ISSUE 04 - 2016 MARLING SCHOOL
CONTENTS Women Walking..................................................................................................................................4 Three Minutes To Midnight....................................................................................................6 Photo Page: Bridges........................................................................................................................9 A Gift From God................................................................................................................................ 10 Click....................................................................................................................................................................12 In An Instant............................................................................................................................................13 Dale Vince Interview................................................................................................................... 14 Year 7 Poetry..........................................................................................................................................17 We Will Never Forget................................................................................................................. 18 The State Of Sport In England........................................................................................20 Time................................................................................................................................................................. 22 Ten Minutes From Home........................................................................................................23 Thirteen Trips To Mexico.......................................................................................................24 Photo page: Water.......................................................................................................................26 Credits ..........................................................................................................................................................27
EDITORIAL INK - THE STORY
“I don’t know where I’m going from here, but I promise it won’t be boring” - David Bowie
The fourth issue of INK magazine has been a long time in the making. Picking up the reins from the previous team, the new team have approached this issue of INK with vigour and relish. Time has certainly passed since our last issue was published. Seasons have changed, icons have died, and the political balance of the world has dramatically shifted. But we at INK have carried on, undeterred, to bring you this fourth issue of our magazine. This issue is a smorgasbord of the creative Marling community, from interviews with green energy pioneers to imagined realities in dystopic futures, with contributions coming from all over our school. Thank you to the previous INK team for starting this issue off, as well as all those who have contributed to it in any way. Special thanks go to the Marling PTA for their help with funding, as well as Ms Harris for overseeing the project. So, without further ado, please enjoy this, the 2016 issue of INK magazine. The INK Team Dan Guthrie, Managing Editor
3
Women 4
Alec Barton Year 13
Walking
G
eneral Cleaver had taken control of the seventh province; the last free state. The illusion of freedom fabricated by this once prosperous leader had diminished into the fires of deception. Life was not as green as it was; the very air was said to be thick with the greed-fed austerity manufactured by his fascist regime. Any remnants of hope were slowly crushed by his self-elected dictatorship. A prosperous future beckoned under Cleaver’s leadership following the fall of elitism. The revolution commenced, and was over soon after it began. Like an arrow is released from a bow, the world changed in an instant. He promised them equality, he promised them safety, he promised them a future. The words sting like poison to those who now hear them rattling within their minds. Anyone can make promises, they said, just as easily as anyone can break them. Cleaver’s democratic leadership leisurely warped into totalitarianism. No one could reason with him. The monster he had become plagued the states like a disease infecting the minds of all who encountered it. ‘He is like them’, they whispered into the blackness, ‘he has become one of them’. The elitist power that originally dominated these lands, the very thing that instigated the revolution, had returned and blackened his heart with its festering greed. A purple haze engulfed the streets with mystery in the ever darkening light. The pavestones glistened like stars in the night sky as rain drops cascaded upon the surrounding steel fortresses. A streetlight flickered in the distance, straining to remain alight as blackness enclosed it. Nothing grew, except for the deformed spines of ivy clawing for grip as they ascended further towards their goal. An industrial wasteland lay before the naked eye, decaying like the jagged cliffs of the seafront. Perpetual misery was omnipresent. A woman appeared from a narrow alley holding a baby against her chest. Her wet, brown hair dripped on the dull rags she called clothing. Her skin was browned and charred by the soot and ashes of the indigence under Cleaver’s rule. Her feet, red from the torment of virtual slavery, struggled to bear the weight of her exhausted corpes. The baby, barely protected from the deluge, screamed out in a cry for attention. It did not eat that night. Nor the night before.
Her azure eyes glistened in the faint reflections of the moonlight; as if they were crystal blue seas gently stirring on the shores of her pupils, they were the one beacon of hope left in a body bound by fate. Such reckless injustice was forced upon the people, they had no choice but to sink into submission or face imminent death. The vicious rain was pounding and the woman progressed onwards; for what seemed like eternity she lingered on, clutching her infant tight to her body as the invading arms of the bitter wind attempted to penetrate the warmth of their innocent bodies. The rain lashed across the woman’s face like a whip striking a cowering soul; she seemed to have no destination, just an awareness of her fatal exposure. Hour after hour she trudged, and for mile after mile, the ruins of an empire were all to be seen. A large, black object came into view several hundred metres ahead of the woman as dawn broke over the horizon. Its size ever increased, like a warping shadow in the shifting light. The woman continued on however, dazed from the grip of the new day. Her baby was silent now. Its last, agonising gasps painfully released in a state of desperation. Such fragility of life is sacred, yet so easily taken away in this world. The woman, aware of the futility of her actions to save her child, laid it to rest on a bed of stones parallel to the road. A single tear gently rolled down the undulations of her left cheek. A tear not of remorse, but of revenge. The black object revealed itself through the flourescent rays of the morning sun. It was a platoon of soldiers marching in perfect synchrony like a legion of identical beings. Their pace was fast. The woman could feel the vibrations of their marching shaking her core. The pebbles littering the ground shook in the tremor as if an earthquake was imminent. She looked up, struggling to believe the petrifying image that lay before her. She wiped away the tear, and fled to the adjacent building. She crouched by a window ledge to avoid being seen but watched as the mass of bodies migrated closer. Her eyes were piercing and focused. Her heart pounded like a drum in her chest. Her body shivered as injections of fear pulsated through her. For a moment, all was silent …
5
THREE MINUTES
TO
Tom Jacks
MIDNIGHT The debate over nuclear weapons has lost none of its passion or power to engage people across the entire political spectrum. And the spectre of a nuclear holocaust continues to haunt our lives through the media, novels, films and video games. So how real is this threat and what would it mean for our planet? 6
THE
first part of that question is very difficult to answer and one that scientists have been attempting to measure since the horror of the first nuclear detonations. The Doomsday Clock is a symbolic representation of this measurement. Created by a symposium of scientists in 1947 as a response to nuclear threats, the concept is pretty simple: the closer they set the clock to midnight, the closer the board believes the world is to disaster. Since its creation the clock has moved backwards and forwards - between seventeen minutes to midnight in 1991 and two minutes to midnight in 1953. In January 2015 the Doomsday clock was set at three minutes to midnight – the closest it’s been to midnight since US-Soviet tensions in 1984 - and this status was retained at the latest symposium meeting in January 2016. Of course no one really knows what lies around the corner. We rely primarily on the rather deathly sounding deterrent of ‘mutually assured destruction’: launching a nuclear attack would be suicide and so an undesirable option for any stable and rational power. And therein lies the problem. It is suspected that nuclear technology is being developed secretly by countries such as Israel, Pakistan, India, Iran, Syria and North Korea, where stability is in short supply to say the least. This fear is amplified by cases of corruption and theft that have led to nuclear material circulating in the black market, which could be taken advantage of by militant groups who wish to cause destruction, even on a relatively small scale. A foot-long stick of radioactive cobalt, easily found in a food irradiation plant, combined with ten pounds of explosives, could contaminate 1,000 square kilometres and make some areas uninhabitable for decades.
THE CONSEQUENCES The consequences of a full nuclear attack - a nuclear holocaust - would be unspeakable and explains why it is a fear that will not go away. The English word “holocaust” is derived from the Greek term “holokaustos” meaning “completely burnt.” The only time the world has truly seen the “completely burnt” effect of a nuclear bomb was in the final days of World War II, in August 1945, in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The atomic bombs ‘Little Boy’ and ‘Fat Man’ killed 90,000– 146,000 people in Hiroshima and 39,000–80,000 in Nagasaki; around half of the deaths in each city
What would a U.S/Russian attack mean for our planet? Imagine 2,600 high alert, strategic nuclear weapons launched from both sides headed to targets in the U.S, Europe and Russia. Then imagine the 7,600 remaining operational weapons and warheads that would be launched in retaliation. Here is what might happen to planet earth: Hundreds of large cities in the U.S., Europe and Russia are engulfed in massive firestorms which burn urban areas of tens or hundreds of thousands of square miles/kilometres. 150 million tons of smoke from nuclear fires rises above cloud level, into the stratosphere, where it quickly spreads around the world and forms a dense stratospheric cloud layer. Rapid cooling of more than 20°C over large areas of North America and of more than 30°C over much of Eurasia, including all agricultural regions 150 million tons of smoke in the stratosphere would cause minimum daily temperatures in the largest agricultural regions of the Northern Hemisphere to drop below freezing for 1 to 3 years. Nightly killing frosts would occur and prevent food from being grown. Massive destruction of the protective ozone layer would also occur. Massive amounts of radioactive fallout would be generated and spread both locally and globally. The targeting of nuclear reactors would significantly increase fallout of long-lived isotopes. It would be impossible for many living things to survive the extreme rapidity and degree of changes in temperature and precipitation, combined with drastic increases in UV light, massive radioactive fallout, and massive releases of toxins and industrial chemicals. Already stressed land and marine ecosystems would collapse. Unable to grow food, most humans would starve to death. Even humans living in shelters equipped with many years worth of food, water, energy, and medical supplies would probably not survive in the hostile post-war environment. Source - NuclearDarkness.org
7
occurred on the first day but the after effects continue today. It is terrifying to think that while this devastation was inflicted by 15 and 21 kiloton bombs, modern weapons can contain up to 50,000 kilotons. Any decision to deploy such massive weapons, along with the inevitable retaliation, would instantly kill many millions of people and plunge the world into what is called a ‘nuclear winter’, comprising ferocious firestorms, a huge injection of soot into the atmosphere, and an overall cooling effect on the earth’s surface temperature. In the case of a nuclear winter, we could see global temperatures drop to an average not seen since the last Ice Age approximately 10,000 years ago. On top of this, due to the release of the soot into the atmosphere, less than 1% of the solar radiation would reach the ground for three to four years. In terms of farming and agriculture, a nuclear winter could shorten
1947 - 7 minutes to midnight
When first launched the clock’s hand sits at 7 minutes to midnight to highlight the “urgency of nuclear dangers”.
1949 - 3 minutes to midnight
The clock moves closer to midnight as the Soviet Union tests its first nuclear device.
1953 - 2 minutes to midnight
The US creates the hydrogen bomb.
1963 - 12 minutes to midnight
Atmospheric nuclear testing ends.
1984 - 3 minutes to midnight
US-Soviet relations reach their frostiest level in years.
1991 - 17 minutes to midnight
The Cold War is over, and the clock jumps back.
2015 - 3 minutes to midnight
Set at 3 minutes to midnight due to “unchecked climate change, global nuclear weapons modernisations and outsized nuclear weapons arsenals”, all of which pose “an extraordinary and undeniable threat to the continued existence of humanity”.
8
the “growing season” to almost half its current length, bottoming out at 80-100 days; it is doubtful whether this is long enough for many staple crops to survive.
THE SOLUTION Given the nightmare scenario that any nuclear attack would unleash, the need for a solution would seem urgent. Sadly, multilateral nuclear disarmament – in which all countries give up their weapons - is extremely unlikely and will not be reached by any resolutions that have yet been proposed. So for now the world must rely on those world leaders who have this destructive power at their fingertips being either too responsible to consider using such weaponry or too terrified to make the first move. It doesn’t feel like an entirely comfortable time – three minutes to midnight.
DOOMS
DAY CLOCK
Photo by Aaron Coltman
PHOTO PAGE: BRIDGES
Photo by Harry Stimpson
9
A GIFT
FROM GOD 20th April 1984
Luke Webb
He’s barely born when I first see him. I’ve come to collect his mother. She’s 53. Death in childbirth, the definition of bittersweet. He should be dead too, they say. A miracle. They call him Aayan, a gift from god. Aayan Mahfouz, a gift at a price. I don’t know it, but I will see him 4 times.
20th April 1994 Exactly 10 years later I see him again. Aayan Mahfouz the schoolchild. My charge on this unremarkable New York afternoon is Lisa Carver. 54 years old, teacher. It’s the end of school; Aayan, with a haunted look behind his eyes that has come to characterise his demeanour, spends it as he normally does, surrounded by burly boys twice his size. “A gift from God?” they taunt, “Some gift.” I’m early you see, Lisa isn’t due for another 5 minutes. There’ll be a car accident right outside the school gates. I’ll do my job, and life, or death, will go on. It always does, or at least it always has done. Today one of the resentful thugs throws a punch. Straight to the eye. His name is Brad. Brad Kennick. I make a note. I’m nothing if not fair.
10
Red faded to black, and then I could see only a vision of the leering bully, fists raised, imprinted on the inside of my eye. And then even that faded. Suddenly my mother was there. “Aayan, Aayan. It’s going to be OK.” Her voice was as beautifully soothing as I’d always imagined. she gingerly reached out towards my face. My eyes jolted open. My mother was gone; in her place was my maths teacher. I burst into tears; it had been so... real. Mrs Carver dabbed gently at my eye with her scarf, promising it would stop hurting. But it wasn’t for the pain that I wept. I glance perplexedly at the hourglass. 10 seconds. She’s still with the boy. What’s going on? The truck ploughs past, but it doesn’t hit a car. There’s no car to hit. I look at the hourglass once more. I almost drop it. Under my horrified gaze it’s refilling. Slowly but surely Lisa Carver’s life extends itself before my eyes. Unaware, she continues to dote over Aayan Mahfouz. Equally oblivious, the gift from God sobs for the mother he never knew.
20th April 2004 If it wasn’t for that same haunted look behind his eyes I wouldn’t recognise him at all. Aayan Mahfouz the law student. Hair slicked back, designer clothing, at the wheel of his BMW. You’d think he was having the time of his life. But he’s not. It surely won’t surprise you, but after the events of 10 years ago I’ve tried to keep a close eye on him, and though his appearance has matured, he is more sullen than ever. But our paths haven’t crossed since the incident of 1994, which is what makes me particularly wary now, as Aayan Mahfouz’s car encroaches on my vision, briefly blocking my view of my current duty. This time its Jean Thompson, 52. She’s due to die in a housefire in about 10 minutes.
the moment my mother was placed in the ground. For once it was for my own trauma that I wept. He sails through the air and I gasp in solidarity with hundreds of onlookers. I’ve seen it thousands of times before, but as I look towards the hourglass I halfexpect to see it refilling as Jean and Lisa’s had done. But it doesn’t. I make my way to the body. For one last time, red faded to black and then there was nothing. No pain, just silence. Peace at last. I bend down and pick up the soul. My fourth and final meeting with the gift from God is done. I turn to go, and almost drop the soul in consternation. Aayan’s mother softly reaches out her hand towards me.
It was my birthday, yes, but that was never happy for me. It was normally spent with my mother. Placing flowers as if they’d bring her back. I was 20 years old, but all that mattered was that she was 20 years gone. I brushed a tear from my eye as I traversed the junction. I must have lost conciousness because all I remember is the road fading. Black, to red, to nothing at all. And then, just like that day in school, my mother was there. “Aayan...” she seemed to be calling, reaching out her hand. But once again, just as our hands were merely inches apart, I was shaken awake. A man in green uniform pressed a cloth against a wound on my leg. But it wasn’t for the injuries that I wept. Jean sprawls on the bank, wrapped in the paramedics’ blankets, looking in horror at the mangled mess where Aayan’s BMW had struck her car. The explosion is audible even from here: 2 streets away Jean’s house bursts into flames. But there are no victims. The victim is here. This time I’m not even surprised as I watch the hourglass refill before my gaze. Jean is gently helped to her feet and escorted to an ambulance. She’s sat down alongside Aayan Mahfouz. The gift from God has struck again.
20th April 2014 I’ve had the date marked. I’ve been waiting with a mixture of intrigue and trepidation. I scoop up the soul of my last job and look down at the name on my next hourglass. Aayan Mahfouz. Is this it? I prepare my tools, but somehow I hardly expect it will happen. I make my way to the bridge. The police have cordoned it off and a crowd has gathered. I barely recognise him, wild hair and untamed beard, but he stands atop the railings with the haunted look I’ve become accustomed to. It was too much. It was like I was cursed. I couldn’t make anything last, and my family had disregarded me
11
CLICK Taylor Niblett
I
could not believe he was standing there. I watched in silence as he fell to his knees. He coughed up blood, which ran down his chin; mixed with the rain.
His eyes turned to me, those eyes burning into my soul. I lowered the gun that was in my hand. The man now lay in the mud. His blood oozed out onto the road. He clutched his chest as he rolled onto his back. His laboured breath escaped into the night. With a final splutter he lay motionless, hands stretched towards me. I walked over to him, my feet splashing in the puddles. Kneeling down, I picked up his briefcase. The case was what I had come for. Pulling out a pair of bolt cutters, I snipped through the handcuffs holding it to his dead wrist. I stood up, holding the wet leather case in my other hand. I began walking back to my car. I heard a ‘click’ in the blackness of the night and turned to see; but I knew what it was. I moved quickly, almost sprinting for my car. I reached the driver’s door and yanked it open. Sitting in the car, I placed the briefcase on the passenger seat. I heard the rain thudding on the roof. Turning on the courtesy light and opening the case I saw it. The gold watch glinted slightly.
Click I felt breathing on my neck and slowly realised - I wasn’t the only person in the car.
12
IN AN
INSTANT I
remember seeing an old watch on some sci-fi show. It was used to conceal someone’s identity, their life... their species. Of course, that’s just some old sci-fi nonsense; a whimsical tale to entertain. At least, that’s what I used to believe. But that’s changed now. It’s different; it’s been different since it all happened. Since he happened. I say ‘he’, because he never told me his name or anything about him. He was tall, cloaked, wore a very floppy hat which hid his face. Hell, I didn’t even know his skin tone! But I trusted him; I had to. My parents did, my sisters did, everyone did. I suppose I should introduce myself. I’m Citizen 278, the ‘Rogue’, as the locals like to call me. I used to live peacefully with my family, in the State. The State is where all Citizens live, a safe-haven, where uniformity and equality was encouraged... But it was taken too far. The Government forced everyone to follow the same routine, daily. Nothing interesting ever happened. It was all rather dull. But when my parents were killed, I was forced to be eliminated by the State’s Holders these creepy droids that hovered around. I was different from everyone else, with my erratic emotions and always red eyes...
Thomas Dando
As the Holders moved in, he destroyed them in front of me. But then he was gone in an instant. That’s depression for you a brief glimpse of happiness, taken away from you, me, all of us... In an instant.
13
DALE VINCE INTERVIEW
After leaving school at age 15, Vince became a new age traveller and lived nomadically for a while before founding Ecotricity. It has gone from strength to strength over the years, building a dedicated customer base; money from these customers is reinvested into new wind turbines and the exploration of new green energy technologies. Vince received an OBE from the Queen in 2004 for services to the environment and in 2010 became the chairman of Forest Green Rovers football club.
Q
What is your earliest memory of being interested in environmental issues?
That’s an easy one; it would be when I was maybe 13 when I was at secondary school. And I remember thinking about all the cars on the road and how much petrol they carry, you know 10 gallons each at the time, and trying to imagine how much that was in total, and where it all came from, and thinking that it had to run out one day, because everything does. But nobody back then in the mid-70s was talking about oil running out.
Q
What was the first step on the path that eventually led to Ecotricity?
My first step? On this journey? Would have been to try and build a windmill at Nympsfield on the hill where I was living in my trailer, where I had a little windmill producing power for me. I saw the first wind farm in Britain, built in Cornwall, and thought I could ‘drop back in’ and build a big windmill on the hill that I was living on. That was the first step for Ecotricity really.
Q
What would you attribute your success to? Determination? Originality?
A lot of factors, probably doggedness has got to be an important one I think, because that first windmill took 5 years to build and if I hadn’t built it, it’s hard to know but I guess everything else wouldn’t have followed. But there were just a number of dead end obstacles that stood in my way in that first five years. Not being willing to take no for an answer, I’d say,
14
Dale Vince is the man at the head of Ecotricity, the world’s first green energy company, whose mission is to change the way electricity is made and used in the UK. Ecotricity is Stroud’s biggest employer and has three buildings dotted around the town. The main building, situated on the outskirts of town, is where we met Dale to ask him some questions. was a key thing. There were lots of obstacles standing in my way, but every now and again, you know, there’d be a lucky break, I’d meet the right person or get a good idea. Originality is important as well: being the first company to sell green electricity, I think that was helpful. There’s no one thing.
Q
For people that don’t know much about Ecotricity, could you summarise the company’s ethos, or motives?
I suppose we began as a green energy company and we’re still primarily that, and we set out to change the way firstly electricity was made in the UK, and was used in Britain. Most recently we introduced green gas as well as green electricity, so that made us more of an energy company, rather than just electricity. A few years ago we expanded our horizons from energy into the worlds of transport and food. I set out to tackle energy first because I became aware that 30 per cent of emissions in Britain come from the making of energy by burning fossil fuels: it’s the single biggest
contributor to carbon emissions and unsustainability, so I thought that’s the place to start. Years later I started thinking about it a little bit more and transport is the second biggest and food is the third biggest. Between the three they make up 80 per cent of carbon emissions and unsustainability. So our current mission has expanded from just electricity to energy and to transport and food. Our mission is sustainability really we’re trying to bring about a green Britain.
Q
For the few people out there that are still sceptical about global warming, what would you say?
There can’t be many of them can there? I would say, people thought the world was flat once and it wasn’t was it? But I don’t think there are that many that are sceptical of it; there are some for sure, but I would say that the overwhelming weight Interview by of scientific evidence is against them, you know. The evidence is really right in front of them, in front of
Edward Oliver
their eyes. The extreme weather that we have here in Britain is less than we have in other parts of the world, but we’re starting to feel it, so I’d say wake up.
Q
What do you really want to achieve and how could Ecotricity help you do this?
We’re trying to pursue this idea of a green Britain. On the energy front for example, we think there is enough renewable energy to power the entire country. We could stop burning fossil fuels, we don’t need nuclear energy, and we can do it with the wind, the sun and the sea, making green gas from grass. Smart goods are an important part of that, the use of technology; electric cars are the big answer in the transport sector, because fossil fuel burning vehicles are a big part of unsustainability. There are massive economic benefits as well, because we are using £80 billion worth of fossil fuels annually in this country, which is a massive sum of money. If we invested that instead in making green energy then we’d just be so much better off as a country: it would improve the economy by bringing more jobs and employment. We want a green Britain 100 per cent powered by renewable energy, where every car on the road is electric; it’s all about a green economy, which we think will be like the next industrial revolution.
Edward Oliver and Tom Jacks meeting Dale Vince at Ecotricity’s headquaters
“Don’t be afraid to explore the world and your own capabilities” 15
Q
What was your opinion of the recent United Nations global warming conference in Paris?
The aims are fine, but the problem is the lack of follow up: this is COPA 21, the 21st time they’ve had a conference, so it’s been over 20 years. It’s been going on a long time. I’d like to see more action and less talk. In Paris David Cameron said we need binding targets, but he just pontificated. In reality he moved against sustainable energies for gas, for fracking and for nuclear. There’s too much of that going on in the world. It’s easy for politicians to say things, but they don’t follow words with action. So I’m hoping it’ll be different this time: we’ll see. Eventually it will change; eventually we just have to act, sooner than later I hope.
Q
What made you decide to become chairman at Forest Green?
So would you say football is more of a passion or a business venture for you?
Oh, business for me is a means to an end, so I don’t do business for the sake of doing business. Business is our tool to get the outcome, which is a sustainable green environment, so Forest Green is kind of a new tool for the outcome. It’s not a business venture, but it is a way to push the environmental message. It’s very interesting, I’m enjoying it and it has been very worthwhile.
Q
Is the culture clash between the new vegan, green club and the old image of the football club and fans intentional?
Well it’s not intentional, but we just haven’t avoided it intentionally. You know we believe what we believe, and I’d say football is living in the past a little bit, maybe 20 years behind the rest of the country in terms of its culture. I get where you’re coming from.
16
Q
With the obvious environmental benefits of veganism, how do you think you could convince more people our age to become vegans?
I think it’s easier with people your age actually; I think you guys are open to ideas and stuff, but the real problem is probably people my age that are a bit stuck in their ways, you know football fans and people that say well this is the way we’ve always done it. Football fans are a good example of that. They say this is historical and the way it should be. But really I would try and convince anyone with on the one hand, the information - I think people don’t really know where their food has come from, the way it’s manufactured, the environmental impacts, so information is important. But I think on the other hand the demonstration of just how good the food is and that’s what we’ve been doing at Forest Green, or one of the things we’ve been doing. I think the great vegan food we have is quite surprising to people.
“You’ve got to stand up for what you believe in”
It was that or see it fall over. It began just by helping them out, and it turned out they needed an awful lot of help, and then kind of having one foot in the door I felt a slight responsibility. If I’d walked away they would have just fallen over.
Q
Some were a little angry when we took red meat off the menu and things like that, but it doesn’t matter to me, you’ve got to stand up for what you believe in.
Q
And finally, if you could give someone our age some advice for a successful life, what would it be?
I’d just say do what you want - that’s all I’ve ever tried to do. I think it’s the most important thing. In another way it’s just being true to yourself, stay true to the things that interest you, the things you think are worthwhile and worth doing. My advice is almost not to take advice, and certainly don’t listen to other people if they say you need to get a job and a career and do conventional things if you don’t want to. You know, do what you feel is the right thing to do; don’t be afraid to explore the world and your own capabilities and that kind of thing. Try stuff out, that’s what I did.
RIVER HORSES Charging through the countryside, side by side they run, Kicking up the greenery, a sudden silver flash, Off towards the sunset, off towards their freedom‌ Causing chaos they sprint Hunting for the end of the world Chasing all their dreams. Finally they’re together Together forever.
YEAR 7 POETRY THE WIND HARE The hare is gone with the wind, Swooshing and swerving across verdant plains, Whiskers twitching frantically, As danger lurks around the corner. Chasing the horizon, As swift as the wind it sprints. Floating in thin air, Stamping on the dusty floor Creating a rush of air as it lands. This hare is a raging wind. No boundaries He runs free as the open air.
17
WE WILL
NEVER FORGET Each year The Holocaust Educational Trust takes a group of sixth-form students from across the country to the death camps dotted around Europe. The most well known of these are Auschwitz and Auschwitz Birkenau. It was in these two death camps that the Nazi regime destroyed the lives of millions of people. The Trust’s aim is to reduce anti-Semitism in schools in the UK by showing students what happened in the death camps. It has been running these trips since 1999 and has taken close to 30,000 students. From our Sixth-form we had the privilege of sending three students: Toby Mckenna, Joe Morgan and me. When we arrived at Auschwitz 1 the sense of death was apparent as soon as we stepped off the coach. We began our walk through the infamous gates bearing the words ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’. When translated into English this reads ‘Work Sets You Free.’ A horrendous statement looming over a place in which millions of people were forced into physical labour on pain of death.
Nazi regime The first thing I noticed was how systematic the layout of the camp was. Everything was carefully planned no inch of space was wasted. It is chilling to think that the Nazi regime dedicated all this time, money and effort to making killing as efficient as possible. Strangely, as dark as the place was, I was stuck by moments of beauty every now and again. And those moments are what really make you think. You realise that you are seeing the same views people would have seen over 70 years ago that maybe gave them
18
Louie Parfitt
hope that they one day would be taken away from that hell. We were allowed to walk through a gas chamber, where countless people perished. There were scratch marks on the walls of a cold concrete hall with no natural light and a single hole in the roof through which they dropped the gas. Again, one word constantly reverberated through my mind ‘Systematic.’
Auschwitz The second camp - Auschwitz Birkenau - was vast, at over a square kilometre. That gives you some idea of the scale of the extermination at just one of the camps. This was when we came to the hardest point of the day. We had the privilege of hearing a speech from a Rabbi. He spoke to us about what people had gone through and how we need to stop anti-Semitism now in our communities and how only we can stop this ever happening again.
Moment of reflection We began our journey home, over 200 teenagers in complete silence for hours and hours. It is still a moment of reflection for me and I often think about it. It was a life changing experience and something we will never forget.
The entrance to the Auschwitz death camp
Louie and Joe at the camp
19
THE STATE OF SPORT
IN ENGLAND Radical changes are needed to reverse a pattern of failure in English sport. England’s green and pleasant land hosted the Rugby World Cup in the autumn of 2015, which saw the host become the first ever to exit their own competition in the group stages. England started comfortably with an easy victory over Fiji, but defeats to Wales and Australia left them on the brink of disaster, relying on Welsh victory against Australia and an emphatic victory over Uruguay. Wales were subsequently defeated and the hearts of England fans across the country were shattered. English Rugby was left in a shambles: a common theme when it comes to England and major tournaments. England went into the 2015 Cricket World Cup as World No. 1 for One Day Cricket, yet they were knocked out in the group stages after only defeating Scotland and Afghanistan. The football team did no better in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Drawn against Uruguay, Italy and Costa Rica, the competition was admittedly high. But England failed to win a single match, and was one of the first teams out.
FINANCIAL LEVEL To find out why England is failing miserably, there needs to be a serious look at how English sport is run. English football has never been wealthier. Compared even to the giants of the European game, Spain and Germany, its domestic league operates on a different financial level altogether. When the new £5.14 billion broadcasting deal commences in, all 20 of the Premier League clubs will be among the 30 richest in Europe, yet England haven’t tasted success in International Tournaments since 1966. The issue with football in England runs throughout the top leagues as well as at grass roots level. The clubs make sufficient money from their own resources so that the international game is an irrelevance. Worse, it is an inconvenience. It leeches off their contracted
20
Jack Vines
talent and jeopardises their progress by returning players exhausted and injured from international competition. If they were not bound by long-held FIFA agreement they would frankly rather not release anyone, anytime, never mind for second rate competitions like the U21s. The U21s have failed to get out of the groups for a second consecutive tournament, despite having players such as Harry Kane and Jack Butland, who have been stars for their respective teams over the past season.
TOO MUCH RISK Moreover, unlike in rugby and cricket, in which clubs have a direct financial return from producing new young players for the international system, football clubs have no incentive to bring on young Englishmen. Frankly there is too much effort, too much risk, too much uncertainty involved in doing that and for sure, with the majority of them now under foreign ownership, the clubs in the Premier League don’t even have a patriotic imperative to support the England set-up. This is compounded by a sheer lack of English talent in the top leagues, with less than a third of the total minutes played in the Premier League being accounted for by English players. In La Liga, home of 2010 World Cup winners and European champions Spain, Spaniards account for 59 per cent of all minutes played. In Germany’s Bundesliga, the home of the 2014 World Cup winners, Germans make up 50 per cent. Yet in the Championship, the figure played by English players rose by 7 per cent to 70.5 per cent. Playing time is an issue, as this leads to players losing form, yet when England went to the 2014 World Cup, the manager, Roy Hodgson, picked Wayne Rooney despite his not playing in the final month of the Premier
League season due to injury. This is a trend that has angered many fans, especially when players such as Sunderland’s Connor Wickham, although untested at International Level, was in much better form. In the other two national team games in England, the money lies with the international side. In cricket and rugby union the clubs need a buoyant, successful England side to finance their progress. In rugby union it is the cash cow of Twickenham that lies at the heart of the game’s strength. The clubs need England to do well in order to continue to generate the income that keeps them afloat. So they are happy to structure the game to the international team’s advantage, ceding their best players to England mid-season every year for the Six Nations, happily agreeing to the scheduling of a World Cup at the start of their domestic competition, and as a result not being able to field their stars for another three months. The 2015/16 English Rugby Premiership is likely to lose a huge source of cash flow after a disastrous rugby world cup.
ISSUES The issues in football are completely different from the issues in cricket and rugby, yet they still produce the same result: a lacklustre performance that embarrasses the nation. The International game is too heavily relied upon in cricket and rugby to help the national teams to raise the income to invest in future stars. In rugby, many are going to countries like France to develop their careers, halting potential
POISONOUS ATMOSPHERE Poor leadership is another problem in rugby as well as cricket. England Rugby’s Coach Stuart Lancaster’s picking cross-code union novice Sam Burgess went against his squad-building principles, as did dropping fly-half George Ford just one game into the tournament. With Ford at the helm, England were try-scoring machines. In 10 Tests they were outscored in tries only once. With him calling the shots they adopted a new bolder attacking identity. They were licensed to thrill and they beat Australia in the 2014 Autumn Internationals and in Cardiff against Wales in the opening weekend of the 2015 Six Nations in February. With England cricket, a poisonous atmosphere in the dressing room was attributed to Kevin Pietersen, who was dropped after the 2014 Ashes whitewash defeat in Australia. When it came to hosting the Ashes in the summer of 2015, there were calls to re-instate him in the team due to impressive performances for Surrey in the County Championship, yet he was not included. Despite England winning 3-2 and an impressive fourth test where England dismissed Australia for just 60 runs, England’s top order still looked unimpressive. It was an important comeback after a disastrous Cricket World Cup, yet England were still in disarray and have since struggled in tests against Pakistan, with England chopping and changing captains as they fail to win series in all forms of Cricket a continuous trend since 2010.
International careers as RFU rules ban any players who play outside of England from being selected for the national team. The clear victims are the young, talented players who will waste their careers because of the lack of movement in the national teams. It is now becoming rare for young talent to break into a squad: it’s always the same players in the team no matter what their form or whether they are recovering from injury. All three national teams are stuck in a vicious cycle of failure and, with no sign of an alternative plan, this failure is set to continue for the foreseeable future.
21
Tick tock went the old oak clock in the library. The old professor placed a big, dusty book on the table and sat down, stroking his long white beard. Tick tock went the old oak clock in the library. The family stood in the cemetery, weeping as the old professor’s coffin was lowered into the ground. Tick tock went the old oak clock in the library. The old professor’s daughter sat by her son’s cradle, watching him sleep. Tick tock went the old oak clock in the library. The old professor’s grandson sat in his office, typing on his computer. Tick tock went the old oak clock in the library. The old professor’s grandson lay in his bed dying. Tick tock went the old oak clock in the library. The old professor’s great granddaughter sat in the library, reading. Tick tock went the old oak clock in the library. The old professor’s great granddaughter put down the book, closed her eyes and slept. Tick tock went the old oak clock in the library. The new professor placed the big, dusty book on the table and sat down, stroking his long white beard. Tick tock went the old oak clock in the library.
22
Merlin Cain
TIME
TEN MINUTES
FROM HOME
10
Ten minutes from home
5
Five minutes from home
8 2 7 6 He sacked me and didn’t care
He uttered words with a sinister glare And now to home with much despair I was ten minutes from home
Eight minutes from home I had to pack my desk and leave
I wanted to hide my pain and grieve My job and money he did thieve I was eight minutes from home
Seven minutes from home Two years today. I loved her much
I miss her smile and I miss her touch But cancer took her from my clutch I was seven minutes from home
Six minutes from home I started my journey in the car
I knew that my home wasn’t that far But I pondered living with the stars I was six minutes from home
I mean what’s so bad about death? What else is there if there’s nothing left? I can just imagine my last breath I was five minutes from home
Cyril Koomson
3
Three minutes from home
But what about the life to live?
I still may have much more to give Though all my closest I’ve outlived I was three minutes from home
Two minutes from home I think I may have a decision I see my gorgeous in a vision And I brace for my collision I was two minutes from home
One minute from home
1
I slam on the accelerator knowing it’s time I fatefully cross the solid double line I have to leave this world behind
I’m home
23
THIRTEEN TRIPS TO
MEXICO There are some truly special places on earth and The Riviera Maya in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula is one of them. Now... many travel blogs wax lyrical about how turquoise the Caribbean waters are and how the powdered white sands stretch along the coastline, and I’d like to avoid such cliches. But actually i’ve got to agree with them all - this place is simply beautiful. Temperatures remain between 24 and 32°C all year round, which means that you can sunbathe, go hiking or swim with dolphins 365 days-a-year if you so please. The list of possible adventures is endless, with this stretch of coastline in particular renowned for its reefbased water activities such as snorkeling and scuba diving. I visited an eco-park called Chankanaab on the island of Cozumel. It is surrounded by a lagoon with underwater caverns, dolphins, manatees, turtles and even a crocodile farm. For many people, swimming with dolphins is a dream, but this became a reality for me at Chankanaab. A short boat trip took us out to a secluded bay and to my amazement, there they were. I looked over the side of the boat and one of the young bottlenose dolphins surfaced and started to smile at me. A truly fascinating and unforgettable experience. Another highlight for me was visiting Tulum - a Mayan city built in the late thirteenth century. The city is enclosed by a 784-metre wall which runs parallel to the sea. It acted as a fortification which preserved the seaport during the Caste War of the Yucatan between 1847-1901. The city was abandoned 70 years
24
after the Conquest and has been left untouched since. Visiting this archaeological site was a surreal experience, being surrounded by a limestone wall and Mayan pyramids with a view of the Caribbean Sea.
Aaron Coltman
If extreme jungle adventures are on your bucket list then the Riviera Maya is perfect for you. I have found myself zipping around the tropical Mayan jungle on zip-lines, jumping into fresh water cenotes and exploring underground caves. The wildlife in Mexico is beautiful and plentiful, so you will without doubt see monkeys, tropical birds, jaguars and other amazing jungle creatures on your travels here.
FOOD PARADISE And the food is exquisite too. Head to Fifth Avenue a strip running through Playa Del Carmen, a stunning city set along the Mayan coastline. This area boasts a huge selection of traditional Mexican food and Mexican shops. If Seafood is a passion of yours then you will be in cuisine heaven, and for steak lovers out there like me, another food paradise awaits you. I went for an evening meal at the ‘Sur Steakhouse’ and I had the best Filet Mignon I have ever tasted. A definite recommendation from me. So if you have ever thought about going to Mexico, stop thinking and get going! You will never look back. I have been to the Riviera Maya 13 times and I don’t regret a single visit. Book a flight. Book a hotel. And look forward to the best trip of your life.
13
Aaron Coltman reveals why he just keeps going back to Mexico. Not twice, not three times, but thirteen.
Tulum Ruins
25
PHOTO PAGE: WATER
26
Photos by Harry Stimpson
CREDITS 2015/2016 Team Jack Vines Iwan Hill Aaron Coltman Ed Oliver Jack Simpson Tom Jacks Harry Stimpson
2016/2017 Team Design Team: James McGarva Alex Retnik
Editorial Team: Dan Guthrie Alfred Taylor Benji Smith Alex Bradley Supervisor: Ms L Harris Cover Photo: Tom Jacks
Submissions: Work or images for submission should be emailed to: marlingpublications@gmail.com We reserve the right to edit any work or images submitted. Views expressed are those of the individual authors. Printing funded by Marling PTA www.marling.gloucs.sch.uk/pta