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Beaver Tuesday November 12 2013 | www.thebeaveronline.com | No 797.

The Feature Interview: Nick Cohen “I don’t see the point of your Students’ Union”

FREE Newspaper of the LSE Students’ Union

Disputatio Ergo Cogito: “Spying on allies”

page 23

- the debate, page 11

Panel fails to pick a winner for new

£90 million building Team C

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THE PANEL charged with selecting the winning design for the LSE’s new £90 million Global Centre for Social Sciences (GCSS) has failed to reach a decision. The panel was supposed to select a winning submission in HDUO\ 1RYHPEHU QR VSHFLஊF UHDson has been given for the delay, but Architect’s Journal is quoting an anonymous source who said: “‘It was possibly over-optimistic that the jury panel could reach a decision after one or two PHHWLQJV ‫ڕ‬ ‫)ٺٺٺٺ‬LYH GHVLJQV IURP LQWHUQDtionally recognized architecture ஊUPV DUH RQ WKH VKRUWOLVW IRU ஊnal selection. In October, the LSE held a campaign to exhibit the designs to students and faculty. The exhibit was publicised as a way to allow both groups WR LQ஋XHQFH ZKLFK GHVLJQ LV XOtimately chosen. Given the delay in selecting a winning design, The Beaver asked LSE Students’ Union (SU) General Secretary Jay Stoll - an active part of the ongoing deliberations -- for his impression of the role that the student input will play in the selection process. ‫ٺٺٺٺ‬6WROO FRPPHQWHG WKDW ‫ڔ‬,Qvested individuals, particularly students, perceived that they ZRXOG EH DEOH WR LQ஋XHQFH WKH GHVLJQ ‫ ڕ‬+H ZHQW RQ WR VWDWH WKDW he had “ brought up the outcome of the vote from the Library exhibition a few times in proceedings to make sure that our members’ voices are heard…the nature of discussions in the panel extend

far beyond immediate aesthetic impressions – therefore the student vote cannot be taken as gospel as the panel deliberates the virtues of pitfalls of the variRXV HQWUDQWV ‫ڕ‬ ‫ٺٺٺٺ‬6WROO GHFOLQHG WR VD\ PRUH about the selection process due to the ongoing nature of deliberations. No plans have been announced to give students further input on the design outcome. ‫ٺٺٺٺ‬2IILFLDOV DW WKH /6( KDYH offered few details on the delay; however, the complexity of the project and problems with WKH TXDOLW\ RI ஊQDO VXEPLVVLRQV appear to be contributing factors. According to Julian Robinson, Director of Estates: “Each of the schemes has interesting ideas but there is some further work to do by the practices and the School. It may be to do with the design brief constraints and sheer scale of what we are atWHPSWLQJ ‫ ڕ‬ ‫ٺٺٺٺ‬$UFKLWHFWXUH PDJD]LQH %' LV UHSRUWLQJ WKDW WKUHH RI WKH ஊYH GHVLJQ ஊUPV KDYH EHHQ WROG WR upgrade the quality of their submissions, although The Beaver has not been able to independently verify this as of publication time. ‫ٺٺٺٺ‬1HZV RI WKLV GHYHORSPHQW comes just as the LSE has announced plans for another international design competition to be held for redevelopment of the site at 44 Lincoln’s Inn )LHOGV 7KH VFKRRO DFTXLUHG WKH site from Cancer Research UK for £80 million last month. Cancer Research UK will continue to occupy the property until 2016.

Living Wage Week at LSE Olivia Gleeson

THE THIRD TO THE NINTH of November marked the second ever ‘Living Wage Week’ in the UK, a campaign designed to raise awareness about the living wage concept and to encourage businesses to convert to becoming living wage employers. In a tweet, LSE Students’ Union (SU) General Secretary Jay Stoll stated that the SU and “LSE have been paying the living wage to VWDஉ VLQFH ‫ ڕ‬ ‫ٺٺٺٺ‬7KH /LYLQJ :DJH LQLWLDWLYH was launched in 2001 by hardpressed parents in East London who felt that minimum wage jobs were insufficient to live on in London. The living wage is an hourly rate calculated annually on the cost of living both in London and the rest of the UK. This year, the ‘Living Wage Week’ coincided with the unveilLQJ RI WKH QHZ OLYLQJ ZDJH ஊJure for 2014 on Monday, which saw a rise from £7.45 to £7.65 throughout the UK, and from £8.55 to £8.80 in London. ‫ٺٺٺٺ‬7KH /LYLQJ :DJH UHPDLQV D voluntary ‘opt-in’ system for employers. This week, the group has rolled out a vast social media campaign and sponsored several events and talks in businesses and universities to highlight the EHQHஊWV RI WKH OLYLQJ ZDJH ERWK for businesses, the economy, and individuals. ‫ٺٺٺٺ‬7KH GLYLGHQGV RI WKH OLYLQJ wage for employers is, according to the campaign, a rise in VWDஉ SURGXFWLYLW\ DQG SHUIRUmance, with a study carried out by the living wage group showing that absenteeism in organizations with the living wage has fallen by almost 25%. ‫ٺٺٺٺ‬Continued on page 3

IN THE NEWS England’s social classes slow to evolve

Islamic Society takes part in Charity Week

Barber: Euro creation a ‘political project’

LSE research shows that social classes evolve slower than expected.

LSE’s Islamic Society has raised £12,000 so far for Charity Week.

Lionel Barber has called the creation of the Euro a huge ‘political project’.

NEWS page 2

NEWS Page 3

NEWS page 4

Meet Chris Wood, Postgraduate Officer

NEWS page 5

Halliday Memorial Lecture Director Craig Calhoun presented the Memorial Lecture on 5th November. NEWS page 2

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Halliday Memorial Lecture on roots of humanitarianism Chloe Holden

THE SHEIKH ZAYED Theatre ZDV னOOHG QHDUO\ WR FDSDFLW\ RQ Tuesday, November 5 for the third annual Fred Halliday Distinguished Lecture. LSE Director Craig Calhoun, this year’s speaker, focused his talk on the historical and ideological roots of humanitarianism. The yearly event honors the memory of renowned international relations scholar and longtime LSE professor Fred Halliday. Lecture chair Chris Hughes spoke about Halliday’s commitment to the LSE community, to the study of the Middle East, and to human rights. Calhoun, whose own scholarship spans sociology, politics, and economics, began the talk with a critical look at the idea of “humanitarian emergencies.â€? ‍ڔ‏6XŕŽ‰HULQJ ‍& ڕ‏DOKRXQ QRWHG ‍ڔ‏,V hardly something new. Throughout history, there have been a myriad of ways that humans KDYH VXŕŽ‰HUHG KDYH PDGH HDFK

RWKHU VXŕŽ‰HU ‍ ڕ‏+RZHYHU WKH LGHD has arisen only recently in Western culture. Although understanding of the causes of tragedy have evolved greatly, Calhoun’s WDON HPSKDVL]HG D QHHG IRU VHOI awareness within humanitarianism, and the suggested a future ORFDOL]DWLRQ RI KXPDQLWDULDQ HIforts. 'UDZLQJ னUVW IURP KLVWRULFDO H[amples, Calhoun pointed out that the language used to describe WUDJLF HYHQWV ZDV GLŕŽ‰HUHQW LQ WKH past. Displaying a painting of the event to the audience, Calhoun pointed to a depiction of angels DORQJVLGH VXŕŽ‰HULQJ YLFWLPV DQG noted that the root of the word for disaster (the Latin astrum, or “starâ€?), represents association between negative events and the idea of destiny or fate that was dominant during the time. Jumping from etymology to technology, Calhoun added that the great disasters of the past lacked immediacy for people in other parts of the world. However, even as technologies and attitudes evolved, the modern

England’s social classes are slow to evolve Megan Crockett

RESEARCH carried out by Dr Neil Cummins, an Economic Historian at LSE, and Professor Gregory Clark (UC Davis) seems to show that the class structure within Britain is evolving very slowly. The rate is much slower than previously expected. ‍ٺٺٺٺ‏2Q D VFDOH ZKHUH ]HUR UHSresents complete equality of economic opportunity, and one represents a person’s status as completely inherited, economists previously believed that social mobility was within a range of 0.2 to 0.5. ‍&ٺٺٺٺ‏XPPLQV DQG &ODUN‍ڑ‏V UHsearch found that the rate of social mobility was much more likely to be at a level of 0.85. This would mean that the prosperity of the wealthy classes would take over half a millennia to return to the society’s average. ‍ٺٺٺٺ‏7KH ZRUN E\ WKH DFDGHPLFV suggests that neither government directed mass programs of education nor the widening of voting rights in this country have improved social mobility. ‍ٺٺٺٺ‏7KHLU VWXG\ IRFXVHG RQ WKH intake of students at the University of Oxford from 1215 to the present day, focusing on the certain surnames. ‍ٺٺٺٺ‏7KH LQWURGXFWLRQ RI PDVV public education and universal suffrage has caused many people to find this research surprising, as they believed these institutions would have affected the rate of social mo-

bility. However, when interviewed, Cummins suggested there were “socio physicsâ€? that spread across countries and “[minimised] the effect of government intervention and institutionsâ€?. ‍ٺٺٺٺ‏,Q D UHFHQW EORJ SRVW Cummins went on to say that there was a “surprising degree of socio-economic rigidity that [was]‌immune to government interventionâ€?, which reinforced his views expressed at interview. ‍&ٺٺٺٺ‏XPPLQV DQG &ODUN‍ڑ‏V UHsearch suggested that socioeconomic status was strongly inherited. Information released from the Office of National Statistics on the 29th October supported the researchers’ conclusions, stating that one-fifth of inheritors between 2008 to 2010 received ÂŁ57bn, accounting for 76 per cent of all inherited income. This emphasised the inequality of inheritance. ‍&ٺٺٺٺ‏XPPLQV DQG &ODUNH VXJgested that socio-economic status was as strongly inherited as height, with “the degrees of churning‌remarkably limitedâ€?. However, Cummins went on to say that inherited social class was ‘not destiny’, with people still able move up and down the social scale. Research, he added, expressed trends, and was not necessarily prescriptive. ‍ٺٺٺٺ‏7KHLU ILQGLQJV ZLOO EH SXElished in their book, The Sun Also Rises, in early 2014, by Princeton University Press.

humanitarian enterprise did not emerge until the second half of the 20th century. Calhoun considered be considered in light of two key developments: political developments of the 60s and 70s, and the increasing prevalence of visual media. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, idealists who believed in the power of economic growth or revolution as catalysts for social change became disenchanted, experiencing “a loss of faithâ€? in the midst of crises such as the oil shock, the Yom Kippur war, and political problems in many newly independent states. Out of this historical moment, Calhoun stated, arose “the largest scale gift economy that the world has managed to produce.â€? People, especially in the wealthier countries of the world, began organL]LQJ DURXQG GLUHFW DLG KRSing to respond to emergencies DQG DOOHYLDWH VXŕŽ‰HULQJ ZKHUH LW seemed most tenacious. The impulse to give and to help across distances, however, can be seen as problematic. Accord-

ing to Calhoun, humanitarianism is the product of “an emergency imaginaryâ€? – a way of thinking which the highlights some asSHFWV RI KXPDQ VXŕŽ‰HULQJ DQG REscures others. Trends in photojournalism reveal some of these biases. “Our attention is focused by an emergency,â€? noted Calhoun. “This can be powerfully good because we then try to help, but can also be powerfully misleading.â€? According to Calhoun’s examples, ongoing human rights crises may be covered only in short burst in the Western, giving the impression that these situations erupt quickly and spontaneously. Calhoun said that coverage of humanitarian emergencies often failed to highlight causes of crises that the international community might in fact be complicit LQ +H RŕŽ‰HUHG WKH H[DPSOH RI WKH crisis in Darfur, which is often GHVFULEHG DV D VHFWDULDQ FRQŕŽ‹LFW although it is linked to stress IURP GHVHUWLனFDWLRQ FDXVHG E\ D changing climate.

Diliff

London ranks #1 in world’s academic cities Following the release of this year’s QS and Times Higher Education rankings, it has transpired that London has the highest concentration of top-ranking universities in the world. Evaluations carried out in areas such as teaching, research and international reputation have placed four London universities (Imperial College London, UCL, LSE, and KCL) in the top forty world universities.

London’s lecturers strike over pay Hundreds of London’s univerVLW\ OHFWXUHUV DQG VXSSRUW VWDŕŽ‰ went on strike over what they claim is a 13% cut in pay. Members of the University and College Union (UCU), Unite and Unison staged a national walkout, causing class cancellations and putting facilities out of action.

Friday prayer protest: Islamic Society battle for space On the 17th of last month a statement was released on Islamic Society’s (ISoc) Facebook page expressing their unhappiness with the current facilities available to them to carry out prayer and their plans to protest.

Union increases SULFH RI FR૸HH University College London Union’s bars and cafes prices are the subject of much discussion at the beginning of every academic year, and 2013/14 is no exception to this rule. Many hot drink prices have risen by roughly 10p for the new term, leaving some students confused as to whether UCLU’s actions are really in their best interests.all three trade unions – UCU, Unison and Unite.

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Islamic Society raises ÂŁ12,000 for Charity Week Rahat Siddique

THE LSE Students’ Union (SU) Islamic Society took part in Charity Week last week, with a variety of activities taking place across campus ranging from face painting, a FIFA tournaPHQW DQG D னOP VFUHHQLQJ RI Academy Award nominee 5 Broken Cameras. Throughout the week Houghton Street was in constant supply of Krispy Kreme doughnuts, in a sweet attempt to increase donations for fellow FODVVPDWHV DQG VWDŕŽ‰ ‍ٺٺٺٺ‏$OO PRQH\ UDLVHG GXULQJ Charity Week will be used to help orphans and needy children around the world, with a 100% donation policy for the entire period. Celebrating its tenth anniversary, Charity Week began with a small group of University of London students motivated to

Bernard Pollack

make a positive change in their world. Since then Charity Week has become a nationwide initiative in colleges and universities across the UK. ‍ٺٺٺٺ‏7KLV \HDU KDV EHHQ RQH RI great achievement for the Islamic Society, having broken their initial target of ÂŁ10,000. In previous years the society has never raised more than ÂŁ7000 compared to UCL’s staggering ÂŁ50,545.04 last year. ‍ٺٺٺٺ‏+RZHYHU WKH RYHUZKHOPLQJ resolve of the event co-ordinators Jahangir Raja and Mehak Adil brought the running total to over ÂŁ12,000, close to their new ÂŁ15,000 target. Mehak described the week as “inspirationalâ€? and “a way of showing gratitude for what we haveâ€?. ‍ٺٺٺٺ‏7KH EX]] DURXQG FDPSXV brought people of all communities and backgrounds together

LSESU Islamic Society

to fundraise and have fun. For many volunteers, meeting new people and making new friends has been the highlight of the week, all while having the opportunity to be a means by which lives of deprived children can be improved. ‍ٺٺٺٺ‏%H\RQG F\EHU VSRUWV PHPbers of the Islamic Society braved the cold on Saturday to climb Mount Snowdon as part of a sponsored climb. The excitement will continue with a concluding charity dinner, with an auction planned and a 3-course meal. ‍ٺٺٺٺ‏$V &KDULW\ :HHN FRPHV WR a close, the optimism and excitement remains as the LSESU Islamic Society remains deterPLQHG WR SXW XS D னJKW DJDLQVW the neighbouring universities also taking part - one doughnut at a time.

Living wage for families to “live, not just survive� Continued from front page 1 The campaign was also given a boost by Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, this week who spoke in favour of living wage, claiming that “paying the London Living Wage ensures hard-working Londoners are helped to make ends meet, providing a boost not only for their personal quality of life but delivering indisputable economic dividends to their em-

ployers tooâ€?. ‍&ٺٺٺٺ‏LWLQJ 3URIHVVRU -DQH :LOOV of Queen Mary University as their source, the campaign claims that “over 10,000 London families have been lifted out of working poverty so far as a direct result of the living wageâ€?. This progressive response to tackling ‘in-work poverty’ has, since 2005, caught the attention of 400 employers, who have become living wage converts.

The most recent recruits to the initiative celebrated by the FDPSDLJQ LQFOXGH KLJK SURனOH companies such as Oxfam, Barclays and the Great Ormond Street Hospital. ‍ٺٺٺٺ‏7KH PHVVDJH RI WKH living wage week campaign is clear: businesses should embrace an hourly wage that will enable hard-working families both in London and throughout the UK to ‘live, not just survive’.

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Barber: Creation of Euro a huge ‘political project’ Benjamin Aw

A YEAR after the survival of the Euro came into serious question, the European Union’s (EU) common currency appears to have more political objectives than economic ones. ‍ٺٺٺٺ‏7KLV ZDV DFFRUGLQJ WR /LRQHO Barber, editor of the Financial 7LPHV ZKR JDYH D SXEOLF OHFWXUH WKDW KLJKOLJKWHG DQ ‍ڔ‏LPEDODQFH EHWZHHQ WKH HFRQRPLF DQG PRQetary pillarsâ€? needed to sustain WKH (XUR ZKLFK KH FDOOHG D ‍ڔ‏SRlitical projectâ€?. ‍ڔٺٺٺٺ‏,W ZDV WUXH WKDW LQ WKH HDUO\ 1990s the Commission produced D UHSRUW WDONLQJ DERXW HFRQRPLF EHQHனWV RI D VLQJOH FXUUHQF\ LQ D VLQJOH PDUNHW ‍ ڕ‏VDLG %DUEHU ‍ڔ‏%XW UHDOO\ WKH FDWDO\VW WR WKH (XUR ZDV *HUPDQ UHXQLனFDWLRQ EHFDXVH WKHUH ZDV HVVHQWLDOO\ EDUJDLQLQJ EHWZHHQ WKH )UHQFK DQG WKH *HUPDQV WKDW LQ UHWXUQ WR *HUPDQ UHXQLனFDWLRQ )UDQFH ZRXOG ELQG *HUPDQ\ LQWR D VLQJOH FXUUHQF\ DQG WKDW ZDV VRPHKRZ D ZD\ RI FRQWDLQLQJ *HUmany.

‍ڔٺٺٺٺ‏,W‍ڑ‏V LQWHUHVWLQJ WR UHŕŽ‹HFW that the opposite has happened. *HUPDQ\ LV HYHQ PRUH SRZHUIXO QRZ DQG LV UXQQLQJ WKH FXUUHQF\ zone,â€? he added. ‍ٺٺٺٺ‏7LWOHG ‍&ڔ‏DQ DQG 6KRXOG WKH (XUR]RQH 6XUYLYH"‍ ڕ‏WKH SXEOLF OHFWXUH ZDV FKDLUHG E\ 3URIHVVRU :RXWHU GHQ +DDQ ZKR JDYH KLV RZQ YLHZV WKDW WKH (XUR FRXOG VXUYLYH D YLHZ HFKRHG E\ %DUber. ‍ڔٺٺٺٺ‏7KHUH‍ڑ‏V D KXJH DPRXQW RI SROLWLFDO ZLOO EHKLQG >WKH (XUR@ WR WU\ WR NHHS LW WRJHWKHU ‍ ڕ‏VDLG 0U %DUEHU ‍ڔ‏7KH ELJJHVW GHPRQVWUDtion that this is a political project LV WKDW FRXQWULHV ZKLFK VKRXOG not have been in the Euro actuDOO\ JRW LQ ‍ ڕ‏KH DGGHG UHIHUULQJ WR *UHHFH DV DQ H[DPSOH ‍ٺٺٺٺ‏%XW JLYHQ WKH SHUVLVWHQW HFRnomic turbulence in the Euro]RQH ZHUH WKH SROLWLFDO EHQHனWV ZRUWK LW" ‍>Ú”ٺٺٺٺ‏7KH (XUR]RQH@ ZDV D *HUPDQ EOXHSULQW (YHU\WKLQJ KDV WR EH EXGJHW GLVFLSOLQHG ‍ ڕ‏VDLG 0U %DUEHU UHIHUULQJ WR WKH SDFW that required Eurozone counWULHV WR OLPLW WKHLU EXGJHW GHனFLW

Benjamin Aw

‍ڔ‏%XW QRERG\ WDONHG DERXW FXUUHQW DFFRXQW GHனFLWV 6R ZKDW KDSSHQV LI *UHHFH FRXOG ERUURZ under favourable monetary conGLWLRQV" 7KLV LV D IDOVH FRQYHUJHQFH &RXQWULHV GLGQ‍ڑ‏W DGMXVW DQG QRZ WKH\ DUH SD\LQJ D KHDY\ price.â€? ‍&ٺٺٺٺ‏RLQFLGHQWDOO\ WKH (XURSHDQ Central Bank (ECB) decision to cut interest rates from 0.5% to FRLQFLGHG ZLWK WKH SXEOLF OHFWXUH ‍ڔ‏7KLV LV D JRRG PRPHQW WR UHŕŽ‹HFW XSRQ WKH (XUR FULVLV ‍ ڕ‏VDLG %DUEHU ZKR KDG WKUHH ZRUGV WR VD\ WR WKH SUHVLGHQW of the European Central Bank: ‍ڔ‏7KDQN \RX 0DULR ‍ڕ‏ ‍ٺٺٺٺ‏2I WKH (&% GHFLVLRQ KH VDLG ‍ڔ‏0DULR 'UDJKL WRGD\ GHFLGHG WR FXW LQWHUHVW UDWHV VRPH ZRXOG VD\ EHODWHGO\ 6RPH ZRXOG VD\ that there’s much more to come. 6RPH ZRXOG VD\ WKDW LW‍ڑ‏V D UHŕŽ‹HFWLRQ RI FRQFHUQV DERXW GHŕŽ‹DWLRQ in the Eurozone.â€? ‍ڔٺٺٺٺٺ‏%XW ZKDWHYHU WKH PRWLYH LW‍ڑ‏V JLYHQ PH D QLFH QHZV VWRU\ ‍ ڕ‏ added the journalist of over thirW\ \HDUV ‍ڔ‏,W ZLOO EH RQ WKH IURQW SDJH WRPRUURZ ‍ڕ‏

Charlesworth and Rappolt: ‘What’s the point of contemporary art?’ Alexandra Lulache

21 2&72%(5 WK DWWHQGHHV RI WKH /6( $UWV DQG %UHHVH /LWWOH SXEOLF GLVFXVVLRQ KDG D JOLPSVH of some of the trends, and issues of contemporary art. ‍ٺٺٺٺ‏7KH HYHQW ZDV UXQ E\ $UW 5HYLHZ‍ڑ‏V - - &KDUOHVZRUWK DUWLVW turned critic and collaborator to various other publications such DV 7LPH2XW DQG 0DUN 5DSSROW HGLWRU DQG IUHHODQFH ZULWHU 7KH $UW 5HYLHZ LV D OHDGLQJ FRQWHPSRUDU\ DUW PDJD]LQH DQG KDV UHFHQWO\ UHOHDVHG WKHLU ‍ڔ‏3RZHU ‍ ڕ‏D OLVW RI SHRSOH ZKR UXQ WKH DUW ZRUOG WRGD\ ‍ٺٺٺٺ‏0DQ\ IHOW WKDW WKH OHFWXUH DGGUHVVHG ‍ڔ‏ZKDW WKH FRQWHPSRUDU\ DUW ZRUOG LV OLNH‍ ڕ‏UDWKHU WKDQ WKH ‍ڔ‏SRLQW‍ ڕ‏RI FRQWHPSRUDU\ DUW as the lecture tackled issues such as mainstream over niche, temporality over durability, and private over public investment LQ DUW DPRQJ RWKHUV ‍ٺٺٺٺ‏7KH VSHDNHUV QRWHG KRZ FRQWHPSRUDU\ DUW LV EHFRPLQJ ‍Ú?‏KROO\ZRRGLன]HG‍ ڑ‏DV PRUH FHOHEULWLHV VXFK DV -D\ = DQG -DPHV Franco actively involve themselves in the contemporary art

ZRUOG HLWKHU DV SHUIRUPHUV RU EX\HUV WKXV KDYLQJ DQ LQŕŽ‹XHQFH RQ ZKDW LV GHHPHG YDOXDEOH LQ WKH DUW ZRUOG ‍&ٺٺٺٺ‏KDUOHVZRUWK DQG 5DSSROW H[SODLQHG WKLV LQ WHUPV RI WHPporality; the situation the HolO\ZRRG ‍ڔ‏DUWLVWV‍ Ú•â€ŹŕŽŠQG WKHPVHOYHV LQ DV WKHLU IDPH LV IUDJLOH 0RUHRYHU WKH VSHDNHUV GLŕŽ‰HUHQWLDWHG EHWZHHQ WKH DUW ZRUOG DQG DUW RU artists. ‍ٺٺٺٺ‏7KH DUW ZRUOG LQ WKHLU YLHZ LV VHHQ DV DQ H[FOXVLYH ZLOG DQG OLEHUDO OLIHVW\OH WKDW SHRSOH ZDQW to take part in, but that is automatically distant from art itself and the creative processes of the artist. ‍ڔٺٺٺٺ‏7KH DUW ZRUOG LV DERXW FRQVXPSWLRQ DV ZHOO DV SURGXFWLRQ ‍ ڕ‏ the speakers noted. The discusVLRQ ZDV JUHDW DQG WRRN WKH DXGLHQFH WKURXJK D YHU\ LQWHUHVWLQJ LQWHOOHFWXDO MRXUQH\ ‍ٺٺٺٺ‏7KH GLDORJXH ZDV IROORZHG E\ D 4 $ VHVVLRQ GXULQJ ZKLFK WKH\ DQVZHUHG TXHVWLRQV UDQJLQJ IURP ZKDW WKH GHPDUFDWLRQ OLQH EHWZHHQ DUW DQG VFLHQFH LV WR D FKDQJH LQ %ULWLVK LGHQWLW\ ZLWKLQ WKH DUWV ‍ٺٺٺٺ‏

LSE / Nigel Stead

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Meet Chris Wood <RXU QHZO\ HOHFWHG 3RVWJUDGXDWH 2૿FHU LSESU

rushed, there are ways that can be improved. Other things like the rush for seminars, some departments require you to write a defense of your seminar selection. Other departments don’t run that. So from what I gathered the school is really pushing for departments to have their own way of doing things but then they ask people for standardized things, so for students to hold the university into account is very difficult if departments can decide individually what kind of policies they use. There is a predominance of postgraduate students at LSE. What role do you think postgraduate students have at LSE, also considering, as you said, that they are not participating in the ‘social’ activities?

Giulia Saudelli

LSE POSTGRADUATE students chose Chris Wood to represent them as Postgraduate Officer in the Student’s Union Michealmas Term elections. A Royal Holloway alumnus, Wood is an MSc Economic History student. Describing his extremely busy schedule “like a full-time job,â€? Wood discussed his plans for this year, and postgraduate students at LSE and how they play a crucial role in shaping LSE’s identity. What are your objectives as Postgraduate officer? What do you plan to do during this year? My plans have solidified from the Manifesto since I have come into office and against the logistics, I think it revolves around three main areas. The first has to do with how Postgrads are taught here during their Masters phase, and I deal ZLWK 3K'‍ڑ‏V DQG VWXŕŽ‰ OLNH WKDW A lot of the problem I think was WKDW WKH GLŕŽ‰HUHQW /6( GHSDUWPHQWV KDYH GLŕŽ‰HUHQW ZD\V RI RUganizing their courses, and one of the problems I want to try and face are modules classes. I was out campaigning and I talked to several people who want to VWXG\ GLŕŽ‰HUHQW PRGXOHV DQG WKH\ can’t do it because they were all at the same day, or the lectures were on the same day. So ending that would be a triumph I would say. Stopping practices like departments changing the FRXUVH VSHFLனFDWLRQV DQG VD\-

ing which modules are actually available a month before people take up their place here, that’s another big problem I’m trying to confront. The other direction I want to come out hof this is Postgraduates getting involved in Society events and sports, and it was said too many times that there is not enough Postgrad participation, so I want to try and increase that. One of the main ways is by campaigning for :HGQHVGD\ DIWHUQRRQV RŕŽ‰ LW‍ڑ‏V DOways a popular option, but I feel that with assistance we could get that through eventually. The other things are, I believe, having a good line of communication between myself, the Societies that want to hold events, and publishing that in an accessible way to Postgrads, say via a regular newsletter which I’m looking to bring in on a weekly basis. Finally, my third thing is to campaign on wider issues, these are issues that perhaps I can’t deal with alone at LSE, but take RQ PRUH RI D QDWLRQDO SURனOH VR Postgraduate funding, many of us pay a lot of money to be here, so trying to increase funding from our government but also from universities individually. Visa issues for LSE students who want to come study here is a big one, and also to have more support for PhD students who are teaching as well. What were the main issues that were raised by students you spoke to while campaigning on Houghton street?

Funding was a big issue, I think that’s the case for every postgraduate student here. The amount we have to pay to take the course and how we go about surviving in a city like London, that is a massive issue. Generally there are issues with the way that departments have conducted their courses and the organization behind it. Many people said that they didn’t feel as professional, perhaps they felt a bit

From my experience, undergraduate students do look up to postgraduates, it’s in the university system, that whole idea of there being hierarchy of the older people to be looked up to. 7KDW VWLOO H[LVWV , னQG <RX H[pect it perhaps to be more professional, to have a better idea of what you want out of life. I think in many cases that’s true, the main reasons why people are here studying a postgraduate course are to increase their CV and to get more skills. I think that experience is the main thing that we can bring to the student population here at LSE, and in many ways LSE is gifted by the fact that the majority of students

are postgrads, it’s just about establishing a link between the postgraduate and undergraduate communities. Practically, what are you going to be doing for students? How can people contact you? 0\ னUVW SXEOLF DWWHPSW WR JHW people involved will be a newsletter I will send out via email to all Postgraduates, and I’ll be holding weekly office hours (time and day TBA soon). The idea behind the newsletter is firstly to keep Postgraduates informed as to what I’m doing on a week-to-week basis, to make sure they can see that I’m actually doing my job; and secondly, to create a link between Societies and sports clubs, if they have events coming up I’ll publicize them and make sure they’ve got a much wider Postgraduate catchment. And there’s the Student’s Union blogs. :KDW ZDV \RXU ૽UVW LPSUHVVLRQ of the relation between the LSE Student’s Union and the School? In terms of the Students’ Union place with the school, I think it is very much a constructive relationship, we have to hold them to account. I think that many Universities have a tendency WR PD[LPL]H WKHLU SURனWV WKH role of the Student’s Union is to make sure that doesn’t happen and to make sure that students FRPH னUVW LSESU

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Tuesday November 12 2013

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7KLV FRPSHWLWLRQ LV RSHQ WR DOO /6( VWXGHQWV DQG VWDŕŽ‰ DQG LV DOVR WKH URXWH WR WDNH LI you are looking to apply for the Tier 1 (Graduate) Entrepreneur visa. 7R னQG RXW PRUH DERXW WKH DSSOLFDWLRQ SURFHVV DQG KRZ ZH FDQ KHOS \RX PDNH WKH most of this opportunity, and to access the application form please visit lse.ac.uk/ entrepreneurship. The deadline for initial applications is midday on the 18th November.

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Tuesday November 12, 2013

Opinion LSESUseless

Franck Magennis

Time was you couldn’t walk down Houghton Street without encountering an array of energetic students getting in your face. They were determined to engage you in debate, sign you up to campaigns, or convince you to attend the Union General Meeting (UGM). The campus was steeped in political agitation and controversy – it used to assault you with its visual imagery, designed to shock you out of apathy and into a political community. Living wage campaigns for cleaners, demos for the Palestinian right to education, antifees protests. Back in the day – back when LSE Students’ Union was still a union and not a tuck shop – this place used to politicise people. Today LSE students enjoy little more than officially-sanctioned lip-service to activism. In this way, LSE preserves its “radical-Fabian” brand image for the benefit of those who care to consume it, while the remainder of the international elite swan about, killing time before walking into their highly-paid, often socially-destructive careers. At least we (“the left”) used to embarrass those callous careerists into refusing our leaflets. At least we used to force them to make the political choice not to engage us in politics. Michael Lewis, author of “Liar’s Poker”, recounts coming to deliver a speech at LSE back in the ‘80s. While addressing an Old Theatre packed full of avid Tories, he realised that the School was beginning a process of profound transformation. Over the course of that fateful dec-

ade, LSE uprooted its radical heritage and replaced it with an emergent culture of greed and individualism. We are the heirs of that political and cultural legacy. These days, I can’t walk down Houghton Street without some smiling, well-meaning Union hack handing me a different sort of leaflet. Where we used to cobble together lastminute photocopy jobs, now we have shiny, laminated, LSESUfunded advertisements. If it isn’t about a careers fair, it’ll be an invitation to “volunteer – it will look fab on your CV!” So what? Last time I checked you volunteered because you believed in what you were doing. You put your own selfish, CV-building exercises aside and thought, “Maybe I’d better use some of my obscenely priviOHJHG HGXFDWLRQ WR HஉHFW VRPH socially-useful change. Y’know, to act in concert with others to overcome some of the terrible things that are going on in the world”. Instead of this, we are RஉHUHG WKH FXUUHQW WUDYHVW\ WKDW is LSESU “activism”. I have a good understanding of what killed the Union (for let us make no mistake: if it is alive, it is barely twitching). In 2009-10, the outgoing Executive Committee introduced a series of ill-fated reforms, including the decision to replace attendance-in-person at the UGM with online voting, and to add external, non-student members to the board of trustees. The objective? Atomise student political organisation and replace it with “business experts” well-rehearsed in transforming student unions into shiny, efficient, profitmaking machines. Try though

LSESU General Meeting, Photo Credit: LSESU Tumblr

we did to oppose them, the bulk of the reforms passed by the narrowest of margins. LSESU hasn’t been the same since. Yeah, there’s the self-aware paragraph in which I point out potential flaws in my argument. “You’re old and jaded, hoping to recapture a missspent youth” - I’m twenty-five. “It was never as good as you thought it was” - yes it was; and even if it wasn’t, the point is that it could be. “The Old Days you’re describing were characterised by sheer political elitism and cliquery” – rubbish, we used to vote in a weekly UGM, which met in person, and we regularly filled the Old Theatre to bursting. Whatever cliques used to attend the UGM in the past pale next to the unaccountable bu-

reaucrats we have now. Who holds our Executive to account these days? Do you, dear reader, even know that they exist? Consider the trend towards individualisation, atomisation, and marketisation that informed the concerted decimation of LSESU. Consider the successful neutering of political GLVVHQW ZLWK WKH HஉHFW WKDW RXU union can’t even be bothered to strike in solidarity with universiW\ VWDஉ &RQVLGHU ZKDW WKHVH QHoliberal ideas are doing – what they’ve done – to our universities, to our society, while we sit by doing nothing, hoping to land ourselves a job. Consider the IDFW WKDW ZH ஊQG RXUVHOYHV ZLWKout a union capable of expressing our collective voice, during what is the most socially volatile period in a generation. Allow novelist and academ-

ic JM Coetzee to say it better: “This assault [on the independence of universities in the West] commenced in the 1980s as a reaction to what universities were doing in the 1960s and 1970s, namely, encouraging masses of young people in the view that there was something badly wrong with the way the world was being run and supplying them with the intellectual fodder for a critique of Western civilisation as a whole”. The argument that activism doesn’t achieve anything serves well established, deeply entrenched interests – the very interests that are running riot at LSE. There is a way to re-establish a politically active union. The ஊUVW VWHS LV WR UHLQVWDWH YRWLQJ LQ person at the UGM, and to lower the quorum to allow for the resumption of regular weekly meetings. Once people are free to participate in politics face to face, the union will begin to reengage with pressing social and political issues. “We”, being the pushy assKROHV ZLWK WKH OHD஋HWV DGYHUWLVing the “controversial” motions at the UGM, used to get accused of “tokenism” on a semi-regular basis. In response to these skeptical claims we would point to the measurable impact of our achievements. We fought for and won higher wages for cleaners. We “no-platformed” racists and fascists. We sent books and money to Palestinian universities, with which we officially affiliated our union. And we fought hard against fees increases. What we were engaged in, then, was politics, and the opposite of tokenism. I know what tokenism looks like, and it has a LSESU logo on it.

Reassigning responsibility Alison Cameron

There are many elements of rape discourse that worry me. Granted, that statement is probably true for most people, but we probably all think about LW LQ GLஉHUHQW ZD\V 7KH WKLQJ that worries me the most, however, is the way people respond to publicised incidences of rape. The prevailing reaction to these occurrences seems to be a crude set of instructions for girls and women to reduce their chances for encountering sexual violence in some form or another. “Don’t drink too much”, they tell us. “Don’t wear skimpy clothing”, they recommend. “Don’t

leave your drink unattended”, they command. What emerges, clearly, from these suggested “rules and regulations” is a tendency to place the responsibility for episodes of sexual violence squarely on the girl. It is – according to much of the discourse out there – up to the girl or woman herself to ensure that she is safe and that her “virtue” is not compromised. There are at least three principal issues that arise from this type of discussion: 1. Placing the responsibility on the potential victim (be it girl, woman, or even man) creates the potential for them to be blamed if an attack does actually

take place. 2. If this is the prevailing discourse taking place, where is the conversation informing children, adolescents, and men that rape, sexual violence, and anything that takes place without consent is undoubtedly and uncontestably wrong? I realize that talking about it in this way is more uncomfortable for people, but is that really a reason for society, educational institutions, parents, and responsible adults alike to shy away from making these points? ,I WKH FRPPXQLW\‫ڑ‬V ஊUVW reaction is to instruct victims to protect themselves and thus take responsibility for their ac-

tions, what are we saying implicitly about the average male population that goes to bars and other such places that are designated as the prime “hunting grounds” for sexual predators? Are we automatically assuming that there is a higher chance for a man to be an attacker than not? It’s a ridiculous assumption, but it is one that is nonetheless made through the way that responsibility is being assigned in terms of the rape discussion. The fact that rape discourse is set out as it is leaves much to be desired. I don’t purport to have the solution for this, except that I think there is a need for earlier education on the prin-

ciple that “no means no”. I understand that it is a cheesy and clichéd concept, but it is at the root of this conversation. Consent is the primary distinction between what is sex and what is harassment or sexual violence and so it is something that needs WR EH FRYHUHG IURP WKH YHU\ ஊUVW instance where we as human beings are learning about what is right and wrong. There is a need for a more sensible distribution of responsibility and a public discussion that goes beyond the condescending solution that restricts women’s choices by telling them how, when and in what way they should enjoy themselves.

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Opinion

Get Real - a response to critics and cynics Part I by Jason Wong In Pakistan, young girls like Malala Yousafzai are shot for daring to go to school. In Saudi Arabia, women are arrested for driving their sick fathers to the hospital. In Kyrgyzstan, 40% of ethnic Kyrgyz women are forced to marry their kidnappers. Meanwhile at LSE, two of our feminist friends are complaining about the campaign banner posted by Martha and me because of the so-called “overt gender stereotypeâ€? and how Jennifer Aniston’s legs are “symEROLFDOO\ RŕŽ‰HQVLYH‍ ڕ‏ There is no doubt that legitimate women’s rights issues exist across the world. Indeed many students at the LSE, including members of societies such as Amnesty International, have campaigned and brought light to serious concerns about the mistreatment of women. I am also proud of my running mate, Martha Petrocheilos, who founded Agents of Change, a society and blog that aims to work

with NGOs in raising awareness on the discrimination of women ZRUOGZLGH 7KH ZRUN DQG HŕŽ‰RUWV of these students and societies is crucial and commendable. :KDW , னQG GLVWXUELQJ KRZever, is that some, such as Jade Jackman and Georgia Grayson, have chosen to write attack pieces labelling us as sexists in a politically motivated attempt to raise their own personal proனOHV I respect the passion of Jade and Georgia and believe they are partly well intentioned. My plea to them is to divert the time DQG HŕŽ‰RUW WKH\ DUH VSHQGLQJ RQ launching nasty, incoherent personal attacks on Martha and I, elsewhere. It is worth asking ourselves why some have gotten so desperate, both in the form of complaints - which resulted in an unjust campaign ban on Martha and I during the election - and are now by writing desperate personal attack pieces label-

ling us as ‘sexist’. I would argue that this is partly a cry for attention, but it’s also an attempt to distract students from the substance of the issues, some of which we raised in our campaign poster. Both Jade Jackman and Georgia Grayson have gone on record in saying they believe Sabbatical Officers “deserve their ÂŁ27k salariesâ€? and that they support the banning of The Sun and Blurred Lines. They would like to defend and preserve the authoritarian practises of the SU status quo but are aware that their political views are at the polar opposite of student opinion. And when you can’t win the debate on an intellectual and substantive level, you result to personal attacks. This is exactly what’s happening. The outrage in regards to the campaign posters being ‘sexist’ is simply a cover. What Jade Jackman and Georgia Grayson really take is-

sue with, and disagree with, is the substance of our campaign poster; such as the excessive ÂŁ27k salaries for Sabbatical Officers - who most students can’t name - and the SU’s blatant attacks of free speech we have witnessed through the censorship of newspapers and songs, which the two supported. When someone continuously launches nasty and untruthful personal attacks against you and your running mate, there is always a temptation to retaliate on a personal level. %XW , DP KROGLQJ RŕŽ‰ EHFDXVH this is simply an attempt to change the subject and divert students’ attention from the important messages Martha and I raised during our campaign. My approach has and will always be to remain focused on the substance of the issues at the heart of students’ concerns, be it campaigning to make LSE100 optional or to increase funding to RAG, the AU, and societies

by ÂŁ100,000 by cutting the SU’s ÂŁ2mn wasteful budget by 5%, or by continuing to defend free speech on campus. Finally, in response to Jade Jackman and Georgia Grayson’s comment of myself being a ‘lost cause’. I thank them for their concern but would remind them that I have been twice elected to the Court of Governors and came second in a Sabbatical election with 700 votes. As someone who has always been keen on encouraging students and women to get involved with the political process, I would recommend that both Jade and Georgia compete in the next election - a more effective political strategy than hiding behind the computer VFUHHQ னULQJ LQFRKHUHQW FKHDS shots on Facebook.

tiful picture (glad we agree on something) to create a metaphor; the picture of Aniston cleaning allegorically referred to me and Jason cleaning up the union. The end of the article, referring to LSE’s newly re-elected Governor as a “lost caseâ€?, is quite alarming too, revealing Jackman’s views on the legitimacy and efficiency of one of the School’s highest institutions. I admire people who stand up for what they believe in. I admire feminists. I look up to individuals who feel passionate for a cause. I cannot help but respect those individuals. However, connecting a picture taken from a movie, of DQ DFWUHVV LQ D FOHDQLQJ RXWனW serving as an allegory with sexism, is beyond me. In this light, is Aniston herself – consciously or otherwise, when accepting WR ZHDU WKLV RXWனW IRU KHU UROH ‍ ڋ‏ supporting gender stereotypes? I don’t know her personally, but I strongly believe otherwise.

This supposed “protectionâ€? is inevitably attributing women a ‘weak’ status. I am not here to assess people’s senses of humour, each is distinctive. But is this really the idea we want to pass through? As an advocate for women’s rights, I rush to answer on the negative. We can joke about them with the same ease we can joke about men. That means gender equality in practice. )UHHGRP RI VSHHFK RŕŽ‰HUV a platform for making one’s points without being verbally attacked. A believes pandas are the best; B believes there’s nothing like lions. This doesn’t mean A will accuse pandas of being racist, sexist, authoritative, manipuODWLYH SRSXOLVW VXSHUனFLDO UHsponsible for world hunger, and guilty of causing global warming. A simply accepts B’s liking of pandas. In our case, Jackman thinks Aniston’s cleaning picture is humiliating to women; I like to view it as strengthening

and underlying what beautiful creatures us women are. It’s a GLŕŽ‰HULQJ SRLQW RI YLHZ Finally, on the matter of engendered jobs – I will abstain from arguing here in favour or against its rightfulness. I DP RŕŽ‰HULQJ DQ H[DPSOH RI D builder. Isn’t it true that what springs to mind when thinking of a builder is a man? Does this in any way look down on men? 'HனQLWHO\ QRW ,W VLPSO\ JRHV back historically (my turn for a historical overview here) to jobs that people related to because of the gender attributes they biologically possessed. If Jackman wants to engage in a coherent, intellectual debate, both Jason and I are open to doing so. We will make sure to bring her favourite carrot juice from Pret, no worries.

Part II by Martha Petrocheilos “Rawan, an 8 year-old girl in Yemen, was diagnosed with severe internal bleeding after her wedding night, which inevitably led to her death soon after she was taken to the hospitalâ€?. This is part of my blog on women’s rights. There are legitimate issues in the world; concerns on Saudi women driving, Indian women beating, Russian Pussy Rioters jailed in Siberia, Kyrgyzstan kidnaps, etc. I was going through the articles of last week’s issue when I came across the article by Jade Jackman and Georgia Grayson, addressing established ideas and connecting them insensibly with an image of a famous actress from Jason and mine’s campaign. Feeling sensitive on womHQ‍ڑ‏V ULJKWV LV QRW IXனOOHG E\ JHWting irritated about photos. I think a true believer should go further and book a ticket to India, like I have for this summer, and advocates for substantive changes. It is easy to comment

on social media/writing an article about how Jennifer Aniston LQ D PDLG RXWனW LV VH[LVW As kindly observed by WKH DUWLFOH‍ڑ‏V DXWKRU GLŕŽ‰HUHQW WKLQJV LUULWDWH GLŕŽ‰HUHQW SHRSOH – and this makes perfect sense. Someone might have thought the image hilarious or intelligent or innovative. Arguably, the point of campaigning and manifestos is to SURYRNH GLŕŽ‰HULQJ UHDFWLRQV but we cannot be liable for all RI WKHP $QG ZH FDQ GHனQLWHO\ not be accused of conspiring in creating them. So, for Jackman this image triggered sexual obMHFWLனFDWLRQ In all sincerity, that wasn’t our motive. On the other hand, I’m glad we stood lucky enough to receive the anthropological/ historical lesson she generousO\ RŕŽ‰HUHG LQ KHU DUWLFOH 7KLV E\ QR PHDQV MXVWLனHV the heavy wording though. “An unnecessarily sexualised imageâ€? – un-necessary for who? We chose an aesthetically beau-

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Tuesday November 12, 2013

Opinion

Malala Yousafzai: A story of overreaction Salman Tauqueer Muhaijir

On the 9th of October, 2012, 0DODOD <RXVDI]DL ‍ Ú‹â€ŹŕŽŠIWHHQ \HDUV old at the time – was shot in the head by the Pakistani Taliban. Her crime? Blogging in favour of education for girls, a topic the Taliban naturally wished to subvert. After hours of surgery in Pakistan and the United Kingdom, she survived the attack. Since then, she has become a global icon for advocating female education, even becoming the youngest ever nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize. She has given a speech at the United Nations, been interviewed by Jon Stewart on the Daily Show, had tea with Queen Elizabeth, and been invited to the White House to meet with the President Obama and First Lady. She has, undoubtedly, come a long way from the impoverished Swat Valley in Pakistan. And yet the fanfare and adulation she has received in the West has been too great. What the Taliban did is in QR ZD\ MXVWLனDEOH HYHU\ FKLOG deserves to be educated. However, the way the world has responded to the case of Malala is not as clear-cut. To put it bluntly, she is famous for surviving an

attack at the hands of religious extremists. Thousands of people around the world - from the USA to Pakistan - can attest to having done the same. It is not, however, Malala’s fault for the hype that surrounds her. She has received outpourings of support from many parts of the world, but much of this is base hypocrisy. By taking up her cause and providing her asylum in the UK, the British government obscures how much damage it has caused to several thousand children itself. For example, former British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown has spoken up in favour of Malala. The very same Gordon Brown who voted for the war in Iraq, which, along with the Afghan invasion, has deprived thousands of children not just of education, but of their parents, their homes and their very lives. Similarly, President Obama’s invitation to Malala is in stark contrast to the drone strikes he uses that has destroyed the lives of hundreds of children. The fanfare for Malala is also unfair because it overlooks othHU IDU PRUH VXFFHVVIXO HŕŽ‰RUWV

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otherwise made to promote education in Pakistan. The Citizens’ Foundation is educating – free of cost - over 100,000 children all over Pakistan, half of whom are girls. The District Education Officer of Swat (the region from which Malala comes from) says that 14,000 girls (and 17,000 boys) have been enrolled in schools via an intensive doorto-door enrolment campaign. To

give Malala the level of attention she has thus far received, LV D VOLJKW WR WKH HŕŽ‰RUWV WKDW RWKers have made for the very same cause. Perhaps what is most troubling about the entire situation is the overlooking of Shazia Ramzan and Kainat Riaz. Very few, if any, readers will recognise those names. Yet they are two girls who were also shot by

the Taliban in the very same attack that almost killed Malala. Luckily both girls have also survived but neither have any days named after them, nor are they being invited to Buckingham Palace or the White House to share their experience like their schoolfellow. Ms. Yousafzai and her family’s life has been changed by the response to her attack. The other two girls meanwhile have been almost entirely forgotten. Furthermore, there have been hundreds of attacks on schools in Pakistan that have injured dozens of students and teachers, yet none of their causes has been championed by anyone. Malala Yousafzai is a very brave person for standing up to the Taliban, her experience is one no human being should have to endure. But the response to it is an overreaction borne out of hypocrisy, and elevating a single individual to showcase one’s humanitarian inclinations, which then only helps alleviate the life of a few, while ignoring the efIRUWV DQG VXŕŽ‰HULQJV RI PDQ\ many others is not the right way to go about things.

Can we have media regulation? Anuradha Santhanam Technology is quickly becoming omnipresent in our lives; 94% of people now own mobile phones, more and more of which provide users with on-the-go access to the World Wide Web. Moreover, with content now largely publicly created and curated, we are entering the age of citizen journalists. In an LSE event last week, David Mahoney, the Head of Policy Development at Ofcom, described,the modern-day living room as being rather similar to the living rooms of the 1950s, with every member ‘left to their own devices’- except now the ‘devices’ are quite literally, electronic devices. Every member of a household is constantly involved with a smartphone, computer or console. Each of them engaged in a line of communication with the rest of the world. The interconnected world has opened up the home to a tidalwave of information in a way which were not until now exposed to. Worryingly, large powers are at play in this expanding. The Internet, which has until now been

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largely democratic, increasingly parallels our analog world. Bias, for example, in more or less subtle ways, exists at every level of Internet news media. Along with LWV EHQHனWV WKH ,QWHUQHW LV D YHhicle for vested interests, as well as explicit content, and abuse. The difficulty with poten-

tially regulating such a fluid and dynamic technology like the Internet, is exactly that any UHJXODWRU ZRXOG QHHG WR EH ŕŽ‹Xid enough itself to adapt on the ŕŽ‹\ ZKLOVW HQVXULQJ IUHHGRP DQG plurality. This is quite the task and so I ask you: can we have media

regulation? Do we need an entity to protect the consumer from being bombarded with corporate agenda? Or can we have a way of receiving actual information? Alternatively, do we not need a regulator at all and rely on the consumer to be discerning

HQRXJK WR NQRZ WKH GLŕŽ‰HUHQFH themselves? Plurality in the market and balance in the interests that a regulator serves are also in themselves important; how does a regulator balance the interests of business and also promote economic activity, which might be considered to be for some general good, or should it survey what we might call the ‘public interest’? Can we have both? Such a regulator would need to be an autonomous non-governmental organization that serves both public interest and perhaps industry concerns while being separate from the state, and not itself becoming a catalyst for control. The task may even be beyond our means should we attempt it. Online bullying, to think of just one area of regulation, is a GHனQLWH LVVXH DQG GRHV QHHG WR be monitored, but one wonders at what level this can really be looked into, considering a) the sheer volume of people on the internet and b) the anonymity the internet allows, which in this case is not a good thing. Finding a solution is the task of our time.

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Zoon Politikon Were we wrong not to intervene in Syria? Kaveh Farzad Late last month, the New York Times reported that roughly 28% of the Syrian population - so just over 6 million people in absolute terms - have either been forced out of the country (against their will or by ŕŽ‹HHLQJ RU KDYH EHHQ GLVSODFHG from their homes within the borders of the state. The news from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees 81+&5 LV HYHQ PRUH KDUURZing - their best guess is that by the end of the year, that number will hover closer to 45%. Those brutal truths led po-

“One may argue that we could be exactly where we are now ... But no one could, I think, argue that the circumstances in Syria would be worse now than they already are. As Walzer himself notes, “How could they be worse?â€? litical theorist Michael Walzer to ask himself - and the many others who advocated (and inGHHG VWLOO GR IRU D VWULFW QRQ interventionist policy in Syria - a question: What would have happened if we intervened early on? What would Syria look like if we (Walzer means Americans but that hardly constrains the JUHDWHU TXHVWLRQ KDG JRWWHQ LQ before the vast numbers of Islamic militants from the region ŕŽ‹RFNHG WR WKH னJKW EHIRUH 5XVVLD ,UDQ DQG E\ SUR[\ +H]EROlah began having a stake in who won or lost? One may argue

that we could be exactly where we are now with a country in tatters, a weapons deal hanging on by loose threads and lofty external threats, and millions upon millions either displaced RU னJKWLQJ IRU WKHLU OLYHV RU both. But no one could, I think, argue that the circumstances Syria would be worse now than they already are. As Walzer himself notes, “How could they be worse?â€? Since the question of intervention or non-intervention in 6\ULD ZDV னUVW SRVHG ,‍ڑ‏YH EHHQ on the side of the latter. In blog posts and even right here in the Beaver, ,‍ڑ‏YH DUJXHG DJDLQVW an American military presence in what I still consider to be a near hundred-year-long sectarLDQ VWUXJJOH ,‍ڑ‏OO DOVR DGPLW WKDW OLNH :DO]HU ,‍ڑ‏YH PDLQO\ DUJXHG from the example of Iraq. That was perhaps unavoidable since Credit: Freedom House, Flickr Creative Commons my formative years were totally consumed by that disastrous, il- across its borders is extraordi- Rwanda are in some ways easier to deal with - there exists an legal and unconscionable war. nary: roughly 4,000 each dayâ€?. There has never been a evil malevolent force carrying I saw for years what happened when a powerful Western state good, or even remotely good out barbaric atrocities against hastily - and for no just reason answer for Syria. A military in- a defenceless people. The only - invaded another sovereign ter- tervention before things got out thing to do (or - shamefully - not ritory already consumed with of hand sounds good in theory, GR LV WR LQWHUYHQH DQG SXW DQ end to it. Syria has never been, sectarian beefs, a history of vionor will it ever be, so easily codlence, and a brutal dictatorship LனHG that had, over the decades, de6WLOO :DO]HU‍ڑ‏V LPSRUWDQW luded much of its poor populaquestion requires some further tion into believing its legitimacy. thought: “How could [the cir7KH UHVXOW ZDV DQG LV WRWDO XQcumstances in Syria] be worse?â€? mitigated disaster - millions disFor the Syrians, they probably placed both outside Iraq and in, FRXOGQ‍ڑ‏W ,I WKH 81+&5 LV ULJKW hundreds of thousands killed, the humanitarian disaster is just and extremism strengthened. getting warmed up. But a U.S. But Syria is not Iraq. Other military intervention - even if it WKDQ WKH IDFW WKDW LW‍ڑ‏V VPDOOHU had come before the crisis got Walzer parses the UNHCR reout of hand - would have made ports that spell out how, proporthe overall picture far bloodier tionally, what is happening in than it is, on both sides. We can Syria is worse still than what we saw in Iraq: “...one out of every EXW WKHUH‍ڑ‏V QR UHDVRQ WR EH- look back and ask ourselves a ten Iraqis is displaced (the num- lieve that doing so would have myriad of questions about what bers have been static for some prevented the current disaster. ZH FRXOG KDYH GRQH GLŕŽ‰HUHQWO\ \HDUV WKH\ ZHUH KLJKHU DURXQG Finding and arming the “good or we can look to solutions for EXW , GRQ‍ڑ‏W WKLQN WKDW WKH\ guysâ€? again sounds like the WKH IXWXUH 7KH னUVW VHUYHV XV ever reached the Syrian num- common sense thing to do, but the latter serves our poor SyrEHUV 7KUHH RXW RI HYHU\ WHQ WKHUH‍ڑ‏V QR WHOOLQJ ZKHWKHU RU ian brothers and sisters. Faced Syrians are displaced—as things not we would have found them, with an emergency like Syria, VWDQG ULJKW QRZ EXW WKH ŕŽ‹RZ RI or if they even exist. Humanitar- ZH FDQ‍ڑ‏W DŕŽ‰RUG WR SULRULWL]H UHrefugees inside the country and ian catastrophes like Darfur or ŕŽ‹HFWLRQ RYHU DFWLRQ

“We can look back and ask ourselves a myriad of questions about what we could have done GLૼHUHQWO\ RU we can look to solutions for the future.â€?

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Tuesday November 12, 2013

Opinion

Disputatio Ergo Cogito On the motion: &ODVVL૽HG GRFXPHQWV SURYLGHG E\ IRUPHU 16$ FRQWUDFWRU (GZDUG 6QRZGHQ KDYH UHYHDOHG WKDW WKH 8 6 KDV VSLHG RQ PDQ\ RI LWV DOOLHV DQG WKHLU OHDGHUV LQFOXGLQJ WKH (XURSHDQ 8QLRQ %UD]LO )UDQFH DQG *HUPDQ\ 7KLV KRXVH DUJXHV WKLV D VLJQ WKH FRQFHSW RI ‍ڔ‏DOO\‍ ڕ‏VKRXOG EH UHGH૽QHG VLQFH LQ WKH PRGHUQ ZRUOG VXFK DFWLYLW\ EHWZHHQ VWDWHV GRHV QRW UHDOO\ FRXQW DV ‍ڔ‏VS\LQJ‍ ڕ‏

Affirmative 8QWUXVWZRUWK\ DOOLDQFHV Rachel A. George Leaked documents from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden have yet again sent the international politik reeling with further indications that the US is spying on friends and foes alike. Allies including the EU, Brazil, France, and Germany have not been spared from intrusive US surveillance programs, leading some to argue that the basic premise of trust within “alliance� has been broken, and that the basic concept must be redefined. However, the shock and awe stemming from Snowden’s newest NSA leaks are generally overzealous in their claims. The degree of insult expressed by world leaders such as Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff and Ger-

many’s Angela Merkel are of course within reason. An “alliance�, for all intents and purposes, is a “friendship� among nations. And any friendship, most would assume, should be built on fundamental trust between parties. “We need trust among allies and partners�, Merkel has said, underlining the degree of grave insult with which the intrusions have been received. In reality, however, trust is not always central to a functioning and thriving international alliance in the global system. Alliances among states almost always boil down to shared interests. Economic and security concerns are therefore central to any functioning partnership between states.

There is nothing in this concept about the common courtesy of blind trust. Political gripes, including insults perceived among leaders and/ or societies, can impact the tone of these friendships, but they rarely shift the fundamental fabric undergirding an alliance. And the recent NSA leaks will likely lay this reality bare. Friendships among states are, after all, fundamentally selfish in nature. They are based on desires for mutual gain. World leaders may find their rapport personally enjoyable, but refuse to align their policies. Conversely, world leaders can be personally insulted (and can respond in turn with a diplomatic punch,

for example, as Rousseff cancelled a state visit to Washington in September). Little, however, should be expected to follow to destroy the basic premise of the US-Brazilian alliance. Brazil’s mutual economic interests with the US as the country’s eighth largest trading partner will stand firm. Beyond this “realist� critique, it must be recognized that the NSA leaks will not be without their impact in global politics. While they may not shake the core of state interests within the global system, they very well may shake the framework of security and communication practices between states. The alliance, at its purest form, has not

changed so much as the dynamics of friendship and diplomacy have. The international community must grapple with the hyper-connected space that defines 21st century politics and interaction. Ever enduring threats coming from global terror networks, subnational actors, and political fragmentation have shattered traditional conceptions of sovereignty and have chipped away at traditional information channels that once stood firm in global diplomatic practice. The U.S. has set the precedent that its modern security apparatus will be based on a lack of trust (or, that is, a concept of “trust but verify). Washington should not be surprised if the world follows suit.

Opposition 7KH WK &RPPDQGPHQW $OOLHV GR VS\ RQ HDFK RWKHU DQG RYHUDOO LW LV HYHQ GHVLUDEOH LI OHIW XQGLVFRYHUHG Joel Rosen In the past it would have been the Cubans or Soviet-bloc elites who would think twice before picking up the phone. But over the last few months it has been our leaders who have gained a new sense of paranoia. From Dilma Rousseff in Brazil, to Angela Merkel in Germany, the National Security Agency (NSA) of the United States has been accused not only of conducting surveillance on individual world leaders, but on entire populations such as Spanish civilians. Business as usual - you might say - but for the fact that these are acts of surveillance on allies! Interestingly, our own Antony Best has shown that this is not a particularly new practice between allied Western states, and even harks back to the Second World War. Let us be clear here: Whatever the motivations the United States harbours in protecting its interests (even between allies),

clandestine surveillance without consent of the other party is spying, else we would simply term it collaboration. Intuitively, it may sound abhorrent, but a rational approach to the situation suggests spying is acceptable only if countries such as the United States can do it without being discovered - otherwise we stand to lose the most important advantage we enjoy as Western allies: intelligence collaboration. The moral side of the whole debate is not as clear cut as it seems, since there are some potentially life-saving advantages in spying on other states, but only when conducted in secret. The NSA might feel threatened by particular groups or transnational actors in an allied country, which are not monitored by their national governments, or fear that their governments do not have the resources to keep such threats

in check. Allies share a lot with each other, and it has been a key advantage of the Western world that its countries collaborate with each other in matters of intelligence. But they do not share everything, especially with today’s concerns about data protection. And while each country retains its own national interests and goals, the US is evidently acting out of frustration and desperation when it feels its allies are not sharing enough information on key matters related to its own national interest. Sure, we could argue that allies should not lie to each other, but the overall informational advantages of doing so outweigh these concerns as long as clandestine efforts are kept secret. The Kantians among us would be right in pointing out that lying is a logical contradiction, in that we would be

doing something that relies on everyone else not doing it. It is also true that if all allies spied on each other, and they each explicitly knew about it, there would be such mistrust that the alliances we have today would be severely damaged. We all benefit from the informational advantage that Western allies collect, and the security this guarantees us in our daily lives. The rare sacrifice of information rights pales in significance when one is faced with pictures of the aftermath of a bomb blast in London, New York, or Tel Aviv. We know very little of what has been prevented so far through intelligence gathering, and this is necessarily so. To gain the maximum informational advantage and security for its citizens, it is necessary for each country to spy on others – yes, even on its allies. However, to achieve the

most gains from this they must make sure they are never discovered, or they lose outright. I will be so Machiavellian as to venture that if any criticism is to be levied at the United States, then it is that they are bad spies for failing to control for an internal leak. If a state cannot reliably spy on its allies without being discovered, then it should not attempt it at all, since that discovery would lead to the collapse of the collaborative regime we have. Information sharing between Western allies is one of the key strategic strengths in a world where other nations are swiftly rising to balance Western power, and it must outweigh our other concerns. Allies currently do, and for the foreseeable future will continue to spy on each other. They should start doing a better job at concealing it and observe the 11th Commandment: â€œâ€Śand don’t let me catch you.â€?

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Opinion

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Priority Campaign Jay Stoll has launched the SU’s Priority Campaign. +RZHYHU WKLV LV GLŕŽ‰ HUHQW IURP KRZ WKH\ KDYH EHHQ done historically. In the past Priority Campaigns would take one issue, and hammer it home with vast amounts of time, UHVRXUFHV DQG IXQGLQJ ,Q P\ ன UVW \HDU LW ZDV HQWLWOHG “Freeze the Feesâ€? campaigning against fee rises on a national level, last year campaigned against cuts to Higher Education. However this focus is more internal, rather than focusing on national campaigns which are unlikely to be successful, and turning their attention squarely onto campus on areas that we are likely to have more of an impact. This, however, does not seem to be a Priority Campaign, but seems to be eschewing it, in favour of spending more time focusing on what their positions normally entail. However, based on the limited success rate of previous ‘priority campaigns’ this is probably for the best.

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PartB

14

12.11.2013 PartB

WORLD UTOPIAN STATE OF MIND

Our current model of capitalist democracy may be defunct, but Russell Brand's advocation of electoral non-participation is counter-productive. Real changes, argues IAN PLUNKETT, come from a well-coordinated collective movement with a clearly-defined goal.

DUNCAN C

U

nless you are floating with Sandra Bullock just outside the earth’s atmosphere, you will not have missed the controversy surrounding the ‘manifesto’ Russell Brand has written for the New Statesman (which I believe you can get for ÂŁ3.50), and the subsequent furore over the interview between Brand and Jeremy Paxman on Newsnight. Sitting somewhere between a Marxist revolutionary call to action and a vegetarian, pseudo-new age spiritualist rant, the nearly 5,000-word piece was widely distributed on social media platforms. In the piece and interview, Brand disclosed that he had in fact never voted. Perhaps most controversially, he encouraged this course of political non-participation as a demonstration of collective public outrage at the current political status quo. He argues these non-participatory measures can act as a catalyst to the complete destruction of the capitalist democratic system of western governance and the emergence of a shiny new egalitarian system—what exactly this would look like in practice is not tangibly offered. First and foremost, Brand is a comedian, and an extremely intelligent one at that. As an ex-junkie, a status which he goes to great lengths to mention in nearly every media appearance, he is nonetheless an articulate and eloquent wordsmith. If he fancied a career change, he would probably thrive as the most employable spindoctor in London. Still, I like him. I don’t doubt for one second that he is acting from a place of honesty and conviction. The first issue I have with the piece, is that it is written in a stream-of-consciousness format, where a deluge of convoluted, populist concepts are poured onto the page with no attempt to demarcate or tangibly offer any viable solutions. By the end of it, I wasn’t sure if I should take up arms to prevent fracking, join an ashram in Nepal, or get the train to Croydon with a Molotov cocktail and a book of one-liners. It might seem like I’m being facetious and condescending, but that is not my intention. Ironically, from a man who makes his living telling jokes, the seriousness of the issues he puts forward are no laughing matter. However multifaceted and downright all over the place his writing might seem upon first reading, Brand makes some sound points. Political apathy amongst young people is at a record high. The veracity of this claim can be seen in dwindling voter turnout, rioting and the emergence of a totally disaffected demographic of young people. The leaders of the major political parties

in this country are alarmingly uniform, and the passage about the privileged class of politicians trading Eton architecture for the equivalent woody hues of Westminster is a fitting and accurate postulation. Furthermore, the role of big business, lobbying and endemic cronyism has undoubtedly reached fever pitch. And if you look at the political rhetoric of governments over the last few years, these public and private institutions are being pulled ever closer together. This homogeneity of ideas is not healthy for democracy. The ubiquitous adoption of media logic, spindoctors, professionalised campaign consultants and brand teams are the very mechanisms by which politicians insulate themselves from criticisms, retain power, and carefully stagemanage their image. Policies are now increasingly being decided by focus groups and then tested in hypothetical scenarios to gauge possible public reaction before they are unveiled. Is this a healthy, participatory democracy? It all seems a bit depressingly draconian. When Brand calls for a totally new political paradigm based on a system of governance which emphasises human rights, collective consciousness and a respectful appreciation of our shared value-system as citizens of the earth, it’s very difficult to argue with him. Eddie Izzard, a colleague of Brand’s and a fellow funny-man with arguably more of a penchant for androgynous mischief, has spoken about getting involved in politics. His impe-

tus for doing so is to ensure a more effective and united Left, free from the paradoxical elitism to which Brand accurately refers, that can effectively counteract the disturbing resurgence of nationalistic right-wing agendas. Izzard wants to first and foremost start the democratic revolution from within. Imagine him running for government with Brand as his advisor—now that’s a duo to be reckoned with. In 2011, in one of the most significant moments in my country’s history, Irish people voted out the Fianna FĂĄil party which had effectively held the balance of power, bar a few moments of respite, since the foundation of the state. They were completely decimated as a political force largely because they had presided over a system of incredible wastage and political patronage that allowed us to squander our shared wealth. It was said from the media at the time that we had “rioted in the ballot boxâ€?. Furthermore, last month Ireland was given the chance to eradicate the upper house of parliament, consistently the type of arena in which elected Senators debate normative issues on the grounds of ethics, justice and morality. The polls indicated it would be tight but a resounding win for the government with the upper house abolished. Irish people rallied together and voted to keep the upper house with 51.7 per cent of the vote, firmly dropping the issue of tangible government reform back onto the lap of the government. This is why voting counts. This is

why participating counts. Yes, not voting in theory could be a powerful message to send to political elites but only if it is backed up with a collectivised movement and meaningful alternative. In this climate of bubbling anger and a zeitgeist of apathy, there is potential for change. Similar to gaining woman’s suffrage a century ago, or turning the tide of racial hatred in the US, or agreeing to a power-sharing deal in the North of Ireland fifteen years ago, the system can be smashed to pieces from the inside out. Knee-jerk and reactionary activity can produce a retrograde effect. In all of these examples, there was a collectivised pragmatism combined with a revolutionary spirit that demanded political change. Russell Brand should be commended for sparking this debate. It is a timely and important one. In a way, it is his duty as a politically minded personality and as a mischievous satirist, to use his platform to force us think about the status quo and to challenge dominant theoretical frameworks. It’s quickly becoming the Brand brand. Perhaps, he has more in common with Jack Kerouac than Karl Marx in terms of his writing. On that basis, I’ll keep my £3.50 but far from castigating him, we should celebrate the fact that we are having this debate. Unintentionally, by encouraging non-participation, Brand has inadvertently sparked a discussion about the importance of increased participation as a means of change. Not bad for an East-London ex-junkie who made his name on MTV.

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The Beaver 12.11.2013

FILM .meditation, nature and oneness."

A comparative exploration in the manifestation of spirituality in Samsara & Prince Avalance

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editation. The journey you embrace WR ன QG DQ LQQHU stillness, awareness and affinity with one’s own body, and most importantly, consciousness. Often the assumption is made that this has to occur in a strictly inundated manner, or by adopting the ‘far out, dude’ mentality, an infamous pop culture reference to stoners of our past and current generations suggestive of ‘trips’ beyond our rational faculties. However, the purpose of meditation is quite the contrary. As long as you are

from admiring a contemporary art piece at the Saatchi *DOOHU\ WR ன QGLQJ D UHVRQDQFH between yourself and Kanye West’s Yeezus (2013). Samsara (2012) and Prince Avalanche (2013) both hold this intrinsic, emotional resonance with the inner self and external reality, \HW ERWK ன OPV GHSLFW WKLV LQ LQ teresting and unique ways. By focusing on human nature objectively and most importantly, subjectively, we are forced to alienate ourselves from the everyday pressures of life that can culminate in our inability to see with our ‘third eye’ or, that is to say, the ability to see

Lance: I mean, when you were out here for the spring by yourself, didn’t you get lonely? Like, so lonely? Alvin: There’s a difference between being lonely and being alone Lance: There is?

MAGNOLIA PICTURES

in a state where there is an awesome affinity with the self and environment in that precise moment in time, the means by which one achieves this is not duly limited to sitting in the lotus position and chanting mantras till the cows come home. Such means can vary

beyond the physical borders of reality. 7KH QDWXUDO VXSHUன FLDO SDU adox is evoked in David Gordon Green’s comedy Prince Avalanche with a very minimalistic charm. As a loose adDSWDWLRQ RI WKH ,FHODQGLF ன OP Either Way (2011), we are introduced to the adventures of

Alvin (Paul Rudd) and Lance (Emile Hirsch) working in an isolated natural American landscape. On the surface, it appears as though their goal as highway road workers is to complete the road-marking task they have been assigned to do. Yet, this ‘job’ provides the necessary tools to reach a state of catharsis whereby the stresses of Alvin and Lance in the ‘reality’ of the big city are deconstructed and realised as QRWKLQJ PRUH WKDQ VXSHUன FLDO hindrances. It soon becomes apparent WKDW WKH SUHPLVH RI WKH ன OP is of a similar framework to a standard ‘arty-farty’ independHQW ன OPV WKDW XVXDOO\ DFKLHYHV critical acclaim. The cinematography is a perfect example of this; instead of the typically busy, action packed nature of most scenes in Hollywood ன QDQFHG ன OPV 3ULQFH $YD lanche primarily focuses on the minute details which one would otherwise fail to pay attention to. This ranges from the panned opening sequence UHIHUHQFLQJ WKH IRUHVW ன UHV that occurred in Texas in 1988 to the dancing shadows of the trees moving gracefully along the highway on which Alvin and Lance have been working. ,QGHHG VXFK ன OPLQJ WHFK niques have often been demonised as philosophically pretentious and absurd since there is a lot of leeway for subjective interpretation. Yet, Green clearly ensured that the narrative is, and of itself, a meditation on the world that we live in. The moment where we see the development of this notion is via Rudd’s highly commendable performance in a scene where his character, Alvin, acts out a dream of a man returning home to his family,

Â?Â?Â?Â? while walking amongst the remains of an incinerated house. Reminiscent of David Lynch, this is a moment that is bound to confuse an average viewer, arousing doubt about the psychological stability of Alvin. A similar scene is depicted in Ron Fricke and Mark Magidson’s sequel Samsara, a visually stunning documenWDU\ ன OPHG RQ PP ன OP WKDW captures several cultures and the sacred grounds associated with them from around the world. Here, we are presented ZLWK ‍Ú?‏7UDQVன JXUDWLRQ‍ ڑ‏DQ LQ terpretive performance piece by French male actor Olivier de Sagazan, sat in a corporate office plastering his face with grey, black and red clay in a very disturbing manner. Why is this a noteworthy moment? Well, Samsara is essentially, as Fricke stated, ‘a nonverbal guided meditation on birth, death, and rebirth’. What we can derive from this then, is that the current state of human nature in the Western world is more concerned with deconstructing and rebuilding masked appearances as well as mass consumption, with complete disregard for consequences. Samsara also engages in WKH QDWXUDO VXSHUன FLDO SDUD dox. The opening and closing scenes are particularly insightful as they depict the process where Tibetan monks create a beautiful Mandala, a geometrically spiritual illustration designed to symbolise the cyclical nature of the Universe, with coloured sand. The intricacy of the design is astonishLQJ DQG E\ WKH HQG RI WKH ன OP we see the total annihilation of it, swept away into a small cup to be emptied into the water as part of a sacred ritualistic

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ceremony. You cannot help but feel an element of disappointment, but this as aforementioned, is simply a the nature of human existence: in life there is death, in death there is life. The lesson to be taken DZD\ IURP ERWK ன OPV LV WKLV JR ZLWK WKH ŕŽ‹ RZ DQG DSSUH ciate what the universe has WR RŕŽ‰ HU 2I FRXUVH WKLV LV DQ understandably difficult concept to relate to and adopt in this day and age. However, there is always calmness within chaos and once we ன QG WKLV RQH EHFRPHV PRUH aware of and emphatically engaged in the world around us. Namaste!

The newly established ‘The Meditation Circle (LSE)’, a “secular and regular meetup meditation group� will be running meditation sessions to coincide with LSESU DeStress week.

KOKO OWUSU

Prince Avalanche (2013) Director: David Gordon Green Run time: 94 mins Samsara (2012) Director(s): Ron Fricke, Mark Magidson Run time: 102 mins

16

12.11.2013 PartB

VISUAL ARTS

INTERVIEW WITH SARA SHAMMA

GROUP PSYCHOLOGY AND COLLECTIVE MENTALITY ARTICULATED IN WHIMSICAL BRUSH STROKES

S

"My imagination is constantly going all the time and I am trying to take in so many things. I love observing things. Consequently, it means my mind is always on the go so I have to be able to work with lots of facts and ideas." now, in a time of oppression. Many people would perceive your artistic voice as unique, being a woman from the Middle East. But, do you think being a woman D૸ HFWV \RXU ZRUN RU KDV D particular impact on your art? No, not really. Each individual VHHV VRPHWKLQJ VSHFLDO DQG VRPHWKLQJ XQLTXHO\ LPDJLQDWLYH WR EULQJ WR WKH DUW world.

SARA SHAMMA

ara Shamma’s SDLQWLQJV JLYH Rୟ a hallucinogenic aura, so I guess I had expected her appearance to correspond to this. To be honest, I could not have been more wrong; the woman with whom I met on Thursday was unrecognisable from my imagination—I had anticipated someone with an airy-fairy demeanour and slightly vacant eyes. However, Shamma had a very strong presence. Her striking looks made her seem very grounded, and made me even more excited to talk to her, as I could not immediately reconcile her glamorous dress with the phantasmagoria she produces. As one might expect, the ୽ UVW WKLQJ 6KDPPD GLG ZDV to ask me how much of her work I had seen. As November marks the unveiling of her ୽ UVW VROR H[KLELWLRQ LQ /RQGRQ I had to admit that I’d only seen her works online. On telling her this, she moved over to the laptop, revealing the full contents of Q, which is comprised of ten individual paintings; these paintings also work together to create a whole. This idea of the singular becoming part of the collective is a recurring theme throughout her exhibition. Q DOVR UH୞ HFWV WKH SV\FKRORJ\ of a literal queue, and is used by Shamma to explore the concept of the collective consciousness. Whilst Shamma was preoccupied with the computer, it occurred to me that she really cared about her work. Even the positioning RI KHU ODSWRS RQ WKH PLGGOH RI WKH WDEOH UH୞ HFWHG WKLV symbolically, it was made clear that her art was to be the centre of this interview. Now, this might seem like an obvious point but so much of the art world is taken over by personality—just think Damien Hurst—so it is really comforting to feel like you are sitting with somebody genuine.

"My work is not overtly political, but the situation in Syria reaffirmed my interest in group psychology. The people seem random because anyone can be persuaded to do stupid things under pressure." The people in your queues are not a group of people that I would usually imagine standing together. One even reminds me of a scene from Alice in Wonderland where she is running around with the Dodo! How do you select or decide on the characters to be put together? I don’t plan. I build up the works slowly, one after another. In a way, the process of creating the SLHFHV UHŕŽ‹ HFWV WKH WKHPH RI WKH TXHXH 7KH SLHFHV DFFXPXODWH XS EHKLQG RQH DQRWKHU 0\ ZRUN LV QRW RYHUWO\ SROLWLFDO EXW WKH VLWXDWLRQ LQ 6\ULD UHDIILUPHG P\ LQWHUHVW LQ JURXS SV\FKRORJ\ 7KH SHRSOH VHHP UDQGRP EHFDXVH DQ\RQH FDQ EH SHUVXDGHG WR GR stupid things under pressure.

would you say that drawing upon other artists’ ZRUNV D૸ HFWV WKH RUJDQLF HOHPHQW WR \RXU ZRUN" Of course, I do look at the work of other artists. However, I would not say that one particular artist LQŕŽ‹ XHQFHV PH‍\ÚŒâ€ŹHV WKH\ HQULFK P\ NQRZOHGJH EXW ZKDW UHDOO\ LQVSLUHV PH LV PXVLF

On that note, is there something that you would like your artwork to be NQRZQ IRU" $W ૹ UVW 6DUD looks to the interpreter and she asks something in Syrian. I can feel my palms get sweaty. I panic. Am I being too convoluted? Then, he laughs and says ‘penetrate’. Phew, I think she has also got a sense of humour!) ODXJKLQJ 3HQHWUDWH , ZDQW P\ ZRUNV WR SHQHWUDWH WKH XQFRQVFLRXV PLQG RI HYHU\ YLHZHU

Sorry about this, but I am going to ask you another ‘stock’ question now. Is there another $KD 6R ZKDW WXQHV FRXOG , ૹ QG RQ \RXU L3RG profession you would have wanted to go into? No. then? ODXJKLQJ %RE '\ODQ /HRQDUG &RKHQâ€ŤÚŒâ€ŹD ORW RI URFN PXVLF DQG EOXHV UHDOO\ , WKLQN PXVLF LV YHU\ SXUH DQG Wow, no hesitation there. Some people would LQVHQVLWLYH DQG FUHDWHV D JRRG DWPRVSKHUH IRU P\ say that your decision to become an artist was brave. Do you agree with that? work. No! In order to be brave, you have to be afraid! What I don’t know whether you have heard this before, LV WKHUH WR EH DIUDLG DERXW" , ORYH DUW DQG LW LV P\ but your work has quite an eerie dreamlike GUHDP DQG SDVVLRQ , GR QRW WKLQN WKDW DQ\RQH VKRXOG quality. Actually, it reminds me of some of EH DIUDLG RU EH LQ IHDU LI \RX DUH VFDUHG RI VRPHWKLQJ Francis Bacon’s work. Do you think it is your LW LV PRUH OLNHO\ WR KDSSHQ WR \RX (YHU\RQH QHHGV WR resistance to planning your images that brings stay true to what they want to do. You really have to do what you want to do. out this element in your pieces? <HV , WKLQN ZKDW UHPLQGV \RX RI %DFRQ LV WKH PRYHPHQW Sara Shamma was born in Damascus, Syria in LQ P\ ZRUN 0\ LPDJLQDWLRQ LV FRQVWDQWO\ JRLQJ DOO WKH WLPH DQG , DP WU\LQJ WR WDNH LQ VR PDQ\ WKLQJV , ORYH 1975 and graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts, REVHUYLQJ WKLQJV &RQVHTXHQWO\ LW PHDQV P\ PLQG LV University of Damascus, in 1998. ‘Q’ is being shown always on the go so I have to be able to work with lots at Upper Gulbenkian Gallery, Royal College of Art, of facts and ideas. In order to convey this, I have to be .HQVLQJWRQ *RUH /RQGRQ 6: (8 $GPLVVLRQ LV IUHH IURP WKH FRQVWUDLQWV RI RYHU SODQQLQJ , FDQ EH free. FRQQHFWHG ZLWK P\ XQFRQVFLRXV LPDJH ZKLFK DOORZV PH WR EH WUXO\ H[SUHVVLYH DQG UHDO 0RVW LPSRUWDQWO\ LW LV WKLV IUHHGRP WKDW JLYHV PH WKH DELOLW\ WR TXHVWLRQ P\ VXUURXQGLQJV

How did you go about selecting the colours? $JDLQ , GRQ‍ڑ‏W 7KH FRORXUV , XVH QDWXUDOO\ ன W ZLWK WKH ZRUNV DQG , IHHO WKDW LW JLYHV HDFK SLHFH D PRUH QDWXUDO TXDOLW\â€ŤÚŒâ€ŹLW LV WKLV QDWXUDO DQG XQFRQVFLRXV HOHPHQW WKDW , OLNH WR GUDZ XSRQ DQG , WKLQN LV LPSRUWDQW

Is that what art should do? I mean, should art be a medium by which people can change their perspectives? $UW VKRXOG EH D IRUP RI FRPPXQLFDWLRQ ,W GRHV QRW KDYH WR FKDQJH SHRSOH‍ڑ‏V SHUVSHFWLYHV )RU PH DUW VKRXOG EH VRPHWKLQJ WKDW LV UHFHLYHG IUHHO\ DQG understood. Of course, it should create a kind of FRPPXQLFDWLRQ EHWZHHQ WKH YLHZHU DQG WKH SLHFH EXW it does not have to strive to challenge or alter anything.

Whilst on the topic of natural and un-natural,

I am going to ask you a pretty standard question

JADE JACKMAN

17

The Beaver 12.11.2013

FASHION

BLAZER UP:

YOU DON'T NEED AN EXCUSE TO LOOK GOOD

A

"Being perfectly well-dressed gives one a tranquility that no religion can bestow." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

clothing garment that every guy must have in their wardrobe: the classic blazer. A garment typically associated with official events, investment banks, office jobs, and serious meetings has now EHHQ UHGHன QHG DV WKH QHZ /LW tle Black Dress of male clothing. It reasserts the casual business stereotype; howevHU VWXŕŽ‰ \ IRUPDO DŕŽ‰ DLUV DUH far from its fullest potential. Structured yet simple, this versatile piece transcend satorial boundaries. Suitable from day to night, work to casual, the piece is adaptability incarnate. The blazer is a very basic item of clothing found in the majority of male wardrobes. Nonetheless, its underestimation as a true statement classic leaves you with an item that has not yet been properly 'exploited'. When an invitation dictates the dress code to be “smart casual attireâ€?, the immediate and typical male reaction would be to put on a sluggish pair of trousers and a shirt. This lazy way of thinking has denied many a male WKH FHUWLன HG VWDWXV RI EHLQJ D sleek, fashionable man. In this increasingly competitive era where image is everything, any ambitious and self-respecting young man should go the extra mile and stand out by SXWWLQJ D OLWWOH PRUH HŕŽ‰ RUW LQWR

his appearances. Apart from being brilliant and capable, actually looking the part is an often overlooked key in opening doors, business or social. Do not be intimidated; it's really not that difficult. Follow this simple recipe and you'd never go wrong. Rania’s easy 4-step recipe WR RXWૹ W VXFFHVV 1. Choose a blazer. Make sure you pick it out well; it will be your statement piece and the solid foundation upon which WKH HQWLUH RXWன W ZLOO EH IXUWKHU constructed. 2. If it’s a smart casual event, put on a shirt. Avoid patterns and instead go for plain monochrome, preferably black, white, light blue or grey. 3. If it’s a nice lunch, a walk, a shopping spree, or a casual day, you can wear a t-shirt or a thin sweatshirt, or even a French-styled long-sleeved blouse instead of a shirt. Do QRW FKRRVH D SROR 5DOSK /DX UHQ RU /DFRVWH WKRXJK WKH\‍ڑ‏UH so passĂŠ. Again, go with monochrome to keep it simple and avoid color clashes and kitsch outcomes.

funky. And you should be proud of it. If you are a preppy guy, go for the all-time classic boat shoes; Timberland will never GR \RX ZURQJ ‍ ڤ‏ 5. Finally, add an accessory: a watch, a pair of sunglasses, a leather satchel bag, a briefcase—it all depends on the situation. If you do it right, the DFFHVVRU\ ZLOO DFW DV \RXU ன QDO WRXFK EULQJLQJ WKH HQWLUH RXWன W WRJHWKHU DQG DGGLQJ DQ HŕŽ‰ RUW less prestige. If you have the means to invest in a good blazer, Paul Smith is ideal; its incredible quality and richness of textures is truly faultless. For impeccable tailoring, The Kooples is the destination for you. If you’re running low on budget, the high street is packed with professional sleek blazers at a fraction of the price—from Zara to Pull&Bear or River Island for sleek styles for less. RANIA KOUROS

4. You can actually wear that SDLU RI ‍ڤ‏FRQYHUVH VKRHV \RX adore. You’re young. You’re

TAILORED TRANSLUCENCY:

FROM CATWALK TO HIGH STREET

T

he current trend rocking the recent spring ready-to-wear collection has featured a myriad of interpretations of structured fabrics paired with second-skin unveilings. Think tailored meets sensuality, adding a whole new dimension to tailored clothing. 'HVSLWH GHVLJQHUV GLŕŽ‰ HULQJ LQ colour schemes within their individual collections, this new tailored trend remains pervasive enough to be translated into commercial reality. Stella McCartney in particular features bold monotone ORRNV ZKLOH OLIWLQJ WKH ŕŽ‹ DWQHVV RI WKH RXWன WV E\ GUDZLQJ RXU attention to partial birthday suits. Her ability to keep the trend of lace alive by pairing it with structured pants (lace on lace) and body-conforming dresses adds a timeless sense of femininity, whilst maintaining its masculine-inspired roots. Although such a trend may VHHP WRR KLJK EURZ WR SXOO RŕŽ‰ DW /6( KHUH DUH VRPH DGDSW able looks that takes the underlying idea of playing sheer against opaque into the daytime.

Look 2: By adding a pop of colour with monochrome SDOHWWHV WKLV RXWŕ­˝ W WDNHV VRPH DWWHQWLRQ Rŕ­ź WKH ŕ­ž HVK The Art Deco jewelry eases the naivetĂŠ of orange with PDWXULW\

Look 1: Strong colours compliment the structured piecHV LQ WKLV ORRN $ GRVH RI EOXH energises the look while the UHG DQG EODFN FRPELQDWLRQ NHHSV LW P\VWHULRXV 7KLV look is perfect in light of the FXUUHQW ZHDWKHU

/RRN 7KLV RXW୽ W LV PRUH RI D WUDQVLWLRQ WR VSULQJ Light colours detract from RXW୽ W‍ڑ‏V VHQVXDOLW\ DQG DGG D VHQVH RI IXQ %URJXH VKRHV and dainty earrings keep the RXW୽ W ORRNLQJ SROLVKHG \HW VH[\

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18

12.11.2013 PartB

TECHNOLOGY

MINORITYREPORT How big data analysis allows the police to tackle crime before it happens

M

ore than a decade has passed since Spielberg’s Minority Report, based on Pilip K. Dicks’ masterpiece, was ன UVW VKRZQ RQ VFUHHQ %DFN then the tale of a ‘Pre’ Crime police unit that stops murders before they happen seemed like nothing more than another VFL ன IDQWDV\ Today, the story is quite different. Local police forces are

'As our city braces itself to enter this Spielbergian era of crime control, it seems right to raise some concerns about the implementation of predictive policing' increasingly taking it upon themselves to develop ‘smart’ policing initiatives that rely on predictive algorithms to tackle crime before it happens. PredPol and the ambiguously named ‘Domain Awareness System’, a surveillance system used by New York Police Department, are but few of the existing softwares. These softwares use either published statistics on crime or sensors across cities to inform police officers of which areas they should be focusing on in real time. Additional personnels are then sent to the 'hot spot' in question during WKDW VSHFLன F WLPH DV D SUHYHQ tative measure. So far the results seem impressive. Last week, the University of California, Riverside

and the Indio Police Department (CA) released a joint statement that their own predictive software has reduced burglaries by eight per cent in WKH ன UVW QLQH PRQWKV RI Similarly, PredPol boasts thirteen per cent crime reduction rate after its implementation in Los Angeles’ Foothill division. Predictive policing is not a centric concept, Greater Manchester’s Police has been using predictive mapping for quite some time and the London Assembly suggested earlier this year that the Met Police follow in its path. As our city braces itself to enter this Spielbergian era of crime control, it seems right to raise some concerns about the implementation of predictive policing. Professor Tim Newburn, of the LSE, warns ‘the principle of identifying problems and using police resources in a targeted way, rather than simply being reactive, is a sensible one. However, such strategies must be underpinned by clear ethical principles and protections against dangers such as HWKQLF SURன OLQJ‍ ڑ‏ Skeptics have also pointed that overreliance on algorithms may overemphasises commonly reported property crimes at the expense of underreported crimes such as domestic violence and sexual RŕŽ‰ HQFHV As Evengy Morozov author of The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom notes, ‘the promise of predictive policing might be real, but so too are its dangers’.

TECH VOCAB Wetware Wet+Software. The human factor in computer systems , such as programmers and users. ....................................... Bot Robot+Network. A network of infected private computers that can be controlled as a group by DQ XQVSHFLன HG WKLUG SDUW\ ....................................... Crackers Malicious hackers who break through or crack security systems with a malicious intent.

FORGETNOAH T

he latest technology LQ ' ODVHU VFDQQLQJ has enabled charity CyArk to set about digitally preserving cultural and historical landmarks for future generations. In a muchtouted event at the Tower of London, CyArk launched its ன UVW SLRQHHULQJ PLVVLRQ WR GLJLWDOO\ UHFRUG ன YH KXQGUHG world heritage sites within a SHULRG RI ன YH \HDUV Already forty projects have been completed, including the Titanic, Pompeii and Mount Rushmore; an advisory panel ZLOO VHOHFW WKH UHVW RI WKH ன YH hundred sites. The panel includes a range of historians, cultural leaders and architects. This development marks a turning point in how we view

our cultural landmarks; nothing can be preserved from the joint forces of nature and man forever. How then do we record the Statue of Liberty or the Egyptian Sphinx for future JHQHUDWLRQV" ' ODVHU VFDQ ning would appear to be the most feasible answer to this dilemma, creating a virtual copy freely accessible to all over the Internet. Immortalising sites so intrinsic to the history of our planet demonstrates how modern technologies are being used so successfully to ensure that future generations have the freedom to explore and enjoy iconic landmarks. It shows exciting promise for technological developments in how we see our history, and how we save it.

....................................... Malware Malicious software.

hardware

or

....................................... Trojan A malware that performs unwanted actions and creates backdoor access to systems, while masked behind a desirable function. Unlike viruses and worms, Trojans cannot self-replicate. ....................................... Phishers Those who attempt to gain personal information, passwords or credit card details by masking as a trustworthy entity.

A digital recreation of the El Castillo pyramids in Chichen Itza in Mexico, rendered possible by 3D laser scanners

TECHTWEETS

TABLETSREVIEW iPad Air - From ÂŁ399 Apple’s ubiquitous slab dominates the tablet market, and sets the benchmark to which all others are judged. Exquisitely designed, an array of apps and ease of use makes the iPad the tablet with which to be seen. Apple fanboys may irritate you as they sing the praises of their new device, but the tablet evangelists are correct; nothing beats the iPad on any front. They are the perfect tool for use in lectures, the library and RI FRXUVH FRŕŽ‰ HH VKRS *LY ing in to the ranks of cooing iPad owners may be tough, but they’re in the right.

Kindle Fire HD - From ÂŁ139 Price is iPad's only downfall, and for students this could be a deal breaker. Ama]RQ RŕŽ‰ HUV D IDU FKHDSHU DQG relatively capable tablet: the Kindle Fire. It’s well-made, but crucially lacks the same productive ability as the iPad. As a web browser and media tablet, it wins hands down, despite not being able to compete in terms of lecture notes and word processing. If you are planning on using iPad for movies and music, buy this instead so you can spend savings on the content.

Tesco Hudl - ÂŁ119 %HLQJ HWKLFDOO\ GULYHQ LSE students, Amazon’s WD[ DŕŽ‰ DLUV PD\ QRW DSSHDO If this is you, the newly released Tesco Hudl could be the one. It is cheap, and running the latest Android software, has the credentials for a great contender. Productivity is well catered for on the Android platform, with a range of apps all running quickly on the Hudl’s powerful processor. Overall the design is the only drawback; it’s an acquired taste, but once you get past the truth that nothing looks as good as the iPad it is an excellent student tablet.

Edited by GILLIAN CAFIERO and ALEXANDER FYFE Contact: technology@thebeaveronline.co.uk Images from left to right: Apple, Tesco, Amazon, CyArk.

19

The Beaver 12.11.2013

FOOD ritos at BH tastes as great as the last with fresh coriander and juicy tomato salsa cutting through each mouthful. )RRG ZLVH %+‍ڑ‏V VHWXS with regards to the menu is fairly conventional. There are three main choices for food at BH; like most other places \RX VWDUW E\ VHOHFWLQJ D EXU ULWR WZR VRIW ŕŽ‹ RXU WDFRV RU D healthier salad version, from that point your meal is entirely customisable. I went for the pinto beans, coriander rice, braised chicken, sour cream, FKHHVH JXDFDPROH DQG 6DO sa Verde. There are multiple salsa options to choose from, LQFOXGLQJ IRXU GLŕŽ‰ HUHQW VSLFHV RI VDOVDâ€ŤÚŒâ€ŹZDWFK RXW WKH 6DOVD 'LDEOR LV WUXO\ GHDGO\ DQG HYHQ P\ 6UL /DQNDQ KHULWDJH VWUXJ gled to handle the heat when I sampled the various salsas. You can taste how fresh every ingredient in the burrito is, with meat constantly being prepared in the main kitchen downstairs ensuring that the PHDW XS RQ WKH VKRS ŕŽ‹ RRU KDV not been stagnant for hours on end. As mentioned previously, I went for the braised chicken, which was a lightly spiced chicken option, but a simple grilled chicken option exists, along with a pulled pork, and VWHDN RSWLRQ WRR $QRWKHU ER nus to BH is the amount of GULQNV RQ RŕŽ‰ HU $SDUW IURP FRQYHQWLRQDO ன ]]\ GULQNV WKH\ DOVR RŕŽ‰ HU IUHVKO\ PDGH MXLF 61-63 Beak Street, London W1F 9SL MON-FRI 08:00 – 23:00 SAT 09:00 - 23:00 SUN 10:00 – 22:30

H

as anyone noticed the omnipresence of trendy burger joints recently? They're everywhere. A theory going around suggests we all love them so much because they give us the taste of luxury no ORQJHU DŕŽ‰ RUGDEOH LQ SRVW UH cession Britain. Now that we're all poor students, spending ten pounds on a burger gives us the sense of indulgence that LQ WKH ZDV RQO\ DYDLO able at Ramsay's or Roux's latest slam. Whether there's any truth to this untestable theory, I will leave to our ever TXDOLன HG FROOHDJXHV LQ WKH 6R cial Policy department. What I do know is this: if you like a burger, no burger joint is ever UHDOO\ JRLQJ WR OHDYH \RX GLVDS pointed. It is with this attitude

in mind that I am reticent to be WRR DQDO\WLFDO DERXW WKH KXP EOH EXUJHU OHVW , VHHP SUHWHQ tious. However, at The Beaver we strive to provide a public service and so we are going to tear apart some burger joints in London this year, in what ZLOO KRSHIXOO\ EH DQ LQIRUPD WLYH DQG DŕŽ‰ RUGDEOH VHULHV 7KLV ZHHN ZH DUH VHSDUDW ing the steak chuck from the PHFKDQLFDOO\ GHVLJQHG PHDW DW *ULOO6KDFN LQ 6RKR *ULOO6KDFN is a relatively late arrival to the FURZG ORFDWHG RQ %HDN 6WUHHW around the corner from many FRPSHWLWRUV LQFOXGLQJ %RGH ans, BRGR Co and Carnaby 6WUHHW %XUJHU &R )DFLQJ VXFK competition, it is important for D QHZFRPHU WR GLŕŽ‰ HUHQWLDWH LWVHOI *ULOO 6KDFN‍ڑ‏V UHOD[HG understated atmosphere is thus refreshing for a change. It is probably the only burger joint in London not to be lit with burning hot, vintage light bulbs. Upon entering we were greeted by a friendly front of KRXVH VWDŕŽ‰ DQG LQWURGXFHG WR the manager and the chef, who suggested which dishes we should try. Interestingly, the Chef here is actually also the owner, which is always nice to

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the drink. Nonetheless, it was great to be able to try such an obscure drink. BH also serves reasonably priced cocktails ZLWK D KDSS\ KRXU DOO RI 0RQ day, and for selected hours during the rest of the week. Unlike most other places, BH also has a large seating area in every restaurant that has a table service menu. The GLQLQJ H[SHULHQFH LV VWLOO LQIRU PDO WKRXJK WKH\ RŕŽ‰ HU VRPH great platters for diners to VKDUH FRPSULVLQJ VPDOO SRU WLRQV RI YDULRXV 0H[LFDQ FODV

HV LPSRUWHG 0H[LFDQ ன ]]\ drinks, cocktails, a selection RI EHHUV DQG D SRSXODU 0H[L can drink, Horchata. Horchata ZDV GHன QLWHO\ LQWHUHVWLQJ DV LW ZDV PDGH IURP D FRPELQD tion of milk and rice milk with a hint of cinnamon, but I was intrigued by it mostly due to the popular Vampire Weekend VRQJ HQWLWOHG ‍Ú?‏+RUFKDWD‍ ڑ‏6DG O\ , ZDV QRW D ELJ IDQ +RZHY er, my dining companion loved LW DQG VZLIWO\ ன QLVKHG WKH UHVW of my Horchata; it must be a ORYH KDWH LVVXH ZLWK UHJDUGV WR

sic dishes, such as the taco and the taquito. %HQLWR‍ڑ‏V +DW FHUWDLQO\ GH VHUYHV FUHGLW DV RQH RI /RQ GRQ‍ڑ‏V EHVW EXUULWR MRLQWV DV WKH food matches the great service on which it prides itself. Plus, HYHU\ PHDO FRPHV ZLWK FRPSOL PHQWDU\ WRUWLOOD FKLSV DQG VWX dents are welcome to a ten per cent discount.

NERAJ THANGARAJAH

GRILLSHACK

Â?Â?Â?Â? know and he seemed genuinely happy to be running the shop. To start, we had some drinks. I had the house's own craft lager, which was crisp with a strong hoppy taste; it tasted like something that wouldn't have gone amiss at the Camden Town brewery. My dining companion had a green health juice concoction, which DSSHDUHG WRR KHDOWK\ IRU P\ OLN ing, but he informed me it was UDWKHU JRRG )RU RXU PHDO , KDG a double bacon cheeseburger, served in a satisfyingly sweet EULRFKH EXQ ZLWK VRPH VNLQ on fries. The burger was rich and the bacon crispy, although perhaps a slightly coarser grain of meat would have been SUHIHUDEOH 0\ GLQLQJ FRPSDQ LRQ FKRVH WKH ŕŽ‹ DWWHQHG UXPS steak, cooked to perfection DQG FDPH ZLWK D JHQHURXV SRU WLRQ RI ‍Ú?‏VKRHVWULQJ‍ ڑ‏IULHV 7KH fries themselves were great, but the absence of mayo from WKH UHVWDXUDQW ZDV VOLJKWO\ GLV appointing; however, this was more than made up for by the EURDG VHOHFWLRQ RI FKLOOL VDXF es, including a popular Asian RQH FDOOHG 6ULUDFKD ZKLFK \RX don't often see in London. If you like spicy things, here is a good place to start.

review

grillshack

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t's not difficult to ன QG D EXUULWR LQ /RQ don these days. What ZDV RQFH TXLWH D QRY el experience is now a little out of the ordinary for most people. +RZHYHU %HQLWR‍ڑ‏V +DW %+ LV indeed out of the ordinary, and for good reasons too. Having H[LVWHG IRU FORVH WR ன YH \HDUV now with the scope to expand HYHQ IXUWKHU WKLV SVHXGR FKDLQ of Burrito restaurants easily boasts one of the best burritos LQ WRZQ , VD\ SVHXGR FKDLQ DV unlike most other chains, each team takes enough pride in their own branch for the place to seem like an independently run business—a theme that seems so clear from the dining H[SHULHQFH DW %HQLWR‍ڑ‏V +DW DV WKH VWDŕŽ‰ KHUH DUH VR OR\DO WR their own branch and act as LI WKH\‍ڑ‏UH WKH IURQW RI D IDPLO\ run burrito shop. But obviously, extending beyond the service aspect of %HQLWR‍ڑ‏V +DW ZH VHH WKDW WKLV LVQ‍ڑ‏W LWV RQO\ VWURQJ SRLQW 7KH food here is fantastic, and more importantly, fresh. Every morning, a team of chefs start SUHSDULQJ IRRG IRU WKH GD\ hours before the shop opens. Even the tortilla chips are PDGH LQ KRXVH 7KH PDQDJHU with whom I had a chat prior WR P\ PHDO ZDV NHHQ WR HP phasise how fresh all the food at BH is with no ingredients reused the next day, and you FRXOG WHOO KH ZDVQ‍ڑ‏W H[DJJHU DWLQJ (YHU\ ELWH RI WKH EXU

review

BENITO'S HAT

BENITO'S HAT

56 Goodge Street, London W1T 4NB MON-WED 11:30 – 22:00 THU-SAT 11:30 - 23:00 SUN 11:00 – 21:00

)RU GHVVHUW , KDG DQ LFH cream cookie sandwich, the house special, which was—to VXP LW XS LQ RQH ZRUGâ€ŤÚŒâ€ŹULGLFX lous, and I mean ridiculously good. Each cookie was soft but with a subtle crunch to it, although the portion size was on the large side resulting in P\ LQDELOLW\ WR ன QLVK LW +RZ HYHU LW ZDV LQFUHGLEO\ UHDVRQ DEO\ SULFHG DQG D PXVW KDYH IRU HYHU\ YLVLWRU WR *ULOO 6KDFN My dining companion had the carrot cake, which was moist and delicious, but ultimately the ice cream cookie sandwich was easily the star of the show. 2QH ZD\ *ULOO 6KDFN FDQ SURXGO\ VD\ LW‍ڑ‏V GLŕŽ‰ HUHQW

from its competitors is the fact WKDW LW RŕŽ‰ HUV D EUHDNIDVW PHQX VHUYHG XQWLO KDOI SDVW HOHY HQ $QRWKHU ZD\ *ULOO 6KDFN trumps its competitors is when LW FRPHV WR SULFH $ GRXEOH ED con cheese costs nine pounds compared to the ten plus mark DW RWKHU EXUJHU HVWDEOLVK PHQWV JLYLQJ *ULOO 6KDFN VHUL ous plus points for value. I will VXUHO\ UHWXUQ WR *ULOO 6KDFN DV it's easily better than pretty much any other burger bar at a similar price point and it's just an easy, enjoyable experience overall.

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26.11.2013 PartB

NEVER AGAIN

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Tuesday November 12 2013

Features THE SOCIETY COLUMN features LSESU Film Society

Don’t underestimate the social power of the arts Ella O’Neil, LSESU Film Society

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ew York Magazine recently declared; “If Paris was the cultural capital of the 19th century and New York of the 20th, London is shaping up to be the cultural capital of the 21st century.� As students of the LSE, we are lucky enough to be studying at the heart of what may be the most exciting and culturally rich city in the world. We are spoilt for choice when it comes to the arts, the Tate Modern is the most popular modern art gallery in the world with over 4.7 million visitors annually, there are roughly 32,000 music performance’s a year – with an average 17% of these being free, and we have around 900 bookshops – that’s twice as many as New York.

CREATIVE ECONOMY Despite our enviable location, at LSE the arts are something that we dip into in our free time. Perhaps this is because we are a Social Sciences university. But, the creative sector is a vital part of the UK’s economy. It employs over two million people, exports over ÂŁ16 billion annually and contributes 6% of GDP. Perhaps more importantly though, the arts are the mirror that society holds up to itself, they reflect human concerns and prompt social change ACCESSIBLE & POWERFUL In the 2004 film ‘Hotel Rwanda’, after being thanked for shooting footage of the atrocities in the 1994 genocide the character Jack replies “if people see this footage, they’ll say, ‘Oh my God, that’s terrible,’ and they’ll go on eating

their dinners.� This perhaps was why the film is so important; it’s a reminder of how we may be guilty of only really paying attention to the events affecting us directly. Or take the 1915 American film “The Birth of a Nation�, glorifying the Ku Klux Klan and unashamedly racist and misogynistic, it was a box office hit. The film is credited with the Klan’s revival and the expansion of their campaign of hate to Catholics, Asians and Jewish-Americans. Looking back at it retrospectively, this film is a stark reminder of how ingrained these terrible views were in society and how much we have had to change over the past century to realize this. On a more positive note, protests organized in retaliation to the film brought national attention to the fiveyear-old NAACP; when white newspapers covered NAACP protests, African-Americans had a rare opportunity to be heard. Film, one of the most popular and accessible of all art forms, is immensely powerful. THE ARTS HAVE A UNIQUE ABILITY TO COMMENT

The power of art: Picasso’s Guernica, painted in 1937, was created in response to the bombing of Guernica in Spain, illustrating the tragedies of war

It was Dickens’ novels that alerted the privileged few that the poverty described in his novels were “not mere fiction, but a dismal place that actually existed on the south bank of the Thames� (BBC), it was Picasso’s “Guernica� which showed the world the brutality

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

7KH SRZHU RI ૽OP )RU RYHU D FHQWXU\ ૽OP KDV KDG WKH DELOLW\ WR UH૾HFW DQG FKDOOHQJH social norms.

inflicted on Spanish Civilians by Fascists during the Spanish Civil War and “Free Nelson Mandela� by the Specials recruited a generation, who had been too young to remember his imprisonment, to the anti-apartheid movement. If at LSE we really want to know the cause of things, we need to engage with the arts not only to escape and enjoy, but to understand their unique contribution and ability to comment. In the Film Society, we try to make the most of being in the cultural capital of the world; we hold two film screenings every week and organise trips

to see new releases and visit art house cinema. We’re also working to hold another Creative Business Series, which is a series of talks about the Creative economy and giving students the opportunity to make links in the arts and culture professions. By doing this, we hope to inspire LSE students to use their valuable experiences to make art happen and explore creative career paths. To find out more about the LSESU Film Society, go to: www.facebook.com/lsesufilmsociety

R A G C O R N E R features a sleepout on Houghton Street in aid of homelessness

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s if it’s Week 6! It feels like Freshers Week was a million years ago now, but we’ve got some exciting things coming up to keep your excitement levels high. Firstly, this week. We had our LOST information evening – thank you to everyone who attended! Sign ups are open now so reserve your place as it LV D னUVW FRPH னUVW VHUYHG SROicy. Go to our Facebook page for more information. We also raised over ÂŁ260 for our charities through selling course booklets and Krispy Kremes. Thank you to Team RAG volunteers who helped out: Ellen Lees, David Poole, Gilbert Qi, and Saran Richards. If you want to volunteer please join our Team RAG Facebook group.

Secondly, sign ups for Kilimanjaro are closing soon, so if you have not yet signed up make sure to do it today! Thirdly, we’ve got something YHU\ GLŕŽ‰HUHQW FRPLQJ XS ,W‍ڑ‏V not a pub quiz. It’s not a clubbing night. It’s not a Houghton Street stall. No, it’s a sleepout on Houghton Street. On 28th November we will be sleeping out on the steps of the Old Building to raise both awareness and money for Spires, one of our

dedicated charities. Spires does a wide variety of work, but one of its focuses is on supporting homeless people during the day by operating a day centre where people can come in and receive food, clothing, and support. Homelessness itself is hard to measure, according to Crisis – as it is more than just sleeping rough. Homelessness can include not having a permanent residence and temporarily living with friends and family. For

SPIRES Spires is a London charity that helps homeless people. It aims to improve the quality of life of all of those who are homeless, insecurely housed, unemployed, or sufIHULQJ IURP WKH H૸HFWV RI SRYHUW\ PHQWDO LOO KHDOWK DQG loneliness

these reasons there is no single statistic for the government to go by. Yet, being in London it is something that we see everyday, on our own campus, so it is something that is remarkably close to us. Students Advocates International are collaborating with RAG on this and they will be working to inform and educate students on homelessness and how people can come to be homeless, both before and during the sleepout. On the event there will be links to ‘The Pavement Perspective’, a blog and project by Frankie Bennett, a third year LSE student. Have a look at this as it provides more information about the nature of homelessness. In terms of how you can get involved, we want as many

people to join us on the steps of the Old Building to sleepout and raise money for Spires. The sleepout will run from noon on Thursday to noon on Friday. Previously one held a few years ago raised over £1,000 and we hope to emulate that. It is a challenge and it will be cold – but it is a truly worthy event to join in with and support. More information will be coming out this week about how to get involved. If you do not want to sleepout, please support your fellow LSE students through donating or looking at the information that Students Advocates International provide. Meanwhile, tell your friends, have a think, and sign up! Have a good week, and keep calm and RAG on.

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Features 7KH /6( %ULHĂ€QJ &DPSXV ([SDQVLRQ Mike Pearson

Craig Calhoun wrote in an all-school email, “we are approaching our estate strategy not just as a matter of space or separate buildings but also DV DQ Hŕ­źRUW WR EXLOG D EHWWHU campus. We look ahead at the School’s ambition to build a better campus by looking at the proposed campus expansions. GLOBAL CENTRE FOR SOCIAL SCIENCES In October, the School shortOLVWHG னYH GHVLJQV IRU D e P development. The new building, to be home to the “Global Centre for Social Sciencesâ€?, will take the place of the East Building, Anchorage, Clare Market and part of St. Clements (see below).

$PRQJVW WKH னUPV FRPSHWing to have their design turned into reality include two British னUPV WZR ,ULVK னUPV DQG DQ DUchitectural team from the Netherlands (see above for two of the proposed designs). Most designs propose a new “LSE squareâ€?, with the hope that this new piazza becomes the focal point of the campus. Due to this, many of the design entries scale up, allowing space on the ground for communal areas. Catering, new space for departments, teaching areas and support services have all EHHQ LQWHJUDWHG LQWR WKH GLŕŽ‰HUent designs. However, following a design competition, the School said, “There’s not one really outstanding schemeâ€? and “there’s some further work to do by the

practices and the LSE.� For the competitors, it would appear it’s back to the drawing board. 44 LINCOLN’S INN FIELDS Currenlty occupied by Cancer Research, 44 Lincoln’s Inn Fields is a key building for the LSE’s expansion into Lincoln’s Inn. The eight-story building will be leased back to Cancer Research until 2016, when they move into a new institute located near Kings Cross, an LSE spokesman said. The site, measuring 0.64 acres, is to be at the centre of a new design competition for the construction of a new building on the site, following in the footsteps of the Global Center for Social Sciences, Saw See

44 Lincoln’s Inn Fields: currently the site of a Cancer Research laboratories, set to become the site of a new LSE development after 2016.

Hock Student Centrethe New Academic Building as buildings designed via an international competition. The LSE purchased the EXLOGLQJ IRU URXJKO\ e P DQG has proposed its uses to include teaching, sporting and faculty. Bd online reports that the School intends to for 44 Lincoln’s Inn to be home to an academic faculty, accommodation IRU YLVLWRUV DQG VWDŕŽ‰ D QXUVHU\

and much to the delight of the AU, a new basement sports centre. Julian Robinson, Director of Estates, told Bd online, “We’ll KDYH WZR e PLOOLRQ EXLOGLQJV on the go at the same time�. No doubt the next few years will be some of the busiest in the history of LSE estates.

7KH ,QWHUQDWLRQDO %ULHĂ€QJ 7LDQDQPHQ 6TXDUH ([SORVLRQ Natasha Howitt

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hina’s official press has accused Western media of having ‘double standards’ following the attack on Tian’anmen Square. On October 28th, a car swerved through a crowd of tourists, crashed into Jinshui %ULGJH DQG EXUVW LQWR ŕŽ‹DPHV The smoke from the explosion billowed in front of the large portrait of Mao Zedong, a symbol of the Chinese Communist Party’s leadership. With the attack killing two civilians and injuring 38, the Chinese government announced shortly after that it was a ‘terrorist attack’; one that was carefully ‘planned, organised and premeditated’. Further details of the incident have been kept quiet, with the site of the crash swiftly cleared. Nonetheless, police said that they found gasoline, knives, steel sticks DQG D ŕŽ‹DJ ZLWK H[WUHPLVW UHOLgious content inside the car. The alleged attackers, who were inside the vehicle and died in the explosion, were from Xinjiang province and of the Muslim Uighur minority group. The government has since linked them and the attack to a militant Uighur separatist group called the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM). Five others were arrested in con-

nection to the attack. But Western media sources have continued to evade the use of the term ‘terrorism’ to describe the attack, though maintaining and elaborating on its connection to Uighur and Xinjiang issues. Chinese official media have reacted angrily, with Xinhua News arguing that the refusal to acknowledge the event as a terrorist attack ‘laid in plain sight a double standard on terrorism’. Last week, CNN broadcaster, Sean R. Roberts, pub-

tion’ by the Uighur population. Another CNN blogger, Robert Daly, said that it was ‘plausible’ that this was terrorism, ‘but it will not be credible unless Beijing provides evidence and tries any suspects tied to the attack in a transparent manner’. These reports have caused a series of backlashes by Chinese reporters, with China Daily questioning how ‘attacks on innocent civilians that take place in the US or European countries are terrorist attacks, but similar assaults on civilians in

44 Lincoln’s Inn Fields: currently the site of a Cancer Research laboratories, set to become the site of a new LSE development after 2016.

lished a sceptical op-ed article asking whether ‘the alleged [Tian’anmen] attack was a wellplanned terrorist act or a hastily assembled cry of despera-

China are something else’. The article continued by saying how foreign reporters have ‘a kind of phobia about Chinese or Asian people or they see an act of ter-

ror through the prism of their Cold War ideology’. However, the Chinese government has not announced any further details about the attack, except for news that General Yong Peng, chief of the People’s Liberation Army in Xinjiang, has been removed from this post. After the attack, the state clamped down on media reports of the incident, with posts about the incident being quickly deleted. Free Weibo, an ‘uncensored and anonymous’ Sina Weibo (China’s Twitter equivalent) tracked deleted posts. Pictures of the burning vehicle in front of the Forbidden City and Mao’s portrait were particularly censored. This incident has indeed come at an increasingly sensitive time for China. Coinciding with a crucial meeting, the Third Plenum, in which China’s most senior leaders are expected to make critical decisions regarding China’s economy, the government has reason to be concerned. To make matters worse, just 10 days after the Tian’anmen attack on Wednesday morning, the entrance to the local Communist Party headquarters in Northern China’s Shanxi province was hit by a series of small but sophisticated hand-made bombs. Such an incident would not normally make international headlines, and would not normally spread with such rapidity through social media sites, but China’s

domestic security landscape seems restless. Internet and social media issues, whether state or society initiated, are said to be responsible for much of this as they are having an increasingly powerful impact on China’s domestic landscape. In the wake of the attack, Xinjiang news commented on how they are clearly the ‘main channels and tools’ for separatists ‘to promote their beliefs’ and ‘spread terror skills online’. Fearful responses to the attack are also prevalent across Sina Weibo: as one commenter has said, ‘even though incidents like this happen in Xinjiang from time to time, I always feel as if terrorism is something that is far away from us. All of a sudden, it’s so close’. Linking the attacks to the issue of China’s political relationship with Xinjiang is not surprising, and linking it to the ETIM was done by China itself. But with China criticizing foreign media for implying there were social or ethnic motivations behind the attack, it is clear that issues surrounding this political relationship remain sensitive. The extent to which Western media choose to overlook or acknowledge what is internally viewed as ‘terrorism’ will clearly continue to play a role in intensifying or easing sensitivity, particularly if issues begin to emerge in increasing violent forms.

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Features Front and Centre Raisa Huq ULU and Chessum misunderstand the purpose of Remembrance Day

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he motion passed by the ULU Senate on October 24 to ban its ofனFHUV IURP DWWHQGLQJ Remembrance Day services is completely wrong as it not only understands the purpose of the day incorrectly, but also goes against the ideal of freedom of speech that the President, Michael Chessum, advocates. Chessum decides to stand by his own personal views to not support Remembrance Day. But in banning officers from attending services he has taken away the freedom for the ones he claims to represent. The day is not a political one, but ULU has taken it and morphed it into a political event for its own purposes, ignoring the freedom of speech of the 120,000 it claims to represent democratically. Yes, the subject of commemoration is a tricky one, and can be misconstrued easily. However, if you take away the politics of war, and look instead at the horrific reality that millions have died fighting, either at home or on the front line, you can see the day is not to celebrate war, but to remember these lost lives. When politics has been stripped away, you see soldiers who were and are wiling to sacrifice their lives for their country. The idea of leaving the comforts of home and facing a gruesome death for your country and its ideals takes much courage, and these services do not celebrate the terrible slaughter of war, but rather they remember the lives that have been sacrificed and lost during these tragic times. In standing by the soldiers who have lost their lives, who are fighting currently, and veterans, we show them our utmost respect for their services. These services are to show this gratitude and respect, not to turn the event into a political one, which ULU has done. Remembrance Day does not entail justifying or glorifying war for political purposes, but rather to remember the lives that have been tragically lost, both in the past and the present.

If you would like to write for Features, drop us an email at: features@thebeaveronline.co.uk

The Feature Interview: Nick Cohen “I don’t see the point of your Students’ Union� Guardian journalist tells The Beaver Nick Cohen is a journalist and columnist for The Guardian, The Observer and has previously written for the London Evening Standard. A graduate of Hertford College, Oxford, he was a leading signatory of the Euston Manifesto Why are you so against the Royal Charter on press regulation? Because it includes this provision for parliament with a two thirds majority to intervene at any time, and you can get a three thirds majority in parliament for control of the press, so that’s point one. Point two is that there is no such thing as the press. It does not exist. Brian Leveson had to forget about the web. The idea that there is a corporate group called “the press� is absurd. You are in the Guardian and the Observ-

“I suspect that the people who run your Students’ Union think of themselves as left wing. That is a left that has stood on its head for one hundred years er [offices]. We have absolutely nothing in common with other newspapers. We are not somehow all together. That was always the case, but the web makes everyone a journalist. Or if that sounds too grand, the web means that freedom of speech and freedom of the press ODZV DŕŽ‰HFW HYHU\ERG\ $QG LW LV very odd and very sinister that WKH னUVW ELJ OHJLVlative reaction to changes of communications technology is to restrict freedom and to getpolit-

ically involved. So I mean it’s wrong in principle and it’s wrong in practice. But the BBC is governed by a Royal Charter. What’s WKH GLૼHUHQFH" The senior people at the BBC are against this. Chris Patten came out against it. It’s for a very good reason. The BBC is a state-funded broadcaster. In most countries that would make it a propaganda broadcaster. It survives because it is protected by a forest of free institutions. The BBC could never have broken MP’s expenses. It could not do what the Guardian is now doing with surveillance because it would just be impossible for it. Political pressure would be too great. But let the Guardian break it, let the Telegraph break expenses, it can then report it and do it brilliantly and no-one can phone up Chris Patten and say you shouldn’t be covering this. Don’t be absurd. It’s out there. Of course we’re covering it. You start limiting those free institutions, you start cutting down those trees, and a very, very cold wind will blow through the BBC. $W WKH /6( UHFHQWO\ ZH KDG WKH FRQWURYHUV\ LQYROYing the ‘Jesus and Mo’ tshirts. What did you make of it? That’s absolutely ridiculous. You are going to leave the LSE and you are going to get jobs in hierarchies – public or private – where what you say is going to be quite restricted. If you were to go outside and blow the whistle on something going wrong you would probably be னUHG HYHQ LI ZKDW \RX VDLG ZDV important, even if what you said ZDV LQ WKH SXEOLF LQWHUHVW $W university, of all places, there should be the maximum possible freedom of speech. I mean I cannot see the point in the university if it doesn’t allow that. I cannot see the point of your Students’ union. The classic liberal argument which universities, of all institutions, ought to defend is that you cannot censor speech unless it’s a direct incitement to violence. So, for instance, if atheist students at LSE were denouncing Islam to an angry mob outside a Mosque, or were den o u n c i n g Christianity with an angry mob outside a church, then,

The BBC is governed by a Royal Charter. However, the majority of British media are resisting the Royal Charter on press regulation

by all means, arrest them. They are inciting violence. That is a GLUHFW FULPH &DXVLQJ RŕŽ‰HQFH LV not a crime. If you were to make FDXVLQJ RŕŽ‰HQFH D FULPH WKH world would fall silent. 6R ZKDW GR \RX WKLQN DERXW KDWH VSHHFK ODZV WKDW WU\ DQG FULPLQDOL]H VXFK RIIHQVLYH VSHHFK" I think they have absolutely boomeranged. There’s a phrase – I think it’s from G. K. Chesterton – but it’s a wonderful quote. It is talking about people who think any tactics are worthwhile to win. He says a man who thinks any stick will do will pick up a ERRPHUDQJ $QG WKDW LV ZKDW KDV happened to the 1968 generation, who thought quite rightly that society was horribly sexist and racist and homophobic, and WKRXJK WR னJKW WKLV ZH ZLOO JR beyond the classic restrictions on freedom of speech. We will ban speech, public speech, as your Students’ union is trying to do, even though it’s not directly causing harm, even though LW‍ڑ‏V MXVW RŕŽ‰HQGLQJ VRPH SHRSOH $QG WKDW‍ڑ‏V EHHQ D ERRPHUDQJ because it has ended up being used by religious groups to censor criticism of them and those religious groups are sexist, they are racist, and they are homophobic, so talk about something going horribly, horribly wrong. $QG DOVR IUDQNO\ LI \RX‍ڑ‏UH D VWXdent at the LSE and you can’t cope with the sight of a t-shirt poking fun at your religion and you can’t argue with the person wearing that t-shirt saying ‘you shouldn’t be wearing that tshirt’ you probably shouldn’t be at the LSE at all. Why have so many the /HIW GR \RX WKLQN EHHQ VR supportive of press regulation? The Left and indeed the Right have a classic example of Marxist theory of false consciousness – or Chomsky’s propaganda theory. Remember on the Left, as well, you’re meant to be the representatives of the people, and the working-class, and the poor, and yet the working-class and the poor don’t vote for you, or disagree violently with you,

or they don’t behave as they DUH H[SHFWHG WR EHKDYH $QG D very easy opt-out is they have been brainwashed into a false consciousness by Murdoch, by WKH 0DLO $QG WKH ULJKW KDYH H[actly the same theory, because the right are full of disappointments. They think it’s the BBC. $QG LW LV DOZD\V D FUXWFK DQG DQ excuse to not look at yourself very clearly and seeing where you are going wrong. Are the greatest failings RI WKH PRGHUQ /HIW WKRXJK PRUH WR GR ZLWK FXOWXUDO UHODtivism and apology for fundamentalism? Yeah, absolutely, but I mean that’s not classic leftwingery at all. I suspect that the people who run your Students’ union who ban atheist critiques of religion think of themselves as left wing. That is a Left that has stood on its head in a hundred years. The Left was pro-Darwin, it regarded religion and clerics and reactionary, as obscurantist. The Left was for science, for progress, for freeing people from the old constraints that UHOLJLRQ SXW XSRQ WKHP $QG now, they have stood on their heads. They are very like nineteenth century conservatives in lots of ways. They are very like nineteenth century imperialists who would say rights were all very well for free-born Englishmen, but obviously not for lesser breeds in the colonies whom we KDYH FRQTXHUHG $QG VR QRZ you get this massive relativism. I mean, it just seems endemic in the universities. Where people say, with gay rights for instance, WKDW‍ڑ‏V னQH LI \RX‍ڑ‏UH %ULWLVK EXW LI you, like my friend Peter Tatchell, campaign for gay rights in the Middle East, you know, “we must condemn you, you are a cultural imperialistâ€?. What? So you’re saying gay rights are okay for the whites, but not RND\ IRU $UDEV" $QG WKH ULJKWV of women are all very well for white-skinned women in London, but not for brown-skinned women in Kabul or Tehran? That is nineteenth century imperialism transformed over a hundred DQG னIW\ \HDUV LQWR D /HIWZLQJ racism of low expectations. Liam Hill and Tom Maksymiw

Tuesday November 12 2013

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Remembrance - The History of the White Poppy Nathan Stringer

Remembrance Day holds monumental meaning, and each year its arrival makes millions of lapels bloom red. A patch of paper poppies blankets the country, and it becomes impossible to read the news, watch TV or walk down the street without seeing a faux red flower. Though far fewer and farther between, some people choose to mark 11-11 by wearing white poppies instead. Inspired by McCrae’s “In Flanders Fields”, the red poppy tradition was not originally British but actually started by an American professor named Moina Michael. She sought a way for disabled servicemen to support themselves after

World War I, and those aims and symbol took off in Britain. The direction of Field Marshal Douglas Haig and his newly founded British Legion founded the Poppy Factory in 1922, and veterans groups in Canada, Australia and New Zealand followed suit. But despite its origins, the red poppy has no visibility in the United States today. As early as 1926, members of the No More War Movement asked the British Legion to replace the words ‘Haig Fund’ with ‘No More War’ on the red poppies, concerned with the symbol’s connection to military culture. This failed, and red poppies read ‘Haig Fund’ until 1994, but members of the Cooperative Women’s Guild produced white ‘Peace’ poppies as

early as 1933. The controversy was immediate and lasting, and some of those first women lost their jobs for wearing white poppies. The Peace Pledge Union, who joined the effort in 1934, detail personal stories of “trouble with white poppies” in churches, schools, the news and around the world on their website. They also state that since the 1930s, three requests for the British Legion to take over producing and benefiting from the sale of white poppies have been refused. The poppy controversy stems from different views on one common aim: to properly honour the millions who have died in war. Is the push to wear red subtle militarism, concerned with only remembering

‘our’ side, or ‘poppy fascism’ as Channel 4 presenter Jon Snow said in 2006? Is wearing white disrespectful to fallen servicemen, unpatriotic, or an ‘insulting symbol’ as Margaret Thatcher said in 1986? Stepping quite aways back for a moment, people have been around and have been fighting wars a lot longer than modern organized nation-states have been around. War on such a massive scale was not possible until their advent; but, contrary to popular conception, per capita violence has decreased dramatically in the last few centuries and even decades. And historically, despite its abuses, no entity other than modern nation-states have better secured such great welfare for so many people. Neverthe-

less, there’s no reason that today symbols of patriotism or pacifism should be understood as ‘at war’. Each year, tens of millions of red poppies dwarf the tens of thousands of white poppies about, but the purpose of either poppy is not numerical domination. It’s remembrance of human lives tragically cut short. Surely, this is an aim universally worthy.

Science - India’s Space Ambitions Marine Strauss

India successfully launched its first unmanned mission to Mars, in hope of becoming the fourth agency to reach the Red Planet. The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), also known as Mangalyaan, completed the first stage of a 300-day, 780-million kilometres journey and performed the first of six engine firings on Friday in Earth orbit. This is only the beginning of the story, as the MOM needs to leave the earth’s sphere of influence (on 1st December 2013) and needs to be successfully captured by Mars orbit

(on 24th September 2014). This would make the Indian Space Research Organisation the fourth in the world, after the United States, Russia and Europe, to lead a successful mission to Mars. So far, no country has been successful on its first mission and more than half of the world’s attempts to attain the Planet have failed. At £45m ($72m) Mangalyaan is the cheapest mission to the Red Planet, while 1.2 billion people are still struggling with poverty, hunger and childhood malnutrition. This has raised many critiques from the developed and developing world regarding the implications for India as a nation.

According to the BBC, Dr. Jean Drèze, from the Delhi School of Economics, told the Finacial Times “I don’t understand the importance of India sending a space mission to Mars when half of its children are undernourished and half of all Indian families have no access to sanitation.” Critics have insisted that India should spend the money towards social programs to deal with the urging development needs at the national level. Jean Drèze also added to CNN “Much as I admire India’s Mars mission as a scientific achievement, I am unable to understand the urgency of getting there, the country would be better served

if the same resources, talent and zeal were focused on public health or solar energy. This is a prime case of trying to climb the ladder from the top.” On the contrary, supporters argue that India’s developments in space exploration will benefit all Indians, including the poorest, and the country as a whole. They claim that the advances in science and technology will help other activities and even help overcoming poverty. For fifty years, India used its space program as a way to develop new technology and capacity to help its population, with new telecommunication or infrastructures for example.

But this is no longer the case as some observers have argued that since 2008 and the launch of a unmanned spacecraft to the Moon, India’s aim is now spatial exploration and is no longer focused directly on potential positive outcomes for the population. This is where lies the great contradiction about India, which is home to extreme poverty while at the same time is a global emerging power and member of the G20. Therefore, it needs to take care of the poorest and most vulnerable at the local level, while at the same time contribute to global debates, advancements and knowledges.

Environment - COP 19: What can we expect? Ching Hu

This year’s version of the United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP19, commenced yesterday (11/11/13) without much of a bang in Warsaw, Poland. Despite the lack of media attention, this year’s conference stands out for its heavy scientific backing. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had made a landmark announcement earlier this year that scientists are now 95% certain that human factors are the “dominant cause” of climate change since the 1950s. Meanwhile, 2013 is the first time in human history that carbon dioxide has exceeded 400 parts per million. These revelations are set to silence the climate sceptics and amplify the voice of climate campaigners.

What needs to be delivered in Warsaw? According to a speech delivered at Chatham House by Christiana Figueres, the Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (an LSE alumnus), negotiators at Warsaw need to achieve two objectives. First, there is high expectation for the Kyoto Protocol’s second commitment period to be ratified. The Kyoto Protocol, a treaty which sets carbon emission reduction obligations for industrialized countries, was brought into force in 2005. Its first commitment period ended in 2012. Negotiators have agreed to extend the Protocol to 2020, but this still needs to be ratified. Second, with respect to institutional arrangements, such as providing financial and technological support to developing countries, there needs

to be a shift from the design to the operational phase. The signs are not positive for these expectations can be realised. First, the host and President of COP19, Poland, will also be simultaneously hosting the International Coal and Climate Conference. While it is true that climate negotiations should not isolate the coal community, Poland seems suspiciously sympathetic toward coal. Official documents indicate that coal will feature heavily in Poland’s energy strategy until 2030. Earlier this year, the Polish government also announced plans for two new coal plants and had been taken to court by the European Union (EU) for ignoring its renewable directives. The curious selection of Poland as COP19 President will be a serious blow to mitigation ambition at this

round of negotiations. Second, the mobilisation of climate finance is a key element to realise the provision of clean energy and resilient infrastructure for developing countries. Experts have claimed that green capital flows needs to reach $1 trillion per year. Developed countries, however, are not showing signs that this will be achieved in the near future. In the United States, congressional infighting had triggered a federal government shutdown which lasted for more than a fortnight and has very nearly led to an unprecedented sovereign default. Many European Union countries are still struggling to emerge from a painful recession and stabilise their sovereign debt crises. Without the agreement and commitment of these two major players, it seems unlikely that there will

be much progress in this respect. For previous COPs, particularly the 2009 Copenhagen edition, global ambitions were high, but results were weak. This time, global ambitions are low, and results will be even weaker. At least we can still expect Kumi Naidoo, the International Executive Director of environmental NGO Greenpeace, to go on another furious rant at this COP’s conclusion, on how governments are once again suffering from cognitive dissonance. COPs are typically primetime entertainment on the otherwise monotonous calendars of climate observers. Like Champions League Finals or Academy Award ceremonies, they are events that promise to excite. But this time, I will not be making popcorn.

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Diary of an LSE Student

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LSE Tweets

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Strong support for Islamic Society Charity Week

Lecture by Dr Pepper, now I’m thirsty.. #LSE100 ISOC’s charity week took place last week with the aim being to raise over £15,000 for orphans and needy children in the developing world. @PHO3NIX Currently having a lecture by a man named Dr. Pepper. Surely not? Please be Dr. Dre next week #lse100 @VPATEL93

The schedule for the week was a hectic one with the stall on Houghton Street attracting much attention. Face painting, henna and even Krispy Kreme doughnuts were sold to raise money. As of Thursday 7th ISOC had raised £10,500 which is very impressive. The week will culminate tonight ZLWK D &KDULW\ 'LQQHU ZKLFK ZLOO KRSHIXOO\ ஊQLVK WKH ZHHN RQ D KLJK

Reading the Evening Standard on the train and got very confused why they’d forgotten this week’s What Happens In Zoo Bar. #Beaver #lovelse @BILLIE_SELBY Had the worst LSE day with so much stress and work, then hit the graduate open evening and remembered why it’s all worth it #lovelse @MICHELLEWRBS Who needs investment banking, ALDI’s starting salary is £40,000 plus an audi A4 #LSEproblems @JCLARKY235

Overheard at LSE

From the Beaver’s Archives

1. Two Postgrads coming down the steps in TWR1... “...so what did you do before coming to LSE?” “Oh I was a private equity trader” 2. Two students talking... “I was tasting cakes in a cake baking competition this weekend and it was really hard work” “Sounds like a nightmare” 3. An email from an LSE graduate... “I would like to apply for a position at Bank of America Merrill Lunch”

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

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Barely surviving

Listings Monday (18th) Join Tanni GreyThompson, Professor Simon Hix, Professor Joni Lovenduski and Professor Anne Philips for a talk entitled ‘The Politics of Representation’ from 6.30pm-8pm in the Old Building. Tuesday (12th) Open Mic Night in the Three Tuns from 7:30pm11pm. Head down to enjoy some quality music whilst relaxing with a drink in hand. Postcards for Justice campaign stall. The government is changing Legal Aid. It will Dŕ­źHFW \RX &RPH along to the stall on Houghton 6WUHHW WR ŕ­˝QG RXW more about the campaign and write a postcard WR 1LFN &OHJJ Wednesday (13th) &DPSDLJQLQJ Masterclass from 3pm - 5pm. Will cover some campaign basics such as planning a campaign, mobilising support, and using digital media. Places are limited and will be DOORFDWHG RQ D ŕ­˝UVW FRPH ŕ­˝UVW VHUYH basis so email the Student EngagePHQW &RRUGLQDWRU &ODXGLD &RXVsins to book your place.

Robin Park

Thursday (14th) The LSESU Think Tank Society are hosting a roundtable discussion on the current state of the “Special Relationshipâ€? between the United Kingdom and United States of America. This takes place from 7pm - 8pm in 32L. LG.03. It is free event however tickets are required and can be got on the LSESU website.The discussion will be led E\ &KULVWRSKHU &RNHU +HDG RI the International Relations department at LSE. Lunchtime concert from 1.05pm2pm in the Shaw Library. Polish singer Hanna Hipp will sing Francis Poulenc +XLW &KDQVRQV polonaises. Luciano Berio Quattro canzoni popolari, Benjamin Britten $ &KDUP RI /XOODbies Op.41 and Manuel de Falla Siete canciones populares espaĂąolas

I’m sick. Flu has killed me. I have trouble reading, seeing and moving. People used to say I was ‘bubbly’, ‘amicable’, like a born-again Christian, like the ones that go to remote places in their spare time to save starving AfriFDQV 1RZ ZLWK WKLV ŕŽ‹X ,‍ڑ‏P just a grumpy senile. I can’t stand my housemates. I’ve had enough of my obnoxious and liberal viewed American housemate. I’m also fed up with the loud one who blasts his ridiculous drum and bass while I try to get through essays and readings. Another is not much better as he is whipped like a slave by his girlfriend, he has lost what self-esteem he had left after his previous break-up, so much so he can barely wash up after dinner anymore. He’s practically dead. He sometimes manages to tell me he’s okay, but I can see through the tears he holds back. The times are tough these days. I’m weak. We’re all so bloody weak. But I always look on the bright side. In fact I’m already on the road to recovery. I put it down to my diet. It’s this new thing, so de jour right now,

like totally in vogue. Innocent Juices. I’m a great connoisseur of Innocent’s liquid fruit products. ‘Orange with pulp’ is a particular favourite; it reminds me of summer, the beach and Californian girls, what I did last Friday night and teenage dreams. For the more adventurous, there is also the ‘Apple and Mango’, a delicious concoction of the common plebian fruit and WKH MHZHO RI $XVWUDODVLD‍ڑ‏V னQHVW DJULFXOWXUH $QRWKHU னQH choice is the ‘Apple and Raspberry’, the mercurial mistress of the industry. Less sweet than the more run of the mill liquids, it instead provides a complexity for the palette no other smashed fruit comELQDWLRQ FDQ RŕŽ‰HU 2U IRU WKH very experienced adventurer, there is of course the holy grail of all juices: the ‘Tropical’. No description gives this juice justice; though one source has told me it’s akin to feeling love explosions in your mouth, as the smooth blend of exotic fruits make their way into your soul. Juice makes me strong. I’m in the library. Everyone’s weak. These kids are also sick. They’re all sick like me. 7KH\ PD\ QRW KDYH WKH ŕŽ‹X

but they’re dying on the inside, being crushed by the weight of readings, problem sets, group sessions, LSE 100. Especially the ones in the ‘Silent Zone’. I yell loudly across the room thinking it’s a good idea to piss everyone RŕŽ‰ %UDYHU\ VWURQJ %XW WKHQ everyone stares at me as if I’m a raging lunatic. Unacceptable decorum, weak. Life balances itself out. I may be in the library but don’t get me wrong, I’m not KHUH WR VWXG\ ,‍ڑ‏P னQGLQJ UHIuge from the storm. Storms are everywhere in my life. The stormy weather for one thing, but then there’s also storms in my classes, the keen kids னJKWLQJ DPRQJVW WKHPVHOYHV storms in my household, storms in the bedroom. I mean the kitchen basically is a storm. Our kitchen is weak. 7KH OLEUDU\‍ڑ‏V ZHDN 7KH ŕŽ‹X LV strong though. Flu’s are popular. Everyone gets them. It’s very Ă la mode right now. And QR RQH EHDWV WKH ŕŽ‹X HLWKHU 7KH ŕŽ‹X LV XQGHIHDWHG %XW it’s also socially aware. It’s pluralistic, socialist, diverse, equitable, non-discriminatory DQG FODVVOHVV , ORYH WKH ŕŽ‹X It’s just so strong.

For more information on any of these events or other events you may be interested in go to www.lsesu.com or email events@lse.ac.uk or call 020 7955 6043. If any societies would like D VSHFLŕ­˝F HYHQW PHQtioned in the listings section then please send a request to social@thebeaveronline.co.uk.

Robin Park

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Tuesday November 12 2013

Social

Is the art of being a gentleman dead? Amelia Thomson

Sitting in my second year LSE 100 lecture on gender equality it is hard not to compare the theoretics being debated to what I see in the world around me. The central theme of these discussions, and indeed of many conversations, is how important equality is. Of course this equality is not just focussed on gender but also on race, sexuality and many other factors however for my part (being female) I am going to look at gender. Gender equality in education, the workplace, at home and indeed in all aspects of life is imperative in order for our society to be truly fair, representative and as productive as possible. 'LŕŽ‰HUHQFHV DQG VLPLODULWLHV EHtween the genders and people can produce amazing results. This makes sense as if we were all the same life would be pretty boring.

Pellethepoet

However gender equality is a IDU ZD\ RŕŽ‰ ,QGHHG DV RI -XO\ 2013 only 22 of the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies were women; only 147 of the 650 MPs in the UK are female and a little closer to home the ratio of men to women doing economics at LSE is roughly 2:1 according to the LSE website. Through citing these statistics I am not seeking to blame anyone for the current state of afIDLUV ZH னQG RXUVHOYHV LQ %XW rather I want to look at how this search for gender equality and the role of a man being a ‘gentleman’ combine. For some these two ideas may seem somewhat contradictory. How can we on the one hand say that women and men are equal but at the next stage be DŕŽ‰URQWHG ZKHQ D PDQ GRHV QRW hold a door open for a woman? I too see that this could perhaps seem somewhat of a double standard; equality accom-

Life’s realities:

She calls herself a sinner and us righteous individuals. She hardly received any education and it was clear that our education was the envy of all. She treated everyone with respect and perhaps much more than that. Who knows what she was thinking. But we all maintained our distance from

her not physically but perhaps mentally. She was not someone people would remember for winning big prizes like a Noble Prize or an Oscar. Perhaps history will forget her. We all sat in the audience looking at her with a perplexed gaze, wondering what her life experience would be able to teach us. She described herself as an alcoholic and a porn star. The height of what women can reach to be abandoned by the society, to not even be considered a woman but rather just a pleasure object to be enjoyed in the secret of the bedroom. She said she didn’t have enough options in her life, even before she knew she was part of the porn industry. She descried her urge to see the truth. Truth is what we all search for in our lives, truth we all crave for, truth that will enlighten us. She went from one religious book to another. Like we all do, perhaps we all give up too soon, or never bother ourselves as we all are educat-

act in a certain way and girls expect boys to act in a certain ZD\ 1RZ WKLV LV DOO னQH EXW hardly helps us to reconcile gender equality and the way But the fact that ‘gentleman- we should behave towards one like’ behaviour has been ques- another. tioned as potentially perpetuating inequality to me seems Perhaps rather than focussing preposterous. Let us look at on statistics, social conditionprobably the most infamous ing or terminology we should LSE society: The AU. Gender go back to the basics of how we roles within the sports society should act as human beings. By of one of the world’s most di- looking at how we ourselves verse institutions are not ex- act we can adjust this behavactly pushing the boundaries iour appropriately so as to mirof equality. Far from pushing ror how we ourselves wish to forward equality they seem to be viewed and treated. I am not be living up to the stereotypi- saying people should not feel cal and media version of gen- empowered to do what they der and university behaviour. want but rather that perhaps I am by no means celebrating we should focus our interests or criticising such behaviour on resurrecting the ideal of but rather suggesting that, common courtesy between the for some but by no means all, sexes. For my part this would HTXDOLW\ LV GHனQLWHO\ ODFNLQJ help create a more harmonious and the art of being a ‘gentle- state of being. man’ or ‘lady’ are far from anyone’s mind. Boys expect girls to

The story of a porn star

ed enough to live without inner enlightenment. She describes her story of searching for God in everything she could see and read. Sometimes she was scared, sometimes delighted, sometimes relieved but her thirst was unquenchable. She னQDOO\ IRXQG *RG LQ VRPHWKLQJ

testimony of God’s presence. She marvelled at God’s mercy and love. Then she spoke the golden truth which I haven’t heard from a single great intellect. She said to make God the centre of our life for nothing can ever replace God in your life. Perhaps intellectuals

Pumpkincat210

Namita Bhaladhare

I walk through a dark door, curious and puzzled. I have never seen someone like her in my entire life. Everyone watches her secretly in their bedroom, but no one will publicly and openly says she belongs with us, she is our friend. The layers of the societal blanket which tell us to be an ideal citizen thwart us from crossing a line. We cannot be with her for a moment, talk to her or ask her who she LV 6KH VWDQGV னUP KRZHYHU DV she addresses the elite body from the prestigious institution of the London school of Economics. For my part I do not know what to think, when I don’t even know how she feels.

panied by special treatment. Indeed even using the term gentleman perhaps sets gender equality back a decade.

she thought she could never see. She said she was a living

will die in the wonder of their smartness, for they make their

mind everything that it can possibly be. She told us if a sinQHU OLNH KHU FDQ னQG *RG WKHQ any of us can. She was honest, simple and straightforward. Perhaps we are all covered by many layers of prejudices, status and morals. We are slaves to the rule of society rather than to the principles of our souls. Perhaps we are too sophisticated to know the truth, IRU ZH FDQ னQG RXU WUXWK LQ RXU books. At the end of her talk, I went to her. She hugged me. I found a sense of peace beside her which was alien to most of us. Perhaps we are too good for all these things. She taught me an important lesson to not judge a person as even God doesn’t judge people. As a profession it is just a way to earn your livelihood, a real human is behind it. Titles often separate us from our true self. Take a cold shower, and separate yourself from this glamour, perhaps you too might connect to someone you did not expect to.

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Social

Beaver Games

Send your questions to social@thebeaveronline.com

Let the Beaver answer your questions...

Sudoku

Dear Beaver, I have recently come down with a case of glandular fever and am concerned about the impact it might have on my term at Uni. I feel WLUHG D ORW EXW FDQQRW DୟRUG WR UHVW DV , KDYH so much to do. Academically I don’t want to fall behind and I am also worried about the social impact it might have. According to NHS choices I can be infectious for up to 2 months which is a long time. What should I do to make the best out of my situation? - Infected life-long Dear ILL,

Test your vocabulary 7KLQN \RX‍ڑ‏UH DQ /6( VWXGHQW" 'R \RX NQRZ ZKDW WKHVH REVFXUH ZRUGV PHDQ" 5HJQDQW 5HLJQLQJ UXOLQJ

3RWKHU A commotion, a disturbance or a state of nervous activity.

)XQDPEXOLVW 6RPHRQH ZKR SHUIRUPV RQ D WLJKWURSH RU D VODFN URSH

Anagram Corner 6ROYH WKHVH DQDJUDPV RI QRWDEOH HDWHULHV around LSE campus: 5DJ 5LFN 5RDFK 5X�H )RRW +DLOHG 'U\ 7LQJ

I am very sorry to hear of your illness and do wish you a speedy recovery. It is very difனFXOW WR IDOO LOO LQ WKH PLGGOH RI WHUP KRZHYHU \RXU னUVW SULRULW\ PXVW EH JHWWLQJ EHWWHU VR that the illness does not become worse and hamper you later on in your studies. I would WKHUHIRUH DGYLVH VHWWLQJ XS DQG VWLFNLQJ WR D URXWLQH ZKHUHE\ \RX JR WR EHG DW WKH VDPH WLPH HYHU\ QLJKW VR DV WR JHW HQRXJK VOHHS 0\ VXJJHVWLRQ ZRXOG EH WR DLP WR JHW UHDG\ IRU EHG IRU SP EH DVOHHS E\ SP DQG WKHQ JHW XS DERXW DP WLPHWDEOH DOORZLQJ RI FRXUVH 1H[W , ZRXOG VXJJHVW \RX JHW FRQனUPDWLRQ RI your illness from the LSE doctor (details at KWWS ZZZ OVH DF XN LQWUDQHW /6(6HUYLFHV PHGLFDO&HQWUH +RPH DVS[ DQG WKHQ HPDLO your academic advisor so that all the relevant DFDGHPLF VWDŕŽ‰ NQRZ DERXW \RXU LOOQHVV DQG FDQ JLYH \RX OHHZD\ LQ WHUPV RI GHDGOLQHV RU ZRUN DV LV QHFHVVDU\ , ZRXOG DOVR VD\ WU\ QRW WR JHW WRR VWUHVVHG DERXW HYHU\WKLQJ , NQRZ WKLV U LV GLŕŽŒFXOW W R G R E XW E HLQJ V WU essed will RQO\ PDNH HYHU\WKLQJ ZRUVH 0RUHRYHU LW LV LPperative you eat healthily and continue to do D OLWWOH H[HUFLVH VR DV QRW WR IHHO OHWKDUJLF D VKRUW ZDON HDFK GD\ RXJKW WR WKH WULFN 6RFLDOO\ VSHDNLQJ \RX PD\ KDYH WR VLW RXW RI DQ\ KDUGFRUH GULQNLQJ QRQ VOHHSLQJ HYHQWV KRZHYHU this does not mean you cannot have fun. InGHHG LW LV LPSRUWDQW IRU \RX WR KDYH IXQ WKLQJV WR EULJKWHQ XS WKH GD\ VR SODQ DFWLYLWLHV ZLWK friends such as cinema trips, dinner etc. You PD\ EH LQIHFWLRXV VR PDNH VXUH \RX ZDUQ \RXU IULHQGV RI WKLV DQG GRQ‍ڑ‏W JHW WRR FORVH ---------------------------------------------Dear Beaver, Since coming to university I have found myself eating a ridiculous amount of snack foods, fast food from numerous culinary haunts and basically anything that takes no time to prepare. Eating out is proving expensive and I just don’t have enough time to prepare food everyday. What would your suggestions be? - Eagerly awaiting tips Dear EAT,

Answers: *DUULFN )RXUWK )ORRU &DIH 7KH 'DLO\ *ULQG

This is a common university problem and one which I myself have had. If you are in caWHUHG KDOOV WKHQ DW OHDVW \RX JHW VRPH IRUP RI KHDOWK\ VXVWHQDQFH HDFK GD\ EXW FRRNLQJ IRU

RQHVHOI DQG SUHSDULQJ OXQFKHV FDQ VRPHWLPHV seem a step too far. In terms of lunch I would VD\ WU\ WR PDNH \RXU RZQ D IHZ GD\V D ZHHN VR DV WR FXW GRZQ RQ PRQH\ VSHQGLQJ 0DNH a plan with your friends as to what days you ZLOO HDW RXW DQG ZKHQ \RX ZLOO EULQJ \RXU RZQ lunches in. There are many places to eat your own food around campus such as the quad or WKH IRXUWK ŕŽ‹RRU FDIH 3UHSDUH \RXU OXQFK WKH QLJKW EHIRUH VR \RX FDQ MXVW JUDE LW DQG JR LQ WKH PRUQLQJ )RU HYHQLQJ PHDOV , ZRXOG VXJJHVW JHWWLQJ WRJHWKHU ZLWK RWKHUV WR SUHSDUH IRRG VR DV WR VKDUH RXW WKH WDVN $OVR SUH SODQ ZKDW \RX DUH JRLQJ WR PDNH VR ZKHQ \RX DUH KXQJU\ WKH SUH IRUPHG SODQ DOORZV \RX WR VWUXFWXUH WKH PHDO UDWKHU WKDQ \RXU HPSW\ VWRPDFK 0DNLQJ D EDWFK RI IRRG DQG IUHH]LQJ LW LV DOVR D JRRG LGHD )RU H[DPSOH PDNLQJ HQRXJK VRXS for 10 portions will mean that when you are KXQJU\ \RX FDQ MXVW PLFURZDYH WKLV KHDOWK\ PHDO WR VDWH \RXU KXQJHU ---------------------------------------------Dear Beaver, I am really worried about handing in my ŕ­˝UVW XQLYHUVLW\ HVVD\ IRU PDUNLQJ , NQRZ WKDW the jump between school and university is big and I am concerned that my essay just won’t be good enough. How would you suggest I go about writing my essay and what tips would you give me for ensuring that it is top quality? - Immediately needing knowledge Dear INK, 0RYLQJ RQWR XQLYHUVLW\ ZRUN LV YHU\ GDXQWLQJ DQG VRPHWKLQJ , WKLQN HYHU\RQH IHHOV $V you move into subsequent years at LSE it becomes easier but you still worry as you want WR GR WKH EHVW \RX FDQ 7R EHJLQ ZLWK , ZRXOG ensure I understood the essay title and form a EULHI SODQ RI ZKDW , WKLQN DERXW WKH WRSLF DQG KRZ , ZDQW WR VWUXFWXUH P\ DUJXPHQW , ZRXOG then do detailed research into the evidence and DFDGHPLF RSLQLRQ ZKLFK ZLOO EDFN XS P\ DUJXPHQW 7KH RXWOLQH RI \RXU HVVD\ PD\ FKDQJH D OLWWOH DIWHU WKLV VWDJH GHSHQGLQJ RQ ZKDW \RX KDYH GLVFRYHUHG LQ \RXU UHVHDUFK 1H[W PDNH a detailed plan of the introduction, main paraJUDSKV DQG FRQFOXVLRQ WKDW ZLOO PDNH XS \RXU essay - you should be able to write your essay from these. Now write your essay. I would say GR LW DOO DW RQFH VR DV WR QRW JHW RŕŽ‰ SRLQW RU confused. If your plan is detailed this should QRW EH WRR WULFN\ 0DNH VXUH HDFK SDUDJUDSK KDV D SRLQW HYLGHQFH WR EDFN LW XS DQG WKHQ DQ H[SODQDWLRQ RI KRZ WKLV OLQNV EDFN WR WKH HVVD\ WLWOH 7U\ WR FRQQHFW SDUDJUDSKV DQG WKHPHV WKURXJKRXW WKH HVVD\ DQG HQVXUH \RX FLWH \RXU VRXUFHV FRUUHFWO\ QHYHU SODJLDULVH , KRSH WKLV KHOSV DQG WKDW \RXU னUVW HVVD\V DUH VXSHU 'RQ‍ڑ‏W ZRUU\ RU EHFRPH GLVKHDUWHQHG LI \RXU PDUNV are lower than you wanted or expected. UniYHUVLW\ LV DOO DERXW OHDUQLQJ DQG JURZWK UDWKHU WKDQ EHLQJ SHUIHFW IURP WKH EHJLQQLQJ ----------------------------------------------

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12.11.2013 The Beaver

PRIVATE B ‘Sorry, the satirist was doing his essays.’

SU responds to Loughborough Youtube sensation with suggestions for new ‘One LSE’ anthem: ‘One Jay’ 2QH -D\ RU PD\EH +DQQDK LV JRQQD னQG \RX JRQQD னQG \RX VSRUWV IDFLOLWLHV One Jay, or maybe Rosie, is gonna get you, get you access to the FT, One Jay, or Anneessa, is gonna see you, gonna see you out on Houghton Street, One day, all together, we’re gonna make it, gonna make it ‘One LSE’! ‘Lose Yourself In The Union’ Look, if you have one shot, or one opportunity, to make LSE everything you ever wanted, One moment, would you capture it? Or just let it slip? You better lose yourself in the SU, the Union, you own it you better never let it go, <RX RQO\ JHW RQH VKRW GR QRW PLVV \RXU FKDQFH WR VKRZ KRZ HŕŽ‰HFWLYH \RX FDQ EH RQ &RXUW of Governors yo. You better lose yourself in the SU, the Union, you own it you better never let it go, You only get one shot do not miss your chance to show, how much money you can raise on RAG Hitchhike bro.

Totally Legit Letters Dear Beaver, I would like to express my disgust over LSE’s hosting of former Mexican president Salinas de Gortari recently. The school shold not be a second home for corrupt politicians (again)! Yours in outrage, No-Way JosÊ Dear Beaver, I’d like to apologise for the lack of newsworthy activity recently. Unfortunately club nights and protests have had to be put on the back burner.

‘Hey Big Donor’ (Ft LSE RAG) The minute you walked in the joint, I could see you were a fresher of distinction, $ UHDO ELJ GRQRU JHQHURXV ORRNLQJ VR UHனQHG I’m Ragging you senseless, in my mind. So let me get right to the point, I don’t get lost with every man I see, Hey big donor, Come on RAG gets lost with me?

Yours anxiously, S. A. Week

SOCIETY ANNOUNCEMENTS:

More ‘acceptable’ LSE chants: The Class Size Chorus: Don’t blame it on the Sabb team 'RQ‍ڑ‏W EODPH LW RQ WKH $5& VWDŕŽ‰ Don’t blame it on the SU Blame it on Paul Kelly He just can’t, he just can’t, he just can’t control class sizes!

Conservative Future would like to thank regular AU haunt Zoo Bar for hosting their recent Halloween event. Tacky, overpriced and with a ridiculous entry policy, Conservative Future is the youth with of the Tory party.

Rock and Stoll: Stoll, Stoll wherever he may be, He runs our union competently, With priority campagins and stopping atheists, On Wednesday night he’s always pissed!

LSE SU Lost Cause society will be recuiting volunteers throughout this week to join them on the ‘Save ULU’ march next week. ULU President Michael Chessum ZDV VDLG WR EH FRQŕ­˝GHQW WKHLU support could make all the GLŕ­źHUHQFH

This week's edition compiled by Tam Banters FrĂŠdĂŠric Photochopin Col. Honey-Badger Captain Hack Sparrow Peter Lorimer

‘Is that enriched uranium in your pocket, Director, or are you just pleased to see me?’

MUSICALS: LSE Conservatives are rumoured to be working on a script for ‘West Side Tory’.

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Arsenal: Champions League Contenders?

time in four years. Can this be their year? Can WKH\ னQDOO\ HQG WKHLU \HDU trophy drought, and do so in spectacular fashion come QH[W 0D\ LQ WKH ELJJHVW FOXE competition of all? .ORSS VDLG VR ([FHSW KH DFtually didn’t: ‘[Arsenal] could JR WR WKH னQDO DQG ZLQ LWâ€ŤÚŒâ€Ź as long as they don’t play against Bayern Munich.’ He is simultaneously saying that the Gunners can and can’t win the Champions League. In theory, they could; yet they won’t if they end up facing last year’s winners in the னQDO DUJXDEO\ WKH EHVW WHDP in the world at the moment. If other teams can prevent the Germans from reaching ZKDW ZRXOG EH WKHLU IRXUWK னQDO LQ னYH \HDUV E\ YLUWXH RI this (admittedly hasty) analysis Wenger’s team would be placed in a hypothetical third

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MARKANDKIMRUDGE

Everything is going for them at the moment, both in terms By beating Borussia Dort- of results and performances. mund in the Westfalenstadi- As it happens, they are also RQ $UVHQDO EHFDPH WKH னUVW a pleasure to watch: Ozil is English club to defeat the an old-fashioned trequartista hosts on their ground since gifted with uncommon elegance and patience, Giroud 1964. It was an old-fashioned win and Cazorla are more than borne out of grit and de- just a poor man’s Ibrahimovtermination, built on the ic and a no-nonsense David increasingly robust part- Silva, and Ramsey’s contrinership of Koscielny and bution can hardly be overesMertesacker and on the blaz- timated. ing scoring streak of Ramsey. %DUULQJ D ORVV LQ WKH QH[W Dortmund’s manager, Jurgen (XURSHDQ ன[WXUH DW KRPH Klopp, went as far as to say against rock-bottom Marin his post-match interview seille, Arsenal will likely go that Arsenal are a contender through to the last 16 of the competition. And looking at for the European throne. Arsenal are top of the most the standings, it seems that uncertain Premier League in all genuine contenders for years, and, after visiting Old WKH னQDO LQ /LVERQ ZLOO EH WRS 7UDŕŽ‰RUG WKH\ KDYH D VHHP- of their respective groups, ingly uncomplicated run of which for Arsenal means a ன[WXUHV XQWLO PLG 'HFHPEHU good chance of making the TXDUWHUனQDOV IRU WKH னUVW Aris Moro

tier of European elite football. The odds are stacked against Arsenal, however; the inevitable Spanish duo, Bayern, Chelsea, Manchester City, and PSG seem better equipped for the grueling contests of March and April, when every goal is vital. However, the positives are as glaring. Arsenal did well in the transfer market, and KDYH H[FHHGHG H[SHFWDWLRQV on the pitch thus far. A European cup would outbalance WKH SDVW IUXVWUDWLQJ ZLQOHVV years. And the last time a ‘Dortmund curse’ was lifted, namely when Italy beat Germany in the 2006 World Cup in a ground where no other national team had previously defeated the hosts, we all know what happened. Arsenal’s win in Dortmund wasn’t a triumph, but it

ZDVQ‍ڑ‏W D ŕŽ‹XNH HLWKHU 0RUH F\QLFDO னQLVKLQJ HYHQ MXVW hitting the ball is at times sufficient) would have had XV WHOOLQJ DQ HQWLUHO\ GLŕŽ‰HUent story, yet football is a game of results, and this Arsenal seem built just for that, as shown in their last two wins against Dortmund and Liverpool. Wenger claimed this summer that the time had come to deliver on his promises of னQDQFLDO DQG VSRUWLQJ PLJKW The shrewd acquisition of one of the world’s best playHUV IXOனOOHG WKH IRUPHU YRZ as for the latter, European dominance may not be immediate, but the fact that they are being hailed as genuine contenders outside of Britain suggests it may be forthcoming.

WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE

$V WKH GDQFH ŕŽ‹RRU FODVVLF goes, c’mon baby, do the 8*0 PRWLRQ 7KH H[FLWHment in Zoo was palpable (it ZDVQ‍ڑ‏W DV H[FLWDEOH FKDWWHU WKHUH ZDV QRQH ŕŽ‹HZ DURXQG concerning the motion to increase AU funding. Like a SKRHQL[ URVHQ IURP WKH DVKHV of defeat in an election for Court of Governors, the AU budget is back. With the prospect of Alcololz Awareness Week looming, President Shannon from Drive was asked for his thoughts. Unfortunately he was unavailable to comment, Captain Lee holding his fringe back as he chundered in the gutter and pined for SoCal. The upcoming week’s

organisers, the ’There better not be vodka in that coke’ Society, were said to be disappointed, one of them allegedly commenting ‘if I can’t have fun then no-one can.’ London’s street cleaners will not be over the Moon with the cricket club, as their Notorious PIG proved himself a Menace by redecorating the pavement outside Zoo. It seems things got a bit heavy naan-ded on Brick Lane. (, னnally made it! All those nights of going home early with my girlfriend who I absolutely never talk about were worth it! – Ed.) Willski, his trousers havLQJ GULHG RŕŽ‰ IURP HDUOLHU LQ the week, managed to sneak

his way back into the Tuns. His triumphant return was marred though when he was KLW E\ D ŕŽ‹\LQJ SLWFKHU 7KH culprit was reported to not be really really sorry, really really really sorry, so sorry, really really sorry for once. Meanwhile, one second-year rugby player sheepishly called the police after he was punched out by a McDonald’s employee, following in the proud ‘McDonald’s Bitch’ footsteps of his Vice Club Captain. There was a Jasmine RevoluWLRQ LQ =RR DV D னUVW WHDP IRRWballer cut a swathe through LSE’s women. Sadly his success was not matched by his clubmate, whose trip to the vets may have led to less pet-

ting than usual, Elders proving not to be betters after all. A baby Found Nemo for the fourth time – one could say she’s got boyle in the bag. (Either that or he’s got the memory of Dory). It seems it was a night of continued romances, Stevo again taking one step closer to heaven. #obligatoryhashtag In arguably the deadest week in the calendar so far, these individuals proved it was not all quiet on the West End front. And for that we thank (read: laugh at) them. 7LOO QH[W WLPH , FDQ QHLWKHU FRQனUP QRU GHQ\ EHLQJ -RVK Passe; over and out. zo o ba r @th e b e a v e r o n lin e . co.uk

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Beaver

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BEAVER SPORTS FANTASY FOOTBALL Every week weтАЩll print the top three and the bottom three teams.

The TOP... Monstars (Hitesh Gulati) 700 Points Strutting Edge (Chris Edgington) 625 Points

Bright Young Things The Premier League is home to some of the worldтАЩs best and most establishd footballers, but as Adnan Januzaj has shown, the climate just now is ripe for young players to burst on the scene and prove that clubs donтАЩt need multi-million pound signings to produce magic. Januzaj did precisely this; David MoyesтАЩ Manchester United were 1-0 down against Sunderland when he came on and scored two brilliant goals. He left us to ponder, where is the next big thing coming from? Here are some of the brightest talents waiting to burst into the Premier League. HARRY KANE (Tottenham)

Ameya Badwe

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SAIDO BERAHINO (West Brom)

NATHANIEL CHALOBAH (Chelsea, on loan at Nottingham Forest)

teamsaint (Tom Jordan) 622 Points

And the BOTTOM...

SERGE GNABRY (Arsenal)

WIKIMEDIA

Menton Marvels (Jon Allsop) 423 Points

Can you do better?

970297-228156 SPORT IN BRIEF

England beat Argentina 31-12 at Twickenham, and Scotland recorded a highscoring 42-17 win over Japan. In the RWKHU рл╣[WXUHV 6RXWK Africa beat Wales 2415 and New Zealand beat France 26-19. In the Rugby League World Cup, Wales lost 28-24 to the Cook Islands.

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ADAM CAMPBELL (Newcastle) &DPSEHOO LV KHOG LQ KLJK UH JDUGV DW 1HZFDVWOH EXW KDY LQJ PDGH QR SUHPLHU OHDJXH DSSHDUDQFHV IRU WKH FOXE \HW LQ WKH 3UHPLHU /HDJXH WKLV season, it is hard to say when WKLV \HDU ROG ZLOO EUHDN LQWR WKH WHDP :LQQHU RI WKH тАл┌РтАм0RVW 9DOXDEOH 3OD\HUтАл ┌СтАмDW WKH Manchester United Nike Cup, KH IROORZHG LQ WKH IRRWVWHSV RI $QGUHV ,QLHVWD )HUQDQGR 7RU UHV DQG &DUORV 7HYH] 1HZFDV WOH IDQV ZLOO KRSH KH FRQWLQXHV WR GR VR +H LV D SURGXFW RI WKH IDPRXV :DOOVHQG %R\V &OXE \RXWK IRRWEDOO FOXE LQ 1HZFDVWOH WKDW KDV JLYHQ WKH 3UHPLHU /HDJXH 3HWHU %HDUG VOH\ 6WHYH %UXFH 0LFKDHO Carrick, Fraser Forster and

WIKIMEDIA

Tony McCoy assured his position as the greatest jump jockey in history this week, riding the 4,000th winner of his career; his closest rival is more than 1500 wins behind.

An unused substitute in the &KDPSLRQV /HDJXH роКQDO LQ 0XQLFK &KDOREDK VLJQHG a new 5 year contract with &KHOVHD LQ WKH VXPPHU /DVW VHDVRQ RQ ORDQ DW :DWIRUG KH made 38 appearances and was NH\ LQ JXLGLQJ WKH FOXE WR WKH &KDPSLRQVKLS SOD\ RроЙ роКQDO ZKHUH WKH\ ZHUH GHIHDWHG E\ &U\VWDO 3DODFH *LDQIUDQFR =ROD DQG %LOO\ 'DYLHV KLV FXUUHQW ERVV KDYH ERWK VDLG &KDOREDK LV D JUHDW WDOHQW and Jose Mourinho has pre GLFWHG WKDW DIWHU ORDQ H[SHUL HQFH &KDOREDK ZLOO EHFRPH D &KHOVHD UHJXODU IURP QH[W VHDVRQ

WIKIMEDIA

ShayreeтАЩs (Shaheer Ghoury) 305 Points

WIKIMEDIA

Los Diablos Verdes (Hari Prabu) 392 Points

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The Premier LeagueтАЩs Bright Young Things

Can Arsenal win the Champions League?

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LSE results for you in full: MENS BASKETBALL 1s lost 58-37 to City University 1s MENS HOCKEY 1s won 3-0 vs UCL 3s 2s won 1-0 vs Royal Holloway 2nds MENS BADMINTON 1s won 5-3 vs UCL 1sts WOMENS BADMINTON

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Netball 1sts On A Roll Amy Trynka

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Gabriel Everington

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Won 6-2 vs Kent 1sts MENS RUGBY 1s won 29-20 KCL 1s 3s lost 30-22 Portsmouth University 4ths NETBALL 1s won 36-22 vs Universities of Meday 1s 3s won 13-12 vs KCL 6s 4s won 19-10 vs UAL 1s MENтАЩS FOOTBALL 5s won 3-13 vs Royal Holloway 4s WOMENтАЩS HOCKEY 1s won 6-0 vs Reading University 3s 2s lost 8-0 to Arts 1s MENтАЩS TABLE TENNIS 1s won 16-1 vs Brunel Uni 1s 2s lost 10-7 to KCL 2 WOMENтАЩS TABLE TENNIS 1s lost 4-1 Kent 1s

26.11.2013 PartB

20

NEVER AGAIN

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