Issue 74 - February

THE MAGDALEN ISSUE 74 FEBRUARY

DUNDEE’S FREE MAGAZINE

Gentrification: What Could it Mean For Us? From the Perth Road to Reading Rooms, what can we expect from Dundee’s new image?

The Comparison Game: Instagram, Influencer Marketing, and Fashion How valid is Instagram fashion and why ‘Influencer’ marketing can be both a useful tool and dangerous.

The Philosophy of Godzilla An out of control man made disaster is coming back to bite us. Sound familiar?

US AND THEM

THE MAGDALEN

A NOTE FROM YOUR EDITOR IN CHIEF

While chatting to one of the other editors, we wondered if the theme “Us and Them” was a bit combative. It is human nature to assume that anyone deliberately cast outside the collective “us” has been so deliberately due to some undefined difference making us incompatible. However, if we were to get all philosophical about things, this is not the case.

The point of this issue is not to embolden our collective sense of being against the world, although some articles herein allude to a sense of community needed in order to overcome some of our contemporary woes. Rather, this issue is about making us aware of the differences that exist between us and to learn from them, not to use them to characterise our own clans.

With this in mind, I’d like to use my editor’s note to bring up something which by time of publication will be old news but should always be kept in mind.

Our cousins in the United States have been at the mercy of some pretty grim political turmoil recently. Their President has tipped, or sought to tip, the very foundations of the international order that has been built up since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

This, he says, is due to the fact that those in power are elites who do not have the best wishes of

the common man at heart. The hypocrisy in this is glaring, but the interesting part is that the conversation around the Elites and their supposed subjects has mobilised those disenfranchised with the current state of affairs to take action. 2019 will see the most diverse American Congress in history get to work, The House of Representatives especially shows a reaction by the public against the status quo, sending reps which more directly reflect the communities in which they serve. Inspiring people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will embolden those who have been underrepresented in democracy for centuries to take action and believe that democracy is something to participate in rather than shun. I only hope that when the UK’s next election comes, the section boards of our parties can give us similarly worthwhile candidates to believe in, before the sense of the “other” which many in the working class have for the British ruling elite turns any more bitter. There will always be “us and them”, but managing the balance is what makes a society work.

Enjoy this month’s issue, and Happy Valentine’s Day!

Murray Glen

FEBRUARY

ISSUE

74

A NOTE FROM YOUR CREATIVE DIRECTORS

It is with heavy hearts that we write this last letter as your Creative Directors. After a year in this position, it is going to be a bittersweet goodbye.

We have both been designing for this magazine since we first started as graphic design students. Each month, we have developed our skills technically and pushed our creative potentials. This experience has only been amplified since we stepped into this position. We of course have continued to gain a lot of experience with the practical aspects of arranging a publication, collaborating with others, and organising a team.

However, we have also learned immense amounts about our own community. It has been wonderful to see the skills and innovative ideas that stem from our writers, designers, and wider community.

To have been a part of collating and boosting that is something that we have really valued.

As Creative Directors we had a chance to really enhance what we love about the Magdalen.

We found this publication to be the perfect place to explore

artistically and continually create in new ways. In our redesign, we wanted to encourage that; opting for a bold, engaging style that increased the freedom for all our photographers, illustrators, and designers. The new style was inspired by our own Dundee University community and its diverse and vibrant nature. We are so happy with how it was received, both by our visual team, and also by our readers. We think that the magazine has since been engaged with and reflective of the very sentiments we were hoping to portray.

We are going to truly miss having our role in the Magdalen and the new challenges and findings that come with it. However, we also do recognise that we are fourth years and with work load alone it is definitely time for us to be passing on the baton. We are excited for what there is to come with the Magdalen. The rest of our team will be carrying on strong, and our successors will have so much innovation to offer.

It will be amazing to see how it evolves and progresses after our time. We are grateful to have played our part in the process.

Olivia Sharkey Molly Porteous

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 04

EDITOR IN CHIEF Murray Glen SENIOR DEPUTY EDITOR IN CHIEF Barbara Mertlova DEPUTY EDITORS Alastair Edward Letch

CREATIVE DIRECTORS Molly Porteous Olivia Sharkey PHOTOGRAPHY MANAGERS Domas Radzevicius Victoria Sanches ILLUSTRATION MANAGER Fraser Robertson

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR Alexander Ferrier

INTERNATIONAL EDITOR Maria Radeva

COMMUNITY EDITOR Sarah Jayne Duncan

LIFESTYLE EDITOR James Houston

CREATIVE WRITING EDITOR Kiera Marshall

OPINION EDITOR Rose Kendall

CURRENT AFFAIRS EDITOR Mary Erin Kinch

SCIENCE EDITORS James Dale John Ferrier

FASHION EDITOR Emily Fletcher

COPY EDITOR Erin Campbell Beth MacLeod

WITH THANKS TO Claire Hartley VPCC

COVER DESIGNER Domas Radzevicius Fraser Robertson

CREATED IN ASSOCIATION WITH DUSA

PRINTERS The Magazine Printing Co. www.magprint.co.uk mpc@magprint.co.uk

06 FEATURE 10 CREATIVE WRITING 16

QUIZZES & COMICS

30 COMMUNITY 34 INTERVIEW 38 CURRENT AFFAIRS 42 FASHION 46 INTERNATIONAL 50 RECIPE 52 LIFESTYLE 57 OPINIONS 62 SCIENCE 68 WHAT’S ON

CONTENTS

20 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

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Feature - The Magdalen - February

Gentrification: What Could it Mean for Us?

06

Dundee University’s club-going music lovers have been waiting with baited breath for every statement released in regard to The Reading Rooms. With increased police activity and increasingly lower capacity limits, it seems as though the famous venue on Blackscroft could be facing an uncertain future.

fall. In September, the owner of Perth Road’s Tartan Coffee House faced backlash for claiming that a proposed community fridge for those on little-to-no income would damage the “exclusivity” of the area.

In that sense, we must ask; what type of gentrification has arrived in Dundee?

According to Police Scotland and The Courier, the official reason for this is a crackdown on drug use and anti-social behaviour related to the club including an alleged sexual assault said to have happened after a night spent there. Some though, including the group behind the wildly successful “Save the Rooms” petition, have questioned if the motive was related to the changing face of Dundee in the wake of the V&A opening. It has become clear that a major concern among our readers is the social impact of gentrification, and where the axe of social acceptance could

When discussing something which involves our readers so keenly, we wanted to hear from them. In a survey posted to our social media, 54% of Magdalen readers said that gentrification was a bad thing.

The discussion which followed in the comments gave a fascinating insight into what you really thought, beyond answering a survey. Former DUSA president Sean O’Connor said, “Lots of students have never lived in the schemes that are being destroyed, in fact lots of them will never have been in a scheme in their whole lives”. This was a common theme, with many people connecting

February - The Magdalen - Feature

gentrification as a phenomenon which disproportionately affects the working class and low-income communities of a given city for the worse.

“If we look at cities around the world where it is has occurred, it becomes clear that gentrification is not the world-ending issue; the management of it is what can go wrong.”

Before discussing how gentrification can manifest itself, it is important to define exactly what we mean when we say it. In researching this piece, it became apparent that the definition itself can give away how the person using it feels about the issue. For example, when consulting Forbes Magazine, we

are told that gentrification is “the moving into a formerly deteriorating community by middle-class or affluent residents”. In this context, it sounds rather passive. It implies a gradual and understandable process of movement. However, when we look at the same concept through the eyes of The Guardian, there are articles which give more of a “taking over” than “moving in” vibe. When we have stories that our favourite nightspot and the dignity of the city’s homeless is under threat due to this new, wealthy, unseen invader, we can be excused for animosity towards them. If we look at cities around the world where it is has occurred, it becomes clear that gentrification is not the world-ending issue; the management of it is what can go wrong.

In December, I travelled to Copenhagen and was shown around the city by a native. I learned that right up until the 90s, the beautifully

picturesque area around the old docks was once swarming with sailors in search of cheap drink and female company after months at sea. How the chaos that came along with that image transformed into the cosy, picturesque and economically successful areas of Northern Europe is a success story of smart investment, sensible civic planning and indeed, gentrification. Former mayor Jens Kramer Mikkelsen said in an interview with Next City that; “We knew the city was in a desperate situation and we needed to make large-scale infrastructure investments to address this situation. However, to pay for the grand infrastructure project we needed serious money. We could not raise taxes. Also, we needed agility and flexibility to operate.”

The solution to this was the publicly owned corporation attractively named the “Copenhagen City & Port Development Corporation”. What the body did in order to

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Feature - The Magdalen - February

make the city one of the wealthiest and happiest in Europe would be extremely controversial by our standards though; moving vast swathes of public land into their hands and using the revenues from the commercial and residential to fund public infrastructure projects. The showpiece of this was the metro, which even now sees shops, businesses and residential areas cropping up or transforming whenever they make a stop. This however, came at a price. According to the Copenhagen Post Online, the city has now attracted so many high-earning that lower-earning residents are said to have been priced out. This is the essence of any arguments against gentrification.

More redevelopment requires increasingly high investment, and investors need a return on what they give. Therefore, it could be argued that to have a high-performing local economy is beneficial to investors. As we all know however,

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“high-performing local economy” translates to “expensive”, meaning locals may not have the spending power they once had and feel alienated from their own communities.

This was a risk for Dundee, but the actions of the city council in enforcing strict living wage conditions for any business set up in the shiny new Waterfront area is an attempt to curb this. Well intentioned, however if we cast our minds back to the (at time of writing) unpaid wages of staff at Brassica, we can easily question whether the political controls on the new economy will be sustainable.

Gentrification is found closer to home though, in Glasgow. The former second city of the British Empire struggled to cope with the vacuum left by the shipbuilding industry. A recent revival in the Finnieston and Govan areas of

Design and illustration by Molly Porteous

the city have forced us to consider whether Gentrification and Improvement are juxtaposed or the same concept. Since the destruction of the ship building industry in the city, the banks of the Clyde became known for White Lightning as opposed to White Star Line. The South and East of the city have relied massively on 1990s City of Culture status and clawed for investment into the area. When the Commonwealth Games arrived in 2014, the stadia, civic redevelopment and employment opportunities that came with it allowed those areas to gain a solid foothold on investment which they so desperately needed.

Although there were the usual complaints about the priorities of the city authorities hosting an international sporting event while having some of the worst public health in Europe, the tangible benefits are hard to ignore. Mainly, since we are talking about public infrastructure, the fact that the

February - The Magdalen - Feature

athlete’s village was converted into social housing shows that there is a way of connecting huge events and beneficial schemes for the local population. There are areas in Glasgow which, after the ship industry left, the drugs and crime came in. Govan, Clydebank and even parts of Finnieston were thought of as very rough. Now however, they are charming to the extent where they are some of my favourite areas of the city. This applies to Dundee as well, where we consider that what some call gentrification, can also be thought of as improvement.

Gary Jordan, a newly graduated nursing student, was (and?) one of the most enthusiastic respondents to our social media survey, made this argument. As someone who grew up in Ardler, he called the “Bosnia Blocks”, so named for their Eastern European drab aesthetic, he welcomed the changes that came to Dundee in the 80s and 90s. He told us; “Providing it’s done correctly,

creating a town centre that people want to come visit and spend money in, it can only be a good thing”.

The social factor of gentrification is what causes the real damage through. Communities who feel as though they can’t and don’t belong anymore. With The Rooms situation, only 13% of respondents to our survey felt that Rooms was problematic for Dundee’s “new image”. At the same time though, 56% of people said that local areas should change to accommodate new industries and attractions. What we glean from that is that people have a tendency to believe things should change, so long as it does not affect them. This attitude is at the heart of the gentrification issue, what we want to do to an area and what the residents need, are often completely juxtaposed. Dundee is receiving a lot of attention and, through no fault of their own city authorities, will be tempted to overblow their

new found popularity. We have the potential to either replicate the Scandinavian or Glaswegian model; focussing on civic infrastructure and private enterprise respectively.

However, one thing which Dundee City Council has hinted at getting right, is a combination of the two.

Supporting new private enterprise but understanding that business affects the society it serves, so insisting that businesses which benefit directly from the Waterfront redevelopment pay living wage.

Gentrification has arrived in Dundee. Its core industries are changing, new housing is going up along with the property value and cost of living for those already there.

However, as we know from the Brassica fiasco, there is still a long way to go until the “improvement” which our readers spoke of being hopeful for, is as well managed as it is exciting.

Words by Murray Glen

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Creative Writing - The Magdalen - February

S N I A T N U O LIMBING M

C

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Design by Olivia Sharkey, illustration by Gosia Kepka, photography by Rebecca Phelps

February - The Magdalen - Creative Writing

W

hat if I told you about how tight dresses and low-cut backs are just the beginning of excuses that are given when unfriendly hands grasp you at your soft heart without a chance for you to reject. That I will be nothing more than the clothes I wear or the curves they enhance, no matter how enlightened my mouth can be.

What if I told you about the blood running down my leg the first time I swim as what my mother called a real woman, will you then realize how it horrible it feels to be embarrassed about something that is a natural process of my body? Children are mean and do not understand that if I could have, I would have changed my genitals to a penis any day at that time. Any day it would feel like a parade of soldiers walking over my stomach, or the burning indignity in my cheeks when someone would call out the bag of pads in my bag, because it had to be something hidden. And it was always somehow, I who was the one to be shamed.

What if I told you about staring in the mirror at my naked body with a shame in my eyes, will you then realize how much I wished I would look so much different. Following the lines with a cold finger tip of every stretch mark, cellulite, small breast with hairy nipples and a flabby stomach as a comparison to the slender girls with perfect skins in the magazines.

Despite of the slogan telling me I’m worth it as I am, the whole world is telling me it’s never good enough. Never just right.

What if I told you how we try to climb the mountains of challenges in the hopes that the future is brighter and more equal, will you then realize that there is yet another mountain to climb.

That we are still expected to carry babies in our bodies, but without changing as we were created to do. That we are pressured and compared to each other all the time, but at all the areas which should not be appropriate for a successful woman who is finally fighting for her dreams. That being alone is not necessarily a result of having chased too many guys but more often because we chose our independency and love is not the first priority for all.

What if I told you about how other women stare at me when I leave my home, will you realize how we are all broken somehow? We have not been raised into helping each other and building each other up like we were shaped to. Instead we live off rumours and gossip that make ourselves feel better until we go back home alone, and we still carry the same scars on our bodies that our thoughts gave us.

I know we have the stomach and the heart of a king, but I need you to realize that I should be able to say I have the heart and the stomach and the will and the courage just like a lady, and that should be enough. That we are made of sugar and spice and everything nice, and that choosing love does not equalize not being a warrior at the same time. We finally have the hard-fought power to speak up, shout out and keep climbing until we have finally encountered the last mountain. Being a woman means to be tough, stronger than we get credit for.

And that is why we should speak up to our families, our friends, bosses, the places we go. Use your voice to empower others, build them up because the best ally we have is each other. Let’s see where that can take us next!

Words by Lizzie Husum

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Creative Writing - The Magdalen - February

hey Do Not Make

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Design by Olivia Sharkey, photography by Olivia Graham

February - The Magdalen - Creative Writing

Them.

They have standards they’d like us to live up to.

Us. We make everyday choices, that don’t feel like choices, in order to live up to the standards they’d like us to live up to.

You. You pertain to a group. Whether that’s by your own voluntary choice, or regardless of whether you’re even aware of it. You belong to a categorical sorting which depends on the turns you take at each life’s directory.

Me. Me. My body, my choice.

Whoever ‘me’ is, I have a choice.

Factors within, as well as out of my control dictate the extent and potential reach of any such choice, but at the bottom of it all, I do have a choice. I decided to take some amount of control into my own hands and threw out the shaving razor for a month, little shaky at the knees as I was preparing to face the next ‘ah, getting yer winter fur on?’ comment. Another me chose to devour the chocolate bar as an

after-dinner relish, despite the figure on the scales earlier this morning being awkwardly unfit for what society recommended for my height. There was another I, who unplugged the hair straightener as the pair of eyes met mine in the reflection of the bathroom mirror.

That same I flinched uncomfortably at my FRIEND handing me over an ‘anti-frizz shampoo’, winking jokily as she compared what the world usually only gets to witness after having undergone an hourlong styling procedure, to a bird’s nest. Elaborating on her simile, she emphasises that it’s a freshly made one. That is to ensure a fullvolume impression, for none of its twigs have had a chance to fall out yet, flattening my hair - sorry, the nest - little by little. All the other ‘me’s regularly make choices that fall somewhere on the spectrum that seems to range from ‘societal ideals’ to ‘unacceptable’, ‘labelled offensive’, ‘disruptive’, or ‘degrading to others just by its presence’.

How ironic is it to feel like we - you, I, the other me’s - must match up to a demand set by someone – someones - wholly uninvolved in and unaffected by our lives. Better yet, how ironic is it that we constantly seek out validation, regardless of where on the rank of standards we find ourselves with concerned issue. You can’t win, right? Different views, different tastes, different

preferences; that’s all been slowly embraced. And despite all that, every step of our journey, we look for assurance that we are performing; performing at least at a satisfactory level.

Acceptance.

They, Us, You, Me – we can make the choice to accept, and that is the most we can strive for, as well as to give out. The feeling of support and understanding arising from acceptance largely makes up for thinking that you don’t belong, whenever some of your steps along the way don’t follow the mainstream.

Realising the not everyone may fully grasp the reasons behind your decisions, yet can still understand that so long as it does not affect them personally, all they should do is accept, is beyond freeing.

They - not all of them will support every decision you make. Us we’ll continue to seek some form of reassurance that, indeed, our own independent choices may be approved of. But You, and I, we’ll keep moving forward, towards an experience of life not impacted by those who play no part in it.

They will have standards they’d like us to live up to. But we will understand that living up to the standards they’d like us to live up to is a choice. Our choice.

the Choices for Us Words by Barbara Mertlova

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Creative Writing - The Magdalen - February

THE GAP BETWEEN Our silly games have led us to walk against one another.

The Mother cries for the foolishness of her younglings.

My heart yearns to see my fallen comrades, it springs hatred in the hearts of us who mourn.

Aren’t my palms my own, for I’ve been told they belong to my people.

With these hands that weren’t built for fighting, I have to carry a burden that as a collective we are wearing.

My fingers resemble the ones my parents have, but these are still my hands.

I shouldn’t use these to point, even though they colour my skin and give me my name but in the end, we do the same for them.

What is so different anyway?

Is it the food we eat, or the songs we sing, the holidays we celebrate?

Don’t we pray to the same G-d?

It is true that by opposing others our identity grows, it’s the fuel for its existence.

But by carrying these misperceptions, I lose my sight, become blind to myself.

I can no longer tell if this is my palm or someone else’s.

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Design by Detta Carfrae

February - The Magdalen - Creative Writing

US. The bells ring from high above, which make the Northern Lights dance.

My heart beats once, twice, echoes like the winds, but my blood is just far too thick.

In my dreams, I see the green hills and the mountains surrounding them and there is no disruption.

No flag to claim the land as its own.

No matter where I look I see smiles that reach across the many faces... Individuals, no us or them: friends, loved ones, perhaps ones I don’t know by name, but does that mean I shall hate them?

I’ve instilled pieces in those I cherish as they have done for me, but we’re still not divided that’s just a misbelief.

There is no gap unless that’s what we choose to see.

Words by Daniel Pukkila

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Quiz - The Magdalen - February

Which historical feud What are you most likely to feud with someone over? a. Politics b. They’re a competitor in my own field

B

A

Are you going to have people killed over this?

A

A

a. A verbal deconstruction does more than any weapon b. You bet

B

Ok, but this will get you killed, you know that right? a. Woah now when you put it like that... b. I’m going to publish 14 whole speeches putting this guy down

B

Is this about you versus them individually, or do you want to take down their entire organisation?

A

a. This is between us, PISTOLS AT DAWN! b. In the end, it’s only business, kid

B

Cicero versus Marc Antony

Alexandar Hamilton versus Aaron Burr

Al Capone versus Bugs Moran

“You assumed a man’s toga and at once turned it into a prostitute’s frock.”

“Your letter of the 20th has been received. I regret to find in it nothing of that sincerity and delicacy which you profess to value.”

“Don’t let anybody kid you into thinking I can be run outta town.

I haven’t run yet and I’m not going to.”

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Design by Olivia Sharkey

February - The Magdalen - Quiz

do you most relate to?

Start here

Would your differences be business related, or artistic? a. Business b. Artistic

B

A

Is this about business model, or who’s better? a. Same game, I just play it better b. Their ideas are just wrong, MY way is the right way

A

So what’s your problem with them?

A

a. Some people get too much credit for not much work! b. Their ‘style’ is simply all wrong

B

B

Nikola Tesla versus Thomas Edison

Michaelangelo versus Leonardo da Vinci

Ernest Hemmingway versus William Faulkner

“If your hate could be turned into electricity, it could light up the whole world.”

“No, explain it yourself, horse-modeller that you are.”

“He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary.”

Words by Dundee Quiz Society

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Comics - The Magdalen - February

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Illustration by Dan Barnfield (above) and Leah Cameron (below)

AD 30th, 31st Jan & 1st Feb

8th Feb

Nominations close

What it means to be an Exec sessions

20th Feb

Candidates Briefing

21st Feb

Campaigning begins

25th Feb

22nd Feb

Launch Party Hustings Voting opens 19:00

Rector Hustings

28th Feb

1st March

Voting closes 17:00

Elections results party

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Arts and Entertainment - The Magdalen - February

REVIEW:

HOUNDS

OF

LOVE

“KATE BUSH IS A BIT Personally, subjectively, and with complete bias: I love Kate Bush. This is a fact which makes writing this article hard as my somewhat-more-objective critical glasses quickly get fogged up by my desire to ramble over how great Hounds of Love is. There’s space for that, but I also have to recognise a lot of people aren’t fans. So, in objective fairness, Kate Bush is a bit weird

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Design by Neil Connor

sometimes. But it’s precisely that ‘weirdness’ which makes her music interesting to listen to!

There’s a sense of experimentation in her sound, a pushing against the limits of what’s expected of pop music.

Hounds of Love is possibly the best example of this. Following up from her less successful fourth album, The Dreaming, Bush moved back to her family home,

“

WEIRD SOMETIMES

built a 48-track studio in a barn and dedicated over a year to perfecting the album. In doing so she took complete creative control and the impact shows.

Within the 12 tracks is a wealth of sound ranging from synthesisers and drum machines, to strings, choral samples and traditional Irish instruments. Kate Bush is nothing if not unexpected, and

February - The Magdalen - Arts and Entertainment

Hounds of Love is also the best album to listen to as an introduction to Kate Bush.

Compared to a greatest hits compilation, the album functions as a complete body of work with a five song ‘A side’ based around exploring ‘love’, sitting comfortably next to the more conceptual ‘B side’ (‘The Ninth Wave’) with a loose 7-song story about a woman adrift in a vast ocean trying to stay awake. But there’s the advantages of a compilation album too as Hounds of Love has some of her best work.

Opening with a relentless backbeat, ‘Running up that Hill’ alone is justifiable for giving the album a go. The strange bittersweet triumph bends to suit whatever mood you’re in, and the theme (exploring a desire to swap places with your partner to truly understand how they’re feeling), is something at once both unique and profoundly human.

The most conceptual song of the album, ‘Waking the Witch’ is admittedly a hard listen. Opening with a compilation of voices telling her to wake up before falling apart into a veritable chaos, it raises the question; does music need to sound ‘nice’ in order to be ‘good’? Listening to it in pretentious-English-student mode, all the chaos works well at capturing the trauma of a persecuted woman being drowned as a witch and her fight between life and death. As a casual listener, it’s one I often skip. That’s the danger of experimentation and the blending of art and pop. Too far and the music that supports the rest of the effects and lyrics suffers.

However, ‘The Ninth Wave’ shines at other points such as in ‘The Jig of Life’, a bold dance of fiddles,

“

alongside this myriad of instruments is a host of unconventional themes that draw from poetry, literature and film (the titular ‘Hounds of Love’ opens with a sample from 1957’s Night of the Demon, “It’s in the trees! It’s coming!”, before flying into the desperate drama of Bush’s vocals). Her music becomes a whirlwind of her own obsessions and is all the richer for it. How many pop artists today would write a tribute to the father-son relationship between Peter Reich and his father Wilhelm, inventor of a pseudo-scientific device designed to create storms (‘Cloud busting’)? With the charts currently clogged by a mush of similar-sounding, corporate produced, thematically predictable background music, it’s refreshing to go back and listen to an album that gleefully experiments and forces you to listen.

“

PROUD EXAMPLE OF WHAT MUSIC CAN, AND SHOULD BE whistles, pipes and drums. It has perhaps the best concept on the album: the central persona’s future self speaking to them through time to tell them to keep living, and you can’t deny the poetry of the lyric, “Where on your palm is my little line/When you’re written in mine/As an old memory?”. The conceptual is no struggle for Kate Bush, it’s only in ‘Waking the Witch’ that you feel she might be pushing a little too far.

There’s such a variety in the songs of Hounds of Love, not just in theme but in sound, which helps make the album as engaging as it is. You’re not hearing the same thing over and over; there’s something fresh to notice and a new song to fall in love with on every listen. Most important of all is the passion running through the album. The joy of experiment, creation and music culminates in a resounding triumph that manages to capture the strange feeling of being human. It is a testament to what an artist can create when completely free to follow their vision and because of that is a proud example of what music can, and should be.

Words by Mareth Burns

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Arts and Entertainment - The Magdalen - February

Review: Laws of Motion Having long established herself as one of the most unique and important voices in modern Scottish Folk music, Karine Polwart has a lot on her mind on her latest album, ‘Laws of Motion’. Her first album with her longtime collaborators, Ingie Thomson and Stephen Polwart since 2012’s ‘Traces’, sees Polwart expand upon themes and ideas that have been present throughout much of her oeuvre.

However, on Laws of Motion these ideas come together in a pleasingly cohesive manner on an album that feels intricately structured and beautifully crafted.

As is evident in the title of the album, movement plays a role in every song. In ‘Suitcase’ Polwart effortlessly links the mass migration of Jewish children escaping the holocaust of Nazi Germany with today’s refugee crisis, hammering home the fact that little has really changed in our attitudes since then.

Another standout track comes from ‘I Burn But I Am Not Consumed’, a song which was initially performed

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Design and illustration by Zoë Swann

at the opening of the 2017 Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow on the day before Donald Trump’s Presidential inauguration.

Polwart takes on the persona of the Rock below the Isle of Lewis, where Trump’s Mother initially left to travel to America. The track flits between spoken word and song as Polwart’s voice grows more strident and her and the Rock’s contempt for Trump only becomes clearer.

However, the album isn’t entirely based around political anger, which saves it from becoming slightly numbing- tracks like opener ‘Ophelia’ cast a tone of wistful sadness tinged with hope, as shown in the last line; ‘We stand a little closer’, something that Polwart clearly believes we need to do now more than ever.

As well as this we see Polwart continue to express her love of birds with ‘The Robin’ where the listener is encouraged to ‘Have not a heavy heart’, an uplifting and pretty melody underscored by Stephen

February - The Magdalen - Arts and Entertainment

Polwart’s beautiful fingerpicking guitar. Both Stephen Polwart and Inge Thomson are vital to the album’s overall sound, a fact reflected by their names being featured on the front cover for the first time, Thomson in particular offering her unique, slightly trembling backing vocals as well as creating stunning soundscapes through atmospheric use of synths, keyboards and accordions.

Their collaboration is best illustrated on the final track, ‘Cassiopeia’, where Thomson’s keyboard echoes and swirls around the vocals, Stephen’s guitar matching her melody lines while Karine’s vocal expertly reflects the bleak fear of the threat of nuclear attack which she felt growing up with government leaflets instructing her family to hide in a cupboard from an atomic annihilation. Despite the bleak tone that is created through this ambitious and stunningly arranged track, the final line of the album is ultimately one of hope – “We are gonna be survivors”.

Polwart is playing in Dundee, Gardyne Theatre, 17 May.

Words by James Kirkpatrick

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Arts and Entertainment - The Magdalen - February

REVIEW:

Phantom of the Paradise

Much of the filmography of Brian De Palma requires little introduction, with the frenzied episodes of violence and social satire displayed in works such as Scarface (1983) and his adaptation of Stephen King’s Carrie (1976) making lasting indentations on pop culture. Despite holding under his belt two distinctive titles whose iconic status outshines that of his own name however, there are films of De Palma’s which lie drowned in the dark shadows of obscurity which these towering works have cast. An earlier directorial outing of De Palma’s, the 1974 musical Phantom of the Paradise is one such example.

Blending elements from Goethe’s Faust with the musical stylings characteristic of the early 70’s, Phantom of The Paradise produces a unique adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera, whose quirkiness is almost as spectacular as the extent to which the film bombed at the box office. I’ll be blunt: This film is a gem, and it is my mission here to tell you why it’s more than worth your time. Much like the Leroux novel on which it is based, the film follows events which occur in a large music venue, only in this case the setting of an opera house in 19th century Paris is traded for a concert hall in 1970’s America. The plot follows the story of primadonna musician Winslow

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Design by Louise James

Leach who is tricked by the owner of the music venue known as ‘The Paradise’ into selling the rights to his latest musical to him. After being scorned and left for dead, Leach soon dons the role of the titular Phantom, aiming to exact his revenge upon The Paradise.

The setting provides a solid gateway into talking about one of the film’s greatest strengths—It’s overall aesthetic. Not shy to bleed style from every pore, the film combines both gothic and slight noir visuals with those associated with 60’s and 70’s sci-fi. It certainly sounds like a mess, but it also certainly isn’t. One moment, characters are striding down candle-lit baroque halls, paying homage to the atmosphere of the film’s source material, while the next minute a secret panel in the wall is opened revealing a room that looks like the bastard child of Doctor Who and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Yet somehow, despite this stark variety in visual styles, they somehow combine to create a cohesive aesthetic that carves itself permanently into the mind.

The film’s soundtrack is also given this distinctive touch. The man behind the music in this case is Paul Williams, better known for his work on Bugsy

February - The Magdalen - Arts and Entertainment

Malone and his collaborations with Daft Punk. The songs Williams composed in Bugsy Malone were consistent in their genre, and he could’ve gone down a similar route with Phantom considering the clear gothic influences. Instead, Williams made a bolder decision to have the big musical numbers each reflect different genres of music that were popular at the time. He didn’t exactly have slim pickings. The late 60’s to early 70’s could be described as one lengthy pastiche of milestones in music, ranging from the rise in popularity of orchestral pop to the emergence of a style of music which would eventually form the basis of the metal genre. This variety in music styles across this period of history is embraced wholeheartedly by Williams, who ensures that the music genres listed above, and more, receive at least some degree of representation in the film. The result is a soundtrack that does more than simply support its associated film, and (much like the film’s aesthetics) stands effortlessly on its own as a loving tribute to the popular trends of its era. The song “Upholstery” stands as one of the most endearing in this soundtrack of send-ups, as it satirises the acappella-esque stylings of The Beach Boys with near pinpoint accuracy.

In its presentation, satire and overall desire to have fun, I’d like to say that the film is completely unrestrained-- I’d like to. Thus we arrive at the small hurdle where this film stumbles. For as much as I could praise the film’s music and style to high heaven, the actual cinematography during the musical numbers is honestly bland. Strangely, the rest of the film is well shot, but every time William’s songs take the spotlight, the camera is often content to show barely edited footage of the characters singing. This complaint might seem petty (as it most definitely is), but when one compares it to the way in which musical numbers were directed in Alan Parker’s Pink Floyd—The Wall for example, it feels outdated and jarring when coupled with the shameless surrealism of the rest of the film.

This, however, is nothing but a slight scratch on an otherwise incredible package. Phantom of The Paradise is a rare one-of-a-kind passion project that knows exactly what it wants to be and doesn’t care who it alienates in the process. It will never be a crowd pleaser, but its flamboyant nature is willing to take anyone with an open mind on a ride they’ll not likely forget.

Words by Jack Loftus

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Community - The Magdalen - December Arts and Entertainment - The Magdalen - February

Review: Egypt Station Paul McCartney has never been one to sit still for long. When The Beatles imploded in the late 60s and his bandmates were making polished, ‘statement’ records, he made an album at home featuring himself on every instrument made up of half-finished songs and instrumentals. Since then he has always attempted something different, and while he hasn’t always been successful, he has been far more consistent than his detractors would have you believe. This brings us onto his 17th Solo Album, September’s ‘Egypt Station’, a follow up to 2013’s strong, focused NEW, where we find McCartney maintaining that eclectic streak, jumping between styles with relative ease and showing he still has a fantastic ear for a catchy melody.

The album is centred around the idea of someone travelling on a train, with the songs representing stations along the way. It’s a loose concept that never intrudes upon the enjoyment of the album but is a pleasant thematic link if you choose to look for it.

From moody, downbeat opener ‘I Don’t Know’ to the grand and overblown mini rock opera of ‘Despite Repeated Warnings’ via the baffling leap into contemporary styles and production in ‘Fuh You’, Egypt Station certainly tries to cover all the bases of what makes a satisfying Paul McCartney album and

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it largely succeeds but there are some bumps in the tracks. The opening salvo of ‘I Don’t Know’ and ‘Come On To Me’ is excellent, the latter offering pure, bouncy pop, McCartney leaves the listener with a feeling that they’ve known the tune all their life after only one listen as he has done on many of his best songs. ‘Who Cares’ follows soon after and sees McCartney emulating rock and roll of the 1950s, a great driving rhythm with some great guitar licks pulling the listener through some slightly lacklustre anti-bullying lyrics. Despite the lyrical issues, this caps off what should be a very strong first half of an album. The problem then comes when you realise you’re only a quarter of the way through. The album is 16 tracks long and many of them are close to five minutes; this wouldn’t be a problem if the songs were all as memorable as the first few, but it soon becomes clear that some of the tracks should have been left in the studio. Forgettable fare such as ‘Do It Now’ and ‘Ceaser Rock’ marks what could have been a punchy, lean album. However, despite these problems, the album manages to win you over, especially in its final track, a medley of three songs that are better than some of the songs that got more fleshed out. While McCartney may have slightly overreached himself this time, he still manages to come out a winner, as he often does.

Words by James Kirkpatrick. design and illustration by Nicole McLaughlin

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Arts and Entertainment - The Magdalen - February

REVIEW:

ROMA

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Design and illustration by ClĂŠmence Jaron

February - The Magdalen - Arts and Entertainment

A

lfonso Cuarón’s eighth feature film opens on an overhead shot of yard tiles accompanied by the sound of birds. Water splashes somewhere offscreen.

Footsteps. The water then rushes into frame over the tiles, creating a reflection of the sky through which an aeroplane passes.

Gentle reminders of life being lived inside and out of the frame.

Roma is a film less concerned with plot than it is with capturing life within the aesthetic of memory.

His first Spanish-language film in seventeen years, it is Cuarón’s most personal work, who assumes the roles of cinematographer, director, writer and co-producer.

Filmed in crisp black-and-white, the result is a poetic time capsule born from two key memories of the director’s childhood.

The first memory is of his growing up in a middle class home in New Mexico against the backdrop of violent student protests. The protests creep up on the audience as much as they do the characters.

At first all we’re told about the country’s political situation is by way of an offhand comment from one of the children (a soldier shot dead a child who threw a water balloon). Gunshots and warrior cries end up comprising two of the film’s loudest moments. But given Cuarón was a child at the time and not conscious of his political surroundings, most of the meticulous sound design focuses instead on the sounds of domesticity: birds, a record player, children playing, dogs barking. It is as important to the film’s architecture as the visuals, the latter of which grant us a tidal wave of space and depth of field. The camera pans across

rooms, streets and landscapes as characters walk in and out of frame, or it simply stands static and lets the action unfold. None of Cuarón’s signature camera moves are in play. Here, we observe things as they are.

The second memory stems from the first, but does not come directly from Cuarón’s nostalgia.

Roma’s guiding light is a young, indigenous Mixtec maid named Cleo, played with quiet power by first-time actress Yalitza Aparicio.

Based on a woman named Libo who worked for Cuarón’s family during his childhood, we become privy to Cleo’s life both during and outside of her vocation. Working for the family, her happier moments come from caring for the children, who regard her as more of a maternal figure than a servant. Her personal life sees her running the streets in laughter with fellow maid Adela, as the pair gossip about boyfriends and take frequent trips to the cinema.

The film is not devoid of story, but it doesn’t seek to place any artificial emphasis on the larger moments. As we’re drawn further into the action, tragedies begin to interject themselves before we can even process them as such. Our introduction to Fermín, Cleo’s boyfriend, is a naked martial arts performance, after which he recounts to Cleo how martial arts saved him from an abuse-ridden, poverty-stricken childhood.

Fermín’s final appearance later on ties into the plot in more ways than one, and offers harrowing implications in retrospect. To heighten the realism, the use of cuts and camera tricks is spare.

This dramatic content is given no more precedence than scenes of Cleo sweeping the yard or of the children playing on the roof.

The beauty of Roma comes from this honest depiction of life. Life as it is being lived in all its terror and unfairness and enormous love. The fragility of life and strength against adversity are two major themes in Cuarón’s cinema and the character of Cleo comes as a stoic fusion of both. That water, the symbol of life, is one of the first images we see is not mere happenstance; in fact, all the elements make significant appearances in Roma. Adversities come in the form of an earthquake, a fire, a merciless ocean, but, as one breathtaking scene demonstrates, Cleo is able to keep her balance.

The scope of Roma’s exploration of gender roles and class gives it endless room for analysis. The crux of its heart, however, comes from Cuarón’s delicately complex relationship with a woman who both served his family and helped to raise him. It is Cuarón’s way of honouring her (a title card at the end reads “For Libo”), and his love for her is clear. He indeed positions Cleo as a crucial member of the family, but not before putting her, as well as family matriarch Sofia, through a tremendous amount of pain. The end result reads more as a love letter to his own ideas of her rather than to her as a person.

“We are alone,” a drunk and heartbroken Sofia tells Cleo as the film enters its astonishing final act.

“No matter what they tell you, we women are always alone.” I hope Libo doesn’t feel that way.

Words by Samantha King

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Interview - The Community - The Magdalen Magdalen - December - February

A PERSPECTIVE INTO

DUNDEE

“WE ARE A UNITED CITY” With a beautiful city running alongside the river Tay, Dundee isa city where the divides within it run so deep that it may as well cut the city in half. It has to be understood, with these divisions not being as openly spoken about like Glasgow’s sectarian divide; it’s no more less important.

Dundee is a city that has a uniquely footballing perspective, with one once great team that light up Tannadice Street in tangerine and another that I would rather not sully my mouth with their name.

There are Dundee pubs and United pubs, however both sets of fans will drink in each, outside of match day of course. My local is a good seven miles from Tannadice but still has religious-like shrines to United in it, even boasting a Dundee United dog bowl for the four-legged-fan amongst us. Whatever sense you look at it, football dominates this city, and dominates the divisions within it. The city boasts the two closest football stadiums in the UK, with a pre-match tradition of the players walking from one stadium to the other. This is what matters to me, and as pointless as it may sound, football in Dundee is what matters to most Dundonians. It has often been asked “can Dundee support two clubs” or “one big club would do better, so why not merge?”, but generally Dundonians have always met these questions with firm rebuffal and an acceptance that rivalry and divisions are just the way of life in our city. On a personal note, football in this city has been a way of life for me, and for my family, who typify a Dundonian family. What makes us different from the fans of the Ugly sisters (meaning Celtic and Rangers of course) over on the West Coast, is that my family is split in two, much like I argue that the Tay should drive through Marketgait and divide the city as it is and not allow it to appear unified like it does. Half of my family support United, and the other half, well...the less said the better.

However, we still have a family tradition where we walk to matches together, and only diverge into our opposing enclosures, and then we walk back from the match to our cars together via a quick stop in a pub if the result deems appropriate.

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Dundee’s relationship with division has never been just a nonsensical affair related to football and other arguably not-so-serious pastimes as such. Dundee has had its fair share of strife in the past three decades. The city was seen as a Labour stronghold for much of its history, but screamed that it was clearly divided from the rest of the country by becoming arguably the Scottish National Party’s safest and most secure seat. Even returning the highest pro-independence vote in the 2014 referendum, this can be seen still, shutting down Ruth Davidson's “no demand for a second referendum” where in a city of 140,000 people, 16,000 pro-independence supporters managed to march down Reform Street into the very heart of the city.

The new museum brings about an aura of calm into the city, echoed by the waterfront it is an attempt to separate the city from its industrial past and turn it into a service-based version of itself. The last major industrial employer in Dundee, Timex, shut down in 1993 after a series of strikes that cause division and hatred to this day, you could ask most Dundonians if they knew anyone who worked at Timex and they would say yes.

October 2018 saw Dundee welcome and host the first V&A outwith London. In true Dundonian fashion the Facebook comments stated to appear with all the advertisement saying it’ll be ‘fantastic for the kids’ and equally ‘what about the homeless and the NHS..?’ Would this solve all the woes within a city with deep rooted divisions? At first, I was sceptical;the assembly began on the waterfront and alas I could see it finally forming into the building it was supposed to be. It was almost mirroring its neighbour the RRS. Discovering the process, and for someone with very little interest within art and textiles, I could not see what it had to offer me, a standard Dundonian who likes football and goes to the pub with his mates. Although on opening weekend, seeing the fanfare, fireworks and flocks of people coming towards the waterfront I was

Design by Helena Lindsay, photography by Guilhem Vatry

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Community - The Magdalen - February

amazed, despite it making my normal twenty minute commute home from the city centre into a two-hour trek. Nonetheless, I plucked up the courage and hid my annoyance and went into the V&A. Now, awe aforementioned, I am generally never blown away by art, but the architectural design and construction of the building blew me away. It should be said that the art inside was standard, it did not fill the space, let alone make such an impact that I would like to visit again.

I’ve travelled to many cities around the world and although the art was less than extravagant the architecture was beautiful. It allowed me to see Dundee in a different light. The building had a different feeling but it did not feel as if it belonged within Dundee, it did not fit this once industrial town. Yes, it had sharp angles and an industrial feel to it, but the building lacked a sense of homely-ness. When I visited the V&A it was roughly just a week after it had opened, I walked in to see people packed into the exhibits like sardines and queues snaked around the building to see the paid exhibit. Casual conversations were spoken in hundreds of different languages, it shocked me how many people travelled to my Dundee, the Dundee I grew up in, I study in, I live and work in.

“A DUNDONIAN IS, IN THEIR VERY NATURE,

PROUD”

Within the city it is evident there is a significant divide regarding poverty. The socio-economic divide amongst the populous is evident.

People lining up outside the job centre at 8:30am getting ready to be seen by an advisor to be told that this month, they won't be able to receive universal credit and that they’ll be given a referral to the closest food banks, almost 40 minutes on a bus away for them and their child. This is the harsh reality of majority of Dundonian’s currently. There was a plan to set-up a community fridge within the West End but many businesses were quick to disprove the idea to help those in desperate need and don’t get the food bank referrals, the homeless, the single parent household beside you.

They were worried that it would bring bad business towards the West End, which is complete and utter stupidity. I, myself have never heard of produce antisocial behaviour before, have you? The West End is generally much more affluent than other parts of Dundee, even with the significant numbers of starving students trying to make their SAAS or Student Loan last. Even though the West End

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Words by Sarah Jayne Duncan and Jack Waghorn

February - The Magdalen - Community

is much more prosperous than other parts of Dundee, it is clear that those who live there are not away from the constant money troubles, trying to balance a family at the same time. However, there is greater numbers of people trying to stretch a full-time job, a family and trying to feed them all for under ÂŁ30 a week. Can you let one child go hungry and another not because they live on opposite ends of the city? Absolutely not, but it should be known that poverty also strikes along the Perth Road. What angers us more is that there is a need for food banks and community fridges because of the increase of poverty and austerity within Dundee and Scotland.

Dundee is a divided city in itself, and Dundonians can never agree on what's best for the city, or how to make the city a more fair and prosperous place to live, never mind what football team to follow week-in, week-out. But what Dundee does have is a city-wide mentality that when others come and look to tease or to boast about their own city we bond together, much like Dundee and United fans outside of the 90 minute hatred. We ensure that while Dundee might be divided, and might not be the BEST place in the world, it is OUR city, that we love, and the V&A has shown that we as a city can be together, can be united.

A Dundonian is, in their very nature, proud. This can be seen in our footballing obsession, our history of strikes against wrongdoing and all the way through to our political views. Within the city people can never agree on which side of these arguments is the right one, however if an outsider, whether it be football related from the aforementioned Ugly Sisters of Glasgow or a politician from down south, or even when an Edinburgh based councillor asks why “bloody Dundee� gets a new waterfront, we will band together. We are a united city, that irrelevant of what the people who live in it think of it, are all alongside the river, none of us separated by it.

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Know Your Voice, Raise Your Voice 34

February - The Magdalen - Interview

A wee lesson from the world of Scottish comedy.

Often, in the world of university or even just in the ages between 18-25, we are encouraged to find ourselves.

To discover who we are as a person and who we want to be as adult members of society. This is something I take a fair bit of issue with. Who we are is constantly changing, never more so than in those young adult years. We are still growing, still learning and whilst we may find out more about who we are and the person we want to be, putting pressure on ourselves to define ourselves is incredibly draining. It limits us, we strive to define ourselves by what we already know, what we see represented in our society. However, this is made even harder if you don’t necessarily see yourself, or who you want to be, represented in society as it is now.

Whether it’s hearing your own accent or recognising a dialect or language as your own or hearing a story that you just know, there can be a disconnect between the world you see around you and the world you see in media.

It’s not always about a visual representation of who we are, but hearing a voice that we understand and identify with in a way that crosses so many boundaries and can unite people from all walks of life.

As the saying goes, laughter is the best medicine. Comedy is something that I’ve found can bridge the gap between people who for all intents and purposes are polar opposites. Mutual love, or dislike as it can sometimes unfortunately be, are powerful conversation starters.

Writing is an incredibly personal endeavour, it can show the world the type of person you are and the type of person you’ve been. It can show how you see the world, however more than that, it can show what makes you happy. What you laugh at and the types of things you try and do to make other people happy.

There’s a real beauty in that, trying to create something that will make people smile and laugh. People who you will likely never meet, who are totally different from you or who couldn’t be more similar but you’ll never know.

Comedy in Scotland has always had a distinctive voice and has always, for me at least, been an area where I felt part of something bigger. The self-deprecating nature, as cliche as it seems, brings us together. It’s not always the route comedians or writers take but there is something special in the ability to not take yourself too seriously.

It’s not unique to Scotland, it’s something we can all recognise. However, the Scottish catalogue of comedy has left its mark on this country in a way that no one, even Scottish people, can explain the full extent of.

It just is. Still Game references slip into our everyday conversations, if you’ve seen Rikki Fulton you might not be able to help laughing when someone mentions “water” or something “going down in history”. In Dundee, every sighting of a burger van may bring a wee smile on your face and the slight curiosity as to who is holding the spatula.

Bob Servant is a creation of Dundee’s own Neil Forsyth, an accomplished writer and journalist. From books, to radio, to TV, to Twitter, Bob Servant and his burger van have established themselves into the Scottish narrative.

The humour has found a worldwide audience, not unique to burger van owners either, and has offered inspiration to just as many.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Mr Forsyth himself about the world of comedy, Scotland’s voice in that and what you can do to find your own voice.

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Interview - The Magdalen - February

Do you believe there is a distinctive Scottish voice in comedy?

No, I think it’s more local than that. Growing up in Dundee I felt as much connection to the American comedies on Channel 4 (such as Roseanne, Cheers, Frasier) as I did to the West Coast dominated Scottish comedy on the BBC. Does it translate outside Scotland? Or is there a difference when you aim to write specifically for a Scottish audience?

I think all good comedy should play as both local and universal. Local in terms of a clear, believable sense of place, but with universal characters, themes and motivations. If I write something based in Scotland, I definitely include touches that would only be fully appreciated by a Scottish audience. And quite right too.

Have the themes and attitudes of the content of Scottish comedy changed over the last 20 years or are there strong themes that have stayed constant?

I think there has been more comedy based outside Glasgow for sure, and I do think that makes the overall output feel more rounded and give a bit more variety in tone.

In terms of drama, “Shetland” brought Tartan Noir back into television, do you think we’ll see more new dramas of the same theme?

There’s been a noticeable increase in Scottish drama on TV in the last five years, I think again because you can create universal drama in a really distinctive, photogenic setting with a clear local voice. With British TV drama booming, I’m sure that Scotland will get more than its fair share as a result.

Is developing Scottish content from Scottish writers important?

It makes sense to do so, it’s creatively comfortable, and on a pragmatic level it’s often easier (or less hard) to get something made where you’re writing within your own world, but at the same time I don’t think Scottish writers should be automatically expected to contain their work within Scotland.

Do you feel that there are new ways to develop content that don’t require television? For example, Twitter, web series’, shorts etc?

I’m a bit conflicted on that. For new writers or people that want to do it as a sideline, the Internet obviously offers a great opportunity to get your work out there. But as a professional screenwriter, I’m a bit suspicious of the way new writers are increasingly being offered either unpaid or very low-budgeted routes to production that would previously be decently budgeted TV work (ie on BBC3). I’d also be wary of just sticking anything up on the Internet, make sure it’s your best work and therefore your best calling card.

Do you think there is a dominance in Edinburgh/Glasgow based content?

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Design by Olivia Sharkey, photography by Emma Richardson

Yes, but it’s not always for the reasons you think.

For example, Scottish film and TV crews are largely based around Glasgow, with some in Edinburgh. So, if you’re making a show and the budget is tight (which it always is), then it’s hard to justify paying the large overnight crew cost of basing a production more than fair travelling time from Glasgow. When we made Bob Servant, the whole crew and cast stayed at a hotel in Dundee every night we shot there, which over a shoot adds a considerable cost. Sadly, the infrastructure and tightened budgets of TV favours Glasgow shooting, with Edinburgh at a push. If you think about it, there’s been very few Edinburgh based TV comedies, let alone anywhere more provincial.

Knowing that you are not the first to try something that could be risky or daunting makes doing it a little easier. As we’ve said, trying to “find yourself ” as a young adult is terrifying and wanting to share your writing with the world can be just as scary. Doing them both at the same time is something else entirely. But it’s not impossible, and the mistakes you make can turn into your greatest lessons.

Do you think you would want to share your voice with the world? Do you want to show what makes people us and them? Divisions don’t always have to work to our own detriment. Differences can be highlighted and celebrated, we can take pride in who we are, who we were and who we want to be. The world is becoming smaller and more isolated as our ability to connect with others, ironically, increases. As hard as it seems sometimes, we do have to take it upon ourselves to reach out and connect with others, despite our differences. The theme for this month is Us and Them, not Us vs. Them.

Try and find your voice. If you want, share it with others.

But don’t forget, kindness heals and ignorance hurts.

Laughter connects and disdain divides. We are all us to someone and to someone else, we are them. We are both, be proud of that.

Words by Mary Erin Kinch, with thanks to Neil Forsyth

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Current Affairs - The Magdalen - February

Thinking About What I Feel How to talk politics in the Age of Referenda

Y

ou’re thinking about doing it, aren’t you? The familiar swell of indignation is ballooning inside you ready to burst forth in something along the lines of: “How could you actually believe that crap?”

A brief rush of self-satisfaction will soon flash through your veins. Yes, that was necessary.

Wasn’t it? Considering the sour scowl glaring back in your direction, perhaps a different approach would have been better. Now before you fill that description with the caricatured image of James O’Brien schooling one of his intellectually vacant LBC callers, consider the wider picture. This dynamic can be found just as easily against those who claim the EU is completely democratic simply by virtue of it having a parliament, as those advocating for a halt to investment in renewables because wind turbines are “too ugly”.

Ignorance, wilful or otherwise, is of course not exclusive to any political persuasion.

If you’ve been following politics at all in the past few years, and I’m sure you have, you may have noticed something interesting. Up until recently the spin machine swirled around politicians in the furious attempt to avoid public embarrassment - who can forget poor Ed and his ill-fated bacon sandwich “gaff”? This was all taken to the extreme in the belief that just the

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Design by Molly Porteous

slightest knock to public trust and competence could send the poll numbers into tailspin. Yet recently, crisis after catastrophe seem to be able to afflict parties and party leaders whilst the poll numbers fail to raise an eyebrow.

I hold this in large part to a new force: referenda induced entrenchment. Where a binary referenda campaign may liberate curmudgeonly old socialists to link gaily in arms with Libertarian Tories, allowing grand coalitions of moderates of all colours to embrace, but most importantly forcing people to not simply vote the same as last time as they would in an election. In short, forcing them to form a new opinion.

Alas, this is soon shattered by a sleep deprived Dimbleby announcing the result, releasing a festival of emotion on the nation; for the victors elation or relief, and a brooding frustration for their opposites. As the dust settles political allegiances realign. Following the Indyref in 2014, Yes’ voters threw themselves behind the SNP. Most of those that voted Brexit clung to the Conservatives due to them being the party that had the most Brexity-Brexit on offer, and Labour was only managing to recover support by redirecting attention away from Brexit towards happier topics like bank holidays and renationalisation.

So emotionally charged are post referenda views that a subtle approach is needed if minds are to be swayed. How is this to be done?

February - The Magdalen - Current Affairs

Talking About What I Think Discovering the secret to political conversion is hardly an easy feat and one that has continued to elude the world.

In this political climate, quick fixes and grand declarations are regarded with more scepticism than ever. Ironically, they also seem to be regarded with more apathy by the very same people as participating in the daily craziness of our political world becomes more and more tiresome and confusing.

Therefore, developing some techniques that lead to building the foundations for a more engaging discussion, and at least keep the possibility of minds being changed, are more important than ever.

However, before any foundations are to be laid, the jargon has to be understood properly. Simple misunderstandings can lead to the greatest mistakes. When discussing personal political viewpoints, typical offhand responses run along some variant of “somewhere between democratic socialist and social democrat,” as if that was ever going to effectively communicate meaning. I’d think it wise to note that abstract political concepts such as “the left” and “the right,” aside from becoming increasingly redundant, can often alienate for more than they help explain. In any case, the following advice should allow for some “common-ground-finding” in this increasingly polarised world.

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Rather obviously, make the effort to find common ground. Establish that you want to have a constructive and open discussion.

Conversely, find a common enemy. Abundant emotion often rallies allies. Elites are always a good choice… just beware about using George Soros.

Know your audience and ensure they have a stake in your political vision, otherwise they have every interest to stop listening (i.e. don’t go on about Erasmus to your Brexit supporting grandad).

Know what you’re talking about. Blaringly obvious, not only should you do some research, but also spend time debating your points and rehearsing your arguments so you know what’s effective, and where the discussion is likely to lead.

Agree to disagree. Ultimately in your mining of other’s political viewpoints, even if you can debunk and dig past all the technical aspects of their position, you’ll often hit the solid igneous of their personal priorities. When it comes down to it, some people simply have different value different things.

Smile, make some comment about the importance of democracy and free discussion, then wait until you’re an inaudible distance away before muttering “ignorant moron.”

Words by Rory Bannerman

39

Current Affairs - The Magdalen - February

The Modern Place of Questioning NATO’s relevance to Scotland and Scotland’s relevance to NATO War is not a gentle topic of conversation, nor should it be. With challenges to international security becoming more intricate, it could be argued that block-based solutions to international conflict prevention, such as NATO, are no longer valid. In 2014, and arguably today, a sizable portion of the Scottish population wanted to see the country break away from the UK and renegotiate its position in all of the international groups it currently enjoys membership of. This would include NATO, an organisation with the remit of safeguarding Western security since 1949. Importantly, it does so by incorporating methods that stand against the position of the Scottish National Party, namely employing a policy of nuclear deterrence. So, the question presents itself: is NATO still relevant enough for an independent Scotland to pursue membership of it? Furthermore, are we relevant enough to NATO outside of the UK? There is temptation for many to make a knee-jerk decision which, for those in the positive camp may be based upon the idea that NATO has maintained peace thus far and as such we should not challenge a successful status quo. Others may cite an aversion to militarism or atomic warfare. The debate is as nuanced as the threats the organisation seeks to counter, with the questions of

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Design and illustration by Olivia Sharkey

financial commitments, international political weakness and access to the West’s greatest strategic minds all in play.

Firstly, NATO’s original reasons for existence should be considered. When it was formed in 1949, the world was hanging in the balance as two opposing ideological superblocks clambered over one another in an exhaustive arms race. The result was Western European allies led by the US, UK and France pointing thousands of nuclear weapons at the Soviet Union, which by this time had just as many, if not more, pointed right back at them. On the ground, there were also millions of troops ready to tear the world apart at a moment’s notice.

We should all know that story. Equally, we should all know that the Berlin wall came down in 1989, and the Soviet Union collapsed a few years later in 1991. So, knowing why NATO existed then, its relevance can be threatened.

To answer this, considering the threat of a “resurgent Russia” and radical Islamic terrorism making the conversation ever more relevant, I chatted to Dr Scott Brown. A new addition to the University of Dundee Politics department, he has worked alongside former

February - The Magdalen - Current Affairs

NATO commanders in his study of International Relations. I asked him what importance an independent Scotland could add to the organisation. He told me “First, of course, is the current location of the UK’s nuclear fleet on the west coast. NATO considers the uninterrupted maintenance of the UK’s nuclear deterrent as a strategic imperative and has warned that Scotland would have to allow the situation to remain unchanged if it wants to sign the Washington Treaty”. When asked about the SNP’s anti-nuclear stance and what issues this could throw up, he explained that “There is no incompatibility between being in NATO and not wanting to possess nuclear weapons. Members have to accept that NATO is an alliance that is in part protected by nuclear capabilities and this is unlikely to change any time soon”. However, he went on to say that, “if the UK relocates the bases in the event of Scottish independence, this would satisfy the SNP’s primary demand.”

Dr Brown also believes that, by and large, NATO membership would be very worthwhile for an independent Scotland. He explained, “Even though there are many challenges at present, not least the problematic attitude of the current US president, NATO is, alongside the European Union, an institution that reflects the ambition held in common by many

Europeans to transcend the historical pattern of war amongst these neighbouring countries. It is perhaps easy to say that such animosity is confined to the past, but it did not happen naturally or quickly; it required sustained long-term cooperative efforts to get to this point. NATO provides the security guarantee that creates the space for economic and political integration of European states.

To enjoy the benefits of the latter, all involved states should, therefore, contribute to the former to share the costs and responsibilities.”

Importantly though, it is also evident that Scotland can be just as important to NATO as it would be to us. Dr Brown mentions not only our geo-strategic placement in Northern Europe and coastline as valuable assets, but also suggests that the symbolic importance of a newly independent state choosing to join NATO would show the continued importance of the alliance.

It seems therefore that to argue against or in favour of political and economic integration in this era of Globalisation is one’s own prerogative. However, it seems increasingly evident that “going-it-alone” in strategic matters, is just as dangerous as always.

With thanks to Dr Scott Brown, Lecturer in Politics and International Relations.

NATO Words by Murray Glen

41

Fashion - The Magdalen - February

THE

COMPARISON GAME: Instagram, influencer marketing, and fashion Iboomers nstagram is not evil. No matter how many baby condemn the social media app as soul destroying, we all know that the platform can be used in inspiring and productive ways. The problem, however, is that scrolling through that feed does mean that you enter the comparison game. It’s almost inevitable at this point, in a world saturated with people sharing their lives online. No matter how well-adjusted you are, when you see beautiful woman after beautiful woman in lust-worthy outfits with expertly tousled hair, a little bit of comparison envy can creep in and make you question whether you are good enough. Why don’t you look like that?

Dress like that? Have candid photos of yourself to post online?

The secret, the thing to remind yourself, is that ‘influencers’ are an augmented part of reality.

No, I’m not saying that they are not real people.

What they are, though, is a product of influencer marketing. Influencer marketing is relatively cheap compared to the traditional methods of marketing like magazine advertorials, billboards, and television ads. More companies are allocating their budget to include this form of advertising, knowing that a

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Design and illustration by Eryn Moreton

good word from someone with millions of followers on Instagram will lead hordes of people running towards them. For example, some bloggers get discounted or even free trips to the salon to get their hair done. That’s a free visit every six to eight weeks, for the upkeep, all because their social influence generates the salon more sales, with their followers wanting to recreate the locks on themselves. For some, it’s the best advertising salons can have. The thing is, the followers that go to the salon don’t get the free treatment. They have to pay full price, and that amount of upkeep isn’t always attainable for those with a smaller budget.

This article is not intending to demonise influencer marketing. I think it is an effective way of advertising, and it gives us the chance to hear about a product from someone who has actually used it, or see how to style something up in a genuinely wearable way. Influencer marketing done well feels like it isn’t an advertisement at all, but a friend sharing something exciting with another friend.

We can all see through the poorly planned product placements from celebrities, like the superfluous detox tea ads from past Love Island contestants.

February - The Magdalen - Fashion

Journalists have been reaping the benefits of free press samples for years well before influencer marketing, so I’m not saying that a blogger receiving free treatments, products and clothes is the issue. What becomes a problem with this form of marketing is that it creates an unrealistic beauty standard to aspire to. Bloggers are not necessarily incurring the expense that their followers would have to in order to ‘keep up’. They get sent makeup, from high street to high end, endless fake tans, skincare, hair styling tools, beauty treatments, clothes. Influencer advertising clearly works, and an honest blogger will only share the products they truly enjoy or think their audience would find useful, but it is unrealistic to assume that a follower can always recreate the regime. We would all look ‘perfect’ if we had unlimited time and money, and this is what you should remind yourself if you feel disheartened when looking through Instagram. It just isn’t attainable otherwise.

We live in a copycat culture.

We follow people whose lives we want to recreate. We want to go on the same holidays as them, eat at the same restaurants, have the same phone. And of course, look like them.

This isn’t to say that we all blindly follow suit and look exactly like one another. We don’t.

We still have our own personal style, our own opinions. It is frankly idiotic to state that we all rush out and buy a coat as soon as a blogger posts about it, but I do think it is true that we are more likely to take fashion inspiration from a real person styling up the coat with their own clothes, rather than a model standing in front of a white screen on a clothing website.

This is what happens when we see a blogger’s photos.

Words by Emily Fletcher

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Fashion - The Magdalen - February

Essentially, influencer marketing is excess for the sake of excess. It is meant to be used to show off, to share what you could have, to give you something to aspire to.

However, it is unrealistic, and you really, really don’t have to keep up with it. ‘Doing it for the gram’ is ultimately dangerous, because it perpetuates unattainable lifestyles. I think in this day and age most people know that Instagram is not reality.

So many of the shots – and not just from bloggers – are set up, posed, combined with hair and makeup, the location picked for its ‘Instagramability’. We are fed pictures of a world in which everyone is ready at the drop of an expensive hat for a photographic moment, yet these photos are a fabrication of the truth. However, knowing that an image is partly fictitious doesn’t mean that you definitely won’t compare yourself to it.

It may seem condescending to suggest how to use Instagram, but a very simple tip which eliminates some of this comparison is to only follow people who make you happy. If you scroll through your feed and find yourself feeling annoyed, upset, or jealous because of someone’s post, then it should be a sign to unfollow. Influencer marketing is not a bad thing, nor is following someone for aspirational reasons.

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Sometimes you don’t relate to someone in the slightest, or even want to, but enjoy their pictures. But if they make you feel bad about your own life, then it’s not healthy to keep following and liking. And if it would be awkward to unfollow someone if you know them personally, then use that handy new mute button. Curate your feed into something which brings you joy, and you won’t feel yourself falling into comparison as often.

As Theodore Roosevelt said – I bet you didn’t think you’d see a quote from him in a fashion article – “Comparison is the thief of joy.” Instagram should not be about comparing yourself to others. It, really, should be about inspiration. From friends posting night-out selfies, to photos of dinner, to #ADs, it should all be taken with a pinch of salt. These photos are of outfits we could wear, makeup we could use, places we could visit. But we don’t have to. We can aspire towards them, of course we can, but they aren’t necessary. They are merely options to us, and we can choose to take them or leave them. Understanding how influencer marketing works means understanding that no one can, or should have to, live up to that lifestyle.

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International - The Magdalen - February

A Relative Thought on Language J ust as the lightning splits the sky down its middle, the world has been divided into two.

Us and Them. Right and Left. Remainers and Leavers. Cat people and Dog people. English speaking and Not. English speaking and Foreigners with a pronounced accent. English speaking and Visitors who can understand the Scottish phrases or sounds. English speaking and International students.

Do not misunderstand, of course we, who classify as international students at a UK university, can speak English. To various degrees, with specific, as well as undistinguishable accents, in correct, and sometimes for a pub conversation too correct, grammar. But we can all speak English because that is the basis on which we had been admitted to continue through with the initial degree application process. Yet, most of us would agree, that not being a native English speaker forms a level of barrier between us and them.

I recall my first visit to Britain. I was some 12 years old, and it was a compulsory school trip, because as native speakers of what is a minor language in the world’s perspective, we were appealed to gain a real-life experience with English. I thought, already then, that I could speak the local language in a way that would allow an unstrained communication with the people I would meet. I chuckle here, because naturally, that is not at all how it went. Ten years of learning the language later, having lived in the country for the most part of the last three, I am hit by the realisation that maybe, no matter how much

46

Design and illustration by Cara Rooney

I’d perfect my English, the two worlds would never collide. Sure we accustom to the habits of where we are; so saying that, phrases such as ‘wee’, ‘cheers’ or ‘circle’ have become an almost automatic part of my vocabulary. But psychology digs deeper below the surface than where slang expressions lie.

The hypothesis of linguistic relativity, as brought to life by Sapir and his pupil Whorf in their early 20th century work Science and Linguistics, suggests that the structure of language affects the speaker’s cognitive processes. “All observers are not led by the same physical evidence to the same picture of the universe, unless their linguistic backgrounds are similar,” stated SapirWhorf hypothesis, which meant that language would have an effect on speakers’ cognitive abilities. In other words, the language we speak would influence – or, in the opinion of the stronghypothesis supporters, determine - the limits of what about and how we’re able to think.

The Guardian (2014) mocked this theory by saying; “Speak French all day and you’ll start thinking stylishly, speak Swedish all the time and start feeling really good about taxation.” As a Liberal, this interpretation of the theory which proposes that people who pertain to a different speaking community are incapable of certain types of thoughts and ideas, makes me think of it almost as racist. Similarly, towards the end of the 20th century, many scientists, including

February - The Magdalen - International

Milotki who published a large-scale research discrediting parts of Whorf’s findings, began to consider much of the theory outdated. After all, we used to believe (a conviction which peaked in 18th century literature), that culture’s language defined identity to such a point, where it invoked entirely distinct worldviews across linguistic groups.

And although the rise of Whorfianism opposed biological differences between people, it highlighted the conditioned differences between them.

So what is language? How much of an impact does it have on our personalities? Do those students, whose first language isn’t English think differently about certain things? You might assume that as an international student here in the British world, I would have such topic mastered, but strangely enough, it had not crossed my mind to consider it in more detail until the distinction between language and communication was proposed to me recently. If we subscribe to the idea that the extent of our vocabulary influences (let alone determines) perception, we are in a way denying the natural process of learning speech in childhood.

People are born incapable of materialising our thoughts, but that realistically doesn’t mean we cannot perceive anything around us.

However, when this area of linguistics is explored from a slightly different angle, whereby scientists look at the relationship between language and colour perception, it makes at least some justified

sense. In terms of biology, we more or less come to the same conclusion that human beings, as one species, see the world with the same eyes.

If, therefore, research finds differences in colour perception and definition, they deductively must be explained in another way. Rosch tested in late 1970s the Dani people of Papua New Guinea who only use two colour terms – bright and dark.

The results of her study showed that they were, indeed, able to discriminate colours within the same (bright/dark) category from one another, but at a slower speed than speakers of a language which had distinct terms for such colours. This proposition argues against strong linguistic relativity, but suggests that the language we speak influences, rather than determines, our thoughts.

Altogether then, does the language we speak define our identity? Perhaps to an extent. Whatever belief you are of, though, you are finding yourself in what I have experienced as one of the most friendly, accepting, and helpful cultures you could think of, so embrace the odd phrase here and there, learn that “alright?” doesn’t expect an answer, and don’t hope for a dedicated “Cream cheeses” isle in a supermarket (this you will probably only relate to if you’re Eastern European), and enjoy the experience which both linguistically, as well as culturally, (ir)relatively broadens your horizons.

Words by Barbara Mertlova

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International - The Magdalen - February

Are You

Brave Enough to Escape from Your

Biological Nature?

Me and you.

My society versus your society.

Although we are all human beings, everyone is different and can be distinguished from the rest of the world. In the meantime, we feel the need to belong somewhere, with somebody, or to something, so we put our similarities together to become part of a certain group or community. This forms the in and out-groups’ oppositions. Nowadays, people tend to build walls without bridges between different races, cultures, genders and religions. Thus, the recent migration movements have increased the number of the ‘us and them’ conflicts.

When are the first boundaries between languages, cultures and communities built?

And by whom? The Tower of Babel story says that up until that time in the Bible, all people had been united by speaking one common language. This was a powerful gift, which brought them together to build a tower that would reach the Heaven. God was not pleased with their intention, so He confused their language. This made them speak many languages, so they could not understand each other. As a result, different languages spread all over the world, causing changes in the development of future cultures.

This meant people started feeling closer to those who spoke the same language and followed the same traditions as them.

The sociopolitical issues based around discrimination have existed for many decades but have escalated in recent years. The reason behind this is not only because of the language differences. For instance, people can speak and understand English, yet be denied from the English society because of their skin colour.

This attitude is mostly bound to psychological predispositions. Animals and humans are more likely to cooperate, encourage and share things like food with those who have more relation to them. The relationship can be based on genes ,appearance or similar interests. Many people express an implicit preference for their in-group members – those like themselves. The difference between skin colour is believed to trigger the perception of violence. Those who are different from us are

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Design and illustration by Robbie Kieran

February - The Magdalen - International

expected to pose more potential harm. These stereotypes and discrimination have largely invoked the number of anti-immigrant policies and race-related demonstrations.

the privileges of citizenship. The way we use the borders (physical and metaphorical) reveals how we make sense of ourselves – as humans, Europeans or cowards.

The migration crisis has been a recent problem that arose from humans’ attitude towards separating themselves from those who do not belong to the community.

And it is not only about the crisis in 2015.

Moving from one place to another has always caused problems for those who are newcomers. Although the European Union aims to welcome and help the refugees, humans’ innate psychological predispositions to oppose the strangers cannot always be avoided. Oftentimes, the out-group is perceived as a threat to the members of the in-group. This occurs mainly when the out-group is seen to hinder the goals of the in-group. This innate fear is seen as one of the possible reasons why the crisis caused so much tension between countries and political parties.

The distinction between us and them can be based not only in migration, but also in each difference that exists between people. The Foreigner can be a good and smart person with dreams and aims. But, they might not look the same or share the same religious beliefs. With time, they can become legal part of the society, but are they going to be part of us?

On one hand, the European Union stands for unified nations, peace and international support. On the other, it is difficult to force people to open their minds as well as hearts and accept the Foreigner. For some countries, the borders are social, political and economic salvations from stopping non-European people. Hungary, for example, built a razor-wire fence and prosecuted migrants entering illegally. This decision was not only political, but it was socially supported by many Hungarians. Actions like this extend the gap between migrants and citizens and define

As an international student, I have felt as an outsider many times. It is part of our daily life to be and to feel like a Foreigner. This is the way we as humans act and exist. However, it is our responsibility to accept the differences between people. They make the world more colourful and interesting. The appearance and the things like culture and religion are just the façade over the beautiful minds that can be found.

On biological basis, humans may have the innate impulse to define differences between species. This predisposes them to discriminate between each other depending on religion, skin colour or languages, and through centuries, there have been many examples of sociopolitical issues worldwide.

The distinction between people is anti-humanistic and we as part of the world should be responsible to help and accept each other.

Words by Maria Radeva

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Recipe - The Magdalen - February

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Design and illuatration by Detta Carfrae

February - The Magdalen - Recipe

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Heat the oven to 180°C (gas mark 4). Lightly grease a square/rectangle cake tin with a little extra butter or margarine and cut a piece of greaseproof paper or non-stick baking parchment to fit the base of the tin.

Put all of the ingredients into a large mixing bowl and beat with a wooden spoon or a hand-held mixer for 1 minute, or until combined. It’s important not to beat the batter too much.

Pour or spoon the mixture into the tin, smooth the top and bake on the middle shelf of the oven for about 45-50 minutes. The cake is cooked when it looks well risen and golden; the top should spring back when lightly touched with a fingertip. Another test is to insert a skewer into the centre of the cake - it should come out clean.

For the icing, place the dark chocolate and chopped butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a saucepan of very hot water until melted.

While the cake is still warm poke several holes in the cake. I usually use the handle of a wooden spoon, then pour over the chocolate icing and let set in the fridge over-night.

Once the cake has set cut up into bars and wrap in grease-proof paper and red twine for that Valentine touch!

Words by Taylor Dewar

51

Lifestyle - The Magdalen - February

Semester 1: Sport Round-Up

DULHC

(Social Secretary) Rebecca McLoughlin It’s been a successful first semester on and off the pitch for the University of Dundee Ladies Hockey Club this year. From the get-go, a successful warmup week, give-it-a-go sessions and team trials saw our large club of 90 increase to 120 as we gave a warm welcome to our newcomers.

In terms of on-pitch successes, the hard work and determination from the whole club has resulted in 3 of our teams being placed in quarter final tournaments due to be played at the start of second semester. Our 1XI team are playing in the quarterfinals of the Scottish Plate, with our 2XI team

52

playing in the quarter-finals of the BUCS cup and our 4XI team playing in the quarter-finals of the BUCS plate.

Off the pitch we have had a busy semester in terms of social events, we have had many joint socials with other University of Dundee sports clubs. We have also hosted an event with the University of Dundee Boobette Team this semester in order to raise awareness and funds through donations for the breast cancer awareness charity Coppafeel, in addition to making present parcels for Cash for Kids at Christmas.

Design by Olivia Sharkey, photography by Dundee Sports Union

DUGC

(Club Captain) David Cuthbertson So far this year, Dundee University Golf Club have started well.

Our 1s have played in all of their league matches, however, have faced tough oppositions each time and have sometimes not had the result they deserved.

On the other hand, the 2s have had a much more successful season. They have recorded 2 wins so far with one more game to play. On the basis that our 2s captain, Charlie, has struggled for a team on a number of weeks for these fixtures, to pick up 2 victories so far is very encouraging.

With regards to the social matches, there have been 2 matches played as of yet against the R&A and the Swedish Golf Gymnasium. The R&A match is always the pinnacle of the DUGC career and it was another successful day.

This year has been one of the more successful years for the golf team in terms of freshers recruitment.

We had a record number of new recruits with three of which now competing in the 1s. Further to this, the numbers at our range sessions have been a record high too. The club have had many social nights this year, like our annual trip to the bingo.

Again, these have been run very smoothly and often leave a story behind.

After the first half of the year, DUGC has really had a successful semester, and here’s hoping it will be even better moving into the New Year.

DUAFC

(Senior Club Secretary) Johnny Tremlett The DUAFC have enjoyed a positive start to the season for all five teams competing in the BUCS leagues, with title challenges still a possibility for several teams as they embark on the second half of the season post-Christmas.

Our 1st team, having been promoted last season began with a narrow defeat to Edinburgh Napier and since then results have been up and down, with the team currently languishing in fifth place.

However, if they win their game in hand, they would be back to within touching distance of the top of the table.

Our 2nd team suffered two very disappointing defeats at the beginning of the season, however back to back 3-1 victories over arch rivals Abertay along with two very strong performances against Dundee & Angus College, have propelled the team to within two points of the league leaders, with promotion now a realistic possibility.

The 3rd team have had an encouraging start to the season, highlights of which include beating the 4ths in two tight affairs at the Riverside pitches, leaving the team in 2nd place. A huge win against Robert Gordon’s thirds prior to the Christmas break has eased relegation fears. It is a result that the team will look to build upon in the second half of the season.

Our 5th team have had the most successful start to the season sitting top of the league after five games. Captain Mark Brady has done an exceptional job, dealing with a squad of almost twenty-five boys after a huge influx of freshers.

Words by Rebecca McLoughlin, David Cuthbertson and Johnny Tremlett

53

Lifestyle - The Magdalen - February

Dundee University against Poverty Poverty in Dundee: Our city, our responsibility.

Throughout the UK there are 14.2 million people living in poverty. In Dundee alone 1400 homeless applications were made last year, with 255 living in temporary accommodation, 175 of which are children. More than 1 in 4 children live below the poverty line in Dundee.

The Dundee University Against Poverty Society aims to tackle poverty on a local level, by providing volunteers, raising awareness and fundraising for local charities and organisations. Many students don’t realise that Dundee has one of the highest poverty rates in the Scotland and is the fuel poverty capital of Britain. Fortunately, there is an impressive number of charities making a difference every day and they continually need our support.

We have been up and running since March 2018 and have been super busy! We started off with our Launch Party in Air Bar which saw around 100 students get free pizza while they listened to a series of talks. This included an introduction to the DUAP committee and what we’re about, local charity Faith in the Community filled us in on the issues of poverty in Dundee, and Making Dundee Home, along with an ex-homeless gentleman, did a Q and A for us. At the launch party, various charities were also invited to set up stalls and have a chat to students about volunteering and what their charities do. Inspiring Stuff! Following this, we collected over

54

3 car-loads of kitchen equipment for starter packs from the Hub and Students leaving Dundee, all of which goes to people in need who have just moved into new accommodation, allowing them to make the most of their new facilities.

Following this, we had a very successful Freshers’ Fayre and a welcoming social. These resulted in 42 matriculated members! Subsequently, we launched the DUAP volunteering website (https://duap32. wixsite.com/vitc). This is a platform for students to find local volunteering opportunities, from the odd hour here and there to weekly volunteering posts.

These can be seen on our Facebook page as well as our website.

As soon as we heard about the Raising and Giving Charity nominations (Dundee’s nominated charity for the year) we knew there was an obvious choice.

We nominated, promoted and successfully helped Dundee Food Bank become DUSA’s RAG charity for 2018/19. The Dundee food bank needs all the support it can get, feeding over 8500 people last year alone!

We held a movie night for the Food Bank showing “I, Daniel Blake” which raised £146.73. A truly spine tingling emotional film, it really coveys how poverty affects all walks of life and the struggle many people face day to day. Furthermore, we had a food

Design and illustration by Molly Porteous, photography by Dom Lloyd

February - The Magdalen - Lifestyle

collection at Ninewells, collecting 16.3kg of food!

We also sourced and collected raffle prizes for Making Dundee Home and have done many coat collections for the charity Coats and Quilts who distribute to those who struggle through the cold winter months. In addition, we held two SKINT bake sales at 2.30am outside the union to sponsor our members for Sleep in the Park, raising £139.39.

The Sleep in the Park was a hugely successful end to the year - 14 of our members took part and raised £2576.63! The nationwide sleep out across 4 cities - Dundee, Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh - saw 10,000 people sleep under the stars on Saturday 8th December. This raised over £3.2 million for Social Bite, a national social enterprise in Scotland. They are the largest distributor of fresh food to the homeless in the UK, giving out over 100,000 items of fresh food and hot drinks per year. They have also launched a homeless village that offers accommodation to twenty previously homeless people at any one time, with wraparound support services to help them find a job, gain qualifications, get emotional support and find long term permanent accommodation. They have also developed a nationwide program where 800 mainstream flats have been pledged across Scotland to bring rough sleepers off the streets.

Sleep in the Park had an incredible atmosphere of togetherness, with incredible performances from KT Tunstall, Amy Macdonald, Kyle Falconer, Hunter and the Bear, Withered Hand and a hilarious bedtime story!

At DUAP, part of our aim is to promote social awareness. We are utilising the strength, creativity and energy of students here in Dundee, not only to help tackle poverty but also to encourage our members to think about poverty in a new light, inspiring them to be agents of change.

DUAP is a sociable, fun and active society that brings people together from across the university.

Even our committee is made up of people from completely different subject areas! So please get involved!

@DundeeUniversityAgainstPoverty

duap@dundee.ac.uk

@DUAP18

Words by Dom Lloyd

55

THE LAW & MECHANICS THE MECHANICS OF US A Monday morning starts early for a second year Mechanical Engineering student of Dundee University. Half past eight arrives, and a begrudging roll out of bed is followed by a sleepy walk past the rooms of slumbering flatmates to a bowl of porridge awaiting in the kitchen.

With little time before lectures begin, the dirty bowl is discarded and a noisy ritual of waking up your fellow engineering flatmate – alongside all others inadvertently – is quickly completed and before you know it, you’re sitting in Fulton with a pen to paper.

The lecture ends, with some mornings feeling longer than others, and a few hours of food and procrastination are enjoyed before the workshop from one until five. Much like the lecture, the work on thermodynamics or fluid mechanics is better some days than others, but thankfully the end of the day does come.

A short walk home allows for plenty of time before either a training session down at Riverside or just a good bit of banter with the flatmates before a night of work or relaxation. Before you know it, the lights are out and the head’s on the pillow, with one day ending and another on its way.

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THEM AND THEIR LAW Ten o’clock flies in and the eleven o’clock Property Law lecture looms. A bowl of Cheerios and cup of tea is enough for breakfast and the mug and bowl joins those of the flatmates that left earlier this morning. A textbook and notepad alongside the half-finished tutorial work for the afternoon are thrown into your rucksack and the walk-up Perth Road to the Tower Building leaves you effectively awake.

The wide nature of a law degree allows for an individual to enjoy some modules more than others, and fortunately the Property lecture in the morning and afternoon Commercial Law tutorial are enjoyable enough. Once these are done, an option of library or home often occurs and unless in exam time, the allure of one’s home is too much to resist.

With other flatmates out until five, some work is often completed or a good bit of food or television is enough to take up the time. The regular working day quickly ends however, and a good bit of Fifa or a movie often sees out the day, and soon enough it comes to an end. Fortunately, there isn’t a nine o’clock tomorrow morning either, maybe a trip to the library to start the day will do you good... or maybe not.

Words by Rory McGinn, design by Cristina Antequera

February - The Magdalen - Opinions

A LIBERAL’ S REALISATION AND VISION

I am a proud social liberal, but it is hard to be an optimist when all you believe in is under immense pressure. Trump is president of the liberal standardbearer, while May is steering the UK directly towards the precipice for international cooperation. Poland and Hungary are slowly abandoning the democratic systems established after the fall of Communism, and Erdogan leads a frontal attack on the dream of a democratic and secular Turkey. How did it come this far?

It is mainly our own fault. The political centre has failed to address the public’s true concerns and has left a complete open playfield for the radical left and right populist movements. Since 1945, the Western world has experienced unprecedented developments leaving our societies better than ever before. The Liberal democracy has proven to be unbelievably successful, but is today under pressure as a result of the failure to include all citizens and distribute the benefits fairly. Today, we are experiencing the aftershocks after the financial crisis, the prospects of ecological disaster, the hangover after ‘the end of history’ and the challenges for inclusive and multicultural societies.

The challenge is truly immeasurable and it would be the easiest to throw in the towel. I should be a pessimist.

I am an optimist of nature. So instead, I have a vision for 2019 and how to combat populism and the illiberal tendencies of today. We have to show the true strength of democracy: inclusiveness and a proper public conversation. We shall not combat it by promoting restrictions on free speech to tackle hate speech, excluding the ones we do not agree with from the public debate and shame out the people that vote in opposition to us. That is unfortunately what we to a great extent have seen in the USA, both in the public sphere and on university campuses.

Instead, we need to combat it with the greatest assets in a free society, namely good arguments and tolerance. If we try to cut off the ones we disagree with, then we could easily end up as authoritative as the tendencies we try to challenge. I hope 2019 will be the year where the political centre in the Western world adopts a true exercise of soul-searching and start to act instead of reacting, so freedom will prevail. If we fail, then we are the real danger.

Words by Christoffer Nielsen, design by Rachael Hastie

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Opinions - The Magdalen - February

The Philosophy of Godzilla

Humans and Hyperobjects “The arrogance of man is thinking that nature is in their control, and not the other way around…”

These are the dreadful words of Dr. Serizawa, played

by Ken Watanabe in the 2014 Hollywood rendition of Godzilla. If my words are not enough to achieve the correct tone for this piece, I recommend that you listen to ‘Godzilla!’ in addition to Alexandre Desplat’s 2014 main soundtrack whilst you read this.

Swathes of Miami and Osaka are threatened by rising sea levels. California and Australia anticipate greater droughts every coming summer. Colossal corporate entities continue to irresponsibly pump greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Human kind, as conglomerations, are responsible for a destabilisation of temperatures across the biosphere.

Granted, this human centric age is coming to a close.

The displacements of peoples across coastal cities will change political structures and economies for decades to come; a new world where people flee nations subject to the hostile forces of nature, as if fleeing from a war-torn country. This will mark a new epoch for humanity, as many now have more reason to fear the forces of nature than we have ever done the red menace or radical Islam.

The dreadful narrative I wish to convey accepts that, regardless of how much we cut down greenhouse emissions, the epoch of our anthropocentric control

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Design and illustration by Fraser Robertson

over nature’s resources will change, whether we like it or not. A re-oriented metaphysics in conjunction with environmental ethics will determine this change. And not just because we have now made irreparable damage to our atmosphere and its potential scuppering of ecosystems for generations to come.

We must drop the idea that humanity has a license to make with nature what we please. Rising sea levels make the ocean a hostile object, that gravely reminds us of how our own free action has allowed us to forget our power on nature. The rising oceans are titanic entities, of our creation; ‘hyperobjects’ that we will not see dissipate within our own lifetimes. Their massive longevity and effect warrant humanity’s fear, as if it were an entity out to punish us for its creation.

Extrapolating on the fear we have of our new agential neighbour, why should we see it as terrifying being, let alone a being at all? The term hyperobject belongs to Timothy Morton, a contemporary philosopher who writes on these entities through the scope of environmental ethics. These are objects of vast spatial and temporal qualities; oceans, continents, planets, black holes… natural phenomena of scale that supersedes the observer. Humanity has had the power to forge such monstrous objects that are today impossible to remove through any human method.

Turning to metaphor, throughout Godzilla’s many reincarnations most often the beast is a metaphor for

February - The Magdalen - Opinions

man’s new-found nuclear capability. It is not possible for us to blow up Godzilla, as the beast is itself the product or embodiment of this destructive power. In the real world, Godzilla lies dormant underground; the sum-total of nuclear waste that sits underground across the planet, locked in bunkers for millennia to come. Godzilla is never threatened by the powers of humanity, more often rather by the equal strength of other hyperobjects, like Destoroyah or the M.U.T.O.s.

According to the fictional Dr. Serizawa;

All humanity can do is grant these titans with the elbow room they require to duke it out on a colossal scale.

We cannot fight the destructive power of nuclear waste, we just grant it a space for it to do minimal damage. The timescale we are dealing with in respect to nuclear waste is truly massive. Anthropologists and linguists already anticipate how we today can communicate to remote future generations to not open up these nuclear waste bunkers once they are found in the distant future. This is not quite unlike us opening up a mystical tomb, except these really do house a dark force that must remain hidden. These bunkers house ruthless forces that would seek our slow painful radioactive death.

Now you might be beginning to get a sense of why these are the forces that will change the course of humanity. We will either flee or perish from their destruction, as millions migrate from coastal cities.

Or, in finding a solution, we will live with the guilt and fear of how close we came to being punished by the forces we once ignored. These two worlds are ones where we no longer are the beings that simply have license over nature and are the sovereign lawmakers. We would see it fit that hyperobjects, in their immense size and lifespans, are the agents that determine our way of life if we do not owe them the respect they demand.

The appreciation of natural objects as powerful agents, equivocal to Godzilla, is absurd in the contemporary legal epoch. With the acceptance of an abstract theory like hyperobjectivity comes the very practical repercussion that the ocean has just as much right to agency as the human does. Is this the way our societal structure will adapt to climate change? Are we really capable of demoting ourselves below rivers, lakes and seas? In the face of the growing hostility of our environments, how will humanity respond in kind to negotiate with them, in order for civilisation to continue? It is my opinion that civilisation is determined to change. Just as when Godzilla arises from the mushroom cloud, humanity realises its leash over nature has flown out of its hand ages ago.

Words by Rory Brooke

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Opinions - The Magdalen - February

M M II D D G G R R O O A

lmost all of us live in this place called the Middle Ground. Eventually, everyone will settle in this magical place: no matter how tall or short, skinny or fat, wise or a fool one is. This place that I’ve named the Middle Ground depicts the certain way we think, which in the end reigns over our whole life. We are constantly compromising, settling for less and doing the things others want us to do. As the years roll by, the Middle Ground becomes more and more familiar. We root in there, get comfy and settle down whilst being pulled further away from our true selves. Perhaps it’s human nature or the way we’re raised, but for some reason, we value other people’s opinions over our owns. The view of others is more correct, and thus it has much more power and importance. That’s why we compromise and follow the way of others. We don’t listen to ourselves. Of course, the fear of being an outsider is a big factor.

We want to, we have the need even, to be a part of the collective. But what happens is that then we’re no longer ourselves, but a compound of what others want

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Design by Fraser Robertson

us to be and see to be correct. We lose ourselves and become one among the many.

Our parents, friends, peers and society itself affect us continuously. I wonder how many of us are studying or working in a profession that truly interests us.

How many have settled down with a person only because it’s convenient? How many have given up on their dreams only to satisfy others? I don’t know too many who are completely content with their lives. Naturally, there are moments of joy, but they are very brief. We sell ourselves to serve others. We work without a break only to survive. The struggle becomes daily. There are obligations, beliefs and other people relying on us and this makes the path we walk extremely narrow. This phenomenon can also be seen in everyday life. How many times have you found yourself talking with someone you can’t stand and after finally finishing the long conversation thought of how annoying the person was? Why do we keep putting ourselves in these situations despite the fact

February - The Magdalen - Opinions

T T H H E E D D LL E E U U N N D D that we hate it so much? To be “good people”? Or that others might tap us on the shoulder and give us some recognition? Are we so desperate to be acknowledged by others that we walk through life with this constant burden that only gets heavier with the years?

If we would leave the Middle Ground, and followed our own passions the world would be very different.

Perhaps there would be no notion of stress or depression. We wouldn’t be governed by an external force, but we’d be our own masters. And we can be, it’s quite simple actually. You have to simply say “no more”. Then do what you really want. Even if it’s crazy and what you really want to do is quit your job, sell all your possessions and move to the Himalayas, that would be okay. Others might disapprove, but why should it make any difference?

It’s time we grab and shake ourselves. So many are living their lives in the midst of regret, cornered there

by endless compromises. I, for one, wouldn’t want to wake up as a greyed old man and think: “Is this really where I ended up?” And if I listen to others that is my future: study, work, settling down and then slowly dying under the weight and pressure of all the worries. A very simple pattern that occurs time after time and is even encouraged and revered by others.

We’re very good at coming up with excuses: reasons to reassure ourselves that we have to do the things we do. We argue that there isn’t any other way. In the end, they are nothing but excuses that make us feel better, but deep down we all know, we’re just giving up on ourselves. There should be no reason to sacrifice oneself. The answer is very simple: we just have to make our stand very clear. And it’s not only us who benefit from that decisiveness but others as well. Soon enough life becomes a lot easier and the funny thing is that instead of people despising you for standing up for yourself, they honour you for your bravery. And if not, what does it matter, at least you’re finally free.

Words by Daniel Pukkila

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Our Bodies Are at War with I Cancer

t’s common to hear of cancer patients referring to their own personal journey and treatment as a “battle” or a “fight”, as if there was some gladiator arena in which they are forced to duel a cruel monster with chemotherapy as their weapon. Perhaps we’ve watched or read of a beloved character succumbing to the disease, or been unfortunate to see it first-hand among family or friends. Though the image of duelling a cancerous gladiator seems far-fetched in the context of cancer therapy, there is a literal battleground inside every cancer patient between the body’s natural defences and the cancer cells themselves.

People tend to simplify cancer. It makes it easier to understand, get our heads around. We think of the cancer cells responsible for the disease but in reality, cancer is far more than simply mutated cells.

Cancer cells are very good at tricking surrounding non-cancerous healthy cells into working in their favour.

Therefore, there is much more than just cancerous cells at play.

Normally, internal mechanisms kill cells with potentially dangerous

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Design by Molly Porteous

“ there is a literal battleground inside every cancer patient ” mutations before they have the opportunity to grow and spread to other structures in the body.

Mutations that escape these failsafes become the seeds that could develop into tumours, however they are routinely hunted down and eliminated by our immune system. Even after a tumour has already formed, the immune system will actively continue to seek out and attack the tumour. Therefore, the question of how tumours still form and evade these defence mechanisms and continue to grow, is dauntingly complex to answer.

Pioneering cancer research has found that cancer cells are particularly good at tricking a specific type of cell, known as a fibroblast, into helping the tumour grow and fight off the immune system. Fibroblasts are one of the major cell types found in every tissue and organ in the body. They maintain all of our soft tissues and collagen levels as well as being critical components in wound healing. In response to an injury, fibroblasts activate and provide nourishing proteins and biochemicals to the area that encourage healthy tissue repair, the growth of new tissues,

February - The Magdalen - Science

“ the delivery of cancer treatments becomes more effective than ever ” and stimulate proper healing. After the wound has healed, the fibroblasts deactivate and protect that tissue for the rest of the person’s life, making up scar tissue.

However, these fibroblast can become corrupted by cancer, becoming cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs). Cancerous cells tell the surrounding fibroblasts that there is an injury, and in response they activate wound healing. For cancerous tumours, this is great. The cancer cells get nourishing nutrients and growth signals but most importantly, the fibroblasts prevent the immune system attacking the cancer cells by constructing a protective wall of cells around the tumour, thereby preventing their death.

Fibroblasts even cluster around dead tumour cells; thinking they are protecting damaged tissue from harm. Living cancer cells sit in a protective bed of collagen – secreted by the fibroblasts - soaking up nutrients and regenerative proteins.

This collagen bed not only protects cancerous cells from attacks by the immune system but also gives the tumour a means of surviving attacks

of chemotherapy. The cancer cells thrive and grow while the fibroblasts keep the immune system from attacking and killing them.

Do you understand the battleground now? These sorts of events are common in cancer patients and can change rapidly over time, both naturally or in response to chemotherapy. As a result, attacks from chemotherapy can be less effective, necessitating a stronger and more frequent dose. Medical imaging techniques and microscopic analysis of cancerous tumours can actually allow medical staff to see where the immune system and chemotherapy are winning and where the cancer cells are still growing. These sorts of observations really underpin and justify the need to have multiple biopsies for each tumour and to monitor how these dynamic changes occur over time.

It allows cancer resections to be more successful. Cancer-associated fibroblasts and cancerous cells may put up a good fight in order to survive, but these particular gladiators will win fewer battles as pioneering developments continue within cancer research and the delivery of cancer treatments becomes more effective than ever.

Words by James Dale

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Science - The Magdalen - February

Could Zebrafish Unlock a Cure for Heart Disease?

H

eart and circulatory disease is a leading cause of death worldwide, responsible for more than a quarter of all deaths in the UK due to increasing incidence of high-fat diets, sedentary living and alcoholism. Per year, heart disease accounts for nearly 160,000 UK deaths, costing the taxpayer a whopping 19 billion pounds. Critically, once damage occurs in the heart, it is irreversible. Interestingly, unlike humans, zebrafish can repair their own hearts if they are damaged. Pioneering research could unlock a revolutionary cure for millions of Brits living with heart disease.

The heart is made up of small functional units called cardiomyocytes, which are a specific type of vine-like muscle cell that branch in many directions.

When injury occurs to these cells, they respond by forming scar tissue. Scar tissue is made of a protein called collagen, and it has an adverse effect on tissue function. Tissues become tight and non-elastic, eventually compromising contractility of tissue. For an organ that essentially works as a pump, through a coordinated series of contractions, this is very bad news, leading to heart failure and death when the extent of injury is severe.

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Design and illustration by Alice Prentice

Some body parts repair relatively well after injury, but others don’t repair at all. We certainly can’t regrow an entire ear or leg, but this isn’t the case for some animals that can indeed regrow - or regenerate - various whole body parts. In response to cardiac injury, mammals - including humans - fail to regenerate the majority of the lost cardiomyocytes and instead form scar tissue, but zebrafish have an astonishing ability to replace lost cardiac tissue.

Despite originating from the Indian subcontinent, zebrafish are a popular choice for aquariums. These small, magnificent creatures can be spotted flitting in most pet stores and domestic tanks, cherished for their rich ultramarine and gold stripes. However, these organisms should not be overlooked due to their domesticity and tiny size - averaging four centimetres in length. The zebrafish genome has astonishing similarities to our own - approximately 70% of human genetic sequences show existence of shared ancestry with that of zebrafish.

Consequently, this species has already contributed a huge amount to the study of human disease in the field of genetics. Indeed, zebrafish as a species, have proven to have astounding capabilities which are sure to make waves in the scientific community far into the future.

February - The Magdalen - Science

In regards to tissue regeneration, zebrafish can replace heart muscle tissue within 60 days. This species is extremely resilient in response to damage to their hearts, even tolerating up to 20% tissue loss.

Research has shown that the organ can be restored to normal function despite surgically removing tissue, freezing tissue, and inducing tissue loss through genetic manipulation. Cardiac regeneration involves upregulation of cardiomyocyte proliferation - a mechanism of cardiac growth and regeneration - as opposed to laying down scar tissue. While several genes have been implicated in this process, scientific understanding of this process is still uncertain.

Despite a longstanding dogma that mammalian heart tissue could never regenerate, there is much discussion within the scientific community regarding the application of this physiological principle to humans. The formation of the mammalian heart is regulated by an interplay between major developmental signalling pathways.

Following adolescence, humans have a set number of cardiomyocytes that grow in size, rather than in number. This is thought to be an evolutionary response to the high contractile forces required for mammals to pump blood, relative to fish and

amphibians. Interestingly, some studies have even suggested that babies may have regenerative capacity in the heart. Research using newborn mice has shown that cardiomyocytes are replaced in response to injury, however, the same experiment using a 7-day old mouse showed that the heart would respond by laying down scar tissue - the same scar tissue that leads to heart failure and death in humans.

Despite many important advances in our understanding of cardiac regeneration using zebrafish, there are still numerous questions that remain to be explored. The fundamental question for many scientists is could this research be exploited in human adults for therapeutic purposes?

Attempts to reactivate the developmental signalling pathways in adult cardiomyocytes have proven to be extremely difficult, often activating genes responsible for over-proliferation of cells; cancer genes. Nevertheless, this is an exciting field of therapeutic research. Someday, cardiac regeneration could prove to be the effective solution to heart injury, and thus, unlock a revolutionary cure for heart disease - an elusive and alluring prospect.

Words by Magd Nojoum

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Science - The Magdalen - February

CONNECTING THE DOTS O

ur brains are arguably the most advanced technology that humans have access to.

However, despite its complexity, the brain is not infallible and has evolved to take shortcuts.

These subconscious biases allow us to function and react to events in the absence of the information required to choose a rational course of action.

These shortcuts can be beneficial. They are further ingrained through years of experience (think “fight or flight” situations) and equip us with reference points with which to make sense of the world around us. But in a world as complex as the one we live in, a reliance on subconscious biases can cause significant harm.

In our minds, we categorise people when we come into contact with them. We don’t need to actively think about how to feel or behave around them, we just know instinctively. Depending on the person, we might even code-switch in our interactions without conscious thought. It’s not a conscious process, rather a learned behaviour that we repeat until it becomes our norm. But where and when do we learn this? When do we learn to see the world as us and them?

Academic research places the key age of modelling behaviour seen in parents and figures of authority as around 7 or 8. This falls in line with my own experience, having noticed patterns in my behaviour that have been there for years. More often than not, it is things I am scared of that have had the most influence. Fear is an incredibly powerful emotion and one that is hard to forget. Sometimes we may not even remember the event that made us afraid in the first place, but the association becomes fixed in our subconscious minds. It can become influential in situations that are completely ordinary or even ridiculous, it’s only when you stop to question your

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Design by Lisa Dyer

fear that you realise. For example, I had a massive irrational aversion to cowl neck sweaters of all things for years without knowing why. It was only when I rewatched an episode of an old crime drama, in which a woman wearing such a sweater is violently attacked, that I put the pieces together.

Clearly, media can be incredibly influential in forming biases. Portrayals and representations of cultural and social groups in media have played their role in furthering, perhaps even creating, stereotypes. For example, the stereotype of a terrorist has been hugely influenced by the media.

When one thinks of terrorism, or portrayals of terrorism in media, how often do we assume a Muslim is responsible? Conversely, how quick are we to brand acts of terrorism by white Christian men as “lone wolf attacks”? An example of such being the attack in Norway in 2011 by “lone wolf” Andres Behring Breivik that left 77 people dead.

In the media, there is a hugely disproportionate representation of acts of terrorism associated with Islamic extremism, and the reinforcement of this furthers prejudice and discrimination against Muslims. According to a Huffington Post article in 2015, out of all European terrorist attacks in the years 2009-2013 only 2% of terrorist attacks were religiously motivated. To understand this societal bias, we should examine public attitudes in the aftermath of 9/11.

After 9/11, western attitudes changed. Everyone was scared, no one fully understood what had happened and people were clamouring for someone to blame, searching for an ‘other’ to fight back against. We always strive to explain and learn from trauma, which too often leads us to overcompensate. An

February - The Magdalen - Science

instinct that would have served our prehistoric ancestors well when finding themselves in conflict with a rival group, but that in our diverse modern society can cause considerable harm.

necessarily tangible (e.g. an ideology rather than a person/group), you can’t identify for certain who is us and who is them. From this, another reflexive behaviour comes into play – better safe than sorry.

According to the Independent, in the post 9/11 era, around half of the mosques in Britain have been attacked. Obviously, not everyone associates Muslims with terrorism, and not everyone believes that Islamic extremism truly represents Islam. There is a fear, and perhaps a wilful ignorance, in some people when confronting the possibility that their perception of a certain group may be wrong. People tend to stick with what they know, because they think it keeps them safe. It’s oddly comforting to be able to identify an enemy.

This attitude is worked into our daily lives, not just out of fear of catastrophic world events, but even everyday situations that have the potential to become dangerous. For example, if women are walking home alone at night they know to stick to well-lit areas and carry their keys in their knuckles.

The habits stretch into our interactions with others: walking faster if a man is walking behind you, not leaving your drink unattended. These habits keep us safe, we hope. This is what we have evolved to know. We see a situation and we take precautions to minimise the risks. We place responsibility on ourselves, potential victims. At the end of the day, you’d rather be safe than sorry.

Expanding on the psychology behind such attitudes, we have to consider the evolutionary process that has led our species to this point. We have progressed to the point where legitimate dangers can be identified and dealt with reflexively.

This has been essential for our survival but now, in our modern world, these reflexes can work to our own detriment. When what you’re scared of isn’t

The things we learn as we grow and are exposed to danger can keep us safe or they can make us a threat to others. The difficulty is in looking past our own instincts and considering the possibility that we might be wrong.

It’s oddly comforting to be able to identify an enemy.

Words by Mary Erin Kinch

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