Issue 5: October 2018

SOAS SPIRIT

23 OCTOBER 2018

FREE

NEWS MADE EASY: BREXIT

YOUR INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER

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HUMANS OF SOAS: BLACK HISTORY p13 MONTH

ISSUE 1

“OUR SU NEEDS TO REGAIN OUR p17 TRUST”

SEXUAL HARASSMENT AT SOAS

Arooj Sultan, BA Economics and Politics A campaign called Account for This, has called on SOAS to improve its services in dealing with victims of sexual harassment, following a recent case of sexual harassment by a postgraduate student at the university.

In August 2018, an anonymous letter alleging that a postgraduate student at SOAS had harassed multiple women, both sexually and mentally, was posted online. The letter was also sent to ‘Account For This SOAS’—a group of SOAS students who have dedicated themselves to a campaign focused on bettering the response and support given to victims of gender based violence by the university. The Account For

SOAS recorded zero formal complaints regarding gender based violence between 2011-2018 This campaigners then circulated the letter within SOAS circles, and started an online petition asking the university to provide adequate support in cases of gender based violence, through reforming SOAS mechanisms that they allege are complicit in hindering justice for the survivors of such violence.

The letter and further documents published by the Account For This campaign detail the experiences of students at SOAS who have faced different forms of gender based violence. The published testimonies, both anonymous and named, describe the victims being sexually harassed, stalked and further imposed upon in a similar manner. Many who reported their problems to SOAS management felt they received insufficient support and relief. According to the campaign’s petition, as per a Freedom of Information request, SOAS recorded zero formal complaints regarding gender-based violence between 20112018 (where the perpetrator is university staff, former university staff or an academic in a non-stipendiary role). Pointing to statistical evidence of harassment in UK universities—an NUS report, Hidden Marks, stated that 1 in 7 respondents faced physical or sexual assault as students.

The campaigners believe that the lack of recorded complaints is due to ‘the apprehension of danger, but primarily because of the inaccessibility of institutional redressal mechanisms’.

The SOAS complaints procedure is divided between stages.

The first is the informal stage, where complaints are mediated by the Head of the Department. If the issue is not resolved, then the complaint moves into the formal stage. Here, the Information Compliance Manager assigns an investigator to deal with the complaint. However, if the problem cannot be satisfactorily resolved then it is forwarded onto an Appeals

Panel. At this point, if the complainant is not satisfied, then another appeal can be made to the office of the Independent Adjudicator. The campaign maintains that this procedure at SOAS is confusing, and being made to jump through bureaucratic hoops of sorts act as an impediment to survivors trying to report harassment or abuse. They point out that there are holes in the procedure which discourage victims from making formal complaints, such as who else to report to if the Head of Department is the perpetrator, or the fact that part of this procedure (notice to respond sent to the perpetrator) entails the school to reveal the complainant’s details, thereby potentially endangering the complainant. The SOAS code of conduct does include sexual misconduct as a disciplinary offence. But, the campaigners also question what sanctions could be levied on the perpetrator and how they would be enforced, as there is no information regarding this because no previous cases have been recorded at SOAS. A SOAS spokesperson though said, “As with all SOAS policies and procedures, our students complaints process is kept under regular review. The next review for student complaints takes place later this autumn, and will of course include feedback and views from across the SOAS community. As part of ensuring we take account of best practice across the sector, we will be appointing an independent external to lead the review.”

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Contents

Letter from the Editor

News

Unexpected Resignation Shakes Students’ Union

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SOAS’ £20k PhD Compensation

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News Made Easy: BREXIT

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Yemen Humanitarian Crisis

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Features Talking Mental Health

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Humans of SOAS: Black History Month

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Postcards to SOAS: Jaipur

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Opinion “Our Students’ Union Needs to Regain our Trust”

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100 Word Rants

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Culture Film Review: Crazy Rich Asians

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Freshers’ 101

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Dear Spirit readers, Welcome back to a new academic year and for all Freshers, welcome to SOAS! In keeping with tradition, a new year also brings a new paper and with it, a fresh team. We are really excited about the year ahead and all the exciting stories we will be sharing, as well as the amazing students that will be joining our diverse and vibrant SOAS Spirit team! Writers, photographers, videographers, illustrators; we welcome you all!

Last year the SOAS Spirit had a successful and enjoyable time in bringing together some really creative and thought-provoking stories that were read all over campus. I first joined the paper last year as a writer and junior layout editor, and this year, I take over from Ali Mitib as Managing Editor. I hope that we grow and improve an already great paper.

This year, we are aiming to build our online presence, to positively reflect the fast-paced and modern age of digital journalism. Our paper prints 4/5 times a

Khadija Kothia • Managing Editor • 637933@soas.ac.uk Arooj Sultan • Co-Editor-in-Chief • 611281@soas.ac.uk Uswa Ahmed • Co-Editor-in-Chief • 638268@soas.ac.uk

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Societies: Meme Society

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Sport: SOAS Mens Rugby

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Khadija Kothia.

Managing Editor of The SOAS Spirit.

Your SOAS Spirit Team

Societies & Sport Societies: Arundhati Roy at SOAS

year and we are always updating our website by adding new stories online, so feel free to send in your stories to get involved. Email spirit@soas.ac.uk at any time!

The Spirit team and I ready to assist in editing, answering queries, and are all ears to hear your story pitches. Details are available below my profile in The SOAS Spirit team list.

In this first issue of the Spirit, we have aimed to capture the most relevant topics that have been circulating around campus and the globe. The front page draws our attention towards sexual harassment on campus and related Opinion pieces. In this issue, Frances, our News Editor, takes on the difficult task of trying to explain Brexit.

As this is the first issue of the year, we have also incorporated a few Freshers’ specials, such as the Freshers’ 101 piece in Culture. Our Agony Aunt also taken on Freshers’ troubles in her new column in Features.

Please do check out a few more of our new additions, such as Postcards to SOAS, 100 word rants, and News made Easy.

Before I end, I would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who contributed to this issue. From the writers, illustrators, videographers, to the people who gave us advice and supported us along the way. There is a lot of back-room work and effort that goes into every issue to produce this amazing product. Last, but not least, a massive credit must go to the senior editorial team, who put in a great effort to bring this paper together!

We hope you enjoy your read. Feel free to share your thoughts and feedback through email, our Write for Us page on the website, and share our content on social media.

Arooj Sultan Co-Editor-in-Chief

Jude Omidiran • News Editor • 640661@soas.ac.uk Frances Everett • News Editor • 646889@soas.ac.uk Ludovica Longo • News Editor • 639997@soas.ac.uk Syraat Butt • Features Editor • 648141@soas.ac.uk Tania Monica Ruiz • Features Editor • 625362@soas.ac.uk Hana Qureshi • Opinion Editor • 647808@soas.ac.uk Sumayyah Daisy Lane • Culture Editor • 637349@soas.ac.uk Holly Sampson • Societies and Sports Editor • 638061@soas.ac.uk Filip Kostanecki • Copy-Editor • 652972@soas.ac.uk Indigo Eve Lilburn-Quick • Copy-Editor • 640261@soas.ac.uk Alexandra Bate • Copy-Editor • 628256@soas.ac.uk

Sport: Serena Williams and Sexism p26

Peter Smith • Senior Layout Editor • 629625@soas.ac.uk Anna Pax, Sarah Andree, Uswa Ahmed, Holly Sommers, Amina Tasnim, • Junior Layout Editors Swareena Gurung • Online Editor • 666887@soas.ac.uk Uswa Ahmed Co-Editor-in-Chief

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Sumayyah Daisy Lane • Social Media Co-ordinator • 637349@soas.ac.uk

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23 OCTOBER 2018 https://soasspirit.co.uk/category/news/ News editors: Jude Omidiran, Frances Everett , Ludovica Longo

SOAS News

News

Continued from front page

The Account For This petition also criticises the ‘Respect@ SOAS’ policy, which is meant to be an ‘informal alternative to first stage formal complaints’. In the petition, they state that having the victim issue a ‘STOP’ message to the perpetrator places the burden of responsibility on the victim and creates no accountability for the perpetrator. Furthermore, the Account For This petition highlights that the Students’ Union and the Student Advice and Wellbeing, which are both offices that survivors of gender based violence are likely to reach out to, seem to be ill equipped to offer adequate help and support. The Student Advice office can only provide counselling, and that too constrained by long waitlists. And, although the SU has a staff member for Academic and Welfare Advice it at present lacks the resources to do more than signposting and directing all harassment and bullying complaints to the Diversity and Equality office at SOAS. Through the Enough is Enough campaign, the SU did secure funding for mandatory consent workshops at SOAS. However,

there is currently no way to regulate that all students are actually attending these workshops. The consent workshops, while a good step in possibly reducing gender-based violence, are arguably not enough on their own. Based on accounts from those present in the consent workshops, it seems that owing to a lack of time but mostly because it is very confusing, the complaints procedure for victims of gender-based violence is addressed but not sufficiently explained in detail. The workshops running this year do touch on intersectionality and consent, the Account For This movement, rape culture and useful websites.

The Account For This movement demands that SOAS overhaul its current policies that deal with gender based violence, and in lieu of that, to also come up with a ‘single, comprehensive, accessible, feminist and survivor-centric policy’ to respond to complaints of gender based violence and provide action and accountability against perpetrators. SOAS management when contacted for a comment on the movement, referred to Professor Andrea Cornwall (Pro Director Research

& Enterprise), Convenor of the ‘Culture@SOAS’ initiative, who stated, “The School’s senior management and the SU came together in an open forum on SGBV, hosted jointly and organised by Account for This in response to a petition sent

by Account For This SOAS”. The Account For This campaigners, however, wished to make clear that though they may have participated in the forum, owing to a need to work with the SU and management on the issue, they still are a movement entirely distinct from the SU and management and will continue to hold them to account. Professor Cornwall, whilst elaborating on how SOAS is tackling the issue, also said, “For the School, this is the first of a series of open, non-hierarchical and democratic forums where the SOAS community can come together. And that a new initiative called Culture@SOAS, seeks to create a space that brings together our community to hold ourselves collectively to account, as well as ensure that our commitments follow through to action on SGBV, bullying and harassment, and any other form of unacceptable behaviour”.

Unexpected resignation of Welfare-and Campaigns Co-President Shakes Students’ Union

Caroline Hilgers, BA International Relations and Social Anthropology On the 24th of September, the Welfare and Campaigns Co-President Jess KumwongpinBarnes resigned from their role through an email sent to the entire student body. Following Jess’ sudden resignation, the Students’ Union (SU) released a statement, writing that Jess ‘had not discussed this decision with us, and it came as a surprise.’

In their resignation letter, Jess stated that the ‘lack of accountability, transparency

and honesty in the Union and the School’ led them to decide to no longer be involved in the SU. Jess’ letter connects their justification for resigning with the political aspects of a bigger movement amongst the SOAS community. Jess mentioned accountability, transparency and honesty as an issue within the SU. In their statement, the SU wrote that those comments ‘were unfair on the fellow

Co-Presidents, and the committed staff team, to suggest that there is a lack of accountability, transparency and honesty in the Union that we are doing nothing to bridge.’

Jess called for ‘radical students, who are still hopeful in changing SOAS to be the place it could be’ to mobilise and be part of campaigns such as Account For This, Justice For Workers, and Fractionals For Fair Play.

A quote from the resignation letter- ‘there is power in the grassroots’- was echoed in an event Jess organised for the following week.

The event, Back to the Grassroots, saw the

‘In their resignation letter, Jess stated that the ‘lack of accountability, transparency and honesty in the Union and the School’ has made them come to the decision to no longer be involved in the SU.’

Jess Kumwongpin-Barnes (Credit: SU website)

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three campaigns make accusations of the SU co-opting their causes rather than acknowledging them as independent movements.

Following the significant attention created by the abrupt resignation, attendance was high, though Jess kept a low profile and spoke only briefly.

Regarding the campaigns’ increasing calls for independence from the SU, the SU Co-Presidents said that ‘We respect them for being independent because they need to hold the SU accountable […] but at the same time there has to be cooperation to some extent because otherwise, you can’t change anything.’ They pointed out that SU personnel engaged highly with campaigns such as

Justice For Workers in the past, before and while holding their mandate, making use of their privileges in the university to offer support, such as helping with room bookings.

The SU Co-Presidents state that this was never part of an attempt to take over, but to help facilitate the campaigns.

At the Back to the Grassroots event, students criticised the SU Co-Presidents’ planned trip to South Africa, which is being paid for by SOAS management. The Justice For Workers campaign released a letter in solidarity with Jess, addressing the allegedly ‘undemocratic’ structure of the SU, and writing that ‘everything is done for officers to feel cosy in the pockets of the school management.’

The SU responded that ‘We can appreciate why people would criticise this. It does look like we are in management’s pocket, but I think the SU is here to hold management to account,’ and that ‘you can make change in two ways: you can either shout louder or work together.’

In light of Jess‘ sudden resignation, an emergency trustee meeting decided on 3 October that the SU would not hold reelections. Instead, where possible, the SU would hire students and others to support the responsibilities of the Welfare and Campaigns Co-president on a project-byproject basis.

The SU said that they want ‘any student concerned by the issues raised to reach out to them and seek clarification.’ Students at the Back to the Grassroots event called on other students to raise their frustrations regarding a lack of solidarity and trust with both the SU and SOAS management, stating that both parties need to address these issues to meet their responsibilities of protecting and addressing the needs of students.

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News

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SOAS Management Accused of Preferential Admission of International students Yasmin Elsouda, BA International Relations A Sunday Times investigation from August 2017 alleged that many top UK universities are discriminating against British fee status students as the universities seek to attract more international students and their higher fee rates, going so far as to accept those with poorer qualifications.

SOAS management’s increasing admission of international students has led to speculations of their complicitness in such practices.

Under the heading ‘About SOAS’ the university website suggests that the school’s ratio of UK to international students is currently one to one. The Annual Student Diversity Report for the 2011-12 academic year shows that the ratio of UK to international students was a far higher two to one, indicating SOAS has significantly increased the allocated number of seats for international students.

Since that year’s issue, the Annual Student Diversity Report has not included statistics of the ratio of UK to international students, instead focusing on the ethnic distribution of students, without reference to their fee status.

SOAS’ statistics are reflective of a general trend of increasing numbers of international students and decreasing numbers of UK students in higher education. Across 23 universities, the number of domestic fee-paying students fell by more than 33,000 between 2008 and 2016 while the number of

international students rose by 22,000.

The Sunday Times investigation showed that many universities are admitting less qualified international students. Thousands of overseas students are being granted fasttrack admissions without needing to take A-levels or an equivalent, and are completing a six-month foundation course instead.

One student at SOAS told The Spirit that, despite being a British citizen, she is paying international fees because she spent the last three years of her education overseas. She explained, ‘my friends that were abroad during their final school years also had to pay international fees, unless you had an address here and flew out every summer, and even then home fees were not guaranteed.

Why are they giving more well-off people a break?’

Universities UK estimated that international students contributed a whopping £25bn to the British economy in 2015, with indications that the figures will continue to rise. Of that sum, students paid £4.8bn in tuition fees, 87.5% of which came from outside the EU. Dame Julia Goodfellow, President of Universities UK, said that ‘These figures highlight the enormous economic contribution international students now make to UK plc and to jobs and communities in every region of the UK.’

Banner outside SOAS (Credit: Sectretlondon123) Remarking on Dame Goodfellow’s statement, one student from the United States said, this is ‘British academic-speak’ describing her feeling that statements such as these are heavily concerned with revenue from education and its contribution to the British economy, reflecting the wider move towards the corporatisation of higher education in the UK, especially in the context of last year’s UCU strike.

Universities UK recognised that ‘international students also enrich our campuses and the experience of UK students, both academically and culturally.’ Sabrina Shah, one of SOAS SU’s joint POC officers, said ‘Since the increase of the proportion of international students especially at SOAS and in the context of the general trend of commodification of higher education in the UK, it’s fair

to argue that we should be raising questions about a system that seems to give university places to the highest bidder.’ They added that although international students are ‘an asset to any institution,’ ‘they should be allocated university places based on merit as highlighted on the university webpage.’

The Department of Education’s new Higher Education and Research Act’s ‘Office for Students’ will be monitoring admissions to see whether discrimination is taking place.

However, since the bill’s enactment in April 2017 there is no indication that this issue has been resolved as the numbers of international students continue to rise while home student numbers are falling.

SOAS admissions were approached for comment.

SOAS’ £20,000 PhD compensation student calls for student action Khadija Kothia, BA History

Dr Vishal Vora (Credit: MPI) A SOAS Research Associate, to whom SOAS gave £20,000 for failing to provide them with PhD supervision, has called on students to take action against the School’s management.

The revelations were first published by Times Higher Education on 4 October,

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Since the publication of the article in early October, Dr Vora said that the response has been ‘overwhelming’, with more than forty students coming forward and informing him of similar struggles with SOAS departments and administration.

revealing that Dr Vishal Vora, who completed his PhD at SOAS’ School of Law and is now a Research Fellow in Germany, did not receive supervision during his six-year PhD research period at SOAS. After the student made three official complaints and the Office of the Independent Adjudicator told him that a tuition fees refund was not justified, Dr Vora issued a legal case which SOAS did not defend. As such, SOAS paid him £20,000 in compensation for his distress

and inconvenience along with a full refund of tuition fees and costs.

Since the publication of the article in early October, Dr Vora said that the response has been ‘overwhelming’, with more than forty students coming forward and informing him of similar struggles with SOAS departments and administration. ‘It has been sad to have all these messages come through, clearly I was not alone.’

However, this is not the first time that complaints regarding a lack of supervision have been published in the press. In 2017, the Times Higher Education published news of another SOAS student who was granted £5,000 in compensation for a similar supervision complaint. In response, a SOAS spokesperson stated in July 2017 that Baroness Amos was initiating a review to examine the lessons SOAS needed to learn, though this has yet to be published.

Dr Vora also stated that he is now interested in working to help students know how to make legitimate complaints. ‘All the relevant information is on the SOAS website.

It is just a case of being honest with yourself

and asking if you really have a valid complaint. If you do, then follow the instructions, complete the form and be organised, with your evidence in hand.’

He stated that the lack of supervision had a detrimental impact on his relationship, family and friends. ‘It took a massive toll on my entire life. I spent my entire period at SOAS feeling unvalued, lost and stressed’, and that SOAS owes him, at minimum, an apology and that it should provide students with the professional services they are paying for.

Despite the payout, Dr Vora has yet to receive a formal apology from the university, which he says is symbolic of SOAS management’s arrogance and adamant clutch on power. In fact, the University has outright refused to issue an apology, even though it did not defend itself against Dr Vora’s legal claim.

‘They are not used to students complaining, but students really need to hold the institution to account, otherwise nothing happens.’

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23 OCTOBER 2018

Hard Picket Protesters Facing ‘Weaponised’ Disciplinaries for Blocking Entry to Main Building Julius Ogunleye BSc Economics and Development Following the hard picket initiated on 16 March, six of the student protesters who blocked access to SOAS’ main building have been subject to the university’s disciplinary procedures over a period now spanning months.The events of the day remain disputed despite CCTV coverage, with SOAS insisting that the material can only be seen

resolved soon one of the two main complainants, Professor Lawrence Sáez, passed away due to cancer on 11 September.

On the day of the alleged incidents, a group of students enacted their controversial strategy as a ‘last resort’ attempt to support the SOAS lecturers striking in their dispute with Universities UK over changes to their pensions, drawing mixed support and criticism. Forming chains with linked arms and rope, the protesters prevented access to the campus’ main building. Several members of

The hard picket line blocking the entrance of SOAS in March 2018 (Credit: @dansette) by defendants, witnesses and members of the disciplinary panels. The lack of a coherent narrative has enabled the initial environment of rumours and misinformation to continue, with the case being picked up by right-wing media outlets like The Sun and The Times who have been able to follow up several previous articles attacking SOAS student and protester Hamish Anderson. The future of the accused students remains uncertain, with Anderson currently barred from campus amid an ongoing crowd-funded legal appeal.

Adding to the case’s seeming inability to be

the Students’ Union’s executive team participated in the protest, which saw several violent incidents as a number of students and lecturers attempted to push through the barrier, leading to cuts, bruises and a protestor with a dislocated leg.

The first of the events under investigation occurred at around 9:30 am, as complainant Dr Sáez arrived at the building. He describes arguing with two of the protestors before trying to access the door where he claims to have been attacked, telling a disciplinary panel that ‘there were about four people

kicking me’ in his calves and shins. Eventually passing the picketers, Dr Sáez tells of arriving in his office a ‘few minutes’ after 9:50, in time to witness from his window ‘a woman wearing a dark blue headgear [...]

‘I will punch you to death’ being kicked and punched by the picket line holders’, at which point he left the window to get a phone to record the events.

The individual described is fellow complainant Dr Idil Osman, a Senior Teaching Fellow in the Development Studies department. Arriving around 10:30, some half-hour after Dr Sáez placed the events, Dr Osman also began trying to gain entry, ‘walk[ing] up’ to the students and ‘explain[ing] that [she] needed to get to work’ which, in her statement, led to reasoned discussion with the students before Anderson kicked her twice in the shin. Here, she claims to have both punched and shoved him in defence, with witnesses and the defendant describing this as several blows to the face. Video available online shows the aftermath of these events, reportedly after Dr Osman left the area for around ten minutes. She and Anderson argue over who was responsible for the melee, as she threatens to ‘punch [Anderson] to death’ if she is kicked again [www.youtube. com/watch?v=8ptQsrz6Mac]. SOAS CCTV footage is reportedly the only known recording of the contact taking place. The investigating officers, Professor Chris Brammal and Dr Hong Bo, found that footage to be unclear and inconclusive.

Dr Osman called on three witnesses to support her testimony before the panel. The first, Dr Sáez, corroborated the account of students kicking Dr Osman, though he also mentioned her being punched, an occurrence that doesn’t appear in her statement.

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A second staff member, Ben Mason, told an investigator that he had not seen a kick, though he described Osman’s actions as ‘definitely reactive’ with the protesters ‘goading her for ages’. The final witness, Stephen Ashwell, also told investigator Dr Bo that he had not seen Osman kicked during the fracas, expressing that her response was ‘excessive.’

In support of his version of events, Anderson requested that the disciplinary panel permit several named fellow protestors to give evidence, following assurances from disciplinary note-taker David Ogden that they would not be targeted. Investigator Professor Brammal declined to interview these witnesses, five of which are now subject to their own disciplinary investigation.

The initial disciplinary panel judged that Anderson had ‘more likely than not’ kicked both complainants, though the panel concluded there was no lasting harm and the kick ‘was not done with great force.’ With Anderson barred from accessing SOAS for 12 months, he has mounted a legal appeal, reopening the case. This process is still ongoing. Anderson alleges that the university has repeatedly violated its written procedures and frequently cancelled its scheduled meetings. Fellow protestors echo his claim that the university is ‘using the process as a form of intimidation.’

The day’s events appear to have had farreaching consequences on the university as a whole, surfacing in explanations of the recent distancing between some campus-based grassroots campaigns and the current SU executive, amid allegations of the latter’s lack of support and solidarity for the protesters.

Dr Osman could not be reached for comment. A SOAS spokesperson reaffirmed their policy not to comment on ongoing cases.

Muslim students self-censor on UK campuses, according to initial findings from SOAS research The preliminary findings from a major three-year SOAS research project looking at Islam on UK campuses has found that many Muslim students are self-censoring and disengaging from UK campus life as a result of the UK Government’s current counterterrorism strategy Prevent.

The project, Re/presenting Islam on Campus led by Professor of Society and Belief Alison Scott-Baumann and funded by the AHRC and ESRC, has found many Muslim students modify their behaviour for fear of being stigmatised, labelled an extremist or subjected to discrimination.

The study also claims that Prevent, a Government strategy which seeks to stop students being drawn into terrorism, has led

to wariness among Muslim and non-Muslim students about participating in research about religion, freedom of speech and campus life.

Professor Scott-Baumann, the principal investigator, said: “Ministers are accusing universities of using safe spaces and no platforming to suppress free speech but the initial findings of this research suggest that the chilling of free speech is coming from government initiatives.“It is particularly regrettable when you consider that under British legislation, the right to free speech is legally protected, whereas the need to implement Prevent takes the form of guidance, not law.”

The research was based on a national

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survey of more than 2,000 students at UK universities. It also consisted of qualitative research at six universities, including interviews with about 300 students, academics and other staff; staff and student focus groups; and observations of classes and campus events. This is the largest study yet conducted and provides invaluable data The team consists of Professor Scott-Baumann (PI), SOAS; Dr Aisha Phoenix, SOAS; Dr Shuruq Naguib, Lancaster University; Dr Sariya Cheruvallil-Contractor, Coventry University; Dr Mathew Guest, Durham University; Kareem Darwish, SOAS. The findings from the Re/presenting Islam on Campus project have also been reported in Times Higher Education and on

Credit: Matthew G/Flickr

BBC Radio 4 Sunday Programme (9 September 2018, 25:50). Earlier this year Professor Scott-Baumann also gave evidence at the Joint Committee on Human Rights on free speech on campus and her research, conducted with Simon Perfect (SOAS) helped to shape the JCHR final report.

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News

23 OCTOBER 2018

SOAS Continues to Hire Outsourced Workers at Late License Events Despite In-Housing Commitment Indigo Lilburn-Quick BA History and Politics, Twitter: @indigo_lq Despite a commitment to bring all staff in-house by the 29th of August 2018, SOAS outsourced all but one of the security staff at the first late license event of the year. This event took place on the 28th of September in the JCR and bar. SOAS also hired outsourced security staff for the Black Queer Magic late license on the 5th of October.

SOAS stated that “[in-house] SOAS staff were offered the opportunity at the agreed extra rates of pay for after-hours work, and in practice, only one member of staff wished to take on this additional work.” Thus, SOAS required additional staff for the safety of

students attending the event.

SOAS committed to bringing all workers in-house on the 4th of August 2017 and has been liaising with private contractors for the past year, though it does not appear to have a system for organising in-house staff for late-night events. Soph Bennet, Activities and Events Co-President, was responsible for organising the first event. However, the Estates team arranged the security staff.

Bennet explained that, according to the security staff, “they didn’t want to work as they are not paid bouncers rates for these shifts, but the same hourly rate as a normal day shift.” Bennet suggests it was not clear to staff that they would be paid extra for this work.

An in-house security staff member, who

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wished to remain anonymous, explained that he feels SOAS views day-time and late-night bar security as the same job. He thought he would have to wear the same uniform and carry out similar tasks, which would not give the staff adequate authority. He said that although many students feel safer with known security guards, he and other in-house security staff no longer want to work late night shifts for personal and other reasons.

Bennet claims that SOAS must provide its in-house security staff with “fair pay for the work they are doing,” “the correct training and insurance to act,” and “written protection from the school, outlining what they can and cannot do in the event of an incident.” Without these

Windrush: Will the UK Home Office right its wrongs?

HMT Empire Windrush (Credit: Creative Commons)

Frances Everett, BA International Relations and Development Studies The Windrush scandal continues to put people’s lives on hold as they wait months for vital help from the government, which has deported innocent people, denied them access into the UK, and refused them access to critical services such as the NHS. ‘Windrush’ refers to the arrival of Caribbean migrants in the UK between 1948 and 1971. In 1948, almost 500 passengers of Caribbean descent arrived in the UK on the ship, HMT Empire Windrush.During this time, people could legally migrate from Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and other islands to the UK, as these countries were part of the Commonwealth.After the UK government enacted the 1971 Immigration Act, it could deny newly-arrived migrants the right to reside in the UK. However, the Home Office failed to keep an immigration record, and could not distinguish between those who arrived before and after the passage of the Act. In 2012, Parliament changed the immigration law again, requiring individuals to present proper documentation to work, access benefits, and rent property. Without these documents, people cannot work, receive NHS treatment, or remain in the country. As a result, the government told members of the Windrush generation that they needed documents proving the legality of their residence in the UK. However, many people struggle to acquire documents to prove they came to the UK before the Immigration Act came

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conditions, Bennet believes that “the school cannot expect the in-house staff to work as they not providing fair working conditions.”Both Bennet and the in-house security staff member praised the outsourced workers at the event, with Bennet adding that they were “outstanding.”

The school made it clear that SOAS “did not in any way breach any arrangements for our in-house team providing security for SOAS events.” They “brought in additional staff with a good knowledge and understanding of SOAS to work with the in-house team,” and this was necessary for the event to occur safely.

SOAS Justice for Workers campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

into effect since many Windrush migrants only relied on their parents’ passports to enter the UK. In 2010, the Home Office further impeded the documentation effort when it destroyed many landing cards belonging to Windrush immigrants.

The government believes it has wrongly deported thirteen people as a result of its destruction of landing cards. It has contacted eight of those people, been unable to reach two of them, and has heard from the Jamaican Foreign Minister that the three remaining victims have died.

A larger group is also unable to return from the Caribbean, with the UK government denying them re-entry after they travelled abroad. Reports suggest that the government may have wrongly deported even more people after courts convicted them of a criminal offence. However, the government’s response has mostly ignored this aspect of the scandal.

The UK government has attempted to apologise and, to some extent, rectify the situation. Theresa May issued an apology to those affected, while Penny Mordaunt, the International Development Secretary, insisted that there was ‘absolutely no question’ regarding the Windrush generation’s right to remain in the UK. Mordaunt stated that ‘People should not be concerned about this–they have the right to stay and we should be reassuring them of that.’

Home Secretary Sajid Javid announced that 2,398 people

secured their documentation confirming their right to live in the UK since the government has established the Windrush Scheme at the end of May 2018. Additionally, 2,121 people successfully applied to become British nationals.

That said, critics of the government’s reaction claim that it has handled cases too slowly thereby endangering people’s livelihoods.

Two men claimed they had been waiting four months for the government to resolve their case, and to receive necessities, such as residence cards, accommodation, and the right to open a bank account. Four months far exceeds the two-week limit by which the government pledged to have resolved cases.

The UK government’s failings towards the Windrush generation have had far-reaching consequences for thousands of people. Ken Morgan had been living in the UK since 1959, from the age of nine. However, for 25 years, Morgan has been separated from the community in which he grew up, and left in Jamaica after officials confiscated his passport at Kingston Airport.

A former NHS nurse is also facing deportation. The government told her to seek support from a charity to feed her child, while it reviews her case.

Although the UK government is finally acting to rectify its treatment of Windrush migrants, for many, the damage may be difficult to amend.

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News

23 OCTOBER 2018

News Made Easy: Brexit Explained Frances Everett, BA International Relations and Development Studies

The Story So Far • 23 January 2013 – Former Prime Minister David Cameron expresses his support for an in/out referendum regarding the UK’s EU membership.

• 7 May 2015 – Cameron wins the general election with a manifesto promise to hold a referendum.

• 23 June 2016 – Referendum day. 51.9% vote leave and 48.1% vote remain.

Future Dates Cameron resigns immediately.

• 13 July 2016 – Theresa May replaces Cameron as PM. • 29 March 2017 – The government invokes Article 50, beginning the UK’s withdrawal process from the EU. • 8 June 2017 – After May’s surprise general election, she clings to power through a deal with the Irish DUP, which props up

The Best Laid Plans: A look at what the UK government wants the final deal to look like, why nobody else likes it, and what this could mean for Brexit:

The ‘Chequers’ Plan Theresa May’s ‘Chequers’ plan represents the UK government’s Brexit wish-list. The name Chequers refers to where the Cabinet agreed on the plan, at May’s country residence in Buckinghamshire. The plan’s formal name is, ‘The Future Relationship Between the United Kingdom and the European Union’.

Chequers aims at a ‘soft’ Brexit, meaning that the UK would retain a close relationship with the EU. The plan proposes the following:

her minority government.

• 26 June 2017 – The EU and UK begin formal negotiations.

• 6 July 2017 – The Cabinet meets at May’s country retreat for 12 hours, producing the ‘Chequers’ plan.

• 9 July 2018 – David Davis resigns as Brexit secretary in reaction to Chequers, and others follow his lead.

it would be the worst outcome for both parties, particularly the UK. Preparations are already being made by all parties involved for things to run smoothly in the event of the UK and EU failing to reach a formal agreement. Nevertheless, if negotiations failed in the last instance, the UK could ‘crash out’ of the EU. The consequences of this are unclear. For example, EU nationals inside the UK and UK nationals in the EU could lose their right of residence, which would leave millions in a difficult position.

With that in mind, negotiators have until 31 October to avoid a no-deal Brexit.

The Question of the Irish Border Northern Ireland has added an extra layer of complication to the negotiation process, as it is soon to become the UK’s only land border with the EU.

• 31 October 2018 – Negotiations must be complete so that all involved countries may vote on the deal.

• 29 March 2019 – Brexit day. The UK withdraws from the EU at 11 pm and enters a transition period.

• 31 December 2019 – The transition period ends.

Goods, services, and people cross the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland every day without restriction, making it a ‘soft’ border.

May’s plan intends to avoid security and customs checkpoints (i.e., a ‘hard’ border) by introducing a new ‘combined customs territory’ and a ‘common rulebook’. However, this plan has now been rejected by the EU. In the event of a nodeal, a ‘backstop’ safety net would allow Northern Ireland to continue following EU customs rules, so a ‘soft’ border could remain.

A ‘hard’ border would undermine the Good Friday Agreement, which has proven vital for peace in Ireland since 1998.

Customs Union: All countries in the union charge the same import duties on imported goods and services.

Single Market: A group of countries trading with each other without restrictions or tariffs. The European single market came into effect on 1 January 1993. It harmonises rules on issues from working hours to climate change.

• The UK would leave the single market and create a ‘common rulebook’ to allow for continued free trade between the UK and EU. While EU standards would continue to bind UK producers on goods (but not services), the UK would still be able to trade with the EU without restrictions.

• The UK would be allowed to effectively remain within the customs union through a newly created ‘combined customs territory’, intended to harmonise UK and EU trade rules.

• There would be an end to the freedom of movement between the UK and EU, although a new ‘mobility framework’ would allow citizens to travel between the two areas and apply to study and work.

What does the EU think of Chequers?

EU leaders rejected May’s plan at the Salzburg summit in September. They primarily dismissed it to preserve the integrity of the single market, arguing that the UK cannot effectively remain in the single market for goods but not services.

What are the other criticisms?

Many MPs in Theresa May’s own Conservative Party are critical of Chequers. The European Research Group of Hard Brexit, led by influential Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, called on May to ‘chuck Chequers’. There have also been claims that around 80 MPs are planning to vote against these proposals if the final deal includes them.

Could this mean a no-deal Brexit?

Neither the UK nor the EU wants a no-deal Brexit, which could be politically and economically devastating. Donald Tusk, the President of the European Council, says that

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A Banksy Mural depicting the UK’s fragile position in the EU (Credit: Creative Commons)

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News

23 OCTOBER 2018

Conservative and Labour Conferences: A Summary Sumaya Hassan BSc Development Economics As Chancellor Philip Hammond calls to reinvent the image of capitalism within Britain, heated exchanges have persisted between the Conservative Party and the Labour Party.

One of the biggest highlights of the conference was Theresa May’s promise to finally end austerity after 8 years. She proclaimed that Britain’s citizens had ‘sacrificed’ enough and their hard work had finally ‘paid off ’. However, local council funds have decreased by 49% since David Cameron’s term. In early 2018, Northamptonshire Council declared bankruptcy and voted to abolish itself. Neo-Dickensian conditions are prevalent. Rough sleeping is up by 169% since 2010.

Labour views austerity as a selfdestructing ideological project. After 8 years of seeing increasing homelessness and

poverty-related deaths amongst vulnerable groups, many are inclined to consider the promise of ‘ending austerity’ to be a Tory farce.

The conference did not seem to adequately cover the issue of Brexit. As, Mrs. May avoided it when she petitioned her party to put Brexit behind them and unite as one force, ending all party factions. She avoided discussing the Chequers plan, whilst reassuring her party companions that she will reach out to Labour MPs concerning a Brexit deal. Labour has suggested that the ‘remain’ option is still on the table.

Both Theresa May and Sajid Javid urged councils to borrow to make up for their funding deficits. The party promised to reduce the overseas budget to make up for the decreased domestic public spending.

Many suggested this is the Tories’ way of hinting at a form of capitalist redistribution. The Conservatives have promised a social care package of £240m. In a speech in Birmingham, Javid promised to tackle

middle-class drug users and the creation of new ‘’secure’’ schools for young offenders.

The drug-use reduction project alone would cost £200m.

Prime Minister May also expressed that the Tory Party’s aim this winter would be to provide as much welfare as possible to Britain’s elderly population by increasing NHS funding. Mrs May said, ‘The conservative party must be a party for everyone’.

According to Sebastian Payne of the Financial Times, it is the fear of Corbyn which is holding the Tory Party together.

The Conservative government has a current budget hole of about £53bn, with Philip Hammond tasked to deliver a talk on ‘borrowing budgets’, scheduled for 29 October.

Jeremy Corbyn called on his fellow party members to end internal strife against one another and to unite. Furthermore, Corbyn assured the pro-Brexit heartlands of the UK that not all Brexit promises will be wrecked; he argued that the UK could benefit from a customs union, no hard border between NI

and the UK, a protection of jobs for workers, a preservation of people’s rights at work, and maintaining high environmental and consumer standards.

Corbyn quoted Nye Bevan on the idea of the free health service being ‘pure socialism’ and continued with his remark of ‘and so it is’.

His speech touched on the Representation of the People Act, the Waterloo Massacre, and the Foundations of the NHS services. He added poems by both Percy B Shelley and the Chartist poet Ernest Jones. To rebrand himself anew, he also showed regret towards having appeared on Iran World TV, which was complicit in the detention and torture of a Channel 4 reporter.

Corbyn also stated that the Tories unite policies of the 1950s with the economics of the 19th Century. He vowed for an end to shameless greed culture.

International News

Foreign Involvement in Yemen is Fuelling a Humanitarian Crisis Chloë Cochran BA Global Popular Music The UN has issued a warning that the number of Yemenis in danger of starving by December, has risen from 8.4 million to 18.4 million. Yemen, since 2015, has been in the grip of a civil war fuelled by foreign intervention. The war is between the Saudi backed Yemeni government, and the Iran backed Houthi rebels.

Since 2015, 3 million people have been displaced from their homes, and Save the Children estimated that 50,000 children died in 2017 alone.

The Saudi air force is bombing the Houthi rebel strongholds, but also injuring and killing a large number of civilians in the process. In addition to this, it has been suggested

by The New Yorker that the Saudi led coalition is using food and other supplies as a pawn, in order to attack the rebels from another point. They have implemented sanctions on Yemen restricting certain supplies, such as protein packs, from foreign aid groups which are in dire need by the civilian population. The result of the last two and half years of sanctions, mean that the country is on the brink of famine.

According to Al Jazeera, despite efforts being made, providing aid to civilians in Yemen is challenging due to the nature of the war. In October 2015, a Saudi airstrike killed four at a hospital operated by Doctors Without Borders, illustrating just how easy it is for civilians, and those sent there to provide aid, to get caught up in the destruction and violence.

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The main effect the conflict is having is on the civilians of Yemen, who are caught up in the devastating, often deadly, crossfire. With air raids coming in from Saudi Arabia. Civilians are being displaced into refugee camps, where their safety is not assured. According to the World Health Organisation and UNICEF, this is the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. With ¾ of the population in need of assistance and 8 million people on the brink of starvation families are often having to make the decision whether to feed their starving children or help their sick ones as medical supplies are also in short supply.

The UN has issued a warning that the number of Yemenis in danger of starving by December, has risen from 8.4 million to 18.4 million.

The United Kingdom, the United States of America and France are all supplying Saudi Arabia with intelligence information, refuelling of jets, and are supplying weapons, according to ABC News.

The Saudi’s Allies are supplying intelligence advice to the coalition as well as dealing arms. Ethically this has come under fire by British and American citizens alike, questioning their government’s involvement in the deaths.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights estimated that the Saudi led airstrikes (made possible by the weapons and intelligence provided by their allies) have

London protest against UK Saudi funding (Credit: Alisdare Pickson) caused 2/3 of civilian deaths. Within the aftermath of Saudi airstrikes on the northern city of Sana’a (which has been under Houthi control), missiles designed and built by the Raytheon company, the third largest defence company in the US, were discovered. In addition, Al Jazeera reports that the United States conducts airstrikes on Al-Qaeda and ISIS factions within Yemen furthering both civilian dislocation, and instability. Without the aid of their allies, waging war would have been difficult for Saudi Arabia.

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News

23 OCTOBER 2018

Sealing Liquid Borders – Italy’s Not-So-Hidden Agenda Alexandra Bate, BA Social Anthropology and History of Art Since 2016, the Aquarius search and rescue vessel, chartered by SOS Méditerranée and Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), has been operating in hazardous Mediterranean waters between Libya and Italy. Over the past two years, it has rescued almost 30,000 people. However, according to the Guardian, ‘the Aquarius is the last private rescue ship operating in the area.’

Last week, the Panama Maritime Authority (PMA) moved to revoke the ship’s registration, confining the Aquarius to the Port of Marseille. This is not the first time a government has de-flagged the Aquarius. In August, Gibraltar also de-flagged the ship, holding it in Marseille for three weeks until Panama agreed to grant the ship registration, only to revoke it a few months later.

In a letter to the Aquarius, the PMA wrote that the ship ‘implies a political problem against the Panamanian government.’ SOS Méditerranée and MSF blame the leaders of the newly-elected Italian far-right populist

Each day the ship remains un-flagged, it cannot leave Marseille to continue to search for and rescue vessels that are experiencing distress in the deadly crossing between Libya and Italy. government for the PMA’s act, stating that the Italian government put ‘blatant economic and political pressure’ on the PMA. Each day the ship remains un-flagged, it cannot leave Marseille to continue to search for and rescue vessels that are experiencing distress in the deadly crossing between Libya and Italy.

Since June, the Italian far-right has frequently targeted the Aquarius with legal actions. Matteo Salvini, Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister of Italy, has spearheaded those efforts. Claims likening the Aquarius to a ‘taxi cab for migrants’ have become commonplace in Salvini’s anti-immigration rhetoric. In response to allegations that the Italian government was pressuring Panama to de-flag the Aquarius, Salvini tweeted a denial, stating that he ‘didn’t even know the country code for Panama.’

The legal grounds for Panama’s reversal are unclear, given that the Aquarius’ mission is in line with the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea. The Convention states that any ship aware of persons in distress ‘is bound to proceed with all speed to their assistance.’ MSF Sea tweeted, ‘For the Aquarius and all ships, saving lives is a duty, not a crime.’

Italy has denied the Aquarius permission to dock at Italian ports multiple times since June, despite International Maritime and Refugee Law stipulating that it is the duty of governments and ships to cooperate in granting survivors the right to disembark at the nearest, safest port. The last week of September marked the most recent instance where Italian authorities denied the Aquarius disembarkation rights. At the time, 58 migrants were on board. Malta, France, and Spain gave conflicting responses about whether they would allow the Aquarius to dock in their ports. As these countries changed their stances, they further delayed the ship, causing additional distress to the migrants on-board. In an Al-Jazeera interview, one of the Aquarius’ crew members, Laura Garel, states, ‘We have seen people who are actually carrying bullets in their bodies from their time in Libya’.

On 3 October, a coalition of NGOs across Europe released a joint letter. They urged

Boat Transfer (Credit: Creative Commons) European leaders to grant Aquarius flag registration so that it could resume rescue operations immediately. The opening statement is harrowing: ‘Five years to the day after the Lampedusa tragedy in which at least 368 people died, rescue operations in the Mediterranean Sea are more vital than ever’.

In response to this plea, the French Socialist MEP Isabelle Thomas urged French President Emmanuel Macron to offer the French flag, publicly stating that this would ‘bring honour to the country’. Few other officials throughout Europe have responded.

This comes at a moment when Italian ministers ‘approved a decree to sharply curtail access to asylum, downgrade the care asylum seekers receive, and increase immigration detention,’ according to a Human Rights Watch article. The Italian government’s tightening of maritime borders and policy change regarding asylum seekers are the first actions taken by Salvini in ensuring that Italy will ‘no longer be Europe’s refugee camp.’ Salvini’s Italy is on the front line, but Italy isn’t the only country trying to spread the anti-immigration agenda. The ‘sealed border’ policies and Euro-sceptic visions curtailing free movement of migrants within the

EU are echoed by other far-right European leaders, such as Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. A recent Guardian article reports that after Salvini held a meeting in Milan with Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s Prime Minister, Orbán stated that ‘Hungary has shown that we can stop migrants on land.

Salvini has shown migrants can be stopped at sea. We thank him for protecting Europe’s borders.’

ISPI, an Italian think tank, has monitored the deaths and missing persons at sea since Salvini took power four months ago. The figures are shocking: ‘the average number of deaths per day has risen to 8.’ This is equivalent to 5 more deaths per day than under the previous government that was in charge between July 2017 to May 2018.

Notably, the Italian government cannot deny ships like Mare Jonio the right to dock when they fly the Italian flag. Mare Jonio is an Italian-registered independent ship, which left Sicily on the five-year anniversary of the Lampedusa shipwreck. The ship is part of the crowd-funded Mediterranea mission, an effort to fill the gap left by de-flagged, NGOrun vessels like the Aquarius.

Indian Supreme Court reverses colonial same-sex law Ammara Firdaus, BSc International Relations and History On the 6th of September 2018, section 377 (which criminalises consensual sexual activity between members of the same sex) of the Indian Penal Code was declared to be unconstitutional, by justice Indu Malhotra.

Credit: Tomasz Baranowski/Flickr

The section was first drafted in 1830 by Thomas Macaulay, who was Secretary to the board of Control during the British Raj. And it was due his work that homosexual sex was criminalised. This was part of the Empires larger project to eradicate ‘carnal acts against the order of nature’.

Prominent examples of persecution under this section include a judge in 1934 describing two men who had engaged in consensual sexual activity as ‘despicable specimens of humanity.’ And another incident in North India, in 1884, where during the prosecution of a Hijra (often referred to as the transgender community of India), the court commended the police for their desire to ‘check these disgusting practices’, because of

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a physical examination that they concluded displayed marks of a her being a ‘habitual catamite’.

Prior to this India had been more tolerant of homosexuality—a fact that is portrayed widely in art, culture and literature. A glance through the Hindu epics confirms this. The Mahabharata is littered with characters like Shikandi, who was born female and then became male, and temples across India are laden with carvings and paintings celebrating acts of homosexuality. Cultural stigma against homosexuality was of course present, however there was no punishment, explicitly, for homosexuality that had been formalised within the bounds of the law.

This landmark judgment symbolises the beginning of a new era of dignity, liberty and privacy for members of India’s LGBTQ+ movement who have been fighting

persistently for the overturning of this draconian legislation. It is a solid victory for members of many marginalised communities. Dr Mayur Suresh, a member of SOAS’ own faculty who worked on the previous constitutional challenge to 377 states that, “By ruling against the colonial-era law, the court delivered a powerful riposte to institutionalised disgust and contempt aimed at the LGBT community in India.”

Ironically, Western media outlets such as the Daily Mail have praised the ruling as an act of great ‘modernisation’ and ‘Westernisation’ when it is in fact the opposite: India is not catching up with the West, it is embracing its rich history of plurality and acceptance, by taking the first steps in the process of decolonisation and shredding the scars of colonial shame. In this fight, love wins.

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News

23 OCTOBER 2018

Reported Mass Internment of Uighur population in China’s Xinjiang region Erin Benjamin, BA History Vocational training centres for Uighur Muslims have been written into the legislation of the Chinese region of Xinjiang. According to estimates cited by the UN there are approximately a million Uighur Muslims who have been forcibly interned in these centres. However, the governor of the Xinjiang region, Shohrat Zakir, quoted in a report by the Xinhua News Agency said that they are ‘free vocational training centres and those in the centres are provided a basic

The BBC and Guardian, for example, are tending to estimate between tens of thousands and millions. income’.The Muslim Uighur population are a Turkic national minority situated mainly in China’s north-western ‘autonomous’ region of Xinjiang, where they make up 45% of the population.

Different institutions and organisations give different figures for the number of incarcerated Uighur people. For example, the BBC and the Guardian provide estimates of between tens of thousands and millions. The latter figure was recently put forward by panellists on the UN’s Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

According to a former internee interviewed by an Associated Press journalist, in these centres Chinese officials attempt to force Uighur’s to assimilate into the ethnically dominant Han culture through Mandarin lessons. The officials attempt to shift Uighur people away from their main religion of Islam, towards ‘Xi Thought’ Marxism-Leninism.

Xinjiang officials though state that the centres are just to tackle the perceived and at-times actual radical Islamist

threat to China’s internal security, through thought transformation.

Both formerly interned Uighurs and their family members describe the prison officials regularly forcing them to sing Chinese socialist songs and subjecting them to more intense forms of psychological and physical torture as punishment, for example, for speaking the Uighur language.

In July 2009 there were riots between Uighurs and the Han Chinese in the regional capital of Ürümqi. Around a 197 people were killed in the clashes, though it remains unclear how many deaths were caused directly by the Uighur protestors and how many by the security forces. Following the riots the Chinese government imposed a communications blackout in the region, that lasted 10 months. China’s attempts to control its Uighur population may seem to stem from these riots, but China has been increasing control on islamic practices as far back as 2001, when they banned private visits to Mecca.

As per a report in The Economist, the Uighur people continue to have relatively less economic opportunities compared to the more ethnically privileged Han workers and business owners, whose numbers in Xinjiang are increasing.

The Chinese government, in 2009, stepped up investment in the region but the Uighur’s complain that the Hans have reaped the major benefits from that drive.

The BBC reports that the Chinese government has banned Uighur women from wearing hijabs, and that this is part of a wider campaign against islamic practices in general, such as the sale and use of halal products.

The Chinese government justifies its mass internment of Uighur people on the basis that certain segments of the Uighur community are radicalised. The government claims the radicalisation is influenced by a decade-long ‘influx’ of insurgent Islamists from Central Asia to Xinjiang. US officials say this ‘influx’ occurs in the context of Islamist fighters, some with Central Asian origins, abandoning many areas in

Uighur Muslims (Credit: Creative Commons) the region due to the Pakistani counter-insurgency. Certain commentators have more than hinted at the possible parallels between the US’s campaign to destabilise the USSR through facilitating Central Asian Islamist reaction in the 1970s and 80s, and what may be happening now around and within China’s borders.

However, any american campaign to destablise China remains, for the time being, entirely conjectural, though it fits with China’s narrative of the Uighur independence movement being ultimately rooted in American imperialism.

However, people such as Richard Morningstar, the former US Special Envoy for Eurasian Energy, imply that the US government is severely anxious about, for example, China’s effective monopoly over Central Asian natural gas supply and distribution.

Irrespective of these considerations, the situation in Xinjiang is grave. Despite there being little evidence that the Uighur people have been affected by islamic extremist movements, as a BBC report stated ‘by committing the centres to legislation, China seems to confirming the fears of many that it is in fact running re-education camps for muslims, by disguising them as vocational training centres to combat extremism’.

IPCC report urges for unprecedented behavioural change to avoid 2 C catastrophic projections Ludovica Longo, BSc Politics and Geography

Credit: Wattsupwiththat.com

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As the results of 3 years and 6,000 studies carried out by 90 researchers from 44 different countries, unveiled, in Incheon, South Korea, the brief immediately arose the readers’ interests, not much due to its scientific revolutionary content, but rather for its novel focus on behavioural change and its clear understanding of the role of land-use changes in the context of climate change. Previous Panels,in fact, dedicated only a very limited space to the risks associated with emissions related to intensive animal farming and to food waste whilst the report’s authors this time explicitly call for rapid changes in farming practices, dietary habits, by shifting to lower GHG-intensive food consumption.

While the 2015 IPCC report went no further than saying that the nations of the whole world have agreed on the common target of limiting the rise in temperature to “well below” 2 C,preferably below 1.5 C, this year's authors state with “high confidence” and by providing sufficient supporting data and model pathways that a “robust difference” is projected between a 1.5 C and 2.0 C global warming . 6 % versus 18 % of insect species, 8% versus 18 % of plants and 4 % versus 8 % of vertebrates are expected to lose more than half of their habitat at 1.5 C and 2 C worlds respectively.

10-30 % of corals would be able to survive a 1.5 C increase,

whilst the IPCC sees no hope in their survival once a 2.0 C increase is reached.To make matters worse, twice as many people would be affected by climate related water stress, three times as many by heat waves and an extra 10 million people would be forced to leave their homes in the event of a 10 cm sea-level rise associated with a 2.0 C increase.

Overall, the purpose of this special report seems to be to get across a message of urgency. Despite the commissionment of the Paris Agreement in 2016, the gap between science and policy making appears only to have widened.

Evidence of this are the Australian government, the world’s biggest exporter of coal, which despite being one of the signatories of the agreement, continues to refuse to phase out coal power by 2050 and therefore is expected to exceed its target by 1 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide, as reported by NDEVR’s. Not to mention the pushback of two world leaders such as Donald Trump who promised he will pull out of the Climate Accords and Jair Bolsonaro, currently leader of the first round of the presidential elections in Brasil, who has even promised he will open the Amazon rainforest to miners and farmers.

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23 OCTOBER 2018 http://soasspirit.co.uk/category/features/ Features editors: Syraat Butt, Tania Monica Ruiz

Humans of SOAS: Talking mental health with our Agony Aunt.

Interviewed by Khadija Kothia.

Humans of SOAS is a photo-series and collection of interviews, showcasing the diversity of talent and stories around SOAS. If you would like to nominate anyone, or would like to be featured in our series, email spirit@soas.ac.uk

So, first, as our agony aunt this year for The SOAS Spirit, tell us about yourself.

Pauline: My name is Pauline Blanchet, and I am a third-year student, studying Linguistics and Development.

I have been passionate about mental health for a long time. At the age of fifteen, I was confronted with mental health issues quite seriously. I experienced two close friends committing suicide, largely due to eating disorders and anorexia. This was a massive shock, for me and my friends, and it was a hard time to be at school. I decided that something had to be done because this was happening more frequently than I thought. This also happens at SOAS. I confronted mental health issues with people around me at university too, and it was a struggle to see them go through it and to see not much help.

So, as our agony aunt, you will be answering emails and messages from students. What do you think is the difference between a student like you giving advice, and an older professional in the well-being department?

Pauline: When you are a student, you have been through similar experiences,

and SOAS is great because it’s a closeknit place so you see lots of different experiences. Sometimes people do similar or completely different things.

Coming to a student might build your confidence to go up and talk about similar issues to other students that you didn’t realise were facing the same issue. Just breaking down the stigma.

Do you think mental health stigma is a big problem that stops recovery? Do you think removing the stigma and talking about it will help?

Pauline: I think it can make you feel better. It can sometimes make you feel better or worse, depending on the situation. There are points sometimes when you can self-diagnose: when you tell yourself you have something and tell others that you have this. It is not your fault, it is largely because there is a lack of education on it. So, no one you are telling is properly educated so sometimes it doesn’t help, when the people you are telling don’t have the right answers.

What gives you the experience to talk and help students with their issues?

Pauline: Because of my past experiences with mental health and suicide, it took me to a place of grief and it does make you realise that the people around you are not well, in a severe way. I then went to psychotherapy for two years which was really helped me. I know it is not for everyone, and everyone has their own way, and I tried a few [different ways] and so did my friends. There was intense therapy, medication, CBT. There are so many ways, and it can be unclear because no one really knows what it best. So, after that, I worked with the place I got psychotherapy from, Brent centre for young people, a free mental health service.

What is it about university that creates these new issues?

Freshers’ Blues (Credit: Alice Milton, BA World Philosophies)

Pauline: I think being confronted with such a new environment, and a complete mix of people, which makes you question yourself because you don’t know quite where to fit in. Especially

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Features Regular Column:

Auntie Po Auntie Po, Pauline Blanchet (Credit: Khadija Kothia)

in a place like SOAS where people are so eager to learn, and it can very easy to feel stupid. You come in and not know anything about the campaigns. In my first year, I felt intimidated by the Students’ Union, and I’m sure a lot of people do.

I think it is easy to believe that these feelings will be your whole university experience, and it is very easy to forget this experience will not last–its brief. Mental health is also so broad, and when you are feeling an emotion, it is good to address it, and not let your thinking and emotions go into extremes.

So recently you just released your new podcast series, tell us about that?

Pauline: in February this year I was given a grant by O2, in partnership with Brent Centre to investigate the common mental health issues that young people face. The first episode is about suicide and the personal experiences of my friends, as well as talking to some psychotherapists about what suicide means and how to grieve. The next [episodes] are about men and masculinity; then the dark world of social media and Tumblr; and the anorexia too. There is a lot to be talked about.

What plans do you have and what topics will you be discussing as our agony aunt?

Pauline: As an agony aunt, I want to be open, I don’t want people to be scared, no one will be judged. Of course, it can be anonymous. Some topics will be talking about being alumni anxiety, Freshers’ difficulties, social media, exam stress. What you send in is what fifty other people might be feeling and they’d be so grateful. It is also about breaking down the stigma, and to stop hiding it and start talking about it.

Pauline Blanchet is a Third Year Development studies and Linguistics student. For the past year she has been producing her own podcast about mental health and young people where she has investigated some of the biggest issues young people are facing. The first episode was released on October 10th 2018.

Hi, I’m a first year at SOAS, looking for some advice.

Being in a new university is obviously difficult for everyone, but it somehow seems like everyone is dealing with it better than I am. I’ve developed some pretty bad anxiety over the past month and I feel like this only makes the already new environment more daunting. Crowds and group settings are the worst, but I don’t know how to avoid them without isolating myself. What do I do?

Sincerely, Frightened Fresher Dear Frightened Fresher (one amongst many), First of all welcome to SOAS! I can safely say that you are in good hands! I promise you that SOAS will soon feel like a small knit community rather than a daunting environment. However, I understand the worries and anxieties in the first couple months of the first year. I remember my first month at SOAS and it was a complete blur. On one hand I was scared to be alone but on the other, being in a big group or crowd was extremely tiring. I felt like I had to be ‘on’ all the time. With anxiety, it is important to not spiral your emotions and remember the core as to why you are worried and find a solution to that issue. It is easy to accumulate stress and worry and become more anxious. I have laid out several of pieces of advice that I have learnt over the last two years.

Firstly, find a familiar space in the university where you feel comfortable. For instance, there’s a seat I always go to in the Paul Webley wing. This is my go to space whenever I’m at University and feeling anxious, my safe space if you like.

This will even come handy for the years to come. Secondly, I would try and eliminate the thought of seeing everyone in big crowds or groups as this can be overwhelming. Try and focus on one or two people either in your class or a society and try and speak to them. This way, you can stop seeing the University as so daunting but rather you can start to slowly familiarise yourself with SOAS person by person rather than by huge groups and crowds. Sometimes, I avoid people as I get nervous about what to say to people but the moment you approach someone, say hello and have a laugh you will suddenly feel a slow relief. And why not tell them how you’re feeling? Soon enough you’ll realise everyone is in the same boat and feeling similar to you. Fourthly, join a society or a community which interests you at SOAS! In second year, I joined the Women’s Football Team and it really helped me find a base at SOAS and a support system as well as being able to blow off some steam!

Of course, if you feel like it’s too much, there are many places you can go. Student Wellbeing in Paul Webley Wing offers services which are useful if you feel like you need to talk to someone.

For the time being, enjoy the little aspects of SOAS and remember that everyone is feeling exactly the same!

Best, Auntie Po In the next issue: We are talking about the deep world of social media. Send in your troubles, questions, and stories to our agony aunt, on 638840@soas.ac.uk

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Features

23 OCTOBER 2018

Freshers’ Findings: First weeks at SOAS Gaia Tan, BA Development Studies and Social Anthropology

If you are an illustrator and would like to have your work printed in The SOAS Spirit, email spirit@ soas.ac.uk, or message us on social media. Studentrelated illustrations are preferred.

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Cinnamon Street: A sensory experience of walking down Balham High Road by Francis Martin Balham High Road is the type of place where you’d expect to come across a cafe decorated with old books and selling homemade apple cake, and sure enough, such an establishment can be found. It has tables outside, on the junction between the high street and a residential road. Once I was sipping a coffee there, when my idling was disrupted by the sight of a man sprinting around the corner, something clutched in his arms, with a shop security

guard in pursuit. In a moment the pair had disappeared into a car park and the dash of drama that had piqued my interest was reabsorbed into the humdrum rhythm of the high road. The only remnant of the incident was in the memories of those who had witnessed it...

Read more on our website: https://soasspirit.co.uk/category/features/

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Features

23 OCTOBER 2018

Humans of SOAS:

What is your opinion on Black History Month?

A Black History Month Special

Black History Month is cool in that it allows people everywhere to celebrate and commemorate people of African descent, especially in relation to their history. But recently I have felt that Black History Month is a bit of a token.

How is Black History taught at SOAS?

Interviewed by Syrat Butt | Photographed by Aishat Seriki

Dr Seraphim Kamdem What is your personal background?

I am not UK born, that is something I’m very proud of, not in some sort of exclusive way – it’s just part of my identity. I really insist on my vision that becoming British is adding to my identity, it’s adding another layer of who I am, it enriches me for the better, for the better of British society and also for the better of where I come from. Some people may see it differently, but that’s the individual story is so important when you are dealing with issues of who are we during something like Black History Month.

Your thoughts on Black History Month?

When you say BHM, somehow there is a racial element in there. It doesn’t necessarily fully capture some of the stories of people who are put into that box of being minorities, in modern British society – which is

Dr Olivia Lwabukuna Introduce yourself.

My name is Olivia Lwabukuna. I usually don’t use the “Doctor”, it makes me feel uncomfortable, and I’m a Law Lecturer at SOAS. I teach mostly aspects of International Law and the legal systems of Asia and Africa.

That’s what my interest is but that’s what I also teach: Law within the African context. I was born in Tanzania but I grew up in Swaziland, and later relocated to South Africa. So the three are actually home to me. Tanzanian by birth, except I didn’t live there. I moved to England two years ago, so I am still reasserting myself.

What are your thoughts on BHM? I actually feel, despite the criticism, it’s obviously a good thing for POC, for minorities, for BME people within Africa and beyond it. In the UK, [it’s good] to feel some form of recognition, even though there are aspects of tokenism and feeling that we should not be recognised for just one month a year, but it should be something that filters through every day and in every aspect of our

coming more and more diverse. It is not just becoming that, it was always diverse, it’s just that the angle from which British society was seen was really varied from the beginning.

[Black British History] has to do of course, in my own case with colonisation, the slave trade is some of it but Cameroon, where I come from, as a political entity is a result of the agenda of the British empire. So, for the people like me, we grew up in an environment where the presence of the British empire was there, imposed onto us. The education that I got was the product of the British presence in Africa.

We are not the products of a good system, we are the products of a bad system because we are a minority out of a system which should produce a majority that has basic education.

It [should] never [be] about language. It’s about the transmission of knowledge, values, know-how and subsistence – that’s what education is ultimately about.

lives–just like other people. But as a system, I feel retrospective information doesn’t work like that. The fact that we get one month a year where we are celebrated, for me it’s a good thing. At least the students and other people, who are a black minority, either at SOAS or within the larger UK, feel like it is a space and time for them, where they actually get recognised. For me, at least it happens.

Affirmative action or responses to this, whether it’s recognition for certain groups or anything of that sort, require measures like this.

Career talk–do you consider yourself successful?

I actually don’t consider myself successful.

I consider myself where somebody who has done the things that I have done should be.

Except there are few people like me. My representation might be that of success among people of my kind, but I do feel that if I wasn’t my kind then I probably would just be average and normal, and it would not make it look like a success.

But I do consider myself responsible, because of where I’m placed, to make the best representation of who I am and what my kind is.

Because there aren’t many people like me,

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Kwadwo (Credit: Aishat Seriki)

Dr Kwadwo Osei-Nyame, Jnr We’re going to talk about Black History Month a little bit, with the focus on your experience as a BME professor, academic, and just in general moving to England – your experiences here, and experience from your home country.

I am Ghanaian by birth. I like to think of myself as a representative for the race, the people of Africa and also of the diaspora. I am always outspoken. I am not here to live up to anyone’s expectations. I am here to do what’s good for myself, my community and for the world generally.

it comes with sometimes burdens, but also pressure. Added pressure to be your best, to do the best. To do more than everybody around you does, because you obviously stand out the most whether you do something amazing or something that is not.

There is that added pressure that I always take into account. Because you are a minority you probably always feel that you are noted on every aspect, so you want that note to be a good one. I just think it’s unfortunate that there aren’t a lot of people like me.

I teach Black History throughout the year.

It is very different teaching a topic from something that is of your perspective, rather than theorising from some else’s perspective.

We should not presume that because SOAS teaches History or African History, that it is decolonised. That is not the issue. It is about the content, not the name. Saying we teach non-european subjects in not enough. If you look at SOAS, you will find that in many areas, it falls well below par. There needs to be a revolution of the mind worldwide globally.

Why are BME academics so underrepresented?

It is a general problem in the UK. If the society has always, in all its behaviour, marginalised black people and those of other descent, it will reflect in every sector. There are a lot of people who are qualified and overqualified, but they will not get the job because of their name or how they look.

lonely, if I put it that way, and also because you seem unique, you’re always looked at as another creature.

“I like the struggle the English have pronouncing my name and me insisting I want it pronounced the full, complete name.

Sometimes it even takes a while for you to be comfortable with your name, your face and your appearance, and everything else. I’m at a point where I’m comfortable with the difference and the struggle it brings.”

What difficulties do you face as a minority in your career?

Always the fact that you don’t have peers from the same background or your context.

There are certain discussions, especially personal ones or challenges that your peers might not necessarily understand or comprehend. It’s not what you’ve done or the studies you’ve undertaken or the research you’ve done, it’s the context in which you’re doing it.

You don’t have peers of your kind to share it with, to share your challenges with. Yes, you have friends, and people who are at the same level as you–therefore you can engage with them at that level, but at a personal level, you always have that challenge. You find yourself always in a small hole. It sometimes can get

Photo: Olivia Lwabukuna (Credit, Aishat Seriki)

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Features

23 OCTOBER 2018

Postcards to SOAS: Jaipur Sasha Patel, History and South Asian Studies (Hindi Pathway)

days are the same, it’s near impossible to make comparisons to life back home. Every day I realise more and more, that this year abroad is about what I’m gaining and not what I’m losing.

It’s hard to translate photos into experiences. The smells, the tastes and conversations all are so unique that I’m lucky to hold them as memories. Despite inevitable difficulties and constant adjustments to ‘adulting’ here, getting through difficult situations just highlights how necessary it is to get out your comfort zone. You feel like you can patiently get through anything after experiencing Indian bureaucracy!

Travel: I feel so spoilt to have so many places to travel to at my fingertips. Travel is affordable, although time-consuming, and has so far allowed me to visit old Delhi in late monsoon season, travel overnight to Gujarat during Navratri season, and see the Taj Mahal and Fatehpur Sikri. Accessible travel

Sasha (far left) at City Palace, Jaipur (Credit: Sasha Patel)

Where: I am currently on my year abroad in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India, studying Hindi at the American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS). AIIS specialises in immersion-based language courses throughout India, mainly aimed at American university (undergraduate, postgraduate and PHD) students. Jaipur is the capital of the state of Rajasthan in Western India, and part of India’s famous ‘Golden Triangle’ tourist circuit. It is also nicknamed the Pink City, due to the pink colour of the buildings in the old town, making it a beautiful city to study in.

Hawa Mahal, Jaipur (Credit: Sasha Patel)

First Impressions: It’s surprising how quickly humans can adapt when the only constant around you is yourself. Having never lived away from home, I’m still anticipating the homesickness, or ‘London-sickness’. But in a place where everything is so different, and no two

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Everyday Life: Despite not being in academia, and having a 5-day week of sole language tuition, I still feel like my views on politics, feminism and even my own identity are constantly being challenged in different ways. “Where are you from?” has different connotations.

People question why ‘foreigners’ are buying steel Karahi’s from a street cart outside Jaipur’s tourist hub, or returning to the fruitwala every day in desperate hope of fresh sitafal (custard apple).

Living in a new society highlights our privilege as western university students studying in India. We are able to enter a social system without many of the social, class or caste barriers faced by Indian students our own age. The on-going issues, which we may have studied, read in-depth on, and written essays about are not treated in the same way as in our institutions. Talking ‘freely’ about topics such as communalism or the rise of fascism in India can be met with much more controversy and censorship than we’re used to facing in our classrooms. Understanding these differences is necessary for working to create change, as well as learning from the alternative approaches taken in these situations.

Jama Masjid, Delhi (Credit: Sasha Patel)

encourages us to make the most of our long weekends, and see as much of India as possible. Each region has its own distinct specialties; whether that be Jaipur’s own hand-block textiles, mirror-embedded Chaniya Cholis of Gujarat, the tasty aloo pyaaz ki saabzi of Rajasthan or the live qawwali at Nizamuddin Dargah in Delhi, only touches on the diversity of regional food, textiles and arts and culture that India offers.

Baroda, Gujarat (Credit: Sasha Patel)

Differences: Using TFL delays as excuses for lateness have been replaced by not being able to leave the house due to packs of monkeys cornering the door. Waking up to the sound of building works has been replaced by the shouts of the wandering street sellers. A day divided by hours has now been replaced by a day divided by chai breaks. And rowdy pubs during football games have been replaced with regular religious processions of elephants, camels and live music filling the late evening.

This experience in India contrasts heavily with my previous visits to family here and has demonstrated to me how much I actually can do. From 12-hour solo train journeys to starting to learn Indian classical music, there are so many ways to learn more about myself, as well as South Asia from a multitude of perspectives. Studying Hindi is essentially learning a mixture of Persian, Arabic and Sanskrit, which also gives access to the multiple histories of South Asia. It’s beautiful to be able to see historical sites I’ve studied or read about, and witness the weaving of languages, traditions and cultures around me, which work to create the incredible syncretism of South Asia.

Birla Mandir, at the end of my road in Jaipur (Credit: Sasha Patel)

Gender: The politicisation of women in India, by the Indian state and also by the west, is not a new phenomenon and continues to take different forms. From the gendered nationalist discourse of Bharat Mata to sexism in Bollywood films, the patriarchal structure here seems more blatant than the west, but also similar in many ways. The horrific violence faced by Indian women each day and experiences of harassment leads to the selfautonomy of women in India being depicted as alien. However, rebellion takes many forms here. A comparison of life as a woman in London or Jaipur is impossible when both contexts and their histories are so different.

Yet this doesn’t deny the consciousness you Aloo Pyaaz ki Sabzi (famous food of Jaipur) (Credit: feel walking alone as a woman here.

Sasha Patel)

Elephants and Camels on my road For Ganeshchurthi Festival (Credit: Sasha Patel) Postcards to SOAS is a Spirit exclusive series that aims to share the experiences of SOAS students on their year abroad. If you are a yearabroad student or know a year-abroad student who would be interested in writing a profile for the Spirit, send an email to spirit@soas.ac.uk, or message us on social media!

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Features

23 OCTOBER 2018

An Insight to The Jungle: My Experiences in the Calais Refugee Camps The dramatic story of one SOAS student’s time in Calais Tania Monica Zucconi Ruiz, BA History An empty field and rows and rows of men. When I entered the Jungle, that was the first thing I saw.

It was the start of a trip with SOAS goes to Calais, and we had just entered the Calais Refugee Camp which, according to the BBC, held around 7,000 inhabitants in 2016. The group had many musical instruments and swiftly assembled nearby the Jungle library (dubbed ‘Jungle Books’) and began to play, inviting inhabitants of the camp to play along. We talked to some of the refugees, and two that I had met wanted to

Calais Refugee Camp (Credit: Tania Monica Zucconi Ruiz)

show me their tents. The two young Afghan boys showed me their accommodation, which was the inside of a crate that had been decorated on the inside and covered with colourful scarves to make it feel homely. The room was lit with a candle and we began to talk as they told me their stories and played music out loud. I could still hear the lively tunes of the people playing, so I felt okay. After a while, I told the boys that I had to go and check on the group. As I went outside, I saw that the group was gone, and I was alone.

I looked and couldn’t see anyone, someone in the library informed me that the group had moved deeper into the camp. Since I had never been inside a refugee camp, I panicked. However, the boys I had met told me to stay and wait with them, as they were sure the group would come back.

Since I wasn’t sure what to do or where to go, we sat in the tent, playing Bollywood songs and discussing our lives. Finding out how the camp worked was interesting, and we talked for a long time. As it got darker and darker, we realised the group wasn’t coming back. One of the boys took me to an Afghan café, where we got served delicious food. After this, I wondered how I could get home, so the boys decided to walk with me. We walked for an hour and a half over the train tracks in Calais, as it was the quickest way home, and as the darkness enveloped us it felt quite scary.

The next day, I went back after volunteering at the warehouse to thank them, but the camp had taken a turn for the worse. After some attempted escapes onto lorries by some of the refugees, the camp was locked down by the French authorities. This meant that people could not enter or exit The Jungle. As I walked to the school and down to Jungle

Kamaishi in Recovery

Rugby restores hope after the 2011 tsunami Jacob Loose MA International Studies and Diplomacy Twitter: @jacobtloose Photo caption: Photo, taken by Dr Helen Macnaughtan, of the Kamaishi Recovery Memorial Stadium under construction in June 2017 The city of Kamaishi, in North-eastern Japan, has a brand new 16,187 seat rugby stadium. While this might seem unremarkable, the Recovery Memorial Stadium has a significant symbolic value to the people of Kamaishi, perhaps none more so than 61-year-old resident Jiro Ishiyama.

Back in the 1980s, Ishiyama represented the Nippon Steel rugby side based in Kamaishi. When he saw the devastation the 2011 tsunami caused his home city, he knew he had to help with the rebuilding effort.

Ishiyama recognised the value of rugby to the city’s residents and was a key campaigner in the successful bid to make Kamaishi one of the host cities for the 2019 Rugby World

Cup. He told Kamaishi’s official website that as “the main culprit behind the host city bid,” he felt a responsibility to help, and Ishiyima was not satisfied until he was part of the team that constructed the stadium.

Dr Helen MacNaughtan, Chair of the Japan Research Centre at SOAS, told me that when she visited Kamaishi, she found the stadium was being constructed 8km north

Books, tear gas filled the air, and all I could hear was shouting from various people. I managed to find the boys I had met and we ran, trying to find shelter inside the schools. The police had also hired fire engines that were spraying water

As the water sprayed us, we realised that the combination of tear gas and water culminated in the sensation of intense burning on our skin down onto the refugees. As the water sprayed us, we realised that the combination of tear gas and water culminated in the sensation of intense burning on our skin. Turning around, we suddenly saw two of the Eritrean people that lived in the camp trying to get on to a lorry, with the French police chasing behind them at full speed. After running into a school, I was suddenly advised to try to get out to safety, as the police would be getting even harsher. As I tried to leave, the police wouldn’t let me exit, calling me a disgusting immigrant and cussing me. I told them where I was from and they wouldn’t believe me, insisting that I was an illegal immigrant. It stayed like this until someone I had met inside the volunteering warehouse managed to get me out. I was free.

My trip to Calais, though dramatic, was incredibly interesting.

residents. Dr MacNaughtan raised the concern with the World Cup representative that a town this size did not need a stadium, but she was assured it would also be used for concerts, festivals, and as an open public space. She found rugby was a “particular focus for the town” and argued the sport is “a force for re-energising, reconstruction and motivating people because there is going to be lots of attention on Kamaishi.” This is what Mr Ishiyama wanted to achieve when he put together the bid for Kamaishi to be a host city.

When Namibia faces the winner of

the Repechage tournament on the 13th of October 2019, Ishiyama will not be attending. He told the Kamaishi website he always brings the bad weather with him and he wants the matches “to go ahead under sunny, blue skies.” He hopes the memorial recovery stadium will “come to symbolise the end of Kamaishi’s sadness,” and the opening match will be an emotional occasion for everybody connected with the city. The hope is that sport will give the residents of Unosumai something positive to focus on and a platform for recovery.

Sport is a force for re-energising, reconstruction and motivating people of the city centre, in the very small town of Unosumai. The 2011 tsunami took two schools with it (fortunately all the pupils survived) and the stadium is now being built on this site. Dr MacNaughtan told me there are alternative rugby pitches in Kamaishi city that could have been extended for the World Cup. So, its location here–where the tsunami had the greatest impact, is very significant.

The stadium project is intended to have a life beyond the tournament for Unosumai

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Photo of the Kamaishi Recovery Memorial Stadium under construction in June 2017 (Credit: Dr. Helen MacNaughtan)

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Features

Kali

I think I loved you first, in the way Only women with talons for nails can.

I loved you with the dark orange of midnight And the soft purple of first light, and in my first-ness I could colour myself a little bit of both.

I could draw up fangs and then balm in the same breath, And churn the seas, and drink up the foamy poison And then wait for it to gleam it off my skin, Turn twenty times like a lizard in the garden wall If it means, For you, I could spit fire.

I will lie waiting, eating from the skeleton of my own memory, Imagining you, When you finally arrive, Arriving with your bubbles frozen and darkened And held fast, but held forever, like amber.

Arriving your orange heart twisted and turning into lava, an artist whose paintbrush rests In a gun holster.

Arriving Limb first, eyes next, a face begging forgiveness, begging for whatever I could give next,

Dripping Toungues.

Poems My breasts, my eyes, my ears, my time, They come in pairs, so Which half of my whole will be stripped today?

I have cloth in my backyard I never washed the blood off That strip from last month.

I hold it up against the setting sun and watch them match, And I light an edge, like an incense, Collect the ash to draw over That eye you couldn’t take.

My skin is the night and I am smiling.

What desperation, what belief that men, They must be scissored like stray tissue And then tied up into tiny bows With which to collect flowers.

What desperation must make Women grow talons Stuti Pachisia, MA Comparative Literature

I was only five when I first saw my father spit foreign words.

Like freckles on a face, My father's tongue splatters adopted words.

Like a chameleon, it often changes colours, He worships Allah in pure Arabic but swings some Arabic slang in between salaahs '' Bardu, Inti Kuweysah yaa Caishah'' he says.

In the Streets of Nairobi, My dad utters strange phrases like ''Asante Sana.'' then kisses my forehead ''Mungo Aukubariki, Mimi Nakupenda Sana binti'' The words fertilize my brain, I try to see the world through his mouth His teeth, lined up countries, his gum, the vast sky and his tongue, mother earth.

I absorb the words and master the foreign expressions.

He switches back to Somali It is my mother's tongue, he says ''My mouth mastered it first and the words never betray my teeth.''

Then he teaches me ''Far kaligeed fool ma dhaqdo.'' ''A finger by itself, can never wash the whole face.''

Just like a single tongue doesn't cover the whole mouth. ''Dear daughter,'' he says ''Let your tongue swing in foreign lands for words are floating in the air.''

But remember ''To never walk as though the paving stones are your property, for we'll all go back to rest beneath them.''

Aisha Afrah

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23 OCTOBER 2018

ُ My Doubts of Our Love ‫ح َب ًنا‬ َ ‫وك ِف‬ ِ ‫ش ُك‬ ‫ ُأ ِحُّب َك لَ ِك ْن‬، ِ‫الص َباح‬ َّ ‫ ِف‬In the morning, I love you but .‫ َل َأ ْف َه ْمنا‬،‫ ِف امل َ َسا ِء‬in the evening, I don’t understand us. ً ِ ‫َأ ْذ َه ُب إ َِل َق ْلب َِك َد‬ ،‫ائا‬ ‫ِلَا َذا َأ َنا َل َأ ْس َع ُد اآلنَ ؟‬

َ ‫أشهترك لَ ِك ْن‬ ،‫ِف امل َ َسا ِء‬ .‫ َل َأ ِث ُق ِب َنا‬، ِ‫الص َباح‬ َّ ‫ِف‬ ً ِ ‫سا ِف ُر إ َِل ُغ ْر َف ِت َك َد‬ ،‫ائا‬ َ ‫ُأ‬ ‫ِلَا َذا َأ َنا َم َع ال َقلَقِ اآلن؟‬

I go to your heart always, so why am I not happy now?

In the evening, I desire you but in the morning, I don’t trust us.

I travel to your room always, so why am I with worry now?

Amy Thomas

juncture TRIGGER WARNING: This is a poem I wrote for a girl called Becky Watts who went to my school and who was murdered by her own step brother.

sometimes it is as if I am back there your smile plastered on every bus stop and us, young and smoking weed on the patch of grass between school and the council estate talking about the way you used to shout at the teachers and make faces through the squares of glass in the doors of our classrooms on the news they say you were a good kid we know that this in many ways is a lie but we know your heart was true and we know we’ll cry about you in two years time when we’re drunk at a party and the disc catches and the silence lingers just long enough that you are there squashed between the empty vodka bottles looped through the ring pulls of our teenage ciders and one of us will cry and we will all know why it will ripple through us this sadness that punctuates our lives that in the long run only grips us

the way cows have tags clipped through their ears but here it eclipses us and we are pulled kicking and screaming into a grief we can never fully know because we know we didn’t really know you we know this when the police come we know this when the journalists come with fake police badges we know this when we carry flowers round to your place and there are men with cameras shouting “how did you know her?” and we know this when we spend a day walking bus stop to bus stop folding photos of your face into our school bags and leaving two strips of duct tape on the glass in your place Cari Heighway

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23 OCTOBER 2018 Opinion editor: Hana Qureshi http://soasspirit.co.uk/category/opinion/

Opinion

Unity is Strength: Our Union needs to regain our Trust!

Will Durrant, BA History Before I wrote this article, I asked my friends and colleagues how well their Students’ Union represents them. Their answers ranged from a sceptical “sort of ” to several firm not-at-alls. After a closer look at the recent Summer of Discontent, I agree with the growing not-at-all faction in the student body. The Union needs to regain my trust.

“Beyond representing its members, the Union must always confront SOAS management to make lasting changes.”

Simply put, the last few months have been a mess. Unions exist to support their members, both as a collective and as individuals.

Our union is in crisis. It must prove that it is ready to represent us.

First, serious questions must be asked about transparency. Former SOAS Student Union Co-President, Jess KumwongpinBarnes put this issue in the spotlight in September. Since their resignation, Account for This and the “Back to Grassroots” forum on October 4th have highlighted how inaccessible the Union really is. One of the most pressing questions turns the focus onto Union staff: to whom do they answer? In a union, unelected facilitators should not be able to veto elected representatives’ decisions; union staff must ultimately answer to us, the student body. When unelected managers interfere in the weird world of student politics, every society, campaign and vote is undermined.

On the topic of accountability, Account for This raise very real concerns over the extent to which the Students’ Union can be trusted to keep us informed about the complaints that we make. We need clearcut, simple-to-read directions which allow us to play an active role in resolving our own grievances. This is especially important in cases of gender-based violence (GBV).

According to Account for This, messy policy documents and a “lack of understanding or basic training” within the Union threaten survivors’ confidentiality. As fantastic as our Union has been in educating students about GBV (through the Enough is Enough campaign), the three Union Co-Presidents should respond to the eighteen points made

by Account for This in their recent petition.

The Students’ Union, of course, should be in a position to support and advise its members.

Secondly, if the Union is in a position to advise, then its members should receive support during disciplinary processes relating to student strike action. Regardless of how you feel about radical student protests, for the Union to team up with SOAS management – as was revealed during the October 4th forum – is to undermine the work of decolonising campaigns, trade union campaigns, in-house campaigns and student campaigns at our university. Beyond representing its members, the Union must always confront SOAS management to enforce lasting changes. Complacency is not an option; the Union should always support good causes on

It’s time to talk about academic bullying Anonymous SOAS Student We often think of bullying as something that happens at school, between kids that will later grow out of it. But there is growing evidence that this happens beyond the classroom.

Indeed, workplace bullying and harassment is thought to cost the UK economy £18 billion a year, as well as of course exacting a personal toll on individuals’ mental health which cannot be measured in money alone.

Yet it would seem that universities in particular have a blind spot when it comes to acknowledging that workplace bullying

happens here. Perhaps it is down to a class element. We are happy to acknowledge that bullying could happen in places like Amazon or Sports Direct warehouses. Indeed, there have been many exposés about the abuse faced by such workers. But we’re perhaps less ready to admit it happens in places like universities, which are usually left-leaning, filled with well-educated, middle-class people.

However, the truth is that none of these things are any inoculation against bullying.

On the contrary, universities, as they are currently run, provide the perfect setting for abuse. Bullying thrives in an environment with intense competition and a well-defined

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hierarchy. In universities, there is often much uncertainty in early years of an academic career; large numbers of junior staff on parttime or temporary contracts compete for a small number of permanent posts. In such an environment, it is easier to keep quiet than speak out than risk one’s future career by being branded a trouble-maker. Ph.D. students are particularly vulnerable as they are reliant on supervisors for references. Furthermore, universities struggle with the same structural inequalities which mark the rest of society, so women, LTGBT+ people, and people of colour are likely to be in positions of less power and so are impacted disproportionately by this issue.

the outside, whether or not it decides to deal with problematic protestors internally.

One final question remains: who can make the changes which will rebuild my faith in the Union? There are two contenders: there’s us, or there are the Co-Presidents who can work with us.

In a democratic union, we all have a responsibility to restore trust. We cannot complain about accountability without moving motions at Union General Meetings (UGMs) or voting in elections. We need to remain level-headed: this is about politics, not personalities.

Giving credit where credit is due, the co-presidents have become increasingly receptive to campaigns like Account for This.

Facing so much criticism from their own officers, they have had to respond. And if the facilitators at the top of the Union can prove they really represent us, I am ready to put my confidence in them. If they cannot, it is time to remember that the power of a union lies with its voting membership. Unity is strength, right?

Problems within the teaching body will also have an impact on the student body.

Sadly, teaching assistants or lecturers who face bullying are unlikely to perform at their best. They are likely to be more stressed, anxious, and have less time and sympathy for students who are struggling. This is far from the conducive atmosphere of free enquiry and self-expression that is meant to be promoted in universities.

When we talk about mental health within universities, we rightly talk about issues such as rape culture, exam stress, and peer pressure. It’s time to bring academic bulling into the conversation as well.

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Opinion

Besides the dancing, what was the Prime Minister actually doing in Africa?

Silas Ojo, BA Development Studies Mrs May’s peculiar swaying motions – what amounted to dancing marked an awkward late-arrival of the United Kingdom to an African party which is quickly becoming rowdy.

One the UK definitely doesn’t want to miss out on, especially with the Brexit cliff afoot.

No one appreciates a late-comer with little to offer. But what’s worse is the United Kingdom appears to be hurrying to broker what one could call a ‘rebound relationship’ as a bitter divorce with the European Union looms.

Theresa May recently set out on what was an already a fraught mission to re-define Britain’s aged relationship with the continent on her three-day tour of its biggest hitters – South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya. The Prime Minister in so doing became the first British PM to visit sub-Sharan Africa since 2011 and the first to visit Kenya for over 30 years, the last Prime Minister being her successor

23 OCTOBER 2018

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“Her South Africa speech was ironic to say the least, she reeled of grand platitudes of multilateral co-operation whilst the tumult of a European Union exit raged on at home.” of the same party Margaret Thatcher – a fact her Kenyan counterpart, President Kenyatta wasn’t afraid to remind of her of.

Her South Africa speech was ironic to say the least, she reeled of grand platitudes of multilateral co-operation whilst the tumult of a European Union exit raged on at home.

Along with further support for counter-terrorism and the fight against human trafficking, then Prime Minister confirmed plans to carry over the European Union’s Partnership Agreement with the Southern African Customs Union and Mozambique post-Brexit as well as plans to invest £3.5 billion in African

nations over the next four years.

This stream of investment is set to be channelled through the UK governments development finance institution, the CDC Group, once the Colonial Development Corporation before it was the Commonwealth Development Corporation – a transition which in itself neatly sums up the several faces of the UK-Africa relationship.

All this was encapsulated by an ambition to have the UK “be the G7’s number one investor in Africa” by 2022 – an ambition, if fellow members of the G7: France, Japan and Germany – who have already started making their incursions onto the continent – can help it, will be nothing more than an ambition.

Chief among them, President Macron is well into his own charm offensive on the continent, having already visited eight African countries since he assumed the office, with French investment and security assistance in order, particularly with the nations of the G5 Sahel Joint Task Force – Burkino

Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Chad.

This hasn’t been without its own hiccups either, as the haughtiness of the old colonial françafrique has proven itself tenacious even with Macrons own view of Africa, as having ‘civilizational’ problems. A whole other story.

More than just being a rather awkward charm offensive, Mrs May’s attempt to woo the African nations into a ‘Partnership for Opportunity’ to tackle the 21st century’s pica-mix of trans-national challenges comes at a curious time. One of political and economic uncertainty but most importantly, a time where such partnership is perfectly expedient for a nation nervously inching toward the edge of a political cliff-top, whose decline no one can predict – and there is sure to be a decline.

What is really nothing more than a desperate scrambling for stronger trade relations in the near future exposes a view of the continent as a place for opportunity, for themselves.

The Prime Minister didn’t try to feign altruism, however, admitting “there is an element of self-interest in what I’m proposing” – a relief from the usual Western obfuscation and lack of transparency when it comes to their relations with the nations of the Global South. However, this offers no respite for a pitiful attempt to further engage the continent beyond Brexit.

Brexit has without a doubt left a stink – a pungent one for that matter, and none of us should be fooled as to what this Africa tour really means for the United Kingdom. A fall-back plan, a mere extension of a broader post-Brexit strategy. The Prime Minister did well to front a smooth sanguinity, but it falls short in deceiving.

But this all begs the question, would these grand development and security challenges that have spawned the UK’s ‘Partnership for Opportunity’ have been as pressing were there no Brexit scare about. And the answer is no.

Chequers is a Brexit Betrayal, but it is not too Late for Theresa May to get it Right!

David Hall MA History and Intensive Language (Korean) The worst possible Brexit deal is Chequers, a plan set on making the United Kingdom (UK) forever subservient to the European Union (EU).

But, hope is not yet lost. If the country rallies behind Theresa May and her original Lancaster House Proposal, we will emerge united and strong. To achieve this, Chequers must be scrapped, the Irish boarder issue must be resolved, and Remoaning socialpolitical elitists must stop undermining the Prime Minister’s authority.

When Theresa May launched her leadership campaign in June 2016, she said, ‘Brexit means Brexit’ and that she was going to make a success of it. She promised to make no attempts to remain, with no second vote and no backdoor agreements.

This is the language and stance she needs to adopt now, not the cowering language of Chequers. Leaving the EU means leaving

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the single market and customs union, ending free movement of people, and taking back control of law making and boarders.

This is what the country voted for and this is what must be honoured by our government.

That was the proposal made by the Prime Minister in her January 2017 Lancaster House speech. Theresa May also promised there would be no Brexit deal which would leave the UK half-in half-out, yet this is what Chequers aims to do.

The July 2018 Chequers Proposal stated a two-year period of implementation, after Britain left the EU, would be required. The UK would remain in the customs union, continue free movement of people, and continue paying the EU. But, have no representation in the European Parliament.

Essentially, Britain would become a tributary state, which is not what the British people deserve. This is the great Brexit Betrayal, and needs to be scrapped.

With a better and stronger plan outlined in Lancaster, there is no shame in reverting

back to the original proposal. But there remains the issue of Ireland and Remoaners.

Ireland has been the make or break factor in Brexit negotiations. No one wants a hard boarder separating Northern Ireland and The Republic of Ireland. But a completely unmanned borderless region is not possible.

However, any plan with the construction of a hard boarder would be voted down by the Democratic Unionist Party, a party which Theresa May relies on to maintain her position.

So, how to solve the problem of the Irish boarder?

Parliament must understand there need not be a hard boarder, just an increase in boarder security to ensure people and goods do not pass freely. Brexit means taking back control of our boarders, so why not do so?

The current EU proposal is for a backstop deal, where Northern Ireland would remain in the customs union. The UK cannot and will not accept any proposal which undermines its territorial integrity.

Remoaners, those who seek to defy the will of the British people and hold a second referendum to keep the UK in the EU, is the second obstacle to Theresa May’s success, and this must stop.

People like Sir Simon Robertson, Justine Greening, and Sadiq Khan. Media groups like The Independent, which launched a ‘final say’ petition in July 2018. Organisations like Peoples Vote, established in April 2018 by Chuka Umunna and Sir Patrick Stewart.

All these social-political elitists, who have pushed for a second referendum, should hang their heads in shame. They divide our nation and weaken the Prime Minister’s negotiating stance, all to enhance their own career and standing in society.

Lancaster is the only option for a good deal. If the Prime Minister truly means to make a success of Brexit, then revert. Maintain the territorial integrity and dignity of the UK. Do not cower to the continental bureaucrats. Otherwise, our country will become a subservient, tributary state.

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Opinion

23 OCTOBER 2018

WHO CAN SAVE OUR PLANET? Laure de Montgolfier, MA International Studies and Diplomacy My parents recall being warned about climate change. They were told to be ecologically conscious, for their actions were shaping the planet they were leaving behind for their grandchildren. Today, this future is much nearer than they thought. My parents, and even my grandparents, will live through the consequences of our hyper-consumerist, irresponsible lifestyles. Indeed, the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) October 8th report rings the alarm bell and predicts a dying planet as early as 2030.

“It is time to stop passing on responsibility, action is needed now” It is time to stop avoiding our responsibilities, action is needed now.

As a child of the early 21st century, my education had a focus on the environment.

I grew up with mantras such as “reduce,

reuse, recycle”, understanding the impact of carbon emissions and individual responsibility in being eco-consciousness. The IPCC sets out personal steps one can take, such as reducing meat and dairy consumption, favouring public transport or cycling, and using washing lines instead of tumble dryers. While I admire all personal efforts, in particular people who take on challenges such as “zero-waste” lifestyles, I believe that relying on individual choice to save our planet from its dire future is not only naive and optimistic, but also a marker of our incredibly limited political imagination.

We need to envision and comprehend the management and preservation of our planet as a broader issue-area that cannot be solved through piecemeal solutions, but rather requires a broader, collective political framework. Today, we see a lack of impetus for institutional, political and collective action to remedy environmental ills in favour of issues such as economic growth and social policies. Our environment is a common good, and therefore it will impact everyone, regardless of political affiliation or social status.

We shape our government’s actions and

they shape ours. Our power lies in voting.

Vote for the politicians that will care for our planet; hold governments and institutions accountable for their decisions. Let us renew citizen political engagement, participation and collective identities for a better future. I believe in the power of states and international organisations in providing solutions for the continued degradation of our environment. Indeed, they have the most resources, be it economic or scientific, as well as the loudest international reach.

Regulations, incentives and sanctions will influence our behaviour and assure that more consistent and harmonised ecoconscious lifestyles will be sustained around the globe.

Likewise, consumerism is adapting to how individuals are making choices everyday. Today, there are marketers studying how consumer behaviour is affected by the call for eco-conscious lifestyles. Not only will multinational corporations be restricted by government guidelines, they will also seek to meet our demands. And so, by the principles of basic economics, if the demand for polluting products such as cars, single-use plastic, or meat decreases, so will

their production. Similarly, the production of reusable, green and eco-friendly goods will increase.

All in all, the problem is clear, but the solution is not as straightforward. It is certain that we must work together towards healing our planet, at all levels–be it individual, institutional, or international. For me, the ideal situation would be the following: individuals put pressure on their governments to incorporate the environment into their agenda and civil society obtains a place at the decision table. Governments will hear the concerns of their people and seek guidance from both scientific and local knowledge. I also believe that governments have the responsibility to implement further environmental educational measures, so that the new generation can be eco-aware from an even younger age. Business and manufacturing should transition to a greener production, so that the upcoming generation can grow up in a responsibleconsumer friendly world. Our personal actions do matter, and they can have a positive impact, but they need to be matched by higher decision-making bodies for concrete change to happen, quickly.

to provide data for each country but I’m bound by an infamous word count, if the whole world consumed as a British citizen we would need 2.9 earths or 4.4 if we all lived like Americans.

As Jason Highel, an anthropologist at LSE, said in his essay ‘The Death of International Development’ “instead of talking about ‘developing’ the ‘underdeveloped’ countries, perhaps we need to start talking about de-developing the overdeveloped countries.”

At the moment, global biocapacity (an estimate of our planet’s production of certain biological materials such as natural resources, and its absorption and filtering of other materials such as carbon dioxide from the atmosphere) is 1.68 global hectares per person.

If you’re an average person in countries like Vietnam or Niger your consume is likely to be around 1.6 gha, while in Europe the average consume is 5 gha per person,

that becomes 8.22 in the United States and 9.31 in Australia!

This means that there’s a clear abuse of the available natural resources by the richer states.

Given the current situation of climate change and environmental risk, this resource bullying should outrage us more than the idea of too many people inhabiting the planet.

In conclusion, to quote again Highel’s essay, instead of pushing poorer countries to ‘catch up’ with rich countries, we should be thinking of ways to get rich countries to ‘catch down’ to more appropriate levels of development. We should look to societies where people live full and happy lives at relatively low levels of income and consumption not as basket cases that need to be developed toward western models, but as exemplars of efficient living.

Should we stop developing countries?

A take on overpopulation, overconsumption and resources scarcity!

Eleonora Paesani, MSc Development Studies Every year the Global Footprint Network calculates the Earth Overshoot Day, or Earth Debt Day, the date that marks when humanity’s resource consumption for the year exceeds Earth’s capacity to regenerate those resources that year.

In 1987, first year in which the EOD was calculated, the date of this surplus was 19th of December.

This year was August 1st.

Many pieces of journalistic excellence have suggested we should stop having so

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many children, claiming as main cause of our overconsumption the always growing number of people populating the planet.

The Earth cannot keep up with the number of people on it, especially in the South of the world.

Underdeveloped countries need to be educated, they need to have less children, they need to “get on the same level as us” (n.b. the author being a EU citizen).

But when it comes to resource scarcity (as my PED module taught me, the driving force of economy) do less developed countries need to catch up with more developed or high income countries? Not necessarily.

Going back to the Global Footprint Network I mentioned before, it not only calculates the EOD but also each Country Overshoot Day which is the date that Earth Overshoot Day would fall if all of humanity consumed like the people in this country.

This is where it gets more interesting as we consider that, and I would love

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Opinion

23 OCTOBER 2018

Education about recreational drug use is ‘Normalising Drug Taking’.

Chloë Cochran, B.A. Global Popular Music Whilst at Boomtown festival this past summer I stumbled upon an 18-year-old boy, who’s friends had left him in his tent alone, to indulge their hedonism. Immediately I could see that something wasn’t right with him. He was not ok, and on further conversation it was discovered that he had taken 5 grams of speed (amphetamine) and hadn’t slept in 3 days. He was shaking, twitching, unable to concentrate on anything, and muttering about how we were ‘setting him up’. I have never seen anyone in a state like that, it was truly impossible to penetrate his trip, so bad that welfare was summoned in order to help him. It seems logical that greater education on doing illicit substances is necessary in order to prevent situations like this from happening. Yet there is a severe lack of guidance when someone decides they want to experiment.

Drug education can’t simply be based on abstinence and scare tactics, especially at the university level where study drugs are as prevalent as anything else, and partying is second nature. While reading a recent BBC article entitled ‘Drug Use: Is Sheffield Students’ Union Right to Offer Advice’ a statement by David Rayne’s, a representative for the National Drug Prevention Alliance, stood out to me. He suggested the unions advice was ‘normalising drug taking’, and we would reach ‘…a climate [where] more students were taking drugs than not’. But I disagree. Portugal decriminalised drugs in 2001 and now, according to The Independent, there are 3 overdoses per million people. The average in Europe is 17.3 per million. I am not naïve enough to suggest a complete restructure of the legislation surrounding drugs, but I do think it illustrates that a conservative, Nancy Reagan reminiscent approach seems to lead to more drug related injuries and deaths than not.

I am not advocating drug use. But I am also not advocat-

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ing an education that imposes abstinence. Historically this has never been successful–just look at the statistics for teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections of kids in school where abstinence focused sex education is all that is provided. It only makes sense that educating young people on how to do drugs safely is going to reduce cases of death and addiction. Drugs are around and people do them, especially young people. A recent survey by the National Union of Students suggest that 40% students take illegal drugs and a further 17% admit to having tried drugs at least once. The facts are staring us in the face, yet some people still choose to ignore them. An informative rather than preventative approach is necessary when educating students about drugs use.

Organisations like The Loop (which is working with University of Sheffield Students’ Union) work to educate people on taking drugs safely, and there is a growth in grassroots groups within universities who also do this, but shouldn’t it be inherent within the structure of the universities? Or within student unions nationally? Here at SOAS we have the Enough is Enough consent workshop and other campaigns to bring awareness to important topics, but there is a severe lack of conversation about recreational drug use at the academic level.

Although I agree that an institution should not condone drug use, I wholeheartedly disagree with David Raynes suggestion that this is ‘normalising drug use’. This is the Students Union–something for the students, run by students, and should educate them in aspects of student life–all aspects of it. So, I pose you a question: should the SOAS Students’ Union adopt this approach? Should all universities adopt this informative approach to dealing with the threats of drug use, rather than simply not talking about it or preaching abstinence? Education is going to keep people safe, it’s not about how you can have the most fun, but how you can do something in the safest way.

Choke’a-Cola? Coca-Cola

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Fisayo Eniolorunda, BA Politics and African Studies Is Coca-Cola failing to take adequate responsibility of the quality and safety of their products being sold abroad?

One case in Nigeria would suggest otherwise, portraying Coca-Cola as a company bound by no moral obligation. In March 2017, a high court judge in Nigeria, Justice Adedayo Oyebanji, ruled that soft drinks under the Coca-Cola brand could be poisonous. This is due to the high levels of benzoic acid and additives found in some of the products- which can pose a risk to consumers if mixed with high levels of vitamin C. The judge ordered for the Nigerian Bottling Company (NBC) - who are the local manufacturer of the soft drinks, to place labels on the beverages, informing consumers against drinking them with vitamin C. The judge held NAFDAC, the National Agency For Food and Drug Administration and Control responsible, fining them the equivalent of £5,115, stating, “It is manifest that NAFDAC has been grossly irresponsible in its regulatory duties to the consumers of Fanta and Sprite manufactured by Nigeria Bottling Company.”

Questions have arisen on the negligence on behalf of the Coca-Cola brand.

The company responded to the ruling by saying that the claims are inaccurate and unsupported by science. As of yet, the company has not made a drastic change to the procedures that ensure their global safety and quality standards are not only recognised but adhered to.

A spokesperson for Coca-Cola told The Independent, “All our products are safe and strictly adhere to regulations in the countries where they are sold while complying with our company’s stringent global safety and quality standards.” Many believe that it is the responsibility of the Coca Cola company to ensure the safety of their products worldwide. Some suggestions include Coca-Cola sending foreign experts to certify the products in Nigeria safe for consumption.

Whether or not the claims are scientifically proven, their response to this situation is in fact negligent. No attempts have been made as of yet to rectify the situation in Nigeria on behalf of the Coca-Cola company. Likewise, no preventative measures have been taken as of yet to stop this from happening in other countries worldwide.

I for one, agree with the idea that it is any brands responsibility to ensure that the high quality and safety standards of their products are globally reciprocated and manifested.

Merely having regulations in place is not enough to ensure the safety of global consumers. The safety of a product should be thoroughly assessed and continually checked against its climate to ensure the safety of consumers worldwide.

Although, I can acknowledge that the negligence on behalf of NAFDAC and the NBC was the ruling factor in this issue, I believe that it is only right that the Coca Cola company take responsibility of their customers and look for new and impactful ways of preventing this from happening again.

Globally, they must hold their actors to account and ensure that their regulations are being adhered to. Consumers world-wide put their trust in large companies like Coca-Cola because of their global presence and claimed high quality products. They respect the brand name and feed their money into the products. The brand should also respect them and their bodies- no matter the geographical context.

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Opinion

23 OCTOBER 2018

100 WORD RANTS!!! ’, Dear SOAS ‘creatives s, pus, I admit. Writer m ca on t len ta ive at cre of t lo So there’s a R walls... spoken word, the JC ty, WHERE?? cie So t Ar BUT HELLO, an U? Hiding s, and WHERE ARE YO ar ye o tw r fo AS SO need you.

I’ve been at se come back out, I ea pl e, ar u yo if ell sday every in a cave? W creative flair. A Thur r fo e ac sp d an e intbrushes I need tim wn and take my pa do d in gr y sa es y m fortnight to let ed it. up. I miss it and I ne u do it and I’ll love yo ne eo m So u. yo e, m h, us br a A class, forever.

Sincerely, Frustrated painter.

an “it’s Way worse th estion” ent than a qu more a comm actually have l talks are “I ne pa e th in people rious? Mate le. Are you se op pe ” ns tio question is two ques that your first t be er nn te ur second I will place a tion” and yo t than a ques en m r seat m co a in “more fortably ou ifting uncom sh l al al us s t your doctor question ha u explain wha yo t ls hi w it es ks thin for ten minut or guy how he d ask the po an is ly say ch al ar rm se re don’t no ything. I really er ev s! ith re w ca in dy fits this but, nobo

e, why am I Please tell m n, endless s of educatio eadlines, here? 20 year in e-goug g d ey d an s g in k job fillearly morn t? A 9-5 des ha w r fo d an enny and 27k+ debt, off the last p g in p ra sc , in s whilst my ing out adm py colleague ap cr h it w l ea S wants to having to d outside SOA ne o no d an e someone, tax goes up ernism. Pleas d o m st o p hear about light. show me the

Kavanaugh’s appointment makes it clear we need to overhaul the judicial system if survivors are to get any justice!

Trigger/Content Warning: this article discusses sexual violence and the justice system

Indigo Lilburn-Quick, BA History and Politics, @indigo_lq The past few weeks have felt like a toxic haze for me where I have been unable to escape the bombardment of news stories, personal accounts and constant thoughts about sexual violence. There are a couple of reasons for this. Firstly, I gave consent workshops to hundreds of freshers which meant discussing the ins and outs of sexual violence on a personal and societal level. This experience was largely positive, interesting and thoughtprovoking but more than anything, it was intense. On top of that, the allegations against Brett Kavanaugh have dominated headlines for weeks, bringing a reminder of #metoo and its ongoing fight. At SOAS, the ‘Account for This’ campaign has been raising awareness through protest theatre, an open forum, and their online petition, about the injustices at SOAS when it comes to survivors getting support and justice.

This has increased my awareness when it comes to sexual violence and called into question a lot of things for me. It has made me look back on past experiences, I have come to realise that I was a survivor of sexual assault, when at the time I tried to brush the situations off.

This is an uncomfortable and upsetting realisation. The process has highlighted the extent to which I normalise sexual harassment in everyday life. But it has also made me examine more fundamental pillars of my worldview.

Namely, the ideas of natural justice and the principle of “innocent until proven guilty”. Previously, I would have sworn to these ideals without question, but since these realisations, I haven’t been so sure.

When the Senate voted on whether to confirm Brett Kavanaugh as the Supreme Court nominee or not, a key swing voter, Republican Susan Collins, voted for his confirmation. This decision was based on upholding the value of presumption of innocence. This justification made my stomach turn. Listening to Dr. Christine Blasey

Ford’s testimony, brought me to tears - she is vulnerable and hurt, but most importantly believable. The burden of proof is always on the survivor and for cases such as hers (that happened long ago, or where there are no witnesses or DNA) this is incredibly difficult, so perpetrators face no punishment. According to Rape Crisis, in the UK, “conviction rates for rape are far lower than other crimes, with only 5.7% of reported rape cases ending in a conviction for the perpetrator.” If you compare this to the statistics we have on false accusations, which according to the BBC, only make up between 2-10% of reported cases, it becomes clear the majority of survivors do not get justice. With this in mind, Rape Crisis figures that “only around 15% of those who experience sexual violence choose to report to the police” are unsurprising.

Furthermore, the processes for reporting and dealing with sexual violence at SOAS are no more encouraging, as the ‘Account for This’ petition makes clear. It is confusing, time-consuming, clinical, unsupportive and traumatic. No wonder so few people make complaints through it. The campaign is doing an excellent job of highlighting SOAS’ shortcomings when it comes to its treatment of survivors and demanding reform. We need an overhaul of the entire system, in SOAS, in the country and worldwide, if survivors are to be treated fairly and with respect, and for ‘justice’ to have any meaning when it comes to sexual violence. I have no clear idea on how to achieve this, but on an individual level, it starts with believing survivors, showing solidarity and compassion, and joining campaigns such as ‘Account for This’ that actively pursue change. For me, this is the first step to achieving authentic justice.

Find Account for This on Facebook: Account For This SOAS, and Twitter: @AcctForThisSOAS

To be honest with you, I expected better. Don't get me wrong - I'm not bashing the cleaning staff here, their job is hard enough already. But c'mon, all us trans and gender non-conforming folk are asking for is to be able to use clean, functional toilets that don't make you recoil in fear when you walk into them. At Senate House, you're really placing your dignity into God's hands with those doors, some of which DON'T HAVE ANY LOCKS. I've mentioned gender-neutral toilets to some other people - the response tends to be "we have those?" - people should know!

(credit: Creative Commons)

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23 OCTOBER 2018

https://soasspirit.co.uk/category/culture/ Culture editor: Sumayyah Daisy Lane

Film Review

Culture

Crazy Rich Asians: All glitz and glamour?

Gillian Goh, BA History of Art It is very easy to be swept up in the unapologetic extravagance of the movie. But at its core, Crazy Rich Asians is a story about loyalty: loyalty to oneself, one’s roots, to family, to love.

Glitzy, glamourous, and as glorious as the trailer claimed, this summer’s feel-good Crazy Rich Asians took the world by storm. The adaptation of Singaporean author Kevin Kwan’s book is an all-Asian romantic comedy à la Pride and Prejudice with a dash of Great Gatsby flair. The movie follows Rachel (Constance Wu), our unassuming Chinese-American protagonist, as she unknowingly walks into the tiger’s den when she travels to Singapore and meets her boyfriend, Nick’s (Henry Golding) formidable upper crust family.

Between the bougie mansions, private island getaways, and container ship bachelor party (rocket launchers provided, obviously), it’s very easy to be swept up in the unapologetic extravagance of the movie. But at its core, Crazy Rich Asians is a story about loyalty: loyalty to oneself, one’s roots, to family, to love. It’s a heart-warming introspective into the importance of family and into Asian identities. It never exoticizes, nor hand holds the viewer through aspects of Asian culture. The pivotal Mahjong scene comes to mind.

Credit to director Jon M. Chu for this original scene, arguably the highlight of the film: sleek and poignant whether or not one is familiar with the game, though symbolic subtleties will undoubtedly please any informed film nerd.

25 years since an all-Asian cast lead a Hollywood movie, one cannot ignore the representation Crazy Rich Asians has

brought to the silver screen. For Asian Americans, the movie’s success–even its mere existence, is a victory. Moreover, it’s a plot driven by the inner lives of Asian women. However, where it has strengths, it also has weaknesses. The movie, set in Southeast Asia, features an unrepresentative (in terms of Asian diversity), almost all-Chinese cast. Most controversially, the majority of non-Chinese Asians featured, appear as security guards, butlers or maids, sometimes even to “comedic” effect – niche or outdated jokes that have not aged well. Maybe it’s unfair to burden this light-hearted film with Credit: Creative Commons

TV Review

BBC’s Bodyguard continues to trope Islamophobia.

Khadija Kothia, BA History Bodyguard. The BBC drama that was filmed just outside SOAS and the show that got the nation talking, including myself. So much so, that after episode five, I was inclined to write a review, praising the show for its clever twist on topics of terrorism and white-collar crime. I’m extremely glad I didn’t.

Scene One. A train coming into London Euston was carrying a suicide bomber.

Dressed in a hijab (headscarf) and with a South-Asian accent, the suicide bomber was a brown Muslim woman, and she was being set up by her misogynistic, brown, Muslim husband. You’d be excused, as a POC and/or Muslim, to switch the TV off before the scene had even concluded. Nonetheless, I persisted in watching the drama unfold. I was interested to see how the BBC had so overtly been able

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wholly representing such a diverse continent. Maybe a movie set in a country that prides itself on ethnic diversity should be expected to represent that. Maybe it’s a meta-commentary on said society’s class and racial divides.

Regardless, it’s fun, clever, and something new and welcome. Ultimately the first crack in the door that will hopefully bring even better things to come, Crazy Rich Asians is still definitely worth tracking down and showing your support. Who knows, maybe it’ll also inspire you to join the Mahjong society?

to play into such racist, hateful stereotypes.

Yet by episode five I was growing hopeful, despite the second bump in episode four where another brown Muslim, government aide Tariq Mahmood, was accused of killing the Home Secretary. Nonetheless, this plot-line was eventually “creased” out as the storyline continued to unravel into an interesting message about unaccountability of security services in government, white-collar crime, and the use of ethnic and religious minorities as easy bait in a white man’s game.

Everyone knows the oldest trick in the book; politics is a dirty game. Perhaps, once, the BBC were taking initiative in delivering difficult narratives about the abuse of power.

But suddenly, in the last few moments of the show’s season finale, Nadia Ali, the hijabwearing immigrant, was brought back into the plot as she admitted to being behind the entire terrorist plot. I had finally lost all hope

and surrendered to what became yet another disappointing representation of Muslims on popular TV. “I built all the bombs. You all saw me as an oppressed Muslim woman. I am an engineer. I am a jihadi.”

“Which bombs?”

“The one used to kill the Home Secretary.”

My initial reaction, as purely an avid enthusiast of good, high-tempo crime drama, was utter bewilderment. The plot twist made no sense. Here was a character whose story transpired when she successfully identified the secret associate of the Security Service as involved in a terrorist plot. It was a storyline that had taken a unique turn towards unravelling a very interesting government conspiracy within the back corridors of Whitehall. A phenomenal storyline, if executed well. But it wasn’t. Instead, we received an anti-climatic ending that was confusing to say the least. So Richard Longcross, the man that PC Budd had spent episodes trying to catch, that was an arrogant, unaccounted character who’d been caught red-handed trying to steal incriminating government activity, was just a red herring? How pointless? It seems as though in the last few moments of handing in the script, the plot was forcibly changed to this predictable

and highly disappointing ending that played directly into racist stereotypes. Yet another drama that, in the end, failed to deliver.

But this lousy ending was no lazy move.

In fact, institutional Islamophobia is so normalised that it is not surprising that the BBC would see the incrimination of a Muslim, immigrant woman, as more palatable than exposing government corruption. As a result of this continual representation, Muslim women have become the most visible targets of Islamophobic hate crime, and brownskinned citizens, including Sikh men, are looped into what is depicted as the stereotypical representation of a terrorist. All of this despite the fact that white, angry men are now accountable for more terrorism arrests than any other group. Nevertheless, Muslims still remain the biggest target, and the BBC, who regularly give airtime to far-right extremists, such as Steve Bannon and Anjem Choudhary, continue to lousily perpetuate stereotypes whilst remaining unaccountable for the rise in hate crime towards innocent British citizens. Ultimately, crime towards marginalised groups will not reduce as long as media producers are not held accountable for their complicity in creating a British society that is hateful.

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Culture

23 OCTOBER 2018 Exhibition Review

Book Review

Freize London: Johanna Unzueta Ministry of Utmost Happiness Paolo Fornaroli BA Politics and Economics There is one event British fans of contemporary art rarely miss–the Frieze London Art Fair. Apart from having some of the most well-known galleries in the world selling works by artists such as David Shrigley, it is also one of the biggest art fairs in Europe with 160 galleries taking part. Despite the fact a lot of commercial art is sold here, one can still find interesting pieces.

After having taken a look at some of the bigger galleries’ exhibits, I came across a very small gallery from Guatemala City, Proyectos Ultravioleta, selling drawings by Chilean artist Johanna Unzueta. It was the way she manipulated the paper that struck me. Exploring different techniques, her geometric drawings are spontaneously created, carefully dyed with natural pigments, broken up by dots, punctured through pin-holes.

This makes them almost look like tightly woven fabric.

I wanted to learn more about the artist and South American contemporary art.

Fortunately, Johanna was kind enough to let me interview her. The next day we met at Mercato Metropolitano to have a glass of wine and an interesting discussion.

Johanna was born in 1974, one year after the first 9/11: the Coup d’État led by General Augusto Pinochet in 1973 to overthrow the democratically elected Unidad Popular

government of President Salvador Allende.

Pinochet imposed a violent military dictatorship on the country and ruled it until 1990.

She grew up in a country where there was no space for art, let alone contemporary art. She had never visited a museum until she started to study art at university.

What she had not gotten the opportunity to learn when she was a teenager, she made sure to study while she was at university. One of those things was the examination of the theory of colours of the Mapuche people, a group of indigenous inhabitants of southcentral Chile and southwestern Argentina.

For this Johanna spent several weeks living with Mapuche women to understand how to use natural pigments. She later incorporated this knowledge into her drawings. In addition to that, the artist worked a lot with fabrics, for example sleaze, out of which she created a sculpture for this year’s Berlin Biennale.

When talking about contemporary art in Latin America, the artist who has lived in NYC since 2000, explained that apart from Mexico and Brazil, there are no countries in Latin America whose galleries recieve a lot of international attention. That is why it was so exceptional that Proyectos Ultravioleta was able to take part at Frieze London. The fact that some of her work was bought by the Tate made this first appearance at Frieze a success both for Johanna and the gallery. I hope that both curious readers and contemporary art fans will take the opportunity to see Johanna’s work for themselves in London this month.

Ammara Firdaus BA International Relations and History Twenty years after the release of her ManBooker Prize winning novel “The God of Small Things”, Arundhati Roy makes her fictional return with the much-anticipated “Ministry of Utmost Happiness”–and it does not disappoint. A novel with a nonsequential plot, multifarious characters and prose that is both breathtakingly powerful and absurdly funny. Roy weaves the story between the tight dusty alleyways of old Delhi and the magnificent snow-capped mountains of Kashmir.

In the first half of the tale we are introduced the Anjum, a ‘hijra’ (in this context, translated as hermaphrodite). She lives in the Khwabgah which she translates as ‘the House of dreams’ with other members of the Hijra community. Anjum is written boisterously and beautifully until tragedy strikes on a visit to a shrine in Gujarat. At this point the tone of the novel shifts as she literally sheds her bedazzled feminine garments for something more traditionalist.

We are soon transported to Kashmir, perhaps the most exquisite valley on Earth, where a territorial dispute between India and Pakistan is on-going. We see this through the eyes of Tilo, an activist (who seems to be modelled on Roy herself) and the handsome Kashmiri militant Musa–an unconventional love story to say the least. Although the

Credit: Khadija Kothia

landscapes noted above are the two main foundations of the story (Delhi and Kashmir), it is certainly not limited to just them.

Roy manages to cover every major political movement within India and does so with creativity and righteousness. Through the stories of a handful of individuals, most major atrocities within the state are covered, thus reiterating the core message of the book: the personal is political.

My only contention with the novel is that I would’ve liked it to have been two separate books altogether–it often felt as if the two main segments of the story were too powerful to have been constrained to the same binding. Although perhaps this critique is a testament to Roy’s whimsical story telling abilities; the reader is always left hungry for more.

Check out our Feature piece covering Arundhati Roy’s visit to SOAS in Societies and Sports)

Book Review

The Underground Railroad Yasmin Elsouda BA International Relations

Johanna Unzueta (Credit: Paolo Fornaroli)

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American author Colson Whitehead’s “The Underground Railroad” easily puts all other antebellum novels to shame. Published in 2016, it has since received the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for fiction and The National Book Award.

The story is centred around Cora, beginning in a horrific plantation where no slave is immune to all forms of violence. A female character lead gives the entire novel an innovative perspective, encompassing horrors of slavery beyond the overseer’s whip. The writing is crafted in a remarkably balanced way so that she does not become an object of pity, but rather her story line is granted the agency to create sympathy. Furthermore, Whitehead pens a transgenerational story line around Cora which serves as a reminder of the genetic nature of the suffering that will surely be passed down.

Whitehead’s real magic lies in his ability to create three dimensional characters, whether they are oppressor or oppressed.

The varied language and tone that the

runaway slave characters use subconsciously, forces the reader to acknowledge their humanity despite the constant dehumanization they face in the novel. What is more, the villains in the story are just as well rounded, forcing us to confront the harsh truth that slavery was a human product, rather than using dismissive writing that paints the characters as black and white.

Constant discomfort with small breaks of little prosperity is characteristic of the entirety of the novel’s setting. Whether it is over ground or in the fictitious literal underground, the runaways are constantly being chased and that is a discomfort everyone can empathise with. “I found my back aching when they slept rough and feeling claustrophobic when they were cramped during their escape”, said one fan of the book.

If you’re thinking about reading a new book definitely consider picking up a copy of “The Underground Railroad”. Many of us have probably watched or read stories about the Antebellum South, but this narrative is so original and widens the grey area that you are guaranteed to find yourself thinking about it for days upon completing it.

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Culture

Athi-Patra Ruga: Of Gods, Rainbows and Omissions Alexandra Bate, BA Social Anthropology and History of Art When asked during an interview, “Why the name ‘Of Gods, Rainbows and Omissions’, Athi Patra Ruga answered: “I wanted to introduce to London a definitive body that speaks about men and the ideologies we put in power. My life’s work is then to create safe spaces (I’m getting bored of the word utopia), where me and my allies can pay tribute to those non-binary black modernists that history omitted out.”

Until January, the South African artist Athi-Patra Ruga will be holding his first UK solo exhibition in Somerset House. The exhibition opened in tandem with the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair and continues to break glass ceilings after the gallery booths have been closed and all packed up.

In the maze-like Somerset House, Ruga dazzles with his talent in mastering a variety of artistic mediums. From photography to tapestries, a film installation, and sculpture, his ability to communicate diverse themes through the array of artistic mediums is remarkable.

Ruga’s work engages with issues of gender and identity making in post-apartheid South Africa. He explores this by creating alternative histories that put previously peripheral narratives on nationhood, sexuality and gender identities at the center. Ruga’s articulation of these themes shine through his explosive artistic imagination in his photography, like in Night of the Long Knives I (2013). In his tapestry series The BEATification of Feral Benga (2017-), he pays homage to the Senegalese queer icon of the 1920s. The series Queens

in Exile (2015-2017) is Ruga’s tribute to important female figures that were excluded from South African national narratives, weaving them back into the center. His sculpture uMabele-bele really takes the spotlight with its incredibly ornate gold flowers, red, silver beads and jewels, rounding off the exhibit beautifully.

The richness of color and ideological charge of Ruga’s pieces make the works reverberate off each other across all the rooms – not an easy feat for an artist exhibiting in a segmented standardized gallery space like Somerset House. Of Gods, Rainbows and Omissions is an amazing opportunity for Londoners to get a glimpse into South Africa’s bustling contemporary arts scene – a must-see.

23 OCTOBER 2018

FRESHERS 101 Here at the Spirit we know how daunting navigating a new place can be, but we’re here to say don’t worry.

Push your worries to the side and check out our Freshers Starter Pack!

Freshers advice: 1.

Join everything! Sign up for all sorts of societies and attend their meet and greets. Don’t knock it until you try it.

2.

The Social Network – Facebook is the perfect place to find out about every societies’ events, including ones at other nearby universities.

3.

Plan, plan, plan – Organise your week into a rough schedule to ensure you have some sort of structure in your life.

4.

Don’t worry if you don’t make friends immediately, you’ll find your crowd soon enough.

5.

Once you miss one lecture, you never go back.

Attendance is key.

6.

You’ll only get as much as you put in. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself but its up to you to make use of the short time you have.

7.

HAVE FUN!

SOAS Foodie picks:

Credit: Alexandra Bate

1.

Pizza Union 2.

Farmers Market (every Thursday) 3.

Tottenham Court Road Food Market 4.

Wing Wing 5.

The King of Falafel 6. Tortilla 7. Papaya 8.

Dum Biryani House 9. Pilau 10. Siam Central

Music Review

PW18: Smirnoff Equalising Music Review Eleonora Paesani, Msc Development Studies Presenting this year at London’s Printworks, the Smirnoff Equalising Music initiative takes on the task of doubling the number of female and non-binary artists performing at the iconic club space in 2018.

One reason often cited for the gender imbalance on club and festival line-ups is the smaller pool of female talent to choose from. To this end, the global initiative recently launched a brand new DJ mentorship programme with internationally renowned DJs such as The Black Madonna, Artwork, Honey Dijon, Peggy Gou and Nastia to select, coach and mentor 10 talented aspiring DJs throughout the summer, all 10 of whom are given the opportunity to perform at Printworks.

Having been in the clubbing scene for 10 years, I was very curious about this event and its overall effectivity. On one hand, the idea of big names mentoring aspiring DJs and giving them a chance to perform on such a far-reaching event increases the visibility of female-identifying artists. However, there is an underlying sense that the project’s mere existence suggests that truth lies in the industry’s gender imbalance stemming from the lack of talent among female artists – an argument far from accurate.

Pushing my doubts aside, I reached the venue which had been arranged over multiple levels with a maze of corridors

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and rooms boasting the original machinery throughout which had been retained from its time. So far so good.

The first delusion was the Dark Room where the emerging artists were performing: it was not at all signalled and the few times I stopped by, there was a small crowd of what I can only imagine were friends of the DJs. It seemed that despite the mentoring initiative, not one of the DJs were up to the task of playing in such an event and I was left with a bitter feeling in my mouth that rather than a springboard for talented musicians, this was little more than a marketing stunt by Smirnoff to credit themselves as a company interested in gender equality. This was only further confirmed by the fact that half the DJs playing in the main room were male artists. At an event dedicated to and celebrating female empowerment in the electronic music industry, why were artists like Artwork given so much performing time?

Bright rays of hope were the sets of Honey Dijon (a black trans woman DJ and activist), The Black Madonna and the incredible Peggy Gou, all of whom were a friendly reminder that there absolutely are kickass female DJs and they are not difficult to find.

If we are to take anything away from this initiative, perhaps it would be that that it is not necessary. Instead, we should be able to consider an artist for their merits and their performance only. Because in the end what really makes us equal is the love for music and the need to shake what our mamas gave us.

Credit: Eleonora Paesani

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23 OCTOBER 2018 Societies and Sport Editor: Holly Sampson https://soasspirit.co.uk/category/societiesandsport/

Societies & Sport

Art and the African mind society

THE ERASURE OF BLACK HISTORY AT SOAS.

By Lavinya Stenett, Co-Founder of Art and the African Mind This is an open letter to all students at my university. To start off Black History Month, I want to address the failures surrounding Black History in an institutional setting.

SOAS has an excellent track record of omitting central points of its history, a history which has paved the way for the campaigns we advocate for today. These campaigns began because of a lack of critical analysis into the structure of SOAS – which if they existed would encourage fruitful conversations surrounding the BME attainment gap, the eradication of the Africa department and the lack of Black professors. The origins of SOAS as a colonial hub, that trained British administrators to learn about the ‘Oriental’ and African colonies across the seas, to which they would go back and enact racist policies that controlled and decimated the culture, population and environment – is not a fact that SOAS owns up to. This knowledge is Black History walk around SOAS (Credit: Lavinya Stenett)

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common among people in an oral form and with a good Google search you might just be able to locate a few archives and facts about this history, but this highlights the fact that the student body is the main, active community where such conversations and remedying actions must happen. The structure of SOAS, comprised as a body made up of management, marketing teams, lecturers and so on, does not collectively use their places of power to counteract the colonial strongholds – particularly within the practices of learning in the classroom.

However, the SOAS body will willingly adopt the campaign of ‘Decolonising’, starting at the premise of a slogan without addressing the fact of its history. This is similar to how the ‘A’ in SOAS was brutally decapitated in 2017 with the closing of the Africa department as part of a restructure which saw the department become a sub-section of the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics. More to my main point, the contribution of Black people who studied at SOAS and went on to do wonderful things for the world goes unacknowledged. These histories exist in a bracket near to, yet so distant from the campaigns used for marketing such as Decolonise the Curriculum, and are submerged into a Blackhole. Do not excuse the pun.

This year, a dear colleague and I have set up a society called Art and the African Mind, which aims to educate people about the various facets of African culture through the medium of art. We kicked off with a great Black History Walk of the Soho area, including SOAS, learning about attendees of SOAS such as Walter Rodney and Ivan Van Sertima, who was a Black Guyanese African historian and pioneer of his time. He wrote ‘They Came Before Columbus’, a ground-breaking book that encouraged discourse around African and Caribbean history. Paul Robeson, a multi-talented Black man who was a member of anti-colonial movements in London. Robeson also took classes in Swahili and phonetics at SOAS in 1934, and was an accomplished linguist, studying other major African languages such as Igbo, Yoruba and Zulu. However, much of his work was rejected by SOAS for being ‘too radical’. He and many more students of SOAS were part of a collective of Black pioneers who contributed greatly to their fields, transformed conversations and shook up the minds of many. Tell me, where are their names or work in SOAS discourse? You may point out the plaque in honour of Paul Robeson, but if there is no context surrounding it, you may just walk on by because you will never know. Their work, vitality and strength to produce such great acts of history, in a time where racism was much more overt and rife, should be celebrated at SOAS of all places. The omission of Black people, our ancestors, those who came before us and set pace is part of a wider process of profiting off the notoriety and work of those who labour and still manage to thrive. In the aim of progression, why is SOAS still copying and pasting “decolonise”, when the contaminated roots of SOAS are still not being uncovered?

The situation in SOAS is emblematic of Black history in Britain, a forgotten tale that is erected seemingly when profit looms. The streets are literally flooded with Black history that is unequal and unrecognized yet London can be afforded the title of ‘multicultural’? The Black History Walk we organized, revealed how many of the streets we drive on today in London, were paved with asphalt; a substance that is found in Pitch Lake, in the ex-British colony of Trinidad–toiled for the British, by Black-Trinidadians. The Imperial Hotel which sits across the road from Russell Square denied entrance to Learie Constantine a famous cricketer of the time in 1943, because he was Black.

Learie Constantine decided to take legal action against Imperial Hotels, this being the main catalyst for the creation

of the Race Relations Act of 1965. Banks on the streets of London such as Lloyds TSB and Barclays were involved in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, who compensated slave owners for their loss of ‘property’ after the abolition of Slavery Act, amounting to £17 billion in today’s money.

The history that is Black around and in SOAS is alive, but there is nothing to show for it. The Black History Walk of SOAS gave students the opportunity to connect with a history that is meaningful and significant.

Reparations for the descendants of Caribbean slaves, many of whom consist of the Windrush generation, still only exist as a mere topic of debate. Lastly, without being forgotten, is the British museum–just over 500 metres from SOAS which exhibits stolen African artefacts from when the British raided and looted Benin. These items are the Benin Plaques, displayed on the basement floor of the museum.

The history that is Black around and in SOAS is alive, but there is nothing to show for it. The Black History Walk of SOAS gave students the opportunity to connect with a history that is meaningful and significant. Knowledge is vital and as long as we exist, knowledge will too. It is up to us to keep it alive.

Islamic Society Charity Week Schedule

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Societies & Sport

23 OCTOBER 2018

South Asia Institute

Utmost Happiness and Utmost Sadness: Arundhati Roy Speaks at SOAS Meraz Mostafa MA Social Anthropology of Development Few noticed award-winning author and activist, Arundhati Roy, as she squeezed through the crowd last Saturday night at SOAS’ Brunei Gallery. The crowd she passed through, of course, was the very audience eagerly waiting to see her.

Arundhati was on her way to deliver a talk titled, “Utmost Happiness & Utmost Sadness: The Diary of India nowadays”, the second lecture in the Liberte series, organized by the Noor Inayat Khan Memorial Trust and the SOAS South Asia Institute.

Valerie Amos opened the event, and the author Shrabani Basu, who has written a biography of British agent Noor Inayat Khan, introduced Arundhati Roy. Roy began her talk reflecting on SOAS’ name. “Perhaps in India, we should open the School of Occidental and American Studies,” she teased.

Her talk went onto to touch on a series of interwoven issues from the meaning of ‘liberty’ (the last words reportedly uttered

by Noor Inayat Khan before she was killed during WW2), the legacy of the partition of India and Pakistan, untidy identities in the face of those who would prefer order, and the state of censorship across South Asia today.

“Censorship now has been outsourced to

SOAS MEME SOCIETY:

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Arundhati Roy signing books (Credit: Khadija Kothia)

the mob. We have these various groups who simplify their own identity, appoint their own spokespersons, decide their own history, fake their own history and then start burning cinema halls, attacking people, burning books, killing people.

She explained, “The state has sort of moved out of the way of censorship and now it’s the rule of the mob and this is more terrifying than being hauled up for contempt of court and arguing your case.”

After she presented her talk, which she described as more of “setting up a landscape” through which to have a conversation, she sat down to have a public discussion with

Shohini Gosh, a documentary filmmaker and professor of Mass Communications at Jamia Milla University, Delhi.

They discussed the literariness of both her non-fiction and fiction prose. At one point, Roy pointed out that Gosh had misquoted her, leading to a witty exchange of whether the author was ‘dead or not’ — a reference to the postmodern adage that the author no longer matters once a novel is finished.

Arundhati Roy won the Man Booker prize in 1997 for her novel The God of Small Things and recently published her second novel The Ministry of Utmost Happiness.

She has also written more than a dozen essays dealing with issues varying from the construction of dams in the Narmada Valley, India to post-9/11 and state of surveillance today.

When asked how young writers should adjust their use of language to fit the requirements of professionalized life, she suggested that wasn’t really writing anyway.

“A writer’s job is to close the gap between language and thought. What they [NGOs and corporate professionals] do is the opposite — to widen the gap. Whatever they are, don’t call them writers.”

The evening finished with the author reading an extract from her work, followed shortly by a book signing outside the lecture hall.

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Societies & Sport SPORT

23 OCTOBER 2018

Spotlight: SOAS Men’s Rugby

Breaking down stereotypes and building a tight-knit team, rugby at SOAS is not like anywhere else!

Holly Sampson, BA Middle Eastern Studies and World Philosophies When thinking about rugby it is easy to assume that those that play the sport are “lads” in every sense of the word. They play an aggressive sport, they drink, they seemingly perpetuate “lad culture”. And this may be true of rugby at other universities, but there is something different about Rugby here at SOAS. When speaking to the President of SOAS Rugby, Toby Taplin, he explained the types of socials that they had lined up, ranging from quizzes to dinners out which will include not only the SOAS team but often the opposing

teams too. They are also getting ready for Movember, a popular charity movement in the UK. Beyond socialising, SOAS Rugby is also unique for its training. Complete begin-

The best thing about SOAS Rugby is the team spirit. ners, as well as those who may have played for years, are welcome to join the team. This works so well because of their new coach who is dedicated to creating a space where those who wish to learn and improve can do so. It is entirely a “challenge by choice” environment, meaning that there are no compulsory gym sessions or ridiculous training hours that other universities are known to enforce. This means that, with SOAS Rugby, players can improve whilst they have fun, without feeling any unnecessary pressure.

When asked what the best things about playing Rugby for SOAS are, Toby, the President, didn’t hesitate in his response.

The best thing about SOAS Rugby is the team spirit. Whilst slightly cliché, it is clear to see that this is true. There are no clear hierarchies between those on the committee, those who have played for the team for a few years, and those who are complete beginners, everyone is welcomed into a tight-knit community where all of that doesn’t really matter. On the pitch, they lose with grace and win with humility. But, the main point that Toby emphasised was that SOAS Rugby is a team in every sense of the word, whilst playing and whilst socialising. They are,

quite simply, a bunch of guys who are keen to play a fun sport without the stereotypical lad culture issues that other university teams have to face.

Some things to look forward to from Rugby this term….

With a win against Imperial in their first match of the season, SOAS Rugby is off to a promising start as they hope to secure more wins in their matches to come. If you would like to go along and support them keep an eye out on their Facebook page for more

2017/18 SOAS Men’s Rugby Team after a match last academic year (Credit: Toby Taplin)

The US Open Final Controversy Racism and Sexism Overshadows Womens’ Achievements Yasmin Ashraf Elsouda BA International Relations If you haven’t seen the news story, you must have seen the memes. The 2018 US Women’s Open final saw 20-year-old Naomi Osaka defeating Serena Williams. Umpire Carlos Ramos took a point from Williams and then responded to her protestations, giving her a game penalty late in the second set. This sparked controversy as people called out the sexist double standard which female tennis players repeatedly face. So what actually went down and why are gender and race relevant?

Initially, Williams was penalised for being coached–which in tennis is considered cheating. In an interview with ESPN, Williams’ coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, admitted to coaching Serena from the box but accused Ramos of singling out Williams. “Everybody does it — you all know it.” Williams responded by calling Ramos a “thief ” after which he gave her a warning and when she got frustrated and threw down her racket during the second set, Ramos imposed a point penalty for abuse of equipment.

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information closer to the time. They have a match almost every Wednesday afternoon this term so please do show them your support!

And lastly, you can join Rugby at any time so if you would like to try out a session their training times are 2pm to 4pm at Regents Park on Wednesdays and Sundays. Make sure to check out their Facebook pages for updates, just search for SOAS Men’s Rugby 2018-19.

Credit: Creative Commons

It sets a tone of disrespect for female players as honest competitors It is no surprise that audiences and fans called out the blaring sexist double standard. John McEnroe, famous retired American tennis player, smashed his rackets and called umpires idiots and morons, yet the furthest an umpire reprimanded him for racket abuse was a warning in 1988 at Wimbledon. It’s also hard to ignore that Ramos’ disciplining infantilizes Williams. It sets a tone of disrespect for female players as honest competitors, doubling as a humiliating warning for Osaka.

As Lonnae O'Neal, writing for The Undefeated, noted: “Anyone who can see that Williams is a woman can also see

she’s black.” An analysis of the US open final is incomplete without considering the fact that actually, both players were women of colour. There is a reason why the focus was centred on Williams’ reaction rather than the injustice that prompted it. It is because Williams is a woman of colour that her aggrieved reaction immediately warranted her comparison to the stereotype of the ‘angry black woman.’The controversy lies not only in Williams’ treatment from the umpire. After the final, a cartoon by Mark Knight for Melbourne’s Herald Sun, that has been widely criticised as racist, went viral. It plays on historic racist tropes of drawing Black people, harking back to the Jim Crow era, depicting Williams with exaggerated lips and a dummy on the ground.

Unfortunately for Osaka, this means that her win at the open final has become completely overshadowed by the response to Williams’ reaction. Not only does the narrative exclude what prompted Serena’s reaction but also any celebration of Osaka, a rising POC talent. If anything, Osaka’s smaller build which fits conventional understandings of femininity, was manipulated to emasculate and exaggerate comparisons between Williams and ‘angry black women.’

The booing crowds that pushed Osaka to tears, instead of celebrating her achievement are a reflection of the toxicity of competitive sport when racial bias comes into play.

Richard Williams father of the Williams sisters, got people passing by to shout insults at the sisters while they practised, to prepare them for racism and sexism that are deep-rooted in the institution of sport in the US.The 2018 US open final shows, however, that even that did not prepare Serena for “unconscious bias” or sneaky racism. Until tennis can account for and get rid of the sexism and racism reflected in this summer’s events, it will be difficult to imagine healthy competition between female players, especially ones of colour.

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Societies & Sport

23 OCTOBER 2018

EURO 2024 awarded to Germany Yet again, Turkey misses out on the chance to host Euros Simone Both MA Near and Middle Eastern Studies Last week UEFA announced that Germany will host the European Football Championship of 2024. The votes were 12-4 in favour of Germany and at the cost of Turkey. This continued Turkey’s string of bad luck, as the country has never organized a large football tournament before. Previous attempts to get the European Championship in 2008, 2012 and 2016 failed, as well as their bid for the 2020 Summer Olympics.

The last time Germany organized a big tournament was the 2006 World Cup, which was a major success. The Germans have proved their organizational skills and most of the stadiums are already finished. The last time a European Championship was held in Germany was in 1988. EURO 2024 will be played in 10 cities: DĂźsseldorf, Gelsenkirchen,

Dortmund, Hamburg, Leipzig, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Munich. Berlin will host the final of the tournament.

One of the reasons Turkey remains unchosen is because of its unstable situation in the past few years. An earlier UEFA report expressed concern that the Turkish Government did not have a clear plan to improve its human situation.

The report also claimed that the host cities do not have the capacity to welcome a substantial influx of people, in terms of hotels and infrastructure. Furthermore, many stadiums would need rebuilding. Despite human rights violations being used as an argument against Turkey, they did not seem to be a problem when FIFA awarded the 2022 Football World Cup to Qatar. In Qatar, a country without a real football culture, migrant workers face systematic exploitation and abuse, including in the construction of the World Cup stadiums.

Unfortunately for Turkey, where football is very popular, it will have to continue its wait for the opportunity to organise a European Championship or World Cup. Credit: Creative Commons

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