795

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Beaver

FREE Newspaper of the LSE Students’ Union

Tuesday October 29 2013 | www.thebeaveronline.com | No. 795

Alan Mendoza

“You cannot make a democracy by force.”

The Feature Interview page 23

Joseph Grabiner

Students of the London School of Economics have been criticised for excessive alcohol consumption

Students breach Code of Conduct AN EMAIL sent by the Students’ Union on 22nd October has indicated that members of the Athletic Union (AU) broke the Student Code of Conduct. The email highlighted concerns about student alcohol consumption, disorderly behaviour and health and safety.

With predrinks for some sports teams beginning in the mid-afternoon, and drinking games following at initiations, it was no surprise that some students were intoxicated even before the drinks at the Three Tuns (the Tuns).

This was a cause for much concern amongst many about the sheer amount of alcohol con-

sumed and students’ safety while under the influence.

This is, however, not the only concern the School has with regards to alcohol. A few students breached the Tuns’ license and Westminster Council by-laws by consuming alcohol in unlicensed areas on campus.

The license only covers the bar, the Underground, the Quad and an area directly outside the bar for smokers. As this is a criminal offence, any member of the School or the public is entitled to report this behaviour to the police.

The disorderly behaviour spilled over to Bankside Hall, as residents endured vomit in their lift and corridors. There were reports of students unconscious on pavements and having to be

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LSESU election season begins

Edwin Land

Megan Crockett

LSESU Election Briefing

helped by paramedics, and complaints about noise levels and disorderly behaviour.

This behaviour contravenes the alcohol policy outlined in the sports teams contract and it also goes against Student Conduct guidelines outlined by the LSE, which state all students must ”conduct themselves in an orderly, responsible and sober manner at all times”.

The guidelines additionally state that any student “commits a criminal act on the School’s premises” are liable to face disciplinary action.

The email did not seem to have deterred some members, as the AU drinking continued on 23rd October at team dinners, with predrinks still on the agenda.

WEEK THREE saw the first round of the LSE Students’ Union elections get underway. On Wednesday, 30th October, voting will open at 10AM and remain open for 33 hours. The positions up for election: Postgraduate Research Students’ Officer, Postgraduate Officer, Mature & Part-time Students’ Officer, General Course President, five Student Members of the Court of Governors, two Student Members on the Academic Board, and two NUS Conference Delegates.

The first hustings took place at weeks’ Union General Meeting (UGM) on Thursday.

The position in contestation was Postgraduate Students’ Officer. There were 22 candidates standing for the post but only 17 of them attended the UGM. Candidates were given 80 seconds to appeal to the fiftystrong crowd who gathered in the Old Theatre at lunch to hear the speeches. The speakers, characteristic of the LSE community, hailed from the United States of America, Uganda, Canada, India, Pakistan, and Egypt.

Many of them chose to outline three point promises. One candidate, promised more power to the people claiming “what

you want to be changed will be at the top of my list.” Another candidate made a well-received remark about the nature of his competition noting, “I’m one of the 250 people running for this position.” Some candidates chose to add personal touches to their speeches - one began by admitting his addiction to chocolate.

One of the more probing questions from the floor asked how the Postgraduate Students’ Officers would publicise their events more widely. All seventeen candidates gave responses with solutions being proposed such as sending out emails or publishing event details on Facebook. Conclusing the hustings, UGM Chair and Returning Officer, Joe Anderson, commented that, “postgraduates are such a massive part of the LSE community. It’s vital we make sure that everyone’s voices are heard.”

There will be a second hustings on Tuesday at 5pm, for students who wish to grill the candidates further.

Though there are usually a number of election complaints, none have been submitted at the time of printing.

All students can vote online on the Students’ Union website until polls close at 7pm on Thursday, 31st October.

IN THE NEWS 2013/14 society statistics in

Peking University sacks academic

UCU to strike Thursday

The Beaver looks at how society membership compares to last year’s.

Xia Yeliang was allegedly sacked for criticising the Chinese government.

Members of the University and College Union will striking on Thursday.

NEWS page 2

NEWS Page 3

NEWS page 4

this

“On ULU and Remembrance Day” Jay Stoll, LSESU General Secretary Opinion page 7

Black Ascent debate tackles tough issues Friday’s debate dealt with shadism, institutional racism, and meritocracy.

NEWS page 5

Tuesday October 29 2013

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News

Who’s in, who’s out?

The Beaver finds out which societies are this year’s big names on campus

Cai Yong

AS THE students settle into their new routines, integrating new commitments to their schedules, the Beaver examines the latest society figures from the LSESU. Leading the pack with 925 members – of which 84% are undergraduates – is the LSESU Raising and Giving (RAG), trouncing the second place Finance Society by over a hundred members. RAG President Nona Buckley-Irvine attributes the success of the society to its high visibility during Fresher’s week.

“It was great to see so many freshers and postgraduate students wearing our bands all week long!” noted Buckley-Irvine, “from that, people got to know RAG and the committee.”

It appears that RAG also has

special draw for the civic-minded, as “students are very enthusiastic about raising money for charity,” said the President. The remaining places on the leaderboard were filled largely by career-related societies, which continue to attract large numbers with various networking and training events.

In the Political Societies category, the three largest societies – Labour and Cooperative, Conservative Society, and the Liberal Democrats – have large membership bases.

Comparing membership data from July and present, the Liberal Democrats nearly doubled their membership, while Labour and Cooperative and the Conservative Society saw their numbers drop by 5 and 25 per cent respectively. When asked

if the observed membership trends were indicative of shifting political allegiance among LSE students, President of the Conservative Christopher Hulm stated, “I unequivocally reject the notion that there are any significant changes in the student body’s political leanings. The LSESU Conservative Society has the largest membership of any London University Conservative Society, and our events continue to be very popular, even for members of other University of London constituencies.”

In another category, the Hindu Society, with 164 members, remains the largest of the Religious and Faith-Based Societies. With events ranging from weekly devotional singing to volunteering initiatives which have gained even the attention

of former Prime Minister Tony Blair, the Hindu society’s appeal reaches far beyond the Hindu community. As President Vivek Nandha points out, “A portion of our members come from faiths outside of Hinduism, which we feel indicates the level of interest in this ancient religion and culture.”

Coming in second is the Christian Union with 105 members, registering an 18 per cent increase in membership from July. This has allowed it to take second place from the Islamic Society, whose membership fell by 38 per cent, though it may very well rise over the coming year. Society figures will most certainly change over the remainder of the academic year, as crowds are drawn in by events that are later on the calendar.

Your Unspent £137k King’s students could lose out on funding as College cash previously ear-marked for students is under threat. The £137,000, currently gathering dust in a untouched bank account, was due to be spent on the King’s membership fee to the University of London Union (ULU).

The withdrawal from the union, which is no longer profitable, has left King’s bosses sitting on thousands of pounds which could be diverted to projects that do not benefit students for whom it was originally intended.

US student in London bottle attack three days after arriving Police have released CCTV footage of a violent bottle attack in east London on a student from Florida who they say was targeted simply because he was “obviously not local”.

MixGenius: The new frontier of music mixing and mastering Canadian music software company, MixGenius, has used research developed at Queen Mary University of London, and obtained 1.5 million Canadian dollars – £1 million circa – to improve the ability of the software to provide musicians with professional sound quality, without sound engineering assistance.

UCLU Doris speaks out against academic classes on Wednesday afternoons Doris Chen, Activities and Events Sabbatical Officer, contacted society presidents yesterday, claiming that academic departments should not timetable classes on Wednesday afternoons.

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Tuesday October 29 2013

ULU bans officials from attending Chris Rogers

THE UNIVERSITY of London Union Senate has passed a motion at its meeting on Thursday afternoon preventing any member of ULU attending a Remembrance Day service in an official capacity.

The motion was passed in response to an invitation for a member of ULU to attend the University of London Remembrance Day service. This means that ULU will have no official representation at the ceremony held in two weeks.

The LSESU General Secretary, Jay Stoll, who was unable to attend the meeting and vote due to personal circumstances, publically condemned the decision by ULU in an opinion piece published in this edition of the paper. “I believe this to be an abhorrent position to take”, he said.

“So whilst clearly people are free to not attend such a service, putting a blanket ban on representatives attending in an official capacity is utterly absurd” he said.

However Michael Chessum president of ULU said “I think the best thing is … for the union not to allow itself to unconsciously and automatically take sides, representing many people who find official Remembrance distasteful and an abuse of history”.

The move by ULU followed controversy last year when Vice President of ULU Dan Cooper

(Royal Holloway) refused the invitation to lay a wreath at the University of London Remembrance Day service.

This led to the organisation of a no confidence campaign by Peter Minis (UCL) and Ben Rogers (LSE) however this failed after an attempt to gather signatures to force the issue were declared invalid because the the signatories were on a ‘nonsecure petition’ and thus would not be taken.

Daniel Cooper said he based his decision last year on his opinion that “mourning the butchery of thousands of ordinary people through an act of remembrance side by side with the inheritors of an economic system which created the war is not something I wish to take part in”.

LSE holds a Remembrance Day service led by the LSE Chaplaincy in the Shaw Library each year. The LSE Act of Remembrance will be at 10.45 in the Shaw Library on 11 November.

Chris Hulm, President of London university conservatives said “Remembrance Services are significant for thousands of families across the country, helping to safeguard the memory of those who have given their lives for our freedom. The actions of the ULU elite are nothing short of shameful arrogance.

It is high time that they stopped for a minute and assessed what they hope to achieve out of this, other than inexcusable point scoring in an arena that has no space for politics.”

Umezo Kamada

LSE Top Employer for Working Families Rachel Chua

The LSE has been recognised as a Top 10 Employer for Working Families in this year’s Top Employers for Working Families Benchmark and Awards.

The certification, awarded to companies who “go the extra mile for working families”, strives to “recognise employers who support parents, carers and flexible workers with work-life balance and career development”. The LSE was also nominated for several awards in other categories, including ‘Best for Motherhood’, ‘Best for Carers and Eldercare’, and ‘Best for Fatherhood’, and were joint winners in the former two.

LSE in previous years has been recognised in the same awards as a Top 30 Employer for Working Families. Barbara Bush, LSE’s Human Resources (HR) Director, said of the university’s commitment to providing a holistic environment to working families: “Parents who are well-supported at work are more

likely to be productive and committed employees.”

The judges were, in particular, quick to commend the LSE’s family-friendly policies. “Carers are directly supported through policy provision: leave taken for caring reasons is taken into account and is used when reviewing work output and career development.” These policies, they went on to state, were “welcome and sensible”.

The LSE holds a wide range of family-centric workshops designed to support employees, including events for “fathers and fathers-to-be…[which] will offer advice on how best to manage the joy and anxiety of being a father.” This event is also open to “to non LSE-employed partners of female staff,” reflecting the university’s belief “support should ultimately benefit both parents.”

The Benchmark awards, founded by Working Families in partnership with the Institute of Employment Studies, commenced in 2009.

News

Remembrance

Day

Chris Nyberg

Partner institution sacks academic for criticising Chinese government James Evans

A LONG standing relationship between LSE and Peking University was brought into question earlier this week as the Chinese university sacked Professor Xia Yeliang, a renowned champion of free speech and critique of the Communist party in power.

The university claims that Professor Yeliang was removed from his post because of “poor teaching evaluation results,” however concern has been raised in the LSE community over whether this expulsion was a result of a widespread government crackdown on critics of communist regime.

Dating back to 1933, Peking University has been an institutional partner of LSE for over a decade allowing for the establishment of a double Master’s degree and a summer school of which many former and current LSE students and staff have benefitted.

These recent events however may end up tarnishing this treasured relationship if it is found that Professor Xia Yeliang

was in fact expelled for political reasons. In recent years LSE has become very cautious over its foreign partnerships following the discovery of its links to the controversial Gaddafi regime in Libya.

A spokesman for LSE said that the institution was “trying to establish the full facts of the matter…” and went on to stress that “LSE will consider its position in the light of those [facts] and of internal discussion, including among our academic community.”

Despite these reassuring words students within the LSE community are growing increasingly concerned over these developments.

David Schofield, a second year Economic History student said “Professor Xia’s expulsion comes at a time of increasing government crackdown in China, this is clearly no coincidence.”

These concerns continue with second year International Relations student Richard Clifford saying “The Gaddafi saga permanently stained the reputation of LSE, if foul play is discovered

VOA

in China, LSE should cut ties immediately.”

The ethics code of LSE stresses that the institution “will defend and promote the freedom to pursue, advance, and disseminate knowledge and ideas.” For these very reasons LSE pulled out of a conference in the United Arab Emirates after one of its lecturers was barred from the country for criticising the Bahraini monarchy last year.

Tuesday October 29 2013

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News

UCU to strike on Thursday Ollie Hill

TEACHING AND research, senior support, administration, security, catering and maintenance staff, are amongst the hundreds of employees expected to join the strike on Thursday as members of the University and College Union (UCU), Unite and UNISON are set to stage a coordinated 1-day strike on the 31st of October as part of nationwide industrial action over spending cuts in higher education. Union officials expect up to 50% of classes and lectures on Thursday to be cancelled or rescheduled and insist that the strike represents only the beginning of their campaign.

Pay offers are usually set nationally by negotiation between the Universities and Colleges Employer’s Association (UCEA) and the Trade Unions. This year saw a change in negotiations after the UCEA did not agree upon the proposed 1% pay rise. Speaking to the Beaver, the Chair and Membership Secretary of LSE UCU said that this represented the 5th year in a row that there has been a real terms cut in pay, which amounted to a 13% cut. Unions say the aim of the strike is to pressure the UCEA and its members into offering as much of that 13% as possible, and claim that just half of LSE’s £25m annual surplus could completely restore wages.

Mike Cushman from LSE UCU said that for LSE staff, “it is becoming harder and harder to live at London prices. We want this settled because we don’t want to be doing this. We want to get back to teaching. However, even the higher paid academics

feel like they have a responsibility to lower paid staff including [Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs).] GTA pay rates at LSE are relatively low. Students’ learning is central to LSE and to the lives of our members. We want to be fairly rewarded for giving students a world class education.”

A UCEA spokesperson pointed to the uncertain financial situation in which many universities find themselves. “UCEA’s member higher education institutions tell us that the vast majority of their staff fully understand the reality of the challenging and uncertain environment for their institution and many are anxious to see the implementation of the award, rather than a prolonged dispute. The 1% pay uplift and joint work around the gender pay gap, casual contracts and flexible working arrangements remains on the table. Staff do not want to support any action that could harm both their institutions and their students.”

Spokespeople from the LSE unions appear confident in their ability to sustain a campaign against the pay deal. LSE has a high rate of unionisation compared to other Russell Group institutions, and Mr Cushman was insistent that “the strike is the start, not the end of the campaign. From Friday UCU will be in continuing work to rule. No voluntary duties and no weekends. If there is still no settlement there could be an escalation.”

Guerilla Lecture addresses Hell in Westminster Crypts Sophie Donszelmann

“WHAT THE HELL?” was the tagline for an event on 24th October that brought a small group of students and faculty to the crypts of Westminster Cathedral for discussions on the topic of purgatory.

The event, which was advertised as an “intellectual form of a flash mob” involving “guerrillas, hell and commandos,” was publicized through twitter, word of mouth and last week’s issue of the Beaver, and informed students to meet in the New Academic Building for a limited space event that would bring them to an “undisclosed location.”

The group was brought to the underground crypts of Westminster Abbey to a venue almost as enigmatic as the promotion of the event. In a room described

by Professor Conor Gearty, Director of the Institute of Public Affairs, as “filled with the smell

of incense from mass,” by the “graves of two of the first cardinals of England after the Reformation,” the group held dialogues between academics and students on the topic of hell.

LSE faculty who were involved with the event include LSE Chaplain, Revd Dr. James Walters; Professor Emeritus, Eileen Barker; Reader in the Department of Anthropology, Dr. Matthew Engelke and Professor Conor Gearty. Lecture attendees were a small group of, in Gearty’s opinion, “40 people brave enough to chance it.”

Among the attendees was second year International Relations student, Matteo Brunelli, who found the event to be a “very different experience from the usual LSE lecture hall.” This sought after experience was, in Brunelli’s opinion, “a new type of lecture that brought people to a new space,” mixing “lectures and interactions between students and professors.”

What inspired this new phenomenon of a guerilla lecture?

Gearty expressed his view that “university teaching can be incredibly dull” as “we live in an age where teaching with a PowerPoint is considered ‘sophisticated.’” The event aimed to “take people out of their comfort zone, both physically out of the LSE campus and out of their courses and areas of expertise.”

Those that attended contributed to a “terrific, global, diverse, experience, which was entirely their own.”

When prompted if the LSE community could be expect more of these kinds of lectures, Gearty responded in a manner even more mysterious than the actual event. “Who knows who organizes it?” he said. “To know we would have to get into the mind of the guerillas. The guerilla lectures are something outside of ourselves. I hope the guerillas host another one. I, personally, loved it.”

Bennoune on Fundamentalism

lse.ac.uk

Suhanya Suresh

THE LSE hosted Professor Karima Bennoune last Wednesday as she strove to drive home the point that, contrary to popular belief, the people who bear the brunt of abuse from Muslim fundamentalists are the people of Muslim heritage themselves.

Chaired by LSE’s Professor Chetan Bhatt, the lecture started out on a chipper tone, with a slideshow displaying some of Professor Bennoune’s past work.

Later on, these were mixed with sobering and sometimes puzzling images of unnamed heroes, as they struggled in the fight against Muslim fundamentalism.

In one example, a slide showing a picture of a broken watch pointing to precisely 5.17 pm, is subsequently explained to have belonged that a young law student, killed because she choose to continue her studies despite warnings from extreme fundamentalists that women should not be educated. Her watch broke as her body hit the ground after her execution.

Based on her newly released book “Your Fatwa Does Not Apply Here: Untold Stories from the Fight Against Muslim Fundamentalism,” Professor Bennoune stressed the fact that the Western “horror stories” had skewed

the world’s view of Muslims.

“Westerners have to stop considering that the nightmare that we are living under the rule of these fundamentalists is part of our culture and identity.

And that this nightmare is a moderate one because we do not have stoning and amputations as punishments.

We are tired of paying the bill for the West’s misperception and misrepresentation of the reality,” she said as she quoted an email from a young Tunisian lawyer.

Professor Bennoune also highlighted that many groups in Muslim majority societies have been regularly denouncing these terrorist groups, even when doing so would prove dangerous to them and they perceived minimum international publicity.

Despite the outright panic that comes to mind at the mention of the word Al Qaeda, between 2006 and 2008, only 2% of their victims have been of non-Muslim heritage according to Professor Benounne.

“Statistically, they are much more likely to be the victims of Jihad terrorism rather than its perpetrators,” she reiterated.

What shocks her, and is in part the motivation behind her book, is the fact that so many of these people victims of jihadi terrorism simply go unnamed, lost in a sea of what is called

the ‘third world body count’, a phrase coined by her former colleague.

Professor Bennoune challenged this depersonalization by recounting in the lecture a few of the almost 300 stories she collected over the course of writing her book.

The lack of international support and understanding of the challenges faced by the Muslim community is something Professor Bennoune hopes to combat.

To quote prominent Malian lawyer, Sara Keita Diakite, “when you face a crisis alone, it is much more difficult to bear.”

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Tuesday October 29 2013

News

LSE report claims Black Ascent UK warming faster debate tackles than global average tough issues Alfred Palmer

Rahat Siddique

James Dunn and Jodie Brown

THE TEMPERATURE is rising, the barometers are getting low.

According to a policy brief by Bob Ward and Naomi Hicks of LSE’s Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, the average UK temperature has increased significantly more than the global average since 1950.

The linear rate of increase in UK annual average temperature since 1950 has been 0.18°C per decade - faster than the rise in the global average of 0.12°C per decade. This 50% disparity begs

the question as to what we do on this post-industrial island that is so polluting.

According to Met Office data, the average global surface temperature has increased by 0.6°C since 1950, constituting the fastest period of increase across the whole warming trajectory. The IPCC’s fourth assessment report puts the possibility of human activities having had a significant impact on warming at extremely likely, indicating a certainty greater than 95%.

The statistics suggest that there is very little room for the argument against human causal-

ity, and that the debate would do well to give way to action.

The report went on to add that “UK public understanding of climate change [was] hampered by the lack of consistent long-term monitoring” due surveys being conducted on an “inconsistent basis”.

The Grantham Research Institute regularly publishes reports intended to inform policy, “aimed at a broad readership of decision-makers in the public, private and third sectors, in the UK and overseas, based on research carried out by members of the Institute.”

THE BLACK ASCENT DEBATE, hosted by LSE’s African and Caribbean Society (ACS) in conjunction with the Students’ Union (SU) was held on Friday evening to commemorate Black History Month. Taking on a ‘Question Time’-like format, the debate accommodated a large panel of up to eight members of the public, including a retired policeman and students from the Universities of Nottingham and Cambridge.

The issues raised addressed topics such as the perception of beauty, shadism, the significance of a meritocracy, and the lack of police protection in black communities. The debate initiated a discussion regarding matters that affect black individuals from all walks of life. An overriding message was the issue of beauty and self-confidence

as Justine Lutterodt, Director at Centre of Synchronous Leadership, stated that “the problem with the Eurocentric perception of beauty [was] the lack of an Afrocentric perception of beauty”, emphasising the importance of consciousness in a world that was, as highlighted by Tina Lasisi, “saturated in Eurocentricity”.

Taofiq Akinpeju, Vice-President of the ACS, described the evening as “dynamic, fun and informative”, which would hopefully inspire “people...to act”.

It was maintained that a lot remained to be done about racism and prejudice in the community.

Yet as evening came to a close, there was a lot of optimism amongst the audience and the panel. One member of the public concluded with a message that resonated through the audience: “[You] need to be the best version of yourself, and hopefully that will have an impact on other people.”

Leunig: “being white ... is the problem in schools” Raisa Huq

DR. TIM LEUNIG, a professor of Economic History at LSE and aide to the Minister of State for Schools, David Laws, has claimed that “being white” is a problem in state schools, as ethnic minorities perform better.

Official statistics show that Caucasian males perform significantly worse in reading tests at age six. Leunig has said that if under performance in schools are to be tackled, then attention must be paid to the “dominant racial group” if standards are to truly improve. His comments, which have now started a debate, were stated by the Times Educational Supplement (TES.) “If your school happens to have a lot of Chinese students you are likely to do well on progress measures – that is the reality,” Dr Leunig told the confer-

ence of head teachers organised by the Association of School and College Leaders.

He added that from an economic viewpoint, it makes more sense to pay attention to “white achievement” as there are simply more white people, and the future of Britain relies on tackling underachievement for Caucasians in schools.

His report has drawn criticism. Tony Sewell, an expert on disadvantaged communities, said Dr. Leunig’s statements were too “simplistic”, and although he was correct in drawing attention to under achievement among white demographics, he was wrong to suggest that ethnic minorities fared better in academic achievement.

He added that Dr. Leunig failed to look at the differences in racial groups. For example, girls of West African descent

were achieving extremely well, whereas their Somali and Caribbean counterparts were lagging behind.

Dr. Leunig is now working on a new secondary school league table for the Department of Education. In the past, he has also drawn controversy for a 2008 report claiming that transformation attempts in Liverpool, Hull, Sunderland, and Bradford should be halted due to economic stagnation.

In response to Dr. Leunig’s statements, the General Secretary of the conference, Brian Lightman, said that he is correct to claim that it would be “absolutely wrong to tolerate under performance of any group.” A spokeswoman for the Department of Education has also added: “the government wants all children to succeed, whatever their background.”

National Assembly For Wales / Cynulliad Cymru

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Tuesday October 29 2013

Opinion

Standing Up For Rememberance Sunday The LSESU Gen Sec responds to the ULU Senate decision Jay Stoll

Before I begin, I want to state that I am absolutely writing in my official capacity as the General Secretary of The LSE Students’ Union. I hope this doesn’t seem crass, but my reasoning for starting in such a way will hopefully become clear.

When friends asked why I was standing to be Gen Sec, I was always dumbfounded by the presumed rationale. “For your CV” was a clear win-

“when all the jokes about student politicians are done with, we remain representatives and the voice for thousands of members.” ner, “becoming a Labour MP” a close second - and whilst these assumptions certainly made for great conversation over a pint, I always left with a slightly confused look on my face.

For me, it was and still is strikingly obvious. The LSE is

one of the greatest academic institutions in the world, its students match that status - who wouldn’t want the opportunity to act as their representative?!

With that in mind, I switch to the central responsibilities of the role - because when all the jokes about student politicians are done with, we STILL remain representatives and the voice for thousands of members.

One of those roles is to act with repute in the public sphere.

Whilst I am fully aware from the last few weeks when I stated that I am not accountable to the general public in how the Union is run - I can’t take shelter in our bunker in the Quad and pretend the decisions I take don’t affect the reputation of an almost entirely outward-facing institution.

The turbulent start to term has certainly moulded my political outlook in this sense.

Another role is to act as an ambassador for LSE students in the various representative bodies across the country. One such body is the University of London Union (ULU) Senate this essentially comprises of the heads of constituent colleges of the University of London (Kings, LSE, UCL, Goldsmiths, Royal Holloway, Queen Mary etc etc).

The body will no longer exist after ULU is disbanded at the end of the year.

So why would we care about what it has to say then?

LAWRENCE JACKSON

ULU Senate prevented anyone from ULU attending a Service in an official capacity

Well, because it is currently the only Pan-London voice and still arguably has a huge presence when it comes to tackling

“now seems an apt time to put all my cards on the table and state that I believe this to be an abhorrent position to take.” and lobbying on issues that affect us all - housing, international students. Until the end of the year then, it still has an important responsibility to act with repute.

Thus, when I read of the decision taken by the ULU Senate to prevent representatives of ULU attending the UoL Remembrance Day service in an official capacity, I felt compelled to speak up. I couldn’t attend the latest meeting I was out of office dealing with personal circumstances, but now seems an apt time to put all my cards on the table and state that I believe this to be an abhorrent position to take.

As so eloquently put by the Editor of this paper- “Remembrance Sunday does not affirm geo-political motives or attest to a particular historic orthodoxy; it commemorates those who paid the ultimate price, many of whom were passively conscripted to the cause”.

For me, this view resonates greatly.

Whilst British soldiers were

being savaged in the fields of Northern Europe, my family were being savaged in death camps in Poland. If it wasn’t for the lucky couple of my ancestors that escaped to these shores, I can say with certainty that I would not be here. I owe everything to those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

I will NOT forget them, my conscience would never allow

“Speaking more practically, I will be speaking to the Chaplaincy, amongst others within the School, to make sure we can have our own remembrance service” it so whilst *clearly* people are free to not attend such a service, putting a blanket ban on representatives attending in an official capacity is utterly absurd. Speaking more practically, I will be speaking to the Chaplaincy, amongst others within the School, to make sure we can have our own remembrance service on campus early this November.

LSE should be proud to stand together, for if only a couple of minutes, to remember those to whom we owe such a very great deal.

Join the Opinion Team Do you have a strong opinion about what the SU should be doing?

Disagree with something someone has written?

Think the school is being unfair?

Drop us an email at Comment@thebeaveronline.co.uk

The LSESU Paper is one of the oldest papers in the country with thousands reading copies every week.

Tuesday October 29 2013

Opinion There were so many things wrong with the first UGM of the year that I’m not sure where to begin. It started with an apology from the General Secretary - Jay Stoll - regarding the actions of our new Community and Welfare Officer at the Freshers’ Fair, something which is to be applauded, although there was no comment from the Officer herself. Not quite sure what she’s paid for if the Gen Sec has to always clean up after her. However, this wasn’t the worst thing about the UGM - that distinction can only go to the main event: the ‘No to Blurred Lines’ motion.

The sole aim of the motion - for the many who were unaware that the vote was even taking place - was to ban the song Blurred Lines from the LSE campus.

Gender equality and rape are without doubt important issues, however they did not fit easily into the context of this song. The arguments were thoroughly uninspiring and, to be honest, hollow. Proponents used buzzwords such as misogyny and sexism constantly but ignored direct questions about enforcement.

The same buzzwords were frequently shouted at those speaking against the motion.

The ‘against’ camp was headed by the LSESU Women’s Officer who gave much more diplomatic and reasonable statements.

There is no doubt that those arguing against the motion won the debate; unfortunately many who showed up had no intention of listening to the ar-

guments.

The motion used out of context quotes from Robin Thicke – writer of Blurred Lines – to suggest that he wanted to promote a ‘rape culture’ with the song.

The same can be done to argue against the motion however as one line of the song states “that man is not your maker” which some have suggested to be a new wave of feminism in itself.

Thicke can also be quoted dismissing allegations that the song was about rape and also stating that it was in fact about his wife.

Thankfully, however, those arguing against the motion did not stoop to this level of tedium.

After some very strange comments from the ‘for’ camp which included one person announcing that all songs which she found offensive should be banned and also suggesting that if men had their orifices violated more often then we would feel differently about Blurred Lines.

I stand by my main point, despite this: at a school of highly intelligent people I think we can all decide what music we want to listen to.

We are after all capable of switching off the radio or even leaving the room for a moment if we decide that we really have to be so offended by the latest chart hits.

Many other great points were made by the opposing group: “it is a song and nothing more”, and “banning one song will do nothing significant for the feminist cause but it will do great damage to free speech

Elections Mark II

LSESU’s weekly General Meeting voted narrowly in favour of banning blurred lines

and expression”. The point was made that 4 other universities have banned the song: an easily rebuttable argument as 113 (According to UCAS) others have NOT banned the song and other universities were not – previous to events of this week – seen as the home of free speech.

In the end, the motion passed with 49 voted for and 40 votes against. This ‘vote’, not the motion itself, was by far the biggest issue during the meeting.

At LSE there are over 9,000 students. 49 felt so strongly that they turned up to vote for the motion, and this was enough to pass a motion affecting the other 9,000.

I’m sure the Economics department could tell you a lot more about the accuracy of such a small sample size. Obviously, everyone had the chance to vote and could have if they’d felt so inclined. However, apart

from the fact that the Old Theatre doesn’t hold 9,000 people, not everyone has the time.

It is almost laughable that society elections have a minimum attendance threshold but UGM motions that affect many more people do not. This farcical attempt at a democratic vote - taken by show of hands highlights the need for a return to online voting for motions, and, perhaps more importantly, advertisement of the issues being discussed.

Until this happens I can’t see how any motion can have democratic legitimacy or how these SU motions can be taken seriously, especially ones such as this, which makes no comment on how to enforce what music people listen to on campus.

I doubt the Tuns will be hiring someone to monitor the TV and change the channel every time Blurred Lines is played.

In defence of religion - its positive role Jamie Pelling It has happened twice now.

The first time was in a class on the European Enlightenment, particularly on Isaac Newton, one of the greatest human minds of his generation, and, as Voltaire argued, of all time.

Whilst discussing Newton’s adamant Christian faith, someone labels it ‘disappointing’ another person can’t even countenance the possibility that Newton really believed in a Supreme Being and concludes that he must have only acted as Christian in order to fit the social mores of the time. The next occasion was during a debate on the totemic historian Leopold von Ranke who established much of the scientific approach which confines the imaginations of historians in the present day. This time it was the teacher who prompted the question, ‘Is Ranke’s religion a problem?’ ‘Yes’, was the near universal consensus of the

class - it made him biased and unable to formulate reasoned judgements. On both occasions I sighed and stared down at my notes, wondering at what point religion became anti-intellectual.

It’s not even that I am particularly religious. I attended a Catholic school, I’ve been on pilgrimage, and I do believe in God, but I am very much a lapsed Catholic and resent certain dogmatic and uncharitable aspects common across many organised religions. However, more than organised religion, I resent the implication that being religious is a stain on an academic record. We may live in a secular age where people - especially in this country - do not talk in religious terms or about religion as much as they used to, but that does not mean that it has forsaken these shores entirely. It also does not mean that those who still have some form of faith are not capable of acting as rational human beings.

It might be worth reminding those who see these great men of faith - Ranke and Newton - as

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inferior because of it that just as there has never been categorical proof of the existence of God, there has never been categorical proof that there was no great designer at the start of all things. Newton himself made use of this argument in the 17th century and much of it still stands today. The purpose of this article is not to get into all the various philosophical arguments made for and against the existence of God, but simply to say that there remains a debate there, and faith in God remains just as legitimate an academic stance as faith that there is no God. One of the more important aspects behind the death of religion in academia is the extremely damaging role played by the religious right. Creationism, the denial of science (or natural philosophy as Newton would have termed it), and strictures against a woman’s right to choose - among other things - have done a great deal of damage to the reputation of religion amongst the enlightened majority. It is worth bearing in mind

then, that most organised religions incorporate admirable values systems which they encourage their adherents to follow. Is ‘zakat’ not one of the five pillars of Islam and does it not encourage the giving of alms to the poor? In Christianity is the golden commandment not to ‘love thy neighbour’? Does Judaism not actively encourage the community spirit that many find missing in Britain today?

Religion can have an extremely positive role to play in the world if it is given a chance. Many would argue that it has had its chance and that war and suffering were the result, but is that reason to give up on it? Religion needs participation, it needs ordinary people, and it needs to change - and I believe it will.

Then again, I am a deluded man of faith who belongs back in the 17th century when people actually believed all that rubbish, so don’t listen to me. Consign me to the anti-intellectual pile and I shall sit there happily trying to explain the Higgs-Boson particle to Isaac Newton.

The more aware among you may have noticed that there are election campaigns currently on going.

Now, Jack is not allowed to name any candidates or comment on it being ridiculous that they are allowed to stand given they are completely unsuitable for the role, or anything like that.

Which is a shame. As a result there is not much Jack is allowed to talk about regarding the LSE this week.

Even if Jack wanted to comment on the hustings that occurred in the UGM, Jack would be unable to name anyone, even the ones who were dreadful, and not even the ones who didn’t show up.

As to name one we would have to name them all.

So in that spirit here is everyone standing for Post Grad Officer: Abhilasha Aryan; Namita Bhaladhare; Natalie Bisheh; Nathan Bullock; Brent Caldwell; Dany El-Khalil; Griffin Estes; Monita Hooda; Vaibhav Krishna; Laura Mertsching; Caroline Moore; Aris Moro; Sana Musharraf; Nikita Naresh; Sarah Osembo; Nikita Patodia; Subharata Ray; Christoph Rosenthal; Clement Salaun; Chris Wood; Dena Zaki.

Turning to matters Jack can talk about, ULU is in the news again. You may have noticed that ULU has banned anyone attending a remembrance service in an “official capacity”. One would think given the massive controversy last year they might have thought, hmm, maybe we shouldn’t annoy a large group of students again. But no, onward they charge.

Jack finds the justification odd, that some members of ULU may not approve of the ceremony, therefore they should ban anyone going representing ULU. Presumably therefore, when the ULU Sabbs go on thier protests next week, and act in solidarity with those on strike, they will not be doing so in their official capacity. Or maybe they just have double standards. Seems a lot for the £70,000 a year we give to it.

Eitherway ULU will be removed by next summer, so maybe all this controversy is the death throws of the union.

What replaces it, however, and how much we have to pay for the privilege is the next question.

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Tuesday October 29 2013

Opinion

NOAM RABINOVICH

Public relations and Journalism

The development of journalism in the commercial age Anuradha Santhanam

At the LSE’s Polis talk last week, Tim Burt, former journalist and one of the founders of international communications firm Stockwell, talked about public relations, journalism and everything in between.

This brought to mind several other questions, however. In this day and age, with technology as widespread and accessible as it is, are the distinction between PR and journalism becoming increasingly harder to define?

Major news media corporations are just that – corporations looking to sell, to generate an income, and to perpetuate themselves. In an increasingly commercial age, the focus, now more than ever, is on money and readership, or more commonly hits and traffic, which translate

into money.

What seems like innocuous news about a celebrity’s latest outing to a London pub, or a politician and his wife spotted at a holiday destination is not just that.

It comes with its own set of implications meant for the target audience of the tabloid or magazine, who will then contribute to their income.

So when the Daily Mail publishes an article about a certain politician’s wife wearing a certain designer, it could be about one of two things.

Either it could be thinlyveiled marketing spiel for the designer, or an equally thinlyveiled diatribe about the implied excessive spending habits of said politician. It is not, simply, a woman wearing clothes.

With the exception of a few, a lot of internet and mainstream media are either very right-wing or very left-wing, and when it comes to political matters, will not ‘report’, or provide unbiased fact as it is.

Politics is a special favourite of the media, because conflict sells. People like to read about conflict. They buy media, and advertising revenues grow exponentially.

Every politician has his/her own team that manages their image, political consultants who hone their speeches, dressing and overall presentation. The PR begins there.

Related to this is the fact that many media outlets hold their own political beliefs.

With the involvement of several media outlets, candidates become less about their convictions, beliefs and the political change they wish to bring, but about either their last good deed, if the media outlet is in support of them, in which case they are all but beatified, and, if the outlet is against them, the last chunk of dirt that can be dug up on them.

While this can have a positive impact, as it did with Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, or when the NSA scandal finally

blew up, it is more used as a tool to spin for or against a favoured candidate.

While every item of information is tinged with shades of the person or outlet reporting it, this becomes dangerous in the media simply because of the massive amount of power the media holds over opinions.

Yellow journalism, unfortunately, influences large demographics as it catches the eye and seems to collate all the reader needs to know, which is, more often than not, completely untrue and designed with the sole purpose of looking ‘sexy’ on a front page.

Complete impartiality is difficult even with the best of intentions, and when the extremely influential field of the media and moneyed, powerful corporate and industrial factors are involved, these ‘best of intentions’ may be absent.

This has, to some extent, been mitigated by the internet explosion and how it has promoted media plurality. However,

even within the internet, there are specific sites that attract the greatest traffic, and these then become the internet version of large news corporations, or, more accurately, their internet extension. This begs the question – are there more sources of information, or more ways for the powerful to spread their own propaganda?

In the internet age, it is up to the reader to be more informed than s/he has ever been, in order to be able to sift through reams and reams of conflicting, biased information.

The internet as an entity has provided us several different sources and outlets of information. It is up to us to discern what is mere spiel, and, as is true of any information, collect several different perspectives before we form our own. With a glut of information in cyberspace, we need all the more to scrutinise those blurred lines between PR and journalism ourselves, informed ‘customers’ of information being sold to us.

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Opinion

Human Rights reports shed light on the US’s

After carefully reading the new human rights reports issued by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch on America’s drone war, I can best describe my mood as equal parts nauseous and horrified. The reports are, in a word, gruesome.

And while I have problems with various aspects of both – among them the overreach of each in

“a great many people (up to 900 in Pakistan alone) have been killed, and their deaths seem to have come at the hands of my country’s government” conflating unintended collateral civilian casualties as war crimes – I nonetheless have to consider the fact that a great-many innocent people (up to 900 in Pakistan alone) have been killed, and their deaths seem to have come at the hands of my country’s government.

Like many others Americans my age, my formative years were consumed by a seemingly never-ending conflict between “good and evil” or “us vs. them”, aimed at justifying America’s engagement in Idon’t-know-how-many conflicts and moral crusades in order

to “safeguard our freedom and way of life”. I was a kid (13) when the towers fell and we began this continuing trend of extremist-eradication at-allcosts. But then, in 2008, Barack Obama ran for President, and I’d never seen anything like it. I was too young and uninterested to remember the Clinton years, really. Everything I knew about Presidential power, and the exercise of it, I knew from George W. Bush and Dick “Chancellor Palpatine” Cheney. So when, in 2008, Obama ran on principles of transparency, honesty, accountability and justice, I was naturally inspired; hopeful that the world Bush and Cheney created would finally be jettisoned for something good.

As much I would like to follow the lefty herd and blindly claim that somehow, someway, we’ve gotten ourselves out of the same rut that consumed us during the breadth of Bush’s term(s), the truth is that we haven’t. The truth is we’ve replaced open evil with closeted evil.

For years now the president and his senior advisers have made public claims about America’s drone program that have been found to be categorically false. We know, for instance, from top-secret intelligence documents, that “contrary to assurances it has deployed US drones only against known senior leaders of al-Qaida and allied groups, the Obama administration has targeted and killed hundreds of suspected lowerlevel Afghan, Pakistani and unidentified ‘other’ militants in scores of strikes in Pakistan’s rugged tribal area.” (Jonathan Landy) These revelations don’t just illustrate that the drone program is out of hand or that the Obama administration has

FUS ARMY

Kaveh Farzad

Ollie Hill It is not our buildings that make our university what it is. It is not our history, or our list of Nobel Prize winners, or our famous founders that gives us the internationally renowned education that we’re so lucky to have.

No, we owe all of that to our staff. Teachers, Lecturers, those who work in Admissions, in Student Services, in Timetables, and Catering and Security all work incredibly hard, often in unseen, un-appreciated roles to keep this place ticking over.

Over the last 5 years they have suffered a 13% pay cut as inflation, especially housing costs in London, race way ahead

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become incapable in accounting for it, but that the Obama administration knowingly misleads the public about the scope of who can be legitimately targeted by unmanned aerial vehicles.

Here’s a crucial point: the Obama administration/US military/intelligence agencies often have no idea who they are killing. Even the CIA – whose intelligence reports are basically the means by which targets are chosen – often has zero idea of the identities of many of the people they target for death. President Obama, much like his predecessor, approves of the use of something called “signature strikes”, where the least important factor in the decision making process to target someone for a drone strike is who they are. More important in the decision making calculus the government employs – and the reason many are targeted for death despite their identity being unknown

– are intelligence gathering reports suggesting that targeted individuals are to be considered ‘militants’ if they engage in patterns of life more commonly engaged in by ‘militants’. The NY Times reported that, “the joke [at the State Department] was that when the CIA sees ‘three guys doing jumping jacks’, the agency thinks it is a terrorist training camp”.

I should note that the Obama administration has – prior to the reports – signaled its intention to embrace a policy shift away from drones towards various other counterterrorism measures. But because Americans are largely agnostic towards the use of drones in far-away places like Pakistan, and since that ambivalence means neither Republicans nor Democrats will pressure the President to make good on his campaign promises of accountability and transparency, there’s little chance he will.

Decent wages means better education of the desultory pay offers they have been given. The situation has got so dire for many of the School’s lowest paid workers that they earn less in the whole year than some MSc students pay in fees. Declining wages means that a huge proportion of the people who work in universities will struggle to pay their rent in the capital these days, let alone send their own children to university.

And as far as our more highly paid academics are concerned, let’s bear in mind that we are talking about some of the finest minds in their fields. If their only interest was in making nice fat salaries, I assure you they would not be in academia! Consultancy and finance is a very lucrative business, as very many of you are undoubtedly aware.

Instead they choose to work in

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education, and all they ask in return is a decent wage.

If wages continue to fall like this, it is the UK’s world class Higher Education system which will suffer. Why? Because we’re all dependant on well-motivated staff.

We’re all dependant on wellresourced admin departments.

We’re all reliant on staff that aren’t bullied, exhausted from overwork, stressed out over the precarious state of their financed and who can actually focus on teaching us, or ensuring our support services run on time and up to spec.

It’s frequently pointed out that our failing care systems and ineffective social services in this country are down to endemically low morale and povertypay. Who would want to work in that sort of environment at all,

let alone be able to do their jobs well?

Across the sector there is a £1Bn surplus.

LSE, despite being more exposed to government cuts than most universities due to our exclusive focus on humanities and social science, has a large cash reserve and an annual surplus of £25m, partly down to the excellent work of the Director.

Just half of that surplus would bring wages right back up to where they were 5 years ago. As LSE students this is of utmost importance to us.

UCU say that the best chance we have of influencing the UCEA’s offer is to write to Craig Calhoun as societies and as individuals asking him to lobby the UCEA to reconsider, and I’ll be doing just that. We must support the strike.

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Tuesday October 29 2013

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Remembrance Day It is incredibly saddening and disheartening to hear of the decision of the University of London Union to prevent anyone attending the UoL Remembrance Day service in an official capacity, as a representative of ULU. It is hypocrisy to deny the freedom of ULU officers and staff to participate in a Remembrance ceremony when that is the very freedom for which our forebears died.

Remembrance Sunday does not affirm geo-political motives or attest to a particular historic orthodoxy; it commemorates those who paid the ultimate price, many of whom were passively conscripted to the cause.

ULU is, of course, free to assert its human right to boycott the ceremony, but that right exists only because people died contending against the forces of fascism and Nazism.

Remembrance Sunday ought to be a unifying day of commemoration for all freedom-loving democrats and representative organisations, regardless of race, religion or political view.

Elections LSE has entered election season. These elections are generally regarded as the precursor to the Lent Term elections where each of the voting blocks tests the amount of support they are able to muster, and place their candidates in positions ready to take the bigger issues next week.

The paper is forbidden from endorsing and reporting restrictions seem tighter than ever this year under the new rules in place by the Returning Officer.

This year the paper is forbidden from even naming a candidate running in the election without the express permission of the Returning Officer, who claims it may make the election unfair.

Most of the positions have faced political horsetrading by societies for the last couple of weeks. The bulk votes these deliver, will probably have the decisive impact.

Democracy in action, don’t you love it.

However on election night, we will be reporting live from the count, and keeping you updated with a running commentary on who won and what the results mean, if anything for the Lent Term elections and the future of the Union.

Opinion

ULU and Remembrance LAWRENCE JACKSON

Ben Rogers

It comes as little surprise to anyone who was witness to last year’s shameful show of glib and tasteless remarks made by the president and vice president of ULU as to why they would not be sending an official ULU representative to the University of London’s memorial service on remembrance Sunday that the same insult is to be repeated once again.

The ULU senate has decided once again to spit in the face of all those members of their union who believe that it is in no way unreasonable to demand that they have an official ULU representative at the service which commemorates the millions who gave the ultimate sacrifice in the cause of liberty and freedom.

Could they perhaps be as gracious to acknowledge that without these great sacrifices their right to make such absurd remarks wouldn’t now exist? Or on a more pragmatic level could they tell us why they think it such a wise strategy if they are trying to defend ULU from closure why they think infuriating so many of its members is a wise course of action? Perhaps they should take heed of comrade Lenin’s remarks that you can’t build socialism on a dead corpse, because similarly you can’t defend a union by first alienating its members and giving them a potent reminder of why they really could do without you, as well as your Monty Python-esque socialist values.

However to try and use this space for other purposes than just repeating the words of the already numerous students who are quite rightly outraged at their union’s activities, I would like to contest the particular point upon which this debate revolved around last year, which was the respective morality of Britain’s entry and participation in the First World War. Daniel Cooper’s infamous published explanation last year for his refusal to lay a reef, which can still be found online and should be read by all, centres on the conflict and deserves a reply addressing several points about which Cooper’s opinion is flat out wrong .

Firstly the conflict is framed in his letter as one fought by the working classes of Europe on the command of their evil rulers who were little more than armchair spectators to the slaughter. Understandably this is an image one might pick up from watching Black Adder but going to historical facts this image can be quickly identified as the popularised nonsense which it is. Members of all of Britain’s social classes fought and died in the First World War in equal proportions and without any significant differentiation in the proportion of deaths sustained by each class grouping. This is a historical fact. It might also be illuminating to note that one of the social groups which suffered the greatest proportionate casualty rate were

Oxbridge alumni . The reality is that this was not class war but one fought and inflicted upon an entire nation. However even with this put to one side surely it is abhorrent to mourn or prioritise members of the war dead on the basis of class as it would be to do so by race or gender?

Secondly Cooper uses the old and worn out argument that the war was fought for the interests of capitalism seeking colonies and markets around the world as the rich in Britain sent the poor to die to protect their interests and profit margins against the encroachment of the Kaiser’s Germany. If Mr Cooper would care to look at the academic opinion on the conflict from the last 50 years they would realise how thoroughly discredited this argument is, let alone the economics that underlies it. One doesn’t have to do too much reading to find out how horrified global markets was at the prospect of a war in Europe, even a limited one.

Walter Cunliffe the then governor of the Bank of England pleaded with the British government to stay out of the war along with big business which was horrified about the destruction of capital and trade it would cause along with the taxes and inflation that would be required to pay for it.

Big business, apart from the very small amount which is concerned with arms production, does not like war, as was manifestly shown by the forced closure of stock market exchanges all over Europe as the threat of war spread in 1914.

Equally the conflict was not caused a conflict for colonies. This is because despite Lenin’s theorising that new colonies were of the upmost importance to European imperialists and capitalists to exploit new sources of surplus labour, colonies were of no great importance whatsoever in the strategic decision making of 1914. In fact the economic insignificance of owning huge swathes of Africa owed to the decision that the British took to gift the Germans large African territories in the preceding decades before the war. This is because Marx was completely wrong about the tendency of profits to fall, meaning that only diminishing returns could be gained from investing in already industrial-

ised economies, eventually leading to the inevitable collapse of capitalism. Economist Thomas Sowell has shown that despite the spurious and confused figures presented by Lenin in his book on imperialism, advanced capitalist economies invest in each other at a substantially greater rate than they do in developing ones. Because profits don’t irretrievably fall and capitalism is a fluid yet stable system, which creates great prosperity for all social classes, capitalist economics meant that in 1914 the maintenance of empires was not the cause of the war.

Such non-vital issues of national interest had always been resolved by peaceful diplomacy and had never been deemed worthy of risking a world war over.

Instead the British war effort in 1914 was one reluctantly conducted against the militarism of the German monarchy which had, despite the peaceful desires of the German people, launched an aggressive war against France and Belgium in order to gain military mastery over the continent.

To not enter the conflict would have been to see the destruction of the French and Belgian democracies at the hands of such a reactionary force which in the words of one of its own commanders was prepared to risk the destruction of the whole of European civilisation to achieve its own dominance and ascendancy.

The Kaiser’s Germany might not have been as archetypally menacing as Hitler’s, nor the political institutions of Britain and the other allied powers of 1914 as liberal and progressive as the ones we enjoy today but the success of the allies in this horrific and tragic conflict is something that we should be proud of.

Although the peace was definitely bungled, it was fought to protect the core principles which have helped the long arch of history continue to progress towards justice instead of suffering a dramatic reverse and I see no shame in affirming that belief.

So in conclusion unless the leaders of ULU can provide credible historical arguments to back their objections then they should be silent about which they cannot speak and about which I am personally too tired of hearing them do so.

consultancies and find out more about what they have to offer. the

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skills and make new friendships. To find out about the many events going on that LSE students can get involved, check the website.

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For more careers tips, advice and events on campus

lse.ac.uk/careers Don’t miss…

Tailor your CV – because it’s worth it!

How to write effective CVs - 24 October, 1-2pm

You’ve probably be told time and time again to tailor your CV for application success. But what does that mean and how can you do it? Tailoring your CV ensures everything that appears on your CV is interesting and relevant for the specific employer and role. Yes, that means altering your CV in line with each new job you apply for. Time consuming I hear your say… well yes, but well worth it if it gets you through to interview (and it is more likely to).

Employers often tell LSE Careers they can tell when a student has applied to various companies using the same CV, and that this technique is likely to ensure your CV ends up near the bottom of the pile. That’s not going to help you get through to interview! To help you tailor successfully we’ve put together our top 5 pieces of advice:

Find out how to make your CV stand out to employers.

LSE Careers Public Sector and Policy Careers Conference 2013 – 29 October, 5.30-8.30pm A fantastic opportunity to meet employers from across this diverse sector.

Vacancy of the week Vacancy: Graduate trainee: Data Science, Consumer Behaviour, Retail, Management Consultancy Employer: Dunnhumby Deadline: 24th October 2013 Find out more and apply for this and hundreds of other vacancies on LSE CareerHub

1.

Do your research: Research the employer, the sector, and read the job description thoroughly. Keep updated with relevant sector news, sign up to email alerts or RSS feeds, follow the employer on social media sites, attend employer presentations, speak to them at careers events and identify all the skills the employer expects from the ideal candidate.

2.

Demonstrate your skills: Your education, work experiences, extra-curricular activities, voluntary positions and internship experiences can demonstrate relevant, transferable skills.

3.

Choose specific examples: Give a short description related to a specific task, role or project you completed, e.g. Communicated with senior staff across the organisation via email and over the phone to organise a conference for external clients.

4.

Show your successes: Prove your effectiveness as a potential employee by outlining the positive result or outcome of the work you have done. Remember to amend these sentences in line with the skills the particular employer wants to see demonstrated on your CV! 5.

Change your headings: Choose different headings that appeal to the employer, and that allow you to combine relevant work experiences, voluntary experiences and extra-curricular experiences together. Perhaps you have sector experience and want to highlight this to the employer; try using ‘finance experience’, ‘policy experience’ or ‘marketing experience’ for example.

I’ll leave you with this final piece of advice… think like the employer each time you include

LSE Library celebrates the life and work of Lionel Robbins to mark 50th Anniversary of his report on Higher Education LSE Library has launched an online digital exhibition of the life of economist Lionel Robbins (pictured) to coincide with the 50th anniversary of his landmark report into higher education.

The exhibition, The Economist and the Wider World: the papers of Lionel Robbins (1898-1984), (http://digital.library.lse.ac.uk/collections/lionelrobbins) includes a selection of photographs, papers and correspondence from Robbins’ life.

On Tuesday 22 October, LSE held a one day conference - Shaping Higher Education 50 Years after Robbins - to celebrate the anniversary of the publication of the Robbins Report.

The conference, supported by the LSE Annual Fund, closed with a public event featuring a panel discussion with Bahram Bekhradnia, Rajay Naik, and David Willetts MP. The 1963 Report into Higher Education, chaired by Lionel Robbins, revealed that entry into university largely depended on class rather than ability, paving the way for expansion and modernisation within the higher education sector.

Elizabeth Chapman, Director of LSE Library Services, said: “LSE Library’s project celebrates the anniversary of this landmark report, and documents the important contributions Robbins made to the arts, politics and LSE during his long career, guaranteeing the availability of his papers to future generations of researchers.” http://digital.library.lse.ac.uk/collections/lionelrobbins

The Beaver 29.10.2013

PartB

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29.10.2013 PartB

14

WORLD / FILM

PROPAGANDA W

VICTIMS OF ISLAMIC FUNDAMENTALISM:

ONLY THE WEST?

e are constantly bombarded with propaganda on a daily basis: a direct consequence of living in a consumerist, capitalist and 'Western' society. Ranging from advertisements on television to the speeches of politically influential leaders such as Hitler and George W Bush, Slavko Martinov’s documentary Propaganda provides a methodological insight into the nature and psychology of how the human race's opinion has been streamlined by those in positions of power.

With the mass globalisation that has rapidly increased in the past century, it is unsurprising that a number of morally incumbent issues have arisen.

Propaganda, presented as a North Korean commentary on Western civilisation, primarily focuses on the mass media's promotion of such issues to the consumer. Here, material wealth, and the need for such possessions, is ironically portrayed as a primordial concern. This in turn is used as a means to subdue the masses such that they are prevented from developing a substantially relevant bank of knowledge about the world around them. It is embarrassingly shocking to note US citizen's inability to point out where their geographical location is on a map.

This 'sickness of the Western world' is seemingly founded upon this 'culture' in which we idolise these 'puppets', and for what reason? Is it because they are sporting the latest fashion and gadget trends? Or because we 'look up' to these individuals as role models since they are blessed with monetary wealth? Celebrity culture no longer has value in this day and age.

It is a forgotten honour that has been confused with maintaining a visually appealing facade as opposed to, ideally, the 'celebration' of actual actions worthy of praise and mass attention: the contributions of people to the positive advancement of the human race both on a mental and physical level.

It is sad that in retrospect such actions are fundamentally present moreso in the past than in this current day and age. However, the documentary reminds one not to forget the historical revolutions that have led to the use of propaganda as a mean to sway public perception. It was startling to see such a high similarity between the propagandas used by Hitler's regime in Nazi Germany and ones implemented by Blair-Bush admininstrations during the 2003-2011 Iraq War. Additionally, Propaganda highlights this recurrent theme of the 'subscription of the masses' with regards to political agendas. The masses 'subscribe' to the proposed idea based on fear and willingly subject themselves to heavy taxation, a monetary source utilised to finance crimes against humanity: war.

Evidence of further manipulation by media sources was a poignant moment in Propaganda and we see that the peaceful nature of the Occupy Wall Street movement was completely misrepresented as one of absolute chaos and carnage. Simply put, this reinforces the notion that the experience and the reality of events are not as they seem. As George Orwell duly noted ''He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past”.

As a controversial documentary on the operation of a society governed by a globalist economy, Propaganda is a thought-provoking film highlighting the genuine issue at hand: the war on our minds.

A lecture by KARIMA BENNOUNE criticises the Western world for ignoring the plight of Muslims under fundamentalist regimes, writes KANAN PARIDA

ISAF MEDIA

T

here is no excuse for terrorism. One can argue that the circumstances of the Western treatment of Islam have resulted in deep hatred and anger amongst the Muslim community, but it by no means excuses terrorism. On October 23rd, professor of Law at UC Davis, Karima Bennoune gave a public lecture based on her book, Your Fatwa Does Not Apply Here.

Through her lecture she rightly criticised Western Human Rights organisations, which have paid little heed to the victims of fundamentalism.

Starting off with a video clip and then an excerpt of an email written to her by a Tunisian lawyer, Bennoune powerfully begins her talk with the voice of the biggest victims of fundamentalism: Muslims themselves. The Tunisian lawyer criticised the West, as it is the Islamic world that “pays the bill” for Western ignorance and inability to broach the topic of fundamentalism. Particularly in the case of her father’s struggle against fundamentalists in Algeria, Bennoune denounced the lack of accountability by Human Rights organisations in the West in the struggle of the Muslim victims of fundamentalism.

An interesting statistic that resounded in my mind was that in Al Qaeda’s attacks over the last ten years, 98 per cent of the victims were of Muslim heritage.

With this statistic she raises an interesting point: why don’t we know enough about these Muslim victims of fundamentalism?

Perhaps, rather than asking this question, we must ask why we dismiss acts of terrorism on Muslims more readily than on non-Muslims? In this respect, Bennoune introduced the topic of the Western approach to Muslim fundamentalism. On the right, she said, are those who believe Islam is inherently fundamentalist, which is “offensive”. Similarly, on the left they are too politically correct and cannot even broach the topic of fundamentalism.

Essentially, she argued that fundamentalism is not excusable and cannot be looked at as an admissible reaction to the West. She contended that rather than focusing on combatting radical Jihadis, the underlying ideology of Islamism must be confronted.

What strikes me here is that though the ideology of Islam discriminates between Muslims and nonMuslims, and between "good" and "bad" Muslims, don’t other religions also do the same? Then perhaps it is not the core tenets of Islam that need to be addressed but rather the interpretation of the ideology.

As Bennoune rightly pointed out, there are many Muslims in this world who are not terrorists; they are victims of fundamentalism and she helps them combat it by telling their stories.

In a chapter from her book titled 'Why I hate Al Qaeda', Bennoune mentions Maria Bashir, the first and only female chief prosecutor in Afghanistan. In the case of Afghanistan, the West supports talks between the government and Taliban. However, if the rights of women and human beings in general are compromised for peace with the Taliban, what will happen to the Maria Bashirs of the future?

This recognises an extremely important dilemma in today’s world; is temporary peace worth sacrificing the struggle for Human Rights? When asked if there was a context in which terrorism could be excused, Bennoune replied nothing could justify killing civilians by fundamentalists; their policies are equally bad if not worse on their own populations. Giving a terrorist organisation any amount of power in a government is extremely dangerous.

However, what is the solution to fundamentalism then? Fundamentalism is undoubtedly a dangerous construct in the Islamic world; it justifies egregious violence against women and civilians, or at least creates an environment conducive to such thought. Undoubtedly, actions need to be taken and the victims of fundamentalism need to be recognised; they cannot simply disappear as part of the “third world body count”.

In response to the question on the growth of fundamentalism, she maintains that the view is that optimism is the “key to survival” and that the tide is turning; hopefully the epoch of fundamentalism will be quelled.

Bennoune offers the idea that the West and Human Rights organisations should be more involved in the struggles of the victims of fundamentalism. Their response cannot be silence. Though this is true, Bennoune does not seem to state what a better course of action would be.

And yet, her arguments still paradoxically resonate in my mind. She argued, “We all know Osama Bin Laden but we know little about the struggle of the people against fundamentalism”. Through her lecture and her book, she attempts to form a link between those who are fighting fundamentalism at the ground level and the rest of the world.

It is only through the lens of numerous perspectives of fundamentalism that we can truly understand Marieme Lucas’ definition of fundamentalisms as political movements from the extreme right, which in a context of globalisation, manipulate religions to achieve their aims. Though she was unable to answer all the questions posed to her, Karima Bennoune answered a question that none of us knew was in our minds; what do we do about the victims of islamic fundamentalism who are Muslims themselves?

KOKO OWUSU Director: Slavko Martinov Runtime: 96 min



PARTB EDITORIAL TEAM PARTB

FASHION

FILM

Josh Jinruang Janie Tan

Jodie Momodu

Koko Owusu

fashion@thebeaveronline.co.uk

film@thebeaveronline.co.uk

partb@thebeaveronline.co.uk

FOOD

LITERATURE

MUSIC

TECHNOLOGY

THEATRE

VISUAL ARTS

Neraj Thangarajah Dorothy Wong

Vacant

Tom Barnes Cathal Laughran

Gillian Cafiero Alexander Fyfe

Michelle Warbis Darcey Ball

Jade Jackman Maryam Akram

food@thebeaveronline.co.uk

literature@thebeaveronline.co.uk

music@thebeaveronline.co.uk

techonology@thebeaveronline.co.uk

Cover artworks courtesy of our writers and photographers

theatre@thebeaveronline.co.uk

visualarts@thebeaveronline.co.uk

The Beaver 29.10.2013

15

FILM / VISUAL ARTS

TIME AND ROMANCE

Director Richard Linklater explores the bittersweet connection between time and romance in his decades-spanning 'Before...' trilogy. Lovers are thrown together and torn apart as life's youthful simplicity gives way to adult complications.

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ichard Linklater’s three films, Before Sunrise (1995), Before Sunset (2004) and Before Midnight (2013) have been referred to as a trilogy, but did Before Sunrise already have the two sequels somehow subliminally established? Although the three films may not be perceived as the foundations of a unified narrative, the trilogy of films are careful developed from their predecessor(s). The most obvious and fruitful link between the three is the concept of time, both in the way it is portrayed and the changes it can cause outside of the director’s control.

Time is present from the very inception of the films.

In Before Sunrise we are introduced to two protagonists: a young French woman, Celine (Julie Delpy), and a young American, Jesse (Ethan Hawke). However, the audience soon realises that there is a third slightly less visible character present: time. Celine and Jesse have ‘before sunrise’ to get to know each other. Although this may appear to be a time ‘limit’, this factor is the premise behind the entire narrative. If the young couple could meet at any time, there would be no incentive to quickly deepen their relationship. It is time, which seemingly appears to work against them towards the end of the narrative, that actually fuels their adventure in the first place. Linklater creates a similar set up for their reun-

Celine: Maybe we should meet here in five years or something.

Jesse: Ok...five years? Five years.

That’s a long time.

(Before Sunrise, 1995)

COLUMBIA PICTURES

ion nine years later in Before Sunset, where the inevitability of Jesse’s flight ‘home’ is constantly mentioned as Celine and him wander through Paris.

In both films, this creates a unique sense of atmosphere: whatever will be said or done, will only be said or done once.

Without a time limit there would be no romance.

The situation in Before Midnight is unclear. What does ‘midnight’ denote? Is the title in and of itself some sort of time limit? Celine and Jesse are each now in steady relationships with two children and neither of them has a train, plane or even a boat

to catch at midnight. The ideal model of romance present in the previous two films is not as apparent in Before Midnight: time now ceases to be ‘Cupid’.

Instead it builds on the disillusionments that echo throughout Before Sunset, such as Jesse’s broken marriage that is paralleled with a couple’s arguments on the train in the very first scene of Before Sunrise. ‘Midnight’ is about the unexpected departure, when one of the lovers decides to leave. Here, time is an unknown, which reinforces the painful emotions experienced in the absence of a loved one.

It becomes obvious in Be-

fore Sunset that time is particularly significant as both the characters and the actors begin to physically age. Celine and Jesse were in their early twenties in Before Sunrise, but now they over thirty and life seems far more complicated.

Though Delpy and Hawke look older, the real change that time has made is in the outlook of their characters. Celine has gone from slightly neurotic and cynical to very neurotic and cynical. The innocent look that she had in the first film is now gone. Jesse, though still not completely serious, is dissatisfied with his marriage.

It seems that Before Sunrise shows us the night and the romance, which is magical, but not quite real. Celine mocks the situation as a cliché and at the end of the film we find out that it takes place on 16th of

"

However, Before Midnight advances this further and ‘deromanticises’ romance. Here, it becomes raw and painful: this is it. Celine does not want to accept her relationship with Jesse due to what it has become, but he, despite being a man-child, manages to convince her that at their age, romance is not perfect anymore.

Although they might not be as happy and problem-free as when they met eighteen years earlier, this does not mean that their love is any less real. Linklater creates a bitter-sweet image of middle-age love life which viewers, just like Celine and Jesse, will find hard to reconcile with Before Sunrise. In the end, Celine and Jesse end on a note of hope or denial (dependent upon the viewer’s belief) as they role-play and perhaps revive the romance that

Linklater creates a bitter-sweet image of middle-age love life which viewers, just like Celine and Jesse, will find hard to reconcile with Before Sunrise.

June, which is Joyce’s Bloomsday, making the romance all the more unreal. Romance, which somehow co-exists with their everyday problems, perhaps becomes all the more complicated. The love has become rawer and problematic as Celine breaks down and confesses her feelings to Jesse during a car ride which causes him to miss the plane home to his wife and child in order to be with Celine.

ALEKSANDRA RYDZEWSKA

" i was an original skinhead. "

WHERE HAVE ALL THE BOOTBOYS GONE? 23 Oct-2 Nov 2013 10:00-17:00 (closed Sundays)

Of working-class struggle and discrimination and skinheads.

Upper & Lowe Street Galleries London College of Communication, Elephant and Castle SE1 6SB

A

UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS LONDON

nyone who knows Maryam or myself will tell you that we are often late.

Despite our attention being grabbed by the promises of Fred Perry, our arrival at Toby Mott’s ‘Where Have all the Bootboys Gone’, was no exception. So, amidst a flurry of faux-fur, we entered the exhibition gasping for air… to find, for once, that we were not the only ones wearing Doc Martens. In other words, breathing relics of the Skinhead era had surrounded us.

This might sound disdainful, and in some ways it is. Mott’s skill as a curator should not be doubted, but to the eye of a young viewer the exhibition may seem a little dry. As one would expect, black and white posters of anarchic youths were rife and the distinctive Trojean record label was a reoccurring motif. On one level, Mott’s decision to position speakers alongside the works

can be seen to give life and context to the works. But, as you do not need to resuscitate the living, it served to exemplify that punk is dead. Or, at least, dormant…Slightly disillusioned by the visual contents of the exhibition, we wandered into the question and answer session. The talk was chaired by rock music journalist Gary Bushell, which reinforced how music is integral to the appreciation of the Skinhead culture. Throughout, it was almost compulsively repeated that punk originated as working class movement; one generated as a response to mass unemployment and dissatisfaction with social conditions. Yet, when questions were opened up to the audience, it became obvious that the Skinhead tradition was still a matter of contention.

Before we knew what was happening, the microphone was thrust towards various members of the audience. As

anticipated, a voice started with the words “I was an original skinhead”. Expecting a nostalgic rant, I rolled my eyes and slumped in my seat. Earlier there had already been a celebration of days gone by, and the seemingly dull collection of album covers seemed to portray one single dialogue— the working-class struggle. Instead the voice confronted us with the racial divisions that had been re-enforced by the movement. At this point, we flicked through the booklet in our hands to find that there was a distinct lack of ethnic minorities.

From this point, the images were transformed. It became clear that these were not just images, but the visual manifestations of a plethora of social problems and stigmatisations.

Even now, the movement’s association with the far right resonated through the lecture theatre. The anguish in the man’s shout became a stain

"

they have lost.

A lot of the uniqueness of Linklater’s trilogy relies on its time span. Though five years seemed like a long time to Jesse, eighteen years later, he and Celine are still rewarding viewers with conversations which make for pleasurable reflection.

review

on the wall; the talk was tarnished, and would not recover.

It could not be denied that there was a racist undercurrent that still impacted how people felt today. In this way, the Skinhead legacy lives on.

It is indisputable, however, that the exhibition was powerful and the images spoke of a subculture with distinctive music, fashion and style.

The images gave the viewer a glimpse into the world of the skinhead in the 60’s and 70’s with their music drumming in your ears.

JADE JACKMAN & v MARYAM AKRAM

29.10.2013 PartB

16

FASHION DESIGNER OF THE WEEK:

SHESHAYA SURTANI

ZANDRA RHODES

W H AT ’ S T H E S E C R E T TO YO U R L O N G E V I T Y ?

"ORIGINALITY AND PERSISTENCE," S H E S A I D. " N E V E R G I V E U P. " L o n d o n F a s h i o n a n d Te x tile Museum 83 Bermondsey Street London SE1 3XF Tu e s d a y - S a t u r d a y 1 1 : 0 0 - 1 8 : 0 0 £8 adults / £5.50 concessions ftmlondon.org

Success and influence Known in the style sphere as “Princess of Pink”, Rhodes is now defined as the first designer to convert street punk into high fashion through her “Conceptual Chic” collection.

Her enchanting “India Revisited” collection epitomises the glamour of Indian culture and intricate hand beaded techniques.

Evidently, Rhodes' vivid understanding of print allows her to experiment with the form of the garments; ac-

FASHION TIMETABLE

SHESHAYA SURTANI

GENE NOCON

WHO IS SHE? Known for her signature pink bob, eccentric persona and glam lifestyle, Zandra Rhodes has made an immense mark on the international world of fashion since the late 1960s. At the early stages of her career, however, Zandra’s textile designs were perceived as “too outrageous” by the traditionalist UK manufacturers of the time. In search of her first big break, she took her collection to the streets of New York, where her talents were discovered by a stylist, and soon featured in the pages of American Vogue.

Since then, Zandra hasn't looked back, designing for style supremes, ranging from Freddie Mercury in ‘Queen’ to Princess Diana of Wales. Now, her glamorous designs and vintage pieces are adorned by fashion icons such asSarah Jessica Parker in “Sex and the City”, Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell, solidifying Rhodes' status as a trend initiator, and style supreme.

tual dresses are structured based on their underlying frames. Zandra’s dramatic use of colour, daring prints and fiercely feminine patterns has given her garments a timeless quality, marking them as unmistakably a Rhodes' creation.

The “Unseen” collection unveiled In 2003, Zandra founded the London Fashion and Textile Museum located in the heart of Europe's fashion capital London. Commemorating the ten-year anniversary since the museum's opening, her latest public exhibition— “Zandra Rhodes: Unseen”— was held from 12 July - 31 August 2013. The exhibition shines a well-deserved light on her phenomenal 50-year career, as well as her evolution as a creative artist.

Featuring a range of original sketches, spectacular textiles, and ravishing dresses, the exhibition gives the public a rare opportunity to enter Rhode's private creative sphere, into the studio and archives of one of the world’s most distinctive designers that re-defined fashion.

out and about

E A S I LY S P OT T E D I N B R I G H T P I N K A N D O R A N G E , L O N D O N FA S H I O N A N D T E X T I L E M U S E U M B OA S T S E V E N T S C AT E R E D TOWA R D S E V E RY FA S H I O N I S TA ' S N E E D S. Event—Bermondsey Street Fashion Heritage Walks Local historian Stephen Humphrey guides a heritage walk around Bermondsey Street, celebrating the history of London's fashion and textile industry in the area.

Dates: 2, 16 November 2013 Time: 12:00 onward

Course—InDesign For Fashion and Textiles / Beginner Giving you perfect control over design and typography, this course teaches you how Adobe InDesign is used in the fashion and textile industry.

Dates: 9, 16, 23 November 2013 (3-week Saturday course) Time: 10.30-16:00

Course—Photoshop for Fashion Designers / Beginner This course explores the creative process and ways to design fashion and apparel using Photoshop.

Dates: 12-14 November 2013 (3-day course) Time: 10.30-16:00

Course—Repeat Patterns With Illustrator / Intermediate This course will teach you effective and interesting ways to create block, brick, drop and sateen repeat patterns using Adobe Illustrator.

Dates: 20 November - 18 December 2013 (5-week evening course) Time: 6:00-21:00

Workshop—Couture Study Day Learn about the fascinating world of couture. In a 'Show & Tell' session, particpants can bring their own piece of coutur as a subject for group discussion.

Dates: 23 November 2013 Time: 10:30-16:30

london fashion and textile museum

The Beaver 29.10.2013

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MUSIC

JOSH KUMRA

live review

THE PORTRAIT OF THE TREQUARTISTA AS A YOUNG MAN H a s p o p m u s i c a p p r o p r i a t e d fo o t b a l l ?

GA B R I E L E V E R I NG T O N i n ve s t i ga t e s We l s h i n d i e b a n d L o s C a mp e s inos!' descent into athletic madness.

T

BRENDAN DOCHERTY

O

Supporting One Republic earlier this year, the guitarist has played on both the biggest stages in Europe, as well as in the smaller, more intimate venues. The latter, however, is where his talent for creating personal connection with the audience truly shines.

The 22-year-old captivates the audience with his incredibly strong, yet rough and soulful voice that carries over the goosebump-4guaranteed melodic tunes. Chatting with the audience, telling short stories about each song and even whipping out a harmonica, Josh Kumra really proves his entertainment qualities.

His pleasant spontaneity shows how free and fun professional music can be. And by throwing in covers and a glimpse of his new releases, Kumra leaves no doubt that tonight is merely the shape of things to come.

It is hard to put a stamp on Josh Kumra’s music style

because he freely blends elements of Soul, Blues, Gospel and Hip Hop into his guitar sound, making him a fascinating newcomer.

Kumra’s first album “Good things come to those who don’t wait” was released earlier this year, including his breakthrough hit 'Don’t Go', penned with rapper Wrench 32. The song instantly hit the UK Charts in 2011 and led to Josh Kumra’s record deal with Sony RCA. With his debut, the young musician truly proved his potential and talent as an artist and writer. Undoubtedly, this is only the beginning.

Josh Kumra performed at The Jazz Cafe Camden at 8pm on October 8th 2013.

Divorce (Three Lions)’. On the follow-up, No Blues (released on Witchita October 29th), Gareth takes solace in a crowd of voices, affecting football fan bravado to taunt :'Ex-boyfriend, give us a song!’

The indier-than-thou references to K Records, Bis and Pavement in the band’s earliest lyrics have, in time, given way to shout-outs to Welsh Alliance League Division 1 outfit Bethesda Athletic’s Meurig Park. No Blues features a track called ‘A Portrait of the Trequartista as a Young Man’, referring to the South American term for a playmaking attacking midfielder; on album highlight ‘Glue Me’ Gareth leaves ‘with all the dignity of a missed Panenka penalty’. And in opener ‘For Flotsam’, Gareth finds a novel description for a defensive girlfriend, explaining ‘I’ve thrown my goalkeeper forward, she’s catenaccio’.

On last year’s January transfer deadline, he posed as Daily Mail journalist Martin Samuel on Twitter, starting a transfer rumour (Liverpool’s José Reina to Arsenal) which ended up being the highest trending topic in the UK and the fourth-highest worldwide.

While some may be disappointed that this is what rock’n’roll rebellion looks like in 2013, it shows the awesome power the game holds over so many people, and this is something Los Campesinos! understand brilliantly in their music.

When a starry-eyed Gareth tells the object of his affection that ‘we connected like a Yeboah volley’, he is expressing the perfect simile for the heart-stopping things that love does to us: it’s a lot like football, really.

CAMILLA NASCHERT

Love live music and intimate venues?

The Jazz Café Camden hosts d i f fe r e n t a r t i s t s a l m o s t eve r y n i g h t o f t h e we e k , r a n g ing from jazz and blues to h i p h o p a n d r o ck . F i n d i t o n Pa r k way, o p p o s i t e C a m d e n Tow n t u b e s t a t i o n .

LOS CAMPESINOS!

nly a stone’s throw from Camden Town station, blue neon lights illuminate the entrance of The Jazz Café, a venue that until recently ran along the lines of Ronnie Scott’s with live Jazz sessions every day of the week.

Tonight, London-based singer-songwriter Josh Kumra will be playing his first headline show here, together with support acts Billy Lockett and Matt Fryer. The atmosphere is relaxed and chatty, drinks are flowing. Many here are friends of the artists.

When Matt Fryer and his band start the night, any doubts on whether the £8 entry fee was really worth it are washed away. Not only are the sound melodic and the lyrics smart, the young artists are truly talented and the crowd is charmed by an eclectic mix of Hip Hop, rap and smooth guitar tunes.

Next up is singer-songwriter Billy Lockett from Northampton, who successfully strikes the balance between drumming, playing the guitar, filling the room with his unique voice and effortlessly interacting with the audience all at the same time. Billy mixes covers with extracts from his newly released EP 'Pathways' and also introduces brand new songs of his, each of which telling a different story.

The support acts did an incredible job at kick-starting the concert. Warmed up by music and beer, some audience members cannot quite stop their dancing shoes once Josh Kumra finally appears.

here is perhaps no better distillation of British humour than the chants of our football terraces. Every weekend, grounds across the country are filled with hilarious song, as hapless opposing players, managers and fans are berated in an endless feast of puns, innuendo and halfrhyme. Yet any time the worlds of football and pop music intertwine, all attempts at irony, wit and lyrical dexterity seem to desert everyone involved.

Witness Glenn Hoddle and Chris Waddle’s ‘Diamond Lights’ (number 12 in the UK Charts) and the England team’s adorably hapless New Order collaboration ‘World in Motion’ (featuring John Barnes spitting bars).

There is the odd exception, of course, such as The Wedding Present’s stellar 1987 debut 'George Best', but these tend to prove the laws of the game.

Gareth Campesinos!, lead singer and lyricist of Welsh indie doyens Los Campesinos!, is—like most of the British population—obsessed by the national game. Alongside the aforementioned terrace humour of course, football crowds are a hotbed of bitterness and pain, and this juxtaposition of laughter and tears fits Los Camp! perfectly.

As the band’s songwriting has got darker, and Gareth’s existential wrangling more extreme, he has over time turned to the only muse through whom he is capable of truly expressing the way he feels: football.

His thoughts on the emotional fallout of his parent’s divorce came via a paean to the England team on previous album Hello Sadness’ centrepiece ‘Every Defeat a

29.10.2013 PartB

18

TECHNOLOGY

TECHREVOLT IN THE FOURTH ESTATE

The Institute of Creative Minds (ICM) discusses the impact of technology on the public sphere

and Anatolian Cuisine

B

ased in cosmopolitan Istanbul, the Institute of Creative Minds (ICM) is a network of creative professionals that employs social technology to generate active public spheres. Their 140 Journos and Agence Le Journal projects have been praised internationally by the World Press Photo, TIME Magazine, Paris Match, the BBC and CNN. In light of the their shortlisting for the 2013 FrontLine awards, Engin Onder of the ICM shares the experience of using technology to generate meaningful social interaction.

What is the Institute of Creative Minds and how did technology impact its creation?

In short, we employ mobile and social technology to develop public spaces. The stories of the geography in which we live are worth sharing; they alone can fill the gaps

June 2013. Public spaces online and offline couldn’t function, so people rioted in both dimensions. Our job at the ICM is to develop contemporary communication platforms that can serve to open rather than confine public spheres.

What role does the media have in the protection of the public sphere and how do you feel technology has impacted this?

The most characteristic tendency of mainstream media platforms is that it self-censors when faced with subtle political and economic sanctions.

Technology and social media have enabled ‘the fourth estate’ to call into question these types of censorships.

For our part we developed 140 Journos—a filter that verifies and legitimises citizen data that is often discarded as misleading or biased. Through our model, citizens without a journalistic background can

ICM

Location-based systems make the verification process significantly faster and more effective.

interview

than the speed of light. This means that our tools for sharing information become increasingly more powerful.

As long as we have faster

ICM

ICM

in knowledge created by political structures. Every platform on which we operate seeks to empower individual voices by maximising the avenues that social media and art make available. We are especially involved on three fronts: ensuring that citizen journalism is respected as a source of news production, providing a visual dimension that challenges the state of affairs and the use of ‘big data’ to revive culinary traditions.

Do you think technology threatens or enables public spaces?

Political and economic realities, here known as the ‘system’, accelerate the misuse of common online and offline platforms. Therefore, technology can exasperate oppressive power. This is what happened at the Gezi Park protests, one of the biggest upheavals in Turkey that occurred back in

create newsworthy data in a structure. The apocalypse shall see the reality of war!

How do you respond to those who say that citizen reporting is nothing more than a collection of bias perspectives?

Look, mainstream reporting of the Gezi Park protests was like something out of Black Mirror, the famous TV series.

The British princess gets kidnapped, the PM is asked to have an intercourse with a pig and the video voicing these demands are not to be aired on major TV stations. Social media bears the possibility and responsibility to challenge such coverage. Verification apps, like 140 Journos, are perfectly functional and likely to become the new face of reporting. Imaging and the construction of visual essays, like those of our Agence Le Journal, are also great ways of backing citizen journalism.

Tell me about Gastronomika. How can technology help you re-brand Anatolian Cuisine?

Simple: apps and data! Our Anatolian cuisine project, Gastronomika , is trying to shape the understanding of our native cuisine worldwide. Even though Turkish cuisine has endless numbers of taste combinations, its international image is largely down to the Kebab. We are employing various forms of forums to collect data on tastes and recipes. Once the data collection process is complete, we will profile our information and develop a web-forum and a mobile app that will distribute our complete understanding of Anatolian cuisine internationally.

How do you predict technology will continue to impact and shape the public sphere?

Technology develops faster

connections and as long as we have more people using common tools to communicate, mis-information (about culinary practices or political movements) will gradually decrease. Just like in everything else, evil will remain inevitable yet efforts to mitigate it will matter more.

GILLIAN CAFIERO

''The

most

teristic

charac-

tendency

mainstream

of

media

platforms is that it selfcensors when faced with subtle political and economic

sanctions.

Technology and social media have enabled ‘the fourth estate’ to call into question these types of censorships.''

The Beaver 29.10.2013

19

FOOD

KIMCHEE



review

I

TOGO

6 New Oxford St, London, WC1A 1HB MON-FRI 10.30 – 22.00 SAT 11:00 – 22.00 KIMCHEETOGO

SUN 12:00 — 22:00

"Hot, cold, big, or bite sized, most options are probably healthy—although there is a notable lack of fish, and far too much tofu."

n 2011, Kimchee opened its doors and brought the ‘authentic Korean experience’ to Holborn. Two years on, people still queue up for a table, and in an effort to expand, Kimchee have come up with a new concept — KimcheeToGo. Recently opened, this lunchtime branch boasts a prime location on New Oxford Street, seconds away from Tottenham Court Road Station.

The décor is what Kimchee describes as traditional: ceramics (of questionable antiquity), oversized wooden cage lights, and ergonomic stools dotted around long benches, all accompanied by gentle music. Traditional or not, it’s rather nice.

Everything that is on offer is pre-packaged and displayed as it is in most other lunchtime haunts. This includes a great selection of drinks. Whilst you won’t find any Diet Coke, you can opt for a plum tea, which is both sweet and refreshing, or the mango infused aloe vera (which is even better). At £1.45

SHAKE SHACK F

light since yesterday. At £6.95, I’d say this was a bit of a rip-off.

Unfortunately, the Vegi Mari Salad was equally disappointing; three vegetable rice pancakes covered a bed of grated raw vegetables, undressed.

However, for an extra £1 you can choose from a wide variety of condiments and small dishes to give it something extra.

KimcheeToGo definitely offers a healthy on-the-go menu, but as with all your typical lunchtime go to’s, expect the queue to be confusing, don’t be surprised if you struggle to find a seat, and don’t be fooled—recycling or rubbish— it all goes into the same bin!

That’s what makes it hard to justify the quasi-restaurant prices!

While probably not living up to the reputation of its older brother, KimcheeToGo is, after all, a lunchtime joint, and if you’re looking to divert from your usual pit stop for a welcome change, give it a go!

KIRSTY KENNEY

24, Market Building, The Piazza, Covent Garden, London WC2E 8RD



ounded in Madison Square Park, New York City in 2004, this ‘roadside’ burger joint has almost become a tourist destination in itself for visitors to Manhattan. I was fortunate enough to visit the place last summer during my very brief two-day stay in New York and subsequently spent the rest of the summer in awe of the place—forget the Empire State Building or Central Park, Shake Shack was easily my highlight of the trip.

Therefore, you can understand my excitement when I was offered the chance to visit the newly launched and first UK branch of Shake Shack in the heart of Covent Garden.

Shake Shack is a ten minutes’ walk away from LSE and definitely worth the journey. Before we start on the food itself, the staff here are great. Despite how busy this place can get, the staff are always attetive and happy to help.

We were fortunate enough to try three flavours of the frozen custard Shake Shack offers—vanilla, chocolate, and caramel apple. An odd start to a meal, but a pleasant one nonetheless as they came in small sample sizes for us to taste before our meal arrived.

The excitement began when we ordered our food. I opted for the ShackMeister Sausage, a delicious Cumberland sausage hot dog, topped with ‘Shack Sauce’ (an awesome blend of American Cheeses) and beer battered shallots— essentially mini onion rings.

My dining companion went for a more traditional choice, the SmokeShack burger com-

a pop, these are must try!

When it comes to deciding what you’re hungry for, there is a fair amount to choose from. Hot, cold, big, or bite sized, most options are probably healthy—although there is a notable lack of fish, and far too much tofu.

We opted for the Kimchee soup, a fiery hot broth which was very tasty. Vegetarians miss out, however, due to its meaty stock, and have to make do with the salty, watereddown-Soy-sauce substitute.

Alongside this, we tried the Spicy Chicken Doisarak box and the Vegi Mari Salad.

Dubbed ‘A Taste of Korea in a Box’, Doisarak includes two dumplings, boiled potatoes, a marinated egg, rice and a choice of beef/chicken/tofu.

The white rice is mixed with various grains and seeds to add texture and appeal to the health conscious diner, but the chicken and dumplings weren’t hot, and had the hostess not told me they were fresh, I might have thought they’d been sat under the hot

prising of an Aberdeen Angus burger topped with bacon, sweet and spicy peppers, and Shack Sauce. In addition to our hot dog and burger were two portions of fries; one normal and one cheesy. Although the fries alone were not out of the ordinary, the cheesy fries were unbelievable. Personally, I despise cheesy chips as they taste like rubbery stale potatoes, and remind me of terrible nights out. But these cheesy fries were a revelation.

The sauce was the same Shack Sauce used to top our burger and hot dog and was in no way overwhelming; smooth and more of a dipping sauce than actual cheese. To put things simply, the cheesy fries are a must.

We sampled both types of lemonade that Shake Shack had to offer: traditional lemonade and a strawberry flavour. My dining companion preferred the traditional lemonade, and who can blame her—you can’t fault a good, simple lemonade. I personally preferred the Strawberry lemonade. Both flavours were great but personal preference will have to be the deciding factor here.

We couldn’t leave Shake Shack without trying a shake, so we ordered a coffee flavoured milkshake, as it was more obscure than a traditional flavour. We also ordered a ‘Concrete’, a dessert that Shake Shack takes particular pride in. The Conrete was a dessert based on the aforementioned frozen custard, assembled into what was essentially a fancy ice cream sundae that comes in multiple fla-

vours. We opted for the rather fitting Drury Lane Jam as it had the vanilla custard, which was our favourite due to it tasting the closest to custard.

It also contained biscuits from the infamous St. John restaurant, straw- berry jam, and bananas. Both were pleasant but they were bordering on the sweet side for me— however, I personally don’t have a sweet tooth so don’t let that dissuade you as my dining companion rather enjoyed both the shake and the Concrete.

Shake Shack is an incredibly reasonably-priced establishment that is located close to campus. Whilst it does get very busy during peak times, it is mostly quite quiet just before lunchtime or mid afternoon. The dining experience at Shake Shack is fun, fast, and delicious—what more could you want from a restaurant?

NERAJ THANGARAJAH

MON-SAT 11:00 – 23:00 SUN 11:00 – 22:30

review

Forget Hallowe’en,

Real Celts celebrate

Hop Tu Naa!

Much older than Hallowe’en, Hop Tu Naa is a celebration of the ancient Celtic new year. Every diner will be offered a slice of Soddag Valloo, or ‘Dumb Cake’, a traditional cake that includes eggshells and soot. Diners who sample a piece then walk backwards out the door in silence, will be guaranteed to see their future husband or wife in a vision, or your money back. (Of course, the price of the slice is free.

A special Hop-tu-Naa pizza (crab, Queenies and Olives with a strip of parmesan on a fresh spinach base) followed by a special dark chocolate Hoptu-Naa pizza will be served.

The Real Man Pizza company will be celebrating Hop Tu Naa on Wednesday 30 October and Thursday 31 October.

91-95 Clerkenwell Road, London, EC1R 5BX For more information, contact Tom Winnifrith at 07761 030374.

The Beaver 29.03.2013

20

COMPULSION

the

Beaver

21

Tuesday October 29 2013

Features

THE SOCIETY COLUMN features The Feminist Society

Reclaiming the Night and Keeping Women Safe on our Streets Sally Bonsall

Saturday 26th October marks London’s 10th annual Reclaim The Night. Since 2003, this women’s only march has taken to the street every year to say NO to violence against women and use their voice as a chance to reclaim the streets at night. LSESU Feminist Society will be joining the march, as we believe every woman should be able to walk the streets safe without fear or the threat of violence.

nists organized a resistance of demonstrations, walking in their hundreds through cities at night to highlight that they should have the freedom to walk anywhere and not be blamed for any form of assault.

Over the decades, Reclaim the Night has evolved to focus on violence against women in general, with several marches throughout the country as well as the American version ‘Take Back the Night’.

The first Reclaim the Night took place in the 1970s, partly in response to the events surrounding the Yorkshire Ripper.

Police response was low, the press barely reported on the murders, and the police suggested that women ought not to go out at night. Angered by this weak response, femi-

“Every woman should be able to walk the streets safe without fear or threat of violence”

Regardless of these efforts, rape conviction rates have decreased since the 1970s, meaning it is more vital than ever that women join the movement to start placing the blame for

assault where it should lie; with the perpetrator. Victim blaming is an ingrained part of our culture. One third of the British public believe that women are sometimes partly or wholly responsible if they are raped, according to a poll commissioned by Amnesty International in 2005. Often, the media is more likely to report on false accusations of rape than the staggeringly low conviction rate (5.3%, one of the lowest in Europe). This perpetuates the myth that women lie about being assaulted, when in fact the percentage of false accusations of rape is the same or lower as false accusations for other crimes such as theft and burglary.

“One third of the British public believe that women are sometimes partly or wholly responsible if they are raped”

Sexual assault is not something that can be ‘carefully

If your society would like to be featured in THE SOCIETY COLUMN e-mail: features@thebeaveronline.com

“It’s time we stopped viewing violence FACTS against women as a • The first Reclaim women’s issue” avoided’.

Throughout the world, women are attacked regardless of where they are, whom they are with and whatever they are wearing. To combat these attitudes it is time that we stopped viewing violence against women as just a women’s issue. Questions have to shift from ‘why was she wearing that?’ and ‘why did she get drunk?’ to ‘why did he think it was acceptable to take advantage of someone like that?’ and ‘why did he do that when it was clear he didn’t have her consent?’ Reclaim the Night aims to empower women so they can speak out against victim blaming and exercise their right to walk around the streets safely at night without fear of attack. ‘Whatever we wear, wherever we go, yes means yes and no means no!’.

For more details on The Feminist Society, please go to their Facebook Group Page

The Night took place in the 1970s in response to the low police response to the Yorkshire Ripper killings

• UK conviction rates for rape are just 5.3%, one of the lowest in Europe • A 2005 poll showed that almost a third of respondants said women sometimes were totally or partially responsible for being raped

R A G C O R N E R features: Climbing Kilimanjaro for Kenyan communities Team RAG reports on the planned Kilimanjaro climb and their chosen charities Hello again from Team RAG! This week you may have been bombarded with our post-it notes, or met our Beaver promoting Kilimanjaro... and you should have come along to our information evening. We’re taking Team RAG to Mount Kilimanjaro next year on 7th September for the adventure of a lifetime, with money raised going to Dig Deep, a fantastic international development charity.

Here are some fun facts about Kilimanjaro!

1. It’s the tallest mountain in Africa and the highest freestanding mountain in the world.

2. 100 per cent of LSE students who attempted the climb made it to the top of Kilimanjaro last year.

3. But, only two thirds of people make it to the top of the summit (we know you can do it).

4. Kilimanjaro features every ecological life zone! Think jungle, think savannah, think alpine.

5. The fastest ascent time is 5 hours, 38 minutes, and 40 seconds by Bruno Brunod in 2001.

We dare you to do any better?!

please check out the information online. If you are not yet convinced coming along to our drop in sessions this Tuesday, 4-6pm, at the Three Tuns. We still have spaces available so sign up now before they are all gone – and we’ll see you in Tanzania!

It will be an incredible experience, but it is also an incredible fundraiser for our charity Dig Deep, so here is some more information about the charity itself.

This week we’d also like to talk some more about one of our dedicated charities, Foodcycle. Earlier this week, Tesco revealed that nearly 30,000 tonnes of food was wasted in the first six months alone – 21 per cent of that being fruit and vegetables, and 41 per cent being baked goods. Meanwhile, the number of people using foodbanks and in food poverty has tripled ‘year on year’. These two problems of food waste and food poverty are prominent in our society right now and that’s why we are proud to support Foodcycle.

Stay tuned for more information on our events coming up and get to know our charities... have a good week, big RAG love from the committee xxx

Dig Deep focuses on improving water access and access to clean water for Kenya, and are now specialists in development in that region. The charity have a background in international development studies and international relations so are conscious of working with communities, rather than against communities, to improve the lives of people living in these regions.

Your money will make a genuine difference to the charity – they would not be able to deliver their programmes otherwise, so

AIMS OF DIG DEEP: • help communities in Kenya improve their access to clean water, sanitation and renewable energy • help communities to drill wells • harvest rainwater and access renewable technologies so that they are empowered to overcome the challenges they face

22

Tuesday October 29 2013

Beaver

Features Eyes to the Left

LSE Briefing: Student Union Elections

Dan Frost

Don’t let racists and xenophobes dominate immigration debate It is no surprise that the impending reduction in EU immigration controls, which will allow Bulgarian and Romanian workers greater access to the UK labour market (and perhaps more importantly, vice versa), have sparked the usual reactionary responses.

The usual motley crew of fascists and “nationalists” is always ready on hand to speak on behalf of the infamous “white working class”. Immigrants, we are told, will take “our” jobs, make use of “our” welfare system.

There is always a social democrat or a conservative willing to lend a sympathetic ear to “legitimate concerns”, happy to throw anyone under the bus in the hunt for the ephemeral “electorate”.

And this is not surprising.

Unemployment, low wages and the housing shortage threaten the working class, but only a reactionary or an opportunist can blame immigration.

Rather, they are produced by the inner logic of capital, which produces fluctuations in demand for workers, but tends towards making labour ever cheaper.

It is playing into the hands of reactionaries to focus too much on the strife of the British born working class.

Those who come to seek employment face challenges far greater. It is not easy to travel across a continent, leaving behind family, to work to the bone in a new country – especially a country as rife with xenophobia as Britain.

It therefore remains to stand in support of all immigrants against racist vitriol. For the dismantlement of border controls entirely, and for a genuinely free movement of people as opposed to simply labour.

And the labour market, which treats the movement of our muscles and the thoughts of our brains as nothing but raw material in the production of commodities- indeed, as commodities themselves – must be condemned to the annals of history as the worst Hallowe’en horror story imaginable.

In the spirit of October 31st, do not be distracted by the immigration bogeyman in the coalition’s haunted house, for there are far worse monsters to be beheld – capital, the labour market and the UKBA. Of course, they too are haunted – by the spectre of communism.

Joe Anderson, SU returning officer

You may have spotted that LSE has descended into election season again – if not, you soon will, as Houghton Street fills with campaigners until polls close on Thursday.

Twice a year, the Students’ Union holds elections for you to choose who you want to represent you. The first is held in week 4 of Michaelmas Term, and the second in week 8 of Lent Term. It is vital that you make your voice heard.

You can vote online between 10am on Wednesday 30 October and 7pm on Thursday 31 October at www.lsesu.com/ vote, using your School login.

The Postgraduate Students’ Officer is a part-time Sabbatical Officer who is paid to represent postgraduate students. They are a member of the Students’ Union’s Executive, and will work closely

Vince Harrold

with the four full-time Sabbatical Officers and members of the part-time executive.

Even though their job is focused around postgraduates, all students can elect this Officer.

The Postgraduate Research Students’ Officer is also paid part-time to represent members of the Students’ Union who are studying towards research degrees. This Officer does not sit on the Students’ Union Executive. Only research students can elect this officer.

The Mature & Part-time Students’ Officer is a voluntarily part-time Executive position. Their role is to represent mature and part-time students, and to try to ensure they are able to get involved in events on campus and the Students’ Union.

The General Course President is a voluntary position who makes sure that General Course (GC) students are heard and takes a lead in

organising events for the GC. Like the Postgraduate Research Students’ Officer, the GC President does not sit on the Executive. Only General Course students elect them.

There are also five student members on the LSE Court of Governors. This is a position within the School’s structures (rather than the Students’ Union’s), and these members sit on the highest governance body of the School, alongside Craig Calhoun, several Parliamentarians and a host of alumni and supporters. The Students’ Union General Secretary also sits on the Court.

On the School’s Academic Board, there are 2 student members alongside the Students’ Union’s Education Officer. The Academic Board is one of the most important academic bodies of the School, and these students will meet alongside faculty to determine the future of teaching at the LSE. Finally, there are the NUS

Conference Delegates. 2 students will be elected to attend and vote at the Conference of the National Union of Students in April 2014, alongside the LSESU General Secretary. The NUS is a national association comprising the overwhelming majority of the country’s Students’ Unions, and has a major role in lobbying Government, providing support to Students’ Union and in determining the future of the UK’s student movement. At conference, the delegates will vote on the NUS’ policies, and vote for who they want to lead the organisation in 2014/15.

If you have any questions or concerns, or are thinking about standing for election in the future, please email su.returningofficer@lse.

Domestic Briefing: Privy Council

This Wednesday (30th October) may see fundamental changes to the institution of free speech in the United Kingdom. The Privy Council will hold a meeting to discuss a Royal Charter for press regulation based on the outcomes of the Leveson Inquiry. If that left you a bit muddled, don’t worry, you’re not alone. The question springs to mind, as Boris Johnson so eloquently put it: “Who are the Privy Council, for goodness sake?” Moreover, what on earth is a Royal Charter? And how does this all relate to freedom of speech?

What is the Privy Council? ww The Privy Council is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign of the United Kingdom.

The Sovereign may appoint anyone a member, although, in practice appointments are made only on the advice of the Government. Whilst the Council generally consists of senior members of Parliament and the Judiciary, senior members of the Royal Family may also be appointed. Moreover, the Private Secretary to the Sovereign and The Church of England’s three senior bishops are all automatic members of the Council. Meetings of the Privy

Council are by invitation, however, with only the Lord President of the Council and the Sovereign (or their representatives) being guaranteed to attend. A final point of interest, to make the oath administered to Privy Counsellor’s publicly known was a treasonable offence until 1998. Nevertheless, Counsellors are still bound to keep matters discussed at Council meetings in absolute secrecy.

What does the Privy Council actually do?

The Council has a number of functions. The Council advises the Sovereign on the exercise of the Royal Prerogative, performs certain judicial functions and, in conjunction with the Sovereign, passes Orders in Council, Orders of Council and Royal Charters. Attention has recently focussed on Royal Charters in particular. In layman’s terms, Charters grant rights and powers to corporate bodies in order to establish significant organisations such as cities or universities. The significant organisation under discussion at the moment is an independent regulator of the press.

Charters at war Recent controversy regarding Royal Charters in the Privy

Council stems from the outcome of the Leveson Inquiry.

The Leveson Report stated the need for a new, independent body to replace the Press Complaints Commission in regulating the press. This lead to two competing plans, both of which seek the endorsement of a Royal Charter backed by law.

One is an industry creation of the major newspapers, the alternative created by politicians and backed by the three major parties.

What’s happened so far?

The industry’s proposal was submitted to the Privy Council and rejected on the 8th October. The Council found the initiative failed to live up to the standards prescribed by the Leveson Report with issues, among others, relating to the independence of both the funding and membership of the suggested regulatory body. Meanwhile, ministers hope a Privy Council meeting arranged for the 30th October will seal the alternative Charter.

Meanwhile, the Newspaper Publishers Association (NPA), whose members include all the major national newspapers, applied on the 24th October to the high court, seeking a judicial review of the rejection of the Charter. The NPA also wish to implement their own watch-

dog, the Independent Press Standards Organisation.

Several newspapers represented by the NPA, including The Guardian, have taken a neutral stance on the legal challenge. However, there is widespread defiance in the industry to the idea of pressregulation being shaped by politicians. Amendments to the government Charter would require a two-thirds majority in the House of Commons sparking fears that Parliament could implement draconian measures on the freedom of press in the future. Nevertheless, the Privy Council explicitly mentioned the industry’s own Charter contained “nothing to stop the Government alone amending the Charter in the future” when it rejected the proposal.

The Bottom Line In summary: the regulatory suggestions of the press have been dismissed regarding concerns of independence; the government’s proposals face criticism regarding concerns of independence; and, on Wednesday, this matter will be decided by an archaic body whose independence must surely be regarded as concerning.

If you would like to write for features, whether it is the International and LSE Briefings, an article on science, politics, international affairs or business, or if you have an idea for an interview, drop us an email at: features@thebeaveronline.co.uk

the

Beaver

23

Tuesday October 29 2013

Features The Feature Interview: Alan Mendoza Liam Hill interviews Executive Director of the Henry Jackson Society Dr Alan Mendoza

Dr Alan Mendoza is the Executive Director of the Henry Jackson Society, a London-based think-tank set up in 2005. He advises two All-Party Parliamentary Groups and formerly served as a Conservative councillor in Brent.

Who was Henry Jackson and what did he believe?

The society itself is named after a former US Senator, Henry ‘Scoop’ Jackson, as he was known, and he was particularly active in the sixties to the eighties and I think he has an interesting philosophy. He was active at a time when you had the Soviet Union as a counterbalance to the US on the international scene, and he saw the Soviet Union not merely as a strategic competitor to Western values, liberal values, but he also saw it as a moral competitor.

He realized that communism sought to challenge all the values that our systems held, that it sought to suppress human rights as we saw across Eastern Europe and beyond. He felt that we should combat it on a moral level as well as a strategic level.

What is the purpose of the Henry Jackson Society and what do you hope to achieve?

It has evolved over time. It started off just as a group of students who set up a website.

We were just very interested in discussing foreign policy ideas from this point of view of an ethical backdrop to what we were doing strategically as well. But it has grown into a think-tank. Our goal is to inject a strong voice for values of liberty, democracy and human rights into the political discourse of this country and maybe even beyond it if we can.

Is diplomacy working to end the civil war in Syria?

I think it is unfortunate that Syria has turned out the way it has done. What should have happened in Syria, something that we advocated very early on, was intervention at a time when intervention would have really have made a big difference. We should have been supporting moderate, freedom-loving people who wished to overthrow Assad, who as we have seen has murdered without compunction and is happy to continue doing so. But that didn’t happen.

I do not see at the moment how diplomacy can deliver a

•

•

solution because the key determinant of diplomacy working is that Assad has to realize he is losing, and he is not losing. Assad is winning at the moment and we have been complicit in that victory.

“Assad is winning at the moment and we have been complicit in that victory” Do you think there was ever a strong case for War in Iraq and – 10 years on – is there any case that is still valid?

We were all told that there was intelligence saying there were weapons of mass destruction there. That was the reason we went to war. We didn’t go to war to create a democracy.

We didn’t go to war because Saddam Hussein was a bad man, although he was a very bad man. We didn’t go to war for those reasons. We were told we were going to war for weapons of mass destruction. Now I supported the war on the basis that that was real and we needed to do something about it. It turns out it wasn’t. So was there a case for war in that sense? We can see there wasn’t. Do I feel it was a bad thing for Saddam Hussein to go? No, I’m very happy he went. I’m still very happy he went. Do I think how it unfolded was disastrous? Yes I do.

Iraq didn’t turn out the way it was envisioned and that was purely down to appalling planning on the part of the governments who had gone in. I think we do bear the blame for that.

I also think we bear the blame for getting out of Iraq too soon.

I think we wanted to get out before it was ready and we can see the repercussions of that now.

force. For us to say we going to go in and create a democracy doesn’t work. You need to have indigenous support for it. You need a long and slow process, essentially, to get into a participatory way of thinking before you can do that. So I would not have favoured us going in to say we want to get rid of Saddam who is a bad man and we want to create a democracy.

We might have gone in to say were going to remove Saddam Hussein because he’s a human rights abuser. But again then you’re failing in to a very dangerous legal minefield as to what you’re allowed to do. There was a long history to Saddam’s failure to comply with international law. I think you could have gone on the basis that he hadn’t complied with international law and continued to make a menace of it and we needed to do something about it.

The other thing we should say is that even Saddam’s generals thought he had weapons of mass destruction. He brought that War upon himself. Had he merely allowed the inspectors back in, there would have been no war in Iraq. I’m sure the thought must have occurred in his mind many times. But this is what happens with dictators. It has happened to Assad as well.

They think they can get away with anything. The difference is, in Assad’s case, he did.

Let’s finish with some general questions. How compatible are Islam and democratic, liberal values?

There is no uniform version of Islam. There are some versions of Islam that are very much compatible with democracy and some that are not. The Islam practiced by the Wahabis or

“We bear the blame for getting out of Iraq too soon” Do you think it would have been better if leaders had made a case based on the installation of a democracy?

Theoretically, it would have been better, but there is only one flaw in the argument. You cannot make a democracy by

The Henry Jackson Society

Twitter: profile picture

Created in 2005, it advocates the “pursuit of a robust foreign policy… based on clear universal principles such as the global promotion of the rule of law, liberal democracy, civil rights, environmental responsibility and the market economy” Cabinet ministers Michael Gove and David Willets are among the signatories of its statement of principles

Al-Qaeda or even some the political Islamic movements, such as the Muslim Brotherhood, I don’t think is compatible with democracy because there is a basic denial of rights we regard as axiomatic with democratic societies, women’s rights, minority rights, that are not possible under those forms of Islam.

But there are other forms of Islam where it’s perfectly acceptable to separate of Mosque

“We did not do our bit for the Arab Sping” and State. Look at Iraq. After the Iraq War, when Ayatollah Sistani was asked ‘are you able to accept a secular state?’ he gave a religious, theological reason for why you could. I don’t believe there’s anything inherently in Islam that prevents this. Are you suggesting Muslims [in the west] can’t be democrats? Of course they can be democrats.

What was the Arab Spring? It was the desire for freedom by Muslims. Did they feel there was anything incompatible about Islam and democracy? There’s your proof.

How long will it take for the Arab world to democratize?

It will take as long as it will take to remove the dictatorships in the region, and for us to assist in the process, actively supporting those forces in the region that do want democracy.

We made a terrible mistake in the Arab Spring, which is why it has turned so sour. After the Arab Spring, we did not rush in to help the people in the squares demonstrating. We did not do our bit.

But the movement is for freedom and that is not going to go away. The prognosis for democracy is good, because if democracy can work in Eastern Europe, in Asia, in Latin America and Africa, there is no reason it cannot work in the Middle East. The contrary is a racist argument that says Arabs are incapable of democracy. There is nothing in anyone’s make-up that is incapable of democracy.

It’s an idea. It’s an idea that’s proven its worth. Will it continue to be attractive? Yes. Is it therefore applicable to the Middle East? Yes.

Right Approch Stewart Dwyer High immigration will hit public services and jobs On January 1st 2014, the transitional controls on the rights of Bulgarians and Romanians to live in the UK will be lifted, and the UK opens its borders yet again. The debate on immigration is always contentious, however, we should always approach such an emotive topic in a straight-talking factbased manner – not in a way that shouts ‘racist’ whenever someone attempts to even talk about the topic. To act in this way is to devalue the meaning of racism.

First of all, although immigration can bring benefits when implemented correctly, an open border to Romania and Bulgaria would place a severe strain on public services and jobs.

With youth unemployment at 21% and rising since 2004, can our young generation afford an influx of cheap migrant labour?

This places a burden on the most vulnerable in society, as the lowskilled labour market deals with a surplus.

Income plays an obvious part in this complex problem and the difference between UK and Romanian income is 8:1, generating a further pull for migrants to come to the UK. Public services also must deal with a large increase in demand. Schools, housing, healthcare and infrastructure must quickly adapt to a sudden influx of new persons, one that we are simply not prepared for. We’re already 120,000 primary school places short for the start of the new school year. The increase in the housing market means we must build a new home every 7 minutes for the next 20 years to cope with extra demand (a third coming from new migrants).

But let’s remember that we don’t even know how many migrants will come. We were told that in 2004, only 20,000 people would arrive when our borders opened, the figure was 900,000.

The Public Administration Committee said our official UK migration figures are “little better than a best guess” and “not fit for purpose”, with immigration minister Mark Harper saying on Question Time that the government “hadn’t made a forecast” for the future migration from Romania and Bulgaria.

With the government not prepared for sudden changes in the labour market, youth unemployment still on the increase, and public services under pressure, the UK should not accept more uncontrolled migration.

Email us to write for our left-right column:

features@thebeaveronline.co.uk

Tuesday October 29 2013

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World affairs - Why is Museveni clinging on?

Lizzie Craig

Most of the media attention Yoweri Museveni has received since 2005 has largely revolved around two main issues: his country’s apparent retreat from democracy and his reluctance to stand down from power. Once hailed for his endeavors in reviving Uganda’s economy and winning the fight against HIV, the president is now portrayed as an unwanted cling-on, not to mention a stubborn barrier to his country’s development. Freedom of the press, freedom of speech and fair elections are all but a distant memory for most Ugandans today.

So why is it that President Museveni is so reluctant to leave his office? In 1986, he himself wrote that “The problem of Africa in general and Uganda in particular is not the people but leaders who want to overstay in power.” And now, 27 years and an amended constitution later, here he is, despite promising to stand down over a decade ago. Rather than putting him in the same category as other notable African leaders, such as Mugabe, and dismissing his actions as those of a tyrant set on a destructive path, perhaps other, more revealing, possibilities should be explored.

One Ghanaian economist believes that African leaders feel their country somehow belongs to them. And that this belief in ownership is derived from

the feeling that they liberated their countries from whatever evil came before them – be it colonial rule, corruption or a predecessor who had, ironically, out-stayed their welcome.

Museveni neatly fits into this profile as he, along with his guerilla comrades, overthrew Milton Obote in 1986 to gain his presidency. During Obote’s rule, an estimated 300,000 people lost their lives across Uganda and corruption was rife. It wouldn’t be hard, then, to imagine that Museveni believed he had a duty to ‘save’ his country from such violence.

Once he achieved this goal he would become the savior and the state would become his property to be fashioned in the way he saw fit.

Far from alone in this category, it appears to be a common mentality among firstand second-generation African leaders. Afwerki, President of Eritrea since 1991, stated (before independence) that ‘a one party system could be a major threat to the very existence of our country’. To this day, Eritrea remains a single-party state.

Another characteristic most long-serving African leaders share is insecurity. They fear the same fate that befell those before them, and so surround themselves with an army of loyal supporters. Again, Museveni appears to be our case in point – but far from the only case. His brother, Salim Saleh, is officially named Senior Mili-

tary Advisor but in reality his responsibilities go far beyond that. His son, Muhoozi, wields more power than any other military officer – Dad and Uncle Saleh aside – and holds the position of Commander of the Special Forces. His wife, Janet Museveni, serves as a Minister and a Member of Parliament but again, the reality is she has considerably more power than meets the eye. And finally, the brother-in-law serves

Flikr: U.S. Mission Uganda

as Minister of Foreign Affairs, which completes the ‘Museveni & Family Corporation of Uganda’.

According to the Africa Report, Uganda is far from alone in this. In Togo, about 70% of the late General Eyadema’s army were drawn from his own Kabye tribe. In Cote d’Ivoire,

the Bauole tribal group ruled the country and occupied all key positions in the administration from independence till the December 1999 coup. The list goes on.

The implications of these close-knit networks are numerous. Usually, it means that the friends and family chosen to hold these positions enjoy substantial financial benefits.

While this safeguards loyalty throughout their time in office, leaders often find that when they even contemplate stepping down, these supporters fiercely resist any cutbacks or any attempt to open up the political system – for fear of losing their jobs or privileges.

It could therefore be the case that President Museveni’s declaration of intent to step down in 2001 was genuine but the web of high-ranking officials, dependent on his rule, prevented him from doing so. The sheer extent of their collective power would have made the task seem effortless.

The final factor playing on the minds of many African leaders is surely fear. Many know that they have done wrong by their people and broken their promises of a more prosperous future. The ICC represents a force larger than themselves, and fear of being hauled in front of it would be enough to convince anyone to cling on to whatever power they have.

Museveni has made no secret of his contempt for the ICC and its practices, calling it ‘arro-

gant’ and ‘shallow’. He has accused them of not understanding complex African issues, which may indeed be true.

However, what the ICC can understand is the difference between right and wrong and the path that Museveni is now following will seem, to many, to be wrong. Perhaps then his recent outbursts against the international court are motivated by fear rather than genuine criticisms.

Whether Museveni’s – and others – determination to stay in office is due to fear, insecurity, mentality, corruption or all the above still remains to be seen. But what has made itself apparent is that these African leaders tend to follow a pattern. As Kaufmann once said, “History has shown that even those who rose to power with good intentions soon became corrupt. They took advantage of their position to enrich themselves and their family and friends. Then in order to protect their wealth and power, they silenced those who threatened their authority. As one injustice led to another, and as their friends became fewer, they grew increasingly paranoid and oppressive. They desperately clung to power in fear that if they lost control then they might also lose their fortunes, their freedom, and possibly even their lives.” Unfortunately for Museveni, he appears to be nearing the end of this pattern, and possibly the end of his rule over Uganda.

Politics - The Retribution of Sir John Major Liam Hill

The legend of grocer’s daughter Margaret Thatcher is propped up, in part, by exaggerations of her humble background. Strange then, that her successor’s background is much more humble and far less legendary. Conservatives tend not to idolize Sir John Major in the way they deify the late Baroness, but they would do well to listen to him. He is, after all, the only prime minister in history to win 14 million votes at a general election and the last Conservative leader to win a majority.

It is not often that Major makes political interventions, so when this week he shared with journalists his views on energy policy, Iain Duncan Smith’s welfare reforms and Europe, amongst other issues, the politically-minded listened.

Major’s intervention in the ongoing debate about the ener-

gy market is perhaps the most politically significant. Major said “an excess profits tax” should be levied on those companies that have increased the prices they charged by double or more than actual energy price inflation. He said it is not “acceptable to anyone that many people are going to have to choose between keeping warm and eating” this winter.

Ed Miliband, whose conference speech was a catalyst for the energy prices debate, pounced on this opportunity. Miliband, who proposes a 20-month freeze and significant reform of the sector, used Major’s intervention to embarrass David Cameron. A fortnight ago, the prime minister described Miliband as wanting to live in a “Marxist universe” for espousing an energy price freeze, so Miliband asked how Cameron felt “now that the Red Peril has claimed Sir John Major?”

The Labour leader can now

claim that he is on the same side of the debate about the energy sector as a former Tory prime minister. This would not be entirely a distortion, although their proposed policies are different. In any case, it works as a refutation of those who would paint any intervention in the energy market as a policy dreamt up by madcap Marxists.

Major also used the opportunity to score a few political points himself. His modest critique of Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan-Smith will, of course, be viewed in light of IDS’s participation in the Tory rebellion over the Maastricht Treaty during Major’s premiership two decades ago. The Maastricht rebellion dented Major’s authority and division and dissent over Europe blighted his leadership from then on.

Musing about welfare reforms, he contented that if Iain Duncan Smith “listens only to

the bean counters and cheerleaders concerned only with abuse of the system then he will fail”. There was another sly insinuation buried in Major’s comments about IDS. George Osborne reputedly believes IDS to be “thick” and Major adds that “it is enormously complicated and unless he… a genius, which the last time I looked was unproven, he may get some of it wrong”. The

Flikr: Chatham House, London

language is modest, but the intention clear: vengeance.

Major seems like an outlier.

He served between Thatcher and Blair. Unlike them, he did not define a generation or reshape the political landscape.

He was a competent prime minister whose chance at a happy premiership was derailed by forces beyond his control, the dissent of his backbenchers, the sleaze allegations which engulfed his colleagues and the modernization of the opposition, all of which culminated in a hefty defeat. His advice to the Conservative party, should they take heed, may be more useful to David Cameron than the intervention Major proposes in the energy sector will be for Ed Miliband. “If we Tories navel-gaze and only pander to our comfort zone, we will never get elected.”

What might be Major’s most salient point is supplanted by a single question: will the Tories listen?

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Tuesday October 29 2013

Diary of an LSE Student

diary@thebeaveronline.com

LSE events and gossip - know something is going on? Email us.

Social

LSE Tweets Club Dinners: more drink than food for AU teams

Many of us know sociology is not a real subject, can you honestly say it’s better than economics? #LSE100Q #TeamDanny ‫_@‏‬MYURAN Just told someone off for singing R Kelly’s ‘I believe I can Fly’ in the #LSE library. A kill joy and I love it. ‫@‏‬IZAAKSON My boyfriend asked if I’m partying tonight. What kind of stupid question is that?! #LSEproblems #SecondYearIntensity @SANYAJEET

Following the AU welcome party last week, more team bonding was in store for the AU-ers as Club dinners took place. An anonymous report from the Rowing Team suggested that their team dinner was most enjoyable and full of AU spirit. The curries at Brick Lane did not disappoint and neither was there a lack of alcohol to fuel the party. Alcohol soaked weetabix and pints filled with oats were the beverages of choice. Moreover many sports fanatics were fined for so called ‘incest’ (to clarify this means relations between members of the same sports team not family members...thankfully). With over 100 in attendance at the rowing dinner, it was described as a very friendly environment and a little more reserved perhaps than some other team dinners. One can only imagine what happened on other teams…

Melvenheng

Cheeky nap #lse100 @SSLANHAM

Reports of an LSE vs. KCL brawl at The Three Tuns also formed part of the AU wednesday night.

Music Society Social From the Beaver’s Archives qwghlm

Last Tuesday saw the Music Society choir gather to bond over drinks and nibbles. Following an intense yet productive rehearsal of Hayden's Nelson Mass. The evening was a hit and created even more social ties within the music society.

To read the complete Beaver archive please visit: http://digital.library.lse.ac.uk/

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Listings

Monday (4th) Learn ‘How To: start a business’ from 8.30am1pm at the Royal Institution, 21 Albemarle Street, London, W1S 4BS. For free tickets and more information go to www.howtoacademy.com/business/startan-online-business532?fromcat=30.

The new all girls A Capella group will be having their second meeting of the year from 7pm to 9pm in The Quad.

Tuesday (29th) Get away from the stresses of work from 1:05pm - 2pm in the Shaw Library. The Piano Duo of Daniel Tong and Joseph Tong will be playing Igor Stravinsky The Rite of Spring and Claude Debussy Petite Suite.

Open Mic Night promises to be a night of quality music and relaxation. Head down to The Three Tuns from 7:30pm - 10:30pm to enjoy this lovely event.

Wednesday (30th) Do you love honey?

Then come along to the LSE Honey Festival from 1pm - 2:30pm at Passfield Halls. There’ll be honey tastings, a bake sale, beekeeping talks and a honey quiz!

Join the LSESU Hindu Society for London Zone Garba at Hammersmith Town Hall for a celebration of Navratri from 7pm - 11pm. This event has been organised with 11 other London universities!

Tickets are £8 for members and £10 for non-members contact us for tickets!

Debating Law discuss the topic ‘Is Rape Different?’ with the panel comprising of Nazir

Afzal OBE, Chief Crown Prosecutor for CPS North West; Barbara Hewson, Barrister; Helen Reece, LSE Department of Law and Professor Jennifer Temkin, City Law School.

From 6:30pm - 8:30pm in the Sheikh Zayed Theatre, New Academic Building Thursday (31st) A public lecture presented by Professor Lord Giddens on a ‘Turbulent and Mighty Continent: What Future for Europe?’ from 6.30pm8pm in the Old Theatre.

Friday (1st) Halloween Crush! Be sure to head down to the Three Tuns for one of the most fun nights of the year.

Weekend (2nd/3rd) Sunday 3rd sees the deadline for entries to the Equality and Diversity Photo Competition.

The theme is “redefining difference”, urging all participants to demonstrate out-of-the-box thinking about diversity. The twelve images chosen will form part of the School’s Diversity Calendar for 2014.

To enter, visit lse.ac.uk/ equalityanddiversity, download and complete the entry form and send it with your photos to equality.and.diversity@ lse.ac.uk.

For more information on any of these events or other events you may be interested in, go to www.lsesu.com, email events@lse.ac.uk, or call 020 7955 6043.

If any societies would like a specific event mentioned in the listings section then please send a request to social@thebeaveronline. co.uk.

Menton, je t’aime Rachel Way

Monaco and the Cote D’Azur: playground of the elite, contradiction to the very notion that money can’t buy happiness and the home of the rich and famous.

Also home - for an all too short period - to one penniless LSE student lucky enough to grab a place on the Sciences Po exchange.

Nestled right on the border between France and Italy lies a small seaside town under the name of Menton. Known as ‘the pearl of France’, its year round warm climate and scenic location once rendered it a refuge for sufferers of tuberculosis looking for the quiet life. Nowadays, Menton serves more as a large retirement village for France’s richest: bursting with authenticity, crumbling painted houses, and Mediterranean charm. This is somewhat ironic seeing as it is situated a mere 10 minutes from Monte Carlo, where youngsters in Porsches pass more frequently than public buses, and the oldest buildings are younger than me.

It is in this small slice of paradise that Sciences Po chose to form their Middle Eastern campus, and I am thankful for it.

Life in French education proved a stark contrast to the LSE system to which I had grown accustomed. Along with the promise of a year-long tan, it

was the focus on Middle Eastern politics that drew me to the Menton Campus, and true enough it formed the centre of every subject. I noticed a difference in students’ attitudes towards working: hours would be sacrificed preparing for a 5 minute pop quiz, mid-terms were treated as though failures would be given the death penalty, and mid-week drinking was completely taboo (Zoo bar fans beware!). Finally, Sciences Po imposed a ‘2 absences and you’re out’ rule which, enforced at LSE, would have led to practically no one graduating.

This really was a school for grownups, and with a capacity of just 180 students, it felt like it. Luckily exchange students only needed half the prescribed credits to pass, and with subjects like football and photography counting towards these credits, we English students were easily able to maintain our hideous, and not altogether wrong, reputation of doing absolutely nothing but drinking and going to the beach.

As you may have guessed, it was not simply the educational aspect of my experience that led me to pass one of the best years of my life. The Cote D’Azur is like no other place I have experienced: a bizarre mix of old and new, rich and poor, a melange of European culture blended into a unique and perfectly balanced (not to mention very expensive) cocktail. For sun worshippers,

Menton’s ‘Plage des Sablettes’ is heavenly. For exercise freaks, long walks and mountain hikes leading to hidden oases and spectacular views can be done every day for a year without having to retrace your steps.

Senses are literally bombarded with the simple flavours of the Mediterranean, be it in one of the many seaside restaurants, or fresh from the local market.

The myth of French bread being superior in every way ceases to be a myth, and instead becomes an addiction. For the more adventurous, a night in Monaco or Cannes provides some of the best clubbing known to man: the only place where English girls are seen as ‘exotic’ and a 2 minute conversation with the right group, with a smattering of poor French thrown in, can leave you with a bottle of grey goose the size of your arm just because ‘you seemed nice’ (true story!).

After a year in this strange and beautiful place, London just doesn’t seem the same. Gone are the views of crystal clear waters from the classroom, and back is that grey, cold wetness that the city is so known for, following you around like a homeless dog.

The silver lining, I suppose, is that I now live in one of the only places where drowning your sorrows in drink on a weekday is seen as standard.

Third year move along, Menton j’arrive.

Rachel Way

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Tuesday October 29 2013

Social

Clinical studies in Pakistan

Maria Chawla

The good thing about universities in the UK is the amount of free time you have on your hands in your first year. Oh, and the six months of the year you’re basically free to ‘faff around’, for lack of a better word. I decided to do something useful with my life in these months. I was interning at The University Hospital in Karachi, Pakistan. Before you let your jaw completely drop to the ground let me tell you that I grew up and lived my entire life in Karachi. Most dangerous city in the world? Most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. No need for those alarms to go off!

I was interning at the Clinical Trials Unit. My job involved talking to the recruited patients, filling out a lot of forms, and talking to other representatives at their clinical trial units. I would go into more detail but that’s the kind of stuff you put on your CV and cover letters which I’m sure you are all familiar with. Let me

just casually mention though that I once found myself centre stage during the Caesarian section delivery of a child, stopwatch in hand, determined as ever to note the time taken to cut the placenta after the delivery of the baby.

University Hospital Karachi was in the middle of conducting eight different studies during the time that I was interning there.

All of these beautifully flowed through set standards and regulations, splashing out synchronized readings and records and winding their way through methodical dosages and techniques. These studies were taking place over three facilities in the hospital.

The study names were reduced to acronyms and the patients reduced to numbers ranging from 00-00-01 to 00-however-many.

Study: GDM: To compare the effect of the use of oral drugs as compared to insulin injections in the treatment of diabetes in pregnant women.

00-00-01: A mother of five and counting. Having lived in

a small village on the outskirts of Sindh all her life, the sound of the blaring horns of cars on a busy day still puts her on her toes. The only reason she finds herself at this hospital is because the doctor has agreed to look at her case pro bono.

00-00-02: Think Michael Kors bag and white iPhone 5. Her wellmanicured hands type away on the touch screen organizing dinner parties and booking appointments with her hair stylist. She is furious at how long she’s been waiting, cursing her husband for not sending her to ‘the States’ for her treatment.

Is it accurate to just reduce both to a sequence of 6 numbers?

Before the medicines are prescribed, the women are given a diet plan to follow to see if that itself is enough to control the sugar levels. Patients like Laila are far more likely to be more conscious of what they eat. Their social exposure and economic background allows them not only to join the best gyms and pur-

chase imported brands of health food, they are also largely more aware and conscious of their appearance. Bilquees on the other hand cannot afford regular meals, forget about a variety of fruit and vegetables. Her definition of food also involves large quantities of ghee and her family believes in the notion of obesity being directly proportional to happiness. Hence, the chances of Bilquees fitting the inclusion criteria of the trial are automatically higher. Does this not affect the randomization of the sample on which the study is performed?

Furthermore, if she does find herself as part of the study, not only will she whip out her iPhone and Google everything down to the history of clinical trials, she will also make a conscientious effort to follow the prescribed medicines and make accurate recordings. Does this not affect the entire outcome of the trial?

After a conversation with one of the principal investigators of the trial, I was told that the

hospital pays for the travel and check up of all patients enrolled in the trials. This offers a large incentive for people to enroll.

However, this also means that a lot of women only sign the consent form in their greed for money and don’t make a conscious effort to take the right readings or even cure GDM. On the way to the clinic one day, I saw a woman frantically ticking random boxes on her record diary right before entering. She looked up as I was passing by and gave me an embarrassed smile.

00-00-12 was completely unaware of the impact of her actions.

I spoke to, a leading member of of the CTU about this. She smiled at me and said “University Hospital is probably the only facility in Pakistan who conducts their studies following the Good Clinical Practice as closely as possible. One step at a time dear, one step at a time”.

What’s not to like about living in Halls?

Asha Tanwar

Along with most of the student population at LSE, I spent most of my evenings last week at careers fairs. It was at one of these that I ran into a second year student from KCL. We were both making our way to the obscure building the event was being held at and both of us were lost.

As two people on a similar mission, we decided to walk together and got talking.

I asked her if she was living at halls again this year. “Eurrghh no. That would be kind of sad, wouldn’t it?” Yes, it would be, I agreed and laughed along, deciding not to mention that I was a third year returning to halls yet again. In my defence, I also have an apartment I could return to, should socialising with freshers become tedious and I decide that I want to have a crazy house party which doesn’t involve silent hours between 23.45 and 07.00. But her disgust at living in halls after first year surprised me.

I know many friends who

have moved out into private student accommodation or flats only because they did not get a place in halls. I also have friends, oblivious to how annoying I can be as a flat-mate, who were keen to share a place with me this year. But I decided that I wanted to stay in halls again.

Not many people appreciate the comfort of halls until they leave, but after spending much of my summer searching for a suitable apartment, should I not get a place from LSE accommodation, I knew what I was getting. Bills included, catered, security provided, social events arranged by committees, it was a lazy student’s dream. I remembered towards the end of first year, when I used to tell people that there was “no way in hell” I was returning to student halls.

And yet I was back again in second year and then again in third year.

This year everything was different. I was in a single room for the first time and it was expensive. I was holed up in the attic bedroom on the fifth floor of a

building with no lift and there were hardly any third years left in the hall. Sure, the room was big enough to run around naked in (benefits of a single room), but for the first time I no longer wanted to be in halls.

The feeling intensified in the second week of term. I had come back at 2am after a party and proceeded to have a shower in my en-suite. The light of the ensuite had fused a few days ago and obviously the maintenance team did not prioritise trekking up to the fifth floor to fix it.

Though I was tempted to leave the shower door open, it would almost certainly trigger the dreaded fire alarm, and I would almost certainly be berated for dragging everyone out of their beds at an ungodly hour.

Too lazy to go down to the lower floor and use the shared showers, I decided that my eyes would soon adjust to the dark. I shampooed my hair and a little while later the shower started hissing. I reached up to twist and see if I could fix it and the entire shower head broke off, slicing my finger in the process.

Fumbling to get the rest of the soap out of my eyes, I quickly walked out of the shower and slammed the door behind me.

My finger was now bleeding profusely and I got dressed and clambered down five flights of stairs to the reception to ask for a plaster. I was instead told that my finger needed stitches.

Refusing to head to an A&E at 3am and going the following morning instead, I used a plaster and began the trek back up to my room. My head had barely touched the pillow when the fire alarm began screeching. Groaning and despising the person who was responsible I joined the army of pyjama-clad students heading out into the Great British Rain. The offender turned out to be a hair-straightener addict, who I hope has been permanently traumatised: after all, my friends tell me straightening is really bad for your hair. After being outside just long enough to catch a cold, we were allowed to return to our beds.

There is something about fire alarms that makes you crave twilight meals, and I headed

to the kitchen to take out that chocolate fudge pudding I had bought yesterday. I had left it in the second fridge, but it was nowhere to be found. I searched all the other fridges and then the cupboards for good measure, but eventually I accepted that some other, overweight, selfish pig was enjoying my dessert.

I climbed into bed with a melancholy feeling, a chocolate craving and a sliced finger that night. But as I was feeling sorry for myself, I realised that life wouldn’t be nearly as interesting if I was holed up in my flat, catching up with the reading I was already two weeks behind on.

Life in halls can feel like the most unfair thing at times and maybe it is a little bit sad that I’m not out living out, learning how to live like a proper adult, dealing with bills and organising house parties, but I don’t think the KCL second year had nearly as great a time as I did (ignoring the injuries, fire alarms and stolen food) in halls. And what does she know anyway? She goes to KCL.

Tuesday October 29 2013

Social

Beaver Games Sudoku

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Let the Beaver answer your questions...

Send your questions to social@thebeaveronline.com

Dear Beaver, I’ve been frequenting Wright’s Bar quite regularly before rugby for some prematch refreshment, and I am in love with the waitress. She is so kind and friendly and always knows what I want: the mixed grill with tea. She is my perfect woman and I want to know, how do I go about courting her?

- Rugby And Wrights Dear RAW,

Question corner What connects these words? Dram, Colon, Won, Dong, Kip.

What twelve animals feature in Chinese astrology?

They are currencies (as at May 2005), specifically: Dram (Armenia), Colon (Costa Rica, El Salvadore), Won (North Korea, South Korea), Dong (Vietnam), Kip (Lao People’s Democratic) Republic, formerly Laos).

Horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog, boar, rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake.

Easy as ABC The objective of Easy as ABC is to fill the grid with the letters A through G (or whatever the grid dimension is). Each row and each column must contain only one instance of each letter. The clues outside the grid show which letter comes across first from that direction.

My advice is make sure this is not some silly crush and that you are actually in love with her. She is after all a very busy person and may find your frivolous flirts very distracting during work hours. There is also the possibility that you will invoke a workplace sexual harassment lawsuit if you are not careful with your advances. But if you are sure of your love for her and if it is genuine, I suggest you do the following: firstly, continue with the consumption of mixed grills and do it multiple times a day. This will undoubtedly impress her, as it will demonstrate both excellent gastronomical knowledge and extreme wealth. It is also very good for gains, so if she doesn’t notice you now, she’ll definitely notice you when you flaunt those gains in a few weeks time. Secondly, I advise you to ask her out during off-peak hours, when the queue is not so horrendous, such as before and after lunch.

If all else fails, you should also probably consult your Academic Advisor. Best of luck!

- The Beaver ------------------------------------Dear Beaver, I moved out of halls last year and now I’m in a flat with four friends. I get along with them very well usually, but I’m realizing not all good friends are good roommates. The pile of unwashed dishes and loud music within such a small house are not ideal. What would you advise I do?

- Private Accommodation Worries

Dear PAW, It sounds like you are still good friends with your roommates in general, so it’s just the living arrangements you have to sort out. Ask your roommates to do their share of the work. There is nothing wrong in bringing these issues up to your friends and they will not look down on you for wanting a clean kitchen and some quiet time. However, if you feel like you are completely incompatible with your roommates, there is always the option of moving back into halls.

Ask the LSE Accommodation e office for some advice and check whether any halls have spare rooms available. Also, make sure you find someone who can move in to your current flat so that he or she can take care of the rent and bills.

Hopefully you can sort out the issues with your roommates, but always remember that there are alternative solutions available. Hope that helps.

- The Beaver -----------------------------------Dear Beaver, I am new to England and I am really enjoying my time here. But there are some parts of English culture I am still not used to. For instance, my roommate engages in what he calls ‘banter’, which seems to be an umbrella term for generally offensive things. How should I interpret this ‘banter’ culture?

- Banter Or Maybe Banter Dear BOMB, It’s great to hear you’re enjoying your time in England.

The ‘lad’ culture and the ‘banter’ in England (and Wales) are quite controversial issues.

Some would argue that they are sexist, misogynistic and in bad taste. If you find it offensive to you personally, don’t stay quiet about it, talk to your friends and tell them you don’t like it. Of course, your friends may not intend for you to be offended or things may have gotten lost in translation. In any case, clarify amongst your friends and make sure they know where you stand on the issue.

- The Beaver

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29.10.2012 The Beaver

PRIVATE B

“They can take our tuns, but they can never take

our freedom! ”

ULU REMEMBRANCE EDITION

THE B COMMEMORATES THE FALLEN LONDON UNION WITH POETRY If If you can keep your job when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it exclusively on you If you can trust your ideology when all men doubt you But make no allowance for their doubting too If you can ban and not be tired by banning Or in negotiation, not deal in facts Or being hated, blame it all on UoL And give cushy jobs to your friendly hacks.

If you can walk with NCAFC and not lose your Labour membership Or walk with King's College, nor lose the Marxist touch If neither friends nor loving foes can defend your union If all men count with you, but none as much as your job If you can balance the unforgiving budget With two terms' worth of f**k all done Yours is unemployment, and all that is in it And-which is more- you'll be Michael Chessum, my son.

In Chessum's Field In Chessum’s field the dust grows Between Chessum and Cooper's redundancy notices row on row The Marxist place, and in the sky The ULU banners, now useless, hang limply by Scarcely heard beneath the grandstanding below.

Totally Legit Letters Dear Sirs, I would like to thank the LSE Rugby Club for their warm welcome last Wednesday night.

Yours ruefully, Polly Teknik Dear Beaver, Can you explain why so many people are standing for Postgraduate Officer? What are the benefits?

Yours, Sal E. Reid Dear Beaver, I hope I will be able to count on your support in the upcoming Michaelmas elections Best, N. Dorsement

For The Fallen ULU It shall grow not old, as Unions that are left grow old: Age shall not weary it, nor student news condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning, We will not remember it.

DRUNK, ROWDY AND OUT OF CONTROL! HOUGHTON STREET DEVASTATED BY KCL-LSE BRAWL

• Director Craig Calhoun and Pro-Director Paul Kelly leap to the defence of students • KCL Principal Rik Trainor taken to hospital with split lip and suspected broken nose •

Kelly and Calhoun restrained by Rugby Club and banned from Three Tuns pending inquiry.

• LSE RFC Captain Jamie McWhisky ‘It was horrible.

Blood and credentials everywhere.’

Spot the third wheel...

This week's edition compiled by Tam Banters Frédéric Photochopin Col. Honey-Badger Captain Hack Sparrow Terry Yorath

Tuesday October 29 2013

Beaver

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Home Nations Face Tough Tests Ceri Morgan

After uniting for the cause of the Lions it’s now time for the home nations to get back to business and take on the behemoths of the rugby world in the Autumn Internationals.

New Zealand, South Africa and Australia have been the best three sides in the world for almost all of the past decade and the challenge of facing them, as well as the much improved Argentina and other lesser rugby nations, looks as daunting as ever.

Wales: Having retained the Six Nations Championship last year Wales are flying the flag for northern hemisphere rugby again. They face a hugely physical South Africa team first, followed by a tricky match against Argentina (to whom they lost last year), then an easier encounter with Tonga and finally

the Australians. Given the extent to which Welsh players dominated the victorious Lions tour - 10 Welshmen started the third test in Sydney - they seem the best placed home nation to take on the big three southern hemisphere sides.

However, recent history suggests that may not be the case as they have not beaten any of those teams in their last 18 attempts. Nevertheless, confidence should be very high and although South Africa may be a leap too far, the Australians look extremely beatable. The ever-improving Argentinians should not be ruled out and Tonga are capable of an upset but if Wales are serious about winning the World Cup in 2015 they need at least 3 out of 4 wins in the autumn.

England: After a hugely disappointing climax to the last Six Nations, England will be looking to banish the demons of Car-

diff and reproduce the kind of performance that led to a magnificent victory against New Zealand last December. They face Australia first, followed

by Argentina and finally the ultimate test in world rugby: New Zealand. Their long-term focus is on the 2015 World Cup and the victorious summer tour of Argentina where many young players such as Yarde, Eastmond and Kvesic shone suggests that they are on the right trajectory. They should be looking at winning 2 out of their 3 matches this autumn and giving the All Blacks, who are undefeated this year and playing an astonishingly good brand of rugby, as good as they’ve got.

Scotland: Given the minimal impact that Scottish players had upon the Lions tour, it’s easy to forget that they managed a decent third place finish in the Six Nations. They will be hoping to

The Tuns is safe. The brave men of the Rugby Club stood firm against the onslaught. They are our protectors, our heroes, and this was their Thermopylae. Or so we were told.

With most of the AU away from the Tuns on Wednesday, rugby took the opportunity to claim there had been some sort of fight in which they defended LSE from invaders. Reports suggest however that their bruises were actually sustained by banging their heads against the wall when they discovered the concept of fire.

Elsewhere, netball team dinners went too Far-hy when one sixth team player got her vibrator out to show her teammates. For some the good vibrations didn’t continue to Zoo though, Nemo spotted in floods of tears on the dancefloor, presumably because no-one found her. One Golden sixth-teamer found it all too much and decided to take a nap on the sofas, her snores

sadly not drowning out the highpitched mating calls of the Gruesome Twosome, who each found a new acquaintance.

The FC’s visit to Brick Lane for team dinners forced the Oxford Street branch of Primark to close its formal menswear section temporarily, explaining that there had been a sudden run on terrible shiny suits and skinny ties. Apparently the dress code for dinners was First Court Appearance. President Hal From Malcolm In The Middle was nowhere to be seen in Zoo, reportedly cowering in a back room with the Zoo bosses, in hiding from Captain Lee #NobodySaidItWasEasy #OhTakeMeBackToCali #ThatsColdplayMate. If El Prez had been in Zoo, he would have witnessed the Norman Conquest of rowing, and more tears as football’s Captain Tantastic worked his magic. What a charmer.

Nations combined with the resentment felt by many Irish players for their non-selection in the Lions test team means that motivation will not be an issue for this undoubtedly talented Irish squad. They face three tough games in the autumn with the brutal Samoans up first and then the Aussies and All Blacks on the following two weekends.

Brian O’Driscoll, Ireland’s talisman, is wearing the Irish shirt for the last time this season and one feels that the team he led for so long may rally around him and deliver the goods this season. Ireland should be aiming for a victory against Samoa and Australia to consider the autumn a success. Yet again, the All Blacks seem just too good a team to succumb to the Irish but equally that could be said of every international team the marauding Kiwis face.

men and women both placed well. Midway through the race, the rain subsided and the sun broke out just as most runners were making their way to the top of the hill for a panoramic view of the London skyline.

Ed Stevens led the men alongside Rob Willoughby, Matt Smith, Louis van der Linden, Robert Marks, Arthur Wadsworth, Nigel Pho and Farhan Rashid. In the women’s race Kanan Parida finished with a time of 16:34: good enough for the 17th spot, fol-

lowed by Holly Bedeau, Olivia Zeltner, Rebecca Windemer, Leyla Nor, Sophie Smith, Sophie Smith, Carolyn Windover, Dalia Saris, Tze Ni, and Laura Lim. Taking several kilos of mud with them, these heroes trudged back to the busses with tired legs but upbeat moods. The Running, Athletics & Triathlon team is always looking for new members, so get in touch if you fancy it; just email: au.club.running@lse.ac.uk.

Off and Running Louis Van Der Linden

WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE

build upon that as well as their strong showing over the summer in a hard-fought defeat to the Springboks in South Africa. They face what should be an easy game against the Japanese first, followed by the far more difficult proposition of South Africa and then Australia.

Scottish rugby seems to be improving steadily (particularly at club level with the Glasgow Warriors sitting pretty atop the Pro12) but is still a long way off the quality of the Southern hemisphere nations or the prospect of a Triple Crown or Six Nations title.

As they’ve shown before they can beat the top teams, particularly on a rainy day at Murrayfield, but realistically they should be looking at a convincing victory over Japan and running Australia and South Africa as close as they can.

Ireland: A poor finish in the Six

The London Colleges League of 2013/14 opened with a race at Parliament Hill on Wednesday. Weather conditions leading up to the race could best be described as characteristic of London, with only minutes of sunshine between intermittent showers throughout the morning.

Despite the slippery conditions that caused a few members (including myself) to fall on the downhill slopes, LSE’s

(Formerly) Friday saw a return to usual form for rugby, as their Vice-Captain made a Poole of a different kind, joining a proud lineage of rugby club members.

CAUTION: if you see a pair of boxers lying around Angel station, do not pick them up. No rules. No parents.

No toilets. #beer On a sidenote, HEY GUYS OMG PLZ JOIN MY FB GROUP I WANT TO BE ELECTED TO THE COUNCIL OF BOARD OF TRUST OF SOMETHING HERE ARE A MILLION POSTS WOOOOO. Just take me back to the jungle <3 Ed Note: Seriously guys, either you’ve not trying hard enough in Zoo, or you’re keeping your gossip to yourselves. Sort yourselves out and email ZooBar@thebeaveronline.co.uk

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Tuesday October 29 2013

FANTASY FOOTBALL

Winners and Losers - The EPL So Far

Every week we’ll print the top three and the bottom three teams.

The WINNERS...

BEAVER SPORTS

The TOP...

Monstars (Hitesh Gulati) 551 Points Poly FC (Robin Park) 525 Points Strutting Edge (Chris Edgington) 496 Points

And the BOTTOM...

Menton Marvels (Jon Allsop) 325 Points

With 8 games gone this season the English Premier League is about one-fifth of the way through, and what a one-fifth its been. There have been sackings, controversies and even revealing autobiographies! However, like every other season the title challengers are starting to stake a claim and with this we can see that there are winners and losers. Ameya Badwe takes a look at both.

Southampton: Surprising everyone, Mauricio Pochettino has quietly spent the summer putting together a side that is now languishing in fifth, above Manchester United and Tottenham.

With one defeat from the first eight and boasting the best defensive record in the league it is hard to see what they have done wrong this season. The Saints aim high too, Pochettino has made it clear he hopes to challenge for a Champions League Position and the way they are playing you wouldn’t bet against them. Although, they are still struggling in front of goal and Rickie Lambert has been unable to match his form of last year and Pochettino will have to fix this if he wants to play with Europe’s elite next season.

Arsenal: Arsene Wenger seems to be proving his theory that you don’t need a squad of great players to be title contenders, just one or two to will do the trick. Olivier Giroud has been in blistering form with 5 goals and 4 assists in these 9 games.

Mesut Ozil , signed for a record transfer fee, produced 2 goals and 3 assists in his 5 appearances in the Premier League. Then there is their Welsh superhero, Aaron Ramsey, who up until last season was a joke to Arsenal fans and seemed to have wasted away all his talent. But with 5 goals and 4 assists, is it too early to say that he is a front runner of the Player of the Year Award?

With their rivals seeming to be struggling this could be the season that Arsenal finally add a trophy to their cabinet. But doesn’t it seem like that every year?

Merseyside Clubs: You have to give credit to Brendan Rodgers and Roberto Martinez. Rodgers has brought in a lot of players and with the new potent partnership of Suarez and Sturridge (a.k.a.

SAS), they have appeared out of nowhere to be title contenders. Martinez has brought in Chelsea’s Romelu Lukaku on loan, a player who can’t seem to convince any Chelsea manager that he can cut it in the Premier League. With him has come Gareth Barry on loan to strengthen their midfield. Two very shrewd but brilliant signings. Liverpool are poised to make a good push for Champions League football and maybe the title if they can bring in a couple of players to shore up their midfield. Everton on the other hand could also be in serious contention for Europa League football qualification this season.

England Youth: If you are in your early 20s, English, and playing regular football in the Premier League, it is a good time to be you! Andros Townsend has just stolen the spotlight by making an amazing debut for England and then scoring his first goals for club and country. Ravel Morrison scored a goal of the season contender and his flair and passing ability have also been showcased recently. Morrison seems like a potential wildcard to be on the flight to Brazil come June 2014.

Townsend has confirmed that ticket with two match-winning performances guaranteeing England a place in Brazil. Ross Barkley is another name who also made his England debut recently and is in the England squad, and should he maintain his form could be on the way to Brazil.

Manchester United (David Moyes): David Moyes must have wished for an easier start to the season. He has already played Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester City and has come out scathed. It hasn’t helped that Sir Alex Ferguson decided to release his all-revealing autobiography recently. Manchester United are in 8th, 8 points behind leaders Arsenal and whilst they might seem to still be in the running; with this being the most competitive league in recent memory it is hard to see them coming back from such a gap. Moyes has got Rooney going again, but having missed out on several key signings his squad doesn’t seem title-worthy, and cracks continue to appear in the defense. With easier games against Norwich and Fulham coming up Moyes must do his best to dispel the memory of Sir Alex and start his own chapter in Manchester United’s history.

Cardiff: On one hand you have Swansea, a well run Welsh club that is playing beautiful football and enjoying the Europa League. Then you have Cardiff, who’s Head of Recruitment is apparently someone who spent the summer painting the walls of their stadium!

Oh wait… Malky Mackay is one of the best young managers in England. Everton wanted him over the summer, but he is currently at the helm of a sinking ship. Cardiff sit just 1 point away from the threat of relegation and after a heavy, albeit unlucky, 4-1 loss at the hands of title favorites Chelsea things are not going to get easier. They have players in the form of Steven Caulker and Gary Medel who can keep the club afloat but they need to believe in the club they are playing for. But right now even fans will find that difficult given the comedic nature of goings on at Cardiff.

The English FA: So far, the FA has received their fair share of criticism and have managed to only make things worse for themselves.

First, Harry Redknapp criticised them in his autobiography saying that they could not pick a right manager if their lives depended on it. Secondly, Greg Dyke’s FA Commission to improve English Football was criticised for its lack of diversity and potential impact.

They have alse been put in the spotlight with controversial incidents such as Torres’ “clawing” or “scratching” of Verthongen, flare throwing at White Hart Lane and even Eto’o stealing the ball from Marshall. The FA continues to be quite inefficient and controversial in their dealings as well as being unable to stay out of the spotlight for long.

It seems that they are keen on playing politics sometimes rather than letting the game flourish on its own.

TSEDITS

Los Diablos Verdes (Hari Prabu) 282 Points

Flickr: tEdits

Shayree’s (Shaheer Ghoury) 215 Points Think you can do better?

970297-228156

SPORT IN BRIEF Sunderland record their first Premier League victory of the season in a 2-1 victory over Newcastle.

In the Rugby League World Cup Wales lost to Italy, and England lost to Australia.

Del Potro retained his Swiss Indoor title after defeating Roger Federer 7-6 (7-3) 2-6 6-4.

Bernard Hopkins has become the oldest fighter to defend a boxing world title after defeating Karo Murat.

The LOSERS...

Paolo and Ian (Sunderland and Crystal Palace): Sunderland’s colorful exboss Paolo Di Canio will surely be missed, although maybe not

by Sunderland fans who were happy to see him go after he had totally lost the dressing room. The same happened to Ian Holloway, another one of the most ‘charming’ managers in the league. Some might say their sackings came too early in the season, but both clubs are in the relegation zone and have failed to perform.

Di Canio signed a whole new team, while Palace may have missed out on the one player they wanted to sign (Wilfried Zaha). But the Premier League is a demanding place and they fell victims to the pressure and demands of the game. If you don’t get the points early on, you aren’t going to get them later.