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Eat the rich – save the world

Elise Cacace (she/her)

We live in a world where money can buy almost anything, and being rich is generally perceived as something positive. You have more time, freedom, power and, arguably, more happiness. However, we’re missing one crucial point. Rich people are single-handedly annihilating our planet. I’m not just talking about the uberwealthy either. Any inflated spending power (e.g., celebrities, highly successful business owners, and trust-fund babies) automatically translates to an extensive carbon footprint, regardless of the possessors’ intentions.

First let’s start by dissecting the filthy rich. I’m talking about the likes of Musk, Bezos, Gates, Branson - the top one per cent of all wealthy people. Their affluence is excessive to a nauseating degree, and not just because we are all out here struggling to survive whilst they’re sitting on their thrones of billions. More and more frequently we are seeing them self-funding joyrides to space and back, with a single 11-minute mission emitting at least 75 tonnes of carbon dioxide per passenger. This is larger than the carbon footprint of the poorest billion people, and more than the average person will generate in their entire lifetime. Even without their quick trips into space, almost all of the world’s billionaires own yachts and planes and multiple mansions, which drives up their greenhouse gas emissions immensely.

“Flying on a private jet is probably the worst thing you can do for the environment,” says Transport and Environment (T&E) Aviation Director Andrew Murphy; which is why multimillionaires and celebrity icons are not that much greener than those in the top one per cent.

Research has shown that the world’s wealthiest 10 per cent are responsible for around half of all global carbon emissions, and that in 2022 so far, celebrities have emitted more than 3376.64 tonnes of CO2 each just through private jet usage. To put that into perspective, the average person emits only seven tonnes of CO2 annually.

Kylie Jenner recently posted a photo on Instagram of her and Travis Scott’s private jets, captioned “you wanna take mine or yours?”. This is a perfect example of the blissfully ignorant lifestyle that wealthy people lead, and resulted in many fans slamming the post for its ‘classless boasting’ amid the climate crisis and the rising costs of living. However, a survey taken by ‘Celebrity Jets’ showed that Kylie Jenner doesn’t even make the top 10 worst celebrity private jet offenders – she actually sits in 19th place.

Our number one celebrity climate killer is pop princess Taylor Swift, who’s total flight emissions rack up to a whooping 8,293.54 tonnes since January. Just under her is Floyd Mayweather, sitting on 7,076.80 tonnes of CO2 emissions. Then comes Drake, Jay Z, Kim Kardashian… the list goes on.

The answer to climate change now seems pretty simple right? Confiscate everybody’s private planes and hey presto, no more global warming. Unfortunately, this is not quite the case. Although banning private planes would help the Earth drastically, wealthy people have more than one toxic trick up their sleeve. If it isn’t planes, it’s boats and mansions and cars and technology and all other things superficial.

All of this is to say that, while the lavish lifestyle of rich people is appealing on a surface level, the deeper picture is not so pretty. Modern society has trained us to believe that the ‘jet-set’ lifestyle is something to aspire to, not decry, but by taking a step back and realising that wealthy people are overtly destroying our planet, perhaps we can alter our global perspective on rich people.

Viral app BeReal dubbed the ‘anti-Instagram.’

Elise Cacace (she/her)

For so long, photo-sharing social media apps have begged the promise of perfectionism. Filters and photoshop present us with an impossible world; a world where everybody has clear skin, white teeth and a flat stomach, and everybody is constantly on holiday or enjoying nights out. Now, the new photo-sharing app ‘BeReal’ is abolishing these notions and asking people to show their authentic, unfiltered selves.

The concept of the app is simple. At a random time, every day, you will get a prompt notification to ‘BeReal’. You then have two minutes to snap a picture, which is taken with the front and back camera simultaneously. After you’ve taken your BeReal, you then get to see all of your friends’ ones.

The app launched in 2020, yet in 2022 it has increased in popularity by over 315 per cent, and has become one of the top ten most downloaded free social networking apps. It has received praise for bringing the authenticity back to social media, removing the pressures and reality distortions that are often associated with other platforms.

“I love the whole concept of it. No filters. No planning. It actually gives me motivation to try and make the most of my day,” says Design student Tyler Brasell.

“I love how it isn’t a ‘doom scroll,’ type of app. It’s fun and engaging but it isn’t addictive like most other social media platforms are. I also love that it is slowly improving everybody’s confidence. A year ago, there was no way I’d be posting a photo of myself in my pajamas without makeup on, but somehow BeReal makes it totally fun and non-threatening,” says student Lena Kaful.

“I like how it has thrown away the aggressive algorithms and the ‘you might like this most’ sort of thing that you get with other apps, and that content I see on it is fully controlled by myself, because I swear, I see more ‘personalized posts’ on Facebook and Instagram than the people/groups I actually follow,” says Massey graduate, Jack Warren.

Amid all the praises, BeReal has also received a large amount of concern and criticism regarding the safety of the app.

“By posting a time-stamped photo of yourself every day, the app is essentially building a profile on you and determining a pretty accurate routine consisting of where you are, who you’re with and what you’re doing. It can also allow people to see exactly where you took the photo, down to the very house you took it in. To me, this is quite scary,” says an online commenter.

“Because there [are] no filters and no monitoring of the photos posted, it is quite easy for children and adolescents to be exposed to inappropriate content. There are also no parental controls, which means that even I can’t monitor what my kids see,” says parent Katherine Jenson. “The app has no advertising and influencer sponsorship, so I am worried that it is making its money through harvesting and selling people’s data, such as facial recognition,” says student Thomas Littman.

The age limit for the app is 13 years old and as a way of monitoring accounts and photos, the BeReal operators encourage everybody to report any inappropriate content.

“I don’t think it’s totally unsafe, but I don’t think it has as many privacy and security settings as other social media apps do. I think if you have your location sharing features turned off and you are only friends with the people you know, then it is quite safe to use,” Littman says.

For now, BeReal doesn’t pose any dangers that are not already associated with social media use, and it is arguably a far healthier alternative to other apps due to its filter free authenticity. However, it is still important to remain vigilant as the app progresses, as it still has a long way to go before it catches up with the popularity of Facebook and Instagram.

Muslim students tossed around by University

Sammy Carter (she/her)

The recreation centre, a storage room, a used classroom and now a dark far away space. Muslim students are thrown around Albany campus with no idea when the multi-faith building they were promised will be ready.

“At least gives us a roadmap,” Naomaan Riyaz, President of the Muslim Students Association said. He expected to have already moved to a multi-faith space, said to be ready by June this year. However, since mid-last year Riyaz has had no updates from the university, not even to say that construction hasn’t started.

The current ‘temporary’ space for Muslim students is a 25-minute uphill walk away from main campus on the Ōtehā Rohe (OR) campus. Muslims pray five times a day, at least two are within university hours. Riyaz said, “It's not that easy for students to go to the OR campus in the middle of the day.” He felt neglected by the university, “For students to have to walk 25 minutes one way and then pray for maybe 10 minutes and walk back 25 minutes. That’s too long.”

Not only is the current space far away, but many students have fallen on the slippery path. Riyaz has complained that it is very dark with trees covering it. “It's got a lot of issues, there's no lighting.” The walkway to the room is always wet from the trees and moss.

With over 100 members, the temporary space is not big enough for the Congregational Prayer held on Fridays with students and their families. It was also too small for the month of Ramadan, when students break fast at school. “That means food and drinks for about 60 people every evening. So that means we need a bigger space because we sit on the floor and eat,” Riyaz said.

Since 2020, the association has been relocated from a prayer space in the recreation centre, a storage room, a classroom in the Atrium building constantly being used by others, and now mainly use a ‘temporary’ room on the OR campus. Riyaz said, “I tried my best to get something on the main campus but they didn’t have a place and they were waiting for the new building … All we needed was a bigger space.”

A Massey University spokesperson confirmed that work on the multi-faith space is yet to start. “The work on the multi-faith space is yet to commence due to delays in the resource consent process with the local council. As soon as consent is received work will commence.”

Jake Law, Auckland Student Association President said, “I do think it would be good for those groups to actually have a dedicated space purpose built for them.” However, he has not been given any timeline of when the building will be ready.

“If you walk past the space, you can see that it doesn’t look like it's going to be open this year.” He understood the multi-faith space will provide some offices for chaplaincy and a prayer space for the Muslim Students Association.

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Diversity on full display at MAWSA culture week

Mason Tangatatai (he/him)

Last week, Massey at Wellington Students’ Association hosted Culture Week, an initiative to encourage Wellington students to share aspects of their culture to other tauira on campus. This week-long event saw students performing cultural dances, indulging in different types of kai and watching cultural films.

Prior to the event, MAWSA called out to students to take part in culture week, providing funding and venues to perform.

On Wednesday Jastika performed an Indian Bhangra dance at the Campus Co-lab, accompanied with traditional Indian snacks. This was followed by MAPS and Kōkiri Ngātahi serving lunch at the whare kai. The week rounded off with a Polish film screening, a South African lunch and a Vietnamese Film.

“It’s great to be able to accommodate and host our student’s culture. In Aotearoa we are so diverse, this is great, but it adds the pressure of needing to know enough to accommodate for each and every culture,” says Julian Tanaka, Team Leader at MAWSA.

“We hope Culture week takes away some of that pressure for students, and allows them to widen their cultural knowledge,” Julian continues.

With Massey University being host to a large cohort of migrants, and international students, Julian believes Culture week also allows people to reconnect with their cultures while living in Aotearoa.

“Being away from home can suck, we hope Culture Week helps students reconnect with their cultures, or even find some people to be friends with.” With three physical campuses, and a large Distance community, Massey boasts one of the most diverse cohorts across the country. Due to this, the university needs to have systems in place to encourage the celebration of culture, while also showing the support needed to ensure different cultures are accommodated for. Julian believes Massey can be doing more at the Wellington campus.

“At Massey Wellington at least, I don't think the University is doing enough. If Massey we’re keen to collaborate and grow on Culture Week next year, we would be happy to do so.”