Term 1, Issue 4

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NEWS

Feature

Union plans late night fast food joint.

Sarah Bunce’s experience studying in Washington D.C. Page 8

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20 October 2014, WEEK 4

NEWS Comment

Tech

Arts

MalalaFestival Yousafzai, her SICK! review Nobel Prize and feminism.

13 Page 10

A closer look at online submission at Sussex.

The effect of Kickstarter on indie film.

Page Page13 3

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Students’ Union Sainsbury’s ‘Kiss-In’ goes viral Page X

“GREAT TO SEE PEOPLE IN BRIGHTON AND BEYOND SHOWING WE LIKE KISSING AND HATE HOMOPHOBIA” Jamada Cicely Hundreds of people crammed into the Sainsbury’s on New England Road on Wednesday to stage a “Big Consensual Kiss-in”, to demonstrate against the store’s treatment of a University of Sussex student.

Picked up by nearly every national newspaper, the event was organised by the Sussex Students’ Union in response to an incident at the store on 11 October in which Annabelle Paige, a third year English Literature student at the University, was threatened by a security guard with expulsion from the shop unless she and her girlfriend refrained from displaying affection towards one-another.

Miss Paige claimed that she only “lightly kissed’ her girlfriend but was still confronted by a store security guard after a nearby customer complained that their behaviour was “disgusting”.

Over 1,300 Facebook users expressed their desire to attend the kissin at Sainsbury’s for the event, with those attending including students, Sainsbury’s employees, Students’ Union elected officers, and members of the local community. In the end, due to the weather, 600 people crowded into the small Brighton store to show their support for the cause.

Despite the pouring rain, protesters started forming outside Sainsbury’s at 5:30pm, with the event not planned to kick off until 6:00pm.

The premise of the event was to oppose the perceived homophobia from Sainsbury’s, which has since donated £100 to a charity. Michael Segalov, Communications Officer, has questioned the sincerity of this gesture owing to the sizeable profits that Sainsbury’s make as a business.

Lydia L’Scabies, a local performance artist, commenced the event with a moving heart-filled speech against homophobia in society.

Another activist speaker followed that up by expressing that: “Today we

Aditi S must again say we will not be silenced for our sexuality”.

After the event ended, The Students’ Union said in a tweet: “Thanks to everyone who took part in the #bigkissin.

Great to see people in Brighton and beyond showing we like kissing and hate homophobia.”

In a released statement, the Students’ Union said: “The ‘Big Kiss In’ was open to everyone, regardless of their gender or sexuality, to highlight that whomever you wish to kiss, it is to be celebrated.

“The event was hosted by Lydia L’Scabies, a local performance artist,

and the crowd was addressed by local activists.

“We would like to thank everyone who attended the event, and hope that we can work together in continuing to say no to discrimination, whatever form it takes.”

Michael Segalov, who was responsible for organising the event, said: “Tonight was an incredible success, I’d like to thank everyone that came along to support us, both in person and online.”

“It was important to all of us that we turned an unpleasant and negative situation into something positive, and tonight we did that, and a clear mes-

sage has been sent to Sainsbury’s and our community. We will not accept homophobia and will take action when needed.”

As previously mentioned, the phenomenon attracted attention from various national newspapers such as The Guardian and The Daily Mail and this widespread media attention is greatly welcomed. Furthermore, the event even trended on Facebook with the hashtag #TheBigKissIn. Editors from The Badger also attended the event and live-tweeted the proceedings.

For a lot of people the event was a positive demonstration of spontaneous social action passing off peacefully.

the badger

20 october 2014

IN PICTURES How well do you know your campus?

in pictures • 2

THE

BADGER

Editor-in-Chief Deborah Batchelor badger@sussexstudent.com Exec Team News Editor Jack Williams Tech/Science/Features Editor Jordan Ellis Comment Editor Victoria Farley Arts Editor Tom Powell Head of Publicity Lili Pammer-Zagroczky badger-publicity@ussu.sussex.ac.uk News Sub Editors

Daniel Roberts

Daniel Roberts

Daniel Green, Zoe Halse, Alex Ferguson, Rosie Dodds badger-news@ussu.sussex.ac.uk Tech Sub Editor Connor Cochrane badger-tech@ussu.sussex.ac.uk Cosmo Sanderson Features Sub Editor Ryan Bourne badger-features@ussu.sussex.ac.uk Science Sub Editor Daniel Stuart badger-science@ussu.sussex.ac.uk Comment Sub Editors Miriam Steiner, Alice Nettleship badger-opinion@ussu.sussex.ac.uk

Sophie Jones

Daniel Roberts

Letters Sub Editor Louis Patel badger-letters@ussu.sussex.ac.uk Arts Sub Editors Victoria O’Donnell, Ioana Matei, Raymond Jennings, Lily Cooper, Jessica-Lily Harvey-Cox badger-arts@ussu.sussex.ac.uk Sports Sub Editor Vladislav Hristov Grozev badger-sports@ussu.sussex.ac.uk

Sophie Jones

Want to see your photo in next weeks issue?

Send your pictures to

thebadgerphotography@gmail.com

Daniel Roberts

What are your first impressions of Sussex?

Have you got photos to immortalise your Brightonian experience?

Win attractive prizes for your submissions: Diwali 2014 Photo and literature competition For more details visit

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Photo Editors Aditi Sreevathsa, Sophie Jones thebadgerphotography@gmail.com Publicity Coordinator Lenart Celar Online Editors Steve Barker, Pete Humphreys badger-online@ussu.sussex.ac.uk Communications Officer Michael Segalov communications@sussexstudent.

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the badger

20 October 2014

NEWS • 3

Union election turnout plummets below 20% Daniel Green News Sub-Editor

Turnout in this month’s Students’ Union elections has dropped, following an overall decline since 2012, with the amount of people voting for one position totalling less than 4 percent of the student population.

Despite taking place amongst an active political scene, turnout for the student representative elections dropped by almost 600 votes from its 2013 levels, amounting to only 15 percent of all students.

This follows a record turnout in elections in February, where the Students’ Union claimed to have had the highest turnout of any SU in the country, with roughly 4,400 people taking part.

The number of people nominating themselves to be their subject years student rep reached 269, a jump of 36 from last Autumn.

However, a total of 38 out of 173 subject positions were left vacant due to no nominations being submitted.

67 scheduled elections didn’t even take place due to the number of posts outweighing the number of nominees.

One student rep, who wished to remain anonymous, told The Badger that he received an e-mail from the Students’ Union, informing him that

it was “unnecessary” to campaign in the elections due to his post being uncontested.

He said that he felt that his position was being undermined because the lack of interest being shown in the elections.

He commented: “There are loads and loads of students that would be better at the position than me that haven’t put themselves forward because they haven’t heard about it or haven’t been enthused enough by it”.

Rorie Rigley, one of the Student Reps elected in this month’s elections, expressed disappointment at the lack of competition, saying: “It was disappointing to find out, especially in LPS, that the Student Representative position was uncontested.

As a result, I got into the position as a student rep without any opposition.

“My personal view is that this position should have been competed for. The Student Rep role is important and provides an access point that enables the student body the opportunity to influence the policy formation process.

“What is more, we are paying £9,000 a year to study at university, so we should all be more willing to attempt to influence the decisionmaking process for a better university experience.”

A newly elected philosophy stu-

dent rep said that while she had noone running against her, it does not dampen the importance of her role.

She said: “I stood unopposed as my philosophy student rep but it doesn’t really matter. While students in some courses will not have the benefit of a student rep, I will make sure I’m there to address the issues of the people in my year. I’m honoured to be a rep for my course.

Bethan Hunt, Education Officer for the Students’ Union, said: “I am delighted that we have had the highest number of students nominating themselves as Student Reps this year and would like to thank everyone who has worked hard promoting the scheme.

“76 percent of undergraduate positions and 50 percent of postgraduate positions have at least one nominee.”

She also said there are plans to create an accreditation scheme, “to credit reps for their hard work and the invaluable skills they learn throughout the post.”

In addition, she said: “We are aiming to increase the number of postgraduates who nominate themselves for the next set of elections. We urge anyone who has ideas on how to do this to get in touch.”

Elections also took place for Student Trustees, Postgraduate Association Chair and Representative positions also taking place.

Sophie Jones Lewis Jones, Miriam Steiner and Oyinkansola Gbajumo were each elected to the position of Student Trustee.

Vee Cartwright was elected as Women Students’ Representative, Emily Pinto as LGBTQ Students’ Rep-

resentative, Jaja Jasper Chinedum as Black Students’ Representative, Kaleem Toru as International Students’ Representative, Noé N’semi as Mature Students’ Representative, Prem Rajah as Part-time and Andrea Block as Postgraduate Association Chair.

Black Students’ rep could become full time role Pete Humphreys Digital Sub-Editor Students’ Union President Abraham Baldry has indicated that the role of Black Students’ Representative may become a full or part-time officer role.

This comes after Luqman Onikosi, a former black and ethnic minority officer in the Union from 2008 to 2009 and candidate in this terms black student representative elections, demanded in an open letter to all full time elected officers and The Badger, that the position should be elected in February.

In the letter, he wrote: “It is nonsensical to have an election of Black Students’ Representative in the same month as the celebration of Black History Month.

“The absence of the Black Students’ Representative in this very

crucial month... is tantamount to completely stripping him or her of major statutory role.

“To have whoever wins the election to assume his or her role when we are half way through October is no doubt a self-fulfilling prophesy of the Black Students’ Representative being under active, subsequently failing Black Students in his or her duties.

“I strongly believe that the Black Student Officer election should have been held along with the sabbatical election to allow months of preparation and consultation with relevant societies towards the event.”

He claims that the Students’ Union’s attitude towards black students is “simmering up resentment and repulsion in the mind of Black students”, and that moving the election to February would “allow the new elected officer not only to allow months of preparation and consulta-

tion with relevant societies towards Black History Month but also be the face of black students in the USSU”.

Abraham Baldry said the Students’ Union are “looking into a role review of the full and part-time elected officer positions, one possible outcome of which is to have a BME student as a full or part-time elected officer, who would be in post ahead of October.”

Jaja Jasper Chinedum, the newly elected representative for black students, said that he would fully support the transforming of the black students’ rep position to a full-time post.

He commented: “One can understand the rationale behind Luqman’s stance and the time has come for something to be done about it.

“In addition to the points he raised in his letter, it is my opinion that making the office of the BSR a full

time one is important because firstly, the duties are quite much especially since the BSR has to perform them alongside their studies. Also, among the full time elected officers, the Blacks are not represented.”

Emily Pinto, LGBTQ students’ representative, stated that she would also support the move, saying: “It seems logical and fair that the Black Student Representative election takes place in February if it would allow for better organisation of Black History Month.

LGBTQ History month takes place in February, so as it stands the timing of the LGBTQ Representative election (in October) is not to my knowledge an issue.”

“I would strongly support greater representation of Black students, and indeed any marginalized group, within the Students Union.”

The Students’ Union is organising

and promoting a number of events to celebrate Black History month, including a talk by Black History Walks founder Tony Warner, a talent showcase run by the African and Caribbean society and a Marxist Society discussion on race and class struggle.

Black History Month is an annual event in the UK, United States and Canada for remembrance of important people and events in history of the African Diaspora.

Initially existing as a week that contained within it the birthdays of both Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, it became Black History Month in the United States in 1976 due to the actions of the ‘Black United Students’ at Kent State University.

Black History Month became official in the UK in 1987 and takes place every October.

National and local events can be found at blackhistorymonth.org.uk.

didates Facebook history, as well as a selection of tweets.

The society originally filed a separate 4,000 word complaint in May concerning the result of one of the several Students’ Union referendums that month.

The candidate in question was instrumental in the victorious campaign in said referendum, defeating the campaign of the society that later submitted the complaint.

Dissatisfied with the Students’ Union’s decision not to declare the

result of the referendum void, the society decided to lodge a second appeal.

The second appeal hearing has a panel that included the president of the Portsmouth Students’ Union.

The society’s second appeal, like the first, eventually ended without success.

The election candidates, who wished to remain strictly anonymous, said that the Students’ Union should take action against people making complaints out of despera-

tion or not liking a particular candidate: The candidate said: “I believe that when someone is the topic of a complaint they should be made aware by the union of this, and there needs to be more transparency in the union complaints procedure to stop people filing complaints out of desperation and personal vendettas against candidates and activists.”

Also warning that people might be put off involving themselves in student politics because of the fear

of being personally attacked, they added: “complaints and personal attacks put people off politics, and student politics should be inclusive of all people. Fear and personal attacks should never be a part of a campaign. I hope the union takes a strong stance against this type of behaviour in the future.”

Michael Segalov, Communications Officer, said: “The Students’ Union dealt with the complaint in line with our policies.”

Complaint against election candidate dismissed Jack Williams News Editor

A 6,000 word complaint was sent to the Students’ Union returning Officer concerning one of the candidates running in the student election two weeks ago, the Badger has learned.

The document, which was sent in the name of an undiscloseable student society at the University of Sussex, contained swaths of posts and information taken from the can-

A

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the badger

20 October 2014

NEWS • 4

Union plans late night fast food Mother urges PM to publish drugs report

Alexander Ferguson News Sub-Editor

The Sussex University Students’ Union has drawn up plans to set up a late night fast food outlet on campus.

The Students’ Union’s President, Abraham Baldry, and Operations Officer, Dan Greenberg, have been seriously considering a project to provide students on Sussex campus with the option of a late night fast food outlet.

Talks between the University and the Union have resulted in the old East Slope family room being suggested as a potential venue for the fast food outlet.

This venue does pose some potential drawbacks, not least because the whole of East Slope is scheduled for demolition in 2016. However, the President of the Union was keen to stress the benefits of using the family room, which is being relocated.

Abraham Baldry said: “If we were to do it in the family room then it would be a student run enterprise with all profits reinvested back into the Students’ Union”.

However, when speaking about the problem of the East Slope demolition, he added: “If we are there for only a year then we have to ask, is that a responsible use of students’ money?”

The Union has already extended the availability of food on campus from 10pm to 11pm at Falmer Bar, but it is

Jack Williams News Editor

Sophie Jones believed that having fast food available on campus until the early hours of the morning would be a hugely successful option.

The specific menu for the proposed outlet is currently still in question but it has been confirmed that the main focus of the food outlet would indeed be on “food that can be produced quickly”.

On the matter of the variety of food that would be available, the Union President was quick to add: “If this is something that gets the go-ahead then we would make sure definitely to include

healthy options”.

A draft budget has already been drawn up by the Union President for the fast food outlet but as of yet there is no confirmed timescale for further talks with the University about this proposal.

A third year medical student has said: “I am frustrated that there wasn’t a late night fast option when I was living on campus in my first year. Many late nights I would come back and only have the option of a microwave meal. I would have loved to have the option of a cheap, easy meal close to home”.

The mother of a University of Sussex student who died as a result of overdosing on the party drug GBL has pressed the government to publish its long awaited report on the dangers of ‘legal highs’.

Hester Stewart, who was studying medicine at the University until her death in April 2009, took the drug before going to sleep, but never awoke from her respiratory arrest.

The release of the government’s report into legal highs has been delayed since its completion in July, having been commissioned by the Home Office in December 2013.

As a result of this delay, Hester’s mother, Maryon Stewart, has personally written to Prime Minister David Cameron, urging him to prevent the report from becoming entangled with political issues.

She wrote in the letter: “ I cannot guess the reasons for such an important set of recommendations to be blocked but I can tell you that the consequences are months of wasted time while young people continue to be exposed to these dangerous substances.

“I implore you to overcome whatever

the political issues surrounding the publication of this vital report so we can get on with exposing the myths around these legal highs and keep our young people safe.”

GBL was unclassified as drug by the Home Office before 2009 but despite Hester’s family petitioning the government to outlaw the unregulated distribution and purchase of the drug, its grade was only raised to a class C drug soon after Hester’s death.

An inquest into Hester’s death in July 2009 heard that it was her first time taking the drug and Detective Inspector Carwyn Hughes said that with the low level of GBL found in Hester’s blood, she was “very unlucky” not to survive.

Research by the Centre for Social Justice in the summer estimated that hospital admissions due to the consumption of legal high drugs rose by 56 percent between 2009 and 2012, and forecast that the amount of annual deaths recorded as a result of these drugs would overtake heroin related fatalities by 2016.

A 2014 report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime marked the UK as one of the highest legal high use rates in Europe, with 8.2 percent of Britons surveyed in 2011 admitting to taking such drugs.

of Law, Politics and Sociology has successfully grown.

He chaired the LPS’s self-evaluation team in its successful application for a bronze award in the Equality Challenge Unit’s pilot gender quality charter mark earlier this year, in recognition of the School’s advancement in progressing gender equality in the social sciences.

Professor Shute has also benefitted the University in a broader scale, acting recently as Pro-Vice-Chancellor responsible for the line management of the schools within the social sciences. He was also the Chair of the Heads of School Group from 200912, and led the National Student Survey (NSS) for the University from 2009-10.

Outside of the University, Profes-

Brunel University sor Shute has been appointed to the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s (AHRC) Advisory Board (201417).

He also has a number of external non-executive posts including the Inaugural Chair of the independent Crime Statistics Advisory Committee, and is currently a member of the Advisory Board for Hm Inspectorate of Constabulary.

Professor Shute spent fifteen years at the University of Birmingham before coming to Sussex, serving as Deputy Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Dean of Arts and Social Sciences.

At Birmingham he was part of the Vice-Chancellor’s Senior Management Team, and a member of the University’s Strategic Management Committee.

Indian students put Shute made Pro Vice-Chancellor off Britain, says Cable Rosie Dodds News Sub-Editor

Zoe Halsë News Sub-Editor Liberal Democrat business secretary, Vince Cable, declared in a press release last week that the UK is engaged in an “uphill struggle” to attract Indian students here as a result of Tory and UKIP anti-immigration stances.

He articulated that Indian students “have undoubtedly been put off by the rather ugly noises off in the political world” and “given the impression they’re not welcome”.

The UK has suffered a drop in the number of Indians choosing its universities in recent years, although it is estimated that international students are worth £3 billion a year to British universities.

The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) in April showed that since 2010/11, the number of Indian postgraduate students coming to the UK has fallen by 51%.

The University of Sussex states on its website that: “Our Indian students are drawn from all over the subcontinent, forming one of the largest cohorts of international students.

“They contribute a great deal to our student community, study a very wide range of subjects at undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral level, and bring vibrancy, dynamism and colour to the University’s campus particularly during Holi and Diwali!”

On a trip to India, Cable stressed that his intention was to “dispel myths that the UK is not welcoming to Indian students and spread

the message that ‘Britain is open for Business”.

As part of this, he is due to announce the “largest ever number of scholarships through the GREAT Scholarships program” as well as “the opening of the Education UK Alumni Awards which will reward Indian alumni of UK institutions that have made a significant impact upon their return to India with an expensespaid study trip to the UK linked to their current profession”.

Tory immigration minister James Brokenshire responded that: “I am sorry that the Business Secretary continues to paint a false picture about the Government’s immigration policy and to talk down the excellent UK student visa offer in an important international market for the education sector.

He went on that “We continue to welcome the brightest and the best to study at our world-class universities and there is no limit on the number of international students who can come here.”

Jagrati Agarwal, an postgraduate international student from India said that although the visa application was stressful, she has been made to feel very welcome so far.

She said: “The entire procedure of getting a visa right from the application to the interview is very stressful.

However, I had no qualms about moving to England. Most of my friends have pursued their masters degree from here and they have had a wonderful time.”

With immediate effect, Professor Stephen Shute has been appointed the senior leadership position of ProVice-Chancellor (Planning and Resources).

Professor Stephen Shute, who is currently Head of the School of Law, Politics and Sociology, will now have strategic oversight for the resources, planning, innovation and sustainability agenda at the University of Sussex.

The role will help ensure the achievement of the University’s new strategic plan, Making the Future 2013-18.

The position of Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Planning and Resources) will be for an introductory term of five years, renewable to a maximum of ten years. Professor Shute will be a member of the Vice-Chancellor’s Executive Group, reporting to the ViceChancellor, Michael Farthing.

Professor Michael Farthing who chaired the Appointing Committee has said: “This is a senior, facilitative role in which Stephen will work closely with senior academic colleagues and professional services leads to ensure an integrated approach is taken to the delivery of our strategic plan.

“Stephen has considerable, broad experience and has demonstrated the capability to contribute not only to resources, planning and other strategic areas but also as a member of our senior leadership team.”

Since Professor Shute joined Sussex in 2009 as founding Head of the School, and a Professor of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice, the School

the badger

20 OCTOBER 2014

NEWS • 5

University begins to University of Sussex intercepts roll out e-submissions Nitrous Oxide deliveries Phoebe Day

Sussex university is beginning the transition from hard-copy submissions to e-submissions. Students are now submitting the year’s first assessments through Sussex direct.

The site also lets students view results and feedback electronically.

The change only applies to first students currently, but if the project is a success, there are hopes to extend the service for all students.

E-submission will first be introduced for the 20th of October for most essay based subject first year modules.

The site on study direct also allows students to resubmit assessments as many times as they like before the assessment deadline.

This is also useful if the wrong file is submitted. The site will email confirmation of submission so students will know if they have successfully submitted their work, and if there is a problem the IT services are on hand to assist with any difficulty.

A key part of Educational Officer Bethan Hunt’s campaign last year was introducing E-submission.

When asked about the future of the project she said: “This marks a key milestone in the ESEF project (e-submissions and e-feedback).

The project will be expanded to include all year groups and to include non-essay based assessments, but for the moment the TEL (teaching enhanced learning) team wanted to

ensure that the process ran smoothly before including contributory assessments. I’m really keen to expand this project so lots of students can benefit from the advantages of e-submissions, which include removing unnecessary travel costs, removing printing costs, reducing environmental impact and allowing quicker access to feedback.”

Many professors were also keen to start the change to E-submission. Dr Fae Dussart who advanced the campaign to introduce online submission for the Global studies department said: “ I think that it would be good to transfer to a system where students use less paper and have the freedom to submit essays and pick up results and feedback wherever they are.” The strongest pros of Esubmission for Dr Dussart are “the flexibility it gives to students’ time’ and the fact ‘it is more efficient than a paper system.”

The system is also far more effective at checking for academic plagiarism and the word count of an essay than human checking could be. Submission is also faster than waiting to hand an assignment in, although there is processing time, so it’s probably unwise to wait till a minute to midnight on submission deadline to submit.

An International Relations student expressed concerned that “our word counts are going to be scrutinised to a much greater degree, which could be the difference between a first class honours and a 2:1.”

Zoë Halse News Sub-Editor

The University has been intercepting deliveries of nitrous oxide, more commonly known as laughing gas, to those living on campus on the grounds that it poses a fire risk.

Nitrous oxide is a popular festival and party drug generally considered as a ‘legal high’.

University Residences have stressed the fact that nitrous oxide is an oxidising agent, stating that it can potentially increase the speed and voracity of a fire and can cause materials that do not normally burn to ignite.

The University responded to The Badger’s enquiry, stating: “The packages we receive usually are on an industrial scale and contain hundreds or thousands of nitrous oxide chargers. Because of this we feel these quantities make them a health and safety risk and we then return them to the company that sent them.

“We do not confiscate the chargers but we refuse to deliver them and ask the company or students to find an alternative delivery address as we cannot knowingly accept them for these reasons.

“At no time have we asked staff to confiscate these items but, if through regular maintenance checks or inspections we noticed any items that may cause a risk to health and safety, we would report that immediately and take appropriate action.”

They added that:“To our knowledge, no items of this nature have been removed from a study bedroom.”

Possession of Nitrous Oxide is legal and is often used for a ‘legal high’, either

Aditi Sreevathsa breathed in directly from a canister, a balloon or a plastic bag. Its intended use is medical, as an anaesthetic by dentists and doctors during a variety of procedures, from having a dislocated shoulder set to giving birth. It is also legitimately used for catering purposes.

The explicit question of legality surrounding laughing gas is the sale of it to those under the age of eighteen who are deemed likely to inhale it, which is a criminal offence.

Additionally, the Local Government Association has recently issued a health warning regarding inhalation of laughing gas and the Home Office is strongly encouraging festivals and clubs to restrict usage of it within their premises although it is currently prevalent in both.

A Philosophy and Politics student voiced that the university’s reasoning for interceptions of deliveries of the said gas, as well as confiscations of it, seem ‘disingenuous’, ‘If the university were really acting purely with fire safety in mind, they would be similarly targeting aerosols and other potential fire hazards’.

Another student simply identified nitrous oxide as a “relatively harmless recreational drug” and was of the opinion that students “could be doing a lot worse”.

However, a History student responded that “If you are living in university managed accomodation you have to accept that you are under a legal obligation to abide by the tenancy agreement that you agreed to sign in the first instance.”

Analysis of this month’s party conferences Alex Ferguson and Daniel Green NewsSub-Editors

Labour

UKIP

- Promised to raise the minimum wage to £8 an hour by the end of the next parliament.

- Will give an extra £2.5bn to the NHS to recruit 20,000 nurses, 8,000 doctors, 5000 care workers and 3,000 midwives.

- No new spending paid for by borrowing!

- Plans to restrict rises in child benefit by 1% a year.

- Mansion tax definitely on the way for properties worth more than £2m.

- Tobacco firms are to be hit with a windfall tax.

- Plans to cut Ministerial pay by 5 percent.

- Plans to cut income tax from 40p to 35p for those earning up to £55,000.

- Allow employers to discriminate in favour of British workers.

- Pledge to cut UK foreign aid by 85 percent.

- Drastically cut net migration.

- Make sure immigrants have health insurance as well as health checks before entering the country.

- Force criminals to move house when they return from jail.

Liberal Democrats

- Extra £1bn to be spent on the NHS. - Plans to raise the personal allowance to £12,500 up from £10,500.

- Pledged to treat mental health in the same manner as physical health problems with targets ensuring patients get seen quicker.

- Promised to make the abuse of sex workers a ‘hate crime’.

Analysis: The UKIP conference seemed more informal and almost jovial compared to the - Against the expansion of any airports other parties. However, Farage can hardly be blamed for this given his elation at in the South East of England.

Mark Reckless’ defection to the party. Recent success in both European elections Analysis and Clacton will boost the party’s confidence as the election nears.

Green Party

Clegg is a comfortable speaker but his defeat during the conference in a vote - Promised to increase the minimum wage to £10 an hour by the year 2020. over support for airport expansion will - Plans to abolish the current age-based differential rates for the minimum do little to help his popularity both Analysis wage. within and without his party. Tuition - Introduce a ‘wealth tax’ on those with assets of £3m or more. fees continue to play on the minds of Labour went into the conference season - Crack down on tax avoidance by large corporations. young voters. With growing unease at feeling fairly optimistic. However, Clegg’s appalling popularity, this leads optimism is an easy message to convey Analysis: us to ask the question: Should Clegg when you forget to mention both imhave used this conference to resign? migration and the deficit! This will not Natalie Bennett’s speech was a strong one and Green Party policy should help to sway undecided voters who perhaps be more popular to the disaffected left than it is. Were Bennett’s efforts The Liberal Democrats have to tread carefully in already have a problem picturing Ed somewhat wasted? Current opinion polls suggest that they’ll have to pull out all their animosity to both Labour and the Conservatives, as another coalition may be around the corMilliband as the UK’s representative on the stops next May, especially as they suggest the Greens are losing their lead ner. the world stage. For a party with such over the Liberal Democrats. Bennett’s unfamiliarity to voters will also prove a potential, they still have far to go! barrier to greater success in Parliament at next years’ election.

Conservatives - 40p tax rate to be raised to income over £50,000 when the nation’s books are balanced.

- Plans to raise the personal allowance by £2000 to £12,500.

- Cap on benefits per household will be reduced from £26,000 to £23,000.

- Promised to scrap the Human Rights Act and replace it with a British bill of rights.

- Plans to introduce new extremism disruption orders to ban hate preachers from television and internet access.

- Promised to protect the NHS from any cuts and to ensure GPs are available 7 days a week.

Analysis: Cameron went into this conference with the benefit of incumbency, and this showed in the confidence of his speech. However, behind this confidence, the Tories are running scared of UKIP. Perhaps this new Bill of rights (as ill-conceived as it might be!) is a step on the right road to re-gaining Eurosceptic supporters.

the badger

20 October 2014

Letters • 7

LETTERS

Reality is in the eye of the beholder Dear Badger,

Last night, I was scrolling down my news feed like the good ol’ Facebook addict that I am, when I stopped to look at a Buzzfeed notification of Jennifer Lopez.

It was an image of her and, of course, her rocking abs; her perfectly toned legs and arms and her clearly tight and cellulite-free ass. The title read: ‘REMINDER: Jennifer Lopez is 45 years old and looks like this’.

For a split second- or more like thirty, a wave of admiration drowned me, as thoughts like: ‘oh my god, good for her or, see, you can look like this if you try hard enough and jeez’ and ‘I hope I look like this at 45’ began to bombard my brain.

I then casually scrolled down to the comments and saw one that read: ‘REMINDER: Malala won the Nobel Peace Prize today and she’s only seventeen!

Who cares about what some rich bimbo looks like? And thankfully, just like that, I was snapped back to reality.

However, I now felt completely ashamed of myself and unaware of how I could have been so easily pulled into such a world of obsession and superficiality.

I was transported back to my normally social conscious mind and was reminded of the little merit that exists in having millions upon millions of dollars and having abs at forty-five.

What worth does this have? Sadly, at the moment, too much.

But what about the worth of a woman who does not look like this at fortyfive?

What ‘REMINDER’ does she receive?

All around us are magazine covers of half-naked middle aged celebrities showing off their incredible bodies, serving as vicious reminders of what every woman her age should strive to be, act, and most notably, look like.

Of course, most of us can remember the other star example of a perfect middle aged woman: Gweneth Paltrow, voted most beautiful woman of the year, who infamously stated earlier on this year that her job was, in a way, more difficult than a mother who worked a nine to five job.

Perhaps in some way she was right, but who is she to offer such bold remarks, when her net worth stretches

wider than my account number?

I feel terrible for her that this is the price she has to pay for being privileged enough do the thing she loves and simultaneously get paid millions to do it.

See, these images, these statements are everything that is wrong with the world.

We put these public figures (who are just as equally insignificant as us in this big puzzling world) on God-like pedestals.

We look down upon on simplicity, the ordinary, and instead celebrate the untouchable hierarchy of the famous.

What is the purpose? Is this hierarchy intended to make us become them, or to make us hate ourselves? Is it intended to lift our spirits or break them?

The answer like everything in life lies in the eye of the beholder. After all, reality is your reality and there is no other truth. It’s just a shame that some peoples’ is so delusional.

Of course, that is just my reality.

What’s yours?

as ‘The lost uni of Atlantis’.

However, if we’re headed towards the watery, umbrella turning onslaught that we experienced last year, it’s fair to say that this is a good time to point out any concerns and send them to the porter or landlord if you feel like your porch could become a shin-high lake.

Of course I could be wrong. Perhaps I’m just paranoid because of the images of the road that turned into a river outside my local Tesco, despite the laying of sandbags.

Then there was the nearby house that had to have countless gallons of water pumped out of it’s basement.

After all, most of the accommodation leads straight in to a downward hill anyway, but I can think of a few off-campus flats and shops that could be expecting a visit from the sandbag fairy if the coming weeks pan out like this one.

My mind also turns to the Falmer sports complex situated at the bottom of campus. Surely a draft excluder or two wouldn’t go amiss, unless of course Sussex wants a makeshift swimming pool in one of the basketball courts...

Jemada Cicely Clive Braime

The inevitable storm to Sussex trivia come If like me, you’re a student from the UK, you probably remember the wet, watery winter of last year that troubled people, and most likely more troubled their insurance companies.

With flood after flood constantly reported on BBC news, like the storm that collapsed part of the sea wall in Dawlish, bringing down a railway line.

I was sharing these stories with three students moving a trolley full of Budweiser out of the Co-op, all of us staring anxiously at the door, hoping the rain would stop so we could get to our homes before we needed a drawbridge to get back in.

Needless to say, it didn’t let up. Going outside, parts of the road were already ankle deep in rainwater. Sure, it’s easy enough to just forget about, now that I’m sat inside a slightly warm room sifting through textbooks and wolfing down cookies, but does that mean we should if these are the warning shots of the monsoon season to come?

I’m not asking you to picture Sussex

The views and opinions expressed in this publication do not nessesarily represent those of the Student’s Union, unless explicitly stated.

University of Sussex Students’ Union Falmer, East Sussex, BN1 9QF

Jack Pulley-Dumonde

Rolf Harris offered me his bread roll Dear Badger,

Dear Badger, Dear Badger,

To be fair to Bush, I’d be a bit surprised as well. The VP of Zambia, Guy Scott, was born into 1960’s Northern Rhodesia. He’s currently the only white Vice President in all of Africa and soon, if Michael Sata steps down, he could also become the only white President in Africa.

Guy Scott himself remarked that “Zambia is moving from a post-colonial to a cosmopolitan condition”. And if you’re wondering how Guy Scott became the Vice President of Zambia, he was elected alongside Michael Sata in 2011 on a ticket which pledged to end the abuse of Zambian workers at the hands of Chinese business owners.

It’s interesting to think that Guy Scott was once a student at Sussex University.

Rolling in a blacked out limousine through Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, it’s Vice President is in many ways the acting president of this old British colony.

It’s current president, Michael Sata, is ailing. His health has deteriorated and he may soon step down. The Zambian VP has had to assume many new roles, from ceremonial to administrative.

Zambia, a nation just north of Zimbabwe in Southern Africa, is one of the poorest countries in the world, it is however once of Africa’s newly emerged democracies.

It moved towards democracy in 1991 after three decades of one party rule.

When George W. Bush visited Zambia a few years ago to see how his charities were coming along, he was introduced to the Zambian government.

When the Vice President was introduced to George Bush, the VP later remarked that “when they introduced me as Vice President, he thought they were kidding”.

Yeah, sadly I’ve been waiting to use that title for about a year. Now that the disgraced TV star has had his shabby behaviour dragged into public view, I have the chance to bust out my very, very brief meeting with Rolf.

My meeting with Rolf was many years ago. I was six years old, and my family and I were eating lunch on the Thames in Bray.

Like any six year old, I was obsessed with throwing things, particularly in the river, and particularly at ducks.

My sister, who would have been nine, was a bit more measured/normal and said that we should, instead, just feed the ducks. Fine.

So we take the basket of bread from my parents and go to feed the ducks.

There were plenty of other duck feeders, happily chucking in chunks of bread for the ducks to feast on.

We ran out quickly, mainly because I got bored and reverted to just trying to land pieces of bread on the ducks backs.

A typical sibling argument ensued, accusations followed, and as usual, Mum had to come over and act as the neutral arbitrator (i.e she never took my side).

Anyway, the conclusion was that it

was our own fault that we’d run out of bread, and we had to go and sit back down.

The groans and complaints turned a few heads. As it turned out, one of those heads was Rolf Harris.

In my peripheral vision, a large man who was a few feet away, had obviously heard our argument. He preceded to walk over, and in that jolly and friendly tone which he professed on TV, he said ‘would you like my baguette?’

Offering a whole stick, which for all I know he nicked from somewhere, we took with glee.

I think we were so happy to have more bread, that we didn’t even realize who this large Australian Santa Clause was.

My mum did, and thank God selfies weren’t a thing back then, or the memory would forever be enshrined as a screensaver.

Anyway, brief as it was, that was my meeting with Rolf. For a while it was quite a good dinner party story, now, sadly, it’s probably better.

More seriously, I don’t at all claim that there was anything sinister about my meeting with him; my mum was there, and it was in public, and I wouldn’t want to diminish or make light of any actual acts he committed.

It’s always depressing when TV stars who have been idolized turn out to have behaved disgustingly, and I think Rolf was the exemplar of that.

Anyway, that’s my very brief claim to fame, and I finally had a chance to use that title. Yes, I need a life.

Louis Patel Letters Sub-Editor

#THEBADGER the week in tweets @HaughtonTim Looking forward to @AleksSzczerbiak ‘s inaugural professorial lecture at Sussex Uni tomorrow #Poland #partypolitics #easterneurope Do you have an opinion like a shot of tequila, short and strong?

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the badger

20 October 2014

FEATURE • 8

FEATURE

AgnosticPreachersKid - Wikipedia Commons

A worthwhile American education

Sarah Bunce details her experiences of living and studying abroad in Washington, D.C. and how it compares to Sussex University and the education system in the UK. Sarah Bunce Sussex Undergraduate Whenever I felt like I need a bit of air, or time to clear my head (or I was drunk and wanted to go on an adventure) I’d leave my room and walk fifteen minutes to sit on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, overlooking the Reflecting Pool and the Washington Monument.

That probably sounds pretty obnoxious, but it’s one of the only ways I can sum up just how incredible my year abroad studying in Washington D.C. was.

It seems obvious, but I really would encourage everyone who’s offered the opportunity to study abroad to grab it with both hands and never look back.

To be able to live in such a beautiful and interesting city, study a series of fascinating subjects, and meet people from both America and the rest of the world, was a dream come true.

And that’s not even mentioning the other cities and states I was lucky enough to travel to.

Adjusting to American life was hard (I very nearly went to a ‘flannel’-themed party with a washcloth pinned to me!), as was being so far away from my family, but what I did/ learnt last year made it all worth it.

“Is it just like the movies?” is probably the question I get asked the most when I tell people I studied abroad in America.

It’s not particularly easy to answer, because the stereotypical (e.g. jocks and cheerleaders) image everyone has of American education is

actually high school, very different to university (or ‘college’).

At a glance, UK universities and US colleges are quite similar, but over the course of the year I definitely came to prefer the American system.

The system’s superiority is somewhat understandable considering Sussex costs £3/9,000 a year, whilst the institution I attended, George Washington University (GW), can set you back up to £35,000 a year.

As an American Studies and English student, I had an enormous course choice, but even in general the range at GW was significantly wider than at Sussex.

To be fair to Sussex, GW employs around 2,500 academic staff against our approximate 800, but friends attending various other American colleges reported the same.

Literature courses offered to me ranged as wide as ‘Children’s Literature’ (I’m talking Harry Potter and Where the Wild Things Are guys!) to period-specific classes and even super-niche subjects such as ‘Love and Power in Jewish Culture’.

For American Studies, the range was even wider, because I could take my pick from several different disciplines: history; politics; sociology; women’s studies, etc.

The (sometimes complicated) requirements that you must follow to ‘major’ (a.k.a attain a degree) in a subject make it so much easier to re-define your course of study once you’ve started.

No wasting a year’s worth of fees (not to mention accommodation and living expenses), hard work,

and having to go through the arduous process of re-applying through UCAS all because you’ve decided X, Y or Z isn’t quite for you.

You just have to make sure that you’ll be able to satisfy the requirements for your new direction within the four years – or pay for extra semesters.

Even better is that once you’ve completed each course, you keep those credits forever. For example, if you had to drop out of college in your second year for personal reasons, you could pick up where you left off at a later date and/or a different institution.

I responded more positively to the working environment in America.

Participation is actively encouraged and genuinely appreciated. It is included in your final grade, as is attendance.

Yes, there are many more assessments, but they’re shorter, more varied, and give you the opportunity to really show that you’ve been working for the whole semester and not just the week before.

This term at Sussex, two of my three courses are based 100 percent on one essay – both 3,000 words and both due in January.

In comparison, one of my courses in the States was graded on no less than two short response/opinion papers (which were actually enjoyable to write); a group presentation; a longer final paper; in-class participation and attendance.

The classes themselves were both challenging and interesting, and incorporated a wide range of texts.

I had a reasonable amount of con-

tact hours: ten, compared to the six hours I have at Sussex this year (which sees me on campus for just three days a week). More than that, I was struck by just how involved every professor was and the support there is overwhelming.

For one course I took, our professor drove into the city on a Sunday to hold office hours (and I mean hours: 10am-4pm) because we had a paper due the following Tuesday.

Of course, American colleges fail in other academic aspects. Most obviously is the cost, although there are more scholarship/funding opportunities than I had assumed.

Some people disagree with the emphasis placed on attendance, and complain about the volume of the work. This can seem particularly overwhelming considering the huge amount of emphasis placed on extra-curricular activities; most people I met were part of at least one kind of club/society, had a part-time job or internship, or both! I, on the other hand, was happy enough with the workload and I managed to complete all of my courses.

Ultimately, I think GW failed to impress me the most within the ‘college life’ area. Lowerclassmen (first and second years) are definitely mistreated. Their mandatory accommodation, for example, is outrageously overpriced and absolutely dreadful.

I heard many a horror story about freshman halls: one small room crowded with three bunk beds; disgusting shared bathrooms; and no kitchen facilities at all.

I found the University’s food outlets more expensive than local res-

taurants, so without a kitchen you’d be paying for any and all meals you eat. Students aren’t allowed to live anywhere except the halls of residence assigned to you – unless you find alternative accommodation but continue to pay GW rent – until you reach junior (third) year.

Even as you progress – and the accommodation gets nicer – it’s rare to get a single room, which is standard practice over here. I was lucky enough to absolutely adore my roommate (who was also a fellow exchange student, from Australia), but room/suitemate fights were a common topic of conversation!

I know all of these things will depend on which university you go to but for once I’m on Sussex’s side about something!

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Harry Harrison

Your Students’ Union pub in the centre of Brighton

on What’s

Autumn Term

STUDENT PRICES ALL THE TIME: £3.20 Strongbow/ Fosters / Snakebite £2.50 rum/vodka mixer 3 for 2 jager, sambuca, tuaca Pre-drink Hour: 8pm-11pm (Skint prices)

FOOD

Mondays from 5pm 2 for 1 burgers Wednesdays all day burger+pint £5 Thursdays £10 steak + 3 sides FRY...days fish&chips/halloumi&chips 2 for £10

Mondays (monthly)

Drawing Circus

7.30-10pm. Circus themed life drawing £5 students, £6 nonstudents.

Wednesdays

Skint

Strongbow, Fosters & Snakebite £2 Rum/vodka + mixer £2.50 Shots of tequila/ sambuca £1.85 3 for 2 Jagermeister

Thursdays (Monthly nights)

Fem Rock

Thurs 30th Oct, Thurs 27th Nov: Monthly FemRock Night: Renowned amongst Brightonians for showcasing the best local female-fronted performers, FemRock is an inclusive event for people of all genders. FemRock nights are about celebrating women in music, raising money for charity and promoting local artists!

Hollow Earth

Thurs 23rd Oct, Thurs 20th Nov: Monthly Hollow Earth Nights - Expect kaleidoscopic visuals, psychedelic performances and the full-range of drinks deals! The new monthly experiment at The Globe, Middle Street.

Featuring UK debuts from Brooklyn psych-rock band Woodsman, plus label-mates Ancient Ocean - followed up with classic Brightonian hip-hop ‘till 2am. The event is broadcast by event sponsors Resonance 104.4fm, URF and Mixcloud and is brought to you via your Students’ Union. Free entry for students with a valid student card - no need to book a ticket in advance, just turn up and show your student card. Tickets for non-students are £4

the badger

20 OCTOBER 2014

Comment • 10

COMMENT

YouTubers should ‘unsubscribe’ from racial prejudice Danya Hajjaji Last week, the internet surprisingly remembered that misogyny was a thing when former Big Brother UK contestant Sam Pepper uploaded a video on his YouTube channel where he sexually assaults a handful of random women on the streets of Los Angeles.

I didn’t know sexual harassment fell under the same umbrella term as, say, scribbling phallic art on someone’s face with a permanent marker while they’re passed out drunk.

The latter is funny. The first one can (and should) lead to your arrest.

Sam’s “prank” came back and bit him, as the internet was appalled with his little performance.

With comments, articles and even famous YouTubers going against him, Sam is now pretty much drowning in online hate and has even been questioned by the LA Police Department.

Unfortunately, Sam’s unhappy ending still isn’t a victory for women on the internet.

There is so much hypocrisy in the Sam Pepper Witch Hunt movement that it has become a bandwagon for everyone with a Wi-Fi connection to jump on.

For example, YouTube personality and VidCon co-founder Hank Green tweeted: “For people asking, it’s safe to assume that people who sexually assault women in ‘prank’ videos will not be welcome at future VidCons.” Ouch, right?

But disinviting Sam Pepper to the biggest online video conference in the world

would be a better burn if it didn’t promote other problematic people.

I mean, since Tyler Oakley, Nash Grier and Shane Dawson were there this year, where’s the harm in pulling out an extra chair for Sam? There are also many famous Youtubers who have yet to be chastised when it comes to their extremely harmful sense of humour.

If you’re not too busy thinking up ways to fit your hate for me in 140 characters, I’ll expand..

I didn’t even know Sam Pepper existed until this controversy and I’m pretty sure the same can be said for so many people.

Tyler Oakley once posted a video titled “Why Diversity Sucks”, where in a failed attempt at comedy, he shows a birth control brochure with culturally diverse faces and degrades the inclusion of non-white people on the cover. Screw representation, right?

It’s not like we see white people everywhere we go. Not like there’s a lack of people of colour in all kinds of images, be it television, billboard adverts or freaking brochures in your doctor’s office. “How politically correct do we have to get?”

Next, we have everyone’s favourite YouTuber since 2008, Shane Dawson.

Shane has a very intense fan base, which explains the fact that his channel is the 33rd most subscribed on Youtube. Shane is known for his dark sense of humour, his celebrity spoofs and ridiculous characters of his creation.

His “humour” knows no limits and one of the worst tropes in his videos is prob-

ably his infamous blackface characters.

A lot of Shane Dawson’s fans seem to think that the comparison to minstrel shows is absurd and that he’s only doing black characters justice by altering his skin tone.

This is wrong and an incredibly racist way of thinking. At the end of whatever video he was shooting, Shane can wash his minstrel make-up off and resume being privileged. Black people cannot do such a thing.

Black people stay black when they walk into stores and are followed by employees who think they’re stealing.

Black people stay black when they’re shot by civilians and authority figures alike.

Shane’s number of subscribers only keeps growing, and every critic that comes

his way is being shut down by either him or his fans.

Recently, feminist Youtuber Franchesca Ramsey tweeted her disapproval of Shane’s portrayal of black people. As a result, she’s received numerous racial slurs and death threats from his fans, and scrutiny by Shane himself as well.

One can only wonder why white male Youtubers can get away with behaviour like this while women and people of colour (among others) who call them out are subjected to further harassment.

These men aren’t using their platform and immense fanbase to educate through their mistakes or promote a shift in institutionalised oppression.

Instead, they’re attempting to erase their problematic past when it comes to light and laugh it off and their fans see no

issue with it.

Why can’t internet users hold their favourite Youtube personalities responsible for their bad behaviour like they did with Sam Pepper?

There is a problem on Youtube and it isn’t a guy with a bad haircut copping a feel anymore.

The issue is the hypocrisy of those who call him creepy then laugh at rape and those who cry “bully” when their idol is being called out and then send death threats to their critics.

I’d like Youtube users to know that watching and sharing Emma Watson’s UN speech doesn’t make you a decent person.

Working towards change and recognising people who are extremely toxic to our progress does. You can hit “Unsubscribe” now.

Thomas van de Weerd (via Creative Commons)

Malala Yousafzai, her Nobel Prize and feminism

Lucy Pegg

It’s been awarded to Nelson Mandela, the European Union and Barack Obama, but now the latest winner of the Nobel Peace Prize - alongside fellow education campaigner Kailash Satyarthi - is Malala Yousafzai, the seventeen year old advocate of education for girls who was shot in the head by the Taliban in October 2012.

In many ways the award is not only recognition of the remarkable activism Malala has undertaken herself, but a symbol of success for the new generation of feminists whose work she epitomises.

Because, if you haven’t noticed yet, feminism is making something of a comeback.

Young women are reclaiming the movement for themselves and redefining both what feminism fights for and how that fighting will be done.

Whilst feminists of the past have made huge advances on our behalf, today’s feminists are looking forward to the future and taking matters into their own hands.

Social media is being commandeered to gain support for campaigns like ‘No More Page 3’ and more feminist societies are popping up at schools and univer-

sities than ever before.

The generation who first learnt about girl power through the Spice Girls is growing up, and they’re taking their desire for gender equality with them.

Malala, the teenager who has now travelled the world advocating for education for all genders and who’s various speeches have gone viral online, sums this new movement up just a much as the latest trending feminist hashtag.

Malala embodies the new wave of feminism through more than just her age and platform though.

Having been highly criticised for lack of it in the past, the new wave of feminism is also finally making some progress in terms of diversity and, as a non-white, non-Western and visibly nonChristian person, it’s hard not to see Malala as a poster girl for part of this shift.

By no means is feminism perfectly inclusive yet, but when the equality icons of today include the likes of Laverne Cox and Beyonce, alongside Yousafzai, it does seem like we’ve come at least someway from the time when feminism was dominated by the white middle class.

To top this all off Malala is not a girl afraid to embrace her

femininity, but she is similarly not constrained by it - something which sets her apart from icons of previous decades.

Regularly pictured in pink, she reminds us that the feminine is not as intrinsically bad as feminism has seemed to imply in the

past, and that whilst we don’t need to conform to gender stereotypes it’s okay if sometimes we choose to.

Malala’s work is part of a greater movement and by giving her the Nobel Peace prize the Nobel board recognises all those like her whose

work will never receive the same media attention.

Malala shows the world the feminist it doesn’t always realises exists, but who’s actions are becoming more instrumental by the day.

CBC News

the badger

20 OCTOBER 2014

Comment • 11

“Believing that life loves the liver of it, I have dared to try many things”: a tribute to Maya Angelou Izzy Taylor Maya Angelou, the African-American writer, singer, dancer and poet, died in May of this year. Prompted to write by Black History Month, this piece is a tribute to her.

Angelou was brought up in Stamps, Arkansas by her grandmother where she experienced the best of smalltown black community, and the worst of Southern American racism and segregation.

She moved to San Francisco to live with her mother and had a baby at sixteen.

Being a black woman in America was a huge part of her identity and challenged her to many things.

An impressively creative person, Angelou was also politically active.

Close friends with Malcolm X, James Baldwin and Martin Luther King Jn., she organised and spoke at marches in the USA, as well as being an antiapartheid and pro-Castro activist.

This passage is from the end of her first, most famous book, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings:

‘The city became for me the ideal of what I wanted to be as a grownup.

Friendly, but never gushing, cool but not frigid or distant, distinguished without the awful stiffness.

To San Franciscans “the City That Knows How” was the Bay, the fog, Sir Francis Drake Hotel, Top o’ the Mark, Chinatown the Sunset District and so on and so forth and so white.

To me, a thirteen-year-old Black girl, stalled by the South and Southern Black lifestyle, the city was a state of beauty and a state of freedom.

The fog wasn’t simply the steamy vapors off the bay caught and penned in by the hills, but a soft breath of anonymity that shrouded and cushioned the bashful traveler.

I became dauntless and free of fears, intoxicated by the physical fact of San Francisco.

Safe in my protecting arrogance, I was certain that no one loved her as impartially as I.’

The beginning of Still I Rise: You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies, You may tread me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I’ll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?

Why are you beset with gloom?

‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns, With the certainty of tides, Just like hopes springing high, Still I’ll rise.

Angelou’s books are entertaining as well as being interesting for the testament they give to America’s changing times and for the analysis she offered of the differing relations.

She lived vivaciously, thoughtfully and well. I hope people will be encouraged to read her writing as I think she’s one of the most fantastic people to have lived in the past century.

The Voice

the badger

20 october 2014

SCIENCE • 12

SCIENCE An Ig-Nobel Prize for a noble cause Daniel Stuart Science Sub-Editor The relentless curiosity of the scientific community is what has driven human innovation, from the harnessing of fire to the current crown jewel of physics, the Large Hadron Collider.

However, an interview with two, now ex-scientists, in a recent podcast from WNYC’s RadioLab has suggested that this may be on the decline. They told the popular New York science show that they have given up their careers because the funding for riskier inquisitions is becoming too few and far between.

One group of people who would certainly disagree that science has stopped pushing boundaries of the ordinary are the nominees and winners of this year’s Ig Nobel Prizes. This spoof awards ceremony is a parody of the more serious Nobel Prize ceremony and has been rewarding curiosity for curiosity’s sake for 24 years, with the more amusing the subject of study, the better.

On 18 September 2014, prizes were given for categories that try to mirror their Nobel cousins, such as neuroscience, public health and economics, the latter of these was won this year by Italy. The delegation from the Italian government researched extensively into the economic benefits of illegal transactions between two willing participants, such as prostitution.

What sums up the ethos of the awards perfectly, was the award for the Ig Nobel Peace Prize to a joint effort

by Aleksander Lukaschenko, the President of Belarus, and the Belarussian police force in 2013. Their contribution was to firstly make the act of applauding in public illegal, then consequently arresting a one armed man for breaking this law.

One of the most prestigious roles in this ceremony is that of Miss Sweetie Poo, the title given yearly to an 8 year old girl, whose roles include the task of curtailing the more verbose speakers by crying out, “Please stop, I’m bored!”.

This is in order to keep them “delightfully brief, according to the Annals of Improbable Research, the spoof journal from Harvard University and

the organisation responsible for creation of the ceremony.

A less silly journal, Nature, the biology journal, gives its backing to the Ig Nobel Prizes describing it as, “arguably the highlight of the scientific calendar” and this is where they have gained their most notoriety. As one would expect from a Nobel spoof, a significant proportion of the prizes are awarded for scientific research.

For instance, the prize for neuroscience this year went to a team from China lead by Prof. Kang Lee for an investigation into a phenomenon known as ‘pareidolia’ - more commonly known as seeing the face of Jesus on toast.

Kiyoshi Mabuchi’s team from Japan had the distinction of receiving the Physics Prize for finding the frictional coefficient between a human and a banana, thus explaining the classic slapstick routine, “man slips on a banana.”

In his acceptance speech, Mabuchi demonstrated the versatility of their work by expanding the paradigm to Godzilla, and how the humble banana can provide a defence, should the gargantuan beast ever return to Tokyo.

In the study, they even went on to reaffirm the banana as the undisputed king of the slippery fruits, by testing it against the apple and the orange, which both had higher coefficients and were less slippery.

Even the internet’s favourite quadruped mammal was a subject of study at this year’s awards as a team set out to uncover the origins of the “crazy cat lady theory.” So crucial was this problem that an international inquest, spanning across the USA, Czech Republic, India and Japan was carried out assessing the mental hazards of owning a cat.

Keeping with the pet theme, the Biology Prize was also awarded to a multi-nation effort. Researchers from the Czech Republic, Zambia and Germany, led by Hynek Burda, turned their attention to dogs.

The fruit of their labour was to discover that during both defecation and urination, dogs tend to align themselves with the Earth’s magnetic poles.

Further probing, into the issue rather than the dogs, showed that dogs are in fact sensitive to even subtle changes in

JD Hancock from Flickr the magnetic field.

Special mention must also be given to a rare category not always seen at the awards, that of arctic science.

The prize this year was given to Eigil Reimers and Sindre Eftestøl, who researched and documented how Svalbard Reindeer reacted to humans dressed as polar bears.

It must be noted that however silly the research may seem at first, the stated aim of the awards is to reward those who can “make the audience laugh first, then make them think.”

This is certainly true for this year’s prize winners, although it may require more thought for some rather than others.

For instance, human joints contain a polysaccharide molecule that has been attributed to the slippery nature of the banana skin. This research can therefore contribute hugely to the exploration of joint lubrication and possibly the treatment of arthritic diseases.

Similarly, the experiments on pareidolia had some incredible outcomes.

Firstly, it was noted that the particular

face seen was not necessarily Jesus’, it in fact was dependent upon the beliefs of the individual. For instance, Buddhists tended to see the face of Buddha.

This means that these types of phenomena are linked such as the famous sighting of the Duchess of Cambridge on a jelly bean, the appearance of David Beckham on a pint of beer and a house in Wales that has a similar appearance to Adolf Hitler.

These would all come under the bracket of pareidolia and can be explained by the brain’s inherent properties. Our visual and temporal cortices are trained to extrapolate from small details, a skill that was useful for our ancestors’ in the detection of predators or prey that were partly covered.

This evolutionary theory is further backed up by the fact that chimpanzees also experience pareidolia, which promises a great deal in future evolutionary research.

Even the discovery that dogs can sense subtle changes in the Earth’s magnetic field could have a colossal

impact. Although it is simply an observation, the newfound knowledge can excite the imagination of many.

This ability has already been touted as a possible way to detect the imminent switching of the magnetic poles, not to mention the countless implications for biological research.

Lest it be forgotten that the likes of Newton and Archimedes built some of the most influential theories based from other such innocuous observations.

The most complex of the four nuclear forces, gravity, would be a mystery and we would know nothing of Newton’s laws had he not noticed an apple fall from a tree. While the rumours that the story of Newton’s discovery is a myth persist, the message still rings true.

Although from the outside, this annual commemoration of science’s advancements into the most obscure corners of human curiosity may seem like a mockery, it is the exact opposite.

It is a celebration of science in its purest form.

The Five Year Production Line- Life as a medical student Léon Sharman ‘Medicine’ I say with what has become a familiarly strange sense of abashment. And here comes the typical response... ’Oh... right...’; rinse and repeat.

I’m here with my flatmate trying desperately hard to defy the cliquishness of my course and fit in with some non-medics, or ‘actual students’ as someone said the other day. But the tide is against us

here- far too many cool kids, drinking cool drinks with their own equally cool agendas, yet as usual she’s doing a much better job of it.

With so many botched introductions if only I could use a megaphone to announce to the room that we were normal students on the inside too. But there isn’t, and I console myself that there will be more chances to meet some of the other thirteen thousand ‘actual’ students here at Sussex.

It’s impossible to register how much

this moment has been anticipated.

Even prior to the hype since starting at BSMS, it’s been something all aspiring medics have been thinking about over the last couple of years, with the key question looming never too far away to return and cause unease; How on earth will I react?

Gowned, goggled and gloved up, I think to myself, ‘The first of the first incisions’ and with an alarmingly sharp scalpel at the ready, we begin to get acquainted with our cadaver.

My team looks on eagerly with a

very genuine buzz of morbid curiosity as we peel back the damp muslin cover revealing a sight none of us will ever forget. For the record and much to my dissatisfaction, no one fainted, however one or two had to be escorted out for a breath of fresh air.

As we work our way through the instructions I feel a bead of sweat roll teasingly down my face but much to my surprise, instead of getting flustered by the usual self-conscious sense of social paranoia, I totally ig-

nore it and in that moment I realise that I’m totally in my zone.

The relief washes over me in an awesome wave. I could get really into this.

It’s probably the most exhilarating form of learning I’ve ever come across but as I pick up the forceps again, the anatomy demonstrator abruptly declares the session is at an end.

THE BADGER

20 OCTOBER 2014

TECH • 13

TECH Technology and protest

Catherine Nipps

The Umbrella Revolution in Hong Kong has been in the news constantly over the past few weeks as hundreds of prodemocracy protesters took to the streets to get their voices heard after the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPCSC) in China refused to back democratic elections.

This movement has seen students turning to social media to keep in touch and spread awareness. Even though popular messaging and social media services like WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter are still being used, a relatively new and lesser-known app called FireChat is being credited with fuelling this movement.

So, what exactly is so special about FireChat that it’s playing such a pivotal role in these protests? FireChat is a messaging app that is based on peer-topeer networking created by connecting nearby cell phones to each other using Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

This app’s success mainly lies in the

fact that it does not require internet connectivity for local chatting. Each person with a FireChat app on their phone acts as a node, and all the nodes connected together create a decentralised network which becomes stronger as more nodes join in, which is in contrast to the traditional centralised network used by most cell phone users today.

It is a completely open system and conversations can be read by anyone who is within 50 to 70 yards of a connected node. Most conversations take place in chat rooms or forums that users create to focus on a topic.

FireChat, built by a San Franciscobased company, Open Garden about six months ago has already been used in protests in Taiwan and Iraq for the anti-Beijing Sunflower Movement and also in Iran, but not on such a big scale as seen in the Hong Kong protests.

For numerous pro-democracy protesters, FireChat is seen as an ideal tool for protest or a means to defy censorship.

It gives them a way to stay connected,

prepared and organised even as the authorities threaten to shut down cell phone network services.

According to the Micha Benoliel, the Chief Executive of Open Garden, over the past few weeks, FireChat was downloaded more than 500,000 times in Hong Kong, and about 40,000 people were using it through local mesh networks at the same time.

Even though internet connections have not been cut off by the govern-

ment yet, FireChat is allowing people to communicate freely without any interference or overloading of a central server.

Once again, social media has proven to be an important medium in an uprising started for citizens’ rights. Mr. Benoliel expressed his surprise on FireChat turning into a protest tool very aptly describe the above sentiment, “Our mission has always been freedom of speech, to help information to spread. So this is perfect.”

Tech Bytes of the week • • • •

• • • Viola Kam

Google declare that Amazon is their biggest rival.

Laws now specify that ‘revenge porn’ as illegal.

Phones held by police as evidence have been remotely wiped.

People in Britain seek the right to be forgotten on search engines.

Samsung develops a way to massively boost Wi-Fi speed.

Apple designer, Jony Ive, accuses rivals of theft.

Russian hackers target Nato PC’s using a bug in Windows.

closer look at online Will Tinder light your flame? Aassessment submission Victoria Black

Whether you’re actively using Tinder or not, it seems to be everywhere.

Tinder works by using existing social networking data from your Facebook profile to locate people who are also looking to meet up in the immediate vicinity.

It shows any mutual friends you may have and most importantly photos of your potential “match”.

Many have used the app simply for amusement or for a joke with their friends.

It is also amusing that the symbol for a match is a heart too. For the most part, the app is far from making love connections.

Tinder can be seen as an extremely shallow app and seems to be very casual sex focussed.

Unlike other online dating sites, it is very quick and easy to use. There is no agonising over a profile for hours and in some ways the app can be described as based on natural instinct.

You judge people on whether you find them attractive at first glance. A little shallow, yes, but let’s face it, it’s what we all do on a night out anyway.

This raises the question as to whether the Tinder app can be used to find a serious date?

Many of the young men and women are only up for a quick hook-up.

So if you are after something serious, this might not be the right dating site for you.

However, my flatmate is now in a long term relationship with a lovely guy: a relationship which began from using the app!

The mutual friends function means people almost come with references: if you’ve got 10 Facebook friends in common with a match, chances are you have found someone reasonably normal. The more mutual connections, the better.

It’s easy to use on the run. The app is for mobile platforms which makes the layout is clear, simple and fast to use. The app can be used, and even viewed in the same way as a game.

It is perfect way to fill minutes when you’re waiting for the bus, and it is very easy to get addicted to the app! The game-style of Tinder means it’s really easy to keep playing and forget about your match you were messaging just yesterday.

The main plus of the app is the fact that the embarrassment factor is limited. Say you come across and ‘like’

a David Beckham hottie. He’ll never know, unless he ‘likes’ you back. You will also not receive any unsolicited e-mails. On most dating sites, anyone can message you, but with Tinder, only someone you’ve ‘liked’ can make contact.

Some see Tinder as a complete confidence destroyer, imagine sending out 100 ‘likes’ and receiving none back. If Tinder isn’t for you, then perhaps a different app based on the same design may appeal. Grindr is a similar app focused on same sex couplings.

If you are single and are one of the few not already on tinder then you shouldn’t dismiss the possibility of it leading to a good relationship.

Still, the sceptical have plenty of reason to avoid swiping through Tinder’s enormous catalogue of faces.

Amy Dodd

Connor Cochrane Tech Sub-Editor The University of Sussex have announced that they are extending online assessments to new courses over the next few years.

The University of Sussex e-Submission and e-Feedback (ESEF) project is “a three year initiative to establish processes which facilitate the electronic submission of work by students and the electronic marking and return of feedback by academic staff.”

The announcement reports that, from Monday 20 October 2014, students on a selection of first yearmodules will able to submit work online.

The announcement does not mention that students from some departments, including Engineering and Informatics, have been using Study Direct to submit work and receive feedback for years.

The latest move however, will bring online assessment to new departments and different types of work, for example, it will be possible to upload images.

The news comes as little surprise, as online submissions have been available at other universities for many years, however it is useful to consider how exactly the system will work.

Submissions will not just be handed in online, but they will be marked electronically. This will make it easier for markers to determine word count, and each written piece will

be given a TurnitinUK Originality Report.

TurnitinUK compares the text within documents with a database of online sources, seeking to identify matching text and original sources.

It not only searches for plagiarism, but also highlights an over reliance on secondary sources. This information is reduced to a “similarity score.”

Usefully, students have the ability to submit updated versions of their assessment up until the deadline with no limits.

While you may be concerned about your internet cutting out at the last minute, at least it is possible to have a placeholder document in place to avoid a penalty.

Naturally, only one version can exist at any time therefore you must delete the previous version before resubmitting. If you submit during the period of permissible lateness, this functionality is not given, and the copy of work you upload is the final one.

The way work is graded online, through the GradeMark tool is likely to change the way examiners give feedback. The tool allows the marker to give audio feedback, as well as typed.

Do you have any opinions about the move to online submission of work?

Email:

Have something related to Tech you want to write about?

Email badger-tech@ussu.sussex.ac.uk

THE BADGER

20 OCTOBER 2014

ARTS • 14

ARTS

Brighton Comedy Festival 2014 Special

In its 13th year, Brighton plays host to its annual comedy festival all the way through October. With comedians taking over several venues across the city, you’d be lucky to go out and not hear the laughter Arts Sub-Editor Victoria Rodrigues O’Donnell chats to Romesh Rangathan about performing in Brighton, his love of The Lanes and which comedian he enjoys having a pint with.

How did you get into stand up?

Well, basically I was a teacher and I’d always wanted to do stand up. So, I blagged my way into a gig and I was shit. I started out stand up as a hobby and basically did some competitions; it all started off from there really.

Has your rise to success over the last 18 months been quite a shock?

You started off acting, so how did you get into comedy?

I was acting for a few years and kept getting cast as the funny person. I was doing some work at the Soho Theatre as an actor and someone said I should look into comedy and I’ve never looked back.

What is your current show about?

No, because I knew I was brilliant.

Uh, no, I never thought I was going to do it for a job. I just wanted to see how good I could get. Yeah, it’s been a surprise as I never thought I would be able to give up my day job. It is all down to the Brighton scene.

What’s your new show about and how do you think the Brighton audience will react to it?

The show’s sort of about how I recently had a third child and just about when you have kids and you don’t feel like a good enough human being to be creating more. I’m reflecting on that really. Brighton feels like a home crowd because I’ve gigged more in Brighton than in any other town; that’s where I learnt to do stand up. They are a comedy-savvy audience.

How would you compare Brighton when you were younger to your

I grew up in Crawley, so Brighton was always where we’d go out and it’s always had lots to do. I remember sneaking in to see Ice-T at Concorde 2 when I was younger and going to see lots of rap gigs cos I’m a massive hip hop fan. It’s always been a vibrant city. Now I’m a dad, I take my kids to stuff - there’s loads for them to do. Brighton’s got so much character.

Are there any places in the city that you would recommend to students on a budget?

I think it’s worth going to The Lanes and seeing acts at The Haunt - it always seems cheaper going to gigs in Brighton rather than trekking to London. If you’re willing to walk around Brighton and spend a bit of time, you could pick up something really mint for not a lot of money.

The Badger also caught up with Suzi Ruffell ahead of her Brighton gig tomorrow night ted. It’s who we are. Talking about falling in love is a nice, but strange thing. It can be embarrassing but once you start talking about it, it’s really nice cos people relate to it. The audience deserve a bit of honesty if they’re investing an hour in someone.

Well, the current show is called Social Chameleon and it’s about how I think a lot of people are like me; they change when they’re around different kinds of people. It’s about trying to stop making everyone happy. I’ve got to 28 and I feel like I should be a bit more sure about who I am in the world and whether I should change.

Would you describe performing stand up as cathartic?

Do you enjoy performing in Brighton?

Would you say that your sexuality influences your work heavily?

I love Brighton, I think I’ll eventually end up moving there, it’s such a great city. It’s so much fun. If you can go to a comedy gig and then get fish and chips afterwards, that’s pretty much ideal for me to be honest!

I mention it of course, cos that’s who

I guess so! It’s like talking in therapy but I get paid for it! But yeah, I could get 10 minutes out of something bad happening to me. That could be a miserable way of looking at things, but you make the best of things.

I am. It’s not something that I think is massively influential in my work. I’m not ashamed and if people are interested in me, then I’ll talk about who I am in the world and how that affects me. I just think it’s important that it’s not a big deal to me, it’s just a part of my life. It is, however, important for me to mention it cos when I was coming out, there was no one that was gay other than Clare Balding and I’m nothing like her!

Which comedians have inspired you?

I’ve always loved people like Alan Carr, who I recently supported on tour, growing up I loved French and Saunders, Victoria Wood - y’know, funny women on TV - Jo Brand. More recently there’s an American comedian called Wanda Sykes who’s incredible and Maria Bandford Where do you think you’ll take your work in the next few years?

Wherever they’ll book me! I’d love to travel, but I’m very content at the moment. I really enjoy gigging and this show has been going really well. I have about 10 minutes of new material for the next show, but I’ve got till June, so plenty of time to write the other 50 minutes!

How do you feel about putting your love life ‘under the microscope’?

Yeah, I think that as a comedian you explain how flawed you are. That’s the same with love. I think that’s what unites us all really. We’ve all had our hearts broken, we’ve all done something wrong, done things we’ve regret-

experiences of it now? Particularly as a married father of three?

Brighton Comedy Festival

Suzi Ruffell plays Komedia, Studio Bar at 8:30pm on Tuesday 21st October

Southbank Centre

Who are your favourite upcoming comics and would you recommend any local ones?

There’s loads, like: David Jordan, Mike Cox, Dan Fardell, Sam Savage - I could fill up your whole piece. I think Brighton’s a burdgeoning scene for up and coming comics.

Where would you recommend going for a drink in Brighton?

go to the Waggon and Horses. That’s like my post-gig hangout.

Who’s your favourite comedian to have a pint with?

Oh, it has to be Seann Walsh and Henry Packer; they’re my two favourites.

Romesh Ranganathan plays Brighton Dome, Studio Theatre at 7:30pm on Thursday 23rd October

God, that’s a good question. I always

COMEDY

Katherine Ryan Komedia Tuesday 14th October Victoria Rodrigues O’Donnell Arts Sub-Editor As pitchers of beer were generously shared around amongst friends and the punters got to grips with how the seating was arranged (think Wagamama’s combined with your average theatre - yes, strange to picture I know), Komedia’s main space was alive with great atmosphere.

While eagerly awaiting Katherine Ryan’s main act, support was given by a good friend of hers, Andrew Johnston.

Hilarious, loud and camp, Johnston helped break the ice with an impatient Brightonian audience.

Describing himself as a “popular culture garbage chute”, Johnston spoke on various topics from being Canadian, dating and having shared the same air as Justin Bieber (not something he cared very much about in contrast to some of his female friends).

Whilst being very quick-witted and charming, Johnston did end up strangely digressing about menstruation and how horrifying he finds the whole thing - not something I could get on board with to be honest...

Will Bremridge

Being introduced as “Canada’s Cheryl Cole”, Katherine Ryan took to the stage as an enormous applause welcomed her.

A familiar face of TV panel shows like 8 Out of 10 Cats and Mock The Week, Ryan didn’t hesitate when getting straight into her material.

Touching upon topics such as the Royal Family, her 5-year-old daughter (whom she likes to call her “flatmate”), her cheating ex-husband, the Ebola virus, dating as a divorced mother and Miley Cyrus vs. Beyoncé, Ryan practically left no stone unturned.

A sassy and potty-mouthed comedienne, with a love of telling it like it is, Ryan was surprisingly refreshing.

Particularly when she did a bit about an abortion she had which turned out to be “mommy’s best day out”.

Provocation at its best, Ryan can only continue fiercely dividing her audiences, both on television and in person.

the badger

20 october 2014 ARTS • 15

Reviews Comedy

Tim Key Press

Tim Key

FKA Twigs

Q&A Session

Brighton Dome Studio Theatre

Georgia Mae Lewis

Thursday 2nd October

Comedian, poet, author and all round wordsmith Tim Key is back with his enchanting, whimsical and slightly mad tour, Single White Slut.

Ella Tanqueray

With an Edinburgh Comedy Award, Time Out Comedy Performer of the Year award, and BAFTA nomination under his belt, Key has secured his place on the comedy circuit as one of the most daring and creative acts around.

stuff about Through The Keyhole recently, which I’m enjoying a lot. It’s fun

The Badger had a quick chat with the man himself about the current tour, cracking the entertainment industry, and why you have to take every chance you can get. Even if it means making it all up.

Mmm. Not really. It might end up sounding dogshit.

I guess it’s a comedy show, but with some unfortunate poetical and theatrical elements floating in there, too.

Single White Slut. What can we expect from the show?

You studied Russian at Sheffield University, how does this translate into your work?

Single White Slut comprises ten poems, five anecdotes, three little walks up the aisles and a little bit of fairly silky dancing.

There’s also some serious shouting and some quiet reflection about things like bedtime, tooth fairies, India and owls. It’s a mixed bag.

You just finished a stint at the Edinburgh Fringe, have you changed your material for the tour?

It always changes a little bit as things go along, but I try and keep the poems the same.

When it’s done I’ll throw it all away and start again with new poems/anecdotes/facial expressions.

That said, I’ve started saying some

music

Wooden Arms Green Door Store

Sunday 12th October Grace Cummings In celebration of the release of their new album Tide, under the upand-coming Butterfly Collectors Record Label, Wooden Arms set upon their UK autumn tour after a brief break following an impressive collection of successful European and festival appearances.

Described as “genuinely thrilling” in The Sunday Times review of Tide the very same day, Sussex graduate (and ex-East Slope barman) Jeff Smith and the Norwich-based band took to the stage at our very own Green Door Store last Sunday.

After already being aired on major radio stations such as BBC Radio 3 and 6, it was understandably set to be an eventful evening in the unusually intimate venue.

Opening with a beautifully com-

music

Your act is hard to define, can you have a go?

Ha! Well, I don’t think it’s crucial to my work that I have a Russian degree under my belt.

But weirdly in all of my last four shows there’s a tiny slither of Russian in there.

It’s useful when my mother comes to watch.

She tells herself I’m using my degree, it was all worth it.

who I was; they assumed I was a student and I didn’t correct them.

I was temping in town.

Once or twice they asked me a direct question. What was my degree?

Which college was I at?

At those points I lied and moved quickly away.

Dream collaboration?

Cat Luckily I have them already. Tom Basden. Mark Watson. Alex Horne, J Van Tulleken. I’ve worked with them for years.

If you want a famous one, I’d go for Chris Morris.

I’d like to work with Richard Ayoade again. He’s magnificent.

Can you give some advice to students looking to get into comedy?

Do loads of writing. Do loads of gigs. Never second-guess your audience. Do stuff you find funny, that’s the only criteria.

How did you make your way into the Cambridge footlights?

And finally, a haiku on Brighton?

Sneakily.

I was living in Cambridge at the time and fancied doing some acting.

I picked up a student newspaper and saw there was an audition and went along.

I didn’t so much lie as just not say

Pebbles on the beach.

I once played football there, guys.

On Valentine’s Day. Key will be performing at the Old Market Theatre, Hove, Tuesday October 7th.

posed performance of Prelude, the audience was immediately presented with tranquil sense of awe; a perfect arrangement of classical chamber and alternative music, modernized by the use of up-beat electronic samples.

By combining the delicate composure of strings by cellist Fynn Titford-Mock and the violinist accompaniment of Jessica Diggins against the backdrop of harrowing beats from complex percussionist Alex MacKenzie, Wooden Arms provides a wonderfully intelligent depiction of what it truly means to be of a hybrid-genre.

Complementing this juxtaposition of trip-hop beats and astounding strings is Jeff himself as lead guitarist, perfected by fluent pianist composer Alex Carson graciously leading the ensemble.

“All of us have some level of affection for classically influenced music, but as there is [normally] six of us, you can hear all the nuances from our own influences in pop and folk etc. Milly – who was unfortunately unable to make this show – is actually a folk singer, I love loud vibrato

bass, Alex loves Patrick Watson” declares Jeff; “the dream would be to play with an orchestra”.

Warming the icy evening with the tuneful leaps and bounds Wooden Arms had to offer, a member of the audience standing by proclaimed the act as “just beautiful”.

As Separate the Verb descended us into chaotic keys against the charming, yet stunning, harmonious vocals; followed by Noah, delivering a track nostalgic of the 1950s, the audience simply admired in silence.

Peaking the performance with their enlightening finale track December, the ensemble naturally concluded with an astounding arrangement accompanied by the cornet.

Engagingly unexpected, yet it was no-surprise that the abilities of the musicians were limitless.

After originally meeting due to a string of interventions when busking or performing as a duo, the band have created a uniquely inspiring act following their combination of traditional classical harmonies alongside a more contemporary, yet ultimately distinctive, up-beat sound.

With their crystal clear capabil-

We stood in the small Brighton Dome Studio Theatre, it was hot and we were clasping our £4 beer.

The excitement was palpable.

As someone who is relatively new on the scene, this is the probably the first time most of the people in the room will have seen FKA Twigs live.

Devoted fans perhaps would have seen her performance on Jools Holland in September, but that couldn’t have prepared them for the mesmerising experience that was seeing her in the flesh.

Arriving on stage a little after 9, even her entrance exuded mystery.

The lights went off, and a warm glow began being emitted from the large light bulbs positioned on stage.

She came out silently, with a wide stare and her hair, normally tied up into intricate plaits, was wild around her face, emphasising her tiny stature.

The lighting created a feeling of intimacy, which worked well in the small venue, and carried on until the end, even as the pace of the set increased.

The performance was, as expected, full of discordant synths and choral harmonies – what I wasn’t expecting though, was the clarity of each note she sang.

Every word, whether whispered into the microphone or projected into the audience, was impeccable, and showed the strength and ability of her voice. ity to demonstrate their multiple talents live, Tide superbly captures Wooden Arm’s ability to astound.

As Wooden Arms concludes their final UK tour dates, Jeff speaks of their plans to return to Europe and hopefully to make it to The Brighton Fringe/Great Escape Festival 2015.

“Returning to Brighton always

Ella Tanqueray Where other artists lip synch, or disappoint with their live renditions, the versions we heard on Thursday were equal in quality to the recordings.

Although there wasn’t much said between songs, when she did speak, it was with a surprisingly quiet voice.

She thanked the audience for being there and related to a time she came to Brighton a few years ago where people would talk over her songs.

She made her way through the majority of her discography; the lights, the band and Twigs’ dancing enhancing each song.

She is a professional dancer (appearing in a few major pop videos, including Jessie J’s Price Tag) and incorporated her talent on stage.

Her dancing, like her songs, dripped with a strange sexuality.

Snaking arms and hips and piercing eyes, it was weird and wonderful, and kept the audience enraptured.

From start to finish she held the audience’s complete attention.

When I left it was like leaving a dream, complete with a smoke machine, back lighting and an ethereal, singing leader taking us through to the other side. feels like home,” claims Jeff – lets just hope he brings the rest of the band with him.

‘Tide’ is now available on Spotify & to buy online. www.woodenarms.co.uk www.facebook.com/woodenarms

Wooden Arms Press

the badger

20 OCTOber 2014 ARTS • 16

LIFESTYLE

Kickstarter: Dawn or Dusk of Indie Film?

Jamie Tye Launched in 2009, Kickstarter is a company which allows fans to finance art projects (mainly films) that wouldn’t normally receive enough funding to get up and running.

Since its creation the website had been hailed as a small but important lifeline to independent artists.

However, in the spring of 2013 it became the talk of the internet, as two unusually high-profile films announced, within one month of each other, that they would be funded by Kickstarter.

In March 2013 the team behind Veronica Mars, whose desire to make a movie continuation of their cult teen detective show had long been quashed by studios scared of low box office grosses, asked their fans to finance it instead.

The response was incredible, with two million dollars being raised in less than 24 hours; a Kickstarter record.

In April Zach Braff announced he would be financing his second directorial feature, Wish I Was Here, through the same means, with similarly impressive results.

The news prompted a heated online debate as to whether this signified the dusk or dawn of the independent movie.

The main concern was that for years Kickstarter had been the only place in the industry where indie film makers did not have to contend or compete with the safe bet of blockbusters for finance.

It had been a haven, an oasis in a desert of superhero movies, adap-

tions of multi-million selling books, and highly publicized Oscar contenders.

The arrival of high profile movies was seen as the first infiltration of this secure haven.

People feared it would ultimately lead to the indie movie being totally outcompeted, a red squirrel in a sea of grey.

These fears were intensified by Braff ’s admission that several studios had been prepared to finance the film, but had not allowed him the creative freedom he desired.

Braff was using Kickstarter not because he had to, but because it meant he could make the film he wanted to make.

ingly long lived.

At the end of 2012, before Veronica Mars had been announced, a total of $319m had been pledged, successfully funding 18,109 projects.

By now that number has drastically increased to well over a billion dollars, successfully funding 71,643 projects.

In 2012 only seven projects had raised over a million dollars (a relatively tiny budget for a movie).

Now that number is 82.

Despite the massive increase in attention and funding that many indie projects have seen as a result of Veronica Mars and Wish I Was Here, there are still some who see Kickstarter as a place for struggling film makers only.

In Bell and Braff respectively both films had Hollywood stars in the production team, and many have asked Flikr: Scott Beale why they did not simply finance the film themselves.

In the end however, indie film makHowever I see the rise of Kickers needn’t have worried, as although starter as not only good news for inthe films brought competition, they die films, but for the entire industry. also brought publicity.

By breaking down the wall be63% of those who pledged montween the film makers and the audiey to Veronica Mars or Wish I Was ence, Kickstarter is promoting creaHere through Kickstarter had never tive freedom. backed a project on the site before.

Not only that, but audiences have Film makers were suddenly faced more of a say in what they want to with a level of attention they could watch, as opposed to having that deonly have dreamt of a few months cided for them by a bunch of old men before. in suits working for a profit driven The knowledge that you are at least studio. partly responsible for the production If fan financing expands, the variof a work of art seems to have been ety of films being made will be widaddictive, as by May 2013 over one ened, perhaps finally matching the million people had backed more than variety of human interest, rather one project. than the narrowness of profit marThe effects have also been promisgins.

Takeaway review: Maharani

Tom Jenkinson

Urgh, raining.

Yet again.

Why was Mother Nature punishing me so ruthlessly for cycling?

Don’t you get it Mother Nature?

I’m doing this all for you!

Needless to say, when I trudged through the front door, in a state of damp fury, I required a serious pick me up.

I needed something flavoursome, something exotic.

Something which would come with a complementary onion salad.

I scoured hungryhouse.co.uk for such a place and came upon Maharani, an Indian restaurant boasting an impressive 4.3 /5 stars, and garnering such rave reviews as “tasty and plentiful” and “prompt delivery”.

It was settled, no other curry house could compete with these credentials, Maharani it was.

I started pouring over the menu,

and my eye was caught by the ‘Chef ’s Specialities’ section, which contained all manner of unfamiliar and daunting dishes.

Gone are the days of seeking sanctuary under the guise of a korma.

For years I was stuck in a rut of mild and creamy curries that, whilst satisfying for my stomach, never satisfied my mind.

So with that in mind my dish of choice was something called a ‘Chicken Mully’.

Described as ‘medium hot’, I knew my pathetic English palette was in for a real challenge, but I figured that if I wanted to be taken se-

riously as a curry connoisseur, nay as a man, I needed to face the spice.

The order arrived and I scurried down to the depths of my basement kitchen clutching my spice-filled brown paper bag.

It was a bold order.

Aside from the medium hot Chicken Mully to contend with, I also had a poppadom, some rice, a complementary onion salad and a vegetable paratha to deal with.

Usually I’d present my meal using all sorts of ramekins, eggcups and ornamental teapots, but this was not the time for extravagance.

Instead I found the biggest recep-

“If I wanted to be taken seriously as a curry connoisseur nay as a man, I needed to face the spice.”

tacle in the house and systematically poured the contents of every tub into it, until I had an enormous mound of orange rice and chicken.

I heaped a blob of it onto my veggie paratha and took a bite.

I was met with the sweet and smoky peppers in the Mully, followed by greasy dough, and then came the chilli that I had been so preoccupied over.

Initially it was a mild tingle but the heat progressively grew as I shoved more and more spoonfuls of this richly spiced gloop into my mouth.

It was an excellent meal, even if by the end I was spluttering for water after every bite, but it was a sensation which I would always choose over the mundane safety of the korma years.

I faced the spice.

And I won. Sort of.

Pub of the week The Lamb of Lewes

The Lamb of Lewes

Paul Millar Meandering around Lewes on a Saturday afternoon and you’re likely to experience the nostalgic smell and sounds wafting from The Lamb.

Just off the high street on Fisher Street, you’d be mistaken for thinking you’ve stepped back in time to a more innocent era.

Unlike many of Lewes’s hotspots, it’s not trying too hard, oozing natural charm from every beam, nook and cranny.

As me and my friend hang our coats on the coat rack, we meet a beacon of the community, Alec, the landlord, who has transformed the pub from the brink of oblivion to the thriving heart of the Lewes pub scene it is now.

Price: £ £ £ In terms of drinking, Olde Trip, which I opt for - a dark but surprisingly refreshing ale - can be enjoyed for £3.30 a pint.

There’s also a great selection of rum which has been a feature of the pub for decades, but watch out for the prices of the lager.

With a pint of Kronenberg at £4, and other tap lagers even dearer, it’s probably best to save your pennies.

Atmosphere: **** As atmospheres go though, The Lamb leaves no stone unturned.

It is 4pm, and violins, a piccolo, a drum, a piano in a corner, and tap-dancing 82-year-old Valerie, grace the pub.

Live bands play nearly every evening at around 9pm, and by last orders, all of the rather merry regulars – young and old - are dancing to some higgledlypiggledly reggae (there’s an eclectic mix of music across the week).

If you make it to Lewes Bonfire Night this year, you won’t regret taking that trip to The Lamb.

the badger

20 October 2014 ARTS • 17

Showcase- Sana Pepper

Courtney Lovejoy

Lauren Cole

Sana Pepper is a first year Psychology student at Sussex and a practising artist.

Pepper’s art is a profound influx of tense emotion which is captured in a tranquil manner via bold impasto-like brush strokes. Her dark pallet introduces shards of bright colour presenting the viewer with a captivating world.

Khalid The fluidityFah’d of the harsh lines give a delicate, feminine impression which has clear influences from nature.

The works are predominantly A3 and are based upon things beyond obvious perception. Pepper has been painting for around three years and has a unique clearly established style which can only result in more expressive, beautiful artworks.

If you want to be featured in the next showcase, send your artwork to jh488@sussex.ac.uk!

Written by Jess Harvey-Cox

the badger

20 october 2014 Arts •19

Arts

Editor’s Picks

Arts Editor Ioana Matei shares her tips on the week ahead in culture ART

Artist Story: Emma Critchley Fabrica Gallery Thursday 23rd October, 6pm FREE

Fuck Buttons

Mogwai Press

GIGS MOGWAI Brighton Dome Sunday 26th October, 8pm £29.15 Scottish post-rock band Mogwai are gracing the Brighton Dome stage this up-coming weekend.

With their melodic bass guitar lines and dreamy vocals, they’re guaranteed to “Take You Somewhere Nice”.

GIGs The Amazing Snakeheads The Haunt Wednesday 22nd October, 8pm £8 With their debut album Amphetamine Balads receiving huge critical and public acclaim, The Amazing Snakeheads will definitely attract audiences this Wednesday for their punk/rock’n’roll sound and a reputation for intense live shows!

The Amazing Snakeheads Press

PREVIEW Real Estate + Alvvays Komedia Tuesday 28th October, 9pm £16.31 Days before Halloween dreamy Brooklyn indie-poppers Real Estate and their Torontan understudies Alvvays hit Brighton’s Komedia venue in a show that’ll be far from spectral or haunting. With both bands’ sounds sitting well in the comfort zone of a walk through New Jersey suburbs on a summer’s day (or at least how i’d imagine it to be having seen a few music videos): shimmery reverb guitars, sugar-

coated drums and saccharine vocals melodies are just a few of their go-to sounds. However, as I well know from have watched a couple of David Lynch movies, every shimmering suburban idyll has it’s own gritty undercarriage: while neither Real Estate nor Alvvays are exactly Lynchian through peculiarity, they do possess winsome lyrics (particularly on Real Estate’s latest effort Atlas) that traverse heartbreak, divorce and that Blakelight tragedy that is returning to your childhood home and finding it altered beyond recognition.

Thomas Powell

Celebrated visual artist and underwater photography Mutation X - Williamexpert Latham Emma Critchley is holding a talk on Thursday as part of this year’s Brighton Photo Biennial.

A trainer diver herself, she will discuss the production of her recent series of photographs in terms of the physical and mental reactions one undergoes when immersed under water.

UNION EVENT

Black History Month 1st October - 9th November The University is celebrating Black History Month with an array of activities meant to raise awareness and celebrate diversity, from informative talks such as Tony Warner’s on the 21st October in Fulton Lecture Hall B (6.30pm) to theatre acts such as Banyan Tree Theatre Group’s Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears at the Unitarian Church on Sunday the 26th starting from 3pm for only £7 a ticket!

Visual Art Mutator 1 + 2: Evolutionary Art by William Latham Phoenix Gallery, Brighton Digital Festival Wednesdays-Sundays 11am-5pm (until 13th Oct)

Surface, Emma Critchley

Film Anim8s Film Screening: Treasure Planet Arts A2 Tuesday 21st October, 7pm FREE Calling all animation fans to watch this animated adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel Treasure Island that offers a fresh, futuristic take on the classic story.

Expect aliens, black holes and journeys across distant galaxies.

Film Sussex Film Appreciation Society: Midnight Cowboy ARTS A Monday 20th September, 6:30pm FREE Continuing their ‘You Gotta Leave Home To Grow Up’ film series, the society will next screen John Schlesinger’s 1969 drama Midnight Cowboy. Starring Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight, it’s no wonder this film won 3 Academy Awards.

Film RAG’s Movie Pub Quiz Falmer Back Bar Tuesday 21st October, 8pm £2 Test your film knowledge, win a prize and help fundraise for Link Community Development!

P.S. Best movie themed fancy dress gets a prize.

Jerome Hellman Productions

watch, write, review Get involved in the Arts team by joining us at our writers meetings or searching on Facebook for

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the badger

20 October 2014

SporTS • 20

SPORTS

The lack of black managers in the Premier League Joseph Cummins There is the strange paradox within Modern English football that whilst the game enjoys a vast plethora of nationalities amongst its players the substantial majority of managers at the top level of the game are white. It is an concern that should be at the forefront of world football legislative procedure but only in September of 2013 did it start to be discussed in terms of a change in the rulings of footballs governing bodies.

In a turn of events that surrounded the system in controversy, Jeffrey Webb, the FIFA vice president, who had initially planned to talk of kickstarting the change that would force the issue of black representation, reversed on his promise of raising the issue at the FIFA Annual General Meeting. He had promised a discussion of implementing a ‘Rooney rule’ that would insure an active stance on the problem, but the argument stands that it may not be an effective one.

The current football environment is such that of the top four leagues in the English game more than 30% of the players are black yet only 2 of the 92 managers are, one of which was only appointed in the last month. It would be absurd to suggest that this disparity was indicative of the position of

modern football but yet the statistics still stand. There are over 70 different nationalities playing within the Premier League alone and yet not a single member of senior management across the entire twenty clubs is black. The question must be asked; with so many players going on to become managers later in their careers why are so few of those that make the leap to coaching at the highest level black?

With a rightful emphasis on equal opportunity and a lack of black representation across high management jobs across the UK, the issue has gained prominence and is now being debated amongst players and managers themselves rather than remaining a debate of those at the very top of the sport.

The latest projection to arise from the discussion is a forced impetus on insuring that black people gain representation in potential employment. The so called ‘Rooney Rule’ means that any management or senior coaching role must have at least one black or ethnic minority candidate considered at the interview stage.

This is not a new idea in the world of sports. The American National Football League, for instance, has adopted the rule since 2003, but it would be novel in English Football. It has been regarded as hugely successful in the US across the last eleven years and there

have been seventeen people of colour in head coach or general manager roles within the NFL, arguably as a direct result of the Rooney Rule. Prior to its inception, 80 years of the National Football League saw only 7 black people in these roles. But any failure that it meets also brings with it a huge criticism of the system. In 2012, not one of the eight available roles was filled by an ethnic minority and this meant the usually highly esteemed ruling met with uncertainty as to its effectiveness.

To force the issue, as the Rooney Rule would, in British Football is to fight the stagnation in the rise of the number of black managers. Jose Mourinho recently stated “There is no racism in football. If you are good, you are good.

If you are good, you get the job” and with extensive work and effort the Kick It Out campaign has made huge steps towards this being true. But it does not encroach upon the issue of black representation in management. The issue is certainly one surrounded in debates of equal opportunity but within a game as culturally diverse as ours it would seem ignorant to entirely place the emphasis on racism, to do so would be to undermine the effects Kick It Out has had. As in many aspects of society if we look at the hierarchy of any institution, the number of black representatives, as well as those of women, fall of steep-

ly; there are currently only 7 CEOs of colour in Fortune 500 companies and have only ever been 15.

And yet at a grass roots level ethnic representation matches that of the players. Within highly regarded football coaching schemes black people contribute a large proportion. Of the coaches qualified on Professional Football Association course 18 percent are black or ethnic minorities. The issue lies in the lack of black role models seen in football. Gordon Taylor, chief of the PFA, says that although black managers are equally qualified and worthy of merit there is “a hidden racism which holds clubs back”. Without managers of colour already established in managerial roles there is the feeling that black representation will never be able to grow.

This would be the main impetus behind the ‘Rooney Rule’. If the issue was forced at an interview level then it would start to manipulate the situation into one which would allow all managers to warrant consideration based on their achievements and capabilities. However, it would also be to deny what Sir Trevor Brooking, the former FA Director of Football, wants to be an ‘organic process’ as he believes that within the current system “up to twenty English clubs could have black managers within the next decade’.

If it is the nature of football players in Britain to grow in diversity then it should follow that those in management would do the same. The FA will have to be proactive in the matter and the Rooney Rule would be an option with proven, if not limited, success.

But it would also be a clunky response to an issue that those officials who stand against it are unwilling to to admit. Greg Clarke, the Football League Chairman, has recently declared his commitment to finding a solution and has said that he will lead a “review into black managers”. The feeling at the FA is proactive but shrouded in uncertainty with Clarke also stating “we have consistently recognised the imbalance in representation at first-team manager level but have yet to see a comprehensive solution being proposed”.

The problem is not a recognition of the issue of black representation but a confusion surrounding what the next steps should be. The natural method would see the game evolve naturally as it has with players becoming more diverse however the increase in ethnic representation is frozen in comparison. The issue is one that needs to be addressed and ‘Rooney rule’, currently, seems the only course of action.

University of Sussex Sub Aqua Club offering try dives Lauren Murphy

Scuba diving is often considered to be a pastime for holidaymakers in exotic places but what if you live in a great seaside destination such as Brighton?

Why limit yourself to exploring the Laines or the Pier when there is also an entire ocean at your doorstep?

At the University of Sussex Sub-Aqua Club, we want to encourage everyone to explore this unique, Brighton-based side to your student experience and give scuba diving a go.

As a club we cater to all abilities, interests and aims. Whether you have dived 50 times and want to dive on your next holiday abroad or have never dived and just want a dip under Brighton Pier then this is the club for you! We are also a cost effective way of learning to dive since we have our own boat, kit and volunteer instructors, resulting in savings for you.

If you would like to have a go for yourself, we will be holding our annual try dive at Surrenden Pool, Brighton on 22nd October from 8.30-10.30pm.

This is a great opportunity for anyone who has never dived before and would like to give it a go before heading into the ocean’s depths. For others it may be a chance to get rebitten by the diving bug.

In addition, for all those who attend, there will be a chance to win £100 worth of diving kit!

This year the £15 cost will also be going to charity, meaning that all the kit and instructors are at your disposal for free!

The money will go towards the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), who provide 24-hour lifeboat search and rescue across the UK and Ireland.

On average, RNLI rescues 23 people daily and most of their rescuers are volunteers, therefore any funds raised will act as a valuable asset.

So if you would like to join us, please sign up on our website http://www.sussexsubaqua.co.uk.

On there, you will also be able to find out all the information you need about starting various qualifications with us or how to become a member if you simply want to go diving. We also regularly update our Facebook group and Twitter, so check this as well.

“The University of Sussex Sub Aqua Club (USSAC) has been operating for over 30 years. We offer various levels of SCUBA training from beginner to advanced.”

Follow us on Twitter @USSAC

Sussex Hockey Men’s 2s claim three points in nervy season opener Cosmo Sanderson A late rally from Sussex Men’s 2s saved their blushes as they scraped past a City University London side who, having only been able to name 11 men in their match-day squad, should have been easily beaten to win 3-2. Sussex had squandered a two goal lead in the second half but Laurie Humphrey squeezed a shot home late on to get them off to a winning start in the South Eastern 5A division.

On a rainy day at the Falmer Sports Complex, the game got off to a scrappy beginning and chances were at a premium in the first half as both teams looked far more confident in defence than attack, with a notable lack of fluency going

forward.

It was City University London who had the first clear-cut chance of the game from a short corner. Miles Bryant, debuting in goal after playing striker last season, saved excellently with his outstretched stick from a drag flick that looked destined for the top right of the net.

Sussex were the next to pass up a chance from a well-worked counter attack. Josh Wenzel stole the ball in midfield before picking out Jordan Powell, however after a neat exchange of passes on the edge of the box Powell agonisingly missed the return with the goal at his mercy.

Although Sussex were starting to exert themselves they still had no cutting edge and were struggling to get their strik-

ers meaningfully involved in the game.

On 30 minutes however they got the breakthrough they had marginally deserved from the first half. A cross from the right flank caused chaos in the City box and Josh Wenzel was on hand at the back post to stab home, giving Sussex the lead.

Sussex came close to doubling their advantage straight from pushback in the second half as Daniel Roberts left two City players for dead with his pace before drawing a foul on the edge of the box and winning a short corner. Laurence De Souza’s resulting shot was tame but Zak Knill came close on the rebound.

City’s resistance did not last much longer however as Sussex produced their best move of the game yet to make it

2-0. Debutant Alex Frazier broke down the left wing on the counter picking out the impressive Wenzel whose pass into the box was coolly converted by Knill.

Just as Sussex seemed to have put the game to bed they were shocked back into life in four second half minutes. Sussex were caught knapping on the break and City took full advantage with their forwards far too easily cutting through the home defence to convert at the second attempt after an initial heroic goal-line clearance by Roberts. After good work down the flank minutes later City were level, a pull back from the by-line beating the Sussex defence as their striker swept home.

The game was becoming increasingly end-to-end towards the closing stages

of the match as both teams desperately went in search of the decisive goal. City went close to completing their comeback from a well-worked short corner but goalkeeper Bryant saved well at the near post with his foot.

With minutes left, Powell missed a tapin with the goal gaping in what looked like it could be the decisive moment of the match. However he was on hand to redeem himself seconds later after cutting inside and finding Humphrey from the right wing. Humphrey, a regular for the Men’s 1s, beat a man to break into the top of the box and although his scuffed shot lacked power it made up for it in accuracy finding its way into the far corner past the hapless City goalkeeper, sealing the three points for Sussex.

the badger

20 October 2014

Societies - 21

SOCIETIES SPOTLIGHT ADVERTISE YOUR SOCIETY

On this page you can find out about what our societies jave been up to and what their plans are for the coming weeks! You can view and join all of our 150 + socities online at www.sussexstudent.com/societies. If you’d like to advertise your society on this page, send your articles to societies@sussexstudent. com by 12pm on Wednesdays.

SASS CELEBRATES DIWALI Six years ago, a bunch of students from India, in the throes of homesickness, decided to build a piece of home at the University of Sussex.

This resulted in these students getting together - along with some of their friends - in a small room somewhere on the University campus and celebrating Diwali, an event which has now ballooned into a massive occasion of dancing, singing, delicious Indian food, an air of festivity, and attended by students and guests from around the world.

The festival of lights is larger now than it ever was- more diverse, more accessible to everyone, and all-encompassing. The Diwali celebrations are now proudly helmed by the South Asian Students’ Society- or SASS, their preferred denomination- and is the second biggest event held at the University after Fresher’s Week.

The tale behind the origin of Diwali is a beautiful one of mythology, love, devotion and light.

Diwali has turned into a national celebration, a chance for families and friends to get together and light lamps, burst firecrackers, eat sweets and dinner together, irrespective of what religion they belong to.

If the shows put up in the last few years are any proof, then the Diwali celebrations are everything that they are advertised to be, if not more.

This year, Diwali - known as D-14 is expected to be more exuberant, fun-filled, and more looked forward to than the last one, with not only dancing and singing and Indian food to die for, but also a photography and literature competition, open to one and all (details of

which can be found online).D-14 will be held on October 25th.

The tickets are on sale online, so do not hesitate in buying one for yourself and your friends.

Bring out your dresses and prepare your palates- SASS wishes you a Happy Diwali and can’t wait to see you at one of this year’s biggest events!

MSF A big hello from the Friends of MSF society. MSF, for those of you who don’t know, stands for Medecins sans Frontieres, which means Doctors Without Borders (the American name for the organisation).

MSF is an independent organisation who delivers desperately needed health care and aid to those who need it most, regardless of race, religion or political agenda. Working in some of the most dangerous places on Earth, including war zones and countries reeling from natural disasters, often before the arrival of international aid, their work saves thousands of lives every year.

Currently they are in the front line in the battle against Ebola.

Our society raises both money and awareness for MSF and we are having our first event THIS MONDAY 20th OCTOBER at 6-8 PM, in the MEDICAL SCHOOL BUILDING on Sussex campus. The event will involve a guest speaker called Candy Barrett who has worked as a nurse for MSF for many years, working in Ethiopia, India, South Sudan and Bulgaria.

She will be talking about her incredible experiences as well as how you can get involved with MSF yourself. Entry is FREE but there will be a cake sale so make sure you bring money. This event is open to anyone, and we would love to see you so please come along.

Hope to see you Monday The Friends of MSF committee

ACS Sussex ACS presents… Black History Month! To kick off our events, we have an insightful talk

by Tony Warner (Historian & Founder of Black History Walks) on Wednesday 22nd Oct in Fulton B, starting 6:30pm. On Wednesday 29th October we bring to you our annual Black History Month Showcase, with acts unorthodox, inspiring, thought-provoking and simply

simply entertaining! For those who love to eat, Food Society will be there on the night, selling some delicious treats! Show starts at 6:30pm, in Mandela Hall, visit http://www.sussexstudent.com/ organisation/acs/ for more information and to purchase tickets!

IRANIAN SOC The Iranian society was established by a group of Iranian students in 2013 to represent the Iranian culture by coordinating different cultural events for international students. Last year we celebrated different traditional ceremonies such as Yalda (the longest night in the year which involves music, Poetry and loads of wine!!!), Iranian New Year and CharshanbehSoori (last Wednesday of the year in which we do fireworks) to familiarize international students with Persian art, music, and literature. We have also coordinated food events to introduce our cuisine and a photo exhibition of the life of Iranian youth. We also have programs for picnics and BBQ days when it’s sunny. This year we will do same things and a lot more. We will have Persian nights, exhibitions, celebrations and beyond. Join us if you like music, good food and you are interested in learning about a new culture.

SKETCH COMEDY ‘Are you a budding comedy actor, writer, director or producer? We really want you. Come along to Falmer Meeting Room 2 Wednesdays at 3 for an absolute laugh.

We share sketch scripts and act them out and play a wealth of awesome improvisation games.

No membership fees, joining auditions or any of that, just come along and have an ace time! The chosen ones will come along to make and perform a show at Edinburgh Festival in Summer 2015, it could be you! Join the Facebook page ‘University of Sussex Sketch Comedy Society’ and come next Wednesday, it’s great fun!

SUSSEX STUDENT MINDS

Welcome to Sussex Student Minds!

It was lovely to meet everyone at Fresher’s Fair and we are hugely excited for what this year holds! Hope everyone is settling in well in these first few weeks of term, we know how difficult it can be, both for new and returning students! We have exciting things coming up this year, continuing our mission to promote well-being on campus and help anyone who is struggling with University life and mental health.

First things first, we have a filmnight social coming up! On October the 27th at 7:30pm in the Falmer Bar backroom there will be free hot drinks, surprisingly tasty biscuits and a big projector screen upon which we will be playing The Informant!

After this we will be holding fortnightly meetings, which are a free safe positive space for anyone to join, be it in a search for support at University or just to have a cup of tea and a chat! We hope to also fill the year with lots of fun and friendly events, and free biscuits.

Lots of biscuits. And cake. If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact us.

COPPAFEEL! The University of Sussex’s Boob Team is planning a cocktail night with a difference! In order to promote #whatnormalfeelslike our team is selling a boob-themed cocktail, with a proportion of all sales going directly to the Coppafeel! charity. For once you will actually feel guilty if you don’t buy another drink! The evening promises to be vibrant and spectacular with plenty of cocktails, face glitter, and boobtalk. We are also expecting you to get covered in paint, so make sure you bring a plain white t-shirts so you will have the rare opportunity to cover your hands in paint and quite literally CoppaFeel! The aim is to promote awareness of the hands on logo, the charity and #whatnormalfeelslike as well as have a good time! After, we will be bar crawling around Brighton sea front and ending up in Shoosh at a discounted price. This amazing cause deserves promoting, so come along, do your bit, bring your friends and get involved. What better way to do this then by drinking cocktails, getting covered in paint and CoppaFeel!?

SUSSEX TRADING SOCIETY Do you want to work at an investment bank, hedge fund or proprietary trading firm? The Sussex Trading Society (STS) is involved in the training and development of new traders. With our rigorous Intensive Trader Training Program (ITTP), we alongside leading industry experts train our members for them to be able to compete in our Global Trading Challenge against other universities worldwide representing our university. STS is a highly driven team that considers trading a business and only serious want to be traders should consider joining the Society. No experience required.

WHY JOIN A SOCIETY?

Joining a socieity is a real must for all students.Because of the wide variety of societies Sussex has to offer, there is something for everyone. Most of the socities don’t mind if you just turn up occasionally, so there’s really no harm in giving them a go! Furthermore, they look incredible on your CV!

STUDENT MEDIA Student Media is a huge part of life on Sussex Campus. UniTV, URF and The Badger all work hard to cover events on campus and keep you up to date. All outlets have a great presence on social media, be it Facebook or Twitter - so get involved and see what we’re all about!

the badger

20 OCTOBER 2014

MEET THE REPS• 22

MEET THE REPS

The Badger asked this year’s newly-elected student reps what they wanted to do first and the challenges they expected to face. Here’s what they told us..

JAJA JASPER CHINEDUM - BLACK STUDENTS’ REP The first thing I want to do immediately after my induction is to call a meeting of all Black students in the university. This meeting will be a meet and greet during which I can interact directly with every Black student. The challenge I may face will be how to let everyone know of this meeting but I hope to get the Student Union to send an email to every student and publicise it via Facebook (through the University of Sussex Black Students’ Community Facebook page and the Facebook groups of societies and schools) and through The Badger.

P.S. If you have not yet liked the University of Sussex Black Students’ Community page on Facebook, please do so and ask your friends to do so too!

ANDREA BROCK - PROGRADUATE ASSOCIATE CHAIR Thank you for voting for me!

I am excited to start the work as PGA chair and look forward to meeting many more postgrad/mature students and getting involved in the SU. At the moment, the PGA is preparing its first postgraduate conference (October 31) and continuing with the AT campaign (for fair treatment and working conditions for ATs) – additionally, I want to help improving communication (channels) across university and continue pushing for more democratic and transparent decision-making, taking a stance against privatisation and outsourcing. If you have any issues we should be taking on – let us know, and come along to our fortnightly meetings! Everyone is welcome!

VEE CARTWRIGHT - WOMEN STUDENTS’ REP This year I want to take a close look at equal representation in course materials, ensuring that we hear from generations of women academics who have been previously overlooked. I also intend to carry on the previous Womens Rep's work in increasing the visibility of womens and mental health services on campus. I hope that more women students feel that they can access the Student's Union and that I can facilitate them feeling more empowered to do so.

PREM RAJAH - PART TIME STUDENTS’ REP I am an MSc Engineering and Informatics Part-Time student; and it has been my passion to contribute towards the welfare of students in our University, I am hardworking and will work tirelessly to improving YOUR academic experience. If you are a part-time or mature student it is always difficult maintaining a perfect balance between, home, family, work and education. I believe these issues need a strong voice. The university and the Student Union are together responsible to implement an integrated system for support and assistance for Mature and Part-time students. I will work towards a special and memorable student experience!

EMILY PINTO - LGBTQ STUDENTS’ REP Thank you for voting me LGBTQ Representative!

I am passionate about ending homophobia, transphobia, biphobia and related oppressions on campus. Through my current roles as welfare officer for Sussex LGBTQ and QueerSoc, I have made myself very keen to understanding the specific needs and concerns of our members, and hope that by sharing these views I can contribute towards providing a university experience that is safe and liberating for all LGBTQ individuals. Specifically, I want to see the Liberation rooms made more accessible for those with mobility aids. I will also support the SU with Trans* Student equality work.

KALEEM TORU - INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS’ REP Firstly I want to thank all my friends and supporters and remind everyone that I will surely stick to my word in performing in the best of interests of all the students at Sussex, moreover I will try my level best that every student at Sussex leaves with memories they can cherish throughout their lives. I feel that this will only be possible if I can get the consent of my fellow Student Union members on the activities, socials and rights representation I have in mind regarding the international community. I hope to make this year a Kodak moment.

HARRIET SINFOIL - PARENT STUDENTS’ REP I am so excited to have been elected Student Parents Representative! I've already met another student parent and started discussing ideas that I can put forward. I am looking forward to meeting the other representatives and seeing what ideas they have too. I'm ready to get stuck in with the union and become a recognised representative that student parents and others feel they can come to at any time, so throw me some challenges and ideas and I'll get cracking on putting them into action!

NOÉ N’SEMI - MATURE STUDENTS’ REP Hey there! I’m Noé, a 32 year-old Economics student. Lived10 years in Hungary, 8 in Congo, 14 in France. Lectured at several French universities.

I would define myself as international, down-to-earth, reliable, serious but funny. I have a genuine experience in representing fellow students in relevant committees. I believe this will help me to seek out your views and represent you to the University. I am ready to respond to your concerns about teaching and career prospects. What are you waiting for ? I can’t wait to start working for you!

THE BADGER

20 OCTOBER 2014

CAREERS AND EMPLOYABILITY• 23

CAREERS & EMPLOYABILITY CENTRE

First years – start thinking about your future now!

Beatriz Lacerda Ratton Student Writer and first year undergraduate The University’s Careers and Employability Centre is taking an active interest in helping students achieve their potential.

Starting off at university, many take the approach that ‘the first year doesn’t count’. This leads to a lot of people doing the bare minimum towards understanding the foundations of their course. Though it’s true that the first year of university is as much a social and adaptation experience as an academic one, it’s important not to become sedentary.

In the ever more competitive job market, it’s essential to start gaining skills and experience which can give you a head start in a successful career.

Using the services of the Careers and Employability Centre (CEC) is an excellent place to start.

Writing a CV can be tricky for

a lot of people; deciding what experience is relevant and what to put in it is often a difficult task.

CEC can help you do this– They run regular CV workshops and clinics and you can get feedback on your draft CV. Part time jobs are often on a lot of first years’ minds.

As well as being a good way to earn some extra money – whether it be for nights out, shopping or just helping with your rent – it also gives you valuable experience in the job market and shows you can be a reliable employee. Many students however, have the problem of where to actually look for a part time job.

CEC has an extensive support system for this. With over 5,000 job vacancies advertised each year; including part-time jobs, summer internships and graduate jobs; students can browse through the website or have jobs e-mailed directly to them. See www.sussex.ac.uk/careers/jobs Activities outside of the lecture

hall can help you improve your future prospects too. You meet a wide variety of people when you join a society, play a sport or participate in volunteer work and the connections you make could well benefit you later in life.

In addition to this, many of the skills you develop will be ones that you can add to your CV and could help you stand out in the job market.

The Sussex Plus Employability Award helps you to showcase your skills.

The Careers and Employability Centre organise a lot of great events that could help you focus your ideas, talk to people in a range of career fields and find out about opportunities with employers – so do have a look at what’s on offer and come along!

Watch this space!

The Badger is proud to be working alongside the Careers and Employability Centre and will feature content from our paid student writer each week.

Ucoming events within the carers and employability centre: (All events take place at Careers and Employability Centre (CEC) unless stated otherwise) Monday 20th October: - Living and Working in China, 1 pm - Careers in Risk and Wealth Management, 2.30 pm Tuesday 21st October: - Careers for BMEc – Explore your Options!, 11 am Interview Practice Workshop, 1 pm - Careers for Global Studies Students Explore your Options, 3 pm Teaching Information Event, 6 pm, Hove Park School, Nevill Road, Hove, BN3 7BN

Wednesday 22nd October - Is Entrepreneurship for me? 10 am - CV Clinic, 11 am - Study Skills: How do I plan and Structure my Essay? First Years, 4 pm Thursday 23rd October -Careers for Engineering and Informatics; Explore your Options, 11 am - Study Skills: How to read critically and make effective notes, 4 pm Friday 24th October - Study Skills Tutorials, 2 – 3 pm For full details on all these events and to sign up, visit www. sussex.ac.uk/careers/events

SussexStudentLettings

There is such a thing as a

FREE BREAKFAST! (or lunch!)

All you have to do is pop in to Sussex Student Lettings (next to Falmer Bar) or call them on 678787 to give them the contact details of your landlord*. In return you’ll receive a voucher for a FREE BREAKFAST worth £2.95 in Falmer Bar, or a FREE SANDWICH/BAGEL up to the value of £2.95 from the Union Shop. ...and if they go on to let a property through us you’ll also receive £50 in cash! *If you have a good landlord and property, help benefit other students by recommending them to Sussex Student Lettings

the badger

20 October 2014 Arts •24

Arts

Listings: UniTV and URF

Monday 20th

Tuesday 21st

Wednesday 22nd

Thursday 23rd

Friday 24th

Scumbag College

The Burrito Show

Afternoon Alternative

The URF Review Show

Earlier With Ellie Holland

11am-12pm

Hosted by Lottie Brazier

An Afternoon with Charles and James - 12-1pm Hosted by Charlie Wall

11am-12pm

12-1pm

Hosted by Nick Stewart

Hosted by Francesca Powell

SUDS Soapbox

The Paddy Hour

12-2pm

Hosted by Holly Hagan-Walker

1-2pm

Hosted by Paddy Osmond

1-2pm

11am-1pm

Hosted by John McKenna-Hughes

Magazine & Wine Party

Jeremiah’s Urban Central

2-3pm

1-2pm

Hosted by Em Chittock

Little Al’s Big Show

Hosted by Akintunde Akinsowon

Hosted by Alice Finney

60 Minutes of Mangan

2-3pm

Paige with Guests 1-2pm

Hosted by Paige Smith

Live it live with Jonny Meah 2-3pm

Hosted by Jonny Meah

5-6pm

Hosted by Ollie Heathcock

6-7pm

Hosted by Nick Werren

Hosted by Alex Mason

The World Show

Sam and Harry’s Existential Crisis - 4-5pm

The Magical Music Tour

Hosted by Callum Sellins

Everyday Desert Island Discs 3-4pm

4-5pm

2-4pm

Hosted by Gareth Mangan

Hosted by Sian Williams

Holly CA-60 Show 4-5pm Hosted by Holly Cassidy

Broken Old 45’s 5-6pm

Hosted by Jack Jewes

7-8pm

Hosted by Benji Kusi

Going Nowhere Slow 8-9pm

Hosted by Julian Paszkiewicz

The Everything Hour 7-8pm

Hosted by Lewis Cockle

Cult of the Black Pudding 8-9pm

9-10pm

Hosted by Sam Hislop

Mole

Hosted by Sebastian Tiley

Retrofit 7-8pm

Hosted by Adam Whitmore

7-8pm

Hosted by Sam Siva

6-7pm

Tangled Roots

Paul’s Politics

8-9pm

8-9pm

Tropical Hot Dog Night

Hosted by Paul Millar

Hosted by Elana Crowley

Hosted by Thomas Powell and Raymond Jennings

The Sports Show

The Rory Hughes Show

7-8pm

9-10pm

9-10pm

Hosted by Rory Hughes

Hosted by Morrow and Jackson

Alphabet Soup

Hosted by Beau O’Shea

8-9pm

Californication 9-10pm

6-7pm

Stone’s Throw

The Mo-mentous Show

Hosted by Thomas Houlton

Gardeners’ Hour

Discocks Hosted byHarry Reddick

Anorak Ashtray 6-7pm

Hosted by Sam Berkay

The Green Frog Show 5-6pm

Hosted by Joseph Oliver

5-6pm

6-7pm

Hosted by Chloe Mo

The B/C Sandwich

3-4pm

Hosted by Em Chittock

Hosted by Matthew Locke-Cooper

The Nick Werren Show

The Tom Jenkinson Show

2-3pm

Hosted by James Blay

The Electric Hour

Sian’s Pic N Mix

Hosted by Ellie Holland

Night Falls

Hosted by Priyanka Vigneswaran

9-10pm

Make sure you listen and get involved at: www.urfonline.com

Hosted by Tiago Franco

This Week on UniTV: Monday - Music Session with Edd Fowler Friday - Beauty Bible : How to master a cat eye and the classic red lip look.

Friday - Getting Crafty Halloween Special : How to make halloween inspired crafts.

As always, make sure you have a look at our website at www.unitvlive.com (or search for us on Facebook!) for more details about how to meet, watch, write, pitch, produce, film, act and get involved with all things UniTV!

Read, Write and Get Involved: www.badgeronline.com @thebadgernews facebook.com/thebadger.ussu

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