Student claims discrimination - The Cambridge Student

Transcription

25/10/07 Michaelmas term
Volume 10 Issue 5
NEWS
Colonel
Gaddafi
at the
Union
pg. 2
CAREERS
Summer
Internships
First-class medic says he was denied admission to the Clinical School on racial grounds Robert Palmer
Student claims discrimination
Former student alleges racial bias
Case backed by the equality commission
Authorities: ‘student treated fairly’
Jonathan Laurence
and Amy Blackburn
A former St John’s College medical student has launched legal
proceedings against the School of
Clinical Medicine, claiming that
his application to the school was
affected by racial discrimination.
The student, who asked not to
be named, is working with the formal backing of the Commission
for Equality and Human Rights.
He has claimed that there were
procedural irregularities in the
course of his application, made
in 2004.
He told The Cambridge
Student (TCS) that he was “not
even given a clinical school application form” initially, despite
scoring a first in his Tripos examinations and being deemed fit to
practise. He added that “no ex-
planation” was given for the absence of the form.
According to the Clinical
School’s website, all third year
Cambridge medics looking to
enter the standard course “are
routinely sent an application
form”.
The student claimed that he
only got hold of the form by appealing to the Senior Proctor,
after his college seemed to ignore
his informal complaints.
He also alleged that even when
he was finally able to fill the form
out, he was rejected without
being given an interview. He also
claimed that when he wrote to
the clinical school they “wouldn’t
even respond” to his email.
The former John’s student told
TCS that when he looked for help
from his college’s tutors’ council,
he was told to take his complaint
elsewhere.
“The college would give me
no reason”, he said. “They just
said that it wasn’t their problem
and I should go to the Clinical
School.”
He told TCS that his relations
with college had previously been
good, saying that he “had never
been involved in any kind of student misbehaviour.”
He said that he had “followed
the internal complaints procedure” at every stage of his
enquiries, and that he only decided to take his grievance to the
Commission for Racial Equality
(now a part of the Commission
for Equality and Human Rights)
when he found that a Caucasian
student in the same situation as
him had been admitted.
“My case was quite strong”, the
student told TCS. “The CRE have
a set of criteria that they apply,
and my case met the criteria.”
The student repeatedly affirmed that he feels that he has at
no point in the past three years received an adequate explanation
for any of the questions that he
has raised by his application – his
only recent communication from
his college is a letter from the
Senior Tutor stating that the college considers the matter closed.
St. John’s College Senior Tutor
Dr. Matthias Dörrzapf told TCS
that he felt that college authorities “did everything we could
to ensure that” the complainant was “treated like every other
student”.
Dr. Dörrzapf also added that
he thought that the college “was
very helpful” to the student.
The problems with his application have left the student “in
limbo” f as he is forced to stay in
friends’ accommodation while
his case is resolved.
“I don’t have social security,
and I’m no longer in college accommodation”, the student
added. “I have no scholarship
now and no money, so I’m in
debt, really bad debt.”
In spite of all of his problems,
he expressed faith that his case
will turn out positively, though.
“My only hope is for something
to come out of this case”, he told
TCS.
“Basically, I think this will set a
precedent for all the institutions,
major ones like Cambridge and
Oxford, to stop them behaving
badly like this.”
This is not the first time that
the medical school has faced allegations of racial bias in its applications procedure. In 1998
the British Medical Journal published an article claiming that
there was “significant evidence”
that candidates from ethnic minority groups are disadvantaged
in medical school selection.
The University declined to
comment on the case on the
grounds that it is ongoing.
Turn to pg.4 for
our equality
and diversity
investigation
pg.12
FILM
Remakes:
thetop
nine
pg.26
SPORT
Rugby
John’s
thrashes
Downing
pg. 31
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2 NEWS
The Cambridge Student 25/`10/07
Union links to Gaddafi
NEWS IN BRIEF
Green Week
a resounding
success
Alex Coke-Woods
Cambridge’s environmentalists staged a week long exposé
of all things green. Culminating next Monday in the launch
of the new CUSU green campaign, it aimed to raise awareness of the action students
can take to combat climate
change. Labour parliamentary candidate Daniel Zeichner appeared at the Three Seas
stuff swap. He kindly donated
a large selection of books, sure
to be of assistance to other aspiring politicians.
Marr enters
academia
The legendary guitarist Johnny
Marr has swapped the stage
for the lecturer’s podium at
the University of Salford. The
former Smiths musician has
just been appointed Professor
of Music, with the responsibility of running workshops on
the composition and performance of popular music. Marr
said, “It is an honour to be appointed as a professor and I’m excited
at the prospect
of being able to
make a contribution.”
Gaddafi addressed his “dear sons” at the Union Hugo Vincent
Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, the
de facto ruler of Libya, addressed
a packed debating chamber in
the Cambridge Union on Monday evening via a live satellite
link-up.
The Union, which describes
itself as “a vibrant social and intellectual centre with a... commitment to free speech,” was filled to
capacity with students eager to
listen to the leader of one of the
world’s most repressive regimes.
Gaddafi, speaking through a
translator, addressed his “dear
sons” in the Cambridge Union
from his headquarters in Tripoli.
During a long and often rambling
speech, he covered a range of topics, including his personal political philosophy, “the so-called
Darfur problem,” and the UN
Security Council.
“Dictatorship, it never helps
peace,” said “Brother Leader”
Gaddafi, as he was continually
referred to by Union officials
throughout the evening.
“Brother Leader” then took the
opportunity to outline his own vision of “direct, popular democ-
racy”, first expounded in his
“Green Book.”
Described on the cover as “the
solution to the problem of democracy,” copies of the book
were being given away at the
Union entrance.
Libya is currently ranked
among the most oppressive regimes in the world. It was awarded
the lowest possible score for civil
and political liberties by independent human rights watchdog
Freedom House in 2007.
Yet with the abandonment of
its WMD program in 2003 and
the reopening of normal diplomatic relations with the USA in
2006, the country has now begun
to play a greater role on the international stage.
In 2008, Libya begins a twoyear term on the UN Security
Council and on Saturday October
27th it will host talks aimed at
finding a solution to the conflict
in Darfur.
It is estimated that 200,000 people in the region have died and 2.5
million are thought to have been
displaced since February 2003.
Gaddafi, speaking on the
Darfur conflict said that he considered the “so-called problem”
to be first and foremost “a quarrel over a camel,” which had
been politicised by international
superpowers.
The USA, for its part, has described the conflict in the Darfur
region of Sudan as “genocide,”
while the UN Security Council
has mandated 17,300 peacekeeping troops to enter the country to
prevent further killings.
But according to Gaddafi, the
international community has
ulterior motives, claiming that:
“The superpowers have their imperial interests.”
He added: “Everyone wants
his share in the region, especially
if there is oil there.”
Gaddafi, whose regime was
subjected to American air strikes
in the 1980s for allegedly sponsoring paramilitary organisations,
went on to lambast the UN and
what he described as “the Security
Council of terrorism.”
“It is not legitimate at all,” he
said, criticising the veto held by
the five permanent members of
the Council. As a result, the current international situation is
simply “the law of force which
is imposed on everyone,” he
concluded.
Cambridge Costs Yes (student) Minister!
University ‘significantly more
expensive’ than others in region
Catherine Watts
I’m a Councillor,
Get Me Out of
Here!
Cambridge City councillor
Miriam Lynn has been voted
“Youth Champion” in Cambridge’s version of the national “I’m a Councillor Get
Me Out of Here” competition.
Designed to encourage awareness and enthusiasm for local
democracy, the initiative gave
schoolchildren “power over
the politicians” through the
opportunity to challenge and
“evict” local government representatives. But rather than
being transported to the jungle, councillors were evicted
from a web forum, where
under 18s posed questions
and raised matters of concern
about the local community.
Cambridge is one of the most
expensive places for students to
live in the region, a survey has revealed.
The investigation into student
living costs discovered that some
universities are twice as costly to
attend than others by assessing
three indicators: student housing, groceries and drinks.
The study was carried out by
Push, an organisation which annually visits every university in
the country gathering information to form the UK’s largest resource for prospective students.
For the groceries, Push worked
alongside Costcutter to make a
basket of goods representing the
best-selling items in outlets close
to universities. This included
King Size Rizla, condoms, Pot
Noodle, cigarettes, beer , ProPlus,
HobNobs and cheese. Prices
were compared in different areas
to gather the data on living costs.
The difference between the
lowest and highest price indices
was vast.
The University of Bradford
was the cheapest at 73 percent
of the national average (which
was given the number 100 on the
index), whilst the Royal Academy
of Music had an index of 168.
Universities accommodating a
higher number of privately-educated students were found to have
a greater living cost.
Cambridge University, with
an index score of 114, was one of
the institutions that were significantly more expensive to attend
than others in the same region.
This was also the case for
Oxford, UCL, St. Andrews,
Durham, Imperial, the Royal
College of Music and the Royal
Agricultural College.
At all these institutions, privately-educated students make
up more than a third of the student body.
The NUS Vice President - and
former CUSU President Wes
Streeting, said that this correlation between publicly-schooled
students and higher university living prices was “no coincidence”.
He added: “This survey shows
how students from poorer
backgrounds may already be
‘priced out’ of attending certain
universities.
“If the Government were to
allow these universities to set even
higher top-up fees, potential students from lower socio-economic
backgrounds could find their
choices severely restricted by a
rising tide of economic elitism.”
Lord Triesman (right) has been appointed Minister for Students
Jason Taitz
Former Cambridge postgrad
David Triesman has been appointed minister for students in a
bid to enhance student representation in Westminster, the government has announced.
Lord Triesman, who was
awarded a peerage in 2004, is a
former student radical who was
suspended from the University
of Essex in 1968, for leading protests against a talk by a military
scientist from Porton Down.
He, along with two other undergraduate ‘ringleaders’, were later
reinstated.
Now minister for students,
Lord Triesman said that the government planned to talk more to
students, as a crucial part of its
“programme of listening.”
He said: “We need students to
tell us how higher education is
working for them and what more
can be looked at to make things
better.”
The new minister will visit universities all over England, meeting students to gain a first-hand
understanding of their unique
needs and problems.
An independent National
Student Forum is to be created to
advise the government on matters affecting universities, and
will be charged with the task of
preparing an annual report to
Parliament.
Over the next couple of months,
five ‘student juries’ will be recruited from across the country
to begin debating topics such as
student finance, widening participation and learning support.
They will report back both to
the National Student Forum and
directly to ministers. The ‘juries’
are intended to be as representative as possible, encompassing
the views of full and part-time undergraduates and postgraduates,
as well as international and disabled students.
President of the National
Union of Students, Gemma
Tumelty, said that she was “delighted” with the government’s
new initiative.
“For far too long students have
been out in the cold when it comes
to decisions about their futures...
This could give students the ability to advise Ministers on the formation of policy at the highest
level,” she commented.
Secretary of State for
Innovation, Universities and
Skills, John Dehnham, said: “This
will mean that for the first time
students’ voices are heard at the
heart of government.”
Lord Triesman completed his
postgraduate studies at King’s
College, Cambridge, and in 2000
was elected a Visiting Fellow
at Wolfson College, specialising in ‘Higher Education in the
Economy’.
NEWS 3
25/1`0/07 The Cambridge Student
Teenagers knifed outside Kambar
Two men were left hospitalised after the knife attack on Guildhall Street Duane Weikum
Pete Jefferys
Two Cambridge men have been
charged with attempted murder
following a double stabbing in the
city centre.
The attack occurred on
Guildhall Street during the early
hours of Saturday morning and
was witnessed by several local residents. The victims, aged 18 and
19, were taken to Addenbrooke’s
Hospital. Staff have since said that
their condition is “stable”.
Simon Neve – a bouncer at the
Kambar who witnessed the fight
– told the Cambridge Evening
News: “I saw one lad hit the floor,
and they were booting him in the
head. I ran over to break it up and
they ran for it - some got in a Ford
Focus, which reversed back and
nearly hit us.”
He continued: “The boy’s face
was smashed up, and he was in
and out of consciousness. I moved
him out of the road and onto a
bench and tried to clean him up
when I felt something warm and
sticky on my hand. It was blood;
he’d been stabbed in his side.”
Mr Neve contacted the police
whilst a CCTV operator from
the Guildhall administered first
aid to the victim. The second boy
who was stabbed in the fight was
“I felt something
warm and sticky
on my hand.
It was blood.”
helped by a local security guard
before the emergency services
arrived.
Mr Neve was shocked by the
brutality of the attack which
he described as “totally unpro-
voked”. He added, “They looked
as if they were out to cause trouble. I’m sure they would have
killed him if nobody had stopped
them.”
The officer investigating the attack, Detective Inspector Simon
Harding, told the Cambridge
Evening News “This was a nasty
attack which resulted in two men
needing substantial hospital
treatment. I would urge anyone
who was in Guildhall Street during the early hours of Saturday
morning to get in touch.”
The two men arrested are aged
26 and 21 and have been released
on police bail. The 21-year-old is
to return to Parkside police station this Tuesday and the 26 year
old on Thursday.
This incident comes in the
wake of a number of other recent
violent attacks in and around
Cambridge. On the previous
Sunday Trinity Hall student Gary
Tse was punched in the face by an
unidentified assailant on Sidney
Street. On that occasion no arrests were made.
Last month two men were
hospitalised after going at each
other with a steel bike lock and a
knife on Carlton Way, in North
Cambridge.
Mayor of Cambridge Jenny
Bailey was quoted in the
Cambridge Evening News as saying: “If you are 18 or 19 or 20, especially if you are male, you seem
to be targeted by the minority
of people who are after trouble,
some of them apparently arming
themselves with knives.”
The police have urged anyone who was in the area around
Kambar on Saturday night and
who may have witnessed the
event to contact them on 0845
456 4564, or Crimestoppers on
0800 555 111.
Emma’s week of sex and violence
JCR President punched and public decency outraged with two intrusions in one week
Isobel Boyson
Two sets of intruders have been
causing trouble in Emmanuel
College this week – one partaking in some al fresco sex and the
other drunkenly attacking the
JCR President.
A group of students were surprised to notice two teenagers
engaged in sexual activity on a
pathway in the college last Sunday
afternoon.
One observer described: “I
looked out my window and saw
a bloke without many clothes on.
Then we noticed a girl and realised they were doing something
they shouldn’t. I just laughed so
much.”
At that point an unlucky student walking down the track accidentally interrupted the couple
and swiftly turned to leave.
However, not happy about
being disturbed, the man turned
violent, kicking down a gate and
entering the grounds of a student
house.
One resident told The
Cambridge Student (TCS): “he
stormed round the lawn just in
his trousers, looking for the boy
who had seen him. He was really
fuming and it was a bit scary so we
called the plodge.”
The porters escorted the man
off the premises only for him
to return for a final outburst –
smashing his empty beer bottle
against a wall. He and his partner
then left the scene.
“I noticed a girl and
realised they were
doing something
they shouldn’t”
The incident was the second
security breach to hit Emmanuel
College in one week.
Late on Wednesday evening,
three men managed to get into
college grounds through a gap in
temporary fencing.
Carolyn Smith, a third year
vet student, spotted them: “I
saw three blokes in New Court
drinking Stella and they smelt of
weed too. I think they just came
in to have a poke around, but
they couldn’t find their way out
again.”
At that point, the president
of Emmanuel College Students’
Union, Alex Tindale, came
across the group and asked them
to leave.
Smith recounts: “One guy
shouted, ‘What the fuck did you
just say to me mate?’ and then got
a bit aggressive. As they left, one
of them punched Alex and he fell
back. It was a bit unnecessary I
suppose.”
But college authorities have
sought to reassure students that
their home is safe.
Head Porter Michael Dorling
said: “the gap where they got in,
that was only a temporary situation. It’s normally fully locked at
night.” He continued: “in terms
of security, it’s not over the top
here.
“No one wants to live in a prison
so we’ll have to put up with these
minor intrusions.”
Intruders were caught having sex in the doorway Isobel Boyson
4 NEWS
The Cambridge Student 25/1`0/07
Equality
The University and discrimination through
thE agEs
1209
1869
1870
Case Study: Dr Heather Peto
Transgendered biochemist’s discrimination and harassment claims 1920
1939
1948
1960s
1965
1967
1972
Queen mother
1976
Victoria Showunmi 1987
The University’s Interim Head of Equality and
Diversity speaks to The Cambridge Student
1995
2000
2004
2004
2007
Cambridge has come a long way since it was founded 800 years ago by a community
of scholarly gentleman. But how much remains to be done? In the wake of this week’s
allegations against the Clinical School, The Cambridge Student looks at milestones of
social inclusion within the University, and reviews another (still ongoing) controversy
Cambridge University founded
Girton founded as the first
college for women
Cambridge and Oxford
admit their first non-Anglican
students
Oxford awards degrees to
women
The Cambridge Student (TCS) first reported on Dr.
Heather Peto’s discrimination claims against the
University in 2004 – and the case is still yet to be resolved.
Dr. Peto, a transgendered former student of
Pembroke College, has alleged that she suffered
constant harassment and discrimination from her
colleagues.
Dr Peto first spoke out against
harassment in 2000, formally
launching her claim in 2002
Dr. Peto’s disability and transgender discrimination case is about to come before an employment
tribunal, after all internal complaint mechanisms
available were exhausted.
She first spoke out against harrassment in 2000
and formally launched her claim in 2002, which was
then finally heard by the University in 2004. An appeal followed in 2006.
She has claimed that her colleagues consistently
spied on her emails, and made humiliating sexual
insults – at one point rumours spread that she was a
paedophile. The standard of her work also suffered
greatly in this environment, as she alleges that she
was blocked from necessary access to laboratory
equipment, putting her Ph.D in jeopardy.
She was eventually suspended from her job amid
“vexatious allegiations” that have effectively blocked
her from finding work anywhere in the scientific
world.
Dr Peto spoke to TCS this week about the ongoing difficulties involved in her case. She said: “In
the short term, the University might think it benefits from intimidating students from complaining
against discrimination, but in the long term it will
damage the University’s reputation.
“If students and employees cannot rely on private undertakings of the University’s senior members to tackle harassment then people will start to
record the harassment as the only way to protect
themselves.”
With court proceedings looming, an adviser
at the Commission for Equality and Human
Rights said that there was no legal precedent
for transgendered discrimination in education, such that any case was likely to be a
‘test’.
Though transgendered people are
protected in the workplace by the Sex
Discrimination Act, it is apparently as yet
unclear whether this applies to students as well.
The University declined to comment on the
grounds that proceedings are ongoing.
Cambridge awards degrees to
women
Latin and Greek no longer
required for admission
Wolfson College founded as
first mixed-gender college
UK decriminalises male
homosexuality
Clare, Churchill and King’s the
first all-male colleges to admit
women
First woman to receive a
degree from Cambridge
When the first Cambridge degrees were awarded
to women in 1948, it was HM Queen Elizabeth,
the late Queen Mother, who stood up in Senate
House as the first woman to receive the honour.
Although women have been attending lectures
at Cambridge since Girton College was founded
in 1869, the University prevented them from receiving degrees for almost another 80 years.
The Queen Mother received an honorary
Doctorate in Law, which she took on October
21st 1948 - a month before other women who had
actually studied at the University.
But Cambridge was slow to acknowledge the Queen
Mother’s achievements as a female
lawyer. By the time
she received her
Cambridge doctorate, she had
already been
awarded honorary doctorates
in the same subject
from the Universities
of Belfast, St Andrews,
Edinburgh, Glasgow and Oxford.
First female Professor at
Cambridge
Race Relations Act prevents
educational discrimination on
ethnic grounds
Women’s Officers established
across Cambridge colleges
Showunmi believes progress has been made
Victoria Showunmi has been working as the acting
head of equality and diversity at Cambridge since
early May this year.
Originally a graduate of Greenwich University,
before going on to do research for the University of
Kingston into the under-representation of ethnic
minority students in teacher training, Victoria believes that real progress has been made in diversity
and integration at Cambridge.
One area where she feels particularly positive
about is the new University Race network, which
she is “hoping to get… together for December /
January.”
This network is intended to provide an environment in which staff, and later students, can
link up and discuss equality and diversity issues. It
aims to offer support alongside social events and
campaigning.
Victoria still remains “passionate” about the
under-representation of ethnic minorities in education and committed to improving equality and
integration within the University.
Disabilities Discrimination Act:
disabled have equal rights to
education
Race Relations Act: University
obliged to actively promote
racial equality
Heather Peto hearing held
University provides disabled
access to all its buildings
Race Equality Network for
University staff launched
Because there are better
things to think about
We know there’ll be plenty on your mind while you’re away at uni.
So in between meeting essay deadlines and arranging the next party
on facebook, don’t forget to stock your cupboards.
With a wide range of fresh fruit and veg, great ready meals plus beers and
wines for every budget, we’ve everything you need – meaning a quick
shop with us leaves you free to concentrate on the more important stuff.
Pop into your local Co-operative store today!
Careers Service event
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The Advertising & Marketing
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This event brings together a number of top agencies, including Advertising,
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large organisations looking to recruit into their Marketing Departments.
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Get an insight into this vibrant and creative industry - Supported by the IPA
Tuesday 30th October, 15.30 to 18.00
2nd Floor, University Centre, Granta Place
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M ME
Participating organisations include:
B B H, BETFAIR (The Sporting Exchange), D A S (a division of Omnicom), D L K W, Google, Institute of Practitioners in Advertising,
J W T, L’Oreal, Millward Brown, Public Relations Consultants Association, Synovate, The Value Engineers, W P P
Entry is restricted to current University of Cambridge students (and recent alumni) – bring your University id card with you to this event.
A cumulative, depersonalised attendance level from different years and courses allows us to improve our events in the future.
Personal data will not be passed to anyone outside the University.
Autonomous Campaigns
‘...No student, black or white,
‘... women are not objects; men
tolerates racism.
are not animals
So many students are expressing a deep
interest in the aims and the work that
we are doing as a campaign. we will
continue to build on creating solidarity
and on encouraging an atmosphere of
community between st dents of different
races, cultures, and traditions...’
Sexism and gender stereotypes haven’t
gone anywhere. Women should not be
paid less than their male colleagues, and
should not be disproportionately the
victims of sexual and domestic violence.
A women should have rights over her
own body. This is what we are working
towards...’
Junior Juma Penge
Black Students’ Campaign
[email protected]
Elly Shepherd
Women’s Officer
[email protected]
NEWS 7
25/10/07 The Cambridge Student
Watson flees to USA
Scientist pulls out of Union appearance
Katie Spenceley
Pioneering Cambridge scientist
and Nobel prize winner James
Watson was forced to cancel talks
at the Cambridge Union after allegedly claiming that black people are less intelligent than white
people.
The scientist, famed for his
contribution to the discovery of
the structure of DNA, reportedly
asserted in the Sunday Times that
he was “inherently gloomy about
the prospect of Africa because all
our social policies are based on
the fact that their intelligence is
the same as ours - whereas all the
testing says not really”.
Yesterday, Watson apologised
“unreservedly” for his comments,
claiming that they had been taken
out of context and he was “mortified” they had caused offence.
Despite this apology, the backlash over his comments has led to
the cancellation of his UK book
tour, which included a talk at the
Cambridge Union.
Prior to Watson’s cancellation,
Cambridge’s Christmas: one month to go Jonathan Laurence
the Union had planned to continue hosting the event, on the
grounds of free speech and academic freedom.
A Union spokesperson said
that Watson’s comments were
“very surprising” but they defended the Union’s decision to
ask Watson to speak, saying that
the invitation was given before
his most recent comments were
made. In a statement, they said:
“The Cambridge Union Society
exists to give our members an
opportunity to meet and challenge global leaders in science,
politics and sport. We neither
explicitly nor implicitly endorse
any of the views presented in our
chamber”.
Matthew Jarvis, senior officer
at the Union, said that he “passionately believes in free speech”
and that the Union’s job is not
to pass judgments on speaker’s
opinions but to “provide a platform for members to question”.
However, Jarvis also said that
the Union was “sensitive to members’ opinions and concerns, and
would never invite speakers just
for them to air offensive views
and create a storm”.
Cambridge University’s Black
Students’ Campaign Officer,
Junior P Juma, had planned a
rally against Watson’s comments.
He said the protest aimed not
to prevent Watson from speaking, but to get him to retract his
comments.
Juma said “the remarks provide
an excuse for the plight of African
people by shifting blame, rather
than looking at the culprits of the
problems in Africa. Parties like
the BNP will take Watson’s comments on board and use them to
fuel even more hatred than there
already is”.
However, Juma made clear
that he did want Watson to speak
at the Union, arguing that freedom of speech is essential in order
to tackle racism and racist views,
adding “with any kind of freedom
comes moral and social responsibility. Students need to use their
freedom of speech to show that
in the twenty-first century such
pseudo-scientific views will not
be tolerated”.
Closeto expulsio!
Arthur Asseraf
Harry Potter author JK Rowling
has conjured an international
media storm by outing Hogwarts
headmaster Albus Dumbledore
as gay.
Rowling stunned the audience
at Carnegie Hall in New York,
one of the stops on her US book
tour, where the announcement
was made.
When a curious student asked if
Dumbledore had ever found true
love, she announced, “Dumbledore is gay”. She revealed that
the headmaster was in his youth
smitten with Gellert Grindelwald
– sparking the audience’s spontaneous applause.
“I would have told you sooner
if I’d known it would make you so
happy,” responded Rowling. But
she cast Dumbledore in a more
sombre light, adding that he had
been “terribly let down” by Grindelwald, and that their love had
been his “great tragedy”.
Rowling then described how
she had had to intervene in the
scripting of the film adaptation of
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood
Prince by telling director David
Yates to delete a reference to a girl
who Dumbledore once knew.
She also said elsewhere that she
had known Dumbledore’s true
sexuality “probably before the
first book was published”.
Yet whilst she promoted the
novels as a “prolonged argument
for tolerance”, Rowling recognised that the revelation would
tcs sOAP BOX
only give conservative Christian
groups one more reason to dislike
the books alongside the idea that
they “promote witchcraft”.
But a spokesman for Stonewall,
a leading national gay rights organisation, was happy with the
news: “It’s great that JK has said
this. It shows that there’s no limit
to what gay and lesbian people
can do, even being a wizard headmaster.”
The Harry Potter books have
collectively sold more than 300
million copies worldwide, earning Rowling more money than
any other novelist in history.
She is also a member of the
Church of Scotland, which is
currently divided as to what its
stance should be on homosexual
couples.
Should Dumbledore have
come out?
You could go to work,
or you could come to life
Some careers are just about work. In the NHS, it’s rather more important than
that. The chances are that we’re the very first organisation you ever used.
For many, we’ll also be the last. In between, we’re here to help all of us,
in sickness and in health. As you’re reading this we’re changing lives, keeping
families together, giving people hope. In the past 7 days we have helped
1.4 million people at home, delivered 10,000 babies, treated 150,000 pairs
of feet and mended 3,000 broken hearts. Other employers offer you attractive
benefits packages, excellent starting salaries and exceptional training and
development. We do too. But we also give you something that is totally
unique at work. And that’s life.
Apply online at www.come2life.nhs.uk/graduate
Nikki Gratton
President of CUSU LBGT autonomous campaign
Decca Muldowney and Finn Beames
1st year, English, King’s
I think that it’s really interesting that JK Rowling
has ‘outed’ Dumbledore. For some reason I feel
the news makes a lot of sense and that everything
about Dumbledore seems to fit together well.
We got carried away and wrote a song about it.
We’re thinking of releasing it on youtube.
FINANCE
GENERAL
HR
NHS GRADUATE SCHEME
it’s not work, it’s life
8
COMMENT
The Cambridge Student 25/10/07
Time to start caring about NUS
Edward Maltby discusses the latest proposed reforms to NUS and argues we
should not let them through
D
emocracy is dying in the NUS. Its fate was
sealed, and its death knell sounded, at the
October meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) . The NEC announced the
rolling-out of a series of reforms designed to finally crush mass participation in NUS structures
and to entrench the power of a small number of
sabbatical officers.
For most students, the NUS is already a moribund,
shadowy organisation. Although we’re all members,
most of us see the NUS as nothing more than a discount card. It has long ceased to be an organ which
adequately represents, speaks to or fights for students, and for that reason it is largely ignored by the
student body.
But it is still possible to save the NUS from itself, to
revive it by engaging in its democratic structures and
reinvigorating its campaigning work. In the right
hands –the hands of its members and not the hands
of a clique of careerists – NUS could be a powerful
fighter for students on issues which matter to us: on
fees and the environment, on housing and welfare.
At the moment, the top of the NUS is run by two
bodies. Firstly, the NEC, made up of a number of
Vice Presidents and other officers, as well as members of the Block of Twelve – a group of part-time
officials, which ensures representation of political
and social minorities on the NEC. Secondly, the
Management Team, a group of senior sabbatical of-
ficers which is above the NEC and works behind the
scenes, on things like the union’s budget.
For years, the Management Team has been controlled by Labour Students: people either ideologically committed to supporting the government’s
every move, or dedicated to the cause of winning
CV points for a career in Westminster. For these
managerial union bureaucrats, students who want
the NUS to stand up to the government, lead political or educational campaigns, or do pretty much
anything at all are just inconvenient and politically
embarrassing.
It is still possible to save NUS
from itself by engaging in its
democratic structures
Either way, the Management Team has wielded
its power to squash activism in the union, isolate minority voices on the Block of Twelve, cosy
up to senior Labour politicians, and cut spending
on the Annual NUS Conference. However, until
now the Management Team has been at least notionally accountable to the larger and more representative NEC.
The reforms will put a stop to that. The NEC will
be split into a partially-elected Board, which will include non-student external ‘experts’ and the more
senior sabbatical officers; and the Senate, whose
remit will be seriously limited. It’s already difficult
to work as a part-time member of the NEC: some
members of the Block of Twelve have to get parttime jobs because they are paid so miserably by the
union. This reform will make their work impossible,
whilst entrenching the power and privilege of the
tiny political elite on the Board.
The Annual NUS Conference, too, will be mauled
and fragmented. Right now, the Conference has
been the best friend of the NUS rank-and-file, and the
worst enemy of the bureaucrats on the Management
Team. That is why the Conference has been cut back
from being a twice-annual 5 day event in 1992 to
being an annual two-and-a-half day event today.
But the reforms break it into six events. This set-up
would be confusing, and the conferences will probably wind up looking like the Regional Conferences
we see today – tiny jokes of events held solely for the
benefit of sabbatical officers and their cronies, of
which ordinary students are told next to nothing.
The ‘reformers’ also intend to weaken the requirement that delegations be elected by cross campus
ballot. This would render conferences almost totally
invisible to ordinary students, and would result in a
complete lack of representation of minority groups
and views at conferences: and naturally would leave
the system wide open to abuse by SU presidents.
More scandalous still, the NUS leadership might
try and force these changes through by calling an
emergency conference to discuss them before the
Conference in the new year. Emergency conferences
are almost always very small affairs without elected
representatives, and generally with many institutions not willing or able to send delegates at all.
This isn’t about one political faction trying to
out-manoeuvre another. Nor is this about trying to
maintain the status quo in NUS. If we want to rein-
It’s a fight between all
students and the tiny clique
who threaten to destroy our
union
vigorate NUS as a body that can represent students’
interests and fight for us in the colossal battles that
are brewing in Higher Education, if we want an NUS
that speaks to all of its members, and not just a few
dozen SU presidents, then we have to stop these reforms as a first step. It’s hardly even about left and
right: this is a fight between all students and the tiny
clique who threaten to destroy our union.
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COMMENT
9
The freedom to think differently
Pete Jefferys
J
ames Watson is on the plane home to America
and much of this country’s media is only too
glad to see him off. The former Cambridge
scientist who co-discovered DNA structure with
Francis Crick in 1953 was due to start a promotional tour for Avoid Boring People, his new book,
which included a trip to our very own Cambridge
Union. However his comments made in a national
newspaper last week, in which he apparently suggested that black people’s genetic makeup makes
them less intelligent than whites, have caused uproar and universal condemnation, provoking an
apology from Watson and his retreat back to the
U.S.
Personally I find
Watson’s comments
abhorrent and I’ve no
doubt that the entire
readership of this paper
feels the same way. His
opinions are
neither
James Watson heads home dfarber
justified by science nor defensible for a man of
his intellectual calibre and public influence, especially when one considers how his views could
be used by extreme right wing organisations. Yet,
even with such damning indictment, The Science
Museum’s censorship of him seems to me entirely
unjustifiable.
The political and social philosopher John Stuart
Mill wrote that the coerciveness of public opinion
can sometimes disable free speech, which he felt was
our fundamental and necessary right. Mill pointed
out that to be intolerant of dissident, eccentric or
merely different attitudes is to deny us the chance to
question our own beliefs which, he argued, can only
be confirmed as right when carefully scrutinized.
Watson’s banishment shows how instead of directly challenging bigotry in this country we now
simply sweep it under the carpet, ignore any debate and demonise the proprietor. Free speech is a
rare and precious commodity in the world, as the
recent crushing of pro-democracy demonstrations
in Burma has proved, and where it exists we should
vigorously defend it, even if that means giving a platform to such views as Watson’s. Those who think
such opinions should be silenced are denying us the
opportunity to defend our own views and justify the
society which we have created.
I am however glad to report that the Cambridge
Union did not cancel Watson’s talk, where I’m sure
he would have been held accountable for his comments by many students. I also think the Oxford
Union should be applauded for its decision to continue to allow the historian and Holocaust denier
David Irving to speak, despite ferocious criticism
from some elements of the national press. The stu-
dents at these universities are intelligent enough
to understand the intrinsic flaws in Irving and
Watson’s arguments, as well as expose the underlying racism, xenophobia and ignorance of some of
their comments.
The Union, thankfully, is still a bastion of free
speech, unlike the Science Museum which cancelled
Watson’s talk as soon as the media storm erupted.
It is time that such institutions realised that by hosting controversial speakers they are not endorsing
or promoting their views, merely acting as catalysts
for free speech and free debate. They should not be
forced into submission by a sensationalist and vitriolic national press, which rather than endorse free
expression and diversity of opinion, actively creates
and implements the status quo.
Finally I would like to reiterate that I am in no way
an apologist for Watson, or indeed for Irving, both
of whom express opinions which are not widely accepted in their respective fields which is perhaps the
most important factor.
Most importantly of all the Union has stood by
its principles and has hosted another controversial
figure, Colonel Gadaffi, on Monday night. We are
fortunate in Cambridge to have the opportunity to
engage with wildly diverse opinions and engage in
free and open debate with some of the worlds most
influential people. Instead of lambasting the institutions which host these figures our national press
should engage with the opinions expressed and encourage the spirit of free speech which is fundamental to our democracy. As the political dissident Rosa
Luxembourg once eloquently claimed, “Freedom
is always and exclusively freedom for the one who
thinks differently.”
The Union: a bastion of free speech J. N. Matias
The just cause is Kurdistan
Rob Stagg
F
Scott Fitzgerald once said that “optimism
is the content of small men in high places”.
It’s recently become rather more difficult to
apply quite the same healthy pessimism to Iraq’s
northern Kurdish province – where until recently
people had indeed been kept small, whilst being
high in the Taurus mountains. But, post-2003, a
genuine optimism has been entrenched.
In Sulaimaniya, an MBA is being offered in political theory, from Locke through to Derrida by way
of Jefferson - one of the first exponents of American
interventionism. Secularism is entrenched: few listen to the mullahs. Kurdish security forces and, lest
it be forgotten, the Kurdish Worker’s Party (PKK)
are making significant strides in the marathon of
defeating Al Qaeda. It was these groups, you may
remember, that exposed and located Abu Musab alZarqawi. In short, the twinkling spires of the capital
city, Irbil - which now has a McDonalds - are twinkling just a shade more than normal. This stands in
stark contrast to the miasmic decay and still-suppurating wounds that Saddam Hussein wrought on
the region right up until the moment of his forced
departure.
None of this is new information, and all of it
has been documented with customary clarity by
Christopher Hitchens in one of his more recent
Vanity Fair pieces. But it does require re-iterating
from time to time, partly to remind the more lobotomised opponents of regime change, that progress
has been, and could have been, made in Iraq – and
partly because of Turkey’s recent zeal to begin forestalling such progress. Last week, the Turkish parliament resolved by 507 votes to 19 to authorise
incursion onto Kurdish territory in order to neuter
and negate the militant PKK presence in the Taurus
mountains. Cemil Cicek, the Turkish Deputy Prime
Minister, has made clear that this is more a pledge
than a threat.
So, given that there is no evidence of the Kurdish
provinces collaborating with or sponsoring this
kind of terrorism, why are the Left not hoisting this
particular banner? Where are the Noam Chomskys
now that a country’s sovereignty is threatened and this time one that is not steeped in the gore of
oppression?
It seems the Left has become rather more selective about whom it collaborates with. The Kurdish
cause has never been fashionable, despite it being the
largest diaspora of displaced persons on the globe.
The King of Bahrain may have an armchair at the
United Nations, but no such luck for the 25 million
persons spread across the Iraq-Iran-Turkey border.
The diaspora’s maltreatment at the hands of consecutive US administrations, most notably those of
Nixon and Bush Senior, is only now being corrected
– and how.
Now consider, if you will, the long history of
Turkish intransigence. The three million Kurds
in Turkey have been harassed and persecuted
for decades. It was only in 1991, for instance, that
the Kurdish language became a legal mode of discourse. To this day, Turkey has 1500 troops stationed in northern Iraq – which, incidentally, does
call into question the need for moonlight incursions
into the same territory. And now the Turkish government has the audacity to discuss this matter in
parliament, ex officio, whilst the victims of Saddam
Hussein’s Operation Anfal obtain some justice in
Iraqi courtrooms.
The Kurdish government’s response has been
one of compelling dignity. This might earn them
brownie points in conservative,and even neoconservative, circles, but it seems the Left has no patience with groups that do not straightforwardly
follow the insurrectionary rulebook. And the Kurds’
collusion with America, (which has borne ripe fruit
of late), is a definite blot on their copybook. It was
interesting to note the proliferation of ‘Freedom for
The fight for Kurdish independence has been ignored by the Left CIA
Palestine’ placards, and their derivatives, on that
sprawling anti-war march in February 2003 that
Ian McEwan has so compellingly documented.
Palestine, Palestine, Palestine. The famous cause
has replaced the just cause, and the just cause is undoubtedly that of the Kurds. But it is a cause that is
wrapped in the American, and the neocon, flag. The
Left would do well to recognise that it was Woodrow
Wilson, an interventionist President hampered by
an isolationist Congress, who first mandated for the
creation of a Kurdish state within the bounds of the
Treaty of Sèvres. And it is once again an American
President who is the rallying point for Kurdish selfdetermination. The Left needs to get with the game
– or face the humiliating prospect of its nemesis,
George Bush, winning it first.
Corrections & clarifications
The Cambridge Student endeavours to be as
accurate as possible in its reporting. It is possible for inadvertent errors to creep in and we are
very happy to issue corrections. Please e-mail
us at [email protected].
The article ‘Freshers’ fun run’ (18/10/05 Vl. 10 Issue
4) was written by James Pelly and not Richard
Lebon as stated.
10 EDITORIAL
Editorial
[email protected]
Editor [email protected]
Beth Ashbridge
Deputy Editor
Ryan Roark
Robert Palmer
T
he timeline on page 4 shows the extent to
which the University has changed in the
800 years since it was founded. Entrants
are no longer required to speak Latin or Greek
and women have (finally) been allowed to take full
degrees. Though perhaps the Queen Mother - the
first women to be awarded a degree - is not the
finest intellectual role model.
However, there are clearly still problems. The case
of the ethnic minority student featured on our front
page shows that there are still people within the university who feel that they are being discriminated
against.
The student, who wishes to remain anonymous,
has taken legal action against the university. His case
is supported by the Commission for Equality and
Human Rights - the new super quango responsible
for reducing inequality. He has alleged that he was
not even given an application form, despite having
an excellent academic record and being deemed fit
to practice.
Another example is that of Heather Peto, who has
claimed that she was persistently harassed. Heather
has said that university staff spied on her emails and
taunted her about her looks. She has exhausted all of
the University’s complaint procedures and is currently in the middle of legal action.
Both these cases reflect badly on Cambridge. It
conforms to the stereotype of a stuffy institution,
run by pinstripped bureaucrats and dons trapped in
their ivory towers. At a time when the University is
trying very hard to present Cambridge as a diverse
and welcoming place, these sort of stories can be very
damaging.
A new report from Push highlights how expensive
Cambridge can be. There is a generalised perception
among applicants that the older universities are significantly more costly.
However, compared to Oxford and some of the
London universities, Cambridge is relatively cheap.
The University and colleges are generous when it
comes to bursaries and we only have to pay rent
during termtime. Unless of course you are at Caius
and have to pay £5.60 a day or just under £700 a year
for formal.
There are a minority at Cambridge who do
their best to live life extravagantly and expensively. Swigging over-priced champagne, eating at
Midsummer House and wearing awful neckties. At
times it seems that this group have a disproportionate presence in the town.
However, most students are normal. They have
normal incomes and usually they have normal expenditures. Cambridge may be quite pricey but
being here has many financial benefits. From large
travel grants to odd funds that seem to help only
those who wish to be priests and are from the West
Riding of Yorkshire. So hopefully those who are interested in coming to this university take all this on
board. Cambridge is not really that bad after all.
Sven Palys [email protected]
Subeditor
Owen Kennedy
News [email protected]
Amy Blackburn, editor
Jonathan Laurence
Alex Coke-Woods
Catherine Watts
Josh Hardie
Stephen Brothwell
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Food & Drink [email protected]
Gabriel Byng
Stephen Kosmin
Film [email protected]
Rebecca Hawketts
Shane Murray
Music [email protected]
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James Garner
Matt Cottingham
Comment [email protected]
Hannah Fair, editor
Marsha Vinogradova
Puzzles
Steph Hampshire
Sud Murugesu
Features [email protected]
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Interviews [email protected]
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Theatre [email protected]
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Board of directors
Alice Palmer (Chair)
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Robert Palmer
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Sven Palys
The Cambridge Student is published by the Cambridge University Students’ Union,
Old Examination Hall, Free School Lane, Cambridge CB2 3RF. 01223 761 685
The Cambridge Student Crossword
Set by Byzantine
Chess Challenge
Bernstein-Capablanca, Moscow 1914
10
11
12
13
17
22
23
25
26
27
28
competition (7)
Lack of excitement with bedroom shenanigans (7)
Foreign gibe beloved of the Nazis (9)
Bring a halt to British debauchee (5)
To do with working share encapsulated by two
rings (11)
Chance to go through work - 20/20 (11)
Depraved – how about an Oxbridge Escort! (5)
Part of garment for English girl (9)
ADC cast in part of opera found in Greece (7)
Poetic opposite (7)
22s play with their pussies, say (9)
See 1
DOWN
1 Many students’ favourite waste of time is to look at
the Bible (8)
2 Foreign trader who once worked for the college (8)
3 It’s not human to laugh about money (5)
4 Friend found before in India. Tell composer (7)
5 Country returned murder victim with no name (7)
6 Concocted grad alibi for revolutionary (9)
7 Time for calculator (6)
8 Difficulty with gold transaction (6)
14 Sam dreamt about pothole (9)
15 I swear it’s shot on location of Desperate Housewives (8)
16 To dine out with little money is unseemly (8)
18 Church dignitary before and after the right time (7)
19 Does Ira arrange these musicians’ accompanists (7)
20 Edits TCS replacing gut with gutless? (6)
21 Agree and study 1350 (6)
24 Works of fiction about 5 existences (5)
Black to play
Back rank threats abound here and both sides
must be careful (for example 1. … Qb1+ 2. Qf1
Rd1 loses to Rc8). Black may win the a-pawn
with check on b1, but Capablanca found a much
more decisive blow. What did he play?
Solutions to this week’s puzzle
1. … Qb2 and White can to nothing to
avoid losing at least the rook. One line
is 2. Qc2 Qa1+ 3. Qc1 Rd1+ 4. Qxd1
Qxd1 mate.
ACROSS
1,28 Another chance with some Freudian sh*t? (5,5)
4 Beliefs about stuff Area 51’s got inside – top secret (9)
9 Got through taking apart holders of squash
Solution to last
week’s Crossword
IMPACT
04/10/07
The Cambridge Student
The art of
science,
pg.19
Our science editors discuss their special research topics, pg.20-21
Features
12
IMPACT
Summer internships
TCS brings you the best of summer
internship programmes from those who
spent July sat behind a computer...
F
or those of you who are forward thinking, application forms are currently
de rigueur. Finalists will be panicking about jobs for next year, second-years
trying to find that all important summer internship for after the hedonism of May Week.
For those of you who haven’t started thinking
about it, start - deadlines are already on the
horizon for many. First-years still don’t know
whether it’s the Van of Life, or the Truck, so
they can be forgiven for not having the next
five years of their life laid diagrammatically out before them. Internships vary hugely, from excellent to awful, so here are some
(useful) thoughts on the title “What shall I do
next summer?”
The emphasis put on the internship is partly
justified. Working at something other than
microbiology or Cicero for a few weeks is a great
initiation to the actual, real world. You’ll gain
money, contacts, experience, maybe even a job
at the end of it. Over half of new associates at
the major banking houses came from a summer
internship, the previous year. It’s like a cushy,
ten-week-long interview. To get one, you’ll
probably have to perfect a CV, the art of the
covering letter, the application form (‘when did
you last have to rescue someone from a burning building?’) and the arsenal of online verbal
and numerical tests (‘you have now passed level
one. Please proceed to level eight thousand and
two’). Since almost everyone gets a 2.1 nowadays, many graduate recruitment departments
now seek well-rounded, inventive individuals
who have done more than just sit in the library
all term. Working with the same people every
day may be more challenging than understanding the Critique of Pure Reason.
Not all internships are in banks. Although it
might seem, from the jellybeans in my pigeonhole for a start, that all internships are in law,
banking, or management consultancy, this is
very far from the truth. Internships can be in
volunteering, politics, public service, journalism and almost anything else. If you see something you’re interested in, write them a letter
asking for an internship - the worst that can
happen is a polite refusal. It shows that you are
keen, motivated and savvy. Never forget - the
graduate recruiters are after you, not the other
You might be
paid a lot but
spend all of it
on rent for a
shabby flat and
£6 pints by
the river
way round. You have all the dice, all the choices,
and all the value. Too often it feels like you’re
being continually tested and rejected, when you
should approach internship applications with
calm confidence and reason - don’t apply for it
just because it might look good, but rather because you want to know if it’s the right thing for
you . Sometimes the most valuable internships
are those where you find out that particular
working environment just isn’t the right thing
for you, and it is always constructive to know
what you aren’t looking for.
Summer internships though, can be a poisoned chalice: you might hate it, for a start. Your
boss might be unable to comprehend that you
can make more than coffee, or you might have
too much responsibility and not leave the office
until the early hours of the morn. You might be
paid a lot to work in Canary Wharf, but spend
all of it on rent for a shabby flat in Balham and
£6 pints by the river. It’s better to do something
interesting that doesn’t pay anything, than do
something well paid and dire. Some companies have been known to use their caché to exploit interns, by having a proscribed unpaid
role that nobody would ever do in real life,
but that a slew of inexperienced undergraduates will shoulder without complaint. Websites
like RateMyPlacement.co.uk are a good place
to start, and are necessary because “the market
for graduate recruitment is very crowded, yet
there appears to be very little dedicated space
and time to work placements”. Similarly, most
newspapers have a graduate recruitment supplement that often carries articles on what you
should look for in the vast galaxy of internship
choice.
Below this article are a number of small reviews of summer internships, carried out by a
number of third-years. This is supposed to demonstrate the wide variety of internships you may
wish to consider, as well as honestly saying what
they were like. For more information, visit the
Careers Service (which really is very good) or
just do some preliminary research on the web.
You’ll be amazed at how many different opportunities there are, and how eminently well qualified you are to take advantage of them.
You don’t have to work for money....
Illustrations by Anna Trench
The Vitalise
Centre, Cornwall
I volunteered for two weeks in July at the Vitalise Centre in Churchtown, which is in a
small village near Bodmin in Cornwall. The
centre allows disabled people to have a break
away from home and to visit local landmarks
and have access to outdoor pursuits. Activities offered to the guests included visiting
the Eden project, going on a ‘water day’ and
doing abseiling and canoeing.
I worked alongside the centre’s staff, assisting the guests in the activities and also helping them to meet their general daily needs,
including eating, dressing and going to the
toilet. I also spent a lot of time just chatting
to them and making them cups of tea in the
evenings. There were people with a range
of disabilities who all needed different care,
for instance those with visual impairments
required guiding. Some of the guests has
speech difficulties which meant that understanding them was challenging at first, but it
taught me to really listen to people.
The best thing about the fortnight was
spending time with a group of people who
otherwise I probably would not have even
met. I enjoyed their company and felt like I
was making a real difference to their enjoyment of the fortnight too.
The worst thing was staying in such a small
village, as there was absolutely nothing to do
during my time off. However Vitalise have 5
other centres in the UK, in more lively areas
such as London and Nottingham.
As it was voluntary work, I was not paid
anything, although board, food and travel
costs were provided which meant I was not
left out of pocket. It was such a valuable experience that I didn’t mind doing it for free
at all.
Jessica Fogarty
Francesca Rose-Lewis
KPMG
Ben Barrat
Armed only with Part I History to my name,
spending two months in Frankfurt with one of
the world’s largest financial service providers
might have seemed like a strange choice. That
said, my KPMG audit placement at the headquarters of Dresdner Bank involved far more
than just number crunching. With lots of meetings to attend (a great way to test my German!),
presentations on accounting laws to prepare
and audit plans to write, I was often kept on my
toes. One of the highlights came early on with
the ‘Introduction to KPMG’ held over three days
in Berlin, at which interns from across Europe
met up for a mixture of talks, group activities
and tourist trails. Both the sheer variety of people I met from around the world and the daily
challenges of working abroad in a range of business settings were the best aspects of this internship. The worst part of the experience was the
sheer inconsistency of the workload; for every
hour spent on an interesting task, there seemed
to be another in which I was provided with no
work at all, no matter how many people I contacted. KPMG do suggest that candidates ap-
plying to this programme need an intermediate
level of fluency in German although it became
clear that English alone would suffice in most
of the offices, if not all. The experiences I gained
from my time with KPMG were on the whole
invaluable and for anyone wishing to gain a first
insight into the world of financial services, the
programme could not be better.
The Best
Bit...
Travel, experience, and
money money money...
The
Worst
Bit...
Long hours in the
office
8
£350/week
RATING
10
The Value Engineers
Fran Rose-Lewis
I worked at a small branding consultancy called
The Value Engineers for eight weeks this summer. They are based in Beaconsfield, so slightly
off the beaten track, but they are well known in
the industry, and do absolutely fantastic work
for some amazing clients. There are about 30
full time staff, with some truly inspiring and
impressive brains among them. Brand consultancy was a bit of a mystery to me when I applied, but the popular idea they trot out is that
it is ‘halfway between advertising and management consultancy’ – go figure! The work is very
conceptual and creative, and you never feel like
a computer could do your job. There was a great
spirit of collaborative enterprise in the office,
and it was good to always feel ahead of the curve
in dealing with trends and new products.
It was a make-your-own-luck kind of job, and
I was the only intern, so there were no tedious
tick-box training exercises, and I was able to get
stuck in straight away. Probably the best thing
about working in a small consultancy firm is that
you get a wide variety of clients, and your work
doesn’t have to go up seven rungs of a ladder be-
IMPACT
back in both directions throughout the internship. Another strong point of the programme
was the opportunity for everybody to partner
shadow for a day which I thought was particularly relevant for those with high career aspirations. In some roles, such as Auditing there
was also the opportunity to spend time at client
sites working on engagements or at other Ernst
& Young offices, helping you to take on more
responsibility and work effectively as a team. I’d
definitely encourage people to try and get a feel
for an office before they join. As the cliché goes
‘it’s the people that make our firm different’, so
if you’re working in a smaller regional office its
even more crucial to find an environment you
enjoy working in.
The Best
Bit...
Choosing where in the
country you go
The
Worst
Bit...
Commuting to
London and proofreading
draft
8
£350/week
RATING
10
More Info
For more information on
getting summer internships,
try visiting:
www.careers.cam.ac.uk
fore it can be shown to them - I was able to meet
clients in week two, and made major contributions to a training project for BP, research to position the Lloyds TSB private banking brand, an
‘insight day’ for the Britvic marketing team, a
successful sales pitch for British Airways, and
work on a global market segmentation for Sony,
among other things.
The Best
Bit...
Sipping G&T in the ‘Palais’
Nightclub in Cannes on an
all expenses-paid company jolly
The
Worst
Bit...
Spending three
hours on the M25
every day
9
£225/week
RATING
10
Ernst and Young
Mark Jobson
There were several motivations for why I
chose to intern at Ernst & Young this summer. First, the duration of the programme, at
only 6 weeks (with 2 start dates), meant I could
have a healthier balance of time spent travelling
and working than some of the other schemes
on offer. Another appeal was the variety of locations and programmes available. As well as
London, most the regional offices (including
my choice of Southampton) offer programmes
in almost all of Ernst and Young’s service lines,
from Audit to Tax, Business Risk Advisory,
Transactions Advisory and rotational programmes at some offices.
The programme kicked off with a weeklong residential induction based out of the
Birmingham office, bringing together all the
interns from offices outside London. Although
at times this seemed like one long recruitment
presentation, there were lots of skills sessions
and lots of fun team building exercises including
a social responsibility day clearing weeds from
a deer park! Once back in the offices I found
the support mechanisms, including ‘buddies’
Although it sounds pretty
boring, it actually has a lot of
pretty good information. They
also run workshops for CV and
interview training.
Log on and register for e-mail
updates, or drop in (the building
is down Mill Lane near the Granta
Centre, don’t worry, not many
people know that...)
www.myinternship.co.uk
A lot of very good information
on internships all over the
country.
www.fco.gov.uk
The Foreign Office runs
internship programmes every
summer for a number of
applicants in many fields, but
competition is fierce.
Alternatively, any company
featured
here
can
be
contacted on-line or at the
annual careers fair.
Cally Squires
Some spent their summers frolicking on
sunny beaches in Thailand, others swimming
with turtles in the Galapagos Islands…I opted
for a month working at the world’s biggest firm
of solicitors. Housed in the impressive 30-storey 10 UBS building at Canary Wharf, the corporate surroundings could rival some 5-star
hotels. The office at Clifford Chance had a hairdresser’s, drycleaner’s, doctor’s surgery, free
gym, squash courts, fitness classes, swimming
pool and a subsidised canteen to satisfy any culinary palette. Although the pay cheque isn’t as
fat, be comforted that you will have an enviable
work/life balance compared to your investment
banking contemporaries - my mentor insisted I
leave the office on the dot of 5pm most days and
head to the office bar and/or in-house Starbucks
with fellow vac schemers and trainees. I spent
my time split between General Real Estate and
International Arbitration in Litigation, giving me the chance to contrast two very different paces of working life and be involved in the
high profile Wembley case. The benefit of a paid
vac scheme over a normal summer job is that
you are not just there to work. We took part in
classes on corporate awareness and interview
skills, sat in with lawyers at a trial in the Royal
Courts of Justice and got involved with probono programmes like the FreeLaw clinic. One
activity I hadn’t anticipated was swapping my
suit for waterproofs and spending a day clearing rubbish from the banks of the Thames in
East London. Fortunately (for you) I hear that
next year they’re thinking of picking a slightly
less appalling team bonding exercise.
The Best
Bit...
Networking, social events
and power dressing
The
Worst
Bit...
Litter picking
7
£295/week
RATING
10
I hadn’t
anticipated
swapping
my suit for
waterproofs
and spending
a day clearing
rubbish
Features
Money, experience, fun: whatever your reasons for muscling
into an international corporation, internships have something
to offer...
and Counselling Managers a very strong point
Clifford Chance
of the programme, allowing for quality feed-
13
IMPACT
IMPACT
17
Fashion
Fashion
16
ebay Explored
How to get the most out of the internet’s biggest bargain bin, and avoid its pitfalls
I
n a recent article in Vogue, Emma
Elwich described ebay as the Wild
West of fashion- ‘just one huge rolling expanse of cast-offs, knock-offs,
musty knitwear and ghastly crépon
and suedette, with a few fashion
gems thrown in’. This seems, to me, like a
pretty apt description.
Ebay is the perfect place to find those desirable items that just aren’t available on the High
Street, bargain designer items, and unique
pieces that no-one else will have. However, buying on the site is filled with innumerable hazards, as any regular bidder will know. This is not
to say that you should be scared away. The key is
simply to know what to do to avoid disappointment and wasting money.
Before you start shopping for any garments
on ebay, it will probably be a good idea to have
your various body measurements at hand.
Sellers will often give the exact measurements
of the items they are selling, rather than standard UK sizes, and, with no guarantees or mirrors, it is essential to know that the things you
are bidding for will actually fit you. It may also
be useful to make a list of the things you actually
want to get hold of, before you start browsing
the site. With so many items available, it can be
difficult to know where to start, and all too easy
to get distracted and/or confused.
Also, the more specific you can be in your
searches, the more likely you will be to get what
you actually want. For example, searching
‘black skirt’ gives 8759 results, whereas searching ‘black skirt silk size 12’ gives only 12. It is
helpful to search for the size, the colour, the material, and the cut/style. If you know what brand
you want, searching this will be even more effec-
tive. Alternatively, searching for specific trends,
such as ‘lady-like tailoring’ should give you an
idea of what’s available.
If you’re looking for designer items, beware
of fakes (unless, of course, that’s what you’re
after). To find the real deal requires a quite a
lot of sifting and a great deal of patience. It can
be well worthwhile, however. There are always
tell-tale descriptions such as ‘Chanel-style’ or
‘Fendi-type’. And don’t be fooled by the packaging- fake ribbons and bags are all part of the
tease.
Similarly, read the item descriptions very
carefully. There have been multiple cases of
sellers saying ‘you are bidding for the item pictured’, with a picture of, say, a Chloe handbag;
when the buyer has paid up, they are sent a picture of the bag, not the bag itself. This is dubious,
obviously, but it is legal. So check that it actually
describes the item you want, in detail. That way,
if something is amiss with the item, you have a
legal basis on which to rest any complaints.
The final pitfall is that ebay, by its very nature
as a bidding site, is competitive. When you are
bidding for an item, you may well be competing
with professionals- vintage dealers and onlineboutique owners- people who devote all day
to winning that perfect garment. So, if you see
something you really have to have, ensure that
you are online for the last minutes of the auction. Alternatively, you could use Bidnapper.
com, a site that, for a small subscription fee, will
bid on your behalf, even as you sleep, allowing
you to get on with your life.
Ebay is a very useful tool, as long as you use it
properly. Follow this advice and you will hopefully be on your way to getting exactly what you
want. Happy bidding!
My Favourite Finds
Dave Chapman shows us his best Ebay bargains
LEFT:
RIGHT:
Boy Scouts of America shirt, £10
Red t-shirt, Topman, £4
Brown cords, £12
Slip-on trainers, Vans, £20
Tie, Topshop, £3
Red belt, £4
Sunglasses, Topman, £4
Thunderbirds sweatband, £3
T-shirt, Urban Outfitters £20
Jeans, unbranded, £10
Belt, Enorgie, £12
Staten Island Tracktop, Adicolor, £50
Staten Island Trainers, Adicolor, £24
Sunglasses, Topman, £4
CENTRE:
Vintage 1930s wool three-piece suit, £250
Shirt, Topman, £5
Vintage tie, £20
Vintage shoes, £50
Antique pocket-watch, model’s own
Article:
Heather Gerber
Photos:
Erika Blomerus
Arts & Literature
18
IMPACT
Space Dogs and Thunder Lizards
The SARS virus will never confess Jay Hosler
Mico Tatalovic introduces the
emerging genre of science comics
W
riting forms literature; drawing
forms art. Put the two together,
you get comics. Comics have long
been deprived of the limelight of arts and literature but are becoming more and more
appreciated for their contribution to literature and for their artistic value. Perhaps most
prominently, French-based Iranian comic
novel writer Marjane Satrapi expressed her
experiences of growing up in Iran in a successful comic book Persepolis that was adapted into a popular film this year.
More and more scientists are becoming
aware of the appeal comics have and are starting to use them to communicate scientific ideas.
Scientific research, lives and academic mishaps
of great scientists all provide inspiration for
comic books writers. In this fusion, science inspires art and literature, science becomes literature, and art allows science to reach more people
then it ever would otherwise. Science communication and education are making use of more
and more art forms: while science lectures are
being put online for 24/7 access using blogs and
podcast media, science is also being made more
digestible to school students by introducing science to them via comics. Art, on the other hand,
is taking more and more inspiration from the
sciences—from theatre, stand-up comedy and
film through to poetry, painting and comics. So
what exactly is available out there when it comes
to science comics?
Jay Hosler is one of the most popular science
cartoonists in the USA. He started off drawing a
weekly comic strip for his undergraduate newspaper and now he’s drawing graphic novels as
an alternative to biology textbooks. He is a biologist, but his love of comics led him eventually
to experiment with this media for telling scientific stories. His most popular graphic novels are
Clan Apis and The Sandwalk Adventures. Clan
Apis is the life story of a bee, Nyuki (Swahili for
a honey bee). In an interview for WPSU radio,
Hosler said: “As she (Nyuki) goes through these
different transitions and jobs in the hive…we
have an opportunity to sort of explain what’s
going on, give a little of the biology but hopefully tell a story that everyone can relate to”. The
Sandwalk Adventures is a story of a small follicle mite, the kind each of us has in our hair follicles, that lives on Darwin and thinks Darwin
is her creator. Darwin, however, doesn’t care
much for creationism and so explains to the little mite how she is a product of evolution by natural selection and not divine creation as such.
This comic is educationally important as well as
being a clever jab at intelligent design.
Optical allusions is another Hosler comic
which focuses on biology and evolution of eyes
and vision. This might be the first ever biology
textbook in the form of a comic. The need for
such alternative approaches to science education is highlighted by the decreasing proficiency of American students in science; in fact,
this comic book project was funded by a grant
from the National Science Foundation. Hosler’s
shorter comics include The Conundrum of the
Killer Coronavirus, in which a SARS virus is
being cross-examined by the police in relation
to his involvement in killings. Yet the virus argues his vector is still unknown despite other circumstantial evidence against him and gets out
on bail from a civet; this is where the detective
realizes the civet is the vector of this virus and
shouts after the virus: “I’ll get you yet, SARS!”
“Comics
about
scientists?
What a
dangerous
experiment!”
www.gt-labs.com
Cindi can’t believe some people don’t understand ions copyright University of Texas at
Dallas, artwork by Erik Lervold (momo.panel2panel.com, www.ArtWanted.com/erik3k)
The virus replies: “You just might, detective, if
you’re not careful!” Hosler’s comics are comic
art at its best, and even if you read them just for
fun you will learn a fair amount of science, since
the characters and the storylines are inevitably
intertwined with the scientific issues. The fact
that the National Science Foundation is funding
what is essentially an art project, the creation of
a graphic novel, underscores the emerging role
of science in the arts, and vice versa.
Jim Ottaviani is another American science
comic book writer who collaborates with professional artists to create comics about various scientific and social issues. His comics
include Fallout, about the science and politics
of nuclear bombs; Dignifying Science, about
women and science; and Suspended in language, a story about Niels Bohr and quantum
mechanics. Ottaviani uses a variety of styles to
create his comics and many more can be found
on his website www.gt-labs.com, whose tagline
is “Comics about scientists? What a dangerous experiment!” Like Hosler, he admits in an
interview for the NPR radio that he identified
himself with Spiderman’s Peter Parker, a nerdy
scientist set out to save the world, and that the
comic art had a tremendous influence on him
as a child. And in answer to why he writes science comics Ottaviani says: “besides enjoying
comics, and wanting to work in the medium
simply because of that enjoyment, I saw a need
for them.” Inspired by the tools of the comic
art form, he employs them to convey scientific
ideas to scientists and non-scientists alike.
Larry Gonick is a mathematician and cartoonist who has been writing comics about
many aspects of science since 1972. His work
includes a Cartoon Guide to Sex and Cartoon
Guide to Chemistry. The above three scientists
produce comics in the sense of sequential art,
where a story is told in sequences of pictures
and words. South African painter Rose Rigden,
on the other hand, turned her vividly colourful paintings of the interactions of humans and
African wildlife into humorous and sometimes
sarcastic cartoons with a punch line. These
have been so successful that you can buy individual cartoons as postcards or the book series
Wildside in most tourist shops in South Africa.
Apart from individual scientists, some institutions also produce comics to promote understanding of their work. Cindi in Space is a
cool, sleek, superhero-style comic illustrated by
Erik Lervold and produced by the University of
Texas at Dallas, about NASA’s mission to research the ionosphere with an aim to be able to
predict ‘space weather’. Japan’s Solar-Terrestrial
Environment Laboratory at the University of
Nagoya has produced several science comics
which are visually appealing and deal with a
range of topics from What is Aurora?! to What
are Cosmic Rays?! These comics are done in
the special Japanese style of comic known as
Manga. Indeed, scientific themes have been incorporated into a wide variety of artistic styles
within the comic medium.
In the UK, the Biotechnology and Biological
Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) funded
the project of turning real life research and
scientists (from PhD students to professors)
from the Rothamstead Research Institute in
Hertfordshire into comic stories and characters. Science Stories is a short series of comics
such as Slugging It Out, Down In the Dirt, How
To Confuse a Moth, Sulphur Power and Killer
Caterpillar that outline some of the research that
has been carried out at Rothamstead Research.
These comics, available on-line, are written by
a science research student from Southampton
University, Emma Naper, and drawn by a professional illustrator, Phil Elliot.
Around the world, this sort of collaboration
between arts and sciences has produced the new
genre of science comics.
IMPACT
19
Arts & Literature
Jon Heras can see inside your head and your blood stream, and he’s plugged in to the ecosystem! Jon Heras
A Portrait of the Sci-Artist
Jon Heras does graphic design for science publications... and Real Madrid
I
have always been interested in science,
and I’m still amazed by how we can know
so much about the very very small, such
as biological pathways and particle physics,
and the very very large, like the formation of
the universe and the observation of its very
edges. Communicating such concepts verbally is hard, particularly without resorting
to jargon, but scientific graphics are a powerful way to convey visually what scientists believe to be true, in a clear and accessible way
for non-scientists.
Scientific art isn’t particularly new; artists
have been presenting scientific imagery for
years. Science has a way of producing exciting
interference patterns or really cool electron micrographs, and such materials have been used
by artists without a great deal of scientific con-
sideration. However, recently there has been an
explosion of scientists embracing visual media
to convey their work in a scientifically accurate manner. Harvard University and XVIVO
There is an
explosion of
scientists
embracing
visual media
( a scientific animation company) recently collaborated to produce a stunning 3D animation
called “The Inner Life of a Cell”, which goes far
beyond the traditional chalk-drawings of the
Open University and gives a feel for the bizarre
mechanisms operating within us, which we so
easily take for granted.
While I was finishing my PhD in MRI of engineering systems, I started my own company,
Equinox Graphics, to produce 3D computer
graphics with a scientific objective, and have
created illustrations for Bluesci magazine for
the past two and a half years, using this as a base
to expand my portfolio and improve my skills. I
now have an agent and have worked for institutions as varied as Blue Peter and Real Madrid.
I am in the enviable position of being able to
communicate with both scientists and artists,
and to be able to take cutting-edge scientific
concepts and render them accurately. Most artists would be in at the deep end here, and that’s
where their problems begin. Even little things,
like ensuring that images of DNA coils have the
correct chirality (they could be left-handed or
right-handed coils, but only one exists in nature), can smooth out the production process.
I would encourage any scientists with an artistic inclination to develop their artistic muscles, as art can help them to communicate the
importance of their work, both to other scientists and to the public. And for all artists, I would
say there is something to be gained by examining how things work, whether on a microscopic or a larger-than-life scale, to understand
the inner workings and the greater scheme
of things.
Celebrity Scientists Gone Wild!
Katie Gibson peers inside the debauched world of industrial science
Mark Booth
The Wonderful World of
Joseph McCrumble
★★★☆☆
T
o clarify, I am not a scientist, I rarely find Natsci-ish jokes remotely funny and yet here I am, reviewing the
“blogging sensation of a celebrity parasitologist.” Parasitology is, after all, “the new sex”…
according to ‘The Parasite Weekly Digest.’
McCrumble’s book is an attempt to reveal
the dazzling artistic side of scientists, which
is displayed throughout by small collections
of his inimitable artwork. Based on McCrumble’s blog at http://mccrumble.blogspot.com,
it is a collection of the bizarre events which
happen to the unlucky and slightly bemused
scientist. It pokes fun at over-dedicated research scientists like Joseph, who regards the
accidental ingestion of tapeworms by his assistant as “a unique opportunity which no
self-respecting experimental parasitologist
would refuse.”
The humour feels like a mix of Monty Python
and car crash TV—you know you shouldn’t
enjoy it but you can’t look away. A typical example is the anecdote of the demise of Professor
Cumbernauld’s wife, who was “trampled to
death by sheep that panicked” as she attempted
to perform “a forerunner of today’s colonic irrigation technique.” My favourite moment is
Joseph’s rescuing of a pair of Z-list celebs when
he’s involved in ‘Celebrity Jungle Love Island
Extreme —Return to Irin Naya.’ The ill-fated
two are balanced precariously on a tightrope
when a crocodile appears and they promptly
freeze. Joseph remembers that “larger males
will attack any mammal at the waters edge,”
moments before the hip-flask swilling psycho
producer is swallowed by the hungry crocodile,
who is all the while shouting “get this fucking
thing off me McCrumble!” Joseph therefore
proceeds to shimmy across the tightrope to the
now-praying trapped celebs and shouts helpfully, “God isn’t here right now, so I’ve come
instead.”
There are also some fairly gruesome moments, such as when a maggot is stuck in the
eye of a judo fighter. Whilst fighting to get it
out, our hero manages to drop some rat liver
“God isn’t
here right
now, so
I’ve come
instead”
which was stilled attached to his tweezers into
the hole the maggot left in the eye. Like I said,
car crash literature. These are somewhat alleviated however, by the inclusion of ‘Five days in
Denver,’ the story of a very naughty weekend
which is officially known as the World Ecology
Congress. It gets pretty racy. Sadly, just as it’s
getting very exciting, a grey box blocks out the
writing, alongside the author’s fatal words ‘this
has been censored by Dolores McCrumble on
the grounds of public decency and avoiding any
accusations of bad writing about sex.’ Needless
to say, I was disappointed, on the grounds of
censorship and…well, maybe that says more
about me than it does about any defniciency in
the book.
All in all, The Wonderful World of Joseph
McCrumble is a bit of fun. It will particularly be
enjoyed by Natscis, but accessible to all. Also, all
profits go towards establishing safe sources of
water for schoolchildren in rural Kenya through
Stand Up for Africa See www.matangini.org.
uk for details and for a way to buy the book directly from Cambridge’s own Dr. Mark Booth.
It is also available at Borders and Heffers and
on Amazon. If you’d like a taster, check out the
blog and keep it in mind as an excellent, lighthearted gift for anyone, especially Natsci types
who want to embrace their artistic side…or just
have a giggle at maggots in eyes.
Science
20
IMPACT
A modern plague
Simona Giunta on advances in the battle against cancer
C
ancer is a word that has become part
of our everyday vocabulary. Yet very
few people actually know what cancer is let alone why it occurs. To understand
this pathology it is important to get to grips
with a few basic concepts. Firstly, our body is
made up of one hundred trillion cells. These
cells, and the DNA contained within them,
can be damaged relatively easily by both external and internal agents. Examples of DNA
damaging agents are the chemical substances in cigarettes and free radicals, which are
by-products of cellular respiration. Every
day, each individual skin cell can be exposed
to more than 70,000 assaults, causing more
than 10,000 mutations. This is, however, no
reason to worry, as our cells are generally very
efficient in repairing most of these lesions. In
addition, in the event that the lesion is too extensive and cannot be repaired, the cell will
‘commit suicide’! This cellular mechanism is
named apoptosis; a cell that is not functioning correctly following extensive DNA damage will be forced to die in order to prevent a
single cell causing harm to the whole organism. This is an elegant and extremely clever
method that cells have adopted in multicellular organisms to prevent pathologies like
cancer.
Two important conclusions can be drawn
from this. Firstly, it emphasizes the importance of a healthy life style in fighting cancer, as it drastically reduces the chances of
mutagenesis events by reducing our ex-
New therapeutical approaches to cure cancer will make a difference in the fight against this
complex disease. Turtblu
posure to damaging agents such as alcohol, smoke, pollution, UV rays, and so on.
Yet,it also implies that our breathing alone
could cause DNA damage. Of course, this
is no justification for an unhealthy lifestyle, since this would increase the chances
of other diseases in any case.
So how does cancer occur? In rare cases,
it happens that the damage caused to our
DNA hits a particularly vital part of the cellular metabolism which influences how fast
and how often the cell divides. The damage may cause the cell to start to divide and
proliferate more often than is physiologically required. Furthermore, the cell may
become uncontrollable by mechanisms
such as apoptosis, and be unable to die.
This ‘crazy’ cell may become the basis of
A CAREER AT THE BAR
The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple
INVITES ALL CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS
TO ATTEND A PRESENTATION ON
A CAREER AT THE BAR
at
Emmanuel College
On Wednesday 31st October, at 7pm
The Panel, chaired by the Rt Hon Lord Justice
Hooper, will be followed by a canapés and wine
reception at which you will have the opportunity to
talk to barristers of varying seniority
To reserve a place please email
[email protected]
or call 020 7797 8211 for further information
a tumour. As this cancer cell quickly undergoes cell division, it creates more and
more cancer cells. These are likely to accumulate further damage to their DNA and
new mutations that can provide the cells
with the ability to detach from their existing tissue, to invade other parts of the body
and form metastases and secondary tumour deposits.
Cancer drugs were first discovered during the Second World War, when soldiers
used mustard gas. The soldiers exposed to
this gas fell very ill and reported a very drastic decrease in the number of white blood
cells in their blood. These compounds were
immediately trialled for use in treating leukaemia, a blood cancer which is caused by
the presence of too many malfunctional
white blood cells in the bloodstream. The
drugs produced were successful and they
entered the market as the first type of
chemotherapy.
From this discovery, scientists have
identified more and more chemicals that,
targeting and killing fast-dividing cells,
were able to make the cancer mass recede.
Nevertheless, our body has many naturally
hyperproliferating cells; gut cells and hair
cells were also heavily affected by the chemotherapy treatments, leading to severe sideeffects. With new scientific discoveries and
insights into the molecular biology of the
human cells and the cancerous cell, we
have started, during the last decade, to devise specific and selective ways to fight and
kill only the cancer cells, without harming those around it. The collaboration between medicine and science has ushered in
a new era for cancer treatments and therapies. Chemotherapy, an indispensable step
in the treatment of almost all cancers in advanced stage, is going through a paradigm
shift. The new methods are known as translational therapies, as they are engineered
from scientific laboratories and “translated” for medical applications. They target specific cellular components involved
in cancer onset and progression. They either aim at restoring the mechanism of apoptosis by targeting selected proteins or to
stop the proliferation of cells from the inside by inhibiting proteins that promote
cell division. This is extremely challenging
as the delivery of these compounds into
cells, let alone into only the right cells, is
problematic.
Examples of two successful stories are
Glivec (or Gleevec) and Herceptin. Glivec
is probably the best example of a rationallydesigned ‘molecular’ drug, manufactured
on the basis of research data available on
cancer. It is aimed at inhibiting an abnormal protein found in the cells of some leukaemia patients. The protein results from a
chromosomal translocation, an abnormality whereby fragments of DNA on a chromosome are rearranged. The scond drug,
Herceptin, found a wide and successful
application on breast cancer. The drug attaches to the cellular receptor of a type of
cancerous cell, HER2, blocking the receptor and preventing the cell from binding to
the epidermal growth factor that induces
cancer cell hyperproliferation. This halts
cancer cells’ division and hastens their
death.
The scientific knowledge gathered on
the cellular metabolism and the molecular
mechanisms of cancer initiation and progression are being translated, daily, into
medical applications, which will improve
therapeutic modalities and optimise prevention, endeavouring to fight many diseases, above all cancer.
fACtS & fiGureS:
24.6
million of people
worldwide living
with cancer today
12.5
% of global
mortality caused
by cancer
6.7
million of people
worldwide killed by
cancer in 2002
1.5
thousand cancer
deaths in the US
each day
1.4
million of new US
cases of cancer
diagnosed in 2005
270
thousand new UK
cases of cancer
diagnosed in 2001
189
billion dollars
annual financial
cost of cancer to US
1
in 6 people aged
over 65 in US who
are cancer survivors
43
30
20
50
% of cancer deaths
worldwide caused
by tobacco, diet
and infection
% of cancer deaths
worldwide caused
by smoking:
% of cancers
worldwide are
triggered by
infections
% increase in the
number of annual
cancer cases
expected by 2025
Sources: W.H.O. & Cancer Research UK
IMPACT
The Cradle of Mankind
TIMELINE
The basic timeline is a 4.6
billion year old Earth, with
(approximately):
4
billion years of
simple cells
2
billion years of
complex cells
600
million years of
simple animals
570
550
It is a fundamental question how we evolved from
our common ancestor with
chimpanzees six million
years ago owenbooth
I
n 1911, the German insect scientist Professor Kattwinkel fell down a ravine chasing an unusual butterfly in the Serengeti.
He was lucky the fall did not kill him, but even
more so was his discovery of an extraordinary
fossil bed at the bottom of the gorge. This was
the beginning of our ancestral puzzle; a jigsaw
spanning what is now believed to be over 10
million years from the origins of our species
to the present day homo sapiens.
Although Kattwinkel’s little tumble in
1911 was the beginning of the pursuit of
our origins in Africa, the first clue to our
past was unearthed in 1893 in the form of
the one million year old ‘Man from Java’,
or Pithecanthropus erectus, by the Dutch
anthropologist Eugene Dubois. Using the
link with Java, Dubois believed this meant
the birthplace of Mankind was on the Asian
continent, and set the tone for the field.
Since then, there have been many significant discoveries on both continents. A two
million year old pre-hominid was discovered in South Africa in 1924, followed by
the excavation of the Kattwinkel Serengeti
site led by a British-Kenyan couple, Dr
David and Mary Leavey in 1931. The dig
culminated in the discovery of 400 skulls of
pre-hominid, namely Zinjanthropus boise:
a species believed to be capable of carving
stone for making tools. This increased the
age of findings to over 3.6 million years.
The piecing together of the jigsaw was
further developed in the 70s and 80s with
two of the most famous skeletons to date.
‘Lucy’, an Australopithecus, was discovered in Ethiopia and was dated at 3.5 million years old, the oldest of her kind found
so far. A decade later, the Leakeys’ son
Richard managed to reconstruct a nearly
perfect skeleton of Homo erectus, known as
“Turkana boy”, believed to be a possible an-
cestor of modern man.
It turned out that Turkana boy was actually a direct ancestor of ‘Man of Java’.
The pieces were starting to fall into place.
A picture could finally be formed of how
mankind had evolved. Australopithecus
and Homo, the two main evolutionary
branches, had coexisted in Africa until the
more primitive Australopithecus became
extinct. Dubois’ discovery on a riverbank
in Java was probably there because of a few
intrepid Homo erectus clans migrating and
settling in Asia over one million years ago.
When will the jigsaw be complete?
Only this summer, a team of anthropologists from Japan and Ethiopia discovered nine fossil teeth deep in the heart of
Ethiopia. The discovery, in the rocks of an
old volcanic gorge, could yield the best evidence yet for the “missing link” –the ori-
Kattwinkel’s
little tumble
began the
pursuit of
our origins in
Africa
gin of man- being originally located on the
African continent.
The expedition, led by Professor Gen
Suwa, from the University of Tokyo, and
Berhane Asfaw, director of the Rift Valley
Research Service in Ethiopia, began two
years ago but it was only in March of this
year that they found the eight molars that
clearly indicated gorilla origins. These teeth
were well adapted to crush and chew vegetation, showing evidence for a diet similar
to that of today’s gorillas.
The scientists have named their large ape
Chororapithecus abyssinicus after Chorora,
the Ethiopian village where the expedition
was based, “pithecus” which is the Greek
for “ape” and Abyssinia, the historic name
for Ethiopia.
The discovery has been deemed one of
the most important in the field as scientists can now fit together over a century of
clues. Beginning with the common ancestor of orangutans about 20 million years
ago, it is believed that around 12 million
years ago the common ancestors of gorillas and chimpanzees separated and that
the last common ancestor of chimps and
hominids, the first of our human lineage,
must have walked this Earth about 9 million years ago.
Even now, every new discovery that sheds
new light on the “missing link” between
man and ape is big news; previous theories are being rewritten as the truth about
where we actually come from and just how
far back our ancestors can be traced becomes clearer.
With such a vast heritage of time and
land, maybe it’s about time we preserve
our lineage, so that, millions of years from
now, our descendants can roam the Earth
in search of the clues to their past, to us.
500
475
million years of
anthropods
(ancestors of insects,
arachnids and
crustaceans)
million years of
complex animals
million years of
fish and protoamphibians
million years of land
plants
400
million years of
insects and seeds
360
million years of
amphibians
300
million years of
reptiles
200
million years of
mammals
150
130
65
2
million years of birds
million years of
flowers
million years since
the non-avian
dinosaurs died out
million years ago
humans looked like
they do today
Science
Beth Ashbridge charts the history of our quest for the “missing link”
21
22
IMPACT
Listings
Theatre
Film
Music
Other stuff
Orwell’s discomfiting take on politics
and society is given a breath of new
life at the ADC theatre
All of the film times below are for
the Arts Picturehouse, St. Andrew’s
Street, unless stated otherwise
On Sunday there are two gigs at The
Junction: Walter Trout and Martha
Tilston. I didn’t make those names up.
On Saturday you can buy flamencothemed prints and cards, to benefit
SOS Children’s Villages.
25
Thu
Nineteen Eighty-Four ★★★
ADC Theatre,
19:45, £6/£8
Tiny Dynamite ★★★
ADC Theatre,
23:00, £4/£5
And When Did You Last See Your
Father? 14:30, 16:30
Atonement 12:00, 16:30
Control 21:20
The Counterfeiters 12:30, 14:45, 19:15
Once (★★★★) 12:15, 14:20, 18:45,
20:45
Wintersleepers 17:00
An Inconvenient Truth 21:00 (John’s)
Richard Thompson
Corn Exchange, 7:30pm, £20
Naum Gabo - new acquisitions
Kettle’s Yard, 13:10, free
26
Fri
ADC Theatre, 19:45, £7/£9
The Sticky Floor Smoker
Pembroke New Cellars, 20:00, £3
Think Pink Comedy Revue
Robinson College Auditorium,
20:30, £3
The Counterfeiters 16:20
Once (★★★★) 12:15, 16:45, 21:15
Sicko 13:40, 16:10, 18:40, 21:10
Eastern Promises 12:00, 14:10, 18:30,
20:40
The Witnesses 14:15, 18:45
And When... 12:00
Futureshorts 23:00
The Young Knives
Barfly (Graduate), 8pm, Sold Out
Unlucky
27
Sat
ADC Theatre,
19:45, £7/£9
ADC Theatre,
23:00, £5/£6
Once (★★★★) 12:15, 16:45, 21:15
Sicko 13:40, 16:10, 18:40, 21:10
20:40
Bowling For Columbine 23:00
Grave of the Fireflies 20:00
(Newnham)
Republic of Loose
Barfly (Graduate), 7:30pm, £5
28
Sun
Footlights Bar Smoker
ADC Theatre,
19:45, £6/£8
Once (★★★★) 16:45, 21:15
Sicko 13:40, 16:10, 18:40, 21:10
20:40
And When... 12:00
Blood Diamond 19:00, 22:00 (John’s)
Volver 12:00
The Proclaimers
Corn Exchange, 7:30pm, £22.50
Once (★★★★) 12:15, 16:45, 21:15
Sicko 13:40, 16:10, 18:40, 21:10
20:40
And When... 12:00
Idlewild
The Junction, 7pm, £16
Los Campesinos! / We Say Party! You
Say Die!
30
Tue
James and the Giant Peach
Mr Kolpert
Cigarettes and Chocolate
Corpus Playroom, 21:30
The Fall of the House of Usher
Once (★★★★) 12:15, 16:45, 21:15
Sicko 16:10, 18:40, 21:10
20:40
The Queen 13:30
MC Lars
31
Wed
James and the Giant Peach
Mr Kolpert
Cigarettes and Chocolate
Corpus Playroom, 21:30
The Fall of the House of Usher
Once (★★★★) 16:45, 21:15
Sicko 13:40, 16:10, 18:40, 21:10
Eastern Promises 14:10, 18:30, 20:40
And When... 12:00
S.U.A.D. presents... HALLOWEEN
Soul Tree, 9pm - 3am, £4
29
Mon
I was born in the four minute warning
My old man said as he shook his head
“Ohhh, fuck this...
I’m off down the boozer”
WA WA WA WA WA WA WAH
Marinetti Boccioni,
Carra Balla Palasechi!
Futurist Manifesto!
Futurist Manifesto!
Got CNN baby,
Got ISDN baby,
Everything is useless,
Everything is stupid,
Nothing’s feeling new.
Take me back to dear old Blighty,
Put me on the train to London Town,
Take me over there,
Drop me anywhere
Liverpool, Leeds or Birmingham
WELL I DON’T CARE
Scudamore’s Halloween Ghost Tours
Mill Lane Scudamore’s Station,
£14.50 per student, October 25–31,
90-minute tours leaving at 30 minute
intervals between 18:00 and 20:30
Flamenco Painting Exhibition by
Alicia Murcia
The Wilkins Room, Downing College,
12:00–18:30
‘Should We Bother With Black
History Month?’
The Fitzwilliam Museum, 14:00–15:00
‘All Souls’ Open Exhibition
King’s College Art Room 21:00 - 23:00
Chinese Brush Painting Workshop
by Jane Evans
10:00–16:00, See www.janeevans.co.uk
for more details
What Future for Israel and
Palestine?
Cambridge Union, 19:30
The Cheekbones/ The Feral
Plutocrats/ Crouton Foundation
Anastasia House, 3am, Tenners
So you open the door with a look on
your face your hands in your
pockets and your family to face and
you go downstairs and you sit in
your place...
The coffin-bangers
were about to arrive
With their vocal group:
“The Crypt-Kicker Five”
Birkbeck lectures - Inventing the
counter-reformation: religion under
Mary Tudor
Mill Lane Lecture Rooms, 18:00–19:30
‘A Lighthouse on Fire’, by Joseph
Wright of Derby
The Fitzwilliam Museum, 13:15, free
CU Wine Society presents Joseph
Perrier Champagne
Emmanuel College, 21:00, £10
25/10/07
FOOD AND DRINK 23
The Cambridge Student
Middle-classy tucker
LETTER OF THE WEEK
Taste the difference: why nice nosh beats posh nosh
John Hall
I
like my food. I like eating. I like cooking – although that’s often not terribly easy
with college cooking facilities. Still, you’d be
surprised what you can do with a George
Foreman, a toaster, a kettle and microwave
combi-oven. But I digress. I like my food, but
I would emphatically never describe myself as
being serious about food. As much as you can
say that you are what you eat I don’t hold with the
middle-class obsession with food. Eating well is
important, of course, but that doesn’t mean that
you need to pay seven pounds for high-class
yoghurt. I defy anyone actually to be able to tell
the difference.
Living in Cambridge, there isn’t an awful lot of
choice of supermarkets to shop in. If you live anywhere near the centre and, like most of us, don’t own
a car, it really is a question of Sainsbury’s, Sainsbury’s
or Sainsbury’s. As you might have guessed I’m a bit
of a Sainsbury’s basics fan (though only for certain
things: I do have a bit of a weakness for Robinson’s
high juice orange squash; you really can tell the difference there) and for the most part I’m no great fan
of Taste the Difference. And even Sainsbury’s isn’t
the best for, as they say in the trade, quality produce
at low, low prices. I can’t say how much I miss my
A whole load of rubbish Gabriel Byng
Kinki
Hogwarts Witches and Wizards
Party
Tuesday 30th October
9pm - 2am
£2 Entry b4 10:30 in Fancy Dress
Special Drinks Offers!
Onstage Competitions!
Loads of Giveaways!
Get Kinki Every Tuesday @
Cambridge University
Students’ Union
Ents
Morrisons when I’m in Cambridge. You haven’t
lived until you’ve tasted Morrinov, Morrisons’ own
premier vodka. And don’t even get me started on
the joys of Aldi.
There are plenty of very good reasons for objecting to the rise of the supermarket and its discount
produce – concerted pressure on food producers
damaging rural economies, excessive food miles,
the desertification of town centres as shopping becomes more and more centralized – but harping on
about only being prepared to buy the best, and how
only the highest quality ingredients make good food
smells more than a little of good old fashioned foodbased snobbery.
When Marco Pierre White
announced that one of
his favourite ingredients
were basic stock cubes and
Worcestershire sauce, I gave
a shout for joy
Seriously, you do not necessarily need fresh, organic, Italian-grown garlic from that tiny little place
near Daddy’s house in Tuscany to make a nice spag
bol. I may be coming across as a complete philistine,
but really, garlic puree out of a tube will do fine. You
really cannot taste the difference, whatever Jamie
Oliver might try and persuade you to the contrary.
When Marco Pierre White announced that one
of his favourite ingredients were basic stock cubes
and Worcestershire sauce, I gave a shout for joy. He
came out and said that to make tasty food you do not
need exclusivity in your ingredients.
The philosophy of “this isn’t just any food; this is
food for special people” draws on the principle of
“you are what you eat.” There aren’t many things
more fundamental to being human than eating,
and in the market of special food the implication is
that that food is for special people. In the market for
exclusive food, the implication is that better people eat better food. And this is a dangerous view to
promote.
We are in a very scary situation that in the developed world, obesity is no longer a signal of high
social status, but rather of poverty. The idea that
eating well is reserved only for the wealthy and privileged is absolutely wrong. It need not be expensive to
cook a healthy and nutritious meal – one of the great
social changes of the last forty years is how we spend
a much smaller proportion of our family incomes on
food – and it needn’t be all that difficult either.
It really is a question of
Sainsbury’s, Sainsbury’s or
Sainsbury’s
I’d like to think that even when I’m not a poor
lowly student, I still won’t go mad for wild mushrooms from the south of France or hand-cured
Italian prosciutto. But I will continue to cook nice
food, because I take a lot of pleasure in it. And I will
also continue to be as evangelical as I can about ownbrand tinned tomatoes (very nutritious, don’t you
know) and garlic puree (it’s just so convenient, and
just as tasty to boot!). It’s important to remember
that just because you haven’t bought the most expensive ingredients, you can still make a very pleasant and nutritious meal (excuse me while I slowly
morph into Mrs Beeton). And of course the opposite is also true – exclusive ingredients don’t always
make a good meal. And to prove that point all too
graphically, I’m going to hall. It’s swordfish tonight,
but I’m sure they can ruin that too.
G AND S
Dear Gilbert and Sullivan,
How do you manage so consistently to be
so wonderful? Every week, with avid glee,
we jiggle with anticipation in the JCR, waiting for the delivery of the still warm TCS
newspapers. Feverishly excited, we turn
to the ‘Food and Drink’ page, and feast on
your words of wit and wonder. Are there
finer journalists in Cambridge? Probably
not very many.
Every Thursday we arrive at the College
Nurse’s Office, suffering severe hiccups as
tears of laughter make our make-up run
down. Time and again, whether writing
on Gaul, Freeganism, Sex or Religion, you
hit the mark like William Tell in a leotard.
But now I submit a challenge: can you
deal with the issue of class? That abiding
divide in our society between plums and
potatoes, pot roasts and pot noodles; pashminas and Primark. Can you turn your
talents to this conundrum of sociology?
Disturbingly over-excited to see the
results,
Gabriel and Stephen
Of Cambridge.
Dearest Readers,
Your delightful missive fills us with pleasure, like an ancient Corinthian picking up
a papyrus and seeing “lots of love, Paul”
at the bottom. In these soulless days of
text messaging and smoke signals, the
reception of your epistle caused not an insignificant wave of excitement at the TCS
offices.
Gilbert was busy typing up a village fete;
Sullivan, a 50th wedding anniversary; the
editor, a little satirical poem entitled ‘Why
Happy Meals are Happy’. When we opened
the envelope a little blush of pride appeared on all six of our cheeks and we set
about inscribing this retort at once.
As to your question “are there finer journalists in Cambridge?” – we had a look
around and it appears not. To the question
“how do you manage so consistently to be
so wonderful?” we can only say, “we were
born this way!”
We have handed the class challenge to
eager young cub reporter John Hall and
so have bumped your letter to the spot
reserved for our own witty and pithy
thoughts on the topic.
With lots of love and kisses,
Gilbert and Sullivan
TCS Food and Drink
24 THEATRE
Big Brother
switches off
ADC Theatre
Nineteen Eighty-Four
October 23-27, 19:45
(£6/£8, £7/£9)
★★★☆☆
I
t’s a shame that last week’s Motortown didn’t
have an audience as large as this show did.
Enthusiasm for the opening night of Nineteen Eighty-Four at the ADC is testament to the
inevitable nostalgia that swells through any intelligent mind, fresh from adolescence, whenever
George Orwell’s masterpiece of dystopian horror
is mentioned. As Winston Smith slurps his ‘Victory Coffee’ on stage, US troops are being served
their ‘Victory Fries’ in Iraq. Orwell’s prophetic
imagination never ceases to find itself frighteningly
relevant to the world of today. This obviously poses
a challenge to those who want to resurface this familiar text on the stage; a challenge which, as Emily
Cook recognises in her programme notes, should
avoid clichés and the obvious (i.e. CCTV cameras),
whilst engaging its audience by making it “think”
and “feel”. Unfortunately, the production, despite its
inspired aesthetic, failed to grip the audience enough
to do justice to Orwell’s novel.
Becky Homer’s design was unmistakably the star
of the show. Nineteen Eighty-Four’s theme of the repetitive ‘branding’ of the mind through doublespeak
Rice and Kenyon fail to compel Dylan Spencer-Davidson
is cleverly employed through the simple and effective
colour scheme of red and white, a ‘brand’ of design
that invades the audience’s consciousness, through
the publicity posters to the haunting minimalism of
Room 101. As a large screen informs us that “Big
Brother is watching”, and the characters below recall
the dictums, “War is Peace” or “Freedom is Slavery”,
we can’t shake off the feeling that no one on stage is
safe to think freely. Winston and Julia’s secret hideout is assembled without a blackout, which presents
it as a dangerously exposed and easily destructible
space physically mirroring the fragile optimism of
their illegal affair.
It was a pity that Ed Rice and Jenny Kenyon,
promising in their individual performances, lacked
enough chemistry for us to care. Dan Martin
brought some welcome humour to his snotty and
foppish portrayal of Parsons. Rice’s Winston Smith
contained flashes of inspiration with a characteristic
hunch and effortlessly aged expression, as did Dave
Walton who brought a sober and chilling menace
to his O’Brian. But overall the group lacked tenacity
and variation, which dragged the production down
to a generally sluggish level of performance. In spite
of the inventive staging, which certainly helped us to
“think”, the piece failed to stir our emotions enough
for us to care about the protagonists. We might as
well just turn to the newspapers if we want a chilling
portrait of our times, or to Motortown.
Ollie Evans
Careers Service event
rvice
e
S
s
er
Care
The Careers in Property Event 2007
An event run collaboratively by the Cambridge University Land Society and the Careers Service
S IN
EER TY
R
A
C
PER
PRO VENT
E
7
r 200
ctobe .00pm
O
0
day 3 0pm – 7 ntre,
Tues
4.0 sity Ce
er
Lane
Univ
Mill
GR
PRO
AM M
E
A range of organisations are participating – from large global firms of Chartered Surveyors
through to regional UK firms and companies that use property for investment purposes.
You do not need a degree in Land Economy to join this dynamic industry;
most employers will be pleased to receive your application.
Tuesday 30th October, 16.00 to 19.00
University Centre
Mill Lane, Cambridge
Participating organisations include:
ATISREAL, AXA REAL ESTATE, CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY LAND SOCIETY, C B RICHARD ELLIS, COLLIERS CRE, CREDIT SUISSE,
CUSHMAN & WAKEFIELD, DELOITTE, DRIVERS JONAS, D T Z, GERALD EVE, INDIGO PLANNING, JONES LAND LASALLE,
LAND SECURITIES TRILLIUM, R I C S (Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors), SAVILLS, SCHRODERS.
Entry is restricted to current University of Cambridge students (and recent alumni) – bring your University id card with you to this event.
A cumulative, depersonalised attendance level from different years and courses allows us to improve our events in the future.
Personal data will not be passed to anyone outside the University.
THEATRE 25
Theatre beyond the bubble
We get the low-down on West End action from Ian Shuttleworth,
theatre critic for the Financial Times.
I
was introduced to London theatre on weekend
trips down as an undergrad with the woman
who later did me the honour of becoming my
ex-wife. Mostly we took pot luck at the half-price
ticket booth in Leicester Square, which is still a
useful approach. But if it’s specific experiences
you’re after...
Well, as regards the single hottest ticket in town,
you’re probably out of luck. The Masque Of The Red
Death at BAC is sold out for the entire duration of
its run until mid-January. It’s just possible that extra
performances may be arranged of Punchdrunk’s
site-specific production, in which the masked audience wander where they will through the entirety of
the former Battersea Town Hall, encountering bits
and bobs of various Edgar Allan Poe stories in various chambers, all dressed in phenomenal detail. And
tickets are still available for the club nights(!) which
follow performances on Fridays and Saturdays.
Period evening dress optional, but don’t bring your
own cask of amontillado.
Amongst the cognoscenti the Punchdrunk show
has pretty much managed to eclipse even the current West End sensation. There’s been a lot of talk
lately about the dearth, or even death, of straight
plays in the West End, but the biggest draw at the
moment is Macbeth at the Gielgud. They may come
to see the former captain of the starship Enterprise,
sniffed that this is just another example of Brits’ sentimentality about animals, but then most of the tale
is set beforwe the Americans entered the war...
“Shockheaded Peter done by posh girls” was a succinct description I heard in August of Between The
Devil And The Deep Blue Sea, also at BAC though
Lord knows how they manage to isolate it from the
pot-pourri all around it. It also blends stage action
A Play, A Pie & A Pint for a
tenner
with animation, faux-Expressionist film sequences
and live music to tell a collection of gleefully black
cautionary tales in which cats get killed nine times,
nice young ladies are struck by lightning, sailors
turn into the devil... you know the sort of thing. The
1927 company won every award going on this year’s
Edinburgh Fringe; they are deeply disturbed people
who should be kept under close observation.
And in a converted chocolate factory in
Southwark, the Menier, you can see Samuel West’s
wonderful revival of Dealer’s Choice by Patrick
Marber, whose poker-for-life metaphor is versatile
enough to suggest that this play may have a longer
shelf-life than Marber’s greatest hit, Closer. You also
get to see Roger Lloyd Pack use his legendary poker
face literally for once.
I know better than to speculate on the quality
of shows yet to open, such as Hairspray , but we reviewers don’t get to see Michael Ball in drag until
next week. However, it’s worth noting that Paines
Plough have a good deal coming up next month at
the Shunt Vaults: A Play, A Pie & A Pint for a tenner,
with a week each for four plays including work by
David Greig and Rona Munro. And artistic director
Roxana Silbert once directed me in Loot at the ADC.
Ah, how well I remember (cont. p94)
Ian Shuttleworth is senior theatre critic of the
Financial Times, and editor and publisher of Theatre
Record magazine.
World War I from an equine
point of view
Patrick Stewart, in the title role, but they stay to marvel at his performance. Rupert Goold’s production
has been called as definitive as the Trevor Nunn/Ian
McKellen/Judi Dench RSC version 30-odd years
ago; I have my reservations, but Goold’s a Cantab
alumnus, so what the hell.
The cream at other major venues includes the
National Theatre’s latest Christmas spectacle.
They’ve followed up their remarkable adaptations
of His Dark Materials and Coram Boy with Michael
Morpurgo’s War Horse. The former children’s laureate’s novel recounts WWI from an equine point
of view, which isn’t really doable onstage. Instead,
they’ve worked with the Handspring company to
create what are not so much puppets as life-size
horse-shaped machines to interact with the human
cast. The International Herald Tribune’s critic has
Tiny Dynamite
October 24 - 27, 23:00
(£4/£5, £5/6)
★★★☆☆
T
iny Dynamite traces the dysfunctional
relationship of odd couple Lucien (Rob
Carter) and Anthony (Pablo Navarro Maclochlainn), one shy and self-conscious, the other
eccentric and unstable. Friends since childhood,
the pair’s lives have wandered far from each other: Lucien sits in an office assessing risks, while
Anthony lives (quite happily, he claims) on the
streets. Every year, however, Lucien picks his
friend out of the gutter, cleans him up, and the
two head to the countryside for a short break.
It is on just such a holiday that we meet them, rem-
“
If you were one of the lucky few raped of optimism
by last week’s magnificently brutal Motortown, you’ll
be standing in good stead for the ADC’s current run
of Orwell’s classic dystopia, Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Prepare for an evening of mind games, torture, global conspiracy and ruthless capitalist exploitation.
Who knew theatre could be so much fun?
If socio-political nihilism isn’t your cup of tea, fear
not, sad and trembling reader! This week, comedy
really can restore your soul. Hopefully you helped
to end worldwide oppression while chuckling jovially in King’s Bar last Friday at the Amnesty Smoker
or gave generously to the Breast Cancer Campaign
while enjoying fabulous French farce in Great St
Mary’s with The Breasts of Tiresias. If not, there’s
still a chance to make yourself feel a little bit less
of a guilty, selfish individual, while having a good
time. This Friday Brickhouse are hosting Think
Pink, a night of stand-up at Robinson College in
aid of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Or if you
fancy your comedy without charity frills, there’s
always the Sticky Floor Smoker at Pembroke (also
this Friday), and the annual Footlights Bar Smoker
on Sunday, featuring brand new material from the
Footlights committee, a few more comedy virgins
and easily available booze. Or if you fancy exercising a few more mental muscles, the ADC also plays
host to Tiny Dynamite, an innovative surreal piece,
previously performed by acclaimed troupe Frantic
Assembly. But if Orwell’s uncanny conceptions of
modern life are still all too much bear, just hang on in
for a magical return to childhood, with Roald Dahl’s
James and the Giant Peach coming next week.
Be shocked and awed by London theatre this season BAC
Energetic explosions rock ADC
ADC Theatre
Theatrical
Thoughts
iniscing over old times and re-opening old wounds.
Into their lives wanders the free-spirited Madeline
(Iona Blair), a woman eerily reminiscent of a girl
from their past, a girl who committed suicide in their
presence. Past mixes with present as history begins
to repeat itself, and the two lock into a contest for
her affections. It is a play that asks big questions on a
small scale, of who we love and what it costs us.
The play was first performed in Edinburgh six
years ago, and feels very much like the sort of play
It is a play that asks big questions on a small scale
one would expect to find at the Fringe; stripped
down and quirky. It is given a well executed production here, which makes fine use of lighting and a relatively simple set: together the three actors manage to
give a strong sense of place to whatever location they
are inhabiting, an upside-down table of a boat being
particularly effective. Also the ever-present crackle
of static is a nicely unnerving touch.
The scene changes, however, though slick and interesting, are perhaps a little self-conscious. Indeed,
this accusation could be levelled at the whole production, which at times does not give the performers
full room to breathe. This is play all about relationships, and occasionally the stylistic quirks threaten
to overwhelm the performances.
All three of the actors do give strong, naturalistic
performances, with Rob Carter in particular standing out. He perfectly channels the frustration of a
man who feels all the time he must play the role of
protector to a friend who needs him; his physicality is a model of repression, a perfect contrast to
Maclochlainn’s boundless energy.
This is an enjoyable production that deserves a
much larger audience. The play combines gentle humour with a deeper examination of friendship, love,
and the choice between risk and stability.
Edward Rowett
The play was a great success, but the audience was a disaster.
”
Oscar Wilde
Stimulating Cambridge drama Deborah Chang
Finished the paper, but still want more?
Check out the website this week!
We have reviews of the Virgin and Amnesty
Smokers, as well as what we thought of Tiresias’ breasts.
Plus an account from one of the Pembroke
Players - find out how she fared in Japan.
And performance takes a serious note, with
our review of the Asylum Monologues
COMING NEXT WEEK
Still not enough?
Next week experience a triple whammy of
ADC Theatre goodness, as we check out
James and the Giant Peach, Mr Kolpert and
The Fall of the House of Usher.
Dave Ralfe looks at the irresistible rise of Absurdist theatre
Cigarettes and Chocolate web reviews and
more!
26 FILM
Play it again NINE of thE BEst
Sam...
Déjà vu? Or is it just
another Hollywood
remake?
I
love zombie movies. I won’t justify
this by excusing Romero’s efforts as
a ‘comment on society’, I just enjoy
them, and I like that they’re currently
in vogue, even if many of the offerings
are quite poor. Like a big hunk of meat
thrown into the cinematic pond, I can
see their ripples affecting other films,
like The Invasion, which is the fourth remake of Invasion of The Body Snatchers
(1956, 1978, 1993). It has been the subject of many a reviewer’s anger, and has
led to some drastic changes in the way
Bad remakes are
not influenced by a
love of cinema, but
by a love of money
future Warner Bros. pictures are cast.
The trailer for the current version plays
out like an alien zombie movie, with lots
of shuffling beings and creeping dread.
So far, so unoriginal.
I’m not going to moan about remakes,
just point out their necessity. The film industry is an unnatural beast, in which the
art of storytelling, something close to our
collective heart, is combined with a kind of
cutthroat lust for profit. So, when we see
a remake of King Kong, we think “those
bastards, out to steal our money and spoil
a story we loved”, rather than “I like that
story, and I want to hear it again”, like we
might pull on a parent’s sleeve before bedtime and beg to have our favourite book
reread.
There are infinitely more poor remakes
than genuinely enjoyable ones, most likely
because in order to remake films most of
the time, we just re watch them and take
warm pleasure in the approach of our favourite line or scene. Lots of filmmakers who want to recapture the spirit of
a movie will do something inspired by,
or in the style of. So, The Big Lebowski is
the Coens ‘doing’ Raymond Chandler
(and more specifically The Big Sleep), and
If…. is Lindsay Anderson ‘doing’ Zero de
Conduite. Not remake, but homage - like
all of Tarantino’s films.
When remakes are bad, it is because they
are not influenced by a love of cinema, but
by a love of money. A producer can count
on more profit from a remake than an original idea. A remake will bring in fans of the
original, as well as an audience of people
who have merely heard of the original
(thus, marketing costs are halved because
the name of the film is already in the public consciousness). Also, if the studio owns
the rights to the original film, money will
be gained from you, film lover, you who
thinks “those bastards, out to ruin my favourite film. I’ll show them! I’ll go and
enjoy the original on my new DVD!” That’s
another £15.99 for Warner Bros.
This isn’t to say that there aren’t some
good remakes around. There are plenty
of directors who just want to remake their
favourite film or feel that they can come
up with a new angle on a classic film.
Undoubtedly the easiest way to get away
with a remake is to begin with a film that,
while being well-known, is not actually
very good. Anyone feel like remaking Kill
Bill? Ocean’s Eleven is a prime example of a
film which had a good story and a good idea
but was rubbish before Steven Soderbergh
and friends had a crack at it. Alternatively,
you can use the excuse of new technology
to bring old sci-fi films up-to-date, such as
The Thing, Planet of the Apes and, most
noticeably, David Cronenberg’s masterful
version of The Fly.
The last excuse you can use is that you
have a “new take” on the film and its story.
Setting it in the future or the present day is
quite popular, if not always successful (see
The Italian Job or the horribly misconceived remake of Breathless). However, if
you’re John Carpenter, you generally do
this well. Look no further than the stroke
of genius that was bringing the classic western Rio Bravo to gang-ridden Los Angeles
and creating Assault on Precinct 13.
Remakes are an inherent part of film culture, and are poor films for the same reason that any other films are poor – desire
for profit rather than artistic integrity and
good craftsmanship. There is such a thing
as a good remake.
While I, too, am angry at the audacity
of those bastards who are planning to remake Sunset Boulevard (yes, they bloody
well are) I can safely point you towards this
list of nine of my favourite remade films.
You might not recognise them all as remakes initially, but they all are.
The difference between these and others
is that they are films whose makers cared
genuinely about them and their stories. Not
the returns from DVD sales of the original.
These are the works of genuine lovers of
film - the auteurs, not the studios.
Fred Rowson
A FistFul oF
DollArs (1964)
remADe From
Yojimbo (1961)
After a lawsuit against Leone in
which he won 15% of its Asian
box office total, Kurosawa acknowledged this as a worthy remake of his earlier film.
After two poor adaptations of
Hammett’s book, Huston perfected it in this masterpiece by
getting his secretary to adapt
the novel, page by page, line by
line.
the mAltese
FAlcon (1946)
remADe From
sAtAn met A
lADY (1936)
the thin reD
line (1998)
remADe From
the thin reD
line (1964)
It isn’t clear whether Malick was
at all influenced by the original
film. What is clear is that this
is one of the greatest war films
ever made.
Carpenter’s film was seen as
so similar to the western that,
upon release, it was poorly
received. Only when it was
screened at the London Film
Festival was it acclaimed.
AssAult on
Precinct 13
(1976) remADe
From rio brAvo
(1959)(1922)
oceAn’s 11
(2001) remADe
From oceAn’s
eleven (1960)
Here, the remake is clearly better than the clunking original.
Soderbergh removed the casual
racism towards Sammy Davis
Jr. and updated the Rat Pack
version into a slick thriller .
Cecil B. DeMille’s final film was
a remake of his Own silent epic.
The 1956 version is longer and
has a stunning cast of, literally,
thousands. The film stands as
the fifth largest grossing of all
time.
the ten
commAnDments
(1956) remADe
From the ten
commAnDments
(1923)
the mAn Who
KneW too much
(1956) remADe
From the mAn
Who KneW too
much (1934)
(1923)
Hitchcock really outdoes himself here, with Jimmy Stewart
at his very best. We miss Peter
Lorre though.
Another film sadly scheduled for a
third remake, Cronenberg’s 1986
version is definitive. The brilliant
effects are totally subservient to
the story being told, a tragic tale
of metamorphosis.
the FlY (1986)
remADe From
the FlY (1958)
scArFAce (1983)
remADe From
scArFAce (1932)
It could be argued that many of
De Palma’s films are pseudo remakes of Hitchcock classics, but
with Scarface he went all out,
successfully transplanting 30s
Chicago to 80s Miami.
FILM 27
A thoroughly modern musical
Emma Dibdin sings the praises of Irish charmer Once
Once
being so entirely unfulfilling. More time is spent on
the numerous obstacles keeping the two apart – his
still-in-the-picture ex, her fragmented family and
unhappy marriage – than on their romance, and
the rare moments of hope are consistently undercut. Theirs is, in a sense, one of the greatest love stories never told.
★★★★☆
W
hen we think musicals, we think big.
We think razzle-dazzle, glitzy, elaborate showstoppers, possibly Richard
Gere in a leotard. The words “low budget” just
don’t seem to fit in, and yet Once, in all its sparse,
un-flashy glory, manages to more accurately capture the spirit of the old-school movie musical
than any of Hollywood’s recent attempts.
Set against a backdrop of gritty, deglamourised Dublin, Once introduces us to a busker (Glen
Hansard) and a Czech immigrant (Marketa Irglova),
both caught between their dreams and the crushing
realities of their everyday lives. He’s trying to make
ends meet, dividing his time between performing on Grafton Street and his dad’s vacuum-repair
business; she’s a single parent estranged from her
husband and living with her elderly mother. Their
shared passion for music draws them together and
into an ostensibly platonic relationship that somehow feels anything but.
Hansard’s gruff, rough-around-the-edges quality gives his slightly clichéd heartsick-crooner role
integrity, while Irglova is appealing and offbeat
without being self-consciously quirky. Both are
musicians first and foremost, and while their lack of
acting experience does occasionally show, the awkwardness is well-suited to John Carney’s naturalistic, hand-held style. It’s this fly-on-the-wall quality
which grounds the proceedings and ensures the
story never becomes too sentimental.
But Once is, of course, a love story, if not in the
traditional sense. There’s no sex, for a start, nor any
kissing; in fact there’s very little physical contact at
all, and it’s a tribute to the powerful, unassuming
chemistry between the leads that the story of their
relationship remains so entirely compelling despite
There’s no wish-fulfilment to
be had here, but Once is fulfilling on every other level
Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova play Guy and Girl in this low-budget musical image.net
There can be a tendency in musicals to use songs
as shorthand for genuine emotional development;
here the opposite is true. More is said through music
(co-written by the leads themselves) than could ever
be said through dialogue – more, indeed, than the
characters are ever allowed to say out loud. The
music is beautiful but not in the way we might expect; the tracks are rough, unpolished, often unfinished, all the more touching in their imperfection.
There are no show stopping dance numbers or overblown solos; just quiet, thoughtfully written songs as
raw as the emotions they convey. These moments,
the recording sessions and impromptu duets, are the
pair’s real love scenes.
The storyline of Once is an exercise in restraint; so
much so that by the end you’re half-expecting a dramatic change of tone, a sudden, tacked-on romantic
comedy resolution that sees the two throw caution
to the wind and fall cinematically into each other’s
arms. Even worse, you’re almost hoping for it.
The conclusion, when it comes, could hardly be
more inconclusive; it’s bittersweet and frustrating,
yet entirely fitting. There’s no wish-fulfilment to be
had here, but Once is fulfilling on every other level,
a quiet, earnest gem that redefines the genre of film
musicals.
Bergman: Death, chess, Mary and Joseph
A
boy goes to a priest and says, “Father,
earlier today my mum was accidentally
knocked on the head by a Frisbee, suffered
a concussion and died. She’d left the oven on, and
before we knew it the house had gone up in flames.
And then my dog got run over.” After listening to
this tragic tale, the priest drops his pants and says,
“You know, it really isn’t your day.”
Ingmar Bergman, the recently deceased director whose psychologically penetrating, cinematically overpowering and uniquely depressing
films have filled art-house cinemas from Helsinki
to Huddersfield for the past five decades, was not
known for his knee-slapping comedy. Nevertheless,
I’ve included this joke because it reminds me of one
of my favourites by the gloomy Swede, Winter Light
(1962). A farmer on a sombre Nordic island, concerned by news of the Chinese possession of atomic
weapons, confides to a Pastor his inability to reconcile the hatred and suffering of the world with a belief in God. The pastor, who is also struggling with
his faith, abandons any pretence of reassurance and
agrees with him. This results in the perplexed farmer
going off and blowing his brains out, whilst the pastor remains unable to break free from a vocation that
has lost all meaning. The bleak final scene of the tormented pastor, preaching to a near-empty chapel
shrouded in shadow and frost, is one of the most
haunting images you’ll ever see.
Another is that stark, monumental shot of a
knight challenging Death to the most famous chess
game in cinema in The Seventh Seal (1957). Those
too used to the facile psychology and conventional
storytelling of modern cinema may find the uncompromising imagery, much influenced by silent film,
and the focus upon philosophical discussion over
plot difficult to engage with. Indeed, Bergman had a
way of working that is inconceivable today, making
his movies on one basic location in a short period of
time, using a tiny troupe of talented actors, and filming on a ludicrously small budget (The Seventh Seal
cost only $150 000).
On the surface, the film tells of a disillusioned
Knight returning from the crusades to a homeland
besieged by death, in both the form of plague as well
as the visually striking pale face and black cloak of
his own avenging angel. Where most filmmakers
would shy away from asking existential questions
in an age of irony, Bergman confronts head-on what
the Knight exclaims to be the “preposterous horror”
of facing Death whilst knowing everything is nothingness. Though slammed as “dated” by some, The
Seventh Seal’s tackling of God’s silence in relation to
religious fundamentalism, culminating in the disturbing depiction of a teenage girl being burned at
the stake for witchcraft by self-flagellating monks, is
an issue which has divided audiences between celebration and revulsion for half a century.
Also, let me make it clear that this is not the pretentious whining of a theological emo. The film’s recent
re-issue, which includes a showing at the Cambridge
Arts Picture House this week alongside Bergman’s
45th and final work, Saraband (2003), strengthens
my belief that the appeal of The Seventh Seal lies in its
defiant optimism. In the midst of disease and wickedness, the knight spends “an hour of peace” with
a pair of travelling performers named Joseph and
Mary who, you’ve guessed it, have a young child.
Through distracting Death with chess, the Knight is
able to save this family in what is Bergman’s greatest affirmation of the power of love to redeem our
godless world. Whoever said Bergman didn’t go for
feel-good endings?
Gerard Corvin
28 MUSIC
Shameless Filler
Songs instead of space, but they nearly ruined the record
James Garner and Matt Cottingham
F
or those of you who complain that the iPod
is killing the concept of the album, turn
your attention to the following cases. It
might just be that this isn’t such a terrible thing if
it means fewer songs like these.
Blur – Parklife (from Parklife)
When you think of Parklife you probably emit a
small shudder. That would be because of the eponymous single which remains an irritant a decade
after its release. The lolloping tune and cock-er-nee
posturing of Phil Daniels make it indistinguishable from a novelty record. Essentially that’s what it
was - a shameless attempt by four art-school ponces
to win the support of the common people. It is almost impossible to believe that singles like End of
a Century and To the End came from the same LP,
which may fall short of its predecessor Modern Life
is Rubbish, but what doesn’t, frankly?
The Stone Roses – Don’t Stop (from The Stone
Roses)
This is the song that ruins the illusion that the Roses
were visionaries, geniuses or any of those other ridiculous adjectives. Somehow these idiots managed
to put together a classic album but all their subsequent work suggests this was some massive fluke.
Don’t Stop is obviously the result of a late night studio suggestion by a less than compos mentis attendee.
“Why don’t we just reverse Waterfall and add new
lyrics?” Obviously everyone should have giggled and
then in the morning remembered this and thought,
“What we were thinking!” Instead we get five minutes and twenty one seconds of absolute filler.
Babyshambles – Pentonville Rough (from Down
in Albion)
Periodically some idiot DJ or, worse, some idiot with
an internet connection, suggests a bizarre song to be
“sent up the charts” by mass download. Pentonville
should surely be one such song. Why the band let
a lugubrious character who calls himself (a selfchosen moniker is never a good sign) The General
record a song on their album isn’t actually hard to
explain: crack cocaine. But the results are truly horrible. A long, virtually acoustic half-rap about the various nationalities of people you find in Pentonville.
The closest Doherty comes to getting involved is
getting referenced in the lyrics as “me brethren Pete
Doherty.”
Radiohead – Fitter Happier (from OK
Computer)
It’s not necessarily a bad idea for a song. OK. It is. But
it would have made a mildly diverting B-Side. It just
isn’t advisable to put two minutes of nonsense like
this on your masterpiece. The lyrics “performed”
by an iMac, Thom Yorke’s drunken piano playing,
the whole messy collage - it’s the audio equivalent of
conceptual art. While it might have a couple of neat
ideas behind it that doesn’t stop it falling at the first
hurdle: it’s really irritating. This is definitely one of
those tracks to delete from your iPod.
Album:
Nine Black Alps
Love/Hate
Island
I
have a confession to make:
the review copy TCS received of the new Nine
Black Alps album is “inaudibly
watermarked” (not that I’d recognise a watermark if I heard
one), which means playing it
on the quintessential computer
with good speakers is a no-no.
Apparently, the songs are embedded with the journalist’s
name, a claim I have sadly come
to believe is a lie. Rather, I’ve
been reduced to a mere identification code. Still, it’s sort of a
claim to fame – I can now say
I’m on a Nine Black Alps record.
Anyway, I’m now listening on
the tinny-tin-tin kitchen radio
at two in the morning, hoping
the housemates won’t mind too
much. Forgive my spiel – it’s
time for the review.
Nine Black Alps unleashed
their take on post-grunge indie
early in 2005 on the album
“Everything Is”. After strong reviews and a number of slightly
anarchic live performances, the
quartet from Manchester began
working on “Love/Hate” last
October. After a year of gestation, the second album has finally
been born.
So what’s it like? Well, for one
thing, the post-grunge label can
disappear. The album is much
more indie pop and sounds less
like they’ve used amps without a
treble pot. This gives their songs a
lot more range, which was lacking
on their first record. Bitter End is
the attention grabbing opener
with a needling guitar part which,
although sharing its title with a
certain Placebo song, thankfully
sounds nothing like them. This
progresses to Pet Hate, an assault
of comfort-throttling guitars, and
Painless which has more than a
few nods towards the Alkaline
Trio. Nice. There are also tales of
stagnant romance on Happiness
and Satisfaction; an altogether
discontented song (“you kiss me
once then go missing”). Buy it if
you liked their first album.
Matt Cottingham
Ian Brown, post-Roses. I wonder how he feels now about writing “Don’t Stop” Alyson Hau
Singles Roundup:
Oasis,
Bombay Bicycle Club,
The Courteeners,
Clarky Cat
Album:
the WOMBATS
A Guide to
Love, Loss &
Desperation
14th Floor
A
Guide to Love, Loss
and Desperation, The
Wombats’ long-anticipated first album to be released in the UK, is out later
this month. Their own brand of
indie-electro-clash-pop marks
a distinction from most other
indie bands at the moment:
it’s actually good. From the a
cappella intro (been listening
to the Flaming Lips much?) to
the defiant Kill the Director, the
Wombats’ debut requires you
to drop everything else you’re
doing and listen to the album
straight through. Twice.
Contrasting clipped guitar
parts with moments of fuzz, the
Liverpudlian three-piece create
a melee of styles gathered from
wide musical influences. “Moving
to New York” is still the awesome
song it always has been, and “Lost
in the Post” with its bleak lyrics
(“she wants signed sealed, lost
in the post”) is hopefully a clever
reference to “Signed, Sealed,
Delivered” by Stevie Wonder
(I wake up to that song every
morning; if I didn’t I’d probably
die). I suppose it’s a shame Lost
in the Post was written before the
recent postal strikes.
Other parts of the record, such
as “Here Comes the Anxiety”
with its choral backing and footthumping rhythm, sound like
some sort of neo-Polyphonic
Spree without the happy pills, and
the off-beat ska musings of “Little
Miss Pipedream” mixed with
more choral backing and some
electro-tinsel more familiar with
Royksopp help frame this particularly bitter song.
Overall the girl-rejection theme
is a bit overused, but with the revolution as dead as it’s ever been
and youth obviously no longer
disaffected by society, I guess it’s
to be expected. And I’ve just remembered a shameless plug I
was going to do: if you point your
browser to nme.com/student and
select Cambridge, you can read
my interview with the Wombats.
Matt Cottingham
S
o, Oasis have a new song. I
know, I know. Oasis never
have new songs. This is a
band who had to pay royalties
from early single Shakermaker
to the writers of a Coca-Cola
jingle. That’s why the title of
this release Lord, Don’t Slow
Me Down is so confusing. It
suggests Oasis are trying to go
somewhere rather than endlessly reheating unappetising
ingredients - something Noel
Gallagher has seemlingly always enjoyed. The problem is,
because this isn’t the kind of generic sonic bombardment they
specialise in, it’s frankly just
rather boring.
Following in Oasis’ innovative
footsteps are The Courteeners
whose new song Acrylic seems to
have confused its pronouns on the
line “You’re just plasticine being
moulded into a Libertine dream.”
They meant “We’re”, surely?
Liam Fray is a poor man’s Alex
Turner and his hastily assembled
band of session musicians are a
long way short of coherence. Oh
Manchester, so much to answer
for etc, etc. Yawn.
When I saw there was a band
called Clarky Cat I was quite excited. Chris Morris went out on
the streets and tried to buy Clarky
Cat on the Brass Eye special where
“the late night streets of Britain
are so awash with drugs that not
even the dealers know them all.”
After that good first impression
all the band had to do to be our
single of the week was not record
a new rave cash-in record. But…
oh dear. File with Late of the Pier
and We Smoke Fags.
Instead single of the week goes
to another precocious group,
even if they’ve been around a
while: Bombay Bicycle Club.
How Are You is their best song
and it is well suited to singer Jack
Steadman’s affected, swooping vocals. Think of it as The
Maccabees meets The House of
Love. Or Los Campesinos! with a
decent singer.
James Garner
SPORT 29
Jesus claim victory in the last cross
country race of Michaelmas term
The second instalment of the
Chris Brasher College League
saw the Hare & Hounds and
other members of the running
fraternity take to the sun-kissed
expanses of Grantchester Meadows to tackle courses of 3km and
6km for the women and men respectively.
The women were first to shatter
the tranquility of the afternoon.
Anna Anderson (Girton) and
Polly Keen (New Hall) stretched
MEN’S DIVISION 1
Team
away from the field in the early
going, with Anderson ultimately
triumphing in 10:19 to Keen’s
10:26. Angharad Porteous (Jesus)
claimed third place in 10:51.
Anderson’s effort paced
Girton to the team victory, with
Newnham’s pack just pipping
Jesus to second. Aggressive starts
from freshers broke open the
men’s race.
Tim Pattison’s committed
running over the first 3km saw
him lead James Kelly (Jesus) before Kelly gradually moved clear
over the second half of the race to
win in 17:51.
The strong contingent from
Jesus claimed first in Divison I
of the team competition ahead
of Girton and Darwin, giving
the table-toppers a maximum 16
points. Clare College triumphed
in Division II ahead of Downing,
and the two remain clear favourites for promotion to Division I.
Grantchester Meadows concludes the College League calendar for Michaelmas term, as
the focus of the club turns to defending Varsity Match victories
against Oxford.
Have you got what it takes to win the
strategy game in the Energy industry?
It takes intellect, imagination, insight
and teamwork to develop a winning
strategy to beat the competition.
W
D
L
F
A
PTS
St. John’s
3
3
0
0
47
13
12
Magdalene
3
2
1
0
29
23
10
Girton
3
1
0
2
91
33
6
Jesus
2
1
0
1
25
6
5
Downing
3
0
1
2
13
57
4
Homerton
2
0
0
2
10
83
2
PL
W
D
L
F
A
PTS
St. Catharine’s
2
2
0
0
73
10
8
Trinity
1
1
0
0
38
12
4
Peterhouse
1
0
1
0
15
15
2
Trinity Hall
1
0
1
0
15
15
2
Caius
2
0
0
2
17
77
2
Pembroke
1
0
0
1
5
34
1
MEN’S DIVISION 3
Pool A
Pool B
PL W PTS
3
3
12
Fitzwilliam
2
2
8
Churchill
3
1
6
Sidney Sussex
2
1
5
Queens
2
1
5
Clare
2
1
5
Christ’s
2
0
2
Robinson
2
0
2
SPORTS SPOTLIGHT
GLIDING
all before you came to Cambridge?
I’ve been gliding since I was 16
(I’m now 21) and have been able
to fly the more simple competitions for the last 10 months or
so.
Martin Hughes is captain of
the university gliding team.
Explain a little about your
sport.
Gliders fly just like normal aeroplanes but without needing
engines. Instead they are light
enough to be pushed upwards
wherever there is rising air – for
example, air that has been heated
by the warm ground. This means
that a competent pilot can climb
very high or cover great distances – competitions are usually based around completing a
closed course as quickly as possible, with distances more than
200km commonly chosen.
www.cera.com
PL W PTS
Emmanuel
Cambridge Energy Research
Associates’ (CERA) Oil and Gas
Strategy Team invites you to get to
know us during a competitive
strategy game in London on 27th
November. If you are an
outstanding Final Year job seeker
with an interest in the Oil and Gas
industry and a strategy consulting
career please send your CV by 9th
November to:
Fiona Laing
[email protected]
21 The Green
Richmond
Surrey
TW9 1PX
+44 208 332 4860
RUGBY
PL
MEN’S DIVISION 2
Team
The men’s race starts Matt Gill
James Kelly
RESULTS
How did you first become involved and what attracted you
to this particular sport?
I got involved in gliding when
I took an Air Cadets course at
school. I didn’t manage to fly
regularly until I came to Cambridge, but because I had experience I knew I was keen and
got details of the club from the
Freshers’ Fair.
I’ve always enjoyed the idea
of being able to fly, and gliding seemed quite accessible –
it’s much cheaper than flying a
‘proper’ aeroplane for starters
and has a more obvious competitive element. Conversely I
also find gliding very relaxing:
on a warm summers day you
can often see a long way and it
feels very much like you’re just
drifting through space...
How long have you been gliding for? And did you glide at
What is the best thing or the
best moment you’ve had doing
your sport?
There are lots of times that I
find really amazing, so it’s hard
to pick a personal favourite – I
frequently have ‘wow’ moments
when I’m looking down at things
I’ve not seen before or when I
realise I’ve beaten my personal
bests for altitude or time duration. Obviously I was also rather
pleased when we gained 30%
more points than Oxford at our
last Varsity match...
How can others get involved?
Nearly anyone can get involved
merely by getting in touch with
us at [email protected].
There’s no experience necessary
to start, and we offer a chance to
try gliding in the Michaelmas
and Easter terms with no commitment, so either ask us or take
a look at the website for details
of those.
30 SPORT
Tigers maul Cambridge
Blues fight back after a poor start against Leicester
Leicester’s strong defence stop Cambridge from breaking through Matt Doughty
FINAL RESULT
Leicester
33
Cambridge 12
Faisal Nasim
On a chilly evening at Grange
Road, Cambridge were made to
pay for a sloppy start by a strong
and speedy Leicester Tigers 2nd
XV. Watched by a large crowd,
the Blues were unable to contain
the Leicester backs in the early
stages, leading to them scoring
three tries within the first ten
minutes of the game.
Breaking through the
Cambridge line directly off
the kick-off, the Leicester centres Matt Cornwell and Ayoola
Erinle were able to cause significant damage. Quick passing and
intelligent offloading from the
opposition left the Blues facing a
mountain to climb to get themselves back in the match.
However, after this disastrous
start, Cambridge showed great
courage and quality as they combined fierce forward play with
skilful back manoeuvres to pile
the pressure on the Tigers. A terrific maul in the twentieth minute
drove the opposition right back
to their own try line from the
22 and only a series of last ditch
tackles prevented a home score.
Eventually Leicester managed
to overturn the ball and kick it
clear but Cambridge number 8
Richard Bartholomew allowed
them no respite as he broke
through the Leicester defence
once again. Solid work in the centre from Chris Lewis and a good
up and under from fly-half Scott
Maclennan put Cambridge in a
position of strength and finally,
following a penetrating break
from inside centre Sandy Reid,
Bartholomew powered over the
line. The resultant kick was duly
converted by Hamish Murray.
Facing immediate pressure off
the restart, Cambridge were able
to deal with the Leicester threat
and were unlucky to knock on
while attempting to intercept the
ball. Despite managing to turn
over the ball on numerous occasions, the Blues were consistently
penalised around the ruck by the
referee: a source of frustration for
both the players and the supportive crowd. An infringement just
before the break lead to Leicester
finding touch in the Cambridge
22 and off the resulting lineout
and an unidentified Tigers player
managed to score in the corner,
making the half-time score 26-7.
The fluent play of both teams
was somewhat disrupted in the
second half, perhaps not aided by
the numerous substitutions being
made. Nevertheless, Cambridge
managed to force an early penalty, only for full-back Hamish
Murray to drag his effort wide of
the left post. A period of deadlock,
occasionally lit up by intricate
play from the Tigers’ backs, was
eventually broken when missed
tackles allowed a Leicester for-
Women’s football Blues triumph again
FINAL RESULT
Cambridge
3
Bedford Ladies
2
Sam Greisil
After a fairly slow start to their
season, which began on August
26th, Cambridge University
Women’s Blues football team are
beginning to climb up the table in
the premier division of the Eastern Region Women’s Football
League after two consecutive victories. Buoyed by a fantastic 1-0
win away at Hethersett last week,
the Blues put in a strong performance and thoroughly deserved to
come away with the win today.
It took an early, long-range
Bedford goal to wake up the
Blues 10 minutes into the first
half. However Cambridge
soon levelled the scores after
fresher Leesa Haydock got on
the end of a superb cross from
Mandy Wainwright to tuck the
ball away at the far post. Soon
after, Cambridge had a flurry of
chances and the Bedford keeper
made a number of impressive
saves, but it was not long before
Becks Fisher struck from within
the box, firing the ball into the
bottom corner to take Cambridge
into a 2-1 lead.
Bedford had a crucial opportunity to get back into the game
at this stage when their lightning-fast centre forward broke
clear and although she beat the
keeper, was denied by the post.
This warning spurred the Blues
on to raise the tempo of the game
Blues push forward dominating the game Matt Doughty
and minutes later Cambridge
were pushing forward with hardworking wingers Flick Hughes
and Miriam Toolan leading the
attack and passing the ball around
well, Hughes finishing off a skilfully worked attacking manoeu-
vre with a well-deserved goal.
Cambridge continued to dominate the game, with the combination of Leesa Haydock and
Captain Lisa Grimes a force to
be reckoned with in the centre of midfield, especially in the
ward to break clean through only
stopped by a superb last ditch
tackle from Cambridge winger
James Wellwood. Unfortunately,
strong support play from the
Tigers ensured that Leicester
scrum half was able to score off
the resultant ruck.
The Blues spent much of the
‘there were
positives from
tonight’
reminder of the second half in
defence but managed to launch
a series of penetrating breaks on
the counter-attack and they were
desperately unlucky not to score
in the sixtieth minute when an in-
air. They won a high proportion of 50-50 balls using their
strength and height to good effect. However, just before half
time, Bedford pulled a goal back
when their centre forward got
on the end of a long ball. This left
everything to play for in the second half.
Cambridge started the 2nd
half as they finished the 1st and
continued to dominate the opposition, having the majority of
possession throughout. Centre
backs Claire Hollingsworth
and fresher Catherine Murphy
put in solid performance leaving Cambridge goalkeeper Lisa
O’Dea with relatively little to do
in the second half.
The whole Blues team worked
hard and gave 100% on the
pitch, earning a much-deserved
3 points. Next Sunday the Blues
accurate pass lead to a failure to
exploit a clear overlap. However,
sustained pressure and good
work amongst the forwards allowed Joe Wheeler to score in
the last action of the second half.
Hamish Murray successfully
added two more points.
The thoughts of captain Ross
Blake sum up the performance.
He felt his team ‘started to play
some better rugby and managed
to exert pressure’ on the opposition after the sloppy start. Though
he rued the ‘silly mistakes’, he
stated that ‘there were positives
from tonight’, at the same time
stressing the need for his team,
with the Varsity match looming
ever closer, ‘to put together a full
80 minutes, not 20 minutes in one
half and 10 in another’.
face Dagenham & Redbridge
away. The Eagles (2nd team)
play Nottingham University
Women’s 2nds on Wednesday
24th October; kick-off is at 2pm
at Fitzwilliam College Sports
Grounds.
Blues starting line-up
GK: Lisa O’Dea
Defence: Sarah Ambrose,
Claire Hollingsworth, Catherine Murphy, Kate MacKenzie
Midfield: Felicity Hughes,
Leesa Haydock, Lisa Grimes,
Miriam Toolan
Attack: Mandy Wainwright,
Becks Fisher
Substitutes used: Clare Ross &
Lizzie Richardson
SPORT 31
John’s pick up the pace...
but were unable to exploit their strong attacking platform
FINAL RESULT
St John’s
Downing
26
7
Tom Fleming
Prior to this match, talk in the first
division was whether St John’s
grip on the league was slipping.
After unconvincing performances against their old boys and
rivals: Jesus, St John’s were in
need of a big performance to kick
start their season.
Downing came into the match
in search of their first victory of
the season, but a string of injuries forced them to field an under
strength team. Facing up to a typically large and physical John’s
pack it seemed Downing would
have an uphill struggle to come
away with a victory.
This weight mismatch proved
to be the difference between the
two teams and from the kick
off John’s exerted their forward
dominance, immediately pinning Downing back onto their
own line. Such was their territorial advantage that Downing did
not escape their half until twenty
minutes had passed.
The experimental
laws significantly
disrupted the
flow of play
John’s showed a willingness
to play an expansive game and
coupled impressive set piece
play with ambitious back moves.
Conditions were perfect for running rugby and the spectators
were preparing for an entertaining game. However
the execution of
their back line was
poor and ill-discipline meant
that John’s
were unable to
con-
John’s strong in turning the scrum Steph Hampshire
vert this pressure into points. In
addition to this, the flow of the
game was not helped by the introduction of experimental rules
at the breakdown. Although their
aim was to promote fast balls from
rucks, the frequent penalties that
ensued frustrated attacking efforts from both teams and made
the game a poor spectacle.
The Downing defence was
strong and forced John’s into a
number of handling errors, but
the continued pressure inevitably showed and on the 25 minute
mark John’s finally crossed the
Downing line. It took an outrageous dummy from John’s captain, Will Mayne, to set up a series
of punishing phases that led to a
try from their no. 8, Rob Wells;
Aaron Sonenfeld converted.
Strong tactical kicking, in
particular from Jack
Snowden, allowed
Downing to
occasionally
exert pressure of their own. In
spite of this John’s were much the
better team in the first half and a
further try, an individual effort
from fly-half Aaron Sonenfeld,
meant that John’s went into half
time leading 14-0. Despite this
cushion, John’s would have been
the more disappointed of the
two teams at this stage, for they
should have used their forward
dominance to put the result beyond doubt.
The second half continued
in much the same fashion with
John’s proving too strong for
Downing at the set piece. Once
again a combination of poor execution from John’s numerous
penalties at the breakdown, and
stubborn defence from Downing
meant that
John’s
were
unable to exploit their strong attacking platform and score as
many tries as they should have.
On the few occasions that John’s
managed to string a series of
phases together they inevitably
came away with points and tries
from Lloyd Ricard and Will Hall
cemented the result.
It was only in the last 20 minutes, after the match was beyond
them, that Downing showed their
ability. Numerous substitutions
from John’s reduced their dominance in the set piece with the result that Downing were able to
keep hold of the ball for extended
periods of time. Consequently in
the last twenty minutes they had
all the territory and possession.
On the back foot, John’s lost their
discipline and a string of penalties
allowed Alex Martin to attack the
line and drive over for a well deserved try.
Downing never
stopped playing even when a
John’s victory was
inevitable
The defining characteristic of
the match was unfortunately the
penalty count. The experimental
laws significantly disrupted the
flow of play and despite efforts
from both teams to play positive
rugby the constant breaks in play
meant that the game never really
got going.
Credit should go to Downing
for a spirited effort in defence.
Despite being on the back foot for
much of the game they managed
John’s take possession in a line out Steph Hampshire
to disrupt a number of John’s attacks through both aggressive
tackling and a number of turnovers. Most importantly, however, they never stopped playing
even when a John’s victory was
inevitable. Their dominance in
the last twenty minutes leading
to a try was testament to their
perseverance and should give
them confidence for their next
few games.
As for John’s, their pack were
impressive and should be competitive against any opposition in
the division; however their back
line failed to gel. Against weaker
opponents this was not a problem, but in tighter games they
will need considerably more penetration and the ability to convert
territory into tries. Once again
John’s have to be one of the favourites for the league, but their
performance against Downing
will do little to silence those who
believe their grip on the trophy is
beginning to loosen.
See the rest of the
college rugby results on
page 29
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