Woroni Edition Two 2019

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woroni VOL. 69, issue 2, 2019

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WO R O N I T E A M CONTENT

Joesefine Ganko Canada Gavin Seren Heyman-Griffiths Stefanie Kam Kida Lin Phoebe Lupton Abigail Manning Riddhi Mehta Luke Minihan Alisha Nagle Ruth Purcell Erin Ronge Soumyadeep Sengupta Andy Yin

ART Abigail Border Maddy McCusker Adrian Schmidt Tanya Thongpanich Eliza Williams

NEWS Dan Le Mesurier Amber Jones Grace Sixsmith Haswanth Palaparthy Shane Xu Nick Richardson

RADIO

Albie Ryan Bec Donald-Wilson Salome Wilson Louis Festa Michael Katsavos Eve Crossett Isobel Lindsay-Geyer Tarsha Jane Felix Friedlander

PHOTOGRAPHY Bryanna Smith Callum Scarborough Hannah Nigro

TV Bremer Sharp Ria Pflaum Claire Holland Jaime Howell Jasmine Ryan Nicholas Ang Cathy McGrane Prakash Singh Savannah Benson Krishna Gogineni Lucy Skeldon

CONTRIBUTE BUSINESS Gil Rickey Sheawin Leong Shae Iqbal Sumedha Verma

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WORDS TO: ALISHA@WORONI.COM.AU ART TO: GEORGIE@WORONI.COM.AU

ARTWORK : TANYA THONGPANICH // 1

CONTENTS 4 NEWS

24 ARTS

38 The Little Piper Sai Campbell

4 Art Jonathan Tjandra

25 Your Time is Not Yet Come Anthony Moore

40 More of Less Kida Lin

6 ANUSA Mental Health Committee Back in Action Dan Le Mesurier and Grace Sixsmith

The Food of Love Connor Parlevliet

42 DISCOVERY

8 ANU OK? Changes to Student Safety Mechanisms Leave Questions Amber Jones and Haswanth Palaparthy

10 CAMPUS 11 Our Campus Has Been Gentrified Vanamali Hermans

26 Art showcase: Maddie Hepner 28 A Sense of Summer Ennui Cathy McGrane 30 Mental Health: Awareness is Action Samia Ejaz 32 Body Greta Kerr

33 CULTURE

13 Art Izaak Bink

34 “Is It Okay To Still Like Weezer?”

Lily Iervarsi

14 Campus Activists: What To Do About Provocative Speakers?

Sue Curry Jansen & Brian Martin

35 Ariana Grande reaches pop perfection with thank u, next Sebastian Lawrence

16 There Is No Such Thing as an ‘International’ Student Kai Clark

37 Mary Sue is Sexist Julia Faragher

43 Clean Beauty Canada Gavin 44 How to ‘KonMari’ Your Home like an Environmentalist Cathy McGrane 46 The Past Which Will Not Pass: Policy Makers Trapped Under History’s Shadow Lottie Twyford 48 Art: Rashmi Wijesinghe 49 Photography showcase: Bree Smith 52 Breakthroughs in Biotechnology: Curing Disease and Crossing Lines with CRISPR Ruth Purcell 52 The Chinese Economy: Still Going Strong Felix Ryan

18 Millenials and Memes Sophie Johnson

56 Meat!

Nicole Yu

19 Art Bree Smith

59 Why Contemporary Europe Should Worry Us Declan Milton

21 Practice Doesn’t Make Perfect Ben Lawrence 22 How to Talk to Women Luke Minihan

60 A Day in the Life of an ANU Medical Student Stefanie Kam 62 Art Izaak Bink 63 Why Mathematics is More Than Symbolic Manipulation Iulian Pavel Stoilescu 64 Environmental Empathy Stella McRobbie *Woroni apologises for miscrediting the author of ‘Adorn’ in Edition 1, 2019.

The author was Ashlea Arulanandam and this error was corrected in reprints and online*

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E D I TO R S

NOAH YIM

ALISHA NA GLE

BELLA DI MATTINA

JONATHAN TJANDRA

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

CONTENT

NEWS

MANAGING EDITOR

BEN LAWRENCE

GEORGIE KAMVISSIS

STEPH DAVID

JULIA FARAGHER

DEPUTY EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

AR T

RADIO

TV

EDITORS’ WELCOME Content Editor, Alisha here! Welcome to the second edition of the Woroni magazine, 2019. We’ve listened to your feedback and hope that you will find this month’s edition even brighter and bolder than the last.

I’ve been a Woroni Editor since we were still working on a fortnightly newspaper cycle. This year the magazine has skyrocketed our ability to present you with a stunning outlet for student media. But one fact remains the same, no matter how long the Woroni team has to curate this piece of art: as an contributor, finding the courage to send in work can be a real challenge.

It is easy for us editors to overlook this – to forget how it feels when you are still unsure about whether your work is ‘good enough’ – whether other students will want to read or see it. Whether it’s worth attempting to publish work if that means it has to be scrutinised and edited by someone you’ve never met. But ultimately, accepting this challenge is always worth it. Especially here at ANU, where we have such a talented, open and compassionate group of people here to receive your work and help push it to its finest level. Remember that, no matter what subject you focus on, if you’re passionate there will be others keen to listen – so long as you can learn to voice yourself with fierce, tangible enthusiasm. And we’re here to help you find that voice.

That’s what student media is about.

ARTWORK : SYDNEY LANG // 3

C A L E N DA R WEEK 5

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WEEK 6

BONSAI WEEK 2019 25 – 31 MARCH

WEEK 7 MID-SEM BREAK ENDS 22 APRIL; EASTER MONDAY

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PARSA Career Expo

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ANZAC DAY 25 APRIL

F S S

MID-SEM BREAK BEGINS 6 APRIL Groovin The Moo

WEEK 8

4 // JONATHAN TJANDRA

// NEWS

ARTWORK : GEORGIE KAMVISSIS // 5

N e ws f l a s h An e-Petition has been brought to the ACT Legislative Assembly by PARSA, who are hoping to reinstate the #3 Bus. The bus is the only one to access many areas of ANU and can transport students from one end of campus to another. Sadly, it’s been scheduled for removal as part of the new bus system. The bus system has been brought in to match the new trams.

The ANU Union held its first contested elections in ANU student memory. Students canvassed votes to secure a place as director on the ANU Union’s board of directors. It’s just one of many changes as the ANU Bar advertises its reopening under Lena Karmel Lodge. Rosie’s Chicken is returning.

The Schools Strike took place at midday on 15 March, with ANU students meeting at Kambri before merging with the Territory-wide strike at Garema Place. ANU cemented its place in a worldwide movement to generate action against climate change. A motion was passed last week at ANUSA’s SRC to support the strikers, which passed after an amendment.

Chief Operating Officer Chris Grange has announced his intention to resign in September of this year. His resignation follows the resignations Deputy Vice Chancellor Marnie Hughes Warrington and Pro Vice Chancellor Richard Baker.

Chifley Library was temporarily closed in Week 1 due to burst water pipes, beginning an annual tradition of flooding and book destruction. No books were harmed this time, but there’s always next year. Or next week – as the following week saw emergency personnel tending to a second evacuation in as many weeks.

6 // 6 // *SECTION NEWS OF MAGAZINE* | *SUBSECTION*

ANUSA MENTAL HEALTH COMMITTEE BACK IN ACTION AUTHORS // DAN LE MESURIER AND GRACE SIXSMITH CONTENT WARNING: MENTAL HEALTH

Despite relative inactivity in 2018, the ANUSA Mental Health Committee is looking to take on a new lease of life as the “Wellbeing Committee” in 2019.

No official meeting of the Mental Health Committee was held in 2018, and its presence effectively disappeared. But, luckily, it appears that it’s future is looking brighter than ever.

The Mental Health Committee (MHC) once enThe Vice President of ANUSA for 2019, Campjoyed a significant presence on campus, holdbell Clapp, has told Woroni of his plans to ing events and conducting projects designed rebrand the Mental Health Committee into to raise awareness of mental health issues and something more of a “Wellbeing Committee”. to advocate for those affected by poor mental This will help to “increase the scope of what the health. committee can do”, and it also helps to reflect AUTHOR // JOHN theDOE intention for the committee to be “more in According to the 2017 Chairs’ Handover Doculine with the direction of the University”. Clapp ment, written by Co-Chair Bolwen Fu, the Mentold Woroni that he hopes to work closely with Uptae tal Health voloreium Committee nonseniserved enditathe dicitwo demprimary volo modi sequi acillam ANU’s Director lati of officia Wellbeing, sit parchic Bernadette imolendebis Morris. re, is officte mpelit purposes of providing estionem que information con plaut and por sus advocacy explit, sit utate liquiae pudant ut volorum as aut et quistiis ut laut with regard eos minvendanto to mental health eatem at ipsuntius university. ipsapitio It is es eiciligenda This seems tositatus suggest citatur theibuscipsam Wellbeingquibeaqui Commitsequi acillam aimed to “communicate lati officia sit parchic truths and imolendebis best pracre, is que will tee eatem be afollowing arum lam asuntur similar moapproach tem doloreptae to the sit utate tices about liquiae mental pudant health ut volorum to the as student aut et quistiis body”, dolenih ictempo University’s Healthy rruptat University quibern atest, Strategy. conseque This qui es eiciligenda and sought tositatus achieve citatur thisibuscipsam by runningquibeaqui events blate consequas strategy aims tosimi, provide ut molut a “universal untiusdamand alibus whole sum que eatem such as expert a arum panels. lam suntur mo tem doloreptae ditius of system et uteapproach aut plis exerit to supporting optatiis dolut thevoluptia wellbedolenih ictempo rruptat quibern atest, conseque qui verovid ing of ANU est utstudents” prati offic and toribus, willqui be dolupta coordinated sita ent. blateMental The consequas Health simi,Committee ut molut untiusdam of 2017 alibus was sum across all areas of ANU by Access and Inclusion, ditius et ute relatively active aut plis and exerit maintained optatiis dolut a noticeable voluptia Lectur and the sitWellbeing perferia ducipsa Unit. ecaerumquia parumquam verovid estwithin presence ut pratithe offic student toribus,body, qui dolupta holding sitabarent. ressimus. becues, panels, weekly meetings and publishing Some focuses of ANU’s wellbeing strategy inLectur The zines. sit perferia Mentalducipsa Healthecaerumquia Committee parumquam of 2018, Ro doloreptat clude better quantitative landignimi, simpos research re sit into officstudent temolles

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7 // NEWS

Clapp expressed his desire to “look at more proactive initiatives” that can be set up to “improve the general wellbeing of University students”, as well as to run educative campaigns on available resources and avenues for assistance.

Increasingly, national organisations have taken a preventative approach to mental wellbeing.

Organisation Everymind uses a prevention first framework, focusing on promotion of wellbeing and primary prevention (which occurs before onset of mental ill-health). The ANUSA Mental Health Committee’s rebranding follows this national trend.

While nothing has been released yet, calls for expressions of interest are expected soon.

Readers seeking support and information about mental health can contact Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 or Lifeline on 13 11 14. ANU Counselling also provides on the day appointments every weekday at 9 am.

Scan this QR code to see the 2017 Mental Health Committee’s zine, titled ‘resilience’.

8 // NEWS

ANU OK? Changes to Student Safety Mechanisms Leave Questions AUTHORS // AMBER JONES AND HASWANTH PALAPARTHY CONTENT WARNING: AHRC Survey, Sexual Assault, Sexual Harrassment Many of the reforms brought by the AHRC report into sexual violence on campus have encountered their first O-Week. The Respectful Relationships Unit, consent modules and more cut their teeth amid the creation of Wright and Wamburun Halls and the opening of Kambri.

We ask: what is being done to help new students stay safe as their relationship with, and understanding of, home changes? And what is not being done?

“ [The ANU] does not undertake or enter partnerships with private licensed venues for O-Week...”

- ANU Media

An Australian Human Rights Report released in 2017 concluded that one in four, or “26 percent of students were sexually harassed in a university setting,” in which women “were almost twice as likely to be harassed in 2016 and more than three times as likely to be sexually assaulted.” ANU was published in some newspapers as one of the worst in the country. Two years after said report, many reviews and personnel changes later, and two weeks into Semester 1 2019, we look into what occurs to make O-Week safer than in years past.

“The O-Week spike in SASH (sexual assault/ sexual harassment) incidents has been long noted in literature, most recently through the publication of the ‘Red Zone’”, said ANU’s Women’s Officer, Priyanka Tomar. That report said 12 percent of sexual assault incidents or attempts occurred during O-Week at the University of Sydney.

“CRCC [Canberra Rape Crisis Centre] Chrystina Stanford has confirmed that ANU follows similar trends with their service receiving an inundation of requests around O-Week as well,” Tomar added.

ANU, speaking to Woroni about incidents off campus, said the University “does not undertake

9 // NEWS

or enter partnerships with private licensed venues for O-Week or other student related events.” That said, ANU-owned or associated residential halls frequently hold parties in these spaces.

“The safety of our students is our first priority, both on and off campus,” ANU Media said. “We work very closely with the ACT Government, ACT Police and other Canberra universities to ensure our community is safe and the campus is accessible.” ANU also cites services such as the official safety and wellbeing app ANU OK as a means to “assist to prevent any incidents or respond to any incidents should they occur.”

While this collaboration encompasses many of the key stakeholders in this issue, the absence of one crucial party in the conversation and collaboration is glaring – that of the venues themselves. The question then arises, to what extent does ANU communicate with or have influence over these private venues?

The incidents that occurred in O-Week this year also draw attention to alcohol as a risk factor for SASH incidents at licensed venues, but Women’s Officer Priyanka Tomar said that “pretending like alcohol immediately equates to sexual violence is far too simplistic.”

“Alcohol is not the cause of sexual assault, which is symptomatic of a much deeper issue,” she said. “The incorrect causation drawn between alcohol and sexual assault only hinders our ability to deal with sexual assault on campus. It furthers harmful victim blaming rhetoric.”

Looking back on the efforts made by ANU to create a safe space for students, Tomar says, “this incremental movement towards a safer campus is not enough. Students have a right to safe university experience and ANU should be working harder to make that a reality.”

“It will take consistent, ongoing work to address the significant harm and trauma that survivors, and the community at large have suffered,” she said.

Readers seeking support and information about sexual violence can contact Canberra Rape Crisis Centre on 02 6247 2525 from 7am to 11pm, or 1800 RESPECT on 1800 737 732.

ANU Counselling also provides on the day appointments every weekday at 9 am.

“Alcohol is not the cause of sexual assault, which is symptomatic of a much deeper issue ”

- Priyanka Tomar

ANUSA Women’s Officer

10

CAMPUS

ARTWORK : MILLIE WANG // 11

our campus has been gentrified AUTHOR // VANAMALI HERMANS University campuses are more than just bricks and mortar. Campus is often our first home away from home, where we are introduced to new ideas and new challenges. It’s important, then, that they’re spaces we can feel a part of: spaces we have full access to, that we can feel safe in, feel connection to and know we can participate in without financial limitation. This is especially true when thinking about the type of students we want on campus. Do we want to bring in those who have been pushed out of the academy – young Indigenous people, working class kids, people with disabilities, carers – and acknowledge that yes, this campus is a home for you too?

These are questions I’ve asked myself since the beginning of my degree in 2016. I’ve thought extensively about my place at ANU and my connection to this place, about what has made me feel at home and what hasn’t. Home here has been the smells and smiles of a cheap lunch from the Campus Bakery; it’s been scraping enough together for Thursday evening jugs at the old ANU Bar, late nights at Tjabal finishing that final essay or lazing in the sun on Chifley Meadows, Boost Juice in hand and friends by my side. These are all places and services that have made me feel connected to ANU campus because they’ve catered to my needs as a poor student. I’m not sure if I’ll ever feel that same connection to places in Kambri, where I can’t afford to eat or drink.

Instead, I just feel closer to answering my initial question: no, this is not intended to be a home for us, this campus does not belong to us.

Ever since the Union Court revitalisation project began construction in 2017, our university campus has been shaped and moulded to fit the tastes and inclinations of a growing number of middle-class public servants descended on Canberra, looking for a new ‘hub’ both trendy and close to Civic. Our access as students to affordable food, facilities and services has taken a back-seat to ANU’s obsession with drawing in a new community with money – money that ANU so desperately wants.

In a sense, our campus has undergone a process of gentrification. In its simplest form, gentrification is the process of renovating or ‘improving’ a neighbourhood – or in this case, campus – so that it conforms to middle-class tastes. Gentrification pushes out poor working class people, people of colour and other oppressed groups out of their neighbourhoods and fragments communities. As developers start investing in and redeveloping neighbourhoods, the rent and property value of homes begin to increase. This new market starts to draw in a wealthier,

often white middle-class individuals, able to afford a rising cost of living that poor communities can’t.

Slowly, as the demographic of the neighbourhood changes, so does its character. It’s a process in which local culture is destroyed and replaced with a new, more affluent, social character. Of course the redevelopment of ANU campus is not comparable to the gentrification I see here in Austin, where I’m on exchange, or in historically Aboriginal suburbs like Redfern back home. But nonetheless, the redevelopment we’ve watched unfold has been a process of gentrification, and students have been the losers.

The marketing of Kambri, bombarding us for months with aerial hype videos, has relied on the idea that our campus will become a ‘new cultural centre’ not just for ANU, but the city. Bird’s eyes shots and virtual reality simulations show a thriving space, filled with people enjoying live music and the arts. Our campus has been home to a lot of great Canberra culture before, with the old ANU Bar hosting bands from Nirvana, to Lou Reed, to the Cure – it would be exciting to see that type of culture fostered here again!

But this, evidently, is not the type of culture our administration has envisioned for Kambri. If we look closer at the way Kambri was marketed towards us, we can see the people in suits dotted between students. We see the take-over of restaurants too expensive for your average student, organic cafes that promote “a health conscious coffee culture” and a bar that, like Molo in the pop-up village, is no longer owned by us. As the pop-up village foreshadowed, the culture being ‘created’ for our campus is one that ‘forgets’ cheap places to eat, drink and build a community around, and is instead a culture that’s been designed to attract the tastes and money of the professional class.

Even aesthetically, Kambri’s intended audience is clear. Offering spaces with “Scandi-inspired wood columns,” a feature that gives “a warm, welcoming and non-intimidating atmosphere”, our new classrooms have been built around a very particular social character. I am not arguing that there is anything inherently wrong or dangerous about Scandi-inspired architecture: rather, that it signals the arrival of gentrification on campus, mimicking the aesthetic reconstructions of apartment developments in Baltimore to working class neighbourhoods in London.

As Kate Wagner has argued, “[t]he architectural profiles of these new buildings may not cause gentrification, in and of themselves, but in many ways they become aesthetic symbols of … the waves of gentrification”.

12 // CAMPUS | COMMENT Of course, many of us expected this from Kambri, and its Scandi-inspired wood columns are the least of our worries. We held out, manoeuvring through construction maze after construction maze, thinking that at least if this reconstruction was not for us, we would benefit from some of the more basic services and facilities promised – facilities like the pool.

ANU’s promise of a pool was one that captured our imaginations. A pool is something we could all use!

The pool represented some of the few positives of the redevelopment until we discovered that the pool did not belong to us. Instead it belonged to Club Lime, who had been given a private lease and would run one of only two of its ‘Platinum gyms’ on our campus. This facility had been misrepresented and marketed to us as something we could all share in: ANU had dangled a carrot in front of our noses, promising us a treat for putting up with change we had little to gain from.

We were made to believe that that some of students’ most basic needs like on-campus parking –needs that had been drastically disrupted during the construction – would be addressed if we just endured through it. The hours spent driving up and down Baldessin, cursing the closure of level 5 for swathes of tradies who hardly used the car parks, were abated only by the idea that the construction would be over soon and the redevelopment would offer us something better. Instead, the opening of Kambri’s carpark boasted costs so exorbitant, they made parking at the Canberra Centre look cheap.

The pricing of the pool and parking at Kambri have hit particular sore spots in the student psyche because they’ve exposed the reality of this reconstruction. It has not been for us, and every facility, every service and every change we thought was for us has been misrepresented. There has been a fundamental breaching of students’ trust. Would we have been as silent as we were if ANU had been honest about what we were to expect?

Even congruent changes like the reopening of Fenner Hall as postgraduate accommodation – dependent on the relocation and fragmentation of one of the only affordable housing options for undergraduate students – was sprung on us with next to no warning or explanation. We were told Fenner was old and needed to be knocked down. But somewhere along the way, after we’d accepted this fate, ANU discovered the hall needed only minor renovations and could instead be used to house a whole new population.

So many of us are outraged and left feeling betrayed by our university because the good faith and transparency we expected in the redevelopment of our campus and homes were never truly there. Many of us agreed our campus needed upgrading. We needed better services, our homes needed maintenance and we were excited by the prospect of a chance to rebuild ANU student culture and community.

We wanted the promise that this development, which had been paid for by selling off our rents as part of a 30-year concession agreement with investment management firm H.R.L Morrison and Co, was for us; that the redevelopment was not an expression of the wider logic of corporatised universities, intent on chasing profits. We wanted the chance to define the social character of ANU, to have a stake in the shops, in the services and the prices we’d be living with. We wanted assurance that we got to shape ANU for us, not public servants looking for the next Kingston or Manuka.

I worry a lot about what ANU will become in the years ahead. I worry who’s going to get to come here and who isn’t. ‘Kambri’ means meeting place, and was gifted to our university by Ngunnawal and Ngambri elders like Aunty Matilda House and Uncle Wally Bell. I worry about who will get to meet here: after all, meeting is a two-way exchange. Names are important, and Kambri is a name that belongs to this place. It pays respect to the ancestors and holds a vision of what the future of this university could be. Our university could belong to us. It could be a place some of the most marginalised communities in our country meet, gather and develop ideas and actions possible of transforming some of the most grievous injustices in our society. As it stands, Kambri represents only the gentrified shell of this possibility, pricing too many of us out. How do we take it back?

ARTWORK : IZAAK BINK // 13

14 // CAMPUS | ACTIVISM

Campus activists: what to do about prOvocative speakers?

AUTHORS // SUE CURRY JANSEN AND BRIAN MARTIN Last year, the Sydney University Liberal Society invited Bettina Arndt to give a talk on September 11.

Arndt, a prominent social commentator and former sex therapist, was scheduled to speak as part of her ‘fake rape crisis tour’ in which she challenged the view that campuses are dangerous for women.

Student activists from the Wom*n’s Collective on campus organised a protest against Arndt’s talk, arguing against allowing speech that can cause harm by questioning the significance of women’s experiences and triggering traumatic memories. Police had to be called to allow the meeting to proceed.

In the US, this scenario has been repeated many times. A small conservative campus club invites a provocative speaker to campus. A group of activists organises a protest and tries to shut down the event, arguing that it harms vulnerable groups and creates a hostile environment. The protest attracts media coverage, increasing publicity for the event and stimulating greater interest in the speaker’s ideas.

When provocative speakers are treated as so dangerous that they need to be silenced, this invests them with special powers. Disrupting their speech transforms them into victims, even martyrs, for the cause of free expression. Potential allies are alienated and the larger cause is damaged.

Censorship is generally defined as a power exercised by authorities: the state, military, police, religious groups or corporations. Yet, student activists in Australia, Canada and the United States have recently come under fire in the media for acting like censors – despite the fact that these countries, and especially their universities, have long traditions of support for free expression.

Student activists may have good reasons for opposing the ideas of controversial speakers. However, when students act like censors by trying to silence speech, they may unwittingly end up advancing the cause of their adversary and damaging their own positions.

The US experience In the US, the campus conservative movement and speaker circuit are well organised and generously funded by a national conservative group, the Young America’s Foundation. YAF sponsors campus speaking events, pays some speakers’ fees and related costs, trains student organisers and provides publicity materials.

YAF is fully aware of how students on the left will respond to the provocations of speakers such as Milo Yiannopoulos. One of the leaders of the Berkeley YAF chapter, Bradley Devlin, told journalist Lee Fang of The Intercept that he expected a talk by popular YAF speaker Ben Shapiro would cause a riot. Devlin acknowledged that leftist violence would increase the visibility of Shapiro and his ideas and serve as a ‘pedestal’ for recruitment of students to the conservative movement.

Even without violence, attempts to shut down speech run counter to the mission of higher education, which places a premium on the free exchange of ideas and academic freedom. The mainstream academic press denounces such efforts as censorship.

That news framing can, in turn, create opportunities that hostile politicians can exploit for their own ends.

Backfire dynamics Making attacks backfire is an activist strategy usually used by the powerless against the powerful. But in this case, conservatives are borrowing tactics from the progressive playbook.

How do backfire dynamics work? A good example is the Streisand effect. Photographer Kenneth Edelman took a series of photos of the California coast as part of the California Coastal Records Project.

Posted online, one of the photos showed celebrity Barbra Streisand’s mansion. She didn’t want people to see the photo and in 2003 sued for $50 million in damages. The sense of entitlement her legal action conveyed and the disproportionate size of the damages she was seeking produced public outrage.

Before it was publicised, the photo had been viewed only six times:; afterwards, there were hundreds of

ARTWORK : ABIGAIL BORDER // 15

thousands of views. The case was so infamous that counterproductive online censorship is now widely known as the Streisand effect.

A favourite meme of student protestors in the 1960s was “Challenge authority!” Students today, who try to shut down speakers, are emulating authorities – acting like states, clerics or corporations – despite lacking the resources to enforce their will beyond the immediate action. Any short-term victory almost guarantees long term defeat, assuming the objective is to build support for a more open and just democratic society.

Using backfire dynamics strategically When student protesters try to shout down speakers, they are acting like government or corporate censors, but without the clout, bankroll, lawyers or legal cover. As strategy, it is self-defeating. Like the actions by Streisand, it backfires.

Unless the goal is disruption for disruption’s sake, with no larger objectives on the horizon, students would be wise to think strategically about what they want to achieve. There are more effective ways to resist. Protest by all means, but be smart. Don’t do your adversaries’ work for them.

Student activists need to think strategically about what they are trying to achieve, and take into account that any action that looks like censorship can potentially backfire. One option is to just ignore the speaker: no protest means no extra attention to the speaker, just as Barbra Streisand would have been better off never mentioning the online photo of her mansion.

Sometimes it is effective to invite the speaker to a debate. This can work with high-profile speakers because if they refuse it looks like they are afraid.

Another option is to prepare leaflets for people attending the talk.

Yet another option is to organise an event giving an alternative view: a talk, a forum, a workshop, a conference. This is an opportunity to foster greater understanding of the issues and skills in campaigning.

Imagine if Sydney University students had organised a forum about rape on campus, with visiting speakers and practical workshops. Rather than leading to disastrous publicity, they could have built capacity for more effective action against sexual harassment and assault.

The message is to think and act strategically. Anticipate what others will do, design actions that mobilise support and don’t give free kicks to opponents.

Sue Curry Jansen is professor of media and communication at Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania.

Brian Martin is emeritus professor of social sciences at the University of Wollongong and was an ANU staff member from 1976-1985.

16 // CAMPUS | INTERNATIONAL

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS AN ‘INTERNATIONAL’ STUDENT AUTHOR // KAI CLARK

ARTWORK : ADRIAN SCHMIDT // 17 During my time on residential leadership we ran events hoping to involve international students in our hall’s community. These events, however, were run based on the presumption that all international student experiences are the same. They are not. A locally educated student from Japan, for example, is different to a western-educated student from Myanmar. Grouping ‘international students’ as if they are a unified, cohesive community misinforms our policies for inclusion. It is time we step away from this overly broad term and recognise these students as who they are: a diverse group of people with different needs and challenges.

According to the Australian government, the term ‘overseas student’ refers to students studying in a foreign institution who are not Australian or New Zealand citizens or Australian permanent residents.

ANU, Australian National University Students’ Association and the International Student’s Department use the term ‘international student’ to the same effect. This is an accurate label when it is used solely to describe the legal and fee-paying status of the student. The problem arises when the term ‘international student’ moves past this narrow definition.

Few, if any, ‘international student’ identifies as such.

Instead, they see themselves as who they are: a citizen of their home country. They are more likely to relate more with others from their country than with other overseas students. This is why cultural and country-specific clubs are so popular at ANU: they create a place for ambitious overseas students to cut one’s teeth in student leadership – sometimes after being rejected from college leadership.

Within the microcosm of overseas groups at ANU, we see reflections of the same stories and tensions back home. Mainland Chinese, Taiwanese, Hong Kong, and Singapore students are all generally seen as ‘Chinese’, yet the level of wealth, education, English language proficiency skills, and cultural upbringing varies. Ethnically homogenous China with its ‘new rich’ and rising middle class differs from the racially diverse Singapore, where English is the vernacular for many of its citizens. Yet, even these simple descriptions hide the complexities and contradictions of these places.

These complexities manifest more clearly when we ask a person to represent the ‘international community’. When there is only one international representative on a resident’s committee, the workload of dealing with overseas student engagement falls largely onto them. While it’s admirable for student residences to put on cultural events to engage both Australian and overseas students, a Chinese dumpling making event, for example, does not necessarily appeal to South Asian students as it would to East Asian students. This is exacerbated when you continue to see events that continue to borrow upon one cultural region over another.

Even the very role of international representative limits the potential of international students to engage in their community. I have spoken to many who were hesitant to run for any other position on their residents’ committees because they felt that

they didn’t ‘fit’ into the role as well as they would as an ‘international representative’. Conversely, I have heard students not vote for international students for other roles because they believed they were better suited for being an ‘international representative’.

So, what can we do to be more inclusive to international students? As student leaders in colleges, a good start is to triage. Some students are here to study and are content to be with one’s own. Others have a western background or education and the English and social skills to integrate successfully. The priority, instead, should be on the students who are in between, who want to be included into the community but are struggling.

These students are the ones who show up but need encouragement. It may be their lack of confidence in their English skills, their lack of understanding on Australian college life or it may be their unfamiliarity with the Australian social culture and norms that make conversations difficult for them. By supporting these students early on we enable them to participate in college culture. I have seen many students who, after a few weeks of constant struggle, give up from engaging all together. It is up to all of us to be more inclusive and welcoming.

But institutional change is also needed. ANU should step up in providing training to its student leaders and residential staff to effectively understand the legal, cultural, and socioeconomic barriers overseas students may face. I have seen Senior Residents and other leaders of the community pass judgements about a student’s fashion sense or behaviour which in the context of their home culture is the norm. We cannot expect the one international representative to educate a college on various cultural practices.

That is everyone’s responsibility.

ANU also needs to be more transparent in its policies for international student integration in residences. Many student leaders and Senior Residents I have spoken to have expressed cynicism about ANU’s uneven allocation of international students into various student accommodations. Likewise, despite international students making up a significant portion of the hall, many of them are left wondering why Senior Resident teams are largely made up of domestic students. We need more transparency around these decisions to have a fruitful and informative debate on overseas student integration into halls.

Finally, we must acknowledge the rising xenophobia around the term ‘international student’. Australian politics and discussions at ANU increasingly use ‘international student’ as a thinly veiled reference to new, rich generation of Chinese students – or as one student leader brazenly said to me, “Chinese spies”. Because of this, we must be careful of how we use language to refer to overseas students. They are people to be respected for their cultural diversity and humanity, not threats to our way of life.

The author served on the Bruce Hall Common Room Committee as Media Officer in 2018.

18 // CAMPUS | UNI LIFE

MILLENIALS AND MEMES AUTHOR // SOPHIE JOHNSON Ah, the millennial. An enigmatic, multi-faced generation that is looked upon as the hope for the future, and simultaneously very much shat on. Our generation is famous for a variety of things: being the ones to ruin the napkin industry (what?), ruining the diamond industry (we have no money for diamonds?

Let us live?), being entitled (why would we want paid internships?), and being sensitive petals (apparently, we get too many participation awards).

One thing that we don’t get enough credit for, probably due to the difficulty involved in understanding it for other generations, is our humour. Millennial humour is peculiar and specific, it varies over many formats and platforms, and adapts to the everyday person’s requirements – and those requirements evolve over time. However, as millennials, we are so used to this mode of humour, it’s easy to forget that it’s a distinct change from previous generations.

Gone are the days of clever puns and wordplay, and instead puns are only funny if they’re self-consciously terrible. Our generation is obsessed with irony, indulges in jokes about death and suffering, and flash humour has gone viral.

Our generation is able to sit at computers and adjust memes to express the realities of our everyday situations. We create templates for relatable feelings and content, and transform them into specific content that caters to everyone. The result? There’s a joke for everything, and if there isn’t, you can make one.

“Why are they so obsessed with memes?” ask the confused baby boomers. Our humour often gets lost in translation for them. Is it because the world is a blistering pit of hellfire and we’re all just attempting to resist the temptation to yeet ourselves off this mortal coil? Is it because we’re sarcastic, dead inside, and desensitised to the difficulties of our lives, and thus express suffering in any way we know how?

Is it because we learned to do it for the vine, crave validation, and now translate this to Twitter, Boomerangs and Snapchat memes?

Maybe. I’m no expert. All I know is that the ice caps are melting, university is hard, I work a part-time job in hospitality dealing with entitled public servants named Chad, and the only way that I know how to deal with this trash world is to make memes about it.

19

BREE SMITH

20 // CAMPUS | LIFE & STYLE

ARTWORK : ELIZA WILLIAMS // 21

practice doesn’t make perfect AUTHOR // BEN LAWRENCE, Life & Style Columnist What is perfection? The Oxford Dictionary says that being perfect is to be free from any flaw or defect in condition or quality; that it’s a state of being faultless. For me, the idea of perfection has aspirational value but is a little counter-productive.

Perfection is something which we struggle to put our finger on, but which is strangely familiar to us.

It permeates through teachings of faith, themes of literature and the brushstrokes of art. Pop-culture though has really brought perfection to the forefront of our minds. Advertising selling us the ‘perfect’ lifestyle and simultaneously reinforcing our own sense of imperfection. But perfection is so often defined in the negative by expressing simply what it is not.

Faith and religion, for example, articulate what is the divine by acknowledging and condemning our own imperfection.

When we were young and starting to learn a new musical instrument, because our parents thought that it would make us smarter, or we had just started a new team sport, we were constantly subjected to the phrase ‘practice makes perfect.’ But, since perfection is an innately unattainable standard, what are we actually being taught to aim for?

Towards the end of last year, I too was told to practice. A very seasoned editor said to me: ‘you need to just become comfortable with putting out articles that you’ve done your best on and are 80 percent happy with… and get over your perfectionism.’

My desire for my writing to always be perfect, to project my ideal self constantly, had been preventing me from actually writing. I’d have an idea but then would abandon it because of my uncertainty over whether I could make it mind-blowingly awesome.

Uncertainty about whether I could make it perfect.

I was introduced to the idea that you should, as a general rule, become 80 percent happy with your work. The remaining 20 percent is significantly more challenging and is largely affected by factors outside of your control. These could be your physical health or your state of mind, or you might not ever get to 100 simply because of subjective standards.

When I wrote my last column piece, some people gave me constructive feedback, some agreed with the sentiment and others dismissed my thoughts as part of my personality style. None of this was unexpected, nor was it unwelcome. But I achieved my goal to push through my perfectionism, and as a bonus, I was able to inspire a couple of readers’ existential crises.

The thing is though, practice does actually make you better. Practice makes you engage in a process of trying things out and succeeding a little bit and also failing a little bit. In so doing you are actively learning what doesn’t work, what is useful and what is unnecessary, enabling you to allocate your time and energy appropriately.

If you are going to perform a music recital you have to work on the parts of the music you find most challenging because otherwise, the overall piece will sound terrible. You won’t know which parts of the music they are until you’ve completed at least one trial run or practice.

It is also important to bear in mind the need to be constantly pushing yourself to do better. It is not enough to reach the point in a task where you think you have reached your 80 percent and then automatically finish it with a thought of “it’s good enough”. It is not good enough – it is a cop-out. It is a cop-out because you are not actually improving, or even really completing the task, you are simply compromising within your comfort zone.

Perfection may be unattainable, but your best is a moving goal post. By not pushing the boundaries or the goals, you are settling for second-best. You can move it forward by one centimetre, one metre or one kilometre – it does not matter; what matters is that you have improved and that you have achieved your best. That is a truly admirable accomplishment.

So, there you have it! Me writing a column this year is really just a slightly polished form of practice and all of you readers are here for the ride.

22 // CAMPUS | SATIRE

how to talk to women AUTHOR // LUKE MINIHAN

2018 was a big year for women. Things are changing (albeit slowly) all around the world. Trust me, I know women, and in 2019 women want to finally be treated equally. Women want and deserve respect.

It’s about time for things to change, and for that change to come about, us men have a responsibility to change our behaviour towards women. Now, I’m an equalist – you probably won’t find anyone who treats people more equally than me. Because women have been treated like second-class citizens for so long, it’s only fair that they get some special treatment to make up for it. In 2019, women want to be respected? Well, I can go one better. In 2019 I don’t respect women, I worship them. Here’s my guide on how to worship women in 2019 and move a step closer to a gender-equal world. Ladies, this year’s on us.

First, interacting with women. When interacting with a woman, you should appear disinterested and not listen to what she’s saying. Although it might sound idiotic, just think about it from a woman’s perspective – easy! Women are constantly being talked over and interrupted by men, and so when a man is enthusiastically engaged in a conversation, alarm bells will start ringing for a woman that she’s about to be talked over. By acting disinterested, a woman will feel comfortable with you, knowing that she’s safe from interruption and can talk all she wants.

To display your polite disinterest, you should avoid direct eye contact and look into blank space, mouthing incoherent words every once in a while to indicate your commitment to a deep rambling daydream. If you do accidentally make eye contact, a wink (subtle and playful) will resolve this mishap.

Now, when speaking to a woman, make sure to use affectionate pronouns instead of her name. Using a woman’s name can be forward and intrusive. Instead use terms such as ‘love’ and ‘darling’. In conversation, words can have different meanings for women, a phenomenon known as ‘playing-hard-to-get’. To understand what a woman means, you must have a strong and stable intuition to decipher her riddles.

For example, the phrase ‘please do not talk to me anymore, you make me highly uncomfortable’ can mean literally what it means. But it can also mean ‘please keep asking me when you can play guitar for me and if I’ve done acid before.’ It’s up to you to take some responsibility and understand what’s being communicated between the lines.

As words have different meanings for women, this means that women can be prone to confusing themselves when speaking. As such, when in conversation, you ought to assume what I have coined the ‘Disposition of Paternalistic Doubt’ (DPD). Essentially, what you want to do is question the legitimacy of anything a woman says, like a dad doing school revision with his 7-year-old daughter. Constantly pepper her with questions like ‘Really?’, ‘Are you sure?’, ‘Actually I think it’s…’. Now, there is a second step that goes hand in hand with DPD. Before she gets time to react to your undermining jab disguised as a question, explain her own point back to her, to clarify that she’s not confused and talking about the wrong thing. Even though women might not like being talked over, sometimes it’s for their own good and they just don’t know it. Regardless of their expertise and your likely lack of expertise regarding that topic, even if you can only offer a broad and very possibly incorrect piece of information, it’s best to play it safe and interrupt her than run the risk of letting a woman embarrass herself.

For conversation topics, feminism is always an easy go-to. Be sure to open a conversation by telling them about the collection of feminist literature you either don’t actually have, or do have but haven’t read. If asked your opinion, deflect this with vague and fluffy comments such as ‘yeah I really like how Clementine Ford highlights the rampant sexism in Australian culture’, or offer them your unread copy of The Second Sex to borrow.

Finally, conversation dynamics can change slightly on social media. When texting a woman, the two key forms of communication should be music recommendations and poetry. These help to culturally educate and enlighten her, while also containing melodies and rhyming, making them easy for her to remember. For music recommendations, try the aggressively sexist hip hop you listen to that totally contradicts the feminist values you told her you uphold - she won’t notice. For poetry, anything sexual, preferably those that use weird and jarring fruit metaphors.

So, there it is men, follow this guide and you will transcend respect and break into a new realm of how to properly treat women. It might not be what women say they want, but they do. In 2019, instead of respecting women, it’s time to worship them.

ARTWORK : ELIZA WILLIAMS // 23

24

ARTS

ARTWORK : MILLIE WANG // 25

your time is not yet come AUTHOR // ANTHONY MOORE Were you not born to set the world alight And turn the heads of those who turned away?

The time is not yet come to leave the fight.

Too often challenge sees the meek take flight And find themselves from dreams so far astray.

Were they not born to set the world alight?

Those mice who would not climb from covering night, Who willed no strength to brave the dawning day, Their time was come. They quit without a fight.

In winter years of hardship, struggle, plight, Your kith and kin will ask you, old and grey: “Did you not burn and set the world alight?”

Those marble busts of stoic men whose sight Of laurel wreath was never lost would say: “Our time was not yet come. We led the fight.”

And so, I urge you, fallen there, in spite Of great defeat and bitter loss, to stay The course, my son, and set the world alight.

Your time is not yet passed. Stand and fight.

the food of love AUTHOR // CONNOR PARLEVLIET Your whispers fill me up and make me whole Etched deep into the vinyl of my soul Cold needle shapes the sound, lifts up and down As time and time again you spin me round Your melody surrounds me like a web Dynamics of harmonics flow and ebb Your voice sounds like the music of a flute The beauty of your song now follows suit And when the gramophone should start to turn My love from that first moment starts to burn The sound that resonates inside my heart Played perfect, note for note, from my own chart

26 // ARTS | SHOWCASE

Untitled #26, from the Embodied Series Maddie Hepner

Untitled #21, from the Double Exposure Series Maddie Hepner

27

Ryan, from the Friends on Film Series Maddie Hepner

My name is Maddie Hepner, I am an American-Australian artist, and I am currently in my second year at the ANU School of Art & Design, majoring in photomedia. A majority of the work I produce is shot in 35mm film due to my passion of the physical medium and the organic materiality that arises. I explore the complexity yet delicacy of the human form in my photographic series Embodied, yet contrast those elements by focusing on character and individuality in my Friends on Film series. I have no set category that I subject my work into, yet like to flow fluidly throughout different genres, whether that is portraiture, landscape, street, etc. I experimented with manual double exposure in my Double Exposure series, which opened my eyes to the intricacy of a 35mm camera and ultimately energised my love for the medium. I strive to analyse and critique the world we live in through the use of the two-dimensional medium and translate that beauty and horror that is surrounding us into striking photographs. maddiehepner.format.com @maddiehepner

28 // ARTS | FICTION

a sense of summer ennui AUTHOR // CATHY MCGRANE It was 4pm when the heat wave hit. Everything seemed to slow down. The air was heavy with the sticky-sweet perfume of water lifting off the plants outside. A second-hand Sanyo fan whirred in the bedroom in the far-left corner of the house. In front of it was a bed laden with a disheveled striped doona cover and a twenty-something year old

woman who was trying to urge herself to go and take a shower. The heat was sudden and strong, and it made her feel sluggish. It was as if the rising temperature had added an extra twenty kilos onto her limbs. Instead of moving, she lay wrapped in her towel and stared at the ceiling.

ARTWORK : ADRIAN SCHMIDT // 29 Emma’s roommate, Xara, had left the house in a hurry for work. Just before she left, Xara had poked her head around the doorframe to Emma’s bedroom and told her she would be working the late shift and not to expect her back until midnight. That was about twenty minutes ago. Xara tended to leave the front door open on occasion, which always let the cooler air escape. Emma would not have been surprised if she had done it again. Maybe that was why the heat had appeared in full force so quickly.

Emma sighed. A bug flew in through the window.

She had told herself she would shower in the morning and now here she was at four in the afternoon lying down, doing literally nothing. The bug danced against the glass. The beating of its wings reminded her of the sound of lawn-mowers and how the grass outside needed to be cut before their house inspection this coming Friday.

Light streamed in through the windows, cut up into patches by her blinds. It hit the side of her face and made her skin feel as if it were burning.

She rolled onto her side and came face to face with a strange cat.

Emma sat up and it froze. Neither herself nor Xara owned a cat. In fact, Xara was slightly allergic to the animals. Emma regarded the creature. It was a chunky thing with tightly trimmed fur. Its body was mostly white but with three brown patches splattered across its body and face, one completely surrounding its right eye. It looked like she had caught it mid-stealth but then they locked eyes. It sat on its hindquarters and rested its tail around itself. It looked almost smug

“You should leave,” Emma said.

“I just got here,” the cat responded.

Crap, she thought. Hearing animals talk was surely a sign of heat stroke.

The cat surveyed the room. It got back onto its feet and made its way towards her, brushing against the furniture on its way. Emma watched. She held her breath in anticipation that the cat would leap onto her bed, but it never did. Instead, it sat on the floor next to her. It looked up and glued its eyes onto Emma’s. It was a hypnotic performance.

“You should take a shower,” the cat said.

Emma looked down at herself. She was still wrapped in her towel. Her stomach rumbled. A plum sat on her bedside table. Emma had put it there last night so that she would have something to eat for lunch . A pang of hunger hit her; she had not yet eaten today.

“I’ve been trying to,” she said. “I just don’t seem to have the energy…” she trailed off. “I know that sounds ridiculous but….” But she was talking to a cat so why did it even matter?

“Why don’t you have energy?”

Emma looked down at this talking creature.

Clearly this was some weird messenger from her subconscious.

“I’m having an existential crisis of sorts. Or… is it an existential crisis if it’s less about the grand purpose and more about the day to day? There’s too much to do for me to do anything. It’s paralysing.”

She picked up the plum and bit into it. The flesh was warm from the heat but soft with a sweet juice. Some residual liquid ran out the sides of her lips and down her wrists, staining them a reddish

pink colour. The cat stared at her.

“Xara always seems to have her life together. I don’t know why things are so hard for me.”

“Showering is a good start to the day,” said the cat. “It will make you feel better. It will give you the energy you don’t have”

“I don’t think that I think I deserve it.”

“Who doesn’t deserve to shower?”

“Me. I guess. I mean, I just... don’t know. I’m lazy. And that’s bad. So I should feel bad. But it just makes me feel worse I guess. Because it makes me not want to do anything. I do want to take care of myself. But it’s just...”

The cat simply lay down in its spot, its body transformed to a singular lump.

“If you were someone else what would you think about yourself?”

She sighed. This talking cat was on to something.

“I would think I was being… ridiculous.”

So, she got up. She slid her feet into her slippers. They were snug at the toes and the thin fabric was smooth against her feet. She waggled them to get the feeling back and stood up. The sunlight from the window warmed her shoulders. She picked her way over the discarded clothes from the day before, over the cat who got up to follow her, and into the hallway. It was darker there but halfway down light diffused through the fly screen as the front door lay wide open. It creaked on its hinges as it swayed side to side. Emma walked along the carpet.

She pressed down on the brass handle of the bathroom door. It opened and she stepped onto the faded tiles. The somewhat garish seventies pink aesthetic welcomed her. She smiled. The owners really were an eccentric bunch.

Emma looked back at the cat who in turn looked up at her from the entryway, in all accounts of appearance like any regular cat. It didn’t say anything. Emma closed the door shut and went into the shower. She turned on the taps and the water began to cascade out. It sounded soothing, like rain, as it hit the shower floor. Emma disrobed and hung her towel to the wall.

She adjusted the temperature and reached into the jet streams. The water was cool against her skin. Neither freezing nor warm but just right. Emma stepped over the divider that flaked gold paint and allowed the water to pour over her. It was no longer a stressful endeavour. Emma was now in it. In the shower, cooling down and cleaning off the day’s sweat. She had escaped the heat.

By the time she had toweled herself dry and opened the bathroom door again, the cat had already left. Emma went to mow the lawn.

30 // ARTS | SATIRE

MENTAL HEALTH : AWARENESS IS ACTION AUTHOR // SAMIA EJAZ Mental Health is supposedly no longer an abstract topic. Rather, the teeming urgency of mental health concerns has gradually gained much popularity and recognition. Yet, it would take no genius to see that we make weak assertions and perhaps only fool ourselves in alleging that we understand the telltale signs of mental illness. Here’s your daily dose of reality – we don’t.

We cannot endorse this any further. Society’s warped and under-detailed perception of mental health is, very simply, ridiculous and damaging. Therefore, since so very trivial a matter it is, I shall proceed to very effortlessly pluck the solution out of thin air.

Lack of Mental Health awareness shall no longer be a problem, for we will be administering a system that will foster un-ambiguity and promote efficient identification of mental-illness.

ARTWORK : ADRIAN SCHMIDT // 31 The Systeme Internationale el Nomenclature (SIN), immaculately accomplishes the differential labelling of degenerates (a.k.a mental health victims, as the term very clearly suggests). Intricately devised to record the persistence of mental illness, the Systeme v2.0 broadens accessibility with its no-bounds-allexceptions feature. A complete step-up from the ridiculously private v1.0, the updated version will now allow for a comprehensive insight to people’s well-being - and there is no catch! Simply indulge in the convenience of knowing everything that unsparingly jeopardizes the mental welfare of your bus-driver, neighbour, boyfriend or child. Awareness, like never before.

The functioning of the Systeme v2.0 heavily relies on the compliance of health-care practitioners and psychologists, whose data is tunnelled into the Systeme v2.0 database. Following the Awareness-Above-All Conference (AAA) in March 2018, SIN has successfully achieved unlimited access to all Healthcare data.

The live data transfer process is efficient since no time is wasted gaining unnecessary patient consent.

Truly flawless, SIN transcends its purpose and demonstrates uncanny applicability. Once identified as mentally-ill, the concerned person is given the title, puppet. This is definitely not an analogue for the term, pawn, and any correlation is merely coincidental. The Systeme v2.0 does not endorse manipulation of people and ensures that release of personal information does not lead to misuse, in the eyes of the public. All discrete misuse shall only take place in the background, unregulated as usual since bureaucratic departments are already accustomed to doing so.

(We do not intend to regulate this since it clearly benefits the greater public. However, in response to critical attacks resulting from the trial phase, we have included a section on privacy policy in our Terms and Conditions document.)

A person’s SIN profile shall be accessed via barcode imprinting. The imprinting will be done at epidermal level of the skin, around the right-hand inner-wrist region. It is mandatory. Children and those contracting side-effects, allergies or anaphylaxis, shall resort to relief-medication. In this manner, the approach creates research opportunities in pharmaceutics and will benefit the economy due to demand for medications. Our extensive data enables us to confidently calculate the risk for allergic reaction to major prescribed medicines; the current value stands at 70-95 percent risk of allergies. The administration of the Systeme v2.0 will benefit the economy to an extent never seen before.

Each barcode is individualised and can be scanned and accessed by a free mobile-phone app, taking awareness to the next level. The SIN profile categorises people as either normal (N), or among one of the 6 distinct mental-illness classes: Depression (D), Anxiety (A), Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD), Learning Disability (LD) and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The Systeme v2.0 does not validate any other mental illness. For anyone who supposedly has an illness not listed above, we shall proceed to blatantly impose a label (defined by the system) upon such exceptional cases.

Before launching the Systeme v2.0, we conducted an unbiased, randomised trial consisting of 5 wealthy men with no mental illnesses. One of the five suggested that the mandatory nature of the imprinting was a little intimidating. We have hence enhanced the system to allow Label Removal, provided certain terms and conditions are met: 1. You can have your label removed by paying a processing fee of $2000 multiplied by the inverse of the amount of tax you pay, under Australian Fair Work guidelines.

- If you have done the math, this means that the richer you are, the less you pay for removal and the poorer you are, the more it costs. This is not a randomised calculation; rather a product of a research outcome. An unbiased, random trial consisting 2 low-income men showed that their mental-illness diagnosis was 100 percent accurate. By allowing easy Label Removal for the poor, we cannot risk low-income, mentally-ill people running around, un-labelled.

2. If you do not pay any tax, you are not eligible for Label Removal.

3. High-achieving students may be eligible for scholarships that will help remove undesired labels.

It is forecasted that these students will not have any mental health concerns in the first place because High-achievers have no problems.

4. Women and girls, people of colour, and non-English speakers are not eligible for Label Removal.

We look forward to a future that is not plagued with the unsolved issue of mental health.

For more information or claims, do not contact us.

Awareness is Action.

32 // ARTS | POETRY

body AUTHOR // GRETA KERR

CONTENT WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGERY, ALCOHOL ABUSE The times that you rip

that skinny red

tank top off my wretched arms

and throw it

in the space where

my memory

lapses at the most convenient of times,

is when I am most

concerned about my Father reading this,

and crying

on the train again

and again

Until I have to call him

and say

I love you

I

love you like I am comforting

child

ARTWORK : GEORGIE KAMVISSIS

and go on

pretending like the blood

on the kitchen

floor

was not my own

as I sponge it

over

and over

until the red stain

reminds me of

when you drink

too much

and make yourself sick

As that blotchy

redness

That warm liquid

rushes through

your cheeks

And bursts

Only to drip

downwards onto the ground

the grave the floor and finally sink

So go on,

laugh

until your chest

begins to tighten

and hurt

as you pick

at your skin

And count

all your blessings on those

crooked fingers

33

CULTURE

34 // CULTURE | REVIEWS

“IS IT OKAY TO STILL LIKE WEEZER?” AUTHOR // LILY IERVARSI First impressions on the band’s 13th LP, Weezer (Black Album) I’ll forgive you for not jumping on the Weezer bandwagon with me – the band has been really hit-and-miss with their releases since the Green Album (of ‘Island in the Sun’ fame). The most popular critique is of the band’s immaturity in their song content. Rivers Cuomo is almost 50, surely he’s grown up and doesn’t need to be singing about getting high anymore? But there’s something about Cuomo’s simplistic lyrics and rather bleak outlook on the Black Album that differentiate it from other recent releases. Sure, there is no true common story over the course of the album (which the Blue Album and Pinkerton achieved so superbly). If you listen only to the surface lyrics, it does seem juvenile (“Die, die you Zombie Bastards” – poetic). But there are some real gems on Black – ‘Can’t Knock the Hustle’ and ‘Too Many Thoughts’ stand out with their relatable contemporary references (“Overwhelmed by Netflix Options”). The pop veneer coats the whole album with satire, revealing a level of reflexivity and self-awareness for which Cuomo’s critics rarely give him credit. Maybe Weezer could mature – but given their ever-enduring popularity in the more than quarter century they’ve been releasing music, it seems unlikely they will ever make that transition.

ARTWORK : GEORGIE KAMVISSIS

ARTWORK : TANYA THONGPANICH // 35

ARIANA GRANDE REACHES POP PERFECTION WITH THANK U, NEXT AUTHOR // SEBASTIAN LAWRENCE Pop music has always found itself pigeonholed into being about the other person in the situation.

Whether it be love, loss, or something in between, it’s never quite broken out of that mould. And when it finally does, it’s squandered with mad-lib lyrics and overly-dramatic instrumentals. So for Ariana Grande to be the one to push pop out of this isn’t really a surprise. Considering the awful couple of years she’s had to get through, wherein she saw a bombing at her own concert, an engagement called off, and an ex-boyfriend pass away, it added fuel to an ever-growing fire that is thank u, next. If Sweetener was the entrée, then her new project is the fulfilling main course.

Sonically, thank u, next is far more focused than Ariana’s previous outings. On Sweetener, the plethora of guest spots and producers led to the album containing some great tracks but became bogged down by too many ideas. With this latest outing, however, Grande runs head first into the trap-based production many of her contemporaries have adopted and does it better than anyone else. Her omnipresent vocal melodies and harmonies control the album with an iron fist and are easily the best part of the album. On a track like opener ‘imagine’, the subtle instrumentation in the chorus allows her vocals to soar with ease, coming over the top and elevating the track further than anything she’s produced earlier. Elsewhere, the haunting ‘ghostin’ breaks hearts lyrically: “We’ll get through this, we’ll get past this, I’m a girl with/A whole lot of baggage” and again takes the minimal approach, allowing Ariana to add her subtle flair to the track. The more sombre moments of thank u, next are easily the most satisfying: a combination of emotion and subtlety that many pop artists are yet to adapt to.

The more lowkey moments, however, are perfectly balanced with tracks filled to the brim with cheeky lyricism and upbeat instrumentals. ‘break up with your girlfriend, i’m bored’ is easily the most tonguein-cheek, containing the hook “Break up with your girlfriend”. It’s a fun single that contrasts the far darker moments and is a welcome inclusion. The same can be said for ‘bloodline’, where the mix of a heavy bassline and a horn section adds a catchy bright spot in the middle of the track list. The main centrepiece of the album, however, is the titular track. Easily her biggest song from last year, the blunt addressing of her past relationships and will to rebuild is an emotionally affecting part of the album.

Emotionally affecting is probably the best phrase for thank u, next; tracks like ‘needy’, ‘fake smile’ and ‘in my head’ are up front about Ariana’s problems, and it’s a welcome change to a growing pop sphere obsessed with anyone but themselves.

This pop sphere seems to fit perfectly around Ariana Grande. And who better to fit the mould? Mixing the pop sensibilities of many of her contemporaries and adding her trademark vocals, thank u, next is the pop album we all needed to hear. Provocative, comedic, and emotionally driven, we’re blessed with an artist who knows what we want to hear, and is more than willing to give it to us. With that being said, Ariana’s taking control in a way we’ve never seen before, with the outcome being entering the stratosphere of pop superstardom.

36 // CULTURE | FILM

ARTWORK : MADDY MCCUSKER // 37

MARY SUE IS SEXIST AUTHOR // JULIA FARAGHER If you’ve ever watched a film starring a highly competent female protagonist, you’re most likely familiar with the fanboy complaints that she is a Mary Sue. A Mary Sue is a character who is ‘too perfect’, often overpowered or overqualified and easily able to overcome any barrier that stands in their way. At best, they are seen as lazy writing and at worst, they are a self-insert for the writer.

But where did the term Mary Sue actually come from? Lieutenant Mary Sue was the female leader of the USS Enterprise in Paula Smith’s fanfiction A Trekkie’s Tale more than 20 years before a similar character was introduced on ‘Star Trek’. The story served several purposes, not only providing female viewers a more accessible route to the series but also criticising ‘Star Trek’’s love of telling stories about unrealistically brilliant characters. The original Mary Sue was essentially just a female version of what fans saw and loved on screen. Captain James Kirk possesses basically all the same ridiculously brilliant characteristics – in his narrative, he’s the first to defeat the unwinnable Kobayashi Maru test, graduates Starfleet Academy in the top five per cent and becomes the youngest starship captain in history.

Yet he’s a beloved character in both TV and film, not subject to Mary Sue fan complaints.

So what’s wrong with a story about a perfect woman? The history of the Mary Sue trope reveals that it comes from sexist origins. A brilliant man is a great cinematic hero, but a brilliant woman is lazy writing.

The reaction to the new ‘Star Wars’ films is an illustrative example of this. While ‘The Force Awakens’ largely features an ensemble cast, it is arguably the

story of Rey, a desert scavenger who quickly shows strong force sensitivities. Fans were quick to fire up their keyboards to criticise the character for being overly skilled with a lightsaber without any training and call her victory over villain Kylo Ren in the climax of the film unrealistic.

But isn’t that the story of Luke Skywalker? The kid said he was good at shooting womp rats on the surface of Tatooine and the rebellion picked him to lead the attack on the biggest death machine they’d ever seen. ‘Star Wars’ is not a revolutionary story in regard to its plot. It never sought to deliver a groundbreaking narrative about a fresh, unique character. It’s a classic retelling of the hero’s journey.

No one had a problem when the hero was male.

And George Lucas clearly wasn’t trying to hide the self-insert nature of the story when he named his main character Luke.

‘Mary Sue’ isn’t a cleverly developed critical term.

It’s an excuse for sexism and used by whiny fanboys who aren’t happy that women have power and agency. Characters like Harry Potter, Clark Kent and James Bond haven’t faced tirades from fans for being Mary Sues even though they are highly-powered characters who always save the day and lack obvious flaws.

Mary Sues are everywhere in popular film and TV – if you think it’s lazy writing, then you should really stop watching it.

38 // CULTURE | PASSION

THE LITTLE PIPER AUTHOR // SAI CAMPBELL

ARTWORK : MILLIE WANG // 39 Why would anyone take up the bagpipes? Could it be a strange fetish for tartan? A disturbing obsession with guttural accents? A rebellious tween’s protest against classical music? For me, it was an eclectic mix of all three.

My six year venture into the world of piping was a tumultuous one but one abound with new friendships, unusual discoveries and tartan-wearing. Just as I now begin university as a fresh-faced and somewhat innocent first year, discovering a new world of strange delights and people, my much more gangly 13-year-old self similarly stumbled down the school corridors for the first time.

‘goose’. I wish I were kidding. It was like a bagpipe but smaller. Consisting of a large fabric bag attached to a chanter, you squeezed the bag and it made honking sounds. Hence the name.

Then, at last, the bagpipe. Dad was thrilled and I don’t say that ironically. He cried the first time I played with the band: I hope it was because of pride rather than the realisation that a quiet house would be a thing of the past.

Having been traumatised by repeat viewings of ‘Mean Girls’, I was utterly terrified about high school.

Will I be ostracised for not wearing pink on Wednesdays? Is ‘fetch’ even a thing that people say? Will anyone understand my ‘Mean Girls’ references?

Music began to grow on me, and as an individual, I grew myself. Prejudice is born of ignorance and I had looked on in disbelief at all the students who were so passionate about music as to spend hours everyday after school in bands, and concertos or just jamming in the music school. Surely they could be doing something more useful? Then again, I had spent my afternoons watching videos of dogs singing karaoke on YouTube in those days. Bad times.

Luckily, I didn’t come close to meeting anyone who was the reincarnation of Regina George. What did unnerve me was the overwhelming diversity of opportunities at high school where every club and sport seemed to be beckon me to join. I could be a hockey player; join the Environment Group; even take up cross-country (that was a mistake)!

While the pipes are not regarded as a particularly lyrical instrument, I came to see beauty and wonder of music through those hours spent playing Scotland the Brave and marching around. Music came to be a reprieve from the stress of high school and it is somewhat ironic that I often felt more calm blasting 100 decibel music than I might in the library.

But I was adamant that I wouldn’t do one thing: music. A series of disastrous recorder classes in grade four had been seared indelibly into my childhood memory: I was left with a puerile stubbornness that spurned anything that was associated with crotchets, semibreves, beats and finger-flexing.

I was enveloped in a close-knit group of fellow tartan lovers where every Tuesday and Friday we, as a band, would religiously convene to practise. It was a beautiful community of people brought together by their ardent passion for music. The pipes, when played well, are a deeply moving instrument. While you may scoff at that (and I would have done so myself if I didn’t know better), the emotive power of the bagpipes comes from when there are many. Picture hundreds upon hundreds of pipers assembled on the steps of the Shrine playing ‘Amazing Grace’ en masse and my tiny 15-year-old self a mere speck in the throng. My spine always shivered when the drummers did their rolls, the enormous bass drums booming like thunder and the snare drums rattling like rain on a tin roof.

So how did I come to take up the most notorious of instruments? I wish I could say that I saw the error of my ways, came to realise the absurdity of my prejudice, spurred by an admirable desire to seek out the new and acquire the title of that fashionable adjective, ‘interesting’. Alas, my motivations were not so noble. In truth, it was a tatty flyer picked up near the toilets boasting ‘FREE PIPE LESSONS’ that changed it all. My inner scrooge was aroused: my time had come.

Let it be known – the pipes are a formidable instrument. One must demonstrate mastery of one’s physical and mental self. For an individual with the attention span of a squirrel, it was a laborious task to learn to practice consistently. Not only that, it was a herculean effort to wield an instrument that was almost bigger than my five foot, two inches self.

Missing even a few days of practice was disastrous. l, like Sisyphus, would find myself at the bottom of the hill having to push that boulder all the way back up. Arguably, Sisyphus had it easier has he wasn’t the one trying to blow a bagpipe for half an hour straight, all with the lung capacity of a small lunchbox.

All pipers begin on a ‘chanter’ which is similar to a recorder but with a distinctly kazoo-like sound. *toot* *toot* I’d go. *toot* *toot*. Upon mastery of making baby elephant sounds, you graduated to the

As the years have gone by, I have found that I have changed: although I am now somewhat deaf, I’d say that my senses have been enriched. Music introduced me to a world of pleasant reveries, of connection and unspoken understanding. To plunge oneself into a whole new world and community is a terrifying prospect but rarely without its rewards.

The thrill of Highland gatherings with its vibrant mix of pipers, drummers, terrier-owners, true Scotsmen and tartan-wearers was a welcome distraction from the drudgery of school life. While I might humbly confess that I look amazing in tartan, it is with no reticence that I proudly call myself a piper.

We can only do ourselves good by going out there into the world and trying something new. With this said, the only question I now ask myself is this: why would anyone not take up the bagpipes?

40 // CULTURE | BOOK REVIEW

More of ‘Less’ AUTHOR // KIDA LIN

A review of Less by Andrew Sean Greer For me, an important part of being gay consists in the experience of casually bringing up the latest queer-related books or movies in conversations, before conveniently making recommendations about them. On reflection, the sense of eagerness that I sometimes feel can seem rather idiotic. More recently, however, I have also been startled by a precarious feeling of loss. This sense of loss emerges when I confront the fact that some queer contents are increasingly going mainstream. Some of them have become so successful that they no longer be easily proclaimed as part of one’s ‘culture’.

To be sure, this ambivalent feeling is not too different from that which we feel about our own favourite indie rock bands. We want them to be successful, but we also feel uneasy when they become too successful. From time to time, we are also reminded of the fact that the feeling any ownership over them at all is probably a silly idea to start with. Of course, the difference is clear: queerness often gives people meanings in ways that few rock bands can parallel.

The latest exemplar of this ambivalence concerns Andrew Sean Greer’s Pulitzer-winning novel, Less.

It tells an exhilarating story of a gay writer, Arthur Less, who decides to travel the world in an attempt to escape the wedding of his long-time lover. It is an arresting travel log of the moderately (un)successful writer narrated by a humorous yet mysterious figure.

It surprises you with twists and turns when you least expect them.

What’s more interesting, though, is the either perceived or matter-of-fact downplay of this novel’s queerness. The Pulitzer Committee praises Less as a “generous book… about growing older and the essential nature of love”; The Washington Post proclaims it as “the funniest novel you’ll read this year”; and The New York Times is eager to convey that Andrew Sean Greer is an author the reviewer “wondered with regret why [he] wasn’t familiar with”.

There are yet more reviews paying attention to the comicality of Less and its vivid depiction of how messed up the publishing industry is.

Less is certainly about love, and it is full of witty insights (we learned that, for example, Pulitzer is ‘Pullit-sir’, and not ‘Pew-lit-sir’). But to me, Less is also an unmistakably queer novel.

Of course, to say that Less is a queer novel runs the risk of pigeonholing it. In this day and age when rejecting labels is on trend, a ‘queer novel’ implies that it is something apt to be confined to the corners of underground bookstores. Those who are more cynical may thus point out the marketing logic behind the book’s framing.

Like many other marginalised groups, confronting the choice between universality and individuality is all too familiar for queer people. Negotiating the boundaries between how much to assimilate and how much to preserve can manifest in daily choices.

Deciding to what extent to assert one’s individuality can in itself be a universal experience, although marginalised groups also face the extra burden to justify themselves when they diverge. Think, for example, about the fact that conversations about whether a piece of art is universal enough often only comes up when it is either produced by a minority person or about a minority experience. Universality is assumed, as it were, when the experience in question is the dominant narrative.

I hear the mantra that the endgame of queer rights movement is that one day people can be queer without emphasis. Writer Andrew Solomon makes this point well: “A friend of mine who though gay pride was getting very carried away with itself, once suggested that we organize ‘Gay Humility Week’… It’s a great idea. But its time has not yet come.”

Its time has not yet come, indeed. But perhaps we should all celebrate the fact that a Pull-it-sir winning novel is no longer predominantly perceived through the lens of its queerness. “Neutrality,” Solomon says, “which seems to lie halfway between despair and celebration, is actually the endgame”.

I do not believe in a strong version of standpoint epistemology which says that one’s standpoint determines one’s perspectives. But I do think that one’s standpoint can influence one’s perspectives, and therefore, judging an art piece from a universal standpoint is not something that everyone has easy access to. I sometimes also wonder, were this be possible, whether it is desirable.

At any rate, Less seems so interwoven with the particularities of being gay I could hardly make a separation. It portrays the puzzlement about being gay and growing old. Greer writes, “Arthur Less is the first homosexual ever to grow old. That is, at least, how he feels at times like these… He has never seen another gay man age past fifty, none except Robert. He met them all at forty or so but never saw them make it much beyond; they died of AIDS, that generation. Less’s generation often feels like the first to explore the land beyond fifty. How are they meant to do it? Do you stay a boy forever, and dye your hair and diet to stay lean and wear tight shirts and jeans and go out dancing until you drop dead at eighty? Or do you do the opposite—do you forswear all that, and let your hair go gray, and wear elegant sweaters that cover your belly, and smile on past pleasures that will

ARTWORK : GEORGIE KAMVISSIS // 41

never come again? Do you marry and adopt a child?

In a couple, do you each take a lover, like matching nightstands by the bed, so that sex will not vanish entirely? Or do you let sex vanish entirely, as heterosexuals do? Do you experience the relief of letting go of all that vanity, anxiety, desire, and pain?”

This little passage is so full of the nuances of being gay and the meticulous historicality of gay identity that I can’t help but exclaim in astonishment.

Less is also self-consciously posing big questions about queer representation. With the literary device of novel within a novel, these questions are shrewdly brought up by those around Authur Less. “It’s not that you’re a bad writer, it’s that you’re a bad gay,” another novelist once remarked.

As a novel, Less examines the sometimes-conflicting aims of being realistic about the sufferings of queer people and avoiding falling into the stereotype of “sad gay protagonists”. “All you do is write gay Ulysses,” Freddy, Less’s not-so-casual casual lover, points out.

It doesn’t ignore the issue of intersectionality, either.

Upon learning that Less’s latest rejected-by-the-publisher novel was about “a middle-aged gay man walking around San Francisco. And, you know, his … his sorrows …”, his lesbian friend jokingly remarked, “a white middle-aged American man walking around with his white middle-aged American sorrows?... It’s a little hard to feel sorry for a guy like that”.

While reading Less, I got the strong sense that perhaps the ability to be queer without emphasis is indeed the endgame, and it is also true that its time has not yet come – for all that, I nevertheless realise that something will be lost when being queer is thoroughly akin to having a particular eye colour.

This is the kind of loss that you do not strive to avoid because you recognise the value of its accompanying progress; but it is still something which makes sense for you to mourn and to be nostalgic about. It is similar to the kind of instantaneous awakening directed at the difficulties we experience in life: at the time, we tried everything we could to rid ourselves of them – all the while recognising that one day, we would ultimately be thankful for they and perhaps even sad that they were over.

So, perhaps, the best response to the declining salience of queer identities – as a welcoming side-effect of social progress – is to treasure them all the more now. We cannot stop time, nor should we wish for the strides of queer rights movement to be stalled. But perhaps we can and should have more of Less – and the experience of reading them in the corners of underground bookstores.

42

DISCOVERY

ARTWORK : GEORGIE KAMVISSIS // 43

clean beauty AUTHOR // CANADA GAVIN

Plastic has recently become one of the most hated words in the global environmentalist sphere. Plastic bags are killing marine life, micro-plastics are polluting our waterways and the uproar in NSW over the single-use plastic bag ban was louder than the cries when Burgmann found out Dolce was selling. Everything we buy in today’s society is ridden with hidden forms of plastic. Our fruit is increasingly packaged in plastic, makeup containers are predominately plastic based, and people are now finding that their clothes can shed micro plastics when washed in the washing machine. With plastic being found within almost everything we buy, are package-free products a possibility for the future?

Luckily for us, an industry that is laden with unnecessary plastic packaging is starting to innovate new and exciting ways to package their products. It is reported by ZeroWasteWeek that almost 120 billion units of packaging are produced by the global cosmetics industry annually. For the cosmetics industry, packaging is more than just a way to store the product. It is an essential part of the marketing process, with many items being purchased simply for the aesthetic of the packaging rather than the quality of the product. This is increasingly true with the rising marketing platforms of Youtube and Instagram influencers, who use videos and visuals to sell cosmetic products to their followers. However, package free and recycled packaging are now at the forefront for many brands. More and more consumers are becoming aware of the dangers of plastic use and are thus looking for alternative beauty products that come under the newly created buzzword -‘clean beauty.’

Lush cosmetics are in the process of releasing a new line with zero or minimal packaging, and many brands such as Antonym and Elate are creating eco-packaging out of bamboo and recycled paper for their cosmetic products. Brands like MooGoo and bareMinerals do discount days, where you can refill your already existing packaging with new cosmetics at a discounted rate (currently up to 30 per cent). More mainstream brands are also now opting to sell refills so you can reuse your packaging and replace the product, which is cheaper for the consumer and produces less waste.

Recycling plastic packaging has also become an increasing focus for many of the global, mainstream cosmetic brands. In Australia, there is a beauty product recycling program created by L’Oreal and TerraCycle, where you collect the packaging from cosmetic products - whether it be makeup, haircare or skincare. Then, when you get over 7kg in packaging weight, you can either post (free of charge) or drop off the packaging at a given location for it to be recycled. Once TerraCycle has the packaging, it is cleaned and then melted into hard plastics that can be reused to create new products.

For an industry that has such a large market dominance - particularly over young women who are statistically the most environmentally conscious - it is surprising that there hasn’t been an earlier push for ‘cleaner cosmetics’. Despite the late onset of this change, it is extremely exciting to see what the future of the cosmetics industry holds in terms of sustainability. It is an industry that is filled with creativity and innovation - the possibilities and successes to come out of the ‘clean beauty’ campaign seem endless.

44 // DISCOVERY | ENVIRONMENT

ARTWORK : ELIZA WILLIAMS // 45

How to ‘KonMari’ Your Home like an Environmentalist AUTHOR // CATHY MCGRANE You may have caught up with the Netflix show Tidying Up with Marie Kondo over your summer break or at least have seen the subsequent memes pop up on your facebook feed. However, if you have not, it is a self-help style show inspired by the book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. In the 40-minute episodes the delightful host, Marie Kondo, helps people tidy-up their homes. She does this through teaching them the ‘KonMari’ method.

The show and its tidying-up method have become a cultural phenomenon in the past few months. All over social media people have been posting about their efforts to KonMari their bedrooms, bathrooms, and kitchens and making memes saying things like “if your baby starts screaming, throw it away!” While this message is extreme, it satirizes one of the most prominent themes of Kondo’s method. That theme being the idea of having and maintaining a home where all of one’s possessions ‘spark joy’. The method has already received a lot of acclaim in popular culture as a great way to start off the 2019 year, but what about the environmental aspects of the method?

Firstly, I am a huge fan of many aspects tied into Marie Kondo’s philosophy of tidying up. She emphasises valuing your possessions and treating them with care. For example, the gratitude she teaches alongside the act of folding clothes instills a sense that we should be mindful of the way we treat our clothes to her audience. If we expand this, we can be inspired to wash our beloved clothes according to the label and put them away carefully. Through taking these steps, we can extend the longevity of the pieces, meaning that we will need to replace items less often and thus lower our ecological footprint.

Furthermore, if every piece in our wardrobe sparks joy, then we will want them to last and we will want to wear them. When clothes last a long time and are consistently worn it creates a cycle of slow fashion and stops the cravings to buy new clothes in a higher volume. Ideally, a person engaging with the

KonMari method will absorb the implications of only wanting things that truly make them happy. They will come away from the show questioning any new purchases they make, asking the questions “does this spark joy?” and “will I enjoy owning this in the long term?” Kondo’s method applies to all of our possessions and not just clothing, making it an effective way to improve sustainability across all facets of life.

Despite the environmental benefits the method does require some thought as one goes through the process of decluttering. This may sound a bit controversial but not everything in your house will spark joy for you, odds are your vacuum probably doesn’t spark joy but is probably something you should keep. When decluttering your possessions and considering “does this spark joy?” also feel encouraged to ask, “does this have a unique and important purpose in my house?”. Despite some perceptions, for the method to be effective it shouldn’t be used as an excuse to go on a shopping spree for new items that will spark joy while discarding perfectly useable products you already own i.e. towels, cleaning products, plastic bags.

If as a result of the KonMari method you do reach a point where you have realized, “oh, I need a new coat. I shouldn’t have thrown out that old one,” or you do wish to replace your current coat with something that sparks more joy, I implore you to search second-hand sellers before rushing to fast fashion stores for a replacement. Maybe a fellow KonMari enthusiast is selling their coat, hoping that it will spark joy in someone else’s (and potentially your) life.

The start of the university year is the perfect time for decluttering and organising our things. It is the perfect time for reevaluating what we value and what sparks joy in our lives. If we give this method a chance, it can also be the perfect time to create the perfect launching pad for an environmentally conscious year.

46 // DISCOVERY | POLITICS

The Past Which Will Not Pass: Policy Makers Trapped Under History’s Shadow AUTHOR // LOTTIE TWYFORD Politicians are notorious at employing ‘history’ to (supposedly) both make sense of a situation, and, convince others that their chosen policy path is best.

Think of Kennedy in the Cuban Missile Crisis who didn’t want to be Tojo, or every time, from Truman in Korea, Nixon in Vietnam or Bush in Iraq, that you’ve heard the words ‘Munich’, ‘Chamberlain’, ‘Hitler’ and

‘Appeasement’ in the same sentence. This is them doing it, and often, it’s a bit of a problem.

Nolte, a German historian, calls history like this the “past that does not want to pass away” and here refers specifically to the shadow of the Holocaust looming over the German collective consciousness.

ARTWORK : ABIGAIL BORDER // 47

Generally, the sort of events which stick in the collective consciousness are those which are most traumatic, because these are the ones which we really do not want to live through again.

The Munich analogy is one of the most widely employed historical analogies: a glaring word which suggests that all dictators are alike, and appeasement will always fail. It refers, of course to the policy of appeasement which the Allied powers undertook in the 1930s towards German aggression, which evidently failed to stop the outbreak of WWII. Used like that, Munich can only mean failure and weakness.

George Bush, in 2003, rationalised his intervention in Iraq on the grounds that Hussein possessed nuclear weapons, and that the situation was getting ever closer to that of the 1930s. To Bush, appeasement in Munich resulted in a World War, therefore, appeasement in Iraq would result in a World War again. It’s a rhetorically powerful argument: Hussein, by refusing to comply fully with international weapons inspections which had been agreed upon by the UN, was similar to Hitler agreeing to the annexation of the Sudetenland before later adding more and more unreasonable demands. So too, had the roles of various players been appointed, Hussein was the villainous Hitler, Germany and France who were willing to appease his demands were cast as Chamberlain and, of course, Bush cast himself as Churchill.

To Bush and his supporters, there was only one viable option: invasion, for had the Allies intervened in 1938, World War II and the Holocaust could have been avoided.

For Bush, the biggest problem of all was that despite the fact that there were surface commonalities between the situation in the early 2000s and that of the 1930s, the two otherwise had very little in common. Hitler was the aggressive leader of the most powerful military state in Europe, and the Munich Agreement gave sovereign territory of an established democracy to him. Hussein, on the contrary, had received nothing but punishment in the form of military and economic sanctions which were crippling the state and limitations on its sovereignty since the Gulf War. Furthermore, even within the US itself, there were those who did not agree with Bush, and employed the famously contradictory analogy of Vietnam which warns instead of the dangers of intervention in developing states, and particularly, of engaging in wars which are asymmetrical and fuelled by nationalism. Politicians hence pick and choose the analogies that best serve their own interests.

Of course, the comparison that George Bush made between Hussein and Hitler posed a particular problem for one of the US’ allies across the Atlantic – Germany. All discussion of German history has been said to both begin, and end, with the Nazis. But simply saying that Hussein was Hitler was too simple for the German policymakers at the time, who were wary of any unprovoked aggression.

The rhetoric coming out of Washington greatly complicated matters within the Bundestag. Bush’s “axis of evil” of North Korea, Iran and Iraq and his characterisation of Hussein as Hitler seemed far too black and white to the Germans who had been instilled with a sense of fear relating to fervently-held ideological belief. Indeed, Schröder had once before described Bush as diverting attention away from domestic problems with a tactic “Hitler also used”.

Yet even in the Bundestag, there existed two separate interpretations. In this case, the Oath upon which German Basic Law had been founded “Never Again War, Never Again Dictatorship” was seemingly contradictory.

Schröder’s government focused on the first part of the oath: never again war. To Schröder, unprovoked wars of aggression would always be synonymous with those of the Nazis. So, Schröder was also using the lessons of the 1930s, but was managing to arrive at a different conclusion. For him, Bush’s ‘War on Terror’ did not satisfy the conditions of multilateral action under which Germany was prepared to aid intervention, nor did Resolution 1441 justify the use of force in Iraq. Therefore, he would not allow himself to aid the ‘Nazi-like’ aggression. Furthermore, according to such an interpretation, Germany, as a democracy has a responsibility to sit on the ‘right’ side of history now and refrain from any war, ever.

By focusing on the second half of the double oath, ‘never again dictators’, his Opposition also employed the Munich analogy, arguing that Germany knew firsthand the dangers of dictators with too much power. CDU member Michael Glos is quoted as saying; as “a people which is responsible for the Holocaust because it was not able to stop a dictator in time” they too, had a responsibility to stop Hussein.

So, while it is rhetorically powerful for policymakers to employ analogies in order to persuade or dissuade their publics, the past is immense, complex, and open for interpretation. And these interpretations can lead to not only different, but completely contradictory policy prescriptions. How helpful is history, really? A difficult question to answer, so be wary of the next time you hear a politician using historical examples to describe the present.

48 // DISCOVERY | PHOTOGRAPHY

RASHMI WIJESINGHE

PHOTOGRAPHY : BREE SMITH // 49

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PHOTOGRAPHY : BREE SMITH // 51

52 // DISCOVERY | RESEARCH

Breakthroughs in Biotechnology: Curing Disease and Crossing Lines with CRISPR AUTHOR // RUTH PURCELL The field of biotechnology has flourished in the last 10 years and an incredible number of advances have been made in our ability to exploit natural biological systems for desirable artificial outcomes. One such biotechnological advance is the development of CRISPR gene editing which is based on part of the bacterial immune system and has allowed for incredible strides to towards curing genetic disorders to be made.

Recently, however, a favourite argument made by those opposed to genome-editing has again acquired substantial traction: the idea that making artificial alterations to the human genetic code is morally dubious because it puts one in the position of ‘playing God’. Personally, I see this logic as beyond absurd as I am not sure how anyone can start citing ‘morals’ as the reason for being in favour of denying fellow humans a way out of the life-sentence that is a incurable genetic illness. Nevertheless, I do support the move that brought about this sudden rise in the notion that editing human genomes is unethical: the firing of He Jiankui, a Chinese scientist, from his university in late January 2019 for producing the first genetically-modified human babies. Although I fully-support the science of human genome modification, I acknowledge that this field was not ready for such a bold move to be made in an ethical fashion— we have no idea what off-target effects may have occurred in these ‘test-subject babies’ as CRISPR is not yet a foolproof system. So here I present to you the facts of CRISPR gene editing; you can decide for yourself whether you think giving human genes an artificial nudge in the direction of health is truly more reprehensible than sitting back and letting people suffer from diseases we could be curing.

Bacterial genomes(complete sets of genetic material present in a single organism), unlike animal genomes, tend to be very compact with few ‘unnecessary’ regions. In animal genomes, seemingly useless repeated DNA segments are commonplace. Consequently, in 1987 when Japanese scientist Yoshizumi Ishino observed strange repeating patterns of DNA while investigating genes in Escherichia coli bacteria he was baffled because “so far, no sequence homologous [corresponding] to these has been found elsewhere in prokaryotes [the taxonomic domain to which bacteria belong]”, and Ishino deemed “the biological significance of these sequences [to be] not known.”.

Fast forward 30 years and Ishino’s discovery has lead to CRISPR/Cas9—the recently developed technology currently revolutionising the way scientists edit genes. Genes are distinct units of DNA sequence that control how we look, how we behave, and how our bodies function. These ‘DNA units’ are passed

on from parents to their offspring through generations and are, therefore, responsible for why you might have your mother’s laugh or your grandfather’s eyes.

CRISPR stands for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats and is a guide RNA (gRNA), meaning that it serves as a template directing relevant protein to the particular part of a DNA molecule with the sequence corresponding to the gRNA. Casis aprotein—more specifically, an enzyme (a protein which facilitates biochemical reactions)— which is directed to the DNA sequence of interest and acts as a pair of ‘molecular scissors’. Together, CRISPR and Cas form a complex capable of recognising very specific sequences within an entire genome of a cell and then cutting that cell’s DNA at the recognised site so as to create a double-strand break in the DNA double-helix.

Being able to make such double-strand DNA breaks is important to bacteria when they come under the attack of viruses. Viruses that attack bacteria (bacteriophages) do so by injecting their DNA into their victim (that is, the host cell). This viral DNA is then merged with the host genome, allowing replication of viral particles. However, sometimes invading genetic material can be chopped up and incorporated into a surveillance system instead (i.e. CRISPR) and used to protect the cell against future attacks by the same virus. Consequently, should the cell (or any of its descendants) encounter that virus again, the CRISPR/Cas system will ensure that the virus is unable to take over and kill the cell. This remarkable feat is achieved by the initially-infected cell recording the sequence of the viral DNA with which it was injected and storing it within its own genome, interspersed by short characteristic repeated, palindromic sequences.

In the case of bacteria, CRISPR is used to detect a sequence of viral DNA which has been incorporated into the cell’s genome and then Cas is used to make an incision in the viral DNA, effectively destroying the viral DNA. This serves to inhibit the virus’s ability to replicate and, therefore, prevents the virus from killing the cell. In animals, however, the CRISPR/Cas system can be harnessed for a different purpose.

Once DNA has been subjected to a double-strand break (as is inflicted by Cas enzymes), the cell essentially goes into a state of ‘panic’ and recruits its DNA repair mechanisms. Although this damaged DNA can be repaired by joining the severed strands back together, the process by which this occurs is error-prone. Consequently, mutations tend to be incorporated into the repaired DNA as some nucleotide bases (the building blocks of DNA) may

ARTWORK : GEORGIE KAMVISSIS // 53 be lost or additional bases may be added before the DNA strands are reconnected—that is, unintentional gene editing occurs. Naturally, this led scientists to attempt manipulating this natural bacterial immune response system in order to edit genes precisely as they desired in a more accurate and controlled fashion than previously possible.

It’s important to note that CRISPR was discovered by scientists, not invented; rather, it was an invention of evolution. The CRISPR/Cas system has evolved as an essential element of the adaptive prokaryotic immune response (that is, the portion of the immune response which an organism does not inherit from its parents but rather acquires over its lifetime as a result of exposure to various infectious agents).

However, its function in bacterial immunity was only brought to light and fully accepted about 10 years ago.

CRISPR/Cas9, the version of this prokaryotic system found in Streptococcus pyogenes bacteria, is the system in which molecular biologists are most interested. CRISPR/Cas9 can be used to edit genes in a number of ways, including gene knockout, sequence insertion, and gene repair. Gene knockout is the simplest gene-manipulation technique offered by the CRISPR biotechnology. This is a consequence of the fact that animal cells (like bacterial cells) possess a number of error-prone repair mechanisms.

Therefore, once the Cas9 protein has snipped both strands of the DNA molecule at the relevant site as encoded and dictated by the CRISPR RNA sequence, the cell’s repair mechanisms will act to stitch the DNA back together but errors will be incorporated during the repair process owing to the low accuracy of this mechanism. This is an important process for evolution as it introduces natural variation into a population but can be hijacked in order to artificially disrupt gene function in a controlled manner.

Second, the CRISPR/Cas9 system can be used to introduce a desired mutation into a gene. This is a more controlled and, therefore, a more complex approach than the crude gene disruption described above. In order to achieve this, a template DNA sequence must be inserted into the cell along with the CRISPR/Cas9-complex so that the cell may make use of another intrinsic DNA repair mechanism known as homology directed repair. It is this template sequence that will be used to guide the DNA repair enzymes when mending a Cas-inflicted DNA break.

Developing from this mechanism of more controlled CRISPR/Cas9 use, is the concept of disease-reversal

of genetic disorders by means of mutation repair.

Essentially, CRISPR/Cas9 can be used to cut out a patient’s genetic defect and then repair the snipped DNA using a template for the healthy gene variant so as to correct a patient’s condition. This, however, is only really useful in the context of Mendelian disorders (genetic diseases in which only a single gene is detrimentally mutated) such as muscular dystrophy and cystic fibrosis. Reversing complex genetic disorders would require the repair of multiple contributing disease genes—a demand too great for the current capabilities of this technology.

Other advances in the applications of CRISPR include attempting to cure HIV by suppressing the expression of the virus by means of CRISPR-regulated disruption of HIV genes essential to viral reproduction. However, these reports of CRISPR/Cas system successes are all of small-scale laboratory trials and much work remains to be done before any of this will be made clinically available.

Nevertheless, prior to 2012, concepts such as ‘designer’ babies were essentially science fiction. This is now rapidly changing and today more than ever, the irreversible impacts of genetic editing, especially in germline (i.e. egg and sperm) cells, must be carefully considered before we tread on the sensitive and controversial territory that is manipulating our bodies and our environment at their most fundamental level—the level of the gene.

54 // DISCOVERY | BUSINESS & ECONOMICS

the chinese economy: still going strong AUTHOR // FELIX RYAN There has been media noise in recent times about the possibility of a Chinese economic slowdown or crash. This is nothing new; swathes of spectators have persistently claimed over the past decade that China’s miraculous growth will come to a halt, due to an ever-changing myriad of variables resulting in this ‘inevitable’ economic calamity. But criticisms often fail to capture a wider understanding of the heterogeneous and complicated systems of China’s economy. Upon examining a few criticisms, while they have validity, they also reveal that these perceived threats only pose an ostensible danger. In fact, an efficient government with a unique balance of ideas has allowed China to consistently meet its

growth targets, and will be the key to overtake the US in economic power. We have so much to learn from China’s approach to economics; if we choose to not be dismissive and examine issues closely, we may gain insight into our own economic woes.

Possibly the most common issue commentators have with China is its high levels of debt. China’s economy has primarily grown through the proliferation of government-funded investment projects (investment alone made up for 60 per cent of GDP in 2017), which have been utilised in domestic spending, such as high-speed rail construction and housing. Over the years, this has brought on ever- mount-

ARTWORK : ADRIAN SCHMIDT // 55 ing levels of debt that have persistently increased as more spending has taken place. Efforts to avoid the financial crisis in 2008, which saw the government pour billions of renminbi into a stimulus package, only added to this debt - manifesting in the debtto-GDP ratio soaring to 300 per cent. As this debt is now rising considerably faster than GDP (which has recently slowed relative to previous years), China’s economy will begin to slump – much in the same way that western economies did when their debt began to grow faster than their GDP, in the prelude to the GFC. The distribution and origin of this debt, as well as the health of relevant institutions, are far more indicative variables than the debt figure alone. In China’s case, debt is largely public (meaning that it essentially owns its own debt), while only 10 per cent of it is external (debts owed to foreign bodies). This means it is highly unlikely, as some commentators claim, that China will be unable to pay external debtors as per conditions and endure a sudden economic recession. Further, most of this debt was created through smart investment and spending operations that tangibly improved the real economy. In the case of the fiscal stimulus package during the GFC, most resources went to local governments and state businesses to keep employing workers and thus keep economic activity going. Meanwhile, credit growth in the US was largely due to financial engineering and an increase in private debt from the proliferation of loans and mortgages with high credit risk, which had no direct benefit to the real economy.

However, critics are quick to point out potential credit risks, brewing within the banking sector, as the most serious concern stemming from China’s debt.

Due to strict regulations surrounding loans from public banks (which make up nearly half of Chinese banks), private institutions have turned to less regulated financial entities for funding and financial products. This less regulated industry is called the ‘shadow banking’ industry - an area characterised by less government regulation. Even local governments have relied on shadow banking for additional funds, since issuing bonds and stock was previously illegal.

Steady privatisation coupled with the maintenance of tough loaning policies by public banks has seen the shadow banking sector reach just over 75 per cent of GDP from 30 per cent in five years, stipulating that shadow banks are helping to create substantial amounts of credit. Even if this credit is going towards real economic activity, there is concern that much of this debt is short term but funding long term projects – creating a liquidity mismatch that adds to the overall credit risk. Further, as the sector is largely unregulated, defaults do not carry government guarantees of assistance and there is great uncertainty regarding the interconnectedness of these institutions. A possible marked rise in defaults by shadow banking customers has the potential to send seismic ripples throughout the economy, if left unchecked.

These issues have not gone unnoticed by the government. The introduction of municipal bonds in 2016 for local governments took away the reliance on shadow banking and encouraged funding from

more transparent sources. Many non-performing or ‘bad’ loans have long since been taken out and sold off, while the central government reinvigorated banks with additional capital. Today, the number of non-performing loans is minuscule, making it unlikely for Chinese banks to suddenly find themselves lacking the ability to pay. Regardless, the dangers of shadow banking in China have been exaggerated.

Unlike the rest of the world, China’s shadow banking assets lie entirely within its own borders and well below the OECD average (which is 128 per cent of GDP compared to China’s 78 per cent). This gives government authorities total freedom over monetary and fiscal policy to deal with any defaults. Hence, critical credit channels can be kept open to maintain activity and prevent economic downturn, restricting loans to overheated industries with liquidity mismatch and the tightening of interest rates in these sectors.

An article touching on the many varied critiques of China’s economy would likely be enormous in size, covering multiple policy areas in greater depth. A final criticism worth concluding on is that of China’s slowing growth. It is true that China’s GDP has not grown as rapidly in previous years - decreasing from the record high 15.4 per cent in 1993 to that of 6.6 per cent in 2018. The engines of investment that drove the last 30 years of record-breaking growth have indeed begun to taper off, as China now searches for more fuel for the economic fire. But the commentators are wrong to suggest that this signifies the beginning of the end, nor will it mean a transition to a consumption-based economy when still much of the population is yet to enter the middle class (especially in the rural western regions). In any likelihood, the government’s current plan, focusing on the development of western China coupled with an investment in renewables, will create a new but slower burst of economic growth that will lead to the transition to an innovative and stronger economy on par, if not superior to, the US. The underlying notion in these criticisms, whether about debt, credit risk or slowing growth, is that China has been able to overcome these common economic problems. To do so, China has directed its spending to improve the real economy, be its key infrastructure, creating jobs or combatting pollution – improvements that have a real return and long-lasting economic utility. Furthermore, China is not afraid to act to protect all aspects of its economy; it recognises that a healthy banking sector is essential alongside an efficient, committed government. China demonstrates the power of competent economic management coupled with an increasing balance of privatisation. The lesson for us is simple: there is little downside to investing in ourselves economically, particularly in infrastructure. Rather than relying on credit growth from any and all sources (such as high-risk lending), we must be conscious of what kind of growth our economy is generating – especially whether it is sustainable and impactful in the real economy. We can learn much from China’s economic achievements, which shows that foresight and efficiency in government, along with harmony between economic agents, are critical for success.

56 // DISCOVERY | PROGRESSIVE

meat!

AUTHOR // NICOLE YU There are four Greggs bakeries flanking the Manchester Piccadilly bus station. By noon, all are guaranteed to have run out of their newest menu item: the vegan sausage roll.

I became attuned to the lifeline of the vegan sausage roll last semester, which I spent doing an exchange program in Manchester. These 95p golden brown pastries arrive at 9:00am – there, they languish until the lunch rush begins. Without fail, I arrive around 10:00am, en route to the library for a gratuitous study session (I only needed to pass my classes) and pair up with my little sustainable(?) partner.

I first heard about the vegan sausage roll on the news, which, for context, is a medium for critical global issues. Piers Morgan spat one out into a wastebasket on live television because, like, vegans are millennial snowflakes and stuff. Granted, I don’t ascribe to the view that meat consumption’s damaging effects must be the first thought on everyone’s mind when they grab their morning coffee and pastry. Veganism has not done much to counter its reputation as being elitist and sanctimonious. Although I’m absurdly horny for the environment, I’m able to do this because I have more time and money on my hands than the average citizen of planet Earth; not everyone does.

ARTWORK : GEORGIE KAMVISSIS // 57

So, surely, the availability of a cheap, readily available vegan alternative is a great way of de-snowflaking sustainability. The benefits of veganism are indisputable, but it’s devalued because of its association with trends. The online backlash Greggs received for its product was largely attributed to the fact that it was buying into this hippy-dippy culture of Ray Bans and beard oil – i.e, catering to an audience that didn’t typically need to buy 95p lunches.

But, as anyone who has been on exchange will tell you, cheap bakery goods are a must. Another staple of the exchange experience: budget airline Ryanair.

In the midst of researching for a report I was writing on the UK agricultural industry, I came across the concept of lab-grown, or cultured meat. I was familiar with the technology, but I was surprised to learn how far along it was. I learned that the Chief Scientific Officer of the pioneering company Mosa Meat was based 614 km from Manchester. I watched 5 hours of TED Talks, read every relevant news article since 2013, wrote a gushy email to a total stranger, and bought a £9.99 flight to Eindhoven.

Dr Mark Post is a pharmacologist and professor at Maastricht University in the Netherlands. In 2013, his team created their first burger out of cultured meat. Briefly, cultured meat describes the product of growing meat cells – primarily muscle – in a lab environment, as opposed to harvesting meat from a living organism. The benefits of this technology are astounding. The meat has a drastically reduced carbon footprint. In the absence of livestock, many harmful environmental impacts are all but eradicated: methane emissions by animals, the massive amounts of water used for irrigation, and the emissions involved in the preparation and transport of animal feed. Importantly, Mosa Meat’s product is meat, genetically and texturally - it just hasn’t been in a cow.

His product, Dr Post explained, wasn’t meant for people like me. I don’t eat meat unless it’s being thrown away and I largely avoid dairy by virtue of being Asian. But then who is Mosa Meat for? Cultured meat isn’t the miracle solution to the environmental impact of meat, and the vast majority of us could thrive on plant-based diets, so why eat meat at all?

Dr Post explained that people need to be wooed.

Sustainable food initiatives like veganism and insect consumption haven’t gained momentum because they put too much onus on the actor. He used the metaphor of bread makers, and how everyone’s dad or uncle got one for Christmas at some point. Yes, it’s cheap and easy to make your own bread, but who can be bothered? That’s why Mosa Meat needs to be strategically marketed and commercially competitive, so that consumers are never made to go even a bit out of their way.

However, Dr Post recognises how it might seem as though meat is a half measure. After all, if any of us can go into our local bakery and have a vegan meal for less than $2, shouldn’t we just do that? But attitudes like that, which reinforce the dichotomy of vegan and carnivore, are unhelpful and unnecessarily adversarial. If people are deterred from making an effort from the get-go, we’ll never get anywhere.

Nevertheless, as the evidence currently stands, avoiding meat and animal products is the single most significant lifestyle choice you can make to reduce your environmental impact. Ambivalence towards environmental issues will define how/if we respond to this evidence. I hope that we’re moving away from meme-ing PETA’s Facebook content and towards seeing informed consumption practices as empowering rather than as an orchestrated attack on liberty.

So far, I’ve made a point not to mention the statistical evidence about the damages caused by animal agriculture, or invoke hotly-contested animal rights. The impact a reduced market for traditionally-sourced meat would have on the Australian economy is also far too muddy for me to go into. Being a Netflix food documentary aficionado does not qualify me to explore these issues, nor to promote my agenda. All I can say is that there is a very real issue at hand and smart people out there developing solutions. As for me, I’m just excited to share a positive experience I had, and to strategically flout my exchange.

58 // DISCOVERY | INTERNATIONAL

ARTWORK : ADRIAN SCHMIDT // 59

Why Contemporary Europe Should Worry Us AUTHOR // DECLAN MILTON Europe today is fractured, and there aren’t many news stories which are telling us otherwise. In a relatively short period of time, we have witnessed the United Kingdom face a domestic catastrophe.

They are struggling to avoid a devastating ‘no deal’ Brexit, whilst paradoxically, politicians are still trying to comprehend what Brexit actually means. The EU, as an extensive and comprehensive institutional web itself, is tearing apart, its very foundations being shaken, as it attempts to put forward a hard-line stance in their negotiations with the UK. They are doing so while aiming to mitigate the effects of a resurgence of right-wing nationalist leaders who also pose a threat to the stability of the European Union.

Leaders like Hungary’s Viktor Orban, or Italy’s Matteo Salvini as well as the rise in nationalist sentiment seen in France, Sweden and Spain are just a few examples of the unity crumbling in Europe.

Should we not perhaps feel some embarrassment as a democratic and liberal nation, watching Europe descend into chaos, that Australia’s hardline immigration policy is held up as a shining example for nationalistic principles in Europe. Never mind that Australia was one of 48 countries to sign the Declaration of Human Rights at the end of WW2 which clearly states that everyone has the right to seek asylum from persecution. Are we not currently treating refugees as criminals by locking them up for years in offshore detention? Whilst doing so, we are causing immense (and often permanent) psychological damage to countless numbers of refugees, many of whom are children. Sadly, both our major parties – with particular scrutiny on the Labor Party, which claims to be socially progressive – cannot commit to ending our cruel system, spending millions keeping people locked up indefinitely.

Here in Australia, contemporary Europe appears to be an absolute mess. Anarchical and chaotic due to the extremity of the situation, we in Australia feel generally detached from the disturbances in Europe.

Australia, like any democracy, faces issues itself, but certainly not of the same existential significance as seen in Europe. So as we read about issues like Brexit, we are able to comfortably breathe a sigh of relief at the realisation that we are not reading about our own country.

So, as we look at Europe with a comfort of detachment, we really should be thinking that we are not too different ourselves.

Much of the downfall of Europe can be attributed to isolationist stances that nations have begun to adopt. An increasing nationalist sentiment is causing nations to turn inwards and reject the principles of globalisation. Globalisation has historically brought so much economic prosperity to countless Europeans lives and is now being wrongly accused as the problem. As a result, many countries throughout Europe are essaying a shared anti-immigration sentiment, often leaving the issue in the hands of nations who are a lot less financially equipped. For instance, Jordan, which ranks 107th in GDP per capita, has taken in 1.3 million refugees from Syria. This anti-immigration stance has been adopted by a host of nations throughout Europe: Theresa May famously said that refugees “should claim asylum in the first safe country they reach”. David Cameron in 2016 ordered patrol ships to turn back boats to Libya. This same situation has occurred in the Mediterranean Sea with countries like Italy also turning boats back to avoid an influx of refugees. The foundation of this existent crisis can be attributed to a hardline anti-immigration stance.

60 // DISCOVERY | STUDENT PROFILE

A Day in the Life of an ANU Medical Student AUTHOR // STEFANIE KAM Recently I met up with Kitiphume (Kiti) Thammasiraphop – a final-year medical student at the ANU. In this interview, Kiti shares about his eye-opening 6-week medical training experience at a local public hospital in Thailand over the summer break, a day in the life of a final-year medical student, and the moral obligations of those in the medical practice. He also discusses the importance of empathy and communication with the patient and of the value of perseverance. On what his favourite areas of specialisation were, Kiti revealed that surgery and neurology were his top two areas of interest, and his least favourite – psychiatry, which focuses on the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of mental, emotional and behavioural disorders.

fession. A normal school day for him ends at around 4 to 5pm. On some days, there are conferences or meetings.

Noting how medical students in ANU have different schedules depending on what year they were in, Kiti explained how the programme fuses both theory and practice. At the initial stage, students attend classes and lectures on campus to acquire knowledge about the basic sciences underpinning the practices of medicine. Subsequently, they hone their craft by practicing at the hospital, with at least one day of dedicated teaching incorporated into their learning.

Beyond building up his professional network, Kiti noted how the medical culture and the differences in working style presented him with a new set of experiences and challenges. He noted the importance of establishing rapport between the doctor and the patient at the first encounter, including making eye-contact with the patient and empathising with their needs to put them at ease. Observing how medical students in Thailand tended to be conservative and shy, Kiti pointed out that this culture created a cold and less than optimal atmosphere during consultation sessions between the doctor and patient.

Kiti was in obstetrics and gynaecology (two weeks), and in general surgery (four weeks). These two placements were very practical for him, as he was able to perform procedures, which he relished doing with his hands.

A typical day begins at 8am at the ward, usually with a ‘medical handover’. The term refers to a ubiquitous yet essential transfer of responsibility from a medical team or personnel to another. Usually critical information about the patient’s condition is communicated, providing for full accountability and ensuring the patient’s safety. On one of his rotations at the neurology ward, Kiti received a handover emergency phone call for a stroke patient (also known as a ‘stroke call’). He needed to rush down to assess the situation and perform computed tomography (CT) scans. The entire experience made him realise the time-sensitive nature of the medical pro-

ANU’s medical degree program requires its students to spend a minimum of 4-weeks of placement outside of Canberra. For his placement, Kiti chose to go overseas to Thailand’s King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital. The hospital is attached to Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Medicine. Thailand holds a special place in his heart, as it is his birthplace, and he speaks fluent Thai. For Kiti, the training also provided an opportunity to experience first-hand for himself what the medical culture in a country other than Australia was like.

On the need for work-life balance, Kiti mused on the importance of catching up on sleep. He also revealed that it was important to be able to identify your strengths, including how you learn best. As a visual person, Kiti stated that he learned best by getting first-hand experiences; shadowing doctors,

ARTWORK : TANYA THONGPANICH // 61 observing junior doctors interacting with patients in the wards and asking them questions about why a particular treatment was being used. He appreciated the small cohort and close-knit community at the ANU medical school, which allows for greater personal attention conducive for learning and training.

Whereas in Thailand, the greater doctor to medical student ratio and the crowded medical facilities made it less so.

Kiti expressed how he felt that Australians take for granted the healthcare system in their country. He pointed out how public hospitals were often so crowded in Thailand, and that there was always a long wait for medical attention.

One particular incident in Thailand stood out most for him, as it highlighted to him the moral obligations of his job. A consultant was discussing medical options with an elderly female patient diagnosed with breast cancer. In Thailand, they have what is known as financial rights or insurance. Kiti detailed how this patient was not able to afford the chemotherapy drug that would help her. In Australia, this would be covered by Medicare – a universal

healthcare policy. Eventually, the lady had to use a different therapeutic option because there was no such healthcare policy that would cover the cost of the drug the doctor had originally prescribed her. In terms of similarities, Kiti explained that although the healthcare systems in Thailand and Australia were different, this is due to complexities in history, politics and bureaucratic systems. However, he noted that the technology used in the Thai hospitals was on par with those in Australian hospitals.

Since he was a child, Kiti has always been interested in the science and intricacies of the human body and enjoys helping others. Being able to pursue a medical degree was a dream come true for Kiti, as it enabled him to do both. He looks forward to being involved in the lives of patients – accompanying them at their lowest point in life and during recovery.

Looking ahead, Kiti mentioned that he feels very connected to the Thai community in Australia. The experience in Thailand has widened his perspective, and he hopes to give back to society in future by rendering his medical services to fellow Thai Australians.

62 // DISCOVERY | MATHEMATICS

ARTWORK : IZAAK BINK

ARTWORK : ABIGAIL BORDER // 63

Why Mathematics is More Than Symbolic Manipulation AUTHOR // IULIAN PAVEL STOILESCU It is a common belief that to do mathematics, it is enough to simply manipulate symbols according to strict rules. But an important discovery of mathematical logic demonstrates that mechanical manipulation is not enough to deduce all of mathematics, and eventually humans will be required to add new rules or assumptions.

Mathematicians come up with ideas by noticing patterns. Then they verify these patterns by proving mathematical theorems. Ever since the ancient Greek mathematician Euclid wrote his famous treatise, The Elements, mathematicians have proved theorems by starting with certain assumed, self-evident facts, called axioms, and applying precise rules of reasoning. In the early twentieth century, this effort was revitalised by the great mathematician, David Hilbert, with the concept of a formal system.

This is a system where mathematical statements are encoded as sequences of symbols, called strings. A system provides strict rules for creating new strings from old strings, and these rules do not refer to the meaning of those strings, only to the arrangement of symbols which comprise them. It is possible to create a formal system with multiple interpretations or none at all. Our interpretation of the system does not affect which strings can be produced. The following quote by Hilbert demonstrates the concept: “One must be able to say at all times - instead of points, straight lines, and planes - tables, chairs, and beer mugs.”

Mathematicians are only interested in formal systems with certain properties. Most importantly, the system has to be interpretable in a way that no statement can be proven both true and false. The technical term for this property is consistency. Another important property is completeness: that any sensibly composed string can be proven or disproven. Hence, if a system is incomplete, there exists a statement whose truth or falsity is undecidable within the system.

Since the nineteenth century, mathematics has been founded on a theory of sets, or collections of objects. Sets are defined by a rule which determines whether something is in the set or not – for example “the set of whole numbers which are even” is a set defined by a rule. Intuitively, you might want to create axioms of set theory which say that any object is either in a set or not in it, and that sets can be defined by any reasonable rule. These seem pretty self-evident, like axioms should be. Unfortunately, this leads to a contradiction, meaning the system is not consistent. From these axioms, Russell’s paradox follows: suppose X is a set that contains all sets that do not contain themselves. Does X contain itself? If

so, then by definition it must not, and vice versa - a contradiction in either case.

At the time Russell’s paradox was discovered, most mathematicians believed that it was possible to establish a consistent and complete formal system that could be used as a foundation for mathematics. To avoid the kind of self-referential contradiction seen in Russell’s Paradox, Bertrand Russell and Alfred Whitehead created a complicated formal system in their work Principia Mathematica in 1910, which tried to avoid self-reference, but their efforts were proven futile by Kurt Gödel in 1931. In his paper, On Formally Undecidable Propositions of Principia Mathematica and Related Systems, Gödel proved that any formal system powerful enough to describe number theory, i.e. the properties of whole numbers, was either incomplete or inconsistent. This result is known as Gödel’s first incompleteness theorem.

Due to its technical nature, only the gist of the proof will be given. First, symbols in the formal system can be encoded as sequences of digits, meaning that strings become very large numbers. Then you pick some arbitrary string, aka number. The proposition that that string is provable can then be written as a number-theoretical statement. This way we can use number theory to talk about whether a statement of number theory is provable. Then, by a technical trick, the statement “This statement is not provable in the system” can be encoded. If this statement can be proven or disproven, it leads to a contradiction similar to Russell’s paradox, meaning the system is inconsistent. If it can’t be proven or disproven, then the system is, by definition, incomplete.

This result surprised many mathematicians and philosophers as it revealed some of the limitations of formal systems. Subsequent results by Gödel and others revealed further limitations. Therefore, we cannot create a perfect formal system where all mathematical patterns can be proven as theorems.

There will be an eternal struggle to add new axioms and avoid contradictions, so that mathematicians will be able to formalise and prove their intuitions.

64 // DISCOVERY | ENVIRONMENT

Environmental Empathy AUTHOR // STELLA MCROBBIE

“Moral rules tell us when and how to apply our empathic tendencies, but the tendencies themselves have been in existence since time immemorial” – Frans de Waal Jules Masserman, along with a team of psychiatrists, released a study in 1964 that found that Rhesus monkeys refused to pull a chain that delivered food to themselves if doing so gave a shock to a companion. One monkey stopped pulling the chain for 12 days after witnessing another monkey receive a shock. After 180 years of mammalian evolution, empathy has become a necessity for the survival of humans and other species. But how does the empathy that humans have evolved work within our modern world?

Empathy was defined by Adam Smith as “changing places in fancy with the sufferer”. Not only is empathy an integral social skill, it is an important evolutionary tool. It is not taught, it is an inherent need to survive and thrive in our tribalistic environment.

Our survival depends on it; whether using empathy to better reproductive success or increase hunting victory with our tribe, our empathetic nature stems back to mammalian evolution. However, our understanding has only developed for tribal survival and we thus withhold our empathy from issues outside the realm of our ‘tribe.’ So, how does empathy that is limited to our fellow tribe members work in a modern globalised world? Are we capable of empathy with large-scale issues such as global human rights, or more interestingly, climate change? And are we capable of compassion for the environment and those who are most effected by climate change, when our capacity for empathy is biologically capped?

Since 1979, the arctic sea coverage has been sinking every decade by 3.5 – 4.1 per cent. Oceanic waters today are 26 per cent more acidic than at the start of the industrial revolution. The UNHCR found that since 2008, 22.5 million people have been displaced by climate change or weather related events. Driven by the urgency to deal with the threat of rising sea levels, an Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) was established in 1990. Along with the general destruction of the environment, such issues drastically impact the lives of many human beings.

With limited or non-existent action by governments, corporations and most consumers, the question has to be asked: with the accelerating destruction of our world, why is our emotional reaction and subsequent responsiveness to these issues often limited?

Empathy is so instinctive to us, we often forget to

ARTWORK : ELIZA WILLIAMS

actively practice it. We take it for granted and forget its necessity for morality and the success of society alike.

In a globalised context, we more commonly practice selective empathy. If when we watched the news and checked Twitter we ‘traded places with the sufferer’, we would spend our days trying to recover from emotional turmoil – constantly. This is incredibly relevant in the age of 24-hour news, where if you want to find a worthy cause to champion, or an issue to make you rage against the machine, you can find it within five seconds and two clicks on the internet. We can all be outraged and empathetic about anything we want, because information is now at our fingertips.

However, the islands watching their shorelines creep back towards them are largely out of our selection.

It is certainly out of our politicians’ selection for empathy and care, and is not prioritised as an issue for tribal survival. It can be argued that the issue is too global for the confines of our biological capabilities.

The environment is still a distant idea to a lot of us, a far-off ‘wonderland’ that we ourselves don’t touch or destroy. With more than half of the world’s population living in urbanised areas (a number which is rapidly increasing), we are forever making ourselves more distant to the idea of Mother Earth and her precious eco-system. This causes our empathy for our collective tribes to remain insular, which makes it challenging for us humans to practice compassion.

Our human evolution means we’ve created a world that fits our human nature - our limited tribalistic brand of empathy. This naturally leads to political leaders holding narrow views and focusing only on issues and people that they select. Our lack of responsiveness for global issues, such as environmental degradation, can be explained by how we’ve always survived and thrived. But primatologist Frans de Waal doesn’t leave us without hope, and doesn’t allow tribalism and evolution to be an excuse for ignorance, apathy and inaction on the global climate crisis - “empathy is a hard-wired response, that we fine-tune and elaborate upon in the course of our lives.”

Empathy is a weapon we’ve sharpened for our survival throughout our evolutionary process, and we can continue to do so. We can actively improve and broaden our capability for compassion throughout our whole life. Someday the beauty of the Earth and the complexity of its now vulnerable eco-system may be recipients of our growing and strengthening empathy.

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