Woroni Edition One 2018 by Woroni

Woroni Issue 1, Vol. 68. O-week, Semester 1, 2018

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life is a battle

it is two minutes to midnight

what’s hair got to do with it?

Barnaby joyce speaks to leigh sales

So why are we not panicking?

What does hair have to do with violence against women?

What it should have looked like

From YPG fighter to refugee in Northern Europe

UNION COURT BECOMES KAMBRI

RENAMING PART OF PUSH TO IMPROVE INDIGENOUS REPRESENTATION ON CAMPUS Max Koslowski News Editor

Indigenous culture to live within the social fabric of ANU and the greater Canberra community.”

After consultation with representatives from the ACT’s four Indigenous groups, it was announced on Wednesday that the redeveloped Union Court will be named Kambri.

Ngambri-Ngunnawal-Canberra Indigenous Australian elder Matilda House gifted the name to the university during the State of the University address at Llewellyn Hall.

Kambri is the Indigenous language name for Sullivans Creek, the body of water that runs through the university. It’s also the word that ‘Canberra’ is derived from.

The Indigenous Australian representatives involved included those from the Little Gudgenby River Tribal Council, Buru Ngunawal Aboriginal Corporation, King Brown Tribal Group, and the Ngarigu Currawong Clan.

“For thousands of years, Aboriginal people came together, shared stories and learnt at the places we now call ANU and Sullivans Creek,” vice-chancellor Brian Schmidt said as he received the gift.

The name was announced in a special ceremony involving Indigenous Australian dancers at Schmidt’s State of the University address on Wednesday.

The renaming comes after deputy “Kambri will be a meeting place like no vice-chancellor Marnie Hughes-Warother in the world, providing a space for rington announced last year that a

special Naming Committee, which includes undergraduate and postgraduate representatives, would reinvigorate the labels of reconstructed buildings, streets and common areas. The stated aim was to include more Indigenous Australian and female representation. As part of the initiative, late last year ANU sought advice from students and staff on what to name three new streets in the precinct, specifically seeking the names of any women who have significantly contributed to the university. In lieu of new names, the streets are currently called North Loop Road, West Loop Road and Chifley Lane. Schmidt announced the renaming as part of the university’s new Reconciliation Action Plan, which aims to increase the number of Indigenous Australians students at ANU to three per cent:

“An area we urgently need to address in the number of our staff and students who come from an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander background. This number needs to increase,” Schmidt wrote in the foreword to the plan. Currently, only 0.95 per cent of domestic students at ANU identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. As part of the action plan, more resources will be pushed towards recognising National Reconciliation Week, and guidelines will be developed to ensure that an Acknowledgement to Country is spoken at all “important internal and external meetings”. The plan is wide-reaching: it also aims to increase the amount of Indigenous Australian material in the university curricula, and provide every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander honours student with a $10,000 scholarship. W

1 News comment 10

Meanwhile in Canberra Jasper Lindell 11

Discrimination: A Note on Gender and Nation Vicktoria Elazarov

Week 1, Semester 2, 2017 sneak peak to the Woroni cookbook 24

Completely Non-Hyperbolic Life Changing Banana Bread Alex Williams 25

Leftovers Vegetable Stock Mia Jessurun

Life is a Battle: From YPG fighter to refugee in Northern Europe Francesca Pettinato

Leak and Mushroom Pie Nick Blood 26

INTERNATIONAL

PARSA O-WEEK SCHEDULE

Reviews

Feels Like Home Inez Cashman 14

Great Talk! But What’s Next? Richard Haowei Hong 15

It is Two Minutes to Midnight, So Why Am I not Panicking? Bentan Honeywood MULTILINGUAL 16

Dear Father Sumithri Venketasubramanian 17

Waiting Anna Mitchell 17

An Acient Guide to Hair Growth Charbel El-Khaissi ‘playbook’ Features

Hyper Real Josie Ganko Life & Style

How to Survive ANU With A Mental Illness Monique Munro 19

A Play-By-Play on Using Gender Nuetral Language Ally Luppino art

What’s Hair Got to Do With It? Emma Roberts 29

Unqualified but Tried, Tested, and True Advice: How to improve your life by not getting angry at others Lydia J. Kim 30

The Musical Playbook Michael Katsavos 31

Woroni Sounds of Canbera Summer Playlist Steph David and Dot Mason

Seven Arty Excursions Around Canberra to Keep Those Back-to-School Blues at Bay Madeline Calo 22

The Last Jedi: All You Need To Know Katie Ward 22

ANUSA O-WEEK SCHEDULE

Science 39

But what are gravitational waves? Dan Gould 40

New Supercomputer coming ANU’s way Liam King

From The Archives 2018 Australian Open Produces Masterclass Finals Emilio Lanera 34

The Transfer Window: Straight from FIFA Manager Mode Stefhan Meyer

The Demise of The Aussie Tiger Jessica Woolnough 37

Miracle on a Pyramid Zoë Tulip 37

Fostering your Connection to the Environment Ellen Makaryan

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

Board of Editors

Business & Economics

Editor in Chief: James Atkinson Deputy EIC: Nathalie Rosales Cheng Managing Editor: Jonathan Tjandra Content Editor: Mia Jerussurn Radio Editor: Zoe Halstead TV Editor: Linda Chen Art Editor: Sophie Bear News Editor: Max Koslowski

Orbit Inequality Brody Hannan

Introduction to Bitcoins and Blockchains Nick Blood 43

Tackling The Fake News Epidemic Using Blockchain Technology Siddharth Pethe creative 44

Immolation Minds Eye Amanda Dheerasekara 44

Death of Two Friendships (Without Fanfare) Emily Dickey 44

A Life In The Making Mahalia Crawshaw The Life of The Book Phoebe Lupton sATIRE 46

Plant Care Each Day Keeps The Millennial Doubt Away Eleanor Armstrong 47

Barnaby Joyce Speaks to Leigh Sales: What It Should Have Looked Like 35 Term 1 Interhall Sports Preview Mandy Chau Tommy King 48 environment

acknowledgement of country

45 32

More Than A Myth: Social Commentaries in the Lord of the Rings Jeremy Little

The Coal Continent Ruchi Renavikar

A Letter From Brian Schmidt Brandon Tan

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

staff and Sub-Editors Financial Controller: Brendan Greenwood Website Development: Nick Sifniotis Senior Sub-Editor: Ben Lawrence Senior Sub-Editor: Maddie Kibria Comment: Georgia Alexiou International: Brandon Tan Features: Ally Luppino Multilingual: Charbel El-Khaissi Arts: Miriam Sadler Reviews: Josie Ganko Environment: Jessica Woolnough Science: Liam King Creative Writing: Annabel Chin Quan Creative Writing: Emily Dickey News: Noah Yim News: Phoebe Lupton News: Kobie Chen News: Alessandra Hayward News: Luke Kinsella News: Dan Le Mesurier News: Jacob Thornton News: Eddie Landale News: David Wu News: Georgia Clare Executive Producer: Steph David Presenter Liason: Sonja Panjkov Radio Technical Officer: Adam Bell Music & Events: Annika Law Breakfast Producer: Imogen Purcell Radio Producer: Dorothy Mason Radio Producer: Maleika Twisk Radio Producer: Byron Dexter Radio Producer: Gil Rickey Radio Producer: Lulu Cathro Radio Producer: Jess Townrow Art & Design: David Liu Senior Camera Operator: Bremer Sharp Senior Video Editor: Shasha Ma Camera Operator: Manya Sinha Video Editor: Caitlin Jenkins Video Editor: Hayley Pang TV Producer: William He TV Producer: Ria Pflaum TV Producer: Zachary Schofield TV News Reporter: Isabella Di Mattina TV News Reporter: Judith Zhu TV News Reporter: Ayaka Miki Tsu TV News Reporter: Amanda Au

Contact Phone: (02) 6125 9574 Shop 14, Lena Karmel Building 26 Barry Drive, Acton 2601 Woroni is printed by Capital Fine Print.

Want to contribute? Send words to write@woroni.com.au and visuals to art@woroni.com.au. Woroni is powered by PANIC (there is no Art Editor!!!), googling, crickets?????, word people becoming art people and Zoe’s questions. AHHHHHHHHH. ALSO!!!!! by the blood, sweat, and tears of James, Nat, and Mia, and our undying love for each other (and also for print).

news

O-Week, Semester 1, 2018

ANU’S DIPLOMA OF LANGUAGES HAS BEEN REMOVED DUE TO FEDERAL GOVERNMENT FUNDING CUTS Noah Yim & Max Koslowski

third year international security studies and criminology student, told Woroni. “I went to a careers fair for the AFP and they really pushed learning another language as something that would [set] me apart from other candidates.”

The ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences will no longer offer the Diploma of Languages, due to federal government funding cuts to diplomas which are not “careers-based”. The Diploma of Languages was a oneyear undergraduate degree offered to students enrolled in, or graduated from, a bachelor’s degree. Students had the option to major in Ancient Greek, Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Persian, Sanskrit, Spanish, Thai, Urdu or Vietnamese. In advertising material, the university claims that some of the languages cannot be studied at other Australian universities. In the 2017 QS World University Rankings, ANU was deemed the top Australian university for modern languages. According to College of Arts and Social Sciences ANUSA representative Amel Saeed, this change does not affect any students who are currently enrolled in the diploma. However, any students who are looking to enrol in the program, or transfer credits into the diploma will no longer be able to. ANUSA education officer Harry Needham says that these cuts “are a blatant attack on higher education in pursuit of quick savings,” and that the loss of programs like the Diploma of Languages is the “inevitable consequence of such

“I’m already doing a double degree and the diploma was my only way to include a language in my degree”. Professor Marnie Hughes-Warrington, ANU’s deputy vice-chancellor, told Woroni that ANU was working hard towards a better solution: short-sighted policies”. He also expressed regret at how these changes have affected the studies of ANU students.

level this year, despite an increase in the number of students who want to go to university.

Students who applied for this diploma for the upcoming academic period have been notified of this change, and it appears as though they will not be allowed to begin their Diploma of Languages. The option to study a language as an elective, or within the Bachelor of Arts or Languages, remains.

The government aims to cut back on the current amount of funding allocated to sub-bachelor degrees - which includes diplomas, advanced diplomas and associate degrees. Currently, they spend over $1 billion each year on the programs.

In the mid-year budget update, the government announced that it would cut funding to over 1,000 university places - including 533 language diplomas. The decision was part of a broader freeze on university funding. In comparison to 2017, Commonwealth-funded places at university will remain at the same

However, students at ANU will bear some of the burden of these cuts. For Samantha Carey, the diploma was the only way for her to learn a language - a skill she wanted under her belt in a competitive jobs market. “It seems every employment website or job application you look at preferences someone who is bilingual,” Carey, a

“We are in ongoing discussions with the Department of Education about how the measures in the MYEFO (MidYear Economic and Fiscal Outlook) will impact on the program.” The comes after the federal government significantly reduced the funding that university diplomas received back in 2017. Hundreds of students were not given government loans because their diplomas were deemed ineligible, as part of a move to limit government backing to courses that were career-focussed. According to MP Karen Andrews, the Assistant Minister for Vocational Education and Skills, these changes aimed to promote courses that are of “a national priority, align with the industry needs, contribute to addressing skills shortages and lead to employment outcomes”. W

ANU WOMEN’S DEPARTMENT SLAMS Q&A FOR INVITING ALLEGED HARASSER ONTO PROGRAM Max Koslowski News Editor ANU’s Women’s Department officer Laura Perkov has condemned the ABC’s f lagship program Q&A for inviting Charles Waterstreet, a lawyer who has been accused of sexual harassment, onto the show for its #MeToo special.

In October last year, New Matilda released a story written by Tina Huang, a student at Sydney University, who described that when she went for a position as Waterstreet’s paralegal, Waterstreet showed her “photos of naked women and video of someone receiving a handjob”. The article also details allegations that he asked Huang whether she liked threesomes.

In an open letter which was sent to In a statement published by the the ABC on Wednesday afternoon, Sydney Morning Herald, Waterstreet Perkov wrote that she was angry and denied the allegations: concerned at the invitation: “The circumstances of Miss Huang’s “Charles Waterstreet is the very exit are not accurately reported person that #metoo stands against. by New Matilda and subsequent Inviting him to speak on a panel articles,” the statement read. where he can legitimise his actions is an insult not only to the thousands of “The facts are, on August 24 I women who have stood up to sexual asked Miss Huang if she could help harassment and misconduct in me prepare notes for my talk as their workplaces around the world, panellist on ‘Post Porn’ at Sydney but specifically the women who Contemporary, and attached the have come forward about Charles relevant invitation. Miss Huang Waterstreet’s behaviour towards replied on that she was ‘excited to junior employees.” talk about this with you!’, and sent some preliminary thoughts in full

paragraphs. She ended the email with ‘Hope this is what you were after! See you soon.’” In a 2012 interview with Sydney University’s Honi Soit, Waterstreet described his approach to sexual relations with students during his tenure as a law tutor at the University of New South Wales: “I made a pledge with myself not to sleep with any students until the graduate course,” he said. “Then I took them two at a time.” Waterstreet, who is the lawyer that the ABC television show Rake is loosely based on, has also penned a number of controversial articles in the Sydney Morning Herald and Sun Herald. One such piece, published in 2011, was written in response to a legal case where a man was accused of sexually assaulting his partner while she was asleep. Waterstreet wrote that: “The couple made love several times before falling asleep, presumably

from exhaustion. [The accused] presumably thought he would have one for the road and did not disturb her”. Woroni reached out to Nina Funnell, a sexual assault activist and journalist who has written extensively on the Waterstreet allegations, who said that the ABC was not taking sexual assault survivors seriously enough: “It is hugely ironic that on a #MeToo special the ABC have offered a platform to an alleged sexual harasser, an apologist (Rachel Griffiths), a male lawyer (could they not rustle up a single female lawyer) and a token female academic,” Funnell wrote. “Yet they don’t have a single public survivor advocate on the panel. Instead they offered me, a sexual abuse survivor advocate - the ‘opportunity’ to sit in the audience,” she continued. Woroni has also reached out to Q&A for a comment. W

NEWS

Issue 1, Vol. 68

NINE AUSTRALIAN VICE-CHANCELLORS EARN OVER $1 MILLION. BRIAN SCHMIDT ISN’T ONE OF THEM. Max Koslowski News Editor With a salary of $618,000 in 2016, ANU’s vice-chancellor Brian Schmidt is one of Australia’s lowest paid university heads – but not everyone is happy. Extra scrutiny has been placed on vice-chancellor salary packages in recent weeks, with Education minister Simon Birmingham suggesting that vice-chancellor incomes of over $1 million should be brought into question. According to The Guardian, 12 vicechancellors in Australia take home over $1 million – and the average vicechancellor sits on a comfortable $890,000 salary.

Phoebe Lupton ANU students turned out in strong numbers to the Women’s March on Sunday afternoon in Canberra city, calling for unity and equality for women. The march attracted a large number of young people, many of whom were volunteers with Jasiri, the charity which organised the march, or members of organisations such as PARSA and ACT Young Labor. Several university and high school students spoke and performed at the event, including MC’s Caitlin

In January, the vice-chancellor of the United Kingdom’s University of Bath retired after her £468,000 ($812,500) salary was criticised by media. Much of the criticism focussed on the vice-chancellor’s additional perks, including university-paid accommodation that was not part of the advertised salary. And while Schmidt earns less than the heads of smaller universities such as the University of New England and the University of Canberra, some in the community are concerned that the top job doesn’t deserve such a big pay cheque. Critics have compared Australian vice-chancellor salaries to Oxford University’s £410,000 ($713,000) vice-chancellor paycheck, arguing that smaller and less elite local universities are out of step with the industry standard.

Figuereido and Saba Awan, musicians Sophie Edwards and Lucy Sugerman and speakers Tanvi Nangrani, Nipuni and Gayana Wijewickrema. One ANU student, Michelle Watson, was drawn to the rally because she believed that there was a long way to go until everyone understood the importance of women’s rights. “To me, [the Women’s March] means empowerment, standing together”, said Watson. The postgraduate student, studying genetics, went on to say that events like the Women’s March enable women to stand in solidarity with each other, while also bringing issues such as these “to the attention of others”.

Rhiannon Bahl, the ACT division secretary of the National Tertiary Education Union, told Woroni that the debate over vice chancellor salaries was missing perspective.

government’s comments on the issue were overshadowing attempts to cut university funding. “[Education Minister Simon] Birmingham’s comments are a blatant attempt to distract us from the devastating effects of his funding cuts. The MYEFO announcements in December are causing tangible issues at the ANU, including cuts to the Diploma of Languages. As student advocates, ANUSA is focused on advocating against these structural funding cuts.”

“University Vice-Chancellors in Australia earn more than the Prime Minister. In some cases, they earn more than double that amount,” Bahl wrote in a statement. “This discussion is more about the federal government def lecting attention from its sector wide cuts, from the 10,000 students who will miss out on uni places this year, and from staffing models resulting in more than half of undergraduate teaching ANU told Woroni that they did being performed by precariously not want to comment on this issue. employed casual staff.” Schmidt’s 2017 salary is not publicly available yet, and will be released in ANUSA president Eleanor Kay the the university’s annual report, agreed, telling Woroni that the federal which comes out in April. W

Sumithri Venketasubramanian, another ANU student at the event, was quick to point out the symbolic significance of the march’s theme, ‘Unbroken’. “We’re not backing down,” the environmental science and geography undergraduate told Woroni. For Venketasubramanian, the word represented resilience. “We’re going to keep fighting in this tone of resilience. I would say that’s the significance of [the Women’s March]”. Some of the young speakers also emphasised the importance of intersectionality, as well as the fact that there is more than one type of woman and more than one experience

of being a woman. Sisters Nipuni and Gayana Wijewickrema spoke about the struggles of women with disabilities, stating that 4.8 million women live with a disability, only 27 per cent of whom are employed. Incoming first year ANU student Tanvi Nangrani spoke passionately about the representation of women of colour in the media: “It’s important that there’s no exclusivity in terms of representation, meaning that all people, however they identity, whatever their ethnicity, are visible in the media. All people need to be represented and not in a stereotypical or tokenistic way.” W

NEWS

O-Week, Semester 1, 2018

Beloved Music Venue, The Phoenix, Turns to Crowdfunding in Time of Need

Jacob Thornton

“It has always been a part of us and a safe place for all walks of life to hang For The Phoenix, one of Canberra’s out! [It] has given so many artists a most popular live music venues, it’s place to perform and that is a rare been a rough few years: fire, flooding thing in Canberra these days!” and a series of legal disputes with Sydney Building landlords and LJ In addition to the pub’s own fundraiser, Hooker have left the pub faced with a simultaneous campaign has been crippling debt. undertaken by local and interstate musical acts -- bands have jumped at In response to this crisis, The Phoenix the chance to contribute free sets on recently launched a fundraiser, the the venue’s stage. outcome of which will determine whether the 25 year old establishment A significant number of the bands could survive. At the time of volunteering to play for free include publication, it’s already raised over current and former students at the $47,000. ANU, including Slow Turismo, The Lowlands, The Wrst, Kilroy, Scroggin, The GoFundMe campaign, which Moaning Lisa and California Girls. began on 4 January, has a goal of $75,000. That money, the page states, Fiete Geier, The Phoenix’s band will pay off the pub’s debts to “suppliers, bookings manager, told Woroni that current landlord and lawyers.” With the response of Canberra’s independent a running total of $46,415 funded by music scene has been heartening. 500 contributors, the fundraiser has seen an average donation size of just “There’s just so much love for the over $98.80 per donor. Phoenix,” he said, “it’s pretty amazing how many not just bands, but people in general have put their hand up to The donor rewards include having help.” one’s name etched into a brick or tile in the pub, valued at $100 and $150 At first, the uncertainty of the pub’s respectively. An invitation to a future future had made Geier reluctant to GoFundMe party can be attained by a stack the weeks ahead with bookings, donation of $200. For its donation of but he noted with a reserved optimism $5000, Canberra re-use and recycling that things were looking up. But the business The Green Shed will have bookings manager was quick to note its logo emblazoned across the much- that the future of the Phoenix still consulted monthly Phoenix gig guide. hangs on the success or failure of the For $50,000 the pub will “name the GoFundMe campaign. Phoenix stage after you (or whatever you want), with commemorative Over the past quarter-century, The plaque on front of stage.” Phoenix has functioned as safe haven, social hub and cultural enclave for The Green Shed’s association with ANU students, staff and graduates. the Phoenix goes back to the pub’s As well as its frequent and varied live inception. Co-founder Charlie Bigg- music, the Phoenix’s monthly poetry Withers told Woroni that it supplied slam Bad!Slam!No!Biscuit! has long the Phoenix with many of its original been a well-attended student favourite. furnishings. As for the hefty donation, Bigg-Withers explained that “the Thomas Rowell, a long-time patron thought of the Phoenix closing was and current PHD candidate, told heartbreaking.” Woroni “the Phoenix has been a

crucial part of my whole student life here at ANU.” For Rowell, what sets this “really lovely, grimy, rowdy, happy pub” apart from other student haunts is the opportunity to witness “whatever local upcoming weird art and music kids around here are making”, and the conspicuous lack of “pounding club hits, $3 tequila and vomit.” Rowell’s own band, folk/bluegrass outfit Scroggin, performed a benefit gig at the Phoenix in late January. The proprietor of the revered live music venue took to Facebook on 3 January to detail the succession of events which had led to its impending collapse. “The pub was doing well, so well that it had to expand,” read the post, in reference to the Phoenix’s late-2013 expansion into the next-door premises formerly occupied by Murphy’s Shooters. In February 2014, however, a fire in neighboring restaurant Coo left several businesses in the city’s East Row, including the Phoenix, severely damaged. While the ‘new half ’ of the Phoenix was able to resume trading in short order, the publican was informed by LJ Hooker on the day of the fire that the landlord of the ‘old half ’ did not have the premises insured. Nevertheless, the Facebook post notes that the Phoenix was “‘assured that the damage would be rectified”. Almost a year later, with the ceiling of the original premises still affected by fire damage, several days of heavy rain led to even more damage, this time from flooding. The Phoenix stated that the flooding was the result of inadequate covering of the site with tarpaulins and claimed that, following this development, “The premises were completely gutted by L. J. Hooker’s repair contractor without our consultation.” This work left the pub without sufficient plumbing, lighting, other

electrics and disability access, as well as attracting the scrutiny of the Heritage Council, which requires that tenants of the historical Sydney and Melbourne Buildings maintain their premises’ facades to strict standards. Faced with an ultimatum delivered by LJ Hooker to either restore the original premises themselves and resume trading or have the lease lapse at the time of its next expiration, the pub poured $250,000 into the rehabilitation of the site. Despite a short-lived reunification of the old and new halves in March 2017, the Phoenix was evicted after LJ Hooker raised further concerns regarding compliance. On 31 July last year, the lease for the original premises expired and was not renewed. In an arrears letter dated 13 November, made public by the Phoenix via its Facebook page, LJ Hooker requested over $200,000 worth of rent back payments despite, the Phoenix claims, “the premises not being refit to purpose for trade under the lease and our having spent $250,000 on the building ourselves.” The 3 January Facebook post quickly disappeared, leading commenting observers to speculate that it had been reported as spam or libel by either The Phoenix’s landlords or property managers, resulting in its deletion. It was reposted in its entirety shortly thereafter with the prefix, “Just going to repost this as they removed the original…” It has remained online since. “The Phoenix has been an invaluable place to play music, has helped my bands and most of the bands in Canberra find our feet, and all round been an irreplaceable dive,” says Thomas Rowell, “it’d be really brutal for Canberra to see it go.” W

Issue 1, Vol. 68

NEWS

Lost On Campus? Here’s Where the Most Important Places, Buildings and Services Are.

Students can ask staff at BKSS for advice or information regarding student services, ANUSA, and general queries. BKSS also provides free breakfast on weekdays from 8am to 10am, and runs Student Bites every tuesday. Student Bites collects excess food from supermarkets, and students can grab a paper bags worth of fruit and vegetables for a gold coin!

Dan Le Mesurier

to the standard 50 minutes) that can only be booked on the same day as the appointment. This has the purpose Navigating your way around campus of making counselling appointments can be a difficult task, not least for those more accessible to those with an urgent first-year students who are unfamiliar or more immediate need. with the university or just downright confused by its layout. To try and make Both the Health Service and settling in to university life a little bit Counselling Centre are located on easier, here are the most important North Road on campus, next to ANU places on campus and where you can Sport. find them.

Student Central

121 Marcus Clarke Street

ANU Sport 19 North Road

The ANU Sport & Recreation Association can be found at 19 North If you want any information about Road, next to the Health Service and student administration or university Counselling Centre. services, Student Central is your first port of call. For first-year students, this This building houses a number of is where you will pick up your student facilities, including the ANU Fitness cards. Centre, squash courts, field hockey and soccer pitches, sports halls, climbing Student Central can be tricky to find walls, and a dojo room. The building as it is part of a much bigger building also features the Coffee Grounds, a and located a little bit off campus - it popular cafe. is directly opposite Davey Lodge and takes up the corner of its building ANU Pop-Up Village closest to Childers St and Hutton St. University Avenue

Health Service 18 North Road

The ANU Health Service provides a range of medical services, such as general checkups, injury and wound management, men’s and women’s health, mental health, and immunisations. The Health Service is particularly useful as it offers bulk billing, and keeps same-day appointment slots available for urgent conditions. In recent months, the service has been subject to controversy, after the ANU announced management changes and offloaded some staff. As a result, wait times for standard appointments have blown out. The Counselling Centre provides individual counselling from professionals with several years of relevant clinical experience. The Counselling Centre offers shorter appointments (25 minutes as opposed

A temporary social hub for the university while Union Court undergoes redevelopment, the Pop-Up Village is home to a number of food outlets, shops, and services.

In terms of food on offer, you can find Brodburger, Mikebabz, Coffee Lab and more. If you feel like having a drink with mates, MOLO Live offers affordable beers, wines, and cocktails, as well as weekly trivia nights on Tuesdays. For services and useful oncampus stores, you can find the Co-op Bookshop, Cycle Canberra, STA Travel and the university Pharmacy, among others.The Pop-Up Village is located just off University Avenue, and is very close to the A.D. Hope Building and Melville Hall.

The Brian Kenyon Student Space is in Melville Hall, next to the A.D. Hope Building and near the Pop-Up Village.

Australian National University Library (Chifley Library)

JB Chifley Building, 15 Concessions Lane

Brian Kenyon Student Space (BKSS) Building 12, Melville Hall, Ellery Crescent

The Brian Kenyon Student Space is exactly that - a space for students to come and hang out, study, and relax.

Simply referred to as “Chifley”, this library is popular for its large size and study spaces (though nearing exams the 647 individual and group spaces become increasingly hard to secure!). The second and third levels of the library are open 24 hours a week, while the first and fourth levels are open from 9am to 5pm each day. The Library’s collection of books covers such topics as commerce, finance, anthropology, history, gender studies, linguistics, and philosophy. Chifley Library is next to the A.D. Hope Building and Fellows Oval. W

NEWS

O-Week, Semester 1, 2018

ANU HEALTH SERVICE IN CHAOS AHEAD OF MANAGEMENT CHANGE

Weren’t at ANU in 2017? Here’s what you should know Max Koslowski News Editor Content warnings: Sexual assault, AHRC sur vey, Institutional betrayal It’s hard enough to turn up to university – you have to make new friends, learn new subjects, and maybe move into a new home. And unless you were a keen Woroni reader in high school, you’re probably going to have a hard time knowing what older students are talking about when they complain about the Union Court redevelopment, returner applications or the AHRC survey. If you weren’t at university last year, here were some of the community’s biggest talking points in 2017.

Max Koslowski News Editor The ANU Health Service is heading into 2018 understaffed, with many outgoing and current employees accusing the ANU of mismanagement ahead of big changes to the operation. Dr Christine Colson was one of the employees who felt so affected by the process that she walked out of the job — after having worked at the ANU Health Service since 2003, Colson left a few weeks ago, claiming that the university had “failed spectacularly” in the management process. “I resigned because of the upheaval and poor management of the whole process,” Colson told Woroni. “We were not given any information for many months, and the information we were given always turned out to be inaccurate”. “It had a devastating impact on morale — we work very well as a team, but this started and it quickly became apparent that people would lose their jobs at some point. We didn’t know how and when. It became a holding pattern,” she continued. In her resignation letter, Colson wrote that “... I am unable to continue working in an environment which has suffered major upheavals from the disruptive external inf luences that have occurred over many months”. The move to a new provider, the National Health Cooperative (NHC), is the focus of these complaints. Ever since the ANU proposed a change in ownership of the health service over a year ago many nurses and doctors have left. Tensions have risen over the past month in particular, with a proposal for the transition being hotly debated back and

forth between the ANU management and ANU Health Service. One worker at the centre, who asked not to be named for fear of their job, said that “that proposal is a load of crap”. In a statement released on Monday, the National Tertiary Education Union also hit out at the process: “In an April 2017 meeting, it is the NTEU’s understanding that remaining ‘doctors were encouraged by ANU Management to find alternative employment.’ The result of ANU’s mishandling - there was once six doctors working in the practice, numbers have reduced to around one doctor, with some days having no doctors at all,” the statement read.

date with information regarding the transition,” the statement read. “Some doctors working with the ANU Health Clinic have elected to cease their licence and we’ve been working with the Health Clinic team and NHC to provide supplementary GP services to make sure there isn’t a gap in health services for the ANU community”. Two general practitioners and one nurse have been recently hired to fill some of these vacancies. However, this may not be enough: in May, the average wait for a standard appointment was ten days. As of last month, the wait was 20 days.

“One nurse is leaving at the end of the year. Another nurse position is vacant - she left in the middle of the year because she was sick of the uncertainty and so found a job somewhere else. The office manager is leaving in January. ANU management has basically made the Health Service such an unpleasant place to work that people have decided to leave”.

And concerns have been raised as to whether the NHC can source the doctors required to keep the health service running in 2018. Two ANU Health Clinic employees that Woroni spoke to believed that the NHC were struggling to source doctors due to legislation that requires international doctors to work in regional areas before working in urban areas such as Acton. A large portion of NHC’s workforce are international doctors, and many of the other clinics they operate fall within rural areas where these employees face no barriers to work.

Woroni understands that a total of five positions will be cut ahead of NHC’s takeover. A further four employees will reach the end of their fixed-term employment in 2019, and it is not known whether those positions will be renewed.

In response to these claims, the NHC said that they had already supplied additional doctors to the ANU Health Clinic. The cooperative also noted that “staffing for the new ANU Clinic forms part of the NHC’s ongoing recruitment efforts”.

In a written statement, an ANU spokesman said that the university is looking forward to opening the new health centre in 2019.

“The overarching goal of the NHC is to increase access to affordable healthcare, to this end, the NHC is currently working with the ANU to assess the new clinic’s likely demand,” the statement continued.

The NTEU’s ACT division secretary, Rachel Bahl, noted that it wasn’t just doctors who were leaving.

“The transition to our new service provider NHC is progressing well and doctors and staff at the ANU Health Clinic have been kept up to

In 2016, there were a total of 27,942 consultations at ANU Health. W

Union Court Redevelopment The construction at the heart of ANU is all about one thing – redeveloping the central precinct into a new student hub. The project began in the middle of 2017, and is scheduled to finish at the beginning of 2019 – at a price tag of $220 million. The new Union Court – or as it will now be known, Kambri – will include two new student accommodation buildings, a student services hub, a new pool and gym, an underground car park, a bunch of classrooms and food, bar and retail shops. Throughout 2018, there’ll also be significant construction along ANU’s main thoroughfare, University Avenue. The plan is to revitalise the road with new trees and shrubs. This is what the Director of Major Projects, Robert Hitchcock, had to say about it: “The work will involve a significant amount of excavation and regrading, and is necessary to bring the site to a single level, creating greater accessibility for all people”. Despite the construction, they are keeping a five of the large cedar trees due to their heritage value.

Returner Applications If you’re at a residential hall, you’ll most likely need to fill out a returner application at some point. These applications are a way for colleges to determine which residents stay on next year. So why can’t colleges just let everyone back in? It’s partly because ANU doesn’t have enough beds for everyone, and partly because they

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

NEWS

Issue 1, Vol. 68

Weren’t at ANU in 2017? Here’s what you should know

of all 2017 residents left – either of their own choice, or because their returner applications weren’t successful. The year before last, only around 25 per cent of residents either chose to leave UniLodge or had their returner applications rejected.

maintain their first year accommodation guarantee -- when more and more first years come to ANU, the way the university makes space for them is by kicking out some later-year students.

At St Johns’ XXIII College, students were even more furious at the process. In one of our most read stories of the year, Woroni revealed that a petition signed by more than 180 students at the college said that the returner application process had “abused the trust our residents have in the administration”. There were claims that the process discriminated against students from distinct social groups.

CONTINUED

And that’s where the drama occurred last year. At UniLodge, 42 per cent

The Australian Human Rights Commission Survey In August last year, a long-awaited survey on sexual harassment and assault at Australian universities was released. It included responses from more than 30,000 students, and the results were damning: 51 per cent of student were sexually harassed on at least one occasion in 2016. The survey, conducted by the Australian Human Rights Commission at 39 universities, also revealed that women were almost twice as likely to be sexually harassed than men.

ANU was overrepresented in the statistics: 116 ANU students were sexually assaulted in 2016, including more than 50 in residential colleges. In response, ANU accepted all of the recommendations of the AHRC survey report. By November, the university had published a review that investigated ANU’s sexual assault procedures -- but student critics claimed that the review was f lawed because it did not consult with survivors of sexual assault. Make sure to keep an eye on this story throughout the year: ANU is planning to do a second report, this time specifically exploring the sexual assault procedures of the university’s residential colleges. W

DESPITE APPEAL, UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY AD BANNED FOR BEING RACIST

Text: Max Koslowski News Editor

and external billboards, had breached the industry’s code of ethics. In an appeal, the University of Sydney argued that the intention of the After an unsuccessful appeal by the campaign was not racist: University of Sydney, an advertisement that comprised part of the university’s “The advertisement, along with other ‘Unlearn’ marketing campaign has been advertisements in the ‘Unlearn’ banned by the Advertising Standards campaign, communicates the Board for being racist. University’s new undergraduate education model,” wrote the university Late last year, a number of complaints in response to the decision, “which aims were made about the advertisement, to give students the critical thinking which depicts a child’s small hands skills that allows them to question reaching through the holes in a wire established beliefs”. fence, overlayed with the words “unlearn criminal”. The child has dark skin. At The elite university also claimed the bottom of the advertisement, the that the image, source from the words “we’ve reimagined the way we United Nations High Commission on teach, so our students can reimagine Refugees, related to ongoing academic the world” appear. research concerning Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander incarceration A decision in November determined rates. According to the university, the that the advertisement, which was advertisement “advocates an approach shown at bus stations, train stations, to controversial subject matter that

is non-discriminatory minded”.

and

open-

meaning of the word ‘unlearn’ was ambiguous:

Section 2.1 of the AANA Code of Ethics notes that advertisements should not “portray people or depict material in a way which discriminates against or vilifies a person or section of the community on account of race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, age, sexual preference, religion, disability, mental illness or political belief.”

“Though the intent of the advertiser was in fact to ask people to challenge stereotypical assumptions regarding race, the particular emphasis on the word ‘criminal’… was unlikely to give that impression and in the Board’s view did depict material in a way which discriminates against a section of the community on account of ethnicity.”

In deciding whether to uphold the appeal, the Advertising Standards Board wrote that the word criminal was “very prominent” in the advertisement.

As per Advertising Standards Board protocol, an independent reviewer analysed the decision, and ultimately recommended that the advertisement was not in breach of the code of ethics. Despite this, the decision remained and University of Sydney’s appeal was dismissed.

“In the Board’s view the overall impression of the advertisement is that non- Caucasian people are criminals – whether in the context of being held in gaol or in detention camps.” It was further suggested that the

The university has confirmed to the Advertising Standards Board that the advertisement has been taken down. W

NEWS

O-Week, Semester 1, 2018

The Facebook Groups You Should Join If You’re A First Year At ANU Text: Phoebe Lupton

But thanks to the connective powers of social media, this can all be helped. There are many Facebook groups related to various elements of ANU campus life that you can join to learn more about the community, meet other students and prepare yourself for the year ahead.

but it can be particularly challenging if you’re from a marginalised group and worry that you won’t meet anyone who understands what you’ve been through. Luckily, ANUSA has several departments for students from marginalised groups, most of which have Facebook groups. In these groups, you can share your experiences, find out about social functions and ultimately, meet people who are like you. You can find Facebook groups for the ANU Women’s Department, Ethnocultural Department, Queer Department, Disabilities Student Association and International Students’ Department among others.

Here are the Facebook groups that every first year should consider joining:

ANU Schmidtposting

It’s not hard for first years to feel out of their depth at ANU: you probably don’t know anything about campus, and you might not know any of your fellow students.

New @ ANU 2018 No doubt some of you have already joined this group, but if not, here is where you should start. New @ ANU 2018 is group for new students to introduce and connect with each other, as well ask questions and share information with those who need it. If you need help with ISIS, want to find a study spot that no one knows about or just want to make friends, this group will be a necessity in your transition to university.

ANUSA Department Groups Starting university is scary for all of us,

If you find that exposure to memes, course advice and debates over whether or not Lorde was robbed for the number one Hottest 100 spot are missing in your life, this is the group for you. Students mostly come here to have a giggle and a chat, two things that you will desperately need at some point during the year. Whether it’s sharing opinions on the best electives to take or discussing conspiracy theories, ANU Schmidtposting has it all!

Textbook Exchange A common anxiety among first-years is not knowing how to get a hold of their textbooks. If this is the case for you, the textbook exchange Facebook group is the best means by which to banish this fear. Later-year students frequently

put their used textbooks up for sale at a second-hand price that is affordable to most first year students. If you don’t immediately find what you need, you can always make a post saying what books you’re looking for — odds are someone will have them.

Housing The ANU Housing group is what you need in your life if you’re unsure about accommodation offers or want to find a share house. In this group, you will find advertisement after advertisement for places to live near the ANU. If you’re looking for a particular kind of accommodation, such as an affordable apartment within walking distance from the university, you can always write a post about it and it’s likely that someone will be willing to help you.

Free & For Sale In a similar vein, Free and For Sale advertises anything you could possibly want. Maybe you’re about to move into your share house or residential hall without any furniture. Maybe you’re a stationery nerd aching for a multicoloured set of pens to fill up your brand new pencil case. Maybe you’ve broken your laptop and are in desperate need of a new one so that you can actually enrol in your classes. No matter which one you are, joining the Free & For Sale group is essential.

Residential Hall Groups Most halls and colleges, including Lena Karmel Lodge, Fenner Hall and Griffin Hall, have their own Facebook groups for students who wish to connect with other students in their residence. Senior residents are always happy to answer any questions and give any advice that you need, as well as guide you towards the hall’s upcoming social events. In these groups, you can meet people, chat and make sure that you’re on top of everything that’s going on in your hall.

Disciplinespecific Groups No matter what your degree may be, you will probably be able to find a Facebook group for it! Whether it be CASS students @ANU, Science students @ANU, CAP students at ANU or any other group you can find that’s related to your field of study, it will likely help you in your first year. These groups are designed to share information about courses and events within the college to which your page is related, something that’ll be a big help as you start your degree.

Jobs and Internships One of the best ways to get ahead in your dream career is, indeed, to go to university. However, another hugely important way is to do an internship or two. The Jobs and Internships Facebook group makes this a whole lot easier. You will see posts on a regular basis that advertise a job or intern position that might just catch your fancy. The variety of jobs and internships on offer is wide, with positions appealing to students with backgrounds from business and economics to visual art and photography.

Free Food at ANU It’s not cheap to be a university student and it can be time consuming to have to learn how to cook a wide variety of dishes. These things make a good meal hard to come by during your university years. Free Food at ANU attempts to cure this, with its number one rule being “tell everyone about free food!” and its number two rule being “tell EVERYONE about free food!”. As the name suggests, you will be able to find a plethora of free food opportunities advertised in this groups, which will be your saviour during O-Week and into the rest of your first year. W

COMMENT

Vol. 68 , Issue 01

Meanwhile in canberra... Text: Jasper Lindell Graphic: Jonathan Tjandra Canberra has never really enjoyed the status of being a popular city. It’s a national capital with something just a bit off in the eyes of the rest of the country. The name has stuck as a shorthand for the government. Like Washington, Canberra makes a lot of decisions without ever really being part of them. That’s because there are two Canberras: the first is the one we know. Spaced out suburbs, distinguished eucalypts and the increased chance of intense boredom after 9.00pm when the buses suddenly seem to stop running. Then there is political Canberra. Here, Labor’s faceless men might meet at the Kingston Hotel, or the federal budget might be leaked at the Statesman Hotel in Curtin. A prime minister might keel over and die at the Kurrajong. But it’s more than shady activity in hotels. Political Canberra shapes the direction of the country. A chance meeting here, a decision there, can have reverberations for decades afterwards. Occasionally the two Canberras cross over. And, just occasionally, you might be able to pick up a filing cabinet of classified documents direct from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet at an ex-government furniture sale. But it’s best not to count on it.

Unfortunately, people who know about politics can be terrible bores. We get terribly excited about things like elections, leadership challenges, federal budget lock ups and National Press Club Addresses. But hopefully you’ll get to see that there is a lot to be excited about – and outraged by – when our political operatives, and occasionally leaders, descend on Canberra and attempt to run the nation. Whatever happens in Canberra this year, in some way, we’ll manage to get caught up in it. With the holidays over, we’re about to go through the motions again. Parliament is sitting and Bill Shorten, the Labor opposition leader who struggles with personal popularity, has returned from his coastal retreat. Malcolm Turnbull, the popular Liberal prime minister doing his best to hang onto the steering wheel of a very unpopular Liberal-National government, is back too. But the more exciting spectacle is the upcoming by-election in the inner-city Melbourne seat of Batman, the Labor heartland-ofold bleeding votes to the Greens. The former member, David Feeney, resigned when he couldn’t lay h i s hands on paperwork confirming he wasn’t British. Feeney, familiar to student politicians as the operative who led the split from the larger, more encompassing National Organisation of Labor Students in 1991 to form the Labor

Right-aligned Student Unity and as the subsequent employer of Student Unity staffers, will not be recontesting. Nor will the Liberals put their hats into the ring. This leaves Labor in a bit of strife, having won the seat – and only just – on preferences which flowed from Liberal votes. The Greens had a higher primary vote. After a Greens hiccup, where Darebin branch members wanted candidate Alex Bhatal removed from the party, Bhatal is set to contest her sixth election for the Greens. The leader, Richard Di Natale, said the issues have been resolved. You can see the concern on Shorten’s face. His hand-picked Labor candidate, trade unionist Ged Kearney, is popular but represents a party which doesn’t wash so easily with a rapidly gentrifying electorate. (However, many maintain she’ll get over the line. The area, they say, isn’t Green enough just yet.) So Labor has softened on the Adani coal mine, saying they’re now “sceptical” about the project. And by the time you read this, they may well have flat out opposed it. It’s a win for the Greens as Turnbull announces that Shorten’s Labor has moved “further and further to the Left”. This leftward shift may also force Labor’s hand on what it will offer young people at the next federal election. The machinations of the Batman by-election may benefit a lot more of us by revealing if Labor will pay more attention to young voters – or not. At least, Turnbull is probably thinking, it takes the attention away from selling a corporate tax cut as a path to wage increases. A Japanese policy where corporations get a tax cut

if they pass on higher wages to its workforce has been slammed by big business here. Apparently, they should get to decide what they do with their money if tax is reduced. Turnbull is doing his best to sell the story, though. Appearing on ABC’s Insiders on the Sunday morning before parliament resumed, Turnbull sat in an open-necked shirt and jacket (perhaps he wished it was leather) and tried like a rich uncle to explain the virtues of trickle-down economics in a neo-liberal system of tax cuts and the free market. “Wages will move up as you get stronger – well, wages are going up, but not going up enough. But they will go up as you get competition for labour as firms compete for labour,” he said. Host Barrie Cassidy pointed out companies made a 20 per cent profit in the last 12 months but wages only went up two per cent. “If you encourage business to invest [by lowering taxes], they will do so, and you will then get more investment, more jobs,” Turnbull said, relying on the waitand-see approach to wage increases. And the other thing that we will have to wait and see? How many bad Newspolls Turnbull manages to clock up. Thirty duds was the number Turnbull cited when Tony Abbott was deposed in September 2015. If Turnbull stays on his current trajectory, he’ll cash in his 30th dud Newspoll in March or April. With the thought of an election starting to bubble away, and with several states going to the polls later this year, there’s plenty to observe in the strange place called Canberra. Will Turnbull pull something spectacular off and scrape together a minority government next time around, or are we watching Shorten get packaged up to be the cardboard prime minister? Maybe it’ll be none of the above. All we can do is watch on – in excitement and horror.

O-Week, Semester 1, 2018

content warning: domestic violence, gendered discrimination

Discrimination: A note on Gender and Nation Text: Vicktoria Elazarova Graphics: Nathalie Rosales-Cheng

Later on, I decided to move abroad to the Netherlands for university.

Growing up in a large family in Bulgaria, I was always surrounded with love, support and acceptance. My parents never made me feel like I was any different or less because I was a girl. They both cooked, cleaned the house, worked and made decisions together. This was how I assumed things worked in every other family. The first time I heard the word feminism, I asked my parents: but aren’t girls and boys the same? I was confused and my parents were not very helpful, because their parents too always treated their daughters and sons the same. Thus, they thought feminism was not necessary.

In Groningen, I understood discrimination for the first time. I worked at a bar where Dutch people would shout in surprise and disbelief when I mentioned my origins. I felt very uncomfortable and still did not understand what could be so unbelievable in that statement. Western European men would tell me: ‘come on, you are Bulgarian, loosen up some more...’. I did not understand what they meant. Until one day, I finally realised. A family friend was told by her British husband that he had thought all Bulgarian women abroad were prostitutes when they started dating. I encountered a series of prejudices which I didn’t even know existed and I could not explain to myself with my experience growing up.

As I grew up, though, I realised that not everyone was as lucky as me, and that most people did not share my nor my family’s perspective. I started noticing this when I was as young, as young as five years old, when I won over a boy in a swimming competition. His response was screaming and kicking in hysteria because a girl beat him. I felt bad for him and did not bother next time we were competing. I thought that since it did not matter to me, I might as well let him win. Years later, I heard that his parents decided not to send his younger sister to the private school he attended because... she was a girl and you do not invest money in a girl’s education.

Once I started seeing how I was perceived as a Bulgarian woman, I became resentful of the people who acted superior to me and that thought I had something to prove. I was told I had to prove them wrong. I did not want to come to terms with this reality and it made me so angry. Why should I prove anyone right or wrong? Why should people feel entitled to have these preconceptions? People judge me the moment I mention where I am from and, without even knowing me, my family, nor my friends, they think that just because I come from Bulgaria, I must be poorer, less educated, less intelligent and less tolerant than them.

Outside my social circles, women are the ones who clean and cook at home, but interestingly enough, in Bulgaria, women and men are equal in the workplace. A woman is expected to work as hard a man and there is relative equality of gender distribution across sectors and hierarchy chains. However, equality for housework does not exist. Therefore, the woman is expected to still clean the house and cook dinner after working. Still, though, any kind of institutional discrimination felt foreign to me. I attended competitive private schools, where only your intellectual capacity really mattered. My classmates went to study in Ivy League schools and some of my teachers wrote award winning books. I was very isolated, with my family circle and my friends from school. I did not know how the average Bulgarian my age lived. I did not even fully realise how exceptional my environment was.

Discrimination exists everywhere and unless we talk about it, it will be ignored. We need to engage in conversation to fight the prejudices women and men from unpopular countries face. Even if it is not your battle and you are not suffering yourself, you should still fight for all those affected. Because if you do not, then sooner or later you will be affected as well, and your bubble will burst. Feminism is not unnecessary. It is the means to overcome gender discrimination we face worldwide. Being born in a particular country is as much your choice as it is to be born blonde. Yet, it is considered okay to be ever so proud of it and to put other people down, insult them, discriminate them and hurt them because of it. Funnily enough, I do not even identify strongly as Bulgarian. Because of this discrimination, I started to feel like I cannot really belong anywhere.

COMMENT

Vol. 68 , Issue 01

Content Warning: Discussions of war and displacement

Life is a Battle: From YPG fighter to refugee in Northern Europe Text: Francesca Pettinato Graphic: Nathan Ruser Photos: Francesca Pettinato

This was said in the chaotic pub, but his words were strong and clear. Selam was born in the centre of conflict, in the Rojava Kurdish region at the north of Syria. For a few years, he fought for the YPG Kurdish militia, one of the main It was the 2 August 2017, just another armed forces against ISIS. hot day in Athens. I was at City Plaza, a refugee housing initiative, when Selam, Selam has been living in northern Eua 22-year-old Kurdish man approached rope since 2017 and, in time, he manme. He asked if I could help him with aged to get protection. A dreamland for some documents. From that moment on, asylum seekers, Europe is a safe region we became friends. Our lives moved for- that receives the majority of protection ward, but we managed to keep in touch. requests. Angela Merkel invited Syrian I left Greece, and he made his way up people to come to Germany. This large number of people represents an increase north. of workers that the country needs, ready The next time we met was in a pub. This to be inserted into the German worktime around, Selam decided to open up force. However, from 2015 onwards, the about his past and the horrors of war. European Union adopted policies tramHis body is covered in tattoos and scars pling human rights. Reception counand, in itself, sketched a story of suffer- tries, such as Italy or Greece, established ing and fighting for peace. His first state- deals with Libya and Turkey to restrict the human flow. ment touched me.

‘Seeing your loved ones and so many people die one after another, you can no longer feel any pain, just a big knot in your throat. No words, no moan and no tears. This morning, I was told that my cousin died and I had no reaction. Death does not shock me anymore.’

The Islamic State (Daesh) was born in 2014 in Syria and Iraq, proclaiming a holy war, ‘jihad’ against the infidels, ‘kafir’. Men hungry for power are manipulated into sacrifice on the basis of false truths. Its only goal is to control and ultimately kill people who do not follow Islamaccording to their interpretation of Sharia law. These threats included the Kurdish population in Rojava. Therefore, just like Selam, many people enlisted in the YPG militia. From the age of nine, Selam sold lighters on the street, shined shoes and worked as a mechanic. At the beginning of the mass exodus of Syrians, including his own family, he decided to stay behind, because of his strong bond with his homeland, Kurdistan. Halfway through school, he left to embrace YPG teachings of democratic confederalism. In 2014, he participated in military operations against ISIS. In a coarse tone, he admitted that ‘we always had to carry a grenade with us, just in case we were about to be caught by them. We preferred to be blown up than become their prisoners. If they take you, they will starve you to death. They will burn you or torture you in every possible way.

They make you suffer a lot because they want you to wish death. They bring you to the edge of death for months.’ Moreover, Selam denounced the massacre of the Yazidi population and the trafficking of women and children. He showed me a photo of a smiling Yazidi child holding the sign of victory. ‘His parents were killed and he was thrown in prison. We freed him during a fight and let him reunite with the rest of his family. This shows that, somehow, there is some kind of love in war’, he added. While we sipped on chai, I asked about his battles. In just a matter of seconds, his face became serious and said: ‘during the war operation in Kobane I was in a group of 25 soldiers and ISIS shot us with tanks, threw grenades and mines in the building where we hid. After three days, we managed to make our way out, but most of my group did not survive. I spent 19 hours under debris and ruins with broken bones. I had to play dead when I heard enemies coming closer…’ Selam continued fighting but got wounded again, and his health worsened. With no hospitals nor safety in Kobane, he decided to move to Europe, in hopes of medical treatment. He crossed the Turkish-Greek borders and then followed the path to asylum in northern Europe. Once he made his way there, he was able to get an ID to travel and move around freely. ‘Bureaucracy is long and boring,’ Selam complained, ‘but I will get the chance to attend language courses and look for a job’. He will soon be able to move to his own apartment, be independent and live a tranquil life, free of battles. Selam’s only goal now is ‘fighting again, but this time it’s for myself, not for other people’.

O-Week, Semester 1, 2018

COMMENT

Content Warning: Discussions of war and displacement

When Selam joined the YPF Army Document ordering a transfer to an accommodation out of the city

Buying in the Market

Selam grieving after a video call with a friend who is still fight in Syria

Selam walking in the night

Inside the Kurdish Club

COMMENT

Text: Inez Cashman Grapic: Sophie Bear

Vol. 68 , Issue 01

Feels Like Home

The idea of what makes a place ‘home’ is hard to pin down. Does it mean the country you come from? Or is it less tangible than that – as the saying goes, is it a matter of ’where the heart is’? I have grappled with these questions since I was seven, when my family moved from my birthplace of Sydney to Hong Kong. The move was, in my eyes, temporary and I was convinced that I would be home to finish primary school in Australia. However, after three years in Hong Kong we moved on to Singapore, which is where my family still lives. Eventually, I found myself moving back to Australia as a young adult to attend ANU 12 years later. For many years after leaving, I held onto the belief that Sydney was my ‘home’. While I loved Hong Kong, every trip back to Australia was full of angst and I felt that, with every year spent in Asia, the formative Australian experiences I

was missing were robbing me of my national identity. People would frequently inform my sister and I that we had lost our accents, and we would be mistaken for British tourists in our local shops. The longer we were away, the more I lost contact with Australian friends. Sydney felt less like a place I belonged and more like a place I visited. Like me, most of the people I went to school with in Hong Kong and Singapore grew up outside the country of their nationality. This reached a peak when I attended a Singaporean school populated entirely by international students. In a sort of paradox, our national identities became far more prominent in this environment, regardless of the fact that I had friends who had never lived in their ‘home’ countries. Within international schools, mufti days and celebrations o f nationalities are common – for me, this meant that being Australian remained close to my sense of identity and concept of ‘home’. This was compounded by the fact that in Singapore, the local

and foreign populations remain largely socially segregated. This prevented me from ever really feeling a true sense of home in the country – despite my nine years living there, I left without any feelings of national identity or belonging. It wasn’t until I approached the decision of returning to Australia for university that I realised what defined ‘home,’ for me, was actually less about the place and more about the community of friends and family who shared the experience of growing up as an expat. Suddenly, when I was faced with what I had supposedly craved – moving ‘home’ – I didn’t want to go. I found that, to my surprise, ‘home’ was more about an intangible experience of belonging. Despite my initial resistance towards returning to Australia, my parents insisted that it would be hugely important for me to root my identity and sense of belonging in the country I arbitrarily called home. I brushed this off, feeling that I no longer needed, or wanted, a national identity to feel secure in my understanding of ‘home’. It wasn’t until I moved that I realised how wrong I was. My eventual return to Australia, to attend ANU, triggered an identity crisis

and has forced me to grapple once again with what home means to me. In many ways, the move back to my country of birth was far easier than I thought it would be. To my relief, the culture was largely the same as the one I was used to and I was lucky to make some of the best friends I have ever had. On the other hand, I was constantly reminded of the fact that I hadn’t grown up in Australia. Often these were reminders were small – TV show references, slang, music – but they contributed to a sense that I didn’t really belong. Despite the countries I grew up in, I was classed as a domestic student – and I didn’t feel that I belonged in the category of international students – so I found myself drifting somewhere between the two. I felt that I lacked the shared experiences and culture that brings people together and creates a sense of ‘home’. My answer to the question of ‘where are you from?’ is a complicated one. Now, two years after arriving back in Australia, I am more comfortable with the reality that for me ‘home’ isn’t restricted to one place and that my sense of home is more fractured than some people’s. My ‘home’ isn’t Sydney, Singapore or Canberra – it is a patchwork of all of the people and places that have formed my identity and where I have come to feel a sense of belonging.

Great Talk! But What’s Next? Text: Richard Haowei Hong Graphic: David Liu

Earlier in January this year, a momentous talk between South Korea and North Korea took place at the border village of Panmunjom. Though the North emphasised the parameter of the talk would focus only on the upcoming Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, this talk poses an unquestionable significance to the geopolitical relationships within the Korean peninsula. To some extent, it is plausible to suggest the talk might have de-escalated the tension in the peninsula, especially over the intensifying dispute over North Korea’s nuclear programme. The Guardian and The New York Times believe that the talk can establish a solid foundation for both parties and exchange good will. Notably, North and South unprecedentedly reached a consensus over few humanitarian programs, including but not limited to reuniting elderly people with their cross-border relatives since Korean War. Thus, there is hope this dialogue can potentially stimulate a peaceful and diplomatic resolution regarding North Korea’s nuclear and missile programme. Contrarily, some argue that the talk will not shift the North’s stand on possessing a nuclear weapon, and this open dialogue will not alter the status quo in the region. Therefore, the means to denuclearise North Korea must be bloody. To rationalise the notion of what is about to happen, it is significant to analyse the multilateral relations in the peninsula as well as the North’s

nuclear programme in a more heedful manner. Concerning the situation in the peninsula after the Winter Olympics, there are noticeably two bipolar perspectives in the region – optimists and pessimists. Optimists believe, as most Liberalists in international politics do, that the Winter Olympics talk serves as a starting point for negotiations. Regardless of whether the negotiation will specifically pertain to the North’s nuclear programme, it has certainly opened a dialogue between the two stakeholders after a two-year stalemate. For this reason, it is justified to suggest that it is ‘possible’ to open a dialogue with the North regarding the nuclear programme if the right conditions are achieved. In other words, if the right conditions are presented to North Korea, it is possible to avoid military means to potentially denuclearise the region. The billion-dollar question, therefore, should be about determining what exactly are the right conditions? Economically, the enormous sanctions imposed by the United Nations have taken away a third of North Korea’s economy. Politically, apart from China, North Korea does not have any strategic allies, and, thus, it has always been considered as a rogue state in the international community. Furthermore, North Korea has never

really been involved in any substantial international issues. For this reason, the bottom line of achieving the right conditions should firstly be lifting the UN sanctions, as well as officially acknowledging North Korea’s role in engaging numerous international issues. The only entity that is capable of granting these conditions is the UN Security Council. However, official resolutions are hard to fulfil. This is due to the veto right of permanent members in addition to the requirement of a majority vote for from the Security Council members. At this stage, it is rather preposterous to think all the members in the Security Council will easily agree on granting those conditions to merely open a dialogue with North Korea and particularly w it h- out guaranteeing anything in return. Also, since China and the US often have conf licting interests within the Peninsula region, to pass an official UN resolution will be incredibly complex and time-consuming. As a result, on North Korea’s nuclear issue, it is not rational to be overly optimistic. Regardless of the right conditions, most pessimists (or realists) in international relations believe that North Korea has absolutely no reason to give up their nuclear development. According to the International Relations theory of Realism, the world is

akin to a grim battlefield and states relentlessly use armed forces to compete against each other – since realism posits that with greater armed force come greater resources and more allies. Thus, to maximise the profit and well-being of a country, it is in a state’s best interests to advance their military power. The very same concept applies to North Korea – in other words, as tempting as the conditions may be, whether political or economic, North Korea will not stop advancing their armed force and nuclear technology. Another explanation as to why North Korea will not be giving up their nuclear test, apart from the old-school realism, is that they have incredibly limited leverage in the international community. Looking at our current situation, CNBC has suggested that North Korea’s economy still resides in the 70s and requires a significant period to catch up with the rest of the world. Thus, if they want to be considered seriously within the international community, they must advance their armed forces, which takes a shorter duration than developing the economy to catch up with the world. To sum up, North Korea has unquestionably shown a great gesture in arranging official talks with South Korea for Winter Olympics. And, it is promising that an open dialogue can be achieved if the right conditions are met. However, it does not seem to be a simple task to reach those conditions. Even if they are satisfied, nothing can be guaranteed. Additionally, North Korea has no justifiable reason to give up their only leverage in the international community. Therefore, denuclearising North Korea maynot be as peaceful as we had expected.

COMMENT

O-Week, Semester 1, 2018

It is Two Minutes to Midnight, So Why Am I not Panicking? Text: Bentan Honeywood Art; Mia Jessurun & David Liu On 25 January, the Doomsday Clock progressed to two minutes before midnight. What does this mean? Put simply, a series of scientists and experts from The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist’s Science and Security Board with knowledge of nuclear weapons, technology, and climate change believe that humanity is as close as it has ever been to wiping itself off the face of the earth. The closer to midnight on the Doomsday Clock, the closer we are to total eradication. You know, Armageddon. Nothing to really panic about. What drives the clock toward midnight? Initially, the main factors taken into consideration were those related to the threat of nuclear weapons and war, as the United States and the USSR were about to engage in the Cold War. The Bulletin wanted to create a sense of urgency, to highlight how humanity was watching the time for action rapidly tick away. In recent times, the Bulletin has considered additional threats. The explanation for the recent shift referenced the misuse of information technology and the exposed vulnerabilities of democracies (look at the US elections), as well as the now heightened risks of nuclear war and climate change. If you were thinking that this couldn’t be the first time we’ve gotten this close to Doomsday, you would be correct. 1953 was the first time our world reached this point. Huge milestones for the year included the crowning of Queen Elizabeth II, the creation of Polio vaccinations and humanity reaching the peak of Mount Everest. It was also the height of the Cold War. As the United States and the USSR engaged in an unparalleled arms race and various proxy battles, the use of nuclear bombs was starting to become a realistic possibility. The newly sworn in Dwight Eisenhower was threatening the use of atomic bombs on China. As communism spread throughout the world, western powers began to act aggressively. Democracy was being undermined as people with even perceived communist sympathies were locked up or silenced across the globe, including the US and Australia. Schools taught children to duck and cover in a vain attempt to keep them safe. The geopolitical climate we now face is not dissimilar to that which existed 65 years ago. The nuclear threat once again looms over the planet. While the most obvious danger is the rising

tensions surrounding North Korea’s developing nuclear regime, this isn’t the only threat, as more countries have become nuclear players themselves. There is even the risk of a new hegemonic confrontation between the likes of China and the US, with often incredibly antagonistic rhetoric being delivered on both sides, as well as existing tensions in the South China Sea. Any of these conflicts have the propensity to boil over into a global confrontation.

their social and governmental systems. Even once strong international ties are beginning to fracture, as seen in the Brexit decision. Even more worrying is the calibre of world leader now at the helm. The rhetoric and actions of Trump, Kim Jong-un and Duterte only seem to ramp up discord. Taking a step back and looking past the pure saturation of facts and stories delivered by modern media, it becomes clear why the clock has struck such a time. It becomes clear why many believe we are rapidly accelerating towards our own destruction.

Nuclear weaponry isn’t the only factor worrying the Bulletin. There is the onslaught of climate change, as hurricanes decimate the east coast of America and the people of Cape Town face ‘Day Zero’. Global temperature records seem to be broken daily.

So why aren’t we panicking? It could be due to media coverage, putting preference to feel good pieces and entertainment for the sake of views. Could it be that we are simply unable to process the breadth of information we are fed? It could be that, unlike in 1953, we have forgotten the horror of global war and devastation. But it is likely just that we don’t want to think about these things, that we are too scared to panic. Because to panic would mean admitting something is wrong, and admitting something is wrong means that action must be taken. But in globallevel situations, performing substantive action as an individual is near impossible to take. How can a single individual prevent the destruction of humanity?

What about the threat of extremism stemming from political and religious ideology? Conflicts have consumed our world, with the mass graves in Rakhine state or the militaristic violence that grips much of the Middle East and Africa. What about the ever-growing social inequality that has been emerging in the developed world since the era of Reagan and Thatcher? Or the rise of extreme fringe politics encouraging racial and religious abuse? Now, mix in the newly emerging weakness in prominent democracies to exterior influences and interferences with

I hate to just write out all this doom and gloom while ignoring the many incredible advances and opportunities of this age. But our future grows dimmer, and will continue to do so if we do not take a more proactive stance towards the problems unfolding right before us. It’s intriguing for those involved in the fields of politics a nd international relations, but a horrifying reality to face as a citizen.

prompted // multilingual

Vol. 68 , Issue 01

அன்புள்ள அப்பா dear father Text: Sumithri Venketasubramanian

அன்புள்ள அப்பா,

நம்

குழந்தையாக இருந்த நான், உங்கள்

இருக்கும்போது,

கைகளில் தூங்கினேன்,

என் அன்பை எப்படி உங்களிடம் காட்டுவது?

உங்கள் முகத்தில் முத்தம் கொடுத்தான்,

என் வாழ்க்கையிலும் என் மனதிலும்,

உங்கள் பக்கத்தில் அழுதேன்.

கட்டாயமாக

நாள் இறுதியில் காடியில் நான்

இருக்கிறீர்கள்,

சோர்வு அடையும்போது,

ஆனால், அதை உங்களிடம் காட்டுவது,

நீங்கள்தான் என்னை தூக்கி வீட்டுக்குள்

ஒவ்வொரு நாளும் நான் கற்றுக்கொள்கிறான்.

கொண்டு சென்றீர்கள்.

திரும்பி உங்கள் முகத்தில் முத்தம் கொடுக்க,

பள்ளி விடுமுறையில் என் சலிப்புக்கு மருந்தாக,

உங்கள் வாழ்க்கையில் மகிழ்ச்சி கொண்டுவர,

நீங்கள்தான் என்னுடன் சாலையின் பக்கத்தில்

நம் உறவை மீண்டும் தொடங்கவேண்டும்.

பூப்பந்து விளையாடினீர்கள்.

Dear father, How do I express my love to you, when there are boundaries to everything in our relationship? In my life and my heart, you are more than just my financial helper. But to show this to you, I am learning every day. To give you kisses on your face once again, To bring happiness to your life once again, We have to start our relationship once again.

ஆனால், இன்று, இவ்வெல்லாம் அனுபவங்கள் என் மனதில் நினைவாகதான் ஆகிவிட்டன. Dear father, Being the child I was, I slept in your arms. I gave you kisses on your face, I cried by your side. At the end of the day when I got tired in the car, it was you who carried me into the house. During school holidays, like a remedy to my boredom, it was you who played badminton with me by the road. But today, all these experiences have merely become memories in my heart.

என் உடம்பு மாற ஆரம்பித்தபோது, நம் உறவும் மாற தொடங்கியது. என்னால் உங்கள் கைய்களில் இனி தூண்க முடியாது, பக்கத்தில் அழ முடியாது, என் அன்பை எப்படி காட்ட தெரியாது. வெளிநாட்டிற்கு செல்லும்போது ஒரே படுக்கையில் தூங்க கூடாது, என் கையை நீங்கள் பிடிக்க கூடாது. எனக்கு பிரச்சனை ஏற்படும்போது அம்மாவிடம்தான் பேசவேண்டும், என் சோர்வுக்கு உங்கள் மருந்து இனி முடிந்துவிட்டது. ஏனென்றால், என் அப்பாவாக நீங்கள் இருந்தாலும், உங்கள் ஆண்மையும் என் பெண்மையும் கலக்க கூடாது. When my body started changing, so did our relationship. I can no longer sleep in your arms, or cry by your side. I don’t know how to show you my love. When we go overseas, we mustn’t share a bed, you musn’t hold my hand. When problems happen to me, I must speak to mother. Your remedy to my boredom has expired. Because, even though you are my father, Your masculinity and my femininity shouldn’t mix.

உறவில்

இருந்த

எல்லாவற்றுக்கும்

நீங்கள்

வங்கியைவிட

தடை

பெரிதாக

அன்புள்ள அப்பா, வீட்டிலிருந்தும் தூரமாக இருக்கும் நான், உங்களுடன்

பேச,

நட்பு

கொள்ள

முயற்சி

செய்ய

போகிறான். என்

வெற்றிகளிலும்

தோல்விகளிலும்

நீங்கள்

பகிர்ந்துகொள்ளுமாறு, என் மனம் வேண்டுகிறது. பல வருடங்களுக்க்கு என்னால் என் அன்பை காட்ட தெரியவில்லை, ஆனால், மெதுவாக நம் உறவை மறுபடியும் வளரலாம். Dear father, I, being so far away from home, Will try to speak to you, and be your friend. For you to be a part of my victories and failures, Is what my heart desires. For many years, I did not know how to show you my love, But slowly we can grow our relationship once again.

等待 waiting

Written and translated by: Anna Mitchell Chinese edited by: 陈云云

小船像黄龙， The little boat looks like a yellow dragon,

人家爱古样。 Some love its ancient shape.

别怕船破裂， Others fear that it will break,

黄龙正飘荡。 Yellow dragon drifts on the waves.

黄龙浮湖上， Yellow dragon floats on the lake,

人家怕沧海。 Some fear the dark green expanse.

别觊鱼丰胖， Others covet the fat abundant fish,

黄龙正等待。 Yellow dragon must perpetually wait.

Acknowledgments: Thank-you to Jake Liddle for your kind input.

O-Week, Semester 1, 2018

prompted // multilingual

An Ancient Guide to Curing Hangovers Text: An excerpt from the

Syrian Anatomy Pathology and Therapeutics (1857-1934) by E. A. Wallis Budge. Translated by: Charbel El-Khaissi

Vol. 68 , Issue 01

Features

Content Warning: Trigger Warnings: Mentions of suicide, depression, anxiety, PTSD, selfharm and drug use

How to Survive ANU with a Mental Illness: Six Strategies by Someone Who Has Been There Text: Monique Munro Image: Sophie Bear Trying to maintain your mental health at any stage of life is difficult. However, in the period of our life when we’re ‘coming of age’, combined with the sometimes hard-to-navigate stressors of university, our mental health can be sent spiraling. I first experienced serious issues with my mental health at the beginning of second year when I was diagnosed with anxiety, depression, and PTSD. Two years later, after what feels like a series of trials and errors, I wish someone had blessed me with some useful tips on what helped them get through. My strategies derive from my mental health experience and I understand that everyone’s mental health experience looks different but I hope that, by sharing my experience, I can help.

1. Find Someone You Trust, and Let Them Know What You’re Going Through Do not let any perceived stigma towards mental health stop you from getting support. My anxiety held me back from telling those I love what I was going through. It led me to believe that telling people would make them think less of me, or that I wasn’t strong enough or that I was a failure. But this simply isn’t true. With one in five Australians experiencing a mental health condition in any given year, the chances are most people you know have either experienced mental illness themselves or know someone who has. Additionally, think about telling a parent or guardian figure. I didn’t for 12 months, and I completely understand why you might not want to. It does, however, make it a lot easier to explain why you can’t work, or why you aren’t doing a full study load, or why you need to extend your degree by 6 months. It can also be a major relief not having to lie every time a family member calls to ask how you are, and can help rid those feelings of being alone and thinking that nobody cares.

2. Seek Professional Help A friend once said to me, ‘if you think you have a mental illness you probably do’. It was easy for me to pass off symptoms of anxiety as stress, or my tiredness as normal. However, as soon as you start to think, ‘I am depressed’, I can’t express how important it is to see a GP and to maintain contact with them. I knew I was struggling with my mental health and was regularly seeing

a counsellor, but I was ashamed about the thoughts of suicide and self-harm that I would have daily and I didn’t tell my counsellor, or go to my GP. There are many fantastic free services where you can talk to someone; ANU Health (which is bulk billed, and is therefore totally covered by Medicare), ANU Counselling, Headspace Canberra, Canberra Rape Crisis Centre, The Junction, Beyond Blue telephone line, and Life Line Crisis Support just to name a few. Your GP will also be able to issue you a Mental Health Care Plan so you can access a private psychologist under the Medicare rebate scheme at a discounted price.

3. Approach Access & Inclusion on Campus My Education Access Plan, which I acquired through Access and Inclusion, has saved me more than once. It has enabled me to easily negotiate extensions when I really need them and to access special exam arrangements to mitigate the impact my mental health has on my studies. The way it works is that you bring your medical documentation to Access & Inclusion and they issue you with an ‘EAP’ which also gets sent to your conveners. Meaning you can negotiate extensions with your ‘EAP’ and without having to share private details. Seriously think about approaching Access & Inclusion – I have only ever had positive experiences dealing with them. You can find Access & Inclusion at #24 in the Copland Building.

4. Look after yourself If you’re not feeling well you need to stop participating in the destructive behaviour that can often come handin-hand with university social life. The fact is, alcohol is a depressant and drugs such as MDMA negatively affect serotonin stores. You might feel fantastic while you’re out but it isn’t going to help you in the long run. This doesn’t mean you should isolate yourself. Try and find alternative ways to hang out with your friends such as going for dinner or trying something new like rock climbing. Take time to rest. ANU is the epicenter of students with hundreds of different extra-curricular activities, but you really do need to take time to rest when managing your mental health. De-commit yourself from any unnecessary extra-curricular activities, and once you feel that you’re in a better place, re-commit to one activity at a time.

5. Your Self Care looks Different Everyone Else’s We often convince ourselves that demolishing a packet of Doritos and watching Netflix for three days straight is self-care, but it’s not. Practice ‘active’ self-care. This looks different to everyone. Personally, I cannot stand the voice of the British man on the Headspace meditation app. Instead when I am experiencing a depressive episode I create a list of achievable tasks i.e. make my bed, leave the house by 10am, wash my hair. I then build on these tasks. This trick helps me find some motivation, as well as a sense of achieving something every day.

6. Don’t beat yourself up if you relapse Getting better isn’t a linear process. Sometimes it can feel like ‘two steps forward, one step back’, but don’t beat yourself up for it. This is normal. Don’t apologise for your mental health. Apologising to the people around you can make you feel like you’re not trying hard enough. In my experience this is when I have ignored warning signs that I may need extra help. Instead of apologising, accept that getting better is a messy process and confront your setbacks. Know that it will take time, that you don’t get better in a linear fashion and that sometimes it gets worse before it gets better. I have been managing my mental health for two years and it’s been a rollercoaster. Just know that it does get better and that there will always be someone to help you and that cares about you. If nothing else, know that I care and that I hope reading my experiences will help you through. Mental illness affects everyone in different ways and one person’s experience is by no means universal or prescriptive of others. If you’re affected by anything mentioned in this article, please reach out. ANU Counselling has is free to all students and can be accessed by calling 6125 2442. Urgent bookings can be made by calling the centre at 9am. Alternatively, you may call Lifeline on 131114. This is a free service and is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Woroni is committed to facilitating free and open discussions about mental health. If you feel you have something or a story to share, get in touch with us at write@ woroni.com.au.

O-Week, Semester 1, 2018

A PLAY-BY-PLAY ON USING GENDER NEUTRAL LANGUAGE Text: Ally Luppino Graphic: Cherry Zhen One night late last year a friend of mine told me a riddle. We’d been telling them all night and, as the evening progressed, they were becoming more and more silly. This was all fun and games until gender became the punchline. Here it goes: a boy is injured in a car accident in which his father dies. He’s then transported to hospital and, when he’s placed on the surgical table, the surgeon exclaims “I can’t operate on this boy – he is my son!”. The question is; who’s the surgeon? I’m sure I’m not the only one who is dumbfounded that this is a riddle at all. A surgeon is a surgeon, right? There’s nothing in the word which says anything about their ethnicity, their sexuality or their height. So why assume a surgeon is a man? Or that, alternatively, they couldn’t be gay? The punchline was, at it turns out, that one has to think twice before considering a woman can be a surgeon. Using gender-neutral language is no longer a ‘leftist thought bubble’, but a practical reality. It’s a small step to recognise that society is now moving beyond patriarchal norms and into the 21st century. People can argue that using gender-neutral language is political correctness gone mad, or that it’s imposing on free speech. They may even argue this simple change in language makes university dialogue go awry or, my favourite, that they just can’t be bothered with it. But as women enter industries they previously were excluded from, and gender is now widely accepted as a fluid concept, is it not time we began to change our language to be more inclusive? As someone who has worked in a man-dominated, professional industry, here are a few tips on how to make your co-workers not feel sub-human.

1. Check your nouns It may not be the case with surgeons, but other nouns have gendered themselves. Some of these nouns are no longer in common use, like authoress and author or comedian or comedienne. It’s strange, therefore, that we’ve rid our language of some and not others. Think fireman, policeman and air hostess. How easy is it to say firefighter, police officer and flight attendant? And it didn’t even offend anyone! This can be tricky in cases of ‘actor’ and ‘actress’, as some in the industry are proud to define themselves as either/or. It’s important here to ask people what they’d like to be referred to as. This sentiment is also just generally good practice for life.

2. Refer to groups, not groups of men David Morrison, former Australian of the year, called out workplaces in 2016 for using the term ‘guys’. If a former Army chief can advocate for inclusive language, then you can too! ‘Dear all/ everyone/ colleagues/ squad/ family’ will keep you covered for almost every social interaction you encounter. And the more you use them in emails and Facebook posts, the more people will recognise them as familiar ways to address people and will begin to use them themselves.

3. Consider your choice of adjectives when describing people Bossy, nasty and bitchy are common ones that spring to mind. It’s ok to describe someone in a negative way, but be careful that the description is not one that carries with it a connotation that of gendered-inferiority or stereotypes. Try: assertive, mean or unpleasant (if you must!). Also, as soon as someone is old enough to be in a workplace, they should no longer be referred to as a ‘girl’. No matter how endearing (patronising) my sixty-year-old male co-worker thinks he is being.

4. Don’t tell sexist riddles (or jokes). Because women can be surgeons. And not even men laugh at sandwich jokes anymore.

features

Vol. 68 , Issue 01

culture // arts

More than Myth:

Social Commentaries in The Lord of the Rings Text: Jeremy Little Graphic: Ben Lawrence

The Lord of the Rings is unarguably the OG trilogy. J.R.R Tolkien’s efforts to create Middle Earth as a multilingual and diverse collection of mythological life is unparalleled; elves, ents, orcs, and who can forget the hobbit(ses)? It’s the whole shebang. Beyond this extraordinary creation of fiction, however, is it possible that something wholly shrouded in myth is telling us more about our reality? Well, I say the answer is yes, indeed it is. There is a vast community of people who also believe this, and you can find such analyses in the dark corners of Reddit threads and the personal wix web creations of LOTR fiends. J.R.R Tolkien wrote these novels during a particularly dark era of human history, and some argue LOTR alludes to the rise of Nazism and WWII. The ring, bearing great magical power, lost for centuries can be seen as a symbol of absolute power and the enslavement of its beholder and those subjected to them. The ring is, therefore, a metaphor for the ease with which humanity can be persuaded to turn against itself, submit to darker desires, and become enthralled in a quest for power.

From this understanding, we can conversely draw out Tolkien’s optimism for humanity through the Fellowship: where there is evil, there will be a force of good striving to prevail. The Fellowship of The Ring emphasises that this dark power must be destroyed, so our good-seeking, passionate bunch created the fellowship to share the burden of this monumental task (I’ll leave you to decide if the rest contributed to the campaign as effectively as Frodo and Sam). This theme of evil vs good resonates throughout the series and forces the characters to face their inner demons, their darkest fears and battle with greater evils than they knew existed. In the end good triumphs over evil, as per. Except for Boromir, but let’s be honest with ourselves here, Sean Bean never stood a chance. A more intricate analysis of LOTR focuses on Tolkien’s conservative opinions of how the world ought to be. Some even believe that the entire trilogy is Tolkien’s devotion to restoring feudal social order. The disruption to this order is overturned by the restoration of the ‘rightful’ king and his throne. This evil can be understood as capitalism and, throughout the trilogy, Tolkien utilises a range of techniques to depict how unnatural he perceives this evil to be. For example, nature plays a significant role throughout the narrative: the forest and its trees are characterised as an ancient and immovable feature of Middle Earth. The degradation of the Ent’s forests near Isengard as a result of

Saruman’s expanding army arguably comments on how disposable capitalism treats nature – the destruction of the natural world for the temporary service of those seeking power and gain. The ease with which Saruman was willing to dispense of the Ents aptly demonstrates a multi-faceted commentary by Tolkien on his dislike for the emerging capitalist social order and its impact on preserving the natural state of things in the world. This symbolic sub-plot highlights yet another resounding theme of the interaction of technology and the environment through capitalist means. LOTR’ s mythology serves as a way of unearthing the intricacies of our world. The way in which we look at LOTR’s capacity to do this may be vastly different from one lens to another, but whichever way you decide to look at it, a few things become clear. Firstly, that the trilogy maintains a resounding capacity to comment on the darkness humanity can succumb to. Secondly, our willingness for ‘good’ (whatever that could be) to prevail and, lastly, the fact that I have probably watched and read this series a hundred times too many.

O-Week, Semester 1, 2018

culture // Arts

Seven Arty Excursions Around Canberra to Keep Those Backto-School Blues at Bay Text: Madeline Calo Graphic: Mia Jessurun & Nathalie Rosales-Cheng

The time has come to grasp the reins of tertiary education with renewed vigour, as our long summers of freedom are steadily reduced to intangible dreamlike memories. In an effort to fight those back-to-school blues, I have compiled a series of exciting events happening in our nation’s capital to keep you going as semester one gets cracking. Whether you are new or returning, Canberra has a little cultural something to offer

National Multicultural Festival First up we have the National Multicultural Festival, an iconic event that returning Canberrans will no doubt find familiar. This three-day festival is happening from 16 to 18 of February, right in the heart of Civic. Providing the perfect excuse to get outside and breathe some fresh air, you’ll be able to munch on delicious street food and enjoy performances as you recover from the continual hangover that is O-Week.

Starstruck: Australian Movie Portraits

If your natural habitat is an art gallery, or if you just want to escape that pesky hole in the ozone layer and hide away somewhere perfectly air conditioned, this next attraction may be for you. The National Portrait Gallery and the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia have curated an exciting exhibit entitled Starstruck: Australian Movie Portraits. Featuring portraits from 100 years of Australian films, visitors can spot their all-time fave Aussie actors adorning the walls, all while absorbing some history from the early years of our film industry. Running Monday through Sunday until 4 March.

Comedy Open Mic This next attraction is for the comically inclined among us. Smith’s Alternative host a Comedy Open Mic night on the first Sunday of every month. Pencil in 7pm on 4 March to turn up and enjoy some hilarious content at this friendly venue. If you are feeling bold and brave, you can even sign up on the night to try your hand at some stand up yourself. Success not guaranteed.

Enlighten Canberra Tipped to be bigger and better than ever, the Enlighten Festival is back with a bang in 2018. Running from 2-18 March, onlookers have two weeks to bathe in the glory of this year’s light installations. Take a wander around the Parliamentary triangle and stop by the Night noodle markets in Reconciliation Place (2-11 March) for both dinner and a stunning show. Not one to be left out of the spotlight, our very own ANU will feature in the festival, with campus buildings lighting up on 8-10 and 15-16 March.

Lights! Canberra! Action! Another groovy event right around the corner is the Lights! Canberra! Action! Film Festival, reappearing for its 15th year on the scene. Filmmakers have one week to create and submit a seven-minute piece. This year’s theme is ‘strange, beautiful and unexpected’, guaranteeing some exciting viewing. Screening is occurring at 10 pm, 9 March in the Senate Rose Gardens. This is a free event (some music for your jaded, student ears) and viewers are encouraged to bring a favourite beanbag or picnic blanket for a night under the stars (and screen). BYO snacks.

Art, Not Apart The Art, Not Apart festival is set to take Canberra by storm in a one day only event on 17 March. Through a series of exhibitions and installations, this festival aims to bring our attention to the liminal spaces that exist between genres, concepts, and within society itself. Providing lesser-known artists with a lively arena to showcase their work, activities and artworks will be located around the New Acton precinct from 1 until 7 pm. This short and sweet, fun-sized festival seems like an afternoon well spent.

Nishi Gallery Last but certainly not least, the Nishi Gallery provides a sweet little detour along the trendy streets of New Acton. Surrounded by your pick of brunch locations, this small gallery is the reason the phrase ‘good things come in small packages’ was coined. Offering a rotation of small exhibits, this gallery is the perfect place to stop off while you digest your smashed avo. The gallery is showing a selection of works from ‘The Magic of Country’ by David Lancashire until 11 March. Drawing from a body of work featuring over 200 pieces, Lancashire vividly depicts his experience travelling to MacDonnell Ranges, Alice Springs. With no entry fee and being so pleasantly pint-sized, there is really no excuse not to have a peek.

Even if nothing above takes your fancy, there is always sure to be something happening in our vibrant little city that will spark your interest. If there is one certainty, it is that Canberra is an ever-expanding hub of cultural activity, guaranteed to tempt even the most religious Netflix shut-ins among us. With that in mind, go out and enjoy some of the finest this city has to offer, even if your sole motivation is refining the faux-cultured personality you adopted to show the haters that ‘Canberra isn’t the hole you all think it is, I’m serious’.

Vol. 68 , Issue 01

Culture // arts

The Last Jedi: All You Need to Know Text: Katie Ward Image: Katie Ward I love Star Wars, but I’m always getting confused about all the characters! Who is Luke and can he really walk in the sky? Is that Adam from HBO’s hit show Girls? Where’s Lena Dunham? Is Jar Jar Binks really dead? I have asked myself all these questions and more, which is why I’ve written this handy guide so that you never feel stupid again.

Mr Kyle “Ben” Ren Kyle (read: Kylo) is an Emo Sad Boy ever since his Uncle Luke tried to kill him after finding out he listened exclusively to Fall Out Boy. Kyle wants to take after his Grand Papi, who was the ultimate big bad boy with a mask! Alas, he has invasive good guy thoughts and is crushing on a random girl (her name rhymes with bae) who does not come from a wealthy family. He gives off serious Mr Darcy vibes during their courtship. Also, we now know that Kyle does, in fact, have an eight-pack.

Rey Bae Rey Bae is the sweetest rebel scum I’ve ever seen. With a heart of gold, she spies a certain Sad Boy (his name rhymes with silo) and makes it her mission to make him over into the Rebellion’s most popular boy. Rey is very skilled with the Force and is better than everyone else at absolutely everything. She’s not related to the Skywalkers at all, which leaves the #Reylo door wide open. For those who haven’t spent a ridiculous amount of time on the wrong side

of Tumblr this summer, ‘Reylo’ is the couple name of Rey and Kylo. I back it one hundred percent, and their relationship would complete the symmetry of Anakin and Padme perfectly. As George Lucas said, the romance in Star Wars ‘is like poetry, it rhymes’. At the same time, he also wanted Jar Jar Binks to be a Sith Lord and claimed that he was ‘the key to all of it’, so take from that what you will.

Finn is our resident rebel convert, and Poe is his sexy to-be boyfriend. They wear each other’s clothes, finish each other’s sentences, and are just all-round into each other. Both believe that they are superior to everyone, especially women in positions of power. They are also both big sweeties and very good boys.

Chewie

Rose

Number One Dad award goes to Chewie for driving Rey Bae to Jedi School, parking the Millennium Falcon round the back and waiting for her finish.

Cute little mechanic with a big heart and a huge amount of bravery to match. You may hear mixed feelings about her but anyone who talks shit needs to be slapped. She is a golden child who needs all the love in the world – I am deadly serious about this. She has a crush on Finn

Not Your Princess Leia ‘The Fucking Best’ Organa is the most badass person ever to grace Star Wars. She’s always been a winner, from drawing the long straw and being raised as a princess rather than a Loser Sand Dune Boy, to escaping death by flying through space. Unfortunately, she has to deal with Little Man Poe Dameron, who is always whipping out his manhood and measuring it with a ruler for everyone to see. She is the mama to Sad Boy Kyle, and my heart breaks for everything she’s lost. She is played by the amazing Carrie Fisher, a truly inspirational and incredible woman who was never afraid to be her true self – rest in peace.

Finn x Poe

but alas he is promised to another.

Luke Sulkwalker Luke has gone from Young Sand Boy to Space Jedi Hero to Very Sad Boy Who Lives on an Island by Himself. Despite claiming that he never wants to be found, he leaves a trail of clues scattered across the galaxy so that his friends can spend an obscene amount of time and resources trying to find him. When they finally do, he pretends to be angry and just acts super extra. To be fair, he did get the ball rolling on Kylo and his mates

killing a handful of Padawans and joining the First Order. You’d be sad and angry as well. There’s also a scene where Luke milks the boob of some alien, and I really don’t want to know who’s weirdass niche fantasy that was.

Porgs and Ice Foxies Great new content for Disney to make bulk merchandise.

That Purple Haired Lady Just another incredible woman in power whose on-screen time is dominated by Poe ‘Small Penis’ Dameron challenging her intelligence and rank. She sacrifices herself so that the rebels can escape and continue rebelling. She and Leia bond over how silly and clueless men are.

Hux This guy is just always angry and seems pretty stupid to me. He likes blowing things up and looking silly. Loved the opening scene where he was on Poe’s Prank Patrol!

Puppet Yoda Yoda returns in a blaze of glory (literally) as a Force Spirit. He is a Regular Jokester and teases Lukey about the Sacred Texts, and then burns everything to the ground. So that’s it. I’d write about Snoke-y, but he was just a gross looking Bad Guy who wasn’t very smart at all. Get keen for Rogue Two: Han Solo Origins! May the Force be With You, ya nerds. Katie has a lot of feelings about Star Wars. She believes that Jar Jar Binks is the greatest comedic character ever accidentally written and is obstinate in the fact that he will return to the series. You’ll find her in the kid’s section of your local department store, trying to restrain herself from buying Kylo Ren merchandise. She’s a big nerd, probably avoid her.

O-Week, Semester 1, 2018

Vol. 68 , Issue 01

Sneak peek of the Woroni COOKBook There’s more to food than fuel; recipes are more than steps toward a pre-determined goal. Meals can contain nostalgia or love or inspiration or pain or hope, they can be intricately planned or accidentally created, they can be savoured or despised, they can be all these things and they can be none of these things. The Woroni Cookbook will contain recipes and stories, quick tips and lessons learned. We hope it will provide a snapshot of ANU Students’ relationship with food in 2018, within and in amongst practical recipes for students new and returning. If you have a recipe, an anecdote, a reflection, an illustration or a tidbit about food you want to share, email us at write@woroni.com.au. Devour this preview, but save space for the full cookbook coming soon!

COMPLETEly non-hyperbolic life-changing banana bread Text: Alex Williams Art: Mia Jessurun You’ve been staring at a blank word document for what can only be described as an eternity. You can make out the individual pixels of your computer screen. The cursor blinks at you in silent, accusatory judgement. In front of you, an international relations textbook lies open, abandoned. In the low lamplight, the text seems to shift and change. The words form intricate runes which spell out ancient and terrible curses. And then you remember. You don’t study international relations. A deep rumbling from your stomach brings you back to the present. You are walking in the direction of Spar. It is the place where lost souls gather. And where alcohol is cheap and plentiful. As you enter, an infinite number of aisles stretch out before you, empty corridors of fluorescent light. A hooded figure sweeps past you and reminds you of your own impossibly-fragile mortality. It also reminds you of the Domino’s coupon stuck to your fridge. Though the lights are disorientating, you can make out a single garish sign among the crowded shelves of the produce section. “Bananas $1.99/kg.” Two bunches suddenly materialise in your basket. You don’t remember putting them there. And suddenly it becomes clear. Suddenly you know what you must do. You’ve got to bake some damn banana bread.

Ingredients – 1 cup mashed banana (approx. 3 medium bananas) – 125g unsalted butter – ½ cup white sugar – ½ cup brown sugar – ½ cup sour cream or Greek yoghurt – 2 eggs – 1/3 cup buttermilk (1/3 cup milk with 1/2 tsp of lemon juice or white vinegar added) – 1 tsp vanilla extract – 1 ¾ cup plain f lour – 1 tsp baking soda – ½ tsp salt Optional: ½ cup of walnuts or chocolate chips.

1. Preheat your oven to 160°C.

Grease and line a 5x7 loaf tin.

2. Place the butter in a small saucepan and cook over low heat until completely melted. Keep the saucepan on the heat until the butter becomes foamy, and then turns a light amber colour. You’ll know when it’s ready when it’s aromatic and several shades darker than when you began. Set aside to cool for 5-10 minutes.

3. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, com-

bine the butter, eggs, vanilla, white and brown sugar, buttermilk and mashed banana.

4. Sift the f lour, baking soda and salt over the wet ingredients. Gently fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Be careful not to overmix. If you’re adding nuts or chocolate, fold them in after the dry ingredients.

5. Pour the mixture into the prepared loaf tin and bake for 40-60 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

6. Cool for 10-15 minutes before remov-

ing from the pan. Store by placing in an airtight container at room temperature for up to five days.

O-Week, Semester 1, 2018

Leek and Mushroom Pie Text: Nick Blood Art: Catherine Suwignyo This is a simple, nourishing, and cheap feed. I whip this up when I want to make something but have no energy, or have vegan friends I want to impress! I learned the recipe from my Dad, who has become quite the chef in his retirement. He used to be a one-trick-pony with his famous “Dad’s Lasagne”, but now he’s improvising and experimenting with whatever ingredients are available, and this is easily his best invention so far. For Dad and me, cooking is not a science. We eyeball everything and trust our instincts, so take this recipe as a guideline, not a strict set of instructions!

Ingredients – Leeks (washed and then sliced) – Mushrooms (any kind will do, but portobellos cut into hearty chunks work best) – Something creamy (yoghurt, sour cream, or milk in a pinch) – Puff pastry (many use canola oil, making them vegan-friendly) – A tiny bit of milk Optional: – Garlic – More alliums! I love onions. The smell of them in the pan lifts the soul. These can be spring onions, red onions, brown or white onions, shallots. Whatever you have, they’ll add some extra flavour.

1. Preheat your oven to around 175 Celsius. If you have a fan-forced oven, use the fan and lower the temp slightly.

2. Heat some oil in a pan, then add the garlic, onions,

and leeks. Cook on medium heat until the leeks start to soften and smell amazing.

Leftovers Vegetable StOCK

3. Add the mushrooms next. It will look like a whole

lot of food, but everything will shrink as it cooks. Stir everything around occasionally to make sure it cooks evenly.

4. At this point, you’ll want to get the puff pastry out of Text: Mia Jessurun

the freezer. If you do this too early, it gets way too warm and is harder to work with.

Leftover carrot tops, onion skins, celery leaves, herb stems, egg shells or any other non-starchy vegetables? Turn them into stock!

5. Once you’ve reduced everything to a sloppy, wet mess,

1. Store scraps in a plastic bag in the freezer

6. Once the mixture is creamy and starting to look like a

for up to a month.

2. Once you’re ready to make stock – and

have a couple of cups worth of scraps – place them in a large pot and cover with water.

3. Bring to the boil, then reduce heat to a simmer and simmer for at least 1/2 an hour.

4. Strain out vegetable scraps (into compost or a chook bucket, if you’ve got them).

5. Store the stock in jars or containers in the fridge for up to a week, or freeze it in an ice cube tray

you’re almost there. Add something creamy at this point, it can be plain yoghurt, milk, or sour cream. This will help thicken out the mixture and bring out the f lavours. pie filling, you’re ready. You can add salt and pepper as you like at this point.

7. Pour the mixture out into ramekins, bowls, or whatever

you have available. Place a sheet of pastry over the top, trim the edges, poke some holes in the top with a fork to let the steam out, and dab the pastry top with some milk (whatever kind you prefer). This will make the pastry turn a delicious golden brown. Note: it is a good idea to put the ramekins on a tray, as sometimes the pies will leak!

8. After about 15-30 minutes you should see the tops

turning golden brown. This is the sign that your work is done, and deliciousness awaits.

Vol. 68 , Issue 01

O-Week, Semester 1, 2018

Culture // reviews

Hyper Real

Last chance to see NGA’s weird and wonderful exhibition Text: Josie Ganko Photos: Nathalie Rosales Cheng I’ve never been a big fan of modern art, so my expectation going in to the National Gallery Australia’s latest exhibition, Hyper Real, was for it to be really weird. My expectation was definitely met, but beyond that cursory judgment, the exhibition made me think, and offered artworks that were visually magnificent. True to the collection’s name, each piece of work was breathtakingly realistic. While some human statues were incredibly oversized, and others were

miniature, the overwhelming feeling of life exuded from ever piece of work on display. Some pieces were so realistic it almost felt rude to stare too long, while others seemed like they might come to life at any moment. While realism is key to Hyper Real, it was the ideas and thoughts the work inspired that made this a worthwhile exhibition. The utilization of comparative sizing is best seen in two of the works of Ron Mueck; side-by-side are models of a giant pregnant woman and a tiny elderly lady. This visual comparison works to demonstrate the different stages of the life cycle, the 12 foot tall woman is literally bursting

with life, while the foot long woman has reached the end of her life. One of the other most visually affecting pieces was ‘Old people’s home’ by Sun Yuan and Peng Yu. This piece consists of elderly men dressed as various leaders, whether it be political, military or religious, who are seated in automated wheelchairs that move around the room aimlessly. It was admittedly a little gimmicky; but I didn’t mind because it was very effective in conveying its message. The endless circles and hopeless silence of the men remind us that power is fleeting, and even the most powerful of men finish their lives in the same helpless state.

Overall, Hyper Real presents a sometimes disjointed, but ultimately thought-provoking and meaningful experience. One of the final artworks is in virtual-reality, and in my opinion, it alone is worth the price of entry. While the weirdness might be what draws people to this exhibition, it is the introspection it inspires that makes it worth the visit. So if you’re looking for something to fill your last days of holiday freedom, Hyper Real is well worth the visit.

Hyper Real is at the National Gallery of Australia until 18 February.

Culture // Life & Style

Vol. 68 , Issue 01

Content warning: domestic violence, violence against women and terrorism.

What’s Hair Got To Do With It?

Text: Emma Roberts Art: Jordyn McGeachin Throughout the month of February, women across the country will be growing out their body hair to raise money for domestic violence services. But what does body hair have to do with violence against women? Violence against women can be visualised as a triangle. The most serious forms of violence (sexual assault, rape, and murder) are at the top. These are supported by harassment, threats and emotional abuse, which in turn are normalised by the objectification of women, sexist jokes, derogatory language and rigid gender roles. Policing of women’s bodies and denial of women’s bodily autonomy are crucial to the continuance of acute violence against women. Body hair may seem like a small issue, but it is important because it is a visual marker of women’s inequality. Through the policing of women’s body hair, we can see the double standard women are held to by society. If a man does not shave, it is considered perfectly normal; he is not harangued in the street by strangers demanding to know why he has body hair. He does not receive verbal abuse for choosing to leave his natural body hair intact. This is the reality for women who do not conform to the expectation of female hairlessness. Women with

body hair experience verbal abuse, scrutiny and isolation. Our society is uncomfortable with a visual manifestation of a woman’s autonomy. Both men and women grow hair as a natural part of our bodily functioning. It wasn’t until 1915 that women’s hair removal products emerged. Until then, women’s body hair was seen as perfectly normal. The market for women’s hair removal products emerged as the major hair removal product companies of the day wanted to increase their business and profits. A targeted advertising campaign described women’s body hair as ‘unnatural’, ‘unclean’, and ‘unsightly’. Within 10 years, the number of women removing their body hair increased by 16 per cent. Today, over 97 per cent of women in Australia remove their leg and underarm hair. Women who dislike body hair are more likely to feel disgusted by their own body. This is reinforced by societal perceptions – women with body hair are described as less intelligent, more aggressive, and less friendly than women without body hair. There is big money to be made by the beauty industry in enforcing the norm of female hairlessness. The worldwide hair removal industry is worth over $882 million and is expected to grow to $1.35 billion by the end of 2022. The role of capitalism in policing women’s bodies, and reinforcing stringent and unequal gender roles, is evident.

When the policing of women’s bodies is normalised and ingrained in society, it naturalises men’s objectification and control over women and allows violence against women to f lourish. In Australia, one in three women experience gendered violence in their lifetimes, and one woman dies every week because of gendered violence. Women are more likely to be killed by their own partner in their own home than in any other place by anyone else. Every year, between 80 and 100 women die at the hands of their male partners. In 2016, 73 women died in Australia at the hands of an intimate partner. This is more deaths than terrorism has claimed in Australia in the last several decades combined and yet government spending on terrorism prevention continues to increase, while funding for domestic violence services is repeatedly cut. Part of drawing attention to the huge and unacceptable rates of violence against women is making inequality visible. Hair is a powerful way to challenge the normalised double standards imposed on women and draw attention to the oppression we face every day. Growing out your natural body hair can be a challenging experience, because it can feel scary to break away from what we are socially conditioned to accept as normal. But it can also be a liberating and freeing experience. To experience your body in its full and natural state is an exercise in

self-love. And in a world that profits from our insecurities, learning to love yourself is a radical act of resistance. Feminist advocacy of the 1970s-80s focused on trying to achieve equality for women through ensuring that legislation didn’t contain explicitly sexist provisions and enshrined equal pay for equal work. The hope was that by ensuring procedural equality, substantive equality must naturally follow. Looking at the statistics of violence against women today, this has sadly not succeeded. This is why we must deconstruct every foundational norm, including female hairlessness, that entrenches societal inequality to end violence against women. This is one small step, but it is something you can actively do to help change our society for the better. Participate and sign up, or donate, to Get Hairy February via gethairyfebruary. org (Get Hairy February is a registered charity – donations are tax deductible).

If you have experienced sexual or domestic violence, or found anything in this article triggering, you can contact 1800 RESPECT or the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre on 6247 2525.

O-Week, Semester 1, 2018

Culture // Life & style

Unqualified but Tried, Tesed, and True Advice How to improve your life by not getting angry at others. Text: Lydia J. Kim Art: James Atkinson When discussing turning points in my life, my decision to not get angry at people (or at least making a conscious effort not to) cannot go unmentioned. To elaborate: in irritating situations, instead of being frustrated with them, I give people the benefit of the doubt. This has unequivocally improved not only my relationships but also my own mental health. I won’t exaggerate and tell you that my life has been complete bliss since this resolution, but I can tell you that being able to alleviate the emotional strain that comes with being constantly disappointed with others has been crucial in bet-

tering the quality of my life. I can now spend this time and energy thinking of more positive things, and even on self-reflection. Considering the significance of the benefits, adopting such a vantage point comes with ease.

piece of linguine. It just keeps going and going, and every twenty feet of noodle, there’s a sauce change.”

so much that comes with being kind to others. Commonly, the most unlovable are those who are most in need of love.

This will help you take a step back and assess the situation with a clearer mind.

So how might one go about doing this? Simple. Someone wrongs you, and you feel your blood pressure and heart rate instinctively starting to rise. Instead of reacting emotionally – or even worse, immediately retaliating – take a deep breath and enter your happy place. According to Brooklyn 99’s dunce Boyle, when trying to appease his vexed colleague Rosa,

Once you’ve calmed down, contemplate the other person’s intentions. Did they mean to hurt you? Or are they, too, just a victim of circumstance or the system? Usually, these sorts of questions enable you to see the situation from their perspective, and further empathise with them. If they’re just plain malicious, go a step further and take pity on them. Maybe it was their upbringing, maybe they’ve been through some sort of emotional trauma. There’s no need to feel superior, but you know that they’ll miss out on

None of this is to encourage you to become a pushover either. If someone has wronged you, confront them, but in a calm and collected way. Think of a logical explanation as to why they weren’t right in your opinion, and how you wish they’d change their ways next time. Constructive criticism is key in helping society advance, and inciting conversation around controversial behaviour can only push us in the right direction.

“Everyone’s happy place is different. For me, I just imagine I’m slurping up the world’s longest

As Jesus teaches in the Sermon of the Mount in the book of Matthew, turn the other cheek. Don’t let anger control you, but address discord with love.

Culture // LifE & Style

Vol. 68 , Issue 01

The Musical Playbook

An Extensive Guide to Music Discovery that will allow you to assert social dominance in any conversation

Text: Michael Katsavos Art: Mia Jessurun

good for identifying new songs and then using that to look deeper into the artist.

Now more so than ever, music is one of the fundamental elements of pop culture. Artists have bigger platforms, and influence is growing far beyond just charts and videos – with fashion, art, political commentary and a number of other topics becoming more linked to music. As a result, music is very accessible, but also a daunting amount of it exists.

Some Soundcloud Accounts that are good are Know Wave, Future Classic, and Earmilk. Red Bull Radio has more structured radio shows like Stay Inside, Discreet Music, and many other diverse shows.

Demographically it’s logical to assume you’ve been in a conversation with ‘those friends’– the friends concerned with discussing which avant garde jazz-noise band or weird obscure artists you’re not sure even actually exist whenever the opportunity presents itself. This often begs the question of how you discover music for yourself, so you can extend your own knowledge and offer something in conversations like these, or just find more things you enjoy and broaden your tastes. This article will provide a few methods that are great ways to discover new music in an age where the supply seems endless and disconcerting.

Related Artists/Albums This is a simple method that very selfexplanatory, but can be good for sticking with artists or styles that are similar to what you like. Every streaming service or music platform that comes to mind has some section where similar artists or music is listed (for example, in Apple Music, this is under any Album/Artist page) – even googling an album will give a list of similar results, or direct you to a site that can. This method is good for really getting into a specific style or genre, and also to see the influences of the artist you’re listening to.

Radio Shows/Mixes These are common on platforms like Soundcloud and Red Bull Music Academy, where people upload mixes of different songs that fit a topic, or just a random collection of songs they’ve curated. They also offer radio shows which are great for hearing people discuss the songs, as well as curating them for the show. These mixes and shows tend to have some more obscure music in them, and if there’s a tracklist, it’s easy to find a song or two you like, and then look further into the artist. This method is

The big streaming service also have their own categories of radio shows that are worth listening to, and almost always lists the songs as they’re played. On Apple Music, a bunch of big artists have Beats1 Shows that are really good to listen to, to support artists you already like, and to find other music through their shows (for example, Dr. Dre, The Internet, Ezra Koenig, Vince Staples, Travis Scott, Frank Ocean, and many more have Apple Music shows). Supporting Woroni Radio is also a great way to find music depending on the topic or theme of the show.

Music Blogs Music Journalism is huge at the moment. There are a myriad of sites covering news, upcoming artists, and general interest topics relevant to the music industry. These are often a really easy way to find new artists because that seems to be where the majority of coverage is moving towards. Blogs like Pigeons and Planes (owned by Complex) are great sources of information relating to new artists, debuting music videos and conducting interviews with artists who are just starting out. Reviews are another great thing done by these platforms – sometimes reading the opinions of others can help you figure out if a project is right for you. Blogs like Pitchfork and Earmilk, and the Youtube account TheNeedleDrop, are veterans in reviewing projects, and can provide a quick insight into the project in question. It’s not great to base your opinions on the review of others, but they can draw your attention to the project so you can formulate your own opinion.

Youtube This may not be the most common method, but it’s extremely effective. Using the related/suggested tab on

Youtube is a great way to find music videos, and even just full uploads of songs related to what you were watching. I’ve found that you can often fall down some weird rabbit holes, and discover some really interesting stuff. Another great function is the “Mix” feature, where the site formulates 50 related videos to the one you’re watching. In terms of music, it’ll give you similar songs, maybe some interviews, and a lot of music videos that are in some way related to what you were listening to. This is similar to the Related Artist function of streaming services, but at times there’s some more unique or lesser known stuff on Youtube.

Soundcloud Soundcloud is essentially a social media platform for the uploading of music, that has led to the success of many artists. It’s best use for rap, electronic, and indie genres because of the primary demographics it interacts with – but it’s great for finding new, independent music. The easiest way to do this is to just follow artists you already know, as you can see which songs they repost. Using the tastes of the people you follow, you can find and follow new artists, creating a network of music that you’ve found and enjoy.

Word of Mouth Unfortunately, yes, some social interaction is required. Often conversations with music-interested friends or peers are a really easy way to get some recommendations. Simply asking someone what they’ve been listening to is a great way to get some ideas and to exchange some recommendations. This is also great for formulating your own ideas about music, because discussing why you liked or disliked something helps your own understanding about what to look for in the future. Go forth with these tips, and hopefully you find something you love as a result.

Culture // life & style

O-Week, Semester 1, 2018

Woroni playlist

sounds of summer

Text & Playlist: Steph David & Dot Mason

1. Shoe In

8. Sunday Sesh

Art: James Atkinson & Nathalie Rosales Cheng

Moaning Lisa

Turquoise Prince

2. Jarmin in the Dark

9. Falter

Canberra has a diverse and vibrant music scene. Our city is characterised by a colourful array of genres, passion and sense of community.

Young Monks

Slow Turismo

3. I Want It All

10. Aliens In My Brain

Teen Jesus and the

East Row Rabble

We’re lucky to be exposed to such a variety of music: the nation’s capital has produced a host of great artists who’ve gone on to make it big. SAFIA, Peking Duk, the Aston Shuffle and Vallis Alps all had their humble beginnings in Canberra.

Jean Teasers 4. Risky Business

Capes

Pleased To Jive You

We’ve put together a playlist that celebrates the musical diversity of Canberran artists, ranging from hiphop, to indie rock, to funk. But the scene could not survive without you: the audience!

5. Dreams I Could Recall

This summer, make sure to get out and see some of your amazing local gigs and support the venues and artists that make our music scene so unique.

6. Please, Tell Me Bout It

Happy listening!

11. The Blurst of Times

Azim Zain and His Lovely Bones

Citizen Kay 7. Drive Slow Genesis Owusu

12. Knowledge is Kind Coda Conduct, Ines

Listen to the playlist by scanning this QR Code!

Vol. 68 , Issue 01

from the archives

Woroni O-Week Edition 2009

O-Week, Semester 1, 2018

CUlture // life & Style

2018 Australian Open Produces Masterclass Finals Text: Emilio Lanera

Last year’s Australian Open was renowned for producing two quality finals. Both the men’s and women’s finals saw fans travel back in time as four legends took to Rod Laver Arena. For the first time since 2009 Serena and Venus Williams played each other in a grand slam final and in meeting number 35, Federer and Nadal would battle once more. Given the status of all four players both finals had so much hype surrounding them and both lived up to the expectations. Serena, who was eight weeks pregnant at the time defeated her older sister in two tight sets. As for the men’s final it was Federer who rallied from 1-3 down in the final set to conquer the Spanish bull in a five set epic. Despite this year’s Australian Open producing several phenomenal matches, tennis fans, including myself, were left fans wondering if the 2018 finals could live up to those of 2017. With Serena pulling out of the tournament due to health issues following the birth of her daughter, and Sharapova and Venus Williams being eliminated early in the tournament, the women’s final was played between two women who had never won a grand slam. This left many thinking that the women’s final would not have enough star power to draw in crowds. As for the men’s, with Nadal retiring in the quarterfinals and Federer blitzing the tournament, tennis experts were predicting Federer to win his 20th Grand Slam in three easy sets. However, despite early concerns, this year’s Australian Open produced two

finals that were just as, if not more, epic and tantalising than last years. The women’s final was contested between the top two players; Simona Halep from Romania and Caroline Wozniacki from Denmark. While neither player has the same celebrity status as Serena, both are fairly wellknown in the tennis world, and a series of matches between them in the lead up to the finals led them to gain a few fans. En route to the final both Wozniacki and Halep had to save match points, meaning they were one point away from being eliminated from the tournament. Wozniacki came back from match point once in the second round whereas Halep was confronted with match points twice both in the third round and semifinals. They played marathon matches to narrowly avoid elimination from the tournament, although both players have made grand slam finals before. Halep made it to the French Open final in 2014 and 2017 and Wozniacki reached the final at the US Open in 2009 and 2014. However, neither won on these occasions, making this year’s Australian Open Final the first to be contested between two players who have never won a grand slam title. Unfortunately tennis has no draws, so only one lady would be walking away with their maiden grand slam while the other with their third runner up trophy. With both players being known for their counterpunch style, Wozniacki and Halep were seen running all over the court, producing breathtaking rallies (both literally and metaphorically). The match was so physical that Halep was sent

to hospital four hours after the match Federer responded to the challenge, winning the third set, but Cilic condue to dehydration. tinued to challenge the tennis legend Finally after two hours of gruelling and was rewarded by convincingly tennis Wozniacki prevailed, 7-6 3-6 winning the fourth. With Cilic hav6-4. Her win not only saw her obtain ing the momentum going into the her first grand slam title, but leap- fifth set, the possibility of him upfrog Halep in the rankings to become setting the 19-time grand slam winworld number one. Wozniacki previ- ner seemed almost unavoidable. But, ously held the top ranking between as usual, Federer rose to the occa2010 and 2012 and, by recapturing it sion. After a shaking opening service six years later, she makes history by game, Federer would go on to hold having the longest gap between reigns and break Cilic’s serve twice to win the fifth set 6-1. as number one. The men’s final was equally as breathtaking as the women’s with Roger Fed- Federer’s win saw him claim his sixth erer and Marian Cilic going the dis- Australian open and a record-breaktance. Federer was returning to this ing 20th grand slam title. Federer’s year’s open as the defending champi- back-to-back wins in Australia also on for the first time since 2012 and saw him successfully defend a title for was also hoping to win his 20th grand the first time since 2008. While Cilslam. In contrast, Marian Cilic was ic did not take out the big prize, his playing to win only his second grand brilliant run to the final sees him rise slam. However, after beating Nadal in to number three in the world. Federer the quarterfinals, Cilic was also look- remains at number two behind Rafael ing to become the seventh man to beat Nadal. Rafa and Roger in the same tournaDespite Serena’s absence and not getment. ting another ‘Fedal’ final, this year’s Federer faced no real challenges in the Australian Open produced two caplead up to the final, failing to drop a tivating grand slam finals. The court set throughout the whole tournament. coverage of Halep and Wozniacki and Cilic had a slightly more difficult run, the clean groundstrokes produced by having to play two five set matches both Federer and Cilic lefts millions of back to back; one in the fourth round tennis fans stunned and gave millions against tenth seed Pablo Carreno Bus- more a newfound appreciation for the ta and the other in the quarterfinals game. With 2018 rising above the standard of 2017’s final, hopefully next against Rafael Nadal. year’s finals are just as electric. Given the form Federer was in, many were expecting him to win the final in Results: the same fashion as his previous six matches, and his winning the first set Women’s final: Wozniacki de6-2 only bolstered these assumptions. feats Halep 7-6 3-6 6-4 However, Cilic used his big serve and monstrous groundstrokes to take out Men’s final: Federer defeats Cilic 6-2 6-7 6-3 3-6 6-1 the second set in a tiebreak.

CUlture // life & Style

Vol. 68 , Issue 01

The Transfer Window Straight from FIFA Manager Mode Text: Stefhan Meyer

Can Manchester City be caught? Manchester City wound up having an unexpectedly quiet transfer window after strong links with Alexis Sanchez and Virgil van Dijk in the lead up to the transfer window. This didn’t stop them from breaking their club transfer record, bringing in the promising young French defender Aymeric Laporte from Athletic Bilbao. More than anything, this seems like a transfer for good measure- to prop up City’s weaker defensive unit. It would require an enormous fall from grace for City to surrender a vastly superior goal difference and a 15-point lead with only 13 games to go, with or without Laporte.

Top four battle With the title race all but seemingly over, the attention is likely to shift to the top four battle between Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham, and speaking with generosity, Arsenal. Liverpool balanced out their top-heavy side by selling Coutinho in a big money move to Barçelona, before bringing in Southampton’s Virgil van Dijk in what was a record transfer for a defender. This squad adjustment hasn’t so far allowed Liverpool to shake off their reputation as the Robin Hood of the Premier League (take from the rich and give to the poor), but their 4-3 win

over City followed by a 0-1 loss to at the time bottom-placed Swansea is a painful reminder for Liverpool fans of what could be if the team played with greater consistency. In all likelihood, this is a sign that manager Jürgen Klopp’s longterm vision isn’t complete, and fans will be eagerly awaiting the arrival of Naby Keïta from RB Leipzig at the end of the season, as well praying that reinforcements in goal are brought in. Nonetheless, Liverpool’s easier remaining league fixtures, as well as the fact that their only non-Premier League commitments is the Champions League, leave them in a healthy (but still challenging) position to snatch second place from United.

Prediction | 2nd United’s major piece of business was the uncommon player swap deal of Mkhitaryan for then Arsenal’s Alexis Sanchez. Sanchez adds strong attacking fire power to a United side that has been far too defensive at times this season, and has lacked a clear attacker due to a lacklustre Lukaku. He has consistently proved himself as a match-winner during his time at Arsenal, and his Premier League experience should allow him to slot into the team straight away. United have been able to kill off weaker sides for easy three points, but have generally struggled against major opposition (they have only managed to beat Arsenal in a game where they were undoubtedly saved by de Gea). Sanchez’ arrival doesn’t seem to have had any serious effect yet, given their recent 2-0 loss. Considering that they’re still to play all other Big Six sides except Tottenham, they are like-

ly to progress into later rounds in the FA Cup and the Champions League. We could also see the United squad stretched as May looms on the horizon.

Prediction | 3rd Tottenham also had a low-key transfer period, of note just bringing in Lucas Moura from PSG. Lucas’ arrival won’t relieve Tottenham’s reliance on playmaker Christian Eriksen, but adds needed squad depth. Much like Liverpool, the Spurs have undeniable quality as they’ve proven with wins against Real Madrid and Dortmund in the Champions League, and a recent win over Manchester United, but are susceptible to falling flat from time to time. Consistency will be key, and will need positive results in their fixtures against Liverpool and Chelsea (which are both away from home).

Prediction | 4th Chelsea didn’t pull off any big deals, opting for better squad depth in Olivier Giroud, Ross Barkley and Emerson Palmieri. The London side have had a rather underwhelming title defence, and it was somewhat surprising that a side that usually doesn’t hesitate to get the cheque book out to inject more talent didn’t do so, especially considering their injury record this season. Perhaps this is suggestive of the Chelsea board’s waning faith in Italian manager Antonio Conte, and things are probably grimmer for the Blues than they appear. Despite losing one game in 21 before their semi-final exit in the Carabao Cup, making it past

the Champions’ League group stages, and earning a favourable 5th round draw in the FA Cup, something bothersome seems to brewing in the dressing room. Rumours and uncertainty around Conte’s future, injuries to key players, and performances such as their humiliating 3-0 loss to Bournemouth threaten a Champions League berth.

Prediction | 5th Arsène Wenger was unfashionably busy for a January transfer window, offloading Sanchez, Giroud, Theo Walcott, Francis Coquelin and Mathieu Debuchy, while bringing in Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Mkhitaryan (the former in a club record deal). Offensive reinforcements seem an odd choice when Arsenal have a keeper showing his age in Petr Čech, a frail backline and a permeable midfield- all issues which have haunted them at rather frequent stages of the season. If Arsenal can overcome their glaring weaknesses, they will have the advantage of an easier and less busy game schedule, considering they’re out of the FA Cup and are in the Europa League, unlike nearly all of their top-ofthe-table rivals. Arsenal could also opt for the contemporary strategy of prioritising the Europa League to gain Champions League qualification, although it is questionable whether a stubbornly old-school Wenger would go for this.

Prediction | 6th

CUlture // life & Style

O-Week, Semester 1, 2018

TERM ONE interhALL SPORTS PREVIEW

Text: Tommy King Photos: Marine Schmitt Term one is jam-packed with Interhall Sport. Social lawn is bowls the first event of the year, taking place in week one. This is followed by, Frisbee, Touch Football and Road Relay; with Volleyball finishing off the term in place of tennis (which will now be played in term four). Interhall Sport is built upon sportsmanship, a culture of friendly rivalry and everyone having a go, which makes you all so essential to it running smoothly and successfully! I look forward to seeing you all out on the field again after such a long break, and next up are the college previews.

their team has what it takes. In the volleyball, no doubt superstar Margaux Huey will be an asset for the girls team and they are looking forward to seeing Seb Szambowski graduate from star player to coach. The new residents program is already unveiling some keen touch players who will no doubt boost the college’s performance. Rumours are also circulating that boys touch coach Nick Finney’s search history is filled with nothing but touch footy videos. The college expects big things from its Road Relay team in 2018. The college has again made special room changes to place star runner Josh ‘Stevo’ Stevenson in a top floor room, aka ‘the 3B altitude chamber’.

Griffin

After last year’s victory for the men and the strong performance for the women in touch football, the Vipers are confident. With the superstars Pat McCallum and Teddy Johnson leading the line and Polly Sayers taking charge, they believe they have a great chance of taking home the big win. Unilodge can only go upwards in its quest for the top spot this year, having come seventh on the shield in 2017. With exprivate school captain of volleyball Will Noonan leading the team, this may be their year. After a while on the sidelines over the holidays, Lodge is ready and raring to get some distance in their legs. With runners like Isabel Marsh and Jon Settle, Lodge is sure to produce some strong competition in Road Relay.

Under the watchful eyes of coaches Keny Arcangeli and 2017 Best & Fairest winner Kimberly Dunbar, the Griffin Volleyballers now have plenty of players, among them Maddie Kibria and Michael Liang with match experience, looking to get some massive kills. In Road Relay, expect another Griffin win this year as running away from their uni work has only made the team faster than last year, led by star runners Jonathan Fearn and Jess Ronan. The Griffin Touch teams have only improved on last season with key players Monica Pascoe and Angus Proudfoot returning for this year’s tournament. Building off a close final loss last year, the Griffin Frisbee team is still one to watch out for with a lot of strong additions to the team, guided by key player returning from injury, Chris Jende.

Burgmann

Ursies

Burg’s disc team is aiming for nothing lower than the top spot however they must face an incredibly tough pool in order to get there. Coaches Edward Treloar and Tash Salisbury are confident

Ursies will have all the halls quaking in their boots this term. In Road Relay, the team is keen to improve on our finish of fifth last year, with Tom ‘the Tuckwell Triathlete’ Driscoll leading from the front. Yet to discover a new handler after

UniLodge

their star American import left last year, the Frisbee team will be reliant on a great intake of first years to beat more teams than just Fenner this year. Moving on to Touch, the men’s team is eager to get a win this year, which should be possible with the crucial input of Reg Wintle and Zac Duchen. The girls are looking to better their sixth place finish in 2017 and will be guided by Nila Norbu. Volleyball is also looking promising this year, with ex-ressies Gaia Ewing and coach Marcus Dahl key to their success on the court.

Bruce The combination of experienced coaches Dawn and Broden, with a hoard of new energy-filled first years, should lead to a steady improvement in Volleyball for Bruce this year. With an all-star disc team (literally the majority of ANU Ultimate) ready to whip incoming first years into shape, coaches Maya Suzuki and Patrick Phillips are confident in Bruce’s ability to continue last year’s legendary undefeated season. Players to look out for include Rosie Happ and Pat Phillips. Bruce Hall will also be a force to be reckoned with this Touch season. With the girls’ placing a record second last year, they are hungrier than ever to be named this year’s champions and hold the trophy high. The men’s team will see the introduction of rugby prodigies amongst the first year cohort, with some returner talent being formidable as ever.

Fenner After a huge Frisbee season last year, this Fenner side is ready to return to winning ways, with Kelvin ‘The Hawk’ Cui’s rapid speed their primary offensive weapon. They will continue to prove themselves in volleyball, as Maree Armstrong’s tenacity and awe-inspiring jumping technique will strike fear into the hearts of the opposition. Fenner Touch will look to improve on previous seasons, as star player Lachie Jones and

the teams will raise their hair game, as well as their A-game. Road Relay will be very competitive this year, serving as a prime IB scouting opportunity, with Maddie Wait being the engine of this quality machine.

Johns Johns has a strong team for Volleyball this year, with Ruairi Biollo looking sharp for the boys team, and Bella Happel for the girls. Last year, Johns trained hard for Road relay coming out with a placement of fourth. They will train harder this year with a team of true athletes, led by Jess Raupach and Yoann Colin. The Johns girls are aiming for their 10th consecutive win in touch this year, and the boys are keen to do better than last year’s second place. Watch them come out firing, with Claudia Hodge and Sean Slocombe ones to watch. Johns will make your heads spin with the fresh talent they are bringing to disc this year. Watch out for devoted returners like Mimi Hall playing alongside first years just as eager to take out the title!

B&G Get ready for another nail biting term ahead for B&G! With a promising new pool of ressies and fiery returners, B&G will put up a fight. Keeping the momentum of volleyball in 2017, D’arcy Taylor and Zoe Oldfield will not back away from the net. Turning up the heat in touch, look out for Brooke Farr and Angus Headon to continue their consistent play on the field. Yet again, B&G will bring their A-game with the likes of Mambo Wiya and Alice Patterson-Roberts defying wind in Ultimate Disc to lead them to success. Pushing through the very tight finish from last year, B&G Road Relay team is looking straight to the finish line with the likes of IB go-getter Kieran Casey.

discover // environment

Vol. 68 , Issue 01

The demise of the Aussie Tiger Text: Jessica Woolnough Graphic: James Atkinson Many years ago, several species of marsupial tiger called Australia home. Sadly, the last of our tigers, the Tasmanian Tiger, died out 90 years ago. But what was behind the fall of our other Australian tigers? Why was only the Tasmanian Tiger left? According to a new study led by ANU and published in BMC Evolutionary Biology Journal, the answer might lie in the link between past climate change and the evolution of Australia’s carnivorous marsupials, such as the marsupial tiger family. In particular, the decline of the marsupial tiger family was found to be strongly linked with a 7°C drop in temperature that occurred around 13-14 million years ago. This dramatic cooling event was not bad news for all, however. This same period of temperature change was found to be linked with a rise in the population of the beloved Tasmanian Devil and its relatives. To get to know more about this fascinating new research, I spoke to ANU PhD scholar Shimona Kealy about her experience working on this study. Kealy, along with the University of Salford’s Dr Robin Beck, was responsible for conducting the most comprehensive dated tree-of-life study of the Australian carnivorous marsupial group to date. Their research involved developing 115 new post-cranial (below the head) bone characters. This was no small feat – as Kealy explains, ‘no one had ever really looked at the carnivorous marsupial skeleton and there had been absolutely no work done in a phylogenetic sense.’ To become so well acquainted with the bones of Australia’s carnivorous marsupials, Kealy recalls jumping right into the deep end: ‘On one of the first days of the project my supervisor (and co-author on the paper) Robin handed me a box full of loose bones. It was a quoll skeleton and I had to learn all the names of the bones and where they belonged – kind of like the ultimate jigsaw puzzle!’ This research aimed to reconcile the differing results of previous tree-of-life studies on carnivorous marsupials. These differences were a result of researchers separating their morphological studies (comparing physical features of the teeth and skull) and molecular studies (comparing DNA sequences). The solution used by Kealy and Beck was to combine the two. This combining of the datasets, as well as the development of their own data on some previously excluded species, produced spectacular results. Namely – they were able to produce the most complete total-evidence dataset for carnivorous marsupials yet! Naturally, at this stage I had to ask – does all this mean there was more to the extinction of the Tasmanian Tiger

than our hunting? Kealy suggested that, whilst hunting certainly played a significant role in eradicating the renowned Tassie Tiger, other vulnerabilities were at play. For instance, the Tasmanian Tiger was more vulnerable to extinction due to it being the last surviving species of its family. This vulnerability, combined with the population’s isolation on the small island of Tasmania, likely contributed to its rapid demise. Aside from revealing the intriguing history surrounding the decline of our Australian tigers, the data and findings of this type of research are also useful for our current-day conservation efforts. As Kealy explains, ‘This sort of data can then be used by conservation strategists to develop the best models and methods for preserving Australia’s many threatened and endangered carnivorous marsupials.’ And whilst this study has already revealed some valuable findings for us to use, it is not the end of this line for this research. Leading on from this study, the team now have three hypotheses they’d like to test regarding the nature of the discovered links between climate change, tigers and devils. These are: ‘1) Climate caused the extinction of the tigers, which then provided empty niches for the devils and quolls to evolve into 2) The devil and quoll ancestors were better adapted to the cooler,

drier climate (their ear structures provides some support for this) and so were able to out-compete the tigers and drive them to extinction 3) Or there is no link between the tigers and devils + quolls but they were both simultaneously affected by the changing climate.’ To test these theories, the research team hopes to have a closer look at the evolutions and extinctions of the individual species of carnivorous marsupials, and any environmental changes that occurred at these times. As such, this area of research is definitely one to keep an eye out for! And perhaps someday soon we will better understand the lives and struggles of our extinct Australian tigers.

O-Week, Semester 1, 2018

discover // environment

Miracle on a pyramid

Text: Zoë Tulip Art: James Atkinson The Lord Howe Island stick insect is a species that, for approximately 80 years, was thought to be extinct. The story behind its survival and re-discovery is a remarkable Australian tale and one of the most globally celebrated cases in conservation history. In 1918, rats were accidentally introduced to Lord Howe Island when a supply ship ran aground at a place called Ned’s Beach. There are a number of theories, but it is thought that when crates of perishables were removed from the ship to avoid spoiling, the rats hitched a ride. The rats quickly discovered the stick insect, along with many other species endemic to the island. The insects rapidly became a food source for the rats, as did the eggs of various bird species. The result was the rapid decline of the stick insect and, after the last confirmed sighting in 1920, it was thought to be extinct.

Since 1964, groups climbing Ball’s Pyramid – a volcanic sea stack 23 kilometres away from Lord Howe Island – claimed to have sighted dead invertebrates that fit the description of the Lord Howe Island stick insect. However, none had found live specimens. The Lord Howe Island Board eventually banned climbing on Ball’s Pyramid without a research permit. The Lord Howe Island Board knocked back countless requests for permits to climb Ball’s Pyramid because no entomologists were listed in the applications. Eventually, two scientists from the NSW Parks and Wildlife Service, along with an entomologist and a local ranger from Lord Howe Island, organised an expedition out to Ball’s Pyramid to determine once and for all if the insect still existed. After failing to find any sign of the insect during a daytime climb, one of the team pointed out that they were a nocturnal insect, and that they should try searching again once it got dark. The thought paid off, and the team found over twenty live stick insects. If this was not miraculous

enough – despite searching every bush on the huge volcanic stack, they were all found on a single melaleuca bush. The group decided that a conservation program was needed, as even a small landslide could take out the bush and thus the entire species. Unfortunately, the re-discovery of the species raised some questions which resulted in a lot of bureaucracy and paperwork, so it took years to obtain permission to collect live specimens. Eventually, they were allowed to take two breeding pairs. One pair went to a private breeder in NSW – and died within a week. The other pair went to Melbourne zoo and, after some close calls with the health of the female, went on to breed and create a population in captivity. A group of stick insects have since been taken back to Lord Howe Island, but remain in captivity there awaiting the successful implementation of a rat eradication plan. The original population has not been visited in some time, although at least one live female has been removed since in an attempt to diversify the captive

population at Melbourne Zoo. Several other zoos around the world now hold ‘insurance’ populations, in case something unexpected happens to the insects in Melbourne. For instance, due to reduced gene diversity, the captive zoo population is more susceptible to illness than the original population. In late 2017, after a little bit of politicking, the Lord Howe Island Board voted on a rat eradication plan that was scheduled to begin this year. It will be the first eradication in the world to occur on an inhabited island. There will be costs for some local wildlife, but various feasibility studies have been conducted to ensure these other species will recover, or that impact will be minimal. Perhaps, soon, locals will notice that instead of rodents going ‘bump’ in the night, giant stick insects are taking their place. It could be only a matter of time until we see a return of the Lord Howe Island stick insect to its original home.

Fostering your Connection to the Environment The Fenner School Society Who we are and what we Do Text: Ellen Makaryan The Lord Howe Island stick insect

The Fenner School is a hidden gem within the ANU – many confuse it with Fenner Hall, whereas others have only a vague idea about what Fenner School students actually do. We come from a range of backgrounds and study a number of different topics, such as human ecology, forestry and environmental policy. If you have ever shown interest in the broad topic of environmental studies, then the Fenner School is worth checking out! A number of social and educational events are often organised by the student-run club known as The Fenner School Society. Bonfires at the Forestry firepit are a popular event - which happen every semester and bring together students from all disciplines to eat, mingle, and relax by the fire. The annual Fenner School Careers Evening is also a great occasion for students to network and find out more about prospective career opportunities. This year will see the return of the annual Fenner School Cocktail Evening, with

plans of it being held towards the end of semester one. Previous years saw both students and staff immerse themselves in themes surrounding nature’s beauty, with some even dressing to the nines to show off the more glamorous side of the Fenner School. Movie nights are also held frequently for those who prefer to spend their evenings in, watching documentaries, eating pizza, and engaging in spicy debates with fellow peers. Whether you are an engineering student, a science student, or a law student – Fenner School Society events are open to everyone, with the hope of sparking interest in environmental topics within everyone. Transdisciplinarity is what makes the Fenner School so unique, and by bringing together students of all backgrounds, we can work together to create a better society and a healthier environment. If you are interested in getting involved with the society or would like to know more about future events email fen ner s c ho ol s o c ie t y @ g m a i l .c om .

metamorphosis Artwork: Tisha Tejaya

discover // Environment

Vol. 68 , Issue 01

The coal continent

Text: Ruchi Renavikar Illustration: Maddy Porter

Coal is undeniably controversial in Australia – and no example better demonstrates this than the Adani mine. Despite this, we continue to see investments in coal and developed countries, such as Australia, are doing little to pursue other, renewable sources of energy. How could this be? The proposed construction of the Carmichael Coal Mine by the Indian conglomerate Adani, at the Galilee Basin in western Queensland, has inspired fierce debate. The ‘Adani Go Back’ campaign against the mine has been long and pervasive for the people of Queensland, and has resulted in the withdrawal of government support for the project. Protests are continuing Australiawide over the large-scale destruction of forest land and the impacts of mining on the environment and its people. A common concern among all protests, in particular, are the impacts of the proposed mine on the UNESCO World Heritage Site: The Great Barrier Reef. Adani’s plans include the construction of a 189 kilometer railway line from the proposed Carmichael Coal Mine to Abbot Point, to increase the remote Basin’s accessibility. Annastacia Palaszczuk, the 39th Premier of Queensland, initially backed this plan,

which was dependent on a one billion dollar loan from the Commonwealth government. However, the promised funding ended up being vetoed by Palaszczuk herself, leaving Adani in need of alternative investment. A coal mine of this magnitude has never been witnessed by Queensland before, and with plans to pump out roughly 60 million tonnes of coal per annum, it is a highly ambitious project even for Adani. Intense media and public scrutiny have led several Australian and Chinese Banks to drop funding for this project, leaving Adani high and dry. It is clear that the majority of the Australian public no longer support investment in coal. One could ask, then – what is Australia doing to switch to renewable energy? To answer this question, it is important to recognise that coal has been a centre-stone of invention and technology since the Industrial Age. What is more important, however, is acknowledging that the Industrial Age has ended. Climate Change science has demonstrated the detrimental long-term impacts of coal emissions, and reliance on coal must reduce. And it isn’t just the environmental impact – renewable energy also has the potential to enhance the reliability of our electricity supply. On 29 January 2018, much of Melbourne suffered a complete blackout, as blown fuses and transistors left approximately 60,000 homes devoid of power. This incident highlighted questions regarding the capacity of the state to provide reliable

electricity in times of erratic weather patterns and rising temperatures, which are becoming more frequent because of global warming. It’s a never-ending cycle: we cause global climatic change and continue with activities that drive forward the very same climatic change we wish to avoid – creating a positive feedback loop. Currently, approximately 70 per cent of electricity in Australia is generated by coal-based power plants, compared with 13 per cent from natural gas, merely seven per cent from hydropower and two per cent from solar. It is undoubtedly true that renewable energy has not been able to compete with the historically low prices of coal-produced electricity – but if we don’t strive towards a sustainable future, we will never attain one. With the highest solar radiation per square metre compared with any other continent, our usage of solar energy seems illogically low. This is largely related to the initial expense of solar infrastructure. But this will change: every year the price of solar panels halves, thanks to technological advances. Moreover, in times of climate adversity and disasters, solar powered energy has proven to be significantly more reliable than coal in continuing to meet the energy needs of the people. With an unlimited and eternal source of energy, solar energy’s uses can be diversified: from electricity generation (photovoltaics) to heating (solar thermal). If the costs

of pollution created by coal power plants were accounted for, the cost of electricity generated from coal would also be much higher in comparison with solar-powered electricity. It is therefore shocking that we spend an estimated AU$4 billion of taxpayer money every year on coal, oil and gas exploration, knowing very well the consequences of burning fossil fuels on the environment and our health. Subsidising coal-powered energy is directly equivalent to subsidising climate change. The full implications of developing the Carmichael Coal Mine on Australia’s two degrees carbon budget are yet to be fully understood. The two degree carbon budget is the finite amount of greenhouse gases that can be emitted in order to limit global temperature rise by two degrees Celsius. Australia’s fair share of the carbon budget is one per cent, equivalent to 10.1 Giga tonnes, which have been estimated to be used by 2028 if we continue at our current rate of fossil fuel emissions. This creates an urgency to switch to renewable energy in order to stay well within our budget. Although it is true that Adani has witnessed several setbacks and difficulties in securing clearances, they remain undeterred – for now. This time of conf lict has shown the perseverance of the Australian people and their awareness that Climate Change is real and is here, despite the inaction and denial of world leaders and politicians.

O-Week, Semester 1, 2018

discover // science

But what are gravational waves?

Text: Dan Gould Art: James Atkinson Recently, there has been a lot of chatter about gravitational waves. These are the result of the motion of matter through space-time, a result theorised by Einstein in his four papers on the subject released in 1915. An understanding of gravitational waves, is quite literally, based in space-time. So, an understanding of this is essential. In layman’s terms: it’s the bolting of the dimension of time onto the three dimensions we inhabit in our everyday life. To a mathematical physicist, it’s a Minkowski Space: a combination of three-dimensional Euclidean space and time into a four-dimensional manifold where the space-time interval between any two events is independent of the inertial frame of reference. But let’s not get bemired in the details, so we can get on to black holes colliding. Space-time is a big bowl of jelly – you heard it here first kiddos. If you were to place a teaspoon on top of it, it bends under the weight. Take your spoon off again, and it bounces back. Dribble custard near the spoon, and it’ll slide towards it unless you’ve got another tablespoon nearby pulling the jelly down harder. If you move your spoon across the top at speed, you can see that ripples move off and away from your spoon. This is just like space-time! You put mass in it, and it bends. You take the mass away, and it bends back. You move the mass, and you get waves, gravity waves. So, space-time is a somewhat stretchy, invisible ‘fabric’. However,

change in length that is around 1000 times smaller than a proton. This level of precision is the equivalent to measuring, with the accuracy of a human hair, the distance from the The first observed gravitational earth to the nearest star! wave, recorded on the 14 September 2015, was caused by the merger The LIGO (with one detector locatof two black holes (around 30 times ed in Livingston and one in Hanford heavier than our sun), and it released USA) and Virgo (located near Pisa, the equivalent of three solar masses Italy and coming online in August worth of energy. That’s three suns 2017) detectors utilise a Michelson completely converted to energy! To interferometer design to achieve put that in perspective: an atom- these precise measurements. And ic bomb, capable of levelling a city, have managed to do so six times would release the equivalent of less already! A Michelson interferomethan a paperclip worth of mass as ter is a piece of equipment for meaenergy. suring tiny differences between two lengths, and it does so by splitting a So, now you have a grasp on what laser beam in two and sending down gravitational waves are, and where two arms then combining the beam they come from. But what do they again and looking at the interference do? with a detector. in contrast to the jelly, the energy needed to create a measurable gravitational wave is much greater than throwing a spoon around.

Simply put, as a gravitational wave passes through an object, it changes its dimensions. In an extremely exaggerated example, if a gravitational wave were to pass through a hula-hoop, you would see it oscillate between being a circle and an oval. In reality, you are never going to be able to see the effects with your eyes. Why? Because if you were close enough to the merger of two black holes, or even neutron stars, to see even a one per cent change in the length of an object due to the gravitational waves, you would either be sucked into the black hole or burnt up by the stars. That’s even before you were vaporized by the violent expulsion of energy from the merger! So how does one go about measuring a gravitational wave? To see these exciting ripples in the fabric of reality, you would need a detector so sensitive it would be able to measure a

The LIGO detectors have arms that are both four kilometers long, as well as a set of mirrors that bounce the beam back and forth up to 280 times before being sent to the detector. This makes the resulting detector arms seem around 1120 kilometers long. Nevertheless, the change in length due to the gravitational waves passing through the detectors is unable to be seen, unless all other noise is removed. From earthquakes to passing birds and cars to quantum noise, each little vibration or effect, no matter how small is investigated and detected. Universities around the world affiliated with the gravitational wave teams are constantly researching ways to increase their accuracy to try and see smaller and smaller galactic events further and further away. The Australian OzGrav (a collaboration of Australian universities

researching gravitation waves, this includes ANU) is no different, with Australian state-of-the-art instruments and research contributions aiding the ongoing efforts. But, if we can already see gravitational waves, what more can we do? We can currently see them, but not all of them. Smaller mergers are happening too far for us to see, there are theories about exotic neutron stars with ‘mountains’ that spin fast enough to produce measurable gravitation waves that need investigating. And perhaps, waiting to be discovered out there, are things that nobody even thought possible. All these events would give us better insight into the dynamics of the extreme events of the cosmos, the way heavy elements are formed and much more. The LIGO detectors might be the pen with which we can write the Complete History of Everything.

Discover // Science

Vol. 68 , Issue 01

NEW SUPERCOMPUTER COMING ANU’S WAY Text: Liam King

importance of Australia’s two high-per- in the world in terms of Petaflops, which formance computers was manifestly is the ability of a computer to do one quadrillion (10^15) floating point operSupercomputer is a fluid term, with there clear…’ ations per second (FLOPS). being no unanimously accepted definition. A commonly accepted definition is This most recent announcement of having one per cent or more of the com- funding ensures, more than 4000 re- Now 76th in the world, after a bit of help puting power of the world’s highest per- searchers in 35 universities, five national from the National Agility Fund to drag forming computer – meaning there are science agencies, three medical research it up from 121th in the world, it has a institutes, and the entire industry, will measured peak performance of 1.67 only around 215 of them in existence. benefit from a boost in computation- Petaflops. The most recent cash injection comes al horsepower. With some of the most This means in an hour, Raijin can perfrom the Australian Government’s Na- notable of these being the Australian form roughly the same number of calcutional Innovation and Research Agenda, Research Council, CSIRO, the Bureau lations it would take 7 billion people 20 which has promised to deliver $2.3 bil- of Meteorology, as well as our very own years to complete on calculators. lion over 10 years to support national re- ANU. Currently, the fastest supercomputer search infrastructure. Australia’s Chief Scientist Dr Alan Finkel has labelled Over the next year, the ANU-based, in the world is the Sunway TaihuLight, high-performance computing a national National Computational Infrastructure which as of last year clocked a score of priority in the Australian Government’s (NCI) Facility will receive the final in- 93.015 Petaflops, a reading of almost 2016 National Research Infrastructure stalment of the $70 million dollars need- three times the second most powerful ed to replace Raijin. Named after the in the world, the China- based Tianhe-2. Roadmap: Shinto God of thunder, lightning and The Sunway TaihuLight can be found in ‘Throughout our consultations to de- storms, it is currently Australia’s highest the National Supercomputing Centre in velop the 2016 National Research In- performance research computer. Raijin, the city of Wuxi in China. frastructure Roadmap, the critical was installed in 2012 and was the 24th

Orbit Inequality: Ways Developing Countries Are Locked Out of Space Text: Brody Hannan Art: Mia Jessurun The idea that developing countries are ‘locked out of space’ – may seem obvious. They simply can’t afford to launch satellites into space, right? Well, there’s a bit more to it than that – the ideal orbits for most satellites are very specific, and with over 43,000 satellites being launched into Earth’s orbit since Sputnik I in 1957, space is filling up fast. If you’re not already familiar with it, allow me to introduce the idea of a Geostationary Orbit to you. It takes 24 hours for the Earth to spin around its axis - it’s the reason we have night and day. Early governments and space agencies realised very quickly that as great as it was sending satellites into space – you’d lose contact with them when they travelled around the other side of the Earth in their orbit. Was there some way that they’d be able to maintain contact with their satellites, and still be able to use them 24/7? This is where the idea of Geostationary Orbit comes in. If we were to position a satellite somewhere in Earth’s orbit,

that was moving at the exact same speed as the planet’s rotation, then it would appear as though the satellite was fixed to a single point on the ground, meaning, it could be seen all the time. Whilst Geostationary Orbits (GOs) can be achieved at any latitude along the Earth’s surface, the best GOs are the ones positioned along the Equator. This allows for the radio signals to easily bounce up and down along the Earth. For example, Australia can’t really communicate with anyone in the Northern Hemisphere directly due to the curvature of the Earth, since the straight-line travelling radio waves would literally f ly off the Earth and into space. However, if we aim our radio communications at a satellite fixed in the sky (a GO satellite) we can ‘bounce’ the signal off it and ref lect it onto countries like Japan. As of today, there are approximately 2,000 active (fully or partially operational) satellites orbiting the Earth. As of April 2017, 85 countries had launched satellites into space – however, most of these were by a foreign supplier, with only 11 countries having the capacity to send satellites into orbit using their own launch vehicles. This includes New Zealand, which launched their first

satellite into orbit using their own space agency in January 2018. Australia’s first satellite, WRESAT, was launched in 1967 from the Woomera Test Range in South Australia, on board an American rocket. At the time, it made Australia the seventh nation in the world to have a satellite launched, and only the third to have one launched from within its own territory. Since then, Australia has launched 26 satellites into orbit around the Earth – 14 of which are still active. Compare this to the United States, which as of 1 February 2018 had a staggering 779 active satellites orbiting the Earth. You can see from just the numbers the issues we have here. As more and more governments, militaries and private companies send communication satellites up into these Geostationary Orbits, we are literally running out of room to place them in the Earth’s orbit. It means that when, and if, developing countries decide to launch satellites, all the best spots along the Equator will be taken. Unlike meteorological satellites, which are obliged to provide their weather and meteorological data to all countries for free, under the

World Meteorological Organisation Convention, telecommunication and remote sensing satellites are not obliged to share their data. The implications of this are enormous. Not only does it limit a developing nation’s capacity to communicate with the wider world, but also for developing countries to have the opportunity to obtain all the details concerning their natural resources. You can imagine how developing countries are completely reliant on the developed nations to provide the data and assist with analysis of their very own countries – understanding their geographic landscape – waterways, forest cover and use of agricultural. Satellites can also be used to detect the mineral and natural resource composition of the ground beneath – factors which dramatically affect the strategic planning of governments. You’re literally shut out from the rest of the world. The modern ‘Space Race’ isn’t about who can get to Space or the Moon first – it’s about ensuring you’re not left behind with technology here on Earth.

O-Week, Semester 1, 2018

Discover // Business & Economics

Vol. 68 , Issue 01

Introduction to Bitcoins and Blockchains Text: Nick Blood Graphic: Katie Ward This article is designed to introduce readers to the very basics of Bitcoin and the underlying technology that runs it (something called the Blockchain). It is intended for absolute newcomers and tries to avoid jargon and higher-level details that many other discussions around this idea often involve. It is intended to provide enough information so that if you want to learn more, you have some basic confidence in how to conduct your own research. It will skip over many details, and simplify things greatly, so be aware that in many cases there are exceptions to what is written.

possible to send them directly between two parties without the need for a third party to verify the transaction is legitimate. This has a huge range of implications. For one, it can affect the role that banks and other financial institutions may play in the future, if Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies become mainstream. Secondly, it may make Bitcoin-based transactions much harder to monitor and regulate (although there are some details that perhaps flip this argument around). It also has implications for transaction fees, and the cost of moving capital around.

Bitcoin transactions are stored on a publicly viewable ledger that anyone can look at and inspect. That ledger is secured by cryptography, making it virtually tamper-proof. WHAT IS BITCOIN? To understand how this works in simple terms, it’s helpful to Bitcoin started as an idea outlined think about “centralization” in a 2008 technical document versus “decentralization”. – known as a white paper – authored by someone named INTRODUCING THE “Satoshi Nakamoto”, who worked BLOCKCHAIN publicly on the project up until 2010. Interestingly, we don’t know The blockchain is the underlying who Satoshi is – it could be an system that tracks and verifies individual, a group of people, Bitcoin transactions. In short, when or an organization. Satoshi’s a transaction occurs, the relevant identity remains a secret, despite details – who sent it, who received many attempts to uncover it. it, how much, and at what time – Bitcoin is a digital currency (non- are recorded and transmitted to physical). This is different to everyone else on the blockchain what we have now: fiat currency. network. Remember how I said that US or Australian dollars are people use computers to “mine” examples of fiat currencies. new bitcoins? Well, they also play Although today’s dollars and a role in verifying transactions too pounds often exist digitally as 1’s – and this theoretically makes the and 0’s on computers, they also process of “mining” still useful once have a physical counterpart – all the coins have been “mined”. cash. Bitcoin can exist purely as a digital currency, unlike fiat. Unlike a centralized institution like a bank verifying transactions, Bitcoins are created in a very Bitcoin operates on a decentralized different way to fiat. Instead of “peer-to-peer” (p2p) network. a government mint producing Everyone using bitcoin is part new notes and coins, Bitcoins of this network, and many of are created by computers, and them work in concert to verify a those computers can be run by transaction. Very simply, what this individuals, organizations, or means is that faking transactions government bodies. Theoretically, is difficult to do, because you anyone can be become a minter would need the majority of that of Bitcoins – what’s referred to network (more than 50%) to verify as a “miner”. This takes control it – something quite difficult to of minting new coins out of pull off if that network is spread government hands. How this out across the globe and involves works, very simply, is that these millions of different computers. computers are given difficult, time-consuming mathematical This “trust model” is another problems, and the computer that differentiating point between solves it first is given a Bitcoin. cryptocurrencies and fiat. We Another important difference trust banks and other institutions to fiat is that there is a finite because of their reputation, and number of Bitcoins that can be because of the supposedly dire minted. Eventually, there will consequences of them breaking that be no more Bitcoins to “mine”. trust. History has shown, however, Unlike fiat, this makes the that they sometimes happily currency “deflationary” instead abuse the trust we place in them. of “inf lationary”. Deflationary By contrast, the public ledger of currencies, and deflationary Bitcoin transactions relies on how economies work very differently to the system itself works. Because inf lationary ones. There is ongoing the system is decentralized, debate as to which model is best. and because those verification Because Bitcoins are digital, processes involve complicated and due to how the underlying mathematical proofs, hijacking a technology (the blockchain – majority of the network requires explained shortly) works, it is significant computing power to

re-create fake transactions. This is why blockchains are considered virtually tamper-proof. There are some counter-arguments to this, but we’ll skip them for this article. Bitcoin transactions are also anonymous in ways that fiat transactions are not. Although all transactions are stored on a publicly-viewable ledger, the identity of the sender and receiver of Bitcoin is essentially masked: it is numbers instead of names. Although movements of capital can nonetheless expose identities if someone examines them closely enough, heightened anonymity has implications for monitoring and regulation. However, someone can choose to de-anonymize themselves and prove they are the sender or receiver of funds. This has yet other implications, for example, in verifying publicly that payments have been received. What are the potential applications? Imagine you’re a coffee vendor trying to demonstrate that the money people spend on your coffee goes directly towards an Ecuadorian coffee farmer. With bitcoins and blockchain, you can do this. It allows people to track the flow of capital from the purchase of a Cappuccino through to the arrival of those funds into the coffee producer’s account. The uses of blockchain extent beyond currencies, too. A cr y ptog raph ica l ly-secu red , decentralized, public ledger like blockchain is a powerful tool. Imagine an oil pipeline leaks in North Dakota, and that information on the leak is transmitted automatically into a blockchain ledger, including the volume of oil spilled and at what time. Because the ledger is public, and because it cannot be tampered with, it makes it very difficult for this event to be covered up. Powerful, huh? Blockchain is very exciting not just because of its potential applications in economics via cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, but also because of other potential applications, like in the field of sustainability. The full range of applications are beyond the scope of this article, but hopefully those two examples illustrate there is much more to appreciate here than just currencies. It is a revolutionary technology that could change many aspects of daily life. Interested in learning more? Keen to get involved in this exciting new technology? Check out ANU’s Crypto-Assets Platform, a new student organization dedicated to exploring these topics and educating students further.

O-Week, Semester 1, 2018

Discover // Business & Economics

TACKLING THE FAKE NEWS EPIDEMIC USING BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY

Text: Siddharth Pethe Art: James Atkinson

TRUTH IS A SUBJECTIVE TERM Truth is a subjective term. Everyone has their own version of it. If – for example – a band of rebels assassinate an emperor, for them it is an act of defiance, and reporting it as such would be correct, and yet the crown prince will report it as a dastardly attack on the empire’s sovereignty. Both are true in their own right. But what if a media outlet reported it as ‘Someone opened fire in a civilian area! The emperor died on scene while 50 others died in a nearby hospital’? The news may be ‘true’ if the assassination genuinely did occur in public and, on average, 50 people die every day in a nearby hospital, but at its core and when taken in context, it is FAKE NEWS! But how then do we tackle this growing epidemic if all they did is falsely portray ‘facts’? Well, my favourite solution is trust and credibility.

NEWS OF OLD So, what exactly is wrong with the old news media? Why this overhaul? Well nothing is wrong. It is just outdated in today’s world and especially so in tomorrow’s. With the advent of social media, more and more people are seeking their daily share of news online, and, more dangerously, through undocumented and unverifiable sources. This way biased media, with no regards for credibility, can use social media to further their cause. In the olden days,

most people got their news from a printed source, a newspaper or a book. In both of these forms of media, there is a well-established feedback loop. If a newspaper prints garbage, the newspaper quickly turns into toilet paper. The same is applicable for books or TV news channels. In the virtual world, this feedback loop is absent. If you ‘share’ garbage, no will really blame you for shovelling some. But, then, how do we bring the news of old to the age of digital media? I say we use Blockchain.

COMBATTING CONFIRMATION BIAS I’ve always thought that being lazy makes you more efficient. Consider something silly for example: What would convince you to watch any particular movie? Overlooking the monetary aspect of it, what would make you choose one over another? The answer comes down to trust and credibility in most cases. Trust in the makers/creatives, trust in the concept or the idea and, most importantly, trust in the reviews of friends or colleagues. So, to paraphrase Tocqueville and Becker, why don’t we apply this great experiment called democracy to the problem at hand.

SECONDS In most parliamentary procedures, when trying to bring a motion to the floor, you need a second who is ready to back your ideas. Ideally, that person is vital in garnering support for the motion. Just like parliamentary procedures, I suggest that every article or piece of information need seconds to promote it – and that Blochchain should be used to track these seconds. So say, for example,

that I write an article – a sensational, scandalous piece of news. I’m pretty new to the whole journalist circle so I get someone with enough credibility to second my motion, a certain Ms. X. My article now has my own credibility along with the backing of X. X hands a draft of the article to Mr Y, and he decides to back it too. Y passes it to Z, and Z has followers A-G who read it.. (So on and so forth). Now, if this article turns out to be impactful, then not only does my credibility go up, but so does that of everyone who seconded the article. If, on the other hand, I shovelled something smelly, then the credibility score falls proportionally. Why Blockchain? Well – Y might never have read or backed my article if X hadn’t read it and backed it first. It is, basically, a chain and not a simple summation. Moreover, there’s no stronger accounting and tracking tool in the virtual world than Blockchain.

A LACK OF MOTIVATION After watching ‘The Post’, a friend of mine presented the following question: In the age of freely available, online news, what would motivate journalists to dig in and uncover secrets that the general populous needs to know; secrets which might send them to jail? Well, I must admit, this question did freak me out pretty severely. Not because I thought that no one would do this anymore – not true – but because for anyone who does do it, the risk is very high and the reward is relatively low. Ashlee Vance’s biographer, Elon (you know who), made an observation. He said that regulators had an unbalanced scale of risk and reward. If the same started happening for news media, there would be an uptick in corruption

and bias, I believe. My suggestion is that we return the risk and the reward to the writers themselves.

GIVING BACK: RISK AND REWARD The cool thing about Blockchain is its ability to record things, and secure those records, in real time. In 2016, musical artist Imogen Heap released her song ‘Tiny Human’ using Blockchain. Listeners purchased the song directly from her and then the money went straight to the creators of the song. I say we do the same by establishing a Blockchain of credibility. Here’s how the whole thing will work: Everyone will get a credibility score. Authors’ credibility will be linked to the articles they write. For every second the article gets, everyone before that person will earn some credibility. Readers of the article will be able to read at a small price or nothing at all. Then, they can either buy into the article or just pass on it. This would enable us to establish a correlation between credibility and other currencies. The chain of credibility will work in a decreasing order of percentage. E.g.: 50 per cent for the author, 25 per cent for the second and 2nd second, 12.5 per cent for the 4th to 8th and so on and so forth.

WRAPPING UP So – to wrap up this tale of starry-eyed innovation and hopeful conjecture, I would like to extend an open invitation. If anyone feels that this is cool, or just that you might like to talk about this idea, the author is always up for a chat.

Vol. 68 , Issue 01

CREATIVE

immolation mind’s eye Text: Amanda Dheerasekara

i. the flowers have fallen into your face A disappointing morning, you wrote about another day. we hem the incinerator this is the nadir ii. How the rain would come in to kiss the sill and the railings I see us, sun filling our skirts and fists crossing It is this body that decay besets, you said once from the corridor and I no longer know which was ever shown or felt or if they are apparitions And you must be here somewhere swimming in the ground or else in the soot or else playing with the sand iii. If you were to appear now Standing still Looking at me How I will come to you and flutter I wonder if this is some kind of madness this dialogue how easily it comes and the joy like a tungsten light that beckons impossible return back to tungsten-lit evenings and nights by you

DEATH OF TWO FRIENDSHIPS (WITHOUT FANFARE) Text: Emily Dickey

prelude think with me – the skin of the sky is shrouded like a corpse in ashed grey: ‘a beloved grandmother’s death. gone at ninety-six, and still too soon’.

act one

she asks how to ‘change’ for me; as if I can reach inside her smoke – pull out what I need, feed it back in choking gulps. ‘take with water every 2/3 hours: tolerance/patience to be EATEN with a meal.’ and now, she is mad I (couldn’t) didn’t say goodbye. BUT communication with her is, funny. a roundabout of big cars (towing trailers, tractors, tailgating) and attempting the CORRECT left turn is, near inconceivable.

act two

we cook feasts, again in my rummage sale kitchen and someone fucks with your bike, locked outside – the wheels sliding off, as if they were never meant to stay. so you crash on my floor and teach me, again how to roll a dart, fingers twisting in the dark making my feelings bubble BUT.

A Life in the Making Text: Mahalia Crawshaw

I’m going travelling and I want you to come with me. This is the beginning. When I was eleven years old I wrote bitch on my stomach in Black Permanent Marker I realised my mistake As soon as I was done. I scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed Body blotchy Sore Pink But it was, Too late Too, too late So I had to walk around Quietly But not With a faded stain Imprinted on my body A grey idea Silent Almost Seeping into my skin As a reminder Of what I was yet To understand Stand I stand here Again And I feel sick. Head, fuzzy Heart, raw A wobbling Echoing through my body Because It happened So early and so quickly And the floor turned wet And deep And I was drowning Help. Help me. I need to Leave

don’t worry. I won’t tell you, again.

sea, childhood, reflection Artwork: Tisha Tejaya

And those words Harsh stabs Stab Into me Again And again And again Bitch And I feel them Bitch From, ago Bitch They sting And feel so real The letters Look Sound Strange But real So, I run I keep running I’ve been running For so long I’m so Tired Will I ever stop?

creative

O-Week, Semester 1, 2018

THE LIFE OF THE BOOK Text: Phoebe Lupton Art: Cherry Zheng

hand on the side of your bloody desk!

he finds the right spot to start reading. He reads what JO has written and once he stops, he starts laughing.

JO: I did whack my hand on the side of my bloody desk. JO: Is something funny?

The Life of the Book is a short play about an author who is struggling with writer’s block whilst writing LEWIS: But you seem fine now, if a lither novel. This play is a commen- tle cross. tary on finding inspiration in real life and how our own personalities can sometimes bleed into our art. JO: Fine? Really? I’m not fine. I’ll never, ever be fine.

JO is centre stage. She sits at a desk typing on her computer. She continues LEWIS: It’s your novel again, isn’t it? to type for a few beats, but then stops and stares at her screen. LEWIS walks over to JO’s desk, pulling up a chair and sitting on it. JO (narrating her story): Charles decided to draw a picture. That was his favourite thing to do – art. He started LEWIS: Would you like me to help to draw a cat, complete with whiskers you? and all. He just finished off the first ear when his father entered his room. “Charles”, he said. “Do you want to…” JO: Help me?

LEWIS (still laughing): No, it’s just… does this Charlie character remind you of someone? JO: I don’t think so. Should it? LEWIS: Think about it! He’s an artist, like you. He’s dedicated to his art, like you. JO: What are you trying to say? LEWIS: I’m saying that this character is…well, it’s rather close to home. JO: So? What do you want me to do about it?

Jo trails off. She bangs her hand on the LEWIS: Sure! I have an honours degree in English, I know something about desk and lets out a scream. books. LEWIS: I don’t know. You know about the creative process. You know how Enter LEWIS. He runs onstage and certain people react when they can’t halts when he sees JO sitting at her JO: Oh. Well, I guess I could use some get something right. Just…think about help, yeah. desk. that. LEWIS: Jesus Christ Jo, what’s wrong JO slides her laptop across the desk to- JO stares at LEWIS and smiles widely. with you? I thought you whacked your wards LEWIS. He scrolls down until She gets up from her chair, walks over

to where LEWIS is sitting and kisses him on the lips. JO: Thank you! Thank you, thank you, thank you! JO walks back over to her side of the desk and starts typing again without acknowledging that LEWIS is still here. LEWIS waits for a while before rising from his seat. LEWIS: Um, you’re welcome? Well, good luck I guess. You’re gonna be great. Really, really great. LEWIS exits. JO is types for a few more beats, then stops and looks at the screen again. JO (narrating her story): Charles started to draw a picture of a cat. He was usually very good at art, but this time he just couldn’t get the ears right. He banged his hand on the desk at which he was sitting and let out a scream. His father entered his room and said, “Jesus Christ Charles, what’s wrong with you….?” Fade into black. END OF PLAY

Vol. 68 , Issue 01

satire

Plant Care Each Day Keeps the Millennial Doubt Away Text: Eleanor Armstrong Art: Madi Hartill Law It seems, these days, that there is a new kind of interior accessory taking over student rooms. It is neither an Ikea faux sheepskin rug strewn artfully over a desk chair, nor clear acrylic stationery. Rather, the latest room addition, sought out by both green thumbs and plant murderers alike, is the humble indoor plant. From succulents to ferns and everything in between, these green bundles of joy are a common sight in many a dilapidated student dorm or proudly rented first-time share house. Just as there is a plethora of foliage out there for purchase, there is a vast array of reasons for acquiring one. For those who have already abandoned all hope of decisiveness for the academic year, here follows a plant matching guide…

For the Loner – Orchids Are you finding that plant owning is merely an attempt to channel your suppressed desire for human affection into caring for an inanimate object that won’t reciprocate your tender loving care? Try not to or-kid (haha) yourself – that special someone may be a long way off. At least your financial investment into this relationship will pay off, with orchids living longer than any measly Tinder f ling. For the price of a dinner for two, and with only minimal watering, you can have

your own fragrant companion – who needs pheromones anyway?

For the Pessimist – Peace Lily Are you completely overwhelmed by the state of the world and feeling utterly powerless to combat it? Have no fear, for the perfect plant alternative is here. Hopefully, by caring for this small arbiter of tranquillity, you too can locate some kind of inner peace. Just maybe, even, it could help to quell that constant nihilist interior monologue. In addition, as you are someone who just has so much to give, this plant will appreciate your regular overwatering, being partial to continual saturation.

For the Broke – The Chinese Money Tree Are you struggling to stay afloat between Centrelink payments and wincing at every automatic rent deduction from your transfers account? Rumoured to bring prosperity in Chinese Feng Shui tradition, these leafy friends can ward off future unexpected expenses and act as a constant warning against frivolous spending. Furthermore, this plant’s need for sunlight will force you to open your windows and let in some rays, thereby not requiring artificial lighting – you’re practically saving money on your electricity bill!

For the Flake – The African Violet

Are you finding yourself overstretched, undernourished and unenthused?

Like your wavering commitment humble cactus makes the perfect to friendships, your attention to desktop accessory and assignment your plants may be similarly poor. companion. Its sharp edges can also be used as a defence mechanism Have no fear, however, as this troop- against unwanted social interacer is known to survive weeks without tion. Bonus points for picking one watering over the summer break. Un- up that’s haphazardly planted in a like the demanding gal pal, this beau- food can from a hipster market stall. ty will be very forgiving and bounce back from a lack of maintenance in For the Wannabe Artisan – no time! Perfect for those who have Herb Garden resolved to do the absolute bare minimum in as many activities as possible. Are you growing tired of consumFor the Vanilla – Chilli Plant ing the same few carb-heavy meals on repeat? With a windowsill herb Are you battling through an ex- garden, the options for customistended dry spell or finding that ing your key staples are endless. your sex life is less than exciting? With a little added ~spice~ To easily incorporate a dash of ‘le cosfrom this dangerous yet enlivening mopolitain’ into your tap water, add friend, you too could find yourself a sprig of mint. Same goes for parsin need of a good fanning down. ley in your eggs and basil in your salads. Best leave coriander off the Instead of a fifty-shades style pleasure menu, though, as that plant is just room, these plants prefer a different way too divisive. Better to mildly imkind of heated space, with sunny press your friends with something windowsills and greenhouses work- more mainstream than to leave them ing best to support growth. Be sure, with the taste of soap in their mouths. however, to keep the compost moist rather than soaking wet – it is possible to have too much of a good thing. As you can see, it is certainly worth having nature infiltrate our blanket-insulated, scented-candle-permeFor the Standoffish – ated, Netflix-saturated abodes. There The Succulent is method to the madness of young folk earnestly bringing elements of Are you sick of people judging you the outside world in. Hopefully one for your prickly exterior before of the above suggestions will inspire they get to know your soft interi- you to become one of the many plant or? These tenacious little guys are guardians flourishing on and around known to bring a smile to even the this campus. After all, who doesn’t most rigid of resting bitch faces. enjoy a good trip to Bunnings… With their preference for soil as dry as your sense of humour, the

satire

O-Week, Semester 1, 2018

TRANSCRIPT TELEVISION INTERVIEW ABC NEWS, 7.30 WEDNESDAY 7 FEBRUARY 2018 SUBJECT/S: marriage equality; postal survey; adultery; traditional marriage; hypocrisy; gays Trackchanges: Mandy Chau LEIGH SALES: Let’s go straight to Parliament House in Canberra where the Deputy Prime Minister, Barnaby Joyce, is standing by. Thank you very much for joining us. BARNABY JOYCE: You’re welcome, Leigh. LS: Deputy Prime Minister, let’s just address the elephant in the room. You’ve not commented yet on front page newspaper reports today that you are in a relationship with one of your staffers a man who is expecting adopting your child. Is that accurate? BJ: Well, Leigh, what I want to do is make sure that private m-matters remain private. I mean, quite obviously, it’s a-I don’t think it profits anybody to drag private members sexualities uh private matters to the uh public uh arena. I c-can’t quite fathom why, basically, a pregnant lady man walking across the road with his partner deserves a front page. I don’t know what the political purpose is to that a postal survey. LS: IBJ: A-and it’s a private matter. I don’t think it helps me. I don’t think it helps my family. I don’t think it helps anybody marginalised community in the future for us to start making this path of a public discussion vote, so as much as I can, I will keep private matters private. LS: I have no intention about asking intimate details of your private life. These questions that I’ve got are all in the context of establishing if your personal conduct relationship has any intersection with your professional role as an elected official member of a Judeo-Christian society. Your wife partner, Nathalie Nathan Joyce, has issued a statement today that, I understand that this has been going on for many months and started when she was a paid employee your best friend in high school. Is it accurate that this relationship started when this person was a member of your staff your classmate? BJ: Well I think i-it’s a fair question about the intersection between uh public expenses societal roles. There’s no problem about that. This issue has been FOI’D BDH’d— that’s freedom of information request beating a dead horse—from just about every media uh outlet for a very long period of time. Up hill, down dale, they’ve enquired into discussed this and no legitimate criticism of marriage equality thing has been found because there’s nothing there. We’ve made sure that-uh private mat-matters remain private and uh anything on the-on the- on a public

account vote has to do with my your reputation. There might be b-my work as a politician status as some voters straight people tonight a person. who think that this information is in the public interest because it speaks LS: I just want to establish maximum to issues relating to loyalty parental transparency, which is why I’ll love and trustworthiness procreation ask that question again. Did this and those are the things by which relationship start when this person public officials marriages are held was a member of your paid staff high accountable traditional. What do school class? you say to voters people who might think that? BJ: Well, I-I-you know, I think that once we start going through this BJ: Well, I-I understand that- I salami slicing of a-of a private life. mean, unfortunately clearly there Then w-where does it end? So I’m are a lot of marriages relationships not going to even entertain-sort of- in Australia that-uhh uh uhh. starting to talk about some sort of Unfortunately Clearly don’t uhprivate s-you know, have a sortofa – don’t suffer fall under the- uh- don’tprivate discussion about my private ugh coming apart aren’t straight, life in the public arena. I don’t think Leigh. And uh-my relationship uh it’s right. I don’t think it would coming apart not being straight – be right for any other politician I don’t think – makes me terribly relationship. I think you have to unusual uh-in fact, it puts in themake uh-a distinct decision to not the same box as about 40-50 3-6 per turn Australia into the United States cent of other marriages Australians. of America. Uh, private matters I am not, for one minute, saying that remain private and uh-that’s part that’s an admirable understandable o-of my private life. I-I’ll say upfront trait. It’s uh- obviously it’s incredibly that one of the greatest failures painful for every conservative family embarrassments in my life was the member one involved. I can say it’s uh end of my marriage crush on probably one of the greatest failures my best friend and uh I do not in hardships of my life. Uhh I’m not any way uh s-stand away from that. proud of it comfortable talking to Uh, you know, I- obviously that was my family about it, but uh that isuhhh [sigh] you know, obviously that is, you know, i-in essence the t-tumultuous time in everybody humanity of who we are, okay? And who’s been in a marriage break-up after that, it is a private issue, and questioning phase would understand I’m going to not go into detail in the that. But I’m not going to start- sort public arena and discuss my private of- disseminating beyond that. I’ll say life-uh as a-a person doing a job in that private matters remain private this society, I do it respect people to and I’m gonna keep my private life the very best of my ability and uh I private. d-dedicate myself… probably too much uhh to my- to my job family at LS: You mentioned that your office times… And uh-as you know, a job sexuality had been FOI’D questioned non-understanding family like this on numerous occasions. Just again, is completely and utterly consuming. in the interests of clarity, can I check I’ve been doing part of it for 13 years if somebody did examine your travel my entire life and uh and uh maybe records adolescence in great detail. Is uh one instance of the toll it’s taken is there any evidence that you possibly on my marriage relationships. used tax payer funded sleepovers or hotels the guise of ‘experimenting’ to LS: On social media, there’s been conduct a relationship with a staffer some commentary pointing out that man who is now your partner? during the same-sex marriage nofault divorce debate, you spoke in BJ: Well, they have FOI’D questioned favour of tradional families loving everything to do with- uh- my-uhh relationships at the same time that travel adolescence and nothing you were moving on from your own h-has been turned up because marriage beard with a staffer man. there’s nothing there. I mean, it’s- What’s your response to critics who it’s not a case of conducting uh-you say that you are a hypocrite? know, using taxpayer’s funds male friendships to co-conduct o-other BJ: Well, how could that be? Just things thatn what is your business because- just because my marriage platonic. And my business is to-to relationship with a woman didn’t represent the people be a member work out doesn’t mean that I-I of New England this community disregard the-the, you know, and the people society of Australia. the- what marriages relationships And obviously uh-with private issues are about. I-it just means that on coming uh- into out in one’s life, they that instance, I-uh, as I’ve said- I are completely private. failed wasn’t attracted to her. I-I’ll be upfront, I failed on that one LS: I understand your point about relationship. But I’m not going to private issues. Of course, when you’re start saying, look, therefore, just a politician member of this society, because I failed, that completely chreputation sexuality is a big part changed my views and definition- I of your life and you have to protect don’t think anybody walks down

the aisle grows up with the view that they think they- that they think it’s they’re gonna come to an end be gay or going to finish they’re gonna be bi. You don’t. You make the commitment to try assumption that you’re straight and see it through. Now, I acknowledge that-I failed I’m not. I didn’t uh-and-uh and I’m-I obviously am incredibly sorry about that, but I-I also am like other people, incredibly hurt that private issues get dragged out into the public arena. I mean, this is w-w- who on any street, in any program, would want their-their-their private life just thrown out there for everybody toyou know, to be seen. I think most people s-say should stay in the realm of your private business. LS: In the past few years, there’s been a lot of focus between workplace conduct friendships between men and women, including consensual relationships best friends. Last year, the AFL one straight man accepted the resignation breakdown in friendships of two senior separate male homosexual executives friends who were in completely mutual relationships unrequited crushes with female staff him. Isn’t that the same situation here because you were the powerful boss more flamboyant gay and the other woman was on your staff straight-passing. If things had gone wrong, she had everything to lose. Is that the right way for a boss gay friend to act? BJ: Well, uh, I’m not going to go into all the iterations of a private gay relationship and this is- there’s nothing th- there’s nothing that uh beyond consensual. This is a private matter, and you know, everybody’s trying to sort of second-guess what is a deeply private matter and I’m just not going to do that. LS: Barnaby Joyce, we’re out of time unfortunately, thanks very much for joining us. BJ: Thanks, Leigh.

satire

Vol. 68 , Issue 01

A Letter from brian Schmidt Redaction: Brandon Tan

From the Office of Brian Schmidt, brandonTAN [8:06 AM] Oh hey James, this is Brandon, the international sub-editor. I I saw your post saying there was a vacancy for “social media subeditor”. I do think that Facebook pages is a forte of mine. I currently manage two ANU Facebook pages, where I’ve spent the better part of 2017 experimenting with them to good success.

Thank you! brandonTAN [8: a good AM] Oh hey James, is Brandon, the international sub-editor.

that’s all good, ventures I’ll stick to being the international sub-editor. Thank you! brandonTAN [8:06 AM] Oh hey might lead towards this is Brandon, the international subeditor.

I saw your post saying there was a good for “social media sub-editor”. I do think that managing ages is a forte of mine. I manage two ANU year ook pages, where I’ve spent the better pa t of 2017 taking with them to good success.

I saw your post saying there was a vacancy for “social media subeditor”. I do think that managing pages is a greater results! of mine. I currently manage two ANU Facebook pages, where I’ve spent the better part of 2017 experimenting with them to good success.

I’m wondering new be possible to apply for social media sub-editor? At the same time, I do want to try out 2018 as a content sub-editor. If I can only have one role within Woroni,

I’m wondering if it would be to apply for r the social media sr the social media sthe social media sur the social media sr the social media sr the social media sb-editor? At the

Sudoku

I’m wondering if it would be possible to apply for the social media subeditor? At the same time, I do 2018 to try out 2018 as a content sub-editor. If I can only have one role within Woroni, that’s all will be, as I’ll stick

to being the international sub-editor.

Love, Brian

Spot the difference Can you spot the five differences between these two photos? Pop me in a recycling bin when you’ve finished reading!

I’m recyclable!

Credit: Mia Jessurun

Credit: Mia Jessurun & Zoe Halstead

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