The High 57 by The High

Editors in Chief Jocelyn Kwan, Meghana Mortier

Editors John David Villariño, Ruby Griffiths, Nikolay Zhurov

March 18th, 2016 Issue 57

From Here, There and Everywhere Emily Coyne

here are you from?” A simple and expected question for an international school. The answer? Less simple. The question sets off a flood of memories: simple childhood moments, to nights in foreign countries, each memory seemingly placed in a different location around the world. The answer I genuinely often wish to use is that I don’t know. Which is worse: risk the possibility of sounding like a pretentious rich kid as I run through my entire background in an attempt to inform the interviewee, or cleanly respond with one word? What word? Where I currently live? Where I was born? Where my family comes from? Where I associate myself with most, the location that runs deepest in my heart? 100 years ago, the answer to each of those questions would have most likely been the same. Nowadays, with the globalisation of leading enterprises as well as the expansion of international immigration, the situation is quite contrary. If we attempt to define our place of birth as place A, and our exact location when the question is asked as place B, which place should we refer to? To answer with one word neglects the collection of memories and experiences straggled along the ever growing timeline between location A and B. To neglect a series of memories and experiences as such is disregarding the moments that have formed us into the person we are, and isn’t it easier to assume that our personality and developed character is more defining of us than a location?

With the recently passed International Day, the question is entirely relevant. The day saw a vibrant celebration and recognition of the diverse range of nationalities and each of their unique cultures found at ISL. Traditional costumes, hanging flags, and the notorious selection of food that leaves most students in a vegetative state for the rest of the day are all equally important and appreciated parts of the celebration, moreover a part of life at an international school, a different upbringing than most other schools. International schools stand alone in many aspects. With a 20% turnover of students every year, pupils easily become accustomed to quick hellos and goodbyes, as well as an ever growing expansion of friends located all around the world. The result? Entering the school with 1 accent, leaving with about 10 different ones, the ability to curse in a range of languages, and an impervious understanding of how small the world really is. On top of this, surviving the IB builds an incorruptible bond within each year, as well as one with any other student met outside of school who has experienced the same ordeal. Having said this, upbringings in international schools are some of the most interesting and exotic ones out there. Nonetheless, the foreboding question still stands with the same premonition. The question often carries prejudice, because understanding where someone is from can often justify wanting to understand their accent, skin colour, or even manner of thinking. The answer

can only confirm someone’s pre-existing stereotypes, allowing them to place you in a box that they have spent the last 10 minutes building based on getting to know you, and the confirmation of a single answer allows them to tape that box shut. The same way asking someone what their job is allows one to place that person on a socio-economic scale, in which each situation a different stereotype and prejudice of that type of person stands, an indistinguishable discrimination occurs when learning someone’s race or nationality. When the response to the question is something rather unexpected, the most common continuation stands to be “no, but where are you really from?”, a clear attempt of trying to reconstruct the box that you *gasp* didn’t fit into. As race is a biologically irrefutable trait that is predetermined before birth, racism can be placed on a matrix as the most unfair and unjustified manner of discrimination. This is not to say that asking someone where there are from is a form of being racist, but it is rather to state the fact that the question simply does not have the implied intention. We ask the question and the answer allows an image based on pre existing stereotypes to be formed, and the same way a job defines your situation on a social scale in regards to class, the location where you or your family comes from has the same effect. The next time you engage in conversation with another individual, I ask you this, rather than asking “where are you from”, ask yourself why you are actually asking them.

Eat Your Greens Shardul Bansal had his five a day.

his year has been a resounding success for the Eco Club. This year, Eco Club executed a total of 3 successful initiatives, with another one set for the books before the end of the academic year! We started off the year with the sale of the ISL water bottles, selling approximately 150 water bottles, which generated an impressive CHF 340 in revenue for WaterAid, a charity which aims to provide access to safe drinking water for everyone around the world. As well as that, buying water bottles from the school daily promotes the use of plastics and increases your carbon footprint. Moreover, it’s a little irritating to see 50 kids lined up for a water bottle everyday at recess. A water bottle. Just get one from home and save your parents’ money! I don’t have a personal vendetta against the cafeteria here but with this initiative, Eco Club managed

to kill not two, but three birds with one stone. Impressive. Our next event for the calendar was the phone collection, which helped raise awareness about the significant growth of electronic waste in the past few years. The Club amassed a total of 16 phones which were given to Swisscom, who then sell the phones, and all profits are donated to Children’s Villages, “who build families for children in need, help them shape their own futures, and share in the development of their communities.” Perhaps a number not as impressive as our last. However, Eco Club will learn for the following years. Our most recent event, the Vegetarian Day here at ISL, was successful, regardless of the moans and the groans we heard from the students. It was an initiative that tried combatting a very large, underappreciated problem. A recent United Nations report, entitled Livestock’s Long Shadow, concludes that eating meat is “one of the ... most sig-

nificant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global.” Continuing, “in just one example, eating meat causes almost 40 percent more greenhousegas emissions than all the cars, trucks, and planes in the world combined.” Eco Club’s next initiative will be based on Earth Hour, to encourage building a more sustainable world that relies less on electricity The event is annually held worldwide towards the end of March, encouraging individuals, communities, households, and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights for one hour as a symbol for their commitment to the planet. You’ll hear about it soon! However, Eco Club is on the verge of dying. As the Year 13s go on and make something of their meager lives, Eco Club’s foundations are in danger. We need 2016/17 to be an even more significant year and Eco Club needs your help. Damn, we might even change its name. Again.

Idly Scribbling Away John David Villariño feels a bit testy.

t’s ISA’s, not ISIS. Excluding the fact that it sounds like people are talking about a notorious extremist group when they are talking about the test, the ISA’s are not at all that bad. Students from years 3-11 take this test annually in order to have their intellect judged. This track-record of the students’ capabilities are, in essence, a measure of the students’ development in the PYP and MYP curriculum over the years. Most have the learning curve that shows the average growth in the capacity of the human brain while some roll around with their straight lines, boasting how good they are to everyone. However, in all seriousness, after taking 4 ISA tests during my time in the MYP, I believe that ISA tests are actually not only helpful for the ranking of schools through how well their students perform, but also helpful for the students in many ways. Firstly, the ISA tests are made to test how well the students actually learn in class and, therefore, they were made

so that it covers a more general area of studies. This allows for a more natural and more accurate test of a student’s intelligence as, unlike normal tests where students know what they’ll be assessed on and can therefore study before, students cannot study or purely memorise stuff right before the test to get a good mark, as they do not particularly know what will be on the test. Often, students with good memories can do fairly better in a test than a student who actually learns in class and the ISAs eliminate that leverage to purely measure how well the students have been learning. Secondly, the ISA tests give students something to look forward to. Before the tests start, snickering between students is present about the anticipation of what the next writing task will be or what calculations do they have to do to find out the right number of z’s. This gives a little more thrill to the lives of some students, but to most it is just an-

other one of those tasks that they have to get over and done with. In the end however, the ISA tests, as it seems so for most people, will always just be, or was, the test that they anticipated yearly, whether it be bad or good for them. Some enjoy the test and associate it with their childhood growing up in an international school, but most students just see it as the repetitive annual test that, to them, serves little purpose. Mutually, all students can agree that it is a good way to miss lessons that would’ve taken place instead of this test. For year 11’s, the last year group included in the test, I can deduce from the sighs of the content and relief that most are just happy for the ISA’s to be over. And hey, in the end we get to miss Languages in place of the ISA tests this year, so I’d say that was an awesome benefit for having them too.

A ToKen Subject? Ruby Griffiths has many ways of in developing the course for our own philosophical benefit, in terms of both knowing.

t’s basically the subject no one asked for.” I am always hearing people complain about it. So I decided to look into how we actually feel about the two periods set aside each week to discuss theory of knowledge. 73 of you participated in a survey, with around 50 responses within the first few hours. Very few are indifferent to the topic. It can decide our university fate by a few extra points. It can make us frustrated. But, exactly how do we feel towards the course? First, the facts: over half of the total 73 IB students who participated rated ISL’s theory of knowledge course as unimportant. Yet, after reading the comments, this lack of importance seemed to root in the way the classes are taught. Most are unhappy with the style of teaching employed and the way the syllabus is made, resulting in a general lack of interest toward the programme, not the subject. This is an interesting distinction, and an important one. 46% of you do not enjoy the ToK course compared to 34% who are relatively indifferent. These numbers certainly reflect the general unhappiness of the diploma students, particularly in terms of the teaching style. Motivation and excitement for the subject seem to be lacking, apart from a very select few who seem to adore the subject. Maybe these conflicting opinions are the results of the variety of teachers? Or is it just an underappreciation for philosophical thought? It may just be beyond some of us. Interestingly, the large portion of students who negatively view the topic reduces dramatically when asked if the ToK or a philosophy course should be taught in compulsory education in general. Suddenly we face a situation where the majority are unhappy with being taught the subject, yet believe others should be victim to it. I can only hypothesise that this is down to a wish for the pain to be shared, or a wish for a change. Both situations seem likely. In theory, a philosophy course sounds appealing, interesting, and helpful in getting us out of the usual academic box we are placed in when we enter the school each day. But, when it comes down to it, are we genuinely interested

teaching style and syllabus, or do we just lack appreciation for what we have? It is true that we are dealt a random hand of teachers and, like most, the teacher can make or break the subject. However, ToK is different. This is partially because there is no set syllabus dictating teachers. Moreover, ToK requires a mind that can detach from the usual academic “everyday learning”, for it is an act of “taking a bird’s eye perspective”, as Ms. Baardsen explains (who has worked for IB). In a world where we are presented with information in a constant stream, ToK attempts to help us think critically about it all, to challenge what we usually accept. Whether we deem this “boring” or just a “bit rubbish” can be, in part, due to the teacher, but also your own engagement with the course. The classes can be a real hodge-podge of students, and sometimes it can work and sometimes, I agree, the chemistry does not. As always, what you put in is what you get out. Nevertheless, an interesting debate was initiated among the comments. One student said, “I feel as though the grades we are given in the course are inaccurate, as we are constantly told that there are no wrong answers but then we are given a grade for our answers…” How is it that a course that attempts to redefine academic thinking, that is about questioning and criticising, that is supposed to be a detachment from quantifiable results must leave us with a grade at the end of the day? America decided to remove philosophical educative requirements from schools in 1893 -- when ten men sat down to define the subjects to be taught in schools. Now, it remains a subject usually attached to elite schools, to a stigma of academic intimidation; it is seen as reserved for the brightest, the richest, and the gifted. Philosophy, originally, was defined by the greek as the “love of wisdom”; it is a striving toward selfimprovement, toward ethical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual growth. It is an unquantifiable growth. In short, the reason why the IB attaches the hope of a few points to your ToK course is so it is taken seriously. Without it, would we even turn up to class? I know for a fact that if sport hadn’t been

crucially dragging down my GPA in year 10, I would have never shown up. The points are there to make sure we show up. However, the qualitative development we undertake is invaluable. Our ToK coordinator, Mr. Kirby, says that no one asks him about the number of points he got in IB today, but he does have to “distinguish between valuable and empty claims” every day. Moreover, “everyone who comes out of ToK” is not saying how “pointless” the course is, but rather a large amount of you do appreciate its effect. Biologically, we will appreciate ToK in the future, anyway. Right now we are experiencing significant changes in our capacities to think. It is at this point that our brains are really trying to develop abstract thought, different possibilities, and forward-thinking. The front part of our brains can be thanked for this development, for it is responsible for our complex reasoning abilities, problemsolving, thinking ahead, self-evaluation, and regulation of emotion --all skills employed in ToK. Since the brain develops from the back to front, the front is the last part to develop. We can fall victim to our own cognitive limitations, especially when we assume a total lack of appreciation for ToK. When we reject ToK as a possible area to learn and develop for ourselves, when we purposely do not engage, we miss out. It is true that the point of grading us is to make sure we participate in a subject meant to push our thinking beyond grades -- strange concept to understand. Ironically this subject is meant for the students thinking about grades, about business school, about results. The students who resist the most are those who need ToK the most. This is a course both to be taken very seriously, as the subject suggests, but also for our own benefits. Sometimes we get caught up in how to excel at something that we end up forgetting why we should bother learning at all. This issue expands beyond ToK, but also the theory of education. We should not just be products ready to work for the system, but critical thinkers.

Treasure Island: On Your Marks Lauren Nudi has exceeded expectations

eports are out! Reports are out! Go check online!” a teacher screamed through the hallway one afternoon last month. It was like everything around me began moving in fast motion at that moment; my classmates immediately began pulling their laptops out of their already packed bags and I could hear shrieks of both “Oh no!” and “Yes finally!” It was in that moment that January day I realized reports are extremely overobsessed about, and that something needs to change. The concept of reports is great: they give students - and their parents - a chance to see how they are doing in school and what they need to work harder on. However, the older I get, the more I realize that is not what actually happens in reality; these days, reports are so much more than just assessing quality of work. After a kid gets a grade back they almost always go and tell someone else what they got, subsequently asking their friend about what they got. I can’t

even count the number of times someone I barely know from my class has asked me about my grades. The problem with this exchange is that it, most of the time, results in one or more people feeling down about themselves because they got a lower mark, leading them to think of themselves as stupid or of lesser value because they got five questions wrong instead of only two. This seemingly simple question can go the opposite way too. Occasionally after someone gets a top grade they will still continue to ask others around them about what they got. If this continues every time a student gets a good mark it will eventually lead them to feeling like they can’t be proud of it unless other people give them approval or feel envious of them. Not to mention, no one should really care that much about someone else’s grades so if they are that desperate to know them then there must be some kind of ulterior motive behind it, which has all kinds of problems attached to it. My next issue with reports is how young we are exposed to them. When was the first time someone ever mentioned them to you? I’d be willing to bet your answer is sometime in primary school.

Year 6 was the start of middle school in my old school and there was an online portal that had up to date recordings of our final grade and all of our assignments. I got so obsessed with it that at my parent-teacher conference we decided that my goal should be to only check it once a week instead of two to three times daily like I was originally. Worrying about grades at such a young age can be extremely harmful to social development. I’m not trying to say that we should all go blow off our homework and not care about our school work at all, but I do think something needs to change. It’s great to work hard and get good grades but you do not need to tell everyone who will listen. It’s good to know that your work ethic now could affect your work ethic in the future. However, I promise you that your one bad test is not going to keep you from getting into university and that in five years from now you probably won’t remember any of your grades from high school, so try to save your stress for something more deserving of it.

Making a Small Change Conrad Grindheim likes big bucks and he cannot lie.

’m sure that many of you have heard of the term “microfinance” but aren’t quite sure about what it means. In short, the definition of microfinance (sometimes called microcredit), as defined by investopedia, is “a type of banking service that is provided to unemployed, low-income individuals, or groups who would otherwise have no other means of gaining financial services. Ultimately, the goal of microfinance is to give low income people an opportunity to become self-sufficient by providing a means of saving money, borrowing money, and insurance”. In this article I will focus on microfinance in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), and why I highly recommend you taking part in it.

According to CGAP.org, SSA accounts for 14% of the world’s population, and is home to 10 of the fastest growing nations in the world. These include: the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, Nigeria, and more. However, according to the Borgen Project, nearly 50% of the population in 2010 still lived under the poverty line, earning less than $1.25 a day! Naturally, this isn’t the state in which we want 14% of the world to be in, and if you feel like you want to help these rapidly growing countries grow even faster, you can help with microfinance! There are plenty of websites out there that make the process of loaning a small amount of money to an individual with a good business plan as easy as ever. Kiva, the organisation that ISL works with, is a great way to learn more about this subject matter, and even start invest-

ing if you wish to. It’s as easy as going to www.kiva.org/lend and browsing around. You can choose from over 4,200 entrepreneurs to learn about and lend them some money if you feel like the deserve it. What? Are you afraid of the borrowers not returning your money? Well do not fret, because the entrepreneurs pay their loans back when they said they would more than 98% of the time! It’s practically free, and can drastically change the life of an individual! If this doesn’t make you want to learn more or invest in an entrepreneur then I don’t know what will. Lastly, I would like to say that there is a great microfinance club here at ISL, and if you have any queries about this you can ask Stijn Braunius, the leader, at: sbraunius@islstudent.ch. Happy investing!

Music of the Night Anna Voigt could have danced all night.

he night was cool and the sky had already started to darken as students started to arrive. Long dresses, short dresses, suits and ties, people came in all their different styles. As they walked through the revolving doors into the grand entrance the atmosphere really began to feel like a scene from the Phantom of the Opera. Waiters stood around with platters of orange juice that was being handed out in champagne glasses. Everyone started to stand around daintily holding their glasses in small and big groups all around the room, while socializing and greeting everyone and anyone encountered . As student after student entered through the revolving doors the party started to seem very lively. Compliments and discussion about how everyone else looked rang through the air with excitement. Just when the room was starting to get crowded, the doors opened to the large dining room. Intrigued, everyone rushed to the doors of the ball-

room. People started to crowd against each other at the entrance to the dining room, straining to be the first to get their picture taken at the entrance. Everyone packed together under the glistening illuminated chandeliers, getting into groups to get their pictures taken. Cameras flashed and people found and took their seats at their assigned tables and waited for their food to arrive. The appetizers were brought in by a staff who wore masks matched by the themed table arrangements. People socialized more and games were played throughout the meal to keep us occupied. Later into the main course some very talented and brave singers took their place on the stage. Love songs were sung such as “Say Something”, “Skinny Love”, “All I Ask of You”, and many others. One of the games during the meal was a `heads and tails` game, where people choose heads or tails by placing their hands on their back or their head as a teacher flipped the coin. If it landed on what you chose then you won. In between courses people would go to the stairs that lay right outside the ballroom to take pictures. After dessert there was a DJ, who

played much better music than last year, and the dancing began. Unfortunately, not many people decided to dance, because at this point a lot of Year 11 and 12 had begun to leave. The staff sat us down for the raffle, with Mr. Friend reading out the numbers one after the other. The hour dragged by, seemingly endless, because so many people had already left. The night ended with the music playing and the Year 13s enjoying their last Winter Ball and the Year 10s enjoying their first.

V Day Nikolay Zhurov

would describe a step-by-step walkthrough of my Valentine’s Day, but frankly that’d be inappropriate (even for this newspaper) and just sad. This doesn’t, however, mean that I won’t be writing about the numerous highlights of my day – once again excluding the “not-newspaper-or-school-appropriateyou-should-know-better-than-this” parts. The first, and possibly most significant moment of my day, was waking up to the gentle breeze in the morning; I forgot to close my window and it was cold. This was a good reminder of the day to come. But that’s enough about me - this article is, after all, focused on Valentine’s Day, which generally requires at least one more individual than one. That is not all, however, dear readers. For there is yet another theory about Valentine’s Day, inspired by your very own newspaper and written down on a

napkin by none other than yours truly! The theory states (quite professionally, might I add) that Valentine’s Day has been created with the same principle in mind as the Purge. Most of you, dear readers, have either seen or heard of this movie: the basics of it are that in order to maintain a peaceful, crimefree society, there’s one period of 12 hours every year that allows people to break any and all rules. Well, the same basic principle applies for Valentine’s Day: “couples” get approximately one day per year where they can go nearly as far as they want in public demonstrations of acute appreciation for one another’s nether-regions...without being blatantly, acutely appreciative of one another’s nether-regions, whilst still being within the law. As such, this allows for the other days of the year to be graciously free of public indecency, the latter being defined here as a holding of hands – absolutely unacceptable within my line of sight.

As such, looking at both what can be defined as the “Widely-accepted Valentine’s Day” controversy as well as the “Less-widely-accepted Valentine’s Day” theory we can deduce, dear readers, several key actions that we can take in order to save ourselves from the inevitable – and most likely incorrectly foretold – Armageddon that is the 14th of February of every year. The first is that, albeit not the most enjoyable choice, we must maintain this annual sacrifice of celibate hopes and dreams in order to sustain order in society. The second action to take applies to all people, regardless of their standing on the obscure art of “romance”; this consists of a warning: do not pay for anything on Valentine’s Day. The unfortunate truth is that mutually infatuated individuals paying for offerings (known as “gifts”) are contributing to the Capitalist regime that has been discreetly rising in power over the past decades as a cause of this frivolous ritual.

Throw PC out the Windows Adela Sahraoui

owadays we have to be careful of what we say, for fear of offending someone. If we accidentally slip up and say something that could be seen as racist, sexist, classist, or ageist, then we might be on the receiving end of a whole load of abuse, especially if our remarks get publicized on the news or on social media. The anger that then goes against us seems to appear acceptable because we apparently deserve it with our provoking comments. In 2014, Jeremy Clarkson, the presenter of the beloved Top Gear program, was attacked by the UK media because he seemed to mutter the ‘N’ word when using the “eeny, meeny, miny, moe” children’s rhyme to decide which out of two cars to drive. He was immediately accused of being a racist. Yet, who knows, maybe he just slipped up? The ‘N’ word was replaced many years ago by “catch a ‘tiger’” which is much more politically correct (though animal lovers could call it ‘speciesism’), but the original rhyme with the ‘N’ word was commonly used by children of his generation who had no idea of its racist connotations. Therefore, he probably wasn’t even thinking when he said that word. Nowadays we are walking in a mine-

field (is that word even politically correct?) when it comes to racial terminology. For example, people of ‘mixed-race’ used to be referred to as ‘coloured’ but that is now considered offensive. However, in the US, it still seems OK to say ‘black’ instead of the more politically-correct and wordier ‘African-American’? (And can we actually call someone African-Swiss if they aren’t from America?) Why all these rules exist and who decides them is a mystery to most of us. And what logic makes Barack Obama ‘black’ when his mother was white? The majority of us would like to get all this terminology right, but it’s hard to keep up with the changes. This political correctness also applies to sexual identity. Not so long ago, homosexuality was looked down upon and people kept quiet about their sexual orientation for fear of criticism and abuse. It was not politically correct to be homosexual, transgender, or anything that deviated from the socalled “norm”. Now the situation has changed, at least in the West, and homosexuality is widely accepted, with homosexual marriage being legalized in a number of countries. Yet, can we condemn people who disagree with it because they were raised at a time when it was not socially-acceptable? If a 70 year old woman was brought up

to believe all her life that heterosexuality was right and homosexuality was wrong, can we honestly expect her to change such strongly-held views so quickly? Isn’t everyone entitled to their opinion as long as they are not showing any deliberate physical or verbal abuse to those in question? I believe that political correctness can be a good thing, especially when talking about sensitive issues such as deaths, murders, and genocides. ISL can have people who make racist jokes - which are sometimes inappropriate in order to get laughs, such as on the topic of terrorism, and this should be stopped as the issue at hand is too sensitive for most people. There is a real danger of stereotypes being reinforced through such racist, sexist, classist, or ageist comments. However, at times we can go from one extreme to the other and become overobsessive in our political correctness. This can lead us to becoming more closed-minded and criticizing people who have different views to us. Political correctness often attacks soft targets: those who through ignorance may use a word with negative connotations but mean no harm. Naming and shaming individuals who unwittingly offend might make us feel good about ourselves. But this isn’t solving the actual issue at hand.

Drumpf, Roll Please... Shrey Mittal

part from “making Mexico pay for a big wall,” what will Trump do if elected President of the world’s largest economy? First of all, Trump thinks on making China “pay for making cheap quality goods by hugely increasing tariffs on Chinese imports,” meaning that China will have to pay more to export and import goods to the USA, meaning that this stops American companies moving abroad for cheaper manufacturing, and “preserving” American jobs for American citizens to occupy. Although many may argue that this is good for further expanding the US economy, it hasn’t always been the case, as experts strongly believe that the great depression was caused by the US trying to impose similar policies.

Donald Trump not only wants to stop immigrants from coming to the US, but wants to send 11 million more undocumented immigrants seeking economic refuge back to their respective countries, especially Mexico, “before the wall is completed.” He says that this secures jobs and money for “True Americans” to be granted, but experts say that this will almost definitely slow economic growth, as jobs will be left untaken, meaning that factories will shut down due to low production, backfiring on the goals of the original policy. Trump really wants to cut down taxes, and I mean really cut down taxes. According to Donald Trump, when he becomes President of the USA, says that one of his policies would say that any US citizen earning less than $25,000 would have to pay absolutely no income tax (that’s right, anyone earning less than $25,000 will have to pay

no income tax at all). He also promises to reduce corporate taxes to as low as 15%! When asked where the economy will gain the funds if there are not enough taxes, Trump answers that broad economic growth and closing corporate loopholes will solve the problem, but experts say that this policy can result in the fall of federal revenue by as large as 9.5 trillion dollars within the first decade alone. Just his plain attitude can cause problems. How do you know what an average American wants and lives like when you have 8.7 billion dollars in your bank account? No one has an answer to these questions. In the end, these policies that Mr. Donald Trump has come up with seem to lack longterm economic thinking and can lead to a possible jeopardy of what is right now the No. 1 economy in the world.

One vs. 364 Jennifer Fernandez Owsianka wants to celebrate every day.

th of March. A special day. An important day. A day to remember that the world is not just about men. And yes, I just said that – the 8th of March is international women’s day. My arrival at the 8th of March school assembly was characterised by a mixture of excitement and dread. The previous assemblies have been filled with the scorning faces of the audience members who seem indifferent and detached, and the attempts of teachers trying to talk about feminism, leaving me unconvinced. However, I have to admit that this year’s speech done by Mr Humphrey was eloquent and well-structured, with a clear message: consider feminism, don’t reject it because of your ingrained prejudice, misconceptions, and your herd-like group dynamic. Feminism isn’t limited to whatever idea you have. It isn’t a black and white concept about gender or “destroying men”. It is an area that is still defined by the only person who has the power to define it: you. Therefore, its relativity and sensitivity do not result in a confined statement of a definition. I think that we need to understand what we are celebrating. Is it the accomplishments of women? Or is it a celebration

of just being a woman, of defining yourself as a woman? Let me explain something, whether you are or consider yourself to be a woman or not is not relevant. What it actually means to be a woman in 2016, and what it implies, that is important. I read about a statistic recently – as some people need big numbers to be convinced – the number was: 215. This number stands for the 215 million women in the world who can’t access contraception. I am going to establish what it means to be a woman in 2016. In between sexual assault, rape, street harassment, objectification by your peers and just being seen as anything less than human, I see very little to celebrate about. What I think we should do instead is focus on the fact that these problems have existed for millennia, yet we still seem to be stuck in the same place. On the other hand, the advancements in legislation; the focus on gender and sexuality as something other than binary; the conferences and institutions created to advance the rights of women and their positions in society are absolutely amazing. However, being a woman, even in 2016, is not a fact that I have been able to appreciate, as all I have been taught is that I must feel ashamed, that my voice is powerless and that anything I aim for would be too challenging, too difficult – because I am a woman.

International women’s day on the 8 of March was established in 1975, yet I have the disturbing feeling that this day, supposedly created to commemorate women, is in fact a repercussion of the misogyny that exists at large in the world. Why is it that women have one day in which they can be seen as worthy? Just one day for women to be celebrated? Why can’t women be celebrated every day? Their efforts, their commitments and their struggles to live in a world where they have never been seen as worthy, their educations forbidden and their rights over their own bodies fudged. The more disturbing part is that women are celebrated for one day as if they were some minority community that the majority of people forget about, the rest of the year, and not 52.2% of the world population. So basically – the decision is down to you. You can either decide to do the challenging and scary thing called questioning your thinking or you can continue with your indifference and in return continue enforcing our limited perception of gender and consequently the destroying effects of misogyny. The 8th of March is a special day even though it underlines the unfortunate reality of the world we live in – we have one day for women. One day to make a difference. The rest is up to you.

Zika Sucks Shivani Patel

he Zika virus was found to have originated in Uganda in the 1940’s but it has not seemed to be a problem until now. The first signs of an outbreak occurred in mid-2015, with the most affected area being Brazil, and the number of cases was above 4000 by January 2016. This was something that was completely unheard of for this particular disease, which has only seen around 150 cases each year. It is believed that the virus may have arrived to South America from the Pacific Islands, where there had been a previous outbreak in 2007. It may have entered during the 2014 World Cup held in Brazil or other sporting events that had been held in South America in 2014, due to uncontrolled number of people coming from all over the world.

The Zika virus is only affecting regions in South America right now so why should we care? The big problem is that most people who have the virus do not develop the symptoms. This causes a large problem because when a mosquito then bites one person, the virus can be passed on to the next person bitten, making it more likely for the virus to spread. This could all be problematic for the future generation. The Zika virus causes microcephaly, which is a condition where newborn babies are born with abnormally small heads and brain damage. In other regions, such as Europe and North America, a spike in babies born with microcephaly could be seen if the virus is allowed to enter these regions through unsuspecting carriers. So what can be done to contain this

outbreak? According to the CDC, steps can be taken to help prevent being infected with the Zika virus when travelling in at risk areas. For example, long sleeves should be worn to prevent mosquito bites, especially if you know that you have already contracted the Zika virus. Insect repellent should be used to help prevent the bites, as well a sleeping under a mosquito net, particularly if you are sleeping outdoors. Bright light should be avoided as this attracts mosquitoes, and air conditioned rooms should inhibit mosquitos. All in all, the Zika virus is not a huge problem for us yet, however, if the rate of sexual transmission increases, it soon could be. Nevertheless, pregnant woman still need to avoid regions that have high cases of the Zika virus and if possible, not to travel to South America at all.

They’re Invading Us! (again) Ian Chen likes his migrants medium rare.

nprecedented waves of humanity? We are all familiar with the ongoing migrant crisis with millions fleeing and seeking entry into Europe while the population grows increasingly restless. It’s true that our contemporary leaders have it pretty badly, yet their predecessors from oneand-a-half millennia ago might shed a tear of envy. Back then, Europa hosted an imperium that once stretched from the mists of Scotland to the sands of Iran, ruling over twenty percent of humanity. The centre of all this? Rome (if you are a history guru you can go ahead and point out that Constantinople was equally important or that the Roman capital had moved to Milan and Ravenna). But how did this all end? To give a diluted version of history, their crisis started much like ours: war. The nomadic Hunnic tribes (and no, those dudes in Disney’s Mulan never happened as Huns are Caucasian and never went to China) began a vicious conquest of barbarian lands in Eastern Europe, making the whole native Gothic nation a swarm of refugees running towards Rome’s Balkan border. Just imagine EVERY Syrian moving towards Greece, then proportionally you get the idea. Romans were traditionally cautious with migrants, either accepting a few of them and spreading them thin across Roman lands or killing them. The Helvetians who became Swiss are only here today because Caesar stopped them from fleeing into France. Seeing the Goths would have been quite the shock for the Romans as they often dealt with invading armies, but never an entire ethnicity. Quite the opportunist, Emperor Valens decided to grant the Goths asylum, imagining them as new recruits for his army or as farmers and taxpayers. Local romans went full xenophobe, however, and reneged on the food Valens promised to the Goths, starving them and even forcing them to sell their children in exchange for a roasted dog or two. A leader of Rome’s “Donald Trump club” even invited the

Gothic chiefs to dinner, only to assassinate them over their soups. Obviously, this caused some “radicalization” and no small amount of anger. The resulting battle at Adrianople ended with the refugees butchering sixty-percent of the Eastern Roman army and its emperor, to the shock of the known world. Across Europe, word spread and emboldened barbarians who once thought Rome invincible. Combined with attacks from the Huns, draughts, and famines, a domino effect of migrating barbarians soon besieged the empire as one fleeing tribe would attack the next tribe in a chain leading to Roman borders. The deluge of migrants was frankly unstoppable, often crossing in groups of hundreds of thousands, as the Alans did around 405 AD. Rome’s increasingly shoddy victories could not expel the barbarians. Instead, compromises were reached, allowing migrant tribes to settle in Roman lands as “allies” (*cough). As expected, revolts were more than frequent. By the fifth century AD, Romans had been forced to accept so many migrants into its empire that they ruled only in name. The Visigoths and Franks owned France and the Vandals owned Africa and much of Italy itself. Indeed, the Roman army relied mostly on barbarian soldiers who followed their own chieftains rather than the emperor.

Rome did not go quietly, however, and in their final century their last stand demonstrated great creativity and tenacity. Their last effective generals, known as “the last of the Romans” (who were ironically killed by their own colleagues or emperors), typically played the barbarians tribes against each other, kind of like making Iraqi refugees fight Syrian ones to distract them. At the climactic Battle of Chalons 451 AD, the famed Attila the Hun was finally defeated by Rome, who manipulated other barbarian tribes against them while its own forces remained intact. Other times, they would bribe the Huns to enter Roman territory to purge the migrated barbarians. Notwithstanding, by the sixth century AD, Western Rome was a mere puppet of Barbarians chiefs and ultimately ceased to exist while the Eastern Roman Empire would limp on for another millennia, never to regain Rome’s former glory. We typically refer to these events as “Barbarian Invasions”. But it was also a migrant crisis, and clearly Rome’s management of it had serious consequences. Though I’m not suggesting that the exact same problems will happen or are even possible under today’s circumstances, it’s safe to say that migrant crises are nothing new and carry grave implications. May we tread correctly…

A Slice of History Meghana Mortier still does not know how it happened.

don’t like talking to people and I’m here for the pizza. To be entirely honest, I’m not quite sure how I ended up where I am today. All I know is that I can get other people to talk to people for me and I frequently get pizza. Living the dream, right? Well, there’s a bit more to it than that. The High is the breakfast club of ISL. We’re just a handful of kids who ended up in the same room, at the same time, each for our own reasons. Some people are here for CAS hours, some people genuinely like writing articles, and I was dragged into the mess by Mr. Ribas after the unfortunate event of mentioning that I write whilst I was in his vicinity. And it won’t be an easy job to drag me back out. In the little room at the very bottom of the stairs and around a corner, that’s where you’ll find us. You may be under

the impression that the room seems to be filled with a decidedly random assortment of students, who have no order and no obvious purpose. However, you will hear one of Mr. Ribas’s intermittent chuckles and realize that he is not, in fact, just another high school student. Even so, his presence does not do much to dissipate the perception that none of the kids seem to actually be doing anything productive. Some people are halfheartedly doing homework, but most have altogether given up, their curiosity dragged away from their screens by the discourse of those nearby. Despite the fact that we do absolutely nothing in newspaper, we always manage to print every month. This is a mystery to all, even those involved in the process. I may or may not write passive-aggressive emails that never work to encourage people to finish writing their articles before 5 in the afternoon on print night, but either way, we get it done. Yes, it is true that we end up staying

at school till 10 at night. Who stays at school till that late and enjoys it? Are we those kind of losers? Maybe. The truth: we get paid in pizza. The small squad of people who stay all the way till the end of print night are blessed with these sectors of goodness, and that makes everything worth it. Not to mention the (classified) conversations that play out during these strange hours when the school is dark and empty. I step down now, from a pedestal which seemed to appear under my feet for no reason, while I was standing around and waiting for pizza. Well I got my pizza, but I also got a lot more than I ever asked for. I got a room in the corner of the school filled with people who are now my family. I was thrust into this unwillingly, but now that I’ve come to appreciate it, it seems unfair that I am being dragged away. I expect I won’t go easily though, so you’ll find me lurking in the corners of the room, enjoying it until the last day.

So Meta Jason Li and Ridhi Aneja wrote this article about articles.

e would like to say writing articles is ritualistic for us, almost akin to meditation. We would like to say that the words in this newspaper are carefully crafted and edited by the writers of The High under careful scrutiny. In reality, it’s nothing like that. We’re hungry, we’re tired, and we want to go home, but we can’t because we need to meet the minimum word count (500 words by the way). So here’s an article about writing articles. 3 out of the 4 weekly Newspaper meetings before the release of a new edition of The High generally merit little in terms of productivity. We’re actually amazed that The High gets released on a regular basis. In a lot of ways, the working habits of a teenager are comparable to the defecation habits of a sloth. Most of the time, a sloth does nothing of note unless prompted (e.g. prodding vigorously, offering candy, etc.). Yet, when their time comes, these lethargic creatures somehow manage

to climb down their tree homes once a week to lay their waste on the forest floor. Most of my work is like this poop of the sloth, so here is just a step by step process on how to make an article look like an article, unlike what has been done here. Step 1: Turn on computer. Step 2: Find a word processing application (recommendation: Notes, Microsoft Word, Pen and Paper ©, Stickies, Spotify, Microsoft Excel, that command space at the top of internet browsers). Step 3: Find something to write about. Step 4: Write about that something for 5 minutes. Step 5: Fix layout, font, all the unnecessary crap that no one cares about. Step 6: Procrastinate (we recommend Youtube, Reddit, 9gag, Tumblr, Netflix). Step 7: Get distracted from your procrastination. Step 8: Forget about the article for the next 2 weeks. Step 9: Have someone mention that you have an article to write. At this point, ideally, it should be the night before print night. If not, go back to step 6.

Step 10: Reread the 2 sentences you have previously written. Rewrite them. Step 11: Procrastinate. Step 12: Go “oh crap, I have to finish this.” At this point, it should be around 17:38 (eh). Step 13: Start actually formulating reasonable thoughts about the topic of your article. Step 14: Come up with Nobel Prize winning writing. Step 15: Procrastinate (this step is just here for the word count of this article). Step 16: Fall asleep and forget about previous genius writing. At this time, you should be in school the day of the print night and “working” during your free period. Step 17: Start from scratch. Step 18: Write for 40 minutes. Step 19: Read over what you just wrote and make sure it kinda makes sense. Step 20: Fix things that will just be fixed again by editors. Conclusion: We can’t be bothered to write a conclusion :P By the way, this is exactly 500 words. Honest.

It’s High Time

The Crew

Rafael Ribas writes his bye-line. ier’s contributions to someone who Luca Adams

f I die on a Thursday night - whether from a pizza-fuelled cardiac arrest, a gossip overdose, or maimed by a jammed photocopier - please bury me with a collection of past issues of The High: if there is an afterlife, at least I will have some good reading material. I will gasp at Indy’s comics and be baffled by Bruno’s rants; I will smile at Jason’s musings and contemplate Ridhi’s photos; I will recite Adela’s poems and reminisce with Shivani’s reports; I will be astonished by Ian’s illustrations and entertained by Zsofi’s articles (I wonder if they will let me bake her recipes in hell’s kitchen). But if I were to die this Thursday night, before this article goes to print, please make sure that you let Jocelyn and Meghana know how essential they have been, and how important a part they have played in the history of this newspaper. Jocelyn Kwan has been a staple item of our back page for the last few years. Her clear, manga-inspired drawings combine in multi-panelled action to create storylines that capture, in half a page, key aspects of the life of an ISL student - whether it is the agonies of writing an essay or the joys of Christmas celebrations. She is the longeststanding cartoonist in The High, and when she leaves, there will be a huge gap to fill (please let me know if you are interested in taking that spot!). As a person who is absolutely incapable of drawing anything other than a disproportionate stick figure, I am always in awe at the quality, effectiveness and detail of her illustrations. But Jocelyn has also been the first one to jump from illustrator to editor, demonstrating yet again that every single member of the newsroom is essential. She may appear the quiet one, the one who does not make decisions, the one sitting in a corner doodling - but she is the reliable one who will jump in and look at someone else’s article, laugh politely at Conrad’s puns, and be there promptly on a Friday morning to deliver fresh copies of our paper. You may not always know it when Jocelyn’s there, but when she is not, you certainly notice. When I try to explain Meghana Mort-

has not been in our newsroom, I am uncharacteristically lost for words; so I will throw a few hundred to cover up my inefficiency. I still don’t know how I persuaded Meghana to drop in on a Thursday, to write an article (and illustrate it!) about what it means to be new at ISL; or how that humble beginning evolved into almost three years of impeccable writing, challenging journalism, and professional-grade editing. It is rare for someone in our news team to embody so perfectly the unspoken values that The High stands for: an aspiration to be a platform for the voices heard less often; a clarion call for the students of ISL to look at themselves and their school, with the right mix of pride and criticism; a place where everyone is welcome, so long as they are also prepared to be challenged. All these things are crystal clear whenever you encounter one of Meghana’s articles - concise, sharp, eloquent, with so much thought behind that you can feel the heft on every word, crafted rather than typed - even when they occur at a late stage on our print night. As an editor, Meghana has expected similarly high standards of the team, and encouraged them to go one step further in their inquiry, and to please deliver those god-forsaken articles before the deadline thank you very much (usually in fewer words, and with a couple more expletives). Combine these qualities with an eye for detail in our graphic layout that would make Christine Geiger nod approvingly, and you will understand why I am so reluctant to let Meghana go - even if I hope to receive soon a copy of the Cherwell with a familiar byline on it. I am not planning on dying this Thursday night, or any Thursday in the near future. But if this paper ever stops coming out, in one way or another; if The High dies of malnourishment, or apathy, or simply runs its course, I hope someone will find something to do with all our old copies, with all the effort and energy and laughter and stress and sheer love that went into putting these pages together. And I hope that, if anyone ever writes the history of ISL, there will be a space reserved to write the names (in Rockwell font, size 34) of the people like Jocelyn and Meghana that kept these lucky few, this band of brothers (and sisters), going on until the end of another Thursday night.

ere at ISL, we have some really great facilities. But some of the best are the auditorium and the recording studios. Some people, might be baffled and overwhelmed when looking at all the tech, which is a shame, as ISL has some really cool shows. Many people are needed to make these shows possible, especially offstage. This includes stagehands, stage managers, sound technicians, and loads more. Sound technicians will sit in the control room (a.k.a the death star superlaser control center). They’ll learn about how sound works and how to alter it. Their jobs in a show are to mix and control the sound from microphones, instruments, and different effects. Next are the light technicians. They sit with the sound technicians in the superlaser control center. They’ll also learn about the science behind light and their job in a show is to set the mood for different scenes. Another lighting job is the followspot operator. The followspot is the light that directs the attention of the audience onto a main character of performer. They also help set up the lights before a show. Light and sound are incredibly important for shows. They support them and are the best way to convert the ideas of an artist into visual form. The next jobs are the stage jobs. First there is the stage hands. They learn how to use all the tech and how it works. Their job is to move and set up microphones, speakers and other tech. They are also in charge of changing the scene by moving props and changing the backdrop. The stagehands are told what to do by the stage manager. The manager makes sure all the transitions are smooth and the scene set up is done correctly. They communicate between the stage and the superlaser control center with a headset. Then finally there is the stage communicator. They communicate all the information the manager needs for scene changing and set up.

Up the Anti Maëlle Jacqmarcq is not in favour of leaving.

f the few plays I have seen represented at ISL since my arrival at this school in September, I have been pleasantly surprised at how high the level of acting and production has been. As high as my standards were for an ISL play, Antigone, directed by Tim Fessler, managed to surpass them. Being a Greek tragedy and a play which follows an exact script, Antigone was a very hard play to produce, but with its simple set, incredible acting, and powerful message that rings true still today, the representation was a success. What impressed me the most was the sheer talent of the actors in the production. All of them stepped into their character’s shoes so completely and amazingly that the audience was captivated at once. We cried with Antigone as her last hours unfolded, we felt torn as Ismene had to choose between keeping her life or doing the right thing and defying the king with her sister, and we

remained impassive with all four Creons as one by one, his family members chose to die. The set of the play was very simplistic, with just a few props, making the overall representation of Antigone very refreshing to watch, as it was not too crowded. Also, the actors were all wearing black and white and were all always on stage, which made Antigone, who was wearing a bright red dress, even more striking and powerful as a character. Also, throughout the play, the characters from Antigone seemed to be aware of their fate. In the opening scene, where all the actors stood and narrated what had happened previously to Antigone and what we should expect next, one actor said that Antigone was to die in a couple of hours. This brought a sense of foreboding and pathos to us as we learned that a character we hadn’t even met yet was going to die. It could be expected that because we knew the results of the tragedy from the very beginning, the play would be less interesting, but all the actors, and

in particular Valentina Rodriguez, who played Antigone, managed to keep us mesmerized as we witnessed the last few hours of the main character and her spectacular ending. Throughout the play, there were many references to the fact that the characters knew they were in a play. The characters seemed to know they were following a script such as when Creon, the ruthless uncle, declares “I’m cast as the villain”, or when Antigone tells Creon “do what you have to do”. This was very thought-provoking, as the line between the character’s story and real life grew less and less distinct. A round of applause must be awarded for this production of Antigone, because despite it being a hard play to deliver, the whole team working on the tragedy did an amazing job. I only heard positive comments about the play, and I’m not surprised, because it was truly a success.

Taking the Stage by Storm Edward Fraser shakes a spear.

wo nights ago, the cast of the currently-touring American Drama Group Europe were kind enough to perform their production of The Tempest right here on campus. You may remember their performances in the past: Romeo and Juliet and Martin Luther King, both of which were very well done. This production was comprised of an entirely different cast from their previous performances here at ISL, starring a Leonardo DiCaprio doppelganger and an off-brand Daniel Radcliffe, alongside four other excellent performers. With the exception of Prospero, each of these actors portrayed at least two characters. The production itself was admittedly just slightly different to what I had initially expected when the curtains first

opened. Instead of a simple modern adaptation of William Shakespeare’s play The Tempest, it was more of an amalgamation of Shakespearean romance and outright slapstick comedy— something I don’t particularly remember being as recurrent in the original play. Although, it was probably smart to incorporate comedy into this adaptation of the play; I mean, my twelveyear-old self likely wouldn’t have necessarily enjoyed to sit through three hours of 17th century romance and the occasional Shakespearean insult. However, I must say it was a little excessive given that there were times I was confused as to whether I was still watching an adaptation of The Tempest or The Three Stooges—with abrupt transitions to the drunken idiocy between Stephano, Trinculo, and Caliban. This was personally a slight cause for concern, for it may have encouraged themes of alcoholism for our mostly-uncorrupted middle schoolers—especially Years 8

and 9 who were obliged to attend the production. Jokes aside, the foregoing sardonic comments regarding the play’s comical nature cannot accurately represent the largely positive audience response. Ultimately, the performance received a very pleasant reaction from the viewers, though the audience’s response was a little bit here and there. As the adults sat generally towards the back of the auditorium and the Year 8 and 9 students towards the front, most of the laughter came from the latter. To reiterate, there was definitely a balance that should have been met between the over-the-top extraneous comedy and the traditional Shakespearean play. Though, at the end of the night, the performance was enjoyable, wellperformed, and a modest adaptation of Shakespeare’s original The Tempest.

Farewell & Thanks for Reading Jocelyn Kwan