Skipping Out Summer 2020 Contents

The Lessons of the Roaring Twenties, Kate Ivanova

Save a Life: Give Blood, Annika Woodward

Are Regeneration Projects Providing Enough Affordable

Housing?, Anita Higgs

More of a Hindrance than a Help, Yasmin Ghobadian

The Glamorisation of Eating Disorders, Hannah Davis

How Cleopatra Fell Victim to Fake News, Lily Blue Harper

Mind Your Language, Chiara Lewis

Not in Ourselves but in Our Stars, Melissa Redman

The Floods in Jakarta: a Study in Western Media, Saskia

Kirkegaard

Stand Up for the Cheaters? Millie Jackson

The Persecution of Jews in Belarus, Morgan Dropkin Roar

The Flint Water Crisis, Maeve Gallagher

A Convenient Excuse, Juliet Freeman

Angels of Death, Naishah Karim

Great Expectations, Chloe Grossmith-Dwek Skipping Out Skipping A re-Education, Anika Anand Cover Cover work by Nora Jovine

About Skipping Out

Skipping Out is a pupil-led magazine; it aims to give all students in the Senior School a voice and freedom to express their opinions, passions and interests.

2 Girls enjoying success Dear readers,

As we begin another decade, a decade which will hopefully become a new Roaring Twenties, one of great prosperity, untold advances and fabulous fashion (though, let’s face it, things aren’t looking too hot at the moment), we thought we’d write about all the things that made us rant, rumble and roar.

We hope you enjoy reading the following articles. If you’re interested in writing for a future issue of the magazine, please contact Ms Wilkinson.

You’re gonna hear us roar!

Kate Ivanova Annika Anita Higgs Yasmin Hannah Davis Morgan Woodward Ghobadian Dropkin

Lily Blue Chiara Lewis Melissa Saskia Millie Jackson Maeve Harper Redman Kirkegaard Gallagher

Juliet Freeman Naishah Karim Chloe Anika Anand Nora Jovine Grossmith- Dwek

Girls enjoying success 3 The Lessons of the Roaring Twenties Kate Ivanova compares our new decade with the Roaring Twenties.

“The buildings were higher, the parties were bigger, the morals were looser and the liquor was cheaper.”

That’s how F. Scott Fitzgerald described the change that occurred in 1920, the start of the period now affectionately referred to as the Roaring Twenties. It became the ultimate symbol of glamour, novelty and drunk excitement, immortalised by the film industry over the years, and certainly a far cry from the reality faced now, exactly a century later. The new year is supposed to be a time for change and hope, and yet only a few months into 2020, this decade has come to be defined by the climate emergency, Australian bushfires, the Coronavirus, and whatever else news outlets see fit to bombard us with daily. So while thousands of people are still attempting to stick to their new year resolutions, perhaps there is no better time than now to take a page out of the world of The Great Gatsby and bring some of that idealised excitement into our own lives. Here’s what we should, and probably should not, embrace from that decade as we enter the new Roaring Twenties.

Should: the influence of fashion

What is the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about the 1920s? Most likely, it is the marvellous outfits that emerged Should not: harmful social attitudes during this period. For women, clothing restrictions were lifted as the looser, straighter frocks known as flapper dresses rose It is both fascinating and utterly shocking that some of the in popularity. The diminishing favour of the corset allowed for problems faced by society a century ago are still prevalent in less tailoring, which created a tubular silhouette with dropped the modern age, none more so than varying social attitudes waistlines and shorter hemlines that were particularly useful as like racism, sexism and homophobia. At the same time as the a larger number of female drivers emerged. This was a sharp flapper girls were gaining in popularity, another prominent contrast to the stiff, elaborate gowns of the Edwardian era, group rallied new members in the 1920s. The Ku Klux Klan and it facilitated the availability of high-end clothing for all social (KKK), despite existing since 1865, experienced the highest classes. Fashion became a way of empowering women who surge in membership numbers after William Joseph Simmons were just getting used to their new found freedom, especially took leadership of it in 1915. Its anti-Jewish, anti-Catholic, with their right to vote and opportunities for higher education. anti-immigrant and later anti-Communist agenda appealed By the end of the period, flapper girls, as they came to be to those who felt their liberty threatened by the newly put called, were seen as shunners of traditional values as they cut in place Prohibition and the acceptance of sexual freedoms. their hair, wore bold make-up and were the representations The KKK’s supposedly patriotic message led to the number of the party girl image that emerged during the Roaring of members to peak drastically from 1.5 million to 4 million, Twenties. They became emblematic of enthusiasm and youthful up to 15% of the eligible population, by 1924. Immigrants, exuberance, after a long period of suffering caused by the especially Eastern European Jews, Irish and Italian Catholics war and the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918. These new trends and the Japanese, were blamed for polluting America’s morals were demonstrative of the undeniable power and influence of by encouraging sexual liberty, widespread political corruption clothing. In light of the current upheavals happening around the and stealing jobs. What perhaps makes this whole movement world, the similarities to the past are uncanny; without wishing the more frightening is that because of the secrecy surrounding to sound trite, perhaps a way forward could be in embracing a the group, its offensive and primarily racist message was often new and freer aesthetic? disguised with patriotism, picnics and parades. Does any of this sound familiar? Donald Trump could be said to be using

4 Girls enjoying success his platform to blame immigrants for the problems in America often used by flappers to dress up regular words. The only today, except he is not a part of a relatively small political rule, the suffix must be a part of both the question and group, that excluding its brief rise in popularity in the early the answer (eg: ‘Would you like a drink-avous?’ could be 1920s, remained largely insignificant, but rather holds the replied to with “No thanks, I’m on the wagon-avous!’) highest position in office possible in the United States and is the person the country is supposed to rely on to bring forward Need I say more? a more positive future. As we begin this new decade, there is no better time to reflect on the past and heed its warning. Should not: Prohibition

The 17th of January, 1920 signalled the start of the thirteen years in America known as Prohibition. It was probably not a bad idea in theory: prevent alcohol from being part of the cause of poverty, industrial incidents, criminality, political corruption or the break-up of families. It was hailed by President Herbert Hoover as, ‘a great social and economic experiment’, banning alcohol from being made, transported or sold within the United States. The drive for the ban to be instituted began all the way in 1846, when Maine passed the first prohibition law, and by 1916, 26 of the 48 states had prohibition laws put in place. In practice, however, the decision was more easily passed than enforced. The law defined anything containing more than half a percent of alcohol as an intoxicating liquor but made no mention of the use of alcohol for medicinal, sacramental or industrial purposes, which lead to doctors often purchasing it for ‘laboratory’ use but really passing it on to their patients to drink and making themselves a tidy profit in the process. For whatever could not be obtained Should: the use of slang in this way, there were criminals opening illegal drinking dens, the number of which rose up to 200,000 by the end of the The rise of internet communication facilitated not only the decade. Over this time, the consumption of alcohol dropped by emergence of in-the-moment conversations but also, ultimately, 50% and the number of deaths caused by cirrhosis of the liver of internet slang, also known as cyber-slang or chatspeak. Now dropped significantly, but at what cost? Prohibition, undeniably, you cannot open social media without being hit with the words had a strong effect on the economy, with the loss of $11 billion LOL, OMG, BRB or BTW. In fact, it seems as though every in tax revenues with the destruction of the brewing industry, as day you encounter a new word that has to be looked up to be well as the $300 million the ban cost to enforce. Without the properly understood. While people today might view these as ready availability of liquor, people turned to other substances: creative and innovative, they are nothing compared to the slang opium, marijuana, patent medicines, cocaine, or other things that emerged in the 1920s as part of the modernisation after it is believed they would never had encountered had it not the Great War. If nothing more, adopting these might bring been for Prohibition. Perhaps there is no greater evidence of some excitement and fun into our lives at a time when global Prohibition’s failure than the words of newly-elected President situations appear dire. Franklin D. Roosevelt after the Wall Street Crash in 1929: Some examples of 1920s’ slang: ‘What America needs now is a drink.’ What this shows is that widespread bans are not always successful, instead often • darb = splendid, wonderful subjecting the population to more dangerous conditions. This is • iron one’s shoelaces = excuse oneself to go to the a precedent that has been well-proved since with, for example, bathroom the debate over the legalisation of abortion, the ban of which • noodle juice = tea had only shown an increase in backstreet operations. Maybe if • petting pantry = cinema we paid more attention to the events of the past, we would be • sockdollager = an event of great importance better equipped not to make the same mistakes as we enter • handcuff = engagement ring these new Roaring Twenties. • or perhaps a personal favourite: the addition of the suffixes ‘-ski’ and ‘-avous’, derived from Russian and French, were

Girls enjoying success 5 Save a Life: Give Blood

Annika Woodward investigates the current shortages in donations and what we can do to help.

Due to the lack of awareness and information in the news, you may not even be aware that there is currently a blood and organ shortage in the UK. Three people die every day, due to a lack of donor organs available. As a consequence of this ongoing crisis, the government has decided to intervene. In spring 2020, everyone who has lived in the UK for more than 6 months will be automatically signed up for the organ donor register, unless they actively opt out. This programme will aim to increase the number of organs available, as each person may be able to provide 12 organs, and potentially save 12 separate lives. Although only around 1 in 100 people who die is able to donate their organs (due to health factors and cause of death), the number of lives saved will dramatically increase. The new opt-out system allows people who previously lacked the time to sign up, to allow their wishes of helping others to be fulfilled. Therefore, this will hopefully bring the organ donation crisis to an end. However, there are no current enforcements or laws regarding blood donations. The lack of blood donations is caused by widespread myths about giving blood, lack of knowledge of the shortage, fear of the process or a lack of time. each donation. In reality, blood donations are needed very frequently: as often • Lowers the risk of cancer by maintaining the iron store in as every three seconds someone requires a blood transfusion. the body. However, the blood for these transfusions is often not readily • The weight of the donor can be reduced or maintained at available. This low blood supply means that burn victims, organ healthy levels. replacement surgeries and leukaemia and cancer patients are unable to receive their correct treatment. In the UK, the I hope that the aforementioned points convince you that shortage is even more apparent, as a recent survey showed more people need to be informed about the process of blood that only 4% of eligible donors in the UK actually donate donation, the reasons for it and the benefits for the donor. blood, further demonstrating the lack of knowledge and While we should rightly rejoice about the changes to the law uptake. regarding organ donations, the country’s low blood supply is still a constant worry. Therefore, if you are aged 18 or above This ongoing problem needs to change, prompto, and we can and feel like helping others, I hope that you will consider help by raising awareness and informing the population of the donating blood and, by doing so, help put an end to the potential lives they could save and the possible benefits to their current crisis. own lives. By donating blood, people can get over their fear of needles, whilst also being an everyday superhero and saving up to three lives. After only six weeks 100% of the blood lost is regenerated and we are able to donate again, with no long term damage to our health. As well as feeling very noble after donating blood, there is also free food, drink, books and even entertainment! Who doesn’t want free food? Moreover, besides helping others, donating blood can actually be beneficial to your own health. Many scientific studies show that by regularly donating blood: • The risk of developing hemochromatosis (a disorder where too much iron builds up in your body, and may lead to arthritis) is lowered, by reducing your iron load after

6 Girls enjoying success Are Regeneration Projects Providing Enough Affordable Housing?

Anita Higgs investigates

A UK Poverty 2019/20 report from The Joseph Rowntree Foundation states that there has been little change in overall poverty levels for more than 15 years. In addition, around 14 million people are in poverty in the UK (more than one in five of the population), made up of three million working- age adults, four million children and two million pensioners. Interestingly, the report focuses on the importance of housing and how it has become very influential on poverty in the UK. The report states that housing costs have risen since 2000/01 for households on low incomes who rent in the private and social rented sectors. Furthermore, the social housing sector addition, many residents have had little or no alternative other has continued to shrink and housing is least affordable for than to move out of the local area due to lacking financial households in poverty in London, the South East and the East means. For example, Sharon O’Callaghan-Evans, after living of England. in the East Village for a year, had to give up her flat after her rents were hiked by nearly a quarter - from £15,000 a year to A popular and recurrent scheme which the government uses more than £18,500 pounds. She now lives more than a 100 to help resolve and reduce the issue of poverty in the UK is miles from London, near the town of Yeovil in rural Somerset. regeneration. Moreover, regeneration offers the government O’Callaghan-Evans is one of many who joined post-Olympics and broader housing sector the opportunity to address the ‘affordable’ housing schemes who have faced rising rents and housing crisis. Regeneration is the investment of capital and insecure housing contracts. ideas into an area to revitalise and renew its socio-economic and environmental status. When at its most effective, The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea is also an area regeneration can remove the barriers to economic growth and which experiences a high concentration of social inequality. help local leaders to strengthen their communities and support It is a borough where the average house price is more than people back into work. And, in turn, economic growth can £2 million; however, it is also a borough with almost 3,000 provide opportunities to tackle social disadvantage and urban people on the housing waiting list and where child poverty deprivation – helping to regenerate and breathe economic life rates in parts of the borough are above the London average. into previously disadvantaged areas. Many residents are concerned that current regeneration projects in the area will fail to meet the financial capacity of Regeneration is a complex and far-reaching scheme. It is those individuals with low income, that social housing will be incredibly difficult for every project to be successful in all knocked down, resulting in people losing their homes or being aspects, meeting the needs of all individuals and providing relocated to other areas. Moreover, there is a huge concern contentment and satisfaction for all. However, one aspect that the projects will not deliver enough affordable housing. in which the majority of regeneration projects are failing to For example, the council is currently redeveloping two old car achieve is providing enough affordable housing. Regeneration parks in the centre of the borough; however, of the 84 new projects target areas all across the UK where poverty is flats being built on the land it owns, just seven will be available concentrated: communities which have low standards and to council tenants. a low quality of living, low incomes and low educational achievements. Therefore, in theory, it would be desirable In addition, there has been an increase in the pattern of for these developments to offer 100% affordable housing. regeneration projects given planning permission between Otherwise, while regeneration might increase the standard 2004 and 2014, which has seen a reduction of almost 30% in of living for some people, it may indirectly harm those who the number of social rented homes - from 30,431 to 22,135, should benefit from it most, with many local residents who are according to a recent study by the London Assembly. living in poverty having to move out of the area as they will be Ultimately, there are few examples of completed regeneration unable to afford the new housing. projects in the UK which have achieved a high percentage of Sadly, however, this often isn’t being taken into consideration. affordable housing in which all former residents are financially For example, Lea Valley in East London experienced able to still live in the area. Of course, this is a very complex regeneration in correlation with the Olympic Games in 2012. issue with numerous factors involved. Nonetheless, much of Part of the project’s promises was to deliver 49% affordable the evidence suggests that the current completed regeneration housing; however, over the years, as luxury apartment blocks projects have failed to provide enough affordable housing and, have risen up, targets for affordable housing in the local area therefore, failed to reduce the possibility of poverty being have been revised and major cuts have been conducted. In resolved in the UK.

Girls enjoying success 7 More of a Hindrance than a Help Yasmin Ghobadian investigates how the American assassination of Qasem Soleimani actually aided the brutal Iranian regime

‘Remember what I previously said - Obama will someday attack Iran in order to show how tough he is.’ Welcome to Hypocrisy 101.

This was tweeted by President Trump on the 25th September 2013; however, as we all know, it was in fact Trump who did this on the 3rd of January 2020. Although Trump’s tweets could make for a whole article on their own, this one example goes some way to demonstrating that the unlawful assassination of Qasem Soleimani was somewhat unnecessary.

Unless, of course, Trump values his ‘toughness’ over the lives of innocent people?

Qasem Soleimani, a man branded a ’terrorist’ by the United States of America, was born into a peasant family on the 11th of March 1957 and rose in the ranks of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, an elite military force responsible for protecting the Islamic regime from internal and external threats. Trump’s tweets that Obama will invade Iran

Before that fatal Thursday evening, Soleimani was the most feared men in the Middle East and nicknamed the ‘Face of International Resistance’. Despite these claims, he was still treated with respect, which is strange for a leader of an increasingly unpopular regime.

This respect came about because Soleimani was one of the main fighting forces within the Middle East and was the leading force in defeating ISIS, even though America would like to Protests in Iran on gas prices rewrite the history regarding the Syrian war and tar Iran with the same brush as the jihadists that Solemani spent most of his simply united the people against America and therefore life fighting. strengthened the Iranian regime who would later use this support in fights against the USA. I am not trying to argue that Solemani was a great man, by any means. By eliminating ISIS in the region, he also helped the The regime facilitated the extreme mourning you will have dictatorial Assad regime stay in place. In addition, Solemani seen in the news with thousands of people publicly expressing instructed his Revolutionary Guard to kill more than 1,500 grief to show the world that the assassination did not weaken Iranians when they took to the streets in November to protest them as a country but instead united them. Soleimani’s death over petrol prices. It should be noted that this ruthless and even galvanised the participation of people in the parliamentary oppressive behaviour added to the discontent towards him. elections in February.

Even though in his time he killed many innocent Iranian people The unlawful assassination of Soleimani helped neither America and was a leading figure in the oppressive regime, when one of nor the innocent people of Iran subjected to its harsh regime. their own was assassinated by an American it played into the All it did was aid the Iranian government by adding to the nationalist feeling in the country. And this nationalist feeling is nationalist movement and further bitter relations between Iran heightened because the country in question is Iran, a country and America. Ironically, Trump created the one thing that both known for its pride in their long heritage and culture - being the government and people can unite against. one of the first great human civilisations. This assassination

8 Girls enjoying success Girls enjoying success 9 The Glamorisation of Eating Disorders Why would something so deadly be so often glamorised by the entertainment industry? Hannah Davis investigates. Eating disorders are not pretty. They do not leave you healthy, significantly harder life, often getting illnesses we associate with happy or in any way improved. In most cases, they don’t leave pensioners, such as osteoporosis, in their early twenties; they you at all. But in popular media - advertisement, television, can never undo the long term damage that the eating disorder celebrity posts on social media - having an eating disorder is did to their bodies. often equated with womanhood, with strength, with glamour. They are promoted as quirky personality traits which make In order to get a better idea of public sentiment, I conducted a someone not only more interesting but more attractive. The survey asking some simple questions about people’s body image gravity of this misrepresentation is not to be underestimated. and their thoughts on the glamorisation of eating disorders. 70% of respondents said that, if they could, they would change Looking at the bigger picture, so much of the narrative aimed their appearance. On being asked how, the most commonly at teenage girls encourages eating disorders. In some way or used word was ‘skinnier’. In a group of approximately fifty 13- another, we face a never-ending stream of messaging telling us 18 year olds, the vast majority disliked how they look. to be smaller. Both literally and metaphorically, we are bullied into taking up less space. This casual sexism manifests itself in I don’t write this article with any realistic idea of a solution so many aspects of our daily lives that one almost forgets it’s because I don’t believe that this is an issue that can be easily there; we spend so much of our lives shrinking ourselves that solved. Leading experts disagree on practically every aspect of standing at full height can feel uncomfortable. We so frequently how eating disorders should be handled and discussed - some travel through life feeling that we must constantly suck in our argue that talking about them encourages people to ‘try them’, stomachs and cross our legs and sit still and look pretty. The whilst others believe that if we don’t give the subject airtime, correlation between skinniness, attractiveness and happiness is it becomes taboo and therefore more dangerous. The fact is, rammed down our throats from such a young age that we’re generalising the entire topic also won’t help. Different people well accustomed to the feeling by the time we become part of respond to different things and, cliched as it sounds, no two the age group most susceptible to eating disorders. experiences with eating disorders are the same. I do, however, write this article in the hope that we can, at least, begin to But what is so dangerous about the way in which eating reconsider our unhealthy attitudes to eating disorders. disorders are addressed is the glory used to portray them. This sense of glamour is so embedded that even women who Striking the balance is undoubtedly very difficult; one must are generally regarded as forces of body-positivity engage in destigmatise but not normalise, verbalise but not advertise. this culture. Meghan Trainor, an American singer-songwriter, However, the general consensus of teenagers about their described how she ‘wasn’t strong enough to have an eating bodies - ranging from mild dissatisfaction to extreme hatred - disorder’ in response to questions about how she began to love demonstrates that there is a long way to go. Just because it’s herself and her body as she is. Whilst her overall message of vastly more common to dislike how you look than to like it embracing yourself and not taking drastic measures to change does not mean that that is the correct way to be a teenager. is a beneficial one, the idea of eating disorders demonstrating Insecurity is a rite of passage of sorts, but serious eating strength is hugely damaging. This advertises what can be disorders are not. a terminal mental illness as a display of will power or of determination. It also misjudges the motivation behind eating disorders, labelling something as self-control instead of self- hate.

Another aspect of eating disorders that is frequently broadcast is the idea that whilst it may get worse, it will end up getting better. This could not be further from the truth. The fact is that the ramifications of an eating disorder follow you around quite possibly for the rest of your life. The emotional scars of such a level of mental illness do not fade with the physical ones; although things can get better, the typical image of pretty, happy, skinny girls who have survived eating disorders are idealised myths. Those who do survive are - almost without exception - surviving only to live a deeply changed and

10 Girls enjoying success How Cleopatra Fell Victim to Fake News The depictions of Cleopatra as an exotic seductress, a debaucherous queen and an alluring temptress are familiar to us all, but where did these images come from, and how far do they reflect the true character of the Queen of the Nile?Lily Blue Harper investigates. Over the past two millennia, many people have spoken for the Egyptian Queen; from ancient paintings, to Shakespeare, to the classic 1960s’ film starring Elizabeth Taylor, we have been putting words in her mouth for over two thousand years. However, it appears that we still tend to imagine her through Roman eyes, continuing to brand her much in the same way as the contemporary propaganda constructed by Octavian during the Battle of Actium in 31BCE, whose primary purpose was to discredit her lover, and Octavian’s rival, Marcus Antonius (Mark Antony).

Although her story has mutated slightly across time according to the prejudices and preoccupations of those telling her tale, images of temptation, overt sexuality, prodigality and manipulation reoccur constantly in relation to Cleopatra. The Renaissance painters placed the emphasis on sex and money when illustrating the queen, producing lewd and pretty obscene images of her suicide. They portrayed her almost exclusively Cleopatra, we have to travel back to Ancient Rome and to the in the nude and with the asp responsible for her death at her very end of the Republic. After the death of Julius Caesar, two breast, although all the ancient historians agree that Cleopatra clear sides had formed between Octavian, Caesar’s powerful had herself dressed in all her royal robes before applying the heir, and Mark Antony, Caesar’s right-hand man and close snake to her arm. They also produced many paintings of a friend. Whilst Mark Antony claimed the Byzantine Empire (the scene in which the queen gulps down a pearl dissolved in Eastern parts of the Roman Empire) as his territory, forging vinegar at a magnificent banquet over which she presides, as if an intimate relationship with the Egyptian queen, Cleopatra, to elucidate her excessiveness, wealth and imprudence. Octavian centred himself in Rome, where the ability to influence the governing Senate and the people of the city still Similar interpretations continue right up to more recent times. mattered. In the 1930s, Cecil B de Mille offered the leading role in his film ‘Cleopatra’, to Claudette Colbert with the words, ‘How Around this time, Octavian made what he claimed was would you like to play the wickedest woman in history?’ With Antony’s will widely available to the population of Rome, as contemporaneous connotations of the term ‘wicked’ being well as reading it out publicly in the senate house; whether sexy, edgy and thrilling, this quote epitomises the film’s central or not it was really Antony’s will is still heavily disputed by portrayal of the queen as a practised seductress and its focus scholars. The so-called will contained a plethora of subjects on her bewitching sexual allure. which were sure to anger greatly both the general Roman population and the senators. For example, it appeared to During her reign, evidence proves Cleopatra to have alleviated confirm that Antony intended to leave legacies to his children a famine, suppressed an insurrection and built an entire fleet, begotten with Cleopatra, including large pieces of Roman-held proving her to be a hugely capable, intelligent and astute territory in the eastern Mediterranean. In this way, Octavian sovereign. Further to this, she had exceptional wealth, by convinced the people of Rome, including many men in the far the most of any individual in the Mediterranean and a senate who had previously supported Antony, that Antony had firm grasp of military affairs, vouched for by an eminent lost his head and given himself over to the allure and despotism Roman general. Nonetheless, she survives today as a wanton of Cleopatra. temptress, stories of her reckless, profligate debauchery drowning out any appreciation of her skill, bravery and mental In the process of this propaganda campaign, Octavian creates capability. the potent image of Cleopatra as bewitching and, thereby, enslaving Antony, luring him to the East, as he is reduced to In order to understand how this image developed in the being her ‘degraded appendage’. first place and why Octavian first created this narrative for

Girls enjoying success 11 Octavian’s characterisation of Cleopatra as a powerful temptress and inebriated whore was particularly successful due to the sexual and racial politics of Rome at that time. Through constructing this narrative about Cleopatra, Octavian suggested that this was not going to be a civil war nor a fight between himself and Mark Antony for control and succession after Julius Caesar; rather, it was a primal battle between Rome and Egypt, the West against the East, and man against woman. This clever move precipitated Octavian’s victory and succession as the first emperor of Rome.

This image of Cleopatra as a wanton seductress also developed due to the intrinsic presence of sexism at the heart of Roman society. In her book, Cleopatra: A Life, Stacy Schiff investigates the significance of this sexism in defining the legacy of Cleopatra in great detail writing that, ‘Cleopatra stood at one of the most dangerous intersections in history: that of women and power.’ Schiff also emphasises Cleopatra as a victim of millennia of sexism, writing, ‘I think it’s easier for us to believe that a woman succeeds because of her beauty instead of her brain.’

The will also played on many of the anti-eastern prejudices of the ancient Romans, traditional views that were suspicious of the wealth and luxuries of the east. Throughout this period, racist Roman propaganda identified Egyptians as self-indulgent, selfish and effeminate in their willingness to treat women as their equals. Meanwhile, they were hugely proud of their own ‘abstemiousness, the austerity of their religion and their readiness for war’, as stated by Lucy Hughes-Hallet in her 2006 Guardian article, The most wicked woman in history.

Yet, one of the most interesting things about the way Cleopatra was reinvented as a degenerate hedonist and traitor to Rome, is the longevity of this image and how little historians and artists have strayed from Octavian’s original branding of her, instead continuing to define her by Roman propaganda. Like so many political figures, Cleopatra was a victim of history written by her adversaries.

Using Octavian’s original propaganda as a springboard, many poets in the centuries after Cleopatra’s death continued his ideas, painting her as a dangerous woman who employed sex, witchcraft and cunning in order to obtain power way beyond what was deemed appropriate for a woman. For example, in the late first century BCE, the poet Horace, described her as, ‘A crazy queen...plotting...to demolish the Capitol and topple the Empire’, in a text which would go on to be

12 Girls enjoying success widely distributed and read, and, therefore, defining her as this character in the minds of millions. Nearly a century later, the Roman poet Lucan labelled her, ‘the shame of Egypt, the lascivious fury who was to become the bane of Rome.’ These two examples show us that it is possible to see how the scandalous and entertaining story of Cleopatra as this wanton figure was passed down through literature that was either buying into or playing with that perspective of her.

The effect of this is exaggerated further by the fact that the poets are really the only people who write about her after her death, with no official discourse and almost nothing about her in the official documentation of Rome because she was an enemy who was a woman and therefore, in their perspective, not a sufficiently dangerous enemy.

Later on we tend to find allusions to Cleopatra in histories about Rome, but, unfortunately, she tends only to come into these narratives at the moments when she meets Julius Caesar or Mark Antony, her purpose, more often than not, being to demonstrate the way in which the mighty Romans fell to the enticements of the East.

In this way, writers, artists and powerful figures continue to seal the fate of the way we perceive the Egyptian queen. This process is summed up perfectly by Eve MacDonald in her article for the Business Standard as she claims that almost all interpretations of the story, from antiquity to the 21st century, ‘reinforce the narrative that Octavian had taken such pains to publicise: Antony was a man who had lost his head and all Roman sense of propriety for the love of a woman...The attraction of blaming an exotic woman, the eastern queen, Cleopatra, for corrupting Antony was the tale that posterity has accepted.’

However, this narrative of a powerful woman who has been transmuted into a shamelessly seductive one by the powerful men who surround her, as a means of domination and control, is not unique to Cleopatra and, sadly, sounds very familiar to us, 2000 years later. BBC News now has a whole section on its website dedicated to calling out ‘fake news’ and over two thirds of Europeans encounter fake news at least once a week. As a by-product of that successful Roman exercise in news manipulation, Cleopatra was cast as an entirely different woman to whom she was and was never able to shake off this identity, even 2000 years after her death. Staggeringly, women today, both famous and not, are falling victim to unbelievably similar false claims about them, and are being defined by the biased and unevidenced opinions of others. The frequency with which we encounter fake news in the modern day and its potential to influence the way we think, how we vote, and what we believe seems to be as much an issue for us today as it was for Romans in the first century BCE.

Girls enjoying success 13 Mind Your Language

Chiara Lewis investigates why a post-Brexit Britain needs languages more than ever.

In a post-Brexit era, the reality of blue passports, long a plethora of opportunities in the working world today as immigration queues, and an end to free movement across more and more companies and businesses are looking for Europe, are all demonstrations of how our European vista is the means of expansion but also the means of cross-cultural shrinking and our international prospects narrowing. This feels communication. Moreover, in the same sense, with the like a trajectory to a tunnel-visioned Britain and it is in this emergence of developing economies, such as Brazil, Russia, time that people should value communication links with our China, India, South Korea and Saudi Arabia, English may cease European neighbours more than ever, and fight mono-linguistic to be the universal language of business as both Spanish attitudes that threaten to isolate us even further. and Mandarin continue to dominate, putting anglophone monolinguals at a steep disadvantage. Perhaps due to our colonial past, or simply because of our geographical separation from the rest of our continent, Britain In addition to work opportunities, there have also been has, it seems, always suffered from an adversity towards countless studies on the health benefits of multilingualism mastering others’ languages. Ironically, despite the formation and learning languages. The skills associated with learning and derivation of the English Language from foreign invaders languages are linked to mental agility and flexibility, those who enriched and altered it indefinitely, our nation seems to which often suffer in the cases of degenerative conditions suffer from a peculiar resistance to making an effort to acquire such as Alzheimer’s and forms of dementia. Dr Clare Walton, foreign languages and this attitude has never been as worryingly Research Manager at The Alzheimer’s Society, states, ‘Brain relevant as it is today, as evidenced by the latests reports and scans showed that lifelong bilinguals have stronger connections statistics. between certain brain areas compared to those who only speak one language – this appears to allow their brains to cope In a new report by the European Union, Europeans and their better with damage before they start to show outward signs of languages, they discovered that Britain was the nation least dementia.’ likely to agree that, ‘everyone in the EU should speak a second language other than their mother tongue’. The complacency of In addition, as well as being able to help postpone conditions many Britons, who perhaps feel that there is simply no need like dementia, learning languages is also a skill and hobby to learn a language because ‘everyone else speaks English’, has that anyone, no matter their age, can partake in. This allows an arrogance to it that frustrates any passionate linguist and adults and older generations to not only continue learning worries any pro-European. and growing academically for a length of time after they have finished their studies, but it also allows them to acquire a new Since Tony Blair’s decision to remove foreign languages skill and pastime outside of their career and their world of as a compulsory GCSE subject in 2004, both the uptake work. of languages and attitudes to learning them have become worryingly altered. BBC analysis shows drops of between However, beyond any socio, economic or cognitive value, the thirty and fifty percent since 2013 in the numbers taking GCSE mastering of another language represents an appetite and language courses in England, in addition to a separate survey curiosity for other cultures and customs, and a xenophilic of secondary schools, suggesting a third have dropped at least appreciation for diversity that can both enrich us, as well one language from their GCSE options. These figures have as provide a context for our own cultural understanding. transpired for a number of reasons, as the British Council Languages are not just a means of communication, but, admits in a new report that the aftermath of Brexit and the critically, an intrinsic part of the history and culture of a difficulty of new GCSE and A Level exams have combined to country. A lack of interest in foreign languages means, as a put young people off from studying modern foreign languages nation, we are significantly isolated in our mindset from the at school. But what does this mean for Britain’s future? With rest of the world, from Europe in particular, culturally as well languages at schools at an 18-year low, where does this leave as politically. Devaluing the importance of studying a language us? is tantamount to losing an appreciation for your own language and culture. By mastering the vernacular of a different country, In a pragmatic sense, future generations may find it increasingly we gain a better perspective of our own language and cultural difficult to find ‘meaningful work’ and job opportunities that identity. Learning a language allows you to transcend temporal are more readily available to multilingual workers. Some may and historical boundaries, providing a continuum of linguistic assume that a translator or teacher are the only professions understanding. available to foreign language speakers; however, there exists

14 Girls enjoying success It was Nelson Mandela who acknowledged, ‘If you talk to a importance of languages reaches further than the potential for man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you job acquisitions or translating work: they’re a unifier, a bridge, talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart’, and, for me, a constant amongst the uncertainties of the world today. The this is the most potent and indispensable asset of languages. loss of the passion for language would be detrimental, and leave Even without being fluent, the knowledge of a few words or us in an even more fragmented and unappreciative world than phrases in a foreign language is an invaluable gesture. It allows that which we live in today. you to communicate with people on far more than a literal level and overcome barriers far greater than language. The

Girls enjoying success 15 Not in Ourselves but in Our Stars Melissa Redman investigates the underrated influence of ancient Astronomy.

The ancient Greek and Egyptian civilisations are not those the basis for space exploration and knowledge about our own which people first associate with astronomy; while both are planet today. known for their complex system of deities, the Greeks are better known for their Olympic Games and the Egyptians The fact that the universe around the ancient Greeks was a for their mummification and pyramids. In fact, the only initial source of entertainment and wonder is evidenced by ancient connection one may draw between the two societies and Greek literature’s numerous references to the night sky: the stars is perhaps the names of certain constellations, such The Iliad and The Odyssey several times mention stars and as those of Andromeda and Aquila. However, upon further constellations, including Orion, The Great Bear (Ursa Major), inspection, astronomy can be seen to play a pivotal role in Sirius, and the Pleiades. both civilisations: while the Greeks made arguably some of the most significant early advances in terms of exploring the The Great Bear and Orion constellations were also observed universe around us, the Egyptians used astronomy within the by the ancient Egyptians; using an instrument called a merkhet, workings of their society in several ways. The influence of early similar to an astrolabe, the Egyptians were able to identify astronomy on both these ancient civilisations should not be Earth’s four cardinal points of North, South, East. and West. forgotten. These findings contributed to ancient Egypt’s most famous attribute: their pyramids. Taking sightings of Ursa Major and One aspect of ancient Greek advances that is severely Orion with an instrument called a merkhet (similar to an overlooked is their huge contributions to how we view our astrolabe), astronomer-priests were able to use these four planet and the universe around us, namely the fact that the cardinal points to align the foundations of their pyramids with Earth is spherical in shape. Despite some 21st-century debate, extreme precision; the Great Pyramid of Giza’s four corners with some still arguing that Earth is shaped as a disc and not a are aligned to North, South, East and West with an error sphere, ancient Greek philosophers and astronomers theorised of less than half a degree, with the sides also being almost and proved the Earth’s shape. The beginnings of the idea were identical in length despite its 13-acre area and the 6.5 million first documented by ancient Greek philosophers in the 5th limestone blocks used in its creation. In fact, Egyptologists have century BCE, remaining mere theory for several hundred years. speculated that the pyramids in the Giza plaza (the three large However, in the 3rd century BCE, Hellenistic astronomy proved pyramids, the Sphinx, and the Nile) are built to mirror the night the Earth’s spherical shape; Aristarchus of Samos established sky: the three pyramids representing the three stars in the belt that, due to the Earth’s circular shadow on the Moon during a of Orion, the Sphinx corresponding to the Leo constellation, lunar eclipse, the Earth itself must also be round. Aristarchus and the Nile corresponding to the rest of the Milky Way galaxy. was also the first to theorise that instead of the Earth being the This concept of creating a sacred setting on earth to reflect the centre of the solar system, such as theorised by Aristophanes, night sky proves the ancient Egyptians were not only able to the solar system’s centre was in fact the Sun. Although his accurately observe the night sky but were able to use it to their theory did not become popular for another 1500 years, his advantage and purpose; something of which many people are theory was in fact correct; it took until the 15th century CE for simply unaware. it to be recognised that the Earth orbits around the Sun, not the other way round. There is much more of a connection between the two ancient civilisations and their interest in astronomy than first meets Another ancient Greek astronomer, Eratosthenes, was the first the eye. Through the Greeks’ early investigation into the to try and estimate Earth’s circumference. In 240 BCE, using nature of our planet and of our universe, and the Egyptians’ shadows cast in Alexandria and Syene, he was able to calculate incorporation of the night sky into the very workings of their their angle relative to Sun, and hypothetically, the Earth’s society, it cannot be denied that the influence of astronomy circumference. Although the answer he came to was closer to on the two societies was astronomical, and proves that the the actual size of the Earth rather than the distance around desire to find out about the universe we live in has always been, it, this proves the intellect of ancient Greek astronomers: by and will continue to be, a source of great inspiration for many applying complex mathematics and geometry, they were able to generations to come. theorise about the nature of the universe, working constantly to ground their exploration and beliefs in empirical evidence. These early attempts at grappling with the universe around us are commonly overlooked, despite the fact that some provide

16 Girls enjoying success Second image: the suggested correlation between the Orion and Leo constellations and the Milky Way, and the Giza plaza

First image: Translation of Aristarchus of Samos’ work, displaying that when in between the Moon and the Sun, the Earth causes a lunar eclipse with a circular shadow.

Girls enjoying success 17 The Floods in Jakarta: a Study in Western Media Saskia Kirkegaard investigates.

At the time of writing this, all anyone is talking about is the would saving Jakarta do? Help 30 million people from sinking? Australian bush fires. The Instagram posts promising ‘One But that won’t give us more money! DOES. NOT. COMPUTE. donation to the fires per share’ are flooding (wink, wink) our feeds. My Grandparents send my Dad updates from their farm The other reason no one is talking about the floods is race. every week, with reports of cutting grass to the roots so that Ok, of course, we (well, most of us), as individuals, aren’t their land won’t be set ablaze. Photos of burnt kangaroos seem doing this on purpose! But remember, young padawan, racism to pop up in every online article I read. And? Fair enough. This is systemic: Jakarta’s population is 36.17% Javanese, 28.29% is not the first time forest fires have savaged the Australian Betawi and 14.61% Sundanese (among other ethnic groups). landscape, but with 480 million animals dying, 1200 homes This means that, *pause for gasp*, they aren’t white! But burnt down and almost six million hectares of land gone, they guess who is white? Australia is white (I should know, I’m are definitely the worst the country has ever seen. pretty Australian and pretty white). But it’s not just me! The most common ancestry in Australia is Anglo-Celtic (58% in However, this article is not going to be discussing the Australian 2016) and only 2.8% identified as being Indigenous Australian. Inferno. Instead, I want to talk about the floods in Jakarta, Hmm, that’s interesting. Why does the West not care about Indonesia. Maybe you’ve heard about them, but most likely not. people of colour? Many reasons come to mind - colonialism, Every time somebody mentions the bush fires, I have asked slavery, general racism among Westerners, the fact that ‘they’re them if they’ve heard about what is happening in Jakarta. And, different to us’. We’ve ignored these systematic reasons for almost every time, they haven’t. So let me tell you: Jakarta too long, choosing not to remember our own history, our is only just coming out of the worst floods they’ve seen in wars, our slaves, our murders. And what for? Well, for money, a decade. It is also the most rainfall the city has seen at one land and power. We used these techniques on Australia in time since records began in 1886 (on the 31st December, 377 the 1880s, and now only 2.8% of Australian people identify as millimetres of water fell on the capital). More than 60 people Native Australians. So now it’s ‘okay’ to help them. When will it have died, and some 35,000 are unable to return home. be okay to help people of colour? After Jakarta is engulfed? The time to act is right now, before it’s too late. But it’s not just flooding. This type of hazing over of non-western issues is not Jakarta is sinking. By 2050, the homes of 30 million people will uncommon. The Coronavirus did not seem to matter until be completely submerged by water. SUBMERGED! This tragedy it started to spread to the west, and now it’s all over the is due completely to climate change, just like the bush fires news. The Chilean uprisings were practically unmentioned last down under. And yet, no one is talking about it! Where are the year (who cares how many people have died? It’s over 30, by instagram posts being shared in return for donations? Where the way.) The ‘worst thing to happen in the world in 2019’, is the global 24 hour news coverage? Where are P!nk, Margot according to Google, was ‘Brexit dragging on endlessly’. I think Robbie and Kylie Minogue (who have all donated millions of maybe the 141 victims of the Kaduna State massacre would dollars to save Australia)? Why are we not talking about this? disagree with you there, but ah well.

Well, I can answer this question very easily. The West does not Ultimately, I urge you to research, research, research! Don’t care about Jakarta. Why would we? It’s a city in a developing just put up a post on your Instagram story about the most country in the middle of south-east Asia. The ‘Big Durian’, as talked about recent ‘tragedy’ to hit the west. The Notre Dame it is fondly nicknamed by its inhabitants, does not impact us fire had seven times the number of searches than the Sri financially in any way. If Jakarta sunk, the Western media would Lanka bombings last year, but the bombings killed 300 times act surprised: ‘Oh no, another country we could have saved. Ah the number of people killed in the fire (i.e no one died in the well, bigger fish to fry. Imagine if America sank!’ What the West fire). Instead, stay informed! Read The Economist, check the does care about, however, is money, and where do we get news apps (all of them, even the ones you don’t like), regularly our money? The West! Ah, the effervescent glow of capitalism watch documentaries and Youtube videos about non-western creeps into our minds again. Did you miss it? situations that nobody you know is talking about. After you’ve done this, then you can share, then you can weigh up which In 2016, Jakarta’s GDP was $483.8 billion. Sounds like quite a one needs to be talked about more, then you can inform lot, right? Well, America’s was $18.62 trillion. The UK’s was others about the strike, or the disaster, or the attack, or the $2.651 trillion. And guess how much Australia’s was? 1.208 massacre, or the disease, then you can make a change. trillion dollars US. No wonder we’re trying to help them! What

18 Girls enjoying success Jakarta is sinking. By 2050, the homes of 30 million people will be completely submerged by water.

Girls enjoying success 19 Stand Up for the Cheaters?

Millie Jackson investigates Saracens’ salary cap breach

The Premiership champions, Saracens, have been given a as VunProp Ltd (Mako and Billy Vunipola), Faz Investments Ltd 70-point deduction, regulated to the Championship and been (Owen Farrell), Wiggy9 Ltd (Richard Wigglesworth) and MN handed a £5 million fine after they were found to have breached Property Solutions Ltd (Maro Itoje). salary cap regulations. In June 2019, Premiership Rugby announced that they would I assume that most people reading this article have no idea about hold an investigation into Saracens. rugby, its rules, principles, or its codes of conduct. But you don’t need to know anything about rugby to read this. I would prefer In November 2019, they were found to have been in breach you didn’t know anything about it at all. Actually, if you know of the salary cap regulations due to failure to disclose player anything about rugby please move onto the next article. For payments in the 2016–17, 2017–18 and 2018–19 seasons, which everyone else, let me explain how I got into rugby in the first would have taken them over the £7 million senior player salary place. cap, and they were, therefore, handed a 35-point deduction and fined £5,360,272.31. Three years ago, in 2017, I watched England compete in the Six Nations - a tournament consisting of England, Ireland, Scotland, On the 18th January 2020 Premiership Rugby announced they Wales, France and Italy playing each other every weekend, until would be relegated to the RFU Championship for the 2020-21 one country rises to lift the cup after seven weeks of mud, season. sweat, and tears. England had won, but only by a measly five points, after beating Ireland. It was tense, exhilarating and wild, This relegation is detrimental for the Saracens (and for me), as it but, more to the point, I had absolutely no idea what was going is a team that consists of some of the most high-profile players, on and why sweaty men were running into each other for 80 including England internationals Owen Farrell, the Vunipola minutes in the mud. I decided, as a thirteen year old, that I brothers, Elliot Daly, Maro Itoje and Jaime George. wanted to understand this barbaric and bizarre game, and after I did, two years on, I joined a rugby team of my own. Along the I have travelled to every home and away game. I have made way, I chose a club team to support, and after watching England my father spend too much money on, frankly, extremely ugly win in the Six Nations, I chose the club that housed the majority Saracens related gear. I have arrived 30 minutes early to each of the England squad: Saracens. It also helped that England’s game to see my team prepare and workout on the battlefield, captain, Owen Farrell, was also the Saracens captain, and the fact especially Owen Farrell. When I heard of this salary cap breach I had fallen in love with him encouraged me in the decision to news, I was shocked and horrified. My team had broken the support Saracens as my club rugby team. rules, which had left me in an emotionally difficult position. I had so much love for Saracens; I felt like I knew the players well and Saracens F.C (Football Club) are an English professional rugby had often imagined how I would set up a team against Munster union football club based in Allianz Park, Hendon, London. or Glasgow Warriors or Sale. I knew their weaknesses and their Established in 1876, Saracens play Premiership Rugby, often strengths, their mother’s names, their children’s names. known as the Gallagher Premiership Rugby, which consists of twelve clubs and is the top division of the English rugby union I began to imagine how annoyed I would be if I was in the system. Premiership clubs qualify for Europe’s two main club position of any other competing rugby club. I don’t blame competitions: the European Rugby Champions Cup and the the Exeter chairman, Tony Rowe, for calling for Saracens to European Rugby Challenge Cup. However, the team finishing at be relegated. I agree with what the Harlequins captain, Chris the bottom of the Premiership each season is relegated to the Robshaw, a man not one given to overreaction, said about it second division, the RFU Championship, and the winner of the putting the sport of rugby in a dangerous place. Sale’s director Championship is promoted to the Premiership. of rugby, Steve Diamond, a former coach at Saracens, called on the club to remove the words ‘integrity’ and ‘honesty’ from their Saracens are the current title holders of the European Rugby Allianz Park ground, which, I think, is fair enough. Champions Cup, a tournament which they have won more times than any other English team. However, this prestigious Now I am left in a position of confusion and uncertainty in title received some knocking because of their recent salary cap relation to my loyalty toward my rugby club. I don’t know scandal. whether to go on supporting my unlawful club; is that the morally right decision? My father has spent copious amounts of In March 2019, allegations first emerged that Saracens may have money on really terrible Sarry-related garments for me - doesn’t broken the Premiership Rugby’s salary cap, a system put in place that mean something? I still have two Saracen flags pinned on to ensure the financial viability of all clubs, to control inflationary my bedroom wall, so when I wake in the morning, I’m greeted pressures on costs, and to provide more of a level playing field. with the image of Owen Farrell’s face. Is it time to take the flags The story was initially printed in The Daily Mail and revealed down? Saracens’ Chairman, Nigel Wray’s investment in companies such

20 Girls enjoying success Girls enjoying success 21 The Persecution of Jews in Belarus

Morgan Dropkin investigates whether we have truly learnt any lessons from the Holocaust.

Mikhail’s aunt Liza (on Right) with two friends who all died in the Holocaust

I was surprised to learn how little knowledge there is about the Jews face in Belarus today. struggle of Belarusian Jews, both during the Holocaust and now. Judaism has always been suppressed in Belarus, along with many The largest and most well known worldwide persecution of Jews other post-Soviet countries, despite Jews having lived in what is in recent years was the Holocaust. This had an extremely large now called Belarus since the 8th century. Although the origin of impact on the Jewish population of Belarus and heightened the these eastern Jews is not truly known, their struggle is a large, hostility of the government towards this community today. and not widely talked about, part of Belarusian history. There were countless tragedies for Jewish families and individuals The Jewish population of Belarus has been persecuted for many in Belarus during the Second World War, and the majority of centuries. During the Jagiellon rule in the fifteenth and sixteenth them are not widely spoken about. The BBC comissioned a century, Jews were expelled from the country, and even when report a few months ago on a specific family’s journey during the they were allowed to reenter, there was great tension with Holocaust and how this topic is dealt with now. They spoke to the Christians who always had more power. Much later, during one man, Mikhail, whose mother and father had left Brest during the Russian Communist rule of the Soviet Union, Jews were Hiltler’s invasion and who came back to find all of their relatives also treated poorly. Although there was a brief time after the dead. October Revolution when Jews were able to gain management positions in the country, and Yiddish was even an official language Even though there were untold numbers of deaths, and many in East Belarus for some time, this quickly ended because of devastating stories similar to Mikhail’s, there is only one Stalin’s antisemitism. Jews were purged many times because Holocaust museum in Brest, one of Belarus’ biggest cities. The they were portrayed as a threat to others. Notably, during the museum is a small room in a basement, which is run by the Great Purge of 1936-7, Jews were labelled as ‘anti-Communist’ very small Jewish community remaining in Brest. This clearly by the government and were sent to labour camps in the USSR. demonstrates that, for all of the persecution Belarusian Jews I believe that this difficult history has led to the prejudice many have experienced, the government is still not doing much to

22 Girls enjoying success commemorate this devastation. In comparison to the large number of memorials set up in America and the UK, where, arguably, the tragedy caused was not nearly as large as in Belarus, Belarus’ lack of a sufficient place of commemoration can be seen to represent how unsympathetic the government is on this issue. There is the ‘Belarus Holocaust Memorials Project’ whose goal to place a memorial at the 500 massacre sites around Belarus. However, at the moment, they have only completed around twenty-six of these. Although this shows signs of progress, it further depicts the government’s lack of interest in the Holocaust.

The devastation of the Holocaust in Belarus can be further seen through the history of Belarus’ largest ghetto in Minsk. This was set up soon after the German invasion of the USSR, holding almost 100,000 Jews, few of whom survived the war. At this ghetto, the Nazis used Jews as their test subjects, and treated them in completely inhumane ways. The Jews were used to test Zyklon-B, the toxic gas famously used in the gas chambers in death camps, such as Auschwitz, which causes victims to die within twenty minutes.

Comparatively, although Judaism is more widely tolerated there today, it is far from an ideal situation. The President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, has himself made anti-Semitic comments. He stated, in reference to Babrujsk, a large city in eastern Belarus with a large Jewish population, ‘This is a Jewish city, and the Jews are not concerned for the place they live in. They have turned Babrujsk into a pigsty. Look at Israel - I was there.’ This shows that, even in the current day, the person holding the highest position in Belarus is not afraid to enhance stereotypes about Jews or to risk an increase in anti-semitism. In addition, Jewish history is not cared for and is often disrespected, such as when a football stadium in Grodno was built upon a historic Jewish cemetery. These factors make Jews increasingly frightened to openly practise their religion or to speak up about their concerns. Alexander Lukashenko, President of Belarus When I visited Belarus, it was easy to see the large difference between the Jewish community in the UK and that of Belarus. We attended a B’nei Mitzvah during our visit. This took place of Belarus. In Minsk, this charity is helping to run synagogues and in a small, dark basement, with a short service, followed by a create a platform and safe space for ghetto survivors and their modest celebration in the adjacent room, which clearly intended families. They are starting to create a more prominent Jewish to draw minimal attention to the Jewish Community. Compared Community in areas where this was previously repressed, such to celebrations in the UK, where we have services varying from as in Slonim. two to four hours, and often have a large, vibrant party the night after the service, the Belarusian ceremony was virtually Belarusian Jews face many challenges on a daily basis and, it non-existent. Although this is still an obvious improvement since seems, they do not have much support from their government. the persecutions of the Holocaust, there is still so much more Charities and the Jewish people are working together to try to work that can be done to better the situation of Belarusian Jews, lessen anti-semitism, but progress is slow. The 2,290,000 people something which the people we met in Polotsk would clearly who died in the Holocaust, a loss of 25.3% of their population, appreciate. go virtually unmemorialised So, we should ask ourselves: has the attitude there towards Jews truly changed since the Holocaust? There are some people who are already trying to make a difference. Organisations, such as The Together Plan, aid the Jews

Girls enjoying success 23 The Flint Water Crisis Maeve Gallagher investigates.

Water - it’s a fundamental necessity to all life and it is not Flint’s homes. physically possible to live without it. For five years, the city of Flint in Michigan was deprived of their source of clean, There is no level of lead consumption that is safe and health freshwater and it has proven to be detrimental to their society effects of lead exposure, especially in children, include and the quality of living in more ways than one. behavioural disorders, impaired cognition, hearing problems and delayed puberty. In Flint, between 6000 and 21000 children were In light of this issue’s theme, ‘Roaring Twenties’, I have chosen to exposed to drinking water with high levels of lead and this water focus on a topic that particularly interests and yet also upsets supply change was the cause of an outbreak of Legionnaires’ me. The water crisis in Flint, Michigan is one that has lacked disease. This killed 12 people and affected another 87. Before media coverage and is a display of racism, autocracy and the this crisis, 2.1% of the city’s children had high blood levels; deprivation of basic human rights. And the blame for this points afterwards, this rose to 4.0%, 6.5% for children under the age of to one person: Governer Rick Synder. five.

Elected governor of Michigan in 2011, Synder set out to run The state that once thrived as the home of the nation’s largest Michigan like a business and its residents like customers. He General Motors plant was falling apart. In January 2019, five staged a coup, declaring a state of emergency regarding the years after the crisis started, residents of Flint still expressed Emergency Manager Law so that he could run Michigan in the doubt about the water’s cleanliness. In May 2016 Rick Snyder way he saw fit, completely disregarding all forms of democracy, said, ‘I’m sorry and I will fix it,’ and described the situation as and this included changing the water system. This proved to a ‘short-term water crisis’. Although measures have been put be detrimental to the lives and wellbeing of the citizens of in place to return the water quality to an acceptable level, Flint. Snyder started to create an entirely new pipeline from many residents of Flint still do not feel comfortable drinking Lake Huron to Flint so that he could further this scheme to the water that they are provided with and numerous children benefit investors. As shown in Michael Moore’s documentary have been permanently affected by the high levels of lead in the ‘Fahrenheit 11/9’, Snyder ‘saw an opportunity to take advantage contaminated water. of the poorest city in the country and of the largest source of freshwater in the world’. Moore explores some of the impact Obama responded to the situation, saying, ‘You can’t of the Flint crisis in his documentary and provides first hand shortchange basic services that we provide to our people,’ and accounts of the effects it has had on their society. He describes I believe this is key to the matter at hand. It is the fact that a it as ‘a slow motion ethnic cleansing’ and this is exactly what I basic and fundamental aspect of life is being stripped from those think it was. who need it most. The media coverage of this situation may be old news, but in Flint itself, this crisis is by no means in the past. Whilst the new, unnecessary pipeline was being built, Snyder Only very recently did I learn the true extent of this crisis and changed Flint’s water source from Lake Huron to the Flint River so, I hope to raise more awareness about the situation, so that and, soon after, residents reported changes to the water’s colour, you can all be better informed about a dirty secret in America’s smell and taste. After tests from the Environmental Protection past that is still very much a problem today. Agency, dangerous levels of lead were reported to be found in

24 Girls enjoying success A Convenient Excuse Juliet Freeman investigates the racism surrounding our treatment of the Coronavirus.

The outbreak of the Coronavirus, or Covid-19, has not only prompted an inappropriate level of panic across the western world, but more worryingly, has revealed a persistent strain of racist and bigoted thinking that ought to have disappeared with the colonial empires of the 19th Century.

The virus has ignited a storm of racism and bigotry against the Chinese and East Asian community worldwide. But, sadly, this is not an isolated incident: this bigotry was also seen in the 2003 SARS outbreak, the Ebola outbreak in 2014 and now it has, once again, reared its ugly head.

Since the disease has become widely known about, instances of prejudice and ignorance have snowballed. There have been stories of people refusing to sit next to Chinese or ‘East Asian- looking people’, or if they do sit by them covering their mouths with their scarves or jackets and even verbally assaulting them. In Sheffield, a postgraduate student was reportedly verbally and physically harassed in the street for wearing a face mask, while in London, a student was verbally abused by train passengers at Clapham Junction station.

Moreover, this xenophobia has become institutionalised and sanctioned by the media. The French newspaper, Le Courier Picard, for example, used the headlines ‘Alerte Jaune’ (Yellow Alert) and ‘Le Peril Jaune’ (Yellow Peril) along with an image of a Chinese woman wearing a face mask on their front page. One of the crucial issues at play here, often missed when The severity of this surge of racism has even been minimised people talk about this problem, is that the victims of disease by prestigious universities. In an attempt to comfort students themselves become the target of racist fear-mongering, blamed experiencing xenophobia, The University of California, Berkeley and scapegoated for the crisis. In this, we ignore the part played stated that bigotry and bias were ‘normal’ and ‘common’ during by the most rich and powerful in society, when often it was their an epidemic of this magnitude. decisions that caused the problem. Despite the fact that many list disease within the sector of natural disasters, there is nothing The climate of fear and misunderstanding created by the natural about the diseases that have plagued mankind in recent Coronavirus outbreak has been used as a cover for peoples’ years. The Coronavirus was not just something that happened, existing racist and bigoted views, cloaking and excusing these but a result of negligence and ignorance from the heads of the beliefs. This is yet another example in a long list of instances Wuhan region, and the Chinese government itself, who did where disasters were followed by a storm of hate speech. nothing to improve the sanitary conditions of the Wuhan animal After Hurricane Katrina, media coverage helped reinforce racist market where the disease developed. We must be aware of stereotypes: while black survivors were routinely described as how certain narratives of disaster can distract us from far more ‘looting’ in the aftermath, whites were portrayed as ‘finding relevant elements, encouraging us to focus on stereotyping supplies’. We cannot allow people to exploit a worldwide health Chinese people rather than the abuse of power in China. crisis as a platform to express their bigoted views. Similarly, one of the things that has been uncovered by the The fact is, this virus has only exposed the deeply-embedded spread of the virus is the power of panic itself. At the time of racial prejudice towards East Asian culture within all Western writing, only a few people in the UK have been diagnosed with society. The Guardian stated that according to Jex Wang, a the Coronavirus. Yet the emotional response to the disease has Chinese-Australian DJ and writer, this surge of racism has been immense, out of all proportion to its scale. Our panic and revealed a long history of the demonisation of Chinese people. fear fuels the hostility against Chinese and East Asian people, She argues that, ‘Stereotypes of Asians as submissive and contributing to the climate of fear surrounding the crisis. We non-aggressive make them a target that people think they can must not feed the climate of fear that is created by these make fun of and laugh at. I’ve seen posts saying Chinese people outbreaks by panicking; this only allows racism and bigotry to are dirty, disgusting, uneducated, that we ‘deserved’ the virus continue unchecked. Instead, we must face these problems because of our ‘weird’ food habits.’ with clear minds to try and help the most disadvantaged, not discriminate against them.

Girls enjoying success 25 Angels of Death Naishah Karim investigates what makes some doctors abandon the fundamental principles of their Hippocratic oath.

When we think of doctors, we think of people who devote hospital in New York State. But, as before, patients began to die their lives, and sometimes their own health, to helping people in mysteriously. When the VA hospital discovered that he had lied need, a recent example being Dr. Li Wenliang, who gave his life on his application and that he had a poisoning conviction, he was fighting and exposing the deadly Coronavirus sweeping the globe. immediately fired and the FBI had him on its radar. However, not all doctors are the angels we imagine them to be. Throughout history, a few infamous individuals have devoted their He fled the country to Zimbabwe in 1994, where he used forged careers, not to curing the sick, but to exploiting some of the documents to get a job at a mission hospital. Once again, his most vulnerable people in our society. patients began dying under suspicious circumstances. In 1997, on a layover in Chicago, federal authorities arrested him for fraud. Convinced that Dr. Swango was also a serial killer, investigators exhumed the bodies of three of his patients all were found to have poisonous chemicals in them. Both US and Zimbabwean authorities charged him with multiple murders. Herman Mudgett, known as H.H Holmes, is considered one of America’s first serial killers. At a young age, he showed an interest He went on trial in the United States, and was faced with the in medicine by performing surgery on animals. As a medical possibility of the death penalty in both countries. However, student he stole corpses from a medical school and used them he pled guilty to fatally poisoning as many as 60 patients and to make fraudulent insurance claims. Moving to Chicago in 1885, colleagues between 1981 and 1997 and is now in a supermax he got a job at a pharmacy. In fear of being exposed by victims prison, serving three consecutive life terms without parole. of his previous scams, Mudgett took up the alias Dr. Henry H. Holmes and he eventually took over the pharmacy. You may be Everyone knows England’s most famous serial killer, Jack the wondering how he managed to take over the pharmacy so easily Ripper, but it is actually Dr. Harold Shipman who ranks as - well, it was after murdering the original owner and his wife. Britain’s most prolific serial killer, having murdered an estimated 250 people. Whilst living in Chicago, he built a house specifically designed to enable him to carry about his evil deeds, with secret passages, trapdoors, soundproof rooms, locked doors, and gas jets. He had a kiln in the basement to incinerate the evidence, and he sold some as cadavers to local medical schools. During the World’s Columbian Exhibition in Chicago in 1893, Dr. Holmes lured his Shipman was a GP in England who was well liked by his patients. victims from the fairgrounds to his ‘Murder Castle’, where he But between 1975 and 1998, Dr. Shipman is known to have would steal their life savings before murdering them. Luckily, murdered at least 215 patients, most of whom were older he was eventually caught in 1894 and sentenced to death. He women. He overdosed them with lethal injections of heroin. confessed to 27 murders, although experts believe he may have According to court reports, he altered patient records to cover killed as many as 200 people. up the murders. He also stole jewelry from his patients, and either forged their wills or had them sign over their estates to During his confession he claimed, ‘I was born with the devil in him. He received multiple life sentences for his heinous crimes, me; I could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than and hanged himself in his prison cell in 2004. the poet can help the inspiration to sing.’ These types of serial killers all come under the category of an angel of death: someone who uses their position as a way of exerting power and control over helpless victims.

So why do doctors make such ‘successful’ serial killers? Because Another example is Michael Swango. During his surgical they have expert knowledge of the frailties of the human body, internship at Ohio State University Medical Center, nurses took they have access to any number of deadly instruments and notice that a rising number of apparently healthy patients were poisonous medicines, and some have egos that are fed by their dying suddenly. They reported their concerns to administrators. ability to play God. However, Swango was cleared of any culpability in 1984. After his internship ended, he got a job as an emergency medical Fortunately, most doctors have the greatest levels of compassion technician but was arrested when several of his coworkers and the strongest desire to cure, not kill. But, in any bunch, became violently ill due to poisoning. He had spiked their coffees there’s always a bad apple or two. They simply can’t help with arsenic and was sent to prison for five years. themselves. Perhaps murder is a calling even stronger than medicine. After his release, he eventually found work at a Veterans Affairs

26 Girls enjoying success Great Expectations A fictional book or a fiction within our politics?Chloe Grossmith-Dwek investigates.

The numerous scandals, Brexit chaos and the global climate that will take many years to solve. disaster has led to the majority of the public expecting very little from UK politicians. While some of the public may have some sympathy with this, what they don’t have sympathy with is immorality: they don’t All we have to do is look at the recent rise in popularity of expect politicians to be accused of groping women; they Greta Thunberg to see how low the UK’s expectations of don’t expect a Foreign Secretary to compare Muslim women politicians has really fallen. Seeking to catalyse a change in the to letterboxes; they don’t expect MPs to be so ignorant as global view of energy production, she managed to fill the role to have burnt money in front of homeless people; and they, that world leaders failed to occupy. undoubtedly, don’t expect an early prorogation of parliament in order to restrict debate and thereby hinder democracy. The UK public does not expect politicians to solve climate However, while we may not like or expect these actions, we change. Nor do they blame (only) them for the devastating no longer seem to have a problem accepting a PM who engages and catastrophic Australia fires. In fact, in a world with in them, showing how low our expectations of politicians has global warming denial in the American Senate and Donald sunk. Trump’s desire to exploit the Arctic National Refuge for oil, expectations in the UK for climate action by politicians is The plummet of expectations in UK politicians can clearly be particularly low. demonstrated by the decrease in participation in traditional politics. In the 1950s, the Conservative party reached its peak Furthermore, those of us who respect the outcome of the of 2.8 million members. 191,000 is the number of members Brexit referendum, and those who are tired of the four it upholds in 2019 and the rapid increase in the membership years of failed Withdraw Bills, all want to see the UK leave of pressure groups not only illustrates just how little trust the European Union in as quick and as painless a manner as the public hold in MPs but also how the UK public feel possible. One could argue this role is too much to place on a unrepresented by their current politicians. Prime Minister with a salary of only around £150,000. Not only do they need to negotiate with a Union which sees no benefit The expectations of UK politicians is so low that the public is to giving them a decent agreement, but they also have to taking politics into their own hands. Most of us are fed up; how represent a very divided nation, in which only a small majority much lower can expectations sink? of 52% voted to Leave. We can see this is a difficult process

Girls enjoying success 27 A re-Education Anika Anand investigates China’s internment camps.

In July 2015, a satellite image displaying land across the far west of China, in a place called Xinjiang, showed nothing but The concentration camps are ruled by secrecy and spying. There untouched, empty sand. This area, six times as big as the UK, is pervasive, around-the-clock surveillance to prevent escapes. was occupied by deserts and mountains. Less than three years The facilities are shrouded in secrecy, with mobile phones later, in April 2018, the satellite image showed that an expansive, prohibited, even for employees. highly secure compound had materialised. These new buildings are ‘re-education’ camps that are being operated by the Xinjiang This is not unique to the camps, of course. Chinese residents are Uygur Autonomous Region Government for the purpose of monitored and tracked using approximately 170 million CCTV indoctrinating the many Muslim ethnic minorities within China, cameras across the country, with many equipped with facial one of these being the Uyghurs, of which one million are being recognition software. Observation also occurs through people’s detained in prisons without trial. mobile phones. Since Google is blocked in China, residents are required to install a special Chinese search engine that grants the government complete access. There are regular police checks Not so New? to scan for the obligatory app. In a single week in June 2017, IJOP (Integrated Joint Operations Platform) flagged up 24,412 Although these current detention centres have only been ‘suspicious’ individuals in one part of southern Xinjiang alone. Of operating since April 2017, they have historically been utilised these, upwards of 15,000 were sent to camps. Using too much for some time by former leaders of China. For instance, Mao electricity or having an acquaintance abroad is reason enough to Zedong, the famous Communist leader, came into power be investigated and possibly sent to a concentration camp. The in 1949. He created Maoism, a Communist belief that has lack of privacy is astounding and almost incomprehensible living permanent revolution as the central idea by stressing the in a country like ours. importance of the peasantry, small-scale industry and agricultural collectivisation. The Chinese population had no choice but Possibly the most disturbing aspect of all is the organ harvesting. to comply with this ideology. In the cases where residents There is a significant number of organs that China harvests from were opposed to his regime, he used concentration camps, executed hostages. Between 2000-2004, there were 34,726 similar to those used currently, as a punishment. At this time, organ transplants carried out in the country. Voluntary organ concentration camps were referred to as ‘laogai’ which means donations are almost unheard of. Huang Jiefu, the former Vice ‘reform through labour’. Although these concentration camps Minister of Health, admitted that ‘most of the organs from were barbarous, they do not compare to the extent of the cadavers are from executed prisoners’. savagery that is being displayed currently. In China’s Defence The Extent of the Brutality While denying the many claims made, the Chinese government Maps show 500 suspected ‘re-education’ camps and prisons defends its policies in Xinjiang as being a fight against terrorism, where China is locking up and torturing its Muslim minority. referring to the camps as ‘Vocational Education and Training Two caches of the Chinese government’s internal documents, Centres’: a place where people willingly attend ‘vocational which were leaked in November 2019, gave evidence of the schools’ in order to combat ‘religious extremism’. They are able sheer amount of people detained in the concentration camps. to use this explanation as a form of justification due to the series They outlined the full extent of the harsh conditions. Prior to of sporadic riots and attacks that have been extremely unsettling this leak, substantial evidence was scarce as China has prevented within the region. In China’s defence, in 2009, there were mass uncensored videos and pictures inside the camps leaking abroad; protests and a violent uprising that broke out in the regional therefore, testimonies of prisoners are the next strongest proof capital of Urumqi, riots that ended up being brutally crushed by of what is happening. Government officials have stated, ‘We China’s military, resulting in the deaths of almost 200 people. must…show absolutely no mercy’, and this was clear in Dolkun A few years on, in 2013 and 2014, there were violent attacks Tursun’s case, a member of the Chinese Communist party. He in Beijing and Kunming for which China held Uyghur terrorists was held for more than a year in a camp for the crime of having accountable. Even more recently, within the past six months, the application WhatsApp on his phone. Another case is that Chinese state media outlets have reported at least 175 deaths of Erbolat Savut, a clothing merchant. He spent half a year in during eight violent incidents. a camp because he bought ‘too much petrol’. Uyghur groups mention the ‘indiscriminate deadly force’ used against people According to Beijing, the ethnic minority group of Uyghurs who protest against the government policies in the region. The have been trained by terrorist groups and are fighting alongside circumstances, according to testimonies of previous prisoners, the Islamic State. In fact, the official newspaper The Global appear to be barbaric. The hostages are apparently gang-raped, Times states that, ‘There is no doubt that the current peace experimentally drugged and tortured, both physically and and stability in Xinjiang is partly due to the high intensity of mentally. Why? Because of their religious beliefs. regulations’; however, with knowledge of the current conditions

28 Girls enjoying success Girls enjoying success 29 30 Girls enjoying success within the camps, could it be said that there is peace and stability this, Muslims stay quiet.’ Özil was said to have upwards of four at all? million followers on the Chinese social media site Weibo, until his account was blocked by the government and the foreign With the authorities’ confirmation that the Coronavirus has ministry. They accused him of having been ‘deceived by fake spread to Xinjiang, an increasing number of Muslims with news’ and, behind closed doors, an anti-Özil campaign was relatives imprisoned in Chinese concentration camps now live in full swing. The Chinese Football Association regarded his in fear that the government will blame the deaths of their loved comments as unacceptable. Consequently, he was removed from ones on the disease. The overcrowded and unhygienic conditions the Chinese version of the FIFA video game, and the company of the camps further increase their concerns of an epidemic, but running the PES Chinese Franchise expressed that Özil’s post, what they are predominantly worried about is that this new ‘hurt the feelings of Chinese fans. We do not understand, accept illness will be used as a cover-up. or forgive this.’ Was the Chinese government right to take these measures, or were they simply trying to prevent people realising A Lie? the truth?

Contrary to the information released by the Chinese All things considered government, there are doubts that a terrorist threat exists at all. Instead, independent experts see the riots as a result of The atrocities taking place in China are nothing short of a the growing desperation of Uyghurs caused by the constant cultural genocide. China has been attempting to wipe out oppression they face, as well as a reaction to the policies in the variations within its culture without the media or anyone outside region that only appear to be growing harsher and harsher. The the country knowing or even realising. Now this concealment conditions faced by minorities are extremely apparent and have of the truth has been revealed. This is important because this been prevalent for decades. Chinese regulations have consistently breakdown of a religious minority is unparalleled – and it’s curtailed the rights of minorities, principally the Uyghurs, happening right before our eyes. through restricting the use of the Turkic language, predominantly used by Uyghurs, in addition to denying women the right to wear veils and men to have long beards. The prisoners are forced to eat pork and drink alcohol, which is against their religion and against their will. Adrian Zenz, a leading expert on Xinjian from the European School of Culture and Theology in Germany, states that, ‘The aim is to eradicate the culture and traditions of Uyghurs’. It is clear that all actions, big or small, that have occurred within Xinjiang, and China as a whole, are aspects of a cultural genocide, and not terrorist protection and prevention in the slightest. Moreover, Chinese authorities state that their security crackdown in Xinjiang has dismantled 115 ‘terrorist’ groups before they had the chance to unleash violence. However, tallies of death tolls in this region suggest that, on the contrary, the brutality has continued and may have even intensified. How long can the Chinese government continue to fool the rest of the world?

China Sparks Controversy

Following the leakage of documents and a rise in awareness about the truth of the Chinese concentration camps, there has been a surge in social media influencers and sports stars speaking out. Of these, one of the most well-known is Mesut Özil, a professional footballer, currently playing for Arsenal Football Club. He is of Turkish-origin German and a practising Muslim. On December 13th 2019, he posted a message in Turkish on Twitter, in which he condemned China’s mistreatment of Uyghur Muslims. He describes the prisoners as ‘warriors who resist persecution’. He continued to talk about the actions of Chinese authorities, such as burning Qur’ans, shutting down mosques and killing religious scholars. He stated, ‘Despite all

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