Teenage Democracy #2

TEENAGE

SECOND ISSUE

DEMOCRACY

Hello, Welcome to the second issue of Teenage Democracy Magazine.

Feminism and Racism. These are two expressions which populate our daily lives and yet their contemporary meanings are not well understood. This month’s issue aims to merge the two together to allow for a wider comprehension of modern-day sexism/racism and the conflicts is creates, while also remembering significant female civil rights activists who are not widely recognised due to their sex. In a society which claims to be free, we must work hard to deserve the label through open mindedness and contribution in the continual fight for justice to all minorities including race, religion and sex; whether it is the conflict in countries such as Palestine or the racist and sexist hindrance on your street. Along with a collection of articles drawing attention to environmental and social issues, I hope you enjoy this edition of teenage Democracy Magazine.

Thank you Brigitte x

Opinions expressed in this publication represent the personal views of the contributing authors.

CONTENTS What is feminism? (Page 3) Feminism Literature (Page 4) One small step for man, one giant hoax for humanity- continued (Page 5) Permaculture (Page 6) Celebrity Scales (Page 8) Students for Palestine Interview (Page 9-12) In the line of fire (Film Review) (Page 13) Robocop (Film Review) (Page 14-15) Honesty in films (Page 16) Tech. No logic (Page 18) Feminism in music (Page 19) Things you (really) need to listen to (Page 20) Prominent women in the civil rights movement (Page 21-22) The Black Market (Page 23-24) Fracking away the Future (Page 25-26) Gallery (Page 27-30) Is the Royal Family Obsolete? (Page 31-33) There’s no truth (Page 35-37) The ideal society quiz (Page 38) The sanitary towel saviour (Page 39-40) In My Opinion (Page 41) We Need to talk about Judgement (Page 43-44) Inside Out Project (Page 45-46) Caption Competition and other activities (Page 47-49)

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Feminism or feminist: a term you would’ve heard regularly, regardless of your sex. Countless feminists have been reported by the media over years and years, but do you fully know what feminism is? If not, I’d like to open your eyes to existing feminists out there so you can make a well informed decision on where you stand. I’ve featured people involved all around the world, and the many examples of feminism in the media (now you can join women all over the world who are standing up against misogyny, rape culture, abuse and many other issues together- how awesome!) All over the world there are different kinds of feminism and feminists, trying to bring awareness and challenge issues including: racism, classism, and homophobia. For me, feminism is linked with many of these issues, and hopefully this article will help you understand the problems of today’s society and how people are trying to make things change. As Tavi Genvinson (my teen-hood hero and editor of Rookie online magazine) said: “I realised that Feminism was not a rulebook, but a discussion, a conversation, a process.’ I believe that many women are put off of the idea of feminism, simply because many people address it as a ‘manhating’, but everyone in this world deserves to be equal, to feel loved and accepted and not judged for their sex, sexual orientation or race.

As Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie stated in her TEDxTalk Euston speech ‘We Should All Be Feminists’, a feminist is "the person who believes in the social, economic and political equality of the sexes.” I have not found a better way to explain a feminist. Chimamanda’s speech is intelligent, riveting and absolutely brilliant, I highly recommend watching it (if you are an avid Netflix-watcher, TEDxtalk’s has it’s episodes on there, or just google her and you’ll be bombarded with her amazing speech and You Tube links to it) not only does she explain what it is to be a feminist, she explains how feminism is approached in Africa, specifically Nigeria- where she’s from. Additionally, If you are a Beyoncélover (if not listen to her latest album and you will cry at her empowering feminist songs and ultimate wonderful-ness) then you would have heard her latest track ‘***Flawless’... FEAT CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHI. Yes that’s right, part of Chimamanda’s speech from her TEDxTalk has been featured on her album, here are the lyrics that feature: Because I am female I am expected to aspire to marriage I am expected to make my life choices Always keeping in mind that Marriage is the most important Now marriage can be a source of Joy and love and mutual support But why do we teach girls to aspire to marriage And we don't teach boys the same?

We teach girls to shrink themselves To make themselves smaller We say to girls "You can have ambition But not too much You should aim to be successful But not too successful Otherwise you will threaten the man”

Ellie Harman Taylor We raise girls to each other as competitors Not for jobs or for accomplishments Which I think can be a good thing But for the attention of men We teach girls that they cannot be sexual beings In the way that boys are Feminist: the person who believes in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes

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FEMINIST LITERATURE From Marie Stopes in 1918 to Pussy Riot, (the Russian band who have recently been released from prison), over hundreds of years, many women have fought against men having the upper hand in the political world, society and in the work-place and the discrimination of women, the LGBTQ community and people of a racial minority. There are many books written by influential women that are great to read and understand the feminist attitudes and activism that went on from before the Victorian times to present day. Here are just a few of hundreds of books published:

Married Love or Love in Marriage- Marie Stopes Through having difficulty in her marriage with her husband, Stopes (keeping her maiden name although married) decided she’d find a loophole in the law to be able to divorce him. She was a pioneer in the likes of birth control, and her name lives on with the Marie Stopes International Healthcare that is offered around the world, she has clinics all around the UK and doctors and nurses visit countries where birth control and sexual health help isn’t readily available. Her book was rejected by most publishers but eventually found a woman who would release it for her. She was the first female academic in the faculty of The University of Manchester and she founded the first birth control clinic in Britain and also edited the newspaper named ‘Birth Control News.’ Later on publishing a manual on birth control. Although not in favour of abortion, she declared that contraception was all that was needed. In 1917 she helped the working class by opening an abortion clinic for poor mothers.

The Bell Jar- Sylvia Plath American writer and poet Sylvia Plath questions the roles of men and women in society through a young woman, Esther Greenwood’s life in New York.

The novel was actually published under a pseudonym ‘Victoria Lucas’ in the early 1960’s as she felt so close to the book and that it reflected much of her personal life (in the book Esther also plans to write a book about her life under another name.) Plath’s real name only began to feature on the book in 1966, three years after she tragically committed suicide. The book addresses issues of someone who thinks differently to the people that surround them, and how it affects them. Esther’s life seems promising in the beginning, but everything spirals out of control.

What Are We Fighting For? - Joanna Russ

4 The Rookie Yearbooks- Tavi Genvinson

In addition to my last article regarding inconsistencies in the early Apollo missions to the moon, I will elaborate on more irregularities and also put forward the counter positions in order to allow the reader to make up their own mind on this cause.

One of the most well-known discrepancies in relation to the first moon landing in 1969 includes the incident where Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong are planting the famous American flag in lunar soil and the live television footage appears to show a waving of the flag.

On the moon there is no atmosphere at all; no gentle breeze, no air for birds to fly through and definitely no wind at all to allow a flag to flutter and wave as we know it down on Earth.

Conspiracy theorists argue that this sort of action could only be brought upon by the presence of an atmosphere thus inferring the positioning of the US flag occurred in a place with the presence of an atmosphere: Earth.

NASA on the other hand argued that the flag was stored in a thin tube and the rippled effect was caused by it being unfurled before being planted. Other explanations involve the ripples caused by the reaction force of the astronauts touching the aluminium pole, which is shown to shake in the video footage. As the astronauts forced the flag into the ground the left and right movement of the pole could have caused the rippling effect on the cloth of the flag, thus disputing conspiracy theorists claims.

Another equally famous argument against the authenticity of the Apollo 11 missions is the appearance of multiple light sources in both video and photographic

footage. This anomaly was addressed in the previous article however NASA has a harder time refuting this claim. On the moon it is fair to say there is only one prominent light source; the Sun. Therefore it can be inferred that all shadows should run parallel to one another. However this photo suggests otherwise, with two shadows running at almost a 45 degree angle.

NASA has understood this glitch by blaming the uneven landscape as a cause for the strange shadows, with subtle bumps and hills on the moon’s surface being the main source. However many conspiracy theorists disregard this explanation as the problem is still posed – How could landscape differences cause such a drastic difference in shadow direction? As NASA has failed to explain the shadows with a more creditable clarification, non-believers tend to regard this filming and photographing as occurring on a film set.

The last argument I will put forward for you, is the lack of stars in photographs from the moon looking at the Earth As we have established there is no atmosphere on the moon, also there are no clouds either, therefore we cannot blame the absence of stars as a result of a lack of visibility. Even on Earth we can take photos of the night sky and be able to see a few stars if slightly low quality.

Conspiracy theorists therefore imply that it would be near impossible to correctly map out the exact location of each star so therefore to allow the hoax to be believed, NASA must have decided to leave them out and blame the absence on the quality of the photographs washing out the stars.

Considering it is possible for us on Earth to take photos of stars from the ground, this explanation still leaves a lot of leverage for discussion.

Now it leaves to you to decode on your own opinion.

Was the moon landing a hoax or not? And could it still be made of cheese?

Tess Wood

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Permaculture The name permaculture comes from the two words; permanent agriculture. So what is permaculture? In 1978 Australian Bill Mollison decided he wanted a more sustainable way of living, which was healthier, long-lasting and good for the environment. The aim was to work with nature, rather than against it. By combining his knowledge of science and ecology, permaculture began. Many people wanted this healthier and far more eco-friendly way of living so joined in with the growing of their own fruit and vegetables. Today, Permaculture is not referred to as permanent agriculture, but a permanent form of culture. Rather than just depending on home grown foods, the culture relies on minimalism and bigger natural ecosystems.

fun, bringing people and communities together to take part in activities that are sustainable for everyone.

I personally understand that it is hard for everyone to fully commit themselves to a culture of this kind, but I do feel that people could try and get involved. Even if you’re just planting your own tomatoes and staying aware, you’re taking part!!

If you are interest and want more information, visit the permacultureactivist website Sam Bowser

So why take part in permaculture?

The point in permaculture is to integrate human beings into nature, providing us with natural shelter, food, income and community. By respecting the plants and animals around us, we help keep the earth natural and in a state it should be.

In this modern day we damage the environment around us a great deal, polluting our air, poaching our animals and ignoring all the possible alternatives. Permaculture just encourages people to look around them, use the things they have and do not cost a great deal to make. Not only is permaculture saving the earth we live on and providing for humans, it’s a lot of

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GOSPORT GANG SHOW 2014

Amateur dramatics show performed every year in April in Fareham at the Ferneham Hall!

FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE VISIT http://www.gosportgangshow.co.uk

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Recent News

but measuring yourself against others which is not seen as particularly healthy.

Anorexia and bulimia are both eating disorders that are linked with low selfesteem, which these scales may trigger.

Sufferers of these eating disorders seek control over body size, shape and weight leading to a high risk of death by suicide or starvation.

Superdrug has recently launched a new product that uses the names of celebrities on scales to enable you to compare your weight to theirs. This product has had a great deal of criticism including the UK’s leading eating disorder charity ‘Beat’ which calls them “dangerous beyond belief”. The names that appear on the scales include that of Cheryl Cole, Kate Middleton, Jessica Ennis, Ellie Goulding, Beyoncé, Rihanna, Adele, Gemma Collins, Queen Latifah and Melissa McCarthy.

“Eating disorders are serious mental illnesses with complex causes”, explains Susan Ringwood, Chief Executive of eating disorder awareness group Beat.

Initially, Superdrug said “our new scales are just one of the ways that the health team here are helping customers to be more open about discussing their health needs with our in-store healthcare professionals.”

“We are pleased to be piloting these scales amongst our stores teams and, if successful, would look at potentially rolling them out for customer use worldwide.”

However, since Cheryl Cole learnt about the scales, tweeting in disgust “Pls do not include me on your scale. Girls should be worried about the number on their exam page not a weight scale ffs (sic)”, the prototype celebrity scales have not been trailed in Superdrug stores.

In my opinion, these scales have negatively used celebrities names to promote dieting and encourage a harmful obsession. The culture of celebrities is one which is filled with judgements and body image. The public, especially young people, look to celebrities as role models and yet these scales portray the brutality of pressures that people immerse in to act in a certain way- or weigh a certain weight- that is seen as desirable.

The notion of stepping on these scales in the morning and comparing yourself to ‘Ellie Goulding’ or ‘Beyoncé’ seems diminishing. It endorses a negative self-image as you are clearly not appreciating your own body image

Molly Foulkes

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Across the country and throughout the world, students are uniting in the belief of one cause: justice. Students for Palestine (Southampton), is a nonprofit organisation (with members and activists from different countries), which stands firm against all forms of racism and discrimination.

As a group, their primary focus is to raise awareness of the Palestinian issue while supporting Palestinians in their struggle for self-determination and justice.

The full complexity of the Palestinian apartheid cannot be summarised in a few simple sentences. For over three score years, (66), conflict had ensued over the Zionist ambition to achieve a purely Jewish state in which Arab citizens are not welcome. Extensive casualties have arisen on both sides.

Mass evacuation occurred (70,000 Palestinians fled their homes in fear of persec ution before fullscale

military activity began in March 1948); alongside the catastrophe of Al Nakba (villages of innocent civilians were eradicated).

For further details of the process of ethnic cleansing and of the conflict pre-1949 and the country’s contemporary disposition, please go to the Students for Palestine website (sotonpal.org).

However, to introduce you to the struggle, Teenage Democracy interviewed Juman A.J, a Palestinian born woman who is currently involved in campaigning on the issue of Palestine at the University of Southampton.

She co-founded Students for Palestine (Southampton) in 2012 and has been active in Jordan working in the Jerash refugee camp.

Brigitte Cross de Valk

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…The Interview -What personally prompted you into campaigning for the Palestinian people and why do you feel it’s so important for the youth to have such an active role in this issue?

So, the main reason I got involved in Palestine is because Palestine is an issue of humanity.

It’s an issue that concerns the fundamental questions of any person and oppressor. This is the main question that bothered me when I was young. It’s when you walk in the streets and you see poverty, you see exploitation, you see all these questions that are not Palestine specific but are general injustice and it triggers something in you. I think that the closest part for me personally campaigning is being a Palestinian born refugee, and realising that you have been systematically precluded from returning to the land that was stolen from my family. So in terms of Palestine, this is why I got involved and its important, as I mentioned in the talk, that students and youth are always the forefront of social and political change. If it’s not us who are going to act? We’re not going to expect the much younger generation to act because they can’t, they’re too young to act, and the older generation, they’re too depressed to act, unfortunately. So, youth have always been at the forefront of political and social change.

-Would you be able to recount

a little of what you discovered from your experiences in working in the Jerash refugee camp?

It was very unfortunat e, the situation in camp is terrible.

The Jerash camp was reported to be literally the worst camp statistically in Jordan.

You walk on the streets where they don’t have waste recycling system or any kind of drainage, so you walk and waste is in open tubes in the floor, and people just have to cross over it . realised two things.

First how lucky we are to not be living in such circumstances, and how we don’t actually realise how privileged we are and what other people are going through. And also the fact that people out there, they’re waiting for something, they’re waiting for change and something that we can offer.

-Why do you feel it is necessary to have people from all backgrounds and beliefs join Students for Palestine?

So, we started Students for Palestine in 2012 and we, the people who started it, were myself and another friend alongside two others, an Italian girl and a Polish guy. So you can see from the beginning that it was a multi-national kind of initiative. I think it’s important because the international community is what is going to pressure Israel into ending its apartheid practises and as you

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mentioned, it was a collective international call against governments and against the apartheid South Africa that helped the apartheid South Africa to come to an end. We hope that the same will happen with the Israeli apartheid and of course, going back again to the root of the problem which is that the issue of Palestine is an issue of humanity, threats of injustice anywhere is an injustice to everywhere. So regardless of what background you are, you have a moral duty for humanity, for the sake of being a human, to actually stand up against injustice.

Ethnic cleansing is a horrific reoccurrence across the centuries, how do you think religious belief in certain cases, motivate such violence?

I think religion is used as a scarecrow to justify the pursuit of certain interests. I don’t think religious belief per say would incite violence unless it is used, as I mention in the talk, by one group in order to further its political motives. And of course we’ve seen this happen over the course of history in the medieval church in Europe, the fundamentalists in Islam, the Zionist movement with Judaism. So we’re always see the reoccurring use in abusing religion in order to further personal ,political and economic motives.

-How effective do you think

the events of Israel Apartheid week are and why do you feel that promoting Palestine history and culture is so important?

effective. It is still growing. The first Israel apartheid week too place 10 years ago, and this year 2014, was the 10th annual apartheid week. It started with only a few universities, and only last year in 2013 there were over 200 cities hosting Israeli apartheid week so within a short period of time, 10 years , it witnessed huge growth. The aim of Israeli apartheid week is to raise awareness on how the Palestine issue of being apartheid is no longer an issue of two forces fighting each other.

First of all, it’s not two militaries and two countries that are in conflict with one another, it is a state that established itself by force on the indigenous population which has created this apartheid; an apartheid which needs to be responded to by boycotting. So, this is the second aim. to actually, encourage

boycott campaigns and try to expand the reach of these campaigns. It is important to promote Palestine history and culture because it is what keeps Palestinians alive. It makes them hold on to their identity, because even though we’ve lost our land, and we were expelled from our homes which were demolished, we still hold on to our identity which will forever be part of us and we will never let go of our identity.

-Lastly, do you have hope for a

I think the Israel apartheid initiative is really important and it has been somewhat

solution to be agreed upon

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and for the future Palestinian rights?

of

Yes, I have hope. I think hope is the elixir of life, you can’t live without it. I also think that this is one of the other problems that led to, as I mentioned earlier, how the older generation don’t really engage in anymore because they’ve tried and they failed, because the conflict has been going on for 66 years.

They get up to a point where they give up hope, but us, we still have hope. And Palestinians, even those political prisoners who went on hunger strike, whose children who, because they cannot go to school, end up having their lesson by the check point, they still have hope. And they will continue to have hope because that’s all that’s left for Palestinians

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Film review: In the line of fire (1993) Serious, gripping thriller starring Clint Eastwood and John Malkovich. This film certainly takes itself seriously. This is because it has the two main ingredients which are both equally important to the genre: realism and story. The story is of a veteran secret service agent who is getting fairly close to his retirement, called Frank Horrigan (Eastwood). Horrigan, was one of the agents who was supposed to protect President John F Kennedy in Dallas, in 1963, when Kennedy was shot. Horrigan, never got over the events of that fateful day, and always blamed himself for it.

A good example of this film, with these two ingredients, is The Fugitive (1993), which starred Harrison Ford, and Tommy Lee Jones. Ford played a doctor, who was wrongly accused of killing his wife, and Jones was the detective chasing him. The film was one big chase, from the woodland forests, to the big city of Chicago. This film works as a realistic thriller, because it has a real life scenario and plot. The idea of the man on the run is seen again and again, in the media and in

other films.

Now, queue Mitch Leary (Malkovich). A psychotic, ex CIA agent, Leary is a man

who has a grudge to bear, and wants revenge, by assassinating the current president. Horrigan, (now in his 60s) sees this as a way to redeem himself and makes this his final assignment.

Leary taunts Horrigan with various phone calls about how he could have done more to save Kennedy in Dallas.

But Horrigan only cares about stopping Leary and saving the President.

The intense mood and atmosphere of this film, is created entirely by John Malkovich. His performance as a psychotic, scary, and serious villain is unmatchable. This is helped by some of his lines, such as, “I see you Frank, I see you standing over the grave of another dead president”.

Leary is a very compelling character, as he doesn’t just want to kill the president, but because he is insane. It is because he doesn’t agree with the defence system in America, because he thinks that the CIA just creates more violence, around the country, and he believes that the CIA made him into the villain that he has become (“I don’t even remember who I was before they sunk their claws into me”).

He wants to kill the President as he is the one who runs the country, and is the one responsible. So, this film works as the perfect hero/villain story because both characters have separate, goals, which are simple, but they will do anything to achieve them.

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Film Review: Robocop (2014) I had doubts about the reboot of Robocop, after Film 2014’s slightly cynical review. Sci-fi is not my favourite genre of film, partly because it’s one that we see again and again in films nowadays, mainly for the sake of special effects. However, after I saw Robocop, I was pleasantly surprised!

The story of a man built into a robot, who is unable to have the same intimate relationship with his wife and child, certainly makes an emotional story. So what is the story? Detroit Policeman, Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnaman) suffers severe injuries after a car bomb goes off, which was planted by an associate of a local crime boss Antoine Vallon (who Murphy was investigating). He is saved by

scientist Dr Dennett Norton (Gary Oldman), who makes him into Robocop.

The opening sequence is very effective in establishing some of the major themes of the film, the main one being man vs machine. The US military are occupying Tehran and fighting the rebels, with the assistance of robots supplied by the company OmniCorp. This scene is effective because we see two sides of the fighting. One is from the view of the rebels who are with the civilian women and children, and the other is from the point of view of the television news programme: The Novak Element. The show is presented by a patriotic and over the top man by the name of Pat Novak (Samuel L. Jackson). Jackson really exaggerates the speech making and slightly self-centred character. Yes it is a cliché, but an important one within the film, for showing the media’s way of saying how the robots are cleaning up the world. However, they don’t mention the consequences that they bring.

I haven’t seen the original Robocop, but according to critic Danny Leigh, it was a slightly more comedic film, with Robocop clinking and clanging while struggling to walk. This is a completely different take on the character, with big, explosive action

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scenes. I thought that the action itself, was a bit too “Call of Duty”!

However, there were some exciting scenes with Robocop on a motorbike, with the Terminator type vision screen and him speeding through the city streets like Batman.

The more important element of this film was the meaning, rather than the action. The head of OmniCorp CEO Raymond Sellars (Michael Keaton), wants to keep Murphy with them, to make improvements so that they can give America a machine that will be aspirational. This means that he is away from his wife Clara (Abbie Cornish) and his son for many weeks which makes it hard for her to cope with life. Not only is Murphy facing family problems, he is also being doubted by OmniCorp’s military tactician, Rick Mattox (Jackie Earle Haley) who is sceptical about Murphy’s abilities. He believes that his robots will work much better than an ordinary human embodied in one. He doesn’t want to just stop Murphy from doing what he is doing; he wants to humiliate him. He does this on many occasions by

calling him “Tin man”.

The climax of the film is ultimately driven by Clara, her son and Mattox who wants to destroy Murphy. It’s climactic because we know that he must survive for his wife and child, making Mattox a very ruthless villain. It’s obviously hard to relate to a film in 2014 that is set in 2028, about robots. However, it does relate the bigger picture on what some scientists are doing around the world today, such as testing new drugs on animals and building atomic weapons. Michael Keaton called this film “A thinking man’s action movie”. This is certainly true, as the overall message of the film is about life and about how controlling somebodies life will affect not only them, but other people who are close to them.

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Honesty in Films Many can argue against honesty being displayed in films because of the virtual, fictional element that all films have to a certain extent. However, (although there is a case for this) cinema can at least be a great platform for truth. Three recent films I have seen; ‘The Book Thief’, ‘Captain Phillips’ and ‘12 Years A Slave’ all show this.

When films are created to display real-life incidents or tragedies, it is often seen as boring. However, when films are stricken down to the basics though, boring is a lot more meaningful. For instance ’12 Years A Slave’ was very raw without much style but the honest display of brutality and torture was much better than hiding what the film wanted to show. One scene involved the main character ‘Solomon’ being forced to whip a vulnerable women and fellow slave whilst she was screaming in agony and peril.

For many years in the cinematic world, the atrocities of the Holocaust in The Second World War have been presented frequently from ‘The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas’ to ‘Schindler’s List’. Although history is important not to forget, it is nice when different messages are explored. ‘The Book Thief’ was not just a platform for truth but a platform for original truth, since it wasn’t just about the suffering of minorities and Jews in particular.

We saw that even Germans suffered in silence. One poignant moment in the film was when ‘Hans’ (played by Geoffrey Rush) was told straight by his wife that their German household had to have the Nazi Flag up ‘otherwise they’ll think we are

saying something’. This suggests that being on the same side as the Nazi’s was not enough to be safe from incomprehensible danger.

Another film with truth written all over it is ‘Captain Phillips’. Arguably, the title may be immature in the sense that you have an image of some naff superhero movie. But, the message is serious - the Somalian Pirates are a force not to be reckoned with. When you are travelling through Somalian waters irrespective of the size of the ship, it is common sense to fill the ship with some sort of weaponry avoiding any risks. In ‘Captain Phillips’ it was not, and guess what happened.

As the film was based on a real-life incident of a cargo ship with high-jacking Somali Pirates, the film shows that we just can’t be naive and innocent– the world is a dangerous place.

Three of the most crucial things to remember about films and honesty is: showing truth is a mark of respect to the people who suffered during the events the films are based upon, there is not always one way in which truth can be explored and the messages of films based on truth can be harsh and blunt but in the end a reflection of reality.

Sam Waddington

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Why you should join the student committee “Student what?” We hear these words a bit too often. Some people aren't aware that there is a student committee; let alone what we get up to. If you're one of those people, then please give me a few minutes of your time to convince you why you should join it.

The student committee is an organisation made up of students, and run by students. “By the people, for the people,” etc. Our purpose is to give you guys a say in what happens in college; if you have ideas, complaints, issues, suggestions, praise or criticism, then you can bring that to us, and we'll make sure your voice gets heard. The core goals of the committee are up to them. This year, our main drive has been running events to raise money for charities such as Crisis, British Legion, Breast Cancer awareness, and our main charity: the child bereavement support service ‘Simon Says’. Last year's committee piloted the Brain of Barton quiz competition, and this year will see the beginning of B-Festival, an event taking place on April 4th. As a member of the committee, it's up to you how you want to run it.

So why join? For one, it looks very pretty on your CV or UCAS application. It gives you invaluable experience in project management, time management, diplomacy, communication, leadership and other useful team skills. It gives you the opportunity to call yourself “Student President” (or the slightly less prestigious but still pretty cool “Student Vice-President”.) But most importantly, being a part of the student committee means having the power to make change in the college. So if you have a problem with the college, don't complain about it. Join the committee, and be the person who fixes that problem.

If you're interested, all you need to do is submit 100 words about who you are and why you want to join the student committee to 4LKI0911@barton.ac.uk. The deadline is Thursday 27th March, but if you're reading this after the deadline, we may still consider late applications.

Thanks, and we hope to hear from you soon!

Leo King

Student Vice-President

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Tech? No logic.

Hello, this is one of hopefully several observations that I will be sharing with you in Teenage Democracy that may be controversial, yet I feel must be said and be noted that somebody has said such. Whether you agree with me or not, I hope you find this standpoint interesting.

Ipods. Mobile phones. Tablets. Technologies all of which have permeated into our everyday lives as teenagers over the last decade. Technologies that have bolstered worldwide connectivity with friends and family so that holiday pics can be sent from your phone in Spain to friends at home, you can check current events and post your ‘Flappy Bird’ score on Facebook. But has this form of globalisation in fact been better or worse for our generation?

For example, it may admittedly be ‘convenient’ to communicate with your friends via social networking sites, however in my opinion, such only detracts from the formation and understanding of friendship for the cold communication of text via sites which lacks the human factor of face to face discussion that tells 1 you all that more about a person ; and so, you have a greater understandings of what the person is like and attain a greater perception to their personality. Also with the idea of apps such as Snapchat and Instagram a need – no, a compulsion to send random pictures and (I cringe to say this but) ‘selfies’ has risen to the extent where millions are sent everyday around the globe. Is this not an unhealthy sequence of events?

Then there is the idea of the spectre that is NSA being able to record and view the imagery and pictures that are posted via the internet. I for one do not want NSA knowing my life back to front and be yet

another name and number in their worldwide database. Privacy is a thing of the past when you use tech. USP codes. Sim cards. Updating your status. All ways in which you can be tracked and categorised so that you can receive junk mail for books you’ll never read and clothes you would not wear in a million years.

On the matter of junk mail and random information that we have to deal with from this wave of new technology, do we truly know what is in the Terms and Conditions of sites and software such as Itunes? For example you cannot deny that you and everyone else on this planet has simply read the first paragraph of such and simply pressed ‘Accept’ as the language used is confusing and disorientating. Due to this, we have no idea what we are accepting to. For all we know we could be giving up our rights for complaint against Apple for the services they provide! However unlikely such a stark and foreboding idea is.

On the whole though, it cannot be denied that the sudden arrival of more and more powerful technology, although providing bountiful positives, has many pitfalls that distance us from attaining a greater relationship with our friends and family, watch our every move, and discombobulate us with technical and legal language which revokes or invokes rules and legislation for the use of our technologies at will. Therefore, although in my opinion, it would be better to avoid using such technologies, alas we are already dependent upon them, I still think it is a good idea to lesson our use of social networking sites and related apps before we as a ‘teenage democracy’ develop into a daft punk state.

Connaire Jenkins

1-Only a small percentage of communication involves actual words: 7%, to be exact. In fact 55% of communication is visual (body language, eye contaact) and 38% is vocal (pitch,speed,volume, tone of voice).

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Electronic artist Grimes (25 year old Canadian Claire Boucher) speaks out about how hard it is for women in the music business, being pressured into doing things that 1.) men wouldn’t be bikini kill expected to do and 2. That would make people cringe and feel just generally ew and why?!: Leonora carrington

“Yes. The more I’ve had to work in this industry, the more I’ve just been shocked at the way people behave… When I first started playing shows, it was awful. People would always be like, ‘You’re not a real musician.’ I’m playing with samplers and MPCs — everyone is also playing with samplers and MPCs. It’s just because I’m a girl that you’re going to sh*t on me about it.”

“Even just photo shoots. Everything was pushed to be so sexual… At first, I was like, ‘I’m uncomfortable.’ And I actually had a photographer say to me, ‘Oh, you should look uncomfortable, because it’s truthful.’ And I’d be like, ‘Actually, I just don’t want to be wearing a leather bathing suit.’ That’s not part of my image, but people would really force that stuff.

Eventually, I started being really aggressive.”

Grimes’ videos, (such as ‘Oblivion’) features combatting and reversing the male gaze and creating one of the most awesome videos ever- I could stare in awe at her awesome style, crazy hair and her music is off the scale if you’re into the whole electro-experimental, synth pop and witch house scene and even a music video that has Lord Of The Rings elements in it (I know right?!?) Claire’s not only just producing music but she also directs music videos and is an awesome artist too. Grimes’ music is amazing and so is her attitude, in interviews she talks about her passions, revealing her polite and friendly persona and how she won’t take any crap from the music business.

Yoko Ono No doubt at least 123498 times in your life you would’ve heard people slating the wonderful Yoko Ono, saying she ‘broke up the Beatles’ and ‘can’t sing’ but this wonderful woman has not only influenced the music business, including elements of riot girl feminism, art-rock lo-fi and noise pop but she has been the creator of amazing philosophical art since the early sixties. In fact, John Lennon and Yoko met at her 1966 art exhibition where John asked if he could put a nail into one of her pieces of work, and she replied ‘no’ (I love her even more after learning this I hope you do too.) There’s nothing more refreshing and awesome than someone who isn’t fazed by celebrities and refuses them things. A round of applause for the awesome Yoko!

Suzy Quatro revolutionized glam rock and inspired many other awesome female musicians, her lyrics are empowering and promote female independence it has a I-willdo-what-I-want-and-you-can’tstop-me feel. Here are some lyrics from ‘Rolling Stone’: Don’t tell me what to do And don’t tell me how to spend my time I ain’t got nothing to hide I’m free to be what I want to be And nobody owns my mind

Bikini Kills ‘Rebel Girl’- a burst of heavy riffs and girl-screaming, a song that will work you up to feel great about yourself, here’s some lyrics: That girl she holds her head up so high I think I wanna be her best friend, yeah ////////// When she talks, I hear the revolutions In her hips, there's revolutions When she walks, the revolution's coming In her kiss, I taste the revolution

“I'm tired of people assuming that just because something happens regularly, it's ok”Grimes

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(November 11, 1914 – November 4, 1999) Daisy Bates was an American

civil rights activist, publisher, journalist, and lecturer who played a leading role in the Little Rock Integration Crisis of 1957 and who was one of the only women to speak during the march on Washington. Little Rock Nine were a group of African American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957.

Daisy Bates BORN: 1898

BORN: 1903

BORN: 1917

BORN: 1914

(October 6, 1917 – March 14, 1977) Fannie Lou Harper was an American

voting rights activist and civil rights leader. She was instrumental in organizing Mississippi Freedom Summer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

Septima Poinsette Clark

Ella Baker

(May 3 1898–December 15, 1987),Septima

(December 13, 1903 – December 13, 1986)

was an American educator and civil rights activist. Clark developed the literacy and citizenship workshops that played an important role in the drive for voting rights and civil rights for African Americans in the American Civil Rights Movement. Clark's argument for her position in the civil rights movement was one that claimed "knowledge could empower marginalized groups in ways that formal legal equality couldn't’.

Ella Baker was an African-American civil rights and human rights activist beginning in the 1930s. She was a behind-the-scenes activist, whose career spanned over five decades. She worked alongside and mentored some of the most famous civil rights leaders of the 20th century, including A. Philip Randolph, and Martin Luther King, Jr. 21

(Age 80), Myrilie is a civil rights activist and journalist who worked for over three decades to seek justice for the murder of her civil rights activist husband Medgar Evers in 1963

Myrilie Evers-Williams

Fannie Lou Hamer

BORN:1922

BORN: 1933

BORN: 1938

Diane Nash

(Age 75),Diane Nash, was a leader and strategist of the student wing of the 1960s Movement. Her efforts included the first successful civil rights campaign to integrate lunch counters BORN: 1944 Angela Davis

Gloria Richardson ( May 6, 1922) Gloria Richardson is best known as the leader of the Cambridge Movement, which fought to desegregate public institutions like schools and hospitals. While on the program for the March on Washington, when she stood to speak she only had a chance to say hello before the microphone was seized

Angela Davis (Age 70) is an American political activist, scholar, and author. She emerged as a nationally prominent counterculture activist and radical in the 1960s, as a leader of the Communist Party USA, and had close relations with the Black Panther Party through her involvement in the Civil Rights Movement despite never being an official member of the party. Prisoner rights have been among her continuing interests; she is the founder of Critical Resistance, an organization working to abolish the prison-industrial complex.

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The Black Market Animal poaching is the illegal capturing, hunting or killing of wild animals.

The animal is usually poached as it has something valuable that can be traded, for

example ivory or fur. The world’s population is continually growing, therefore the demand for wildlife is ever-increasing. Here is just some of the animals affected everyday…

Elephants •

•

•

In 2011, 23 tonnes of ivory were seized worldwide – this amounts to the tusks of 2,500 elephants.

In 1930, there were 3-5 million elephants living in the wild in Africa, fast forward to the present day and now there are a mere 300,000.

In the 1980’s, elephants were even threatened with extinction due to the rate of poaching.

Tigers

•

•

•

Just one century ago, there were 100,000 tigers roaming around the Asian forests and tundra.

Today there are just 3,200.

Some parts of tigers, such as the skins, can fetch up to £25,000 on the black market.

Many tigers are kept in captivity on “tiger farms” in China. Claws, teeth, skin, bones and whiskers are produced to sell on the black market. Many Chinese people believe that these products give special protective powers.

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Rhinoceroses •

• •

Rhino poaching is a big problem in South Africa, with over 1,000 poached last year.

A rhino horn can retail for as much as $65,000.

Rhino horns are believed to have special healing powers in some cultures, when in fact they have none.

Why do people poach?

In poorer countries across the world, sometimes poaching is the only way to sustain a living. Where there are no other jobs and little economic prospects, poaching can earn people a lot of money very quickly – this is why we see poaching happen in less economically developed regions, such as the continent of Africa.

Tom Rodgers

Secondly, people may poach just for prestige – regardless if they need the money.

Once they have poached the animal, they keep furs or ivory as trophies.

Finally, in some cultures, people genuinely believe that parts of animals – mainly ivory – possess medicinal or spiritual powers. There is no scientific evidence to support this.

What can I do to help?

As an individual it may seem like there is little you can do; however by signing online petitions against animal poaching, and by doing some research and raising awareness yourself, you may be able to stop this cruel business from existing.

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FRACKING AWAY THE FUTURE Fracking is the commonly used term for a method which injects gallons of water, sand and chemicals deep into the earth to break up shale rock and release natural gas. Many of these chemicals remain unnamed and as 40,000 gallons of chemicals are used per fracture, this is a worrying prospect on a planet whose environmental state is precarious at best. However, disturbing the ecosystem does not seem to be an issue for corporate oil and gas companies who continue to dominate the energy industry with their abusive techniques of extracting their products. Alongside Obama, whose speech on environmental change focused on this source as a viable new course of action, natural gas has been ferociously heralded by gas companies as the next great energy, arguing that this resource, located just under people’s feet, will help the country transition away from its dependency on foreign oil.

This myth can no longer continue.

Fracking must be stripped from the miraculous shelf it has been placed for green energy to transpire. Filmmaker Josh Fox, the outspoken leader of the grass roots movement against Hydraulic Fracturing, pried open the public’s consciousness on corporate energy extraction, through two documentaries ‘Gas Land I and II’. Both films examine and expose how the gas-industry and the government’s portrayal of natural gas extraction are highly suspect.

The first film explores Fox’s journey

from the point when he received notice that a natural gas company wanted to drill a well on his family property in exchange for $100,000, a preposition of undeniable temptation. Rejecting the extortionate offer, he sets out to investigate how these squat-looking wells, which dot the land in 34 American states, affect the lives of those whose backyards have suddenly become a goldmine. He met with harsh reality.

Over the course of both Gasland documentaries, his journey brings him in contact with families whose land, homes and health are threatened by living in commune with the poisonous discharge from the wells which filters into the water-table and into the watertaps of everyday citizens who with a light, can set their water: on fire.

Communities across swaths of the United States are being turned into industrial zones, their water leaking explosive methane through wells which are indiscriminately bored into the ground on parcels of purchased land that border personal residences. With the oil and gas industry already leasing a total landmass of more than California and Florida combined, the might of Fracking is daunting, and since these documentaries, the practice has only increased by reaching more states and countries.

Human beings are being stripped of their fundamental human rights, of water and sanitation (established on the 26th July 2010 by the United Nations General Assembly). As Josh Fox quotes: ‘Democracy itself has become contaminated’.

With such an overwhelming amount of evidence to point toward the corrupt nature of hydraulic fracturing, it is often puzzling why the practise is continually being used and expanded upon. The answer is doubt within the general population. The natural gas industry is ruthlessly spreading misinformation about fracking. Some companies even launched attacks against ‘Gasland’, accusing it of promoting false and misleading information.

They are adamant that no such evidence exits, despite environmental protection agency (EPA), data showing contamination in

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West Virginia, Wyoming and Texas.

However, this is no new strategy. The tactic of manipulating the truth has already been witnessed by the world during the 1950’s through the Tobacco Industry. The company, ‘Hill and Livington’, decided to push out bogus statements and science saying that cigarettes are not bad for you, that medical reports were not true and exaggerated the prospect of obtaining cancer through smoking. This created uncertainty, and as long as there was doubt, people continued doing the things they were addicted to. The oil and gas industries are almost a mirror image.

They are preaching to the public that the methane found in water near Hydraulic Fracturing wells is ‘naturally occurring’ and that the meagre miles between their sites and these occurrences is enough to eradicate them of any blame. As long as these fictitious statements are being issued, reservations will continue on who to believe, and our addiction to fossil fuels will continue.

On a positive note, protests have gone viral. As although generosity, kindness, integrity and decency are not mentioned when we talk about energy and politics, they are what is guiding and leading the anti-fracking movement. People across the globe are tired of living off synthetic lies and are grouping together to demonstrate their opposition.

In Australia, for example, where citizens do not own their mineral rights, ‘Lock the Gate’ campaigns have been undertaken where farmers come together and quite literally lock out the gas industry. This entails setting up three week blockades by sitting out and refusing entry for gas companies. Or there is the occupy Chevron movement in Poland, where similarly, farmers ‘lock out’ Chevron, and in South Africa where the leader of the anti-Fracking movement recently won the Goldman prize as they campaign against Shell. France too has effectively banned Fracking within this administration. There has been civil unrest in Britain as well through the group ‘No dash for Gas’ and everyday a new different video, a different essay, and another article in five different parts

of the world remonstrating fracking: appears.

Alternatives are not a distant possibility. If we were to restore accountability in the face of these extreme practises, if were to restore what are fundamental human rights and not allow oil and gas companies to set alight our democracy: we would realise that solar, wind and tidal are just around the corner. Patiently waiting for the world to embrace renewable recourses and cut down our dependency on sources which poison the very earth we live.

Brigitte Cross de Valk

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GALLERY

ARTIST: NATSHA EDWARDS

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ARTIST: EVIE HELEN CAROLL 28

PHOTOGROPHER: DAN ALLNUTT

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ARTIST: MATAIO AUSTIN DEAN

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IS THE ROYAL FAMILY OBSELETE? With the recent marriage of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, not to mention the recent birth of George the seventh, an important question has been raised. In modern day Britain, is the Royal family obsolete?

The origins of the Royals are long to trawl through, so much so that many people don’t really know how Monarchs are made. It is taken as red isn’t it? There is a family above everyone else, richer and who somehow never run out of money despite never actually working in their life (aside from Prince Harry, who is one of the few princes to actually get paid for proper work).

The process of becoming a ‘Royal Family’ really begins in the early stages of a nation. Serfs who have very little money, worked under a richer lord, who, along with his rich friends, rise up the ranks and are announced ‘Noblemen’ or ‘Lords’.

Now, these men all want to be above each other, someone of course has to be in charge of everyone; otherwise it was all get out of hand, wouldn’t it? So one of the men is crowned king. This gets its own special benefits, such as making laws and getting a share in everyone’s money, making them extremely rich. As the family tree grows and past kings die/get overthrown etc. the path to succession gets rolling. We know most of our kings and queens of history, successors killing off their fathers or brothers to become king, abdications and complications over who will rule (especially if a king dies and his

children are too young to rule a country on their own).

This then leads us to the Windsor family, so well-known it is even put into spellcheck.

Now, in the past, as I have just said, it was the King/Q ueens’ job to make up rules, keep control William and Kate carrying new-born of taxes Prince George, who was christened in a rd and private ceremony on the 23 October decide who was going to war with whom.

Nowadays however, none of these jobs belong to the royal family anymore. Most of the previously ‘Royal Jobs’ are left to the government (they do need the Queen’s consent before they can finally pass a law, but this is usually just official decoration), so what exactly do they do anymore?

The answer: Nothing. Nothing, except be a major tourist attraction.

Think about it, in the past the Royals used to do everything. Queen Elizabeth I led the army to the Spanish Armada, King Richard (The Lion Heart) led the Third Crusade (unsuccessfully, but the thought still counts.) Did the Queen decide to launch the war in Iraq? Did she help raise the hopes of the troops during Afghanistan? No, she sat at home and let

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the Prime Minister and the British flag to do all the work.

A TOURIST ATTRACTION?

We’ve all seen the pictures of Buckingham Palace in the news. It’s a big castle that seems to have a severe tourist infestation, milling in and out of the gates, seemingly so excited to be at one of the most famous places in England that they spend the entire trip looking at it through a small camera screen. The world and it’s corgi seem to converge on the palace every day, American tourists trying to make the royal guard move, confused tourists and street vendors trying to flog tacky souvenirs in ways that would make Del Boy proud.

Americans seem to love the Royal Family and why not? They’ve never had one, opting instead for a president (a far more sensible, yet complicated option). Princes and Princesses have been drilled into both of our cultures, most often by Disney (who seems to have forgotten the term ‘Queen’ altogether, instead assuming that the highest title that royals can have is ‘Princess’), I mean look how many there are:

When the Royal Wedding occurred, 23 million Americans watched, coming a close second to the 24 million here in England. That number is the same as the entire human population of Australia.

So this raises the main question again. Are the Royal Family still relevant? Well, on one hand they make no rules, do nothing worthwhile to the furthering of life on Earth and serve only as a relative ‘Face’ of the English Stereotype.

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So, are they still relevant?

When asked this question, people argue that if the Royal Family suddenly disappeared overnight there would be a huge hole in the national GDP as they do bring in a large sum of money through tourism (which is over £500 million). This I have agreed with up to a few weeks ago, when it came out that the Royal Family have actually overspent their allowance of £31 million of taxpayer money which is given to them per year (for… groceries?) causing them to play their tourist card once again by opening the doors to the palace from August to September to try and earn some actual money.

This has brought to light the fact that for as much as we like to think a large slice of our hard-earned money is going towards a crippled child get life-saving surgery, it is in fact going towards the Queen’s corgi dogfood.

So actually, without the Royal family, rules would still be made, the economy would survive, we would have more money to go around in the economy, not to mention, more tourists for the many neglected pencil museums around the country.

Molly McDade

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TEENAGE DEMOCRACY TeenageDemocracy@facebook.com

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There's no Truth I think...

In this article, I want to talk to you about philosophy. If you've never heard of philosophy, or know about it and refuse to be in the same country as it, bear with me. All I ask is at least one paragraph of your time. Philosophy literally means “love of wisdom” (the same philo as in philanthropist, and the same sophy as in, well, Sophie, so if that's your name, you should feel wise.) Philosophy is about asking questions. Sometimes, we live life unthinkingly, never questioning the world around us, never stopping to wonder how it got here, how we got here, why the world is the way it is. The philosopher asks where the universe came from; if our actions are controlled by the universe or if we really do have free will; if there is a God; how we know anything is true; what it means to live a moral lifestyle; what is the meaning of life? But those who've heard of philosophy and haven't studied it often suspect that philosophers spend their time only asking empty questions, and never actually bothering to answer them. That's pretty dull. So in this article, I want to explore three questions and offer my opinions. “Opinion” is the key word; I encourage you to come up with arguments against the points I make. Philosophy takes nothing for granted and questions everything. Try it, it's fun!

people, it's true that the world was created by the Christian idea of God; but others believe in the Hindu gods or the Shinto gods; and a depressing number of people worship Justin Bieber as their One True God. Who's to say which of those beliefs is true?

We get the idea that people can have different opinions, but we still think that some things are basically true. The Earth always revolved around the Sun, they just didn't know it until the astronomer Copernicus came around. Infections weren't actually caused by the gods until the physician Semmelweis showed they came from poor hygiene. And astrology... well, okay, that one is still kicking around. But two plus two will always equal four, won't it?

Not necessarily. The English word “two” means one and then another one, and “four” means one and one and one and one. As long as that's true, two plus two will equal four, but what if the meanings of the words change? What if “two” comes to

“What is 'the truth'?”

Seems obvious, right? The truth is what's... well, true. Correct. Right. Not wrong. But the question is, what actually is true?

It's a harder question than you'd think. Two thousand years ago, it was true that the Sun revolved around the Earth, diseases were caused by angry gods, and that the movement of the planets and the stars affects your life. For some

mean one and one and one, what we call “three”? If that happened, then it would be true to say that two plus two equals six. It's not out of the question: language

changes all of the time. The word “meat” used to refer to all food, so you could be eating vegetable stew with extra vegetables and it would be true to sat you were eating meat.

Maybe one day, language will be so different that it's no longer true to say “two plus two equals four.”

But words are just labels, you could argue: whether you call it a “livre”, “Buch”, “leabhar” “libro”, “本” or, as they say in Australia, “book”, it will still be a collection of paper with lots of text on it, bound with a paper or leather spine. The book itself will always be a book, no matter what you call it. That truth doesn't change. But here's the thing... how do you know you're even holding a book in the first place? If you're rolling your eyes at this point, hear me out. You know it's a book because your senses tell you so; you use your sense of vision to examine the shape, size, colour, the text and the images; you can touch the pages and feel the paper; if it's an old book then you can smell the dusty old book smell coming from the pages. You could taste it too, though people may be looking at you weirdly by that point.

The point is: everything you know right now is because of the body using its senses.

The catch is: senses can lie. Taking drugs, experiencing heavy g-forces or depriving yourself of food and water (don't try these at home), can put your brain in a heightened state, to the point where you hallucinate things that aren't there, or you don't see things that are there. We're all familiar with the image of a man crawling through the desert, dying of thirst, who sees a shimmering fountain of water far ahead that is really nothing more than a mirage. Just because you have an

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the article so far: There is no meaning to life.

There's no reason that we humans, or other animals, were put on this Earth. There's no goal that we have to reach. There's no grand meaning that we have to fulfil. Or my favourite metaphor: there's nothing traced in the constellations of the starry night-sky that tells us what we should do, where we should go, who we should be.

It sounds depressing on the surface, but I think that in reality, this idea is a really good thing. It's not a new one either: this idea was put forward by a 20th century philosopher called Sartre (obviously he had other names, but for discussion purposes he only needs one.) Once, the popular idea was that you have a soul, and this completely determines who you are: whether you are a plumber or a writer, a king or a peasant, happy or unhappy, good or bad. Your whole personality is built on this design, and there's no getting away from it.

Sartre argued that this isn't true at all: who we are and what we become is entirely down to our free choice. Nothing can force us “What is the meaning of life?” down one pathway or another Here's a question where (unless our parents are really most of us seem to know we're beat. strict.) We don't live life accordI don't know anyone who claims to ing to who we are, because in orhave the absolute, definitive answer der to know who we really are, to the age-old question, besides we have to live life first. To go fans of Hitchhiker's Guide to the out on adventures, test our limits, Galaxy. I don't claim to have an try new things, go to new places, answer either, but you can probably make mistakes. Life is ours, to guess my idea from the theme of live in the way that we see best.

We don't know who we really are until we've really lived. experience, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's true, any more than it's true that there is a fountain in the desert. You may think you're reading a magazine, but maybe someone is transmitting electrical signals into your brain which are messing up your senses, so while you think that you're reading a magazine, you're actually holding a baby lion. It's not likely, but if that's really what was happening, it wouldn't feel any different from if you were actually reading a magazine: what you think you're experiencing stays the same. So if this is even a faint possibility, then surely we never know whether anything we're experiencing is true. Because, no matter what you think you're seeing, it's possible that what's happening in reality is completely different, and you'd never know it.

As long as it’s possible that our senses can lie to us, we have to admit that we don't always know what's really going on.

There may well be truth.

But the trouble is that, when you think about it, it's very hard to know for sure when you've found it.

Maybe you see the appeal of

the idea. But maybe you also feel that it isn't enough: that it just seems like we were put here for a reason. The universe is so incredible, so big, and so complex: why would we be given the powers of language, the fingers to use tools and build machines, and the ability

to wonder, if we weren't put here for some higher purpose? And I guess that if you're measuring it that way, humans are pretty cool.

We definitely don't see other animals speaking French, building skyscrapers, or writing weird magazine articles. But objectively, we're not that special; if anything, it seems arrogant to place us above all other animals. If dogs were the ones wearing suits and twiddling their opposable thumbs, I'm sure they'd talk about how special they were and think that they were put here for a reason. Maybe all animals do think that, and humans are the only ones who can say it. But just because we have incredible abilities as a species, that doesn't necessarily mean we have them for a reason. If you really believe that everything happens for a reason, then here's an even more important question for you: why do men have nipples?

“So what should we do?”

You may be thinking at this point that I don't actually believe in anything, and am telling you that you should do the same. Not at all.

I've spent this article discussing two major negatives: there's no ob36

jective, reliable truth, and no meaning to life. But I want to show that two negatives can make a positive.

I don't know if there's any truth, but I still believe that some things are true. I believe that there's a world around me, that the people in it really exist as conscious beings, that 2+2=4, that science is a good tool for exploring the world. I can't prove any of these things, because they all involve this world, so any proof I tried to come up with would eventually turn into a circular argument. I can't say that I believe the world exists because of the existence of the world. But even so, I still believe it.

I don't think life has any meaning, but I still think you can live a meaningful life. That we can carve out own path, set our own goal, live life how we feel is best.

We don't have a destination traced in the stars. But we can still have one.

The universe is complex.

For thousands of years, we've been trying to understand it, so we came up with structures, frameworks that help us to organise everything we know. We thought of all these scientific principles which explain the way things move and interact, all these mathematical equations that predict what will happen if you do this and that. We've been refining and changing these principles for so long, we assume that eventually this framework will be so perfect, that we'll eventually understand every corner of the universe. As if we were trying to measure a circle by tracing a square around it, then a pentagon, then a hexagon, then a decagon, and so on, until we eventually get so finely detailed that we have a completely accurate measurement of the circle. But maybe the universe isn't like the circle.

Maybe the universe is an infinitely complex shape that we can never

completely get the measure of, because there are so many infinitely tiny details, and we can never hope to understand how they all work and fit together. Science has completely scrapped its framework for a new one several times throughout history: the ideas we have about the universe today may be outdated in 100 years.

The point I want to bring home is this: the universe is what you make of it. For all the attempts of science to measure the universe in an objective way, the fact (if there is any such thing) is that everyone sees it differently.

We all have a unique perspective, made up of our beliefs, ideas, background knowledge, experience, prejudices, and physical qualities. What we see, and what we don't see. We interpret everything we see according to our perspective: a football fan will watch a game and think “England are beating France by 2-0” (or something,) whereas I'll watch a game and think “Men are kicking a ball around a field (please get me out of here)”. An optimist will see the glass as half-full, while the pessimist will ask for a refill. Someone whose eyes are very sensitive to green may really think that the grass is greener on the other side.

No perspective is better or worse than another one, they're just dif-

ferent ways of interpreting the world around us.

So why do we tend to stick to one perspective? Simply: because it's convenient. Using a scientific mind-set, in my opinion, explains the world very well and allows us to interact with it. The same is true with truths in general: it's a lot easier to believe that some things are true than to believe in nothing; to commit to that belief would mean you'd need to do an awful lot of sitting around doing nothing. Actual nihilism – the belief that nothing is true or exists – is pointless, and doesn't help you to live your life. What it does do – or at least what I've tried to do through this article – is to remind you that there is no one “correct” way of looking at things. There are so many ways you can live your life. And this, in a way, is true freedom. So I'll leave you with one last question.

“What is 2+2?”

Whatever the hell you want it to be.

By Leo King

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In an ideal society, would you rather have the possibility to excel and make huge profit, however at the extent of others and exploit those who work for you

LIVE IN A SOCIETY WHERE EVERYONE IS EQUAL AND NO ONE CAN BE BETTER THAN ANOTHER PERSON, HOWEVER, YOU MAY

OR

WORK HARDER THAN THOSE AROUND YOU AND GET NO GREATER REWARD OR PROFIT?

Please email answers to Simon Finn or Brigitte Cross de Valk 38

THE SANITARY TOWEL SAVIOUR! SUPPORTING FEMINISM AND WOMEN’S WELLBEING IN STRUGGLING AREA’S OVER THE WORLD Whilst sitting in a free period at college and getting on with all my college work (scrolling through my twitter feed and procrastinating) I came across a headline from the awesome Caitlin Moran (feminist author and hilarious lady) ‘The greatest male feminist on the planet- SATINARY TOWEL KING!’ as I did my research, BBC news had produced an article on an Indian man named Arunachalam Muruganantham who has created millions of jobs for girls and women, inventing a mechanism that creates sanitary towels for women living in poverty after discovering his wife used rags that he ‘would not even use it to clean my scooter.’ Long story short, after over 4 years of researching how to effectively create safe to use sanitary towels, even whilst experiencing his mother and wife leave him for it (he did a few crazy experiments!)

Arunachalam’s invention brought safety and job opportunities for women who had to choose between a sanitary towel and a meal for her family. Arunachalam explained that in rural areas he was shocked to discover that women use worryingly unhygienic substances such as sand, sawdust, leaves and even ash instead of sanitary towels or rags. Seeing a male feminist supporting women’s basic rights to health and providing jobs where they can be independent and give back to their community is inspiring and fills my heart with joy- after all, he was a school drop-out at 14, leaving school to help provide for his family. After word of his amazing invention spread worldwide, Muruganantham wasn’t interested in profit whatsoever, explaining ‘Anyone with an MBA would immediately accumulate the maximum money. But I did not want to. Why? Because from childhood I know no human being died because of poverty - everything happens because of ignorance.’ It just shows that there are people out there who are interested in the people’s wellbeing, and not the money.

Read more about Arunachalam’s story at www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-26260978 The producers of the sanitary towels get to choose their own brand names; making the service feel more personaland asmagazines in India using Great websites to read these towels is a taboo subject, many women thinking they could go blind or not be able to get married ifwww.Rookie.com they use them.

Here are some – For teenage girls, of featuring with life decisions, art, music, the brand names thehelp women have created!

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short stories, fashion, DIY posts and the most amazing contributors www.bust.com -featuring the latest headlines in the feminist world www.msmagazine.com

Ellie Harman Taylor

http://www.newmoon.com/magazine/ - magazine for girls written by girls (aged 8-14) http://shamelessmag.com/ - magazine for feminist, LGBTQ and socially conscious teens

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My opinion on the fashion industry.

Why is this… considered more beautiful than…

This?

The amount of young people, particularly females, developing the disease anorexia nervosa in recent years has risen dramatically and become a worldwide concern, and who do the fingers of blame point to? None other than those involved in our ever growing fashion industry. We now live in a world where dress size 8 young women are considered ‘plus size’ and those in an emaciated state suffering from a severe mental illness are told they need to “lose more weight” to even consider the chance of success. I suppose the real question is, how many women want to open up their fashion mag and come face to face with a woman at least 4 sizes thinner? The answer is hardly any at all. Its human nature to become selfconscious if placed in a situation in which we feel different or out of place, and among these malnourished models haunting our everyday lives I know that I feel uncomfortable! We’ve all heard horror stories about models collapsing on the runway or girls with organ failure being scouted by agents but there are darker stories still. With a little research one can uncover tales of young girls’ supressing hunger by eating tissues or binging and purging or children as young as ten starving themselves for days to be their idea of ‘perfect’. Surely disturbing facts like these would have made an impact on the modelling world and ceased the steady flow of anorexic teenagers scoring deadly careers? But no, still today we see stick thin, doll like figures strutting on catwalks and posing on the covers of vogue and Elle and not only are they at risk themselves, their image also poisons the minds of insecure teenagers across the globe.

Now it is clear that there has been some effort to banish negative body imagery from the media over the last few years and of course not all models are in a state of ill health.

However, in my opinion more needs to be done to prevent models with eating disorders pursuing a career and putting themselves and others at risk of developing a negative body image.

We as humans are all exquisite regardless of our natural shape, size and skin tone, and it’s about time we began to appreciate the beauty of variety.

Thanks, Evie Carroll

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CHECK OUT THESE SITES!

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WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT JUDGEMENT When I started college I was exceptionally nervous. Not about grades, or teacher, or friends –the only thought jogging through my head a week before: what am I going to wear?

C’mon, we’ve all had those days. Everything’s going right (or at least it needs to be), and you?

You feel confident, beautiful, self-assured.

Right up until doubt hits you: What if people judge me? It’s clear that trying to impress people has become a day-to-day thing; it’s as if we’re predators in the wild. We feel the need to assert our lion(ess) authority and simultaneously keep our shiny manes fabulous for the show.

Every Monday morning I reach the same bridge. It’s the bridge I have to cross to change out of my trackies and into a ‘suitable’ outfit.

Not clothing that’s extravagant, bright or eyecatching, because honestly it’s habitual for me to turn up to college rocking some sort of black.

And as I walk around college of course I notice other people, ‘His hair looks a bit ratty’, ‘That coat with that dress??’ ‘Oh God those shoes are too bright!’ I maybe the first to admit it but yes, as part of being human, I am constantly judging.

24/7 this vicious cycle happens, feeling selfconfident, feeling less confident, feeling judged by others; then judging them in result.

I remember asking my mum (now bear in mind I must’ve been 7), ‘Why can’t I wear my jim jam’s Out? And why do you dress me?’ As a result of my continuous questions, my dearest mother in her wisdom could see I had to learn the answers to my questions through experience; she let me wear my jim jam’s out, and well, I got some uncanny looks to say the least.

Even at the age of seven I was judged for my desire to put comfort and warmth and feeling good about myself above the need to instead conform to the fashion trend of the time.

Whilst I appreciate perhaps I should’ve grown out of my ‘I’m-Going-to-be-a-fairy stage’, why was I being judged for being a carefree child??!

Don’t laugh at that my lovely readers; you want to be that child! And I guarantee that deep down there is a part of you who gets upset at the thought of not being able to roll out of bed and straight into work wearing your pyjamas, especially on those it’s-rainingwelcome-to-Britain morning!

I could disagree that we, as females and males alike, will never recover from this terrible epidemic – similar to the ‘Cara takeover’ just less eyebrow intense – but as human beings in a culture obsessed by LFW and free delivery, it’s the most sincere and

inevitable outcome.

If we take the principle many of us like to acknowledge, that of ‘David Beckham was made prettier by puberty’, then we can fool ourselves into believing that puberty could change us like it did David Beckham? But who are we kidding! Puberty isn't your own personal stylist, its hair, periods & mood swings.

We can’t judge other people’s experiences (nor their flawless looks and lucky genetics)

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and we shouldn’t compare them to our own – it’s a rookie error we’re all certified to make.

We, (that includes you reader) are never going to understand ourselves until we become the independent, remarkable, marvellous creatures we should be. We are all individual (oh I know its cliché, *cringe*) and we’re all extremely selfdetermined. If you want to be something, be it. If you want to wear something, wear it. And guess what? If you want to judge someone; don’t do it!

Sorry, tricked you there.

Grace Emma

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Inside Out For the past 13 years artist JR- who won’t reveal his full name- has been plastering portraits on outdoor surfaces in the aim of attracting attention and usually to address a political issue. JR takes art in the form of photography to places where you would not necessarily expect it to be. He has completed several projects including The Wrinkles of the City, Women are Heroes, Face 2 Face, Unframed, Portrait of a Generation and Inside Out. Inside Out is a project that gives everyone the opportunity to share

their portrait and to make a statement to stand up for what they believe in. It is a global art project that “shares untold stories and expresses messages of personal identity transforming them into works of public art”.

JR launched this project after winning the TED prize at the TED conference in Long Beach, California on March 2nd 2011. This project has travelled worldwide reaching places such as Ecuador, Nepal, Palestine and Mexico. Over 120,000 people from more than 180 countries have participated.

“I WISH FOR YOU TO STAND UP FOR WHAT YOU CARE ABOUT BY PARTICIPATING IN A GLOBAL ART PROJECT, AND TOGETHER WE'LL TURN THE WORLD... INSIDE OUT.” JR. Some inspiring group actions include Be the Change, Juarez (Mexico) which includes 1161 portraits. Their statement expresses that “WE STAND FOR PEACE IN OUR CITY, OUR COUNTRY AND THE WORLD!”

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Another interesting project made a statement concerning LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transvestite) rights in Berlin Russian Embassy. This group actions statement outlines the struggles that the LGBT

communities in Berlin and Moscow face. “They have been met with violence and discrimination from their governments, religious leaders, and right-wing skinhead groups.”

Here at Barton Peveril College we are getting involved with the Inside Out project. Our group action aims to “portray young people in a more positive light” or “Goodies in Hoodies”.

Young people seem to be looked negatively upon by society and through this project we aim to show a more positive reflection of what we can achieve.

If you would like to get involved and have you photo taken as part of Inside Out project at Barton please contact 5MFO0901@barton.ac.uk.

CAN ART CHANGE THE WORLD? MAYBE WE SHOULD CHANGE THE QUESTION: CAN ART CHANGE PEOPLE'S LIVES? JR

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EMAIL YOUR ANSWERS TO 5BCR1801!

LAST ISSUE’S WINNERS! Paige Edwards - ‘It’s scoooones not SCONNNS’.

Jasmine Brown ‘Your argument is so old that it’s a dust particle in my eye’.

Jasmine Brown ‘The cake is burning!’

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MANY PEOPLE CAN NAME BOB DYLAN AND JOHN LENNON IN THESE PHOTOS, BUT CAN YOU NAME THE WOMEN?

FACT FILE

The term “Arab” is not a racial term but rather a cultural and linguistic term. It refers to those who speak Arabic as their first language. Arabs share a culture and history, but “Arabs” are not a race

A Hippo’s milk is pink.

‘We have to talk about liberating minds as well

Only 9 out of 52 winners of the National Book Award for Fiction are women.

as liberating society’.

Angela Davis 49

WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN UP TO/ SEEN????

ELLIE HARMAN TAYLOR

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