The Student 29/11/2011

Tuesday November 29 2011 | Week 11

CULTURE» p24 THE EDINBURGH ART FAIR

Music» p18

C U LT U R E

» p22-23

S i n c e 1887 T h e U K ' s O ld e st S T u d ent N ews pa p er

S cott ish S t udent Ne wspaper of the Year 2010

St Andrews Conservatives burn Obama in effigy

Student action following second Meadows attack

Police, university and students take precautions following second attack Anna Brand news of another sexual assault in the Meadows last week has once again rocked the student community.

A 21 year-old woman was jogging near the tennis courts on the Meadows and was attacked just before 7 PM on Tuesday November 22.

The woman was able to fight off the man, who then fled towards Buccleuch Street.

A spokesperson for Lothian and Borders Police said, “This was an extremely distressing ordeal for the victim who bravely fought off her attacker before he made his escape.

“We are appealing to anyone who was in the area of the Meadows last night, who witnessed the incident, or noticed anyone acting suspiciously

there, to contact police immediately.”

This was the second sexual assault to take place within the space of a week, though police say that there is nothing to suggest that the two attacks are linked. They are however, “keeping an open mind.”

The police have increased surveillance in the Meadows to reassure the public, as it is a popular community area, and part of the daily route to the Central Area campus for many University of Edinburgh students.

Many people have been active on Facebook and Twitter, urging friends to stay safe, and walk home in groups after dark.

The student community have been quick to band together and propose collective safety measures for students walking through the Meadows.

A group of students are seeking to pro-actively protect students walking through the Meadows, and have set up a walking bus scheme to ensure that students coming from the Central Area after dark would not be walking alone.

From Wednesday November 30, a walking bus will leave the Hugh

Robson Building and the last ‘bus’ will leave at 03:30 every morning. There will always be one male and one female bus volunteer.

The bus will cross the Meadows at Jawbone Walk and continue across Bruntsfield Links.

The bus can be ‘called’ on 07925 580 813.

One of the organisers of the walking bus, third year politics student Hugh Murdoch said, “We’re a group of students taking a proactive response to concerns about safety on the meadows.

"We’re not saying this is in any way a solution to these problems and we’re calling for better lighting and welltargeted policing to help make the meadows feel safer.

"No-one should feel unsafe when walking home at night.

“This is a student-led project and we’re looking for any help that students can give – leafleting to raise awareness or being a bus volunteer. Please find us on Facebook to get involved: our page is Meadows Walking Bus and there’s a volunteers page too.”

Talking to The Student, Emma

ALASDAIR DRENNAN

POLICE PRESENCE: The Meadows has been the site of two attacks on young women in the last few weeks

Alasdair Drennan

AN EFFIGY of United States' President Barack Obama was burned on a St Andrews beach last weekend by members of the University of St Andrews Conservative and Unionist Association.

It is believed that the incident took place on Friday November 18 on the university town’s East Sands beach.

Early suggestions that the effigy was cloaked in a flag of the European Union were strongly denied.

The association have since apologised unreservedly for the offence that the incident caused.

The event was supposedly part of a yearly ritual in which members of the association vote to select a public figure to be burned on a bonfire.

Matthew Marshall, president of the Conservative Association at the university said that the society planned to write to the US president to apologise after being summoned by the university and made aware of the “serious concerns” which arose from the incident.

He also said in a statement, “The US and President Obama are important allies of the United Kingdom and, on behalf of the whole association, I apologise unreservedly.

“This is undoubtedly a stupid act and it is deeply regretted by all of us in the St Andrews Conservative Association. I will make sure this never happens again.”

He went on to apologise for any damage caused to either the University of St Andrews or the Conservative party.

A spokesperson for the university said, “We are satisfied that, while the actions of the St Andrews Conservative Association in burning an effigy of President Obama were naïve and crassly insensitive, they were not intentionally racist.”

“This incident, however, has caused very understandable offence and concern to many people, and the university deeply regrets this.

Meehan, EUSA Vice President for Societies and Activities, reassured students that Edinburgh was still “very safe”.

She said, “Edinburgh is a very safe city and attacks on students are rare.

However it’s a good idea to be aware of your safety when you’re walking home from university.

“EUSA has started a new ‘Walk Safer’ scheme at the library where you can meet people to walk home with.

"There is a table located in the lobby of the library where you can sign up for a leaving time, then simply meet your fellow students who are going the same way at your chosen leaving time.

“University Security also have free personal alarms available from their office on Infirmary street, these will be available in the Potterow EUSA office and the Advice Place from next week.”

The alarms can also be obtained Continued on page six » from university receptions at The Campus service centre at Easter Bush, INSIDE: Chicken virus may help in the security control room at QMRI the battle against cancer p2 Little France and at the KB House Investigation into student Reception in King’s Buildings.

perception of occupations p8

Tuesday November 29 2011 studentnewspaper.org

news@studentnewspaper.org

2 News

Uni scientists make gene discovery

The Student Newspaper | 60 Pleasance, Edinburgh, EH8 9TJ Email: editors@studentnewspaper.org

NEWS >>p2-8

RUKidding? p4 Scottish students in protest against higher fees COURSE NUMBERS SLASHED p6 Universities to cut number of courses by 5000.

EUSA calls time on Pleasance daytime opening p8 Closure of Pleasance during daytime hours sparks rush on society room bookings

comment >>p12-13

A VIRUS found in chickens has led researchers at University of Edinburgh to find a gene that could save millions of birds from Marek’s disease and could potentially help scientists find a cure for cancers caused by viruses.

After studying thousands of genes scientists from the University of Edinburgh’s Roslin Institute have identified a gene called HIC1 that makes chickens more susceptible to Marek’s disease, a viral infection that causes the poultry industry to lose more than £1.4 billion each year.

This gene controls cell death and ‘switches on’ genes with anti-tumour effects, so when viruses such as Marek’s disease ‘switch off ’ the genes controlled by the HIC1 gene it can lead to cancerous tumours.

The HIC1 gene is also found in humans, so the discovery of a gene that can have anti-tumour effects is very important in the battle against cancer.

The identification of this gene

Olivia stoddart

Nina Seale

means not only that scientists are on their way to saving the poultry industry billions in losses from Marek’s disease but also the study can help to find a cure for virus-caused cancers in humans, such as Kaposi’s sarcoma, which affects patients with HIV. The research was published in the Journal of Virology and funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council which also funds research into stem cell biology, brain function nad nanotechnology.

University of Edinburgh professor Pete Kaiser, who led the research,

explained how useful their findings were to industry.

He said, “Marek’s disease is highly contagious and chickens are becoming increasingly resistant to vaccination.

“Identifying a gene that increases the risk of Marek’s disease could help us breed chickens that are less susceptible to infection.

“Also, learning about how chickens affected by Marek’s disease fail to combat the onset of tumours will help us learn more about how certain viruses can trigger cancer in humans.”

DEMOCRATIC DANGER p12 As the Levenson scandal gets underway, Daniel Kraemer highlights the damage close relations between the media and politicians has done to our democracy.

FEATURES >>p15-17 LEARNING FROM THE FUTURE p15 Anna Feintuck looks at how we preserve the memory of our past TO ME, TO YOUTUBE p16 Phoebe Weston on YouTube's pseudo-community

Reviews >>p23-30

AFFORDABLE ORIGINALS p24 Troy Holmes looks at what people are buying at the Edinburgh Art fair WEISS UP p27 James Mann on the English startlet's latest film STILL FULL OF LIFE p28 Becky Chan on Death Cab for Cutie's recent Glasgow gig

Sport >>p31-32 HITTING RACISM FOR SIX p31 Phil Smith on the life of the anti-apartheid crickiter Basil D'Oliveira

MAKING THE GRADE: Shame the answer to question 16 was 'C'

Leo Michelmore THE UNIVERSITY of Edinburgh has announced that it will be providing graduates with a more detailed record of their extra curricular achievements at university.

The Higher Education Achievement Report, or HEAR, will be given to all students graduating from 2012 onwards in addition to their degree classification, and aims to give students and employers a more detailed record of achievement than just the grade on a degree.

The move comes as a result of growing concern that the current degree classification system is failing to adequately represent the whole spectrum of what students achieve while at university.

The certificate will contain more detailed information about a student’s degree than is currently provided, including marks achieved for individual modules and any academic prizes that have been won.

It will also show any positions held

in societies or sports clubs, as well as whether the student has been a class representative at any point.

Professor Burgess, Chairman of the Burgess Group, the committee recommending the introduction of HEAR, insisted that it was a significant improvement on the traditional degree classification system.

He said, “The UK honours degree is a robust and highly-valued qualification but the honours degree classification system is no longer fit for purpose.

It cannot describe, and therefore does not do full justice to, the range of knowledge, skills, experience and attributes of a graduate in the 21st century.

“We have always sought to do justice to the achievement of students and improve the way in which universities demonstrate the wide range of their achievements.”

In the future, the Burgess Group hopes that the HEAR will come to replace the traditional degree classification system entirely.

A report published by the group said, “The benefits in terms of the richness of the information [the HEAR]

news@studentnewspaper.org

Tuesday November 29 2011 studentnewspaper.org

News 33

Poor attendance at EUSA AGM Less than half a per cent of University of Edinburgh Students attend leaving decisions unbinding

Hannah Street

Edinburgh University Students' Association (EUSA) last week held its Annual General Meeting, which was attended by a small but vocal group of students.

The AGM, held on Wednesday November 23, was chaired by EUSA President Matt McPherson, who was joined by the Sabbatical Officers.

An explanation of the Annual Report on financial performance was followed by a presentation of the five proposed motions, which were subsequently voted on by around 80 attendees.

The association’s constitution rules that if fewer than 300 votes are cast on

the deciding side, a voting quorum is not achieved and the motion cannot become binding policy, and so the AGM had insufficient voters for the motions to become EUSA policy.

Philipa Faulker, EUSA’s Vice President Services, presented the financial report, giving a breakdown of the £9 million turnover for the period 201011.

She noted that expenditure for the year had led to a budget deficit of almost £320,000, but explained that this was due to a large amount of capital investment in the previous year.

She predicted that the investments, including improvements made to Potterrow, would allow EUSA to operate at a surplus within 3 years.

Faulker also stressed that the poor weather in the previous winter had led to energy bill increases of £300,000, the costs of which EUSA had refused to pass on to students.

Four of the five motions presented at the AGM were passed, including two that damned the university’s investment in companies associated with human

rights violations: Cobham Plc, an arms manufacturer, and Shell, the global oil and gas company.

Proposer Joel Sharples stressed that ethical investment portfolios had been proven to provide equal returns on investment to unethical ones, and thus the university had no financial incentive to invest in Cobham and Shell.

Also passed at the AGM was a motion proposed by EUSA Academic Services Convenor Hugh Murdoch that stated that EUSA General Meetings were often “dry”, and that, in response, a Big Green Day of Action should be organised that encouraged students to voice their thoughts on green issues through a series of open forums and votes.

The students at the AGM voted to boycott the Birmingham Guild of Students, after unelected staff at the Guild suspended their Vice President Education for dropping a banner that read ‘Traitors Not Welcome’ at the 2011 Liberal Democrat Conference.

A final motion, however, noted that the recent restructuring of the academic

University staff set to join public sector pension strikes

year had led to the loss of one week of revision time and one of the April/May exam diet.

The motion fell after a count, as some felt that it encouraged a return to the norm at the expense of Innovative Learning Week, an addition to the academic calendar that EUSA Vice President Academic Affairs Mike Williamson noted had been approved by 87% of class representatives.

EUSA has recently come under fire for failing to address shrinking attendance at general meetings.

Although the sabbatical officers maintain that the conclusions reached in general meetings will be treated as an informal indication of the general student opinion, as meetings becoming increasingly inquorate, AGM attendees are unable to have their views bound into EUSA policy.

The new EUSA constitution attempts to redress the democratic balance for its student body, and more referenda will be introduced in the coming months, allowing a wider audience to have their say on proposed motions.

Leo Michelmore

Students occupy university buildings

Two university buildings occupied in less than a week

IMMEDIATELY AFTER the conclusion of Wednesday night’s EUSA AGM at 9.30pm, George Square Lecture Theatre came under occupation by a group of around thirty student activists affiliated with the Edinburgh Anti-Cuts Coalition.

As questions were put to the sabbatical officers after voting on the evening’s motions had finished, a member of the audience asked whether the sabbatical officers supported the use of occupations as a means of demanding change.

After the unanimous agreement of each of the panel, the same audience member declared the occupation of the lecture theatre.

The front and back doors to the lecture theatre were barricaded with chairs. Security threatened to call police, but there was no sign of a police presence while The Student was on the scene.

The Student was present for much of the night, as the occupiers held a meeting to agree on their demands of university management and to decide on where next to occupy. It was decided that because of possible disruption to lectures, the occupation of George Square Lecture Theatre was to be temporary.

Various locations around the Central Area campus were considered. The discussion was concerned with the occupation’s ability to make an impact upon and draw the attention of university management, but the desire not to cause problems for fellow students was a consistent aspect of the locations that were discussed.

During the night, NUS Scotland President Robin Parker visited the occupation at approximately 11.35pm, staying for about half an hour to speak to the occupiers and participate in the

Alasdair Drennan

Lewis Macdonald

OCCUPIED: Students refused to leave lecture theatre following AGM discussion. The discussion continued until almost 2 am, at which point the occupiers settled down for the night and The Student left the building.

“

We do not intend or expect to disrupt teaching and hope that the university will not choose to cancel ... lectures” Anti-cuts coalition website At approximately 4.30pm on Thursday, the same group occupied Appleton Tower. The group had originally planned to occupy Adam House on

Chambers Street that morning, however they had not been able to enter the building.

The group posted a statement of the Anti-Cuts Coalition website saying: “We are now occupying Appleton Tower, in support of the UCU [University and College Union] strike on Wednesday November 30, against the moves of the government to privatise higher education and in defence of the principle that education is a public, social good which should be free for all.

“We stand in solidarity with student occupations across the UK. If we wish to defend our system and move towards a genuinely egalitarian position - where students are supported through their degrees, courses and staff are properly funded and no one is priced out of education - we must make a stand now.

“We do not intend or expect to

disrupt teaching and hope that the university will not choose to cancel or move lectures or events happening in Appleton.”

The group also released a list of demands to the University of Edinburgh on their website. This includes a demand for the revocation of £9,000 tuition fees for RUK students, a repudiation of the coalition government’s changes to higher education and an end to privately funded courses and research.

Group members at the occupation told The Student that they intended to stay until November 30, the same date as nationwide public sector strikes are planned.

The Student carried out an investigation into the public's perception of the occupations >p8

Strike ACTION will disrupt teaching and support services if carried out on Wednesday.

The planned walkout is a response to reforms to public sector pensions� and, short of a last-minute deal, will take place on Wednesday November 30.

Under the proposed changes, pension contributions would rise from 6.4 per cent to 9.6 per cent of pay.

In an email to all University of Edinburgh students, University Secretary Kim Waldron said, “the University cannot predict the extent of this action at Edinburgh, nor the disruption it might cause, but will do all it reasonably can to minimise such disruption to academic and support activities.

“Heads of schools and directors of teaching organisations have been asked to make arrangements to ensure that students are advised of any disruption to teaching, especially cancellation of classes. Unfortunately, such notification may only be possible at short notice.

“Students should assume that all teaching will take place as normal on 30 November, unless they are notified to the contrary.”

The Scottish Trade Union Congress has accused the coalition of “attacking pensions”.

It said, “The Tory led coalition wants to make millions of people pay more, is threatening to make them work longer - and wants everyone to get a lot less at the end of it.

“It’s wrong to make workers in public services suffer to pay for bailing out the banks … the Tory led coalition is attacking pensions and the Scottish Government is doing little to stand in its way.”

Similarly, the Education Institute of Scotland (EIS), Scotland’s biggest education trade union, reported that 82.2 per cent of its members voted in support for industrial action, with turnout at 54.2 per cent.

The decision to strike follows intense debate south of the border, with government officials warning that any industrial action may result in a restriction of unions’ ability to strike in the future.

Education Secretary Michael Gove maintains that the proposed changes to public pensions are fair, insisting, "the important thing the unions need to recognise is that there is not an additional pot of gold we are hiding from them."

There have also been clashes over the validity of the proposed strike action, with questions being raised over its support base among union members.

Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude dismissed support for industrial action as “extremely limited”, insisting, “the biggest unions achieved turnout in these strike ballots of between a quarter and a third. It’s a very, very low turnout indeed.”

Unison General Secretary Dave Prentis insisted that his union’s 78 per cent support for strike action was “a massive vote by any standard”, despite having a turnout of just 29 per cent.

Tuesday November 29 2011 studentnewspaper.org

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4 News

Protesters march against tuition fees

STUDENT ACTVISTS marched through Edinburgh last Wednesday as part of a nationwide day of action held by the National Union of Students (NUS).

The march, which was organised by Edinburgh University Students’ Association (EUSA), attracted approximately 120 demonstrators.

After gathering outside the Scottish Parliament, the march went up the length of the Royal Mile and down to Castle Terrace, before moving onto Melville Street and finishing with a rally outside the Scotland Office.

The demonstration drew a mixed bag of reactions from pedestrians and tourists – whilst some stood and took photographs on their mobile phones, others looked on in dismay.

Lothian & Borders Police were present throughout the march, in collaboration with volunteer stewards who helped keep the protest orderly.

Matt McPherson, the President of EUSA, told The Student that, “one of the things that makes Scottish universities so important is that they are ambitious, outward looking, global institutions and we want to make sure that they remain that way.

“A third of our students are from the rest of the UK and we have to represent them as much as we can and as much as we would for any Scottish student. One in every three students

Saima Zulkernain

Sam Bradley

RUKidding? These protesters are serious about fighting fee increases. They have signs and everything. in your class – they’re going to have their fees quadrupled for new entrants, come September 2012.

“We find that position totally unacceptable, and that’s something that’s come directly from the Scottish government and which I think it’s got off too lightly with.”

Naomi Beecroft, a 2nd year Philosophy student who participated in the protest, also spoke to the Student on the importance of campaigning on behalf of Rest-of-UK (RUK) students. She

said, “It’s not just about safeguarding for Scottish students – it’s about solidarity – and saying that fees for anyone are bad.

“We agree with the free education for Scottish students but we also want to tell people that fees for anyone are bad. We agree with the safeguarding of Scottish students, but that’s still against the principle of free education and it still commoditises education; we’re going to fight.”

At the rally held at the finish point

of the march, Iain Macwhirter, the rector of the University of Edinburgh also spoke in support of the action. Railing against the recent decision to raise tuition fees for incoming RUK students, he said, “I’m supposed to uphold the reputation of this academic institution, and what does it do for the reputation of Edinburgh University to be seen to be cashing in on English students?

“What does it do for the reputation of Edinburgh University to have Scottish students sitting next to their Eng-

lish classmates and be thousands of pounds less in debt?”

However, not everyone was so supportive of the protest.

Responding to a poll conducted

by The Student, one respondent was less sympathetic with the protesters, saying, “At a time like this, there are portions of the population who are being affected far more seriously than students. As a student whose family is unable to give me any financial support towards my University education, I believe the current system is fair - whether fees are 1,000 or 9,000.

“The hike would not prevent working class children with an academic interest like me from applying – your fees are paid for you, and you only pay them back gradually once you can afford to. ” Despite the police escorting the march into a closed road, some protestors were unwilling to enter the fenced-off area provided initially for the rally. Only when officers at the scene widened the space to make it clear that there were no plans for containment did the crowd enter.

Robin Parker, the president of NUS Scotland, gave a speech in which he claimed, “[The Scottish government] have gone beyond even the Tories and the Lib Dems of whom they take pride in shaming day in day out down south and that is absolutely unacceptable.”

Students from St Andrews, Heriot Watt, Glasgow, Strathclyde and Aberdeen universities also attended the

Universities offer cash bonuses to attract brightest Zoe Tautz-Davis

SOME UNIVERSITIES have proposed to offer bursaries to bright sixth-form students in an attempt to attract them in what has been labelled an "academic arms-race."

With tuition fees increasing after summer, universities such as City University of London, Northumbria, Leicester and Surrey are offering cash incentives

to the students with the best exam results.

Limits have been lifted on the number of high-achieving students universities can intake, meaning less prestigious universities feared on losing out on good quality applicants.

These middle-ranking universities are now offering up to £3000 for AAB grades or above students to avoid losing these students to more distinguished universities such as

Oxbridge, Imperial or UCL. This is likely to lead to an "academic arms-race", with other universities being pressured into offering bursaries to students, says the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI).

With teaching budgets being slashed, many institutions are desperate to attract students to replace lost income.

These merit-based rather than need-based scholarships have been

criticised as being aimed towards those who don’t need the money, as students who come from a more middle or upper class background are the most likely to achieve the necessary grades, say critics of this policy.

Shadow universities government minister, Gareth Thomas, suggests that money that was once used to help financially disadvantaged students enter higher education is now being used as an incentive for high-

achieving students who may not require additional support.

A spokesperson for the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills claimed that they still plan to give financial support to students from a disadvantaged background, but aside from this, universities are free to use their resources in any way of their choosing in order to attract students.

Naked indignation

STREAK-Y BACON: Bacon....pigs...coppers: geddit?

Carie, People & Planet

Nina Seale

WEARING NOTHING but boxes, twelve members of paraded in protest around Bristo Square to urge the university to stop buying clothes made in sweatshops last Tuesday.

As part of the National Week of Action Against Sweatshops, People & Planet campaigned for the University of Edinburgh to sign up to the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), an independent monitoring organisation that would ensure that all garments bought by the university for uniforms, university hoodies, and merchandise would be made in conditions where the workers are treated fairly.

Student Amabel Crowe, 20, studying History at the University of Edinburgh, told The Student about the experience. She said, “there were twelve of us doing the protest and quite a few people crowding around with cameras.

“It wasn’t as cold as I thought it was going to be, it was pretty amazing really.

"When we got inside there was the graduation which we were a bit worried about, but actually people found it more funny than annoying. “[The boxes] were basically stopping us from being completely naked, also it gave us a chance to have slogans so we could show what the protest was about.

“It was a really visual way of saying that sweatshops are a problem and we need to actually think about the people who are making our clothes.”

The WRC website claims that, “Rather than relying on infrequent checks by an outsider with a clipboard, workers themselves are trained in labour rights, and can lodge a confidential complaint if they believe that there is a violation in their workplace.

“The WRC then conducts an independent in-depth investigation and

makes the results public.”

In 2010 WRC's ‘Just pay it!’ campaign persuaded Nike to pay $1.5 million to Honduran workers in legally mandated severance pay.

To join the Consortium, universities have to pay £1000 or 1 per cent of their income from selling clothes, whichever is greater.

University of Edinburgh student Ruth Cape, 23, feels that the eithical benefits of joinging the scheme would outweigh the cost.

She said, “we feel that for a university so proud of its social values and fairtrade status, there should be no question as to whether [the University should] be as transparent and ethical as possible in what it buys.

“So far, Sheffield and Loughborough Universities have signed up, and other [universities] are on the way too.

"We think Edinburgh shouldn’t get left behind on this.”

Tuesday November 29 2011 studentnewspaper.org

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6 News

Liverpool university loses all state funding

Liverpool Hope University, a small self-styled liberal arts college is to essentially have its entire state funding cut.

This will leave the university with only four per cent of the funding it previously received for its undergraduate syllabus.

In response, the university plans to increase its student body by more than a third to 10,000, as well as charging £8,250 in annual tuition fees.

The university’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Gerald Pillay, said of the new climate of increased fees that it “may end up creating a kind of super-elite [university] and you may end up creating a place – without being disparaging – that will offer a cheaper alternative, simply because you make up the numbers in that way”.

LM

Families head north to escape fees

Increases in fees at English universities may force families to relocate to other parts of the UK, analysis by the Higher Education Funding Council suggests.

‘Fee refugees’ might move to Scotland, where students who are Scottish residents receive free tuition, or to Wales or Northern Ireland, where tuition fees will be fixed at around £3,500 per annum.

Simultaneously, the Scottish Executive is to begin screening applicants for SAAS loans and tuition fee coverage more rigorously, a move that the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party has branded “vindictive”.

There is concern that parents hoping to relocate to other parts of the UK in order to obtain cheaper higher education for their children will result in problems in local communities and housing markets.

LM

UNIVERSITIES IN the UK are set to cut the number of courses that they are prepared to offer in 2012, from approximately 43,000 down to 38,000, heralding a reduction of 5,000.

Due to government spending cuts and rising tuition fees, universities across the country have been forced to curtail the variety of courses they can offer.

The criteria that decides which courses should be removed from university syllabuses, is based on whether each course is deemed too expensive, or of too low a quality.

The specific types of courses targeted are the least popular non-academic courses, which offer poor employment prospects.

The subject areas of History, Nursing, Business and Philosophy are expected to suffer the most from these cuts.

Some universities, such as the London Metropolitan, have slashed more than 60 per cent of their courses, proclaiming that as tuition fees reach their £9,000 pinnacle, the number of students willing to take these so-called “soft courses” will diminish dramatically.

The Admissions Tutor’s service, know as the Supporting Professional-

TOO MUCH TO READ? Many university prosepctuses will be significantly shorter this year ism Admissions (SPA), conducted a study, revealing that there will be a 12 per cent decrease in the number of courses offered by the University and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS), reducing the number from 43,360 in 2011, to 38,146 in 2012.

Janet Graham of the SPA disclosed, “We have a record numbers of students but a downward trend in degree courses.”

Not only do students now run the risk of having to pay up to £9,000 a year for tuition fees, but they must also suffer

from a lack of choice in terms of what courses they can study.

A University and College Union spokesperson told The Independent, “This government’s reforms have been a complete mess.

“It’s particularly going to hit students planning to live at home to minimize expenses.

“It’ll be a real tragedy if they suddenly find cuts at their local university mean they can no longer study the subject they have always wanted.”

In order to uphold their reputations,

universities will have to publish a wide assortment of statistics about each course they offer, in order to ensure that students are able to make betterinformed decisions about their choice of university course.

Furthermore, the strain on UK Universities is even greater.

As well as suffering from a 10 per cent cut in state funding, when higher fees are introduced, approximately 80 per cent of government teaching grants will be withdrawn, potentially causing the financial ruin of 50 UK institutions.

Balazas h

Sir James Dyson, inventor of the bag-less vacuum cleaner and founder of Dyson Ltd, will invest £1.4 million over ten years to create a new University of Cambridge Chair with no specified aims in terms of research and development.

Any research developed by the new professor will be in their name and the patent will belong to the University of Cambridge; however, Dyson will have the opportunity to buy the rights to it before any other corporation.

James Dyson insisted that he has “no idea” about which direction research undertaken by the occupant of the newly created Chair might take, but speculated that he would choose someone “who is curious and perhaps fairly manic”.

LM

Sarah Mitchell

Edinburgh Castle won’t display olympic rings Alice Cahill LONDON 2012’s controversial application to temporarily place 8m-high (26ft) Olympic rings on the northwestern rampart of Edinburgh Castle has been denied.

A Historic Scotland representative confirmed that this was due to plans not being “suitable for the successful operation” of the castle.

London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) submitted a planning and advertising application to the City of Edinburgh Council on Monday 7th November.

A Department for Culture, Media and Sport spokesman said, “Edinburgh Castle is a spectacular, iconic building, and will provide a fantastic backdrop for the rings, not to mention provide a focal point for games-related activities.”

The plans had, however, drawn largely negative reactions.

Edinburgh Labour MP, Mark Lazarowicz, expressed concern that allowing the Olympic rings to go up “could

become a precedent for other publicity campaigns wanting to use such a prestigious site.”

Historic Scotland did suggest that “there are more suitable sites in Edinburgh” and that “the Scottish government and agencies will work with LOCOG and Edinburgh City Council to do what we can to assist with the consideration of alternatives.”

Organisers had hoped that the display of the rings in Edinburgh would reflect the inclusiveness of the Olympics.

Numerous political leaders have described this as “insulting” and Marion Williams, director of Edinburgh’s civic body, the Cockburn Association, described the application as “London stamping its mark on Edinburgh.”

Fraser Adamson, Chairman of the Edinburgh University Athletics Club, told The Student, “The media has put it across as the London Olympics…I support the Olympics but it’s in England and nothing to do with Scotland.”

There have been concerns regarding more than just their location, placing the Olympic rings would have cost taxpayers £200,000.

INTEGRITY: We resisted the temptation to add our own rings Deputy council leader, Steve Cardownie, said, “This is an extraordinary amount of money to be spent on a temporary sign, andI would prefer to see the funds involved be donated to local sports organisations who would make much better use of this cash.”

Margot MacDonald, an Independent Member of the Scottish Parliament for the Lothians regions has com-

Saima zulkernain

Inventor gives free rein for research

5000 university courses to be slashed

plained that the Lothians will receive no financial benefit from the Olympic games and suggested that prioritising the Olympic rings display demonstrated LOCOG’s lack of ‘real interest in community participation in sport.’

Despite these concerns, LOCOG is continuing to look for suitable locations in Scotland at which the Olympic rings could be displayed.

St Andrews Conservatives burn Obama effigy Continued from page one “This incident, however, has caused very understandable offence and concern to many people, and the university deeply regrets this.

“The University of St Andrews holds a firm belief in the value of political debate and free expression but we expect our students to always treat others with respect.

“We have met the president of the Conservative Association to make him aware of the university’s very serious concerns and he has been quick to make an unreserved public apology,

and it is correct that he has done so.

Sam Fowles, University of St Andrews Students’ Association director of representation said, “I do not believe this was a racist act but I don’t believe that makes it any less disgusting.

“Student representatives have shown that the vast majority of St Andrews students are much better than this sort of puerile and offensive behaviour.”

The University of Edinburgh Conservatives Association did not respond to The Student’s request for comment on the issue.

THE FIRING LINE: Students will send a letter of apology

rob.rudloff

IN

Brief

news@studentnewspaper.org

Tuesday November 29 2011 studentnewspaper.org

News 7

STRESSING OUT SILENTLY: The report suggests that as a result of how mental health issues are perceived, students may be unwilling to seek help Nina Seale MENTAL HEALTH problems for students are becoming increasingly common, with academic, family, social and financial worries being sources of stress, but a new report suggests that students feel the stigma attached to mental ill-health prevents them from going to campus support services.

NUS Scotland surveyed over 80 students and 10 staff individuals across the country after the 2010 Silently Stressed report revealed high levels of stress in students.

The 2011 report Breaking the Silence took a deeper look into the statistics

from 1,872 students last year and found a worrying reluctance from students to seek professional support for mental health issues.

Silently Stressed reported that 70 per cent of students had financial stress, 50 per cent had stress from balancing a job with studies and 86 per cent of fourth year students were struggling with pressure about their futures. Despite this, less than 20 per cent were willing to approach support services and over 80 per cent reported that the stigma attached to mental health issues would stop them from seeking help.

Sheila Williams, director of the Student Disability Service of the University of Edinburgh, responded to the report.

She told The Student, “The numbers of students receiving support from both [the] Student Disability Service and the Student Counselling Service - has increased significantly, by over 40%, since both services moved into the Main Library.

“The number of students disclosing mental health issues on application is increasing year on year and has more than tripled in the period from 2006 - 2009. Numbers disclosing mental health issues in academic year 2010-11 increased yet further by 44% from the previous year.”

In Breaking the Silence students said that mental health is heavily stigmatised and there is a need to move towards the

use of positive terminology. The report also highlighted that the way support services is promoted on campus is often unhelpful.

The report suggests that institutions should have a range of support options, which have varying levels of formality, and that these should be promoted in more personal and direct interactions.

The University of Edinburgh made clear that it already attempts to make stringent efforts to promote its mental health services.

Williams told The Student, “A range of information and marketing materials are distributed to the Edinburgh University Students’ Association (EUSA), the Advice Place and to all Schools and

FLICKR: KALEXANDERSON

NUS Scotland report suggests mental illhealth is still a stigma for university students

Support Services.

“We also participate in many University events - open days, internal staff training and staff induction.

“We are also working closely with relevant student societies, including the Student Disability and Mental Wellbeing Action Group.”

NUS Scotland recommended that “in the face of pressure to cut budgets colleges and universities do not reduce counselling services in order to save money.

“Student mental health is an area that continues to require further investment and development and is an area which institutions must recognise as an area of priority.”

Katie Cunningham

STUDENTS HAVE been involved in a final round of campaigning for same-sex couples to have the right to marry as the Scottish Government’s consultation period on the issue draws to a close.

Until now only Civil Partnerships have been available to homosexual couples.

Scottish health secretary Nicola Sturgeon said that a survey of public attitude in Scotland discovered that more than 60 per cent of Scottish people felt that same-sex couples should have the right to marry.

If the consultation finds similar results, the Government will draft legislation which will undergo further scrutiny, before being finalised into a bill which could be presented to the Scottish Parliament in 2013.

The consultation has been running since September and will conclude on December 9.

It is investigating three issues; same sex marriage, religious ceremonies for civil partnerships and whether it is ethical to force religious groups to participate.

The University of Edinburgh’s Amnesty International Society is among many groups working in support of the Scottish Government’s Same Sex Marriage Consultation.

Last Thursday the Amnesty International Group took part in an action, attracting attention for the movement and collecting completed consultation documentation which will be used by the Government in ascertaining public support for the movement.

“

Scotland has the opportunity to be at the forefront of the international trend towards protecting the rights of same sex couples."

Laura Shepherd, Edinburgh University Amnesty International Society Chair

University of Edinburgh student and Amnesty Society Chair Laura Shepherd told The Student, “No-one should be denied their human rights based on their sexuality.

“The current system also denies the rights of transgender people many of whom are currently forced to divorce in order to receive gender recognition.

“Scotland has the opportunity to be at the forefront of the international

trend towards protecting the rights of same sex couples.”

The Amnesty Group met and participated in a photo shoot with Edinburgh Central SNP MSP Marco Biagi.

Biagi has long supported the legalisation of same-sex marriage and the increase of gay representation in Parliament.

He said, “Discrimination on sexual grounds should be a thing of the past.”

He also said that among the groups showing support are several religious organisations, who are “calling for the right” to endorse civil partnerships and carry out marriages.

Among these groups are the Unitarians, Liberal Jews, Quakers, the Metropolitan Community Church and the Pagan Federation, representatives from each of which took part in a conference on marriage equality in September.

Hazel Marzetti, Edinburgh University Students’ Association (EUSA) equal opportunities officer told The Student that similar campaigns were being run by EUSA’s LGBT+ action group and BLOGS, the LGBT society.

Anyone wishing to be part of the consultation should complete a form either online or in Potterrow by December 9.

REVOLUTIONARY: The Scottish greetings card industry's future

FLICKR: JEN SCHROLL

Students spearhead response to same-sex marriage consultation

Tuesday November 29 2011 studentnewspaper.org

news@studentnewspaper.org

8 News

Hannah Street AROUND 250 women, men and children took to the streets of Edinburgh last Thursday in a public expression of the universal right to move safely and freely at night regardless of gender, sexuality or appearance.

The Reclaim the Night march was organised by the Edinburgh University Feminist Society and the Edinburgh University Students' Association Women’s Action Group and was one of many similar protests that take place across the world Despite adverse weather conditions on Thursday evening, marchers were defiant and spirits remained high on the 2.2-mile route through the streets of Edinburgh.

Members of the public emerged from pubs and shops to watch marchers pass by, many of whom were carrying placards and chanting slogans.

Some observers showed their support by joining the march for portions of the journey and staff at the Blood Donor Centre on Lauriston Place clapped and cheered as the marcherspassed.

The City of Edinburgh Council had approved the route in advance and a strong police presence halted evening traffic on some of Edinburgh’s busiest roads, allowing marchers to pass safely.

The event follows in the vein of hundreds of similar marches organised by international feminists since 1978, however, many felt that the need to march had become even more important in light of the violent sexual attacks suffered by two women in the last fortnight.

A goal of the event was to discourage the ‘victim-blaming’ that can arise after such events and dispel the myth that sexual attack is ever a consequence of the actions, or attire, of the victim.

University of Edinburgh student and event organiser Susannah Compton told The Student, “We get complacent every now and then and think our streets are getting safer, but I think that’s definitely not true.

“We need to keep having these marches and it’s really important that we keep stating our rights to be on the streets.”

A small number of people, however, voiced their concerns about the organisers’ decision to allow a male presence at the march.

One individual, posting on the event’s Facebook event page, lamented that an inclusion of both genders was not in the spirit of the historically ‘women-only’ event, and that she would therefore be unable to attend.

Event organiser Alva Traebert responded, “The team that was organising this [march] decided to include all genders because they felt that it was very important that everyone who feels that it’s their responsibility to speak out against violence [does so].”

There was a specific block in the march which was reserved exclusively for women which organisers said was to, “pay respect to the tradition of women-only marches.”

Survey: Students split on Appleton occupation Alasdair Drennan

A poll carried out by The Student suggests a lack of majority support amongst University of Edinburgh students for the ongoing occupation of Appleton Tower.

Whilst the anonymous survey showed that almost 80 per cent supported the ongoing student demonstrations against government cuts to the funding of higher education, many respondents were concerned that occupying university buildings would have an impact on their education.

A similar number portion of the students surveyed also supported the marches – both in London and Edinburgh – which took place in November.

When responding to questions about the occupation of university property, one response said they agreed with the principle behind the occupation but disagreed with the possibility that “students’ and lecturers’ schedules [were being] disrupted.”

Most respondents to the survey who supported the occupation said

that they thought they knew what the demonstrators stood for but others thought that the message was unclear.

One response said, “It’s crucial that students have the right to voice their opposition to coalition policies, but as no one has come up with a coherent, realistic alternative up to this point, I’m struggling to understand what protesters want the government to do about it.

“So while I support their right to protest, I won’t be going on any myself.”

A student suggested that the protests had lost direction, “It seems as though what started with a protest about fees has developed into a greater attack on the government and capitalism in general.

“It’s hard to know why people are protesting and what about, everyone who loves a protest just seems to have jumped on the bandwagon.”

Others were clearer about what the motivations behind the campaigns were. The survey demonstrated that students felt that the campaigners were seeking to put a stop to the planned tuition fee increase and unregulated

rest-of-UK fees in Scotland.

There was also an understanding that those occupying Appleton Tower were doing so to support public sector workers striking on Wednesday 30 November.

“

As no one has come up with a coherent and realistic alternative, I'm struggling to understand what protestors want.”

University of Edinburgh student

Some responses suggested that they felt the goals of the protesters were unrealistic. One passionate student said, “There are portions of the population who are being affected far more seriously than students.

“The hike would not prevent working class children with an academic interest like me from applying – your fees

are paid for you and you only pay them back gradually once you can afford to.”

In spite of the criticism, there was also some vocal support for those occupying Appleton Tower with some who answered the survey calling for a more high profile occupation of administrative spaces at the university.

Responding to the survey results, Charlie, a fourth year Social Anthropology student and student occupier said, “The occupation here in Appleton tower is largely to help draw attention among students towards the strikes on Wednesday.

“As students, we wish to show our solidarity with workers on strike and that we are prepared to take radical action in order to promote the interests of the people that make our education possible.

“We are sensitive to the issue of teaching disruption, and as such are keeping teaching spaces free during our occupation, with the intention that no classes be cancelled.

“It is really great to hear there is widespread support for demonstrations against the government’s unjust austerity program.”

Daytime Pleasance closure launches battle for society space

Zoe Blah

Students march against violence directed at women

RESTRICTED: Reduced opening hours mean societies must find space in other EUSA buildings Zoe Blah Pleasance opening hours are to dramatically reduce from January 2012.

Rooms at the Pleasance and the Pleasance Bar will open from 5pm on weekdays, 11am on Saturdays and 12pm on Sundays.

Phillipa Faulkner, Edinburgh University Students' Association (EUSA) Vice President of Services commented, “We have been reviewing the opening hours of our bars, retail and catering outlets in response to customer trends. The Pleasance bar

is included in this”.

The closure is due to the limited use of Pleasance rooms during weekdays and little trade in the Pleasance Bar. The closure will affect societies with permanent rooms in Pleasance, and those currently using Pleasance rooms for meetings and rehearsals during the day.

Societies were given notice four days before the EUSA room block booking day that this change will be implemented. A number of societies queued outside Potterrow from 2am on Tuesday 22 November in order to block book rooms in EUSA build-

ings.

These societies camped from 2am until the doors were opened at 9am, and waited for booking to commence at the official start time of 12pm.

This was due to the high demand for rooms available for societies’ use during term-time.

The number of societies who arrived well before the advised time was unexpected.

Emma Meehan, EUSA Vice President of Services and Activities said that, “on the days themselves, 58 societies came to block book. The first come, first served system operated

throughout with all societies receiving a number and a callback at the relevant time”.

The system currently in place for block booking means that society office-bearers are advised to arrive at 12pm where they are given a ticket and will be seen, depending on their place in line, over the subsequent two days.

Meehan also said, “all changes to the bookings system from last year were made in consultation with societies using feedback from last year and consulting between EUSA staff and societies Exec”.

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Promotion 9

My BUNAC Experience

Ian Black describes an unforgettable nine weeks working at an American summer camp My personal BUNAC experience began in the spring of 2010.

The motivation to try something new for the upcoming summer lead me to the BUNAC programme after attending an information session a year prior out of curiosity. The more I read about the Summer Camp USA experience in particular, the more certain I became that it was just the exciting prospect that I was searching for.

After being placed at Camp Airy, a Jewish boys camp in Maryland, I felt a mix of excitement and apprehension. How would a non-Jewish, 19 year old Scot, with only a couple of weeks' experience in the country as a child, fit in with counsellors and campers who have spent their summers there for as long as they can remember?

My nerves were eased somewhat after meeting my fellow ‘internationals’ during the one-night stay in New York. They were all similarly open minded people experiencing the same anxiety. Within days of arriving at Airy my doubts were quickly quelled. I had instantly met some of the warmest, most outgoing and altogether fun people I had ever come across and gelled with them instantly. I was quickly adopted into the camp family by my fellow

After such an amazing experience in 2010, the summer of 2011 saw me return to Airy for another nine weeks under Maryland sun. With a very large friendship base already established, the majority of whom returned to Airy, this past summer was perhaps even better.

Futhermore, following camp I had the opportunity to travel for three weeks, which I spent all over the East Coast visiting friends in Geor-

counsellors and bosses, and was immediately wrapped up by the hectic daily schedule that is camp life.

Nine weeks later I was coming to the end of the most incredible experience of my life with an abundance of new friends who remain some of my closest, as well as a vast array of skills in dealing with children and an understanding of a new and exciting culture.

From winning the Olympic basketball game in front of the entire camp, to riding rollercoasters at Hershey Park, to staying up till 3am dealing with homesick kids, camp had provided me with the total package of experiences. I can confidently say that I returned home a different person to the one who'd filled out the application form five months earlier.

gia, Florida, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Maryland. I even got the chance to visit some of my American friends at their colleges during their respective freshers' weeks, which felt like something straight out of American Pie. The opportunity to experience all of this, offered by the BUNAC Summer Camp USA programme, is something that I would recommend to anyone without hesitation.

Tuesday November 29 2011 studentnewspaper.org

Send your letters to: editors@studentnewspaper.org

10 Editorial

Editorial

The Student feels the bittersweet pang of absence

Join us!

The Student is always looking for budding reporters, reviewers, illustrators, photographers, and designers to join our team. We're also hunting for recruits for our marketing and events teams.

No experience necessary!

If you're interested, here’s how to track us down: » In person: Meetings every Tuesday in the Cabaret Bar, Pleasance at 1.15pm.

Socials: Tuesdays in The Counting House at 8.30pm. » By email: editors@studentnewspaper.org » On Facebook: tinyurl.com/StudentFacebook » On Twitter: twitter.com/TheStudentPaper A quick history lesson...

The Student was launched by Scottish novelist and poet Robert Louis Stevenson in 1887 as an independent voice for Edinburgh's literati. It is Britain's oldest student newspaper and is an independent publication, reaching more than 15,000 University of Edinburgh students every week.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Lord Kitchener, David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill are a few of the famous people who have been associated with the paper. In the early 1970s, Gordon Brown worked as a news editor and diary columnist, working alongside Robin Cook who at the time was in charge of film and concert reviews.

Disclaimer

The Student welcomes letters for publication. The editors, however, reserve the right to edit or modify letters for clarity. Anonymous letters will not be printed but names will be witheld on request. The letters printed are the opinions of individuals outwith The Student and do not represent the views of the editors or the paper as a whole.

Editors Zoe Blah/Rebecca Chan Acting editor Dan Heap

News Sam Bradley/Alasdair Drennan/Lewis MacDonald/Leo Michelmore Comment Nick Dowson/Lewis MacDonald/Tess Malone Features Nina Bicket/Cameron Taylor Lifestyle Sophie Craik/Lilidh Kendrick Tech Tom Hasler Herring Max Johnson/Guy Rughani/Ben Scally Culture Thom Louis/Michael Mackenzie Music Joshua Angrave/Anna Feintuck/Tom Kinney Film Kirsty Wareing/Ali Quaile TV Daniel Swain Commission Kathryn Lloyd Sport Davie Heaton/Chris Waugh Copy editors Melissa Geere/Carl O’Gorman

Photo editor Emily Jarrett Multimedia Luke Healey/Anna Feintuck Web editor Lewis Dunne/ Mayumi Ihara-Quinones Illustration Commissioner Cat O'Neil President Lewis Dunne Secretary Varvara Bashkirova Treasurer Helen Stride  Student Newspaper, 60 Pleasance, Edinburgh, EH8 9TJ  editors@studentnewspaper.org

Student Newspaper, 60 Pleasance, Edinburgh EH8 9TJ. Tel: 0131 650 9189. The Student lists links to third party websites, but does not endorse them or guarantee their authenticity or accuracy. © Student Newspaper Society. All rights reserved. No section in whole or part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmited in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior permission of the publisher. The Student is published by the Student Newspaper Society, 60 Pleasance, Edinburgh EH8 9TJ. Distributed by Lothian Couriers, 3 John Muir Place, Dunbar EH42 1GD. Tel: 01368 860115. Printed

by Cumbrian Newsprint (part of the CN Group), Carlisle Print Centre, Newspaper House, Dalston Road, Cumbria CA2 5UA, on Monday October 31 2011. Tel: 01228 612600. Registered as a newspaper at the Post Office.

Every relationship has its testing moments, and this week we came across ours. Finding ourselves separated by six thousand miles and two continents, with Zoe holding the fort in Edinburgh and Becky traitorously visiting family in Hong Kong, we realised that this was it: make or break.

Through the torment and suffering, however, one thing became clear. It wasn't the depth or sincerity of our love (though we did discover this, it is of no real significance or consequence).

No, what matters is that we reaffirmed to each other our love of puns. We love them all the more if they don't quite

work, and especially if they're based on misrepresentative asian stereotypes.

How could our relationship ever be in jeopardy when we have this to share over a bowl of rice?

Love, Zoe & Becky

Dear Zoe, It’s been only four days since I saw you last, but, my dearest, it feels like an eternity.

I fell asleep this afternoon and dreamed a series of bizarre dreams- in one of them, I was a staple. Harrowing as this was, it paled in comparison to the following dream, in which I returned to The Student to find that you no longer needed or wanted me and that I had been booted out. I’ve also been seeing your face everywhere – contorted in the skins of dumplings and grinning up at me from the bottom of my rice bowl. Does this mean that you’re thinking of me? Or am I just losing my... noodle? Please respond, the more asianthemed puns the better.

Yours, Becky x

Dear Becky, It’s completely understandable. Withdrawal symptoms often mean people see my face everywhere - I can commonly be found on blah-nk walls and appear as an ethereal vision in blah-ckouts. It even links into your dream, which means that you need to sort yourself out and return to the staple necessities of life.

Don’t worry, the office hasn’t broken into complete panda-monium... but get on a plane soon please, I can’t go Yuan more day without you.

Oh, and if you don’t bring me back a specialTEA present, I’ll change the locks.

Yours, Zoe x

Dearest Zoe, Thank you for your reassuring words.

It’s good to know that others have been torn away from you and managed to survive.

I suppose you must be hallucinating me too, in the chan-ging of the seasons, in a chan-ce encounter with a friend who isn’t me, and, of course, in the chan-ting of the Buddhist monks that are rampant in the city of Edinburgh.

Hong Kong is great – being reunited with the family is chan-tastic, and it’s a new extreme in exam procrastination.

Coming here was actually the perfect metaphorical blow to the head to induce impending-exam-amnesia. As the saying goes, what you don’t know can’t hurt you.

Although plenty of people are murdered by strangers, so the saying doesn’t really hold much water.

Anyway, how are you, my sweet? I do hope you’re getting enough rest. Those dark circles you tend to get make you look like a fucking panda.

And as far as missing me goes, adopt a zen approach and accept it. Love is sweet and sour.

Yours, Becky x

Dear Becky, A fucking panda? I suppose I do need a rest... I thought I saw the girl from The Ring in my room, and then realised I was looking in the mirror. I subsequently decided that my entire room was un-feng shui and moved the mirror to hang in the doorway. I don’t think it’s going to end well.

I hope you’re not feeling too bamboo-zled by the oncoming exams so here’s my parting advice: Don’t get murdered by strangers.

Don’t miss me too much. Don’t chop sticks with bare hands or they’ll hurt and you won’t be able to write for 3 hours straight. I know.

Yours, Zoe x

Contact:��� �����������

�������� Tuesday November 29 2011 ��������� ��� ���� editors.������������������������������������������������ studentnewspaper@gmail.com����������������������

studentnewspaper.org

����������� Crossword 11

Crossword CRYPTIC CLUES ACROSS 1 Guerrillas - who may be biased? (9) 6 Drink and quiet work for old man (3) 8 Continuous refusal leads to new post being re-assigned (7) 9 Shackles presson Sunday (5) 10 Being 'included in' is no good after a short while 11 View osprey’s first flight feather (7) 12 Venerate midst upset and public notice (13) 15 Fairy queen needs a giant one to start with (7) 17 Simple chap (5) 19 Deer initially run wild - and strayed (5) 20 I care right ! Sadly that's irregular (7) 22 It’s put on head of family (3) 23 Gloomy yet bouncy account of word development (9) DOWN 1 Imprison a writer (3) 2 Old drummer has to call on love (5) 3 Number used in print, e.g. erroneously (7) 4 A very quiet beast in Rhode Island, tamely shuffling about (13) 5 That’s a poem I found in literature of the future (3-2) 6 Biographical portrait for dossier (7) 7 South African province holds up letters after delivery (4-5) 10 Divisive social system requires separate hide-out (9) 13 Check age and name to find one with great experience (7) 14 Blockade them briefly and prevent work (7) 16 Gently prod knight to remove judge’s head (5) 18 Group getting to start a fight (3,2) 21 Weep and shout (3)

CONCISE CLUES ACROSS 1 Resistance fighters (9) 6 Noise (3) 8 Never-ending (7) 9 Clubs (5) 10 Within (5) 11 Judgement (7) 12 Bill (13) 15 Fairy queen (7) 17 Herb (5) 19 Made a mistake (5) 20 Inconsistent (7) 22 University teacher (3) 23 The derivation of words (9)

Scribble Pad

DOWN 1 Writing implement (3) 2 Beatle (5) 3 Whole number (7) 4 More or less (13) 5 Futuristic genre (3-2) 6 Side-on view (7) 7 After delivery (4-5) 10 Racist system (9) 13 Old soldier (7) 14 Boycott (7) 16 A gentle push (5) 18 Get stuck in (3,2) 21 Greet (3)

Spot the difference!

Tuesday November 29 2011 studentnewspaper.org

12 Comment

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�

Not a sexy scandal Hugh Grant revealed to the Leveson inquiry this week that he suspected a non-Murdoch newspaper (the Mail on Sunday) of having hacked his phone.

Most of those who have been following the phone hacking debacle will not be surprised by this allegation; It’s been clear from quite early on that illegal practice was not just the handy-work of scapegoat Glenn Mulcaire, but was widespread within the industry.

“

The British media will not drop this story until someone takes responsibility; because it has sex, Hollywood and humour."

For the public, politicians and the press themselves, the Leveson enquiry is an opportunity to push for accountability and genuine reform and to make sure that this issue does not just blow over.

After the 24-hour news-friendly revelations of July, from the Milly Dowler story through to the pied face of Rupert Murdoch, the story was at risk of settling down in the archives. This is a danger, not because we need to know who hacked who and how they did it, but because this scandal brought to the surface a number of other problems in our society which must not be ignored.

Whilst the individual celebrity phone hacking incidents provide eye-catching stories for the media, the real story here

is the emergence of a significant number of links between seemingly independent spheres of British society. The Leveson enquiry ensures that the former will not be forgotten, and that the ethics and practice of the press will be examined.

However, the broader issues which emerged from the phone hacking scandal will be buried much more easily.

This imbalance is due to our media culture. Take, for example, the story of Hugh Grant. He suspects that the Mail on Sunday had access to his voicemail due to a story that the paper printed about his relationship with Jemima Khan being on the rocks because of his ‘relationship’ with a ‘plummy-voiced’ executive at Warner Brothers. The British media will not drop this story until someone takes responsibility; because it has sex, Hollywood and humour.

On the other hand, there is the case of Andy Coulson, David Cameron’s former communications director. Coulson, who left News International in 2007, is reported to have continued receiving payments from Rupert Murdoch’s company until the end of the year. This meant that, during the first five months that Coulson was running the relationship between the future prime minister and the most powerful media group in the world, he was receiving payments from the latter, to add to his reported £250,000. The fact that the Conservative party paid an advisor that much money (down to a modest £140,000 once he started being paid by the tax-payer in 2010) is worrying in itself. But that he was receiving money from News International simultaneously does not look like a story which

Steve Punter

The phone hacking scandal exposed darker problems in our democracy than celebrity tittle-tattle, argues Daniel Kraemer.

PUBLIC INQUIRY: Are the real issues being locked out of the hacking debate? comes from a country that was in 2010 ranked the 20th least corrupt country in the world. Sadly, this obvious conflict of interest is less media friendly than the much less significant case of Grant, and is more likely to disappear into history without clarification.

The Coulson story is a small aspect of a huge network of connections which were exposed, mostly by the formidable reporting of the Guardian’s Nick Davies. The never-ending network of actors involved suggest that, not only should those responsible for illegal or unethical actions be held to account, but the rev-

elations which went alongside the news hacking affair should make us question our culture. This is a culture in which it is okay for George Osborne to meet with News International chiefs sixteeen times in the first year of government whilst Murdoch was bidding to take a 61% stake in BSkyB. The aim for those who have been outraged by the whole affair should be to keep up pressure on politicians to delve further, to enforce (and exercise) transparency and to hold all those responsible for wrong-doing to account.

We must ask the question of whether a healthy democracy is one of overlapping

Reconstructing the riots

interests between the police, the media and the government; one in which governments rely on good relationships with media moguls for popularity, and media moguls on governments to retain a monopoly. If pressure is not maintained, and desire for reform not expressed by the public, then the involved institutions will be more than happy to bury the broader issue of questionable practice within the British elite. It is therefore essential for us not to allow politicians and the media to forget about the wider implications on our society which have stemmed from a serious but lesser scandal.

Lisa Parr investigates the media's representation of Mark Duggan and the fatal shooting that sparked this summer's unrest.

New reports have emerged in the press this week that the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has found no evidence that Mark Duggan, shot dead by police on August 4, was carrying a firearm. The way in which the media has handled the inquiry raises important issues about the relationship between the press, public and political institutions, which has been in the spotlight since the fatal shooting of Duggan this summer sparked riots across the UK. The basic problem with media reports of crime is that newspapers are interested in selling stories. News consists of stories that are new and shocking, so it is essentially in the interest of newspapers to decontextualise crime and make it seem as surprising and unprecedented as possible. The media are in the business of constructing narratives but also of suppressing them.

By failing to supply narratives that are based on fact and are pieced together over time, newspapers allow themselves

the freedom to construct new narratives every day in the light of each new detail as it emerges.

Newspapers don’t sell information; they sell us a way of seeing ourselves.

In the wake of the London riots, public figures were quick to stress their own shock and surprise. Prince Harry was “shocked and outraged”, David Cameron declared that “the whole country has been shocked”, while Sir Alex Ferguson and the Dalai Lama were also reported to be ‘shocked’. There’s nothing wrong with this reaction in and of itself, but nor is there anything worthy or noble about it, less so about declaring it in the media. A more constructive response would be to come to terms with the events as quickly as possible and to try and understand what is going on.

But instead the reaction seemed somehow like a protestation of innocence, as though understanding makes us in some way complicit.

This reductive style of reporting performs the function of condensing

complex social problems into black and white issues. Was Duggan armed? Did he shoot first? By posing these questions the newspapers offer compelling intrigue and an enticing detective narrative, solving the problem of engaging their readership, but failing to offer the platform for contemplation that could be a genuine contribution to social change.

“

This reductive style of reporting performs the function of condensing complex social problems into black and white issues."

One of the worst examples of this rhetoric in recent years was the dialogue that surrounded the UK invasion of Iraq. Any questions of the real motives

for invasion, or of the global position the UK should occupy in the 21st century, were precluded by the one big question: were there any weapons or not? These questions place something ultimately unknowable at the heart of the narrative, offering the media endless opportunity for speculation while negating the need for analysis. In the case of Mark Duggan the debate has focused on one question: was he a ‘gangster’ or a ‘family man’?

The media treatment of Mark Duggan has been tainted with prejudice. It has been reported that his family were ‘deeply upset’ by claims he was a gangster. Duggan had no previous convictions and the main foundation for this claim seems to have been the much publicised photograph of the victim making a gun sign with his fingers.

Rappers often make these kinds of signs in their music videos and I don’t think we should use that as an indication of their attitude to crime any more than we would have taken the V-sign made

by Spice Girls fans in the 1990s as an indication of their feminist credentials.

The question of whether Duggan was a gangster or not is really the question of whether he is a media goodie or a media baddie.

Politicians have been keen to capitalise on the emotional currency of the riots in the three months that have passed. Labour politicians have blamed Conservative welfare cuts, while the Conservatives have blamed 13 years of Labour rule. While neither party has done much to heal the social schisms that breed such violence, the petty passing of blame is helpful to no one.

Both parties are offering themselves up as vessels of change, with easy solutions to problems that lie at the heart of British society. Media rhetoric facilitates and perpetuates this discourse, offering the reader blow by blow accounts of political mud-slinging, which boil down the future of the country to an addictive whodunnit. Don’t buy it.

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Comment 13

Evading the Euro

DISMAL PARLIAMENTARY PROSPECTS: Do the SNP, as the majority party in Parliament, have the right attitude towards Europe?

It was in 2006 that Alex Salmond called for Scotland to join Europe’s ‘arc of prosperity’, stretching from “Ireland to our west, Iceland to our north and Norway to our east”. Since then, one of those countries has been crushed to near-bankruptcy by the weight of its own property boom; another has experienced, in relative terms, the largest banking collapse suffered by any country in economic history. More recently, Mr Salmond chuckled to a Catalan interviewer as

he told how the Sterling was ������ “����� sinking like a stone���������������������� ”��������������������� , his senior special adviser later confirming that the SNP had ���������������������������������� “��������������������������������� always seen the benefits of Euro membership��� ”��.

When the EU was experiencing better times, it is not difficult to see why this call to abandon Westminster and push on into Europe seemed like such a seductive argument; abandoning one imbalanced union in favour of another, a new union framed in a wider European context bringing

Scotland untold riches and prosperity.

This line of argument proved to be a profitable one for the SNP, and as the seemingly infallible Eurozone project widened its scope, so the SNP’s fortunes brightened.

Now, with a majority in Holyrood, the prospect of a referendum in 2014 or 2015, and most crucially with the European project faltering on a scale that most could not have imagined, Salmond finds himself in an interesting position. He has already acknowl-

Flickr:gregg

Thomas Colson asks whether it's time for Alex Salmond to rethink ‘Independence within Europe’

edged that he would no longer take Scotland into a single currency in the near future, and would keep the Sterling in place: after all, to appear an overly-enthusiastic supporter of all things Euro in the current climate would be the political equivalent of drinking cyanide. Given this, it is perhaps surprising that he still maintains that ‘there are good arguments for joining the Euro’ at some point in the future, at a time when even Angela Merkel and Nicholas Sarkozy,

the Euro’s two most vocal proponents, have privately conceded that a collapse might be on thehorizon. His very insistence on cautiously supporting the Euro inevitably begs the question: what other choice does Salmond have?

Given that the SNP’s entire argument rests on a pro-European framework, could it be that the SNP’s ideas of independence from Westminster and deep European integration are fatally interlinked? Salmond has already had to swallow his call to join the ‘arc of prosperity’. And now his belief that Westminster is holding Scotland back, that Europe is where Scotland’s future lies, is inherently undermined by the fact he would have no other choice than to shelter Scotland from the European storm for the foreseeable future.

As to the question of how the Eurozone crisis might impact on popular support for Scottish independence, Mr. Salmond’s success in securing a majority in Holyrood at a time when alarm bells were already ringing over the future of the Eurozone is worth considering. It is certainly hard, however, to imagine that the sheer scale of the ongoing crisis will not impact the political fortunes of a nationalist party, whose argument for independence rests so firmly on the idea of European integration, and the idea of joining the Euro and severing that last major link with England when the time is right. The scale of this impact will perhaps be decided partly by the course that events in Europe take before the referendum. But it will also be determined by the extent to which a First Minister, who has demonstrated his remarkable political capacity on countless occasions, can reframe his argument in a more viable European context. Ultimately, the question as to whether a crisis for Europe will prove to be the saviour for the United Kingdom remains to be seen.

Burgeoning Burma?

Rosie Stock Jones questions whether Burma's recent reforms have political clout or are mere posturing.

In December, Hillary Clinton will be the first US secretary of state to visit Burma in 50 years. US sanctions on Burma have been in place since 1997 and in 2007 were tightened to target Burmese officials. However, after the introduction of a new government this March, the Obama administration wants to test the water. This u-turn in international relations is the result of a recent string of events, including the creation of a Burmese human rights commission and the removal of restrictions on Aung San Suu Kyi. Aung San Suu Kyi is a Nobel Peace Prize winner and leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD), who has been under arrest on and off since 1989. Suu Kyi’s release last November was conveniently just a week later than the elections which her party boycotted. In light of the recent reforms, which also included the freeing of 200 political prisoners, Suu Kyi announced that she will work with President Thien

Sien and his Union Solidarity and Development Party (USD) and the NLD are due to officially re-register as an opposition party.

“

So while Clinton's visit and the recent Burmese reforms are exciting developments, it is difficult not to remain a little suspicious of the motives behind this glossy make over."

This news is promising, but one must remember that Burma's issues are complex. In 2010, Amnesty International estimated that 2,200 political

prisoners were being held. Some were sentenced to periods up to 65 years, just for organising a demonstration, thus in this context, 200 people being released seems unimpressive. Nevertheless, Burma is changing. Until recently, the government censored all media and labour unions weren’t allowed. Now the BBC reports that posters of Aung San Suu Kyi are openly for sale on the streets; a seemingly positive occurrence in a country where she was so long condemned.

Yet the implications of this burgeoning idolisation may be dangerous. Suu Kyi is just one woman, and putting so much hope on one head as she attempts to work out a compromise with the regime is bound to leave many disappointed. One only has to think back to the hysteria in the months before Obama entered the White House, when supporters were wearing his face on their t-shirts, and compare it to the middling, lukewarm

opinions that so many of these same people hold now, to see that idols rarely live up to their initial hopes in reality. Furthermore, conversations that President Thein Sein held with Aung San Suu Kyi were in secret and not fully supported by her party. There is a real fear that Thein Sein may be using Suu Kyi and her iconic reputation to help reconcile Burma with the rest of the world, without them making any significant steps towards democracy.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) appointed Burma chair of the organisation in 2014 last week, suggesting that this tactic might work.

Clinton said on Fox News that she aims to do some “fact finding” as part of her visit, not just grace the government with a diplomatic visit and put them in the headlines. Let’s hope this is something that the visit achieves and that she isn’t seduced by what the BBC describes as the “fantasy-land” capital

of this poverty stricken country.

The election of the USD in November 2010 was monumental, in that it was the first election Burma held in 20 years. However, the UN condemned it as fraudulent and it is widely recognised that the election process was designed to maintain the military’s grasp on authority. It is hard to believe the same officers that resigned from the military in order to stand in the elections are suddenly ready to give up their power. So while Clinton’s visit and the recent Burmese reforms are exciting developments, it is difficult not to remain a little suspicious of the motives behind this glossy make over.

As the chairman of the All Burma Students’ Democratic Front explained to The Daily Beast, while this visit may result in some positive promises from Thien, the government still have a long way to go before they “prove their legitimacy”.

Tuesday November 29 2011 studentnewspaper.org��

14 Comment

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Enraged in Egypt

Invoking Tahrir Square belies the ongoing problems in Egypt, says Susannah Compton

Last Sunday, while we were spending a casual day in our sweatpants sleeping off a hangover, Lieutenant John Pike was casually pepper spraying students at the University of California-Davis occupy protest. Photographs immortalise the moment where Pike recklessly wields a pepper-spray like it’s a can of Lynx on a group of students sitting in a line that is less harmful than Kumbaya. It’s not the use of pepper-spray that’s disturbing, but Pike’s lackadaisical posture, like he’s just won a particularly lucrative game of beer pong.

Vitriolic editorials sprung up all over the internet, but because it’s impossible for our generation to avoid turning our every thought into a meme, so did parody.

All it takes is a few clicks in Photoshop to place your enemy’s face on to the photo of a donkey or Pike into ridicule, hence the Pepper Spraying Cop meme was born.

Pike’s image is superimposed just as cavalierly as he doused protesters over everything from The Last Supper to The Wizard of Oz and even some iconic images such as the self-immolating monk protesting Vietnam. Go to the Pepper Spraying Cop Tumblr to leave a worse taste in your mouth than pepperspray itself. It’s in our nature to use humour to reconcile deeply disturbing events, but this time the irony has gone further than the pedophile moustaches hipsters are growing for Movember.

Although the memes are meant to symbolise the absurdity of America’s police, paradoxically, it weakens the symbolism of the Occupy movement. The idea of waving protests signs instead of iphones isn’t revolutionary, it’s the very definition of peaceful protest, but for a generation that spends more time chronicling our lives through tweets than actually living them, it was innovative. We got offline to show what the 21st Century breadline looks like. We showed who we really are, but now we’re back hiding behind an avatar, no longer a serious threat. Occupy is cooling down along with America’s weather, yet this incident could’ve catalysed a second-wind. History isn’t crystallised until a Pulitzer prizewinning image is picked, but that emblem has already been distorted and derided into another Tumblr trend that will wear off faster than the sting of pepper-spray.

Tess Malone

FLYING FLAGS: Tahrir Square at the height of the Egyptian Revolution last year.

‘Turn Manhattan into Tahrir Square!’ ‘Turn London into Tahrir Square!’ Even, ‘turn patriarchy into Tahrir Square!’ The seeming triumph of the Egyptian vox populi is now immortalised not only in articles and newscasts, but in the social media of the West. Tahrir Square begat a hundred Occupy camps and joined the emotive vocabulary of protest. Now, as Cairo is ablaze once again, its ubiquity among the tweeting classes is both nonsensical and belittling.

Since November 19th, Al-Jazeera reports that at least 42 people have been killed and more than 3,256 wounded in fresh clashes across Egypt. The latest death on Saturday saw a pro-democracy protestor named as Ahmed Soroor run over by an armoured vehicle near the Egyptian Cabinet Office. Tahrir Square has seen the return of tens of thousands to attend a rally against military rule on Friday, while elsewhere more than 5,000 people counter-demonstrated in support of the governing Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF).

The popularity of the Egyptian Army following the downfall of Mubarak has now all but evaporated.

Their original promise of a return to barracks within six months of taking power has been flouted. Sectarianism is back: a largely-Christian protest in October over restrictions to churchbuilding was brutally suppressed by the army, following which army-controlled State TV reported that “the Copts have killed two soldiers”, and presenters urged the public to “protect the army from the Copts”.

Allegations that the military subjected many women to ‘virginity tests’ have caused international uproar, while observers estimate that over 10,000 arrestees have been tried in secret military tribunals for crimes ranging from the commonly criminal to simply being part of a group protesting outside the Israeli embassy on Nakba Day (15 May).

On Friday, the Guardian published an interview with Major Tamer Samir Badr, announcing his defection to the

flickr: YaZzZz...

Meme Madness

anti-regime protestors and alleging that he “saw people dying and the army gave the orders for us to just stand and watch”. The UN has condemned the regime’s reaction to the demonstrations, while Germany and other European countries have called for a swift transition to civilian government.

In the face of rising unpopularity, SCAF has made limited concessions.

Essam Sharaf, prime minister for the past 9 months, has resigned, while the regime is adamant that free and fair parliamentary elections will begin on Monday 28th as planned. However, newly-installed prime minister Kamal el-Ganzouri is dogged by the suspicion that as he steps once again into the role he filled under Mubarak, he represents not progress but regression.

However, there is little unity among the Egyptian population. The Guardian reports that pro-regime rallies encompass such diverse views as support for indefinite military rule, a return to the Mubarak regime and progress towards full democracy. The Tahrir Square

Jaundiced justice

protestors, meanwhile, are united in opposition to SCAF but divided over the alternative.

The Muslim Brotherhood, comfortable in their role as de facto but unscrutinised opposition, are struggling to maintain a coherent message. Their recent refusal to join the protests has been seen by many as a critical error – in refusing to ally themselves with the anger of the rising tide, they risk becoming a victim of its ire.

As Syria and Yemen struggle to maintain their antiquated status quo, the Arab world would do well to heed the knife-edge upon which Egypt is currently teetering. The twittering classes of the West, meanwhile, would do well to look elsewhere for their poster-boys.

The Occupy protesters may argue that the fight against capitalism is akin to the fight for regime change, but there is something in Tahrir Square and across Egypt that is more immediate, and more desperately tangible, than in Wall Street, Oakland or even in Edinburgh. It is easy to admire the ground swell of righteous anger, the passion and fury and sacrifice. To glorify such abject desperation, however, is offensive.

“

As Cairo is ablaze once again, Tahrir Square's ubiquity among the tweeting classes is both nonsensical and belittling."

As Major Badr attempts to remind his former colleagues that “they have given a pledge to protect these people”, we must humanise, not lionise, this tragedy.

Lewis Dunne discusses the pros and cons of a Libyan solution to a Libyan problem

Saif al-Islam, son of the exLibyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, was captured on the 19th November while attempting to flee the country.

Although there is a warrant out for his arrest from the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague, the Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) is insisting that it wants Saif to be tried in Libya. This has resulted in wrangling over how the trial should proceed.

The position of the NTC is very understandable. The Libyan people have just fought a short but bloody civil war to overthrow the dictatorship ran by Gaddafi and his family. Saif himself was a strong supporter of his father during the civil war, both politically and militarily. The Libyan people naturally not only want him to face justice, but Libyan justice, in Libya. The trial is about showing that Libya can survive by itself without Gaddafi, who ruled the country for the majority of its independent history, and that Libya is fully capable of dealing with Libyan problems.

If Saif is tried in the Hague, it would be a lot easier for Gaddafi supporters to

try and claim that the war was fought by Western powers who are now dishing out their brand of justice. A Libyan trial reminds us that this war was fought by the Libyan people.

“

The revolution was stained enough by Muammar Gaddafi's summary execution."

If Saif is tried in Libya, he will potentially face the death penalty. No doubt many Libyans would be pleased with this outcome, and as abhorrent as the death penalty is, such a sentence might be best for Libya. However, the Gaddafi family had a lot of supporters in Libya. The last thing the Libyan government wants is a figure like Saif still being present in Libya and in the national consciousness.

The entire Arab world will have their eyes on this trial. It will serve as a reminder not to wage war against

your own people, and that it is better to step down, or flee, sooner rather than later. It’s possible that Yemeni President Saleh’s recent announcement that he will step down is driven by a fear of suffering the same fate as Saif. As part of President Saleh’s agreement to relinquish power, he will be given immunity from prosecution for any crimes he may have committed in office.

Will the likelihood of prosecution at the ICC actually encourage dictators to fight on if they know that the worst that will happen to them is a trial at the ICC, where they would receive a fair trial, a relatively comfortable prison sentence, and no death penalty? Many of these dictators are extremely old and unlikely to live to see the end of their trials or prison sentences.

Or will a Libyan trial, instead of encouraging dictators to go, encourage those who have already started down the path of bloodshed to continue? Bashar al-Assad in Syria may be more inclined to fight on if he feels that the only alternative is surrender, a quick and probably unfair trial followed by execution at the

hands of the Syrian opposition.

It is unlikely Libya will be able to deliver a fair trial for Saif. The country is just out of a civil war and is facing many problems. Delivering a trial as large and complex as this is an incredibly difficult thing to do in the best of conditions. If Iraq couldn’t give Saddam Hussein a fair trial more than a year after the invasion, despite the billions pumped into the country by the coalition and all the vested interest in the trial appearing as fair as possible, what makes us think that Libya can deliver fair trial only months out of a bloody civil war?

The desire for revenge for years of oppression is understandably strong.

There are many benefits to trying Saif in Libya, but what the Libyan people need to do is to show that they stand by the principles they fought for in the civil war. The revolution was stained enough

by Muammar Gaddafi’s summary execution. Saif al-Islam needs to receive a fair and open trial, and considering the numerous problems facing Libya at the moment, it’s unlikely he’ll be able to receive that in Libya.

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Tuesday November 29 2011 studentnewspaper.org

13 Features

Learning from our history In the United Kingdom, representing the past is a collective responsibility. The fact that the government has a duty to maintain and promote museums and national archives shows the importance of heritage in this country.

Not just the government, but independent museums, historical institutions, schools, and individuals also play a part in preserving our past.

We have a tendency to think that history is primarily important because, to paraphrase countless politicians, learning from it gives us a chance to make the future better.

This is true, and it is fair to say that one of the central aims of historical institutions should be to inform and explain. Beyond this, however, remembrance is important in its own right: looking at the past should not just serve to selfishly inform us on future decisions, but as a mark of respect for what has gone before. Understanding is inherently valuable.

This natural dualism of the lookingback-to-look-forward dichotomy is something that historical institutions tend to struggle with.

Arguably, remembering and looking forward are not mutually exclusive, but the tactics behind education are rather different than those behind preservation of memories.

Add a sensitive topic that people are wary of commenting on, and it becomes almost impossible. The classic example of this is, of course, the Holocaust. Although it “happened” all over central Europe, its impact on our consciousness is on a global scale, and consequently there are Holocaust museums and memorials all over the world.

In the UK, two approaches tend to be taken: institutions either focus on the stories of individuals, or try to explain the social and political context in which the Holocaust could, and did, happen. In some cases an exhibition will attempt to do both, but the two ideas are still distinct within that and come from different aims. The former is fundamentally about preservation, and the latter is about education.

The Imperial War Museum’s “Holocaust Exhibition” does both. It attempts to explain the historical context of the Holocaust, including objects which help to illustrate themes such as the political climate of Germany and the perversion of science to justify Nazi beliefs. Viewers are shown objects such as tools used to measure skull shape, for example, in an attempt to adequately represent Nazi ideas about race.

It also features the personal testimonies of eighteen individuals, with the aim, it says, of creating an exhibition that is “haunting and moving”.

This implication of emotional engagement is also present – more explicitly perhaps, at the Jewish Museum, also in London. It tells the

story of Leon Greeman, who survived six concentration camps, including Auschwitz.

The collection is focused on his and his family’s personal collections, including his wife’s wedding dress and there are also films of other survivors’ testimonies.

The aim here is clear: to create an emotional impact based on a human capacity and tendency to feel empathy for individuals. There is less emphasis on the broader historical context than in the Imperial War Museum.

There are a number of organisations in the UK promoting both of these ideas, and working closely with the heritage industry to do so. Two examples of this are the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust (HMDT) and Holocaust Learning.

Representatives of the HMDT sign a declaration, in which one of the statements is “We believe that the Holocaust must have a fundamental place in our nation’s collective memory”.

They embrace the duality of representing the Holocaust, saying that they aim to “provide a national mark of respect for all victims of Nazi persecution and demonstrate understanding with all those who still suffer its consequences,” in order to remember, but also to “ensure that the horrendous crimes, racism and victimisation committed during the Holocaust are neither forgotten nor repeated, whether in Europe or elsewhere in the world,” in order to never forget.

Holocaust Learning, based in Leeds, put an emphasis on teaching and learning about the Holocaust.

They speak about the importance of using individual testimonies, rather than “shock factor” images, to educate.

Their reason for this is that “much of the photographic evidence of the Holocaust was produced by the perpetrators. If we focus on this material, then the images the perpetrators had of their victims will be the same ones our students see.

“

We have a tendency to think that history is primarily important because, to paraphrase countless politicians, learning from it gives us a chance to make the future better."

Shock doesn’t create a worthwhile learning experience, nor does it help the students explore the important issues that surround the Holocaust.”

This idea counters the suggestion

David_shankbone

Anna Feintuck ������������������������������������� looks at the sensitive issues around preserving ������������������������������������� the memory of history and how ���� we ��� can ���� learn ������������� from it

A POIGNANT REMINDER: One of the Holocaust memorials at Yad Vashem, near Jerusalem that personal testimonies are more about remembrance than learning, or that, at the very least, they highlight the different responsibilities schools and museums have.

In Scotland, there currently isn't a permanent Holocaust memorial or exhibition, though efforts have been made. Edinburgh hosted HMD in 2003, there was a temporary exhibition organised by Heartstone in 2006 at Dynamic Earth, and the Scottish Storytelling Centre ran events for HMD in 2011, but none of these add up to fixed national remembrance.

It seems, however, there was some hope that the 2006 exhibition would be made permanent. The Scotsman reported before it opened that Heartstone’s commission had been from the Scottish Executive and had specified permanence.

In the end, nothing came of it, despite the efforts of the Association of Jewish Refugees. At the time, their spokesman Michael Newman hoped that it would be an “important exhibition that will shape the way the Holocaust is taught and remembered throughout the country.”

As it stands, teachers rely on Na-

tional Curriculum guidelines and the advice of organisations such as Holocaust Learning.

Learning can be hampered, however, by the need for sensitivity about the Holocaust. This is probably felt most keenly by those who would suffer the most if they caused offence; politicians.

When the Heartstone exhibition opened in 2006, Scotland’s Commu-

“

Discussion and explanation facilitates understanding of the issue far better than reliance on the "lessons of the past" trope." nity Minister at the time, Malcolm Chisolm, said “We know that some young people today are not aware of this atrocity. History teaches us powerful, important lessons and we must ensure that we are not complacent.”

Though this echoes the aims of the

HMDT, it also represents the consistent failure of this country to talk about the Holocaust in a meaningful and discursive way. It was an atrocity, of course, and Mr. Chisholm is right that we mustn’t be complacent, but discussion and explanation facilitates understanding of the issue far better than reliance on the “lessons of the past” trope.

Of course memory is crucial, and the aims of the museums and organisations discussed here are clear and important, and they profitably go further than this model.

However, society as a whole, particularly people like politicians who open events and exhibitions, really seem to struggle to talk about it, which highlights the importance of the roles of organisations such as museums and schools. This will allow for more significant remembrance, by saying that historical atrocities warrant informed reflection rather than blind - or scared - “respectful” comments.

We must always remember that we can look back and move forwards at the same time.

Tuesday November 29 2011 studentnewspaper.org

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16 Features

Dressed to skill

POPPY DINSEY: Reclaiming internet entrepreneurship for the individual These days, stories of internet flops seem to far outweigh those of success. The most-used social-networking platforms are those developed by multi-billion dollar corporations, from Google to Facebook, leaving any potential independent developer understandably daunted at the prospect of entering the cutthroat landscape of

social-networking. And yet, it’s into this landscape that Poppy Dinsey decided to venture with the launch of her “outfit sharing social network”, What I Wore Today.

Originally a personal project implemented to uphold a New Year’s resolution to wear more of her existing wardrobe rather than buy new clothes,

Poppy dinsey

Nina Bicket talks to Poppy Dinsey about the birth of a social network Dinsey began the blog in January 2010 as a daily snapshot of her current outfit posted online. A seemingly simple idea, but one which quickly attracted a large audience. “I knew people would be interested in it,” Dinsey recalls, “But what was surprising was the sustained interest – that more and more people were logging on every day.”

With this growing audience, Dinsey soon saw the potential for something more than a small-scale blog.

“There were people emailing me telling me that they’d bought stuff based on me wearing it, knowing how much traffic we were sending to retailers… that kind of thing was the sign that maybe it was sustainable beyond just me posting my stuff, that it was really sustainable on a bigger scale if I got other people posting their own stuff.”

In spring of last year she got the idea of turning the blog into a fullscale social network, but the process was a slow one. “I didn’t quit my job until May of last year, and then it was a very slow and steady process.” She found it was essential to ensure the proper researching of the project, and find the right people to work with. To her, this was the best method, as it felt like a more “natural progression”.

The basic idea of the site is that anyone can create an account, and submit photographs of their current outfit each day. Like Facebook, they can tag their posts with their mood and location, but the fashion aspect that it brings to social networking unique.

Coming from a blogging back-

ground, albeit in a very different field - property - Dinsey had already created an audience for herself. However, the overall promotion of the site relied much more on pre-existing social media platforms. When asked how sites such as Twitter and Facebook had helped to bolster the popularity of What I Wore Today, Dinsey is quick to reply. “It’s been fundamental, really, in terms of traffic. When people upload their outfits they tweet about them, they Facebook about them. It’s all that viral marketing that’s really important to the site.”

“

The idea of an accepting online community is an important one to Dinsey, and one which has featured heavily in the development of the site" Her familiarity with these sites allowed her an insight into “what works and what doesn’t work” in terms of social networking. However, it’s also important for her to set the site apart from others. The idea of an accepting online community is an important one to Dinsey, and one which has featured heavily in the development of the site.

“We don’t allow people to rate outfits

out of ten, or to give thumbs up or thumbs down”. It also maintains a unique voice, one which she describes as quintessentially British. “It’s got a very cheeky and sarcastic tone to it all, it doesn’t take itself too seriously”.

This is a central ideal to Dinsey, as when asked about what she thinks most people’s view of social networking is, she’s quick to respond. “I think a lot of people take it far too seriously. It’s not like there are hard and fast rules”. For her, it’s all about the users. “People are using social networks to achieve very different things… It’s usually the users who will determine how a site is used”.

This is a refreshing point of view, especially in an internet-using community used to constant complaints over new features and makeovers of more mainstream social networks like Facebook.

“We’ve got a bunch of features we’re planning to roll out, but we have to see how the users are using our own site first, and it’s them who will dictate the direction of the site, really, rather than us.” Perhaps Facebook should be taking notes?

In an age of industrial-scale social media, What I Wore Today feels, by contrast, much more individual and friendly, an ironically absent quality in most other ‘social’ tools, and this seems unsurprising considering its founder’s attitude. “Everyday there’s something awesome going on”, she says happily, and the positive attitude she clearly feels towards her job shines through in the final product.

Nice to meet YouTube

YouTube was created in 2005, marking the first time anyone could easily upload any video onto the web.

Now, just six years later, 200,000 videos are uploaded daily. From Gary Brolsma’s infamous Numa Numa to the Star Wars Kid, YouTube is not just another website. It’s a community, and a fascinating social phenomena.

YouTube can empower, but it can also be a responsibility. Juan Mann, the founder of the ‘free hugs campaign’, now widely known, made a video apologising for not being a “good member of the YouTube community”, giving out his address so that people could stop by and chat; an extreme indication of how much the community means to him. People can now be linked in inconceivable ways from all over the world, from all walks of life. One person sitting (seemingly) alone in front of a computer is in fact part of one of the largest communities in the world.

Barry Wellman, professor of sociology at the University of Toronto believes we are “moving from placeto-place to person-to-person connectivity”. It’s a weird idea of cultural inversion; we are more and more individual yet we long for community, for authenticity in the midst of increasing isolation. We seem to have built a com-

munity through web-cams and computer screens. What’s more, you never actually know who you’re talking to.

No one’s there, yet everyone’s watching (and if you’re the star of a viral video, such as Charlie and his big brother Harry, from the ubiquitous ‘Charlie bit my finger’, nearly 400,000,000 are watching); such a private space turns out to be one of the most public on the planet.

YouTube also encourages people to self-reflect. If you flick through the back-catalogue of vlogs, people at first appear to really struggle with the idea of speaking to a small camera, and then slowly become more comfortable with it: speaking to an invisible audience is an unusual concept. There are no social constraints or limitations. Likewise for the viewer, you can stare without fear of being judged as completely bizarre, or switch them off if they bore you. If you follow someone’s vlog you are able to experience them, sometimes feeling a profound connection despite never actually meeting them in person.

It also appears to be a community with very strong values – there was a phase recently of writing things on the palm of one’s hand and putting it up on YouTube. Things like ‘you are not alone’, ‘I believe in you’ and ‘love one another’ came up most – suggesting a

community striving for these feelings of acceptance. They’re not as prevalent as they would wish, so they feel the need to say them. For many it makes them feel they can express themselves, their desires, the trials or tribulations of daily life, or just a feeling of unity.

Of course not all YouTube users want to share the love, and this newfound anonymity seems to bring out the wild side in a fair few of them. Novelist Lev Grossman said “Some of the comments on YouTube make you want to weep for the future of humanity just for the spelling alone, never mind the obscenity and naked hatred”.

The YouTube community provides an interesting comparison to the ideas discussed in Benedict Anderson’s book Imagined Communities, where he looks at the concept of a nation where you have no direct communication with the vast majority of other members, and yet feel a bond with them, and belong to the same community. This unity is so great some will lose their lives for it.

Anderson points at the rise of printing press during the industrial revolution as one of the important factors in this phenomenon, which draws parallels with YouTube – it allows a range of information to be circulated among a large group of people. However,

MAPPING THE INTERNET: Not your average neighbourhood this imagined community does not consolidate the feeling of a ‘nation’; to the contrary, it breaks down the idea.

This is a global community, one which plays an important role (whether it be self-exploration, artistic development or just a place to let out pent-up rage) in many peoples’ lives. Perhaps people feel more connected to the YouTube community than they do to their own nation? Of the 200,000 videos released

daily, 10,000 are addressed simply to ‘the YouTube community’.

So yes, it appears media does in some respect distance us, but it also connects us, and interestingly this distance allows us to connect more closely.

YouTube is many things to many people; whether you want to learn Yoga, cook with Nigella, learn how to play the ukulele or sing the Numa Numa, YouTube is your community.

curiouslee

Phoebe Weston explores the implications of YouTube's imagined community

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features@studentnewspaper.org

Features 17

Not for glory nor riches

Jon Vrushi looks at the history and controversy of the English - Scottish union becomes an independent state, the treaties will no longer apply to that territory. In other words, a newly independent region would, by the fact of its independence, become a third country with respect to the [European] Union and the treaties would, from the day of its independence, not apply anymore on its territory.”

The briefing also states that it is very likely that the decision will be a political rather than constitutional one. It should be kept in mind that if Scotland were to remain in the EU, this would require all current member states to agree to it. As European countries with major separatist issues of their own, such as Spain, historically show a lack of sympathy for regions wanting independence, one must wonder whether the European community would welcome an independent Scotland with open arms.

Spain has shown its hostility towards seperatist regions by being one of the few EU states not to recognise the independence of Kosovo from Serbia. A Spanish, Italian, or UK veto would indeed suffice to keep Scotland outside the EU. As a result, outside of the UK may well mean outside of EU for a Scottish independent state.

“

Manipulating the crowds with nationalistic fervour, on either side, leads to decision-making from the heart rather than the mind, and could yield results that people regret later on"

WILLIAM WALLACE: Bronzed and beautiful having returned from the self-tanning booth free trade with the rest of the EU, and indeed the rest of the UK, unless bilateral agreements were signed between the two parties. Firms and businesses from the rest of the UK operating in Scotland might leave the country as their variable costs would increase with the removal of free trade and the rest of the benefits of the Single European Market.

Regardless of the Eurozone issues, it seems that the Scottish economy may face very hard times being on its own. The UK Treasury in London has been using the so-called Barnett formula since the late '70s to allocate public expenditure in each of the constituent nations. Under this formula, using figures for the financial year 2006/2007, if a UK-wide per capita average were a notional 100%, identifiable per capita expenditure on services in England would be 97% and the Scottish amount 117%. In actual monetary figures, this would work out as (per person): England £7,121 and Scotland £8,623.

In Scotland, the public sector is a bit larger than the rest of the UK, providing employment for 25% of the workforce, above the national average of around 21%. Scotland’s economy is more sluggish, growing by an average of 2% a year between 1997 and 2007, against 2.4% for Britain as a whole.

That may not sound much, but over the decades it adds up to a significant shortfall.

“

Joining the Euro is a contentious matter.

Do the Scottish people know that an independent Scotland as an EU member almost inevitably means a Scotland in the Eurozone?"

The last set of figures from Holyrood statisticians show that for 20089, Scotland provided £1.3bn more in revenue than was spent north of the border. At less than 1% of Scotland’s GDP, that’s not a huge surplus, and it does include a due share of North Sea revenues. Strip out crude oil and the deficit goes up sharply, to £10.5bn (or 9% of GDP). Those who say the oil is running out overstate rather than fabricate: more than half the local reserves have already been extracted and what’s left will be harder and more expensive to pump out. Re-energising Scotland is a very catchy slogan

but the question remains whether energy is a reliable resource upon which to base an entire economy. With oil prices so variable, the revenue of the state could drastically change in very short periods of time and managing public expenditure would be out of Scotland’s control.

It is hard to cover both sides of the argument in a page and oversimplification is difficult to avoid. It is very important that if a referendum takes place, people are very well informed.

Manipulating the crowds with nationalistic fervour, on either side, leads to decision-making from the heart rather than the mind, and could yield results that people regret later on. In the 21st century with our accessibility of information, we expect an informed and sensible electorate rather than a naïve, ignorant one.

In order to achieve the best for Scotland, we should avoid focusing on the idealistic and biased Yes and No campaigns. We should also, as a community, be more concerned with cultivating informative initiatives that will help people to understand the real implications of an independent Scotland, and decide with their minds rather than with their hearts.

Christian Mehlführer

Even in the case that all EU member states accept Scotland, it is almost certain that, like any new member state, joining the Eurozone and adopting the single currency would be a condition of membership. Joining the Euro is a contentious matter, although not necessarily a bad thing, but do Scottish people know this?

Do Scots know that an independent Scotland as an EU member almost inevitably means a Scotland in the Eurozone? The mere fact that the Scottish government is avoiding this topic with short and unclear declarations, and by hiding legal advice, means that they may want to hide a few facts from the public. Keeping legal advice documents secret even after pressure to release them doesn’t seem like a good start for a transparent state.

If Scotland re-applied to join the EU, the procedure could mean that it would take up to four years before its admission as a new member state.

The House of Commons' briefing mentions that the time scale could indeed be longer, citing previous examples of Sweden (the quickest so far at four years) and Turkey (decades and still counting).

Even in a best case scenario of two years outside the EU, this could mean mean two years of disastrous consequences for the Scottish economy.

Scotland could lose its privileges of

David Domingo

The union of England and Scotland dates back to 1603 when King James I took the English throne from the heirless Elizabeth I. Over the next 100 years the Stuart Dynasty saw the two nations through good and bad times. Military action and tensions were not rare in the 17th century as politics and religion drew the nations further apart, but the Glorious Revolution of 1688-9 and the liberties it restored helped to foster a better relationship between the two countries. England was the main importer of Scottish goods and they both enjoyed trade benefits.

Following the Glorious Revolution, many Scottish politicians, merchants and nobles advocated a political union between the two kingdoms. Scottish aristocracy had already started referring to themselves as Northern Britons rather than Scots and were emulating the English lifestyle. In 1707 the Scottish Parliament ratified the Act of Union which represented a parliamentary merger between the two, but this did not align the church, legal system or universities.

History has shown that Scotland has traditionally been alienated from the Union for pragmatic rather than patriotic reasons. In 1977, Scottish people voted in a referendum on devolution. 52% voted in favour and 48% voted against, however the turnout was low and the ‘yes’ vote did not reach the minimium of 40% of the electorate required. It would be deceitful to interpret the low turnout as mere political apathy, considering the ‘no’ campaign had informed the people that not turning up was as good as voting against.

The Scottish people had spoken.

However, eleven years' rule by a Tory increased resentment in Scotland, as the policy of de-industrialisation hit the country very hard. Adding to the confusion was the discovery of oil in the North Sea and patriotic campaigns such as ‘shall we be poor Brits or rich Scots?’. These circumstances led to yet another referendum in 1997 and this time, the ‘yes’ majority was a crystal clear 74.3%. As a result, the Scottish parliament was summoned for the first time since 1707.

More recently, when the SNP went on to win the 2011 Scottish General Election, the idea of Scottish independence became more than just the romantic dream of nationalists. Since then the Scottish government has made pressing for a referendum on Scotland’s independence a priority.

However, a very important aspect of the implications of Scottish independence seems to be overlooked by the general public. This is the issue of Scotland’s membership in the EU. Alex Salmond has promised that an independent Scotland would retain the Pound Sterling until a referendum on the adoption of the Euro could be held. However, there is no precedent in the EU for this scenario. Only two weeks ago the House of Commons commissioned a briefing on the issue of Scotland's EU membership and the rest of the UK. This found that it states in EU law: “When a part of the territory of a Member State ceases to be a part of the state, e.g. because that territory

Lifestyle 18

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joanna lisiovec

Tuesday November 29 2011 2011 studentnewspaper.org

Time to shave goodbye

With November coming to a chilly end and December fast approaching it’s time for guys to wave goodbye to those carefully sculpted ‘taches as ‘Movember’ officially draws to a close.

Beginning in Melbourne, the Movember phenomenon is now a yearly global event with an estimated 1.1 million participants raising money for men’s health charities, particularly prostate and testicular cancer. It is an important cause: in the UK alone prostate cancer killed 10,168 men in 2008, the second most common cause of cancer-related death in men after lung cancer. But now ‘Mo Bros’ all over the world will be shaving off their trusty lip-warmers and saying an agonising farewell to the facial growth they have admired and cultivated for a month.

Yes, that’s right, that time of year when every second guy looks like a sleazy 70s porn-star is officially over.

No more wondering why Tom Selleck (who famously sported a particularly fine moustache if you don’t already know – as exemplified by his character Richard in Friends) has started turning up to your Monday morning 9am classes. No more watching as your flatmate tries to eat cereal with dignity, milk and Rice Crispies sticking to the end of his lip-bristles like gunk to a toilet brush.

Or, if you’re me, no more walking

SPOT THE DIFFERENCE: The proud results of four weeks' work

that ‘the more you shave, the more will grow’ turns out to be a bit of an urban myth: please, do excuse me while I go and weep for the many hours I have wasted gliding a razor pointlessly over my baby-like smoothness, eagerly sculpting shaving-foam into beardlike shapes on my chin in anticipation of the imminent results.

Unfortunately it seems that the only thing to do, short of injecting testosterone, is wait patiently for nature to take its course. For those guys out there for whom stubble is a nuisance rather than a life goal, then Movember offers an opportunity to ditch the razor for a month in aid of a worthy cause. And if you took part and man-

Nailing the trend

Magnetic, Minx, crackled, perfectly polished: Sophie Craik sees ����� what ��������� all the fuss is about in this year's nail trends

HIRITAI

Recently there has been an explosion in the popularity of nail enhancements and out there nail trends, whether at home or in the salon. No longer does it conjure up images of long curly extensions on tasteless women. Now, with places like Wah Nails in London – who have a busy concession in Topshop Oxford Street – making really intricate nail art popular, this way of accessorising is no longer something to shy away from.

We wanted to give you a round-up of the best in terms of products, and a heads up with regards to Lifestyle’s favourite beauty salon, RBFY on Frederick Street.

If you’re really just a paint-iton and go kind of person there are some amazing products you can use quickly at home. Barry M, who have always been good at being quirky, have really come into their element with this trend. Their crackle effect, made famous by Katy Perry, is undoubtedly their most famous product out at the moment. However, the main issue with this effect is that once you spend time 'getting your nails done,' you actually want them to look professional, whereas depending on colour choice they can look slightly scrappy. Although, a black crackle on top of some glitter, especially electric blue, does have a very backstage-glamour appeal.

Their foil effects look less like actual foil and more like molten metal. The gold is pale, reminiscent of Alexander McQueen’s golds used in the hallowed 2010 collection, the

around in a state of perpetual jealousy pretending like you never wanted to take part anyway.

You see, I can’t grow a moustache.

In fact, I can’t even really grow that much facial hair except a kind of weird goatee that scrapes the edge of my chin and some random spots of bumfluff that follow no logic whatsoever. I only have to shave about once a week;, more if I’m following my ‘the more you shave, the more will grow’ routine. I’m pretty sure I didn’t even start shaving at all until I was 16, maybe even 17. There is, alas, only so long you can cling pathetically to the ‘I’ve got blonde hair, you just can’t see my stubble’ mantra.

So if, like me, your face remains resolutely stubble-free then perhaps the trusty internet can provide the answers. A quick whizz around some questionable websites (there are chat rooms for beard-growing enthusiasts – who knew?) provides little help for the follicly-challenged, however.

For the wealthier student a substance called Rogaine promises it’s ‘scientifically proven to re-grow hair’, and comes highly recommended from the chaps at the ‘beard board’ chat room. Eating more protein was also recommended, though applying the term ‘pseudo-scientific’ to this particular piece of advice is probably paying it too much of a compliment.

More depressingly, my conviction

EMILY JARRETT

As Movember comes to an end Alistair Grant looks at the problems of having, and not having, a 'tache

first after his tragic death. On longer nails, this particular colour looks amazing and ties in very well with the more robotic, high fashion look made so popular by Lady Gaga and Beyonce as well as many fashion designers, and is a must for anyone who has lusted after a pair of super high wedge shoe boots of late.

Magnetic nail polishes are certainly the most fun to apply. You paint it

on, and before it dries you hold the magnet (in the top of the brush) over your nail, guiding the metal filings into the pattern you want. It has a really trippy, nineties feel to it but can be tricky if you don’t have the full patience for it.

A really interesting nail art technique to try out at home is newspaper nails. Apply a base coat and paint your nails a very light colour – light

grey typically works very well. Then dip your nails, once dry, in some rubbing alcohol or surgical spirit for a few seconds before applying your chosen piece of newspaper print and pressing down firmly for around 15 seconds. The news print should have transferred onto your nail, and seal with a topcoat.

Now for the salon treats. RBFY invited me for a pedicure in their

aged to raise money then well done – last year £11.7 million was raised in the UK alone.

Now the only thing left to do is remember to shave against the grain and apply strong aftershave immediately afterwards – and maybe next year someone could come up with an idea I can actually take part in?

salon, and I approached the appointment with excitement and apprehension. The excitement came from the knowledge that I was having Minx applied, foils that are heated and applied to the nails in a variety of different patterns and can last for up to two months. My apprehension came simply from the fact that I tend to go into spasm when anyone touches my feet. Michelle at RBFY was wonderful with my twitchy ways however, and a glass of wine later I was feeling perfectly fine.

RBFY is definitely the closest we have to a place like Wah nails in Edinburgh – they are always quick to stay ahead of the trends and try out new, fun things. They perform a variety of services; they do lace French manicures, where the lace replaces the traditional white top part, as well as half-moon manicures, glitter gradients and amazing freehand art. They also offer Minx, Shellac (a permanent polish that sets instantly and does not chip or smudge for two weeks), and Gelish which is a gel version of Shellac and comes in a huge selection of colours.

On top of this, they have a 15% student discount of their already very reasonable prices, and have some student-specific offers like Brazilian waxing for £20, half its usual price. They even do Vajazzles for all you TOWIE obsessives, but for now I think I'll stick to my nails being the most artistic part of me. www.rbfy.co.uk

Love Letstories us know!

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Tuesday November 29 2011 studentnewspaper.org

Lifestyle 19 19

HOLSTER

Lilidh Kendrick continues our look at Edinburgh's hair industry

Caught up in the usual whirlwind of essays, exams and social events, I have to confess that the ragged state of my hair is rarely at the forefront of my mind. But, as a wise person once said, “How can I control my life if I can’t control my hair?”

Deciding to follow this mantra, I jumped at the chance to review Mosko, a well established, leading Scottish hairdresser with two salons, in Edinburgh. Mosko say the secret to their success is based on commitment to service, innovative hairdressing, and a team of dedicated

hairdressing professionals.

So I put my essay woes behind me and took an afternoon off to find out if Mosko live up to their reputation.

When I walked into the popular Dublin Street salon, I immediately knew this was going to be just what the stress doctor ordered. The salon space is intimate and calm, completely without the hustle and bustle I expected from a large salon chain.

The warm and welcoming staff put me instantly at ease.

I was booked in for a cut and highlights in the capable and cre-

ative hands of artistic director Lisa, who has been working for Mosko for six years. As we sat down together to discuss what I wanted done, I nervously confessed that this was the first time I had contemplated colour in my hair. Lisa was able to quickly quash my fears as she expertly deciphered my jumbled requests.

She suggested shades that would suit my skin tone and we decided to go for something very subtle. The highlights used were clynol copper and coffee which she said would blend well with my natural brunette

Furtive fashion

Meave Cosgrove debates the ethics of using animal products in fashion I recently made the somewhat unnerving discovery of finding myself to be a hypocrite. This discovery came with the arrival of fur coats in vintage shops in autumn. Terrified, to say the least, of the freezing winter weather which memories of last year promised, I eagerly hopped into said shops and browsed the racks, sure that I had found the solution.

It was only my deep indecisiveness which stopped me from making an immediate purchase. A battle waged between my inner animal rights advocate, stemming from my early teens, and the lure of this soft garment which was guaranteed to keep me toasty through winter. Resolving that I still wasn’t sure whether I felt comfortable wearing fur, but trying to seriously consider the advice of a fellow shopper that ���� “��� it had been dead for years anyway.������� ”������ This was the moment of self-realisation, as I looked down at the leather brogues, leather satchel and leather jacket I was wearing.

How could I spend every day wearing some sort of leather item and yet have such qualms about buying a vintage fur coat? The standard answer is that fur is obtained from animals killed solely for this reason, whereas leather is sourced from animals killed principally for their meat, and this is a reassuring way to think of leather. However, would people feel as comfortable if this was the other way round? In the cow industry for example, the meat

obtained from cows is the chief output of cow farms, and often the revenue earned from leather sales is necessary to make ends meet, thus rendering leather a co-product rather than byproduct. It is a subtle difference but, for many, it is an important one.

“

Vintage fur is deemed by many to be acceptable as there is less guilt associated with it. It is an item which was made for someone else, not for you personally" Vintage fur is deemed by many to be acceptable as there is less guilt associated with it. It is an item which was made for someone else, not for you personally, and in buying or wearing it you are not endorsing the current fur industry and its practices. This is a valid point in that we cannot turn back time to unmake a fur item, but there are also repercussions of wearing vintage fur. Firstly, vintage fur is finite; there is only a certain amount of it in the world therefore labels will have to start producing it if there is a demand to meet. If a fashion of wearing fur emerges, vintage or not, high street shops and fashion labels will inevitably

start selling more fur. As more people wear it, the fashion gains momentum and the fur industry will expand.

Fur products reappeared on the high fashion catwalks in the early 2000s, generating many petitions and protests against its use, and attracting the opposition of organisations such PETA (People for the Ethical treatment of Animals). Recently, such opposition seems to be on the radar far less often.

That said, this does not mean it is being accepted without question; in Hollywood a ban on certain fur products is being seriously considered as of September this year. Despite such steps, there is still a very definite fur market, especially in Europe. In both Germany and Italy, designers have turned to fur rather than its faux counterparts for the 2011 catwalks.

When I walked out of that shop claiming to be uncomfortable with buying a coat made of animal fur whilst wearing various leather items, my own hypocrisy made me stop and think.

While I realise why we are so willing to make the distinction between fur and leather, mainly to ease our guilt, we should not forget that they are often both products of the brutal killing of animals.

We should all make an informed decision about our choices rather than simply follow the trends that appear in high fashion and which often conceal the sources of their products.

www.mosko.co.uk

The Bedroom Gardener Occupy the space

saidos da concha

At a snip: Mosko

tones and add a bit of sunshine. The highlights were placed underneath my hair to make the upkeep more manageable and to avoid too many repeat trips to refresh.

For the cut I simply wanted a style that would lift my flat hair and give it some movement. She managed to miraculously revive and rejuvenate my dry, heat abused hair by meticulously trimming the split ends without sacrificing too much of the length. Finally, she used a large, round, heat retaining hairbrush which helped to give my hair movement and body.

It can be hard to maintain a ‘salon perfect’ style and condition, especially when, like me, you are completely guilty of a hair straightening addiction. To solve this Lisa swears by Paul Mitchell’s Super Strong Treatment containing protein, an elixir of life for my once damaged and dried out hair. I’m applying it once a week from the middle of the hair downwards, no need to apply to the roots.

It really does transform my tangled hair into a glossy, manageable style without the use of harsh chemicals.

All Paul Mitchell products can be bought in the salon and are marketed as an "affordable professional range", perfect for us students.

Making a hair appointment should be more than getting your hair done. It is a customer experience and Mosko is the perfect testament to this. So this exam time why not swap your library book for a magazine and relax while one of their wonderful stylists makes you look and feel great. After all, according to hair karma, happy hair is a happy mind.

A few weeks ago, I went to a talk at the Edinburgh Independent and Radical Book Fair about the hidden gardens of the Royal Mile. It was interesting, and will certainly lead to some good exploring if the weather is ever conducive to leaving my flat again, but it was a member of the audience’s comment afterwards that really struck me. “Get a window box,” she implored us: “it is a way of taking control of your space.”

At first, I was just moved by her obvious passion for something so ordinary, but I’ve been thinking about it and I’ve decided she is right. Edinburgh’s patchwork skyline of tenements seems so beautiful to me that I have never felt the need to impose my own style on it (and I’m still not sure I will – drilling into brickwork to secure a window box against apocalyptic wind and rain is not my idea of a fun weekend activity). The sentiment, however, is spot on.

In an urban environment, and especially as students, we have very little control over our space.

We can’t really decorate our rented flats, so we all blue-tack the same film posters to the wall and drape translucent bits of fabric around the place. Our shared gardens are either terrifyingly weedy or terrifyingly well-maintained by someone on the ground floor who glares if we dare to hang our laundry out.

This transience is inevitable, and by no means is it necessarily a bad thing. But it can be good to ground ourselves, to remember the seasons. And planting things is the best way I’ve found to do this. It embraces temporality, in some ways: my tomatoes were annuals, and their dead stalks will be added to the compost heap shortly. Over the next few months, things will change: the tomatoes were never going to survive the winter; the chillis may; I’d be surprised if the cacti didn’t. My plants tell me what time of year it is in a more meaningful way than looking at a date can.

Whether you’ve got glorious window boxes or a 99p Homebase cactus, plants are aesthetically pleasing and, as I’ve said, grounding - which is justification enough for having them - but their importance goes beyond that. Making the choice to grow something says that you care enough about your immediate environment to want to improve it and add to it – but more significantly, be part of it.

Anna Feintuck

Tuesday November 29 2011 �������� ��������� ��� ������� studentnewspaper.org

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Tom Hasler

oliver ninnis

Tom Hasler spins out of control in Need for Speed: The Run Need For Speed

EA Blackbox PC,360,PS3 £40

 Need for Speed: The Run is the latest instalment of EA’s annual cash cow Need for Speed series. Previous years have seen fresh approaches to the franchise, with last year's Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit proving to be an excellent racer in it’s own right.

Unfortunately that quality just isn’t there in The Run which provides a very limited experience that is defined more by it’s frustrations than it’s merits.

What distinguishes The Run from it’s predecessors is it’s single player ‘story’ which sets you up as a street racer who needs to win a race across America to settle his debts with the mafia.

The only problem is that the story, if you can even call it that, is utter shit.

Almost nothing is explained, there isn’t any reason to care about what’s happening and cutscenes can seem to take a lifetime.

Fortunately the cinematic and quicktime events which focus on the story are relatively sporadic and don’t impinge on the game. The benefit of this story is that the game's racing areas are tied together into a cohesive theme of America’s open roads and cities, which the game manages to capture fairly well, leading to an eyepleasing cruise from San Francisco to New York.

While the environments and even the people in The Run look fantastic, the one thing that seems to be lacking

LOOKS AWESOME: but looks can be deceiving is the cars. While they are still reasonably shiny, it’s somewhat strange that the worst looking thing in a driving game is the vehicle you inhabit.

Those who get the PC version of the game will find themselves experiencing acute difficulties from the offset.

Firstly, the menus provide all their guidance under the assumption you are playing with an Xbox controller, despite the fact that control pads of any kind can’t be used on the PC. This means that often players will find themselves trying to figure out which buttons to press just to get started.

Once the game starts however, things only get worse.

Despite being a driving game, the first thing you do in The Run, is a Quicktime event, which require you to mash buttons when prompted,

the only problem is it prompts you to use controller buttons which have no equivalent on a keyboard. I myself was only able to overcome this issue after an hour with a combination of inputs from my keyboard and a PC game controller. Whist these aforementioned problems are mostly isolated to the PC version, the game still suffers from a host of other frustrations that make for an unpleasant experience.

The multiplayer suite, while offering decent variety, doesn’t offer any options for custom matches with friends, which is unforgivable for a arcade driving game. Furthermore, replaying races from the single-player requires the player to repeat the an entire set of races with a particular ‘stage’ rather than just selecting the level he wants to play, discouraging players from revisiting these levels to

Notch your typical guy

Peter Bishop thinks Notch is a bit of a Diva

ecently, the final version of MineR craft was made available for sale.

This final version, aside from some

minor new features, is fundamentally very similar to previous incarnations of the game, with many features that were originally promised not making the final cut. This didn’t deter reviewers from showering the game with praise however. After all, to criticise a game as successful and resonant as Minecraft would be ludicrous despite it’s somewhat questionable development.

What the final version does demonstrate is the attitude of Minecraft’s chief architect Markus ‘Notch’Persson.

Rather than the state of the final version, the largest controversy of the

release came from the games launch event MineCon. Held in Las Vegas, MineCon tickets cost as much as £90 and featured presentations from members of the community as well as demonstrations of future products such as the Xbox version of the game and the developer’s next project, Scrolls.

A key part of the Minecraft community is the ‘Yogscast’, a British team of YouTubers who make regular videos about their antics in the game. During their presentation they happened to swear which upset the people who were broadcasting the event, what followed was a very public chastising of them from Notch himself.

Of Notch’s many inflammatory tweets of one read “Yogscast repeat-

EA

Nasa recently launched a dispatched a new rover to Mars.

Called Curiosity, it distinguishes itself from its predecessors with it’s sheer size: more than five times the size and ten times the mass of equipment of previous rovers, the rover weighs over a ton.

The primary goal of Curiosity, much like it’s predecessors is to ascertain whether or not life ever developed on the red planet.

The undying theory of life on Mars is rooted in the widely held belief that Mars was once a planet very much like ours with a thick atmosphere, oceans and rivers. A great deal of ice still exists beneath the surface of planet to this day.

While it is unlikely scientist will find the skeletons of martians, what NASA is hoping to find is evidence of microbial life which would help solve the question of whether life is a likelihood on planets with appropriate conditions.

To solve this question, the rover is equipped with a drilling device attached to a robotic arm which will allow for samples to be taken from deep within rocks where fossilised organic material may reside.

The landing site of the rover is also of particular interest.

The Gale crater is characterised by a strange mound around it’s central peak, suggesting a sustained period of time with life supporting conditions. The crater is over 150km wide and over 3km deep which will hopefully produce some stunning views when Curiosity finally arrives.

Its journey is expected to take eight months with the landing taking place early August, though Mars missions are fraught with difficulty, with many probes never reaching their final destination, with it being referred to as the 'Death Planet'.

NASA has the best success rate for Mars landings amongst its peers and the landing of Curiosity will use an new rocket based landing system, helping ease it towards the planet's surface.

Whilst observers will have to wait until next year to gague the success of the mission, the scale of the operation and the technology behind it demonstrate NASA's continued leadership in space exploration, even when its budget is under the strain of the federal government’s deficit crisis.

And while this will likely pave the way for manned exploration of Mars, the prospect of finding evidence of life on the Red Planet is quite exciting in it’s own right.

Stuck in reverse

wikipedia

oliver ninnis

20

improve their score.

This is a shame as the driving is, as expected from a Need for Speed game, exhilarating. The handling is more arcade than simulation, favouring a less realistic more stylised interpretation of breaking, overtaking and even crashing, meaning you won’t be carefully navigating each turn but rather attacking the road with aggressive skids and drifts.

There is fun to be had with The Run, but given it’s limited scope and myriad of problems, last year's Hot Pursuit would likely be a better choice.

The idea behind a race across America had promise, and there are moments in the game that feel genuinely special, but the lack of features, polish or even common sense make Need for Speed: The Run a massive disappointment overall. edly insulted people, talked behind their backs, refused to cooperate, and acted like total spoiled divas nonstop.”

Not many people were on Notch’s side, however, with the majority of the community backing Yogscast.

This is because Notch is himself, something of a diva. Having skyrocketed into public adoration with the success of Minecraft, Notch has developed a somewhat inflated ego.

Previous antics include his legal dispute with Bethesda, who apparently are one of his favourite developers.

Notch’s company, Mojang, attempted to place a trademark on the title of their new game Scrolls which would override Bethesda’s trademark of the title The Elder Scrolls and as such the Bethesda sued to protect their brand, and Notch then appealed to his fans over twitter rather than take the lawsuit seriously. He even went as far as to challenge Bethesda to a Quake tournament to settle the issue.

Regardless of whether or not Notch is genuinely brilliant, he is still quickly becoming one of the most controversial people in the games industry today and it’s only fitting that his fate is linked with one of this generation's most iconic games.

Tuesday November 29 2011

studentnewspaper.org

17

Oliver ninnis

Gypsy Geoffrey is

actually 208 years old – in mystic years that is, silly! When he’s not reading your palm in the back of his wagon (or eating Wagon Wheels) he writes socialist comment pieces for The Guardian about the occupation of Dale Farm.

Aries

You get all of your Christmas shopping done in under 3 minutes when you win a postcode lottery supermarket trolley dash. Your closest friends and family will love such presents as Colgate Total Whitening (RRP £2.99), one and a half pineapples, and a squeezy tube of thrush cream. Farmfoods is truly the home of value.

Taurus

You engage in a flirtatious exchange of sexual innuendo with that cute shop girl at Tesco Metro on Nicolson St (Claire, if you’re reading this you are the only one for me). At least, you think it was innuendo, you’re like 70% sure. Buy lots of root vegetables next time just to be certain.

Gemini

Movember has come and gone, but all you’ve managed to grow is a gingery whisp across your upper lip.

Still, not bad for a girl.

Cancer

You are overtaken by a herd of joggers in the Meadows - you feel like Mufasa in that bit in the Lion King with the stampede and that.

Leo

This week you refuse to answer to anything but ‘Emperor’. Within a few days you will either have reformed the Soviet Union with you at its titular head, or be regarded as a complete nipple by all your (now ex-) friends.

Virgo

Oh for God’s sake just do it! ‘Oh, I’m Mitchell and I’m an artist.’ Well then DO something, Mitchell! Just fricking DO IT! NOW! PAINT SOMETHING! … MITCHELL! LISTEN TO ME... ARE YOU LISTENING? DO SOMETHING!!

Libra

This week, you start teaching a class of disadvantaged youths in an inner city school. All you have to help you is your meagre wits, a book of Dylan Thomas poetry, and a back-catalogue of karate moves that you learned during your time in the marines. Oh no wait... that’s Michelle Pfeiffer in Dangerous Minds.

Scorpio

When a very pretty girl asks for your number, you are so excited that you punch her in the face in panic. You try to laugh this off as one of your ‘cute’ flaws but she’s not buying it.

Sagittarius

This week, you incite riots and looting of a popular Edinburgh mall through cryptic messages in your weekly astrology column.

Princes Street tonight at 9pm?

Capricorn

Your gran who has recently become a silver surfer, stumbles across urbandictionary.com and next greets you with: Wagwan blud? Easy blud easy.

"Cage fighting is great!" Morningside parents in dramatic U-turn on UFC children's groups In a shock move, parents who were initially against the popular sport of cage fighting have changed their minds, welcoming weekly junior Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) classes into Morningside Baptist Church.

The sport, famed for its violence and brutality has not been played by children in Morningside since the early 1990s. However, when one parent, Margaret Bonnington, witnessed a recent illegal bout on Morningside Road, she was overcome by its barbaric beauty. “I love the thwacking noise Herbert’s fist makes when he minces children’s cherubin faces into ugly pastie shapes.” she trilled.

“

Jesus was a fighter, and the world was his cage" Ms Bonnington is head of the Morningside branch of the Women’s Institute, and has used her persuasive middle class cake baking, letter writing, church-going, private school persuasiveness to cajole the other parents into giving the sport a chance.

“The mums love it” comments Ms

News in Brief

Bonnington. “Cage fighting has really brought the families together, with some dads even betting against their own children. That’s a really special thing.”

Some have argued that changes should be made to better suit the adult game to the children’s abilities.

Gary Bernard, a tall, skinny parent of three suggests that “all of the rules should be removed. Children aren’t as intelligent as adults, so why confuse them with boundaries and instructions when they could be using that time to fight? It’s Political Correctness gone mad.”

Ramses McIntosh agrees: “This nation was built on freedom, and I can’t think of anything more perverse than denying children their freedom to kick each other in the soft bits. I’m a religious man, and I think apart from anything else, cage fighting could really work wonders for the churches round here, getting the young people back through the doors. Jesus was a fighter, and the world was his cage.”

However amidst the overwhelming positivity, one parent has raised a concern. “UFC stole my son's face.

He now looks like the default profile picture on Facebook. That hurts. I don't want other children to lose face like my son did. These children are

Chocolate brand on Rocky ground "If only we could emulate the roaring success of the Lion Bar brand" said a stony faced Rocky biscuit representative. "Our brand is on the rocks."

Herring Fashion - Why It Works

Aquarius

Fiddler on the roof Sex offender caught on the roof of a building in the Newington area.

b) have all the force of a great typhoon c) have all the strength of a raging fire

Pisces

3 News in Numbers 7

meant to fight for a better world, but they can't even face tomorrow.”

Little things like faces don’t stop Ms Bonnington though. She believes that constant fighting is vital if the children of Morningside are to remain competitive. “How are these children going to handle professional adult UFC fights if they don’t start practising now?! I ripped out my own son’s eyes, just to test his resilience.

They made fabulous canapes.”

“These kids have got some fighting spirit!” chuckled one portly father.

“My daughter hasn’t got any knees thanks to UFC, but she ‘is’knee bothered’ hohoho, hohoho, hohoho.”

a) as swift as a coursing river

This week you adhere religiously to every old-wives tale there is. You devour spinach, carrots and all of your crusts. You realise you are now the perfect assassin: super-strong with night vision and very curly hair.

There is only one possible reason for this: all mothers are MI5 agents.

You embarrass yourself at a Student newspaper social by getting VERY drunk, bragging about your psychic abilities and making wild rambling predictions of which fresher Gemini copy editor you’ll be balls deep in before your night is over. Horoscopes just got BADASS.

TERROR: the last face you'll ever see

You’re not a real man until you are...

ALYS MUMFORD

No one reads these bits anyway herring.studentnewspaper@gmail.com

Cardboard boxes Made in sweatshops (probably)

Garland (Girl, middle) You rock that decorative wreath, girl!

The degrees of separation on Facebook between you and Kevin Bacon.

The number of credible psychoanalytic interpretations of The Little Mermaid.

UsE of girl's head as roll-on deodorant (Man, top right)

d) are mysterious as the dark side of the moon e) know all the words to the soundtrack of 1998 Disney classic, Mulan

ECo contraceptives Corrugated - it's the new ribbed

64 0

The number of 'ice' references made in Vanilla Ice's hit single 'Ice Ice Baby.'

The number of trams.

rEVIEW

COMMISSION #12: justine hedley

JUSTINE HEDLEY is a 4th Year BA Drawing and Painting student. She is interested in ruins and abandoned spaces, and much of her research consists of photography resulting from exploration into such sites.

Furthermore, the process of projection helps to enhance her photography. The various surfaces which Hedley projects onto provides her with opportunities for further experimentation. Hedley finds the playful nature of the children’s pop-up book a particularly useful tool in this experimentation. Stripped of narrative, these 3D structures fit well with the melancholic atmosphere of abandoned space.

Tuesday November 29 2011 studentnewspaper.org

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holly jameson

24 Culture 24

A fair full of flair T

he Edinburgh Art Fair, now in its seventh year, represents a middle ground where the public can experience art and go home with a piece or two as well.

Today’s economic climate is not kind to artists. The art market has significantly declined due to the nineties boom which caused a stratospheric rise in art prices, in turn generating a mad rush of collectors.

When the economic crisis hit, artists were put in a tight spot; either they could keep their prices at now ludicrously high levels and sell less or they could decrease their prices (read as the ‘value’ of their work) enraging all who previously bought similar pieces. The market lost its elasticity and galleries could not respond to changes within the economy, not to mention the cuts in arts subsidy and the decline in mid range art due to the squeeze that the 99% of us still feel.

The Edinburgh Art Fair offers an escape from the complicated market of collectors and auction houses.

The demographic is geared towards normal people with a passion for art. This is unlike Frieze art fair in London where visitors are mostly only observers of the elite world of ‘modern art’ and not consumers.

Less assuming and far less pretentious, Edinburgh Art Fair reveals that there is indeed a growing market for art. Galleries exhibited a range of artists from all over the world but there was a notable inclination towards landscape painting.

Most pieces were thick impasto

GORMENGHAST Trinity Apps Run Ended

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he director’s note in the programme for Theatre Paradok’s Gormenghast declares: “Be realistic: demand the impossible”. This is all very admirable and the group have given themselves quite a task in transferring Mervyn Peake’s vision onto the stage. Unfortunately, this production promises much more than it delivers and for anyone unfamiliar with the novels the experience is likely to be a bewildering one.

“

This production worked better when it didn't rely on gimmicks and allowed the acting to speak for itself."

The visual spectacle of the production does a good job of recreating the Gothicism of Peake’s novels but the production assumes the audience

Turner-inspired images of great expanses of sky and sea. Although there were some genuinely talented painters, John Bathgate or Paul Bennet to name a couple, it did become obvious that a trend was being set.

“

This is the practical world of commercial art. Most people don't want a shark tank or a giant wax bell in their kitchen."

The market was overwhelmed by landscapes. Surely the discerning art lovers of Edinburgh want more options? There was a severe lack of sculpture, with video and inter-media art being entirely ignored.

Obviously, large-scale sculpture and installation is not appropriate to hang in the living room, but smallscale sculpture and photography were both drastically under-represented.

When I spoke to one gallery owner, he told me he sells far more large-scale sculpture from his gallery in Sussex than in Edinburgh; perhaps the Edinburgh market does lean further toward painting.

Having said this, one fabulous artist, Myung Nam Ans, being shown by the Saffron Gallery made wonderfully weird ceramic smallscale wall mounted pieces, which were selling like hot cakes.

The galleries that went against the grain, like the Headrow Gallery from Leeds who were exhibitalready knows the story, leaving us to fill in the blanks and losing any sense of narrative structure.

Situated in the Trinity Apse Church Nave, down a close off the Royal Mile, the eerie setting of this play is really the winning feature of this production. It’s a shame, then, that this magnificent and creepy location is ruined by unnecessary sound effects. The rumbling sounds that echo throughout the production aren’t remotely realistic and detract annoyingly from the acting itself.

The other problem with this setting is the limited viewpoint it offers the audience. There is a lot of chaotic shouting and running about the audience, making much of the script inaudible and much of the action impossible to see.

This production works better when it does’t rely on gimmicks and allows the acting to speak for itself; less sometimes really is more. In particular, Bex Bowen gives a noteworthy performance as the Countess Gertrude. Yet, the problem is that no matter how good the acting is, the lack of narrative sense means many of the characters never move beyond being one-dimensional. It becomes impossible to sympathise or laugh at characters when you neither under-

ing Andrea Maguire’s emotionally charged figurative paintings, The Alpha Gallery from Edinburgh or the Frames Gallery from Perth, all had good sized crowds bustling to see their more edgy, contemporary style works. Those who dared to bring some exciting work to the table seemed to be being rewarded just as highly as those who stuck to the semi-abstracted seascape and skies that were very beautiful if monotonous.

The work offered at Edinburgh Art Fair is a slice of what people actually want in their homes – generally two dimensional, semi abstracted, colourful, non-offensive, unchallenging work. This is no criticism. This is the practical world of commercial art. Most people don’t want a shark tank or a giant wax bell in their kitchens.

Despite that, fairs like this could be doing more to promote local contemporary art. Just pop your head into the ECA sculpture hall, or any of the independent modern art spaces in the city and see that there is so much more out there. None of this was represented at Edinburgh Art Fair, which is frustrating because people do want the chance to incorporate more contemporary work into their lives without breaking the bank.

The most positive thing was the fact that many people went home happy with canvases tucked under their arms - the local art market is alive and kicking - which can only be a good thing.

stand them or what they’re doing.

There’s no denying the energy that has gone into this production, but Paradok can do better than this.

Perhaps it’s simply that Peake’s novels don’t transfer well to the stage, or maybe the coldness of the church was making me grumpy, but this production felt chaotic and lacked execution. Visual inventiveness is all very well, but this shouldn’t come at the price of losing the plot.

Rebecca Brown

FIDDLER ON THE ROOF Pleasance Theatre Run Ended

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dinburgh University Savoy Opera Group’s (EUSOG) reinterpretation of the classic musical Fiddler on the Roof details the life of Tevye and his attempts to cope with the strong-willed eldest three of his five daughters. Throughout the play Tevye struggles to balance his Jewish religious views and his concerns for his children’s future happiness.

LIVING-ROOM-ABSTRACT: Andrew Hood's Bonifacio at the Art Fair

As the play progresses Tevye also finds himself having to deal with the impact of Tsarist Russia in the form of the edict that evicts the Jews from their isolated village of Anatevka.

The play opens with the Fiddler, played by Michael Poon, who stole the show with multiple solo performances, highlighting his astounding talent. The live music supported the performance well however it frequently became too loud and unfortunately drowned out many of the cast members.

“

The set contained great detail, adding to the dilapidated feeling of a decaying village., however the stage was unnecessarily cluttered."

The colourful costumes showed great attention to detail, differentiating characters from each other well and allowing the audience to easily identify with individual characters.

Tevye was portrayed well by Neville Billimoria, whose solos were on the whole well delivered and timely,

EDINBURGH ART FAIR

Troy Holmes considers what people are actually buying at the Edinburgh Art Fair

managing to project his voice effectively over the troublesome music while also continuing to utilise his convincing accent.

Stella Merz’s interpretation of Golde, Tevye’s wife, again utilised the use of an accent well, including many mannerisms which added depth and individuality to her character. Merz’s solo performances were impressive, with her use of vibrato adding a certain operatic element.

The chorus were notable, staying in key throughout the performance and offering a moving rendition of 'Sunrise, Sunset', utilising harmonies to create intricate melodies.

The set contained great detail, adding to the dilapidated feeling of a decaying village however the stage was unnecessarily cluttered, often causing problems for actors when moving props around the stage.

EUSOG’s production was impressive with the audience enjoying themselves thoroughly. All involved should be proud of the standard which they have reached in this amateur production which could easily rival many professional companies.

Emma AInsworth

Theatre buff? Review it! Follow us on twitter @TheStudentPaper or on Facebook at facebook.com/TheStudentNewspaper culture.thestudent@gmail.com

Tuesday November 29 2011 studentnewspaper.org

25 Culture 25 Star Rating Completely Conscious  Almost awakeDopily drowsy Slumberously slothful zzzzzz

A dramatic triple threat

ROYGBIV

Nicole Adam enjoys an afternoon packed with performance at Bedlam Theatre's Freshers Slots

I

t’s that time of year again; Freshers Slots have taken over Bedlam for the afternoon. The selection of three plays, produced entirely by freshers, demonstrate a wide range of Edinburgh’s newest talent.

Opening in darkness, the audience stumbles to their seats as Black Comedy, the first of the three plays, begins. Unbeknownst to us, we are emulating actions later performed on stage. Described as a typical British farce, something as simple as a blown fuse causes complete chaos. A sculptor attempts to show off his work, problematically in the dark, while a cluster of odd characters, including his fiancée, father-in-law, mistress and neighbours, seem to constantly get in the way.

The lighting is employed to humorous effect, as the characters can see the stage is dark. It’s simple, yet well used and amusing when characters stumble around whilst illuminated by spotlights. One particular highlight was the strange irony when characters performed in the ‘dark’ to the astonishment of the cast but not

the audience.

One criticism is that the decidedly eccentric characters were not universally embraced. Though some leapt off the stage, others felt like complete caricatures with very little depth.

This meant parts of the dialogue felt stunted and some of the humor was lost. This improved as the play progressed and the actors allowed the lunacy to come to the forefront. This is a play of opposites, light when it should be dark, an enjoyable portrayal of what people can do when no one is looking.

The second production had a decidedly darker tone. One’s opinion of this piece will most likely be influenced by your particular feelings regarding its controversial writer Sarah Kane.

Crave is a fragmented, powerful show with little obvious plot. Four largely unidentified characters explore ideas that include, death, birth and violence.

Set to the constant, and literal, flow of the sands of time in the background.

Opening with a mass of bodies, it is a dynamic performance from the very beginning. The language is

graphic and evocative and the highly physical performance conveys some of the power needed to make the words come to life.

“

The language is graphic and evocative and the highly physical performance conveys some of the power needed to make the words come to life."

On occasion, the technical aspects may have detracted rather than enhanced the performance. With such forceful expression on stage parts of it seemed unnecessary and ill-thought out. At times, the pace seemed to lag, not unexpected in a play with limited discernible plot, yet out of this rose stunning moments that demonstrated the skill and talent present. The production was definitely striking if at times excessive.

Beholder Talbot Rice Gallery Run Ended

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rt's capacity for sparking debate can be found everywhere, from the Uni's comfiest lecture theatres to the bar at the Hive. Whether it's the beauty of a painting, a poem or a person we're talking about, one thing's for sure – everyone has their own tastes, and very rarely are these in perfect agreement with those of the next person.

“ WHAT IS THIS?: A piece by Andrew Kerr from Beholder

Beholder

This is a community with brilliant self awareness."

The Talbot Rice Gallery has taken one of the greatest insights into the nature of beauty – David Hume's observation that it is in the eye of the beholder – and given local galleries, artists and organisations the opportunity to nominate a work of art which, to them, is beautiful.

The result is an exhibition varied enough for all tastes, from the purist oil-andcanvas lovers to the multimedia fettish-

This week's cultural spectrum.

Which brings us finally to the third performance of the afternoon; World on Wheels is an odd, dark comedy about the normal made decidedly abnormal. The show takes genuine life problems, like loneliness and homesickness at university, and presents rather unexpected solutions.

The bizarre plot mingled with forced dialogue and the odd moment of awkward blocking presented an uneven performance.

Though highlighted with moments of genuine hilarity and some stand-out performances, the overall production didn’t quite connect with the audience or its theme. It seems obvious that the solutions are meant to be absurd, but it seems even the characters on stage weren’t entirely convinced by their choices. The awkward situations within the plot were made blatantly apparent by the somewhat awkward atmosphere radiating from the stage. The play highlights the circular nature of life’s problems if they are not properly resolved. It’s a fresh look at a common trope that will interest even if it won’t astound. ists, via the big names of Yoko Ono and Canterbury Cathedral.

As well as more classical choices of oils or pencil on canvas, we see representations of other forms of art entirely. Andy Law and Mil Stricevic's computerised art takes images from the internet and spins them, pixel by pixel, in a projected piece called Spinning Bits. The source images, not entirely family-friendly, are broken into their constituent parts and presented as pure colour, light and motion; a technique which can derive beauty from pretty much anything.

The dialogue between pieces is clear – while one criticises the status quo, another sticks to it with dazzling effect.

This is a community with brilliant selfawareness, as demonstrated by Narcissus, a piece which lies not on the walls, but on the floor of the gallery's first room. This piece displays, as its contribution, the Oscar Wilde poem of the same name on a mirror in the shape of a splash-mark.

This work best exemplifies the gallery as a whole – it displays a beautiful work of art, this time a poem, in a beautiful way, and at the same time comments on beauty.

As we peer into the poem's surface, we see ourselves peering back up, the beholder and the beheld.

Jenni Adjderian

THE ART DOCTOR with Anna Feintuck

I know you said the herbal remedies were gross but I swear by apple and camomile tea to get to sleep, so I'm

Look oot for...

veritable plethora of night sky art to reinforce this but I particularly like Vija Celmins' work, which I believe I've recommended before – apologies, but it really is beautiful. If that hasn't convinced you, apparently Stuart Murdoch of Belle & Sebastian is quite the advocate of this insomnia-beating tactic – a friend in Glasgow sees him out and about all the time.

Don't fancy either of these? Give up and become nocturnal like the fella in Albrecht Durer's Little Owl. Got a problem? We can cure you! All problems will be treated confidentially. And ever so seriously. Email us at artdoctor.thestudent@gmail.com.

There is an exhibition of experimental sculpture at The Fruitmarket Gallery

by Bill Bollinger running until the 8th of January.

Edinburgh Printmakers are putting on their annual members' show until the 23rd of December which promises to an interesting and eclectic display of orignal prints.

Rachel Hill

I can’t sleep. I’m tired all the time, and I frequently feel like I could doze off in lectures if I closed my eyes for more than a few seconds, but when I actually get into bed I just can’t. As exhausted as I might be during the day, it gets to midnight and I’m suddenly thinking about things I didn’t even know I was bothered about. I’ve tried making lists, I’ve tried hot chocolate, I’ve even tried herbal remedies (they were gross). What to do?

going to try to convert you. I defy anyone to look at Victorian botanical drawings and not feel soothed. There's something about the intricate lines and delicate rendering of flowers and leaves that makes me completely at ease.

Camomile plants are really pretty, so I suggest you look for illustrations of those and you might just find that you do fancy drinking the tea after all. You can find loads of botanical art at the Botanical Gardens (surprise!) - which brings me onto my next point.

Go for a walk before bed. A quick turn around the block can clear your head and being outside looking at the dark sky will make your body very sure that it's night time. There's a

ver wanted to become an art collector? Well now you can with the launch of new website s[edition]. As the name implies, s[edition] are inciting a rebellion against the established commercialism of the art world, in which we may own our own editions of the most expensive works of art: we can “���������������������� ����������������������� become a collector in 3�� easy ������������ steps��” as the website so helpfully explains, in a manner not at all condescending...

The website offers up works by artists like Tracy Emin and Damien Hirst to be displayed on iPhones, tablets or HD TVs connected to the internet, at prices that are relatively affordable for the everyday art lover. You can download a video displaying Hirst's diamond encrusted skull, rotating in HD, for a steal at £500.

If you can't afford to buy one of Emin's neons – “well, most people can't” she helpfully tells us on s[edition]'s website – you can download one to have on display at parties. Who wouldn't want their TV screen to endlessly draw and re-draw a neon love-heart reading “I promise to love you”? You could even give it as a not-at-all-creepy gift to a recent heart-throb or one night stand.

Witty sarcasm aside, this website is infuriating. Isaac Julien has the nerve to describe this as the ‘democratisation’ of art; as though somehow this website is not patronising to those of us who cannot afford to become ‘real’ collectors. As though playing at being an art collector, with the thrill of owning the most expensive piece of art over sold, is not entirely for the status gained by showing off For Heaven's Sake to your friends.

Buying the rotating skull says only that you are someone who wishes to buy into the most commercial and pointless niche of the art world; but also carries with it the assumption that you are not rich enough to do so. Still, you're rich enough to throw away £500 for a couple of minutes of video footage, which must count for something.

Besides, these videos look a lot like well produced adverts rather than something beautiful to display as a desktop background. I could find myself easily becoming irritated with the slow, smug movements of each of them.

For what it is, s[edition] is a website that costs too much and that looks down on anyone who thinks it's expensive. As clever as their name is, in terms of the art world, I'm feeling a little d[ejected].

Michael Mackenzie

This week: insomnia, nocturnal animals and camomile tea Dear Art Doctor,

E

iArt is in-app-ropriate

Bedlam Theatre are putting on thier annual pantomime, this year titled Harry Panto and the Goblet of F**k Yeah! running from today until Saturday.

Tuesday November 29 2011 studentnewspaper.org

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JOANNA LISOWIEC

22

The deep blue sea Directed by terence Davies  he first thing that needs to be said T about this adaptation of Terence Rattigan’s play is that it could not be

more faithful to the original. Despite being the second film based on the stage version - the first was released in 1955 - it does not break any new ground. Depending on your point of view, this will define your enjoyment of the film.

Hester (Rachel Weisz) is stuck in a passionless marriage to mummy’s boy William (Simon Russell Beale) and is thoroughly depressed, supposedly as a result. When she meets Freddy (Tom Hiddleston), an RAF pilot full of energy, charisma, and blessed with laddish good looks, she quickly falls in love and begins an obsessive whirlwind affair. A few months in, her husband discovers the infidelity, and Hester moves out, to begin a new life with the man she loves.

Over time Hester learns that a passionate, wild relationship can be just as insufferable as a comfortable yet dull marriage; she is dissatisfied by both, as ultimately, life itself is dissatisfying.

This is not modern storytelling.

Not only is it set ‘around 1950’, a depiction of post-war ‘Blighty’ as people deal with their grief - both for the

Scotland: the new Hollywood?

Ali Quaile looks at the role Scotland has played in numerous upcoming blockbusters

Tamsin Scott

and Sean Connery’s sexy accent, it seems incredibly far removed from the showbiz of Hollywood. Yet it appeared that one of the recurring themes at this year’s BAFTA Scotland Awards was the question of the country’s newfound importance in the film industry.

Finally, it seems to be getting the due recognition it deserves, with an increased interest in both its locations and actors being apparent.

First to grace Scottish soil was Brad Pitt, whose upcoming post-apocalyptic zombie horror, World War Z used Glasgow’s George Square because of its similarities with the streets of Philadelphia. This in turn led to a sudden flurry of interest, as Scotland became a legitimate location for filmmaking.

Subsequently, it has seen a transformation into the streets of San Francisco for the film version of the book Cloud Atlas, starring Halle Berry; the setting for a body-harvesting alien who abducts hitchhikers, in Scarlett Johansson’s forthcoming, Under the Skin; and for elements of the final instalment of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy.

This newfound attraction seems to have received a warm welcome from members of the Scottish entertainment industry, as James Cosmo - winner of the Best Actor in Film Award at this year’s Scottish Bafta’s for his film Donkeys - commented, “It’s great to see films shot in Scotland and we wish there would be more shot.” Similarly Peter Capaldi, who was nominated for Best Actor in Television for his role in Field of Blood stated, “Scotland always punches above its weight in terms of filmmaking and television.”

Hollywood regular Robbie Coltrane, who won an accolade for Outstanding Contribution to Film at the awards said, “It’s a wonderful thing, and why not? It’s a great location and

the problem has always been Scotland’s weather, but now we have HD cameras that can film in candle light.

You don’t need California sunshine to make films any more. I think it’s going to open up Britain and Scotland in particular.”

In an industry that now turns over £1.2 billion in profit, it is clear that the Hollywood invasion is potentially worth millions for small companies.

Evidently an incentive is needed to encourage production companies to come to Scotland, thus removing the competition from neighbouring countries. Proposals of fiscal incentives such as a five percent return on the money spent in the UK, will help provide the necessary allure for big name American production companies to consider Scotland a viable option. Somewhat depressingly, it was predominately due to cash incentives that quintessentially Scottish film Braveheart was actually filmed in Ireland.

According to Belle Doyle, locations manager for Creative Scotland, the recent insurgence of Hollywood films that have come to Scotland was never properly planned. “It was luck. It was down to people getting the money on time, the weakness of the UK pound, the producers getting the money and all the films arriving at once. The fact that Glasgow is a gridded city helps a lot.

We are competing with the rest of the world, so we are always having to think about what we can sell and how we can bring something in and make it look as good as they could get in the States and everywhere else.” As she rightly points out, when put alongside the production companies of Hollywood, they don’t stand a chance. “We look like we are amateurs. What I can offer are world class crews, fantastic locations and people that are really keen. There are definitely talented people here but we are a kind of cottage industry at the moment.”

Unfortunately, in a lot of cases production companies are unwilling to fund film projects. Film producers inevitably go wherever the money is, and when it comes to financing a film, you have to look at where the best place to reduce costs is. Offers of tax breaks in certain countries play a huge factor in a producer’s decision to use a certain location.

For Scottish films themselves, there seems to be a definite perception that they tend to all be grim and depressing. As Scottish screenwriter Sergio Casci points out, “what we expect from

lives lost, and their past selves - the ways in which the story unfolds are far from the conventions of current cinema.

It is obvious that the film is adapted from a play: plot devices such as a letter discovered in a dressing gown pocket, a room in which Hester sits smoking endless cigarettes whilst other characters run in and out, and a scene towards the end with a chorus of extras singing in the London Underground, all scream theatre.

This is a return to cinematic melodrama. Despite being incredibly well acted and blessed with a tremendously talented cast (there’s bound to be Oscar buzz for Weisz’s performance), it’s hard to empathise with the characters and the situation, because it all feels rather unreal.

Accept the film for what it is, rather than complain about what it is not; if you’re looking for typical Hollywood schmaltz - or even fierce naturalism - you’ll be disappointed. As a tribute for Rattigan’s centenary, however, director Terence Davies has paid a great homage here.

they show almost exclusively films from another culture. American films are fine but they shouldn’t dominate to the extent they do”. This is a fundamental sentiment that needs to be addressed.

However, given the recent success of Scottish actors – with Robbie Coltrane and Billy Connolly featuring in the upcoming Disney Pixar feature Brave, and Peter Mullan playing Albert Narracott’s father in Spielberg’s adaptation of Warhorse – perhaps a focus should be maintained on the collaboration of Hollywood and Scotland, rather than their mutual exclusivity.

My Week with Marilyn

charming, and so intended to be empathised with. However, their relationship is not the most interesting aspect of this story. Branagh fittingly plays Olivier marvelously with truly Shakespearean vigour, juxtaposing Monroe’s dainty mannerisms. His cutting remarks produce the funniest material in the film. He is a theatrically trained thespian who lacks patience with the young movie star.

Their exchanges highlight the difference between stage and screen, old and new.

Monroe is an American Hollywood starlet who cannot understand the classical acting that Olivier tries to impose on her. Throughout the filming of The Prince and the Showgirl, the conflict is amusing and intriguing. They show the tension and fundamentally different approaches of acting in plays and acting in films, at a crucial time where one is declining whilst the other flourishes, much like Olivier and Monroe.

Lighthearted and fun, the film manages to successfully show the dualities of celebrity and acting.

However, it continues to be a little lacklustre in terms of the emotional depth of Monroe and Clark’s relationship which the film is striving for.

 arilyn Monroe (Michelle WilM liams) was at the peak of her illustrious career in 1956 when she

Kirsty Wareing

All films were reviewed at Cineworld

Scottish films is either shooting up or shooting grouse.” Whilst this is true to a certain extent, there are countless examples of top quality comedies, horrors and sci-fi films that have simply slipped under the radar.

Film is an industry that is governed

by Hollywood. Whilst other countries work hard to achieve the same level of viewers, budget restraints inevitably result in considerably less profit being achieved at the box office. As award winning British indie director Ken Loach comments,“We need to reclaim our cinemas because at the moment

Directed by Simon Curtis

notjustnewmovies

cotland has always had a minimal role in the film world. Ever rememS bered for Braveheart, Trainspotting

came over to England to make a film with Sir Laurence Olivier (Kenneth Branagh). This visit acted as the setting for Colin Clark’s account of his wonderful week with the sexually iconic sensation. Based on Colin’s diary accounts of the events, the film shows his bewitchment and Monroe’s reciprocal intrigue, which leads to a romantic relationship when Monroe’s husband, Arthur Miller, returns to America.

Clark becomes enamoured with Monroe and is led into the beguiling trap that captured so many men.

Williams plays Marilyn exquisitely, conveying her trademark sex appeal and flirtatious innocence. There is subtlety to the character and the performance as she shows the duality of fame and celebrity. She is nervous and insecure despite her glamorous façade, but instinctively both Monroe the character and Williams the actor deliver vibrancy on screen.

Naturally, Clark is drawn to her and becomes closer to her throughout the film. He is innocent and

Daniel Scott Lintott

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Tuesday November 29 2011 studentnewspaper.org

Film 27

Star Rating Bill Murray Rick Moranis Michael Cera Ben Stiller Adam Sandler

Directed by jim sheridan 

CLOSE SHAVE: Seth hadn't heard Joseph say “Just a trim .”

50/50 Directed by JONATHAN LEVINE  o have been a fly on the wall of T the meeting in which the concept for new dramedy 50/50 was

pitched would have been interesting.

You can almost visualise the studio executives’ looks of bewilderment and them asking incredulously “You want to make a comedy...about cancer!?” It’s true that a ‘cancer comedy’ could have been a disaster. The film could have failed in many ways, either by being too offensive, or by being unfunny and schmaltzy. Surprisingly, however, 50/50 beats the odds and proves itself to be a genuinely feel-good and moving piece of cinema.

50/50 tells the story of Adam ( Joseph Gordon-Levitt), an average twenty-something whose life is turned upside down when he is diagnosed with a rare spinal cancer with a 50% survival rate. With his mother and girlfriend seemingly unable to cope with the diagnosis, Adam turns to his wise-cracking best friend Kyle (Seth Rogen) and his naive therapist

TAKE SHELTER Directed by JEFF NICHOLS



T

ake Shelter is set in the empty rural landscape of Ohio. Here, a family lives in a small house, in an eerily quiet neighbourhood. The isolation of this location underscores the descent of the family’s head, Curtis (Michael Shannon), into what seems to be schizophrenia. Whilst Curtis battles with nightmarish visions of incoming storms, he remains convinced that his fears are justified. In order to tackle his paranoia, Curtis alienates himself from his family and friends as he sets out to re-build his family’s shelter at the cost of his savings, job, and sanity. Shannon is impressively convincing as someone trapped by mental illness.

The film’s cinematography is extremely powerful. A sense of unprotected openness is captured through the isolation of the family’s small home, its size sitting at odds with the largeness of the surrounding landscape. This contrast is a metaphor for Curtis himself in the sense that he remains a man against the world, trying to convince others of the palpable dangers of the storms he perceives whilst everyone else believes he is insane.

The contrast between Curtis, his family and the huge, yet uncontrol-

(Anna Kendrick) for support.

The film’s success lies in its authenticity: screenwriter (Will Reiser) based the script on his own experience with battling cancer. It is therefore a very honest portrayal of coping with the disease, and the emotions expressed never feel phoney or forced.

The whole cast bring strong performances but special credit must be given to Joseph Gordon-Levitt who excels as Adam. He brings warmth and sincerity to the role, ensuring that the audience is emotionally invested in his story throughout.

50/50 is funny but not hilarious, and as the film progresses, the crude Rogen-style humour virtually disappears and is replaced by a more serious feel. The fact that the film is not laugh-out-loud hilarious the whole way through may disappoint some Rogen fans but it must be said that facing this subject in an effective and realistic way requires a certain level of seriousness.

If you are looking for a laugh-aminute comedy then you won’t find it here but what you will find is one of the most moving and enjoyable films of 2011.

Sally Pugh lable, forces of nature itself is further contrasted with the claustrophobia of a sequence in which the family finally enters their newly-built shelter, the nerve-wrecking moment in which we see the realisation of Curtis’ psychosis and the consequences of his detachment from reality on his long-suffering wife and daughter. They have been trapped by his descent into madness, unable to move away from their home because of their financial situation, left with nothing but hope that Curtis will come to his senses.

“

A sense of unprotected openness is captured through the isolation of the family's small home. Its size sits at odds with the surrounding landscape".

This patriarchal dynamic, between a vulnerable mother, daughter and powerful yet imperfect father figure is highly terrifying because of its uncanny believability.

Unfortunately, Nichols' desire to make this film like a Stephen King novel in the sense that there is a constant interchange between reality and fantasy, means that the potential punch and resultant sting of the film is not quite realised.

Joe Smith

The Guardian

ill Atenton (Daniel Craig) W is a successful publisher who decides to pack it all in and cart

himself, his wife (Rachel Weisz), and two girls off to the country to work on his book. They retire to an old knock-about house with a vision to transform it into their dream home.

However, Will soon discovers that the house and the community are hiding a dark past. Just five years ago his house was the scene of the violent murder of an entire family, apparently at the hands of the father, Peter Ward. With faces appearing in the windows and footsteps in the snow, it appears Peter is back and he has made this new family his next target.

On first impressions this film seems very Amityville and despite its rather clunky start you do buy into the family unit and Will's desire to protect them from this madman. You believe in his frustration and vulnerability as he fails to get help from the police or the truth from his neighbour Ann (Naomi Watts). The film picks up tempo as Will desperately searches for answers and Peter's loca-

tion, discovering horrifying glimpses into how close the maniac is getting to his family. Despite this, the introduction and the plot progression is rather patchy, that is, until a rather interesting and out of the blue twist.

Not wanting too many plot spoilers here, the twist is rather original and surprisngly well-executed. Director Jim Sheridan does well here in the film's topsy-turvy delivery and portayal of the plunge into madness, doing a great job of transforming the appearance of the house based on the mood of the characters.

In spite of this innovative twist, the film lacks substance. Like butter spread on too much toast, the idea is simply not enough to fill the whole film and it quickly becomes unremarkable. The ending feels rushed and underdeveloped as if the director saw the light at the end of the tunnel and decided to bolt straight for it. This is not to say that the film is completely without merit, it has a solid B-movie storyline with some good performance from Craig and Weisz, but at the end of the day it is nothing special and will no doubt be forgotten in a couple of weeks.

Directed bY BENNETT MILLER

 ould you rather get one shot W in the head or five in the chest and bleed to death?” Although Billy

Beane (Brad Pitt) is explaining how to fire someone in this scene, it could apply to the central conflict of Moneyball. Based on a true story, Beane is the general manager for the Oakland As, a baseball team so broke that it can’t afford a free vending machine in its locker room. Consequently, all its best players get stolen faster than bases. This isn’t the As' fault, it’s the entirety of baseball’s, which relies on scouts' dumb luck to pick players who don’t pan out, haemorrhaging money in the process. Beane would know, for he was one. Baseball needs the opposite of Beane.

Who would you turn to to reinvent America’s pastime? Chances are, it wouldn’t be a fat Yale economist named Peter Brand ( Jonah Hill).

Brand may have Ivy League manners that don’t fit in with the crass tobacco-spitting world of baseball, but he has numbers.

Sabremetrics, using advanced statistical analysis to evaluate players, is Brand’s lingua franca and how Beane revolutionises the A’s by picking undervalued players who get on base more, for less money. Persuading Major League Baseball is harder

aising the topic of martial arts R movies to people usually elicits a groan or possibly a borderline rac-

James Mann

BUSTED: “What are you and mummy doing in that video?”

MONEYBALL

Classic Cult

mirror

dream house

and the goal in the film isn’t the As' scoreboard, but whether Beane and Brand are right.

With more shaky close ups than shots of games, Moneyball isn’t really a film about baseball, but the men behind it. The hubris that make many hate Pitt is his strength because it becomes an effective metaphor for the arrogance of baseball.

“

Moneyball injects new life into the genre...the characters are strong enough to create one of the most compelling dramas of the season".

Essentially, Beane is reforming not only baseball, but himself. Pitt’s natural bravado, contrasted with the self-deprecating comic timing of Hill makes for some hilarious verbal sparring, reminiscent of The Social Network, unsurprisingly, considering Aaron Sorkin worked on the script.

Moneyball is not just another Pitt or sports film. Just as its protagonists reinvigorated baseball, Moneyball injects new life into the genre. The players may be reduced to numbers, but the characters are strong enough to create one of the most compelling dramas of the season.

Tess Malone

ist impression of how the speaker considers Chinese people shouting to sound. However, for those of us who love them, the mocking changes nothing.

The origins of martial arts films lie, predictably, in the East. The spectacular acrobatics and familiar storylines blended perfectly with some rudimentary movie magic.

Sadly, the clunkiness of the flight effects jar our CGI-conditioned minds and the only enjoyment they can give these days is ironic. Quaint, old-fashioned and enjoyed almost exclusively in China, Kung-fu flicks were all that was on offer up until a certain dragon exploded onto our screens Bruce Lee redefined the martial arts scene. His dynamic, hard-hitting approach and modern-day setting made his movies the first of the genre to conquer the American market and brought eastern combat styles into a world that had never seen them before. Lee’s incredible athleticism and intensity shine through the mists of time and as you engage more and more with his inimitable style you forget the slightly shoddy production quality and incessant yowling as you are swept away in a whirl of high kicks.

Even more influential than Bruce Lee is Jackie Chan. Trained in traditional Chinese opera, he started out as just another stuntman on the kung-fu movie scene. However, his approach to the genre was something entirely new. While his early storylines followed the familiar 'brash young martial artist loses, learns new style, discovers wisdom, wins' pattern, his wonderfully lively and creative persona captured hearts all over the world. Fight scenes involving several people attacking simultaneously were virtually unknown before Jackie Chan and his inventiveness in using his surroundings as a weapon is something that modern films (particularly the Bourne trilogy) emulate.

Classic martial arts films often showcase particular styles. In Chinese films this usually results in some animal impersonations as Eagle Claw and Maddened Goat styles face off. The crucial element was that characters had their distinctive style, their gimmick, something that defined their brand of combat. This, though less explicit, is still around. Van Damme gave us Kickboxing and Steven Seagal showed us his own brand of Karate but many modern films cast their net further afield. Christopher Nolan’s Batman employs Keysi, a martial art developed in Spain, while Jason Bourne uses a Filipino system known as Kali.

If the future of action films as a whole lies in ever more creative martial arts sequences, where does that leave pure martial arts films? Lately, the return to the Chinese opera style has produced some beautiful pieces of cinema that we finally have the technology to do justice to.

The more visceral style pioneered by Bruce Lee is being carried on by the new generation of young stars like Tony Jaa. It’s clear that, for those of us who like to see people beaten up in new and exciting ways, the future is bright.

Lewis McLellan

Tuesday November 29 2011 studentnewspaper.org

28 Music 28

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Death Cab plan for the future

Rebecca Chan witnesses an emotionally charged Death Cab for Cutie performance at Glasgow's 02 Academy

A

concern for any album tour is that the band will use the opportunity to relentlessly promote their new release; understandable as it may be to want to test fresh material live, it’s not the stuff the audience knows and loves.

Such was my worry for the Death Cab for Cutie gig in Glasgow’s 02 Academy last weekend, following the release of Codes and Keys earlier this year. However, it needn’t have been.

After all, the band are known for playing for their fans. Far from a replication of the album’s track-listing, the set list revealed gem after unexpected gem, following current singles with decade-old obscurities as fluidly as if the years had not happened at all.

“

Far from a replication of the new album's track-listing, the set list revealed gem after unexpected gem."

Perhaps it was just all the Weegie energy in the room, but the crowd (an integral component of any gig) was also far from your bog-standard audience fodder, remaining unfalteringly spirited as the band showcased their musicianship in a whirlwind of multiinstrumental talent and earnestness.

A highlight of any Death Cab gig is the obligatory round-the-campfire style rendition of “I Will Follow You Into the Dark”. As the band took a well-deserved seat and singer Ben Gibbard took to centre-stage solo, the sizeable 02 Academy seemed to shrink to a much more intimate space, the crowd struggling in solidarity to reach the notoriously impossible high note at the end of the third verse.

The cherry on the cake, however, for which alone the trip would have been

Live Frank turner Barrowlands 25th November 

been one hell of a year for Frank IMyt’sTurner.

New album England Keep Bones has been a commercial and

critical success, he’s headlined the third stage at Download Festival and to top it off has announced a headline show at Wembley Arena for 2012. How has this small time folk singer who used to be in hardcore punk band Million Dead pulled this off? Well, quite simply, it’s because of nights like tonight.

Turner started this solo project in 2005 and earlier this year played his 1000th show. The amount of people that can compete with a work ethic like that can be counted on one hand. Crisp perfect sound is all Turner needs to keep the Barrowlands in the palm of his hand and the sing along starts with opening number “Eulogy” and doesn’t end until the dying chords of “Photosynthesis” .

worth, was “We Looked Like Giants”, from the Transatlanticism album. Despite being a fan favourite, the song tends to remain elusive in the band’s set lists, and so, hearing the opening bars played mere metres away evoked a feeling difficult to describe. To put it in the most universal of terms: it was like opening a pack of Pokemon cards and finding a shiny.

Other unexpected delights of being up close to the band included being exposed to the bodily fluids of Ben Gibbard (hear me out). All criticisms of being ‘twee’ aside, it is undeniable: Death Cab for Cutie give it 100 per cent on stage. Gibbard demonstrated this exquisitely, flinging beads of perspiration from his sweaty mane, which caught the stage lights gloriously as they fell to the ground, and occasionally on the faces of the other bandmates and lucky front-row fans.

Rivulets of angsty enthusiasm visibly dripped down his guitar. It was disgusting. And brilliant. Furthermore, as if to illustrate his incapacity to swallow saliva, the crowd bore witness to an excessive amount of spitting, which at one point caused guitarist Chris Walla to, quite literally, laugh out loud.

Aside from being the water feature of the show, Gibbard was the focus of more attention than usual for reasons that few musicians would want; namely, his unavoidably high profile split from actress Zooey Deschanel.

Prior speculation on the impact this would have on the performance was, perhaps predictably, a little insensitive.

Ranging from the prediction that the atmosphere would be more “moody”, like the Death Cab of the late nineties and early noughties (Can I say “turn of the century”? “The Death Cab of the turn of the century” has a nice ring to it), to the prognosis that the band would half-heartedly bash through the new album’s track listing, what

That’s the essence of Turner’s music.

There probably isn’t a person in the audience tonight that doesn’t relate to at least one of these songs. Whether he’s singing about romance or not quite living up to your own opinion of yourself, he doesn’t sound like a rock star but an average guy you’ve met in the pub on a Saturday night. There’s no gimmicks or stage show here and in fact the crowning moment may well be when Turner’s backing band The Sleeping Souls leave the stage to allow him to play “Love, Ire and Song” by himself before joining him for the final chorus.

There’s something for the hardcore fans here as well. Rarely played “Wisdom Teeth” and bonus track from England Keep My Bones “Bathazar, Impresario” both get a run out. Fans’ favourites such as “I Knew Prufock Before He Was Famous” and “Reasons Not to be an Idiot” sound as great tonight as they ever have done. At the end of the day Frank Turner plays simple music but he plays it at a level that few else can match. Watch out: Wembley Arena may well just be the start.

Stuart Iversen

HIGH FIVES: Ben doesn't look like he wants to give Zooey any form of physical contact was generally agreed upon was that this very personal aspect of Gibbard’s life would somehow manifest itself in the atmosphere of the show.

“

Still enthusiastic, still gracious and grateful, the show was a demonstration of professionalism."

Perhaps this has something to do with the band’s fourteen years of chronicling the experience of love.

From making tangible the unsettling feeling of being in a meaningless relationship, to detailing the everyday triggers of nostalgia for a failed

Singles

romance, the band’s back catalogue is full of heartbreak and bitter cynicism, whilst always somehow maintaining a strand of optimism.

The latest album, Codes and Keys, is a far cry from the band’s early work, its subject being reciprocal love and blissful matrimony. For listeners who have followed this journey through the band’s musical career, Codes and Keys is the Happy Ending. All the uncertainty and struggle of the previous six albums turned out to be alright in the end, after all.

For this reason, despite speculating on the musical implications of Gibbard’s personal life, the majority of discussion amongst fans has not been gossip-mongering, but instead a genuine conveyance of condolences for a person whom, through his lyrics,

many listeners feel they have come to know.

And yet, despite the songs specifically written for Deschanel being notably absent from the set list, the quality of the performance was not affected at all. Still enthusiastic, still gracious and grateful, the show was a demonstration of professionalism.

This is partially because of the top form the band are in as musicians; they are tight- perfectly attuned to one another yet resisting a mechanical feel. It is also, however, down to the fact that they have their feet on the ground. Their humble and genuine stage presence is the complete antithesis of the infuriating, yet endlessly imitated, Gallagher approach, and it is this which keeps their ever-loyal fans coming back to their shows.

britney spears

rise to remain

Criminal RCA

This Day is Mine EMI





veryone’s favourite mentalist with ise to Remain are probably better E a glued-on weave is back, and R known for having the son of Iron this time she’s in love with a criminal. Maiden lead singer Bruce Dickinson Following an intro that can only be described as a primary school child fumbling about on a recorder, Britney gurgles an unexplained medley of words such as “bum bum bum / gun gun gun”. Later on she delves deeper lyrically with lines like “I will be alright / All reasons inside / I just can’t deny / Love the guy”, guaranteed to tug on the heartstrings of even the most unfeeling individual.

While it’s good that she’s taking a break from battering the paparazzi and bringing up her kids on a diet of Cheetos, this isn’t the Britney I once knew and loved. She’s still got that trademark toddler-on-helium voice, but Criminal is a bit of a dreary mess.

The only crimes being committed here are those against music.

Felicity Martin

within their ranks than for anything they’ve done musically. Latest single “This Day is Mine” sees them trying to break away from that perception.

The problem is that they’ve chosen to be a metalcore band. Without meaning to offend fans of the genre, unless you are a fanatic, the only albums you really need to sum up the whole thing are the best Killswitch Engage ones.

To stand out you have to be different.

I’m not sure if Rise to Remain do that here. This single isn’t bad by any stretch of the imagination. However the guitar sound and mix of clean and growled vocals sound like a few hundred other bands roaming the world. If they want to move out from under the shadow of a famous father they will need something better.

Stuart Iversen

Follow us on twitter @TheStudentPaper or on Facebook at facebook.com/TheStudentNewspaper �������� Tuesday ��������� November ��� 29 ����� 2011� music@studentnewspaper.org �������������������� studentnewspaper.org

Music 29

Star Rating  Groupies Gwyneth Paltrow Linda McCartney Courtney Love Zooey Deschanel

Live Wild Beasts Liquid Room 14 November

 ild Beasts stand alone in the curW rent wave of British pop bands.

Their lilting melodies, occasionally

absurd falsetto vocals, and surprising groove have meant that the Kendal group provide a welcome gust of fresh air through the often stuffy confines of their contemporaries’ more sober, dubstepped music. Since their second album, Two Dancers, was nominated for the 2010 Mercury Music Prize (and also through the ceaseless advocacy of outlets such as the Guardian’s music section) the band have received almost consistent acclaim, leading to the flurry of effervescent reviews that heralded Smother, their third album, released earlier this year. They are becoming more and more popular, with this show at the refurbished Liquid Rooms being their largest ever gig in Edinburgh – a fact relayed to us by lead-singer Hayden Thorpe with obvious glee.

The band opened with Smother’s second track “Bed of Nails”, Ben Little’s bowed guitar merging seamlessly with the driving bassline and rolling drumbeat to create the warm groove so central to Wild Beasts’ sound.

Above the music Hayden Thorpe’s falsetto soared, the esoteric references to Ophelia, Frankenstein’s monster,

IN THE LIMELIGHT: Hayden Thorpe lays down the bass lines at Edinburgh's Liquid Room and a big heart-shaped tattoo with an anchor stabbed through hypnotizing the crowd as we ceased to wonder what the lyrics may mean and simply fell into their harmony. Next, they launched into “We Still Got the Taste Dancin’ on our Tongues”, perhaps the most perfect expression of what Wild Beasts’ music can achieve. Here, all of their various talents come together, the fragility of Thorpe’s opening cadence (reflected by the crowd’s own screech-

ing falsetto) leading to staccato guitar, complemented with a solid backbeat.

This then gave steel way to panther an exquisite bridge of lightly galloping drums, accompanied by Thorpe’s cry of “we got gusto” – the most apposite description of their music. It’s admirable that Wild Beasts feel confident enough to dispose of such a strong song so early into their set, but had it appeared later, its reception would no doubt have been even more rapturous.

Albums

They further demonstrated their versatility through tracks like the explosive “The Devil’s Crayon” and more understated “Fun Powder Plot”.

Throughout the set Thorpe swayed, his body undulating within the music like an uncle lost deep in the late wedding disco groove; his voice and moves providing a surprising counterpoint to his somewhat grand stature and impressive stage-presence. This tension – between delicate vulner-

ability and more abrasive masculinity - highlights the source from which all of Wild Beasts’ greatest music springs.

Perhaps the clearest example of this in tonight’s set is “Hooting and Howling” – the aesthete’s “White Riot”. Never has there been a less convincing call to rioting, but still, the syncopated bass, approaching drums, and fuzzy guitars serve to create a wild mood of carnival, the song crashing from crescendo to crescendo, furnishing their set’s finale with frenzy.

Their encore, begun with the stalking “Lion’s Share” (underpinned by “Running up that Hill”-like drums), both captivated and calmed the crowd, building on the excitable energy amassed during the set. Tom Fleming introduced “All the King’s Men” with the demure declaration that “this is a song about fucking”, before launching into its opening hysterical shrieks of “Watch me! Watch me!” However, every Wild Beasts song is about fucking, so this comes as little surprise; a certain debonair seediness lingers around the band. The band finish, inevitably, with “End Come too Soon” (you can probably guess the double entendre), Smother’s final track. The song shifts and morphs through an extended bridge of shimmering synths, leaving the crowd with a warm satisfaction. As Wild Beasts left the stage, their position in Britain’s pop pantheon seemed sure: this eccentric, somewhat pretentious group of schoolmates make some of the most exciting, interesting pop music that Britain has known for a very, very long time������������������������������������������ Daniel Davies

Favourite Album ZZT

ELBOW

PARTYS OVER EARTH TURBO RECORDINGS

THE SELDOM SEEN KID POLYDOR GROUP

 ince 2007, Tiga and Zombie Nation S have been one of the most powerful combos in electronic music, creating a

kind of sound both as brash as it is aberrant. “Lower State of Consciousness” came out of Turbo Recording’s (Tiga’s record label) already quality arsenal, with a kind of spirit that shook up the world of alternative dance music. Nearly 4 years old, it still fits well within the perameters of ZZT’s ‘governing the dance-floors of the world’ concept that makes up Partys Over Earth. Other previous singles such as “The Worm” make up the more familiar second half of the album, only echoing the madness that has come previously.

“

The album definitely has a language of the type of aggressive analogue led sound explored well previously

by Soulwax's Nite Versions" The slower and even more stuttering rhythm of “Where Is The Captain?” skilfully sets out the stall for an album of an electronic, wide-eyed and effervescent atmosphere. The heart racing white noise included in “Partys Over Los Angeles”, “Zzafrika” and “Vulkan Alarm” keep your adrenaline (if you are swayed towards dance floor orientated song structures) racing, whilst the rest

ow did four blokes from Bury, H barely known outside critic circles, become one of Britain’s best loved

ELECTRO BANGER: Tiga and Zombie Nation lay their fury of the album continues to bounce around your head. “Nickel Und Dime”, the only track with detectable lyrics (from Tiga himself ) deftly grounds the album, protecting it from being thrown on the scrapheap as mere compilation of dance floor bombs. Varying themes on a dance floor bomb are also explored dexterously, with tracks like “ZZMTF”, and “Rock The Peace” showing the combination of two successful dance music giants can create.

The album definitely has a language of the type of aggressive analogue led sound explored well previously by Soulwax’s Nite Versions, accompanied by a heavy 4/4 kick drum, and a lot of skilful song writing. Partys Over Earth also has a defiant sense of sounding both separate from what has come before, leaping in front of its current opponents to show what can be done with a well matched collaboration. The already stunning recent single “Vulkan Alarm” has been

improved by its neighbouring songs, which consequently creates a vicious summit of this superb album. The assured sense of cool is also evident throughout, with witty and clever Turbo promotion helping the album feel like a very sought after piece of work. A cassette of the album was made available (which this reviewer went onto purchase) weeks before the familiar formats were available, which proved to be another ingenious move in showing how to both appreciate the super fans, and show how to work around the problem of ever decreasing music sales.

Partys Over Earth succeeds expectations and more, by bringing in a sound unheard of before, and a mass of inspirational electronic music that will continue to be played at thousands of parties (spelt correctly this time).

Rory Johnson

bands overnight? With one of the most stunning albums of all time, that’s how.

The Seldom Seen Kid soars above anything produced in the last decade or so by a British artist, matching delightful and indeed insightful lyrics with a soundtrack that still makes me weak at the knees three years on.

With its sublime orchestral flourishes, pulsating bass and gorgeous piano, this album has everything.

“

With its sublime orchestral flourishes, pulsating bass and gorgeous piano, this album has everything" Somewhere within these 11 tracks, Elbow will strike a chord, touching scars you thought were long healed. Likewise, they can evoke memories and emotions so uplifting you never want to listen to anything else for fear of puncturing the ecstasy.

That is what makes the album so special; written with their careers on the line, Elbow poured every ounce of passion and feeling they had into The Seldom Seen Kid, and it shows in the stark contrast of emotions throughout. Just when the magnificent “One Day Like This” leads you to think the band are letting you skip off into the sunset, they deliver their final earth shattering blow,

“Friend of Ours”, a story of the loss of a best friend. As an at times angsty and broody adolescent (my parents might say always), I was powerless to resist the talent and sheer authenticity of the stories behind the band.

“

Somewhere within these 11 tracks, Elbow will strike a chord, touching scars you thought were long healed."

Of all those who see themselves as wearing the crown of Britain’s finest: Yorke, Turner, Gallagher Martin and co., none can bring such authenticity to their exceptionally talented band mates in the way Garvey does to Elbow. His poetry led to me wonder why he never appeared in my English Literature anthologies.

However, Jarvis Cocker once noted that however good the lyrics, good music is the bedrock of success. It is of course, a good rule to follow in life that whatever Jarvis says goes, and so is true with this album: the bass in “Grounds For Divorce”, piano in “Mirrorball”, and quite simply everything about the epics “Some Riot” and “Loneliness of a Tower Crane Driver”.

In many ways, this album reminds me of my Mam’s home cooking. You can go as far away and try as many different things as you like, but something about it will always bring you back for comfort and that warm, fuzzy feeling inside.

As with most things in my life, so goes with The Seldom Seen Kid. On my best of days, I turn to it for further elation. As for the average days, well, it makes them seem just that little bit better.

Phil Smith

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Tuesday November 29 2011 studentnewspaper.org

Star Rating

holly jameson

I'm a pre-op transexual I shagged your mum I'm gay/I'm straight I think we should see other people It's not you, it's me

You don't have to tip for it

LOST

&

Shoshana Kessler finds the Happy Ending she was looking for at the end of the sitcom tunnel



H

appy Endings follows the usual sitcom formula, focusing on a group of friends who spend all their time together.The group is filled with standard archetypes; typical married couple Jane (Eliza Coupe) and Brad (Damon Wayans Jr), single gal Penny (Casey Wilson), gay, chubby Max (Adam Pally), left-at-the-altar Dave (Zachary Knighton) and the woman who left him, Alex (Elisha Cuthbert).

It begins with the aforementioned jilting, with Alex running out of the wedding alongside an open-shirted rollerblading man.

The rest of the episode mainly focuses around the rest of the group attempting to resume normality.

The subplots of the episode follow Penny’s issues in turning thirty, Max’s problems with his weight and Jane and Brad clashing over their future plans.

Twenty minutes is never enough to get to grips with a new show, and as such, it tries too hard to show its

An Adventurer's Guide TO Britain ITV2 Tuesday, 7.30pm



P

resenter Gethin Jones tells us at the start of the first episode of The Adventurer’s Guide to Britain, "we go off the beaten track to uncover a Britain only the adventurous get to see", an introduction to a programme that’s not entirely accurate. A better summation would perhaps be "In this series we go slightly off the beaten track - but not too far - to uncover a Britain only the mildly adventurous get to see, perhaps on family holidays with the kids." Yes, along with co-presenter Charlotte Uhloenbroek, Gethin is on a mission to seek out safe, cosy adventures all around Britain, getting things off to an adrenaline-soaked start in the Peak District.

In the first episode we watch as Charlotte goes caving and talks about how much rock is above her head and how she is at risk of at any moment becoming mildly anxious; Gethin goes microlighting to see things "you just can’t see from the ground", and the two of them both go on an ‘extreme bike ride’ along some roads, including - gasp! - a road no longer in use.

The bike ride is particularly monotonous. Call me fussy, but I just don’t really enjoy watching two people slogging their way up a tarmac road, complaining about it being a bit tiring. To be fair to the two of them, though, they try their best.

strong point in these shows).

For those getting bored of How I met your mother (it’s the seventh season, just tell us who the mother is), finding little comfort in New Girl and missing the easy humour of Friends, Happy Endings is the perfect new choice. It makes for comfortable watching, with the promise of new jokes in a familiar

environment.

Casey Wilson and Adam Pally, give the stand-out performances, and their Will and Grace-style relationship makes for promising viewing.

Happy Endings is a mishmash of all the good sitcoms, with enough original material to hold its own ground and thankfully without canned laughter.

The Falklands Play

BBC4 (2002) youtube.com



T

A CRAFTY TECHNIQUE: That hole in the bottom of the bowl will serve me well.

Things are constantly being described in sensationalist, exaggerated language (including, memorably, a description of Gethin’s microlighting experience as being "hurtled over mountains in a flying machine") and both seem to be having a great time throughout. The scenery is also fantastic, with the aerial shots during the microlighting sequence genuinely breathtaking.

It’s all a bit ridiculous really, but it’s also a tiny bit charming. The enthusiasm for the landscape and the great outdoors is admirable, even if the sense of what constitutes a crazy adventure needs working on. Dull but essentially lovely, The Adventurer’s Guide to Britain is perhaps best enjoyed with a nice, milky cup of tea (nothing too strong, good gracious) and a biscuit.

Alistair Grant

SHameless USA Channel 4 Fridays 2:05am



S

et in the tough backstreets of Chicago's south side, Shameless USA follows the various members of the Gallagher clan: William H. Macy stars as generally down-on-his-luck, constantly drunk waster Frank. His children span from the oldest: 21 year old Fiona, smart-talking Lip and Army-bound Ian to baby Liam. They put up with their failing, drunkard father with help from their neighbours: sex-loving Kevin and Veronica.

Along with Fiona’s rich new boyfriend, the dodgy, secretive and romantic Steve, and obsessive mother

CONDOMS:Notjustforseeinghowmuchtheyfillupwithwaterintheshower

Channel 4

Channel 4 Fridays, 3.05am

comedic side. Crowbarred-in gags get in the way of the dialogue and the characters are not much more than pastiches of their quirks. Yet through this, there are some genuinely funny and original moments; Dave’s thank you cards to the wedding gifts, or the relationship between the three female leads, something which isn’t often a

Channel 4

Happy Endings

bbc

FOUND

Sheila, they all have wacky, irrelevant episodic adventures. The characters might sound familiar, but this is definitely not the British Shameless. The original’s grim misery is gone, replaced with fashionably dishevelled protagonists and unwashed windows.

At first that was worrying – we all know that American remakes can end up as nothing more than watered down impersonations, but this is adorable: everything from Kevin and Veronica’s sexy antics to Frank passing out drunk every five minutes to the wildly out of place rom-com style story of Fiona and Steve is completely touching, unbelievable, and fun. The best part is Macy; despite the role not really being right for him it still works, turning Frank’s violent self-absorbed lifestyle into a series of lovable misadventures.

This is probably not what the creators were intending at all, but, while it’s depressing to think that this is the best they could come up with when they were trying to recreate socially depressed America, that shouldn’t affect the show’s value as a piece of silly television. Shameless USA is a watchable jaunt into the lightest, fluffiest wrong side of town imaginable, while it’s sure to be hated by purists, there’s really nothing to dislike.

Katie Cunningham

The TV section would like to apologise to Ross Kemp, some blundering idiot (Daniel Swain, TV Editor) gave Ross Kemp: Back on the Frontline 2 stars last week. It was intended to be given 4 stars. Sorry about that Ross.

he impending arrival of the much-anticipated Thatcher biopic, The Iron Lady, has had me trawling my way through the internet to see how the country’s first woman prime minister has been portrayed on the small screen.

Her lurid imagining in the contemporary satirical puppet show Spitting Image is still perhaps the most resonant, though there have been more recent depictions, amongst them Patricia Hodge’s in The Falklands Play, remarkable for its long gestation period, being commissioned in 1983 but not broadcast until almost twenty years later. Writer Ian Curteis approached the BBC with his idea in the year after the war and it was accepted, written, cast and allocated a filming slot before it was cancelled at the last minute after Curteis rejected the Beeb's requests for a less sympathetic portrayal of Thatcher. It was not until the twentieth anniversary of the conflict in 2002 that it was broacast as both a TV and radio play.

Hodge gives an impressive performance, focusing less on looking and sounding exactly like the real thing (a mistake Meryl Streep looks like she is about to make), and instead concentrating on getting across Thatcher’s famous steely resolve and determination to do what she thought was right, despite the odds being stacked against her.

As is often the case with political dramas, director Michael Samuels has had to cast pretty much every last 50-something British male he could find to play the massed ranks of the Cabinet, civil servants and generals. Whilst you do end up being distracted with wondering where you’ve seen them all before, there are some stand-out performances, most notably Clive Merrison as Defence Secretary John Nott and James Fox as Foreign Secretary Lord Carrington.

Despite the stellar performances and the appropriately tense direction, The Falklands Play crosses the line between giving Thatcher a fairer hearing than previous depictions and outright historical inaccuracy, simply airbrushing over the darker aspects of the war. Samuels ignores the fact that it was Thatcher's spending cuts that had removed the islands’ last remaining serious naval protection - making the invasion possible in the first place - and likewise neatly skips over the highly controversial sinking of the Argentine ship ‘General Belgrano’.

Dan Heap

Got your eye on the ball? Email sport@studentnewspaper.org

8 2011 Tuesday November 29 2011 studentnewspaper.org

31 Sport 27 What was so critical was that he had done so without saying a word. Never once did he speak out against the regime in the manner inspirational captain England Mike Brearley did. This exasperated many, but in retrospect, it was this that endeared him to the public so dearly.

Previously, anti-apartheid activity had been seen as the cause of a radical few. Dolly, however, brought it into every single living room. Through his silence and remarkable dignity, he did more to demonstrate the injustice of the regime than any political speech or protest. Here was a quiet, dignified, family orientated man, trying to earn his living.

A life, not out Phil Smith looks back at the remarkable life and career of Basil D'Oliveira

“ Martin Jenkinson

Almost singlehandedly, Dolly had turned world opinion against apartheid – and he did so without saying a word."

On 11 November 2011, 43 years after the infamous ‘D’Oliveira affair’, black Muslim Hashim Amla was crafting a masterful, match winning innings for South Africa in an enthralling encounter with Australia.

Back in Britain, Basil D’Oliveira was bravely fighting the final days of his debilitating battle with Parkinson's disease.

It must been some comfort, however small, to see a young black South African fulfilling his dreams in the manner Amla was. It must also, however, have been painful. It was a stunning innings, the one D’Oliveira had always dreamt of making, right until the very end. Despite his success in an England shirt, D’Oliveira remained a South African at heart, and his story remains a tragic reminder of the lost generation of talent in the apartheid years.

‘Dolly,’ as he was affectionately known, would have given anything for

the opportunity Amla had. What separates Dolly from the rest of the lost talent, however, is that without him, Amla and the next generation may never have had the opportunity to fulfil their dreams either. He remains an iconic figure in the folklore of the fight against apartheid and racial injustice, and will continue to do so for generations to come.

As a child, Dolly used to climb the trees above the Newlands cricket ground in Cape Town to watch the action, and dream of one day gracing the iconic turf.

Of course, it could only ever be a dream.

After years of playing club cricket in his homeland, a frustrated D’Oliviera wrote to journalist John Arlott to ask for help.

Arlott, a fierce opponent of apartheid, combined with fellow journalist John Kay to find a team in the Lancashire leagues.

What followed was a frenzied attempt by his home club in Capetown to raise enough money for Dolly to catch

his flight to England. The rest, as they say, is history.

Dolly hit the ground running and after some stellar performances for Worcestshire, was selected to play for England. A magnificent century against Australia meant he seemed certain to travel with the team to South Africa and finally have his date with destiny.

The cricket establishment, however, of whom it was infamously claimed their blood ran blue, bottled it. They claimed he wouldn’t tour for cricketing reasons, but everyone knew differently. Weeks later, a dramatic U-turn saw Dolly picked to travel, but South African Prime Minister B.J Vorster made it clear his regime would not accept this and the tour was cancelled. So began the sporting boycott of South Africa, one which would last twenty years. Almost singlehandedly, Dolly had turned world opinion against apartheid.

No politician, Dolly desired simply to share the same comfy seats at Newlands Cricket Ground that whites did, and have the same opportunities to fulfil his potential. The general public could empathise with this so much more easily than the outbursts of the political elite. This was pivotal in turning the tide against apartheid.

Dolly always wished, however, to be remembered as a sportsman, not a political figure. Luckily, his sporting story is just as remarkable. Not only did he adapt with superhuman ease to English conditions, but he is rumoured to have been 38 when he finally he played for England - an age when most cricketers are long rtired and looking to land a spot on Question of Sport or the Sky Sports commentary team.

At a time when racism seems determined to rear its ugly head into sport once more with the actions of Sepp Blatter and John Terry, it is imperative Dolly’s story is never allowed to fade, as the ultimate example of sport’s responsibility to be a role model for society, and the tremendous difference it can make.

Remember Dolly not just because of his political impact, though. Remember him because he was a true gentleman. In sport today, that is rare indeed.

Authorities in doping battle

Alan Ross explains the ongoing anti-doping dispute between the BOA and WADA The battle between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the British Olympic Association (BOA) continues to rumble on in the background of the sporting world. The BOA seems set on trying to maintain its own ruling despite it clashing with that of WADA’s, the body whose rules the rest of the world adheres to.

WADA’s rule sets out that once an athlete or sportsman has served the prescribed two year ban for doping then they are free to compete again in any competition. However, the BOA has gone beyond this by implementing a further punishment for drug cheats. Any athlete who was banned for more than six months for a doping offence then becomes ineligible for selection to Team GB at the Olympics. By implementing what is in effect a life time ban on competition at the Olympics, WADA feels that the BOA has over stepped the mark and has labelled them a “non-compliant nation”.

WADA believes that an athlete can only be punished once for a doping indis-

cretion and the BOA’s Olympic ban is a second penalty entering the territory of double jeopardy.

Thanks to LaShawn Merritt’s recent court victory which overturned an IOC (International Olympic Committee) rule that maintained a similar principle questions are now abound as to when the BOA’s ruling is going to be challenged.

The ruling has created the divide between WADA and the BOA as WADA had previously supported the BOA’s bye law before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled in favour of Merritt and in spirit against the BOA. This now leaves the tricky situation of the host nation of next year’s Olympics sticking firmly – for now at least – to its more hard-line policy with WADA and current court rulings stood on the opposite side – with the 2012 games caught in the middle.

The legal limbo surrounding British athletes who could benefit athletes from this ruling does not seem to have an end in sight. Cyclist David Millar has become something of a poster boy for anti-dop-

ing in the cycling world since his fall from grace for admitting to using EPO during the period when he was christened 'Le Dandy' by the French press. British Cycling has a zero tolerance policy towards doping and so this may be why there has been little heard from Millar. He may have been persuaded not to challenge the ruling to save the BOA the potential embarrassment of seeing their ruling overturned. Publicly Millar is apparently reluctant to return to CAS while sprinter Dwain Chamber is following his lawyer’s advice and waiting for someone else to challenge the ruling first.

The BOA’s strong moral stance on doping is something to admire but the legality and politics of the situation may end up with the matter being decided in court. The BOA is left with the tricky task of trying to maintain its position despite the fact that it doesn’t have any legal foundations at all.

Although WADA remains in control of Olympic doping it faces another battle over cyclist Alberto Contador and his allegedly ‘contaminated’ steak. Contador’s

hearing in CAS wrapped up on Thursday with a decision not expected until the New Year.

The Spaniard tested positive for clenbuterol during the 2010 Tour de France which he maintains was thanks to a contaminated steak from Spain that he ate during the Tour. Clenbuterol is used to treat asthma but can also help to build up lean muscle as well as promote weight loss which is why it is a prohibited substance. The illegal use of Clenbuterol in the meat industry to boost the protein content of beef and hence Contador’s ingestion of this contaminated meat is central to his defence.

WADA and the cycling’s governing body the UCI (Union Cycliste International) maintain that the presence of clenbuterol is due to illegal blood transfusions that Contador underwent to remove traces of the drug in his system so that he could pass a drug test. Despite undergoing a lie detector test to try to prove his innocence the ultimate decision rests with a three man panel that will decide Contador’s fate.

Injury Time

takes A WRY look at the world of sport DB7 speeds into the sunset The credits roll as the celebrations fade to black. The crowd emerges from the cinema, unsure of what to make of the ‘greatest story never told’, the tale of a boy from Leytonstone who goes onto take global acclaim for his sublime hairdressing skills.

Injury Time wishes that this story could be told but unfortunately some pesky scouts had their eyes firmly set on said boy.

He has gone on to change the sporting world of today.

Perhaps the finest footballer ever to star on loan at Port Vale recently claimed the dubious honour of becoming the first known professional footballer to name his child after a number. David Beckham laid a millstone round the neck of his first daughter, Harper, by giving her the middle name Seven.

The similarities between Seven and Sven (of Sven-Goran Eriksson fame) have not gone unnoticed. The matter has raised speculation in business circles about the ownership of the naming rights to the poor child.

Was this perhaps the real reason that Sven tried to lure Beckham back to England to play with Leicester City? Injury Time has been frustrated in its quest for truth, left bemused by a quote from a source close to DB7 who said: “David doesn’t mix them up.

He knows Sven is a number and Seven is his daughter so what’s the problem?”

Harper’s early reign at the head of the Beckham clan has already seen her steer her father to a much coveted MLS Championship – alongside ex Vale man Chris Birchall – after three years of hurt. The real question though, is what does Beckham’s future hold?

With his MLS contract that equalled the GDP of a small country soon to expire he may now join a club that is in fact entirely owned by Qatar. PSG are on the rise but what are the odds on one of Liberté, égalité or fraternité appearing on the next Beckham birth certificate?

A tame bookie told Injury Time that an accumulator on all three appearing is proving popular with the punters.

A spot on the controversial Team GB squad at next year’s Olympics seems to be the perfect opportunity for Becks to continue his Hollywood story. Quarterbacking on the football field will surely propel Becks into a career beyond sport; Injury Time does not feel that solving the Eurozone financial crisis is beyond him.

It seems that the impending end of the Mesoamerican calendar in 2012 will see Becks steal off into the apocalypse with an Olympic medal round his neck.

Alan Ross

Sport

studentnewspaper.org

Tuesday November 29 2011

Dolly's heroic innings finally comes to an end

Phil Smith looks back on the remarkable life and career of Basil D'Oliviera P31

Edinburgh win on derby day Charles Cutteridge watches the Uni's footballers edge out rivals Heriot-Watt at Peffermill Edinburgh Heriot-Watt

2 1

A dramatic late winner from Oli Vakalla completed a great comeback for Edinburgh as they edged out rivals Heriot-Watt at Peffermill last Wednesday.

Scott Travis headed the visitors in front early on before James Craigen leveled the scores after the break.

The win puts Dougie Samuel’s men in control of their BUCs group – they now sit second behind their beaten opponents, level on points but with a game in hand, and sitting on a perfect record in the group so far.

“It’s great to win four out of four,” said coach Samuel after a game that was played in gale-force winds.You’ve got to adapt your game to conditions like this.

“We played a lot more diagonal balls out wide, playing with a little more width whereas Heriot-Watt played straighter with balls going straight through to the keeper.”

With the grass rippling under the strong winds both teams contested a close game of football.

It was, at least, sunny and HeriotWatt got off to a bright start, scoring eight minutes in after a sustained period of possession. A neat cross in from the wing was nicely headed into the back of the net by Travis, putting

Edinburgh on the back foot.

The rest of the half was fairly even. Edinburgh started to hold possession well and created chances but they lacked composure in front of goal.

The wind didn’t help, blowing crosses off intended targets and ensuring the hosts remained goalless in the first half.

A strong start to the second half saw yet more promising breaks up the wing from Jack Beacher,

although they rarely amounted to much. But the balance was shifting against the visitors and the equalizer came 25 minutes into the second half – a dangerous corner just headed past keeper Anton François by midfielder Craigen.

“

It's great to win four out of four."

With the light fading and HeriotWatt tiring Edinburgh refused to give up. Seemingly camped in opposition territory they worked hard for their chances in the closing stages and it paid off when François parried a well-struck free kick to the excellent Vakalla, who deservedly headed home the winner eight minutes from time.

BUCS Scottish 1A

1st Heriot-Watt 1st 2nd Edinburgh 1st 3rd Stirling 2nd 4th Glasgow 1st 5th Edinburgh 2nd

P 5 4 6 5 6

Pts 12 12 9 3 3

Edinburgh 1st Results Edinburgh 1st 6-0 Edinburgh 2nd (19th October)

Dougie Samuel, Edinburgh Coach

Glasgow 1st 1-2 Edinburgh 1st (26th October) Edinburgh 1st 3-2 Stirling 2nd (2nd November) Edinburgh 1st 2-1 Heriot-Watt 1st (23rd November) Edinburgh 1st Remaining Fixtures Heriot-Watt 1st vs Edinburgh 1st (8th February 2012) Edinburgh 2nd vs Edinburgh 1st (15th February 2012) Edinburgh 1st vs Glasgow 1st (29th February 2012)

CLOSE CALL: Edinburgh keeper Mark Tait makes a crucial save to prevent the hosts going 2-0 down

Mixed success for Edinburgh sport

Davie Heaton rounds up the winners and losers of semester one As the end of the semester draws near, it’s time for The Student to take stock of the University’s sporting performances so far.

Edinburgh currently sit seventh in the British Universities Championships (BUCs) standings – in with a fighting chance of at least matching last year’s sixth placed finish.

The hockey teams are currently contributing the most points (119) with both the women’s and men’s first teams topping their BUCs groups.

A thrilling 4-3 win for the men over rivals Heriot-Watt at Peffermill at the start of this month was undoubtedly one of the highlights of the season so far.

They are closely followed by the swimming club (117), while the women’s netballers are locked in a struggle with Dundee at the top of their group.

The basketball teams (92) are also

performing well, with both the men and women’s teams battling in the Premier North divisions against more heavily funded outfits from south of the border. The men pulled off a superb after-the-buzzer win at relegation rivals Glasgow two weeks ago in one of the games of the year.

“

With so many teams poised to qualify, EUSU will hope for a real assault on the national finals."

Also with 92 points are the lacrosse and rugby union teams, whilst the badminton team are comfortably sitting top of their division.

The men’s football team have put their disappointing early-season

Scottish Cup first-round exit behind them to amass a perfect record in their BUCs division - including last week’s derby success over Heriot-Watt.

The cross-country runners of the Edinburgh Hare and Hounds club enjoyed a double success at their big annual meet, Braids, with both the women and men clinching the team prizes. The team followed this up the following week in St Andrews, retaining the overall Scottish Universities Championship by a massive 59 points over rivals Glasgow.

The Scottish Universities Squash Tournament on November 5th saw the women run out as champions while the men’s second team were beaten finalists.

With so many teams poised to qualify from their Scottish divisions, the sports union will be hoping for a strong showing at the various national finals after the Christmas break.

Charles Cutteridge

Men's Football BUCs Scottish 1A

Stirling 2nd vs Edinburgh 1st (7th March 2012)

Overall BUCs Standings 6th Exeter 7th Edinburgh 8th Nottingham

1340 1216 1124

Edinburgh BUCs Points 1st Hockey 2nd Swimming 3rd Netball 4th Basketball 4th Lacrosse 4th Rugby Union

119 117 102 92 92 92

Wed 23rd November Results Edinburgh 2nd 49-27 S'clyde 2nd (Men's Basketball) Edinburgh 2nd 3-18 St Andrews 1st (Women's Water Polo) Worcester 1st 95-39 Edinburgh 1st (Men's Basketball) St Andrews 2nd 1-4 Edinburgh 3rd (Women's Hockey) Edinburgh 1st 2-1 Dundee 1st (Men's Hockey) St Andrews 1st 1-8 Edinburgh 1st (Women's Hockey) Edinburgh 4th 14-0 H-W 2nd (Women's Hockey) Edinburgh 2nd 0-0 S'Clyde 1st (Women's Hockey)