(TCS) Lent Issue 7 - The Cambridge Student

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Interviews and Reviews
The
CambridgeStudent
Thursday, 25th February 2010 Lent Issue Seven
Call for action on smart drugs
Becky Sage
Deputy News Editor
Pressure is mounting for the University to take action on the increased
use of cognition enhancing drugs.
A behavioural neuroscientist at the
University of Cambridge has warned
that universities must address the increasing use of so-called ‘smart drugs’
such as modafinil and Ritalin by students, as reported in The Cambridge
Student (TCS) earlier this term.
Students have echoed these concerns. Sophie Walker, an Archaeology and Anthropology student, told
TCS that “the university should start
a campaign to highlight the negative
effects of taking smart drugs and to
remind students that taking cognition enhancing drugs is a form of
cheating,” although she said that testing should only be introduced “if
there is a continued increase in the
use of smart drugs”
Taking drugs “is a
form of cheating”
Photo: Dr Thomas Enslein
Prize winning photo
Lent Bumps in the Snow
Full story page 3
p.28
Tweed Reconsidered
On Sunday, neuroscientist Professor Barbara Sahakian argued: “This
is something that universities really
have to discuss. They should have
some strategy, some kind of active
policy.” In particular, she pointed to
urine testing as a potential way to
identify users of the drugs.
Although the drugs are normally
prescribed for neurological disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease
and narcolepsy, they may be obtained over the internet. In addition,
modafinil is not listed as a controlled
substance in the UK, making it easily available. Polls in the US indicate
that 16% of students are using these
drugs to increase alertness and improve mental performance.
In an article entitled ‘Professor’s
Little Helper’, published in Nature
magazine in 2007 with Dr. MoreinZamir, also at Cambridge, Professor
Sahakian suggested that “Universities may have to decide whether
to ban drug use altogether, or to tol-
p.17
erate it in some situations”.
The drugs’ use within universities is not confined to students. In
a lecture at the Royal Institute on
Monday, Professor Sahakian said
that one UK colleague had admitted
using modafinil fortnightly to allow
sustained intellectual activity, finding the drug “mild but very valuable”.
Cognitive-enhancing drugs increase
word-finding ability which, Professor
Sahakian points out, would be particularly useful to lecturers.
Professor Sahakian
suggested urine testing
More generally, a recent poll in
Nature revealed that one fifth of the
1,400 respondents used cognitive
enhancing drugs; of this proportion,
52% obtained the drug through prescription and 34% via the internet.
In addition, 33% said they would
feel pressured to give drugs to their
children if other children were taking
performance-enhancing drugs.
Professor Sahakin has particularly
emphasised the coercive aspects of
‘smart drug’ use, pointing out that
“Some students say they feel it is
cheating, and it puts pressure on them
to feel they have to use these drugs
when they don’t really want to”.
However, Andrew Lomas, a second-Year historian at Churchill,
disagreed. He told TCS: “I don’t feel
outraged that some students might
be using them when I’m not - I think
that I can cope with my workload,
and achieve what I want to achieve
without them; if others have to take
drugs to do so, that’s their problem.”
In addition, he stated that “I can’t
say I know of anyone who has taken
anything stronger than caffeine to
aid their academic performance.”
TCS spoke to a number of students
who expressed similar sentiments,
suggesting that the statistics cited in
Nature do not appear to reflect the
experience of Cambridge students.
Sam Stamp, from Emmanuel
Continued on page 4
The Merchant of Venice
p.18
02|News
News in Brief
Dons fear for freedom of
speech
Cyclist advocates helmet use
following head injury
Price of bus tickets in Cambridge to increase
Stagecoach bus tickets in
Cambridge will become more
expensive on February 28th.
Dayrider tickets, which provide unlimited travel for a
day in Cambridge will now
cost £3.40. A country-wide
pass will now cost £5.20. A
megarider, lasting for a week,
will now cost £11.50 and a
Park and Ride return will cost
£2.60 from the driver, and
£2.30 from a ticket machine.
Councillor Stewart Newbold
has criticised the rises as likely to cause most harm to the
most financially vulnerable,
but Stagecoach has defended
itself arguing that the increases are unavoidable given rising fuel costs.
Got an idea for a story?
Email news@tcs.cam.ac.uk
Get involved:
Come to our news meeting on
Sunday 3.45pm at the Old Exam
Halls, New Museums Site
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Spate of burglaries in colleges
Alex Cooke
Deputy News Editor
Students have been warned of the
need for vigilance after a sharp increase in burglaries from college
properties in February.
Earlier this month, the porters of
St John’s College were notified by the
police about a series of burglaries in
student accommodation.
Head Porter Paul Doxey sent an
email to all students informing them
of the burglaries, and warning that although none had occurred inside St
John’s, they had all been committed
in the immediate area. He told The
Cambridge Student (TCS) that John’s
College closely liase with the poice,
who provide information about local
crime which is college related.
A series of bike thefts have also
occurred at Clare College Memorial
Court. Verification of this was given
by PC Simon Railer, who told TCS:
“We are currently investigating these
crimes and are working closely with
the University.”
Bike theft is a perennial problem
at Cambridge. Ben Mortimer, third
year English student at Clare College,
was a recent victim. He told TCS:
“My bike was stolen at the beginning
of this term. Ironically, I had carried
it across London and on the tube,
and then after one day of being back
in college, it was stolen! It was strange
how the thieves went about nicking it though – they knocked all the
numbers off the combination lock. It
was quite valuable and I reckon that
is why it was stolen, but now I have a
cheap bike and I don’t worry about it.
I know at least two other people who
have had their bikes stolen, and if you
look in the bike shed the locks lying
on the floor show that bike theft is a
problem here.”
“Taking items that
do not belong to you
is THEFT”
Students at Trinity Hall were
warned by their Head Porter, Mark
Whitehead, that theft in colleges is
a growing problem. They were told
that most incidents had occurred due
to doors being left unlocked and that
precautions should be taken to make
sure rooms are secured and students
are aware of who they are letting into
the college.
However, it is not just theft committed by those outside the University that students need to be concerned
by. An email sent to all students at
Newnham College by Marion Gale,
Halls Officer, indicated that petty
theft committed by students is also
a serious problem. Gale wrote: “This
is a polite reminder that taking items
that do not belong to you is defined
as THEFT. Theft is a CRIME and
punishable by law. There have been
numerous incidents reported of theft
in student kitchens, with even more
having been sent to me today. Taking
(or “borrowing”) food from fridges no matter how little, removing other
people’s cutlery, cooking implements
or crockery, or taking the cleaning up
liquid (don’t know why you’d want
that to be honest!) is THEFT. Please
be aware that unless you ask for the
owner’s permission to use their belongings YOU ARE STEALING. It
doesn’t matter whether they’ve been
left in a public space or not.”
CUSU accused of censorship
Andrew Georgiou
News Reporter
Chris Lillycrop, candidate for CUSU
Coordinator at the upcoming CUSU
elections, has complained about the
redaction of his manifesto by the
CUSU Elections Committee.
The following sentence was
blanked out: “Employing a Union
Development Manager costs 10%
of our annual budget: we must stop
spending money we can’t afford on a
position we don’t need.”
Lillycrop does not believe that the
employment of a Union Development Manager (UDM) is acceptable
if CUSU’s current economic position
is considered, although he made it
clear that he would follow due process in all the interactions he would
have with the UDM himself, and that
his views are merely ideas on how
CUSU itself could develop.
According to CUSU’s budget for
2009-10, as passed by CUSU Council in Easter 2009, the Manager cost
CUSU £39,250 this year.
In Lillycrop’s manifesto he outlines
how “CUSU’s staff has grown rapidly
over the past few years so that they
now outnumber Sabbatical Officers”.
He added: “CUSU needs to question the wisdom of continually enlarging its staff.
“CUSU is about to come under severe financial pressure as our £80,000
per year deal for the Careers Handbook comes to an end. The Coordinator will have to balance priorities to
address this new situation. We must
stop cutting core Union budgets to
pay for unnecessary self-promotion,
external relations and staff costs.”
Lillycrop sees cost-cutting as one
of the major duties that the CUSU
Coordinator will have to undertake
next year. He feels that the redaction
has seriously affected his manifesto
as he feels that his outline of how he
would deal with funding shortfalls
were some of his key statements.
Lillycrop alleges that Duncan
Mann, the current UDM, influenced
the decision that there was a legal imperative to redact his manifesto. He
suggests that there is a conflict of interest present. However, the decision
to print a redaction was made solely
by the CUSU Elections Committe, a
body which is not answerable to the
UDM.
The CUSU Elections Committee,
however, has argued that the redaction was necessary for legal reasons.
In a clarification of election rules, the
Elections Committee stated: “Due to
relevant employment law and legislation, candidates may not make
statements about the suitability or
viability of individual staff positions
(including, but not limited to, manifestos, verbal statements or written
material online).
“This ruling is not intended to
unnecessarily restrict candidates’
campaigning, but to ensure that candidates’ campaigns are conducted in
such a way that the CUSU elections
process abides by relevant UK law.”
In a further statement to The Cambridge Student (TCS), the Elections
Committee explained that the decision was made after “consultation
with relevant staff members at the
NUS as well as individual research
into the relevant legislation regarding
employment rights”. They cited the
Employment Rights Act of 1996.
The views expressed in this article
are not the opinions of CUSU. Comments expressed in this article are the
opinions of individuals, and not of
The Cambridge Student.
Oxonians warned not to deal heroin
Lauren Garland
News Reporter
Students at Christ Church College, Oxford, have been cautioned
against the supply and use of heroin. College authorities circulated an
email warning undergraduates that
they will be handed over to police,
and may be sent down, if they are
found in possession of the class A
drug.
The step was taken following the
receipt of a letter sent anonymously
to the college, alleging the existence
of a “considerable drugs culture” in
Christ Church. The letter directly
accuses one individual, but the police have been unable to initiate an
investigation as the allegation does
not constitute valid evidence.
Olivia Channon died
of an overdose
Junior Censor Ian Watson, who
is in charge of discipline, sent an
email to students that emphasises
breaches of the law will not be tolerated by the college. In the email,
he states that “the censors have neither the power nor the wish to protect anyone who breaks it.”
This is not the first time Christ
Church has been linked to heroin.
Olivia Channon, daughter of Conservative MP Paul Channon, died
of an overdose at the college in
1986, during a post-examination
celebration. The drugs party was
held by Count Gottfried von Bismarck who himself then died following abuse of Class A drugs, in
2007.
Students at the college, however, remain sceptical about the
allegations. An anonymous third
year told Cherwell, Oxford’s student newspaper, that whilst he was
aware of some drug use in Christ
Church, he was “pretty shocked
about the heroin”. He added: “It
looks like some nutter coming in,
seeing a few people looking rough,
and saying they’re all smack-heads.
It’s palpably false.” As yet, the accusations levelled against Christ
Church students remain uncorroborated.
Allegations of this nature have
not been reported in Cambridge.
However, one second year student,
who admits to using drugs during his time at university, told The
Cambridge Student that though he
has “never heard about students
taking heroin in Cambridge”, he
does know of students using other
Class A drugs in the past. Yet he
adds that “the term ‘drugs culture’
is sensationalist – the use of drugs
is no more widespread than in any
other university and does not pose
a problem for the majority of students. The issue is blown out of
proportion when Oxbridge students are involved.”
Photo: adamr.stone
A twenty-nine year old
Cambridge cyclist who was
knocked off her bike on the
Chesterton Road on January 26th has spoken to the
press about the importance of
wearing cycle helmets. Claire
McMahon-Lee, a marketing
assistant, sustained a fractured skull in the accident and
spent a week in Addenbrookes
Hospital’s Neuro Critical Care
Unit. Speaking to Cambridge
News, Ms McMahon-Lee
said, “I have learnt, in a horrendously painful way, such a
simple fact: wearing a helmet
can potentially save your life.”
CambridgeStudent
Photo: Christine Bartram
Proposed changes to Cambridge University’s dismissal,
discipline and grievances
procedures have been modified this week following
strong protests from Regent
House. Dons were concerned
that their freedom of speech
might have been inhibited by
the new proposals and that
they might become easier to
sack. Historically, dons have
been able to appeal to two
authorities when faced with
dismissal, the University Tribunal and the Septemviri.
This system had been challenged, but the official notice
published by the Council and
General Board has now stated
that it will be retained.
The
The
Thursday, February 25, 2010
CambridgeStudent
News|03
Controversy over public exam results
Jen Mills
News Editor
The issue of whether exam results
should be publicly available has reemerged this week, after students
raised concerns that photographs of
the 2009 class lists are currently available online.
Only those with a university Raven
log-in account can access the website
where the results are published, however on ‘The Student Room’ internet
forum, users have offered to send the
class lists to anyone, including people
from outside the University, who request them in a private message. One
class list, for Medical and Veterinary
Science, is publicly available for anybody to view.
The founder of the thread advertising the results, a contributer named
“Vazzyb” who describes themselves
as a medical student at Gonville and
Caius, requested students reluctant to
upload photos to “please, for the love
of god, put them up publicly!!”
Moa Hoijer, a second year ASNaC
student, was dismayed to find out
that her results could be accessed online. She told The Cambridge Student
(TCS): “This is infuriating. Exam results should be kept strictly personal
during one’s time at University, i.e.
between the student and the University. The system of displaying them
publically outside Senate House is
bad enough - there is no need to further enforce this anachronistic practice.”
One member of for the internet forum, who calls themselves ‘Nyet’, was
in favour of all results being available.
They wrote: “If you spent the year doing mindless rowing with other idiots
and got a 2.2, serves you right.”
The Pembroke student who set up
the website defended it to TCS, saying that “by collecting the class lists
on one easily accessible (but restricted) website, it discouraged (and actually prevented) The Student Room
users from uploading them to a public location and sharing them that
way, which has occurred in previous
years.”
The results system has recently
been modifed so that this year will
be the first in which students are
guaranteed the opportunity to find
out their results online, before they
are displayed at Senate House. At a
CUSU Council meeting on Monday,
Education Officer Sam Wakeford announced that all students would receive an email telling them to check
their results on CamSIS, at least half
an hour in advance of the list publication. Wakeford felt that this move was
a positive step, however he stressed
that there was still room for improvement. He argued that the notice given to students before results are published “should be 24 or 48 hours as
an absolute minimum - rather than
potentially only 30 minutes.”
Currently, to get their names removed from the Senate House lists,
students must prove that their publication would cause significant distress. Last year, 12.5% of requests
were rejected.
In reality this figure may be higher
as it does not take into account students advised by their tutors not to
pursue their application.
Students have traditionally found out their results outside Senate House
ogy. It depicts an ant withstanding
monstrous pulling forces, carrying a
mass more than a hundred times its
body weight.
Endlein explained to The Cambridge Student (TCS): “Weaver ants
were my model organism to study
the conflict of locomotion and adhesion”. He went on to say that ants
can suspend “even up to 1000 times
their own body weight”.
Endlein reflected that he “wanted
to highlight the fragility of the ant’s
body which juxtaposes with the solidity of the weight. Moreover, the
two things contrast nicely in colour:
the organic, warm red of the ant
with the cold metallic silver of the
weight.”
Endlein’s creativity has struck a
chord with the public, making him
an overnight sensation in nearly all
the national newspapers.
Modestly he states that his aim
Photo: robep, flickr
Researcher wins photography competition with uplifting ant-ics
Parin Shah
News Reporter
Art and science clashed in the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences
Research Council (BBSRC) photography competition, with the winner
providing a perfect antidote to the
view that science lacks aesthetics.
The photo was taken by Dr
Thomas Endlein, then working in
the Cambridge department of Zool-
was to “inspire people to think differently about insects: not just as annoying ‘bugs’ but as fantastic creatures.”
Mathematics student Alex Owen
said, “I know that numbers and formulae can be beautiful, but ants? I
just didn’t think it was possible. It’s
a remarkable photograph which
makes me want to tread a lot more
carefully!”
The BBSRC said “it won first prize
because it was a beautiful image and
managed to convey complex science”.
For the scientific, some of the ant’s
physical controls “combine active
neuronal and muscular mechanisms
with very clever passive mechanisms which reduce the complexity
of their neuronal network.”
For the rest of you, feel free to just
marvel at what is a tremendously
pretty picture.
Union Sketch
This House would Remove Restrictions to File Sharing Online
Ayes: 61
On one point all the evening’s
speakers were unanimous: this debate was not about Miley Cyrus.
This news might well have disappointed the President who was revealed to be a big fan of the young
artist, but, as his Vice President was
keen to point out, the implications
of file sharing went far beyond sharing the tracks of major pop stars.
The Proposition argued that file
Abstentions: 73
sharing was an important foundation stone of an open and democratic society, and that laws which
sought to restrict this could only
succeed if they eroded individual
freedom and restricted the awesome potential of the internet.
John Enser, of the Opposition,
disagreed, asserting that breaching
copyright posed the greater threat
to civil liberties; he quoted Article
27 of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights in his defence.
Richard Mollet went further and,
after highlighting the importance of
copyright in every type of industry,
judged illegal file sharing to be both
morally indefensible and economically illiterate.
Rick Falkvinge of the Swedish
Pirate Party responded by recalling
how, as with the motor car in the
Noes: 78
nineteenth century and the printing press in the Middle Ages, new
technologies were always received
with hostility by the older industries that they threatened to render
obsolete.
However, Enser retaliated by arguing that if all regulation from file
sharing was removed, the world
would return to the Middle Ages
where only the wealthy would be
able to afford to engage in creative
or artistic endeavour.
In the end it was difficult to come
down on either side of the house;
liberty was used both to attack and
defend the motion.
It seemed the solution resided
somewhere in the middle.
For this reason your writer abstained.
Nick King
The
04|News
Continued from front page
College, suggested that “if it’s true that
these drugs would improve performance then I could definitely believe
that a lot of people in the university
would take them.”
Arguments have also been raised
regarding whether taking so-called
‘smart drugs’ constitutes cheating.
In the 2007 Nature article, Professor Sahakian pointed out that “just
as one would hardly propose that
a strong cup of coffee could be the
secret of academic achievement or
faster career advancement, the use of
such drugs does not necessarily entail
cheating.”
Shelley Batts, at the neuroscience
blog Retrospectacle, supports this
view: “A pill will never inform you as
to the correct answer on a multiple
choice test or give you the answer to
any essay question. It will only improve the focus and grasp on information which you already know.”
Despite this, concern still persists
in the student community. Nicole
Chambers, from Homerton College,
said that “I definitely think that some
Push to end poverty
Jennifer Boon
Deputy News Editor
The Global Poverty Project (GPP) is
holding its official Cambridge launch
tomorrow.
The event will take place at 7pm at
3 Parson’s Court, Cambridge Corn
Exchange and will be the first opportunity in the UK to see the Global
Poverty Project’s presentation 1.4
Billion Reasons.
According to the GPP website,
the presentation, which has already
been launched across Australia, New
Zealand and Canada, “clearly articulates the facts of extreme poverty and
demonstrates that by making simple
changes everyone can be a part of
the solution.”
Speaking to The Cambridge Student (TCS) Hugh Evans, the CEO
of the GPP and a Masters student
at Cambridge University, explained
that he was launching the UK campaign in Cambridge because that
was where the genesis of the plan
had taken place. Mr Evans has been
planning the project for two years,
since his arrival in Cambridge.
Mr Evans described the student
response to 1.4 Billion Reasons as
“phenomenal” and “overwhelming.”
He is expecting between 800 and
1000 people to attend Friday’s event.
Laura O’Reilly, the GPP Cambridge
General Manager, stated that they
hope that the audience on Friday will
be made up of students and locals in
equal numbers.
Last Saturday the GPP held a
‘Freeze’ in the centre of town to
raise awareness for the event this
Friday. Between forty and fifty GPP
members stood still for five minutes
wearing t-shirts advertising events.
Volunteers were also handing out
flyers and decorated Market Square
with balloons.
The event on Friday will begin
with speeches by Professor Christopher Dobson, master of St John’s
College and Ranjit Singh, the Central and Eastern UK Manager for
The Cooperative.
Ms O’Reilly told TCS that those
attending the event will receive free
fair trade chocolate and free entry to
Cindies for the after party. A Charities Fair will also take place on 26th
February in the lobby of the Corn
Exchange. A variety of GPP’s partner organisations, such as Oxfam
and Engineers without Borders, will
be attending.
Mr Evans emphasised that Friday’s event is the beginning and not
the end of his organisation’s work in
Cambridge.
The GPP will be running a series
of follow-up workshops at King’s
College on 2nd–4th March and
10th–11th March, which will provide students with a guide to practical actions including volunteering,
promoting fair trade and increasing
political involvement.
Ms O’Reilly stated that, on Friday,
“Students will be educated, informed
and, we hope, inspired.”
CambridgeStudent
kind of drugs testing should be implemented, throughout the year, and
during the exams.”
“I definitely think
some kind of drugs
testing should be
implemented”
Concluding Monday’s lecture, Professor Sahakian acknowledged that
“pharmacological enhancement is
one solution to improving society”,
Thursday, February 25 2010
but emphasised that other solutions –
such as regular exercise, and a healthy
work-life balance – should not be
precluded. She also raised concerns
that students are not aware of what
they are buying when purchasing
medication on the internet.
The University has emphasised
the alternative support available for
students who wish to increase their
academic performance. Professor
John Rallison, Pro-Vice-Chancellor
for Education, said: “The University
does not approve of any non-medicinal drug taking. Colleges would
discourage this for any students who
felt it necessary to take performance
enhancing stimulants to help with
their studies and/or examinations,
and would wish to support them in
other ways.”
Speaking to TCS, Diane Rainsbury,
Secretary at the Cambridge University Board of Examinations, did not
detail the policy of the University
regarding ‘smart-drugs’ testing. She
said that the Board was “not in a position to give a firm conclusion as to
what our policy is going to be in this
respect”.
Comment: My experience on modafinil
?
I must admit to finding the current controversy over ‘smart drugs’
somewhat intriguing. Cards on the
table, and for the purposes of giving the reader some context to this
opinion piece: I am a recreational
drug taker, and have been for many
years.
Rather than explain the whys and
wherefores and a whole bunch of
personal stuff that is really none of
your business - I’ll just say that my
own experiences mirror those of
the legendary Bill Hicks, so I’ll leave
it to him to explain:
“I’ll tell you something honestly
about drugs, honestly, and I know
it’s not a very popular idea, you don’t
hear it very often anymore, but it is
the truth: I had a great time doing
drugs. Sorry. Never murdered anyone, never robbed anyone, never
raped anyone, never beat anyone,
never lost a job, a car, a house, a
wife or kids, laughed my ass off, and
went about my day.”
‘Smart drugs’ have in truth never
been something that have appeared
on my own personal radar. To be
honest, the only occasion that I have
ever been aware of chemicals being
deliberately used in an academic
context, was at sixth form during
A Levels, when quite a number of
the middle class ‘helicopter’ parents
put their daughters on the Pill– so
the girls could control their menstrual cycles during exam weeks. I
am aware of course that prescription medication such as Ritalin and
modafinil have apparently been
used by people in an attempt to improve their scholarly performance
but it’s certainly not something I’m
conscious of here in Cambridge. By
contrast, I would confirm that, in
my experience, use of ‘recreational’
drugs at Cambridge is of course just
as common here as it is in any other
part of the country or sector of society.
Therefore, out of a mixture of idle
curiosity and sheer naked devilment, in what was going to be
quiet week, academically speaking - I managed to procure a small
supply of generic modafinil, just to
see what on earth all the fuss about
‘smart drugs’ was about.
My experience on modafinil
was certainly not unpleasant, but
it seems to me that it offers very
limited potential help to anyone
hoping for some sort of panacea to
the relative demands and rigeurs of
study at Cambridge. Having tried
it for three days, it seems to do
little (on an otherwise reasonably
healthy human being such as myself) but make you feel reasonably
awake, alert and perhaps just a little
bit more motivated than you might
otherwise be. There’s certainly no
‘rough edge’ to it, as you would
typically get from other stimulants
such as amphetamines, nor is there
a ‘buzz’ or ‘rush’ which would see
a drug like modafinil spill over
into a ‘recreational’ drug of choice
amongst students.
In my experience it’s a mild stimulant that really isn’t going to offer
anyone significant help in say, revising for exams. In my case at least, I
honestly did not feel that it acted to
enhance any cognitive function and
didn’t feel it has much use as an aid
for academic performance. All in
all, I suppose, it’s perhaps half a step
up from the effect you’d get from a
few early nights and eating sensibly,
I really can’t see it improving anyone’s grades.
So having tried it myself, I really
am not convinced that this particular ‘smart drug’ is somehow going
to rock the world of academia to its
core, or should be of any great concern to University authorities here
at Cambridge or throughout the
rest of the country.
Moreover, holding the fiercely
libertarian views I do, I must admit
that I find the recent press articles
advocating drug testing for students
extremely worrying, and should the
media and a few self-appointed
‘welfare’ zealots get their way, it
would be an utterly disgraceful and
unwarranted intrusion into the
personal lives of everyone studying
here.
The
Thursday, February 25, 2010
CambridgeStudent
News|05
Trinity Hall abolish JCR Women’s Officer
cer has been replaced by the poSpoiling the ballot Offi
sition of a Student Support Officer
Students at Trinity Hall have voted to
abolish the position of Women’s Officer on their JCR committee.
The emergency motion passed by
a two-thirds majority, and the duties
of the former Women’s Officer are to
be assumed by the Women’s Welfare
representative, which includes attending CUSU Women’s Union.
James Taggart, former Trinity Hall
JCR President, proposed the motion
several hours before the open meeting after no candidates nominated
themselves for the position.
Speaking to The Cambridge Student (TCS), he described the move as
“a recognition that we no longer feel
that women require additional representation. We feel that we’ve reached
that point at Trinity Hall. Therefore,
the removal of the Women’s Officer
should actually be seen as a success
for women’s rights”.
He also emphasised that “many
colleges already function without
a Women’s Officer, so maybe other
JCRs will decide to follow suit in the
near future.”
JCR President, James Horscroft,
supported the motion. There was, he
believed, an “overlap in job descriptions”, whereby the responsibilities
could be amalgamated into one role.
He concluded that it was “a very
positive change for women’s rights
This week the CUSU elections
candidates were revealed and campaigning is now in full swing.
In the race for President, far left
Beccy Talmy is up against Rahul
Mansigani, who seems to have no
views or policies at all. Talmy outclassed him at the hustings, but her
anarcho-communist views may be
too extreme for the average voter.
The battle for Education Officer
looks to be close. Maria Helmling
has an impeccable record of getting stuff done in the Music Faculty, but her two catchphrases were
cringeworthy. Up against her, Luke
Hawksbee is an openly far-left candidate who would focus his efforts
nationally.
Sarah Peters-Harrison husted first
for the position of Women’s Officer
outlining her idea of an ‘inclusive,
dynamic and effective’ campaign on
women’s rights. Goulding favoured
women’s colleges arguing the need
for positive discrimination to readdress the balance.
After the recent referendum, the
position of Welfare and Graduates
Roanna Mottershead
News Reporter
in Cambridge as it reflects the belief
among the students that sexism is no
longer as much of an issue as it has
been in the past”.
The motion was also backed by
the departing Women’s Officer Zoë
Proud, who told TCS: “the debate
comes down to the question: how
do we know when we don’t need a
Women’s Officer any more? The only
way we answer that question is by
putting it to the JCR, who responded
by supporting the motion, and I feel
we should respect that decision.”
“as Women’s Officers,
we work to make our
own roles obsolete”
“I understand the concerns surrounding the merge, but we are not
doing the post of Women’s Officer a
disservice.We are recognising this as
a positive change which reflects the
inclusive nature of the Trinity Hall
community.”
Stephanie Davin, outgoing Welfare
Officer, distanced herself from the
changes, stating that “I personally did
not support the emergency motion”,
although she acknowledged that
“those present at the meeting were
extremely supportive”.
CUSU Women’s Officer, Natalie
Szarek, was disappointed by the decision. She argued that the motion
“contradicts any effort to address
institutional sexism, and denies students in Trinity Hall an active voice
for equality.
“The Women’s Officer role is a vital
complement to the welfare role, not
simply an aspect of it. Gender inequality is not just a case of welfare
needs, it is a representative and campaigning position which pushes for
change on all levels.”
The motion provoked a strong reaction from many Women’s Officers:
Amadea Bentheim, of Emmanuel
College, expressed concern over the
way in which voting was organised,
believing it “unfair that such a large
decision would be made with only a
few hours notice to rally support, or
indeed, rally opposition”.
“The fact that one third voted in favour of the role shows that there are
still members of the community who
feel that the position is necessary,
proving that the scenario of there being no more change needed is sadly
not the case.”
King’s College Women’s Officer,
Hannah Bass, agreed that “Gender
inequality remains rife, with far fewer female fellows, and fewer women
than men achieving Firsts in Tripos
examinations. “The curious position
of the Women’s Officer is that, essentially, we work to make our roles
obsolete - but that day seems far off,
given the institutional sexism still
facing women”.
Grayden Webb
shared with the Graduate Union.
Morgan Wild is the only candidate
for this position and spoke unsurprisingly of his intent to build the
relationship between CUSU and
the GU.
The best speech of the night was
delivered by Andy McGowan for
Access Officer. McGowan demonstrated an insightful understanding
of the problems of those students
who are not eligible for much help,
but are still hard up.
CUSU Council was the only
chance for the NUS delegates to
stand out. The election is dominated by the factions with Mansigani
typically promising no policies except ‘representing students’. Fatima
Junaid, CUSU Chair, was strong in
hustings.
Finally, Elections Committee
seems to have got itself in a muddle.
After the Returning Officer agreed
with TCS that two candidates broke
the rules, Elections Committee
rewrote the rules retrospectively
and found they hadn’t broken the
new rules. Elections Committee
subsequently reprimanded Chris
Lillycrop for making his Facebook
group public before the close of
nominations, despite being told he
could do so by a member of the
committee and even though the
group didn’t advertise his nomination. Elections Committee failed to
comment when asked.
BCG WEEKLY PUZZLE 7
The Varsity Truel
Three
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from
Cambridge, Oxford
and
London
have a falling out one day and, feeling somewhat
dramatic, decide to settle
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with
a
(three-way)
duel. The student f r o m
Cambridge (although
charming
and
ta l e n te d )
i s
a p o o r s h o t ,
and only hits
their target
1/3 of the time.
The student
from Oxford hits
their target 2/3
of
the
time,
and the London
student never
m i s s e s . K n o wing their relative
s t re n g t h s , a n d
keen to m a k e t h e
‘truel’ a fair
contest, they agree
to take it in turns to
re a shot. Cambridge
rst, then Oxford,
then London, and so on
until only one is le
alive.
Who
should
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aim at with their rst shot? For the experts, if each student adopts their best
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If you want to know the answer to this
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Would you like to write for us?
Please email: apply@tcs.cam.ac.uk
wk7_bcg_CUSU_19feb10.indd 1
19/02/2010 17:18:38
The
06|News
CambridgeStudent
Elation as bops back on at Queens’
Thursday, February 25 2010
“800 years of gender inequality”?
Tabatha Legett
News Reporter
Revellers celebrate at the 80s themed event
Saranyah Sukumaran
Hermione Taylor
Queens’ Bops went back to the 80s
this Saturday with the first in-college
bop after the restrictions on college entertainment were lifted. With
backcombed hair, make up and a
touch of Spandau Ballet, students
embraced their freedom.
One Queens’ Student told The
Cambridge Student (TCS), “We’ve
been waiting for this moment all
term and QEnts definitely delivered.
Photo: Wai-Chuen Cheung
The atmosphere was incredible both
inside the bop and at the bar. The
college felt united and we all proved
that our reputation for legendary
Ents has not been tarnished.”
The Dean felt that continuing the
ban would have been ineffective and
would not have helped identify the
perpetrators of last term’s vandalism.
As a consequence of the actions taken, the SCR has proposed a review of
internal discipline procedures and is
hoping to improve relations between
students and college authorities.
Even members of other colleges
celebrated the return of Queens’
bops. A member of Robinson College sporting some golden aviators said: “It was a great night and
Queens’ definitely had love for you if
you were born in the 80s.” From new
romantics to the kids from Fame, it
was clear that the bops were back
with a vengeance.
The theme of next week’s bop is
A&E and promises to be a night
of “cheap drinks and emergency
cheese.”
report fulfils “a literal interpretation”
of the motion, “it has been written by
Tom Chigbo to include bias of opinion on the merits of affiliation to the
NUS” and so does not fulfil the intentions of the motion.
At CUSU Council on Monday,
Chigbo put forward a motion appealing against Tyson’s adjudication
and asking for it to be nullified.
Chigbo argued that he should not
have been criticised for following
the wording of the motion and that
it was “dangerous” to allow people
to define the intentions of motions
outside what is actually written in
the motion.
Speaking to The Cambridge Student (TCS), Towse responded: “Sabbatical Officers cannot wilfully and
knowingly disregard the spirit in
which [a motion] was proposed just
because they have found another
interpretation of the letter of [the
motion] that better suits their purposes.”
Chigbo, however, told TCS that
CUSU’s Standing Orders already
require a “bland” reflection on NUS
affiliation to be presented at the
start of Lent and so Towse’s motion
was unnecessary if this was the aim.
Chigbo added that if Towse did not
want something that went beyond
what the Standing Orders required,
then he should not have brought a
motion.
A study into postgraduate education
commissioned by the British Library
and Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) has highlighted a recent
trend of more women than men
studying at postgraduate level. This
statistic is not, however, reflected by
Cambridge University’s student demographics.
The study, ‘Postgraduate Education in the United Kingdom,’ claims
that female students outnumber
their male counterparts by a ratio of
60:40. The figures show that “women
now take 57% of full-time and 62% of
part-time postgraduate degrees” and
that “even in research postgraduate
study, where men remain a majority, women now make up 48% of the
student population (up from 45% in
2005).” The Telegraph reported on a
study claiming that in twenty-five
years, women could potentially fill
70% of university places.
Bahram Bekhradnia, co-author
of ‘Postgraduate Education in the
United Kingdom’ and director of
HEPI, explained: “There is a mindset generally that girls are the disadvantaged group; not boys. While
this might still be true of society as
a whole, it is emphatically no longer
true in higher education.”
The research showed that while
women now have higher participation rates at all types of universities, Oxbridge continues to have a
majority of male students. At Cambridge, women make up 47.9% of
undergraduates, dropping to 43%
at postgraduate level. The only colleges with more female than male
students, excluding those that are
women-only, are Clare Hall and
Homerton.
Natalie Szarek, Women’s Officer
for the Cambridge University Student’s Union (CUSU), told The Cambridge Student (TCS): “Although
there is a national trend of women
outperforming men at A-levels and
a growing number of women are entering higher education, Cambridge
is still struggling to shake off 800
years of gender inequality.”
She said the CUSU Women’s
Campaign is working to ensure that
“the gender disparity in academic
performance and progression to
postgraduate study in Cambridge is
researched and addressed.”
Female-only colleges tend not
to be as academically successful
as mixed colleges according to the
2009 Tompkins Table. Murray Edwards, Newnham and Lucy Cavendish were placed 23rd, 24th and 29th
respectively, out of 29 colleges. The
study in The Telegraph also claims
that men are over-represented in
subject courses that lead to higher
salaries. However, it acknowledges
that women outnumber men in
fields such as medicine and law,
which also lead to lucrative careers.
At Cambridge, the ratio of men to
women in medicine is 48:52, and in
law is 43:57.
Professor Simon Baron-Cohen,
Professor of Developmental Psychopathology, has been involved with
research revealing that women are
less likely to choose to study subjects
like mathematics and engineering.
He told TCS: “I’m delighted that
women do opt to study subjects like
medicine and veterinary science in
equal numbers to men, and even
outnumber men in other subjects.”
held by the CUSU Coordinator: that
Chigbo failed to write a report fulfilling the intentions of the motion proposed. He said that the motion Chigbo proposed “would have resolved to
strike down the entire adjudication”.
Chigbo responded to this accusation by saying that he only had a very
limited amount of time to speak at
CUSU Council and so could not go
through all the charges against him.
If Chigbo had had more time, he
said that he would have addressed
the accusation that he failed to campaign in a personal capacity.
He disputed the need of officers to
act in a personal capacity. In addition, he argued that campaigning for
NUS affiliation fulfilled policy that
CUSU already has as the NUS is often part of the solution to problems.
He cited the NUS’s ‘Great Amnesty Feedback’ which helps CUSU
fulfil its policy with regard to ensuring that more feedback is given to
lecturers and supervisors.
Chris Lillycrop, former CUSU
Chair, questioned Chigbo’s use of the
appeal system. He told TCS: “The appeals process exists so that the CUSU
Coordinator is not above the law and
her adjudications can be challenged
if they are clearly inappropriate. It
was clear that this was not the case
in this instance.” Lillycrop added:
“I think it’s important for CUSU
that Sabbatical Officers use CUSU
Council for listening to students and
not for squabbling with each other,
which is why I used a procedural
motion to prevent the appeal from
being debated.”
Chigbo instead blamed those that
brought the complaints against him
for the reason behind his appeal.
He said he would rather spend
time doing his job and fighting for
student rights and not debating
which email address he should be
using to send different emails when
he is supposed to be acting in different capacities.
Following the passing of Lillycrop’s procedural motion, the issue
has now been referred back to the
Democracy and Development and
Resources Teams.
If the issue is not resolved, it will
come back to the next CUSU Council of this term.
Chigbo appeals reprimand over NUS campaign
Andrew Georgiou
Deputy News Editor
CUSU President Tom Chigbo appealed at CUSU Council on Monday against the rulings criticising his
conduct during the NUS affiliation
campaign.
Chigbo was reprimanded on several counts in a report written earlier
this month by CUSU Coordinator
Clare Tyson, whose job it is to investigate complaints about the conduct
of elected officers.
After reviewing the complaints
of former Churchill JCR President
Grayden Webb, Tyson found that
Chigbo acted wrongly by using his
capacities as a CUSU Officer to campaign for affiliation to the NUS.
Chigbo was also reproached for
the biased report that he produced
for CUSU Council at the start of this
term on the subject of affiliation.
Tyson upheld Ben Towse’s claim
that the information provided in this
report was intended to be neutral, although this was not made explicitly
clear in the wording of the motion.
Tyson ruled that, although Chigbo’s
Chigbo wants to spend
more time fighting for
student rights
Chigbo also questioned the timing
of the complaints about his report
of NUS affiliation. He claimed that
the report had been distributed in
the middle of January but that the
complaints took weeks to appear.
He questioned the motives of those
who complained about the report as
they “did not take the opportunity to
ask questions or to challenge the report when it was presented and only
thought to do so when campaigning
for the ‘No’ vote”.
Grayden Webb criticised Chigbo’s
appeal. He told TCS that the motion
proposed by Chigbo only disputed
one of the complaints that were up-
The
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Public schools still dominate
Louise Floyd
News Reporter
Shock death of Fellow
Jennifer Boon
Deputy News Editor
Dr Emile Perreau-Saussine, a fellow
of Fitzwilliam College, died suddenly on Tuesday 23rd February.
Dr Perreau-Saussine, who was 37,
had been researching and teaching
political philosophy and the history
of political thought at Cambridge
since 2001.
He was a Newton Trust Lecturer
who lectured at Pembroke College
as well as being a fellow of Fitzwilliam.
In 2005 Dr Perreau-Saussine was
awarded the Prix Philippe Habert,
a prize given for the best writing
on political science by a young re-
Photo: jurvetson
searcher, for his work on Alasdair
MacIntyre.
Professor Robert Lethbridge,
Master of Fitzwilliam College, said,
“Both the Fellows and students at
Fitzwilliam College are deeply saddened and shocked by the loss of Dr
Emile Perreau-Saussine, a much admired colleague and teacher.”
Nora Wukovits-Votzi, a student
at Pembroke who was supervised
by Dr Perreau-Saussine, told The
Cambridge Student (TCS), “Emile
to many of his students was not only
an inspiration because he was a very
engaging supervisor who challenged
his students, but also a beloved
friend.”
A foreign student who keeps a
blog entitled ‘Drew Goes to Cambridge’ wrote this morning: “He was
one of the kindest, most genuine,
and engaging people I’ve known.
He was also surely one of the most
brilliant – you could see in his eyes
how passionate he was about the
subjects he studied and taught. I
looked forward to our meetings and
I will miss him dearly, as I’m sure
many other students will.”
Flags flew at half mast in both
Pembroke and Fitzwilliam on Tuesday and Wednesday and flowers
were left outside Dr Perreau-Saussine’s door.
Students who were affected by his
death have been offered support by
their colleges.
Miss Wukovits-Votzi commented
that: “Personally, and I know that
many students feel the same way,
no one has influenced me as much
academically.
“Emile had a passion when he supervised his students that was aweinspiring and truly unique.”
Charlotte Lawes, another student at Pembroke, told TCS that,
“As a person (let alone supervisor)
Emile was truly inspirational - and
not in that cliché way that people
say on these sorts of occasions. He
loved being an intellectual, and was
always engaged with what we were
reading.
“He loved his family dearly and
would often talk about his kids - my
last supervision was in his wife’s office where he was looking after his
daughter who was off sick.
“I’ll miss him. He was a fantastic
supervisor but more importantly he
was a happy and wonderful person
who has had a big impact on my life
and others.”
Astronaut puts Jailbreakers to shame
Nat Rudarakanchana
News Reporter
The spaceshuttle Endeavour
News|07
Photo: Department of Politics and International Studies
The balance of students from different economic backgrounds at Oxbridge was criticised this week.
Speaking on the Andrew Marr
Show, Michael Gove MP, Shadow
Schools Secretary, drew attention
to recent statistics showing that on
average only 45 students eligible for
free school meals win places at Oxbridge each year, out of the 6,000
that are accepted overall.
In comparison, in the 2008/9 admissions cycle, 100 students were
accepted by Cambridge alone from
public schools Westminster, Sevenoaks, Eton and Tonbridge. However,
Labour hit back at these statistics,
calling them misleading as they did
not take into account students from
further education colleges.
Tom Levinson, Head of Widening
Participation at Cambridge commented in response to the statistics
that “the simple fact of the matter
is that the University of Cambridge
hosts hundreds of events every year
which are aimed at encouraging
disadvantaged students to consider
Higher Education and Cambridge.
We spend nearly £3m annually on
widening participation events. Cambridge is for the brightest and best
regardless of their background. We
just need to ensure that that message
is getting through.”
Andy McGowan, Access Officer at
Trinity Hall in 2008/9 and CUSU Target Schools Officer commented that
“it is definitely true that very few students who are eligible for free school
meals get admitted to Cambridge
as a proportion of the total number
of students. However, the blame for
this cannot be placed squarely at the
feet of the University.”
He continued: “household income
continues to be one of the biggest
single predictors of a child’s academic success. In 2007, out of the 30,000
students who achieved 3 As nationally, only 176 of them were eligible
for free school meals. I myself was
one of the 176. This means that top
universities such as Cambridge have
a very limited pool from which to
choose.”
In 2006/7 Cambridge took 55% of
its home students from state schools
and 45% from the independent sector. Only around 6.5% of schoolchildren in the UK are educated
privately.
Paul Merchant, a student at
Queens’ College who was educated
at Tonbridge, highlighted the quality of the education at independent
schools. “Private schools tend to attract some of the best teachers, and
have the money to provide strong
extra-curricular activities and sport.
Moreover, these schools tend to encourage capable students to apply
to Oxbridge, and prepare them very
well for it.”
Holly Samuel, a student at St John’s,
commented that her experience of
education at Sevenoaks was “a productive, success-orientated one.
Not only do you have the IB but it
is absolutely expected that you have
a whole menagerie of significant extracurricular commitments”.
On its website, Cambridge states
that “independent school students
tend to apply with a mix of traditional A levels well suited to the
course for which they are applying;
they also apply in greater numbers
for less popular courses”.
However, Cambridge continues
to work to improve access. It aims
to take 60% to 63% of students from
the maintained sector in 2010, which
will put it in line with national patterns of achievement at A level.
CambridgeStudent
Cambridge graduate Dr. Nicholas
Patrick completed his second space
mission in five years this Sunday.
The almunus, who is now a US citizen and NASA astronaut, read Engineering for both a bachelors and a
masters degree at Trinity College.
The shuttle launch of the spaceship
Endeavour marked the start of a 14day mission, spanning over 5.7 million miles. The mission, codenamed
Space Shuttle Endeavour (STS-130),
aimed to attach the final significant
US portion to the International
Space Station (ISS). This part was
the Tranquility node, a module that
provides extra space for the ISS crew
members, as well as more space for
the ISS’s numerous life support and
environmental control systems.
These include oxygen generating,
water recycling, and waste and hygiene systems.
The Tranquility node will also
contain the ISS’s resident COLBERT
treadmill, named after American comedian Stephen Colbert. The node
was constructed in Italy, under a
contract with the European Space
Agency.
In addition, attached to the Tranquility node is a robotic control station with six windows, which provides a panoramic view of Earth,
surrounding celestial bodies, and
visiting spacecraft. This is known as
a cupola.
The six man mission consisted of
a commander, a pilot, and four mission specialists. Dr. Patrick acted as
a mission specialist, and was responsible for undertaking three spacewalks, together with fellow specialist
Dr. Bob Behnken. A spacewalk is
a form of Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA), which is essentially work
done by an astronaut outside of a
spacecraft.
Dr. Patrick specifically installed
electrical, cooling, and communication systems on the inside and out-
side of the Tranquility node. Each
individual spacewalk was physically
taxing, lasting around six and a half
hours.
EVAs are delicate, complex, and
dangerous procedures, and up until
the present only China, Russia, and
the U.S. have shown themselves able
to conduct them.
Dr. Patrick says that his goal after the mission is to be selected for
a long-duration mission on the ISS.
From 2011 onwards, however, the
only way into space for humans will
be aboard Russian Soyuz rockets,
which can only hold three people as
compared to the shuttle’s seven.
With the successful completion
of the mission, the ISS will be about
90% complete. While in space Dr.
Patrick still managed to post on twitter.com, and his final tweet from
space was: “We just closed the hatch
to ISS. Undocking tomorrow. Hard
to say goodbye to our 5 friends on
ISS & to the beautiful view from Cupola.”
The
08|International
CambridgeStudent
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Australia Cautions Japan Over Whaling
On the Margin
Business
Pilots and cabin crew working for
one of the world’s largest airlines,
Lufthansa, are currently on a four
day strike, following the failure of
talks regarding pay and job security.
More than 4,000 pilots have walked
out, with the result that the airline
has had to cancel over two thirds of
its flights, costing around £33 million per day. Workers had called
talks demanding a 6.4% pay rise,
and the promise that 2,000 pilots
who had been working off contract
since March last year, would be offered more job security.
Photo: guano
Education
An American couple have filed
a lawsuit against a Pennsylvania
school district, accusing it of installing remotely controlled webcams in
laptops in order to spy on children.
All 1,800 high school students in the
Lower Merion school district were
given a laptop. The state authorities
have called the move to install them
a ‘security measure’, and that the
cameras would only be activated if
the computer were lost or stolen.
Arts & Culture
A New Orleans based art project,
Prospect, has been postponed for
a year due to lack of funding. The
project was launched in 2008 to
help revitalise the city following the
destruction caused by Hurricane
Katrina. Organisers say they have
had problems generating enough
money in their fundraising campaigns, and as a result, the project
has been pushed back by 12 months
to the end of 2011, beginning in
2012.
Susanna Lada
TCS Reporter
Australia has threatened to take Japan
to the International Court of Justice
unless the Japanese government puts
an end to its whaling activities in the
Southern Ocean. Australia’s Prime
Minister, Kevin Rudd, gave Japan a
deadline of November this year.
In spite of of an international moratorium on commercial whaling, Japan still culls hundreds of whales each
year, ostensibly for scientific research.
The country’s whaling research pro-
gramme has caused controversy ever
since its inception in 1987, which was
just a year after Japan’s acceptance of
the International Whaling Commission’s ban on killing the animals for
commercial purposes.
Nevertheless, Tokyo has continued
to issue unilateral ‘scientific permits’
ever since using a loophole in the
moratorium which allows ‘lethal research’.
Critics assert that research into
whales is merely a pretext for Japan,
with the real aim being to continue
the selling and consumption of whale
meat, seen as a delicacy in the island
nation. Officials in Tokyo say that the
tradition of whale-hunting is an important part of the nation’s cultural
heritage, adding that Japan needs to
kill whales in order to produce accurate data on details such as whales’
ages and eating habits.
Since coming to power last September, Yukio Hatoyama’s new
government has maintained its support for whaling. Current Japanese
programmes aim for a total catch of
more than 1,000 whales per year.
So far, protests have consisted of
Tensions Flare Over Potential Falkland Oil
Science
Photo: acmoraes
Scientists have developed a new
type of mosquito, genetically altered to not carry the potentially
deadly Dengue virus. They plan to
release their newly enhanced males
into the wild, where they hope they
will successfully breed with females
and have a significant effect on the
mosquito population. Dengue currently affects around 100 million
people a year, and scientists are able
to tackle it in this way because the
virus is only carried by a few types
of mosquito.
Australian anti-whaling groups joining Japanese whaling ships, and trying to prevent them from catching
whales.
Australia has the support from its
traditional allies, such as New Zealand, the EU and the US in its opposition to Japan’s whaling practices. The
country had made similar threats in
the past, but Kevin Rudd’s government employed a more assertive and
forceful tone this time around.
It is, perhaps, unsurprising, as the
Prime Minister’s last election manifesto promises to bring the Japanese
to book; and ahead of the forthcoming elections later this year, and with
Rudd’s popularity ratings slipping,
tangible results regarding the matter
would undoubtedly see his Australian Labor Party in good stead.
The Rudd government stresses a
diplomatic agreement as its foremost
aim. Japan is a crucial and longstanding economic partner to Australia, being the country’s top export
market and its third largest source of
imports.
Negotiations at the weekend saw
Australia’s foreign minister Stephen
Smith and his Japanese counterpart
Katsuya Okada stressing that their
long and strategically important relationship can rise above the current
wrangling over whale-hunting.
The talks appear to have been
unsuccessful, with Mr Okada confirming that Japan would defend its
“legal’”activities.
Technology
Tabatha Leggett
TCS Reporter
The New York Times has reported
that Steve Jobs has offered his cooperation in a book to be written about
his life. The elusive Apple CEO has
apparently given his approval to the
project, which will be written by
Walter Issacson, former managing
editor of Time Magazine, who has
also penned the biographies of Einstein and Benjamin Franklin.
Argentina has issued a decree that will
require all ships travelling towards
the Falkland Islands, or through Argentine waters, to hold a permit.
This precautionary measure is intended to prevent Britain supplying
oil-drilling equipment to the Falkland Islands.
It is thought that this measure will
fuel the ongoing row concerning
ownership over oil beds lying inside
the Falklands’ territorial waters.
Argentine President, Cristina Fernandez, signed the decree on 16th
February. Cabinet Chief, Anibal
Fernandez, defended the decision,
claiming that the decree is hoped to
achieve “not only a defence of Argentine sovereignty but also of all the resources” in the surrounding area.
Sir Nicholas Winterton, Chairman
of the Parliamentary all-party Falklands group, disagreed, claiming that
the decree is “pathetic and useless”.
He asserted that the sole purpose of
the decree is to impede the economic
progress of the islands, and plans to
discuss this issue at greater length
with senior Foreign Office officials
next week.
The Argentine government has already prevented one ship, the Thor
Leader, from leaving Campana. This
prevention was based on suspicion
that its cargo of seamless tubes would
be used for drilling activity that is pro-
moted by the UK. However, Techint,
the world’s biggest producer of seamless steel tubing for the oil industry,
denied the allegations and claimed
that the tubes were destined for the
Mediterranean; not the Falkland’.
Argentina, which invaded the Falklands in 1982 and were subsequently
involved in a brief war with Britain
over the Malvinas islands, claim dominion over the islands.
The governor of Tierra del Fuego Province, Febiana Ros, claimed:
“Great Britain is violating Argentine
sovereignty.”
Argentina has protested to the UK
about the rig, the Ocean Guardian,
which is expected to arrive and start
drilling as part of an oil exploration
next week.
Oil companies have expressed optimism about the prospects of drilling, but island authorities claim that
no commercial deposits have been
found as of yet.
Geological studies have shown that
the seabed around the British territory could contain rich energy reserves,
and up to 60 billion barrels of oil.
In response to the decree, the UK
government has reasserted its right
to develop a hydrocarbons industry
in the area.
It has not, however, commented on
what measures, if any, it is prepared
to take in order to ensure that drilling
can go ahead.
The
Thursday, February 25, 2010
CambridgeStudent
International|09
Sudan Takes First Steps Towards Peace Deal
Photo: mknobil
Victoria Hermon
Deputy International News Editor
The Sudanese Government have
signed a preliminary deal and ceasefire with their main opposition, THE
Justice and Equality Movement
(JEM).
Qatar hosted the talks between
the two sides last year, and will be
thanked and honoured in a formal
signing ceremony in Doha soon.
Although this new development
has been hailed as a significant breakthrough, both sides are stressing that
this is not a formal peace agreement.
Instead they view it as a framework
from which real negotiations can begin.
Most of the issues scheduled to be
resolved are humanitarian and aid
based, as well as those to do with
power and wealth sharing.
It is expected by JEM that, as a
result of the agreement, the government will postpone the forthcoming
elections, for a second time.
A JEM official stated “Any elections
held under the current circumstances
in the country, and the changes it is
going through, would be meaningless
and will have no bearing whatsoever
on improving the situation in Darfur
Savvy
or Sudan as a whole”
He added, “we do not recognise
the current voting procedure…Khartoum is aware of our posistion and
they must agree to reschedule and it
is all but certain that they will”.
But Head Government Delegate,
Amin Hassan Omer, has been quoted
by the Sudan News Agency (SUNA)
that only the electoral committee
has the authority to make a decision
about postponing the elections, and
none has been made yet.
Since the signing of the deal, Omer
Hassan Al-Bashir, the current Sudanese President, has announced that
he will annul more than one hundred
death sentences handed out to JEM
prisoners.
The men in question were found
guilty of taking part in a bloody JEM
attack on Khartoum, the nation’s capital, in 2008. He has also promised to
release 30% of all JEM members currently being held in prisons.
In exchange for this, JEM have
promised that they will stop their
military operations in the country
and region.
So far, the conflict in the western
Darfur region has been ongoing for
the past seven years.
Whilst government estimates of fatalities are around 10,000 people, the
United Nations put the figure nearer
300,000 dead as a direct result of disease, violence and displacement.
Al-Bashir, who has an arrest warrant against him from the International Criminal Court, said he
thought the agreement would “heal
the war in Darfur…we are committed to finding a peaceful solution”.
The Sudan Liberation Army (SLA),
which is the other main group opposing the government; maintain that
they will not sign any deals or ceasefires before all violence has stopped.
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10|Interviews
CambridgeStudent
Thursday, February 25, 2010
The battle between creativity and logic
Michael Smellie discusses the music industry and development with Mari Shibata
Michael Smellie is a leading businessman in the music industry.
As the former Global Chief Operating Officer for Sony/BMG, Asia
Pacific head of BMG, MD of Polygram and rooArt in Australia,
he is now a patron of the Global
Poverty Project (GPP)and teaches
organisational leadership at the
Australia Institute of Music.
Do you sometimes find that it is
difficult to deal with such creative
individuals?
“If you ask me why my career in
the music industry was successful,
it is because I enjoyed the challenge
of working with these individuals.
The other part of my music industry career that sets me aside
from the others in the company
was that I worked in all sorts of
different countries; Brazil, Netherlands, London, Hong Kong, Tokyo,
New York, Sydney. I loved enjoying
the difference, but also adapting to
living in places where I am outside
my comfort zone; I love change.
In my experience, about ninety
percent of the people embrace
change on intellectual terms but
don’t actually embrace it. I’m a
logical person, perhaps too square
sometimes – but I loved bringing
order to the chaos that I was surrounded by, and maybe I was good
at that.
If there needed to be change in
the business model then I would
be the person that would really address it.”
Particularly with the merging of
Sony and BMG I’m sure you have
had to embrace many changes.
What was going through your
mind at the time?
“Well, for a start the music industry was beginning to decline.
My rationale said to me that the
Photo: courtesy of Michael Smellie
How does it feel to move onto development from the music industry?
“I guess it’s good and bad. Working in the music business as a general rule you are not too worried
about whether or not you are going
to have money every week.
I have to say that the one thing
that is common in all areas of my
career – Sony-BMG, Global Poverty Project, teaching – is that I’m
dealing with very creative people. I
enjoy it, because creative people are
completely mad; they’re not boring.
In his own way, Hugh (Evans, GPP)
is completely mad! I don’t mean
that in a negative sense; he is full of
energy, he’s got 500 ideas every two
minutes. In that respect, he is a lot
like many of the artists, key writers,
composers and conductors that I
have dealt with in the music industry; they’re all full of ideas.”
But to go back to your point, I personally have made an investment to
help artists develop better tools so
that it would only take three hours
a day rather than ten hours a day on
this; artists need time to write and
to rehearse.”
shareholders weren’t committed to
the music industry; they weren’t
against it, but they were ambivalent
as to whether it had a long-term future.
The idea of the merger was to give
the shareholders some sort of certainty and bring through a degree
of stability in a business environment that was constantly changing,
though history would prove that we
were a bit wrong in that!”
How did you make compromises
in the business model? You had a
merging of two completely different business cultures.
“I would say that the failures
were where we did compromise too
much. The successes were where
we didn’t compromise very much,
meaning that we had rational debates and made formal decisions
because we all believed it was right,
even if it meant change.
Compromising meant that we
ended up having certain things that
people were not committed to but
were sort of acceptable to everybody.
We often looked back a couple
of years later and asked ourselves
who it was that had agreed to make
certain decisions, and it had turned
out that no one had actually committed to it.
From a leadership perspective, I
learnt that mergers need to be ideologically driven rather than political; there needs to be a leader with a
vision and there can’t be a compromise. People have to buy into that
vision.”
I guess one of the things that
people then had to buy into at the
time was how the company was
going to tackle the new wave of
technology. What are your opinions on how the music industry
will have to cope with that in the
future?
“Even if we look at the recorded
music industry, a lot has changed
over the past decade. I don’t think
it has settled yet at all; I think there
will be evolution and that there is
still a lot more to come.
One of the changes I can see is a
shift in power; artists will certainly
have more power than they did before. The big battles of the past were
over money and rights. The battle of
the future, is of course money but it
will be about communities – or the
fans - and who owns them.
I think the battle lines have already been drawn; for example,
iTunes own the communities; they
know the names, the addresses and
the buying habits of every single
person but the record companies
and the artists don’t. I think that
this is going to become a bigger issue over the coming decade.
One of the things I have said to
musicians is that they must own
their own communities and not to
give them away; they’re your fans.
If they want to talk to you, don’t put
three filters through the way.”
So how are artists going to achieve
that?
“Certainly the online environment provides some tools today and
those tools over time, I think, will
become more sophisticated. Today,
independent artists are communicating with their fans on a daily
basis through the medium of blogs.
One of the things I look into as the
patron of the GPP are tools to help
enpower artists to take control over
their communities. That becomes
a huge asset to potential sponsors,
advertisers and investors. It’s fine
for artists to come and ask whether
they can watch them perform and
listen to their music, but if they also
said that they had their community
“Artists are caring people but they can’t put
themselves under the
spotlight of journalists”
of fifty thousands fans who they
talk to every day then that would
really grab a record company’s attention.”
How do those artists come to
terms with time? To maintain
constant contact with 50,000 fans
on your MySpace, for example, is
not easy if you are busy studying
or working somewhere to get by.
“That is a problem for artists because if there is silence for a while
your fans are going to lose interest.
People want one-to-one interaction;
they really want that, they want to
feel special. If you own your communities, you have bragging rights;
every single one of your fans has
their own customised version of
what it is they own about that artist.
Returning to the link between
music and development, do you
think popular musicians are better able to make this connection
than classical ones?
“I would say that both popular
and classical musicians are on an
equal level. The difference is that
classical music perhaps covers only
three or four percent of the market
share whereas the other ninetyseven percent are owned by popular musicians. Like classical music,
a handful of popular musicians
– probably about four percent of
them – make a vast amount of income whereas the others can barely
pay their rent on a day to day basis.
The only difference is that there are
more of them than classical musicians, but the general rate of success is exactly the same. In terms
of development, for some of them
it is going to be hard because their
reputation is on the line.
If you talk to someone like Hugh
Evans, he has a sophisticated idea
about development. However, if
you talk to someone like Susan
Boyle, she may be very committed
and may be very willing to help, but
she may not necessarily be willing
to sit down with a journalist and be
grilled about what is good aid and
what is bad aid.
From my experience, artists are
caring people and are willing to
give up their time, but they can’t
put themselves under the spotlight of harsh tabloid journalists.
Of course, there are exceptions but
the majority won’t because if they
are exposed to the spotlight of the
everyday world, they are made to
look stupid because musicians lead
distinctly different lives; they don’t
get up at 9am and go to work like
most people.”
Finally, then; if, as a patron of the
GPP, you wanted to host a live
concert for charity, how would
you choose your artists?
“Well, I would ask the same question to them as I would do when
hiring those for development; are
you doing it for the money or for
the cause? If it is for the cause, then
they are more than welcome to take
part. As a general rule, musicians
are driven by emotional experiences; they are personable and therefore have the ability to communicate messages to a large audience.
So if they are solely willing to do it
for the cause, then I would love to
have them involved.”
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12|
CambridgeStudent
Thursday, February 25, 2010
COMMENT
Inanities
Can ours be called the ‘generation of heroes’?
Yes
Tabatha
Leggett
This morning, I woke up wearing last
night’s outfit. I tumbled out of bed
and on realising that I’d overslept and
wouldn’t have time for a shower, I dry
shampooed my hair. I shoved on a
pair of Uggs, texted my friend to find
out how exactly I got back to College
last night, updated my Facebook status and walked to my lecture listening to my iPod. We all know that my
generation (those born sometime
around the 1980s and into the 2000s)
are a bunch of lazy, consumerist, selfobsessed fools who spend their parents’ money and avoid facing the real
world of work.
Or, do we? Generation theorists
William Strauss and Neil Howe have
labelled us “the hero generation”, suggesting that a generation of individuals prompts social reform every four
years, and now it’s our turn to shake
things up. Strauss and Howe argued
that the last hero generation was the
generation who fought the Second
World War, and claim that a strong
desire to save the precarious world in
which we live is vital in order to obtain this hero status.
So, in order to attempt becoming a
hero generation, we need a social crisis. I reckon the impending shadow
of climate change and the global recession might just fit the bill.
The fact is, whilst everyone else has
been shouting criticisms at us, we’ve
been quietly whispering revolutionary plans to stop global warming and
end the recession. We are a generation of socially networked, technologically savvy, motivated individuals
who want to reshape the world and
make it better.
I’m under no delusion that the task
ahead is an easy one. But, I know
it’s not impossible. I know that we’re
a generation who embrace change
rather than shy away from it. How do
I know this? I know this because we’re
already making positive changes.
This week, the Pew Forum revealed
that 25% of American adults under
the age of 30 describe their religion
as “atheist”, “agnostic” or “nothing
in particular”. This contrasts with
just 19% of those in their 30s, 15%
of those in their 40s, 14% of those
in their 50s and a mere 10% of those
aged 60 or over. The British Humanist Association quotes similar figures,
claiming that there has been a 10%
decline in religious faith among British young people in just 10 years.
It’s official. Young people are praying less often, attending fewer religious services and reading less religious scripture. Does this mean that
we simply lack direction? No, quite
the opposite. The same study showed
that young people are, as a result of
lack of religious faith, more accepting
of homosexuality, less accepting of
Bible readings in schools and far less
accepting of creationism being taught
as an alternative to evolution.
We’re not afraid to break the mould.
We’re not afraid to promote common
sense and science, and we’re becoming more accepting of individuality.
We’re not afraid to challenge orthodoxies and this in itself will inevitably
prompt positive change.
We’re facing some of the biggest
crises the world has ever seen. Yes,
it’s daunting and it’s going to be hard
work but we have the potential to do
something great. Ask any university
student you meet what they hope to
achieve in life, and I bet they’ll detail
their bigger plans to change the world
in some way.
You see, our generation want to
achieve something meaningful. We
have the tools to do it. Okay, we may
not have God on our side, but I reckon he’d have slowed us down anyway.
We’ve been labelled the hero generation, and we’ve been labelled the
dropout generation. Now, we have a
choice to make: who do we want to
be?
Letters
Dear Sir,
In a comment published in Issue
5, Islamic Society Vice-President
Mohamed Abdalla misleads TCS
readers as to the views of Cambridge
alumnus Benny Morris by stringing
together out of context sentences
from an interview the Israeli historian gave to the newspaper “Haaretz”.
Mr Abdalla quotes Professor
Morris as having said “There are
No
Jonny
Walker
This is no place for heroes – ours is
the generation that will have to fight
even to see, never mind to be heard
or enact a change. The proposition
might be suggesting that our generation is morally grounded, is active
and is prepared to fight injustice. No.
Ours is the generation of straightjacketed aspirations, where even the
greatest volition and desire to do
good is unlikely to yield much action.
Rather than a generation of heroes,
the progeny of the millennium will
experience only a castrated idealism,
at best. Society has taught our generation to be disabled and is more than
willing to sell us the crutches.
Our inheritance is a deeply entrenched hierarchical system in
which inequalities – patriarchy, class
and ethnicity – have become so ingrained that the majority of people
consider them natural, or at least ‘traditional’. This may be less so the case
for Cambridge (enlightened souls
that we are…?) but outside the bubble, it remains widely considered that
the woman’s place is the home and
that the rich and the white belong in
the upper echelons of power. How
can these fetid structures, which have
developed over centuries, be overthrown?
Gross. Look at how unfashionably
ideological I am – a dirty feminiMarxist. The main reason we are unlikely to be a generation of heroes is
that we are ill-at-ease with the practice
of change. The language of change we
are great with. We can deal with innovation; our iPods gain memory
and become lighter, our cameras gain
more megapixels, spoons and forks
combine to make sporks. Genius! It
is not small and slow changes that
are the problem - we still hold firm to
the enlightenment ideal of progress
Want
circumstances in history that justify
ethnic cleansing.
A Jewish state would not have
come into being without the uprooting of 700,000 Palestinians.”
But between these two sentences,
Professor Morris explained that
“when the choice is between ethnic
cleansing and genocide – the annihilation of your people – I prefer
ethnic cleansing.”
Clearly, Professor Morris was jus-
- what we struggle to accept is the
need for radical change. It is this that
would be truly heroic.
Don’t misunderstand me here – I
am not mocking the efforts of those
seeking and pursuing change, and I
count myself amongst them. But our
generation needs to reconcile the
myths of power with the realities. My
inspiringly militant college Green officer has coerced me into turning off
the kitchen light when I leave the
room. It is easy to make these small
adjustments for the common good,
and it might make me feel great
about myself, but it won’t offset the
emissions of a hulking behemoth of a
new factory in industrialising China.
Sure, our generation has a ‘moral
conscience’. Our generation is happy
to act upon these virtues, but only
so long as it doesn’t wildly inconvenience us. Our sense of justice seeks
mostly to pacify itself in a quick fix of
goodness – we can barely so much as
entertain the notion that it will take
sacrifice, mass group action and a restructuring of society.
We overestimate the power we
wield in society – the MP you write
to will only take up your request if it
benefits him, that petition you wave
about in rainy Market Square will
most likely be shredded upon delivery. This is not a reason to do nothing
– it is a call to question whether there
are more effective ways of bringing
about the changes you seek.
Unless we can turn on the foglights,
we are bound to remain staggering
blindly in the inertiatic fug that clouds
our perceptions of society. A desire
to change the world is irreconcilable
with an embrace of the orthodoxy.
This is tantamount to shining a shit.
My view is that if our generation is to
do anything heroic, and there are few
things that would please me more, we
are going to have to stop shining the
proverbial shit and acknowledge that
small changes aren’t enough to heal
our ills: we need to step up to society,
doggy-bag in hand, and get that shit
out of here.
to get involved? For letters, articles and comment,
email comment@tcs.cam.ac.uk
tifying the ethnic cleansing of nonJewish Palestinians as a defensive
countermeasure taken to prevent the
genocide of Palestinian Jews.
Benny Morris’s critics might argue
either that he is wrong to assert the
Jews of Palestine were threatened
with annihilation by the Arabs in
1948, or else that a genocide of
Palestinian Jews would actually
have been a desirable result (and, of
course, “not anti-Semitic”).
Simply to distort Professor Morris’s published statements is no
argument at all, and suggests an
unwillingness to engage in reasoned
debate.
Ernest Ambers
Jess Touschek
REJOICE ye (not so) pure in heart,
for Masterchef has returned to grace
our screens. Yes, it’s back – that paean to amateur cooking, that x-factor
of middle-class cuisine, promising
to make us laugh, cry, drool and
hurl from opening theme to closing
credits. I might be overegging it. But
the BBC has been going through a
bit of a dry spot lately, and with every quality American show conceding airtime to the icy snoozefest that
is the Winter Olympics, the TV addicts among us can’t be too picky.
Besides which, I do love a good
cooking program. If it involves
stewing, blanching, basting, broiling or, best of all, blow-torching, I’m
hooked. To be honest, when offered
the choice between watching food
being cooked and consuming the
swill passed off by college as haute
cuisine, I’d go for the first option.
Virtual gratification is preferable to
actual gastroenteritis every time.
Harsh? I’m at Caius; complaining
about hall is what we do best. I don’t
mind watching an idiot contestant take a culinary dump over the
BBC’s best china, but I very much
resent paying £6.40 to eat the Cauis
equivalent. It’s in these moments of
gross self-pity that I turn to the High
Priests and Priestesses of televisual
gastronomy for comfort. And when
St. Jamie of Sainsbury’s and Queen
Nigella of edible innuendo aren’t
available, the bloke who looks like
the lovechild of Blofeld and Jabba
the Hutt, and his hirsute Aussie
sidekick are acceptable alternatives.
Of course, the problem with these
programs is that I immediately want
to test the recipes. This would have
been possible when, way back in
the mists of second year, I lived in
a house with hobs. HOBS. Honestly,
my devotion to those things knew
no bounds. I would have taken
them to bed with me if they hadn’t
been built into the work-surface.
Now, condemned to an existence
without them, I’m convinced that
primitive cooking facilities must
in some way constitute a human
rights abuse. The cooking facilities
afforded by my 1m-by-1m kitchen
(couldn’t swing a flea, let alone a cat)
are so limited that the simple act of
boiling an egg represents a challenge
of herculean proportions.
Forget the need for a ‘subtle palate’ – unless I somehow develop a
Voldemort-esque command over
the laws of physics, the standard kettle/toaster/microwave combo won’t
cope with the ambition of ‘grilled
butterflied monkfish with a sweet
runnerbean stew.’ In the end, it’s not
really worth the effort. The M&S
ready-meal range will have to do.
The
Thursday, February 25, 2010
CambridgeStudent
Comment|13
Insanitabridgians
Clémentine Beauvais
Time for real socialism The public get the politicians they deserve
Edd
Mustill
There are only two things most people hear from politicians. The first is
that some things, like spending cuts
in a recession, are inevitable. The second is that some things, like the abolition of tuition fees, are impossible.
This leaves a narrow and entirely
constructed “centre ground” where
elections are fought.
Campaigns are boiled down to
meaningless slogans like “A fairer
Britain for hard-working families.”
Great. Who doesn’t want that? What
does it mean? By such methods have
expectations of politics been lowered
to the extent that elections are a contest to find the lesser evil. These days,
the third thing we hear from politicians is “I acted within the spirit of
the rules and did nothing wrong.”
True socialism stands against the
idea that poor should pay for the
mistakes of the rich. Mass unemployment will remain a feature of British
society for years unless we fight it.
From a socialist point of view,
standing in the election is part of a
wider strategy to mobilise people
against this state of affairs.
Workers’ rights need to be restored
by repealing the Tory anti-union laws
which have been kept in place by Labour. This would end the ridiculous
spectacle of one judge overruling an
overwhelming ballot for strike action,
as recent happened in the BA cabin
crew dispute, and enable people to
defend decent working conditions.
Challenging Labour from the left
draws criticism from Labour hacks
who warn about the Tories getting
back in. When Labour are thrown
out, the same people will say we must
rally behind them to get the Tories
out of power. And the Westminster
merry-go-round will keep turning.
My grandparents’ experience of a
Labour government was a National
Health Service, a massive expansion
of social housing, the nationalisation
of key industries. My generation’s experience of a Labour government has
been the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the selling off of public services, the abuse of the economy by a
rampant financial sector. Aside from
a handful of socialists on the backbenches, Labour is as much a weapon
of the rich as the Tories ever were.
. Labour has not just undergone
changes in policy. It has severed itself from the class which founded
it, funded it and built it. The party
began life as the political expression
of the trade union movement. That
was its reason for existing in the first
place, against the voices arguing for
a Liberal vote to keep the Tories out.
Labour should be “in the pocket” of
the millions of union members in the
country who fund the party through
their unions’ political funds. It should
be serving their interests.
True ‘Leftist’ candidates are prominent community campaigners, socialists, and trade unionists. They are
revolutionaries, environmentalists,
ex-Labour people. In most areas, the
Left vote will not be big. Smaller parties have to scrap hard for every vote.
More often than not, a Labour vote
represents nothing more than a cross
on a piece of paper, a plea to keep the
Tories out.
Many Socialist votes represent a
commitment to carry on fighting after the election pantomime has left
town.
Labour right-wingers have always
dismissed any challenge to them as
unrealistic folly. But, as the old song
goes, traitors will sneer. We’ll keep
the red flag flying.
Alastair
Cliff
There has been a lot of soul-searching
in recent months in Westminster over
how to engage an apathetic and disillusioned public in the run up to the
next election; the question constantly
being asked is ‘What can politicians
do in order to reverse this decline in
voter apathy?’
My answer to that is simple: they
shouldn’t have to. It is time that the
‘public’ in this country started taking some individual responsibility in
their attitude to politics, rather than
sitting around moaning that none
of the parties’ views represent their
own.
I refer to the ‘public’, because the
real class divide in this country at the
moment does seem to be between
this apparently mysterious class
called ‘the politicians’ and another
class called the ‘public’.
There seems to be a widespread attitude that these ‘politicians’ should
be representing the views of the ‘public’, and if they are not they are somehow failing in their duty. ‘I’m not voting because I don’t agree with any of
the parties’ is a common complaint
from many apathetic non-voters.
This distinction between the ‘public’ and the ‘politicians’ needs to be
changed, and people made to realise
that politicians are not there to represent the public’s views, but their
own. If a politician is changing his
viewpoint to try and capture as many
votes as possible by appealing to the
‘public’, I would seriously question
the moral and political credibility of
that candidate.
A politician who does not stand up
for his own views but instead bends
to the will of the majority should not
a be a politician.
Furthermore, the attitude of the
‘public’ toward our representatives
needs to change and some individual
and collective responsibility taken for
our local and national politics.
A fitting analogy for the current
state of affairs in this country is the
relationship between a doting parent and a spoilt child. The child (the
public) makes endless demands of
their parent (the politician), insisting
they provide this, fix that, and when
the parent asks the child to tidy his
room, the child throws an almighty
tantrum, accusing their parent of being overly involved in their upbringing, and stunting their individual development.
Politics should be about individual
and collective empowerment, not
delegating responsibility to a ‘higher
power.’
Take anti-social behaviour as an example. Realistically, the government
can do nothing to stop anti-social behaviour; however many ASBOs are
given, or money poured into police
or community initiatives, nearly all
the success stories have been when
local residents take collective responsibility for their community and
stand up to those causing problems.
Unfortunately, this is not widespread,
with people instead complaining to
mummy to sort it out, and then crying foul when they inevitably fail to
do so, or indeed do so at too high a
cost – such as a loss of civil liberties.
If we want tighter security and the
government to mother us, we must
accept a loss of personal liberty. If we
want to maintain our liberty, we need
to realise that we must take individual responsibility for ourselves and our
communities, rather than relying the
government to take control from on
high. We need to be consistent, and
realise we can’t have it both ways.
Another issue is the general lack
of interest in the workings of the political establishment, with complaints
then arising that politicians are not
accountable. Politicians are accountable, it’s just the public is too lazy to
take any action in order to hold them
so.
This was clearly expressed in the
recent expenses scandal. In the many
years that the abuse of expenses went
on, the public took no interest in the
personal and professional conduct of
their elected MP’s, never attended a
single surgery, never wrote a single
letter, never checked out accounts, or
even knew their MP’s name. It seems
highly hypocritical on the part of the
public to become so outraged about
expenses, when absolutely no initiative was take on the individual’s part
to investigate, instead leaving it up to
another mysterious class of people
‘the media.’
It’s the equivalent of hiring a builder to extend your house without any
research or even learning their name,
then taking no interest in the building work or their conduct, and then
complaining when you discover
they’ve done a shoddy job and taken
some biscuits out of your cupboard.
I’m not saying that the actions of the
politicians were in any way excusable,
but the public needs to take some responsibility too. The public get the
politicians they deserve.
If the general public are dissatisfied
with our current stock of politicians,
they should realise that politicians
aren’t produced for our benefit, but
are individuals representing their
own views.
If you’re not going to vote because
you don’t agree with any of the main
party’s viewpoints, get off your arse
and stand for election yourself. Take
some individual responsibility, rather
than endlessly whining that someone
else should sort it out.
The
14|Comment
CambridgeStudent
Students’ Unions, not student censorship
Chris
Lillycrop
It had not been my intention until
very recently to write this article –
newspapers are understandably unwilling to give candidates space to
writes articles during election week.
But an issue of principle has arisen
that necessitated exposure in the
press.
On Wednesday, two days after I
started campaigning for election to
CUSU, the decision was taken to censor my arguments by substantially
redacting the official version of my
manifesto.
You may be expecting that the
cause of such a dramatic event was
that I expressed bigoted or hateful
views. (Although of course one of
last year’s presidential candidates, Li
Guolong, received no official reprimand despite repeatedly advocating
that homosexuals be given ‘help’ to
stop being gay.)
But no, my apparent transgression
was far more severe: I dared to question the wisdom that CUSU should
spend almost £40,000 every year
on a Union Development Manager
(UDM).
With CUSU facing an imminent
budget crisis of £80,000 per year
as the Careers Handbook contract
comes to an end, I have suggested
abolishing the UDM position. I was
aware that talking about staffing was
understandably a regulated process,
and so I took pains to stick by the
Staff-Student guidelines that had
been drafted by the UDM himself.
I was thus both surprised and angered when the CUSU Coordinator,
responding to a concern raised by the
UDM, and on the advice of the NUS,
informed me that she was imposing
censorship and that I could poten-
tially be disqualified by the Elections
Committee if I continued to raise the
issue. A further attempt at censorship
was made when CUSU initially tried
to block the publication of this article.
Fortunately, they were unsuccessful.
Unions used to be run by students
and for students. This principle was
innately valuable and I believe that it
still represents the best way forward.
Across the country, student control
has continually been reduced to the
point that Union sabbs are little more
than figureheads; the real control is
held by managers and other staff.
The most alarming example is the
NUS, where most policy is now written by Union staff. CUSU has seen
a growth in staff numbers in recent
years, but only last year was a general
manager employed for the first time.
At the time, the decision to hire
did not seem nearly as bad as it does
now. It seemed that CUSU was about
to be transformed by vastly increased
University funding. This turned out
not to be the case, and when the first
post-holder resigned last summer,
the entire venture should legitimately
have been written off as a well-intentioned but ultimately unsuccessful
endeavour.
Instead, the new CUSU sabbatical
team, on literally their first unsupervised day on the job, rushed headlong into recruiting a replacement,
ignoring the fact that CUSU no longer needed the position and would
soon be unable to afford it anyway.
What occurred then, and what
occurred on Wednesday, are both
symptomatic of a shift towards a
management-led model that both
undermines Unions’ purposes and
forgets their true nature.
Unions should be representative
institutions for their members; those
who run the Union should be elected
from amongst the student body. Increasingly, a huge division is being
forced between students and their
Unions by replacing these elected
The Team
Editor James Burton editor@tcs.cam.ac.uk
Managing Editor Zach Brown managingeditor@tcs.cam.ac.uk Design Editor Alice
Spawls design@tcs.cam.ac.uk Photography
Editor Josh Ward photography@tcs.cam.
ac.uk News Editor Jen Mills news@tcs.cam.
ac.uk Deputy News Editors Alex Cooke,
Andrew Georgiou, Becky Sage and Jenny
Boon International News Editor Sean
Jenkins-Murray international@tcs.cam.ac.uk
Deputy International Editor Victoria Hermon
Comment Editors Alastair Cliff and Harriet
Russell comment@tcs.cam.ac.uk Investigations
Editor Alex Kϋng investigations@tcs.cam.ac.uk
Deputy Investigations Editor Felicity Davies
Interviews Editor Mari Shibata interviews@
tcs.cam.ac.uk Deputy Interviews Editor Farah
Jassat Theatre Editor Olivia Crellin theatre@
tcs.cam.ac.uk Deputy Theatre Editor Jessica
Jennings Film Editor Shane Murray film@tcs.
cam.ac.uk Deputy Film Editors James Garner
and Thom Junkins Music Editor Phoebe
Amoroso music@tcs.cam.ac.uk Deputy
Music Editors Adam Whitehead and Richard
McLauchlan Sports Editor Phil Brook sport@
tcs.cam.ac.uk Deputy Sports Editors Thomas
Wills and Michael Alhadeff Sports Interviews
Editor Bex Law Sports Photography Editor
Jonty Fairless Arts & Literature Editors Max
Haberich and Sophie Partarrieu arts@tcs.cam.
ac.uk Food Editor Lettice Franklin food@tcs.
cam.ac.uk Chief Sub-Editor Henry Drummond
Board of Directors Anna Croall (Chair),
Mark Curtis (Business), Clare Tyson (CUSU
Coordinator), Joel Winton, James Burton,
Zach Brown and Jo Ashbridge tcs-directors@
tcs.cam.ac.uk
representatives with staff who do not
have the same democratic connection to their members.
As the events of Wednesday have
evidenced, even the democratic process itself can be curtailed in order to
prevent a resurgence of the studentsfor-students ideal.
In other Students’ Unions, which
run shops and nightclubs and necessarily employ large numbers of staff,
some professional management is
probably a good idea. But this practice of hiring through necessity has
been replaced by a culture in which
it is dogmatically thought that more
staff – and more non-student management – must be a good thing.
CUSU is a small Union organisation. It does not run a shop, bar or
nightclub. Employing a general manager figure is a grievous waste of what
little money CUSU has.
Not everyone will agree with my
views about the UDM, but it is vital
for CUSU, especially during elections, that views can be heard and debates can be had. Censorship, much
like management-control, will only
weaken our Union.
This is a comment article: it does not
represent the views of TCS or CUSU. If
elected to CUSU office, I would respect
due process in the totality of my interactions with staff.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Editorial
The Cambridge Student would like emerged that we had every right to
to apologise to our readers for the print the articles in question.
late release of this paper. Following
The situation was poorly handled
the intervention of the Cambridge by the trustees. Whilst CUSU, as
University Students’ Union (CUSU) TCS’ publisher, does of course have a
trustees (see article K.1 of the CUSU responsibility to make sure the conConstitution), the editors were told tent we print is legal, they also have
on Wednesday night that we could a responsibility to seek thorough
not print two stories “for legal rea- professional advice before removing
sons.”
articles from the paper.
The editors chose to delay printing
As editors, we spend our whole
and ask the trustees to seek profes- week working to a deadline, and
sional legal advice, rather than rely- choosing to miss one is not a decision
ing on the opinions of those with- to be taken lightly. But, on Wednesout the necessary qualifications to day night, the imperative was to
provide a clear view. Ultimately, our avoid a rash decision being made on
caution was vindicated: when pro- the spur of the moment, and to professional advice was finally given, it tect this paper’s journalistic integrity.
Correction: In the Theatre Section last week the Three Tales poster (Issue 6,
p.19) was incorrectly credited to Tom Kingsley. We apologise for the mistake.
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The
Thursday, February 25, 2010
CambridgeStudent
Arts|15
Photo: austinevan
CultureScene
NME Tour: Stomping Ground of Indie’s Next Big Things
Bombay Bicycle Club give their opinion on Cambridge dance moves
Always bringing a cavalcade of hype
and hysteria, the NME Awards tour
came to Cambridge last Friday, as
ever playing stomping ground for
the next big things of the indie music
scene.
Despite their early stage time,
much-hyped The Drums drew a large
crowd with their own brand of surfrock and lo-fi indie pop. Jonathan
Pierce was certainly the most charismatic frontman to grace the stage,
engaging the audience with theatrical gestures while dancing around in
an Ian Curtis-esque manner. With
guitarist Jacob Graham bouncing
around like a jack-in-the-box, tambourine in hand, the band certainly
had energy in abundance. Though
yet to release their debut album they
got the crowd moving; in particular,
the catchy whistles of ‘Let’s Go Surfing’ with its melodic bass line proved
utterly danceable.
Next came The Big Pink with their
hypnotically sweeping electo-rock,
and it was they who delivered one of
the most exhilarating moments of the
night with standout track ‘Dominos’.
Raising the crowd to a fever pitch
with the dirge-like opening, by the
time the chorus kicked in they had
the whole crowd punching their fists
and singing along in a wave of eu-
What would you be doing if you
weren’t in a band?
Jack: I’d probably be at university,
studying French and Japanese.
Ed: ‘I’d be studying art, Jamie would
do classics, and Suren is going to be a
drummer whatever happens’.
It’s nearing the end of the NME
Tour, have you enjoyed it?
Ed: I’m just growing into it now, everyone’s really good friends.
Is there any particular band that
you’ve gotten to know well on the
tour?
Ed: The Maccabees are always incredibly friendly, we get on very well
with them.
Describe your music in a word.
Jack: Horndog
Is there any band you’re particularly into right now?
Ed: We don’t really listen to new
bands at all. Currently we really like
Yo la Tengo.
If you could be in any band at all
what would it be?
Jack: Miles Davis’ band...if I could
play jazz, that would be the funnest
lifestyle to have, because every gig
you played would be completely different, you’d never get bored of it.
Ed: Frank Zappa’s band, the mothers
of Invention, pretty much the tightest
band ever, although you’d be pretty
phoria, while frontman Robbie Furze
coasted on a sea of hands. Songs like
‘Crystal Visions’ with its pulsating
bass lines and neo-psychedelic elements proved at times mesmerizing,
while Akiko Matsuura’s powerful
stadium-worthy drumming powered
their set along.
Following them were Bombay
Bicycle Club, and though expectations were rising, they didn’t disappoint. Their set immediately had
sweaty teens clamouring to reach
the chaotic mosh pit, and the crowd
went wild for ‘Always Like This’ and
the quietly brilliant ‘Evening/Morning’. Jack Steadman’s quivering yet
poignant vocals, coupled with a band
abosorbed in its own music, produced some electrifying moments.
It was then the turn of headliners The Maccabees. Their set proved
energising with crowd pleasers ‘Can
You Give It’ and ‘Toothpaste Kisses’.
But their newly added brass section
wasn’t always audible, and frontman
Orlando Weeks often seemed timid.
The Maccabees didn’t blow you away
so much as gently push you over.
Despite such minor flaws they put
on an entertaining show, ending the
concert with the anthemic ‘Love You
Better’.
Aurora Horwood
Photo: Courtesy of Cool Delta
Line-Up Lives Up To The Hype ★★★★☆
scared of Frank Zappa.
Has any show stood out on the tour
that’s been particularly good?
Jack: Birmingham for some reason
was really good, maybe they were just
putting something in the drinks but
the crowd were going crazy to a level
that we’ve never really seen before.
Has anything especially ridiculous
happened on the NME tour?
Ed: We got locked out of our hotel
room completely naked the other
night, and we had to go to reception
and ask them to take us back up and
let us into our rooms.
Jack: The lift was really small so we
didn’t know if we could fit in it and
we were really squashed together, we
The Drums talk to TCS about the hype, the music and their first full tour
feel like we’re catching up to our career, because it really is moving at
such a crazy pace.
Jacob: It’s strange because we’re still
Jacob: One from Finland called Cats
On Fire, they’re kind of what we’re
striving for, to be a band that you can
just see it, understand it and love it.
Photo: Courtesy of Cool Delta
There’s been a lot of hype around
you, do you feel pressured by it?
Jonathan: We try not to let any hype
get to us. Our number one rule is to
be selfish and do what we want to do.
So if we’re pleased with ourselves then
that’s what we want to achieve. We’re
lucky enough people seem to be getting excited about what we’re doing.
If you weren’t in a band, what would
you be doing?
Jonathan: I think always in our past
we’ve been making music on the side,
but I’d probably be a pilot.
Jacob: I’d be trying to do something
with graphic design.
Have you finished the album?
Jonathan: We’re just mixing it right
now.
Adam: I think a reason why the pressure doesn’t feel as heavy is because
it’s been done for a while, we weren’t
forced to write a record in phases.
Jonathan: We wrote everything at
the same time, then we picked songs
that sounded more summery and we
made that EP. Whatever was left was
naturally darker, that’s what you’ll
hear on the full length.
How’ve you found the NME Tour?
Jonathan: This is our first full on tour
of any kind. A lot of bands spend
years figuring everything out and
then something big happens to them,
but for us, it was out of nowhere. We
Connor Hanwick (drums, far right) loved Cambridge so much he bought the T-Shirt
in that evolutionary process. Whereas a lot of bands will see pictures of
themselves from three years ago and
say “Oh gosh, what was I wearing?”
I’ll see pictures of myself from three
months ago and think “What was I
wearing?”
Jonathan: I think our saving grace is
having such a strong vision, before
we wrote our first song, we knew
what we wanted to do and how we
wanted to go about it.
Describe your music in a sentence.
Jonathan: Sensitive rock’n’roll.
Your favourite band right now?
If you could be part of any band,
which band would it be?
Jonathan: The Sugarcubes because
they’re so weird, it’s probably worth it
just to be hanging around with Bjork
when she was 16.
Adam: Being in the Ramones would
be pretty cool.
Anything ridiculous or memborable that’s happened on the tour?
Jacob: Earlier tonight, after we
sound-checked, we heard this crazy
wild screaming and it was Kiko the
Big Pink’s drummer. They reeled her
out on the stage on this chair with
wheels and she was ducktaped to it
and screaming bloody murder, then
they threw her off the stage and were
pushing her around that room, and
she was just terrified, it was the craziest thing.
What do you think of Cambridge?
Adam: I loved it, it’s my favourite spot
so far.
Jonathan: Everything’s just so nice,
I’d like to see a seedier section. It’s
like uptown New York – everything’s
perfect.
What are you doing after this tour?
Adam: We’re continuing touring
around mainland Europe.
Jacob: It seems intimidating to look at
our schedule coming up, but I think
it’ll be really exciting.
Jonathan: I think when you believe in
what you’re doing it makes it all worth
it. Maybe it sounds like we’re full
of ourselves, but we want to change
modern music as much as we can.
We’d like things to be different than
they’ve been for the last 10 years. I
think whether people know it or not,
there’s a subconscious craving for
something real again. Everything’s
been so overdone and manufactured,
everything’s glossy and perfect, and I
think people are ready for imperfection, I know we certainly are, that’s
why we believe in what we’re doing.
Aurora Horwood
just wanted to freak everyone out in
the bar.
Ed: Jack always gets naked though,
he’s pretty much naked all the time.
What’s it like playing in Cambridge?
Ed: It’s always one of our favourite
places to play.
Jack: It’s the certain dance moves that
people do here. I’ve always noticed a
particularly peculiar one - they aren’t
very self conscious.
What are you doing after this tour
has finished?
Jack: We’re going back into the studio, and we’ve got our European tour
in a week.
Aurora Horwood
Inside
this week...
The fine art of
sublime drinking
24
A. E. Housman and
Cambridge
17
The Lovely Bones:
From page to screen
20
Los Campesinos!
Live review
23
The
16|Arts
★★★★☆
Photo: Fitzwilliam Museum
Lino Mannocci’s latest exhibition
boasts a novel approach to the monotype medium, a printing style that
traditionally involves painting directly onto the printing plate with ink in
order to create a single image.
The exhibition includes a helpful explana-
tion of how he has taken this simple
method to new heights, introducing
original elements such as crumpled
tissue paper to achieve the textured
stormy skies so fundamental to the series, as well as digital imagery, stencils
and collage. Through these additions
Mannocci hopes to inject new life into
monotype printing. Yet, considering
the wealth of monotypes on display
at this exhibition, there are very few
among them
that warrant prolonged attention. In
his aim to leave the message of his
artwork down to the interpretation
of the viewer, Lino Mannocci describes what he does as purposefully
ambiguous. Recurrent symbols from
mythological and biblical worlds
echo throughout the images in an
attempt to allude to particular stories, without explicit reference. But
despite his enigmatic intentions, the
outcome for the most part is a lack
of real focus in the prints, which are
excessively obscure; atmospheric but
vacuous landscapes.
One of the main points of cultural
reference for Mannocci here is the
Annunciation, a theme that
comes across through the
recurrent celestial imagery, the ominous skies
and vulnerable female
figures.
There is even a second half of the exhibition devoted solely to
historical depictions
of this topic. This part
of the exhibition documents the development
of artistic representations
of the Annunciation, a
classic image of biblical art. However, it seems
to contradict the ambiguous symbolism of Mannocci’s
art by dictating to us exactly
where the symbols he uses have
come from, and what they represent. In its need to clarify the mean-
ing of particular imagery, this part of
the exhibition underlines the lack of
clear symbolism to draw their own
associations from.
A few rubies gleam in the dust.
More developed pieces such as “Then
Susanna shrieked”, which shows the
stark white silhouette of a woman
prancing before a turbulent backdrop, are dramatic and captivating
because of the numerous stories they
suggest. They are simple but effective,
retaining enough detail for the onlooker to muse over and imagine the
legend behind the figure.
Similarly to Susanna’s bold white
shape, other pieces bring splashes of
colour into the gloom, providing the
most effective of the prints on display.
The subtle nude shades of the woman
in “Concedimi verginità perpetua”
(“Let me live always like a virgin”) for
instance, add the contemporary twist
that this exhibition promised to bring
to monoprinting by introducing digital images in an enticing mixture of
modernity and ancient myth.
Her solitary colour makes her vulnerability strikingly clear in the face
of the menacing sky, and we are left
to wonder about what the future has
in stall for her. It’s a pity Mannocci
didn’t take his controlled use of colour further, since these were the real
highlights of this exhibition.
Despite his attempts at a novel use
of the monotype medium, overall
Lino Mannocci’s experiments fall
disappointingly flat.
Louisa Long
Oxford’sAnswer to the UL
Hatti Whitman hears the Bodleian’s Associate Director out on book-related controversy
For most of us, extended periods of
time spent in a library are symptomatic of exam-fever or an essay crisis.
For Richard Ovenden, Keeper of
Special Collections and Associate
Director at the Bodleian Library, it’s
a way of life. In a talk entitled ‘Can a
University Library also be a National
Library?’ at Emmanuel College this
week, Ovenden presented a cogent
analysis not only of the Bodleian today but also of its history as a library
serving both students of Oxford University and outsiders.
Ovenden began with the history of
the Bodleian library, from the growth
of the Oxford University book collection through acquisition and gifts,
to the work of Sir Thomas Bodley to
create a central library for the University, through to the present day.
For Ovenden, it is Bodley’s aims
in founding and funding the library,
which would come to bear his name,
that delineate the Bodleian as more
than just a university library. Bodley
described his vision of a ‘republic of
the learned’, implying that the library
should not be just for the use of Oxford students, but of anyone with the
desire to learn.
Not only was it founded with an
outlook which stretched beyond the
bounds of Oxford University, but this
ideal clearly continues to this day. The
Bodleian is a legal deposit library (just
like our own UL) with an immense
catalogue of materials and the 80,000
registered readers with access to this
material. The fact that the number of
registered readers is nearly four times
the number of current students at
Oxford seems to Ovenden to speak
for itself in terms of the library’s contribution on a national level.
Ovenden’s use of visual aids was
a real highlight, with photographs
of rare manuscripts and interesting
parts of the collections, including
Franz Kafka’s original manuscripts,
which the writer had asked to be
burnt.
The photographs of the library
buildings themselves couldn’t fail to
enchant, as it must be said that most
of the Bodleian’s architecture is far
more aesthetically pleasing than that
of the UL – although Sir Giles Gilbert Scott (he of Battersea Power Station, Tate Modern, and UL fame) did
manage to leave his mark in the form
of the New Bodleian Library.
Ovenden responded jovially to
questions from the audience, cracking jokes and smiling throughout. It
was a talk which brought a seemingly
dry subject to life, and opened up
some intriguing questions about the
national relevance not only of University Libraries such as the Bodleian
and the UL, but of the Universities
themselves to which they belong.
Photo: Roman Kirillov
As one might imagine, the meanings of words tend to change, not
always randomly, but sometimes
seemingly so. I must thank my decidedly non-random friend Neil
Simpson for suggesting that we investigate “random.”
Something or someone that acts
in a random fashion does so rather
chaotically, without guidance. This
contemporary meaning stems directly from its origins in clashing
knights on war-horses. That is
right: chivalry, and all that jazz.
The original Anglo-Norman
word, “randoun,” dating from
around the 12th century, and then
the later Middle French word,
“randon,” refers to “speed” or
“haste,” according to the OED. It
might be related to the Germanic
word “rand” meaning “shield,” or
“shield-boss” (the knobby thing
in the middle of round shields, and
handy for hitting).
As such, and as noted by the
OED, the word can be found in as
old a text as “Beowulf ” (7th century) with this rather undecipherable
line, “He under rande gecranc.” An
Old English translation of Exodus
from the 10th century describes the
parting waves of the Red Sea as the
“randgebeorh,” or “shield-wall.”
We also find the Anglo-Norman
phrase, “a grant randun” or “in great
haste.” To strike “with great random” was to do so with great force
while riding or running, as in the
medieval joust, though “at the random” probably refers to the wilder
jousting that did not include such
niceties as barriers. These now obsolete meanings, referring to a “an
impetuous rush” predominated until the 17th century.
By the end of the 1500s, the
meaning behind the phrase began
to change, and meant something
out-of-control, perhaps stemming
from the idea that running at a full
gallop was not always the picture of
serenity and restraint. Thus we have
the Bard using this line in his Venus
and Adonis (c. 1592), “But hatefully
at random dost thou hit.” Alexander Pope (1688-1744) later used
the word in his Dunciad, which attacked hack writers, with the line in
question being, “She shows … How
random thoughts now meaning
chance to find.”
Finally, in a bit of nostalgia, Mark
Twain, used the word in 1889, in its
older sense, in his Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, with the
line, “Two knights came together
with great random.”
If you have any random wordrelated queries or thoughts, please
write to willswords@tcs.cam.ac.uk.
Until next time, take care!
Thursday, February 25, 2010
A World of Myth and Poetic Landscape
‘Clouds and Myths’
Fitzwilliam Museum
Until Sunday 9th of May
“random”
CambridgeStudent
1
Cambridge University
Students’ Union
CUSU Elections
2010
Your pull-out guide
to this year’s candidates...
VOTE ONLINE
8am Monday 1st - 8pm Tuesday 2nd
www.vote.cusu.cam.ac.uk
VOTE in COLLEGES
Wednesday 3rd
2
CUSU President Candidates
CUSU Education Officer Candidates
3
4
CUSU Women’s Officer Candidates
5
Vote Chris
Lillycrop
for CUSU Coordinator
Coordinating the Executive
Writing the budget
I will ensure that CUSU Officers work
effectively and efficiently to achieve
your priorities. I recently helped the
current Coordinator introduce such a
scheme to coordinate CUSU activity, but
I believe that the Executive needs to
function from Day 1, not just from New
Year onwards.
We must stop cutting core Union
budgets to pay for unnecessary selfpromotion, external relations and staff
costs. By emphasising student-support,
as well as the Education and Welfare
campaigns, I will protect these areas and
ensure that they have the funding
they need.
Managing staff
CUSU Council
Getting the most out of our current
staff members is vital, but CUSU needs
to question the wisdom of continually
enlarging its staff.
The CUSU executive is employed to
carry out policy as determined by the
representatives of the student body, so
CUSU officers must remember to use
Council for listening, not for squabbling
or grandstanding. If Council can be
relevant, responsible and respected,
all of CUSU functions better.
With almost 200 active policies and 40
executive officers, overseeing CUSU’s
policy work is the Coordinator’s single
biggest challenge: managing sabbs and
part-time officers to ensure that policy
goals are being met.
CUSU’s staff has grown rapidly over
the past few years so that they now
outnumber sabbatical officers. I
believe that CUSU’s strength lies in its
elected student officers.
CUSU is about to come under severe
financial pressure as our £80,000 per
year deal for the Careers Handbook
comes to an end. The Coordinator will
have to balance priorities to address
this new situation.
The Coordinator has a responsibility to
promote a relationship of trust between
CUSU Council and the sabbatical officers,
by ensuring that the voices of students
are always respected.
Chris Lillycrop - Making CUSU Work For You
Manifesto redacted due to issues regarding the legality of statements relating to CUSU staff members’ employment. For more information on Elections
Committee’s ruling see www.cusu.cam.ac.uk/elections
6
NUS Delegate Candidates
7
8
ELECTION DEBATES
Come and grill the candidates for the contested elections
Find out what they think and how they differ
Saturday 27th February
Women’s Officer Candidates - 3pm
Education Officer Candidates - 4pm
Presidential Candidates - 5pm
Clare College - Riley Auditorium
The
Thursday, February 25, 2010
CambridgeStudent
Crème Brûlée, French Pornography and Poetry
Photo: E.O. Hoppe
Jack Belloli traces
A.E. Housman’s
wild life at
Trinity
and beyond
Last week’s The Invention of Love at
the ADC emphasised that the Other
Place was where he found his Elysian
Fields, but A. E. Housman made a
significant mark on Cambridge too,
as Kennedy Professor of Latin from
1911. There’s a rumour that he introduced crème brûlée to Trinity (we
certainly have written evidence that
he demanded cheesecake); he installed a new lavatory which he forbade Wittgenstein from using; and
his extensive collection of French
pornography resides in the UL.
But if Housman sounds like the
touchstone for every eccentric Fellow you’d care to mention, things get
more complicated. In stark contrast
to Cambridge’s later academic-poets
like J. H. Prynne, whose poems betray the Saussure-infused brains
which created them, Housman kept
the two sides of his personality quite
firmly apart.
Indeed, his most productive poetic phase coincided with sick leave
from UCL because of a ‘relaxed
sore throat’. The classicist, fixated on
much more’ (although – paradoxically – More Poems would be published posthumously by Housman’s
brother).
Without the binding influence of
Shropshire, these poems drift into a
fairyland ruled by ‘the Queen of air
and darkness’ or out among the stars
in ‘mid heaven’. You’d expect a collection published in 1922 to reflect on
the First World War, but Last Poems
does so indirectly and archetypally.
While his contemporaries made it
quite clear that things were falling
apart, Housman more subtly suggests that war has destroyed a sense
of time: his soldiers carry swords,
sack towns and fight for ‘thirteen
pence a day’.
Even the ‘young sinner’ imprisoned for ‘the colour of his hair’, often
interpreted as a reference to fellow
homosexual Oscar Wilde, is indirect
enough a reflection to criticise any
form of meaningless persecution.
In lectures such as The Name and
Nature of Poetry, Housman stressed
that, amid all the new-fangled excitement about literary criticism becoming an academic discipline, poems
should still engage the heart more
than the head.
‘Lift up your eyes to the stars ... and
repeat ... the poetry which they have
evoked – do so by all means. But don’t
call it astronomy’. It’s an excuse, if any
were needed, for a night in with some
poetry and a pack of Sainsbury’s £1
crumpets. Well, it’s cheaper than
working out the meaning of written
fragments shorn against our ruin, became a poet whose work is firmly in
the British ballad tradition – passed
orally, and therefore more securely,
down through the ages.
Once heard, a Housman poem
is hard to forget: many are short
enough to memorise easily, and they
use rhyme, rhythm and repetition in
a reliably lulling fashion, with their
warnings to ‘give crowns and pounds
and guineas, but not your heart
away’.
But displacement runs deeper than
that. Housman’s most celebrated
achievement, A Shropshire Lad, eulogises a county that he rarely visited.
And, while the collection rattles off
appropriate place-names – Ludlow,
Clun, Wenlock Edge – the collection’s
most famous phrase, Shropshire’s
‘blue remembered hills’, is a very deliberate mis-description. The themes
of young death, lost innocence and
the joy of rural customs could take
anywhere as their point of reference.
One curious poem is set in London and recounts the poet’s imagined conversation with a statue in a
‘Grecian gallery’, both appreciating
that they were ‘fashioned far away’.
The overriding feeling you get from
Housman is that, wherever ‘here’ is,
it’s not where you want to be.
It gets even more disturbing in
Housman’s later collections, particularly Last Poems, so-titled ‘because
it is not likely that I shall ever...write
A Rainy Day: An Anecdote Most Macabre
An effort in prose by Max Haberich
dog, two cats, a snake, a hamster and
several mice. Charles loathed them.
Whenever his wife kissed one of her
tractive woman. She had kept the
flirtatious charm of a girl of twenty,
and chatted, laughed, and joked with
each and every one of them. Sometimes Charles considered it necessary
to gently touch her cheek, to remind
them that she belonged to him.
When this happened, Henrietta got
up to fetch one of her dogs, whom
she would fondle as if cuddling with
one of Charles’ rivals.
Henrietta loved pets. She had a
cats, whom she kissed more often
than him, he felt a sharp pang of jealousy. In the course of an afternoon,
this could turn into a rage in his soul
out of all proportion. He always kept
this to himself, however, and Henrietta never suspected these strong feelings in her husband for a moment.
He would have loved to get rid of all
of those pets in one grand blow.
Whenever they had quarrelled and
Charles wasn’t allowed to sleep in the
vast double bed, Henrietta would
take her terrier into the bedroom
with a strangely triumphant look in
her eyes. Behind the locked door the
solitary husband would hear his wife
laugh and squeak until late into the
night.
One rainy day in October, husband and wife were sitting in front of
the fireplace. They hadn’t bothered
to light a fire. Charles put his arm
around Henrietta, and she was telling him about the new rain jacket
she would buy Kenneth, her terrier,
for protection against the autumnal
storms. Then she got up to perform
some small chores in the kitchen.
Charles got up as well, and emptied
a canister of lighting fluid all over the
fireplace.
“My darling,” he called, “I‘ll go for
a short walk along the river. Would
you kindly start a fire in the chimney, so it‘s nice and warm when I‘m
back?” “But of course, sweetheart.”
she replied.
The meadows at that part of the
river were protected from development, and cattle grazed there in the
warmer months of the year. After
he had strolled along the river for a
while, Charles cast a glance over his
shoulder. He saw the water reflecting
a glow as blazing as a summer sunset, and sooty clouds of smoke rising
artorial
tudent
Is bringing herringbone
back....
Are you, or is someone you know,
a young fogey? Do you miss the pipe
shop on the corner of St John’s Street?
Do you side part your hair? Spending too much time at the Union,
old chum? And, most importantly,
are you in possession of your own
TWEED JACKET?
There’s nothing especially ‘fashionable’ about this week’s Sartorial
Student Subject; rather its a look that
never really went away. And least of
all in Cambridge, home of the aforementioned (anti-) youth movement
that is Fogeyism. On both male and
female wearers, tweed is endearingly
geeky, ragged and idiosyncratic. It is
the antithesis of a leather jacket.
The old-world charm of Harris
tweed is a uniquely British thing;
devotees will know already how
the heavy wool ‘heritage fabric’ is
protected with its own 1939 Act of
Parliament, forbidding manufacture
anywhere but the Outer Hebrides.
Vivienne Westwood is an adamant
tweed patron (note the similarities
between the Westwood and Harris ‘orb’ logos). Alexander McQueen
crafted it into waspish skirt suits
worthy of Hitchcock heroines. Menswear innovator Deryck Walker has
worked with the Harris tweed mills
to pioneer an ultra-fine and ‘un-itchy’
tweed, which the Scottish designer
uses to create a softer, narrow-fitting
silhouette unlike the traditional thick
wool. And meanwhile, Nike once
ordered 10,000 metres of the stuff,
creating limited-edition herringbone
hi-tops. Not bad for the local product
of a place better known as the home
of ‘The Wicker Man’..
But not everyone can afford the
‘heritage’ pricing, nor are we all
lucky enough to have a generous
pheasant-shooting grandfather with
a stash of worn-in blazers in his attic. Luckily enough, however, tweed
is one of those things, like fur and old
leather handbags, which only gets
better with age. Raid the Mill Road
charity shops and you’re sure to find
a well-loved shooting jacket or twojust check up ahead for that wet doglike smell that some tweeds develop
with time. You can have it re-tailored
for a reasonable enough price, or go
oversized and pair with moth-eaten
vintage cashmere, for Withnail-style
shabby chic.
Photo: Educationeducationeducation
A fair number of male guests envied Charles for Henrietta, who, in
her early forties, was still a very at-
Photo: Dog Online
Charles and Henrietta lived in Richmond, a Southwestern suburb in the
sprawling urban expanse of London.
To everyone who knew them, they
seemed a harmonious couple to the
point of envy. They owned a spacious apartment in an Victorian villa
not far from the Thames. The houses
in their neighbourhood were built
in a style quite similar to their own,
with immaculate front gardens, some
of which even boasted small palm
trees.
Charles and Henrietta held dinners fairly often, to which they invited many friends and acquaintances.
They were known as far as Richmond Hill, an area where artists and
musicians lived, for their excellent
cooking.
Their cocktails were equally superb. Their guests didn’t leave until
the early hours of the morning, and
only after having tasted exquisite and
little-known wines, and having finished the meal with port or sherry
several decades old. It was nothing
less than a distinction to receive one
of their dinner invitations, to be greeted in their entrance hall with its expensive chandelier. In their rooms,
each with a high stucco ceiling, the
elegance of a bygone era emanated
from the simple, graceful curves of
their antique furniture.
S
The
Arts|17
18|Theatre
ADC Theatre Mainshow
7.45pm Tues 23rd-Sat 27th
February
The
CambridgeStudent
Thursday, February 25 , 2010
The Merchant of Venice
production.
Whilst the visuals consistently reflect the choice of period, there is little
else done to indicate that the production has an interest with Mussolini’s
Italy. This makes the explicitly anti-Se-
awkward atmosphere.
This timidity of ideas causes problems throughout the production, resulting in a feeling that more could
have been done to fulfil director
Patrick Garety’s potentially inter-
The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare’s
most complex and captivating comedy, sees Antonio (Ned Carpenter)
borrow a large sum of money from
Shylock (Theo Chester), the Jew whom
he has publically berated, on behalf of
friend Bassanio (Luke Rajah), whom
he is desperate to please. Shylock lends
the money on the condition that if it is
not returned, he will take a pound of
Antonio’s flesh. Meanwhile, Shylock’s
daughter Jessica (Sophia Sibthorpe)
has rejected her father and his Jewish
faith, eloping with the Christian
Lorenzo (Rob Willoughby) from
Venice to Belmont.
Bassanio uses the money Antonio
gives him to go to Belmont, where he
tries to court the beautiful, rich and
intelligent Portia (Antonia Eklund),
whose deceased father has set out the
challenge of the three caskets to any
man who tries to marry his daughter.
Bassanio succeeds in choosing the
right casket, which means he is allowed to marry Portia, but is immediately presented with a letter to say
that Antonio cannot pay Shylock’s
money back, and that the Jew is insisting on his compensation of the pound
the life of their husbands’ friend.
This production opens, as the posters promise, in a smoky 1930s Italian
jazz bar. The vibrant yet simple sets,
beautifully designed by David Pugh,
continue to stun throughout the
mitic jokes from Salarino and Solanio
(John Haidar and Toby Jones) at the
end of Act II feel unnecessary, out of
place and uncomfortable.
The production should have been
bolder with its setting to avoid this
esting and entertaining vision of the
play.
Antonio and Bassanio’s relationship, one of Shakespeare’s more explicitly homoerotic friendships,
lacked conviction in performance;
it had been written by the director,
Suzanne Burlton. The conventions of
melodrama could have been stifling,
but Burlton’s witty script revels in
them. It is populated with characters
who are either bounders, good eggs or
women. Tyndall’s Lord Leighton runs
the gamut of villainy from blackguard
to rapscallion, detailing his dastardly
plot in asides to the audience, by contrast to Gilbert’s energetic and heroic
Augustus, resplendent in ruffles. Also
crowded into the drawing room is an
atheist priest Father Flect (Ben Slingo)
– Leticia’s father (Hugh Burling)
speculates that
‘Perhaps his
ordination
was a clerical error,’
– an eye-
brow-wiggling butler (Christopher
Stanton), and a disapproving aunt
(Samantha Anders).
This is not a flawless production.
The sparse set was a missed opportunity to crowd the stage with Victorian
fripperies. The performances were
not all pitched at quite the same level
of melodrama: there were times where
it seemed Eades did not fully commit
to the silliness. Somehow though, in
this context the spirit of amateur enthusiasm is charming rather than annoying: ‘I could sell that painting in
London’ becomes a funny line when
directed at a small, solitary print hung
high on the wall.
This is a thoroughly entertaining show, and one
of the most confident pieces
of new
writing I
have
seen on a
Cambridge
stage.
Shakespeare dir. Patrick Garety
Photo: James Graveston
★★☆☆☆
of flesh.
Bassanio returns to Venice to try
to help Antonio. Portia and her ladyin-waiting Nerissa (Eve Hedderwick
Turner) follow them to Venice, concealed as law clerks, in order to save
Loving Leticia
Pembroke New Cellars
7.00pm Tues 16th-Sat 27th
February
Suzanne Burlton dir. Suzanne Burlton
★★★★☆
Loving Leticia is like a syllabub
served in a fluted glass: frothy, unashamedly old fashioned, and utterly
scrumptious.
Leticia (Annwyn Eades) wants
nothing more than eight hours a day
of Virgil, and to marry sweet-voiced
Augustus(SamGilbert).Unfortunately
her mother (Madeleine Hammond)
wishes her to wed Lord Leighton
(Jagveen Tyndall), who turns
out to be a scoundrel
and a kidnapper.
About ten minutes
in I scanned my programme,
wondering why
I had
never
heard of this
excellent
play; I was
genuinely
surprised to
discover that
Giulia
Galastro
Photo: James Crosby
Carpenter failed to convey the crucial adoration and sexual tension. As
a result, the character disappears into
the background, and the effect of having Antonio sitting alone at the end of
the play, having watched Bassanio exit
with his beloved wife, is entirely lost.
This homoeroticism seems to have
been deflected in the production
onto Portia and Nerissa. Eklund and
Hedderwick Turner share too much
physical contact, which not only undermines the importance of physical
closeness in the performance, but also
becomes quite boring.
Eklund’s portrayal of Portia epitomises the fault in the production. Despite Portia being arguably
Shakespeare’s most intelligent, autonomous female character, for the
first three acts Eklund renders her as
an excitable bimbo.
The change, therefore, in her character once she is disguised as a man is too
vast. Even when dressed as a woman
again at the end, the Portia seen in the
second half is irreconcilable with the
Portia in the first half.
In neglecting the importance of
Portia’s composure and manipulative
intelligence, the production loses another one of the most essential ideas of
the play. All in all, whilst it is ambitious
in its vision, this production fails to hit
the mark and, despite its brilliant aesthetics, is a washout from the start.
Jessica Jennings
Wit
Corpus Playroom
Mainshow
7.00pm Tues 23rd-Sat 27th
February
Margaret Edson dir. Katherine Alcock
★★★☆☆
Katherine Alcock appears in a hospital
slip, bandana over her head, and with
her hand attached to a drip, as cancer
patient Vivian Bearing, in the play she
co-directs with Jennifer Boon.
Wit documents the stages of cancer
from diagnosis to death of Bearing,
a professor specialising in Donne’s
Holy Sonnets. Even by the standards
of academia, this seems an incongruently specific and concentrated subject focus.
Playwright Margaret Edson does
not manage to convince the audience
that Bearing is the highest authority on Donne, as any English student
would be able to notice! Alcock is also
not convincing in her characterisation
of an obtuse professor with a formidable reputation. She does, however,
deserve plaudits for her engaging and
nuanced performance.
Onstage throughout the play
Bearing narrates her story allowing
herself to travel between memories.
The fluidity of the production, moving easily without superfluous scene
changes, is well-judged, with smooth
lighting shifts to help ease the transi-
tions through time and space.
Pervasively surrounding Bearing
are the stark white walls of the hospital in which she is receiving treatment
for her illness, furnished with medical
apparatus and wall-charts including a
defibrillator giving verisimilitude to
the setting.
Micah Trippe plays Dr Jason Posner,
a cancer researcher on a compulsory
work placement caring for Bearing,
with a directness which is both convincing and damning towards researchers. Despite a late entrance for
her first scene, Jenny Scudamore delivers the finest performance in this production, as Professor E. M. Ashford,
especially in the beautifully poignant
penultimate scene, in which she reads
to Bearing, her former student.
The rest of the cast are all secure and
competent in their roles, sustaining
the engagement of the audience in a
drama that is not especially dynamic
or exciting.
Although it is never boring, the detailing of cancer treatment by pointlessly referencing the technical terms
for each medical procedure ensures
that the presentation of this illness
is neither emotive nor dramaticallyenthralling.
Despite these reservations, this production has clarity in its storytelling
and deserved confidence in its performances which are rare qualities in
Cambridge am-dram.
Oliver O’Shea
The
Thursday, February 25, 2010
CambridgeStudent
Theatre|19
The Bald Prima Donna
Oliver O’Shea sums up
how theatre ticket pricing
is costing am-dram
productions their audiences
Photo: Julia Lichnova-Dinan
Corpus Playroom,
Lateshow
9.30pm Tues 23rd-Sat 27th
February
Eugene Ionesco dir. Amrou Al-Kadhi and
Francesca Warner
★★★★☆
One hardly knows what to expect
from an absurdist Romanian play
inspired by the non sequiturs of foreign language phrasebooks. Ionesco’s
script - a self-proclaimed ‘anti-play’ sways from the banal to the absurd,
imbued with mechanical characters
and a sheer lack of meaning, yet
Al-Kadhi and Warner’s vivacious
production is to be commended for
impressive, often hilarious performances from an unusual script.
Why do we tend to be less apprehensive about experiencing drama in
translation than prose or – particularly – poetry? Why are Greek tragedies the only texts in translation
tolerated by the English Tripos? Why
do English audiences value Chekhov
and Ibsen just as highly as Shakespeare
even if the language barrier means we
can’t judge them in their fullness?
At some level, it’s down to some
hard-wired link between the two disciplines. The act of translation is its
own little drama. It’s an attempt to
bring
together two ways of
thinking
which
 
 
   
 
  
 

descent into insanity powerfully
engaged the audience, and partially
redeemed a rushed climax, in which
some of the actors frantically slurred
the play’s maddest lines.
The set was impressive in its details: bizarre teapots, clocks showing
different times and a picture of Queen
Victoria maintained a caricaturistic,
skewed Englishness throughout the
play.
Paired with well-chosen costumes
and music, the maid who winds up
her masters like clockwork dolls and
tilts empty frames that she then uses
as mirrors all crafted precisely the
quaint, unsettling backdrop the original play demands.
The audience’s unanimous laughter was testimony to this play’s final
success
Julia Lichnova-Dinan
At first, actors struggled to create
distinct characters while responding
to the play’s absurdist demands. Mrs
Smith’s (Isabella Baynham-Herd)’s
opening speech, though communicative, lacked vigour; Mr Smith (Yonni
Allen) was trapped by his props and
initially under-delivered; Jeremy Evans was amusing as Mrs Martin, but
did not deviate from a perpetually
frantic centre.
A script that demands actors to
cover every emotion from indifference to fury to overwhelming love
in mere seconds asks not for realism
but for a certain self-convinced madness. Characters swiftly improved
throughout the play, however, as Allen upped his mad eccentricity and
Baynham-Herd shone as the flustered, excitable housewife. Mr Martin (Pierre Novellie)’s impeccable
comic timing and emphatic interactions with everything on stage struck
not only the absurd notes but also the
play’s funniest harmonies.
enshrine often-conflicting values,
working to reach a compromise between fidelity and creativity. Consider
how frequently plays rely on misinterpretation of what others are saying, or
characters’ failure to translate their
thoughts into words.
Of course, many playwrights appreciate this link bring issues of translation into the limelight.
This week, the Corpus Playroom
presents The Bald Prima Donna, a
play so fiendish that my English copy
almost gives up, apologising on one
occasion for a particularly ‘flabby’
rendering. This didn’t seem to stop
Ionesco himself writing versions both
in Romanian and French. Whichever
language the play is performed in, it
seems to be translated just beyond
the comprehension of the audience.
Ionesco was inspired by the pompous,
inauthentic sentences that he encoun-
about rabbits and gardens ;
tered when learning English: when his
however, it ignores
audience hears about better
the sense of ‘du
quality mayonnaise and
 
lait dans un
green eiderdowns,
 
palais’, reeven in their own
   
placing
language, the sen 
it with ‘a
sation is similar
  
crab in
to confrontation
 
a lab’ to
with an unknown

mainlanguage.
tain
You’d imagine that the
the
play’s spiffingly British middleclass setting is slightly less surreal in rhyme. But, given that
English than in French, but their lan- ‘lapin’ and ‘jardin’ rhyme, why
guage is so absurd that it feels just as not ignore sense there too? Ionesco
takes translators’ greatest opporforeign to us.
As the play goes on, it relies increas- tunity, that there are no fixed rules,
ingly on gleefully meaningless phrases: and turns it into a curse. The play is
translating them imposes meaning untranslatable.
onto them which they don’t necessarIt’s not simply a matter of being
ily have. My edition translates ‘J’aime ‘lost in translation’ – it’s not clear what
mieux tuer un lapin que de chanter there is to be lost in the first place.
dans le jardin’ literally as a statement
Jack Belloli
Al-Kadhi and Warner’s
vivacious production is
to be commended for
impressive often
hilarious performances
Secondary roles appeared undefined: Mary (Leah Betts) was pleasingly coy, but did not develop and the
Fire Chief (Andrew Holland) offered
a compromised act throughout.
Excellent staging, particularly in
storytelling scenes, saved these weaker performances. The play’s gradual
Lost in Translation
It saddens me as an audience member
and theatre reviewer to see talented
actors in Cambridge sometimes performing to virtually empty auditoriums. Our University has a highly
active amateur dramatic theatre
scene with over 45 different productions produced last term alone, all
competing for an audience. Low attendance of theatre is due to numerous factors, one of which is ticket
pricing. If the most ardent of theatregoers had desired (for some inexplicable and perverse reason) to see every
show produced last term, that would
have cost them at least £225, at £5 for
every ticket. Yet students can see professional productions for the price of
£5 at their local regional theatres, such
as at York Theatre Royal. Why should
one pay the same price to see am-dram
theatre as professional theatre, when
the quality will inevitably, and understandably, be inferior?
If one decides to go to the ADC on
a Saturday, some productions will set
you back an unbelievable £10: one
can see a world class production at
the National Theatre with a Travelex
ticket for the same price. Although
professional producing theatre (i.e.
not commercial theatre) is subsidised
by taxpayers, which allows them to
keep ticket prices low, the production
values, and consequently their costs,
are considerably higher than amateur dramatic productions. Besides,
Cambridge’s am-dram societies are
effectively subsidised anyway – so why
should they be expected to break even
at the box office? Other societies in
Cambridge are not expected to recuperate their costs, so why should theatre societies?
Based on my convictions, amdram theatre in Cambridge should be
priced at a maximum of £5, and producers should aim to set their prices
lower than this. By keeping production costs reined in, and thinking creatively, producers can feel confident in
offering £4 tickets, as my production
of Frozen is doing, without making a
loss. Ultimately, in theatre the actor
has primacy in telling the story; set and
costumes are subordinate to the actor.
I’d much rather see a brilliantly-acted
play than an expensively-produced
and expensively-priced flop.
FROZEN runs from Weds 10th – Fri 12th
March, at Robinson College Auditorium, 8pm.
More Online
Medics’ Revue (ADC Lateshow)
The Footlights Comedy Fest (Arts
Theatre)
ADC Footlights Smoker
http://www.tcs.cam.ac.uk/category/
issue/theatre/
The
20|Film
CambridgeStudent
Thursday, February 25, 2010
A euphemism for an awful film
Thom Jenkins argues that this adaptation of Alice Sebold’s novel is both a moral and an artistic failure
The Lovely Bones
2hr 15mins, 12A
★☆☆☆☆
Photo: www.image.net
The film The Lovely Bones, in contrast with the best-selling novel by
Alice Sebold, only briefly depicts the
rape and murder of a fourteen yearold girl, before shifting focus to her
happily-ever-after life.
Susie Salmon (Saoirse Ronan), the
young victim, narrates her story as
she makes her way towards heaven
passing slowly through an impressively grotesque CGI world called
the ‘in-between’.
You might think it impossible to
handle child rape and murder in a
family friendly manner while respecting the painfully sad subject
matter. You’d be right. Why Peter
Jackson, the film’s director, thought
it was a good idea to give it a go is
beyond all comprehension. His attempt is as clumsy and offensive as a
coprophagic bear riding a diarrhoeic
bull in a china shop.
The parallels between Susie’s father (Mark Wahlberg) and Mr Harvey (Stanley Tucci), her murderer,
are particularly strange and slightly
sickening.
Their common interest in scale
modelling only adds to the confusion created by Wahlberg’s rather
inept portrayal of a grieving father,
which at times unexpectedly (and
one can only assume unintentionally) verges on the comedic.
The moment at which he accuses
his octogenarian neighbour of his
daughter’s murder because the old
man happens to wear adult diapers
is just plain silly.
There are a handful of good performances, however. Ronan exercises a lightness of touch and a certain
eerie innocence that is deserving of
praise, even if her faux American accent is grating at times.
Tucci’s neighbourhood weirdo is
expertly restrained and extremely
creepy, if a little caricatured (as far
as it is possible to caricature a pae-
dophilic serial killer). And, Susan
Sarandon’s all too brief appearances
on screen as Susie’s grandmother is
delightful. She’s Mrs Doubtfire with
more than a dash of Cruella de Vil.
Her whirlwind entrance does, however, seem like the trailer for a different, much better, film.
Sarandon’s role is to hold the
family together during their poorly
-examined crisis, and she becomes
something of a confidant for the
surviving Salmon children. For
instance, Susie’s younger brother,
Buckley (Christian Thomas Ashdales), reveals to his grandmother
that he thinks Susie is in the “inbetween”. We can surely forgive
a child for such imaginations but
what about ourselves, an audience
of adults? What about Jackson and
Sebold?
Jackson believes it is the “curiously
comforting” nature of his adaptation
that allowed him to make the film.
However, having Susie “alive in [her]
own perfect world” hugely undermines the gravity of her murderer’s
crime and her family’s loss.
Worst of all is when Susie later talks
about “the moment when we choose
to go.” It is perhaps understandable
that Sebold, a victim of rape herself,
would seek to empower those that
did not survive their ordeals with
some semblance of choice.
However, this comes at a heavy
cost. Susie was raped. She was murdered. She had no choice. As far as
anyone can tell she will never smile,
dream or choose again.
Hollywood may not have allowed
Jackson to make that film, but there
can be no justification for this sloppy,
sickly and patronising piece. Jackson
should have known that even those
prepared to accept paedophilia, rape
and murder as artistic curiosities,
would never seek to be comforted
by them.
Towards the end of the film Sarandon inadvertently delivers an
insightful piece of self-criticism
when she asks her daughter (Susie’s
mother – Rachel Weisz): “Do you
really think that if you seal it up,
the pain will go away?” Sealing the
rape and murder of a child in the
golden cornfields, lush pastures and
sparkling lakes of the in-between is
to ignore the power of the Salmon
family’s story.
In this way, and in common with
Mr Salmon’s bottled ships and Mr
Harvey’s dolls’ houses, The Lovely
Bones becomes a much scaled down
version of what it is meant to be.
whose nickname literally means
‘the gambler,’ but is more accurately
translated as ‘the show-off/highroller,’ is down his luck and plans to
rob a casino to pay off his debts (the
plot will be familiar to anyone who
has seen Ocean’s Eleven).
The motivations of all involved
are slowly revealed to build the tension up for the final heist, which is
achingly and surprisingly resolved.
However, the real attraction of the
film is its style and commitment to
fun. Like all Melville films, everyone
is snappily dressed in trenchcoats
and suits, and Melville has a lot of
fun with the men-on-a-mission aspect of the preparations for the job.
Where not to start?
Le Samourai is one of Melville’s most
famous films and typifies everything
about his style. It’s a cool, detached,
and very methodical story about a
cool, detached, and methodical hitman (Alain Delon), who is doublecrossed by his employers. While it’s
a brilliant exercise in aesthetics and
style, it’s also a very cold film which
can make it difficult to identify with,
and even Melville fans may find it
difficult to love.
The Lovely Bones is now showing
at the Arts Picturehouse and at Vue
Cinemas
Introductions to Great Film-makers Jean-Pierre Melville
Who is he?
Born Jean-Pierre Grumbach, an
Alastian Jew, Melville became a
quintessentially French director,
while remaining in love with American culture and cinematic conventions. Having fought in the Second
World War in the French Resistance,
and having been involved with
street gangs in Paris in his youth,
Melville, who renamed himself after
the author of Moby Dick, was a rare
crime and action film maker who
had lived the life that his cinematic
characters lived. This gave his films
about criminals and the Resistance,
both a realism and poignancy that
his rivals lacked.
Why should I watch his films?
Melville, above all else, had a superb
handle on how to construct a great
thriller and to make the audience
care about seemingly unlikeable
characters: hitmen, robbers, and
gamblers.
However, Melville’s crime and war
films went beyond genre conventions, examining the lives of these
men philosophically. Most of Melville’s films revolve around themes
of fate and honour, with a bleak
view of life and the inevitablity of
death, all shot in impeccable style.
Melville’s best films are about
characters doomed by their previous choices and current situations,
no matter how often they do the
right thing.
Revealing more than just thrills,
Melville’s films paid homage to the
American ‘noir’ genre while surpassing both its look and its worldweary philosophy. His greatest film
was undoubtedly his brilliant meditation on the French Resistance,
Army of Shadows, a brutal and unsentimental look at what it meant to
be a résistant.
Where to start?
Bob le Flambeur, unlike many of
Melville’s other thrillers, is relatively
unphilosophical and is much warmer than many of his thrillers. Bob,
Next Steps..
Army of Shadows, Un Flic, Le Cercle Rouge, Les Enfants terribles, Le
Silence de la mer
The
Thursday, February 25, 2010
CambridgeStudent
Film|21
A bright future behind them
Will Ghosh casts an eye over the history of child stars and asks if Saoirse Ronan’s success will be temproary
Three examples of great
child acting which you
won’t have seen
1) Bertil Guve in Fanny and
Alexander
Adored by critics and fans alike,
Ingmar Bergman’s five-hour masterpiece is nowhere near as hard
work as it sounds, and at its centre
is a glassy-eyed boy, about twelve:
baffled, scared and occasionally entranced by the world around him.
Guve’s great strength is that his almost constant silence never turns
into detachment or boredom; he is
always painfully involved in watching and listening the scene around
him. As his initial happiness ebbs
away and he and his sister fall into
the hands of a cold, brutal pastor,
it is the few moments when we see
into his mind which give life to the
tragedy of the middle passages and
the exuberance of the ending.
Photo: www.image.net
Adolescence, as a rule, does not treat
actors kindly. Stars who have made
their name as the poster girls and
boys of one or, at best, two films find
the going increasingly tough when
their voice drops a tone and their
looks develop beyond the cute, the
unthreatening.
Miley Cyrus found this out to her
cost when she posed for a so-called
‘nude’ photo for Annie Leibovitz
- the transformation from tweenqueen to young woman causing
scandal amongst the very demographic to which studios market her
films (and posters, and lunchboxes,
and dolls).
Perhaps the most tragic example
of this phenomenon is the now little-known Bobby Driscoll, winner
of an Academy Award aged twelve
and the first actor signed long-term
to Walt Disney animation.
Driscoll, unlike most child-stars,
made a number of hits for the studio, most notably Song of the South,
and its sequel So Dear to My Heart,
and yet left Disney aged 16, no longer of any use to them after acne had
ravaged his looks. Fifteen years on,
his body was buried in a mass grave.
After years of substance abuse nobody recognised his corpse.
All of this might seem a bit morbid, and it’s worth remembering that
a good number of child actors simply carve out successful new careers
elsewhere, but the fact remains that
very few survive the journey to bigscreen, adult stardom. Those that
do – Jodie Foster, Kirsten Dunst and
Drew Barrymore for example – tend
to be very talented, very photogenic
or very lucky.
Saoirse Ronan certainly seems
to belong to the first category. Her
performance as Briony Tallis in
Joe Wright’s Atonement garnered
a string of plaudits. But just what
made it so good? And is she well
equipped to confront the transition
into adult success?
Firstly, and most importantly,
Ronan is an actor and not a star
(though much could change). Her
performance in Atonement was
sharp and self-involved - it was not
cute. She singularly avoided all the
usual pitfalls of the child actor, most
notably she was neither too wise to
be a convincing child, nor too juvenile to be a convincing character.
Thirteen year-olds are not usually
sage and prophetic, but nor are they
soft-headed dribbling innocents.
Rather, she trod a difficult, precarious tightrope.
Children are rarely the sole protagonists of films for adults. The
dramatic possibilities of a child
normally concern the way in which
they perceive and interact with the
adult world around them. Ronan
was asked to maintain a balance
whereby she understood most of
what went on around her, even (or
indeed particularly) the sexualised
aspect of it.
Yet she did not quite have the maturity to deal with this understanding; to differentiate, in her mind, between what the letter she intercepts
means (James fancies Keira) and
what it doesn’t mean (McAvoy is a
sex-obsessed rapist).
Of course, you could argue that
the strength of her performance lies
in the writing, in the character McEwan created, but this is only half
the story.
Her interpretation brings out a
beautiful coexistence of breathless
excitement at what she perceives to
be a conspiracy, and calm arrogance
at what she thinks she’s understood.
It is this sensitivity to the conflicts
and complexities of character which
any actor must display, on stage or
on screen, to be successful; and it is a
transferable skill, not dependant on
an unbroken voice or a pretty face.
2) Giuseppe Sulfaro in Malena
On the basis that you’ve probably
already met the almost unbearably
sweet Salvatore Cascio (‘that kid
from Cinema Paradiso’) this is a
performance from a later and more
deeply flawed film by the same director. However, Sulfaro is fascinatingly angular, almost disgusting, as
he portrays the first sexual obsession
of a boy, stalking Monica Bellucci,
and ogling her through a hole in her
wall as she tries to use her body to
escape the poverty and perils of fascist Italy.
3) Alok Chakravarty in Apur Sansar
(The World of Apu)
Actually, all of the children Satyajit
Ray used in filming his mesmerising
Apu trilogy deserve the widest accolades, but Chakravarty stands out for
communicating the savage wildness
of children, as well as the breadth of
their heart. The final scene where he
dallies – almost coyly – before rushing into an ending which seemed
inevitable yet fragile, lodges itself in
the mind, and stays there.
There are plenty more fish in the sea
Raymond Li finds the story of the latest release from Studio Ghibli cute but underwhelming
Ponyo
1hr 40mins, U
★★★☆☆
Hayao Miyazaki has been hailed in
the Western media as the Japanese
Walt Disney. After Spirited Away
and Princess Mononoke expectations for this film were high. Sadly
Ponyo falls flat.
This story is almost a clone of The
Little Mermaid: Ponyo is a goldfish
with a girl’s face. She is desperate
to escape her overprotective father,
Fujimoto, and desires to become
human. She starts a new friendship with a boy called Sosuke and
causes mischief in her father’s ship.
Suddenly the forces of nature are
in flux, her life is under threat and
only Sosuke’s love for Ponyo can
save her and the world.
There are elements of innocence
and naivety that are very endearing. The romance story is a tale of
puppy love and, as with Miyazaki’s
previous films, there are lots of
sweet characters to coo over. Ponyo’s smaller sisters resemble cute
hand puppets and even her father’s
oily, blob-like henchmen are adorable in their own way.
Indeed, watching Ponyo is like
seeing all your favourite cuddly
toys come alive. The hand-drawn
animation captures Miyazaki’s love
of natural beauty and the storm
scene where Ponyo jumps from
one tsunami to another to see Sosuke is spectacular. Think of the
Guinness advert with the waves
but with giant tunas instead of galloping horses. However, the story is
predictable. There is no real sense
of impending danger or genuine
conflict. Of course Ponyo’s life is
threatened and nature is breaking
apart but you know how it’s going
to end. There are hints at the clash
between nature and mankind but
they go no further than Fujimoto’s
grumbling about mankind.
At certain points, the story telling is rather awkward and random.
Ponyo’s mother does not fit in the
story and her importance is never
explained. In another scene, Fujimoto tells Susoke that he must
pass a test or otherwise “the moon
will fall to the earth!” Cue the camera zooming out in melodramatic
fashion, which prompted laughter
from the audience.
Perhaps I’m just not part of its
target audience. And yet, other
children’s animations such as Up
and Finding Nemo have proved you
can transcend the genre and make
great films. Ponyo misses that mark
but it’s one to see if you can’t resist
cute and cuddly characters.
Ponyo is now showing at the Arts
Picturehouse
The
22|Music
THE SCENE
What’s On This Week
TOWN
TOWN
CambridgeStudent
TCS checks out the latest albums
GOWN
Robin Tritschler, tenor and
Joseph Middleton, piano
Music from Brahms, Tchaikovsky and others
Pembroke College, The Old
Library, 8pm, £4 students
Photo: Tim Cochrane
Bejamin Britten – A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Opera
St Giles Castle Street, 8pm,
£6 students (also running on
the 26th)
Saturday 27 February
DJ Yoda
The Junction, 10pm, £10
Sunday 28 February
Saturday 27 February
Holst Singers:
Rachmaninov Vespers
Trinity College Chapel, 7pm,
Free
Temirzhan Yerzahnov
Piano Recital
Music from Chopin and
Sekebaev
Bateman Auditorium,
Gonville and Caius College,
7.30pm, £7 students
CCMS Presents:
Carmena Burana
Great St Mary’s, 7.30pm, £5
students
Ocean Colour Scene
Corn Exchange, 7pm, £22.50 Lady Francis Singers:
‘Drop, drop, slow tears’ –
Reflective Music for Lent
Sunday Coffee Concert:
Jesus College Chapel,
A Portrait of David Lang
8.30pm, Free
Azalea performs his 2003
work ‘Child’
Sunday 28 February
Kettle’s Yard, noon, £4
students
KCMS Lent Concert:
Mozart’s Requiem Mass
Monday 1 March
King’s College Chapel, 8pm,
Free
Tinchy Stryder
Corn Exchange, 7.30pm,
CU Chinese Orchestra Soci£14.30
ety Annual Concert
Prelude to Spring
Nick Harper and Paper
West Road Concert Hall,
Aeroplanes
7.30pm, £7 students
The Junction, 7pm, £10
Wednesday 3 March
Beverley Kills
Portland Arms, 8pm, £4
Jill Souble
The Junction, 7pm, £12
Boomslang
The Junction, 10pm, Sold
Out
Want to see your
event here?
Email music@tcs.
cam.ac.uk
(Island, 2010)
The Family Jewels
(679, 2010)
Friday 26 February
Cambridge Graduate Orchestra Plays: Stravinsky and
Wagner
West Road Concert Hall,
8pm, £5 students
Thom Yorke
Corn Exchange, 7.30pm,
Sold Out
Ocean Eyes
Marina and the
Diamonds
Owl City
Editors’ Pick
Thursday 25 February
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Caius Jazz VI
Nigel Hitchcock and Ralph
Salmins
Caius Bar, 8.30, £3
Monday 1 March
Newnham Raleigh Music
Society Concert
World Premier of Gary
Higginson’s ‘Six Birds’
Newnham College, 8.30pm,
Free
Tuesday 2 March
Scatpack
Jazz a cappella
ADC Theatre, 11pm, £5
students
★★★☆☆
★★★☆☆
The meteoric rise to global fame that Adam Young has achieved in
the past six months has primarily been through his unstoppable
hit ‘Fireflies’ which has reached No.1 in seven different countries.
This track is certainly testament to Young’s ability as a songwriter but a listen of his major label debut Ocean Eyes seems
to suggest that there is really only one song that he can write.
The moniker ‘Owl City’ is itself suggestive of what to expect from his music; an expansive, nocturnal sound created from layers of programmed synths and loops.
Essentially, ‘Ocean Eyes’ is a paean to lost innocence and Young’s sheltered childhood in Minnesota, alongside his diagnosed insomnia, fuels the music.
Images of whimsy and fantasy are conjured in tracks
such as ‘Umbrella Beach’ and ‘The Bird and the Worm’.
Yet these lyrics, as with the music itself, often fall on the
trite side; ‘The stars lean down to kiss you; I lie awake
and miss you’ is the opening couplet in ‘Vanilla Twilight’.
However, the elephant in Young’s room is the remarkable
similarity to Death Cab For Cutie’s side project, The Postal
Service. While the two acts contain similarly derived electronic beats and bleeps, not to mention the almost identical vocal timbre of Young and Ben Gibbard, the latter’s music
holds a musical and lyrical depth that Young never dares to
venture into. Yet given time and an opportunity to escape the
confines of his hometown, the promise shown by the fantastic ‘Fireflies’ may evolve into something of worthy excitement.
James Partridge
Introducing...
MF Doom
Who: Multi-Pseudonym New
York Rapper
Genre: Dali-esque Hip-Hop
With an endless back catalogue, Long Island rapper Doom (real name Daniel Dumile) shouldn’t
need introducing. Yet even those of you who appreciate the fact that the Hip-Hop genre doesn’t
require an inexplicable appearance by T-Pain
would probably struggle to place the name.
Musically, 90s ‘alternative’ rap groups like The
Pharcyde only ever really dipped into the surreal
world Doom inhabits. His is a Dali-esque HipHop, where mentions of Lord Acton precede
three headed golden dragon space monsters. And
yet in some weird way it all seems to make sense.
I challenge anyone to find a more concise critique
of the ‘War on Terror’ than on Doom’s 2004 masterpiece ‘Strange Ways’. Instrumentally Doom
produces a lot of his own stuff and his sound is
unsurprisingly similar to a lot of Stonesthrow releases (think J Dilla with a lot more dialogue samples). Give it a go. Hopefully it’ll dispel that T-Pain
induced feeling that Hip-hop is dead and buried.
Nathanael Arnott-Davies
More Online
Rhys Cater takes you on a tour of
the music blogosphere
www.tcs.cam.ac.uk/category/issue/
music/
She is Marina and we, the listeners, are her diamonds, Marina
Diamandis’ MySpace reliably informs me. She is at pains to
stress that The Diamonds are not her backing band like a certain
Florence’s Machine for instance. Nevertheless, it’s tough to find
a review for The Family Jewels which doesn’t draw parallels to
Florence Welch. No doubt the comparison is already wearing a
little thin for Marina. With our fondness for pigeonholing she’s
unlikely to escape it anytime soon, try as she might.
And try she does, perhaps too hard. Her distinctive warbling
vocals certainly attract attention; singles like ‘Hollywood’ standout on Radio One’s daytime playlist. Yet a thirteen track album
is a whole different proposition. It’s only a matter of time before
the yelps of “Wahhhhhh ho ho ho” begin to grate. She should
have taken the ‘less is more’ approach – she sings “Y-EEEEEESSSS” on ‘Mowglis Road’ when just “Yes” would have been fine.
It’s a doubly disappointing because the lyrics are often humorous but succumb to schizophrenic delivery.
The record does possess a certain charm however. Her breakthrough single ‘I Am Not a Robot’ makes an appearance, demonstrating how to negotiate the balance between quirky and tryhard. Also, it’s likely that ‘Are You Satisified’ will match the chart
success ‘Hollywood’ has already achieved.
Listened to in short bursts, The Family Jewels is a decent
enough pop record. It’s just not as offbeat as it desperately wants
to be. It’s more workmanlike than machine-powered. And on
this evidence, Florence has no cause for concern.
Adam Whitehead
e
tap
x
i
M
S
TC
Songs in a Foreign
Language
Listen to this week’s Spotify playlist
to cheer yourself up:
www.tcs.cam.ac.uk/
category/issue/music/
Next week’s theme is Instrumentals and we want
your ideas. Send your suggestions to
music@tcs.cam.ac.uk and you might see your tunes
in next week’s mix.
1. Movits! - Fel del av gården
“Django guitar, windy street swing; music for both art directors and for
your mother.”
2. CéU - Rainha
A beautiful juxtaposition, CéU brings together classical Brazilian elements, jazz, and modern indie sounds.
3. Malian Musicians - Makelekele
Damon Albarn has written a Chinese Opera, been in two groundbreaking challenging bands, and recorded this album to promote Malian
Musicians’ brilliant, danceable pop, and yet some people still think that
Oasis vs. Blur is an argument. Anyway, this is brilliant.
4. Manu Chao - Me gustas tú
Of Mano Negra fame, Chao speaks over 6 languages. Eat you hearts out
MMLers.
5. Jeanette - Porqué te vas?
The ‘theme’ song to Spanish director Saura’s unsettling film ‘Cría Curvos’, Jeanette’s dreamy voice is disturbingly discordant with the harsh
realities of the film. Context aside, it’s an addictive song.
6. Sigur Rós - Glósóli
Magnificent in its ambiance. Lyrics in Icelandic, unlike on their brackets
album where Sigur Rós use an entirely constructed language.
7. HaBanot Nechama - So Far / Lihot
So Far/Lihot builds and falls wonderfully for such a simply constructed
song - let the words wash over you.
8. Antonio Carlos Jobim - Águas de Março
This calming Brazilian tune celebrates the “Waters of March” and the
rest of the natural world, and was voted the best Brazilian song of all
time in 2001 by Brazilian music critics and musicians.
The
Thursday, February 25, 2010
CambridgeStudent
Music|23
Soulfully stylish: The Noisettes bring class to Cambridge
Cambridge Corn Exchange
23rd February
★★★★★
thought.
The show really gets underway,
however, when the band launch into
‘24 Hours’, especially when Shoniwa
chops Cambridge into the lyrics,
much to the delight of the crowd.
This is followed-up by the glam and
glittering fast-paced ‘Saturday Night’.
At this point, it becomes clear that the
and seemingly reminiscent of times
past, it feels more like an
interlude or an after-
Raw but Professional
Patrick Kane finds Los Campesinos! a cut above the rest
★★★★★
Photo: courtesy of The Junction
Sunday’s gig at the Junction was notable for a number of reasons. Notably, it confirmed that there is such a
thing as a middle-class twee mosh pit
(much to the distress of the unwitting
5 foot girls that had wandered to the
front). Importantly, however, it con-
Noisettes thrive on their upbeat numbers.
It’s also at this point that Shoniwa’s
legs seem to become divorced from
her body, and wave and wobble before
dragging her across stage. Distinctive
and enchanting voice aside, she’s also
an incredible performer. “Thank you
Cambridge for bringing an amazing
hot vibe on such a cold day” she grins
at us. Dressed in a black corset, shorts
and leggings, with a glittery banana
pinned to her
hair,
she exudes
both
classiness
and fun.
Which
pretty much summarises the show.
Guitarist Dan Smith bounds around
the stage with equal enthusiasm and
the backing singers wiggle their way
through the set. The music moves
from soft sixties rock ’n roll to the
occasional soulful ballad. ‘Scratch
Your Name’ turns up the guitar as the
Noisettes show off their early work
with its rock-punk roots, much to the
bemusement of the crowd.
Well-known single, ‘Don’t Upset
The Rhythm’, is perhaps the defining
moment of the set, as the audience
ecstatically chants along and Shoniwa
bends her knees and collapses backwards into her most flexible pose yet.
Set-closer ‘Never Forget You’
seemss a fitting ending, both lyrically
and musically, in its encapsulation of
the sixties vibe of the evening. But
with stylish lamplights, one costume
change for Shoniwa and repeated
appreciation of the audience, the
Noisettes are a band that do things
properly.
And so we’re treated to an encore,
in which Shoniwa leans backwards
precariously over the balcony for
the contemplative love song ‘Attitcus’. “You need that burning fire in
your soul to know you’re still alive”,
she sings. There’s no doubt that the
Noisettes have fire in their souls. It’s
impossible not to enjoy a band that
are enjoying their music this much.
Bring on another killer album. And
of course, another tour.
Phoebe Amoroso
crowd over by the end. Constant instrument swapping led to a disjointed
performance, but the incredible sight
and sounds of three drummers playing in a unique style that can only be
described as a cross between Morris
dancing and musicianship makes up
for this - just. The melodies are nonexistent, the vocals are fleeting, but
Eyelets are an experience if nothing
else.
Swanton Bombs were a refreshing
change. Performing as a two piece
live is a ballsy move, but it worked
brilliantly. With clear influences such
as Billy Bragg and The Clash, Dominic McGuinness shone as he delivered rough vocals with blues-tinged
guitar riffs. The limelight, however,
was firmly fixed on drummer Brendan Heaney as he played with the
skill of Buddy Rich and the intensity
of Animal. (Top tip for prospective
superstar drummers: take off all unnecessary clothing by your second
track. Goes down well with the girls,
while the guys know you’re serious.)
Their lead single “Viktoria” is memorable if not catchy, with a great shouty
chorus. Certainly one to watch.
Los Campesinos! were quite simply a cut above. Romance Is Boring,
their third album release, has garnered critical acclaim as the band
have reached that wonderful middle ground that most acts yearn to
achieve: the polish of professionalism
yet still remaining wonderfully raw
when needs be. Gareth Campesinos
is guaranteed to have a witty lyric or
a piercing, in your face statement or
a thought that belies his years, while
the songs are just as infectious as ever.
The orchestral element is stripped
down on stage, but the beautiful violin parts in ‘The Sea Is A Good Place
To Think Of The Future’ remain.
The atmosphere within the Junction was electric: the crowd seemed
to love the selections from the back
catalogue chosen, even if they were
unfamiliar with the new material. It’s
rare to feel so involved with an act at
a concert but there’s no real division
between the masses and the band:
while some kept up their professional
composure, a few band members
were beaming as the crowd took up
vocal duties on numerous tracks.
The mood changes from twee to
sombre to bitter and back again without delay or difficulty, and the trusty
(if much maligned) glockenspiel
provides an able accompaniment to
proceedings. The immature, Rousseau-referencing ‘You! Me! Dancing!’ seems like it was plucked from
a John Hughes movie, full of happiness, ignorance and bliss. Most bands
would kill for a closer such as ‘Sweet
Dreams, Sweet Cheeks’: fully encompassing the Welsh septet’s ideology to
have a good time and throwing in a
few naughty lines on the way.
Claps echo around the venue.
Hands placed in the air gesture in
time with the music. The chorus is
sung and repeated by a few hundred
revellers.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is what
real pop music is all about.
Patrick Kane
Photo: Courtesy of SJM Concerts
It’s hardly a secret that the Noisettes’
frontwoman Shingai Shoniwa has a
phenomenal voice and sure enough,
tonight confirmed that the Noisettes
are just as good on stage as they are
on record. What was surprising,
however, was the quality of the support acts.
First up tonight is singer-songwriter Tinashé. With just him, his guitar
and a drummer, it looks set to be a
rendition of sleepy acoustic music.
Not so. Tinashé’s voice is clear and
powerful, and the enthusiasm and
impeccable timing of the duo carries
the set. It’s barely 7.30pm and they’re
raising cheers. The music is pure pop
but its simplicity and its earnestness
make it highly appealing. This won’t
be the last you hear of Tinashé.
Yet if I had to bet on the next big
thing, follow-up act Tiffany Page
would be it. Strolling onto stage with
her band, she shakes her hips, shakes
a maraca and flicks her hair in an
oh-so-consciously sexy movement,
before breathily singing “Hello Officer, I need some assistance” from her
opening song ‘Police’. It’s pop-rock,
it’s very catchy pop-rock and she’s
hot. Need I say more?
It’s not anything new. Throughout
the set, Page moves from a rockier
version of Natalie Imbruglia to a lesscountry version of Shania Twain, and
her song ‘7 Years Too Late’ would be
The Corrs if only there were a violin
in the line-up. It doesn’t matter. Her
voice has a raw quality that gives the
music a fresh edge.
Finally though, the lights dim, the
shiny backdrop is lit in silver and pink
and the silhouetted Noisettes strut on
stage and pose. Then the intro music dies, wind chimes sound and the
band opens with ‘Sometimes’. Also
the opener on their second album
Wild Young Hearts, it’s
an odd choice.
Sleepy
firmed that Los Campesinos! have
finally transformed into a serious
musical behemoth, both on record
and live.
Support came from the intriguing Eyelets and local band Swanton
Bombs. Intriguing is the only word to
describe the former due to his woeful
vocabulary, but the band have to be
seen to be believed. The four-piece’s
attempt to mix elements of shoegaze,
insanity and electronica into a workable package flopped for the first half
of their set but surprisingly won the
The
24|Food
CambridgeStudent
Thursday, February 25, 2010
“Why don’t you get out of those wet clothes
and into a dry martini?”
During these grim, grey days The Cambridge Student drowns its sorrows
Tom Michaelis and Michael Peacock brave filthy hangovers in
order to find exactly where best to begin when it comes to gin
We tasted several gins based on two
key drinks for any gin fan: the classic
Gin and Tonic, and the Martini.
Our exact mixing ratios were:
Gin and tonic:
2 shots of gin
2 ice cubes
2 slices of lime (1 to squeeze in, 1 to
garnish)
Tonic water to fill
Martini:
2 shots of gin
1 capful of martini
Shake over ice
Sainsbury’s Dry London Gin
37.5% (Cheapest price £12.65 per
litre).
Despite being the cheapest gin we
tasted, it performed reasonably well
in a gin and tonic. Light and inoffensive was one opinion, the other being drinkable but dull. In a martini,
it fared much worse with a strong
chemical flavour.
We agreed it was a waste of vermouth and neither of us could bring
ourselves to take a second sip.
Gordon’s
37.5% (Cheapest price £18.91 per
litre; at time of writing it was on special offer at Sainsburys if you bought
a litre of tonic too).
Advertised as the ‘G in G&T’, this
produced a much better gin and
tonic. We have all had many of these
as it is served in almost every pub.
One taster thought it was a much
fruitier drink with a more complex
flavour - pretentious idiot. However,
it still made a pretty bad martini.
Overall opinion - a crowd pleaser,
but still only the base line in gin.
5/10
Tanqueray Export Strength
47.3% (Cheapest price £29.01 per
litre)
Tanqueray is often put on a
par with Gordon’s but this extra strength gin is the next step up. It
has a more floral and longer lasting
taste. Another plus is that you can
not taste the extra 10% of alcohol. It
made a much more interesting martini.
Overall opinion - good gin for
getting hammered quickly, but not
worth the extra £10 per litre.
6.5/10
It has a more floral and
longer lasting taste
Hendrick’s Gin
41.4% (Cheapest Price £30.85 per
litre).
Here we deviated and added cucumber instead of lime. We should
probably come clean and admit that
we really like Hendrick’s and were
looking forward to this.
It made the best gin and tonic of
the night, full of interesting, subtle
flavours with hints of rose and cucumber. However the martini did
not have the same subtlety of flavour.
Overall impression - If you want
a quality gin and tonic, go buy this
and some cucumber. You won’t be
dissapointed.
8/10
Max Haberich mixes the perfect martini
tion is the bottled Martini. This is
only vermouth, not the ready-made
cocktail - beware of embarrassing
mistakes in front of your charming
first-year date!
Become the much
admired star of any
cocktail party
Pour the drink into a conical glass
through a sieve. Voilà, your impeccable martinis are ready, and you become the much admired star of any
cocktail party.
There is no martini orthodoxy.
Her Majesty’s most famous secret
agent took liberties with this refined
concoction while Franklin Roosevelt
added a dash of salty olive water to
make his favourite ‘dirty martini’.
So, enjoy mixing but beware the
consequences of one drink too many!
Dorothy Parker describes the potential dangers: “I like to have a martini /
Two at the very most / After three I’m
under the table / After four I’m under
the host.”
Ben Slingo makes even
a casual tipple into
something sublime
Drinking is like Wagner. I do not
mean, by this, that it must descend
into a
mead-soaked Valhallan
binge, but rather that, like a Wagnerian opera, it should be a Gesamkuntswerk, a complete and rounded
piece of art.
Just as Siegfried is literary and
theatrical as much as musical, a
tipple does not consist of a beverage
quaffed in a vacuum. What follows
is a guide to making each drink a
whole (if not a wholesome) cultural
experience.
Sherry
Being dry, even a little saline
(cream sherry is drunk only by
the senescent, and then only at parties in vicarages), it demands something austere. Drink in front of a
pale and delicate Massacio, rather
than a fleshy and lusciously coloured
Titian.
A tipple does not
consist of a beverage
quaffed in a vacuum
Photo: *clairity*
Photo: Barbloke
The Art of
Drinking
Shake It Up, Baby
Few cocktails have managed to conjure up so many legends, and, of
course, such style as the martini.
There is a complex science behind
mixing the perfect martini.
Just how much gin transports the
dry to the extra dry? What’s the correct number of olives? And, most
importantly, how do you mix the ingredients?
There are many factors to be considered, but don’t despair. Get your
bottle of vermouth ready, put your
cocktail glasses in the fridge, and take
a sip of some refreshing non-alcoholic beverage.
The classic martini, no matter what
007 may say, is never shaken. Let’s
shatter the next cliché: Bond may
need that extra drop of vodka to
keep his cool around stunning Sophie Marceau but the classic martini
is always made with gin, usually five
measures of gin to one of vermouth.
The less vermouth you add, the
drier the martini. An excellent brand
of this fine distillation is the French
Noilly-Prat.
The more student-friendly op-
Overall opinion - Good for cheap
pre-drinks (although expect a filthy
hangover)
4/10
Whisky
It’s fiery and intoxicating, to be sure,
but also glows with rigour, and taxes
in an almost intellectual way. Dostoevsky fits thus well – acrid to sample,
but full of peaty interest.
Brandy Alexander
Supremely decadent, as things
dusted with nutmeg are liable to be.
Too frivolous for literary accompaniment (Brideshead would be too
obvious, and it’s not exotic enough
for Huysmans). It is best partnered
with clothes.
You should wear black tie, but
crucially not just that : a silk dress-
ing gown à la Noël Coward adds the
vital garnishing flourish.
Supremely decadent,
as things dusted with
nutmeg are liable to be
Champagne
Sparkling; preëminent; deliciously
rich but with the elegant sparseness
of Classicism. Mozart streams effervescently to mind, and is in fact
just right. Remember that Moët et
Chandon is a little more sugary, so
avoid La clemenza di Tito and combine it with a jaunty opera buffa.
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The
26|Sports Interview
CambridgeStudent
Thursday, February 25, 2010
The Next Bog Thing
Mack Rivling, creator of Bog Snorkeling, talks to Pete Diver
“A course regarded as
the hardest”
the rest, as they say, is history!”
These days, Rivling still works for
Green, organising the competitors
who come from as far away as Australia. One such team is the Outback Irons; member Trig A. Bates
explains what the sport means to
him:
“It’s a totally different attitude.
We Aussies take sport, dare I say it,
a bit seriously, so to come to Wales
for a laugh is ideal for the more relaxed competitor.”
But bog snorkeling is far from a
Photo: Wiki Commons
Mack Rivling takes a sip of the locally brewed Sun and Star ale in the
spectacular Welsh town of Llanwrtyd Wells, and reflects on the last
thirty years of his life.
“I never thought that in 2010,
I’d be famous for being up to my
neck in dirt”, he says with a mucky
chuckle.
Rivling, 74, means it in more
ways than one. After splitting his
early adult life between performing
smutty stand up in Welsh working
men’s clubs, and working down the
mines, it was only a chance conversation in his local, The Neuadd
Arms pub, which he still frequents
today, that he discovered what
would dominate the rest of his
days.
“I remember it like it was yesterday”, says Rivling, stroking his
once fiery red beard, now bleached
white by old age.
“We’d been staring out a side
window, just after a lovely lamb
lunch, at the sheep on the moors,
and suddenly one fell straight into
a narrow, boggy trench.”
“We fall about laughing, and
then Josh [Herman, a close friend
of Rivling’s to this day], said what
a great idea it would be to see if we
could do any better.”
Later that day, the two men,
along with Gordon Green, head
of Green Events Ltd. and pioneer
of bog snorkeling as a competitive
sport, headed out into the fields.
“We hollowed out a trench, and
laughing matter. The two lengths
of the sixty-yard trench required
to complete a course are regarded
as the hardest in water sport. The
water is thick with mud and crawling with flies, and to make matters
worse, competitors are prohibited
from using conventional swimming strokes, instead utilising
flippers and a snorkel to thrash
through the water.
“You have to swim but actually that takes the form of a doggy
paddle in a snorkel, mask and flippers,” says Tay Ghetchi, an Italian
who competed for the first time
this year.
His wife Georgie explains: “Some
people also wear a wetsuit but Tay
was more macho and decided
against that. He did it in about five
minutes.” The world record currently stands under two minutes.
“He tried to get me to take part
as well but there is no way I would
do it myself. I’m emphatic about
that. “I enjoy my swimming, but in
nice warm, clean water.”
Llanwrtyd Wells, proudly named
as ‘Britain’s smallest town’, now
plays host to the World Bog Snorkeling Championships each year.
This event attracts more than 200
entrants every year and is rather
aptly sponsored by Rowntrees
Randoms.
Back on land, Green has cultivated a niche for bizarre sports,
which attract tourists all through
the summer. The season kicks off
with the Man vs. Horse triathalon,
a 22-mile marathon between runners, cyclists and horses. In 2004,
for the first time in its 25-year history, it was won by a man.
After the big race itself at the
start of July, you can go one further and ride a mountain bike
down the trench, and if you’re still
up for it, the next day you can run
ten miles, bog snorkel through the
same trench, and then take an 18
mile mountain bike ride, in the bog
snorkelling triathalon.
“We hollowed out a
trench, and the rest,
they say is history!”
For those of a more leisurely inclination, the town hosts the Real
Ale Wobble in mid-November, a
non-competitive mountain-biking
event held in conjunction with the
Mid Wales Real Ale Festival.
There are choices of 15, 25 or
40 mile courses, with half pints of
real ale to be consumed every five
miles.
The charm of the town, and excitement of the sport has rubbed
off on Cambridge students, who
hope to set up a bog snorkeling
Varsity.
“I’ve been aware of the sport for
a while”, says Jon Crook, a swimming Blue.
“We’re famous for our fens, and
are looking at locations near Ely to
hold the event.” Unsure of the reception this sport will get from the
Blues Committee he added, “It’ll
be on pretty informal terms, but
we’re still confident Oxford won’t
be able to cope!”
All this is a surprise to Rivling,
who thought bog snorkeling would
never be more than a private joke.
Will he stay involved in the sport
despite his advanced years?
“I like to keep a tab on things”, he
says with a knowing wink.
Netball edged out by powerful Oxford
Oxford
Cambridge
44
35
Oxford proved too strong for the
ladies netball Blues this week, winning 44-35 in a close contest.
The Blues were well beaten by
a well-drilled dark blue team,
who scored at a prestigious rate
throughout the game to give them
a narrow lead throughout.
Sporting a skilful line up, the
speed of the dark Blue set-up was
too much for Cambridge, feeding
quick ball to their on-form goal
shooter, Natalie Hoon.
The skills of England U19,
Emma Lonsdale proved a struggle
for the Cambridge defence. Yet
after the first quarter, with some
sharp-shooting by Jess McGeorge,
the score stood fairly level at 11-10
to Oxford.
However with a home team baying for light blue blood, Oxford
powered into a commanding lead,
23-18 by half time, Hoon proved
largely uncontrollable by the Cambridge defence.
By the final quarter, Cambridge
remained in touch, chasing a slim
five goal lead. After some clever
play by McGeorge again and Katie Marshall, the gap closed to two
points. However Oxford picked up
the pace to grab an impressive 4435 victory, Hoon netting nine baskets in the final minutes to put the
dark blues out of touch.
The sterling efforts of the Cambridge man of the match Antonia
Akoto were insufficient to give an
edge over the Other Place.
Yet the final score by no means
reflected the game, the superior
experience of higher-division Ox-
ford showing through in the end to
mask the closeness of the match.
Perhaps next year, with Cambridge on track for promotion and
Oxford sitting pretty for demotion,
their positions will be reversed.
Meanwhile the Jays beat the
Oxford Roos in the second team
Varsity, making up for their narrow defeat last year. Sarah Gill and
Anna Fries stole the show taking a
narrow victory 36-34.
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28|College Sport
College Update
Cuppers Results:
St John’s 60-10 Emma
Homerton 50-10 Hughs
Queens’ 44-21 St Edmunds
Men’s Basketball Div 1
Pld
9
8
9
9
8
9
8
8
Pts
16
14
14
12
10
8
4
4
9
Fitz
9
2
Fitz 35-97 Downing
Homerton 53-37 Chinese Culture
Society
St Catz 15-109 Hellenic soc
Women’s Hockey Div 1
1
Name
Pembroke
Pld
6
Pts
16
2
3
4
St Catz
Murray Ed
St John’s
7
6
5
16
13
8
5
6
5
6
7
Jesus
Downing
Churchill
Emma
Fitz
4
6
4
4
4
4
4
3
1
0
The University Centre was busy with
sounds of music and dancing this
Saturday, as the Dancesport Cuppers
match, run by the Cambridge Dancers’ Club, got underway. Many open
competitions in Ballroom and Latin
as well as Rock’n’Roll and Salsa culminated in a fiercely competed team
match between the colleges.
The afternoon began with the Ballroom and Latin dances. Open events
in Waltz and Quickstep, Tango, Foxtrot and Viennese Waltz were won by
the graceful Hywel Room and Olesya
Nikiforova, whilst Latin events in
Cha Cha and Jive, Rumba, Paso and
Samba were won by the hot combination, Tagbo Ilozue and Ellie Duncan. This year’s top beginners couple,
Joe Roffey and Eva Johnson, danced
all four beginners’ dances to a very
high standard, claiming all of the beginners’ prizes.
One of the highlights of the open
competitions was the ‘same-sex
Rumba’ with the Latin champions
Tagbo and Ellie separating to form
new same-sex partnerships, Tagbo
with Yuki Tokeshi and Ellie with
Olesya Nikiforova. They took to the
floor along with four other same-sex
couples and the results were sizzling.
The judges quickly chose Tagbo and
Yuki as this year’s same-sex Rumba
champions.
The Rock’n’Roll competition was
exciting to watch with many lifts and
jumps as well as accurate footwork
propelling Adrian Potter and Tori
Briggs to victory, closely followed by
a new couple who started dancing
only this year, Ben Roberts and Amy
Welmers.
Beginners were a feature of the
event, a point picked upon by Potter
who stated that “of the 14 people who
competed at cuppers, 11 of them only
started in October.
They’ve worked hard, been very
committed and it shows in the final
product”. The climax of the day came
with the team match.
The team walk-on began the proceedings, led by Churchill’s mascot,
in a dog costume, and then, with a lot
of cheering and screaming, the dancing got underway. nine teams fielded
one couple for each dance; Waltz,
Quickstep, Cha Cha and Jive.
The final competition was very
close, with Queens’ College dancers
coming in third, only just behind the
joint winners, John’s and Emmanuel.
This week’s Bumps
schedule:
THUSDAY
M4 - 14.00
W2 - 14.40
M2 - 15.20
W1 - 16.00
M1 - 16.40
FRIDAY
W3 - 13.20
M3 - 14.00
W2 - 14.40
M2 - 15.20
W1 - 16.00
M1 - 16.40
SATURDAY
Photo: Graham Stratton
St Catz’s 1-1 Murray Ed
Downing 0-7 Pemboke
Pemb Hockey go top
Due to the awful weather on Sunday
morning, this league match was provisionally cancelled because of snow
on the pitch. However, with the sun
coming up, the decision was made to
play the match one hour before the
start, and both colleges managed to
get enough players to make a team.
The match got off to a quick start with
brilliant linking play from midfield to
the forwards from Pembroke.
A quick succession of goals within
the first 25 minutes, including well
taken ones by ones by Cunningham
and Rickman, left Pembroke 6-0 up.
Downing fought hard after half time
with a number of attacks driving
down their right field for good crosses in the D. Both the Pembroke defence and midfield had to work hard
to ensure a clean sheet. A solid performance from the Downing defence
meant that only one goal was scored
in the second half, and the match finished 7-0 to Pembroke.
Philippa Dale
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Photo: Jonty Fairless
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Name
Downing
Hellenic.
Wolfson
Que./Chr.
Hughs
Jesus
Trinity
Churchill
CambridgeStudent
Emma and John’s quickstep to victory
Eleanor Winpenny
Sports Reporter
Men’s Rugby
The
M4 - 12.40
W3 - 13.20
M3 - 14.00
W2 - 14.40
M2 - 15.20
W1 - 16.00
M1 - 16.40
Wednesday’s results:
BUMPED UP BUMPED DOWN ROWED OVER
Men’s Division 1:
Women’s Division 1:
First and Third
Emmanuel
Downing
First and Third
Lady Margaret
Jesus
Clare
Downing
Pembroke
Caius
Jesus
Queens’
Trinity Hall
Christ’s
Caius
Pembroke
Emmanuel
Lady Margaret
Fitzwilliam
Clare
Magdalene
St Catharine’s
King’s
King’s
Queens’ (OB)
Churchill
Christ’s
Trinity Hall
Churchill
Selwyn
Girton
Newnham
Peterhouse (OB)
Peterhouse
Lower division boats to watch:
•
Downing M2 (overbumped Corpus Christi
M1)
•
Emmanuel M3 (overbumped Downing
M3, bumped Homerton M2)
•
Downing W2 (overbumped Emmanuel
W3, bumped Clare Hall W1)
•
First and Third W2 (bumped Darwin)
Hare and Hounds: Trinity end the year on top
Declan Murray
Sports Reporter
A mix of hail and sunshine matched
the range of results of the grand finale
of the Chris Brasher College League
on Sunday at the Selwyn Relays. The
rather poor conditions were unfortunately matched with a fairly dismal
turnout from the colleges.
However, some of the racing
showed brighter signs of promise.
The incredible effort by the one-man
Homerton team, Matt Clark completing all 16km himself certainly got
the spectators talking. Even more so
when they learned he had still managed to finish second overall only to
the ever-present leaders from Jesus.
The former Club Captain, James
Kelly, also got the crowd excited as
he made a bid on the fancy-dress
course record set a few years back by
Rich Ward in a dress! Unfortunately,
the lactic of a first leg effort and the
slippery ground put to rest Kelly’s
chances as he finished 20 seconds
adrift of the target in his commendable Superman attire.
In terms of the real racing, a consistent effort from the 2nd Division
Girton team saw them take the overall title being the first full team home
(due to invalid Jesus and Homerton
teams) largely thanks to a surprise
appearance from elusive Blues runner Aidan McGowan.
Behind them came a close race between Trinity and Magdalene with
the latter just clinching it to cement
their already secured promotion and
Division II victory.
Although, both men’s teams lagged
well behind the ladies of Trinity to
begin with, thanks to an incredibly
quick clocking by Naomi Taschimowitz, that left the boys stumbling
in her wake.
It was a commanding lead that
would remain unchallenged with
strong runs from Paulina Golec and
Joan Lasenby taking Trinity home to
a safe first spot and Women’s Division I title.
A notably absent Emmanuel squad
left the way open for the women of
Magdalene to claim second place.
The individual league titles were both
reclaimed by their current holders,
James Kelly and Polly Keen.
And so the conclusion of the
league begins to sum up what has
been a mixed year for Cambridge
running. A Varsity defeat and a nonappearance at BUCS would suggest
it has been a year of disappointment
and depression.
Yet, one need only turn to the increasingly competitive nature of the
college league to see that within the
University, running has never been
more popular.
Trinity, Emma and Magdalene are
all fighting it out in the Women’s Division, whilst underdogs Magdalene
and Girton made great strides towards the Men’s top flight taking the
scalps of Trinity, Clare and Downing
along the way.
Furthermore the season is not
over as CUH&H turn at last to the
National Cross Country Championships next weekend in Leeds where
Taschimowitz and Kelly promise to
continue to fly the flag high for the
Light Blues.
The league may be over but the
running goes on…
The
Thursday, February 25, 2010
CambridgeStudent
Sport & Comment|29
Captain Cook on a voyage of discovery
Imran Coomaraswamy
Sports Comment
Cook captained
England Under-19s
with aplomb
Arrogant perhaps, but Sehwag’s approach to press conferences is just the
natural extension of his refreshingly
no-nonsense approach to batting.
So let’s think Sehwagologically
Pietersen has looked
a shadow of his bombastic former self
Wing Commander Strauss’ absence
makes the tour a voyage of discovery
for Captain Alastair Cook, who obviously deserves his turn at the tiller
because he is a) not a bowler, b) not
South African and c) a bit posh. To
be fair to Cook, he did captain England Under-19s with aplomb and has
hardly put a foot wrong since his Test
debut as a 21 year-old, one semi-nude
photo shoot with pals Broad and Anderson aside.
As for Anderson, his knee needs a
break to prevent a breakdown, and
the Lancastrian wouldn’t have found
much swing on offer for him anyway.
That said, the pitches are unlikely to
be dustbowls and England may well
go into most of the games with a single spinner in their line-up. Consequently, I’m glad James Tredwell has
been picked ahead of Adil Rashid as
Graeme Swann’s understudy, since
Rashid – who already has three overseas tours under his belt as a specialist twelfth man – is relishing getting
actual match practice instead; the
young leg-spinner has been stacking
Cambridge
44
35
Leesa Haydock and Thomas Wills
Sports Reporters
On Sunday, Cambridge Women’s
Football Blues took the trip down
to Oxford to beat their Dark Blue
counterparts with an assurance not
reflected in the 1-0 scoreline. Within
the first ten minutes, the pattern of
the game had been set, with captain
Leesa Haydock firing two dangerous
shots at the Oxford goal and Emma
Eldridge almost converting two free
kicks from advanced positions. After
forty minutes of sustained pressure,
Cambridge finally managed to break
The Bangladeshi
numero uno is captain
Shakib al-Hasan
Turning up the heat: Alistair Cook has the chance to show his leadership
talent on the current Bangladesh tour.
up the wickets playing for the England Lions.
Meanwhile, Rashid’s Yorkshire
teammate Ajmal Shahzad should get
the chance to show whether he can
add a bit of hustle and bustle to England’s seam attack, and Somerset’s
Craig Kieswetter the chance to show
whether he is the hard-hitting oneday opener England have been looking for since Marcus Trescothick’s
retirement. In the Tests, Michael
Carberry could press his case for a
permanent top order berth.
At the top of England’s wish list for
the tour, however, is a return to form
for Kevin Pietersen.
Australian cricketing legend Dennis Lillee once said of his great adversary Geoff Boycott, “Geoffrey is the
only fellow I’ve met who fell in love
with himself at a young age and has
remained faithful ever since.” Until
recently, you could have said something similar about Pietersen, who
is incidentally the only English batsman to average more than 45 in Tests
since Boycott called it a day nearly
Or as his poker-playing buddy
Shane Warne might put it, they need
to convince KP that he is still “the
nuts.”
How Bangladesh must wish for a
cricketing ace or two in their pack.
At the moment, their numero uno
is Shakib al-Hasan, the poor man’s
Dan Vettori. I describe Shakib thus
only because the pound goes further
in Dhaka than it does in Dunedin;
the Bangladeshi skipper is no poorer
than his Kiwi counterpart in terms of
all-round cricketing ability, nor is he
any less important to his team.
Overall, though Bangladesh now
have a number of promising batsmen, their bowling – as Sehwag
pointed out – still lacks bite.
The Bangla Tigers might ambush
Captain Cook’s party in the one dayers but really ought to be tamed in
the Tests.
Carling Cup set to be cracking
Varsity Triumph for Women’s Footy
Oxford
twenty-five years ago.
Indeed in 2006, the Aussies took to
calling Pietersen ‘FIGJAM,’ (Fuck I’m
Good, Just Ask Me); a rather fruity
nickname all round.
After a quiet Ashes series last summer however, he looked a shadow
of his bombastic former self on tour
in South Africa. He did manage a
couple of promising Twenty20 innings in Dubai last week and now his
teammates really need to re-inflate
his ego.
Photo: Peter Williams
The England cricket team’s tour of
Bangladesh gets going in earnest
this Sunday with a one-day international in Dhaka. England would be
disappointed to come away with anything less than a clean sweep of the
three ODIs and two Tests they are
scheduled to play over the next few
weeks, though you won’t hear any of
the team management declaring that
openly.
Their ECB-media-coached utterances will be mentioning balls in
good areas, game plans to be stuck to
and tough challenges to be met.
Virender Sehwag does things a
little differently. On the eve of the
first Test of India’s recent tour of
Bangladesh, Sehwag was asked by
a journalist about the chances of an
upset. His response? “Bangladesh
are an ordinary side. They can’t beat
India because they can’t take 20 wickets.” When Bangladesh bowled India
out for 243 the following day, Sehwag
was briefly left looking foolish, but in
the end his analysis proved to be accurate.
about the series ahead. England care
so little about this tour that they have
decided to rest their captain, Andrew
Strauss, their best bowler, Jimmy Anderson, and their best drinks carrier,
Adil Rashid. I’m not sure I agree with
these decisions but some good may
come of each of them.
the deadlock, Kat Robinson losing
her marker and calmly converting
a pinpoint cross from the right. The
first half ended with a goal disallowed for offside, further underlining the Light Blues’ dominance.
By the second half, the playing surface had seriously deteriorated and
Oxford took advantage of the disruption this caused to Cambridge’s
passing game, piling on pressure at
intervals throughout the half.
This made for a more balanced
second half, although the Dark Blues
never managed to produce a really
clear sight of goal.
As the match drew on, Oxford began to lose momentum, and Cambridge held on with relative ease for
a well-deserved win.
Steve Westlake
Sports Comment
Photo: Rachel Chew
This weekend plays host to the Carling Cup Final, with Manchester
United and Aston Villa competing
for the first silverware of the season.
The competition has a somewhat
patchy recent history, with bigger
teams, concentrating on the rigours
of achieving other more glittering
prizes, choosing to use the League
Cup as a medium to blood young
players. Fringe or youth team players, lacking in first team experience
or a sense of tight-knit team identity, played in half empty stadiums to
apathetic fans. Too often the football
on show was not up to the high standards that English football fans have
come to expect, since the inception
of the Premier League saw standards
rise exponentially in 1992.
However it can be argued that the
Carling Cup, having passed through
this necessary period of transition,
has now emerged as one of the most
exciting and worthwhile competitions on the football calendar. In the
past few seasons fans have grown
to recognise and appreciate Arsene
Wenger’s use of his exciting clutch
of Arsenal youngsters in the Car-
ling Cup, appreciating the vibrancy
and raw talent on display despite the
lack of big name stars. The experience that these young players gained
throughout the course of their cup
runs have seen many of them bridge
the gap between youth and first team
players, with the likes of Denilson,
Nicklas Bendtner and Aaron Ramsey all featuring regularly for the first
team nowadays.
Both teams contain a
significant presence of
talented Englishmen
What is even more encouraging
is the way in which the Carling Cup
now provides an ideal theatre for the
development of young English players. Fabio Capello will no doubt
relish the opportunity to watch a
final in which both teams contain a
significant presence of talented Englishmen, whilst Ferguson and O’Neill
have been rewarded for their patience
and investment in cultivating the next
generation of English football with a
showcase final and the potential of a
trophy in the cabinet.
The argument that the Premier
League has been swamped by over-
paid, over-hyped foreign imports is
countered by the evidence of Manchester United and Aston Villa’s
team sheets: Evans, Young, Milner,
Gibson, Delph...the pitch will be pulsating with the potential to drive the
England squads of the next decade.
Additionally, no one can deny that
the most exciting player on show in
English football at the moment is an
Englishman, with Wayne Rooney in
the kind of form that is threatening
to almost single handedly compel
his team to another Premier league
title. At a push, both United and Villa
could field a credible team consisting
solely of English players, and they are
not the only Premier League teams to
boast such strength in depth; a situation that bodes for a bright future for
English football, contrary to the scare
stories about foreign ‘crowding out’.
Fabio Capello has promised that,
contrary to his predecessors, the
players he takes to South Africa in
the summer will be those who have
proved fitness and form throughout
the season. No single big name player
will be taking a place in the England
squad for granted. Thus, Sunday’s
match will provide the perfect arena
for young players to stake a surprise
claim for Capello’s squad.
The
30|University Sport
CambridgeStudent
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Tough puck in ice
Cambridge
karate kick ass
London Dragons 6
4
Cambridge
London Dragons 8
6
Cambridge
Luc St-Pierre
Sports Reporter
It was a challenging weekend for
the Blues Ice Hockey Club with two
games against the London Dragons.
The Dragons came out strong in
the first match, scoring after only
three minutes of play, but the Blues
replied four minutes later with a
powerplay goal from Adrian Fielding scored with a perfect backhand
shot. Near the end of the first period,
the Dragons were able to build a two
goal lead by capitalising on two penalties given to the Blues. However,
Cambridge continued to play with
intensity; defenseman David Waterman threw one particularly bone
crushing hit on one of the London
forwards and Blues goalie Carl Ma-
High Kick: Men’s Captain Nim Sukumar in action
Men’s A
Oxford
Cambridge
Men’s B
Oxford
Cambridge
Women
Oxford
Cambridge
25
61
54
62
16
62
Steph McTighe & Nim Sukumar
Sports Reporters
For the fourth year in a row Cambridge brought back the Enoeda
Cup. The Varsity tournament could
only be described as complete Oxford annihilation with Cambridge
clean sweeping victories across every category.
In the men’s A Kata, Roman Sztyler took 1st place for the light blues
for the third year running, followed
in 2nd by men’s captain Nim Sukumar. Paul Smith and club president
Jonty Fairless seized 4th and 5th
respectively ensuring a dominating
position on the score boards from
the start. In the women’s event,
Oxford took 1st however the next
three places were taken by Cambridge, with Madeleine Wood 2nd
place, Gosia Stanislawek and Ming
Wei Tan in tied 3rd place.
In the main event, Kumite, Cambridge continued to build on its solid points base leaving little hope for
Oxford. Men’s A opened with England international Paul Smith, who
in an aggressive display dismantled
his Oxford opponent. Next was
current captain Nim Sukumar, taking an early lead against his worthy
Oxford foe, however the match ran
until full time when the fight ended
a draw. Thibault Flinois was straight
out of the gate in third, displaying a
Photo: Jonty Fairless
great fearless attitude against arguably Oxford’s best fighter, unfortunately, due to a sharp exchange, his
shoulder was dislocated and was
literally left hanging by his side.
Next was Liam Gabb who made his
fighting debut in style with some
fantastically timed head punches
against a higher graded opponent,
eventually providing Cambridge’s
second win. The men’s A event was
concluded with a textbook display
from a very experienced Richard
Oriji, who took an early lead in the
fight. However it ended abruptly
when a clinical sweep left him immobile.
In the women’s fighting Cambridge again made an aggressive
start with junior England Squad’s
Emma Nunn, making her Varsity
debut taking the Oxford women’s
captain out of the running. Next
came a very well spirited display
from Gosia Stanislawek who again
left no room for her Oxford opponent behind a barrage of techniques
that brought about a second win
for the women. Madeleine Wood,
CUKC veteran and national squad
member secured a textbook win,
leaving Stephanie McTighe to finish
off. With some beautifully executed
displays a 4-0 win for the light blue
women’s team was sealed.
In the men’s B fighting, strike of
the tournament has to be given to
Nikon Rasumov who delivered a
forceful front kick that left his opponent winded and weary and secured the fight for Cambridge. Craig
Woodhead followed up with some
of his renowned kicking techniques
taking a second win for Cambridge.
Ahmed Al-Shabab made his debut
too, and fought hard and fearlessly
for a draw securing a quadruple
win for Cambridge.
zurek made several saves that were
highlight reel material.
This hard work paid off late in the
first period when Andrew Buddle
scored two quick goals to tie the
game at three all. Unfortunately, the
Dragons regained a two goal lead at
the start of the second period. Later,
with the Blues on a powerplay due
to an elbow thrown by one of the
Dragons, Dan Tavana cut their lead
to one goal after a scramble in front
of the London net.
In the third period, the Blues had
several chances to tie the game, but
the Dragon’s goalie came up with
some key saves. In the final minute
the Blues pulled their goalie to bring
on an extra skater in a last ditch effort to tie the game. Their efforts
were sadly in vain, and the Dragons
added a further goal into the empty
net. Final score, 6-4 to the London
Dragons.
The Blues sought revenge with
the second game. Despite being a
second match in two days, the pace
was fast. On two occasions the Dragons took the lead, but each time the
Blues answered back with goals
from Owen Randlett and Thomas
Whillier.
The level of intensity increased in
the second period. London took the
lead early, but the Blues replied with
two goals from Dan Tavana, securing a 4-3 lead.
Despite many great saves from
their goalie Carl Mazurek, Cambridge could not hold the lead for
long, the Dragons scoring two goals
on well prepared offensive plays.
Next, Thomas Whillier managed to
skate through the London defence
and go it alone on the goalie to net
his second goal of the night. At the
end of the second period, the score
was even at 5-5.
With the game hinging on the
all important final period, the Blues
gained new intensity, surprising the
Dragons. Pete Morelli took advantage of the confusion giving a one
goal lead to Cambridge.
Yet the Blues were not able to contain London offense that went on to
score three unanswered goals to win
the game 8-6.
On the track, the Cambridge
women were even more dominant,
losing only one event. Women’s
captain, Kate Laidlow broke the
individual record in the 60m, and
running the fastest leg to win the
women’s 4x400m. In the 3x800m,
Rose Penfold and Christie Noble
both achieved the Half-Blue standard, whilst Katie Sandford narrowly missed it. In the 3x1500m the
light blue women lapped Oxford,
Rosemary Pringle breaking five
minutes for the first time.
The men’s track team faced much
tougher competition from the dark
blues, but still came out on top, winning all but two events. In the 60m
the Cambridge men clinched victory with Mark Dyble and Louis
Persent both breaking the previous
individual record.
Persent showed his class in the
4x400m, striding away from Oxford’s runner. Rory Graham-Watson in the 4x800m ran six seconds
quicker than any other competitor.
Eamonn Katter ran a superb leg in
the 4x200m to move Cambridge
into pole position.
In the field, the Cambridge team
fought hard and retained the field
trophy. Ayo Adeyemi pulled out a
huge jump in the men’s triple jump
to clinch victory for the youthful
Cambridge team. The pole vault was
the highlight. Nate Sharpe vaulted
the Blues standard height to take
the Cambridge men to a convincing
victory.
give Cambridge a 2-0 lead. Drama
soon followed, however, from a
Crostyx counter-attack, when a flatstick tackle outside the Cambridge
D resulted in a double fracture for
Nicky Parkes’ finger. Crostyx scored
shortly before half time to make it
2-1, leaving Cambridge to reflect on
some missed opportunities and defensive errors over the break.
The second half started with high
pace and good intensity from both
sides, but it was Crostyx who struck
first, driving into the Cambridge D
and, after a frantic scramble near
the goal line, comfortably converting a penalty flick into the top left
corner. The passage which followed
was hectic, with end-to-end hockey, testing both teams. Goalkeeper
Chris Robinson absorbed some
heavy pressure from short-corners
and open play, supported well by the
Cambridge defence and the unbeatable stick of Dean Saunders. Some
beautiful play through the midfield
from Pete Mackenney and driving
runs up front from skipper Stuart
Jackson and freshman Paul Hicks
granted Lee his hat-trick to take the
game to 3-2. Constantin Boye then
devastated the Crostyx back line,
weaving along the base-line and
passing round the keeper to give
Dan Quarshie a comfortable finish,
and Cambridge a 4-2 lead. With the
game wrapping up Crostyx threatened, slotting a piercing drag-flick
into the Cambridge net, yet it was to
be a consolation goal for a team who
had been thoroughly outplayed and
outpowered. Such form will stand
the Blues in good stead in the Varsity match on Tuesday 2nd March.
Athletes wipe floor with Oxford
Lucy Spray
Sports Reporter
Cambridge swept Oxford away in
an exciting day of athletics.
In the hammer, Laura Duke
broke the individual record with a
phenomenal throw, which also contributed to the team record. Duke
had a busy day, also winning the
shot. Emma Perkins won the high,
long and triple jumps respectively
and broke the individual record in
the high jump. In the shot, all four of
the Cambridge competitors threw
further than anyone from Oxford.
The light blue women showed their
field strength, winning five of the
eight team events.
Hockey seal narrow win
Crostyx
Cambridge
3
4
Chris Robinson
Sports Reporter
The Cambridge Men’s Hockey Blues
built on their strong run of form this
weekend with a well-fought 4-3 victory over Crostyx. The omens were
good for the match as the Blues
stepped out onto away turf in the
first sunshine of a nascent Spring.
Crostyx had a nervy start, squandering an early short-corner, and
the Blues dominated the first ten
minutes, playing expansive hockey
and pummelling the Crostyx backline. Chances were coming thick
and fast and Chris Lee capitalised
masterfully on two early chances to
CambridgeStudent
University Sport|31
Water result: Women edge it
Oxford Women 5
6
Cambridge
Oxford Men
Cambridge
6
4
Matthew Ingrams & Josie Faulkner
Sports Reporters
The Cambridge Ladies’ water polo
team edged out Oxford for a dramatic 6-5 win, whereas the Cambridge Men put in what was easily
their best performance of the season, but unfortunately went down
6-4 to a strong Oxford side.
The women’s team went into their
Varsity match with confidence after
a recent dominant win over Oxford
in BUCS. However, the Light Blues
knew that Oxford would raise their
game for the grudge match, and
they did, keeping the match tight
and remaining in the game up until
the final whistle.
It soon became apparent that Oxford had sharpened up their tactics,
and kept key players out of the game.
Cambridge seemed unsure how to
respond, with several unsuccessful
efforts from range, as well as easily
intercepted passes to the pit attacker. Despite struggling offensively,
Cambridge showed their class with
a strong defence from Sally Bullock
and Lizzy Day in particular.
Notable goals from Sarah Hopkins
and Jeanie Ward-Waller kept Cambridge within two points of Oxford.
Cambridge regrouped in the second half and launched numerous
high-speed counterattacks up the
pool, moving close in to goal, and
unleashing some powerful testing
shots, notably from Rebecca Vorhees.
Voorhees won it for the team, scoring four blinding goals giving Cambridge the lead. The Light Blues
always looked the better side, and
played a better standard of water
polo throughout the match, ending
6-5 to Cambridge.
Boosted by the women’s result the
men opened with some good attacks
from Cambridge, although seemingly unable to convert some of their
early opportunities Steve Cooke
scored a good individual goal.
However Oxford came back
strong, testing the Cambridge defence, and eventually equalising. The
second and third quarters were very
close, with not much to separate the
teams, although with players tiring
both sides lost some of their shape
in attack.
With the score tied at 4-4 going
into the final quarter, the Cambridge
team knew that the match could still
be won, and started out strong after
fiery words from Captain Riccardo
di Pietro and Coach Andy Knight.
Crucially, three minutes into the
fourth quarter Oxford retook the
lead. Once again Cambridge pushed
forward and tried valiantly to equalise, but to no avail.
After the dark blues doubled their
lead with less than two minutes
remaining Cambridge still fought
hard, but were unable to claw back
the deficit, the match ending 6-4.
The Cambridge side put in a disciplined performance, yet a chronic
inability to put away their goalscoring opportunities meant that
the men were unable to capitalise
on good attacking play. Goalkeeper
Alex Ross also consistently made
top-class saves, including one penalty, to keep the match close.
Cambridge now really need to
work on their finishing for the upcoming BUCS semi-finals, and beyond.
Men sink as women swim
Photo: Emily Bottle
Pooling Together: The swimmers after their Varsity heroics
Oxford Men
Cambridge
97
83
Oxford Women 39
51
Cambridge
Emily Bottle & Tom Rootsey
Sports Reporters
Last Saturday Cambirdge narrowly
missed out as Oxford men took
the win by a comfortable margin.
Meanwhile for the women, a powerful squad proved too strong for the
dark blues.
Rivalry going into the match was
as strong as ever, especially after Oxford took victory in the 2009 Varsity
match by just one point (90 to the
Light Blues’ 89), when Cambridge
had won eight of the previous nine
competitions.
As the gala got underway, it was
clear that this was going to be the
fastest Varsity ever seen. The Cambridge girls dominated their individual events, winning all but one,
with some spectacular personal best
times. In every individual event, a
Cambridge swimmer swam within
the fastest five times ever recorded by
a Cambridge lady, and three swimmers broke all-time records: Henrietta Dillon in the 200m IM, Caroline
Gordon in the 100m breastroke and
Captain Emily Bottle in the 100m
backstroke. The Medley Relay team
destroyed the dark blues by more
than half a length. By the end of the
gala, the final score in the Ladies’
match was 51-39 to Cambridge.
The men’s team went into the
match knowing the going would be
tough Oxford were boasting an extremely strong team, which included Michael Phelps’ former training
partner and US World Championship swimmer Davis Tarwater.
From the very start, the atmosphere on poolside was electrifying,
and this only increased with several
finishes separated by hundredths of
seconds. There was stunning swimming from both Oxford and Cambridge swimmers which merely
highlighted the unprecedented standard of achievement on both sides.
Nearly every Cambridge swimmer
broke personal bests, and times that
would have won the match by a full
second and a half last year placed in
4th this year.
As in the ladies’ match, there were
three all-time individual Cambridge
records, set by Dane Rook, Joel Carpenter, and Captain Tom Rootsey,
and the all-time Medley record was
smashed by over two seconds. In
the end, however, Oxford were too
strong, and came out on top. winning 97 – 83.
Odd Balls...
Bex Law takes a sideways look at the world of sport.
Dangerous Water Hazard
Once more a golfing story has made it into Odd
Balls. This week The Daily Telegraph reported
that playing golf at one course in North Queensland, Australia, has become rather more dangerous. A freshwater crocodile, known affectionately as Steve, has been discovered lurking
at Willows Golf Resort. The club’s manager,
Adrian Lawson asserts that Steve “is not scaring anyone” adding “it’s par for the
course in North Queensland.” Steve has been
seen sunning himself
on the 17th holes which
tee off over his lake. If a ball
goes into Steve’s lake it is immediately a lost ball.
Photo: cesarasudillo
William’s Way Off
Prince William attempted blind archery this week. It was an unmitigated
failure. The Daily Telegraph reports that the Prince was visiting a new
training and rehabilitation centre for blind ex-service personnel when he
attempted the archery challenge with a blindfold. Clive Jones, an instructor at St Dunstan’s Centre in Llandudno, Wales gave guidance but Prince
William missed the target on all three attempts. He then added to his failure as he was just as inaccurate with a final shot despite having removed
the blindfold. He commented “I’m going to give up now before it gets too
embarrassing!” Mr. Jones, who was blinded in both eyes in an off-duty assault, then proceeded to hit the target every time with his three arrows.
Topless Tobogganing
Two weeks ago TCS reported that a topless sledging contest faced a ban
due to concerns from the mayor and councillors. You’ll all be immensely
relieved to know that not only did that event go ahead but other events
also sprung up. Despite earlier protests the events drew large numbers
of competitors and even larger numbers of ogling onlookers. The Metro reports that over 14,000 spectators turned out to watch the freezing
spectacle in Braunlage, Germany. The winner was 26-year old Christian
Schmidt but according to one dirty-minded man ‘It was very cold, and
because of that some of those girls would definitely have a bit of an advantage in a photo finish.’ In the original event in Oberwiesenthal it was
ladies only who competed for a prize of about 300 pounds, the dress code
was hard helmet and
footwear only.
An expensive rescue
How much would you
in seriously sub-zero
olsky, literally faced this
shut down for the night
The BBC re-
Photo: Visions of Domino
The
Thursday, February 25, 2010
pay to be rescued from a ski-lift at night
temperatures? One man, Dominick Podproblem as he was stuck on a lift after it was
whilst temperatures plummeted to -18C.
ports that the German snowboarder
was trapped on the lift heading down
the mountain on Saturday when he
was trapped 10m above ground. He
considered jumping off the lift but
feared broken legs and freezing to
death. He used military techniques to
fight off hypothermia. Whilst the
light faded Mr. Podolsky began
burning tissues and the contents of his wallet. He began
with bills and business cards
before desperation kicked in
and he set fire to his money.
The last note of his 120 Euros
attracted attention and a skirun clearing crew rescued him
taking him to hospital to be
treated for hypothermia. Mr.
Podolsky is considering suing the company who argue that
the lift is not meant for downward trips and that the man
had ignored signs to that effect.
KARATE VARSITY
Cambridge fighters give
Oxford a beating
The
CambridgeStudent
THE BIG INTERVIEW
Mack Rivling immerses us in
the world of Bog Snorkeling
Thursday, 25th February 2010
FaT Chance of Headship
Thomas Wills
Sports Reporter
Yesterday’s Lent Bumps racing saw
the First and Third W1 boat storm
up the Cam to claim the overnight
Headship, whilst strong showings
from each of the top three M1 boats
maintained the status quo at the top
Photo: Andy Marsh
Impact: Pembroke bump Clare to take fourth in the top men’s division
of the men’s division.
The women of First and Third have
been in blistering form all term, and
warmed up for this week’s competition with victory at Pembroke Regatta.
They were strong favourites to
bump Emmanuel, and did not disappoint, although the Emma girls held
them off for longer than expected
with a strong row around Grassy
Corner. Elsewhere in the women’s top
division, Clare, Christ’s and Downing
all managed to bump, setting themselves up for a strong week.
First and Third, Downing and
LMBC all maintained their positions
in the top three of the men’s division,
with Pembroke quickly bumping up
to 4th to shatter Clare’s frail chances
of gaining the Headship by Saturday.
The big movers among the top
men’s boats were the hotly-tipped
Queens’, overbumping Fitzwilliam
and Peterhouse, escaping the foot of
the top division by overbumping a
flagging Christ’s M1.
As always, the carnage was to be
found in the lower divisions. Inexperienced crews led to a litany of
mistakes with technical row-overs
abounding whilst eight crews have
already been fined by marshals for
various offences. This included a £50
fine after the cox of Fitzwilliam W1
forgot their lifejacket at marshalling.
reminiscent of a 1970’s playing surface, muddy and dramatically rutted.
Worse, as the game got under way,
the heavens decided to add to the difficult conditions.
In a match that would have provided a welcome break from a tiresome week in the league; the Blues
relished the opportunity to take their
cup campaign all the way. This was
reflected in the high tempo they set
at the beginning of the game, quickly
outmanoeuvring their sluggish opponents.
An early six-yard-box scramble
and a fine one-handed save by the
opposition goalkeeper not only signalled their domination but also
their intent. This has been evident
all season as the Blues have shown
a remarkable work ethic to get them
through difficult periods. Yesterday,
though, opportunity after opportunity was being thrown up.
However, as with most of the sea-
son, the Blues have been guilty of
spurning some gilt-edged chances.
Firstly Day, dominant in the air all
game, sent his powerful header wide
of the post, an open goal gaping invitingly in front of him.
tative of what the Blues have been
strong at this season: creating space
down the wings to attack. However,
it was through the centre that the first
goal was scored as Maynard played
a delightful through ball which Hylands latched onto, stroking the ball
into the corner.
It was the first real presence of Hylands, who found himself pushed out
wide for this game; although as the
game wore on his impact grew.
Worcester, on the other hand,
struggled to create any really meaningful attacks, restricted to a few long
range efforts. It was much the same in
the second half, aimless balls into an
empty box symptomatic of their poor
performance. Their best opportunity
came from a free kick in the dying
minutes but Ferguson was equal to it,
skilfully tipping it over the crossbar.
The hostile away crowd only worsened Worcester’s problems as their
travelling support targeted the Blues,
and in particular Stock and Gwyther.
However the latter responded in the
very best way, a failed clearance from
a corner allowing him to rifle the ball
into the net. His celebrations were
directed more towards the touchline
than his own team.
The contest was over and some of
their support’s behaviour spilled onto
the pitch as Worcester started to fly in
with late tackles.
The Blues, though, continued to
press home their advantage and
Amos picked up another goal for the
season, taking the score to 4-0. Finding himself in space, he only had to
tap the ball over the line.
This was a performance to savour
for Cambridge, something reflected
in Johnson’s post-match comments.
They can now look forward to a
cup final they richly deserve. Knowing this batch of Blues, though, they
probably have their eyes on all the
other honours as well.
Blues hammer Worcester to move into the Cup Final
Blues
Worcester
4
0
Michael Aldaheff
Deputy Sports Editor
The Blues football season continued
on it’s upward trend yesterday, as
they successfully demolished a woeful Worcester side to progress to the
BUCS Cup Final. It was yet another
strong performance in a season that
continues to exceed expectations.
Although, the league and the Varsity match have always been their top
priorities, this was by far and away
the biggest game of the season, the
fact highlighted by Johnson’s efforts
to beat the weather and make sure
the game was played this week.
Indeed, the weather put up good
fight with a last minute ground reschedule needed.
As it was, the John’s pitch was
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Then, the trusted Stock was unable
to send the ball home when faced
with an onrushing keeper. His typical workmanlike performance would
later yield a goal after some good
build-up play.
The early chances were represen-