845

Beaver

Issue 845 | 19.1.16

the

Newspaper of the LSE Students’ Union

Students Propose Rent Strike For 10% Cheaper Halls Ellen Wilkie Executive Editor TWO THIRD YEAR LONDON School of Economics (LSE) students have proposed that students in halls begin a rent strike, in hopes of decreasing the cost of living in halls by 10%.

Josh Hitchens and Rayhan Uddin believe that the cost of living at LSE is too high and that expensive hall rents are a large contributor to that. In response to the high rents they are proposing that students withhold payment when the next hall rent instalment is due at the beginning of the summer term.

In a statement to The Beaver, Hitchens and Uddin explained that ‘At present, the majority of Rooms in LSE halls cost in excess of £200 a week. At a time when student loan levels haven’t risen with inflation and maintenance grants are likely to be scrapped, this is unacceptable. The school leadership is making an LSE education unaffordable and exploiting a monopoly on freshers accommodation for financial gain.

Unfortunately SU negotiations with the school on this matter have been extremely difficult and confined solely to trying to achieve a rent freeze. Even this is proving to be a battle. We are proposing this motion because we feel a rent freeze doesn’t address the underlying problem, that halls rent is already totally unaffordable for many students. We also want to give the SU a stronger negotiating hand with the school. Our motion with therefore propose that no rent is paid to the LSE until they commit to a ten percent decrease in rent across all LSE residences.

Even after this is achieved we will still have some of the highest halls rents in the country so we be-

lieve that this is a reasonable and achievable reduction in rents to demand.’

Nona Buckley-Irvine, LSESU General Secretary, is of the opinion that ‘Rents are unaffordable and it goes without saying that a freeze would not go far enough, which is why we have successfully lobbied LSE to adopt an affordable rents strategy into their residential strategy. However, we have to start by influencing decisions being made with respect to rents, and the looming decision is about whether to increase rents by 2.5 % at finance committee on 28th January, after we successfully delayed the decision being taken to increase them. LSE has yet to prove that it is committed to minimising the cost of living for students living in halls and so if by summer term they have failed to commit to a genuine strategy, similar to Kings College London, then I would fully support more drastic action being taken, if that is what students living in halls want to do.’

A third year student made the criticism that ‘The proposed strike makes a mockery of student contracts with halls. Students have signed a legally binding agreement which if broken could lead to possible eviction. This proposal could pose huge problems for students who may not know the dangers of not paying their rent’.

The disparity between rent prices in London and the rest of the UK is drastic, as the pair point out, but a Beaver report published late last academic year proves that LSE hall rent costs are competitive relative to other University of London halls. Last year, the average cost to an LSE student for halls was £6702, whereas comparable University of London halls cost £8257 and private halls of residence cost £11,208.

Comment: On Moral Hazard At Lilian Knowles Julian Kamasa Postgraduate Student

LSE Graduate Tsai Ing-Wen elected first female leader of Taiwan

Comment The City

LSESU Christian Union responds to Operation Could opening up private tutoring Christmas Child allegations be the key to improving equality?

Page 30 Page 24

MY OPINION ABOUT LSE was very high, so I was surprised about the student satisfaction ranking of The Times, where LSE ranked low. During the Welcome Week, we were told to raise our voices whenever we were unhappy, since we pay a lot of money.

Furthermore, the LSE Ethics Code was presented to us. One part of it deals with Integrity.

There, the first bullet point of it is being ‘honest and truthful’. As an LSE student living in Lilian Knowles House, I am utterly disappointed by the information provided by LSE Residential Services in this regard.

Before confirming the offer to live at Lilian Knowles, I checked all the relevant information provided by both LSE and Sanctuary Students.

Everything looked very promising: the distance to campus, laundry on site, a computer room, the area, the building itself, and even the rent. With these expectations, I arrived here and was heavily disappointed within the first few days and became deeply frustrated within months.

First, the walking distance to LSE is 45 minutes and not ‘about 30 minutes’ as LSE Residential Services claimed.

Second, there is not a construction site ‘nearby’, as LSE Residential Services wrote.

Neither is there a ‘possibility of noise disruption’. What I face is a major construction site opposite the student accommodation with heavy noise disruption being a reality from 8am onwards every...

Continued on Page 8

Room 2.02, Saw Swee Hock Student Centre, LSE Students’ Union London WC2A 2AE Executive Editor Ellen Wilkie

editor@thebeaveronline.co.uk

Managing Editor Megan Crockett

Beaver

the

the

Beaver

Established in 1949 Issue No. 845 - Tuesday 19 January 2016 - issuu.com/readbeaveronline Telephone: 0207 955 6705 Email: editor@thebeaveronline.co.uk Website: www.beaveronline.co.uk Twitter: @beaveronline

managing@thebeaveronline.co.uk

News Editors Shwetha Chandrashekhar Suyin Haynes Greg Sproston news@thebeaveronline.co.uk

Comment Editors Mali Williams

comment@thebeaveronline.co.uk

PartB Editors Kemi Akinboyewa Vikki Hui Flo Edwards

partb@thebeaveronline.co.uk

The City Editor Alex Gray

city@thebeaveronline.co.uk

Features Editor Alex Hurst Taryana Odayar

features@thebeaveronline.co.uk

The Nab Editor

nab@thebeaveronline.co.uk

Sport Editor Alex Dugan

sports@thebeaveronline.co.uk

Online Editor Gee Linford-Grayson

online@thebeaveronline.co.uk

Collective Chair Perdita Blinkhorn

collective@thebeaveronline.co.uk

The Collective:

A Doherty, A, Dugan, A Fyfe, A Hurst, A Laird, A Leung, A Lulache, A Moro, A Qazilbash, A Ryzhonkova, A Santhanham, A Tanwa, A Thomson, B Phillips, B Sreejith, C Cogne, C Holden, C Loughran, C Morgan, C Hu, D Hung, D Lai, D Shears, D Sippel, D Tighe, E Arnold, E Wilkie, E Smith, G Cafiero, G Ferris, G Harrison, G Kist, G Linford-Grayson, G Manners-Armstrong, G Saudelli, H Brentnall, H Prabu, H Toms, I Plunkett, J Briers, J Clark, J Cusack, J Evans, J Foster, J Grabiner, J Heeks, J Momodu, J Ruther, J Wilken-Smith, J Wurr, K Budd, K Owusu, K Parida, K Quinn, K Yeung Goh, L Kang, L Kendall, L Erich, L Mai, L Montebello, L Schofield, L van der Linden, M Banerjee-Palmer, M Crockett, M Gallo, M Jaganmohan, M Johnson, M Neergheen, M Pasha, M Pennill, M Strauss, N Antoniou, N Bhaladhare, N Buckley-Irvine, N Stringer, O Hill, O Gleeson, P Amoroso, P Blinkhorn, P Gederi, P Grabosch, R Browne, R J Charnock, R Connelly-Webster, R Huq, R Kouros, R Serunjogi, R Siddique, R Uddin, R Way, S Ali, S Argyros, S Chandrashekhar, S CrabbeField, S Kunovska, S Povey, S Rahman, S Sebatindira, S Shehadi, S Taneja, T Mushtaq, T Odayar, T Poole, V Hui, Z Chan, Z Mahmod To join the Collective you need to have written for 3 or more editions of The Beaver. Think you’ve done that but don’t see your name on the list? Email collective@thebeaveronline.co.uk to let us know!

Any opinions expressed herein are those of their respective authors and not necessarily those of the LSE Students’ Union or Beaver Editorial Staff.

The Beaver is issued under a Creative Commons license.

Attribution necessary.

Printed at Mortons Printing

Ellen Wilkie says her thank yous and goodbyes to The Beaver

From the Executive Editor IT IS WITH MIXED emotions that I announce my resignation from my post as Executive Editor of The Beaver, with this edition of the newspaper being my last.

The Beaver has been a big part of my LSE experience and continuing my studies without it is a strange, slightly upsetting but ultimately liberating prospect. I admit that I’m looking forward to having the time to focus on my studies, regaining my Sundays and redeveloping a normal social life on leaving this position, but there will be much that I will miss from my time here and countless unforgettable experiences that I will look on with nostalgia.

Student journalism is an experience like no other, and student journalism at the LSE is particularly unique. It would not be possible anywhere else, without a lifetime of experience, to sit at the helm of a publication and be responsible every week for both the content and design of 32 whole pages. That responsibility is particularly vast, considering that our student body is more active, more critical and more passionate than any other I know of, and as the only newspaper on campus we have a lot of people to please and a lot of people to piss off (and you can be sure that if you do piss someone off, they’ll let you know about it).

The challenges of this role are

far reaching and I will be working in the next few weeks, not only to handover to the next editor of the newspaper, but also to renegotiate The Beaver’s position within the SU. The role as I have had it has been extremely stressful with long hours, little recognition and extremely high expectations. The Beaver is one of the most demanding student newspapers in the country, with most others either publishing less frequently (often fortnightly or even monthly), making the newspaper editor a sabbatical position or having permanent staff members in place to support the media group. With The Beaver essentially treated as a normal society, with no tailored support, it is increasingly unsustainable and needs to change, not only for the wellbeing of the next editor but to allow the quality of the paper to continue.

I feel, as I step down, that I have a lot to be proud of from my time here. From introducing the first Blackout edition for Black History Month, to conducting a full redesign, to actually managing to write a satire section every week, I have surprised myself with what I have achieved in this role. It is challenging, yes, but immensely fulfilling and I urge anyone that is interested to throw themselves into this paper as I have done.

It goes without saying that I

couldn’t have done any of this alone so I’d like to offer my thanks to: Alex Fyfe, for appointing me as Literature Editor and setting the ball rolling; Seb Ash, for not turning up the first time I had to edit the Comment section, forcing me to become adept at inDesign; Jon Allsop, for telling me that standing for Executive Editor ‘wouldn’t be the most ridiculous idea’; Gareth Rosser, for teaching me how to do reasonably well at an LSE degree without putting any work in, ever; Megan Crockett, for being endlessly patient with me talking to myself, dropping off sentences half way through and my unreasonable vigilance when it comes to design; the current editorial board, for actually giving up their time to put this paper together every week; James Wurr, whose RAG invasion of my office meant that I was not the only one pulling silly hours in the Media Centre; Ollie Norman, who has somehow managed to live in a house littered with newspapers all this time; Sian Thurgood, Heather Carroll and Dave Bradshaw (and I hope you can forgive me the breach of the byelaws in mentioning your names) for their support throughout my unusually challenging term as editor; and finally to whichever cleaner it is that tidies all the CoOp sandwich boxes, crisp packets and used tea bags off my desk for me.

From the Managing Editor Megan Crockett on xxxxx SO, HERE IT IS, MY LAST (somewhat brief) editorial. I have had endless amounts of fun being involved with The Beaver during my time at LSE and I would thoroughly encourage any of you who are urring and ahhhing about whether or not to write to do it! Trust me, you won’t regret becoming part of such a wonderful LSE family.

I think the biggest loss for

The Beaver this week is the loss of our wonderful Executive Editor, Ellen Wilkie! Not only has she patiently explained the importance of design, and VERY patiently taught me how to use photoshop (on more occasions than I can count on both hands and toes) but she has been THE most amazing executive editor I have seen at my time at LSE. I think we can all

agree she has bought hilarity but also food for thought in her editorials as well as putting together a fabulous redesign and, quite frankly, has produced interesting and highly professional editions of The Beaver week on week.

Although I’m looking forward to the next era, with a new executive editor, I do feel for whoever it is who has to fill those bloody enor mous shoes!

TWEETS OF THE WEEK Harry Maxwell @HarryMaxwell I’m off to watch #PMQs today. Is there actually a more terrifying thought than me in the Houses of Parliament?

Nona Buckley-Irvine @nonajasmine Disaster on maintenance grants for poorest students and cruel decision made by a government that shows no regard for access #CutTheCosts LSE UPR @lseupr We’re recruiting for the 2016/17 team! Open to all 1st & 2nd year undergrads.

Visit http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/ lseupr/2016/01/15/applynow-to-join-the-lse-upr-editorial-team/ for details. Deadline:23/01/2016 Emily @emilyxhaimeed When the lecturer puts their book on the reading list for every week and it costs like £28362628826 LSE Students’ Union @lsesu BME Students’ Officer @ mahatir_pasha reports the BME committee nearly complete, seeking a Chinese student member #UGM Victoria Murphy @VickyEL_Murphy Who better than @SyedKamall to add to our new @LSESUTories Snapchat Story! Thanks so much for visiting us at @lsesu

George Burton @George__Burton Wondering if simply having gone to an awful school counts as extenuating circumstances. #gradscheme applications.

LSESU RAG @lsesurag Thanks very much to @ breastcancernow for the thank you chocolate and card! Hope we can smash fundraising for you.

News | 3

LSESU Education Officer Updates Students On Exam Timetabling Joseph Briers Deputy News Editor

LSESU EDUCATION OFFICER Jon Foster has updated the student body on his attempts to secure an earlier release of the summer exam timetable. Despite his best efforts, it appears that Foster and the SU are up against a hurdle of colossal irony in the school’s sluggishness in negotiations.

Foster met with Pro Director for Teaching and Learning, Professor Paul Kelly, whom he is ‘continuing to work with in the hope of achieving an earlier release’ and commented that Kelly ‘recognised the importance of the issue to students’. However,

progress in negotiations with key players - the Head of Student Services and the Registry, was encumbered by an unfortunate coincidence of the registry’s preoccupation with Lent term exams and the school’s closure for the Christmas holidays. Foster is therefore only now sitting down with these two actors, far later than the week 10 Michaelmas deadline for meetings set by the Union resolution. Further stalling has come courtesy of LSE Director Craig Calhoun, whom, at the time of writing, is yet to reply to Foster’s letter asking for support regarding the early release sent approximately a month ago.

The delayed release of what many believe are already unsat-

isfactorily late exam timetables has become a rather unwelcome springtime tradition at the LSE. Both of the last two academic years have seen some sort of malfunction leading to deadlines for timetable release being continually shunted further towards the fateful exam period. Last year, an unexpected software issue lead to the delay, an email from the school stated - ‘unfortunately, a version update of the software we rely on contained a significant error, which did not become apparent until the later stages of preparing the timetable’.

The failure of the school to release timetables on schedule has caused exasperation amongst its students with matters coming to

a head last term when a motion was passed at an October UGM committing the SU to lobby for ‘an earlier release of the main summer examinations timetable, ideally in week 5 of the Lent Term but must be released before the Friday of Week 7 in Lent Term, with no delays’.

‘This is unacceptable and cannot continue’, claims Jon Foster, echoing the sentiments of the vast majority of the student body. Unfortunately, as recent experiences show, it can. However, Foster says that he is committed to ensuring that it won’t, and remains confident of securing an earlier release, ‘this is vital issue to students, and an area we as a Union are working on tirelessly’.

Section Editor: Suyin Haynes Greg Sproston Deputy Editors: Joseph Briers Bhadra Sreejith

Women, Peace and Equality Exhibition Opens at LSE Library Suyin Haynes News Editor

which women have tried to prevent war and promote peace.

Through a variety of source material, the different ways in which women have been affected by war and have themselves had an effect on alleviating others’ suffering in wartime are illuminated. The activism of Emily Hobhouse in the Boer War is depicted through photographs and diary extracts, and letters of thanks to Amelia Scott from Belgian refugees during World War I are some of the items exploring the agency of women in times of conflict; even when acting against barriers of contemporary social

norms.

The exhibition also shows women on the international stage and their role in peacemaking processes. In an interview with The Beaver, archivist and exhibition curator Gillian Murphy explained that this section of the display indicates that “peace cannot be promoted without equality - that was the message at the International Women’s Peace Congress in 1915 and it is still the message today”. Documents relating to the important work of female activists such as Kathleen Courtney of the League of Nations Union, Frances Josephy of the Federal Union and the LSE’s own Professor of Global Governance Mary Kaldor relating to disarmament reveal in detail the vital roles that women have played in peace-making endeavours throughout the twentieth century and beyond.

Murphy noted that it took around 3 months of work to assemble the material, with a focus on selecting a diverse range of visually appealing material to highlight the relationships between women, war and peace, as well as to promote the collections of the library and support the learning of the School.

News

AS MANY OF US ESCAPE the chilly January weather for the warmth and allure of the LSE library, we may not realise the breadth of archival material and history available right on our doorstep. Before the hushed tones of the silent area, before the towering shelves of the Course Collection, and even before the familiar whirring of the turnstiles, lies the LSE Library Exhibition space; a newly refurbished showcase space with many exciting exhibitions taking place this

year.

The ongoing exhibition is entitled ‘Women, Peace and Equality’, coinciding with the launch of the new teaching programme at the Centre for Women, Peace and Security at LSE. Drawing on the LSE’s collections based in The Women’s Library, the exhibition highlights how conflict has affected women historically both behind the scenes and on the international stage. War has often been the catalyst highlighting the inequalities between men and women, much more so than in peacetime, and the current exhibition illustrates the ways in

4

| Tuesday 19 January, 2016

Economics Of Migration: Myths and Realities Explored by LSE Econ Professor Alan Manning Bhadra Sreejith Deputy News Editor OVER 50 PERCENT OF Britons believe that immigration is a very important issue in Britain today.

The public lecture by Professor Alan Manning, held on Tuesday 12th January, explained why there is a demand for immigration into the UK, and what the effects of it have been. Held in the Hong Kong Theatre in Clement House, the venue was packed with people, with some having been turned away. Professor Alan Manning, who is Director of the Community Programme at the Centre for Economic Performance at the LSE, arrived in a fluorescent yellow raincoat. The event started slightly before 6:30.

Across the European Union, the proportion of people concerned with immigration has dramatically increased in the past five years, fuelled by the migrant crisis.

High levels of net migration are relatively new in long-run historical experiences: 2015 saw the highest number of refugees and internally displaced people after the end of

the Second World War. Professor Manning stated that there was a temptation to extrapolate migration figures into the future, but net migration figures could be very volatile, as seen by the example of Greece, which had very high immigration before the Great Recession and now has net emigration due to its financial crisis. Economic booms and slumps are the simplest explanations for an influx of economic migrants.

12.5 percent of the British population is foreign-born, but the public thinks that this figure is far higher. In addition, Professor Manning pointed out that the public is more likely to think that immigration is a serious problem for the country as a whole rather than the local area. While academic opinion differs as to whether immigration has a net positive or negative effect, studies show that in either case, the estimated effects are very small:this is in contrast to public opinion, which is convinced that the effect is very large and negative.

Professor Manning expanded on the “lump of labour” fallacy, which assumes that the number of

Taiwan Elect LSE Alumnus Suyin Haynes News Editor

LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS alumna Tsai-Ing Wen, Chairperson of Taiwan’s centrist Democratic Progress Party, has been elected the nation’s first female president with a landslide 56% of the vote.

After earning a law degree from National Taiwan University, and heading to New York’s Cornell for her master’s degree, Tsai enrolled at the LSE where she gained her PhD in law in 1984. During the 1990s, Tsai worked to negotiate Taiwan’s entry into the World Trade Organisation and ran for president of the country in 2012. Despite narrowly missing out on the post, she conceded defeat by telling supporters “To all the dear people of Taiwan: one day we will come back and we will not give up.”

In her more successful recent round of elections, Ms Tsai’s DPP party won 68 of the 113 seats up for grabs, in comparison with 35 for the ruling Kuomintang. This is

an historic turn of events; the first time since Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan in 1949 that the KMT and its allies have lost their grip on parliament.

Tsai’s has vowed to boost the island’s struggling economy by diversifying trade relations and pledged to tackle youth unemployment and a growing wealth gap; a key concern for young people with unemployment standing at 12% among 20- to 24-year-olds.

At a post-election news conference, Tsai underscored Taiwan’s commitment to democracy, calling it a value “deeply ingrained in the Taiwanese people. Our democratic way of life is forever the resolve of Taiwan’s 23 million people,” she said. Whereas historically, the DPP has leaned in favour of independence from China, the previous KMT ruling party forged closer ties with China under President Ma Ying-jeou. The new president will take over from Ma, who will step down on May 20 after serving two four-year terms.

jobs in an economy is fixed, and therefore an influx of labour must take away jobs from some people.

He refuted this by showing that countries with big increases in the labour force have proportional increases in the employment rate, and emphasising that the economy is elastic and the number of jobs in an economy is not fixed.

Ultimately, he emphasised, due to purchasing power parity and the differences in wages across countries, the people who benefit the most from immigration are the migrants, who earn far more under safer conditions in the UK than they would elsewhere. High net migration to the UK shows the attractiveness of the UK economy and its society as a whole. However, net migration adds to the strain on housing and public services, and an increase in congestion. Professor Manning’s conclusion was that immigration, and its consequences, must be managed so that its benefits are widely shared and its costs are not unnecessarily burdensome.

The extremely interesting and wellpresented lecture drew many questions from the audience.

SU Launch Welfare Survey On Students’ Mental Health Channon Grey Undergraduate Student STUDENT WELLBEING should be a priority for any university. However, LSE has recently been criticised for its lack of happy students. Although, the school offers a wellbeing service for mental health support, the waiting list is up to four weeks long and even then, one might only be entitled to six sessions per year as highlighted by Nona Buckley-Irvine, the LSESU General Secretary, in a recent statement. Nona emphasises that it is important to put “mental health support back on the map” as currently “de-prioritisation of welfare runs deep within LSE whether it’s in the academic sphere, culturally or otherwise”.

Mental health often carries a stigma, making it difficult to discuss personal problems with academics, flatmates and course friends. The

sabbatical officers have decided that it is time to fight back and re-prioritise student welfare, as 1 in 4 students struggle with mental health whilst studying at the school.

As most will probably agree, this is not acceptable and part of student life is associated with being happy as after all, your university days are supposed to be the best days of your life.

Taking this into account, the SU has launched a Welfare Survey. Given that NUS research has found that 78% students have reported issues of some kind, the SU are keen not only to gauge the opinions of the LSE student-base, but to have a body of specific evidence with which to engage the school on meaningful discourse on mental and pastoral support, which they feel is sorely lacking.

The campaign is starting with a survey addressing issue of student wellbeing and overall happiness.

The anonymous set of questions

take around fifteen minutes to complete and will be used at a later date to lobby LSE into rethinking their current support system.

The survey asks various questions including your opinion of the current support that LSE provides, who you would be likely to tell if you were experiencing difficulties, whether or not you are able to cope with the workload expected of you and asks you to specify what parts of your degree cause the anxiety or stress.

Aside from the multiple-choice questions, students are invited to add their own comments where they are comfortable to. I strongly recommend that you spare the time to participate in the questionnaire, as in the future this could improve the life of an LSE student drastically. A change needs to be made, but it cannot be done without your help. The SU have set a target of 1,000 responses from students make sure you’re one of them!

Have Your Say On LSE: The National Student Survey Alina Ryzhonkova Postgraduate Student BETWEEN THE 11th OF January and the 30th of April, Ipsos MORI is conducting the annual National Student Survey and all final year undergraduate students are eligible to take it. The survey is available online though, though the pollster conducts phone interviews and distributes hard copies of the surveys via post.

Launched in 2005, the National Student Survey is conducted on behalf of the UK Higher Education funding bodies and measures student satisfaction at universities across the country.

While the survey is the same

for all universities, there is one university-specific part, the results of which are not made public but are sent to the individual universities, allowing for more targeted feedback. The general results of the National Student Survey are published later in the year and are used in university league tables.

As with anything league tablesrelated, the National Student Survey has been the subject of controversy and criticism since it was first conducted twenty years ago. Allegations of universities encouraging students to give positive feedback in order to boost their institution’s standing in the rankings are not uncommon, however, these allegations are investigated and have in the

past resulted in guilty university departments being left out of league tables altogether.

One of the most important features of the survey is that results are fully public meaning that, in theory, university administrators cannot ignore poor results.

Nevertheless, poor results for LSE in terms of student satisfaction has seen the university plummet in national rankings in spite of world leading research standards.

Ongoing student dissatisfaction in a number of academic and administrative areas will make it difficult for the school to ignore poor scores for another year, however.

The survey remains one of the most effective ways for students with complaints to voice their

concerns; though even ambivalent students should complete the questionnaire, as results are only counted if the completion rate amongst all final year students is at least 50%.

In coming years, the NSS will take on greater consequence still, as the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, headed by right wing minister Jo Johnson, has outlined its intention to link student satisfaction scores to a new ‘teaching excellence framework’, which would potentially allow universities to charge fees beyond the current cap of £9,000. The move has received widespread criticism, with many complaining it another step in the commodification of education.

LSESU ASEAN Society Discusses Post-Election Future of Myanmar Ryan Monday Postgraduate Student IN LIGHT OF MYANMAR’S recent historic elections, the ASEAN Society screened the movie “The Lady” and engaged in a discussion about Aung San Suu Kyi’s struggle in nation-building and how this can affect Myanmar as well as the ASEAN region. Jacelyn Lin, one of the conveners of the event, stated how the film and the subsequent panel discussion session aimed to bring about greater awareness and interest of what is happening in Myanmar and across the region. “The movie provided a good background of Myanmar’s tumultuous history and the struggles it went through to get to where it is today,” added the LSE second-year Singaporean undergraduate student. “We had a very thoughtful and engaging student-led discussion about the

uncertainty of Myanmar’s way forward, which helped one put into perspective its implications for ASEAN and the region,” she continued.

A discussion followed on Myanmar’s status, which featured two of its youth leaders; Chevening Scholar recipients Khin Khin Kyaw Kyee and Zaw Htun Lat, both were Chevening scholar recipients.

In the discussion, Khin Khin Kyaw Kyee, a masters student at SOAS, argued that Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi plays a symbolic role when it comes to bringing hope for the millions of Myanmar people. Khin Khin Kyaw Kyee also cited Suu Kyi as an inspiration to co-found the Center for Academic Resource Empowerment (ICARE) and to lead the youth developmental organisation the ’Dedicated Next Generation’.

Zaw Htun Lat, a UCL student,, said that Myanmar’s new de-facto leader has a monumental task ahead of her in steering the coun-

try towards better grounds. She is also faced with the task of navigating the intricacies of national issues. This is especially true when it comes to succession planning, he said. “There is a saying which states that the National League for Democracy equals Aung San Suu Kyi and Aung San Suu Kyi equals the League. She is not easily replaced in her party, making the whole transition process highly uncertain and risky. The role of ethnic minorities in Myanmar and their inclusion in the peace process and ceasefire agreement were major key challenges posed by Aung San Suu Kyi in the coming years, as one member of the audience pointed out. Zaw Htun Lat mentioned that being the daughter of General Aung San, considered to be the “Father of the Nation” of Myanmar, could give Aung San Suu Kyi the advantage to strengthen the peace process among ethnic minorities and to effectively bring about greater national unity.

Lo Kung Yin Ian, a Regional and Urban Planning Studies postgraduate, commented: “As a Singaporean student interested in international relations, the movie and the discussion with our guest speakers from Myanmar gave me a fresh insight into what’s going on in Myanmar now, beyond what we are able to learn from the media.

“I hope that the event successfully sparked off many students’ interests in Southeast Asian affairs, especially among students who are not from the region,” he continued.

The LSESU ASEAN society is a student society based in the London School of Economics (LSE) which aims to establish greater awareness of the ASEAN region in the university and beyond. The discussion was held at LSE’s Old Building with major support provided by the LSESU UN Society. Those interested to know more about the LSESU ASEAN Society can visit the Facebook page at “LSESU ASEAN Society”.

News | 5

London Uni Roundup

MEDICAL STUDENTS AT numerous London Universities including UCL and Imperial joined the junior doctor strike this week.

The medics picketed outside University College London Hospital in protest of Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt’s proposals for reforming junior doctor contracts to effectively make Saturday a normal working day, a move that the junior doctors claim would make their profession unfair and unsafe.

UCL Masters student, Dr Farhan Shahid, told the Evening Standard, ‘the public were phenomenal, so supportive’.

COMMENTS BY AN Emeritus professor have sparked controversy at the university.

Dr Bernard Lamb’s new book contains some peculiar remarks including claims that having “one race” would “help a nation minimise internal and external conflicts”. Dr Lamb goes on to comment on the varying levels of attractiveness produced by ‘racial mixing’, telling of how ‘some [racial] combinations of characteristics from different races seem harmonious but others look unnatural, for example ginger hair look odd on people mainly with negroid or oriental features…’

FURTHER TROUBLE AT the Goldsmith’s SU this week as officials frantically search for records of budgets available to societies.

Goldsmith’s newspaper ,The Leopard, uncovered the financial disarray and probed the Union to produce records which it subsequently was unable to do.

Lars Hamer, editor in chief, writes ‘the SU said there would [be an investigation]…This could be the second carried out in to happenings at Goldsmiths’ SU in less than three months’.

The SU claims there is no evidence of missing funds and remains without a president following the resignation of a number of key figures.

6

| Tuesday 19 January, 2016

LSESU Amnesty International Soc Launch LGBTI+ Rights Campaign Agnieszka Maciejewska Undergraduate Student

LSE’S STUDENT BODY IS known for being diverse and eclectic, as well as accepting of different kinds of people. One of the most powerful ways of spreading acceptance and the sense of community is through the activities of the Student Union, especially through the creation of charity events and campaign weeks. This week, LSESU’s Amnesty International Society’s will be hosting their LGBTI+ Rights Campaign Week.

One of the first events the student body can look forward to is the debate panel on LGBTI+ rights and freedom with regards to religion. Despite many nations being secular states, religion and respecting religious values plays an important role in maintaining a cohesive multicultural society and thus has been one of the major influences in light of the debate on whether same-sex marriage should be granted, same sex couple benefiting from the same rights and the general acceptance of an apparently

unfamiliar concept. Moreover, the push-pull of valuing marriage as a legal institutions vs. a religious institution is a pressing matter that is vital to answer in order to accommodate individuals of all or no faiths. A range of speakers will be present to give their invaluable view on this contemporary social issue.

Jeremy Marks, a gay evangelical Christian, is the founder of Courage UK. Courage was initially an ex-gay minister that went through a metamorphosis after 2000 to become pro-gay.

He wrote about his experience in Exchanging the Truth of God for a Lie. Tehmina Kazi, who is the director of British Muslims for Secular Democracy, will also be in attendance. She is dedicated to the promotion of inclusive religious spaces. Also speaking at the event will be Sohail Ahmed, a gay activist who used to be a closeted extremist gay Muslim. He is very active in the media and recently appeared on the BBC3 documentary Reggie Yates’ Extreme UK: Gay and Under Attack. Alison Walsh, parent of Jewish gay and part of the organisation Parents of

Jewish Gays and Lesbians, will be rounding off the panel event.

A second Panel on LGBTI+ asylum seekers has also been organised. Given the fact that homosexuality is still a crime in 75 countries, 5 of which still sentence gay people to death, increasingly more and more people are fleeing their countries of origin and seeking asylum based on the grounds of persecution for sexual identity.

However, their plight does not end once they’ve reached supposed safety in the country of asylum: in many states in Europe, LGBTI+ asylumseekers often face humiliating and deeply intimate questioning based on hurtful stereotypes in order to “prove” their sexuality.

In the context of the current refugee crisis, the specific situation and plight of too many LGBTI asylum-seekers remains neglected. We want to change that, by raising awareness about both the reasons why people are fleeing their countries of origin as well as about the treatment they receive once they arrive in the United Kingdom.

The panellists so far for this

event include Paul Dillane, the Executive Director of UK Lesbian and Gay Immigration Group, Debora Singer, policy and research manager from Asylum Aid and PJ Samuels, activist, poet and refugee from Jamaica.

As part of the campaign, LSESU Amnesty International Society will also be raising money through the sale of cupcakes for the Kaleidoscope Organisation.

With a strong base in the UK, they are working towards urging the UK government and European Union to use their powers to support the rights of LGBTI+ people and make positive changes in the global LGBT+ community.

They also commission and promote research to make significant issues and facts well known to policy makers, as a means of pushing for faster change and increasing awareness against homophobia and transphobia.

All support for this campaign would be greatly appreciated; more event details can be found on the LSESU Amnesty International Society Facebook page.

Burns’ Night Comes to Sheffield Street Next Week Sam Povey Undergraduate Student FOR A SCOTTISH STUDENT such as myself, returning to LSE for Lent Term can be a daunting experience. After a long, dreich winter we emerge from Kings Cross Station, Special Brew in hand, kilt around waist, squinting in the harsh glow of what English people call “sunlight”. Thankfully, the SU has recognised our plight, and for the second year running, is organising a Burns Night Ceilidh.

Winter in Scotland is a lot like Irn-Bru: no one really likes it, but it doesn’t seem to be going away

anytime soon, so we’ve done our best to embrace it. Over centuries, Scots have developed some pretty good coping mechanisms. The best of which is, of course, single malt Scotch. The second best, however, is the ceilidh.

A ceilidh (pronounced: ‘kaylee’) is the most authentic Scottish experience you can have south of Hadrian’s Wall. Only in the bleakest of the world’s winters could dancing as energetic, chaotic and all-engrossing as the ceilidh have been invented. Line dancing is an English country gentlemen, the ceilidh is William Wallace.

When it first emerged, a ceilidh was just an excuse to get

together and drink, dance and sing. It was the original house party. But since then it has become a Scottish institution.

The dances that make up a ceilidh vary widely in their pace and choreography, but all share the defining characteristic of being easy to learn and stupidly fun. From the graceful Gay Gordons to the frenetic Flying Scotsman and the dizzying Strip the Willow, a ceilidh will leave you questioning why students spent their Friday nights trying to clumsily cop a feel on the Snakebite-stained dance floor of Saucy.

For the uninitiated, the “caller” of the band explains the

whole dance and even lets you run through it before beginning.

Anyone can follow along: from a first-timer to the kilted-Scotsman who’s had one too many drams.

And forget chat-up lines: large dances require sets of up to eight people, which makes finding partners a breeze. Often the caller intervenes to make sure every set has the correct numbers of lads and lassies.

The LSESU Burns’ Night Ceilidh will take place on Monday 25th January in The Venue from 6pm. What is more, the whole thing is free – from the dancing to the drinks. Although a word of warning: the SU’s interpretation of whisky is perhaps best avoided.

LSESU Part Of “The Epidemic Of Campus Censorship” Megan Crockett Managing Editor THE LONDON SCHOOL OF Economics (LSE) and it’s Student Union have both maintained their position in this year’s Spiked Free Speech University Ranking (FSUR).

The rankings, which work on a traffic light system, have once again scored The School as amber and the Students’ Union as red, for their commitment to and promotion of free speech.

An article featured on the Spiked website, claims that LSESU “creates a collectively hostile environment for free speech”, adding that there has been a “slew of censorious action” taking place at The School and in The Union “in recent years”.

The article goes on to discuss a number of the situations where free speech has seen to be curbed at what many people believe to be an extremely, politically active university.

Spanning back to 2013, the article notes how atheist students were prevented from wearing T-Shirts that depicted the Prophet Muhammad. In 2014 there were three events worthy of mention: the banning of The Sun and The Daily Star newspapers on campus, the dissolution of Men’s Rugby following an offensive leaflet and the banning of Robin Thicke’s song “blurred lines”.

The most recent example of censorious action given in Spiked’s account was the censoring of an article written by a student for The Beaver itself.

Although it can be claimed that a few of these actions were passed by students at a Union General Meeting (UGM) and are therefore justifiable, the current state of UGMs and student apathy may call into question whether the SU are justified in censoring songs and newspapers when a minority of the student body vote, and an even smaller minority support the censorship. Renowned for its activism and tolerance, this seems to highlight a completely different side to life on LSE campus.

News Analysis : BME Empowerment Push Raises Eyebrows On Campus Rahat Siddique Staff Writer

THIS TERM THE SU HAS launched ‘EMPOWERED’ as a series of workshops, seminars and discussions for BME students at LSE. The aim of the programme is to ‘help boost your confidence, teach you how to overcome barriers in education and your future career, as well as celebrate your achievements alongside your peers along the way’. The programme was launched by Aysha, Community and Welfare Officer, Jamina, Anti-Racism Officer and Jon, Education Officer, after they investigated the attainment gap at LSE. Talks about the university attainment gap have been widespread across the country and this is an issue many universities face, however it is important to assess LSE’s shortcomings on a local level as part of a wider problem.

Interestingly home BME students, excluding black

students, outperform their white counterparts in secondary education yet have failed to do so at university. There are many factors that could contribute to this stark change in performance and it would be beneficial for the School to look into this further.

Although the data from the Attainment Gap Report is shocking (the report will be discussed on 28th January, 6-8pm 32LG.04) it clearly indicates there is a consistent lag in performance of BME students relative to their white counterparts. The 3 LSE departments for Home undergraduates with the largest gaps were International Relations (41.6%), Social Policy (24.2%) and Geography & Environment (19%), while for International undergraduates the top 5 departments were Anthropology (40%), Sociology (25%) and Philosophy (14.5%).

The statistics are worrying but raise more questions than answers; it establishes the case for a prevalent attainment

gap between BME and white students at LSE but doesn’t explain why this is the case. It would be also be useful to look at other intersectionalities to ensure it is only race that affects achieving a ‘good’ grade and not class or religion. Despite this the report isn’t all doom and gloom, it highlights that although BME students are less likely to get a ‘good’ degree classification at LSE, BME students are often more likely to achieve a First than their white counterparts.

The programme seeks to develop BME students through engagement, equipping them with the right tools to achieve their full potential. Activities include film screenings, public speaking workshops and events on how to overcome barriers in your career. It is important to remember that Pakistani, Bengali and Black LSE students are twice as likely to be unemployed as white students after graduation, which means the attainment gap is not a wholly academic issue

and affects BME students beyond the classroom.

While the EMPOWERED programme is necessary and commendable, I struggle to understand how workshops which are beneficial for enhancing the BME student experience will address the academic attainment gap that the research highlighted. As a BME student, it is disheartening to read a report that states me and students like myself will be worse off than our white peers without being able to understand why this is the case and how we can work to change this. Of course the ability for any student to achieve is down to their own merit and intelligence and race is not an intrinsic factor for students performing poorly at LSE, so to present data in such as way should come with greater context and nuance. I would like to see how the report will be used by academic departments to ensure BME students are able to achieve their full potential while at LSE.

LSESU Combats January Blues With Revamped Active Lifestyle Progamme

Erin Duffy Undergraduate Student

TRYING TO KEEP FIT AND active at LSE, can seem like an impossible challenge. As lectures and essays loom, our range of excuses for avoiding the gym grows; ‘I don’t have time’, ’it’s too expensive’, ‘I’m to tired’ to ‘I’ll just pop to the Tuns for one drink.’

Everyone can lead a fit and healthy lifestyle at LSE. This is the message of Sports England who provide funding to LSE and dozens of other organisations to encourage sporting activities amongst students.

The LSESU Active Lifestyle

program is using this funding to help combat the typical post Christmas malaise that sets in amongst the student body at LSE, with essay commitments, too much expense and the temptation of the Tuns cropping up as repeated factors in abandoning exercise regimes.

The SU are offering drop-in sessions, beginner courses, interhall leagues and one off events for participants across all ability levels.

Thus far, events for Zumba, Belly Dancing, Yoga and 5 a side football seem to be most popular amongst students. In addition, weekly badminton and tennis coaching will take place, the first in what the Active Lifestyle program hopes will

be regular events.

This week, Active Lifestyle has a full programme of events both on campus and at LSE Halls, culminating with the annual Ceilidh, a night of authentic Scottish dancing, to celebrate Burns’ Night! The full rota of events in the preceding week includes yoga, netball and PowerLeague on Wednesday; belly dancing, PowerLeague and Zumba on Friday and Social Tennis, Badminton and Postgrad Football on Saturday. For a full schedule of events including times, check the SU calendar at www.lsesu.com As all students will know, LSE can be a stressful experience at

the best of times and this is feeling is only exacerbated by the sense of impending doom as exams approach, this year earlier than ever.

However, research has repeatedly shown that maintaining a healthy lifestyle is crucial success and as little as 30 minutes of activity can have a positive effect on mental and physical wellbeing.

Aware that students have irregular schedules, LSE Active Lifestyle has a flexible programme of events and for a full breakdown of opportunities, more information or simply to sign up, contact them at su.activelifestyle@lse.ac.uk or on facebook at www.facebook.com/ lseactivelifestyle.

News | 7

News In Brief LSE 2nd for International Students by Proportion TIMES HIGHER EDUCATION ranked the LSE 2nd in the world for its proportion of international students, second in the world behind only the American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. It was ranked the 23rd most international university in the world, behind Imperial College London, University of Oxford, and Kings College London. Qatar University topped the list. Professor Craig Calhoun commented that “An LSE education is remarkable preparation for global careers and citizenship of an interconnected world precisely because students from 155 or more countries learn together.”

LSE Students Selected For Prestigious Beijing Scholarship RECENT LSE GRADUATES Shan Quan Chande and Christian Fohrby were selected to be Schwarzman Scholars. The Shwarzman Scholarship gives students the opportunity to develop their leadership skills and professional networks through a one-year Master’s Degree at Tsinghua University in Beijing, in Public Policy, Economics and Business or International Studies. Shan Quan Chande graduated with a BSc in Management before working as a management consultant in KPMG. Christian Fohrby graduated with an MSc in Global Politics in 2015.

LSESU Welfare Survey Reaches 720 Signatures A WELFARE SURVEY WITH the tagline “Say you’ll be there for our welfare”, distributed by the LSESU Sabbatical Officers, has reached over 720 signatures by students across the LSE. The survey aims to collect information about the mental health experiences of students and use the information to lobby the LSE for greater support regarding wellbeing and counselling services.

Demand for counselling and other related services currently outstrips supply.

8

|

Tuesday 19 January, 2016

Moral Hazard at Lilian Knowles

By outsourcing halls, LSE gets away with distributing false information Julian Kamasa Postgraduate Student MY OPINION ABOUT LSE was very high, so I was surprised about the student satisfaction ranking of The Times, where LSE ranked low. During the Welcome Week, we were told to raise our voices whenever we were unhappy, since we pay a lot of money. Furthermore, the LSE Ethics Code was presented to us. One part of it deals with Integrity. There, the first bullet point of it is being ‘honest and truthful’. As an LSE student living in Lilian Knowles House, I am utterly disappointed by the information provided by LSE Residential Services in this regard.

Before confirming the offer to live at Lilian Knowles, I checked all the relevant information provided by both LSE and Sanctuary Students. Everything looked very promising: the distance to campus, laundry on site, a computer room, the area, the building itself, and even the rent. With these expectations, I arrived here and was heavily disappointed within the first few days and became deeply frustrated within months.

First, the walking distance to LSE is 45 minutes and not ‘about 30 minutes’ as LSE Residential Services claimed. Second, there is not a construction site ‘nearby’, as LSE Residential Services wrote.

Neither is there a ‘possibility of noise disruption’. What I face is a major construction site opposite the student accommodation with heavy noise disruption being a reality from 8am onwards every single day (except Sundays) since moving in. Third, the panorama view of the website did not reflect the reality since it was taken before the buildings were torn down.

Fourth, the on-site laundry costs £3.20 per wash, and the Internet worked poorly until this issue had

Comment

Section Editor: Mali Williams Deputy Editors: Dina Nagapetiants Hakan Ustabas Nina Webb

been resolved. Fifth, on the website of Sanctuary Students, the outsourced manager of the LSE halls, it is written that the halls is located opposite Spitalfields Market and not opposite houses being demolished. Had I answered an exam question as accurate as the information provided by LSE and Sanctuary Students, I would have failed big time.

In this matter, LSE failed big time in my opinion. I felt fooled and tricked immediately because I made a costly commitment for the next 50 weeks based on false information. Had I been given honest and truthful information within the meaning of the LSE Ethics Code, I would not have chosen to live here. Or, at least I would have inquired if I could choose my room, or if there is a discount for rooms affected by the construction site.

“I felt fooled and tricked immediately because I made a costly commitment for the next 50 weeks based on false information.”

In every theatre, concert hall, opera house or football stadium, seats with a restricted view are cheaper than normal seats. Attending these kind of events is a luxury good. Living is a basic good and crucial for successful studies, in a city that is stressful enough.

I have never been ill as much as whilst living here. Digging noises in the middle of the night, accompanied by windows made of little more than air, cost me a night of

“On the whole, calling this information heavily misleading is still a polite way to put it. Another way to put it is moral hazard...” sleep and made me ill in the last week of Michaelmas Term. Flying with a sinus infection in the same week, and the week after, had a serious impact on my hearing, which still is not perfect. There are better ways to spend the Christmas break than this. This is a cost I had to endure due to a choice I made based on false information.

On the whole, calling this information heavily misleading is still a polite way to put it. Another way to put it is moral hazard, being defined as ‘a situation in which one party gets involved in a risky event knowing that it is protected against the risk and the other party will incur the cost’. LSE Residential Services took the risk of providing false information in an advertisement, but outsourcing it protects LSE. For students sign a licence agreement with Sanctuary Students directly, which is very vague in nature and gives the customer little rights. Neither have I ever signed any contract on paper nor have I received a confirmation of the first instalment. Thus, there is not only moral hazard, but also a very poor management of the halls. In practice, the whole cost of the situation of the construction site, and the false information, is being incurred by LSE students only.

I made various complaints call-

ing for a mutual incurrence of the costs. In what way has LSE reacted? Up to now, the information on the website has been updated to ‘30-40 minutes’ walking distance and the location of the construction site has been indicated. In other regards, I was helped immediately. This is a first small step, but it does not improve my living situation in any way and it does not acknowledge the fact that my choice was based on false information. Moreover, it was always pointed out that this is a matter of Sanctuary Students. What has a conversation with the Sanctuary Students Manager brought?

Apparently, a discount of the rate must be discussed with LSE Residential Services, but I received an extra heater, a lighter and a drying rack. However nice this was in the first place, I was told to be discreet about these benefits. This can also be described as trying to bribe me or keep me silent. Other than that, according to the Sanctuary Students website, the Lilian Knowles House is still located opposite Spitalfields Market. Is this a partner LSE wants to cooperate with? I have strong doubts and I am writing this article because I care about honesty and transparency. So should LSE Residential Services.

As the Students’ Union claims on one post from December, LSE cannot ignore this situation just because the hall is operated by Sanctuary Students. Not only did LSE provide false information as well as Sanctuary Students, but also, LSE should care about whom it is cooperating with. Essentially, the satisfaction of LSE’s students should be a concern for this institution that stands for high standards and so much more. Unfortunately, to me it stands for false information, too. I do not want to have a bad image of LSE as an institution and I am confident that LSE cares about its image even more.

Comment | 9

Operation Christmas Child: A Response The LSESU Christian Union defends LSE’s donations to Operation Christmas Child Ben Savjani and James Worringer LSESU Christian Union THE LSE WAS CRITICIZED in The Beaver last week for the seeming inconsistency of supporting a project called Operation Christmas Child (OCC), a Christian charity that combines the giving of material provisions and the Christian message to poor and vulnerable children. As far as we are aware, support for OCC was primarily given by LSE Rejoice, a Christian group within the LSE, and so does not represent the support of the institution or management.

That said, as a Christian Union we would like to defend OCC against some of the criticisms it has come under, arguing instead that its focus on Christianity is both loving and far more life-bringing than the material provisions they provide.

The first of these criticisms is that the ‘religious propaganda’ that OCC preaches is just abhorrent indoctrination designed to create cultural assimilation. This makes

Samaritan’s Purse, the charity that runs OCC, appear ultimately selfinterested, un-loving and cruel.

In fact, the opposite is true. The primary Christian message that OCC, as a Christian institution, wants to get across is that we have all done wrong things which prevent us from being in a relationship with the Holy God, and are rightly punished by an eternity without him in hell. There is no amount of good things we can do to make us good enough to be reconciled with

“Now, for OCC, surely it would be selfish and unloving for them not to try and tell as many people as possible this message, which we call the Gospel...”

him. However, God has lovingly made a way for us to be reconciled with him by coming down to earth as Jesus, living a perfect life and dying to pay the penalty of our sin.

All that is left is for us to trust in the saving power of Jesus’s death and resurrection from our sin and we enter a joyous relationship with God. Now, for OCC, surely it would be selfish and unloving for them not to try and tell as many people as possible this message, which we call the Gospel, thus leaving them without an ultimately fulfilling relationship with God and condemned to eternal emptiness in hell. Therefore, regardless of whether you believe the Gospel message or not, it is utterly false to assert that the motives of OCC are anything but loving and selfless.

A second argument made against OCC’s work is that the message it spreads brings less joy to the children they serve than the physical goods they provide.

This argument involves the huge assumption that Christianity is joyless whilst material goods really make people happy. We as a

“We as a Christian Union would say that material goods bring us limited happiness, whilst the joy of knowing God is incredible.”

Christian Union, for one, would say that material goods bring us limited happiness, whilst the joy of knowing God is incredible. This alone brings the whole assumption in to disrepute, let alone the testimony of millions of Christians worldwide, and the testimony of billions who have failed to find satisfaction in the material. We argue, therefore, that OCC would only be providing the temporal happiness material things bring, and not lasting joy, were they to focus solely on material provisions. Thus, again, the motives of OCC are not cruel,

as comments about them seem to have implied, as it would be joy-inhibiting of them to not tell people the Christian message.

Finally, the implicit assumption underpinning this whole dialogue.

This is all well and good, but Christianity isn’t actually true. Jesus resurrected? Not a chance. This is arguably the most fatal assumption of all. In fact, the historical attestation to Jesus’s death and resurrection is remarkably strong, and if this is true, then logically, so is the whole Christian faith. Christianity is not a blind faith, it is a historically attested, scientifically defensible, joy giving, fulfilling and ultimately true faith.

Fortunately, if this has got you thinking, the Christian Union is running a week of events from 25th – 29th January aimed at the seeker and the sceptical. Search for us on Facebook and Twitter to find out more.

As a Christian Union we believe that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the most important news anyone can hear, and we seek to share it with the whole of LSE.

The Case For Free University Education

Given the social impact of debt and the benefits of education, why should students pay? ture, such as buying a house, but it Level standard their salary stands Dominic Parker Moore “Is it even “What is is also a cause of one of the gravest at £21,869. This is objective inUndergraduate Student social problems facing developed ‘economical’ to formation. On average university interesting is that societies, mental health issues. Acgraduates benefit economically, impose such debts but not necessarily. If, as a univertwo of the most NOW, ALTHOUGH THIS cording to the Royal College of debate has become somewhat tir- Psychiatrists one in four adults sity graduate, you do not earn a on young adults, higher salary why should you have successful ing over the years, especially as a will have a mental health problem university student, I was surprised at some point in their life, one in who are more to pay in the form of a looming economies in to hear from a friend the other day two adults with debts has a mendebt that is likely to cause mental Europe, Norway that her and her entire social policy tal health problem and one in four likely to suffer from health issues? Surely it would be class agreed that students should people with a mental health probfairer to impose a tax on the highmental illness?” er earners who either advertently and Germany, do pay fees for university. I pushed her lem is also in debt. According to a for an answer as to why, and es- paper published in November 2009 or inadvertently gain from having not charge tuition sentially her argument came down called ‘Mental Health and the Eco- nomical’ to impose such debts on such an educated work force. fees for university to the fact that she fears that as a nomic Downturn’ by the Royal young adults who, as a result, are This is also obviously largely an result of governments’ expending College of Psychiatrists, Mental more likely to be subject to mental ideological argument. What is prefstudents.” such quantities of money on uni- Health Network, NHS Confed- illnesses and are therefore less pro- erable? Higher taxes and greater versities, you reduce the resources available to other government departments. This, in my eyes, is a weighted economic argument that encompasses no notion of ‘justice’.

When talking about ‘justice’ I do not mean getting poorer students into university; rather, I am talking about who the burden of university debt should fall upon when so many people benefit from our universities.

My argument is two-fold. First, it is not fair to impose such astronomical debt on students. Such debt is also potentially economically damaging. Second, it is economically beneficial for everyone to have a highly educated workforce, therefore everyone who benefits should pay.

Debt is a destructive social and economic burden. Not only does debt make it a lot harder to make other lifelong investments in the fu-

eration and the LSE, the economic ‘costs of mental illness are currently greater than the costs of crime and are projected to double over the next 20 years’. After considering this data would anyone really suggest that it is fair to impose such debt on individuals at such a young age? Furthermore, is it even ‘eco-

“It is not fair to impose such astronomical debt on students. Such debt is also potentially economically damaging.”

ductive?

This leads me onto my next point, having people study at university creates positive externalities allowing everyone in society to benefit, not just university students, therefore everyone who gains from having such a highly educated workforce should pay in the form of taxes. In a report by Universities UK that analyses the impact universities have on the UK economy, they concluded that in 2011/12 UK universities generated directly and indirectly over £73 billion of output for the UK economy and contributed 2.8% of UK GDP. That is nothing to sniff at. Furthermore, not all university students benefit economically from going to university. The average salary in the UK for 21-34 year olds that have been educated to degree level is £28,221 and for those in the same category educated to A-

expenditure or vice versa? How big of a part should the state play in society? Is education solely about economic benefits or is it also about improving individuals’ happiness?

What is interesting is that two of the most successful economies in Europe, Norway and Germany, do not charge tuition fees for university students. I’m not saying this is necessarily the reason as to why their economies are so successful however does it not at least show that you can have a more just social system and a successful economy?

On the whole, despite the argument I have made, I think there

are graver issues in regards to education that the government needs to focus on, such as improving the quality of state school education.

Thus, I think that at the moment we should pay for university, just not so much. The reason for me writing this is that I was so surprised to hear that a group of students, who are not a social group traditionally renowned for their neo-liberalism, are so concerned with reducing government expenditure in order to achieve economic efficiency, even when they are negatively affected.

Do you agree?

Tweet @BeaverOnline or email comment@thebeaveronline.co.uk

10

| Tuesday 19 January, 2016

The Irony of Banning Donald Trump

Banning the Republican candidate would be nothing more than his own intolerance in action

DONALD TRUMP IS AN intelligent man. If you think otherwise, then you too have been fooled by his genius. One year ago, Donald Trump was a far less familiar name. “He’s some billionaire or something, right?” Today, the world knows his name, his face, and what he stands for. Is this ascension to power accidental? Is it coincidental? No. It is purely tactical. Donald Trump says exactly what will get him attention, and so far it has worked. I for one don’t believe for a minute that he is genuinely Islamophobic, though I do believe that he is willing to purport such an image to get himself noticed.

I mention the above not because this article is intended to add to the waste of global print space already dedicated to Trump, but because a recent reaction to his comments highlights an issue of incredible importance.

At the time of writing, a petition to ban Trump from entering the UK has reached over 568,000 signatures. The Government has responded, asserting the Home Secretary’s legal right to deny entry to foreign nationals, and also condemning Trump’s comments, which they described as ‘divisive’ and ‘wrong’. A debate is yet to be held on the issue, although it is customary to do so for petitions supported by over 100,000 people.

The irony here, if not imme-

diately obvious, should become subsequently excruciating once highlighted. Trump proposed to ban Muslims from entering the US, for the reasons that their views can often be intolerant, extreme, and threatening to the freedom of the United States. Quite rightly, his remarks have been criticised.

What is wrong, however, is that critics have argued that he should be banned from entering the UK, for the reasons that his views are intolerant, extreme, and insulting to the people of Britain.

“Donald Trump is an intelligent man. If you think otherwise, then you too have been fooled by his genius.”

In principle, what is the difference between those who signed the petition, and Trump himself ?

Both, rather than respect the views of others, seek to use the force of the state to alienate and exclude people. Both, rather than rationally defend their points through debate, seek to shield themselves from the opinions of critics. Both, rather than understanding the difference between speaking your mind, and acting on it to the detriment of others, override the fundamental right

to freedom of speech which makes liberal countries truly liberal.

The (almost) universally supported cornerstone of liberal philosophy is the right to freedom of speech. In line with the famous principle of John Stuart Mill, mere words are incapable of harming another person, and thus censoring speech is unjustifiable. An opinion, though open to heavy criticism, should never be entirely shut down. From Descartes’ prominent proclamation of cogito ergo sum, liberal thinkers have found it impossible to dismiss any opinion as wholly right or wrong. Limits to freedom of speech are entirely incompatible with liberal principles, regardless of whether you might think that the view in question is absolutely indefensible.

In practical terms, silencing an argument does nothing to undermine its source. I, and the halfmillion signatories of the petition, believe Trump to be wrong. However, restricting his freedom to enter the UK and outrightly refusing to dignify the issue with a response does not reduce the credibility of his argument. If anything, it increases his support. Certain political groups become frustrated by being labelled racists without an explanation, and that is because the current ‘debate’ on topics such as religion is devoid of communication. Freedom of speech allows the better arguments to triumph over the poorer ones; for the ‘Darwinism of ideas’ to take hold, and to craft beneficial pubic policy.

Shutting down debates entirely

results in frustration, and circular declarations that, as Trump has said, the country is too ‘politically correct’. Only by forming reasoned counter-arguments, citing evidence, and educating the opposition on the facts, can intolerant views be converted.

It may be the case that even when debates have taken place, some people still hold what you believe to be intolerant views. It is their right to do so. People must think twice before using their free-

dom to take away the freedom of others. There is an important difference between disagreeing with an opinion, and seeking to silence it. That difference is what sets a liberal country out from an authoritarian one. For this reason, I would welcome Trump to the UK, just as I would welcome the Muslims who he has criticised. I welcome everyone to liberal Britain, because intolerance is not defeated with intolerance, but with argument.

Credit: Flickr: Michael Vadon

Hakan Ustabas Deputy Comment Editor

Africa’s Future With The Young Diaspora

The youth in diaspora can build Africa’s future; education and understanding is key Habisat Kemi Hadi Undergraduate Student WHERE AFRICAN COUNtries are concerned, there currently exists a buzz surrounding the youth in diaspora and the potential we may have in national state-building, and rightly so - it’s an obligation.

The question of concern one may associate with this is that of acceptance; will our initiatives, ideas and investments be accepted? Moreover, how can we be sure that the return of the diaspora to the motherland will be mutually beneficial for both the individuals involved and wider society in general? Indeed, the notion of a fresh generation of young, bright minds returning to the motherland to foster progression is endearing, both in a familial sense and from an economic perspective - when human capital and societal returns are considered.

It then becomes problematic when one considers the context we are presented with and the situ-

ation back home. Our Africa as a whole is known for its riches in culture, tradition and values; take Nigeria - tradition is paramount.

In the Yoruba culture for instance, disrespecting one’s elders is almost sin; your predecessors are right and questioning them is unheard of. One may stress that this is what makes our sweet motherland sweet.

In saying this however one may argue that it is this same tradition that hinders our progression or an African Renaissance, if you will. I guess the central question is how may we even attempt to modify a system without openly recognising its flaws and seeking to put forward contradictory solutions? President Obama recently articulated that,

“Our Africa as a whole is known for its riches in culture, tradition and values.”

“wherever Nigeria goes, Africa goes.” If Nigerian mentality is at an assumed standstill what does this say for the progression of our continent as a whole?

Then comes the issue of corruption - who is to say that one may not have the best intentions with regards to the progression of their home country but get ‘lost’ in the system. It could be argued that gaining riches in Africa is relatively simple - this is of course normative. In the light of the above statement, one may get sidetracked when the opportunity presents itself. From conversations I’ve engaged in, the collective narrative is that those born and bred in Africa with a rags-to-riches story emphasise the notion of dessert. Rising from poverty and reaching the ‘top’, if you will, then justifies the mentality that, ‘it took hard work to climb to the top, so I deserve any extra perks of the position can get’.

Likewise, I’d like to put forward the idea that the youth in diaspora also face conflicts themselves. Our

“The notion of a fresh generation of young, bright minds returning to the motherland to foster progression is endearing, both in a familial sense and from an economic perspective.” issues are not necessarily reduced to poverty or want as such, but we are relatively disadvantaged with regards to discrimination and racism in both de facto and institutionalised forms. I highlight this to illustrate that those in the diaspora returning to the motherland are equally susceptible to corruption or illegitimate private gains - again,

the notion that struggle ‘deserves’ consolation.

Essentially the key point of this emotional observation is that, although ideally the community in diaspora may hold the answers needed to spearhead the progression of the motherland - the issues we will face in doing this are tenfold. In saying this however, I don’t aim to discourage this ambition to change the situation back in African countries, but seek to illustrate that one must be prepared. Many have articulated that those who do go back home are unable to deal with the associated problems, live in unfavourable circumstances and prioritise societal gains over individual gains. Thus, they fail to achieve their intended objectives.

Education is key and ultimately in order to overcome the complications of a system, one must understand the workings of that particular system. We must not be blindly led into a movement wherein we don’t fully understand our purpose and thus cannot persevere it.

NUS EXTRA: THE ESSENTIAL STUDENT DISCOUNT CARD Available to buy from the LSESU Shop and online: www.nus.org.uk/en/nus-extra

AND MUCH MORE

12

| Tuesday 19 January, 2016

Cartoon by Marco Kuan Long Lam

Grim Prospects For Hong Kong and China The kidnapped bookstore owner represents broader issues in Hong Kong-China relations Janice Leung Undergraduate Student UNDER NORMAL CIRCUMstances, a missing bookstore owner would have been nothing but a minor mention on TV and possibly a short paragraph in the newspapers. But this particular ‘kidnap’ has received attention of proportions far beyond normal; what was meant to be a purely local event has turned international. Why has that been the case?

Lee Bo’s disappearance involves a Hong Kong citizen possibly being taken outside legal channels by Chinese agents with no jurisdiction in the city. For some Hong Kong citizens, his case has confirmed their worst fears – that Hong Kong’s ‘high level of autonomy’ is no more; that freedom of speech, press, and assembly has been irreparably compromised; that Hong Kong is being brought back into the fold of China, years in advance and with no hope of resisting. Given Hong Kong’s political polarisation and society’s climate of distrust towards authority, it is no surprise that this disappearance case has become so high-profile locally.

Since the Umbrella Revolution, the divide between the proestablishment and the pro-democracy political camps has grown to the point where compromise over any dispute has become nigh im-

possible. The Legislative Council has lost its effectiveness as politicians constantly bring back the tensions surrounding the electoral system into every piece of legislature that they debate. Conflicts that once could be solved by civil discussion now, almost inevitably, escalate to a point where police involvement is needed.

Connected to this is the general sense within Hong Kong society that the government fails to represent local interests. This undoubtedly relates back to the way that the Chief Executive is currently elected, through a majority vote of a 1200-member Election Committee (rather than the city’s total

“The divide between the proestablishment and the prodemocracy political camps has grown to the point where compromise over any dispute has become nigh impossible.”

population of over 7,000,000 citizens) claiming to ‘broadly represent’ the Hong Kong people. The track record of the current Chief Executive Leung Chun-Ying has not exactly been a good one either. His political leanings towards China have been the subject of scrutiny by the pro-democracy parties and political groups since his electoral campaign began, and their accusations towards him of favouring China’s interests over Hong Kong’s has only grown stronger since then. His indifferent attitude and inaction towards citizens’ concerns about parallel trading resulting in a lack of daily necessities for people living near the Hong Kong-Shenzhen border; the exorbitant costs and indefinite finish date of the Guangzhou high-speed rail link, just to name a few issues, has cost him a great deal of credibility.

More recent politically charged controversies surrounding the appointment of the proestablishment executive councillor Li Kwok-Cheung as Hong Kong University’s new council chairman, and the curious omission of political hot potatoes and extensive inclusion of China’s ‘One Belt One Road’ economic strategy in the most recent policy address have also contributed to his all-time low approval rating of 37.5%. Needless to say, in such an atmosphere of distrust and disapproval towards the government,

“The hubbub surrouding the disappearance of Lee Bo is but the manifestation of the greater problem of Hong Kong and China relations.” increasingly regarded as putting China’s interests above Hong Kong’s interests, any incident involving China’s perceived interference in local affairs will lead to criticism of both governments, raising the level of vocal discontent in society.

Lee Bo’s British citizenship has added an extra dimension to this. The involvement of the UK through a statement by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has sparked louder voices of both support and disapproval.

The UK’s Foreign Office urged the Hong Kong Government to ‘honour its commitment’ to press freedom, and hoped Chinese authorities would ‘continue to make every effort to ensure that the environment in which the media and publishers operate in Hong Kong…supports full and frank re-

porting’. For some in Hong Kong, this is the foreign backing they have been waiting for, a force that can help them combat the spectre of mainland China’s control. For others, this is a political nightmare – China’s accusations of Hong Kong harbouring ‘foreign forces’ working to bring China down internationally now have a justification. Add on deeper conflicts over ‘One Country, Two Systems’ stipulated in the Sino-British Joint Declaration that handed Hong Kong back to China, and this becomes an even greater strain on Hong Kong-China relations when it is least needed.

The hubbub surrounding the disappearance of Lee Bo is but the manifestation of the greater problem of Hong Kong-China relations. ‘One Country, Two Systems’ remains ambiguous, there is no consensus on the way forward for electoral reform, the political rift in Hong Kong’s society is so deep and wide, the people view both the Hong Kong and mainland China governments with animosity, and there are many other problems besides. How can Hong Kong find a consensus about its future? How can it retain its autonomy, while ensuring safety and prosperity? There is not long left until the 2047 deadline when Hong Kong must be integrated fully with China – the future is uncertain, and prospects are grim.

part

B

Image credits: National Library of Australia (Flickr)

14 | Tuesday 19 January, 2016

PARTB

14

ORIGINAL POEM

TANGO ARGENTINO Arzucan Askin He looks her in the eye and she smilingly nods in approval of that request for a dance, A tango.

He carefully takes her hand and gently pulls her towards the dance floor, her dress leaving an invisible trail of untold stories behind her.

They embrace in elegance, her hand delicately resting behind his shoulder and his firmly on her back.

They close their eyes swaying softly to the sounds of Buenos Aires before he begins to lead the dance.

Sensually they seem to fly across the wooden floors only the momentary movements of their feet connecting them, binding them to the wooden grounds beneath.

For the duration of this one and only dance, him and her, they seem connected like two mirrors shedding light upon one single reflection.

The pulsating rhythms intertwined with their heart beats which unlike their swiftly moving feet are waiting to be raised Slowly.

Slowly.

The music gently fades out. and she draws herself away from him, before they both take their seats in shy independence and solitude.

Like two lovers turned into strangers again for they only knew each other for the duration of this dance.

Image credits: Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires (Flickr)

It is in this moment that she feels lifted by a balance long thought lost and warmth deemed of past existence.

And so she dances hoping for this tango to never end.

He twirls her around in slow and perfect circles that would have caused the moon to blush in jealousy.

If you would like to send us an original short story or poem please email partb@thebeaveronline.co.uk

The music paints in the air the colours of a small town milonga lost in a garden of wine-dipped roses.

part

B

PartB

Flo Edwards Kemi Akinboyewa Vikki Hui

editorial team fashion Jamie Lloyd Maria Maleeva music Rob Funnell Will Locke

film

food & lifestyle

literature

Sarah Ku Alexander Lye Camila Arias Tom Sayner Caroline Schurman-Grenier Buritica Sean Tan technology theatre visual arts Edward Tan

Noah D’Aeth

Hanna Lee Yo-en Chin

FILM

REVIEW

15

THE HATEFUL EIGHT Tom Sayner

THE HATEFUL EIGHT IS YET ANOTHER GRAND ADDITION to the already extraordinary filmography of Quentin Tarantino. The iconoclastic director combines his usual penchant for aestheticized violence and twisting dialogue into one of his finest films.

The film opens with a lone wagon crossing the snow swept plains of Civil war America. The Hang Man John Ruth (Kurt Russell) is transporting his bounty, Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh), to her hanging.

Along the way they are joined by Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L Jackson) before they are forced by a blizzard to take refuge in a log cabin.

This one room lodge is inhabited by five other dastardly characters. Thus the stage is set and our eight characters are in position. What follows is a heady mix of a ‘closed room whodunit’ and classical western. Tarantino employs a characteristically non-linear narrative as the movie jumps between past and present in this nearly 3 hour film.

The events of The Hateful Eight are captured on Panavision Ultra film giving the movie an incredible width. The wide open mountain scenery in the first chapter of the film is stunning and certainly worth the trouble of reviving the little used film aspect. The breath of the environment contrasts notably with the claustrophobia of the cabin. Indeed the film takes on the feeling of a stage play as all 8 figures, all with something to hide, are crammed into this confined space and left to stew in a mixture of casual cruelty, greed and racism. These images are complemented by a beautifully judged score from Ennio Morricone, the master of the Western that should certainly win him another Oscar.

Tarantino’s comments on police brutality and American race relations created a storm of conflict around the film. The director’s views on the treatment of black men and women in 21st century are reflected in the constant racist taunts directed at Jackson’s character. As with other Tarantinos there is a liberal use of the N-word that was often excessive in previous films. Here however the language feels more relevant and its usage seems intended to highlight genuine issues rather than just being a sinister quirk of the director. In 2015, a year of seemingly endless police shootings of unarmed black men in the US, Major Warren’s observation that in “America black folk aren’t safe until white folk are disarmed” is chillingly pertinent. Yet in true Tarantino style Warren, the one black character, is no innocent protagonist and indeed indulges in shocking cruelty and violence. In this dark tale there is no goodness or forgiveness only brutality.

Fans of Tarantino (of which I admit I am one) will find all the hallmarks of the director. The cramped setting and colourful characters are clearly reminiscent of his picture Reservoir Dogs while his trademark dialogue is on full display. While there are no scenes that match the heights of that opening scene in Inglorious Basterds that blend of twisting dialogue culminating in cathartic violence is still on frequent display. Criticism has been levelled at the film that it is too long and unwieldy. Yet these attacks

16 | Tuesday 19 January, 2016 14

EULOGY FOR

PARTB

BOWIE

Jamie Lloyd IN A UNIVERSITY PAPER, the placement of an obituary for an artist, whose most venerated work took place and came from an era long before most of our births, might seem to some trite and unnecessary. But I believe our work here, and our wider memorialization of David Bowie holds a special place and purpose, beyond just the societal and commercial urge to dismember and assess the minutiae of an artist’s life upon their death, in an endless concourse of content.

Our generation’s experience and exposure of Bowie’s work is fundamentally different to that of our forebears – he came to us fully fleshed and largely

finished; we did not observe his genre switching and continuous character re-creation, nor do we identify him with the same cultural connotations and symbolism that our parents did. We were not exposed to him in the same manner - clutching radios to their ears in a statistically-likely suburban morass, being offered

by Ziggy or the Thin White Duke endless routes to escapist vistas. By comparison (for at least the current generation), he is rather fittingly a ‘child out of time’ - from the past but not of it, informing and conditioning the current cultural cycle even as he passes out of the material realm.

Imitated, but never matched, his music and consummate ability to twin creative mediums, such as media and fashion, linger on

with us to uplift, inspire and depress – but always making us feel alive. Nonetheless, that escapist element, cherished by his original devotees in the 1970s, lingers in my own appreciation of his work, his work offering a path through isolation and personal incoherence.

Bowie has always seemed to be one of those mythical titans of culture, who once dominated the stage but latterly detached themselves from it – but was still visible as a zephyr or miasma on the horizon. For many of us, including several of those who opined their undying love for him on Facebook this past week, it took his death to bring the enduring fog of his being back down into the arena of discussion and commentary. For others, his presence has always

and will always be there continuously - reflecting the shattered, transient beauty and futility of the world in the way that only he could. This does not reflect some moral superiority on remembrance on behalf of established fans – a logical impossibility given our age-range and the relatively recent arrival, compared to those before, of our interest in Ziggy et al. Bowie continues to offer us all, a brilliant, dazzling optimism matched only by a cruel sincerity regarding the transience of human nature and creation – a motif perfectly enraptured by the solemnity of “Heroes”.

Perhaps, the most important cultural message – to both artists and consumers themselves – that Bowie transmitted through his work, was the transforma-

tive power of art itself. Bowie was able to transfer seamlessly between genres, dropping influences at will along the way, using only what was relevant to his next venture to condition his creative output. By the same token we, as consumers of art, can use this notion to help understand that it is not purely the art we choose to enjoy that defines us, but instead the very act of choosing, and the ability to move on from past influences. Bowie transformed his art constantly; we too can continuously evolve and prune our creative catalogue of influences - whether this be through music, fashion or art – and this is the fundamental lesson that Bowie, or Ziggy, or Aladdin Sane, can bequeath. Or at least that’s how I want to remember him.

FASHION

THROUGH THE LENS OF ANDRE BOGUES

LC:M PREVIEW

“I’ve already decided that I’m going to own everything in the Bobby Abley show.”

See more photos, and full write up of London Collections: Men on Andre’s blog: http://devcartoon.blogspot.co.uk

17

18

14

| Tuesday 19 January, 2016

THEATRE

Noah D’Aeth THE LONDON INTERNATIONAL Mime festival began last Saturday. It serves as a showcase for the best of physical and visual theatre, and generally avoids that stereotypical image of a mime, the beret doffing, Breton stripe wearing Parisian street performer. Among the international collection of production companies featured in the festival, is a set of four innovative British groups. Ockham’s razor, one of these, has been at the centre of physical theatre in London since its founding in 2004. The com-

pany specialises in impressive aerial stunts, which also pose intelligent questions about interaction in contemporary life.

Their shows tend to be a balancing act between social commentary and cirque du soleil.

‘Tipping Point’, the group’s production for the festival, is very much in this vein. It features five performers who jump, scramble and clamber up a collection of long, white poles. Set against a bare stage, the action takes place underneath a metal scaffold which later becomes part of the performance. The beauty of this piece is in all the various

REVIEW TIPPING POINT

combinations the cast creates with the poles. They swing off them, perch on top of them and crash into them at various points. It resembles a game of Tetris, with various obstacles thrown at the performers and overcome, or a gymnastics routine, but with a pommel horse that moves as well. The physicality is impressive and leaves you wondering just how many ice packs and bottles of deep heat the cast went through in rehearsals.

It is ordered around a series of physical challenges, all set to a soundtrack which blends seamlessly with the pro-

duction. Mixed live by Adem Ilham and Quinta, the score ducks and weaves with the performers, striking a thoughtful note and adding another layer to the show.

The collective aim of the performance is to make us contemplate both the various obstacles we encounter in everyday life, and how we react to them. At the start of the piece, the cast draw a salt circle on the stage, within which all the action takes place. This act is meant to hark back to various ancient traditions, where the circle was seen as a place of contemplation and as a symbol

of our universe. In this way, when the cast enter it and perform, they are carrying out the various motions we go through every day. It is meant as subtle take on social interaction. The only problem is that each act in the ring is too ambiguous to attach any definite meaning to.

Instead, it is better to appreciate the soaring physical nature of the performance. This is where the true value of ‘Tipping Point’ lies.

‘Tipping Point’ is on until the 23rd January at the Platform Theatre, N1

FOOD

19

REVIEW CARAVAN, KING’S CROSS

Caroline Schurman-Grenier AS MUCH AS I LOVE TO COOK, I ALSO FIND GREAT PLEASURE IN eating out, especially for breakfast. There is something extremely satisfying in letting someone serve you something that, let’s be real, you could potentially make at home. It’s not laziness, it’s not even stuck up; it’s perfectly normal.

Now, the one thing I do get is that eating out can cost money, something university students tend to lack. As I have mentioned time after time, there are places in London where you can enjoy a meal without breaking the bank. What’s more is that there are even places where you can enjoy these meals and the food tastes really good. Caravan King’s Cross is one of those places. Located, yup you guessed it, right next to King’s Cross station, it looks like it should be somewhere in East London, except for the fact that it is surrounded by a very tall grey buildings. They serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner and it’s honestly a really cool looking place.

The ceilings are super high, the décor is simple but trendy, and everyone in there clearly did their Yelp/Time Out research to find this little gem.

I went for breakfast but have looked up all menus online and can attest that they all look good. The choices are not too abundant, but just enough so that everyone can find something they want to have. They take simple courses and add a twist to it. For instance, we had French toast with lemon curd, coconut yoghurt with fruit and a ginger coulis and a raspberry white chocolate muffin. I do not have anything bad to say about any of them. In fact, everything was delicious.

Portions a little small, but that’s OK. The coffee is very tasty as well, which, in my view, is necessary when going for breakfast. Strong, dark, and full of flavor, just like many girls like their men. Too far? Oh well, I put it out there. I’m inappropriate, deal with it. The staff is the not friendliest in London, but it doesn’t make the experience terrible either. It could be better, that’s all I can say.

The best part about Caravan? For breakfast, it’s less than 20 pounds per head, by far. Check it out! I recommend it for all you artsy foodies, or just if you enjoy time away from the kitchen once in awhile.

Find them here 1, Granary Building, Granary Square, London N1C 4AA

OPPORTUNITIES ‘High Rise’ Ben Wheatley’s barmy and brilliant adaptation of the J.G Ballard novel Screening - 28th January & 9th February, 6pm for 6.30pm starts in Soho.

‘Innocence of Memories’ A film by Grant Gee Press preview - January 26th.

Email us for more information: partb@thebeaveronline.co.uk

OPPORTUNITIES

part

B

Image credits: Keiichi Yasu (Flickr)

N A B

LSESU

N A B

Revolutionary

Newsnight interviews Josh Hitchens, Conservative Party Activist rent strike leader on ideological conversion and projects with no chance of success

Holby City A useless lump of flesh that might as well be removed, the General Secretary is having her appendix out

Embarrassing Bodies George Burton is having problems with his ANUS

Would I Lie To You?

All white male panel show, retracted following iFemSoc complaints

The Weakest Link To be fair, what has he actually done this year?

Pointless Alexander Armstrong presents UGM

Did You Give Anything

Photo

22| Tuesday 19 January, 2016

A Go Last Week?

Photo |23

24

| Tuesday 19 January, 2016

Students4Students is a charity seeking to open up elite institutions by providing tutoring to disadvantaged students Students4Students

THE STATE OF HIGHER Education: on the global stage, the education system in the United Kingdom is lauded as one of the best, with highly regarded prep schools, secondary schools, and universities. LSE, a perfect example of an internationally recognised university with worldclass academics and alumni, is just that. Russell Group universities in the UK can be found scattered throughout global university rankings in the majority of degree disciplines, with thousands of international students enrolling in UK-based universities each year.

Fantastic! Important metrics to differentiate universities within the UK are employment post-degree, further educational attainment, and a higher average salary than other university graduates.

For example, take an Oxbridge degree in Economics; this adds roughly £7600 to a graduate’s starting salary compared with former polytechnic universities according to the Sutton Trust. Questions have been raised whether a starting salary after graduation from a lesser known university in this country proves its worth. The average student leaving a ‘new’ university from a social sciences background earns £15,767, compared to young people leaving education after college on apprenticeships with an average wage of £15,000. Now, this analysis definitely does not prove that nonRussell Group universities provide poor quality education compared

The City

Section Editor: Alex Gray Deputy Editors: Henry Mitchell

Students4Students: Opening Up Britain’s Elite Universities

Credit: Wikipedia Commons

with their older institutions in the Russell Group, nor does it suggest that graduates from these universities are better suited to the higher paying graduate roles they find themselves in. What this disparity between earnings could suggest is that recruiters would rather avoid the effort of searching, while students from the NRG (Non Russell Group) do not have their expectations set as highly as RG students. We could associate this difference with a cultural issue, or more to the point, a class issue. Following students from lower income families compared with those from wealthier homes leads to a worrying picture. The government’s higher education watch dog revealed last year that only 1% of the poorest university students attend Oxford or Cam-

“Pupils on free school meals at primary and secondary schools are 50% less likely to attend a Russell Group university than those that do not” bridge, as full bursaries offered at Oxbridge were just 0.88% of total university students in the country, only eligible to students whose family income is £25,000 or less each year (Office of Fair Access).

In contrast, 10,827 bursaries were

offered to students attending Liverpool John Moores and the University of East London (4.7% of total students), two newer, NRG universities. Student enrolment overall is actually higher at Oxbridge than the latter two universities making these statistics even more daunting. It is important to note that Oxford spend 31% of income on their poorer students, which is higher than the national average of 25.8%, therefore we cannot conclude that Oxbridge are not doing their bit to support students from lower income families, rather, the impact of family income on university may be decided much earlier on in a student’s life.

Tutoring could be the difference. Pupils on free school meals at primary and secondary schools are 50% less likely to attend a Russell Group university than those that do not. Furthermore, students who attended fee paying schools (private schools) are five times more likely to end up at Oxbridge, let alone RG. Private tutoring is a resource more readily available to the wealthier families in the UK that could lead to better grades, furthering the notion of a correlation between wealth and educational attainment. Private tutoring isn’t cheap, and is virtually unaffordable to students that qualify for a full bursary; its one-to-one teaching method has been proven to be extremely effective in delivering better results. Sir Peter Lampl of the Sutton Trust says “…we support seeking to frontload more spending at an earlier age”, suggesting that tutoring and other educational resources are a decisive factor in a child’s future prospects early on in life. Nick Morrison of the Telegraph has an article discussing the benefits of private tutoring and how it can boost chances of getting ahead against the ‘competition’ (article can be found here: http://goo.gl/mGlkvs). Although Morrison’s article is targeted to readers who can afford such luxuries (discussing how private school is not ‘enough on its own’), it does present a tougher pill to swallow for those looking to close the gap in education as a whole. The most economically advantaged fifth of students are 6.3 times more likely to go to a RG university than the least advantaged; private tuition may well be a big contributor to the education disparity. While families whose children attend private schools are already spending thousands upon thousands every term, hiring a private tutor wouldn’t seem like too big an investment, compared with poorer

families incapable of spending on education full stop.

There are plenty of other variables outside of the statistics presented in this article that will have an impact on a child’s prospects in further education and beyond, but to highlight these metrics and narrow down the issue to tutoring, we can at least try to shrink the gap.

If one deciding factor is private tuition, then we can definitely influence this process, which is largely based on affordability, by removing the price tag completely. By offering a service to lower income families free of charge, providing impactful one to one tutoring during school hours, we can improve understanding in core subjects at primary school level and prospects for future attainment for those who may not have the funding.

How we can make an impact.

A charitable model would be an effective way in delivering this service to pupils not reaching their potential, with a volunteering tutoring scheme from top university students. By allocating an hour minimum per week on one to one tutoring for said pupils, university students can not only give back to the education system actively, but gain important teaching experience with access to a plethora of resources and training from renowned academics in the field of teaching and psychology of children.

Students4Students is the outcome of this disparity of education in this country. It was founded in early 2015, and since the summer we have launched in two schools in Oxfordshire, assisting pupils to reach their potential with university students from Oxford and Oxford Brookes respectively.

We have contact with a school in London and are waiting for training to commence for tutors to start there. We have received great feedback, but in order to truly test our methods, we must continually expand to our goal of nationwide tutoring. Until then, we must tutor as many pupils as possible with the very best university students, contacting as many schools as we can, to provide our service free of charge, while constantly assessing our methods. A charity run by students, for students.

Our model is based on students offering their time once per week for one hour. An opportunity to engage with pupils one-toone in English or Maths. Are you interested in becoming a part of Students4Students? Then please see the information below on how to sign up. We look forward to hearing from you!

The City |25

Islam and Gender Equality

Islam is often blamed for gender inequality, though a much closer analysis is needed Saleha Malik LSE Undergraduate ISLAM AND GENDER WITH regards to the Middle East has always remained a controversial problem. The prescribed role of women in Islamic theology and law is often argued to be a major determinant of women’s status.

However, I believe to hold Islam responsible for gender inequality in the region is too simplistic and we must concentrate on a number of other factors to account for gender disparity in the region.

Those who propagate in the inherently patriarchal description of Islam emphasize on the Muslim countries of the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia and the distinctive gender inequality in literacy and education, together with low rates of female labor force involvement. In 1980, for Middle East and North Africa, the women’s share of labor force was a meager 23%, making it the lowest in the world, whilst the communist economies of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union ranked the highest. Women’s share in labor force in MENA was improved to about

27% in 1997 but it continued to be the lowest of any territory in the world economy, counting South Asia, with a 33% female share.

One of the key determinants of the extent of sex separation, female authority and mobility is social class. Previously lower-class women had more mobility than upper-class women, however, currently, the situation is the opposite, veiling and seclusion being a more lower-class occurrence. By observing variations over time periods and amongst different societies and by paralleling Muslim and non-Muslim gender arrangements, one identifies that the position of women in Muslim societies is not constant, static or exclusive. Thus, this exacerbates the notion that the nature of patriarchy is manipulated significantly by cultural conditions.

Furthermore, it is important in this respect to analyse the importance of regime ideology. For example, Tunisia and Turkey are secular states. During Ataturk’s reign, he made a conscientious effort to abandon sharia law, basing the new penal code entirely on that of Italy, far from the patriarchal model of the Ottoman system. In 1935, 18

women were elected to the Turkish parliament. Such instances affirm the notion that regime ideology has a prominent effect on the role of women since Ataturk was actively trying to push for gender equality.

Similarly, in Tunisia, Habib Bourguiba, consciously mimicked Ataturk’s efforts. There was an increase in women’s rights and their access to divorce, polygamy was made illegal and there was state led emancipation for women.

Again, to look at Islam in isolation as the sole reason behind gender inequality in the Middle East, would be to overlook the dominant economic factors that contribute to gender inequality. In the case of Iran, there is a twofold role of modernity and economic factors affecting gender roles. Under the Shah, in pre-revolutionary Iran, there were formal attempts to modernize both the society and the economy. However, this brought about conflicting results. Only a small number of middle class women benefitted from increased levels of education and gender rights.

At the same time, in his attempt to modernize the society, the Shah put forth policies that uncon-

sciously reinforced patriarchy. He promoted cottage industries such as carpet weaving in an inherently agricultural society. The daughters became the key workers in such factories and hence, they increased in economic value. This in turn prompted their fathers to become more possessive of them and they were thus, not allowed to get educated and could not take advantage of the educational reforms put forth by the Shah in the urban cities. Thus, strengthening rural patriarchy. On the other hand, Ayatollah Khomeini publically opposed the pro-women policies of the Shah. The economic developments in Iran in the 1970s, led many women into the workforce. This included women not just from the educated middle classes but also from the lower classes, who were essentially conservative and supporters of Khomeini. The war with Iraq in the following years further exacerbated the importance of women, as they were needed to work in essential industries whilst the men were fighting the war. Therefore, it made little sense for Khomeini, politically and economically, to impose a strict ban on women concerning work-

ing.

However, Khomeini did introduce some changes to the public status of women; he enforced the wearing of the veil and segregation of the genders in public places as well as restricting the role of women in terms of the law. Yet, economic factors counteracted many of these moves to some extent. In the 1980s and 1990s, Iranian cities began to grow, increasing the number of women in employment. This led to the development of a functional and considerable growth of women’s lobbying calling for greater equality and rights. Therefore, the economic success of the 1990s caused backlash to a certain extent against the government’s gender policies that suggest that economics can play a considerable part in changing the role of gender.

Hence, taking these arguments into account, it is evident that a number of factors such as regime ideology, economic factors, etc., all have an effect on the inequality of women in the Middle East. Hence, it is far too reductive to attribute the high levels of gender inequality simply to Islam.

The Economics of Migration

Merkel appears to be the victim of her own kindness, and this plays to the populist right Aristeidis Grivokostopoulos LSE Undergraduate

LAST WEEK’S PUBLIC lecture on the “Economics of Migration”, offered by the labour market expert Professor Alan Manning, had two main points one should have taken out of it. The first, and also the most important point concerning the actual topic of the lecture, namely the underlying economics of a rise in net immigration, is that the effects of migration are balanced. Immigrants can be burden to the state, collecting unemployment benefits and enjoying other perks (healthcare and education), but they can also pay their visit by working in sectors with vacancies and fulfilling their tax obligations. The overall effect of migration on the budget, on the quality of state services provided and on the labour market conditions is dependent upon the structure of the economy (whether immigrants are used as direct or indirect substitutes or complement natives), but evidence shows that it is balanced.

The second and, to me, most striking point, was of little relevance to labour economics. It was on a politically toxic aspect of the currently crucial topic of migration, that of perceptions.

On average, the respondents of a UK survey overestimated the per-

centage of non-natives in the UK by a factor of more than 2:1. In other words, people, thus also the electorate, believe that there are many more immigrants in their country compared to the given statistics. When asked, the two most popular explanations for their overestimation where (a) that their definition of non-native is different from the statistician’s (b) that the statistical findings are inaccurate and misrepresentative. These explanations highlight the two respective problems rational politics must face nowadays when dealing with migration and the crisis which has erupted since last summer; the surge of 1930s style nationalism and the expanding mistrust of the establishment.

What is “rational” politics and how it sets itself apart from “emotional” politics, as the developed world attempts to manage the migration crisis? Who makes up each these camps and where are they set?

Ironically, what I prefer to name as “rational” politics is a camp which has offered a primarily moral and secondarily emotional reasoning to the conduction of its migration management policies. “We are Europeans” or “We are Christians” are phrases which dominate their rhetoric, in support of a moral superiority or social sensitivity argument for re-

laxed immigration controls. The front-person in this camp has a name (Angela Merkel), a location (Germany) and, according to herself, has a responsibility; to resolve the crisis by showing the true face of the West. She faces opposition from within her party, within her country, within her continent. The opposition camp doesn’t end there, with the American presidential election campaigners playing their role in the crisis, or at least making use of it. Soon we may see a front-person coming from the opposition, most probable candidates being Mr Trump and Mrs Le Pen. Again ironically, the “emotional” camp quotes risk averseness and economically and socially sound policy-making as its reason for opposing the former camp’s crisis management. “We can’t risk accepting terrorists into our countries” or “We can’t manage the costs and cultural tensions of massive migration movements” are phrases which they use to persuade their supporters/voters, as they struggle against the other camp.

They struggle because the other camp is either in power (Merkel vs her backbenchers and the rest Germany’s right-wing) or more powerful (Germany vs other European states). This advantageous position it has should not be taken for granted by its leaders, especially the once tremendously popular

Mrs Merkel, because the landscape is as fluid as ever. The New Year’s Eve Cologne incident has the potential of protracting a shift in majority opinion, deeming the “emotional” camp powerful and in a position to influence politics.

Given the irony regarding the name and the respective argumentation of each camp, why do I insist in labelling Merkel’s camp as “rational” and her opposition as “emotional”? And where does the “perceptions” aspect of the migration crisis fit in to their debate?

Argumentation is a façade to be used in public so as to influence the electorate towards specific perceptions or to overcome problems that arise with unreasonable perceptions. If it is used to form or enforce specific perceptions, for example perceptions of a threatening amount of immigrants, then the objective of the producers of this argumentation is to approach the emotions of public opinion.

That is essentially why I choose the “emotional” label for that camp.

If argumentation is used to fight perceptions and to avoid problems that result from the formation and strength of these perceptions, e.g. a growing nationalistic spirit and a mounting anti-systemic spirit, then those producing this argumentation aim to touch upon the rational side of public opinion.

Similarly, that is why I choose the

“rational” label for that camp. Argumentation is merely a political device. What hides behind it, usually with aims contradicting the means, is what defines the camps and their policies while in power.

No one can deny that a developed country “banning” or “deporting” immigrants, in the name of any security or socioeconomic cause, is simply an action driven by hate and fear. The basis for such policies is emotional, thus as their popularity increases among with nationalism and mistrust, so does this poses problems for rational politics and people like Mrs Merkel.

Mrs Merkel currently is in a catch-22 situation which she ought to escape from. By embracing the Syrian refugees and other immigrants in an act of Western generosity, she raises the risk of incidents like the one in Cologne occurring, which are then abused by politicians like Mr Trump (see his tweet), accidentally making the “emotional” camp popular. Otherwise, she reduces the refugee intake to minimise accident occurrence, though backtracking on her vows for a more morally and emotionally generous West, led by a powerful Germany. Unfortunately for the Chancellor, once you take on a “responsibility” in a world full of opportunists/populists, you are creating your own inescapable situation.

26 | Tuesday January 19, 2016

Star Wars & International Relations How classic IR theories explain the intergalactic factions of Star Wars.

Griff Ferris Postgraduate Student SO YOU’VE SEEN THE NEW Star Wars? Who hasn’t? (The marketing force was certainly with you. Disney, congratulations).

That bit when Han died was sad, but then when the good guy (sorry, girl – finally, for a change) came along and saved the day, it was all ok, right?

But what about the bigger picture, what about the complex political interplay of the universe, where, once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away, the warring factions of the Galactic Empire, and later the First Order, clashed with the Rebel Alliance? Where the Galactic Republic was pressured by the Trade Federation and consumed by political infighting.

Where the monk-like peacekeepers of the Jedi order struggled to maintain a peaceful accord within the Galaxy. And where a lonely, young Luke Skywalker fantasises about his sister? It’s easy to miss the complexity in Star Wars. The Jedi are good, the Empire, Sith and First Order are bad, and everyone feels for Luke when he finds out he snogged his sister… right? Or wrong?

What if each of the polarised galactic nations could actually be evaluated according to classic International Relations theory?

The Galactic Empire represents the archetypal Realist approach to interplanetary politics, with its single-minded approach to world (universe?) domination. Acting firmly in its own interests, it uses fear as a tool to force other systems to submit to it, and brushes aside those who oppose it. Realism posits that, as the world is a harsh, dangerous, and anarchical place, moral behaviour in international relations is risky because it can undermine the state’s ability to protect itself. The Empire follows this model to the letter. And who can blame them? The galaxy far, far away is indeed a harsh and dangerous place. Just ask poor Greedo - Han never gave him a

“ What if each of the galactic nations could be evaluated according to International Relations theory? ” In the most recent imagining of space-age international relations in this never ending space-saga, First Order are the new supposed badguys. Even if you didn’t catch the Nazi-iconography they ram down your throat at every opportunity, or the hyper-nationalist rhetoric of ‘Supreme Leader’ Domnhall Gleeson, the Death Star rip-off planet über-weapon is enough to assure you of the imperialist intentions of this new form of intergalactic fascism.

By contrast, the Republic of the 2nd generation trilogy adopts a more Liberalist approach to galactic politics, as they seek to end the trade embargo imposed by the ideological fore-runners

of the Empire, the Trade Federation, through Jedi-led diplomacy. Whilst the Trade Federation are commerce-savvy capitalists attempting to impose their economic will by force, the Republic believes strongly in non-violent means, placing their faith in an ultimately beneficial outcome through international cooperation and trusting in the power of international rules and organisations to resolve the outcome diplomatically. The unwavering pursuit of an entirely ethical foreign policy, eschewing the immorality of armed combat against the Trade Federation, is perhaps even more analogous to the Liberalist corollary Idealism.

The insistence of the Republic on a diplomatic solution when confronted with the issue of the Trade Federation separatists creates a standard predicament of international relations: the security dilemma. This concept sees two opposing states each increase their military strength in response to the perceived threat of the other, resulting in a conflict which neither side intends. This security dilemma, or spiral model, is played out in the middle trilogy.

The Republic forms an army in response to the perceived threat of the Trade Federation separatists, leading to the Clone Wars.

But then, the Jedi. Surely the most straightforward all the political factions, they are a bastion of all that is good and peaceful, libertarians of the highest order, selflessly interested in maintaining balance and equilibrium in the force/galaxy.

Pacifists, philosophers, pseudo-Buddhists, the Jedi are the moral compass of all galactic international relations, providing pacifist counsel and advocating diplomacy. It would seem they are redolent of the fundamental tenets of utopian Idealism.

So far, so Greedo. The good guys are good, the bad guys are bad. Even if Luke did fancy his sister, surely we can let qui-gons be qui-gons. But is that all there is to it?

There are, conversely, a number of subversive interpretations. First of all, a much less sympathetic understanding of the Jedi: a conservative, right-wing theory conceives the Jedi as the henchmen of an autocratic regime of intergalactic governance - the Republic. This view theorises the Republic - due to its attempts to impose its rule upon all star systems - as a totalitarian administration protected by the purportedly morally dependable Jedi. Under this interpretation it is the Sith who are the gallant rebels with whom we should identify, as they struggle for the kind of positive liberty identified by JS Mill - self-mastery, and freedom from oppression - against the subjugation perpetuated by the Jedi.

There is also a doctrine sympathetic to the genocidal use of force by the Empire, which argues that the Alderaan massacre was entirely justified against a perceived military target and permissible under Just War Theory, comparable to the justification used by USA for its use of nuclear bombs on Japan.

Even the undeniably FourthReich tyranny of the First Order can be construed favourably. As explained by Adam Drivers notso-scary-without-the-mask Vader fanboy Kylo Ren, the aims of the Order are to ‘remove the disorder’ from the universe, and to ‘restore stability’ - who could argue with such magnanimous ambitions?

So be more open-minded next time you see First Order Stormtroopers invading a desert village and slaughtering innocent civilians (reminiscent of a certain Western state’s aggressive foreign policy in the Middle East?). And bear in mind that in a feminist reading of Star Wars, had everyone just listened more to Leia/ Queen Amidala/Daisy Ridley in the first place and not let Han YOLO and Luke embark on their testosteronefuelled adventures, we might not have had any of the intergalactic relations problems in the first place.

Photo Credit: Kenny Louie, Flickr

Features

Section Editors: Taryana Odayar Alexander Hurst Deputy Editors: Stefanos Argyros Daniel Shears Sebastian Shehadi

chance (Han definitely, definitely, shot first). Sith happens.

On a more individual level, Galactic Emperor Palpatine is the classic Machiavellian leader.

From his beginnings as a humble senator from Naboo, to becoming the wizened, hooded figure with orang-utan eyes, the former Chancellor is a single-minded politician, who through scheming and some typically naughty Sith tricks, managed to convince the scattered polities of the old Republic to give him the powers he needed to shred the last vestiges of democracy from the faltering interstellar parliament and create the Empire. Machiavelli asserts in The Prince that self-preservation justifies any act toward that end, and Palpatine’s ruthless political career is a tribute to such philosophy.

Obama’s State of Disunion

President Obama delivers his final State of the Union address.

Joel Pearce Undergraduate Student PRESIDENT OBAMA’S EIGHTH and final State of the Union address showed a man frustrated by a political process that is more polarised than ever. “It’s one of the few regrets of my presidency - that the rancor and suspicion between the parties has gotten worse instead of better,” he declared to a joint session of Congress.

Instead of setting out a legislative agenda for his last year in office - one last push at a defining legacy - Obama pleaded with the legislators in Congress and voters at home, to break through the divisions of the past few years.

Haunted by his accidental legacy, the president’s speech came across as one last shot at fixing US politics.

The lack of policy proposals for the next 12 months reflects his inability to build consensus on the issues that dominate politics.

There remains deep division on the vast majority of policies that Obama cited as successes of his years in office. All major Republican presidential candidates are committed to repealing the Affordable Care Act, the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on same sex marriage is far from universally

supported, and Obama’s overriding foreign policy doctrine - dubbed ‘don’t do stupid shit’ - is derided by opponents as weak at best and unpatriotic at worst.

These divisions have dominated the primaries and were echoed in Congress on Tuesday. Obama’s speech was met with standing ovations from his Democratic colleagues, and determined silence from the GOP. This is little surprise given that the latter have blocked the president’s agenda at every opportunity since they regained control of the House of Representatives in 2010. Indeed, the recent years have been bitterly ironic for a president elected on the promise of ‘Yes We Can’.

Of course, this is a result of the dysfunctional politics of Washington, but it reflects divisions across the rest of the country. Over the past quarter of a decade, both the Democrats and Republicans have become more ideologically cohesive and more polarised.

A poll by the Pew Research Centre in 2014 found that the average Republican is more conservative than 94% of all Democrats - this figure was just 70% in 1994. At the same time, the average Democrat is now more liberal than 92% of Republicans,

up from 64% twenty years ago.

The US electorate is increasingly divided into two camps with fundamentally different values.

Gridlock in congress is hardly a surprise.

“Our brand of democracy is hard”, Obama recognised towards the end of his speech.

But this understates the country’s current challenge of trying to squeeze a disunited country into a consensual political system. On the big contemporary political issues; from healthcare to foreign policy to equal marriage, there is no immediate sign of agreement.

President Obama listed a number of steps that would begin to fix these divides: preventing gerrymandering, reforming campaign finance, and ensuring all can vote. However, the USA’s problems are a result of deeper trends – such as an increasingly intense partisan media and the unequal effects of globalisation.

In 2004, Obama - then a senator - declared that “there’s not a liberal America and a conservative America; there’s the United States of America.” Little did he know that these divisions would get worse rather than better under his watch.

But it would be wrong to

solely blame him for growing polarization.

This raises the question of the limits of any individual political leader. The State of the Union rests on one person reporting on their own achievements; but how far can an individual be solely responsible or to blame for their legacy? Obama claimed that, “there’s no doubt a president with the gifts of Lincoln or Roosevelt might have better bridged the divide.” This is hard to believe.

Any president is constrained by their context. Lincoln’s was the civil war, Roosevelt’s was the failure of laissez-faire during the Great Depression, and Obama’s is the polarization of the 21st century.

The “rancour and suspicion” of contemporary US politics may be something that President Obama regrets, but it is hard to see that it is something that he is responsible for. This is the problem with the presidential style of politics: it focuses on the successes and failures of a single person, when actual events are more complicated than this.

Obama’s accidental legacy is political polarisation. This may frustrate him, but it is hard to claim that it is solely his fault.

After Cologne; Outcry In Germany

The terrible fallout effects of the recent Cologne attacks opens old wounds.

Paula Grabosch Postgraduate Student

Photo Credit: irnglobal.com

beer bottles and firecrackers at the police.

However, even more violent than Pegida’s demonstration were the attacks on foreigners that occurred the following day. On Sunday evening a gang of twenty unknown Germans assaulted six Pakistani men near the central train station; two of them had to be hospitalised but have since been released. Only 30 minutes later, a Syrian man was also assaulted by a gang of five. These assaults clearly show how the events of New Year’s Eve have polarised German society and led many to project their anger and the blame for what happened on to all refugees/ foreigners.

Needless to say, this kind of hate and violence towards refugees had been occurring even before the events in Cologne. In 2015 alone, the number of attacks on refugee accommodations in Germany has increased five-fold in comparison to the previous year. The further increase in violence following the incidents in Cologne seems even more concerning. Hundreds of groups and posts online titled “Revenge for our women” or similar have surfaced since. Reports of people organising themselves into sorts of ‘neighbourhood watches’ and

wanting to take justice into their own hands have been pouring in.

Likewise, others are calling for a ‘manhunt’ on the offenders of the New Year’s Eve assaults.

In response to this, some refugees took to the streets of Cologne, holding up signs saying “I’m sorry for what happened to the women of Cologne on New Year’s Eve.” Whilst this is a very touching and powerful gesture, it is sad to see that innocent people feel the need to apologise for crimes they have not committed.

With the annual celebration of Carnival in Cologne coming up in less than 4 weeks, many are worried that similar assaults, particularly on women, will take place. Since Carnival is celebrated mainly on the streets in the city centre, mass gatherings of people are practically inevitable. Despite there being an increased police presence during this time, the events of New Year’s Eve have clearly shown that the police is not always in enough control to prevent these kinds of assaults from happening.

For now, one can only hope that these horrible events will not recur and that, regardless of recent events, a welcoming policy will dominate.

The Pocket Philosopher Edmund Smith Undergraduate Student HEGEL’S SCIENCE OF LOGIC is generally seen as one of the least approachable, and perhaps least helpful texts in philosophy. So it’s of little surprise that it is rarely studied and sometimes reviled by philosophers.

But despite its complexity, there is little doubt at what it is intended to do. Hegel intended to make clear the relation that categories bear to one another.

Categories may be thought of as lenses through which we perceive the world, engage in language, and carry out our human practices. Hegel wished to make clear how we should best think about these categories.

Our natural intuition is to think of objects we identify as ‘something’ as discrete and separate from what they are not. If this is the right way to think about the notion of something, then all is well and good. But if it is not, then errors in judgement will abound whenever we try to use the notion of something from practical purposes.

But unlike Kant, who assumed that we could reason about the categories without first using the categories, Hegel seeks to make no suppositions whatsoever about how the categories are related. Thus, he aims at a logic that is also a presuppositionless science.

Photo Credit: www.businessinsider.com

FOLLOWING THE MASS assault on women in Cologne on New Year’s Eve, the city has experienced a lot of unrest. At present, more than 650 criminal complaints related to the incidents have been reported to the police, more than 40% of them of a sexual nature. Despite the police initially concealing this fact from the public, it is now evident that a large portion of the almost 1000 attackers of this night were in fact refugees and migrants. Both police and witness reports have confirmed that the perpetrators are most likely of North-African and Arabic descent.

The assaults have led to a highly critical debate about Germany’s open-door policy on refugees.

Many previously critical Germans

now feel like their doubts and fears about the integration of refugees have been confirmed. Pegida, the anti-Islamistic political movement, used this chance to attract new supporters and demonstrated in Cologne last Saturday, at the train station where the mass assaults occurred.

Simultaneously, the other side of the train station hosted an entirely opposite demonstration; one against sexism and racism.

Mainly women participated in this peaceful demonstration and united in singing a German carnival song titled “We are Cologne Girls.” The two demonstrations were separated with barricades and police walls. Whilst the demonstration against sexism and racism went peacefully, the Pegida demonstration escalated.

Participants were eventually forced to leave the space, after throwing

Features | 27

Interested in writing for Features?

Email us at: features@ thebeaveronline.co.uk

28

| Tuesday January 12, 2016

Interview : An NHS Doctor Protesting for Change Junior NHS doctors are protesting over lower pay and the working conditions in UK hospitals.

Frank Morley Undergraduate Student YANNIS GOURTSOYANNIS is a member of the BMA Junior Doctors Executive Committee and works in infectious medicine at University College Hospital. Every day brings somethign different for him, whether looking after patients with tuberculosis, examining people who have just come back from abroad, or gazing through microscopes in the lab to reach a diagnosis. I had the opportunity to interview him during a protest this past week to ask him about what junior doctors want, and where the NHS is headed.

(Q) How is the strike going today?

I think everybody is in a really upbeat mood. We’ve had a great turnout, and what’s been especially heartening about today is the moving statements of support by signings of our petition by general members of the public, patients, and patient relatives as well as our fellow healthcare workers. It’s been great to see the support. We have not had a single negative comment. Everyone had been overwhelmingly supportive.

We’ve also had our colleges local resident colleges, come out in support of us, local union representatives also come out to show our solidarity for us, and it’s been great to see. So far things going great.

(Q) And when it comes to striking, Jeremy Hunt says it’s all about pay - what would you say to that?

I say it’s not at all about pay but of course it’s about money, it’s about economics. This government is trying to cut the NHS, and if you’re going to cut the NHS you’re going to have to come after healthcare workers.

That’s why they’re looking to make it easier and cheaper to work us at weekends, and work us all hours, especially antisocial hours. So that’s part of the reason.

Another part of the reason is that the government is looking to remove safeguards in our contract around safe working hours and safe working patterns. So that combination of cuts, more weekends and more unsocial hours for doctors as well as the withdrawal of safeguards means that we won’t be able to deliver good care to our patients over the long term.

We’ll have exhausted doctors doing long shifts and that’s dangerous for the NHS as a whole.

(Q) What sort of hours are doctors looking to get?

Well obviously there’s all sorts of specialism within medicine and hours vary.

The standard working day is supposed to be 9-5 for most specialties but most doctors, most days, stay way beyond their official hours to 6, 7, 8pm.

Many specialties also have long shifts with 12, or 13, or 14 hour days. And some specialties also do on calls. I myself do 48 hour on-calls in microbiology. So this can be very, very tiring and you need to make sure that you have decent rest periods after those kinds of working hours.

You need to make sure that if your hospital tries to exploit you in the course of your work, you need to make sure there’s safeguards in place to stop doctors working excessively long hours. I for one don’t think it will be safe for doctors to work more than 12 hours everyday regularly, and that’s the risk with this new contract.

(Q) And the other things happening in the NHS at the moment include trying to axe student bursaries.

Do you think those two issues are linked to the contract?

I think it’s absolutely linked.

Obviously it’s another way of saving money within the NHS in the context of the government austerity plans. We in the BMA have explicitly supported the nursing students and nursing colleges in their fight to retain the bursary and we have been very grateful to their support in our contract dispute.

(Q) Why do you think the government is pushing through bursary cuts and junior doctor contract changes?

I think the answer is simple.

We had an economic crisis back in 2008 as you will all recall, and since then the government in order to close to deficit and to supposedly reduce debt is trying to achieve these aims on the backs of workers, and that includes NHS workers. Rather than raising taxes on those who can pay it.

(Q) Do you think this is part of a wider trend to privatise the NHS? Yes. So the key ideological soundbite that we need to see here is the 7 day NHS that Jeremy Hunt never ceases to speak about. He wants to extend elective working practice within the NHS from five days to seven days. We already have an emergency 7 day NHS. But

by stretching it to a 7 day NHS while also cutting the pay and conditions of medical staff, and while also not increasing the workforce in terms of numbers and increasing resources for the NHS - then that is doomed to fail. And I expect that the government expects it to fail.

And then a few years down the line the struggling NHS will be the perfect excuse for slowly but surely handing it over to private enterprise.

(Q) I know Jeremy Hunt is putting through, or trying to put through, changes about immigrants using the NHS; there’s a lot of talk about this. What’s your opinion on immigrants using the NHS? So over the last couple of years the Conservative government has been pushing for charging user fees for various groups including migrants. And the BMA has consistently stood against the introduction of fees.

We think it’s not only unjust on an ethical level, we believe that the NHS should be a universal service available to all who need it regardless of where they’ve come from, regardless of whether or not they are a so-called illegal immigrant.

Everyone who is sick should get care.

There is also an economic argument against this. There is overwhelming evidence that

user fees actually harm overall population health statistics.

They also cost a lot of money to government, it costs a lot of money to chase up unpaid user fees. So actually it doesn’t do anything to save the NHS. In my view this is simply a political ploy to try and stir anti-migrant feeling and to divert attention from the fact that it’s the government that is responsible for the economic crisis within the NHS, not migrants who are responsible for the economic crisis within the NHS. And on the contrary of course a significant proportion of NHS workers from doctors to nurses to healthcare associates are migrants themselves, whether fleeing political unrest in other countries or coming as economic migrants many years ago.

(Q) After this first strike are you confident you can win this campaign on junior contracts?

I’m very confident. I think we’re going to see movement from the government over the next few days and weeks, and the government is very mindful that we are fully prepared to continue with the rest of our course of possible industrial action over the next few weeks or months.

(Q) And if doctors win, what practical effect will

Photo Credit: ibtimes.co.uk

this have more widely?

I think the current struggle of the junior doctor’s contract is recognised by all healthcare workers as a key struggle in the NHS. If we lose as doctors then I’m in no doubt that the government will be coming after our nursing colleges next.

For example, the government is already proposing an expansion of what is classified as claim time for our nursing colleges.

So that’s why our health worker colleges are standing with us.

They know how important this is. So we need to win this not only for ourselves as a profession but for our fellow healthcare workers.

(Q) If these changes go through, do you think that you would consider moving abroad? How would it affect your lifestyle?

I myself have no plans to move abroad but I know many of my friends and colleauges who are starting to seriously considering it. Already I have two close friends who have moved to Australasia, both Australia and New Zealand.

They’ve gone there because of the fact that with a new proposed contract they seem to value doctors and other healthcare staff much more then this government does. I myself have no plans to move abroad.

Features | 29

Music And Apocalypse In The Syrian War

An in-depth analysis into the propaganda music employed by IS to justify their cause.

Sebastian Shehadi Deputy Features Editor

LIKE MOST GROUPS IN the Syrian conflict, the Islamic State (IS), Hezbollah, and the Al-Assad regime are producing large quantities of media.

However, little attention is given to their music, a form of propaganda that provides a valuable insight into these groups’ self-perception and/or marketing strategies.

The product being advertised through these songs is a narrative, more specifically, a group’s self-proclaimed identity and their moral justifications for war. Based on the author’s study of their most popular songs, this article will discuss the main narratives being articulated through such music.

Reflecting their conservatism, IS only produce Islamic nasheeds - male acappella music with lyrics that can relate only to Islam. The nasheeds “Let’s Go to Jihad” and “Flag of Tawheed” exemplify the central narratives being employed in much of IS’s music. Both nasheeds identify IS’s supporters as “Muslims”; a category which only includes the proponents of IS’s Salafi interpretation of Islam.

Those who oppose IS are described as “inferior”, “evil”, “tyrants”, “disbelievers”, and “infidels”.

The numerous and varied collection of enemies highlighted in “Flag of Tawheed” includes Bashar Al-Assad, Obama, Hassan Nasrallah, Netanyahu, the Saudi King, and the Pope.

This nasheed also praises the

alleged establishment of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, and implores “Muslims” to wage “jihad” - ‘Holy War’ - against infidels around the world in order to establish a global caliphate.

“Let’s Go to Jihad” tells listeners that “judgement day is near”, more specifically, that the impending establishment of the global caliphate will precipitate the Apocalypse. Listeners are also told that those who die in jihad become Islam’s martyrs and receive eternal life; this promise incentivises people to fight and reinforces IS’s selfproclaimed Islamic identity and cause.

“ The numerous and varied collection of enemies highlighted in “Flag of Tawheed” includes Bashar Al-Assad, Obama, Hassan Nasrallah, Netanyahu, the Saudi King, and the Pope.”

In 2006, the most popular Hezbollah song was “I am the Arab”. However, since then, and Hezbollah’s alleged victory over Israel, the group has lost its pan-Arab, non-sectarian image/

appeal after aligning itself with Bashar Al-Assad in 2011.

Hezbollah’s support base and identity has become increasingly Shi’ite focused and sectarian, as reflected merely by name of the song “The Shi’ite Tide has Exploded”, a highly popular songs in recent years.

This piece and the song “Zaynab’s Guardians” exemplify some of the main narratives being employed in Hezbollah’s recent music. Similar to IS’s music, these songs express that the apocalypse is nigh, but for very different reasons.

According to Twelver Shi’ite theology, the venerated and missing 12th Imam, Mahdi, will return before Judgement Day. Numerous signs are said to precede Mahdi’s coming, such as the emergence of an evil leader kThe numerous and varied collection of enemies highlighted in “Flag of Tawheed” includes Bashar Al-Assad, Obama, Hassan Nasrallah, Netanyahu, the Saudi King, and the Pope. he will lead a murderous black flagged army against Shi’ites in the region. There is a growing belief that IS is this army, its leader - Abu Bakr-Al Baghdadi - is Al-Sufyani, and therefore that Mahdi’s return and the apocalypse is nigh.

The aforementioned Hezbollah songs make explicit reference to this belief: “Al-Sufyani has returned, seek revenge...Yazid of this generation, you won’t erase us...Your time has come Mahdi”.

Hezbollah’s music also invokes many historic and recent sectarian grievances, namely

‘Sunni’ wrong-doings.

Indeed, just the name of the song “Zaynab’s Guardians” expresses this, as does its lyrical content such as: “Zaynab will not be raped again”. To clarify, Zaynab is a key figure for Shi’ites; she was victimised

by Yazid’s army in the historic battle of Karbala (680AD).

The song is also referring to the alleged destruction of Zaynab’s shrines in Syria by IS, in 2013. The latter has been used to justify Hezbollah’s controversial military involvement in Syria.

Another sub-narrative found in Hezbollah songs, and much of Al-Assad’s music too, is the assertion that the Syrian revolutionaries are secretly aligned with IS, their Sunni brethren, in a conspiracy against Shi’ites - as expressed in “Zaynab’s Guardians” in the verse “the Umayyad dream is over, your revolution has failed.”

By invoking the controversial Umayyad’s, this verse is also alluding to the emergence of Al-Sufyani. In sum, Hezbollah’s songs are using sectarianism and a theology of apocalypse to justify Hezbollah’s involvement in the Syrian war, more specifically, to elicit feelings of victimisation, revenge, and doomsday crisis amongst its supporters.

Like all of Bashar’s music, the song “Victory of the Syrian People” is highly nationalistic and non-sectarian, and makes no mention of the Syrian revolution or the ongoing civil war. As expressed by the song’s title, Bashar is portrayed as representative of “Syria” and “Syrians”. Bashar is laden with

sycophantic praise, such as “he whom all humans love” and “the pride of the Arab nation” - thereby turning Bashar into a pan-Arab icon, a modern day Nasser figure.

The song also presents an image of national unity: “Syrians stand as one…

Hussein, Omar, Elian together” - names representative of Shi’ites, Sunnis, and Christians respectively - and identifies the “national” enemy as “America and Israel to Saudi and Qatar”.

The implication is that these enemy groups are secretly funding the, as put in the song, “terrorists” and “fanatics” that are “invading” Syria.

Thus, Bashar is depicted as defending the nation’s “freedom” from foreign “conquerors”, more specifically, religious fanatics backed by Western neo-imperialists. The Syrian revolutionaries go completely unmentioned in Bashar’s songs, thereby implying that there was no revolution, and that the so-called ‘revolutionaries’ are actually religious extremists such as IS. It is both telling and ironic that all of Bashar’s music is produced by his sectarian allies, well-known Alawite, Shi’ite and Christian singers.

At the broadest level, each group is using music to articulate narratives that portray themselves as morally righteous actors, who are threatened and victimised by evil, belligerent forces. What makes music such a powerful medium of political communication, is that it fuses such messages with an emotional impact that can leave a lasting impression.

Photo Credit: rt.com

30

|Tuesday Januray 19, 2016

The Beaver’s Club Of The Week LSE Kabaddi Malvika Jaganmohan Kabaddi Outreach Officer KABADDI HAS HAD AN incredible year so far, culminating in the Kabaddi Cup in December of 2015. Hosted by Imperial College Kabaddi Club and in association with England Kabaddi Association, LSE Kabaddi were given the chance to compete against seven of the best university teams across the country.

The groups were drawn and the games would be tough. The games would be against Imperial’s first team, Westminster and Kings in order to qualify for the semi-finals. The first game against Imperial 1s was played and unfortunately we lost, with a score of 30-19. Undeterred, LSE Kabaddi knew they would have to play well against the other two teams in order to qualify. They went into the game against Westminster with a focus on what they had practiced week in, week out – keeping a low line, committing to the tackle and making quick breaks. This resulted in a narrow victory of 28-26, followed by a win of 32-30 against Kings.

Winning two out of three games

in the group stages meant that we had qualified for the semi-finals!

Imperial 1s, Aston and Birmingham had also qualified, so the fixtures would be extremely competitive.

LSE Kabaddi were to play Birmingham, with Imperial 1s playing Aston. The match was closely contested, with a constant back and forth between the two sides. Both played very well, with LSE narrowly beating Birmingham 39-38.

LSE had won a place in the final against Imperial. This was always going to be a difficult game, with Imperial being our toughest competition to date. Our team was strong, with exemplary performance from Ben who defended well, Priyank and Saajan with some great tackles, and Varun with a standout leg tackle.

Despite the unfortunate score line at 28-13, LSE performed well and learnt a lot to take forward into the new year.

Outside of competitions, Kabaddi is doing very well at LSE. We’ve reached a record 27 members, a number that we hope to beat next year. We also have a new committee, bringing with it a variety of tactics and plays that have strengthened our game. We’re very happy with our

Football Men’s 4s vs RFUCMS won 3-1

progress so far and hope that training pays off for our February interuni competition in Birmingham.

On the social side, the team has been keen to reach out to AU clubs, most recently organising a social with the Women’s Football team.

We hope to establish more links with other clubs and share Kabaddi with as many students as possible, so that

Hockey Mixed 1s vs Kingston 1s won 7-1

the AU is a cohesive union rather than a body of isolated teams disinterested in each other’s successes. he club prides itself on the diversity of our members, who hail from France, the UK and Malaysia, to the USA, India and Sri Lanka and we’re eager to welcome more students into our ranks. If you’re looking for a club that is supportive and close-knit,

and a sport that pushes your agility, speed and aggression, LSE Kabaddi is definitely for you!

Training sessions take place on Mondays, 6-8pm, Old Gym. These sessions are mixed. If you’re interested in taking part in women’s training sessions at Imperial College Union, contact kabaddi@imperial.ac.uk

Football Men’s 7s vs SS&EES won 4-0

Win, Lose or Draw, send your results to sports@thebeaveronline.co.uk

AND WHEN THEY DO RETURN, they shall do so with fervour and irresponsible negligence, purging those New Years’ Resolutions with not a single regard for the good health their parents had nurtured in them over the Christmas break, lovingly and due to their staunch commitment to the maintenance of well-being within their young, and upon this return it would become clear to all those who would witness the debauchery that the LSE AU were back to stay, for, in fact, they had never really left.

Not in spirit, anyway. In practice, a physical absence was trig-

gered by the closure of the university to celebrate the period during which Jesus Christ (FC Club Captain 21AD) was almost certainly not born. But there was not a single Christian member of the athletic faithful, who, when faced with the large wooden doors of the local parish church on Christmas Eve, did not, even if only for a fleeting moment, hallucinate in the stead of those doors the large glass panelled frontiers to our true church, the home of our truest religion, the place in which sins are both committed and confessed with startling regularity, the Zoo Bar. A melodic start to the night was provided by egg-chasing tenors, with a particular highlight from an uncanny Adele, if Adele were a nasal Northerner, whose rendition of hit-single Hello brought tears to the Whites of the eyes of all in an 8-mile radius of The Three Tuns.

The calm quickly dissipated, how-

ever, as one man Negated his earlier apologies by his inability to drink his own goddamn cider, and the floor in his plan was duly shown to him by a perturbed FC accountant.

As tradition dictated, it was deemed right that we progress to Leicester Square, and yet more songs accompanied us on the way.

With tears in eyes, the entrance seeming to be as light and bright as Day(le), we prepared to Jam(ma) pack the establishment with the utmost haste.

Activity commenced from the get-go, and it was clear early on that the recent hiatus had severely Lowered tolerances all-round, problematic when we consider just how Murrish alcohol is. The Christmas spirit clearly not wholly gone, one man Jacked in his atheism after finding his guardian Engel and had what can only be described as a truly spiritual experience with her.

Elsewhere, a red Faced skipper

had to Jimi his way out of a sticky situation, when morals were brought into question. Finally, back in Angel, an Onion pole-danced his way to success after a chance encounter with a Jungle cat.

Excellent start to 2016, then.

Next week on Made in Holborn sees the return of an annual highlight, a week where AU veterans rejoin our defiled ranks, reuniting themselves with us once more as we open our doors to history, and see first-hand whether graduation really does change us, whether, indeed, true change is even possible, or whether, in fact, our hangovers just get incrementally worse.

Whilst the Beverage Report writer may seem to have a vast knowledge of all things zoo bar, there are events that slip under the radar. If you would like to contribute to the section, please send your tips in to sports@thebeaveronline.co.uk

Sport | 31

New Year New Me: Get Active Now!

India Steele Deputy Sports Editor

IT’S THAT TIME OF YEAR where everywhere you look are slogans and ads relating to getting active this january after a rather indulgent christmas. If you’re feeling the pressure to shift that January flab or just get back into exercise after the the break then LSE offers so much to help people get active.

This week we’ve seen numerous clubs inviting people to come try out their sports for the second half of the season. If you’re not currently a member of a sports club or team why not try out being part of the AU? Almost every AU member would agree that some of their closest friends they’ve met through sports teams and who doesn’t want to hit up zoo bar on a wednesday night; in fact many would argue that the most the sweat-inducing exercise they get all week would be busting a move in Zoo. If you’re not a sporty person or have never tried it before don’t let that phase you, all clubs are welcoming to both beginners and advanced sports people alike and many clubs even have whole teams dedicated just to beginners to help them improve and just have fun. In fact this year Men’s Hockey have taken on many new members meaning they’ve successful established a new 3rd XI with the captain having not even tried hockey before coming to LSE. LSESU’s Active LifeStylE

scheme is a great step forward for LSE recognising the importance of staying active. Funding from Sport England through the University Sport Activation Fund has allowed it the Student Union to develop and expand the LSESU Active LifeStylE programme. Money can’t be an excuse because most of the activities LSESU Active LifeStylE offers are free for LSE Students. Competitive or recreational, competitive or just a bit of fun, it has a lot to offer to all.

It puts on drop-in sessions beginner courses, one-off events and ongoing classes such as Zumba, Aerobics, 5-a-side football, swimming lessons and much more. Just check out LSESU Active LifeStylE on the SU website to see what’s being offered.

There’s also the LSE Gym which offers a variety if classes; from yoga, HIIT, ballet, boxing and the new Diva Train scheme, LSE gym offers classes for anyone who wants to come along. Or if you just want to get back into your own training this january after all those mince pies the LSE Gym is offering a limited January offer for just 8 months membership at a really low price!

So this January why not try something new and get active; as well as the obvious health benefits, it will also help you stay sane and sociable as exams start to loom.

Join the LSESU Gym in January and pay just £130 for an academic year membership!

credit: flickr, USAG -Humphreys

Jailbreak: Beavers On The Loo2e Ellen, Alex and Alex will be going full Shawshank on Friday 22nd January.

Help us out by donating at: mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/beaverontheloo2e

VISIT US AT BEAVERONLINE.CO.UK OR TWEET @BEAVERONLINE

LSE Snow Rise In Les Deux Alpes Lily Lower LSE Snow Committee

Sport

Section Editor: Alex Dugan Deputy Editor: India Steele

WELL LADIES AND NOT SO gentlemen, another years’ skiing, snow and silliness has been and gone. Our wallets and souls are empty, our President has gone foetal with despair, and rumour has it Maxwell might actually have sobered up. We reckon it was our best one yet, with some of the slope’s most notorious criminals making it one to remember... Sit tight for a lesson in how (not?) to behave.

The week kicked off with a glorious record breaking attempt at Port-to-Port, which was sadly short lived as coach 4 got a nice chun redecoration. Lesson Loyned, Nice1.

Classiness ensued early for our very own rugby men in White, with a tragic odds-on endeavour leading to a licking of one ginger rose. #weartheroseforfucksakedontlickit. Room 302 was cracked down by the local establishment after two nights of rogue antics, but Howells they got away with corrupting the freshers is beyond us. Good round boys.

Night two saw a majestic turkey hat have a trip out on the Mountain, but was relieved of its Ransome by a committee member who found it better Designed for (successfully) bootlegging journey juice into Yeti. Bouncers somehow never suspect Poulet. In other booze news a last minute alum addition bought himself some magnetic Moet in Avalanche and just couldn’t Loui-se the ladies. A Soedonym is definitely required for a certain breed of mountain eel, who over the week unbelievably managed to score les deux femmes in les deux alpes on les deux nuits. Alternating. Yep that happened, the man is slipperier than the Tuesday 4am skate home post-freeze. Yet another rogue old time mountain dweller went from Apprentice to master, engaging

in some underwater poly frolicking and taking Max-imum advantage of his room’s bathroom facilities. That lucky Leeds lady was certainly shown some Sugar.

Night four ended in a cock-tale of movie action thrillers, with Adam (Achilles of High Holborn) calling to arms Cernwe (Hector of Islington) and demanding a clash of the rugby Titans. On ice. While Achilles left with his ego bruised, it was certainly Ele-vated back to health by our very own mountain black widow, as the renowned fur lover was shown his Hughes offering (multiple times) on le Mej’s kitchen floor. Further cinematic developments occurred when room 104 gained a new rider of Rohan, giving a new Li-se of life to an age old pun. At least her ride was Maure than another of said room’s occupants who only Doug in twice before succumbing to his tired Loynes.

Finally readers, it would be just rude to leave the mountain

without paying proper homage to our lovely reps. Whether on work duty or fun duty, they’ve been our staple Avalanche buddies for the week and this years’ guys and gals were truly on form. Special shout out to Emma, who has officially taken Woodmile’s crown as ‘Rugby’s number one gal’, after a sufficiently White Christmas.

We do suggest however that next year he gives his heart to someone special, after being left alone and crying into a Brasilian beer. (#tryrise2016) Emma also did a bit of Dougie-ing to help recover from her bruised face (read ego), after Petering off a certain FC members slippery shoulders en route to Yeti Le Petit Beaver (read attempted chirpse). Committeerep relations were varied this year, with our very own secretary of socials Sev-ering another Wasteman Richie’s chances, and giving a helping Han-d to another lady in blue. Our resident VP was on hand to help sooth our beloved

Richie’s ego but failed to pull a Vardy and convert, instead hosting a cheeky fuzzy duck on her water-Lily. Rumour has It the free shot was all just chat. Along with our cracking reps we’d also like to make a shout out to our fallen mountain soldier Oli still going Strong, who had a stronger apres presence than our Russian coinmaster (although significantly less charitable nudity).

Sadly with a tear in our eye we say goodbye for another year.

At the time of print Polypot is still shouting at his wall (something that sounds a lot like BANIKA 4 PANO NOT SAUCY…), Maure’s head is still in avalanche, and our beautiful budding mountain couple are still on the Eve of a happy Evans after of marital bliss. Its been fun kids, thanks for absolutely smashing it on and off piste.

Cardiff fucking who?

Thank you for making it a sick week, we love you.

Your Snow committee xoxo

Jailbreak: Beavers On The Loo2e Alex Dugan Sports Editor

FRIDAY BRINGS WITH IT probably one of the biggest challenges that I’ve faced so far, Jailbreak. For those of you who don’t know (despite RAG’s best efforts), Jailbreak is a challenge where the aim is to get as far away as possible from LSE within 48 hours.

When the idea of a Beaver team was floated in the office, I was all for it. What’s not to like, making your way through Europe (fingers crossed), stopping at some funky places along the way and generally having a good time.

This idea was brought crashing to earth when I actually got round to talking to people who have taken part in the past.

“Yeah, we were chucked out of a car in the middle of some freezing German village, with no way of getting anywhere,” said one 2nd year who took part last year.

The stories got worse and worse, varying between the dodgy food of some far flung polish petrol station, and to being trafficked across the Hungarian border.

There’s also quite a high bar to meet, with the Mother Ruckers (Julia Ryland, Gee LinfordGrayson and Robyn ConnellyWebster) famously making it to Madrid via a private jet last year.

Despite all of this, I will be

lining up alongside the 69 other participants on Friday outside Saw Swee. RAG have done an amazing job getting so many participants, smashing last year’s record of 25. All the money raised will be going to Farm Africa, an amazing charity carrying out work to help African farmers grow themselves out of poverty and end hunger forever.

There are of course challenges to carry out on the way. Some are set by The Right Honourable James Wurr (likely despite his committee telling him that they won’t be funny), but some will be set by you, the readers! If you donate £10 or more to the Beavers on the Loo2e, you can set a challenge for us to do on our

travels. So far we have been challenged to : not come back, wear moustaches at our final destination and busk in front of a famous landmark. I will be taking my saxophone with me, hoping that it works better getting money from people than it did getting me a date on the AU’s Take Me Out last year.

This is a great opportunity for those of you who I’ve pissed off this year to get your own back.

I can’t turn down challenges (provided they are within some sense of decency), so this is your chance to get your own back, I’m looking at you, Philpot. You can donate via our BT giving page https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/beaverontheloo2e.