive (~$10 billion US dollars) space telescope ever produced.

The JWST is an engineering marvel, with a 6.5 metre primary mirror of consisting of 18 hexagonal mirror segments made of gold-plated beryllium. The telescope will orbit the Sun and Earth in the L2 Lagrange point approximately 1.5 million km away from Earth. In this position the light given off from the Sun, Earth and Moon can be kept in a single direction, which can be blocked by the telescope’s impressive tennis court sized sunshield.

Each of the 5 layers of the sunshield is the thickness of a human hair keeping the shielded ‘cold’ side of the telescope below 50 Kelvin (−223 °C) whilst the Sun facing ‘hot’ side is ~300 Kelvin (27 °C). The extremely low temperatures of the telescope allow JWST to see the universe beyond what its predecessor Hubble could see in mostly visible light.

The JWST will instead primarily focus its observations on the near infrared and mid infrared

wavelengths. The telescope is currently cooling down on its journey to its final orbit and calibrating its mirrors expected to take 6 months to come into full operations.

The JWST will be capable of studying the atmospheres of nearby exoplanets in a never seen before manner.

The JWST will watch as the exoplanets transit their host stars and block the starlight whilst passing in front of them. Light of the parent star that shines through the exoplanet’s atmosphere can then be analysed by the JWST to determine its chemical makeup and look for biosignatures in the atmosphere. Possible detections could include detection of oxygen and methane together, indicating a thermochemical disequilibrium generated by life or other byproducts of life such as dimethyl sulphide or

phosphine.

If we are destined to discover signs of alien life within the next 5 years, the JWST is our most likely method. The most exciting planetary target

Photo by Ball Aerospace/NASA will be Trappist 1, a transiting planetary system about 40 lightyears away comprised of 7 Earthsized worlds orbiting a single red dwarf star with 3

orbiting within the habitable zone for life, regions where a planet could harbour liquid water on its surface.

As the universe has been expanding for nearly 14 billion years, the light from the earliest galaxies has been stretched from the visible range to the infrared as it has travelled across the universe being invisible to us till now.

The JWST will be able to image and study the earliest moments of the universe and the earliest galaxies and stars to inhabit it, giving us a clearer picture of how the current universe formed.

Amongst some of JWST’s other exciting observations include the study of stellar astrophysics, trans-Neptunian objects, interstellar objects passing through our solar system, imaging our galaxies black hole and the birth of stars.

The JWST is designed to have a mission lifetime of at least 5.5 years so it will be very exciting to see what discoveries it unlocks about the origins of the universe and our place within it.

Kent Uni chemistry group publishes in renowned science education journal

By Holly McPhillips, Science Correspondent

I

ce continues to be a simulating area of research.

The motivation of which is its abundance in our Solar System and beyond, yet it is the frozen solid state of water – simply composed of two elements hydrogen and water - which is essential to life on Earth. Consequently, the existence of different ice states spans a wide range of conditions, which allow for a very complex phase diagram to be mapped, see figure. Incredibly, twenty crystalline and amorphous forms of ice are reported to exist, with the most recent p h a s e , Ice XIX, published in Nature Communications earlier this year. Ice as we know it on Earth adopts a crystalline hexagonal phase, Ih. To access other phases, all of which can be differentiated by their crystallinity, density and proton (hydrogen ion) ordering, requires higher pressures and varying temperatures beyond our environment. For example, metastable cubic ice, Ic, forms between extremely cold temperatures of -140 °C (130 K) to -50 °C (220 K) under ambient pressure and exists well above the upper atmosphere. Applying pressure (300

MPa) in the same temperature region leads to two crystalline phases, namely Ice II and Ice III, which adopt trigonal and tetragonal crystal systems, respectively. Existence of amorphous ice, where the structure is disordered and lacks crystal structure, is found in outer space and has variable density. As it happens, phase Ice XII can be accessed by heating high-density amorphous ice under very high pressure (800 MPa) and is reported to be approximately 1.3 times denser than water. Emergence of novel ice phases due

hydrogen bonding, where an incomplete oxygen valence can be satisfied by a weak attraction towards a fully realised water molecule.

The phenomenon of dangling bonds is known because similar chemistry and complexity are observed in quartz glass. Novel ice phases continue to be a hot topic of conversation in science. Different research

groups around the world add new arguments to rationalise their existence, perform new and improved to proton ordering is dictated by how randomly oriented water molecules are in the structure.

Governed by the second law of thermodynamics, which drives the spontaneous formation of certain ‘favourable’ phases over others, the ice surface may be decorated with ‘dangling’ bonds. Structurally, this means that the surface H2O oxygen atoms do not realise their full valence and some electron density, in the form of single unpaired electrons known as radicals, is left unaccounted for. This can be rectified by intermolecular forces, specifically

measurements and further develop computer simulations to uncover how at least twenty phases can occur. Therefore, it is safe to say that the phase diagram for ice will not be solved completely any time soon, but as more phases are studied fully, we may gain insight into how ice, and ultimately how water behaves in our Universe, contributing to the understanding of our planet.

Photo by Kiwihug

InQuire Monday 31 January 2022

11

Science and Technology

MIT discovery of elusive ‘X’ particle could redefine our understanding of the O primordial universe

By Johnathan Guy, Newspaper Science & Tech Editor

gluon plasma briefly formed in the collider: “Theoretically, there are so many quarks and gluons in the plasma that the production of X particles should be ot Ph

yB ob

ro o k

haven National Lab o r ato ry

ften called the ‘primordial soup’, at the This is largely due to the conditions being beginning of our universe, all that existed, incredibly hot, and so requiring huge amounts for a period no longer than the blink of of energy to reach temperatures appropriate for an eye, was a plasma of fundamental particles: their creation. But the team at the Large Hadron quarks and gluons. These are, ultimately, what Collider, or LHC, published data gathered during then cooled and became the building blocks of it’s 2018 run, where it created a quark-gluon neutrons and protons. However, shortly before plasma by colliding lead ions with incredible they cooled, some of these particles collided and energy. This data was then reviewed by physicists for an even briefer time, formed particles known as ‘X’ particles – so named because we know almost nothing about them. This is because as can be imagined, recreating the conditions of the universe (which led to the creation, and very brief Photo of SLHC courtesy of Wallup.net/CERN maintenance, of these particles) immediately after the Big Bang in order at MIT’s Laboratory for Nuclear Science, who to learn about these mysterious particles is no concluded they had found evidence of the elusive easy task.

X particle in the data corresponding to the quark-

enhanced”, said the lead author of the paper, Yen-Jie Lee, an Associate Professor of Physics at MIT, but “people thought it would be

too difficult to search for them because there are so many other particles produced in this quark soup”.

According to the article, the team used a machine-learning algorithm whose development was led by MIT postdoc Jing Wang, to carefully sort through over 13 billion collisions by recognising and following the variables that describe the shape of the X particle decay pattern. By sifting through this data, they found roughly 100 of these particles, specifically, around 100 X (3872) particles – where the number refers to their mass. Lee said “For years we had thought that for some reason, nature had chosen to produce particles made only from two or three quarks,”, but recently, physicists have begun to notice ‘tetraquarks’ appearing in the data – particles made from four quarks, rather than the usual two or three.

“We’ve shown we can find a signal” said Lee, “[but] in the next few years, we want to use the quark-gluon plasma to probe the X particle’s internal structure, which could change our view of what kind of material the universe should produce”. At this point, the amount of data is insufficient to learn more about its structure and the primordial universe, however, this discovery could have taken us one step closer.

Ethiopian “magic banana” provides fresh hope against rising food insecurity

By Alex Charilaou, Newspaper Editor

T

he climate crisis – exacerbated by the Covid a central role in daily diets. Wheat currently pandemic – has increased food insecurity provides more than 20 per cent of the world’s for millions of people, particularly in the calories and protein. Horticulture and agriculture Global South. experts are increasingly focused on lesser-known The United Nations warns that over but hardy, versatile crops which can sustain a the next three decades, food growing global population in a rapidlysupply and food security will heating world. be severely threatened The enset, also known as the if more is not done false banana or Ethiopian to tackle global banana, is a perennial, tenheating and crops’ meter-high plant grown vulnerability in the southwestern to increasing Ethiopian Highlands, extremes such where it is a staple as prolonged food for 20 million droughts, people. It’s not heatwaves, actually a fruit - in flash-flooding fact the bit which and insect looks like a banana infestations. is inedible - but the For instance, starchy stems and global yields of roots can be consumed. both maize and The pulp is fermented wheat are projected and made into dough for to significantly decline Photo by Yougarden.com dishes like porridge and kocho due to climate impacts - a cheesy-tasting flatbread that is caused by emissions from fossiltypically eaten for breakfast. The enset fuel burning. In Africa and Central isn’t cultivated outside the region, though it America, nearly 950 million metric tonnes of does grow wild in river valleys and gorges as far maize is consumed annually, with corn playing south as South Africa.

While the wild plant is bitter and unpalatable, its appearance suggests that there are climates where it could be grown over a much larger region.

Ensets are also incredibly efficient as a food source with as few as 15 plants feeding a person for a year – Ethiopian communities call it “the tree against hunger” as it’s the one crop that can be turned to when others fail.

According to a new study by Dr James S. Borrell and Olef Koch at Royal Botanic Gardens Kew – which was published in the journal Environmental Research last month – the enset could feed up to 100 million people a year.

“Feeding a growing population at a higher standard of living, whilst weathering the impacts of climate change will test the capacity and resilience of our food systems,” the scientists noted. “Although the scale of this challenge is unprecedented, human ingenuity is not.” They point to the examples of potatoes and tomatoes, which originated in South America, but are now grown widely around the world.

The study notes that while climate extremes may cut potential for growing enset by up to 52% by 2070, large swathes of the Ethiopian Highlands will still be arable, as well areas in Kenya and Uganda: “when incorporating the genetic potential of wild populations, enset cultivation might prove feasible for an additional 87.2–111.5 million people, 27.7–33 million of which are in Ethiopia

outside of enset’s current cultivation range,” the authors wrote.

We’re yet to see what effect enset will end up having on our food systems, but if this study is anything to go by, we should be paying a great deal of attention to this particular magic banana.

Photo by Deon Black

12

Monday 31 January 2022 InQuire

Feature

Kent student Sven Stears shares h

Little Gr

By Sven Stears, Poet/Writer

W

hen I first seriously tried my hand at poetry, it was at this university, almost 15 years ago now. I’d written poetry before, of course, in school, or in my room - posting the emo results to websites like DeviantArt or LiveJournal. You can probably guess that it wasn’t very good. In fact, the feedback I got during a scratch session as part of the creative writing society here at UKC was “the point

out of reach. Worlds apart. Like trying to be part of Hollywood when all you have is a battered old hand-me-down video camera.

I’d been aware of spoken word, sure. I remember staying up past my bedtime as a kid, tuned into late night MTV, catching Def Poetry Jam. Watching poets like Shihan and Kayne (yes, that Kanye) perform to audiences that weren’t removed or alien

I took this new lease of life to my boss at the time. Asked for some time off, so I could get to London and try a few gigs out. My boss, after returning from a

My local funeral home has a defibrillator bolted to it's outside wall bright green box on blunt red brick and I can't help but wonder why it's there.

Surely, if our bodies have made it this far it's a little bit late for electroshock therapy. might as well be hanging next to acupuncture needles and homeopathy bottless. are these burly men who dress us in hearses pump and parade so afraid they will try anything to zapp the life back in?

Maybe I've got it wrong it's just gallows humour and they wrench up our relatives in a macabre revival and use perfectly placed pads to make us dance the funky chicken one final time or maybe it is a dance more current.

Or maybe funeral homes know something we all don't about the coming zombie apocalypse.

Electricity kills whats alive revives what's dead who knows what it does to the reanimated Could be anything.

Photo by Videoblocks.com

of satire is to be better than what you’re satirising”.

That little zinger came from no other than Dan Simpson, a famed Kent Alumni and professional poet, when we were both just 18 and starting our careers.

While Dan was right, I definitely didn't see it that way at the time. My career wouldn’t blossom until many years later, when our paths would cross again. As a poet, I was far too concerned with writing poetry that was just for me and a select group of friends who would get how clever it all was. Obvious plot twist: It wasn’t, and unsurprisingly, as a poet who was uninterested in his audience, the audience was uninterested in me.

Sometime around 2011, I bumped into Dan again, he wasn’t just a member of the creative writing society, but a fully-fledged full-time poet. He was touring the country and doing shows in large venues, teaching in schools, and casually hanging out with poets who I had only ever heard of. For a poet, this was very rock and roll.

We got talking, and he told me all about a style of poetry that I’d seen before, but never thought to get involved in. Spoken Word. It felt so American and

- but present, right there, whooping and clapping.

This was was

explosive for something

me. Poetry I’d forgotten about, shut myself off from,

and

ignored for quite some time. I deep dived back into the world of poetry. Discovered a whole world of new poets with new styles and was instantly infatuated again. Buddy Wakefield, Joelle Taylor, Shane Koyzan. This wasn’t poetry for back-rooms and a close group of friends. This was poetry to be shouted from the roof tops.

month and a half off of work himself, fully denied my request.

I quit, of course.

Then instantly panicked. While I now had loads of time to try my hand at spoken word poetry, I also had no income. I put a big rant on Facebook about the experience, and Dan Simpson came to the rescue again. He was running a slam back in Canterbury, as part of the Wise Words festival.

The winners of the slam would get the opportunity to work in schools and youth groups.

This was incredible, not only had I discovered a new art form, I, also had the chance to do it.

To work with young people to pass on that passion and get paid in the process.

There was however one slight problem…

I had never done

Maybe it is something far more sensible Like heart attacks caused by grief and love.

Love is one of the strongest bonds known to man it’s why falling in love can feel like gravity - just left the room why heartbreak can feel like being ripped apart one atom at a time each one a nuclear explosion a million microscopic mushroom clouds and why on a sunny day in kent I saw my dad cry for the first and only time at the graveside of my grandmother After over a decade of being bedridden and barely present what was left of her, finally let go Leaving my dad to weep at the hole in the ground and himself and why after over a decade of military service jumping out of a perfectly serviceable aircraft and a near death experience that left him too scared to get back on that pegasus his kevlar face cracked when he pulled me and my brother aside to explain if he was to ever end up the same we were to take him on one last plane

13

InQuire Monday 31 January 2022

Feature

his spoken word journey for InQuire

reen Box and knowing he wouldn't pull the parachute let him

jump.

I am not man enough for that free fall.

I hope he forgives me when I unplug the machines and blow kisses across his face so he will at least feel the wind.

When it’s my time to go I want my funeral to be an intensive care unit a vein full of morphine a splash of water and a slap to the face what I am saying is I don't want to die despite my many attempts to prove otherwise.

Like the countless times I have started smoking again the mornings I couldn't get up for work until I'd had at least 2 pints and that time I nearly drowned because signs that read "no-one under the age of 16 is allowed near the wave machine" actually read "challenge fucking accepted" to anyone under the age 16.

There are cuts that I have made that are not on my skin That are not in my skin and it is only by the grace of strangers that I stand here today able to smile and I mean really smile at my survival So when I do die because we all have to die invite only my friends with coping mechanisms tell everybody else that I went to live in Scotland apart from my friends in Scotland tell them I stayed exactly where I was tell everybody that I stayed exactly where I was locked in the pimbo between heartbeats and bereavement In fact, no.

Do what you want at my funeral it is not for me it is for the survivors and those of us yet to let go so, let this be a contract between me you and the whole room do whatever makes you smile.

Cover me in Fun House goo turn me into a twilight vampire with a bucket full of glitter and fire me from a fucking cannon.

My only request now that I think about it is make sure there is a defibrillator at the funeral home because if I do have to go I am going to go out dancing.

spoken word poetry discovered ones. I played in the Albert Hall, before. I was still performed in Germany, was crowned Bristol Slam stuck in the mode Champion, was a National Slam Finalist twice, of writing for the spoke at festivals, performed to thousands of page - and not well people, and even got a book published. For a while, either. The poetry I I was content. was writing was self-indulgent and trying too Photo by Facebook.com hard to be clever when it really wasn’t.

It was about this time that I discovered a poet called PolarBear.

His poem, now called Jessica, ties the complex experience of growing up and family to the idea of being a kid and using jumpers for goalposts.

It’s beautiful, and simple.

Something eminently relatable. This poem, on its own, prompted an overnight change in the way I write. Poetry wasn’t about taking simple things and making them complex, or about adding in layer upon layer of obfuscation, or implanting meaning in minutiae. Quite the opposite.

It’s about taking complex things and making them simple. Stripping away the layers of obfuscation that get added naturally to our lives and finding the meanings that are already there and shining light on them through relatable poetics.

Then Covid hit.

Suddenly we were all locked indoors, and those venue halls and festival fields were off limits. I was working in marketing for a small company at the time. My days became this drudgery of waking up, walking to the computer, wading through miles of messaging and optics, and then bed. My latenight alter

company that made videos for poets, but it wasn’t enough. I’d spent so long connecting to my creative side that to have it walled off felt cruel. So, I did something drastic. I quit my job again, applied to university, and moved back to Canterbury. I cannot preface how scary that ordeal is. My undergrad was in Forensic Science, and I didn’t even graduate. Now here I am, 15 years later, studying for a master’s in Creative Writing.

To say that I have been spoiled in poetry is a minor understatement. From accidentally falling into it in the first place, to a career that has at times felt like failing upwards. Living in a city like Bristol has exposed me to incredible talent that I have been able to learn from and given me a wealth of events that I could attend. The 7 years I spent there have been like a rich, thick gravy of poetry.

Nutritious and filling from the off.

Moving back to the start of it all, to quiet Kent, with its refined history, cobble and macadam, part of me expected a timid poetry scene. I have never been happier to be wrong. When I left Canterbury, there was a smattering of events and poets. The times I had returned for gigs here and there I was never fully exposed to the City’s verbose underbelly. Let me assure you though, now, post-Covid, the scene here is bursting at the seams, and it could easily give some of those bigger cities like Bristol or London, a run for their money.

I won the Slam.

I found life in performing poetry over the next decade or so. I ended up supporting those big names I had looked at previously as distant and untouchable. Buddy Wakefield, Neil Hilborn, Joelle Taylor, Shane Koykzan and a slew of newly

ego of poetry put his suit back on and had nothing to do.

I did use this time to start a production

Photo by Whiskeyandbeards.co.uk

I ran away from Canterbury 15 years ago. I left poetry behind me, and here, in my absence, it has grown.

If you’re a fan of spoken word, or looking to get into it, then you couldn’t be in a better place.

14

Monday 31 January 2022 InQuire

Lifestyle

Joining the NHS Blood and Transplant Donor Register I

nstead of challenging yourself by giving something up for 2022, why not try something new, like joining the NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) donor register and saving up to four lives across the year in as little as five minutes?

There are many reasons why people may need blood from time to time, including treatments in emergency situations such as traffic accidents, and complications during childbirth, as well as ongoing medical conditions like sickle cell anaemia and some cancers.

Therefore, the NHSBT aims to keep 6 days of blood stocks at any time to meet the requirements of patients, old and new. To do this, it is estimated that almost 400 new donors are needed to sign up every day to meet this demand – but why so many?

There are 8 main blood types, which is determined by your genes.

Some blood types are in higher demand than others. For example, the O negative blood type can be given to anyone and can be used in emergency situations when someone’s blood type is unknown.

On the other hand, blood types O positive and A positive are the most common blood types, meaning that they are always in demand for long-term treatments. However, it is not only your blood type that is important but also whether you are a close match to the receiving patient.

This is increasingly important in ethnic minority groups. For example, there is a rising demand for black donors because they are more likely to have rare blood types, like the Ro subtype, which can be h plas Uns / l a r an U Kut y b to Pho

"There is a rising demand for black donors because they

are more likely to have rare

blood types like the Ro subtype, which can be used to

treat conditions that require regular transfusions."

Photo by National Cancer Institute/Unsplash

tions that regular translike sickle cell

used to treat condirequire fusions anaemia.

There is also a long period of rest between donations to allow for red blood cells to regenerate. Men can donate every 12 weeks, and women every 16 weeks, resulting in a gap between donations from individuals which needs to be filled by other donors. Blood donation is also a source of blood for research and medical/investigative training. In fact, incomplete donations – as full bags are usually given to patients – are sent to research laboratories and are used in drug discovery studies.

Therefore, it goes without saying that your contribution – regardless of blood type – will be transformative to peoples’ lives, whether it is in hospital or a clinical trial.

Registering with Give Blood is straightforward because it can be done online and even by an app on your phone! The process involves a short questionnaire regarding your health and wellbeing, and booking your first appointment, which is as local as the Westgate Hall in Canterbury. Preparing to donate blood is also an important component, which simply involves drinking plenty of water a few days prior to your appointment, eating healthily and not taking a hot shower or doing any heavy lifting on the day of the appointment. There is also an additional questionnaire to take along with you on the day. The appointment takes 1 hour, which is made up of a discussion with a nurse about your questionnaire, putting your nerves at ease and measuring your iron level, followed by the donation itself which takes between 5 and 10 minutes to complete.

Afterwards, you are invited to sit for a while with a free Kit Kat and a cup of tea. You should also avoid alcohol for the next couple of days and keep drinking water regularly. After a few weeks, you will find out your

Photo by Testalize.me/Unsplash

b l o o d type and receive a donor card and keyring to carry.

For me, I joined the blood donor register as a resolution for 2021 for a variety of reasons. These included the opportunity to overcome my fear of needles and to contribute to the depleted countrywide bloodstock because of restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

It was also one of those things I had always wanted to do but never made a time to go along, but finally, I made an appointment in April. I was very nervous on the day, as I was not sure on how I would feel nor how I was meant to distract myself during the donation. However, after chatting to one of the nurses as she set up the procedure, I did not even realise the process had already started! The remaining time was taken in by beeping noises around me from the machines used to weigh the bags during the donation, and tensing my arm every so often, which is recommended to maintain a consistent flow. Afterwards, I rested at home and felt tired for a few days, but overall, I was fine. In fact, I was still in shock for many weeks after that I went along and did it! I waited a few months until I thought of going back and found December to be convenient, especially as the demand for blood rises around the holiday period. This time I went without feeling nervous at all and was in fact comforted by the idea that my donation that day would help someone see Christmas and the New Year.

Since joining the register, my blood donations have been received by patients in Swindon and Hereford, and I am looking forward to donating again in May. There are various criteria to fulfil when registering and even returning to donate. Fortunately, the service has changed some of these to make donating more accessible. In fact, last summer a landmark change in blood donation eligibility for gay and bisexual men was brought in, which beforehand did not allow for this group to donate. Now, instead of generalising experiences, the latest blood donation questionnaire asks more specifically on your own experiences. If you feel inspired to sign up to donate blood, simply By Holly McPhillips, search for “Give Blood NHSBT” on- Science Correspondent line or on Twitter to find out more.

For more Information: Visit https://www.blood.co.uk/ https://www.nhsbt.nhs.uk/how-you-can-help/donate/ https://my.blood.co.uk/preregister

15

InQuire Monday 31 January 2022

Lifestyle

New Years Resolutions to Stick to in 2022!

A

re you the kind of person who makes New Year’s Resolutions every year? Is it always the same cycle of falling off after the first two weeks of January? This inspiration to become a better person in the new year, whether it be upping your fitness to drop a few pounds or trying a new hobby? The New Year, New Me fad will always hold power over us - the new beginning, much like when we promise ourselves that the ‘diet starts Monday’. This article will, hopefully, provide some insight into how to stick to these resolutions.

A new habit can take anywhere from 18 to 254 days to solidify, with an average of 66c – this roughly translates to just over 2 months. Just tell yourself that you need to make it to the 1st March to engrain this into your day to day lifestyle!

If your New Year’s Resolution is fitness related (as most of them are) then why not treat yourself to a gym membership in 2022? Although some people find them extremely intimidating with rock hard muscles everywhere around you, once you break this mental barrier the gym can be a great place to start your new habit.

By consciously knowing that you are paying for this per month,

it can instil an extremely British sense of ‘getting your money’s worth’ – ultimately acting as the main reason for going every day.

If, however, you’d prefer to save your money, then an hour of walking, running or cycling could aid your fitness journey. By making this a daily occurrence you are instilling this into your routine and lifestyle, making yourself more accustomed to this new habit.

On the other hand, if you have decided to take up a new hobby – whether that be painting or learning a new language – there are millions of courses out there. Head over to your laptop and Google the nearest course to teach yourself this new skill. By enrolling in a course, online or face to face, you have made a commitment, not just to yourself but to others too. This forces you to continue going, as others are also relying on your attendance which can engrain the time into your daily schedule. Who knows, you might even enjoy it!

If your New Year’s resolution is to give something up, then we have just the tips for you.

Quitting smoking, chocolate, spending money or even participating in Dry January can make the new year a rather bleak one. By taking a prominent aspect of your life away, it can make the commitment extremely difficult. However, by making yourself busier and filling your days, you can actually distract yourself from the vice you are missing. Working, university, your social life and exercise can build your schedule up massively to the point where you might not even notice giving something up. Although this time can be extremely testing, choosing to give it up is a massive first step and treating yourself for that is always welcomed, especially in the bleak By Grace Bishop, January blues of 2022. Newspaper Lifestyle/Media & Events

Photo by Nathan Dumlao/Unsplash

"The New Year, New Me fad will always hold power over us

- the new beginning, much like

when we promise ourselves that the 'diet starts Monday".

Photo by Anupam Mahapatra/Unsplash

Turkey Shepherd’s Pie: A Cosy Classic What you'll need for this recipe: 500g turkey mince 2.medium onions, finely chopped 3.cloves of garlic, finely chopped 2.carrots, finely chopped 3.stalks of celery, finely chopped 1 tin of sweetcorn 1 400g tin of tomatoes 1tsp of oregano 1tsp of dried basil 1tbsp of tomato puree 500ml vegetable or chicken stock (from a cube is fine) 1 suede 1 tsp of butter (or alternative) 1 tsp of preferred milk

W

ith the weather still freezing, it’s lovely to come home to an easy and healthy meal that’ll leaveyou feeling full and satisfied for hours. This is a healthier alternative to the British classic, Shepherd’s Pie. Although the traditional beef mince and mashed potato isn’t unhealthy, I remove red meat and use mashed suede for a more nutritious meal. Obviously if you’d prefer a plantbased meal then substitute the turkey mince for Quorn or even more vegetables! Hearty and delicious.

Photo by Calum Lewis/Unsplash

1. Over a medium heat, add a dash of olive oil to a non-stick stewing pot or casserole. Once this has heated up add in your chopped vegetables, and once these have softened add your turkey mince (or an alternative, if preferred). Break the mince apart and cook evenly.

2. Once the mince has browned, add in your tin of sweetcorn, dried oregano, and basil. Stir every few minutes. Then add in your tomato puree and tinned tomatoes to the mix.

3. Break apart any larger tomato chunks with your wooden spoon to create an even mixture. Boil the kettle and measure out 500ml of water to dissolve your stock cube (this can be a vegetable one or any alternative stock cube).

4. Once you have measured this out, add this to your pot, put the lid on and cook on a low heat for about 40 minutes. While this is cooking you can prepare your suede.

5. Peel and chop your whole suede into small chunks. Boil a pot of water and add them in. Salt your water and cook the suede on a medium heat for approximately 20 minutes (suede always takes much longer than potatoes).

6. Once your suede is cooked through, drain the water and add in your butter and milk. Mash this all together with seasoning of your choice (salt and pepper is a must for me).

7. Both aspects of the shepherd’s pie have now been cooked and it is time to assemble. In an oven proof dish, layer down your turkey mince. Grab your suede and add this on top evenly using a fork to create grooves for the crust.

8. Whenever you are ready to cook the meal, place it in the oven for about 30 minutes on 180 degrees, or until a crust has developed on top.

9. This makes roughly 5-6 portions and is great frozen. If you are cooking this from frozen then it needs about 45 minutes to an hour.

10. Enjoy!

By Grace Bishop, Newspaper Lifestyle Editor/Media & Events

16

Monday 31 January 2022 InQuire

Lifestyle

The First Haircut in a New City T

here was one chair available, and nobody waiting in line, so I took a seat inside Daniel’s Traditional Turkish Barber.

Between the mirrors, posters of tanned men with stubble and gelled hair had begun peeling off the wall, and the remnants of a day’s work had been swept to the far side of the room. A barber approached and began jolting the height of the chair by pumping a foot pedal.

“Just a trim, please.”

“What number?”, he asked, swiping through my hair with a plastic comb.

My eyes searched the room for context, half expecting to find a fast-food-style menu: number 4 combo cut, mullet with a clean shave on the side. His hands fell to his waist as he glared at my reflection.

“Half an inch off?” This was, apparently, the wrong answer.

“What number razor?”

“Oh, no just scissors, please.”

“We don’t have scissors.”

I was almost certain at this point he was taking the piss.

“Okay, you know what, just make me look like a local. Whatever the regulars get.”

One way or another, I’ve been a foreigner all my life. I was born in England to African parents, my adolescence spent in Brazil, and the years after in various cities across the USA. Photo by Apothecary 87/Unsplash Now, at 27 I find myself a foreigner

once again, in the country where I was born. This is because my accent has become so convoluted and my awareness of pop-culture so unreliable that the ‘real Brits’ don’t quite know what to make of me.

When I do indulge strangers in answering the inevitable question of where I’m from, they’ll tell me I’m lucky to have seen so much of the world. I am. But as little as most people know about life in a foreign continent, I have found they know equally little of the challenges it brings. One such challenge is the first haircut in a new city.

“I just moved here - what’s Gillingham like?”

“Terrible”, he replied, “don’t go outside after dark. This place is full of crazy people, they get drunk and fight in the street and break shop windows.” He looked at me once more, as if to estimate how I’d fare in a Gillingham street-fight, “you should go to Rochester.”

Another man entered the shop and sat on a couch alongside the storefront window to my left. My barber switched to Turkish for the rest of my haircut to chat with this friend. Their conversation was unintelligible to me, save for one early response from my barber: “American.”

The ‘traditional Turkish’ haircut process itself was indistinguishable to any other haircut I’ve had. Except for when, at the end, the barber produced a long metal coil with a cotton tip. He dipped the tip in alcohol and set it alight before bringing the flame close each of my ears. To this day I have no earthly idea what purpose this served.

When I moved to Bedford-Stuyvesant, a historic African-American neighbourhood in Brooklyn, I remember my new roommate giving me the lay of the land. “Here in Bed-Stuy, the delis are run by Hispanics, the laundromats are in Asian hands, and the barbershops are Black.” I remember feeling apprehensive about the idea of going to a Black barber shop. As a white foreigner, I worried I might not be

understood, or worse yet, welcome. But, shaking off my concerns as misguided, I walked a couple blocks down Bainbridge Street to find a barbershop, Unique Stylz.

A small silver bell rang above my head as I stepped inside and I was relieved to find that the place was quiet; there were no customers waiting, rather the barber himself was waiting for customers. The tall black man with dreadlocks instinctually stood up from the salon chair, spun it around and gestured for me to sit. Just beyond a line of coat hooks there was a framed poster of an illustrative map of New York, with the names of individual neighbourhoods contorted to form the shapes of their respective areas.

“So what would you like?”

“Just a half inch off please.”

“What?” the barber had been thrown by my accent.

“A half inch off, please.”, I repeated, this time subtly adjusting my accent towards American, which in retrospect I believe made matters worse. His head tilted to one side, “Hoff n’ choff? What’s a hoff n’ choff?” I caught my own eye contact in the mirror facing me; I certainly was bound at this point to get a haircut of some description. I considered whether I should simply let the barber have his way with me regardless of how I would end up looking.

“A half, inch, off.” He dropped a large book into my lap, filled with pictures of male hairstyles and asked me to find the ‘hoff n’ choff’ style.

“No, no, I want the same style, but a half inch off.”

“But what is a hoff n’ choff?!”

I sighed, “just gimme a high-top

By James Pallant, fade.”

Writer

"But as little as most people

know about life in a foreign continent, I have found they know equally little of the challenges

it brings. One such challenge is the first haircut in a new city."

Finding Part Time Employment as a Student

By Grace Bishop, Newspaper Lifestyle Editor/Media & Events

S

ince I started University during the rise of Covid19 there was a limited selection of part time jobs available at my disposal. With money running out and summer just around the corner, I was desperate for anything.

The main thing I’d ask yourself is what your schedule looks like. If you have a large amount of contact hours and would prefer something on the weekend, then have a look into retail vacancies. However if you’d prefer to utilise your evenings then a bar or restaurant would be a great role for your shifts. On the other hand, if you have a spare few hours during the day on Campus then look into roles at the Co-op, Woody’s or Kbar. These could be a great solution to time management!

Working Online: During my second year, having struggled for over a year without a job I discovered MyTutor following the recommendation from a friend. Not only is this completely online but you can choose slots depending on your schedule - making it a flexible position around your studies. As I was looking for a job during first year, the majority of the bars and pubs I found wanted shifts either in the evening or during my lectures which would have made my life harder due to my schedCheck out our website for... ule. After a 10 minute online interview with a fellow tutor, - A local coffee shop review; I was offered the job as an - University meal suggestions; English tutor for ages 11-16.

The predominant benefit of this job was the flexibility - And more! surrounding my lifestyle at University, allowing me to

carefully plan my day by the hour and maintaining time management skills. Additionally, if you find public speaking daunting this is the job for you! After just one year of tutoring I am so much more confident in speaking to a crowd which has been a personal benefit from the job.

I highly recommend this if you are struggling with time management.

Working in Canterbury: If you would like to work in town, there is such a variety of chain restaurants and high street shops along with an abundance of independent shops to choose from. (Just imagine the staff discount of these!) However this would be ideal if you aren’t living on campus, making the commute more manageable and can offer a great addition to your CV with a larger company name. Evenings or weekend shifts may vary depending on the company however this can be a great experience for a student.

Working on Campus: The first port of call would be Campus vacancies. You never know - Cafe Nero might have vacancies available. This can be a great way to utilising your time whilst on campus between lectures and seminars. Adding to this, you’ll be serving predominantly students which can appear less daunting than the general public!

Adding to all of this, the most important way to gain employment would be building your CV and cover letter. During University I had a generic cover letter with certain words highlighted and I’d change those words dependent on the role I was applying for. This can save so much time when applying for vacancies - instead of having to rewrite cover letters for every job role! Similarly, make sure you stand out! Although your CV may be filled with an impressive list of achievements - if it looks dull then it won’t catch your employers attention! Redesigning your CV can give off the illusion of professionalism! Something you’ll need to secure that job position!

Photo by Albert Vincent Wu/Unsplash Photo by Sharon McCutcheon/Unsplash

17

Monday 31 January 2022 InQuire

Puzzles

Puzzles

NOTE: The solutions for the 'last issue' are actually for 17.5 and 17.7, as the puzzles were copied over unchanged due to an editorial error.

Solution for last issue's Crossword Across Across: 1 Crumb, 4 Pull (Crumple), 7 Grid, 8 Inverted, 9 Surveillance, 11 Pretty, 13 Fiscal, 14 Swimming pool, 17 Barefoot, 19 Gone, 20 Heat, 21 Range.

Down: 1 Corkscrew, 2 Under, 3 Bribery, 4 Perhaps, 5 Lie, 6 Evil, 10 Challenge, 12 Tempest, 13 Fighter, 15 Iron, 16 Organ, 18 Axe

Solution for last issue's sudoku 6 5 1 3 9 4 7 8 2

8 9 7 6 2 1 3 4 5

2 4 3 5 8 7 6 9 1

9 2 4 8 6 5 1 7 3

1 6 5 7 4 3 9 2 8

7 3 8 9 1 2 4 5 6

5 8 9 4 3 6 2 1 7

3 7 2 1 5 9 8 6 4

4 1 6 2 7 8 5 3 9

1 Cooking vessel (3) 3 Part of the foot (3) 5 Silent actor (4) 9 Scottish musician (5) 10 Here (7) 11 Till (4,8) 14 Horse-drawn sledge (6) 16 South American raincoat (6) Down 1 Immature insect (4) 2 Brief sleep (3) 3 Hand-held light (5) 4 Seen (6) 6 Exactly alike (9) 7 Outer (8) 8 American country (6) 12 Change (9) 13 Hopeful (8) 15 Rumour (6) 17 Large bird (6) 19 Permit (5) 20 Frozen ice (4) 23 Clue (3)

18 Beyond question (12) 21 Skating venue (3,4) 22 Ancient language (5) 24 Garden barrier (4) 25 Tree (3) 26 Maul (3) 1

2

3

4

Puzzles compiled by Matthew Sapsed Pick up InQuire 17.8 in two weeks for answers!

5

6

7

8 9

10

11

12

13 14

15

16 17

18

19

21

22

20

24

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23

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6 1 1 3 5 6 4 8 6 5 8 6 8 1 6 5 9 2 3 5 7 9 1

4 1 9 3 2

18

Monday 31 January 2022 InQuire

Culture

What's What' Going On At The Beaney?

Photo from canterburymuseums.co.uk

By Juliette Moisan, Newspaper Culture Editor

C

anterbury's cultural heart, the Beaney House of Art and Knowledge, generally shortened as the Beaney, has existed under different names but its main purpose, to share and promote knowledge, culture and history to all, has remained unchanged throughout its years Photo from canterburymuseums.co.uk of existence.

While there are at the moment no temporary exhibitions since backgrounds and with different skills, creating an the one dedicated to Georgia O'Keefe's drawings inspiring and federative collection of works. closed, it doesn't mean that there isn't still a wealth The more permanent spaces in the Beaney, like of knowledge and artefacts to discover for free at the Garden Room or the Study, display items on a Canterbury's landmark museum, situated in the wide range of themes. The Garden Room focuses High Street. on Canterbury and you'll find many of its famous The first thing that draws your eye when sights immortalised in paint, most prominently by you enter the museum is the Front Room, in Thomas Sidney Cooper, a Canterbury-born artist which there are often who honoured his city in his artworks.

Photo from likealocalguide.co.uk colourful and participative Upstairs, you'll find a collection of memorabilia, exhibitions that are worth a lot of artefacts chronologically narrating the checking out. The most past of England as a colonial Empire, but also of recent one is entitled "Art Canterbury as a city and of the museum as a key

by Post". Launched in May place where clubs used to gather and which later 2020, at the beginning became a high place of teaching and learning. The of the pandemic and the history of England and Kent is shared through lockdown, the project historical artefacts but also through culture, old commissioned 17 artists wooden toys, costumes, children shows… who produced booklets sent Finally, if you're more into biology, many animals to people at home, who sent and insects are conserved in the different rooms of back their own drawings. the museums. From snakes kept in formaldehyde Fighting loneliness and to hundreds of butterflies and taxidermied animals, mental drain, the success of the whole fauna is represented. the project led the Beaney to All in all, if you're interested in learning more showcase drawings, around about Kent and our town, this is the key spot to a selection of topics like visit. The temporary exhibitions are also beautifully Nature, Sound, Movements curated and you'll always find something that you and Hope. This results hadn't noticed in your latest excursion. Luckily, the in a vibrant, colourful Beaney is always free, so you can also quickly pop exhibition that gives a voice in it to have a look at whatever is going on in the Photo from canterburymuseums.co.uk to people from different different rooms!

Watching Neighbours Twice a Day:

A Review of Josh Widdicombe's First Memoir kerb.com

Photo from offthe

By Elle Summers, Website Culture Editor

A

s an English Literature student, it is unsurprising that much of my stocking consisted of books this Christmas. Why, oh why do people think I would want to read for fun, when most of my life is taken up by one book or another is beyond me! But this year, I must say that, for one of my books at least, I was entirely grateful!

Watching Neighbours Twice a Day is a book that has been at the top of my to be read list for quite a while now. Being an avid listener of Josh Widdicombe’s podcast, and an all-around fan of the comedian, I couldn’t contain my genuine happiness when unwrapping this book the last festive season.

I can tell you – it really did not disappoint! I cleared my Boxing Day schedule and surrounded myself in the world of Widdicombe, eager to read his funny quips that genuinely had me laughing out loud throughout this narrative.

Using a different 90’s TV show to shape each chapter, Widdicombe shares his experience of growing up in the remote area of Dartmoor in Haytor Vale. It is clear from the off that not everyone can connect with Widdicombe about his childhood – for the

most part, it isn’t exactly relatable. Notably, he only had four children in his class at primary school, and whenever leaving home (even for a holiday) his family never locked their front door! Yet, Widdicombe draws on one thing that was relatable to the entire nation in the 90’s – television.

Through exploring the end of an era in which the experience of watching TV was shared in all

For my generation television was the one thing that united everyone. There were kids at my school who liked bands, kids who liked football and one weird kid who liked the French sport of petanque, however, we all loved Gladiators, Neighbours and Pebble Mill with Alan Titchmarsh (possibly not the third of these). households at the same time before the Internet took over, allowing everyone across the globe to stream different media, at different times, Widdicombe connects with his reader in a nostalgic way. Careful though, he wouldn’t want you thinking he is adhering to the saying ‘back in the good old days!’

I personally found the style and form of this book highly engaging.

Using a colloquial tone, Widdicombe

has found the perfect balance to captivate his audience, whilst still presenting the book in an informal manner.

And don’t let the premise of 90’s TV shows put you off! Despite me clinging on to the fact that I am a 90’s baby (even if I did only live through 11 days of the decade!), it is safe to say I am not entirely familiar with the TV shows that filled the limited channel selection. However, this proves no hurdle for the reader, as Widdicombe explores the TV shows he is relating to in such a way that you can follow along without having the same lived experience (aided by the pictures situated in the middle of the book).

For anyone looking for a light-hearted read, whether you are a fan of Josh Widdicombe like me or not, I would highly recommend this book.

With the easy to follow, conversation-like tone, even for an English student bogged down by books, I found it highly gripping and entertaining. I finished it in two days, as I couldn’t put it down.

All in all, it was a pretty good stocking filler!

Photo from Digital Spy

19

InQuire Monday 31 January 2022

Lucy McKenzie: W a Retrospective in Liverpool

By Juliette Moisan, Newspaper Culture Editor

hile some artists presented in the different Tate Museums have long acquired countrywide recognition for their works, some are also newer voices or artists who are still growing on their artistic journey. For their latest exhibit, the Tate Liverpool has chosen to dedicate a full exhibition to artist Lucy McKenzie.

This is the first time that an entire retrospective is dedicated to her in the United Kingdom.

Taking up the entirety of the last floor of Tate Liverpool, more than eighty works, produced over the course of the last twenty years, are on display.

Throughout the different pieces, a collective impression emerges: nothing is really what the eye can see. By using the challenging technique of the trompel'oeil, a French term for a trick of the eye, McKenzie challenges the visitors to rethink what they see and second guess their judgement. The details of each pieces is what make their unicity, and it can only be grasped after taking a closer look.

McKenzie started exploring this technique after she had already established herself as an artist and, by her own admission, this had added to her work a new dimension and has allowed to explore new ideas more freely.

The Glasgow-born artist, despite having set up her studio in Brussels, Belgium, more than twenty years ago, still pay homage to her country and her city through some of her most prominent pieces. Through the use of maps, for instance, she explores the evolution of Glasgow, its tram and its gangs. This figure of contemporary art

Culture is striking in her positions and in how clearly her personality transpire through her works. By using an incredibly diverse range of mediums, she deals with menstruation and womanhood, evolution in city landscapes and politics in general. One of her principal focus lies in the exploration of how we disguise our personalities in our daily lives.

The wealth of the exhibition lies in the range of McKenzie's techniques. From a film, entitled ‘The Girl Who Followed Marple’, to large scale architectural projects to collages to the creation of small, meaningful artefacts, McKenzie frees herself of any and all conventions that could prove limiting.

The exhibit in itself is also politically charged, as McKenzie mentions that she tasked the curators to think about the ethics of appropriation and the often backwards politics of the art world, especially in terms of gender.

All in all, even if you can't attend the exhibit at Tate Liverpool, Lucy McKenzie is an artist that is worth learning about, especially as she gains traction in the UK with this retrospective. If you do happen to find yourself in Liverpool over the next few months, the retrospective runs until the 13th of March and has a lot t o offer!

Photo from Art Fund

Photo from theguide.art

Photo from Tate Liverpool

Photo fro

m newart

editions.co

m

Love & Hate at the Marlowe

By Holly McPhillips, Science Correspondant & Juliette Moisan, Newspaper Culture Editor

N

oël Coward’s classic comedy came to the Marlowe Theatre for one week only this month as part of its country-wide tour by the Nigel Havers Theatre Company. If you haven't seen it yet and are planning to, warning: spoilers ahead!

Told in three acts, Private Lives follows divorced couple, Elliot and Amanda, who find themselves on honeymoon with their respective new partners, in the same hotel on the French Riviera. Enjoying the view from their balconies, Elliot and Amanda are both shocked to discover their former spouse standing on the adjoining balcony. Soon enough, they find themselves sharing cocktails and reminiscing of old times, subtly explaining to the audience why they parted ways: they cannot stand one another. In a quick-paced dialogue, they throw insults

Photos from the Marlowe

at the face of one another. However, despite being in Deauville with their new lovers, they quickly realise that the spark they used to have is still very much alive. Embarrassed and emboldened by the evening, the couple sneaks off to Paris, living their lives as though they were still married, leaving their partners almost none the wiser in the French Riviera. Their stay in Amanda's Parisian flat is full of love and hate, and they alternate between making out and throwing vases at the face of the other. The abandoned partners eventually find the way to the apartment in Paris where there is an amusing confrontation, and the audience is left wondering what the future holds for the couples.

Overall, the show was a romantic, satirical comedy, although the humour is probably more aimed at an older audience. The show has its fair share of famous faces: BAFTA nominated Nigel Havers plays Elliot, best known from films, like Chariots of Fire, from British soap Coronation Street and from children’s drama Sarah Jane Adventures. Amanda is portrayed by Olivier Award winning actress Patricia Hodge, best known from BBC television shows Miranda and adaption of The Life and Loves of a She-Devil, as well as an exhaustive list of on-stage credits.

The stage backdrop and costuming are bright and glamorous, reflecting the opulent and lavish lifestyles of both Elliot and Amanda, all the while masking their underlying flippant, carefree attitude towards leaving their partners to be together again. Their arguments are also whimsical and volatile, with many furnishings destroyed, including Hodge

Photos from KentOnline smashing Havers over the head with a vinyl record.

The couple are trapped in a repeating cycle of love and hate, yet they cannot live without each other, which is a funny outlook on their relationship, as most relationships do experience their odd breaking points every now and again.

Impressions from the play were diverse. At the end of the performance, we could hear people repeating the catchphrases and jokes to each others and they looked overall pleased with the play.

InQuire's reviewers present for the opening n i g h t overall Photos from KentOnline

enjoyed the jokes and tongue-in-cheek humour between the leading actors and both of their performances were good enough that it overshadowed other flaws. However, a clear storyline was missing, as the second part of the play, made up of Acts 2 and 3, essentially had us watch a couple fighting and making up onstage cyclically for an hour.

Overall, this play failed to properly convince, but maybe because our expectations were different from what we saw that night.

20

Monday 31 January 2022 InQuire

Satire

Welcome Back to a Brave New World

By Xi Jinping, Friend of the University of Kent

I was shocked at how poorly the university has been run in recent years. Therefore, reetings, students of the University of it was necessary to make some changes Kent. It is my pleasure to write a message to university leadership. Karen Cox to you as part of the University’s ‘Welcome has departed from her role as ViceBack to a Brave New World’ communication Chancellor and has been replaced and enlightenment campaign. This term you with the talented Karen Balls. After will encounter a number of improvements at the expressing his desire to switch to University, with the enhancement of academic a physically-intensive job, former experience a priority. Other aspects of student Deputy Vice-Chancellor Richard Reece experience have also been optimised, with many accepted an exciting work opportunity new social activities to be unveiled soon. in Xinjiang. In light of his impressive I understand that some of you may feel distressed performance on Celebrity Masterchef, to find yourselves at the end of an era. The Gavin Esler will remain in his role as University of Kent is no longer ‘The UKs European Chancellor of the university. With University’. Instead, as we move towards a new reinvigorated leadership, we aim stage of civilisation, the University of Kent has to move Kent into the top now become ‘The UKs Greatest University’. As the 20 of UKuniversities first UK university to receive official certification in the next 2 years, from the People’s Republic of China, students at and expect the University of Kent will receive an education fit to be the for our bright future in a Brave New World. The number 1 UK European project has failed, and as the continent university folds in on itself it is necessary for our university to within 10 look for better, more fruitful partnerships elsewhere. years.

As we enter into this historic union, I want to assure you that this partnership has your interests at its core. The Western-centric British university experience prepares students for a world that will not exist in a decade.

No student in the UK will be better placed to thrive in the new world than Kent students thanks to this new arrangement.

Under this new leadership, your fulfilment and satisfaction are unconditionally guaranteed.

I wish you the best of luck for the new term and look forward to closely watching your progress. Finally, I would like to introduce you to your new ViceChancellor, Karen Balls.

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By Karen Balls, Vice-Chancellor

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tudents of the University of Kent, it is wonderful to be speaking to you as your new Vice-Chancellor. As you are aware, some improvements have been made to the university.

You will have noticed that your timetable has become temporarily unavailable as we move towards our bright future together. In the coming days your timetable will be available again with a number of changes. Alongside pre-existing module choices, all students must study 4 exciting compulsory modules this term. We hope that this shared course of learning will foster togetherness and joint academic enterprise. In addition to these important new modules, we will be introducing supervised study sessions to your timetables. Compulsory in nature, these sessions put your academic interests first and ensure that you make the most of your time at the university. Thank you all for your cooperation in these exciting times. Balls.

Photo by Christophe Ena/AFP

"The nooses have been fashioned by the Americans themselves and by nobody else, and it is they themselves who have put these nooses round their own necks, handing the ends of the rope to the Chinese people."

MAO ZEDONG

Stalin Not Churchill: A True British ICON

By Jim Oxford-London, A Concerned Citizen

disciplined. Churchill’s contribution to the Allied victory pales in comparison to the ulture war fantasists have in the past sheer power of the Red Army under attempted to draw battle lines around the Stalin’s leadership. There is no statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament disputing this. Thus, Joseph Stalin Square. When challenged with Churchill’s ought to be considered a British culpability for the Bengal famine and his views on icon of even greater stock than race, many will point towards his role in the Second the beloved Churchill. There is World War victory as an overriding aspect of his no need for fuss or prolonged legacy. As such there is a precedent for ignoring debate over the Churchill statue problematic aspects of historical figures’ lives when in Westminster, it can simply be we decide to make them into cultural icons. Why removed in the quiet of the night then, should we not idolise Joseph Stalin for his and replaced promptly with a statue role in the Allies’ Second World War of Stalin. victory? In fact, why don’t Amid the backdrop of the rapid we replace Churchill’s decline of the West, we should not forget statue in Parliament Western imperial crimes. The tendency square with a statue of the British to deify figures from their of Stalin? troubled imperial past is symptomatic of a This is not to desperate nation clinging on to some sense say that Stalin of former greatness. This hero worship is did not commit an affront to the noble nations who suffered horrific crimes against and were wronged at the hands of vicious humanity, nor that imperialists. Admittedly, there are only a few Churchill committed great historical leaders who are not tainted greater atrocities than in some regard. Mao Zedong is the foremost Stalin. When we charge example, with Xi Jinping a contemporary ourselves with ignoring equivalent. But when the time comes, will you die shameful aspects of a for an imperial pig in the culture wars? person’s character, we In a recent interview on The One Show, Noel must be rigorous and Edmonds said, “I can foresee a future of great innovation and discovery in the new world order. When I close my eyes, I can hear the echoes of glory of a nation reborn and revitalised. Our ancestors are watching on, and they are proud of the direction that we are moving in.

As the Western world order crumbles and we wait for the dust to settle, I feel *2 Photo by Chris a great sense of McAndrew duty and purpose.

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Finally, we will have the chance to build a society of unprecedented greatness, having been freed from the snares of a colonial structure that *1 has hampered our progress for centuries. Every human will enjoy prosperity and the chance reach their full potential in a landscape of boundless innovation. Deal or no deal?”

As a Brit, I feel truly inspired by the words of Noel Edmonds. It is depressing to look back on our history, and see that our ‘heroes’ are truly villains. We must not dwell on the past though, look for too long at Churchill’s image and lines become blurred, and the form of a statesman shifts into a Mr-Blobby-like figure with a penchant for early career military disasters and drunken race tier lists that never made it onto YouTube. We must heed Noel’s words and look to the future, a future free from the polluting force of Western culture.

Western nations are beginning to realise that they have misunderstood the concept of democracy, and they look enviously towards China, the world’s most successful democratic nation. In the West, democracy is an ornament, part of a long list of hollow values that politicians pretend to uphold. The West must learn from China’s whole-process people’s democracy, which puts the people at the heart of decisionmaking, and allows the people to contribute to every stage of decision-making. In the UK the voices of the people are only heard at elections. In China, the people speak and they are heard, at all stages of all policymaking

endeavours. In this way the people of a nation truly hold political power.

Our magnificent country is at a crossroads. Do we continue down this perilous path towards doom, or learn from the innovations of our friends to the East? It is time to leave behind our flawed Western liberal values, which no longer serve any practical value, and move towards something better. Can you truly look around the world and still be inspired by the troubled figures of our unfortunate past? Now is the time to open our eyes to the bright future that is possible for us.

Photo credits: 1 - Paul Box 2 - Batum Gendarme Administration 3- United Nations Information Office, New York

*3

21

InQuire Monday 31 January 2022

Satire

Dorian and the Explorers: prog rock band lands in Kent

By Hamberto Thickloins, Sex Defender

water bottle.

Antipholusi et HSBC uses a multitude of effects t was after his cousin submerged the band and recording techniques, including heavily toaster in the paddling pool four the fourth distorted autotune on the chorus of time that Darrell Flake began to think about his the song and nine struggling music career. Amid an intense threedifferent day bender, drummer Larry Colchett had become types of convinced that toasters held satanic energy. By reverb drowning the toaster, the drummer killed the band on most and left his distraught cousin to reflect on three of the guitar years of drug-fuelled misadventure in the musical parts. Keenan justified the range of effects, “We wilderness. Flake, vocalist and guitarist for prog recorded all of the parts in a small hotel bathroom, band Dorian and the Explorers, has only recently so we felt the need to add some depth with the become acquainted with success, as the band effects. Ignacio (producer Nathan Ingle) came embark on a tour of pubs around Kent. Flake and up with a great combination of reverb plugins new drummer Calvin Keenan sat down with me to that really makes it sound like we recorded it in a discuss their musical journeys and influences ahead spacious studio. Ignacio does things with autotune of their upcoming tour. that no one has done before, we really feel like “Prog is the easiest way to describe the band artists are yet to fully realise the potential of in one word, but I do think that the label fails to autotune, but we’re pushing it into really exciting capture the essence of our band,” Darrell explained, territory.”

“I love prog, only a few months ago I sold a third Darrell serves as the chief lyricist of the band, of my pedalboard to buy the recent Caravan 37though drummer Keenan and bass player Adil disc boxset. But if you listen to our music with the Jermaine contributed lyrics to other tracks. expectation of finding prog, and only prog, you’d be Antipholusi et HSBC draws from Shakespeare as disappointed.” well as Darrell’s personal experience of trying to get The Explorers’ new single Antipholusi et HSBC a loan for the band from HSBC. “Yeah I read The exemplifies this description of their sound, with Comedy of Errors for inspiration. I’ll be honest, I its sonic variation leaving the listener feeling only picked it as it’s Shakespeare’s shortest play. displaced and deeply confused. “I used We tried to read King Lear once whilst cucumbers instead of drumsticks on attempting to get high off of supermarket that track,” drummer Calvin Keenan nutmeg, but we never finished it. The said, “I was going for a more organic, Comedy of Errors is fun, it gave more dynamic and ultimately more me the idea for the song: twins hydrophilic sound. The cucumbers being accused of fraud after seemed to follow the track, slowly coincidentally going to the same degrading until the natural conclusion HSBC branch at different times and of the song. It was so atmospheric man. applying for loans.”

You had to be there to truly appreciate The band are well known for the artistic quality of the cucumbers, using complex harmonies and I’ve never felt so connected yet unusual time signatures. This distant from my kit. In some gives their music a jarring ways I was restricted and unsettling sound, with technically by the lack critic Jess Adams describing of drum sticks, but the sound as ‘like that of a wedding only by surrendering reception being sucked into a car exhaust pipe’. A them I was able number of critics have accused to ascend to Keenan of poor timekeeping, a different which he has repeatedly level of denied, “Most critics would say that as they have a limited understanding of rhythm. I never lose time, I am time. I feel so constrained when we put up boundaries and stick with the same old time signature for a whole song.

Again, it comes back to authenticity and willingness to truly connect to the music, musicianship.” critics don’t “It’s like Satisfaction understand by the Stones, except it because instead of hearing the they don’t see click of Keith Richards enough of it.” turning on his fuzz Darrell’s main musical pedal, you can hear the inspiration is YouTube cucumber splattering music teacher Rick Beato. over the mics Through watching videos throughout the song,” of the YouTuber, Darrell Darrell enthused. “I can’t realised that there was a way think of many recent for him to escape his career singles with that level rut. Darrell looked extremely of authenticity,” Darrell excited at the mention of continued, before sipping Beato’s name, saying: “Rick from an evidently opaque taught me everything.

Photo by Michael Meyer/Unsplash

I

Most importantly, he taught me not to worry about ‘making it work’ when writing a song. By using complex

Keenan in particular is looking forward to the tour, “Who would’ve though a couple of years ago that us three would do a full tour around Kent. I don’t think there are many other places that can compare to Kent when it comes to touring. The crowds will be a little bit overwhelming – in Whitstable we’re looking at a raucous crowd of Photo by Charles Deluvio/Unsplash 20 to 30 people, we’re just not used to that.”

Flake agreed, “It will be a lot to take in at first but I can’t see how it can go wrong, we play good music chord structures and peculiar scales you make a and we’re accomplished musicians. Sometimes, song great. The chords don’t have to fit the song, and this is rare, I do struggle to work out which their complexity justifies their use. Sometimes I chord we’re on during our improvised sections. I’ve feel that song is lacking something, so I throw in found a way around this though, I just play halfa couple of 13th chords in order to add something diminished chords until I recognise where we are. I extra. Sometimes you have to fight your intuition to love half-diminished chords, they never quite sound make a good song.” right and they never quite sound wrong. One time I The band’s debut single Transmission and was stuck on the same chord for 7 minutes, I think Extradition is evidence of this song writing the audience enjoyed it though - they seemed to approach. The track includes one of Darrell’s most respect the bravery.” popular licks, a winding journey over C major The band hope to release a live album made thirteenth, D minor major seventh, C# halfup of recordings of their upcoming tour, and are diminished to C minor eleventh. Flake admits that planning to begin work on their next studio album he doesn’t properly understand the chords and immediately after the tour. Darrell explained: their functions, but: “I saw them on Rick’s YouTube “We’re hoping to come across new influences and channel so they must be good chords. If they were ideas on the tour, maybe we’ll end up going in a bad chords he wouldn’t have featured them.” He completely different direction on the next album. further explained the chord selection, “I like the We’ll enjoy ourselves as much as we can, and then letters to be close together D, C#... you know. If you we’re straight back to the studio.” start messing around with too many letters song writing becomes a dangerous game.”

The band begin The debut single failed to please critics, with their tour on Barry Hamer from ProgRock Now! saying: “I have Friday the 4th never encountered a group of individuals like February at The these three from Dorian and the Explorers.

Pearson's Arms, Despite their good-natured intentions to Whitstable. push boundaries and innovate, the band Tickets are availend up going in the opposite direction able on the band website: https:// with musically regressive and illogical bit.ly/3rF9QKF songwriting.”

However, Transmission and Extradition gained a sizeable cult following, with particular attention paid to Flake’s unusual guitar playing.

Keenan recalled watching Flake record the guitar part, “Darrell played some mesmerising licks during that session, I haven’t seen anyone play with such disjointed fluidity in such a confident way. Just after the main solo you can hear a thud – it was me jumping up and accidentally hitting my head on the showerhead. I was that excited.”

Darrell elaborated on the equipment he uses for recording, “I like to keep my signal, and tone, coherent by using matching equipment. Right now I’m using a Fender guitar, plugged into a Fender amp using a Fender cable. Oh yeah, I use a Fender strap as well as a Fender medium pick.

From my fingers to the amp everything matches and is in harmony. I think that if I mixed and matched with different brands I’d end up with a diluted sound. My friend works at a guitar shop and I’m hoping that he can get me some kind of sponsorship deal with Fender, I think they’d really benefit by associating Photo by Mikkel Bech/Unsplash themselves with our band.”

22

Monday 31 January 2022 InQuire

Entertainment

Titane did not deserve to win the Palme D'or

By Ed Streatfield, Newspaper Entertainment Editor

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itane, the French entry for 2022 Oscars and Palme D’or winner is far and away the worst film to receive the prize in the 21st century. The emperor is not only adorning new clothes among the global circles of film criticism but waving his Nouvelle Vague’s in neon fishnet tights. This is extremely disappointing after Julia Ducournau’s cerebral and grotesque vegetarian cannibal allegory 2016’s Raw achieved a nauseating level of violence with a bold female gaze lacking in the history of horror. However, Titane, although idiosyncratic, is a film that convolutes opaqueness for depth. The film centres around a woman who experiences a car crash as a child while annoying her ambivalent father, leading her to have a titanium plate fitted to her head. As an adult she becomes an exotic dancer, where she performs coitus with a flaming Cadillac, leading to

her impregnation by the machine. As she embarks on an inexplicable murderous rampage, she breaks her nose and shaves her head in an act of gender fluidity to hide as a firefighter’s son.

Mechanophilia, a term to denote sexual desire over machinery and technology, is a reoccurring motif in the history of cinema. Starting in the silent era with Metropolis, where a cyborg woman is the product of patriarchal desires of complicity and a lack of agency, like a Frankenstein’s Monster of male sexuality.

In the 1970’s mechanophilia can be seen in exploitation films such as The Sex Machine as a response to male anxieties around the rise of Second Wave

Photo by BFA/Alamy Feminism.

However, the tail end of the 20th century actualised these ideas in their fullest grotesque Freudian force with Tsukamoto’s 1989 Tetsuo: The Iron Man and Cronenberg’s 1996 Crash.

The former a body horror masterpiece concerning a metal fetishist, metamorphizing from flesh into iron; probably the most torturous hour and seventeen minutes one can endure. The latter being an alienating psycho analytic study of desire, following a group of people who recreate famous car crashes to transform their trauma into controlled fetish.

Titane can be seen as the continuation of these themes with a seasoning of gender fluidity,

Photo by BFA/Alamy

feminism, paternal love, and the Oedipus Complex.

What was so frustrating about Titane was its potential to conjure gleeful levels of confrontation which it fails at. The violence was cheap and lacks the grotesque stomach punch body horror requires. The messaging has individual scenes of brilliance like a revenge scene towards a creepy stalker, but all these scenes culminate into an aloof soup of pretentious pondering with crass croutons.

We are meant to care for the characters whose performances are limited to a sleepless Kubrickian stare. What drives Raw forward so excellently is a fundamental understanding of the power of character development and plot, Titane instead is everything tiresome about the French New Wave presented like the ramblings of a charlatan who gets their sociology exclusively from Twitter.

I expected the yassification of body horror via mutilation, instead the blade is blunt and pointless.

Spiderman: No Way Home sticks the landing

By Rhona Lonergan, Film & Television Correspondent The most anticipated movie of 2021 is upon us and boy, it did not disappoint. No Way Home has amazingly managed to live up to all of the anticipation and hype to become the most successful movie of the year and the pandemic. The build-up to the release of this movie is as much a part of the story of No Way Home and its place in cultural history as the film itself. Even before the movie’s first trailer was released, rumours about the third movie in this Tom Holland MCU interconnected Spiderman trilogy were running rampant. You couldn’t browse social media without hitting a casting rumour or three. Six months out from release, the lack of any trailer had people wondering if the Marvel/Sony joint venture was scrambling to meet expectations.

When a trailer finally was released, well, things only got crazier from there. The trailer became the most viewed movie trailer in under 24 hours, then the most viewed trailer ever as it was officially revealed that villains from the previous Spiderman franchises would be making appearances. But the record breaking didn’t end there. No Way Home managed to break multiple presale records worldwide before storming through opening weekend to become the 8th highest global box office. The huge buildup of expectations could have led to an

even bigger disappointment if the movie wasn’t able to deliver what it promised. Luckily, it was able to do this and more, leading to its well-deserved longterm success.

No Way Home deals with the fallout from Mysterio’s bombshell identity reveal at the end of the previous movie. Peter (Tom Holland), MJ (Zendaya) and Ned (Jacob Batalon) deal with the world knowing that Peter is Spiderman and the complicated ramifications that association can have on their lives going forward, especially when misinformation is rife around the

circumstances of Mysterio’s death. Dr Strange’s (Benedict Cumberbatch) intervention ends up hurting more than helping, leading to some of the toughest fights and decisions that Peter has ever had to make. Peter must decide what kind of hero he wants to be, even and especially when everything is on the line.

No Way Home delivers on all of its promise. It meets expectations and then exceeds them in ways you couldn’t have imagined. Logistically and emotionally, it does everything that the final movie in a trilogy should do. It provides a satisfying ending that follows through on, and

Photo: Sony/Disney

concludes, narrative and character arcs developed in the previous movies, but it manages to do it in a way that still leaves the door open for future projects. A seemingly paradoxical outcome but a necessary one for something that is a part of the fabric of an interconnected universe, or two.

Especially for Spiderman, who is the child of two parent companies with shared custody, and Sony’s plans for an extended Spider-Man universe makes Spiderman’s future in the MCU an uncertain moving target.

There are no dead weights in this cast with every actor bringing their A-game, but special mentions have to be made for the titular Tom Holland who brings a growing maturity and depth to the role this time around and Willem Defoe (Norman Osborn aka Green Goblin) reprising his acclaimed role with the same complexity and sincerity as his first time around the Spider block. While the plot is not without some holes, that is soon forgotten when taken in by the competency of the writing in the poignant and emotional moments of this film, and when laughing along at some of the delightful and surprisingly dry wit.

No Way Home is about sacrifice, consequences, altruism and growing up but most importantly it’s about redemption. A second chance to fix your mistakes whether you’re a superhero, actor or filmmaker. It’s the culmination of 20 years of cinema and it is the must-see movie of 2021.

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InQuire Monday 31 January 2022

Entertainment

Dawn FM: the second instalment of a brand new trilogy

By Ainy Shiyam, Head of Photography & Design

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fter Hours was a dancefloor record released when every dancefloor was under lockdown, an attempt to bridge the gap between a despondent persona and Billboard-charting retro-funk, flirting with both impulses without committing to either. On Dawn FM, released with essentially no fanfare, the Weeknd has gone all-in on a biblical fantasia, melding frisson and fear into euphoric disco and ’80s R&B with life and death stakes. And for the first time in all his dead-eyed chronicles of debauchery, he sounds a little scared about it.

Dawn FM is a concept album, sort of. In interviews, Abel has said that the album plays like listening to a kind of adult contemporary radio station as you sit in a traffic jam in the tunnel, only the tunnel is purgatory and the light at the end of the tunnel is death. Here’s a quick run-down of the songs in the second part of a New Age trilogy.

1) Dawn FM The opening track on the Weeknd’s ambitious 5th studio album has lyrics of Abel pondering what is after death. At the end an eerily calm radio station commentary by Jim Carrey begins with: “It’s time to accept your fate with open arms.”

2) Gasoline This seems to be the most polarising song on the album. At first it was weird listening to a song that uses a voice that Abel has never used before in any of his previous tracks. But after a repeated listen it sort of grows on you. The lyrical content is of Nihilist’s Anthem that is sonically teased 80s synth which sets the whole vibe for the album.

3) How Do I Make You Love Me? Another great tune. The production creates a richly vibrant atmosphere and the chorus soars.

The transitions on this album are immaculate and doesn’t even feel odd when played on shuffle. One of my personal favourite transitions are the end of this song on to the next.

4) Take My Breath This was the only single leading up to the album’s release and in the album, it is the extended version which elevates the track in every way. Another standout.

5) Sacrifice One of the best beats on the entire album here. The Michael Jackson influence is clear but the Weeknd makes it his own. This one is gonna be played a lot.

It’s just so fun.

6) A Tale by Quincy Quincy Jones takes centre stage in this interlude, telling a personal story of his past and how it affected his relationships with women. It seems Quincy’s story is one he can empathise with and can draw parallels for his own life.

7) Out of Time On the heels of Quincy’s nostalgic tale, we get a song where the Weeknd loves a woman but due to him not expressing those feelings sooner, he is out of time as she is happier with someone else. The song ends with a Jim Carrey Monologue, telling the listener not to switch the station as you, the listener, is out of time.

8) Here We Go… Again.

This song is hilarious.

The production sounds like it’s church or for a wedding. But the lyrics intentionally poke against marriage.

Both Photo by The Weeknd Abel and Tyler, The

Creator stick to this theme. This song also confirms the Weeknd is dating actress Angelina Jolie, as he claims that his new girl is a movie star.

9) Best Friend This song is the embodiment of classic Abel, in his Kissland era – dark, sultry, sexy and playboy vibes all around. This song is about Abel cutting off a sexual partner as she wants more with him so she’s just his best friend now. It is a bit cringe and weird if you think about it. Overall, the delivery of the song is top notch and nostalgic.

10) Is There Someone Else This is THE best produced song on this album, the high-pitched vocals at the start of the song are very addictive and have a nostalgic feel compared to Abel’s previous songs. Abel in this song is concerned his significant other is seeing someone else. Although it hurts, he knows that he is the last person to judge therefore, wants to know the truth.

11) Starry Eyes This transitions seamlessly into Starry Eyes, which in my opinion is the saddest song in the album. The production is minimal as it relies on ambience and some building synths from the previous song. Even though Abel is hurt by his actions he still can’t stop thinking about her.

12) Every Angel is Terrifying An epic instrumental begins this track and as much as I wanted Abel to sing in this track, I was satisfied with the interlude

we got, as it builds the concept of the album further. We get a radio advertisement, promoting the afterlife, urging the listener to leave their past life behind and move on.

13) Don’t Break My Heart Another Retro 80s song. This one is solid as well, but it doesn’t really tread any interesting ground musically or with the subject matter. It’s a decent song but my least favourite. It could’ve been taken off the album.

14) I Heard You’re Married Here the Weeknd tells the tale of a woman he had fallen for who deceived him and was married to another man. Because of this Abel doesn’t trust her to have a relationship with him. Lil Wayne echoes the same feeling through his verse. Overall, the song has a solid flow but slightly different from the vibe the album gives off.

15) Less than Zero If Save Your Tears from After Hours is your favourite, then this song is along the same lines in Dawn FM. Abel expresses how he is going to be ‘less than zero’ to the way he treated someone whom he had a relationship with. The lyrics centres around him wanting to be free and hiding his darkest truth. This can be interpreted as his sin and without confronting it, he can’t be free from his purgatory. A neat encapsulation of the concept of the album itself.

16) Phantom Regret by Jim In the finale, Jim Carrey takes the reins, giving a poetic monologue over a very gloomy and atmospheric instrumental. Jim is the radio host in the afterlife here, urging the deceased to let go of their regrets and sins and cleanse themselves if they want to see heaven as the song progresses, we hear the Weeknd harmonizing with the instrumental as the tone in Carrey’s voice intensifies. This serves as a perfect outro for this album.

Prioritise Pleasure is the best album of 2021

By Alex Charilaou, Newspaper Editor

“There’s nothing that scares men more than a woman who appears deranged”. That is a

Photo by Olivia Richardson

courageous mission statement for a woman in the music industry to make.

Regretfully, I didn’t come across 2021’s best pop album until 2022, when it topped a number

of the year’s retrospective lists. Self Esteem’s staggeringly confident sophomore album Prioritise Pleasure was The Guardian’s top album of the year, and entered the 2021 top ten lists for NME, the BBC and the Independent. The plaudits are well-deserved: Prioritise Pleasure showcases a remarkably talented pop artist at the zenith of their creativity. In Prioritise Pleasure, Self Esteem (otherwise known by her real name Rebecca Lucy Taylor) is angry, melancholic and jubilant, occasionally all at once.

On the first track – ‘I’m Fine’, incidentally the best on the album – she channels the melodramatic impulses of Joni Mitchell and the Hippolytan indignation of Fiona Apple with a unique, witty lyricism. Over prickly electro-R&B beats, Taylor is taking no prisoners: “Yeah, you scare me / Does that make you feel manly?”. The song ends with a spoken word testimony from a group of women who admit to barking like dogs to scare predatory men away. The next three songs focus on the confusion of the chase, and how instinct can give way to self-destruction: “my hunger times my impatience makes me feel reckless”, as she explains in ‘Fucking Wizardry’.

The hedonistic, messy thrill of sex – though especially of foreplay – are the object of ‘Hobbies 2’ and the eponymous ‘Prioritise Pleasure’, the two most anthemic songs on the outcome, and again two of the strongest. It’s an unbelievably

frontloaded album.

The critical darling of Prioritise Pleasure, ‘I Do This All the Time’, is a boring, monotonous self-help tape which – while containing some lyrical gems – disfigures the pace of the album.

The following song, ‘Moody’, is a similarly dreary affair which lacks the punch of ‘I’m Fine’ or ‘Fucking Wizardry’. The energy doesn’t really pick up until ‘It’s Been A While’, a bitterly downto-earth song about fucking your ex and hating yourself for it.

The final four songs on the album – which are almost as good as the first three – raise the album from above-average to exceptional. ‘The 345’ and ‘John Elton’ are upbeat, though deeply sad, paeans to forgotten romances: on the latter song, “I’m reminded of a joke we had / so I go on my phone to tell you / and your profile picture is the lad / your girlfriend gave birth to”. Taylor’s concluding statement, on the operatic final song ‘Just Kids’, is one of triumphant defeat: “I wanted to be loved by you, you never did / and it comes back down to this”.

Self Esteem is something this artist does not lack, and for all the album’s shortcomings, confidence is certainly not one of them.

Prioritise Pleasure is up against some pretty stiff competition for album of 2021, but on sheer force of personality alone it might just take the mantle.

Sport www.inquiremedia.org/sport

InQ Quire

NO MORE NOVAK

Lack of vaccination catches up with Djokovic as 2022 kicks off with a bang Photo by The Indian Express

Photo by AP

By Samuel Leah, Newspaper Sport Editor

A

s we kick off the new sporting year of 2022, we’ve already been gifted with one of the most bizarre and laughable stories in sport.

The Australian Tennis Open is in full swing this month, but the tournament has been somewhat overshadowed by controversy, as it will be without world number one Novak Djokovic. The 34 year old Serbian had his Visa revoked twice and asked to leave the country after attempting to enter with a medical exemption, and therefore will not be able to challenge for his record 21st Grand Slam, a title which would place him ahead of joint leaders Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

This is a rare and exciting story. In most sports, athletes' vaccination statuses are kept personal to themselves. In current times the norm is regular testing, and isolation in the event of a positive test.

With this system sporting events are allowed to occur as normal.

In the case of the Australian Open, the country has had to deal with several athletes entering the country from overseas, and thus as a safety measure, officials have the right to ensure that each individual is safe to enter.

Djokovic has been open about his opposition to the Covid vaccine, being of the belief that he should be able to keep his freedom, and that a proof of vaccine shouldn’t be required for travel.

The reason for Djokovic’s medical exemption is still unknown, but most likely acts as the simplest and easiest way for the Serbian to dodge

any questions regarding vaccination, therefore keeping his ‘freedom’ intact. Though, with no concrete reasoning for an exemption, it was only a matter of time before a situation such as this would occur.

Australia as a country remains tightly ruled when it comes to COVID, especially in regards to people traveling in and out. They have every reason to remain cautious, especially at the moment when the surge in Omicron cases continues to rise, hitting the country particularly hard. The Australian government and its citizens felt that it was irresponsible for Novak to enter the country and ask for an exemption after they had endured a long period of strict lockdowns and other Covidrelated restrictions, leading to a streak of low cases in the country for many months before now.

Australian prime minister Scott Morrison was openly critical of Djokovic and stressed the fact that the countries measures had been put in place for a reason, and there should be no exemptions or changes for anyone, no matter who they are.

The decision was given to revoke Djokovic’s visa and detain the player while the case reached a final verdict.

Many in Novak’s camp were undoubtedly upset with the whole ordeal. Particularly, Novak’s father criticized the decision, passionately claiming that the decision was purely political and had nothing to do with the sport or the competition at all. Fans of Djokovic have also stressed their disappointment, with many taking to the streets in Melbourne to protest, remaining in the country for several days and holding several strikes.

Shortly after Djokovic’s first case was cleared, news was leaked revealing that the Serb had attended a public event a day after testing positive, when he should have entered a 14-day isolation period instead. Djokovic has since addressed this run of events and cleared things up, but it strongly shows his freedom-like approach. Of course, it is great to see him making time to attend several events like this, but arguably he should also keep in mind the current landscape and respect the wishes of everyone.

In light of this information, the country reconsidered their decision, and agreed that allowing Djokovic to remain in the country was ‘not in the public interest’. His visa was cancelled for a second time, starting the cycle all over again.

It was later revealed that a potential reason for the courts decision was that, if Djokovic remained in the country and participated in the contest, he may have inspired an ‘anti-vaccine’ sentiment among Australians, which would have the potential to further increase new cases in the country.

The racket that has been caused by the whole affair has been insane, from fans being told that they couldn’t display banners in support of Djokovic in the stadium, to Djokovic supporters being pepper sprayed in the streets whilst the Serb was detained in the Australian quarantine hotel. Djokovic’s legal team are also reportedly considering legal action against the Austrailian government after their treatment of the Serb.

And it might not end there, either. Next on the list is the French Open, which will take place in Paris in May. French authorities share a similar level of

strictness in regards to Covid rules; holding the same belief that no special treatment is given to anyone. We’ll have to wait and see, as rules may be relaxed by then, and Djokovic’s troubles would therefore be eliminated.

Speaking before the tournament kicked off, Rafael Nadal has stated that the tournament will still be 'great with or without’ Djokovic's involvement.

He’s lauded him as “one of the greatest players in the sports’ history” but admits there is “no one player in history that is more important than an event”. Several other players have also come out and admitted that the whole situation is not surprising given the Australian stance on covid safety. Meanwhile, British star Andy Murray, who was eliminated from the tournament in the second round, has criticized the decision making that took place during the controversy, arguing that everything was rushed and happened too fast.

All things considered, I can respect the decision that the Australian government has taken, as well as how they’ve handled things, bar maybe one or two certain aspects. At the end of the day, safety should undoubtedly come first, regardless of the sport, and players should aim to do as much as they can to ensure sports events can carry on as normal.

I for one am glad the whole situation has wrapped up and that it now won’t interrupt the tournament, which will undoubtedly be an enjoyable and successful one, Novak or no Novak.