846

Beaver

Issue 846 | 26.1.16

the

Newspaper of the LSE Students’ Union

Students Raise A Staggering £100,000 Megan Crockett Acting Editor THE LONDON SCHOOL OF Economics (LSE) Students’ Union’s (SU’s) Raising and Giving society(RAG) have raised a colossal £100,000 for charity since the start of the academic year.

Having chosen three charities to support at the beginning of Michaelmas Term: St Mungos Broadway, Papyrus and Farm Africa, RAG have worked relentlessly to raise funds for these three very deserving causes. However, the philanthropy does not end there as RAG have also been able to raise money for additional charities, outside of their chosen three.

Over the course of the academic year, RAG have hosted a number of bucket collections in tube and train stations with the help of volunteers from the LSE community. £6,853.05 has been raised across four bucket collections, the proceeds of which have been donated to: Haven House, Breast Cancer Now, Water Aid and Farm Africa.

However, RAG are not just about bucket collections! The RAG pack, which was sold to first year students at the start of Michaelmas Term, not only proved extremely popular among

freshers but also raised a total of £23,119.15, breaking it’s target of £20,000. The £1,470.36 raised from the Winter Ball goes towards RAG’s three chosen charities as well as towards the £100,000 raised thus far.

Although fundraising on campus makes up a big part of the money RAG are able to raise, the external challenges prove to be another source of donations. This year RAG are holding ten challenges in order to raise even more money. These challenges will see students cycling from London to Paris, climbing Kilimanjaro, as well as trekking across Morocco.

In addition, a number of students will be running in the Amsterdam Marathon in aid of World Wide Cancer Research.

Other challenges that have been carried out by LSE students is a Jailbreak, in which students have thirty six hours to get as far away from LSE campus as possible for free, and RAG Gets Lost, where students are dropped in an unknown location and have to race back to LSE campus in the quickest time, for free, completing challenges along the way.

However, it is not only RAG who do their bit for charity. This year a jaw-dropping £39,830.77 has been raised by other charities on campus. Men’s Rugby were

able to collect just short of £1,500 for their Movember attempt, also, Australian society have raised over £400 for SOS Kinderdorf; this list is not exhaustive, a number of societies on campus have donated their time and money to some very good causes.

Islamic Society (ISOC) we able to raise over £30,000 during their ‘Charity Week’ which saw a number of events hosted such as a charity sky dive. Not only does this sum push the total amount of pounds raised closer to this year’s £200,000 target set by RAG, but it also just highlights the willingness of the LSE Community to act altruistically.

President of RAG, James Wurr, told The Beaver, ‘The amount which LSE students have fundraised this year is absolutely incredible and has put us well on course to hit our £200,000 target.

A huge thank you must go out to all the students, societies and clubs which have fundraised this year. I really hope that now as many students as possible will get involved in RAG Week!’

Reaching £100,000 has been a massive feat for all involved, only time will tell whether the LSE Community will continue to be as selfless and reach that £200,000 target, one can only hope that it does.

Food For Thought: An Interview with Hare Krishna Taryana Odayar and Sebastian Shehadi Features Editor and Deputy Editor

GEORGE BERNARD SHAW that bastion of all things great and LSE - once said that, “There is no sincerer love than the love of food.”

And whilst we may be one of the most politically opinionated and ideologically diverse student bodies in London, if not the UK, there’s one thing we are all equally passion-

ate about and which we all support - free food.

And at LSE, we get free vegetarian meals every day.

Thats right. In fact, if you head in the general direction of Saw Swee Hock between 12 and 2 pm on a weekday, you will invariably find a Hare Krishna food cart, followed by a long queue of students waiting for their free veggie meal - usually a plate of rice with dhal or curry. But have you ever wondered how or why those free veggie meals magically

and conveniently appear on our campus everyday? Apart from the tell-tale Hare Krishna logo on the side of the food cart, no one seems to really know much else about this phenomenon, such as why the food is distributed on campus, or why its only vegetarian, or who the people behind the movement actually are.

So in the spirit of RAG week, the Beaver set out to unravel the mystery of the gift that keeps on giving.

Interview on Page 26

FRIDAY 22ND JANUARY SAW sixteen teams of students ‘Jailbreak’ from London School of Economics (LSE) Campus. They had one aim: get as far away from LSE Campus as possible, for free, in thirty six hours.

Our retired Executive Editor, Ellen Wilkie, and current Sports Editor, Alex Dugan were one of the teams competing. ‘Beaver On The

Comment The City

Social mobility and the Philanthropy is taking value of an education hold of city workers Pg 11 Pg 25

Loo2e’ managed to get themselves to Berlin free. Busking in Victoria Station earnt them enough money to buy two coach tickets to Cologne, from there they managed to get to Leipzig before eventually finishing their thirty six hours in Berlin.

To find out more about Beaver on the Loo2e’s journey, and the journey of the other teams, read next week’s edition of The Beaver

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

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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 Klineberg, 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 ConnellyWebster, R Huq, R Kouros, R Serunjogi, R Siddique, R Uddin, R Way, S Ali, S Argyros, S Chandrashekhar, S Crabbe-Field, 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!

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James Wurr on the great magic wank swap and other RAG related things

From The RAG President SO THIS WEEKEND HAS BEEN one of the most surreal of my life. I’ve been part of the infamous Great Magic Wank Swap in the Drama 24 Hour Play, I’ve set 36 RAGlets off across the globe on Jailbreak and now I’m guest editing the Beaver. What a weekend, all in aid of RAG Week 2016.

This week promises to be the biggest and best RAG Week ever. We’ve got more events than ever before, including a RAG Saucy, Beyond The Classroom talk and a YTFN night. Monday and Thursday will see Sheffield Street lined with stalls promoting opportunities to get involved with fundraising and the week is bookended with Jailbreak and Tough Guy challenges. There are also over 30 societies and clubs involved running events from the Rowathon and Charity Netball matches to the Northern Society Pie Eating contest and Women’s Rugby bake sale. Please come and get involved and do your part for charity!

However, this week is only building on the success which RAG has had this year. The RAG Pack Freshers week events were a huge success raising over £23,000 for charity with a personal highlight being the MC for the Battle of the Halls at one of the world’s best clubs, Fabric. Our challenges program has expanded from six to ten by including the London to Paris cycle ride and the Amsterdam

Marathon alongside our annual three hitchhikes, Tough Guy and Kilimanjaro and Morocco treks.

We’ve also introduced regular bucket collections which have been a huge success raising over £10,000 for charities including Haven House Children’s Hospital and WaterAid. Something which I’ve also been impressed with this year has been the incredible fundraising of clubs and societies. The Islamic Society managed to raise over £30,000 for the third year running in their Charity Week whilst the Men’s Rugby Club and Hockey Club raised over £1,000 respectively for the Movember Foundation and Great Ormond Street Hospital.

This is just a snapshot of the amazing fundraising on campus so please keep it up and more importantly, let us know about it!

On a slightly different note, I thought I would provide an answer to the question I am constantly asked - “why do you do practically donate your life to RAG?” The answer is fairly simple, RAG is the reason why I am still at LSE. During my first weeks of university, I suffered from depression linked to the news of my parent’s divorce and being confined to the hell-hole of International Hall which sucked the life and soul out of you better than a Dementor. This left me with a constant desire to pack my bags and leave. I had heard about RAG from a chance meeting at Battle of the Halls in freshers, where I

met Nona Buckley-Irvine, then President and Katie Budd, then V-P challenges and drunkenly declared “whatever this is, I want to be a part of it.” True to form I joined RAG at freshers fair, became the Hitch Officer and the rest, as they say, is history. RAG made me love LSE, gave me a chance to challenge my mental health issues and gave me friends for life. I can honestly say that the last three years have been the best of my life and a lot of it is due to RAG. Unfortunately, my time with RAG is almost over but I have signed myself up to one final challenge - the London to Paris cycle ride in aid of Breast Cancer Now. This is despite not owning my own bike, weighing 105kg and only having ridden ONE mile on the road in my life. I might have to go through the unimaginable pain and chafing but women and men across the world go through the suffering of Breast Cancer every year so if you’re feeling generous then please donate to my page online.

Finally, I want to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to my unbelievable committee who have worked so hard this year.

They have done everything I could have possibly asked of them and I couldn’t have achieved even half of what we have alone so thanks to each and every one of you.

Sentiment over, it’s time to return to my life of #EatSleepRaiseRepeat for the final eight weeks of RAG.

From the Vice President of Events Julia Lawson-Johns on holding the biggest RAG Week yet RAG WEEK IS THE ONE WEEK in the SU calendar dedicated to charitable giving and sees over 30 clubs and societies raise money and awareness towards a worthwhile cause of their choice.

It’s a fantastic week and for me a hugely gratifying seven (although actually nine) days in which I am temporarily relieved of my RAG duties whilst other members of the student body take on the reigns.

The week is as much a fundraising event as a

demonstration of clubs’ enthusiasm for a collective good cause. For me personally, it is also proof of how far RAG has come in fostering an active charitable culture within the school. With more events, clubs and participants than ever before, the year’s RAG Week will be especially exciting. Our physical presence on Sheffield Street has never been so big; Monday marked the first of out two Street Fairs in which clubs and societies

ate pies, baked cakes and steamed dumplings all the name of charity.

It also saw the inauguration of the already-infamous Sponge a BNOC cutout, the time table for which reads more like an SU electoral candidate sheet than anything else; RAG Week also serves as the unofficial start of campaign season as our future SABBs crawl out from the SU Media & RAG Office to take full advantage of the free publicity opportunities available.

A Farewell To Our Editor The Editorial Board would like to take this opportunity to thank Ellen Wilkie for her commitment to The Beaver throughout her time at LSE and especially as her time as Executive Editor.

Her constant tea drinking and design perfectionism will be truly missed.

However, we have held elections for three positions, Executive Editor, Managing Editor and a new News Edior to add to the team. Results will be published after we go to print, however, we hope that the candidates get the results they want. We are looking forward to a new era of the Beaver and hope that you are too!

Tweets From This Week James Wurr @JamesWurr Big day today! Guest Editing the special edition @beaveronline for @lsesurag Week 2016! #EatSleepRaiseRepeat Katie Flynn @katieflynn95 Had a deep conversation in zoo smokers about my dissertation last night over a jager bomb and that pretty much sums up my LSE career Nona Buckley-Irvine @nonajasmine More people should go to univesity. But the answer isn’t plunging the pooerest into debt in order to afford the privilege #cutthecosts George Harrison @George_Haz Guy keeps phone calling next to me Me: “Sorry mate but this is a library, are you just hear to ,ale phone calls?”

Him: “Yes.” Fuck LSE Katie Budd @klebudd Take a look at the @LSESU_ Itchyfeet arts fest exhibition with these friendly faces outside the ARC

If you would like to see your tweets here next week, then get in touch! Tweets us @ beaveronline

News | 3

SU Backs EU ‘IN’ Campaign Joseph Briers Deputy News Editor

AS DAVID CAMERON’S negotiation deadline looms ever closer, and the relative merits of Britain’s membership of the European Union are discussed and dissected across front pages, the LSESU has found itself equally susceptible to the concern and captivation invested the in/out referendum. The breaking news that Sir Michael Caine is backing the ‘out’ campaign has surely rendered the whole exercise a forgone conclusion.

However, if the voting public somehow remains unmoved by the renowned political and economic expertise of Batman’s butler, the nation could find itself at a pivotal moment in its history. A moment in which the proposers of the motion at Thursday’s UGM suggested LSE students need to be engaged in or risk facing damaging consequences.

After a mysterious delay last week because of ‘administrative error’ on the part of a member of LSESU staff, the motion entitled ‘Should LSESU Officially Support the UK’s Continued Membership of the EU?’ was finally debated on Thursday 21 January.

If anything, the UGM revealed the importance of the issue to students. Not only did the debate draw an impressively sizeable crowd, but

it also ignited some intense and, at times, irascible exchanges on both sides. An indication of the spirited atmosphere that was to come was given as soon as the opening statements were read, with the proponents of the motion comforting their opposition with the assurance that they did not view them as enemies, just horribly uninformed.

Forwarding the motion was Italian student Giuditta Morandi, and Dominik Huller, a German masters student. They claimed that the potential fallout of a Brexit could lead to an impact so uniquely damaging to LSE students that the SU should adopt a pro-EU stance and engage in a campaign to lobby the school’s pupils to vote to remain in the EU. Erasmus schemes, research grants, and the transferrable pension rights of professors were all put at risk by a British EU exit, they said. It was also pointed out that the UK’s withdrawal would inevitably widen the pool of those classed as international students and therefore subject to being charged extortionate fees. SU Gen-Sec, Nona Buckley-Irvine, appeared to back the motion, describing the issue as ‘fundamentally important… due to the proportion of European students we have’. Whilst rejecting the recent trend of motions on broader political issues, BuckleyIrvine claimed the EU motion was ‘the most relevant one to students we

have had during the past two years’.

Arguing against the motion was Phil Sheppard, a second year History student and member of the London University Brexit Society.

Sheppard claimed that the SU had no right to claim a monopoly on student opinion and interests. He questioned whether the SU adopting such a blatantly pro European stance might crowd out free and open debate. The issue of democratic legitimacy was raised as Sheppard warned against a potential misrepresentation of student opinion, claiming the motion might do a disservice to the 30-40% who support the out campaign. This was perhaps a misleading and ultimately inaccurate statistic. Whilst it may be true that 30-40% of UK citizens 18-30 support an exit, one suspects that in an environment as European and left-leaning as the LSE, this number

might shrink considerably. Further quibbles over inaccuracies dotted proceedings, with dubious claims of only 10% of EU law applying to Norway, and 70% of the legally non-existent ‘commission motions’ being undemocratically thrust unto the UK, forcing attendees to wade through misinformation.

It was announced on Friday that the motion on whether LSESU should officially support the UK’s continued membership of the EU had reached quoracy and passed.

387 voted in favour (91%), 39 against (12%), and 12 were undecided. Judging from the debate at the event and the result, it is plain to see that the status of Britain’s membership of the EU will be an increasingly hot topic on campus not just amongst the School’s academics, but also its ever politically active student body.

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

Jailbreak Teams Escape LSE - and the Continent Henry Eshel RAG Hitchhike Officer

costume, a hot dog costume and a mustard costume. Teams went in all directions, with different strategies of how to start. Several teams decided to negotiate their way onto buses going into Europe, with destinations like Paris, Brussels, Lyon, and Cologne.

A few other teams set their sights in the skies and headed to the airports in the hopes of getting seats on planes. Team ‘Are We Dare Yet’ successfully raised enough money in Stansted to get tickets to Bucharest Romania. Team ‘Hot Chicks’ stayed overnight in Gatwick before finally getting on a flight bound for Turin, Italy. Team ‘Eager Beavers’ curiously went across the Channel to the Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris before getting a flight back to Heathrow and connecting on to a flight to Vienna, Austria. Team ‘We Like To Move It’ flew towards sunny

Malaga, leaving rainy London far behind. Team ‘London Heathrow’ (aptly named) incredibly managed to get tickets from ThaiAirways to Bangkok, ending their challenge nearly 10,000km away on another continent. Two teams decided to stay in the UK and daringly headed north towards Scotland, catching rides in cars from generous drivers, and ending in Aberdeen and Gloucester.

Eventually, as the 36 hour time limit expired, the 15 teams had made it all over Europe and far off into Thailand. They had collectively travelled over 21,000 kilometers, or enough to circumnavigate half the globe. They used practically every type of transport you could think of, from cars and buses, ferries and trains, to commercial airliners. The journey of these LSE students demonstrated the generosity and kindness of

News

IT FEELS LIKE ONLY A COUPLE of weeks ago, but late last November, RAG launched the signups for our second ever Jailbreak, which ended at midnight on 23 January. 15 teams of 2 or 3 students would embark on a wild adventure that would see them ‘break out of jail’ and try to get as far from LSE as possible in 36 hours – without spending any money.

Each person was charged with raising £150 for one of RAG’s sponsored charities, Farm Africa.

The timeless quote “give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.

Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime” embodies the idea Farm Africa practices. Instead of simply just giving food to those in need on the African continent, the charity seeks to drive meaning-

ful change in the lives of those it affects by teaching them the keys to sustaining themselves. Farm Africa not only provides farmers with seeds for crops or cattle, it also equips them with the tools to work properly, and most importantly gives them the proper training to get the most out of their harvests so that they can support themselves. With an inspiring talk from one of the charity’s spokespersons, Sarah Goddard, the Jailbreak participants set about fundraising – as of the time of writing they’ve raised over £5000, which will go a long way to help rural East African communities.

And so, on Friday at exactly 12pm, the 15 teams broke out of their (hastily constructed) prison in front of the Saw Swee Hock building and ventured out into the wild.

Some participants opted for some eye-catching choices of attire, including a banana costume, a taco

4

| Tuesday 26 January, 2016

Labour Attempt to Block Tory Abolition of Maintenance Grants Fails AN ATTEMPT TO BLOCK THE abolition of student maintenance grants was defeated in the House of Commons last Tuesday.

Labour MPs used an annulment motion to force the changes to a full vote. Previously, the government were only scheduled to be debated by a Commons committee of 18 MPs – a move criticised by opponents for limiting the opportunity to scrutinise the policy.

However, Labour’s motion was voted down by MPs. Hundreds of students - led by the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts (NCAFC) and supported by groups such as Labour Students – took to Parliament Square during the debate to protest against the plans. At one point, a number of students blocked Westminster Bridge and unfurled a

banner proclaiming: ‘No Grant = No Bridge’. The bridge was closed for an hour and a half.

Under the government proposals, all maintenance grants will be replaced by an extension of current maintenance loans. This means that – like other student finance – they will have to be repaid once students have graduated and are earning above £21,000 per year. At the moment, grants of up to £3,387 per year are given to around 500,000 students.

Critics fear that the changes will discourage students from the poorest families from applying to university. They point to the increasing amounts of debt that graduate are forced to take on – not least since tuition fees tripled in 2012.

Megan Dunn, president of the National Union of Students (NUS), said the government were “ignoring the very real concerns of students.”

“When students are already facing rising debts, piling even greater sums on the shoulders of the poorest students is extremely unfair. If the government truly cares about widening access, it must urgently halt its plans to shut out poorer students from their education.”

Government ministers dismiss these criticisms. They point to the fact that students will get more money to cover their living costs.

The poorest students will be able to borrow up to £8,200 per year – an increase of £766 on the current largest combination of maintenance loan and grant.

Nick Boles, Minister of State for Skills and Equalities, denounced the student protests as a fringe issue and said Labour were wrong to support to table the motion. “In opposition, a party will take the irresponsible route, in an attempt to curry favour with the National Union of Shroud-wavers.”

The motion will go on to be debated by the House of Lords.

Photocredit: The Independent

Joel Pearce Undergraduate Student

LSE Photo Prize Call RAG to Crowdfund for Social for Submissions Change Organisations

Bhadra Sreejith Deputy News Editor

THE LSE PHOTO PRIZE, PART of the LSE ‘Space for Thought’ Literary Festival, is currently accepting submissions and will be doing so until Friday 29 January 2016.

The theme for this year’s Literary Festival is ‘Utopia’, and the same theme should be followed for photography submissions.

The LSE Space for Thought series was created to celebrate the completion of the New Academic Building at LSE, which was officially opened by The Queen on 5 November 2008. These celebrations included an inaugural lecture series, with some of the world’s leading academics, and LSE’s first ever Literary Festival, which has now become an annual event. This year’s Literary Festival “explores the power of dreams and the imagination and the importance of idealism, dissidence, escapism and nostalgia, as well as the benefits of looking at the world in different

ways.”

Any current LSE student or staff member is eligible to take part.

This year, submissions are also open to LSE alumni. email arts.photoprize@lse.ac.uk with your competition submission form, which can be found on the LSE website, and photographs. All photographs must be emailed from an LSE email address and with a completed submission form. Up to three photographs can be submitted.

The winners will be chosen by a panel of judges who are still being decided. Three winners will be chosen by the Photo Prize panel of judges. The first prize winner will be awarded a Diana Baby 110 (lomography camera) and Lens Package. The second prize winner will be awarded a £40 Amazon Voucher and the third prize winner will be awarded a £20 Amazon Voucher. The winning photos will be displayed on campus following the competition. In March 2016 a selection of the photos will be available as an online gallery.

James Wurr RAG President

ON TUESDAY, 26 JANUARY at 6.30pm, RAG, in partnership with The Youth Funding Network (YTFN) and Volunteer Centre, brings an evening of live crowdfunding to LSE. The night gives three inspirational charities a chance to tell people about their work and pitch a specific project that’s in need of some cash. After hearing from the different projects, there is a pledging session where attendees all choose which project to donate their £10 ticket price to, donate more money if we want, and even volunteer our time.

Check the image for a better idea of how the evening works.

Since 2008, YTFN has raised over £100,000 for 51 small social change organisations. There have been 18 events which hundreds of young people have attended. Successfully funded projects are required to report back on the impact of funding and volunteer hours 12 months later. LSE has hosted two previous nights which together raised over £10,000 for six worthy causes including Lensational, a social enterprise which aims to empower women in developing countries through equipping them with digital cameras.

The three projects pitching for money this time are the Nusa Social Enterprise, a waste management social-enterprise that seeks to implement a business model that facilitates a

process of collecting, sorting and selling of inorganic wastes, Hi Here, an App that destroys barriers restoring social networks between refugees and between refugees and the host communities toward integration and ChipMonk, a new start-up which tackles food waste by taking fresh produce from supermarkets which has the potential to be wasted and instead turning it into distinctively flavoured chips! ChipMonk also hopes to recruit refugees to help to improve their employability.

Tickets cost £10 and 100% of it serves as a donation to the project of your choice, so stop by for a drink, enjoy some live

jazz and help make big change with your small change. Buy your ticket from the Santander LSE branch to see your donation doubled!

Ernst & Young Removes 2:1 Degree Requirement for Entry Criteria Alina Ryzhonkova Staff Writer THIS SUMMER, PriceWaterhouse Coopers was one of the first major graduate employers to announce that they are scrapping their UCAS requirement for graduate positions. Ernst & Young, another major graduate employer, is following suit and going even further by getting rid of their 2:1 degree classification requirement. The change will come into effect this year and comes as quite a shock to the system, as the vast majority of graduate schemes have a standard requirement of at least a 2:1 degree.

The two accounting firms

are not alone in removing grade requirements for their positions, as Penguin Random House UK has scrapped its university degree and UCAS points requirements altogether. These changes are aimed at increasing diversity, social mobility and removing barriers to those who come from disadvantaged backgrounds.

The companies claim that there is no direct correlation between grades and work performance, and that by eliminating these requirements they will ensure that the most talented people are not disadvantaged in the recruitment process, regardless of their background.

This move is bound to increase the number of applications, and thus competition, for these

already popular schemes. While the removal of the grades barrier will surely open the door to potentially talented people who would not have been able to apply before, it is unclear how much of a role grades will continue to play. EY says that they will continue to look at grades in order to get a complete and rounded understanding of the applicant, so while low grades may not prevent people from applying, they will still play a role in deciding who gets through to the next stage and who eventually gets the job.

These changes bring the question of social mobility in the UK into sharp focus, and while the elimination of academic achievement requirements by

PwC and EY may increase accessibility for some, it leaves those who did not go to university at all at a disadvantage. Les Ebdon, the director of the Office of Fair Access, points out that bright pupils from the most disadvantaged backgrounds are being held back as they are less likely to go to university, thus highlighting a structural problem that extends far beyond the application process for graduate schemes. The effects of the changes made by EY, PwC and Penguin Random House UK in improving access for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds remain to be seen, yet one thing is certain: the number of applicants for those jobs is set to increase in the coming year.

EMPOWERED Programme to Explore Attainment Gap Report Suyin Haynes News Editor LSESU’s NEW EMPOWERED programme aimed at Black, Minority and Ethnic students will be teaming up with societies this week to host events designed for students in the LSE community.

Tuesday 26th January sees EMPOWERED: Being BME and overcoming the barriers to your career, in collaboration with the LSESU Pakistan Development Society.

On average, 6 per cent of white graduates remained unemployed a year after graduation whereas 15 percent of Bangladeshi, Pakistani and African graduates were still unemployed after the same period of time.

This careers session will be delivered specifically for BME students with a focus on learning tangible skills and methods of overcoming the barriers that may be faced in future careers. Profes-

sional psychologists Rehana Asani, who specialises in the link between cognitive behaviour and academic success, and Nadiya Siddique will be speaking in the session designed to inform, teach and empower.

The event will be taking place from 6.30 - 9pm in NAB.2.14.

EMPOWERED: Do Black students at LSE achieve less than their white counterparts? will be a discussion session on Thursday 28th January held in association with LSESU Women Leaders of Tomorrow and LSESU Sikh/Punjab Society, focussing on the findings of the LSESU’s BME Attainment Gap Report. Commissioned by Education Officer Jon-Rhys Foster, Community and Welfare Officer Aysha Fekaiki and by Anti-racism Officer Jasmina Bidé, the report examines research on the attainment gap between BME and White students at LSE and the disparity between international and domestic students in academic achievement.

The report has indicated, using statistics publicly available via the LSE Intranet, that there is a large, persistent, and annually-sustained attainment gap for BME students across the LSE. Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic students - whether ‘home’ or international, undergraduate or postgraduate - are less likely to obtain a first or 2.1 than their white peers at LSE; in the 2013/2014 academic year the gap stood at 16.4%.

In conversation with The Beaver, Bidé commented that “this report is so important as we have used empirical evidence about the discrepancy between white and non-white students at LSE, rather than working from within the institution itself. The event on Thursday is to get a reaction and encourage discussion from the student body, both BME and white, on why they believe this is happening, gather people’s experiences and think of ways to address this.

There has also been some criticism of the report and the blog, so this would also be an ideal setting in which to get constructive criticism from the student body.

People should come to the event because we can’t formulate policy and solutions from thin air and need everyone’s input. There’s so much diversity, both in thought and at in background, within the LSE community so having everyone’s input is really vital.”

This crucial event taking place from 6-9pm on Thursday in 32LIF.LG.04 will be a forum open to people of all races and those interested in the subject, the future of education or the future of equality at LSE. Following the discussion and its outcomes, the team will present the findings to LSE’s departments and compile resolutions for change within the school.

Further information on the report is available via the LSESU website.

News | 5

London Uni Roundup

Police last week were called in to King’s as demonstrators from both the University’s Palestine Society and its cross-London affiliates from LSE and UCL attempted to disrupt an event held by the Israeli Society in protest of its guest speaker, Ami Ayalon, a former head of the Israeli Secret Service and Navy. Around 15 protesters began climbing up the face of the building, a further ten set fire alarms off in an adjacent building, a window was smashed and chairs were reportedly thrown. Officials at King’s say an investigation is now under way and stated “Universities create environments in which debate from all sides on issues of political, scientific, moral, ethical and religious significance is possible, and King’s is no exception”.

UCL graduate, Matt Charman, has been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for his work on Cold War spy thriller ‘Bridge of Spies’, directed by Steven Spielberg. The film stars Hollywood mainstays Tom Hanks and Mark Rylance (also nominated for Best Supporting Actor) and details the trial of US spy pilot Gary Powers following the downing of his U2 plane over the then Soviet Union.

Chairman is just the latest UCL alumnus to hit the cinematic big time, with fellow graduates Christopher Nolan and Ricky Gervais also having experienced great critical and popular success stateside.

Members of Imperial College London’s Medic Boat Club were barred from boarding a boat on their way to their annual conference in Leuven, Belgium after staff from P and O Ferries objected to their level of drunkenness. It has also been claimed by the coach company that, on the way to the boat, members caused damage to facilities at a Maidenhead Service Station, although this is disputed by the club. Somewhat ironically, the main cause of inebriation according to Imperial paper Felix is thought to have been port, bottles of which were allegedly thrown at the driver. The incident comes just a year after the society was banned after smashing a window on their previous trip.

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| Tuesday 26 January, 2016

T’ NorthernSoc Head to NW1 LSE Language Centre Host Trip to Tallinn Ella Baggaley-Simpson Events Officer, LSESU Northern Society

WITH A PINT IN HAND, temperature just above freezing and a distinct Mancunian twang in the chatter, for many of our members it felt like they’d never left home. It was a sprightly bunch that turned up at the World’s End opposite Camden Town for the Northern Society pub-crawl, accompanied by the inevitable overpriced booze of its NW1 postcode and the sound of heavy metal pouring through the speakers. We decided it best to only stay for the one drink, for fear of developing tinnitus, and following a barked order from Team Leader Adam Crowther, we set off for the next pub.

The next stop was the Angel; also conveniently located opposite the tube station, though the confusing nature of the Northern Line meant that we lost some of the weaker members of the pack (as resident BNOC Phoebe Ward pointed out – ‘That’s just natural selection really isn’t it?’). The universality of the Wetherspoons experience meant that even the Southerners in attendance got into the swing of things, though this author finds it difficult to consider £3.60 for a pint ‘cheap’.

Our penultimate stop turned out to be the world’s tiniest, sweatiest pub with, much to the horror of the pint-downing females in our party, a very long queue for the ladies. Two of the more zealous feminists made a stand by going for a wee in the boy’s loos (apparently gender is a social construct; who knew?). In

between fanning ourselves in the tropical heat and pushing our way through the throng beside the bar, we managed to take an opinion poll from attendees. “This is the best pub-crawl I’ve ever been on! Ever”’ said the admittedly biased social secretary Joel Pearce.

President of the LSESU Penal Reform Society, Harriet Lavin said “Such a great turn out - was a lot of fun to meet so many new people, from both the south and the north.”

Our final stop, the Penderels Oak (WetherspoonsTM) was conveniently located around the corner from our intended final destination; the Saw Swee Hock

Building. But alas, it was not meant to be. Maybe it was the dimmed lights, maybe it was the soothing music, maybe it was the pool of vomit by the entrance, but something in the air said “sack off Saucy, I’m going to bed”. So, the final stop on the pub crawl; that bastion of London nightlife, was abandoned and the night ended, as it had begun, with us all freezing our tits off at a bus stop.

The revamped Northern Society (new logo and all) will be holding an evening of fun, fine art and fish. So if you’re missing your local chippy and some good Northern banter then follow the Facebook page to find out more.

RAG Week and DramaSoc 24 Hour Play Debuts to Rave Reviews Suyin Haynes News Editor THURSDAY NIGHT SAW the launch of LSESU RAG Week, with the return of last year’s hugely successful 24 Hour Play from the LSESU Drama Society.

At 18.30 in The Three Tuns, the titles of the two plays were auctioned off with the proceeds going to LSESU RAG’s chosen charities: Farm Africa, PAPYRUS and St Mungo’s Broadway. LSESU General Secretary Nona BuckleyIrvine won the bid for the title of the first play for a record breaking £21, Jeremy Corbyn: The Pet Detective, with the main character Andre eponymously proposed by another participant in the auction.

The second title was auctioned off to bidder Rob Lindberg, named Dick Cheney Made Money Off the Iraq War, with the main character

as Education Officer Jon-Rhys Foster as proposed by BuckleyIrvine.

The writing team then got to work on constructing the two plays, staying in the library until the early hours creating characters, themes, and plenty of Anonymous Plot Devices. After a day of rehearsing, doors opened at 19.00 on Friday evening, with a queue of audience members anticipating the results of 24 hours’ work from LSE’s finest theatrical talent. Tickets were sold at £4 each, resulting in a packed 6th Floor Studio in the Saw Swee Hock Centre.

Jeremy Corbyn: The Pet Detective kicked off the evening’s proceedings: a body-swap tale full of political intrigue, pigs and a glittery RAG President James Wurr, not to mention Jon-Rhys Foster in a star turn as an unforgettable David Cameron. Dick Cheney Made Money Off the Iraq War

followed: a cleverly constructed noir thriller with a German plot twist that Trumped the audience.

We particularly enjoyed the cameo from Buckley-Irvine, who displayed her surprising flair for the theatrical.

The audience was also star studded, with fellow sabbatical officers Katie Budd and Aysha Fekaiki enjoying Foster’s hauntingly erotic performance and Antiracism Officer Jasmina Bidé showing her appreciation for the Oscars jibe in Jeremy Corbyn, The Pet Detective.

All in all, the night was a huge success and raised not only laughter and applause from the audience, but over £250 for LSESU RAG’s chosen charities.

For more information on upcoming events for RAG Week, see page 23.

Noah D’Aeth Undergraduate Student A GROUP OF EIGHT LSE students travelled to Estonia during the Christmas break, in order to take part in a week long Russian language programme. Tallinn University coordinated the course as part of their Winter School.

It consisted of twenty hours of teaching over the duration of the week, with subjects ranging from online dating sites, to Christmas shopping habits.

The students, who all study Russian language at LSE, received a comprehensive tuition, encompassing all aspects of the language, and including elements on Russian culture and society.

Estonia is uniquely placed within the European Union to offer such a course. Not only does the country share a border with Russia, but around a quarter of its citizens are ethnically Russian.

The course also coincided with an important date in the calendar of the Russian Orthodox Church, the feast of the Epiphany. This is traditionally when the Eastern Churches celebrate Christmas. It was marked in the classes with a collection of tea and traditional Russian chocolates. The occasion also allowed the group to meet with other students on the course, among which was a semiprofessional country and western singer who performed alongside

one of the Russian teachers, in an interesting mix of genres.

Estonia itself proved equally as fascinating as well though.

Since independence from Russia in 1991, the country has strived towards an image of high tech modernity, embracing the internet age. The Baltic State is often described as one of the most wired countries in Europe, the internet being widely available throughout the country, as befitting the nation where Skype was founded.

The LSE group discovered this unique culture and away from the teaching, the students were also able to explore the historic city of Tallinn. At its heart is the Old Town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that is a network of cobbled streets, medieval churches and cosy pubs. With temperatures dropping to around minus twenty degrees centigrade during the trip, the opportunity to visit some of these centrally heated pubs was warmly welcomed by the LSE group.

Following this visit, the Language centre at LSE is looking to expand its links with Tallinn University. Winter and Summer schools are available, and it seems LSE students will be able to take advantage of the unique language opportunities on offer. As Preslav Tonkov, a first year undergraduate student who visited Tallinn this time said, “Adventurous, educational, exciting. Tallinn is a must go destination”.

LSE Academics Highlight BME Event to Host Political Shortsightedness Rising Entrepreneurs Greg Sproston Staff Writer A RESEARCH PAPER BY TWO LSE academics has illustrated a stark relationship between definitive link between the politics of austerity and sluggish economic performance.

Whilst stopping short of claiming causality, Dr. Riccardo Crescenzi of the Geography & Environment Department and Dr Simona Milio of the European Institute have nevertheless illustrated that countries maintaining high levels of public debt have seen more enjoyed more pronounced recoveries following the 2008 Great Recession.

Drs. Milio and Crescenzi are the latest in a line of LSE academics to take aim against austerity; three nobel prize winners in particular - Amartya Sen, Christopher Pissarides and Paul Krugman -have all gone public with withering criticisms of the way the majority of governments have responded postcrisis. The article, featured in the Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, stops short of advocating a wholesale return to the golden years of Keynesian.

Whilst confidently declaring that maintaining high levels of debt had profound effects on economic output and unemployment, there

is an admission that ongoing patterns of high debt may not be sustainable.

Further, the article dismisses the oversimplification of a ‘NorthSouth divide’, both in terms of a nation’s well-preparedness precrisis along with their reaction and crisis management after the event. Instead, net exports, foreign direct investment flows and the movement of human capital have been analysed to paint a picture of regional ‘cores’, such as Germany, who have generally responded more effectively than other comparable countries; something which has a spillover effect to neighbouring countries. The authors cite this as a partial explanation for the poor performance of countries such as Spain, Ireland and Greece.

Despite the article’s findings, LSE students seem to be pessimistic about whether policy change will occur. “Well, they’ve painted a picture of a country’s finances like a current bank account haven’t they?” a third year economics student offered, before continuing, “with a narrative like that, even if it’s bullshit, people in general then think that spending more seems a bit nuts.” One fresher, cynical beyond their years, asked “when has policy ever been based on evidence? It doesn’t matter what people in the universities think, they just get ignored.”

Mahmoud El Ghannam Postgraduate Students’ Officer COME ALONG TO THIS event for a monumental discussion on how to assist BME individuals in becoming successful entrepreneurs. The LSE community is honoured to be joined by a host of iconic BME entrepreneurs who will elaborate on their respective journeys.

The purpose of the event is simple; to inspire students from BME backgrounds to consider entrepreneurship as a career alternative. Entrepreneurship is a risky, unstable and unpredictable path but the rewards are vast.

Although BME students often consider entrepreneurship as a career, they may find themselves at a disadvantage and are uncertain whether it is a viable career option.

This event is designed to convince such aspiring students that great achievements can be accomplished

in this field.

Speakers at the event will be Hussein Kanji, Bonnie Chiu, Adnan Ebrahim and Timothy Armoo. Hussein is a co-founder of Hoxton Ventures, a London-based early stage European venture capital firm and was recently named as Europe’s most influential investor by the Telegraph. Bonnie is an LSE alumna and the founder of Lensational, a social enterprise that aims to empower women in developing countries through photography. Adnan is the founder of CarThrottle, the internet’s fastest growing car community with over 5 million users every month. Timothy is a 21 year old entrepreneur working on his third business, FanBytes, which helps brands precisely target their audiences. His clients include Adidas, Go Pro and New Look.

The event will be held at the Hong Kong Theatre at 6:30 pm on Friday 29th January. Look forward to seeing you there!

Tough Guy Teams Prepare for Challenge Abbie True RAG Tough Guy Officer WHEN RAG ASKED 22 LSE students back in December last term if they were tough enough, they replied in Milliband fashion that “Hell Yes” they were tough enough.

Now the date of 31st January looms ever closer when these competitors will be journeying out to the unknown realm of Wolverhampton to compete in the infamous, death defying, hypothermia inducing, Tough Guy event to prove this.

The event features a 12km run, followed by 3km of obstacles which promises a “hellish journey that includes mud, icy pools, fire, electricity, barbed wire, darkness and much, much pain”, as experienced by last years competitor Perdita Blinkhorn.

This year the course will have an astounding 240 obstacles to grapple with along the course.

With death waivers also required by all participants before the event, its safe to say that even walking away from the course alive is a commendable achievement. The

fact that the event also is in the middle of the British winter (with potential rainfall predicted) only adds to the fun.

With teams being fielded strongly once again from the AU, some healthy rivalry will be injected to the event. Hockey, Rowing, Women’s Rugby and Mens Football will all be vying for the bragging rights of the year; the claim of being the toughest team in the AU. Joe Donaghey on the Mens football team (last years victors) is confident they can retain their title even though he admits to spending more time in bed than training. However with Hockey training a claimed six times a week, Conor Rohan is confident that they can smash the rest of the AU and become the victors this year, going one better than their second place position from last year.

Tough Guy also introduces the world to a whole new fashion category. Wet suits and swim caps are the staple pieces in any competitor’s event wardrobe and are sure to make a statement once again this season. However, the ‘look’ is only completed after the event with a heavy dosage of mud.

Crucially, as Perdita Blinkhorn

summarized last year, the “emotional, mental and physical trauma from the event” is all in the deserving name of charity.

This years fundraising efforts will be going to the deserving charity Streetgames, the AU charity of the year, that work hard to bring sport into disadvantaged communities

who would otherwise lack the access or funds to participate.

Through their Doorstep sport initiative alone they’ve managed to reach 47,391 young people. The heroism of the Tough Guys and Gals of LSE and their fundraising is a huge help in maintaining the success of Streetgames.

News | 7

News In Brief LSE India Summit 2016 The LSE South Asia Centre will be collaborating with Difficult Dialogues to host the ‘LSE India Summit 2016’ in Goa from 28th 30th January 2016. The three day event will include four panel discussions, on Global Finance, Civil Society, India and West Asia, and Infrastructures, alongside an exhibition of rare documents from the archives of the Reserve Bank of India, and two specially curated talks: one by the Serbian political thinker Srdja Popovic on nonviolent forms of protest, and the other by award-winning novelist Amitav Ghosh on trading and traveling by Indian merchants to China in the 19th century.

LSE Study Linking Criminal Justice and Social Inequality An LSE study has found that social inequality is directly linked to public support for an increasingly harsh criminal justice policy in the UK despite falling crime rates.

The study is due to be published in an American Psychological Association journal called Psychology, Public Policy and Law, and found that criminals are stereotyped as being poor and uneducated which most people associated with being callous and untrustworthy. Dr Carolyn Côté-Lussier suggests that growing social inequality and failing to address disadvantage could actually contribute to even greater public demands for harsh criminal justice policy making it difficult for governments to tackle unsustainably high prison populations.

LSE student appointed as UN ambassador on development Alaa Murabit, who is studying for an Executive Masters in International Strategy and Diplomacy, has been appointed a Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Advocate by the United Nations.

At the age of 21, Alaa founded The Voice of Libyan Women, to champion women’s participation in security, peace processes and conflict mediation. Her TED Talk, “What my religion really says about women” has been viewed over two million times since July 2015. She will help promote action to achieve the SDGs adopted by world leaders at the UN Sustainable Development Summit on 25 September 2015.

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|

Tuesday 26 January, 2016

Halls Rents Freeze Will Not Work The solution to LSE’s halls crisis is increased supply, not ‘frozen’ rents Harry Maxwell Student Governor

Comment

“Lobbying LSE to freeze prices is not the answer when more effective solutions are available.”

would almost certainly be obtainable from investment banks for redevelopment, as they would be able to link an appreciating asset to their loan.

The time has come for us to to start talking to LSE in language they understand. Basic economic principles demonstrate that increasing supply is an effective way of reducing prices, assuming a relatively fixed demand. (And you don’t need to study EC210 to understand how). The shorttermism of a rent ‘freeze’ is further highlighted if you begin to consider inflation. For how long exactly could we expect LSE to keep rent prices at a constant?

This ‘gimme, gimme, gimme’ approach of the Students’ Union has got to stop. LSE does not have unlimited financial resources or hidden reserves of gold, and this has to be recognised. It’s time for the SU to start acting pragmatically and in the interest of all students before things get out of hand. It would be helpful if the Students’ Union decided to work with the school and support developments that are actually achievable, rather than campaign for things that are unrealistic and the privileging of some students over others.

Credit: LSESU

Give Us Grants, Not Debt

How the Tory Government is unfairly punishing the poorest students Channon Gray Undergraduate Student

STUDENT MAINTENANCE grants were scrapped this week by the Tory Government, shortly after George Osborne announced his plans for the Summer Budget.

As of September 2016, maintenance grants will be given to new university students in the form of loans. This means that the country’s poorest incoming students may be up to £3,387 (per year of study), further in debt.

Following a petition signed by over 130,000 individuals and recent student demonstrations, the issue of maintenance grants has been argued both in Parliament and brought up in last week’s Prime Minsters Questions. The Conservatives argue that this is ‘uncapping aspiration’ and it will not discourage young people from

applying to university.

Whilst Angela Eagle, from the opposing side, claims that this financial cut affecting more than half a million nationwide students, is ‘betraying students, and through this opportunity tax they’re pulling up the drawbridge for young people from less privileged backgrounds’. Similarly, the NUS president, Megan Dunn, has stated that increasing debt for the poorest students is ‘extremely unfair’.

The grants were put in place by the Tories in 2012, to soften the impact of tripling tuition fees to £9,000 per year. The aim was to allow for financially disadvantaged students to still enjoy the ‘luxury’ of a university degree. However, with the recent abolishment of maintenance grants, questions of discouragement and unfairness are being asked. Is it fair that the less-well-off students are going to be leaving university with an astronomical

amount of debt? Will it discourage the less-privileged from applying to university in the future?

Whilst some argue that this will not affect a student’s funding, as the money is simply being transferred from grants to loans. I believe that this, had it have happened two years earlier, could have affected my decision to attend university, especially studying in London. I am not ashamed to admit that I rely not only on the Government’s Student Finance funding, but also the bursaries and hardship fund supplied by LSE. As a student, from a working class Cornish background, I could not live and study in London without these. My maintenance grant and loan combined only just covers the cost of my halls accommodation. This means that I am unable to use that money for essentials and as for luxuries – I can forget them.

I’ll be honest, I already find it dif-

ficult to comprehend that I will be leaving university almost £50,000 in debt. Let alone without the added worry of a further £10,000, which will be affecting the next generation of students.

Evidently the thought of debt is a burden that most students carry and I see this particularly amongst my friends who rely on the UK students’ loan system.

Most of whom use their student finance money, not only to pay for tuition fees, but also for accommodation and to buy the basics such as food, clothes and books. In my opinion, the system is incredibly unfair. As a student coming from a family who on the most part left education at sixteen, I do not think it is fair that I am being scrutinised financially, for attempting to better my future. However, I guess that is just the price you pay for wanting to attend an elite university, such as LSE.

Credit: Wikimedia Commons

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

LSE, WE NEED TO TALK. For a university centred around economics, it’s ironic that our Students’ Union is taking such a nonsensical and short-term approach to the cost of halls. Yes, it’s important that students from all backgrounds can afford a room and study at LSE. But no, lobbying LSE to ‘freeze’ prices is not the answer when more effective solutions are available.

It’s time to shift the conversation onto LSE increasing the overall supply of accommodation.

The university owns Bankside, High Holborn and Roseberry, while the leases of Carr Saunders and Butlers Wharf extend beyond our lifetime. We should be asking LSE to use its financial resources to redevelop these properties and build more affordable rooms, rather than maintain a status quo at fixed prices. By doing this, we’d also avoid a housing crisis when agreements for Sidney Webb, Grosvenor House and Northumberland expire in the near future.

It doesn’t matter how LSE choose to increase supply, so long

as they do it. Even if it translates into plush boudoirs in Hyde Park, there would still be a positive impact on affordability. Every year some students arrive and request the most expensive room available. If they are better catered for, it will free-up more affordable rooms for those who need them most. Headline figures on the changes in average rents can thus be misleading, with increases not necessarily being a problem if there is sufficient variety.

Furthermore, inherent in the pursuit of ‘frozen’ prices is a question of morality. At what cost should LSE be subsidising halls rents? Should they re-allocate funds from the learning experience of students who choose not to live in halls? Increasing supply is a much more rational and longterm strategy. Financing solutions

Comment | 9

The Very Worst of Student Activism

Why we ought to condemn last week’s Palestine protest outside King’s College London Louis Klineberg Undergraduate Student ON TUESDAY 19 JANUARY, Ami Ayalon, former head of the Israeli Secret Service was scheduled to speak at King’s College London, in conjunction with the KCL and LSESU Israel Societies. Ayalon is not one to be shy of controversy, having sparked much debate and outrage in Israel with his notably left wing views and open condemnations of the current Israeli Government and its actions. Over 300 people showed up to what promised to be an interesting discussion on the future of Israel/Palestine and the region in general.

I, an eagerly eyed first year with much interest in the region, was extremely disappointed when it turned out KCL had allocated a 56 seat capacity room to the clearly over-subscribed event and was hastily turned away by clearly alerted security. What follows is my account of events on the outside of the building, with some insight from those who were in the room listening Ayalon’s talk.

Around 20 pro-Palestinian protestors struggled to understand the idea of a capacity, and instead tried

to force their way into the building, punching an organiser and smashing a window in their attempts. A few slipped in but security quickly took control, securing the doors closed. The remaining protestors then took it upon themselves to repeatedly bang on the windows of the building, screaming chants such as ‘Free Palestine’ and ‘from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ (for those not educated on this issue, this second chant is basically a call for the complete abolition of an Israeli state – no ifs, no buts).

By this time, those who had managed to get inside the building were going out of their way to create as much disturbance as possible, running up and down the five flights of stairs, setting the fire alarm off on each floor. The protestors outside then turned their attention to the surprise presence of police officers, who I presume were called by KCL to help secure the safety of both the building and those inside (whether or not two police riot cars was appropriate for the event is another thing). I listened to the protestors chant ‘police off campus’ and stared at the cracks in the window opposite me, wondering if the hypocrisy could get any worse.

“Debate is at the core of education and a great means to promote change and progress.”

The talk ended 30 minutes early. Those who attended (many of whom were students merely wanting to educate themselves on the conflict) described what it was like to be inside:. Tim, a postgraduate student at KCL, expressed his concerns, “It was intimidation tactics, pure and simple. Protesting is one thing, but to literally break windows, act as criminals, it’s something I hope to never see again on a university campus.”

What the heck is going on?

When self-proclaimed liberals are going out of their way to prevent free speech, when police have to be called to ensure the security of those attending a mere talk, when nearly every major British newspaper/broadcasting house has felt the need to report Tuesday’s events.

We attend university to discuss and debate ideas, to ‘know the causes of things’. What does it say about

the state of our universities that we have resorted to such criminality, described by Sir Eric Pickles as nothing short of a ‘neo-fascist’ attack? What a grave shame it is that we know nothing less than to scream and shout, rather than sit and debate.

I believe organiser Esther Enfield summed the situation up perfectly, “What if all the protestors had got into the building, what if they had managed to get into the room and started throwing chairs at the people inside, what if they had starting hitting not only windows but speakers and people attending, what if they would have come to the event with questions…”

This piece is by no means an endorsement of Ami Ayalon. Instead, it is more like the rantings of a confused and upset student who fears the future of free speech and debate is bleak. The fact that this isn’t the first time an event has been disrupted in this way (with fire alarms being set off at LSE when the Israeli Ambassador came to speak) fills me great concern over what the future holds. I will continue to defend the right of individuals to protest. What I will not do is defend nor attempt to apologise for the behaviour of those individuals

on Tuesday night. As Professor Ed Byrne of KCL stated during an interview with the BBC, “Issues cannot be too contentious to discuss.

Universities by their very nature depend on dialogue and people learning from each other, disagreeing is fine, peaceful protest is fine, but violent behaviour and intimidation that interferes with the free speech of others, is completely unacceptable in a university environment.”

We, as a university community, must actively condemn such criminality and rid such threatening and intimidating behaviour from our campuses, for it is merely the beginning of a slippery slope whereby views are shunned and true rhetoric is denied. Debate is at the core of education and a great means to promote change and progress. We must therefore guard and protect open dialogue with all our might and we shall not be defeated by a minority who believe they have a right to censorship.

Whatever your beliefs are on this issue, or any issue for that matter, we must stand in united condemnation. To not do so is to risk the reputation of London as a home of tolerance, an honour we should all defend with great pride.

LSE Students and the Impact of Brexit

With the referendum looming, LSE students should not worry about the effects of Brexit Matt Walton Undergraduate Student 2015 WAS, IN MANY WAYS, A terrible year for democracy in the United Kingdom. At the General Election in May, the Conservative Party took home an unexpected Parliamentary majority from 36.9% of the vote, while voters backing the Liberal Democrats, the Green Party, and UKIP were left disappointed with just a handful of seats, despite winning more than one in five votes between them.

There is, however, a larger issue with democracy in this country, which goes beyond the problems of First Past the Post. That issue is the European Union.

Part of the problem is that the wider public are unaware of how policies are generated and passed within the EU. In general, only the European Commission can propose laws for the European Parliament and the European Council to vote on. Commissioners are not directly elected by EU citizens and are bound by the Treaties to act in the interests of the wider European Union, rather than their own states.

Moreover, once EU laws have been passed, only the Commission has the right to propose to repeal or change that law. This means that the MEPs whom you and I elect in European elections have a minimal

role in the legislative process — they are restricted to authorising the EU budget and supervising the actions of the Commission. And, to top it all off, this whole charade decamps for one weekend every month from Brussels to Strasbourg, at a cost of £130 million per year, or nearly £1 billion in the seven year cycle of an EU budget.

It is easy to think, however, that what happens in the EU is something that takes place across the Channel and has no real bearing on our domestic affairs. This is simply not true. Want to have weekly bin collections rather than fortnightly ones? Sorry, the EU Landfill Directive prevents that. Want the British railway network to be renationalised? Sorry, EU competition law stipulates that multiple train-operating companies must be allowed to use the same track

“Part of the problem is that the wider public are unaware of how policies are generated and passed within the EU.”

competitively. In fact, EU law does not even recognise the concept of British Parliamentary sovereignty.

Rather, in areas where the European Union can legislate, the UK court system has no ability to overturn their decisions. As the famous Labour MP Tony Benn put it, “If you cannot get rid of the people who govern you, you do not live in a democratic system.”

One of the major talking points of the forthcoming referendum is likely to be the uncertainty surrounding a vote to leave the EU. So what would be the likely impact on LSE students in particular? The answer, rather disappointingly for the pro-EU camp, is relatively little.

Take the Erasmus exchange programme. Pro-EU voices often point to this as a shining example of collaboration between EU countries, helping to foster international understanding and promoting peace and prosperity. This all sounds very noble, apart from one fact: Erasmus was created five years before the European Union was even founded. Moreover, nonEU countries including Switzerland, Norway and Israel (which isn’t even part of Europe, let alone the EU) currently take an active role in sending and receiving students abroad as part of Erasmus.

As such, it is a misunderstanding to refer to the Erasmus Programme as

“So what would be the likely impact on LSE students?

The answer is, rather disappointingly for the pro-EU camp, relatively little.” an EU initiative. It may be administered by the EU, yet it encompasses a broad group of countries, several of which have actively rejected EU membership. It is therefore inconceivable that a British vote to leave would directly impact on our participation in international student exchange through the Erasmus Programme.

What of the LSE’s own European Institute? That would surely suffer under a Brexit, wouldn’t it?

Incredibly, the European institute at the LSE is also a Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence. This means that the European Union funds Monnet Professorships at the LSE (and other UK universities) with the express purpose of generating support for European political integration and creating pro-EU

research pieces. Our membership of the EU is not a vital component of the Institute’s strength as a research centre. Why do other major universities, such as the University of Columbia, have world-class European Institutes, despite not being part of the EU? In much the same way that academics here can observe and analyse American political developments, other universities across the world are able to scrutinise developments within the EU, without the need for a political union. A vote for Britain to leave the EU could help the LSE to restore the neutrality of its European Institute, enhancing its global reputation further.

Having said all of the above, it is surely in our combined interest to ensure that the debate over Britain’s EU membership is free and fair, with arguments on both sides given equal opportunity to make themselves heard. The ability to critically judge arguments based on their merits is a key element of academia and there is no reason why we shouldn’t extend the same standards to wider political debate on campus. This can only happen if the LSE and the LSESU enables students to discuss the arguments from both camps, and allow them to come to their own individual conclusions without unfair lobbying and interfering in favour of either side.

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| Tuesday 26 January, 2016

Multicultural Appropriation is Attainable

Cultural appropriation is not necessarily negative in a multicultural society such as ours

I LEARN SOMETHING NEW every day, and today the phrase I learnt was ‘cultural appropriation’. My friend was wearing an infinity scarf over her head to shield herself from the London drizzle. She told me, rather worryingly, that she had to do a Google search to check whether she was committing the heinous act of cultural appropriation.

“But what is cultural appropriation?” I was intrigued.

“You see, I am ethnically Chinese, yet I am wearing this infinity scarf like a hijab. Some people just feel uncomfortable about those who use or adopt elements of a different culture.”

I fell silent as I contemplated the harm that cultural appropriation could inflict. Indeed, when people from dominant cultures adopt symbols which originate from minority cultures, they may do so in ways that are disrespectful to the traditions of that minority culture; reducing valued cultural heritage into mere ‘exotic fashion’ and perpetuating racist stereotypes.

As sensitive, tolerant and liberal-minded students, we may feel a natural urge to resist the colonial takeover of minority cultural symbols. You know, it’s all about respecting other people, and building a pluralistic society.

But what troubled my friend as well as myself is that this principle of respect can be carried too far, such that free expression is stifled, and self-censorship extensively used to avoid any offence.

When Katy Perry was dressed as a geisha during one of her performances, detractors called her a racist. The logic here is almost non-existent (to be sure I looked up the definition of racism on Wikipedia) — she was not implying in any way that the Japanese culture was inferior. At most, she was an attention seeker who loved wearing kimonos. But even harmless cultural appropriation like this could generate a mini-storm, and that surely had a chilling effect on artistic creativity.

“Indeed, when people from dominant cultures adopt symbols which originate from minority cultures, they may do so in ways that are disrespectful to the traditions of that minority culture.”

Indeed, many have criticised the ‘war on cultural appropriation’ on this basis. However, the real danger here is the underlying premise of this ‘war’ — a particularly insidious form of multiculturalism.

This form of multiculturalism, as opposed to social integration, advocates the maintenance of distinctive cultural communities. People are slotted into different cultural pigeonholes by virtue of birth — the culture they happen to be born into. A country, it is said, is a federation of such communities, as opposed to a nation of citizens.

Under this paradigm, cultural appropriation represents attempts to venture out of one’s pre-ordained cultural box, to blur this line between ‘us’ and ‘them’.

Therefore, from a multiculturalist perspective, cultural appropriation is evil — it undermines the distinctiveness of cultural traditions, the very thing multiculturalism sets out to protect.

But this conception of multiculturalism is dangerous in itself. It assigns people an identity based on what they are born with, rather than what they choose. To the extent that people have not had the opportunity to critically scrutinise inherited cultural practices, multiculturalism strips away cultural freedom. Moreover, it ignores the fact that culture itself is fluid, as exemplified by the increasingly secularised celebration

of Christmas. Most importantly, it creates an artificial divide between people of the same nation, erecting rather than breaking down barriers between ‘us’ and ‘them’. Segregated schools in Northern Ireland have certainly taught us the dangers associated with this cultural partitioning.

With an imposed divide between different communities comes less cultural understanding, which offers fertile ground for violence.

Paradoxically, multiculturalism undermines the peaceful coexistence of different cultures.

Despite its inherent contradictions, critics of cultural appropriation continue to base their case on the shaky logic of multiculturalism. In preventing people from venturing outside their respective cultural boxes, they are contributing to the sense of alienation that many people feel about other cultures.

As I walked with my friend in the rain, I recounted to her my experience in Turkey. I had visited Hagia Sophia, a grand Byzantine building which had served as a church, then a mosque, and now is a museum open to tourists of all faiths and cultures. In addition, it had incorporated elements of

Judaism in the design of its chandelier.

That building does not belong to any one culture. Rather, it is the fusion of cultures that made Hagia Sophia the great tourist attraction that it is today. This is the best example of cultural appropriation I have seen. Above all, it allowed me to continue to believe that, in this world of conflicts and violence, mutual respect and cooperation is still possible.

Credit: Flickr: Michael Tran

Ruihan Liu Undergraduate Student

The Welsh Language Stigma Endures

The ability to succeed and break down stereotypes #DespiteBeingTaughtInWelsh Ieuan Bennett Undergraduate Student EVERYONE IS ENTITLED to their own opinion and disagreements are part of a healthy debate. However, when an opinion is expressed as a matter of fact in a piece of journalism, one must question whether there exists an underlying cultural problem with regard to a particular matter. This is exactly what happened over the weekend when The Western Mail, an English language newspaper published in Wales, and WalesOnline the website of Media Wales, published what was supposed to be a thought provoking article about the journalist Lucy Owen’s journey to decide whether or not to send her child to a Welsh medi-

Credit: Twitter: RhunapIorwerth

um secondary school.

The subject of the article is very relevant to Welsh families whose school admissions deci-

“The subject of the article is very relevant to Welsh families whose school admission decisions are based more on language than location, and should of course be covered by the media.”

sions are based more on language than location, and should of course be covered by the media.

However there’s a difference between reporting an individual’s comment and the author adding their own in a descriptive and condescending manner.

The part in question concerns the use of the phrase ‘Despite being taught in Welsh’ to refer to the Welsh rugby player Jamie Roberts, who is a qualified doctor and is currently studying for a Masters in Science at the University of Cambridge. Jamie Roberts having been taught in Welsh is a fact, however the addition of the preposition ‘despite’ turns the phrase into a comment, one which has been written by the author of the article. It would be perfectly acceptable if the comment were backed up by evidence or even an explanation, to which others like myself can then counter, however what is displayed here is evidence of ingrained social stigma towards Welsh language education.

I can sympathise with the

subject, my own parents faced the same dilemma; despite my mother being English I attended the same schools as my father did when he was younger, a decision which I am thankful for to this day. It’s only natural to question whether education through the medium of Welsh will put you at a disadvantage considering we live in not only the majority English speaking Wales but also the English speaking United Kingdom. On the contrary, I find that being exposed to two or more different languages and cultures is of great social benefit, one which can be clearly seen through the diversity of the LSE. Any disadvantage to being bilingual comes from the ignorance of those who don’t understand that despite being taught in Welsh we are also fluent in English and are fully capable of contributing to Welsh, British and international society.

Such a stereotype can only be tackled from within by positive comments such as that displayed by the hashtag #DespiteBeingTaughtinWelsh created as a reaction to the article. Whilst the

“I find that being exposed to two or more languages and cultures is of great social benefit, one that can clearly be seen through the diversity of the LSE.” negative stories that say Welsh medium education decreases your chances of attending a Russel Group University such as the LSE or making a career outside of Wales endure, solace can be taken from the fact that there are plenty of examples of those of us who have been successful in what we do despite being taught in Welsh.

Comment | 11

Charlie Hebdo: The Right To Offend?

Charlie Hebdo’s recent controversial Aylan Kurdi cartoon is completely indefensible Nina Webb Deputy Comment Editor RECENTLY, A CARTOON IN the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo sparked an intense social media uprising, just over a year on from the attacks on the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris. The cartoon depicted the now infamous drowned toddler Aylan Kurdi; with the cartoonist seeming to imply that Aylan would have grown up to be a sexual abuser like the immigrants allegedly involved in the assaults in Cologne which occurred over the New Year.

Under the heading ‘Migrants’, the caption reads ‘Who would little Aylan have become if he had grown up? Ass groper in Germany.’ The insert at the top of the cartoon refers to the famous images of little three year old Alan found lying face down dead in the sand, near the Turkish resort of Bodrum, who was one of at least 12 Syrians who died in efforts to

reach Greece by boat.

The idea that all refugees would grow up to be gropers is outrageous and promotes a dangerous stereotype of refugees.

Whilst the attacks in Cologne were, indeed, a tragedy, and I am by no means condoning them, this does not mean that every single little Muslim boy will grow up to be the same. Particularly if Aylan had indeed made it to Europe and

“The focus should be on the tragic circumstances of the boy’s death and what can be done to prevent future instances of the same, rather than focusing on his background.”

grown up amongst Western culture, where, fortunately, women have reached a greater stage of equality in comparison to men, and attacks like these are shocking rather than being commonplace.

Additionally, the fact that the satirical magazine manipulated the tragic news story of Aylan’s death to further their own Islamophobic agenda is horrifying. The focus should be on the tragic circumstances of the boy’s death and what can be done to prevent future instances of the same, rather than focusing on his background and speculating on what might (and most likely wouldn’t) have become of him.

Some, such as Financial Times journalist Christopher Thompson, have suggested the cartoon may have been a satire on ‘sweeping stereotypes about migrants’, and did not have bad intentions, rather than being openly racist.

However, it is still promoting racism and Islamophobia, whether overtly or covertly. If you claim satire and state your right to free-

“In a nutshell, I’m all for freedom of speech, but there are times when it goes too far. This is one of those times.” dom of speech, it’s okay to be continuously racist? I don’t think so.

We live in a world where footballers have been banned from playing, or even jailed for sending racist messages on social media, but a magazine can continuously publish openly racist messages in the French media, targeted overtly, for the most part, at one specific group: Muslims, and have faced no consequences?

In no way am I saying that the attacks on the Charlie Hebdo

buildings over a year ago were in any sense an appropriate consequence. Murder is never an appropriate reaction to a few cartoons. However, Charlie Hebdo cannot keep publishing such cartoons, which are, indeed, mainly targeted at Muslims, and expect that they would not breed resentment amongst the sizeable Muslim community in France, who have already been relegated to the banlieues (suburban housing developments) of major cities, that are rife with poverty and unemployment. During the attacks last year, the BBC and Sky News refused to show on television any of Charlie Hebdo’s cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed which supposedly sparked the attacks.

Clearly therefore this is a sensitive topic, which is not acceptable to display on mainstream British media, so why should it be so in France?

In a nutshell, I’m all for freedom of speech, but there are times when it goes too far. This is one of those times.

The Cause of Unequal Opportunity

In a meritocracy, social mobility should be achieved by teaching the value of education Hakan Ustabas Deputy Comment Editor

ONE MUCH-CRITICISED social ill of the United Kingdom is the inequality of opportunity which faces young people. Children from wealthier families are more likely to achieve As and A*s at A-level, and to attend elite Russell Group Universities. Furthermore, research has shown that the more unequal a country is in terms of income distribution, the lower the level of social mobility it has.

This correlation has been met by calls for redistribution of income, to address the social problems faced by disadvantaged children.

Rightly, the UK needs to act in order to equalise the life-chances of every young person. An unequal system is not justified if income inequality is based on the accident of birth. We no longer live in a feudalist hierarchy in which wealth is for a certain class of people. In a meritocracy, it should be individual talent and effort which play the determining factors in the distribution of income.

However, while supporting the desire for reform, this article seeks to establish that equality of opportunity is not attained by redistributing income. Taxes on the rich serve either to drag down those who have been socially mobile, or arbitrarily punish the well-off without achieving the intended aim of creating a meritocracy.

It is true that a child from a low income family has a smaller

chance of achieving higher academic results. It does not follow that the reason for this smaller chance is directly related to income. Correlation does not equal causation.

A common argument which seeks to justify redistribution as a means to solving inequality of opportunity is that children from poor backgrounds lack the levels of income needed to buy goods which would increase their academic potential. Critics of the status quo have said that poorer children cannot afford necessities such as textbooks, which instantly puts them at a disadvantage to their wealthier classmates. This is simply not true. Firstly, very few young people would be in an income bracket so low that they cannot afford such basic provisions.

Secondly, secondary schools often provide the needed books to every pupil, so individual expenditure is not required. Thirdly, when this does not occur, additional funding

“Critics of the status quo have said that poorer children cannot afford necessities such as textbooks, which instantly puts them at a disadvantage.”

“When children are not taught to value education, they lack the motivation required to work hard. Exams can seem entirely abstract when no end goal is borne in mind.” is given to pupils who are below a certain income bracket so that they can afford to buy textbooks or other educational resources. Anyone who is cynical towards my claims should note that I myself fell into the third bracket, but refused the additional funding because I felt that, even on my relatively low household income, I could afford to finance my own life.

If income is not the direct cause of unequal opportunity, then what is? I would argue that it relates to education itself. I believe that the correlation between income and educational attainment can be explained as follows: parents in a low income household are likely to have a lower level of skills (hence the lower level of income), which is likely to result from a lower level of education. As such, they may have less respect for education, and thus

fail to instil the necessary respect for education into their children.

My claim is not unsubstantiated. Research has shown that the literary scores of 16-25 year olds are higher when the number of years which their parents were educated for is also higher. It is surely the directly related concept of education, which has the greatest affect on educational attainment, rather than the far looser connection of income inequality.

When children are not taught to value education, they lack the motivation required to work hard.

Exams can seem entirely abstract when no end goal is borne in mind.

From my own personal experience, telling pupils that ‘you have to be in school because that’s the way it is’ has never been enough to create the needed respect for education.

What is required is an improvement in the education system as a whole, and a change in ethos towards educating young people.

We must accept that education is a means to an end, and that end is gaining the skills needed to pursue the life that we want to live. There is no one single way of achieving this. School reforms, such as the ‘free schools’ programme, could bring a different managerial and educational perspective which would go one step further towards teaching the value of education.

Another possibility is that of mentorship, in which talented young people could help the next generation of students to understand why they should work hard, and how to aspire and achieve. I thoroughly

recommend the article ‘Opening Up Britain’s Elite Universities’ in last week’s The City pages of The Beaver. Having started a mentoring scheme in my local area, I am pleased to see that this charitable means of increasing social mobility has been supported by other students, who have created their own praiseworthy organisations.

“It is the work ethic and determination of an individual that should be the basis for wealth.”

Social immobility is caused by poor education. Using it as a justification for income redistribution clouds the underlying issue, and moves the attention of policymakers further away from the solution.

If we want a system where everyone has an equal chance to succeed, we must target our focus on the cause of the problem. It is trite that a country which is unequal can only be just if every person has an equal chance to attain those unequal outcomes. It is the work ethic and determination of an individual that should be the basis for wealth. This meritocracy is not attained by punishing those at the top, but by encouraging those at the bottom.

12| Tuesday 2 February, 2016

Lse has most successful rag week in the country James Wurr RAG President

The Union

THE LSESU RAG SOCIETY HAS just completed its most successful RAG Week in history and the biggest nationwide this academic year.

The final total is still being calculated as this goes to press but early estimates suggest that the week has raised a phenomenal £16,000.

What makes this effort even more impressive, is LSE’s relatively small student population compared to the huge populations of Warwick and Southampton, which outnumber us by almost three to one.

I have been incredibly impressed with the huge numbers of societies and clubs which have been involved with the week. Over 25 have either run a stall on Sheffield Street, been involved in a challenge or helped with the puppy stall. A huge thank you to all of you for making this week what it has been.

The week kicked off on Thursday 21st of January with the Beyond The Classroom: RAG Week launch event. Here four panellists from some of RAG’s chosen charities including St Mungo’s Broadway, Farm Africa and Breast Cancer Now, debated the topic of the Third Sector, answering the question of what the sector consists of, where it will go in the future and job opportunities.

The first Friday began with the launch of Jailbreak 2016 where 35 RAGlets broke free of the LSE prison and between them reached over 21,000 km. Four teams managed to get free flights including the incredible ‘London Heathrow’

who managed to get all the way to Bangkok courtesy of Thai Airways. Other destinations reached included Bucharest, Berlin and Malaga with £5,100 raised for Farm Africa. In the evening, the Drama Society performed their 24 Hour Play. The previous evening, titles, character names and play lines had been auctioned off all for RAG’s three chosen charities. The performances of ‘Jeremy Corbyn: Pet Detective?’ and ‘Dick Cheney Makes Money Off The Iraq War’ were well written and incredibly funny. A personal highlight was making a cameo in the now infamous Magic Wank Swap (check out YouTube.)

After a weekend of tracking Jailbreak, RAG Week kicked off properly the following Monday with the Raising Street Festival.

Here, the Vietnam, Nepalese and Baking societies combined with RAG and the Women’s Rugby Club to raise an amazing £800 for charities of their choice. On the other side of the street, the Sponge A BNOC event ensued. Hockey members broke the cardboard hula girl within 20 minutes and several buckets of water were thrown but our 10 BNOC’s raised £85 for their four hours’ work!

The Rowing Club took over the Tuesday daytime with their Rowathon to Paris which involved 60 participants who managed to row an unbelievable 458km in just 12 hours. In the evening, The Youth Funding Network set the week alight by crowdfunding over £4,000 for three student charities in just 25 minutes. A massive thank you must go to the YTFN team as

well as the Volunteer Centre and Santander for their hard work and matched funding.

RAG Week took a competitive turn on the Wednesday with the Society Football World Cup held in Shoreditch. Ten teams took part all aiming to win the RAG trophy with Jamaica crowned the inaugural champions. There was more competition in the evening with the Athletics Union running the Mr and Mrs LSE event. Four teams entered from clubs including Men’s Rugby, Women’s Rugby and Netball having to answer embarrassing questions mostly about their partner’s sex lives… At the end of the evening, Robyn and Liz were crowned the first Mrs and Mrs LSE and over £250 had been raised for Street Games.

Our second street festival kicked off on Thursday, with the Penal Reform and STAR societies, braving the intrusion from a well-known global and very uncharitable bank, selling cakes and pick ‘n’ mix and raising over £100. However, the main event of the day was most certainly the puppy therapy with All Dogs Matter who brought three very well trained dogs onto campus causing mass pandemonium.

Over 100 students enjoyed time with the dogs, raising £428.50 and six people even signed up to foster dogs from the charity. In the evening, six former LSE political hacks descended on their old stomping ground to debate the current Tory government and raised another £50 in the process.

Friday saw a bucket collection, musical performances, netball matches and the first ever

RAG Saucy. Beginning at 7am, 20 volunteers took over Liverpool Street Station to bucket collect for St Mungo’s Broadway raising over £1,000 in just 12 hours. At the same time, the Men’s Football and Rugby clubs were taking on the Netball club in charity matches. The Men were valiant in their performances, sadly losing out on four occasions but the real winners were Street Games who will receive over £250. LSE Chill also pitched in with some wonderful musical performances in Café 54 and London’s best student night was given a RAG twist with a charity shot bar raising over £350.

The end of RAG Week was marked by the incredibly hard Tough Guy challenge which 22 RAGlets took on in Wolverhampton. Tackling the freezing cold, 10km run and over 100 obstacles, all the participants finished in incredible times and raised over £2,500 for Street Games. Other events held this week included Live Below The Line where participants had to live for 5 days on under £1 a day and public lecture bucket collections which fundraised £550 for RAG’s charities of the year.

The final words of the week must be given in tribute to my wonderful RAG committee. This really would not have been possible without you and a special thanks must go out to Julia Lawson-Johns, James Bonner and Saaber Fatehi, the incredible RAG Week team.

1100 students, 25 clubs and societies, 40 events and over £16,000 raised. If Carlsberg did RAG Weeks, they couldn’t have done it better than us.

‘London Heathrow’ to Thailand - A Jailbreak Story Jessica Jourja ‘London Heathrow’

WHERE TO EVEN START? AFTER the amazing experience that Riana, Lynne and I had in the RAG Gets Lost challenge, we couldn’t wait to take part in the next challenge in the series, Jailbreak, and we were determined to take it further this time! Having read stories about students from other universities obtaining free flights to New Zealand and tickets from Virgin Airlines courtesy of Sir Richard Branson himself, we knew it was time for LSE to make its stamp on this extraordinary set of stories.

So we prepared early. I have to give Riana credit for this, who went crazy emailing any trail she could find – generic emails, emails to LSE Alumni, and emails to anyone we could find in the business. As expected, we received loads of rejections, or ‘Sorry, we would love to but…’. But then luck struck, when

a wonderful gentleman from Thai Airways who had crossed paths with our email offered to help.

Having initially been informed they would not be able to help us, we couldn’t believe it!

However, it was definitely not easy from there. Weeks of back-toback calls and emails ensued. Was it possible to get three free tickets to Thailand so close to the weekend of Jailbreak? Just hours after Jailbreak began, news hit that we might not be able to get onto the flight as it was completely booked.

Fortunately however, we did!

So the 36 hours of Jailbreak began to realise! After an afternoon spent worrying about a mix-up with the names on our tickets, it was not till we passed through security at Heathrow that evening that it hit us: We’re going to Thailand?

Proudly wearing our incredibly bright green t-shirts in support of Farm Africa – a charity which helps African farmers grow themselves out of poverty and end hunger for-

ever – as we queued to board, we were approached by a seemingly ordinary lady named Charlie, who after asking us what we were doing, admitted that she was the daughter of Farm Africa’s Chairman.

With almost 1,500 flights passing through Heathrow everyday, we couldn’t believe what a coincidence we were faced with! Tip: Always wear your t-shirts promoting your charity – you never know who might recognise you!

After an enjoyable flight with Thai Airways, and chatting to their staff who were eager to find out more about our fundraising, we landed in Bangkok! With only 30 hours in the Sun, we decided to make the most of it. Visiting shrines, taking advantage of all the Thai food, and even exploring the supermarkets of Thailand (when unfortunately, we were struck with a tremendous rain storm one point), the experience was surreal.

All in the midst of this, we also took every opportunity of Wi-Fi to

ask our friends online to donate to Farm Africa!

Regrettably, as LSE students, we had to cut the trip short for our Monday classes. Overall, we flew for 20 hours, however thanks to the incredible service of Thai Airways, the time flew by (pun not intended).

Once again, we send out a huge thank you to Thai Airways for allowing to spread the word about Farm Africa!

I would also like to give a quick shout out to RAG. If you are looking to create those ‘unbelievable’ university stories that you still recall forty years from now, take part in all the RAG challenges that you can! Not only will your experience be unforgettable, but it will all be for a good cause too!

14 | Tuesday 26 January, 2016

PARTB

ORIGINAL POEMS BY 14

DOLLY YE

WITNESS BLOOMSBURY 1 THE TWELFTH ENCOUNTER 2015.11.17 Foreword: I wrote “Witness Bloomsbury” to commemorate Virginia Woolf and Sylvia Plath, two modernist geniuses who committed suicide for different reasons respectively in 1941 and 1963.

It is a poem about the conflicts between female emotional extremity and serious literary commitment that aggravates the sense of isolation.

After a prolonged depression exacerbated by the onset of WWII, Virginia Woolf, the most exquisite expression of a bygone civilization, filled her pocket with stones and drowned herself in River Ouse.

Divorced Ted Hughes in 1962 after finding out his affair, Sylvia Plath moved into a plain apartment in London with two children. She gassed herself in the coldest winter in London in 1963.

An engraver sitting on a half-finished tombstone that reads: For the perfect Neurosis: 1941-1963

Slashing your vein after the overfished moonlight metaphor blanks your gazes of fresh longings.

A Clockwise Orange deposited onto your 3 a.m. psyche by A crook self-identified as Your past deeds going way back to a gravid womb.

The photogenic terror robs memories of their endearing characters.

Seeing no exit to a fictive playwrights’ whimsy, You choose to be a guilt-free Lady Macbeth.

The shotgun in your pocket warrants an openness, Whistling one step from a neurotic’s snapped self-diagnosis.

Fear no bullets? What topples The totalitarian regime of a depressed mind is Every cell, against a rifted climate, swims to her instinctive lighthouse.

Tear-choked dashes are prison routines destined To institutionalize a pale self-hood enclosing Pages of smoldering dread of a brain inhabited by Trojan horses, A ladder to a starless pit.

The line you thought you had crossed realigns itself with more Blind groping in the Black Forest absent Herman Hesse.

A Second reading reports each line of banality as clinically explicable as the Over-exercised neck muscles of British wood-pigeons.

A common sight with which you don’t want to spend your life.

Banished to an ever-exploding inner galaxy, You hold breath beneath Cross-currents of chemical reactions, Dripping a Rothko red in your mind’s eye,

Let your murderous streak tear the Undecipherable skin from Edenic marrow.

Inside every bleak story stands a faithful journal Entombing a corpse of time, And a brilliant striking out of the ultimate truth from a bucket list Prematurely made on a warm afternoon in Hyde Park.

It’ll be a cold day in hell when I cease humming your name, Slowing down to a standstill in Bloomsbury Street.

ON KINGSWAY 2015.10.12

Foreword: “The Twelfth Encounter on Kingsway” is a poem about my encounter with an old Middle-Eastern man on Kingsway, the main boulevard leading to LSE. A passer-by lapses into his violin.

Upon the vagrant eyes outworn by beating hearts of yore, I leap, sprightly as a star, to my next paragraph on Pan-Arabism.

The subaltern melody articulates a homeland Buried by imperialist folly and human lust, Carried on by a youthful debate behind the walls.

But loss has no voice.

Not until the twelfth time did your face bloom out of a plotless chorus.

More than a daily miracle, You sit still in a ghastly relationship with the future, In the rising and descent of human experience.

Your unnerving gaze caught Jordan River in 630 C.E, Trudging through a white beard, I wander into your Sinai on a pilgrimage to certain narrative secrets.

Immune to Qur’an, Dazed in ink-inspired piety, I am married to a parchment.

The sight of your Kufic script is a symphony of troubadours Singing to a dying moon who couldn’t live alone in Nefertiti’s desert.

Your defeated glances are littered In smithereens of an Ottoman elegy, an Oriental Winter Tale, an apple tree that rewrote a tradition.

No Hollywood could contaminate your luminous past, Nights you felt exploding in all directions, recollections of her the velvety pillow.

You are older than Israel, Fear of hunger eats away your sainthood.

How you got here?

What stirred you to the nearest point of departure?

A gun pointing to a placenta?

You put your past behind like an archived case.

I will draw your kingdom for my children, They will return the border To its rightful owner.

Father, You are not exiled in vain!

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

Young shrieks chalking on the year 1956, torching A breathless omen Darting out of a scarlet holocaust night.2

Bloomsbury group is the early 20th century modernist literary movement launched in London including T.S Eliot, Bertrand Russell, Ezra Pound, Virginia Woolf and her husband. Bloomsbury Street is also my route to LSE. 2 Sylvia Plath described a carnal night in Paris, 1956 in her journal as a ‘sleepless holocaust night with Ted.’ 1

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

MARVEL’S JESSICA JONES Sarah Ku

THE SELF-TITLED NETFLIX TV SERIES REVOLVES around the superhero-turned-private-investigator, Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter).

Constantly being haunted by her past, Jessica is a damaged and traumatised alcoholic who suffers from regular panic attacks due to her PTSD. The series focuses on her re-encounter with Kilgrave (David Tennant), a monstrous and creepy English man with mind-controlling power who comes back into her life and serves as the show’s villain.

Jessica Jones is, without a doubt, one of Netflix’s best original series. Not only does the show feature a strong female lead and clearly pass the Bechdel test, there is ample character development for both the main characters and the supporting cast. It is refreshing to see the show featuring independent female characters, such as Jessica, her best friend Trish and the cutthroat lawyer Hogarth, who are not the usual paperthin damsels in distress. Throughout the series, Jessica slowly becomes able to confront Kilgrave and do justice for his victims. She also becomes immune to his power, which parallels her ability to overcome her past trauma. Even the people around her, such as her best friend Trish and her neighbour Malcolm, never remain as plain or stagnant stock characters. Instead, they all grow as realistic characters, which is a rarity in many other television series. As the series’ villain, Kilgrave is captivatingly twisted, and this is definitely one of Tennant’s best roles after being the Tenth Doctor in Doctor Who. Although the series features unrealistic superpowers like superhuman strength and unbreakable skin, all characters are flawed, believable and real. The frequent use of a voiceover by Jessica also helps to add a touch of authenticity to the show.

Besides dealing with trauma, manipulation and rape, the series explores a wide range of topics, such as sexuality and queer relationships. It surely is a mighty attempt for a mainstream television series to include a diverse range of issues and characters. At the same time, the series is well layered with subplots, clues and foreshadowing.

While I will refrain from spoiling the show too much, the subplots tie everything together and will give you an aha moment by the end of the series.

Another big plus is the show’s wonderful use of cinematography. The scenes are well crafted with a huge variety of shots, angles and cinematic techniques. Clips often feature controlled hues to create a mood which fits the noir series. I particularly enjoy the fact that the show is available in HD and 4K, which is a pleasure to the eye if you happen to be able to play it on a big television screen. Colour and costume are also well utilised.

For instance, Kilgrave is often accessorised with something purple, like a tie or a scarf, which perfectly matches his identity as the Purple Man in the comic book series. Jessica dresses almost exclusively in a black leather jacket and pale blue jeans, which helps to build up her consistent image and character.

While the series shows strengths in multiple aspects, it is not without its own limits. During the middle of the series, it becomes a bit slow and drawn out, though it picks up again as it approaches the season finale. The ending is also, in my opinion, pretty anticlimactic. Yet, these are only minor shortcomings that can be overlooked.

It is great to know that Jessica Jones will get a second season, and I can guarantee that I will be binge-watching the series again. The last time I did, I finished it in two days.

16 | Tuesday 26 January, 2016

THEATRE ‘NINE LIVES’ AT THE ARCOLA THEATRE 14

Noah D’Aeth A HIP BASEMENT NEAR Dalston Junction is turned into South Yorkshire for the production, ‘Nine Lives’. Created by Zodwa Nyoni, a former writer in residence for Channel 4, this is a powerful, if slightly sprawling piece that highlights the travails of asylum seekers in the UK. It tells the story of Ishmael, a gay Zimbabwean man who is forced to flee his home after an outbreak of homophobic violence.

Played by Lladel Bryant, Ishmael is a kindly, thoughtful soul. Were it not for his extraordinary cir-

cumstances, you might expect to find him playing backgammon in his local park, or voting for the Greens. But he isn’t. Instead he is stuck on a South Yorkshire housing estate waiting for his asylum claims to be processed. As we follow his interminable wait for acceptance, a sense of frustrated isolation builds. Each setback and delay makes Ishmael ever more desperate.

A sparse set design helps to reinforce this point. It is only ever Ishmael and his battered suitcase on stage, with the audience surrounding him and a wall at his back. This confined space leaves

Ishmael pacing and anxious, at times lashing out and at others feeling trapped.

Lladel Bryant gives a strong turn as the lead and only actor. He is a Catherine wheel of emotion, the role allows him to plumb the depths of despair and also climb a few modest peaks of joy. He carries it off very well. It turns what could have been a self-righteous monologue on immigration into a more considerate piece about the value of acceptance and simple friendship.

The issue comes, however, with how the piece arrives at this conclusion. Ishmael’s stream of

consciousness sprawls around Yorkshire almost as much as a ramble on the Pennine way. It encompasses bullying teens, Nigerian refugees and feisty single mothers, calling on the full range of the actor’s accents. Whilst Bryant carries off each part quite well, the quick roll call of characters can leave you slightly confused.

His past in Zimbabwe is also only fleetingly touched on, and as such leaves you with a sense of frustration. The play tries to address too many issues.

In a way then, it is like being an asylum officer yourself. You listen to a stream of different and

at times harrowing tales, but don’t know what to make of half of them. Perhaps this is what the play wants. It does add a realistic sense of flux to Ishmael’s story. In the end however, these side stories are not too big of a distraction anyway, mainly because at the heart of this thoughtful piece, a powerful performance has found refuge.

‘Nine Lives’ is on at the Arcola Theatre, E8, until the 30th January

FASHION

17

WHO WINS IN THE FASHION WORLD?

DESIGNERS VS. STYLISTS Maria Mitroshina YVES SAINT LAURENT ONCE SAID: “Fashions fade, style is eternal.”

However, I doubt that the couturier realized that after some years, the question of what is more important - fashion or style - would determine the overall picture of the fashion-world: Designers vs. Stylists. In the fashion world, this could be seen - even given current collections, colours, volumes, textures and other trends - as the most interesting topic to discuss.

Fashion is definitely divided into designers and stylists, and fashion stylists are winning at the moment. Here, of course, I have to mention the names of Hedi Slimane (Creative Director of Saint Laurent Paris) and Alessandro Michele (Creative Director of Gucci), the two main stars in the world of fashion stylists. Big brands need people who are able to mix everything: vintage, sports, uniform, and especially youth subcultures - and then to make sure that it is ‘bright, stylish and youthful’. Slimane, strictly speaking, is not engaged in the design of clothing - he doesn’t create new forms, proportions, doesn’t work with cut and silhouette, however he is very successfully engaged in the styling of old designs, reproduces them in new materials and combines them into finished looks. The same can be told about Michele.

There is nothing terrible about that. Firstly, a good stylist is certainly better than a bad designer. Secondly, Hedi Slimane and his style of work - this is only one example of styling, “Stylists cannot come the most obvious example. Today, up with a new cut, new there are people with more complex proportions and new and more interesting approach than forms - that is the work that of Slimane, and even Michele of designers.”

- Demna Gvasalia is one of those people. He came up with a simple and effective way to reduce and commercialize Margiela’s heyday and has built on this success of its brand Vetements. What he is planning to do now with Balenciaga and what will be the context of this is one of the main intriguing questions of the coming season.

Stylists can connect everything correctly and come up with an excellent styling, but cannot come up with a new cut, new proportions and new forms - that is the work of designers. In less than a couple of seasons - Slimane and his gothic romanticism, as well as Michele and his gender ambivalence - will be no longer perceived as acute.

All these processes have influence on fashion designers. The most interesting case is Nicolas Ghesquière (Louis Vuitton) who recently created the ironic wardrobe for stylists, bloggers and stars of street fashion, proving that in competition with stylists, a good designer always wins.

10 EVENTS IN LONDON NEXT MONTH

FEBRUARY IS FOR FASHION Maria Maleeva

1. LSE Annual Charity Fashion Show – 01/02 DSTRKT. Tickets: £10 2. Hard Rock Couture at Ripley’s Believe it or not – 03/02-10/04 Tickets: from £14.95 3. Women: New Portraits. Annie Leibovitz – until 07/02 Wapping Hydraulic Power station. Free 4. Pop up Vintage Fair – 07/02 Alexandra Palace. Tickets: £3 5. Fashion Rules: Restyled at Kensington Palace – reopens 11/02 Kensington Palace. Tickets: from £15.14

6. Vogue 100: A century of style – 11/02-22/05 National Portrait Gallery. Tickets: £4 7. Korlekie Fashion Trunk Show – 13/02 Korlekie Ltd. Tickets: from £20 8. Pure London Fashion Seminars -14/02-16/02 Olympia London. Tickets: free, pre-registration needed 9. Mad about the boy – until 19/02 Fashion Space Gallery. Tickets: free 10. Lights, Camera, Fashion – 19/02 Vanilla. Tickets: from £21.79

18

14

| Tuesday 26 January, 2016

PANIC! AT THE DISCO REVIEW:

MUSIC

DEATH OF A BACHELOR Rob Funnell PANIC! AT THE DISCO HAVE CHANGED RADICALLY since they first burst onto the pop-punk scene in 2005. What was a three piece on the critically acclaimed A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out has slowly dismantled into what is essentially a Brendon Urie solo project, as guitarist Ryan Ross and drummer Spencer Smith left the band in tumultuous circumstances gradually over the past ten years. However, while fears that such a creative burden on one man could lead to stagnation or even decline were warranted after the bland and uninspired Too Weird To Live, Too Rare To Die! in 2013, Urie has managed to harness his new creative freedom and independence to great effect. Death of a Bachelor is a return to form, and while not being a revolutionary or technically brilliant album, it is a very fun and enjoyable listen that is representative of an artist who is in their element and finally enjoying what they do.

It certainly isn’t an original effort - the majority of the songs consist amalgamations of Panic! At The Disco’s earliest material with mainstream pop efforts in the vein of Fall Out Boy and even Frank Sinatra influences - but the album is all the better for it. ‘Emperor’s New Clothes’ and ‘Death of a Bachelor’ are particular examples of the latter, possessing all the swagger and style of Sinatra in tandem with Urie’s impressive vocal talents. The dynamic variation in swooning about his hedonistic and eccentric lifestyle in comparison to uplifting calls of “taking back the crown” in addictive choruses that cannot stay out of your head helps make Death of a Bachelor an album that warrants multiple listens and doesn’t get old quickly.

Some of the other songs take a more traditional Panic stance to varying degrees of success, and for any long-term fans will certainly be a welcome presence in the face of their more divergent sound of late. ‘Crazy = Genius’ has some truly crazy lyrics but manages to be an enjoyable romp, and ‘Golden Days’ is the very definition of an ear worm song, and while not exactly lyrically divergent from the theme of the album as Urie asserts “we’ll stay drunk, we’ll stay tan, let the love remain” in the chorus, it highlights some of his best vocal work and harks back to the golden era of 2009’s Vices and Virtues.

However, other tracks such as ‘Don’t Threaten Me With A Good Time’ tread the same ground and threaten to be too reminiscent of some of Fall Out Boy’s most recent material. While this does threaten to affect the longevity of the album, on the surface the song is still enjoyable enough and will still have you singing the chorus out loud every time.

The only major criticism one can attribute to Death of a Bachelor is the lack of variety and innovation, which is made all the worse when songs such as ‘Hallelujah’ suggest that Panic! At The Disco are truly capable of raising the bar even further and

creating a true pop-punk classic in the genre. However, that evaluation is somewhat unfair based on the circumstances of the album’s release. Now a one-piece and on the back of relative stagnation, Brendon Urie had a lot to prove, both to his audience and to himself. By truly immersing himself in his own musical interests and creating an album that is fun, enjoyable but most of all genuine, he has put Panic! At The Disco onto the right track and has demonstrated a future potential which makes Death of a Bachelor a truly victorious release.

OPPORTUNITIES Screening Opportunity: DHEEPHAN “DHEEPAN is a topical, brutal and powerful portrayal of three Tamil immigrants who illegally enter France in hope of leading a better life.”

Thursday 11 February, Thursday 25 February, 6PM, Central London Screening Opportunty: Norm of the North “When a real estate development invades his Arctic home, Norm and his three lemming friends head to New York City, where Norm becomes the mascot of the corporation in an attempt to bring it down from the inside and protect his homeland. ” Sunday 11 February, 11AM, Central London Interview Opportunities: Craig David, Kano, Oh Wonder, Rationale, Tough Love, Enter Shikari, Raleigh Ritchie, Izzy Bizu, Katy B, Panic! At The Disco E-mail us for more information: partb@thebeaveronline.co.uk

OPPORTUNITIES

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

20| Tuesday 26 January, 2016

Photo

Photos clockwise from below: Battle of the Halls that took place during RAG Week; Bucket Collection for Farm Africa featuring RAG President, James Wurr; Photo from Islamic Society’s Charity Week which raised over £30,000; RAG Committee members dressed up as Telly Tubbies before Hitch 2015; all the teams on Cromer pier before embarking on RAG Gets Lost; the photo of Men’s Cycling used for the Naked Calendar in Aid of Street Games; James Wurr, President of RAG having a jolly good time during the UV Party for Freshers’ Week; three of last year’s Tough ‘Guy’ Competitors having completed the course; RAG Committee Member, Valentin, during a bucket collection for Haven House; and two volunteers outside Charing Cross for the Breast Cancer Now Bucket Collection (they even made it onto the Snapchat London Story).

Photo |21

For our welfare Our campaign demands are: • LSE should reform its academic advisers system.

• LSE should end the session cap on the counselling service.

• LSE should reduce waiting time for the LSE Student Counselling Service.

Be part of the campaign, prove the demand bit.ly/LSESUWelfareSurvey

FIND OUT MORE AT LSESU.COM

24

| Tuesday 26 January, 2016

The EU: Time to Leave

The EU referendum presents the British people with a chance to significantly change the society they live in; they should use it to vote out.

Ramone Bedi

Section Editor: LSE Undergraduate Alex Gray Deputy Editors: SINCE THE EU WAS FIRST Henry Mitchell established it has grown from six

The City

member states to twenty-eight member states. This extreme expansion has made it very difficult for the EU to perform its primary function – to create a single market, in which policies and regulations are enacted to benefit all of the members, without giving one nation a greater advantage over another. The EU defines itself as “one territory without any internal borders or other regulatory obstacles to the free movement of goods and services”. The key word here is “one”; the EU is supposedly one entity.

The lack of “one” entity is prevalent through economic growth statistics. The UK’s recent financial recovery is similar to that of the US, while the Eurozone’s recovery follows a different path. The Eurozone’s GDP index (2009=100) was measured at 105 in 2015, compared to the UK’s 113 (BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research, ONS).

Further, unemployment in the UK is just 5.5%, while Greece have 25% of their workforce unemployed. In between these figures at 11.1% is the Eurozone’s average.

Clearly, the Eurozone is not moving forward at the same pace; it is not one entity.

The EU has failed thus far. With an EU referendum coming up in 2017, the British electorate have a choice to make: stick with the failed utopian ideal or free themselves from an inhibiting constraint.

There are a significant number of people in the UK who despise the idea of leaving the EU. This is partly down to the media’s portrayal of UKIP, which is that UKIP

Credit: Flickr, Global Panorama

are a group of racist, xenophobic bigots. However, this portrayal is incorrect.

UKIP’s policies are not xenophobic; in fact, they create a fairer system for foreigners. The current system actually discriminates based on nationality as it only allows Europeans to freely move into the UK. Non-Europeans may not be granted entry into the UK. UKIP would implement a points-based system whereby entry into the UK would be based on the net benefit you would provide to the UK’s economy and society, creating a fairer system that does not discriminate against people based on their nationality.

Exiting the EU and using a points based system will enable the UK to control immigration.

Currently, mass immigration is occurring. It is true that some British citizens migrate to other countries, but the number of them pales in comparison to the number of foreign citizens moving into the UK. In the year running from March 2014 to March 2015, net migration was 330,000, a 28% increase from the previous year. These numbers are unsustainable. Any economy would struggle to operate effectively with 330,000 more people entering it than leaving it. This figure is expected to rise year on year so the problems Britain currently have due to mass immigration will just exacerbate in the future, unless Britain saves itself by leaving the EU. Mass immigration contributes to many of the UK’s problems, such as the housing shortage, the schooling shortage, and the oversubscription of the National Health Service (NHS). First, the 330,000 more people moving into the UK than leaving the UK need

homes. However, houses cannot be built that quickly. Demand is significantly outstripping supply, causing the prices of houses to rise, meaning that many British middleclass workers cannot afford to buy a house. Restricting immigration would reduce this problem. Second, the number of children in the UK is rising as a result of mass immigration. Schools are not being built fast enough to meet the rising demand for school places. This is leaving some children without places at school. Third, the NHS is oversubscribed. Again, reducing the population of the UK by restricting immigration would relieve some of the pressure.

The issue with the NHS goes deeper than mass immigration. All EU citizens can use the NHS free of charge, meaning that the NHS has to provide medical care for the whole of the EU. One country’s medical system cannot effectively provide treatment to twenty-eight countries’ citizens. The NHS is a “national” health service, as the name suggests. It is not an “international” health service, thus, it should be made exclusive to UK citizens.

A further problem with immigrants is that some of them come to the UK just to claim benefits. EU proponents argue against this point because there is overwhelming evidence that immigrants, as a whole, are net contributors. However, it would be beneficial to the UK to accept the migrants that contribute to the system and refuse to accept the migrants who seek benefits.

UKIP are not arguing for no immigration. As mentioned earlier, they want to control immigration based on a points system, which would enable the UK to only accept migrants that would provide a

net contribution to the UK. Moreover, membership of the EU is very expensive. Membership alone was £11.3 billion in 2013 (BBC). This money could be used elsewhere, for example, to improve education. On top of this there are additional costs. For example, the British Chambers of Commerce estimates that the total cost of EU regulation to the UK is £7.6 billion (Business for Britain). The figure is so high because all of the UK’s economy bear the burden of the EU’s regulations, even though 90% of it is not involved in trade with the EU (The Bruges Group). EU proponents claim that it is worth paying extortionate fees for EU membership because the trading benefits make up for it. However, the UK does not need to be part of the EU to trade with it. Switzerland and Norway are not part of the EU yet they still engage in trading with EU countries through alternate trading deals. While the UK may lose ‘a seat at the table’, their say over EU policies will not change much. This is because, surprisingly, the UK currently has very little say (which is ever decreasing) over EU policy. For example, between 2009 ad 2014, British MEPs voted against 576 EU proposals but 485 of them still passed and became law (Business for Britain).

It is worth pointing out that, in the opinion of economist Roger Bootle, even if Britain did not manage to negotiate a free trade deal (which it almost certainly will be able to do as the EU benefits from trading with the UK), it would not be disastrous as EU-proponents claim because the EU is no longer vital to British trade. Leaving the EU would put the UK in the same position as the US, China, India and Japan, all of whom export to the EU with success. Additionally, leaving the EU would enable the UK to form bi-lateral trade agreements with fast-growing export markets such as China and Brazil.

Imported food would get cheaper as tariffs could be lowered.

In conclusion, leaving the EU will be beneficial for the UK. They can gain control of their borders, which will reduce a variety of the problems they currently face, while continuing to trade with the EU and increasing trade with non-European countries. The government will have more capital per person as there will be fewer foreigners claiming benefits and a greater proportion of foreigners paying taxes, so the government will be able to improve healthcare, education and other public goods. This will result in an improved society for the British people. It is for the British people to decide whether or not they want to make this change to Britain.

The City |25

Corbyn’s Cabinet Woes

Have we come to expect a shadow cabinet too united to ever have serious debate?

Alex Gray City Editor

AT A RECENT FABIAN Society conference, the easiest way to get an applause was to call on the party to focus on the real enemy; the Tories.

This is something that even those outside of the Labour Party tend to agree on - Britain does better, as do most democracies, when it has an opposition that is willing to hold the government of the day to account. This is a function that most would also agree, the current Labour Party is not adequately doing. In the words of one anonymous Tory MP, “we could tie babies to foxes and shoot them, and the Labour Party still wouldn’t know how to respond”.

Yet there is a tension, perhaps contradiction here, that is worth exploring. The other calls at the conference were for a free open debate within the party, so there is a tension here between having a free

debate within the party, and being on message. This raises some interesting questions about messaging, and the efficacy of being “on message” and, perhaps, we would have another excuse to blame Tony Blair for our obsession with unity.

Blair was famous for an obsession with unity. Talking out against the government was both a necessary and sufficient condition for never being involved in the government again. Alastair Campbell, the head of communications during the New Labour years, was also famous for a cutthroat approach to communicating within government. This, it might be said, would be one of the reasons for the criticism that Corbyn has come under in recent times. After Blair, and then Cameron (who arguably took after Blair in many ways), we have a situation in which seeing any level of serious dissent looks chaotic, and shambolic.

This begs the question as to whether this “new style of politics” is right, or whether the unity of the previous Labour Party, and current Conservative Party is really what government looks like. This tension is one that affects all political parties and businesses, too. To what extent can we legitimately expect a difference in views to be silenced in for the sake of group unity?

I think the answer lies in considering the fact that groups, or institutions, can in many other ways act as individual agents. It is possible for a group to know something, even when none of its members do, or more controversially, for a company to be guilty of something when its employees are not. This is the point of collective responsibility, we bind the cabinet of the government to all be equally responsible for the position of the cabinet as a whole. This is a central tenet of government, and one that makes sense for

the day to day running of it.

However, in opposition this is different. Whilst it might be true that successful oppositions are governments in waiting, it is not true that the opposition has the same responsibility as the government. It is also true that debate is, more or less, a good thing. So perhaps it is indeed the case that the UK should get more used to disagreement in opposition? But this is where the question comes in, it is to say the least disconcerting to think of a cabinet that you know is divided, having to take a stance on the big issues of the day as a group. One inevitably wonders what the effect of this would be on decision making, and on the speed with which the government could react.

I would argue that this betrays a misunderstanding of quite how far groups can be detached from their members, and still be legitimate. There are many times when we form

a group that we do not necessarily agree with as individuals, but as a group there is convergence. Consider a poetry reading class, at some time between meeting and the group, each individual of the group forms their own views on the poem. When they come together, they form their view as a group, via voting or some other aggregation procedure.

A divergence between what you felt as an individual and what the group feels does not preclude you from membership of this group in any way.

However, I would argue that Corbyn would be better off not making a relatively complex argument about the epistemic status of group knowledge, and of individual rationality vs. that of a group.

Instead, in more ways than one, he would be wise to take a leaf out of Blair’s book, and enforce the airing of dirty laundry to be done solely in private thereby presenting a unified front.

The Heart of the City?

As part of the RAG edition, we take a closer look at the role of charity in the City

Ritush Dalmia RAG Committee Member YOUNG ADULTS SCURRYING around at 7am with their daily dose of caffeine. Tall, intimidating glass buildings with thousands of computers flashing stock prices every minute. Is there any compassion in The City? Though it may take more than a few scratches beneath the surface to find, the answer is most certainly yes.

A quick click through their websites shows that most, if not

Credit: Flickr, Steve Jurvetson

all City firms do run substantial charity and development programmes, looking to give back to the community they are often accused of taking so much from.

You’ll find pictures of bankers playing and laughing with underprivileged children, sometimes even getting their keyboard kissed fingers dirty planting flowers and moving bricks. One can absolutely question the motives of these programmes, perhaps they are purely attempts to put these much maligned firms back on the moral high ground. However, a

large part of these increased efforts can be put down to young professionals being more engaged with charitable causes.

City Philanthropy’s recent research ‘More to Give’ showed that over 50% of workers under the age of 35 in the City, say they wish to volunteer more. The report also revealed that over a third wanted volunteer opportunities that matched their skills.

Considering these workers tend to be the best graduates from the best universities, their skill set is often in demand from the charity

sector. Through my involvement with the LSESU Economics Society, I have been fortunate enough to come in contact with the wonderful Pro Bono Economics. They match volunteer economists, often from the City, to charities wishing to address questions about impact, results, and measurements.

Their economists are extremely passionate about their work, and cite the wish to give back to the community as the only reason they do what they do. Similarly, Lawyers without Borders is a non-profit organisation looking to harness the pro bono services of Lawyers. Whatever the motives are for these firms and bankers to be so compassionate, the staggering end results make such questions counter-productive when working for the greater good.

Barclays were the recipients of the Lord Mayor’s Award for Longstanding Achievement for their seven year partnership with Ian Mikrado High School, a school for pupils with complex social, emotional and behavioural needs in Tower Hamlets. They have provided mentors to help develop employability skills among students as well as funding family support workers and psychotherapists who support students and their families. Leading City trading firm ICAP, on its 23rd Annual Global Charity Day held on the 9th of December 2015, raised an astonishing £7.5m for

various charities. To put this into perspective, Farm Africa, one of the many fantastic charities supported by LSESU RAG, received £7.3m in unrestricted funds in 2014, as per their end of year reports. ICAP is not alone in this regard. Despite still being in the aftermath of the crisis according to some, the financial sector continues to be the leader in corporate giving in the UK. Reports published by the Directory of Social Change in 2014 show that the (then) publicly owned Lloyd’s Bank accounted for 25% of all giving from the financial sector, which stood at £319m as a whole.

Moral uncertainty surrounding the industry will probably never be done away with completely, and rightly so. When it comes to business, these firms tend to be ruthless in their activities, often looking for loopholes in regulations and accounting tricks to maximise profits, and stay above competitors. Ultimately however, these firms come down to their employees. There is only so much emotional detachment one person can feel from another. With increasing awareness amongst individuals about the struggles of others, and the constant advancement of our innate human empathy, jokes like “Hospitals report that the hearts of bankers are in strong demand by transplant patients, because they’ve never been used” may be on the decline.

26| Tuesday 26 January, 2016

Hare Krishna ; Karma-free food RAG week interview with Hare Krishna on why they serve free meals at LSE.

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

Sebastian Shehadi & Taryana Odayar Deputy Features Editor & Features Editor (Continued from the front page) W E C H AT T E D W I T H Rakshana Radik, aka the Hare Krishna guy who was here on campus last Thursday; (Q) So firstly, what’s your name?

Rakshana.

(Q) And where are you from?

I’m from Hare Krishna - that’s what I like to say. A group of people. Its ok to have countries, borders. But uniting people is more important. We have similar spirits, souls, similar to everyone.

(Q) And what’s this dish that you cook for us everyday?

Oh it’s a curry. Everyday is different - difficult to say what its gonna be tomorrow! Today is chickpea curry and rice.

(Q) And I understand its made from re-used food?

No, these are vegetables we are getting from supermarkets and they give it to us for free. And they whole-sale in supermarkets, and they are selling in packages, and in a package sometimes the vegetables and food is damaged, so they have to throw the whole package. So we are just taking the fresh food from them and we are just cooking it.

(Q) How big is Hare Krishna? Is it based in the UK mainly or is it a worldwide movement?

Actually Hare Krishna is a style of life. So its when you love the nature, love everyone, and you live harmonically

gonna be helpful for all the people of the world. Because now I realise how important people here are at LSE, and they’re gonna be some leader, and they can change the world in a better way; to be friendly to each other and stop the wars and stop cruelty. We have a mother Earth and there’s enough space for everyone if we use it intelligently.

(Q) Do you go to other universities as well and if not why LSE? We do two more universities and three places for the homeless at the same time. At the beginning, we used to do this just for the homeless. In this movement no one is supposed to be hungry for the 50 miles around the temple. So we used to do just for the homeless and then we see the students coming and asking for food and we thought, why don’t we do this for the students separately? So we started at UCL, and we found more volunteers and more food sources and started to do more universities like SOAS. And then after I moved here to LSE - I didn’t know which university it would be; I just wanted to be a little far from SOAS.

(Q) Where is the temple or a place where we can learn more about Hare Krishna?

We have a couple of places in London. We have a farm where we have cows and the nearest temple is near Soho street, just 10 minutes walk, and everyone can come. All are welcome.

(Q) Why? What’s wrong with SOAS? I want to be a bit far from SOAS because I have girlfriends there and every time it became like a date!

(Q) So a change of scenery eh?

Yeah, I said I was gonna go to UCL. And then I had to walk a little far from there. But with this situation, LSE people can also have food. I didn’t know which university it was, I just saw that there were more students here than at the other place and I needed to come to a place where students can stay, and I can park and give the food.

(Q) Do you have a message or anything you’d like to say in particular?

I wish everyone to have success and I wish that what I can do will make them happy. I think Hare Krishna philosophy is

(Q) And you made this food yourself ?

Yeah, sometimes I do. We have a team. So we do everything starting from 6 in the morning; chopping vegetables, listening to music, talking. So the idea is food contributes to your mood.

So each one who is eating the food is getting positive energy.

So even cutting is done with this this positive energy. So we have rules where we have to be in positive moods and be clear from inside and outside.

(Q) You don’t get paid do you? This is all voluntary?

Yeah I do voluntary work. I used to live in a temple for 10 years. I wanted to know more about life. Before I studied as well, I studied medicine. So I need to know more about the world and I went to the temple and lived there. Now I have a goal of doing something good to others. Not working like dogs so I will have money, I will have everything. Actually I have worldly things, I have enough for my living. So I don’t have to worry. I want to do something good for people around me. Of course this is not from birth but I have to work to develop as a person in that way.

Thank you very much!

Following the interview, we did our own research into the Hare Krishna movement.

Here’s what we found out: The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), otherwise known as the Hare Krishna movement, is a religious organisation which was founded in New York in 1966 by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

Hare Krishna Food for Life happens to be the world’s largest vegetarian non-profit food relief movement. It has projects in over 60 countries with volunteers distributing up to 2, 000,000 free meals a day (ffl.org). The main aim of the Food for Life project is to distribute vegetarian meals for free, such that, “No one within ten miles of a temple should go hungry”, as instructed by Bhaktivedanta Swami. The practice originated in India, and stems from the Vedic beliefs of equality and hospitality. It has been praised by the New York Times, Vegetarian Times, Paul McCartney and Nelson Mandela amongst others.

Food for Life Global Goals (ffl.org): To support plant-based (prasadam*) meal distribution to the disadvantaged, malnourished and victims of disaster (natural or manmade), wherever there is a need in the world; To help establish pure food prepared and served with loving intention as a viable means to create peace and unity in the world; To produce promotional and training materials for the development of Food for Life projects worldwide; To represent Food for Life to the government, media and public through public lectures, newspaper articles, the Internet, and email; To promote a food culture of hospitality based on spiritual equality; To raise funds on behalf of Food for Life projects worldwide and to support them with grants; To coordinate and sponsor emergency vegan relief efforts conducted by Food for Life volunteers.

Image Credit: hkfflhyderabad.blogspot.com

Features

(Q) So that’s one of the main philosophies of Hare Krishna?

Yeah, Yeah. We are like brothers, sisters, even more not only as human beings, as living entities which have souls, some spiritual energy who can feel the pain, who can feel the happiness.

with nature. Some practicing people right now are mostly in the countryside. Because this movement started in ’67 by Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. He established a movement by the name of ISKCON - International Society for Krishna Consciousness - so everyone can come and learn something more about this philosophy.

Features | 27

El Año Rojísimo; “Reddest Year” for El Salvador

Grisly murders and gang violence escalate in the ‘most dangerous’ country on the planet.

Jack Greenwood Undergraduate Student “On Saturday they killed two of my friends. They chopped off their heads with an axe.”

I’d have felt much more comfortable had this line escaped from the mouth of a vengeful Tarantino character rather than pushed into my Facebook messenger inbox via El Salvador in September of last year.

“One of them was my classmate…like me, just 19 years old…I don’t understand. Why can’t we be like other countries and places in the world where there is no violence. I’m afraid to live here any longer.”

The sender of the message is 19-year-old Roberto Argueta, a close friend of mine after a summer spent working in his rural village Santa Marta, El Salvador. Up until this point Santa Marta had largely avoided the cancerous phenomenon of gang-related violence, and certainly whilst myself and co-volunteers were present, the dangers of the ‘world’s deadliest country’ seemed distant. However, not 48 hours after we had departed from a two-and-a-half-month stay, news filtered through about the two teenagers who were brutally executed by gangs. Two teenagers who were due to form a part of the next volunteer cycle promoting sustainable and environmentally friendly building techniques.

Two teenagers who will now have no chance to make a positive impact within their community.

El Año Rojísimo (literally, ‘The Reddest Year’) has drawn to a close and the numbers have been totted up. Each staggering daily figure compiled to form shocking monthly statistics,

each death-infused month accumulated to present one final harrowing sum. 6,657 people have been murdered in El Salvador since January 1st of last year. To put that in a bit of context, England and Wales recorded 515 murders in 2014, and are home to fifty million more people. The tiny Spanish speaking nation has broken all the records.

El Salvador is both the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. It spans an area very similar to that of Wales although it is home to more than twice the amount of people (around 6 million). Since the civil war of the 1980s, attempts at containing the violent gangs that sprang up in its aftermath have steadily spiralled out of control.

“Those bastards have everyone in El Salvador living in fear.”

In 2012, government mediated talks between the two most powerful gangs, Mara Salvatrucha and Barrio 18 provided a brief respite to the bloodshed and resulted in the unprecedented truce agreement nicknamed ‘La Tregua’. It contributed to a dramatic reduction in the murder rate, the daily figure falling from 14 to as little as 5 murders per day during the summer of 2013. It was, however, a shortlived achievement. Less than two years later, the ferocious tornado of violence reemerged, and murder rates have rocketed ever since the current president Salvador Sánchez Cerén tightened state control

on gang activities. In April 2015 Cerén called in 7,000 troops to support the standard police force and 4 months later the Supreme Court officially categorised the gangs as “terrorist organisations”.

“On Saturday they killed two of my friends. They chopped off their heads with an axe.”

Today, there are thought to be around 70,000 gang members active in El Salvador, only 20% of whom are incarcerated.

But this new government offensive shows no signs of curbing the incessant killing.

In fact, more people are dying than ever before. 5 months ago, the world gave a collective gasp as newspapers reported the country’s bloodiest day yet.

On 16th August, 40 homicides were recorded. The following day, 42 more. The day after that, 43. It seemed as though El Salvador was making a macabre attempt to secure a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for 2016.

Although figures have dropped significantly since August, the number of homicides is still exceeding the daily average of 15 recorded during the country’s bitter civil war of 1979-1992. Perhaps that’s why we hear so little about this endemic horror, the statistics aren’t quite shocking enough to warrant a headline news story any more. Since the deaths of the two teenagers in Santa Marta in September, two more youths have been violently murdered in the same

pueblo. One decapitated with a machete, another strung up and hung from a tree. However, they weren’t merciless deaths - the gangs have garnered a reputation for viciousness with good reason. Roberto stated that two of the boys were tortured before they died. First their tongues were cut off, then their ears, nose and penis removed with a knife, before each received a bullet to the forehead.

The extent of the violence is sickening, and shows no sign of abating with the government making little progress via its aims to stamp out gang activities for good. And although the local police are looking for evidence against the perpetrators, it is unlikely that they will discover many clues in a community where fear of further repression runs deep within its inhabitants. What is certain however, is the termination of British government-funded volunteering groups travelling to Santa Marta. Seven cycles of British youths working with Salvadoran counterparts of a similar age have had their chance to make an impact on the infrastructure-lacking society, but there will be no further contributions in that regard. It is simply too big a risk to take.

As the morbid toll spirals higher and higher, El Salvador stands at risk of stagnating as a nation crippled by internal problems. Youths like those who live in Santa Marta are more and more at risk of recruitment into a gang lifestyle that offers very little way out. This grisly phenomenon needs a rapid solution or else a country that offers so much could permanently struggle to escape from the long-term ravages of war.

Roberto Argueta.

Photo Credit: Jack Greenwood

As Roberto says, right now, “...those bastards have everyone in El Salvador living in fear. I think it’s terrible because it means no-one is going to want to visit here.”

All we can do is hope the government reinvests resources in a peaceful, dialogue orientated truce. As previous experiences have shown, this appears to be the only method that could bring an end to the nationwide suffering.

Interested in writing for Features?

Email us at: features@ thebeaveronline.co.uk

Photo Credit: The Guardian

28

| Tuesday 26 January, 2016

Tragedy, Farce and Donald Trump

Does History repeat itself, “the first as tragedy, then as farce”? (Marx) Sam Earle Postgraduate Student

ON THE DRAMATIC stage of American politics, Marx’s famous line that history repeats itself, “first as tragedy and then as farce”, has taken on a newly prophetic edge. In the cyclical nature of its spectacle, where the same characters and themes seem to resurface again and again, tragedy and farce are never far away. But, as the case of Donald Trump shows, it is often hard to tell exactly where the tragedy ends and the farce begins.

In the politics of the American right especially, tragedy so often dons the distracting mask of farce.

Ronald Reagan was, in Hitchen’s words, “as dumb as a stump”; he joked about falling asleep in important meetings and, in an emotional speech during the Cold War, compared America to Moses freeing the enslaved children of Israel from the pharaohs. But during his first term, he also denounced any appeasement towards the Soviet Union as “surrender” and came frighteningly close – while deploying references to Star Wars – to submerging the world in nuclear war. The same can be said of George Bush, whose trouble with reading and speaking has made for an entertaining YouTube reel of blunders; but he also led America into the disastrous, murderous invasion of Iraq.

Place either of these characters next to the latest loony Republican

“But like some evil mythical Greek deity, he seems to grow more powerful the more he is ridiculed; the funnier we find him, the more serious the prospect of Trumpas-President becomes.”

But as his popularity fails

to slow, the cheers are growing louder and the laughter more nervous. Trump’s ridiculous, impossible ascent to the top of the world’s most powerful nation is becoming increasingly real, and we face an awkward question – is Trump really the butt of these jokes, or are we?

Speaking almost thirty years ago in 1987, Trump provided a revealing insight into his business strategy. “It’s really quite simple,” he explains.

“If I were to take a full-page ad in the New York Times to publicise a project, it might cost $40,000, but if the New York Times writes even a moderately positive one-column story about one of my deals, it doesn’t cost me anything.”

Trump has smoothly adapted this publicity-as-advertising strategy to the political realm.

In December 2015, it was revealed that whereas Jeb Bush, last in the polls, had spent nearly $30 million dollars on ads, Trump, leading the polls, had spent a remarkable $200 000. The strategy has actually developed even further, for now coverage does not even need to be positive. In the bizarre tragifarce of Donald Trump, all news is good news.

But there is a danger in overstressing Trump’s success in manipulating the media. Trump becomes a sort of genius, pulling the strings of journalists like an evil puppeteer. It ascribes to Trump more agency than he deserves, and might only serve to enhance his image further. In focusing on the media, we miss where the true power, and the true tragedy, of Trump lies.

For while Trump has incited hostility against minorities and offended millions, it is not his own actions that are the source of his significance. Rather, it is in the depressing reality that he legitimately represents the views of still millions more. In other words, the problem with, and the power of Trump, is not Trump himself - it’s that people agree with him.

Far from introducing a new set of noxious beliefs to the American public, Trump’s strength is that he tells a section of Americans exactly what they want to hear. And as is the case with almost everyone, what they want to hear is what they already think. Crucially, Trump says nothing more. His popularity rests on the understanding that the details make politics boring and so, like Reagan before him, he has decided to leave out all the details.

Nowhere is this clearer than in his solution to terrorism.

First, Trump will “cut the head off ISIS” and “take their oil”. As he explains, “once you take away the oil, they have nothing left. And it’s so simple.” Then, he will ban all Muslims entering America. To let any in, he argues, would be like helping an injured snake and then being surprised when it bit you. Once again, tragedy and farce are rolled into one.

Whether it’s overtaking the Chinese economy, lowering the price of oil, or preventing illegal immigration from Mexico, the solutions all take a similar “it’s-so-simple” guise.

Though these answers may prompt ridicule from people in Britain and in parts of America, they evidently resonate loudly with others.

This is particularly important to remember in the context of the recent debate over whether Britain should ban Trump from entering the country.

Trump is not an evil genius - he is only the ugly head of a much bigger monster; the wigged mouthpiece of real and popular views in the US today.

Banning him will do nothing, and to think otherwise is to subscribe to the same mode of thought that held that killing Osama bin Laden will end terrorism. At best, banning him will only make him into more of a martyr. Although it is no easy task, the only way to stop Trump and his future incarnations, the only way to stop this endless cycle of tragedy and farce, is to challenge the beliefs that have created him.

Edmund Smith Undergraduate Student THE D E B AT E a r o u n d freedom of speech in academia has been simmering away for quite some time now, and is unlikely to be disappearing anytime soon. But it may be worth considering an aspect of the debate that is sometimes lost. We typically imagine that when a person is forbidden from making a statement, that is all that it is - a prevention of something that would otherwise have been said. But it might also be the case that in such a context, someone might thereby be obliged to make a statement that they believe to be false.

Consider a hypothetical debate where one person poses to another a question that, if it were answered in the affir mative, would demand an answer forbidden by some policy about freedom of speech (for example, a blanket ban on discussing the possibility that sexism might be ethically per missible).

Then the person answering must answer in the negative, irrespective of whether they actually believe that position.

This is not a death-blow for any argument for or against freedom of speech in academia, but it might for m the basis of an argument for ‘compartmentalising’ freedom of speech restrictions. On this view, restrictions are applied before debates begin or though trigger war nings, but cannot be implemented mid-debate.

This might be an effective measure against using freedom of speech restrictions for rhetorical pur poses; which is, unfortunately, common.

Photo Credit: www.businessinsider.com

Photo Credit: www.bostonglobe.com

reincarnation, however, and they appear like eminently professional statesmen. Neither could boast such an absolute lack of political experience, nor be capable of such a brash confidence, as Donald Trump.

He is the most farcical yet.

But like some evil mythical Greek deity, he seems to grow more powerful the more he is ridiculed; the funnier we find him, the more serious the prospect of Trump-as-President becomes.

Indeed, through Trump, farce has become a weapon of tragedy; and, as his success shows, a very effective one. To the sound of jubilant cheers and scornful laughter, each new statement of controversy dominates the media headlines more than the last.

The Pocket Philosopher

Features | 29

Interview with Dr Romani of the EBRD

On the impact of a GREXIT or BREXIT on the EU and economic forecasts for Russia and Ukraine.

(Q) Do you think a Brexit is worse than a Grexit for the EU? Well, the first thing to say is that I am not an expert on the Euro area and I’m not an expert on the different scenarios here. I think both of them would be pretty bad for the economy.

What we know, is that the biggest by far advantage of an economic union in the years of experience has been the increase in trade; intra-union trade, so the trade within the countries of the union. The role that this has played in economic growth is very, very large and this is by far the largest advantage of the economic union. We knew it in advance and the evidence is very clear that this is the case.

So from the economic perspective, a Brexit or a Grexit would be equally

(Q) From what you say, it seems as though a Brexit or Grexit would be a game with no winners. Is this a fair summary?

The exit would be with no winners.

There would be some political winners in the short term, and there would perhaps be - within the political cycle - some elements of the political sphere who would see that as a victory. But I think it would not take long to realise the economic costs and the political costs of either exit.

(Q) With regard to Russia and Ukraine and the deep recessions they were in, were you able to forecast these and what are your predictions for these two countries now?

Well, both Russia and Ukraine are going through very deep recessions, which are driven by very, very different factors. So in Russia the recession is primarily driven by the low oil price, to an extent by the sanctions which have reduced the integration of the Russian economy with the rest of the world. But primarily, they are driven by the low oil price. On the back of a period of very high prices, they

had prompted fiscal and monetary policies which were not sustainable at this particular level of oil prices.

Now the good news, is that Russia has mature economic institutions that are managing this period of crisis quite well. So both from the central bank and on the fiscal side, the reactions they have had have been quite good, and we have started seeing signs of recovery. So our forecasts for Russia are negative for the next couple of years, but we are improving them. They remain negative, but we are improving them because we see the reactions authorities had had, were the right ones.

On Ukraine, the issue is completely different; it has little to do with the reduction in oil price but all to do with the conflict they have been engaged in, in the eastern part of the country. Then again though, Ukraine has shown resilience and has made some deep commitments to reforms. Now, on the back of these commitments, and if these reforms are carried out, we believe the Ukrainian economy can grow positively again in the next couple of years – probably not next year, but the year after we will see a recovery in the Ukrainian economy, subject to those reforms being undertaken seriously by the Ukrainian government.

The commitments are there, they have the instruments, it’s a second chance after a missed chance for Ukraine from a few years ago to really carry forward those reforms, particularly in the energy sector, the banking sector, and of course on the institutional integrity of the Ukrainian system.

(Q) And what about Greece?

Are you more optimistic about the Greek economy?

The Greek economy is experiencing some interesting ups and downs. So of course there are some long term trends which can only be undone with some deep reforms in the Greek economy. Tax reforms primarily and the collection of tax revenue is crucial to that, reform of the banking sector - we’ve seen this week that there have been some signals on the re-financing of banks in Greece; our own bank has announced investment of 300 million in equity in Greek

banks, which I think is a good sign.

So the resilience of the economy will depend on the outcome of these reforms again. So the commitment is there, politically, the country can probably do them, and the government has committed strongly to do them. The proof is in the pudding, so we’ll keep watching what happens in the Greek economy.

Oddly, the Greek economy had a small rebound which was mostly driven by very interesting economic behaviour, which happens every time you put capital controls - particularly when you limit the ability of people to withdraw cash. So consumption goes up as people withdraw cash to then use it, and we saw that in Greece. But that is just a short term economic trend.

(Q) Varoufakis (former Greek Finance Minister) was actually in London last Monday for a discussion at Royal Festival hall, and he compared the situation in Greece to the last few lines of “Hotel California” – You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave. Do you think this is a fair description?

I would say so, I would say so. It’s a good line – I’ll remember it! I mean, Greece is part of Europe. And its not part of Europe only politically because it’s a member of the European Union, but its part of Europe because of its economy being intertwined with the European economy, and there’s a real co-dependence of

Greece on the rest of Europe.

I would say there’s something else that makes Greece and the Greek economy quite particular in this context, and something which is relevant to the work of the EBRD. The Greek economy is also intertwined with lots of the economies in South Eastern Europe. I’m talking about the Western Balkans - small economies, such as Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, also Croatia to an extent, and Albania, have deep links with the Greek economy.

This is important because a solution between Europe and the European institutions, and Greece, will have implications for the smaller economies which are not part of Europe.

It is very important that we watch very carefully, that the good solution for Greece is not a bad solution for the smaller economies, which are very vulnerable at the moment. And part of the work we do at the EBRD, is to work with the European institutions, with the Greek government, and with the authorities in these countries, to ensure that the resolution to the banking problem in Greece does not have a systemic impact on the economies in South Eastern Europe.

A video of the interview can be found at beaveronline.co.uk or UCL’s ‘The Economist’s Society’ YouTube channel.

Photo Credit: LSESU Economics Society

AT THE LSE-UCL Economics Conference held on the 21st of November last year, I had the opportunity to interview expert applied Economist Dr Mattia Romani, who is the Managing Director for Country and Sector Economics at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). Previously, Dr Romani was Chief Economist of the Global Green Growth Institute and worked at the World Bank.

The conference itself was organised by the LSESU Economics Society and the UCL Economist’s Society, with the endorsement and support of the LSE and UCL Economics Departments.

This annual conference which has been held since 2009 has attracted leading academics, experts and policy makers who come together to debate, discuss and exchange ideas and solutions pertaining to a wide spectrum of contemporary economic dilemmas.

The discussions were centered around the theme of, “Where is Economics Going? A Future of Uncertainty”, and attracted over 200 attendees, who flocked to LSE’s Old Theatre for the unique opportunity to witness some of the sharpest Economists from the fields of Developmental economics, Transitional economics and Industrial economics to name just a few, engage in intellectually stimulating debate.

very damaging if it implied that countries that were part of the union or trading system would stop being part of the trading system, or the trade would decrease substantially. And this would have a negative impact on everybody.

So from an economic perspective I think it would be very naïve.

From a political perspective, it probably could be even worse. Because let’s remember that first and foremost, the vision of the union between European states was a political vision.

And famously, it was in a speech that Winston Churchill gave in Switzerland – he talked about the united states of Europe, and what Churchill had in mind was not an economic union but a political union on the back of the failure of repeated World Wars in the 20th century. Let us not forget about the political role that the European Union has had in creating stability in the latter half of the 20th century. And I think we should not mess around with that and I think a Brexit or a Grexit would send the wrong signal politically as well as economically.

Photo Credit: www.ebrd.com

Taryana Odayar Features Editor

30

|Tuesday Januray 26, 2016

Sports Ambassador Programme: A Step in the Right Direction for LSE Sport THIS YEAR WE HAVE WITNESSED the growth of LSE’s Sports Ambassador programme promising greater support and recognition of high-performing athletes within the Athletics Union. Whilst the scheme has been in place for the last few years it was boosted this year to try and include more athletes at LSE and work more closely with the Athletics Union in supporting its ambassadors in their training, work management, financial support and other issues relating to performing at a high level.

The Sports Ambassador programme was first introduced by GB Olympian and LSE Alum Ollie Cook, now hoping to be rowing at the Olympics this summer, who recognised the need for a support system for athletes at LSE. The scheme has introduced 3 tiers for its ambassadors; Bronze level for AU leaders and role models such as club captains, team captains and exceptional performers within the AU; Silver level for athletes performing outside LSE perhaps at a junior international level and a Gold level reserved for

the highest achieving sports persons competing on a senior international level.

The expansion of the scheme this year was designed to create more of a community for sports ambassadors within LSE. With grand plans of putting on more social events, workshops, and other events for the ambassadors to meet one another and share experiences whilst also planning on providing more support to athletes including free gym membership, sports massages and help with work and time management.

The scheme has already proved successful with Tom Johnson recently making the GB Men’s Senior Judo squad.

Given the increase in members of sports teams within the AU and the numbers of people participating in high-level sport both within and outside the AU, I think its a sign of recognition that sport matters at LSE. It promises to be a success and a good platform to push for further recognition for sport and the AU within the university.

Photocredit: Sports Ambassador Scheme

India Steele Deputy Sports Editor

If you re interested in finding out more about being a sports ambassador, contact e.walters-williams@lse.ac.uk.

Football Men’s 2s vs Kingston 2s won 3-1 Men’s 4s vs. RUMS 3s won 3-1 Men’s 2s vs SSEES 2s won 4-0

Hockey Mens 2s vs Imperial 7s won 7-0 Mens 1s vs Imperial 1s won 6-2

Basketball Women’s 1s vs. Roehampton 1s won 37-19

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

DISPLACING THE ENGULFING stench of vomit, bile and fermented Carling this Wednesday past, at least for a short while, was the unmistakeable aura of that fickle friend, that dirty flirt, that distant relation whom you see so little but miss so much, Nostalgia.

In swathes she came and all-encompassing was she, sparing not a single member of the Athletic Economists of Lincoln’s Inn on her murderous rampage, reminding us of relationships unresolved, friendships unhoned, and memories unrepeatable since time immemorial.

Greeting the earliest patrons was a most remarkable exhibition, a vast sea of suited exrugby/notrugby players gathered on Sheffield Street, pints in hands, sharing jokes about storms Cooked up in a time that seems like decades, Evan centuries ago, Derk days indeed. For a split-second, this reporter was propelled back to his first year, his first Wednesday, in fact, when he entered the old Three Tuns and was intimidated into a lack of eye contact until safe passage through their pen had been successfully made. Nice bunch.

Soon the masses filed downstairs, filling the Venue with tradition, endeavouring to denigrate the 6.30am salmon, egg and avocado-based convention scheduled in for Thursday morning to the recesses of their minds, so as to concentrate on the task in hand

– getting really, really binned. As some of the highest-paid graduates in the country, needless to say the task was completed with both grace and efficiency.

Sibling rivalry was engendered by the blushed Face of one FC captain upon seeing the Oliveskin of one Macnificent little sister. Another footballer didn’t even have to Tink about his response when a question was posited to him regarding whether he preferred Mollycoddling to a Caldshoulder approach.

An ex-skipper showed a Phlagrant disregard for the professional nature of his working relationship with a young steward from Women’s Football, but his attempts to Coax anything more than a hello from her were unsuccessful. A Silva medal, instead, was won, as he Roshe to a different challenge.

Elsewhere, a man three letters from the Prime Ministry of Great Britain during the early 1960s said Hay to just the sweetest little bunny Rabet you could ever Ley your eyes on. In the same building, murmurs and Lowered whispers decided that to put fingers in any more pies, or indeed Nuggets, would demonstrate levels of maturity akin to those of a child, a Boy. A lovely occasion for everybody, then. A chance to remember that no matter where we go, whom we marry, for whom we work, (up to) whom we suck, that in the early years of the 2010 decade, the roaring tens(?), there was one place where background was forgotten, prospects ignored, intelligence discounted, where we could be drunk uni kids. And, as was expected, as was Owed, this night, like so many of its predecessors, had the Happiest of Endings.

Sport | 31

Netball Aiming for Victory in Charity Match Roisin Bennet-Odlum Netball Club Caotain NEXT WEEK, YET AGAIN, WE are doing the inter-club Netball match as part of RAG Charity Week! This year is going to be bigger, better, more fun and most importantly raise even more money for a great cause. On Friday between 3 and 4pm at the netball courts there will be matches against the Netball club’s finest, with Men’s Football and Rugby being the first instalment of matches in a series of charitable inter-club matches all in the name of the best game played by the AU - netball!

Last year saw the clash of the titans as the FC boys took on netball on netball’s home turf. The games were hard fought battles with equal measure of quality and comedy, and the 3rd year game resulted in a close netball victory. This year, scouts report the formidable Jack ‘Green Giant’ Greenwood will sure up the defence for the FC, a man who the club captain describes as ‘lanky, and our best player, unlike Nikhil who will be sh*t’. Billie Selby, last year’s Player of the Match has been rumoured to have said ‘hopefully the boys play by the rules this time so we can win’; perhaps a bit of unfinished business on the court for the 4th team captain?

The 1st/2nd year match ended not so happily for netball, so it’s all to play for this year.

This year we see the inclusion of other sports trying their hand at

the best sport to involve nets and balls (see you on the court, basketball…). In the spirit of inclusion even sports which use noncircular balls have been allowed to play, though none are sure how the rugby men and women will react to the ball bouncing how balls normally bounce. San Puri, allegedly involved in men’s rugby, will start with enthusiasm, but as always will finish first and sob quietly. Unfortunately Geordie Pete may be ruled out as the match doesn’t fit in with his rigorous gym plan, though Owen McJonge is expected to score as much as possible, and may even be good at the netball!

Netball are quaking in their socks, and are going to wheel out their top players. Even the first team might have some fun (unconfirmed), and play as top challengers. First team captain Ji Kim is rallying her team up for the match of the year, who have been working extra hard to not drink at all on Wednesday nights just to win on Friday. Further reinforcements hope to be a Godfrey-send and Poil the attempts of other clubs to win the coveted prize of bragging rights.

This Friday is men’s football and rugby, and we will confirm dates for other clubs’ matches!

Friday 29th, 3pm, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, recommended donation for playing is £5, watching is £3. Look forward to seeing everyone there!

credit: flickr, USAG -Humphreys

AU Raises Money For Underprivileged Children James Wurr Men’s Rugby Member THIS YEAR, THE ATHLETICS Union (AU) chosen to support the charity Street Games, which works to engage Britain’s most underprivileged children through sport. Launched in 2007, the charity uses sport as an instrument for social change within six hundred of the United Kingdom’s most disadvantaged communities.

The AU has already provided multiple fundraising opportunities for Street Games.

The first of these was the Naked Calendar where over one hundred members of sports clubs including Men’s and Women’s Rugby, Netball and Cricket stripped off, all in the name of charity. Over three hundred of these calendars were bought by members of the student body. In addition, twenty two participants will take part in Tough Guy this Sunday. Having already raised an incredible £2,000, they will encounter heights, fire, water, electricity, tight spaces and a whole lot of fear.

The AU is also taking advantage of RAG Week by providing another three opportunities to fundraise. Firstly, the Rowing Club is going to row 450km from London to Paris in one massive rowathon, the toughest test of endurance and stamina there is.

Secondly, the weekly AU Wednesday night will ask for suggested donations to attend the Mr and Mrs LSE event where couples will find out how well they truly know each other. Finally, the LSE Athletics and Running club has organising a twenty four hour running relay with over forty students expected to get involved.

Julia Ryland, AU President, has this to say about the relationship. “ I am really pleased we have been able to establish this relationship.

Street Games does really great work for underprivileged children and I am proud that the AU has the opportunity to support it.”

To find out more about any of events head over to the RAG Facebook Page ‘LSESU RAG (Raising and Giving)’. Those who donate to the Rowathon will recieve a FREE naked

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

Successful launch for Kickabout App

Wilf Craigie Kickabout Team PASSION; TEARS; HEARTACHE – no, this is not Leonardo Di Caprio’s turn in The Revenant, or a bewildered drunk’s reaction to closing time at Zoo Bar; mon ami, c’est ballons de fureur, le beau jeu, bien sur!

On Wed 13th January, a student-run mobile app called Kickabout hosted a large 5-a-side tournament in conjunction with LSE FC. Over fifty students took part in the competition, which was held to promote the apps launch at LSE. There were goals, tricks, fouls and questionable refereeing decisions, before the aptly named team “Victorious” were announced as winners following a tense penalty shoot-out against team “Apoel”.

Team Victorious, captained

by LSE FC 2nd XI midfielder Joey “Barn door” Barnwell, powered their way to the final, playing a brand of football that was described by onlookers as both “dirty” and “effective. Yet, their route to victory was far from bump free, having to overcome team “OCD” on penalties at the end of the group stage.

Wilf Craigie, an LSE student and part of the founding team behind the app, said that the tournament was a “great success” and that it “wouldn’t have been possible without the wonderful support of FC Club Captain, Sam Gravatt”.

George Calder, LSE 4th team captain, whose team failed to make it out of the group stage, said that the “high turnout shows just how popular 5-a-side football is” and that as an avid footballer “Kickabout is the perfect app; it simply makes it easier to play football”.

This message is echoed by the Kickabout team: Alex Jones, Joe Jackson, Avi Javaji, Wilf Craigie and Uche Renolds, who have set

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themselves the target of “reducing the barriers to football participation”. Whilst this sounds a tall order, Kickabout have already successfully launched at UCL, quickly hitting 750 downloads, with Kickabout’s having been arranged a arranged in as varied places as Somerset and Abu Dhabi. They hope their University ambassador launch programme, combined with organic growth, which recently saw games being created in Italy and Pakistan, continues to drive growth and help them meet their objective.

As some football fans will know, the recent 5-a-side tournament was not Kickabout’s first foray into LSE student life. Just before Christmas Kickabout ran a competition to win a t-shirt signed

by Dutch legend Ruud Van-Nistelrooy, with LSE FC 6th team captain Sam Murray bagging the prize. On top of this, just this past week, Kickabout have agreed to

become the official app used by LSE’s 1st football team to arrange their training sessions – a partnership that 1st’s captain Chris Norris called a “Godsend”, claiming that “it removes all the stress of trying to get 20 different players with different timetables, in one place at one time”.

Looking towards the future, Kickabout hopes to enjoy plenty more success at LSE. Last term they managed to win a total of £6,500 in funding, winning the London Entrepreneurs Challenge, which was held at UCL, as well as winning the UCL Entrepreneurs Seed Fund competition.

The team has now set their sights on the LSE Generate competition, success in which would allow for them to continue their rollout at more and more British Universities.

In the mean time the team will continue to arrange free inter-University Kickabouts on

Mondays and Friday’s at 5pm, to which all are invited. Joe Jackson, game-arranger-extraordinaire, tells people to “download the app, check the games going on around you and get involved – it’s that simple and fun”

tinuing the AU’s efforts to be as inclusive as possible. There will be workshops, training, panel discussions, sporting events, nutrition sessions and more. For the first time the Union has also begun giving recognition to inspirational sports women within the university and are now taking nominations online. The core ethos of the Most Inspirational Sportswomen Award is that sports women are not just defined by sporting prowess, but also their dedication, passion and enthusiasm.

The discussion panel is set to be the biggest event of the week, with the AU collaboration with the LGBT+ Alliance, the Intersectional Feminist Society and the Women’s Network. So far, the Beaver

can confirm two of the speakers set to contribute; the first is Jayne Caudwell whose work focuses on women in sport, as well as feminist and queer theory. To balance out the academia and provide a more experience based view point is England lacrosse player, Laura Plant. Not only does Plant play Lacrosse nationally, she is also a high performing pentathlete, and is involved in the free London fitness movement: Project Awesome.

The week sees the launch of the “This Girl Can” campaign, with LSE women’s sports teams taking part in filming to compile a video in the lead up to the week; the screening planned for the 8th February.

Even the pre-Zoo bar Wednesday night will be handed to the women

as part of LSESU Galentines party which will be held at Sway Bar exclusively for self-defining female athletes.

Organiser Hovland Johanson summarised the underlying motivation behind the Women in Sports Week as she explained “The gender gap in sport is massive, as the arena is still considered to be very “masculine”… I am tired about some of the myths and stigma that still exist towards women doing sports. Hopefully this week will help to overcome some of these notions, and celebrate, inspire and empower more women at LSE to enjoy sport!”

This week is guaranteed to be a celebration of dedication, passion and overcoming adversity.

To check out highlights of the recent tournament, as well as to stay up to date on the latest Kickabout news, “like” their Facebook page at:https:// w w w. f a c e b o o k . c o m / k i c k aboutapp/ To download the app search “Kickabout” in the iOS and Android app stores.

Correction: Last Week’s edition incorrectly credited the article about the ski trip. The article was written by Katie Flynn.

These Girls Can: LSE Women in Sports Perdita Blinkhorn LGBT+ Alliance President

THREE TIME TRACK AND field Olympic champion, Gail Devers , once said “Understand to achieve anything requires faith and belief in yourself, vision, hard work, determination, and dedication. Remember all things are possible for those who believe.” This desire to instil passion for sport and a belief that female athletes can be just as successful as sportspeople like Devers is the key driving factor behind the LSE Athletics Union’s first ever Women In Sports Week.

Headed by AU Engagement Officer, Jenny Hovland Johanson, the week aims to inspire and empower women in sport and con-