The Beaver: Week of February 26th, 2013

EU BUDGET BATTLE | A FAIRTRADE REVOLUTION | UNVEILING ST. TROPEZ | ROY LICHTENSTEIN — A RETROSPECTIVE

TheBeaver

26.02.2013

Newspaper of the LSE Students’ Union FREE

LSE cancels conference in UAE The London School of Economics has cancelled a conference on the Arab Spring in the United Arab Emirates.

The conference, scheduled to take place on February 24th, aimed to examine the causes of the Arab Spring, and its impact in the Middle East and beyond.

However, the London School of Economics cited concerns about restrictions imposed on the intellectual content of conference, which a LSE spokesperson stated “threatened academic freedom.�

The LSE did not wish to disclose who had placed restrictions on the conference, but according to sources from the BBC, pressure had come from “very seniorâ€? UAE govHUQPHQW RŕŽŒ FLDOV Sources have also reported that a senior LSE academic was detained at Dubai International Airport and barred entry to the country on Friday February 22nd, following the cancellation of the conference.

Dr Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, who is the co-director of the Kuwait programme at LSE, was due to speak on at the conference on “The Middle East: Transition in the Arab World.â€? However, Ulrichsen said that immigration authorities separated him from his colleagues at the airport, EHIRUH FRQன VFDWLQJ KLV SDVV

SALEEM HOMSI

Hayley Fenton

port and denying him entry, sending him back to London.

Ulrichsen has written critically about the action taken

by Bahrain’s government following mass protests that erupted in early 2011, and had been scheduled to speak at the forum on the international implications of protests in Bahrain, the UAE’s Gulf ally.

Prior to his detainment,

Ulrichsen stated that UAE authorities had “made it very clear� that the conference organisers should ensure any discussion of Bahrain was cut from the programme.

The LSE stated they were aware of Ulrichsen’s situation, but did not elaborate further.

No UAE official has been available to reach for comment.

However the UAE has not seen the same unrest that has ousted autocratic rulers in other regions in the Middle East, and many diplomats say the UAE government is keen to prevent instability spreading to its country. As a result, the Gulf state has placed limits on foreign research groups in the past two years.

To date, the London School of Economics has received

ÂŁ5.6million from the Emirates Foundation, an independent, philanthropic organisation set up by the Abu Dhabi Government to facilitate publicprivate funded initiatives to improve the welfare of people across the UAE. The institution denied that the foundation was involved in placing restrictions on the conference.

Continued on page 4, col 5.

New scholarships announced Arisa Manawapat

Last Tuesday, the LSE announced that it is making 50 scholarships available to students from India, and will initiate a collaborative research programme on gender equality in India with the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in Mumbai.

The scholarships will only be available to Indian students pursuing a Master’s pro-

gramme at the School starting LQ 'HSHQGLQJ RQ ன QDQ cial need, scholarships will range in value from ÂŁ3,000 to ÂŁ32,000. Eligible students PXVW KROG DQ RŕŽ‰ HU E\ $SULO 2013.

LSE’s relationship with the Tata Institute is supported by the Jamsetji Tata Trust, which has provided ÂŁ1.8 million to fund joint research projects since 2007. According to the Times of India, “both institu-

tions plan to extend their collaboration with a focus on women’s issues and support a joint programme of research, advocacy and action to create a safe and enabling environment towards achieving gender equality in India.�

The “India at LSEâ€? Blog ZURWH ‍ڔ‏WKH ன UVW SKLODQWKURSLF donation the School received after its founding came from India’s Tata family in 1912 and today we [LSE] collaborate

with the Tata Institute for Social Science on the India Observatory.�

Director of LSE, Dr. Craig Calhoun, has stated that “no issue is more important than gender equality as we work to bring research-based knowledge to major social challenges. We are delighted to continue our partnership with TISS and the Tata Trust.�

The announcement was made in conjunction with the

Prime Minister’s visit to India as part of David Cameron’s trade mission to India. Cameron was accompanied by seven university heads, including Calhoun. Cameron’s visit to India has been speculated to be a reaction to the recent drop of Indian students attending UK universities by 23.5 per cent in 2011-2012, according to the Higher Education Statistics Agency.

Continued on page 4, col 5.

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2

Editorial

Editorial Board Executive Editor Liam Brown

editor@thebeaveronline.co.uk

Managing Editor Matthew Worby

26.02.2013

7KHBeaver Established in 1949 Issue No. 788

managing@thebeaveronline.co.uk

News Editors Hayley Fenton Arisa Manawapat Ira Lorandou

Telephone: 0207 955 6705 Email: editor@thebeaveronline.co.uk Website: www.thebeaveronline.co.uk

news@thebeaveronline.co.uk

Comment Editor Jon Allsop comment@thebeaveronline.co.uk

Features Editor Nona Buckley-Irvine Chris Rogers features@thebeaveronline.co.uk

Acting Social Editor Liam Brown social@thebeaveronline.co.uk

Sport Editor Dennis Mooney sports@thebeaveronline.co.uk

| The Beaver

Collective 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 Thomson, A Wright, A Young, B Arslan, B Butterworth, B Clarke, B Phillips, B Rogers, 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 Pearson, M Veale, M Worby, N Antoniou, N J Buckley-Irvine, N Jaroszek, N Mashru, N Mateer, N Russell, P Gederi, R A Coleman, R Chouglay, 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 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

The Collective is The Beaver’s governing body. You must have contributed three pieces of work, or contributed to the production of three issues of the paper (editorially or administratively), to qualify for membership. If you believe you are a Collective member but your name is not on the list above, please email the Collective Chair at:

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The Beaver would like to thank the LSE students who contributed to this issue.

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Seven Days Too Long We bang on about Students’ Union elections a lot. We have touched on everything from the need for independent returning officers to our new policy of naming candidates despite the strange custom not to do so in past years in this space. This week, we will be venting on how candidates themselves should treat the Beaver as well as the wider student body.

Each year, it is the same.

A handful of hacks get all excited for their chance to win a position at the Union, to make up for the fact they couldn’t or didn’t want to get a real job. Other than Matt DeJesus, we see so few

Economics students in positions within the SU - as, quite frankly, they can get real jobs.

Candidates have to keep in mind that for the average student election week will involve an annoying amount of random self important candidates bothering them as they go about their daily EXVLQHVV VKRYLQJ OHDŕŽ‹ HWV LQ their faces or throwing jelly beans and candies at their heads. If you can believe it, it’s even worse for us here at the paper.

We have to deal with Union regulations and rubbish that necessitate an almost rabid adherence to the idea of “fairness.� Heaven

forfend that the reporting of actual student election news gets in the way of the apparent exercise of something more closely resembling Politburo ‘democratic elections’ (we have a General Secretary for heaven’s sake).

As we have mentioned previously, this paper will name candidates on an individual basis if they violate WKH UXOHV LQ D VLJQLன FDQW ZD\ - a way that students need to know about. Fair coverage does not mean equal coverage right down to the word count. We favour no candidates, if you have a problem with us - send a Letter to the Editor.

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

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LSF 6R PDQ\ ŕŽ‹ DVK PREV ‍ڋ‏ even EconSoc. School must have set a record.

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News

The Beaver | 26.02.2013

LSE dances to Harlem Shake Arisa Manawapat

Last Tuesday, at precisely 3 PM, over three hundred students in front of the New Academic Building danced to Baauer’s “Harlem Shake�, led by a Beaver mascot. Filmed by LooSE TV, the Youtube video boasts over 40,000 views. “Harlem Shake�, a song by American DJ Baauer, Brooklyn’s Harry Rodrigues, is better known as a video by Youtube user Dizasta Music which went viral this month. In the video, one person starts a dance and after the “Con los terroristas “ line, the crowd of students in outrageous costumes shake to the erratic beats of the Harlem shake. At LSE among the out-

rageous costumes was a man LQ D VOHHSLQJ EDJ D ன UHPDQ a guy in a horse mask, and a dalmatian.

According to Youtube’s Ofன FLDO 7UHQG 5HSRUW GXULQJ the second week of February 2013, more than 4,000 “Harlem Shakeâ€? videos were uploaded per day. Shakers ranged from university students from around the globe, to a squad in the Norwegian Army, whose video received over 22 million views. Prior to the Harlem Shake at the NAB, LSE Rosebery Hall had their own Shake in their dining hall. Published on February 14, 2013, the video now has over 9,000 views.

According to Sebastian Bruhn, about 50-60 students were in-

volved. He said “there were some very interesting ceremonial-esque dances being doneâ€? and “the best costumes were the green neon suit and the MDPDLFDQ EREVOHG WHDP RXWன W ‍ ڕ‏ Bankside’s Harlem Shake has over 2,600 views.

The brainchild behind LSE’s very own Harlem Shake was second year student Izmir Bajrami. Although the facebook event page was created only four days prior to the Shake, over 300 students were present on the day.

The Beaver mascot for the Harlem Shake, Dominic Chakra-Thomson, a third year undergraduate, commented that “we did the Harlem shake not just to join the bandwagon

of universities doing it, but mainly just to have a good laugh. I think everyone who took part in it was just there to show that LSE students can have fun too!� Chakra-Thomson said, “There were a lot of people who gathered to watch, it was a great atmosphere.

Everyone was cheering us on.�

Chakra-Thomson said it was a “huge honour� to be the Beaver mascot.

Chakra-Thompson also commented that the Harlem Shake was also part of “keeping up our friendly rivalry with UCL!�. UCL is now famous for having the biggest Harlem Shake in Europe with currently 1,077,031 views of their youtube video.

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EVENTS IN BRIEF Nominations Open 18th-25th February Nominations are now open for the LSESU Lent Term elections. Voting is open march 6th-7th. Those interested in running can visit the LSESU website. &DQGLGDWH %ULHன QJ 25 February 2013 5:30 - 7:30pm CLM.2.04 Candidates will be briefed on the rules of campaigning. This is an opportunity for the candidates to ask the Returning Officer any questions they have about the rules.

Turn up the Volume: Workshop with Margot Katz 25th February, 4.30 to 6.30 pm A workshop by Margot Katz RQ ன QGLQJ \RXU VWUHQJWKV DQG communicating your unique brand to help you develop your leadership style. RSVP by emailing lsesu.womenleaders@ gmail.com

Israeli Apartheid Week 25th February - 1st March Events will draw atention to the injustice of the Apartheid system including a week-long cultural exhibition in the Quad and a riveting series of events lined up which will be informative, insightful and emotional.

Sustainable Art Workshop YOUTUBE

26 February 6pm - 8pm King’s Chambers 1.02 In collaboration with the

CASA in the Houses

LSESU Environmental Society, the LSESU Visual Arts Society will be working with recyclable materials and think of ways to promote creativity and talent in a sustainable manner.

Carlos Solis-Tejada

RAG People Auction

The LSE SU Central American Students Association (CASA) has recently launched an ambitious International Internship Programme with two events.

7KH ன UVW RQH WKH ,QWHUQVKLS Launch Event hosted on 16 January 2013 at the Houses of Parliament had a high turnout of approximately 200 people interested in the programme.

The second event, the Internship Information Session hosted at the LSE’s Clement House on February 4th, 2013, had a turnout of more than 120 people who seemed keen on the diYHUVH VHW RI H[SHULHQFHV RŕŽ‰ HUHG

by CASA’s partners in Central America.

The Internship Programme is part of the society’s push to put the region into the radar of London’s global political, academic and business sector leaders. Its organisers emphasise that CASA is unique among

other LSE organisations interested in the region in its focus in moving away from “patronising and condescending clichĂŠs of a tropical land of revolutionaries, violent crime, poor people and corrupt politiciansâ€?.

Nowadays Central America has a mostly discrete role in global DŕŽ‰ DLUV ZLWK HFRQRPLF JURZWK and political stability but still with plenty of challenges to take care of such organised crime and poverty eradication.

The reception at Houses of Parliament had as guest speaker Ms. Pilar Saborio, Ambas-

sador of Costa Rica to the UK who expressed her mission’s support for the programme together with representatives of other Central American diplomatic missions in the UK. In a letter sent to CASA Mr Ivan Romero-Martinez, Ambassador of Honduras to the UK, also expressed his government’s full support for the Internship Programme and gratitude for CASA’s interest in his country.

Britain also showed its official support with the presence of representatives of MP

Mr. Andrew Rosindell’s office and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO).

CASA has also rallied the support of several local social enterprises, multilateral institutions as well as of global busiQHVV ன UPV 'XULQJ WKH ,QWHUQ ship Information Session, CASA presented potential interns several opportunities with UNDP funded programmes, the HSBC, Invest Guatemala, Fundación Acción Joven (Costa Rica), Diageo and the International Centre for Development Studies among other local partners.

28 February 7pm - 10pm The Quad The Charity Auction is a fantastic evening event where you can bid to win a date with some of LSE’s biggest names: from school management and DFDGHPLF VWDŕŽ‰ WR ELJ 68 DQG AU names!

Shaw Library Concert 1 March 2013 6:30 - 8:30pm Shaw Library Unwind in the presence of the Music Society’s most talented members. Featuring the Jadamari Quartet, The Hougtones, Jazz band, Barbershop and Chamber Choir.

GOT A SCOOP? Got a story that you think we should be printing? Send us an e-mail: news@thebeaveronline.co.uk

4

News

Origins of EU legitimacy Devyani Garg

26.02.2013

| The Beaver

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LSE has been sensitive to criticism about accepting money from Middle East institutions of the EU derive through EU institutions or EU law. This has removed sources since close links to a sense of legitimacy from under EU regulation but the possibility of deriving 0XDPPDU *DGGDன IRUPHU outside of the legal frame- the legitimacy of the EU Libyan dictator, were unWKH ன UVW OLEHUDO IUDPHZRUN from even the liberal frame- earthed in 2011. The links Before the crisis, EU in- work of the EU. were heavily criticised for Similarly, the European work of thought. stitutions existed to probeing a “chapter of failuresâ€?, Bartolini concluded that mote growth and stability Stability Meachnism Treaand former Lord Chief Justice in the European economy. W\ WR KHOS ன QDQFH PHPEHU if the EU was to maintain itWoolf released a report in NoThere were surveillance state debt was drawn up self as a legitimate internavember 2011 stating that the procedures to prevent cri- under International Public tional organization it would mistakes and errors of judgeses and correcting methods Law, not EU law. Bartolini have to constitute itself, im- ment has damaged LSE’s repmember states which avoid- argued that, while many plement policies on taxation, utation. ed regulations in the form of viewed the European com- DQG SURYLGH ன QDQFLDO PHDQV Second year, BSc Accountன QHV 7KHVH ZHUH QRQ ELQG munity’s collective action for the European commis- ing and Finance student, Haning measures for member against the Eurocirsis posi- sion. This cannot be done nah Baker, felt the move by tively, no major action was gradually now as in times of LSE to cancel the conference states.

In response to the Greek taken under the EU legal do- crisis political leaders will ZDV MXVWLன HG VWDWLQJ ‍ڔ‏LW LV LP Crisis, the European com- main or within the construct simply ‘jump out of EU legal portant that LSE make a stand munity provided Greece with of EU regulation. Decisive framework’ and undermine against such a blatant opன QDQFLDO VXSSRUW WKURXJK D action was taken by leaders its institutional legitimacy. pression of free speech, parThe lecture caused signif- ticularly as the Arab Spring package outside of any trea- in Europe and not by leadicant frustration among the is such a contentious issue, ty made in the EU. The Euro- ers of the European Union.

Each mechanism by- audience. One member con- which should be debated from pean Council then adopted new regulation: there would passed procedural require- gratulated Bartolini on the many perspectives. be intervention in the case ments and there was no in- conclusion of his speech to “However, although the RI ன QDQFLDO VWUHVV WKURXJK volvement of any major EU join the UKIP party. It was a IRUPHU OLQNV WR *DGGDன PD\ a European Financial Sta- institutions such as the ECJ controversial topic which re- have damaged the LSE’s repubilisation mechanism. The or the European Parliament. ceived passionate response. tation in some way, it is impor$OO ன QDQFLDO GLVFXVVLRQ However, the facts pre- tant that the LSE do not tarன QDQFLDO PHDQV IRU WKH (X ropean Financial Stabil- took place outside of these sented and questions raised nish the whole of the Middle ity Mechanism were raised institutions. Private and In- were undoubtedly regarded East with the same brush.â€?

Professor Stefano Bartolini argued his views on the problems facing the legitimacy of EU institutions after the Eurozone crisis last Tuesday.

Bartolini presented his ideas on the origins of EU legitimacy and its shortcomings and went on to describe how the any basis of initial legitimacy was VLJQLன FDQWO\ XQGHUPLQHG E\ the economic crisis in 2011.

His deep euro-skepticism paints a dubious picture for the future of the European Union but highlights problems regarding the balance of power which may also be addressed in time.

The Professor argued for two bases of legitimacy, the ன UVW LV WKH OLEHUDO PRGHO DQG the second is the republican model. There should be a procedure by which collectivized decisions apthrough an open market. ply to those not particiFundraising for the stabilipated to them. In a liberal zation facility was not done framework of legitimacy, a government’s powers and OLPLWV DUH GHன QHG DQG FRQ strained by a constitution.

A wide variety of interests have access to policymaking. On the other hand, from the republican perspective, government authority must arise from an election process, policy must be made through free debates, and institutions must be bound to obey these decisions.

Bartolini concludes that the

ternational law were used to circumvent EU procedure and supplement incomplete

as relevant for the EU today. &RQWLQXHG IURP IURQW SDJH ERWWRP

Calhoun is a member of the largest delegation any Prime Minister has ever taken anywhere in the world. LSE is at the forefront of this delegation as it has always “enjoyed a strong relationship with India for over a century.

This has included welcoming thousands of Indian students to study at the School during this time. We want to ensure that LSE’s doors are open to all talented students, regardOHVV RI ன QDQFLDO FLUFXPVWDQF es, and are delighted to cement this relationship further E\ RŕŽ‰ HULQJ VFKRODUVKLSV for graduate study, for students from India.â€?

A LSE spokesperson has commented that “LSE has at which human life can completely, Giddens reject- economic system as well. many long established links Abigail Malortie A long line of fans awaitno longer continue in its ed the polarised optimists’ with India and the scholarcurrent form. The idea and pessimists’ positions. ed a moment and a photo One of the world’s fore- has been appropriated by Instead our situation can with Giddens after the lec- ships are one way of cementmost sociologists, and a Google director, Ray Kur- be understood as one of ture. One such fan com- ing further these links.�

The LSE currently accepts former Director of the LSE, zweil, who theorised that both high risk and high op- mented, “his polite and 300 to 400 students from InLord Anthony Giddens cut DUWLன FLDO LQWHOOLJHQFH QD portunity, the two compo- diplomatic cynicism says a D VSULJKWO\ ன JXUH DW ODVW notechnology and biotech- nents always intertwined. lot about his approach to dia per year, with the majority ZHHN‍ڑ‏V HYHQW ‍ڔ‏2ŕŽ‰ WKH (GJH nology will develop to such ,Q UHVSRQVH WR WKHVH ன UVW Sociology and the social of these studying post-graduof History: the World in the an extent that human be- risk must be taken seri- world, indeed. He produces ate programmes. Although Indian students do not make up 21st century.â€? ings are no longer human ously – we cannot live in a fracture in the common the largest international stuGiddens began his ac- beings. denial as many are with sense of the reader and the dent group the university has count by reference to Indeed, the intelligence regards to climate change listener, whilst maintaining the work of chemist Paul of “human beingsâ€? in the (in twenty years of UN con- the forms and the protocol emphasised that historically, LSE is always had a large InCrutzen. Crutzen coined next 30-40 years will be sideration of the issue, af- of a scientist.â€? dian student population. the term “anthropoceneâ€? hundreds of times higher firmative action has yet to 7KH ERRN 2ŕŽ‰ WKH (GJH RI Former LSE Director, Ralf to describe the current than what we currently be taken). Second, we must History is still a work in progeological age (the usual have. Quoting a Guardian consider the future in a dif- gress. Taking a look at the Dahrendorf, has referred to term is “holocene,â€? which article from the previous ferent way – the vast array risks and opportunities we the association between India describes the 12,000 years day, Giddens illustrated his of opportunities and risks face this year, it’s a pretty and LSE as “a story of soulsince the last ice age). This point with the account of means the way ahead is safe bet that this particular mates.â€?

An Indian postgraduate anthropogenic age is one the possibilities of a bionic far more opaque than be- RŕŽ‰ HULQJ IURP *LGGHQV ZLOO student expressed that alin which human activity implant which could return fore. Third, thinking about make it to our bookshelves KDV VR LQŕŽ‹ XHQFHG WKH ZRUOG movement to a paralysed the future will need to be and set the cogs of many though she was overjoyed that eco-systems now op- person by their thought a process of back-casting a mind whirring in pursuit WKDW /6( ZDV RŕŽ‰ HULQJ VXFK special attention to Indian erate within the sphere of alone. where we estimate what of explanations and anstudents, she wished it was human activity, rather than We have, then, entered will be the nature of climate swers. Perhaps more than implemented earlier as “the the reverse. a new epoch so profoundly change ahead (for exam- anything else, though, we Giddens set out the type distinct from the past that ple), and then work back in should acknowledge that UK government’s strict conof change by reference to we cannot learn much from order to devise the process in the face of such great trols on employment for interthe mathematical notion it. Noting that we are the to prevent that outcome. uncertainty, a great deal of national graduates has forced of singularity, where ac- ன UVW FLYLOLVDWLRQ ZLWK WKH A process which should be humility must surely be an many to leave the UK after graduation.â€? celerating growth disap-

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News

The Beaver | 26.02.2013

Timeless a smash hit

Hayley Fenton

The one night extravaganza, Timeless, was performed by the London School of Economics’ ன QHVW VLQJHUV GDQFHUV DQG DF tors in the Lyceum theatre last Monday evening.

7LPHOHVV IROORZHG WKH MRXU neys of three individuals from diverse backgrounds, brought together by chance, as they IDFHG OLIH‍ڑ‏V VWUXJJOHV UHODWLRQ ship woes, career difficulties and cultural boundaries. The play was narrated by Sam Weya, playing a homeless person, and used a fusion of acts, from Hip Hop and Bhangra, to A Cappella DQG VWDQG XS FRPHG\ WR WHOO LWV story.

Producer and Director of Timeless, Hari Ramakrishnan, VDLG WKH HYHQW ZDV ‍ڔ‏D JUHDW VXF cess, and the coming together RI /6(‍ڑ‏V ன QHVW VRFLHWLHV LQWR D VSHFWDFOH WKDW ZLOO QHYHU EH IRU gotten.â€?

Ticket sales exceeded 1000, making this year’s performance the strongest yet. Compared to last year, Ramakrishnan stated WKHUH ZHUH ‍ڔ‏VWURQJHU GDQFH SHU IRUPHUV DQG VLQJHUV ZKR ன WWHG directly into the story with their VRQJV 7KH DFWLQJ ZDV LQFUHG ible and there were smoother transactions between acts.â€?

Ramakrishnan had been ZRUNLQJ RQ WKH VFULSW IRU 7LPH

less since March 2012, when WKH 7LPHOHVV $*0 VDZ 5DP akrishnan elected as Producer and Director.

Also elected to the Timeless committee was President, Matt 7KRPDV ZKR VSRNH WR 7KH %HD ver about the difficulties the group faced in the run up to the show.

Thomas talked about the FRPSOLFDWLRQV JHWWLQJ VSRQVRU ship, the stress with the day of the show, when the Timeless group were only able to access the Lyceum theatre to practice on the Monday morning, and the huge of amount of time and HŕŽ‰ RUW WKDW ZHQW LQWR ன QGLQJ UH hearsal studios.

Despite frustrations in the lead up to the show, Thomas VWDWHG WKDW 7LPHOHVV ZHQW ‍ڔ‏PL raculously well.�

Director of Choreography, Suzannah Sherman, talked DERXW WKH KXJH DPRXQW RI FRP PLWPHQW WKDW ZHQW LQWR RUJDQLV ing the dances. Each dance act in Timeless had an individual theme, with Sherman having to make sure that the message IURP HDFK GDQFH ன WWHG LQWR WKH VWRU\OLQH JLYLQJ WKH VKRZ FRQ tinuity. ,Q WRWDO WKHUH ZHUH GDQF HUV LQ WKH VKRZ WKH YDVW PDMRU ity of which were at LSE. Dance groups have been rehearsing twice a week since late October, and the dedication that went

5

into the rehearsals certainly SDLG RŕŽ‰ ZLWK WKH VPRRWK H[HFX WLRQ RI GDQFH DFWV FRPH WKH DF tual performance.

The Houghtones, LSE’s only $ &DSSHOOD JURXS DOVR PDGH IUH quent appearances in the show, VKRZFDVLQJ WKHLU WDOHQW E\ VLQJ ing a range of songs from Simon & Garfunkel to Fun. Member of the Houghtones, Jon Allsop, stated “we were pleased with the audience’s reaction to our pieces and all DEVROXWHO\ ORYHG WKH H[SHUL ence of performing in such a big theatre. It was an absolute privilege. Incorporating sound projection and movement in a performance environment was H[FHOOHQW SUDFWLFH IRU RXU FRP petition later this term.�

First year BSc Philosophy DQG (FRQRPLFV VWXGHQW &RQ nor Vasey, thoroughly enjoyed WKH 7LPHOHVV SHUIRUPDQFH VWDW ing, “the novelty of a white guy thinking he’s Indian never wore RŕŽ‰ DQG HYHQ WKH EDOOHW ZDV ED dass.â€?

The Timeless AGM will be held in the upcoming weeks, ZKHUH VWXGHQWV FDQ UXQ IRU SR sitions on the committee for the 2013/2014 academic year.

7KRPDV HQFRXUDJHG DQ\ VWX dent interested to get involved, VWDWLQJ D EDFNJURXQG LQ SHU IRUPLQJ DUWV ZDV QRW QHFHV sary.

LSE Security investigation Sophie Donszelmann, 6WDŕ­ź 5HSRUWHU

$IWHU DQ HYHQW RQ WKH HYHQ ing of February 7th, students reported several incidents of theft of personal property on campus. During a Salsa Night hosted by the LSESU Salsa Society in the Three 7XQV VWXGHQWV FDPH IRU ZDUG WR UHSRUW PLVVLQJ SURS erty. Two laptops, one iPod, and a bag were reported to have gone missing. Students are said to have piled their belongings in corner of the EDU DQG OHIW WKHP XQDWWHQG ed while they went to dance. %RWK WKH 7XQV PDQDJH ment and the LSE Security 2SHUDWLRQV 2IILFH KDYH LQGL FDWHG WKDW ZKLOVW WKH SRVVL ELOLW\ WKDW WKH WKLHI LV D VWX dent may not be ruled out, the perpetrators are most likely professional thieves who work in the area. This contributes to the difficulty of immediately finding the FXOSULW DQG WKH XQOLNHO\ SRV VLELOLW\ RI UHFRYHULQJ WKH VWR len items.

The management of the 7XQV KDYH WUHDWHG WKLV LQ cident very seriously and made great efforts to find WKH FXOSULWV WKURXJK D UH view of the security camera IRRWDJH +RZHYHU WKH PDQ agement has emphasised WKH JUHDW GLIILFXOWLHV RI ILQG

ing “someone who looks suspicious� and to isolate a specific instance, especially when the stolen items are OHIW LQ VXFK D SXEOLF DQG FRQ spicuous place.

Alex Bond, the Student Union Bars Manager, was YHU\ IRUWKFRPLQJ ZLWK LQIRU mation on the incident. “We DUH QRW MXVW D EDU ‍ ڕ‏KH VWDW ed. “Students come here for the student experience,â€? as he emphasised that the Tuns is part of the SU and thus there is no other objective than to work with and for the students. Despite this, the Tuns is still completely open to the public.

2Q WKH QLJKW RI WKH LQFL GHQW D FORDNURRP ZDV DYDLO DEOH IRU WKH VWRUDJH RI VWX dents’ personal items. It was offered for one pound, which is “a very generous price�

DFFRUGLQJ WR %RQG ‍ڔ‏FRQVLG ering that most clubs charge at least two.� +RZHYHU D FRPPRQ VHQ timent amongst students is that cloakrooms are often a way for establishments to PDNH PRQH\ YHUVXV WKH QR tion that they ensure the protection of their property.

Bond stated that they will FRQWLQXH WR SURYLGH FORDN rooms for future events and encourage more students to use them.

,Q OLJKW RI WKH UHFHQW FRP promised cash machines on +RXJKWRQ 6WUHHW WKHVH RF currences have raised the question among many as to ZKHWKHU ZH VKRXOG EH FRQ FHUQHG DERXW FULPH RQ FDP pus.

Efforts have been made WR HQVXUH VHFXULW\ RQ FDP pus as a whole. The Security Office is reintroducing free ODSWRS PDUNLQJ RQ :HGQHV days. There are also General Use lockers as well as the Laptop Secure Storage Area DYDLODEOH RQ FDPSXV IRU VWX dent use. So why, despite the facilities available to students and the measures taken to prevent crime, are there still thefts on campus?

7KHIW LV D WZR ZD\ SUR cess. The thieves on campus DUH ‍ڔ‏RSSRUWXQLVWV‍ ڕ‏DQG XQ fortunately, students have JLYHQ WKHP SOHQW\ RI RSSRU tunities.

The possible causes for theft are numerous, as it is likely that the campus is an REYLRXV WDUJHW IRU SURIHV sional thieves. Considering LSE’s location in central London and the number of expensive deceives student EULQJ WR FDPSXV WKH VWD tistical probability of theft is high. Additionally, could differences in culture and WKH ‍Ú?‏FRPPRQ VHQVH IDF

tor’ regarding theft be one of the challenges faced by our ‘cosmopolitan’ student ERG\" ,W LV VLPSO\ FDUHOHVV QHVV DPRQJVW WKH PRUH DI fluent students regarding their personal property? Or is it too easy to forget the fact that one is walking in an open city centre between classes?

Students must remind themselves of the campus’ location. The LSE website boasts that “the School is one of the few institutions LQ FHQWUDO /RQGRQ WR PDLQ tain an open campus policy.�

This is supposed to provide D ‍ڔ‏IUHH DQG FROOHJLDWH DW mosphereâ€? but results in the campus being a “public place.â€? The website reminds students “if you would not OHDYH \RXU ODSWRS XQDW tended on a park bench you VKRXOG QRW OHDYH LW XQDWWHQG HG LQ WKH /LEUDU\ WKH *DU rick or any other public area of the School.â€?

The library security staff stated that while they take every instance of missing property “very seriously� they cannot stress enough that “students must never OHDYH DQ\ SURSHUW\ XQDW tended.� Despite this, an informal survey of the third floor of the library at 13:00 on February 22nd found 32

XQDWWHQGHG ODSWRSV $GGL tionally, according to the Security Office, the secure bicycle storage facilities are RQO\ EHLQJ XVHG WR DQ HVWL mated 70 per cent capacity, with many students choosing instead to lock their bikes on public streets.

This incident of theft in the Tuns appears to be just IRXU LQ WKHIWV WKDW RF curred in the borough of Westminster in January of $FFRUGLQJ WR VWDWLV tics from the Metropolitan Police Service, Westminster has the highest crime rate RI DQ\ RWKHU ERURXJK LQ /RQ don. Whilst the LSE crime statistics for 2012 have not yet been made available, the most recent figures indicate that 116 crimes occurred on campus in 2011, with 91 per FHQW RI WKHVH FULPHV RFFXU ring in communal areas.

6WXGHQWV KDYH FRPPHQW ed that they “leave their stuff around campus all the WLPH ‍* ڕ‏HQHUDO FRXUVH VWX dent, Ryan Hauck, said he ZDV ‍ڔ‏UDWKHU OD[ DERXW OHDY ing my belongings around on campus.â€? “Now that I know about the recent thefts though, I’ll probably start ORFNLQJ P\ ODSWRS WR WKH WD ble and taking my bag with me every time I leave my work station.â€?

6

News

26.02.2013

| The Beaver

LSESU Sabbatical

General Secretary What made you apply for the job?

I’d been involved in the Students’ Union since I started at LSE- I was a member of the AU, President of RAG, had a pulse radio show‌ I loved LSESU and knew I wanted to stay involved, as well as having some ideas about what I might be able to do to change it for the better. Last year I re-ran because I had started a few SURMHFWV DQG ZDQWHG WR ன Q ish the job.

Why did your campaign succeed?

I think both years I had support from enough of a cross-section of students to get elected. It really is won and lost on Houghton Street- it is all about how many students can talk to.

I tried to talk about issues that students felt were important and relevant to them as well.

What’s a normal day like at the SU? There are really no typical days. All in all I sit on about 30 committees which means every week I’m preSDULQJ IRU GLŕŽ‰ HUHQW FRPPLW tees and meetings and then attending those committees and meetings. You do such

a mix of local and national work, between working on SU issues, LSE issues, London issues and national isVXHV , ன QG ,‍ڑ‏P GRLQJ WHQ YHU\ GLŕŽ‰ HUHQW WKLQJV DW RQFH \RX have to become a very good multitasker very quickly! I

tend to get in to the office around 9:30, usually spend WKH ன UVW PLQXWHV KRXU GR ing emails, after that I might have a meeting until lunchtime, after which time I’ll try and work on an on-going project. Then I may meet ZLWK D PHPEHU RI 68 VWDŕŽ‰ to discuss updates on a campaign or project or event, attend another committee and

Alex Peters-Day

WKHQ ன QLVK WKH GD\ DW DQ 68 event. We have a lot of fun in the office, I love working with my fellow sabbatical RIILFHUV DQG WKH VWDŕŽ‰ LQ WKH Students’ union are also fantastic.

What would you say was the biggest challenge this year?

As ever it is trying to get the balance right between our work in committees and our work on other student issues. If I had more hours in the day I’d love to be doing a lot more publicly in terms of campaigns and events and getting out and about a little more, it is so frustrating to be tied to your desk. I’ve made some potentially controversial decisions and stances over the last 18 months that I do stand by but I think I could have perhaps communicated them a little better. I’ve struggled with competing priorities which has meant some things I wish I could have done more work have fallen a little on the wayside, and with retrospect I might have prioritised some SURMHFWV VOLJKWO\ GLŕŽ‰ HUHQWO\ We’ve ben working hard to try and get a better relationship with the school, and I genuinely feel we have made

some really solid progressbut it is always going to be a sensitive issue as oftentimes we’ll be opposing the school on various measures, whilst still trying to maintain a professional working relationship.

What are your 3 biggest achievements this year?

Increasing funding for the SU has been one of my biggest achievements. We were granted an increase of around ÂŁ80,000 from the university- money which will go straight back to students in the form of better support for sports, postgraduates, improved commercial services and more money in student support. This also UHŕŽ‹ HFWV RQ WKH FKDQJLQJ QD ture of the SU, I think the school take us more seriously than they might have done in the past and I feel they KDYH PRUH FRQன GHQFH LQ XV in various areas of our govHUQDQFH DQG ன QDQFHV 2I DOO the work I’ve done I feel this will have the most lasting EHQHன W IRU /6( VWXGHQWV D Students’ Union that is well run, better funded and able to delvier vast amount more for students.

I also think we’ve done a lot better in terms of large

SU events. From reindeer on campus for Christmas, to a huge American election party, to a history of the SU exhibition, more postgraduate parties‌ I’ve really enjoyed doing events and I think It’s great that the SU calendar is more packed than ever!

What has NOT been achieved that you would like to future gen sec to do?

The main job for my successor will be ensuring the QHZ VWXGHQWV‍ ڑ‏FHQWUH ன OOV all our requirements. We’ll be moving in there in about nine months and so there will be a lot of last minute work I’m sure. I think we’ve come a long way in a few short years- we’re listening to students more than ever, we have more societies and sports clubs and funding for those groups than before, a bigger budget, better communications and a higher voting turnout than ever- but there is still a while to go. I genuinely believe LSESU is one of the very best Students’ unions in the country – and in a few years-time I think we could be the very best.

(GXFDWLRQ 2૿ FHU Duncan McKenna What made you apply for the job?

Essentially during my time as an undergraduate at LSE, I had found the educational experience highly inconsistent – some of the teaching was fantastic and some was poor. For an institution like LSE, I didn’t feel that this was acceptable and so I decided to run so that I could improve things for students in years to come.

What really helped in your campaigning?

The support of the friends who made up my campaign team was invaluable - I couldn’t have done it without them and everyone else who helped me.

Has the quality of LSE teaching gone up or down?

That’s very difficult to gauge if I’m honest. Teaching is something of an art form and to attempt to quantify it through teaching and satisfaction surveys is somewhat futile. They can give us an idea of what people

think, however there is no concrete way of measuring what level teaching is at in any institution The problem [with] teaching at the LSE is inconsistency. If all of our teaching was as good as our best, then we would be second to none. But it isn’t. Which is why I’ve been pushing for a minimum quality guideline for things such as feedback, so that best practice from across the School can be used to improve teaching for everyone.

However, what I think is important to acknowledge is that the educational experience at the LSE is probably on an upwards trajectory – what we must ensure is that we chase a genuine increase in teaching quality through a pedagogic approach, rather than trying to measure teaching on an arbitrary yard stick.

Your biggest achievement this year?

We have reached a point this year where both the Students’ Union and the School

agree that student feedback on students’ work is an issue and one that needs to be resolved. I’m in the process of making recommendations about what a minimum level of feedback should look like (any suggestions welcome at su.education@lse.ac.uk!) and hopefully we can have something in place by the end of the year.

I think an achievement, implicit in this, is that the School and the SU are beginning to genuinely work together with the interests of students in mind. Though DSSURDFKHV PD\ GLŕŽ‰ HU VRPH times, the fact that the two institutions are collaboratLQJ HŕŽ‰ HFWLYHO\ LV D JRRG VWHS in the right direction for progress and I think this year has gone a considerable way to facilitating that.

What was your biggest challenge?

The pace of change has been challenging. A large part of the remit of the Education Officer is attending educationally focused committees and attempting to

change things there. This is, inherently, an incremental process. What’s slightly different about the Education Officer role from others on the SU Executive (the Sab-

Teaching Assistant (GTA) pay has been very difficult and we haven’t made anywhere near the progress we would have liked, which is probably the biggest challenge I have faced.

What would you like the future education officer to accomplish?

The above. GTA pay should be a priority. Feedback and GTA pay are two huge issues and a year probably won’t be long enough WR DŕŽ‰ HFW UHDO FKDQJH RQ both of them. Our feedback campaign is now pretty advanced, but that is an ongoing issue that can always use more work, so I’d like to see that continued.

Another really interesting batical Officers and the Part- area is the future of educaTime Officers) is that the tion, such as video lecturprimary focus is attempting ing, MOOCs (Massive Open WR DŕŽ‰ HFW FKDQJH RQ 6FKRRO Online Courses, i.e. TEDx, policy, rather than SU policy. Coursera, Khan Academy) This means that progress and so on. There are intercan be slower sometimes esting student led projects in this role and that is chal- which deserve attention too, lenging. such as Fruni.

For instance, implementing change on Graduate

News

The Beaver | 26.02.2013

7

Officers: One Year On

Activities and Development Officer Matt De Jesus 1). What made you apply for the job?

Before running for Activities and Development Officer I was elected onto the AU Executive as Treasurer. Now, you would have thought that being in such a position meant that you would be able to get things done quicker, that more people would listen to you or that you could do things differently. For some things this was true but for other’s not so much. Things like greater collaboration between clubs and societies, supporting our elite athletes, making sure that there was a written commitment to stopping discrimination at LSE and rewarding societies for their outstanding contribution through extra support and funding were all things that I wanted to make happen. The Activities and Development Officer role allows you do the things that you are passionate about enhancing or changing at LSESU and that is the main reason why I applied for the job.

2). What really helped in your campaigning?

Alongside the immense support from my campaign team I think my name really helped me out. It enabled me to have a catchy slogan; ‘What Would De Jesus Do?’ (even LI , GLG IRUJHW LW DW WKH னUVW hustings); and it caught a lot of people’s attention. There were many times on Houghton

Street where I would hand out ŕŽ‹\HUV DQG WKHQ MXVW EHIRUH someone was about to put it in the bin I would shout ‘that is actually my real name.’ It also enabled me to engage with many students who would come up and ask if it was my actual name. I could then talk to them on what issues ZHUH DŕŽ‰HFWLQJ WKHP DW /6( and how my campaign points could help them. This contact time with students during my campaign not only helped me to get votes but have also had a huge impact on what I’ve done during my term in office.

3). Since your term, have societies been more or less active? Are there any new, really successful societies to look out for?

6RFLHWLHV KDYH GHனQLWHO\ been more active! Some people may say that this is because there has been better advertising, and so societies only appear to be more active.

Yes, it is true that publication of events has been much greater this year but I feel that there has been a shift in the societies culture. They no longer just put on events that DUH ‍Ú?‏URXWLQH‍ ڑ‏RU RQO\ UHŕŽ‹HFW the interest of the commitWHH WKH\ UHŕŽ‹HFW PXFK PRUH of their members. And if they can’t cater for all then they will facilitate needs through alternative means, such as online publications, pub quizzes, community volunteering, and

the like. There are more students than ever who ask me ‘what can I do to get involved with what the society is doing?’ and I have made every HŕŽ‰RUW LQ H[SODLQLQJ LW WR WKHP and putting them in contact with the right people. Societies are now in the position where LSE and other organisations are seeing what they are doing and asking for their input In terms of new, really successful societies to look out for then I would have to go with The Revolving Shed society. They were part of the Drama Society but were granted society status after how much HŕŽ‰RUW LQWHUHVW DQG VXFFHVVful they were having over the past three years. They have now been granted funding that allows them to perform at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and further the talents of LSE students.

4). What is your biggest achievement this year (Or, what has changed in LSE since " \RX ZHUH RૻFHU" ) I have 2 big achievements; one personal and the other on an SU level. When I started my campaigning for the role I was quite a shy person when it came to talking to new people about what I think. The role of Activities and Development 2IILFHU GHனQLWHO\ PDGH PH break down this barrier and DOVR PDGH PH PRUH FRQனGHQW in putting my opinion across.

My SU achievement has been the cross-promotion of societies. This started with the Community Festival where over 150 students from more than 40 clubs and societies came together for the event.

There have also been a lot of new society proposals that I believe would work better within a current society rather than be split. This has meant that students are able to pursue their interests, more directly and quickly than if they had to set up a society or club from scratch.

5). What was your biggest challenge?

I think having to realise my limits in what I could do.

Pretty much everyday there is a student with another brilliant idea for their club or society and I always want to

help them make it a reality.

The challenge has come when I have been involved in too many things at the same time and so by saying yes to something else would only take away from the things that I am already doing. It would also not be fair on the students if I couldn’t give them the full support they deserve. At times like this I would put them in contact with either another Sabbatical Officer or a SU PHPEHU RI VWDŕŽ‰ 7KLV KDV EHHQ a hard realisation but if this realisation hadn’t happened then the SU Auschwitz Delegation, LSE Sports Ambassador Scheme and the Ruthless Film Premiere might not have happened.

6). What would you like the future activities and development officer to accomplish?

Ideally I’d like them to continue some of the work I’ve been doing with the Community Festival, L.S.Equality and progressing on the how clubs and societies can work together. I’d also really advise them to go to as many student productions and events as possiEOH , GHனQLWHO\ IHHO WKDW , KDYH missed out this year because of working too late in the office on on-going projects and issues. By going to see what the students do then you create a strong personal link with them, rather than just over email, that will allow for a better SU - student relationship.

Community and Welfare Officer Jack Tindale What made you apply for the job?

I had been involved in the Students’ Union since I got up and made a statement regarding canine testicular hyJLHQH LQ P\ னUVW 8QLRQ *HQeral Meeting. I think that things just snowballed from there to be honest by way of Private B, the Labour Society and a curious tendency to get locked C120 on my Fortnightly Friday Sporcle Evening. My main reason for running was that I loved the Union and the School. There is a curious energy associated with the student body that I have not seen replicated at other Universities. It was this enthusiasm for change that really made me want to try and make substantive reforms to both the LSE and the LSESU What really helped in your campaigning?

There comes a time in every campaign where you think “Sod itâ€? and run with a theme that you dismissed a week ago. $OWKRXJK , FHUWDLQO\ EHQHனWHG

from a committed campaign team, I think it was a reality

that going with a “Pirates of the Caribbean� theme helped, if only because I couldn’t think of any other people on my list of “Famous Things Called Jack� that could cope with a week’s worth of campaigning.

I certainly wouldn’t have been able to pull off a victory had I adopted a campaign based around 24, Beanstalks or Victorian Serial Killers.

Since your term, has become LSE more or less “ethically responsibleâ€?? “Ethically Responsibleâ€? is RQH RI WKRVH WHUPV WKDW , னQG UDWKHU KDUG WR GHனQH PDLQO\ because it isn’t something that anyone outside an Ayn Rand Convention can realistically claim to oppose. That said, I think that a negative aspect of my role is that despite being Community and Welfare Officer, most matters to do with remuneration or VFKRRO னQDQFHV DUH QRW SDUW of my remit. Whilst I have had some successes with regards to improving the sourcing of food on campus, most ethical improvements have been made on committees sat on by the other officers. If serious improvements have taken place – and I think that some have – then it is not something that I can really take much credit for.

Your biggest achievement this year?

I have been very pleased at how much progress I have

made towards establishing D 5HQW *XDUDQWRU 6FKHPH :KHQ , னUVW WRRN RYHU , DVsumed that it would be a project that would be measured in years rather than months.

It is one area where I found the School administration to have been far more willing to co-operate than I had feared.

Thanks to their assistance, and especially to the members of the Students’ Union staff, students will soon now longer be left in the invidious position of being forced to harbour massive burdens of rental debt.

The way the School and Union are organised is positively Kafkaesque at times.

Any decision seems to have to be made via at least Three Committees, two bilateral summit meetings, a Masonic handshake and routing all letters to the hospital my mother was born in. Just learning to operate within this bureaucracy took most of the summer. I would not consider it to be anything especially unusual, but when dealing with a

job that only has a year-long term of office, it has to be expected that one will not quite manage to achieve things as rapidly as one would hope.

An understandable thing in any management role, but it seems more disheartening in a Students’ Union.

What would you like the future community and welfare officer to accomplish?

I would like any future Community and Welfare Officer to work hard to adopt a EHWWHU V\VWHP RI னQDQFH ZLWKin the School. There are many things that I would like to help improve, not least the payPHQW RI னQDQFLDO UHLPEXUVHments on sQuid, rather than as money, which seems to offer nothing more than to enVXUH WKDW PRQH\ NHHSV ŕŽ‹RZLQJ around the School’s catering establishments, rather than genuinely giving students a fair deal with regards to their own money.

Comment

8

Comment

26.02.2013

| The Beaver

Time for a Fairtrade revolution Comment Leader: Frankie Bennett blames our supermarkets for failing on Fairtrade Products carrying the Fairtrade Foundation’s stamp guarantee that the world’s poorest producers have been paid a minimum price for their goods. This price tracks slightly above market value, and a ‘Fairtrade premium’ is also invested back into communities to create co-operatives and develop infrastructure for ethical trade. So, we now all know what Fairtrade produce is. And we (hopefully) all know why giving farmers a decent price for their wares whilst simultaneously alleviating poverty is a good idea. So why, I hear you sigh, do we need another article preaching about it and more to the point a whole fortnight devoted to campaigning about it?

I think the problem the 2013 Fairtrade Fortnight (February 25th – March 10th) might be getting at is that not enough of us buy it. But don’t worry, that’s not your fault. We’re not taking the blame for this one – the supermarkets are. Let me explain.

With Fairtrade Fortnight in full swing, I would expect our supermarkets to be packed with Fairtrade produce.

After all, the Fairtrade F o u n dation, which r e g u lates the little blue a n d green

mark you see scattered across supermarket shelves, has been established in the UK since 1992 and has been certifying produce for sale in this country for almost a decade. So, why is there such D GHன FLHQF\ RI WKH HWKLFDO SUR duce in our shops? It cannot be that we are all morally depraved monsters who simply do not present the market demand for ethical goods, or the Fairtrade Foundation would have been dead and gone years ago.

Rather, the root of the problem is that supermarkets simply do QRW VWRFN HQRXJK RI WKH VWXŕŽ‰ Last Monday, my morning hit a dead start with an empW\ FRŕŽ‰ HH MDU 1RW D SUREOHP , VPXJO\ WKRXJKW ,‍ڑ‏OO MXVW SRS round the corner to one of the two supermarkets that border P\ ŕŽ‹ DW 7KHUH , ZDV FUDZOLQJ XS WKH FRŕŽ‰ HH DLVOH ZKHQ , EH gan to question my sleepy little eyes; could it be that there was QR )DLUWUDGH FRŕŽ‰ HH EHIRUH PH" 5HDOO\" 2I WKH GLŕŽ‰ HUHQW W\SHV RQ RŕŽ‰ HU IURP LQVWDQW WR IUHVKO\ JURXQG FRŕŽ‰ HH WR JR LQ P\ QRQ existent cafetière, there was not even one Fairtrade option?

Suddenly, my ‘Express’ and ‘Local’ supermarkets did not seem so ‘convenient’ after all.

Indignant and angry, I left the supermarket empty-handed and began some research WR ன QG RXW MXVW how hard it is to

get hold of some )DLUWUDGH FHUWLன HG FRŕŽ‰ HH LQ /RQGRQ‍ڑ‏V VXSHUPDU kets and why they don’t stock more.

On the Fairtrade Foundation’s website, all seems rosy.

They proudly report that sales of Fairtrade products reached 1.32 billion pounds in the UK in 2011, successfully bucking the trend of failing markets with a growth of twelve per cent. Success was undeniable, as they further stated that one in every three bananas sold in the UK is )DLUWUDGH FHUWLன HG DV ZHOO DV D tenth of all tea. I began to think that perhaps it wasn’t all about FRŕŽ‰ HH ZLWK )DLUWUDGH FRWWRQ rice, gold and even cosmetics gracing our shelves, and with )DLUWUDGH SURMHFWV QRZ VSDQ QLQJ GLŕŽ‰ HUHQW GHYHORSLQJ countries and working with 1.24 billion farmers and workers worldwide. Considering the Foundation’s achievements, however, I began to wonder KRZ PXFK KLJKHU WKRVH ன JXUHV would be if the products were more widely stocked in smaller supermarkets.

1RZ , PXVW EH FDUHIXO WR not tar all supermarkets with the same brush. Sainsbury’s is doing well, with all own-brand FRŕŽ‰ HH WHD EDQDQDV DQG VXJDU sold in-store being Fairtrade FHUWLன HG +RZHYHU ZLWK RQO\ eight per cent of all roast and JURXQG FRŕŽ‰ HH VROG IRU UHWDLO LQ this country b e -

ing fairly traded, I had to conclude that most of this quantity must be housed underneath Sainsbury’s orange roofs. A look at Asda’s online store showed that a mere sixWHHQ RXW RI GLŕŽ‰ HUHQW MDUV RI FRŕŽ‰ HH RQ VDOH ZHUH )DLUWUDGH whilst the complete failure by Tesco to stock even one Fairtrade option in its convenience supermarkets in the capital city gave it my strongest stamp of disapproval.

Although convenience supermarkets obviously seek to provide the goods people buy the most, on the most regular basis, the crux of the matter is that if convenience supermarkets do not stock Fairtrade SURGXFWV LQ WKH ன UVW SODFH WKH\ will never have the chance to become everyday items. Furthermore, surely an outlet where customers have fewer choices to make between products would be the perfect place to encourage people to pick up a Fairtrade product they may not have tried before. One thing is for sure; if supermarkets do not stock Fairtrade produce in WKH ன UVW LQVWDQFH QRERG\ ZLOO be buying it at all.

My educated guess as to ZK\ WKHUH LV VXFK D GHன FLHQF\ of Fairtrade products in the UK’s smaller stores would be that supermarkets make less SURன W RQ WKHVH JRRGV )LUVWO\ this could be due to the reGXFHG SURன W PDUJLQV of Fairtrade products themselves, as the farmers are actually getting a fair price for their produce. Secondly, the supermarkets are unable to wield their bargaining power over Fairt r a d e certif i e d goods

in t h e same way that they can over bigger brands. Despite exploitative practices being deemed unlawful under the Supermarkets Code of Practice, produced by the Office of Fair Trading in 2004, supermarkets continue to retrospectively reduce prices they pay to their suppliers, introduce buy-oneget-one-free discounts at the expense of producers and neJRWLDWH XQSURன WDEOH FRQWUDFWV with manufacturers. These underhand practices would not be compatible with the Fairtrade Foundation’s code, with this seeming the only logical explanation for why supermarket chains are not responding to the demands of consumers.

What is more, the demands of consumers for more Fairtrade produce in the UK are getting ORXGHU -XGJLQJ E\ WKH ன QDQFLDO growth of the Fairtrade Foundation, there is clearly support for Fairtrade produce amongst UK consumers. What’s more, there is demand for expansion RI )DLUWUDGH SURGXFH FHUWLன HG by the thousands of signatures on the Fairtrade Fortnight’s petition to give greater support to smallholder farmers. This petition will be presented to the Prime Minister, David Cameron, so that he can encourage everyone at the G8 summit to take fairer trade more seriously. Therefore, the only answer for why supermarkets are failing to stock more Fairtrade produce comes back to money.

So, next time you pass up buying the Fairtrade option, blame yourself. But, if you have no Fairtrade option on the shelf in front of you, blame your supermarket. And hold a grudge.

Comment

The Beaver | 26.02.2013

9

Parenthood for sperm donors?

Rachel Chua argues that a biological link need not establish parental status The suing of 45-year-old sperm donor William Marcotta for child support by the American state of KanVDV KDV VSDUNHG RŕŽ‰ D GH bate that is perhaps long overdue. Statistics from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority are telling of the huge growth of individuals seeking IVF (in-vitro fertilisation) and donor insemination treatments, with the number of people undergoing fertility treatment at an all-time high of 49,000 in 2011 compared to just 14,000 in 1992. There is a mounting QHHG IRU WKH ODZ WR GHன QH and establish the role of the sperm donor in the lives of their biological children.

The UK High Court recently ruled that a gay couple who fathered children with a lesbian couple had and could apply for contact rights. This decision seems to contradict section 42 of the 2008 Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act, in which biological fathers forfeited all legal status and rights if, at the time of conception, the biological mother was in a civil partnership. Mark Harper,

the lawyer for the couple, stated that the case and its ruling “[recognises] the importance of the biological link children have with their fathers�.

The above case of the gay couple can be distinguished from Marcotta’s.

According to Dr. Allan Pacey, chairman of the British Fertility Society, current English law holds that unless a couple goes through a licensed clinic, private sperm donors like Marcotta, whether anonymous or known, will be found as the father of the child. But whether this should be the case is another question entirely. The high costs of fertility treatments have led a growing number of couples to seek private donors and to use home fertilisation kits. Should private donors have legal status and parental obligations and contact rights towards their biological children? The answer should be a resounding no.

Sperm donors have a variety of reasons for donating their sperm, be it money or kindness. But do men like Marcotta agree to donate because they want to be

fathers? Probably not. Barring certain circumstances, it is also highly unlikely that the couple that seeks fertility treatment will welcome the intrusion of a stranger into the lives of their child or children, biological relaWLRQ RU QRW $ VLPSOH GLŕŽ‰ HU ence in avenue should not mean that couples who have children via private means rather than through a clinic are not able to have both of their names on their child’s ELUWK FHUWLன FDWH RU KDYH full legal status and rights to that child. Nor should a sperm donor have such a hefty duty imposed on him by virtue of his act.

The implication that a relationship is more powerful and ‘meaningful’ simply because of a biological relaWLRQVKLS LV D ŕŽ‹ DZHG RQH $UH we to say that adoptive parents love their children less, or that their relationship is less worthy of legal status by plain virtue of the lack of shared blood between them? The issue at hand is a similar one, and the answer must be no. A child that is not biologically related to his or her parents is fully able to have an equally deep

BONAPARTE

and meaningful relationship as one that is, with the implication found in making sperm donors legal fathers when they, in reality, have little to do with the child’s upbringing are insulting. On the other side of the fence, it is also hardly fair to make an individual who has had nothing to do with the child pay or be legally obliged to perform certain duties simply because he made a sperm donation years ago and is biologically related.

What of ethical and moral issues, critics may argue.

Are we to entirely absolve a person of responsibility for another human life that they helped to create? This argument invokes a similar response to that used above; namely that it insults the child’s parents and often involves the biological donor parent against his or her will.

Of course, it is an enWLUHO\ GLŕŽ‰ HUHQW PDWWHU LI the biological donor parent wishes to be involved in the child’s life. Even if the couple that conceives through the donated sperm is amenable, however, there is still the extent of involve-

ment to consider. Should the biological parent have a legal right over the child? It seems strange and vaguely hypocritical to agree that they do when the courts ன QG WKH FRQYHUVH WR EH WUXH for adopted children. There is currently little legal basis for the biological parents of a child that is given up for adoption to say that they have some sort of claim over the child in question.

The issues of sperm donation share much common ground with the ones that plague adoption. Taking a UDGLFDOO\ GLŕŽ‰ HUHQW DSSURDFK to both would therefore be somewhat illogical. Perhaps the way forward would be IRU FRXUWV WR ன QG WKDW VSHUP donors have no legal claim over, nor any obligation toZDUGV ELRORJLFDO RŕŽ‰ VSULQJ conceived as a result of their donation. The courts have, after all, acknowledged that the case of the gay couple being granted contact rights is an exceptional one and that cases should be considered and judged on their own merits and circumstances.

Sam Barnett

A European solution to our horsemeat woes If you really are what you eat then we’re in trouble, because it turns out none of us really have a clue.

This especially applies to us students; who among us hasn’t hit WKH FKHDS VKHOYHV IRU D KRW ன OO ing tea of Findus Crispy Gee-Gee or Tesco Value Aintree Burgers.

We all knew, at heart, that there was something dodgy there. But apart from making everyone feel ill, Quarter(pounder)gate also shows that we consumers are in need of better protection. Francois Hollande has recently called for compulsory, Europe-wide regulation to label all meat that is due to be used in processed food, and I, for one, agree with him. Under the current British food standards, an economy beefburger can legally contain as little as 47% beef. This allows for small amounts of horse and pig to be slipped in under titles like ‘seasoning’ where their fat and other products are useful. The products that have substantial amounts of wrong animal have just plain cheated. This indicates two things: that our regulations have to be tightened, and that

we need more people checking up on the abattoirs. Unfortunately for us, the company at the heart of the issue, Comigel, the supplier of beef to Tesco, Aldi and Findus, is French and has a hideously complicated supply chain running through half of Europe (think any country with a football team that has beaten Manchester City in the last two

continental Europe. Hollande’s proposal for a Europe-wide label lets us continue to bring in cheap meals without exhaustive screening. It doesn’t risk cutting %ULWLVK FRQVXPHUV RŕŽ‰ IURP WKH EHQHன WV RI D FRPSOH[ IRRG PDU ket by forcing through knee-jerk demands to stop bringing foreign ready meals in. The health factor here is negligible- whilst

‘Without Europe-wide action, we won’t even be able to trace the source of the problem and manage it’ years).

In England, the current and previous governments have rolled back active regulation of the meat industry, allowing for much of it to be self-regulating.

This trend clearly needs to be reversed, as under current market pressures there is just too much temptation for companies to water down (or should that be saddle up?) their meats. But that won’t be enough, as a lot of this meat, especially the Most Wanted Meals, are coming in from

the horses may have contained traces of the painkiller Bute, the BBC’s Fergus Walsh reports that you would have to eat 500 to 600 burgers to get one therapeutic dose, and it only carries a one in 30,000 risk of a serious side effect over long term therapeutic use. The issue is the fraudulent sale of the wrong kind of meat.

Let’s face it: as usual it is poor people who are getting screwed here. They are not only the ones who have been lied to, but they will also be hit hardest if the re-

sult of the hysterical press coverage is the removal of cheap meat meals or a price hike to cover the cost of weeding out the cheap elements. Labelling makes sense because plenty of people would have no problem eating these meals if they were known to be safe and their content was clearly displayed. The internal market of Europe stays open and customers get better information with which to make their economic choices. The alternative is slowing down the movement of goods as Britain slams the door on European markets, putting RXU ன QJHUV LQ RXU HDUV DQG ZDLW ing for the next batch of dodgy food to get exposed- the ultimate insult to consumers. Without Europe-wide action, we won’t even be able to trace the source of the problem and manage it. As far as I’m concerned what we can learn from the Great Horsemeat Scandal of 2013 is that E.U. ‘meddling’ and ‘red tape’ provide fact better, fairer and more freemarket options than parochial or protectionist alternatives.

10

Comment

26.02.2013

Rosie Coleman

The necessity of reforming LSE100 As a third year, I was amongst the ன UVW /6( VWXGHQWV REOLJHG WR WDNH the infamous LSE100 course. While this experience felt unrewarding at WKH WLPH WKH EHQHன WV RI JDLQLQJ WKH TXDOLன FDWLRQ IURP WKH FRXUVH GR RXW weigh its tediousness. In its current format I’m not giving the course a thumbs-up. But some minor changes to its structure and assessment could make it a thoroughly rewarding experience, as well as preserving its existing status as ‘interviewfallback-example no.1’.

During the course’s development stages, Emmanuel Akpan-Inwang, Community and Welfare Officer of the LSESU in 2009-10, said “students have been heavily involved in the development of LSE100 at every stage and at every level�. Personally, I think it’s time the school listened to pupils who have actually been to the lectures, sat the exam, and ‘got the t-shirt’.

On a gloomy, slightly hungover Monday in late September, my fellow undergraduate freshers and I OHDUQW IRU WKH ன UVW WLPH DERXW WKH LSE100 course. Throughout our time looking around the university, reading prospectuses, submitting applications and even accepting offers, the LSE100 dimension failed WR EH ŕŽ‹ DJJHG XS DSSURSULDWHO\ 7KH two hour lectures, the one hour classes, the extra reading and the

additional exam were thus sprung upon us, hardly fostering great appreciation or excitement about the course from the outset.

But it was not only the late announcement that tainted my experience. I am sure for subsequent year groups that it was mentioned earOLHU WKDQ ZHHN RQH :KDW SXW PH RŕŽ‰ was the structure of the course.

Those two hour lectures did incorporate topics that most LSE students should have an understanding of and were hosted by the top-dogs RI WKHLU ன HOG 7KH\ ZHUH HYHQ TXLWH interesting at times. But sitting in the Peacock Theatre listening to anyone for two hours, to gain knowledge that ultimately makes no difference to our degrees, was enough to encourage my peers to do one of two things: sleep, or skip the lecture entirely. The course would enjoy far KLJKHU DWWHQGDQFH DQG VXŕŽ‰ HU OHVV animosity if students only had to commit one hour. This is even more pertinent when it is considered that most of my modules, in the International Relations department for example, have a ‘twenty times one hour’ lecture requirement. Why did the only course for which I do not pay fees have longer time requirements than those for which I do?

Now some may ask, why all the moaning? It is value for money!

It may be this, but it also seems a

waste of time. I do not say this with respect to the course in general, but rather its summative assessment components. LSE100 requires four pieces of coursework to be completed, at various times throughout the terms. Students of the ‘Understanding the Causes of Things’ course are led to believe that these are vital to obtaining a high grade in the course but this is not the case.

I only obtained one distinction in any of the coursework components, along with one pass and two merits, but still got a distinction overall. If students are to be expected to take the course seriously throughout the twenty weeks, and not just in the run-up to the exam, then the coursework elements must gain PRUH VLJQLன FDQFH LQ RYHUDOO JUDGH determination.

Lastly, even if the coursework ZHUH WR JDLQ PRUH LQŕŽ‹ XHQFH WKH LSE100 course as an entity in itself has little impact on our degree. It is completed by January of second year. Some students on completion of their second year in July have almost certainly achieved high enough grades to guarantee their 2:1 on graduation. Others, however, have not. If LSE100 is to attain the same level of legitimacy as other courses, it must assert some level RI LQŕŽ‹ XHQFH RQ ன QDO GHJUHH FODVVLன cation. Of course it would be absurd

| The Beaver

UNION WR DVVLJQ LW WKH VDPH OHYHO RI LQŕŽ‹ X ence as our departmental modules, but perhaps for borderline candidates, their LSE100 grade could be taken into consideration. For example, a student with an aggregate JUDGH MXVW EHORZ WKH FXW RŕŽ‰ but a distinction in LSE100, could be rewarded the upper band on account of their work throughout the mandatory module.

These slight changes would make the course much more satisfactory and lessen resentment amongst the student body for the hours it requires. I have completed the course and did well in it,, as did many of my friends and coursemates. Many third years have discussed achievements in the course with potential employers for part time jobs and graduate schemes alike. In this sense, it appears that the aims of its introduction have been met: to broaden our knowledge of the social sciences and make us appear more well-informed and well-rounded graduates. Employers seem to lap it up. But it is surely more important that the student body appreciate the course while they are taking it, as well as when it is a distant memory. The course at the moment is a means to an end. It really should be an end in itself, and with some subtle adjustments it could well be.

DICEY Nona Buckley-Irvine

Cameron’s empty promises on female representation

An unusual remark was made by the Prime Minister this week during his visit to India. He said that there were not enough women in the Cabinet. Whilst that is no news to anyone aware of the gender imbalances in politics, it appeared to be news to David Cameron. His sudden realisation that he needed to get more women into parliament appears to rather conWUDGLFW KLV UHVKX�

H ZKLFK VDZ a reduction of women in Cabinet. The truth is that whilst women are still severely underrepresented, Cameron’s comments are absolutely abs u r d if we look at his track record.

First, let us

examine how women have been doing in terms of serving as Cabinet ministers. According to the Centre for Women and Democracy, since 1919 only 35 women have served as Cabinet ministers, which is equivalent to one full cabinet and a half. Only in 1997 did the number of women servLQJ LQ &DELQHW UHDFK GRXEOH ன JXUHV as it hit ten. Meanwhile, as it stands now, only twelve Tory women have been ministers, compared to Labour’s 23. We still have a very, very long way to go it seems.

Cameron is doing nothing to really improve the status of women in parliament, as well as in the real ZRUOG 7KH ODVW &DELQHW UHVKX�

H DF tually saw a reduction of the number of women in ministerial positions. It ZHQW IURP ன YH WR D PHDJUH IRXU DI ter he sacked three women and appointed two more. One of the women he sacked was Baroness Warsi, the only Muslim woman in Cabinet. As it stands now, of the 22 members of the &DELQHW MXVW RYHU RQH ன IWK DUH ZRP en: Theresa May, Justine Greening, Maria Miller, and Theresa Villiers.

Men outnumber women by eleven to two.

Consequently, it is peculiar that he thinks it appropriate to make such comments on a global platform in India when he is at the heart of the problem, perpetuating it with his fail-

ure to appoint more women to Cabinet. Since the number of women in Parliament representing the Tories has now increased to sixteen per cent from a previous nine per cent in 2005, he has plenty of choice. Labour hardly had a good record during the Blair and Brown years, but they did more to increase the number of women in senior positions than Cameron seems to be doing now. This is in spite of his pledge to give one-third of ministerial positions to women by 2015.

Now is the time to change things.

At a time when Cameron is advocatLQJ FXWV WKDW GLVSURSRUWLRQDWHO\ DŕŽ‰ HFW women, such as cuts to Sure Start, OHJDO DLG FKLOG EHQHன W KRXVLQJ EHQ Hன W DQG FKLOG WD[ FUHGLWV WR QDPH EXW a few, he should seriously consider having more women in Cabinet to challenge or support these decisions.

As a ‘moderniser’, he is missing the opportunity to show the Conservative Party in a truly progressive light, with women actually making decisions about women.

That said, his own voting record on women’s issue is not exactly rosy.

Having already pointed out the vast cuts to the welfare state that he is supporting, which are shown to hit women the hardest, Cameron can hardly be said to have women’s interests at heart. He voted in 2008 to reduce the time limit for abortions and

made statements a few months ago indicating that he would like to see a further reduction of this time limit.

He also voted to strengthen laws for the provision of IVF treatment, supporting the ‘need for a father and a mother’ before allowing women to begin a fertility treatment. This is hardly ன WWLQJ RI D SULPH PLQLVWHU UHSUHVHQWD tive of women, so he should seriously think about making his Cabinet more representative.

Ed Miliband’s shadow cabinet is 42 per cent comprised of women.

While he may still be lacking on policy, he is certainly leading the way in terms of principle regarding the status of women in politics. This even goes further than Cameron’s promise of a third of women holding ministerial positions by 2015.

Promises such as these should not be made. A promise indicates an action yet to be done, whilst there is no reason to delay appointing women to the Cabinet. Female politicians are equally as intelligent, dedicated, and hard-working as men, if not more so. His wife apparently noted to him that he is missing out on talent by not having more women in the Cabinet.

If a well-educated Etonian such as Cameron needs to be told that by his wife because he cannot recognise it individually, then we have the wrong leader in power.

Comment

The Beaver | 26.02.2013

11

COMMENTING ON YOUR COMMENT

Broadening the debate on Islamophobia Ben Rogers on distinguishing legitimate criticism from lazy prejudice Islamophobia as applied to all individuals and parties who make criticisms of Islam is in danger of becoming a self-defeating concept, as like those who lump all Muslims together in less than educated attacks on the faith, little effort is made to distinguish TXDOLன HG FULWLFLVPV ZLWK those made by the EDL and the BNP. It certainly cannot be denied that the British tabloid media and the public at large have a very poor understanding of the faith DQG DQ\ HŕŽ‰ RUW WKDW IXUWKHUV the public’s understanding that Islam, like its companion Abrahamic faiths, can and is practiced in a perfectly respectable and cordial manner by many believers is positive. However, in common with those other faiths, ‘Islam’ is also an exceptionally multifarious term which covers a large variety of religious practice around the world, some of which deserves to be criticised just as much as its benevolent manifestations are in need of praise. The inability to do this in a sensible manner is what plagues the discourse over the subject.

If voices such as Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Ibn Warraq, Daniel Pipes, Salman Rushdie, Bernard Lewis and many others are put in the same camp as Tommy Robinson and Nick Griffin, then it does nothing but empower the latter. If we can’t face up to the realities of Iranian or Saudi theocracy then we equally can’t appreciate the success of Indonesian democracy, because once the debate becomes polarised by such exclusive behaviour a meaningful outcome becomes highly unlikely and both sides will be at fault for ’treating Muslims all the same’.

In my view, it should not be ignored or wished away that, just like in Christianity, Islam has been and still is being used by many of its followers around the world to commit heinous acts and atrocities against non-believers and Muslims alike.

Foreign Policy magazine last year dedicated a week’s issue to highlighting the oppression of women throughout the Muslim word. The UN has itself noted how treating women as second-

class citizens is one of the key reasons that the Middle East is so economically undeveloped, with a collective GDP of similar size to Spain’s. Just as some Muslims might empower women, some turn them into sexual chattel through practices such as genital mutilation. Just as Muslim charities dispense aid around the word, Islam has been used DV D MXVWLன FDWLRQ IRU VODYHU\ in Northern Africa. We are able to and should point to ன JXUHV VXFK DV 7DULT 5DPD GDQ ZKR DUH ன JKWLQJ KDUG to modernise the faith and promote its compatibility with liberal democratic values, but we can also point WR ன JXUHV VXFK DV 6KHLNK Qaradawi who, reaching out to millions of followers, has described how a person’s sexuality is a crime that should merit incredibly harsh punishment. We can point to many examples of Islamic tolerance and hospitality towards nonbelievers, such as the fostering of a renaissance of Jewish scholarship in Arabic Andalusia, but we can also point to the current fate of the Coptic Christians in Egypt or the persecution of Shia minorities in Afghanistan or Pakistan under the Taliban. Political Islam has a similarly checkered past.

Islamist parties are able to operate as successfully as any others in the secular Turkish democracy but also ன QG LGHRORJLFDO GHVFHQG ants in Hamas and Hezbollah supported by the oil wealth of Wahhabi Islam.

Those inspired by the writings of Sayyid Qutb are as capable of making perfectly valid criticisms of Western materialism as they are of making horribly ignorant and sexually repressed outbursts about women who commit the crime of having their hair on show.

Closer to home, we can DOVR ன QG H[DPSOHV RI PHULW and criticism amongst the Islamic communities of Europe. In this country we have Muslim politicians, such as the former Chair of the Conservative Party Saeeda Warsi, who are followers of the prophet yet faultless servants of British civil society. However, we can also highlight examples of Muslim honour killings

of young girls who dare to associate themselves with non-Muslim partners of the opposite sex.

Just as racist far-right groups who terrorise Muslim communities should be deplored, many also feel, much like Douglas Murray, that raising any criticism of Islam is equally likely to get you branded a racist.

Is there not a sensible discussion that can be had, for example, over the case that has been made by certain French politicians that a requirement of living in an open liberal society is that you don’t conceal your face? Or is all legislation passed against the wearing of burkhas inherently Islamophobic, including the French law that anyone forcing a woman to wear

RQH LV WR EH ன QHG ۲ " Equally, could the Swiss decision to refuse planning permission for the building of minarets be perhaps to do with concerns about preserving Swiss architectural and scenic heritage than just outright hatred against 0XVOLPV" 6KRXOG ZH DOO ன QG it equally incomprehensible that Channel 4 should investigate and then provide video evidence of the maOHYROHQW LQŕŽ‹ XHQFH RI :DKKD bi Islam in British mosques?

Can we bring ourselves to try to understand that this isn’t a case of stirring up racial hatred but instead the highlighting of a concern that many British Muslims actually share?

Allowing Islam to receive the same criticisms that are made of Christianity or any

LSESU ISRAELI APARTHEID WEEK 2013 ISRAELI APARTHEID: RACIAL DISCRIMINATION? TALK WITH PROF. ROBERT WINTEMUTE MONDAY 25TH FEBRUARY 6:30PM - 8:30PM | CLM5.02

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other religion is just as vital for its integration into British and European society as recognising that not every Imam shares the views of Anjem Choudary. But if making such a request is to be labelled Islamophobic then this writer stands in defence of Islamophobia, just as he stands on the side of those Muslims who oppose religious extremism in all its forms.

Ben Rogers is responding to Jasim Malik, Ali Issa and Rayhan Uddin’s article ‘Islam: the misunderstood religion’, published in the Beaver on February 12th.

If you would like to respond to anything you read in this section, then please e-mail Comment@thebeaveronline.co.uk.

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crisis within his party. He is assisted/addled throughout this by his advisor Claudia Hood (Jessica Reagan), the Lib-Dem chief whip Angela Hornby (Jo Caulfield), his protégé Eddie (Phil Mulryne) and a geeky PR consultant Eric Shakespeare (John Dorney). Most of the terrible things that happen to Cooper are caused by Sir Francis Whitford MP (Phill Jupitus), the Tory Chief Whip who splits his time equally between gloating over his coalition partner’s position and plotting the LibDem’s downfall.

Thom Tuck’s performance is excellent; he manages to turn Matt Cooper into a cross between Nigel Farage and Basil Fawlty and is undoubtedly consistently the funniest character on the stage. Whitford, the key

PLEASANCE THEATRE until 10 Mar 2013 Written and directed by Robert Khan and Tom Salinsky Starring Thom Tuck, Phill Jupitus, Zg] Ch <ZneÛ ^e] Coalition is a hilarious political comedy about the pressures on a mildly competent yet hugely ambitious Lib-Dem leader, Matt Cooper (Thom Tuck), in coalition with the Conservative party. Cooper is unashamedly based on Nick Clegg, “without whom this play would have been inconceivable” confess the writers in the programme notes.

Be warned therefore, there is Lib-Dem bashing aplenty and if Nick Clegg wants to up his masochistic tactic, this play should be his next port of call.

Matt Cooper’s (Thom Tuck) attempt to balance his party’s principles and his own ambition (not to mention a failing marriage) leads to a by election between his own candidate—who turns out to be drug addled manic depressive (John Dorney), and a principled ex Lib-Dem colleague (Alistair Barrie), which in turn leads to a

INTERVIEW:LUCA WINER Luca Winer, writer and director of TwentySomethings, talks some things about being twenty.

What is TwentySomethings about?

TwentySomethings is a show about what happens when you graduate from university and you have no idea what you're supposed to do with yourself. It’s based on five characters and how they’re dealing with the situation. The narrator is the personification of despair, who acts as a catalyst in the play.

Is there a character that wants an internship at Goldman Sachs?

There’s a character called Cathy, who’s a paralegal, but she’s still harbouring further ambition so I think you can say she sort of fits the bill.

Do you feel that there is too much pressure to accomplish something (anything!?) by your 20’s?

I think there’s a certain truth in that, Certainly at LSE I get that impression that people work really hard here.

Everyone is pitted against the best of the best and I guess that does dim how ‘special’ you can feel.

though, it has not been too difficult as I have amazing actors who have been incredibly easy to work with. One of the other joys for me is that as an American, I wrote this for an American audience and seeing it change for a British audience and develop into a British script with the input of the actors has been really interesting.

What challenges and perks have you experienced writing and directing a play?

In terms of writing the play, the challenge is always to make the language as naturalistic as possible and have an economy of language that gets that message across as concisely as possible with little fuss. As I have directed before, the challenge with directing was more focused on operating at LSE. Honestly

How have you found putting this play together alongside studying?

It has definitely been a challenge but it’s a worthwhile challenge because part of being at university is the balance between work and leisure and it’s all these different factors that count. It has been a huge time commitment for everyone involved but the energy you get from it is so great that you make time for yourself and it’s not that bad, I still see my friends, cook dinner and go swing dancing!

LSESU DRAMA SOCIETY

PartB

COALITION

manipulator, is also hilarious due to the threatening campness with which Jupitus portrays him—the handkerchief in his pocket gets bigger and his socks brighter with every Lib-Dem failure. The way Jupitus moves as Whitford alone makes the audience laugh out loud, especially his flourishing exits which are often coupled with an ironic and sinister line such as: ‘oh yes, you can always trust the Tories’. The rest of the cast complement each other well but to see Jo Caulfield play such a straight chief whip is a little unsettling at first, given her prolific comedy background.

One should not go to this play expecting anything too groundbreaking. It is political comedy and as such of course bares a vague resemblance to the Thick of It (with sweary explosions of rage) and Yes, Minister (incompetent politicians ignoring the advice of wiser and more manipulative civil servants); the show also

contains many predictable, but still funny, satirical Lib-Dem putdowns—one example sees Cooper exclaim, ‘if all I cared about was power why on earth would I have become a LibDem?’. The characters are also farcical exaggerations, as opposed to accurate reflections of contemporary politicians, Cooper and Whitford in particular. Nonetheless, Coalition is one of the funniest shows I have seen this year and manages to avoid the pitying ‘lesson we should all take from this’ ending which is so commonplace in drama nowadays.

The only people who wouldn’t enjoy this play are Nick Clegg supporters and those who are completely politically illiterate—interestingly in Coalition those two are portrayed as exactly the same thing.

Tom Maksymiw

PLEASANCE THEATRE

B. MINE FOREVER?

26.02.2013 PartB

Why should we see TwentySomethings?

To begin with, it’s funny and laughter is good for your soul—or so they say! Secondly, it is instantly relatable, as I wrote the play when I was trying to figure my own path in my early twenties and while I don’t think it will solve the crisis of your twenties for you, it will definitely give you somewhere to go with it. Finally,

LSESU Drama Society presents

Twenty

Somethings an original play OLD THEATRE, OLD BUILDING 4,6 MAR 7 PM & 5 MAR 8:30 PM £2 / £3 Written and directed by Luca Winer Starring Tanzima Chowdhur y Charlotte Hussey Susan Sebatindira Tom Speed Fionn Shiner Rach Williams Tickets are available for purchase on Week 7 10am-2pm on Houghton Street your peers are performing!

They’re all undergraduates and graduates and so I think it is important to champion them and see how talented people at LSE really are.

Sarah Essa

15

The Beaver 26.02.2013

CURSE OF THE

WEAR-HABIT

1.APPGRATIS

Platform: iOS—Free

An app about apps, quite meta I know. AppGratis gives you offers for paid apps, with at least one paid app for free each day.

Geek go chic—wearable technology

4G IS ON THE WAY!

T

he next generation of mobile communications is on its way later in 2013, bringing us faster mobile speeds. OFCOM had hoped to raise £3.5bn from the sale, but could only raise £2.34bn.

² Mike Pearson

2. 4 PICS 1 WORD

Platform: iOS/Android—Free

Like most great apps in this genre, a uniquely simple concept. Given 4 pictures and a series of letters, guess the word.

TOP 5 APPS OF THE WEEK

This addicitive game challenges you to answer as many questions in 94 seconds, giving you 1 category and 1 letter.

4. HAZE

Platform: iOS—£0.69

A colourful, stylish, and elegant weather app that presents all the weather data you need in a fluid interface.

5. SPOTIFY

Platform: iOS/Android/WP8 - Free

Finally on Windows Phone 8, the ultimate streaming app.

BLACK, WHITE AND RED

A NARROW PALETTE

The portrayal of racial violence in Tarantino's "Django Unchained"

COLUMBIA PICTURES

It’s not just Google and Apple who are looking to race out of the blocks in the wearable tech market. The "Pebble" watch is an E-paper watch that links with your smartphone to provide you with text, e-mail, Facebook, twitter notifications, as well as allowing you to control your smartphone music player, view live smartphone data on your running and cycling and a host of other features.

Producing at 15,000 units a week, Pebble is notable for how it was funded: crowdfunding.

Funded through Kickstarter, a website that allows people to contribute to a creative project and follow it through to creation, the Pebble watch project raised over $10m from nearly 70,000 backers, way and above the initial $100,000 for which the creators were initially hoping.

Could this signal that there is consumer demand for wearable technology? Without a doubt. Just how significant this demand is, is a whole other question that analysts and technology firms alike are trying to answer. However, there are two key factors that will determine how this market takes off.

Firstly, wearable technology needs to go above and beyond the functionality of current mobile technology. Sleek and easy-to-use user interfaces and additional functions that help us live our lives with greater ease will go a long way in creating consumer demand for wearable technology. The great mistake is to produce gizmos that do exactly the same things as a smartphone, but on your wrist. Why would I just not buy a smartphone?

Secondly, fashion will dictate how popular wearable technology is. The new wave of gadgets need to look stylish —after all, wearing a gadget is also an extension of your personality and your own style.

GOOGLE

I

t would appear that the technology giants are anticipating a new shift in consumer electronics. Gone are the days when we sat at a desktop PC to schedule appointments. Technology has become mobile, and what’s more mobile than technology that you’re able to wear?

Last week, Google uploaded a video showing off their exciting new wearable tech project, Google Glass, an intelligent pair of glasses. The video is bound to make technology lovers salivate in anticipation of the launch of Google Glass, tipped to be early 2014.

The glasses will let users video-record, Google search, send text-messages, imageshare, GPS-navigate—all of which will be activated hands free via voice recognition.

Wearable technology isn’t a new concept. Can you remember the Casio calculator watches that attached themselves onto people’s wrists in the 1980s? Or how about the Bluetooth headsets that have plagued petrol station forecourts ever since middleaged businessmen thought they couldn’t survive for 30 seconds without staying connected whilst paying for their petrol?

The trouble is, no matter how useful wearable technology is, fashion will often dictate that to wear technology is not socially acceptable, or at the very least a slightly odd, geeky thing to do. That’s why Google showcased Google Glass at the 2012 New York Fashion Week. Models walked down the runway wearing Glass; attempting to make Glass cool and start the process of taking away any qualms we have about whether the technology is fashionable.

Google Glass has enormous potential, but with the product still in development, we’re yet to see whether consumers will bite.

The same goes for Apple’s rumoured “iWatch”. Why take your iPhone out of your pocket to check your text messages when you can view them on your wrist? Just how consumers will react to such a device is again, yet to be seen.

However, Apple has a terrific ability to redefine product markets, and an iWatch, along with the launch of Google Glass, may prove to be the catalyst in how we view wearable technology.

3. 94 SECONDS

Platform: iOS/Android—Free

Y

ou know you are watching a Quentin Tarantino film when a) he features as a character who meets a fateful end b) there is a neverending spew of gore, violence, blood and c) even more blood.

Django Unchained—the ‘D’ is silent—is no different.

Nominated for five Oscars, including Best Picture, Django Unchained chronicles the tumultuous story of Django (Jamie Foxx), a freed slave following his bizarre encounter with German speaking bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz, (Christopher Waltz) whose next target Django agrees to help him find. In Django’s bid to take revenge upon those who tortured and separated himself from his beloved wife, Broomhilda von Schaft (Kerry Washington), we see the development of a strong black male protagonist with a thirst for revenge.

Set in the nineteenth century Deep South Mississippi, this "homage to spaghetti Westerns" really hones in on the race relation conflict between African-Americans and the ‘superior’ White American, which is still, to an extent, an underlying issue in today’s Deep South, USA. Tarantino’s ability to create an entire film based on such a poignant part of American history with an innovative spin on this social and racial predicament is essentially what makes this film work.

Initially, we are presented with a hostile colonialist environment that challenges the viewer to embrace such an atmosphere as part of the 'cultural norm'. With hilarious scenes such as the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) who are introduced by dramatic music (namely Verdi’s Requiem Mass - Dies Irae) and their bountiful banter over who brought ‘ex-

tra [white] bags’ to replace the damaged ones for their costumes, Tarantino ensures that such sensitive racial issues are addressed and represented in a manner accessible to the average viewer.

Whilst the portrayal of socially stigmatised issues of slavery and racial discrimination is a first for Tarantino, his choice to depict such themes in the style of a ‘spaghetti Western’ fundamentally arouses a trivialisation of the topic at hand. Indeed, such trivialisations mean that the theme can be portrayed as a somewhat ‘normative’ case. Yet the incessant need to embed the ‘N’ word into sentences where it is not even contextually necessary, as well as the brutal and occasionally fatal whippings of disobedient AfricanAmericans, just generates an air of angst towards the perpetrators of the initial violence: White Americans.

As possibly the most controversial film nominated for ‘Best Picture’ in the 85th Academy Oscar Awards, the question remains: was all the blood, violence and profanity really necessary? Of course, Tarantino is renowned for such elements within his earlier works which has made him such a popular and a, dare I say, likable director within the film industry.

Take for instance the outstanding Pulp Fiction (1997) that brilliantly incorporated his trademark ‘three act’ structure and utilised witty banter as well as comical narratives to reinforce the paradoxically complex nature of the interconnected plotlines.

Or Kill Bills Vol. I & II (20032004) that were justifiably gory due to the film’s inclination towards the genre of the martial arts.

Yet, Django Unchained

seems to take these elements and magnify them tenfold, so much so that one is often left cringing at the sheer graphic nature during some scenes.

From a cinematographic perspective this is definitely an artistic choice to bear in mind for the faint-hearted.

Nevertheless, the absolute highlight of Django Unchained is definitely awarded to Leonardo Di Caprio’s performance as Calvin Candie, the owner of the notorious, and ironically entitled cotton plantation, ‘Candyland’. His impassioned dialogue as Candie during a tense encounter with Django and Dr. Schultz is a truly captivating moment; one can not help but appreciate how far DiCaprio has developed as an actor. He completely immerses himself in the role. Despite injuring his hand during the filming of this scene, he still continued delivering his performance as though the incident had not occurred.

Other notable performances include Samuel L. Jackson as Candie’s house slave and sidekick, Stephen, who provides comic relief in moments of great intensity, as well as Waltz and Foxx who as a duo drive this film to reach its fullest potential. And how could we forget: Tarantino’s critically acclaimed performance as an Australian employee of ‘The LeQuint Dickey Mining Company’…

Irrespective of the longevity of the film and the overdramatised use of highly obscene actions and derogatory terms, Django Unchained is an incredible film. Whether you loved it or hated it, Tarantino has successfully created a showpiece that will have the masses reeling for many years to come.

Koko Owusu

16

26.02.2013 PartB

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF SYLVIA PLATH “I thought the most beautiful thing in the world must be shadow, the million moving shapes and cul-desacs of shadow. There was shadow in bureau drawers and closets and suitcases, and shadow under houses and trees and stones, and shadow at the back of people's eyes and smiles, and shadow, miles and miles and miles of it, on the night side of the earth.”

- The Bell Jar “Yes, I was infatuated with you: I am still. No one has ever heightened such a keen capacity of physical sensation in me. I cut you out because I couldn't stand being a passing fancy. Before I give my body, I must give my thoughts, my mind, my dreams. And you weren't having any of those.”

“Perhaps some day I'll crawl back home, beaten, defeated. But not as long as I can make stories out of my heartbreak, beauty out of sorrow.”

“To look at her, you might not guess that inside she is laughing and crying, at her own stupidities and luckiness, and at the strange enigmatic ways of the world which she will spend lifetime trying to learn and understand.”

- The Unabridge Journals of Sylvia Plath WIKIMEDIA

A

t a party in Cambridge, 26 February 1956, Fulbright scholar Sylvia Plath first meets Edward James "Ted" Hughes: "The one man in the room who was as big as his poems, huge...I screamed in myself, thinking oh, to give myself crashing, fighting, to you."

maiden of confessional poetry.

It is within this role that the controversy of her marriage to Ted Hughes still rages on.

Setting fire to Plath’s final journal and disallowing the publication of her early poetry, Hughes is portrayed as the domineering misogynistic husband. The deaths of Plath,

This month marks the 50th anniversary of the death of Sylvia Plath, who took her life on 11 February 1963. In her own words, Plath described her passing to be a result of “owl's talons clenching and constricting” her heart and since then, she has become an immortal caricature: the tragic

SILVER LININGS A

WEINSTEIN COMPANY

great surprises in store as Pat, suffering from a memory loss is an unreliable narrator. The struggle to let go is the most poignant theme in Quick’s novel. Those who have experience with mental health will relate and those who do not will be enlightened to learn the strength it takes to break free.

So far, so good. But here is the problem: the film ruined it. This sounds like a common complaint but it struck me that ‘ruined’ doesn’t necessarily mean terrible. The film was by no means awful—it is, after all, nominated for eight Oscars!

However, the unexpected contrast between the extent to which I loved the book and the littleness with which I was affected by the film 'ruined' the whole experience. Upon reflection, I wondered if I may have thought differently had I abandoned my tradition to read the novel first.

When you read a novel, you're drawing a rich portrait together with the writer, step by step. When you watch the film adaptation afterwards, it feels like you are watching a distorted half-shaded version incomparable to the beauty

Plath does not mean you have to don the anti-Hughes label.

You simply need to engage, re-read and celebrate Sylvia for what she said and how she said it; rather than focus upon what or who may have been to blame for her grievous death.

Madeline D. Roberts

"When you read a novel, you're drawing a rich portrait together with the writer, step by step.

When you watch the film adaptation afterwards, it feels like you are watching a distorted half-shaded version incomparable to the beauty of the original."

The finer points of novel-to-film adaptation s a Bradley Cooper lover, it was hard to starve my urge to see Silver Linings Playbook the minute it came out because of my other obsessive habit to read the novel first. So as you might have guessed, I did read Life of Pi, Les Miserables’ and now ‘Silver Linings Playbook before I saw the film. However, I reached my frustration point with the latter (written by Matthew Quick, directed and adapted by David O. Russell).

The plot revolves around the recovery of bi-polar sufferer Pat Peoples and his integration back into society through his family and friends, after being discharged from a mental institution. We follow Pat as he slowly tries to come to terms with his past—notably the breakdown of his marriage—and build a new life.

We feel the energetic rush as he tries to reach a ‘silver lining’ and the frustration when he collapses into pitfalls in his journey. In this respect, the book is a landmark in discussing and understanding mental health and ending the stigma around such life-affect condition. However, despite its down-to-earth plot, there are

his second wife Assia Wevill and the latter's child are described as “no coincidence” by his most staunch critics.

It seems disappointing that most associate Plath’s legacy with the controversy of her marriage and the mysticism of her life, rather than the importance of her writing. To be pro-

of the original. Reading the novel first and then watching the film is like de-fleshing a skeleton and being left with that: just a skeleton. Surely it makes sense to do things the other way around and start off with the skeleton, or at least a de-fleshed skeleton—the novel's sketch that a film provides—and then either flesh it up yourself or add texture to it by reading the book.

This way, you are not frustrated with the film and you are content after reading the book because you have created that wonderful canvas through a chronological journey, which leaves you with a positive lasting memory of the story. Maybe if I had adopted this strategy, I might have been among the critics and audience who have swooned over Silver linings Playbook, rather

than feeling cheated that the ending which drew me to tears in the novel was scraped for something a little more predictable.

Sarah Essa

17

The Beaver 26.02.2013

ALEXANDER NEVSKY @ THE BARBICAN B

ased on the tale of St $OH[DQGHU 1HYVN\ WKLV 1938 film is the work of arguably Soviet Russiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most important director Sergei Eisenstein. The Beaver visited the main hall in the Barbican to witness a one-off screening of the epic backed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra playing Prokofievâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s score live.

The film itself is the tale of Teutonic Germans invading Russia in the 13th Century.

7KH SURWDJRQLVW 1HYVN\ LV D prince but of humble origins, preferring to fish with his peoSOH WKDQ ZDU +RZHYHU 1HYVN\ is called upon to lead the resistance to the invading Germans and to do so mobilises the peasants. This is not where the Communist messages end, the film itself is thinly veiled, albeit entirely charming, propaganda and consequently became a staple of early Soviet cinema.

The plot itself is fairly simple, based on a single battle in Russiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s history and indeed

NOTHING VENTURED, NOTHING GAINED

Russian gravitas steeped in sorrow and hard labour.

The battle scenes in the film do last far too long; it starts to feel gratuitous or compensatory for a lack of inspiration that Eisenstein prolonged that most simple and crass form of DFWLRQ 1HYHUWKHOHVV WKHUH LV also an element of not wanting to hold the film against our modern preferences of direction. Regardless, if this is Alexander Nevskyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most obvious shortcoming then it is telling of the genius Eisenstein and Prokofievâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s that their techniques still captivate the impatient audiences of 21st century cinema. Moreover, it cannot be recommended enough to beg, steal or borrow a ticket for the next live spectacular of this kind the Barbican commissions. Â

the majority of the characters are one-dimensional. Indeed, it becomes apparent that the film was created with the Communist ideals of popular, accessible art as a guide.

However, what the plot lacks in depth the orchestral performance more than makes up for in introducing themes and adding layers of subtlety to the plot. It is here where the magic of having a live orchestra on the evening came to light. Appropriately, the ensemble of around 100 musicians and choir became a militaristic phalanx in itself; the union of so many voices was a successful technique by Prokofiev to truly capture the sound of common cause.

Impressively, the conductor on the evening was able to handle the surely tremendous challenge of synchronising the orchestra with the film. Yet the true highlight of the evening was the vocal solo; Catherine Wyn-Rogersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; performance was able to channel that distinctive

Â

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Ć&#x2030; (PLU 1DGHU

1

BARBICAN CENTRE

obody likes change.

Whether it's as big as moving house or as small as a change in our morning routine, we all take solace in the predictableâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;I know what I like, and I like what I know. Predictabbility is good. iI helps make a scary world comfortable and allows us to switch off after a hard day.

1HYHUWKHOHVV YDULHW\ LV WKH spice of life. As uncomfortable as it may be to actively deviate from what we know, and as predictably disappointing as such a change may be, the gains are biggest in trying something new.

Humans are loss averse.

It's hard work tempting someone to try paying for raw oysters when a pizza's on the menu and they already love Italian food. Helping us maintain a level of musical consistency are genres. Whilst highly subjective and often ambiguous, genres act as signposts in a world of ever increasing musical variety. They are a useful way to gauge our expectations and weed out what we are more or less likely to enjoy.

1HYHUWKHOHVV ZH ULVN LJ noring a rich world of musical variety when we stick to these comfortable landmarks too closely. iTunes has the 'Genius' playlist, Spotify recommends 'Related Artists' and the big clubs (Ministry, Koko, Fabric and so on) are renowned for showcasing specific styles of music.

The point is, it's never been easier to gloss over the unfamiliar when we're bombarded with musical suggestions similar to what we already know and like. Ultimately, the easy option is always there and its

results are a lot more predictable. However, whilst we're likely to enjoy more of the same, only something radically different can blow us away.

Music is constantly evolving. Elvis Presley may have given birth to rock music but Hound Dog wouldn't feel at home in a Led Zeppelin or Pink Floyd collection. Most artists do not recreate the musical world, they imitate what's gone before with any amount of accomplishment or failure and fit neatly within current trends and fashions. Just as for those who listen to music, change is a dangerous territory, especially when it comes to commercial success.

Indeed, there's nothing stopping imitative music from being good. The fact remains, however, that the best innovate. They break out of the mould with new ideas and new sounds. These are the groups that define and re-define genres over time. Without doubt they will continue to do so, good music has no end form.

That said, radicals are often under appreciated in their time. It's harder to innovate well than it is to imitate well and, moreover, there's nothing wrong with convention.

Engaging and accessible music provides some of the most enjoyable listening whilst finding artists that create music of high originality and high TXDOLW\ LV UDUH 1HYHUWKHOHVV I would argue, the fringes are where the best and most exciting music lies. Risky as it may be, a step outside our comfort zone offers us an opportunity to experience the wonderful diversity which allows music to truly flourish.

Ć&#x2030;

Vince Harrold

PRESENT DAY, HEH, PRESENT TIME, HAHAHAHAHA...

I am sure that most of you remember 1998. France won the World Cup, the International Criminal Court was set up causing much to the consternation amongst the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cricket journalists, and Indonesia had a regime change.

Most of all, it was the year that people first started to hear about the new craze about the â&#x20AC;&#x153;World Wide Web,â&#x20AC;? resulting a massive rise in the number of people wanting to invest in broadband, information services and one of Americaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leading blue-chip companies.

This technophilia manifested itself in the premier of the dark and unsettling cyberpunk anime, Serial Experiments Lain 'LUHFWHG E\ 5\Ä­WDUÄ? 1D kamura, the avant-garde series transcends genres, although the main theme remains an epistemological focus on how technology has altered human perceptions of the nature of truth, knowledge and reality.

Set in then-future Japan, largely in the way that people from 1996 thought life would be like in 2012, the show begins, as most cartoons should do, with a suicide. We are introduced to the everyday schoolgirl Chisa Yomoda, who promptly throws herself off a building. In the days following, her classmates begin to re-

ceive emails purporting to be from her. Chisa claims not to have died, but to have simply left her physical body to live in â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Wire,â&#x20AC;? an all-encompassing version of the Internet.

After a few days, almost all of Chisaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s colleagues dismiss the messages as a cruel prank.

Lain Iwakura is one of the few who does not. The shy and reclusive Lain, who begins with roughly the the same level of personality that is typically observed in mollusks or a late night abattoir workforce, is more curious than the rest of her peers about the emails, suspecting them of being something more than they first appear. Her tech-obsessed father soon provides her with a â&#x20AC;&#x153;naviâ&#x20AC;? laptop computer, allowing Lain to begin her own investigation into The Wire.

Obviously, things get slightly more unconventional from this point onwards. There is a monkey with a terrifying smile, some grainy footage of the Roswell Incident and at one point a load of government agents turn up and start shining their laser pens at her.

Then an evil clone of herself turns up and starts annoying everyone.

At the end, she kills God and then stops existing. I think.

Serial Experiments Lain is

WIKIMEDIA

God is dead, again, and this time, it was a suicideâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Serial Experiments Lain

not a show for people who do not like to think. This is not a pejorative statement, even I had to stop marathoning my way through the boxset and put something less challenging on after episode five. It is certainly apparent that the show suffers from having too complex a message on occasion. By the time the storyline has moved into Lain falling into the middle of a shadow war between esoteric computer hackers and a blue-chip megaconglomerate, it is likely

that the viewer will be longing for an online character guide.

After a while, the whole â&#x20AC;&#x153;leave the interpretation up to the viewerâ&#x20AC;? schtick starts to become rather tiresome. After more than a few shows, I came very close to giving up on the entire series and putting on something less confusing, like The Prisoner.

However, perseverance will be rewarded. Although nearly fifteen years old, Lain remains an effective and intelligent discourse on technology, with many of the aspects of The Wire having far more familiarity to the viewer of today that at the time of the original airing. Apple Computers, just beginning their rebirth back in 1998, with their design forming a major part of Lainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s visual identity, which occupies a curious centre between Eastern and Western animation styles.

Indeed, the synthetic â&#x20AC;&#x153;Present Day, heh. Present Time, hahahahahaâ&#x20AC;? quotation that begins every episode amidst a hail of static was produced by the iMac voice modulation software.

As it happens, the aforementioned Tachibana Industries is a thinly veiled version of everyoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s favourite computer manufacturer. For those of you who are not well-informed as

to East Asian botany, a tachibana is a tree-bearing Japanese fruit.

Curiously, the â&#x20AC;&#x153;East/Westâ&#x20AC;? dichotomy present in the artistic direction was not mirrored in the audience's perceptions RI WKH VKRZ 1DNDPXUD LQWHQG ed the Japanese and American audiences to take a different message from Lain, ideally prompting furious argument and debate. Much to his incongruity, this did not happen.

In this way, the show must be seen as a slight failure in terms of the message it provided, to the extent that it cannot be considered to be an especially prophetic show.

That said, Lain is still worth a watch. It is a show that actually seems to understand the sources that it is citing.

Even if you are not a fan of the works of William Gibson, Vannevar Bush or Cordwainer Smithâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;although I can think of no excuse that would prove an acceptable reason for you not beingâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;any geek with an interest in technology and society should add Lain to their â&#x20AC;&#x153;much watchâ&#x20AC;? list.

That said, donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t throw yourself off the Shard just because the voices on your iPod told you to.

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Jack Tindale

18

26.02.2013 PartB

OH, JEFF, I LOVE YOU TOO, BUT... n article published in Life magazine in 1964 entitled â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Is He the Worst Artist in the US?â&#x20AC;&#x2DC; reproached Roy Lichtenstein for being no more than a copyist and criticised â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;that his paintings of blown-up comic strips, cheap ads and reproductions are tedious copies of the banalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;.

Back in the 1960s, Lichtensteinâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s work was so shocking, in terms of its apparent plagiarism and naivety, that it consequently propelled him to prominence as one of the central figures of American Pop art. While his iconic comic strip paintings remain the most notable of his legacy, they are but a small fraction of his entire oeuvre that spanned fifty years.

An exciting selection of the artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s most definitive paintings and sculptures is currently being exhibited at the Tate Modern. Totalling 125 works, it is the first complete retrospection of Lichtensteinâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s work after he died in 1997 at the age of 73.

The term 'Pop art' does little to suggest the idiosyncratic qualities of its art, especially with regard to Lichtensteinâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s body of work.

The artist did not mean to

OLLECTION SIMONYI Š ESTATE OF ROY LICHTENSTEIN/DACS 2012

"He was a controlled and cerebral artist, a detached observer who made art about art."

over emotions and cherishes the defiantly unoriginal.

To me, the most surprising revelation was Lichtensteinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lesser-known body of work: his landscape paintings, art deco sculptures, mirror abstractions and reworkings of old masters.

Almost every single work bears his trademarkâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the fields of Ben-Day dot pattersâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;suggesting the look of cheap commercial printing and making the observerâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s eyes slow down and analyse the composition of the work.

Walking through the exhibition was an extremely stimulating experience; Lichtensteinâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s use of bright, sharp colours and strict forms and lines ensnares the senses and heightens the individual perception of the interplay between colour and form. More than any other artist, Lichtenstein managed to elevate the beauty and complexity of mundane objects and situations by means of abstraction and simplicity. There is a reason why his work still remains ubiquitous, and not only in the realm of advertisingâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;but just go and see for yourself.

2K -Hŕ­ź , /RYH <RX 7RR %XW

produce plain depictions of comic figures and mundane objects that nowadays frequently adorn the walls of many living rooms. No. Surprisingly, Roy Lichtenstein did not even share a passion for or interest in comic books and became frustrated at forever being labelled a Pop artist, as his widow Dorothy remarked. Lichtensteinâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s paintings of the cartoons, comics and everyday life objects and situations address the superficiality of a culture that celebrates

automatisation, mass production and a new standard of beauty. However, the artist did not mean to critically comment on his time; in fact, he tried to hide the artist behind his works as best as possible. Therefore, Lichtenstein devoted himself to the abstraction of the banal, the mass produced, and the copied. Some of his works even bear the signs of absurdity and parodyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;like his series of brushstrokes, for example, that mocks the artistic process associated with

abstract expressionism and action painting (e.g. Jackson Pollock's)â&#x20AC;&#x201D;the apparent spontaneity of painterly gestures. Despite the fact that his most celebrated comic paintings depict emotionally charged scenes of romance or war, Lichtenstein maintained that he wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;t painting actual feelingsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;but mass-produced ones. He was a controlled and cerebral artist, a detached observer who made art about art. Each of his works celebrates the triumph of colour and shape

1 Erika Arnold

Lichtenstein: A Retrospective TATE MODERN until 27 May 2013

%(/2: :KDPP

OLLECTION SIMONYI Š ESTATE OF ROY LICHTENSTEIN/DACS 2012

A

ROY LICHTENSTEIN â&#x20AC;&#x201D; A RETROSPECTIVE

19

The Beaver 26.02.2013

W

e met in East London, indulging our mutual self-satisfied fantasies about the hipster cred of our pathetically shallow pockets. He bought the first round, as we chatted about the important things in life: love, happiness and which Sex and the City girl we were (He was a Carrie).

Three hours and four rounds later, we were laughing comfortably, and, shockingly for a first date, I didn’t feel any need to gouge my eyeballs or run screaming from the bar.

In fact, despite the fact that he openly admitted to watching the Vampire Diaries and working in finance, I was having a very nice time.

After we parted with a goodnight kiss and the promise to see each other again, I really started to get smug.

Skipping back to my flat, I allowed myself to bask in my achievement of the ever-elusive great first date. I complimented myself endlessly: How charming I was! What a good judge of character I am! My, aren’t my jokes just the wittiest? Goodbye former life of suffering through stories about lawn fertilizer and pretending not to notice those unexplained facial scars… I have mastered dating and now I’m the best at it and should think about teaching a class on it, really.

A half hour later, my phone buzzed. Right on time, I gloated. I prepared myself for his closing thoughts on my admirable qualities and how unbearable waiting for our next date would be for him. Excitedly, I opened the text: My pants are full of precum.

Huh. Well, at least he used proper punctuation.

As for propriety in general, well, that was a little less cut and dry. I dismissed him with an “LOL”, the sexting equivalent of “Not now, Honey, I have a headache” and sunk into a slump. Was this really the state of romance in the iPhone era? Had it officially become inevitable that a great first date would be followed by a detailed account of soiled undergarments?

Most of my friends scoffed at what they saw as my demureness. For better or worse, sexting has become part of our modern day mating ritual, and I was being labeled an internet age Mrs. Grundy because I wasn’t aroused by the image of my date essentially wetting himself. Have we really reached the point where thinking sexually graphic content can wait until date #2 makes you a prude? Call me crazy, but I’d still prefer a declaration of admiration over one about your bodily fluids.

Then again, maybe the problem wasn’t the sext,

but the fact that it was bad.

I’ve been known to send out a few erotic bon mots, and have happily received quite a few as well. But there’s an art to it, a necessary finesse.

If sex is part of our romance regimen now, then this one was the equivalent being clubbed over the head and dragged back to the cave.

Sexting is like telling a joke: it requires a nimble balancing act of the subtle and the direct, the appropriate and the scandalous. Like a joke, a good sext can make you seem intriguing and clever.

And a bad one like this can make you look clueless and homeschooled.

The hallmark of both a great sext and a great joke is reading the room. Problem is, sexts arrive in a room you’re not in. So while my date probably imagined me lounging seductively on my bed, I was actually chomping down M&Ms and googling images of Milli Vanilli in my

My pants are full of precum.

L

ondon Fashion Week may be over with the rest of the fashion world currently in the throes of Milan Fashion Week, but it is only appropriate to celebrate one of the stand-out moments of the past week: the Burberry Prorsum AW13 Show.

Chief Creative Officer Christopher Bailey sent out an ingenious mixture of textures and patterns with Tom Odell singing beautifully in the background. Front Row guests included Rosie Hun-

tington-Whiteley, Kate Beckinsale and Rita Ora. Immediately after the show, looks were available for customisation and had the restraints of a student budget not been in place, it would have been hard to resist!

The model of the moment, Cara Delevingne, graced the catwalk of the British fashion giant in an LBD and showed the world how to really do

clashing prints. Berry red, customised leather and giant clutch bags proved to be the designs to covet in the

BRITISH FASHIOIN COUNCIL / BURBERRY

I should have seen it coming.

BURBERRY PRORSUM

BRITISH FASHIOIN COUNCIL / BURBERRY

Josh Ellman's take on the subtle art of sexting

BRITISH FASHIOIN COUNCIL / BURBERRY

LSEX

coming season. Trenches were obviously a huge part of the show, with the famous Burberry trench returning to minimalism from the Quality Street metallic designs seen in SS13.

It is a stunning collection that will stand the test of time, and perfectly showcases the quintessentially British and universally loved brand in the most magical way possible.

% Hannah Thompson

LONDON FASHION WEEK Ninja Turtle pajamas. In that context, his pants aquarium felt was an unwanted intrusion. Like a late-night work email, it made me long for the bygone days of DumbPhones when work stayed at the office and sex stayed in AOL chatrooms.

What my date also clearly forgot is how harsh texts come across. There are no coy smiles, playful touches or meaningful glances to help situate a potentially pervy comment. He didn’t even toss in a friendly emoticon to ease the digestion, opting instead for the cruel finality of the period. An irreverent wink might’ve helped me see the irony; a grinning face could have clued me in to his soggy-pants joy. But a period conjures up the heartless monotone of a sociopath. A period is so harsh it makes me wonder if it was even a sext at all…maybe he just held me responsible for his damp disposition and wanted me to pay his dry cleaning bill.

But, then again would I have ever liked it? At the end of the day, what really bothered me was that I had placed boundaries there for a reason. I liked this guy, and wanted to take it slow.

When you say goodnight and shut the door, guys generally don’t bang on it repeatedly shouting explicit comments.

So why do it via text? Sure, a sext that gets you hard is nice, but finding a nice date that gets you sure is hard.

STYLE

L

ondon Fashion Week dawned upon the capital again last Friday; a celebration of all things old, new and chic. It is hard to believe that only a stone’s throw away from LSE laid a parallel universe buzzing with surreal fashion. Upon arriving at Somerset House, you can be forgiven in thinking that you have entered into something resembling of a fashion utopia. At once, it is clear that the fashion circus was in town and the streets were swarming with outlandish and avant garde wear. Therein lies the true gem of London Fashion Week: Street Style, for street style is the inspiration as well as the inspired. Displayed here are some picks of the best dressed.

% Yan Giet

20

26.02.2013 PartB

116 Knightsbridge SW1X 7PJ 020 7225 3122

MARI VANNA

Hours Mon-Sat 12-5pm, 7-11:30pm Sun 7pm-10:30pm Cuisine Russian

Reservations Yes

O

Russian tale. What I can say, however, is that this is exactly what you can expect when you go for dinner at this recently opened Knightsbridge restaurant. Perhaps the only mythical women you’ll see here is Sienna Miller or Kate Moss, or the other celebs that have proclaimed this to be their new favourite spot.

Stepping into the dining room, I initially felt overwhelmed by the opulent décor: there is crystal literally everywhere you look, chandeliers hanging over each table, and cabinets filled with colourful china lining the walls. But as we made ourselves comfortable in our armchairs and the restaurant started filling up, the atmosphere immediately

MARI VANNA

nce upon a time, on a cold wintry Monday night, two hungry LSE students found themselves wandering through Knightsbridge. They happened upon a beautiful old building, decorated with colourful flowers.

The awning read “Mari Vanna”. They stepped out of the cold and into what would turn into a vodka-fuelled fairytale.

I am not too familiar with Russian folklore, or Russian culture at all for that matter, so I am not sure if the fable about Mari Vanna, a mythical woman in St. Petersburg, who “welcomed diners into her home with open arms, feeding them traditional Russian fare on her finest china and linens” is actually a traditional

MARI VANNA

Average spend £60-120 for two with drinks

became homier. As it turns out, this is actually a great place to

go to on a weeknight: it is bustling yet relaxed and informal, but most of all, a bunch of fun.

I was, above all, impressed by the attention to detail: even the bathrooms were extravagantly decorated and had fairytales arrated in Russian blasting from the speakers.

This is before I have even begun to rave about the food.

Superbly fresh and delicious, it is exactly what you would expect from Russian cuisine at its best: lots of pickled fish, meats, stews, herbs and hot dumplings. Russian fare may be a bit of an acquired taste, but if you’re into it, this place essentially serves the ultimate comfort food.

And when your starter is called “Herring in a shubacoat” (which, the waiter kindly informed us, is Russian for fur coat) it is impossible not to smile. This traditional layered salad with salted herring, beetroot and potatoes, topped with a light mayonnaise dressing was anything but light, but its flavours were perfectly balanced. With just enough fishiness from the herring, none of the ingredients were too overpowering.

The main course was equally impressive, and better sized. While my partner ordered the chicken baked with herbs, a classic from the Caucasus Mountains served with homemade tomato and herb sauce, I opted for Siberian Pelmeni with minced beef and pork filling, served with sour cream. Pelmeni are a kind of dumplings, which are common in Eastern European

cuisine. “We stole it from the Chinese”, quipped our waiter, who revealed himself to be a true expert on the history of Russian cuisine. Again, it was the balance of flavours that made this dish so nice: the salty and slightly spicy meat was perfectly counterbalanced by the sour cream you’re meant to dip the dumplings in.

Aside from an excellent cocktail menu, an extensive list of wines originating from countries ranging from New Zealand to Georgia, and cooked fruit juices (“like, drinkable compote”), I was particularly excited about their range of infused vodkas. Dill and cucumber vodka shot anyone? Horseradish and honey perhaps? If I had eaten anything lighter I probably would have been singing along with the violinist, who was performing a repertoire of melodies in a corner of the restaurant, clad in a golden suit. (If it’s live music that you desire, Monday is the evening to visit.)

As we stepped out of the fairytale and back into the London rain, I felt as though I had just awoken from a dream.

We had managed to escape London for a couple of hours and it felt great. I wish I could say we lived happily ever after, but that’s not how it works in the real world. Reality hit me in the face when I drunkenly stumbled onto the tube. It hit me hard.

Æ Maaike Mossel

THE WHEATSHEAF: BOROUGH MARKET A fter a three-year hiatus and a management change, the Wheatsheaf pub in Borough Market recently reopened. Much of the hype surrounding the Wheatsheaf came from its fresh concept— the pub was split into indoor and outdoor sections, with a small open-air caravan serving as the kitchen.

Upon arriving at 4 PM, my dining partner and I were seated indoors, next to the bar.

Fortunately though, it was only slightly chilly outdoors (with blankets being available if needed) and the cigarette smoke was not particularly pungent. Wanting to get a better look at the cooking, we moved to a table behind the caravan where we could watch the trains departing from London Bridge station, likely taking many of the Wheatsheaf’s patrons home later in the evening. The waiters brought the cutlery over in a wicker basket, and had this been a romantic dinner, it would have been difficult to think of much better than watching the sun set while sharing a meal over a wooden picnic table.

There was a standard ‘card’ to fill out to order your meal: you choose a main, one side dish (complimentary), and should you want, a “scoop” (which, on paper, seemed to be a more ‘luxurious’ side dish, £2 each) and a sauce (£1). The meat was delectable—the taste of my tender Sticky Whiskey

Ribs (£11) was brought out by the sweet glaze, and my dining companion was no less pleased with her Cyder Spit Chicken (£12). Moreover, the portion sizes of the protein were very generous, and the Jerry’s rum and honey BBQ sauce that we both ordered added a pleasing additional sweetness to the dish (although, in my case, the glaze on the ribs would have been sufficient.)

The same could not be said, perhaps, about the sides and the scoops. Among the sides, the sweet potato mash, with its buttery texture and characteristic sweet potato flavour, was good enough to merit another order. However, the baby crops were tough to chew and slightly one-note, being comprised mostly of carrots, while the chunky potatoes in the griddled Murphys could have been more thoroughly mashed. The golden beetroot salad scoop was sizeable, while another £2 scoop, the hunk of beer bread—hunk being the Wheatsheaf’s term—consisted of only two small slices of oven-grilled bread (we were lucky and each received three).

Thankfully, the bread was delicious, both on its own and dipped in the BBQ sauce.

Perhaps the least successful part of the meal was the dessert, something that seems like Wheatsheaf has not yet put much thought into yet as it has not made an official appearance onto the menu. The

shell of the custard tart resembled the wrapping used in oriental spring rolls, while the custard filling had not sufficiently congealed and thus ran onto the plate—or more accurately, the crepe paper used to serve the tart over—upon cutting. Although the portion size was appreciated, it could not make up for the bizarre taste and presentation of the dish.

Overall, the most memorable part of the Wheatsheaf will be its ambiance. The patrons, catching one last drink before heading home for the weekend, were already numerous at 4 PM but steadily increased in number during our meal.

They were neither annoying nor rude, respecting each other’s personal space, merrily talking, clinking glasses, and just seeming to have a convivial time. Inside, a mother and her toddler were to be found, along with some well-groomed young women in form-fitting suits. It would be difficult to call the Wheatsheaf a gastropub—the food seems to come second to the bar—but the concept still works. If you want a lively but low-key place for a drink, then the Wheatsheaf is perfect; once a few kinks in the food are worked out, it should be a great place for an afterwork dinner with friends or colleagues, too.

Æ Jeffrey Mo

6 Stoney Stm Borough Market SE1 9AA 0207 940 3880

Hours Mon-Sat 9am-12am, Sun 12-11pm Cuisine BBQ Average spend £30-50 for two with drinks Reservations No

21

The Beaver 26.02.2013

PLAYSTATION 4 THE FUTURE OF GAMING?

ENTERTAINMENT SOFTWARE ASSOCIATION

T

he Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, has taken a stance against the recent high profile criticism of the sale of violent video games in North America. Following an interview on Fox News Sunday, she stated that Democrat legislation on the matter ought to be based on scientific evidence, and that the shaming action taken at this time would be in defiance of such principles.

On the popular morning interview show, host Chris Wallace lampooned the investigation by Democrats of the link between video games and real world violence as something that “we don’t need.”

“I mean, we know that

SONY COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT EUROPE

O

n Wednesday night, audiences around the world were invited to watch as Sony announced its upcoming console, the Playstation 4. Viewers were treated to a showcase of trailers for upcoming release titles (presented by developers from the likes of Activision and Ubisoft), the new ‘Dual Shock 4’ controller, complete with a built-in touch pad, and support from developers around the world for the projected features and capabilities of the PS4 console. Indeed, one could say that the only thing missing was the console itself.

Sony CEO Andrew House put forward a number of bold intentions. The Playstation 4 is to be the ‘most powerful platform ever; simple and adaptive’, with ‘socially enriched content’ and a design not only suited to players, but developers as well.

The results offered ranged from astounding to questionable. David Cage, the head of the French studio Quantum Dream that brought us the critically acclaimed Indigo Prophecy, announced that developers are now limited ‘only by our imaginations’. He presented the result of a number of new facial rendering tools made possible by the PS4: an incredible 3D rendered face, lifelike and detailed to a degree only previously seen in the best CGI films. It remains to be seen how much of this is mere showmanship for cutscenes, and how much can be applied to general gameplay. The questionable applicability of projected features also applied elsewhere, such as Medium Molecule Studio’s ‘3D sculpting’ tool, which will uti-

lise the Move Controller in an attempt to bring 3D graphics tools to the gamers themselves.

A number of new features were also revealed concerning the ‘Playstation Network’, this time by David Perry—CEO of California-based company Gaikai. He emphasised how the PS4 will utilise social networking on a whole new level.

By combining popular social platforms such as Facebook with Ustream, the first gaming social network ‘with meaning’ is on its way. This social element will have a new impact on gameplay, such as being able to instantly donate items and weapons in real time. With Ustream’s ‘multicasting’ function you will not only be able to project your gameplay live to any location or device you want, but your friends will also be able to contribute to or even take over your game-

play for you wherever they are. Much of this is building on existing features and other online systems, though a fully integrated gaming network of the calibre promised to us on Wednesday has yet to be created. If it can be done, we will have a lot to look forward to.

Mr Perry also promised a new, extensive use of cloud storage for the Playstation Network. A project has been green lit by Sony to make the ‘fastest global network’ in existence; one that will allow PS4 users to access a library of games from the original Playstation right up to the PS4, and play them instantly. Again, downloadable games are old hat, but the key here is the scale. Sony claims it will create a gargantuan library at the gamers’ fingertips. If done correctly, this could combat the tendency of gamers to download potential-

ly damaging pirated versions of games for free, which would be a great victory for Sony.

With extensive social networking, easy access to such a large cloud library of games, and with the results of the upcoming projects to look forward to, Mr Perry confidently promised gamers the ‘past, present and future at their fingertips’.

What then, were we not shown? The most glaring missing piece was the console itself.

No model of the Playstation 4 was actually revealed, failing to give a truly material quality to the many features that have been promised to us. This huge range of online features and games also highlights one of the more worrying development plans for the PS4: the demise of second-hand games.

With so much connectivity and sharing, it would be easy for Sony to apply its patented

technology, which would only allow gamers to play games which they have activated and legitimised through the use of a code. This would not only stop gamers from selling games second-hand, but could potentially even stop them from lending games to friends.

A number of impressive release titles were also revealed.

Early on we were shown a trailer for Knack, an adventure game coming to us from Japan Studio and veteran designer Mark Cerny. Trailers were also shown for the Guerrilla Games’ newest addition to the Killzone series—Killzone: Shadow Fall.

From the other corner, Ubisoft revealed its newest sandbox, Watchdogs. Other trailers included Capcom’s Deep Down, inFAMOUS: Second Son from Suckerpunch games and Evolution Studio’s Drive Club. We were also treated to a preview of The Witness, a puzzle game from Jonathon Blow, the creator of the critically acclaimed Braid. Viewers were definitely excited to hear from Blizzard games, though ultimately all that was revealed was an updated version of Diablo 3.

It is safe to say that what has been revealed so far has left the gaming world hungry for more. The main presentation ended with the promise that the PS4 would be released on ‘Holiday 2013’, suggesting a Christmas release. Thankfully, we have E3 to look forward to in June, where the console itself will, hopefully, finally be revealed.

b

¦

Philip Gallagher

VIOLENCE, LIES, AND VIDEOGAMES Nancy Pelosi stands up for video games as debate rages on

these video games, where people have their heads splattered, these movies, these TV shows—why don't you go to your friends in Hollywood and challenge them? Shame them, and say, 'knock it off?’”

A few significant studies have actually been made since the campaign against video games began in earnest, though several previous studies have been quoted in defence of video games as well as against them. In response to Mr Wallace’s question, Mrs Pelosi herself made reference to the figures of mortality resulting from guns in Japan, the country ‘with the most violent games’.

Despite all this, Mrs Pelosi informed Mr Wallace that Japan has ‘the lowest mortality from guns. I don’t know what the explanation is for that; they might have good gun laws’.

This is not the first time that video game violence has entered national debates following such tragedies as the Newtown Shootings. One of the perpetrators of the Columbine High

School Massacre was a young man who regularly worked on custom-made levels for Doom, a shooter known for its high level of gore. Having said this, alternative debates have always accompanied such incidents. Goth singer Marilyn Manson, for example, was heavily criticised after the Columbine Massacre, even appearing on Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine to answer such criticism.

If the depiction of violence in general media was truly, solely, inarguably to be blamed for real life violence, then Mrs Pelosi’s ‘friends in Hollywood’ would indeed have a lot to answer for, and evidently would have had a lot more influence on global media than even the most sceptical of us would have ever thought possible.

Mrs Pelosi herself represents California’s 12th district in Congress, an area that includes 80 percent of San Francisco, and a bustling gaming industry besides. Arguably she has her own reasons for supporting the industry in this debate,

though one could easily point to the number of violent games developed overseas that retain a popular following in America.

Others have taken Mrs Pelosi’s statistics further. Washington Post journalist Max Fisher concluded that countries that play violent video games also tend to be some of the world’s safest’, although they are also some of the world’s most developed countries. The conclusion one may take from this is that video games actually have little to do with gun crime, or that perhaps, as Mrs Pelosi has stated, further scientific study is needed before anyone is ‘shamed’ or turned into a scapegoat.

Although the holes in the debate against violent video games are fairly evident, certain issues may warrant governmental attention. An issue many have touched on is the sale of violent video games to minors. This is an important point, and depending on the results of the studies currently being made, perhaps all that is called for is the recognition

by parents that the age ratings on the front of video game boxes actually mean something.

Regardless, Mrs Pelosi’s need for defensive protests is perhaps evidence of how a debate sparked by tragedy has shamelessly been turned into a political tool. It is hardly appropriate to disregard scientific enquiry when considering the potential for an entirely new law, particularly given past instances when such laws failed to gather significant support.

The impact of violent media on real life is an old topic, and further investigations and explanations are features that ought to be explored. Any ‘shame’ surely ought to rest firmly on the heads of those who would disregard such scientific investigations based on unwarranted assumptions that they themselves already know better. Evidently the real world is more confusing and immoral than most video games would play it out to be.

¦ Philip Gallagher

22

26.02.2013 | The Beaver

SOME SYRIOUS CONSEQUENCES Tanned Ale

In an announcement the sent shockwaves rippling throughout Europe, the LSE withdrew from a conference set to be held in Tripoli last week following the introduction of new security issues by the government of Libya, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, President Putin and Mossad.

Owing to these increased measures, prompted by the recent revolution/coup// French “Intervention”/ countercoup in whatever country is currently trending on Twitter, the LSE announced withdrawal from the Committee.

Saif K/Qu-C/Z/ad(d)af/ ph/ii[-e] a former Special Envoy for the School (now better known as “Squealer”) was the first to be denied entry to the Conference. This was not, as previously reported, because of any homicidal/ dictatorial tendencies, but rather because the scanner was unable to find a useable print to affirm his identity.

Upon his deportation via Tripoli Airport, temporarily held up by a Carbon Inventory mandated by the Grantham Institute, Saif was left in the embarrassing situation of having to hitch-hike back to Brussels, a process that took upwards of six days owing to his inability to thumb a ride and also by being

roped in by RAGCIST to make the journey by going via Prague. Saif expressed his irritation at being deported back to the International Court of Injustice without even getting to lounge on a beach and sip a beverage of his choice stating that, “the Hague won’t even give me a fucking straw, you call that hu-

manity?”

The cancellation of the conference comes as the latest in a series of equally concerning developments in LSE policy, aiming to make us “secure” and “happy”.

Recent demands made by the School include electronic tagging, construction of a wall around the

Library and brain chips pre-programmed with essential LSE69 information.

The latter, part of “Project Mao”, includes the forcible introduction of personality quirks such as not interrupting the class with original intellectual thought, actually turning up to the lectures and an inability to use pronouns correctly.

This was after concerns were raised as to security of books and students in the library, after the third incident of fun was detected in the course selection, the university has decided to clamp down on such frivolities on campus. Commissar Calhouligan stated “I can’t believe that some folks have the nerve to go into the library and think that they can actually enjoy whatever they’re doing.

It’s an absolutely outrageous misuse of students’ time and effort. With these new mind control chips we can eliminate any frivolity at all.”

Reginald, the East Building Asbestos Manager, was unavailable for comment.

STUDENTS’ UNION DOWNGRADED Ginger Whoreby A recent analysis of the vomit stained receipts detailing the entire Students’ Union budgetary spending has revealed that the entire budget of £37.82 has been spent. Which has subsequently led to a reduction in the LSESU’s credit rating to the lowest ever of Z. It was declared “totes unfair homeslice, they didn’t even open the botanical present I gave them to swing their votes, man” by Drunk-

an McKenna.

Having attempted to access these documents via an ignored Freedom of Information Request, the B was forced to photocopy the soiled paperwork, which was securely kept in a locked drawer in the Sabbatical Office labelled “Super-Secret Shit & Empty DC Cans.” The B can also reveal that upwards of 80 per cent of all funds had spent by an inebriated Putin-Day on several rounds of beverages for unnamed students and top-

ping up an Oyster Card.

This spending was, of course, approved by the rather mysterious elder Budgetary Committee of the ARC. What is missing from the documents is exactly who within the Students’ Union would be so open to blowing the budget on overpriced alcohol. Rumours of a statement written by Students’ Union Operative #1 are rife, however, the B is as yet unsure whether this operative is even a real person, or just Putin-Day in dis-

guise.

Ultimately this union is now rated as even worse than the Strand Polytechnic’s Union at repaying debt. This has been further complicated by the lack of any information detailing whether the Students’ Union understand the concept of “debt”.

This has raised concerns over the validity of the upcoming SU elections, in a fashion reminiscent of [insert undemocratic country the LSE has illegally taken

money from here], the democratic system is already teetering, the complete absence of cash could be the ஊQDO IDFWRU WKDW HQGV WKLV moribund form of “student” “government”.

The B believes this will see the instigation of external election observers from the UN, HTTP and LSESUFARB to watch over the current democratic process and ensure no form of dePRFUDF\ FDQ HYHU ஋RXULVK LQ the Union.

Features

The Beaver | 26.02.2013

Features

23

The World this Week

EU budget battle

UK loses AAA credit rating

Marion Osborne

Students reject Scottish Independence Students at the University of Glasgow were balloted using the same question as will be used in the referendum itself, due next year. When asked â&#x20AC;&#x153;should Scotland be an independent country?â&#x20AC;?, 62 per cent (1614) voted no, while 38 per cent (967) said yes.

Lib Dems deny Nick Clegg knew of Lord Rennard claims Business Secretary Vince Cable has said he and Nick Clegg had â&#x20AC;&#x153;absolutely notâ&#x20AC;? known about claims of sexual misconGXFW DJDLQVW WKH /E 'HPâ&#x20AC;ŤÚ&#x2018;â&#x20AC;ŹV former chief executive, Lord Rennard. Channel 4 News aired claims of impropriety, but some press reports questioned if the deputy PM had been told about them years ago.

Lord Rennard denies the allegations.

Cardinal Keith Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Brien â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;accused of inappropriate actsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; %ULWDLQâ&#x20AC;ŤÚ&#x2018;â&#x20AC;ŹV PRVW VHQLRU 5R man Catholic cleric has been reported to the Vatican over claims of inappropriate behaviour going back 30 years, a newspaper says. A statement from the Scottish Catholic Church said Cardinal 2â&#x20AC;ŤÚ&#x2018;â&#x20AC;Ź%ULHQ FRQWHVWHG WKH claims and was taking legal advice.

The Heads of State of all the EU Member States convened in the European Council to deFLGH RQ WKH PXOWL DQQXDO ŕŽ&#x160; QDQ cial framework (MFF) for the next seven years, the 20142020 budget. The EU budget constitutes one per cent of the GDP of each of the member states, and although each year the budget is decided speFLŕŽ&#x160; FDOO\ WKH QDWLRQDO OHDGHUV agree on a seven year frameZRUN WR UHŕŽ&#x2039; HFW ORQJHU WHUP aims and strategies. At the end of 26 hour negotiations, naps on delegation sofas and VHYHUDO RXWŕŽ&#x160; W FKDQJHV WKH ŕŽ&#x160; nal agreement was wrought at 908 billion euros. This means a 3.3 per cent cut (32 billion euros) from the previous 0)) DQG WKH ŕŽ&#x160; UVW UHDO WHUPV FXW LQ (8 KLVWRU\ ,Q WKH ŕŽ&#x160; UVW 0)) VLQFH WKH JOREDO ŕŽ&#x160; QDQFLDO crisis, member state austerity has formally become EU austerity, continuing the exit strategy from the crisis. The budget also incorporates the objectives of the Europe 2020 strategy with an environmental and social focus of sustainable growth.

The breakdown of spending, the cutting of the cake and where the knife is sliced GRZQ DQG LQGHHG WKH HŕŽ&#x2030; HF tiveness of the spending are more important than the headOLQH ŕŽ&#x160; JXUH RI WKH EXGJHW ,W LV here where the key battles are fought. The biggest slice of the budget at 39 per cent, the Common Agricultural Policy, largely survives intact, with a reduction in direct payments, and more funding allocated to poorer farmers in Central and Eastern Europe. The budget reinforces and tightens macroeconomic conditionality, as the European Council aims to UHVWULFW FUHGLW ŕŽ&#x2039; RZV LQWR FRXQ WULHV FODVVLŕŽ&#x160; HG DV LQ â&#x20AC;ŤÚ?â&#x20AC;ŹH[FHVVLYH GHŕŽ&#x160; FLWâ&#x20AC;Ť Ú&#x2018;â&#x20AC;ŹRU â&#x20AC;ŤÚ?â&#x20AC;ŹH[FHVVLYH LPEDO DQFHâ&#x20AC;Ť Ú&#x2018;â&#x20AC;ŹDQG ZKLFK IDLO WR DGKHUH WR â&#x20AC;ŤÚ?â&#x20AC;ŹWKHLU EXGJHWDU\ DQG UHIRUP FRPPLWPHQWVâ&#x20AC;Ť Ú&#x2018;â&#x20AC;Ź The research, innovation and technological development budget, which is considered crucial for boosting FXUUHQWO\ ŕŽ&#x2039; DJJLQJ (XURSHDQ competitiveness, will increase from 55 to 71 billion euros in the next seven years. The investment in education and human skills via the Erasmus scheme will receive real growth in funding, as an im-

Britain in particular keen in part to appease Eurosceptics.

'HVSLWH &DPHURQâ&#x20AC;ŤÚ&#x2018;â&#x20AC;ŹV â&#x20AC;ŤÚ?â&#x20AC;ŹYLFWRU\â&#x20AC;Ť Ú&#x2018;â&#x20AC;Ź the British contribution will still rise due to the British rebate concessions negotiated by the former Labour government of 2005.

The pro-Europe French President, Francois Hollande GLG QRW HVWDEOLVK D â&#x20AC;ŤÚ?â&#x20AC;Ź0HUN DQGHâ&#x20AC;Ť Ú&#x2018;â&#x20AC;ŹDOOLDQFH ZLWK *HUPDQ Chancellor Merkel and France was not a winner at the summit. Politicians demonstrated the typical response to concessions or losses by blaming other EU members, the Coun-

fund, which targets regions where youth unemployment is at levels of over 25 per cent, XVLQJ â&#x20AC;Ť<Ú?â&#x20AC;ŹRXWK *XDUDQWHHVâ&#x20AC;Ť Ú&#x2018;â&#x20AC;ŹDQG D â&#x20AC;Ť(Ú?â&#x20AC;ŹXURSHDQ $OOLDQFH IRU $S SUHQWLFHVKLSVâ&#x20AC;Ť Ú&#x2018;â&#x20AC;Ź The summit was no picnic.

Hard bargaining took place across the tables and, contrary to attempts by Heads of State to portray themselves as winners in their own countries, as in all sports there were winners and losers.

None had their cake and ate it. Apparently David Cameron VHFXUHG KLV â&#x20AC;ŤÚ?â&#x20AC;ŹYLFWRU\â&#x20AC;Ť Ú&#x2018;â&#x20AC;ŹRQ +DULER DQG EODFN FRŕŽ&#x2030; HH KDUNLQJ EDFN to student days!

The countries battling for the budget cut have been keen to draw national media attention to its historic nature, with

cil setting and indeed anyone other than themselves. In the Anglo-French contest, the result between Cameron and +ROODQGH PD\ EH UHŕŽ&#x2039; HFWHG on the rugby pitch in the Six Nations match this Saturday.

8QOLNH RQ WKH ŕŽ&#x160; HOG WKH\â&#x20AC;ŤÚ&#x2018;â&#x20AC;ŹUH QRW keeping score, although Hollande did secure a hit on the CAP by looking after the protected species of French farmers.

The German government was pleased with the focus on ŕŽ&#x160; VFDO GLVFLSOLQH VWUXFWXUDO UH forms and solidarity, although opposition parties were less happy at the cuts. Bulgaria was happy as the biggest net EHQHŕŽ&#x160; FLDU\ LQ WHUPV RI (8 funds measured against the FRXQWU\â&#x20AC;ŤÚ&#x2018;â&#x20AC;ŹV JURVV QDWLRQDO LQ

JAN STROHDIEK

5DWLQJV DJHQF\ 0RRG\â&#x20AC;ŤÚ&#x2018;â&#x20AC;ŹV FXW WKH 8.â&#x20AC;ŤÚ&#x2018;â&#x20AC;ŹV WRS UDWH WR Aa1. The agency, which LV WKH ŕŽ&#x160; UVW WR GRZQJUDGH WKH FRXQWU\â&#x20AC;ŤÚ&#x2018;â&#x20AC;ŹV UDWLQJ VLQFH 1978, said expectations were that growth would â&#x20AC;&#x153;remain sluggish over the next few yearsâ&#x20AC;?. Germany and Canada are the only major economies to currently have a top AAA rating.

portant facet of the Europe â&#x20AC;ŤÚ&#x2018;â&#x20AC;ŹV EURDGHU VRFLDO DJHQGD 7KH â&#x20AC;Ť&Ú?â&#x20AC;ŹRQQHFWLQJ (XURSH )DFLOLW\â&#x20AC;Ť Ú&#x2018;â&#x20AC;ŹDLPHG DW LPSURYLQJ WKH (8â&#x20AC;ŤÚ&#x2018;â&#x20AC;ŹV HQHUJ\ WUDQVSRUW DQG broadband networks and an important part of European recovery and growth, has far lower funding than that proposed by the Commission. The fast broadband plan took the biggest hit, with nine billion euros knocked down to one billion.

A positive outcome is the redirection of funding to a QHZ â&#x20AC;Ť<Ú?â&#x20AC;ŹRXWK 8QHPSOR\PHQW ,QLWLDWLYHâ&#x20AC;Ť Ú&#x2018;â&#x20AC;ŹD VL[ ELOOLRQ HXUR

come, with a net balance of four per cent. The Czech Republic was pleased with its twenty billion euro allocation, primarily through cohesion funds. Italy was largely happy at the extra funds allocated in WKH ŕŽ&#x160; QDO URXQG DQG 3RODQG ZDV happy with its deal, although not the collective EU budget.

6SDLQ UHPDLQV D QHW EHQHŕŽ&#x160; ciary and particularly under WKH <RXWK 8QHPSOR\PHQW ,QL tiative, with Spanish youth unemployment at nearly 60 per cent. The usual horse-trading tactics ensued to protect national interests but it was a friendlier game than the November summit.

The next round in the budget tournament is a waiting game for the European Council, with the ball in the (XURSHDQ 3DUOLDPHQWâ&#x20AC;ŤÚ&#x2018;â&#x20AC;ŹV FRXUW 7KH EXGJHWâ&#x20AC;ŤÚ&#x2018;â&#x20AC;ŹV VXFFHVV UHOLHV upon European Parliament approval by an absolute majority vote, according to the new powers it received under the Lisbon Treaty. The vote is planned for March. If the Parliament rejects the budget, it would mean the rollover of the 2013 budget to 2014, uncertainty over long term spending and a renewed budgetary crisis. The parliament wanted a substantial real terms Budget increase, with the emphasis on research, development and competitiveness, so this budget deal is by no means guaranteed. The President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz is rallying support to block the cuts. There is speculation that it will be a secret vote, to ensure the independHQFH RI 0(3Vâ&#x20AC;Ť Ú&#x2018;â&#x20AC;ŹYRWHV IUHH IURP national party pressures in particular. Cameron urges all British MEPs to support the budget deal, and condemns the use of the secret vote as â&#x20AC;ŤÚ?â&#x20AC;ŹFRPSOHWHO\ ZURQJâ&#x20AC;Ť Ú&#x2018;â&#x20AC;Ź The economic crisis continues as Eurostat reports a 0.6 per cent contraction in GDP DFURVV WKH (XUR]RQH LQ WKH ŕŽ&#x160; nal quarter of 2012. Politically, upcoming elections across the EU may mean more changes of government, potentially to right wing parties in Cyprus and Italy, which may lead to a change of priorities and dynamics in the Eurozone over the course of 2013. The EU budget ball has taken shape and is up in the air. Watch the next move with interest.

24

Features

26.02.2013 |

The Beaver

Mississippi passes the 13th Amendment Welcome Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re reading this again? Great. Keep up the good work, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s nice to know someone is. If you have a topic you would like to write about please drop us an email: features@thebeaveronline.co.uk Now back on to much more interesting things.

So, the free market is seems to be dooming the economy as ever. The AAA credit rating for the UK has been demolished. Moodyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s announced on Friday night that it had cut the Governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bond rating one notch from â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;AAAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the highest possible level â&#x20AC;&#x201C; to â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Aa1â&#x20AC;&#x2122;. The move is admittedly one hell of a set back for George Osborne, who has faced criticism that his strategy for dealing with UKâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s huge debt burden is failing to deliver.

So, do we now have to reverse the cuts and back track away from the austerity programme that has dominated the headlines in recent years. Does this mean we are on a downward spiral?

This all seems quite depressing really doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t it.

Certainly, as Clarke notes its going to take years for the UK to earn back its gold plated credit rating.

Now, I have no intention of defending the chancellor here, this is a political embarrassment for Osborne, having staked so much on the maintenance of the AAA rating. There have (of course) been calls for his resignation already.

But is it really all that bad?

Politically, yes this is very damaging, but really markets have already priced this downgrade in, nothing is likely to shock the current economic realities. In fact, for reasons that seem bizarre, several countries that have faced downgrades have actually seen their bond costs go down.

There are current only two countries that maintain their AAA rating, Germany and Canada - we are hardly on our own in the storm of the world economy and debt crisis currently on going. In reality there is little impact.

It is probably also important to point out the other credit ratings agencies have still, though for how long is unsure, have the UKâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s credit rating at the AAA level.

I would also like to remind critics that before they decide to claim total victory in this debate about Britainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s IXWXUH LW PLJKW EH ZRUWK\ KROGLQJ RŕŽ&#x2030; RQ WKH FULWLFLVP WKDW the collation is cutting â&#x20AC;&#x153;too deep, too fastâ&#x20AC;?.

Why has Osborne been criticised, well, the credit ratings agency criticises him for the slower-than-expected â&#x20AC;ŤÚ&#x201D;â&#x20AC;ŹSDFHâ&#x20AC;Ť Ú&#x2022;â&#x20AC;ŹRI â&#x20AC;ŤÚ&#x201D;â&#x20AC;ŹGHŕŽ&#x160; FLW DQG GHEW WR *'3 UHGXFWLRQâ&#x20AC;ŤÚ&#x201D; Ú&#x2022;â&#x20AC;ŹPRXQWLQJ debt levelsâ&#x20AC;? and failure â&#x20AC;&#x153;to reverse the debt trajectoryâ&#x20AC;? since 2008. As Tim Montgomerie notes Moodyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t TXHVWLRQLQJ WKH QHHG IRU LPPHGLDWH DQG VXVWDLQHG GHŕŽ&#x160; FLW UHGXFWLRQ ,W ZDV H[SUHVVLQJ FRQFHUQ WKDW GHŕŽ&#x160; FLW UHGXF tion had fallen behind schedule.

Are we likely to see an even greater reduction in our credit rating in the future? Possibly. But if you read the report Moodyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s threatens to downgrade Britain even further if the Chancellor shows the potential to have â&#x20AC;&#x153;reduced poOLWLFDO FRPPLWPHQW WR ŕŽ&#x160; VFDO FRQVROLGDWLRQ â&#x20AC;ŤÚ&#x2022;â&#x20AC;Ź Thus the reason Moodyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s downgraded the UK is beFDXVH 2VERUQH KDVQâ&#x20AC;ŤÚ&#x2018;â&#x20AC;ŹW SXUVXHG KLV SURJUDPPH RI ŕŽ&#x160; VFDO consolidation as hard as would have been needed.

A tabloid version of the report might have led with the KHDGOLQH â&#x20AC;ŤÚ&#x201D;â&#x20AC;Ź:KHUH DUH DOO WKH FXWV"â&#x20AC;Ť Ú&#x2022;â&#x20AC;Ź/HWV EH KRQHVW RQH can hardly consider this a full endorsement of spend & spend some more strategy. It might ever, potentially be said that those who advocate deeper cuts are being endorsed here.

If anything good comes out of this downgrade it might be that now just a bit more realism in Downing Street regarding the scale of the challenge Britain faces. Any complacency has been shaken from the Treasury, and Osborne will now be focusing on his next budget. The future of the country, and the conservatives rests on it.

Chris Rogers Features Editor Correction: It was pointed out that an article we published last week, entitled â&#x20AC;&#x153;Italian elections - in focusâ&#x20AC;? focused on one party in particular and thus the title was misleading.

Additionally it has been pointed out the content made it more suitable in the comment section of the paper. We apologise.

KJD

blogger neatly captures this YLHZ VWDWLQJ â&#x20AC;ŤÚ?â&#x20AC;Ź7KLV LV ŕŽ&#x2039; XŕŽ&#x2030; $V On the 6th of December far as I know, Mississippi has 1865, the thirteenth Amend- no slaves.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; Indeed, on a pracment to the Constitution of tical level, it is undeniable the United States of America WKDW WKH UHFHQW UDWLŕŽ&#x160; FDWLRQ abolishing slavery was offi- will serve no radical purpose. cially noted. It stated: â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Nei- On a similar note, another ther slavery nor involuntary anonymous online blogger servitude, except as a pun- has argued that it should ishment for crime whereof not be seen that until now, the party shall have been Mississippi has implicitly duly convicted, shall exist endorsed slavery. The blogwithin the United States, or ger claimed that â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;sometimes any place subject to their ju- things just get forgotten, and risdiction.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; Almost a century stay forgotten because they and a half later, the state of have ceased to be of practiMississippi, having rejected cal importanceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. Again, valid the amendment in 1865, of- points are made. While racficially ratified it on the 7th ism may never be wholly reof February 2013, becoming moved from the USA, or any the final state in the USA to country for that matter, the do so.

United States had re-elected 7KH ŕŽ&#x160; OP â&#x20AC;ŤÚ?â&#x20AC;Ź/LQFROQâ&#x20AC;Ť Ú&#x2018;â&#x20AC;ŹHQFRXU IRU D VHFRQG WHUP WKHLU ŕŽ&#x160; UVW aged a local citizen, Ranjan ever African American PresiBatra of Mississippi to inves- dent. To accuse Mississippi tigate what took place fol- of overt racism until now lowing his stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s initial re- thus seems misplaced. To jection of the amendment. To get to the crux of their arguhis shock, he found that Mis- ment, an analogy may serve VLVVLSSL QHYHU UDWLŕŽ&#x160; HG LW 7KH XV ZHOO 8QWLO ŕŽ&#x160; YH \HDUV DJR state did vote to ratify the the government of South amendment in 1995. Howev- Australia was still technicaler, through an unexplained ly at war with Japan. Clearly, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;clerical errorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Mississippi WKLV FRQŕŽ&#x2039; LFW GDWLQJ IURP WKH never officially notified the Second World War has long United States Archivist of passed, and therefore legal the ratification. Consequent- recognition of this widely acly, in terms of legal status, FHSWHG VWDWH RI DŕŽ&#x2030; DLUV UHSUH Mississippi has officially sents an exercise in â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;rubberbeen on the side of slavery stampingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, rather than an until this month. action that will majorly alThis discovery prompted ter the state of relations beMississippiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s current Secre- tween the two countries. tary of State, Delbert HoseNevertheless, the discusPDQQ WR ŕŽ&#x160; OH WKH UHTXLVLWH sion must extend beyond the paperwork on the 30th of implications on a practical January 2013. On the 7th of level. The 7th of February February, Charles A. Barth, 2013 is intrinsically of value. the director of the Federal With Mississippiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s actions, a Register, having received the line can be drawn marking resolution, declared: â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;With an end-point to a dark chapthis action, the State of Mis- ter in American history. The VLVVLSSL KDV UDWLŕŽ&#x160; HG WKH WKLU symbolic power of the ratiteenth Amendment to the ŕŽ&#x160; FDWLRQ ZLOO QR GRXEW EH RI Constitution of the United greater meaning to certain States.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; Hosemann comment- sections of the United Statesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; ed that the passage of the bill population. Yet the sense of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;was long overdueâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. Yet, all ŕŽ&#x160; QDOLW\ WKH SDVVDJH EULQJV this begs the question, does should not be rendered irrelit really matter? What should evant, without substance or be made of this revelation? purposeless simply because Is it simply shocking, but be- the amendment has ceased yond that inconsequential? to be applicable in every-day An anonymous online life.

Beth Davies

Perhaps of greater concern to the USA should be the impact the revelation could have on its moral standing. Ultimately, it is a unipolar power that strives to project an image of itself as the leader of world freedom. On the 25th of September 2012, President Obama delivered a speech to the Clinton Global Initiative on the issue of human trafficking, which Obama himself described as â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;modern slaveryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. He declared: â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Now, as President, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve made it clear that the United States will continue to be a leader in this global movement. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve got a comprehensive strategy. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re shining a spotlight on the dark corners where it SHUVLVWV â&#x20AC;Ť Ú&#x2018;â&#x20AC;Ź7KHVH FRQŕŽ&#x160; GHQWO\ delivered words can only be read as highly embarrassing in light of recent events in Mississippi. The United States position of silence on WKH PDWWHU RQO\ H[HPSOLŕŽ&#x160; HV this. It seems the American spotlight proved far less pervasive than Obama might have hoped.

Of course, America has experienced many public embarrassments in the past to little avail. The overdue UDWLŕŽ&#x160; FDWLRQ RI WKH WKLUWHHQWK Amendment will likely just be another added to a long list. However, it raises wider questions that cannot be dismissed lightly. In the context of the partially driven human rights â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;war on terrorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and humanitarian interventions, can the West convincingly reject criticisms that such measures are simply national interest dressed up as ethical action? If knowledge of the failure to ratify the amendment becomes more widespread, could opponents of the human rights regime use this as leverage? Humanitarianism as another tool of Western imperialism may be an overstretch of reality, but a failure to legally live up to ones own standards can only work to bolster such arguments, rather than eradicate them.

The Beaver | 26.02.2013

Features

Cameronâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mission to India

Philosophy Problems

- A new special relationship?

THE PRIME MINISTERâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S OFFICE

was â&#x20AC;&#x153;no limitâ&#x20AC;? to the number of students who could study In his visit to India earlier in the UK. By making it easier this month, David Cameron for business leaders and stucontinued to promote his mis- dents to come to the UK, the sion to establish one of the 3ULPH 0LQLVWHU XUJHV ,QGLD WR most important partnerships reduce its trade barriers in in the 21st Century. The sec- banking and insurance.

With the current account ond trip to India within one year signals the improvement GHŕŽ&#x160; FLW DW SHU FHQW RI *'3 of British-Indian relations as and worsening since Septemone of Cameronâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most impor- ber 2012, India will probably tant foreign policy objectives. need to consider liberalizing Maintaining their shared his- its markets. Due to slowing tory and common law and economic growth and chaotic language, Cameron attempts bureaucracy, India already to further drive the rise of a faces the possibility of losing new â&#x20AC;&#x153;special relationshipâ&#x20AC;? out on FDI to other emerging between the two countries as economies.

Although Cameron has equals (the UK will stop prospoken at length on existing viding aid to India in 2015).

As such, on the 20th of trade ties between the two February, Cameron became countries, the UKâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s main exWKH ŕŽ&#x160; UVW 3ULPH 0LQLVWHU WR ports to India include gems, pay a visit Jallianwala Bagh, a silver, and metal.

What India needs is techpublic park in Amritsar where hundreds of Indians were mas- QRORJLFDO H[SHUWLVH DQG ŕŽ&#x160; QDQ sacred during peaceful pro- cial support.

As it continues the rapid test by troops under British command in 1919. Although process of industrialization, he described it as â&#x20AC;&#x153;deeply investment must be made into shamefulâ&#x20AC;? and â&#x20AC;&#x153;monstrousâ&#x20AC;?, transport and infrastructure.

Its interests here lie in inCameron stopped short of apologizing for the incident. GXVWULHV VXFK DV *HUPDQ\ PD His expression regret has still been appreciated by many in the country.

7KH YLVLW WR 3XQMDE ZDV VHHQ as an attempt to reach out to Britainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 800,000 strong Sikh community, many of whom hold decisive marginal seats in London and Leicester. This was perhaps an attempt by WKH &RQVHUYDWLYH 3DUW\ ZKR won only sixteen per cent of the ethnic minority vote in the 2010 elections, to address its inability to connect with many ethnic voters in the country.

The migration of Indian citizens to the UK remained a difficult subject for Cameron as he attempted to convey that the UK is not becoming hostile to Indian immigrants despite his tough rhetoric on immigration at home.

While promising constituHQWV KHUH WKDW EHQHŕŽ&#x160; WV KHDOWK care, and legal aid will be further restricted for immigrants in the UK, Cameron promised the people of India that there THE PRIME MINISTERâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S OFFICE

Devyani Garg

chinery. However, the UK has WKH SRWHQWLDO WR EH D VLJQLŕŽ&#x160; cant provider of FDI. A deal to build a corriGRU OLQNLQJ ,QGLDâ&#x20AC;ŤÚ&#x2018;â&#x20AC;ŹV ŕŽ&#x160; QDQFLDO centre, Mumbai, and its tech centre, Bangalore, has been passed.

This will be funded and planned through a partnership between the British and Indian public and private sectors. The deal will be worth up to $25 billion and represents a VLJQLŕŽ&#x160; FDQW VWHS IRUZDUG LQ WKH trade relations between the two countries.

The UK is to provide techQLFDO DQG ŕŽ&#x160; QDQFLDO VXSSRUW WR the project, with British architects and contractors helping to plan construction of a corridor of business and housing between the two cities. However, Cameron has also made FRQVLGHUDEOH HŕŽ&#x2030; RUWV WR VHOO arms contracts in India. India has been in talks with the French for French Rafale, however, Cameron has attempted to negotiate with the Indian government by offering a possible price reduc-

WLRQ IRU WKH (XURŕŽ&#x160; JKWHU 7KH (XURŕŽ&#x160; JKWHU JURXS FRQVLVWV RI %ULWLVK *HUPDQ ,WDOLDQ DQG Spanish engineering and inYHVWPHQW ,W KDV PDGH HŕŽ&#x2030; RUWV to sell 126 Typhoon jets worth $11 billion to Indian on Monday. In this industry especially, Cameron aims to promote Britain as Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x153;partner of choiceâ&#x20AC;?.

Britain must increase its business with fast-growing emerging markets and India needs foreign investment.

However, it is possible that India would rather see Britain as its gateway into the European market and the Conservativesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Euro-skepticism is in this respect concerning.

In the last year, Britain has opened up a deputy high commission office in Hyderabad and initiated plans for one in Chandigarh.

Although some headway has been made on trade relations between the two countries, there is a way to go before any positive kind of â&#x20AC;&#x153;special relationshipâ&#x20AC;? based on commerce, culture, or history.

25

By Chris Rogers

Equality, the great modern ideal of the age. Equality is often considered intuitively to have an intrinsic value. When we look at two societies the one that is more equal (ceteris paribus) is considered to be the better. Many questions exist, not least, why equality as a value? Waldron argues contemporary philosophy canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t ŕŽ&#x160; QG D VXLWDEOH EDVLV IRU LW However in the column, I want to propose some arguments that suggest a just society need not be equal.

If you are able to refute these arguments you ought to ŕŽ&#x160; QG \RXU FRPPLWPHQW PRUH secure than before.

First we must distinguish the intrinsic and instrumental versions of equality. Instrumental arguments say that equality could lead to a better society, but this is merely accidental, it could have been otherwise. This is not what we normally mean when we say equality has value. We mean that it is intrinsic; that there is something good, something valuable about equality, or that there is disvalue in inequality.

First arguing against equality is the great argument known as the levelling down objection. This argues that equality has no intrinsic moral value, because it would advocate levelling down the rich.

Would the situation of the world be in any way improved if we were to take everything the rich owned and burned it, levelling them down the level of the average citizen.

Is the world actually improved in anyway simply by hurting the rich, not improving the lot of anyone else (not that society would be improved - that would make it an instrumental reason) - but that that society is preferable, WKH RQO\ GLŕŽ&#x2030; HUHQFH WKDW D VHF tion of the population is a lot poorer.

In the same way imagine two people who are perfectly equal, and you spy a $100 QRWH ŕŽ&#x2039; RDWLQJ WRZDUGV WKHP you can either leave it and let RQH ŕŽ&#x160; QG LW FUHDWLQJ LQHTXDOLW\ or kick it deftly into a river destroying it. Equality as a moral idea advocates the latter. But is this really acceptable. What is made better by this?

Still not convinced, try the thought experiment of the world of billionaires, and trillionaires. You have a non trivLDO EHQHŕŽ&#x160; W WR RŕŽ&#x2030; HU WKHP VD\ D nice bottle wine. Who do you give it to? I suggest that we DUH LQGLŕŽ&#x2030; HUHQW DV WR ZKR UH ceives it, but under egalitarianism justice demands that ZH RŕŽ&#x2030; HU LW WR WKH ELOOLRQDLUHV But can we really believe this is a demand of justice?

So, can you solve these problems? Why should we be egalitarians.

26

Features

Avigdor Lieberman: Game Over?

26.02.2013 | The Beaver

The merits of Article 17 andre Bogomolov represented the Soviet Union on the Commission on Human Rights though apparently was unable to direct the draft in order to VXLWDEO\ LPSUHVV VHQLRU ŕŽ&#x160; JXUHV in Moscow; the USSR, Belarus, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Poland, and Ukraine all abstained from signing the UDHR. Another key facet in the DGPLVVLRQ RI $UWLFOH PXVW EH WKH LQŕŽ&#x2039; XHQFH RI WKH &RQVWL tution of the United States of America. Chaired by an American, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Vice-Chaired by a member of the Chinese Guomidang, whose political ideology was heavily LQŕŽ&#x2039; XHQFHG E\ $PHULFDQ FRQVWL tutionalism, the Commission on Human Rights was undoubtedly ready to accommodate some OHVVRQV OHDUQHG IURP LWV predecessor, though Dr Peng

spite its chaotic violence, the SURFHHGLQJV RI HYHQWXDOO\ gave way to a proposed Jacobin constitution which guaranteed XQLYHUVDO VXŕŽ&#x2030; UDJH UHJDUGOHVV of gender, wealth, or political preference, a proposal which would have been impossible in the feudal, monarchical France of the ancien rĂŠgime.

This constitution was eventually delayed by the pressures of war. Across Europe, as well as in East Asia, the arbitrary removal of property, or land reform to give it its socially acceptable name, helped to break down centuries-old feudal ties and establish a new, increasingly democratic trend.

America, lacking a feudal past, never had to overcome these obstacles and, perhaps, does not appreciate the oppressive side of the right to

Chun Chang did urge the removal of all references to God and nature in order to encourage universalism.

Importantly, one value which is enshrined in the US Constitution above all others is that of the right to private property.

The political system, with its acclaimed checks and balances, was designed to stop a wave of public support bringing a radical government to power in America which, in the nightmare scenario envisaged by the Founding Fathers, would then proceed to arbitrarily deprive the members of this landed aristocracy of their property. The indirect election of the President and the Senate, the lack of nominating conventions, and the separation of powers were intended to keep this ĂŠlite in control of American politics and maintain the staunch defence of private property. Inequality has followed.

Private property inhibits equality, just as it often inhibits true progress. Arbitrary removal of private property fuelled the French Revolution, yet, de-

property.

Either way, it would be wrong to say that the right to private property has been a cornerstone of Western democracy and its protection does not deserve a place alongside the more prescient and necessary provisions of the UDHR. 7KH H[DPSOH RI $UWLFOH serves to illustrate the dynamic nature of Human Rights. In the context of the beginnings of the &ROG :DU IDFHG ZLWK D FRQŕŽ&#x2039; LFW with revolutionary, revisionist, communist powers, the maintenance of private property appeared to be an essential road block to this totalitarian system.

However, in the post-Cold War era, this must be re-evaluated. Private property is no longer a road block to a dead ideology, it is instead a road block to equality of person and many of the other rights enshrined in the UDHR. As the world develops and changes, so must the UDHR progress, otherwise it will be left behind, a fate that would represent great tragedy for human society.

Ă&#x17D;ADAM TINWORTH

ing position for Netanyahu and the Israeli political scene as a whole. NetanHe was Benjamin Netanya- yahu, while securing a mahuâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s foreign minister, politi- jority in the Knesset, ran Jamie Pelling cal partner and eventually on a combined ticket with part of an electoral alliance Liebermanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s party to form Property, and the right to it, to secure a majority in the Likud Yisrael Beiteinu; as- KDV EHHQ XVHG DV D MXVWLŕŽ&#x160; FDWLRQ for many of the worst excesses Israeli Knesset. sociation with a controverHe has inspired both ad- VLDO SROLWLFDO ŕŽ&#x160; JXUH RQ WULDO of human society.

Inequality, war, and the hidmiration and ferocious con- can be generally assumed eous mark on Western civilisademnation for his perceived to be unwise, though Netantion that was slavery have all anti-Arab stance, question- yahu as of yet still keeps the been defended on the grounds ing the possibility of ever foreign ministerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s position that an individual has the right attaining peace with the open in hope of Liebermanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s to own and defend their propPalestinians and advocating return. erty. harsh measures to â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;ensureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; This appears increasIt would seem incredible the loyalty of Israeli citi- ingly unlikely each passing then that this tool of oppression zens. day; a government must be KDV EHHQ FRGLŕŽ&#x160; HG LQ $UWLFOH But now a corruption formed by March or a sec- of the Universal Declaration of scandal and investigation ond round of elections will Human Rights. While Article 4 threatens to undo one of the be held, predictions for inhibits the return of slavery most divisive members of which indicate that Yesh and various other United Nathe Israeli right and poten- Atid will overtake Likud Yis- tions regulations strictly govtially remove him from poli- rael Beiteinu in the Knesset. ern the case for war, inequality tics for at least seven years. Netanyahu is unlikely to be is imperfectly addressed by any Who is Lieberman, and what willing to risk the position of the other 30 Articles.

All humans are born equal does his disappearance of the Israeli center-right from politics (however long in government, Lieberman it might be) mean for Israel? or not. And though his trial Lieberman, a Soviet-born has nothing to do with his Israeli politician, stands on political positions or the the right of Israeli politics campaign he runs on, links even by its baseline trend will undoubtedly be made towards the favouring of between Liebermanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s curright-wing policies. Em- rent predicament and the bracing the label of being extremist views he previD FRQWURYHUVLDO ŕŽ&#x160; JXUH KH ously espoused. has insisted that this is simSome might call the trial SO\ GXH WR KLP RŕŽ&#x2030; HULQJ QHZ a sham, designed to keep ideas that others have not him out of government out of thought of before or had not political bias; others might dared to think of. praise it precisely because Amongst such â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;ideasâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; in- it keeps him out of governclude calling for the execu- ment, and out of a position tion of Arab members of the where he might do even Knesset who had previously more harm to the tattered negotiated with Hamas, the remnants of Israeli reputainstitution of a forced oath tion in the Arab world. of loyalty on pain of losing Either way, the connecthe right to vote and the tion will not be lost on Israeli but only on vary rare occasions partition of Palestinians out voters; for a voting bloc that do they die that way. Indeed, of the Israeli state so as to has clearly demonstrated a thanks to the right of everymaintain its Jewish nature. shift back towards the Israe- one to own property and not Controversial though he li center-left, this cannot be be arbitrarily deprived of it, might be, not even contro- good news for Netanyahuâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s humans remain equal for such versial persons are beyond original aim of establishing a a small fragment of time after the reach of the law. Lieber- center-right and right-wing birth that it may be questioned ZKHWKHU RU QRW $UWLFOH GL man is currently accused of coalition government. rectly contradicts the inspirafraud and breach of trust The charging of Israeli during his tenure as foreign politicians with corruption WLRQDO ŕŽ&#x160; JXUHKHDG RI WKH 'HFOD minister following an inci- is not a new development ration that is Article 1. $UWLFOH PXVW EH YLHZHG dent in mid-2010 where he with Lieberman; Ehud Olmhad promoted an Israeli dip- ert, former prime minister perhaps more than any other, lomat, Zeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ev Ben Aryeh, fol- of Israel, had been charged within the context of its incepORZLQJ WKH ODWWHUâ&#x20AC;ŤÚ&#x2018;â&#x20AC;ŹV WLS RŕŽ&#x2030; WR with taking bribes in January tion. 1948 was the very beginning of a Cold War not yet beLieberman regarding Israeli 2012. gun and critics of the UDHR police investigations into What makes it more com- have cited this as evidence that potential bribes taken dur- plicated now is its timing the Declaration was little more ing Liebermanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tenure as a and symbolic connection than American propaganda. member of the Knesset. with the condemnation of Its critics claim that it atLieberman has resigned the Israeli right. True or not, tempted to highlight the difsince December 2011 from Netanyahu will have to be ference in civil liberty between the post of foreign minister, extremely careful in choos- the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;land of the freeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, which, and the court charged with ing how to form his coali- let us not forget, was still facpursuing the case will re- tion government; tempting ing severe problems of racial convene on 25 April. as it might be to forge for- inequality and segregation at Liebermanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s removal ward with a predominantly home, and the oppressive Stafrom the scene of power, right-wing cabinet, this in- linist regime of the USSR. combined with the unex- cident will only inspire the Many of the provisions were pected rise of the Israeli greater activism and popu- GHVWLQHG WR KLJKOLJKW GLŕŽ&#x2030; HU center-left in the form of the larity of the Israeli left, and ences between the two blocs, newly-emergent party Yesh the prime minister would be although this was not quite so evident at its inception. AlexAtid, has led to an interest- unwise to ignore it.

Dominic Hung - )RUHLJQ $૸ DLUV

Features

The Beaver | 26.02.2013

27

SU Elections: Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re on their way It is nearly that time of the year again.

That time when Houghton Street comes to life and students are buzzing with excitement. Well, that may be slightly overambitious. What Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m talking about of course, is the Student Union elections.

The SU elections are branded many things. Useless. Irrelevant. Fun for the extreme lefties and far right wingers.

For those hard political campaigners, they are life and death. It is a dress rehearsal in right wing versus left wing, before they enter the real political do-

International Studentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, and RAG PresLGHQW $GG WR WKDW WKH ŕŽ&#x160;YH PHPEHUV RI the executive of the Athletics Union if you are an AU person.

It is going to be a busy few weeks.

The number of people running for election will be extortionate. Every day, these candidates will be chalking their names out on Houghton Street, pinning up posters on every square inch of space, and harassing you on the street for your vote. Freebies will be distributed, your Facebook will no longer be a social domain, but a political arena with friends posting numerous statuses about voting.

Further, socities work together during this time to put together a â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;slateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;.

Political societies all hold secret meetings to decide which set of candidates they want to collectively endorse. This PHDQV WUDGH RŕŽ&#x2030;V EHWZHHQ GLŕŽ&#x2030;HUHQW candidates: â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll vote for your candidate if you vote for mineâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. Essentially, it is an education in what real democracy constitutes: scheming and privately held discussions.

Not only does this give societies SRZHU WR LQŕŽ&#x2039;XHQFH VWXGHQW SROLWLFV LW obviously gives students that opportunity too. Really, it is an opportunity to examine the importance and relevance

dents Union to play.

Moreover, they represent students in meetings with academics and professionals at the LSE about student issues, such as teaching. Student representation in these meetings is fundamental to ensuring that academics are made to acknowledge the student perspective.

Also, making sure that student representatives are pushing to increase the student experience bears some VLJQLŕŽ&#x160;FDQFH ZKHQ FRQVLGHULQJ WKH LQcreased tuition fees. The stakes for LSE students continue to increase as fees continue to increase.

Love it or hate it, the student elec-

main of parliamentary politics.

Over the next few weeks, students will be bombarded by other students FDPSDLJQLQJ IRU YDULRXV GLŕŽ&#x2030;HUHQW SRVLtions, the most important being the full time sabbatical officers. The entire student body has the opportunity to vote in a new General-Secretary; Education Officer; Activities & Development OfŕŽ&#x160;FHU DQG &RPPXQLW\ :HOIDUH 2IILFHU Every full-time sabb is paid ÂŁ26,500, which is rather a lot of money. So there are stakes for everyone involved; students and union hacks alike. This is money being spent that is supposed to improve the quality of our student experience â&#x20AC;&#x201C; vote on it.

In addition to these four, in case you had not had quite enough, there is the opportunity to elect your part-time officers. This includes the following: Ethics & Environment, Anti-Racism Students, LGBT, Womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, Disabled Students, Athletics Union President,

It may sound like hell, or it may sound like a lot of fun. Thinking back to last year, the majority of students were engaged in the goings on of the elections as Jason Wong made headlines for his controversial remarks. Matthew de Jesus, an AU man, got the AU campaigning for him as he ran for Activities & Development Officer under the slogan â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;What would de Jesus doâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;? The Quad was more packed than an averDJH &UXVK RQ HOHFWLRQ QLJKW ZLWK SHRple other than the usual union hacks going to observe the peculiar goings-on of the elections.

Elections are probably one of the most community-orientated things about the LSE. While events such as WKH &RPPXQLW\ )HVWLYDO VWUXJJOH WR JHW everyone engaged, this is something that societies rally around. Each society has the power to endorse candidates and holds hustings to decide who they wish to put their might behind.

of having a students union.

This is all the more relevant considering that students lack engagement with the SU at the LSE. Attendance at the infamous Union General Meeting has diminished in the past years, with &HUWDLQO\ PDQ\ DUH GLVVDWLVŕŽ&#x160;HG ZLWK it judging by National Student Survey satisfaction results. Many do not know what the Students Union does, who is in it, or even that it exists. At the LSE, an arguably more individualistic and careerist institution, a general apathy arises towards campaigning and student politics.

However, the Students Union has delivered on more than one occasion.

They led a campaign against increasing the fees to ÂŁ9,000 which was successful, and led â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;The Only Way Is Ethicsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; FDPSDLJQ IROORZLQJ WKH *DGGDŕŽ&#x160; VFDQdal to pressure the LSE to make ethical changes to how it operated. There is, arguably, an important role for the Stu-

tions are coming up soon. It is a genuinely unique experience to engage in, or disengage from. With rumour having it that there will be at least four people running for General-Secretary, there LV WKH SRWHQWLDO IRU :RQJ HVTXH ŕŽ&#x160;UHworks. Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s go!

LSE STUDENTS UNION

Nona Buckley-Irvine

To see the candidates compete in their ŕ­˝UVW KXVWLQJV KHDG WR WKH 8*0 WKLV 7KXUVGD\ DW SP )ROORZLQJ SP WKH FDQGLGDWHV UXQQLQJ LQ HOHFWLRQV ZLOO RIILFLDOO\ EH DQQRXQFHG DQG FDPSDLJQLQJ ZLOO FRPPHQFH 9RWLQJ LQ WKH HOHFWLRQV RSHQV RQ 0DUFK WK DQG FORVHV 0DUFK WK DW SP 5HVXOWV ZLOO EH DQQRXQFHG LQ WKH 4XDG IURP SP RQZDUGV RQ 0DUFK WK )RU PRUH LQIRUPDWLRQ YLVLW ZZZ OVHVX FRP RU HPDLO O SHGOH\#OVH DF XN

Social

28

26.02.2013

| The Beaver

]

[

Unveiling St. Tropez

Nona Buckley-Irvine on why you should perhaps reconsider St. Tropez

S

t. Tropez is an unlikely destination for the poor university student.

Some may go as far to say that it is downright stupid.

I wholeheartedly agree with this criticism. Renowned for being a land of the wealthy, hot model bodies, and celebrities, it certainly was not where I expected to spend my summer of 2012. However, with my best friend from home in tow, we travelled down to the south of France to see this infamous town.

Now, to be perfectly honest, we actually stayed in St. Maxime, a sleepy little town that overlooked the bay of St. Tropez. St. Maxime itself was pretty and quiet. Pretty, quiet, and bloody expensive.

A taxi that took us about two hundred metres charged us ŕŽ&#x160;IWHHQ HXURV $ VWDQGDUG VDOad cost twenty euros. Drinks â&#x20AC;&#x201C; donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t even get me started.

But what I experienced in St. Maxime in no way prepared me for the horrors to come.

A cute little boat took us over to St. Tropez, with the ŕŽ&#x160;UVW VWULNLQJ IHDWXUH RI WKH town being the yachts. Big yachts, little yachts, white

yachts, blue yachts, yachts with jet skis â&#x20AC;&#x201C; eat your heart RXW , ZDV D YHU\ OLWWOH ŕŽ&#x160;VK in what seemed to be a very big pond of wealth and exWUDYDJDQFH :KHQ ZH ŕŽ&#x160;UVW arrived, a crowd was gathering around what was rumoured to be Christian Ronaldoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s yacht. Yes, that is right, Ronaldoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s yacht. With four jet-skis on board. That ZDV WKH ŕŽ&#x160;UVW LQGLFDWRU WKDW St. Tropez was rather opulent.

Hitting the bars wasâ&#x20AC;Ś interesting. With student prices in London seeming unreaVRQDEOH DW WKUHH SRXQGV ŕŽ&#x160;IW\ , ZDV KRUULŕŽ&#x160;HG WR GLVFRYHU that a decent drink would FRVW ŕŽ&#x160;IWHHQ SRXQGV 7KHUH was one hidden gem to the area though. Kellyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Irish Pub â&#x20AC;&#x201C; my saviour. Kellyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Irish Pub was not riddled with rich, arrogant men, rather it was riddled with nice, normal people. Home.

You could get a glass of ZLQH IRU WKUHH HXURV RU ŕŽ&#x160;YH glasses of wine for one drink in a hip bar. I know what I would rather pick.

We thought that we had seen all there was to see in 6W 7URSH] DV D OLWWOH ŕŽ&#x160;VKLQJ

town after a couple of days â&#x20AC;&#x201C; LW ZDV D SUHWW\ ŕŽ&#x160;VKLQJ WRZQ we had seen the bars, so it was just a matter of doing it all over again every day. Yet, we found out that we were much mistaken. An American woman we got chatting to told us about the real St. Tropez, Nickky Beach. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Girls, what are you doing!

Nickky Beach is where everyone goes in St. Tropez! They party all day and spray champagne everywhere.â&#x20AC;?

Excellent. More to explore, we thought. So we ventured to Nickky Beach via taxi, the only means of transport. Taxis there are all Mercedes, by the way â&#x20AC;&#x201C; we were told that there was no â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;cheapâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; taxi provider. As soon as we got in the car, a song blasted out: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Wild, Wild enough - Too much money in the bank account - Hands in the air make you scream and shout - When weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re in St-Tropez .â&#x20AC;? This was the soundtrack to St. Tropez, known to the commoner as the soundtrack to being a prick.

Riding in the taxi you saw a whole new side of the south of France: vineyards, gated villas, people sitting on the

top of their convertibles with WKH ZLQG ZKLSSLQJ WKHLU ŕŽ&#x160;QHly cut locks. We were taken to Pampelonne Beach, home to the very, very rich. Along Pampelonne Beach are dozens of private beaches. For those of you not accustomed with a private beach, this is where you have to pay to get access to sun, sea, and sand. In exchange, you are allowed to hang out with the Beautiful People. Nickky Beach is one of these exclusive places.

Walking in was one of the most surreal experiences of my life. Everything ZDV ZKLWH 7KH VWDŕŽ&#x2030; ZHUH dressed in white, the sun loungers were white, the tables were white. It was quiet. Soft music was playing while skinny women, beautiful enough to be models sauntered to the bar to get a drink. While the town of St. Tropez was expensive, paying ten euros for an orange juice really took it to a new level. We had to buy a drink to be able to sit down â&#x20AC;&#x201C; sun loungers came at a price of thirty euros an hour.

It has to be the most boring place to go to on holi-

day. As it was the end of the season, the notorious champagne parties had come to an end â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and I was glad, because being surrounded by so much opulence was overbearing as it was. Add magnums of champagne into the equation and I would have had a socialist breakdown.

7KLV WRSSHG RŕŽ&#x2030; WKH RXW of-body experience I encountered when blowing my whole overdraft to have a good holiday here. While LW LV GHŕŽ&#x160;QLWHO\ D QLFH SODFH it lacks soul and vigour and reality. The people are so detached from reality and what goes on in the real world, and how people really live. It is an education in how the one per cent live, if you want to adopt that sort of terminology. Bankers, consultants, DVVHW ŕŽ&#x160;UP PDQDJHUV WKHVH are the sort of people you can expect to meet on holiday here. The murky world of ŕŽ&#x160;QDQFH DSSDUHQWO\ KROLGD\V in St. Tropez. It is an abyss.

It is horrible. I would take Magaluf over St. Tropez every time. So my message to you is to avoid St. Tropez at all costs. Please.

The Beaver | 26.02.2013

Social

29

An ode to Musa sapientium

Kirsty Kenney JLYHV XV D GRVH RI SRWDVVLXP LQ WKLV EDQDQDULŕ­˝ F DUWLFOH

T

his is a homage to the banana, the UKâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most coveted fruit!

The banana, contrary to popular belief, is not a fruit; it is in fact the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest herb. The banana plant, or Musa sapientium, grow to six metres tall, but only produce a VLQJOH LQŕŽ&#x2039; RUHVFHQFH RQH PDV sive bunch of bananas - cutely named â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;the banana heartâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. One of my favourite things about bananas is their lack of seasonality; they are harvested 365 days a year, and taste just as good January or June.

Globally we consume a whopping 10 billion bananas each year and in the UK, the Cavendish, our banana of choice, are supermarkets biggest selling item, kilo for kilo.

Only the Germans eat more bananas than we do.

A cheap treat, the health EHQHŕŽ&#x160; WV RI EDQDQDV DUH ZHOO known; tryptophan to make you happy, no fat, cholesterol or sodium, vitamin b for your skin and potassium to save that boy in Honey I Shrunk

the Kids. Sucrose, glucose and fructose are a magical combination, with two bananas containing enough energy to see you through a strenuous 90-minute gym workout. The banana, in milkshake form boosted with honey, also makes for an excellent hangover cure.

The health and safety risks associated with the banana are less well documented.

There are approximately 300 banana related accidents a year in Britain, needless to say that most of these involve people slipp i n g on skins, Mario Kart style!

However, there is another, more pressing, cause for concern. Our beloved bananas are in danger of extinction! The Cavendish lacks genetic diver-

sity, which prevents a buildup of disease resistance, and making it highly vulnerable to diseases. In particular, scientists are concerned that a fungus, the Panama disease, could wipe out the Cavendish in ten to twenty years. A strain of the Pa n a -

ma disease, TR4 has already been reaped havoc in South East Asia, wiping out the species from several countries. Although the disease is yet to reach the Americas, our concern is very real!

While much is being done in the realms of research to save the banana from extinction, I have myself been conducting some research on these pulpy ŕŽ&#x2039; HVK\ GHOLJKWV 0\ WHVWHG

theory is that by peeling bananas the wrong way, you get an all together more pleasurable experience. And, by the way, when I say the wrong way, its not really the wrong way, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the way monkeys do it.

So here is the technique, take the non-stem end, pinch it, creating a small tear and just go from there.

What I have found is that by opening bananas this way, you are far less likely to encounter WKRVH VWULQJ\ WKLQJV FRPLQJ RŕŽ&#x2030; with your fruit. Those stingy things, which if my GCSE biology does not fail me, I believe are the xylem and phloem, and

a mild annoyance for the banana enjoyer.

This alternative peeling method, allows the xylem and phloem to better stick to the banana, reducing the time taken to prepare your banana for eating. Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also great about this method is that you will never have to use your nails or teeth to get to the fruit, and a handy ergonomic handle is created.

It should be noted that my theory has come under some criticism from my peers, and VRPH PRUH VFLHQWLŕŽ&#x160; F WHVWLQJ ZRXOG GHŕŽ&#x160; QLWHO\ EH UHFRP mended. Nonetheless, in my experience, the conclusion is overwhelming- peeling the wrong way, is the right way forward.

With this revelation in mind, I hope youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re able to better enjoy your bananas from now on.

And remember that we must continue to work hard to ensure the survival of our favourite fruit, so that it may be enjoyed by generations to come.

Long live the Musa acuminate!

What do you want to do?

$QQD *DOOLQDW on finding out what you want to do after graduation

I

tâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s not a matter of where you go, what matters is that you know what you want.

The thing with most of the social sciences is that you are not getting WUDLQHG IRU RQH VSHFLŕŽ&#x160; F MRE , DOZD\V experienced this both as a freedom and as a burden. Maybe it is true that economics and management students have only a limited choice RI MREV DW ŕŽ&#x160; UVW %XW WKH IDFW WKDW ŕŽ&#x160; nancial companies are not totally opposed to gender and media graduates like myself shows that even the job categories are blurring. While there were, for example, consultancies at the media and marketing fair a couple of weeks back, international NGOs also desire economic, management and law students. Thus, before I came to LSE for my postgraduate studies last fall, one of my JRDOV ZDV WR ŕŽ&#x160; JXUH RXW ZKDW , ZDQW to do, career-wise.

Recently, I went to several career events at LSE and it slowly came to me. It came to me what I want to do. And itâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s not that fuzzy concept of â&#x20AC;&#x153;mediaâ&#x20AC;? or â&#x20AC;&#x153;journalismâ&#x20AC;? anymore.

No, I realized what drives me and what I am good at. I realized what I want.

What drives me is social justice.

I now know that I am not made for corporate, retail, consultancy or anything like that. For me, that isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;t enough and after studying gender, I want to do something meaningful. I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;t need to take it up with the whole world immediately after graduation. But changing the world,

even if itâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s just little bit someday, is worth working for. Non-governmental organisations and other nonSURŕŽ&#x160; W LQVWLWXWLRQV DUH P\ ŕŽ&#x160; UVW FKRLF es now.

What I think I am good at is writing. I am creative and good with languages. But until recently I couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;t make much of these qualities. Admittedly, I was one of the people

saying they want to do â&#x20AC;&#x153;somethingâ&#x20AC;? in the media. After attending the career events and a great deal of research, I realized that what I want is working in communication depart-

thing else. Still, one cannot live in the whole of Europe, so I narrowed my job search down to ten countries. Ten countries? Every common-sensed person will probably laugh at me. But after studying in three countries and while attending LSE, I seriously wonder how I could possibly choose only one country to apply for jobs in - or just one city for that matter. I feel privileged and once again overwhelmed by the possibilities and opportunities that are RŕŽ&#x2030; HUHG WR PH , DP SUHSDUHG IRU more career events and research WR ŕŽ&#x160; QG RXW PRUH DERXW P\VHOI DQG what and where I want to be.

I once was told that there is no such thing as a job description that ZLOO ŕŽ&#x160; W SHU FHQW (VSHFLDOO\ DW the start of a career it would be faWDO WR QRW EH ŕŽ&#x2039; H[LEOH RQ WKDW PDWWHU )RU PH KRZHYHU KDYLQJ ŕŽ&#x160; JXUHG RXW D FOHDUHU GLUHFWLRQ KHOSV PH WR ŕŽ&#x160; QG my way around in the job search.

The career events were helpful in the sense that they helped me start exploring and researching possibilities. But they were also helpful in the sense that I realized what I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;t want to be. Just as much as one needs to know his or her strengths, weaknesses require much introspection as well. Right now, I am planning to work in Europe after graduation. Oslo, Brussels, Hamburg - who ments of NGOs. knows. But if the right job in New +DYLQJ ŕŽ&#x160; JXUHG RXW WKH ZKDW , York comes along, I probably wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;t started wondering about the where. say no either. Because the most imMy whole life Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;ve lived in Europe portant characteristic one has to and I feel more European than any- EULQJ WKHVH GD\V LV ŕŽ&#x2039; H[LELOLW\

30

Sport

26.02.2013

| The Beaver

Half time in the Champions League Gareth Rosser

The pitch has been relaid, the seats have been reunited with their fans, and the half time oranges have been consumed. Half time is nearly over for those teams in the ŕŽ&#x160; UVW NQRFNRXW URXQG RI WKH Championsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; League, and all 16 teams will have been preparing themselves to attempt to propel themselves one step closer towards the trophy. )RU WKH QHXWUDO WKH ŕŽ&#x160; UVW leg matches couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have been much better, with seven of the matches still anybodyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s game. The exception in this case being the match between Celtic and Juventus, ZKLFK ŕŽ&#x160; QLVKHG WR -XYHQ tus. Even Celticâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most loyal fans will struggle to believe that they will succeed in getWLQJ WKH PLQLPXP RI JRDOV they need in Italy to force the round into extra time.

This team, who earlier in this competition succeeded in defeating Barcelona, have impressed in even getting this IDU EXW WKH\ NQRZ WKDW SULGH will be a more realistic result than getting into the last eight.

Unfortunately for fans of British football, the only RWKHU UHVXOW IURP WKH ŕŽ&#x160; UVW URXQG ZKLFK ORRNV GHFLGHGO\ ORSVLGHG LV $UVHQDOâ&#x20AC;ŤÚ&#x2018;â&#x20AC;ŹV GH feat to Bayen Munich. Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll need threegoals against the Germans, in their home town, to compensate for the three they let in themselves in the Emirates. They were however RXWFODVVHG LQ WKH ŕŽ&#x160; UVW OHJ DQG the smart money is on Bayern punishing Arsenal further in the second leg.

Which then leaves only one British team with any chance of progressing: Manches-

ter United. They impressed ZLWK D EDFN WR WKH ZDOO SHU formance against Real Madrid, even managing to score a crucial away goal. For Sir Alex Fergusonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s team to defeat Madrid will realistically UHTXLUH WKHP WR NHHS D FOHDQ sheet â&#x20AC;&#x201C; which by extension means preventing Cristiano Ronaldo from scoring on his return to the club.

Without emerging talent Phil Jones to hustle Ronaldo out of the game again, this VHHPV XQOLNHO\ DQG LI 0DQ chester United are forced to DWWDFN LQ VHDUFK RI D JRDO Madrid have the ability to hit KDUG RQ WKH FRXQWHU DWWDFN Verdict? Real Madrid to go through at the expense of the Premier Leagueâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s top club. ,I 5RQDOGR ZDV NHSW TXLHW against United, thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s nothing FRPSDUHG WR WKH IDWH VXŕŽ&#x2030; HUHG

by Lionel Messi against A.C. Milan. Despite being seen as a club in the midst of a downward spiral after being forced to sell their best players to Paris St German, A.C. Milan UHFRUGHG D YLFWRU\ RYHU the Catalans. It was not a fortuitous victory either.

Milan played with purSRVH VDW GHHS DQG VWLŕŽ&#x2039; HG DQG starved Lionel Messi of possession. They exposed BarceORQDâ&#x20AC;ŤÚ&#x2018;â&#x20AC;ŹV ODFN RI SODQ % DQG LW LV only the publicâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s perception of Barcelona as the greatest team playing today that has prevented the second leg IURP EHLQJ ZULWWHQ RŕŽ&#x2030; DV D technicality for the Italians.

More of the same seems WKH PRVW OLNHO\ RXWFRPH RI WKH return leg in Spain: Barcelona dominating possession, Milan sitting and waiting for their opportunities. Unless %DUFD ŕŽ&#x160; QDOO\ ŕŽ&#x160; QG D ZD\ WR deal with this sort of tactic â&#x20AC;&#x201C;

which theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve not done in the past threeyears - than Milan will be one of the more unOLNHO\ WHDPV WR UHDFK WKH QH[W round.

Porto have had some success in European competi-

sive, but they were unbeaten in the Champions League prior to the match.

3RUWR NHSW D FOHDQ VKHHW DQG JR LQWR WKH URXQG NQRZ ing that a win or a draw will be enough to see them through to the next round. Malagaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s manager, Manuel Pellegrini LV DOVR EHLQJ OLQNHG ZLWK WRS jobs in the Premier League at the moment, notably as a potential replacement for Mancini or Benitez, and whilst heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bettered either of those teamsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; achievements in the Champions League this season, this may be as far as his Malaga team goes.

7KH IRXUWK DQG ŕŽ&#x160; QDO WHDP from La Liga in this stage of the competition is Valencia, tions in the past, where a who had a glamour tie with victory in Europe seems par the oil-rich Paris St. Germain. for any manager wanting to They werenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t considered faEH NQRZQ DV WKH QH[W 6SHFLDO vourites, and after succumbLQJ DW KRPH WKH\ NQRZ WKH\ KDYH WR JHW DQ XQOLNHO\ result in Paris to progress.

The truth is that PSG domLQDWHG WKH ŕŽ&#x160; UVW PDWFK DQG the only reason the result seems in doubt is due to Ibrahimovicâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s late red card and subsequent suspension, and WKH ŕŽ&#x160; QDO PLQXWH JRDO VFRUHG E\ 5DPL 5DPL KRZHYHU ORRNV XQOLNHO\ WR UHFRYHU IURP DQ injury in time for the match, and PSG have enough quality WR VHH RŕŽ&#x2030; DQ\ 9DOHQFLD UHVXU gence in Paris.

6FKDONH KDYH \HW WR UHDFK the same levels of previous Champions League campaigns, and their 1-1 draw ZLWK 7XUNLVK VLGH *DODWDVDUD\ One (read Jose Mourinho or provided the proof of this.

Andre Villas-Boas). If their 6FKDONH SOD\HG ZHOO EXW FRXOG current manager is trying to have put the tie to bed with emulate those two, heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s going another goal or two on a difDERXW LW WKH ULJKW ZD\ $ ferent day. As it is, they had to victory at home against Mal- come from behind to salvage aga might not sound impres- a draw, and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s unclear what

will happen in the return leg to Germany. Romantics may see the potential in Sneijder and Drogba to once again VHW WKLV FRPSHWLWLRQ RQ ŕŽ&#x160; UH for Galatasaray, but the most OLNHO\ RXWFRPH ZRXOG DSSHDU WR EH D 6FKDONH DSSHDUDQFH LQ the next round.

6KDNKWDU 'RQHWVN DQG Borussia Dortmund comprised the other match of this round, ending 2-2 at home for WKH 8NUDLQLDQ WHDP 7KH\ KDG EHHQ ORRNLQJ DW D YLFWRU\ before Dortmund defender Hummels made amends for KLV HDUOLHU PLVWDNH WR VFRUH the equaliser. That goal changed the nature of this VHFRQG WLH ZLWK 6KDNKWDU now needing at least one goal to progress. They may well JHW WKH JRDO EXW PRVW OLNHO\ at the expense of conceding to the Germans â&#x20AC;&#x201C; if Dormund donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t progress it will count as D VKRFN UHVXOW Of course, if these predictions all turn out to be true, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll lead to several noteworthy results. Not least the failure of Barcelona to progress beyond the last 16. In fact, of the four Spanish teams in this round only one (Real Madrid) would have made it through.

Which would still be one more than Britain, with no representatives from the Premier League. Three teams from Germany would reinforce previous comments made regarding the strength of the Bundesliga, and the presence of two teams from Italy would argue against previous comments made about its decline as a football nation.

My Predictions for the last 8: Juventus, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, A.C. Milan, PorWR 3DULV 6W *HUPDLQ 6FKDONH Borussia Dortmund.

From the Eyes of a Ginger Matthew Worby Ultimately this is a story about tragedy. No matter how you dress it up,or whichever DQJOH \RX VHHN WR WDNH IURP the plethora of issues that are raised, the fact is that a young woman tragically lost her life.

Not only that, but since the inFLGHQW D VLJQLŕŽ&#x160; FDQW RWKHU QXP ber of people will have been ZRXQGHG RU NLOOHG LQ JXQ UH lated violence.

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hard to really focus any VSHFLŕŽ&#x160; F WKRXJKWV RYHU VXFK D tragedy during the immediate aftermath, and even now not all of the evidence has come to light. I will therefore not discuss the events, or court case in depth, the truth will inevitably out, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m in no position to really pass judgement in any shape or form. What I will discuss is the odd position that this places millions of fans across the globe. :KDW PDNHV WKLV FULPH GLI

ferent from any other recent violent death is that the shooter was one of sportâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s transcendent superheroes. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not to say that the values of OLIH DUH GLŕŽ&#x2030; HUHQW DFURVV GLI ferent situations, but that this VWRU\ KDV DŕŽ&#x2030; HFWHG PRUH DFURVV the globe by virtue of the man who pulled the trigger.

Running in the olympics, despite having both his legs DPSXWDWHG DW WKH NQHHV 2VFDU Pistorius was an inspiration to millions across the globe.

Now opinions cannot help but be wildly divergent, to say the least, over him.

But this raises the interesting question over exactly what sort of response can be given by a sportspersonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fans afWHU D VKRFNLQJ LQFLGHQW VXFK as this one. Clearly, there is DQ REYLRXV GLŕŽ&#x2030; HUHQFH KHUH LQ WKDW XQOLNH D VH[XDO RU SHU sonal transgression the Pisto-

rius incident has involved the loss of a life, as such cannot really be compared in a direct fashion to other incidents.

But as ever, when personal issues are exposed through the lense of sports the rules seem to change. Live text of a trial involving the death of a single woman on the BBC is something I canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t remember happening.

Responses to incidents can range from continued support to abandonment and a sense of betrayal it is again evidence of just how far sport can move us as humans.

I remember distinctly feeling disappointed with the actions of various sports stars after transgressions, but then with others there was an almost perverse approval of their antics. For example, while the English rugby teamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s antics in New Zealand

involving debauchery, dwarf WRVVLQJ DQG MXPSLQJ RŕŽ&#x2030; IHUULHV were widely condemned, and disappointed a lot of fans. )UHGGLH )OLQWRŕŽ&#x2030; â&#x20AC;ŤÚ&#x2018;â&#x20AC;ŹV HTXDOO\ DV GUXQNHQ SHGDOR LQFLGHQW elicited no such response of disappointment. if anything it added to the lore of the man, and his legend. I highly doubt any other player could get away with what Balotelli currently seems to get up to, I imagine were there to be a story of Balotelli throwing money out of his car at people this would pale in comparison to a far quieter star, say Messi RU HYHQ VRPHRQH OLNH 6XDUH] $QG IUDQNO\ DQ\ DQWLFV IURP Balotelli are really only a severely diluted form of the enigmatic Cantona.

For me sportspeople have a certain level of expectations, when a younger player, or someone with an established

penchant for haphazard behavior acts in such a fashion it is part of the trend. When itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s out of the blue then the responses are far more varied.

My concern is really whethHU ZH KDYH WKH ULJKW WR WDNH such an interest in what are normal peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lives, the last thing Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d want to happen were , WR PDNH D PRQXPHQWDO PLV WDNH LQ P\ OLIH RI DQ HTXLYDOHQW nature to, say Ryan Giggs, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d much rather enjoy my privacy.

And I would certainly not expect any headlines or front page coverage as disgusting as that of the Sun. Presently Oscar Pistorius is innocent, until he is proven guilty. Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a man whose loved one is dead by his own hand, at the least as a society we should be better than both the mindless speculation and the WXUJLG ŕŽ&#x160; OWK SXEOLFDWLRQV OLNH the Sun are printing.

31

Sport

The Beaver | 26.02.2013

LSE RESULTS THIS WEEK

Indoor League a success Ajay Sugavanam

The LSE Indoor Cricket League was set up at the start of the year as a new initiative - to encourage more regular SDUWLFLSDWLRQ WKURXJK RŕŽ&#x2030; VHD son periods. It has been hugely IXQ ŕŽ&#x160; OOHG QRW RQO\ WR PHPEHUV of the LSE Cricket Club, but has also attracted a considerable number of people outside the club.

Indoor cricket has some rather unusual (some would even call them ridiculous) rules â&#x20AC;&#x201C; there are runs available if side walls were hit, players bat in pairs for four overs each and a wicket costs the batting VLGH ŕŽ&#x160; YH UXQV 7KLV PHDQW WKDW the emphasis during games was on quick running and not losing wickets, rather than the more orthodox skills such as hitting a perfect cover drive.

The unusual format also enabled those new to cricket to get successfully initiated and compete with the best players of the Cricket Club. The opportunity to play at the indoor centre at the historic Lordâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Cricket Ground also appealed to many.

Berry Kurland, a Masterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

Fight Night presented the opportunity for the rugbyIRRWEDOO VDJD WR ŕŽ&#x160; JKW LW RXW LQ the ring and starting the night with the boys getting hot and sweaty is never something to disagree with. It was not just WKH ŕŽ&#x160; JKWHUV WKDW KDG WKHLU hearts racing and temperatures rising however, with =RR EDU RŕŽ&#x2030; HULQJ WKH FXVWRP ary opportunities to be party animals and the usual unnecessary temperatures.

Megatron may have lost out to Captain Craig in the ring but made up for the defeat with the pull of an LSE add-on who enjoys Branching into LSE men.

Also branching out this week was General Mateer, clearly enjoying the opportuQLW\ IRU IUHVK PHDW ŕŽ&#x160; QGLQJ D friend of fresher Feroze much to her taste. One of the biggest issue for the LSE (in terms RI ŕŽ&#x160; QGLQJ SRVVLEOH SXOOV LV its small student population.

If you then consider the fact that the AU is the most/the only promiscuous club then

student from America, said that playing the indoor league has been â&#x20AC;&#x153;an absolute blast for me, and made for an amazing introduction to cricketâ&#x20AC;?. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve followed international cricket for a while now, so I ZDV UHDOO\ H[FLWHG ŕŽ&#x160; QDOO\ WR JHW the opportunity to play when I got to LSE. My skill doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t exactly match my enthusiasm,

game in the summer termâ&#x20AC;?, he said.

With matches being played every Wednesday, the Indoor League has been a welcome change for many cricketers from weekly net practice sessions, which in previous years seemed to lack focus until the last few weeks of Lent Term.

The League has also gone a

though, so the indoor league has been a fantastic way to ease into the sport. The more casual intra-squad competition of the league puts the focus on improvement and fun. Everyone at the club, especially my squad captain Bhavya Bishnoi, has been really helpful and patient in bringing me along. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m excited to start the outdoor

long way in improving team spirit and helping the Cricket Club bond as a group. Along with various skillsets honed by playing the league, this should contribute towards a successful outdoor season next term. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Indoor League has been a fantastic experience.

Not only was it incredibly competitive, and of a high stand-

ard, the league was a great platform where the Cricket Club got to know each other and bonded as a groupâ&#x20AC;?, said Neel Ghose.

Players were slotted into three teams, which played each other in a round-robin format. Team B were most successful, as they won the ŕŽ&#x160; QDO ODVW WHUP DQG KDYH EHHQ the most consistent team this term. Amongst many, special mention must go to Areez Rehman and team captain Bhavya Bishnoi, for putting in consistent performances every week. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The LSE Cricket Club has an amazing bunch of individuals showing their liveliness RQ ŕŽ&#x160; HOG DQG DOVR RŕŽ&#x2030; WKH ŕŽ&#x160; HOGâ&#x20AC;Ť Ú&#x2022;â&#x20AC;Ź said Areez. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Every heart-throbbing minute was a mixture of bouncers and slower balls from the bowlers, sneaky running from the batsmen, and desperate dives and throws from the ŕŽ&#x160; HOGHUV â&#x20AC;ŤÚ&#x2022;â&#x20AC;Ź With some very useful skills and team spirit developed through the Indoor League, the LSE Cricket Club now hopes to have an equally successful outdoor season, starting from April.

ŕŽ&#x160; QGLQJ D JX\ RU JLUO WKDW KDOI your team hasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t slept with is sometimes a challenge. When fresh meat steps into Zoo it would be wise to jump on it.

Womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rugby have become increasingly successful at poaching netballâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s men and have recently seen the rise of womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rugby fresher Mauritius whose last couple of weeks have witnessed her going home with rugby boys ex-pres Yourcock and second teamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s VD. Womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rugby captain, not to be left out of the fun once again acquired the young apprentice for the night. The third rugby girl to succeed was Danchan who chose football over rugby and was charmed by Essex.

With the Sun shining on this rugby boy his attention ZDV ŕŽ&#x160; UPO\ RQ QHWEDOO IRXUWK team and their newer member making her mark.

BJ may have missed out on the opportunities in the ring EXW ŕŽ&#x160; QGLQJ KLPVHOI D SHWLWH brunette in Zoo Bar made up for it. Luckily that was before

the queue for the menâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s was too long and he just couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t wait. It would be charitable to say that it happens to the best of us but thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s just not true.

One couple who were spotted leaving Zoo in a hurry had only one thing on their mind and could hardly contain their anticipation. Rumour would have it that the pair considered the South Bank a suitably private place to enjoy the others company. It may have been a great view but Londonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s thousands of CCTV cameras no doubt captured the whole thing.

Miss Rag was in a very charitable mood on Wednesday continuing her current IXQGUDLVLQJ HŕŽ&#x2030; RUWV ZLWK 5RZ ingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Mr Balcony. However his long walk home alone indicates that the luscious Labour lady merely raised his hopes before giving him the cold shoulder.

Managing to get herself into the gossip column of another newspaper for her indiscretion, all be it with an

impressive pull, was a little Australian. She may not have embraced the AUâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s beloved Zoo Bar, preferring Mayfair to Leicester square but her tactics in The Box found her in the company of One Directionsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Styles. Many would be very jealous of such an achievement.

Hockey may have been keeping their heads down recently but another exhibitionist enjoying the company of football captain was none othHU WKDQ KRFNH\ FDSWDLQ $ ŕŽ&#x160; W ting pairing perhaps although football captain appears to have an eye on someone else.

Sticking with the activities of our captains Rowing also made a splash this week with the unlikely match of the Social Netballer.

For a romance that has been brewing for months now, it clearly took the gentle tones of men punching each other in the face to make the couple get together. It was that or the sight of him getting gunged that took her fancy.

Menâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Rugby LSE Mens 2nd 15 - 17 University of the Arts London Mens 1st Netball LSE 7th 38 - 11 Imperial College London 4th LSE 1st 24 - 60 University College London 1st Kingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s College London Medics 4th 57 - 25 LSE 3rd Royal Free and University College Medical School 4th 43 - 14 LSE 5th

Menâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Football LSE 1st 1 - 3 Kingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s College London Medics 1st Royal Veterinary College Mens 2nd 1 - 2 LSE 7th Imperial College London Medics 3rd 0 - 3 LSE 6th Imperial College London 4th 3 - 0 LSE Mens 3rd LSE 5th 5 - 1 Royal Free and University College Medical School 3rd LSE 7th 5 - 1 Imperial College London Medics 4th LSE 2nd 1 - 1 St Georgeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, University of London 1st

Menâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Hockey University of Hertfordshire 1st 0 - 4 LSE 1st LSE 1sts 2 - 3 Kingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s College London Medics 1st Imperial College London 4th 1 - 1 LSE 2nd

Womens Hockey LSE Womens 1st 4 - 3 University of Brighton Womens 2nd

Menâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Badminton University of Brighton 1st 0 - 8 LSE 1st

Womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Badminton University of Sussex 1st 5 - 3 LSE 1st

Sport

32

Sport

26.02.2013

| The Beaver

Inside â&#x20AC;Ť&Ú&#x161;â&#x20AC;ŹKDPSLRQV /HDJXH 3UHGLFWLRQV â&#x20AC;ŤÚ&#x161;â&#x20AC;Ź:KDW +DSSHQV ,Q =RR %DU â&#x20AC;ŤÚ&#x161;â&#x20AC;Ź7KURXJK 7KH (\HV 2I $ *LQJHU

)ORDW OLNH D EXWWHUૺ \ VWLQJ OLNH /6( Dennis Mooney UH୾ HFWV RQ D QLJKW RI ୽ HUFH ULYDOU\ DQG KHDY\ KLWWLQJ THANKS! On behalf of the AU President and Executive and the capacity crowd, warm thanks are due to Lionel the referee, the paramedics who oversaw the bouts and the guys who set up the ring, as well as Rob Little for handling the announcements so smoothly. A special mention must go to George Melhuish for his hard work organising the event. The $8 ૽ JKWHUV ZRXOG DOVR OLNH to thank the LSE Boxing Club for training them in WKH UXQ XS WR WKHLU ૽ JKWV and particularly coach Ian Streetz and Chris Baugh for WKHLU Hૼ RUWV PRUH LQIRUPD tion about LSE Boxing can be found on the SU website.

The quiet chatter of the LSE quad was shattered on Wednesday evening by the sharp gasps of exhalation, the soft thuds of landing punches and the baying of an enthusiastic crowd. The second annual LSE Athletics Union Fight Night saw three bouts from the SU Boxing Club and three amateur bouts between representatives of the LSEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Rugby and Football clubs; the distilling of the AUâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s greatest rivalry into nine two-minute rounds of blood, sweat and cheers.

Master of Ceremonies Rob Little took control of proceedings with an irrepressible panache and the crowd was in good spirits, possibly thanks to having consumed some, as the professionals got things underway. Under the supervision of referee Lionel, the ŕŽ&#x160; UVW ERXW ZDV DQ HQHUJHWLF HQ counter between Coinneach Dover and Antoine Jones with a plenty of punches landing on both sides, Jones eventually declared the winner by referees decision.

Second up it was Raoul Malhotra versus Majeed

Simaan, with Simaan narrowly edging out Malhotra despite some big punches from Raoul, who was popular with the growing crowd. Finally, Boxing Club Captain Jen Rajakariyar took on StĂŠph Dan in a brilliant contest that was too close for even Lionel to call, ending in the eveningâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s only draw.

7KH ŕŽ&#x160; JKWV WKDW HYHU\RQH had come to see didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t kick RŕŽ&#x2030; XQWLO ODWHU WKRXJK )LUVW up on the undercard, but no less tasty a prospect for the billing, Fraser â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;the Celtâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Ward took on Georgios â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;the Spartanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Barz. The FC/RC rivalry was already in evidence, traditional chants at each others expense and challenges of manhood being even more a feature of this than other AU nights, and as the contestants entered the ring the chanting reached a fever pitch. â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;The Spartanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, in red and blue shorts, was full of energy, bouncing around on the balls of his feet, with Ward calmer, taking stock of the situation and his opponent. This proved to be the theme of the ŕŽ&#x160; JKW ZLWK DQ H[FLWDEOH *HRU

gios getting the occasional good shot through Fraserâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tight defence but receiving regular body blows from the rugby representative. %RWK ŕŽ&#x160; JKWHUV ZHUH SXIfing heavily after even one round, and the action slowed in the second and third. Momemtum seemed to slip away from the FCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Greek God in the closing moments though, with Ward delivering consistently. LiRQHOâ&#x20AC;ŤÚ&#x2018;â&#x20AC;ŹV GHFLVLRQ UHŕŽ&#x2039; HFWHG WKLV as the Scotsman was awarded the win, summing it up simply: â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;I felt goodâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. Barz was philosophical, saying â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;I honestly never thought that getting your ass kicked at boxing could be so much funâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. More importantly, it was one-nil Rugby.

Up next was the FCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s noble leader, Matt â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;The Pandaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Smith, against Rugby Second XV captain David â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Brick Wallâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Poole, a late replacement for fan favourite Ben Johnson, RXW DIWHU VXŕŽ&#x2030; HULQJ D GLVOR cated shoulder. Poole said he was â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;quite apprehensive stepping in to the ring with only 5 days notice, replacing anRWKHU ŕŽ&#x160; JKWHU DQG QRW KDYLQJ

boxed in two yearsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, although self-proclaimed boxing analyst and second year rugby SOD\HU $OLVWDLU /\QFK FRQŕŽ&#x160; dently declared Poole the superior boxer.

He was going to need his fast hands though as Smith was carrying a slight weight advantage and an expression of grim determination last seen in the FC when Ben Elders last visited a Pizza Hut EXŕŽ&#x2030; HW 7KH ŕŽ&#x160; JKW ZDV WKH OHDVW technical of the evening, as ERWK ER[HUV WKUHZ ŕŽ&#x2039; XUULHV RI huge punches in the opener, to cheers of encouragement from the crowd and the occasional groan from Lynch at my elbow.

Smith landed a heavy blow PLG ZD\ WKURXJK WKH ŕŽ&#x160; UVW round and the FC scented blood, but Poole regained his composure to make it to the EUHDN DQG KLV VXSHULRU ŕŽ&#x160; WQHVV VHHPHG WR SD\ RŕŽ&#x2030; DV WKH ŕŽ&#x160; JKW went on. He began to make consistent forays inside the Pandaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s defence, and though the referee had to disengage the two from grappling severDO WLPHV E\ WKH HQG KLV HŕŽ&#x2030; RUWV KDG SDLG RŕŽ&#x2030;

It was a hard-won victory of attrition rather than a spectacle, not that anyone in a suit was complaining, and Smith was gracious in defeat as Poole leapt to the ropes in celebration of completing a Rugby whitewash, saying later that â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;nothing can beat the natural high that moment gives youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. When asked to comment, the FC skipper offered only â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;I fucking love eatLQJ 'DYLG 3RROHâ&#x20AC;ŤÚ&#x2018;â&#x20AC;ŹV ŕŽ&#x160; VWV ZLWK my eyes. Is that a suitable quote?â&#x20AC;&#x2122; Finally, with the rivalry done and dusted, it was time for the Clash of the Gym Titans. Rugby Club Captain, Daniel Craig impersonator extraordinaire and all-round BNOC George â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Licence To Killâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Melhuish took on the man who I previously knew only as â&#x20AC;Ť'Ú?â&#x20AC;ŹR]]HU IURP WKH J\Pâ&#x20AC;Ť Ú&#x2018;â&#x20AC;ŹŕŽ&#x160; JKW ing under the pseudonym â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Megatronâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; which may have done his physical appearance a disservice. Indeed, I wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t actually aware he was a student as well as a gym employee, such is his dedication to training.