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lee 'scratch' perry:"I eat snakes"
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speaks HIS MIND to tcs
{p18}
TheCambridgeStudent
February 7, 2013
Vol. 14
Lent Issue 4
Grad Union update:
The madness continues
Gwen Jing
News Editor
Tensions have continued to mount over
the state of Cambridge University’s
Graduate Union (GU). At the GU
council meeting yesterday evening,
students expressed their concerns
about GU President Arsalan Ghani’s
perception of hostility between the
University and the GU. Last week, the
GU Secretary resigned, claiming to
have been “harassed” by other members
of the GU Executive Committee (EC).
Her resignation comes amidst
allegations of “totalitarian” and “abusive”
conduct by President Arsalan Ghani.
Leaked internal GU correspondence, in
which Ghani insists on being addressed
as “Dear honourable President” and
demands that his colleagues sign their
e-mails to him “with obedience”, might
be considered a confirmation of these
allegations.
The President has
done nothing this year
that is constructive for
the GU
(former Secretary in
her resignation email)
GU Secretary Kirstine Szifris
explained her resignation last week
by asserting that she felt “harassed” by
both Ghani and the GU International
Officer, Bruno Xin. Xin, as reported
in The Cambirdge Student last week,
is currently under investigation by
the University Proctors following
allegations of a violent assault
committed by Xin against a fellow GU
council member.
Last month, Szifris posted the wrong
date on an email calling for agenda item
submissions. A leaked message, sent by
Xin to the EC on January 28th, calls
for Szifris to be publically condemned
through a “motion of displeasure” at the
next council meeting, as a punishment
for her typo. Xin claimed that this
typo had caused “massive confusion”,
and that, as Szifris had not sent “an
immediate e-mail to apologise”, her
typo was “destroying the image of the
GU.”
Speaking to TCS, Ms Szifris said:
"I can confirm that I have resigned
from the role of GU secretary with
immediate effect. Despite much effort
to bridge differences I felt that I could
no longer work under the current
circumstances. After a dispute over a
minor typing error, I was threatened
with disciplinary action and chose to
resign rather than be forced to defend
myself over something so minor.”
She claimed in her statement of
resignation to the Council: “I am
no longer willing to spend my time
propping up the term of the current
president who, in my personal opinion,
has done nothing this year that is
constructive for the GU.”
Following TCS’s exposure of inner
chaos in the GU last week, on Monday
Ghani criticised the University for
“continuous attacks on the Graduate
Union” in an open letter published in
Varsity. In this letter, Ghani claims that
reports of financial irregularities and
communication problems at the GU
are “fake”, and dismisses the revelation
of his unsuccessful attempt to fire
the GU Treasurer as “lying”. TCS can
exclusively publish correspondence
written between Ghani, the EC and
the University which show the claims
Ghani makes in his letter to be untrue.
Continued on page 7...
News
Cambridge
Union defecit
Prestigious debating society's takings
plummet for the fourth year running,
totalling an annual loss of £169,105
Page 3
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NUS: Glamour modeling is sex work
Controversial survey by NUS Wales classes Student models as prostitutes
Jenny Buckley & Isabel Young
News Editor & News Reporter
According to a survey run by NUS Wales,
which forms part of The Student Sex
Work Project, those involved in glamour
modelling photo shoots should be defined
as ‘sex workers’. The project has received
£500,000 of funding from the National
Lottery in order to gather information
from self-defined ‘student sex workers’
and find out how many students are
selling sex to pay for their education.
Though the aims of the survey have met
with widespread support, its classification
system has recently come under fire from
the online community.
The survey includes tick-boxes for
‘prostitution’, ‘pimping’ and ‘acting in the
porn industry’, asking students whether
they have been, or know anyone who has
been, involved in any form of sex work.
Comment
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Sport
Cambridge students outraged
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debate and examines why there is a
We are looking for
had an issue with the word 'glamour' for
decades. The problem is that it seems to
cover such a wide variety of meanings
from 'looking smart' to 'porn'. Since it's
open to such a wide interpretation, it will
always create ambiguity and misuse.”
So far about 10 per cent of students who
have filled in the survey know someone
who has worked as a prostitute or escort.
Yet when asked why they thought students
undertook sex work, 93 per cent gave the
need for money as their main reason.
The project has also drafted in
professional help in the shape of Becky
Adams, 44, who previously worked as a
brothel madam in the South of England
for 25 years, and says "with the financial
pressures of student loans it's becoming
far more acceptable for young people to
turn to sex work to see them through
their education.”
Continued on page 3...
Italy: Election Troubles Interview: Ed Bosson
Sky Holmes adds to the Mary Bear
Page 21
This list of activities also includes
glamour modelling, an inclusion which
has sparked outrage from a number of
glamour models online.
RattusRock, a contributor to a popular
modelling forum, disagreed with
stigmatizing glamour work: “My aunt
did 'glamour' in the 70s... her photos were
long flowing hair, gorgeous gowns and
diamond jewellery”.
Glamour Modelling is a difficult term
to define, as a London based professional
photographer, who asked not to be
named, told The Cambridge Student:
“Glamour photography, like many styles
of photography is an extremely ‘loose’
genre to define – certainly for the purposes
of academic study. It certainly does not
automatically entail topless content in the
Page 3 style.”
This is a view shared by
'SMILESPHOTO' who commented: “I've
Page 12
To be
based in our
R&D centre in
Chennai,
INDIA
as
Nick Butler chats to the Natural
Sciences student who coxed
Cambridge to victory in last year's
boat race
Page 11
Page 29
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Work to Change the World Event
7th Feb 1-6pm @ New Museums Site
Talk to our Co-Founder
8th Feb 1-3pm @ Mill Lane Lecture Room 10
02 Editorial & News
Investment policy seldom makes for
riveting bed-time reading . It can be
difficult to follow the outgoings and
expenditure of large organisations,
or to understand when severe
mismanagement of the funds has
taken place, particularly when we
the individuals responsible do their
best to shy away from the truth.
But it’s not always so difficult. It
can be simple: when thousands
of pounds of money raised at a
poorly organised charity event fail
Thursday, February 7th, 2013
EDITORIAL
to materialise, and money starts
disappearing from the safe, it’s a
pretty safe bet that “mismanagement”
of one form or another has occured.
The Cambridge Student was pained
and appalled to read Arsalan Ghani’s
recent attempts to deny the financial
“irregularities” surrounding the
Graduate union. Despite last year
trying to blame these “irregularities”
on his own unpaid intern (who
had somehow obtained a key to
the Union’s safe), Ghani’s attempts
to shrug off this mind-boggling
lack of judgement beggars belief.
~
When TCS approached Arsalan
Ghani for comment eight days ago,
he offered to send us a “thousand
word article”, on the condition
that we would publish it unedited.
Naturally, we refused, and politely
explained that we do not give an
unedited platform to anyone -
TCS is a newspaper, and publishes
journalism. We’re always happy
to hear our fellow students’ views
(letters@tcs.cam.ac.uk), and would
never refuse to publish relevent
informed comment, but our articles
are written by journalists (or the
nearest student equivalent). We’re
happy to work with anyone who
cares about journalism and wants
to make the truth heard, as long as
that’s why they want to work with us.
Our news articles should be written
by someone who wants to write
news, a Cambridge student who
cares about Cambridge, and never
by a writer with a vested interest.
That is why the TCS team can be
found in our office several nights a
week, blearly eyed, working through
the evening and often into the early
hours of the morning. We trawl
through the opinion (and six months
of leaked emails is a lot of opinion to
trawl through), because someone
has to try and dig out the facts.
THE TEAM
Gay marriage bill passed in LGBT month
LETTERS
~
Killing Theatre
Re: ‘Review - Killing Other People’
January 24th, 2013
Dear Editor,
The across-the-board condemnation
of Michael Campbell’s Killing Other
People, directed by Fergus Blair,
has left me feeling rather unsettled.
Your reviewer described the play
as ‘overly moralistic, didactic,
pretentious’
and
“potentially
offensive”. This is not the case.
Ironically, the reviewer unintentionally
hits the nail on the head when he
writes that the play ‘invites the
Marlith
Ashley Chhibber
News Reporter
Last Friday, Cambridge City Council
marked the start of a national LGBT
History Month with the raising of
the rainbow flag over the Guildhall,
for the fourth consecutive year. The
event was accompanied by live samba
music, and mirrored by an additional
flag raised over the Cambourne offices
of South Cambs District Council.
This year, for the first time, Wisbech
fire station will also be flying the
rainbow flag. In a press release, Station
Commander Geoff Quince said:
“Because of past homophobia and
discrimination, many LGBT people
have not wanted to draw attention to
themselves – let alone their talents,
gifts and achievements.
“Many older people have faced
discrimination from public services
- particularly health and social care
– and may be disinclined to accept
services like a Home Fire Safety
Check or smoke alarm fitting in their
own homes.
“So doing something simple but
significant – like displaying a rainbow
banner, stickers or pennants on
appliances or at workplaces during
February – hopefully goes some
way to tell the community that
Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue
Service support LGBT History Month
and provides a professional service
that meets the needs of everyone in
the community.”
February will see a wide range of
events, in partnership with CUSU
LGBT and many other organisations
and co-ordinated by Encompass
Network, celebrating LGBT history.
These include film screenings, sports
competitions, an exhibition of works
from LGBT artists, and several
‘socials’, in addition to the usual
weekly club and pub nights.
There will also be several more
formal talks this month. Professor
Stephen Whittle will give a talk on
gender reassignment surgery on7
February. An event will also take
place on 24 February with multiple
speakers, including Alan Turing,
whose centenary was marked by
several events last year.
Fletcher Williams, LGBT Rep for
King’s College, told The Cambridge
Student that he is “glad that LGBT
history is now being brought to the
forefront of people’s minds. Many
don’t realize the contributions made
and trials endured by the LGBT
community.”
Cambridge University was recently
named Stonewall’s most gay-friendly
university employer; these events,
organised by groups both within and
without the university, show that this
is one area where the town/gown
divide is easily bridged.
This year’s LGBT History Month
is particularly important as it has
coincided with the vote on gay
marriage. The bill, which was passed
by 400 votes to 175, is now going
through to a second reading.
Julian Huppert, MP for Cambridge,
told the BBC’s Daily Politics before
the vote that he was in favour of the
“fairer society” which Equal Marriage
would help to create, adding: “I’m so
proud we were able to do this. I hope
it will get through the Commons and
the Lords.”
Soon after the vote, Huppert tabled
an amendment to open up civil
partnerships to straight couples. This
is certainly opposed to the stance taken
by David Cameron, who announced
in PMQs, “I am a marriage man…
I think we should be promoting
marriage rather than looking at any
other way of weakening it.”
Although Cameron voted in favour
of the bill, fewer than half of his MPs
followed suit, in an issue which has
split the Conservative Party.
audience to sympathise with the
orchestrators of the Holocaust’.
‘Sympathise.’ This, I think, is at
the heart of the play; this is where
Killing Other People becomes
‘morally
challenging
art’
and
‘thought=provoking yet emotionally
charged’ (Campbell & Blair’s words).
The play is a study in sympathy,
or empathy: how to empathise
with a perpetrator of genocide,
how to sympathise with those, like
Miss Pennyfeather and Mr Post,
who are seemingly caught within
but express a desire to break free.
Yet your reviewer seems to equate
subject
matter
with
ideology:
apparently a study of the humans behind
genocide is the same as a justification
of ‘ghastly acts of humanity’.
No. Go beyond the obsession with
plot. When other reviewers talk of the
play’s lack of ‘coherence of meaning’
(Varsity) or lack of ‘something to say’
(The Tab), they announce this same
obsession. Art about villains does
not (necessarily) support villains. A
more subtle approach would see that
Campbell’s play asks you to empathise,
to take up a position where you force
yourself to trust Mr Black; not a matter
of agreeing with his superhuman
ambitions or his statements on beauty,
but to understand where they spring
from and why they are there. Putting
yourself in the blood-stained shoes
of Campbell’s protagonist is the
play’s first demand; it is an incredibly
important task, too, if we are to respond
to literature in ways that can be valuable
to our responses to other people.
The shame is that more discussion
could be had. My letter is limited to
showing Campbell’s skill in forcing
an audience to empathise when, really,
that is only the first step. The play’s
musings on ethics and aesthetics, and
the complex knots that tie the characters
of the play, are beautiful and valuable.
‘Rubbish!’ you cried, and still
cry, ‘The play is worth nothing!’
Oh, so you don’t believe me?
Then you’ll just have to trust me.
Laurence Tidy,
3rd year MML, Homerton
Do you have strong
feelings about any
of the issues raised
in this week’s TCS?
Email your thoughts to
letters@tcs.cam.ac.uk
(letters may be edited
prior to publication)
{TCS}
Editor in Chief:
Tristram Fane Saunders
editor@tcs.cam.ac.uk
Associate Editor:
Zoah Hedges-Stocks
News Editors:
Jenny Buckley & Gwen Jing
news@tcs.cam.ac.uk
Deputy News Editors:
Madeleine Bell, Timur Cetin,
Adam Clark, Hazel Shearing
deputynews@tcs.cam.ac.uk
Magazine Editor:
Rebecca Thomas
Deputy Magazine Editor:
James Redburn
magazine@tcs.cam.ac.uk
International Editors:
Fahd Humayun & Daniel Rowe
international@tcs.cam.ac.uk
Comment Editors:
Izzy Bowen & Jeremy Wikeley
comment@tcs.cam.ac.uk
Features Editors:
Alice Eccles & Hannah Marcus
features@tcs.cam.ac.uk
Interviews Editors:
Emily Handley & Harry Peto
interviews@tcs.cam.ac.uk
Music Editor: Sophie Luo
music@tcs.cam.ac.uk
Film Editor: Arjun Sajip
film@tcs.cam.ac.uk
Art Editors:
Miranda Bain & Jake Wood
art@tcs.cam.ac.uk
Books Editor: Georgia Wagstaff
books@tcs.cam.ac.uk
Theatre Editors:
Suzanne Duffy
& Hannah Greenstreet
theatre@tcs.cam.ac.uk
Listings & Events Editor:
Jenni Reid
listings@tcs.cam.ac.uk
Sport Editors:
Nick Butler & Gerald Wu
sports@tcs.cam.ac.uk
Sub-Editors: Ashley Chhibber,
Zahra Mashhood, Jeni Bloomfield,
Katherine Bond, Isabel Adomakoh
Young, Yema Stowell, Olivia Morgan
Sky Holmes & Elizabeth Gould
Web Editor: Mark Curtis
Board of Directors: Mark Curtis
(Business), Zoah Hedges-Stocks
(invited member), Michael
Yoganayagam (invited member),
Dom Weldon, Dan Green,
Nicholas Tufnell (co-chair),
Laurence Tidy (co-chair)
& Tristram Fane Saunders
directors@tcs.cam.ac.uk.
The Cambridge Student is editorially independent
and financially self-sufficient.
The Cambridge Student is published by Cambridge
University Students’ Union. All copyright is the
exclusive property of the publisher. No part of this
publication is to be reproduced, stored on a retrieval
system or submitted in any form or by any means
without prior permission of the publisher.
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News 03
{TCS} Thursday, February 7th, 2013
Fire scare hits local
restaurant
Customers were evacuated from
Nandos at Cambridge Leisure
Park in Clifton Way last Friday
evening as the fire alarm went
off. The fire services were called
at 9:15pm, after smoke emerged
from a kitchen grill. Smoke
filled the restaurant as a result
of a faulty extractor fan, but
staff acted quickly to ensure that
customers were removed from
the restaurant immediately.
According to the Fire Service,
“there was no fire just smoke in
the kitchen”. Customers were able
to go back inside to finish their
meals and were given refunds.
Cambridge police
continue cycling
crackdown
Police officers have been
continuing to tackle anti-social
cycling in Cambridge city centre
as part of Operation Pedalo
which began in December.
More than 30 officers have been
patrolling hotspots, targeting
those seen committing lighting,
pavement, and red light offences.
The initiative is designed to
reduce the number of cycling
incidents on the city’s streets.
Notable areas being targeted
by the scheme include Market
Street, Sidney Street, and
Downing Street. Those issued
with tickets for lighting offences
have one week to buy new lights,
or are faced with a fine. The
crackdown on cycling has been
endorsed by the Cambridgeshire
Police and Crime Comissioner.
Eton sponsors state
school college
Eton College is set to become
the sole educational sponsor
of a free school, which is set to
open in September 2014. The
Prime Minister’s alma mater
has announced its decision
to fund Holyport College as
part of a publicity boost for
governmental plans to bring
an independent ethos into
comprehensive schools. Michael
Gove has described the move
as “inspiring”. Yet the move has
been criticised by the National
Union of Teachers who feel
that the plans are simply a
way to provide state funding
for elite boarding schools,
and that the move proves that
the government’s priorities
have “gone badly wrong”.
Churches to shelter
homeless
The Nighthaven pilot project
this February will provide beds
to five homeless people on each
Tuesday of this month, in a
different church each Tuesday.
The rough sleepers will be sent
to the churches by Jimmy’s
Night Shelter, who will also
provide a trained worker at
each church. The project is
being led by Rev Canon Dr
John Binns of Great St Mary’s.
The project is a response to the
rising numbers of rough sleepers
in Cambridge as reported in TCS
in November. Recently Jimmy’s
Night Shelter has had to resort
to providing blow-up beds due
to overcrowding in the shelter.
Fourth year of losses for Union
Adam Clark
Deputy News Editor
The Cambridge Union Society has
reported a significant loss for the
fourth year in a row. The Union’s
financial report for the twelve
months to June 2012 shows it lost
£169,105, having spent over a
million pounds last year.
The Union spent £1,031,326 and
had an income of £862,221. It retains
net assets of nearly £7.5 million,
down from £7.8 million in June
2010. 60% of last year’s expenditure
went on ‘charitable activities’ with
the majority of the rest going on
the ‘costs of fundraising and trading
income’.
This is the first year in four years
that the deficit has been under
£200,000 – as reported in The
Cambridge Student in Michaelmas
term there was a deficit last year of
£255,071.
Ben Kentish, President of the
Union , told TCS “We are pleased
that the financial loss incurred this
year is significantly less than last year.
The continuing loss is explained
by the ongoing need to undertake
important renovation work on our
Grade II listed building. In the past
few years we have decided to invest
in some long-overdue refurbishment
work on the building, knowing that
this would put us in budgetary
loss in the short-term but would
be beneficial to the Union and its
members in the long-term.”
The report concludes that despite
‘record membership numbers, higher
sponsorship, better investment
returns, and a greater contribution
from the charity’s trading arm’
the Union remains unable to deal
with stubbornly high costs. The
report noted that the figure ‘starkly
illustrates the continuing need to
grow sources of income and reduce
costs’.
The
Union’s
investments
performed badly, resulting in losses
of over £82,000 from its portfolio. It
is now looking to develop its building
to generate additional income and
has employed property agents to
advise trustees on that development.
With net assets of £7.5 million the
Union is unlikely to face immediate
trouble but, similarly to last year, the
report mentions the need for long
term plans to increase income. It is,
however, the need to reduce costs
that may prove the major sticking
point – despite reducing its deficit,
the Union spent £106,949 more this
year.
Kentish said “the Union is forecast
to break even again next financial
year. There remains, however, a
reasonable amount of work still
to be done on the building in the
coming years, and we will continue
to make sure the Union facilities are
maintained to as high a quality as
possible for our members.”
Due to the Cambridge Union
Society’s status as a registered
charity, trustees deliver a report
on its finances and administration
each year, published by the Charity
Commission. The board of Trustees
is chaired by Sir Richard Dearlove,
Deficit facts and
figures
• 2012 spending
totalled £1,031,326
• Incomefor2012
was £862,221
• Deficit of £169,105
for 2012
• Deficitin2011
totalled £255,071
• Netassets£7.5
million for 2012
• Net assets in
July 2010 of £7.8
million
tsaiproject
Trinity-Tesco deal threatens countryside
Hazel Shearing
Deputy News Editor
On 17 January The Cambridge Student
exposed Trinity College’s decision
to sell greenfield land in North East
Bexhill, which will be the location of
a ‘major urban extension’. This week
has emerged that Trinity intends
to sell greenbelt land in Felixstowe,
Suffolk, in order that Tesco might
build a massive new superstore. The
sale will also allow the development
of up to 300 homes on the farmland,
destroying a Grade-II listed building
in the process.
Greenbelt land is designed to
protect rural environments from
expanding suburbs and to provide
urban residents with access to green
space. Trinity’s sale of a 30-acre field
in Walton High Street, Felixstowe, is
not just another case of endangering
wildlife and beautiful landscapes.
Rather, it is sacrificing the residents’
rights to enjoy the clean air and open
space just outside of the town.
The planned Tesco store has
outraged residents, particularly
after the company forecast that it
will divert £4 million worth of trade
from the town centre each year. The
application for the store has been
submitted to Suffolk Coastal District
Council. The Walton Felixstowe
Community Action Group is
encouraging residents to write letters
of objection to the Council.
This is not the first business
deal between the college and the
supermarket chain. Trinity already
owns a 50% stake in a portfolio of
Tesco stores.
The development raises not
only financial worries but also
environmental concerns. Having
already angered conservationists
over its Bexhill sales, the
relationship between the college
and environmental groups will only
deteriorate further, as more natural
habitats will be destroyed to make
way for the project.
To add to the controversy, the
proposals will result in the destruction
of a Grade II-listed building and
quality farmland. This is the second
recent incidence of the college’s
disregard for the protection of listed
buildings, after much debate was
sparked over the decision to install
solar panels in the 200 year-old New
Court.
This sale of greenbelt land certainly
raises concerns about the ethical
codes of Oxbridge’s richest college.
Outcry over student sex worker survey
...Continued from front page
But this is perhaps not unexpected
in light of rising tuition fees and
resultant increase in the number of
students signing up for escorting
and ‘Sugar Daddy’ dating sites.
The leader of the Student Sex
Worker Project, Dr Tracy Sagar
from Swansea University, said that:
“Our project identifies ‘sex work’ as
including activities such as erotic
dancing, web-cam sex, phone chat
sex, escort work, and massage
parlour work as well work in the
porn industry.”
Whether glamour modelling
constitutes sex work is therefore
controversial, as sex work in this
context can be defined as the
production of images to incite sexual
arousal. Students who are involved
in fashion shoots for their university,
or for their university papers, can
therefore be defined as sex workers
if the images are provocative.
One model, Stolenfaces, insists
that “glamour modelling is implied
porn, it has no purpose without
the sexual context...” Photographer
PeterH makes the point that “Sex
work doesn’t (have to) mean
shagging… pole dancers and
lap dancing clubs are designated
sex workers and sex encounter
establishments respectively, even
though there’s no contact.”
However, Thirza Santos, a student
who has done glamour modelling in
the past told TCS : “In my culture,
it’s a way to celebrate going into
womanhood. I think it’s ridiculous
to say that because you are the focus
of a picture you are considered a
glamour model.”
The photographer who spoke to
TCS also said: “Many of the models
I work with would be shocked and
disgusted that their chosen areas of
modelling work, which involve no
sexually explicit content should be
so casually lumped in with escorting
or street prostitution.”
04 News
Boat clubs reveal
plans for new
training base in Ely
A
group of established
Cambridge boat clubs are in
the process of entering a joint
application for a new boathouse
and training facilities near Ely.
The three boat clubs, namely
Cambridge University Boat Club,
Cambridge University Women’s
Boat Club and Cambridge
University Lightweight Rowing
Club, have purchased a site along
the banks of the Great Ouse
River, a site over 12 acres in size,
for developing a new Cambridge
University boathouse facility.
The new site will be closer to
the Adelaide Straight, where
the crews do most of their water
training.
Computing Service
to move to West
Cambridge Site
Cambridge
University’s
Computing Service is possibly
going to move into the Roger
Needham Building which was
used until recently by Microsoft
Research. Microsoft Research
has moved to a new complex
on the West Cambridge Site.
However, the New Museums
Site will still house the
Photographic and Illustration
Service and a Reception/Service
Desk with the main Service
Desk functioning in the Roger
Needham Building. A pair of
interconnected teaching rooms
with a capacity of approximately
80 seats as a replacement for the
Titan Teaching Rooms will also
remain on the site.
Fascists want demo
in “central area”
English Defence League leaders
are to hold talks with police to
“reduce disruption” during a
demonstration in Cambridge.
Almost 750 people have signed
up to a counter-demonstration
under the banner of Cambridge
Unite Against Fascism. An EDL
spokesman said: “Our demo
will be in a central area. I can’t
say the exact location as I’m
still in talks with the police.”
Uni: it’s not for
boys
Female
students
now
outnumber male students in
almost every university in
the UK and the gender gap is
growing according to UCAS
statistics. This year 22,000 less
boys applied to university and
20 UK universities have twice
as many female undergraduates
as male. In 2010-2011 the UK
undergraduate
population
was 45% male to 55% female,
despite there being slightly
more student-age males in
the country than women. The
Courtauld Institute of Art has
the most dramatic imbalance
of any university with 83.3% of
the student body being female.
While some
traditionally
science
and
engineering
focussed universities such as
Imperial College London still
have more male populations,
female students look set to
dominate universities for years
to come.
Thursday, February 7th, 2013 {TCS}
Social deprivation in local schools
Madeleine Bell
Deputy News Editor
Cambridge schools have dropped
in GCSE league tables for the third
year running, ranking 94th out of the
country’s 152 local authorities. This
marks a significant decline from 38th
in 2011 and 64th last year. The County
Council argued that the changing gradeboundaries, which led to generally
lower grades across the country, hit
Cambridge particularly hard.
Only 57.5% of pupils in the county
scored at least five A*-C grades
including English and maths, compared
to 58.8% nationally.
School leaders also point to the poor
government funding of the county’s
schools, which have among the lowest
per pupil funding rates in the country.
Yet, there is reason to look further than
funding cuts for the problems behind this
year’s lower results. Indices of social
deprivation, such as the percentage of
children on free school meals, can often
indicate levels of social deprivation in
the wider catchment area.
Data compiled by Cambridge News
showed that last year, “81.91% of nonfree school meal pupils reached at least
level four, but the equivalent figure for
children getting free school meals was
just 55.37%.”
“Children on free
school meals do
worse than their
peers”
The effects of social deprivation
can also be seen amongst older pupils,
and studies have shown a clear link to
higher rates of absence in later years.
Councillor David Harty, County
Cabinet member for learning and one
of the instigators of the ‘Narrowing
the Gap’ strategy, was unavailable for
comment this week, but has previously
spoken out over the issue.
“We agree that it is not acceptable
that children on free school meals do
worse than their peers… That’s why
we have worked hard to develop a
‘Narrowing the Gap’ strategy, which has
four priorities – two of which focus on
children receiving free school meals.”
TCS contacted The Manor School,
which was visited by the Duke and
Duchess of Cambridge last November
and has made huge progress in its
results the past three years. However,
the changing grade-boundaries have
had a significant negative impact on
GCSE results, with only 20% of pupils
achieving 5 A*-C grades. Statistics at
the school show that 30.4% of pupils
are currently eligible for free school
meals.
Mark Woods, the Acting Executive
Principal, told TCS: “Schools without
an affluent parent body need help in
garnering the support, commitment and
contacts that often present themselves
‘naturally’ to some other schools.” He
acknowledged, that although the ability
of the local government to rectify the
situation “is being eroded all the time”,
a combination of “high quality teaching
and learning, close partnerships with
parents and raising expectations and
experience of students from deprived
backgrounds” can produce hugely
positive effects on school exam results.
Death of the lecture theatre
Rise of online courses threatens traditional teaching
Timur Cetin
Deputy News Editor
The Director-General of the Russell
Group has warned that traditional
university courses are fast being
overtaken by online courses. The
comments came in response to the
news that for every student studying in
Edinburgh there are ten taking ‘Massive
Open Online Courses’ or MOOCS.
The University of Edinburgh is the
second university in the UK to offer socalled MOOCs. Edinburgh now offers
six online courses including “Equine
Nutrition”,
“Artificial
Intelligence
Planning” and “Astrobiology and
the Search for Extraterrestrial life”.
The University actively takes
part in the Coursera Consortium, a
world-wide association set up by US
academics that offers MOOCs. Other
members include CalTech and the
University of London, which offers free
online courses through its international
programmes. Other platforms that offer
MOOCs are edX, run by Harvard and
MIT, and Udacity, founded by former
Stanford academic Sebastian Thrun.
The number of people signing up
to courses offered by Edinburgh has
increased by 50% in less than two
months. For each of the 30,000 students
on campus, another 10 are virtual
students taking part in MOOCs. Having
joined Coursera last summer, Edinburgh
does not prescribe entry requirements
for these free-of-charge courses.
A statement from the University
says that for every student physically
studying in Edinburgh, there are
now ten online learners. However,
speaking to The Cambridge Student,
Dr Wendy Piatt, Director General
of the Russell Group, cautioned that
”it’s important to draw a distinction
between those courses that offer the
opportunity to get a qualification, such
as a degree, and those which don’t.”
Saying that universities were already
taking advantage of online technologies
in the dissemination of knowledge by
means of online lectures, the Dr. Piatt
also cited low student-staff ratios and
the chance for students to work directly
with the leading experts in their field
as well as direct access to first-rate
libraries and facilities, adding: “This
unique environment has already been
improved by new technologies and
virtual learning environments whether
that’s through library resources or
teaching materials online or the use of
live weblinks in medical programmes,
so in many ways the traditional
lecture theatre is long gone already.”
Speaking
to
TCS,
Bahram
Bekhradnia, director of the Higher
Education Policy Institute in Oxford,
expressed the view that MOOCs “are a
step into the unknown and may have
a lasting impact or on the other hand
they may disappear. The economics
and business model of making largescale provision of education available
free online is unknown. Nobody
has worked it out and so far they
(MOOCs) are costing money, rather
than earning it. At the moment, they
are stand-alone courses that don’t lead
to qualifications. All that will change if
MOOCS somehow get accredited and if
it is possible to take a degree or different
qualification program through them.”
He added that many universities were
jumping onto the bandwagon because
they felt they could not afford to be
left out. However, “One thing that may
stand in the way of that is reputation.
Universities like Cambridge will be
very wary of diluting their brand and
risking their reputation. But that has
not deterred some very prestigious
institutions from moving forward with
MOOCS. Time will tell where it will go.”
News 05
{TCS} Thursday, February 7th, 2013
Last November, Buddha Metta
Cambridge began a campaign
to build a temple in Cambridge,
where Buddhists could go for
meditation classes and religious
teaching. The charity group
hopes to raise over £400,000
for the project. Yet the plans are
grinding to a halt as the Home
Office refused permission for the
Thai religious leaders at the head
of the project to extend their
tourist visas, which expire after
six months. Dr Rachael Harris,
Cambridge University chaplain,
has expressed her frustration
at this “setback” and hopes
that the project can continue.
Richard III’s
remains found
Remains of Richard III have
been found by academics
beneath a car park in Leicester.
Researchers from the University
of Leicester confirmed it was
“beyond
reasonable doubt”
that the remains belonged to
the former King of England.
The
evidence
presented
included DNA analysis of
the bones, which matched
the genetic profiles of two of
descendants of the monarch’s
family, namely Michael Ibsen,
a Canadian-born furniture
maker, and another person who
wishes to remain anonymous.
Richard Buckley, the lead
archaeologist on the search,
said: “It has been an honour and
privilege for all of us to be at the
centre of an academic project that
has had such phenomenal global
interest and mass public appeal.
Rarely have the conclusions
of
academic
research
been so
eagerly awaited.”
Frank Hahn dies a 87
A distinguished Cambridge
Economics Professor died in
hospital last week. Professor
Frank Hahn, a fellow of Churchill
College renowned for his work on
monetary economics and general
equilibrium
theory, died in
Addenbrooke’s aged 87 following
a short illness. Prof. Sir David
Wallace, master of Churchill,
said Professor Hahn helped to
bring five overseas economists
on fellowships to Churchill, who
went on to win Nobel Prizes.
Sir David said: “The passing
of one of our founding Fellows
is very sad for the college.”
A funeral is to be held for
close friends and family and a
memorial service will take place.
Parker’s Piece lights vandalised
Jenny Buckley
News Editor
Vandals have destroyed the new
lighting bollards on Parker’s Piece
eight days after they were first
erected. Police have launched an
investigation into the destruction
of the lights which were installed
following a rape and multiple
assaults on students.
The bollards were fitted along
the path between the Reality
Checkpoint and Melbourne Place
for a four week trial. If the trial
proved successful, the Council
had intended to spend a further
£30,000 on lighting installations
on Parker’s Piece. Nevertheless, it
is hoped that the recent vandalism
will not prevent the continuation of
the trial.
Cllr Tim Bick, the leader of
Cambridge City Council, has
stressed the importance of the trial
and that it ought to be continued,
saying that it would be difficult
to judge the merits of the lighting
without first giving it a fair trial
‘in situ’. The consultation is due to
continue until Monday 25 February.
The lighting bollards, which rise
out of the ground in the evening
and retract in the morning, were
installed after a woman was raped in
March on her way to work shortly
after 6am. The unveiling of the lights
coincided with the Reclaim the
Night march which was organised
by Cambridge University’s Students
Union’s Women’s Campaign.
University Supports Gove’s A-level war
Hazel Shearing
Deputy News Editor
The University of Cambridge is
considering the reintroduction of
formal admissions tests for all future
applicants, after condemning the
government’s proposals to scrap AS
Levels.
The traditional Cambridge entrance
exams were abolished in 1986.
Since then University departments
and colleges have independently
determined
their
examination
methods for applicants, with each
college and faculty having their own
requirements.
Dr. Mike Sewell, Director of
Cambridge Admissions for the
Cambridge Colleges, said that the
new exam “would have to be a very
different examination to the one that
was dropped in the 1980s. One option,
rather than a pre-screening test, is
something along the lines of the Step
exam which would still be an extra
hurdle that we are asking students to
surmount.”
He acknowledged that this could
seriously hinder accessibility for
students, but stated that the scrapping
of AS-levels would leave them with
little choice. “What we are concerned
about is that any of the alternatives run
the risk of putting good students off,
doing the opposite of what A-levels
do which is to encourage people who
secure good grades half way through
their A-levels to apply.”
Since the introduction of A-levels,
the number of students applying to
the University has almost doubled,
rising by 6,000 and there are fears
that by scrapping the exams, many
able students will be deterred from
applying to Cambridge, or indeed
Oxbridge.
Previously, AS Levels have been
a crucial marker of academic
performance for students applying
during their A Level studies, however
Michael Gove’s recent announcement
that AS Levels are to be scrapped by
2016 has prompted a rethink of the
application process.
The decision to scrap the AS-level
has been unanimously condemned
by top academics, who do not want
to offer places based on GCSE results
alone. In a letter sent to The Telegraph
yesterday, 40 admissions tutors from
across the University, including
Dr Sewell, claim that AS levels are
the fairest way of assessing ability.
Although the letter did not explicitly
express the university’s intention
to introduce its own exams, the
implication was clearly there, stating
that access at the university would
become “less fair” if the exams were
scrapped.
Sewell continued to say that, “In
the light of the Secretary of State’s
announcement,
the
University
has of course begun the process of
considering all options available to us,
so that we may continue meeting our
goal of admitting the best and brightest
students from all backgrounds.
“However, we are clear that the
best way of achieving this is for
the Government to retain public
examinations at the end of Year 12.”
Oxford SU faced by fiscal panic
Olivia Morgan
News Reporter
The Oxford Student Union has been
struck by fiscal panic after severe cuts
by Oxford University slashed their
annual block grant to just £400,000.
This is significantly less than that
received by Student Unions at other
Russell Group universities, where
the average level of funding is £1.8
million.
In response, emergency motions
have been scheduled to discuss how
to address this crisis, which could
effectively kill off OUSU.
The OUSU president, David
Townsend, responded by stating
that the cut in funding “significantly
constrains OUSU’s ability to serve
its 22,000 strong membership, as
Justice Secretary
defends smacking
The Oxford University Student Union
Justice Secretary Chris Grayling
has defended the right of parents
to smack their children. The
Conservative
Minister
told
the Mail on Sunday that he
smacked his own two children
and that it can “send a message”.
He criticised the days when
children
were
“severely
beaten” at school but defended
occasional physical chastisement.
The NSPCC criticised the
comments arguing that evidence
has shown it is ineffective
and harmful to children.
Susy Langsdale, CUSU’s Women’s
Officer told The Cambridge
Student that: “Whilst this incident
is disappointing, I have been in
contact with a local councillor and
he assures me that the trial is still
going ahead.”
The Council is currently in
consultation with local residents
regarding the lighting installations
and so far has received an
unprecedented
number
of
responses. The fact that so many
people are concerned about the lack
of lighting on Parker’s Piece suggests
the importance of the work being
done by the Women’s Campaign.
Langsdale added: “It is heartening
to see how much we can make a
difference to how safe people feel
walking alone at night.”
Steve Haslam
Leaders of Buddhist
temple project forced
to leave UK
OUSU cannot afford to employ the
staff to provide the professional
services needed.”
However, Oxford University
states that funding cuts are “in line
with funding levels elsewhere in the
University” and are a result of the
general economic downturn, which
has led to “restraints on resources”.
In addition to their financial
problems, OUSU faces the possibility
that the funding cut may reflect
students’ dissatisfaction with their
union. Results published last year
by the National Student Survey gave
OUSU a student satisfaction rating
of just 39%, placing it joint last with
Oxford Brookes.
Further unpopularity, and a lack
of any finances to invest in engaging
with the student body, may spell
the end of OUSU, leaving Oxford’s
collegiate system to look after their
‘own’ students.
Townsend warned: “If this
underfunding continues next year,
the Trustees of the Student Union
have decided there is no other choice
but to start cutting back on services
which OUSU provides.”
CUSU
commented:
“CUSU
receives no direct block grant from
the University. We believe we are the
only UK Higher Education Union
students’ union in this situation, and
as such our income and expenditure
is considerably lower than most other
student unions, Oxford included.”
In Cambridge, students are often
ignorant of CUSU work within the
collegiate system. This emphasises
the fact that, although its work may
be good, a lack of visibility pushes
students to seek help with solving
problems on a college- rather than
university level.
The importance of a Student
Union cannot be underestimated.
As Nick Butler of St Edmund’s
noted: “Having a student union is
really important as it means we have
a university community as well as a
collegiate one, but at the same time
they should be more open, and give
us more, to justify their funding.”
Although
the
short-term
implications are not yet known,
students are hoping for the passing
of a motion allowing the OUSU
President to write to the ViceChancellor of the University
expressing their concerns.
06 News
Royal baby sparks
baby boom
In a bizarre new example of
the ‘Kate Effect,’ the Royal
pregnancy has seen a rise in
the number of pregnancy tests
purchased. Clearblue, a firm
that manufactures pregnancy
tests, said that sales of its
fertility indicators rose by 60
per cent - its biggest rise in
almost five years. Clearblue
spokesman
Hugh
Ayling
attributed the rise to women
“trying for a baby in the hope of
experiencing their pregnancy
alongside Kate.” The Royal
baby, and future heir to the
throne is due in July, sparking
ideas that parents want their
child to be born in the same year
as the monarch. It is estimated
that an extra 60,000 babies
were born in 1984, the same
year as Prince Harry’s birth.
Puppy abandoned in
laptop bag
A puppy is “lucky to be alive”
after having been found in an
abandoned bag in Devonshire
Road, Petersfield, by a member
of the public. The abandoned
10-week-old pet was brought to
Wood Green Animal Shelter’s
Godmanchester Centre where
he is being cared for by staff.
Deputy Head of Animal Welfare
Linda Cantle said: “This little
dog is lucky to be alive. We
would urge anyone no longer
able to care for their pet to act
responsibly and call a rescue
centre like Wood Green.” From
January 2012 to January this
year, the total number of animals
rescued was 3,881. Dogs top the
table in abandoned pets at 1,430.
UK BA halts
Cambridge Wedding
UK Border Agency (UK BA)
officers interrupted a wedding
ceremony at Cambridge Register
Office, Castle Street, to arrest
the Egyptian groom-to-be, after
checks revealed that he had
over-stayed his leave in the UK.
The man has been transferred
to immigration detention and
is due to leave the UK. A UK BA
Official said: “We are sending a
simple, clear message to anyone
attempting to undermine the
UK’s immigration laws – we will
investigate you and catch you.”
Cambridge to host
conference for state
sector teachers
The
three-day
conference
between 17 April and 19 April
provides teachers and HE
advisers in the UK state sector
with up-to-date information
regarding admissions and
studies at Cambridge. Delegates
will gain an insight into student
life at Cambridge by staying
in a Cambridge College. They
will also be able to ask current
undergraduates about their
experience of studying at
Cambridge for an up-to-date
student view. The 2013 Teachers’
Conference is being supported by
The Sutton Trust and Cambridge
International
Examinations.
Thursday, February 7th, 2013
{TCS}
Plans for Cambridge underground
Ashley Chhibber
News Reporter
Cambridge City Council is considering
proposals to combat traffic problems by
introducing a network of underground
‘bus tunnels’ in and around central
Cambridge.
One key design project, supervised
by Professor Robert Mair, investigated
the technical and economic feasibility
of a system of underground tunnels
providing passage for buses. These
would lead from Coldhams Common to
the Grafton Centre and Christ’s Pieces
on the eastern side of Cambridge, and
from Castle Hill underneath the River
Cam and down to Park Street, North of
the city centre.
Professor Mair has rejected the
“common
misconception”
that
“unfavourable geology”, such as waterlogged areas, would prove an obstacle
to tunnelling, and stated that “much
of the city is underlain by Gault Clay,
which is strong enough to be ideal for
tunnelling, and the high water table
presents no technical problems.”
“New tunnelling technologies,
successfully proven in similar clays
in the London area and elsewhere
in the world, now mean that tunnels
under Cambridge merit serious
consideration.”
The scheme, first drawn up in 2008
would be dependent upon the release
of funds from central government,
and is one of several options currently
being discussed to solve Cambridge’s
growing congestion problems.
Any intended project would have
to be integrated with the new Science
Park rail station, targeted to open in
2015, which was given the go-ahead
last month. It would also be expected
to provide easy access to the city centre
from Northstowe, a proposed new
town to the northwest of Cambridge,
which will otherwise rely largely on
the current Cambridgeshire Guided
Busway.
The Busway, which opened in
August 2011, was criticised after
construction delays and rocketing
costs. An extension and expansion of
the current Busway is another option
under consideration.
Asked whether the tunnel project
would disrupt city and university
life, Professor Mair insisted that an
underground system would not harm
the historic centre, stating: “There
would be minimal damage to overlying
buildings.”
However, not all residents are
convinced. Dr Rosanna Omitowoju,
a Cambridge resident, academic, and
mother of four, thinks there is no need
to introduce an expensive new system,
adding: “Cambridge is a great city to
cycle in and I think that schemes which
really try to make cycling an even more
viable option (especially for people who
live outside the central areas) should be
explored fully before something like
this is looked at.”
Police spending cuts amidst crime spree
Tian Zhong
News Reporter
Figures recently released by the Home
Office have shown that the numbers of
police officers, police staff, PCSOs, and
special constables in Cambridgeshire fell
in 2012. The most considerable decrease
was in the number of special constables,
which dropped by a quarter in the six
months between March and September.
Since September 2010, the Coalition
has pursued a campaign of police cuts
with the number of police staff been
reduced by 12,235. This is a decrease of
15.6%. The number of police officers also
fell by 12.9%.
JOIN
{TCS} News
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and filled to the brim
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we want you
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To get involved, email
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The strength of the Police service has
been particularly weakened over the past
two years after the number of police staff
has fallen sharply, decreasing by 19.8%.
This decrease is almost 5% higher than
the national average.
Inspector Steve Poppitt from
Cambridgeshire Constabulary told The
Cambridge Student that: “The reductions
in staffing have primarily impacted
on senior and middle managers.
Those remaining have taken on wider
responsibilities. Support staff functions
have also been curtailed with work either
being streamlined, discontinued or
centralised.”
In total 296 jobs have been cut since
September 2010. When the average wage
of policeman is estimated to be £40k,
the saving as a result of the cuts could
be as much as £12 million. However, the
damage to community security could be
much more costly.
The cuts must be put in the context
of a recent crime spree. Seven break-ins
at primary schools occurred between
10 and 16 January. Daniel Zeichner, the
Labour Parliamentary spokesperson for
Cambridge told TCS: “It is too simplistic
to make a direct connection between
short-term crime statistics and levels of
policing, but what is quite clear is that the
pace and scale of cuts is putting the police
service under considerable strain”.
Yet the cuts in social security spending
have not been restricted to the Police.
The fire service in Cambridgeshire has
cut back by £4 million over the past four
years, according to a recent press release
from the Fire Authority.
Daniel Zeichner is not convinced that
the economic downturn justifies the cuts,
suggesting that it would have been better
to “invest in those services rather than
waste a huge amount of money on the
unnecessary and unwanted police and
crime commissioner elections that were
held in the autumn.”
News 07
{TCS} Thursday, February 7th, 2013
Chaos continues in Cambridge GU
Secretary’s typo accused of “destroying the image of the Graduate Union”
...Continued from front page
“Fake cases of financial
irregularities” is a reference to the
“disappearance” last September
of a four-figure sum in cash
from the GU safe. An e-mail
from the Registrary’s Office
shows acknowledgement of the
missing cash, and that Ghani has
“recovered” part of the missing
cash – evidence that these
“financial irregularities” were
indeed not “fake”.
The e-mail from Kirsty Allen,
Head of Registrary’s Office and
Principal Assistant Registrary
from the University, refer to “cash
taken at an event for international
students held at the GU on 28
September 2012 [which] had
gone missing and subsequently,
once recovered, appeared to be
lower than the invoices for the
expenditure incurred at the event
might have suggested.”
Implicated in the missing cash
situation was an intern that Ghani
hired without formal approval:
“The intern had taken the cash
proceeds home following the
event and shortly afterwards had
ceased her internship at the GU;
as a result, there were difficulties
in recovering the proceeds. The
particular event appears not to
have been approved formally by
the GU’s Executive Committee”,
Ms Allen explained in her e-mail.
With respect to “lying about
‘firing’ the Treasurer”, e-mail
correspondence shows that Ghani
ordered Carmen Jack, the GU
Treasurer, to hand over “all duties
of the treasury” with immediate
effect, making a unilateral
decision to denounce her from
her responsibilities as Treasurer.
Ghani’s email claims the decision
was made by the executive
committee, but no evidence has
been found to support this claim.
Jack retained her responsibilities,
since the President is answerable
to the EC, and cannot order them
to “transfer their duties.”
In the GU council meeting
yesterday, it was announced that
Ms Jack has since been made
a Trustee of the GU. However,
Ghani was reluctant to sign the
documents in order to officially
grant Ms Jack GU Trustee status,
and had to be put under significant
pressure by other GU members to
sign the letter at the meeting and
promise to update Ms Jack’s status
as a Trustee online on the GU
Hermes hit by
‘phishing’ blitz
Timur Cetin
Deputy News Editor
A phishing e-mail that seemed to
have been sent from a ‘@cam.ac.uk’
address has led the University
Computing Service (UCS) to
release an official warning. The
messages which claimed to be
from the UCS service desk were
successfully sent to almost 5,000
accounts.
The messages had the subject
line: ‘Your Account may have been
compromised’ and urged those
receiving the message to fill in a
form and change their password.
The seemingly authentic spam
message began: “Your Cambridge
E-mail account has been sending
numerous spams emails from a
foreign ip recently. As a result you
may not be able to send new mail.
However, you might not be the
one promoting this Spam, as your
e-mail account might have been
compromised.”
It proceeded to ask all recipients
to click on a link “to protect your
account from sending spam
mails” before stating that “failure
to do this will violate the UCS
Email Policy” which “will render
your account inactive.” Apart
from its deceptively official tone,
the authenticity of the spam mail
was heightened by the inclusion
of a fax and phone number, both
of which led to the UCS service
desk.
In addition to the official UCS
response to the email, Clare
College’s IT department urged all
its students to be alert to the spam
message, urging them to “delete it
immediately.”
Similarly in a message to all
students of English, the Faculty’s
Computer Officer commented that
this “is one of the better phishing
attempts I’ve seen in a long time
(it ALMOST fooled me until I got
to the bit about ‘confirming your
account details.)”
UCS thanked those who did
not believe the email, responding
those who fell victim to the scam,
saying: “We know that many
people did not fall for this scam;
if you are one of those we thank
you.”
website.
In the same meeting, several
students voiced concerns over the
Ghani’s “hostile” presentation of
relations between the University
and the GU in the press, criticising
his portrayal of the situation as too
“antagonistic.” Ghani criticised
the University’s handling of the
constitutional crisis, urging that
“we must defend our students,”
and stressing an ‘us-and-them’
viewpoint. The Senior Treasurer of
the GU defended the University’s
slowness, claiming that “they are
trying not to interfere too much”.
Leaked e-mail correspondence
shows further revealing examples
of Ghani’s treatment of his
colleagues.
Last October, GU Welfare
Officer Tom Towers explained
he would be unable to attend a
meeting. Ghani’s reply said Towers
should address him with “Dear
honourable President”.
In another reply to Tom Towers,
who raised concerns about Mr
Ghani’s absence at an event run by
the GU, the President accused him
of being “an enemy of democracy”
and “useless”.
Towers declined to comment on
the matter. Ghani was contacted
by TCS eight days ago, but has yet
to reply.
Emails from Arsalan Ghani to Tom Towers (GU Welfare Officer), dated
Friday 12th October 2012 [all emails sic.]
“
“
Dear Tom,
A proper and professional
response should be;
“Dear honourable President,
It is my utmost pleasure that
you thought of providing an
opportunity to attend this meeting
to a person like me. But I have
an exam at 11:30am which I is
important. I am extremely sorry
and apologetics that I could not
attend this time.
In obedience,
Tom”
Hope you understand this and
got the message.
”
You are an enemy of
democracy and you know
nothing about politics. I don’t
want to hear anything negative
on functioning of the GU
from a useless person like you.
You should stop these actions
immediately and resort to your
function as a welfare officer.
If you think these baseless
accusations can defame
me, then you are on the
wrong track, I have much of
following in the students and
international community you
can ever imagine. They respect
me on my political ideology.
They don’t need your shameful
accusations to rank me.
“And you being a useless officer
of GU, an agent of negative
anti-democratic forces in the
university, can never reduce
my support from my people.
I think for your career, you
should refrain from these
negative actions, otherwise you
will be disgraced nationally
and internationally. Hope you
”
understand this..
SU S
BS TU
O CR DE
FF IP N
ER TI T
O
N
Gwen Jing
News Editor
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Electric cars to
swamp Cambridge
The firm Pod Point predicts that
large numbers of Cambridge
residents will buy electric cars
in the near future. As part of
the government-funded Plugged
in Places scheme, the firm are
installing charge-up points in
Cambridge homes free of charge.
With fuel prices on a constant
increase, it is hoped that this scheme
will promote the new technology.
According to Erik Fairbairn, chief
executive of Pod Point, electric cars
are “six times cheaper than using
petrol or diesel”. However, given
that charging points installed in
multi-storey car parks in 2010 were
only used three times in one year,
their popularity is yet to take off.
Cat to replace iron
in Monopoly game
The face of board-gaming is
to be changed forever, after a
Facebook survey voted to remove
Monopoly’s iconic ‘iron’ playingpiece. Hasbro, the American
company which produces the
game, wanted to provide an
update which reflects “the
interests of today’s players”. As
the iron received the fewest votes
in the month-long poll, it is to be
replaced, with production ceasing
immediately; from later this
year, Monopoly sets will instead
contain the new ‘cat’ counter
which, perhaps unsurprisingly,
was the most popular alternative
amongst internet voters.
University VC sent
on India trade trip
Cambridge’s position as a centre
of technological excellence in
Britain is to be further enhanced
through a number of national
and international events. Most
significantly,PrimeMinisterDavid
Cameron has chosen University
Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sir
Leszek Borysiewicz to be part
of the delegation going to India
this month to discuss trade.
Whilst at home, the Cambridge
Awards Week will recognise the
businesses that are contributing
to Cambridge’s position in
Britain, with Vince Cable visiting
on March 18th, and University
Chancellor David Sainsbury
has signalled a new round of
collaborations between academia
and industry across the county.
£10 million spent
on University
Technical College
A site has been chosen for the
University Technical College
(UTC), a purpose-designed threestorey building, on Robinson
Way. The UTC is set to open
in September 2014 and will
teach students aged 14 to 19. It
will specialise in the teaching
of specialist science subjects
such as biomedical science and
environmental
science.
The
College will be primarily offering
hands-on technical learning,
but will also be providing more
traditional GCSE options and
offering the Ebacc. A period
of consultation for the designs
began on Monday and will
last until 22 March, with the
final decision on the proposals
due to be made in April.
Thursday, February 7th, 2013
{TCS}
UK Exit “catastrophe for research”
Jenni Reid
News Reporter
The European Commissioner for
Research, Innovation and Science
Maire
Geoghegan-Quinn
has
claimed that, if the UK votes to leave
the European Union, it could prove
a “catastrophe” for research and
innovation.
Geoghegan-Quinn
was
responding to Prime Minister
David Cameron’s recent pledge
to hold an ‘in/out’ referendum on
Britain’s EU membership should the
Conservatives remain in power till
2017.
Britain would be able to participate
in programmes as an associate
nation. But this would prevent the
UK having any say in decisions
over the programmes’ priorities
with agreements depending on
negotiations with the remaining
members. But Dr Kurt Deketelaere,
secretary general of the League of
European Research Universities,
says many of which are already “fed
up” with the UK’s attitude towards
Europe.
Leandro’s World Tour
08 News
Cambridge
academics
have received
considerable
funding from
Europe
Research and
innovation are
areas where UK
get “most bang for
its buck”
However critics, including many
EU states and US President Barack
Obama, have been quick to highlight
the areas which would be negatively
impacted by Britain leaving the EU.
The science and higher education
sectors appear to be particular areas
of concern. Geoghegan-Quinn
told Times Higher Education that
research and innovation is the area
where the UK gets the “most bang
for its buck” in Europe, which would
become unstable if Britain left the
EU.
Out of all the member states, the
UK currently receives the second
largest amount of EU funding.
Around £3.8 billion has so far been
given to the UK for The Seventh
Framework Programme, which
has been in operation since 2007
and aids programs related to food,
science, and the environment
Cambridge invents
3D microchip
Adam Clark
Deputy News Editor
Cambridge scientists have invented
the world’s first microchip that can
allow information to move in three
dimensions. The invention could
enable vastly increased storage
space on microchips by spreading
information over several layers.
Until now microchips have only
been able to pass information
either side to side or forwards
and backwards. The new types of
microchip can pass information
up and down as well, potentially
allowing them to store data on
more than one layer on a single
microchip.
Dr. Reinoud Lavrijsen, an author
on the paper and a member of the
University’s Thin Film Magnetism
Group, explained that “Today’s chips
are like bungalows – everything
happens on the same floor. We’ve
created the stairways allowing
information to pass between
floors.”
The team behind the paper used
‘spintronic’ chips which exploit
the electron’s magnetic spin as
opposed to traditional chips which
use charge-based technology. Such
chips are set to become standard
technology in the next few years.
Using
nanotechnology,
researchers layered cobalt, platinum
and ruthenium atoms in a ‘club
sandwich’ on top of a silicon chip
in a process called ‘sputtering’. The
cobalt and platinum atoms store
data, while the ruthenium atoms
communicate information through
those neighbouring layers.
Professor Russell Cowburn of
the Department of Physics and the
study’s lead researcher commented:
“Each step on our spintronic
staircase is only a few atoms high”.
Probing the material with a laser
technique called MOKE, researchers
could monitor the data moving up
through the layers of material as
they switched a magnetic field on
and off.
The same effect has traditionally
been achieved by electronic
transistors which generate heat
within the microchip. However,
by using the basic properties
of the elements themselves, the
Cambridge team hopes to avoid
such problems. Professor Cowburn
called it a “21st century way of doing
things”.
However the 3D microchips are
still a long way off being usable in
a commercial sense. Large scale
electronics are unlikely to be
accommodating to rapidly flipping
magnetic fields.
The research study was partly
funded by the European Research
Council and the Netherlands
Organization for Scientific Research
(NWO) and released on January 31
in the journal Nature.
amongst others.
Cambridge
academics
have
received considerable funding from
the European Research Council
(ERC) in the past, with three postdoctoral and three PhD students
were awarded over 2.3 million Euros
in 2012.
Yet some have suggested that
leaving the EU would not necessarily
lead to a drop in funds, since
He told Times Higher Education:
“I could imagine that the appetite
to do something like that would
be considerably reduced at the
European side if the departure of
the UK was done with a lot of fuss.”
Dr Deketelaere also said that
leaving the EU would make Britain
increasingly overshadowed on the
word stage at a time when European
research is becoming increasingly
harmonised.
10 International
Thursday, February 7th, 2013
Sudan riot police
clash with students
The case against Guantanamo
Sudanese riot police fired tear
gas at students on Friday as
government supporters stormed
the main university in the capital
Khartoum in a second day of unrest
on the campus. Dozens of students
fled in panic from the campus
where a large fire was blazing.
Tom Bailey
International Reporter
Detroit
basketball
coach shoots student
A 70-year-old high school
basketball coach is being held
by police after he shot dead a 16year-old male student named
Michael Scott and injured
another when they allegedly
tried to mug him outside their
Detroit school on Friday night.
EU to get university
ranking
system
The EU is set to develop a
new mechanism for ranking
universities worldwide. The
system, called U-Multirank, will
publish its first comparative tables
next year, and aims to measure
a variety of factors, including
researchandexcellenceinteaching.
Afghan
President
addresses US students
Afghan
President
Hamid
Karzai addressed a Georgetown
audience this week, saying that
his country’s relationship with
the US was entering a new era,
and that Afghanistan’s partnership with the United States,
though strained, had been
beneficial for both countries.
34
injured
in
Harvard bus crash
After a visit to Harvard University, dozens of high school students and their adult chaperones
were injured this week when
their charter bus hit a bridge.
Police say that the driver failed
to heed low-clearance warning
signs. Boston medical services
said 34 people were injured in all.
American boy scouts
to repeal gay ban
American boy scouts began a
three-day meeting in Texas on
Monday to discuss ending a
controversial national ban on
gay membership. The executive
board, which lists more than 70
members, has sparked a flurry
of lobbying from groups both
for and against the change.
Beyoncé puts on
Super Bowl spectacle
Beyoncéputonaspectacularhalftime song-and-dance routine at
the Super Bowl on Sunday - a
week after she admitted miming
to a backing track during
President Obama’s inauguration
ceremony. The singer strutted
around the stage, electrifying
73,000 fans in the stadium.
The National Guard
Four years on, a key Obama pledge remains unfulfilled
Prompted in part by the
controversial portrayal of torture
in the Hollywood film Zero Dark
Thirty, the debate on the United
States’ approach to national security
and to counter-terrorism has now
once again been ushered into
the limelight. Under particular
scrutiny is President Obama’s
failure to keep his 2008 electioncampaign pledge to shut down the
detention camp at Guantanamo Bay.
Guantanamo has
become a recruiting
tool for jihadists
around the world
The moral duty which the
President has to close the camp
should be clear to anyone who
respects human rights and human
dignity. Conversely, the failure to
do so is an affront to the values on
which the United States is founded.
In a statement taken from its
website, Amnesty International
asserts that: “The United States’
detention facilities at Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba, have become emblematic
of […] gross human rights abuses.”
Indeed, condemnation by other
human right groups is universal.
It is maintained in defence
of the facility that occasional
transgressions are necessitated by
national security concerns. But
even if it is accepted that national
security concerns justify human
rights abuses, which in itself is
highly controversial to say the least,
it is still not clear that Guantanamo
has served the national security role
that the United States claims it has.
The detention centre has become
a most vivid demonstration of the
aggressiveness of American foreign
policy in the world. To those who
already deal with American military
influence in their own countries,
Guantanamo Bay merely represents
yet another reason why the United
States must be opposed. Guantanamo
has become a recruiting tool for
jihadists around the world, and in
recent talks with the Taliban the
closure of Guantanamo Bay and
the release of its inmates featured
prominently among their demands.
The crux of the matter is that
Guantanamo Bay plays a role in
steering ordinary people who
have legitimate concerns about
US military hegemony towards
more violent modes of extremism.
Moreover, it is unclear whether
torture works at all. Under
tremendous pain, detainees are
likely to say whatever they think
they are supposed to say. Despite
the controversy it has aroused, Zero
Dark Thirty in fact demonstrates the
limits of torture. Although the film
contains some useful leads, nearly
everyone, except Jessica Chastain,
is led astray by false information
given whilst under torture. Though
no one is arguing that we should
base our case on a Hollywood
screenplay, the film is nonetheless a
dramatisation of an important point.
The moral case for keeping
Guantanamo Bay open speaks for
itself. The practical case is now
coming under increasing criticism,
especially as the United States
begins to assume a more positivist
role in the international system, in
doing so condemning human rights
violations elsewhere, particularly
in China. It is time for the Obama
administration to keep its promise,
and to draw the curtains on what is
a dark chapter in American history.
{TCS}
CRISIS WATCH:
EGYPT
This week unprecedented violence
across Egypt has claimed over 50
lives, culminating in fierce clashes
in front of the presidential palace
in the capital city, Cairo. This
current spate of confrontation
began on 24 January, on the second
anniversary of the uprising against
former President, Hosni Mubarak.
Protesters claim that current
President Morsi has betrayed the
original values of the revolution, and
demand an end to what they term
a new form of authoritarianism.
On Tuesday, the head of Egypt’s
army, General Abdul Fattah alSisi, declared that the violence
could lead to state collapse. Last
weekend President Morsi had
declared a state of emergency
and a night time curfew in three
particularly restive cities along the
Suez Canal: Port Said, Ismailia and
Port Suez. Indeed, some of the
worst violence has been seen in
Port Said in reaction to the death
sentences dealt out to 21 football
fans in January. Ignoring the
curfew, anti-government protesters
took to the streets and violent
clashes took place in all three cities.
Violence has continued unabated
throughout the week in Tahrir
Square too, where thousands of
protesters hurled petrol bombs
and launched fireworks outside
the presidential compound on
Saturday morning. At least one
person was shot dead and 50
injured in these clashes, which were
further fuelled by footage showing
riot police officers stripping and
beating a protester on the streets
– a broadcast that promptly went
viral. The State has since issued an
apology. However, despite efforts by
the head of the Al-Azhar mosque,
Sheikh Ahmed Al-Tayeb, to force a
disavowal of violence from all sides,
Cairo’s foreseeable future seems
far from calm. -Amritha John
Israel and Syria’s dangerous liaison
Attack on Syrian chemical weapons facility reawakens regional tensions
Stephanie Taic
International Reporter
An air strike on a Syrian chemical
weapons centre last weekend,
reportedly by Israel, which led to
the posting of Jordanian, Syrian
and Lebanese military troops along
the Israeli-Syrian border, has raised
alarm bells across the region and
brought both countries to critical
alert. But the background to the strike
necessitates a broader explanation.
The vital question
is who will claim
ownership of Syria’s
extraordinary
amount of lethal
weaponry
While military analysts have been
predicting that the Assad regime
in Syria is about to topple, the vital
question is who will claim ownership
of Syria’s weaponry, extraordinary
in its amount and lethal quality.
On one side stands the terrorist
group Hezbollah, which aspires to
obtain what senior Israeli officials
have
dubbed “game-changing”
weapons for use against their great
foe in the south: Israel. On the other is
Israel itself, which desires to maintain
its aerial superiority in the region.
At the same time there are
Lebanon and Jordan to consider,
neighbours to any potential future
conflict in the region. Also in
the area is Iran, a Shi’ite country
which advocates Assad’s regime
and militarily supports Hezbollah
for political and religious reasons.
Simultaneously, Turkey and Russia
– countries with rooted political and
financial interests in the Arab world
– closely watch as events unfold.
Moreover, there is the United
States, which is trying to prevent
threatening arms from falling into the
hands of terrorist groups which might
destabilise the Middle East. And
finally there is Syria itself, which does
not want the arsenal to fall into rebel
hands and thus favours Hezbollah.
It is this complex cocktail that
reacted this week to the reported
Israeli attack on a Syrian chemical
weapons centre last Sunday along
with the disappearance of an alleged
arms convoy that was attempting
to pass from Syria into Lebanon.
For the first 24 hours denial played
out; Syria and Lebanon claimed that
nothing had occurred along their
mutual border, while Israel maintained
stony silence. It was only following
a confirmation by US officials, as
well as Arab channels reporting
on the damage, that the pieces of
the puzzle started to fall into place.
After a week of warnings in the
media by the newly-elected Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
and his Air Force chief about the
risks of the “wrong weapons falling
in to the wrong hands”, it seems
that Israel has fulfilled its goal of
deterring Hezbollah from attempting
to transfer weapons to Syrian hands.
Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak
made reference on Sunday to the
strike that Israel had purportedly
launched, telling German reporters
that the incident was proof that
“when we say something, we mean it.”
On Wednesday, however, Israeli
officials remained silent about
the air strike in Syrian territory, a
tactic that some analysts have said
is simply part of a longstanding
strategy to give targeted countries
face-saving
opportunities
to
avoid worsening the conflict.
But after Lebanese and Syrian
officials admitted to the damage,
criticism from “interested nations”
began to rain down. Iran promptly
threatened Israel with retaliation on
Syria’s behalf, while Russia – Syria’s
primary weapon-exporter – termed
Israel’s alleged actions “unacceptable”
and a violation of the UN Charter.
Finally, the Turkish Foreign
Minister cryptically and somewhat
provocatively commented: “Why
didn’t the Syrian Army, which has been
attacking its own innocent people for
22 months now from the air with jets
and by land with tanks and artillery
fire, respond to Israel’s operation?
Why didn’t [Bashar] al-Assad even
throw a pebble when Israeli jets were
flying over his palace and playing
with the dignity of his country?”
It seems that the issue which is
at the heart of the current regional
dispute will not be given up on easily.
International 11
{TCS} Thursday, February 7th, 2013
#tweets
@NancyPelosi
Nancy Pelosi, Leader, US
House of Representatives
@David_Cameron
Meeting
schoolchildren
in Liberia where extreme
poverty means 1 in 10
children don’t make it to
5yrs. Our aid is helping.
David Cameron, British PM
@PiersMorgan
Every single Texan I’ve met
so far this weekend says they
think it’s time for some new
gun control. Absolutely fascinating. #GunsInAmerica
Piers Morgan, Television host
@ChristinaLamb
V impressed by Zero Dark
Thirty if not quite so edge
of seat as Argo. Gotta
be 1st yr 2 films on CIA
ops vying for the Oscar
Christina Lamb, Foreign correspondent, The Sunday Times
Cambridge students outraged at being denied the right to vote
from abroad in this month’s general election
Margherita Cornaglia
International Reporter
The failure of the Italian government
to amend law no. 459 (2001), which
prevents thousands of students living abroad from casting their votes
in Italy’s general elections, has left
Italian students everywhere feeling
disenfranchised and outraged.
17.5 million Italians
are under the age
of 29, of whom
12% are currently
studying abroad
At Cambridge, Italian students
bemoan this injustice. Speaking
to The Cambridge Student¸ Carlo
Minciacchi, a third-year engineer at
Girton, said: “Rather than marshalling against the brain drain, the state
should incentivise education abroad
and make sure that students will
then have the chance to return to
Italy, thus bringing additional value
and new ideas to our country.”
In separate statements, Enrico
Brondelli di Brondello (a first-year
architect at Caius) and Francesca
Benzi (a second-year student at
Newnham), compared their experience as citizens of other EU member
countries.
Enrico said: “I voted in Austria
this year and they sent me an envelope with all that was required to
vote. That’s what we need in Italy”.
Having lived most of her life outside
Italy, Francesca agreed: “I’d almost
rather get French citizenship to vote
there. By making voting so hard, it
almost seems as if they’re telling us:
‘Well, you don’t live here, at least at
the moment, so why would you care
who will be elected?’”
Lavinia Puccetti, a first-year History of Art student, was equally vehement: “Denying the vote means
that we aren’t truly democratic because, in a democracy, the government wants citizens to vote and does
the utmost to grant this right.” Olimpia Franzan, the only Italian student interviewed by TCS who plans
to return to Italy to vote at the end
of February, added: “It isn’t normal
that, in order to vote, I have to take a
two-and-a-half-hour flight.”
Their outrage comes at a time
when more and more Italians are
travelling abroad for university.
The Italian government publication
Young People and Mobility asserts:
“It is undeniable that the international dimension must be consolidated and that by 2020 the European
youth must have the opportunity to
Language is our
first line of defence
Mandarin Chinese
language opportunities I London
MI5 and MI6 protect the UK from threats to
national security including terrorism and espionage.
Join us as a Mandarin Chinese language expert and
your Mandarin Chinese language skills and cultural
awareness will make a key contribution to the work
of the investigative or operational team you’ll be
embedded in.
For language opportunities with more impact,
visit www.mi5.gov.uk/careers
or www.sis.gov.uk
To apply you must be over 18 and a British citizen.
Discretion is vital. You should not discuss your application,
other than with your partner or a close family member.
Ed Yourdon
Lifting the ban on combat is
a significant step forward for
equality. Women will now
be able to reach the highest ranks in the military.
Ciao, studenti! Italy disowns its students
carry out a part of their educational
path abroad.”
Speaking to TCS back in 2011,
Italian President Giorgio Napolitano
added: “We are moving towards a
very different labour market. More
mobility will be required, and, above
all, we are approaching a market
within which qualifications reached
during the educational process will
be essential […] One must make
sure one is truly ready to face the occasions that will present themselves
- and that will increasingly require a
qualified educational performance.”
While it seems clear that elected
Italian representatives are undoubtedly placing a greater emphasis on
the importance of young men and
women going into higher education,
this good will in many respects still
leaves a lot to be desired.
According to the statistics and
survey bodies ISTAT and Eurobarometer, of the nearly sixty million
people living in Italy, 17.5 million
are under the age of 29; of these, only
12% are currently pursuing courses
of study abroad (compared to the
15% EU average). It seems that, despite increasing numbers, the Italian
government is not encouraging educational mobility, a fundamenal EU
principle, as much as it could.
Moreover, by denying students the
opportunity to vote from abroad, the
government is preventing thousands
of students from participating in the
electoral process altogether, leaving
them further disheartened about the
value of their contribution to the political machinery of the country.
Italy is one of the six founding
members of the European Union.
The current scenario, however, can
only be viewed as inhibiting rather
than as promoting the principle of
the free movement of goods and of
people which forms a pillar of the
EU. Once again, it seems, Italy has
failed to keep its promises.
12 Comment
Thursday, February 7th, 2013 {TCS}
Comment:
Why the UK says ‘neigh’ to horse-meat
Turns out we’re not happy about having
horses in our burgers. But the roots of these
feelings are found in long-gone values and
superstitions argues Sky Holmes
W
ould
you
be
left
hoarse at the prospect
of
eating
horse?
Some of the mightiest of meateaters in the UK say ‘neigh’ to
horsemeat, occasionally with a
stamp of the feet and flick of the
mane. But though we may not
know it, our fears are saddled to
the historical origins of horsemeat, whether that is in anti-Pagan
superstition or in the revulsion of
eating a long-gone form of transport,
and it may be time we moved on.
As a general rule, we agree that one
should not eat one’s pets. The horse
is now given pet status by many in
the Western world, particularly in
the UK and Ireland. We tend not to
want to eat animals that we think of
as pets, but there seems to be more
to the issue than the psychological
transference of ‘cuteness’ onto
certain
animals,
especially
with regards to the horse.
I am not suggesting that ‘Black
Beauty’ and ‘My Little Pony:
Friendship is Magic’ did not play
their parts; I am merely pointing
out that other personified animals
were easily translated from the
TV screen to the TV dinner tray.
Thus, this is not an issue of meat or
no-meat, to eat or not to eat: this is an
issue of discrimination. Would you
eat a chicken? Would you eat your cat?
In light of both your answers, would
you eat a horse? The recent stampede
of national newspapers reporting
the finding of horse DNA in some
‘beef ’ burgers being sold in UK and
Irish supermarkets meant that the
manure hit the fly-deferring fan.
There the issue, or the ‘beef ’,
of the matter was that horsemeat was being called ‘beef ’, for
no-one likes being deceived.
Here the issue is whether
we deceive ourselves in the
differentiation of what meat is okay
to eat, and what is definitely not so
well and good to put in one’s mouth,
outside of Heston Blumenthal’s
house-come-madhouse.
“To consume
a horse was to
consume a symbol
of your class. Horses
carried the king”
Yet a look at why we feel this way is
revealing. To eat a horse, as a British
person, is not cool, for a variety of
historical reasons. Horse-eating,
or hippophagy, is both intensely
political and yet ambiguous in its
political symbolism. The horse can
be aligned with the rural muddykneed labourer, using the horse
for heavy work and agricultural
feats otherwise impossible. Nobles
enjoyed putting their backsides on
the beasts; horses carried the King.
Thus to consume a horse was to
Library vacancy
Library numbers are dwindling, and books
are disappearing in favour of the internet.
Joanna Costin argues that knowledge is only
transferring to another location.
L
ibraries are transforming.
‘Library visitor totals drop
after budget cuts’, Cambridge
News reports, referring in particular
to Central Library. 20,000 fewer
people visited Cambridge Central
Library in 2011/12 compared
to 2010/11, perhaps due to
the cutting of opening hours.
But libraries also aren’t always
quiet places of study any more; they
are becoming readily more familiar
as community centres. Books are
being replaced by computers, and
bookshelves taken up by open spaces;
yet this isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
With the growth of the internet,
basic
information
that
you
might have once looked up in a
“Books are
being replaced
by computers;
bookshelves are
being taken up by
open spaces”
book at your local library is now
available on Wikipedia; in contrast
e-books aren’t all that cheap, so there’s
still demand for fiction in book-form.
E-resources
have
also
changed the way people study.
No longer do you have to trek out to
William Plenderleath
consume a symbol of your class,
regardless of that class. The horse,
to rich and poor alike, meant less
work, and became equated with
greater comfort and ease of labour.
A knight was nothing without
his steed, and even later in history,
to eat a horse was to eat the best
form of transport available in the
pre-Industrialisation era, before
the development of the railway.
One would not eat a fine
car, as it would be foolishly
wasteful. One would not eat
a creature that had won wars.
Yet
if
the
British
can
ride
a
horse
into
lines
of spears, why is there a
specifically Anglophone abhorrence
to
spurring
the
creatures
into
a
line
of
incisors?
Pope Gregory III may helpfully
provide one potential answer
to a question not as tough and
sinewy (but rather lean and
tender) as one would imagine.
In 732 AD he began to combat the
ritual consumption of horse-meat
in pagan practice, allowing the
belief to spread (to the nonpagan population) that eating
horse-meat was dirty and wrong
- it would seem that for many,
this belief has lingered on.
But all taboos are made to
be broken, and Pope Gregory’s
reign of influence should surely
come to an end very soon.
As a journalist of very little
influence, I can hardly recommend
mass horse-eating, for fear of select
outbursts of vomiting when we
all tuck into basashi (horse-meat)
ice cream, a delicacy even in Japan.
Furthermore, I neither endorse
paganism nor persecution against
it. However, eating horse-meat is no
more barbarian than eating black
pudding or beef. An open-minded
approach to obscure culinary
curiosities can even be healthy.
Horse-meat has near identical
nutritional
value
to
beef,
save it contains more iron.
If Brits were to remember this
vital piece of rational information,
rather than beclouding facts
with
pagan
associations
of
uncleanliness and romanticised
notions of the Uffington White
Horse, then in a survival situation,
we would no doubt fare the better.
It must be admitted that the
Uffington Horse would appear
rather less sacrosanct if it were circled
with a chalk line representing a plate.
Regardless, if we were Robinson
Crusoe or a school child of William
Golding’s creation Lord of the Flies,
we would likely not be so fussy
and try to differentiate between
ham and horse, beef and boa.
Although these individuals
are hardly role-models, it is still,
ultimately, illogical that many
of us are content to eat the dead
flesh of a pig or chicken, while
the horse apparently appears to
deserve a species specific respect,
preferably directed towards a
cocked rifle rather than an
open mouth. One would be
justified in asking whether
this
is
utter
horseshit?
the UL to find an obscure journal,
lug the massive volume to the nearest
available space, and sit in the library to
read it. (Not unless it really is obscure
and JSTOR hasn’t got round to it
yet.) Instead, it’s all available online,
along with a number of e-books.
Of course, especially in exam term,
the UL can be very busy, at a time
when the distractions found in your
own room are just too tempting,
and the only option is to flee and
find some quiet corner of the UL
that hasn’t already been colonised
by someone else, who ten minutes
earlier had the exact same thought.
University libraries meet, however,
a substantially different need to
Central Library. Instead of being
places for people of all ages and
interests, they’re focussed on specific
subjects and on the needs of students.
They have the obscure academic
monographs that no arts student
could be without, and the hefty science
textbooks in the latest editions,
because that’s what they’re there for.
The community library is not
obsolete. Although the internet is
rapidly replacing the book as the
source of information, this still
requires a knowledge of the web
not universal, and not everyone has
access at home, giving community
libraries part of their new role.
books necessary to write an essay.
However, the reduction of trained
library staff in public libraries means
that access to knowledge is becoming
more exclusive, something made
worse by the fact of community
libraries purchasing fewer books.
But at the same time access to
knowledge is no longer restricted to
print, and in many cases it’s easier to
find basic information about a topic
online than in a book - knowledge
hasn’t disappeared from the public
sphere, it has just switched location.
Furthermore, community libraries
have changed in focus, from being
repositories of knowledge to better
the general population, to centres for
the community, serving as workspaces
and community hubs; yet many of
the services they offer are still related
to improving skills and education.
This suggests the potential for
libraries showing signs of fatigue like
Central Library – public libraries are
transforming, and when community
is at the heart of these institutions,
knowledge may well follow.
“Access to knowledge is no longer
restricted to the
print form”
Cambridge Central Library also
offers book discussion groups,
Spanish classes, and family history
sessions, as well as (like local libraries
across the country) local history
records. Plus it has plenty of fiction
and light reading to suit all tastes.
So we can say that academic
and public libraries are diverging
in their purposes, one becoming
centres for study, the other
centres
for
the
community.
Does this mean that knowledge
is being restricted to the academic
sphere? Arguably it always has
been — the form and content
of academic books mean you’re
highly unlikely to find members
of the public reading the sort of
Sky Holmes is a first-year English
student at Homerton.
Joanna Costin is
Historian at Christ’s.
a
third-year
Comment 13
{TCS} Thursday, February 7th, 2013
We should all ‘dig’ Richard III
faction deserves a pat on the
back? Many of the experts involved,
including Appleby and Foxhall, are based at the university.
Charlotte Higgins, the chief
arts writer of the Guardian has in
particular ridiculed the “limited
avenue of research” which the
project exhibits, motivated as it
was to reveal a historical celebrity.
I am loathe to prevent the
pursuit of funding for archaeological research. In a university context, archaeology in
particular has suffered recently.
The University of Leicester claims to have found the skeleton of Richard III
buried beneath a car park. The historical worth is beside the point, argues
Florence Smith Nicholls. This is a triumph for archaeology.
I
the
excavation
and
con
servational work involved in
salvaging the precious remains
have not been adequately considered by those who dismiss
them as historically worthless.
Bioarchaeologist
Jo
Appleby, along with archaeologists Matthew Morris and Lin
Foxhall, were all on hand to
carefully exhume the bones.
It was the successful and
skilled handling of this excavation which facilitated the
later crucial DNA analysis.
In all of the Shakespeare-inspired dramatics about the evil
King, the long-needed ignition
of public interest in academic
archaeology has been passed
up because of a narrow-minded
view of how we “value” the past.
The University of Leicester certainly didn’t shy away
from attention in the press
conference that set the initial
stage for the announcement.
The repeated emblazoning of
their logo has irked some who
accuse the University of piggy-backing their institution’s
credentials onto the research.
Surely this particular scholarly
“Archaeology
in particular
has suffered
recently. Bristol
University’s
Department
experienced a
25% depletion
of staff thanks to
government cuts.”
Bristol University’s Department of Archaeology experienced a 25% depletion of staff
thanks to government cuts, while
the Birmingham Department of
Archaeology and Antiquity was
completely closed last summer.
Students are turning away
from archaeology, and it is high
Florence Smith Nicholls is thirdyear Classicist at Fitzwilliam.
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BE>
Sue Hutton
’ve got a bone to pick with
Mary Beard. Yes, that was a
deliberately
inflammatory
statement to reel in your attention. But I do have some critiques to make about the Cambridge academic’s response to
the recent announcement that
a skeleton found beneath a car
park in Leicester is indeed Richard III, last of the Plantagenets.
The positive identification was
based on a DNA match between
the skeletal remains and the direct descendant of Richard’s sister, Canadian born Michael Ibsen,
and has heralded a media backlash
of Bosworth proportions. Beard,
among others, has questioned
the historical value of this news.
Whilst the accuracy of the scientific techniques and the motivations behind the institutional
self-publicity associated with
this research could be seen as
more than a little opaque, the
most important victory here has
been largely overlooked. This
is a triumph for archaeology.
Of course, Richard III is one of
English history’s greatest villains,
and this has inevitably skewed
the media perspective. However,
profile, academic case studies
such as the excavation of Richard III which are essential
in maintaining youth interest.
Let’s talk science. The DNA results have yet to appear in a peerreviewed journal, and the nature
of the analytical techniques used
to prove the connection between
Ibsen and the human remains are
not immune from inaccuracy.
Turi King, a geneticist from
Leicester University, has examined mitochondrial DNA to make
the link: but the problem is that
two people could have the same
mitochondrial type just by chance.
Yet, these doubts do not
blot out the fact that the work
has highlighted the importance of forensic archaeology.
Moreover, osteological analysis corroborates the result:
injuries consistent with contemporary sources, the appropriate age and build, and
the iconic contorted back.
Archaeology is not history- it
deserves separate attention because it’s a separate discipline.
We need to focus not just on
the value of words, but material remains. Much hot air has
been spilled from ivory towers on the man who put the
princes in the White one.
The
history
of
Richard
III has been written countless times since his death.
Now his archaeology begins.
14 Comment
Thursday, February 7th, 2013
{TCS}
Comment: The precarious pedestal of public academia
This week David Attenborough informed a Radio Times shindig that if he had a torch he would ‘hand it to Brian Cox.’ TCS asks whether knowledge is in safe hands.
Michael K Donnelly
George Bryan
H
istory has Niall Ferguson,
Classics has Mary Beard,
Physics has Brian Cox,
and biology finds it’s posterboy
in the loveable figure of Richard
Dawkins. It would seem that
knowledge has become big business
for the media, with academics
clamouring to trade the study for
the studio, research for the red
carpet, the library for the limelight.
But the benefits of this new
trend are unclear. It might be
argued that scientists have better
things to be getting on with than
trying to explain the nuances of
particles physics to the hoi polloi.
Cut-shots of ruined buildings
juxtaposed with dramatic music
and
passionate
monologues
propagates the idea that only the
superficially exciting parts of
history are worth investigating.
We might ask whether the
prominence of these academic
figures really creates the kind of
debate they are trying to inspire.
Everyone in Cambridge will be aware
that evolutionary biologist Dawkins
visited the union last Thursday,
where he indulged in his favourite
pastime: attacking the belief in God.
While many philosophers view
him as a straw-man boxer his
participation in the dialogue,
alongside such a serious and
thoughtful theologian as Rowan
Williams, allowed those attending
to witness both points of view.
This is not a luxury afforded in
a great deal of popular academia;
one need only watch Dawkins’ own
documentary, ‘The Root of All Evil?’
(2006) to understand this. Important
points of contention and questionable
evidence are often smoothed
over to provide easy-viewing.
But was Alexander Pope right:
is a little learning really such a
dangerous thing? We all came to
our subject from introductory
textbooks and inspirational figures.
Pope’s question is a little misleading.
“It is often the
humbler, more
familiar individual
that inspires us.”
A basic understanding of a
subject might be said to offer little
practical utility. However the
introduction to the wonder of the
natural earth or a glimpse of how
our society might have come to be,
compelling presented, could lead
to the viewer pursuing a particular
area of interest in their own
time. This is surely a good thing.
Robert Hart suggests that the
most concerning aspect of TV
academia is the drastic simplification of complex subjects.
I
We might want to find out how
many students are studying today
because of the work of these academic
personalities. I would suggest
probably fairly few. It is often the
humbler, more familiar individual
that inspires us – a relative or a
particularly passionate teacher.
And it is only through these
means that we’re able to actively
encourage
further
enquiry.
My somewhat mitigated view
of
educational
entertainment
may carry a twinge of jealousy:
theology has yet to find its David
Attenborough. I’m not sure ‘Songs
of Praise’ counts as popular viewing.
With
a
slow
decline
of
student numbers, maybe a few
programmes on the composition
of the synoptic gospels would
provide
the
needed
boost.
That wouldn’t be great prime
time viewing you say? Nonsense.
And so university professors will
ontinue presenting sensationalised
accounts to their eager viewers.
We need to garner more public
interest for the kind of debates
that took place last week: on
genuinely exciting topics,without
the
clever
video
editing
which can unduly influence
opinion and subvert meaning.
TV
programmes
with
academic themes are far from
a bad thing in themselves.
But it’s important to remember
that it’s not really Brian Cox
driving up physics’ student
numbers: it’s ‘The Big Bang Theory’.
remember countless friends
raving at how they didn’t care
what Richard Dawkins said
at the Union. They were happy
enough to have heard him speak.
Whilst celebrity academics have
undoubtedly done a fantastic
service to science, it would appear
that their popularity can get in the
way of what they’re actually saying.
Judicious scientists encourage us
to question all that we hear and not
to accept in blind faith. The advent
of the celebrity academic has done
wonders for inspiring generations
to explore an interest in science.
Manchester Universities’ recent
application statistics for their
physics course (the ‘Brian Cox
Effect’) stand in testament to this.
But it does not necessarily teach,
nor encourage, people to think.
Brian Cox, in his dreamy prose,
could inform the nation that the
world was flat, and a majority
would probably go along with
it. Hey, he does have a PhD.
As such, television programs are
frequently criticised by academics for
lacking rigour and at best drastically
oversimplifying complex theories.
George Bryan is a first-year Theology
student at Jesus.
The full version of Robert’s article is
available at www.tcs.cam.ac.uk
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{TCS}
MISC.
J
MADAME X:
PAST AND PRESENT
ohn
Singer
Sargent’s
Portrait of Madame X
(1883-4) is a painting
that courted controversy in
its own time for its depiction
of female sensuality, and
remarkably, one hundred and
thirty years on, it still manages
to provoke strong views. The
woman painted by Sargent
was an American society
belle, who lived in Paris with
her husband, Pierre Gautreau.
She was what was then known
as ‘a professional beauty’, a
role she happily fulfilled by
appearing in public in the
most daring fashions and
exotic make-up of the day.
The idea of being famous
for nothing other than being
beautiful is all too familiar for
us today, as women’s magazines
appear to be filled with those
who have done little to merit
fame but are considered goodlooking. Somehow their lack
of obvious talent or skill gives
us, as readers and consumers
of media images, the right to
judge these people.
Continued on page 20...
deflam
CONTENTS
FEATURES
The nature of giving: can charity be selfless?
FILM
Valdemar Alsop is unimpressed by Arnold
Schwarzenegger’s The Last Stand
MUSIC
Sophie Luo recieves some advice from reggae
legend Lee Scratch Perry
ART
Hanna Tame reviews the latest art exhibition at
the Picturehouse
BOOKS
Why children’s books are still important
EVENTS
Bronagh’s Big Weekend left Suzanne Duffy
impressed
INTERVIEWS
Exclusive interview with the directors that are
Valentine’s
Day
At the Riverside Restaurant
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THEATRE
Ted Loveday reviews Betrayal at Corpus
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16 Features {MISC.}
Thursday, February 7th, 2013
{MISC.} Features 17
{TCS} Thursday, February 7th, 2013
{TCS}
THE NATURE OF GIVING
Georgia Wagstaff cooks up a
menu for Valentine’s Day
ONLINE
Charlotte Malton looks at selfless giving in an age of self-advertisement
I
f two people each give ten on charity reveals some of the
pounds to charity, most would association. Islam requires wealthy
say that both have performed adults to give a minimum of 2.5%
a benevolent act. But what if one of their income to charity each year.
person gave anonymously and never In Judaism, tzedakah requires giving
told a soul while the other told all at least 10% while the same figure
of their friends and family, posted it is suggested for Hindus too. Not all
on Facebook, tweeted about it and religions specify how much to give,
added it to their blog?
but most specify guidelines on how
Giving anonymously is often
to give.
assumed to be “better”
For example, the Qur’an
than giving publicly.
states “If you give
We
question
charity openly then
people’s motives
what a good thing
when they tell
is; and if you
People only give to itgive
others of their
to beggars
charitable acts
it
charity because they hidingly
(surely they’re
is better for
want other people
just looking
you
than
for
selfeverything”
to think well of
appraisal?)
(Qur’an 2:271).
and
think
Christianity
them.
more highly of
preaches a similar
those who keep
sentiment: “When
their giving secret
thou doest thine alms,
(they must be doing it
do not sound a trumpet
from a real desire to help, not for before thee… when thou doest alms,
societal approval). In an age of self- let not thy left hand know what thy
publication and self-advertisement, right hand doeth” (Matthew 6:2-3).
this seems rather old-fashioned.
Perhaps one of the most complete
So where does this link between prescriptions for how we should give
anonymity and charity come from? comes from Maimonides, a medieval
And is it really the better option?
Jewish philosopher and scholar, who
Unsurprisingly,
a
whistle- established eight levels of giving. The
stop tour of religious teachings fourth level involves giving tzedakah
publicly to an unknown recipient. At
level three there is giving tzedakah
anonymously but to a known
recipient. Above both of these comes
giving tzedakah anonymously to an
unknown recipient via a trustworthy
person or public fund. There is a clear
hierarchy in method of donation,
with anonymity from both donor
and recipient coming out top.
Many ideas in secular society owe
their roots to religious teachings,
but contributions from science and
philosophy have also forged this
link between charity and anonymity.
Darwin’s idea that people behave
in such ways that maximise their
chances of survival to reproductive
age, increasing the likelihood of
their genes being passed to the next
generation, has been diluted down
to the theory that we only ever act in
our own self-interest.
This echoes the views of Thomas
Hobbes, one of the founders of
Western
political
philosophy,
who held that man was ultimately
selfish in all his actions. “The right
of nature... is the liberty each man
hath to use his own power, as he will
himself, for the preservation of his
own nature; that is to say, of his own
life.” Hobbes’ views have been highly
influential, pervading society for a
good 400 years, and there are many
times where it really seems like he
might be right.
People only give to charity
publicly because they want other
people to think well of them, thereby
improving their social status and
self-esteem. How many times has
Madonna been judged for adopting
an African child so publically, rather
than applauded for giving a destitute
soul a home? Giving anonymously
is preferable because it cannot be
motivated by selfish reasons - or so
the argument goes.
This fear of being seen as selfish
helps explain why people might
favour anonymity. However, the
cynics among us will point out that
giving anonymously can be just as
selfish: given the social preference
for anonymity, the increase in selfesteem gained from self-approval of
thought that the Senate House
looked slightly bizarre, sticking
out in the middle of nowhere on
one side of an unfinished court,
like a classically-manicured sore
thumb, can now feel thoroughly
vindicated; the quadrangle we see
today is not the version that Gibbs
envisioned. Originally, the Senate
House was intended to form one
part of a three-sided court, giving
the University itself (rather than
the Colleges) a greater presence
in the town. Those of you who
sit exams in the Senate House
will undoubtedly feel that it
imposes itself enough as it is, but
Gibbs did not agree; the Senate
House would stand opposite an
identical building of offices, and
adjacent to a library. To complete
the court, a new, classical
façade was designed to cover
up the obscenely unfashionable
gothic entrance to Great St
Mary’s, the university church.
Though the shops between Great
St Mary’s and the Old Schools
(the building at the back) were
demolished to make way for the
design, construction halted after
the Senate House stage. Once the
first building was complete, the
Master of Gonville and Caius –
until then a strong supporter of the
project – noticed that a matching
building opposite would obstruct
his view of King’s College Chapel,
and so vetoed the completion of
the plans. In the middle of the
century, a new building was added
at the back of the quadrangle
to a different design, but Gibbs’
vision
never
materialised.
The Senate House complex is
not the only part of King’s Parade
that nearly looked very different.
William Wilkins’ 1820’s screen and
Porters’ Lodge for King’s College
(that’s right, folks, it’s not medieval
at all!) was the only one of several
designs in the competition held
in the early nineteenth century.
The other entries proposed
full, several-storey stretches of
buildings, which would have
overpowered the street – unlike
Wilkins’ design, which divides
the College from the road
with a light and airy structure.
Therefore, while some may
lament the discontinuation of
Gibbs’ plans for the Senate House,
not every unfulfilled proposal
would have been an improvement.
Sometimes, we can trace their ghosts
NEEDS
LibraryofCongress
Y
{TCS} MISC.
Christina Farley looks at the Cambridge that could have been
style was not entirely forgotten.
Cue James Gibbs, another
contemporay
architectwho
had trained as an architect in
Rome whose plans for the Senate
House were put into construction
in 1722. Anyone who has ever
giving publicly encourages others
to do the same. For example, one
American study found that when a
radio station mentioned to potential
donors that a previous donor had
given $300, the potential donor
gave $13 more on average than if
they were not told this information.
Similarly when student donors
were told that 64% of the
student population
gave to charity,
they
were
11.5% more
likely to do
the same
c omp are d
to a control
g r o u p
who were
told 46% of
the student
population
gave. So the
person who tells
everyone about their
donation is likely to make
a wider impact than the person
who keeps quiet, by encouraging
others to give too. Perhaps selfadvertisement brings with it greater
awareness, allowing charities to
reap the benefits.
Maybe it is time to challenge the
norm of self-interest and give openly.
If we were to change our culture of
anonymity to a culture of giving
we would be able to contribute a
lot more towards ending world
poverty.
In some ways, increasing the
social expectation to give to charity
in order to encourage others to
do the same seems a bit like peer
pressure. Once more we
question the motives of
charity given in this
manner. ‘Surely
giving
just
to fulfil the
expectations
of
others
who
do
the
same
is not quite
the
right
sentiment?’
But when 1.4
billion people live
on less than $1.25
per day, can we afford
this concern about motives?
It might be time to prioritise the
objective outcomes of charitable
donation above worries about
whether we appear selfish. When
there is such a need for more people
to give, perhaps poverty should
trump modesty and anonymity is a
luxury we just cannot afford.
401(k)2013
A WALK DOWN KING’S PARADE
ou have probably done
this hundreds of times.
Indeed, strolling down
King’s Parade to lectures on a
bright spring day, the view can
seem so beautiful, and somehow
so right, that it is impossible to
imagine it any other way. But
King’s Parade, like many other
places in Cambridge, could
easily have looked very different
from the street we see today.
This is therefore an exercise
of the imagination, call it selfindulgence if you will, as we
take a step back and picture the
‘buildings that might have been’.
In 1712, the architect Nicholas
Hawksmoor - who had worked
with Christopher Wren on
projects
including
Chelsea
Hospital, St. Paul’s Cathedral,
Hampton Court Palace and
Greenwich
Hospital-was
working on plans for buildings
at King’s College. Not content
with landscaping the College’s
grounds, he produced plans
to transform the whole city of
Cambridge, demolishing many
of the then-standing houses to
produce sweeping vistas from
King’s to Christ’s, and from
Trinity to Sidney Sussex. This
master plan, with its Romestyle piazzas and obelisks, was
eventually abandoned, but the
idea of ‘updating’ Cambridge’s
backwards-looking,
Gothic
anonymous giving is equivalent to
the increase in self-esteem gained
from social approval when giving is
public. So it’s a catch-22; whatever
way you give you are selfish. And if
you’re giving selfishly, then is there
any point in giving at all?
The answer, of course, is yes.
There are other reasons we give
to charity. We are motivated by
genuine desires to help. It may be
true that there is no such thing as
a completely selfless act, but it does
not follow that the only reasons for
our actions are selfish. One good
reason we might decide to eschew
anonymity is to increase the benefits
our charitable acts bring about.
Plenty of evidence suggests that
CaitlinBlumgart
Interested in writing for TCS Magazine?
Do you have any good ideas for features?
Interested in Books or Art?
Would you like to review the latest music
albums or film releases?
DanielMarshall
Desire and dread are in the air, as
Valentine’s Day approaches. Its
shameless commercialism leads
many to boycott the day entirely,
but instead of wasting money on
overpriced roses
and saccharine
greetings cards,
why not use it
as an excuse to
seek out some
sexy
recipes
to add to your
repertoire? Use it as
a day to celebrate
deliciousness,
and investigate
for yourself the
efficacy of the edible aphrodisiac.
Now, there may not be any
equivalents of the little-bluepill in the culinary world, but
ancient tradition and inherited
wisdom hints at plenty of
ingredients to set you on fire.
Lots of ‘aphrodisiacs’ give you
an all-important energy boost,
raise your temperature or heart
rate and send the blood pumping
round your body. Now, we all
know about truffles, oysters
and chocolate, and that a few
glasses of red wine can never
fail to enchant. However, truffles
and oysters are completely out
of the question. So is going out
for dinner, where restauranteurs
will
happily
empty
your
wallet in the name of love.
So, in celebration of inexpensive
deliciousness, why not kick off
your Valentine’s menu with a
fresh avocado and blueberry
salad. Creamy in texture and full
of nutrients essential to vitality,
preparing avocados is a task
better shared. Why not cook
together? It’s always good to do
things with your hands… Follow
this with salmon with a chilli
lime crust, made of lime juice,
mixed herbs, breadcrumbs and a
single chilli. Sprinkle on top and
bake in the oven, leaving you to
concentrate on your date. Salmon
will heighten your serotonin
levels and chilli gets your heart
racing. Steaming asparagus
drizzled with butter is the perfect
accompaniment: be naughty
and eat it with your fingers!
For dessert, a multitude of
saucy sweet things present
themselves:
bananas,
dark
chocolate, vanilla, watermelon,
almonds, figs, strawberries
and honey to name just a few.
Let your imagination and your
tastebuds run wild with your last
course: make an easy no-bake
cheesecake, or pile fruit onto
skewers, melt some chocolate,
and show your fondness with
a fondue. Romantic cookery
at any time of year should be
sexy, stress-free and simple.
Emphasise this by cooking
together, and picking a menu
designed for desire. If cooking
is a science, why not conduct
a little evening experiment? If
it goes well, your participant
might just be around to give
you their report in the morning.
{TCS}
Contact magazine@tcs.cam.ac.uk
ART
FEATURE: THE WREN
LIBRARY
Beyond Winnie the Pooh:
Christina Farley takes a fresh look
at Christopher Wren’s Trinity
construction
SPORT
FULL mATcH REPORTS
Extended coverage of the past
week’s University matches
FILm
FEATURE: FILmS IN
FAVOUR OF OBAmA
Frederic Heath-Renn examines
the way Hollywood has been paying
tribute to the US President
cOmmENT
TREATING cREATIVITY
Andreea Tudose examines how to
cure the tortured artist
18 Music & Film {MISC.}
Thursday, February 7th, 2013
{TCS}
INTERVIEW: LEE ‘SCRATCH’ PERRY
The reggae legend spoke to Sophie Luo about Bob Marley, elephants, and ‘loving your shit’
Oli Thicknesse
recounts how music
became his exam cure...
If you could sum up
your music career in one
word, what would it be?
LP: My music career in one word is
God. He is the actual me. His name is
Melchesidech. The One God. And in
place of him is the oldest me that has
ever lived. His name is Methuselah.
Methuselah wants to make reggae
and make dope. And that’s my music
when I start to make reggae and make
dope music.
You have worked with so
many artists over the yearsthe Clash, Bob Marley,
Animal Collective. Do you
have a favorite?
LP: Bob Marley was the worst artist I
ever worked with.
What would you eat for your
last meal?
LP: Greens, greens, liquid, and life.
Vegetables.
MP [Mireille Perry, Lee Perry’s wife
and manager]: For your last meal.
What would you eat before you die?
LP: I have no plans to die.
What are you most scared of?
LP: I’m scared of nothing. I’m only
scared of evil. And I plan to kill evil. I
am not scared of anything.
Where do you most want
to travel in the world?
LP: I travelled to a lot of the world
but I didn’t go to Ethiopia and
Zimbabwe. That is where I wish to go
next. Nothing for sure.
What
advice
do
you
have for young people?
LP: The advice that I have for young
people is to don’t eat anything that is
dead. Don’t smoke no coke, no cigs,
no coke. Don’t make no drug, nah
eat no pork. Don’t eat no dead meat,
don’t eat no dead chicken. Don’t
drink no wine.
What’s the best way to
celebrate Valentine’s Day?
LP: I don’t know much about love
but I know about holiness and
righteousness. I did have so many
THE
CAMBRIDGE
JUKEBOX
loves and then they [were] lovesick. I
don’t believe in sex and I eat snakes.
If you were an animal, what
animal would you be?
LP: I would be... not a lion, because
I have too many lions. I would be an
elephant. It would be elephantastic!
(Laughter.)
Can you reveal a secret
that
you’ve
never
told
anyone
before?
LP: Well, the secret that I’ve never
told anyone before is love. I love the
food that I eat. Because the food that
I eat becomes my shit. The food I eat
is my shit. I would not scorn the food
I eat, so neither would I scorn my shit.
Like a friend of mine. (Laughter.) It is
no different from piss. I should imply
that I also worship my piss. I have to.
That’s my secret!
That’s a beautiful secret.
LP: I would like to tease the children
in the university that love their shit.
I won’t say shit. Love their doo-doo.
Love your poo-poo. Because your
poop-- your doo-doo was your
dinner. And your poo-poo was
your dinner. And love your pee-pee.
Because your pee-pee and your tinkle
was once your drink. (Laughter.)
Maykyl Kafari
In moments of self-doubt,
crisis and general
apathy towards the
world, I turn to
sacred music. I’m
never quite sure why.
I’ve never been quite
sure when it started,
although it is fair to
say that I can locate
the ultimate cause
for
this
particular
comfort.
Exams used to be the bane of my
life. That is not to say that I don’t curse
their very existence as much as the next
undergraduate, but it is hard to express
just how badly I dealt with them: the
inability to sleep, the unrelenting flood
of tears, the general delusion of how
much they would shape the rest of
my life. What is all the more tragic in
this particular situation is the fact that
I managed to overcome this anxiety
before my GCSEs. So yes, just internal
exams. And yes, rather sad and pathetic.
But it was there nonetheless. And
sacred music always seemed to help.
It was probably quite fortunate that
I was a chorister at school, which was
linked to a monastic community.
Singing in their abbey was where I
properly discovered classical music.
Our choir was
small, and
subsequently our repetoire was, by all
standards,minsicule.Wesang common
staples: Faure’s Cantique de Jean
Racine. Bruckner’s Locus Iste. Jesu, Joy
of Man’s Desiring. These were always
in my head. And they have been, ever
since, ready to calm everything down
around me and stop the world spinning.
But why were these pieces able
to have such a great effect on my
mind, and, dare I say it, spirit? Why
could they soothe? The theories were
countless. Maybe it was the strings
that gently soared over Cantique,
slowing everything down into a
controllable tempo, before gradually
pouring out the warm mixture of
male voices. Maybe it was the French
language itself, which seemed to
match the music so beautifully.
As for Locus Iste, the reasons seemed
clearer: the bass line that fell so neatly
into my own range, which allowed me
to hardly strain my voice (a rarity in
itself). The majesty of the bass on its
own, harsh at first, then mixing slowly
with the tenor, then the alto and then
the high voices. I guess that the lack of
accompaniment was how I imagined
my own position: total nothingness.
But then the wonderful richness of the
voice would fill that desolate gap, and
I could relax. Also, not possessing the
strongest voice, or the best ear, it was
always a relief to be confronted with
sheet music that was recongsiable to me.
It’s not just classical music (I’m
sorry to cheat on this column!): Van
Morrison, with his pastoral imagery of
peace and tranquility - see Hymns to the
Silence - proved just as effective a tool
for calming me down, and still does.
I’m not asking you to have sympathy
for me, but only to recognise the
power of music to heal and comfort.
For that, we should all be grateful.
{Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry is something of
a living legend. Known as much for
his colourful personality as his long
list of accomplishments, albums, and
collaborations, Perry continues to
stay active in the music world even
as he approaches his 80th birthday.
Best known for his work with Bob
Marley & The Wailers, Perry is
largely credited with pioneering the
genre of dub music in the 1960s. Since
then, he has worked with artists as
diverse as the Clash, Moby, Animal
Collective, and the Beastie Boys.}
We will definitely keep that
in mind.
LP: Definitely make you rich forever.
And them that don’t love their poopoo and don’t love their doo-doo and
don’t love their pee-pee will be poor
forever. The future say that.
Mr. Perry, thank you so
much for talking with us.
LP: Well that’s a great thing, talking
to you. I believe in your soul. I’m sure
you believe in mine.
Thank
you
very
much.
LP: God bless.
Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry plays at the
Junction on February 20th.
24 HOUR
DELIVERY
One theme. One writer. Five songs.
Five words to explain why.
This week’s theme:
‘YEAR OF THE SNAKE’
Selected by Cosmo Godfree
‘Snakes’
Joey Bada$$
NY boom-bap from talented
youngster
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‘No Snakes Alive’
King Geedorah
Take five - no snakes alive
‘Rattlesnakes’
Lloyd Cole
Jangly folk-rock for Smiths fans
‘Snakecharmer’
Rage Against the Machine
A puppet of the system
‘Sinaloan Milk Snake Song’
The Mountain Goats
America’s finest alternative
poets lauerate
{
Next time’s theme...
Week 5 Blues
If you’ve got a playlist,
send it to
music@tcs.cam.ac.uk
}
Limited delivery area available late night ask for details.
Drivers carry less than £10.
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17/10/2012 10:31
{MISC.} Music & Film 19
{TCS} Thursday, February 7th, 2013
A L BUMS
CoHEEd And CAMBRIA GERARd And THE WATCHMEn MY BLoodY VALEnTInE
Coheed take the idea of the
concept album to a whole new
level – they have a concept
discography. Their albums
are all based on a sci-fi comic
series, written by lead singer
Claudio Sanchez, called The
Amory Wars. This knowledge
makes listening to the album
a unique experience – it’s a
bit like a prog-rock opera, in
which the music and the lyrics
are all serving the purpose of
the over-arching storyline.
Descension is the second part
of a double album, and details
the story of Sirius Amory to a backdrop of rhythmic, groovy metal
riffs, particularly on ‘Sentry The Defiant’. An array of robotic voices
and whoosy synths constantly create the feeling of being in a spaceship,
whilst the dynamic contrasts and big drops put across the epic nature
of the protagonist’s mission. The range of influences is stark, with the
emo and metal feel of early tracks such as ‘Pretelethal’ moving through
a more indie vibe in ‘Number City’, which opens with a great fuzz
bass-line and even flirts with horns to create a welcome juxtaposition
to the surrounding tunes. The early angst of the album descends into
a more considered, sentimental feel in the second half, with calming
harmonies on Iron Fist laid gently behind Sanchez’s ‘God Damn this
cursed iron fist’. Don’t let the whole ‘concept’ thing get to you - the
album works just as well as a casual listen as it does the basis of online
forum speculation. I promise you won’t feel alienated. James Redburn
THE AFTERMAN:
DESCENSION
*****
I CLIMBED
A
TREE
*****
I Climbed A Tree is gorgeous,
unfalteringly mellow, and probably
best enjoyed in a hammock.
Melodic tides casually ebb and
flow, underlaid by serene tones
that transcend folk. Noteworthy
moments include the tinge of
blues on “Monochrome”, the
rushing string refrains on “Never
Understood”, and the contented
saunter of “Stables Don’t miss
them in town: the Londonbased quartet play the Portland
Arms next Monday. Meanwhile,
have a listen – and invest in a
hammock too. Chris Ronalds
PoRTASoUnd
SACRIFICE
*****
Clocking in at 18 minutes, the latest
EP from London synth quintet
Portasound is a decidedly short
offering. But don’t be fooled by
the length; each of the four tracks
is packed with twisting, dissonant
hooks, driving beats, and a host
of space-age effects. Inspired by
‘dystopian films and novels,’ the
energy on the EP is unmistakableespecially on ‘Procession’, where the
beat gets downright sultry. In the
end, though, the mix is a little too
wild. Portasound should rein in
some of the excess noise, or spread
it over more songs. Sophie Luo
Shoegaze
gods
My
Bloody Valentine have
been away since 1991,
but when m b v starts
you could be forgiven
for thinking they never
left. Opener “She Found
Now” picks up almost
exactly where Loveless
left off, and even “Only
Tomorrow”’s title is a nod
back to “Only Shallow”.
Since Loveless is one of
the best albums of the
1990s, near-statis would
hardly be a problem, but
it’s a testament to MBV’s genius that they aren’t content to
stand still. After a crowd-pleasing first half to show that they’ve
still got it and that Blinda Butcher’s voice is as ethereal as ever,
the second half demonstrates that Kevin Shields’ time in Primal
Scream taught him both how to rock and how to dance. Tracks
like “New You” and “In Another Way” are slathered in heavy
drums and heavy beats (“Only Tomorrow” even has a guitar solo
of sorts!), making this the MBV album you can dance to. It’s an
exciting storm of noise and ideas – especially the stunning closer
“Wonder 2”, a wall of sound that never lets up. It’s been brewing
for ages, but those who worried the new My Bloody Valentine
album would be an overcooked letdown need not fear: m b v is
a worthy successor. Hopefully Kevin Shields won’t take another
two decades to make the next one. Frederic Heath-Renn
MBV
*****
FILM
*****
Merrick Morton
Dir. Kim Ji-woon
USA; 107 mins
*****
Having seen a poster for Warm Bodies, I was basically expecting Twilight, only with
zombies instead of vampires. Described as a ‘zom-rom-com’, it stars another goodlooking Englishman (Nicholas Hoult – perhaps American actors aren’t pasty enough
to play the undead?) who embarks upon a difficult romance with a blonde Kristen Stewart-lookalike (Teresa Palmer) –
difficult mainly due to the fact that he recently ate her boyfriend’s brains. Fortunately this film is far better than the Twilight
franchise; wittier, warmer and much more self-aware. It opens with ‘R’ (Hoult) taking us through an average zombie day;
as he pokes fun at all the zombie clichés we find that, despite being a corpse, he is actually pretty likeable. We are then
introduced to Julie (Palmer) who is on a mission out of the safe part of the city to forage for medicine in zombieland. It
all goes wrong when R and his buddies attack her team, but for R, it’s love at first sight: he saves her and sneaks her back
to his home. What follows is a funny and touching love-story, which later turns action-packed as zombies and humans
band together against the evil bonies. Warm Bodies is a unique twist on an old formula, and it works; showing zombies
in a completely new light creates a lot of humour as well as some more serious musings about accepting those who are
different from us. A great soundtrack, likeable leads and cool camerawork mean that this zombie-action-rom-com should
have something for everyone.
Vivienne Shirley
TokYo SonATA (12)
Dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Japan (2008); 120 mins
*****
AsianWiki
Arnie is back. In his first full foray since his successful cameo in The Expendables
2, the former Governator is aiming to see if there is room for a wrinkly ‘80s
hero in today’s world. Is this the start of a Blur-esque comeback? Paying to see
The Last Stand will probably feel like biting into a burger at a barbecue, only for
your sweating chef to tell you after you swallowed it that the meat was ‘probably
cooked’. Breathe a sigh of relief: the film is OK, if bland. The Last Stand is a
daft tale about Mexican gangster Eduardo Noreiga versus Forrest Whitaker’s
FBI, sheriff Arnold, deputy Luis Guzman, and a mercifully less-annoyingthan-expected Johnny Knoxville. Peter Stormare’s rogue soldier-of-fortune
also adds his lead to the piece. The plot and the characters are so thin that even
Oliver Twist would think twice about asking for more, but that’s not really the
point. It’s an action film. As with any knuckle-dragger, it all comes down to
blowing things up, car chases, and bashing people’s brains in. Mercifully, The
Last Stand delivers passable cartoonish carnage, which is as brainless as you
would expect.Between the sorry dialogue and forgettable bruising encounters,
the main issue with the whole thing is, surprisingly, a lack of our Austrian.
The Last Stand definitely feels like Arnie’s come back with the stabilisers rather
than superchargers glued onto his barbarian back. Let’s call a prequel. Daft,
ridiculous, but somehow serviceable, The Last Stand could claim a cheap
Tuesday ticket, but you wouldn’t spend a penny more. Hopefully, Arnie’s next
adventure will be the real thing.
Valdemar Alsop
Dir. Jonathan Levine
USA; 97 mins
warmbodiesmovie.com/zombiequiz/
THE LAST STAnd (15) WARM BodIES (12A)
Kiyoshi Kurosawa is best known in Japan for horror films such as Cure (1997)
and Charisma (1999). His 2008 feature Tokyo Sonata may not fall neatly into that
genre, but scratch the surface of this domestic drama, and themes of threat, helplessness and panic place it not so far from
horror territory after all. Teruyuki Kagawa plays Ryūhei, a painfully normal husband and father who is suddenly informed
that he has lost his white-collar admin job to cheaper Chinese competition. Shell-shocked, he wanders the streets and
encounters a new world of soup kitchens and humiliation. Former schoolmate Kurosu is in the same boat, and doing his
best to act like nothing has happened: in a wonderfully absurd gag, he sets his mobile to ring regularly, to keep up the
illusion of a businessman in constant demand. It’s at once achingly funny and desperately sad: a disarming combination
that sets the tone for the film. If the above premise is the sonata’s exposition, its development takes the film in a number of
unpredictable directions. Ryūhei’s younger son starts taking piano lessons behind his father’s back, while the elder son is
determined to run away with the US army. More extreme is the episode in which Ryūhei’s wife is the victim of a botched
burglary. The resulting mood is idiosyncratic and disorientating, thanks in part to Kazumasa Hashimoto’s abrasive flute
score. If Tokyo Sonata risks suffering an identity crisis at points, that’s probably deliberate. Kurosawa’s oddball film posits
an ordinary family in extraordinary times, and does so with humour, sympathy and menace.
Jackson Caines
20 Art {MISC.}
Thursday, February 7th, 2013
{TCS}
THE MADAME X EFFECT
Recently, it appears that, with the ‘abnormal’ or falls outside of traditional
rise of social media and the ease with gender roles. These kinds of judgments,
which we can now access images and like those made of Madame X at the
information about one another, the unveiling of her portrait, are normally
‘professional beauty’ in print is not the based on a woman’s appearance, dress
only victim of our criticism; we have or ‘reputation’.
begun to openly criticise our peers too.
What I find most troubling about the
The use of the Internet as a means of recent spate of memes entitled, ‘Girls…
lambasting others from a distance is did you know?’, normally followed by
very reminiscent of the way that the a crippling epithet like ‘your boobs
Portrait of Madame X was received are supposed to stay inside your shirt’
and commented on by contemporary and accompanied by photographic
viewers.
illustrations, is the fact that they have
The art historian Erica E. Hirschler, been created and circulated by women,
tells us that ‘Sargent’s American
explicitly in order to criticise other
sitter was so notorious in
women. Not only is this ‘slutFrench society that
shaming’ trend dangerous to
critics
probably
those it seeks to victimise
could not wait to
– there have been two
We are all guilty of
say of her portrait
teenage suicides in
judging women by
what they would
America as a partial
never say of her
result of internet
different standards
face.’ The picture
bullying of this kind
to their male
scandalised
- it is also un-sisterly,
counterparts
contemporar y
and seeks to undo all
viewers,
but
the hard work of women
particularly
other
like Sonya Barnett and
women, as it appeared to
Heather Jarvis who founded
exemplify loose morals due to
‘SlutWalk’, a campaign designed to
the revealing nature of the sitter’s low challenge the perception that dress
cut dress and idealised physiognomy. and behavior are indicators of sexual
Madame X herself was singled out availability. We are all guilty of judging
for criticism, rather than the artist women by different standards than
who chose to depict her in a salacious their male counterparts, particularly
manner, because of her choice of dress. when it comes to their image. But
It mattered little that, compared with next time you find yourself raising an
the classical nudes we often see in art eyebrow at an overly-short skirt or an
galleries, Mme. Gautreau’s dress was exposed cleavage, consider… what
fairly conservative. It was the suggestion would Madame X say back to her
of flesh, the potential for her strap to critics if she could?
slide down her shoulders, which made
her a cipher for wantonness.
To my mind, the attitude of the first
viewers towards Madame X’s portrait
recalls the recent ‘slut-shaming’
phenomenon, first brought to the public
consciousness by several feminist blogs
Interesting objects in and
in 2006. Slut-shaming is the practice
around Cambridge...
of criticising a woman for taking part
in sexual activity that is considered
India Matharu-Daley on
A VIEW FROM
THE BRIDGE
AN EVENING WITH THE STARS
the University Library
Hanna Tame takes a look at the pictures in the Picturehouse
Dominic McKenzie’s new show, ‘A
Brush With The Stars’ - running at
the Cambridge Picturehouse until 28
February- is a celebration of films and
those who create them. Cambridge
based McKenzie gained recognition
after winning the YCN (Young
Creative Network) Award in 2011, and
has since illustrated a children’s book
on Henry VIII, as well as working
with The Guardian, Cancer Research
UK, and the Fitzwilliam Museum.
His influences range from Picasso and
DominicMcKenzie
Matisse to cartoonist Ronald Searle,
whilst bringing his own stylish, yet fun,
approach. Visitors to the exhibition
encounter a series of portraits of actors
and directors, with prints displayed in
both the bar and upstairs screen area
of the cinema. This was a shame, as it
was harder to get a close look.His use
of colour is striking; several Bonds play
poker together, all in the same cool,
limited palette of pinks, reds, and blues.
Colour is in block shapes, defined by
lines which are layered over the top,
so that the colour and line are slightly
disconnected. One great example is
his portrait of July Garland, where she
appears as a purple-haired Dorothy
in a psychedelic coloured landscape.
Less over the rainbow more straight
through it.
Recognising the people in each
portrait is a large part of the show’s
appeal, suiting the location of the
exhibition; a haven for film-lovers.
Actors are not simply shown in
character, but also as themselves. As
McKenzie describes it, some actors are,
“larger than life”, and once they have
reached a certain level of fame and
popularity they become caricatures of
themselves. They are immortalized by
the image they adopt.
His Marilyn Monroe portrait
epitomises this, with the actress boasting
her trade-mark curves, big hair and
bright pink lipstick. It’s reminiscent
of Andy Warhol, whom McKenzie
admires and whose influence is clear
here. Tilda Swinton, on the other hand,
is abstracted, bizarre, and seems to be
turning into Road Runner, and her
portrait wasn’t great either. For me it
was the weakest of the show.
Alfred Hitchcock looks distinctly
unimpressed by the knife-wielding
attacker creeping up behind him. But
my favourite was Woody Allen. In a
brightly coloured parody of Munch’s
The Scream, he is a wailing, squigglyarmed cartoon, capturing the image
of the neurotic director perfectly. The
most charming is Fred Astaire, who
is a jaunty minimalist figure. The
small detail of his wiggling ears is just
lovely. It is unusual, in this day and
age to see cartoons used to portray the
positive but in this playful exhibition,
each figure is lovingly depicted in
endearing, cartoonish, portraits rather
than unkind caricatures.
steveoadam
Like a vertigo-sufferer standing on
o n
the topmost
diving board
at Parkside,
this column
is
about
to see an
embarrassing
climb-down.
Yes, Jesus does
indeed have
a
bronze
sculpture of
a cockerel from Benin, but Hidden
Cambridge can now debunk the
myth that the Benin government
have asked for it back. I asked Jesus’
archivist, Robert Athol, if he could
confirm or deny this urban legend,
then, foolishly, sent an earlier
rough draft that did not contain his
comments. (Readers, please accept
my apologies. MISC team, please
accept a round of drinks in the pub.)
Mr Athol checked back through
the college archives and found no
evidence anywhere to suggest that
Benin’s government have ever asked
for the sculpture’s return, and says
‘it seems unlikely that they would
– it’s not particularly old (18th
century possibly) or valuable!!’
The cockerel was given to the
college by one George W. Neville,
who founded the Bank of British
West Africa at the end of the 19th
century. There you have it: Jesus
does not partake in the imperialist
looting of other nations’ cultural
treasures. Urban myth: debunked.
Jesus has been subject to other
rumours in the past. In 2009, a
rumour that its lush and grassy
Chapel Court, one of the few
lawns that students may walk on
(gasp!), was to be paved over, was
met with hue, outcry, hysteria,
furore, and other expressions of
anger found only in newspapers.
A letter from one Siobhan Hutchins,
‘JCSU Liaison Officer’, went out to
all Jesus pigeonholes, informing
them that Chapel Court’s verdant
pile was to be replaced with paving
and a fountain. Students read the
letter, and saw workmen beavering
away in Chapel Court, and assumed
that the letter’s claims must be true.
In fact, the college gardeners were
actually hard at work reseeding
the lawn after damage caused
by the 2008 May Ball. Their
labours were to ensure that the
lawn was returned to its former
heights of viridian fluffiness,
not to entomb it under stone.
David Lowry, then JCR president at
Jesus, told this very publication that
the hoax was ‘completely untrue’,
before commending the hoaxer on
their attention to detail. Apparently
their referencing of Council
minutes and use of Photoshop was
‘very plausible’, if, ‘frankly, quite sad’.
Once it was pointed out that neither
‘Siobhan Hutchins’ nor the post
of ‘JCSU Liaison Officer’ existed,
students breathed a sigh of relief
that one of the biggest lawns in
Oxbridge would remain accessible.
Grass: we take it very seriously.
Issy Muir scrutinises society’s damaging criticism of female sexuality, past and present
JohnSingerSargent
Zoah Hedges-Stocks
examines the importance
of grass to Cambridge
students...
Though many may tremble
at the sight of it, cycling past
the University Library always
makes me smile. Giles Gilbert
Scott’s east façade is a beguiling
balance of opposites. The age
of the skyscraper inspired the
library’s sheet glass windows
and soaring tower, setting off
the north and south fronts’
placid horizontality. Yet classical
elements call Ancient Rome
to mind - the main entrance
is reminiscent of the Roman
Forum’s Senate House - and
the stretch of warm roof tiling
resembles Beijing’s Forbidden
City. This marriage of east and
west and old and new gives
the brick expanse a rhythmical
grace best viewed zipping by on
two wheels!
{MISC.} Books 21
{TCS} Thursday, February 7th, 2013
P OE T RY
NO TONGUE
SMALL BOOKS, BIG IMPACT
Emily Burns and Ryan Ammar on why our childhood reading resonates throughout our lives
Anders Ruff Custom Designs
Make a mark almost of
simplicity to need night
at the listen terminal
rough up the surface
a bit more or gouge
it now all be just something
up cannot be and yet
to establish foundations
for say identity cards
what stoic consciousness
within the present phases
the distance of modern
misplaced as well as it
means this illusion a mark
of aspect in the ratio
punishment to another line
with real folds over again
So again see what it brought
to time this time of common
honesty, the portrait of the dead
figments and fictions in the absence
to whom what had been in her leaves
even my own ear for a change
nothing but managing and presenting
for shallow things and short-term
goals an occlusion after all that
like shiny books along the shelf
glass washed by rain to look through
at waxwings and bare trees heaved
in terminal patterns on moulded
paper
Gasp. Grasp at the air dots
in between the linen, think needles
think burning edges, think through it
and confirm the pencil trace
down in the corner believed wrongly
to be
identical in each instance as it utters
its scribbled purpose in letters
of smoke and its stupid commentary
stares back robustly at you.
Dr Ian Patterson
Queens’ College
-------------------------------
Nettle Poem
you nettle me
as we tessellate like honeycomb
spinning
to match my poles with yours
stubble on stems and leaves
reddening coy paws
punctuating dewy wakenings
with quotation bitemarks
and breathless palpitations
in our fieldbed
dizzying down to floorboards
because they don’t creak
corseting with your arms
hoping my ribs don’t break
or snap like stalks in careless hands
all plant veined sinewy sweetness
all stung out,
i’ll make you into soup.
Georgia R Wagstaff
Girton College
If you have any poetry
you would like to submit to
The Cambridge Student, please email
books@tcs.cam.ac.uk
TCS asked the directors of Corpus
Playroom’s Esio Trot why they’ve
looked to Roald Dahl for inspiration:
“Bringing Esio Trot to life on-stage has
brought with it many questions about
the nature of children’s literature in
our lives as university students. Why
stage a show that was intended for
children less than half our age? How
could it still possibly be interesting,
let alone meaningful? The books
we read as children undoubtedly
have an acute effect on how we
grow up, and who we grow up to be.
Yet as we move beyond our formative
REVIEW
NOTES 7 & 8
The aim of Notes, is to print anything
that involves and would stimulate
original thought; from Serena
Candelaria’s delicate, Others take the
B9, to the fluctuating patchwork of
prose and poetry which makes up
Needlepoint by Atiyab Sultan, the works
run the gamut of artistic subject matter;
some more successfully than others.
In Notes 7 the concept of Nina
Brown’s inversion of the Rape of
Lucretia outshines its execution,
while the opinions expressed in Phil
Gardner’s Crazy Lefties will certainly
arouse response. A real highlight was
The Shell Brother, a haunting story
with as many holes as it has features;
Mark Hay conjures up an entire world
and destroys it again in 2.5 pages that
stuck in my mind long after it ended.
Felix Bazalgette’s strange little story
about injury and memory stands out in
Notes 8, and Nick March’s delicate poem
ends the collection on a high. The two
long essays on fairly niche topics (Titian
and Tolkien) do, however, interrupt
the flow of the journal as a whole.
Although the printing medium
- monochrome on an A5 booklet means it’s hard to really appreciate
the artwork, there are pieces which
nevertheless display the copious talent
of the Notes contributors; the nude who
greets us at the very beginning of Notes
7, courtesy of Thea Hawlin, is simple but
sophisticated. In Notes 8 Emily Taylor’s
indistinct ‘Photograph’ loses none of
its charm in leaving you to decipher it.
Overall, the joy of Notes is in its
variety, and it is the freshness of each
new issue which keeps a new-literature
enthusiast coming back for more.
Isabel Adomakoh Young
years, we come to appreciate that
the tiny volumes that meant so
much to us all those years ago
might still hold some value today.
Being a children’s author requires
great skill, owing to a heightened
awareness of readership on two
fronts. Not only in the form of
children for whom the books are
intended, but also, parents who will
buy and read them aloud. A delicate
skill that quickly quashes the claims:
‘Even I could have written that…’
Avid watchers of Bill Bailey and
Dylan Moran’s Black Books will
recall the episode where Manny and
Bernard attempt to write a children’s Piglet do, without hyper-analysis
book. Bernard’s effort is over 1000 or
inconsequential
squabbles,
pages and covers Joseph Stalin, a surely they would be transformed.
lens grinder, a broken
A lovingly tattered edition of
marriage and a
Fantastic Mr. Fox is now a
t r ut h - s e ek i ng
necessary feature of our
journalist.
bookshelves, whereas
Why should the
Not only do
three years ago, it
c h i l d r e n’s
certainly wasn’t. As
messages that
authors
we move into our
children’s books
produce
twenties, questions of
w o r k s
faith and moral values
deliver be limited
that
are
are considered more
to children?
e nte r t ai n i ng
closely, and children’s
and interesting,
literature is a place we
they
produce
may look for answers. These
works that deliver
volumes by Roald Dahl or A.A.
pertinent messages.
Milne, Dr. Seuss or Dick KingOf all such authors, A.A. Smith, that held such significance
Milne was perhaps the master of to us as children begin to re-enter
encapsulating such messages in our lives as sources of guidance
the simplest of terms. In The House and even inspiration. Certainly as
at Pooh Corner, Piglet and Pooh Cambridge students, heeding the
discuss the nature of their friendship: advice of Willy Wonka now and
‘We’ll be Friends Forever, then mightn’t be such a bad idea:
won’t we, Pooh?’ asked Piglet. ‘A little nonsense now and then,
‘Even longer’, Pooh answered. is cherished by the wisest men.’
Modern children’s books do not
So why put on Esio Trot at the
patronise children with imperatives ADC Theatre this week? Well, for
and proverbs on how to be “good these reasons exactly. It’s a story
grown-ups”. But rather, they give we can all learn from, no matter
them a gentle nudge down the right our age. It explores questions of
track. However, there is no reason love and obsession, of happiness
why the messages that children’s and tortoises, in ways that are both
books deliver should be limited to unconventional and relevant. And
children. If we were to conduct our most of all it’s a lot of fun, which is a
friendships the way that Pooh and lesson we’re never too old to learn.”
22 Events & Interviews {MISC.}
CORPUS
SMOKER
Thursday, February 7th, 2013
B R O N AG H ’ S
BIG WEEKEND
{TCS}
COMEDY
CAMBRIDGE JUNCTION
Tuesday 5 Feb
{exuberantly Irish one-woman show}
COMEDY
CORPUS PLAYROOM
Monday 4 Feb Suzanne Duffy finds humour, nostalgia and impressive Irish dancing in Helen O’Brien’s one woman show
{hit and miss student stand-up} The Junction
The confusion was palpable in the
small studio at The Cambridge
Junction: the audience was in total
darkness as someone slowly crept
out from behind the curtain and
began to dance the hornpipe. Once
the lights went up the confusion
came to an end, but the kooky
atmosphere in which anything clear that the show is based on
might be said or done remained.
experiences from O’Brien’s own
Bronagh’s Big Weekend is a childhood and this lent realism
one-woman show penned and and enthusiasm to her portrayal.
performed by BBC comedy award Despite the lack of props, set,
winner Helen O’Brien. She tells or other actors, the show was
in first person the story of one captivating and comical. This was
weekend in the life of Bronagh, a in part due to O’Brien’s willingness
teenager growing up in an Irish to be ridiculous; one minute
family in Oldham in the
miming trying to insert a
late 1980s. Despite a
tampon for the first
slow start, which was
time, the next looking
perhaps necessary
after small children
to let the audience
while trying to
Someone slowly crept
adjust to this
keep a dress neat.
unusual
form
The fact that there
out from behind the
of
theatre,
were interludes
curtain and began to
O’Brien picked
of
Irish dancing
dance the hornpipe...
up the pace as
may sound odd on
she narrated. I
paper, but they were
was drawn in as she
used to weave the plot
hilariously sketched
together and bring it
out various scenes in the
to a satisfying conclusion.
comforting chaos of working-class It has to be said that O’Brien is
family life.
a convincingly good dancer and
From the embarrassment of the championship final, which
her mother trying to squeeze her was the climax of a piece that had
into a too-small bridesmaid’s included a rushed birthday and a
dress that ‘put up a fight’, to the disastrous wedding, was Bronagh’s
absolute horror of starting a little victory. It was heart-warming
period on the same day as the Irish without being cheesy and funny
dancing championships, O’Brien without trying too hard; I would
was likable and believable as the definitely recommend it to cure
thirteen-year-old Bronagh. It is mid-term blues.
JAZZ@JOHN’S
MUSIC
ST JOHN’S COLLEGE
Friday 1 Feb
{it’s some jazz... at St John’s}
hat do you get when
you combine sublime
live
instrumental,
jazz singers and complimentary
cocktails with a noisy and friendly
crowd of Johnians? The answer
can only be a sophisticated night
at Jazz@Johns!
First onstage were Compass,
a youthful quintet of musicians
based in London. Considering this
was Compass’s first gig (ever!),
they handled their 50 minute
set in a cool and professional
gentle but firm touch, and his
improvisations delighted the
crowd. I found his cover of
‘Stormy Weather’ to be heartfelt
and I enjoyed the instrumental
breakdown of this piece.
There was a rather annoying wait
between the acts. It was however
worth it, for the Tom White Trio.
Mr. White knew exactly what
needed to be done and succeeded
in making a trombone sound as
powerful as a sax.
Everything
about
their
W
manner. Their rendition of the
crowd-pleasing ‘Silver Linings’
incorporated a variety of musical
genres, and elicited loud cheers
from the crowd.
Speaking after their set, two
members of Compass described
their music as “world music
influenced by jazz”.
Next
up
was
Xavier
Hetherington, who entertained
the crowd with his honey-toned
vocals and confident keyboard
playing. Xavier played with a
NO ONE MAN NO CRY
H
aving greatly enjoyed other
productions featuring the
acting and writing talents of
Adam Lawrence and Ben Rowse last
year, such as Pretty Little Panic and
The Pin, I expected big things from
this one man comedy sketch show. It
really saddens me to say that I came
away slightly disappointed. Lawrence
and Rowse raised such a high bar
for themselves last year that my
expectations were perhaps too great.
The premise of No One Man, No
Cry is a theatre show gone wrong,
with none of the actors or technical
crew turning up. This leaves a hapless
cleaner to come up with a series of
monologues, before being forced to
give the performance himself. Anyone
who saw The Pin will be familiar
with the ingenious way that these
incredibly talented writers manage to
piece many different strands together,
and I couldn’t help but marvel that
they had managed to oversee such
a complex sea of connecting ideas.
It took quite a long time, however,
for everything to slot into place
– I spent the first half of the play
wondering if I was the only one
not getting it. It was beautiful
when it all came together, but
when the main thing you think
upon leaving a comedy show is
‘that was so clever’, as opposed to
‘that was so funny’, you realise that
something didn’t quite add up.
Nevertheless, there were several
brilliantly funny one-liners and
puns; particularly hysterical is the
way Lawrence leaves a sentence
dangling in the air before completely
performance was original and
exciting, from the chemistry
between every member of the trio
to the awe-inspiring solos and
breakdowns.
If you want to escape the world
of college bops and Cambridge
nightclubs, then Jazz@Johns is
the place for you.
Say what you like about John’s
- they do know how to put on a
good jazz show.
Jerene Anderson
COMEDY
PEMBROKE NEW
CELLARS
Wednesday 6 Feb
{former Footlight’s
ambitious return to
Cambridge}
subverting its expected meaning.
His portrayals of the French waiter
and the German super-villain were
superb, and his abilities as a physical
comedian were showcased – but these
were moments of comedy gold that
perhaps would have glittered more
brightly in a simple stand-up routine.
As tickets are only £5, it is
worth seeing for the stand out
comedy moments and the clever
scripting alone, but I am not sure
it would have filled up the ADC
in the way previous productions
by Lawrence and Rowse have.
Anna Page
Adam Lawrence
This was a pleasant but unexceptional
smoker. Whilst some of the comedians
were very good, others were merely
adequate; the result was a show that
was amusing but hardly worth rushing
to see.
This show undeniably showcased
some very talented comedians. The
compere, Ben Pope, was great. His
jokes were fun, with my favourite
being his routine about the horrors
of being almost 21. This was a worry I
could certainly identify with, although
it would have gone down considerably
less well if this had been more of a
town than gown event. His jokes
about perfume ads were witty and
well-delivered, but frankly, television
adverts are an easy target for stand-up
comedians.
Milo Edwards was also fantastic.
His jokes about being middle-class
and his mockery of Cambridge
students’ attempts to appear ‘street’
rang wonderfully true. Furthermore,
his suggestion about the potential
for ‘taste the difference’ condoms had
me in hysterics. John Payne was yet
another of the highlights in this show.
His performance had the rare merit
of being a single integrated routine,
giving it coherence and increasing its
impact. He also had immense stage
presence, delivering his jokes with
energy and elegance. Ken Chang
showed clear promise; his jokes about
paedophilia managed to toe the perfect
line between amusing and offensive.
Unfortunately, his delivery needed
work, as he stumbled over some lines
and occasionally seemed to struggle
to decide what his next joke was.
Disappointingly,
the
other
comedians in this show were
somewhat less skilled. Ian Samson
started well, and his jokes about
beginning a job resonated well with
the audience. However, his complaints
about being single and having a poor
relationship with his parents fell
rather flat; self-depreciation is rather
over-used and has to be done very
well to be funny. His attempted metajoke was funny but depressingly truejoking about his comedic style merely
highlighted his ineptitude. Jamie
Fraser was another comedian who
started off strongly, with some more
excellent middle-class jokes, but then
went downhill, with his discussion of
juice availability in the United Arab
Emirates meandering on far longer
than the material merited. Sophie
Williams was even less impressive.
Her routine centred on discussing a
date show I’d never seen and most of
her jokes dragged on far too long, and
her routine finished with exceedingly
predictable and unfunny complaints
about her romantic frustrations.
This show was entertaining and had
some very funny moments. However,
it was quite a mixed bag and some of
the comedians needed to put more
work into both the content and
delivery of their routines.
Martha Fromson
{MISC.} Events & Interviews 23
{TCS} Thursday, February 7th 2013
“THIS IS AN EX-PYTHON”: GRAHAM CHAPMAN’S NEW BIOPIC
Arjun Sajip talks to the directors of A Liar’s Autobiography, the new animated film about Graham Chapman
The directors of A Liar’s Autobiography: The Untrue Story of Monty Python’s Graham Chapman, from left to right: Jeff Simpson, Bill Jones, Arjun Sajip and Ben Timlett
produce good-quality stuff, any
generation is going to like it.” Each
animation studio was selected on
the basis of their style and how
well it matched certain envisaged
scenes in the film. There’s none
of the slapstick animated humour
in which Python often revelled,
because slapstick humour is
thin on the ground in Graham’s
book. “[The book is] wordy, it’s
thoughtful, it’s intellectual, it’s
often ironic,” explains Bill. “The
tone of the humour and the
approach to the animation [were]
really driven by the original book.”
Oddly, in a film that is almost
wholly comprised of animated
segments, there’s none of the
legendary animation of Terry
Gilliam, who appropriated an
unnoticed corner of a Renaissance
painting by Bronzino to create the
‘Monty Python foot’ that we all
know and love. “He wouldn’t do it,”
says Bill. “If he wouldn’t do it, we
weren’t going to get someone else
to copy him.” A wise decision: this
is a film about Graham Chapman,
and not about Monty Python.
The voices of John Cleese,
Michael Palin, and Terry Gilliam
and Terry Jones are all present;
Eric Idle declined to participate,
not wanting the film to seem like
a ‘Monty Python reunion’: valid
grounds that the three directors
respect. Surprisingly, however, Autobiography. It features such
the voice of Graham Chapman – chestnuts as “I love to hear you
who’s been six feet under
oralise | When I’m between your
for over two decades
thighs | You blow me away.”
– is all over the
If you haven’t heard it,
film. Selections
go and YouTube it.
of his voice
It’s
impressive
Chapman once
were
mainly
that
everything
whipped out his penis
culled from his
Graham says in
and proceeded to stir
own narration
the film is actually
a stranger’s gin-andof his quasifrom
recordings
tonic with it
autobiography,
of his voice, but
which he had
what is even more
read aloud in 1981.
impressive
is
the
This was a key factor
directors’ attention to
in the directors’ choices
detail. Ben says, “We went
of what went in the film: scenes through hours and hours and
generally had to be compatible hours of outtakes to find [some
with Graham’s dialogue (as of ] the material – Graham sucking
opposed to his narration). Unless, his pipe, and giggling.” In the film,
of course, they were sex scenes. it’s all synthesised so naturally
“We wanted lots of sex in that it’s easy to forget that Graham
there,” explains Jeff. “Sex is has been dead for over 22 years.
hilariously funny.” The film
“The animation absolutely
sees various cartoon versions of fucking rocks,” opines one of the
Chapman copulating in all sorts journalists next to me. “How do
of positions, with both men and you think [the new generation
women. Bill elaborates: “In the of Python fans] will react to it?”
book, he just lists [his sexual
“You’re quite young,” says Ben,
escapades]… We thought, ‘We turning to me. “What do you think?”
need this scene. We need to
Suddenly, I am the voice of
convert it into something fun.’” a generation. This is it. This
“Musical number!” Jeff chimes is my turn to shine, to prove
in, referring to the version of ‘Sit to the people my worth as an
On My Face’, one of the Pythons’ ambassador of the comedic
most hilarious songs, which plays taste of Britain’s youth. I answer
over the end credits of A Liar’s decisively and honestly: “I liked it.”
Insanitabrigians by Clementine Beauvais
Unnatural Selection by Caitlin Blumgart
“Good riddance to him, the “The only thing I remember
freeloading
bastard.
about
Graham,”
says
I hope he fries.”
Bill, “is his memorial
Thus
eulogised
service.” Bill was
John
Marwood
eleven at the time;
Cleese, Downing
he, Ben and Jeff
“We wanted lots of
alumnus,
at
are all part of the
the
funeral
‘next generation’
sex in there... sex is
of
his
dear
of Python fans,
hilariously funny”
friend Graham
growing up in
Chapman in 1989.
an era of comedy
“He would never
over which Python
forgive me,” explained
had
stamped
its
Cleese, “if I threw away
distinctive
footprints.
this glorious opportunity
They’ve brought their own
to shock you all on his behalf.” comedic and artistic sensibilities
Chapman loved to shock and to their film about Chapman,
surprise. One afternoon he enjoying
complete
creative
wanted to sit at his favourite pub control, hiring fourteen animation
table, but it was occupied by some studios, and making it in 3D. “We
recalcitrant customers. Chapman’s didn’t want a type of 3D that had
response? He strode over to the lots of gimmicks,” says Jeff. “It
table, unzipped his flies, pulled was really just there to give a little
out his tackle, and proceeded extra depth to the animation.”
to stir the man’s G&T with his The three directors aimed to use
penis. This is the kind of person it creatively, and succeeded in
we’re dealing with in A Liar’s doing so.
Autobiography: The Untrue Story of
I ask why they adopted such a
Monty Python’s Graham Chapman. unique approach to the animation.
I speak to the three directors Bill answers: “We realise that
of the 82-minute animation in there’s a generation growing up on
a round-table interview at their Family Guy, that there’s a market
office in London: Bill Jones (son for adult animation. We wanted
of Terry, the man who delivered to push that by putting in lots of
the immortal line: “He’s not the different styles together. People
Messiah, he’s a very naughty boy!”), are interested in animation for
Ben Timlett, and Jeff Simpson. its own sake.” Ben agrees: “If you
24 Theatre {MISC.}
Thursday, February 7th, 2013
R EVIEWS
B E T R AYA L
It’s very easy to get a Pinter production
wrong. In fact, it’s probably easier to
get a Pinter production wrong than
that of practically any other modern
playwright.
Precisely
because
Pinter has taken such pains to work
innuendo and allusion into every
dialogue, his plays can be pretty
inflexible when it comes to artistic
reinterpretation. However, Freddy
Sawyer’s production of Betrayal has
somehow got the balance just right.
This is a skilfully executed story
of infidelity, built around a longrunning affair between Emma
(Stephanie Aspin) and Jerry (James
Ellis). It may appear to be a stock love
triangle but in the course of the play,
which unfolds in a tantalising reverse
chronological order from a wistful
reflection seven years after the affair
to their break-up and further back, it
becomes clear that the relationships
between the three are simmering
with layer upon darkly comic layer of
treachery and deceit.
{Perfectly balanced
Pinter}
Each actor shows subtle changes
in personality with each backwardspassing year. Aspin in particular
presents this brilliantly, shifting
between
nostalgia,
bitterness,
secrecy, vulnerability, optimism and
elation as we plunge deeper into her
past: Emma in scene two is a younger,
more innocent version of Emma in
scene one, and so on. Her lover Jerry
is jittery when worn down by years of
his relationship, reasonably assertive
and defensive during the better
times and painfully nervous in the
earlier years. He might be engaged
in a sordid affair, but somehow Ellis’
version makes him feel like a victim
of it all. There’s just something so
endearing about his vulnerability
and sheer indecision.
Between these two changeable
personalities, the powerful, knowing
husband Robert (Mark Wartenberg)
stays fairly constant. His matter-offact tones, his air of authority, his
delightfully awkward relationship
Corpus Playroom,
ADC Theatre
5th- 9th February, 7pm
with his ‘best friend’ Jerry, his
laconic put-downs and his outwardly
magnanimous words which may or
may not be hinting at power play
beneath the surface: every aspect of
Wartenberg’s presence pushes home
the themes of deception, mistrust
and incomplete knowledge on all
sides.
The production team was strong
in evoking the essential sense of
time passing. Photos and newspaper
headlines from the seventies are
scattered unobtrusively on the walls
together with quotations from the
script. These add an eerie touch of
determinism, constantly reminding
us that the whole affair has already
started and ended and nothing can
be done about it.
Has the production done justice
to Pinter? There is little of the dry,
dark humour that can make a Pinter
play, though one scene does allow a
gloriously over-the-top camp Italian
waiter (sadly not given a named
Pembroke New
Cellars,
credit) to inject some comic relief in
the midst of the seriousness. The cast
worked very cleverly with the play’s
crucial struggle between the two men
- or is it a friendship? They lunch
and play squash together; they chat
about literature; they share a social
circle; they keep terrible secrets from
each other. Both actors keep the
relationship ambiguous and even at
the end leave the audience wondering
how much exactly they knew at what
COCO
TRUTHSPEAK 5th-9th February
9.30pm
{Relevant and thought-provoking new writing}
Truthspeak is a double bill of short-plays,
linked by the key concept of difficult
and painful truths: No Comment by
Guy Clark and A Civilised Society by
Ellen Robertson. The first is concerned
with journalistic integrity, the second
with the eternal truths behind society’s
failure to tackle homelessness. Truth
should not be a relative concept.
However, as these plays demonstrate,
emotional ‘truths’ are often far more
‘true’ than facts and statistics.
No Comment, which made the
shortlist in the National Theatre’s
new writing competition New Views
2012, is more conventional in its
treatment of the thorny issues behind
journalism. Clark claims to have taken
inspiration primarily from a daylong work experience placement with
The Independent and it is somewhat
difficult to accept that such a brief
exposure could produce so strong and
so plausible a production. Despite the
huge difference between a national and
a student paper, it feels as if Clark has
here captured a ‘truth’ about the hectic,
stressful world of journalism that even
resonates here in Cambridge.
The concluding twist skilfully
emphasises the difficulty of a concept
such as ‘truth’. The latter half of this piece
had good narrative reason to be rushed.
Nevertheless, I was left unsatisfied and
wanting more in terms of the main
character’s emotional development. The
acting sometimes fell flat, and thereby
failed to fully realise an otherwise strong
piece. Yaseen Kader and Chris Born,
although much stronger in the second
half, did not seem to fit their roles
especially well; their emotions at times
seemed superficial and uncertain.
Both Tris Hobson and Kay Dent
powerfully portrayed weakness. Clark’s
acting role in his piece is relatively small,
but he gives a very strong performance
as the complete antithesis of this
fragility. Although A Civilised Society
calls for fewer characters, the use of
interesting plot devices means that here
too there is great variety and versatility
of roles and emotions, allowing the
actors to display their range.
During the interval the room
is overturned and moves away
completely from conventional seating
arrangements. Although this change
initially appeared slightly contrived,
it works fantastically with the second
piece which, in dealing with the
very visible yet often ignored issue
of homelessness, breaks away from
theatrical conventions. In the words of
director Elle Ramel, this arrangement
ensures the actors are “not constrained”
by the stage. Staged in this way,
Roberton’s play focuses our attention
on the experience of homelessness and
the inadequacy of all styles of politics to
address this continual problem.
Ramel consulted with the local
homeless charity FLACK on the play
to ensure that it was sensitive to this
important issue. Seats are kept aside
each night for the writers and artists
working with this charity: this is a
production keen to get as close to the
truth as possible.
Despite not matching up entirely, the
productions together are moving and
thought-provoking. A potentially risky
showcase of new writing, tackling key
and controversial issues, has not failed
to deliver.
Ashley Chhibber
{TCS}
Any attempt to explore the life of
Coco Chanel in theatre is always
going to be an ambitious task. Few
other women can rival her legend,
but with Bethan Kitchen’s impressive
debut, we are in safe hands. This play
does not only portray the tragedy
of a doomed romance. By stripping
away Coco’s iconic status, we are also
confronted with a harrowing reality
behind ‘Coco’, as a woman’s insecurity,
vulnerability, and psychological
instability manifest themselves.
I could not help being impressed
as I watched Coco pace around a
scrupulously constructed set before
the play began. Complete with
typewriters, sewing machines and a
chaise longue as a centrepiece, this
set embodied ‘40s culture down
to the tiniest detail, providing the
perfect backdrop to the final meeting
{An intense portrayal of an
iconic story}
CorpusPlayroom
between Coco and her lover in the
months leading up to the end of
the Second World War. When Coco
started, I soon realised that this
attention to detail was mirrored in the
acting too. Both Georgia Wagstaff and
Mark Wartenberg deliver convincing
performances as a pair unwilling
to recognise that the consequences
of war are finally catching up with
them.
Although it focuses on the painful
end of an affair, the play is not short of
humour. Indeed, one of its highlights
is Coco and Spatz’s comical acting
out of scenes from Antony and
Cleopatra. Yet the tragic elements
to this Shakespearean love story are
not lost on the audience. As with
Cleopatra, we see in Coco a woman
whose complexities ultimately cause
her ruin.
points. Meanwhile, Emma hovers in
between the two and tries to hold the
whole mess together.
The theatre editors probably
wouldn’t be happy with any review
of Betrayal that missed out a token
mention of Pinteresque pauses. This
time, the dialogue and the acting
were so engaging that I just couldn’t
wait for those awkward silences to be
over.
Ted Loveday
Corpus Playroom,
5th-9th February,
9.30pm
Constantly oscillating between
anger, despair, and love, Coco is
perhaps over-dramatic at times.
As a one-act play, its brevity may
prevent the audience from relating
to the characters as much as it could
have if their relationship had been
allowed to develop over a longer
period of time. But this probably
reflects my longing for more rather
than any genuine shortcomings.
Indeed, its intensity was its making.
For this, the production team should
be congratulated. The space of the
Corpus Playroom was used to superb
effect to build upon the genuine
intimacy that the actors offered as a
couple. Flanking the stage on either
side, the audience is given a uniquely
intimate insight into the private lives
of these characters.
This was further used to depict
Coco’s mental oppression and
deterioration. Throughout the play,
Coco constantly refers to the “walls”
that surround her; for her, they seem
to be the only permanent thing she
can depend on. And the two banks of
audience physically serve as the walls
of her living room. We confine her
to a timeless space that, with the end
of the war, cannot be sustained, and
impose upon Coco an identity that
she cannot live up to.
For me, it is Kitchen’s success in
making us contemplate our roles,
as members of the audience and as
a general public, in both the tragic
destruction of a romance and Coco’s
internal struggle to maintain an
impossible façade, which makes this
fantastic production so striking.
Barney McCay
{MISC.} Theatre 25
{TCS} Thursday, February 7th, 2013
INTERVIEW: Beyond the cherry orchard
Anton’s directors talk to Hannah Greenstreet about playing in the round, Chekhovian humour and Skype.
T
here is a general assumption
that Chekhov is just “white
linen, straw hats, boredom
and beards.” Charlie Parham and
Emily Burns, co-directors of Anton,
hope to disprove this assumption in
their production of two of Chekhov’s
plays from the start and end of his
career, Ivanov and The Three Sisters.
Ivanov, directed by Parham, and The
Three Sisters, directed by Burns, are
playing in repertory over two weeks
at the ADC Theatre. As well as feeling
immensely privileged to have the
opportunity for development afforded
by the longer run, Charlie and Emily
stress that, in seeing the two plays on
consecutive nights, the audience will
gain a far richer understanding of
the plays. Charlie observes, “they do
complement and contrast each other
in so many different ways and seeing
both will give you one thing twice
as much, twice as strongly, and also
loads of different things.”
In Charlie’s view, Ivanov “screams
of a very talented but inexperienced
writer and it has all of the themes that
end up becoming so stereotypically
and famously Chekhovian.” The Three
Sisters, according to Emily, then has a
very different, more mature emotional
ADC Theatre
dynamic. Charlie and Emily had
originally discussed staging two
independent productions of Chekhov
but decided that they wanted to
collaborate, although coordinating the
two has sometimes proved a “logistical
nightmare”, including spending about
fifty hours skyping each other over
the Christmas holidays.
Emily stresses the value of being in
“the unusual position in which you
have another director in exactly the
same position as you and you’re able
to spend a lot more time learning on
the job rather than retrospectively
from the end result of the project.”
They essentially have two separate
casts, with some doubling across the
plays, but were able to bring them
both together for workshops. They
used these as a training ground for
the actors to learn about the way
they act. In terms of playing style,
Charlie and Emily are both aiming
for “a really understated naturalism”,
which Chekhov and Stanislavski
instrumentally founded in their work
at the Moscow Arts Theatre, “rather
than Russian high drama.”
Both plays also share the same
innovative and ambitious staging. For
the first time in its history, the ADC
will be transformed to enable playing
in the round, with banks of audience
in each wing and along the back wall
of the stage. The safety curtain will
be closed and the auditorium empty.
Charlie and Emily hope that having all
the audience seated on the stage and
able to see into the workings of the
theatre will enable a far more active
and engaging audience experience.
Emily wants the audience to “feel like
[they are] a part of the theatre in the
way that actors, when they’re onstage
feel like they’re a part of the theatre.”
Seeing the audience as “a missing
character” is a key part of their
metatheatrical interpretation of
the plays. Emily views each of the
characters of The Three Sisters as
playing a part, all of them dreaming
of Moscow: “For my cast, Moscow is
the auditorium, it’s having a bigger
audience to see you, Moscow is playing
a bigger part.” Charlie adds, “Moscow
is beyond the safety curtain, the irony
being that behind that safety curtain
is nothing, it’s an empty auditorium
and you’re still playing a role.”
Although this may sound very bleak,
Charlie is quick to stress that “one of
the things we’ve come to realise more
and more is that these are funny plays
as well”. The translations they have
chosen, written by Tom Stoppard and
Michael Frayn, who are themselves
both great comic dramatists, bring out
the humour in the plays. Chekhovian
humour is definitely not “playing
for laughs”. Rather, “these are very
mundane, repetitive lives and that in
itself is hilarious and so unbelievably
tragic as well.”
In response to my question of
whether they were intimidated by
taking on Chekhov, Emily remarks
that she gets more intimidated by
the idea of Chekhov as each day
of the process goes on. Every day
they discover something new in the
incredibly rich text and it would be
impossible to encapsulate everything
in the performance. Charlie agrees
but adds that Ivanov and The Three
Sisters are the types of plays that you
could rehearse in two days and put
on – but then they would be dreadful
because you would have none of the
development and the relationships.
Anton, which has been in rehearsal
since January and in conception since
the beginning of October, certainly
promises a sensitively developed and
intricately thought-out production
with a strong and collaborative cast.
This Chekhov is far from the Chekhov
of “white linen, straw hats, boredom
and beards.”
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14/01/2013 09:42
26 Listings {MISC.}
Thursday, February 7th, 2013
{TCS}
LISTINGS
MUSIC
THEATRE
Kodaline
HOLLOW
@ Portland Arms
12th Feb, 7:30pm
@ Homerton College
7th-10th Feb, 7:30pm
Dublin quartet. Shortlisted
for MTV’s Brand New
for 2013 award, tipped by
Shazam as potential chart
toppers in 2013, and about to
head off on their UK tour.
Two pieces of new writing
encouraging experimentation
regarding characterisation,
physicality and staging
ANTON: THREE
SISTERS/IVANOV
@ADC Theatre
12th-23rd Feb,
7:45pm
Ivanov and Three Sisters by Anton
Chekhov - two painfully funny
and heartbreaking plays, playing
on alternate nights over two
weeks. Bringing together one of
his first and one of his last plays.
FRENCH
HO
WIT UT TEARS
@Fitzpatrick Hall
12th-16th Feb, 7:30pm
A larger-than-life comedy about
what it means to be young.
@ Corpus Playroom,
12th-16th Feb, 7pm
Becky used to be a big shot,
Max thinks he still is. Suzanna’s
a would-be psychologist who
wishes she could cure everything
she can’t.
@ The Fountain
13th Februar y, 7:30
pm
Poetry night fe
internationally-ren aturing
Hollie McNish.Featowned poet
Slam - up to eight uring Open
go head-to-head fo competitors
r a pl
national poetry Finaace in a
l.
CAMBRIDGE
SCIENCE
CENTRE:
OPENING
@ Cambrid
ge Science Centre,
18 Jesus Lane, 8th Feb
The public opening of Cambridge’s
first hands-on science discovery
centre. A venue for science themed
exhibitions, shows, workshops
and talks. It will be a gateway into
scientific research from Cambridge
and around the world.
CROSSWORD by vegetable
Last week’s answers
Across: 1. Boat race 7. Boar 8. Sheds 9. Oedipus 11. Nicks 13. Speedos 14. Stewart 15.
Sumac 16. Suspect 17. E coli 19. Idea 20. Thespian
Down: 1. Game 2. Grass snake 3. Poppadum 4. Cross section 5. Business suit 6. Cross
stitch 10. Dress sense 12. Chess set 18. Ovid
E
Everything Everything
entered the UK top 40 with
single Cough Cough. The
band head to Europe in
November in support of
Muse.
A Conversation
with Tony
Robinson
@
Babbage Lecture Theatre
3:30pm, 11th Feb
The Cambridge Personal Histories
Project speaks to the Blackadder star
and Time Team presenter about his
work on the archaeological show.
t
fast aH
l
Breakw
h ote
t
i
s
’
y
t
T if fanC
hocolra
ehouse
Concert performance of
African Sanctus, a thrilling
and unique oratorio
inspired by native African
rituals and chants.
TALKS
&DEBATES
This House
elieve
Has Lost B
ex
All MeasnS
@ Cambridge ing
Union
14th Feb, 7:3
Has sexual liber
0pm
ation led to sex
In a
be
society where se
in
x is everywhere g devalued?
, have we lost
sight of its
we benefitted fr deeper meaning, or have
om the public
nature of sex?
Sir Roger P
@ Cambridgeenrose
Union
13th Feb, 7:3
Renowned Briti
0pm
sh scientist an
ictu
@ Arts Pruary, 6:10pm
14th Feb
d writer.
for his award-w
inning work in Best known
mathematical
physics, genera
l relativity and
cosmology.
ening
Day scre lassic
’s
e
in
t
n
le
c
Va
Hepburn receded
y
e
r
d
u
A
’s p
of
te
at Tiffany
Breakfast 20 minute chocola
by a free hosted by Hotel
tasting ocolat.
Ch
Across
1. Tax caught American man (6)
4. English in workplace making a
comeback somewhere in Asia (6)
7. Forager tries travelling around
river to find places to store food
(13)
8. Maybe ox-bow lake goes in
mixture (5)
10. Cornish town where many cats
come from? (2, 4)
11. Politicians putting places for
vegetables (6)
12. Misleading: not she! The
opposite (6)
15. A very loud tune happening (6)
17. Read first bits of the Riot Act
from pamphlet (5)
18. Church is the sin place? Wrong
(7, 6)
19. Kindle Fire comes back in
marketing initiative (6)
20. Racket in retreating ocean dies
down (6)
Cambridge
Choral Society
@ Portland Arms
16th Feb, 7:30pm
Down
1. Sprinter, not English, following
army group around University
College (6, 7)
2. South Africa’s a long way: I
holiday there, maybe (6)
3. Winter Olympic sport is so
glum, possibly (6)
4. Drilling is dull (6)
5. Search the Internet for work,
and stare (6)
6. Current film showing Scrooge,
perhaps, skilled in not as much (3,
10)
8. Monster, black, eats messily (5)
9. Meaning to wander aimlessly
(5)
13. Creator of Note? (6)
14. Drunk nectar, going to reverie
(6)
15. Bill a group of spies for
ornamental tree (6)
16. I can be seen in tangle with
tramp: it’s sweaty (6)
SCRIBBLEPAD (Candidates are asked to stay within the lines)
The T ium
ph of
Venus bry
R
u
bens
@ Fitzwilliam
Museum
13th Feb, 1:15
Talk by David
Sc
Director of Pain rase, Assistant
ting
and Prints at th s, Drawings
e Fitzwilliam.
D
T
C
I
E
A O
N
U
WORDWHEEL
HOW TO PLAY WORDWHEEL
In three minutes, make as many
words as you can from the letters
above. Each word must be at least
3 letters long, and must include the
centre letter. Each letter can only
be used once per word. No plurals
or proper nouns. The wheel also
contains one 9-letter word relevant
to a story on this week’s front
page. Find it, and you’re officially
the coolest cat in Cambridge.
How many words did you find?
16+ words = 1st
11-15 words = 2:1
6-10 words = 2:2
3-5 words = 3rd
0-2 words = Drunk/Asleep
Photos: fredBaby
BECKY SHAW
HAMMER&TONG
U
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11th Feb, 7pm
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Sport 29
{TCS} Thursday, February 7th, 2013
COMMENT
Chris McKeon on the
sporting state of mind ...
David Godwin
Ed spent the last year combining
his Natural Sciences degree at
Pembroke with coxing the Boat
Race squad to victory last year.
This year he has stood down from
selection and instead competed
for GB at the Australian Youth
Olympic Festival last month...
Describe your time in Australia?
It was great to be part of the GB
under-20 team for the Festival.
I already knew a lot of the
rowers from competing for GB
previously so there was a good
atmosphere in the group despite the
46°C heat! Meeting athletes from
other sports in the village was also
nice as it’s something you would
only be able to do otherwise at a real
Olympics. The team’s performance
overall at the regatta was very strong,
particularly for the sculling. My event
was the last two races in the eight.
Despite winning our heat with the
fastest time we geared the blades a
little heavier for the final. There was a
bit of a head wind and unfortunately
in the last 500m we were out sprinted
for silver by New Zealand. Bronze
wasn’t perfect but it was a good
development and learning for all of us.
How does competing in the Boat
Race compare with Rowing for GB?
The Boat Race is tough because all
the training takes place through the
winter, and Ely isn’t the nicest place
during those months! There is also
a lot of pressure because you only
have one race to get it right. In an
international regatta (for GB) you
race a heat first so you can gauge
your opposition and it’s also a great
feeling to be a part of the national
team and to wear your country’s vest.
How was last year’s boat race?
I felt a lot of pressure during the race,
particularly as we were the underdogs
and we knew it would require a
special performance to win. The
swimmer stopping the race actually
had a positive effect on our crew
because almost all of us had been in
a similar situation before (with a race
that was stopped in New Zealand in
September). I just kept saying what
we should do when the race restarted.
What
were
your
feelings
Ed Bosson
when
the
race
finished?
Whilst I was overjoyed at the fact we
had actually crossed the line first, I
was also a little anxious given what
had happened. Lingering in my mind
was the thought that if the umpire
decided we were responsible for the
clash that caused one of Oxford’s
oars to break, then we could be
disqualified. I was also physically
exhausted and a little spaced out
from not eating or drinking much
beforehand! I remember giving a
shaky interview to 5 Live whilst
having no idea what was going around
me, particularly about Alex Woods in
the Oxford crew who had collapsed.
What
made
you
withdraw
from
selection
this
year?
Competing at the Youth Olympic
Festival was a unique opportunity
that I won’t have again, and it wasn’t
possible to do both. I was also feeling
academic pressure so I think it was the
right choice. It was a tough decision
and I haven’t ruled out attending trials
in the future. The squad this year
is very talented with a lot of depth
and competition which is always
a good thing. With the Boat Race
though you’re never safe and Oxford
have an equally formidable squad.
What
is
the
camaraderie
like within the Rowing club?
The camaraderie is great particularly
at Cambridge because we have
such a diverse and interesting
squad, with rowers from the US,
Australia, New Zealand, Austria,
Czech Republic, Germany etc. You
get the idea. Everyone sticks to
the same program but we have a
great role model in Club President
George Nash who leads by example.
I’ve just been concentrating for a
20k paddle on the water. I have also
sacrificed social life a lot - fresher’s
week didn’t really exist for me! Other
big sacrifices are sleep and holidays!
How gruelling is your training?
It’s tough! For a cox it’s not so much a
physical challenge but rather a mental
one. Consistently coxing to a good
standard (which I didn’t always do!)
requires lengthy concentration so I’d
often get back in the evening feeling
mentally drained. You are also required
to attend all training sessions so the
time commitment is still significant.
How did you get into Rowing
and weren’t you a Wakeboarding
record
breaker
as
well?
Wakeboarding the Channel for
charity felt like it would go on forever
and that France would never appear.
It did though and it was great to prove
friends wrong who thought I’d fail! I
started wakeboarding around the
same time I started rowing at about
13. But this would only be for 2 weeks
a year in the summer so it wasn’t a
main sport but more a hobby that I
enjoyed. I learnt to scull when I was
12 and then dabbled in coxing age
13 at school, but I only started taking
rowing serious in my lower sixth.
Later that school year (2010) I trialled
for the GB junior team and went to
the Junior World Championships.
Who is your biggest inspiration and
did you watch the Olympic Rowing?
My former coach at school, John
Gearing, because he taught me how
rowers can move boats fast and as
such was the biggest factor in my
development into a decent cox. The
success of the GB Rowing Team at
the Olympics was fantastic and I was
lucky enough to go to watch on two
of the days. Most impressive was the
superb bronze that our own George
Nash won in the pair with Will Satch!
Will you ever be at the Olympics?
I’d love to go to the Olympics but it
would be tricky. Because it’s a four
year cycle I would need to effectively
leave my Cambridge degree at some
point to start training with the senior
squad full time. However, it would
be a risk because there are other people
who want that place in the team so
as the seat is not guaranteed I’d be
reluctant to do this. For now I’m
going to stay in the U-23 system and
see how that pans out. It might be that
I end up too heavy to cox at that
elite level and I don’t think it’s worth
dieting to keep coxing. I would
rather switch to a different sport!
What is the most outrageous thing
you have ever said to a crew?
I’m normally quite conservative
but on our way to a gold medal
at National Schools aged 14, I
remember barking ‘Balls Out! Bury
them!’ Something I quoted from
our legendary coach at the time.
How do you find combining
rowing with everything else?
I find balancing rowing with
academics extremely hard. It’s hard
for me to sit down and work when
Varsity Watch: Water Polo - Saturday 5:30pm at Kelsey Kerridge
Blues star Thomas Bennett introduces his sport ahead of Lent’s first Varsity showdown...
For many, London 2012 provided a
first and only glance at the sport of
Water Polo, on the face of it a number
of athletes writhing about with each
other in tight swimwear and stupid
hats. For me, however, and the rest of
the Cambridge squad, it is a hugely
challenging and entertaining sport
for which we surrender up to five
evenings a week to train for. With our
Varsity match this Saturday I want
to offer a bit of a guide to the sport.
The basic principle of water polo,
like football, is to score goals. However unlike football, Maradona excepted, this is achieved by throwing the
ball into a goal. Add to this the fact
that you are not allowed to touch the
bottom of the pool with your feet nor
at any point have more than one hand
touching the ball and you have the
premise of the game. Simple enough.
However, each attack may only last
30 seconds and following every unsuccessful attack all 12 outfield players must sprint around 20 metres
down the pool in order to set up the
next attack and defence. In a four
quarter game in which each quarter
lasts eight minutes, a player is likely
to have to complete fifty or sixty full
pace sprints just to get to a point from
which they might be able to manufacture a goal scoring opportunity.
The attack tends to centre round the
establishment of a centre forward or
a “pit”. This is a player who positions
himself two metres from the oppo-
Stefuhnee_kayy
Chris McKeon is an African
Studies student at Caius and
a former Rugby League HalfBlue.
The Boat Race cox and GB star tells Nick Butler about races, records and inspiration
Ed Bosson
Just about
everyone I
know sent
me a link to
an advert for
the new Super
League season
which
started last
weekend.
It featured cycling god Bradley Wiggins claiming that he
wishes he was a rugby league
player but that the sport was
too physically tough even for
an endurance athlete like him.
It’s what rugby league prides
itself on – big, manly men making big, manly hits. Indeed, it’s
not just rugby league that does
this – the announcer at last
week’s Town vs Gown boxing
match took every opportunity
to highlight the strength, fitness
and most importantly courage of every boxer – telling the
CURUFC boys ‘you can’t talk
your way into the boxing team’.
He was right, of course. It
does take a lot of mental –
never mind physical – toughness to stand alone in front of
four hundred people and face
an angry, tattooed hulk looking to cause you serious physical damage. The thing is, it can
become increasingly difficult for
other people to separate your
sporting personality from your
day-to-day one. Some of my
companions, for instance, were
surprised to see one ex-Blues
heavyweight last Thursday who,
under his Blue’s blazer, wore
the collar of an Anglican priest.
This is not necessarily a problem. The problem comes when
you can’t tell the difference
yourself – which brings me back
to rugby league. If your sport
prides itself on being aggressive,
on requiring extreme physical
and mental strength, then the
expectation is that these characteristics will be evident in your
life off the pitch as well as on.
Sometimes, however, that isn’t
the case (witness the boxing
priest) and there are people who
find that sort of pressure unbearable. Sometimes, as with former
rugby league star Terry Newton,
the pressure to be strong overpowers the need to seek help for
depression – with tragic results.
The name of the game is state
of mind – also the name taken
by the mental health charity
founded in the wake of Newton’s suicide (and proudly supported by the university rugby
league club). It’s not just about
state of mind on the pitch,
but off it too, which requires
something altogether different. Yes, it’s vital to be tough
when you’re playing, but I think
we all need to remember one
thing – we’re not always playing.
Interview: Ed Bosson
nents’ goal and fights off his defender
to receive a pass and shoot from near
point blank range. When you play
this position more than any other,
you understand how much of a contact sport water polo is. The defender
will try anything to prevent you from
scoring, and in a sport where the
referees can only see the top fifth of
you and your opponent’s body, this
can be anything. Anything the referee doesn’t see is considered legal.
Water polo is one of the most interesting and physically challenging sports at Cambridge, with high
level players requiring a combination of endurance fitness and the
physicality to dominate opponents.
Why don’t you come along and
judge for yourself this Saturday.
30 Sport
REPORTS
BASKETBALL:
Tan
Athena
on another good win:
The Basketball women’s Blues fought
hard to record a resounding 57-44
victory on the road at Worcester.
With the entire team contributing
points throughout the game, the
Blues set the pace from the beginning and executed plays with authority.
WATER
POLO: Thomas
Bennett on a lacklustre loss:
Cambridge men’s water polo team
crashed out of BUCS on Sunday
following a disappointing defeat to
Imperial. After falling behind early
on, the team never got back into the
game and performed well below the
standard it is capable of. An outstanding performance from Mike
Gormally was the one bright spark
in a defeat which spells the end of
Cambridge’s competitive season.
FENCING: Five out of Five
FOOTBALL: Double Men’s
win as great form continues:
It was another superb afternoon for
the Men as the Blues won 5-1 away
at Worcester, with goals from Danny Kerrigan, Anthony Childs and a
hat-trick from Haithem Sherif. The
Falcons almost matched them in
beating Leicester 4-1 but the women had a tougher time at top-of..
the-table Nottingham Trent 4-0.
RUGBY:
Charlotte Browning on two great wins:
CUWRFC enjoyed a rampant 42-0
win over Bedford Luton with Sammy Graham scoring four tries along
with one-each for Katie Harries,
Tia Knight and Charlotte Browning. This followed a 17-5 victory
over Olney at the weekend.
ORIENTEERING:
Strong
show at the Midlands Champs:
An eight-strong squad travelled to
Sherwood Forests. Alice Gibbs and
James Rickards won their respective classes and Captain Matthew
Vokes came top-8 in the gruelling
Men’s Elite category.
BADMINTON: Mixed Results
The Men continued their magnificent form with a 6-2 win over Nottingham 3rds. The Women lost by the
same score-line away at Warwick.
LACROSSE: Blues win league
The women’s Blues drew 5-5
with Oxford to win the BUCS
South Premiership
division.
The men thrashed Gloucestershire 17-2 in the Cup.
See TCS Online for Full Reports
IN OTHER NEWS
In Football, League One’s bottom club Hartlepool enjoyed a
surprise 2-1 victory over Notts
County at the weekend. The real
story was that their two scorers
were the brilliantly named Peter
Hartley and James Poole... you
couldn’t write it any better
{TCS}
TCS Exclusive: “Rucking for Jesus”
CURUFC Hooker Rupert Cowan opens up about combining his twin passions of rugby and faith
I love rugby. I love beer. I also
love Jesus, and I do not mean
the college. A lot of people find
that third statement surprising.
I started playing rugby when I
was 9 years old and I discovered
two things. Firstly, I was good at it
and secondly, I enjoyed playing it.
Both facts remain true to this day. I
became a Christian when I was 15
and never looked back because it
is easily the greatest thing that has
ever happened to me; but I never
thought too hard about how my
faith might affect playing rugby. As
I got older, most of my teammates
started to fulfill the rugby stereotype which we all know and, presumably, love. I was about 18 when I
realised that my faith meant I would
never truly be one of the ‘lads’.
When it comes to rugby itself,
I do not feel any of the guilt that
some people think I might have.
Like all sports rugby is a good gift
to enjoy. It is fun, it keeps me fit,
mostly healthy and I have made
many friends through it. Some
people have questioned whether
it is ‘Christian’ to tackle someone deliberately hard, but I have
always enjoyed the response of
Kiwi Michael Jones (1991 World
Cup Winner and Christian) when
asked this question: “It is better to
give than to receive.” My faith also
means that despite the disappointment of failing to win my Blue
two years running, I am not devastated because my hopes do not
rest on a lovely blue blazer.
My faith affects my life much
more off the pitch than on it, especially since I got to Cambridge
and joined CURUFC. I know some
people will look at how I behave
and think I am sticking to some
self-righteous prudish religious
rules. But I am just trying to do
what Jesus asks, because if Jesus
gave 110% (sports cliché) to save
my life and wants the best for me,
why would I ignore him? This often
means I can be on the fringe of the
social events in the rugby calendar
– a result of the combination of my
quieter personality and choosing to
enjoy two pints instead of downing five. I can be on the fringe of
the changing room banter because
“I became a
Christian when I
was 15 and never
looked back”
I do not have any tales of conquest
from the arenas of ‘lash’ or ‘gash’.
I also choose to go to church and
mid-week Bible study groups and
while they are genuine highlights
of my week, they reduce the time
available for work each week.
I have faced some ridicule for my
faith. I know an U-21s player who
is under the impression I have “less
fun”. I have heard it cried: “Rupert,
why aren’t you getting drunk?”
CURUFC
in stunning weekend for Men:
The Men’s Blues enjoyed a superb
weekend. They started by beating Oxford 135-92, then Imperial
131-104 on Saturday, before beating UWE 135-97, Oxford (again!)
131-108 and Bristol 135-100.
Thursday, February 7th, 2013
The funniest outburst about my
faith that I have ever encountered
was a Homertonian who said:
“Oh no! You’re not one of them
are you? And you play rugby –
you’d be such a good lad!” When
confronted with such statements,
do I consider compromising or even
abandoning my faith? Not a chance.
Rupert Cowan is a 3rd year
Chemical Engineer at
Pembroke and a member
of CURUFC.
Hockey Blues joy
Felix Styles
Blues Captain
The Blues beat Peterborough 2nds
6-0 on Saturday. At half-time the
score was still 0-0 with Cambridge
dominating possession but unable
to make a breakthrough. However,
three minutes into the second half,
Sachin Jivanji finally broke the deadlock by firing home from a McLean
cross. The Light Blues hit their stride
as the second half wore on, hitting
the woodwork 3 times - including a missed penalty by Harrison.
Eventually the Blues’ superior fitness level wore down the opposition, and a final 15-minute blitz
saw Cambridge score 5 more goals
to bring the final score to 6-0.
Will Harrison converted a second
penalty, followed by an opportunistic effort from Sam Bowker.
Captain Felix Styles made it four
from a short corner, before Will
Harrison completed his brace and
fresher Wes Howell scored the 6th
in the dying seconds of the game.
Coach
Chris
Marriott
was satisfied with this comprehensive
thrashing
of
a
direct competitor in the East Premier
A. “All our hard work over the winter
break and in pre-season is beginning
to pay off. The boys showed a lot of
patience in possession and were relentless during the last part of the
game. A great start to our
2013
campaign
but
nobody’s getting carried away
here, we have a long way to go.”
SCREENPRINTING AND EMBROIDERY
R
RY
FOR YOUR CLUB OR SOCIETY
T SHIRTS
HOODIES
POLOS
SPORTS
OVER
2000
GARMENTS
ONLINE!!
e
{TCS} Thursday, February 7th, 2013
Sport 31
Double 4th at
BUCS for CUH&H
Gown dominates Town at Guildhall
Nick Butler
Sports Co-Editor
Ed Abedian
Sport Reporter at the Guildhall
excellent 10th with Hare and Hounds
stalwart Polly Keen enjoying her
best ever BUCS in 12th and Rachel
Kitchen completing the team in 60th.
“A thousand
spiked shoes did
more damage than
any ploughman
could”
took the initiative in the second
round, winding up a powerful left
hook that had Wakeford stumbling
back across the ring. Despite having the longer reach, Wakeford
was guilty of coming in too close
on multiple occasions and walked
into too many of his opponent’s
shots. Although the Hughes Hall
fighter fought spiritedly for three
rounds, Williams took the victory.
In the sole women’s bout of the
night, Daphne Tsalli continued her
impressive combat record with a
dominant display. After an earlier
win in kick-boxing a few months
back, Tsalli fought a composed
fight, showcasing both her punch
power and impressive technique.
The Guildhall erupted into life as
club captain Borna Guevel took on
seasoned fighter Wayne Gibbons of
Stevenage ABC. Both fighters started
aggressively, trading heavy punches
“The Guildhall
erupted into life as
club captain Borna
Guevel took on a
seasoned fighter”
on the inside. The pace was relentless as Guevel tried to enforce his jab
while Gibbons caught the Cambridge
favourite with some heavy combina-
3
Gown
7
tions. Guevel appeared the more
fatigued in the final seconds, trying
his utmost to stay in the fight and
land effectively. An anxious crowd
was relieved, and somewhat surprised, to see the majority decision
awarded to their dogged captain.
Steve Lavelle kept the crowd jubilant with another majority decision.
Lavelle took the initiative against
an opponent who seemed happy
to bide his time until the opportunity arose to counter. Lavelle did
not present him with that chance,
negotiating the ring well and stinging his opponent continuously as
he made use of his longer reach.
Will Nyerere’s victory put Cambridge out of sight as he worked his
way into the opening round with
the jab and backed it up with clean
one-two combinations. In complete control, Nyerere fought well
from distance, picking off Kieran
Manion of Stevenage as the latter
desperately tried to catch his opponent with wild swings over the top.
Dan Fountain’s defeat after being caught by a right hook in the
first round brought the heavyweight
contest to an early conclusion and
gave the Town their final win of the
evening. Tinashe Murokozi ended
the night on a positive note with a
unanimous victory over Tom Boyce
to seal a 7-3 victory for the Gown.
Perfect Pythons Paralyse the Rhinos
Guy Peters
Sport Reporter
Last weekend in the other American
football match, Coldham’s Common
was host to a fierce Cambridge vs.
Cambridge battle. The Anglia Ruskin
Rhinos were up against the Cambridge University Pythons in a game
which was set to be particularly brutal.
The Rhinos won the toss and chose
to defer and the Pythons asked to receive the ball. From the kickoff, the
Pythons looked to assert their dominance with a short but powerful run
from Nate Brakeley leaving the Rhinos in their wake. This field position
set the Pythons up nicely to hand the
ball over to Brendan Baker just a few
plays later and run it in for the first
points of the game. A shaky snap on
the extra point left Nick Roope to
improvise and a completed pass to
Jack Tavener gave Cambridge an 8-0
lead. Good defensive work from the
Pythons led to the Rhinos having to
punt and the Pythons offence was
back on the field. After a touchdown
was brought back due to a holding
call the ball was given to Baker again
and he ran in a 24 yard touchdown.
This time the extra point was good
and Cambridge sat at 15-0 after just
a few minutes of play. Again the Rhinos tried to push out of their own
half but the experienced D-line of the
Pythons prevented even the hardest
efforts from producing any kind of
result. Forced to punt again, the ball
fell to Nick Roope who marched it
Cambridge
Anglia Ruskin
40
0
up the pitch before being tackled
just short of the line. With the Pythons again knocking on the door
of ARU Rhinos end-zone, quarterback Joe Yarwood threw the ball to
Baker for his third touchdown of the
game and it was only the first quarter. Another dodgy snap on the extra
point left Roope to go off book again,
this time completing the pass to Sebastian Funk. At the end of the first
quarter the Pythons were up 23-0.
The second quarter saw the inexperienced Rhinos find their feet and
their defence forced a fumble recovery and then an interception. Despite
valiant efforts and a couple of injuries
along the way, the Pythons were able
to get Nick Roope into the end zone
after a bit of cheeky footwork and very
good blocking. The extra point was
good and at halftime the score stood
at 30-0 to Cambridge University.
“This was the
Pythons first
home win since
1997”
In the third quarter, despite a
number of injuries, the Rhinos managed to force the Pythons back and
the only points scored in the quarter were from a field goal by Jack
Tavener, the first one since the Py-
Jahinder Sahota
This time it was Birmingham who
triumphed, ahead of St Mary’s and
Loughborough, with Cambridge again
just one place outside the medals.
The final race of the day was the
Men’s ‘B’ race, and with a thousand
spiked shoes doing more damage
then any ploughman could, the aim
had become more about avoiding
sinking than running fast. That said
the Hare and Hounds again excelled
and the team of Alex Young (13th),
Matt Grant (20th), Peter Townsend
(30th) and Mark Plackett (42nd)
finished 3rd university and 6th overall behind a St Mary’s stampede.
Overall Cambridge came up agonisingly short compared with the “big
three” but were very much the best of
the rest. They performed superbly in
terrible conditions and thoroughly
deserved the evening’s all-you-caneat-buffet and after party indulgences.
For many the focus now turns to the
track and the indoor season but rest
assured the Hare and Hounds will be
back and gunning for Loughborough
and a medal position in 2014.
With the Varsity match just over a
month away, CUABC’s boxers were
keen to impress against the Town.
Although the Town held a winning record, in this fixture CUABC
president Chris Kelly was confident that the team could emulate
last year’s emphatic 8-1 victory.
The evening began as Xiaofeng Li
exchanged punches from the opening bell. The Queen’s fighter found
his rhythm midway through the second round as he continually picked
off his opponent with left counters
and the occasional straight right.
He landed a unanimous decision to
strike the first blow for the Gown.
Early enthusiasm from the crowd
then took a heavy blow as Aaron Schleider failed to recover from a thunderous hook that forced him to take
an eight count. Looking to repeat
last year’s impressive performance,
Schleider was caught multiple times
by the heavy-handed Wais Ahmed,
forcing the referee to stop the contest.
Rob Lie regained the lead for Cambridge with a strong performance
against Hayes’ Vish Parma. Parma
covered up well in the opening two
rounds, looking threatening with the
right cross. As the fight opened up in
the final round, Lie landed a strike
to the abdomen that saw Parma
take a standing count, which gave
Lie a deserved unanimous victory.
Will Wakeford began well against
Ryan Williams. But the Hayes boxer
Simon Halliday
Many people would find the idea
of spending a Saturday afternoon
running around fields in Leeds bad
enough even without the hills, cold
and knee-deep mud engulfing the
course. Yet the Hare and Hounds
took to the conditions like a duck
to water (albeit of the boggy variety) and relished the chance to challenge the cream of student talent.
First up was the Men’s ‘A’ Race with
each university entering their top
six runners over a gruelling 9.8km
distance. Despite making his BUCS
debut, fresher Lewis Lloyd enjoyed
a barnstorming race, putting himself
near the front early on and holding on
for a fine 15th place finish. Six places
behind was Matt Leach who – despite
originally being a reserve – beat a
host of bigger names in a stunning effort. Will Ryle-Hodges and Tom Watkins completed the scoring team in
30th and 41st respectably with typically gutsy performances, and Robin
Brown and Joe Christopher followed
closely behind. With Southampton’s
Steve Connor taking an unexpected
win, St Mary’s – the Manchester Utd
of distance running – less surprisingly
took team gold ahead of Birmingham
and Loughborough with Cambridge
matching their 2011 effort in 4th.
The sole women’s race saw 459
starters, and while GB star Emilia
Gorecka (Royal Holloway) dominated throughout, there was plenty
of Cambridge PhD pedigree on show
close behind. Alison Greggor recovered from a slow start to finish an
Town
thons reformed. The first field goal
ever was scored by Keith Gordon,
the current president of marketing for the NFL Players Association.
The fourth quarter saw the Pythons
defence hammering into the Rhinos
once again with Ed Cozens sacking the quarterback and his running
back in one tackle, unfortunately
injuring them both. This caused
them to run the other side of the line
where they fumbled the ball and it
was recovered by first-time player
Urmil Mehta. This turnover set up
a touchdown as Sebastian Funk ran
it over the line and the extra point
followed soon after, resulting in a
final score of 40-0 to the Pythons.
The MVP award for the Pythons was
shared between Brendan Baker with
his three touchdowns and multiple
runs and Nate Brakeley who achieved
2.5 sacks and countless tackles. It was
both players’ first appearance for the
Pythons and they played exceptionally well. This was the Pythons first
home win since 1997 (the year the
Pythons disbanded) and they are
determined to get a few more under
their belt before the season is over.
The end of the game showed the true
camaraderie between both teams as
opposing players congratulated each
other. Apologies for injuries were
issued and jokes were exchanged as
the supposed rivals enjoyed the post
match fun of the Super Bowl at the
Cambridge Union Society together.
TCS SPORT
INTERVIEW: ED BOSSON
“RUCKING FOR JESUS”
p29
p30
Nick Butler
Sport Editor
In their first game since Varsity in
early December the Rugby Blues relinquished a twelve point lead as
they slid to defeat at Grange Road.
The visiting team - an invitational side
from London appropriately named Penguins – showed an Antarctic-like ability
to adapt to the cold as they scored four
second half tries to confirm an ultimately
comfortable victory. It had all started so
well for Cambridge when, in their first
match under new skipper Will Briggs,
they scored two tries in a display of attacking panache which bodes well for 2013.
Tom Hudson – a debutant promoted
from the Under 21s – launched a fine
break enabling Kristian Cook to score
the opener before Will Smith broke clear
down the left-wing with a characteristic
burst of speed to double the advantage.
Cambridge had plenty more chances
thereafter but the lack of a killer in-
stinct was letting them down. After one
missed pass with the try-line gaping,
the Penguins broke clear and eventually scored through Martin Nutt. Yet the
Blues still seemed more dangerous and
restored the two-try lead just before the
break when Andrew Abraham broke
through to score on the right-hand side.
Yet with the wind at their back the Penguins began to dominate the second half
as the Blues inevitable rustiness after two
months without a game became more
obvious. Paul Keen opened the scoring after taking advantage of some lazy
defending and Cambridge showed no
improvement when Lock Dave O’Brien
scored the first of two tries soon after.
Despite a long spell of possession, the
Blues struggled to gain territory and,
after conceding a penalty, were punished again from the lineout when
O’Brien scored his second before Kerry
O’Sullivan confirmed the result with a
fifth Penguins try in the final moments.
David Hardeman
Lethargic CURUFC limp to loss
Simon Halliday
Cambridge
17
‘Penguins’
31
Women’s Lacrosse: League win #7
Erin Walters
Sport Reporter
Punches and Tackles
Varsity fever descends on the Blues
Gerald Wu
Sport Editor
After the highs at Wimbledon Commons and Val Thorens, and the low at
Twickenham, the familiar Varsity fever
is back in Cambridge again. Although
the dreadful weather hampered preparations, the Blues showed true determination by improvising training routines to
ensure they do not fall behind. For them,
the weather is only an excuse. Judging
from this, the omens are looking good.
The annual Town v Gown boxing
match was the first highlight of the
term. The Blues came out of the blocks
with only one mission – to win. Not to
prove to anyone anything nor to please
the packed crowd at Guildhall. This
dogged determination was very evident as the Light Blues knocked out the
team from Gown emphatically 7-3.
Job done, next up is the Varsity match
and the Dark Blues certainly have
to come up with something special.
The prospects are good in other sports
around Cambridge. The volleyball and
basketball teams are notching solid wins.
The hockey teams are cruising to comfortable victories. The tennis teams are
serving opponents off the court. If you are
wondering why I have not mentioned the
rowers and footballers yet, well, they are
probably training as you are reading this.
Varsity matches never fail to bring out
the competitive spirit in us and with
matches in numerous sports comingup the teams should know that they
will not be short of support. Here is to
wishing all the Light Blues every success in their respective Varsity matches.
VARSITY THIS SATURDAY AT PARKSIDE
POOL AND KELSEY KERRIDGE
Swimming:12:30pm Karate:1:30pm
Water Polo: 5:30pm (Women), 7pm (Men)
Facing Oxford in their final match of
the BUCS South Premiership league,
with not only pride but the league
title to play for, Cambridge travelled
to the Other Place for yet another
grudge match. The Light Blues
topped the Dark Blues at home in
November, and with both teams sitting in first and second place, Cambridge needed at least a tie to give
them their seventh consecutive Premier League title.
Dani Allard opened the scoring for
Cambridge, but Oxford answered with
two nippy goals off tactical feeding
plays. After a Light Blue timeout and
revitalising speech from co-captains
Anna Pugh and Erin Walters, Laura
Plant took control and scored off to
send the teams into halftime at 2-all.
Oxford opened the scoring in the
second half, only to be followed by
a second scorcher from Allard. Undeterred by the poor quality of the
refereeing, Alana Livesey’s tenacity
proved strong minutes later as she
netted a power shot to put Cambridge ahead. The Dark Blues continued to pepper the Cambridge defense but could not connect thanks
to Steph MacAulay and Phoebe Harlow stifling drives to goal and some
close-in saves from Walters which
included a tight-in stuff of Oxford’s
captain.
Gareth Boyd
With six minutes remaining, Ox-
tight game. A good day for CUWLC
ford scored two quick goals to take
the lead, but Cambridge refused
to concede defeat. In a Hollywood
moment, Anna Pugh capitalised on
some well-fought team play with a
low-angle miracle zinger to force the
draw. The Cambridge defense proved
steadfast, with Suki Ritchie and Ro
Sharp dictating the high-pressure
slides and Chesca Hirst passionately frustrating the Dark Blues in
the midfield. Walters stopped three
Oxford penalty shots to preserve the
tight game to preto to preserve the
was topped off by a 12-5 Kingfishers victory over UCL in the Last 16
round of the BUCS Trophy playoffs.
With the Blues’ BUCS Championship playoffs about to commence
and the Kingfishers facing Imperial in the Trophy quarterfinal next
week, the Light Blues are looking
tough and talented.
Cambridge
5
Oxford
5
Tennis Blues on the verge of promotion after beating Warwick 10-2
Sven Sylvester
Blues Captain
The Tennis Blues continued their unbeaten record in the BUCS league this
season by defeating Warwick 10-2 on
Wednesday. This win puts the Blues
one win away from winning the Midlands 1A division with 3 rounds to play.
The day started with Blues no.1 James
Shacklock and ex-Oxford captain Marc
Bagdadhi. After dropping the first set
6-4, Shacklock hit some unbelievable
serves and great backhands as he levelled
the match at 1 set apiece by winning
the second set 6-3. The third set was a
titanic battle with each player consistent on serve and this inevitably led to
a tie-break. Shacklock showed his class
and fighting spirit by clinching it 7-4.
Sam Ashcroft played a very consistent
opponent at no. 2. After going down
an early break and trailing 2-3, Ashcroft pulled out some big forehand
winners and solid volleys to take the
first set 6-4. Serving better in the second set, Ashcroft continued to domi-
nate his opponent from the baseline to
take the second set comfortably 6-3.
Charlie Cohen started slowly against
a big serving opponent. After losing
serve early on, he struggled to find any
rhythm on his service returns and eventually dropped the first set 6-4. Having
gained some confidence on serve, there
were no breaks in the second set and a
tie-break was needed. It was never in
doubt as Cohen easily won it 7-2. After dropping his serve at the beginning
of the third set and trailing 0-2, Cohen
wanted to make sure there was no repeat
of the first set and won 6 straight games
straight to clinch the match in 3 sets.
Captain Sven Sylvester played a solid
opponent at no.4. After a close start
to the match until 2-2, Sylvester hit
some big serves and good chip returns
to race to a 6-2 5-2 lead. Having lost
7 match points at 5-2, Sylvester then
dropped his serve to make it 5-4 and
looked like choking but four big returns
saw him close out the match 6-2 6-4.
Shacklock and Cohen, both weary af-
ter their long singles matches, started
their doubles slowly and lost the first
set 6-3. At 4-1 down in the second,
the pair unfortunately had to retire due
to cramps in Shacklock’s right arm.
Ashcroft and Sylvester got off to a flier in
the no.2 doubles by racing to a 5-0 lead.
After winning the first set 6-1 with some
exquisite volleying there was little their
opponents could do. The second set was
a tighter affair. However, Ashcroft and
Sylvester proved too good by winning
the second set 6-4 to wrap up the match.