Editorial
CU Media November 30th 2012
Greetings from your Media Team! Editors here! Just want to introduce ourselves before the session. I’m Trisha, and I’m Sandra and together we’re TEAM ROCKET! Not really but almost. We and a team of six journos who you shall actually see (we just hide in our batcave and act mysterious) are here to report what happens at the session and make up fantastical lies to make you think we’re cool. So what do editors really do? Well currently we’re in our offices in Dublin with stars in our eyes desperately trying to finish a paper before the employees return for work. It’s five in the morning and we’ve been at this all night. I do apologise for any lack of coherency. I like sparkles and rainbows and unicorns. YAY! Mostly we’re here to make sure you guys have a proper break between committee work and debates in GA. To give you something to laugh at when you’re ready to strangle the nearest delegate that doesn’t agree with you because they’re JUST NOT LISTENING! If you feel at any point that you are not being entertained please grab the nearest journo monkey and ask them to dance for you. We also have videos and photos up on our website and facebook page. Whoop we’re so thoughtful. So what’s all this hero business. For us a hero is a gallant, kind hearted, noble, justice seeking, save-the-world-while-beingawesome kind of person. They’re also that stranger that smiled at you when you were having a terrible day and had lost all faith in the human race (yourself not included because obviously you’re an evolved species). A hero is a leader who knows what they want to change in the world and goes out and just does it, regardless of the restrictions and consequences. Some even go so far as to don tights so that they can keep up their cool I don’t give a popsicle reputation. True story. Stay tuned for the next issue of THE DAILY PLANET! BATMAN NANANANANANANANA BATMAN!
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Editorial Contents
CU Media November 30th 2012
3 The World this Week 5 Superpowers at Sixteen - Dee 6 The Rise of the Far-Right in Europe - Diarmaid 11 While we try to convince ourselves of our liberal ethos as a state or an international community, there will always be laws that we create simply on the arbitrary basis of whether we think it is right or wrong.
7 Special Report: Apocolypse 2012 Should we believe it? - Christopher - Laurence
9 How did the superhero become a symbol of ‘hope’ for society as it is now?
9 Crash! Bang! Wallop! : A History of the Superhero and Comicbooks - Anthony 11 The Morality of Moral Laws - Glen
5 Now is the time for children to be seen and heard. Now is the time for us to fulfil the promise of a democratic state. Now is the time for the voting age to be lowered to sixteen...
13 Say Hello to your Chairs! 6 “Let’s rid this country of the stench.” It’s of no coincidence that Greece has seen a spike in racial violence, aimed mainly at Asian immigrants.
7 “Let’s rid this country of the stench.” It’s of no coincidence that Greece has seen a spike in racial violence, aimed mainly at Asian immigrants.
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The World this week
Tongue-in-cheek clearly doesn’t come naturally to the Chinese Communist Party’s official mouthpiece and the stodgy People’s Daily faced ridicule on Wednesday for missing a joke about North Korea’s leader. The newspaper’s website published an extensive photo spread of pudgy North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Tuesday, apparently falling for a spoof report by the satirical U.S.-based website The Onion naming Kim the “Sexiest Man Alive for 2012”. If the spoof article was mistaken for being genuine it would not be a first for China’s tightly controlled media.
CU Media November 30th 2012
France to Vote in Favor of Palestinians’ U.N. Bid Support in Europe for a heightened Palestinian profile at the United Nations grew on Tuesday when the French government said it would vote in favor of the Palestinians’ bid for nonmember observer status, embracing a move that Israel and the United States have opposed. The announcement by France, a permanent member of the UN Security Countil, is the most significant boost to date for the Palestinians’ ambitions to be granted greater status in the world forum, and with that greater international recognition. Russia and China, two other permanent members, have also thrown their weight behind the Palestinian bid. The backing of France and other countries appeared calculated to provide diplomatic sway to the Palestinian Authority’s president, Mahmoud Abaas, a moderate whose Fatah party governs in parts of the West Bank.
140 characters can certainly stir up trouble. A BBC report earlier this month did not identify the Tory it wrongly suggested had molested a child, but Twitter users did. Some 1,000 individuals implicated Lord McAlpine, and a further 9,000 retweeted those messages to a wider audience. The former Conservative Party treasurer called it “trial by Twitter”. On November 20th lawyers for the peer informed people with fewer than 500 followers that they can make amends with a donation to charity (the BBC’s Children in Need). Tweeters with larger followings may face legal action.
Marking a major breakthrough in the study of highly charged atmospheres and intense fields of emotional instability, scientists at Stanford University announced Thursday they had synthesized an entirely new and extremely volatile form of romantic relationship. According to project head Dr. Stuart Barnard, this highly combustible pairing was created by taking two wildly incompatible people—24-year-old test subjects Colin Buckner and Lisa Mullins—and then rapidly colliding their personalities together until they briefly formed an unstable bond. “Our experiment succeeded beyond our wildest expectations,” said Barnard, noting that all prior evidence suggested Buckner and Mullins were completely wrong for each other and should never be together.
Julian Assange, ‘extreme’ politicians forcing WikiLeaks economic shutdown. On November 27th 2012 Julian Assange accused right wing politicians of ‘handing WikiLeaks an economic death penalty’ following the prevention of supporters donations. Visa and MasterCard were among the companies which delivered the ‘bank blockade’ following the publication of more than 250,000 confidential State Department cables in December 2010. The Australian implored the European Union to aid in lifting the blockade through DataCell, an Icelandic company. Mr Assange reported that the blockade had lost the website more than £30 million in donations, stopped 95% of its revenue and forced staff to take pay cuts of up to 40%.
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CU Media November 30th 2012
Voting Superpowers at Sixteen -Dee
Now is the time for children to be seen and heard. Now is the time for us to fulfil the promise of a democratic state. Now is the time for the voting age to be lowered to sixteen, so that young people in Ireland are recognised, their voices heard and their opinions accounted for. Every one of us is a hero. Every one of us has the power to lift a bus over our head, to fight evil, to save a damsel in distress, to change the world. We all have the ability within us, and in 21st century Ireland we should all be entitled to let the hero in us soar. Yet every time the voting cards are sent around the country, Ireland’s politicians refuse to let those who are under 18 experience the sensation of flying. Day in day out, young people are being denied the single most basic right of any member of a democratic state; the right to a vote. The concept of the “power of one” defines a hero. It speaks of the single voice within the drones of a crowd, rising above to have their voice heard. It is Harry Potter believing, when no one else did, that Voldemort had returned or Barack Obama’s constant optimism at a time when “No We Can’t” had become a globalised infection. Likewise, the power of one epitomises the concept of voting. It is each individual voice joining together for a choir of change. Each voter is a hero in their own right, in their own lives. Why should 16 and 17 year olds be denied this right to heroism, when they are today more politically motivated, informed and aware than ever before? At 16 we can leave school, have a full time job, pay taxes and be criminally detained. At 17 we can have a driving license or join the army, and yet we cannot have a say in the running of our country or the decisions that affect us.
The fact of the matter is, that denying young people a vote is not a reflection on their maturity or capability to understand political issues, but rather of the fear politicians hold of the immense change the young people’s voices may bring. The argument that young people are unable to make informed decisions is as preposterous as the argument used against the suffragettes in their day; that women should not have a vote because they would not be able to understand real world problems. The 3000 extra votes per constituency, coming from lowering the voting age to16, would change the course of the Irish political world. Issues affecting young people, such as student grants and support for youth mental health, which have taken cutback after cutback will be forced into reconsideration, as they would be directly influencing the voters who earn our “elected superheroes” their seats. No longer will young people remain in the background; no longer will they hide like Clark Kent while Superman flies within them. It is time for real, lasting change to be brought into action and for the youth of our nation to be treated as true citizens of our nation. Today, 140,000 capable minded young people are being denied a vote. 140,000 young people are having their voices silenced at a time when the polling station should be their stage, the voting card their microphone and the politicians of Ireland the attentive audience; ready to hear the words of a generation of heroes. We all have the ability to be heroes; to speak up for what we believe in, fight what we consider the evil opposition and change our world for the better. A vote at 16 is the first step towards allowing the young people of Ireland to reach their superhero potential.
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The Rise of the Far-right in Europe DiarmaidOn the 22nd of July 2011, a single man carried out an atrocity that will stain the history of Norway for decades to come. In the first of two attacks, a car bomb exploded in Oslo, outside the office of the Prime Minister and several other Government buildings. Eight people died instantly and a further 209 were injured. Less than 2 hours later, at a Summer camp in Utoya, the second attack was executed. It was a camp organised by the Worker’s Youth League (AUF), the youth division of Norway’s Labour Party, who are currently in Government. A man dressed as a police officer gained access to the island and began firing at the participants. 69 people died, while 55 were seriously injured. The man was taken into custody and the trial began on April 16th of this year. His name is not important. He will not be remembered for who he is, but for the far-right extremist ideology he endorses. Enraged at the Muslim immigration into Europe, he claimed that his vicious attack on innocent citizens was an “act of defence”, as he blamed the Government in Norway for allowing such immigration. Classed as an Islamaphobe, he urged Europeans to “restore the historic crusades against Islam as in the Middle Ages”. Upon hearing such a statement, our first reaction is to cast this man off as criminally insane as a paranoid schizophrenic of some sort. This is the most comforting conclusion, to simply blame his twisted and violent ideals on a neurological defect inflicted upon him since conception. This is far easier to accept, but distracts us from the worrying truth; there is presently a steady rise in power for far-right groups in Europe. The Norway Attacks simply reflect this growing trend of extreme Nationalism, xenophobia and most prominently, Islamaphobia. Probably the most sobering fact is that these ideals are not being forced upon us solely by terrorist attacks orchestrated by fringe groups, but also on a political stage.
CU Media November 30th 2012
Throughout Europe, we have seen a sharp rise in support for far-right groups, more than two dozen of which denounce immigrants, Muslims in particular, as invaders. Marine Le Pen of the anti-immigrant National Front in France won 18% of the first round vote in the presidential election, while more than a quarter of the French youth supported her. The same day, Greek citizens, afflicted with austerity measures in a nation crushed by debt, voted in 20 lawmakers from the neoNazi Golden Dawn. Their support has leapt from 0.29% to 10.4% in just 3 years. Golden Dawn campaigned ruthlessly against immigration, their campaign slogan stating: “Let’s rid this country of the stench.” It’s of no coincidence that Greece has seen a spike in racial violence, aimed mainly at Asian immigrants. There have been 87 racial attacks between January and September of this year and its expected this number is much higher, taking into account the many unreported cases. Their supporters are routinely seen wearing black shirts, sporting the party’s insigne, which bears troubling similarities to the swastika, and intimidating immigrants. There have been several recent reports that neo-Nazi sympathisers have infiltrated the police force and at the moment there is an investigation into brutal torture performed by police on 15 members of an anti- Fascist organisation. Golden Dawn continues to grow in support despite its horrific implications, and with 50% of Greece’s youth unemployed, their popularity will undoubtedly continue to increase.
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Special Report
CU Media November 30th 2012
Apocolypse 2012: Should we belive it? _Christopher
First, a little briefing on why Hollywood and science fiction writers are going nuts over this one day. The Maya really liked to measure lengths of time mainly because after breakfast and ritualistic sacrifices, they didn’t have much else to do and so this lead to the Mayan long count calendar. The Maya called a day a “k’in”, 20 k’in equalled a “winal” and 18 winals were called a “Tun”, which is roughly a year or 360 days. Twenty Tuns were a “k’atun” and finally 20 k’atuns made a “b’ak’tun”, which amounts to 144,000 or 394.26 years. As I said earlier they had a lot of time on their hands. The Maya told time by going in descending order starting from the last time the earth was created. They believed that the earth was created four times. Every time the gods screwed up or thought the people were being unruly, they would press the restart button. The most recent creation was on August 11th, 3114 BC. The days date is expressed by saying how many of each time measurement Theory 1: Nibiru The Theory: The story goes that the Sumerians discovered a rogue planet called Nibiru. This planet dubbed “Planet X” by internet enthusiasts was in a 2600 year long orbit and it would one day smash into earth killing us all. The Sumerians where a very intelligent civilization, that invented many great things but were very bad at astronomy. There are no records of it ever being discovered but we all know that it is just a big government cover-up of course, that has to be it how could I be so stupid. .
there has been since that day, for example, 12.18.2.4.18. All this fuss about the 21st December 2012 is because on that day the calendar reads 13.0.0.0.0, rolling over to a whole new b,ak,tun. Do you know what happened the last time we ticked over to a whole new b,ak,tun, nothing, nothing at all happened. It is the same as going from 2012 to 2013, we will go out on the town, get drunk and sing “Auld Lang Syne” very poorly and get rejected by that cute girl who sits two seats in front of you in English class. This End of the World business is just another case of Hollywood running amuck with the tiniest bit of factual knowledge. But don’t worry; these theories won’t end with the movie “2012”. Hollywood just lead the charge, every crackpot with a computer and some spare time has taken it upon themselves to pick up where Hollywood left off, coming up with some brilliant theories about how we will all meet our demises.
Theory 2: Alignment of any kind On the 21st of December the earth will reach the equator and the sun and the earth will line up with the galactic centre and it will cause a gravitational vortex, wave or beam of some kind, they get really vague here, and it will cause earth to fly out or orbit into the sun or create a black hole.
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Special Report
CU Media November 30th 2012
_Laurence
21st December 2012.At first sight, this date does not seem to have any special features compared with all the days, of all the years, in all the centuries. However, 21st December has, for a couple of years now, been an attraction and at the root of speculations. Who has not heard that doom’s day has been predicted by the Mayans on this particular date? Should we either be frightened or amused by this prophecy? Throughout all of mankind’s history, there have always been predictions announcing the end of our era, as our existence on this Earth should come with an expiry date. Just take a look at the Internet and the endless lists of all the “End of The World “predictions: cataclysms, World wars, destruction of the world by devils, aliens and many other theories, have all been envisaged. I even remember that just before the new millennium, the end of the world was feared by everyone. Even the fashion designer Paco Rabanne took the opportunity to announce what he had foreseen. Well, apparently, none of those prophecies seemed to have become a reality thus far. Nonetheless, the 21st December 2012 has taken another level in this “End of the World” effect . A few years ago, it was discovered that in December 2012 a time period in the Mayan long count calendar would end. Unfortunately, it has been written by some scientists, like Michael D.Coe that Armageddon, which could be seen as a synonym for the end of the world, would take place on the
“final day of the 13th b’ak’tun”. Hence, it has been demonstrated that this particular final day will be on the 21st December 2012. At this point, the question to be solved was how this Armageddon would occur. Some talked about hurricanes, tsunamis or other meteorological events. Others suggested that an extraterrestrial body, like a huge meteorite, could crash down on Earth or that a reversal of our magnetic field could occur. In the movie “2012” by Roland Emmerich, the hypothesis of meteorological catastrophes along with astronomical incidents, has been dealt with. Was it premonitory or simply a sales tactic? According to NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) who are located in Washington D.C, none of these theories are believable at all “There is no credible evidence for any of the assertions made in support of unusual events taking place in December 2012”. Hence, it is clear for NASA that “For any claims of disaster or dramatic changes in 2012, where is the science? Where is the evidence? There is none, and for all the fictional assertions, whether they are made in books, movies, documentaries or over the Internet, we cannot change that simple fact “. So, which conclusion can be draw? Each individual is entitled to intellectual freedom and to believe in what they want. Blaise Pascal, a famous French philosopher and writer once said: “Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed “. In that case, I hope you will form your own opinion and decide whether or not, we should believe in the “2012 phenomenon”. For more “info” Google “Bill Nye”.
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CU Media November 30th 2012 _Anthony
Crash! Bang! Wallop! : A History of the Superhero and Comicbooks Batman. Spiderman. Wonderwoman. Wolverine. No matter what age or type of a person you ask about superheroes, they will be able to utter a few. Popular culture is rife nowadays with the idea of a superhero – not just limited to the comics themselves, but in literature, TV and film too. How did the superhero become a symbol of ‘hope’ for society as it is now? The birth of the comic book superhero happened way back in 1938, with the publication of Action Comics. It included a thirteen page spread of ‘Superman’ – man of super strength, speed and power. Emblazoned with skin tight lycra, tights, a long flowing cape and a secret identity, he became the archetype of what the superhero should look and be like. The 1940s and 1950s saw a huge surge of interest develop in America in the generic comic book. The genre began to grow to new heights, with sci-fi, romance, crime and horror comics becoming very popular. With their burgeoning appeal among young people, so too came their condemnation. In the 1940s, there were widespread burnings of comics and the councils of Oklahoma City and Denver passed legislation banning the sale of crime and horror comics. After a governmental investigation into the ‘link’ between juvenile delinquency and comic books, the comic industry decided to establish a self-regulated censorship body called the Comics Code Authority (CCA), which had strict rules
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CU Media November 30th 2012
on what was publishable and not. The code forced a lot of publishers to change what they printed, and pushed some to the fringes of the industry. The ‘underground comix’ culture developed from this change in the comic world, and produced some of the finest comic artists and writers, such as Robert Crumb of Keep on Truckin’ fame and Art Spiegelman who wrote Maus, the first graphic novel to win a Pulitzer Prize. As the 60s and 70s rolled on by, the CCA gradually lost its grapple with how it ruled the comic book kingdom, as they became more controversial in the ways violence, sex, and most importantly, the balance between ‘good vs. evil’ were portrayed. In the 80s, X-Men – deemed as one of the best selling comic series of all time – became very popular, which was linked to the individualistic people relate to ‘Generation Y’. X-Men ended the stereotype that superheroes were all invincible, with all characters having some sort of flaw. It also brought a ‘globalization’ to comic books that had not been previously accepted by America; a Kenyan Storm, German Nightcrawler and Canadian Wolverine. To say that the real world has been linked with the comic book world would be a slight overstatement, however this is not to say that events in the real world have gone unnoticed by their ‘parallel universes’; one example is the marriage involving the X-Men’s openly gay Northstar, coinciding with the passing of gay marriage legislation in New York. And who could forget the thorough references to the Cold War in Moore’s classic Watchmen, with its conflict between democracy and communism? Although they are just works of fiction, there is definitely something about superheroes – much like our favourite literary characters – that speaks to us; a clear example is how The Avengers made box office records in its international debut. They’ve been milling around, underwear over trousers since 1938, and we’re still fascinated. And, to be honest, who could blame us?
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The Morality of Moral Laws The idea of individual freedoms truly evolved post World War II. After the horrors committed during the war, the evident disregard for humanity, measures were taken at an international level to adopt a policy of human rights. These human rights, which were fought for and have existed since the dawn of humanity, were now valued above the general needs of society. It was felt that because society is a collection of individuals, the rights of these individuals should be more important than the efficiency or ideology of a society. The question was then raised, how can we create a functioning society if people have the liberty to do whatever they choose? Lines had to be drawn, limitations had to be established, that allowed everyone to exercise their liberty to a comfortable level without contravening the idea of an organized, functioning state. The liberties of existing laws were brought into question and human rights became the foundation of establishing a legal system. The idea of human rights had existed before the 20th century, dating back to the time of Plato and Aristotle. However, the aftermath of World War II left the global community with an obligation to solidify these rights to be less of a philosophical theory and more of a reality. The UN was established and the International Bill of Human Rights was written, Europe created its Convention of Human Rights, and other international communities, such as Africa and the Arab world, began adopting human rights charters. While the revolution in human rights was gaining traction, conflict was arising between the domestic laws of a state and international or constitutional rights of the people. Citizens became aware of the importance of their individuality and began advocating against laws they felt contravened their rights and liberties. Thus, there had to be concrete reasons why
CU Media November 30th 2012
_Glrn
we allowed laws to exist that infringed on our individual freedoms. Joel Feinberg, political and legal philosopher, proposed that the totality of criminal laws was encapsulated by four principles of restriction on liberties: - You can restrict individual liberty where the liberty of someone harms someone else. - You can restrict individual liberty where it causes harm not to someone else, but to the person exercising that liberty. - You can employ the law to stop citizens from harming or offending others. - There are some laws which exist only because we don’t like the morality behind the act. My attention is drawn to Feinberg’s fourth principle, that morality sometimes governs restrictive laws. This is shown in many examples worldwide, such as where views on morality govern laws on abortion or euthanasia. It is this principle that leads to legislation surrounded in conflict and debate. People’s morals are never uniform. There is never one view held by everyone everywhere, so it can be difficult to find a universal truth to believe in. Even the universal truth professed by religions is inconsistent, for example the illegalization of homosexuality in Shariah law, while to many Muslims is regarded as fact rather than moral choice, is not shared by many people in western nations. Even through time, there is no right that has been consistently valued above any moral law. To re-use the previous example, the laws on homosexuality in Ireland have developed from criminality to legality. It shows that laws on morality are consistently changing through time and place, and so there will always be debate about specific laws based on morality and ethics. While we try to convince ourselves of our liberal ethos as a state or an international community, there will always be laws that we create simply on the arbitrary basis of whether we think it is right or wrong.
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CU Media November 30th 2012
An even more fundamental question is whether laws based on morality are even moral. If an act does not harm any individual, or does offend any individual, can we really illegalize it? The majority in society seem to decide what is moral and what is immoral, as has been shown through the years with homosexuality laws, or abortion laws. However, that clearly identifies then there are a minority that disagree with the morality of the act in question. Thus, if we create a law affecting the act, we are ignoring the views of a minority, and this in itself is immoral because we have imposed our beliefs upon them. If an individual in this minority is personally affected in the future by this law, then have we not restricted their freedoms with our arbitrary beliefs? And if this is the case, is this not against our moral beliefs of freedom of expression or choice or consent? The entire idea of moral laws collapses on the premise they are themselves immoral. By their existence, we are valuing the beliefs of society over the beliefs over the individual, which itself contravenes the moral belief that we should value the individual over society, and in a way we find ourselves left with a paradox in laws of morality existing. So while the debate on specific moral laws continues to ensue, we should step back and look at the bigger picture – that we should keep our views to ourselves, that we should not restrict the freedoms of the individual with the views of the majority, and finally find the one belief that might be universal and timeless.
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Your Chairs
Ciara, AKA Joan Rivers AKA The Fashion Police
CU Media November 30th 2012
Eoin Rogers; Shh pause for a moment and contemplate the magic of me as President, bow down to my bow-tied brilliance.
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CU Media November 30th 2012
Meadhbh Costello, a pokemon whose special moves are creepy faces and hand signals
Niall: The picture says it all...
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