Tharunka No. 1 Vol. 58 (2012)

ARE YOU THE NEXT BORGES? THARUNKA 2012 NON-FICTION WRITING COMPETITION / FIRST PRIZE $800.

SUBMISSIONS CLOSE 18 JULY. COMPETITION OPEN TO ALL STUDENTS ENROLLED AT AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES. ENTRY $5. POST SUBMISSIONS TO NON-FICTION WRITING COMPETITION, THARUNKA PO BOX 173 KINGSFORD NSW 2032. JUDGES: LISA PRYOR (JOURNALIST), JASON WHITTAKER (DEPUTY EDITOR, CRIKEY) AND DR MATTHEW THOMPSON (JOURNALISM AND MEDIA RESEARCH CENTRE).

EDITORIAL Dear Students, Welcome to another wonderful O-Week. O-Look at the sun come shining O-Ver the hills.

Yay! O-What joy it brings me to O-bserve the wonder that is O-Week and our new Outrageously O-riginal O-Week edition of Tharunka. O-h you will no doubt be O-verjoyed by the O-bscenely hilarious content on the O-utside and the inside, which is less exciting than the O-utside because it provides no O-utlet for the use of the letter O. O-h what a pity!

Have you eaten your OAtmeal before arriving at our O-Week celebrations? Wouldn’t want to be O-Vertaken by fatigue. O-h but I’m glad to be back. I am O-verwhelmed by our University. O-Week is a lot of fun. Yay! O-h but I am beginning to regret this theme.

O-ooooooh. What have I done.

Tharunka Editorial

CONTENTS 4. SHORT LIST 5. CALENDAR 7. ICE CREAM, POLITICS & GOSSIP GIRL

Osman Faruqi 8. SOMETHING HAPPENED

Dan Nolan 10. IF I RULED THE WORLD

Larissa Behrendt 11. JANE WALLACE PRESENTS

Jane Wallace 30. REVIEWS 35. OFFICE BEARER REPORTS 37. LIZZETTE THE AGONY AUNT

Liz Stern 39.THIS WEEK...

13. DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU’RE PAYING FOR?

Henar Perales 15. CONCERNS UNSW FALLING BEHIND IN SUSTAINTABILITY

Kylar Loussikan 18. CONCERNS ABOUT CONFUCIUS INSTITUTE CURRICULUM

EDITORIAL TEAM

Kylar Loussikan, Cameron McPhedran and Elizabeth Stern DESGINER

Bernardo Bento

Renee Griffin 20. ART, SOCIETY AND HOPE:THE REFUGEE ART PROJECT

Cameron McPhedran 23. WHAT TO EXPECT FROM UNI GAMES

Jacob Burkett

COVER DESIGN

Leigh Rigozzi CONTRIBUTORS

Henar Perales, Kylar Loussikan, Benjamin Holdstock, Osman Faruqi, Kyoko Imazu, Damon Kowarsky, Dan Nolan, Larissa Behrendt, Jack Jelbart, Wilna Fourie, Lauren Keating, Leigh Rigozzi, Liz Stern, Renee Griffin, Cameron McPhedran, Saad Tlaa, Alwy Fadhel, Jacob Burkett, Lily Ray, Pauline Guillonneau

24. INTERNATIONAL IP AGREEMENT MAY CHANGE NET FOREVER

Lily Ray 26. WHO’S AFRAID OF THE ECONOMIC CRISIS?

Pauline Guillonneau 28. IN DEFENCE OF CANNABIS

Anonymous 34. THE LANSDOWNE

Leigh Rigozzi

CONTACT

tharunka@arc.unsw.edu.au PO Box 173, Kingsford, NSW, 2032 Office Level 1 Blockhouse, Lower Campus, Tuesday 3 to 5 pm.

Tharunka acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land on which the University now stands.

Tharunka is published periodically by Arc @ UNSW. The views expressed herein are not necessarily the views of Arc, the Representative Council or the Tharunka editing team.

SHORT LIST

A

University to Buy-Back Arc Retail

rc announced this afternoon the buy-back of its retail assets by the University, including the Block House, CLB, Quad and Arc Fresh store at UNSW Village. The announcement puts rest to rumours that have circulated since late last year that the University and Arc were negotiating to transfer retail assets in exchange for a long-term funding deal.

Arc CEO Brad Hannagan told staff that the University had revised its retail strategy and was aiming to extract full commercial rent from campus retail facilities, believed to be $1200 per square meter. Arc currently enjoys a reduced rate of $300 per square metre, with leases running until 2020. However, the buy-back would see retail transfered back to the University by the end of first session, 2012 in exchange for $11 million.

The compensation was be-

lieved to be double the forcast profit over that period of time.

Further, Hannagan told staff the University had forcast a far more competitive commercial environment, which would have impacted on Arc retail revenues.

Natalie Karam, Chair of the Arc Board, said the campus was always a risky retail environment because of the 26 week trading period. She said the University had plans to open a further 4000 square metres of retail space in the future, irrespective of whether the Arc retail leases were given up or not.

Tim Kaliyanda, SRC President, told Tharunka that it was disappointing in terms of the immediate impact on students.

“UNSW’s future plans for retail space on campus would have undermined Arc’s capacity to continue funding existing independent student support services and maintain the high-

quality student experience it currently provides,” he said.

It was rumoured the board had originally held out for a higher compensation package, to secure additional SSAF funding and for a guarantee that Arc would have a presence on upper campus after exiting the CLB store premises.

However, the Board unanimously approved the deal at yesterday’s board meeting. Hannagan said it would guarantee the future of the organisation beyond 2021.

He said it would allow Arc to focus on student support and development.

It was announced there would be redundancies across all retail stores. “This decision has not come lightly and not without personal pain,” he said.

Hannagan told the meeting he had spoken to the affected staff members. Tharunka spoke to several casual staff, who said they had yet to be told.

A controversial report recommended the government establish a sixteen million dollar network to cover academic publishing was attacked by small university presses who say they will not able to join. Louise Adley, deputy chair of the Book Industry Strategy Group said e-presses were not professionally edited, published and marketed.

Campus Review revealed the initiative had the backing of the four large university presses, including UNSW Press, but not the smaller ones.

--The University of Canberra signed a sponsorship arrange-

ment with the Brumbies, who will now be known as the University of Canberra Brumbies.

The NTEU ACT secretary Stephen Darwin expressed concern that no financial details had been released. “Professor Parker has to assure the staff and students of the university that public funding intended for teaching and research is not being directed to a sporting sponsorship,” he said.

--NSW TAFEs announced their intention to increase dramatically the number of full-fee training places to cover a shortage of government funding. A spokesperson for the Riverina Institute

said funding had come piecemeal and the Institute was dependent on one-off tenders. Full-fee places will cost approximately fifteen thousand dollars compared to one thousand and eight for government subsidised places.

The Enrolled Nurse Professional Association said the move would impact equity of access. “You also have to question why a student would pay a large amount of money to complete a Diploma of Enrolled Nursing at TAFE when they could go to university for nearly the same price and graduate with a higher qualification as a registered nurse,” said Christine Anderson, their president.

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CALENDAR The Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences presents Rory Medcalf from the Lowy Institute in the first ‘So, what?’ lecture of the year, speaking on Australia’s future between China and India. He will discuss different economic and military postures, as well as focusing on the uranium export deal and President Obama’s visit to Australia.

“Grand Stakes: Australia’s future between China and India” will be held 6pm March 15 at the Tyree Room, Scientia.

--Michael Neuman, Professor of Sustainable Urbanism, will present the Paul Reid Lecture in Urban Design for 2012. The lecture, on aspects of urban design theory and practice, emphasising current research, will start 6pm March 7 at Leighton Hall, Scientia.

--Carriageworks and the Merrigong Theatre Company present a theatrical adaptation of the independent Commission Against Corruption investigating Wollongong Council. The performance “exposes sexual obsessions, envelopes full of cash, and a secret cabal of powerful men that met regularly around a plastic table outside a local kebab shop.” The Table of Knowledge runs from March 13 to 24 at 8pm, at Carriageworks, 245 Wilson Street, Eveleigh. For further information, contact Carriageworks at 8571 9099.

--Bronwyn Bancroft, a Bundjalung artist of the Djanbun clan, presents a work stretching from painting, writing, fashion, and design. “Passion Power

Politics” considers the “themes of personal and cultural identity, and contemporary Aboriginal life that underpin her practice,” and runs until March 17 at Carriageworks, 245 Wilson Street, Eveleigh. For further information, contact Carriageworks at 8571 9099.

--The School of Arts & Media invites postgraduate students for wine and cheese to celebrate the start of session. The Welcome Reception will be held February 23, starting 5pm at the Tyree Room, Scientia. For further information, contact the faculty office at 9385 2289.

--SAM will launch the Postgraduate Research program with addresses from PhD candidates and information about financial support and the reviewing process. The seminar begins 12.30pm on March 2, at the Hugh Dixson Room, AGSM. For further information, contact the faculty office at 9385 2289.

--Information and entertainment will be available for international students at the International Student Festival. The Festival starts at 11am on March 4, and will be held at Victoria Park.

--The dynamic process involving designers, products and owners in a storytelling process will be the basis for a new exhibit of chairs by Elliat Rich. “Stories in Form” presents chairs at various stages of wear to break down “the throwaway relationship we have with our things, and encourage owners to keep their products for longer.” The exhibit

runs until March 25 at Object Gallery, 417 Bourke Street, Surry Hills, Tuesday to Friday 11am - 5pm, Weekends 10am - 5pm.

For more information, contact Object Gallery at 9361 4511.

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Elliat Rich, Amber, 2011.

Showcasing work from a residency in Yokohama, Kate Mitchell presents “Magic Undone,” a series of video work, including Fall Stack, a “five channel video work, which places the artist in mundane settings – a grocery store, a liquor store, bakery, chemist, and video store – made surreal through their cartoonish playfulness as the artist endlessly falls through the frame. “ The exhibit runs till March 11 at Artspace, 43 - 51 Cowper Wharf Road, Woolloomooloo, Tuesday to Sunday 11am 5pm. For more information, contact Artspace at 9356 0555.

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Kate Mitchell, Fall Stack, 2011.

Gallery 9 presents a series of paintings by Craig Waddell, featuring works of portraiture influenced by the old masters like Pope X by Velazquez and Bacon. Waddell has been a finalist for the Mosman Art THARUNKA / ISSUE 1, 2012

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Prize, Doug Moran Portrait Prize, the Archibald Prize, the Dobell Drawing Prize and the Wynne Prize. The exhibition runs from February 22 to March 17 at Gallery 9, 9 Darley Street, Darlinghurst, Wednesday to Saturday 11am - 6pm.

--Queer Screen and The Red Rattler present a screening of “a sociosexual video which incorporates the erotics of a community where the personal is not only political, but sexual.”

Community Action Centre is a political film exploring femininist fashion, sexual aesthetics and sex, seeking to “expose and reformulate paradigms that are typical of porn typologies, intentionally exploiting tropes for their comical value, critical consideration and historical homage.” Community Action Centre screens 8pm February 22 at the Red Rattler, 6 Faversham Street, Marrickville.

Cloud Face by Kyoko Imazu and Damon Kowarsky

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--The Mardi Gras Festival continues into late February and early March. Highlights include Queer Thinking which will be held at the Seymour Centre on February 25 from 12-8pm. This has numerous forums covering issues such as reconciling faith and religion with diverse sexualities (“Alyena Mohummadally: I am a Queer Muslim;” “Do you see me? Behind the mask of the Asian gay man”); the academic and social history of gay liberation (“Homosexual: Oppression & Liberation”); and reflections upon growing up with queer parents (“Growing up Other: Adult children of same-sex parents speak”). Other events include those relating to visual and performative art themes.

“Cycle in Cinema” will be held in Taylor Square on February 24, 25, 26 and will see cult short films and music videos and a curated program of new media

powered by the exercise of those in attendance. “Drag Races at Bondi Beach” will be held on March 2 at 5pm and is the 15th installment of this competition between Sydney’s famous drag kings and queens. Finally the Mardi Gras Parade itself will be held on Saturday, March 3 along Oxford and Flinders Street. This Parade began in 1978 and will see after parties at numerous venues across the city. For more details about the Mardi Gras Festival, see its website, <http:// www.mardigras.org.au/> --MC Nassim hosts a PechaKucha-styled evening of ideas and passion, as people present their ideas in five minutes or less. Described as an “intellectual happy hour,” hear people discuss art, politics and action.

“Five Minutes of Infamy” is on 8pm February 24 at the Red Rattler, 6 Faversham Street, Marrickville.

ICE CREAM, POLITICS & GOSSIP GIRL

End Of The Silly Season

By Osman Faruqi

O

ver summer the Canberra press gallery collectively filed 724 articles speculating about the future leadership of the Australian Labor Party.

That statistic is probably wrong, but if political journalists are allowed to make things up, why can’t I? The entire notion of “the silly season” is probably the most self-indulgent wank that the politico-journalist sphere participates in all year, and that’s coming from an industry that spends most of its time selfindulgently wanking (is there any other kind?).

For those of you who haven’t heard the term before, it’s used by politicians and journalists to describe the summer recess of Federal parliament. Parliamentary business is over for the year, politicians return to their electorates and most of the ‘real’ journalists go on holiday. To fill up pages, newspapers rely heavily on introspection and attempting to read political entrails, to discover what the New Year might hold. The excuse for this is “nothing newsworthy happens over summer anyway so we may as well write this stuff,” as though the entire world shuts down to accommodate the whims of the Australian media industry. Nothing newsworthy besides ongoing upheaval in the Middle-East, a coup in our closest neighbour, Papua New Guinea, the Republican primaries in the United States and the

release of the new Muppets film!

The topic of this year’s silly season was Julia Gillard’s supposed woeful leadership of the Australian Labor Party, and by extension the government, and the seemingly inevitable return of Kevin Rudd to the Prime Ministership.

The dominant narrative goes something like this: after taking the leadership by rolling Kevin Rudd, Gillard lacked legitimacy in the eyes of the voters. This problem was further entrenched by the result of the 2010 federal election which resulted in a hung parliament where Gillard was forced to negotiate with independents and the Greens to hang on to power. Fast forward 18 months and after a “disastrous ALP national conference”, poor communication with the electorate and the Australia Day fracas, Gillard’s leadership is in turmoil and many Labor MP’s who previously supported her are now backing Rudd.

Got it?

My problem with this thesis is that it’s a) full of shit and b) based on the assumption that most Australians view politics through the same prism as the press gallery and the political staffers they drink with.

Take the whole “fast forward 18 months” thing for example.

There’s been a lot written in the past couple of years about the failure of contemporary political journalists to adequately analyse policy and provide serious scru-

tiny of major decisions. Instead the focus has been on what’s called ’horse race’ reporting – focusing almost entirely on gossip and the trivialities of what goes on in Canberra. Because this sort of analysis has been done to death I won’t go into much detail other than to say that I agree with that view and that it is not serving politics, Australia and the profession of journalism very well.

Since the last election the Gillard Government has managed, from a minority position, to implement the carbon tax, the mining tax, increase investment in education, health, and renewable energy and start the process of Indigenous recognition in Australia’s constitution.

This is not an exhaustive list, but you can see that it’s managed to actually get done many things that Rudd tried and failed to do.

Before I get accused of being a Labor apologist, I should point out that whilst I respect and support some of the things Labor has done, I’m not trying to propagandise about its virtues (which I actually think are quite rare these days). The point is to show that despite having negotiated through some of the biggest reforms in Australian political history, Gillard’s achievements are immediately brushed aside when there’s a story to write about the leadership.

I honestly don’t think most political journalists, whose job it is to inform us of these policies, THARUNKA / ISSUE 1, 2012

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understand how most of them work. For example, instead of a lucid analysis of gambling reform and the impact it will have on Australians and the economy we get fevered gossip about how MP’s from the NSW Right faction of the ALP are maneuvering to have it snookered, and rubbish from Tony Abbott about how it will destroy the fabric of the universe. Some of that political insider stuff can be interesting, but it shouldn’t become the dominant theme.

Like I said earlier, part of the problem is that political journalists think that everyone cares about the same things they do.

They live most of their lives in the Canberra bubble. The only people they interact with are other journalists, politicians and political staffers. So when they

write about the lackluster ALP National Conference and the involvement of a Gillard staffer in the Australian Day protest as being “crucial” and “game changing,” they actually believe it.

No one in the real world gives a shit about the ALP National Conference and the first poll after the events on Australia Day showed a four per cent swing to Gillard, so that disproves that theory.

There are real reasons why Gillard is a bad Prime Minister.

These reasons will differ if you’re a disaffected Labor voter, a Greens voter, a Liberal voter or a Labor MP who is thinking about backing Rudd. I don’t actually think all of the hype about Rudd comeback has been conjured out of nowhere. There is definitely a group agitating for his return and

that group seems to be getting bigger. But until it happens how are we served by endless front page stories reporting MP’s too cowardly to attribute their names to their quotes?

On top of the carbon tax, which starts in July, this year will see a complete overhauling of the way universities are funded in Australia, changes to asylum policy, the beginning of our withdrawal from Afghanistan, a US election and a deepening economic crisis in Europe.

Incredibly important issues that we need an intelligent, engaged and mature political media to help understand. Unfortunately, poor communication and a lack of legitimacy isn’t just a problem the government faces, it’s one political journalists do too.

SOMETHING HAPPENED

A Primer for the Upcoming Whirlwind of Stupidity

T

he US presidential election cycle is quite possibly one of the most insane and farcical media circuses on the planet.

Unlike 2008 when there were two separate primaries going on (Democratic and Republican for those of you playing at home) the Dems think they’re onto a winner with Obama, so we’re watching the Republican contenders duke it out to see who will pick up the sword of triumph and challenge Obama to a duel to the death on the plains of existence in november. The primaries are a complex process - this isn’t like Australia where you’re just presented with a 8

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By Dan Nolan

candidate and you vote for a party and then sometimes the leader gets knocked off because Mark Arbib has a bout of feelings.

These primaries can either be open (which means anyone can vote in them) or closed (which means you have to register republican to vote in them).

The votes in the primaries award delegates which then vote for the candidate they are delegated to at the republican convention to nominate them for the role of the presidential candidate.

Sometimes those delegates are bound (their votes are stuck) but sometimes they are unbound

(they’re like broken arrow delegates, they could go off message at any time). There are a total of 2,286 delegates up for grabs and you need 1,144 delegates to win the nomination. If you are confused you have every right to be, this kind of awe-inspiring direct democratic procedure seems completely alien to Australians, which is why so many of us find it so fascinating.

What initially started out as a field of maybe 10+ candidates (it seemed like everyone and his dog threw their hat into the ring) has now been whittled down to 4.

The greatest thing about this en-

tire process though has been the Republican candidate debates, in which the potential nominees have made statements that truly redefine what it is to be crazy.

Some gold from the past candidates include Michelle Bachmann (a rep who looks like a child’s drawing of a crazy person) saying that the HPV vaccine caused ‘mental retardation.’ Rick Perry forgetting the third agency he would get rid of live on stage was also pure ambrosia, but still wasn’t as insane as his pledge to ‘re-invade Iraq’, something that would seem hardly difficult when the Green Zone contains the largest US embassy in the world.

Nor should we forget Herman Cain who when faced with sexual harassment allegations said in his defence “What about all the women I didn’t sexually harass?” This season has been an absolutely outstanding vintage for pure molten crazy. A rich and full bouquet combining warmongering, sexual policing and pandering to the highest bidder.

So who do we have left? First we have the presumptive nominee (that the Republicans really don’t want to nominate but will) Mitt Romney, a man who literally looks like he is the outcome of a medical experiment to create a prototypical Republican candidate. Mitt’s also hideously wealthy, having made his fortune with his company Bain Capital, a private equity firm that in many cases bought out and shut down the businesses that employed the people in middle America he is trying to win the votes of. Whoops.

The Republicans don’t want to nominate Romney (but will) because he simply has absolutely no consistency or ideology. They hate Obamacare and Romney enacted legislation that Obam-

acare was based on when he was the governor of Massachusetts.

If there are multiple sides to an issue, Romney’s probably agreed with them all purely to get elected. He has the money and the support (mostly of the banking industry and the other main players that also are funding Obama’s re-election campaign so everyone looks the other way while they steal everything that isn’t bolted down) to go the distance but calling it now and giving it to him would simply be no fun, so the media continues the three ringed circus and we all slowly lose a little bit more of our collective humanity.

Then we have Newt Gingrich, who was stirring things up a little bit recently with his win in South Carolina but seems to have had the wind taken out of his sails by the Florida primary. Newt is the former Republican speaker of the house (under Clinton) and is the only speaker in the history of the house to be sanctioned for gross ethics violations. He was fined $300,000 for how unethically he behaved. He also has a great habit of hot swapping marriages, particularly when his wife gets say cancer or multiple sclerosis.

Newt was cheating on his second wife with his now third wife while he was simultaneously leading the charge to impeach Bill Clinton for his unsanitary humidor fetish.

Newt is pretty much the textbook definition of a cunt.

Newt’s major gaffes have been to call Spanish a ‘ghetto language’, to say Obama’s presidency was a ‘food stamps presidency’ and to say that children should be hired as janitors in their own schools.

It’s the old fashioned ‘southern strategy’ and I’m surprised he hasn’t whipped out the idea of putting on minstrel shows to shore up the budget.

He also has said by the end of his second term the US would have a fully functional moon base and when it reached a population of more than 20,000 he would accept the moon as the 51st US state. Yes the country that has no money will spend billions building a base in one of the most inhospitable places for human life in the universe.

Newt has been getting coverage and receiving a bump as the anti-Romney but his unfavourable rating is so staggeringly high that were he to win the nomination they probably wouldn’t even call the election and just give it to Obama.

There’s also Santorum, the family-values, American-values fundagelical candidate who has a bit of an image problem thanks to a campaign by online blogger Dan Savage. Santorum, when he was a senator compared homosexual sex to bestiality and paedophilia, so Savage started a Google-bombing campaign to define Santorum as “the frothy mix of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of anal sex”.

Santorum believes that life begins at orgasm and most of his comments at the debate are either about bombing Iran back to the stone age or how abortion should be punished with the death penalty. He makes constant references to the stillborn child his wife had, Gabriel, and even talks about the child as if it is still alive.

When the child was stillborn, instead of handing the body over to the hospital, they took the corpse of the dead child to their house and introduced it to their other children - yes THAT crazy. No mention was made of what they did with the placenta.

Santorum is in the race because crazy religious people think that abortion is literTHARUNKA / ISSUE 1, 2012

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ally the most important thing in the world and the government should put armed guards outside every woman’s uterus in case she gets any ideas about her own sovereignty or something.

It’s easier to understand how this is actually a popular votegetting strategy when you think about the American south as like Castle Hill but with more churches. Santorum will not win the nomination and should probably kill himself.

Finally there’s Ron Paul. Ron’s kind of like the crazy old libertarian uncle who seems almost entirely out of place on the Republican stage. He’s strongly against bombing/invading Iran and as someone who has Iranian friends that I don’t want to see die just because they live above a lot of black spice that keeps the US running, I’m in favour of it.

He wants to repeal the Patriot Act (which allows warrantless spying and other sorts of nasty stuff), end all of the foreign wars and shut down all of the foreign bases. He also wants to cut a trillion dollars from the budget in year one of his presidency, I

don’t need to tell you that that’s pissed off a lot of people. He’s receiving a lot of support from young people, independents and even democrats who are sick of US foreign policy.

Paul has a bit of an image problem though, mostly stemming from newsletters published in his name in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s that contained some pretty gallingly bigoted and racist statements. Paul’s said he didn’t write the newsletters (and all signs point to the fact that they were written by notorious crank Lew Rockwell), but the fact that he let this stuff go out in his name shows it was a fairly cynical ploy to appeal to sections of his base that are neo-Confederate.

Civil Liberties Democrats and lefties have been supporting Paul’s inclusion in the debates and even potentially supporting his nomination as he is far better on civil liberties and foreign policy than Obama. Despite his vocal base, Ron will not win the nomination, but the Republicans will be unable to beat Obama if they do not have the votes of his supporters (particularly the

youth who were mostly responsible for Obama’s election).

The real test of the primary process is Super Tuesday, the day when multiple states hold their primaries. This year it’s going to be on March 6th and it should secure Romney’s title as the winner of the nomination.

Romney probably won’t do as well in the more southern states but should easily pull enough delegates to claim the nomination, though if Gingrich or Santorum or even Paul pick up a bit of steam it may end in a stalemate at the convention, where none of the candidates have enough delegates to win the nomination outright.

In that case the nomination process goes to a brokered convention, which is exactly what it sounds like - the candidates bribe delegates with whatever they can until they have enough to win the nomination. Either way, it doesn’t look like Obama is particularly worried about the outcome of the election in November but hell, as the 2008 election showed, absolutely anything could happen.

If I Ruled The World

By Larissa Behrendt

L

ike charity, ruling the world begins at home. So I would start my benevolent regime in Australia because what we do here matters to us and to others. Australia often downplays our significance, be it on global warming or human rights, but Australia does count and what we do is noticed and influences the actions of other nations.

Although ruling the world requires me to be a dictator, I believe in the importance of the principles of self-determination, 10

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democracy and the rule of law.

I would try to shape the world in a positive way while handing it back to the people and then I could become, eventually, a nominal head of state. (At least Australia would have an Australian as a head of state then!) The small country of Bhutan is going through this process of moving from monarchy to democracy, a shift driven by the royals. They also have a national happiness index so I think there a few things that I could learn from them.

But back to getting our house – and our world – into better shape.

Australia needs a world leading human rights system. This means having a charter of rights which is enforceable in the courts and which empowers all of us in our dealings with governments and incorporations. Strong human rights laws protect minorities and the most disadvantaged and strengthen the position of the entire community.

Combined with the comprehensive system of rights, government must face the fact that wealth has become obscenely unevenly distributed in our country.

This is most apparent in the huge differential that has opened up between average wages and the packages paid to corporate executives. More fundamentally it reflects a severe weakening in the Australian notion of egalitarianism. I would take inspiration from the Norwegians who have used wealth from their natural resources to improve the lives of their citizens. I would start with the taxes applying to mining and resources, the once in the lifetime mining boom needs to result in long-term benefit for the whole country and the creation of a sovereign wealth fund built from the extraordinary profits of resource companies should be introduced.

My top priorities would be free and quality education and free

and improved health care. I would certainly make sure that the gap on health, education and housing between Indigenous people and other Australians are also closed.

I have a strong belief on the importance of the arts in our lives. It is not just that it is an important part of our creative expression as humans, it is also an important part of our national identity. On a smaller scale, it has an educational, therapeutic and rehabilitative power so I would ensure that it was better integrated into our education and health systems.

As part of this cultural policy, I would like to see an Australia where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures are central to Australian cultural life and identity – that all Australians celebrate them as part of their country and history.

I would provide land justice for Indigenous Australians by rolling out the land rights legislation that exists in NSW nationally so that all Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders have a local land council that represents their interest, that can claim crown land not needed for an essential public purpose and use their land holding for housing, cultural activities and economic enterprises.

Australia has taken global leadership on climate change.

The introduction of a price on carbon leading to an emissions trading scheme is the most effective way to stem the release of green house gases. It is also world’s best practice and provides Australia with a good platform for further international leadership. We need to make sure that we continue to improve our own environmental protections and make sure the rest of the world follows us.

Turning to global issues more generally the two highest priorities must be food security and international peace and safety. Many millions of people in Africa, Asia and South America continue to face the daily reality of malnutrition and in sub-Saharan Africa outright starvation. Sufficient food is produced world wide so that noone need be subject to famine so the issue is around the issue of the distribution of food and an international agreement which would achieve this end.

The United Nations still remains the best option to address international options and I would endeavour to reinvigorate it as an effective global forum.

The key priorities I would give the forum – in addition to food security and safety – the abolition of forms of slavery where it still exists and the trafficking of women and children for labour and sexual exploitation.

JANE WALLACE PRESENTS Dear Editor, In the modern world of Lawn Tennis, you need to learn just two tennis skills to successfully play lawn tennis. Firstly, you should learn never leave the baseline under any circumstances.

Opposing Players should just stand on the opposing tennis court baselines and hit the ball to each other as hard as they can. Secondly, you should know the lawn tennis language which is a modern Stone Age

language from ancient cave dwellers .

“Baseliner” Lawn Tennis players should know how to grunt, shriek, scream, and make extremely loud noises.

Thanks, Jane Wallace THARUNKA / ISSUE 1, 2012

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THARUNKA AND THE CULTURE CLUB PRESENT

ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW

MARCH 1 • 7:30PM • STUDIO ONE • FREE BYO OR BOOZE AT THE DOOR THARUNKA.ARC.UNSW.EDU.AU

Do You Know What You’re Paying For?

By Henar Perales

I

n 2005, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that the yet to be passed Voluntary Student Unionism (VSU) legislation introduced by the Howard Government, would seriously threaten the survival of student unionism as we know it.

As it turns out, it did. On March 16, compulsory union fees were replaced by the VSU legislation, so that, according to the then Education Minister, Brendan Nelson, students would no longer have to join a student union or pay a fee for non-academic services.

The Australian National University declared that VSU had “compromised the quality of campus life”, and a report submitted to the Department of Education, the UNSW United Nations society stressed that that VSU resulted in students joining less clubs and associations, food, childcare and other services had become more expensive on campus and events were no longer free.

At UNSW, students who wanted to join the student organization, Arc, had to pay a yearly membership fee, and the services provided were decided by its 5,000 members.

But last year, the legislation for Student Services and Amenities Fee (SSAF) was passed under the Gillard Government, which means that as of 2012 term-start, local students would

pay a total of $263 per year as part of their overall fees.

And while this would appear to be a return to compulsory unionism, it is not exactly the case.

Where SSAF goes The SSAF is paid to the University, and as the legislation dictates, it is to be used at each establishment’s discretion. For UNSW, this means that out of an expected six million dollars, around half will be given to Arc ($3.2m) as funding.

According to the Chair of Arc, Natalie Karam, the implemented services fee has meant that Arc will no longer ask for payment for its membership, but will operate on an “opt-in” model.

“There is a misconception amongst students that Arc gets all of the SSAF money. Because the University does collect the fee directly on behalf of all students, and it is something that will impact students, Arc made decision to ease the burden that the fee will create on students”.

Free Arc membership will increase numbers from a current 5,000 members to around 20,000, Ms Karam says.

But Arc’s Annual Report for 2010 shows that the amount received by the University for the service agreement is $2.25m, to which the $3.2m are not added but merged,

raising Arc’s budget by less than one million dollars.

The President of the Student Representative Council, Tim Kaliyanda, says the raised number of Arc members may put pressure on services like advocacy, which are already at full capacity with 5,000 members.

Asked whether the budget will stretch for Arc to accommodate an increased number of members, Ms Karam said “It certainly won’t be a problem because we will increase funding as we see fit. We haven’t experienced how much extra demand we’re going to get on our services yet, but based on the financial plan of last year, it will be enough for us this year.”

Ms Karam adds that “there is a clause within our agreement with the University that funding will be reviewed in light of the demand on our services as well.”

The expenditure will be based on the results of a 3-part survey to be conducted by Arc among students and stakeholders.

Tim Kaliyanda says UNSW is the only University in Australia that has allowed its union to take full control of consultation by means of a survey, in order to ascertain which services students and stakeholders wish to have improved.

But while it has been known since 2009 that SSAFs would be implemented, the results of the survey will only apply in the THARUNKA / ISSUE 1, 2012

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future, not in 2012.

Former President of the SRC, Osman Faruqi said the University never met with him for consultation on the upcoming SSAFs. Mr Kaliyanda added that consultation should have occurred on a regular basis with democratically elected Council members, not just with Arc. “It was disappointing the University only met with us two weeks ago. They’ve had a year now to prepare consultation.”

Executive Director, University Services, Neil Morris said “I don’t think we did take that long to meet.”

“We could have met with Student Representatives two years ago and had a discussion about what might happen if the legislation came into place. But until we had the guidelines we weren’t going to talk turkey to students. I don’t think you’re going to lose anything by talking to students in January versus December or November because it’s an ongoing thing.”

But Tim Kaliyanda stressed that one meeting is not enough to raise the issues that democratically elected student representatives have to put across. He said issues like prices of food campus and childcare, which the SRC wanted to put forward, hadn’t made it into the discussion.

So the question remains, what will happen to students’ fee money in 2012?

accommodation, and healthcare and counselling careers.”

According to Mr Morris, the University already spends over $20m on the services included in the SSAF. “2012 is a transitional year, but we’re going to collect $263 from students every year. We want to make sure we have ongoing discussions to sustainable spend the money.”

But Mr Kaliyanda says students are entitled to know the exact figures of where the money is being spent. “The University needs to be transparent about what they intend to do with the money this year. It should be incorporated in legal terms

The Pocket this Year Neil Morris said that the portion of money that does not go to Arc already has an allocated place.

“When VSU came in a couple of years ago, the University didn’t let things fall over. We continued to fund sport and childcare, we continued to do overseas students orientation and student 14

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Benjamin Holdstock, Contact, 2011. Still from 8ml film

because we pay a lot of money.”

“They should be held to the same standards as every other service provider.”

In answer to the question of what services the University plans to invest in, Mr Morris said UNSW employees such as the Director of Healthcare or the Director of Counselling and Careers will be encouraged to “monitor the load” on campus and suggest where money may be needed.

He added that “The University is very keen to redevelop the precinct around the Roundhouse,” a project that is “pretty much” based on feedback.

Concerns UNSW Falling Behind in Sustainability

By Kylar Loussikian

U

NSW has again failed to make a list of the country’s top environmentally friendly tertiary institutions, missing out on inclusion in The Australian’s “Ten Greenest Universities.”

Higher Education Editor at The Australian, Julie Hare, told Tharunka the universities which had made the list had welldeveloped operational practices, green buildings, embedded sustainability in the curricula and high-level research in the area.

Chancellery welcomed increased media interest in environmental sustainability, but disputed the methodology The Australian used to compile the list. According to Aaron Magner, the Director of Sustainability at UNSW, the criteria for ranking universities on environmental sustainability had yet to become standardised and transparent.

“It’s not clear what methodology The Australian used to compile its Green Universities table. It appears highly subjective and not particularly rigorous,” he said.

Hare asserted that universities remained at the forefront of sustainable practice in Australia.

She explained that “the fact that UNSW didn’t make the list is not a criticism of the university.

It can’t be interpreted as a lack of commitment. Its dedication is

obvious. But a top 10 can only have 10 on the list.”

However, UNSW also failed to make a series of similar sustainability shortlists in the last year, despite launching a series of environmental programs.

One such award was the 2011 Green Gown Award, compiled

by Australasian Campuses Toward Sustainability. Despite dozens of tertiary institutions being shortlisted in six categories, UNSW was only nominated for the Student Initiatives and Campaigns prize, for work conducted by Arc’s Environmental Committee.

Whilst there was no doubt, according to the SRC’s Environment Officer Luke Marshall, that UNSW was a leader in research into environmental science, climate science and renewable energy, sustainability on campus was still lagging behind other institutions.

“It is disappointing that the administration have not yet recognised the demand for and many benefits that will come from a focus on sustainability at UNSW. Students and staff want a university with adequate waste management, powered by renewable energy and with access to decent bike facilities and public transport,” he said.

Neil Morris, Executive Director of Campus Services, said the university believed the list was incredibly subjective at best.

“If you put our Dean of Science and the Dean of Engineering in the same room, and Les Field, the DVC of research, they would probably say our flagship research would make us number one in environmental credentials. The sort of research we are renowned for, on a world-class level. The photovoltaic, groundwater research,” he said.

According to Morris, however, there was room for improvement for on-campus sustainability initiatives. He pointed to a rollout of commingling recycling bins early this year as one project the university is pursuing.

“I think the difficulty we’ve had with our environmental management plan and targets are that they were terrifically ambitious. They were designed in 2005 and you know a lot of them were feel-good factor stuff, not really achievable, certainly not costed, in no way costed, and they were basically written as some sort of feelgood document that you must have,” he explained.

The Ten Greenest Universities list, however, pointed several times to the high targets set by THARUNKA / ISSUE 1, 2012

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some tertiary institutes on the use of renewable energy and natural gas.

In its latest environmental plans, the University of Melbourne has already converted several of its satellite campuses to 100% renewable energy, whilst the overall campus statistic rose from 15% to 20%. Charles Sturt University, with campuses across regional NSW plans to be carbon neutral by 2015.

A series of environmental plans prepared for UNSW since 2007 have seen the Universities renewable energy targets reduced from 5% to 2.5% in 2009. Mor-

ris says this will change with the energy technologies building.

“They’re going to get a six star energy rating for that building, the photovoltaic on the roof will power a certain percentage of that building,” he said.

Magner told Tharunka that the 2005 – 2010 Environmental Management Plan was difficult to achieve. “EMPs help institution learn and build capacity in environmental management over time. The lessons learnt from prior plans will be incorporated into future Environmental Management Plans,” he outlined.

Whilst the University cannot rely on renewable energy alone, says Morris, there are other ways that campuses can make energy and cost savings.

One proposal may be that the University of Sydney, UTS and UNSW pool their purchases to be competitive on the cost of electricity and the portion of that energy that is renewable.

As Tharunka went to print, the Green Building Council of Australia announced that the new Tyree Building had secured the six star green rating. A new Environmental Management Plan is expected by mid-2012.

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GET YOUR THARUNKA POSTER FOR ONLY $2 IN ANY Arc STORE.

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THARUNKA / ISSUE 1, 2012

NEVER COMPROMISE.

NATALIE KARAM

IRON LADY

THE

Concerns About Confucius Institute Curriculum

By Renee Griffin

T

he Confucius Institute, an initiative of the Chinese government, promotes Chinese culture and language abroad.

It runs 350 programs in 104 countries. According to China’s Propaganda Chief, Li Changchun, it is “an important part of China’s overseas propaganda setup,” but there are concerns about the nature of its organization and the autonomy of its curriculum.

Director of the UNSW Confucius Institute, Catherine Hlavka, told Tharunka that the UNSW Confucius Institute is comparable to the Alliance Francais or the Goethe Institute, set up by the French and German governments respectively.

However, Lionel Jensen, an Associate Professor at The University of Notre Dame (USA), has described as “astonishing” the scope and influence of the CI. Unlike its Franco-German counterparts, The Confucious Institute is run out of universities, a relationship that some fear undermines the credibility of the Chinese Studies faculty, and possibly the legitimacy of the larger institution.

State Member for Balmain, Jamie Parker, has also voiced his concerns regarding the position of the Confucius Institute within tertiary institutions. Parker also said he was approached by members of the community who have petitioned against the CI presence in public schools.

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According to Parker, the Confucius Institute is directly linked to and funded by the Communist People’s Party. “Our concern is that it will be used as a way to express Beijing orthodoxy on a lot of issues which should really be the domain of debate and public engagement”, he told Tharunka.

These issues include the practices of the spiritual movement Falun Gong, sympathising with Tibet and the Dalai Lama, Taiwan’s independence, participating in pro-democracy activities, and human rights groups or Christian groups.

A UNSW academic who wishes to remain anonymous told Tharunka that staff have been instructed not to speak to the media about the issue, and that doing so might be damaging to their careers, but former diplomat and visiting Professor at the University of Sydney, Dr. Jocelyn Chey, was more forthcoming with her concerns.

Chey said that while China needs to expand its program of cultural exchanges, she’s worried that the Confucius Institute’s funding ventures in universities damage its legitamacy. “It can prejudice the independent work of researchers”, she said. “It’s nothing specific about China, it’s just a matter of academic independence.”

With regards to Chey’s remarks, Hlavka said that politics

is not the role of the Confucius Institute. “Our mandate is to promote Chinese language and culture, there is no other function... it’s a very positive thing within the university environment.”

This may be the case, but Tharunka has found that William Chui, a board member for UNSW’s Confucius Institute, also and simultaneously acts as the president and co-founder of the Australian Council for the Promotion of Peaceful Reunification of China (ACPPRC) and is Chairman of the Oceania Council for the Promotion of Peaceful Reunification of China (OCPPRC).

With regards to the complex and controversial geo-political situation in Taiwan and Tibet, housing a board member so deeply invested in such a topic might be construed as a conflict of interests.

Australian National University PhD student Michael Churchman, who recently published a paper in The China Heritage Quarterly, believes it’s naïve to view these institutions as apolitical. “They exist for the express purpose of letting foreigners understand China on terms acceptable to official China”, he told Tharunka.

Parker also expressed his disbelief “They say they’re not political, but in China culture is political. Culture is an intrinsi-

cally political subject in China because there is one way that culture should be understood, and that’s the (Chinese) government’s position.”

A Mandarin student, who chose to withhold her name, spoke to Tharunka about her experience at the Institute, as a scholarship recipient for a China language study tour. “My class mates and I marvelled at the efforts that were made to show us an idealised version of China. We worked our way through various hotels and VIP guestrooms along the Silk Road.

While I am extremely grateful for this experience, I can also attest that it was clear that the China that was being portrayed to us by the Confucius Institute as foreigners was a rapid departure from the China that most Chinese people know”.

Hlavka insisted that there’s no intention that there would be any integration of the Confucius

Institute into UNSW, telling Tharunka “our role (in the School of International Studies) is to provide resources to staff if they’re seeking it”. However, there have been many instances internationally where universities, fearful of having their funding cut, have made efforts to placate the Confucius Institute through self-censorship.

In 2008, The University of Tel Aviv in Israel shut down an art installation depicting Falun Gong practitioners being executed and tortured, and in 2010, 174 University of Chicago faculty employees protested against the implementation of a Confucius Institute on their campus, labelling them as “an academically and politically ambiguous initiative”.

Locally, in 2007, teaching members from The University of Melbourne voiced their objections and concerns about the institute being located within their

Faculty of Arts, which resulted in it being relocated off-campus.

At the University of Newcastle, the organisation has completely merged with the Chinese Studies department, resulting in a student petition for ‘truth, accountability (and) transparency’ as several have been left “feeling betrayed that they’ve been palmed off to an external body”.

“No one is really keen about the concept, except the university”, one student told Tharunka.

The UNSW administration refused the opportunity to comment with regards to these concerns, but it’s clear that the university needs to staunchly guard its academic independence, regardless of the ideologies of its benefactors.

Confucius Institutes from other universities, as well as the Australian Office for the Chinese National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language, were unavailable for comment.

Charles Dennington, Deja Vu, 2011. Feather, electronics, wood latex, perspex, turbo builders bog.

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Saad Tlaa, ‘Sydney Opera House’, watercolour on paper

Art, Society and Hope: The Refugee Art Project

By Cameron McPhedran “The final purpose of art is to intensify, even, if necessary, to exacerbate the moral consciousness of people.”

Norman Mailer “Art is made to disturb. Science reassures. There is only one valuable thing in art: the thing you cannot explain.”

Georges Braque “The primary distinction of the artist is that he must actively cultivate that state which most men, necessarily, must avoid: the state of being alone.” James Baldwin

T

he debate about the mandatory detention of asylum seekers is one of the most highly charged issues of modern Australian politics. Reaching its 20th anniversary in 2012, mandatory detention exists in a context where prolonged antiimmigration rhetoric and xenophobia mark some of the most

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dominant political dynamics of recent decades. To clarify this, we need only look to the rise of the ‘One Nation’ political party during the 1990s, the Cronulla Riots in 2005 and the marginalisation which Muslims Australians all too frequently face.

However, mandatory detention also has a human side. Here,

grievous conditions in detention centres have wrought damaging psychological, emotional and social effects on asylum seekers for far too long.

While Australia has obligations to protect refugees under international human rights law, the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and

the 1967 Protocol Relating to Refugees, the failure of both Labor and Liberal governments to do so has left question marks over Australia’s reputation as a nation that upholds human rights and the rule of law. But in such a void, there is a possibility for civil society to instill a sense of dignity in the lives of crushed souls, something the Refugee Art Project has been doing since its creation in 2010.

The Refugee Art Project (RAP) was formed by a group of academics and artists who saw a gulf between society and those in mandatory detention and wanted to express the talents and possibilities for contributions such individuals hold for Australia. Tharunka interviewed co-founders Dr. Safdar Ahmed and Dr. Omid Tofighian who reflected upon the work of the detainees, its significance in a political and therapeutic context and the future of the project.

Both Dr. Ahmed and Dr. Tofighian spoke of the diversity of refugee experiences in seeking political asylum in Australia, and how this must be emphasised in terms of extremely dangerous host countries and journeys.

Upon displacement from their native countries and the loss of citizenship rights, warehousing in camps of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees represents the only alternative to seeking passage to nations such as Australia through ‘illicit’ means.

Actually, these ‘illicit’ means are in most cases more than necessary. A UNHCR World Refugee Survey found that 8.5 million of the 25 million refugees globally are held in these camps for over five years, with 8.2 million for over ten years. In this context, the desire for refugees to challenge lives of

uncertainty, inertia and institutionalisation in such camps is one reason Dr. Ahmed’s believes refugees are very inspiring.

“They’ve taken enormous risks to protect themselves and find safety here, and that courage, that endurance should be recognised,” he said.

Although the RAP operates in a context where psychological trauma remains pervasive and human dignity is eroded, both Dr. Ahmed and Dr. Tofighian believe such effects are mitigated to a small extent by RAP’s work.

Dr. Ahmed, who has led some of the art classes at Villawood, suggests that the program helps detainees retain some semblance of self esteem, and creates a sense of participation and connection with the community.

Dr. Tofighian says the Project is also useful in terms of demonstrating the ingenuity, creativity and resourcefulness of detainees to civil society. “The styles of art that have emerged from the centre are unique, and unprecedented.”

He believes the art they are producing is innovative, historical and in the end deserving of serious academic study. For Dr. Ahmed, one of the most remarkable individuals he has worked with thus far has been an Iranian detainee and

former mechanical engineer.

This detainee manufactured a paintbrush and pallet knife made from plastic cups and cat hair, as well as an electric massage machine made from an old DVD player. Both Dr. Ahmed and Dr. Tofighian also cite exquisite images created on paper using only coffee beans as a precious tradition to have emerged from Villawood, first developed by an Iraqi detainee and since pursued by other detainees.

The work of the detainees has indeed already gained the recognition of wider civil society. For instance some of the mechanical engineer’s work has been accepted into the Powerhouse Museum in the permanent collection. The creative industry of those participating in the Project was also showcased in June to July 2011 at the Mori Gallery in an exhibition entitled “fear+hope,” exclusively featuring refugee art. Finally, ex-refugees and Sydney artists have together been overseeing the conversion of a demountable in North Parramatta into a space for sharing ideas, culture and art since the latter part of 2011. Sociologically, both Dr. Ahmed and Dr. Tofighian argue that through such innovative projects, refugees reveal that

Alwy Fadhel, ‘Over the Fence’, coffee on paper, 38x29cm

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they have plenty in common with popular ‘Australian’ values and historical identities. For Dr. Tofighian, “refugees represent a more updated examples of what it means to be an ‘Aussie battler’ and an Australian underdog… things that we can contrast with other aspects of Australian culture for really positive synthesis.”

Tapping into these parallels between dominant Australian culture and the place of refugees would strengthen the underlying identification most Australians do actually feel for refugees.

A 2010 Australian Red Cross Survey revealed that 83% of the public believe that people fleeing persecution should be able to seek protection in another country. Given the vast majority of asylum seeker claims prove to be legitimate (shown at between 90% and 99.7% of asylum seekers arriving by boat in a 2011 study), understanding refugees through their artwork and experiences can only serve to magnify

public goodwill in this area. And as Dr. Ahmed said, the artwork often touches on fundamentally human themes of hope and the desire to be treated with respect and dignity that a lot of great art encompasses.

The mandatory detention of asylum seekers in Australia represents a stain on our contemporary political history. Condemnation has been widespread, most notably 2009 Australian of the Year and psychiatrist Dr. Patrick McGrorry, who referred to detention centres as “factories for producing mental illness.”

While such condemnation is warranted, it has nonetheless frozen social discussion around refugees to one relating solely to themes of victimisation.

While often unbearable mental, emotional and physical harm continue to be endured by asylum seekers in Australia, the Refugee Art Project is a unique initiative in that recharacterises who refugees fun-

Saad Tlaa, ‘Harbour Bridge’, pen, ink and watercolour on paper, 29x21cm *All images courtesy of The Refugee Art Project

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damentally are. Refugees hold very human traits of the need to be understood and heard by others, and of the determination to shape a better future for themselves and their families.

The resilience, creativity and dynamism of their work serves as the perfect metaphor of the human desire to survive and grow and be, in the words of Dr. Tofighian, as “diverse, complicated and beautiful as any human society.”

NB: As of June 2011, the Refugee Art Project’s voluntary classes inside Villawood were cancelled and their website was labeled ‘suspicious,’ meaning detainees could not access it. RAP continues to support detainees informally and collaborates with ex-detainees and artists to ensure their work is publically accessible. The Villawood Immigration Detention Centre is run by the British company Serco which holds the contract for all Australian immigration detention facilities.

What To Expect from Uni Games

By Jacob Burkett

W

hat’s on at UNSW sport wise this year? Where to start!? Well how’s about a quick assessment of the University’s most prestigious event from last year. In saying that, it is all universities highlight of the year, that being the Australian University Games. I’m sure we’ve all heard rumours as to what goes on during this highly anticipated week. Well I can confirm for you now they’re probably all true. If anything they’ve been dulled down to keep the events going.

Taking place in Australia’s sunny Surfers Paradise, competitors had the chance to prove their ability under the sun as well as take care of any regrets they may have had from their schoolies binge. Now if you didn’t know you’ll be happy to hear that we have a reputation of being fierce competitors in pretty much all sports that take place at the games (17 top 3 finishes), you may be even prouder to hear we are not that university that goes to bed early to prepare for an 8am start.

It’s easy to forget about the physical activity you will have to endure as each night has a rather shameful theme and sometimes the best way to avoid the embar-

rassment is to drink it away. I preach to you as someone who copped the rough end of a stick, being a freshman in the men’s football team who, by the way, had a heart-breaking extra time grand final loss to the University We Do Not Speak Of (Sydney).

Did I mention its compulsory for all participants to hate Sydney Uni? Well you may want to get that down.

In regards to our overall performance we finished a stellar 5th out of 41 universities. Along with this outstanding effort, we had 24 competitors who were picked as green and gold recipients meaning they had excelled in their respective field.

An honourable mention has to be made to the University’s overall sport captain George Tang who just about won his 100th straight gold in the always entertaining Table Tennis.

Unfortunately George has now graduated meaning the UNSW will be seeking new heroes to step up to the plate!

Though the AUG’s are not till mid semester 2, the Easter University Games are just around the corner and I encourage everyone to get involved. To enjoy University games you just have

to enjoy one of the following: sport, people, fun, alcohol or partying, which I’m sure covers just about everyone.

If this by chance doesn’t tickle your fancy check out the timetable below and be sure to check out what exactly does! And if none of that does it for you there are clubs and societies that play for fun on a regular basis. If you’re still not happy, get help.

28th of April: Eastern University Oztag Regional University Championship 1st of July: Surfing, Australian University Championship 1st of July: Eastern University Games, Tamworth 2nd of September: Snow Sports, Australian University Championships 16th of September: Distance Running, Australian University Championship 23rd of September: Rowing, Australian University Championship 23rd of September: Australian University Games, Adelaide 25th of November: Triathlon, Australian University Championship 2nd of December: Twenty20 Cricket, Australian University Championship.

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International IP Agreement May Change Net Forever

By Lily Ray

Whilst the shelving of SOPA and PIPA legislations in the United States has defrayed anxiety for the time being, there are signs that a significant international treaty may, in fact, extend the same obligations around the world. First presented for negotiation in Geneva in 2008, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, known as ACTA, has already been signed by 31 countries, and with another six signatories, the agreement will come into effect.

Whilst negotiations have continued for several years, the policy went largely unnoticed by the public until recent anger over SOPA/PIPA. The online activist organization Anonymous recently warned that the passing of ACTA might see the destruction of the Internet in its current form.

Countless online petitions are urging Internet users to sign and stop the European Parliament from joining ACTA, and effectively passing the agreement. “ACTA will fundamentally destroy the openness of the Internet, lacks democratic credibility, and poses a serious threat to free speech that wrongly requires ISPs to survey and police their users,” says one. “We urge you to withhold consent on this agreement and to stand up for democracy and the fundamental rights of everyone across the world.”

The fact that this agreement has been negotiated behind closed doors is a further cause 24

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for anxiety for the online community. 72 lawyers in the United States have already petitioned Barrack Obama to bring his decision to sign the policy to the Senate. The lawyers have criticised Obama’s direct methods as policy-laundering, due to the secrecy of the legislative process so far.

The agreement has an express aim to prevent copyright infringements, but the fact that the policy fails to define intellectual property without referring to other documents is causing some debate.

Strengthening Intellectual Property laws in both public and private areas of the internet will have several significant effects.

The justification of this policy, in line with the justification of all other significant anti-trust agreements, is to ensure that producers of material will be guaranteed economic return for use of their work.

Another possible effect will be the punishment of any unauthorized sharing of copyrighted information on forums such as YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, blogging sites and even MSN. According to Anonymous, even private emails could be put through surveillance with the reasoning that if you’ve got nothing to hide, you’ve also got nothing to be worried about.

A spokesperson for the Australian Federation against Copyright Theft (AFACT) told the Sydney Morning Herald “AFACT has always maintained

that ISPs have a responsibility to prevent online copyright theft.

With the opportunity to carry content comes a responsibility to protect it. ISPs have a duty to ensure that their profits do not come at the expense of the rights of the creative communities.”

ACTA will not only affect Internet use, but will allow for the enforcement of international standard of anti-trust for medicine and agriculture. This could mean a more stringent application of patents across seeds and medicines. The agreement will also provide the framework to create laws reducing the availability of generic medication, meaning full-priced, patented versions manufactured by patent-holding corporations will be unavoidable, in many cases.

“The treaty does not create new IP rights, but is all about enforcement,” says Dr Peter Chen, politics lecturer of Sydney University. “Like it or not, big corporates make medicines at present” “The specific signatories are required to implement “effective” enforcement of existing laws. This could be subject to considerable debate about what would be effective. It does require that information be released by ISPs to rights holders to allow them to make formal complaints [or] take action within the scope of domestic law and the treaty,” he said.

Kimberlee Weatherall, Intellectual Property lawyer and Associate Professor at the University

of Sydney, says that ACTA is not concerned with the economic return for individual artists’ intellectual property, but is propelled by the interests of large companies and the government.

“ACTA may be one of many things that make the government turn around and say that we need to do something about our copyright laws; which might, in turn, mean that ISPs are going to have to terminate users due to their actions on the internet,” she said.

Professor Weatherall, in a submission to the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties (JSCOT), said that ACTA poses a threat to access to essential medicines. She went on to question the secrecy surrounding the US legislative process at present.

However, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade released a statement to the effect that legitimate generic drugs and civil liberties would not be

affected. “ACTA will not ban or limit the availability of generic drugs in Australia, nor impact on trade in legitimate generic drugs,” the statement reads.

Matthew Rimmel, Associate Director of the Australian Centre for Intellectual Property in Agriculture, disagrees. “The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement runs rough-shod over domestic law reform processes; trammels the powers of the Australian Parliament; and undermines multilateral international institutions such as the UN,” he told Tharunka.

He also says ACTA lacks suitable safeguards for the public interest, “particularly relating to protection for human rights, privacy, fair use, competition, and access to medicines.”

Professor Weatherall says that the agreement is part of a wider trend towards increased regulation which has been under way for a long time. “The net will be more regulated in the future,”

she said. When it comes to the impact on users, she said the Government would say none at all, because there was no implication of a definite change in Australian law. “A great deal will depend on the High Court’s decision regarding the iiNet case as to how the law for ISP responsibility will affect users.”

The iiNet case, now in its second month, involves the investigation of whether the ISP sanctioned users to illegally download material. Whilst the court found this was not the case, that decision has now been appealed to the High Court.

Dr Rimmer says, ACTA is notable for its lack of transparency, accountability, and democratic participation. “[It] is a piece of corporate welfare designed to benefit major intellectual property industries - such as the motion picture studios of Hollywood; the moribund music industry; and luxury fashion houses.”

Peter Nelson, Installation view: Mountain Drawing(The First Time I Felt At Home), 2011

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Sebastian O’Reilly and Sophie Clague, Untitled Performance, 2011

Who’s Afraid Of The Economic Crisis?

By Pauline Guillonneau

H

appy New Year! In case you weren’t aware, there is a serious crisis in Europe. Or rather, serious crises that started with the subprime crisis in the United States in 2007. There is a lot to be outraged at in Europe at the moment, between the real estate crisis, the banking and financial crisis, the economic crisis, the euro crisis, and the political crisis that proves the difficulty and inability of European politicians to govern the Union… But what about the young generation who has to enter the labor market in the current European malaise?

It started with Greece, then Portugal, Ireland, Spain…

All are victims of the virulent consequences of the subprime mortgage crisis. Toute l’Europe, the francophone web portal on European affairs deplores the hiring freeze in France and Italy, redundancy and job cuts in Germany and Ireland, and reduction of social expenditures in Portugal.

Spain saw 50,000 of its inhabitants leave the country between 26

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January and September of last year. The National Institute of Statistics predicts the trend will rise up to 500,000 within the next ten years. Eurostat shows terrible numbers for unemployment: 23 millions of unemployed for every age group, all over the European Union.

Amongst the euro zone, the unemployment rate rose to 10% for the year 2011, and this was the average result; Greece shows an unemployment rate of 18% and Spain, 23%! In comparison, Australia’s unemployment rate is 5%. What is our future, if 25% of the youth under twenty-five are unemployed all over the European Union?

Danai Dragonear is a Greek journalist, chief editor of Ozon.

She discussed in Elle magazine the consequences of our politicians’ govern-ability, clear in her pessimism about Europeans’ future. She somberly concluded quoting the German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk, “we are the children of catastrophe.”

The economic and indi-

vidual malaise is even more pronounced this year. Standard and Poor’s downgraded France and Austria, Italy and Spain, while Portugal is now ‘junk’, in financial language. If we stay optimistic, we can look at Australia and Canada who lost their triple A rating in 1986, but managed to get it back about fifteen years later. There is a lot of questions to ask about the direction Europe’s young generation will take, with their hopes and dreams of what their career will be like.

Witness’ of the crisis are in the protests around Europe, propelled by a little pamphlet, Indignez-vous!

(Time for Outrage!). ‘The motive for resistance, is indignation’, declares Stephan Hessel, the ninety-three years-old author.

This little pamphlet, about thirty pages, was published a year ago, and quickly translated around the world. It inspired demonstrations in Spain (led by the Indignados), Portugal, France (les Indignés), and spread to 146 cities in the United States

with the Occupying Wall Street movement…

So what do we have to outrage ourselves for, in this new chapter of the 21st century?

Young adults are entering the labor market without knowing what is coming ahead, nor how to plan their future. Is there a strategy to get through the crisis without a scratch? Researching the topic of fears and hopes in this new generation who have to make a life and living in Europe at the moment, I was surprised by the optimism that remained.

I wanted to share those views as a reminder that some believe in the positive aspects of the European crisis, or at least, intend to adapt to consequences forced on them.

Sarah R is a student at HEC an elitist French school. Her thoughts of the crisis in 2012 are rather positive. “Crises are cyclic. It is not the first one, it will pick up again’, she believes.

If some areas are showing job cuts and hiring freeze, some others are still promising. “I want to be a consultant. It is compromised? No. The banking sector definitely is, but not the consulting one”, she said.

There is still hope, then, that 2012 will resolve in an encouraging way, for a small portion of young people. Sarah specifies that it would be inconsiderate for many to be ‘optimistic’ about today’s crisis, so she calls it a ‘moderate optimism, but definitely not pessimism’.

The young generation who will soon enter the professional world can be insightful and not afraid to face a head-on confrontation with the crisis. Celine Bareil is a marketing student at the ETEA Loyola Universidad de Cordoba, Spain. She explains her apprehension on the year.

“2012 is the moment where European firms are going to feel

the difficulties met last year: the decrease of consumerism associated to the investments.”

However, the twenty-three year old student still believes there opportunities to seize.

“There are a lot of internship offers, although the bridge from interning to actually working will not be easy,” Sarah says.

“We need to look on the bright sides. The crisis makes us understand that we are vulnerable. It prevents us from being satisfied with a routine for it can stop very suddenly.”

She even suggests new ideas to get around the current economic times, such as starting activities aside work, and more training to cope with the crisis even if it means being over-qualified.

“This is the advantage of having lived a crisis, it allows us to beware and to anticipate”, she concludes, reminiscing the 1929 crisis that Europe lives in fear of experiencing again.

When countries of the European Union are discussing the aftermath of the crisis, or rather solutions to control the monster, some are not the least afraid of its outcomes. Out of naivety? Or rather, out of concrete realism on the current situation?

Victor de Bouillé decided to start his own business a year ago, putting in place software for the catering sector. I asked whether his project is to counterbalance the crisis or out of choice. “In my case, it is simple. If my project fails, I am still in position of strength over the labor market.” He goes on reassured to see that he does not have to accept every job offer that passes by. Indeed, Victor favors freedom in the career he is preparing. “It is better than working for a firm where employees are replaceable links in the chain”, he claims.

It is comforting to see that, if clearly not a large portion of Europeans’ opinions, at least some are not the least afraid of what is coming ahead, and still plan on being happy rather than signing for the first job offer. “I want to favor being able to bring the human and work values, rather than repetitively doing the same thing without consideration or responsibility”, Victor says. There is hope that some Europeans still have a choice, then.

To deal with the euro crisis, some others prefer to leave right away and start their career away from home, away from Europe.

In 2000, France developed VIE, a system that promotes the international development of French enterprises. VIE allows a young adult under twenty-eight to work abroad for a French firm for a period of six to twenty-four months.

The economic and finances ministry counts between 2 and 3,000 people each year, who go abroad to work for 28,000 firms, in about 140 countries.

2012 promises to be austere as the European economic plans recently put in place, aiming at reducing government’s debts.

But it seems that there is still a group of young adults who are about to enter the labor market not the least afraid to confront the crisis. Is that a naïve attitude? Students who are told every day since the beginning of their studies that things are more difficult then at the end of the 1980’s, and are not afraid to prove everyone wrong. Rather then naive, it is a perceptive and mature approach to their new life projects. As Stephan Hessel suggested, “take over, outrage yourself.” Let’s protect our right and our creativity, whatever the world that is left for us.

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In Defence of Cannabis

By Anonymous

M

arijuana is by far my favourite recreational drug.

Although my first encounter with cannabis was uneventful, this was merely due to my anticipation overshadowing the effects and social stigma spoiling an otherwise enjoyable experience.

Since then, my marijuana consumption has burgeoned.

I’ve experimented with it through baking and vaporising.

I’ve become familiar with its effects, how long I can expect to be under its influence and how to deal with particular situations i.e. read Austen avoid Dostoyevsky. And always, always have a pen, paper or phone handy to jot down ideas. Once I was convinced that I had solved the philosophical dilemma of the mind/body problem.

It is true that I had a typical understanding of drugs based on a certainly good public education, but curiosity and scepticism led me to delve deeper, changing my views radically.

But I know what you’re thinking Tharunka reader; I’m just a pot-head, who cares?

Actually, I’m among the many.

A recent study suggests Austra28

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lians experiment with marijuana more than people from any other region in the world. Findings showed that 10 to 15% of people in Australia and New Zealand had used marijuana in the past year. In response, Barry O’Farrell cautioned that the Australian public needed a reminder of the dangers surrounding cannabis use, its false reputation as a soft drug and the increased likelihood of developing serious mental illness. While this remains the most compelling argument for marijuana’s continued prohibition, in reality it is far more complex.

Containing tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and several cannabinoids, marijuana is commonly associated as a soft-drug based on its natural cultivation and moderate psychoactive effects compared to other narcotics.

Studies have repeatedly shown the benefits of medical marijuana where it has been administered to treat alcohol abuse, bipolar disorder, depression and cancer.

Whodathunkit?

Meanwhile pharmaceutical companies have begun to produce synthetic versions of

marijuana known as Dronabinol, Nabilone or Marinol as a legal alternative, granted with a doctor’s prescription.

Unfortunately, these synthetic substitutes are not always as effective in treatment compared to the plant itself.

Additionally, due to harsh prohibitions laws, medical research surrounding cannabis use have been significantly delayed.

This needs to be appreciated when reading studies which vary greatly in sample size and at times present contradictory results. For example, in 2002 the media highly publicised a report which showed smoking cannabis was more harmful than tobacco. However, the most comprehensive study conducted to date, released last month, which collected data from 5000 individuals over a 20 year period suggested that cannabis was in fact less harmful. Depending how much you use. According to the data, pot-smokers lit up only 2-3 times a month, while tobacco smokers burnt through 20 cigarettes per day.

Often pro-legalisation organisations cite the Canadian study

from 2005 which suggested HU210, a synthetic cannabinoid, caused neuro-genesis in rodents. Shortly after, researchers found no evidence in support of hippocampal cell growth using pure marijuana only.

While I’ve justified its medicinal use and the importance of decriminalisation for the sake of medical research, maybe we still need to clarify what we know about cannabis and before using it socially as our first port of call?

Legally, prohibition of marijuana has a long history under international law beginning in 1925 under the Geneva Convention which prohibited recreational use in Australia.

However, more recently it was found that international drug treaties are failing to protect public safety. For example, a study led by the University of Melbourne (Lancet, Room & Reuter, 2012) showed prohibition and law enforcement “arguably worsened the human health and wellbeing of drug users by increasing the number of drug users imprisoned ... and creating an environment conducive to the violation of drug users’ human rights.”

The Netherlands has maintained the most progressive drug policy in the world through the concept of ‘normalisation.’

The policy acknowledges that drug use is inevitable; so total prohibition will remain counterproductive. Rather than ostracising and marginalising drug users, cultural integration is encouraged to minimise the social cost. This has proven to be a successful strategy with no evidence suggesting a significant increase of drug use.

But screw the Dutch liberals; you don’t even have to travel out of the state to uncover the social

impacts of marijuana use. In the small town of Nimbin with a population of 352, a unique cannabis culture has sprouted leading to the establishment of the lobby group, Help End Marijuana Prohibition or HEMP. Cannabis use is so widespread, that in January this year alone, police seized approximately 4000 cannabis plants across north NSW. One study conducted on the long-term cannabis users residing in Northern NSW, found individuals “who had come to police attention had minimal effect on their cannabis use and few other effects apart from engendering disrespect for the law and police officers.” Clearly for the NSW police force, prohibition is not very effective.

Due to the Australian government’s failure to adequately regulate marijuana, individual safety is put in jeopardy. Currently marijuana can be obtained by anyone from any person willing to grow and sell the drug. You don’t need a proof of age card, a passport or a driver licence. This is problematic as many surveys have shown negative impacts of marijuana on developing brains.

Transparency and regulation definitely seems the better way.

In terms of the need for further legislative change, perhaps we should also turn our attention to other (legal) drugs. While under-age drinking remains a problem, binge drinking has additionally received ample media attention following recent police crack-downs. In December last year over 170 people were arrested in Sydney for alcoholrelated crime. A report revealed that one in four people aged 18 to 24 pass out from regular binge drinking, which led to the 2008 alco-pop tax. It was a futile endeavour, with no reduction in

hospital admissions and rising sales of cheaper alternatives.

When the video of Bob Hawke sculling a beer at the SCG went viral, comments in approval circulated the internet. “Skulling a beer!! Now THAT’S how we win with democracy!!!”

There’s no doubt Australia has a drinking culture. Perhaps we should interpret this as evidence that although Australian drug agencies are decisively against the decriminalisation and legalisation of marijuana, there are no reasons for its continued prohibition when measured against the long terms effects of alcohol, tobacco and some prescription medications.

I readily recognise cannabis as drug. Sometimes I use aspirin, in the mornings I like a dosage of caffeine. Personally I loathe the effects of alcohol, but it serves as a great social lubricant when you’re on unfamiliar turf.

Marijuana grants me a different experience; it allows me to contemplate abstract ideas through defamiliarisation, while my appreciation for music and art is heightened.

Undeniably with its use there are limitations: I refrain from habitual use during the semester and when I do indulge I avoid driving and high calorie munchies. The difference is when I’m found with my drug of choice I may face legal prosecution whereas you are more likely to have to deal with a killer hangover or oesophageal cancer.

Perhaps one day I’ll have to surrender the safeguard of anonymity if I wish to fight for the end of prohibition. In the words of Jung, “every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol or morphine or idealism”. Unfortunately, I suffer from the latter.

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REVIEWS

Shame Jack Jelbart Shame, the new film by artist turned film-maker Steve McQueen, has been reasonably well received. Critics have recognised its quality -- McQueen’s almost supernatural attention to detail, the incredible competency of its leads -- but it will not win an Oscar. It didn’t even receive so much as a mention at the preceremonies. And in every review I’ve read, and for everything I’ve been told about the film by its PR agency, I’m getting the impression that it’s a hard film to sell, to talk about, even to think about, so maybe this isn’t surprising.

There’s something about Shame that isn’t easily approached.

But let’s at least give you the essentials: Brandon (Michael Fassbender) is a successful young chap about town, but he’s also sex addicted and, in other ways, deeply unwell. He spends his 30

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days wanking into a porcelain abyss and trying to forget that he has nothing and no-one to live for.

When he’s needy sister Sissy (Carey Mulligan) comes to stay in his New York apartment, things get complicated.

Brandon’s usual porn/ prostitute fuelled regime is upset, and so is Sissy. She laments the poor quality of their relationship, saying “just because we were fucked up as kids doesn’t mean we have to go around fucking each other over.”

Whatever dark and unspeakable thing happened in their past shadows their adult lives, but it also – in a sense -- stays in their history.

Is this the Shame to which the film’s title refers? Possibly, or possibly it’s Brandon and Sissy’s everything else, which is so marred with those desperate clasping moments where they seem about to lose their grip on reality. Is Sissy getting better, or is she becoming gradually more unhinged? And Brandon, who seems finally to connect with a woman, seems impulsively drawn away from her and down to the very depths of his inhumane nature The obvious comparison is with the altogether lamer “American Psycho”, a book

by Bret Ellis and later a film directed by Mary Harron and staring Christian Bale. The hero in this story is a corporate type called Patrick Bateman.

Patrick kills people for sport, for pleasure and out of jealousy.

He is the nightmarish vision of the implicit horizon of the American Dream.

It is a farce, is “American Psycho”, it’s a satire that uses one of the most traditional devises in storytelling, the intrusion of the non-normative. Patrick is an immensely successful and handsome young thing, but this wellness is fractured. Something about his life has made him lose touch with reality.

There is a moment, early on in the story, where a foreign dimension intrudes: Patrick, having made small talk about Huey Lewis and being done with that, pulls an axe on a friend. (These scenes work much better in the film version, by the way.) Violence, trauma and success. Ellis is trying to point at the hole in our morality, the question is, is McQueen gesturing in the same direction?

I think not. “American Psycho” is the obvious comparison because Brandon and Patrick look so very much alike, they pursue the same women (or have the same ideas about the women they pursue), they live in the same neighbourhood, they probably live in the same apartment building, but what McQueen is trying to do is very much “realer” than what Ellis attempted.

Slavoj Žižek, the prolific and demiurgic Slovenian philosopher, who I’ve heard called The Hipster Philosopher, may be of particular interest here. He’s a polarising fellow, is Žižek. I’ve been reading his 2010 book, “Living in the End of Times,” where makes philosophi-

cally reasoned argument that the world is about to radically change. “The global capitalist system is approaching an apocalyptic zero-point,” he writes.

Your spontaneous reaction may be: how does this relate?

The answer is it’s in the unmaking of all things. Shame is not so explicitly about the morals of capitalism as Ellis’s work, but rather the way capitalism has changed our morals.

So make no mistake, Shame is definitely a film about sex.

McQueen has said that “access to sexual content is everywhere and that access has an influence on us every day, whether we’re aware of it or not. Sex is being sold to you with your soda, even with your breakfast cereal.” I have heard anecdotally about a whole generation of young boys who cannot achieve sexual gratification without viewing (or perhaps imagining) pornography. This is what Shame regards, and it’s difficult to talk about because, appropriately enough, it’s a shameful subject.

So where does this leave us? With a problem that we haven’t fully discussed. Not even defined. The problem, in žižek’s words this time, is that “sex has been commodified.” Shame wants to moralise the matter, it wants to take sex and do something more meaningful with it because we are approaching a zero point, a marker where sex will have lost its meaning.

And while I’m not wholly taken along for the ride, I find it a more convincing argument against capitalism than many films and artworks that explicitly target it. It’s the human side of the story, perhaps, about the implicit end-point of humanity, which ends-- almost – as bleakly as does this film But it does need talking about,

“modern” sex, and the system of shame that surrounds it, and ”art, says McQueen, although it “can’t fix anything, can just observe and portray.

What’s important is that it becomes an object, a thing you can see and talk about and refer to.

A film is an object around which you can have a debate, more so than the incident itself. It’s someone’s view of an incident, an advanced starting point.”

Shame, a film directed by Steve McQueen and starring Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan, is in general release.

--Alex Gawronski, Kate Mitchell, Alex Martinis Roe Wilna Fourie Did you know that if you brave the wilds of Woolloomooloo you will find something more than a wharf full of fancy restaurants, a scary-looking uniform store and a popular late night pie shop? If you continue past the wharf and resist the urge to buy an admiral’s uniform you’ll come across a large brick building unassumingly nestled next to a petrol station and (more often than not) facing a

large naval vessel. Here rests an artistic hub that seems at odds with neighbours such as Harry’s Café de Wheels.

The Gunnery building houses the headquarters of the Biennale of Sydney, NAVA (National Association of Visual Artists), and of course, Artspace, situated on the ground floor.

This longstanding Sydney space is presenting the work of Alex Gawronski, Kate Mitchell and Alex Martinis Roe, three artists whose work offers both blatant and subtle forms of institutional questioning and critique through sound, video and performance installations.

On entering the gallery you are greeted by Kate Mitchell’s Magic Undone, an unravelling kilim rug that casts a beautifully distorted shadow across the entrance floor. From a certain angle the carpet frames Mitchell’s second work, Fall Stack, a bank of five screens presenting different shop windows, designed and dressed complete with stripy shop awnings.

Mitchell enacts an endurance action work by continually falling through the awnings whose expected trampoline-like sup-

Making Space, 2011, (installation view, 55 Sydenham Rd, Marrickville, Sydney), mdf, timber, brackets, acrylic paint, digital print, found text

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FX Harsono, Writing in the Rain (still), 2011, single-channel video, courtesy the artist

port is disappointed. As she travels down the screen bank she gets lost in the spaces between the frames, endlessly falling through a familiar work/life construction made up of video store, chemist, bakery, liquor shop and grocery store.

Alex Grawonski’s installation, The Invisible Man, consists of a white room sitting within the larger white room that is Artspace. This white cube within a ‘white cube’ is the first of a series of self-referential circuits.

Once you find your way inside the box you are presented with a projected version of your travels around it. As you physically travel around the structure it becomes clear that this piece is difficult to penetrate in more ways than one.

Each corner is broken by a framed grey square, which I find out to be a photograph placed over the exact spot depicted in the photograph, another referential circuit that turns the audience away. According to the web text, the work, “poses the perhaps post-historical but definitely paradoxical question of what an art world would look like in the absence of both artist and audience.”

This is institutional critique at its most dense and the results of this experiment is frustrat32

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ing, ultimately the invisible woman is rendered not only invisible but also slightly pissed off at being deemed redundant by the artist and the work. One could say however, that the audience is very much visible and is looking for what seems to be an invisible work, perhaps waiting behind the artist.

The work of Alex Martinis Roe announces itself through a monolithic bank of black speakers. Invited behind the literal wall of sound, you become a witnessing participant in her work nonwriting histories. A complicated technical set up looks low-fi as you are presented with a table, two chairs, a pile of old-school computer paper, headphones and a collection of 21 projected images all hidden succinctly behind the speaker bank.

This is a work that, like Grawonski’s, is critiquing the institution and history in which it finds itself, however the work is much friendlier to, in fact depends on, the audience’s presence and interaction with the work. The projection depicts overtly paired-back works of the heavyweights in modern art history. Rothko, Pollock and Twombly are abstracted beyond their initial abstractions, the derivatives identified by a recording of Martinis Roe reading the

title, artist and date of the work.

What is captivating about this work is that it exists as a record, or perhaps an echo of a live performance. Throughout the show the artist will occupy one of the chairs in the installation and enter into a dialogue with an audience member. (This conversation however is fairly one sided as Martinis Roe’s vocabulary is made up entirely of what is present in the recording found in the headphones; the title, artist and date of the works projected. It’s sort of like talking to Taxis Combined or Telstra.)

As the ‘conversation’ continues Martinis-Roe’s pen scratches across the paper in front of her, creating the sawing sound recorded and transmitted through the black speakers behind. The recorded version of the scripted dialogue and the scratching of her pen are the live relics of the performance. What is left behind by the interaction between the performer and audience is one part of an effective selfreferential circuit that invites contemplation and engagement rather than closing in on itself.

If you want to see work that questions not only the institutions of the art gallery and art historical canon, but also the place of artists and audiences within these processes, to varying degrees of success, then a trip down to the Moo won’t be wasted. You can always cleanse your palate with a pie afterwards. You might even pick yourself up a sailor.

Alex Gawronski, Kate Mitchell and Alex Martinis Roe will be on display at Artspace until March 11.Artspace is located at 43 – 51 Cowper Wharf Road, Woolloomooloo, and is open Tuesday to Sunday 11am – 5pm.

---

Edge of Elsewhere Lauren Keating A major three-year project, Edge of Elsewhere, now in its third and final year, is pertinently named. With commissioned works by artists from Australia, Asia and the Pacific, Campbelltown Arts Centre is transformed into a place of inquiry, where artists engage not only with their own cultural heritage, but question what this engagement means in a city of continuous demographic change.

With artists relying on their involvement with community groups across Sydney, the exhibition not only explores the colonial, political and cultural issues of Australia and the Asia Pacific - which have shaped history and which continue to influence the present - but visually contemplates Sydney’s cultural intersections and divides.

Dacchi Dang’s ‘Captain van Dang on his voyage of Discovery in the Great Southern Land’, is a three minute video animation that captures the attention of the observer as they enter the exhibition. Impossible to ignore at the back of the gallery, images of a brightly-coloured beach ball and detailed vessels approaching Sydney’s shore grab you and pull you closer.

Harder to ignore is the conspicuous cultural references of each of the boats that make their way across the screen, including both Chinese dragon boats and Arabic dhow boats. Not only does Dang’s work allude to the

diverse cultural groups that have come, or attempted, to call Sydney home, but it also speaks of Dang’s personal experience as a ‘boat person’ arriving from Vietnam in 1982, and the antagonism with which refugees of the present are perceived.

To admire Dang’s visually intriguing and historically symbolic animation, you have to first walk past Phaptawan Suwannakudt’s giant collage ‘Home Away from Home’. Unlike it’s televised namesake, Suwannakudt does not easily give the option of simply strolling by or glazing over a work that brightly combines a variety of textiles, clothing and ink, but rather opens a dialogue that is prevalent throughout the exhibition.

An extension of Dang’s story of arriving in a new and unfamiliar land that is to be called home, Suwannakudt’s collage is a story of memory and reminiscence of a home that was. ‘Home Away from Home’ is a prime example of the integral role the community has played in Edge of Elsewhere, with Campbelltown residents providing both stories and clothing, culminating in a visual representation of the significance of memory, and the relationship between what is conceived as ‘home’ and identity.

Suwannakudt and Dang are just two of the artists to exhibit at the Campbelltown Arts Centre, whose works are among esteemed company, including Brook Andrew, Richard Bell and Michel Tuffery. As well as having

the bravery to address issues of racism, belonging and cultural assimilartion in contemporary Sydney, Edge of Elsewhere, as part of the 2012 Sydney Festival, reflects the importance of community, underlining how pivotal the relationship between artist and community truly is by actively seeking to incorporate members’ stories, history and even their faces into the work.

Though contemporary art has at times been criticised for its inaccessibility, it is an arduous, and quite an impossible task to remain indifferent to the Edge of Elsewhere exhibition, because you are part of it. With its celebration of Aboriginal, Maori, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Arabic, Tibetan, Indonesian, Tongan and Samoan, and European cultural backgrounds, the exhibition encourages its audience to be part of the cross-cultural spheres that are borne in our suburbs. The ever-growing culturally-diverse family that is Sydney, on display in Edge of Elsewhere, provokes in order for its audience to question and to act.

Edge of Elsewhere runs at the Campbelltown Arts Centre until March 18, and at 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art until March 3.The Campbelltown Arts Centre is on the corner of Camden and Appin Rd, Campbelltown, open from 10am – 4pm. 4AD Centre for Contemporary Asian Art is located at 181 – 187 Hay Street, Haymarket, and is open Tuesday to Saturday 11am – 6pm.

THARUNKA SOCIAL MEDIA COCKTAIL PARTY facebook.com/tharunka twitter.com/tharunka tharunka.arc.unsw.edu.au THARUNKA / ISSUE 1, 2012

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OB REPORTS Tim Kaliyanda SRC President, t.kaliyanda@arc.unsw.edu.au Greeting to all new and returning UNSW students – welcome to the start of another University year! If this is your first taste of university, it won’t take long to discover the diverse community that UNSW has to offer. The complete freedom of uni life means that you’re not stuck to a rigid schedule and, from where I stand, making the best use of your time means getting involved in student life as much as possible!

The downside of that freedom is that negotiating the ins and outs of university is mostly left to you – which is where the Student Representative Council comes in. The SRC seeks to protect and advance the interests of students at UNSW. We represent all UNSW students and occupy Level 1, East Wing of The Blockhouse (which is opposite the place you’ll be very familiar with soon enough – The Roundhouse & Unibar!)

It can be easy to improve the world, in big ways, if we work together, are organised and find out common goals. Your SRC is where the action is – so come and visit our stalls during O-Week to find out what we’re up to! Cheers, Tim. --Sandra Kaltoum and Masha Javan Ethnic Affairs Officers, s.kaltoum@arc.unsw.edu.au and m.javan@arc.unsw.edu.au Hi There. It’s a new year! I’m sure you have made many resolutions and, in typical UNSW student fashion, broken many of them as well. If you’re anything like us you’ve promised that this

year you will study harder, actually keep on top of the assigned work and, who knows, maybe even attend lectures. These are all great things to do and will significantly assist your overall employability. Maybe your resolution list is not even entirely self-centred. You may have made a resolution to be more socially aware and assist humanitarian causes. And you may have decided to try something new, exciting and rewarding.

The Ethnic Affairs Collective strives to combat racism on campus. We run events to promote racial and religious tolerance and assist any ethnic minority groups that face discrimination.

If you would like to be part of something rewarding and exciting this year then consider joining the Ethnic Affairs Collective.

For more information just drop us an email. Sandra and Masha.

--Sally Cotton and John Milligan Queer Officers, queer@arc. unsw.edu.au Hello all sentient beings!

Your UNSW Queer Officers, John Milligan and Sally Cotton, would like to remind you that life is great as a queer (and equally, as a queer ally). While Queerdom all round rocks, it is really going off this February and March with Sydney Mardi Gras, O-week festivities, and start of year shenanigans. The UNSW Queer Collective has many events planned including (but not limited to) marching in the Mardi Gras parade as a part of Queer Student Network, movie nights, a pancake breakfast for O-week, a rollicking start of ses-

sion party, and last but not least our rainbow clad asses will have a stall all throughout O-Week!

Those keen just to have a chat, chill out and make friends can come along to our Queer Collective meeting in the Queer Lounge. This is a private, safe space on campus accessible and welcoming to all folks. We shall be getting together every Monday from 2-4pm and every Thursday from 4-6pm during Session One, starting from the first week of classes.

In other news, this year our joy will be shared beyond the confines of UNSW, as we will be working closely with Queer Student Network along with plans being afoot for the launch of the Australian Queer Student Network this year.

If you have any ideas for queer related events, are keen to get involved in the Queer Collective activities, or just care to discuss your taste in sandwiches, please come up in O-week for a chat, attend a meeting or event, or send an email to queer@arc.unsw.edu. au. Love, John and Sally.

--Kathy Martin Students With Disabilities Officer, k.martin@ arc.unsw.edu.au Hi all new and old students!

I’m Kathy, the representative for students with disabilities on the Student Representative Council.

The collective organizes Disability Awareness Week in first semester and Mental Health Awareness Week in second semester. The collective also runs campaigns throughout the year.

The collective will have a stall in O-Week where you can sign THARUNKA / ISSUE 1, 2012

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up to join the Collective or get some information.

There is a disability and welfare room on Level 2 of the Blockhouse for use by students with a disability or welfare concern. If you need somewhere to rest the room has a bed, a couch and bean bags. There is a computer in the room, a microwave and some free food.

Collective meetings will be held on Fridays between 1 and 2 in the Blockhouse. Feel free to contact me to make another time if that doesn’t suit you, if you have any ideas for campaigns, if you want to get involved in Disability Awareness Week or Mental Health Week, or to just talk. Email: disabilities@arc.unsw.edu.au and phone: 0409 665 777 --Sarah Frazier Welfare Officer, s.frazier@arc.unsw.edu.au Welcome to all of our new first years and returning students. I’m back as Welfare Officer again for 2012 and I look forward to a busy year.

This year brings some changes, with the introduction of the Student Services and Amenities Fee. If you haven’t heard much about it and are worried about the additional cost, remember you can defer payment.

For new students the task of figuring out enrolment, classes and forms can be daunting. If you’re having troubles with this or any other Welfare issues, feel free to contact me.

Once again I’ll be running the ‘free breakfasts’ this year. I’ll be outside the library at 9am, each Tuesday on even weeks. The Welfare Room is also located on Level 1 of the Blockhouse. We have a fridge and a variety of cooking devices and food.

If you’d like to contact me, please email welfare@arc.unsw.edu.au.

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PGC President’s Welcome 2012 Hey Postgrads! A new year has been flung upon us like a pile of exams papers demanding to be marked! And on the list of things recently flung upon you is me, your Postgraduate Council President. Hi. My Name is Ed, I like mountain biking and my favourite food is lasagne. Like the pile of papers, this year brings with it a promise of long hours and hard work, lots of time sitting down using pens, eyestrain and a sore back.

And as this analogy breaks down faster than an old Holden commodore in the summer sun, I can bring you the good news that the PGC is here to help!

We will be running a plethora of social events this year, as well as providing academic support and representing you and your needs to all the big wigs up campus.

Let me hand you over to my talented team of office bearers to tell you all about it, but I feel this is going to be a good year!

Ed Kearney, PGC President

What’s on at the PGC Wine and Cheese Night Thursday 23rd Feb 2012, 7pm The Postgraduate Council (PGC) has just had its first birthday and we would like to celebrate with you. Considering the diverse, cultured and mature nature of the postgraduate community at UNSW the two finalist ideas for an O week party came down to a beer pong relay, or a wine and cheese night. Surprisingly, the wine and cheese night received the majority of the votes!

This is the first event of the year for the PGC and we would like to see as many members of the postgraduate community as

possible! So to meet likeminded others, network and/or catch-up with friends, enjoy some wine and beer, and a selection of cheeses from Coles. Bring a smile to the Arc postgraduate lounge in the blockhouse for a 7 o’clock start.

Please RSVP to pgc@arc. unsw.edu.au --Postgraduate Representatives Meeting Friday 17th February The PGC will be meeting with postgraduate representatives from different schools in mid-February to discuss issues currently affecting postgraduate coursework and research students and how to best address these issues at the university level. The meeting will also serve to establish a network between the postgraduate representatives and the PGC. Issues for discussion include the allocation of the SSAF, and how fee structure changes at the House at Pooh Corner affect postgraduate students with children.

If you would like to raise any issues at this meeting, please contact your school’s postgraduate representative, or email us at pgc.research@arc.unsw.edu.au.

Call for Councillors The PGC is looking for councillors for 2012!

Current vacancies are for 2 male or female councillors from Electorate A, 1 female councillor from Electorate B, and 1 female COFA councillor. For more information please visit www. arc.unsw.edu.au/pgc or email us at pgc@arc.unsw.edu.au For more information: www. arc.unsw.edu.au/pgc. Like us on Facebook: http://www. facebook.com/unswpgc. Follow us on Twitter: Email us at: pgc@ arc.unsw.edu.au.

LIZZETTE THE AGONY AUNT

By Liz Stern

Bumper Summer Edition!

Dearest readers and writers, It has been a MOST eventful summer for your favourite Aunty (and no, I don’t mean your Aunt Joan, who ditched family Christmas to run away to Venezuela with one of your old school mates – onya’, Davo!).

Despite enjoying a very relaxing holiday season, my inbox was simply FLOODED with desperate pleas, requests and propositions upon my return.

Thus I present to you a bumper edition of Lizzette, in the hope that it will shine some light, lift up some tear-stained chins, and gently correct the hand grip, of those most in need over summer. Toodles!

--Dear Mademoiselle Aunt, We have nowhere else to turn.

The walls are crumbling around us. Not even our extraordinary countryside, fine food and long history can sustain us today – where can we get the Euros we desperately need to prop up, well, everybody??? Merci, bestcontinent69 (via email) Dear the EU, Well well well, you ARE in a pickle, aren’t you? I’m surprised, and to be honest a little offended, that you didn’t write to me sooner. Have I not solved the problems of countless needy parties before now? It’s true, I’ve never been asked for help by such a large party... (except of course for that time when all those influenza bacteria ‘desperately needed a place to stay’ for a couple of weeks, and I couldn’t help but oblige – those dicks didn’t even change the sheets after they left).

Nevertheless, the solutions to your problem are easy – you simply act how any student would act when in need of cash. First, you need to cut the dead weight on your budget – the gym membership that you never use (ie. Greece), the expensive boy/girlfriend who’s real pretty to look at, but just don’t know her dollars from her sense (ie. Ireland). Next, look at what marketable skills you have – your natural style and grace, your previous experience in conflict management, and your capacity for looooongterm employment. These skills you can then use to get the cash you need, in one of these suggested fields: 1. Modelling (ie. more film and catering rights to the government), 2.

Upper-level Management (ie. push like a rutting beaver into more international trade bodies), or 3. Lingerie Waitress/ Prostitution (ie. higher tourism tariffs). Then, if all else fails, call your parents – the churches; or if you’re a post-grad, call your kids – the ‘former’ colonies.

Guilt trip like hell!

--Dear Lady-AA, We are fighters for freedom and justice; we are those who will not stand for the tyranny of the majority; we are, in short, the 99 per cent!! However, of late we’ve run into something of a snag – we’re running out of steam and enthusiasm to get our cause heard. Why, some people are dismissing us as nothing more than hippy whingers and rabble-rousers! How do we determine the true believ-

ers from the hangers-on? 99 Problems Dear the Occupy Movement, I’m afraid your problem seems to be that your message has gotten a little mixed as time has gone by. During the break, I saw the Occupy Sydney protest first hand in Martin Place, as Dadsie and I were heading from the train station across to the State Gallery.

And, quite frankly, much of what I saw WAS hippy whingers and an unwashed rabble!

The issue at hand is how to distinguish between the real supporters and the homeless, or alternatively the trend followers. Fashion, whether it likes it or not, has taken a nasty turn towards the derelicte angle of late, à la Zoolander, so it is similarly easy to confuse those with no permanent residences, and hipsters. The smell test is usually the best method for an accurate appraisal of a supporter’s intensions. Sweat, pot or henna – good signs of a loyal Occupier; Davidoff aftershave on one hand, urine and Maccas on the other – bad signs; they’re not really there to help you!

But quite frankly, I believe it is high time you started working on making a profit out of your situation. It’s all very well to complain about the world’s predicament, but in the mean time, why not exploit the system you hate? I think you should manufacture bumper-stickers (oh, make them bio-degradable, if you MUST) – ‘Honk if you hate money!’, or ‘Protests Happen’. Otherwise, you could start trying to sell organic coffee and foods to all those cops nearby.

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Think; they’re just standing around with nothing to do – exploit that shit!

--Dear Agony Aunt, So I’ve come to Australia to make this new movie, and I’ve received such a warm reception everywhere I’ve gone; it’s just been so gratifying! But at the same time, it’s been getting out of hand with the paparazzi. I thought your country was supposed to be filled with wide open spaces, which I could hide in! How do the beat these odious bastards?

The-Not-Da-Vinci-One Dear Leo DiCap, First of all, did you know that the word ‘paparazzi’ comes from the Italian word ‘pappataci’, which means a small buzzing insect, like a mosquito, and was first coined by director Federico Fellini back in his 1960 film, La Dolce Vita?

I have seriously been watching SO much QI on YouTube these holidays...

Anyway, how to beat the human bugs? Well, one could suggest ‘just don’t do anything interesting’, but the boring, everyday things that celebrities do seems to be the paparazzo’s bread and butter. Similarly, one could suggest ‘just don’t go outdoors’, but that seems impractical. There IS always the option of ‘shoot in the face every single person you see with a camera’, but I’d like to think that there’s a less imprisonment-attracting option available.

After much thought**, I think I have the best and most practical solution for your troubles: don’t be famous. Seriously, that’s probably the only way to avoid these dickheads. That way, being un-famous, you only get pho38

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tographed by your friends and relatives, whose pictures will be so bad it’s even LESS likely that you’ll become famous!

Or you can get a face transplant. Your call.

--Dear Miss Agony, Now, I knew people would call me crazy when I proposed the whole manned-Moon Base by 2020 idea. But I understand that some people just lack my foresight, my positivity for the future, and my imagination.

Yet still, I’ve gotta sell this phenomenal idea to the poor, deluded masses of my country – how can I reinspire the space fanaticism of the 50s, today?

Mister Lizardent.

Dear Newt Gingrich, I, too, share your sorrow at the passing of the glory days of the US, and the cynicism that pervades today. Oh, for the days of minimal protection from nuclear radiation, Reds under the Bed, and women staying in the kitchen – in heels too! And rockets are so freakin’ cool – there’s no understanding some people.

In my experience, the best way to get people quickly excited about something is a meme. Remember, the young people are the ones you want to get excited about space – they’re the ones who’ll breed best in zero-gravity – and the young things love this internet fad. It’ll probably fade from popularity, like yo-yos and inter-vaginal contraception, but you’ve gotta go with the trends. Anyway, I’d suggest a photo of a space-station, complete with glass-bubble domes full of greenery and scantily clad space babes, and caption it: ‘To Infinity, and Beyond (Budgetary Scrutiny)!’ Winner!

But at least, if all else fails,

your name won’t forever be associated with a sexual and faecal by-product (confused readers may Google ‘Santorum’).

--Dear Lizzette the Agony Aunt, How should the UNSW Governance Body best spend its Student Services and Amenities Fee (SSAF) money?

Signed, The UNSW Governance Body (PS. We know your student number, and we have your academic transcript – that was a pretty close PC mark, huh? Don’t screw this up).

Dear The UNSW Governance Body, Forgive me for the high-pitched and nervous tone in which I write this reply, ahem HEM... hahaha, must just be getting all choked up about what a great university I go to, and all!

Hahahahaha!

Well, all jollity aside, your best options are: - A very large and expensive solid gold car, to transport students up campus in style; - A very large and expensive solid gold desk for every UNSW Governance employee, to improve student services by having better ambient golden lighting in offices; - A very large and expensive solid gold watch for all staff, to help them get to class on time (and in style).

- A very large and expensive solid gold packet of Nurofen for all students, to ease the strain on the Health Centre during exam periods, and generally service the students’ bodies and minds.

Hope this helps! Please let me graduate! *Source: my friend Amy told me. ** I spent the intervening time doing my nails and conquering a small island nation in the Maldives.

This Week in 78...

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