Tuesday November 17 2009 | Week 9
The answer is blowin' in the wind... Joshua Jones on the energy debate
COMMENT
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» P9
S cott ish S t udent Ne wspaper of the Year 2009 S I N C E 1887
T H E U K ' S O LD E S T S T U D EN T N EW S PA P ER
The show must go on at Pleasance
Sorry, officer...
Two days of NATO protests in Edinburgh, page 6»
EUSA 'No Platform' debate hots up BNP and Unite Against Fascism clash over AGM motion Joshua King
EUSA'S ANNUAL General Meeting is becoming increasingly controversial, as political groups have begun to weigh in on the debate surrounding the 'No Platform' Motion. The motion also faced an eleventh hour setback when Gabi Jones, the Welfare Convener of EUSA and the student originally scheduled to present the motion at Tuesday’s meeting, withdrew her support. Margaret Woods, spokesperson for Unite Against Fascism, has urged stu-
dents to vote for the motion, saying that “university students implementing a ‘No Platform’ policy would be a big step forward in the fight against fascism.” Woods joined with EUSA President Thomas Graham in heavily criticising the BNP, one of several named groups which, if the motion was passed, would be prevented from attending, speaking at or taking part in meetings and events on campus. She said: “Our position is that the BNP will use democratic processes in order to destroy them. They are fascists and outside of the mainstream of politics.There is nothing to debate with people that deny the holocaust. Wherever the BNP raise their heads racist attacks increase. We do understand concerns over freedom of speech, but we would argue this defends freedom of speech and freedom of expression.” Woods's comments followed dis-
puted claims from the leader of the BNP in Scotland that the motion represented ‘a manifesto of the left's fascism’ and that ‘the BNP is not a racist party.’ Gary Raikes's statement came just days before the BNP polled higher than ever before at a Scottish byelection, coming 62 votes behind the Conservative party in the Glasgow North East constituency. When questioned on how BNP policies would affect foreign students, he said that, “universities admit large numbers of foreign students for purely financial reasons, often at the loss of places for British students. However most foreign students are not immigrants so would not be affected by BNP policy.” Woods, however, argued that Raikes' comments on international students were just another example of
the BNP’s campaign of ‘misinformation’, and were typical of their ‘nasty racism.’ The comments have also angered EUSA President Thomas Graham, who said: “As a racist party, it's hardy surprising that the BNP have issues with international students. The BNP does all it can to breed intolerance and hate, so I am obviously concerned that they may try to change peoples views of international students.” The motion has, however, provoked wider concerns over the limitations it would place on freedom of speech, and is expected to face stiff opposition at the AGM. Concerns have been raised that the motion is undemocratic, and that open debate is the best way of exposing extremist groups for what they really are. Furthermore, strong feelings Continued on page 2 »
JAMES BASTER
Neil Pooran
A PERFORMANCE of the musical Guys and Dolls was overshadowed last Wednesday when events in the Pleasance student union building took a sinister twist. Several children risked burning down the building after starting a fire in the men's toilets during the first half of the play, which continued as normal. Part of the building was filled with smoke and the toilets had to be closed off. In a particularly shocking turn of events, a stack of copies of The Student was used as kindling for the blaze. According to eyewitnesses, copies of campus newspaper The Journal were also used in the attempted conflagration. James Wallace, EUSA Vice-President for Services, told The Student: “At 9pm on Wednesday a fire was started by children in the male toilets in Pleasance during the Guys and Dolls theatre performance. An individual removed the whole stack of newspapers and lit them to start the fire. It was quickly put out by members of staff. The theatre performance above was in no danger and the show was not interrupted. “The seriousness of this incident cannot be overemphasised, this places people’s lives in danger and has been referred to the police who are investigating.” He continued: “I have heard of a lot of uses for The Student newspaper in the past but this has got to be the most undesirable one.” One audience member said he was ‘shaken’ by the experience. “I came down into the lobby during the interval and there was smoke everywhere. I tried to go for a wee but I wasn’t able to. I was certainly shaken by the experience.” Harrison Kelly, a ‘Dance Captain’ in the play, told The Student: “The cast didn’t know about the fire until the interval. Smoke got into the auditorium and the theatre.” “Considering we were using dry ice as part of the performance anyway, it kind of added to the atmosphere of the play” Damage to the building is understood to be superficial, and the toilets returned to operation the following day. There was nevertheless concern that the blaze could have hurt people inside the building, especially since the event was sold out. news@studentnewspaper.org
Guys and Dolls review, page 15 »
Tuesday November 17 2009 studentnewspaper.org
news@studentnewspaper.org
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What’s in this issue NEWS »p1-6
»
Student visa system review to be launched
Calum Leslie
NAMED AND SHAMED p5
Charles Hanks on the latest twist in the fees debate
RACIST ATTACKS AT LONDON UNI p6 Tensions high after two students are stabbed
COMMENT »p8-9 'IT DOESN'T FIX ANYTHING' p8 Karishma Sundara argues against the death penalty
ARTS&FEATURES »p11-21
RELIGION OR FASHION? p11
Jessica Abrahams on how Christianity has adapted in the 21st century
BASKING IN TRIUMPH p15
PRIME MINISTER Gordon Brown has announced a government review of the process by which student visas are issued to international students wishing to study in the UK. Included in his immigration speech last Thursday, Brown’s announcement follows concerns relayed anonymously to the BBC by immigration officials that the current points based system for visa allocation is ineffective, with particular reference to ‘supposed students’ trying to enter Britain to study. Speaking on BBC Radio Five a fortnight ago, an anonymous immigration official revealed that “student season has extended now to virtually the whole year” as a result of visa abuses. The review is to examine the possibility of raising the minimum level of course for which foreign students can apply, as fake qualifications are said to be more common “at lower qualification levels below degree level.” Mandatory English language tests for all student visa applicants for courses other than English language courses are also to be considered, in
addition to looking at whether temporary international students’ part-time jobs may be, in some cases, “better filled by young British workers.” Speaking out against the current system enforced by the UK Border Agency, the official claimed while “we have an awful lot of students who have been refused five, six even up to nine visas to come to this country”, officials were accepting students who “we know for a fact we’ve proved and got signatures from passengers that they’ve paid for their certificates”. The current system requires prospective students to have a place at a higher education institute that is on the accepted list held by the UK Border Agency, however, it has been claimed that some institutions on the list have a history of offering fake qualifications. Another anonymous official condemned via a BBC blog what is “an appallingly thought-out points-based system for students.” Regardless, Mr. Brown insisted that the UK Border Agency, created just over a year ago, remained successful in tackling immigration issues. He claimed that the government
had “more than doubled the number of immigration officers at the border” and that in last year, “the new UK Border Agency stopped and turned back almost 28,000 people crossing the channel illegally.” Jeremy Oppenheim, a regional director from the UK Border Agency, defended the guidelines for accepting potential students, claiming that the “points-based system means that only those colleges and schools who provide quality education and take responsibility for their students will be licensed to bring in foreign students” and that, “before we tightened controls, around 4,000 UK institutions were bringing in international students; this currently stands at around 2,000.” Despite allegations that officials were powerless under the new rules to stop some students, Oppenheim also said: “anyone coming into the UK must satisfy the Border Force officer that they meet the immigration rules and will comply with any conditions attached to their visa. If they cannot, the officer can and will refuse entry.” news@studentnewspaper.org
Amanda Bottomley checks out Bedlam's latest
EASY LIKE SUNDAY MORNING p16 Lifestyle takes brunch at Pink Olive
'END-OF-THE-WORLD NONSENSE' p18 Kimberlee Mclaughlan laughs at 2012
'YOU'RE IN ONE OF YOUR LEFT-WING MOODS' p20 Andrew Chadwick watches Into the Storm
WHY THE LONG FACE? p23
Edinburgh's equestrians win in St. Andrews
THIS ISN'T SPARTA: A quorate AGM requires 300 students to turn up Continued from front page »
p22 The Student Newspaper | 60 Pleasance, Edinburgh, EH8 9TJ Email: editors@studentnewspaper.org
...have been aroused that censoring such groups does not silence them, and in fact risks generating sympathy. The proposal also has the potential to punish societies who host 'racist' or 'fascist' speakers. Writing in a comment piece for The Student last week, President of Edinburgh University’s Politics Society Dante Mazzari criticised the proposal, saying: “I do not believe the students of Edinburgh University need to be censored by anyone, much less their own union.” Moreover, he said the motion, which would authorize the Student Representatives Council to identify specific groups as ‘racist’ or ‘fascist’, would place “an enormous concentration of coercive power in the hands of the SRC. No criteria are ever explicitly given... this overall ambiguity leaves the SRC an enormous amount of potential discretion.” One SRC member told The Student: “It's obvious that the BNP will feel hard done by with this motion. But there is a strong current of opinion that banning them from campus altogether will be counter-productive to exposing their rac-
ist lies. Just now, the motion doesn't seem to stand much chance of passing.” Explaining her decision to withdraw support, Gabi Jones said: “Basically a friend wrote the motion but didn't want to speak on it so after speaking to them about the issue and the motion they wanted to write, I agreed to sign and present it.” She told The Student that she believes it would not be “fair to speak on the issue when I'm not 100 percent behind it…obviously this is unusual but I can honestly say that when I signed the motion, I was doing so with the best intentions.” She did not want to comment on who had compelled her to present the motion, but there has been speculation it was a high-ranking EUSA official. In the run up to the AGM, Other motions are also expected to provoke tense debate. The Student spoke with Students for Justice in Palestine with regards to the proposed boycott of Israel. A spokesperson said, “As an international organization – responsible for educating individuals, distributing ideas
JULIA SANCHES
SPORT »p23-24
and interacting economically with many parts of the world – Edinburgh inevitably has to take a stand in political issues in various capacities.” “We would argue that…it’s possible for people to distinguish an opposition to the foreign policy and military actions of a country and opposition to that country as a whole, as witnessed for example in the opposition to the American invasion of Iraq, which few would describe as being a matter of anti-Americanism.” Howevever, opposition to the motion is expected to object to stipulations under which EUSA would have to “refrain from participation in any form of academic and cultural cooperation, collaboration or joint projects with Israeli institutions.” A similar motion by the lecturers' union, the University Colleges Union, was rejected after legal advice suggested that such a boycott would be against the law. The EUSA AGM will take place at George Square lecture theatre on Tuesday November 17 at 7pm. news@studentnewspaper.org
Tuesday November 17 2009 studentnewspaper.org
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News 3
Edinburgh's top historian in feud with TV presenter over BBC series HEAD OF the University of Edinburgh's School of History, Classics and Archaeology and eminent author of Scottish history Professor Tom Devine has become entangled in a battle of insults with Neil Oliver, the presenter of the BBC’S new history of Scotland series. Writing in the Sunday Times, Devine was heavily critical of the series, which he described as “fatally flawed”, being a “narrative, blow-by-blow account from earliest times to the present, of the kind that used to bore schoolchildren of my generation to death.” Expressing his disappointment, he said: “Perhaps naively, I thought the programme makers would have been able to scale the heights and really capture the epic story of a small country with a massive global impact.” Devine also personally attacked Oliver, calling him “hapless” and suggesting that he may have been hired more for his looks, adding: “he must have been signed up because he is physically in the old visual tradition of Braveheart and the Highlander movies.” Oliver hit back at Devine’s comment however, calling him a “fool” and a “plump old man” with a “narrow view of history.” He also added, “His business is lecturing students in a classroom and
doesn’t know anything about how to make a television series.” The BBC series claims to offer a definitive account of the history of Scotland from 1600s to the present day. Devine, however has deemed the series as “fatally imbalanced”, due to the lack of the attention to modern Scottish history, and to important themes such as the Enlightenment and the Scottish diaspora. Last year Devine declined the offer of being on the advisory board for the series. Tom Devine has been a professor at Edinburgh since 2005 and in 2000 was awarded the royal gold medal for Scottish academic excellence. He remains the only historian to receive the prize to date. Neil Oliver studied archaeology at the University of Glasgow, before entering journalism and then television. He gained notable acclaim for his 2005 BBC series Coast, examining the history of the British coastal line. The BBC has defended the series, calling it a “success” in light of its Scottish BAFTA nomination and viewing figures of 1.6 million for the first episode. The series is aired at 9.00pm Sunday evenings on BBC 1 Scotland. news@studentnewspaper.org
GUY RUGHANI
Jordan Campbell
WHO ARE YOU CALLING CHUBBY? I think you look Devine
Carbon footprint of students and staff revealed in groundbreaking report A PIONEERING report revealing the University of Edinburgh’s carbon footprint has been published this week by green movement Transition Edinburgh. Taking into account emissions from both university and lifestyle related emissions, the report estimates that Edinburgh students and staff emit 350,000 tonnes of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent) per year in total. The average student is estimated to emit 6.9 tonnes of carbon dioxide attributable to lifestyle a year, falling below the Scottish National average, which currently sits at 10 tonnes a year per citizen. Amongst staff, however, the figure rises to 10.9 tonnes a year. Notably, the report found that 86 percent of carbon emissions by students and staff emanate from home and leisure, emphasising the need to tackle carbon emissions through a holistic, community led approach. Consumption of food, goods and services has been shown to be the biggest contributor to Edinburgh’s carbon footprint, amounting to 41 percent and creating an estimated 141,000 tonnes CO2 per year. The figure encompasses emissions from use of products ranging from soft drinks to computers, to services such as health care and public administration. Energy use in University and private buildings was shown to be the second
largest contributor, with 35 percent of emissions estimated to result from gas and electricity use, amounting to 123,000 tonnes per year. Amongst University accommodation, Robertson’s Close halls were shown to produce the least greenhouse gases of all during the 2008/09 academic year, at 1.3 tonnes of CO2 emissions per occupant per year, well below the average accommodation services site which stood at 2.2 tonnes. University-owned flats in Bristo Place produced the most with an average 3.4 tonnes per occupant. Travel accounts for 24 percent of the community footprint, resulting in an estimated 85,000 tonnes CO2e per year, though because this figure is based largely on national averages, the true figure is expected to be considerably higher. Notably, 95 percent of the University institution’s emissions came from air travel, including an estimated 3,500 domestic flights during the 2007/08 academic year. Transition Edinburgh has suggested a number of practical action projects to reduce carbon emissions across the board. In relation to reducing emissions related to consumption, ideas to encourage reusing and recycling and to promote lower meat diets have been put forward, such as swap-shop schemes to pass on unwanted goods and ‘vegetarian days’. Initiatives have already been
launched to help students and staff make their homes more energy efficient, to follow the Pollock ‘Big Switch’ launched earlier this month. One motion tabled for the EUSA AGM aims to achieve this, encouraging more widespread use of Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) which would show how energy efficient a property is before signing a lease. To lower the impact of travel, alternatives to flight and motor transport are being promoted, such as the use of video conferencing facilities, improving of cycle paths and encouraging lift sharing. Ric Lander, Transition Edinburgh University Intern told The Student: "Students at Edinburgh shouldn't be too smug about their low carbon
footprint. Our research shows that students who go on to make an above average wage will become heavy carbon emitters as their income rises. This report shows that by coming together to build new ways of managing scarce resources, we can disconnect emissions from wealth. More importantly though, it shows how we can broaden the gap between material wealth and happiness: good news for students living in fuel poverty, and crucial if we are to achieve a just transition to a low carbon society. “This report shows that if we come together as a community, cutting carbon at Edinburgh can be a fun and positive experience. With much of the CO2 emissions accruing from our home lives, we can't rely on the Uni-
versity to sort this out for us. But if we only try and reduce CO2 emissions in our own homes in isolation, we miss the opportunity that transition provides to reconnect with our local community. Now is the time to come together to create a climate-friendly, prosperous Edinburgh University." David Somervell, University Sustainability Advisor said: “This is an impressive and pioneering study in carbon management. It is essential that in order to reduce our carbon emissions, we must first know where they come from. By finding this out, Transition Edinburgh University has put Edinburgh way ahead in this field.” news@studentnewspaper.org
TOTAL UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH GREEN HOUSE GAS EMISSIONS
INSTITUTION FOOTPRINT
TRAVEL GAS & ELECTRICITY GOODS & SERVICES
LIFESTYLE FOOTPRINT
GREEN HOUSE GAS EMISSIONS (K TONNES CO2E)
ADAPTED BY GUY RUGHANI
Anna MacSwan
Tuesday November 17 2009 studentnewspaper.org
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News
EUSA launch this year's teaching awards
Students encouraged to make nominations online
Liz Rawlings and Harrison Kelly
INSPIRING PEOPLE: All smiles at the launch of the Teaching Awards ates who Teach’, which recognises the work postgraduate tutors do for their students on top of their own degrees. There will also be three collegewide prizes which are designed to recognise teachers with ‘outstanding commitment’ across the three major disciplines. Last year’s awards were well-received by students and staff at the University of Edinburgh and as a result other Students’ Unions including St Andrews, Sheffield Hallam, Liver-
pool and Swansea are set to introduce their own Teaching Award schemes this year. Elizabeth Bomberg, a Politics lecturer, received the coveted ‘Best Overall Teacher’ award at last year’s ceremony. She spoke at the Inspiring Teaching Conference along with fellow award-winner Richard Milne. Bomberg emphasised the need to engage students fully in their subject area and stressed the point that research and teaching are not
EUSA
EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY Students' Association has launched its Teaching Awards for the 2009/2010 academic year. After the success of last year’s inaugural awards, which saw EUSA receive over 2700 nominations for 621 academic staff, the scheme is set to become an annual event. This year’s launch took place last Wednesday in the Teviot Debating Hall after EUSA’s Inspiring Teaching Conference which showcased the best in innovative teaching from across the University. Evan Beswick, EUSA’s Vice President for Academic Affairs told The Student: “I’m really glad to have launched the second outing of the EUSA teaching awards, and nominations have started coming in already. “Both last year’s awards, and the Inspiring Teaching conference last week demonstrated not only that there’s some great teachers at the University of Edinburgh, but also that students are engaged and interested in celebrating those teachers’ work, and in pushing for the recognition and prestige they deserve. “Last year we had more than 2700 students coming forward to nominate staff and show their appreciation for lecturers who dedicated real effort to teaching. I hope this valuable campaign continues to grow this year.” This year the awards have been expanded with one for ‘Postgradu-
mutually exclusive. Milne told staff and students of the need to make Powerpoint fun. In an entertaining presentation, he advised on the ways to get the most out of lecture slides, incorporating whizzing arrows and Gok Wan pollinating a plant. The conference, held at Teviot, was attended by over 250 students and staff members. Attendees were invited to take part in a series of workshops aimed at improving teaching including, “Why lecture
when everything is online?” and “Encouraging a questioning attitude in first year students.” However, of the current teaching staff at the University, relatively few attended the conference, but Beswick hopes that the conference will generate more interest. Students can nominate their teachers on the EUSA website. The awards will take place in April after a shortlist has been announced. news@studentnewspaper.org
University of Edinburgh to increase international intake
INTERNATIONAL APPEAL: Edinburgh is adopting a global outlook
FLICKR: SPANNER DAN
Jordan Campbell THE UNIVERSITY of Edinburgh is set to take on increasing numbers of international students, with an objective of raising its count by 1,000 by 2012. Highlighted within its strategic plan for 2008-2012, the university aims to “increase our headcount of non-EU international students by a minimum of 1,000”, who currently make up 25 percent of the university’s student body. The move is with a view to “further raise the university’s international profile and reputation.” The increase in international students coincides with plans to reduce places for home students, following the Scottish Government’s decision to make no additional funding available for places, resulting in an overshooting of quota this year by the University of Edinburgh. Different funding systems, however, mean there is no link between the rising number of international students and falling number of those from the UK and EU. Simon Jennings, Head of Public Policy & Deputy Director of Planning, told The Student that: “There’s an assumption that the university controls the number of UK/EU students it admits and can reduce this number. That’s not the case. The university re-
ceives funding for such students from the Scottish Funding Council on the basis of a fixed number of “funded student places” and can incur financial penalties if it under or over recruits against this total allocation.” EUSA President Thomas Graham greeted the move as overwhelmingly positive, saying: “No international student is here at the expense of any home student. The UK student places are limited by a cap on student numbers put in place by the government as it has only allocated enough funding for that number of students. Since international students are entirely self-financing, they are in no way affected by this limit and do not count toward it. “In fact, UK students benefit greatly from the presence of international students as they (wrongly) pay over the odds and support better facilities, teaching, and other resources. Aside from that, and much more significant, the student experience of going to an international institution is greatly enhanced.” Commenting on the makeup of Edinburgh’s student population, he stated that his “main concern is making sure that we do not stop putting widening participation at the forefront of our admissions procedures.” The ability to attract foreign students has also helped to raise the university’s world standing. Edinburgh recently
ranked amongst the top 20 in the world in a list compiled by The Times. Part of the criteria was based upon the number of international students at the institution. The university states that it is fully equipped to cope with the extra numbers. Alan Mackay, Director of Edinburgh University’s International Office, told The Student that: “The university’s International Strategy is committed to offering learning and living experience that explicitly meets the needs and expectations of all our students. “We are working closely with colleagues from across the university to ensure that we continue to accommodate an increasingly diverse cohort of students, both in terms of their living and learning experience, as we have done very successfully in recent years.” Across the UK, the number of international students has doubled over the past ten years, according to a report by Universities UK. On average, in 2007/08 international students provided a greater source of income to universities than government grants for research. news@studentnewspaper.org
Tuesday November 172009 studentnewspaper.org
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News 5
Pro-fee MPs to be 'named and shamed' by NUS THE NATIONAL Union of Students (NUS) announced plans this week to ‘name and shame’ MPs who refuse to denounce rising tuition fees before the next general election. A group of 300 students from across the UK supporting NUS’s ‘Come Clean On Fees’ campaign descended on Westminster on Wednesday to rally against the lack of Labour and Conservative policy on tuition fees, saying that any MPs who do not voice their disapproval on the matter before the election will be named. Higher Education Minister David Lammy MP abandoned his schedule to attend the protest and answer questions directly from concerned students. He was joined by 60 other MPs from all the major parties who wanted to show their support for the NUS drive. The campaign comes amid fears that the two main parties have tacitly agreed not to let tuition fees become an election issue, after it was announced that the results of a review launched on Monday looking into whether fees should be raised to £7, 000 a year will not be revealed until after the election, a decision that has angered some students. In a letter to The Guardian on the morning of the protest, NUS demanded that party leaders abandon their ‘cosy consensus of silence’ and outline their position on the matter. The letter, signed by 153 student union leaders, including EUSA president Thomas Graham, issued an ultimatum to MPs who remain silent, saying 'candidates must vote with us or students won’t vote for them.' NUS president Wes Streeting claims that “the vast majority of the general public is against higher fees, and voters deserve to know where their MP stands
on this key issue. “Today students are making it clear to politicians that if they refuse to speak out against raising the cap on fees, we will hit them where it hurts – at the ballot box.” A YouGov poll last Sunday revealed that only 12 percent of the public think the review should even consider increasing fees, while a majority believes that it should look at alternatives to fees. David Lammy said that “It's right that an independent review should look at the options and hear the views of students". However he concluded that he and his colleagues "will not pre-empt the findings of the review." Stephen Williams, shadow universities secretary for the Liberal Democrats, criticised Labour and the Tories saying: “They are asking hundreds of thousands of students and parents to vote for them without being honest about whether they intend to hike up fees and leave them with decades of debt. “Only the Liberal Democrats want to scrap tuition fees and will fight any attempt to raise the cap,” he pointed out. As to how universities and other higher education institutions would make up for the lack of funding that maintaining the cap on fees, or dropping them completely would lead to, Streeting said: “NUS believes that a university education should be free at the point of use, with graduates giving back to the system according to how much they earn. “This would give universities double the amount of funding they currently receive, while allowing the children of poorer families to go to university without the fear of debt. In order to put further pressure on MPs, NUS is encouraging students opposed to the rise to write directly to their MP to persuade them to take ‘a fresh look at university funding’ and to try to find an alternative to higher fees.
FEE FI FO FUM: Students demand answers on fees...
news@studentnewspaper.org
Jordan Campbell
CONFEDRATION OF BRITISH INDUSTRY
IN
Winston Churchill’s celebrated ‘fight them on the beaches’ speech was failed by a new exam marking programme. The US computer programme known as Edexcel, designed to grade students' essays, also marked down extracts from William Golding’s Lord of the Flies and a novel by Ernest Hemmingway. Golding’s piece was failed for “inaccurate and erratic sentence structure” and Hemmingway’s The End of Something allegedly demonstrated a lack “of care in style of writing and vocabulary.” The UK exam board have been experimenting with similar procedures, but have stated that they have no plans to introduce such programmes. JK
Academic to donate £1 million over lifetime
Fees review for England launched
...though this man will be pulling the strings.
Churchill fails to make the grade
LORD MANDELSON, Secretary for Business, Innovation and Skills, has launched a review into how much students should pay in tuition fees in England. Mandelson has promised that students will be involved in the discussions and that the review would “examine the balance of contributions to universities by taxpayers, students, graduates and employers". Students in England currently pay £3,325 a year in fees or £1,775 if studying in Scotland. Many universities, however, have called for fee rises as they suffer from funding gaps and fear losing their competitive edge to foreign universities who can generate much greater income. Though it seems likely that fees in England will rise after the next general election, the review will look at alternative means of generating income beyond simply raising fees. One idea that has already been discussed is the possibility of asking different sectors of the business community
to make contributions for students who are studying in areas relevant to their industry. Nevertheless, the University College Union, in response to the review launch, has said that it is important that Ministers act unequivocally in terms of how much they will expect students to contribute. A spokesperson said that, "Failure to do so will deny the general public a voice on the debate on the future of university funding." The review will include the contributions from all leading political parties in order that the eventual findings will represent a cross party consensus. Mandelson has appointed the former chief executive of BP, Lord Browne, as the chair of the review. The findings of the review, which will take into account both full time and part time students, will be published next year and will also examine ways of widening participation into universities and simplifying the student support system. news@studentnewspaper.org
NATIONAL UNION OF STUDENTS
Charles Hanks
Brief
Toby Ord, an ethics researcher at Oxford University, has promised to give £1million throughout his life to fight third world poverty. Ord claims that he will donate 10% of his annual £30,000 salary a year plus anything over £20,000 for the rest of his career. Ord is the founder of a group called Giving What We Can and boasts 23 members to date. They believe that in order to enjoy life, people did not need any more than what the average student has. Ord believes that by giving up his income he could save the equivalent of 500,000 years of human life. Ord commented, “I have a choice between greatly improving the lives of tens of thousands of people or adding a few extras to my life. Put like that, it is an easy choice. Once you get used to the idea, it is actually not much of a burden.” JC
Two 'lucky' Edinburgh students survive crash Two students in Edinburgh have escaped without serious injuries after their car spun out and plunged into a basement garden. The dramatic crash occurred when a Skoda, driven by students Michael Milby, 19, and Jamie Menarry, 20, collided with a lorry in the city’s West End. The car left the road, smashed through a section of railings and fell backwards into the basement garden of a Chester Street flat. A friend of the pair, of Telford College and Napier University respectively, said that “they were taken to the hospital but I think they are really lucky that they were not more seriously injured.” “Those railings went through the windscreen so it could have been really serious. They were both in a state of shock.” Neighbours said the flat’s owner, Mary Calder, was on holiday in Florida at the time. JK
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News
Students and citizens march against NATO ordinary citizens that "the situation in Afghanistan is worse now than in 2001, all the supposed aims of the war, liberation, democracy, women’s rights, haven’t been achieved. The solution needs to be political not military." Chief Inspector Donnie McKinnon, of the Lothian and Borders Police, said he was expecting a peaceful day of protest. "It is in the hands of the organisers, and while we have the resources to handle it if it gets out of control, it would be a shame for it to be unpeaceful." One of the protest attendees, University of Edinburgh PhD Politics student Jamie Allinson said that he was there to encourage NATO to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan.
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ALL PHOTOS: JAMES BASTER
The solution needs to be political not military"
NATO DEBATO: Saturday's protest attracted hundreds of demostrators Julia Cobb STUDENTS AND citizens from across Scotland and the UK converged on Edinburgh this weekend to protest against the meeting of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly held at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC).
The NATO Parliamentary Assembly, the legislative and logistical arm of the international military alliance, was meeting to discuss the war in Afghanistan and security in neighbouring Pakistan. The assembly of 300 delegates from NATO’s 28 member states includes speeches by General Sir Peter Wall, the commander-inchief of UK land forces and Admiral
James Stavridis, the supreme allied commander of NATO in Europe. Saturday’s march and rally, organized by the Edinburgh branch of the Stop the War Coalition was attended by over 300 protesters, including groups from Glasgow and Aberdeen. Pete Cannell, the co-secretary of Stop the War Edinburgh said that his group wanted to remind NATO and
ON GUARD: Community support officers patrol campus Neil Pooran TENSIONS ARE running high at City University London after two Muslim students were stabbed in a vicous attack near campus last week. The Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS) said the attack was part of a string of apparently racist incidents occurring around the elite university.
FLICKR: JD MACK
London's City University stunned by racist attacks
According to FOSIS, three other Muslim men were hospitalised days earlier after a gang of 30 youths set about them with bricks and metal poles. The men were also subjected to racist taunts such as ‘get those Muslims’ and ‘Pakis’ during the ordeal. Prof. Julius Weinberg, acting vicechancellor of the university, has written to all City University students advising them to be extra vigilant. In a joint statement with student
union president Nikhil Raj Cumlajee, Weinberg said, “We’re shocked and saddened that some of our students have been the victims of an attack near the University. “The University is taking this matter very seriously; the safety of students and staff is very important. University security has increased its presence at prayer meetings and has also increased the volume of its campus wide patrols. A team from Islington Police Safer Neighbourhoods is undertaking extra patrols from 2pm to 10pm each day this week in the local area. We are of course working very closely with the local Police on this matter and as it is a criminal matter, we continue to take their guidance. “It is also worth remembering that London is on the whole a safe, friendly and welcoming city. City University London community works well because we are tolerant, supportive and enquiring; we must not lose those values, nor allow an incident such as this to spoil enjoyment of life at the University and in London.” Three teenage males have been arrested and bailed in connection with the stabbing incident, which police are treating as a ‘racially aggravated assault’. news@studentnewspaper.org
Pete Cannel, Stop the War
"Afghanistan needs development aid in large amounts, maybe distributed through some sort of regional framework," he said. "Afghanistan has had 30 years of imperialist occupation and it’s been broken as a state- troops make it worse, not better." The march kicked off below South Bridge and meandered up through the Grassmarket toward the EICC. At the intersection of Lawnmarket and the George IV Bridge, protesters were serenaded by bagpipes and gawked at by tourists, some of whom nodded or clapped when protesters began chanting ‘Money for jobs and education, not for war and occupation!’ Protesters were joined on their march by two senators from the Netherlands and one MP from Norway, who were later allowed into the conference
centre to argue for the removal of troops from Afghanistan. Most protesters were prevented by police barricades from coming within 200 feet of the conference centre, but engaged in a chorus of "What do we want? Troops out! When do we want it? Now!" A small rally was then held in Princes Street Gardens, and featured live music and speeches from some members of the Stop the War Coalition. Although Saturday saw a day successful day of protesting, Friday’s events did not go as planned. A group calling itself the Edinburgh Welcoming Committee planned a rally and had set-up a ‘convergence space’ to serve as a meeting place. Protests were set to begin at 10.30am, but were delayed because of the enactment of a Section 60 order, signed by Lothian and Borders police that morning. Section 60 gives police the power to stop and search citizens when they fear public safety is in danger. There were several brief altercations between protesters and police, and a number of protesters were served with injunctions because they would not remove their face masks which police claimed obstructed their ability to ‘gather evidence’. The planned protest was delayed until 1.30pm and was attended by only a few dozen protesters, who taunted NATO delegates spotted leaving the building with chants of ‘shame on you, shame on you!’ The NATO meeting continues until Tuesday. news@studentnewspaper.org
Jack Wills: How to lose customers and alienate veterans Josh King THE STAFF of a Jack Wills store in Cheltenham sparked controversy this week when they interrupted a Remembrance Day parade with loud music. As war veterans passed by the high street store, staff of the popular clothing brand turned on their thumping sound system, much to the disgust of passers-by. When staff refused to turn the music off as a mark of respect they were barricaded inside the store by angry members of the public. Although the Remembrance Day Hymns, prayers and addresses were uninterrupted, the veterans’ final parade was overshadowed by the incident. Staff told the crowd that the council had allowed them to resume the music at 11.30am. A spokesperson for Jack Wills said there had been a 'misunderstanding' between the public and staff who were, "following a pre-agreed instruction." "Clearly this was an error of judgment that caused offence to attendees at the service. "Although this offence was not deliberate, Jack Wills would like to apologise unreservedly for any upset caused and will make every effort to
ensure that mistakes like this are not made in future." But Mark Harwood, the Liberal Democrat MP for Cheltenham, said he would be writing to Peter Williams, Chief Executive of Jack Wills Ltd, following the incident.
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Responsible companies don't behave like this." Mark Harwood, Liberal Democrat MP for Cheltenham
"Remembrance Day is a very solemn occasion...with many minds turning to the current conflict in Afghanistan and the continuing loss of British life there. "Clearly the staff have been told to honour the letter of their agreement with Cheltenham Borough Council - not the spirit of it. "I think I need to get the message through loud and clear to their bosses that responsible companies don't behave like this." news@studentnewspaper.org
We all want good teachers and good teaching. That’s why EUSA are running the Teaching Awards: to reward those who show real commitment to their teaching at the University of Edinburgh. Awards include University Overall High Performer Best Teacher a wards for each College Best Course Best Department Best Feedback Innovative Teaching Teaching Employable Skills Best Postgraduate Tutor E-Learning Award Internationalisation Award Nominate now at: www.eusa.ed.ac.uk/teachingawards
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Eye for an eye
Karishma Sundara argues that the death penalty reflects revenge and not justice ctober 2002 saw Washington DC O and the neighbouring states of Virginia and Maryland gripped with
fear and terror as, with no apparent rhyme or reason, thirteen innocent people were shot by an unknown person or persons. A woman was killed as she sat on a bench, another was killed as she cleaned her van. A thirteen-year old boy was shot, as he waited outside his school and a man was shot while stopping for petrol. The attacks had no notable pattern. A red herring left the panicked police searching for a white van, and they ultimately did find the assailants, but not in the van, which eyewitnesses had suggested could be linked to the attacks. The attacker, whom the terrorised citizens and media had referred to as 'The Sniper', was in fact found on October 24 2002 in a blue Chevrolet Caprice, with his teenage accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo, at a gas station. And on Friday November 11 2009, at 9.11pm, John Allen Muhammad paid for these crimes with his life, killed with a lethal injection for the murder of Dean Harold Meyers, one of the ten shot dead. Many people feel that ‘justice’ has been dealt at last. A man who, without cause, had killed innocent people, targeting the
young and old alike, has finally received his just desserts. Yet how can we justify one murder by committing another? It is indisputable that what Muhammad did was horrific, but that does not give us the right to take away his life, in the almost childish ‘tit-for-tat’ method in which the death penalty seems to work. Muhammad was a Gulf War veteran,
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By failing to adopt the more humane life-imprisonment, for the vengeful death penalty, we fail as citizens of the world. We fail as human beings. " and clearly a troubled man. Not all of us have been to war. Not all of us have seen the sights and heard the sounds of gruesome warfare, of people dying. People die on battlefields for their respective countries, while the governments who launch these wars sit back and comment on how
pitiable it is that so many young lives have to be lost for their cause. Isn’t warfare too then, simply the politically accepted murder of innocent soldiers? Regardless of what one might say, we still live in a brutal society. We may claim to have progressed over the years, yet at our very innermost core lies the barbarian, the animal, which man has always been and always will be. We will never stop warring. Yet we remain unable to see it is us who put men like Muhammad in the position they are in today. When human beings change along the path of life, we chalk it up to experience, and circumstances. Why do we find it so hard then to understand that being in a warzone and living the horror - which most citizens of the world experience only through movies and news channels - can leave you with scars which may never fully heal? Muhammad’s ex-wife told BBC News that: "When he returned from Saudi Arabia...he was confused, puzzled, unsure of himself or his ability to do anything”. His lawyer pleaded insanity, holding up brain scans, which showed malformations in his brain linked to schizophrenia, but the US Supreme Court ended all hope of a stay on execution by rejecting the appeal.
"A psychiatrist examined him and said he's paranoid and psychotic and delusional and gave many examples," said his lawyer Jonathan Sheldon, calling Muhammad "a martyr for everything that’s wrong with the death penalty". A woman who was dining with her children in a steakhouse the day Muhammad shot a man dead in the parking lot outside was amongst the anti-death penalty campaigners who had been holding a vigil outside the prison. "It could have easily been me and my family," she said to the press. "But I feel that some of the money we spent killing Mr. Muhammad would have been better spent helping our veterans, who're coming home with scars that are not visible and causing them to do horrible things, just like what happened in Fort Hood this past week". The world has a lot to learn from this woman. We can not forget the responsibility we have towards veterans. Horrible experiences leave them embittered, troubled, and change many of them in ways they perhaps never imagined they would. But nations will never stop warring, and even as veterans from Afghanistan return, will we be able to provide them with all the rehabilitation and support they need?
Or will we let them return to the world as troubled individuals who lived through unimaginable circumstances for the sake of their countries? Muhammad was one such troubled man, one with an underlying medical problem. Yet by failing to impose the more humane life imprisonment in favour of the vengeful death penalty, we fail as citizens of the world. We fail as human beings. Speaking to the Associated Press agency, the daughter of one of the victims said: "He basically watched my dad breathe his last breath…Why shouldn't I watch his last breath?" Yes, what Muhammad did was incredibly wrong. No one is denying that. But what can be gained by putting him to death, rather than issuing life imprisonment to a man who had already spent seven years in jail, away from the public? Putting him to death cannot bring the victims of the attack back to life. It cannot return them to the world of the living and breathing. It will only send another to the land of the dead. Muhammad is as much a victim as they are. The death penalty serves only one purpose: revenge. It doesn’t fix anything.
Return to sender
Joe Downing explains why the uproar over Gordon Brown's misspelt letter was about more than a typo
L
ast week Gordon Brown misspelled the name of deceased soldier Jamie Janes on a letter of condolence sent to his mother Jacqui. The letter was said to have been hard to read and untidy, which Gordon blamed on his eyesight. I don't think we should be angry at him for this. For a start, until writing this I thought the soldier's surname was “James”, which is what the PM wrote. I certainly don't know anyone called Janes and neither does my spellcheck. Perhaps it should have been flagged up by one of Gordon's team but they probably couldn't make head nor tail of it either. I think the business surrounding the letter, and Brown's failure to bow properly at the cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday, sky-rocketed out of proportion because the writers at The Sun and the other unofficial members of the Brownhating club were making it as clear as possible that they think he's an idiot. They know that it doesn't really matter if he bows or not. A letter doesn't matter to them, it's just politics. People are angry at Brown because they can see that so many men are dying in Afghanistan. I suppose not bowing or keeping abreast of your admin looks as though you don't appreciate what the soldiers are doing. Even Sun journalists, unless of course they have shares in oil or the arms trade, would want to see soldiers coming home alive (they are human). But by actively supporting withdrawl, the public and especially the Britain-lov-
ing-tripe-pedalling right-wing writers are accepting that the war is pointless and that our soldiers are losing. Rather than 'our boys' unconditionally dying for Queen and country, they died for nothing. People don't want to believe that, so they don't speak out against the war. On Remembrance Sunday they bought poppies and muted 'Something for the Weekend' for two minutes. In reality the right-wing press can't ever support an end to the war, they propagate the idea of empire, flags and fighting. Instead these journalists carry on like it's a war with a real enemy and purpose. They look desperately for someone to come up with a 'reason' to be at war which nobody can give them, blaming Brown for this lack of imagination and conveniently forgetting that they're a massive part of the opinion-forming press. They wax lyrical about better protection and support, and seem to think that a limitless amount of money can make soldiers immune to the dangers of war, but it's being at war which is 'the unnecessary danger,' not slightly-lessthan-perfect helicopters. In an article about Brown's letter, the Daily Mail quickly turned to the war in Afghanistan and observed the irony of there being 'limitless money available to bail out the banks and not enough for protection in war'. This observation was pleasing. The bit about spending any more money on war is ridiculous but at least the Daily Mail has identified the
worst drain on the budget. So what about printing off more money and developing jobs in crucial green industry for young people? Janes is one in a never ending cargo of fatalities from Afghanistan. Young men and women like him will join up for work in the army as long as there are few jobs. People join the army because it will always open. If you came from a less fortunate background and did badly at school you will have effectively stopped learning at about 14 and become embroiled in the well-known tailspin of not understanding and misbehaving at the back of the class. It is about providing a sense of self-worth. Join the army and you can leave the Job Centre, returning a sense of pride and responsibility that is not fulfilled by other options. If the country spent money on the lucrative public sector we would give people the choice between workplaces. The Mail will point you to the poorest people in the country: you can turn out their pockets and find the 'billions of [pounds] poured into benefits, the greatest moral evil of broken Britain'. They say 'the welfare state has eroded the incentives of the poorest members of our society to build better lives for themselves'. So, there are jobs but people are just too occupied in embossing the terraced house with gold leaf to bother taking them up? What about Jamie Janes? Son of mum-of-six Jacqui, he attended Hove Park
Comprehensive in Brighton where students' attainment on entry is below average, especially in literacy. Janes began his army career at Harrogate Foundation College at 16, and was fighting by the tender age of 18. It would look like Jamie's situation proves that in fact, not content waking up at midday and playing state-subsidised PS3, people who have no other options are perhaps forced into a career in the armed forces. The army is an employer like any other, the difference is that this one isn't trying to sack workers or cheat employees to maximise profit. There are always jobs in the armed forces because the service it provides is paid for by us and serves us. All I'm saying is if this was the model for green en-
ergy, trains, social building... you've got the idea, fighting would not be such an appealing way to make a living. The Mail was right about the banks; they have shown us that money is available if we need it. But don't spend any more on war so that more young people end up flying home in boxes. Stop the war and spend on jobs and services. The sad truth is that for Gordon, all the names blend into one. No one will really be happy until Gordon's letters to unsuccessful X Factor contestants are the sum total of his weekly communication. People are angry because they know Jacqui's letter is not the last.
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Comment 9 � Sex and the schoolyard
Menna jenkins
ho would have thought that W plastic wristbands could cause such controversy around
Nuclear distraction
Joshua Jones warns that nuclear power is not the solution our country needs
T
his week, the government symbolically offered support to the nuclear solution, proposing ten new sites for power plants to be built by 2018. There is no doubt that such proposals are positive in showing resolve on the environment, particularly so close to the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference. However, a government endorsed proposal puts firm faith in nuclear power; faith which is in many ways largely misplaced. The main question worth asking in terms of a new commitment towards nuclear power is why now? Yes, in these crucial times any kind of assertive environmental policy should be at least commended. But, all the nuclear niggles which were so catastrophically thrown into the public eye with Chernobyl in 1986 are yet to be eradicated. Nuclear power is not a solution but a further problem. Nuclear is quite simply the capitalist’s dream as it operates under the dubious mantra, 'ask questions later'. As a quick-fix solution it seems perfect: the material has a massively high energy density, it is a reliable energy producer and it gives out fewer greenhouse gases than fossil fuels. However, the industry is a work-in-progress and relying on it to solve a global environmental crisis is a huge risk. The main concern is that of radioactive waste and the government’s current policy of burying it under-
ground, the environmental equivalent of ‘sweeping it under the rug’. It doesn’t take an expert scientist to work out that such a policy is likely to have negative implications for our environment in the future.
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Renewable energy sources currently take up less than three percent of Britain’s primary energy consumption...a vast underachievement for an island-based country whose citizens complain daily about the wind" There is also the problem of having stations around England and Wales which are potential weapons in themselves if tampered with. Terrorism is fresh in everyone’s mind and Greenpeace suggests that any nuclear power plant is a target for terrorists with the hope of causing an artificial meltdown. The fear of Iran as a nuclear threat is potent enough let alone the prospect
of a threat in our own backyard. This week’s proposals themselves imply inefficiency. Any plans featuring the terms ‘nuclear power station’ and ‘fast-tracked construction’ are cause for concern. As Chernobyl demonstrated, such construction would require calm rather than haste, something not readily available to politicians at this time of global environmental crisis. Even your average Ed Milliband should be able to work out a more reasonable solution to the impending energy gap. Renewable energy sources currently take up less than three percent of Britain’s primary energy consumption; the lowest of all EU member states. This is a vast underachievement for an island-based country whose citizens complain daily about the wind. Instead of putting unwarranted time and money into a form of energy which is both unstable and undeveloped, Britain should be exploring wind and wave power so as to secure a more long term solution to the climate change problem. It is often argued that wind and wave are unreliable and lack energy density. However, Germany, now Europe’s largest economy, proves that this is a naive view at best. German scientists recently claimed that the country could power itself entirely through renewable energy. It is also worth noting that to gen-
erate the total electricity for the UK annually, wind farms would need to take up only six percent of British land (an area of seventy square miles.) Also, this land would hardly be redundant for farming purposes. Such projections don’t even include offshore wind farms or hydroelectric power. The prospect of renewable power is hardly one that suggests any kind of compromise on behalf of the UK economy or energy supply. On the contrary, Britain, by grace of its geography, has potential in abundance to be a major player in the Western world with a commitment to the clean energy route. Nuclear energy is non-renewable and therefore there is always the possibility of another energy gap occurring in the future. Why not commit ourselves to the infinite resources which the planet naturally and safely has to offer? We are dealing with an environmental crisis caused by the capitalism fuelled industrialisation which began 200 years ago. Climate change provides an opportunity for a shift in attitude as well as energy supply. In the search for a solution, we must not look for a stop gap in the form of nuclear power which is the current proposal. It would be more worthwhile for the country and the world to embrace renewable technologies which work in partnership with nature rather than acting as its master.
playgrounds in the UK? Yet, these multi-coloured 'shag bands' are becoming another worrying insight into the world that pre-teens inhabit. The seemingly innocent bands get the name 'shag band' from the corresponding acts, one for each band colour which vary in explicitness. If a yellow band is snapped, this demands a hug, however if a red band is snapped the underage owner must perform a lap dance and and if a black band is snapped this, in theory, will lead to sex itself. Children who in many cases, have yet to receive sex education at home or in school are being bombarded by terms that are both appalling and worryingly indicative of a youth culture stormed by peer pressure and a provocative media. In response, many schools are banning the offending items. But in reality how shocking can these bands be when pre-teens are continually encouraged to assume roles above their age range? In Sweden, there are a growing number of girls aged between eleven and thirteen attending a week-long camp called “Girl and the City”. Any innovation clearly drawn from the hit television series Sex & the City is already a worrying concept but when the activities include shopping, going to spas and even colour analysis it's hard to remember the days of Barbie dolls and Lego. In 2007, 8196 girls under sixteen became pregnant in Britain giving us the highest rate of teenage pregnancy in Western Europe. Only in February of this year did the world gasp at the image of the thirteen year-old Alfie Patten holding a new-born baby girl. Although he was later found not to be the father, the question still has to be asked: why was a young boy engaging in sexual acts at all? The media surely plays a part in the acceptance of adult behaviour being adopted by under-sixteens. At the Teen Choice Awards 2009 we saw Miley Cyrus cavorting round what looked like a stripper’s pole in micro-shorts and leather boots then the next day we saw pre-schoolers carrying a school bag emblazoned with the image of her alter ego Hannah Montana. Children aspire to be her and this image can then transfer to them as being acceptable. However, we all remember that in Kiss Chase, once the girl had been caught, it did not (in most cases) lead to the boy being kissed. Shag bands parallel this idea and we cannot underestimate a child’s intelligence by determining that all children will do as a certain playground craze tells them to do. What is important to remember is that such playground crazes are not a new introduction, sadly it is true that society will continue to project sexual images on us and kids will react to this. Ciara Teggart
Tuesday November 17 2009 studentnewspaper.org
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POLLOCK BIBLES ne must marvel at Stuart O Ritchie's ('Bible Bashing', Novmber 10) ability to transform the Christian Union from a collection of bright-eyed, chai-tea offering happyclappies into a sinister Edinburghbased fasciti, zealously determined towards their goal of creating a theocratic Pollock in which they may 'trample over the rights of everyone else'. Attacking the Christian Union is far from original, but he manages to outcliche most Christian-bashers by throwing in a reference to 'Mein Kampf '. How 'highly tolerant' of
him. The reason for Mr. Ritchie's vitriol? Simply put, the Christian Union is arguing that the tradition of placing Bibles in rooms--officially dating back to 1908--may provide comfort for those moving away from home. Mr. Ritchie may find it hard to believe that individuals may find comfort from this 'archiac' text, but many disagree, and it would seem prudent to adopt the attitude of 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'. If students of Mr. Ritchie's persusasion are unhappy with the placing of a Bible in their room, then they are free to clear the area of it. Like it or lump it, the United
Kingdom is officially Christian, and the burden is therefore on Mr. Ritchie to demonstrate that traditions such as the above are harmful; cant on the utopian nature of secularism will not do. Scott George McCombe CORRECTION In Stuart Ritchie's article, it was implied that the motion was forwarded by the Christian Union. This is not in fact the case: the motion was forwarded by two individuals, Stephen Allison and David Nixon. The CU has no official position.
University means business? Reports this week suggesting that the University of Edinburgh is set to increase its international intake has fuelled controversy over the somewhat counterintuitive concept of universities as businesses. The Student also reported last week on Peter Mandelson’s announcement that in an overhaul of higher education, universities would need to become more ‘consumer-orientated’. Although this approach can be used as a springboard for positive change in better identifying and serving the needs of students, there is reasonable cause for concern in the commercialisation of academia. Take the Tory proposal to set up a government-endorsed website where students can rate their lecturers, for example (The Student, October 27). This would relegate teaching assessment to a similar level to that of dating website Hot or Not. One wonders whether students might one day be able to rate their lecturers on dress
sense and personal hygiene as well as teaching skills. A new aspect of the commercialisation debate has also emerged in Cambridge after academics voiced their dissent against the university’s plans to sell the title of the university library to a sponsor. In what is a rebranding of educational institution, the university website does not shy away from capitalising on its prestigious reputation: ‘Oxford has its Bodleian, Harvard has its Widener, Yale has its Beinecke, Manchester its Rylands. In Cambridge, the University Library is one of few such institutions of equivalent stature in the Western world that remains un-named. This represents a unique opportunity to recognise an exceptional and transformative benefaction in perpetuity.’ Here at Edinburgh we are fortunate enough to be in possession of a similar cash cow, or rather, we have our own transformative benefaction in perpetuity to offer.
Although many of our buildings are already named after intellectual titans including David Hume (great philosopher), Adam Ferguson (great philosopher?), Dugald Stewart (who?!) and, of course, Chrystal Macmillan (excellent name, but no idea. Lap dancer?!), our newly revamped library remains woefully unmonikered. Opportunity? We think so. Why not follow in the venerable tradition of the Carling Academy, HMV Apollo or the O2 Arena? All highly revered institutions of learning. Who wants to spend hours in the plain old Edinburgh University Main Library when you could be churning out essays in the Glenfiddich Institute of Mind Expansion, the Buckfast Book Exchange or the Tennent’s Centre of Academic Self-Improvement? After all, we already have the McEwan hall, which is, believe it or not, named after the same chap who brought us our favourite Edinburgh pint.
Flick through every copy of The Student online, at www.studentnewspaper.org/onlinearchive
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Rise of the Religionista
FLICKR: A-WIX
Is religion a fashion statement? Jessica Abrahams looks at how religion has approached the 21st century
RESURRECTION: Christianity has been repopularised by programs aimed at the modern consumer eligion is the new LBD. With R a proposal at this week’s EUSA AGM to provide Bibles in Pollock
Halls, and following the rise of everything from the Jonas Brothers to Christian modelling agencies, it seems everybody is lusting after a little faith with students and young people leading the way. Social commentators are always talking about the secularisation of Western society. Atheism and agnosticism began to become more established during the post-Enlightenment culture of the19th and 20th centuries but there has been a particularly rapid decline in religious believers since the 1950s. The 2001 census of the British population noted that people in the 16-34 age group were almost five times as likely to belong to no religion as those over the age of 65, reflecting the trend towards secularisation. We live in a society where science, above all else, is venerated as the provider of truth. But religion is undergoing a resurrection. Perhaps as a response to this social trend that academics have termed ‘scientism’, where science is considered to have intellectual authority over all other interpretations of life, people began to turn to alternative faiths during the late 1990s and early 2000s. Whilst I am sure this was sparked off by a genuine need for spirituality as a remedy for the pressures of modern life, it rapidly became a fashion statement. We all know that guy who went off to Thailand on his gap year and returned with a pair of fisherman trousers and a new-found devotion to Buddhism. A survey
conducted in 2003 revealed that British women were spending £670 million a year on alternative and spiritualist therapies such as reiki and crystal healing. The success of such forms of spirituality is, it would seem, partially a result of their ability to commercialise themselves; advertising themselves as a product that has something to offer the consumer, albeit in the unusual form
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Call me cynical, but I’m surprised at how easy it was to make Christianity cool. A lot of loud music and some jewellery and suddenly 25,000 American youths had committed themselves to abstinence." of spiritual or emotional salvation. And now, as we come towards the end of the decade, it would seem more orthodox faiths are jumping on the bandwagon. Christian organisations often claim that people turn to God when they become disillusioned with the consumerism and materialism of modern society and that the success of programmes such as the Alpha Course can be put down to people, including the young ‘celebrity generation’, searching for spirituality in an otherwise superficial Western
life. Christianity is widely regarded as providing an alternative to this frivolous lifestyle, but it would seem that there is actually something more subversive going on. With a population that is clearly unwilling to give up the consumerist lifestyle that, ultimately, none of us can live without. The church, apparently, has taken some advice from that wise English idiom - “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” - and this new attitude has been surprisingly successful. By adopting things that are already fashionable amongst young people in a consumerist society and simply adding a touch of biblical guidance, the church is drawing in the crowds. Take, for example, America’s Silver Ring Thing. The programme organises music, comedy and club-style events, attracting crowds of revelling teenagers. During the gathering participants are encouraged to commit to a vow of sexual abstinence, until marriage, by purchasing silver rings. Call me cynical, but I’m surprised at how easy it was to make Christianity cool. All it takes, it seems, is a lot of loud music and some jewellery and suddenly 25,000 American youths had committed themselves to abstinence. Admittedly the programme was shunned by teenagers when it arrived in the UK, but before we start attributing the phenomenon of the Silver Ring Thing to the American evangelist craze, we should look a little closer to home. Last month, The Guardian reported on a British Christian modelling agency called Models of Life. The company claims “MOL aims to raise the standard of models to a new height:
beauty achieved from the perfect balance and unity of spirit, mind, and physical body”. I don’t know about you, but I’m not sold. This sounds less like Christianity and much more like the advert I saw in my local reiki practitioner’s window. The company’s website seems to have been temporarily shelved after the publication of The Guardian’s article but by all accounts it was filled with striking, heavily made-up girls smiling out of the screen. If St. Matthew is currently turning in his grave, muttering about lust and 'adultery of the heart', then I have to say I sympathise. Although not officially affiliated with the church, this is a prime example of Christianity commercialising itself in an attempt to reach a wider audience and, possibly, make a little dosh in the process. A more mainstream (and less financially motivated) initiative to spread the word of God can be found in the form of the Alpha Course. This trans-denominational programme is primarily aimed at non-church goers who are looking for an informative, no-pressure way into religion. Since its inception at London’s well-heeled Holy Trinity Brompton in 1993, a staggering 2.5 million people have taken the Alpha Course in the UK alone. Anybody can lead an Alpha Course, providing an informal evening or dinner once a week at which to discuss and explore Christ and his significance to us today. University of Edinburgh students are joining in wholeheartedly, with several courses being run out of
New Town flats and roughly ten to 15 students attending each course. These are tailored specifically to a student timetable, with courses being slightly shorter than usual. After six weeks, participants attend the ‘Holy Spirit Weekend’: two days of talks, presentations and discussions, during which it is hoped the individual will experience the Spirit within themselves. This part of the course in particular has received heavy criticism, with some participants claiming the high-pressure environment is coercive and uncomfortable, often involving relatively unorthodox elements such as speaking in tongues. Nonetheless, statistics suggest that most do end up converting to Christianity and, given the unquestionable success of the programme, the Church is obviously doing something right. This is Christianity becoming handson and interactive, clawing its way back into the mainstream with Alpha events being run across the country – including a recent campaign backed by celebrity adventurer Bear Grylls – and adverts spread across buses and billboards everywhere. There is a lot to be said for such an approach – the numbers speak for themselves – but it seems that, as with the more alternative faiths of the 90s, what we are seeing here is Christianity becoming absorbed into consumerism, rather than standing against it. In whatever unusual forms and via whichever untraditional methods, religion is back, making itself relevant to the citizens of a modern, consumerist society, heralding the rise of the religionista.
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Tuesday November 17 2009 features@studentnewspaper.org
12 Features
Money-making memorials
Rebecca Monks examines the cult of celebrity funerals t is with trepidation that I indulge Icelebrity the pun, but it would appear that a funeral truly is to die for.
Upon reading a news article entitled ‘sleeping in beauty’, I expected the fairytale allusions of an optimist. Perhaps I had stumbled across a feature on a badly titled adult film. Further reading revealed ‘sleeping in beauty’ referred to the glory of Michael Jackson’s funeral. With such delicate issues it can be argued that journalistic integrity should extend sympathy and kindness to grieving families. However, if the cult of celebrity funerals has taught us anything, journalistic integrity has been reduced to nominating a reporter as a ‘grave-hunter’. It is surely unintentional but it would appear that ‘grave’ should be taken with the broadest understanding, for grave a job it is. When Jackson’s funeral appeared in gossip columns worldwide it was time to examine the celebrity behind the ceremony. In celebrity funerals, who are we indulging? Is it morbid to mourn, or is an excessive funeral a mark of respect? Perhaps, to develop our understanding of the phenomenon, we should ask where did this public tradition originate? I suspect it is not semantics alone that link the King of Pop’s funeral with the glory and excess of a royal ceremony. According to tradition state funerals are to include ‘pomp and ceremony’, held in order to allow the general public a day of mourning. It is expected that a royal ceremony will generate mass publicity from national and global media outlets, thus truly underlining the meaning of a public funeral. In following royal suit, King Jackson has
set a new precedent for who we deem royalty. A day of mourning in itself is a questionable term. Michael Jackson’s memorial service saw millions of viewers worldwide tune in to what became a variety show of music’s biggest names. Tickets for his world tour were auctioned off for thousands of pounds. A fan not caught up in the Jackson haze was rarer than the memorabilia itself. What the ceremony created
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What should be an honour is becoming a platform to posthumously further their careers.' was not a day of mourning, as a state funeral would merit, but a day of earning. When Princess Diana passed away in 1997, her coffin passed by one million mourners on a four mile route whilst an estimated 2.5 billion people watched her funeral on television. Comparatively, an estimated 1.7 million people entered into a lottery to win one of 17,500 tickets to Jackson’s memorial service, which sold for prices upwards of $10,000 online. In light of such high figures, the inevitable question of the nature of ceremony is raised. To our modern world the loss of an influential figure is devastating. However, our abundance of praise and admiration is not limited to great figures, Royalty or indeed world peacemakers. Our admiration has extended to pop singers, actors and composers. To what end, dare we ask, do we distinguish
Take a Break
the status of a funeral? The King of Pop rivalled a Royal ceremony, but what motivated the world to mourn? To quote the observant words of Chuck Palahniuk: “funerals are all abstract ceremony”. It is in examination of celebrity funerals that our understanding of the abstract becomes obtuse; we are presented with what began as a ceremony to honour a public figure, when what we are left with is an abstract force of far greater proportions. Jackson’s funeral encouraged fans to enter into a lottery to attend the memorial service. Jade Goody’s funeral merited a memorial magazine. It would appear that what we deem abstract is not the ceremony itself, but the self-perpetuated business created by the concept of a popular funeral. What should be an honour is arguably becoming a platform for performers to posthumously further their careers, boost record sales and pursue one final publicity stunt. Those opposed to such lavish ceremonies argue that it is self-indulgent for millions to mourn a person they have never met. Many feel the final words of a well-loved figure, followed by a moment of brief reflection and sadness, is more than enough. Richard Harris' final dark declaration “it was the beef ” more than merited one last laugh, whilst Spike Milligan’s epitaph “I told you I was ill” creates a lasting and lovable memory of a public figure. When considering our final farewells, perhaps honouring the careers of such influential figures and grieving in a way which respects the intimacies of a funeral is enough. Instead of buying memorabilia, commend a noble memory. It was the assassination of John Lennon that made a public statement
Fiona Cuddihy takes time out to defend procrastination mongst students “procrastinacal literature. Freud-lovers will tell the value of completion, immediacy A tion” has become something of a you that procrastination is the “thief of the task and personal sensitivity to buzz word. It’s the hobby we love to of time”; a devilish little blighter, delay are all represented by the letters hate. It sounds a bit like an altogether different kind of pastime, one which a young lady writing for a student newspaper wouldn’t dare to mention. Procrastination is nothing to be proud of. A recent survey said that 95 per cent of people admit to regular procrastination. It constitutes a major part of daily life. So why are we so ashamed to admit that we like doing other activities to put off doing work? Just to clarify, I’m not endorsing chronic procrastination that stops people being able to lead normal lives. If you miss three deadlines in a row, then by all means, head to the selfhelp section in Waterstone’s. On the other hand, the majority of students dodge responsibilities in a variety of relatively harmless forms. During coursework season there is usually a flurry of Facebook status updates such as “Sarah has just written 1000 words, only 1000 to go!” There will be lots of Googling, Youtubing, tea-drinking, Red Bull purchasing, impromptu walks up Arthur’s Seat, painting, sonnet writing, kite-flying; anything to avoid doing work. The source of procrastination’s bad reputation can be found in psychologi-
usually caused by anxiety, who leaves you feeling guilty and overwhelmed. If you Google the word “procrastination” you’ll be bombarded with a torrent of tips for overcoming it, as if it were a sort of mental illness. Some smart cookie has even coined the phrase
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Youtubing, teadrinking, kite-flying, anything that puts off doing work ‘Student Syndrome’ to refer to the phenomenon of applying yourself at the last possible moment before a deadline. Discussions of procrastination are couched in medical terms such as 'syndrome' and 'chronic'. Such negative associations have prevented people questioning whether there may be some benefits to a little procrastination. In the quest to discover the true value of this worthy pastime scientists have devised a mathematical equation for procrastination. The desire to complete a task, the expectation of success,
U, E, V, I and D. They combine to make: U = E x V/I x D. I find it hard to accept that an equation can explain this complex form of human behaviour. However, it does highlight some key parts of the process of procrastination. Scientists who study Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), which causes people to have poor concentration, looked at the prefrontal cortex of the brain (in charge of attention, impulse control and planning) and found it was unable to filter out distracting stimuli. So, procrastination happens in the pre-frontal cortex. This is may be because there are so many things crying out for our attention. In other words, procrastination is a natural reaction to the busy world we live in and not a mental illness. Recall that psychologists say procrastination makes us feel guilty and overwhelmed. Surely, there’s something to be said for that euphoric feeling when you race to the deadline - due to much procrastination - and hand in your work in the nick of time. After such an experience you might think, “I could do anything” as you giddily skip off to the pub at 2pm. That surge of adrenaline is, to some
DISPLAY OF GRIEF: Fans leave flowers for MJ against celebrity funerals. Infamous examples of excessively lavish ceremonies had infiltrated the media in the fifty years prior to his death. Judy Garland’s death in 1969 saw 20,000 gather in New York City to mourn the loss, with 25,000 gathering to assure Elvis that he was, and forever shall be, always on their mind. It was the perfect memorial for Lennon, as fans worldwide were asked to give peace a chance and stand for a ten minute silence. When asked about it later Yoko Ono said she felt ceremonies were unnecessary, yet fans wanted to express their grief at the loss of such
an influential public figure. Perhaps we should take Yoko’s attitude to celebrity funerals and simply stand still. We should look not to the state funeral but at the state of our funerals. The cult of celebrity has made the final farewell a spectacle that becomes more memorable than the person to be remembered. The loss of a public figure can often be tragic and it is not that the public should cease to mourn, but rather the public should not glamorise tragedy. In the case of celebrity funerals, perhaps it is time excessive memorials become but a memory.
people, preferable to the quiet sense of achievement you get from finishing work with time to spare. The reason why students like to create a crisis before a deadline is not because we have ‘Student Syndrome’; we are not diseased. To triumph over adversity is thrilling. We are time obsessed. It is a precious commodity that has to be maximised to its fullest potential. In this view students are lazy, time-wasting procrastinators. But the concept of “waste” is a matter of opinion. You can end up doing some pretty interesting things when you procrastinate. Just about any activity seems preferable in the face of a static word count, so our attention can often be diverted towards things we wouldn’t normally do. A friend told me that she “thought I’d rather cycle to Leith and back than do my French essay. So I did”. Some are attracted to the cerebral persuits of the arts: “Anything had to be better than my informatics project” one boy said to me “so I wandered around the National Galleries on Princes Street for a couple of hours”. Then there are those who simply filp: “When I was in first year and had my first ever business essay to do, I panicked and decided I would have to drink a lot of
energy drinks in order to concentrate. But I got so hyper that I just spent the whole night spraying hairspray at my mates and giggling away to myself ”. I wrote this article to put off doing my philosophy essay and procrastinated many times during the writing process. I’m not ashamed to tell you this because I know you are probably procrastinating by reading this article. So, I say, go forth and procrastinate. You are certainly not alone in this guilty pleasure.
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Features 13
Gender boundaries
Sara D'Arcy celebrates International Transgender Day of Remembrance and questions the gender binary
pposites are entrenched within O society. Black, white. Rich, poor. Gay, straight. Male, female. We are continually defined in binaries. At every box we are obliged to tick, we are pigeonholed into unrealistic social conventions. But what about the grey area? Society is beginning to progress and acknowledge that we are not always one or the other. For instance, it is now recognised that you can be gay, straight, bi-sexual, queer or even pansexual (someone who is attracted purely to the person, and their attraction is not defined by gender), and in the case of class it is thought by some that it no longer exists in Britain. But what about gender? Gender is one category that society just won’t let go of. We cannot escape being labelled as either male or female, and society’s expectations of our behaviour are constructed around the idea of what it is to be "female" and what it is to be "male." All of which is neither necessary nor beneficial. A person shouldn’t be judged by their gender: in what way do people's genders define who they are? Society, unfortunately, takes this gender malarkey very seriously. This rejection of ingrained gender expectations has led to some transgendered people facing prejudice and transphobic hate crimes. We need to start at the basics. What is transgender? Well, in society, it is something that is hidden, pushed to the outskirts, as it does not conform to the neat boxes of gender binaries. In reality, "transgender" is an umbrella term which describes people who do not conform to the hegemonic gender
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We are continually defined in binaries. But what about the grey area?."
stereotypes of society, that is, they do not identify with the gender assigned to them at birth. Transgender incorporates not only transsexuals - those who identify as one gender and may have undergone gender reassignment surgery - but people who self-identify as genderqueer (neither male nor female), intersex (in which they were born as neither sex, were ascribed to a certain gender, and now want to re-define their gender), and people who cross-dress. Within the transgendered community, all of these descriptions are self-definitions. Some people who have changed their gender assigned to them at birth do not choose to identify as transsexual. For instance, the winner of Big Brother 5, Nadia Almada, recognises her transsexual history but defines herself as “a woman. I don’t want to tick a box and say I am transgender.” There is a more sinister side to this idyllic fluidity of gender, which we must all remember in the hope that transphobia will one day become
non-existent. On November 20, people throughout the world will commemorate the eleventh International Transgender Day of Remembrance (TGDoR). TGDoR is a day of memorial created by Gwendolyn Ann Smith in 1998 to honour Rita Hester and all those who have been victims of transphobic hate crime and murdered for being perceived as transgender. After 11 years of TGDoR, transphobic hate crime continues. Statistics collated by Remembering Our Dead, a
project also initiated by Smith, shows that reported deaths due to transphobic hate crimes are rising. Between 1970 and 1979, there were 21 recorded murders of transgendered people in the United States, and one murder internationally. These figures have jumped in 2008 to 18 recorded murders in America and 29 internationally. This TGDoR we will be commemorating 537 lives worldwide that have been lost due transphobic hate crime. In Scotland, people are still victims of transphobic prejudice and discrimination. The Scottish Transgender Alliance (STA) conducted a survey in 2008 into the experiences of transgendered people living in Scotland. The survey hoped to provide an insight into the lives and concerns of people in Scotland who identified as transgender. Out of those surveyed, 62 per cent stated that they have received some form of transphobic harassment in public spaces from strangers, who have perceived them to be transgendered. Mostly this was verbal harassment; however, 17 per cent of respondents reported physical harassment and four per cent had experienced sexual harassment. One University of Edinburgh student stated, “The worst I’ve ever experienced was when some kids were pointing and laughing at me as I waited for a train. I could hear them being negative about not being able to tell if I’m male or
female. As I walked to the train, one ran up behind me and tried to pull my trousers down to ‘see what it is.’ “I can only describe the experience as dehumanising. In what sort of circumstance is it acceptable to do that to someone? I doubt those kids would ever do that to someone for any other reason, but they felt they had a right to know what my gender is. They thought they could find that out by finding out what is in my boxers. It’s not uncommon for people to think like that; it’s like they don’t know how to function around someone unless they know their gender. Thankfully, most people who think that just ask, but there are actually very few circumstances where knowing someone’s gender or what’s in their underwear is relevant.” Not only do transgendered people
experience unreasonable harassment in the public arena, but 53 per cent of respondents to the STA survey stated that they had experienced transphobic discrimination, and in some cases harassment, at work. This becomes extremely problematic for people who
identify as transgender, as some people reported that the harassment was so degrading that they had to resign. Not only do transgendered people experience verbal harassment and disrespect at work for not conforming to society’s ideology of "natural" gender binaries, they are also discriminated against in terms of pay. Out of the people surveyed, 55 per cent had at least a degree, yet only 30 per cent of respondents
were earning over £20,000. This statistic is incredible compared to the national average undergraduate starting pay, which, according to the AGR Graduate Recruitment Survey 2009, stands between £22,000 and £27,000. The STA survey hopes that its results will inform the Scottish Government Equality Unit and the Equality and Human Rights Commission's policy-making, so that they can implement schemes that will be proactive in tackling discrimination against transgendered people. Two students at the University of Edinburgh who identify as genderqueer expressed further need for understanding and, subsequently, change. One student stated, “For male or female trans people it is getting better, but for nongender binary people there is still nothing. For most people not being male or female, and not constantly presenting one gender or the other, is a foreign concept. To be socially comfortable, the key is to be confident enough to present my gender how I want and to be non-gender binary despite people’s expectations. Two years ago that wasn’t something I could do, but now I’m able to push a little bit when I need to ensure my own inclusion.” Another student recognises the
lack of understanding about transgender and people who identify as gender queer: “There was a time when I didn’t have the knowledge or vocabulary to understand what I was feeling.” To overcome this uncertainty they suggested that the main change they want to see is “educating people, then the second thing would be moving society away from the idea of a binary gender.” Both students admitted that they have never experienced any form of transphobic harassment or discrimination during their time at the University of Edinburgh. However, one issue raised was that in first year one student was put into a single-sex flat: “There’s an option on the form for not minding being in a mixed-sex flat, but there is no option to say that you’d prefer it. It wasn’t the fault of the people I was living with but it made me pretty uncomfortable.” Kate Harris, LGBT Action Group Convenor, believes that we have a long way to go in terms of our attitude towards gender: "I think that
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I can only describe the experience as dehumanising. They felt they had a right to know what my gender is, by finding out what is in my boxers."
there is a very deep-seated culture of gender binary norms and that transgender and intersex people are some of the most heavily discriminated against in society. We only have to look at the case of Caster Semenya to see that people have very crude attitudes towards gender. In reality there are several genders, if not an entire spectrum of genders whereas society only caters for two types." How can society break away from the conventions of gender binaries so that a person whose identity “changes from day-to-day” can become a fully accepted person and not an "other" within society? How can society break away from its prejudices to see the person and not the gender? One genderqueer student said: “In my ideal world people wouldn’t be so obsessed with gender. So many other parts of peoples’ identity changes all the time: name, age, religion, accent, class, political beliefs, etc. I wish people could realise that gender isn’t some primary divide of human beings, it’s mostly a set of irrelevant ideals.” We can only hope that one day gender fluidity, like other altering aspects of our identity, will be established.
Tuesday November 17 2009 culture.thestudent@gmail.com
14 Review
ELIN JAKOBSDÓTTIR: HINGES BETWEEN DAYS UNTIL 3 MARCH STILLS
ACCORDING TO the catalogue, "the inscrutable logic of the subconscious" is a key player in Elin Jakobsdóttir’s art. This made me wary; there is something tedious about following artworks which arise unsummoned from subliminal depths. Happily, however, there need be no such reservations about Jakobsdóttir, whose articulate and accomplished show sets just the right tone of oneiric recollection. Her glimpsed, fragmented images are coherently integrated into a body of work where they gradually gain cumulative force through ever-so-subtle repetitions. Jakobsdóttir has just completed the Stills residency programme, and has clearly made the most of the gallery’s outstanding digital and darkroom facilities; her films are the keynote around which the show revolves. "Worktable" is particularly impressive: a simple, observational study of a young boy drawing, cutting, and sewing effortlessly evokes the pure, cathartic pleasure of craft. The scenes are interspersed with fleeting diversions to window ledges and rustling leaves, conjuring a dim nostalgia which is well served by the aesthetics of the film itself, with its grainy
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Jakobsdóttir is intrigued by the expanding creativity of two minds operating in close proximity but still partitioned from each other " texture and darkened vignette. The unusual set-up of a doublesided screen between opposing pairs of seats requires the viewers to shift about uncertainly as they re-align their seating patterns to watch the film without blocking the projection. This minor experiment in social discomfort has its artistic merits. Watching the film is not a wholly passive experience: it forces you to interact with the other viewers. The notion of two separate minds working closely together but not communicating is one which intrigues Jakobsdóttir. It is repeated in "Two-Sided Table," a sculpture of a library desk, in which she has inlaid the glass tabletop with beautifully intricate latticed paper. It is an allusion to the expanding creativity of two minds, operating in close proximity but still partitioned from each other. Compared to these works, Jakobsdóttir’s photographs initially seem a little derivative in their colourless shots of everyday details. However, with closer scrutiny, you start to recognise scenes from her films. These recapitulated motifs converge into a sort of Proustian, cyclic narrative which enriches itself with subsequent viewings, forming a resonant succession of images acquiring, changing and discarding their original meanings. Kamila Kocialkowska
A tale of two cities
Sarah Franklin and Hayley Alexander report on the recent artistic exchange between Edinburgh and Glasgow
Marc Bijl Statement (I'm too sad to kill you) , 2001 THE WAY OUT IS THE WAY OUT RUN ENDED EMBASSY
WAREHOUSE OF HORRORS RUN ENDED +44 141 GALLERY, GLASGOW
GLASGOWBASED ARTISTS from the SGW3 studios have relocated to Edinburgh to put together "The Way Out is the Way Out" exhibition, currently showing at the Embassy Gallery. This is one half of an exchange bridging the divide between Scotland’s two art capitals: over in Glasgow the Embassy gallery have set up Warehouse of Horrors, an exhibition currently on in the +44 141 gallery. Showing a younger, fresher aspect
[Photo Credit Stephen McGarry, Courtesy +44 141 Gallery]
of Glaswegian art, the artists not only share studios, but also a common interest in abstraction and the psychedelic. Drawing initial influences from 1960s movements such as Abstract Expressionism and Minimalism, the work branches out simultaenously towards the primitive and the futuristic. Artists such as Benny Merris and Sophie Mackfall make use of bold primary colours alongside black and white, a simple palette traditionally associated with early Abstraction. Their application of paint is unrestrained, and appears to channel primeval techniques. At the other end of the spectrum Ragner Jonasson and Sandy Smith embrace futuristic forms and technology, with Jonasson’s sculptures taking on an almost CGI-esque appearance. While vivid colours appear to domi-
nate the gallery, they also complement the monochrome pieces, bringing to life works that could otherwise appear somewhat lost, as is the case with work by Christian Newby, Dan Miller and Alan Stanners. The exhibition works a treat, with the artists appearing to share not only studios but also similar ideals. As well as bringing a slice of Glasgow to Edinburgh the exhibition incorporates a fun, "way out" attitude, which combined with a hint of communal working harks back to the days of 1960s art practices and may pave the way forward into the future. In Glasgow, curator Benjamin Fallon has put together an eerie exhibition, bringing together a mix of both local and internationally renowned artists in the foreboding atmosphere of a derelict building. Tarpaulin sheets Alonzo in forcing the audience to imagine Nemorino fishing and wading through a brook, with Louise Alder (who took roles which forced her to sing in English and German as well as Italian) falling for Owain Brown’s Bel Core, the sheriff who seems more manly than the childish Nemorino, who tosses her Jilly Cooper book into the "water." The three-part harmonies here were stunning, showcasing three fine diaphragms.
ALEXIA BETANCOURT
CULTURE
EDINBURGH STUDIO OPERA: OPERA SCENES 12 & 13 NOVEMBER ST. CECILIA'S HALL
BEFORE THE iPlayer and iPod, entertainment was a three-hour production of stylised farce or romance; both styles were showcased in this septet of scenes. It’s all well and good to hear a recording or witness a static recital, but to see contorted faces in corset-cossetted bodies is to open your mind
into new worlds. In an egg-shaped space (true theatre in the ovoid), fingerbite-sized opera for only a fiver (concessions) was a joy to behold. The Magic Flute and The Marriage of Figaro offered three of the musical vol-au-vents, with dazzling duets between flute-admiring Tamino (Francis Powlesland) and Jerome Knox’s Papageno setting the stage for an evening of coloratura and bravura. The playful scene on a riverbank from Donizetti’s L’Elisir D’Amore showcased the direction of Antonia
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To see contorted faces in corsetcosseted bodies is to open your mind into new worlds " With the musical accompaniment from Susie Wapshott and ever (ambi)dextrous Nick Fletcher a joy throughout, Colleen Nicoll also shone as a wide-eyed Cherubino, twirling and curseying aplombly to equal Suzanne McGrath’s aria, a perfectly-phrased "Porgi Amor." Likewise, the incredibly tough trio of piano, female and male of
segment the room, giving an abandoned vibe to the warehouse space. Despite the dissonance in the background music, the space in +44 141 gallery doesn’t bare the tension that horror films commonly rely on, instead exhibiting a more humourous take on the macabre. Video is also prominent in the space. Both Alexander Hetherington’s and Olaf Bruening’s video installations compel viewers to interact physically by forcing them to stoop, or in Bruening’s case, to climb inside an old caravan. Aida Ruilova’s video work makes use of a freehand technique, drawing on horror film cliché, reminiscent of techniques used in films such as The Blair Witch Project. Drawings and paintings are interspersed throughout the room; large monochrome paintings stand adjacent to Marc Bijl’s piece: a scrawl stating, “I’m too sad to kill you” dominates the far wall of the gallery. Opposing this in both scale and placement, Chris Walker’s pencil on paper drawings resemble lighthearted cartoons, juxtaposed by their gruesome and bizarre subject matter. Materials such as molten wax and hair play an integral role in creating the atmosphere of an abandoned film set, and works by Emma Pratt and Catherine Street resemble leftover props. Beagles and Ramsay have overtaken a small office room to the side of the main gallery which when filled with their black sculptures, palm trees, and cardboard boxes, becomes a unusual installation space in which the viewer can explore a mix of the surreal and the banal. The work is cohesive under its Halloween theme, although some of the individual pieces seem a bit like filler or decoration. Overall the Edinburgh artists have brought a decidedly eerie exhibition to Glasgow, playing well on the gallery’s existing desolate warehouse atmosphere. These two successful exhibitions reveal a more cooperative side of the Scottish art scene, where differences are not just laid to rest, but embraced and celebrated. the second Magic Flute scene where Papageno (Knox) and Papagena ( Julie Moote) sing at speed and gaze lovingly into each other’s eyes was a house-ofcards in song. The former even executed a perfect slide to the latter of about eight feet and hit his note perfectly. It is exhausting enough to hear opera alone; to see it makes it all the more dazzling. The second half contained two pieces, three (girl-as-boy-on-girl) convincing kisses and eleven executions: Poulenc’s The Carmelites’ Dialogues scene saw a chorus of eleven women beheaded one by one, making use of the surfeit of females in the group. Though the choreography backfired spectacularly on Thursday night’s performance, I am told Friday’s sold-out show was more successful and, though one can question the portentous nature of the final pieces after so jolly a first half, both were great set pieces nonetheless. In a society entertained by falling footballers, autotuned pop poppets and the Jedward thing, what a delight to be reminded of the Western world’s most draining art form. The Cunning Little Vixen is next for the ensemble and, judging by the voices on show here, it ought to be a marvel. Jonny Brick
Tuesday November 17 2009 studentnewspaper.org
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Review 15 STAR RATING Magnifico-o-o-o-o
Sends shivers down my spine
Easy come, easy go Just gotta get right out of here
Sometimes I wish I'd never been born at all
Just a crazy bunch of Guys and Dolls
Eynon Nemus heads to the Pleasance to sample Edinburgh University Savoy Opera Group's latest offering JAMES BASTER
The Guys momentarily break the fourth wall to catch up on their own review GUYS AND DOLLS RUN ENDED PLEASANCE THEATRE
AS EUSOG took on Guys and Dolls just six weeks ago, you had to feel some anxiety for the production team. The stalwart musical that thwarted the likes of Laurence Oliver (who tried and failed, as director of the Royal National Theatre, to finance a production starring him as Nathan Detroit) is venerated amongst musical buffs as one of the ‘greatest
of all the American musicals’ and is difficult to convincingly pull off. As one of the most popular musicals to be performed in American high schools a good production must truly excel to break away from the pack - a feat at which Savoy’s performance struggled but succeeded in. The play is a whirlwind, cynical story about love set in 1950s post-prohibition New York. The tale focuses on the escapades of Nathan Detroit and Sky Masterson, two Manhattan lowlives who experience love from very different perspectives. Detroit (the organiser of a popular
‘floating crap game’) works hard throughout the story to avoid marrying his fiancée of fourteen years (Miss Adelaide) while still keeping his crap game afloat. Meanwhile Masterson takes on a bet that he can woo Sarah Brown, the austere but beautiful Sergeant of the local ‘Save-a-Soul’ mission. At first the story seems like another hollow excuse to sing and dance but it does not take long to see it is really a brilliant pastiche of love, exploring not only what it is to fall in love but what it is to stay that way. With solid all round performances from Scot Dingan as Nathan Detroit and Katie Irby as Sarah Brown - as well as Amy Warke’s superb Miss Adelaide - the production had you tapping your feet all the way through. Though basic, the set and costumes set the scene well and complimented both the actors and Natalie Baumann’s outstanding lighting plot. The band provided a firm base for the show's many chorus and solo numbers but seemed to sometimes lag, even despite Musical Director Ian McLarty’s frantic (yet often confusing) conducting. The chorus were well rehearsed but, though they put their hearts into singing, occasionally broke out of character on account of Miriam Early’s competent choreography. singing. Falzon and French-Ellis, along with Wayne A. Robinson and Rachel John as Britney and Meat, gave fantastic vocal performances and provided hilarious characterisations that maintained the pace of Elton’s script. Brenda Edward’s Killer Queen was ubiquitous and domineering, one of the most watchable characters and incredibly funny. The visual effects were especially prominent as computerised images created a futuristic feel to an otherwise clinical set. 'Another One Bites The Dust' was slick and sexy and a definite highlight in Arlene Phillips’
The Student hopes everyone was wearing deodorant WE WILL ROCK YOU UNTIL 9 JAN EDINBURGH PLAYHOUSE
IT’S HARD to squeeze into 400 words why We Will Rock You is one of the best musicals to hit Edinburgh. It has been running for seven years now and, being funny, fast, and with pure energy bursting from the stage, it’s no wonder that at times it feels more like a gig than a theatre production. Pure rock it is not, the resurrection of Queen it is not, yet a fantastic musical it most certainly is. The arrangements of 24 of their greatest hits are uplifting, rock-tastic and as close to the originals as you’re going to get. The show is set in the semiapocalyptic world of Planet Maul, where music is created by computers and instruments are considered a dirty word. Social outcasts Galileo Figaro and his ‘chick’ Scaramouche find themselves in a race to discover
the lost instruments of rock and to destroy the Globosoft Corporation headed by Killer Queen. Ben Elton’s script is peppered with his trademark witty gags - the kind of things your Dad cracks up over. Given the seemingly impossible task of stringing together unrelated Queen songs into a vaguely plausible storyline, it couldn’t have been anything but hilarious. Darren Day’s performance as Khashoggi was a little disappointing; for a veteran of musicals and a self-confessed Queen fan his ‘Seven Seas of Rhye’ felt too staged and lacked the necessary ‘rock’ element that other numbers had. Luckily it didn’t detract too much from the overall performance, but with Michael Falzon’s Galileo and Sarah French-Ellis’ Scaramouche providing witty, energetic performances, Day was left limping on the sidelines. The secret of the show’s success seemed to lie in the cast’s ability to combine humour with incredible
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Ben Elton's script is peppered with his trademark witty gags the kind of things your Dad cracks himself up with." otherwise robotic choreography. And what a finale! We Will Rock You prompted a standing ovation (this is the third time I’ve seen this show get a standing ovation, and it definitely deserves it) followed by fan favourite 'Bohemian Rhapsody' complete with Brian May and Roger Taylor making an appearance and rocking the Playhouse into the night. Definitely an experience if you’re lucky enough to see them, but still an amazing show without.
Jen Bowden
Though generally strong, the production was let down by some of the supporting actors who did not seem to have fully grasped their characters: Ali Colam’s Nicely-Nicely seemed at times to be Nasty-Nasty, whereas Sam Cable’s Brannigan did not seem capable of stand still or appear convincingly authoritative. Blocking was an issue all through the play, with characters walking up and down the stage unnecessarily throughout songs, serving only to break the ‘suspension of disbelief ’ and make the piece seem tacky. All in all, the production was
good fun - providing an evening's worth of entertainment that lasted all through the night, as you whistled the tunes home. EUSOG must be congratulated on being able to produce what they did in such a limited time, it is not hard to see that with more time the show could have really shone. It is great to see the company taking on more ambitious projects and it is with anticipation and enthusiasm that this reviewer looks forward to EUSOG’s production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Ruddigore next semester. JAMES BASTER
'Superb' Amy Warke as Miss Adelaide with Scot Dingan as Nathan Detroit ROSMERSHOLM RUN ENDED BEDLAM THEATRE
WELL. WHAT can I say? After a turbulent 2 and a half hours I emerge from the theatre, basking in the triumph of a stunning cast and an evening of overall… competency. Unashamedly dark, with lashings of politics, Rosmersholm is a tale of love, thwarted dreams, incestuous nightmares and suicide. One of Ibsen’s most celebrated works is once again retold period style with lace and cravats (sadly no top hats), sumptuous costume and suitably moody lighting. Talk, talk, talk. Yadda, yadda, yadda. This is a wordy play. The potential for boredom is high. Thankfully, skilled director George Ransley doesn’t let us down. This is a slick production, with flowing dialogue and swift scene changes. The staging is thoughtful and (crucially) well rehearsed, the set tasteful and unobtrusive, all with a pleasingly cohesive colour scheme. But for all this talk of technical competency, where the play truly triumphs is in the cast. Rebecca (Alice Bonifacio) is enigmatic and beguiling, delivered with composure and subtlety; Mr Kroll (Will Green) has sheer energy and decisiveness, his character fully developed and integrated. Rosmer (Charlie Laurie, son of Hugh, no less) creates a heartbreaking emotional intimacy with the audience, his actions specific and nuanced; this is a skilled, moving performance. The minor characters are well chosen: Brendal (Arthur Ford) is engaging, lightening an otherwise increasingly depressive mood, while David Elms’ Mortensgaard is refresh-
ingly understated and contained. Mrs Helseth (Hannah Mendoza) manages to play the truth of the housekeeper, with an unassuming air making her as interesting as anyone else onstage. Now my snags. The age/class difference between both Mrs Helseth and Rebecca, and Brendal and Rosmer, could be more distinct; the ambiguity jars in such a naturalistic piece. Some actors need more courage, others need to consider a wider contrast of emotional range (avoiding comfort zones) while for others vocal production is inconsistent. For such a static play a bit more attention to pace as
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You don't see many student productions as polished, as well considered, and as fantastically acted as this one " well as maintaining those simmering energy levels would elevate this production to even greater heights. To be fair to Team Ransley, the production is a very high standard. You just don’t see many student productions as polished, as well considered and as fantastically acted as this one. Rosmersholm is an unquestionable success. So why “competent”? The direction is transparent and suits what the production aims for – a clear, accurate, classical portrayal of Ibsen. However a bit of artistic license wouldn’t go amiss. Go on. Use those redundant scene changes, do something crazy. Get full use of that live musician. Maybe even get some of those top hats everyone was once crazy about.
Amanda Bottomley
Tuesday November 17 2009 studentnewspaper.org
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16 Lifestyle
Lazy Sunday brunch
THE MARS EXPERIENCE
Nell Frabotta samples Pink Olive's new menu A
fter eating, my fellow diner and I ultimately concluded that while the name of the establishment may be questionable, the quality of food at Pink Olive is definitive. We went for brunch on a gloomy grey-skied Sunday, but upon entering the establishment the mood seemed to lift. The décor was welcoming - warm hardwood floors and windows that seemed to consolidate what little light the weather had to offer. The restaurant conveniently sits on the corner of Chapel Street and West Nicolson Street, just adjacent to George Square. Before going, I had honestly never really noticed this little gem, despite its location and quirky advertising. Settled next to an assortment of other well-known and student-frequented eateries, it is not unthinkable that other students may have scurried past, fearing high prices that just overshoot the budget. After all, Pink Olive seems relatively new in comparison to places like the Nile Cafe, the Pear Tree, and the Mosque Kitchen which are better known as affordable student haunts. It also boasts many favourable reviews, earning a spot in The List's
while ago, I visited Glasgow with my Spanish friend. Apart from seeing the famous football stadiums, my friend had another plan in mind: tasting the mysterious deep-fried Mars bar. I thought he was joking when he mentioned it on the bus. After having been to the first two stadiums, we strolled down Buchanan Street looking desperately for signs saying ‘deep-fried Mars bars served’ but no luck for us. Finally, we stopped two young girls in the middle of the street: "Excuse me, do you know where we can buy fried Mars bars?" Bemused, they said they’d heard of it but never tried it before. They suggested that we go to one of the fish and chip shops. Luckily there was one just a few minutes’ walk away. "Hi, have you got fried Mars bars here?" I asked on entering the shop. The girl behind the counter hesitated and then smiled, "Well, yes! It’s £1.50 each. How many would you like?" Later on when I skimmed the menu, however, I couldn’t find it there. The chef took out two Mars bars from the fridge, stripped them open, and literally deep-fried them in the batter used for fish and chips. We looked in excitement, wondering if the chocolate is going to disappear immediately in the boiling hot pot of oil. While waiting, we asked the girl whether the fried Mars bar was really invented in Scotland. She laughed and said she’d never actually had Scottish customers asking for it, only tourists. A few minutes later, the chef scooped two Mars bars, now swelling with golden skin, from the pot and placed them in two plastic cases used for serving fish and chips. I was expecting him to ask if I wanted salt and vinegar with it but was disappointed. We ate it, still paranoid, on our way to the Celtic Park by the underground. It turned out to be anything but disgusting - in fact, it tasted somewhat like chocolate cake! The chocolate did melt a little bit but not to the extent I’d thought it would be. It was beautifully heated up with the protection of the batter wrap; as a result, it became a soft and crispy and oily sweet mixture. I Wiki-ed ‘deep-fried Mars bars’ that night and found out that it originated in Stonehaven, Scotland in the mid-1990s, and that it was said to insinuate the famously unhealthy Scottish diet. The fried Mars bar has become an eccentric Scottish speciality and apparently can be found in many fish and chip shops. Nevertheless, most of my British friends didn’t seem too keen when I shared this delightful culinary experience with them.
Chieh Lin James
wonderful. We also tasted one of the desserts: a wild rosehip, elderberry and white wine jelly accompanied by a fruit compote. For as much sensory depth as one could to hope muster from a jelly, I suppose this one succeeded admirably, as it was just as tart as it was sweet. Pink Olive also offers a standard lunch menu, a pre-theatre menu (not available during December and August) and a dinner menu. The lunch menu offers several starters, including a daily soup and a few innovative vegetable-based dishes, including a potato salad served with cured Scottish rainbow trout and spring onion. Mains include a soup and sandwich combo for £5.00, with a choice of meat or vegetable filling. There is also a linguini dish as well as several meat-based options, including a braised pork belly and a pan-seared sea bram. The pre-theatre menu is available during selective months Tuesday through Saturday, between 5:30 and 6:30. This option offers a choice of either two courses for £9.50, or three courses for £11.50. Sides (chips, salad or sauteed vegetables) are all
priced at £2.50. The dinner menu offers a single course at £12.95 and up to three courses for £18.95, all of which consist of more conventional mains (sirloin steak with chunky chips), as well as more inventive combinations (baked haddock fillet with parmesan crust, roast sweet potatoes and chorizo sauce), as well as a solid number of vegetarian options. Desserts vary from a white chocolate blondie, an apple upside-down cake, a stewed pear- and plum-crumble and a baked orange chocolate cheesecake. The staff are lovely and accommodating, and the overall experience taught me not to judge a restaurant by its slightly unsavoury title. Brunch from £4.50 For any additional infomation, check out Pink Olive's website www. ilovepinkolive.co.uk
PINK OLIVE
A
Eating and Drinking Guide (2009 - 2010), and was even awarded eight and a half stars by the Sunday Herald. Still, with a diverse and newly revamped menu, I can now say that it is worth exploring. I ordered from the Sunday brunch menu, served from 10:30 to 4:00, and decided upon the smaller option of meat fry-up as to make room for an order of pancakes (no judgement, please). I also chose a tasty glass or two of pinot grigio from their fairly extensive wine list (again, no judgement, it was past noon after all!) The traditional fry-up was done nicely, with a fried egg, roast tomato, pork sausage, baked beans, sautéed mushrooms and toast. They also offer a veggie option. The Bigger Breakfast option includes the above but with a wider selection of dishes and includes tea, coffee or juice. However, my favourite part of the meal was the order of pancakes. Homemade and warm just off the griddle, they come topped with fresh fruit, tangy yoghurt and honey. Even after all of that, I still managed to get food envy of the writer across the table from me, whose roast and Yorkshire pudding smelled
Holiday cheer comes too early
Adele Merson examines the effects of premature Christmas advertising T
he faux cobwebs from the Halloween parties have been swept away, your firm resolution to never turn on the heating is beginning to wane and nightfall has begun to blindsight you as you step out of your afternoon lecture... the Christmas season is well and truly upon us. If you take a walk down Princes Street you will see that shops such as Marks & Spencer, John Lewis and Debenhams have all incorporated the Christmas spirit into their displays. The Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) receives numerous complaints every year concerning the onslaught of Christmas advertising in months as early as October. Festive advertising campaigns have been strongly accused of 'offensive' and 'socially irresponsible' nature. Premature Christmas promotions can alienate shoppers, especially in light of our current economic state, as many people will be forced to celebrate the holidays on a budget this year. Christmas advertising annoys us because it is constantly thrown
in our faces in all its tinseled glory, reminding us of all the spending we are expected to accomplish, regardless of whether we have the time and money or not. Edinburgh is undeniably beautiful around Christmas time, with the charming German market and the ethereal lights on Princes Street Gardens that conjure up a Disneylike magic kingdom. Surely this feeling of nostalgia is what 'makes' Christmas for many of us? However, looming essays and the impending December exam period can somehow manage to reduce our Christmas cheer to a scowl. Therefore, maybe we shouldn’t blame the adverts for our ‘Scrooge’ factor, and instead blame our pesky workload. Those illuminated Coca-Cola trucks trundling through the snow to 'Holidays are Coming' are the pied pipers of Christmas for many of us. If we take a look at the television advertisements, it is obvious that many have catered their campaigns to the budgeting stress of Christmas.
ASDA asks “Why pay more for Christmas?” while Boots shows a bunch of office girls buying their colleagues Secret Santa gifts with their all-important 3-for-2 and under £5 deals. Arguably, this seemingly hasty seasonal marketing spread throughout the months could be helpful in preventing last-minute shopping desperation and disasters. Christmas adverts, love them or hate them, will forever be an integral part of our holiday experience. They might aggravate us since we are all trapped in exam lockdown, but maybe we should try to concentrate on the joyful aspects of winter and stow away our cynicism for another season. Sure there are exams and presents to stress about, but maybe we should just sit back, relax and smirk at Take That having a snowball fight.
ava Now
!
! tores
in s ilable
27TH NOVEMBER Celebrate Thanksgiving at Teviot with all the Traditional Trimmings. Full Traditional Carvery Dinner, Celebration and Thanks. £10 per person
THANKSGIVING
MEAL
7:30pm Teviot’s Debating Hall
Tickets are available from the potterrow shop
eusa.ed.ac.uk
Edinburgh University Students’ Association is a Registered Scottish Charity (No.SCO15800)
EUSA Shop Offers Buy any 3 Daim 29g; Milk Orange Bar 40g; Toblerone Milk 35g & Toblerone Fruit and Nut 35g for £1.00
Buy a NEW Cadbury Dairy Milk Snowbites Bag 100g for 99p
Buy any 3 Cadbury Bars 49g for £1.19
Buy any 2 Classic Flapjacks for 85p
Buy 2 Pepperami 25g for £1.00
Buy a Ginsters Sandwich of the month: Christmas Edition for £2.69
Buy a 50% extra HTGG FGGR ſNN $.6 for £2.55
20% off clothing: Christmas Special
Tuesday November 17 2009 film@studentnewspaper.org
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18 Review
FILM
5 Films... ...On the Road Films
In the Wild (2007) This astounding epic will blow your mind. Based on a true story, it follows the journey of disillusioned Christopher McCandless who, after donating his savings to charity and burning his cash, embarks on a voyage to Alaska where he hopes to escape the superficiality of modern society. Along the way, he encounters everything that American subculture has to offer. Emile Hirsch, who plays McCandless, gives a performance beyond words. The cinematography, acting and directing talent form a rare combination both refreshing and spectacular, all complemented by a beautiful soundtrack by Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder. Little Miss Sunshine (2006) This film contains one of my favourite scenes of all time, in which Alan Arkin’s character advises his grandson: "Fuck a lot of women. Not one woman, a lot of women. I have no reason to lie to you." The dysfunctional Hoover family are driving their minivan to California for the finals of their daughter's beauty pageant, a grotesque annual affair in which prepubescent girls compete for the title of Little Miss Sunshine. Grandad is snorting heroin at motel stops, Dad is trying to hold together a failed business plan and Uncle has just survived attempted suicide. Almost Famous (2000) Based on director Cameron Crowe's personal experiences as a young journalist tailing the likes of the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin, this film is so transportive you'll feel like it's 1973 for days afterwards. Following the band Stillwater, 15-year-old William Miller experiences the lives of rock stars and their 'band aids' (i.e. groupies) as they tour the States in their bus, which is affectionately named 'Doris'. The film is captivating, nostalgic and - perhaps unsurprisingly - has a fantastic soundtrack. The Motorcycle Diaries (2004) This masterpiece by Walter Salles portrays the young Che Guevara traveling through South America with his best friend, Alberto Granado. Based on a journal written by Guevara himself, the film gives some fascinating insight into the pre-political life of this iconic revolutionary. The landscape is captured beautifully, and Gael Garcia Bernal is a fantastic Guevara.
2012 DIRECTED BY ROLAND EMMERICH elcome to Apocalyptic StereoW type: the Movie. Not a single character in this film is anything
other than an infuriating cliché, a collection of empty shells manufactured by Roland Emmerich’s latest Hollywood factory conveyor belt to coincide with his most recent serving of special effects-driven end-of-the-world nonsense. Each character’s worth is defined by one or two sketchy factors, which in this case tends to result in churlish national stereotypes. Token British Scientist in dodgy tweed suit? Tick. All-American Dad who must learn to become Dad again in sickly saccharine-coated moments of forced poignancy? Tick. Pug-faced Russian male who collects Bentleys and forces his trophy bimbo girlfriend to have a tit job? Tick. And last but not least, an unsettling conversation that takes place between an erudite Tibetan Grandfather and Grandson about how one must empty the cup – in other words head - before being in possession of worthwhile opinions. A) I preferred it when Yoda said it; stop plagiarising. B) Why did Emmerich not do us all a big old favour and take his own darned advice? Aesthetic simplicity on the screen is obviously not something that we
THE WHITE RIBBON DIRECTED BY MICHAEL HANEKE
he White Ribbon is the latest T feature-length production from Austrian auteur Michael Haneke and is similar to much of his earlier works. This is easily Haneke’s best film to date. Set in a remote German village between 1913 and 1914, The White Ribbon tells the story of the villagers and their reactions as a number of strange calamities befall their outwardly peaceful and unremarkable village. It begins with the village doctor. His horse is tripped by a wire strung between two trees as he rides back from dressage lessons. Next is the son of the Baron, who is strung upside-down in a barn house and whipped with a cane. Lastly, it's the son of the midwife, a Down’s Syndrome sufferer, who is beaten, blinded and left for dead in the forest. At the centre of these events is a family ruled over by an excessively cruel patriarch, a family obsessed
" What's that we're looking at with concerned expressions? Oh bugger, not another apocalyptic special effect..." expect from an Emmerich film. We already knew this from Independence Day. But at least Independence Day had an appealing story for the special effects to latch on to, even if it was just Aliens blowing the White House to smithereens. 2012 has so many contrived story lines occurring amidst the world ending that it is hard to stay focused on what the hell is going on. And when the various stories are eventually brought together and the walking stereotypes are unified through their struggle to survive, cringe-worthy and overtly didactic scenes which attempt to make its audience feel compassion come across as stale and artificial. John Cusack, our hero, nearly dies, and he nearly dies again but just with ritual punishment. The film is dictated through the memories of the local schoolmaster. Shot in colour but then digitally altered into a monochromatic format, The White Ribbon is austere and bleak. Ending rather damply and without focus, the tight plotting is abandoned for an unrewarding ending. Too many plot strands are left dangling, too many questions asked left unanswered. Some sort of conclusive ending would have benefited the film immeasurably. The White Ribbon, infuriatingly ambiguous as it is, is undoubtedly a technically excellent feature with brilliant ideas and characters but a somewhat messy plot. One spends more time guessing than watching, greatly to the detriment of the feature. However many awards are sure to come, with the film already nominated for Best Foreign Language feature for the Academy Awards 2010. A definite must-see. Sean Cameron
My Blueberry Nights (2007) Norah Jones plays Elizabeth, a woman who abandons her life in New York and takes to the road after she discovers her boyfriend is cheats on her. Wong Karwai, the Hong Kong director famous for his romantic, intoxicating imagery in films 2046 and In The Mood For Love, works his magic again and the whole film is an enchanting, visual dream. Rebecca Chan
WHY SO SAD? You've already got an Academy Awards nomination
makes it, and then he nearly dies again but slightly more so than last time, and then the audience starts to wish that he would actually do us all a favour and just die already. However, if we exclude most of the factors that many would judge to constitute a good film, such as an interesting and plausible plot alongside sound character development, then you might be able to justify wasting three hours of your life watching this. Visually stunning special effects scenery has created sights that are familiar to us all in states of turmoil. Emmerich has made his representations of earth as contemporary and as recognisable to his audience as possible, such as the imitation of Arnie the Governa-
tor of California, which, ashamedly, is perhaps one of the movie’s most entertaining parts. With a bizarre and disorderly script and a collection of characters that are as shallow as a puddle, one becomes quickly convinced that Emmerich only ever intended an interesting story line to be an inconvenience in achieving his orgy of computerised wizardry. Forget the end of the world - more importantly, purge the world of this film before the world ends and in generations to come any survivors discover what utter crap their ancestors watched. Kimberlee Mclaughlan
HEAVE HO BONER : "Look at me, ladies...look what I can grow..."
TAKING WOODSTOCK DIRECTED BY ANG LEE ng Lee is the award-winning A director of Brokeback Mountain and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
However, although serving to widen his impressive CV, his latest cinematic treat reveals that perhaps comedy isn’t his strongest point. Maybe he should just stick with the drama. Taking Woodstock charts the true story of Elliot Tiber (Demetri Martin), who inadvertently becomes heavily involved in making the Woodstock Music & Art Fair into the phenomenal cultural event that it became. The down on his luck interior designer leaves Greenwich Village, New York City to stay with his parents, who live upstate, and help with their dilapidated hotel. In an attempt to drum up business, Elliot makes a few phone calls, and before we know
it Woodstock Festival takes place on a neighbour’s farm on White Lake, NY and changes the face of popular culture in America. This is a low-profile film about a high-profile event. Rather frustratingly, there is little footage of the rock legends that played at the Woodstock Festival, or little of the festival at all for that matter. Instead, Lee concentrates on the more human side of events, such as Elliot’s reconciliation of his sexuality with his parents’ views. Not a lot happens except for this. Although the film does well in capturing a few hippie vans and the angst of the local rednecks who seek to kick the festival goers off their land for fear of their cows being raped. However, the footage is far too uninteresting to even begin to cinematically capture the essence of the cataclysmic event that was the Woodstock Festival. The film might as well have been based around Edinburgh’s Gardening and Flower show for all I cared; there was about as much revolutionary sentiment there. Bob Bootstrap
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Tuesday November 17 2009 studentnewspaper.org
Review 19
Music
doom Unexpected Guests gold dust media
efore he B dropped the stellar Born Like
This earlier this year, enigmatic hip-hop supervillain DOOM (having dropped the MF), had been uncharacteristically quiet. After releasing arguably classic after classic within an incredibly small time span, DOOM kept low for four years, his presence scarcely felt aside from a messy internet Omar rodriguez-lopez Xenophanes rodriguez-lopez productions
hen my W iTunes claimed ‘blues’ to
be the genre of the new offering from Omar Rodriguez Lopez (of The Mars Volta and precursors At the Drive-In), I was more than a little taken aback. Almost three minutes of pedestrian dissonance later, however, things are feeling a little more familiar; the explosion of second track ‘Mundo De Ciegos’ serves to land us firmly in classic Mars Volta territory. Unpredictable rhythms and gritty basslines abound, and it isn’t long before Lopez’s distinctly erratic guitar soars over a trademark fusion of sounds. From there on in we’re treated to a rollercoaster ride of Prog that swoops between ethereal allue, King Crimson-esque hooks and general chaos. The album never ceases to live up to the rhythmic tightness any dedicated fan will expect; Lopez once
Live
graham coxon power acoustic ensemble Tuesday 12th November queen's hall
ince leaving Blur, Damon Albarn’s S music career has been rather illustrious, ranging from the sublime (Goril-
laz) to the frankly pretentious (The Good the Bad and the Queen). Despite not attracting the same headlines, former/current band-mate (Blur having recently jumped on the re-uniting bandwagon), Graham Coxon has been surreptitiously building an impressive solo career, with seven solo albums to date. His latest effort The Spinning Top, released in May this year, embodies Coxon’s experimental philosophy, drawing heavily from British folk music
debate over whether it was in fact him making appearances at his shows. Hot on the heels of his 2009 comeback, perhaps this mixtape of collaborations is intended to regain DOOM his reputation as one of the most prolific emcee/producers in the game. It makes sense; despite his consistent solo work, many of DOOM’s greatest efforts have been collaborative. Indeed, what trips up this release is not necessarily just quality, but also purpose. It’s hard to find one. It’s a release intended for diehards, but still contains a track from the album he released earlier this year, the smooth soul-based Ghostface collab 'Angeles'. '?', featuring Kurious, was admittedly
only present on his out-of-print debut, but its hard to imagine DOOM’s rabid fan base having not discovered the art of illegal downloading. On top of this, any listeners of the smoker-delighting instrumental series 'Special Herbs' will have already heard some of the beats on offer here. Still, the tracks on this album, despite not being DOOM’s best, are by no means poor. DOOM is too verbose and entertaining a lyricist for that, let alone too consistent a beat maker with too sure-footed a taste in collaborators. Immediate standout 'Da Supafriendz' is an exercise in deft wordplay with underground heroes Cannibal Ox’s Vast Aire, over a reliably goofy jazz-piano loop. The enthralling guitar-based Dilla production 'Sniper Elite' and the dark 'All Outta Ale' by The Prof provide more production highlights. DOOM and his partners (also including the likes of Talib Kweli and Wu-Tang veteran GZA) make sure the verses throw up tantalising punchlines and flows. Still, it's undeniable that much else of what’s on offer here pales in comparison to DOOM at the top of his game; this release would have perhaps been more justifiable as an EP, trimmed of some of the middling tracks on offer here. Michael Russam
again enlists the services of Thomas Pridgen on drums, having worked alongside him since 2007 on both solo projects and the two latest Mars Volta records. Pridgen’s spluttering beats on tracks such as ‘Amanita Virosa’ solidify his status as one of the most highlyrated drummers around. Indeed, Lopez has succeeded entirely in building around him a band of musicians that are constantly intriguing. This is the first of his myriad projects in which Lopez takes the reins vocally throughout the album, with acclaimed Mexican singer Ximena Sariñana frequently doubling up the varied and creative melodies (delivered entirely in Spanish). It’s easy to wonder here if the album suffers from the absence of Cedric Bixler-Zavala, as even though Lopez shows he can handle the responsibility with aplomb, it’s hard not to expect Bixler-Zavala’s thrilling falsetto to leap in at any moment to complete such a well-established sound. Having said that, Xenophanes offers a depth that hasn’t been felt since 2005’s Frances the Mute.
Nirvana
Singles
Live at Reading geffen
ecord label R cashing in, or an essential
piece of Nirvana’s history? I’d have to agree with the latter. After all the rumours suggesting that Kurt wasn’t going to make the show as he was supposedly too drugged up, Nirvana answered their critics with one of the best performances ever witnessed at the Reading Festival. The whole CD sums up Nirvana perfectly. The audio production thankfully hasn’t been tampered with and therefore catches Nirvana near their raw and care-free best. After all, they were just three guys with long hair, playing rock music because as Kurt admitted, they “had nothing else to do”. The set list is superb as it contains songs from all four albums, Bleach, Nevermind, Incesticide and In Utero. The diversity of this material makes the CD a good start for those yet to be introduced to Nirvana and with most of the hits being played, it will also attract the casual listeners. This release is a step forward too for hardcore Nirvana fans still craving quality releases, but they will still be slightly disappointed as this performance has been circulating for over a decade now. It’s not a perfect performance from Cobain and company, but it’s certainly not disappointing. Thankfully ‘Love Buzz’ was omitted from the CD as it was played horrendously out of tune, which was funny at the time, but not something you want to hear repeatedly. Unfortunately the rare between-song banter is only featured on the DVD, which is a shame because the CD does seem to lack a bit of intimacy and instead races through the songs. The only real downside is when Kurt struggles with his voice, but despite this, the record is still fantastic and the best official live Nirvana CD released to date. It captures the band on a high and should take its place in every rock fan's CD collection. There were tighter Nirvana performances recorded (such as Halloween 1991), but these will hopefully be released officially over the next few years as we approach the twentieth anniversary (yes it’s that long ago!) of Nevermind. Will Lyon
Alex Fiddes for inspiration, whilst occasionally producing tracks that would seem very familiar to any fans of Blur. Tonight’s gig sees Graham and friends play this album through in its entirety, an interesting if not entirely original approach, having being adopted by the likes of Idlewild and Radiohead in recent gigs. In this case it would seem appropriate, as The Spinning Top is described by Coxon as an ‘accoustic journey’ recounting the life of a man from birth to death, so playing it in order seems a logical approach. The influence of folk music is immediately felt, with opener ‘Look Into the Light’ providing a beautiful reminder of Coxon’s abundant musical talents. The mood achieved is surprisingly intimate for a venue the size of the Queen’s Hall, undoubtedly helped by the performer’s self-effacing demeanour and banter with the crowd, once again reminiscent of a folk gig. Billed as a 'Power Acoustic
Ensemble', the emphasis falls squarely on the later, but there are moments of rock brilliance, such as current single ‘Dead Bees’ which sees the band descend into an extended jamming session that was mesmerising to watch. However, the gig suffered due, perhaps, to the inherent problem of playing one album fully, in that each time the energy is lifted by a rousing rock tune it is immediately followed up by a jingly acoustic number, flattening the atmosphere. Consequently the gig never really got going. Furthermore, despite being musically impressive, the acoustic set noticeably begins to run out of ideas towards the end and the encore only continues in this vein with Coxon playing what he describes as a few "little songs", ending the gig on a bit of a damp squib rather than a bang. Buster Stonham
Lady Gaga Bad Romance Interscope
Lady Gaga really, really wants you to think she's an absolute nutter, and does everything possible to convince you of this fact, from wearing a 'dress' that is basically two weirdly shaped pieces of metal, to shooting fireworks out of her breasts and, in this latest single, singing what sounds like "Rargh, Rargh ah ah ah, Roma rom-ma-ma, Ga Ga ooh la la." In terms of the fine tradition of pop gobbledegook, this is up there with 'I Am The Walrus'. Sadly the rest doesn't quite match up and follows the same formula as Gaga's first few hits: fuzzy, stuttering synths, club beats and a big, smooth chorus. It's not terrible, but it's certainly a sign that Lady Gaga is due a reinvention sometime in the near future. [Andrew Chadwick] Little Boots Earthquake 679
Head to head with La Roux, Little Boots is certainly the less annoying of the two artists supposedly spearheading some sort of female 80s synth-pop revolution. Of course neither are revolutionary, or even anything remotely original, despite what the mainstream music press would have you believe, but there's something likeable about Little Boots' songs, or at least the chorus of previous single 'Remedy'. This latest offering is a little on the weak side, too spindly to be a floorfiller but not exactly a ballad either: just filler, basically, not single material. Must do better. [AC] Florence and the machine You Got The Love Island
Florence was supposed to be the new pop princess and critical darling of UK music. "She's the new Kate Bush," they said, touting her as some sort of mysterious, angel-like genius who would churn out masterpieces for years to come. This of course, wasn't true, and as debut album Lungs showed, Florence was simply a very good, soulful singer making pop that wasn't as clever, quirky or mysterious as it thought it was. Releasing a cover of an already iconic, much-loved song would be ill-advised for most, but it seems to show Florence has accepted the facts detailed above and thrown herself into the role of big, mainstream pop star with glee, and it works brilliantly. Replacing the house backing of the original with a full band, complete with swirling pianos, Florence's belting vocal really does this justice. Surprisingly great stuff. [AC]
Tuesday November 17 2009 studentnewspaper.org
Addicted to the box? Email: tv.studentnewspaper@gmail.com
20 Review
TV THE LEADER, NOT THE DOG
The Execution of Gary Glitter
Jonathas Soares watches from the gallery as the paedo pop star pops his clogs
EARLIER THIS year, Margaret, like pretty much every other BBC political drama ever made, was full of plummy accents and grandly framed shots of Whitehall corridors. It was all terribly British, and Into The Storm is much the same in a superficial sense, but it portrays its protagonist in marginally more sympathetic terms. We don’t learn much here that we didn’t already know, but this is an entertaining and superbly played drama with an outstanding performance from Brendan Gleeson, who gets Churchill’s iconic voice just right. Switching between 1940 onwards and the 1945 general election, we see Churchill in his prime as a wartime leader, and as the outgoing prime minister and broken man after the war, whose penchant for a fight is no longer needed by a public eager to leave behind the war years. One thing is made clear: Winston loved war. At one point, after hearing of the bombing of Dresden, he says to his cabinet that before this, war was "cruel and magnificent - now it is cruel and squalid." It doesn’t occur to him that the latter was the case all along, and later, after winning the war and losing the election he admits that he’d do 1940 all over again. War is what made him tick, which is a pretty scary thought, and without a fight to lead the country through, he really wasn’t much use to anyone. He is contemptuous of anything progressive as we see when he growls at Clemmie, "You’re in one of your left-wing moods," and bluntly dismisses the prospect of a welfare state. The film doesn’t shy away from showing weakness, and the scenes leading up to the election show the Prime Minister as nervous and moody, shouting at his wife and staff and generally falling apart. We also see Churchill’s unequal relationship with Roosevelt when the president says to one of his staff : "I like him, but not as much, I think, as he likes me." As much as he was powerful and charismatic, the British prime minister was still captivated by the sheer might of the US and its leader. Elsewhere, there are some obligatory shots of Spitfires taking off as the Prime Minister watches proudly, a scene where Churchill accidentally drops his towel in front of Roosevelt, an exchange with a brilliantly stereotypical typical army officer about the uselessness of static guns on the coastline, and several meetings with the king, who talks like a posher Jonathan Ross. It’s a good job he was voted out when he was, but it’s also probably a very good thing he was in power when he was. His other political views may have been inexcusable, but this film posits that nobody was as well suited to lead the country in conflict as this man. Into The Storm does a good job of showing Churchill as the right man at the right time. Andrew Chadwick
GROSS GAZ: Gandalf the Grey had fallen on some hard times... y granny had many useful M sayings, one of them being: "All that glitters is not gold." She was so
right, especially in the case of Paul Francis Gadd, aka Gary Glitter. The world was shocked in 1997 when an obscene amount of child pornography was accidentally found on Glitter's laptop when it was being repaired at a branch of PC World. An investigation followed in the wake of the scandal. Although Glitter used to be considered hip and down with the kids, sadly for him paedophilia was never 'in' and this led to the biggest blow in his career: his appearance in the Spice Girls’ film Spice World was cut. He also went to prison, but that seems minor in comparison. Channel 4's drama The Execution of Gary Glitter uses his
story to discuss the issues surrounding capital punishment and oil the wheels of debate. The mockumentary kicks off by telling the tale of Gary’s reluctant return to Britain following his release from a Vietnamese prison, where he served three years for molesting two under-aged girls. He had been denied entry into Hong Kong, Thailand and the Philippines prior to his arrival in the UK. However, that’s the moment when the drama stops using facts and enters an imaginary Britain where two new legislations have passed. The first, unbeknownst to this fictionalised version of Glitter, has reintroduced the death penalty by popular demand after a ban of 40 years. The second allows Britain to prosecute offenders
for crimes committed overseas, and the disgraced pop idol is the unlucky first person to go to trial. The Execution of Gary Glitter is part courtroom drama, part collection of interviews with journalists and public figures such as Conservative Party MP Ann Widdecombe. The show also mixes footage of the real Glitter, such as the moment he apologises to the public in 1997, with scenes with his fictional counterpart. There’s no denying the concept of such a show is über bizarre, especially considering the real Gary Glitter is still alive. One can’t help but wonder what went through his mind while he watched himself being hanged on television. The show set out to discuss
GG: Glitter in happier times...
a weighty issue which some of us didn’t even know was relevant to our society until recently, when some surveys were carried out. It was bad news for Amnesty International and other like-minded organisations: the surveys indicated that the majority of citizens want to bring the death penalty back. Gary Glitter’s high profile richesto-rags story of someone who went from hobnobbing with pop stars to mingling with other jailbirds was probably what made the writers select him to bring to this drama more controversy and consequently more viewers. As for the imaginary Glitter, Scottish actor Hilton McRae’s arrogant performance is spot on. But, it’s difficult to have any sympathy for the character when he’s saying things such as, “I happen to find young women attractive” or when he keeps pleading innocent despite overwhelming evidence against him. At the gallows, before he can restate his innocence or say something like, "Why is this happening to me? Iz it because I iz black?!", he’s hung in a poignant scene towards the end. This drama may just have started a lil’ revolution (an MP may be writing the new legislation as you read this) and some changes may come to Britain pretty soon. If I were the real Gary Glitter, I’d be packing my bags right now, getting ready to sail into the sunset.
You'll believe a teen can fly
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's a bog standard teen-oriented drama, says Michael Russam
I
n case you weren’t already aware, Misf its is a brand new E4 comedy-drama, though which of the two genres it falls into is dependant on who you ask. It’s based on the exploits of a young band of (you guessed it) misfits, who have two things in common: ASBOs and superpowers. Upon explaining this premise to somebody, you’re more than likely to be greeted with either a bemused narrowing of the eyes or a withering sigh - perhaps even a wince. It isn’t hard to see why. The concept, along with the various online tidbits which E4 routinely bundle with their latest youth-zeitgeist hunting efforts and an admittedly compelling trailer, simply scream gimmick. Despite the warning signs, however, there is perhaps a little more to this new show than you may be inclined to give it credit for. It would be extremely tempting, (not to mention lazy), to describe this amalgamative new programme as something along the lines of Skins-meets-Heroes, but it is an altogether different beast. It has none of the self-consciousness of the former, and nothing like the brooding sci-fi seriousness churned out by the latter. What it does share with Skins is a certain characters-as-archetypes manner of presentation. There’s the chav, the party girl, the quiet and
slightly strange loner. There’s even a wise-cracking Irishman mouthpiece with a secret emotional depth. This kind of cliché is something that could bring down the first episode quickly, but it’s just about sustained by some decent performances, (in particular Nathan Stewart-Jarrett as disgraced sportsman Curtis), and that other key component: those superpowers. Inexplicably gained by the scrappy teenagers during a bizarre storm, the group soon find themselves attempting to explain
the emergence of individually specific abilities, not to mention fending off their now blood-lusting community support worker. While it may not seem as revolutionary as it did a few years ago, any attempt at subverting the superhero genre is always going to be a little admirable, and it’s with this dimension that the show picks up any of the points it does. The sudden shock of having to deal with the episode's events adds a touch more depth to the otherwise relatively two-dimensional
RESERVOIR THUGS: A look at the fashion world in 2029 - strange times.
characters, particularly in the case of the aforementioned chav, whose sudden ability to read minds lets her hear things concerning herself that she would certainly rather not. This almost takes care of the drama side, but what of that much talked-about comedic element? If considered in terms of being a comedy, the fact that the show is not funny could deal a crippling blow to its credibility. This is, unfortunately, the case. Smiles are raised here and there, but the show has that specifically British sense of humour possessed by the likes of Shameless (we’re not talking Peep Show or The Off ice here), but without much semblance of wit. It doesn’t feel like laughs are even attempted all that much, so perhaps this is less a case of poor writing than an instance of bad marketing on the channel’s part. While it would be unfairly critical to claim that the show leaves a particularly sour taste, and it may prove to be one of those compulsively watchable semi-guilty pleasures, it doesn’t rise to any standard above the mediocre. Misifts is on E4 on Thursdays at 21:00. Episodes are viewable online at www.e4.com/misf its/
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Tuesday November 17 2009 studentnewspaper.org
Review 21
Pimp my perception
TECHNOLOGY
Jonathan Mowat investigates the mind-bending world of Augmented Reality
ention the words "Virtual M Reality" to most people and the same image will always come to
mind: dodgy looking glasses, rows of computer banks and visuals that came from the eighties. Mention "Augmented Reality," however, and most people will have no idea what you are talking about and suggest that you stop watching re-runs of Tomorrow's World. Unlike those rocket cars and personal robots, which have remained firmly in their inventors' sheds, Augmented Reality has actually made an impact on the world of technology. Augmented Reality, or AR, is the merging of the real world with that of computer generated images – creating a mixed reality, the love child of Mother Nature and Bill Gates, as it were. Chances are you've actually used AR without realising it – a really simple version of AR are the "frames" that most digital cameras have nowadays. Remember the one where you can make your mate look like he is underwater? Well, that’s cutting edge technology for you. When it came down to it, Virtual Reality failed because nobody could find any real use for it. This will not be the case for AR, claim the big tech companies. Apple and Nokia have both developed applications for their brainiest of smart phones, combining AR and GPRS in the ultimate "where-the-hell-am-I?" tag team. With these applications, you can point
TECHIN THE MICKEY
your phone’s camera at a landmark and, using digital witchcraft, your global position will be determined, your surroundings digitally recognised and mapped and your screen will suddenly become a hub of knowledge by providing GPRS style instructions and displaying information above points of interest on the live camera feed from your phone. Even Sony has gotten in on the act, with their new EyePet. Point your PS3’s camera into your empty living room, and EyePet will digitally produce a creepily cute monkey-cat thing onto your television screen that you must care for. This may not sound like AR at its finest until you realise this is no blinged up Tamagotchi for the Wii generation. Throw a ball across your living room floor, and your "pet" will chase after it on screen, or it will avoid your feet as you walk past it. Even more surprisingly, making loud noises will cause the pet to run in terror behind objects in your living room. While scaring cute animals sounds like great fun, I’m guessing there is going to be a point when you are sitting in front of your screen petting your creature and somebody will walk in on you stroking mid air, and decide that you are crazy. Augmented Reality isn’t just for messing around, though. The eventual idea is that no matter what you point your camera towards, Augmented Reality will supplement the real world
ISN'T IT ADORABLE: So cute it makes Furbies want to vomit with digital information. Already, researchers are looking into creating Star Trek style "Medscanners," which will use AR technology to provide live vital information to surgeons performing delicate surgery via cameras in the patient's body. Students, forever the champions of new technologies,
will benefit too – point your camera at a text and AR will highlight important passages and provide interactive annotations. In the very distant future, there is hope that AR will be beamed directly to the eyes, without the need for cameras, making us all Terminatorstyle encyclopaedias.
So in the future you might be reading this article, and a hyperlink may appear above key words for further information, or to examples of AR in use. Until then, you’re just going to have to do it the old fashioned way and Google it.
It's a funny old game
ecently, Time magazine published R their online list of the fifty best John Rushton wonders exactly how much debt he can get Rangers into inventions of 2009. Of course, lists such as these are always utterly pointless and arbitrary, but they inevitably contain some ridiculous ordering and consequently make superb lampooning material for an equally pointless and arbitrary column like the one you're reading right now. Heading the list was NASA's Ares I rocket, the revolutionary new spacecraft designed to take astronauts to the moon and possibly beyond. Did I say revolutionary? I do apologise, I of course meant "regurgitation of a thirty-year-old design," since Ares I is pretty much an anorexic version of the seventies's interstellar headliner Saturn V, which makes it a bizarre choice for the No. 1 spot. Further controversy was to be had as Microsoft's Project Natal technology, which allows computer games to be controlled entirely by human voice and action, was several places above a new AIDS vaccine that actually works (albeit only 31% of the time). Surely, though, that's a more important invention than being able to seduce a weird-looking virtual child called Milo without the dubious aid of a Wii wand. However, I'm willing to forgive Time's questionable charting abilities, simply because they included a robotic penguin on the list, which, frankly, makes them awesome.
Richard Lane
FOOTBALL MANAGER 2010 PC £29.99 SEGA
kay. I’m going to level with O you here: there is no way to hide the fact that Football Manager
2010 is a game about football. It's in the bloody title. No matter how cheekily the game may try describe itself as a turn-based strategy in its intro section, it unquestionably is a management simulation. I’m afraid that’s the score. So now you know it, if you don’t like it please feel free to look away. It’s pretty much a given that nearly all people who don’t like football aren’t going to like a game where you manage a football team. However, those of you who do like football (or just fancy reading on for the heck of it) get your scarves ready to wave, your weird clacky things that spin around ready to spin (and clack), and your really annoying hooters ready to hoot... ahem…It’s time to kick off. For those of you who don’t know, a brief history of Football Manager: The game was developed by Sports Interactive and first published by Eidos in 1992 under the title of Championship Manager. Over the course of twelve years Championship Manager became regarded almost universally as the single greatest
management sim on the market. Then disaster struck. Eidos and Sports Interactive had a bust up. The two split and Eidos kept the rights to the name. It could have been the end, as without the SI team behind it, Championship Manager has since become an increasingly inaccessible and bland series. Fortunately, SEGA, the people who brought us the sheer amazingness that is Sonic the Hedgehog, snapped up SI’s footballing sim, and lo Football Manager was born in 2005. So we’re five years on from the first game. Has much changed? Yes! There’s an almost brand new look and feel to it this year, with a redesigned manager home page screen that really makes the game much more accessible. One of the major developments of the series came last year, with the addition of a 3D match engine. Previously, the games had been watched in a birds-eye manner, with players represented by circled numbers. I have no idea why, but personally I still enjoy this system of watching the match – perhaps it holds a fond nostalgia – and thankfully it is still available as an option. Last year’s 3D engine received heavy criticism, and I’m pleased to report SI have taken it all on board, adding over one hundred new animations enhancing both the action on the pitch and in the stands, with the crowd really getting - forgive the pun - animated.
TIME SINK: Believe it or not, this game is intensely addictive The revamped 3D view might not be quite there yet, but it’s a big improvement and a definite step towards making the match-day aspect of the game as immersive as the behind-the-scenes action, which is where this game truly thrives. The sheer level of detail is mind boggling – ranging from the obvious picking a formation, right down to some players wanting a certain shirt number and throwing a hissy fit when you give them number twelve instead of ten. This is a game that you can seriously lose yourself in; I have whittled away many an hour of my life trawling through minute tactics
and training regimes to get the most out of my imaginary players. I’m not going to tell you that Football Manager 2010 is perfect, because it’s not. There’s plenty to yet improve on, especially in the player scouting department, but as management sims go this really is the best on the market. Right, I’m off to a press conference to explain how my Manchester United side were knocked out of the FA Cup by Kettering.
Puzzles
Harry says:
Daniel Radcliffe offers us his take on the cannabis reclassification debate at a London party last week.
Solutions
Sudoku #10
ACROSS
Sudoku is a logic-based number-placement puzzle. The objective is to fill the 9×9 grid so that each column, each row, and each of the nine 3×3 boxes (also called blocks or regions) contains the digits from 1 to 9 only once.
The object of Hitori is to eliminate numbers by shading in the squares such that remaining cells do not contain numbers that appear more than once in either a given row or column. Filled-in cells cannot be horizontally or vertically adjacent, although they can be diagonally adjacent. The remaining un-filled cells must form a single component (i.e there must be no isolated numbers
21. Cocktail (7) 22. Make public (7) 25. Heart to body (6) 26. Pierced with horns (5)
ANDY PANDA
7. Nights more hotter than hot (more often than not) (7) 8. Unrealistic person (7) 16. Downcast (9) 18. Remains (8) 19. Find one close by (7) 20. Adds strength (7)
SUDOKU
Hitori #10
CROSSWORD
HITORI
1. Writ (7) 5. Cheat (7) 9. Sound produced with tongue and roof of mouth (7) 10. Roofing material (5) 11. At that place (5) 12. Adrian Chiles's show (3) 13. Berlusconi thinks Obama's got a nice one (6) 14. Martial art (6) 15. Definite article (3) 17. Instead of sugar (9) 21. Deranged (3) 23. You're one now (6) 24. Spanish fleet (6) 27. Clergyman, engine noise(3) 28. Door handles (5) 29. Porcelain tableware (5) 30. Distinctive (7) 31. BBC Two intellectual (7) 32. Bad television (7)
1. Sustain (7) 2. Inhabitant of Malta (7) 3. Choice (6) 4. Brine (4,5) 5. Outmoded (5) 6. Body of aeroplane (8)
I love weed."
Puzzles
The Student Crossword #10
DOWN
“
SCOTT MAHONY
Got your eye on the ball? Email sport@studentnewspaper.org
Tuesday Novermber 17 2009 studentnewspaper.org
Sport 23
Birmingham edge out Edinburgh
Injury Time TAKES A LOOK AT THE WORLD OF SPORT
Edinburgh
0
Birmingham 1
EDINBURGH NARROWLY lost to Birmingham last week as their poor start to the season continued. They may well take hope, however, in the fact that they were able to keep the score down against the best side in the league. Birmingham, not surprisingly, looked full of confidence and they were on top in the early stages, but Edinburgh battled hard and made sure they didn’t concede. As Edinburgh settled down and started to pass the ball around, they began creating opportunities although little came of them. They then went on to dominate the next ten minutes of the half, but found the Birmingham defence incredibly hard to break down.
The rest of the half in truth proceeded to be a scrappy midfield battle as both sides struggled to find any sort of final pass to the forwards. However, if any team was going to score a goal, it was Birmingham, looking dangerous in possession, and they almost made the breakthrough after a few short corners. The last one was the most dangerous as the players lined up shot after shot, but Edinburgh stopper Anna Kellner managed to pull off three fantastic saves and after a further blocked shot the Edinburgh defence hauled the ball away. It looked like they would hold out until half time, but after a period of pressure in the opposition’s half from Edinburgh, the Brummies suddenly broke up the pitch. Kellner was quickly out to the edge of the "D" but as the Birmingham attacker approached, she slipped the ball out right to the unmarked forward who made no mistake in finding the empty goal. After holding on for so long, it
was a major blow for Edinburgh to lose the goal. Despite even possession, the eight Birmingham shots on target compared to Edinburgh’s two proved there was only one team which deserved to be ahead. The second half was met with positive forward movement from Edinburgh as they tried to find a quick equaliser. However, short corners were wasted, as each time poor ball control thwarted any goal-scoring opportunities. Unfortunately the half was a bit of a non-event as Birmingham controlled the game, unable, however, to find that final pass to create an opening, a credit to the home side’s defence. Even after having a player sin-binned for five minutes, Birmingham looked comfortable and Edinburgh couldn’t take advantage. Once they had eleven players back on the pitch, Birmingham dominated proceedings right until the final whistle despite the Edinburgh coach urging his team forward.
In the end, it was a disappointing result for Edinburgh. While they might have gone into the game with low expectations of a win, the general consensus was that they didn’t test Birmingham enough. The goal just before half time was a big blow and if the team had kept their concentration for just a few minutes longer, it could have been a different story. However, there were plenty of positives to take from the game. Keeper Anna Kellner was an absolute rock between the sticks, and the defence time and time again threw their bodies on the line to block every Birmingham shot. A 1-0 defeat to a team now five points clear at the top of the table is no disgrace, and the team will take a lot of confidence into the next game at Peffermill against third-placed Loughborough this week. Worryingly however, after five games the team are yet to register a single point.
TAKING NO PRISONERS: Edinburgh University keeper Anna Kellner slidetackles Erin Thomas of Birmingham University
No horsing around from Edinburgh Laura Hayward reports as Edinburgh make a winning start to the equestrian season THE NEW, fresh-faced Equestrian First Team of 2009-2010 set out to St. Andrews for their first competition of the season last week. The nerves were high with the new rules for the league matches playing on everyone’s minds. Having faced St. Andrews at the regionals and Heriot Watt in the league last year there was however some predictability to the competition. After arriving at a very soggy outdoor arena on the coast, the horses were allocated and the team cracked
on with their dressage. The horses all proved very unique, each with its own quirk and bad habit! Becki Darlow started the day off for the team with a solid first performance for Edinburgh. Vanessa Miranda followed with a battle to keep her small horse in the arena. Then Jesse Kimmelman took to the stage with his long legs keeping his horse in shape. Finally it was captain Laura Hayward’s turn on a very unwilling horse. The results were then waited for with a nervous atmosphere
that accompanies all BUCS Equestrian League match lunch breaks. Edinburgh took the lead with three 0’s, sailing ahead of St Andrews on 23 penalties and Heriot Watt in third with 96. With a boost of confidence and reassurance the team set out for the jumping round. Darlow was first in again, and safely secured a good round with only one fence down. Miranda added to this with a clear round while Kimmelman’s effective round produced a clear event for the team. Under the
old rules this would secured the win for Edinburgh, but with the new rules nothing was certain until the scores were calculated. Edinburgh’s solid performance paid off and they were rewarded with first place with 38 penalties less than second-placed St. Andrews, representing a comfortable win. To complete the day Hayward was awarded eighth individually, Miranda was awarded third place while and Kimmelman came first overall.
NEIL HODGINS
Hockey
Will Lyon sees Edinburgh go down fighting against their English opponents
PIERCE EGAN, the great Regency sports journalist and boxing historian was (nobody else will tell you this) the main literary influence on Charles Dickens. He once labelled boxing "the manly art." His loyal admirer and twentiethcentury incarnation, the streetwise don A.J. Liebling, who wrote for the peerless New Yorker, added his own turn of phrase to the boxing lexicon. He described boxing as the "the Sweet Science." These two terms can be applied ironically to the bout that saw the raffish Englishman David Haye defeat the gargantuan Russian Nicolai Valuev in Germany. Firstly, Valuev is not a normal man: with his extreme size and as a result his athleticism, he is not exactly artistic. His boxing display was, however, better than Sean Connery’s Russian accent in The Hunt for the Red October (so appalling it was exceptional that it did not torpedo the film and the career of that "novelist" Tom Clancy). Conversely, Haye, whose boxing style is not so much "sweet science" but more sweet destruction with a kamikaze tinge, was refreshingly restrained. Haye had to be bland that evening in Nuremberg as he tackled the metaphysical riddle of Valuev: how do you defeat an adversary who is so much bigger than you? Haye revealed his common sense as he used the old chestnuts of lateral movement, speed, combinations, and angles to outmanoeuvre Valuev. His stamina and agility were impressive as was his concentration and execution of an easy-in-theory yet hard-in-practice strategy. His surge in the final round, where he staggered the giant, was magnificent and the fact his hand was broken from the second round onwards explains the excessive monotony. I also thought that he lost the contest before the decision was announced, as the title fight was in Germany and the concept of subjective judging in that country, even by the standards of any shortsightedness, is exceptionally blind. He will now have one mandatory defence against the rugged John Ruiz. The size difference is not so big this time so Haye should be in more of an attacking mood. Also, the probability of the fight materialising in London will be high and Haye will want to please on his home turf. Ruiz is not hard to hit and has an attrition-like style of fighting, which is part of the Central American boxing tradition. This will make the encounter intriguing and if Haye gets past him the Klitsckos are waiting with their brooding auras. They are a different league of heavyweight, most definitely in the "Very Good" category.
Michael Klimes
Sport studentnewspaper.org Tuesday November 17 2009
Hockey women remain pointless
23
Edinburgh's women fall to a narrow defeat against Birmingham P
Own goal denies Edinburgh all three points Edinburgh Tynecastle
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EDINBURGH WILL feel happy with their performance during Saturday’s 11 draw in the East of Scotland Premier Division. A talented Tynecastle side dominated for long periods in the first half, but it was the University team who finished the game stronger and could well have snatched all three points. The result moves Edinburgh up to sixth in the league, and continues their upward curve after a poor start to the season. Edinburgh took the lead inside five minutes. Left back Ruaraidh Scott unleashed a long diagonal pass which was met by the head of Kerr Dodds, who adjusted brilliantly to loop the ball over the helpless John Gilbertson in the Tynecastle goal. The visiting team will have been disappointed at the way in which Edinburgh’s intensity had caught them napping from the start, but going a goal down seemed to wake up their creative talents. From the restart, Edward Mearns left two University players for dead in a piercing run down the right-hand side before crossing to David Bingham. Tynecastle’s 39year-old player-coach enjoyed a long professional career as a player with St. Johnston, Dunfermline, Livingstone, Inverness and Gretna, and demonstrated his experience by cleverly drifting in unnoticed from the left wing to volley just wide. Edinburgh did not heed this warning and were pegged back two minutes later after more good work from Mearns down Edinburgh’s left. He played in Darren Aird on the overlap and the right back’s low cross cannoned off the unfortunate Struan Scott-Woodhouse, who put the ball into his own goal as he attempted to track back from midfield. Tynecastle have already beaten runaway leaders Spartans away from home this season and arrived at Peffermill in confident mood, exhibiting a slickness in possession that the home team struggled to match in the first half. Bingham’s touch and movement on the left, combined with Mearns explosiveness down the right, provided a constant threat. Despite being restricted to glimpses of the ball, Edinburgh looked promising on the break. Jack Beasley’s superb reverse pass found David Oswald. Oswald beat the offside trap and stretched
to touch the ball past the onrushing keeper, who appeared to bring down the striker inside the box. Given that Gilbertson was the last man, there was a feeling of disappointment on the Edinburgh bench when the referee only produced a yellow card. This turned to outright fury when it was shown to Oswald for simulation. Tynecastle’s possession seemed to take its toll on the home team as the half wore on, and they had several chances to take the lead. A good turn and pass from Garry Cherrie sent Wayne Sproul away from the University defence, but keeper Mark Tait was brave and quick to dive at the feet of the front man. Sproul was hurt in the process and
was replaced on the 20 minute mark by the lively Dean Jones, who almost had an immediate impact when his closerange shot was saved by Mark Tait after a good passing move. Edinburgh were holding on when the half time whistle blew, having scrambled away a driven cross from Paul Devlin after a well worked Tynecastle free-kick and watched Mearns blast over from space, 18 yards out. “I thought we were poor in the first half, and I told the players that at half time”, said Edinburgh manager Dougie Samuel after the game. His half-time teamtalk seemed to work. Edinburgh stepped up the intensity and Mearns and Bingham faded from view in the
second half. Scott Fusco drove in a powerful free kick from 25 yards that was saved well by Gilbertson low to his left while Aird was fortunate to get away with a booking for pulling back the rapidly advancing Oswald. Oswald’s pace caused further problems just after the hour mark when he burned past left back Mark Cherrie to pull the ball back to James Brownie. The midfielder composed himself well but could only shoot at the feet of Gilbertson, who then watched gratefully as James Craigen failed to divert the ball on target after a good dribble and cross from Beasley on the right. Centre back Steven Sivrs saved Tyn-
ecastle in the final quarter of an hour, clearing off the line after Oswald’s crisp shot had skidded under Gilbertson as Edinburgh pushed for a winning goal, and minutes later a great Edinburgh counter attack saw Gilbertson brought into action again, forcing substitute Neil Irvine wide after he was played in by Craigen. There was still time for Beasley to fire just over after a cheeky nutmeg on Sivrs but neither team was able to find the decisive goal. In the end it was the visitors who were happy to escape with a point.
NEIL HODGINS
Football
Davie Heaton reports from Peffermill as Edinburgh hang on for a draw against Tynecastle
SPREAD EAGLE: Edinburgh's Saul David shoots wide through the arms of Tynecastle goalkeeper John Gilbertson