Woroni Edition Ten 2018 by Woroni

woroni VOL. 68, Issue 10. Week 7, Semester 2, 2018

PAGE 3

ANUSA AND NUS HOLD PROTEST IN RESPONSE TO #LIBSPILL PAGE 5

CLUBS COUNCIL PASSES REFORMS TO FUNDING POLICIES AND EXECUTIVE POWERS

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THE WEEPING WILLOW PAGE 35

CANBERRA IN BLOSSOM

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SWOOPING INTO SPRING

Vol. 68 , Issue 10 News comment

REVIEWS

Meanwhile, in Canberra... No Sleep for the Wicked

Dance to This: Troye Sivan’s Bloom

Jasper Lindell

Frankie Nolan

Gender Inequality Isn’t an Issue to Japanese Universities… Yet. Make Sense Marika Niihori 8

Fading: A Play Review Soumyadeep Sengupta 34

Book Review: Liar's Poker Surbhi Arora

My Abusive Relationship on Campus

UNI LIFE

Maddy Miller

Canberra in Bloom

"Their Spirits are Still Here": Language Revival in a Language Graveyard

Madeleine Sinnis

Liska Fell

Alisha Nagle

When the Frost Fades

No Confidence

Howard Maclean

Brigid Horneman-Wren

Critiques Of #MeToo Lamenting the Careers of Awful Men are Missing the Point Laura Perkov INTERNATIONAL 14

I Am What I Am. So, Take Me as I Am Riddhi Mehta 15

Property Woes of Muslim Women Merah Hashmi

Swooping into Spring SCIENCE 37

Lost Opportunity Andy Yin 38

How Science is Being Used Against You

Phoebe Lupton Multilingual

Changes

Xavier Anderson

Melissa Nuhich

BUSINESS & ECONOMICS Energy Economic Policy: The Rise in Energy Prices

Education Pull-out

Sam Walker

ARTS

Framing Trans Characters and Other Artistic Endeavours Al Azmi

sATIRE 48

Your Weekly Horoscope Gene Pinter

This paper is recyclable. Protect the environment and recycle me after reading.

Diya Sharma

Sebastian Lawrence

Haoyi Jason Zou

Ecotourism: Prospects and Challenges

Digging an Australian Digger

Rap Devils

Sole Sobriety

Xavier Anderson

Phoebe Lupton

Anonymous

Caged or Protected? Predator Proof Fences in Australia

Ivan Ip

Silos, Silhouettes and Skylines

Society Now

Anonymous

ENVIRONMENT

The Days & Nights of Canberra

The Weeping Willow

Ruchika Goel

Faking a Smile

Lexie Johnstone

Catherine Lockley

Is Intersectionality Exclusive to Third-Wave Feminism?

Breast Exams: It’s Time to Get Checked

Connor Parlevliet

Diversity in Tertiary Science Education

Brandon Tan

Moonside Moments

Brody Hannan

‘BLOOM’ - Features Canberra: The Once and Future Great City

Australia’s Withering Media Landscape Bec Emder CREATIVE

2 acknowledgement of country We acknowledge the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people, who are the traditional owners of the land on which Woroni is written, edited and printed. We pay respects to Elders past, present and future. We would also like to acknowledge that this land – which we benefit from occupying – was stolen, and that sovereignty was never ceded. Within this ongoing echo of colonialism we commit, as writers and editors, to amplify the voices and stories of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people at our university. We will honour the diversity of their stories.

Board of Editors Editor in Chief: Mia Jessurun Deputy EIC: Ben Lawrence Managing Editor: Jonathan Tjandra Content Editor: Alisha Nagle Radio Editor: Steph David TV Editor: William He Art Editor: Sophie Bear News Editor: Noah Yim

staff and Sub-Editors Financial Controller: Brendan Greenwood Distributor: Jasper Lindell Business Development: Sumedha Verma Marketing Sub-Editor: Daniel Schuler Social Media Sub-Editor: Brandon Tan Photography Sub-Editor: Bryana Smith Photography Sub-Editor: Hannah Nigro Senior Sub-Editor: Miriam Sadler Senior Sub-Editor: Caroline Dry Comment: Ben Jefferson International: Riddhi Mehta Features: Abigail Manning Multilingual: Melissa Nuhich Arts: Tabitha Malet Reviews: Surbhi Arora Uni Life: Madeleine Sinnis Environment: Xavier Anderson Science: Erin Ronge Business & Economics: Soumyadeep Sengupta Creative Writing: Phoebe Lupton Satire: Gene Pinter News: Aishwarya Taskar News: Caitland Coulson News: Dan Le Mesurier News: Jeffrey Wang News: Nick Richardson Executive Producer: Imogen Purcell Presenter Liason: Maddie Kibria Radio Technical Officer: Ben Donald-Wilson Music & Events: Albie Ryan Breakfast Producer: Sumithri Venketasubramanian Radio Producer: Patrick Bruce Radio Producer: Vikram Sondergaard Radio Producer: Maleika Twist Radio Producer: Gil Rickey Radio Producer: Claudia Weatherall Radio Producer: Jeremy Abdul-Karim Senior Art & Design: Maddy McCusker Art & Design: Jessica Benter Art & Design: Millie Wang Art & Design: Hannah Charny Art & Design: Clarence Lee Art & Design: Georgie Kamvissis Art & Design: James Atkinson Technical Manager: Bremer Sharp Executive Producer: Zachary Schofield TV Producer: Jasmine Ryan TV Producer: Nathalie Rosales-Cheng TV Producer: Ria Pflaum Video Editor: Cedalise Mariotti Video Editor: Aryanne Caminschi Video Editor: Savannah Benson Camera Operator: Derek Wu Camera Operator: Prakash Singh Camera Operator: Cathy McGrane

Tumbling Geoffrey Bonning

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Week 7, Semester 2, 2018

ANUSA AND NUS HOLD PROTEST IN RESPONSE TO #LIBSPILL

Text: Nick Richardson On August 26, ANUSA and the National Union of Students (NUS) collaborated to protest former National Treasurer Scott Morrison’s rise to the top of the Liberal Party and consequently the Prime Ministership. Scott Morrison was sworn in on the 25th of August by the Governor-General as Australia’s 30th Prime Minister following a successful leadership spill, which saw Malcolm Turnbull dislodged as the leader of the Liberal Party. Garema Place provided the canvas for ANU Students and other social advocates to protest Morrison’s performance in his previous portfolios as Immigration Minister and Treasurer. The protest consisted of a disappointing turnout comprised of ANU students and other community members, who huddled around a hung banner which proclaimed; “SCOMO = Cuts to Unis, Anti-Refugee, War on the Poor”. ANUSA Education Officer Harry Needham stated that the number of

protestors was “below what he had hoped”. Needham emphasised that the limited time frame to coordinate the protest and the timing in the scheme of the semester significantly impacted the level of student participation.

the new Prime Minister as the “chief communicator of anti-refugee propaganda,” and echoed the sentiment that the Morrison Prime Ministership would see the current treatment of refugees continue.

Needham further stated his belief that the ascension of Scott Morrison to the Prime Ministership instead of Peter Dutton suppressed the community’s reaction.

Protestors also focussed on Morrison’s position at the forefront of the ‘It’s okay to say No’ campaign leading up to the same-sex marriage plebiscite in late 2017.

When asked whether he thought the turnout would have been larger if Peter Dutton had won the leadership spill, Needham agreed, citing Dutton’s negative portrayal in publications and media outlets. However, he reiterated that Scott Morrison had been “inaccurately portrayed” as a moderate alternative and was “no better” than his fellow colleague Dutton.

The online event demonstrated the former Treasurer’s willingness to reduce funding for universities, while concurrently increasing tax breaks for big business and “the well-off”. The event also titled Australia’s 30th Prime Minister Scott Morrison as a “strident defender of all the rorts used to give wealthy investors massive tax discounts.”

Behind the protests were objections to the former Minister for Immigration’s instrumental role in the orchestration of Operation Sovereign Borders, a program established in September 2013, which aimed to combat maritime people smuggling. The online event titled

The ANU protest mirrors those undertaken on the same day in Sydney by activists, student unions, and community

groups, who concurrently undertook protests against the leadership spill. In a media release, the NUS Ethnocultural Officer Hersha Kadkol outlined the motives for protest, highlighting that “Morrison gloated about the fact that Australia’s ‘stop the boats’ campaign has become a model for far-right parties and governments around the world.” Sydney University Student Representative Council President Imogen Grant echoed similar motives for protest. Grant stated that: “We can no longer say that far-right politics are embodied by minor players like Pauline Hanson and Fraser Anning. The Liberal Party wants to take their space and this raises a terrible danger for refugees, migrants, students, workers and all oppressed groups in Australia.” Grant further highlighted that “Abbott’s government was brought down by student and community protests” and that they don’t want “a Trump wannabe for Prime Minister”.

Vol. 68 , Issue 10

INTERHALL FINALS 2018

Text: Nick Richardson Soccer In front of swarms of loyal fans who braved the freezing temperatures and sleeting rain, both the John’s XXIII College men’s and women’s soccer teams have triumphed in their respective Interhall Soccer Grand Finals. Having both been 2017, expectations

victorious in were high.

After taking an early 1-0 lead, the women’s side fought off a resurgent Griffin Hall who made numerous dangerous forays forward late in the second half. The John’s defence stood tall despite the stern opposition and horrendous conditions to secure an impressive victory. The men’s contest was incredibly hard fought. The dark grey clouds parted following the relatively uneventful first half and made way for an energetic second period. A sloppy piece of defence produced a clear opportunity for John’s, which was clinically finished, putting the reigning premiers 1-0 up early in the second half. Following numerous counter-attacks, a determined Fenner Hall side finally broke through to level the scores with 10 minutes to go, after a deflected clearance fell into a dangerous position just outside the John’s defensive box. Only moments later, in almost identical

fashion to the first goal, Fenner’s defence was caught off guard following an ineffective attempt to clear the ball and the Fenner Hall goalkeeper was left helpless as John's again hit the front. Despite some intense final moments, an impressive John’s side managed to hold on for an impressive victory. AFL A cold and dreary Thursday afternoon set the scene for another edition of one of ANU’s time-honoured rivalries. Following their AFL triumph last year, John XXIII College celebrated a repeat of their 2017 success, dominating a tenacious Burgmann side en route to an impressive victory. Last week, John’s was able to maintain their undefeated 2018 AFL campaign, comfortably disposing of a much-improved Fenner Hall side. Burgmann booked their place in the grand final in a narrow victory against a depleted, but resilient Burton & Garran Hall. South Oval’s western boundary was three or four deep in some places and the resulting atmosphere was raucous and electric. Every contest was accompanied by fierce cheering and the passion was palpable. The first quarter resembled the tight arm-wrestle many expected. John’s dominated possession, field position, and contested footy early, but the stout Burgmann defence limited the damage to just a one-goal deficit going into the

first break. John’s were unable to replicate the free-flowing style which defined their victory the previous week. John’s midfield dominance continued throughout the second and third periods, consistently beating their Burgmann opponents in the contested football and spread from contests. However, Burgmann’s defence continually frustrated John’s forwards, limiting the scoreboard impact of their dominance. The Burgmann forwards capitalised on their finite chances, but still trailed 3.2:20 to 7.2:44. Despite a clear rise in intensity, Burgmann was unable to mount what would have been a momentous final quarter comeback, and eventually, Johns cruised to a comfortable victory in front of a swarm of fans. Netball The conclusion of the Interhall Division 1 Netball Competition played out in dramatic fashion, as the Old Sports Hall hosted a ferocious encounter between Fenner Hall and reigning netball champions, John XXIII College. The tense contest lived up to the expectations of the 50 deep crowd, which lined either side of the court. Having conquered their John's opponents a week earlier, the Fenner side led by Tilly Clark and Lara Parmenter felt confident that they were good enough to come out on top.

Following a frantic first half, the sides were locked at 15 points apiece. The tightness of the first half continued early in the second, before a John's player recklessly kicked her opposing number, resulting in her expulsion from the game, and subsequently leaving John's with only six players for the remainder of the third quarter. Fenner capitalised on their under-manned opponents, running out to a 27-21 lead at three-quarter time. Fenner’s imposing lead materialised as a hurdle too large for a tired John's outfit, as the ‘Rabbits’ held on to record an impressive victory over last years' champions. Coach Tilly Clark emphasised how important the third quarter was to her side's success, highlighting Fenner’s ability to convert “turnovers into goals” as the catalyst for their success. Fellow coach Lara Parmenter reaffirmed that Fenner’s “dominant” last quarter in their regular season clash against John's gave her confidence that Fenner had the quality required to win. Their victory today caps off a meteoric rise. Fenner Hall failed to win a single match in 2017, relegating them to the bottom of the eventual standings. Coach Tilly nominated “great first years, coming along and having a go” and “consistent training” as the nucleus of Fenner’s leap from last to first in 2018.

Week 7, Semester 2, 2018

CLUBS COUNCIL PASSES REFORMS TO FUNDING POLICIES AND EXECUTIVE POWERS Text: Dan Le Mesurier

The Students Clubs Council has passed various motions largely aimed at reforming the existing funding policy and expanding executive powers. The Students Clubs Council met on 22 August for their third Clubs Council Meeting of 2018. Seeing a number of executive positions vacated as of this semester, a significant focus of the meeting was to address any issues that have come about as a result of this. Newly vacated positions in the executive include Chairperson, Communications Officer, Funding Officer and General Officer. While the other positions have all been filled, the position

of Funding Officer still remains vacant. Included among the issues caused by this change in the executive is the fact that the new Communications Officer, James Howarth, was only recently able to gain access to the Clubs Council email account. This has seen a backlog in emails to and from the council, with at least one club not receiving any notification that it’s bid for affiliation had been approved. A major reform to the Clubs Council’s funding policy is the instituting of a flat rate of funding per person for Club events, allocating $11 per ANU student in attendance for ordinary events and $15 per student for “special events”. This is a move away from

the funding rate being determined by the amount of people who attend the events, so as to allow for equal rates of funding to all clubs regardless of their size or popularity. Another reform focused on granting to Council’s executive the discretionary power to refuse applications for travel grants should the use of such a grant be unreasonable or already funded through another student representative body. Speaking to the motion, Secretary of the Clubs Council Howard Maclean highlighted that almost every other grant included such a discretionary feature, and those that

didn’t involved a considerably smaller amount of money. Proposed as the Executive Powers Reform, another reformative motion was put forward with the purpose of standardising Executive powers under various policies and setting “ground rules” to executive meetings. It also looked to “centralise governance provisions under one policy”. Changes under this reform include the clear setting out of the process by which club regulations, council policies, and rules are interpreted, as well as to reconcile executive decisions with the constitutions, regulations and policies of both the Clubs Council and ANUSA.

ANU IT SERVICES STATES THAT NETWORK WRIGHT HALL TO IMPLEMENT NEW ISSUES ARE RESOLVED ELECTION PROCESS FOR RESIDENTS' COMMITTEE

Text: Jeffrey Weng Sunday, 26 August: The ANU network has been stable throughout the day. ANU IT Services has been monitoring traffic to ensure that issues that have caused the Wi-Fi outages are isolated. There were some delay issues with the email server earlier today, but has been fixed according to ANU IT Services (ITS). Students have been experiencing issues with Wi-Fi connection to ANU Secure and Resnet during the past week. Network issues are reported to have emerged since last Sunday night. Yesterday, numerous ANU network outages occurred throughout the day. Wattle, ISIS, and ANU printers were unavailable at times. Students were unable to access course materials on Wattle or manage their degree on ISIS. The Enrolment Tab and eForms are currently still unavailable on ISIS. Furthermore, students have reported that the ANU reverse proxy login was once unavailable during the week. This has prevented students from accessing electronic journals and database which ANU Library has subscribed and research for their coursework. GitLab was also experiencing issues during the week. Students enrolled in Computer Science courses were unable to access course materials or work on their assignments on the platform. HORUS has been undergoing upgrade during the weekend which took longer than ITS expected because of the

network issues. Staff have been unable to handle extension requests during the period. However, the upgrade was successful and is ready for use. ANU IT Services has been investigating into the causes during the past week. Helen Duke, Acting Director of ITS, suggested that the virtual host was the source of the network issues. “We believe we have a solution to the Wi-Fi issues affecting [students and staff during] the past week. However, there are still issues with our virtual environment which has manifested in the network outages.” “This has been quite a complex set of problems to solve, and there are a number of follow up activities to occur tomorrow.” Professor Grady Venville, Pro-Vice Chancellor for Education, has agreed to instruct all Deans of respective Academic Colleges to inform course convenors of the impacts that the connectivity issues might have on students with completing their assignments and mid-semester examination preparations. Course convenors have made different decisions in response to the network issues: in some courses, convenors have given extensions due to the networks outages while others have not granted any extensions to the cohort. Until the time of publication, ANU has not made any official statement in response to the networking issues occurring over the past week.

Text: Dan Le Mesurier Wright Hall, one of ANU’s three new residential halls set to open for 2019, has released information regarding the election process for its Residents’ Committee. The hall itself is the only entirely new residence in terms of administration and structure, as the other two new residential buildings will house pre-existing college administrations and identities. Wright Hall, on the other hand, is tasked with creating the beginnings of a college and all that it entails – including electing a Residents’ Committee. Wright Hall’s electoral process is one that has not yet been implemented in any of the University’s residential halls, as the method with which executive positions are chosen is considerably different to that of any other hall. General positions and the role of treasurer will be determined via a vote by the Hall’s future residents – those who will have been successful in their returners or transfer applications. This is in keeping with the electoral processes of other residential halls. However, Wright’s Res-Com will involve three executive positions (President, Vice-President and Secretary) that are determined

by an internal vote after a general vote determining the three people eligible to be chosen for these positions. These “executive candidates” will be decided through an open vote in the same way that any of the general positions will be decided. After the candidates have been chosen, the rest of the elected Residents’ Committee will vote among themselves to decide which of the candidates occupy the different executive positions. Proposed by Lachy Day, a 2018 General Representative of ANUSA and the incoming General Secretary for 2019, this new method is purportedly designed so as to “to allow the new residents to select their representative body while also allowing the Residents’ Committee to select how they want to be led”. It is unclear how effective such a process will be in such circumstances where it is possible that a majority of the committee will not know each other to the same extent as in pre-existing halls. Accepted residents of Wright Hall will be able to nominate themselves for positions on the Residents’ Committee at the Inaugural General Meeting on 19 October (Friday of Week 11).

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Vol. 68 , Issue 10

MEANWHILE, IN CANBERRA… NO SLEEP FOR THE WICKED

Text: Jasper Lindell Graphic: Hannah Charny

In the middle of a week that sunk another sitting prime minister, the challenger, Peter Dutton, fell into an archetypal breakfast FM radio interview trap: he couldn’t name his favourite AC/DC song.

sees Anderson chart the fraught relationship between the political life and sleep. She asks Kevin Rudd, John Howard and Julie Bishop how they could sleep at night despite the pressure of their jobs.

Dutton blamed it on a lack of sleep. “Mate, this is the one where it catches you out,” a seemingly self-aware Dutton told Melbourne’s Triple M Breakfast. “I’ve had about an hour and a half sleep last night.”

Rudd acknowledges the media image of his sleeplessness but maintains he tries to get six hours’ sleep a night at minimum. (There would certainly be some public service veterans from his time in government who would disagree.)

Furtive walks are taken around Parliament House with trusted allies or fraught friends as soon as the predawn haze outlines Mt Ainslie. All the serious operatives are well and truly awake in time for early “AM” on ABC radio. In a Sitting Week, there’s every chance a cabinet minister has clocked a nine-hour day by the time Question Time starts at 2pm. Nor does the work stop when the houses rise. It can quite easily run into the early hours. Staffers are hardly surprised to find emails waiting from their politician bosses sent through the night. So it was no surprise Dutton was running near on empty in that mad week that called it quits on the Turnbull experiment but saw Dutton left by the wayside, a victim of bad planning and even worse execution. This question of how sleep and politics interacts isn’t an original one. Fleur Anderson spent 15 years in the Press Gallery, forever wanting to ask Australian leaders how they could switch off and sleep at night. Anderson left the The Australian Financial Review last year and finally did ask. 'On Sleep', published by Melbourne University Publishing last month,

So why was Dutton – a man who was looking to clinch the prime ministership – getting by on 1.5 hours? Anderson points out that the parliamentary sitting calendar was once far worse, often sitting beyond midnight. Whitlam, who went back to the Lodge for a steak after being dismissed in 1975 before telling parliament, was clearly someone who thought politics needed times of rest and contemplation in periods of crisis. He introduced more order to parliamentary proceedings. But, as Anderson points out, while adults were getting around 8.5 hours of sleep a night in the 1960s, we’re now getting 6.8 hours a night. Is the internet keeping us up? Did electric light permanently disrupt our circadian rhythms? What effect is all this having on our politics and our ability to think? Student politics, which has an unfortunate habit of setting precedents for how a whole generation of politicians can be expected to behave, is no longer confined to the campus. Campaigns run well into the night, featuring co-ordinated Facebook

profile photos, Tinder campaigning and comment thread feistiness.

and night politicking, there’s little time left to effectively govern.

Separated from reality, politics can continue in unhinged digital playgrounds. There’s no time to sleep when another vote can be clinched for your campaign as a second-year to serve as a general representative.

It led to all those sleepless nights for a Liberal party in the throes of its own discontent – and for what?

It looks like we’re setting a dangerous precedent. Why let your competitors get an advantage? If someone’s going to work through the night and get an edge, everyone will be forced to by default. No wonder Dutton was barely catching a wink. And there’s another thing that federal and student politics shares: allegations of bullying. The results of a 2014 study of French school children “suggest a higher vulnerability of bullies to sleep deprivation.” The same found sleep could have a “a moderating effect on aggression in bullies.” No time to think, no time to sleep, and bullies potentially emboldened by their lack of sleep in the hothouse of politics: a miserable, detrimental, unnecessary combination. However, maybe there is a clear argument for legislating a sleep requirement. Maybe – just maybe – it would have calmed the stupidity of another leadership spill. Surely if there’s a political advantage to sleep, it’ll be taken up? Unlikely. Events run late and meetings start early. The risk of self-absorption comes with the territory – so caught up in the business of day

It wasn’t to shore up election chances. A swing of 30 per cent against the NSW Liberals at a state by-election last week cost a seat held by the party since 1957. Wagga Wagga went independent. The NSW Liberals had their own problems – but the behaviour of their federal party colleagues certainly didn’t help. It doesn’t bode well. With no apparent concern for their electoral future, the Liberal party displayed all of its tired ideological ugliness, beamed around the country in real time by the eager journalists kept on standby in that maddening building on the Hill. This was about no one but themselves. The best interests of Australians certainly weren’t at heart – and it looks like Australians won’t have the interests of the Liberal party at heart when they vote at the next election. As Alan Ramsey would say, “Nothing changes.”

Jasper Lindell is Woroni’s political columnist and a former News Editor.

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Week 7, Semester 2, 2018

Gender inequality isn't an issue for Japanese Universities...yet Text: Marika Niihori Graphic: Georgie Kamvissis

Over the recent winter break, I had the amazing opportunity to spend four weeks in Japan, which was a wonderful change from the cold weather of Canberra. I completed an intensive course in nanoscience at the University of Tokyo, and was able to connect with friends and family during my time there. What comes to your mind when you hear the word ‘Japan’? Perhaps it's all the scrumptious Japanese food, Mount Fuji, anime, or a country full of advanced technology and fancy toilets. Or of course, some of you might have thought about those maid cafes. However, I wager very few would consider ‘gender inequality’. No one really hears or knows about the widespread and repugnant gender equality issues that exist in Japan right now. As a matter of fact, some Japanese would claim that there are no gender equity issues in Japan. Most Japanese citizens are yet to come to the realisation that this is an issue. Many are still stuck in the warped traditionalist mindset, and stereotypical male dominance is stronger than ever. Although my time at the University of Tokyo was fantastic and the organisers of my program did an incredible job of making the most of the short amount of time available, I could not help but notice the disparity within the university’s enrolments. This realisation came a few weeks before even commencing my course. As a gender-equity-advocating physics student, I went to the university website to see what their under-

graduate student statistics would be. Female domestic undergraduate enrolments: 2561 Male domestic undergraduate enrolments: 11164 As of May 2017. I was absolutely shocked by this discovery. Was there a missing digit? I had to check the numbers again. Surely a university held in such high prestige within Japan would have higher female enrolments. This left me confused and disappointed. I continued to look further, quickly glancing to the enrolment numbers in students who had majored in ‘Letters’ (our equivalent of Arts), assuming that they’d naturally have a higher chance of an equal balance. Male: 537 Female: 223 Better, but no. Keeping in mind that at ANU we have a total of: Female undergraduate enrolments: 6105 Male undergraduate enrolments: 5742 As of December 2016. With this skewed impression of the University of Tokyo, I made my journey to the opposite side of the globe. Despite the course being a wonderful experience, there were two instances which left a lasting impression of gender bias within the university. Each day throughout the course we had a laboratory tour relevant to the lecture we had in the morning. One day, we visited the physics department

and took a tour of one of the laboratories. As a physics student myself, I was excited to learn about the research and felt comfortable with the familiarities. The majority of the tour guides we encountered were male, and this day was no exception. As we were intently listening to their fascinating research, one of the tour guides posed an innocent question to the group. ‘So,

who

here

studies

physics?’

The course was focused on nanoscience which meant the students came from a variety of disciplines, but I was the only student within the group who majored solely in physics. My hand shot straight up into the air, which seemed to come as a great shock to the male tour guides. This, I thought, was reflective of the current gender bias existing in Japan, particularly within STEM industries. Another occasion which resonated with me occurred when I met up with a friend from the University. I brought up the topic of gender inequality, considering she was a student from the Department of Urban Engineering which tended to be more male dominated. To my surprise, she told me about how she had never realised it was an issue, nor had she recognised any cases of being treated differently because she was a girl. Unconvinced, I started questioning her about how many girls were in her class or if she had any female professors, to which she answered that female presence was very minimal in her degree. It became clear that she had never really considered the obvious lack of female representation at her own institute. By the end of our

time together, she agreed to pay more attention to the disparity. As an avid gender equality advocate myself, I was thankful to have been able to bring the issue to light even to one person. However, I also recognise that this moment was just a brushstroke in the bigger picture. With each generation it seems that more and more people are starting to recognise the inherent gender disparity, but although there have been initiatives taken by the government, it is a slow process to full equality. Unfortunately, gender inequity remains a nationwide issue, and one which will not go away overnight. Japan is a country that has a gender wage gap of about 25.7 per cent, and is a country where women may be asked whether they are ‘looking for a family in the future’ during their job interviews. It is a country where just under half of the population still believe and support specific gender roles within their family. Also, Japan is still one of the countries who are against same-sex marriage and gender is still fully considered as binary; it honestly feels like I’m describing a dichotomic society. As a Japanese-Australian, I am thankful for the opportunities I have had in my time in Australia, but it is sickening to think that my sisters back home do not have the same opportunities that I have had. Gender inequality is their norm, and it has been this way for as long as anyone can remember. Diversity is a foreign mindset and is not widely accepted, nor considered. The only thing that I can personally do is to share my own story and spread the word.

Vol. 68 , Issue 10

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My abusive relationship on campus CONTENT WARNING: Descriptions of domestic violence, including physical and emotional abuse, stalking, gaslighting Text: Maddy Miller Graphic: Maddy McCusker

I never thought of myself as a vulnerable person, who would put up with abuse at the hands of a man. I grew up on a farm where Dad expected the same toughness from meas he did my brother. Dad’s greatest role models were the strong independent women he had grown up with, and he expected the same from me. When I was in my first year of university, I met a guy who was 6 years my senior, handsome and keen on pursuing a relationship with me. I was intrigued by his cultural background. I was flattered that he was interested in me. My Dad never liked him and wouldn’t engage in any conversation with me about him. I didn’t understand why he couldn’t just be happy for me. I spoke incessantly about him, and Mum indulged me in this hysteria. She was excited for me. My relationship with my Dad started to fray. After a year together, my boyfriend’s lease came to an end, and we decided to move into a share apartment at UniLodge. He was desperate for a place to live, and things had been going well. I am a spontaneous person and had thought, why not? Not long after we moved in together did his true personality start to unravel before me. I got to know that he smoked a lot of weed, spent a lot of time on his phone, and was exceptionally vain, spending hours obsessing over his appearance. I started to witness him getting into punchups with random people on nights out. He got into these drunken rages. It was vile. The first violent night I witnessed was a horrible punch up with a guy outside the Melbourne building. I ran in to intervene and

pulled him off the guy. He pushed me out of his way. I was thrown almost off my feet. I tried to drag him away as bouncers yelled at him to disappear. I walked past two bypassers and overheard one say to the other, “I bet he hits her too”. I was shocked. Did they really think that? As I walked home he started to shove me in the back. He shoved me again and again, laughing. I yelled at him to stop. I looked over my shoulder and noticed that the police were following us home. Perhaps they were watching to see if he would assault me. They eventually turned around. The weed smoking was confronting. He couldn’t operate without it. If I tried to raise it with him, he would shout at me that “I was causing his depression.” He yelled at me if I dared to talk or argue with him while he was high. The violence on nights out became a weekly occurrence. We went home and I was consumed by shame, humiliation, anger, and disappointment. He yelled at me that I was his woman and I should not have undermined him by apologising to the guy he assaulted. I threatened to move out. I started packing stuff in my car and drove off. But I felt like I had nowhere to go to. I hadn’t confided in anyone what was happening. I was too ashamed. I stayed in the car for hours until he convinced me to drive back. Another night, we fought because I discovered he was flirting with another girl over text. I ran upstairs and started sobbing uncontrollably on the floor of our apartment. I felt trapped. He came in and started shouting at me to stop crying. “Shut up!!!” He grabbed a 15 kg dumbbell and raised it above me, threatening to drop it on my head. I was sure that my neighbours would hear what was going on, and the police would be knocking on my door. But nobody came. The next day he apologised and rang the girl he had texted in front

of me. He told her he had a girlfriend, that he was really drunk and to please not contact him again. I discovered medication in another language and a psychiatric report from a doctor in his home country. I couldn’t read it. I didn’t know whether it was reasonable to understand that his violent behaviour was a result of whatever he was being medicated for. I forgave him. But things didn’t get better, they got progressively worse – I discovered abusive messages to women I’d never heard of. When I confronted him he completely denied it. He deleted the messages so I couldn’t see them again. I messaged one of those girls to ask what was going on: “Why did he say what he did? I don’t understand. I’m revolted, what is going on?” She responded saying I should speak with him about it. I suffered for several more months. I isolated myself from my friends. He began tormenting me by hinting that there were other women in his life, but then trying to convince me I was going crazy. I felt that I was dating a complete monster, but I didn’t want people to know that I was dating such a horrible person. I was consumed by shame. How could I possibly tell my friends, let alone my parents what I had been putting up with? How could I break the lease? I couldn’t afford to pay by myself. Not long after this incident he came home drunk and high, and attempted to cook food in the apartment. It was 3:00 am. Oil was going everywhere, and I was scared he was going to start a fire. I tried to stop him from cooking and he shouted at me. He grabbed a knife and started stabbing at a pan. I pleaded with him to stop and tried to take it off him. He lurched at me with the knife, threatening me with it, sneering. He smashed a glass at my feet. With shaking hands, I messaged a guy who knew him at Kinloch. I

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Week 7, Semester 2, 2018

asked him to come over and get rid of him. He came over and removed my boyfriend from the apartment. He was sweet to me – saying that what he did was not okay and trying to comfort me as I cried. I was so grateful for him for helping me out, that is, until he sent me a message hitting on me the next day. Another guy from campus who had witnessed a few incidents came up to me and said he realised I must be really struggling to cope with my boyfriend’s behaviour and if I wanted to chat he would be happy to. I took him up on the offer, only to have him hit on me. Not long after this incident my boyfriend went overseas for his brother’s wedding. I felt a wave of relief. I didn’t know what to do, how to get out. We had a lease together and I felt like I wasn’t in a financial situation to continue it myself. I guess 20-year-old me didn’t think that there was help out there. I thought there is no way that UniLodge would let me break my lease, which I realise now was wrong. When he was overseas I received a message from a random woman, telling me that she had been dating my boyfriend for a few months only to find out that I existed. We spoke on the phone, and she told me everything. I asked her if he had been sleeping with her without a condom. She said yes. She asked me. I said yes. We both sat on the phone in silence. That was the moment that I felt like the most abuse had been committed against me. I went on birth control pills on the condition that it was just him and me. He had exposed me to an STI risk that I did not consent to. He had thoroughly violated my body. I ended the relationship on Skype. I rang my Dad. He couldn’t understand a word I was saying but got the gist. He dropped everything and came straight from the farm to pick me up. I had exams and sobbed to the Dean of the Law School. He let me destroy every tissue in his tissue box. I am still so grateful for the compassion and empathy he showed me that day. He deferred my exams and listened to me for as long as I needed. We had run-ins in the months following: I ran into my ex-boyfriend in the carpark, only to have him follow me back and knock on my door. He spotted me at Mooseheads, only to punch the guy I was dancing with in the face. He sent me endless abusive messages. He lurked around ANU and tried to toy with some of my friends. He threatened to run one over. Every time I would walk around a corner at UniLodge my heart would drop – would he be around the corner? I started to open up to my friends about what I had endured. I never told my parents. They think that him cheating on me was the extent of it. I also saw

an ANU counsellor for one session who tried to encourage me to look into getting an apprehended violence order. I thought about it thoroughly but decided that the risk was too high. I didn’t want to provoke him. He had tried to contact me several times by different means over the last few years – using a random person to add me on Snapchat and then sending me an intimidating snap of himself and his friend. Using a different Instagram account to send me a message. Sending me a message on LinkedIn. Sending me several emails with creepy memes. I desperately wanted to rebuild my life, and I did. I buried everything: my feelings, my fear. I blocked him on every social network and managed to avoid seeing him again. I assumed he must have left Canberra. He managed to get a message through recently on LinkedIn. I saw he worked in an organisation linked to government in Canberra. I thought, “shit.” He would have access to my address working for that organisation. A few days later I went outside my house and I saw a car parked on the street down from my house. There were two men inside. I was sure one of them was him. I started shaking. I jumped in my car and tore off. I kept thinking, “surely not. Surely not.” A few weeks later I was in a bar that I frequent, where I have always felt safe for the last three years. No way he would go to a place like this. I was with my new boyfriend. We were kissing when I saw someone out of the corner of my eye. It was him. A few people between us, he was staring at me. Glaring. He walked into my circle of friends, to stare me in the face. He turned around and proceeded to stare at me from farther away. I felt faint. I wanted to get out of there. I was terrified he was going to king hit my boyfriend. I rushed us outside and quickly jumped in a taxi. This latest experience has really shaken me. I do not feel safe. I have expressed this to several of my friends, some of whom understand completely, others who do not. I had one male friend say to me “Maddy, you can’t live your life in fear.” Another said, “Oh but he didn’t actually punch anyone so I’m sure you’re fine, you’re safe.” These comments are deeply concerning. I know the man better than anyone else. If I say he is capable of harming me or the people I love, who are you to say otherwise? Since this incident, I have started to come to terms with the fact that I have not fully recovered from the trauma I experienced from the relationship. These traumatic memories are the most vivid. They are etched in my brain. I have

decided to take steps to properly heal. I hope that in reading this, university students such as yourselves will be more attuned to how abusive relationships can occur. Even though we’re educated, fun-loving, university students, it doesn’t mean that abuse could not be happening in the dorm next door. A vulnerable woman is not meat, or fair game. If you have a friend who is isolating themselves in a relationship, it is vital to persist in keeping the connection alive and ensure that a safety rope for them is still there. To those who are experiencing abuse – help is out there. It will surprise you how seriously most people take abuse and are willing to go out of their way to help you. Domestic Violence Crisis Service ((02) 6280 0900) The DVCS provide 24/7 crisis intervention services to anyone who is experiencing, or has experienced, domestic and family violence. The crisis services include telephone support, attendance with police at domestic and family violence incidents, access to safe emergency accommodation, safety planning and referrals to support services. Concerned family, friends, colleagues, neighbours and medical and allied health professionals are also very welcome to call the 24/7 telephone crisis line for information and guidance on how to support someone. It is a free, confidential service that does not require a medicare card. ANU Counselling http://www.anu.edu.au/students/contacts/counselling-centre 1800RESPECT Call 1800 737 732 Lifeline Australia 13 11 14 Crisis Support and Suicide Prevention ANU Women’s Department Contact the Women’s Officer, Laura Perkov: sa.womens@anu.edu.au ANU Queer* Department Contact the Queer* Officer, Matthew Mottola: sa.queer@anu.edu.au

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Vol. 68 , Issue 10

"Their spirits are still here": Language revival in a LANGUAGE GRAVEYARD Text: Liska Fell Graphic: Hannah Charny

– They sleep in a place of quiet. The words are not meaningless to me.

Every Sunday of her childhood, in the northern New South Wales town of Moree, Noelie went to the graveyard. It was her grandmother who insisted on the weekly ritual, adamant that the young girl see the names and resting places of their departed relatives.

At ANU, our class has been studying the language for the past semester. Signing up it came as no surprise to me that an Aboriginal language would be on offer to study. How else can Aboriginal languages be preserved? I thought. How else can we come to understand the brevity of English dominance on the continent?

In the 1960s, Moree enshrined into law what much of Australia took for granted – the exclusion of Aboriginal people from public places such as swimming pools, cinemas, council buildings and coffee shops. Segregation of this kind was enforced throughout life and, finally, in death. Today 220 people are buried in the Aboriginal section of the Moree Cemetery. Over half of them are children. Many others are ex-servicemen, who lost their lives alongside white brothers-in-arms in two World Wars. When Noelie returned to the cemetery in 1983, the relatives she’d visited weekly with her grandmother were lost – their names sunk beneath grass, weathered off, washed away by decades of neglect. “It was a total panic,” she says of that visit. “I couldn’t find anyone.” Noeline Briggs-Smith, or Aunty Noelie, as she is better known, has spent the past 30 years tirelessly conducting the graves’ restoration. At the entrance to the cemetery, there is a sign in the language of the local Gamilaraay (Kamilaroi) nation. It reads, Ngindi baabili tubbiabri

At least 250 languages were spoken in Australia at the time of colonization. Today, roughly 13 of those are still spoken by children. Gamilaraay is not one of even these few. It has no fluent speakers. It is listed by various sources as ‘endangered’ or ‘extinct’. In the towns and villages inside Gamilaraay land, including Moree, Tamworth, Gunnedah and Walgett, it has survived – in various forms and fragments – both the massacres of Aboriginal people by white settlers and the language purge that occurred on Aboriginal missions. It is treasured by elders and teachers, shared earnestly – sometimes desperately – with a new generation of children, and all those willing to listen. Extensive academic revival efforts in recent decades have amplified the work undertaken by Gamilaraay people to maintain a hold on their linguistic heritage. Today, there are teaching resources. There is a dictionary. It is a subject at ANU. Its lineage has been lost, and found again. One of the central people behind this revival effort is our guide in Gamilaraay country, ANU’s Dr John Giacon. Moving to Walgett in 1994, he worked closely with Uncle Ted Fields,

Aunty Fay Green and many other Yuwaalaraay and Gamilaraay people to compile the 2000+ word dictionary that now exists. The Gamilaraay and Yuwaalaraay communities have supported John to teach language at Walgett TAFE, Tamworth TAFE, in language programs on country, and now at ANU. Our class is lucky enough to take part in a trip crossing the diverse homeland of the language. Far from my native strip of rainy coastland, the land here is red, parched, and ruled by dhinawan —emus. Elsewhere it is soft, grey, and cracked like the crust of a huge clay cake. Galvanized burr turns to dust underfoot. On the long journey through the country, I pester John endlessly about the names of plants and animals in ‘language’: gidjiirraraay, yarraan, murru manamanaa—apostle bird, river red gum, dragonfly. As he reels them off I tap them into my phone, somehow afraid they’ll be lost to the wind. It’s hard not to approach the language and its revival with a sense of urgency and wonder. In Emma Jones’s poem ‘Zoos for the Dead’, her line about the last native speaker of a Western Australian language (incredibly, and tragically, a talking parrot) is understatedly apt: “His language is important.” There is no doubt that Aboriginal languages are important. The 2012 parliamentary inquiry into language in Indigenous communities noted the devastation that communities experience when a language is lost. The language of a place is intertwined with its features. In the words of the Arrernte elder Amelia Turner, “Words are given

Week 7, Semester 2, 2018

to us by the land… the land needs words.” Further abroad, a preliminary investigation by Hallett, Chandler and Lalonde suggests that knowledge of the language of one’s ancestors among Aboriginal youth may be linked to a reduction in suicide. At the 180th anniversary of the Myall Creek Massacre, a descendent of the survivors, Keith Munro, having completed his introduction in Gamilaraay solemnly told the crowd: “It was important for me to be able to say that in language… in lingo.” Maintaining this connection to past is vital, and healing. Arriving first in Walgett, we meet with Aunty Virginia, of the Dharriwaa Elders Group, who calls my curly hair dhirrabuu – ‘flash’. She says she’s not worried about the language dying out. The problem, as she sees it, is that where young people do speak the language, they aren’t speaking it right. “No one here has been taught to teach properly. I know – this feeling in my heart – it’s not being done properly,” she explains. “We need a linguist.” Near the Queensland border, we pass Angledool, where Aboriginal activist Uncle Ted Fields grew up as a young child. At the age of six, he and the rest of his Yuwaalaraay community were forcibly removed, loaded into trucks and taken to Brewarrina Mission. “That was pretty much the end of language,” John says of the Aboriginal missions. Families would be taken from communities where everyone could be understood, to a mission where their language was just one of a dozen. Aboriginal kids were taught that their language was ‘primitive’. Parents stopped speaking to children in their native tongue for fear the children would be punished, or worse, taken from them. Outside Collarenebri we visit another, very different, Aboriginal cemetery. Rows and rows of graves have been adorned with cracked glass chips, a tradition kept up since before World War I. In a moment of country town serendipity, the cemetery’s keeper turns up just as we are leaving. When we tell him we are students and teachers of Gamilaraay, he turns his head down.

Enthusiastic staff take the lead in teaching the local language with posters, picture books, games, songs and dances. The language programs signal a new era of revival and hope. But, as the teachers tell us, there is a problem. The non-Aboriginal kids almost always exceed the Aboriginal kids academically. In the classroom environment, where Aboriginal children are already statistically at a disadvantage, such an outcome is likely to cause dejection, a sense of cultural detachment, and humiliation. Learning Gamilaraay isn’t like learning many of the languages that English-speakers are drawn to. In English, as in most European languages, only pronouns display case variation – the difference between ‘he’ and ‘him’. In Gamilaraay, nouns and adjectives do too, and can take on many more forms than just those two. Its word order is nearly the reverse of English. It has no prepositions. Then there are the infamous trilled rr and initial ng sounds, which stump most English-natives alike. As we travel, the consequences of these barriers become apparent – to one of our group members more than the others. Wherever we encounter written Gamilaraay, John can be heard mumbling something about word order, verb tense, or suffixes. His objections to the grammar are so frequent that it turns into a running joke. “Just let them do their language the way they want!” the others cry in protest. I understand his frustration. Knowing the specifics of the language is his job. He and others have spent decades studying all the texts and tape recordings available in an attempt to be able to say, as definitively as possible, “This is the way Gamilaraay was spoken.” While mistakes in English usage are a drop in the ocean, with a language as scarcely spoken as Gamilaraay any variations in usage could cause sweeping changes across its comparatively microscopic community of speakers. This recalls the fears of those like Aunty Virginia who worry that the original language will be lost, subservient to a newer form that increasingly mimics English.

“Ah, good luck with all that stuff,” he chuckles. “I could never get my tongue around it.” We hear those words repeated almost verbatim several times throughout our journey—from Gamilaraay people who seem ashamed, perhaps, that they are not familiar with the language, or more so that a group of non-Aboriginal people is.

On the other hand, strict adherence to the grammar may alienate students of the language where they are needed most. Where is the sense in holding fast to rules that may be flexible among the very people who keep the language alive beyond textbooks? How does this help those who have tried, and failed, to learn the language of their ancestors, stumped by its apparent complexity?

In classrooms around Gamilaraay country, a similar issue has emerged.

An example of this struggle lies in the words for ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’

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– ‘yaama’ and ‘yaluu’. They are perhaps the most widely known words in the language. In streets and shops throughout Gamilaraay country they roll off the tongue, a strong example of how language can spread naturally, organically – and they are neologisms. Traditional Gamilaraay did not have words for ‘hello’ or ‘goodbye’. But it is hard for English-speakers to comprehend a language without these crucial interjections of social ritual, and so they have emerged. One could argue that if the language is to flourish as a practicable alternative to English, then it must be accessible to English-speakers. At our final stop, over a quiet hotel dinner in Coonabarabran, Gamilaraay teacher Aunty Suellyn Tighe doesn’t take kindly to neologisms like ‘yaluu’, which originally just meant ‘again’. But she acknowledges that the situation is fraught. “Who makes words up?” she says. “Who gets veto?” In New Zealand, there is a Māori Language Commission to help direct how their language adapts to changing times. But in Australia, she says, “Even the name of the language is a big controversy.” No one we meet, however, doubts that teaching Gamilaraay in schools is a step in the right direction. And Suellyn’s approach of teaching kids phrases for everyday life is friendly, accessible, and optimistic. She provides kids with phrases that they are bound use in everyday life. “Every kid, at some point in their life, has asked ‘Are we there yet?’ So I teach them that.” Meanwhile, she teaches grammar by drawing direct comparisons to English. “I’ll just say, this suffix is like ‘-ed’ in English, this is your ‘-ed’.” As we exit into the freezing country air, a patron of the bar perks up at the sight of the teacher. “Aunty Sue!” he calls. “That’s Aunty Sue! She taught me language!” As young Noelie walked to the graveyard all those years ago, she would complain to her grandmother, “Why we gotta go down to the graveyard all the time?” “Because they’re gone,” her grandmother would reply. “But their spirits are still here.” “Now I understand what she meant,” Noelie says.

Vol. 68 , Issue 10

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NO CONFIDENCE

Text: Howard Maclean Graphic: Hannah Charny

Trump’s removal from office may now be inevitable for the strangest reason: he cannot command the confidence of the Executive Branch that he nominally embodies. The recent Op-Ed in The New York Times in part confirmed what we’d all known from day 1 of the Trump Presidency: The White House was ground zero in a civil war between career public servants and the tantrums of their puerile commander in chief. What we’d all been wrong about was the extent. We’d imagined that cabinet officials and close advisers would have positioned, cajoled and manipulated the President away from rash decisions. Few would have been surprised if knowledge had been effectively withheld from the President – by potentially putting it on page three of a briefing rather than page one. The Op-Ed and the forthcoming doorstopper of an expose from Bob Woodward reveal how wrong we were. Few would have imagined, though, that senior executive branch figures had consistently and deliberately defied executing the orders of the President. The US-South Korea Free Trade Agreement and NAFTA remain intact because Gary Cohn literally stole the withdrawal letters off Donald Trump’s desk before he could sign them. The most incredible aspect, however, was not that aides are hiding documents from the President, but that it worked – twice. All that was necessary to prevent the tearing up of major trade deals was to remove it from the President’s immediate attention. All Trump would have needed to do was ask for a second letter to be printed, the work of a moment – and he did not. Moreover, it would have been the work of a few more moments to establish why the letters had gone missing. Cohn confiscated multiple copies of the South Korea letter floating around

the White House, even the simplest of enquiries by himself or a trusted lieutenant would have uncovered Cohn’s act of administrative rebellion. Instead, it appears to have gone unnoticed. Not only does it appear Trump did not make the enquiries, but absolutely no one in the White House was prepared to report Cohn. Could we imagine this occurring with Obama or any previous President? For a long time, a picture has emerged of Trump butting heads with his advisors. And while Trump often was painted ignorant, impulsive, amoral, indecisive, egotistical and childish in this picture, he was still considered to have the basic mental faculties of an ordinary competent adult, capable of making decisions and having them enforced when he did. The White House might have been riven by factions, but the decision was still the President’s, however easily swayed the President was. Recent events paint a different picture. They cast Trump as a disinterested and mentally impaired elderly pharaoh, surrounded by viziers who are unified in making sure that he has as little to do with the running of the country as possible. A mad king who proclaims a new law over breakfast and has forgotten about it by lunch – but no matter, because his aides never carried it beyond the breakfast table. Above all else, the New York Times OpEd and Woodward’s new book demonstrate how weak the President is. A president that is not just malleable, inconsistent, unprincipled and petty, but one that was literally incapable and largely uninterested in leading the presidency, and an Executive Branch that uniformly has no confidence in him. What results is a non-functional executive branch. The New York Times Op-Ed calls it a two-track presidency, but that’s putting too rosy a term on it. David

Frum and others aren’t wrong in calling this a “soft coup” and a “Constitutional Crisis”. The President is indispensable to the operation of the Executive Branch, and while it is immediately apparent that Trump is hardly in control of his own White House, it’s equally true that no one else is and no one else can be. This idea that senior cabinet officials can circumvent the President to lead an Administration that is in many ways diametrically opposed to the aims of it’s actual leader is a fantasy. Even if we ignore the obvious and pressing issue of unelected senior public servants successfully conspiring to consistently thwart the will of the democratically elected President of the United States, it raises a second, more fundamental issue. The Executive government is leaderless and cannot be expected to be able to respond to a crisis. The President’s incapability and short attention span have so far limited the potential of this soft coup from going hard, but the next time that Trump demands a massive military strike in a fit of rage (as he reportedly did on Syria at one point) and Mattis refuses to carry out his orders (as Mattis did on that occasion), then a full blown crisis is in the making. The Military getting conflicting orders from Trump directly, and from the White House and the Department of Defence is a recipe for disaster and now all too imaginable. Responsibility for this situation falls squarely upon the President. These are not the actions of a subversive conspiracy that sought to infiltrate the White House, but of a collection of dedicated public servants handpicked by the President who were so disillusioned with his leadership and judgement that they revolted against him. And it’s a situation that persists no matter how many people Trump fires. The failing here is not moral, is not political, but one of simple competence

and capability. Trump is incapable of commanding the confidence of the government he is meant to lead. Furthermore he is too lazy and too thick to control his own office, or to even realise where he has been thwarted. Together these amount to an inability to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Trump simply can’t do the job, and recent events have stripped any pretence to the contrary. The author of the New York Op-Ed recalls “there were early whispers within the cabinet of invoking the 25th Amendment, which would start a complex process for removing the President. But no one wanted to precipitate a constitutional crisis.” But in publishing that article, the author removed any lingering doubt that the Administration was in anything other than terminal decline and irreparably broken. They laude the late Senator McCain, referring to him as “a lodestar for restoring honor to public life and our national dialogue” but dishonestly trample on the Constitution they claim to defend. There will never be a politically expedient time to remove a president from office. It will never be without costs. But if the Cabinet of the United States has formed the view that the President is unfit to perform his duties, then they should actually put the country first and invoke the 25th amendment.

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Critiques Of #MeToo Lamenting The Careers Of Awful Men Are Missing The Point

Sole Sobriety

CONTENT WARNING: Descriptions of sexual harassment, mentions of indecent assault, sexual misconduct, institutional betrayal, victim blaming Text: Laura Perkov Graphic: Sophie Bear You know what’s tough? Someone in your field who you admire stripping down and masturbating in front of you as soon as you’re alone together [1]. Who then makes a rape joke in his first show after taking a nine-month break after these accusations were made public [2]. Going to the police, only to be told that nothing can be done because you “hadn’t said no” [3]. Going public with your experience, only to be met with resounding, deafening silence, because publicly calling out misconduct is a step too far when it’s your mate – a good guy – whose career would be on the line. Who continued to host a television show for months until it was eventually cancelled – not because of the accusations of indecent assault, but due to a desire for a ‘fresh approach’ [4]. Your boss calling you “sweetheart”, and it’s fine because even though you’re 17 he’s just being friendly, and it’s just words until it’s not – and he gets a bit too close as he brushes past in the kitchen for it to be an accident. Relying on your supervisor for the mentorship and connections that you need to progress your career when he corners you at an event one night, alcohol on his breath, and you hear nothing but white noise echoing in your ear, and the words “show me your titties, bitch” [5]. Across the world, #MeToo spurred hundreds of thousands of women to share their stories of assault, harassment, and abuse of power. Many of these were named accusations against powerful men who have been whispered about for years – sometimes decades. Now, when you think of #MeToo, you instantly think of these big names: Harvey Weinstein, R. Kelly, Louis CK, Jeffrey Tambor, Kevin Spacey, Terry Richardson – but this conceals the insidious truth. Most women across the world will have experienced harassment or violence in some form, and the impacts of these experiences are deep-seated and profound. Many women will have their careers destroyed as they speak out or experience the impacts of trauma. Many women will have to continue to just deal with it because they need the job. Critiques of #MeToo that focus on the impact of accusations on the perpetrators of violence ignore the impact that being

sexually harassed or assaulted has on your life, health, and career. I don’t care about the careers of rich, powerful men who abuse their power over women and view sex as an entitlement. What does it mean to be held accountable for your actions? #MeToo made it clear that sexual harassment and assault is widespread, particularly in workplaces – and that it would be impossible to prosecute all of these successfully in a court of law. We as a society find it hard to conceptualise what accountability looks like outside of the criminal justice system – with all of its rules of evidence, principles of procedural fairness, and institutional power. But crimes of sexual violence, like those mentioned above, are notoriously difficult to successfully prosecute. This should not mean that perpetrators of violence should not face consequences and be held accountable for their actions. Critiques of #MeToo fail to conceptualise accountability outside of the criminal justice system – allegations will always be ‘unsubstantiated’ or ‘unproven’ if they are not successfully prosecuted. In this system, accountability is punitive, which does not always result in the acceptance of personal responsibility or behavioural change. This system is stacked against survivors at every point: “of the 21,380 victims of sexual assault recorded by Australian police in 2015, only roughly 10 per cent will have resulted in a guilty verdict” [6]. And that’s only counting those reported to police. These crimes can rarely be proven ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’ due to the nature of sexual violence. And the process of prosecution is often traumatising. Critiques that claim the movement has done irreversible damage to the careers of accused men with unsubstantiated allegations fail to reckon with reality: not only do these powerful men continue to successfully work in their industries, as demonstrated by Louis CK’s recent return to comedy, but others do not face any consequences at all. Public pressure tends to ease with the release of a personal statement that either completely denies responsibility (I have never met this woman, this didn’t happen), skirts around a real apology (I’m sorry that she feels this way), or hollow words that are rarely followed by action (I’m sorry but I promise to do better). Damage to the careers of men who have been accused of sexual misconduct without having been ‘proven in a court of law’ will always be seen as unfortunate, unreasonable, or excessive if we cannot envision a world where men can be held accountable for their actions outside of this rigid and often ineffective structure. Of course,

#METO O

people are entitled to second chances or redemption – if the people they have hurt permit it – but first they have to say and show that they are sorry. Why do we believe women? It’s not difficult to respond to people who have been hurt with kindness and compassion. False accusations of sexual assault and harassment are incredibly rare – there is a lack of agreement in the literature about a definitive figure due to a lack of consistency in definition and contextual factors, but it sits at around 2-10 per cent, which is also in line with other crimes [7]. Although there are far more rapists than those who have been falsely accused, the public perception is still that women and others who speak out about their experiences are spreading nasty rumours – ruining lives and careers due to a need for revenge or bitterness. People who speak out, particularly against the powerful, are met with contempt and victim-blaming – going public about your experiences is not glamorous, and neither is watching someone who hurt you continue to live their lives as normal after everyone forgets about everything six months later, while you still live with the impacts of trauma. This is why we build cultures of belief, in contrast to the world we live in. Ultimately, I don’t have much sympathy for the men who have abused their power over women, committed assault or perpetrated harassment. I care about the women and other people who have been victimised – what about their careers, lives and reputations? Haven’t they suffered enough? [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/09/ arts/television/louis-ck-sexual-misconduct.html [2] https://www.theguardian.com/ world/2018/sep/01/louis-ck-comebackshow-metoo-abuse-of-power [3] http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-0612/adelaide-comedian-speaks-publicly-after-alleged-assault/9859890 [4] https://www.pedestrian.tv/film-tv/ abc-cancels-tonightly-tom-ballard/ [5] https://www.thecut.com/2017/10/sexual-harassment-affects-women-career.html [6] http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-0902/brock-turner-justice-system-sexual-assault-victims/7801784 [7] https://aifs.gov.au/publications/ true-or-false-contested-terrain-false-allegations/export

comment // international

Vol. 68 , Issue 10

I am what I am. So, take me as I am.

Text: Riddhi Mehta Graphic: Hannah Charny On 6 September, Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code was unanimously struck down by the Supreme Court of India, with the Chief Justice of India citing German thinker Goethe, “I am what I am. So, take me as I am. No one can escape from their individuality”. The law in question was the ban on consensual gay sex – a draconian, out of date one at that, posing as an obtrusive reminder of the country’s colonial past. The judges of the court did not stop at decriminalizing gay sex. They went a step further to ensure that the rights of gay Indians be protected by the legal constitution. When it comes to changing such laws, many countries have a bottom-up approach where the changed mindsets and views of people force the law to change however this was not the case with India. In a country rife with conservative religious politics and a constricted society, changing mindsets of the huge population of common people is extremely difficult. The law has certainly changed, but the attitudes the public has towards the gay community still remain intact. Countless members of the LGBTIQ community have been shunned and abandoned by the families for embracing what they consider an alternative

lifestyle, not in line with their cultural values. The popular majoritarian view would generally lean against the decriminalization of gay sex, however as one of the justices said, “Majoritarian views and popular morality cannot dictate constitutional minority rights”. Interestingly, 80 per cent of India’s population practices forms of Hinduism. Hinduism, unlike the Abrahamic religions, which mostly make up the rest of the population, has never explicitly considered homosexuality a sin. Old temple carvings such as the erotic sculptures of the Khajuraho depict a celebration of the raw human form and the representation of both men and women engaging in homosexual acts. Mythical narratives have often expressed and acknowledged gender variance and samesex relations. The transgender community, in particular, has great spiritual and cultural importance in the Indian society where they are often revered yet feared. Even the idea of a third gender is also a strong, ancient concept with religious roots as well. Sexuality and particularly homosexuality is however very rarely discussed in contemporary Hindu society, largely since it was colonized by the British and had Victorian austerity imposed upon it. This transformed the culture of tolerance for homosexuality within the country. Some Hindu nationalist groups in the country

are outspoken about their distaste for homosexuality whereas others prefer to remain silent on it. India’s leading politicians have also largely stayed out of the debate. While many agree that legalizing samesex marriage is still a long way off, this was an unprecedented, historic ruling. With the trend towards increased conservatism dictated by Hindu nationalist groups in the country, the abolishment of Section 377 was definitely not expected by many, even though people have been fighting for this for years. For the court to strike the law down, pronouncing it as “irrational, indefensible and manifestly arbitrary” is a massive win for the LGBTIQ community. This win has already set the ball rolling for other countries in the region. Singapore, for instance, one of the most developed countries in the world has held onto this law since British colonization. There has been a rise in an actual concrete debate with the government conducting a referendum and petitions being signed to review the law. LGBTIQ rights still have a long way to go in terms of public acceptance and actualization of the law, but only time will tell how this victory transforms the future

Week 7, Semester 2, 2018

comment // international

Property woes of Muslim Women Text: Merah Hashmi Graphic: Sophie Bear In 2017, research conducted by the UN found that less than 20 per cent of land worldwide is owned by women, despite their large contributions to the productive uses of land. This disparity stretches across other resources as well and is rampant throughout Muslim countries and communities around the world. Cultural norms such as segregation exacerbate and transform the challenge of land ownership for Muslim women living in rural communities with customary community-based laws. Despite being heavily involved in important uses of such resources, assuming the roles of primary caregivers and providers of food for entire families, women’s roles are continuously discounted and overshadowed. This is not something specific to rural communities, or even the Muslim world, as affording value to domestic work is currently at the centre of the feminist debate in Australia – so why do Muslim women seem to suffer more in comparison? Is it purely a Western lens and a plethora of white saviour complexes that paint them as victims of circumstance, rather than agents of change? To some extent, yes – but not quite. They’re simply different circumstances. Although many Islamic teachings and scripture-based laws recognise and establish women’s property rights, the situation is very complex in practice. Muslim communities tend to face more resistance to gender mainstreaming due to social stigmas around gender integration, and thus limitations around accessing education, training and entering the workforce are exacerbated. These restrictions are reciprocally damaging to the communities in which they are present, as rural societies lose half of their potential

workforce. An increased burden is then put on men to be the sole breadwinners; with no one truly benefitting from this inequality. Men have more training, education and overall capacity to participate in pro-

documentation. This prevents them from accessing services for health, employment, legal aid and social protection. They are more likely to be ignored in development plans, which are made more difficult due to gender segregation and a cultural inability to speak freely in

and often have to travel long distances to reach water sources. Their mobility is strictly limited in certain regions due to their gender, and having to negotiate access with men at collection points is incredibly challenging and sometimes humiliating. Such difficulties are aggravated for those who are unmarried or divorced, and also vary based on age and class. The rise of arsenic poisoning in Bangladesh has further worsened the situation, as women may not be able to travel far enough to collect safe drinking water due to social restrictions, or simply because of their lack of documentation and mobility. There are several ways to mitigate such complex issues, including segregated surveys to understand what women in these situations actually want rather than imposing personal beliefs on them. It’s important to steer clear of doing exactly what many accuse men of in such situations – denying women agency. Secularism often fails in deeply religious communities as it is perceived as very ‘foreign’, and so the use of religious teachings to bring change could work. A similar approach was used in Fiji with regards to climate action through Biblical teachings to great success. Using an economic argument for women’s participation in decision-making may also prove useful, especially in declining economies wherein ecosystem diversity substantially affects production.

Equality duction and therefore possess the bulk of decision-making power. In many Muslim communities, women do not have surnames or legal documentation, or it is otherwise connected to or reliant on either their father or husband’s

front of men. As a result, women’s concerns are prevalent yet seldom heard. In Bangladesh, for instance, women and young girls are primarily responsible for collecting freshwater for domestic uses,

The inability of women in rural Muslim communities to obtain fundamental rights such as identification contributes greatly to their lack of education, employability, access to resources and decision-making power. Inequality at this scale is not beneficial to anyone (no one wants to drink poisoned water), yet it still persists. Gaining basic access will help pave the way for involvement in the governance of resources - along with access to education, marital rights and freedom of movement - and correspondingly improve livelihoods across communities.

Prompted // FEATURES

Vol. 68 , Issue 10

Canberra:

The Once and Future Great City Text: Brandon Tan Graphic: Jessica Benter

When asked which city serves as Australia’s capital, most of the world will believe Sydney to be the answer (probably has something to do with the iconic opera house). That is wrong. Canberra is not only Australia’s capital but also the world’s greatest city. No, seriously, it is. You may remember how the Lonely Planet picked Canberra last year as the 3rd Best city in Travel for 2018. But little do people know that we’ve also maintained our position as the city with the highest quality of life index for five years running now. Canberra has a population of 400,000. Once upon a time, this was my main reason for choosing Canberra over Sydney or Melbourne for university, as I wanted a “campus uni” setting over an urban city. Like many people I had my initial difficulties settling in and desperately wanted an out. But having spent three years here during my formative adult years, and having finally settled down again in this place after a seven-month absence (due to going on exchange), I’ve finally come to fully appreciate the world’s greatest city. In fact, one of my favourite activities to do in Melbourne lately is to catch a bus back to Canberra. Canberra is a beautiful outdoor city with traces of urban planning surrounding the area. This makes it such that seeing a kangaroo in my backyard never gets old. A well-planned city within a developed country, you’ll generally never have problems with electricity, water or Internet supply. The people of Canberra are a wholesome bunch. Not only that but there are constant cultural events and things to do. Floriade, the annual

flower festival, is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year! I strongly look toward Canberra’s potential as the new Hollywood. As recent projects 'Secret City' and 'Blue World Order' were shot in Canberra, this is a clear demonstration of Canberra’s booming media industry. With Canberran Cate Shortland being due to direct the upcoming 'Black Widow ' movie, I believe we’ll soon finally get the recognition we deserve. Canberra is a place of change. I remember the time when Supabarn was still the main supermarket in Civic, and Union Court was a mainstay I thought would last forever. It’s been a pleasure to see Canberra slowly evolve throughout the years. From the time we briefly had the Patissez milkshake store at Civic and frequent international flights to Singapore, many things that seemed like permanent fixtures turned out not to be. Although the promise of a swimming pool at ANU once seemed like a dream to come, it’s quite easy to forget that it’ll literally be here next year. 2019 will be a year that demonstrates our patience finally paying off. With the light rail estimated to be finishing in December 2018, people from Gungahlin will be able to get to Civic much faster. Let us not forget ANU’s own Kambri court, as not only will ANU’s construction days come to an end, but there will be a bold new campus experience for all. It’s also the year I graduate (if all goes well), and I think it will be a poetic way to end my university life. I suppose it's fitting it all comes back to Canberra. I remember how we're defined by how we choose to react to being challenged. And in a place like Canberra, there will always be someone or something to challenge you.

Week 7, Semester 2, 2018

Prompted // FEATURES

Is Intersectionality Exclusive to ThirdWave Feminism? Text: Phoebe Lupton Graphic: Sophie Bear I like to define the feminism that I practice as the fight to dismantle interconnected systems of oppression. The patriarchy, white supremacy, capitalism, cisheteronormativity, the list goes on. My feminism is decidedly intersectional. Potentially this makes it most closely related to third-wave feminism, which is often hailed for its consideration of women of colour, LGBT+ women, disabled women and working-class women. With this in mind, can it be said that the previous waves of feminism lack the inclusivity that the third-wave prides itself on? Or have we been too quick to judge the feminism of past decades due to the potentially stereotypical light in which they are painted?

rights, often on the perceived basis that they were less ‘educated’ than white women. But if it were not for the women of colour such as Sojourner Truth who participated in first-wave feminism, the suffragette movement may not have achieved the success that it did. So, while this incarnation of feminism benefited from the efforts of women of colour, such efforts have not received the same recognition as those of white women.

I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own

Reproductive Rights and Sexual Liberation

The Suffragettes The first wave of feminism served primarily to campaign for women’s right to vote. It also sought to achieve equal economic, educational, trade and property rights. By the late 1800s to the early 1900s, women were beginning to realise their status as second-class citizens. Rightfully many felt that this should be changed. In the United States, firstwave feminism began off the heels of the 17th Amendment, which granted African-American men (although not women) the right to vote. Despite this, the tireless campaigning of first-wave feminists held a fundamentally racist undercurrent. Women of colour tended to be excluded from the fight for equal

talk about equality. Moreover, during second-wave feminism, ‘lesbian’ was a term which anti-feminists frequently used to degrade feminists. The very fact that a descriptor for women who experience sexual attraction to other women was turned into an insult is something which is likely to have been hurtful and alienating to queer women.

Many ideas central to second-wave feminism of the mid to late 20th century are still pervasive today. The rights to birth control, abortion, freedom from sexual assault and domestic violence are issues which have been integral to feminism since the 1960s. During this time, many women felt that they were being denied the sexual liberation that they should be granted. Second-wave feminists criticised the notion that women belonged solely in the domestic sphere. And the fact that they were so closely associated with their husbands (in cases of heterosexual relationships). This new blossoming of feminism came alongside the civil rights movement and for many, the two went hand-in-hand. But women of colour nonetheless believed themselves to be alienated from the movement. White feminists placed importance on isolated problems like infant mortality and forced sterilization in the communities of women of colour and disabled women. But, the overall struggles of these groups and others, they ignored. This created somewhat of a division between these two groups of women and ultimately led to the establishment of the womanist movement, a space where women of colour could freely

Intersectionality With third-wave feminism came the increasingly common usage of the term ‘intersectionality.’ Originally coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989, this term refers to activism which crosses axes of oppression and views all systems of power as interconnected. Crenshaw intended for intersectionality to act as a crossroads between sexism and racism. Nowadays, the term has been reinterpreted to include the struggles faced by queer, disabled and working-class women. Intersectionality is not the sole focus of third-wave feminism. In fact, ideas from first and second-wave feminism such as economic equality and pro-choice attitudes on abortion have largely shaped the movement since the early 1990s. And sometimes, thirdwave feminists do not achieve intersectionality. Still, when talking about issues mostly relating to women, it is easy to forget that other oppressed groups may have similar experiences. It is clear that third-wave feminism has been the most successful thus far at weaving intersectionality into the conversation of gender equality.

What About the Fourth Wave? Since the beginning of the #metoo and #timesup movements, there has been much debate as to whether these progressions within feminism should be viewed as another wave altogether. Sexual harassment and assault have always played a significant role in feminism throughout the years. However, the recent myriad allegations against powerful men in Hollywood have only affirmed the need for further discussion on this all-inhabiting problem. This ‘fourth wave,’ if we can call it that, has provided opportunities for the inclusion of other axes of oppression. The founder of the #metoo movement was Tarana Burke, an African-American woman who has also contributed greatly to the civil rights movement in the United States. In this way, this movement is connected strongly with anti-racism and seeks to include women of colour in the conversation. Unfortunately, the group that has continuously been left out is transgender people. Transgender women and men both experience sexual assault disproportionately to cisgender people yet somehow, their voices have gone unheard.

Is complete intersectionality truly possible? Arguably, no. The most recent incarnations of feminism have attempted to include the voices of women who may previously have been silenced. But, it is nonetheless difficult to overcome implicit biases and consider the experiences of being a woman that are not your own. All feminists can do now is at least try to ensure that our activism helps all causes of social justice, rather than hindering them.

Vol. 68 , Issue 10

prompted // multilingual

堪培拉的日與夜 The Days & Nights of Canberra Text: Ivan Ip Translation: T. L. Edwards Graphic: Sophie Bear

悠然回想起大概三年半前，我孤身隻影來到了這個陌生的地方 — 堪培拉。當初那位帶著興奮心情去探索世界的少年，如今已經快要戴上四方帽畢業了。經過這三年多西方教育的洗禮，我的人生閱歷的確豐富了很多，遇到了來自不同國家的人，學習他們的語言，同時也聆聽他們背後的故事。三年半的時間，不多也不少，但足以讓我體會到書本上學不到的人生百態。我非常慶幸自己能夠在一個舒適的環境下讀書，也非常感恩一路走來有我的朋友陪伴著，記得那些晚上我跟朋友通宵達旦地一邊打麻將一邊談心事，當然也少不了那段日以繼夜埋首苦讀的日子，與志同道合的朋友一起參加歌唱比賽等等的往事。我無悔做過這麼多瘋狂的事，因為沒有這些經歷，我的大學旅程便不會圓滿。在茫茫人海中，確認過不少的眼神，我遇上過很多對的人。「在家靠父母，出外靠朋友」，這句話亦讓我深深體會到這三年來我是怎樣走過來的。在我為學業擔憂或遇到挫折的時侯，有些人攙扶我及給我鼓勵，亦有些人會在你背後搬弄是非和冷嘲熱諷。所以除了書本上的知識外，與人相處之道亦是大學生涯中的必修科。每個人修的課程內容都各有不同，不能言喻，只能體會。開心過、傷心過、笑過、哭過、對過、錯過，百般滋味都在堪培拉一一嚐過。如果你問我，在堪培拉讀書和生活中最大的得著是什麼？我會告訴你，在這裡我更深入地認識了我自己。在成長的過程中，你會發現很多事情都未必如想像中的順利和美好。也許你會為一份不合格的測驗而沮喪 ; 也許你會為失去一段感情而悲傷 ; 也許你會為當初未盡力而遺憾。不要緊，這一切的障礙都是在為你加添成長之重量，為了成就將來更堅壯的你，去迎接一段段屬於你自己的獨家回憶。讀者們，尤其是剛來到的新生們，不要懼怕那些撲面而來的種種考

驗，在這敞旅程中，嘗試放慢腳步去享受你在大學的匆匆時光，因為他日驀然回首，你會發現你在堪培拉流過一點一滴的汗水和淚水都是值得的。堪培拉的日與夜，盛載著你和我的平凡小故事。 --I cast my mind back somewhat pensively to three and a half years ago when I arrived as a solitary figure to this strange and unfamiliar place – Canberra. At that time I was but a youth, spurred on by my passion and excitement to go and explore the world, and yet now I already find myself about to don the mortarboard and graduate. Having gone through the baptism of a Western education these past three or more years, my life experience has been truly enriched in so many ways. I have encountered people from diverse countries, studied their languages and listened intently to their stories. Three and a half years is not really a very long time, and yet not that short a period either, but it has been sufficient to allow me to experience much that cannot be gained from textbook learning. I am extremely glad that I have been able to study in such comfortable surrounds and grateful to have had my friends accompany me along the way. I recall those all-night sessions playing mahjong while poring out our hearts to one another, those many days when we buried our heads deep in study around the clock and those times when some friends and kindred spirits joined together in singing competitions and such. I have no regrets for such frenetic adventures. Without experiences such as these, my progression through university would not have enjoyed such fullness. I have encountered some very fine people whose glances I first met from

within this vast and surging sea of faces. As the Chinese proverb says: When living at home, rely on your mother and father. When you have left home, rely on your friends. This proverb made me realise how I have managed to get through these last three years. Whenever I was anxious about my studies or encountered any setbacks, it was these friends who supported me and gave encouragement, yet there were others who told tales or mocked you behind your back. Outside of any book learning, the one compulsory university course you must also take is a course on how to interact with others. The materials for this ‘course’ will be different for each person. You cannot put them into words. You can only realise them through your own experience. Happiness and broken-heartedness, laughter and tears, right and wrong, I have tasted all of these in Canberra. If you asked me what me greatest achievement in both my studies in Canberra and my life would be, I would answer that it was here that I was able to know myself deeply. In the process of growing up you realise that many things do not go as smoothly as expected. Perhaps you failed to get the grade you wanted in an exam. Perhaps you are broken-hearted after a failed romance. Perhaps you have some regrets about not performing your best. Do not worry about them because these obstacles add weight to your growth as a person and become an integral part of your memories as a person. So readers, in particular those of you have just arrived in Canberra, never be afraid of these tests as they emerge. You and I will always be a main character of our own story that vitalizes the days and nights of Canberra.

Week 7, Semester 2, 2018

prompted // multilingual

Mudanças Changes

Text and Translation: Melissa Nuhich Graphic: Sophie Bear As mudanças acontecem quando você as menos espera. Às vezes, eles ocorrem quando você as menos deseja. No entanto, independentemente de como ou por que eles surgiram, as mudanças na minha vida me fizeram quem eu sou hoje. Quando eu estava começando o ensino médio, mudei para o Brasil. Eu frequentei uma escola americana e mudei de um sotaque australiano para um norte-americano em duas semanas. Eu aprendi uma língua que eu mal tinha ouvido falar antes, mas que agora amo falar e ouvir. Eu fiz amizade com pessoas que eram como eu, mas ainda mais, com pessoas que eram diferentes de mim – e ficamos amigos até hoje. Conheci famílias extremamente ricas e famílias extremamente pobres, muitas vezes vivendo dos lados opostos da rua, abrindo meus olhos para as desigualdades que existem além das fronteiras da minha realidade. O currículo acadêmico que eu tinha que seguir era muito diferente e mais desafiador do que qualquer outro que já conheci, mas me disseram de continuar e continuar, apesar dos obstáculos do crescente

choque cultural, da saudade de casa e da pressão social para se adaptar. Mudar tudo que eu já conheci não foi uma barreira fácil de superar no começo. Independentemente disso, agradeço a oportunidade que eu tinha. Esta não foi a primeira vez que eu tive que deixar a familiaridade de minha casa para trás, e certamente não será a última. Mas de alguma forma, isso parecia ser a mudança mais importante. Não só o meu tempo passado no Brasil marcou os anos mais importantes do meu desenvolvimento, mas também abriu meus olhos para ver como o mundo funciona e para as mudanças que se tornaram beneficentes no final. Resistir a essas mudanças não teria ajudado. Em vez disso, eu sabia que tinha que dar o salto e abraçar a catarse que isso dava. Mudanças estavam ocorrendo, mas quem era eu para pará-las? --Changes occur when you least expect them. Sometimes, they occur when you least wish for them. However, regardless of how or why they have come about, the changes in my life have made me who I am today. When I was just starting high school, I moved to Brazil. I attended an American school and changed from an Australian accent to an American one within two weeks. I learned a language that

I had barely heard being spoken before, but that I now love to speak and hear. I befriended people who were like me, but even more so, people who were unlike me – and we stayed friends till this day. I met extremely wealthy families and extremely poor families, oftentimes living across the street from one another, opening my eyes to the inequalities that exist beyond the borders of my reality. The academic curriculum that I had to follow was vastly different and more challenging than any I had ever known, but I was told to keep up and keep going despite the obstacles of growing culture shock, homesickness, and the social pressure to adapt. Changing everything that I had ever known wasn’t an easy barrier to overcome at first. Regardless of this, I am grateful for the opportunity I had. This wasn’t the first time I had to leave the familiarity of my home behind, and it certainly wasn’t going to be the last. But somehow, it felt like the most important change. Not only did my time in Brazil arguably mark the most important years of my development, it also opened my eyes to the way the world works and to the changes that turned out beneficial in the end. Resisting these changes would not have helped. Instead, I knew I had to take the leap and embrace the catharsis that it gave. Changes were occurring, but who was I to stop them?

prompted // multilingual

Vol. 68 , Issue 10

El Árbol Llanto The Weeping Willow

Text: Diya Sharma Translation: Melissa Nuhich Graphic: Jonathan Tjandra Érase una vez un gran árbol, adornado con hojas doradas, que crecía en un bosque denso. Dentro del matorral del árbol, un blanco pájaro precioso anidaba. Cada mañana, cuando el pájaro empezaba a cantar su canción, el árbol bailaba a la melodía dulce y sus hojas se convertían en oro real. Era una imagen magnífica – como un sueño mágico que no se olvidará nunca. Desafortunadamente, no hay bien que cien años dure. Una noche brumosa, hace exactamente cien años, el cazador tramposo buscaba este bosque para presa. Al ver al pájaro delicado, quería destruirlo, pero el árbol le rogó no lo hacer. Por no matar al pájaro, el árbol prometió a darle todas sus hojas de oro por la mañana siguiente. El cazador malicioso estuvo de acuerdo, pero de noche, todos los gatos son

La mañana siguiente, después de recoger todo el oro del árbol, el cazador le disparó al pájaro de todos modos, por despecho. El pájaro cayó a la tierra. ¡Qué malvado! Tantas lágrimas de tristezas cayeron del árbol, que el cazador se ahogó en una inundación. Con sus largas ramas, el árbol alcanzó para el pájaro, el cual pero flotó lejos. Hoy en día el árbol continúa buscando para su pájaro y así sus ramas crecen hacia el suelo. Cuando el viento sopla a través de las ramas, se puede escuchar el canto del pájaro; pero el cazador nunca se puede escuchar. Por el canto se conoce el pájaro, y por la palabra se conoce el hombre. Si un hombre no mantiene su palabra, no será recordada.

Once upon a time there was a large tree, adorned with golden leaves, growing in a dense forest. Within the scrub of the tree, a precious white bird nested. Each morning, when the bird began to sing its song, the tree danced to the sweet melody and its leaves turned into real gold. It was a magnificent image – like a majestic dream that will never be forgotten. Unfortunately, there is no good that lasts forever. One foggy night, exactly one hundred years ago, a cheating hunter was looking for prey in this forest. When he saw the delicate bird, he wanted to destroy it, but the tree begged him not to do so. In return for not killing the bird, the tree promised to give him all his gold leaves the next morning. The malicious hunter agreed, but at night, all cats are brown. The next morning, after collecting all the gold from the tree, the hunter shot the bird anyway, out of spite. The bird

fell to the ground. How evil! So many tears of sadness fell from the tree, that the hunter drowned in a flood. With its long branches, the tree reached for the bird, but it floated away. To this day the tree continues to search for its bird and thus its branches grow towards the ground. When the wind blows through the branches, you can hear the bird singing; but the hunter can never be heard. By song the bird is known, and by his word man is known. If a man does not keep his word, he will not be remembered.

THE EDUCATION PULL-OUT A MESSAGE FROM THE EDUCATION OFFICER GET TO KNOW THE 2019 EDUCATION OFFICER THE EDUCATION COMMITTEE - A DIP INTO THE ARCHIVES: BY HARRY NEEDHAM STANDING UP FOR LANGUAGE LEARNING: BY HARRY NEEDHAM CHANGING THE CULTURE AROUND SCHOLARSHIPS: BY ELEANOR ARMSTRONG STUDENT OCCUPATION AT ANU: BY NICHOLAS CARLTON LOW SES INCLUSION AT ANU - A PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE: BY TANIKA SIBAL

All articles in this pull-out reflect the views of their authors only and not those of the ANU Students' Association.

A MESSAGE FROM THE EDUCATION OFFICER This education-themed pull-out is a collaboration between Woroni and the ANUSA Education Committee. But hang on – what is the Education Committee? According to ANUSA’s constitution, its task is to “promote awareness on campus of education issues, and to facilitate action and discussion on issues of particular concern to the education sector as it relates to ANU.” What this boils down to is organising events, discussing pertinent topics related to higher education (such as our upcoming seminar on the anthropology of universities), engaging in activism to defend higher education, and lobbying governments and universities to get a better deal for students. Every undergraduate student at ANU is a member of the Committee, which is convened by the ANUSA Education Officer – that’s me! The articles in this pullout reflect the range of issues that the Education Committee is concerned with, and the range of views held by its members. It demonstrates the enormous potential the Committee has to act as a hub for critical debate and action about the state of higher education in Australia. In recent times, however, the Committee has struggled to fulfil this potential, and has not engaged the diversity of students necessary for a dynamic community. Currently, the Education Committee is undergoing a process of reform that will hopefully reinvigorate it and make it more effective at advocating for all students. These

reforms will create clear terms of reference for the Committee, overhaul its organisational structure, clarify the constitutional relationship between the Education Officer and the Committee, and hopefully make the Committee more effective, engaging, and accessible. If you have thoughts on how we can improve the Education Committee, please email me at sa.education@anu.edu.au. As well as reforming the Committee, this term I’ll be focusing on holding a more diverse range of events, including a series of events bringing together students and leading academic researchers to explore critical new perspectives on the modern university. The Committee will also be continuing the work it began last semester on affordable housing, and will continue working with the ANUSA CAP and CASS representatives on a campaign to bring back the Diploma of Languages and advocate for the importance of language learning. New faces are always welcome on the Committee – don’t be worried that you’re not political enough, or knowledgeable enough, or experienced enough. Quality, accessible education is an issue that concerns all of us and we will only succeed in advocating for it if as many people as possible get involved. If you want to get involved with the Committee, join the “ANUSA Education Committee” Facebook group, keep an eye out for our meetings on the ANUSA Facebook page, and email me if you’d like to meet up for a chat. Hopefully see you around! Harry Needham ANUSA Education 2018

Officer

GET TO KNOW THE 2019 EDUCATION OFFICER Name: Tanika Sibal Home: South Western Sydney Degree: Law and Asian Studies Previous things I've done: General Representative on ANUSA in 2017, organised NOWSA in 2017, currently the Deputy Officer of the Ethnocultural Department, Chair of Burgmann College's Diversity Committee in 2017, currently work as an Admin Assistant for ANUSA. What makes you passionate about education? I'm super passionate about education because it's an issue that affects literally every university student out there. Although this may manifest differently in terms of how we receive education, what we learn and what impacts these things, at the end of the day it's something that affects the whole student body. Education issues are ones that everyone can come together on – or at least bring something to the table. Education is not, and should not be, a privilege. It is a basic right that every individual should have. Every individual should also be able to have a say about their education, and the Education Committee allows this to happen. The thought that in my role as Education Officer, I will be able to assist in making positive changes to our university is a very empowering one. Favourite bev (non-alcoholic): This is so hard, I'm someone who can be indecisive when it comes to choosing 'favourite things', but right now I could really go for a mango lassi or an avocado shake. Favourite bev (alcoholic): Depends on how fancy I'm feeling tbh, I love a nice cocktail, but on a night out, my go-to drink is always a rum and coke.

Favourite thing to watch on Netflix: Again, I'm really bad at choosing favourites. But I've recently loved ‘Champions’, ‘The Good Place’, ‘Dear White People’ and ‘Jane the Virgin’. What has the Education portfolio done well this year? In his role as Education Officer, Harry has made some great positive impacts on the ANU community. He has begun to make changes to help make the Education Committee more engaged, diverse and representative, which will assist in setting foundations for future years. Additionally, Harry has done some amazing work in organising snap actions or impromptu responses to issues that have come up within his term such as the massive MYEFO cuts to education and a response the most recent libspill. I also hear he's trying to save the number 3 bus! What will you work on improving next year? Something that both Harry and I agree upon is that as it is, the Ed Committee is not representative of the student body at all and it does often lack engagement. I would love to be able to change this, and encourage students to turn up and have a say about their education, because as I said – these issues affect everyone. What are you excited about for next year? This is a tough one – again, I'm not good at picking just one thing haha! Honestly I'm really excited to be working with such a dynamic team on the SRC next year – I can't wait to see what the General Representatives do with their projects and what positive changes we can make with the team. I'm also excited to work with the Ed Committee and implement my policies!

THE EDUCATION COMMITTEE - A DIP INTO THE ARCHIVES BY HARRY NEEDHAM Student-run bodies like the ANUSA Education Committee are plagued by a lack of institutional memory, as important information disappears once involved students leave university. Reconstructing the history of the Education Committee is therefore a difficult endeavour, but it is made somewhat easier by the archive of past editions of Woroni that have been digitised by the National Library of Australia. What follows is a potted history of the Education Committee from the 1960s to today, based on a preliminary trawl through the archives. Whether it was called the Education Committee, the Education Collective, or the Education Department, it has played a vital role in education advocacy at ANU over the past fifty-five years. The first ANU student-run body named the “Education Committee” was formed on 12 June, 1963. The original aim of this body was to support a campaign initiated by the Melbourne University Student Representative Council that called for greater government funding for education. By 1965, an Education Officer sat on the SRC. In 1966, a sub-committee of the SRC was formed to co-ordinate a sit-in in support of the ongoing campaign for increased funding. The Woroni coverage of the planning meeting noted that: “The meeting began in a businesslike manner with members wondering what it was all about. Stephens, more constructive, wondered how to supply the meeting with coffee.” Similar questions have preoccupied education activists ever since. In the early 1970s, student activism tended to focus on the Vietnam War and apartheid in South Africa, rather than education activism. By the mid-1970s, students were demanding a greater role in determining the nature of education at ANU, with a particular focus on the conservatism of course content and assessment. Students called for the introduction of courses inspired by social movements such as feminism and environmentalism, and for an end to the “dehumanised learning environment” created by assessment practices such as examinations. In early 1974, a mass demonstration in Union Court resulted in several students occupying the Chancelry building, calling for student involvement in assessment and the selection of course content, an end to overcrowding in classes, and the introduction of a Women’s Studies curriculum. In late 1979, the prominent campus political group known as the Left Group began working on an education campaign, eventually joining forces with the ANUSA Education Committee to organise actions and create workshops and reading groups to promote alternative views of education, inspired by figures such as the Brazilian philosopher Paulo Freire. In the 1980s, what was known as the Education Collective of the Students Association worked hard to “democratise education and help students to organise themselves to improve their conditions.” The Collective was made up of a committee of five office-bearers along with whichever students decided to turn up to meetings. It had an inward focus on transforming what was taught at ANU and how students were assessed. Its achievements included the regular production of a Counter-Course Handbook, in which students provided honest reviews of classes, and Re-Orientation Day, a day of workshops and planning sessions designed to promote alternative views of education. As well as these achievements, the Collective faced issues that have continued to confront its successors. Writing in 1981, an Education Collective member declared, “[o]ur regular meetings and activities are designed to encourage students to get involved. So far this hasn’t been very successful – YOU HAVEN’T TURNED UP.” Collective members were also at pains to present the Collective as politically unaffiliated, fearful that perceptions of being aligned with a particular political group were preventing students from becoming involved. With the sweeping changes to higher education brought in by the Labor government in the late 1980s, the focus of education activism at the ANU shifted from transforming the nature of education to protesting against cuts to education, amalgamation of tertiary institutions and the introduction of fees. Throughout the 1990s, the Education Collective focused on changes to HECS, staff cuts at ANU, particularly in the Arts faculty, and advocating for a return to free education. In 1997, changes to the ANUSA constitution created two new executive positions, the Education Officer and the Social Officer. Although the Education Committee was meant to be dissolved as a result of this, it survived for unknown reasons. The first ever Education Officer was elected at the 1997 elections, but soon resigned in order to concentrate on her debating commitments. In 2005, Education Officer Jessica He declared that of ANUSA’s four departments (Women’s, Environment, Sexuality and Education), the Education Department was “the most active”. Despite this, the 2000s proved to be a turbulent time for the Education Portfolio. Throughout the 2000s, the Education Department put forward Collective-endorsed candidates in the ANUSA elections, a practice still followed by today’s ANUSA departments. However, these candidates faced diminishing votes in the face of strong campaigning by opposing tickets. In 2006, members of Socialist Alternative, led by the then Education Officer, controversially shut down an open forum organised by ANUSA with Health Minister Tony Abbott. The participating Education Officer resigned afterwards. This incident and related differences of opinion over the best way to carry out education advocacy led to conflict between the Collective and the ANUSA executive. In 2007, then-President Claudia Newman-Martin declared that “the constant tension between the ideas and approach of the Education Collective and those of the elected members of ANUSA is becoming harmful to our public image.” This is just a brief dip into those aspects of the Education Committee’s history that have been recorded in print. The cyclical nature of student activism and the lack of institutional memory in organisations such as ANUSA can easily lull student advocates into thinking that they are beginning their work with a blank slate. A look back through the Woroni archives, however, demonstrates that the Education Committee has fifty-five years of experience to draw on. Although it continues to face many of the same problems – low attendance, perceptions of political bias, and debates over its methods – it will continue to play an important role in ensuring that all students are able to access education.

Katie Ward

STANDING UP FOR LANGUAGE LEARNING In December of 2017, the Federal Government announced its plans to cut $2.2 billion from higher education funding, after earlier attempts had been defeated in the Senate. One of the most prominent victims of these cuts was ANU’s Diploma of Languages program, which ceased accepting new students in 2018. The DipLang, as it was affectionately known, offered students the opportunity to pursue language studies that would not otherwise fit into their program of study. It was particularly important as an avenue to study lesser-taught Asian languages that the ANU specialises in. The government justified these cuts by

declaring that they wanted to concentrate funding on study that leads to “employment outcomes”. The idea that language learning is not career-focused is at odds with the government’s own rhetoric of the importance of engaging with our Indo-Pacific neighbours, and with the reality of our increasingly hyper connected, multilingual world. Beyond these more utilitarian concerns, it also demonstrates an unnerving disregard for the intrinsic worth of the humanities and language learning. In response to the axing of the Diploma of Languages, the ANUSA CAP Representatives, CASS Representatives and Education

Committee have initiated a campaign highlighting the experiences of staff and students affected by the cuts. The campaign aims to encourage the university administration to speak out more strongly against the cuts, lobby federal politicians to commit to reversing the funding cuts, and initiate a broader conversation about the place of languages. The first of these campaign is a photo campaign involving staff and students, selections from which can be seen below.

Author: Harry Needham

CHANGING THE CULTURE AROUND SCHOLARSHIPS Before getting stuck into the nitty gritty, it’s pretty important that I preface what I’m about to say with a disclaimer: I am one of the lucky recipients of a scholarship from this University. This financial support has allowed me to freely pursue my passions – both inside and outside the classroom – without the typical level of monetary stress that so often plagues many students. However, I truly am one of the lucky ones, and am fully aware of that privilege. Sure, receiving such imbursement has its necessary conditions (such as maintaining good grades), and sometimes that means making other sacrifices. However, on balance, receiving a scholarship puts the recipient in an overall better standing when it comes to tackling the university journey. Why is it then that so few are able to enjoy the full spectrum of opportunities university has to offer? Unlike in the United States, scholarship holders in Australia are often few and far between. This is somewhat surprising, given that there are many grants out there. However, they are often quite poorly advertised. This makes financial assistance particularly inaccessible to those without the cultural capital and general knowledge about such resources, who often happen to make up the population of those who are most in need of support. Through no fault of their own, prospective candidates can miss out on helpful pathways towards enhancing their future prospects (and general learning chances) through education. This is why marketing of these avenues for university entrance is so important. Take the newly initiated Rural and Regional Equity Scholarship; itself a project brought to life by a student scholarship holder. This initiative will be the focus of this year’s ANU Giving Day, which can be attributed partially to its successful social media campaign late last year. This single grant ensures that a student from a less advantaged school is supported financially to make the move to Canberra – a change that often incurs many upfront costs. It is the scholarships such as these – the ones that allow opportunities to those who otherwise wouldn’t necessarily have them – that we should be investing time and funds into. A further hurdle, of course, is the selection process for such scholarships. Understandably, many year 12 students are snowed under by study commitments, making researching their futures a lower priority than the here and now of getting that crucial ATAR. For those with the time and resources to apply, there also comes the matter of satisfying both arbitrary and subjective indicators of potential. It is far easier for selectors to ‘tick box’ a number of co-curricular and academic achievements than it is to make a judgement on character and willingness to give back, which is why those with impressive resumes have a better chance. To combat the potential for bias and unfairness throughout the selection process, often benchmarks are put in place for achievement – whether that be an ATAR, a mark in a certain subject or an achievement level within a co-curricular activity. Those achievement-based assurances disproportionately favour those who have been able to afford and/or travel easily to such activities as lessons, trainings, tutoring or student conferences. This is not to mention the support of family and whether going to university is seen as a necessity or even a worthwhile venture. The supposedly ‘fair’ expectations that are often placed upon candidates do not always take equity considerations into account or recognise the impact of socioeconomic status. They also do not allow for the many variations of ‘disadvantage’ that can be found within our nation – such as personal experiences that young people would rather not share with a selection committee. Scholarships are not meant to be an award for what has already been done, but rather a recognition of the potential to achieve. Yet, the way in which this is measured is usually through the accrual of past achievements as an indicator of continued or future success. As a result, it is often those students that have been advantaged throughout their high school careers who are best placed to be ‘rewarded’ with a scholarship. This retrospective approach contradicts the ethos of scholarships as an investment in an individual; to safeguard the future of both the recipient and the wider community who will benefit from their enabled contributions. It is often the case that scholarships have a continuous cyclical impact, whether within the lifespan of a single individual or in terms of intergenerational advantaging. They can be a circuit breaker for those entrenched within a cycle of a recurring set of particular life chances. In my case, my grandparents received scholarships to university during the late 1950s, which meant they were able to move from their regional hometowns to the ‘big city’. The effects of their educational opportunities compounded over the decades, which I believe is a strong part of why I was able to receive the support that I did throughout my studies. I am forever grateful to them for instilling in their children, and their children’s children, a firm belief in the importance of education. Mine is only one of many stories that are a testament to the hugely enabling power of a scholarship, and I certainly don’t claim that it is representative of all experiences. It’s so important that we not only continue to support and fund scholarships, but that we apply a critical eye to how the money is dispersed. It is essential that we help those who are most in need and have the most potential to provide ‘bang for the buck’ in their willingness to help others achieve too. Yet beyond assessments of merit, it is just as important that we espouse a view of education for all – not just those who are ‘worthy’. Hopefully we will continue to see the Australian culture of philanthropy grow, so that many more students can be supported for generations to come. Author: Eleanor Armstrong

STUDENT OCCUPATION AT ANU Attacks on higher education have become commonplace in Australia: just this year the Liberals cut $2.2 billion from universities. It can be hard to imagine that just over forty years ago, education was fully subsidised for all students. For a period of fifteen years, everyone studying in Australia was entitled to a free education. That all changed in 1989 when the Hawke Labor government introduced the Higher Education Contributions Scheme, commonly known as HECS. The HECS debt was introduced to make universities more profitable, and one of the main ways to increase revenue was to shift the burden of costs onto students. In 1994, ANU students fought back against the introduction of fees, and it all started with the law students. This happened when the Vice-Chancellor Deane Terrell brought in a $5000 up-front charge for a legal workshop that was necessary to complete in order to practice as a lawyer. Outrage spread across the campus. There was a diverse layer of students at ANU, ranging from the punk movement at ANU Bar to the artists and performers of Aktion Surreal, who became politically engaged in the fight for free education. A rally was called on 16 September to oppose the University Council and the introduction of fees. There was a long build up for the rally. In the weeks preceding, a handful of student activists had been producing zines, leafletting other students about the upcoming rally, and making lecture announcements. When the day of the rally arrived, the turnout was bigger than had been expected. One thousand students were crowded into Union Court. Some of the students had staged a funeral for the death of free education. Another student, Luke Deer, was passing around a petition, when he abruptly turned to the crowd and said, “There’s no use standing here with a petition, let’s take it to the Vice-Chancellor right now!”. In past years, students had attempted to occupy the Chancelry, but were unsuccessful because the police had been present. It was fortuitous, remembers activist Anthony Hayes, that the students approached from the back of the building because the police were guarding the most obvious site to attack, the front entrance of the Chancelry. Once inside, staff told the mass of students that the Vice-Chancellor would not see them at that time, but it was no use. Within just a few minutes there were over two hundred students occupying the Chancelry building. Gerald Keaney, one of the organisers of the rally, was present at the occupation. He recalls students standing on the table and exclaiming that “we should have been here when the decisions were made” and “we are in charge of this university now”. The staff had left the building and the occupation was underway. It was to last for nine days, with students leaving every so often to return later with supplies. Every day there would be two mass meetings of students to discuss the strategy of the campaign. Keaney and Hayes remember those meetings as evidence of “direct democracy”: hundreds of students were coming together to debate out what needed to happen next in order to take forward their campaign. A crucial step forward was to involve the workers on-site. By mobilising big sections of the student population, and not simply relying on the benevolence of the University Council, the No Fees campaign won the support of multiple trade unions, including the Health and Services Union (HSU), the Community and Public Service Union (CPSU), the Transport Workers Union (TWU), the Communication Workers Union (CWU), and the Trades and Labour Council (TLC). During the occupation, the students and workers were able to grind the University to a halt. Pickets were adopted at all the main points of University administration, including the mail centres. The University Council had been taken by surprise and did not know how to respond to such a rapid radicalisation on campus. Anthony Hayes and Gerald Keaney were part of a delegation that met with Vice Chancellor Deane Terrell to discuss the outcomes of the occupation. They both remember Terrell was terrified, and “all he could do was grind his teeth”. In the end, the demand to drop upfront fees for law students was met and a temporary victory was won for the No Fees campaign. After nine days Terrell called police on to campus to break up the occupation. The students left without much struggle, but it had left a lasting impact on the minds of everyone at ANU in 1994. The voter turnout for the next student election was the highest it has ever been. It may seem like a far cry from today, but in the early 1990s the ANU was the centre of a radical fight against neoliberalism and attacks on education. For the current generation of ANU students, if there’s one thing to take away say Hayes and Keaney, it is that we cannot rely on the goodwill of the Labor Party or the Vice-Chancellor to bring about the change we want to see. It has to come from students fighting together in big movements to win important reforms like free education. Author: Nicholas Carlton

LOW SES INCLUSION AT ANU A PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE DISCLAIMER: Although I have grown up in a low-SES suburb and have attended public schools that are classified as low-SES for all of my school years, my family is not low-SES. “Hi I’m Tanika and I’m from Sydney!” “Omg, me too! Where from?! I’m from Vaucluse!” “You probably wouldn’t know it, it’s kind of near Liverpool?” “Oh… what school were you at?” “Prairiewood! Again, you probably wouldn’t know it… It’s near Fairfield.” “Oh that’s cute. I’ve got to go, see you around?” At my time at the ANU so far, I’ve had interactions not dissimilar to the one above. In fact, on my first day at ANU, when we were meant to be mingling at college, I remember texting my friends from back home saying “wow, I’ve never been around so many white people before.” Not to say that everyone around me was of a more affluent socio-economic background just because of their racial background, but I had never been around a group of people like this ever before. Prairiewood has a population in which 83 per cent of the students spoke a language other than English at home and according to the Index of Community Socio- Educational Advantage (ICSEA), we are below the average rating. It was clear from day one that ANU would be different. I remember looking at the My School website with my friends in first year, and comparing our schools’ ‘diversity stats’ and laughing about how I was the epitome of the ‘diversity quota’ at college. I can still have a laugh about it now, and I was lucky that my friends were not doing this maliciously at all – rather they were criticising their own, very white and rich private schools for not being diverse enough. My upbringing and schooling is something I am very proud of now, but there are still times at ANU where I’m made to feel different. In 2016, there were two of us that made the move from Prairiewood to Canberra, but we had not heard of anyone before us and have not seen anyone after us. ANU has by far the lowest percentage of low-SES students, as compared to the other group of eight universities. There are some obvious reasons

as to why this is the case – it is expensive to go to university as it is, let alone having to relocate to a new city, to pay rent and to essentially start anew. There are also only limited scholarships available, with limited information about them, adding to the already overwhelming process of applying to university, choosing what courses to do, etc. The issue does not stop here though. I would not have even known about ANU if one day in year 10, I had not searched “best university in Australia to study law at”. I didn’t know anything about campus accommodation or life, because I couldn’t make it to the open day or take time out to come and do a tour of the campus and accommodation. There was no advertising to my school from either the University or affiliated colleges; no information about what documents to send or anyone to tell us which college is the best and why, or even anyone to tell us why we should even consider coming to ANU. When talking to my private school counterparts, many of them said they had received information about ANU in one way or another – whether it was actual advertising through their careers advisor or just the fact that many students from their school had come to ANU before them. We had nothing. Once we do make it here, we look around and see a student population full of kids that attended private schools. Many definitely distance themselves from it and try to really show how switched on they are about social issues *wow big claps to you*. But at the end of the day, being from South Western Sydney, I’m often made to feel different, or special, or am commended at the fact that I am here, “despite attending a public school.” ANU does have some commendable schemes – such as the automatic 5 bonus points for schools that are classified as low-SES. But this is not enough: ANU needs to go further than new admission schemes. It needs to increase communication with low-SES schools across the nation, and show that we are actually welcome here. Author: Tanika Sibal

Week 7, Semester 2, 2018

Culture // ARTS

Silos, Silhouettes and Skylines Text: Tabitha Malet Graphic: Noah Yim In Northam, the sunset matches the land. Layers of red, pink and brown like an endless gradient seep in to the scrubby horizon. Silhouetted against the darkening sky is the tiny town’s biggest art installation, its shades of green and blue almost garish in this brush-soft landscape. The site of this art? Not, as you might expect, another of Australia’s giant objects. Instead, the 6,500-person town 100km northeast of Perth hosted artists Phlegm and HENSE in 2015, who were tasked with painting its 36m tall silos. Three and a half years later, a unique collaboration has seen six different silo artworks take shape across Western Australia’s south, inspiring many more in other states. Tower silos are tall cylindrical structures for storing bulk materials – in this case, grain. They are used by farmers or country towns to collect grain, enabling it to be stored and protected until it is transported for export or processing. Already significant landmarks in many small towns, the idea to use them as canvases for giant works of art which could be used to bring togetherness and tourism to small and struggling communities was inspired. WA’s six installations form the Public Silo Trail, which began as a collaboration between a grain grower cooperative (CBH Group) and FORM, an independent cultural organisation. Six towns and eight artists were carefully selected for the project, which was seen as an opportunity to create an open-air cultural tourism opportunity

in frequently overlooked regional areas. While both the surfaces being painted on (steel or concrete? porous or smooth?) and the pieces themselves were vastly different, FORM aimed for each one to act as a representation of the local community. For many struggling rural towns, these silos are the promise of economic rejuvenation. Rochester, in Victoria’s north, pinned its hope on Jimmy DVate and the kingfisher he painted on a Grain Corp silo near the Northern Highway. Two weeks from completion, the mural – which depicts the bright blue and yellow bird on the banks of a river, feeding on a local fish – had already made the town “almost chaotic” with weekend traffic. It wasn’t only locals who stood at the foot of the silo to watch it take shape. Many tourists and residents of regional towns stopped by to have lunch and see the mural, bringing hope for local businesses. The owner of Goorombat’s Railway Hotel says that the barking owl mural she can see from her window – also by Jimmy DVate – has brought life back to the pub. Formerly spare weekday lunches have seen as many as 30 meals served, and customers have had to be turned away on weekends. In Brim, where the first mural in regional Victoria took shape, tourists have continued to stop. As many as 20 vans are still seen overnight at the caravan park – with more during Christmas and Easter. Thousands more stopped in the small town of Coonalpyn, in South Australia’s south-east, to watch a mural of a local schoolgirl take form in 2017. The newly opened Coonalpyn Silo Café has benefited significantly

from the business, and the District Authority has had to institute a traffic management plan to deal with the number of trucks pulling over. Innovative solutions have been harnessed to help the towns maximise their profits, such as solar panels to illuminate the silos at night. DVate sees these collaborations as reflective of a greater aim to the murals. To him, they are more than a money-making opportunity, but a way to increase the wellbeing of towns and bring them together. With mental health issues a severe problem in rural Australia, and often stemming from the isolation felt by those in farm environments, community togetherness is an important aim. Guido Van Helsen, the artist of the Coonalpyn schoolgirl, is fondly considered a “local” and has been taken out for activities from drinking to sheep-shearing with the farming populations he has painted for. The presence and importance of silo art is increasingly being recognised around Australia. Now, a new series of four Australia Post $1 stamps are set to display the murals at Brim in Victoria, Ravensthorpe in Western Australia, Fallon in Queensland and Weethalle in NSW. Australia Post’s philatelic manager Michael Zsolt sees silo art as a symbol of rural communities, and the environment, history and industries at their heart. The Public Silo Trail officially launches this month, and FORM will be installing interpretive signage and starting a website with pictures and artist information. Hope for the rejuvenation of these rural communities is sorely needed, and silo art has plenty to give.

Vol. 68 , Issue 10

Culture // ARTS

Rap Devils Text: Sebastian Lawrence Graphic: Georgie Kamvissis

We’re in the schoolyard, and a small crowd is gathering, chanting ‘fight’ over and over. A brawl is brewing before our very eyes. And it’s not going how we expected. It’s the bully against the bullied, and the bullied knows some moves you didn’t think he had in him. He’s hitting hard – and so far, the bully has yet to even throw something back. You’re almost starting to feel sorry for the bigger guy.

Alike,’ on his recent surprise album ‘Kamikaze’. Of course, MGK is far from the only name dropped on the album, which came out just last week. Throughout the 45-minute record runtime, Eminem takes aim at Lil Pump, Vince Staples, and Tyler The Creator/Earl Sweatshirt, amongst plenty of other pop-culture based figures. But though some of these attacks present their own issues, none have been more enthralling than his ‘Not Alike’ diss. It isn’t even because it’s one of the best tracks on the project; rather, it’s due to MGK’s response, ‘Rap Devil’.

In this case, it’s Eminem (bully), versus Machine Gun Kelly, or MGK (bullied). Their latest exchange might seem extraordinary, but it stems from a feud going back to 2012, when MGK tweeted about Eminem’s daughter. The then-21year-old rapper’s tweet described Hailie (who was 16 at the time) as “hot as f**k... with all due respect.” In a late 2015 interview with Hot 97, MGK said he believed the tweet still affected his chances on radio stations with ties to Eminem. Though Eminem has previously referenced his beef with MGK, nowhere has it come as directly as in the song ‘Not

It’s been a long time since rap rivalry has mattered outside of the genre. It typically remains in the underground or within hip-hop circles, so watching it unravel in the mainstream is a treat for those on the sideline. Many have tried (and failed) to match Eminem with their own tracks, but nothing can touch the raw intensity of ‘Rap Devil,’ which MGK described in a tweet as a “battle between the past and the future.” Clocking in at just under five minutes, MGK spits some of the best bars of his career, taking aim at Eminem’s slump in quality for the last decade (“Still can’t cover up

the fact/Your last four albums is as bad as your selfie”), his seemingly pre-determined success by working with legendary producer Dr. Dre (“Yeah there’s a difference between us/I got all my shit without Dre producin’ me”), and Eminem’s control over MGK’s stunted success (“I just wanna feed my daughter/You tryna stop the money to support her”). Thus far, the Eminem camp has been relatively quiet, with only rumours circulating as to his apparent response being in the works. If the past is anything to go by, however, we’re in for a treat. Not so long ago Ja Rule, a hip-hop artist prominent during the early 2000s, found himself feuding with 50 Cent and, as a result, Eminem. In 2000, 50 Cent was stabbed and shot by people involved with Ja Rule’s company, Murder Inc, leading him to reference these events and attack Ja Rule in a number of his songs. 50 Cent then signed to Eminem’s record label, Shady Records, and Ja Rule was quick to threaten that if Eminem allowed him to be dissed through the record label, he would not hesitate to respond. This led to ‘Hail Mary’, a collaboration between 50 Cent and Eminem which essentially

described Ja as a knockoff version of 2Pac. Ja Rule tried valiantly to get the one-up on Eminem by releasing the diss track ‘Loose Change’, wherein he attacked members of Eminem’s family, including his daughter, and insinuated that she would end up like her “crack head” grandmother or sexually promiscuous mother. Eminem employed his rap collective, D12, to respond with the track ‘Hailie’s Revenge’, all but ending the feud and, as time continued, Ja Rule’s career. Though this can be put to Ja Rule’s poor marketing decisions and constant in-fighting with his labelmates, ‘Hailie’s Revenge’ was the final blow. Retrospectively, then, ‘Rap Devil’ is a brave move from an artist who is well aware of the potential consequences of challenging one of the greatest to ever make hip-hop. But it doesn’t make it any less entertaining. ‘Rap Devil’ is a fantastic track, filled to the brim with wit and one-liners that carry both substance and charm, but I’d advise MGK to start praying. Eminem always get the last laugh.

Week 7, Semester 2, 2018

Culture // ARTS

Framing Trans Characters and Other Artistic EndeavoUrs Text: Al Azmi Graphic: Georgie Kamvissis

When any conflict emerges in a nation, multiple stakeholders gather their physical and mental armour to fight for their interests. Each stratum of the society seeks comfort in what they know. Now a person can get information from sources including but not limited to national news, individual communities and their immediate family. But what if these sources of information reflect the cultural or religious bias of certain people? Such sections of our society vulnerable to the prejudiced opinion are the first ones to fall trap to the fault lines of religious fanaticism. In our first lesson in economics, we are taught that humans are rational. That humans are expected to choose amongst scarce resources

to them rationally and prudently. But if recent trends are to be believed, not all humans behave rationally. During conflicts, very few people are cognizant of their immediate reality. Even fewer can grasp the tangible facts of ongoing strife.

and subtle competition implying that “my idol is better than yours,” and what was once a society that hoped to be guided by reason became a society driven by the fear of God and on the wheels of ill-advised decisions.

While a few people take immediate steps to know more about the situation and formulate an educated opinion, there is an immensely growing section of society which is impressionable and naive. This level of naivety inherently makes such people susceptible to some mischievous elements rooted in our society. Instances range from the exploitation of a person’s faith for someone else’s financial gain and establishing a person’s religious beliefs as grounds for a battle call.

It has been believed that “once gods and religious figures are installed in place, they cannot be dislodged.” Such shrines attract millions of devotees each year. A report by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) showed that “average expenditure on religious trips has more than doubled,” between 2007 and 2015 so much so that “religious tourism” has become one of the biggest highlights in recent government policy.

There have been numerous cases in recent history where a community as a whole has taken rash decisions based on blind faith and dogma. There is an increasingly unstated

This debate on whether religion is a money-making business has revealed surprising facts. As is evidenced by some studies, it seems that such religion and faith-related institutions do generate a socio-economic impact. A study conducted

by the Religious Freedom and Business Foundation stated that “religion annually contributes almost 1.2 trillion dollars” worth of socio-economic value to the United States economy, which is more than the global revenues of the world’s top ten tech companies, including Apple, Amazon and Google. Naturally faith is not a bad thing but capitalizing on a community’s belief for politics and other financial gains has become an efficient money-minting scheme. People are increasingly relying on their sage’s prophecies, blissfully unaware that their priests are reaping the profits of God.

Culture // REVIEWS

Vol. 68 , Issue 10

DANCE TO THIS: TROYE SIVAN’S BLOOM

Text: Frankie Nolan Graphic: Hannah Charny

In 2015, Australian YouTube-starcome-singer Troye Sivan rose to international acclaim following the release of his debut album Blue Neighbourhood. Now, three years later, he’s back with the same melodic synthscapes, but a more cemented style. His new release Bloom explores the doubts and excitements of any relationship, and yet brings with it an intimate and personal tone. Flaunting soft vocals, Sivan’s tracks are easy-going and relaxed. Even ‘Dance to This’, featuring the powerhouse Ariana Grande is somewhat slow-moving and atmospheric. The album has a familiar tone and is similar to the iconic Born to Die album. Both Del Ray and Sivan’s velvet voices give the impression of laziness at first, yet the tracks become more intricate with every listen. ‘The Good Side’ is a highly self-ref lexive track which, contrasting with the others on the album, look back to past relationships rather than focusing on the present. In this Sivan discusses how it feels to be the bad guy in a relationship and what it’s like to come out of a break up on ‘the good side’. This track stands out in the album not only

for its gentle acoustic guitar accompaniment, but also as it feels like less of a money-maker song and more like a genuine apology to past boyfriends. ‘Postcard’ is a somewhat underrated and shy song. Featuring Gordi and an emotional piano melody, it is a tragic account of how it feels to love someone who is far away and the fear of abandonment that accompanies this. It is these slower, more thoughtful songs that are filtered through the album that make it so strong. Through this movement from heartbroken love songs to horny dance tracks Sivan keeps us invested in his story. He is singing of real life – everyone experiences the blurred lines between love and lust, and sometimes we are the ones in the wrong. Something that should be applauded is the fearlessness that accompanies this album. An expression of the Australian’s queer youth, Bloom is unashamedly sexual and self-aware. Sivan doesn’t shy away from discussing queer* relationships in his songs, and this is seen in the title track ‘Bloom’ and ‘Seventeen’. Although the lyrics to ‘Bloom’ may be at first listen slightly cryptic, the music video to accompany it is overtly queer, as well as gender non-conformative and refreshingly gaudy. Troye told magazine Another Man that this track is about "a carefree gay boy strutting around however

he wants", and although he claims to not want to be seen as a gay icon, it is doubtless that Sivan is contributing positively to the queer music scene. What stands out in this album, apart from Sivan’s well-known personality and the alternative electronica intertwined with acoustic tracks, is the pretty much f lawless song writing. The tracks are streamlined, immaculate, and the lyrics even more so. Aptly named in time for spring, Bloom not only slots comfortably into the vast library of synth-pop, but also announces the blooming, as it were, of a young artist rapidly growing in confidence and style, who seems far from ashamed about his identity.

Week 7, Semester 2, 2018

CULTURE // REVIEWS

Fading: A Play Review Text: Soumyadeep Sengupta Photos: Cathy Breen

“Is it weird to talk with your ref lection?” I guess not. With growing age, we come across several challenges and many unanswered questions about our future. The play Fading, directed by Katie Cawthorne and written by Laura Lethlean, aptly presents before us the turmoil of emotions that an individual experience when they turn 18 years of age. It is that time of life where you feel the daunting pressure of adulthood. As the moments from childhood begin to fade away, one begins to realise the expectations and the choices that come with adulthood. On Wednesday night, I had the pleasure of being in the audience for Fading presented by the Canberra Youth Theatre at the Courtyard Studio. It was a delightful experience altogether. The opening imagery of the cast in “plaid shirts and jeans”, lamenting about the pressure that they are currently experiencing in their lives, sets the serious and solemn mood of the play. Laura’s writing is wistful and full of dream-like imagery. I was majorly taken aback by the powerful performance of the cast, which consisted of eight individual characters. As this group of people cross the line of childhood and step into being an adult, like butterf lies from a cocoon, they have to maintain and balance their own bank of water and not drown under the pressure of expectations and choices they have to make in life.

Left - Right: Jemma Collins, Jamie Johnston, Elektra Spencer

Fading recreates the different dreams and thoughts that a child has: honest, truthful and innocent, and suddenly transforms into the chaos of adulthood. At certain time the play takes a satirical tone, with sudden spurts of laughter when the characters even go on an elaborate ‘bear-hunt’. The play even mocks the people who are “so-called perfect at work” and “know what they are doing in life”. Often in life, we begin to compare ourselves to our friends and co-workers and pretend to be exactly “what the society expects of us” and often forget our own voice in this crowd. The play recreates these moments of life, where an individual is unsure of what they want to achieve in life, and often drown under the burden of such pressure. The stage was small, and simply had a swing hanging from the top. It was utilised at several times in the play to recreate the nostalgia of childhood. Apart from the impactful performance of the cast, the music used aided in recreating this dreaminess and romanticising of childhood memories along with the chaotic state of adult age. Particularly, the song ‘Green Light’ by Lorde was featured in the play to highlight the pop-culture of today’s generation. The sudden outburst of the cast dancing to the tune of the ‘Green Light’, creates a disc-atmosphere that just makes you want to dance. The play touches every single aspect of the thoughts and emotions

Left - Right (back row): Elektra Spencer, Jett Chudleigh, Aram Geleris, (standing), Alex Castello Left - Right (front row): Jemma Collins, Yarno Rohling, Jamie Johnston, Taylor Geoffroy that an individual experiences as they transition from a child to an adult. Among all these chaos of making the right career decisions, choosing the right path in life and working hard to reach the target without wasting time, we often forget to listen to ourselves, our own voice, our dreams and passions. Fading truthfully presents these emotions before the audience – the pressure that one feels during adulthood. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole 90

minutes of the play. In my opinion, Fading perfectly captures the turmoil of emotions and pressure that one feels growing up as young adults. It is an apt and complex production that presents the audience with the different f lavours of life, the transition from a child into an adult with satire and humour.

CULTURE // REVIEWS

Vol. 68 , Issue 10

Book review: Liar's Poker Text: Surbhi Arora Graphic: Maddy McCusker

Michael Lewis was fresh out of Princeton when he got rejected from several investment banking interviews. His background in art history certainly didn’t aid his aspirations to become a banker. However, fate had something else in store for him. Subsequently, while he was living in London in the winter of 1984, finishing a master’s degree in economics at the London School of Economics, he received an invitation to dine with the Queen Mother. It was his interaction, at the dinner, with the wife of a more senior Salomon Brothers’ managing director that led him to his appointment in Salomon’s training program. Liar’s Poker is the hysterical and hilarious account of his journey from being an overpaid trainee to a bond salesman. The book flows in an instructive manner detailing financial intricacies. It is a nonfiction account of how Wall Street’s premier investment firm was led to its curtain call owing to a deep economic crisis that was primarily perpetrated by the greed of Wall Street executives. The book is a piecemeal work of investigative journalism. It develops further as the author’s exploration of the ideals and motives behind the trading floors of the firms at Wall Street. It gradually evolves into an often profane, but “wickedly funny” review of the series of events that led to a deep crunch in the global economy. While the author graduates from the level of a ‘geek’ to a ‘big swinging dick,’ his narrative captures one of the most critical periods in the history of Wall Street. The plot keeps you glued and

shocked as more of Mr Lewis’ journey manifests. Two of Wall Street’s most essential figureheads, Lewis Ranieri and John Gutfreund, feature prominently throughout the text. The storytelling technique is bound to keep you on edge while you dive deeper into the obsessed and enclosed world of unprecedented greed. The events are, however, detailed to an extent that might mean some readers find the information overwhelming. Despite this, Liar’s Poker distinguishes itself as one of the most colourful and comical behind-thescenes looks at a heady and frenzied time in the American economy. I’ll strongly recommend this book to anyone who wishes to understand the financial world further. The gripping and compelling narration sure makes it an excellent addition to your bookshelves!

CULTURE // UNI LIFE

Week 7, Semester 2, 2018

Canberra in bloom

Text: Madeleine Sinnis Graphic: Maddy McCusker

If you’re like me, then winter is a really difficult time. It’s cold, it’s dark and everything can feel quite gloomy. Getting out of my warm bed is difficult and productivity levels plummet. Which is why spring is easily my favourite season. It’s a sign that summer is coming: life flows back into the earth, days are longer and the sun is brighter. We’re now two weeks into spring, and with that in mind, here are some ideas for your spring weekends. Sculpture in the Paddock 2018, 22 September – 7 October Located in Yass, Sculpture in the Paddock celebrates art in a rural landscape. Home to fresh produce and beautiful landscapes, this exhibition is free for students and only a 40-minute drive from Canberra. There are many exhibiting artists, such as well-established artist Michael Le Grand, who was the previous

Head of Sculpture at ANU, School of Art and Design until 2007. Heads up, dogs on leash are welcome, so expect to see some doggos – what more could you want?

yourself up a plant-friend to take care of, grab a coffee and take a stroll through the park. Also – it’s a dog park, which means more dogs for you (sensing a theme here with the dogs).

Floriade 2018, 15 September – 14 October

Black Mountain

Coined as “Australia’s biggest celebration of spring”, how could a spring weekend guide not include this iconic event? If you’re feeling extra fancy (and have the money) then you can book a high tea session. Each garden bed has a different theme, such as Music Icons, Puzzling Panoramas and Superhero Alley. Entry is free, opening hours are 9:30am – 5:30pm and it’s held in Commonwealth Park. Weston Park, Yarralumla About a 10-minute drive from campus, Weston Park is a charming little park with a café and a nursery. Visit in springtime to see flowers in the nursery come to life and blossom. Pick

When the frost fades Text: Alisha Nagle Graphic: Maddy McCusker

One of the most unique aspects of life in Canberra is its proximity to nature. While population growth and urban sprawl is becoming increasingly problematic for traffic congestion, Canberra will always provide you an easy escape into tranquillity – bushland and parks appear in every direction you wander. However, unless you rug up big time, in winter this beauty goes mostly unseen. The frost and wind make their first appearance and suddenly it seems more pleasant to spend time pent up in a grey library, hunched over your studies. And boy, does Canberra become a depressing place then – though so will anywhere when you’re feeling down or stressed out by university. But there’s no denying that the mood starts feeling lighter here come September. The air starts to smell of blossoms and wattle – it’s like a shroud lifts off

the valley and the sunshine makes everything crisp and alive. “It’s so hot!” we complain, for without fail every single year winter makes us forget how warm Canberra actually gets. And Floriade becomes a symbol of our survival against the cold. Floriade is such a happy place to be – it has been running for 30 years now and still draws incredible crowds, national and international alike. It provides an outlet for local artists to exhibit art, play live music and sell crafts in an environment of heart and colour. Make sure you take a group of friends this year and have a picnic on the grass in front of Stage 88 while a band is playing. There’s literally nothing nicer, especially if you pick a day that’s still and cloudless. It doesn’t matter if you’re swamped with assignments – no excuses – take a break and warm your soul. Lake Burley Griffin also really shines in spring – biking or walking your dog around its perimeter is just about the most wholesome way to fill a lazy Sunday morning. As you walk around you

can see all of Canberra’s best buildings – the Carillon and Black Mountain look especially dramatic as the sun begins to set. The weird fountain boat that stopped running for ages is also well and truly up and running again, and on a clear day you can see rainbows appearing through its spouting droplets. The only problem spring in Canberra brings for me is my truly abominable hay fever. I remember driving to Floriade with my family and the dread of seeing that fluffy white pollen hitting our car like a blizzard. Then my eyes swelling up instantly. And the constant hysterical sneezing. And getting unbearably itchy welts on my skin from something as stupid as grass. But the pain is worth it. You’ll probably find the marathon to the end of semester extremely gruelling. When you’ve got deadlines coming out your ears it’s easy to feel dull and lose all energy despite the springtime glow. But please remember to enjoy the green splendour of spring while it lasts.

Don’t roll your eyes – Black Mountain is incredibly unique and wickedly cool. Yes, it’s right behind us and often used by university students and IB runners as a form of fitness, but it’s spring, which means it’s wildflower season on Black Mountain. It’s home to over 4000 species of flowers and is covered in native eucalyptus, and with stunning views and easy access (literally right behind campus and you can drive up the mountain), there is no excuse to not have a wander. So get exploring, soak up some rays and smell the fresh air this spring!

Vol. 68 , Issue 10

CULTURE // UNI LIFE

Swooping into spring

Text: Brigid Horneman-Wren Graphic: Maddy McCusker

It’s over 20 degrees for the first time since May and you’re no longer contemplating setting fire to old furniture to stay warm in your sharehouse. With the rise in temperature comes blossoms, a rapid increase in IB paraphernalia and, of course, the bane of all seasons: magpies who suddenly think you’re out to fuck with their kids. As someone who was swooped five times one fateful September, I’m here to offer some hard-earned expertise on how to get through nesting season without missing parts of your head.

Invest in Armor It’s time to leave the days of having your helmet hanging from your handlebars behind. Just because you live on campus

really, but I’d highly recommend stopping an attack through diplomacy. IR students should find this tip especially easy.

Leave

and are too scared to ride on roads, doesn’t mean you don’t need to bother with head protection when riding to a stress-induced New Acton brunch. You want as much protection as you can find – leave no skin above your shoulders exposed – and as many spiky things sticking out of your head as possible.

they’ve decided you’re not out to get!

I’d also recommend bringing the ice cream bucket hats of primary school back in vogue. You’ll look ridiculous, but so will your friends when they lose bits of ear.

Once, I was being simultaneously swooped by two magpies. They didn’t stop for any of the usual tactics: the assault didn’t cease when I dismounted my bike, stopped walking, or started crying. BUT when I eventually shouted, “I’m not DOING anything!” they left me alone!

Expand Your Social Network I’m too scared of sharp, beaky rejection to try this one, but experts recommend you befriend magpies so they know you’re a non-child-stealing human. Start by bringing them the remnants of your Pop Up lunch – as your friendship blossoms, you can expand your hangouts to DNMs by Sully’s and some joint warbling sessions. They’ll reward you by not stabbing your skull. They might even introduce you to the kids

It’s unconfirmed, but this technique might also stop the ANU ducks from attacking your ankles.

Use Your Words

Either magpies have a surprising grasp of English, or they just thought a twenty-year-old weeping outside the National Film and Sound Archive was a bit sad,

I’m overseas this nesting season. While I got shat on by a seagull last week, for the first September in my life I’m not avoiding all things that fly and I would highly recommend the fear-free life. You know the old adage: “If they won’t stop swooping, swoop on out of the country.”

Week 7, Semester 2, 2018

DISCOVER // SCIENCE

Lost opportunity Text: Andy Yin Graphic: Maddy McCusker

Initially intended for a 90-day mission, which included investigating for evidence of water on Mars, the Opportunity rover landed on the Red Planet in 2004 and has since operated for fourteen years. However, it looks like this service record may soon come to an end. On May 30, a dust storm began – a common occurrence on Mars, except this one encompassed the entire planet within a month. Opportunity relies on solar panels for power, so, with the sky dark, it entered hibernation mode on June 10 to conserve energy. Comparatively, the more modern Curiosity rover, powered by heat from an on-board radioactive sample, was unaffected. For the rover’s operators at Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), this was not immediately a cause for concern. The rover is designed to ‘awaken’ at regular intervals to accept commands. During these times, the science team at JPL use NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN) to listen for signals from the rover that indicate it is still operational. Additionally, three times a week they send a command outside of the usual window to elicit a ‘beep’ from the rover, in case it’s awake at an unexpected time. This is called ‘active listening’. However, despite giving off regular pings, Opportunity has not responded. The storm reached its peak in June and has since cleared significantly, so the rover’s continued silence has raised concerns that it has been permanently rendered inoperable by the dust and cold. In light of this, on August 30, JPL Opportunity project manager John Callas announced a timeline. Once the

tau level – a measure of atmospheric opacity in the Martian sky - dropped below 1.5 (it reached 10.8 at the storm’s peak), Opportunity would be given 45 days of active listening. If no response was heard, JPL would then be forced to declare the rover dead. Although Callas’s statement is realistic, some would argue that it is fatalistic. Reportedly, Opportunity team members were not consulted about the deadline or given prior notice of the August 30 announcement. Many team members felt that cutting active listening after 45 days would be giving up on Opportunity too soon. Former Opportunity director Mike Seibert remarked, “it just seems like it's an easier thing to say we're done than putting the extra effort into soldiering on...” Indeed, over the fourteen years, JPL has already seen Opportunity endure far more challenges than anticipated. The rover has lasted more than 55 times its expected lifetime: designed to travel about 1000 metres, it has logged 45 kilometres and become the farthest-travelled vehicle on any moon or planet besides Earth. Its unplanned longevity is owed to an unexpected Martian phenomenon, discovered only after the rover arrived on Mars. Every Martian year, the planet experiences a windy season lasting about two Earth months. Strong gusts of wind, called ‘cleaning events’ or ‘dust devils,’ can clean accumulated dust off the rover’s solar panels. If not for these devils, Opportunity would have lost power long ago. This year, the windy season is expected to come in November and last until January. But, if the tau level drops soon, the 45-day deadline will not be enough time to last the whole season. It appears that the Opportunity team believes that the short deadline is due to economic concerns. Opportunity

science team collaborator Tanya Harrison commented, “in the grand scheme of things, [dust devil season] is not that long from now… you're not going to suddenly be saving tens of millions of dollars by cutting the mission short.” However, Callas seems to think the windy season will not help. His announcement emphasises that it is unlikely that dust build-up on the solar panels is the sole reason for Opportunity’s silence – even if the wind can clean the dust, the rover has also likely suffered permanent damage that will prevent it from rebooting. But, Callas is not blind to the emotional impact on his team: "It's just like a loved one that's missing in action... you still hold out hope, and we are. We'll still listen. But we have to be realistic, too…” The experience is particularly acute for the team because they have been through it before. Spirit, the sister rover to Opportunity and part of the same Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission, fell silent in March 2010. Like Opportunity, its inability to be solar-powered led to Spirit’s untimely fate. In May 2009, it became stuck in a position where it could not face the sun. The rover could not run its heaters, and when the Martian winter came, the cold left it inoperable. According to Seibert, Spirit’s chances were far worse than Opportunity’s are now, yet Spirit was given much more time – it was May 2011 before attempts to re-establish

contact were halted and the rover was declared dead. "We did everything we could have done,” he said. This time, the stakes are higher. Regarding Spirit's loss, Seibert said: "It was just losing half of the spacecraft, but there was still plenty to do”. Now, if Opportunity remains silent, the MER mission comes to a close. The team is understandably anxious for this not to happen anytime soon. However, even if it the operation must conclude, Opportunity’s life has had no shortage of extraordinary discoveries. In its first few weeks on Mars, it uncovered small, highly spherical pieces of the mineral hematite in the soil. The discovery of hematite was critical, as it is the mineral form of rust which usually forms in water. However, it was likely formed in highly acidic water that would be difficult for life to survive in. In 2011, Opportunity also detected smectite, a clay mineral, in the Endeavour Crater. Like hematite, smectite forms in water – specifically water with a neutral pH - thereby providing much stronger evidence for the possibility of life on Mars. Perhaps in fifty years, when Mars seems as close as the moon does now, we will look back at Opportunity’s discoveries, and be amazed that they were made by a robot controlled from fifty million kilometres away.

discover // SCIENCE

Vol. 68 , Issue 10

How science is being used against you Text: Brody Hannan Graphic: Maddy McCusker

You may not want to waste energy or burn fossil fuels, but you’ll soon discover that the deck is stacked against you. Everything is designed to use more and more fuel. Take your car for example. You may think that switching to biofuel or even driving an electric car is doing the environment a favour. But every operation performed during a simple drive to work burns unnecessary petrol. For starters, stopping at a stop sign uses more fuel, as you must re-accelerate your car from a standstill. Think about how this effect is multiplied over thousands of vehicles that are stuck in peak hour traffic, twice a day. Cars also tend to be the most fuel efficient at the ‘sweet spot’ speed of 80-95 kph. Anything over that and you’ll begin to use more fuel, as your car encounters greater wind resistance when travelling at higher speeds. In fact, you’d consume 15 per cent more fuel by driving at 100kph instead of 90 kph. While I wish I could point the finger and blame some policy-maker for engineering an evil system designed to waste as much fuel as possible, the reality is that this is the result of decades of sheer negligence. As fuel is still relatively cheap, it's much easier to cut corners on making thoughtful, eco-friendly designs, and to just burn more fuel instead. Fuel

is expendable in our economy right now. There are also other (rather clever) ways to get us to consume more fuel beside what’s in our cars. You don’t need to be a psychology major to know that us humans don’t like petrol stations. They’re usually loud, filthy and have that intoxicating scent of unleaded petrol to them. Not to mention, there’s nothing nice about having to fork out a whole heap of cash to pay large petroleum corporations every time you fill up. There’s loads of research to back this up. A 1994 study by researchers at the University of Denver showed that people have negative feelings toward petrol stations and positive attitudes toward ATM machines. Go figure – who doesn't enjoy being handed bundles of 20 and 50 dollar notes that seem to appear out of thin air? To make us feel comfortable spending more money at the petrol station, petrol pumps have been specifically designed to look like ATM machines – diffusing the anger we feel toward petrol stations and creating a more positive relationship like we would have with an ATM machine. No matter how hard we try to change our personal consumption preferences, or how far technology advances, the world around us is designed to slow our fight against change. There was a recent survey conducted by the ABC which asked readers how far

they would go to adjust their behaviours in response to our increasing population. Some said they wouldn’t have kids, others claimed that they’d be willing to relocate from the city to the country if their friends did the same. On the other hand, some weren’t prepared to compromise their current living standards. As much as I dislike the idea of having to dictate human behaviour – for example, how many kids people should have, where they should live and what kind of car they should drive – the notion that we should solely rely on the advancement of science and future technologies to solve our issues is nothing but a copout. Science doesn't progress linearly, and it doesn’t always improve our living conditions. A simple example of this is given by a 2015 report from Microsoft, which showed that our new digital lifestyle is impacting our ability to focus. Human attention span has shortened from twelve seconds to eight seconds since the turn of the millennium. Technology can also be lost. While being interviewed, when asked why he sets such ambitious targets for his companies, Elon Musk commented that technology may not always be an “upward slope”. Just like the Egyptians ‘lost’ the knowledge and technology to build the pyramids and read hieroglyphics, and Romans the ability to build aqueducts and indoor plumbing, we too could

lose the technological advancements that we have made in recent years. The key message I want you to take away from this article is that changing your personal behaviours will not have the dramatic impact that you think. No matter how many of us go vegan, sell our cars to use public transport or take shorter showers, there will still be wastage of the earth’s natural resources in virtually every aspect of human life. Since we can’t rely upon science to solve these issues, we need to call upon smart policy. We’ve seen this work before. Innovative urban planning, like redesigning the public transport systems in Dakar, Senegal and Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, can reduce GHG emissions, increase economic productivity, encourage women to work and reduce social inequalities. Looking at this issue in an Australian context: sure, people could make the difficult decision to move from cities to regional areas, but a national high-speed rail network would allow people to maintain their city lifestyles and jobs without having to live there. You could also shower as infrequently as you want, but unless the government insists on utilising renewable energy and recycled water – technologies we already have - there’s not much point making an effort. We all want to see improvements made in the world, but the power to implement these changes is above us. It’s out of the hands of science too. It’s up to our policymakers to lead the change we want to see.

Week 7, Semester 2, 2018

discover // SCIENCE

Breast Exams: It’s time to get checked Text: Lexie Johnstone Graphic: Sophie Bear In the words of the immortal Shakira, “Lucky that my breasts are small and humble”. She was hoping that they wouldn’t be confused with mountains, but I’m just hoping that it’s going to make the task at hand a little easier. I embarked on the exercise of reviewing three apps designed to help you carry out a breast-check. Over 3000 people are expected to die from breast cancer in Australia this year, and it is projected to be the most commonly diagnosed cancer of 2018 - 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed! Stats also say that up to 90 per cent of lumps are found by sufferers themselves, so it is now more critical than ever to understand your breasts inside and out. The Cancer Council recommends that all age groups should be carrying out regular self-checks, so regardless of your age, it is vital that you become familiar with your breasts and be on the lookout for any changes. Personally, with most campaigns being directed towards my mum’s age group rather than mine, I felt completely clueless as to how a breast exam is conducted. Discovering apps to guide me through this process seemed like the perfect solution, so I’m going to share my experiences and reviews to encourage you to get checked yourself!

The Contestants

I found three apps to pit against one another, stripped them down and got as comfy with them as possible (as comfy as can be conducting a breast check in the Canberra winter!).

1. Breast Check

Breast Check has pictures and focused questions that guide you through a self-conducted breast examination. It shows you how to check your breasts and what to look for, and it also has links to videos that visually help you through the process. It allows you to log your checks and record any changes or concerns that you note, so that you can revisit them in the future. This was one of my favourite features from the three apps and really set Breast Check apart. The app allows you to create a personal plan by linking your breast check to an activity in your own routine, such as going for a run. Furthermore, you can set reminders and decide how often you’d like to check, ranging from weekly to every few months. I would have personally appreciated more specific advice on how frequently a breast examination should be conducted, however, in another section of the app it does recommend checking your breasts at different points in your cycle, to be more attuned to any to changes.

2. Check Yourself

As a side note that has nothing to do with the quality of content, Check Yourself was slightly buggy and crashed once or twice during operation. Bearing in mind that the weather was very nippy and that I was keen to rug up again as soon as possible, this was slightly frustrating. Having said that, the instructions are more detailed than Breast Check, and I felt more confident following them. The instructions are accompanied by animated gifs, which are also great direction. It provides body-positive messages and mentions the need to carry out breast checks even as a teen or young person. The tone of the information it offers is a slightly lighter than the other apps - which may or may not appeal to you - but I did find it to be the most informative out of the three. Like the other apps, it also allows you to set reminders for when to check, but unlike Breast Check, it provides advice on the time in your cycle that is best to do so (about a week after your period ends). It also stresses that it is important to check at the same time each month, which I found particularly useful.

to book a mammogram, which is vital if you’re over 40. The app can also be used to schedule mammogram appointments, and if a problem arises, appointments with qualified specialist doctors near you can be arranged. However, these functionalities are unfortunately not available in Australia. Furthermore, it includes a feature that calculates your breast cancer risk, but this is only effective for those over 35. Naturally, I cast aside all my hydrating moisturisers and allowed myself to age over a decade to test this out. It asks a few questions and gives you a risk percentage at the end. Overall, I’d say this app can be quite useful -, however, it's most practical for those living in India, aged 40 and over, who have full access to its functionalities. If I’m ignoring the features that I can’t use, I found it to be the weakest of the three.

Overall impressions

All the apps left me feeling far more educated and confident about

conducting a self-check, so regardless of which app you choose, I would highly recommend any of them. Nevertheless, Brexa was simultaneously my favourite app and the least useful of the three. It has a lot of great functionalities but these weren’t applicable to my age group or available in my region. If it does suit your region or age group, I'd highly recommend it. Breast Check and Check Yourself I would place about on par they’re very similar. Breast Check had the great addition of being able to log notes on your checks, but Check Yourself was more informative and slightly easier to follow. I did observe that they were all quite ‘pink’ and gender normative, so I’d love to see app makers pushing for greater diversity in the future. The takeaway message that I hope you’ll walk away with is that breast checks are super important - important enough to strip off on a frosty Canberra night. Regardless of whatever method or app you use, it’s time to get checked.

3. Brexa

First up, some of the services that Brexa offers are only available in India (where the app was developed). Naturally, this is disappointing, and it would be fantastic if these services were eventually available in other regions. The app solely uses videos to guide you through a breast check, as opposed to the other two, which offer at least the option of written instruction. Personally, I preferred the option of text, as I could then navigate the process at my own pace. In addition to scheduling reminders for self-checks, Brexa allows you to plan a yearly reminder

CHECK Yo self

discover // SCIENCE

Vol. 68 , Issue 10

Diversity in Tertiary Science Education Text: Catherine Lockley Graphic: Georgie Kamvissis

Is science truly a meritocracy? A system in which the best ideas and thinkers rise to the top, like Brainiac sea-foam? Or do people from underrepresented minority groups – such as disabled females – face substantial systemic barriers that make their journey a bit like playing Fortnite in Battle Royale mode? Research over the last decade tells us that diversity improves science. Most Australian universities have a defined list of policies, priorities and actions available to all staff and students that promote diversity. Indeed, many even develop initiatives that specifically target, recruit and enrol these students. On paper, it seems that diversity is encouraged, lauded and well-supported by both government and institutional policy and infrastructure. However, how well do these initiatives translate into the student experience? A 2017 San Diego State University survey of underrepresented minority (URM) students says: not well. Appearances can be deceiving when it comes to gauging actual student experience - a bit like opening a $200 bottle of Bollinger only to discover that the wine is corked. Well, our initiatives are corked. So where is the disconnect? Why do diversity initiatives fail to reach the students they were designed to recruit and assist? For starters, the disconnect is not often academic in nature. The less tangible elements of the student experience –those not documented in university Subject Experience Surveys for example – are the ones that predominantly hinder women and other minorities in their academic journeys. So, let’s look at diversity. The term merely describes differences within a group. Inclusion, in comparison, is about how these members are treated and how they feel. Emphasising diversity without institutional, cultural inclusion merely increases the number of diverse scientists. It does not foster equity

within the scientific or academic community. The Australian Human Rights Commission is definitive in its assessment that “there are not enough services available to students with a disability to match the requirements”. Despite this, according to Universities Australia, there has been as 94 per cent increase in enrolments by students with a disability over the last decade. As you would expect, there are reams of policy documents addressing both initiatives and codes of practice for universities. The Disability Discrimination Act of 1992 says that active measures must be taken to identify and remove barriers to learning that are reasonable and that do not impose unjustifiable hardship on the organisation. The Students with Disabilities Code of Practise for Australian Tertiary Institutions insists that (under section B1-6) “[disabled students] will be treated with dignity and respect”, and further (under section H2e) that staff are “able to respond appropriately to the requirements of students with disabilities and call on timely specialist advice as required”. Here’s how it translates into reality. A young woman with congenital distal spinal muscular atrophy is studying her undergraduate science degree at one of Australia’s most well-known regional universities. Due to her condition, she is reliant on her wheelchair, and hence she chooses to complete most of the program via distance education. However, Australian Qualifications Framework requirements mean that she must fulfil specific requirements for laboratory hours and face-to-face teaching hours via compulsory residential school sessions. Again, in line with the research, she does not face academic challenges – she is a multiple-time recipient of the Dean's List academic recognition. Her challenges are instead practical. The ageing laboratory facilities were not designed for

wheelchair accessibility. This leaves her stuck out the front, unable to participate in experiments. Despite booking her accommodation at 9.01am on the day reservations become available, she arrives to discover that the one suitable accessible room out of all the university residences has been allocated to someone else … an ambulatory someone else at that. She is now in a room that doesn’t fit her wheelchair hoist, and in which she cannot shower for the four days that she is required to attend classes. She has little option for recourse. Residential schools often run over weekends, and as a result, there is no one around to fulfil the (H2e) codes of practice. In these circumstances, she is expected to both fully participate in class activities and complete a stressful mid-session examination without the basic human dignity of being able to shower or use a toilet safely. Now, this university talks the talk. They value equity and diversity. They are about “creating a fair and inclusive environment in which students and staff from all backgrounds can flourish”. They have contacted the student in question and have determined to rectify their residential accessibility allocation policy … at some point. But, ask the student how ‘flourishy’ she feels right now. Go on. What are the chances that she’ll be inclined to subject herself to more of the same at a postgraduate level? How can she be expected to ‘bloom’ when her environment is not nurtured? The absence of practical inclusion strategies – for example, having access to more than one appropriately equipped residential room – means that in this case, some of the best ideas, the best thinkers, have very little chance of competing or rising to the top in this supposed ‘meritocracy’ of science. She is playing the same game as her cohort, but in Battle Royale mode. Until diversity initiatives come handin-hand with institutional practical inclusion strategies, “valuing diversity” is nothing more than politically correct point-scoring.

Week 7, Semester 2, 2018

discover // Environment

CAGED OR PROTECTED? PREDATOR-PROOF Fences in australia Text: Xavier Anderson Graphic: David Liu Like many local Canberrans, a few weeks ago I made my way out to Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve. I was amazed by the abundance of wildlife in ‘The Sanctuary’. The area is bordered by a series of predator-proof fences, coursing with electricity. Inside these fences, Potoroos, Koalas and every other kind of vulnerable critter are flourishing.

has long been debated with the ethics of zoos. Fences are great at protecting the animals at risk. But if we continue to build fences we will lose any chance of having natural, wild populations. Animals would be protected just for show. After that, what’s the point? As a land manager, it can often be difficult to take the hands-off approach. Stepping back may be the best solution for controlling Australia’s introduced predators. Recently, a study from Deakin University suggests that reintroducing dingoes will help manage cat and fox populations.

The same is mirrored in the north of the ACT as well. There, Mulligans Flat provides a haven for Eastern Quolls, previously extinct to the mainland. The ACT is not alone though. Across Australia, predator-proof fences are popping up everywhere. For good reason, too. They have been incredibly successful in the conservation of vulnerable species. However, this growing trend also raises some troubling issues. Should predator-proof fences be the future of Australian conservation? Introduced predators are a big problem in Australia. Such predators mainly comprise of wild dogs, cats and foxes. Since their introduction, they have thrived at the expense of our native marsupials. Previously, the only natural predator for the marsupials was the dingo. Cats and foxes are much better hunters, though. Feral cats alone kill a million native birds every night. As a result, it hasn’t taken long for native species numbers to plummet and for the predator’s to rise. Several techniques have been used to control predators numbers since their introduction. The most controversial of these has been the 1080 baiting program. This program has been highly criticised by animal rights groups and land managers alike. 1080 is a harsh poison that gives a slow and painful death to any animal that ingests it. Targeting the species you want to cull is also difficult. Although there are measures to do this, often the wrong animal

will come along and ingest the poison. Land managers have now primarily moved to the more humane and effective predator-proof fences. These fences work by excluding an animal from an area by fence height, depth under the ground and mesh size. Many fences also utilise an electric current to deter predators further. Their success is undeniable. So now many vulnerable populations, like the rock wallaby, are rebounding with the help of predator-proof fencing. Managers are investing heavily in these fences after seeing their effectiveness. In Central Australia, construction of

the world’s largest cat-proof fence has just been completed. This 94 square kilometre area will see the replenishment of local bilby and bettong populations. Predator-proof fences are not without controversy, though. Many people are critical of their eager adoption as a ‘fix-all’ for conservation. For example, at Mulligans Flat one thousand animals were found blocked by the fence, with 108 reptiles dying while trying to get past it. The fences restrict these populations’ natural movements. There is also the larger, philosophical issue of fencing in animals. This

The study argues that reintroducing dingoes to areas they have been removed from will restore balance to ecosystems. This is because dingoes are apex predators. They hunt and kill mesopredators like cats and foxes. According to researchers, they also “don't pose the same risk to t hreatened species, as the smaller mammals have developed anti-predator strategies to co-exist with dingoes.” More study is still needed, though. Dingoes pose a significant threat to livestock, so reintroduction will have to be closely monitored. At the moment, predator-proof fences are a necessary evil. They are more effective and humane then 1080 baiting. However, we risk losing our wild populations if we rely on them too heavily. Reintroducing dingoes into the bush may be the solution to counteract this, though its implementation must be carefully overseen. It’s our best shot at avoiding becoming ‘Zoo Australia’.

Vol. 68 , Issue 10

discover // Environment

ECOTOURISM: PROSPECTS AND CHALLENGES Text: Anonymous

When booking an overseas trip today, we are bombarded with ads for ‘eco’ resorts and tours. At first glance these operators offer a unique way to see the world. They are away from the crowds and amongst the local people. Best of all, they respect the environment in which they operate. But what makes a tourism operator ‘eco’ and are they really as sustainable as they advertise?

The Rise of Ecotourism Ecotourism is becoming an increasingly popular form of tourism and travel. It is growing at a rate of 20-34 per cent each year since the 1990s. We can attribute this to the growing environmental awareness of millennial travellers. A poll conducted by Chase Marriott Rewards found that 84 per cent of millennials are interested in "partaking in a charitable trip next time they travel." Gen X only had 18 per cent and Baby Boomers had 17 per cent. This high interest in responsible travel could be the primary reason ecotourism is becoming so popular.

What is It? The changing sentiment of young travellers has led to tourism operators rebranding themselves as ‘eco’. But what exactly does this mean? According to The International Ecotourism Society (TIES), ecotourism is the “responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment, sustains the well-being of the local people, and involves interpretation and education”.

industry is the fundamental issue of the ecotourism industry today.

Environmental Impact A key selling point of ecotourism is its low impact on the environment. It is a definite drawcard for many travellers who are seeking remote, untouched areas. The flipside of this is that these remote resorts can have relatively large carbon footprints due to their isolation. There are also large amounts of indirect pollution which can result from ecotourism destinations. Due to the remote locations of ecoresorts, extensive ground, sea and air travel is constantly required to reach them. Without carbon offsetting, these processes are very unsustainable. On smaller scales, ecological sustainability in tourism is possible. We see this in Namibia and the success of its wildlife safaris. The growing industry has led to the hiring of more native game wardens. As a result, poaching has been drastically reduced. This has led to wildlife numbers more than doubling in the region. However, if the management approach is incorrect or the resort is too large, then native animals and flora begin to feel the impact of overuse. This is especially true when the destination grows in popularity.

Local Economy

This ethos appears to be well thought out and beneficial for all parties involved. However, as more businesses brand themselves as ‘eco’, several challenges have arisen. So what are these issues, and what must we do to combat them?

Ecotourism can inject much-needed money into struggling remote communities. It is often the case, though, that these ecotourism areas will draw multinational developers or corporations because they see an opportunity to build hotels, shops and other attractions. These developments thus have a reverse effect on the original aims of the local community focused ecotourism. When larger businesses begin to use the ‘eco’ label, the local economy starts to feel this pressure. A common compounding effect of an influx of wealthier tourists to these areas is a trend toward inflated prices of goods.

Regulation

Local Culture

To meet TIES standards as an eco-operator, businesses must not adversely affect the areas that they operate in. Currently, there is no way to enforce this globally. In fact, any business can advertise itself as ‘eco’ without conducting any sustainable activities. This ‘greenwashing’ of the tourism

Associated with economic exploitation of the local communities comes cultural exploitation too. This issue is very apparent in areas such as Costa Rica, where the rapidly growing ecotourism industry is eroding the communities that people go to see. For example, as more eco-resorts develop, locals lose more of their

land and their ability to perform traditional cultural practices. Due to this, many locals take up service jobs within the ecotourism industry. Although this provides work for the community, it deteriorates their culture at the same time. As well as this, the traditional practices which visitors wish to see run the risk of becoming tokenistic and lose their meaning and importance.

Directions for the Future From the above issues, it is evident that there are many hurdles for the ecotourism to overcome . If managed correctly, ecotourism offers a sustainable and beneficial way to travel. It can benefit local environments and communities as seen in Namibia. With younger travellers

drawn to more charitable and sustainable operators, it is fast becoming the future of tourism. Therefore, we must get it right. National governments have a duty to impose strict regulations on what constitutes an ‘eco’ business. Clear guidelines must be established as well. This will determine what is acceptable. We must ensure that visitors, communities and the environment all really do benefit from the rise of ecotourism.

discover // Environment

Week 7, Semester 2, 2018

DISCOVER // BUSINESS & ECONOMICS

DIGGING AN AUSTRALIAN DIGGER Text: Xavier Anderson Graphic: Jonathan Tjandra

The bettong, also known (unfairly) as the rat-kangaroo, is the unsung hero of the bush. You may not see him, but while we are all asleep, he is burning the midnight oil.

actually do something other than lay around and eat grass. They are the ecological engineers of Australia’s landscapes. They are thought to be one of the primary drivers of biodiversity. Bettongs rework soil and sediments when they dig for food or build burrows. This process is known as bioturbation.

When looking for roots, fruits or seeds This little fella was once endemic to to eat, bettongs mix up soil as they dig. Australia but has been extinct on the This mixing alters many soil processes. mainland for many years. Land clearing for agriculture removed prime habitat and sources of food. What was left of the struggling population was taken care of by cats and foxes.

Their digging increases soil turn over which affects the structural and chemical properties of the soil. For example, by stirring up the soil, the bettong increases water infiltration as air pockets can form in the dirt. This leads to greater hydrophobicity which decreases erosion. Bettong diggings also capture organic matter and can create a habitat for micro and macroscopic organisms. As a result, nutrient cycling can be increased. Nutrient cycles are important because they allow the transformation of matter from

In 2015, bettongs were reintroduced to the mainland, at Mulligans Flat. The area is surrounded by predator-proof fences and has allowed the population to thrive.

one form to the other. This allows for different organisms to access the specific nutrients that they need. A recent study conducted by The Mammal Society found that the, “The overall effect of mammal diggings is…increased plant vigour and resilience, increased biodiversity and consequently improved ecosystem functioning.” The bettong may be small but is a damn hard-worker. Its absence on the mainland has definitely contributed to the deterioration of Australian landscapes. I hope that Mulligans Flat is just the start and that one-day, bettongs will be released back into the wild. With Australia currently ranked the second-worst offender of biodiversity loss, we need all the help we can get.

Bettongs aren’t just cute little fury things either. Unlike kangaroos, they

Energy economic policy: The rise in energy prices Text: Sam Walker Graphic: Jonathan Tjandra Energy policy and the economics behind power prices has been the most contested political issue over the last decade in Australia. As Canberrans and ANU students receive their astronomical winter power bills, we see the same issue become instrumental in yet another Prime Minister being deposed. Why is it so hard for policymakers and economists to find a resolution to Australia’s ever-increasing power costs? According to the Clean Energy Council, power prices have increased by 109 per cent in the NSW/ACT area over the past decade. In 2016, the ACCC stated that only 22 per cent of a person’s electricity bill is made up of the actual power generation costs. However, the wholesale power increase in the past two years has been the predominant cause of more recent power price hikes. Since 1998, power has been supplied to 80 per cent of households in Australia through the National Electricity Market. It is a wholesale market which connects electricity generators to energy retailers, who then in turn distribute to businesses and households. The market determines a ‘spot’ or ‘equilibrium price’ that reflects the physical demand and supply in the marketplace. This is a critical price signal for the financial market, made up of generators and retailers. It’s where contracts are exchanged on a minute-by-minute basis, which ends up determining the end price that is passed onto the consumer. Demand and supply factors in the energy market can explain why prices

have increased over the last decade and shown no signs of abating. Australia’s ever-rising population, coupled with the increased rate of homes with power-intensive air conditioning and heating systems, have placed a demand strain on the market. Think of the 40-degree summer nights, or the -5 Canberra winter evenings: these see a nightly peak in energy demand, causing the spot in the wholesale market to spike, and this is eventually passed onto households via the quarterly power bill. However, where energy prices and economics collide with politics, is on the supply side of the market. Simply said,

over the past decade Australia has not been able to provide affordable enough ‘dispatchable’ energy to keep up with the rising demand. This is primarily due to three factors. Firstly, the price of gas in Australia has risen by over 100 per cent in the past decade, mostly due to increased exporting overseas of natural gas by domestic producers, which in turn has reduced the overall supply of gas within the Australian marketplace. Secondly, the closure of major ageing and old coal plants in South Australia and Victoria has caused an overall reduction in the total productive capacity of energy available in Australia. And thirdly, the contested political environment and

multiple government schemes that have come and gone over the decade have resulted in a terrible commercial environment for business. Fossil fuel and renewable projects have a 30 to 50-year project time frame, and without the medium term certainty business was unable to make up for the supply shortfall that has been occurring. The latest attempt to provide policy certainty was in the form of the National Energy Guarantee (NEG). The policy aimed to both legislate the Paris emissions reduction target of 26-28 per cent while providing the framework and certainty required for new supply to be generated into the energy marketplace in a technologically agnostic way by investors. According to ACCC statistics, seven per cent of a household power bill is made up of the costs from environment schemes such as the renewable energy subsidies and the Renewable Energy Target. A significant portion of government members saw the legislation of Paris emission targets and the likely renewable energy investment it would generate as being unlikely to bring average household prices down and to restoring supply side certainty to the energy generation market. This was the prime instigator of the political turmoil that occurred last month. Unfortunately for households and businesses, Australia is back in no man’s land when it comes to this fundamental issue. Expect an ever-continuing rhetorical battle leading into next year’s election. Until either party can deliver legislatively the long-term framework required, it is hard to foresee anything other than greater financial strain amongst many within our community as prices rise further and reliability during critical times diminishes.

DISCOVER // BUSINESS & ECONOMICS

Vol. 68 , Issue 10

Australia’s Withering Media Landscape Text: Bec Emder Graphic: Georgie Kamvissis

The announcement of Fairfax’s takeover by Nine in July of this year sent shockwaves through Australia’s media landscape. The move, spurred by the government’s weakening of media ownership laws, marks the end of Fairfax’s tenure as one of Australia’s most formidable independent media giants. Yet more than that, it sheds light on the failures embedded within our market-driven media sphere, wherein profits dominate over purpose, and quality journalism is lost amidst the battle for higher shareholder returns. In the era of the internet, the demise of quality print journalism is a tragic, yet unavoidable reality. Journalism in Australia is dominated by five major outlets – the government-funded ABC, the Sydney Morning Herald, the Age, the Australian Financial Review, and The Australian. Collectively, these outlets provide coverage on a broad spectrum of issues to the Australian populace – indeed, they have been described by Australian journalist Eric Beecher as “pillars of the Australian democratic infrastructure” for their role in holding governments to account. Fairfax media’s role within this context cannot be understated, and thus the merger represents more than just an inevitable consequence of a company’s failure to adapt

to the digital age, but a fundamental shift in Australia’s media sphere. On an economic front, the takeover makes sense. In years past, Fairfax failed to adapt to a challenging media landscape, missing opportunities to buy into online giants such as ‘Seek’ and ‘CarSales.com.au’. Yet ultimately, media should never be dictated by purely economic considerations. Independent, well-funded media is critical to holding governments to account and providing citizens with a well-rounded understanding of current events and issues. A diversity of voices in the media helps to avoid the danger inherent in the predominance of powerful, vested commercial interests dominating media platforms. Indeed, it is critical to democracy that voices are not magnified by privilege or power. An independent free press not only acts as a bulwark against government tyranny, but also against the dangers inherent in powerful commercial interests. The reality is that journalism itself is a loss-making enterprise. While Nine’s takeover may be a commercial saviour to Fairfax, they are fundamentally different companies, dominated by different values and understandings of their role within Australia’s media sphere. Let’s face it – there’s nothing common between the Sydney Morning Herald’s investigative reporting and Nine’s line-up of reality cooking shows. It is exactly this tension between the market reality – to increase

returns for shareholders – and the fundamental purpose of the media – to provide quality journalism – that has the media searching for its soul. Of course, it’s not all bad news. Online media has provided a wealth of opportunities for journalism. It has amplified marginalised voices, provided a free platform for quality journalists to publish their work and increased the rate at which news is consumed. Yet the media today is faced with formidable challenges. The proliferation of ‘fake news’ and clickbait journalism are two fundamental market failures of this model. In this Trumpian era of dystopian proportions, where Australia’s banks are fraught with corruption, big money reigns supreme in our politics and powerful corners of the media continue to deny the reality of human-induced climate change, an independent and well-funded press is critical. Sadly, the future looks bleak: over 2500 Australian journalism jobs have been cut since 2011, with over 200 jobs cut at the ABC in 2017 alone. The gutting of our national broadcaster – to the tune of $83.7 million over the next four years – is yet another consequence of the trend towards a corporatised media sphere. Today we need a strong, independent media more than ever. And that’s exactly what we’re losing.

Week 7, Semester 2, 2018

Tumbling

CREATIVE

Text: Geoffrey Bonning Graphic: Jessica Benter

The surface of the Earth is tumbling over itself, fighting to make itself alive Atoms, not long ago, within rocks kill and consume each other The Universe is in free fall, stars and planets huddle together in galaxies But even these huddles fall through empty space Hurtling to who knows where My mind is also hurtling, torrents of information pour in Ideas absorb them and jostle for pre-eminence and control of this temporary form To what end? I've framed this all quite horrifically, but it only seems horrible while I hope to control it A sickening lurch as I reach for something firm as stars and galaxies and minds spiral and crash violently into one another But if I let go, it becomes a dance To what end?

Moonside Moments Text: Connor Parlevliet

The moon she soars And flies above A moment suspended A clear white dove

Silently watching Separate and free A moment stretched Into eternity

Spared from modernity She waits outside time Suspended in stasis Her moment sublime

Though her surface is lifeless Her meaning is priceless A moment neither the same nor different But an eternal likeness

Creative

Vol. 68 , Issue 10

faking a smile Text: Ruchika Goel Graphic: Jessica Benter

You can fake a smile And feel you’ve run a mile Amongst the crowd, one person will be there To unmask your flair and challenge your dare Will make out a glimpse of gloom in bright shine However hard you try, they’ll catch it with merely a sign Will lend a shoulder on which to cry your heart out Make you feel lighter just in a small bout Will understand completely and become a part of your pain Allowing you to ease down the memory lane A true friend in real expressions Will never let you go through such depression To find such a person is more than a pleasure If encountered, you will possess the world’s greatest treasure

Society Now Text: Anonymous

Get rich and kill trying Likes and selfies and forgotten families Head in the clouds, I don’t want to come down I want to get off The conveyor belt of life Monetised happiness Talking without meaning Knowing without listening Wake work weep repeat Dance run eat In a life of bliss You can be sweet Kindness is not a sin You don’t have to win Life is for living Love is for giving I want to take a leap And be free Are you coming with me?

Week 7, Semester 2, 2018

Creative

Sole Sobriety Sole Sobriety Text: Haoyi Jason Zou Graphic: Jessica Benter

‘Besides, everybody has a desire for something – truth, love, fame, anything you can imagine.’

After weeks of circling between sober and hungover, trying to figure out what went wrong between Trevor and him, Jared finally threw the idea of ‘Karma’ into dustbin. He cleared away all the Brandon Text: mess of theTan apartment, as well as the mess of himself, and spent nearGraphic: ly half of the credits he had earned in this town. He used them to buy a ticket to the Temple of Sacrifice, to put an end mark on his 23 years of virginity and isolation.

Then the butler opened the golden door for him without knowing his socalled ‘choice.’ Four doors and four colours. The gold one was decorated with the sword of Gryffindor from Harry Potter, the skyscrapers from The Great Gatsby, the battle scenes of the Greek god Apollo and the roses of Highgarden from Game of Thrones. He wondered what kind of surprise was behind these cheesy symbols of male reproductive organs. Seconds later, a mixed feeling of satisfaction and loneliness arose within him. The Hall behind it was neither a boring pub nor a hideous wedding banquet. Instead, it was a library without the archmaester. Billions of books were quietly stored on shelves that reached the top of the sky. Young footmen were sweeping the dust with zero decibels, stone plus the kindle, fire dancing with blood. This image had gone beyond all of the trashy VR games Jared had ever played.

‘It's about time,’ he said, and confirmed the payment on his smartwatch. Just like those two singing sisters in ‘Frozen’, the gates of fate were opened by guardians. For him. ‘For the first time in forever.’ And contrary to what he had originally thought, this place looked more like the castle from Beauty and the Beast, run-down on the outside, but still spectacular and elegant on the inside, rather than like a random underground kinky SM Hotel. He walked through someplace called the Gallery of Sex, where dozens of oil paintings bloomed in their own unique form. They showed cavemen having intercourse with cavewomen beneath a multitude of shining stars, a muscular teenage boy ‘shooting off the plane’ (meaning ‘boy masturbation’ in Chinese slang) in front of the MacBook 2077, male turtles enjoying the eternal bachelor days at the seashore, and TV industry workers shooting their orgy in Sense 8 for the eighth time. Every piece was suggesting the grand harmony of life itself. ‘Please select your preference, Sir,’ said the Al Butler. He had waited for him at the terminal of the gallery for a long time. Jared looked around and saw four exquisite doors. They were sapphire, gold, crystal, and white jade to mean straight, gay, bisexual and lesbian. ‘What if I were asexual, Mr Carson?’ He had asked a smart question, or so he thought. ‘Then I guess you wouldn't have to be here, Sir,’ the butler replied gently.

‘This is brilliant,’ he said. There's a golden rule from Asian Yaoi Culture: Since the dawn of time, a blonde boy and a black-haired boy have always been the perfect match. Through thousands of readers, he finally found that perfect guy: short blonde hair, green eyes, barely taller than him, fit and cute. The lad was reading Jared’s favourite book at the corner of the tables: A Song of Ice and Fire: A Clash with Kings. ‘Valar Morghulis.’ Jared greeted him in the old-fashioned way that the characters in the book did. ‘Valar Dohaeris,’ the boy replied with a gorgeous grin. He continued to read the chapter of his one true king: Renly Baratheon with his Knights of the Rainbow. ‘Why do you like Renly?’ Jared said. ‘For his equality, my lord. Nothing comes without a cost.’ That was absolutely true. A straight friend had once asked Jared a similar question. He had replied to Jared,

‘equality and freedom had never been given by the majority who already owned them. They require courage, struggles or even blood. Sometimes, it's not a bad thing to be too progressive.’ He followed the green light. The boy grabbed his hand and went into an inner room with a lonely sofa. Guided by the green eyes, at last, he was able to kiss this Mr. Right. While there was only a short distance between their lips, the image was now suddenly frozen, all the lights up. The boy vanished into steam. The room it turned out not to be a bedroom at all. There were dozens of real humans sitting individually, reading something. One guy looked at Jared with a little sympathy. ‘Quite shocking, right? They're all robots. And we are all the servants now, from this day, until our last day. Do I like you? No. Do I wanna sleep with you? That's beside the point. Even if you're as extremely fabulous as Milo Yiannopoulos, super-Republican, freaking intelligent, no one will lift a finger. We are all trapped in this lounge permanently unless someone who truly likes us saves us from this goddamn chaos. After all, “these violent delights have violent ends.” And then, this jock returned to read his altright newspapers. Jared thought he was about to spend the rest of his life and die alone in this temple. However, he had always believed that there was a silver lining behind the oncoming storm. He walked to the windows and closed his eyes. He imagined what it felt like to be free, to dance with a better guy; not with the perfect fabricated guy, but with the ones who could dream. Wait a second, he thought, who is that dowdy man out there standing across the street staring at me beneath the rain? And there he was. That guy who was taller than him by 30 centimetres, the sole love of his bright, short life. Trevor. Both boys smiled.

Creative // SATIRE

Vol. 68 , Issue 10

Your Weekly Horoscope Text: Gene Pinter Graphic: Noah Yim Aries Surround yourself with positive people and good things will follow. Surround yourself with law students and you’ll never hear the end of it.

Virgo It may be tempting to add a picture to your Snapchat story of your study notes scattered beside a takeaway cup of coffee, but consider this: don’t.

Taurus The planets have truly aligned for you this month! Expect a huge windfall of cash in the next few days (if you live at Burgmann).

Libra Sometimes the things we love can hurt us the most. Close the tab. That Vine compilation will still be there after finals week.

Gemini Be bold: post that meme. Naysayers will tell you it’s not spicy, but what do they know? They still think ‘Rick & Morty’ is funny.

Scorpio Smell that? Love is in the air! Not for you, though: watch the new season of ‘The Bachelor’, Wednesday and Thursday nights at 7:30 on Win.

Cancer Instead of going to one of the many departmental balls coming up, try spending the night alone with a six pack of Coronas. It’s essentially the same experience.

Sagittarius With the year drawing to a close, consider your options for the summer carefully. Sure, you could take that trip with your mates to Bali, but should you? Really?

Leo Open your mind to new opportunities. Try listening to one of the Socialist Alternative activists - it might prove difficult, but at least you didn’t pretend to be on the phone again.

Capricorn With Mercury in retrograde, be wary of ghosts. They can come in many forms, such as people who promise to contribute to group assignments and end up

Edition 9 Solution

Aquarius Despacito / Quiero respirar tu cuello despacito / Deja que te diga cosas al oído / Para que te acuerdes si no estás conmigo.

Pisces Your raging hangover isn’t an excuse to sleep in Chifley. Pass out in your tute instead – at least you’ll get participation marks for snoring.

Edition 10 Sudoku