Criticising the FREE Take a Bard copy Parts of my eatre 22 identity Dragging Coming out as a gay myself into recovery Indian man Arts 24-25 Features 11 Behind the lens with White Lies Music 20
No. 863 Friday 22nd February 2019 varsity.co.uk
Cambridge’s Independent Student Newspaper since 1947
Graduate Union Cambridge family calls for action facilities provision on postgraduate like a student ‘lottery’
‘housing crisis’ Charlotte Lillywhite Senior News Correspondent
with most PhD students renting for a For student parents, choosing colleges Charlotte Lillywhite whole calendar year. In Cambridge, and living in Cambridge can present Senior News Correspondent single room rent ranges from £400 to unprecedented challenges due to cur- £740 per month across colleges – and ac- rent University and College provision of A report compiled by the Cambridge Uni- cording to the report, most postgraduate family facilities. e University operates versity Graduate Union (GU) has called funding schemes o er a maintenance the Childcare O ce, which provides in- on the University to “alleviate” the hous- stipend of which more than 50% usually formation on a variety of issues relating ing pressures that many postgraduate goes towards rent. to family life in Cambridge, as well as students at Cambridge face, through e NUS recommends that no more three workplace nurseries for student “standing up for housing, fair rent and than half of income be spend on rent. parents. However only six out of the no hidden charges”. e report cites the Big Cambridge University’s 31 Colleges o er accom- e GU’s report states that the Uni- Survey 2018, which saw high numbers modation to families: Queens’, Gonville versity must “talk to Colleges to reduce of postgraduate students report low lev- & Caius, Girton, Churchill, St. John’s, and rent,” and “build more purpose-built els of satisfaction with issues relating to Trinity. ree college nurseries currently student accommodation” with the help their accommodation. Only 45% were serve six colleges. of the City Council. satis ed with the value for money of Daria Mitko is a Master’s student e report stressed that while un- their accommodation, while just 43% studying law, and lives in Cambridge dergraduate housing has been a point felt that the house prices in Cambridge with with her husband and two-year- of widespread debate and discussion were fair. However, 64% of students re- old son. She had to switch to Caius a ter within Cambridge, issues related to post- ported feeling satis ed with the quality it emerged that the original college she graduate housing are o ten overlooked. of their accommodation, and 67% were was accepted into, Hughes Hall, does not It highlights the burden housing can content with the impact living in col- provide family accommodation. add to graduate students’ nancial dif- lege or at the University has had on their Feeling that student parents are “an culties, with many either partially or student life. underrepresented minority in Cam- entirely self-funding their courses. e GU’s report also criticises the bridge”, Mitko ran for the role of Parents’ e overall average weekly rent for decline in a ordable rooms for post- and Families’ O cer at Caius MCR. She UK students stands at £147 per week, graduates, highlighting the rise of studio sought to work with her college to make according to a NUS-Unipol Accommoda- rooms, which have doubled their stock it “more inclusive” for families, and to tion Survey 2018. is consumes more ▲ e Graduate Union report stressed that postgraduate housing issues are than half of most postgraduate grants, Full story Page 6 ▶ o ten overlooked EDWIN BAHRAMI BALANI Continued on page 7 ▶
Inside ● In conversation with Eva Schloss Pg.2-3 ● Student politicians prepare as CUSU elections approach Pg.10 2 F 22 F 2019 News
FEATURES Coming Eva Schloss out as a gay Indian man. One student’s ‘People can experience. Page 11 ▶ never get what OPINION Turning Point UK is no joke. e organisation is moving closer to it was really the mainstream. Page 17 ▶ like, but you FEATURES So, you graduated. Now what? Page 14 ▶ must convey vulture Magazine your story’ Embracing drag on King’s Jacob Arbeid speaks to the Holocaust Parade. e practice is survivor about her life, and the importance a tool for recovery, one of education in perserving memory student says. va Schloss is an extraordinary in Amsterdam, in the same apartment woman. That epithet gets ❝ block as the Frank family. ey spent Page 24-25 ▶ thrown around a lot today, nearly four years hidden before they Ebut the 89-year old Holocaust Schloss were betrayed. e family was taken to survivor and step-sister of Anne Frank Auschwitz, where her father and brother Catherine Lally & Vivienne Hopley-Jones [email protected] stresses Maia Wyn Davies & Stephanie Stacey [email protected] has lived a life truly beyond the limits perished, while Schloss was put to ex- Isobel Bickersteth (Senior) & James Dickinson (Deputy) of ordinary human experience. She has that we can cruciating work in the camps. [email protected] traversed half of Europe in the century A ter eight months, the camp was Joe Cook [email protected] Mark Curtis [email protected] when the continent tore itself apart, and and shoult liberated by the Soviets; Schloss was Jess Ma & Kiran Khanom (Senior); Elizabeth Haigh & Oliver was subject to torture, starvation, and reunited with her mother and they Rhodes (Deputy) [email protected] still invite Belle George, Katy Bennett, Charlotte the death of her brother and father at the returned to Amsterdam. For decades, Lillywhite, Victor Jack, Chloe Bayliss, Molly Killeen, Kyoka Hadano, Hannah hands of the Nazis. And yet Schloss has survivors Schloss refused to tell her story: like Bowen, Nesta Smith & Diana Stoyanova emerged as one of the most important many survivors, it was simply too pain- Amy Batley & Sarah Orsborne investigations@varsity. like her to co.uk advocates for Holocaust education today, ful. Yet in 1986 at a Holocaust memorial Nicholas Harris, Eve Lynch & Cait Findlay (Senior); Charley with an undiminished passion for justice talk, ‘as event, she was prompted by the now- Barnard & Bethan McGinley (Deputy) [email protected] and indeed a erce sense of humour. unlikely gure of Ken Livingstone to say Zak Lakota-Baldwin & Marco Oechsner [email protected] Marcus McCabe & Sophie Zhang [email protected] Eva Geiringer was born in Vienna in long as a few words, and since then she “hasn’t Lois Wright [email protected] 1929. is was the Vienna of Freud and they’re still ever stopped talking”. She co-founded & Lillian Crawford & Madeleine Pulman-Jones lmandtv@ Zweig, a cosmopolitan city which had the Anne Frank Trust UK and has writ- varsity.co.uk Miles Ricketts & Alex Spencer [email protected] become a haven for native Jews and Ger- around ten several books about her experiences, Helena Baron & Cie Jen Wong [email protected] man-Jewish refugees alike. is changed including one she promised to her late Alex Jacob & Jess Beaumont [email protected] in 1938 with the German annexation of – which brother Heinz. Emily Blatchford [email protected] William Ross (Senior) & William Robinson (Deputy) Austria. A growing climate of militant won’t be I’m sitting with her in a lobby at the [email protected] antisemitism forced Schloss’s – then Cambridge Union, a few minutes before Edwin Boadu & Steven Edwards [email protected] Geiringer’s – family to ee across Europe: very long’ she is set to give a talk. Encouragingly, & SWITCHBOARD Daniella Adeluwoye & Raphael Korber Ho man [email protected] rst to Belgium, before nally settling ❞ the chamber is packed: there is not a Lucy Fairweather & Iris Pearson [email protected] single seat le t, and students crowd the Zébulon Goriely [email protected] - Hannah Kossowska-Peck (Chief); Alex Parnham-Cope, Hania upper deck. I ask her what life was like Bar, Poppy Kemp, Beth Noble, ea Trollope-Metcalfe, Esmee Wright, Georgia before, in the brief interval between her Burns, Pia Engelbrecht-Bogdanov, Ruth Moss, Aimee Wragg, Daniel Maghsoudi arrival in the Netherlands and the Nazi ◀▲ Eva Schloss, & Edwin Bahrami Balani [email protected] Sarika Datta [email protected] invasion. As someone with Dutch Jewish step-daughter to Alisa Santikarn [email protected] origins, I’m keen to gain an understand- Otto Frank, was Edwin Bahrami Balani [email protected] ing of what life was like before the war. born in 1929 in Caitlin Smith [email protected] Noella Chye, Rosie Bradbury, Merlyn omas & Devarshi She fondly recalls playing on the swings Vienna, Austria Lodhia [email protected] with Anne Frank, and the weekly mar- to a Jewish Dr Michael Franklin (Chairman), Prof Peter Robinson, Dr Tim kets at the Jordaan, a once working-class family. Harris, Michael Derringer, Caitlin Smith, Noella Chye, Louis Ashworth, Anna Menin, Daniel Gayne, Ellie Howcro t neighbourhood now known for its art THE CAMBRIDGE
© VARSITY PUBLICATIONS LTD, . All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be galleries and hip eateries. She recalls the UNION reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior permission of the publisher. Dutch as friendly, but then as the war Varsity, 16 Mill Lane, Cambridge CB2 1RX. Telephone 01223 337575. went on it became increasingly di cult Varsity is published by Varsity Publications Ltd. Varsity Publications also publishes e Mays. to know. Her family was ultimately be- Printed at Ili e Print Cambridge – Winship Road, Milton, Cambridge CB24 6PP on 42.5gsm newsprint. Registered as a newspaper at the Post O ce. ISSN 1758-4442. trayed by a nurse, posing as a resistance Friday 22nd February 2019 3 News
hat’s why people can never get…what it Britons does not believe the Holocaust was really like.” took place and many more believe that She says she herself, even after so the numbers have been inlated, or that many years, cannot understand how Jews ‘exploit’ the Holocaust for politi- young, educated people could be com- cal gain. Prejudice is always diicult to plicit in the camp system. “he com- disentangle, but it is not unreasonable mander of the camp had his family there; to suggest that this has a hand in ris- on Sunday morning he went with his ing levels of antisemitism, with violent children to church, and in the afternoon antisemitic assaults having risen by 34% he came back and looked over the chil- in the last year alone. dren on the transports…and sent them In Alan Bennett’s play he History Boys to the gas chambers. How can a human the teacher Irwin, who believes in play- being do that? his is really something ing fast and loose with the truth in the we still can’t comprehend.” pursuit of Oxbridge admissions success, What can students do to keep the sets his students to ponder whether the memory ,and the understanding of the Holocaust can be written about like any Holocaust alive? Schloss stresses that other historical event. “Of course,” says we can and should still invite survivors one “it has causes, consequences…just like her to talk, “as long as they’re still like the Dissolution of the Monasteries”. around – which won’t be very long”. But one pupil objects: in an outburst he Technology has also ofered a solution - declares “but the diference is that you in 2017, a project for the Sternberg Centre didn’t have family who died in the Dis- in California asked Schloss and other solution of the Monasteries”. Irwin later survivors thousands of questions, and apologises – “the Holocaust isn’t just an- used hundreds of cameras to record other topic of history” he says – “yet”. their responses and build up a holo- As a history student and descendent gram display. Visitors to various partner of Holocaust survivors I think back to that exhibitions around the globe can ask scene a lot: as time passes, it seems impos- questions into a microphone and have sible to stop events being regularised, lat- them answered by 3D renditions of each tened as the mere consequence of causes survivor. For all its technical brilliance and cause of consequences. he people however, Schloss stresses that the ex- who lived and died, sufered and struggled, hibit is “not the same as if a real person become obscured by distance. tells you the story”. But the horrors that Schloss describes She is also keen to emphasise that don’t bear forgetting: to admit defeat it is not a substitute for actual history here would be to open the door to them lessons: she now has to return to the being seen as banal – or worse, to igno- US to record a 25-minute talk on her rance and denial. In an age of mounting story and the Holocaust for those who antisemitism and general prejudice, this do not even know what the latter is – is the last thing that is needed. And if “if you don’t even know, what can you we are to prevent the Holocaust becom- ask?” As shocking as this is, wide-scale ing ‘just another historical topic’, it will ignorance of the Holocaust is not un- be because of the actions of people like member: “she betrayed not just us, but She grimaces, and I can see why: as common; left untended, it often leaves Eva Schloss, who more than anyone de- many, many people”. After the war, she much as the camps were witness to far people vulnerable to distortion of the served as quiet life but who made the was put on trial: she received only four more stomach-churning horrors, there is facts and even denial. An Opinion Mat- decision to speak out – not for their sake, years imprisonment. something visceral about this act – per- ters poll last month revealed that 1 in 20 but for ours. his igure was shocking to me; later, haps a reminder of the basic capacity of researching the postwar Netherlands, it humans for unnecessary cruelty. made more sense. In the wake of the war, he place of the Kapos in European the Dutch, keen to preserve national uni- historical memory has been similarly ty in the face of economic devastation fraught. Primo Levi, perhaps the most and decolonisation, preferred to stick to famous Holocaust survivor to publish the myth of a country free of collabora- his experiences, wrote that one of the tors united in resistance to the Nazis. key facets of Nazi practice was turning his is a story that has unfortunately some victims into accomplices. he bi- made itself known repeatedly across nary thinking of victim and perpetra- Europe: from Marine Le Pen’s denial of tor was diicult to apply in the camps, the French role in the Holocaust, to Po- which were simply so far removed from land’s criminalisation of the mention of human decency. he Kapos inhabited the Polish collaborators, to the German AfD’s ‘Grey Zone’ between the two, and were attack on Berlin’s Holocaust memorial as diicult to judge as a result. a ‘monument of shame’. More than any Many, such as Polish writer Tadeusz of those interred in the camps, it seems ❝ Borowski, sufered intense guilt after many believe the primary victims of the For decades, the war. Yet Borowski himself believed Holocaust to be their national pride. this guilt was rightfully sufered, and in I ask Schloss her view on the collabo- Schloss his Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen rators she faced in the camps: do they published a collection whose description have a moral question to answer for? refused of gratuitous camp violence is diicult “Yes, deinitely”. In Auschwitz, she re- to tell her to read, and was indeed poorly received counts having more contact with the Ka- by Poland’s postwar Communist govern- pos (non-Jewish camp prisoners, mostly story: like ment, who wanted a clear tale of good- political prisoners and criminals from all many and-evil. he question of those forced over Europe) who maintained the day-to- to collaborate with the Nazis remains day activities of the camp, than with the survivors, it a moral mineield, but as Schloss’ testi- Nazis themselves. “hey would mistreat mony shows, it is one we must engage you…instead of keeping them in prisons was simply with if we are to even come close to un- they [the Nazis] put them there to do a too painful derstanding the practices which allowed job, and they were obviously enjoying the Holocaust to take place. what they were doing”. She recounts ❞ Schloss continues to narrate the trau- how the Kapos would have a stove they mas she faced: “the illnesses, and the used to cook potatoes: “the smell already starvation, and the lice…” It is simply made us wild from hunger”. Occasion- unimaginable, even for somebody who ally, the Jewish inmates would be given has grown up surrounded by stories of the water used to cook potatoes; to the the camps. I ask her whether we can inmates on starvation rations, even this possibly seek to convey the horrors of was “wonderful”. Often, however, “they the camps to generations that have not called you and you came; and then in experienced them. “Well, you can just front of your noses they threw it down tell your story. When you tell it, it sounds and didn’t give it to you. You know, extra bad but when you live it” – she pauses cruelty” she says. – “it is still something…quite diferent. 4 Friday 22nd February 2019 News
Comic tim- ing: Cam- bridge’s student cartoonists
▶ Following this week’s youth climate strikes, Lara Erritt looks at protests from the White House
▶ Chloe Marschner’s ‘Scambridge’ on Cambridge and its insurmountable reading Friday 22nd February 2019 5 News
SUN SETS ON SUNDIALS THE MAD HATTER Clock running out on Fashionista’s sundial science fabulous legacy
Dr Frank King, a self-confessed “time An extravagant hat designed by the enthusiast”, fears that sundials are go- author of the world’s irst “fashion bi- ing out of fashion. he 76-year-old chair ble” has been recreated by Cambridge of the British Sundial Society lamented University. he ostrich-feather headress that “sundials are old hat”, describing was made in 1521 for German account- his struggle to ind people who share ant/fashion-icon Matthaus Schwarz, his love of the timepiece, which to him and took six months to recreate. he represents “the perfect collaboration of 1-metre-wide hat features 32 ostrich science and art”. Dr King has designed feathers and was created for Schwarz’s sundials across the UK, including for irst meeting with the Archduke of Aus- Selwyn and Pembroke colleges, and as tria. Over his lifetime, Schwarz commis- “Keeper of the Clock” is responsible for sioned 137 portraits of himself in his looking after the university’s oicial designs, which were then compiled into clock on Great St Mary’s Church. the Schwarz Book of Clothes.
DELAYED DEBUT LOOP-DE-LOVE Cambridge lecturer Mystery pilot inishes to-do Liszt charms Cambridge
David Trippett, Senior Lecturer at his Valentine’s Day, a mystery pilot the Faculty of Music, has completed captured the hearts of Cambridge a three-year project deciphering a by drawing love hearts across the 115-page uninished Liszt manuscript, blue sky. he hearts could be seen for which can now be performed. Liszt miles and appeared seemingly “out began work on the piece in 1845, of the blue”, hovering somewhere but abandoned it before completion. above Newmarket Road. As well as Until recently, this material was several hearts, the mysterious artist viewed as indecipherable, but Trippett drew a smiley face. he identity of spent months decoding it, resulting the pilot remains unknown, but they in the 170-year-late completion of undoubtedly brightened the day of Sardanapalo, Liszt’s only mature opera. numerous Cambridge students.
(HMC; 780 boys Boarding and Day; 13-18) GRADUATE ASSISTANT Tonbridge School is one of the leading boys’ boarding schools in the country and highly respected internationally. The school aims to provide a caring and enlightening environment in which talents of each individual lourish. Our Graduate Assistant programme is in its ifth year and we are proud to say that year-on-year the programme has gone from strength to strength. These roles are offered annually on a ixed one-year basis to recent university graduates. The programme is designed to give our resident Graduate Assistant an all-encompassing experience of school life working in an independent school. • Share your passion for your subject with enthusiastic, bright pupils • Regular meetings with subject mentor who is an outstanding practitioner • Continuous professional development • Wide range of sporting and extra-curricular opportunities • Pastoral responsibility This is an ideal opportunity to assess whether a career in teaching is right for you. Salary: £21,500 and accommodation is provided Closing Date: 25th February Interviews: week beginning 4th March The application form and job description can be found at: https://www.tonbridge-school.co.uk/about/employment-opportunities Completed applications to: Headmaster, Tonbridge School, High Street, Tonbridge, Kent TN9 1JP 01732 365555 • [email protected]
Tonbridge School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, and applicants must be willing to undergo child protection
screening appropriate to the post, including checks with past employers and the Disclosure & Barring Service. 18/GA/TPB 6 Friday 22nd February 2019
News Gender pay data King’s College Council decides against student proposal to ly transgender lag
Chloe Bayliss Talking to Varsity, the vice-president be to ly the LGBT+ lag”. Senior News Correspondent of the KCSU, who sits in on the council, In a statement to Varsity, the KCSU outlined the reasons the motion was re- LGBT+ oicer said: “King’s is meant to In a meeting on Tuesday, the King’s jected. She said that after the lying of the be an open, inclusive space and this vote College Council unanimously decided EU lag, the college were reportedly con- just shows that what goes on behind the against a motion proposed jointly by cerned with the ‘proliferation of lags’ scenes is very diferent from the shiny the King’s College Student Union (KCSU) being lown at King’s. here was also exterior that is sometimes promoted.” Vice President and LGBT+ oicer to ly speculation that the lag was not ‘oicial’ “I’d like to make clear that the Coun- the trans lag at the end of LGBT history enough to be lown, as there have been cil’s decision does not represent the month on the 28th February. diferent variations of the trans lag. entire student body and that any trans he motion was presented to the he college was also worried that the or non-binary student who is either King’s College Council, a group of col- motion was ‘reactive’ against recent an- already here or thinking about apply- lege fellows and members of college who ti-transgender protests around King’s, ing should know that KCSU is actively manage the daily business of the college including one protestor who frequently lying than another.” ▲ King’s College putting all our power into solving this and report to the King’s Governing Body. protests on King’s Parade holding ban- hough the college did not agree to Council decided issue”, he added. he motion stated that the transgender ners referencing biological sex. Accord- ly the trans lag, Michael Proctor, prov- not to ly the One anonymous student at King’s told lag should be lown by the college above ing to the vice-president, the council did ost of King’s College, sent an internal trans lag above Varsity: “I’m glad they took our concerns the Gibb’s building to “raise awareness not want to take part in action that could statement of solidarity to the members the Gibb’s on board but the reasons they gave for of this [the transgender] section of the potentially provoke those protesting. of the college, which was also sent to building lying the LGBT lag instead (eg. that the LGBT community, often one that is over- In response to the decision at the Varsity in response to a request for com- (LOUIS ASHWORTH) LGBT lag was ‘widely recognized and looked or less well recognized in soci- meeting, she said, “it was frustrating as ment. It stated: “he College has a liberal accepted’) are also true of the trans lag, ety”. It also stated that as King’s College they were saying it was too political to and inclusive philosophy and believes so it feels like a giant cop out to refuse to over the past few months has been the ly the trans lag. For us it was a symbol fully in the rights of all minorities to re- support trans people speciically.” “target of anti-LGBT and transgender of solidarity, not a political statement. ceive respect from others and the right to However, despite the backlash against protestors”, it would “send a powerful We were looking beyond politics to a live without interference. It strongly de- the council’s decision, it has prompted message that King’s is looking forward ❝ make a statement that said everyone plores any manifestations of disrespect a discussion about the use of symbols to the future of society in support of all It [the flag] was accepted.” or prejudice from whatever quarter.” within the college. Another student told people in equality. Relating this motion to the one passed hough the council rejected the pro- Varsity that “although the anti-trans ’he University has a large LGBT places a to ly the EU lag, she said: “If the college posal to ly the transgender lag, the protests are discriminatory and unac- population to this day all of whom are spotlight on were worried about making a political statement did say that “’the LGBT+ lag ceptable, the college has become a bit deserving of a sign of recognition and a statement, then why would they ly the [is] to be lown on 28 February.” In an “lag-happy” recently.” reiteration of acceptance… It [the lag] a particular EU lag? he EU is an oicial, political email, the provost said that there was “Many people, myself included, places a spotlight on a particular LGBT LGBT com- body, whereas this would simply have “no formal vote at the meeting” but would not recognise this lag and I’m community that has experienced har- been an open statement of solidarity. rather “it was agreed that the more ap- unsure whether prioritising bits of cloth assment and marginalization through munity It’s disappointing that one cause was propriate way of demonstrating the Col- over concrete action is the best way to history.” ❞ deemed more worth of a symbolic lag lege’s support for Trans students would address the issue.” Caius graduate student pushes for family-friendly changes in College
hibited from Second Hall, ofered every wards being more “inclusive” and wel- in hall. Mitko emphasised that “everyone Continued from Front Page evening at 7:20pm. coming to student parents. he dining ❝ would beneit from making [the] College Mitko is thus is looking to implement policy she wishes to implement does a more friendly, modern and inclusive contribute to making positive change baby changing units in both female and not cover Superhalls, which is the formal [Student place”. within the University. male restrooms across Caius, as some hall equivalent at Caius, saying that she parents are] Despite these challenges outlined by Speaking to Varsity about her eforts other colleges, such as Hughes Hall, understands these are “more solemn and Mitko, Caius is one of only six colleges to to improve the provision of family fa- have already done. She is also seeking adult events”. an under- ofer accommodation to families. cilities within the University and its to change Caius’ dining policy to give However, Mitko emphasises that represented After receiving unanimous support constituent colleges, she believes that student parents the opportunity to eat “normal [Second] hall is just a hall” and from the College’s MCR and widespread with the variation in available facili- in Second Hall. she wants to be “present” and give her minor- support from the JCR, she is meeting ties across the colleges, Cambridge is Although Mitko understands that this family “the chance to have this expe- ity within with Caius’ Master, Dr. Pippa Rogerson, in some sense “a lottery” for student may be “more controversial” than the rience”. She argues that there is “great Cambridge in hopes of encouraging the College to parents’ experiences in the University. implementation of baby changing units, room for all sorts of compromise”. For work with her on the issue. Mitko believes that Cambridge is and notes that “not all people would, instance, the policy can be limited to a ❞ Rogerson conirmed to Varsity that more inclusive for student parents for various reasons, enjoy babies and gallery in Caius’ Hall if necessary. they will “discuss child friendliness is- on a University level, with the Child- children in hall”. She believes this will not just beneit sues further”. care Oice providing information, and However, she sees the current ap- people with young children, as many She has also spoken to the Graduate three workplace nurseries. However, proach as “completely disregard[ing]” other students who have mature fami- Union on the issue, hoping this change on a college level, she believes that student parents when children “are al- lies in Cambridge are similarly unable can be implemented across all colleges. there needs to be more “awareness lowed in pubs in the UK, not to mention to bring them to Hall due to Caius’ din- She sees it as a great opportunity for chil- and change”. [a number of] other places”. ing policy. dren to be “at the forefront of a positive Currently, there are no baby-chang- She is therefore hoping to work with Similarly, this issue afects under- change”, and she is “very hopeful” that ing units or high chairs in her college, the College to make a “compromise” on graduates, many of whom have younger her own College, which she “loves”, will while children and babies are also pro- the situation, encouraging a move to- siblings who are prohibited from dining be leading the change. F 22 F 2019 7 News
“ e Accommodation Service has now agreed to put this forward to the private housing providers who advertise with A ordable them”, he con rmed. housing: ‘a basic right for every student’ ▲ A Graduate Union reports centres around the importance of “decent and a ordable housing” for argues GU graduate students EDWIN BAHRAMI BALANI
the interval spent searching for private Continued from Front Page housing. Upfront rental fees and the ADVERTISE necessary costs of establishing a home in the UK since 2012-13. It speci cally privately are also oten not covered by points to Girton College’s Swirles Court, funding bodies. which o ers only en-suite rooms. e Furthermore, the GU report argues 325 rooms, purpose built for graduate that international students may not WITH US. students, were the rst completed stage “have the cultural understanding of rent- of Cambridge’s £350m Eddington suburb ing in the UK to be able to make safe To advertise in any of our print publications or in North West Cambridge. decisions about where to live”, and may 16 Colleges told the GU that they pre- be deterred by “horror stories of student online, please contact our Business Manager: dicted an increasing demand for self- exploitation”. contained studio ats over the next ve A spokesperson for the O ce of Inter- to ten years, while eight Colleges believed collegiate Services, the body responsible tel : 01223 33 75 75 demand would remain the same. for providing support to the University’s email: [email protected] e report highlights research under- 31 constituent colleges, said they “wel- web: varsitypublications.co.uk taken by the Cambridge Centre for Hous- come the concerns raised in this report, ing & Planning Research, who predicted ❝ and welcome the Graduate Union’s input that 8,959 student rooms will need to be into how they could be addressed”. built by 2026, to support Cambridge’s [Housing ey added that “the nancial chal- , current planning framework – which “ is needed] lenges of university life are well known” envisages an expansion in postgradu- and noted that colleges are “continu- Looking for paid work in ate numbers of 2% per year in the next in de ned ally” seeking ways to support students ten years”. areas that in making the right decisions for them- e GU also identi ed “the general selves, including “providing clearer in- Cambridge this summer? need for additional purpose-built accom- are within formation on accommodation costs”. modation services [...] in de ned areas walking e GU stated that they are “moti- that are within walking or cycling dis- vated to work towards helping create tance of teaching facilities”. or cycling meaningful change on postgraduate Cambridge Student Assistants e report argued that new housing distance of housing in the Collegiate University, An opportunity to work for the University’s “should be tied to the University, through teaching and campaign for the provision of af- either a long-term lease or long-term fordable and accessible housing for the world-renowned International Summer Programmes. nomination agreement, much like the facilities postgraduate students in the University Rewarding customer-facing work assisting academics Lodge Property Services were asked to ❞ of Cambridge”. ey stressed that “af- manage all properties at Eddington and fordable and decent housing must be a and adult students from over 60 countries. are part of the University Accommoda- basic right for every student”. tion Service”. Mrittunjoy Guha Majumdar, Vice- e GU recently asked colleges about President of the Cambridge University • 5 - 7 weeks’ employment, starting 2 July 2019 their plans for expanding postgraduate Graduate Union, said he is working accommodation over the next ve to closely with the Accommodation Servic- • Includes four days of training ten years, and found “highly mixed” re- es to nd ways to tackle this problem. He • 36.5 hour working week on a rota basis sponses. Murray Edwards is planning a said that they were actively looking into 20% expansion and Lucy Cavendish 10%, ways of encouraging colleges to to make • Free single-room College accommodation but 15 colleges are planning less than housing charges clear possibly even be- 2% expansion, and ve colleges are not fore the student accepts an o er from • Up to four free College dinners each week planning any expansion at all. their college. He added that they were • Valuable transferable skills to enhance your CV Private options can sometimes be “actively looking into ways of helping much cheaper than college accommo- students with private accommodation” dation, but postgraduate students, ac- by making available facilities such as an For details, including how to apply, email: cording to the GU, tend to “rely more online platform hosted by the GU, which on the latter than the former” due to a “shall help bring potential housemates [email protected] (closing date 25 February) host of problems. together”. For one, o ers are oten received late He added that they were “seeking a in the year, when much private accom- phased deposit scheme from private pro- modation has already been let, and so viders who advertise with the University “the easiest option is the most attractive Accommodation Centre to distribute the for the students”. Hotel accommodation deposit for a room over three months may also be too expensive to rent in instead of having it upfront.” 8 Friday 22nd February 2019 NewsFEATURES Digital mentors he rise of online tutoring among Cambridge students
I felt like I could ask anything, because Oliver Rhodes of the time pressure: one hour meant Deputy News Editor one hour”, they said. By contrast, their home tutor, a Figures from MyTutor, the largest online former university lecturer, “just did it tutoring platform in the UK, indicate that in his house – it was like a supervision over 500 Cambridge students currently and got very conversational at times. use the platform to earn extra income, I got the chance to ask a lot of ques- of a total of 8500 students drawn from tions.” 25 British universities. Online tutoring is becoming a wider Despite this, the University’s guidance part of students’ eforts to access higher on inancial support states that “students education. “It’s surprising how much it should not work during term-time – it’s often comes from the kids [rather] than important that you have an appropriate from the parents”, argues Daniel, who work-life balance, and we ofer a wide described a “massive range” of back- range of inancial support to ensure you grounds among his clientele. “I’d assume don’t have to.” that parents from wealthy backgrounds Figures from the Sutton Trust further would want someone facwwwe-to-face, indicate that around a quarter of high- because as far as tutoring goes, my tutor- school students received some form of ing is cheap as hell.” private tuition in 2018, of which a rising While MyTutor does not hold data on proportion is online tutoring. the demographics of its users, Grant told Varsity reached out to Cambridge stu- Varsity that the removal of geographi- dents to gauge their experiences with on- cal barriers to tuition has ultimately line tutoring, both as tutors and tutees. increased the supply of tutors and “de- Ofering cheaper rates to tutees, My- mocratised learning”. Over 300 schools Tutor is the most popular online tutor- use MyTutor to complement classroom ing platform in the UK, catering to the teaching, constituting around 45% of the wider demand for tuition for UK-based company’s business. “If you think about qualiications. schools, especially outside major cities, Daniel Mayers, a second-year Geog- they’re not going to be able to provide rapher at Downing, has been teaching one-to-one support for a physics class on A-level Geography and a range of GCSE a Wednesday afternoon”, Grant said. “By subjects on MyTutor since early 2018. moving tuition online, we’re accessing He tutors primarily because it provides ❝ cheaper service for tutees: “I see it as ▲ Much of student, who wished to remain anony- the most deprived schools where they’re a lexible source of income during term. an important part of making education the tutoring mous, used both a home tutor and a free- less likely to ind the expertise.” For GCSE-level tuition, which constitutes I basically more accessible.” undertaken lance online tutor to assist in prepara- he social enterprise Project Access around 60% of the platform’s demand, just used “hese students are sharing expertise by Cambridge tions for the Sixth Term Examination uses online tutoring to help students Daniel began by charging £18 per ses- which is there for just a few years, be- students takes Papers (STEP), which must be sat as part from disadvantaged backgrounds access sion, of which he received £10 after my IB notes cause most people don’t want to become place via online of a conditional ofer to study Maths at top-tier institutions. Unlike commercial platform deductions. Tutors price their teachers necessarily”, he said, arguing platforms (OlIvEr Cambridge. platforms, Project Access is free for pro- lessons according to bands, and can raise ❞ that while “earning some money on the rHODES) hey paid their home tutor £30 per spective students to use. their prices after acquiring suicient ex- side can be really useful to pay main- two-hour session, and their online tutor Kyra Chong, a second-year lawyer at perience. tenance costs, a lot of our tutors do it £70 per one-hour session. “When you’re Corpus Christi and the organisation’s co- he minimum rate of hourly earnings because they like helping people.” at school, since you’re with a wide range ordinator at Cambridge, told Varsity that of online tutoring is therefore higher than When asked to evaluate the quality of of abilities, it’s hard for teachers to tutor Project Access arranges “mentors” for that of most other forms of work avail- their provision, the students contacted you individually, but what I was hoping prospective students, who ofer monthly able to students. Wages at college bars by Varsity were sceptical about their with online tutoring was that I could one-to-one sessions on the admissions vary between colleges, with Downing performance. “Sometimes people think have someone going at my pace”, they process, interview preparation, and paying £8.50 per hour while Emmanuel they’re going to, you know, ‘make a dif- said. “helping them get to know the univer- ofer just £5.90 per hour. ference’, but with online tutoring you he online tutor, who had previously sity and their subject.” One student, who wished to remain just don’t have the same connection with been a lecturer at lSE before establishing Kyra had previously tutored students anonymous earned £30 an hour tutoring the person you’re tutoring”, Daniel said. their own tutoring website, “taught eve- from international schools in lebanon, the International Baccalaureate on Elite “If it was someone you were teaching ryone in the same way – we all did the India and Switzerland on Elite IB. “You IB. heir clients, who were mostly inter- face-to-face, you’d have much more of same questions and she had the same have a much more personal attachment national students, paid between £40 and a desire to see them do well.” notes for all of us.” Sessions were con- to your tutee because there’s not that £45 for each session. “I have no intention While Elite IB states on its website ducted as group video calls with other commercial element – you’re just ofer- of becoming a teacher – but it pays well”, that “we expect every tutor who ap- students. “I never got to the point where ing them your free time.” they told Varsity. proaches us to have extensive tutoring he platform selects tutors on the ba- experience and outstanding testimonies sis of academic credentials and a video from former students,” the student did interview. “If you’re at Cambridge they not have any teaching experience before By the numbers: Cambridge students basically give you a place on the plat- applying and has no intention of becom- form”, they said, adding that mentioning ing a teacher. “We would go through past and tutoring agencies their institution in introductory mes- paper questions and anything they were How much one student sages helped them gain clients. confused about in class,” they said. “I MyTutor reported being paid per A University spokesperson stated basically just used my IB notes.” is one of hour on EliteIB that “no one should feel compelled to Marius Sheldon, Growth Manager at the largest take extra work on because of inancial MyTutor, told Varsity that as a “market- £30 diiculties. he University runs its own place business”, MyTutor uses a consum- platforms mentoring schemes as part of its widen- er-led review service which has “very used by ing participation and outreach activities direct implications for the tutor to do Cambridge 500 and many students are actively involved work in the future.” Of 92,520 tutor re- students £11 in these.” views on the MyTutor website, 89,408 he minimum hourly According to the Co-Founder of My- (97%) were rated ‘5 stars’. looking for he number of take-home pay for Tutor, James Grant, by mitigating travel Varsity also got in touch with irst- etra term- Cambridge students an A-level session on costs and increasing the pool of tutors, years who had used online tutoring be- time income estimated to be active MyTutor online tutoring also provides a much fore arriving at Cambridge. One maths on MyTutor At TTP, we aren’t interested in bureaucratic process or monotonous meetings. We’re a science and engineering consultancy interested in great ideas with real-world impact. Get in touch to start your career today. ttp.com/careers
The space to create
The Tech o o art ersh p 10 Friday 22nd February 2019 NewsFEATURES Hacks assemble CUSU elections set to commence next week
this term are the Education, Access and dum. Katy Bennett Funding, Welfare and Rights, Women’s It remains to be seen what poli- Senior News Correspondent and Disabled Students’ Oicers. Each of cies and issues will be relected in this these roles targets diferent aspects of year’s competition. Last year, Aspinall With less than a week until campaigning the student experience at Cambridge, was brought to victory on a platform of oicially begins, the race is on for aspir- from pre-admissions access, to pastoral student engagement, promising to make ing student politicians and future BNOCs and academic support, along with issues CUSU more accessible for the majority to assemble their campaigns and psych speciic to self-identifying women, non- of students. Election platforms this year out the competition. binary and disabled students. may serve as a verdict on the current Nominations for candidates opened hree positions were uncontested last CUSU sabbatical team’s success in keep- on Wednesday morning, and will close year: Women's oicer, Disabled Students' ing their campaign promises. at 12pm next Tuesday, with oicial cam- Oicer and Education Oicer. hese posi- In additional to the sabbatical team, paigning beginning on hursday 28th of tions are currently held by Claire Sosien- there are also four part-time roles up for February. From next hursday, candi- ski Smith, Emrys Travis and Matt Kite election: the two Ethical Afairs Oicers, dates have just over a week to persuade respectively. Although these people were the Graduate Union President, and the the student body to vote for them, with the sole candidates for their respective University Councillor, which do not re- voting taking place between Tuesday positions, voters had the opportunity quire taking a year out of your studies. 5th March and Friday 8th March. he to vote to re-open nominations (RON) if Last year saw no nominations for the provisional results will be announced they did not support the only candidate roles of Ethical Afairs oicers, so a by- within two hours of the vote closing, in the running. election was held later in the term. with the oicial results coming at 10am In addition to directing academic pro- All of the sabbatical oicers receive on Monday 11th March. vision and strategy, the Education Oicer a full-time salary and are expected to Student Union elections are notori- also serves as Vice-President of CUSU. devote the year exclusively to their role, ously fast-paced and tension-illed, and One of the Women’s Oicers main re- beginning in July. he Welfare and Rights this year looks to be no diferent. How- ▲ Campaigning run-of despite Wei winning the most sponsibilities is heading the CUSU Wom- role is unusual in requiring students to ever, among the broader student body, at Sidgwick site irst preference votes and leading in polls en’s Campaign (WomCam) and provid- be in at least the third year of an under- engagement with CUSU elections has during the 2016 prior to the election. In one of the other ing training for college women’s oicers, graduate degree before applying – most historically been low. Last year’s CUSU CUSU election two contested elections, Shadab Ahmed while the Welfare role is shared between of the roles are open to second-year stu- elections saw a 20.9% turnout, with cycle (LOUIS won by just over 100 votes to become CUSU and the Graduate Union (GU) and dents who can take a year out before 4,713 votes cast – a fall from the previous ASHWORTH) Access and Funding Oicer. forms part of the GU Executive. completing their inal year. year’s record turnout of 22.5%, in which As the principle representative of he position of Disabled Students’ Of- Hustings will take place at 6pm on 4,967 students voted. CUSU, the President leads the sabbati- icer, which is currently held by Emrys Friday 1st March and ofer the candidates Students should expect a tight race: cal team, and is expected to oversee the Travis, involves leading the CUSU Disa- a chance to battle it out face-to-face, in last year, current CUSU President Evie long-term, strategic development of bled Students Campaign, and aims to front of the students they are hoping Aspinall triumphed over Siyang Wei and CUSU, and represent Cambridge students advance the accessibility of Cambridge to represent. With voting opening (and Connor Macdonald to claim the presi- both within and outside the University. for disabled students. he position was closing) in less than two weeks, the race dency, winning in the second-round he other sabbatical roles up for election introduced in 2016 following a referen- is on.
ANALYSIS Is CUSU more democratic and engaging?
building of Aspinall’s work with ‘Pres- passed at CUSU Council and encourag- Council attendance is not in the hun- Kiran Khanom Con’ meetings with college JCR presi- ing representatives to properly consult dreds, these are undoubtedly reaching Senior News Editor dents, will seek to address. However, their constituents for decisions made much higher numbers of students than Aspinall’s policy for this was criticised at Council. previously. During her campaign for CUSU President by another candidate who last year ran Engagement How feasible is changing CUSU’s en- last year, Evie Aspinall cited CUSU vis- for CUSU President with experience as a Aspinall told Varsity that “engagement gagement? ibility and engagement as a key policy JCR president, Connor MacDonald, who with CUSU Council has deinitely im- Engagement is something that CUSU area. She criticised CUSU as a “bubble” said that working groups would be more proved. Attendance has increased and Presidents have sought to remedy for and positioned herself as an outsider efective. the feedback we’ve received from Coun- years, with previous Presidents Amatey who understood students’ disillusion- Last year, Aspinall criticised the cil members has been positive.” Doku and Daisy Eyre running on similar ment with CUSU. length and bureaucratic nature of CUSU Beyond this what extent has CUSU’s policies. To what extent should CUSU fo- With CUSU elections around the corner, Council. However, at the Council where engagement with the wider student cus on ‘engagement’, when it seems al- it is worth examining changes in engage- the motion was passed to devolve CUSU body improved? most inevitable that a large portion of the ment and representation within CUSU. Council, concerns were raised that de- Aspinall last year said that students student body will feel disengaged with its Devolution as representation volving the Council could increase the often do not know what CUSU is doing activity, perhaps due to the more acces- his week saw CUSU Council pass a mo- bureaucracy of the Council. Members for them, claiming that CUSU “need[s] sible and closer to home work of JCRs? tion to devolve its structure to two bod- were assured that motions could be to be in their face”, and promised to be Aspinall said to Varsity that “CUSU ies, a ‘College Forum’ and an ‘Academic brought to Council as they normally are, a “really visible” President. Council isn’t the whole picture”, com- Forum’. hese are designed to “directly without needing to go through these de- Aspinall has sought to remedy that menting that “we’ve shifted our focus on address the issues that [students] care volved bodies. through the introduction of ‘account- to supporting JCRs and MCRs more” which most about”. Furthermore, at the second CUSU ability videos’ on Facebook in January. may help to bridge this disconnect. CUSU’s motion to devolve cited a Council of term, Aspinall did describe his replaced previous practice when he devolution of council to ‘College survey of students which received 122 the move as an attempt to “best represent sabbatical oicers would provide up- Forum’ and ‘Academic Forum’ will be a responses, with 83% of respondents say- students” rather than necessarily increase dates on their work at the bi-weekly part of this – but the extra stages may ing that CUSU Council should focus on engagement with CUSU Council. CUSU Council, which tends not to be make CUSU feel even more bureau- academic issues, whilst 80% said that it Aspinall has also set up a ‘democracy attended by ordinary members of the cratic. should focus on college life issues. steering group’, comprising the CUSU student body who do not have a vote It will be interesting to see whether During her campaign, Aspinall said President, the chair of the elections com- at Council. any of this year’s candidates choose to that a key policy was increasing “CUSU’s mittee and the CUSU Council Chair. Its Aspinall’s videos have seen around ▲ Is CUSU more engaged with the centre their campaigns on the issue of engagement with JCRs and having reg- duties will include ensuring that sab- 500 to 800 views each. CUSU has a student population under Evie engagement or whether other issues will ular meetings”, which ‘College Forum’, batical oicers follow through on policy membership of 21,594, but considering Aspinall? (LOUIS ASHWORTH) take centre stage. FeaturesF 22 F 2019 11
Gaypiphanies & curry conversations
was confused and, frankly, terri ed. ▲ Illustration having realised that homosexuality is to guys just yet. Gian Hayer For the next few years, I kept this by Emily neither condemned nor dismissed in the But I knew that it had to happen even- to myself, strongly under the impres- Whittingham for Sikh religion that my parents had been tually, and there were so many possible re ects on coming sion that this was just a phase I would Varsity brought up with. scenarios that went through my head. grow out of. It wasn’t until just before I You would think that my brother My personal favourite involved me out as a gay turned 16 and I was two hours deep in coming out and my parents’ reassuring shouting out ‘By the way, I’m gay!’ from Indian man coming out videos on YouTube that the response would have made me feel re- the window of my new room as they dots started to properly connect, and I lieved, and so it should have. But in my walked back to the car a ter leaving me had my realisation. My ‘gaypiphany’, if naivety, I thought that my brother being at university. Alas, I decided on the curry couple of weeks before I turned you will. It stays with me as one of the gay only worsened my predicament. I conversation, a spontaneous decision I 18, I dragged my parents into most exhilarating and bewildering feel- didn’t want my parents to have to deal had made only hours before. the kitchen and nally told ings I have ever experienced. I remem- with being viewed as the family that had When I told my parents, yes, it was A them the big news: I wanted ber saying it aloud and then grabbing a raised two gay sons; two sons that would awkward, but they were accepting and to take all my friends out to this really notebook and writing down everything never be able to t the ‘Indian stereo- only slightly disheartened that I had nice Indian restaurant for my birthday. that was going through my head. type’. Looking back now, I realise how told so many people before them (in all ey loved the idea, proud of me for It was then that I decided to close the ❝ ridiculous this was, but my pessimism honesty, I do regret this). Before long, sticking to my roots. I decided to open notebook and hide it away. I didn’t feel I didn’t want wasn’t helped by the slightly stressful everything was back to normal, but I felt with that right before telling them that ready for anyone to know and I assumed my parents to process that ensued of my brother and so much happier knowing that I was no I was gay for a very good reason: there’s that I would be just ne if I didn’t tell my parents having to inform other close longer hiding an important part of my nothing better than a curry to butter up anyone for at least a few years. However, have to deal family members of the news. At the time, life from two of the people that I care an awkward conversation. But I’ll come having admitted that I was gay to myself with being I found the fact that they had to do this ❝ most about. back to that. My parents were born in only made me feel far more aware that I viewed as the to be quite dramatic, but now I can see Coming from an Indian family, I un- two small villages a few miles apart from was actively hiding something from the that I was completely missing the point. I felt an derstand how incredibly fortunate I am each other in the north of India. Like people around me. Around ve months family that My brother was one of rst people in my immense for the lack of adversity I have faced in many other Sikh Punjabi families in the later, it had gotten to the point where I had raised extended family to come out as gay, so amount of my coming out experience. is hit home sixties, my grandparents decided to pack just needed to talk to someone about it two gay sons; there wasn’t really a set way to go about when I returned to India with my family their suitcases and move to England for and I ended up con ding in a close friend the situation. In fact, his bravery to have pride being for the rst time in six years this past work and better opportunities for their over text. It was relieving to see how pos- ...that would these conversations so openly ended up able to come Christmas for a wedding. Visiting my children. Over 50 years later, my parents itively she reacted, but it didn’t suppress never be meaning that there would less confusion back to India dad’s village, I began to imagine how dif- are married and have three children, the my worries for how my other friends and able to t the and fewer raised eyebrows when it came ferent both mine and my brother’s lives youngest being myself. how my family would react. to me discussing my own sexuality. a ter homo- would have been if our grandparents As I grew up, sexual orientation was As it turns out, I would be able to wit- ‘Indian stere- A ter starting sixth form, I began sexuality was hadn’t moved to England half a century never something that was really brought ness my family’s reaction only days later, otype’ coming out to more of my friends, and legalised ago. ere is still so much progress to up in the household. at isn’t to say that when my older brother, aged 23 at the it wasn’t long before I told my brother be made to overcome the taboo that is my parents were actively trying to shield time, came out as gay to my parents. I ❞ and my sister. e more people I told, ❞ deeply instilled in the country’s cul- me from these kinds of conversations, was pleasantly surprised to see that they the more con dent I grew in myself, ture. at being said, I felt an immense but anything that strayed from the In- were supportive, and saddened by the and the less I worried about how my amount of pride being able to come back dian heteronormative ideals I was accus- fact that he has been dealing with such a family would react. I avoided telling my to India a ter homosexuality was legal- tomed to didn’t ever seem like a viable burden for so long. I speci cally remem- parents for a while, thinking that I prob- ised in September of last year: a moment option. So, when I was 12 and I started to ber my mum speaking to me later in the ably wouldn’t have told them if I was that made two integral parts of my iden- realise that I was thinking in ways that day about what had happened, and how seeing a girl, so there wasn’t any need tity feel closer than ever. perhaps didn’t conform to these ideals, I she felt more at ease with the situation for me to tell them that I was attracted 12 Friday 22nd February 2019
FeaturesFEATURES Diasporic afterlives
cacophony of festive Hong Kong streets ▲ Family desperate European merchants replacing the season. he irst things to disappear Jonathan Chan relects on for my Korean mother. he nexus of our reunions are African slaves with indentured laborers are red packets– none of us are married upbringings brought its own set of ex- substituted from China and India. As cultural theorist so there’s no reason for us to give out celebrating Lunar New Year pectations- new clothes, reunion dinners by dinners at Ien Ang writes, “Diasporas are transna- money. Spring cleaning (to sweep out with friends and family, an impetus to re- the Chinese tional, spatially and temporally sprawl- the bad luck) disappears under the nev- in Cambridge lect on the year that had just passed. restaurants that ing sociocultural formations of people, erending list of tasks that are set before While the Gregorian calendar pre- dot Regent Street creating imagined communities whose us. It may slip our minds as to whether he irst Lunar New Year I cel- vails as the global arbiter of measuring (SHEILA RUSSELL) blurred and luctuating boundaries are our debts have been paid of or if our ebrated in Cambridge crept years, the communities of the East Asian sustained by real and/or symbolic ties decorations have been hung. Certain up imperceptibly. I remember cultural sphere, a broad designation re- to some original “homeland”.” celebrations are a little more grandiose– Twhen I realised I had no idea ferring to people of Chinese, Korean, or I ind a familiar narrative in tracing gala dinners with drinks, gambling, and the new year was approaching. I was in Vietnamese descent, continue to adhere my paternal family’s history, the story lion dances. the dining hall when a friend from home symbolically to the lunisolar calendar. of my ancestors leeing from China and Others are more modest afairs. Big asked how I was spending it. I checked ❝ Based on the cycle of the moon, the cal- landing on the banks of the Klang River family reunions are substituted by group my phone and leapt at the date. It was In every endar governs holidays and the selection in Malaysia in 1880 where they built a dinners at the Chinese restaurants that new year’s eve. here were no aural or Lunar New of auspicious days for events such as hut and set up a home. dot Regent Street or the simultaneous physical markers around me to suggest weddings or funerals. he boundaries he passage of time has brought me hot pot dinners in the comfort of col- that anything celebratory was afoot. he Year there of the Lunar New Year shift every year and my cousins successively further lege kitchens. Our tongues tumble as we franticness of each day did not seem to is remem- and accompanyingly, the festivities held from some kind of ‘cultural core’ as try and remember the chengyu (a type abate. It was disconcerting to be remind- bering and in accordance with it. he peculiarity we’ve settled in Singapore or the United of traditional Chinese idiom) that are ed of my severance from the familiarity of my experience was not only one of States, with each Lunar New Year re- apt for the season. Embedded in these of home, an absence of the usual lashes forgetting, forgetting its approach, but also of for- vealing anxieties of what ought to be practices are the stories we tell to re- of red and promises of rest. imagining getting the customs accompanied it at ❝ preserved. A Singaporean upbringing assure ourselves of a sense of cultural Having grown up in Singapore, where and reimag- all. his experience is not particular to yields the practice of yusheng, the toss- belonging, an appeal to an idealisation the Chinese constitute an ethnic ma- me or other international students of I see a new ing of a salad in which each ingredient from which we have long found our- jority, the imminence of the new year’s ining what Chinese descent, but rather to entire gen- anxiety in bears some kind of symbolic importance selves separated. In every Lunar New festivities was always made apparent by it is to be erations of diaspora who have grown Cambridge relating to prosperity. A Christian up- Year there is remembering and forget- the gaudy red streamers that adorned ‘Chinese’ up beyond the bounds of the idealised bringing gives a religious inlection to ting, imagining and reimagining what shopping malls, the nasal trill of festive cultural home of ‘China’. as my the notion of ‘blessings’, one contingent it is to be ‘Chinese’. music in public spaces, the surreptitious ❞ A number of cataclysmic events re- friends and I less on materialistic aspiration but more he 5th of February 2019, a Tuesday, appearance of oranges and snacks in sulted in the supergenerational displace- try to make on gratitude toward material providence. was the irst day of the Lunar New Year. my family’s living room. he new year ments of the Chinese through the 19th Lunar New Year in Singapore becomes I FaceTimed my family. My mother wore brought two consecutive public holidays and 20th centuries. Civil wars, starva- sense of the a syncretic celebration, one conscious a red blouse and my brothers modelled in Singapore, in which there always re- tion, foreign invasions, and political cor- season of a broader multiethnic context and new shirts. My dad wandered into my mained the anticipation of having a long ruption galvanised emigration to work in ❞ a willingness to distinguish ourselves brother’s room and was pleasantly sur- stretch of days without school. While places such as the Americas, Australia, from China. prised to see me on his screen. hey were neither of my parents are from Singa- South Africa, Southeast Asia, and Zealan- here are drastic diferences in think- about to depart for an afternoon of vis- pore, they parents each experienced a dia. In Sons of the Yellow Emperor, Lynn ing through ‘Chineseness’ in terms of iting. I would soon leave for lectures. I variation of the Lunar New Year in the Pan writes that Chinese coolie emigra- Singaporean centrality and British mar- shut my laptop screen and let the silence contexts they grew up in- Chinese com- tion began after slavery was abolished ginality. I see a new anxiety in Cambridge settle, but not for too long. Cambridge munities in Malaysia for my father, the throughout the British possessions, with as my friends and I try to make sense of had its own festivities in store. F 22 F 2019 13
Features Escaping competitive anorexia
thoughts of food and food alone. It was winning because you are dying. is is Cordelia Sigurdsson on exhausting. Anorexia is a form of self- why it’s so hard to stop, because it feels harm, a re ection of a dissatisfaction in like anorexia has won. To surrender to the dangerous competitive yourself and in your external circum- it seems the easiest option. Don’t get me stances. Yet, perhaps one of the worst wrong; there’s a small part of you le t in element of eating disorders aspects of it is its competitive nature your brain that is desperately screaming which fuels this can’t stop, won’t stop for help. I used to run a lot when I was mind-set. Not eating, for that point most ill – miles and miles, without eat- Content note: is article contains detailed in your life, feels like winning. Why? ing anything – and sometimes I found discussion of anorexia and physical illness, Looking at it from an outsider’s perspec- myself wishing someone would jump along with recovery tive, surely hurting your body so much out of one of the passing cars, shake was trying to explain to a friend can only feel like losing. But it doesn’t. me and tell me to please, please stop. what it is like to be so tired, ill, With anorexia, at rst it’s a competi- It’s such a hard mind-set to understand weak and thin. He said – “But how tion with yourself – how much weight – you have to have lived it to really get Ido you even do that? How could can you lose, can you eat less food than it. Your body gives up on you – my hair you not be able to move and still not the day before, run further, burn more fell out, my white blood cell count was eat? Why didn’t you just stop?” is is calories? so low I probably wouldn’t have been a perfectly valid and very logical ques- en, it becomes a competition with able to ght o an infection, I didn’t tion. If you’ve been threatened with all the people who are concerned about have periods and my heart rate was hospital admission, if you’re so weak you. Looking them in the eyes and still very low. you cannot move – why wouldn’t you refusing to eat, no matter what they say, I was scarily skinny, but it still felt stop? somehow feels good – like a little win. like winning. Part of recovery then is e plain truth is that for some, you Finally, it becomes a competition with turning this idea around in your mind: can’t. When you starve yourself for over other people who su er with anorexia. to win is to beat anorexia, and live your a year, your brain becomes entirely con- A lot of anorexic people want to be the life. To lose is to allow it to win, and to sumed by thoughts of food: what you best – that’s why you keep going, keep kill you. will eat, what you won’t, when you next continuing not to eat and to over exer- You have to realise that no one can be will, who you’ll be eating with. You cise when really you desperately need to the best at anorexia – in truth, the person begin to develop all kinds of strange stop. e trouble is that there will always who is best at being anorexic is dead and food rules. For example, not eating a ter be someone who has been in hospital for buried in the ground. ey lost to ano- 7pm, no carbs in at least one meal a longer, had more out patient admissions. rexia a long time ago; they never beat day, or perhaps the strangest – I used is mind-set is disgustingly encouraged their demon. It takes an incredibly long to refuse to eat dinner unless it could by ‘Pro –Ana’ websites – which I urge amount of time to turn this around in t inside four leaves of lettuce. I was everyone never to visit. your head – but once you do, recovery is entirely obsessed. ere becomes a moment at some a sure, rocky, but straight path. ere was one point where I could list point in an eating disorder that you envy If you’ve been a ected by any of the content everything my best friends had eaten these very ill people, the people con ned of this article, B-eat Eating disorders pro- for lunch in a week. I knew the calories to a hospital bed being fed through a vides useful information and resources, as in everything. I couldn’t concentrate on tube in their arm well as a helpline at 0808 801 0677. anything because anorexia had become Sounds crazy right? Well, it is. You’re e Students’ Union Advice Service pro- my mind – it had taken over. not yourself. By this point your mind vides a more comprehensive list of support My mind raced constantly with is almost entirely anorexia. Anorexia is ▲ Illustration by Kate Towsey for Varsity resources. Setting aside Nietzsche for novels read without constantly checking the looking onto elds, reading comforts me. signi cance. e tales of footpaths over Lucy Fairweather discusses clock to check that I still had enough I’ve been transported to the South West 2000 years old makes even Cambridge time before I needed to start writing an Coast path, the moors of England and the seem young in comparison. A tour of how reading for pleasure essay. sunken holloways of Dorset. I’ve laughed, Britain makes me realise how small a Reading for pleasure felt almost alien, cried, and been made to look part of even a small island I exist helps her escape the taking my time, simply following from at things from a di erent in. Whilst it’s nor- page one until the end. I rediscovered angles. Whenever I want to mally good to feel Cambridge bubble the joy of following a narrative, of seeing get away from it all for a like you matter, something develop over time that wasn’t day, instead of wistfully sometimes it’s n my shelves normally is a a macroeconomic trend, or a historiog- looking at trains home, equally as use- row of folders, a row of library raphy. I had to almost reteach myself I open my latest book. ful to remem- books and a row of books I’ve ❝ to read every word, to not worry about Instead wasting hours ber that, in the Obrought up from home but Whenever what was coming next. on my phone before grand scheme that are relevant for my degree. At the Before, I thought I didn’t have enough nally going to sleep, of things, you moment, they feature excitingly-named I want to get time to read in Cambridge. When not I nd myself actually don’t. volumes such as English Social History away from doing academic work or the million and winding down. The full-on and e Keynesian Revolution in the it all for a one other things there are to occupy you Travel writing has nature of Cam- Making. But this term, I’ve added a few during term, it felt like I should be social- given me a sense of bridge can make more. Books that are in no way related day I open ising or simply catching up on sleep. I perspective. A sense it feel like you to history, or politics. I read a lot at Cam- my latest probably could have read one more thing of how small it is, don’t have the bridge. As an arts student, it’s obviously book to increase my bibliography, or started and how insigni - time for any- required and expected, and every week on some revision notes, but that time cant in the long run. thing as luxuri- sees me trudge to the library to get out ❞ probably would have just been spent e story written ous or wasteful more books that I will, at most, read only icking through Instagram or chatting by a lady, who was as reading for two or three chapters of. about nothing anyway. is term, I’ve made homeless pure pleasure. Reading the rst book completely un- made a conscious e ort to make the and informed of her But as the related to my degree in over a year dur- time to read and read things for pure husband’s terminal weeks roll ing the Christmas holidays made realise pleasure. My Cambridge bubble barely illness in the space by, it’s made that I’d almost forgotten how to read for extends beyond a twenty-minute walk- ▶ Reading for of a week, who me question pleasure. Forgotten how to read without ing radius, so escaping through the pages pleasure is then decided to how I was constantly skimming ahead, looking for of a book is much needed. So, it’s not easy to forget walk over 500 ever able to relevant words or information. Forgotten surprising that my choice of reading has in the rush of a miles, makes function how to read without making notes or been travel and nature writing. When I Cambridge term my weekly es- without checking references. Forgotten how to miss waking up to the sound of birds LAURA say crisis pale in it. 14 Friday 22nd February 2019
FeaturesFEATURES You graduated. Now what?
the Senate House loor. You collect your gym, working ovens in its of-site hos- Mark Robinson takes on the certiicate. *Poof * and it’s over. From tels, and music practice rooms where I graduand to graduate. Congrats! could plug in a guitar amp. Intellectual, dilemma that faces most Well, what now? A three-shot cock- amiright. Understand the diference be- tail immediately muddies your mental tween what you want, what it’s merely graduating students: Well, waters. You feel a hearty mix of relief, smart for you to want, and what you’re terror and joy. hese will be in varying being pushed towards by the wider cur- what now? proportions depending on the individ- rents of your life. hen consider all of ual. Practically speaking, most of you it. Look inwards, look backwards. Now t’s here. You’re clad in a fur-lined will now go home. Not Cambridge home, you’re better qualiied to think about cloak, probably choking on a bow home-home. what’s next. tie and wishing it was 5 degrees Others, by force or choice, will do oth- You’ll make poor choices at some Icooler outside. You don’t care. Be- er things. I spent my graduation evening junctions. I certainly did. It’s telling that cause in some strange sense many of us getting messed up with my best mate there used to be a pile of things I thought believe that this day will never come. and then couchsurfed until the start of I wanted the size of Mont Blanc. Now, hat graduating from Cambridge, that my residential job. Simply asking “what over half a year later, all that remains inishing with Cambridge, is something now?” is like going to King’s Bunker of that mountain is a respectable heap which other people go through, but not sober. Sure, you might ind a spiritual of granite. It takes reading your reading us. Not you. But it is today and every- awakening in that soundscape, but most list to igure out which arguments you thing’s happening at once. You haven’t likely it just shows that you have not like. Most of us don’t have that experi- inished packing. You need to say bye ❝ thought this through enough. he key ential base to fall back on. You might to your friends. You may need to keep All we can diference is that at least on a Bunker remember that a few short weeks ago an eye on your guests. And you’ll see really do night you have a chance of being able – when your penultimate term was nas- yourself six feet under the ground of to bum someone’s roll-up. cent rather than geriatric – I told you King’s chapel before you miss out on when we Historic You, a creature with worse that you’re about as qualiied to decide the last free champagne Cambridge will start to hike hair and less fortitude, was launched to what to do with the rest of your life right ever give you. along our this strange land of golden arches and now as a fresher is to write a Part ii dis- You process as a troupe from your emerald quads by A-levels or IB or some sertation. All we can really do when we college to the Senate House where you respective other qualiications. By an eye to the fu- start to hike along our respective paths line up in your ranks. You’re surround- paths is ture and enough uni-themed research to is pack well and keep an eye on our feet ed by people you lived with, laughed pack well trigger a psychological hernia. But re- for blisters. with, pretended you didn’t see in the call the other forces at play. he things You might have a vocation. Most of corridor and sought out at every oppor- and keep you did and didn’t do. hings you had us don’t, and that means a lot of lail- tunity. People you made and cancelled an eye on and have and never had. Probably the ing around trying to ind a cause which and saw through plans with. People you our feet for expectations of others. What brought will bring in a respectable income pack- love, loved, and people whose backs you me to King’s over other colleges wasn’t age and enough purpose to stave of the stroked as their head lolled from side- blisters the promise of a socialist revolution or existential malaise. Dwell on what has to-side in a Lola’s toilet bowl.You take ❞ even the largest fan-vaulted ceiling in and hasn’t tickled your fancy so far. After the praelector’s inger and parade across Europe. I chose King’s because it had a all, if you’re not destined to do just one thing, you get the pleasure of being able to change your mind and try something else. Get into Finance, buy yourself a bet- ter life, use your skills in a charitable organisation later on, etcetera. It’s a big ole world out there. Just keep an ear to the ground of your own wellbeing and pay attention to what is and isn’t work- ing. It’s not rash or childish to listen to your brain when it’s shouting at you to turn a strange corner. Keep some faith in your own ability to orienteer. I’d forgive you for thinking that this whole column has been an exercise in saying “everything will be okay” in as verbose a way as is humanly pos- sible. It’s true that a lot of words were spent telling you that it isn’t always an apocalyptic phenomenon when things go to s**t. But really, all I’m saying is that while you might not know what to do with the rest of your life, might not even be in a position to know, you’re still wiser than you think. Practically speaking (again): you’ve been walking a long time now. Relect on the lessons that you learned on the road. Now, just before you start the next leg of your journey, is a good time for you to pause and catch your breath. So it’s here. You walk out of the gates of your college for the last time as a resident, and look back for the irst time as a visi- tor. You return your gown, pause with your suitcase, and think that you should be thinking something poignant while you’re actually thinking of very little at all. he sun is out, or behind a cloud, or it’s belting down with rain. It’s 2019 or 2018 or 2028. he dreamlike property en- croaches on the edges of your memories of that wild ride. Now you get on with things. Good luck. ▲ Graduation, summer 2018 (LOUIS ASHWORtH) Friday 22nd February 2019 15
Features Coming to terms with sexual assault
why there’s a condom packet on the ever will. I’m at formal and my friend has ▲ Illustration by that it was him and that it was me. If Anna Vassiliades discusses loor. At irst, waking up believing you’re to hold my hand the whole time because Kate Towsey for there were any kind of repercussions safe, assuming the person lying next to I can see him on the other side of the Varsity for him, the college environment means her experiences of you is one of your friends who took care room. I go to check my pidge and he’s that people would know that I reported of you when you were black-out drunk. inside plodge; I can’t go in. He comes up him. Would people think I was making processing sexual assault hen realising it’s not. In that moment to me in the club, saying ‘Hi’, running his it up? I can imagine people saying I was all I wanted to do was leave. Him asking hand over my torso; I leave the club, I feel only doing it because I regretted sleep- and explains why the if I was alright. Me telling him I didn’t unsafe. My friends, not knowing who it ing with him the morning after; that I know what had happened. When you was, questioning my sometimes irration- made a drunk mistake and was taking it college environment can inally get out it hits you. All I wanted al behaviour. Seeing him on nights out out on him. hinking about what people to do was sleep. dancing with his friends and just being would say ills me with anxiety and for make it diicult to report Going to my lecture that day was a angry at the unfairness of it all. He will my own sanity I don’t think its worth blur. My friend asking me if I had a good never feel the same consequences as I taking that out on myself. Being here such situations night. Me telling them what happened. did. He gets to carry on his life whilst I’m is hard enough without putting myself Me spending the rest of the day curled dealing with the emotional fallout. He through that. I don’t know if it’s ever go- Content notice: this article contains de- up in their bed because I couldn’t bear doesn’t feel dirty and disgusting know- ing to go away. I don’t feel safe anymore tailed discussion of sexual assault, doubt to be on my own.hem sitting at their ing that it happened. It’s not fair. in college, especially on my own. I do my surrounding the nature of this assualt, and desk, not knowing what to say, trying When my friends asked me how that ❝ best to avoid it, avoid him, but I can’t the aftermath of sexual assault. their hardest to cheer me up. It wasn’t irst night out was the next day, expect- escape it. It happened. Did I become one as I sexually assulted? even until I asked a male friend how he ing the standard gossip and instead be- Even now I of the 20% women who get raped in their his is the question I would feel if a girl told him they didn’t ing greeted with me bursting into tears, don’t think lifetime? I don’t know. Will I ever want have spent the irst half ❝ remember what had happened the previ- the irst reaction I got was “have you re- I could go to recognise that? I don’t know. What I Wof term grappling with. I ous night, and his response was that he ported him yet?”. In those irst few hours through do know is that it has left a mark on me, know I feel violated. I don’t know what The would be worried that he raped her, that when the evidence would still have been a memory I can’t erase. sexual activity happened. I know I was anxiety of I began to process what had happened: on my body, I couldn’t face it. Even now any kind of If you have been afected by any of the issues too drunk to understand what was go- I hadn’t been able to consent. I don’t think I could go through any kind disciplinary raised in this article, the following organisa- ing on. I don’t know if he realised that. seeing him Knowing that someone has been in- of disciplinary process about it. I’m shak- tions provide support and resources: Even if it wasn’t sexual assault, occu- in college side you without truly knowing that it ing writing this, never mind being ques- process Breaking the Silence: the University’s cam- pying that grey space is still diicult. hasn’t dis- happened is awful. From what I woke tioned about an act that women are not ❞ paign against harassment and sexual mis- Waking up the morning after a night out up to, my vagina bleeding in the shower, believed about anyways. I don’t know if conduct (includes reporting mechanisms). in someone else’s bed is normalised at appeared the condom packet, I think that sex hap- he realised how drunk I was. None of my Cambridge for Consent: a student-run university. Promiscuity and having fun is yet pened. Only he knows for sure if it did. friends did – I asked someone the next campaign to promote consent. seen as part of the university experience, ❞ Having that agency taken away from day how drunk I seemed and he said “you Cambridge Rape Crisis Centre: a charity and that freedom can be empowering, you, feeling like your body isn’t yours, were just normal drunk, fairly standard”. for female victims of sexual violence. choosing to have those experiences with like someone else controls you, makes he lines are so blurry. Is it my place to Cambridge Nightline: a conidential night- other people. me feel physically sick. he thought ruin someone’s life because of a mistake? time listening service. Not knowing whose bed you’re in of him being inside me makes me feel What if he does it to someone else? he Students’ Unions’ Advice Service: the when you wake up is not. Not knowing sick. he anxiety of seeing him in college main reason I still haven’t reported it is University’s conidential, independent and how you got there, why you’re naked, hasn’t disappeared yet. I don’t know if it because I don’t want people to know impartial advice service. 16 Friday 22nd February 2019 Opinion
he closure of Whitworth House is an unacceptable result of austerity
National Content note: his article contains brief which have been implemented system- ating these harmful myths. Cambridge ▲ Exterior view Whitworth House are being forced to austerity is mention of sexual assault atically across the country for years. Cen- is a community that we are a part of, as of Whitworth shut down but the colleges where we responsible for hitworth House is a hos- tral government funding to the average students, and as residents of the town. House (VArsITy work and live have a huge number of the closure of tel speciically for vul- local government has been cut by 40% he closure of Whitworth House should VIdEo) spare rooms that are reserved for con- Whitworth nerable women in Cam- since 2010, forcing unprecedented sav- be an issue that concerns us all, and ference guests and only slept in for a House, an Wbridge, and it’s about to ings targets and extortionate cuts to we need to remember that students at few nights a year. hink of the amount essential place be shut down. As part of their strategic public services. Cambridge University are not immune of space in Cambridge that you cannot for women review of housing provision, Cambridge- It has reached the point where local to government cuts or austerity meas- access without a Camcard. afected by shire County Council has withdrawn the governments have been so eroded that ures: there are people studying here who he false division of space and com- homelessness £65,000 annual funding which keeps the they are having to choose which neces- rely upon this kind of local government munities between Cambridge University house running, and, as things stand, its sary services to cut, pushing more and support too. and the town is fabricated, and so can , residents will have to leave by June. more already vulnerable people into hese local government funded serv- and must, be undone. he house provides a vital place of dire situations, and onto the streets. ices, the refuges, the hostels, and the res- Although it might be tempting to see refuge for women who are homeless, At the start of 2018, a government pite care providers, will continue to have Whitworth House purely as a service, or at risk of becoming so. For many study found that there were nearly their funding cut unless we take action. or as a dire example of the efects of residents, it’s the last line of defence 5,000 people sleeping on the streets We need to use the privileges we have as ❝ government policy, it’s also home to a between them and the streets. Unlike of the UK, a number that had doubled Cambridge students to oppose austerity group of women, many of whom have homeless shelters, which also provide a since 2010. As Conservative govern- measures, to use whatever power we he most nowhere else to turn. Austerity policies valuable service, hostels like Whitworth ment austerity measures consistently can muster to lend solidarity to the com- vulnerable have been hitting hard for years, and it’s House provide residential accommoda- defund local councils, the most vulner- munities afected, and to collaborate in real lives that they are leaving by the tion away from men for those women able people in our communities pay campaigning and support. people in wayside. Whitworth House provides an seeking it. hey are also able to provide the price. We’ve got to start paying he wealth inequality in Cambridge essential good to the community, and shelter for more than one night, unlike serious attention. is stark, and under austerity those at our com- this kind of public service is starting to emergency care providers such as rape Most Cambridge University students the bottom lose even more, while the munities become a thing of the past. We can’t let crisis centres. won’t have heard of Whitworth House. Vice Chancellor of our University earns that happen. he withdrawal of funds from services he culture of the Cambridge “bubble” £431,000 a year, and Trinity settles com- pay the he petition to stop the closure of Whitworth like this is not new and it’s not uncom- encourages us to live a life that is incred- fortably on its £1.34 billion in assets. We price House can be found online at https://www. mon. It is a direct result of Conservative ibly sheltered from the issues afecting need to seriously question the division thepetitionsite.com/588/006/711/save-whit-
Stella Swain Stella austerity policies on local governments the town, but we need to stop perpetu- of space in Cambridge when places like ❞ worth-house Friday 22nd February 2019 17 Opinion Social class colours our relationships with non-academic college staf
By treating here is an awkwardness about a self-aware awkwardness because of personal cleaners. As the recent creation ferent the makeup of society outside the college workers class in Cambridge which can- this dynamic: I hop up at the sound of of the Taylor’s Table has shown, over University is. herefore, I believe many as ‘comic not be denied. his is only the the bedder’s knock to start frantically half of Cambridge colleges fail to pay students leave Cambridge with a skewed appendages’ we Tmost recent in a string of ear- tidying, and I cast nervous smiles at the all their staf the Real Living Wage of picture of the social spectrum, think- are colouring nest pieces of student journalism con- porters, hoping they know that I don’t £8.75 per hour, and therefore set a poor ing that they have encountered the full our perception fronting elitism, and it certainly will not bang drunkenly on the main gate late at example for students by failing to treat scope of its diversity here. It is a worry- of staf relations be the last. Yet for all our noise, there is a night, but take the side-gate and leave their employees with dignity. ing prognosis when some of the greatest marked silence in the places where our them in peace. his student behaviour is not neces- minds of our generation are set loose immediate relationships are structured However, as awkwardness often does, sarily epidemic (as is demonstrated by on the world so completely untheorized by social class. It seems that students the strained silence of Cambridge pro- the student engagement which led to about – and unpractised in – social class are unwilling to bring up the issues sur- duces nervous titters. How many times the creation of the Taylor’s Table itself) relations. rounding social class, which arise in day have you heard jokes about grumpy but it is symptomatic. It is testament to Currently, awkwardness or oblivious- to day interactions, in the same way that porters, standoish bedders, or, crime a culture in which not gaining access ❝ ness towards social class, and a resultant they might raise issues concerning gen- of hilarious crimes, a bedder acciden- to this prestigious institution through dehumanising comic strain, character- der or race. tally interrupting a student during sex? academia can render a person inferior We are ise much of the discourse about college If this is the case with the relation- he fact is that student discourse about in the social eye; one where the most workers, colouring students’ perceptions ships between students, how much more college workers often positions them culturally challenging thing that a stu- allowed to of class relations for years to come. Stu- strained does this silence become when as if they were a colourful backdrop of dent from a privileged background is imagine dents can change this discourse by be- the less privileged person is not a stu- Dickensian side-characters, existing on likely to encounter is a student from a coming more self-aware and refusing dent, but a member of non-academic the periphery to throw into relief the less privileged one. that bed- to participate in a culture which treats staf? supposedly deeply amusing exploits of However, it may be the case that these college staf as comic appendages to our We are in regular contact with these students. relationships will be the most substan- ders are narratives. A more open discussion of members of college, and the fact that We are so mired in euphemism that tial connection in their lives so far to just anoth- class in Cambridge, with less ostracising they are explicitly providing us with a even the term ‘bedder’ is oddly equivo- someone from a signiicantly diferent nervous laughter, can only take place service, from cleaning to catering, leads cal: using the old-fashioned Cambridge class background. here is a tendency to er quaint when students are brave enough to resist to an uncomfortable ambiguity about jargon, we are allowed to imagine that take less privileged students as straight- tradition these tendencies, helping to inculcate a their status, to which some students bedders are just another quaint tradition, forward representatives of ‘the working more thoughtful attitude to class in those
Olivia Sutherland Olivia respond patronisingly. I myself exhibit rather than our often vastly underpaid classes’, without fully realising how dif- ❞ who might lack it. Turning Point is too dangerous to joke about – it must be properly confronted
he mockery of he arrival of the controversial “islands of totalitarianism”, whatever supporters, such as Professor Danielle have a budget of around $8 million per Turning Point right-wing student group Turn- that may mean. his hyperbolic critique Allen who wrote an article for the Har- year and has events sponsored by the in America and ing Point in the UK was met of apparently dystopian campus culture vard Crimson. Clearly, the claims that NRA. Turning Point USA may propagate the UK does Twith widespread mockery. A reads almost as a parody of itself. the organisation defends free speech ideas that are typical of the Alt-right not do justice to batch of fake Turning Point accounts Despite this, jokes cannot be the only on campuses are an example of bare- but it is able to occupy a comparatively their pernicious emerged on Twitter, some even caus- efective response to the group’s trans- faced duplicity. Turning Point’s attacks prominent place on the mainstream po- inluence ing confusion by accusing the genuine Atlantic migration. Failure to confront on supposedly ‘radical’ college profes- litical stage. To hear the leaders of the account of being the imposter. However, the group for its attempts to recruit UK sors seem to reveal more about the para- organisation speak you might well view humour can only go so far in confronting students would be gross complacency. A noia of these activists than any trace of them as unpleasant outliers on the po- a group which has a sinister and exten- complacency that cannot be aforded in a Marxist conspiracy. litical spectrum but their inluence and sive inluence in America. light of the recent rise of the right across Turning Point does little to resolve the visibility relects a place closer to the Without an oicial chapter Turning the world, personiied in igures such tension between this attack on academic centre of US politics. hey are not merely Point has, mercifully, struggled to get of as Victor Orban, Jair Bolsonaro and, of freedom and their own criticisms of no a punchline any more. the ground in Cambridge. Instead, Turn- course, Donald Trump. Behind the farci- platforming but this is the least of the In the UK the group has already ing Point Cambridge has its own parody cal appearance of Turning Point, some- problems with the group. Even within gained the support of Jacob Rees-Mogg, account which has lambasted the group thing more sinister is at play. the organisation there have been multi- one of the stranger idols of the young as a ‘racist, capitalist, white suprema- he comparison of this right wing ple complaints about the racism of Turn- right wing, as well as other conserva- cists organisation’.he Cambridge Union movement to McCarthyism is an obvi- ing Point USA members and staf. tive igures like Priti Patel, Nigel Farage decided not to hold a debate involving ous one. Turning Point USA even has a However, it would be wrong to simply and Steve Baker. Even the widespread two Turning Point leaders, who were set ‘Professor Watchlist’ of academics who dismiss Turning Point as a fringe group revulsion expressed towards Turning to frame the right (presumably them- they accuse of spreading left-wing and of Alt-right fanatics. his is not to say Point UK has been used by some as selves) as the defenders of free speech ‘anti-American’ views, although their that their views are of any merit; they ❝ proof that the organisation is needed after Turning Point broke their agree- ofences are often as simple as criticis- are not. he fact still remains that the US to champion right wing students. Even ment about inviting speciic opposition ing Trump or arguing in favour of gun branch of the group has a considerable Ridicule as Turning Point UK is greeted as a far speakers. Turning Point has, however, control. Even at the earliest stages of its following and links to the White House. right laughing stock, it creeps closer to oicially launched in eight other UK uni- development, a response to this method In particular, Donald Trump has said that of Turn- the mainstream. versities, including in Oxford under the of intimidation was to poke fun: the one of the group’s rising stars, Candace ing Point Ultimately, the ridicule of Turning guidance of a Bullingdon Club member. watch list was soon iniltrated by ic- Owens, has met some of his immediate Point may not be enough to prevent it So far, it still looks laughable. tional characters such as ’Professor family. She has also been applauded by may not be gaining momentum. Many of the leaders Of course, humour can be an efective Albus Dumbledore’. Kanye West on Twitter. of Turning Point may be crackpots and weapon against the far right, particu- As much a good dose of sarcasm may Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning enough to sensationalists and perhaps its presence larly when the subject of derision is as have ameliorated some of the efects of Point, also has connections with Trump prevent it will simply fade away in the UK after absurd as Turning Point. here is much these shock tactics, Turning Point’s cam- and makes frequent appearances on FOX its initial humiliation. However, in the to mock. For example, they frame their paign did lead to abuse being directed News, as well as possessing a Twitter fol- gaining mo- current political climate of stark polari- movement as a response to ‘cultural towards academics on the watch list. lowing of nearly 1 million. Aside from mentum sation in the UK, there is a danger that Marxism’ on university campuses, which Some of those listed reported receiving powerful friends, Turning Point has deep Turning Point may grow into more than
Alex Walsh Alex are described by leader Charlie Kirk as a barrage of abuse from Turning Point pockets. he organisation is reported to ❞ just a joke. 18 Friday 22nd February 2019 Opinion Access statistics that don’t treat grammars and comprehensives separately are meaningless
Going to a hen I was applying newspapers like he Guardian tell us that pupils in the 11-plus selection test are admissions. grammar to Cambridge, I came Grammar school pupils “gain no social most likely to be aluent children from here is an alternative to this lawed school sets across their admissions or emotional advantages by age 14” and stable homes with parents educated to system. Take, for example, the German students up Wstatistics online. here is that “Selective schools make no difer- degree level and able to aford private education system splits teenagers up at with a certain a page on their website dedicated exactly ence to GCSE results”. tuition for their children as well” So how a similar age, and allows them to choose amount of to this. hese comprehensive statistics We are continuously reassured that far can we even trust the 11-plus as a reli- various academic or vocational chan- privilege simply paint an image of self-awareness and a grammar schools are innocuous, but able indicator of intelligence? It is more nels, depending on the child’s (and their not aforded by desire for parity that was a shock to me where are the articles and reports ad- efective as an indicator of privilege. family’s) desires. All of these channels comprehensives even then. dressing the eventual inequalities that The whole concept of grammar are valued equally, with some lending But if we dig a little deeper, that parity grammar schools promote, such as schools engenders elitism and deprives themselves better to a future at univer- starts to get a little blurred. In 2016, the grammar school students making up a teenagers across the country of the coni- sity in academia, and others to skilled most recent year for which we have this disproportionate percentage of the Cam- dence and preparation provided by going ❝ labour and apprenticeships. his system data, just over 5% of state-educated stu- bridge student body? to a grammar school, just because they recognises that everyone has diferent dents attended a grammar school. And hese articles overshadow the discus- didn’t pass the 11-plus – whether because Access has talents and there are diferent ways to yet, in the admissions cycle for the same sions we should actually be having about they didn’t have the intelligence, access not suc- be successful. Shouldn’t we encourage year, 36% of the state-school students the disparity in comprehensive and to a grammar school, or the resources a similar attitude in the UK? admitted to Cambridge were schooled grammar schools. It isn’t about wellness to prepare. ceeded Personally, I believe grammar schools in grammars. his is a huge dispropor- or GCSE results, but aspiration and prep- But when will we realise that success simply should be scrapped entirely. But this is a tion of success rates for those educated aration for the future. Grammar schools isn’t inherently based on academia and contentious debate. here are pros and in the maintained sector. So, how can are just as accustomed to sending stu- education? A fundamental law of the because cons on both sides of the argument, and we seriously group comprehensives and dents to Oxbridge as many independent British education system is that it val- right now, this simply isn’t achievable. grammars under the same umbrella? schools, in fact, in 2017, more ofers were ues academia so highly and discredits more stu- However, a short-term goal is under- he success rate for “maintained- made to students from grammar schools transferable skills. dents from standing and accepting the privilege schools” access doesn’t show the real- than those from independents. Not only My experience of things like appren- instilled by going to a grammar school. ity: that students from grammar schools this, but they motivate these students to ticeships or vocational courses is that, re- main- If we aren’t going to scrap grammar are admitted at a much higher rate than aspire towards those futures: if you’ve gardless of their value, they are frequent- tained schools, we should at least look at them those from comprehensives. Full parity been told since age 11 that you’re Ox- ly perceived as an inferior route. When I for what they are and stop conlating in access will never be achieved until bridge material, my guess is that you’re was at school, I was encouraged to take schools go them with all other state schools: gram- we recognise the diferences between less likely to worry that you might not more traditionally ‘academic’ subjects, mars and comps difer in some funda- these schools. be good enough to apply. and to completely stray away from any- to univer- mental ways. here are big diferences between he 11+ is not solely a measure of kids’ thing vocational – like performing arts, sity Access has not succeeded simply be- comprehensives and grammars, not just intelligence. Unfortunately, inancial business studies, or media studies – lest cause more students from maintained in how one is selective and the other privilege also comes into play. Recent it take up too much of my time to little ❞ schools go to university. We must recog- isn’t, but in how they prepare their stu- studies from the University of Bristol avail. My teachers told me these subjects nise that there is a huge disparity within
Olivia Emily Olivia dents for diferent futures. Articles by have shown that “the highest scoring wouldn’t “look good” on my university the state school bracket. More must be done to ensure adequate and afordable postgraduate housing
When it comes ousing is one of the most in terms of afordable housing by the col- strong developer interests and investor such units, most other colleges have fam- to student important aspects of a stu- legiate University? Why don’t the colleg- appetite, studio rooms have increased by ily housing units in the single digits. housing, dent’s university experience. es more clearly advertise a clear housing 123% and more than doubled their proile Further to this, the special needs of the needs of HAfordable and decent hous- rent structure and the possibility of get- as a proportion of the stock of rooms in certain students, for example the need postgraduate ing must be a basic right for every stu- ting those rooms upon admission before the UK since 2012-13. For instance, the of disabled students for special facilities, students are dent: without proper accommodation, ofering places to students, so that they Swirle’s Court residential complex of are often overlooked. Welfare support often overlooked everything else falls apart. In Cambridge, can take that into consideration when Girton College only has en-suite rooms and specialized training, such as mental while undergraduate housing has been choosing their college? Many students with shared kitchens, with the monthly health irst-aid training, is also lacking a point of debate and discussion, post- opt for a college as their choice or are al- rent in 2017 coming to around £670 for in most housing facilities in Cambridge, graduate housing does not often receive located colleges from the applicant pool a single room. often purportedly due to the presence of as much attention. without knowing about the number and he University needs to look at de- college tutors who may not be available According to the NUS-Unipol Accom- ❝ kinds of rooms available, the rent-range mands of students with regards to ac- around the clock. modation Survey 2018, the overall av- and the system of allocation in those col- commodation more closely. hree of the Looking at the funding that postgrad- erage weekly rent for students across The leges. Given how important housing is larger postgraduate colleges, who do not uate students receive, with a single room the UK stands at £147 per week. Most for students, it is important that these as- house a signiicant amount of students, rent range of £400-£740 per month, most PhD students rent for a whole calendar University pects of the student experience be made have no plans to expand accommodation postgraduate funding schemes ofer a year, but this average is seen to be over needs to clear by the various colleges. even though they are likely to take on stipend, and often students ind them- half of most postgraduate grants. Col- he kinds and numbers of rooms in more students. he additional purpose- selves having to spend more than 50% leges provide the majority of housing look at the Cambridge have changed signiicantly built accommodation services which are of the stipend on rent. After paying their in Cambridge, with 55% of postgraduate demands over the years. Overall there has been so needed must be in deined areas that rent, students are left with little to put students living in University or college- a decline in non-en-suite accommoda- are within walking or cycling distance toward living costs. owned accommodation and the rest of tion across the UK by 7%, which now of teaching facilities, thereby enabling Many postgraduate students in Cam- staying in private accommodation. make up only 17% of rooms. his spells eiciencies in transport and service bridge are partially funded or entirely Private or college-owned, the key students a general decline in the availability of provision. self funded for their courses. Many are question remains: are we getting a fair more standard rooms which are priced within here is also a lack of housing for international students who have to meet deal when it comes to postgraduate an afordable range – the NUS believes postgraduate students with children and tuition fees of about £20-30k per year housing in Cambridge? closely that 50% of one’s grant should be the families in the University. Although St. with limited funding options. On top of here is a lack of transparency and ❞ maximum rent expenditure. he decline John’s College has one of the largest part- that, if maintenance is expensive, what student consultation when it comes to in the number of such rooms is arguably ner and family accommodation proiles, can a student do? Should the University student housing, with a lack of student the largest cause of concern for the stu- with 52 units of furnished accommoda- not stand up for its students, ensuring involvement in the setting of rents. Why dent housing sector in the UK today. tion for students with long-term partners that they are not negatively afected by
Mrittunjoy Guha Mrittunjoy Majumdar isn’t more being done for postgraduates On the other hand, primarily due to and/or children, and Jesus College has 22 such inancial constraints? vulture
▶THEATRE S H A K E S P E A R E O N T H E MODERN STAGE∙21 ▶ fILM & Tv MiRAclE AT cAPERNAuM ∙ 23 ▶ARTS DRAGGED INTO RECOVERY ∙ 24-25
Photographed by Lois Wright 20 vulture Friday 22nd February 2019
▲ he band opened with 'Time to Give' a track from their latest album (Joe Cook) Black and White Lies at the Cambridge Junction Alex Jones
ver the course of a pulsating 90 Ominutes, White Lies’ show at the Cambridge Junction did not let up for energy. From the moment the band walked on the stage it was obvious that they were there to have fun. he band opened with ‘Time to Give’ from their latest album Five, and there was enough new material to keep things exciting through- out the evening. But being ten years since their debut album, To Lose My Life…, it was comforting to hear a range of songs from their discography. Classics such as ‘Hold Back Your Love’ slotted alongside the new songs remark- ably well. his being the ifth time I have ventured to the Junction this year, the venue constantly amazes me in its strength and variety. From the pulsing house of Turf to the far-out sounds of psych-pop octet Superorganism, Cambridge has a genuinely brilliant little venue in the Junction that we should continue to support. White Lies certainly made the best use of the room. In such an intimate venue as the Junction it ▶ Photos was nice to see that the band had not stinted for on the light show. he setup was absolutely Varsity by stunning, helping to add even more energy Joe Cook to an already electric performance. It was indeed a feel-good night, where any fan, whether they have kept up with them since the beginning or not, would have left feeling incredibly satisied. White Lies are halfway through an extensive world tour - if you want certainty of a good night out, go see a great band at the top of their game. vulture 21 Shakespeare's monopoly on the modern stage sca olding – you’ve probably already heard watching Much Ado about Nothing (at the it a million times from your GCSE English Cambridge Arts eatre) earlier this term, I teacher. at’s not the point I want to make. was struck by how di cult it is to critique at wasn’t the part which impressed me. Shakespeare in performance. Instead, when I stopped to think about it for By all means, we can critique the stag- a second, I was astonished: here was a gure ing, the set and the acting, but no one dares of such towering literary genius that he not touch the writing itself. It’s treated with this only had his own (vastly detailed) Wikipedia bizarre kind of reverence – if anything goes page, but so too, did the very phrases which wrong with the play, then the fault lies with he had invented! My younger self would have the production itself and nowhere else. And been in utter awe. it’s not that I do want to critique the Bard’s Again, I acknowledge: that’s an utterly stu- work – ater all, who am I to do so – but I’d pid way of looking at Shakespeare’s genius; like to make the point that just because some- there are so many other ways to credit his lit- thing is popular and well established within erary merit. I’m almost embarrassed that that our cultural consciousness, doesn’t mean it was my immediate reaction, so I won’t dwell isn’t criticisable. I’ve seen plot aws pointed on it for any longer. Instead, I’d like to think out before (none of them utterly convinc- about it in terms of something much more ing) – such as the sudden disappearance of signi cant: bardolatry. Shakespeare worship. Benvolio in Romeo and Juliet, or the fact that e allocation of absolute praise to a gure the gulling scene in Othello only works for who is so ingrained in our cultural conscious- Iago because Cassio is remarkably unclear ness that it would be hard to go a single day about who exactly he is describing, or the fact without uttering a phrase which he invented. that it’s never explicitly stated that the spell Why? Why is he so popular? Why has he be- is removed from Demitirus in ‘A Midsummer come this staple of English Literature? Night’s Dream’. Every single term that I’ve been in Cam- Hamlet (along with the vast majority of bridge has seen multiple productions of his plays) isn’t even an original plot – an An- Shakespeare featuring on Camdram. ere’s glo-Saxon version of the story existed for a Shakespeare play for every season of the centuries beforehand. (Although back in year – a frosty ‘Macbeth’ for Michaelmas, a those days, it wasn’t strictly plagiarism). To light-hearted ‘Love Labour’s Lost’ for Lent, and quote Director Joshua Engel: ‘I can’t think a ‘Comedy of Errors’ for Easter. We somehow of any other author who gets this kind of never, ever get bored of reading them, watch- treatment. In the hands of a lesser play- ing them, or acting in them. e peak of any wright, these mistakes would simply be espian career is arguably considered to lie mistakes.’ in portraying Hamlet, and Romeo and Juliet So where does that leave us in the modern functions as a byword for romance enacted age? Whilst new writing is still undeniably by illicit young lovers. valuable, Shakespeare remains as popular It’s like Shakespeare is a consumable prod- as ever; he’s still utterly revered, and he still uct – the more we have of him, the more we holds a genuine monopoly over the stage want, and we somehow never, ever get bored (both inside and outside of Cambridge) – one of his plots, many of which we vaguely know which I’m not necessarily unhappy for him before we even see them. I could go on for to have. And that’s a monopoly which we can ages like this. A quick google search ask- expect him not to relinquish any time soon. ing ‘is Shakespeare still relevant?’ tells me Like I said, Shakespeare is an enigma, and what I already knew – it’s because he was I don’t think anyone, least of all, me, can put a master wordsmith, because of his eternal their nger on why exactly he’s as popular as relevance etc. etc. But I still don’t think that he is. Instead, I’ll have to make do with the quite captures the exact reasoning behind conclusion that although he may not be per- his popularity. fect, he’s still very much infallible, and that’s If you thought this was going to be an ar- simultaneously remarkable and infuriating. ticle debunking why Shakespeare worship is ▲Shakespeare's popularity continues to endure 400 years a ter his death. Dare we still a thing, or why exactly his cultural pres- ever criticise him? KATE TOWSEY ence is as potent today as it ever was, then I’m ▼ e Globe eatre, London. going to have to disappoint you, mainly be- PIXABAY asks whether quanti able by an online dictionary. cause I’m probably just Alex Jacob But that de nition of success, as stupid as as confused as you are. we are able to criticise it sounds, has always stuck with me just a As an English stu- little bit. And one day, whilst writing an es- dent, I’ve lived and the Bard say about duplicity and duality in Hamlet (as breathed Shake- you do), I found myself googling, and subse- speare (whether I quently looking up on Wikipedia, that phrase wanted to or not); ardolatry, n. - Worship of the ‘Bard of which has become utterly associated, and I’ve read him BAvon’, i.e. Shakespeare. (Occasionally completely inseparable from Shakespearean and about him, used of other writers.) (OED) theatre. It was of course, ‘To be, or not to be.’ I’ve watched When I was younger, and I wanted to be an It’s a phrase which has had an inconceiv- him, I’ve (over)- author, I always thought that the de nition of ably large cultural impact – it’s everywhere, analysed him, success was to have your own Wikipedia page. being paraphrased in other plays, in popular and I still nd A bit of a limited de nition of success, right? literature, in our everyday speech. myself baffled Success, as I came to realise, is a much more But you don’t need me to tell you that our by him. nebulous, and deeply personal quality, hardly very language is built upon the Bard’s literary In fact, whilst 22 vulture Finding style inspiration in niche childhood cartoon characters Marie-Louise James looks at some less-than-likely fashion icons from our childhood movies hether a marketing ploy or simply of wearing blue with black is a thing of the Wa wave of childhood nostalgia, the past. And just take a look at Tommy Hil ger ▲ Grumpy, Anastasia YOUTUBEAMY COETZE ▼Anastasia YOUTUBEDARKULIME DARK past few seasons in fashion have x Gigi Hadid Spring 2018, a nautical collec- seen a lot of cartoon collaborations. Design- tion that seems to only use sailor caps, em- ing with less likely sources for fashion inspi- aggerated stitching on the denim seams adds ers can’t seem to get enough, from streetwear broidered anchor motifs, and chunky knits. ration, we have Grumpy from Disney’s Snow an extra element of texture and ts well with Betty Boop motifs to Mickey Mouse tennis Meanwhile, Ralph Lauren embellishes count- White and the Seven Dwarfs, the original old the cartoon chic of Moschino’s latest Spring polos. Disney in particular has reigned over less blazers and turtlenecks with gold anchor school Disney princess lm from 1937. Why 2019 collection, where all the pieces were recent fashion brand collaborations, includ- buttons. Even Kim Kardashian was spotted choose Grumpy as our fairy-tale fashion icon covered in stylised inky squiggles. To make ing H&M x Moschino, Lacoste, Coach, Levi’s, wearing an orange faux fur stole in Heathrow over the other six dwarves? Although all seven Lucky Luke’s uniform more winter-friendly, and Uniqlo. Airport. Haddock did it rst! can be commended for their colourful out ts, switch out the black mini vest with either a But rather than go for the classic Disney Anastasia: e 1997 animated musical lm Grumpy has the je ne sais quoi that makes for long black trench or—taking a page out of his characters everyone knows, and because tells the story of Grand Duchess Anastasia a true style rebel. book—a shearling brown leather jacket. we’re in Cambridge, why not look to some Nikolaevna of Russia, known by legend as one Grumpy’s signature red-and-brown ensem- And nally, get yourself a sassy stallion that more niche (though equally fashion-savvy) of the only survivors of the Romanov family. ble has a lot of details which can be picked up matches your sartorial ensemble. Not every- cartoon characters for inspiration? Give it a Whether the story has any historical truth or in fashion today. A belted jacket, for example, one is as lucky as Luke when it comes to his go. not is another matter. is a great styling trick that has gained traction quadruped companion: with his voluminous Captain Haddock: Cantankerous yet lov- In fact, I prefer Anastasia’s bundled up look in the past few seasons. While belts were for- blonde mane and white fell, Jolly Jumper is a able, the pipe-smoking and whiskey-loving as she escapes from Rasputin to Paris to her merly assumed to cinch the waist with a pair horse capable of just about anything—chess- Captain Haddock is one of the most popular glamorous Parisian royal ensembles, mostly of jeans or a skirt, they can now simply be playing, tight-rope walking, and, most impor- characters in the Belgian comic book series because the outfit’s components are all worn over a blazer or coat. Featuring a state- tantly, coordinating out ts. e Adventures of Tintin. Not only does his androgynous—very Comme des ment gold buckle and black leather number, Tintin: To come full circle, we couldn’t talk character have an incredible amount of depth Garçons. Having just le t the or- Grumpy’s out t puts waistbands on centre about Captain Haddock without mentioning and growth in the stories, but he also has an phanage in which she grew up, stage before Gucci belts were even a thing. his sleuthing counterpart, Tintin. impressive wardrobe to boot. Anastasia throws on what- Grumpy’s red tunic has something very Tintin sports a variety of looks throughout Haddock’s style is a combination of ever will keep her warm in street-style about it. With patchwork elbows the comic book series, but his style is always seafaring and luxury. As Tintin’s mari- a Russian winter. and an oversized sartorial t, the baggy sil- polished. Just treading the line between smart ner friend, he mostly wears nauti- What looks like a long, houette emulates the exaggerated pro- and casual, Tintin’s out ts provide plenty of cal pieces: sherman caps, Fair burlap tunic is actually portions featured by brands like Vete- style lessons: for one, that it’s okay to mix- Isle jumpers, jackets stud- a kosovorotka, or Russian ments or Maison Margiela. Grumpy black and brown. ere’s something about ded with gold buttons, men’s peasant shirt. e also rocks a monochromatic colour breaking that fashion rule—one especially and weathered orange band collar of the kosovo- match with his tan slacks and slip-on applied to menswear—that combat boots. Yet as rotka is sometimes em- shoes, all accessorized with a co- feels thrown together resident of the ancestral broidered, and the buttons ordinating beanie. Now that’s and e ortlessly cool. family estate Marlinspike are o ten set asymmetrically. attention to detail. Just watch Tintin slip Hall—or in French, Le châ- Here the yellow ochre comple- Snow White’s pu y on his cream coloured teau de Moulinsart—he has ments the overall earth-tone sleeved and popped Burberry trench coat as an array of fur-lined colour palette of the out t—a collar potpourri of an he dashes out the door to solve coats, calf-leather nice contrast for bleak snowy out t doesn’t stand a the next mystery! brogues, and days—with military greens, chance. Usually sticking to the vintage pinstripe bath- warm browns, and occasional Lucky Luke: Adding another journalist look (the series did, a ter robes. touches of grey to break things Franco-Belgian cartoon charac- all, rst appear in 1929), Tintin’s suits As a possi- up a bit. ter to our list of comic strip style have a relaxed t, with the trousers ble contender And nally, the coat. It’s the inspo, Lucky Luke has mastered gathering around the mid-calf. He for my style centrepiece of the out t: warm the cowboy look. His unchang- wears a colourful sweater over a icon of 2019, and well cut, loden-meets-robe, ing style recipe is a white broad- shirt and tie, something that, when Haddock has boxy with strong lapels. Celine brimmed hat, black vest, ban- imitated, has the fabulous poten- many ward- and Max Mara would be envious. dana, yellow shirt, skinny jeans, tial of channelling Diane Keaton robe pieces Topped o with a baker-boy hat and and a pair of brown leather in Annie Hall (1977). A button-up that can be lace-up boots, the look becomes boots (let’s not forget the belt, white shirt and thin cashmere seen in trends even more chic. Slightly bohemi- too). Lucky Luke’s primary sweater go a long way, and today. Greek an, slightly minimalist and very colour palette is particularly lighter pastel shades of blue sherman hats e ortless: look out Paris, Anas- bold and eye-catching: mixing and yellow accentuate an oth- and newsboy tasia is coming to bright shades of blue, yellow erwise nude-tone palette. Ac- caps are ubiq- your next fashion and red can seem like a chal- cessorise with monk shoes and uitous. e week! lenge, but Lucky Luke shows us a beige cap, and you’re ready to taboo Grumpy: how it’s done. ght a gorilla named Ranko on a Resum- e key to a colour-blocked mysterious Scottish island! out t lies in the way it’s accesso- Speaking of accessories: is Tin- rised: for Lucky Luke, the staples tin’s white Terrier, Snowy, really are white leather details and concho there to be a loyal helper, or is his hardware. His red bandana adds the canine companion just an excuse for nishing touch, be it a more traditional a four-legged style accessory à la Paris ▲ Tintin, Captain Haddock, Snowy YOUTUBE SUMAN DUTTA paisley pattern or a silk neck-scarf. e ex- Hilton? Why not both? 23 vulture Miracle at Capernaum Moved by the story of It would be wrong to say that Capernaum hits you like a ton of bricks; it is slower, and child suing his parents, far more subtle than that. Labaki juggles a Theo Howe re ects on a lot of di erent themes, but it never feels un- focused or rushed. She jumps from humour powerful drama. to poignancy with such aplomb that by the end, all of your emotions are spent, and you Directed by Nadine Labaki watch the credits roll, knowing that you have Starring Zain Al Rafeea, Yordanos Shiferaw, seen something truly special. Al Rafeea and Boluwatife Treasure Bankole Boluwatife Treasure Bankole, who plays the Released 22 February baby Jonas give spectacular performances, and it is they who deserve the greatest credit apernaum, the Village of Nahum, was for how good the lm is. Capernaum depicts a locale in the New Testament where a world where children and adults seem to ▲ G CJesus performed a number of minor have swapped roles, and perhaps only through miracles. We see the title, also subtitled the children can we escape chaos. at would as ‘Chaos’, splayed over a view of Beirut’s indeed be a miracle. skyline. Both titles make for an interesting lens through which to view the film. Capernaum is indeed a story of chaos, but ▶ Zain Al also one of someone seeking to be saved, but Rafeea miracles don’t really happen anymore. gives a e biggest surprise that Capernaum pulled startling came about half an hour in, when it became perform- obvious that Zain, a boy of about 12 years old ance as a who is suing his parents for bringing him into child suing this world, is going to carry the entire lm. his parents Not just that, but child actor Zain al Rafeea for bringing is the perfect mix of vulnerable, resourceful, him into and impetuous that the audience doesn’t just the world sympathise with him, we are compelled by (top left everything he does to get by. corner) It would have been easy for Capernaum to (YOUTUBE/ become unendingly grim, seeing Zain move in SONY PIC- with Rahil, an illegal immigrant and her baby TURES CLAS- Yonas before she is brutally taken away and SICS) Zain and Yonas have to fend for themselves. Director Nadine Labaki still gives necessary weight to how terrifying it could be to have everyone you care about removed, maimed, killed; but at the heart of it, she does not beat you over the head with tales of horrible strife, ❝ and cra ts a remarkable story. Does It’s a story that perhaps one wasn’t expect- ing to be terribly interesting from the rst 20 Caper- minutes. e lm truly comes into its own when Zain runs away from his house, going naum to rough it in Beirut. As upsetting as parts of repre- the lm can be, the city is shot with a real sense of love and passion. Labaki doesn’t miss sent an opportunity to show some rough areas where people will gladly enter into ghts over chaos, or shots of Tramadol laced water, but she also a place celebrates the local neighbourhoods, the souk, the elderly man who dresses up as the cti- where tious superhero Cockroach Man. Capernaum would simply not work without the city of mira- Beirut behind it, and it’s been a very long time cles can since I can remember feeling like I was so deeply within a setting. genuine- Outside of the city streets, and into the ly hap- interiors is where we can nd one of very few weaknesses with Capernaum. e lm pen?❞ opens with Zain in court, suing his parents. We ash forward to this setting a few times in the lm as a type of framing device. It works somewhat at the start, but we return to it so infrequently that these scenes in the court- room feel more like an a terthought, and they create a confused type of chronology. So does Capernaum represent chaos, or a place where miracles can genuinely happen? At points it hints towards total pandemonium, but that isn’t all there is. e central conceit would seem to indicate a message of antina- talism: where there is life there is no hope. is doesn’t even begin to cover Capernaum; perhaps that is part of it, but there has to be hope, there must be hope. 24 vulture Friday 22nd February 2019 Dragged into recovery Drag artist and student Helena Fox explores the important role that drag has played in her recovery
Content note: this article contains detailed dis- cussion of eating disorders, self harm, BPD and recovering from mental illness. exy. hat’s how I felt walking up the ADC stairs, every centimetre of my body Shugged by corset and ishnets and hot pants and thigh-high boots that stretched all the way up to the 11pm sky. I never felt sexy before I started drag. I started when I was unwell, entrenched in illnesses that were so much bigger than me, a high functioning mess. I felt monstrous. I felt depressed. I felt angry. I felt too big. I felt too small. I did not feel sexy. One day, in August 2016, my friend sug- gested we spent an afternoon trying drag king contour; we improvised with warm-toned eyeshadows and half-dried mascara and pho- tographed ourselves, manspreading to the extent of our trouser seams. I was illed with a sudden electricity. I was hooked. At its very base, drag has provided me with comfort and a focus during diicult times. If ▲ “At its very base, drag has provided me with comfort and a focus during difficult times.” ▼ (LOIS WRIGHT) I am feeling low, or anxious, or triggered, to put on an audiobook and paint my face for a is no small matter in BPD. It few hours proves the ultimate distraction. It is not a teenage phase, or a is art therapy, art therapy that I can wear on desire to follow fads. I felt my cheekbones and across my lips. a deep and, quite honestly, But beyond that, drag is, for me, empower- disturbing sense that I was ment. When I am in drag, I have a new cour- not who I seemed to be, age, a new voice with which to subvert gender and not who others thought or to make people laugh. I can put on a new ❝ me to be, and that no mat- face and say the things I didn’t quite dare to Drag has ter what I did I could never say earlier that day, when it was me, bare, reconcile the disparate parts in my dungarees and frayed, second-hand taught of my identity. Was I Helena sweater. Drag is an armour for me. With my the outspoken lesbian, or sar- eyebrows glued down and lips outlined I am me how castic Helena, or Helena the not scared to discuss homophobia, or satirise to collect performer? I was told I could lad culture, or even just to dance without wor- be all at once, but I didn’t feel rying what I look like. And each time I speak all of my like any of them. I distinctly ❝ out in drag, I get a little bit braver out of it. remember telling a counsellor I have a little more emotional energy to call identi- that I was a ish out of water Each someone out for prejudiced language, because ties into in the world, sufocating in time I I have a refuge, too. the air, but that I didn’t know And it has changed how I see myself. When one, who or what or where else I perform, I irst became unwell at the age of 13, I hated was meant to be, only that I remind myself, and I hated myself for six years af- com- it had to be something other ter that. I had always deined myself for my posite than this. myself brains: I was top of the class or I was worth- Drag has changed that. less. Aged 13, I thought I was getting stupid, whole When I am painting myself that this slower, thicker, and so then it followed that ❞ or performing, I feel able to would I was annoying, overly loud, and hideously integrate all of the parts of large. Self harm became something which my identity. I am queer, I not have showed on the outside what I felt was on the am loud, I am creative, I am inside. I found both solace and punishment recovering, I am clever, I am been in food, and another physical expression of sensitive, I am brash. Even possible the churning sickness inside of me. more than that, when I take I remember putting on some nice under- of my makeup or step of that if I was wear and heels late at night and standing in stage, I don’t stop being all of front of my mirror. I told myself I liked what those things. I am a ish who still ill I saw. I think I was lying to myself. Maybe I has found water, thriving in ❞ thought I looked better because now I was in the oxygen of being myself. control of my food and so in charge of what Drag has taught me how to the mirror said. I wasn’t. I was delusional, a collect all of my identities hollow ghost behind my eyes, no matter what into one, composite whole, underwear I wore or how I changed what I whether I am in drag or not, ate or how harshly I judged my body. and I cannot verbalise how I was also torn from seam to seam about signiicant that is after years who I thought I was. Identity disturbance of feeling so desperately out vulture 25 of touch with the world around me, the only black and white character in a technicolour lm. Drag has rebuilt me, in colour. And it has played a part in resetting my thoughts about myself. Every time I experi- ment with my makeup, I am recalibrating myself. I am no longer self-de ning based on my intellect, but self-appreciating based on my imagination and skill. When I am on stage, my scars are but an insigni cant part of me. Drag has also given me the most incred- ible experiences: performing on the Corn Ex- change stage for the Rainbow Ball and putting on a sell-out show at the Edinburgh Fringe, for instance. Each time I perform, I remind myself that this would not have been possible if I was still ill. If I wasn’t nourishing my mind and body, there is no way I would be able to do any of these incredible things, many of which, all clichés aside, rank among the best moments of my life. I can look in the mirror and genuinely think, wow, I look empowered, and I continue to think that even once the wig is o and the false eyelashes boxed. It may sound paradoxical but drag, while ostensibly the act of reinventing oneself, has made me recognise myself as a whole, and wholly valuable, person, as messy and com- plex as that person may be. A ter such a long time feeling truly, sickeningly uneasy with my existence, drag has anchored me, and I will not downplay the part it has played in my recovery. On the ADC stage, in Pembroke New Cel- lars, at the Edinburgh Fringe, sitting in my bedroom painting my face, even taking the makeup o with mascara smudged down my face, I am never too big or too small or too ▲ “Every time I experiment with my makeup, I am recalibrating myself. I am no longer self-defining based on my intellect, but self-appreciating clever or too cracked. I am myself. based on my imagination and skill.” LOIS WRIGHT
he Varsity Trust CAMBRIDGE STUDENT LIFE THE OFFICAL FOOD OF If suitable candidates present themselves, the Trustees intend to make awards to students about to graduate, or who are recent graduates, from either the University of EVERY SINGLE DAY Cambridge or ARU who intend to undertake approved training in journalism for 2019/2020. VALID ON MEDIUM OR LARGE PIZZA ONLY Trust awards will be tailored to individual circumstances but are normally intended to make a signiicant contribution to the fees for the training concerned. Up to £5,000 is potentially available. For further information and how to apply JUST USE CODE: PIZZA241 AT THE CHECKOUT visit: www.varsity.co.uk/trust
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or a few years, the Fitzwilliam FMuseum has been my place. It has been the backdrop to some of my most important moments here; a marbled place of milestones. Cambridge didn’t feel real for a long time when I was at school. I had never visited, knew nothing of King's Chapel or supervisions. he irst time I saw the Fitzwilliam was the day of my interview. I walked along Trump- ington Road towards town; past the museum. Its pillars, carved ceilings, gold tipped railings. A manifestation of anything I thought I knew of Cambridge. On my ofer holder day, for a college I had never seen, my dad drove me up from Som- erset. My apprehension stretched three and a half hours. When we arrived on the opposite side of town we had time to kill; we stopped me at the Fitzwilliam. I had just read an Ali Smith novel, How To Be Both, and was struck by the passage when the heroine bunks of school to sit in front of a painting that her mother had loved. It is a painting by Franc- esco del Cossa, of Saint Vincent Ferrer, dated between 1473-75. It is typical of its time, a religious piece in blues, reds and gold. She visits it seven times; looks at it; looks at the people looking at it. I slowed my breathing and thought about this. She grounded her feelings of grief in the painting; I read my own meanings into the oils around me. Smith had solidiied something of the signiicance of the gallery space that I greens. We were studying Medieval literature, Millais, one of the leading members of the opened exhibits, live jazz and a launch for a had always felt. and reading of maidens cloaked in waved hair movement, titled, he Bridesmaid (1851). It’s student-run magazine. In November, I cycled to the Fitzwilliam and wreathed with lowers. tiny, and coloured like a jewel: sapphires I gave the caterer my laminated token with two new friends. We wandered round the I recognised the strange romance of Chau- and ambers. In the centre, her hair streaked and stood in an art gallery holding a glass irst loor, sat on the cracked leather couches, cer’s Knight’s Tale in the Pre-Raphelite col- across most of the page, is a girl, her chin of wine, thinking, this is it. stood in front of painted gentry. Some of the lections. upturned. Her hair is laming, her skin por- his is what I wanted Cambridge to be: rooms are cased in pinkish marble, lanked by Here hangs a painting by Sir John Everett celain, her hands impossibly delicate. She oil paintings and conversation. And for an holds a piece of wedding evening at the Museum, it was. cake, enacting the old super- hen, there was the exhibition inspired by stition that states an image the writings of Virginia Woolf in the irst term of one’s future groom can be of my second year. It showcased a spectrum conjured in passing a morsel of works by female artists, housed in rooms through a wedding ring nine hand painted with line drawings of dancing times. women. I went alone, delighted. here is something quite Most recently, a few days post Half Way eerie about this painting, for Hall, a friend of mine from home came to visit. all the richness of its colours. I took him to the Fitzwilliam. My favourite I told my friend it was my fa- room of oil paintings was closed, so we went vourite painting in the Mu- downstairs and traced case after case of ce- seum. She seemed surprised- ramics and glass work. We ended up in the but I thought it was beautiful. Ancient Egypt room and talked about a school I bought a postcard of it in trip to a tiny Tutankhamun exhibit back in the gift shop, and, when I irst Somerset. went home for the Christmas he single room we had visited then could holiday, I taped it to my wall. not compare to the selection of heavily deco- Something of Cambridge in rated wooden coins in front of us now. Prob- my bedroom. lematic as a collection of another country’s In February, I went to the culture may be, I felt a rush of awe. A sense Fitzwilliam’s annual Love of privilege at having access to such extraor- Art After Dark Event with dinary relics of history. friends. here were specially More than that, as I walked with my friend back down the steps at the front of the muse- um, I experienced one of those hot moments ◀ ▲Connie looking at some of realisation. I saw through his eyes some- of the Fitzwilliam's exhibits thing of what it was to be at Cambridge. at Love After Dark (Rebecca In the Fitzwilliam, I found something of a Wright) reassurance of my place here. The Reply team - based programming competition 15TH MARCH 2019 REGISTER ON CHALLENGES.REPLY.COM
Each Member of the Winning Team wins an Amazing MacBook Pro 4 Hours to solve an Open to University Optimisation Problem using Students and Professionals any Programming Language
The Reply Challenges fit within Reply’s vast programme of initiatives designed to promote a lifelong learning attitude 28 Friday 22nd February 2019 Science Analogue gravity: empirical evidence or an amusing feat of engineering?
Grace Fields asks what we hey want to know if their theoretical sound waves cannot low upstream in ▲ An artist's its target system. can learn about black holes prediction is correct. But it seems im- regions of a river where the downstream concept of a not everyone agrees. Daniel Harlow, a possible for them to ind out whether rate of low is faster the speed of sound. black hole (naSa) physicist whose work sits at the theoreti- without being able to directly Hawking radiation exists, since they can- Motivated by this simple analogy, and cal interface of quantum mechanics and perform experiments on them not run experiments on black holes, and the fact that it is complemented by a gravity, dismissed Steinhauer’s experi- they cannot pick Hawking radiation out strict mathematical analogy between ment as “an amusing feat of engineer- Black holes are far beyond scientists’ from their cosmic observations. ❝ the acoustic and gravitational systems, ing” that “won’t teach us anything about experimental reach. hey cannot be ex- In 1981, scientists’ inability to detect Unruh suggested using acoustic hori- black holes”. and just three months perimentally manipulated. Instead, they Hawking radiation sparked the creation Analogue zons in luids as analogues for event ago, Karen Crowther, niels Linnemann are observed and their behaviour ana- of an entirely new ield of physics called gravity horizons in astrophysical black holes. and Christian Wüthrich published a lysed. Black-hole scientists collect cosmic ‘analogue experimentation’. an analogue He urged experimentalists to construct scathing rebuttal to Dardashti, Hart- data, and then spend most of their time experiment is an experimentally acces- has been model black holes out of luids, and test mann, hébault and Winsberg’s work. analysing the data to pick apart difer- sible ‘source’ physical system that mir- embroiled whether those model black holes emit Crowther, Linnemann and Wüthrich ar- ent signals. Data analysis replaces the rors the mathematical structure of a Hawking radiation – from these results, gue that analogue simulation is viciously work that would otherwise be done by less experimentally accessible ‘target’ in both we would learn about whether real as- circular as a mode of scientiic inference experimental manipulation. system. Scientists who construct ana- success trophysical black holes emit Hawking because it relies on the fact that we think But for Hawking radiation, an ex- logue experiments aim to learn about and con- radiation. the source and target systems can be tremely weak thermal lux that – accord- their target system based on empirical analogue gravity has recently been described by the same mathematical ing to a theoretical prediction – should data collected from the source system, troversy embroiled in both success and contro- structure – but whether the target sys- emanate from black holes, observation using the following reasoning: since the ❞ versy. It took over thirty years for an tem actually can be described by that and analysis are not enough. Because source and target systems are described experimentalist to actually construct a mathematical structure is exactly what gravitational redshift stretches a signal’s by the same mathematical structure, if luid analogue gravity system and test its we are trying to test. wavelength as it moves towards less ex- the source system exhibits some phe- behaviour. Finally, in 2016, Jef Steinhau- So is analogue experimentation a new treme space-time curvature, Hawking nomenon under some circumstances, er published results that claim to show way to test the structure of space-time, radiation – if it exists – becomes less and then the target system would exhibit Hawking radiation in an analogue luid or merely “an amusing feat of engineer- less energetic as it moves away from its an analogous phenomenon under analo- black hole. He took his results as “ex- ing”? he discussion remains open. If it is source and towards observers on Earth. gous circumstances. perimental conirmation of Hawking’s a new way to test the structure of space- It becomes much too weak to pick apart Physicist Bill Unruh, in 1981, suggest- prediction”. Soon after, Radin Dardashti, time, then scientists have learned how from stronger signals that dominate cos- ed using analogue experimentation to Stephan Hartmann, Karim hébault and to look into the structure of the astro- mic observations. solve the Hawking radiation detection Eric Winsberg, all philosophers of sci- physical world by running experiments Black-hole scientists, then, face a problem. He realised that, just like light ence, defended analogue experimenta- on luid systems no larger than their lab problem, because they want to know waves cannot escape from regions where tion as a robust inference structure that table-tops. Too much to expect, perhaps, whether Hawking radiation really exists. spacetime curvature is too extreme, does have the power to teach us about but exciting nonetheless. F 22 F 2019 29 Science Goodnight Opportunity, hello Franklin
As we bid farewell to NASA's rovers far outlived their 90-day mission Opportunity Mars Rover, lifetime, and contributed vastly to our understanding of the Martian environ- Jess Sharpe looks back ment. It is clear now that the cold and on its groundbreaking dry Mars of today is very di erent from achievements which have its ancient past, with water above and below its surface that could have once laid the foundations for future sustained life forms. exploration and discovery Oppy exceeded expectations with its lifetime and discoveries, and set new precedents for Martian exploration. “My battery is low and it’s getting dark” Currently Curiosity is the only rover was supposedly the nal message sent on Mars, continuing the search for evi- back to mission controllers on Earth by dence of ancient life. Soon two new rov- Opportunity. On 13th February, NASA de- ers will join this astrobiological quest. clared the Mars rover mission over, a ter ese missions will investigate areas failing to make further contact with the identi ed as having potentially been rover following a vast dust storm that habitable, as well as begin investiga- cut o communications last June. Over tions in preparation for future human 830 attempts to establish contact were expeditions to Mars. Rovers therefore made. e a ectionately nicknamed have a key role to play in improving ‘Oppy’ outlived its intended mission landing techniques and investigating lifetime by over 14 years, changing our environmental conditions that will af- understanding of the Martian landscape fect future astronauts. as the third robotic explorer on Mars – In July 2020, two new rover missions and taking its rst sel e. will launch for Mars. Each will set out Oppy landed on Mars in 2004 in a cra- to discover signs of past microbial life, ter full of spheres of the mineral hema- with on-board spectrometers which tite. On earth, these typically form in wa- are capable of detecting ‘biosignatures’. ter. Other evidence for the presence and NASA is currently producing the Mars qualities of water on Mars were swi tly 2020 Rover, while a collaborative Euro- identi ed, from the discovery of the min- pean and Russian programme, ExoMars, eral jarosite that forms in acidic water constructs another robotic rover. to crossbeds which indicated that water On 7th February, the ExoMars rover had once owed across the planet’s sur- was named Rosalind Franklin, which is face. e evidence of water’s presence tting for a rover o to hunt down traces has helped to identify promising sites of ancient life – its namesake Newnham for future missions, and enabled us to College alumna made key contributions begin determining whether Mars could not just to the discovery of DNA but also ever have supported life. to scienti c work on RNA, viruses and ere was great adversity during even graphite. Oppy’s 15-year mission, alongside these It is also tting that in the last year huge triumphs for science. Oppy trav- of Franklin’s life, she had marvelled at elled more than 28 miles across rugged the very beginning of space exploration terrain through dust storms and sand marked by the Soviet Sputnik satellite. ripples, with routes plotted by teams of Perhaps Rosalind Franklin will be the mission engineers. e last contact with rst to discover life on Mars: a worthy Spirit – the other Rover on NASA’s Mars tribute to the endeavours of space sci- Exploration Rover mission – was in 2011, ence as well as a talented and underap- yet still Oppy wandered on. Both of these preciated scientist. ▲ A self-portrait captured by one of NASA's Mars Rovers NASA
spired by the work of Gurdon. e major organisms. hurdle in this challenge was convincing By 2006, methods of converting On this day in science: the di erentiated adult cell nucleus to adult cells back into pluripotent stem return to its undi erentiated state. Co- cells by transcription factors which Dolly the sheep ordinating the stages of the cell cycle of reprogram the cell had been discov- both the adult and egg cells by starv- ❝ ered by Shinya Yamanka. ere is now of John Gurdon, during his PhD at Ox- ing them meant that successful nuclear vast potential for these cells to be Jess Sharpe ford in the 1950s. Gurdon transferred transfer of this type could occur for the Stem cell used in regenerative medicine to re- On February 22nd in 1997, the an- the nucleus of a mature, di erentiated rst time. trans- place cells lost to disease or damage, nouncement of the rst mammal cell from an African clawed frog into an e birth of Dolly marked a triumph plants as each stem cell can go on to make born through the cloning of an adult egg cell with the nucleus removed. is in cellular reprogramming, as the rst any cell type in the body. Stem cell cell set o frenzied debates across the nuclear-transfer experiment produced cloned mammal to survive until adult- could transplants could therefore replace world. Dolly the sheep was actually cloned tadpoles, proving it was pos- hood. Dolly was more than just a scien- replace neurons damaged by Alzheimer’s, born in July 1996, but the news was sible to produce cloned embryos from ti c triumph, though – she was a living, produce insulin in diabetics, and re- held back until the publication of the adult cells. ese results were initially breathing sheep, who went on to have neurons pair injured organs and tissues. In scienti c report on the cloning work, greeted with scepticism, but by 1971 six lambs. She was named a ter Dolly damaged 2012, a group of Cambridge scientists as well as the submission of a patent Gurdon was working on this nuclear Parton, in reference to the adult cell Dolly published work on the possibility of for the cloning technique. reprogramming e ect in Cambridge, was cloned from – the mammary gland by Alzhe- producing banks of stem cells that e announcement had many and directing an institute named a ter cell. We can see the wider questions imer's could potentially be used to treat roots in Cambridge science. Dolly him by 2001. about science in society that even Dolly’s ❞ most members of the population, was not the rst sheep ever cloned – Gurdon’s work in Cambridge there- name raises. More dramatic social and without the need for production of in 1984, a sheep was cloned from an fore formed the background for the ethical questions made the headlines individual personalised cell lines. embryo cell at the Institute for Ani- cloning of Dolly. Ian Wilmut, the leader in the a termath of the 1997 announce- Work like this will ensure stem cell mal Physiology, now the Babraham of the research group which cloned Dol- ment, with fears about the possibilities therapies are one day accessible to all Institute, in Cambridge. e possibil- ly, also received his PhD at Cambridge. of human cloning. However, the most potential patients and save countless ity of using mature cells rather than Working alongside Keith Campbell in exciting and promising areas Dolly’s lives – so we should give thanks to pluripotent embryo cells to clone an Edinburgh, the group set their sights on birth led to were in the reprogramming Dolly the sheep for being the unwit- organism emerged through the work cloning mammals from adult cells, in- of cells rather than the cloning of whole ting pioneer. 30 9 2018 F 22 F 201931 Science Are your recycling habits really helping the planet?
Sophie Cook discusses some 9% has been recycled. Unfortunately, it common recycling mistakes, is a common misconception that most and how to avoid them plastics can be recycled many times over. More o ten than not, due to the intensive Plastic is quickly becoming the new pub- thermal processing procedures used, lic enemy number one. We are becom- most plastics can actually only survive ing increasingly aware of its impact on being recycled once or twice. ❝ the environment, particularly on marine When you recycle plastic, it is rst ecosystems. We have all grimaced at im- sorted by machines based on plastic type Too often, ages of turtles eating supermarket bags and colour. It is then washed to remove people or seabirds with stomachs full of micro- impurities before being shredded into justify plastics. With so many people wanting small particles. ese are then separat- buying would make a massive di erence. ▲ Recycling does do so if appropriately incentivised. e to do their part and reduce their plastic ed by density, melting point and colour e black plastic trays commonly used not make up packaging industry is responsible for the consumption, I thought I would bust before being compounded and melted dispos- by supermarkets also cause a problem in for mass waste use of 42% of all primary plastics. In the some myths and common misconcep- together into plastic pellets for reuse. able items our recycling system. ese trays are of- HANS UK, we get through 35 million plastic tions around plastic and its recycling One of the major problems with the UK because ten used as food packaging as their dark drinks bottles per day. is could easily process. recycling system is its vulnerability to colour makes food stand out and look change. ere has been an explosion of e rapid growth in plastic production contaminants. Putting non-recyclable they are more appealing. is tactic obviously initiatives in the last few years to encour- began in the 1950s, and since then, we items in your recycling bin can cause recyclable works as it is estimated that UK house- age people to carry around their own have seen a 200-fold increase in annual cross-contamination, which can lead to ❞ holds produce 30,000 to 60,000 tonnes water bottles and co ee cups. It is these production rates. By 2015, we had pro- recyclable items being rejected and sent of black plastic packaging waste each small changes which can actually have duced a staggering 7.8 billion tonnes of to land ll. Government gures show that year. However, most UK recycling cen- ❝ radical impacts. plastic – more than one tonne for each between 2012 and 2016, there was an tres use infrared sorting machines which We are lucky in Cambridge to have person alive on the planet today. While 84% increase in the amount of rejected cannot detect the dye used in these black 70% of such a well-integrated recycling system. sometimes this has been for the better UK household recycling. plastics. Only 22% of UK households can people are However, too o ten people justify buying (for example, it has massively extended A survey by Anglican Home Improve- actually recycle them. unaware disposable items because they are recy- the shelf-life of food), it has facilitated ments found that 99% of British people While recycling e ectively is impor- of what clable. In fact, recycling only delays the the growth of a disposable society where claim they ‘actively recycle’. However, tant, as consumers we should still be eventual disposal of the item. It does not too little thought is given to what we a staggering 70% are unaware of what looking to consume less overall. Since they can mitigate their inevitable fate in our land- consume. they can and cannot recycle. 27% of us the 5p plastic bag charge was intro- and ll or incinerators. So on your next visit In 2015, 55% of global plastic waste think that you can recycle greasy pizza duced across the UK, our consumption cannot to Mainsbury’s, be mindful of the black went straight to land ll, 25% of it was boxes and crisp packets. Considering we of single-use plastic bags has decreased tray lurking beneath your tomatoes, and incinerated and 20% recycled. Of all the each produce around 412 kg of waste per by 80%. is is clear evidence that con- recycle don’t try to recycle your greasy chip or plastic waste produced since 1950, only year, getting our recycling habits sorted sumers do want to do their part and will ❞ pizza box a ter a night out!
At a glance Recycling tips
Common o enders, which people absolutely shouldn’t be recycling, include: ● Greasy pizza boxes ● Polystyrene contaminated with late-night takeaways ● Co ee cups (most high street chains line their cups with plastic) ● Crisp packets ● Straws ● Post-it notes
On the other hand, items which more people should be recycling are: ● Metal lids on glass jars – as long as they are separated from the glass ● Plastic bottle tops – as long as they remain on the empty bottle ● Clean kitchen foil ● Empty deodorant cans ● Envelopes – if you remove the plastic window ● Clothes – over one quarter of all clothes in the UK end up in the bin; if your unwanted clothes are un t for dona- tion to a charity shop, they can be recycled 22 F 2019 31 Sport CUWBC’s Abigail Parker: “It’s about trusting the people around you and moving with them”
train with and you can get more varied sports psychology - everything is de- racing experiences within the squad and signed so that we hit our peak for the just having a wider support network Boat Race. And that’s a real strength of where it’s not just you training with the the Boat Race. same twenty people that you’re com- “But at the same time we do also peting with but you also have another want to continue our season past the twenty people that are on the same jour- Boat Race - how we make sure that we’re ney as you. also performing at BUCS regatta, and in “It’s been an interesting experience a position to send boats to Henley and and really helpful for us. But we’ve been the European University Games. Making getting along really well with CUBC” sure not only are we faster than Oxford e discussion of the structure of the every year but also faster than as many di erent rowing clubs at the University people as we can be. And that’s some- leads me to question the structure of thing that we’ve been thinking about the season itself, a season which is en- going into the future” tirely de ned by a single, unpredictable Full focus remains on the Boat Race race against a single University. Parker is on the 7th April. Asked to send out a mes- similarly progressive on this issue, and sage to the Oxford crew, Parker displays is open to potential changes: her characteristic sportsmanship: “We “I do think that it is great how fo- really respect everything that they’re do- cussed we are on the Boat Race because ing - they’re training for the same thing when you get to race day, you’re more as us and, although we hope that we prepared for anything than you’ve ever come out on top, there’s a lot of mutual been in your entire life. respect.” ▲ Parker says er is President of CUWBC (Cambridge “You’ve had so many months of work- Whatever happens on the Tideway on William Ross that success University Women’s Boat Club), a sepa- ing with the same people improving in the 7th April, rest assured that Parker will Sport Editor comes down to rate entity from the men’s boat club, the rowing but also in other facets like lead her crew with strength. working as a whose name does not even allude to Sitting in the clubhouse of the Goldie team CUWBC gender: Cambridge University Boat Club. Boathouse a ter training, surrounded Intrigued, I ask about gender equality in by plaques detailing the Boat Race re- the world of Cambridge rowing, and it sults of every CUBC and CUWBC crew soon becomes apparent that this is an over the last century, 24-year old zool- issue close to Parker’s heart. ogy PHD student Abigail Parker seems “It’s really apparent in where we are relaxed ahead of what will be one of the now that we live in a society that has biggest and most high-pro le races of been biased towards men for centuries. SUMMER EMPLOYMENT her rowing career. And that’s where we are with the Boat “I think that it’s looking good ahead Clubs - the men’s club have been going OPPORTUNITIES of the Boat Race and I think that the for longer, they’ve been doing the Boat amount of e ort that everyone’s putting Race since 1829, whilst we’ve only been into it will pay o . We’ve got really great on the tideway for 5 years. people on the team, and there’s a re- “Right now, we get equal support ally good squad atmosphere. ere’s from funding and sponsors but there a tight bond between everyone and is a very di erent background. For ex- we’re all focussed on what we can do ample, we have great alumni from the to improve.” women’s club who do so much for us but As one would expect of the CUWBC we don’t have the same alumni network President, Parker has plenty of rowing ❝ or nancial security that the men’s club experience to draw on ahead of the big When you has in many respects. day, having to learn to row at Winsor “I think that going forward there are school in Massachusetts before becom- get to race active plans to improve that, and equal- ing captain of the Harvard University’s day, you’re ity between the clubs is improving every Radcli e varsity heavyweight crew in year.” 2016. Pressed on the key ingredients to more An encouraging step in the right di- a winning crew, Parker is particularly prepared rection did indeed take place this year, insightful: with the joining of performance pro- “It doesn’t come down to the indi- than grammes across openweight women, POSITIONS AVAILABLE IN CAMBRIDGE viduals. It’s about how you can work to- you’ve ever lightweight men and lightweight wom- TeachingJuly in a- Augustnumber 2019 of subjects gether and that’s something that we’ve been in en. In e ect, CUWBC merged with the been really focussed on - getting eight Cambridge University Lightweight Teaching eaching Pastoral and Pastoralactivities Administrative people plus the cox completely on the your entire Rowing Club. a a a same page. CUWBC does, however, remain a Logistics and administrative “Making the same technical changes, life separate entity from the CUBC, and the Next Interviews 27-28th February taking a push at the same time, setting ❜❜ performance programmes of the open- the same rhythm because even if you weight men and openweights women’s Employment is subject to an enhanced DBS check and appropriate references. have eight people who are incredibly crew are not formally joined. Asked strong, if they’re not doing it together whether she’d be in favour of merging you’re not going to go fast and you’re with CUBC, Parker remains coy. Get in touch for application details and further information: not going to win. So, it’s all about trust- “ e lightweight men and women [email protected] ing the people around you and moving now train with us. Our women’s Blue with them.” Boat now has a boat that is faster than www.oxford-royale.co.uk/work-with-us It is hard to ignore the fact that Park- them in the lightweight men’s boat to 32 Friday 22nd February 2019
Who will take the Tideway? William Ross sits down with CUWBC President Abigail Parker 31 Pythons beat rivals to qualify for playofs Sport
Cambridge 25
Anglia Ruskin 0
Incredibly, Dennis was individually re- ▲ The Pythons defence. Despite the Rhinos’ defensive to Holland in the third quarter and the Michael N’Guyen Kim sponsible for more yards than his team’s in action against linemen and linebackers having a gen- other to Simeon Kakpovi (2 catches, 36 Sport Reporter entire ofense, with 178 in total (103 pass- the ARU Rhinos eral size advantage over their Pythons’ yards, 1 TD) in the fourth, resulted in ing yards plus 75 rushing). in a fiercely counterparts, the hosts’ mobility al- Cambridge touchdowns. he Pythons’ he Cambridge University Pythons’ Comb was ebullient about his team’s contested affair lowed them to regularly evade blocks defence continued to nullify the Rhinos’ American Football Club have qualiied performance: “We didn’t allow them to (MARTIN STEERS) and breach the pocket. run and passing game, while a fatigued for the BUCS Division 2 playofs after score the entire game, [that] was out- It was the same story in the second Dennis was eventually substituted late a 25-0 win against the Anglia Ruskin standing. heir quarterback was par- quarter. After a failed fourth-down con- in the fourth quarter with the outcome University Rhinos in their inal game ticularly mobile and we put the game version which left the ball on the Rhi- beyond doubt. of the regular season. he victory was on his shoulders to win it…but you can nos’ 16, Brown lobbed a beautiful arcing Sunday’s win was the home team’s largely constructed of the back of a only rely [on a quarterback’s running ball into the arms of Jonny Holland (2 sixth straight victory over their local ri- stiling defensive performance by the game] for so long…we tired him out in catches, 28 yards, 2 TDs), resulting in the vals, who they have never lost to. hey Pythons (3-3), who conceded just 161 the end.” Pythons’ second touchdown. are now guaranteed second spot in the yards of total ofense. he game was never going to be a he Rhinos’ breakthrough nearly 2A South East Conference behind Essex Over the course of the four quarters, particularly stern test for Pythons, as came on the next drive. heir ofense by (6-0), and await further results to de- the Rhinos’ ofensive set-up was com- the Rhinos (0-4) were winless leading this point had become heavily reliant on termine who they will encounter in the prehensively dismantled by the home into the ixture and needed to win their Dennis’ running game, and a 26-yard run ▼ The Pythons playofs. After the conclusion of the play- team. First came the run defence, who three remaining matches to have any took them into Pythons’ territory. Con- prepare for a ofs, their focus will shift to the Varsity consistently plugged gaps and prevent- hope of making the playofs. However, fronted with a 4th and 7 at the Pythons’ scrum (MARTIN match in May, in which they are looking ed the visitors’ running backs Anousheh the Pythons had come of a close loss 40, Dennis rolled out to the right before STEERS) to regain the trophy at home. Fulford and Rory Magee from making the previous weekend against East Lon- ❝ taking of once more, gaining another any headway. Second came the pass don and required a win at Coldham’s Sunday’s 20 yards and the irst down. A couple of rush, which pressured Rhinos’ quarter- Common to guarantee their spot in the quick completions then gave the Rhinos back Kayode Dennis with such regu- playofs. win was a irst and goal, which Dennis duly con- larity that he spent more time outside hey began proceedings emphatically, the home verted by rushing into the endzone with the pocket than in it. Finally came the going 67 yards in 9 plays on their irst seconds remaining in the irst half. here defensive backs, led by Pythons captain possession. Quarterback Ethan Brown team’s was a penalty lag on the play, however, Sam Comb, who were unlucky to get an (11/17, 162 yards, 4 TDs) completed the sixth and the Rhinos lined up for a 30-yard interception in what was a thorough drive with a slant to Michael Ballentine ield goal attempt. Just as they were on blanketing of the ARU receivers. (2 catches, 16 yards, 1 TD), who strutted straight the verge of getting on the scoreboard, he game ultimately came down to a into the endzone for the irst score of victory the visitors were again penalised, this question of Dennis’ mobility. Constantly the day. over their time for an illegal substitution. he re- lushed out of the pocket, his speed his was followed by two consecu- sulting 40-yard attempt was just beyond represented his team’s only credible tive three-and-outs (plus a turnover on local rivals Fulford’s reach, missing wide left. ofensive threat. His 75 rushing yards downs) by the Rhinos’ ofense as they ❜❜ hat was the closest the Rhinos from nine attempts, however, were not struggled to establish either the run or came to breaking their scoring duck. enough to drag his team over the line. the pass against the formidable Pythons’ Two magniicent passes by Brown, one