The Chadsian: Epiphany 2012

The Chadsian Epiphany Term 2012

The Magazine of St Chad’s College, Durham

Photograph courtesy of Durham University

Chadsian

Contents The Chadsian

Epiphany Term 2012

4 College View 7 Higher Thinking 10 Eco Alumnae 12 Rwanda 15 On a High 17 Lebanon’s Hidden People 18 College Life 20 Back Again?

Cover image: Candlemas 2012. Photo competition winner Lucy Brice.

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College View This issue of The Chadsian provides a great snapshot of College life. The depth of concern and the enthusiasm of our students are inspiring. I am especially struck by their personal stories: any notion that we in the College give and the students simply receive is turned on its head by what our students bring to the College. In the educationalist language of today, we are all learners.

We are still bracing ourselves for the fallout from the new funding regime, with £9,000 tuition fees set for this October. One of the anticipated fallouts is a drop in UK postgraduate numbers. With undergraduates finishing their studies with large debts, and with no loan scheme for postgraduates, many graduates will think twice before opting for further study.

That would be a shame. We have recently expanded our postgraduate numbers. We’ve done so very deliberately and not just for the sake of postgraduates themselves, but also for the sake of undergraduates, believing that a mixed community with scholars of all ages is a much better study and research environment for all. Indeed, that expansion of postgraduate numbers has been at the heart of our renewed policy of attaining the very highest academic standards – a policy that has informed our planning and one that has been validated by stunning degree results year after year after year.

Later in this issue, there are two articles by College-based Ruth First postgraduate scholars.

Their stories give a hint of the cultural and intellectual cross-fertilisation that can occur especially at postgraduate level. We very much want that to continue.

Other articles in this issue of The Chadsian explore issues in arts funding, technology, food, and entrepreneurship. Many of these articles suggest ways in which academic pursuits overlap with issues of public policy, showing how ethical questions arise quite naturally from their studies, or how straightforward business enterprises can become social dynamite in an appropriate international setting.

The future. We trust that our alumni share our conviction that education remains key for the future.

The tough economic climate has only reinforced this conviction: simplistic solutions don’t usually solve much of anything. Instead, we need intelligent, thoughtful, informed, realistic, tested policies. It would be vain to think that all of these will come from universities, but it would be dangerous to exclude the contribution that must be made by

universities, and by a university-educated public.

Each October I challenge students to study their heads off. The questions and difficulties facing us are well-worth that level of commitment. But I also tell them that I hope they find their studies hard-going, even very hard-going. And if they do find their studies difficult, I promise to rejoice because that might suggest that they haven’t shirked from asking the hardest questions, that they might have been facing the most stubborn issues head-on. Actually, what I really want is for them to see their education as a compelling adventure. And why not? The stakes are high. They really should go for it. The prize is the future – or rather having a future.

I don’t want to be melodramatic, but preparing the next generation and enabling them to have a crack at making the world better than we’re leaving it – this remains a great challenge and a true adventure for the College as a whole.

I hope you find us worthy of your ongoing support.

Chadsian

Photograph courtesy of Durham University

how hard they worked during the summer) unveiled a great Freshers’ week, which culminated in a ‘heroes and idols’ themed bop. Thanks must also go to Jessica Davies (JCR Vice-President) and to the team of Freshers’ Reps: without their enthusiasm the week wouldn’t have been the success it was.

The Chad’s spirit continued throughout Michaelmas Term with events including Halloween Formal, Returners’ Formal, two Christmas Mega-Formals (one just wasn’t enough!) and, of course, the always enjoyable College Panto.

It’s time for the outgoing Senior (Wo)Man to bring fellow Chadsians up to date with the past year in College – and what a year it’s been! Easter term 2011 ended on a high with a packed social calendar, including a trip to Edinburgh, the Annual Garden Party and a fantastic Summer Ball. In June we bade farewell to our graduates: the many colourful characters and dedicated scholars who, during their time at College, contributed to the famous Chad’s spirit we all know and love.

With the summer over, the current academic year kicked off (thankfully, on a relatively dry Sunday in October) in the usual Chad’s way – green! We welcomed 111 new Freshers, and Robyn Swan (JCR Social Secretary) and her Social Committee (proving

Chad’s has continued to punch above its weight in all areas of university life. Our academic results topped the college league table yet again, our University Challenge team reached the semi-finals of the intercollegiate competition – an impressive achievement for our small common room.

Furthermore, Chad’s continues to achieve on the sports field: we have maintained our position amongst the top teams in women’s rugby league, with several of our players being scouted to join the new University B Team. Chad’s women, it seems, are also taking over the University Rugby Union Team, with the Chad’s captains of both the A and B teams (Kate Langham and Maddy Gardner). The Boat Club has continued to attract membership with eight crews entered in the Novice Cup and two senior women’s crews entered in the Senate Cup. The start of Epiphany Term saw College transformed into The Big Apple for the New York-themed 55th Candlemas Ball, complete with karaoke, our own Friends Central Perk, and the Statue of Liberty (in ice!). The evening was a magnificent success and a huge thank you must go to Lucy Heaney and her committee who put in so much effort preparing for what was a truly great night.

Artistic talent in Chad’s is outstanding; it was no surprise, then, that the Candlemas decorations auction after the ball raised over £1,500 for our charity, the Turing Trust.

With Candlemas over, elections for the JCR Exec followed. Good luck to new Senior Man, Tom Bishop, and to the new Exec: I’m sure that the JCR will flourish under their leadership.

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Postgraduate life is varied: long hours of intense study; counting the coppers; pushing personal, academic and social boundaries; and searching for the new, the dynamic and the previously unexplored.

Since arriving at St Chad’s last year, I’ve been one of many new postgraduate students nervously making our tentative first steps past undergraduate degrees to specialisation in our respective academic fields; but the added significance of being a postgraduate at St Chad’s is certainly not lost on us.

Members of our MCR represent an array of subjects. As taught, research, PGCE or PhD students, we hail from many cultures and international backgrounds. Considering the overall size of the College as a whole, we’re proud to have over 150 postgraduates this year, more than at any time in our history.

Alongside writing, tuition, deadlines, departmental lectures, research group seminars, network-

ing, publications, teaching, lecturing and attending conferences around the world, MCR members are also fully involved in College and University life, including sport, and the many other societies on offer.

In College, we have a lively calendar, including Postgraduate research seminars, cocktail receptions, themed formals, Thanksgiving and Twelfth Night parties, and charity fundraisers, as well as the regular College formals and MCR cheese and wine nights. A week at St Chad’s is never dull.

Our MCR is proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish (and other colleges are envious). St Chad’s commitment to the academic life, its College traditions and its warm hospitality – these are respected throughout the University.

The importance of such phrases as ‘Non vestra sed vos’ and ‘small but mighty’ will remain with us as we spread out again all over the world. The genius of the MCR is that it is truly more than the sum of its parts: the MCR’s future looks bright as a significant and fully-integrated part of our College.

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Higher Thinking Imagine yourself as an African child in your mother's womb, as yet unborn. Your mother can hardly make ends meet; however, her labour is about to start.

The nurse, who has not been fully trained, is miles away, probably the distance between Durham and Newcastle. Your mother has to walk.

But imagine when you reach the nurse in Newcastle, that you have not yet reached the closest hospital which is still miles away through dangerous mountains and across rivers infested with crocodiles.

Your father, a village fisherman, has no other source of livelihood to feed your mother and you, her unborn child.

Assume that you survive this unbearable situation, which has claimed the lives of thousands of pregnant women in my country. But your birth place is not that health centre or hospital, hundreds of miles away attended by trained health personnel; rather, you are born on a straw bed, like I was, 28 years ago.

As a baby, you are lucky that you manage to avoid the malnutrition which continues to take the lives of thousands of children each year. Of course, you did not receive any immunization against fatal diseases.

You are now six years old and ready to go to school, but there is no school. If you are lucky you start school at the age of 10 like I did, or 13 like most of my peers.

If you are a girl you will be required to help in the house, and if you have brothers, you might not be allowed to attend the class under a Baobab Tree 15 km away. The reason is that you are being prepared for forced marriage at the age of 14.

If you are a boy you are not spared either. Learning to write your name is enough for some to leave school. This is what maintains the shackles of chronic poverty in my small village along the shores of one of the most beautiful lakes in the world, Lake Malawi.

The closest most British people get to this is via their imaginations. But fast forward 28 years, away from the experience of class under a big mango tree.

Despite your attending lessons without breakfast or

lunch, because of your resilience and your hard work, you have managed to obtain a bachelor's degree. But your dream to study further to help change the lives of the underprivileged in your village is shattered because of the lack of financial support.

But then you are given an incredible opportunity.

The Ruth First Education Trust comes to you with a life-line to pursue your dream. The Trust offers you a scholarship at Durham University, in partnership with St Chad’s College, and offers you full tuition fees, meals and accommodation.

I’ve asked you to imagine this story, but the story is not fictional. You can only begin to imagine what this means for me and for my village. For this is my story. And I still have to pinch myself to to remind myself that it’s all happening.

As we say in Tukombo, my village in Malawi, ‘Asani Wasambigza Mwana, Mbwenu Kuti wasambigza mudzi wosi’ – ‘When you educate a child, you have educated the whole village.’

So when you think of Chad’s alumni, also remember me and and my village: we’re all part of an ongoing, and quite wonderful, story.

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So, is it defensible for us to advocate the functional ‘uselessness’ of art?

The philosopher and critic Theodor Adorno argued that, in uncertain times, art reaffirms its right to be judged on its relationship to the most fundamental aspects of human existence: Responsible art aligns itself to criteria that approach acts of knowledge: the harmonious and the inharmonious, the true and the false. Otherwise, there is no choice.

Here in Minima Moralia, published in exile from his native Germany in 1951, Adorno adds an essential caveat to his defence of the autonomy of the arts: he says ‘responsible art’ must change in response to its environment. Adorno’s close collaborator, Walter Benjamin, disagreed; by endorsing ‘art for art's sake’, he claimed, we sign away our most powerful means of self-expression.

If this is the case, it is increasingly important for aesthetics to make its voice heard beyond the academic world. Modern aesthetics is concerned with the content, meaning, and impact of art. It poses and attempts to answer questions including: What is good art? Can good art make us more moral individuals? As such, is good art a luxury or a necessity in modern society?

Aesthetics thus provides the means for good art to justify itself, and for it to be put to the most rigorous and meaningful test of all – an intellectual audit, not a financial one. Aestheticians, who represent a tiny minority of those working in philosophy, music, literature, or the history of art, apply this test by ‘performing’ a paradox: we attempt to understand and explain the mechanics of the inexplicable– the process by which art achieves ‘truth’.

No less complex is the problem of the ‘value’ of this ‘truthful’ art. A production of Britten's Billy Budd (opening in June at English National Opera, an organisation funded to the tune of £18.3 million by the Arts Council in 2010-11) depicts the ‘truth’ of life as an outsider, but so could, for instance, a debut collection of poetry published by the Poetry Book Society (subject to a 100% cut in financial support this year). When dealing with Adorno’s ‘acts of

knowledge', how can we possibly assess which has the greater claim to truth, or which provides the greater return on the taxpayer’s investment?

In art, as in the funding of the academic study of art, perhaps we should follow the historian Michael Wood's precept: he wrote in the London Review of Books that ‘what matters is not “value for money”, but “quality for money”: about a Sanskrit scholar, [we should ask] … “How good is she?”, not “Who cares about Sanskrit and why should we pay for it?”’

One unexpected side-effect of the cuts in arts and humanities research, in the wake of the Browne review, is the increasing demand on researchers to pursue ‘public engagement’. This is not simply a rude distraction from the business of scholarship. It actually offers us the opportunity to move aesthetic debates over ‘truth’ and ‘value’ into the public sphere, allowing us to act as advocates not only for our own discipline, but for the continued relevance of art itself.

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More Higher Thinking

Digital photography has revolutionised the way we take photographs. In recent years, the quality of images, and therefore the amount of data captured by even lower-end devices, has risen hugely. At the same time we are seeing many devices, in particular smartphones such as the Apple iPhone, being fitted with various motion sensors such as gyroscopes and GPS receivers. These are used in many ways, the most common being sensing the location of the device for use in ‘immersive’ games, and the location on a global scale for navigation. There is also a trend of ‘geotagging’ whereby location details are embedded in the images taken by the device.

It is often useful for computers to be able to process information gained from cameras: for example to identify particular objects and to take measurements from an image. There is continued research around this topic of computer vision, and it also relates to the current popularity of stereoscopic or ‘3D’ films.

Typically, for a computer to capture visual information in 3D, two cameras must be used, offset at a known distance and carefully calibrated. My research, however, is investigating how cameras and devices equipped with motion sensors can be used to capture a 3D photograph and deduce measurements quickly, accurately and cheaply, such as distance from the camera and depth of objects in a scene, but by using only a single camera.

Most current ‘computer vision’ systems tend to rely on using two or more images of the same scene in order to infer depth information.

This principle is similar to the way human vision works. If you hold your hand at arm's length in front of you and close one eye, then the other, alternately, you will notice that your arm will appear to be in a different location, and the background will change.

It is this difference in images that is used by your brain to construct a 3D image of the scene.

However, this presents two problems: the first is correspondence and the second is reconstruction.

Correspondence is the process of matching objects from the left image to objects in the right image.

Reconstruction is the process of deducing the scene geometry from the images – that is, how far away objects are from one another and from the viewer.

My research is currently mainly focusing on the problem of correspondence between images.

In order to match the images taken from two different positions, a computer currently has to identify points in both images that match one another. Of course, the human eye can do this with a great deal of accuracy, but for photography this would be a time-consuming and expensive option. Many processes exist to identify corners, edges and areas of similar illumination in both images, and statistical methods can be used to estimate the likelihood of these features matching one another in the second image. When the points have been matched, it is possible to estimate both how the camera was moved and the transformation that should be applied to the second image to align it to the first. It is this particular stage that I am investigating.

These automated feature detection methods, whilst reliable and reasonably robust, require a relatively large amount of computational power to implement. Furthermore, they rely heavily on the quality of the images inputted. I am investigating whether it is possible to use information gained from motion sensors such as gyroscopes, accelerometers, and inertial measurement units to deduce by how much the camera has moved in-between images, and therefore how the image is to be transformed, without the need to analyse the images. My goal is to implement the necessary processes on smartphone level hardware – eliminating the need for two cameras or the high accuracy calibration currently required to capture 3D. images.

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Eco Alumnae

After I graduated with a BA in Anthropology in 2009, I was invited to lead a community research partnership as the focus of my MA research in Development Anthropology, funded by One North East, the Regional Development Agency.

To gain an insight into grassroots sustainable food systems, I joined a team of food enthusiasts and local food activists from the Durham Local Food Network (the DLFN). As part of my research I spent over a year carrying out participatory studies for the group, developing a website, significantly increasing the number of network members, running stalls, helping raise funds, organising volunteers and gathering information for the first ever on-line directory of local food businesses in County Durham. In 2010 the website, durhamlocalfood.org.uk, was awarded a grant from the Sustainability Team at Durham County Council.

The DFLN aims to empower, engage and encourage the people of County Durham to increase the consumption of food produced within the county. We believe that everyone can help to build a more resilient food system through stimulating the local food economy, improving our own food skills, and increasing the production, retail and sourcing of local food.

In becoming a local food activist I quickly gained an understanding and appreciation of the practices, motivations and capacities involved in building into our food system socio-ecological resilience. As a result of the action-based, participatory nature of my research, I still continue to support enthusiastically the grassroots food movement here in County Durham; I firmly believe that my research was never going to be a thesis that just sits on the library shelf gathering dust: I had always hoped that my MA would launch my career in the sustainable food and farming sectors.

Along with a food directory, the website contains information about local food events and ideas for further research. We encourage members of the public to get involved by contributing articles on foraging, on grow-your-own, or on any other foodbased interest which helps to cut down food miles.

Depending on further funding and the establishment of new revenue streams, the DFLN plans to develop the website so that it acts as a portal for local ‘foodies’, enabling increased community participation and including a map of allotments available in County Durham.

In January this year I graduated with my MA, and I am now part of the working group for the Durham Local Food Strategy which, together with private and public sector representatives, is currently considering the recommendations I made in my research as a strategy to increase local food activity.

If you would like to be a part of the local food movement in Durham, do join the Durham Local Food Network to share news, event and ideas about local food. Or contact me:

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FoodCycle is a young and dynamic charity with a simple aim: to inspire volunteers to cook nutritious meals, using surplus food for people in the local community. It was set up by a man called Kelvin Cheung in September 2008. Kelvin was inspired by the Campus Kitchen Project in the United States and, after hearing of the food waste situation in the UK, he took action and created FoodCycle. Starting with a pilot project at Imperial College London and the London School of Economics, the small and simple charity model has spread across the UK. FoodCycle highlights three significant issues: the environmental effects of wasted food, poverty, and social change.

When I first discovered the ridiculous amount of edible food that retailers dispose of every year due to overstocking, I was shocked. FoodCycle reports that an estimated 400,000 tonnes of surplus food could be reclaimed and used every year rather than let it go to waste. Energy is used to produce the food and energy is also used to dispose of it. Sending food off to landfill sites causes huge environmental costs.

Then there is the issue of food poverty, which is on the rise. Charity foodbanks, such as FoodCycle, claim that the largest proportion of people coming to them for help are people who either have an income, or people in a household where there is an income.

This revelation highlights the extent of food poverty currently affecting the UK and inspires FoodCycle to work even harder to do something about it. Just think what we could do for the 4 million people affected by food poverty in the UK if we were to take unwanted food and turn it into something useful.

The beneficiaries who attend FoodCycle sessions not only come for the food but also for the atmosphere. Due to the caring, attentive, enthusiastic and friendly nature of our volunteers, FoodCycle creates a positive community spirit at each of its hubs across the country.

Volunteers, like me, cook for the beneficiaries and then we sit and eat with them, giving them the opportunity to chat to someone who is willing to listen and understand. Sometimes they want to tell you about their hardships, sometimes they want to know about your life. For many, the couple of hours they are at FoodCycle is often the best part of their week.

So what is the most effective way to tackle food poverty in the UK? I believe charities like FoodCycle have the potential to reduce those startling statistics I have mentioned, but only if they are given the support and encouragement to grow. There are many cities in the UK without a FoodCycle hub. At the moment in Durham we cook once a week, but there is the potential to increase that frequency: there are many supermarkets, farmers markets and local food suppliers who continue to throw away excess food when it could be saved by us.

The short-term benefits of FoodCycle are evident: you just need to look at the satisfied faces at the end of each session. However, any effective long-term tackling of food poverty (and its underlying social and economic causes) is much more demanding; and success will require both community and government action.

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Music & the Rwanda Ge I was watching a KBC (Kenya Broadcasting Corporation) programme at home in Nairobi in 1994. The film was taken from an elevated position and at a long distance. It showed a group of people standing on a rough road stopping others as they passed by.

The people were armed with machetes; they stopped a man and began to ask some questions.

They then started attacking him with the machetes, hacking the helpless, defenceless man to death. Due to the distance from where the video was taken I could not get to hear what they were saying, but the screams could be heard.

As you might imagine, this sent a cold chill down my spine, not to mention the sorrow and anger that swelled in my heart; I prayed that this was fiction, but the news on both our networks confirmed the widespread reports of tribal clashes and ethnic cleansing in Rwanda: thousands were being killed by the minute.

I thought about joining the Kenyan army to go and stop the killings, but it was too late and I did not qualify due to an eye injury. I did not have the means, the authority, or the power to help; and this made me feel absolutely hopeless.

The 20th Century, as much as it has seen remarkable developments, has also been classified as a century of genocides and crimes against humanity: Rwanda was just one of the sadly many examples.

I always felt I should still do something in Rwanda; the desire did not leave me either during my studies in Kenya at Daystar University or during the many years I spent in South Africa studying at Northwest University. Getting a Ruth First Educational Trust (RFET) scholarship to do my MA in Durham paved the way for my PhD research in Ethnomusicology, research which will hopefully contribute to continuing positive change in Rwanda.

Supported by the Durham Music Department, RFET and St Chad's College, I decided to look at the relationship between music and social relationships, healing and reconciliation in Rwanda. Having a background in music performance and social activity I decided to get some insights into music therapy, music as culture, music as a product of culture, music as human behaviour, music as a product of human behaviour. I came up with a working PhD title: ‘Music as a tool to reconcile broken social relationships: 1994 Rwandan Genocide.’

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Genocide In 2009 I went on my first research tour of Rwanda. I was full of hope and anxiety at the same time. I travelled by road from Kenya to Rwanda via Uganda; the journey took 24 hours with stops at the two borders and at Kampala.

Rwanda is a very mountainous country; it is called the country of a thousand hills. One can hardly travel 10 km without moving up or down a hill. It has rich volcanic soil and enjoys a good amount of rainfall every year. Milk is plentiful in Rwanda and there are also lots of staples such as root tubers, arrowroots and sweet potatoes. Fresh water is also not in shortage. Coffee and tea are grown for export, and the mountain gorillas are a great tourist attraction.

I decided to go on a hunt for traditional songs, but this became difficult. I was suspected of being sent by the government to investigate those who used traditional music so that they could be arrested. This made me curious, so I went to the UN Security Council to inquire what was wrong. It was then explained to me that music was used for propaganda in the Genocide.

In Kenya I could easily distinguish between different ethnic groups and tribes, but in Rwanda this was not possible. When the German and Belgian colonialists came they found a generally well organised state in this part of central Africa and, because of this, they did not believe the people were authentic Africans. They speculated that they were from somewhere else because their view of African cultures was of a rough, barbaric, disorganised, brutal, and uncivilised people: from there emerged the racist ideologies with which they would apply the principles of ‘divide and rule’.

One of these racist ideologies included ‘The Hamitic Ideology’, which viewed Tutsis as half-caste, and Hutus as ‘Negroid Bantus’. The Migration Theory suggested that Batwa hunter-gatherers had migrated to Rwanda between 2000 BC and 1000 AD, that Bahutu migrated around 1500AD and organised themselves into small monarchies, and that the taller Batutsi subsequently emerged as the dominant military and economic force between 1600 AD and 1700 AD. Colonial and ethnological theories place Batutsi ‘conquerors’ originally in the plateaus of Tibet from where they drove their cattle across India and Persia and into the valleys of Mesopotamia. Colonial

theories of social Darwinism – superior and inferior races – led to race categorisation even by height.

Ethnicity in Rwanda is an entirely imported ideology, one imposed and reinforced through segregation. These ideologies, developed by academics, were later embraced by the missionaries and colonialists in Rwanda to create divisions, favouring one against the other, planting the seeds of hatred.

Ethnicity was rubber-stamped onto ID documents, giving people fabricated identities that were not really part of Rwandan history. Generations of children grew up believing in these divisions. They learnt and practised suspicion and hatred; and when the colonialists changed their favouritism from the Tutsis to Hutus, hatred grew into extremism, and then ultimately into genocide. The roots of that genocide are to be found in an ideology created by a handful of people, which then motivated the segregationist practices of a very small fraction of colonialists. Around 1 million people were killed in 100 days.

Since this ideology became so dominant, effective social healing and reconciliation will require a profound paradigm shift. It may sound surprising but I believe that music potentially could be one of the most powerful agents of change.

Travelling in another part of Rwanda I met a man who gave me copies of some songs from his collection. The songs all struck me as being in the same language as other songs I’d heard elsewhere, though with varied styles. When I enquired of a number of people, they explained that the songs were indeed in the same language. And one of the songs Turi Umwe gave a key clue to real Rwandan ethnicity; it said: ‘From time immemorial we were one community sharing everything in mutual respect. When the colonialists came they made us turn against one another by dividing us on ethnic backgrounds, bahutu, batwa, batutsi, and we killed one another’.

The shared language is coupled with shared musical traits, and this has led to my understanding that there was originally only one language, tribe, ethnicity and culture in Rwanda; there is no Kihutu, Kitutsi or Kitwa, there is only Kinyarwanda.

Had they listened to each other’s songs, who knows what horrors might have been prevented.

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Chadsian

On a High In January 2011, a few months after graduating in Physical Geography from Durham, I flew into Santiago, Chile. Six unforgettable months of travel in South America followed. Little did I know then that I would be back in Santiago almost exactly a year later – this time I was going to attempt to start a global on-line business from scratch.

‘Start-Up Chile’ is the Chilean government’s bold approach to revolutionising the country’s business ecosystem. Ripping apart bureaucratic red tape and giving the go-ahead for officials to get stamp-happy granting one-year work visas, Start-Up Chile dangles a USD$40,000 subsidy as bait, seeking to attract early-stage, high-potential entrepreneurs to come to build their business here. Its goal is to lead Chile on a path to becoming the innovation and entrepreneurial hub of Latin America.

Along with Dean Fischer from Collingwood and Jonny Miller from Cuth’s, I am flying the entrepreneurial flag for Durham in Chile.

Certainly my time in Durham and at Chad’s, whether running madly around Palace Green chasing the college goat or undertaking research that would be presented at a United Nations conference, was fundamental in leading me to Chile.

On 11 January 2012, we arrived in Santiago in time to experience the swelteringly hot rush-hour.

We optimistically attempted to fit four suitcases, a backpack, a guitar, two ukuleles, three suit bags and three rucksacks into a cab – something I can only describe as a frantic game of luggage Tetris.

We are now two months into the Start-Up Chile programme, and we have begun to turn our new business idea into reality by building a new platform for mapping visual travel content – maptia.com. It will provide a beautiful interface for users to map the places that inspire them. Riding on the wave of ‘visual content curation’, Maptia will be a place where people can be the author of their own map.

We are currently prototyping our minimum viable product and are really excited to launch our inviteonly Beta platform in the next month or so.

This is the start of a fantastic challenge. I am learning unbelievable amounts, having to work as both a co-founder of our company and as a freelance graphic designer. It is certainly a steep learning curve.

Everyday life here is curiously cosmopolitan considering our location deep in the South American continent. Mirrored glass office towers reflect the familiar manifestations of globalisation. Yet entwined within the growth of this Latin metropolis are the ancient roots fed by the horizontal Patagonian rains in the south and the flawless Atacama desert to the north, where the sky is wide open to the stars.

Ideas don’t grow in a vacuum, so Start-Up Chile’s diverse people-centric approach to entrepreneurship is fantastic. The community here is a powerful catalyst: it is an environment where bold ideas are actively encouraged, not written off as impractical or unrealistic; this radiates a narcotic tingle of possibility. I feel incredibly fortunate to be here.

My advice to current students (and alumni) is: don't be afraid to pursue the career that you love, pursue it relentlessly. Don't be afraid to cast your sails into the wind and find what makes you tick.

Don’t be afraid to improvise. And most importantly don't be afraid to start before you fully know where you’re going. Just start….

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Leb

Byblos, an idyllic fishing port on the Mediterranean coast peppered with seafood restaurants and ancient Arabian souqs, lures in thousands of tourists each year. A short, nail-biting bus ride away stands the bustling city of Beirut, currently undergoing a radical transformation as a proliferation of towering skyscrapers and glassy shopping centres are built.

Boasting ancient Roman ruins, Tyre lies to the south complete with sandy beaches stretching along the Corniche where groups of youths and families sit smoking traditional Argeeli. What the unsuspecting eye may miss, amongst all this sparkle and postcardperfect scenery, are the entrances to the 12 official refugee camps hidden within Lebanon.

Spending a summer in El-Bass refugee camp in southern Lebanon at the age of eleven kindled my intrigue in Palestinian politics; seeing girls my age grow up in an atmosphere so different to my own where their human rights are drastically reduced.

This year my dissertation research took me back to this fragmented country. I travelled from Beirut to Tyre interviewing as diverse a range of people as possible in an attempt to understand how and why the, self-styled, ‘forgotten people’ have remained

without rights for six decades and counting.

As David Miliband aptly summed up during a visit to Durham in 2011, the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon are ghastly mazes of overhead wires and stacked-high buildings, which create miserable, ever-narrowing alleyways to house a population that has swelled to over four times the density of Hong Kong or Manhattan.

Although guarded by Lebanese armed forces, these camps are legal vacuums where Lebanese law stops at the entrance. Indeed, the reason why Lebanon's Palestinian refugee camps are considered to be the worst of the 58 camps in the Middle East is chiefly due to the fact that, unlike Palestinian refugees in occupied Palestine, Jordan and Syria, Palestinians in Lebanon do not possess the most basic rights, including: the right to work, to own property and to travel. As a result, qualified doctors and engineers are forced to work illegally or not at all; even taking a job as a local taxi driver or bus driver is restricted.

Remittances from relatives working abroad (invariably in the ‘black market’) are often the only source of income for many families. Obtaining travel

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ebanon’s Hidden People

visas for many Palestinians is often virtually impossible; as a consequence many Palestinian families have been separated from their relatives for decades.

The Lebanese government is a complex, sectarian mosaic of political parties, over which the shadows of the various civil wars and other conflicts linger, dividing the country along sectarian lines and sparking political gridlock over Palestinian rights.

Successive Lebanese governments have built up anti-Palestinian sentiment within the country by blaming the Palestinian presence for civil war and Israeli invasions, presenting the refugee population as a security threat. Lebanese politicians continually refuse rights to the refugees; to even suggest doing so is perceived to be political suicide for fear of permanent Palestinian settlement. As a result, these refugees have lived in limbo for the past 63 years while waiting to fulfil their right to return to their homeland. But what remains unsaid throughout all these conversations is the question of where they would return to? Acre, Jaffa and many other villages that the Palestinians call home have been engulfed by the Israeli state; there are estimated to be 400,000 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.

The official Lebanese position on the Palestinian refugees maintains their right to return to Palestine, and is used to justify policies discriminatory against the refugees regarding their permanent settlement in Lebanon. So even after more than sixty years, the refugees’ legal status in Lebanon remains, at best, equivalent to that of foreigners.

Given the long-term nature of the Palestinian community’s presence in Lebanon, it is being argued that they should at least enjoy civil and economic rights as ‘citizen-refugees’ until they obtain their right to return.

For my dissertation research I conducted 24 interviews; by far, my most moving experience was a meeting with an elderly man who, upon hearing my subject, compiled a lengthy hand-written booklet detailing the rights violations suffered by Palestinians in Lebanon which he quietly gave to me on my day of departure. On the bus back to Beirut, when re-reading the document, I turned the back page to reveal a small note written with an unsteady hand, pleading: “We want the people of the world to help us. The Palestinian refugees want to live as any human being and to have the rights of humanity.”

Chadsian

18

College Life The 2011-2012 period has been one of great success for Chad’s sport. The newly promoted rugby and hockey teams have punched above their weight and done us proud in tough premiership matches.

Sport continues to be a key aspect of College life for all those involved, whether it is as a more social member or as a part of one of the 1st teams pushing for hard-fought victories on a weekly basis. Particular highlights of the year so far have been the football team pushing Premiership champions HildBede A all the way to penalties in the Floodlit Cup, and the rugby team’s promotion, clinching 13-8 victory over John Snow College.

The admirable way in which our Chad’s teams manage to compete with the likes of Hild-Bede and Collingwood, who outnumber us by almost three to one, truly inspires; it comes from strong College spirit and very strong friendships, living as we do in such a close community. To see John Snow College training with all their brand new equipment, compared to Chad's ancient equivalents, only for us to beat them – this remains one of my fondest sporting memories. Numbers and money shortages within every College club will always hold back our potential but, even with the limited resources available to us, Chad's sport is still doing the College proud.

At University level we have representatives in men’s and women’s rugby, swimming, rowing, badminton, athletics, squash, tennis, men’s and women’s hockey and cricket. Showing that, in the midst of the small Chad’s community, there is a sprinkling of real sporting class.

The Boat Club has had a strong year. Tyne Head in February 2011 saw Chad's crews put down a marker for the rest of the season. With two women’s VIIIs racing in the IM3 and Novice categories, and one men’s Novice IV, it was the first taste of proper racing for many of the new intake. Two weeks later, and probably for the first time in history, two women's VIII crews were in London for the Head of the River Race. The seniors finished in a time of 22:38.22 (the third best Chad’s time in 16 years), coming home before Trevelyan and Castle A, and ahead of a number of university crews. The novice women’s crew finished ahead of Castle B and HildBede B in a time of 24:00.42. Sadly an outbreak of mumps hit the men's squad hard, and they were not able to put together a crew for the men's race, but they did manage to enter a novice coxed-four in the Yorkshire Head, finishing a respectable 4th.

The Easter Term saw the start of regatta season, with crews raring to go. Durham City Regatta saw the women’s 1st boat in the WIM3 4+ finals against Hatfield, losing by the smallest of margins. Next up was the multi-lane regatta at Tees which, in the middle of exams, saw an impressive five crews travel to Stockton. The men’s 1st boat had an impressive first round but couldn’t quite make it past the semis.

However, success came in the form of the women’s 2nd boat who de-noviced, racing against another Chad’s boat and Stephenson College.

Chad’s 3rd women’s boat had an impressive Hexham Regatta, making it through tough rounds to reach the final. The pinnacle of the season was Durham Regatta, where the men’s 2nd boat reached the final, and where the top women’s crews raced opponents through to the quarters and semis, all of which bodes well for the future of Chad’s rowing.

Fundraising for a new boat continues. All members of SCCBC took part in a 24 hour erg with Aidan’s and Van Mildert, with rowers, coxes, a few supporters and even the College Principal, Senior Tutor and Bursar having a go!

The College Boat Club is currently considering placing an order for club blazers. If any alumni are interested in blazers or boat club ties, please contact the College Development Director, Mark Roberts. m.r.i.roberts@durham.ac.uk

Chadsian

In June 2011 the choir visited the USA to sing concerts and services in some spectacular locations.

Following the long journey from Durham, we took a coach through the night to Schenectady in up-state New York. The choir sang a Saturday evening concert to a capacity audience, and two services at St George’s, before journeying to Albany to sing Evensong in the Cathedral on Trinity Sunday.

Dyson’s canticles in D major, Ayleward’s setting of the Responses and Stainer’s fine double choir anthem I saw the Lord impressed the congregation.

There was plenty of time in Schenectady for recreational activities, including a BBQ, shopping, flights in a private plane and power-boating on the Mohawk River. On the final night, after a farewell meal in a local restaurant, one of the parishioners hosted a pool party for the choir, where there was a chance to unwind and relax .

The College Choir led by Director of Music James Randle relaxing after one of their many rehearsals during the tour.

The final six nights of the tour were spent in New York City, where we were resident at St Thomas’ Church Choir School in central Manhattan. The Choir sang at the Eucharist for the Nativity of St John the Baptist at St Mary’s Church, Times Square (Darke’s Mass in F major and Palestrina’s Sicut Cervus) before enjoying a day off in NYC. The final Sunday of the tour was the highlight that we had been working towards. The choir sang the Sung Mass for Corpus Christi at St Thomas’ Church, Fifth Avenue (Stanford’s Mass in C & F and Colin Mawby’s Ave Verum) which was broadcast live on the church’s web-stream. After that, we sang Evensong at the Cathedral of St John the Divine.

During the course of the tour the Choir enjoyed making music together in some awe-inspiring places.

Many, many thanks to everyone who made this tour a great success: to our hosts, supporters, donors, friends and families.

The 55th annual Candlemas Ball took place on Friday 3rd February 2012. As ever, the ball was one of the biggest highlights in the College social calendar.

The theme this year was ‘New York - the city that never sleeps’, and St Chad’s was certainly kept awake with hours of entertainment – from karaoke in the JCR and a disco in the dining hall to scalextric in the marquee. Guests found lots to do while exploring The Big Apple.

Over 240 members of College attended the meal, with a further 75 Chadsians purchasing ‘ents’ tickets and arriving later in the evening to enjoy the entertainments. Candlemas also provided a brilliant opportunity for some of the most creative minds in College to showcase their talents, as the decorations transported guests across the Atlantic Ocean and into the heart of the Empire State Building. The Moulsdale Hall was transformed into Broadway; the Chapel became the chilled-out Coffee Shop ‘Central Perk’ from ‘Friends’; and The Quad - as the heart of Chad’s - became the heart of New York, Times Square. Massive Broadway posters lined the dining hall and a giant Chrysler Building went a long way in setting the mood: if guests looked carefully, they might even have seen the Bursar hanging around the Statue of Liberty Vodka Luge.

The Candlemas Ball remains a fantastic tradition at St Chad’s. Not only is it a perfect chance to dress up and enjoy yourself, but it also embodies all that is great about the College – having fun with the friends you’ve made, while celebrating everything that makes this college such a great place to make memories.

20

Back Again?

Congregation Did you graduate in a year ending in a 1, 2 or 3? If so then this September is your year’s reunion.

Two nights B&B in College (Fri 7th and Sat 8th) are free for each alumnus/alumna and one guest.

The Reunion Formal Dinner on Saturday evening will be £20 per person.

Groups from 2002 and 1992 are already organising themselves. What about ‘82, ‘72 and ‘62 graduates getting involved as well, to keep up the ‘decades’ theme?

Go on, get in touch and make it a weekend you’ll remember for years. Send an email to: Mark Roberts, Director of Development (m.r.i.roberts@dur.ac.uk) or phone 0191 334 3325.

I’d be delighted to help you get in touch with classmates and plan bespoke activities for your weekend. Booking details will be available on the College website soon.

St Chad’s has a proud and unbroken tradition of appointing or electing Senior Men that stretches back to the 1904 foundation of the College.

To recognise this, the College is pleased to announce the development of The 1904 Society; a society for all those who have served College as Senior Man, MCR President and in other distinctive ways.

Membership of the Society is automatic and free of charge for Senior Men – it would be wonderful to be in contact with all previous Senior Men and MCR Presidents still living. We’d like to hold an event 2013 to launch the society formally.

Searching the records, we have produced the following list of Senior Men: is this accurate? Can you confirm the name of the Senior Men in your years, or were you Senior Man? We’d love to hear from you. We plan to create a list of MCR Presidents for the next issue. Can you send us the name of your MCR President, or were you MCR President?

Mark Roberts Director of Development m.r.i.roberts@durham.ac.uk 0191 334 3325

26 - 29 June 2012

Decades Reunion Weekend

7 - 9 Sept 2012

Returners (2012 Graduates)

3 - 4 Nov 2012

Advent Procession Congregation

Saturday 8th Dec 2012

10 - 11 Jan 2013

Chadstide Weekend (Durham)

1 - 3 Mar 2013

Chadstide Weekend (London)

8 - 10 Mar 2013

St Chad’s College 18 North Bailey Durham. DH1 3RH General Enquiries: 0191 334 3358 Development & Alumni: 0191 334 3325 chads.development@durham.ac.uk www.stchads.ac.uk

Senior Men 1939 - 2012 1938 - 1939 Bernard Tringham 1939 - 1940 Jack Fernsby 1940 - 1941 John Evans 1941 - 1942 Richard Canning 1942 - 1943 John Howe 1943 - 1944 Gordon Mitchell 1944 - 1945 George Cummings 1945 - 1946 Thomas Robinson 1946 - 1947 Colin Turnbull 1947 - 1948 Norman Kaye 1948 - 1949 Cecil Norgate 1949 - 1950 Basil Hobbs 1950 - 1951 R U Dawes 1951 - 1952 C Barker 1952 - 1953 P D A Campbell 1953 - 1954 J McNaughton 1954 - 1955 A J Comber 1955 - 1956 D J Marriott 1956 - 1957 P S Rowland 1957 - 1958 Walter Goundry 1958 - 1959 B C Carpenter 1959 - 1960 Ernest Stroud 1960 - 1961 B J Shannon 1961 - 1962 Brian Horne 1962 - 1963 David Rogerson 1963 - 1964 J H Catlin 1964 - 1965 E A Jay 1965 - 1966 E M Dixon 1966 - 1967 Robert Gallagher 1967 - 1968 R S Prax 1968 - 1969 David Bazen 1969 - 1970 Hugh Atherstone 1970 - 1971 William Ledwich Bryan Spinks 1971 - 1972 Malcolm Squires 1972 - 1973 J B Smith 1973 - 1974 Graham Smith

1974 - 1975 Colin Fenwick 1975 - 1976 Sam Trounson 1976 - 1977 Thomas Rankin 1977 - 1978 Keith Westson 1978 - 1979 Stephen Bicknell 1979 - 1980 Mark Sams Martin Warner 1980 - 1981 Simon Virgo 1981 - 1982 Benjamin Hignell 1982 - 1983 Paul Coster 1983 - 1984 Paul Ridley 1984 - 1985 Andrew Roan 1985 - 1986 Richard Stables 1986 - 1987 Gary Assim 1987 - 1988 Richard Visick 1988 - 1989 Anthony Ball 1989 - 1990 David Bygrave 1990 - 1991 Abigail Tunbridge 1991 - 1992 David Cadman 1992 - 1993 Claire Thomas 1993 - 1994 John Lund 1994 - 1995 John Lofthouse 1995 - 1996 Martyn Barmby 1996 - 1997 Adrian Carr 1997 - 1998 Jeremy Broome 1998 - 1999 Anthony Merton-Smith 1999 - 2000 Sean Power 2000 - 2001 Ben Anderson 2001 - 2002 Amy Wilson 2002 - 2003 Nancy Blumer 2003 - 2004 Michael Weaver 2004 - 2005 Mark Wallace 2005 - 2006 Patrick Winter 2006 - 2007 Justin Leslie 2007 - 2008 Alastair Gordon 2008 - 2009 Alistair Smith 2009 - 2010 Matthew Smith 2010 - 2011 Daniel Whiteley 2011 - 2012 Emma Simpson 2012 - 2013 Thomas Bishop