The Beaver: Week of February 5th, 2013

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CRISIS UNENDING: THE DEATH OF SYRIA | A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME | THE REAL WAR BEGINS

TheBeaver

05.02.2013

Newspaper of the LSE Students’ Union FREE

‘RAISE FEES!’ Liam Brown

In a surprising backtrack, the London School of Economics Academic Board has made a recommendation to LSE Council to order a raise in tuition fees from ÂŁ8500 per academic year to ÂŁ9000. The vote was tallied 76 in favour, 2 abstentions, 33 opposed with all student representatives reportedly voting against the increase. The move is being criticised by the LSE Students’ Union, with General Secretary Alex Peters-Day commenting in a statement to the press, “With over 100 VWDŕŽ‰ DW /6( HDUQLQJ DW OHDVW ÂŁ100,000 and a surplus of nearly ÂŁ20 million in the last UHSRUWHG ன QDQFLDO \HDU LW LV somewhat surprising that the School is even considering to raise fees.â€? ‍ڔ‏7KH DGGLWLRQDO ன QDQFLDO support proposed is welcome, but this could easily be DŕŽ‰ RUGHG E\ DQ LQVWLWXWLRQ OLNH LSE which is in such robust

ன QDQFLDO KHDOWK‍ ڕ‏FRQWLQXHG Peters-Day. In a press release, the Students’ Union questions Director Craig Calhoun over the rise saying, “given that Professor Craig Calhoun is a signatory of the Manifesto for Higher education which calls for the abolition of fees it is somewhat surprising to VHH WKDW WKH ன UVW RSSRUWX nity he gets to discuss the School’s strategy to fee levels, he supports a policy to increase them.â€? An LSE spokesperson said of the decision “Moving to a ÂŁ9,000 UK undergraduate fee from ÂŁ8,500 would put LSE in line with other Russell Group universities and would be consistent with the market value and the quality of an LSE degree.â€? “All UK students, regardless of income, are entitled to a loan to cover the full cost of their tuition fees, meaning there is no upfront cost. All students are also able to take out a maintenance loan

from the government. This is in addition to all grants, bursaries and awards. The loan for fees and maintenance is paid back gradually once the student has graduated and is earning over ÂŁ21,000 per annum.â€? The Academic Planning and Research Committee, a branch of Academic Board, recommended in a fourteento-one decision, a rise to the maximum level of fees as set down by the UK government, and in a report to Academic Board obtained by the Beaver states, “It is assumed‌ that the proposal to move WR e LV LQ HŕŽ‰ HFW D GHFL sion to adopt the maximum fee chargeable as set by the government and this would LQFOXGH DQ\ LQŕŽ‹ DWLRQ DPRXQW added in 2014 and future years.â€? Pro-Director George Gaskell reportedly said, according to an anonymous source, that “If the government went to ÂŁ12000 we would go to ÂŁ12000â€? but was

rebuked by Director Craig Calhoun who claimed the motion was to set fees to ÂŁ9000. What Academic Board recommends is not immediately clear and will be subject to amendment by LSE Council. Whether fees for 2014 entrants will be higher than ÂŁ9000 also remains to be seen as the government has not yet announced if, in fact, there will be an increase in maximum fees levels to acFRXQW IRU LQŕŽ‹ DWLRQ Advocates for the rise in fees proposed by the Academic Board point to an improved bursary system that will help encourage those IURP SRRUHU ன QDQFLDO EDFN grounds to apply to the LSE. 50 per cent of the ‘extra income’ from the fee levels being set above ÂŁ6000 will go towards bursaries, according to today’s APRC recommenGDWLRQV 7KLV LV VLJQLன FDQWO\ higher than LSE competitor universities such as Oxford (41 per cent) and Cambridge (31 per cent).

The recommendations made by Academic Board to LSE Council, the School’s governing body, will be voted on by March 22nd, 2013. Following radical government reform, the cap on tuition fees was raised to ÂŁ9,000 for the 2012/13 academic year, tripling the original amount. LSE was, at that time, the only university in the Russell Group of research-oriented university to decline charging the maximum fee of ÂŁ9,000, setting fees at ÂŁ8,500 instead. The decision, ன QDOLVHG E\ WKH /6( &RXQFLO in May 2011, came despite recommendation by the Academic Board then to set fees at ÂŁ8,000. Student representative to the Academic Board, Nona Buckley-Irvine, opposes the rise in fees, stating “it is comSOHWHO\ XQMXVWLன HG WR UDLVH fees on the basis of ‘value’ when many students feel unsupported by their departments.â€?

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Editorial

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Editorial Board Executive Editor Liam Brown

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Managing Editor Matthew Worby

05.02.2013

TheBeaver Established in 1949 Issue No. 785

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The Beaver would like to thank the LSE students who contributed to this issue. Any opinions expressed herein are those of their respective authors and not necessarily those of the LSE Students’ Union or Beaver (GLWRULDO 6WD૸

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A E Dawson, A Doherty, A Fyfe, A Krechetova, A L Cunningham, A L Gunn, A Manawapat, A Moneke, A X Patel, A Peters-Day, A Qazilbash, A Riese, A Sulemanji, A Wright, A Young, B Arslan, B Butterworth, B Clarke, B Nardi, C S Russell, C V Pearson, D McKenna, D Ming, D Yu, E Beaumont, E Delahaye, E E Fraser, E Firth, E S Dwek, F Bennett, G K Chhina, G Manners-Armstrong, H Brentnall, H Burdon, H Dar, H Fenton, H J Sheppard, I Lorandou, I M Silver, J Allsop, J Attueyi, J Austin, J Curtis, J M Palmer, J M Still, J R Peart, J Stoll, J Tindale, J V Armstrong, J Wacket, J Yarde, K C Hughes, K Kenney, K Pezeshki, K Rogers, K Singh, L A Yang, L Atchison, L Aumeer, L Brown, L Kang, L Slothuus, L Vardaxoglou, M C +H૸ HUQDQ 0 )OHWFKHU 0 -HQNLQV M Veale, M Worby, N Antoniou, N J Buckley-Irvine, N Jaroszek, N Mashru, N Mateer, N Russell, P Gederi, R A Coleman, R Al-Dabagh, R Browne, R Cucchiaro, R Gudka, R Hamer, R Holmes, R Illingworth, R J Charnock, R Serunjogi, S Chaudhuri, S Desai, S Gale, S H Low, S Lindner, S Newman, S Nissila, S Poojara, S R Williams, S Sebatindira, S W Leung, S Hang Low, T Barnes, T Poole, V A Wong, V Chan, X T Wang, Z Sammour

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Stuck in the middle with you The LSE and the wider higher education system in this country needs to make a choice. Will education be a public good or will it be a SULYDWH RQH" There have been calls from inside this school and out on whether or not the LSE should privatise. We are not going to make a case for either because, quite frankly, we do not know enough about the intricate details on the matter. Nor do we have the space to properly outline an argument. However, with the LSE charging higher fees, presumably ÂŁ9000 a year for 2014 entrants - although we are still not clear whether the LSE will charge the government maximum (which could very well be raised in the coming weeks, PDLQO\ GXH WR LQŕŽ‹ DWLRQ RU

stick to ÂŁ9000 fees - an honest discussion needs to be had over whether we just ‘go full free-market’. ÂŁ9000 is not all that far RŕŽ‰ ZKDW PDQ\ SULYDWH 86 schools charge per year, when you consider the exchange rate and the fewer teaching hours at the LSE. Right now, it seems as though many UK schools are stuck between being a fully public institution and being a private one. In the words of an LSE academic in reference to the new fees rise, “the writing is on the wallâ€?. We don’t doubt the government will increase the maximum fees level (or perhaps get rid of it entirely). When that happens, it may just be time to once again consider privatising. This debate is an important one to have, and it is one

that must be had in an open and informative fashion. Realistically there are already external expectations from the average observer that if any university were to go private, the LSE is probably JRLQJ WR EH RQH RI WKH ன UVW to make such a move. Given the unique make-up of the university this debate needs to happen, and a satisfactory direction has to be taken by the upper management. Any confusion or indecisiveness cannot be allowed to happen. As President Hoover famously said, in politics there are times where one PXVW HLWKHU ‍ڔ‏VKLW RU JHW RŕŽ‰ the pot.â€? While the Beaver is yet to FOI the Director’s bowel movements, we here at the paper humbly suggest that the time for debate has reared its head again.

2ŕŽ‰ HQGHG" (PDLO us! editor@thebeaveronline.co.uk

8QLRQ %DVKÄ? Sabbatical The Sabbs went away. No chaos. Makes J-Wanke almost convincing. %DVKÄ? LV WKH %HDYHU‍ڑ‏V KDLNX SRHW +H UHFNRQV - :DQNH SODQQHG WR EUHDN LQWR WKH 6DEEV‍ ڑ‏RIILFH DQG dance on their chairs while they ZHUH JRQH EXW ORVW KHDUW ZKHQ KH UHDOLVHG WKDW DFW ZRXOG EH RYHU VKDGRZHG E\ WKH 63,&( ŕ­ž DVKPRE

News

The Beaver | 05.02.2013

A “Timeless� production

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LSESU TIMELESS

Hari Ramakrishnan

Timeless, a one-night-only theatrical extravaganza that incorporates many of LSE’s ன QHVW SHUIRUPLQJ DUWV VRFL eties, will be held at the Lyceum Theatre on Monday the 18th of February. From Bollywood to Ballet, London’s largest student production will be “the greatest installment in the history of

the societyâ€?, according to its director. Tickets are available on the Timeless stall on Houghton Street and online at the LSESU Timeless website. This year, Timeless will feature the tragicomedy ‘Lost in Hollywood,’ which follows three characters in their transition to adulthood. Through a homeless narrator, audiences will follow a girl who has QHYHU IDFHG ன QDQFLDO ZRHV D

WONG’S WEEKLY COMMENT For those of you who don’t know, the Complete University Guide has ranked us second above Oxford in their most recent Top UK Universities League Table (also worth noting that we’ve thrashed King’s by sixteen places). But does beating Oxford in the League Tables actually mean anything? Sadly, most of us outside the LSE Press Office will admit that it doesn’t. Something’s stopping us from truly being a world-class institution looked upon on the same level as Oxbridge and Harvard. No matter how many Guardian Education Awards it wins, marketing gimmicks like LSE100 won’t make us a worldclass institution. Attempts at Americanising LSE into a hippy liberal arts college won’t either. Instead, we need to rethink our fundamentals and get it right. First, it is simply shocking that we do not interview applicants. UCL, Oxbridge amongst dozens of universities in the UK get more applicants than LSE and yet they manage to interview candidates. The interview

process is crucial in weeding out dull, generally clueless and socially inept candidates so accurately captured in ‘The LSE Problem’ YouTube clip. Second, students must stop feeling as though they’re paying ÂŁ9000 for a set of PowerPoint slides and laggy recorded lectures. There’s a reason why attendance rates are so low in certain lectures and classes – they are simply uncreative, unimaginative and uninspiring. In general, lecturers should make more HŕŽ‰ RUW LQ HQJDJLQJ DQG LQWHU acting with students, which Harvard Professor Michael Sandel does so brilliantly. Instead of investing on fancy buildings, Womens’ Libraries and expensive bureaucratic structures, the School should spend our money on better quality Professors and teachers. Linking teachers’ pay to student feedback will also serve as an incentive for better teaching performance.

street-smart kid in a commuQLW\ VWLŕŽ‹ LQJ ZLWKRXW DPELWLRQ and an Englishman adopted by Indian parents. Part coming-of-age, part adult story, ‘Lost in Hollywood’ will portray how upbringing shapes everything in future life. Timeless has evolved far since its conception as a talent show. As the director stated, “last year was the much-needed step into making a respectable play with

an original script to unify the acts under one central story.â€? The Timeless “Lost in Hollywoodâ€? Launch Party, held on the 5th of February, will feature “an underground playground you never knew was there... a masquerade amidst many rooms‌ velvet nooks where beaded bubbles wink‌ D QHYHU HQGLQJ GDQFH ŕŽ‹ RRU and a chance to share a drink with Einstein.â€?

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A call for entrepreneurs

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fun. Members of the LSE team described the 2012 competition as an “invaluable experienceâ€?, which enabled them to UHன QH WKHLU DELOLW\ WR ZRUN XQ der the pressure and enhanced teamwork and problem-solving skills. The 2012 London Apprentice Challenge also saw Margaret Mountford – former aide of Sir Alan Sugar at the Apprentice, as part of the panel of judges. This year, the LSE SU Entrepreneurs Society is organising and hosting the LSE Apprentice Challenge to qualify for the London Apprentice Challenge. Teams will compete in two tasks and the winning team will have the opportunity to represent LSE at the prestigious London Apprentice against teams from other London universities, and perhaps at the National Apprentice. The LSE SU Entrepreneurs Society is now open to applications for teams of three or four members to compete in the London Apprentice Challenge 2013.

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Constantina Anthouli

The annual London Apprentice Challenge is soon to be held again. The Apprentice Challenge, based on the famous BBC TV series, is designed to test budding entrepreneurs through a series of tough business challenges. Each task requires a particular set of skills and is limited in time. Each university puts forward a team to compete in three tasks, set over one gruelling weekend, each WDUJHWLQJ D GLŕŽ‰ HUHQW VHW RI EXVL ness skills. In several tasks, from selling products on the street to pitching to companies, entrepreneurial-minded teams from LSE, UCL, Imperial and Kings College compete against each other for the title. 'HVSLWH ன HUFH FRPSHWLWLRQ the LSE is currently holding the title of the most entrepreneurial university. Last year, the team from LSE managed to leave its competition behind, with each team member winning a cash prize and a Kindle each. Moreover, the Apprentice Challenge was extremely well RUJDQLVHG DQG HQDEOHG GLŕŽ‰ HU ent teams to get to know each other, as well as have a lot of

The deadline for applications is Wednesday, February 6st 2013. To apply contact Constantina Anthouli at constantina@lse-entrepreneurs.org

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4

News

05.02.2013

| The Beaver

Students brave Tough Guy ers around the course were breaking up the 3 inch ice that hid the cold waters. A small group of LSE stu- Participants gathered for an dents braved unimaginable 11am start and as the guns circumstances to raise over ன UHG LQGLFDWLQJ WKH VWDUW RI ÂŁ2800 for the “FindYour- the race, contestants scramFeetâ€? charity on Sunday, EOHG WRZDUGV WKH ன UVW GLWFK January 27th. The LSE participants Tough Guy, marketed as stuck tightly in their teams, the “safest most danger- braving a 200m long ditch ous event in the worldâ€? is of ice water, 15ft high jumps a race staged over a course into a lake, crawling unof between seven and eight der barbed wire and crawlmiles, consisting of a cross- ing on hands and knees in country run followed by an a dark water tunnel, with assault course. The assault electric strips hanging from course claims to be tougher the roof. than any other in the world, All LSE students were featuring 25 obstacles, in- VXFFHVVIXO LQ ன QLVKLQJ WKH cluding ditches, freezing event, unlike other contestZDWHU SRROV DQG ன UH SLWV ants, some of whom were Before taking part, en- put on drips for hypothertrants must sign a “death mia. Free teas and hot chocwarrantâ€?, which acknowl- olates were handed out after edges the risks and dan- the event, and one member gers, and which the organ- of the LSE Football team isers claim absolves them of tipped his boiling drink over any legal liability in the case his head in a state of deliriof injury. First aid is provid- ous coldness. ed by St. John Ambulance Upon getting back on the and up to one-third of the coach, the participants were VWDUWHUV IDLOLQJ WR ன QLVK LQ D wrapped in foil blankets. typical race due to risks in- Other than the severe torvolving barbed wire, hypo- ture of the event, the event thermia and broken bones. was an incredible occasion, The event, organised by becoming the one of the LSESU RAG, saw partici- most successful RAG fundpants venturing from their raisers of the year. homes at 6:30am to catch a The life-changing sum of bus to Wolverhampton. money raised through the Upon arrival, organis-

Tom Mason

event will go towards teaching skills to those in a rural FRPPXQLW\ LQ ,QGLD RŕŽ‰ HULQJ an opportunity for that they would never otherwise have been granted. %HQ 6XWFOLŕŽ‰ H 3UHVLGHQW of RAG said afterwards, ‍ڔ‏WKLV LV WKH ன UVW WLPH WKDW ZH decided to put Tough Guy

into our events calendar, and what a fantastic event it was. We couldn‘t have been more proud from the huge DPRXQW RI HŕŽ‰ RUW HYHU\RQH from the LSE put in.â€? 6XWFOLŕŽ‰ H VDLG KH KRSHV for more keen recruits next year and congratulates all of this year’s contestants;

Jonathon Smith, Matt Roderick, Jack Roberts, Vikrant Shah, Rosie Hamer, Chloe Wetherall, Sabrina Jayaseelan, Rebecca Fox, Tom MaVRQ *HRŕŽ‰ UH\ +LOO +HDWKHU 2‍ڑ‏+DUD 7HRன OR %RGUH DQG Matthew Fletcher.

Gender equality in Turkey the major areas these conservative tendencies are reŕŽ‹ HFWHG DW DUH LQ JHQGHU DQG Last Monday, Professor Fer- IDPLO\ DŕŽ‰ DLUV &RQVHUYDWLYH ide Acar, professor of Politi- policy places family in the cal Science and Public Ad- core of society, which ofministration in Middle East ten reinforces patriarchal Technical University deliv- norms and values. Howevered a lecture at the LSE er, despite the “sacred famentitled “Gender Equality ilyâ€? perception of the govPolicies at the Intersection HUQPHQW ன QDQFLDO VXSSRUW of Neo-conservatism and to family remain minimal Neo-liberalism in Turkeyâ€?. due to the neo-liberal welOrganised by LSE Con- fare policies. temporary Turkish Studies, On the other hand, sigthe talk touched upon uni- QLன FDQW LPSURYHPHQWV KDYH versal topics such as minor- been made in the legal and ity rights, neo-liberalism, institutional frameworks of human rights, urban/rural women’s human rights and division and gender. gender equality that are Since 2002, Turkey has formally in line with current been under the rule of a sin- international standards in gle party, Justice and Devel- these realms. Turkish govopment Party (AKP), a par- ernment has accepted that ty with ideological Islamic the international judgeroots and neo-liberal eco- ment and law is superior nomic policies. Under the to domestic. However, AKP rule, Turkey has been when it comes to women’s JRLQJ WKURXJK D VLJQLன FDQW rights, the legislation refer process of conservative po- WR D VSHFLன F GRPHVWLF UXOH litical transformation. Fol- which prevents actions to lowing the adoption of neo- be taken against issues like liberal economic policies domestic violence against and a religious revivalism, women, which is still a very religion based morality no- pressing problem. tions are increasingly proThe talk also shed light moted in social and cultural on the universal issue of spheres. gender equality in Turkey According to Acar, one of and in the world, as the

Didem Tali

transformations caused by neo-liberalism and religious revivalism are far from being unique to Turkey. $FDU ன QLVKHG WKH VHVVLRQ

emphasising that empowerment of women cannot be realised by simply installing legislation, or protecting women and prosecut-

LQJ WKH RŕŽ‰ HQGHUV ,W VKRXOG be approached from all the parts including labour force participation, education and social security.

News

The Beaver | 05.02.2013

5

Sophie Donszelmann

In a time of continuing economic uncertainty, the LSE Growth Commission stressed that investment in infrastructure, education and innovation are crucial to securing the UK’s economic prosperity. In a much-anticipated lecture on Thursday evening, the LSE Growth Commission, working in partnership with the Institute for Government as part of the Centre for Economic Performance, released D UHSRUW RQ WKHLU ன QGLQJV IRU ‍ڔ‏,QYHVWLQJ LQ 3URVSHULW\ ‍ ڕ‏DV “an authoritative contribution to the formulation and implementation of a longterm growth strategy in the 8. ‍ ڕ‏7KH UHSRUW UHIHUUHG WR DV D ‍ڔ‏PDQLIHVWR RI JURZWK ‍ ڕ‏ aimed to “look beyond the short term to focus on long term questions. The report’s authors consisted of distinguished academics, policy makers and business professionals including Tim Besley, Francesco Caselli, Richard Lambert, Rachel Lomax, Nicholas Stern and John Van Reenen. Additional contributors to the report, John Browne, Chris Pissarides, Philippe Aghion were not present. Investment, not only in property as is the current domestic pattern, but in infrastructure and skills was one of the report’s key recommendations. This, according to the panel, was not workable within “adversarial poliWLFV ‍ ڕ‏7KH LQKHUHQW ODFN RI D

sustainable and stable policy framework to support long term investment has hindered growth. The commissioners stressed the importance of addressing and improving the weaknesses of the national educational infrastructure. This could be achieved through increasing the pupil premium, improving teacher quality and focusing on disadvantaged schools, which would “strengthen central DFFRXQWDELOLW\ ‍ ڕ‏7KLV ZDV UH lated to the commissioners’ emphasis on ‘human capital’, ZKLFK ZRXOG KDYH VLJQLன FDQW growth dividend. Investment in the infrastructure of transport, energy, telecommunications and housing were highlighted both in the presentation and the report to be “essential inSXWV LQWR HFRQRPLF JURZWK ‍ ڕ‏ It was also suggested to replace Gross Domestic Product as the most prevalent indicator of a country’s economic productivity. Many panellists reiterated that the brevity of the report did not equate to a lack of thoroughness or evidence behind the claims made. In response to this, Stern retorted that his “climate change report went to more than 700 pages — and I don’t think PDQ\ SHRSOH UHDG LW ‍ ڕ‏ However, Van Reenen admitted that the problems “will not be resolved in the space of a few years. It is vital to develop policies that look beyond the next budget cy-

Tate crowned Mr. LSE Hayley Fenton

The Mr. LSE contest returned to the Quad last Wednesday. Competitors vied for the top spot through challenges of brain, brawn and charm. $IWHU ன YH LQWHQVH URXQGV RI diverse competition, Erik Tate was named the most eligible man at the LSE. ,Q WKH ன UVW URXQG FRQWHVW ants were required to woo the audience with a sidesplitting joke. The second round, which saw participants attempted to engage the audience with a compelling story, was quickly followed by the talent round. The fourth round, the “Kit 2ŕŽ‰ ‍ ڕ‏URXQG ZDV JUHHWHG ZLWK loud cheers and wolf-whistles from the audience. The ன QDO QDLO ELWLQJ FKDOOHQJH RI VWUHQJWK VDZ RŕŽ‰ WKH FRPSHWL tion. Tate was eventually crowned Mr. LSE when he succeeded in holding two EXFNHWV ன OOHG ZLWK ZDWHU

longer than his opponent. According to Tate, “When I told my mum about it...the response was hard laughter GRZQ WKH SKRQH ‍ڕ‏ Participants entered themselves into the tournament and were judged by one female member of each Athletics’ Union club. At each round, the judges eliminated contestants by throwing a pie in the face of the unlucky participants. BSc Economics student, Anastasia Butakova thoroughly enjoyed Mr. LSE, stating “after a very hard and boring ten hour marathon at the LSE library, watching our ன QHVW PRVW WDOHQWHG DQG KRW test gentlemen competing for the proud title of Mr LSE ZDV H[DFWO\ ZKDW , QHHGHG ‍ ڕ‏ “Other ladies were absolutely thrilled by the performances, as the men demonstrated their witty minds and FUDFNLQJ ERGLHV ‍ ڕ‏ “In fact, the moment I enjoyed the most was when WKHLU FORWKHV ZHUH RŕŽ‰ ‍ڕ‏

cle, the next spending review DQG WKH QH[W 3DUOLDPHQW ‍ڕ‏ Throughout the presentation, the commissioners subtly hinted that much of the lack of current economic success and the necessity for such a report was due to the choices made in Westminster. Lomax declared that the “ current arrangements had VHULRXV GUDZEDFNV‍ ڕ‏LQ D V\V tem of government that possessed “weak politics when it comes to creating a stable, long-term policy environPHQW ‍ ڕ‏ This was a strong opinion that some found to be interesting, considering its negaWLRQ RI WKH ODUJH LQŕŽ‹ XHQFH WKDW ன QDQFLDO LQVWLWXWLRQV have in the determination of the UK’s economic status, especially considering that these views were expressed by the non-executive director of HSBC. One question, which met with some laughter, touched upon the notion that the commission came across as ‍ڔ‏LQFUHGLEO\ WHFKQRFUDWLF ‍ ڕ‏

WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM

Growth commission public lecture

The audience member, a former student of Stern, stated that it appears that the panel was accusing politicians of ‍ڔ‏VFUHZLQJ XV XS ‍ ڕ‏ZLWK WKH proposition to “sort them out and replace them with a large number of academics OLNH XV ‍ ڕ‏ The recommendations made by the commissioners

should not end in the publication of the report. The panellists were adamant that adaptations and new propositions need to be implemented by the government which would give rise to a more prosperous British economy and get to, as the commissioners stated, “where we ZDQW WR JR ‍ ڕ‏

6

News

05.02.2013

| The Beaver

LSE discusses China in transition November 2012 saw Xi Jinping take over the leadership of the People’s Republic of China in a once-per-decade power transfer. The past few years have also seen urban areas comprise more than half of the Chinese population IRU WKH ன UVW WLPH D GHWHULRUD tion in relations between China and countries in East and 6RXWKHDVW $VLD D VORZGRZQ in the economic growth rates that were unprecedented an\ZKHUH HOVH LQ PRGHUQ WLPHV and rising discontent over government corruption expressed through social media. These transformations and the challenges that accompany them were discussed at the fourth annual China 'HYHORSPHQW )RUXP KHOG at the New Academic BuildLQJ RQ 6DWXUGD\ -DQXDU\ 7KH DOO GD\ IRUXP FHQWUHG around a theme of “China in 7UDQVLWLRQ ‍ ڕ‏ZDV RUJDQLVHG by student members of the LSE China Development Society. Sessions covered economic issues (including innovation and sustainable JURZWK UHODWLRQV ZLWK RWKHU FRXQWULHV LQ WKH $VLD 3DFLன F UHJLRQ DQG ZLWK WKH :HVW WKH ULVLQJ \RXWK PRYHPHQW VRIW SRZHU DQG OHJDO UHIRUP 7R accommodate speakers and delegates communicating in GLŕŽ‰ HUHQW ODQJXDJHV VLPXO taneous Mandarin Chinese – English interpretation was provided. 6WHSKHQ 3HUU\ WKH FKDLU PDQ RI WKH *URXS &OXE which promotes trade relations between the United .LQJGRP DQG &KLQD QRWHG that “in all my 45 years of ZRUNLQJ ZLWK &KLQD HYHU\ morning I’ve woken up thinkLQJ DERXW &KLQD DQG ,‍ڑ‏YH thought that China is in tranVLWLRQ ‍ ڕ‏+H DORQJ ZLWK VHY

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HUDO RWKHU VSHDNHUV GUHZ comparisons between the transition that China is currently undergoing and the Industrial Revolution in Britain in the 1800s. Corruption ZLOO EH WDFNOHG HQGRJHQRXVO\ KH SUHGLFWHG EHFDXVH SHR ple and society will need and want to do so; that was how anti-corruption laws came about in Britain. As another H[DPSOH WKH UDSLG FRPPXQL cation enabled by social media in China today is analogous to that enabled by sheet printing technology in the United Kingdom 150 years ago. Communication between China and the West was also widely discussed. Martin -DFTXHV D UHVHDUFK IHOORZ DW the LSE and author of “When

&KLQD 5XOHV WKH :RUOG ‍ ڕ‏ZRQ dered whether “the West [could] learn to live with a China that it recognises and UHVSHFWV DV DQ HTXDO ‍ ڕ‏2Q WKH RWKHU KDQG :HLPLQJ 7X WKH founding Dean of the InstiWXWH RI $GYDQFHG +XPDQLVWLF 6WXGLHV DW 3HNLQJ 8QLYHUVLW\ saw China as fundamentally ŕŽ‹ DZHG LQ WHUPV RI IUHHGRP KXPDQ ULJKWV DQG LQGLYLGXDO GLJQLW\ DQG ZDQWHG &KLQD to learn from the West (and from other cultures) on these fronts. 2Q WKH IRUXP -XVWLQ /LP a second-year Materials Science student at Imperial ColOHJH /RQGRQ VDLG ‍ڔ‏,W ZDV quite insightful. A lot of the WRSLFV ZHUHQ‍ڑ‏W IXOO\ ŕŽ‹ XVKHG out but ‌ it was good to see how people perceive [China’s

ULVH@ ‍ ڕ‏+H DGGHG ‍ڔ‏, ன QG WKDW SROLWLFDO HFRQRPLF DQG VR cial aspects of what goes on LQ WKH ZRUOG DŕŽ‰ HFW HYHU\ WKLQJ DQG QRZKHUH LV WKDW more important in the next IHZ \HDUV WKDQ LQ &KLQD ‍ڕ‏ 6SHDNHU :HLIDQJ +H D professor of law at Peking 8QLYHUVLW\ ZDV ‍ڔ‏VXUSULVHG‍ ڕ‏ at how the forum attracted ‍ڔ‏VFKRODUV IURP GLŕŽ‰ HUHQW SDUWV RI WKH ZRUOG DOO LQWHUHVWHG LQ &KLQD‍ڑ‏V SUREOHPV WR VXFK D GLVWLQJXLVKHG XQLYHUVLW\ ‍ ڕ‏ $FFRUGLQJ WR 3URIHVVRU +H WKH PDLQ EHQHன W RI WKH IRUXP was the bringing together of GLŕŽ‰ HUHQW SHUVSHFWLYHV RQ WKH development of China. Closing the day was Kevin 5XGG IRUPHU 3ULPH 0LQLV ter of Australia and a former diplomat stationed in Beijing

in the 1980s. Mr Rudd idenWLன HG WZR RSSRVLQJ WUHQGV – rising economic globalisation and increasing political nationalism – taking shape in the 21st century and potentially posing a threat to interQDWLRQDO SHDFH 2FFDVLRQDOO\ EUHDNLQJ LQWR 0DQGDULQ KH UHPLQGHG WKH DXGLHQFH PDQ\ of whom were students from China studying in the United .LQJGRP WKDW PXFK RI WKH interaction between China and the West was still “lost in WUDQVODWLRQ ‍ ڕ‏ ‍*ڔ‏LYHQ WKH ULVH RI &KLQD it is absolutely critical that \RX DV &KLQHVH VWXGHQWV LQ WKH ZRUOG DQG XV ZKR KDYH spent a few years studying &KLQD ZRUN WRJHWKHU DQG explain each other to each RWKHU ‍ڕ‏

Increase in applications to higher education Ruby Haider-Smith

A recent report by UCAS has revealed a 3.5 per cent increase in the number of applications for higher education. :KLOVW WKLV ன JXUH GHSLFWV WKH overall increase in applicaWLRQ VRPH LQVWLWXWLRQV KDYH experienced much higher upVXUJHV ZLWK DSSOLFDWLRQV WR the University of Surrey having risen by 38 per cent compared to last year and applications to the London School of Economics by 15 per cent. This signals an improvePHQW IURP ODVW \HDU ZKHUH LW was announced that applications had fallen by an average of 15 per cent following the controversial decision to increase the cap on tuition IHHV WR e There has been a particuODUO\ VLJQLன FDQW ULVH LQ WKH demand for higher educaWLRQ IURP RYHUVHDV VWXGHQWV with the Guardian recently

revealing that applications by EU students soared by 4.9 per cent and by even higher IRU QRQ (8 VWXGHQWV SHU cent). The number of university applications from home stuGHQWV GHVSLWH EHLQJ ORZHU than that of EU and non-EU VWXGHQWV FRQWLQXHG WKH XS ZDUGV WUHQG VWDQGLQJ DW per cent. The increase in applications has allayed m a n y organisations’ fears that higher fees would lead to lower application numbers. It has also been advocated that the increase in university applications has coincided with a narrowing of the university ‘rich-poor divide’. A study by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has re-

vealed that while a gap still persists - with 55 per cent of those from the richest group of the population having gone to university in 2010 compared to eighteen per cent of those from the poorest group - it appears to have lessened RYHU D ன YH \HDU SHULRG GLS ping from

40 percentage points in 2005 to 37 points in 2010. The most recent statistics indicate that applications by eighteen year olds from disadvantaged backgrounds KDYH ULVHQ WR SHU FHQW up from 10.7 per cent in 2004. &ODLUH &UDZIRUG DXWKRU RI WKH ,)6 UHSRUW KDV VDLG

“university participation rates have been rising over WLPH PRUH TXLFNO\ IRU VWX dents from the poorest backgrounds. Whilst there was a small dip in participation following the increase in tuition fees in t h i s w a s only temp o UDU\ ‍ڕ‏ T h e government have heralded the increase in university applicants as proof that the rise in tuition fees will not have a long-lasting impact on VWXGHQW QXPEHUV \HW FULW ics have warned that the number of applications have failed to recover to pree WXLWLRQ IHH OHYHOV ,W LV FOHDU QRQHWKH OHVV WKDW VRPH LQVWLWXWLRQV are feeling more optimistic about the future of uni-

versity participation with the BBC reporting that the “Russell Group of leading universities welcomed the ன JXUHV DV D VXEVWDQWLDO LP SURYHPHQW‍ ڕ‏ According to a spokesperson from the LSE: “Applications to the School from +RPH 8. XQGHUJUDGXDWHV for 2013 entry are encourDJLQJ ZLWK D ன IWHHQ SHU FHQW increase compared to 2012 DV RI -DQXDU\ WK This is compared to a national increase of 3.5 per cent in XQLYHUVLW\ DSSOLFDWLRQV ‍ڕ‏ 7KLV ன JXUH UHSUHVHQWV D bounce back from the year EHIRUH ZKHUH DSSOLFDWLRQV to LSE fell by 8.1 per cent. /6( ZDV DW WKDW WLPH WKH only university in the Russell Group of researchoriented universities to decline charging the maxiPXP DPRXQW VHWWLQJ IHHV DW e LQVWHDG RI WKH PD[L PXP ன JXUH RI e

News

The Beaver | 05.02.2013

7

LSESU SPICE presents India Week Arisa Manawapat

the causes and solutions for the persistent crises of rape cases in Delhi, triggered by the fatal gang rape of a young woman last December. Last Wednesday, a talk entitled “The Power of Ideasâ€? featured Prajwal Parajuly, the youngest Indian author to achieve a multinational book deal, and Mr. Gulab Kothari, CEO of the Patrika Group. Following the release of his novel “The Gurkha’s Daughterâ€?, Parajuly emphasized the power RI ன FWLRQ ERRNV WR EULQJ MR\ Kothari’s most inspirational

advice, according to Walia, is “When you have an idea, it’s a seed. If you don’t nurture it, it won’t go forward. If you push it forward, it’ll grow into a tree and you’ll see the fruits of it later on.â€? On Thursday, SPICE hosted a panelist discussion and networking event in partnership with the Indo European %XVLQHVV )RUXP 7KH ன IWHHQ speakers, ten of which have ŕŽ‹ RZQ IURP ,QGLD WR DWWHQG WKH event, explored the future of trade links between the two regions. Students interacted with CEOs and leading professionals, including Mr

Suhel Seth, Bollywood actor and one of India’s top marketing and management gurus, Mr Milind Kangle, CEO RI /\FD DQG %DURQHVV 9HU PD D PHPEHU RI WKH +RXVH of Lords. On Friday, SPICE hosted “Bollywood Crush� at the Quad, featuring a live performance by one of the UK’s most renowned Indian%KDQJUD VLQJHUV + 'KDPL India Week 2013 ended with an evening to remember last Sunday, with a trip to the Lords Indoor Cricket Ground to watch the India versus Pakistan game.

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dian handiwork. The most display In the past week, the LSE attention-catching proved to be the Tuk Tuk, a witnessed its largest Indiacentric campus event, “LSE common mode of transporIndia Week 2013â€?, presented tation in India, but a rare by SPICE, the LSESU Indian sight in London. According Students Society. SPICE cre- to SPICE President Kamlesh ated a series of events “from Walia, the particular auto Economics to Bollywood, rickshaw was “quite momenfrom Tradition to Foodâ€? to tousâ€?, as it had been driven showcase the vibrant nation. from London to Delhi and ,QGLD :HHN NLFNHG RŕŽ‰ ZLWK back. In addition to cultural D ŕŽ‹ DVK PRE RQ +RXJKWRQ events, SPICE raised awareStreet last Monday, featurness of pressing issues in Ining a performance by thirtyன YH VWXGHQWV 63,&( 9LFH dia. Last Monday evening, President Swati Utkarshini the LSESU Indian Students appreciated the “enthusiasm society conducted a full from members of our socie- house, student-led debate on ty, who wanted to put on a show for everyone.â€? Participation from the LSE community that was “even bigger and better than previous years’,â€? according to Utkarshini. What was the key to this year’s success? 7KH 9LFH 3UHVLGHQW SRLQWHG to strong marketing which incorporated social media, and creative, new ideas for events. 7R RŕŽ‰ HU D WDVWH RI ,QGLD WR WKH /6( VWXGHQWV DQG VWDŕŽ‰ SPICE coordinated with the 4th Floor Restaurant, which presented an Indian lunch menu last Tuesday and Thursday. Both days attracted long queues, and dishes included Chicken Tikka Masala, Fish Curry, and 6DŕŽ‰ URQ 5LFH 0HDQZKLOH +RXJKWRQ Street was transformed into D PDUNHWSODFH ன OOHG ZLWK WUDGLWLRQDO VWDOOV RŕŽ‰ HULQJ ,Q

The Rod-erate Revolution? Kaamil Ahmed

An army of death-robots and the creation of a nuclear arsenal are two policies that student across the country could be voting for when they choose the next National Union of Students (NUS) President thanks to a newly entered candidate. The Inanimate Carbon Rod, known for starring roles in two The Simpsons episodes, is promising students weapons and Spotify Premium accounts DQG ZDV ன QDOO\ DFFHSWHG DV a legitimate candidate last week. The Rod has had to prove the legitimacy of its nominations for its candidacy and

remove copyright infringements from its manifesto as SDUW RI LWV WZR ZHHN ன JKW WR be recognised as a potential President. Despite all of the opposition from the NUS, a state-

freedom.� The name on the ballot will actually be that of Sam Gaus who claims to be the Rod’s bearer. In the manifesto that was eventually accepted by the

ciety, not just the meatbags. An NUS that truly understands the importance of the Workers’ bomb.� Gaus, a UCL student, is leading a campaign that has already attracted consider-

ment on the Rod’s campaign website said: “We shall continue to go forward, not backward; upward, not forward; and always twirling, twirling, twirling toward

NUS, he states, “I believe in an NUS that knocks through walls in the movement rather than builds them. An NUS WKDW ன JKWV IRU WKH ULJKWV RI all inanimate members of so-

ably more attention than other NUS candidates with 1,380 likes on its Facebook page. Other candidates have taken to referring to the campaign in order to

highlight the importance of their own policies on slightly more functional issues such as employment. Students seem to be welcoming the campaign, which FKDOOHQJHV WKH HŕŽ‰ HFWLYHQHVV of the NUS in recent years and mentions the lack of support the the union showed for many students during protests against fee rises in 2010, as well as last year’s national protest which ended disappointingly. One student wrote on the facebook page: “Congrats on beating the uselessness of the NUS,â€? while messages of support for the campaign KDYH EHHQ ŕŽ‹ RRGLQJ LQ RQ Twitter.

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Now the real war begins

Comment Leader: Freddie Strachan on how the West must not think that itтАЩs тАШjob doneтАЩ in Mali 7KH роК UVW SDUW RI WKH )UHQFK RSHUDWLRQ LQ 0DOL DSSHDUV WR EH FRPLQJ WR DQ HQG :LWK WKH FDSWXUH RI .LGDO WKH )UHQFK DQG 0DOLDQ IRUFHV KDYH UH WDNHQ DOO WKH PDMRU SRSXODWLRQ FHQWUHV IURP WKH ,VODPLVWV DQG OLEHUDWHG WKH SHRSOH IURP WKH EUXWDOLW\ RI 6KDULD ODZ 7KH )UHQFK EOLW]NULHJ LQ WKH GHVHUW ODXQFKHG RYHU WZR ZHHNV DJR KDV VDYHG WKH VRXWKHUQ KDOI RI 0DOL IURP ,V ODPLVW RFFXSDWLRQ DV VXроЙ HUHG E\ WKH 1RUWK DQG SUHYHQWHG UDGLFDO DQWL ZHVWHUQ JURXSV IURP FRQWUROOLQJ WKH UHVRXUFHV RI D VWDWH DQG WKH LQVWLWXWLRQV RI JRYHUQPHQW WKDW JR ZLWK LW )URP VXFK D SRVLWLRQ WKH ,V ODPLVWV ZRXOG KDYH DFWHG DV D PDJQHW IRU H[WUHPLVWV DQG VH ULRXVO\ GHVWDELOLVHG 1RUWK DQG :HVW $IULFD WHUURULVLQJ ORFDO SRSXODWLRQV DV ZHOO DV WKUHDW HQLQJ (XURSH +RZHYHU WKH UHVWRUDWLRQ RI JRYHUQPHQW FRQWURO WR PRVW RI WKH FRXQWU\тАл┌СтАмV SRSXODWLRQ GRHV QRW PHDQ WKDW WKH MRE LV GRQH ,W LV OLNHO\ WKDW DQRWKHU FRQ роЛ LFW PD\ VRRQ EHJLQ D тАл┌РтАмZDU RI WKH VKDGRZVтАл ┌СтАмEHWZHHQ UHJXODU IRUFHV DQG роК JKWHUV IURP WKH GHVHUW 7KHVH роК JKWHUV ZKR KDYH UHWUHDWHG ZLWK WKHLU ZHDS RQV DV WKH )UHQFK DU PRXUHG FROXPQV KDYH DGYDQFHG ZLOO QRZ PHOW LQWR WKH VDQGV RU KLGH LQ 0DOLтАл┌СтАмV QRUWKHUQ PRXQ WDLQV DQG WKH ODZ OHVV ERUGHU ODQGV RI 0DXULWDQLD $OJH ULD 1LJHU DQG 0DOL RXWVLGH WKH UHDFK RI DQ\ JRYHUQPHQWтАл┌СтАмV FRQWURO )URP KHUH WKH\ DUH YLUWXDOO\ XQWRXFK DEOH DQG FDQ PRXQW RS HUDWLRQV WKDW FKDOOHQJH WKH 0DOLDQ JRYHUQPHQW DQG LWV PLOLWDU\ )LJKWLQJ DJDLQVW VXFK D IRH ZLOO EH D YHU\ GLроЙ HUHQW ZDU IURP ZKDW ZH KDYH VHHQ LQ 0DOL VR IDU ,W ZLOO LQ YROYH WHFKQRORJ\ L Q W H O O L J H Q F H HTXLSP H Q W DQG VSH F L D O IRUFHV U H

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10

Comment

05.02.2013

| The Beaver

DICEY

Alex Stannard

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The Beaver | 05.02.2013

11

Time to write it down Greg Stride on the need to codify the powers of Scotland, Wales and NI With the recent rejection of Alex Salmond’s preferred referendum question by the Electoral Commission, the ongoing problem of Scottish independence remains as convoluted as ever. Although ‘Do you agree that Scotland should be an independent country?’ sounded like an unsubtle interrogation by William Wallace, however, the wording of another document is more important in any matters involving the devolution of powers- the Constitution of the United Kingdom. ‘Wording’ may be an inappropriate phrase to use for something that is so inherently unintelligible. The constitution of today is made up of statutes, traditions, common law, conventions, and, quite possibly, throwaway comments made by a man with a shiny hat some 700 years ago. The sovereign nature of parliament in all matters means that at any moment a parliamentary majority can sweep away the progress made by devolution. An Act of Parliament is just as legitimate as a majority in a referendum and holds actual legal weight, whereas a referendum is merely a moral obligation imposed on parliament to pass an Act. There is no tier system for our laws; if parliament says it wants its powers back, then that’s what it gets. , னQG P\VHOI ZDQWLQJ the ‘yes’ vote on Scottish independence to win, not because I agree with the issue, but because it would actually put into question the sovereignty of parliament, bringing to point the question ‘does a positive referendum result mean more than simply an act of legislation?’. If we discover that the answer to this is yes then the age-old and frankly anachronistic right of parliamentary sovereignty comes under scrutiny. Suddenly, we may have a system where one law is more powerful than another, and there is no telling ZKDW WKH UDPLனFDWLRQV RI this might be. It may even mean that we would be forced to record the laws WKDW RXU QDWLRQ னQGV PRVW central to its existence. Entrenchment would be-

JHW FRGLனFDWLRQ DQG FRGLனFDWLRQ ZRXOG EHJHW PRUH stable devolved powers. I agreed with the Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones when he stated during a talk at the LSE that it is of vital importance for Welsh devolution that a constitutional convention be set up to deal with the issue. The limited legislative powers granted to the Welsh Assembly, and the promise of their extension following the referendum in 2011, are out of sync with the popular perception and apparent status of the UK as a unitary state. The idea of the Welsh being given more power over their own country is appealing insofar as it brings their democracy closer to the people, with recent referendum results suggesting that they desire this. What about the other side of this argument? Not only does Westminster have too much power over the devolved administrations whose existence it directly controls, but Welsh and Scottish MPs are able to sit in the Westminster Parliament and have equal standing to their English counterparts. The West Lothian question refers to the fact that Scots MPs are allowed to vote on matters WKDW RQO\ DŕŽ‰HFW (QJODQG yet English MPs have no power over Scotland-only matters. We should also take into account that the Welsh are greatly overrepresented in Westminster. with an average of 99,500 voters per MP for English constituencies compared to only 76,600 per MP for Welsh constituencies. Finally, on a party political note the nations are not in harmony. The median voter in Scotland has been shown to be far to the left of the median voter in the rest of the UK (and England in particular), with Northern Ireland for the most part excluded from this description, having considerations other than the basic socio-economic left-right to consider. The median voter in Scotland means little in a Westminster parliament that ultimately gets the major say in how their country is run. If the power balance is too

unstable and the political preferences of each nation are being misrepresented, then independence for the currently-devolved powers seems the obvious solution. Ultimately, this obvious solution does not appear to be the right one. It may bring about an English parliament; a terrifying prospect based on the seat distribution of parliament in the last few elections. The average voter in this parliament would swing drastically to the right. The possibility of permanent Tory control in England is not the focus of this article, but it is a

thinking point on the fallout of independence, as is the economic and political difficulty that leaving the union would create for both Scotland and the rest of the UK. A more mediated response to calls for independence is to allow for D EHWWHU GHனQHG OHYHO RI devolution. It is not the same, but if the constituWLRQ GRHV EHFRPH FRGLனHG we can at least sort out all the niggling power differences with any further amendments made clearer to more of the electorDWH 7KH FRGLனFDWLRQ RI the constitution will not only rigidify devolution in

terms of structure, but will also make it more accesVLEOH LQ WHUPV RI PRGLனFDtion. This may seem like an overly-ambitious project, but it is one that it seems necessary for Britain to go through. The problem of devolution may be the issue that highlights the weaknesses of our constitution well enough to actually force change. The constitution is the issue, and it may well be the solution. lsesu forum and the LSESU Welsh Society will be discussing devolution and independence at 6pm on Tuesday February 5th in CLM 2.06.

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05.02.2013

| The Beaver

The theological and the political Liam Hill on why criticising Israel is not the same as being antisemetic There was controversy in the wake of the publication, in the Sunday Times, of a cartoon by Gerald Scarfe depicting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu erecting a wall using blood as mortar, with ŕŽ‹ DLOLQJ DUPV DQG VHYHUHG heads, presumably belonging to Palestinians, protruding from the wall. Why, I hear you ask, was there controversy? Perhaps people objected to the violently graphic nature of the cartoon, or the lack of balance given that Palestinians are also responsible for a fair share of violence and murder taking place in the Middle East. Actually, the cartoon and its artist were accused of being antisemitic. It seems that in the collective imagination of many journalists, commentators and SXEOLF ன JXUHV FULWLFLVP RI the policies of a right-wing government in Israel indicates, or is a sign of, a hatred of the Jewish people. The cartoon’s publication

on Holocaust Memorial Day might have been inconsiderate, but there is a problem nonetheless with the failure to make clear the distinction between Jews, Israelis, and the government of Israel. Less than half of Jews worldwide live in Israel, and a considerable number of Israelis do not support many of the policies of their government. Lord Jonathan Sacks, the Chief Rabbi in Britain, commented that such cartoons “reinforce a great slander... that Jews are now perpetrating a similar crimeâ€? to the Holocaust, which he went on to call “manifestly untrue... inŕŽ‹ DPPDWRU\ DQG GHHSO\ dangerousâ€?. Rupert Murdoch, the owner of the Sunday Times, issued a “major apology for the grotesque, RŕŽ‰ HQVLYH FDUWRRQ‍ ڕ‏:K\ GLG Lord Sacks not complain that the ‘great slander’ was that Israelis, and not Jews, ‘are now perpetrating a similar crime’? Who

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did Mr Murdoch believe WKH FDUWRRQ ZDV ‍Ú?‏RŕŽ‰ HQVLYH‍ ڑ‏ to? One supposes he was apologising to Jews rather than Israelis, given that ‘offensive’ is so often used to describe content disliked by religious believers. The assumption is that Jews are in some way responsible for, or implicated in, the actions of the Israeli government, and that criticism of the latter is tantamount to condemnation of the former. I don’t think this is true, for several reasons. In no other case is the important boundary between nationality and religion blurred so thoughtlessly and recklessly. Firstly, there is no analogous case where a worldwide community is associated with the citizens of a single nation. Anglicans are not berated when the Church of England expresses regressive opinions on women bishops or gay marriage. Roman Catholics aren’t held as responsible for the various crimes, mis-

givings and shortcomings of the Papacy, as Jews are for the actions of Israel. Neither does, or should, the worldwide Muslim community take responsibility for Ahmadinejad’s Iran, the Taliban, al Qaeda and so on. Even if one considers Israel to be the designated Holy land of the Jewish people, and there are some liberal Jews who do not, why would that necessarily condone the conduct of its government? That would be to confuse the theological and the political. One might believe that Israeli land was promised by God to the Jewish people, and should be free to do so. This same Jewish person might also believe that the behaviour and human rights records of recent Israeli governments are unacceptable. These are consistent points of view. Not even all Israelis, let alone all Jews, should be implicated in the actions of the Israeli government,

no more than I am responsible for how the coalition government in Britain runs the country. There are millions of Israelis who don’t vote for and don’t support Benjamin Netanyahu. Gerald Scarfe should surely be seen as sympathising with those Israelis who would like to see a diplomatic, non-violent resolution of WKH FRQŕŽ‹ LFW ZLWK 3DOHVWLQH than promoting hatred of Israelis or Jews. On January 31st, a United Nations report on the situation in the West Bank was released. It concluded that Israel “must immediately initiate the withdrawal of all settlersâ€? from the West Bank and is at risk of contravening the Geneva Convention. Jews living in Europe and America ought to be free from the assumption that they are complicit in the actions of any Israeli government. It is this problem which Lord Sacks ought to be singling out as ‍Ú?‏LQŕŽ‹ DPPDWRU\ DQG GHHSO\ dangerous’.

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NOMINATIONS OPEN 18TH-25TH FEBRUARY VOTING OPEN 6TH-7TH MARCH #LSESUDEBATE @LSESU | LSESU.COM/STUDENTVOICE FOR MORE INFORMATION EMAIL L.PEDLEY@LSE.AC.UK

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The Beaver | 05.02.2013

13

Carving a way forward

ADAM JONES, PHD

Christy Romer believes Israel to have given the West more options in Syria I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve casually referred to Israel when discussing the limits of international law. If there’s a rule, it seems that they’re willing to break it. They created a new principle of pre-emptive self-defence by declaring war in 1967, and pioneered the policies of surgical strikes and targeted assassinations. For better or for worse, Israel seems to relish being surrounded by international controversy. It’s not a major surprise, therefore, to hear that the state has apparently done something reckless and provocative again. On Wednesday January 30th, Syrian state media reported that Israel had executed a ‘lightning strike’ on a research facility in the suburbs of Damascus, killing two workers. US media claimed that a convoy of trucks carrying missiles destined for

Hezbollah was struck near the border with Lebanon. Israel, true to form, has remained silent. Whilst the details of the incident are murky, the outpouring of disapproval by regional neighbours suggests that a strike on Syrian soil did indeed take place. Iran, Lebanon, Hezbollah and the Arab League have condemned the attack. Russia’s opposition will probably make collective UN action to stop the civil war impossible. Syria, unbelievably, submitted a formal complaint to the UN, and has officially reaffirmed its right to self-defence. The incident reeks of SRXULQJ RLO RYHU WKH ŕŽ‹DPHV Maybe we should publicly condemn it, but privately we should rejoice in the fact that Israel has forced the hand of a collective entity that needed forcing. Call me a pragmatist if you will, but I think that

the strike could work in the West’s favour. We need WKH 6\ULDQ FRQŕŽ‹LFW WR HQG Over 22 months, 60,000 people have been killed, and hundreds of thouVDQGV PRUH KDYH ŕŽ‹HG WKH country as refugees. The ORQJHU WKH னJKWLQJ FRQWLQues, the greater the risks of violence spreading to neighbours (Turkey was hit by a few errant rockets in previous months) and last ditch attempts to stay in power (such as the use of chemical weapons upon civilians). The only problem is this that we might need to use force to remove President Assad, and are unsure if such a policy is wise. The EU and the US have committed to intervention if certain “red linesâ€? are crossed, but the regional LQŕŽ‹XHQFH WKDW $VVDG VWLOO possesses makes this a very risky prospect. Iran has made no secret of the amount of aid it gives to

Syria nor the level of diplomatic integration between the two states. Lebanon’s Hezbollah, meanwhile, has VWRRG னUPO\ EHKLQG $VVDG seeking some way to counter the ‘almost routine’ infringement of their airspace by Israeli planes. In short, it seems that a concerted attack on the interests of Syria would be an attack on its allies. Considering the volatility of the leadership in Iran and the very nature of an organisation such as Hezbollah, there is no guarantee that official anger will not spill RYHU LQWR FRQŕŽ‹LFW )HDULQJ such a backlash is entirely rational. Israel has therefore done what we were not willing to do, openly testing the resolve of those we must soon engage with. It has dangled the excuse IRU FRQŕŽ‹LFW LQ IURQW RI ,UDQ Syria and Hezbollah and is patiently awaiting the results of its endeavours. It

may go a little far to praise its audacity, but given that Western military action against one of the three states seems very likely in the future, using a miliWDU\ EDURPHWHU னUVW VHHPV good policy. Considering that senior members of the Israeli Secret service were spotted leaving the White House on Wednesday, I would wager that Obama feels very similarly. Israel may well indulge in reckless and provocative foreign policy, but in the end their actions have carved a way forward for the West. Israel made surgical strikes acceptable, allowing the US to consider such a policy in Iran. They made targeted assassinations acceptable, permitting the rise of drone attacks in Pakistan and Yemen. Finally, their recklessness on January 30th, might have made intervention in Syria viable.

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05.02.2013

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Enter the 2013 Bernard Levin Award for Student Journalism

FIRST PRIZE: INTERNSHIP AT THE HUFFINGTON POST, £500, DINNER AND A PLAY Launch Event 14th February CLM.2.02 | 6:00PM Social afterwards with thanks to The Beaver All LSE students are eligible to enter Applications will close at the end of Lent Term For more details, samples of last year’s entries and Bernard Levin’s writing style visit www.lsesu.com/BLA

Funded by the kind donations of LSE Alumni and Friends to seek out the journalistic talent of tomorrow.

The Beaver 05.02.2013

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PartB N A I L A T I S ’ E JAMI

MALA IN CUBA

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05.02.2013 PartB

PartB

JOSH JINRUANG JANIE TAN partb@thebeaveronline.co.uk

Fashion

LSESU FASHION SOCIETY fashion@thebeaveronline.co.uk

Film

VENESSA CHAN

ஊ OP#WKHEHDYHURQOLQH FR XN

Food

LAURA RANDLE

food@thebeaveronline.co.uk

Literature

RACHEL WILLIAMS

literature@thebeaveronline.co.uk

Music

TOM BARNES EMIR NADER

PXVLF#WKHEHDYHURQOLQH FR XN

Private B

GINGER WHOREBY

privateb@thebeaveronline.co.uk

Theatre

LAURENCE VARDAXOGLOU theatre@thebeaveronline.co.uk

Television

ISABELLA SILVER

tv@thebeaveronline.co.uk

Video Games

PHILIP GALLAGHER

YLGHRJDPHV#WKHEHDYHURQOLQH FR XN

Visual Arts ERIKA ARNOLD

visualarts@thebeaveronline.co.uk

Web

JULIUS CAESAR P

hyllida Lloyd’s production of Julius Caesar is an edgy, physical, dark interpretation of Shakespeare’s famed play about male power, and it is performed entirely by women. Many present-day Shakespearean productions carry on the tradition of all-male casts, while others modernise the casting and have female actors portray female characters. With gender-diversions

a riotous group rushing on stage. The group’s energy is compelled by guards bringing in Frances Barber as an inmate, but the action quickly slips into the first scene, with Barber as Caesar. From this opening scene, Barber brings a certain brilliantly-sinister charisma to her Caesar that begs one to sympathise with the conspirators against her character. Her Caesar’s confidence is that of a bullying

"As she fails to compose herself, Walter is not Brutus, but rather an inmate who, for her own reasons, cannot so easily leave the affect of Brutus behind." from the original format common, and gender fluidity and play longstanding in Shakespeare’s work, one has to wonder why it has taken so long to see an all-female production. One also has to wonder why some critics, including The Telegraph’s Charles Moore, are so absurdly hostile to the idea. It is hard to say whether it is the unusual gender-distribution of the cast, the convincing presentation of the classic play or the gritty, modernised interpretation that make Lloyd’s production so engaging, but it is likely the interaction of these factors. The play is set in a prison, and this makes for a rough, rather masculine, but still all-female environment. Set on a spare, grey stage, the play explodes into action with

DONMAR WAREHOUSE

B. OUR GUESTS!

absent—at one point security guards pace on creaky scaffolding above the audience. This helps to reconcile some of the modern elements of the play, such as the consumption of Krispy Crème donuts, with the simultaneous delivery of lines about ancient Rome. It does not stop at donuts, either—the play utilises masks, video-recording, live music, harsh fluorescent lights that occasionally flash for a strobe-cum-lightning effect and a porn magazine, among other objects. The effect of these devices ranges from wildly successful to somewhat gimmicky, with

ring-leader daring someone to defy him. It is perhaps not how I have imagined Caesar in the past, but, somehow, it works. The prison layer of the story is subdued for most of the play, but never entirely

the ski masks particularly helping to lend a modernised, outlaw feeling to the conspirators against Caesar. Speaking of the conspirators, Harriet Walter and Jenny Jules, as Brutus and Cassius, respectively, do a particularly good job filling the ratherlarge shoes of their mutinous characters. Walter’s torn, troubled, moralistic Brutus and Jules’ challenging, inciting, impassioned Cassius play off of each other beautifully. Barber, Walter and Jules, but indeed all of the actors, bring a striking physicality to the male characters in the play. The actors have short or otherwise minimised hair, and they wear androgynous clothing, but it is the ways in which they move and position their bodies that make them

look the most masculine on the stage. This is further highlighted by the sharp contrast of the rare female characters’ hyper-femininity. Clare Dunne as Portia, clad in a white, tulle dress, delivers a fantastic lamentation of the emotionality of her sex. There is an implicit irony to the speech in this particular production, but her earnestly aching performance of femininity is precisely what draws attention to the convincing masculinity of her co-stars. The play ends when the prison guards re-enter the stage, order the inmates to line up and lead them away. Here, the performers’ bold energy from the opening scene is contrasted with ritualistic resignation at the close. While the rest of the inmates fall out of Shakespearean character, however, Walter alone lingers, visibly distraught. As she fails to compose herself, Walter is not Brutus, but rather an inmate who, for her own reasons, cannot so easily leave the affect of Brutus behind. It is in this last, brief moment that the prison under-layer of the play contributes the most, and proves to be more than a self-conscious explanation of the all-female cast. Forget preconceptions about how Shakespeare ought to look (and sound), Lloyd’s women man-up at the Donmar in what is a captivating experience.

Julia Wejchert

DONMARE WAREHOUSE Until 9 Feb 2013 Written by William Shakespeare Directed by Phyllida Lloyd Starring Frances Barber Harriet Walter, Jenny Jules

VACANT

partb-web@thebeaveronline.co.uk

Cover Art BY WALT KUHN

B.

S

elma (Anna Francolini) is spending the night in Homerton hospital after having given birth. Elka (Kathryn Hunter) is a baby snatcher with thousands of year's worth of experience, and she is stalking the streets of Hackney. Leyla Nazli’s retelling of an old Turkish myth dazzles from the moment Elka, dressed all in black, skulks on to Selma’s bed; toying with her prey, Elka prolongs the inevitable to entertain a conversation as to what it means to be a woman. This soon moves away from a mere temporal difference of opinion and becomes a more universal—and quite heated – discussion of womanhood, set against the backdrop of childbirth. Hunter is mesmerising as the archetypal nomad, but this trickster and story-teller of enormous charm exists on the fringes of reality—not society. As her riddles start to flow Elka becomes increasingly unhinged and, worryingly for Selma, her title—the

Mare Rider—seems more than apt. Selma’s nurse (Hara Yannas) once or twice finds evidence of Elka’s having been in the ward. An off-kilter bed or disturbed sheets are director Mehmet Ergen’s way of quietly suggesting that Elka might

MARE RIDER not be a figment of Selma’s imagination after all. In a performance laced with hints and subtleties, there is real mystery created in Arcola’s Studio 1. Mare Rider occupies the space between reality and another world but once the worlds overlap they continue to blend until the divide is no longer noticeable and Selma’s worst nightmares are manifest in reality. The arrival of Selma’s husband (Matthew Flynn) offers some welcome snippets of information but the consequent shift in focus away from Elka and Selma means that the second half was, for me, a little flat. My disappointment probably lies in the fact that I would have quite happily watched Elka and Selma

bicker, flirt and reminisce for the entire scheduled hour and more, such was the talent of two actors playing characters written with outstanding skill and craft. Do see Mare Rider. Tuesdays are ‘Pay What You Can’ at the Arcola.

Laurence Vardaxoglou

ARCOLA THEATRE Until 16 Feb 2012 Written by Leyla Nazli Directed by Mehmet Ergen Starring Kathryn Hunter, Anna Francolini

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The Beaver 05.02.2013

for the love of music and

FASHION A

re they musicians who do fashion well or fashionistas who make good music? Whichever way you look at it, the public loves and admires celebrities that are both stylish trendsetters and talented songstresses. Whilst the red carpets these days are dotted with many stylish ladies, some of them leave us asking how and why they’re actually famous: Kim Kardashian and Olivia Palermo are prime examples of this! The bright side is that it’s easier to discern the standout ladies who possess both musical talent and sartorial skill, and watching them seamlessly integrate their music and fashion to form a style that is uniquely their own is a pleasure to see.

Taylor Swift is the modern day version of America’s Southern

London’s Central Saint Martins). The Madewell Fall 2012 campaign girl and younger sister of Beyonce proves she is no wallflower to her famous sibling, making fashion waves with her bold colours and prints, from floral to geometric, yellow to neon pink. Plus, she has an outstanding talent for accessorising her outfits—statement shoes, statement clutch, statement necklace and that state-

Florence Welch

No one does ethereal beauty quite like Florence Welch. The 27 year-old singer of Florence + The Machine is the perfect example of how to marry style with music, creating an image for herself that is part ethereal, part boho, which blends so well with her equally quirky and baroque music. The talented Brit’s penchant for standout looks has not gone unnoticed in the fashion circle, attracting the attention of Frida Giannini, creative director of Gucci, who designed custom gowns for her “Ceremonials” tour in 2012. Whether she’s prancing around the stage barefooted in custom Gucci, floating down the red carpet in McQueen, or showcasing her street style in androgynous pantsuits, Flo’s fashion choices are like no other—just like her music. Steal Flo’s easy-ethereal look: Pair your favourite top with a floor-grazing skirt and a braided updo.

Taylor Swift

Belle. Reflecting the same fairytale, dreamy aesthetic as her annoyingly-catchy song lyrics, Taylor’s fashion choices mainly consist of princess-like gowns, floral embroidered sparkles, nude tones and signature red lips. The 23-year olds red carpet style has evolved over time, and definitely improved too. Although she still favours the same girly look as in the past, these days her style has developed from the fit-and-flare formula she once faithfully adhered to, to showing her versatility through mermaid gowns, fitted dresses and draped silhouettes. The Nashville native commissions Jenny Packham, Zuhair Murad, J Mendel and Elie Saab as her red carpet go-to designers. The new campaign girl for Keds also presents southern charm in her off-duty dressing, favouring knit sweaters, slouchy skirts and ballet flats. Steal Taylor’s feminine style: Pair an embellished top with an A-line skirt and strappy sandals.

%Michele Lim

(Images sourced from STYLEBISTRO.COM, HARPERSBAZAAR. UK, ELLE UK)

ment afro. Delight! Steal Solange’s bold style: Pair bright colours with equally funky accessories.

CAMPUS STYLE

Rihanna

Yan - Coat: FCUK /

Lucy - Hat: Portobello

Jacket: ASOS / Top:

Market / Coat: FCUK

Zara / Trousers: H&M

/ Shoes, Dress and

/ Hat: Topshop / Shoes

Trousers: Topshop

and Bag: Vintage

/ Bag: Zara

A

Soloange Knolwes 2012 was undoubtedly a yearlong fashion moment for Solange Knowles. The DJ/singer was included in US Vogue’s Best Dressed List of 2012, a well-deserved honour after establishing herself as the queen of colour-blocking, print-dressing and accessorising. The Houston native not only shows up at events in looks by Roberto Cavalli, Dolce & Gabbana and Fendi, but also supports lesserknown designers like Maki Oh and Flaminia Saccucci (from

sic. The Barbadian beauty that we once knew as the newbie pop singer with long, beachwavy hair and a cute smile has grown up into an edgy fashionista who doesn’t care what you think. She’s fierce, confident, and most of all, unpredictable. The 24 year-old musician effortlessly channels androgyny in a Dolce & Gabbana tuxedo on the red carpet one day, and dons a smoking-hot Armani Prive gown with a plunging neckline the next. Blink for about two seconds and RiRi has a different hairstyle. These days, Rihanna is photographed all over the globe in her fashionforward street style, sporting everything from denim to floral blazers, high top sneakers to ankle-strap Manolos. Her offduty staple labels include Acne, Isabel Marant, Stella McCartney and Topshop. Steal Rihanna’s edgy style: Wear your favourite slouchy tee with an oversized statement jacket and distressed boyfriend jeans. Young, talented and stylish ladies of music. What’s not to love?

t last the snow has gone and the weather now feels practically tropical compared to the last few weeks! This has meant we’ve seen less thermals and snoods, and more fedoras, pastel knitwear and lighter spring coats.

% Emma Forth

Rihanna’s style has undergone quite the transformation over the years, along with her mu-

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05.02.2013 PartB

HITCHCOCK

Hopkins) at the peak of his success after the release of North by Northwest, but it soon finds him struggling to set up Psycho as his next project, an idea that nearly everyone in Hollywood, including his wife Alma (Helen Mirren) finds distasteful. He ends up financing the production himself, leading him and his wife to worry about what will happen to them should the picture fail at the box office. Even with a subplot involving a possible affair between Alma and a younger screenwriter (Danny Huston), there are no real emotional stakes in Hitchcock. Who really cares if the Hitchcocks might lose their nice house and pool? Had Psycho been an attempt to revive a flailing career, there might have been emotional stakes, but the fact is that Hitchcock had just finished one of his biggest successes. Had Psycho flopped, he prob-

WARM BODIES

In Cinema 8 February 2013 Director Jonathan Levine Writer Jonathan Levine Starring Nicholas Hoult, Teresa Palmer, John Malkovich Run time 97 minutes

I

t’s official—zombies are the new vampires; a billion TV shows and movies are being made about them, and they have gone from being creatures we fear to creatures we can feasibly have sex with. Cue Warm Bodies. It’s a classic story. Boy meets girl. Boy is zombie, and boy kills girl’s boyfriend and eats his brain. Boy falls in love with girl. It sounds ridiculous, and that’s because it is, but the saving grace of Warm Bodies, is that unlike Twilight and all that other vampire crap, this film knows it is

ridiculous. Finally, a zomrom-com (see Shaun of the Dead) worthy of the name. The film follows ‘R’, a misunderstood, angst-filled zombie played by Nicholas Hoult, who is struggling to ‘connect’ in his new undead life. The rest of the stillbreathing members of mankind are hidden behind reinforced wall in a big American city whilst the zombies stumble and moan around the airport. The two worlds collide when the humans go on a raid to get medical supplies, and are attacked by Nicholas Hoult and some of his zombie pals. Thus ‘R’ meets Julie, who he falls in love with. He takes her back to his crib in an airplane, and as the film progresses, ‘R’s love for Julie starts to restore his humanity. Conflict comes firstly in the form of Julie’s dad (John Malkovitch), who is the de facto military leader of the surviving humans and really hates zombies, and secondly in the form of the ‘boneys,’ skeletal flesh-eating corps-

ing aspect: it is a film about a filmmaker with very few scenes about filmmaking. Everyone in the picture keeps calling Hitchcock a genius, but the film never really depicts that genius. There is a brief scene showing the editing of Psycho, but it essentially amounts to a flurry of Alfred and Alma saying: “Cut there! Cut there!” Apart from that, all we know about Hitchcock from this film is that he was obsessed with murder and women, as if that were enough to explain why his pictures have had such staying power. Hitchcock famously believed that Psycho moved audiences not because of a powerful message, a great performance or the content of the story, but because of the stylistic construction of the movie. There is no doubt that his obsessions informed many of his masterpieces, but they cannot be explained as simply as Hitchcock attempts to do. Nor is it possible to explain the genius of his filmmaking while essentially ignoring his actual filmmaking. The best that can be said about Hitchcock is that it filled me with a desire to watch Psycho again, a prospect that would be far more revealing about the obsessive genius of Alfred Hitchcock than seeing this new film.

es that want to kill ‘R’ and Julie for inspiring the rest of the zombies to find their humanity. Oh, and the fact that he’s, you know, dead. The film certainly has some faults. It’s silly, and messy and confusing . There’s not enough action

a real shame because there are moments of fun, intelligence and warmth that are never really capitalised on. Nevertheless, Warm Bodies is an easy film to like. The principle source of this is Hoult, whose eloquent inner dialogue, brimming with adolescent awkwardness, alienation and passion gives the film its heart and humour. The main hook of the film — the incongruity of the hideous corpse falling for the vibrant Julie (Teresa Palmer)— is compelling and essentially funny. The movie riffs on the cliches of teen romance films without ever being hokey or over-stated. There’s a scene where the drive in an open-top car in the sunset, and another where they try on goofy sunglasses and listen to records. There’s even a makeover, and a balcony scene. The film’s sincerity saves it from being too self-referential, and allows you to enjoy the ride. Overall, Warm Bodies is like ‘R’ — sweet, sensitive and doesn’t really know what it is.

STARBURSTMAGAZINE.COM

FOX SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES

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hen Alfred Hitchcock decided to direct his famous adaptation of the novel Psycho, he reportedly instructed his assistant to buy every copy of the book so that no one could read it and discover the surprises the film had in store. This detail appears in the new film Hitchcock presumably because it also appears in the book Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho on which the film is based. However, there was no need for the filmmakers behind Hitchcock to do with their source material what the Master of Suspense did with his because the film tells us almost nothing about the legendary filmmaker or the making of one of his greatest masterpieces. Though I have not read it, I would assume the book at least does that. Hitchcock opens in 1959 with the director (Anthony

ably would have been all right. The story of the making of Psycho could be fascinating. The problem with Hitchcock is that it keeps getting distracted from that idea. The script by John J. McLaughlin constantly provides us with frustratingly reductive sequences attempting to get inside Hitchcock’s psyche. One scene shows Hitchcock having a dream of being on a psychiatrist couch essentially saying that he just wants to be liked: three maddening clichés in one scene. Another moment depicts him imagining the act of stabbing people he hates in a reenactment of Psycho’s famous shower scene. I understand the desire to find a psychological motive behind the works of a great artist, but the film’s answers are too simple and obvious. While Hopkins creates an admirable impersonation, the script never gives him the material necessary to form a fully realised character. The one bright spot in the film is Mirren’s performance as Alma. There are moments involving her character that suggest a better movie to be made, particularly when Alfred reminisces about their younger days of making movies together. Even though her dalliance with the screenwriter feels like an insignificant distraction from the focus of the story, it becomes clear without the film spelling it out that Alma is trying to relive her younger experience. There is something wonderfully romantic about the idea of two people who are in love and creating daring works of art together, and I would love to see that movie about the Hitchcocks. Mirren is the center of the film’s best scene: when Alfred is sick and the production is behind schedule, Alma walks onto the set and immediately takes charge. Yet, this leads to Hitchcock’s most disappoint-

for it to be a real zombie, and too much gore for it to be a real love story. Plus it’s riddled with plot holes, which prevent you from truly connecting with the characters. For example, they never really explain why there are zombies, or what the boneys want from them. This all prevents the film from living up to its potential, which is

ŹNick Kelly

In Cinema 8 February 2013 Director Sacha Gervasi Writer John J. McLaughlin Starring Anthony Hopkins, Helen Mirren, Scarlett Johansson, and Jessica Biel Run time 98 minutes

ŹIsabella Silver

THE MARGIN Hidden Lives

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he classic image that springs to mind when talking about refugees is usually an overcrowded tent camp somewhere in the desert, just behind the border of a country in war: something dirty, pitiful, unwanted —refugees. This image is outdated. Refugees nowadays live amongst us, around us, between us. Today, over half of the world's refugees live in large towns or cities. They walk on the same streets that we walk. They might even shop in the same stores where we shop. Yet, we don't see their struggles, their stories. We can't guess the challenges that they face as urban refugees. In other words, their lives remain hidden from the very population among whom they live. Few people understand the hardships with which urban refugees have to put up. Globalisation is shaping every part of the world, and along with it the lives of urban refugees as well as the challenges they face: overcrowded accomodations, racism, restricted access to work and health care, fear of detention. An exhibition in St. Pancras International Train Station wants to reveal these ‘hidden lives’. The International Rescue Committee (IRC) and European Commission – Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection (ECHO) have been conducting interviews and gathering visual materials to tell a new narrative of refugees in the 21st century. Through testimonials and impressive photography, the exhibition conveys a new sense of understanding of refugees’ lives amongst us, in cities all over the world, from Bangkok to London, from Nairobi to Kuala Lumpur. And so we find amongst the stories displayed on boards scattered on the ground floor of the station stories like those of Nguyen, a Vietnamese catholic woman who had to flee over Laos to Thailand following religious surpression by the Vietnamese government. She lives in an overcrowded accomodation in Bangkok, knowing that she will soon be relocated to the United States. Only then, she realises, will she be able to speak up and raise awareness about what is going on in Vietnam. Then there is Daoud, who fled Darfur to come to the UK, first to be detained in London, before eventually making it to Birmingham, where he is now studying English Language at South Birmingham College. How does this change our view on refugees? Are they still the dirty, the pitiful, the unwanted? Are they part of our society? Will they be? Maybe there couldn't have been a more symbolic way for this exhibition than St. Pancras International Station –a train station connecting countries and people, busy, crowded, with many people walking by the pieces of this exhibition without noticing, just like they might walk past refugess in their neighbourhood without ever noticing. Will you?

Laura Mai

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The Beaver 05.02.2013

WOO!

Facts, Fiction and

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Philosophy

o reveal the life of its theories, philosophy needs art. With this declaration Dr. Alex Voorhoeve encapsulates the essence of the current LSE Arts public exhibition Facts, Fiction and Philosophy. This compact and accessible exhibition explores the close intertwinement of philosophy with the arts, particularly the profound link between philosophical ideas and creative writing. It illustrates how complex theoretical questions of reality, human existence, freedom and morality have historically inspired some of humankind's greatest works of fiction, drama and poetry. The exhibition begins by taking you back to the ancient world and subsequently invites you to a journey through various philosophical and literary interconnections. 14 sizeable boards form the core of Facts, Fiction and Philosophy and present parallels between select

naturally. Sartre's prominent philosophical work Being and Nothingness offers a brilliant theory of being and is accompanied by his novel Nausea and plays such as Huis Clos or The Flies that bare striking insight into lived experience. Existentialist themes of relativity, absurdity and anxiety came to form the integral part of Ionesco, Stoppard or Becket's exploration of the human condition. Fiction, poetry and drama are compelling mediums for the exploration of changing social and moral attitudes. By placing the singular story within the larger context of human existence, fundamental questions of life are tackled. Facts, Fiction and Philosophy offers an intellectually stimulating insight into the medium of creative expression. The exhibition emphasises literature's profound portrayal of the human spirit and offers a comprehensive overview of the longstanding relationship between lit-

I

ABOVE Kate Moss in a wheelbarrow, 2012

V I S U A L philosophers and writers. Friedrich Nietzsche's proclamation of the death of God and moral bankruptcy in the 19th century, for example, provided for a climate of modernism that was to influence innumerable forthcoming literary works. George Bernard Shaw, a Nietzschean among playwrights (and founding member of LSE), set out to unveil the comfortable as uncomfortable in addressing moral, economic and political issues. Significance in shaping modernist thought may further be attributed to the work of French philosopher Henri Bergson, who colossally influenced literary giants, such as James Joyce, Marcel Proust, Henrik Ibsen and Virginia Woolf. In the existentialist writings of Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus philosophy and literature further blend most

erature and philosophy and the latter's inevitable need for literary exemplification. Comments by academics, numerous illustrations, students' own poetic explorations of philosophical ideas and a short film will leave you inspired to go and read (more) literature. The displayed authors further include Plato and Thomas More, Baruch Spinoza, Goethe and Coleridge, Dostoevsky and the utilitarian thinkers, Martin Heidegger and Paul Celan, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Isaiah Berlin, Milan Kundera, Wittgenstein and Tom Stoppard.

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A R T S

BELOW Ed (Teller's son), 2010

did not know that I came across Juergen Teller‘s work earlier in my life: his

art photography accompanied by witty comments, both of which had a blunt sort of pep and punch, featured in a weekly controversial column in Germany‘s popular Die ZEIT magazine. Given free creative rein, Teller produced shots on his business travels and his free time which often provoked outcry amongst readers (I vividly remember my mother getting upset about the degree of nudity in his pictures published in such a respected magazine). Nudity does play a big role in his latest exhibition entitled Woo! at the Institute of Contemporary Arts London. Upon entering the main exhibition room the visitor will be greeted by three monumental photographs of the iconic British fashion designer Vivien Westwood posing without clothes upon an antique sofa decorated with a fading floral pattern. When the German photographer

took these pictures in 2009, Westwood was 68—inevitably, her body lacks the juvenile features of a teenage model, yet Teller manages to portray her in a magnificent and overwhelming manner. Westwood is not the only celebrity Teller has closely collaborated with—Kurt Cobain, Björk, Kate Moss (in a mucky old wheelbarrow) and Victoria Beckham (Teller somehow convinced her to climb into an enormous Chanel shopping bag and pose with only her legs visible) were among those who Teller managed to picture in the most unconventional poses and settings. Teller’s provocative interventions in celebrity portraiture subvert the conventional relationship of the artist and model. Whatever the setting, all his subjects collaborate in a way that allows for the most surprising poses and emotional intensity. Juergen Teller, one of the most influential photographers of his generation, could be described as the antithesis of conventional fashion photography seen most markedly in his campaigns for Marc Jacobs and Céline. However, it was not his (outstanding) fashion photography that struck me most as part of his manageably sized exhibition—but the numerous private shots of himself, animals, his family, forests and friends. Humour, self-mockery and emotional honesty thread much of his work —e.g. the images of his baby son in Motorhead Ed or Teller himself passed out in a plate of suckling piglet. A remarkable part of the exhibition is the Fox Reading room which has been turned into floor-to-ceiling fashion photographs pasted up from magazines interspersed with intimate pictures of his son getting a haircut, Vivien Westwood eating fruit and a dog in a public bin—frozen to death. It‘s the unique and exciting juxtaposition of Teller‘s photographs in each of the three exhibition rooms that reveals a lot about the his approach to photography and life in general: "I'm just producing work and I try to find channels where I can express myself," he says. "That can be a magazine, a book, a poster… whether it's art or photography I really don't care." The ICA is conveniently located near Trafalgar Square. If you have a spare minute and are in need of an amusing and inspirational break, go and see it—it‘s fun.

Katerine Maria Niedinger

Erika Arnold

Until 2 March 2013

Until 17 March 2013

ATRIUM GALLERY, OLD BUILDING

INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART

20

05.02.2013 PartB

'Those of us who work in the arts know that depiction is not end practices, no author could write about them, and no film

—Kathryn Bigelow, Academ

THE FICTIONALITY OF REALITY really brings into the fore the necessary questions on ‘truth’ and the blurring of documentary and fiction film genres. The film opens with the caption “based on firsthand accounts of actual events�. Immediately making claims to a true and authoritative account of events that have been highly publicly debated. Bigelow herself has stated that Zero Dark Thirty is a “reported thirty�. It seems, at least for the first 70 percent of the film, to be a documentary, using photojournalistic inspired cinematography, as well as a quiet and slow paced style typical of the social realism movement. In fact, the screenwriter, Mark Boal, is a former journalist. Thus, journalism is at the very heart of this film. It is the use of journalistic technique that indicates something beyond the pro-torture sentiment that seems on the surface. Journalism is a quest for knowledge, it is a reporting of events to the public, a public service that not only provides information to the public but also keeps the authorities in check. If one looks at the film as crossing the boundaries of fiction and documentary, then journalism’s essential attributes become crystal clear. Take, for instance, the film's use of music. For that first 70 percent of the film, music was only heard as a torture technique. But, after the 70 percent mile mark, as the film transitions into an action-packed detective story, non-diegetic music sweeps in to steer audiences emotion’s into the right direction, that of a patriotic determination to see Osama bin Laden dead. As audiences root more and more for the protagonist to find her ‘target’ and eliminate him, the film reaches a crescendo in the final descent onto bin Laden’s secret lair. The music

"

By blurring documentary style and detec-­ tive/action style techniques she is questioning ‘truth’, how far can we even believe these “firsthand ac-­ counts of ac-­ tual eventsâ€??

ECHO CHAMBER: VOICES FROM THE WEB "For Americans to feel fully OK about the killing of bin Laden (in this reading), it must be presented not just as a military or intelligence victory over an enemy, but also as a propaganda victory and a moral victory, one that’s divorced from its own troubling history and free of any disturbing consequences. Both within the world of “Zero Dark Thirty� and the real world of Washington, the quest for bin Laden was seen as an unquestioned moral and political good, and ended with one of the few American foreign-policy successes of the last decade."—ANDREW O'HEHIR, Salon

5HDOO\" 2QH GRHVQ W QHHG WR EH D PRUDOLVW RU QDLYH DERXW WKH XUJHQFLHV RI ன JKWLQJ WHU that torturing a human being is in itself something so profoundly shattering that to depict tralise this shattering dimension – is already a kind of endorsement."—6ODYRM ÄżLĹ€HN

<RX VKRXOG 1(9(5 HQJDJH LQ D GHEDWH ZKHUH WKH RWKHU VLGH GHன QHV WKH WHUPV RI WKH G case, to debate "whether torture works." You should refuse to participate in that discussion WLRQ VKRXOG EH VLPSO\ LV WRUWXUH ZURQJ" $QG DIWHU ZDWFKLQJ WKH EUXWDO EHKDYLRU RI &,$ PLQXWHV RI WKH ன OP , FDQ W EHOLHYH DQ\RQH RI FRQVFLHQFH ZRXOG FRQFOXGH DQ\WKLQJ RWKHU WK NOT right. You will be repulsed by these torture scenes because, make no mistake about it your W name and mine and with our tax dollars. We funded this."—MICHAEL MOOR

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dauntingly frames the slow but nerve-wracking movement of the helicopters from CIA headquarters to bin Laden, but as the helicopters (clumsily) land, the music disappears. The film returns to its journalistic roots, and situates the audience as passive observer as the marines murder the majority of the occupants of bin Laden’s safehouse. The use of music and this play of genre can be seen to indicate the inevitable emotive nature of the search and killing of Osama bin Laden. Bigelow is drawing to the fact that this film is about “the most undigested trauma in American national life during the last several decades�. Bigelow had to make the film a year after bin Laden’s assassination. The proximity to the event is what precisely gives the film motive. Just think to the controversy it has sparked. Films mostly only manage to stir a little bit of contention within the media industry, but here this film has disturbed the public to such extremes that the U.S.Senate has to get involved. It has caused a seemingly impenetrable organization such as the CIA to shake at the knees. Bigelow manages to perform all the fundamental ethical aims of the media in what is technically considered to be a fictional film. By blurring documentary style and detective/action style techniques she is questioning ‘truth’, how far can we even believe these “firsthand accounts of actual events�? The ‘truth’ can be manufactured (as a film) and it can be (patriotically) sentimentally driven. Therefore, Bigelow’s film is a ‘reported film’. It includes all the reports, the CIA reports, the firsthand account reports and the movie-like sentimental reports.

TIME

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igelow’s film, Zero Dark Thirty, has created ripples across the world as it seeks to depict the ‘real’ search and assassination of Osama bin Laden. It is perhaps this concept, the claims to a making of a ‘true’ filmic account of a mission that was cloaked with “darkness and secrecy�. The film has been accused by the media, such as the Guardian’s Naomi Wolf, as being an “apology for torture�, and a “gorgeously shot, two hour ad for keeping intelligence agents who committed crimes against Guantanamo prisoners out of jail�. The film engages in depicting long and painful scenes of CIA agents inflicting torture in order to extract information. The issue is that the film seems to depict the fact that torture works. The prisoners often confess and the information they provide is always valid. This has led many journalists to liken Bigelow to the pro-Nazi filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, as being “remembered forever as torture’s handmaiden�. Thus, the underbelly of the CIA’s operations is seemingly necessary for successful operations like the search and killing of Osama bin Laden, “a nasty piece of pulp and propaganda�. The film’s content is allegedly based on information freely provided to the filmmakers by the Obama Administration. This is according to the Republicans, who charged the Administration with unlawfully providing the filmmakers with access to classified information. The filmmakers themselves deny any exchange of information. And the U.S.Senate Intelligence Committee has now called for a review of the contacts between the CIA and Bigelow’s team. This desperate finger-pointing game with which the filmmakers and the CIA have been engaging

COLUMBIA PICTURES

Ira Lorandou argues that the film is a comment upon American post-9/11 political narrative

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The Beaver 05.02.2013

dorsement. If it was, no artist would be able to paint inhumane mmaker could delve into the thorny subjects of our time.'

my Award winning director

ONCE MORE, WITH FEELING Josh Jinruang leaves the cinema feeling cold

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onsidering the divisive subject matter, it is perhaps unavoidable that Zero Dark Thirty would be mired in controversy from the point of conception. Originally intended to portray CIA’s long and expensive failure over the attempt to capture Osama bin Laden, the story had to change midway through production once America’s Islamic fundamentalist boogeyman-terrorist was successfully eliminated not long after 1am on May 2, 2011. The new day came as the whole country erupted into an outburst of mass nationalistic celebration. Flags were waved. Star-Spangled Banner was sung. Whatever story arc Kathryn Bigelow had had in mind, history seemed to have another idea. The film follows Maya (Jessica Chatwain), a willowy, red-haired, socially stunted yet strong-willed CIA operative, as she spends the whole decade following 9/11 in single-minded pursuit of the culprit, utilising every method available at her disposal: ‘enhanced interrogation technique’, detective work, a bribe of Lamborghini, surveillance, and eventually a raid in a suburban compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, the last of which provides the film with a tense, exhilirating, adrenaline-pumping narrative climax. Much was said over the film’s authencity, a notion that is no doubt tauted by the finished product itself: ‘The following motion picture is based on first hand accounts of actual events.’, explicitly states the first image that pops up on the screen. Indeed, screenwriter and journalist Mark Boal, who had worked with Bigelow before in multiaward winning The Hurt Locker, had done an expansive research interviewing various unnamed sources involved in the chase. The film emphasises its claim of objectivity through realistic documentary style, complete with disruptions by white-on-black text on screen indicating the time and location of each following event. Much like Maya herself, Zero Dark Thirty drives forward through each plot point with relentless forward momentum. Fueled by manic obsession and revelling in

its own stubborn righteousness, the film is a cinematic equivalent of a police procedural, where every setback is merely a necessary stumble on the path towards eventual triumph. The film has been accused of endorsing torture. ‘Partial truth will be treated as a lie’, says Maya’s colleague Dan (Jason Clarke) to a suspect al-Qaeda financier at a ‘blacksite’, an interrogation camp situated at an undisclosed location. This maxim also appears to be held by Bigelow, who wrote, in a letter to LA Times responding to crtics, that torture is a “part of the story we couldn’t ignore�, and that it would be illogical to make a case against it “by ignoring or denying the role it played in U.S. counter-terrorism policy and practices�. Indeed she is right. There would be no propaganda more subtly insidious, and perhaps effective, than to imply that a morally unacceptable act is nonexistent. Any story set in the past which tries to whitewash the history of racism either by inclusion or exclusion of ethnic characters can testify to that. Again, she hits the nail on the head, pardon the pun, saying that “depiction is not endorsement�, that there is, in other word, an empathic yet often overlooked distinction between descriptive and prescriptive storytelling. While it was dubious that no CIA agent within the story would criticise the notorious ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’, torture in the film is undoubtedly depicted as an inhumane act, with soft focus often on the detainee’s battered body and defeated facial expressions in contrast to the brutal, complacent calculatedness that characterises the torturer. Should one need to be explicitly told that such a practice is morally wrong when an incontrovertible evidence of trauma inflicted upon another fellow individual appeals so directly, sensuously and effectively to our natural sense of sympathy? Another argument against the film lies in its alleged factual inaccuracy. As reported in The New Yorker article, shortly after Bin Laden was killed, Leon Pannetta, the then CIA director sent

a letter to Senator John McCain stating: “we first learned about ‘the facilitator / courier’s nom de guerre’ from a detainee not in the C.I.A.’s custody.� and that “no detainee in C.I.A. custody revealed the facilitator / courier’s full true name or specific whereabouts�. Still, is this relevant? Is a work of art supposed to capture factual historical truth perfectly in every detail? While Bigelow was probably asking for it by emphasising the film’s journalistic authenticity in the early days of its promotion, the film attempts to do the same thing as any good story, from classical myths to Shakespeare’s to Tolkien’s to hollywood blockbusters, does. It boils reality down to the most essential components, before imaginatively reconstructing it by incorporating actual elements assembled from such reality. Art is not supposed to be life but a crystallised form of it. However, where Zero Dark Thirty fails is not in its unsensationalised depiction of torture or misguided claim at factual accuracy. Rather, where it fails is at the story level. A war film, or in this strange case of genre evolution, a counter-terrorism film, is only as good as its ability to show the human cost of such a violent conflict. In this film, there is no human cost to be shown because it makes no effort to humanise the characters. Our designated protagonist Maya is given no purpose beyond fulfilling the objective of her mission. While one could argue that the film is an allegory for America’s mad obsessive pursuit for retribution in the post-9/11 world, no matter how consequentially myopic or senselessly illadvised, and that Maya embodies that dangerous mindset, the psychological insight which would explain and perhaps redeem such mentality is absent. The film, like Maya herself, shies away from emotional engagement at every possibility, making for a frustrating viewing experience especially at the run time of almost three hours. Maybe the effect Bigelow wishes to achieve is that of alienation? Perhaps the detached presentation is meant to evoke an evisceral self-assessment, a

critical evaluation of the spiritual emptiness of such hollow ambition? If so, the film resists such an interpretation by resorting to a typical heroic narrative in the last act, as Maya morphs into Joan of Arc, whose life was spared so that the villain could be neutralised. It is obvious that the audience is meant to cheer when she stands up to the uninformed bureacrats, when she rejects probabilstic uncertainty and asserts that there is one-hundred percent chance of Bin Laden living in that compound, or when she adamantly defuses the popular misconception of the man’s whereabout to the Seal Team 6. It is at these moments when she encounters the political, external obstacles that the film sparks with the potential to be reflectively interesting, and yet instead of siezing upon them, it marches on, high on its own jingoistic self-satisfaction, chasing a ghost at the cost of its own humanity. These crucial shortcomings aside, one cannot deny Bigelow’s auteuristic craftsmanship, Boal’s meticulous journalistic tenacity, nor Chastain’s studied quiet intensity. The film is a visual treat throughout, with surprising restraint in sequences that can quickly turn bombastic in the hands of a lesser director. It is just regrettable that despite all the right ingredients, Zero Dark Thirty forgets the most fundamental duty of art: it needs only not to confront but connect. One cannot help but think of the last lines of Matthew Arnold’s Dover Beach. The poem, while ending in nihilistic pandemonium referring to Thucydides’ Polyponnesian War, searches desperately for salvation which it finds in humanistic love: ‘Ah, love, let us be true / To one another!’. Zero Dark Thirty attempts the same catharsis in its dĂŠnouement, but without the capacity for love and forgiveness, it feels empty, a single teardrop into the unfathomable void. No matter how many terrorists we torture, nor how many al-Qaeda leaders we deservedly punish, the victims of 9/11 will never be brought back.

ZERO DARK THIRTY

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05.02.2013 PartB

UOL CHAMBER CHOIR

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ubbed by Aled Jones as “one of London’s most exciting choirs”, the University of London Chamber Choir certainly lived up to their reputation at the St. Cecilia’s Day Concert last November. They began up in the balconies of the St. George’s Church Bloomsbury. With dimmed lights, the group began a soothingly hypnotic performance of James MacMillan’s ‘Christus Vincit. Despite the briefest of wobbles early on,

" THE TONE WAS SET FOR A REMARKABLE AND ENCHANTING EVENING OF MUSIC "

overpowered, were now coming through fully. A strong selection of soloists led the composition, displaying great dexterity on the final refrain of ‘Bless Cecilia’. To round off the evening was ‘Totus Tuus’ from Górecki’s selection of vocal works. It was a master class in dynamics, performed with superb pacing. Conductor Dr. Colin Durrant, who leads the group with great precision, must be mentioned here. It

MALA IN CUBA//LIVE

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ast year Mala, the dubstep pioneer of Digital Mystikz fame, released Mala in Cuba. It was the culmination of a musical and literal journey through Cuba in which Mala had joined esteemed BBC DJ Gilles Peterson. Mala gave this project its second only London outing last week as he reunited with Gilles at the Camden Koko. For a good few years now, the comments section of You-

tube has been a morass of argument over the definition of dubstep. It is a genre that fails to be firmly defined and interestingly it is the parties that claim to love dubstep who disagree most fiercely over its nature. However, if there are two features of dubstep that are possible to abstract it is the general repetition of electronic production and an anchoring in deep bass. On reflection, why Ma-

Ɖ Tom Barnes

UNIVERSITY OF LONDON CHAMBER CHOIR

the choir navigated the close harmony and Tavener-esque crushed chords with great tenderness. Soloist Olivia Lewis’ impressive performance must also not be forgotten. As the final few notes gently trickled down from above, the tone was set for a remarkable and enchanting evening of music. Following on was a trio of English chamber songs, by Tal-

lis, Weelkes and Purcell. The last of the three was the most successful, displaying great proficiency in dynamic control. It highlighted that it was in the tenderer, softer moments, that the choir was most happy. Here they were careful to never rush, deftly negotiating what was certainly challenging repertoire, with great maturity. At times forte passages were ever so slightly untidy, and although the choir certainly displayed great power and range of dynamic, it sometimes was at the expense of synchronicity. Bach’s ‘Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf’ was another triumph. The relentless fugal counterpoint and demanding length of the piece was made to look easy, with the choir’s rhythmic proficiency coming to the fore. The conclusion was reached conformably, rather than a sense of relief of finally getting there. Britten’s musical setting of Auden’s own ‘Hymn to St. Cecilia’ was a demonstration of The UoL Chamber Choir’s extraordinary versatility, as well as being the most deceptively difficult piece of the night. By this point the choir were fully warmed up, and the male lines that were previously slightly

was certainly a piece the choir was extremely comfortable with, and Górecki’s signature chromatisisms were perfectly executed. Its tranquil conclusion was a neat bookending of the whole evening, ending the concert as gently as it begun. The UoL Chamber Choir have a lot to be proud of. Their professionalism, control, and versatility place them as one of the most accomplished student choirs in the country. With a bit of polish, this hardworking group could go on to achieve big things.

"MALA IN CUBA INVOKES THE METHOD RATHER THAN THE CONTENT OF DUBSTEP, FASHIONING AN ENTIRELY NEW AESTHETIC FROM ITS DNA"

MALA IN CUBA

la’s take on Cuban sounds is so surprisingly successful and coherent is because it is only the ideas of repetition and bass weight that he marries with it. Mala in Cuba invokes the method rather than the content of dubstep, fashioning an entirely new aesthetic from its DNA much in the way that James Blake did. Frankly, the shelf-life of dubstep could quite easily have been nothing more than a summer’s worth of dubplates played to small East London clubs. However, if the vitality of the genre is to be attributed to any cause it is to a handful of producers with enough innovation to make for its rise ad astra. It is this inspiration that Mala harnesses and demonstrates even on stage. Before the show this reviewer was sceptical that a live performance of the album could do justice to the record. It is peculiar of modern production that the live performance often becomes an after-thought and it is not uncommon for musicians to fail at realising

it; Ghostpoet’s shows come to mind in particular. Mala enlisted two percussionists in accompaniment to help bring the record to life. In his premiere of Mala in Cuba in Brixton last year he was joined by a pianist amongst other live musicians and this would have been welcome in Camden; likely as this was not a solo show he did not call on his full ensemble. To catch Mala in Cuba at a solo show where Mala will be accompanied by his full live band is something that cannot be recommended enough. The atmosphere that Mala has captured with this project is universal enough to get a full room dancing without exception and its world music touch makes for perhaps the most high-brow show one can lose their shit to.

Ɖ

Emir Nader

WANT TO INTERVIEW ARTISTS? COVER CONCERTS? REVIEW FREE SAMPLES FROM ALBUMS THAT HAVEN'T EVEN BEEN RELEASED YET? ...Write for music! Submit articles or just get in touch with ya boys Emir and Tom at: music@thebeaveronline.co.uk

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23

The Beaver 05.02.2013

JAMIE'S ITALIAN ) Mhh]j Kl EYjlaf k DYf] WC2H 9FB 0203 326 6390 Hours: Mon - Sat 12:00-23:30 Sun 12:00-22:30 Cuisine: Italian Average spend: £40-80 for two Reservations: Yes

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here is always something that makes one feel apprehensive about a restaurant chain. It could be the perils of the laminated menu, which naturally cause you to feel as though the restaurant does not trust liquids. There are also the natural fears associated with seeing shelves piled high with cans of olives, which gives the impression that you have taken a wrong turn and are dining at a wholesalers in Daventry. This is to say nothing of eating whilst faced with shelves of celebrity

chef hardbacks, which frankly should be called Service à la Corée Nord. However, for purely explicable reasons, none of this seems especially problematic where Jamie’s Italian is concerned. There may be around 32 of the chain, although it seems as though the quality of these establishments has not suffered as a result. I am not sure how discerning the diners at the Gatwick Airport branch have to be, so it is possible that the Covent Garden branch is the one to have all the money thrown at it, like a successful nationalised car manufacturer in the mid-Seventies. My companion and I arrived for an early dinner, finding the place almost distressingly full at half-past four. Again, this should be a warning bell. I fear for the people who eat at this time, obviously in the mood for a meal in between the National Gallery and the ENO, purely because they are going to find themselves the victim of the sort of snobbery I find myself using in this review. So, to the bourgeois family who had taken their precocious offspring to watch The Mikado, I apologise. Fortunately, the two of us were too preoccupied by the food for any of this to make much of a difference. I opted for the “Crispy Squid” (£5.95), which was presented in a similar way to a typical whitebait.

Whilst the tempura was a little underseasoned, the garlic mayonnaise that accompanied it was rich and well-regarding. My colleague was far more sensible, selecting a mixed “Plank” (£6.95) for her starter. The name was entirely suit-

so many otherwise reputable establishments seem to, hence why the one here came as such a wonderful surprise. It was so delightful that I even forgave the sprig of rosemary on the side of the plate, something that I always find unfathomable. Desserts were a mixture of sorbets and ice cream (both £4.95), all of which were superb. I was especially fond of the option of having a smashed

able, with the assorted meats being delivered on a large chopping board balanced on two large tins of plum tomatoes, which helped us solve the mystery of why they had been plonked in front of us two minutes prior without so much as a by-your-leave. Hardly a case for Mrs Marple, but still more than you would expect for an early evening meal. Fortunately, the whole starter was excellent and it was clear that the selection of cured meats had been carefully selected to

have been better off substituted for pine nuts, but that is as pernickety as I am prepared to go. However, the free-range chicken (£13.50) selected by my colleague was worthy of the epitaph. Presented with gently cracked skin, an aromatic steam and a texture that would have made it fall apart if a fork so much as wafted the air beside it, it was the standout dish of the evening. It is hard to mess up something as straightforward as roasted meat, but

honeycomb topping, which is something that I wish we could mine on an industrial level. After what had sometimes been a slightly over complex menu, the simplicity of the desserts was very pleasing to see. So Jamie’s, just ditch the utilitarian shelving, strip a few erroneous starters from the menu and put a mushroom dish on as standard and all will be well.

easy to sink your teeth into; the skin was also left on for extra flavour. We ordered two side dishes, the house coleslaw (£2.95) and the tomato and red onion salad (£3.45), to come simultaneously with the chicken. These cold dishes were a nice foil to the warm and succulent chicken, the coleslaw being white and crunchy, the salad juicy and slightly sweet. Several sauces were provided, our favourite being the BBQ sauce, which was mildly and pleasantly sweet; for those of you who like your spice, the chilli sauce provided a mild and short-lived kick and worked well with the bread basket. It was also easy to dip the crispy chicken bites into any of the sauces—the flavour combinations were all winners. Although time was tight, we decided that a review would be incomplete without trying the dessert—after all, restaurants can deliver on the savoury courses but let you down at the very end. I was indeed feeling let down after my first bite of the lemon tart (£4.45), as the consistency of the lemon filling was reminiscent of baby food. However, the taste grew on me after several bites of the warm tart, of which acidity was nicely balanced by the chilled clotted cream ice cream. Had I not been so full from all of the appetizers, bread, chicken, and side dishes, I could easily have ordered another. My friend’s lime sorbet (£3.45) was too sour for my taste, but what matters is that she really enjoyed it.

Clockjack Oven’s interior also deserves mentioning. The tables are arranged for flexibility—you can dine in a large group, in an intimate table for two, or at the bar. As you eat, you can watch a chicken constantly rotating in the rotisserie oven and then look on as the chefs cut and prepare the pieces. We ate at 4 PM and were the only diners for most of our meal, but being located in the Theatre District, Clockjack Oven can, and does, get packed at night. If you’re a fan of chicken, though, it’s definitely worth the wait, because the food here is superb.

JAMIE'S ITALIAN

complement each other, rather than simply being thrown together like an Italian centreleft coalition. The mains were similarly considered, with me having chosen a ‘special’ mushroom tagliatelle. It was perfect and refreshingly simple, cooked the correct side of al dente, with a dollop of crème fraiche setting the flavours off as well as could be expected. As an aside, the breadcrumbs would

CLOCKJACK OVEN C

lockjack Oven opened in December 2012 with a goal to serve rotisserie chicken and to serve it well. Tucked away in a side street just behind Piccadilly Circus next to several ethnic restaurants, a Korean grocery store, and a nightclub, Clockjack Oven stands out for its smartlooking exterior. Once you sit

sured us that although all of the appetizers were fantastic, he most recommended the new "Crispy Chicken Bites" (£4.95), which had been recently added to the menu, in response to customer feedback over the past two months. Unlike the rest of the rotisserie menu, the chicken here had been broken into smaller pieces and fried in

its pure, unadulterated form. You can order smaller portions of three or four pieces of chicken and are allowed to opt for more of the breast or leg, but we went for the most costeffective option, the ten pieces of chicken for £17.95. This comprises the entire bird — essentially 1.5 kg of free-range French poultry—and would

THRILLIST.COM

down, though, it really stands out for its food. A small bowl of root vegetable crisps was first laid on the table, which was slightly confusing as it was also listed on the menu as an appetizer. Is it complimentary? Do we eat it or do we give it back? (In case you’re wondering, it’s the former.) We were greeted by Ciarán, the manager, who as-

a gram flour batter. Although the batter sometimes squeaked in my mouth, the chicken was tender and of the same quality as the chicken that we would be eating later—this restaurant doesn’t cut corners. Then came the aforementioned main course, and while Clockjack Oven serves salads, wraps, and buns, what we really came for was the chicken in

have been enough for three people, given all of the appetizers that we had consumed. The meat was full of taste—Ciarán earlier emphasised how Clockjack Oven was not trying to be like Nando’s, and instead of focussing on the seasoning and the sauces, they wanted to focus on the flavour of the chicken itself. All parts of the bird were perfectly cooked and

Æ Jack Tindale

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Æ

Jeffrey Mo

14 Denman Street, W1D 7HJ 0207 287 5111 Hours:

Mon - Thurs 12:00-23:00 Fri - Sat 12:00-0:00 Sun 12:00-18:00 Cuisine: Chicken Average spend: £30-50 for two Reservations: Yes

24

05.02.2013 | The Beaver

BEAVER NARROWLY SURVIVES CYBER ATTACK [NAME REDACTED] An attempt by the Chinese Authority for State Security to hack into the LSE Computer mainframe was foiled on Monday owing to the expressed boredom of the sleeper agent, a former Editor in the B’s hard-hitting news team. “Sirâ€? Hangs Lowe, Code Name “Fortunate Daughterâ€?, released a press statement that revealed a prevailing consensus amongst the diaspora community that “frankly, after you’ve spent the past sixteen days trawling through semi-literate reports about public lectures, the assured death of your immediate family somehow loses its sting.â€? The attack was only discovered when Rolex Young, former student of the School accidentally inserted himself into the Directory’s main server. After rebooting Windows 95, an exceptionally large amount of email correspondence was discovered being undertaken between the Department of Accounting and Beijing. Owing to the School’s copy of Encarta being corrupted, a mistaken declaration of war on North Korea was made by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The mistake was only realised when, equally mistakenly, 3\RQJ\DQJ EHFDPH WKH னUVW

country in history to successfully land a Proboscis monkey on Uranus. An official investigation was launched by P. Kelz, the LSE’s Deputy Commissar for Indoctrination, revealed the full extent of the espionage. A brief sweep of the Confus-

ing Institute (which, coincidentally, despite its ties to the repressive, communist Chinese government is proud to admit to no ulterior motives whatsoever. In addition, the School is happy to admit that no one has ever questioned the presence of a tax-

free cultural centre aimed at indoctrinating people at the LSE with a rose-tinted view of a repressive dictatorship whilst Tibetan and Uyghur activists are being “re-educated� in China) revealed a computer running a constant feed of information to

the Ministry’s headquarters, with the program used disguised as the new version of Train Simulator. A mole, totally unrelated to P. Kelz, called ‘Deep Leap’, informed the B that the most information leaked to the University comprised of the proposed LSE69 curriculum for the next academic year, “frankly, unless the Chinese government is somehow worse at writing than the avHUDJH னUVW \HDU %6F (FRQRPLFV VWXGHQW >6DPH GLŕŽ‰HUHQFH surely? Ed.] or has an unhealthy interest in GCSE Geography, I think that the risk to national security is pretty slim.â€? The computer was then destroyed when ‘Deep Leap’ accidentally spilled a mixture of pretzel crumbs and Mountain Dew over the tower. The People’s Republic has charged the cost of a new hard-drive to Commissar Calhounigan. It is suspected that the Chinese government will continue their hacking attempts as they attempt to, according to “Sirâ€? Hangs Lowe, “learn the causes of things.â€? A second anomaly regardLQJ D ODUJH QXPEHU RI னQDQcial transactions between ‘su.tindick’ and ‘Disobedient Octopus Funtime Inc’ is being investigated separately by the Metropolitan Police, the Osaka Criminal Investigation Bureau and the RSPCA.

MR LSE TERROR AFTER SURPRISE VICTOR priced sandwich coupons. His controversial talent URXQG FRQVLVWLQJ RI D ŕŽ‹DPLQThere was widespread shock JR WKUHH VKRWV RI ŕŽ‹DPLQJ as Jason Wanke was crowned sambuca and a white cis-tern Mr LSE, Wednesday. In a rulwon over the judging panel, ing deemed the most controsuch that they were nonYHUVLDO VLQFH WKH னYH WR IRXU plussed when he abysmally decision on Roe v Wade the failed to complete the baby enigmatic, alleged, misogynist oil rubbing challenge. This and possible Holocaust denier has raised questions as to the managed to take enough of fairness of the overall selecthe text-in votes and audience tion process, if entire rounds DSSURYDO WR ULGH RŕŽ‰ LQWR WKH can be discounted then allesunset with his sash and half-

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JDWLRQV RI ன[LQJ VFDQGDOV DQG illicit “bungsâ€? could be leveled. Silvio Berlusconi is yet to comment on the issue. This result was not without a response, however. Concerned that such an acceptance of someone with such views might result in a reformatting of the post-modHUQLVW LQŕŽ‹XHQFH RI IHPLQLVP a group of ardent feminist allies chained themselves to the doors of the Three Tuns,

demanding that the event be cancelled, because they didn’t agree with the result. Patrons simply gave them a confused look and used the main doors to the East Building. LSE Security are yet to cut the protesters down as they claim that it helps to “distract one’s eye from the architectural abomination that is the asbestos riddled East Building.� The group of feminists have also promised legal ac-

tion on a scale that will rival Bush v Gore in the early 2000s. Their legal challenge is rumoured to centre around Wanke’s hanging chads, and their inadmissible nature in the overall competition. The % FDQQRW FRQனUP WKLV VXJJHVWLRQ KRZHYHU ZH FDQ FRQனUP that Nota Bucksome-Vine is ‘investigating’ the matter and is pumping the relevant people for further information.

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05.02.2013 | The Beaver

Mike Pearson falls in and out of love with Valentine’s Day.

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he argument goes something like this: “It’s a moneymaking tool of the evil capitalist system in an attempt to use and abuse, exploit, hijack our emotions and excrete them all out onto an A5 piece of card that they can re-label as an ‍Ú?‏DŕŽ‰ HFWLRQDWH JHVWXUH‍ ڑ‏ZKLFK masks their real motive of making money‌GREEDY CAPITALISTS!â€? 1RZ \RX ZRQ‍ڑ‏W KHDU PH VWLFNLQJ XS IRU WKH ZRUG ‘love’. It comes slightly behind “literallyâ€? in my list of most annoying overused ZRUGV ‍ڔ‏, OLWHUDOO\ ORYH WKH lovely literary masterpiece 50 Shades, it’s literally brilOLDQW ‍ ڕ‏6KRYH RŕŽ‰ 7KH ZRUG has been overused so much; it has simply lost all meaning, mainly through its use in popular culture. Take the ITV primetime VKRZ ‍ڔ‏7DNH 0H 2XW‍ ڕ‏KRVWHG by 4th rate comedian and love child of Adam Sandler and Peter Kay, Paddy 0F*XLQHVV (DFK ZHHN

Stacey Solomon impersonaWRUV FRPSHWH IRU WKH DŕŽ‰ HF tions of a masculine Neanderthal still at the 2nd stage of human evolution. With over 4 million people absorbing this thunderball of gunk, romance and love suddenly become concepts only emotionally reachable if you have a lectern in front of you and a studio audience cheering you on. For the record, I’m still convinced that the phrase “No Likey, No Lighty,â€? is D 'HUUHQ %URZQ WHFKQLTXH Paddy uses on the contestants. For example: Use 1) 7XUQ RŕŽ‰ WKHLU OLJKW ZKHQ ‍Ú?‏WXUQHG RŕŽ‰ ‍ ڑ‏8VH WZR $ useful phrase for the conWHVWDQWV ZKHQ WKH\ UHDOL]H DOO PXWXDO DWWUDFWLRQ ZDV created by televisual effects and they reluctantly engage in sexual congress RQ WKH GDWH ZLWK WKH ‍ڔ‏1R Lightyâ€? catchphrase becoming an instruction for the bedroom. And to make matters

ZRUVH WKH\ JR WR DQ LV land called “Fernandoâ€? on WKH GDWH ‍ ڋ‏ZKLFK , JXHVV LV YHU\ DSWO\ QDPHG %RWK ன QG LW KDUG WR VFRUH ZKLOVW JHW ting ridiculously overpaid IRU ZKDW LV D UDWKHU WULYLDO task. But all this onscreen colour masks the reality that because the situations SOD\HG RXW DUH DOO DUWLன FLDO any scintilla of romance portrayed onscreen is in IDFW DUWLன FLDO 7KHUHIRUH WR understand romance you have to look to reality. Generally, there are three groups of people. Firstly, the group of people ZKR DUH KDSSLO\ LQ UHODWLRQ ships. Secondly, the group ZKR DUH LQ UHODWLRQVKLSV EH cause they sort of stumbled into them, like a group of FRQIXVHG RUDQJXWDQV ZKR SOD\ ZLWK D GHŕŽ‹ DWHG IRRW ball because it keeps them half amused. And lastly, WKRVH ZKR DUH ‍Ú?‏KDSSLO\‍ ڑ‏ single. (Which they say as it seems more socially acceptable than saying: “I’m

lonely, I feel like an empty YHVVHO ŕŽ‹ RDWLQJ DLPOHVVO\ RQ a gleaming sea of pissâ€?). 7KH ன UVW JURXS ZLOO WHQG to enjoy Valentine’s Day. Eating. Laughing. Drinking. Bonking [probably at The Bureau of Bonking, Zoo Bar]. The day lets this JURXS HQJDJH LQ ZKDW DUH very primal instincts. Good on them. 7KH VHFRQG JURXS ZLOO feel the burden of the day ZHLJKLQJ GRZQ XSRQ WKHP 1RW UHDOO\ VXUH KRZ WR DS SURDFK LW ZLWK PRUH SUHV sure on their shoulders WKDQ D 0XSSHW JLYLQJ DQ elephant a piggyback. They ZLOO VWXPEOH WKURXJK WKH GD\ VRPHKRZ EXW RIWHQ PDNH VRPH DZNZDUG ‍Ú?‏LURQ ic’ gesture to the other, attempting to make out that Valentine’s is ‘no big deal’. I reference you to ASDA’s Smartprice Valentine’s &DUG ODVW \HDU ZKLFK FRVW S ZDV D PL[WXUH RI WKH colour of anemic cat excretion and radioactive vomit, ZLWK WKH PHVVDJH LQVLGH

UHDGLQJ ‍ڔ‏0\ ORYH IRU \RX LV pricelessâ€?. Well done ASDA, DQRWKHU TXDOLW\ SURGXFW 7KH WKLUG JURXS ZLOO HL ther attempt to say they don’t care, or simply get blind drunk. But no matWHU ZKDW FDWHJRU\ ZH ன W into – probably none of the DERYH ‍ ڋ‏LW‍ڑ‏V D GD\ ZKHQ ZH can, and should relate to romance and love on our terms. 6R LQ D ZRUOG GRPLQDW HG E\ ZDU *HRUGLH 6KRUH hostage crises in Algeria, despotic dictators in Syria, poverty, the bourgeoisie, Nick Clegg, shitcake celHEV WKRVH DQQR\LQJ 0 0‍ڑ‏V in the cinema and Justin %LHEHU ZH DOO QHHG D OLW tle light relief from the evil IRUFHV LQ WKH ZRUOG 6R 9DO entine’s Day – for all of its commercial hype and pinkFRORXUHG ŕŽ‹ RZHU WKHPHG SURSDJDQGD LV D JUHDW ZD\ IRU XV RUGLQDU\ IRON WR ZUHV tle back romance from the television executives at ITV.

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Wake up it’s a beautiful morning Marion Osborne on her lifetime feud with her pesky alarm clock.

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ew Year, New You!’ ‘New, Slimmer You!’ so say the advertising campaigns designed to make maximum SURன W RI \RXU 1HZ <HDU‍ڑ‏V UHVROX tions. Everyone seems to sign up to gyms, start diets, quit smoking and stop drinking, for a ‘dry January’. The problem with such high-octane resolutions is that they set you up to fail. What they should say in footnotes is: new, hungrier and grumpier you for a week or two then back to the old you. That is if you are lucky enough to last beyond a few weeks. For New Year’s Day, the day you open the door to the start of your new life, your improved self, is preceded by New Year’s Eve, the equivalent promise of your most decadent self. Compulsory champagne or at least something bubbly WKDW ZLOO GHன QLWHO\ PDNH \RXU KHDG hurt means that on New Year’s Day even the sound of a door opening is too much. The NYE hangover encourages lie-ins, overeating and limited movement. That said, the New Year is a good opportunity to try and change the less desirable aspects of one’s behaviour. This year I decided I would try and get up earlier. I started a Masters in October, and am still in the process of adjusting my body clock and mentality from that of an undergraduate. Going out much less, I can no longer justify sleeping in. I have heard more times than I can count that the early bird catches the worm. I have yet to see this elusive early bird let alone know how to go about catching the

worm. I have not seen 7 o’clock from the right side for years. Yet the media is overgrown with my contemporaries or younger, achieving, creating and doing things worldwide, across the board. Rugby players like Billy Twelvetrees, pop superstars like Justin Bieber, 9 year old Oscar nominee, Quvenzhane Wallis, entrepeneurs, and youngest MEP, 24 year old Swede, Amelia Andersdotter. I’m pretty sure they were well acquainted with the early hours, en route to catch their respective worms.

sacked. More importantly they are paid to get up early. It is basically in their job description. I however am not. If I wanted to be pedantic about it, I’m essentially paying not to get up early. The motivation of good intentions and further reading doesn’t quite compare to hard cash or a pay slip. It does not get me out of bed in the morning. I have tried deception, thinking of the negative consequences of not getting up, tricking myself into thinking I will fail my degree if I do not get up

window open over night. I woke up with a cold. Needless to say, having a cold did not help me get up earlier. In fact I then crossed the 11am barrier. Leaving the window open was probably the worst tactic to date. I also tried and tested, leaving my phone on the other side of my room, so that I would have to get out of EHG WR WXUQ LW RŕŽ‰ $ FXQQLQJ WULFN , thought. No, it just made me angry, going back to bed in a rage, and not getting up out of principle at how annoying that was. Changing alarm sounds confused me. I considered having my friend phone me early in WKH PRUQLQJ ZKLFK ZDV HŕŽ‰ HFWLYH ODVW year when dissertation and exams loomed near. Sometimes I called her sometimes she called me. Now she I have to come to terms with the fact at the sound of my alarm. At night, I has a job. that I’ll never be a child star. If I had manage to set my alarm even earlier It occurred to me that since my more hours in the day I could do more 6:15-6:30am. I fall asleep excited and bed is in the corner of my room, that I work, be in less of a hurry to morn- nervous in anticipation of the pos- only had one possible side from which ing lectures, perhaps venture deeper sible achievements of the following to climb out of bed. What if this was into the realms of ‘further reading’. day. When my alarm rings however, the wrong side of the bed? What if the Maybe I would then have more time I wake up in my warm bed; my sub- reason I couldn’t get up was because to come up with an innovative busi- conscious knows exactly what’s been I really wanted to get out of bed on ness idea, train for a marathon before KDSSHQLQJ ([DPV DUH IDU RŕŽ‰ DQG P\ the right side, but there was a wall lectures, or pursue a singing career. snooze button is within reach. I wake there? I do not however have time Getting up early seems to be the mas- up again at about 10:15. Deception to reorganise the whole layout of my ter key to many doors. failed. URRP 7KH ULVN RI SRVVLEOH VLGH HŕŽ‰ HFWV To master this objective, I have Perhaps it is the environment that such as falling out of bed, disorientaconsulted some friends who get up is to blame. My bed is a modest sin- WLRQ DQG XQJXDUDQWHHG IXOன OPHQW RI every weekday at 6 or 7 o’clock, to gle, and my radiator is broken. Life my resolution, is too great. ன QG RXW ZKDW WKHLU VHFUHW LV ZKDW LV is warmer, cosier and better under It’s possible I’ve been approaching the trick. I want to learn from them. the duvet. Birds migrate to warmer this problem the wrong way. Maybe A pattern soon emerges. These are climes in winter; I migrate under my I should focus on using my waking employed friends. They have to go duvet. If I were to wake up cold, I hours more efficiently. It’s time I sign to work. If they don’t get up early might be more likely to get up just to up to a time management course and they will be shamed, reprimanded or warm up. With this thinking, I left my buy a bigger bed.

Birds migrate to warmer climes in winter; I migrate under my duvet.

Losing the Big V Plates

Nona Buckley-Irvine PXVHV RYHU WKH PHDQLQJ RI \RXU ŕ­˝ UVW WLPH

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hat’s right, I’m here to talk about virginity. Virginity is something that we are all born with and we are either encouraged to keep or to lose. It is something that girls want to be special and boys want to lose as soon as SRVVLEOH ,W LV VRPHWKLQJ WKDW GHன QHV our teenage years and our innocence, as it is widely believed that once you have lost it you have lost something precious. Religion likes to dictate on our virginity – that it should only be lost on your wedding night to the man you have married. Politicians like to legislate – no sex before you are sixteen, young boys and girls. Parents vary in what they say – some sons and daughWHUV VXŕŽ‰ HU WKH VH[ WDON DQG D QR VH[ no-boyfriend/girlfriend rule. Some sons and daughters have entirely liberal parents (like myself) who do not prescribe any sort of rules over relationships and sex. Now scientists have come out with a stance on our virginity. Apparently, our virginity dictates our ‘sextiny’, how our sex lives will be for the rest of our lives. The way that we lose our precious virginity ‘is related to future sexual satisfaction and functioning’. Sadly, all these various interest

groups like to come up with a theory of what our virginity means and why we should guard it, or lose it, or have it in a particular way. These interest groups are entirely divorced from reality and actually, idealise something very simple and natural into a big

we be worried? The answer is no. Virginity is built up when you are younger as a control mechanism – to either stop you from having sex or pressure you into having sex as soon as your ovaries are quivering for sePHQ 7KH UHDOLW\ RI \RXU ன UVW WLPH LV

deal. It is not a big deal. Some of my IULHQGV ORVW WKHLU YLUJLQLW\ WR WKHLU ன UVW boyfriend, others lost it to a girl during Freshers Week. Many still have not lost it. Is that a big deal? Should

that it will be exciting, because you are no longer a virgin. It will be anticlimatic, because it will never live up to the sex scenes you have seen in movies or porn, as those people have been having sex a thousand more

times than you have. After we’ve lost our virginity, it ceases to be important, it is not a loss that we mourn in the slightest. Perhaps a question now is of the age at when we lose our virginity. Political rhetoric by individuals like Dianne Abbott has been decrying the rise of ‘hypersexualisation’ of girls, and the fear of young girls dropping their knickers at an earlier age than ever before. But with all this rhetoric we need to remember some basic facts. Once you have sex, you do not change as a person. You’re more sexually satLVன HG RI FRXUVH EXW WKDW GRHV QRW mean that you will turn into a sexual demonic child, ready to trawl the streets for your next dose of penis. Media and other interest groups seek to control child innocence through the means of virginity, but actually, when you’re in the bedroom, it isn’t about that. It’s about the awkward intimacy with the other person, the high expectations, the fear of what’s about to happen. The fear of condoms. Then after, the relief. Spooning. Having another go because you’re not sure if it went in. Thinking ‘was that it?’

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| The Beaver

When the shit hits the hand Cleo Pearson shares how to overcome our irrational fears.

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have been a glamour volunteer for the last four summers. I’m not talking about posing for risquĂŠ photos on page three free of charge; I mean that images of my summer might conjure up cute kids, sunny days and tropical fruits. However, it wasn’t until my latest trip that I realised that I wasn’t learning much anymore from these things. My biggest lesson this time round was when shit hit the hand. Faeces, crap, shit, excrement, there’s really no way you can put it that makes this substance that we’re all so familiar endearing. As I went about my tasks as a volunteer in a Ugandan orphanage, bathing and dressing the babies, assisting with meal times and bedtimes, I became increasingly aware RI WKH ŕŽ‹ \ ULGGHQ VWLQNLQJ FRU ner that was the potty area. It seemed that somehow no one was accountable for the task of cleaning the seven rancid potties. The babies would reuse them, a recipe for illness, something which they ZHUH RIWHQ DŕŽ? LFWHG E\ , FRQ sidered my options: no one

had told me that it was my job to clean the potties, leave it up to someone else; but my conscience couldn’t rest with that. With breath held I began to tackle the task. It was vulgar, really foul. Flies swarming and a stench that made you gag, not forgetting WKH SUHWW\ VORSS\ EURZQ VWXŕŽ‰ itself. Not once but seven times, repeated thrice daily. In time I came to realise, that it, the shit, really wasn’t all that bad. It might be dirty and disease-carrying, smelly and unappealing to look at, but armed with a bar of soap none of these things could really hurt me. It was this brown matter that got me thinking. In Western society we distance ourselves from the idea of being animalistic; quite the opposite, we are ‘civilised’. No matter how fast we can make cars carry us or surgery change our natural appearance, at the moment the basic functions of MRS GREN (or NERG commonly taught in secondary school science) remain the same. For example: we excrement, we eat and we reproduce. These basic behaviours have

become complexly dealt with by haute cuisine, an entire VH[ LQGXVWU\ DQG ŕŽ‹ XVKLQJ WRL lets that spray water at you so we don’t have to get anywhere near the icky bit. Many of these things are greatly to be enjoyed; I just as much as the next person enjoy a three course meal and some sexy underwear but when does it all go too far? So much so that we forget that we’re reDOO\ DOO MXVW JORULன HG DSHV This development is not all positive. It can fuel unnatural behaviours, making us forget that food fuels us and leading to unhealthy habits of over and under eating. Causing sexual exploitation as sex becomes something which can be bought and sold. Whereas we seem to be ever distancing ourselves from the brown VWXŕŽ‰ ZKLFK QDWXUDOO\ ZLOO never get any further from us than our very own arsehole; even if you’re the Queen, she shits too by the way. Commonly when people go to developing countries to volunteer I think they see themselves as teachers regardless of whether this is their exact role or not. It is

true that on average we may have received more years of education which we may share. We may also acknowledge learning about the native culture, just as you would visiting the Notre Dame, but it seems to be underappreciated what we can learn from a developing country’s way of life. In western society advertisers make millions a year through the creation of fear. I must buy this cleaning product or my family will get ill, my child needs these cool school shoes or they will get bullied, I need to buy this designer watch so that I will show status at work. We feel we need these things to live happily and successfully. Cleaning companies make a bomb on the creation of fear surrounding germs. Fuzzy little monsters and luminous patches on work surfaces not seen by the naked eye on adverts. Yet scientists suggest that psychological strength can have a greater strength on resistance to germs than exposure to them. It is from this unnatural hype that we develop unnatural mental

disorders, how many Africans do you think have OCD? I’m yet to meet any. Modernisation doesn’t equate with better. If ever you let yourself behave more primitively, and throw to the wind the percentages and threats of advertisers, it may just help you realise something. Shit is just shit. Hate to state the obvious, but accepting this can make a whole lot of problems less scary. Advertisers consider the sixteen-24 age bracket as the golden age because we are most likely to believe that their claims are true. But normal disinfectant works just as well as Mr. Muscle maxi gold, trainers won’t make your kid popular, they’ll just get called a rich douche and a watch won’t make up for the authority you lack around your peers which you lose with your cowering posture, quiet voice and timidity. If we stop taking ourselves so seriously we might realise that we’ve been fabricating our fears and in fact there’s nothing to be afraid of.

Eating in the all the wrong places Dennis Mooney and why the working lunch is, like it or not, here to stay.

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ast week, the Conservative MP and minister for Public Health Anna Soubry declared eating at one’s desk to be ‘mad’ and ‘wrong’. In an interview with the Telegraph, the MP for Broxtowe suggested that people take time out over lunch ‘to get their heads back together’ and that eating over a keyboard was ‘disgusting’. Soubry at least pointed out that part of the reason behind this is that people no longer get paid lunch breaks but rather spurned what little good will she had built up by suggesting that fat people are mostly poor, saying ‘you can almost now tell someone’s background by their weight’. Ignoring for the moment the ridiculousness of that outrageously snobbish comment, I personally think that the idea of eating at a desk is eminently reasonable. Speaking as someone who has, over the past few years, eaten lunch in such hazardous locations as ski lifts (on my gap year), the wheel of my car (irresponsible, I know) and, perhaps most scarily, the kitchen RI WKH VWXGHQW ŕŽ‹ DW , VKDUH ZLWK two individuals who I won’t name, my desk seems like an oasis in a desert of distractions, danger and, in the latter

case, outright disgust. ,W PLJKW QRW EH P\ ன UVW choice, but on those occasions when I can’t rustle up a table at the Ivy of a lunchtime, a Sainsbury’s meal deal and a Kit Kat whilst browsing BBC news or Twitter is a lot more interesting and efficient, not WR PHQWLRQ FRVW HŕŽ‰ HFWLYH WKDQ leaving the office for a sitdown meal. The idea that ‘we don’t, as a nation, cook’ might be a wider concern, but unless Soubry’s office has a lot better facilities than mine (LSE Vacations, since you’re asking, which I’ve always found quite wellequipped) then I fear that weekday lunches are destined to stay that way. And actually, since you mention it Anna, I quite regularly eat things at my desk that I’ve cooked at home the night before, so there. Whilst I can see the argument for taking a break at

lunchtime, there are obviously people for whom it’s not quite so easy. Whether they’re airline pilots, bankers or, one might assume, cabinet ministers, some people probably can’t spare the time to even put their feet up at their desk, never mind popping out for a siesta, and who are we

to blame them? In a time of economic downturn, the government should surely be encouraging productivity, rather than coming over all French and suggesting we crack open the Bordeaux, and maybe have a cheese course whilst we’re at it. I’d also like to point out

that the necessity of eating on the job has created some of Britain’s best-loved culinary treats, including the pasties of which the government are so fond. The cheese string and the Dairylea Dunkable, highlights of many readers’ childhoods I’m sure, are fundamentally convenience food. The Earl of Sandwich allegedly created that favourite deskjockey’s treat so that he c o u l d remain at his card table whilst eating; probably as close as he ever g o t t o ‘work’. I ’ m not saying I wouldn’t eat a lobster thermidor at my desk LI LW ZHUH RŕŽ‰ HUHG DQG ZKR NQRZV PD\EH LW LV RŕŽ‰ HUHG WR Conservative ministers. The long lunch, however, simply isn’t a national treasure here as it is on the continent, where making a telephone call between 12:30 and 3:00 is met

with an incredulous answerphone message in a tone that suggests you might be getting a bit too keen. Apparently, 60 per cent of workers eat at their desks, and the time saved adds up to sixteen working days per worker per year. Based on a working population of 30 million people, that’s 288 million workdays per year. Someone who knows a lot more about economics and maths than I do could probably tell you what would happen if all of those people went out for lunch instead; I can tell you that it probably wouldn’t be anything good, unless you own a restaurant. You might think it’s disgusting, or you might, as I do, WKLQN LW‍ڑ‏V ன QH EXW WKH IDFW LV that lunch in the office is here to stay. Businesses rely on it on both sides of the equation; there wouldn’t be a Pret wherever you look if we were all eating in, after all. Although the BBC tragically cancelled ‘Working Lunch’ in 2010, depriving everyone of their recommended daily allowance of Adrian Chiles, we as a nation seem to have embraced the idea, whatever Anna Soubry thinks.

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Sweeping your troubles away Amelia Thomson RQ ZK\ VKH FDQQRW VHHP WR JHW KHU рн╛ RRU LQ RUGHU

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30

Features

Features Tories lose boundary review vote

Plans to redraw constituency boundaries before 2015, backed by the Tories, have been defeated in the House of Commons after Liberal Democrat ministers have voted against their Conservative coaliWLRQ FROOHDJXHV IRU WKH ன UVW time. Poorest face ‘bedroom tax’ The Resolution Foundation think tank says that millions of the poorest households face council tax rises because most councils in England will pass on a ten SHU FHQW EHQHன W IXQGLQJ cut. Some bills could rise as much as ÂŁ600. Single parents and disabled persons are among the groups that will be disadvantaged. DJs will not face charges Two Australian DJs who made a hoax call to the UK hospital treating the Duchess of Cambridge resulting in the death of Nurse Jacintha Saldanha, will not face charges according to the CPS. Last December, the couple, tricked Mrs Saldanha into transferring the call to a colleague who then described Catherine’s condition. David Ward MP ‘sorry’ over Israel criticism A Liberal Democrat MP who accused “the Jewsâ€? in ,VUDHO RI ‍ڔ‏LQŕŽ‹ LFWLQJ DWURFL ties on Palestinians... on a daily basisâ€? has apologised for the “unintended RŕŽ‰ HQFH‍ ڕ‏+H KDV DOVR EHHQ summoned to face the Liberal Democrat whips next week. University applications up by 2.8 per cent 7KH DSSOLFDWLRQ ன JXUHV XS to the 15 January deadline, show an increase of 2.8 per cent on last year for applicants from the UK for undergraduate courses. Universities Minister David Willetts said the rise in applications showed the success of changes to higher education funding. However, it is too early to tell what the trends will be.

Searching for a new position in Europe

Amelia Thomson

After much anticipation David Cameron has set out his plans regarding Britain’s relationship with the European Union. This subject has recently sparked much debate and contention among the media and public alike. Eurosceptics maintain that the EU takes too much power from Britain without any measures being in place to safeguard British interests. Whereas those proponents of the EU suggest it is much better remain a member state so as to ensure trade deals and remain a world player. The speech was expected to answer the question of whether Britain’s position in the EU would change and if these changes would be put to the British population in the form of a referendum. The Prime Minister began by looking at the historical background of the EU suggesting that originally it has been an institution for ‘healing wounds’ of war however that its focus had shifted to securing prosperity for member states. He suggested that in order to achieve this prosperity issues within the EU need to be addressed now otherwise it is likely to fail. First it was suggested that the problems in the Eurozone are driving fundamental change in the EU with those outside of the euro concerned that these changes will mean they will be excluded from the single market. Moreover the diminishing competitiveness of the EU as compared to emerging markets is problematic with the EU’s share of world output projected to fall almost a third in the next two decades. Further to this EU policies WHQG WR EH LQŕŽ‹ LFWHG XSRQ UDWK er than chosen by EU citizens with this imposition only being further exacerbated by the recent economic crisis. Mr Cameron emphasized the fact that although Britain did want to deal with these issues it has had no desire to be isolationist. In fact he stressed Britain wants quite the opposite with his ultimate goal being to negotiate a new agreement with the EU on the condition that it produces a better deal for both Britain and the EU. In light of these issues the Prime Minister set out his vision for Britain’s continued participation in the EU. First the competitiveness of the EU would be improved through making the single market fully comprehensive across

all EU countries as well as attempting to make the EU less bureaucratic. In addition the EU would have to be more ŕŽ‹ H[LEOH LQ RUGHU WR DFFRPPR date all of its members and WKHLU GLŕŽ‰ HUHQFHV LQFOXGLQJ GLI ferences in currency. Through this diversity the EU would promote willing cooperation rather than compulsion from the centre. Furthermore it is imperative that power will be DEOH WR ŕŽ‹ RZ EDFN WR PHPEHU states rather than just away from them. This was promised at the Laeken Treaty 10 years ago however has not since

However despite these grand aims what does this actually mean for Britain? Mr Cameron suggests that the Conservatives are in favour of holding a simple ‘in or out’ of the EU referendum so as to have democratic consent for the EU. Yet, at the moment he suggests that the general apathy for the EU in Britain and uncertainty over Britain’s position in the EU means that now is not the time for such a monumental vote. Instead, he suggests that the Conservative manifesto in 2015 will include an assurance that

been enforced. Moreover the democratic accountability of the EU would need to be improved through national Parliament’s having a greater role in the EU. Finally fairness would need to be at the core of the EU in order to create just rules for a single market.

a Conservative government would negotiate a new agreement between Britain and the EU. This agreement would be centred on a single-market with Britain at the forefront of this. This process would be enabled by legislation which would be drafted in the cur-

BISGOVUK

The World his Week

05.02.2013 | The Beaver

rent Parliament and passed by the new government. After this negotiation the simple ‘in or out’ of the EU referendum would be held so as a new position on Europe could be reached by 2018. In Britain the speech has unsurprisingly met support among Conservatives and eurosceptics. Business leaders have also reiterated Mr Cameron’s want to remain outside of the single currency yet still remain privy to the single EU market. However the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, has suggested that an in/out referendum is simply a ‘huge gamble’ ZKLFK %ULWDLQ FDQQRW DŕŽ‰ RUG WR take. Likewise Nick Clegg has objected to David Cameron’s speech suggesting he should be focusing on ‘building a stronger economy in a fairer society’ rather than following protracted negotiations which will harm the national interest. Abroad similar concerns have been voiced with Germany and France suggesting that Britain are more than welcome to discuss issues on Europe but will not be able to ‘cherry pick’ policies so as to suit Britain and not the EU. The USA has echoed Cameron’s desire that Britain remain in the EU suggesting that both Britain and the EU are stronger by virtue of the former’s membership of the EU. To these critics the Prime Minister would say that the current position of Britain within Europe is stagnant and cannot remain the same. This makes it of upmost importance to address and solve these issues now before further harm LV LQŕŽ‹ LFWHG +H VXJJHVWV WKDW with ‘courage and conviction’ his aims can be achieved. A poll last week by major Tory donor Lord Ashcroft showed that support for British membership of the EU had risen from eighteen per cent to twenty-two per cent post the Prime Minister’s speech on the EU. Despite these positive sentiments he also feels that David Cameron’s promises regarding the EU ‘has not unleashed a desire for an overall Conservative majority’. Ultimately it will be left to the Great British public at the next election to decide the next piece in the puzzle of Britain’s relationship with the EU. Either they will place their trust in the Conservative’s plans or put their faith in someone and something different.

Features

The Beaver | 05.02.2013

31

Crisis Unending: the Death of Syria that religious militants who would impose Sharia law in the country will so easily accept the authority of a secular “Syria is being destroyed,â€? stated Lakhbody. dar Brahimi, peace envoy to Syria, on This serves as part of the argument 30 January. It was part of a statement against armed intervention in Syria, that, with characteristic frankness, deespecially when invoked by Russia and tailed to the United Nations Security China. Council how both the Syrian governWhich leads on to the second misment and opposition were destroying conception – both nations, despite Syria segment by segment. The envoy’s having vetoed three Security Councomments came directly on the heels cil resolutions condemning Assad and of newly-emerged reports of 65 young threatening sanctions, have not simply men being summarily executed in Alep‘gone mad’ or decided to take a stubpo and drove home a stark point - if the bornly anti-Western stance. For China, international community did not act non-intervention has traditionally been swiftly, there would not be a Syria left its line irrespective of how damaging a to save. FRQŕŽ‹LFW PLJKW EH FRQFHUQHG VROHO\ ZLWK Unfortunately, however, the internaits own political and economic stabiltional community looks just as divided ity. For Russia, however, their veto and today as it did in March 2011 when the continued support for al-Assad carries Syrian Uprising began – where does PXFK PRUH VLJQLனFDQFH Syria stand now, and what paths are First and foremost, Russia maintains there ahead that do not involve a worse VLJQLனFDQW PLOLWDU\ WLHV ZLWK 6\ULD KROGcatastrophe than is already occurring? ing several installations including the It is perhaps most important to start strategically vital Tartus naval base, the with dispelling the misconceptions of a presence of which allows Russian warFRQŕŽ‹LFW WKDW GHVSLWH ZLGHVSUHDG LQWHUships to dock and repair in the Mediternational attention, is still murky in deranean without having to sail all the way tails at best. With virtually no foreign back to the Black Sea. For a nation still press in Syria, reports from either side highly conscious of the threat that the DUH LPSRVVLEOH WR EH YHULனHG RU WUHDWHG West poses to its security, losing such without bias to the group that released a vital base would be a major setback it. One of the most commonly misunderstood aspects of the war, however, is that the Syrian opposition does not operate under a XQLனHG SROLWLcal or military command. The opposition is divided in general into the secular Syrian National Council and its military wing, the Free Syrian Army, as well as the Mujahideen, a collection of hardline Islamist groups that includes the al-Nusra Front, labeled a terrorist organization for Russian military capabilities in the by the United States. On 26 January, region – to risk any other power besides the International Committee of the Red Bashir al-Assad in government would be Cross indexed about 1000 separate to risk the existence of the base, an unarmed groups they had to work with, acceptable cost for Russia. excluding all those that the ICRC does It matters little that recent reports not have contact with. indicate that the base is only modestly While the often deep divide between manned and not operating at full capacsecular and religious opposition groups ity – what matters is the potential for hinders cooperation, it at least has not the future. Syria has also long been a UHDFKHG D SRLQW ZKHUH LW LV VLJQLனFDQWO\ customer for Russian arms and military damaging the Syrian opposition’s efequipment even before the start of the forts to unseat Bashir al-Assad from uprising, making it a valuable business power. In this respect, both sides in the partner that Russia would be loath to opposition recognize that the primary lose. objective is to remove al-Assad, not to Underlying seeming intransigence GHJHQHUDWH LQWR LQனJKWLQJ RQ WKH னHOG at the Security Council are strategic (which would be a welcome respite for considerations that trump any moral or the Ba’athist regime). ethical obligation to the Syrian people. This is, however, the headache for Surprisingly, perhaps, the Western powthe supporters of the opposition – in ers can likewise be easily said to follow the eventuality that Assad does fall, such a principle of strategy over ethics who exactly takes power? The Syrian as well, for the Syrian civil war is not National Council may have garnered MXVW D FRQŕŽ‹LFW EHWZHHQ KDUGOLQH DXWKRULthe most international diplomatic recogWDULDQLVP DQG IUHHGRP னJKWHUV EXW DOVR nition thus far, but it is highly doubtful a war of religion. The equation is sim-

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ple: Bashir al-Assad’s government, the Ba’athist ruling party and the Alawite minority sect that largely rules Syria are adherents of the Alawite branch of Shia Islam, the subdivision of Islamic thought that Iran (and its allies, such as Hezbollah) adhere to. +RZ LV WKLV VLJQLனFDQW" 7KH ,VODPLF resistance groups and the Syrian opposition’s key backers, such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, all adhere to the Sunni sect of Islam. The two branches have never been reconciled with each other, and often is the current WKDW GULYHV FRQŕŽ‹LFWV LQ WKH 0LGGOH (DVW between seemingly natural allies in the region. The elements of the sectarian conŕŽ‹LFW DUH DOUHDG\ SUHVHQW ,UDQ DFWLYHO\ supports the al-Assad regime by providing money, arms and even military support in the form of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, while Saudi Arabia and Qatar generously fund the Syrian opposition – whereby the Mujahideen obtain D VLJQLனFDQW SRUWLRQ RI DLG It is important to recognize, therefore, that support for the Syrian opposition (especially from the West) is not done so simply out of empathy with the oppressed peoples of the world; there are valuable advantages to be had if alAssad’s regime were to fall for Sunni

states and for the West, both of which are largely allies. The removal of the Ba’athist party, irrespective of what comes after or who rules Syria, would lead to the collapse of one of Iran’s staunchest allies in the region. In denying Iran this ‘victory’, the United States and its Sunni allies in the region would already have succeeded in WKHLU HŕŽ‰RUWV WR ORFN LQ ,UDQLDQ LQŕŽ‹XHQFH and power. That the general populace of Syria LV VXŕŽ‰HULQJ IURP WKH LPSDFW RI WKH ZDU JUHDWO\ FRQWULEXWHV WR WKH HŕŽ‰HFWLYHQHVV of arguing for greater international inYROYHPHQW LQ WKH FRQŕŽ‹LFW DV RSSRVHG WR standing on the sidelines as has been the case so far. So how will it all end? At the current state, it is difficult to say given that the situation in Syria has clearly not yet reached its most dire, despite the 60,000 already dead. Syrian chemical weapons remain under the tight control of government, and Bashir al-Assad has so far displayed no

qualms about doing whatever is necessary to preserve himself in power. While it is unlikely that he would risk provoking escalation by utilizing chemical weapons that would not be a JDPH FKDQJHU LQ WKH FRQŕŽ‹LFW WKH IDFW that he still has them is easily a cause for worry. Regional actors have not yet become directly involved, though they are starting to enter the fray; Israel, for example, is suggested (or accused) to have targeted a convoy of Syrian trucks carrying missiles into Lebanon for HezEROODK WKRXJK LW QHLWKHU FRQனUPV QRU denies the action, while the installation of Patriot missiles along the Turkish6\ULDQ ERUGHU GUDZV D னUP UHG OLQH IRU al-Assad not to cross. ,Q D FRQŕŽ‹LFW DV ULGGOHG ZLWK VWUDWHJLF importance as this, the possibility for compromise between actors in the Security Council decreases as the chances of either side attaining decisive victory increases. Given that a multitude of actors in the region and, indeed, in WKH ZLGHU ZRUOG ZRXOG EH VLJQLனFDQWO\ DŕŽ‰HFWHG E\ WKH RXWFRPH RI WKH 6\ULDQ civil war, it can be assumed that those actors would take the appropriate steps to prevent the outcome undesirable to themselves from occurring. Iranian and Russian support for alAssad will increase the more it appears that his regime cannot survive; Sunni and Western support for the Syrian opposition will increase if it ever shows signs of faltering. This is the chilling reality of Lakhdar Brahimi’s comment – Syria is being destroyed because of an overt but understandable focus on the strategic nature of the FRQŕŽ‹LFW QRW RQ the humanitarian cost, the former of which EORFNV HŕŽ‰RUWV at negotiation and comproPLVH (YHQ LI the death toll )5(('20+286( were to climb to 100,000 in a month, even if 100,000 more were to die from torture in prison and another 100,000 were to be raped in the ever-increasing avalanche of human rights abuses committed on both sides, it would not change the calculations of the actors involved in the region and what they see as the optimal outcome for themselves. Who pays the price for all this calculation and strategy, implicitly recognized as the only ones that matter? Not the politician in Washington or Moscow, but the nameless Syrian who stands in line for bread while wondering if an airstrike or roadside bomb will take him or her next. Perhaps in a better world the horror RI VXFK D FRQŕŽ‹LFW ZRXOG LPSUHVV XSRQ DOO VWDWHVPHQ WKH QHFHVVLW\ RI னUVW DFWLQJ WR VWRS KXPDQ VXŕŽ‰HULQJ LQ 6\ULD then focusing on a political resolution – EXW DV %UDKLPL DQG KLV SUHGHFHVVRU .Rன Annan have undoubtedly been harshly reminded in the course of their duties, this is not such a world.

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Features

05.02.2013 |

The Beaver

Equal Marriage bill reaches Parliamment John Peart

Each year, in February, LGBT people from across the UK observe, celebrate and commemorate LGBT History Month. This year, with the kind sponsorship of the LSE Annual Fund, the LSE Students’ Union and LSESU LGBT Alliance are bringing this important cultural showing to each and every student on campus. But what is the point of LGBT History Month? Why should you care? Well, the answer is simple, but profound. LGBT people are some of the most oppressed in the world. Institutionalised homophobia, biphobia and transposition are rife within our society, and History Month presents an opportunity to promote the benefits of equality, diversity and cultural pluralism. This month is about showing the world that LGBT people are nothing to be scared of; we don’t pose a threat to your communities, we don’t want to destroy your heterosexual world. What we want is equality, and History Month will show everyone at LSE the positive force of the LGBT community to our lives on a daily basis. Take Alan Turing. He was a gay man, persecuted by British law in the 1950s. And yet, despite his name being dragged through the mud, he’s one of the most influential computer scientists and mathematicians in history. Equally, Nicola Adams. A lesbian who has faced crosssectional oppression by virtue of being gay and a woman all her life, and yet she’s the first ever woman to win gold at Olympic boxing. These are the kinds of people that drive our society forward, that develop our understanding of the world, and that make our days a little brighter. This month is about positive messages, and we’re making sure you see them! Over the course of the next four weeks, you’re going to see a lot about the LGBT community across our campus. We’ve organised two exhibitions, which will be displayed in prominent areas of the School from this week; one highlighting the contributions of LGBT people to society, and another looking at LSE’s own role in the development of LGBT rights through the founding of the Gay Liberation Front in 1970. Starting tomorrow, 6th February, we will be exploring several issues affecting the LGBT community, including mental health and suicide, coming out, religion and faith, HIV/AIDS, LGBT popular culture, the role of feminism in the LGBT movement, and much more. This is the biggest program of events and activities we have ever run for LGBT History Month at LSE, and we hope that you’ll join us as we explore the history of our community.

by John Peart

COBA

Guest Post by John Peart, LGBT Officer.

You hopefully saw in your inboxes last week, an email from the Students’ Union highlighting an incredibly important issue. Today, Parliament is deciding for the first time, whether gay and lesbian couples should be allowed to marry in civil and religious marriage ceremonies. This vote, of all votes that have taken place since the last UK general election, is probably the one that will define society for generations to come. And it’s not going to be an easy battle for equality. Marriage carries with it a lot of baggage as an institution, and with that comes a lot of competing interests. Whilst the Quakers and the Humanists have come out in support of equal marriage, the Catholic and Anglican Church have decried the legislation; apparently, allowing same sex marriage is going to result in the apocalypse, or our cities collapsing in a Soddom and Gomorrah-esque catastrophe. But, like it or not, it looks like this legislation is set to pass today, as, according to the Coalition for Equal Marriage, over three-hundred MPs have declared their support ahead of the vote, compared to just one-hundred or so in opposition. But don’t be fooled. If there is one thing the UK does best, it’s parliamentary bureaucracy. Today’s vote is only the first of many votes that will come before the Houses of Commons and Lords. The vote today marks approval, or otherwise, of the Second Reading. This stage is but a mere stepping stone to the intricate maze of committees and reports and political-ping-pong between the two chambers of Parliament. Make no mistake, if this vote passes today, it’s still an uphill battle. Once this legislation moves through the Second Reading, it will pass to the Committee and Report stages, where amendments are submitted, legislation is scrutinised and changes are recommended. We then get another vote at the Third Reading, and the same pro-

cess occurs in parallel in the Lords until eventually we end up with some semblance of legislation. It’s all still to play for, for both sides of this debate. As a students’ union, we exist to promote, defend and extend the rights of students. We believe that equal marriage is a vital step towards society accepting LGBT as they are, and fighting homophobia, and that’s why we’ve been campaigning since last October - from the very first day of Orientation Week - to secure the right to marry for LGBT people. That campaign is about to come to the fore. We already asked you last week to lobby your MP by email ahead of today’s vote, and next, we plan on stepping it up a gear and trying to influence the legislation directly by lobbying MPs again. It’s important we do this for several reasons; Firstly, the legislation provides an asymmetry in an unexpected direction. For some time now, gay and lesbian couples have been able to enter civil partnerships an institution that has been seen as “seperate-but-equal” to marriages. Crucially, they were only available to samesex couples, not heterosexual couples. The proposals on the table right now enable homosexual marriage alongside civil unions, but don’t enable heterosexual civil partnerships. What does that mean? For the first time in history, the legal rights of LGBT people in the UK will actually be greater than those of straight people! Another example is that of the “quadruple lock”, which makes it illegal to marry as an Anglican Christian - even if the Churches of England and Wales decided they wanted to allow gay marriage - without additional legislation. At the same time, other religions are free to change their legal status for blessing ceremonies at any time. This creates an asymmetry and gives preferential treatment to Christians which is arguably unnecessary. If the law is ironclad enough to protect religious views of Islam, Judaism and Sikhism in these

proposals, then why set the Church of England and Wales apart? Procedural reasons relating to Cannon law aren’t a good enough excuse, and we can have a hand in making that case. Many Christians want to be able to marry, and so they should have the legal freedom to do so as easily as possible. Students have a role to play in making the case for these kinds of changes to this legislation, and the union is going to enable them to have their say. We’ll be announcing details of how, next week. Some might have concerns that the union is acting too politically on this issue, or that our role should be to represent everyone’s views as an organisation. But this is misguided. As I’ve already said, the union exists to make students lives better; the decisions it takes on a daily basis are inherently political by the nature of the beast. We won’t always please everyone, because politics is about winners and losers, and by taking no position on a political issue we’d never do anything that might improve the lives of students. If this were a case of lobbying the government to increase the amount of financial support given to students whilst they study, there would be no concern from 99 per cent of students. Equally, when we continue to lobby the government to improve immigration conditions for international students, this is a political decision. Politics pervades what we do as an organisation, and on the issue of civil rights, we must always act to the benefit of the greater good, especially where students have asked us to act and voted for these positions through elections and UGMs. The rights of LGBT people are some of the most important decisions that societies will ever take. Now is the time to take the bull by the horns, and push for equal marriage, and the students’ union will be there every step of the way. This week’s vote is just the beginning; support equal marriage, and support your fellow LSE students in making it happen.

Features

The Beaver | 05.02.2013

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Xavier Lutchmie Persad

Obama’s relationship with the gayrights movement in America hasn’t always been rosy. Indeed, signs from the onset seemed somewhat inauspicious. When gay-rights advocates like myself tuned in to the 2008 presidential debates and heard then-candidate Obama utter the familiar Democratic refrain supporting civil unions but not same-sex marriage, we felt let down. When, after much vociferous liberal uproar, President-elect Obama doubled-down on his choice of antimarriage equality mega-pastor Rick :DUUHQ WR GHOLYHU KLV னUVW LQDXJXUDO LQYRFDWLRQ ZH IHOW LJQRUHG DQG LQHŕŽ‰HFWLYH $W RQH SRLQW GXULQJ 2EDPD‍ڑ‏V னUVW campaign, Joe Solmonese - then-head of the largest gay-rights organization in the United States - bluntly conveyed our frustration when he asked Obama on national television if he could see how supporting same-sex civil unions that include all the rights and duties of marriage, but stopping just shy of calling it ‘marriage,’ “comes across as sounding like separate-but-equal.â€? Moreover, the well-known fact that Obama openly supported same-sex marriage as an Illinois state senator just a few years earlier compounded the feeling of rejection and disappointment. This regressive reversal made it unequivocal that the issue of full LGBT equality had become subservient to the politics of the moment. In rejecting full marriage equality, Obama made a political calculation to align his opinion with that of the 55 per cent majority of Americans in 2008. Notwithstanding this palpable atmosphere of disappointment, LGBT Americans and allied advocates threw WKHLU IXOO ŕŽ‹HGJHG VXSSRUW EHKLQG 2EDPD‍ڑ‏V னUVW FDPSDLJQ ZLWK DQ XQSUHFedented devotion. We understood that 2EDPD ZDV LQனQLWHO\ EHWWHU WKDQ WKH alternative. Although we hadn’t won on the big marriage-equality question of the GD\ 2EDPD GLG RŕŽ‰HU XV PRVW RI ZKDW we wanted - namely, support for the repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tellâ€? military policy, adding sexual orientation and gender identity to the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, expanding federal hate crimes law to include sexual orientation and gender identity, and the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act. So, we mobilized and marched ahead, holding out a surreptitious hope that once elected, Obama would feel comfortable enough to revert to his original position in favor of full marriage equality. Fast forward to the recent second inauguration of President Obama, which marked the official consummaWLRQ RI KLV னUVW WHUP LQ RIILFH ,Q DGdition to serving the traditional functions of celebrating the election of a president and the peaceful transition (or in this case, extension) of power, LQDXJXUDO FHUHPRQLHV DOVR RŕŽ‰HU $PHULFDQV WKH FKDQFH WR UHŕŽ‹HFW RQ WKH WULumphs and failures of the past four years. Fortunately, for gay-rights advocates like myself, our initial misgivings proved to be misplaced, and our UHŕŽ‹HFWLRQ RI WKH SDVW IRXU \HDUV \LHOGV an intense pride, jubilation, and hope. There is absolutely no question in my mind that we - the American people - made the most consequential decision in a generation when we elected Barack Obama as our 44th president. Although he broke new grounds in

many facets of policy, the advancement Obama forged for the gay-rights movement is simply unparalleled. Never before have LGBT Americans seen a President who has done so much, so quickly for their cause. To list every pro-equality action taken by this presiGHQW ZRXOG னOO WRR PDQ\ OLQHV VR , ZLOO enumerate only the most monumental RI WKHVH :LWKLQ KLV னUVW \HDU RI RIILFH President Obama signed into law a bill adding sexual orientation and gender LGHQWLW\ WR WKH GHனQLWLRQ RI IHGHUDO hate crimes. By the end of his second year, amid vehement institutional pushback, the president accomplished the seemingly impossible task of repealing the age-old ban on gays serving openly in the military. Toward the termination of his third year in office, Obama took the audacious and largely unprecedented move of instructing his Department of Justice to drop its legal defense of the Defense of Marriage Act, which proscribed the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages. The Department of Justice went even further, telling the federal court hearing the challenge against the Act that it considered the Act to be discriminatory and violative of the U.S. Constitution. Furthermore, throughout his entire னUVW WHUP 2EDPD ZLHOGHG KLV H[HFXtive power to unilaterally implement anti-discrimination policies protecting LGBT individuals. Among these were WKH H[SDQVLRQ RI IHGHUDO EHQHனWV IRU same-sex partners of federal employees, the prohibition of discrimination on the grounds of sexuality or gender identity in federal housing programs, the enforcement of criminal provisions in the Violence Against Women Act in cases involving same-sex relationships, the requirement that all hospitals receiving Medicare or Medicaid funds allow visitation rights for LGBT patients, the elimination of the HIVtravel ban, and the mandatory consideration of countries’ LGBT-rights track record by all federal agencies engaged abroad. Finally, about midway through his presidency, Obama remarked that his views on gay marriage were ‘evolving.’ On May 9, 2012, he completed that evolution when, invoking core tenets of his Christian faith and the LQŕŽ‹XHQFH RI KLV RZQ GDXJKWHUV KH declared that “[f]or me personally, it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married.â€? These accomplishments are daring and historic in every sense of the word. And remarkably, Obama managed to do all of this against the backdrop of the most intransigent and unpopular Congress in history. What is more, beyond these very WDQJLEOH DQG LPPHGLDWHO\ EHQHனFLDO outcomes, the national import of the intangibles of President Obama’s actions and rhetoric cannot be overstated. By revealing and completing his ‘evolution on marriage,’ however authentic it may have been, Obama validated the views of Americans who were reticent to expand their view of marriage, while gently prodding them to join in with the more incluVLYH WLPHV %\ னJKWLQJ ]HDORXVO\ IRU the right of Americans in the armed forces to openly declare their sexuality without fear of discharge, Obama sent a message to young LGBT Americans that it there is nothing wrong with being who they are, openly and proudly. )RU WKH YHU\ னUVW WLPH \RXQJ /*%7 Americans felt the empowerment that

TCHUNTFR

Obama: the catalyst that ‘mainstreamed’ gay rights

can only come from seeing the leader the free world stand with them, in YHULWDEOH ORFNVWHS LQ WKHLU னJKW QRW only for civil equality, but for cultural equality. In many regards, these intangibles -- hope, validation, and cultural progression -- are even more powerful than the substantive byproducts of the legislative and policy changes enacted under the Obama administration. This is evinced by the recent about-face in public opinion on gay marriage (a 2012 Gallup poll shows that 53% of Americans now favor marriage equalLW\ DQG WKH னUVW HYHU SRSXODU YRWH HQactments of gay marriage in Maine, Maryland, and Washington. This precipitous, tectonic, and ostensibly inexorable shift in public opinion leads me WR EHOLHYH WKDW 2EDPD‍ڑ‏V னUP HVSRXVDO of LGBT equality was the preeminent catalyst that mainstreamed gay-rights in America. It is clear that something peculiar to this president led him to take up gayrights not just as an item on a political checklist, but as a personal cause. Perhaps Obama’s personal interactions with racial injustice allowed him to connect with other equality struggles like this one in a way no other president could. Perhaps his interaction with openly gay individuals throughout his life and campaign brought our issues into constant sight. Or perhaps he saw advancing gayrights as a way to build upon the already-historic nature of his presidency, and solidify a legacy for himself as the civil-rights pioneer of his time. Whatever the true cause, the reality

remains that this President is unmistakably America’s most gay-friendly president. 1RZ ZLWK FHOHEUDWLRQ DQG UHŕŽ‹HFtion behind us, we must turn our attention to the next four years. Advocates of LGBT equality must now continue the pressure that kept gayrights in the spotlight during Obama’s னUVW WHUP :H PXVW XUJH D PHQGLQJ RI னUVW WHUP PLVVHG RSSRUWXQLWLHV VXFK DV SHUFHLYHG VKRUWFRPLQJV LQ WKH னJKW against HIV/AIDS, failure to achieve comprehensive LGBT-inclusive immigration reform, and the failure of an LGBT-inclusive employment non-discrimination bill. It is our ardent hope that, legislatively or judicially, national marriage equality will come about. If not, we must double-down on the state-bystate strategy that has already brought us success once thought unimaginable. Amid all the uncertainty that naturally surrounds a president’s second-term, one thing is for sure. With a bold and historic shout-out to the genesis of the gay-rights movement and a staunch defense of marriage equality positioned prominently in his second inaugural oration, Obama has made it clear that he intends to prioritize our னJKW ,QGHHG WKLV IXOனOOV KLV LQLWLDO FDPpaign promises of hope and change. 0RUH ODVWLQJO\ LW FU\VWDOOL]HV RXU னJKW for equality as an issue deserving of the nation’s full attention, and sets the bar exceedingly high for anyone considering picking up the Democratic torch in 2016.

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Features

05.02.2013 | The Beaver

LSE votes to raise How does the new system of bursaries work? Those of you living in a state blissfully unaware of WKH 6FKRRO‍ڑ‏V ன QDQFHV PD\ QRW have noticed that on WednesGD\ WKH $FDGHPLF %RDUG WKH body that represents the /6(‍ڑ‏V DFDGHPLFV DQG DGYLVHV on policies relating to education within the School) voted to raise tuition fees to ÂŁ9000 for all courses at the LSE. $Q LQFUHDVH RI e IURP WKH SUHYLRXV GHFLVLRQ PDGH last year. This caused furore on twitWHU $FDGHPLF %RDUG 5HSUH VHQWDWLYH 1RQD %XFNOH\ ,UYLQH who has also written a rebutWDO LQ WKH &RPPHQW VHFWLRQ WKLV ZHHN WZHHWHG IURP WKH URRP WKDW VKH ZDV ‍ڔ‏DEVROXWHO\ IXPLQJ‍ ڕ‏DERXW WKH GHFLVLRQ Twitter then descended into DUJXPHQWV EHWZHHQ WKRVH LQ IDYRXU RI WKH PRYH DQG WKRVH against. All student representatives – General Secretary 3HWHUV 'D\ 3RVWJUDGXDWH 2IILFHU &RXQW DQG WKH WZR HOHFWHG UHSV 1RQD %XFNOH\ ,UYLQH DQG 6DP %DUQHWW YRWHG DJDLQVW WKH PRWLRQ <HW GHVSLWH WKLV WKH YRWH SDVVHG ZLWK DQ RYHUZKHOPLQJ PDMRULW\ ‍ ڋ‏ZLWK LQ IDYRXU WZR DEVWHQWLRQV DQG RQO\ opposed. What does the vote actuDOO\ PHDQ" 7KH 6FKRRO KDV SURPLVHG WKDW WKH ULVH LQ IHHV LV PDWFKHG E\ DQ H[WUHPHO\ JHQHURXV EXUVDU\ VHWWOHPHQWV

EXW DUH WKH\ DFWXDOO\" After raising the fees to e SHU FHQW RI DOO WKH LQFRPH IURP IHHV RYHU e will go towards bursaries for the poorer students. This is considerably higher than PRVW LI QRW DOO FRPSHWLWRU LQ VWLWXWLRQV IRU H[DPSOH 2[IRUG SHU FHQW DQG &DPEULGJH SHU FHQW %XW ZKDW GR DOO WKHVH ன J XUHV PHDQ" Poorer students now face a FRPSOH[ ZHE RI EXUVDULHV DQG grants to navigate. /HW XV KDYH D ORRN DW KRZ PXFK PRQH\ WKH SRRUHVW ZLOO receive in bursaries under the QHZ e V\VWHP 7KH SRRUHVW LQFRPH EUDFN HW WKRVH ZKRVH KRXVHKROG HDUQV EHWZHHQ DQG e ‍ ڋ‏ HVWLPDWH WR EH DURXQG VWX GHQWV DW WKH /6( DURXQG HLJKW per cent of the undergraduate student body) will receive the IXOO PDLQWHQDQFH JUDQW IURP WKH JRYHUQPHQW WKDW WKH\ ZLOO QRW KDYH WR SD\ EDFN ZKLFK HTXDWHV WR e HDFK \HDU 7KLV WRWDOV WR e RYHU WKH course of their degree. 6HFRQG WKH\ ZLOO DOVR UH ceive the full LSE bursary of e HDFK \HDU WKH\ DUH VWXG ying in university. 7KLV WRWDOV WR e RYHU the three years they are at university. 7KXV VR IDU RQ JRYHUQPHQW grants and LSE bursaries they KDYH QRZ UHFHLYHG e RU

e HDFK \HDU Those students whose GRPLFLOH LV LQ (QJODQG ZKRVH KRXVHKROG LQFRPH LV EHWZHHQ ]HUR DQG e DUH HOLJLEOH WR UHFHLYH IXQGLQJ IURP WKH 163 1DWLRQDO 6FKRODUVKLS 3URJUDP ‍ ڋ‏IRUPHUO\ WKLV ZDV only for students between e QRZ LW LV KDYH EHHQ increased to those up to the e EUDFNHW 7KLV SURJUDPPH RŕŽ‰ HUV HDFK SHUVRQ e LQ WKHLU ன UVW \HDU DQG e LQ HDFK subsequent year. Equating to e DFURVV WKH WKUHH \HDUV 7KH SRRUHVW VWXGHQWV ZKRVH KRXVHKROG LQFRPH IDOOV EHWZHHQ ‍ڔ‏e e ‍ ڕ‏KDYH DF FHVV WR D WRWDO RI e WKDW WKH\ GR QRW KDYH WR SD\ EDFN DW DOO RU DW DQ\ SRLQW H[FHHG ing the cost of the degree of e Finally these students also KDYH WKH DELOLW\ WR WDNH RXW D PDLQWHQDQFH ORDQ DQG WKH WXL tion fee loan available to everyone applying for university. 7KLV PXVW EH SDLG EDFN DF cording to the general strucWXUH L H RQO\ DIWHU ZH KDYH VWDUWHG HDUQLQJ RYHU e <RXU UHSD\PHQWV DUH OLQNHG WR \RXU LQFRPH (DFK PRQWK \RX SD\ EDFN QLQH SHU FHQW RI \RXU LQFRPH RYHU e Thus total resources available to those students over the course of their degree DUH e LQ DGGLWLRQ WR WKH

e LQ JRYHUQPHQW ORDQV to cover the cost of tuition itself. 7KRVH HDUQLQJ RYHU e e UHFHLYH WKH IXOO /VH EXUVDU\ JUDQW EXW QRW WKH 163 IXQGV VR WKH\ ZLOO UHFHLYH e LQ IXQGV WKDW WKH\ GR QRW KDYH WR UHSD\ HDFK \HDU LQ addition to the loans. 7KH /6( %XUVDU\ DQG JUDQWV are reduced as students houseKROG LQFRPHV LQFUHDVH WKRXJK WKH DPRXQW WKH\ FDQ FODLP LQ WKH IRUP RI D ORDQ LQFUHDVHV WR FRYHU WKH GLŕŽ‰ HUHQFH VR WKRVH EHWZHHQ e WKH national average household inFRPH EHLQJ EHWZHHQ e e UHFHLYH e D year they don’t have to pay SDFN WKRVH DW e UH FHLYH e WKRVH DW e UHFHLYH e DQG WKRVH DW e ZLOO UHFHLYH QRWKLQJ but the loans. However despite these high bursaries for the poorHVW D QXPEHU RI RSSRQHQWV RI higher fees noted the increase in bursary support is a distracWLRQ IURP WKH RQJRLQJ PDUNHWL VDWLRQ RI WKH XQLYHUVLW\ V\VWHP 6RPH KDYH DUJXHG WKDW WKH country is heading towards an $PHULFDQLVHG V\VWHP ZKHUH by the poorest are very well supported and the rich can VWLOO DŕŽ‰ RUG WR JR WR XQLYHUVLW\ 7KH SHRSOH WKDW VXŕŽ‰ HU DUH WKH WHUPHG ‍Ú?‏VTXHH]HG PLGGOH‍ ڑ‏DF cording to these critics.

Word on the Street Nona Buckley Irvine - Academic Board Rep ‍ڔ‏7KH /6( MXVWL୽ HG UDLV LQJ IHHV RQ WKH EDVLV WKDW ZH QHHGHG WR EH LQ OLQH ZLWK 5XVVHOO *URXS XQLYHUVLWLHV 5DLVLQJ WXLWLRQ IHHV VKRZV D GLVUHJDUG IRU WKH /6(‍ڑ‏V FRQ VLVWHQWO\ SRRU SHUIRUPDQFH LQ WHUPV RI VWXGHQW VDWLVIDF WLRQ FRPSDUHG WR WKH 5XVVHOO *URXS ,W LV HQWLUHO\ XQQHF HVVDU\ DQG XQMXVWL୽ HG ‍ڕ‏

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Alex Peters-Day - General Secretary

ANTONY BENNISON

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Sam Barnett - Academic Board Rep ‍ڔ‏7KH UHVXOW LV XQZHO FRPH EXW QRW GLVDVWURXV ,‍ڑ‏P FRQ୽ GHQW WKDW WKH YHU\ ZRUVW Rୟ ZLOO EHQH୽ W IURP WKLV PRYH WKRXJK LW LV GLV DSSRLQWLQJ PRVW VWXGHQWV ZLOO IDFH \HW PRUH GHEW ‍ڕ‏

LSE Press Spokesman ‍ڔ‏0RYLQJ WR D e 8. XQGHUJUDGXDWH IHH IURP e ZRXOG SXW /6( LQ OLQH ZLWK RWKHU 5XVVHOO *URXS XQLYHUVLWLHV DQG ZRXOG EH FRQVLVWHQW ZLWK WKH PDUNHW YDOXH DQG WKH TXDOLW\ RI DQ /6( GHJUHH ‍ڕ‏

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The Beaver | 05.02.2013

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fees to ÂŁ9000 How has the bursary system changed from last year?

is however the widening of access to the NSP. At the current system of ÂŁ8500 fees only those between zero and ÂŁ3000 receive the full grant from the NSP (the National Scholarship Program), whereas those between ÂŁ3000 and ÂŁ6000 do not receive the ex-

tra ÂŁ6000, but will under the new ÂŁ9000 plans. Those whose household income falls between zero and ÂŁ25,000 receive a rise in their EXUVDULHV RŕŽ‰ HUHG E\ WKH /6( of ÂŁ500. This increase in ÂŁ500 in bursaries for those whose household income ranges beWZHHQ ]HUR DQG e HŕŽ‰ HF tively cancels out the fee increase of ÂŁ8500 to ÂŁ9000, and the maintenance grant is set to increase next year. Thus WKH SRRUHVW ன IWHHQ WR WZHQW\ per cent of the LSE’s students will not be impacted economically by the fees increase. However all income groups between ÂŁ25,000 and ÂŁ42,611 DQ RGGO\ VSHFLன F QXPEHU will receive an increase in the amount of bursaries they receive, however these will not be enough to cover the complete cost of the fee rises, for example those who fall within the ÂŁ25,001- ÂŁ30,000 income bracket now receive an increase of only ÂŁ250, whilst those above ÂŁ42,611 receive

no bursaries at all. Though the Bursaries have LQFUHDVHG VLJQLன FDQWO\ WKHUH was criticism that the LSE could and indeed should have done so whilst retaining lower fees. Peters-Day said “The DGGLWLRQDO ன QDQFLDO VXSSRUW proposed is welcome, but this FRXOG HDVLO\ EH DŕŽ‰ RUGHG E\ DQ institution like LSE which is in VXFK UREXVW ன QDQFLDO KHDOWK‍ ڕ‏ However the LSE defended the changes - arguing “Moving to a ÂŁ9,000 UK undergraduate fee from ÂŁ8,500 would put LSE in line with other Russell Group universities and would be consistent with the market value and the TXDOLW\ RI DQ /6( GHJUHH ‍ڕ‏ They argued that “All UK students, regardless of income, are entitled to a loan to cover the full cost of their tuition fees, meaning there is no XSIURQW FRVW ‍ڕ‏ Clearly despite the increase in bursaries for the ZRUVW RŕŽ‰ DQ\ FKDQJHV WR higher education funding at the LSE remain controversial.

worry, uncertainty and controversy that surrounded the higher fees. Due to the uncertainty about whether ÂŁ9000 ZRXOG SXW RŕŽ‰ WKH PDMRULW\ RI students from poorer backgrounds and harm the LSE’s competitiveness among other Russell group universities, the VFKRRO RŕŽ‰ HUHG H[WHQVLYH EXU saries. However now all the LSE’s main competitors are charging ÂŁ9000 and evidence indicates that the ÂŁ8,500 fees has not had the feared impact in the number of people apply-

LQJ WR WKH /6( D VLJQLன FDQW PRWLYDWLRQ WR RŕŽ‰ HU VXFK JHQHU ous bursaries is absent. Therefore the school’s proposals for ÂŁ9000 submitted to, and voted for by the Academic Board are not as generous as those proposed in 2011, despite the fact that both bursary packages were funded by ÂŁ9000 tuition fees. This has produced a new system under which the poorest students receive less bursaries/funding that they would have had ÂŁ9000 fees been voted for two-

years ago. Opponents of higher fees noted that whilst the very poorest will be substanWLDOO\ EHWWHU RŕŽ‰ WKH LQFUHDVH LQ bursaries is a distraction from the ongoing marketisation of the university system. Some have argued that the country is heading towards an Americanised system, whereby the poorest are very well supportHG DQG WKH ULFK FDQ VWLOO DŕŽ‰ RUG to go to university. The peoSOH WKDW VXŕŽ‰ HU DUH WKH WHUPHG ‘squeezed middle’, according to these critics.

* *

*NSP totals ÂŁ6000 across three years

So what is the current difference between the newly proposed fees and those we have at the moment in terms RI KRZ WKLV ZLOO DŕŽ‰ HFW WKH VWX dents. Obviously the richest studying at the LSE will now have to pay back ÂŁ500 more than last year. At the moment

the current cost of an LSE degree is £8500 a year. Totalling £25500 for a three year degree. Whilst under the new fees increase this will take the KHDGOLQH ன JXUH IRU WKH FRVW RI an LSE degree to £27,000 for three years of their study. A welcome improvement

Accidentally regressive? The poorest students whose household income is between ÂŁ0 and ÂŁ18,000 will now receive an increase of ÂŁ500 in the form of bursaries from the school from the e IHH VWUXFWXUH ,Q HŕŽ‰ HFW this maintains the overall value of the current fee/bursary package – cancelling out the fee increase. But when ÂŁ9000 was voted on in 2011 by the council, the poorest students whose household income falls between zero and ÂŁ3000 would have received ÂŁ4,500. However under the new system these students only receive ÂŁ4000. Thus under the new system those students are actuDOO\ e ZRUVH RŕŽ‰ WKDQ WKH\ would have been had we introduced ÂŁ9000 fees when the /6( ன UVW GHFLGHG WR LQFUHDVH fees. Those earning between ÂŁ3000 and ÂŁ18,000 maintain the same level of bursary

across the proposals. Though the widening of the NSP in the newly proposed ÂŁ9000 has given those earning between ÂŁ3000-ÂŁ6000 an extra ÂŁ6000 that they otherwise would not have received. All income brackets who received bursaries would have received more generous grants from the LSE had the proposals voted on in 2011 been accepted. For example those earning between ÂŁ18,000 and ÂŁ25,000 are also ZRUVH RŕŽ‰ WKRXJK WR WKH WXQH of ÂŁ750, since they now receive ÂŁ3500 a year from the school (again an increase of ÂŁ500 from last year, cancelling out the fee increase) but who would have received a ÂŁ750 bursary had we introduced ÂŁ9000 fees last year; a bursary of ÂŁ250 pounds a year higher. Presumably the discrepancy in the bursary package RŕŽ‰ HUHG WKLV \HDU DQG WKDW RI fered in 2011 is to do with the

36

Features

05.02.2013 | The Beaver

2012 a year in review Mike Pearson

2012. What could top it? How do you follow a year where the highlight of which is standing out in the rain for 9 hours to catch a glimpse of 1,000 boats pass down a river in what could be the world’s most dullest tribute to maritime since Pirates of The Caribbean 4? The most surprising moment of which was perhaps the notable absence of *DU\ %DUORZ RQ WKH ŕŽ‹ RWLOOD , was half-expecting him to be waving hand-in-hand with the Queen singing Never Forget. But of course 2012 wasn’t really about the monarchy, but more so the sense of community that comes with the Jubilee or “Super Saturdayâ€? in the Olympic Stadium. Not that we’ll remember this reinvigorated societal toJHWKHUQHVV ZH IHOW LQ ,Q 2013 we’ll be too busy complaining about the severe lack of homages to Geri Halliwell and her ‘Raining Men’, in the medium of men named Felix, or how we’re surprised that Gangnam Style hasn’t brought peace to the Korean peninsula. The trouble with 2012 is that we set the bar too high. And now that all of our brief distractions from tthe economy have gone, we’re left with an underlying angst at what 2013 will hold. One thing’s for sure, the Eurozone situation will continue to poke at our news bulletins like the annoying child on a 5-year-long car journey asking if we’re there yet. When in reality, we all know we’re still \HDUV RŕŽ‰ DQ\ VRUW RI utopia so long as Greece stays in the euro, Noel Edmonds is still allowed by OFCOM to present on television, and the government fails to take up judicial proceedings against SLOORFNV ZKR VD\ ‍Ú?‏, OLNHG WKDW band before they were famous’. The crisis with the Eurozone will continue with one more crisis summit after the next with neither growth nor solutions being the overarching theme, but inaction and pedantry. But then again, what can

we do about the Eurozone crisis? Day after day, bombarded by the ‘crisis’ here and a potential ‘break-up’ there, we’ll feel hopeless to help when all we want to do is perform the clichĂŠ scene from rom-coms worldwide by locking them in a room with a wooden plank through the handle and shouting, “You’re not coming out until you’ve kissed, made-up, ன [HG WKH (XURSHDQ HFRQRP\ and recorded a Gangnam Style parody on YouTubeâ€?. %DVLFDOO\ ZKDW ,‍ڑ‏P DUJXLQJ LV WKDW ZH ZRXOG DOO EH EHWWHU RŕŽ‰ if Richard Curtis was the UN peace envoy to Europe. Nevermind though. At least we can look forward to another year of the now-ritual humiliation of hundreds of people on prime-time television LQ IURQW RI D FDPS ,ULVK PXVLF ‘mogul’, some woman what used to be in that American cat/doll hybrid thingy, Gary Barlow and probably some other twonk who believes that the X-Factor is a truly revolutionary format and will repeat the phrase, ‘you owned the stage’ which will be factually incorrect anyway. To be fair, the format is so revolutionary; my iPod only contains winners from the X Factor. ‘Fighting %XWWHUŕŽ‹ LHV‍ ڑ‏E\ 6WHYH %URRN stein (someone call the RSPCA). ‘Someone Wake Me Up’ by Joe McElderry (an instructional sleevenote to listeners) and ‘Creative’ by Leon Jackson (a title so steeped in irony that even the satirical minds behind the name “Democratic People’s Republic of Koreaâ€? KDYH DZDUGHG -RH WKH .LP ,O Sung prize for “Best NewcomHU‍ ڕ‏LQ WKHLU DQQXDO ‍ڔ‏, 'RQ‍ڑ‏W %H OLHYH ,W‍ڑ‏V 1RW ,URQLF $ZDUGV‍ ڕ‏ 7KH TXHVWLRQ ,‍ڑ‏OO EH DVN ing is: Could 2013 be the year WKH ; )DFWRU ன QDOO\ UXQV RXW of steam (and reality TV more generally)? With ratings of the show halving in the past 2 years and the format looking outdated compared to the marginally better one of ‘The 9RLFH‍ ڑ‏,‍ڑ‏OO EH NHHSLQJ D FORVH eye on whether Simon Cowell’s heap of bovine excrement ன QDOO\ ELWHV WKH EXOOHW DQG IRO lows in the footsteps of Big Brother.

3 " " % '*# * &.4

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" ! - " #$$#%'(" ', #% (" % % ( ' & '# ' $ %' " " #% " &# & " % & % $%# ' <> (" 6 ? ( , <:;= 8 (!! % %!0 & A " ;:9 " , @? $ & ) . % . ' # & ' ")# ) / *# * 0 ( ' ! 0 &'( "' #% " % & % $%# ' #" ) " ' ! #% " " &! 0 "' % & $ " %, %#($& # ! + , %&0 * ' % & % &($ %) &#% & % #" % " #" " ,

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#* '# $$ , & ' #(% * $ 7 & 1 1( 5' 5 %#($& 7 " '' " " #%! ' #" ) "'& 8& #*9 ( ! ' ,#(% $$ ' #" #%! #" " , ; % <:;= " #%! ' #" ) "'& 7 "# " '# ## (%& , @ %( %, #% (%& , ;> %( %, <:;=0 ;1::$!6<1::$!

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And the other more pertinent question we’ll be asking is, will Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg and Conservative Primeminister David Cameron stay in their civil partnership, get fully married or break-up unceremoniously (in what could be another major political moment where the presence of Richard Curtis is so desperately needed). PRIMEMINISTER’S OFFICE

The chances are that the coalition will bumble along much like it has previously. People will say how they’re so alike (which will give George Galloway the opportunity to say they’re “Two Cheeks of the Same Backsideâ€?). There’ll be VRPH LQன JKWLQJ DPRQJVW WKH Conservatives about whether they should lean more to the right. The Liberal Democrats will continue to ask, “What are we getting out of this relationship?â€? and the public will continue to ask whether taking an axeto public services really does help solve the ills of the economy. And running into 2013 on the back of Leveson and in WKH SRVW 6DYLOOH HUD ZH‍ڑ‏OO ன QG more reasons to lambast the press of the country. Pollsters will continue to feed news editors with questions that ask, “Do we trust the BBC?â€? when in actual fact, the actions of a man 40 years ago won’t

even enter into the decision of ‍ڔ‏6KDOO , FRQWLQXH WR ZDWFK 7RS Gear and Eastenders?� Let’s not kid ourselves, 2013 won’t ever reach the heights that 2012 did. Arguably 2013 is analogous to a Bob Dylan concert in the modern day. Sure, in the past the concert was brilliant, if not bordering on legendary. ,W ZDV D EULOOLDQW FHOHEUDWLRQ that pushed our excitement and expectations beyond their limmits. But now the concert has been and gone we’re left wanting more, so we’ll try and relive it with the same expectations of the past. But the times-are-a-changing, and we need to lower our expectations. Now the concert is underwhelming. Disappointing. But only so because we set the bar for Bob too high. 6R ,‍ڑ‏OO EH DSSURDFK WKH \HDU that-never-should-have-been (thank you Mayans), with the same expectation any person

Features

The Beaver | 05.02.2013

37

BISGOVUK

The On-going Struggle of Afghan Women

Labour has the idea, but it needs policy detail soon Liam Hill

We have past the halfway point in this parliament, and with less than 30 months left until the next general election, Labour needs to begin to make policy announcements on a whole range of issues if it wants to win the next election convincingly. Labour does have a big idea, a direction of ideological travel. This is essential for an opposition. David Cameron had the ‘Big Society’. Tony Blair promised the ‘modernisation’ of Britain. Ed Miliband has ‘One Nation’. One Nation is a flexible concept, but it works on many levels. First, it unites the left and right in the Labour movement because it is sufficiently vague to encompass potentially centrist or social democratic policies. All groups in the Labour movement, from trade unionist affiliates to Blairites, hear what they want to. For instance, the Labour left hears higher taxes on the rich in order to ensure everyone pays their fair share, while the Labour right focuses on rhetoric about responsibility, perhaps believing Labour will adopt a more populist approach to welfare reform. This flexibility might unite his party, but Ed Miliband would be foolish to think the same approach will win the party a more politically cynical public’s affection. Second, One Nation is an attempt to recollect the great achievements of the post-war Labour government under Clement Attlee, which created the NHS, the welfare state, rebuilt Britain’s economy, built millions of houses and achieved a fundamental political shift towards the left. One Nation is about recapturing that post-war spirit, uniting the nation in a time of economic difficulty but defining politic for a generation. One Nation also makes sense in view of the upcoming Scottish referendum. For Labour, losing that referendum could have a devastating effect on their chances of winning in 2015. The 40-seat advantage Labour has over the Tories in Scotland could be the crucial difference between Ed Miliband being

given the keys to 10 Downing Street after 2015, or not. One Nation also sounds populist without being incredible. Asking everyone to pay their share and act responsibility in the name of creating a prosperous Britain will reasonable to most people. The strength of this rhetoric is that, on any policy from tax evasion to welfare fraud or banking, the public believes that are people not acting responsibly in the national interest. Ed Miliband can hope to win back the core voters Labour lost between 1997 and 2010 with a tougher message on the economy, vested interests and the rich, win over business people with a credible message about reform Britain’s banks, and winning over Middle England, or the “squeezed middle�, with convincing policies on deficit reduction and welfare reform. If Labour gets the policy detail right, Miliband might not only win in 2015, but could do so with greater backing from the public by creating a broad coalition behind them. But here lies Labour’s problem: it is in a weak position in terms of policy detail at the moment, and not only on the economy. Labour’s lack of policy means the government is able to define them by their opposition, rather than Labour defining itself by what it would be doing in government. It does not help that Labour’s message often seems complex and confused, with Miliband and his shadow ministers refusing to make manifesto commitments on a whole range of issues, from deficit spending to public service reform. Labour says it makes no sense to make spending commitments now, more than two years from an election, when neither the public nor the government can predict what economic and financial circumstances will face Britain in six months, let alone thirty. This may be true for specific spending commitments, but it should not deter Labour from formulating and announcing bold ‘One Nation’ policies on education and health, social and foreign policy, banks, crime and justice, and other areas of policy which relate only in

a limited way to the state of the economy. Furthermore, Labour does need a positive policy with regard to deficit reduction. Labour’s position is currently defined by the belief that the coalition has cut “too far and too fast� and to prioritise “jobs and growth�. The balancing act in terms of deficit reduction is difficult, both in political and economic terms. In terms of both, a plan which will not do further damage to the economy or rely too heavily on borrowing is the most expedient. Labour might commit to reducing the deficit at the same rate as the coalition, but offer a more progressive, ‘One Nation’ alternative, where the burden is shared more equally. Equally, Labour might promote a proto-Keynesian plan and argue that borrowing for investment is better than borrowing to make up for lost growth. Whichever Miliband and Balls choose, they should not postpone the difficult decision too far down the line. Labour needs policies soon, so they can take them to the country and win some important arguments about Britain’s future, working out how best to frame their policies in the run up to the election. If Ed Miliband is going to turn a vision of a One Nation Britain into a reality he is going to need to show the public how Labour would govern Britain, and convince a broad enough coalition that a Labour government could govern progressively and pragmatically. Labour could win even without doing this, relying on the unpopularity of the government, pointing out the treachery of the Lib Dems and the heartlessness of the Tories, and hoping to be thrust by disgruntled voters into government by default. It is a risky strategy, and electoral success would be an unsatisfying pyrrhic victory, and Labour would lack a valid mandate to change the face of Britain for a generation. Ed Miliband and his party still have time on their side, but only just. If Labour does not produce some new and significant policies soon, the party runs the risk of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Jamie Pelling

This Saturday the University of London Amnesty International Societies met in a sunny but cold Covent Garden to meet the general public. The reason for this bizarre expedition outside of our respective university bubbles was to raise awareness of the work of a group called ‘Young Women for Change’ which aims to improve the condition of women in one of the least progressive regions of the world. They formed in an internet cafĂŠ and use a variety of social media and online methods to spread their message across Afghanistan; that women deserve an equal chance to men. A recent law stipulates that women are not allowed to leave their houses without being accompanied by a male companion and continuous attacks, such as that on Anisa, a Tenth Grade student in Kapisa Province, who was murdered while studying, serve to reinforce of the belief that women do not belong out of the home. The problem of Women’s Rights in Afghanistan is as serious as anywhere in the world and the brave work of these women is an inspiration to others who should champion the cause. As with all such projects, awareness is needed. Most people in this country, when asked, would probably have some knowledge of the nature of women in Afghan society, their role as second class citizens and lack of access to education. However, most are not aware of the abject nature of this oppression, the complete lack of opportunities, the

daily harassment. In the face of all of this adversity the message that there are people in the capital of the United Kingdom that are aware of the plight of Afghan women can sustain and encourage Young Women for Change. What was most worrying about the action on Saturday was WKH LQGLŕŽ‰ HUHQFH RI PLGGOH aged women to this issue. Young people of all nations (even some Slovenians) were happy to take part and learn more, single men, old and young, were similarly intrigued. Families ran away from us like the plague, but that is to be expected. The group that were most resistant were middle-aged women, and that was not from lack of trying. Possibly it is because many believe that such actions cannot PDNH D GLŕŽ‰ HUHQFH WKDW LW LV a pointless attempt. More probably they do not like being confronted with the plight of others. Either way, these are two obstacles that the Human Rights movement has had to overcome since its inception, and, if nothing else, the joint University of London campaign on Saturday proved that it is possible to spread a message, to raise awareness, and, if past communications of thanks from Young Women for Change are anything to JR E\ PDNH D GLŕŽ‰ HUHQFH YWC are out on the streets protesting, in spite of the dangers, the least we can do is show them out support. The LSESU Amnesty International Society will be collecting more photographs for the petition on Valentine’s Day from a stall on Houghton Street.

AFGHANISTANMATTERS

38

Sport

05.02.2013

| The Beaver

LSE RESULTS THIS WEEK Rugby 1s 5 - 7 Herts 1s Netball 1s 28 - 32 UCL 2s Men’s Tennis 1s 12 - 0 Portsmouth 1s Women’s Tennis 1s 12 - 0 London Met 1s Men’s Table Tennis 2s 13 - 4 KCL 2s Women’s Table Tennis 1s 5 - 0 Kent 1s

Continued from bottom, back page.

typing and development of AfULFDQ IRRWEDOOHUV WR ன W D SUH GHன QHG PRXOG IRU (XURSHDQ

teams. As Manchester United chief scout in Africa has suggested European scouts tend to have a particular type of player in mind, the so-called “Pape Boupa Diop templateâ€? when they visit the academies Accra or Abidjan. The biggest African successes in Europe have been athletic defensive PLGன HOGHUV DQG SRZHUIXO strikers. This has inevitably

:LWK 0U /6( RŕŽ‰ HULQJ WKH JLUOV some impressive although sometimes questionable chat up lines and some interesting talents, it is not surprising that a number of the competitors found themselves getting lucky in Zoo. Despite his victory and remarkable skill on the recorder, Mr LSE himself failed to pull. Women’s rugby, who have been doing a good job of establishing themselves this year in Zoo bar, should look to their captain for inspiration as she WRRN KRPH WKH VHPL ன QDOLVW young apprentice having already slept with this year’s Mr LSE during a previous week. Rugby sticking with rugby and FOHDUO\ VDWLVன HG E\ KRZ ZHOO endowed MD turned out to be, another member of women’s rugby has changed her weekly pull going back for at least round two this Wednesday. 0U /6( ZDV GHன QLWHO\ WKH highlight of the week, with the female members of the AU appreciating the event’s standard oiling up of the contestants, even more so that our General Mateer demanded the removal of clothing a round early.

shaped perceptions of what talent is available in Africa. So instead of nimble, unpredictable creators like Jay-Jay Okocha a decade ago, African teams are now generally made up of bruisers and enforcers ĂĄ OD &KHLFN 7LRWÂŤ :KLOH HŕŽ‰ HF tive players in their own right, a tournament such as this shows their limits in terms of entertainment. All that being said, AFCON LV RQO\ UHDOO\ NLFNLQJ RŕŽ‰ with the knockout stages. By the time this goes to print we will be done and dusted with WKH WDVW\ TXDUWHU ன QDO WLHV LQ cluding Nigeria vs. the Ivory Coast and South Africa vs. Mali. Indeed, it may be the last chance the Ivorians have to win the tournament with their talisman Didier Drogba. The Elephants are perennial favourites at this stage and one gets the feeling from their HDUO\ VKRZLQJV WKH\ PD\ ன QDO ly make it count. Nonetheless, they will face VWLŕŽ‰ RSSRVLWLRQ IURP WKH UHVXU gent Super Eagles, with wingers Victor Moses and Ahmed Musa showing signs of reaching new heights at this tournament. So there is plenty left to look forward to at South Africa 2013, not least the AFCON staple of dodgy goalkeepers in tracksuit bottoms. While African football may not be in perfect health, it is still well worth tuning in to an unpredictable and often-overlooked WRXUQDPHQW ZLWK WKH VHPL ன

This week’s fun was not FRQன QHG WR :HGQHVGD\ DQG adding to the week’s entertainment was another outing to Moonies on Monday this time to celebrate Miss Jones’ birthday. Heavy pre-drinking and homemade vodka left many severely damaged on Tuesday morning. The birthday girl was taking no prisoners and enjoyed the company of the young apprentice before knocking the SRRU ER\ RŕŽ‰ KLV IHHW DIWHU WKH SDLU KDG ன QLVKHG &RQWLQXLQJ to enjoy her birthday week she dipped into the Oxbridge pool to end her Wednesday night despite the talent at Mr LSE being so high. The young apprentice also managed a second pull despite the mortal state he found himself in. Miss RAG not entirely prepared for his advances later ended her evening with Boyd. 0DNLQJ KHU ன UVW DSSHDUDQFH in this column and following her netball thirds teammate managed two pulls this week, Weaves, who had a cheeky pull with Crasto on Monday moved onto Captain Craig on Wednesday. Unfortunately, despite his

Bond-like charms he failed to convert this young lady. Someone who’s Zoo Bar DQWLFV XVHG WR ன OO WKLV FROXPQ made a rare appearance. Yourcock succeeded, living up to his reputation he managed to pull the rather desirable Law. CTR had a somewhat less eventful week and returned to the cookie monster, spending Monday and Friday night together. No doubt the pair would have made it three nights together had he not HQGHG KLV QLJKW ZLWK D ன JKW outside the Tuns. The FC might have failed to win Mr LSE, losing to rugby LQ WKH ன QDO EXW 0DOLEX SURYHG more successful with Walsh fourth netball girl. This young lady is beginning to make a name for her numerous antics in Zoo. Too many men might have a rival to her title although our resident too many men netballer was seen cuddled up to a number of guys throughout the night although left innocently with a rugby second team boy. Another net-Ball-er to enjoy the company of an FC boy scored with Lee; the pair

seemed inseparable throughout the night but it is unconன UPHG WKDW WKH\ OHIW WRJHWKHU &RQWLQXLQJ WKHLU RŕŽ‰ WKH SLWFK success was Boyd and a currently unknown but well photographed young lady. Another impressive conquest for a member of men’s hockey involved the young man having a threesome with two young ladies. The two girls may not be in the AU but they certainly seem to have the apSHWLWH WR ன W LQ SHUIHFWO\ $ VOLJKWO\ OHVV H[RWLF DŕŽ‰ DLU but a very early pull was the ordinarily less active cricket and tennis club. Diglet was seen very early on harnessing the sexual tension from the excessive amounts of baby oil and whipped cream to good effect with Principal Skinner, the couple making an early exit, as has often been the case recently; the luscious-locked social sec seems adamant to See More and more of her. Next week is reAUnion and a chance for the graduates to return to once more to experience the joys of Zoo, I am sure deep down they’ve missed it.

Mr LSE Crowned Dennis Mooney

Wednesday night saw possibly the best-attended event ever in the LSE Quad as the Atheltics Union crowned their newest pin-up in the form of second year Rugby 3OD\HU (ULN 7DWH +H EHDW RŕŽ‰ VWLŕŽ‰ FRPSHWLWLRQ IURP DFURVV the AU, including several FC representatives, the Rowing Club President and a reality TV personality to take the title. The Football Club loudly and continously disputed WKH UHVXOWV RI WKH ன QDO WHVW of-strength round, claiming Tate was bending his arms in order to gain an advantage over his adversary, FC star Deniz Yigiter. One of their number, who declined WR EH QDPHG UDQWHG ‍Ú?‏7KH ன nal round was a joke. Anyone of reasonable intelligence knows that lifting buckets is much easier with your arms bent than straight, but of course with the egg-chasers captain as judge there was only going to be one winner.’ The completely impartial allfemale judging board saw no infringement, however and handed the blonde bombshell the title, complete with commemorative tiara and sash.

‘What I enjoyed most about Mr LSE was being able to pie multiple boys in the face and JHW DSSODXGHG IRU P\ HŕŽ‰ RUWV‍ ڑ‏

said Selina Parmar, second year BSc Economics student and tennis player, who was one of the judging panel.

Sport

The Beaver | 05.02.2013 Continued from top, back page.

$OO IRXU KDYH VXŕŽ‰ HUHG IURP striker issues this season, but only Liverpool managed to bring one in - Daniel Sturridge moving early in the transfer window and already scoring goals. Nacho Monreal moved to Arsenal after an injury to Kieron Gibbs left the Gunners with the horrifying prospect RI KDYLQJ $QGUH 6DQWRV DV ன UVW choice left back for 6 weeks. They did however sign up 5 of their brightest prospects to long term contracts, the most noteworthy of these being Theo Walcott. Nevertheless Arsenal fans may be wondering why neither David Villa or Mohammad Diame arrived in January. Tottenham shocked many with their failure to spend, particularly on deadline day: their sole move was WR EULQJ LQ PLGன HOGHU /HZLV Holtby six months earlier than previously agreed. There was the customary deadline day bid for Leandro Damiao, but speculatively bidding for the Brazilian striker seems to be nothing more than a habit for Tottenham these days. Everton meanwhile saw their attempts of bolstering

their squad falter, with Dutch PLGன HOGHU /HUR\ )HU IDLOLQJ a medical after agreeing a contract, and their pursuit of D VWULNHU QHYHU JHWWLQJ RŕŽ‰ RI the ground. Of those hunting fourth place, Liverpool probably spent most wisely. They added promising attacking PLGன HOGHU 3KLOLSSH &RXWLQKR from Inter Milan; these sensible steps will be particularly pleasing to fans who’ve seen reckless spending become the QRUP DW $Qன HOG It was at the bottom of the table, however, where the majority of the action took place during this transfer window. Southampton chose to change manager rather than players, with Nigel Adkins being shown the door in favour of Mauricio Pochettino. Harry Redknapp forgot his own comments about overpaid players, and spent big money to bring in striker Remy (ÂŁ8m) and defender Samba (ÂŁ12.5m) to QPR. The high wages being RŕŽ‰ HUHG WR WKHVH SOD\HUV KDYH concerned supporters who fear that adding more players on higher wages will damage QPR’s long term stability, regardless of if they remain in the Premier League next seaVRQ $VWRQ 9LOOD IDLOHG WR ன QG

some older heads to add to their youthful team, and they ன QG WKHPVHOYHV PDQ\ SHR ple’s favourites to go down now. Roberto Martinez meanwhile brought in three players on loan, as he attempts to once again keep Wigan away from the drop against all odds. Meanwhile Reading failed once again to set the transfer window alight, making only low key signings who wouldn’t look too out of place should they be relegated. Newcastle had been dropping dangerously close to the bottom of the table, and they EURXJKW LQ QR IHZHU WKDQ ன YH players from Ligue 1. France has been a potent hunting ground for Newcastle’s scouts in recent seasons, and the French revolution won’t be stopping anytime soon. International right back Debuchy is probably the cream of this particular French crop. Their rivals Sunderland made fewer moves, Danny Graham from Swansea being the only incoming player of note. Stoke will be quietly pleased with their signing of highly rated young keeper Jack Butland from Birmingham. Similarly to Zaha, he won’t move until the Sum-

mer, but it’s a good move for the club and the player. West Ham strengthened too by engineering a reunion with Joe Cole, and Marouane Chamakh moved across London on loan from Arsenal. Swansea actually brought nobody in at all this window and they didn’t lose DQ\ RI WKHLU ன UVW WHDP SOD\HUV – their fans will be hoping for more of the same for the rest of the season. Norwich continued their search for a striker E\ EULQJLQJ LQ SUROLன F $UJHQ tine Luciano Becchio from Leeds, and Fulham succeeded in bringing in some quality for WKHLU PLGன HOG LQ WKH IRUP RI Emanuelson on loan from AC Milan. The most fun to be had on deadline day may well have been in West Brom however, where striker Peter Odemwingie tried to force through a move to QPR without his club’s permission. He was rightly criticised by pundits and players alike, and the Baggies chairman delighted many by refusing to sell him as a point of principle. On a deadline day absent of the landmark signings of yesteryear, the saga at least provided something to make the window memorable.

5DYHQV ૺ \LQJ KLJK Gabriel Everington

As popular music collective Five famously sang, ‘Baby when the lights go out I’ll show you what it’s all about’, and the San Francisco 49ers certainly did that on Sunday evening, recovering from a power cut in the Superdome to stage a stirring comeback against the Baltimore Ravens. Unfortunately for Niners fans it was not to be, and the Ravens hung on to win an enthralling contest 34-31. A sporadically impressive GHIHQVLYH HŕŽ‰ RUW DQG VWDEOH game management from Super Bowl MVP Joe Flacco were the hallmarks of a game that saw Baltimore add a second championship to its collection DQG WKDW VHUYHG DV D ன WWLQJ end to the storied career of team captain Ray Lewis. Even noted post-feminist BeyoncÊ’s halftime reunion with fellow Destiny’s Child alums Kelly Rowland and Michelle ‘The Other One’ Williams had not been enough to spur the 49ers into an immediate response to Baltimore’s ன UVW KDOI GRPLQDWLRQ %XW DIWHU Jacoby Jones’ 108 yard touchdown direct from the second half restart had added insult to the 49ers’ injuries, a trademark dressing-down from coach Jim Harbaugh during the blackout seemed to turn things around. This was, to borrow an aphorism from that other sport called football, a game of two halves. Baltimore had the better of the opening exchanges, and FDPH WR GRPLQDWH WKH ன UVW

half. The strength and reliability of Flacco’s arm is welldocumented, but this was a GLŕŽ‰ HUHQW PRUH H[FLWLQJ VLGH to him. Two or three outstanding passes found their targets, with the understanding between Flacco and Anquan Boldin of particular note. They were ably supported by Ray Rice and Bernard Pierce, although the former continued his miserable streak RI IXPEOHV LQ WKHVH SOD\RŕŽ‰ V The fantastically coached offence exposed the San Francisco cover repeatedly, with cornerback Chris Culliver embarrassed almost as much as he was by his regrettable homophobic views earlier in the week. His humiliating evening was capped when he was called for pass interference, which eventually led to one of Baltimore’s two second KDOI ன HOG JRDOV DQG HŕŽ‰ HFWLYHO\ lost San Francisco the game. Although he spent much of the second half sat helpless on the sidelines, Flacco ultimately kept his head when it mattered and contributed to a feisty fourth quarter which saw the Ravens hold out to claim the Vince Lombardi Trophy. If Flacco appeared almost XQWRXFKDEOH LQ WKH ன UVW KDOI to a frustrated San Francisco defence, hisopposite number was the proverbial rabbit in the headlights. Sophomore Colin Kaepernick looked exposed and was not helped by the Ravens’ expert smothering of his receivers’ routes. Suddenly, we were all reminded that this was only

Kaepernick’s tenth NFL start, and the doubts began to creep in. We should have known better. The Niners’ new talisman started equally slowly against *UHHQ %D\ LQ WKH ன UVW URXQG RI WKH SOD\RŕŽ‰ V DQG ZHQW RQ WR rush for a league quarterback record 181 yards, and when the game returned here after 33 minutes of darkness, he sprung into life. First came an exemplary throw to receiver Michael &UDEWUHH ZKR ŕŽ‹ DWWHQHG KLV defender before racing in for a 31- yard touchdown. The tireless Frank Gore then scored from close range after Kaepernick led an 80- yard GULYH GRZQன HOG ZLWK D OHYHO headedness that belied his lack of experience, followed E\ D ன HOG JRDO +H WKHQ UXVKHG in himself for an exhilarating 15-yard touchdown, the longest by a quarterback in Super Bowl history, by which point the momentum had swung seemingly irreversibly in his team’s favour. But Kaepernick missed the chance to tie the game up when he threw a wayward pass on a terrible two-point conversion attempt. A run from LaMichael James, three Kaepernick incompletions and a possible hold by Ravens cornerback Jimmy Smith on Crabtree all came and went as WKH ODVW ன YH PLQXWHV VOLSSHG excruciatingly away from San Francisco. It was a terULன F FRPHEDFN DWWHPSW EXW DV Kaepernick said afterwards, ‘it wasn’t good enough.’ In his last NFL game, Ray Lewis was left exposed on a

number of occasions in the PLGGOH RI WKH ன HOG /DFNLQJ speed and agility in his seventeenth season, he eventually made up for it with hiscontribution to the Ravens’ GUDPDWLF ODWH GHIHQVLYH HŕŽ‰ RUW With four seconds remaining the camera cut to a teammate pulling him into a congratulatory embrace. Lewis pointed to the clock and said ‘not until it says three zeros’. Perhaps more than anything – the ludicrous dancing, the tears, the repeated barking of ‘it’s a man’s game!’ – it is that attitude which will be remembered as Lewis’ greatest legDF\ :KHQ KH OHIW WKH ன HOG IRU the last time, he made sure he left a winner. Ultimately the outcome reŕŽ‹ HFWHG WKH FXOPLQDWLRQ RI WKH steady progress made by the Ravens under John Harbaugh rather than the more rapid rise of Jim’s younger 49ers. Under Harbaugh the RaYHQV KDYH EHFRPH RŕŽ‰ HQVLYH FRQWHQGHUV IRU WKH ன UVW WLPH in a long time, with the front office drafting well and some inspired recent coaching personnel changes. They’ve made WKH SOD\RŕŽ‰ V HYHU\ RQH RI +DU EDXJK‍ڑ‏V ன YH \HDUV DV D FRDFK and MVP Flacco has been the embodiment of that unspectacular consistency ultimately becoming something special: LQ WKHVH SOD\RŕŽ‰ V KH WKUHZ eleven scoring passes and no interceptions. The last person to do that? Just some San Francisco 49er by the name of Joe Montana.

39

YOUR SPORT, IN BRIEF PREDATORS HAND SHARKS FIRST DEFEAT The longest streak in this seaosn’s NHL came to an end as Nashville Predators beat San Jose sharks 2-1 in a shootout on Saturday night.

DOWNHILL HEATS UP Italian Dominik Paris holds a 3 point lead over Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal and is widely tipped to become the next big thing in Ski Racing.

HOOP DOGGY DOGG Snoop Lion has requested that Celtic FC allow him to be the mascot for their Champions League clash against Juventus.

BUDDHIST BOOSTS BRADFORD The Dalai Lama has blessed the Bantams ahead of their League Cup Final appearance.

Sport

40

Sport

05.02.2013

| The Beaver

Inside ‍*ښ‏RVVLS &ROXPQ 0U /6( 6SHFLDO ‍ښ‏6XSHUERZO 5RXQG 8S ‍<ښ‏RXU 6SRUW ,Q %ULHI

/RRNLQJ DW 'HDGOLQH 'D\ Young) will get the opportunity to prove themselves during the title challenge.

this window: there was no deadline day ÂŁ60 million bid for Fellaini from either Man-

get game time and experience, and United’s increasingly erratic wingers (Nani, Valencia,

Two of the League’s typically most extravagant spenders also failed to surprise

FKHVWHU &LW\ RU &KHOVHD ,Q stead we saw both clubs take a more measured approach.

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Across the country last Thursday, you may have thought you’d noticed a decrease in the quantity of air in the UK, almost as though a large group of people were waiting with baited breath. You’d be right - Thursday marked the end of January, and consequently of the January transfer window. Football fans waited all day for news of their team and their rivals, checking iPhones compulsively and in some cases not even leaving their homes until the 11pm deadline passed. At which point you may have noticed a gentle EUHH]H WKH HŕŽ‰ HFW RI PLOOLRQV of football fans sighing with disappointment or relief. At the top of the table, the transfer window passed with Manchester United making only one addition to a squad which is still lacking a world FODVV FHQWUDO PLGன HOGHU ,W ZDVQ‍ڑ‏W D FHQWUDO PLGன HOGHU However, purchasing Wilfried Zaha for ÂŁ15 million and loaning him straight back to

Crystal Palace will most likely prove to be a canny move by Sir Alex Ferguson. Zaha will :,.,0(',$

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Chelsea replaced Sturridge with Ba, in a quiet window UHŕŽ‹ HFWLQJ %HQLWH]‍ ڑ‏VWDWXV DV ,QWHULP 0DQDJHU 0DQFKHVWHU City meanwhile generated one of the biggest headlines of the deadline day with the sale of Super Mario Balotelli to AC Milan. Mancini felt compelled to let him go after the media circus that continued to follow his young striker, but without a replacement he may well regret his actions at the end of the season. Especially if - as Ferguson says - it is a strong strike force that is the hallmark of a winning team. The teams battling for fourth place and holy grail of the Champions League were among those most expected to set the window alight. Tottenham’s chairman is infamous for his deadline day deals, and Arsenal’s team has been screaming out for quality players all season. Liverpool KDYH KHOSHG GHன QH WKH H[ cess spending in recent years, and Everton have conversely shown that value for money can be found in the January &RQWLQXHG SDJH FRO

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For many a football fan in these isles, the bald truth is that African Cup of Nations is an inconvenience. Packed in the middle of the busy winter schedule it can also be a manager’s nightmare. Manchester City and Tottenham will surely miss Yaya TourÊ and Emmanuel Adebayor respectively, although there is a suspicion that Arsenal fans may in fact be glad of a Gervinho-free month. However, if we shift our focus away from the Premier League for a second there’s plenty of football and drama to be enjoyed in 6RXWK $IULFD WKLV \HDU ,Q SDU ticular we have the chance to assess the general state of the game in Africa. This tournament is perhaps even more relevant in this regard, with many of the traditional big guns including Egypt and Cameroon hav-

and ambitious football with Lille winger Ryan Mendes catching the eye, or at least GHŕŽ‹ HFWLQJ DWWHQWLRQ DZD\ the unconventionally named Fock between the sticks. As ever the tournament is also about more than just football. With events still unfolding after French intervention against militant ,VODPLVWV LQ 1RUWKHUQ 0DOL WKHLU IRRWEDOOHUV KDYH RŕŽ‰ HUHG a welcome distraction by also making the last eight. Joining them there will be Adebayor and his fellow Togolese who had to overcome the disturbing memories of a lethal gunன UH RQ WKHLU WHDP EXV WKUHH years ago to even compete DW WKLV WRXUQDPHQW ,QGHHG their task in reaching the island, with little more than TXDUWHU ன QDOV ZDV PDGH QR 500,000 inhabitants and an easier by a sandbox for a DLU WUDŕŽŒ F F RQWUROOHU I RU D pitch and some comical ofmanager, have made the quar- ன FLDWLQJ WHUன QDOV However, while there has DW WKHLU ன UVW DWWHPSW undoubtedly been drama, They have played attractive the football itself has hardly

EHHQ YLQWDJH ,W KDV EHHQ D long time since PelĂŠ made his now infamous prediction that an African team would win :,.,0(',$

ing failed to qualify. This has left the chance for unknown quantities like Cape Verde to shine. The tiny Atlantic

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the world cup by the end of the 20th century. From the evidence on show on my TV screen over the last week it may well be another century or two. While there have been exciting matches and

some smartly taken goals the overall standard has been poor. The games have been scrappy and tentative with a lack of creativity often on show. Zambia vs. Burkina Faso was about as dull as it was obscure. While caution is increasingly the name of the game in tournament football around the globe these days, one cannot help but feel the problem is exacerbated at this tournament by a lack of trust in creative footballers. A case in point would be Ghana’s decision to play the inventive -XYHQWXV PLGன HOGHU .ZDGZR Asamoah, possibly the closest thing to a playmaker at the tournament, at full-back in their opening game. This is symptomatic of a deeper problem in African football, namely the stereo&RQWLQXHG SDJH FRO

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