NUS President snubs Cambridge Union

Transcription

VS.
The fight begins: page 10
The
CambridgeStudent
Thursday, 26th April 2012
Easter Issue One
NUS President snubs Cambridge Union
Michael Yoganayagam
Associate News Editor
The fallout from Dominique
Strauss-Kahn's controversial visit
to the Cambridge Union Society
last term rumbles on, as it emerges
that a speaker that had been lined
up for this term's Union programme
refused his invitation as a result
of the Union's decision to allow
Strauss-Kahn to speak.
Prior to Strauss-Kahn’s visit in
March, Liam Burns, President of the
National Union of Students (NUS)
had initially accepted an invitation
from the Union Society to speak as
part of its Easter Term programme
of events.
However, in an email sent to the
Union's then President-Elect, David
Leigh, five days after Strauss-Kahn's
visit to the Union, and this week seen
by The Cambridge Student, Burns
rejected the invitation, writing: “I
am not willing to associate myself or
the National Union of Students with
the same platform so soon after this
flawed decision was taken”.
The Union's decision to invite
Dominique Strauss-Kahn to speak
on international economics last
term sparked outrage among some
students. Over 700 students signed a
petition organised by the Cambridge
University Students' Union (CUSU)
Women's Campaign calling for his
disinvitation.
Strauss-Kahn
resigned
as
Managing
Director
of
the
International
Monetary
Fund
(IMF) last year after he was accused
of raping a New York hotel maid
Nafissatou Diallo. Although charges
were later dropped, Diallo is now
pursuing a civil case against him.
Strauss-Kahn is also accused by
French writer Tristane Banon of
attempting to rape her in 2003.
Since speaking at the Union,
Strauss-Kahn has been charged
in France with "complicity in
aggravated
and
organised
prostitution" and "misuse of
company assets" in relation to several
orgies he attended in various cities,
including Paris and Washington,
while at the IMF.
The Union decided to uphold the
invitation on the grounds of freedom
of speech and Strauss-Kahn's talk
went ahead as planned on Friday
9th March, amid protests and some
vandalism of the Union building.
Four people were arrested, including
two Cambridge University students,
though only two of these people still
have charges standing against them.
The
following
Wednesday,
Burns, who was yesterday reelected for his second year as NUS
President, emailed Leigh, writing:
Olivia Lee
Low-key celebrations by the Thames, after Cambridge claim victory in an incident-packed Boat Race earlier this month. Full report, p.32.
“Unfortunately I have to decline
your invitation to speak at the
Union. I've been made aware of
the editorial decision made a few
days after my acceptance to allow
Dominique Strauss-Kahn to speak
at the Union, despite strong protests
from groups on campus. For quite
obvious reasons, I find this decision
deeply problematic.” By this time,
Leigh had resigned as PresidentElect, citing “academic reasons”.
Burns went on: “Even if StraussKhan [sic] had been acquitted of
allegations against him, I would
argue that an invitation to campus
when the local women's group have
made it quite clear their objection
to such a speaker is not in the best
interest of women students (or
indeed any students) at Cambridge.
However in this instance, StraussKhan [sic] is still under investigation.
Considering the severity of the
allegations, I am at best surprised
and at worst appalled that it was
deemed appropriate to still invite
him.”
Current Union President Michael
Black yesterday insisted to TCS
that Liam Burns is the only speaker
to have rejected a Union Society
invitation on the grounds that they
hosted Dominique Strauss-Kahn as
a speaker last term.
Black went on: “Naturally, we
respect Mr Burns's decision. I stand
by the decision of the previous
standing committee not to disinvite Dominique Strauss-Kahn, as
for almost two hundred years the
Union has been a neutral platform
for free speech and it is offered to
anyone that we believe our members
would be interested to hear. Also, it
is not for student officers to decide
whether someone is guilty or notguilty of a crime.”
IN THE NEWS
New elite college to be dominated
by private students
"Ugly" don fights "misogynist"
criticsm
Academics debate
punishment
Holland
Are our lecturers sufficiently
trained?
Analysis: Should Cambridge set
its own retirement age?
Only 1 in 5 of the first cohort of
students at the New College of the
Humanities in Bloomsbury will be
from state schools.
Classics fellow Mary Beard has
bitten back after critic AA Gill
said she was too unnattractive to
appear on TV.
Cambridge fellows have met in
the Senate House to discuss the
seven-month rustication ruling
against Owen Holland.
The NUS President has called for all
university lecturers to take qualifications before they take up teaching
posts.
Eleanor Dickinson questions
the University’s unique plans
to change the retirement age of
academics to 67.
Page 4
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The
CambridgeStudent
Thursday, April 26th, 2012
02| Editorial
THE CAMBRIDGE STUDENT
THE TEAM
Editors in Chief: Alice Gormley & Judith Welikala - [email protected]; Design Editor: Abi See - [email protected]; ; Photography Editor: Devon Buchanan
- [email protected]; News Editor: Emily Loud - [email protected]; Associate News Editor: Michael Yoganayagam; Deputy News Editors: Connie
Fisher, Alice Moore, Laurence Tidy & Nicholas Tufnell - [email protected]; International Co-Editors: Adam Clark & Morwenna Jones - international@
tcs.cam.ac.uk; Interviews Editor: Iravati Guha - [email protected]; Comment Editor: Jeremy Evans - [email protected]; Features Editor: Martha
Henriques - [email protected]; Deputy Features Editors: Arjun Sajip & Florence Smith-Nicholls; Music Co-Editors: Tristram Fane Saunders & Zoe Holder
- [email protected]; Film & TV Co-Editors: Lizzy Donnelly & Jess Stewart - [email protected]; Theatre Co-Editors: Davina Moss & Laura Peatman [email protected]; Listings Editor: Hattie Peachey; Sports Co-Editors: Ollie Guest & Olivia Lee - [email protected]; Illustrator: Clémentine Beauvais;
Sub-Editors: Louise Ashwell, Matthew Benton, Izzy Bowen, Amy Gregg, Anna Hollingsworth, Gwen Jing, Anthie Karavaggelis, Chris McKeon, Aron Penczu,
James Redburn, Ben Richardson, Loughlin Sweeney; Web Editor: Mark Curtis; Board of Directors: Alastair Cliff, Mark Curtis (Business), Dan Green, Harriet
Flower, Zoah Hedges-Stocks (Co-Chair), Michael Yoganayagam (Co-Chair), Alice Gormley & Judith Welikala [email protected].
A.A. Gill only makes the news when
he’s done something awful. In 2009
he shot a baboon in Tanzania just
to watch it die. The next year, for
no apparent reason, he described
Clare Balding as a “dyke on a
bike”. And now he is at it again,
shocked that Newnham’s Professor
Mary Beard had the temerity to
appear on a television show that
wasn’t Channel 4’s exploitation
masquerading as documentary ‘The
Undateables’.
Food critics are rarely famous.
EDITORIAL
Apart from these acts, which range
from the stupid to the downright
evil, nobody would ever have heard
of AA Gill. He is a man with no
redeeming features and few definable
talents. He does, however, have one
– controversy.
It is a talent he shares with
Samantha Brick, whose meteoric
rise to infamy took place over the
vacation. The Daily Mail website
measures its success in hits, and
nothing is more likely to bring
in the punters than the kind of
outrage only people like Gill and
Brick can produce.
Brick’s work may well have
been manipulated by Daily Mail
sub-editors, but this does not mean
that she had to go along with what her
article mutated into. Nevertheless,
in order to get her name in the
public eye, she did, just as Gill
periodically
does
something
outrageous in a desperate attempt
to make sure that some people have
heard of him.
Worse, this fame is an end in itself.
People like Gill and Brick have no
plan to make use of their notoriety;
all that matters is that they are noted.
Likewise, all that matters to news
websites like the Daily Mail (and
some closer to home) is readership,
simply numbers.
Journalism should not be about
pure numbers, it should be about
quality. Desperate self-publicity and
the courting of controversy for the
sake of readership rather than debate
is not journalism, and we should pay
no attention to it.
NEWS BULLETIN
News in Brief
Police crackdown on bike crime
Boat race protester in court
Cambridge bike theft and cycling offences have received particular attention from the city’s police force this
year. Since 1 January 78 bike thieves
have been arrested and patrols have
been increased at bike theft hotspots.
A police spokesperson commented
that the Cambridge police, “will not
tolerate such criminality.” However,
while your bike might be safer, you’d
better beware of the forces’ pledge to
“target cyclists who flout the traffic
laws to ensure the roads and footpaths are safe for other motorists and
pedestrians”. 103 fines have so far
been issued to “anti-social cyclists”.
Trenton Oldfield has appeared at
Feltham Magistrates’ Court charged
with causing a public nuisance after
he stopped this year’s Boat Race on 7
April. He was released on bail on the
conditions that he doesn’t enter the
City of Westminster on 9 May, when
the state opening of Parliament will
take place, or the Royal Borough
of Windsor and Maidenhead before he appears at Isleworth Crown
Court on 28 May. He is also banned
from being within 100m of, or using
roads which comprise, the Olympic
torch route.
Inquest opened into ex-Cats ‘spy’
death
Cambridge still top spot for 2013
An inquest has begun into the
death of Gareth Williams, the
GCHQ worker on secondment to
MI6 found dead in a sports bag
in his bath at his London flat in
August 2010. Williams studied
at Bangor University, graduating
aged 19, and went on to St Catherine’s
College to read for a postgraduate
certificate in Mathematics in 2000.
Speaking at the inquest, his sister Ceri
Subbe said he only let “vetted”
people in to his home and
found life in “rat-race” London difficult.
NEWSPAPERS
SUPPORT
RECYCLING
Recycled paper made up
80.6% of the raw material for
UK newspapers in 2006
The University of Cambridge has
been named the best university in
the UK in The Complete University
Guide for 2013, in which it ranked
first in 30 of the 46 subjects it offers.
In a surprise dip, the University of
Oxford dropped to third place, with
the London School of Economics
taking second place. It is thought
that this slip is due to a decline in
job prospects for Oxford students.
Dr Bernard Kingston, who headed
the team compiling the guide, explained that the changes in rankings this year were mostly driven by
recession-related issues.
THIS WEEK
INTERNATIONAL
Adam Clark argues
Anders Breivik’s right to
speak
p.11
COMMENT
Are our supervisors and
lecturers really qualified
to teach?
p.12
FEATURES
Martha Henriques
questions the benefits of
riding for autistic children
p.16
INTERVIEW
by Alice Moore
‘Ugly’ TV don threatens force-feeding revenge, p.4
The Cambridge Student is published by Cambridge University Students’ Union. All copyright is the exclusive property of the Cambridge University Students’ Union. Although The Cambridge Student is affiliated to the University Students’ Union we are editorially independent and financially selfsufficient. No part of this publication is to be reproduced, stored on a retrieval system or submitted in any form or by any means without prior permission of the publisher.
Iravati Guha speaks to
Norweigan historian Arne
Westad
p.18
The
CambridgeStudent
News |03
New developments in Fitzwilliam heist
Loughlin Sweeney
News Reporter
The theft, as it
happened:
• 5 April: Thieves broke into
Durham University’s Oriental
Museum and made off with Chinese artefacts
• 7 April: A white VW van was
stolen in Tower Hamlets, London
• 13 April:
7:30pm: The silent alarm at
the Fitzwilliam Museum was
tripped as four thieves entered
the rear of the museum. In a
matter of minutes, they sacked
Room 28 and have made their
exit.
7:40pm: The white VW van was
captured on CCTV travelling
down Trumpington Street.
Minutes later: University security arrived at the Museum to
find the Chinese treasures gone.
Police were then notified.
Wikimedia Commons
Cambridgeshire
Constabulary
have released new information
concerning the theft of priceless
Chinese jade artefacts from the
Fitzwilliam Museum on Friday
13th April.
The theft is now believed to have
involved four people, who broke in
through the rear of the Museum
and found their way to Room 28,
the Arts of the Far East permanent
exhibition. Despite tripping the
silent alarm, the thieves had made
off with their booty before the
university security arrived on the
scene. The alarm was not set up
to directly inform the police, who
were contacted subsequently.
Cambridgeshire Constabulary
have set up a 28-officer taskforce,
Operation Tundra, led by Detective
Chief Superintendent Karen Daber.
They are currently searching for
information on a white VW van,
which was seen in the vicinity of
the Museum on the fateful evening,
and later caught on CCTV making
a hasty retreat towards the M11.
They announced on 25th April that
they were expanding the search for
the artefacts worldwide, stating, “It
is possible the items have already
left the country and we have
circulated details to police forces
internationally.”
The Fitzwilliam Museum is
working closely with police to
recover the 18 stolen items, which
include a fourteenth-century jade
vase and two eighteenth-century
incense burners. The Museum’s
spokesperson had no further
comment.
The jade theft is the second
high-profile snatch of Chinese
artefacts this month; on 5th April,
miscreants made off with a horde
of treasures from the Durham
University Oriental Museum. The
Fitzwilliam Museum has refused
to speculate on the connection
between the two crimes. However,
the similarities beg the question: are
unscrupulous art moguls casing the
country’s museums and criminally
contributing to the growing craze
for historic Chinese collectibles?
Emperor of the Ming dynasty
Archbishop of Canterbury pulled out of Emma race over gay views
Emily Loud
News Editor
Tim Ashley
It has emerged that the Archbishop
of Canterbury withdrew his
application for the mastership of
Emmanuel College after threats of
legal action from a gay cleric.
Dr Rowan Williams, who is
now set to take over as Master of
Magdalene College, stood down
from the competition to become
Master of Emmanuel College
amid fears that his stance on gay
marriage would prove unsuitable
for the progressive college.
Emmanuel is home to the
liberal Reverend Caddick, who
has articulated a more open
approach
to
homosexuality,
stating in 2006, “in things like the
Church’s treatment of gay people, we
are going in the wrong direction.”
His withdrawal occurred in
January after the Mail on Sunday
published news that Dr Jeffrey
John, Dean of St Albans, was
threatening to sue the Church
of England under the Equality
Act, alleging that his failure to be
promoted to Bishop of Southwark
was due to his homosexuality.
According to the Mail, Dr
Williams may have played a part
in this decision. Dr Williams is
also said to have pressured Dr
John into steping down from his
appointment as Bishop of Reading
in 2003.
When contacted for comment,
Lambeth palace declined to make a
statement.
Dr Williams will assume the
position of Master of Magdalene
College in 2013.
Grayling’s college to be dominated by private school pupils
The New College of the
Humanities, which will be taking
its first cohort of pupils this
September, is so far maintaining
its elitist label, with only 1 in 5
places being offered to state school
pupils.
The new college will be charging
fees of £18,000 a year, not including
accommodation
costs,
and
has been warmly dubbed by
Boris Johnson as ‘Reject College,
Oxbridge’ due to its advertising
stance
towards
unsuccessful
Oxbridge candidates and the
similarities in the teaching
systems.
The
school,
situated
in
Bloomsbury, will offer degrees
from the University of London
in the five subjects of Economics,
English, History, Law and
Philosophy, with one to one
tutorials and 12 hours of contact
time a week. Set up by philosophy
don AC Grayling, academics of
the likes of Richard Dawkins and
Niall Fergusson, among others,
will teach at the college.
Of the 355 applications made
for entry in September 2012, 66%
were by students from independent
schools, and only 22% from
state schools. This is in part a
reflection
of
the
target
market the school is trying to
attract; of the 130 outreach
and higher education events
attended by the college since last
September, only 27 of these were
state schools.
This compares to the nearly 50%
that Cambridge and Oxford admit
from state schools, based on 2010
entry statistics.
Founder AC Grayling is not
adverse to the elitist label been
given to the college, and told
the Guardian “Anything very
high quality, very demanding,
can be described as elite. I don’t
personally have any difficulty
with that word.” Accusations are
more in the trend of exclusivity
rather than elitism, however;
of the 91 offers made so far, only 7
have been offered full scholarships,
for which the recipient is not
required to pay the fees. These
are means rather than merit
tested, providing an indication,
perhaps, of the wealth of
the average applicant;
surprising
considering
eye-watering
£18,000
year that the education will
Despite this, however, the
not
the
a
cost.
fees
page of the website declares “We
are committed to making fulltime study at NCH both accessible
and affordable for all. We are
determined not to be exclusive.”
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The
04| News
News in Brief
Punt touts tone down
New regulations have been
introduced to restrict the ‘annoying’
actions of punt touts operating in
Cambridge city centre. Following
worries that excessive numbers of
touts were tarnishing the tourist
appeal of the city, Cambridge City
Council have banned trading from
Garrett Hostel Lane, from which
most of the touts on King’s Parade
are thought to operate. A code of
conduct has also been introduced,
which states no more than seven
touts from one company can operate
from one station. Tourists have said
the activity of touts seemed ‘tamer’
since the new restrictions.
CambridgeStudent
Dons denounce Holland rustication
Daniel Matore
News Reporter
ulty, many of whom noted it was
the first time they had felt impelled
to speak at a meeting of the Senate
House.
Dr Jason Scott-Warren, English
fellow at Gonville and Caius College, called the singling out of only
one student as a “labour-saving de-
vice” and asked “Is it reasonable for
the University to disavow responsibility for the Court of Discipline?”
The sole student voice, CUSU
Education Officer Morgan Wild,
claimed that if the decision to rusticate Holland remains, his “academic career will lie in tatters”.
Devon Buchanan
Academics assembled in the Senate
House on Tuesday to air their views
regarding the seven-term rustication of student protester Owen
Holland.
The discussion was entitled: ‘The
selective and unreasonable punishment of a single student for a collective act of protest by students and
senior members’, and saw a mixture
of academics take to the stand, the
majority of which stated their allegiance to the St. Catharine’s student
“singled out” from last November’s
protests.
Presided over by Pro Vice-Chancellor, Prof John Rallison, the proceedings saw each fellow read out a
statement of their views.
Universities could be sold off
No members of the University spoke in defence of the Court
Following the sale of the College of Discipline’s decision, made in
of Law to a private equity firm last March of this year. Only Senior
week, there has been speculation statements from Senior Proctor
that more universities could become
private in the near future. Montagu
Private Equity, who bought the
College for around £200m, have no
prior experience in the education
sector, but their move has been seen
as a possible model for the future
activities of for-profit companies as
public education funding reduces.
Although experts have claimed it
unlikely traditional universities
will be privatised in the near future,
they have predicted an increase in
private money being used to finance
university activities.
Dr Alan Winter and Professor Gillian Evans, relayed by Pro-Proctor
Owen Saxton, gave support to the
ruling.
Both complained the discussion
was premature given the pending
decision of the Septemviri, the University’s court of appeal, on Holland’s sentence, the former remarking “I very much regret that this
discussion is held at this time.”
Dr Winter’s statement argued
that the proctors were charged not
only with upholding free speech,
but also “good order”, and that “the
protection of free speech, free assembly requires the maintenance of
discipline and good order.” He also
branded those who excused Holland’s actions in the ensuing days
as ‘apologists’ and closed stating:
‘It is our overwhelming collective
view that wrecking seminars is
wrong’.
Nine academics gave speeches
condemning the court’s decision,
including six from the English Fac-
‘Ugly’ TV don threatens force-feeding revenge
Connie Fisher
Deputy News Editor
After writing a blog article in which
he vowed he would no longer submit or review papers for the world’s
largest publisher of academic journals, almost 9,000 signatories have
given their support to Tim Gowers’
opposition to the academic journal
system. Many academics have been
angered that access to the results of
their largely public-funded research
is restricted to universities who pay
millions of pounds a year to private
publishing houses. In addition to
the petition, Harvard University Library encouraged all Faculty members this week to only submit articles to open-access journals.
Lego aids bone growth research
A team of students and researchers
from Cambridge’s Department of
Engineering have found a novel way
to aid their experiments. The group,
who are trying to develop synthetic
bone material for use in bone grafts,
found they were required to dip
sample continuously in different
substances for a prolonged period
of time. Rather than buy expensive
equipment to automate the process, the team decided to build Lego
machines to lend a hand. A video
of the machines, made by Google
to help promote their online Science Fair, has already received over
100,000 views.
Cambridge University
Maths don sparks journal uproar
Following
accusations
that
her appearance makes her an
“embarrassment” to be seen on the
BBC, Cambridge classics fellow
Prof. Mary Beard has detailed her
revenge.
Following the airing of the
Newnham don’s BBC documentary
‘Meet The Romans’ last week,
Sunday Times TV critic A A Gill
wrote a scathing report. He said:
“For someone who looks this closely
at the past, it is strange she hasn’t
had a closer look at herself before
stepping in front of a camera.”
Responding in the Daily Mail
on Monday, Beard threatened to
wreak her revenge by force-feeding
Gill while making him watch her
programmes in full, stating that the
“acid-tongued critic” is “frightened
of smart women who speak their
minds.”
Gill, who has previously come
under fire for his description of
BBC sports commentator and fellow
Newnham graduate Clare Balding
as a “dyke on a bike”, said: “This isn’t
sexist or beside the point. If you’re
going to invite yourself into the front
rooms of the living, then you need
to make an effort.” He also claimed
Beard should be featured on ‘The
Undateables’, a current Channel 4
programme following the love lives
of the mentally disabled and facially
disfigured.
Openly admitting the lack of
attention she pays to her appearance,
Beard said asked: “What is beauty
after all? Is it someone who is
Botoxed to the eyeballs, or someone
who feels beautiful under their own
skin?”
Beard also attacked Gills skills of
argument saying: “even the greenest
of my students would not present me
with an essay as ill-argued and off
the point.’ She asked viewers to judge
her documentary on its content, and
not the appearance of the presenter:
‘see my programmes for yourself and
decide if it is worth investing your
time in watching me, even with my
grey hair, double chin and wrinkles”.
Polish Society outrage at Auschwitz article
Eleanor Dickinson
News Reporter
The Cambridge University Polish Society is currently in uproar after an article published by the Cambridge News
referred to the residents of Auschwitz
of having “death on their hands” regarding the Holocaust.
The article written by a reporter at
the Cambridge News detailed a trip
made by Cambridgeshire schoolchildren to the former Nazi death camp.
However, comments made regarding
the townspeople of Auschwitz have
provoked anger amongst the University’s Polish community.
In private emails to the Cambridge
News, seen by The Cambridge Student,
a member of the Polish Society, Lukasz
Szydlowsk, condemned a claim made
within the article that the people of
Oświęcim have “death on their hands”
and the reporter’s inclusion of the
comment “the perpetrators and the
bystanders in Oświęcim who watched
more than half their neighbours disappear and did virtually nothing”. The
article’s headline originally featured the
offending phrase, reading “Nobody
town with death on its hands”, but was
changed to “Cambridgeshire school
pupils witness horror of Holocaust”
online by the Cambridge News.
The Polish Society disputed the
opinion put forward in the article by
the tour group leader and asked for a
follow-up to the piece. He added: “We
feel you owe it if not to the people of
Oświęcim, then to the tens of thou-
sands of Poles who were killed by the
Nazis for aiding Jews of whom 6,266
were posthumously honoured as
Righteous Among the Nations.”
Kuba Sanak, a first-year engineer
from the town of Auschwitz, commented to TCS: “Coming from the
town of Oświęcim, I have to say quite
often I see very strong misconceptions about the death camp both by
the Polish and foreign people.”
“The author of the article also
seems shocked that there is a town
there at all. The truth is that Oświęcim
is a town with over 800 years of history
and sadly because of what happened
in the last century many people would
like it to disappear from the face of the
earth.”
In a private email reply to Szyd-
lowsk, the reporter defended the article, stating that they “did not ‘write’
the quote by the teacher which you
have attributed to me - if you read the
feature you will see it is a quote and as
such is said by *another person*”.
They added: “It is not a personal
opinion and the paper is entitled to
report the comments of the responsible individuals who had organised the
trip.”
However, they said that “the newspaper would be happy to offer the
Polish Society an opportunity to put
forward their own opinion”.
Szydlowsk concluded that he hoped
that this would result in “an opportunity to create a teachable moment
here”.
Article amended on 1/5/2012
The
CambridgeStudent
Wikimedia Commons
‘Smart’ traffic lights
threaten to catch cyclists
Laura Pugh
News Reporter
Cambridge Cycling Campaign is
calling for better enforcement of laws
which will prevent motorists and cyclists jumping red lights.
The Campaign have suggested the
use of ‘smart’ traffic lights, which are
able to alter their timings based upon
traffic levels. Smart lights, which have
become popular in Europe, are proven to improve safety as well as traffic
congestion, and have been made especially necessary since research has
shown riders and pedestrians make
up the majority of accident victims at
traffic lights.
The council’s approach is currently
focussed on giving Police Community Support Officers new powers to
fine cyclists who break the Highway
Code. Unlike full police officers, they
can usually only issue fines to cyclists
riding on pavements.
“surely the cost is well
worth the benefit”
A spokesperson for the Cambridge
Cycling Campaign said, “We would
wish full police officers to better sup-
News |05
Rebecca Chamberlin
remembered
Laurence Tidy
Deputy News Editor
Tributes have been paid to a Cambridge University student who died
on 19th April following a car accident.
Rebecca Chamberlin, a third year
English student at Clare College, was
involved in a car accident while on
her way to a Clare Boat Club rowing
camp in Marlow, Buckinghamshire.
Three other students were injured.
Chamberlin was heavily involved
with the college’s rowing club, being selected as cox for the men’s 1st
crew.
The flag at the Clare boathouse was
flown at half-mast, and flowers and
messages of condolence have been
left on the pole and on the doors of
the building.
Professor Tony Badger, Master of
Clare College, commented: “Eve-
rybody at Clare College is deeply
shocked at the death of our thirdyear student, Rebecca Chamberlin,
and our thoughts are with her family and all her friends at this very sad
time.
“Rebecca made a huge impression
on all the teachers, staff and colleagues who knew her. She was an
excellent student of English, who
was a delight to teach and extremely
popular.”
He added: “She was much-loved
by her fellow-students and was just
a delightful and giving presence in
the college community. We will miss
her so very much, and will do all we
can to support each other during the
coming weeks.”
Remembrance services were
held both on Monday and Tuesday
evening this week in Clare Chapel,
including music, prayers and readings in memory of Rebecca.
port such work as it, in general, can
be only they who can deal with moving vehicle offences, such as those at
traffic lights.”
They added: “We would like to see
civil enforcement officers able to issue fixed penalty notices for a wider
range of offences, as should be possible under existing legislation, but
that does not include those which are
endorsable offences such as those at
lights.”
Student opinion is split over the
council’s approach to improving road
safety in Cambridge, though many
support the idea of smart lights.
Law student Anna Sutcliff told The
Cambridge Student, “Considering the
vast amount of student cyclists, surely the cost of installing smart lights is
well worth the benefit of improving
their safety.”
The
06| News
News in Brief
CambridgeStudent
NUS calls for lecturer qualifications
edbrambley
Western economists bankrupted
the Eastern Bloc
Sophia Klein
News Reporter
A new study of Eastern Europe led
by Cambridge acadmics has revealed President of the National Union of
that rapid capitalisation advocated Students (NUS), Liam Burns, has
by western economists has lead to called for university lecturing staff
bankruptcy and corruption in for- nationwide to obtain teaching qualimer Soviet countries. Fast-track fications as a prerequisite for securprivatisation projects devised in the ing their positions.
west in the early 1990s and pushed
Burns argued that with students
by the International Monetary Fund, now funding the university system
the World Bank and the European considerably by contributing up to
Bank for Reconstruction and Devel- £9,000 a year in fees, expectations of
opment have been found to produce teaching standards have risen signifia severe recession instead of the pro- cantly. He said: ‘it is not controversial
jected boom.
for my teachers to be qualified to
teach’.
The suggestion to improve academic standards by expecting lecturSchool students encouraged to sign ers to acquire teaching qualifications
anti-gay petition
was offered by Lord Browne in a review of university funding in 2010,
St Philomena’s Catholic High School but was met with such opposition
for Girls, a state school in south Lon- from universities attempting to prodon, have been encouraged to sign tect ‘institutional independence’ that
the Coalition for Marriage’s petition it was never pursued.
against proposals same-sex marriage
A spokesperson from the UniverThis followed a request from the sity of Cambridge said: ‘the UniverCatholic Education Service asking sity recruits the best academics from
359 Catholic state schools to publi- an international pool, and believes
cise a letter sent by senior archbish- that local provision is more approops arguing that it is their “duty” as priate than a national arrangement.’
Catholics to do “all we can to ensure
that the true meaning of marriage is
not lost for future generations”. The
British Humanist Association, the
National Secular Society, and SchoolsOut have suggested that this might
break several laws.
Ben Richardson
News Reporter
Whether the NUS are campaigning
for the enforcement of a national
teaching standard for university lecturers or simply more teaching support and mentoring within each individual institution remains unclear.
The University of Cambridge also
emphasises student feedback as being ‘extremely important’ in their assessment of teaching standards.
Morgan Wild, CUSU Education
Officer, spoke in favour of Burns’
claim: ‘no academic or postgraduate can reasonably be expected to be
naturally talented at all of the skills
that effective and inclusive teaching requires - everyone who teaches
students should be provided with an
extensive programme of training in
how to teach.
He added: ‘To do otherwise is unfair on academics and unfair on students.’
He added: ‘CUSU has long campaigned for all supervisors and lecturers to receive mandatory training
(an objective we’ve achieved for postgraduates) and we welcome NUS’s
attempts to tackle this issue at a national level.’
Work experience still dominated by nepotism
Cambridge research helps predict
heart attacks
An award-winning British Heart
Foundation research project, carried
out by scientists from Cambridge and
Edinburgh, has tested new scanning
techniques which will help doctors
predict patient’s risk of having a heart
attack. Every year, around 124,000
people in the UK suffer a heart attack, for which the most common
cause is coronary heart disease. This
study is the first to combine PET and
CT scanning to assess the progression of the disease through capturing
images of the coronary arteries.
A successful career is still too dependent on parental connections and
social networks, according to a new
report.
Work experience has such an impact on future career prospects that
‘employers have a particular obligation to ensure that placements are
available fairly,’ it argues.
The report by the Education and
Employers Taskforce charity and the
Chartered Institute of Personnel and
Development (CIPD) stressed the
benefits of work experience for both
school leavers and university applicants.
More than two thirds of teachers
felt pupils having returned from work
experience tried harder at school,
while two thirds of pupils said the experience drove them to achieve their
future career goals.
A survey of head teachers by the
Taskforce and The Times Educational Supplement showed that 48% were
planning to make changes to the way
placements were arranged.
“essential” in 83% of cases for Veterinary Medicine and in 55% of cases
for Dentistry.
Only 22% of universities considered prior work experience essential
for admission to a medical degree,
although 66% considered it “desirable”.
The Education and Employers
Taskforce was launched by schools
secretary Ed Balls and business secretary Peter Mandelson in October
2009, aiming to foster stronger relationships between schools, colleges
and local businesses.
Cambridge study could revolutionise cancer treatment
Anna Hollingsworth
News Reporter
GE Healthcare
Researcher argues for incorporation of Islamic banking
An analysis published by the Cambridge University’s Centre for Business Research, has claimed that a
the co-existence of the western and
Islamic banking systems would result in a global improvement in the
worldwide financial system. The Islamic system has often been marked
out as impracticable by financial
experts, especially due to its strict
regulations against interest. Now
a growing trillion dollar industry,
researchers Andrew Sheng and Ajit
Singh have argued that introducing Islamic principles into western
banking could lead to a much more
successful global financial system.
The report goes on to discuss the
extensive work experience links
offered by high performing independent schools through their
alumni bases. These offer students exposure to “professions often of great
interest…and to which specific university courses act as a gateway,” it
claims.
The report also quantifies subjects
in which work experience is considered an “essential” requirement for
university admission.
Across 20 Russell Group universities, work experience was considered
A recent breast cancer study may
mark a milestone in decades of research, revolutionising the way the
disease is viewed and treated.
The study, conducted by Cancer
Research UK’s Cambridge Research
Institute and the BC Cancer Agency
Vancouver Canada, is the largest
global gene study on breast cancer
tissue ever to be undertaken.
Researchers analysed DNA and
RNA from 2000 tumour samples using heat maps that allow the activities
of individual genes to be compared,
giving an insight into a tumour’s molecular anatomy.
Correlating tumours’ genetic fingerprints with chances of survival,
researchers have been able to reclassify the disease into ten completely
new categories, raising hopes of more
accurate predictions of survival and
the possibility of future tailor-made
treatment.
The research has shed more light
on how gene faults can cause cancer by interfering with essential cell
processes, as well as unveiled several
completely new breast cancer genes
that may serve as targets for the development of new drugs.
While these results will not affect
those currently suffering they will,
according to study co-leader Professor Carlos Caldas, allow future treatment to be targeted to the genetic
fingerprint of the tumour.
More precise diagnoses will also
spare those who would not benefit
from certain treatments from suffering unnecessary side effects.
Dr Harpal Kumar, Chief Executive
at Cancer Research UK, said that the
progress in breast cancer research
during the last few decades is ‘thanks
to the enormous generosity’ of those
supporting the charity.
She summarised the significance
of the study, adding: ‘We have much
further to go but this study will enable us to kick off a new era in the way
wwe think about breast cancer treatment’.
The
CambridgeStudent
News |07
Students drink their way to better results
James Redburn
News Reporter
consuming water may have a
physiological effect on thinking
functions as well as a psychological
effect of reducing anxiety, both of
which may improve exam performance.
Rosalind Peters, a first-year
theology student at Magdalene
College, had a more pragmatic take
on the findings: “I’m not surprised
at all, there’s nothing worse in an
exam than being distracted by a dry
throat.
“There’s
something
psychologically boosting about being
physically prepared as well, perhaps
it makes you feel more in control of
the whole situation.”
stevendepolo
A study undertaken by the universities of East London and Westminster has found that students who
bring water into their exams may
achieve higher grades than those
who don’t.
Using coursework results as control for ability, Dr Chris Pawson and
his collaborators found that waterdrinking candidates scored an average of 5% higher than their peers
who didn’t bring water into their
exams.
Of the 447 psychology students
at the University of East London
who were involved in the research,
25% brought water into their
exam. The study looked at a range
of students in their foundationyear, first-year and second-year of
study.
The most significant alteration in performance was amongst
foundation-year students, who experienced an average 10% rise, while
second-year students experienced
an average rise of just 2%. This
suggests
that
information
about the importance of staying
hydrated
should
be
targeted at younger students in particular.
Dr Pawson has suggested that
Jesus and Downing named ‘greenest’ colleges
Holly Murray
News Reporter
as well as their management and
recycling practices.
The assessment is part of CUECS’s
An annual assessment of college mission to “help organisations and
environmental performance has individuals around Cambridge to
named Jesus and Downing as Cam- alter their practices in cost-effective,
bridge University’s most eco-friend- efficient and most importantly, envily colleges.
ronmentally sound ways”.
The Green League Table (GLT),
The society stressed the present
produced by the Cambridge importance of their ranking in the
University Environmental Consult- light of new taxes on emissions
ing Society (CUECS), ranks colleges being imposed by the government’s
according to the measures they Carbon Reduction Commitment
choc choc advert 2012:Layout 1 25/4/12 15:05 Page 1
take to reduce water and energy use (CRC).
Carole Birtwhistle, CRC coordinator for Cambridge, said that
the taxes, being collected for the first
time in July, will amount to around
£750,000, proving a substantial
financial incentive for colleges to
become more environmentally
sound.
Topping the table together are
Jesus and Downing Colleges, both
having advanced a considerable
number of positions since last year.
Alexandra Zeist, co-leader of the
GLT project, claimed the colleges’
success in the energy category were
a result of their having “undertaken
infrastructural initiatives to reduce
their energy consumption”, such as
attic insulation and draft-proofing.
Colleges ranked at the lower end
of the league table lost points mainly
due to a lack of data entered into the
survey.
Zeist also emphasised that
completing the survey takes a lot
of time for the colleges, but that
CUECS is working hard to make it
easier for all colleges to participate
in the survey.
Each college has received a report
from the GLT group, which includes
individual feedback regarding how
they can improve their environmental performance. CUECS is also
encouraging colleges to participate
in a forum in which they can help
each other improve their efficiency.
This year also saw the launch
of a student survey allowing
students to have their say about the
environmental measures taken by
their colleges.
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The
08| News Feature
News in Brief
Huntington hospital seduction
scandal
A male nurse at Hinchingbroke
Hospital in Huntington has been
struck off after he seduced a
patient recovering from a suicide
attempt and then dumped her
by text. Davide Mangiavillano
showered the 24-year-old woman,
suffering from a borderline personality disorder, with gifts and
asked for her contact details when
she left the hospital. He later slept
with her after turning up at her
house univited. The mother-of-one
told Cambridge News, “I was in a
mess and I was so unwell”. Mangiavillano defended his behaviour as
quite normal in his native Italy.
CambridgeStudent
Analysis: Should Cambridge
dons be made to retire at 67?
Following the government’s abolition of the default retirement
age, Eleanor Dickinson discusses the potential implementation
of a Cambridge ‘Employer Justified Retirement Age’ of 67 for
academics.
Upon reaching 67,
academics must
either take their
pension or reapply
to stay at the
University
outraged by the proposals. Professor of Pharmacology at Christ’s
College, Peter McNaughton called
the proposals “a breach of a fundamental human right”.
He added: “This is discrimination of the most naked kind.
Just because mental function
tends to decline with age does
not mean that a person can be
automatically deemed to be incompetent at the moment the clock
ticks 67.”
“This is
discrimination of the
most naked kind”
Professor Lorraine Tyler of Clare
College also suggested as an alternative: “Instead of putting in place
discriminatory processes, the University could ensure that all academics are productive by adopting
enhanced performance management procedures instead.
“This would be within the spirit
of the UK legislation and the EU directive on age discrimination and it
would satisfy legislation on human
rights.”
However, Cambridge argues that,
without a policy, academic staff
would not retire soon enough and
would therefore prevent younger
staff from entering the University.
The policy’s purpose, as outlined
in the proposals, is to “ensure inter-
generational fairness” and “to refresh the academy in providing opportunities for career development
to those at an early stage of their
academic career”.
Furthermore, a number of academics have spoken up in favour
of introducing an EJRA, including
Newhnam Professor of Classics
Mary Beard. She said, “Academic
jobs are in short supply and you
don’t want departments dominated
by the excellent but elderly.
“Those who are left to decide
their own retirement age don’t always know when to go. And trying
to push them out when they are 80plus and past it is no fun for anyone.”
Furthermore, Professor Thomas
Körner, a Fellow at Trinity Hall,
argued that an ageing academic
workforce actually stipulates a decline in standards: “Age improves
wine up to a certain point, but, after
that point, deterioration sets in.”
“The University and
not the individual
will judge whether
they are sufficiently
valuable”
Professor Körner also points out,
“Retirement will be automatic at
a particular age... It is simply proposed that the University and not
the individual will judge whether
they are sufficiently valuable to
make deferred retirement worthwhile.”
These opposing views aside, what
may prove problematic in future
for the University is the legality
of enforcing this policy. Professor
Catherine Barnard, who is involved
with putting the EJRA together,
explained to The Cambridge Student: “This is a highly charged issue which requires balancing of a
number of competing interests.
“Unfortunately the law is not as
clear as it might be but I hope that
the Supreme Court decision in the
Seldon case will address this.”
The Seldon case was resolved
just yesterday, with the Supreme
Court rejecting Lesley Seldon’s
appeal against being compulsorily retired after turning 65. Whatever this outcome may prove in
the long term, Professor Barnard
stressed she believed “that an EJRA,
combined with the safeguards
provided for by the university, is
in the best interests of this university”.
However, it should be noted that
Cambridge is not alone in its consideration of an EJRA; TCS has
learned that Oxford University also
plans to establish its own retirement age.
Therefore, regardless of the results of this week’s vote, it is apparent that the issues of age within the
academic community are far from
resolved.
James Bowe
Cambridge University has always
been one for doing things its own
way; the response to the government’s abolition of the default retirement age was not going to be an
exception.
This week Regent House will vote
to decide whether Cambridge will
Survey reveals university as a love implement its own Employer Justified Retirement Age (EJRA), in
trap
which University academics will be
expected to take their retirement at
A survey by accommodationforthe age of 67.
students.com has found that 81
If the vote goes through, many
per cent of students agree that
university is the ideal place to meet academics who have reached 67
could be out by the end of this acaa partner. The survey, prompted
by the upcoming first wedding an- demic year. However, this is to apniversary of the Duke and Duchess ply only to academics, while other
of Cambridge, revealed that 57 per University staff will have no age
limits set on their retirement.
cent of people questioned enter a
This comes after the governnew relationship at university with
32 per cent going onto marry their ment officially abolished the default retirement age (DRA) back
university boyfriend or girlfriend.
in October 2011. In a move aimed
60 per cent of relationships were
at tackling age discrimination in
found to have begun in fairly
traditional circumstances initiated the workplace, employers are no
longer able to compulsorily retire
when the man asked the woman
workers upon reaching the age of
out on a date.
65. Though employers will still be
able to enforce retirement at a cerStudents join sugar daddy dating tain age, their grounds must now be
sites
objectively founded, and no longer
based solely upon age.
Female students struggling to pay
fees are turning to ‘sugar daddy’
dating sites with the aim of meeting
rich older men who they hope will
help them with their debts. Figures
released from site SeekingArrangement.com showed Nottingham
University were the top institution, with 61 sign-ups, Cambridge
following fourth with 46. The site,
which labels itself as ‘the elite sugar
daddy dating site for those seeking
mutually beneficial relationships’
said that 35 per cent of the site’s
50,000 UK members were students
in need of relationships with added
Though reportedly one in 10
monetary benefits.
firms in the UK are intending to
offer financial incentives for people
to leave at a certain age, Cambridge
Ducking Hell
has gone one step further by setting
up its own EJRA. Under this policy,
The Buttery on Sidgwick Site has academics, upon reaching 67, must
been welcoming a rather unusual either take their pension or reapply
character to the café recently. A to stay at the University.
duck, presumably making its way
Other options available to them
from the River Cam, is now a regu- include the possibility of ‘flexible
lar customer. At around midday, retirement’, whereby academics
the staff at the Buttery expect its are still able to work a reduced
arrival, where their orange-billed number of hours, and take a porand white-feathered friend waits tion of their pension. In ‘excepoutside the café doors, willing to tional circumstances’, the employee
accept any food from customers. It can potentially work unpaid for
is rumoured that he prefers cheese the University in what is called a
and quackers. It is unknown what ‘Voluntary Research Agreement’.
the duck’s name is; when asked, the Whatever the options though, the
number 67 now signifies an uncerduck did not comment.
tain future for Cambridge academics.
Many academics are naturally
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The
10| International
The World this Week
Sudan accused of
declaring war
The President of South Sudan
claims that Sudan has waged
war after weeks of fighting on
the borders of the two nations.
Sudanese warplanes have
conducted bombing raids,
following a fatal bombing on
Monday in which a market was
destroyed. The UN Secretary
General has condemned the
attacks. Tensions are now
rising due to the division of oil
reserves and border disputes.
CambridgeStudent
International
Analysis: Obama - Romney, the fight begins now
First criminal charges for
BP oil spill
The first criminal charges
for the Mexican oil spill
have been filed by the US
Justice Department. Accused
of intentionally destroying
evidence, a former BP
engineer has been arrested.
Facing two accusations of
obstruction of justice, he
allegedly tried to delete text
messages in October 2010
detailing how attempts to stop
the leak were going.
Playboy owner defends
America’s sexual freedom
In a rare, full-page May
editorial, Hugh Heffner has
vigorously defended the
sexual liberties for which
he has fought, claiming
that‘repressed conservatives’
are ‘pounding on America’s
bedroom
door.’
Among
those attacked by Heffner is
Republican party politican
Rick
Santorum,
who
apparently
condemned
contraception as ‘a license to
do things in a sexual realm
that is counter to how things
are supposed to be.’ Heffner
concludes that the sexual
liberties he supports ‘lie in
peril,’ and welcomes readers
to the ‘new sexual revolution.’
Joseph Sanderson
As Churchill famously said, “This
is not the end. It is not even the
beginning of the end. But it is,
perhaps, the end of the beginning.”
The warm-up acts -pizza mogul
Herman Cain, Texas Governor Rick
Perry, Tea Party darling Michele
Bachmann, and social conservative
former Senator Rick Santorum have left the stage. Former House
Speaker Newt Gingrich and
libertarian perennial candidate
Ron Paul have missed their cue to
leave, and, cartoon-like, a hook is
emerging from stage left to drag
them away.
It’s time for the main event: in
the red corner, the challenger,
former Governor Mitt Romney of
Massachusetts; in the blue corner,
the reigning heavyweight champion
of the world, PresidentBarack
Obama. And this one looks set to
last all twelve rounds.
The road for Romney so far has
not been easy. Despite running to
the right of John McCain in 2008,
the re-energised Republican base
this year has meant that Romney
was the centrist candidate this year.
Dave Delay
The UN peace plan and
ceasefire deal are being
questioned as deaths increase
in Syria. On Monday, nearly
70 people were killed and
activists have used these
deaths as an example of the
dangers of UN involvement.
Meanwhile, the US has
called the mission ‘risky and
dangerous.’ Kofi Annan is due
to brief the Security Council
on Monday and it is expected
that the number of monitors
will increase from a handful
to 300.
WisPolitcs.com
UN Peace Plan in Syria
criticised
The primary was characterised
by voters who could settle for
Romney, but were not particularly
enthusiastic about it.
Although for the most part
his campaign was well-run, the
Romney camp has committed a
few unforced errors - a handful
of inartful soundbites that made
the wealthy Romney seem a little
out of touch with ordinary voters.
An extended primary campaign
also forced Romney to emphasise
certain positions that could harm
him in November - his anti-amnesty
views on illegal immigration may
harm Republicans’ chances with
the growing Hispanic vote in the
Southwest, including vital swing
states like Nevada.
But neither is the incumbent
without
baggage.
Sluggish
economic growth and persistently
high unemployment has been
the hallmark of the Obama
administration. Economists will for
years to come debate why. Would
things have been worse without
the huge increases in government
spending? Has the uptick in new
regulations under Obama led
to a paralysing uncertainty that
discourages hiring and capital
investment in the private sector?
It is too early to tell, but one
thing is for certain: in the past,
incumbents running for re-election
with unemployment so high have
struggled. It is not for nothing that
the Romney campaign has adapted
Saatchi & Saatchi’s famous 1979
‘Labour isn’t Working’ poster to
refer to Obama.
Obama
promised
fiscal
responsibility after a profligate
Bush administration but he has
increased the national debt by $5
trillion (or about one third of GDP),
potentially alienating independent
voters concerned about the US’s
fiscal future.
Republicans in Congress have
shrewdly chosen to focus on
government waste recently, placing
the public debate where Romney
wants it to be. Obama’s flagship
health insurance reform law is
unpopular, and may be struck down
by the Supreme Court as beyond
the federal government’s role.
Most commentators predict a
brutal campaign. Both candidates
have been furiously attempting to
raise millions and a series of court
decisions has made it much easier
for advocacy groups (including
poorly disguised alter egos of the
candidates, known as SuperPACs)
and trade unions to launch
advertising blitzes.
On the ground, Obama has kept
the strong organisational network
he built in 2008; the Republicans,
meanwhile, are hoping that the
grass-roots Tea Party groups
that appeared as a reaction to
‘Obamacare’ can provide engaged
volunteers to get out the vote in
November.
The battle has begun. Much could
change between now and November
– strong economic growth could
help secure Obama’s re-election, or
a scandal could give Romney the
edge. The Supreme Court, which
has cases on the health insurance
reform, illegal immigration, and
‘positive discrimination’ pending,
is a wild card that could help or
hinder either side.
For now, commentators and
bookmakers think Obama is the
slight favourite, but Gallup tracking
polls have recently hovered close to
a statistical tie. This could be a close
one.
Analysis: Front National holds the future of France
Timur Cetin
After a rather tedious electoral campaign, the first round of the French
election proved to be a surprising
evening.
Firstly, contrary to polls’ predictions, François Hollande took the
lead in the first round with Nicolas
Sarkozy taking around 1.5 percentage points less, making Hollande
the frontrunner for the second
round. Secondly, one third of the
voters made their choice in favor of
candidates with extreme leanings,
among them the candidate of the
nationalist “Front National,” Marine
Le Pen, and the candidate of the extreme left-wing “Front de Gauche,”
Jean-Luc Mélenchon. Finally, the
election turn-out was unexpectedly
high, 80% of all eligible voters.
Clearly, the French electorate are
indeed interested in the future of
their country, and more notably
the choices made show that there is
an ample number of people disappointed with the two leading candidates.
Marine Le Pen, who came out
third with around 18%, declines to
endorse either Sarkozy or Hollande.
How then will all her voters decide
in the second round?
It is quite probable that some will
vote either way, but it is more likely
that the majority will abstain. Louis
Aliot, the second most important
politician of the FN and Marine Le
Pen’s partner, has already said that
he will spoil his ballot on the 6th of
May.
Marine Le Pen has made it clear
that there is nothing to negotiate
about, therefore she is unlikely to
change her mind and endorse either Sarkozy or Hollande. Sarkozy’s
strategy could be geared towards
that and consequently try to court
the electorate of the FN. He has already called for halving the number
of visas for new immigrants, questioned the granting of dual citizenships and proposed the reintroduction of border controls.
In the meantime the Socialist
candidate François Hollande cannot afford to take a break. Although
he has garnered the support of JeanLuc Mélenchon from the FG, Eva
Joly from the Greens and Philippe
Poutou from the NPA (New Anticapitalist Party), nothing is decided
yet.
While the voters of MoDem candidate François Bayrou might split
up evenly between Sarkozy and
Hollande, the behavior of the voters
of the FN is far less predictable.
While Sarkozy may try to woo
FN voters with his politics, many
of them peronally dislike Sarkozy
due to his opportunism and alleged
aloofness.
The electorate has not forgotten
that Sarkozy went to a luxurious restaurant on the evening of the 2007
election and went yachting with billionaire Vincent Bolloré instead of
secluding himself in a monastery as
he had promised to do prior to the
election.
Amongst all this uncertainty, one
thing is definite. It is the FN voters
who will decide the fate of their current president and it is they who are
the most important political factor
in France at the moment.
The
CambridgeStudent
International |11
Opinion: Anders Breivik must be allowed his stage
Adam Clark
International Co-Editor
Far-right wing
ideology is most
attractive when it
is mysticised and
hidden
Though Breivik’s claimed alliance of far-right networks might
be a delusion, his rhetoric is not
a world away from that of parties
such as the English Defence League
or the BNP, parties that rely on distorted images of Islam and immigration to bolster their support. A
reluctance to challenge such views
allows them to present themselves
as a persecuted minority.
Instead of shying away from reporting on Breivik’s views, the media should be focusing on them.
The strange concoction of nationalism, racism and conspiracy theory
that underpins his views is clearly
absurd, set out in a manifesto he
admits was largely cut and pasted
off the internet. Such ideology will
only remain attractive if it is mysticised and hidden, becoming a
lure for those desperate to fashion
themselves as lone warriors.
Breivik has been at his most pathetic in the trial when trying to
cling to the illusion of the ‘Knights
Templar’, a network of far-right
crusaders that appears to exist only
in his mind. When this fantasy was
stripped away by the prosecutors it
helped puncture the illusions of all
those who imagine themselves to
be in a cultural war.
Where the publicity he receives
becomes dangerous is when his
motives are glossed over in favour
of publicising Breivik himself –
risking creating a morbid cult of
celebrity.
While his actions can only described as evil, the media’s focus
on the bloody details of the attack
and his lack of remorse are magnifying his image. If the fear is that
of lone copycat attacks then it is the
publicity that Breivik’s personality
and image is attracting which is far
more of dangerous than his weak
defence of his views.
In making Breivik into a unique
embodiment of evil the press is isolating him from the twisted politics
that inspired his actions, and wasting a chance to expose the wider
danger.
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Oslo PolitkiDistrikt
“Your trial offers you a stage to
the world”. Anders Breivik’s words
from his manifesto that he wrote
before murdering 77 people last
July now appear prescient. His ten
week trial is swiftly turning into a
media frenzy, as the morbid details of the massacre are endlessly
retold.
Breivik is proving a master selfpublicist, grabbing headlines with
his Nazi-esque salutes, the revelation of his plan to behead the Norwegian Prime Minister and his demand that he either be acquitted or
face the death penalty.
The scale of his murders and his
apparent lack of remorse has led
the media to portray him in almost supernatural terms, lending
him an aura of horror that magnifies the coverage.
This naturally raises worries that
such a platform is exactly what
Breivik wanted, a chance to spread
his twisted ideology that he would
never have gained otherwise.
While his incoherent mess of Islamophobic and far right slogans is
unlikely to convince many, the fear
of individuals carrying out copycat
attacks is a valid one.
Breivik’s attack bore a disturbing
resemblance to campus shootings
in the U.S where the attackers have
often been inspired by earlier inci-
dents.
However his trial offers a vital chance to start a much needed
debate. Breivik’s ideology did not
arise from nowhere – it is a distorted and wildly extreme version of a
tide of concern over the impact of
multiculturalism and immigration
on Europe, some of which is merely xenophobia but much of which
raises valid questions.
The trial itself is a model of how
to deal with such a madman - by
constantly challenging his worldview and refusing to treat Breivik
as anything other than a criminal,
his pretence to being a political
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spokesman is undermined.
With no death penalty, Breivik
will not achieve his martyrdom,
and Norway will have shown the
strength of a liberal society in rejecting his message of hatred.
The release of the
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The
12| Comment
University of Salford
Comment
Yes: Formal teaching
qualifications would
erradicate glitches in the
system, says Morwenna Jones
If you needed brain surgery, would
you allow an unqualified Doctor
to operate on you? If you needed
to build a bridge, would you hire
someone without any engineering
qualification? Or even if you needed
to go somewhere by car, would
you happily be driven by someone
without a driving license? We live
in a country reliant on qualifications,
training and prerequisites. Yet we
happily pay for the bright young
minds of the future to be taught by
postgrads, researchers, and professors
who – though they might have a PhD,
a fellowship with the Royal Society
and dozens of honorary degrees –
have the social skills of a teaspoon.
Most worryingly, it appears that
students aren’t getting what they pay
for. As student demand for higher
education soars (there were 50,000
more applications for undergraduate
places at university this year than
there were acceptances in 2011)
universities face an increased demand
for teaching. Rather than put extra
strain on what, in an article for the
Guardian, a Professor of philosophy
at University College London calls
‘star faculty members,’ who are paid
big salaries but have small teaching
loads, universities prefer to resort
to cheap and readily available
postgraduate students. Bearing in
mind that fees have soared this year
to up to £9,000, it seems a high price
to pay for second-rate, unqualified
teaching. As Liam Burns, President
of the National Union of Students,
says, the increase in fees means
that “people have much higher
expectations. Not just students but
parents, who will probably be much
more active in criticizing what they
perceive to be the deal.”
Yet, it is not only students who
will benefit from clear teaching
methods and getting their money’s
worth, but also university staff with
teaching responsibilities themselves,
in particular postgraduate students.
In the U.S, grad students are able to
fully fund their studies by teaching,
and as a result further studies are
considered a legitimate career
choice. American grad students are
regarded as ‘junior colleagues,’ and
are prominent departmental figures
for undergraduate students. In the
UK on the other hand, postgraduate
students are still regarded as unable
to find a real job and as having never
really left university. Ensuring that
all future university teaching staff
have a valid teaching qualification
will give added prominence to their
status within their academic
communities, as well as enabling
them to receive the level of payment
received by their American
counterparts.
But surely we should be willing to
sacrifice a mere certificate in favour
of learning from the experience
and knowledge of the intellectual
elite? One could argue that a
teaching qualification would reduce
Professors and Supervisors alike
to schoolteachers, changing the
university experience to a world of
‘assessment objectives,’ and coerced
thinking – admittedly, this is a
potential risk. However, consider
the copious advantages that may also
be gained. No more supervisions
where the supervisor may as well
be speaking Icelandic, no more
(probably unread) essays marked
with one word criticisms, and no
more lecturers rambling on at the
speed of light, having decided that,
rather than comply with the Notes
on Courses, they’re going to give an
unplanned lecture on something
completely different, irrelevant and
way beyond the understanding of
their trapped students.
At the end of the day, it depends
what you want from university.
Teachers are trained to help candidates
meet targets and achieve aims whilst
academics want to encourage interest
and knowledge. It seems that with a
teaching qualification, degree-laden
academics might be able impart true
understanding, as well as thoughtprovoking ideas and philosophies and
help students meet their full potential.
In an ideal world, expertise in a topic
would indeed easily translate into the
ability to help other reach the same
level of proficiency. However, in
reality, sometimes even the best of us
need a little help or structure.
Morwenna Jones is a first-year English
student at Murray Edwards
CambridgeStudent
Should lecturers and supervisors
require a teaching qualification?
NUS President Liam Burns has called for new regulations requiring all university academics with teaching responsibilities
to have a formal teaching qualification, saying that “personally, as a student, I don’t think it is that controversial for my
teachers to be qualified to teach.” In 2010, the Browne Report
on higher education called for similar measures which were
never enforced. Can we assume that ability in one’s subject
guarantees the ability to teach it? Or is it insulting to lecturers
and supervisors to force them to jump through hoops?
“It is not the
sort of thing
you pick up
by osmosis.”
NUS President Liam
Burns, on teaching at
higher education level
84
Thousand
Teaching academics
employed by
universities in the UK
“This would
cause some
lecturers’
brilliant
minds to
just wilt.”
Internet commenter
AustrianInEngland,
on the proposed
qualifications
No: At university level, the
teaching skills required
are inherent in academic
ability, argues Sean Canty
Supervisors at university level are
experts in the field they teach, with
the qualifications to prove it. Their
expertise makes them betterequipped
to supervise an undergraduate’s
learning and make them avoid the
mistakes that halt progress in that
field of study. Is this really the case?
First of all, I make no apologies for
arguing from an ‘arts’ point of view;
I’m sure the ‘sciences’ are different in
crucial ways, and learning a science
requires a very different kind of
What one values in
a good supervisor is
that critical subjective
judgement
supervisor. The ‘arts’ are ideas-based,
and the ‘sciences’ are aptitude-based,
so I am going to argue from an ideasbased-learning perspective.
So, one might argue that supervisors
are teachers and they therefore need
to prove their skill at teaching. They
need to pass exams, proving that
they are suited to the task. There
are supervisors who believe that
their academic reputation alone will
convince an undergrad that they
have had a rewarding supervision
with a venerable sage. Not so, you
might respond. Academic credentials
are one thing, but skill at teaching –
communication – is another. The
most brilliant and rational minds
can have trouble communicating.
I do not, however, believe that a
university’s staff list is built despite
that barrier. Communication is
essential to the academic life.
What makes a good supervision?
You argue your case, based on what
you know, and you get feedback.
In fact, in a good supervision you
hope to leave your essay far behind
and come up with fresh ideas,
challenged by the failings of the old.
You subsequently have your ideas
challenged from every possible angle,
and every conceivable angle. Vaguely
speaking, ideas come and go, and the
foundations of knowledge are built.
The best supervisions are dialogues.
Learning happens in these dialogues.
These dialogues are also the staple of
the daily lives of academic experts,
the ones we hope to teach us.
Dialogue with other thinkers is what
their profession is all about.
So, there are different types of
learning, and I think we have flagged
up two here. Critical thinking needs
to be taken as given at this level
of dialogue, but not at every level,
which is why people train in PGCEs
to deliver the essential equipment to
those hoping to study at higher and
higher levels. They do an admirable
job.
However, the type of learning which
happens in dialogues is different to
critical thinking. It involves more
than exploring the strengths and,
primarily, the weaknesses in any idea,
and any solution to problems. Critical
thinking is a mere tool to those who
work in any field, and an ancient
one. It should be taken for granted
in the one-on-one supervisions given
by field-leading academics in top
universities.
What one values in a good
supervisor is that critical subjective
judgement, matched with penetrating
knowledge of the subject at hand.
Good supervisors and good students
are well-versed in argumentation
and have a keen eye for fallacies. This
is the type of uniform skill that one
acquires from a teacher, but this is the
limit to the uniformity. Progressive
research is not about uniformity.
There is an obvious but limited place
for uniformity – shared opinions – in
the dialogue between a supervisor
and student.
Beyond the essential equipment,
uniformity is not always to be
treasured. No teaching qualification
can demonstrate an expert’s longterm ability to subvert accepted ideas
and to deliver factually-informed
revelations. Universities cannot be
expected to produce completely
uniform students, one year to the
next, and they do not need uniform
supervisors. Dialogue is the only
qualification, and academics do not
just have natural flair for it, they use
it daily.
Sean Canty is a first-year theologian
at Corpus
The
CambridgeStudent
Comment |13
A tale of two presidents
James Mottram
Communist Party, emerged during
the campaign as a serious competitor,
holding down Hollande’s opinion
poll numbers and threatening to
soar to a triumphant third place. Yet
in the end he faded away to a rather
distance fourth. A big chunk of the
vote did, however, go to Marine
Le Pen, the standard bearer of the
far-right Front National – not a
direct competitor to Hollande, but
indicative that the growth of the
hard right in hard times is not just
an American peculiarity.
There remains one major
difference: whereas President
Sarkozy is now fighting for
his political life, the American
election still seems to be Obama’s
to lose. To some extent this comes
down to the differences in the
candidates. President Sarkozy’s
flashy, unorthodox approach to the
Presidency has left many who might
be inclined to vote for a centreright candidate unimpressed,
while, however unpopular some
of his policies may be, President
Obama has unquestionably treated
his office with traditional dignity.
Additionally, the American left is
not like the French right. Obama,
like Hollande and Romney, can be
confident that voters on his side of
the political divide who have been
disappointed by the last four years
will still prefer him to his opponent.
The same is not true in France,
jmayrault
The American Revolution was
won through French fire-power;
the revolutionaries of Paris took
inspiration from Boston and
Philadelphia. Now, as two hundred
years ago, it seems the two republics
are following a strikingly similar
course. In both, an unpopular
incumbent, elected on a promise
of far-reaching change, is now
vilified, often by attacks that are
more personal than political. And
on either side of the Atlantic the
President is faced with a managerial,
even uninspiring opponent who has
overcome ideological firebrands.
Presidents Obama and Sarkozy
both seemed full of promise upon
their election. Both were young and
energetic. Both promised change:
Sarkozy from the drudgery of
statism which had pushed up French
deficits for decades; Obama from the
warmongering, seemingly uncaring
Bush administration. Yet both
were soon tarnished. Some leftist
Parisians took instant exception
to the fact that their President
holidayed on tycoon’s yachts, while
some Americans were less than
pleased to have a black man as their
head of state. Energetic politicians
may inspire their supporters, but
they also energise their opponents,
and soon flagship reforms such as
Sarkozy’s increase in the pension
age or Obama’s healthcare laws
produced a furious backlash, made
worse by the economic doldrums
which afflicted both countries. It
might have been expected that these
polarised, revved-up oppositions
would produce challengers extreme
enough to represent the displeasure
with their respective Presidents. But
for the most, they have not.
From the outset of the Republican
race the clear favourite was moderate,
methodical Mitt Romney. As a
centrist governor of a liberal state,
Romney was never the candidate to
enthuse the Tea Party and others on
the hard right, and this produced a
series of flash in the pan contenders
with better extremist credentials:
Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Rick
Santorum, etc, etc. Yet one by one
these candidates fell away, to leave
Romney now the presumptive
nominee. The French Left had
seemed perhaps more reserved in
their choice of candidate; during
the Socialists’ selection process the
only serious candidate aside from
the uninspiring Hollande was the
solidly establishment Dominique
Strauss-Kahn, before his candidacy
was derailed. However, JeanLuc Melenchon, backed by the
because the Front National is not
just a fierier version of Sarkozy’s
UMP, but a distinct quasi-fascist
party. President Sarkozy is counting
on the votes of their supporters,
but they may well not consider him
the lesser of the two evils now on
offer.
The campaign for the White House
remains in its early days though For
now Romney seems to be running
level with President Obama - and
with an unwelcoming economic
outlook and months of tit-for-tat
attacks ahead of him, Obama may
be worried that by November the
anti-incumbent winds now shaking
France will have blown across the
ocean in full force.
James Mottram is a second year
English student at Selwyn
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magazine
Horse riding
as a treatment
for autism:
p16
p18
The
features
CambridgeStudent
Want to get involved in Features?
Email [email protected].
Treatment,
training, or
just good
fun?
Martha Henriques looks at what horse
A
picturesque
hilltop
stable yard in County
Durham,
a
row
of
mud-spattered
four by fours, and
opposite, a row of expectant equine
heads poking over their stable
doors; Brookleigh Stables is at first
indistinguishable from countless
other riding clubs across rural
Britain. The only difference is the
children.
Rather than the usual scattering
of yelping jodhpur-clad kids
demanding of their mothers their
new riding hat with the pink bobble,
the attendees at the Thursday
sessions arrive in a minibus straight
from the morning’s school. The
children attending today’s session
are from a local Education Village
which has a specialist day school
specifically for children with
learning difficulties. The children
arriving at Brookleigh today all have
severe autism, and here for their
weekly riding lesson organised by
the charity Riding for the Disabled
Association (RDA).
Never having met a severely
autistic person before, I wasn’t sure
what to expect as we saddled up
the ponies in preparation for their
session. After watching the episode
16| Features
Dainis Matisons
riding can offer children with autism
on autism of Louis Theroux’s
documentary series Extreme Love,
I was slightly apprehensive that the
children might scream incessantly
or refuse to cooperate with the
volunteers. Wondering how this
behaviour would fit in with riding
even the most docile of ridingschool ponies was more than a
little nerve-wracking. Loud, often
uncontrollable and sometimes
violent behaviour isn’t uncommon
in severely autistic children,
but I wasn’t prepared for how these
kids would react to their riding
lesson.
Instead of the wild tantrums I had
envisaged, I was met with a busload
of well-behaved primary school
children neatly filing off their bus,
and confidently taking the hand of
the nearest volunteer. While some
of the children were evidently
having difficulty staying focused on
the task, the majority took to their
volunteers - and to their ponies - in
a competent and routine manner.
These kids seemed to know exactly
what they were doing.
Josephine, a girl of about eight
whom I assisted during the session,
seemed bright and happy, steadily
giggling throughout most of the
session with occasional bursts of
laughter as if someone had just
cracked the best joke imaginable.
It’s commonly known that autism
is a spectrum, but it was striking
how even at the severe end of the
scale the condition could produce
such different behaviour from
the frightened screaming I’d halfexpected before meeting these
children.
The Instructor of the Brookleigh
RDA group, Elaine Wood, spoke
to me about the huge influence
that the riding lessons can have on
the children. Wood told me of one
autistic boy, Kevin, who improved
so much over his lessons that he
was eventually able to go on a riding
holiday with his parents. “He just
gained so much. He learned about
grooming the horses, about taking
care of them, and he had a lot of
fun. He interacted with the other
children that were there, they had
barbeques and they sang around the
campfire! It was amazing.”
While Kevin’s story is something
all the RDA volunteers at
Brookleigh are proud of, it’s rare
to see such a dramatic change
in behaviour and there are often
other problems standing in the
way. Wood emphasised that the
“biggest challenge is remembering
the children struggle to process
information. We use a lot of words
[and] it can be very confusing for
them. An awful lot of them don’t
want to hold the reins, so issues
like safety and balance are very
important. Getting something back
from the children is quite difficult –
we don’t get much back from them.”
After the kids
have been riding
they’re far more
receptive and
generally calmer
Horse riding is thought to benefit
autistic children in a number of
neurological and psychological
ways, including increasing spatial
awareness and balance skills.
Although the causes of autism
are not well understood, studies
on identical twins where one or
both children develop autism have
suggested that environmental
factors play a substantial role in the
condition. It is not known whether
physical and social activities like
horse riding help by directly
intervening with the environmental
causes or whether they simply help
to alleviate the difficult behavioural
symptoms of the condition.
Either way, the benefits are
immediately evident in many
children with autism. Those who
show little engagement with the
outside world are often at their most
aware and attentive during riding
lessons, and the effects last well
beyond the end of the session. “The
teachers say after the kids have been
riding they are far more receptive
for the rest of the day and they just
seem generally calmer,” says Wood.
It’s all too easy to project the
emotions we expect to find in
children without autism onto those
with autism, but it’s important to
keep in mind that these children
may well think in a very different
way and enjoy very different
activities. But if basic behaviour like
laughter, eye contact, and efforts to
talk to other people around them is
anything to go by, the kids at RDA
certainly seemed to be having fun.
The names of children in this article
have been changed.
The
CambridgeStudent
features
!
E
K
A
F
Florence Smith Nicholls explores the ‘unoriginal’ history of art forgery
The Getty kouros...
light it is today; it was a tribute to the
original master and an aspect of artistic
education. Even one of the period’s most
renowned personalities, Michelangelo,
is attested to have been involved in the
forgery of an antiquity.
The famous case of the ‘Dio d’amore
dormente’, or ‘sleeping cupid’, involves
the aforementioned talent carving a
life-size cherubic figure which was
deemed to be sufficiently aesthetically
antique to pass as an ancient work.
Apparently, the cupid was later
taken and sold as exactly that,
though unsurprisingly it has yet to be
conclusively identified today. It’s now
a desirable item precisely because of its
Art forgery is a
crime - but one that
involves rare skill
less than angelic history.
If it’s one thing to copy, it’s another
thing to create an ‘original fake.’ The
Minoan civilisation of Bronze Age
Crete produced a plethora of striking
artworks, but perhaps none of these
have had so lively a history as the
snake goddess figurines discovered
to be modern creations. Kenneth
Lapatin, author of Mysteries of the
Snake Goddess, believes these works
to possibly be the result of the Swiss
restorers Émile Gilliéron “père and
fils” creating pieces deliberately to
satisfy the theories of their employer,
the leading Minoan archaeologist of
the 19th century, Sir Arthur Evans.
So extensive was the subterfuge that
their possible handiwork was even
acquisitioned by the Ashmolean, and
our very own Fitzwilliam Museum.
A more recent incident of deliberate
forgery has become something of a
legend, with the counterfeiter at the
heart of the tale becoming an unlikely
hero. Hans van Meegeren, an obscure
Dutch painter, sold a previously
undiscovered Johannes Vermeer
painting to Hermann Göring. After
the end of the Second World War, van
Meegeren was tracked down by the
‘Allied Art Commission’. Meegeren’s
initial charge, of which he was
innocent, was far worse than that of
which he was eventually found guilty.
Treason meant possible execution;
being guilty of ‘obtaining money by
deception’ incurred a single year of
imprisonment.
The truth: van Meegeren had forged
a total of six additional ‘Vermeers,’
worth $60 million. The irony is that
no one believed his works were fakes,
so to save his own life he spent six
weeks painting an original Vermeer
under the surveillance of journalists
and court-appointed witnesses.
In plain sight, the camouflage of
accurately mixed pigments fell
away. Of course, you’ve heard
this story before, under the
guise of fiction. The Sherlock
version is a mildly similar
imitation.
In May 1992, a conference was
held in Athens to determine the
authenticity of the Getty kouros.
Originally bought by the J. Paul
Getty Museum, California, in
1983, the supposed 6th century
BC origin of the statue had yet to
be proven or disproven. It has no
known providence, and the fact
that it’s the only piece of its kind
from the island of Thasos to be
made from marble raises doubts.
A fake torso with similarities to
the kouros has been recovered;
however, scientific analysis of
the marble proves it originates
from the right place. Plus,
the stone has succumbed
to a process known as ‘dedolomitisation’, which
could only naturally occur
over centuries; it certainly
constitutes an enigma. Even
scientific and technological
advancements cannot guard
against the canny forger.
On 27 October 2011, a
group of four German art
forgers were sentenced
to fifteen years in prison.
Skillfully copying works by
Max Ernst and André Derain,
among others, earned them
€16 million but eventually
cost them their freedom. The
ringleader, a certain Wolfgang
Beltracchi, described to the
court his pleasure in deceiving
the art world. The forgery of
artwork is a crime, but one
admittedly involving rare
skill. As has been the case since
Michelangelo experimented
with a cupid, there wouldn’t
be a supply without demand.
If anything, the history of art
forgery can teach us this: nothing
is black and white, but shades of
grey. After all, isn’t imitation the
sincerest form of flattery?
Rbw48
“D
isguise is the
art of hiding
in plain sight.”
So says the
cerebral sleuth
Holmes in the BBC adaptation of
Sherlock. Quoting a fictional detective
for this piece is more apt than you
might think, not least because
during the scene in question,
Holmes is dressed as a gallery
attendant whilst talking to a
woman who has commissioned
a fake Vermeer painting. Art
forgery involves the creation of
a fictitious history to mislead.
Indeed, in Sándor Radnóti’s The
Fake: forgery and its place in art,
this type of forgery is defined as
“an object falsely purporting to
have the history of production
requisite for the (or an) origin of
the work.” There are broadly three
varieties of forger: the creator, the
person who passes a piece off as
something it isn’t, and the type
who is aware of a work’s lack of
authenticity, but fails to make
this known. Artistic imitation has
existed since the Classical period,
but has not since occurred
consistently for the same reasons
or to the same result. Never
mind hiding in plain sight:
some works have yet to reveal
their true nature even under
the close scrutiny of experts.
What follows are some notable
cases of creative debauchery –
spot the difference!
The Romans were really
quite Greek when it came
to art. They created bronze
and marble copies of famous
Greek sculptures, an industry
that was in high demand by
the 2nd century AD. Whilst
this practice wasn’t intended
to deceive, it does reveal that
the phenomenon of specific
artworks as cultural icons,
and their lucrative potential, is
hardly recent. The Renaissance
witnessed the true birth of art as
a cultural commodity on a scale
with which we would be familiar
today, as a prosperous mercantile
class constituted the demand for
artwork. As a result, the artist’s
signature became a crucial mark
of authenticity, and thus inherent
value. However, the copying of
another artist’s works was not
conceptualised in the negative
...real or fake?
Features |17
The
interview
CambridgeStudent
Arne Westad talks to Iravati Guha about the Cold War, the
rise of China and what it means to be a historian
isn’t particularly well equipped,
but it is very good that they are so
internationally engaged - although
their attempts to create peace are
often unsuccessful. I wish that
Norway would learn more about the
outside world before telling people
how to behave. This would make
their efforts less unsuccessful.
In The Global Cold War, you talk
about how Asia and Africa were
the great theatres of the Cold War.
Do you think that similar battles
exist today between India and
China, and are being played out in
places such as Africa and Burma?
Yes. It depends on the region. India
and China are rising powers within
their own regions. It may be a while
before we see another global cold
war, but in local areas such as Burma
you see a strong attempt to exert
influence. India and China have
their backs turned upon each other;
they’ve had no direct interaction in
the last 200 odd years. Theirs is a
crucial relationship for the future as
they are both very important powers.
It’s a problem at the moment that
they have a difficult relationship, in
part because of the border issues but
also because they’re very different in
terms of politics and composition
of society. The uncertainty in their
relationship could lead to conflict.
LSE Ideas
Arne Westad is a Bancroft Prize-winning Norwegian historian,
who specialises in Cold War contemporary East Asian history.
Most famous for his 2005 book The Global Cold War: Third
World Interventions and the Making of Our Times, which has
been translated into fourteen languages, Professor Westad’s
most recent book is a history of China’s foreign affairs since
1750. He is currently Professor of International History at the
London School of Economics and Political Science, and codirects LSE IDEAS, the university’s centre for international
affairs, diplomacy and strategy.
Having taught at institutions all over the world, Professor
Westad himself studied history, philosophy and modern
languages at the University of Oslo before receiving a PhD in
history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
You come from Norway, a country
that, despite having a population
of less than 5 million, has shown
a strong interest in international
cooperation, and has mediated
peace in Sri Lanka and Israel.
What is it about Norwegians that
makes them such influential peace
makers?
18|Interview
I’m not so sure it’s anything in
particular about the Norwegians.
Norway is a young country; it was
set up in 1905. It’s been influential
because it’s been trying to find
a role internationally. The idea
of mediating conflict goes back
to the origins of the Norwegian
state, which broke away peacefully
from an enforced union. Norway
“In academic studies,
some were studying decolonisation while and others
Cold War politics, but very
few combined these studies... The Global Cold War
has been influential as it
looks at these two things
together.”
Why do you think the subject
of The Global Cold War was
previously neglected?
This happened because of the
centring on Europe and the
preoccupation with the Soviet
Union and the USA. Very few
people looked at the process of
decolonisation in a Cold War
context. In academic studies, some
were studying decolonisation, and
others Cold War politics, but very
few combined these studies. I think
that The Global Cold War has been
influential as it looks at these two
things together.
Do you think the book has changed
how scholars see the Cold War?
I’m not so sure about that, but
younger people have found the
book to be interesting. It was a new
angle for explaining contemporary
international history. Some criticised
it for over-emphasising the world
outside Europe. My defence is that
I set out to emphasise an argument
about the postcolonial role.
Sometimes you need to emphasise
hard in order to make a point.
Moving on to your next book how did you first get interested in
China?
I was there as an exchange student
when I was your age. I spent a year
in Beijing studying the language. It
was 1979, which was a very exciting
time [as Mao had just died and Deng
Xiaoping had come to power], but
there were still remnants of the old
system. I remember having to wake
up every morning and shout Maoist
slogans in Peking University. Today,
the exact spot where I used to shout
slogans has become the tennis
courts of the university - this says a
lot about change!
There has been much discussion
about the implications of the rise
of China for the Western world.
But what are some of the challenges
for Chinese society and politics?
China has two main challenges
domestically. The first is the
growing inequality within society
which has become much worse.
There are some very underdeveloped
regions, and very poor people are
coming to the cities. China is the
best exemplar I know of where
economic growth is happening but
some people are falling behind.
The second problem involves
governance, and the inability that
ordinary people have to influence
their own lives through politics.
In order to function better, China
must become much more pluralistic
than it is today. By contrast, India
has many problems but does not
have this problem of a lack of
political freedom. If the Chinese
government does not tackle these
two problems, they could ruin the
spectacular economic growth of the
last generation.
“Unlike academics,
policymakers don’t have
just one issue to deal with
but many... academics
don’t always consider this
- they wonder why policymakers aren’t listening to
their points of view”
You’re familiar with the academic
systems of both the West and of
China. Can you tell us about some
of the differences between them?
China has been very influenced by
the West in terms of academics.
However, its origins lie in when
China was part of the same system
as the Soviet Union. It is very
hierarchical and not as open in
terms of discussion and academic
freedom as it used to be, and that
is holding China back. There are
academics trying to change this and
we are seeing quite a bit of progress.
“Sometimes you need to
emphasise hard in order to
make a point.”
Can you tell us about your own
writing process? Do you do all
the research first, or do you
begin writing in the middle of
researching?
It’s hard. What I do is to start by
reading a lot, sometimes in archives
and sometimes what others have
written. Then I start writing and
feeling my way - and then I discover
how little I know. At this point I go
back to reading. There is a symbiotic
relationship between reading and
writing. It is important to realise
how little you know. In my case,
archives are extremely important and they have only recently started
to open up. One of the problems
in Britain and the USA, and even
in Scandinavia, is that it is possible
to be an expert on a field without
having a sound grounding in its
culture and language. I believe
that China should be studied from
within.
What are the benefits and
dangers of academics such as
yourself advising governments
and becoming involved with
policymaking?
I’m incredibly lucky in what I’m
doing. I come from a non-academic
background; neither of my parents
went past primary school. It’s
still hard to convince them that
what I do earns money. Working
with governments is a secondary
benefit that is always enjoyable.
It is a way of attempting to give
back. The dangers of working with
governments depend on how you
contribute. If you tell them what
you think is important rather than
what you think they want to hear,
you should be alright. You should
have a very critical approach, but
should also appreciate how difficult
it is for those in government. Unlike
academics, policymakers don’t
have just one issue to deal with
but many. Academics don’t always
consider this - they wonder why
policymakers aren’t listening to
their points of view - but they don’t
see that policymakers have to make
a hundred decisions about things in
completely different fields.
The
music
reviews
Want to get involved in Music?
Email [email protected]
viSiT WWW.TCS.CAM.AC.uk FoR MoRE REviEWS & inTERviEWS, inCludinG:
allo darlin’
BLUNDERBUSS
First things first: Sixteen
Saltines is rubbish. It’s
Blue Orchid without
the blues. It’s Seven
Nation Army without
a riff. It’s an incredibly
awkward attempt at The
Obligatory Hit Single,
and less rewarding with
every listen. Luckily, it
gets better. The album (in
case you’re wondering)
is not a return to the
blistering delta blues
of the early White Stripes. It’s more Raconteurs; calmer,
smoother, and the more restrained moments (like the title
track and ‘other single’ Love Interruption) are some of the
best. Love Interruption is perhaps the anti-Saltines; quiet,
unassuming, guaranteed to grow on you. Despite his new
colourscheme, White appears to be drifing away from the
blues, and towards early rock’n’roll and R&B; listen to those
lovely the doo-wop backing vocals of I’m Shakin’ (a Little
Willie John cover, and a standout track). There’s not much
to surprise fans on Blunderbuss, but plenty to please. Like
the production: recorded in analog, the editing process
involved Jack cutting-and-sticking analog tape himself,
with a razor blade. It’s a bit eccentric, a bit anachronistic,
but shows an endearing dedication to craftsmanship. A bit
like Jack White. by Tristram Fane Saunders
download: Freedom at 21
the cambridge
jukebox
what are you listening to?
1. The Shins - ‘Girl On A Wing’
Phil Child:
“Melancholy yet compelling guitar
pop”
2. Girl Talk - ‘All Day’
Ben Mortimer:
“Radiohead vs Ol’ Dirty Bastard”
3. Steely Dan - ‘Cousin Dupree’
Arjun Sajip:
“A hilarious song about...incest”
4. Torche - ‘Kicking’
Cosmo Godfree:
“Unbeatable pop-metal, giddy with
E-numbers”
5. The Isis - ‘Take Your Time’
Thea Hawlin: “
A very good revision song”
6. Stornoway - ‘Zorbing’
Emily Handley:
“Such a chilled, summery song”
7. William Fitzsimmons - ‘I Don’t
Feel It Anymore’
Abbi Mitchell:
“Getting over that summer romance”
8. Peace - ‘Bblood’
Siana Bangura:
“Foals + Vampire Weekend +
Mystery Jets”
9. Bon Iver - ‘Wash’
Ruth Wood:
“Bit of Bon Iver, so chilled”
10. The Pains of Being Pure at
Heart - ’Even in Dreams’
James Frecknall:
“THAT SYNTH...TAKES ME
SKYWARD!”
20| Music
SPiRiTuAliSEd (“best album of 2012”), THE MARS volTA, liz GREEn, TiGERCATS, & MORE
jaCk white
★★★★☆
CambridgeStudent
EUROPE
★★★★☆
download:
My Sweet Friend
Many of the elements that characterised
2010’s self-titled debut recur in Allo
Darlin’s sophomore offering : ukuleles,
immediate hooks and wistful vocals.
However, their indie pop is nowhere
near as carefree on Europe; there’s
yearning and loneliness, but tempered
with optimism too. The songs are
packed with different characters, often
feeling like the tracks themselves ARE
characters. From the fragile beauty of
Some People Say, packed with cultural
references, to the driving rhythms of
Still Young, this is a beguiling, multilayered record, full of personality and
depth. Utterly lovely. Zoe holder
the FutureheadS
RANT
★★☆☆☆
download:
acapella
It makes sense that the Futureheads
should turn their harmonising
talents to an entirely acapella album
- remember their wonderful take on
Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love? In a bland,
forgettable indie landscape, this novel
direction is a brave move. Revamped
versions of old Futureheads songs will
please fans, but are hardly a patch on
the originals. The real keeper here is
the cover of Kelis’ Acapella (duh) which
kickstarted this project. Elsewhere
though, there are plenty of folky duds.
On its own fairly modest terms, Rant is
a success, but nowhere near enough of
one to warrant further listens. Cosmo
Godfree
GrahaM Coxon
A+E
★★★★☆
download:
City hall
With the Blur reunion once again a
temporary affair, we need Coxon now
more than ever. Good news: A+E is
his best album since Happiness In
Magazines. Advice starts things off
with a messy punk-rock ditty before
we move onto the dark motorik beat
of City Hall, and the synth-pop that
dominates a bunch of the later songs.
Coxon plays most of the instruments,
and his attention to sound and texture
is superb. Lyrical substance is standard
Coxon fare, i.e. don’t expect much and
you’ll be happy enough. No standout
singles, but otherwise a top album.
Cosmo Godfree
breton
Aiming
for
halfway
between
Burial and Bloc Party (musically &
alphabetically), Breton have stumbled
into originality along the way. An
uneven album, but at its best showing
flashes of genius. Lead single Edward
the Confessor is one such flash; a
strangely danceable cacophony of
OTHER PEOPLE’S electronic beats, violins and overwrought fuzzed-up vocals. Closer The
PROBLEMS
Commission is another, with its waves
of melancholy synth. Sadly, there’s
★★★☆☆
a five-track-long lull in between,
download:
which the wonderfully atmospheric
edward The
background noises can’t quite save.
Confessor
Don’t buy this album: Spotify it, then
by tristram Fane Saunders buy the good bits.
interview: Wretch 32
The chart-topping rapper didn’t speak to Tristram Fane Saunders
Tottenham-born MC and rapper Wretch 32
has an impressive CV. He has had four MOBO
nominations. Last year, he had three consecutive
Top 5 singles (Traktor, Unorthodox & don’t Go).
Today, he has lost his voice. TCS were worried
about his health, so we used the internet to send
Wretch some digital get-well wishes.
move. Also, I like The Script, they’re cool. And
because of growing up having my dad’s music
around me, I’ve got to mention Damien Marley.
There are loads.
WRETCH: If I couldn’t
rap any more, I’d
become a mime in
Trafalgar Square
I’m sorry that you’re not feeling well. A lot of
people might assume it’s a product of leading
a really wild lifestyle. Here’s your chance to
prove them wrong (or right). What were you
doing last night, Wretch?
I’m not going to lie - I was out partying, but
it was responsible partying, and it wasn’t the
cause of me losing my voice. That’s because of
the overnight apartment I stayed in at Glasgow.
I made the mistake of leaving the aircon on all
night...
But let’s imagine you lost your voice
permanently. What would you do instead, if
performing was no longer an option?
That would be so devastating to me, I can’t
imagine... Probably become a ghost writer for
some artist, or if that doesn’t work out, a mime
in Trafalgar square.
It’s a good back-up plan. How did you end up
working with Ed Sheeran?
I’ve known Ed for the longest time. Coming from
the same grime scene we’ve worked together
before. We’ve seen each other’s progression
within the music scene, so it’s given us a mutual
respect. Regarding ‘hush little baby’ [Wretch’s
new single, on which Sheeran appears] I reached
out to Ed asking him to jump on the hook as
I’d already laid down my verse, and thought Ed
would be perfect on the hook.
Thanks to the Adidas/Olympics advert, you’ve
become a kind of unofficial figurehead for the
Olympics. But are you athletic? Do you exercise?
I don’t think I need to exercise - all my exercise
is done on the stage.
Of course. But no sport at all?
I do play football when I get an opportunity,
but unfortunately not as often as I would like.
Tell me what your album ‘Black and White’
sounds like.
I would say it’s like going to see a film at the
cinema, and having all the great sound effects
and visuals, whilst trying to piece the movie
together.
That makes sense – you’ve said in the past that
you wanted it to sound “superpolished and
classy.” But who else has a good classy sound?
I think Jay Z is classy. It shows in his music
and videos. Who but Jay will do stunts in a
Maybach with a woman driver? That’s a classy
I like ‘Unorthodox’; the Stone Roses sample
works brilliantly. Was it your choice? How did
the track come together?
That was more down to [producer] Future Cut
but when I heard the beat, all I could hear
was an Example chorus [singer and rapper
Example featured on the track]. It had that sort
of stadium/festival sound, and that’s what I
wanted to create. My brother Example delivered
a sick hook.
Wretch 32 will be performing
The Junction on Friday 11th May
at
The
CambridgeStudent
Are we bored of festivals?
David Martyn Hunt
Phil Child asks why so many UK festivals are being cancelled
In the light of the recent
announcement that major UK
metal festival Sonisphere has been
cancelled, speculation has been
rife as to whether the cancellation
lays bare the dire state of the global
economy in 2012, given that the
same fate has been met by Oxegen,
the Big Chill and several other
festivals worldwide.
But is it simply the case that
punters are too skint to afford
their annual dose of mud, cider
and thumping bass, or could it
be that we’re bored of the festival
experience entirely? The Guardian
has suggested that the low takeup might be less symptomatic of
frugal living than of a saturated
market, but although the market
is certainly crowded (there are
more than 700 UK events listed
on efestivals), it’s difficult to shake
the feeling that the seemingly everrising cost of festivals might be the
more important factor.
The last decade has seen a sharp
increase in the number of painfully
middle-class ‘boutique’ events
across the UK, characterised by
high ticket prices, luxury camping
(it’s £1200 for a yurt at Golden
Down festival in Winchester) and
overpriced food (mutton burger for
£6 anyone?). The satirical website
The Daily Mash parodied this trend
recently with the headline “New
festival aimed directly at twats”.
Though yurts and mutton burgers
are an easy target, creeping costs
at rather less bourgeois offerings
might mean that festivals have
been foregone as part of tighter
budgets for luxuries.
But then again, the resilience
of festivals such as Bestival and
Green Man, as well as larger events
such as Reading & Leeds and V,
does suggest (to poorly paraphrase
Morrissey), that “some festivals
are shitter than others”. Fans are
clearly loyal to consistently good
events, perhaps in favour of a
holiday abroad. Whilst the £170
cost of a premier event like Bestival
is disgustingly high, I’m confident
it offers a far more enjoyable
weekend for the discerning
music fan than getting trashed
in Lanzarote would do. Are we
actually ‘bored’ of festivals? No though it might be worth skipping
the mutton burgers.
SPECIAL
LATE NIGHT
DELIVERY
SERVICE
GET A PIZZA DELIVERED
THROUGH THE NIGHT
TILL 5AM
27 Hills Road,
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To order call: (01223)
355155
Opening Hours: 11am - 5am, 7 days a week.
gig:
music
GRAHAM COXON
@THE JUNCTION,
TUESDAY 24TH
After the reunion in 2009, it’s
very easy for one to get sidetracked by Blur, and forget
about Graham Coxon’s solo
career. Since 1998, he’s released eight albums, arguably peaking with 2002’s The
Kiss of Morning, but tonight
he was focused more on the
rockier, more positive sound
of Happiness in Magazines
and later work.
Having embarked on the
comparatively epic trek to
the Junction a bit late, we
missed most of the support
act, the admittedly energetic
Ten City Nation. From the few
songs we heard, while buying
overpriced lagers at the bar,
the Bury St Edmonds band
played some reasonably
compelling, fuzzy alt-rock,
but their music wasn’t quite
scintillating enough to tear us
away from weeping into our
£4 Beck’s. At the end of their
set, however, the frontman
threw his guitar on the floor
and jumped around a bit,
which was quite exciting.
For the first half hour or so,
we weren’t entirely sure that
Coxon and his band were entirely into the gig; there wasn’t
much audience interaction.
After a while, though, both
band and crowd warmed to
the evening. Standing On My
Own Again was well received,
and of course there were plenty of energetic tracks from the
new release, A&E. City Hall,
with its slightly grungey sound,
was received particularly
well, and, perhaps inevitably
What’ll It Take got people to
dance (answered your own
question there, Graham!)
Ultimately, the varied, yet
largely upbeat set, from Coxon, makes us more positive
about the future of members of Blur than Alex James’s
cheesemaking. By the time
Freakin’ Out was played, towards the end, everyone was
dancing around, and everyone was swayed. Blur as an
entity may be over, but Coxon’s prolific solo output shows
that there’s nothing at all to
fear about the post-Olympic
reunion future.
by Laura Marshall
& Zoe Holder
The
film
CambridgeStudent
Want to get involved in Film & TV?
Clear-conscience Cinema
Last Sunday, the first half of Ewan
McGregor: Cold Chain Mission aired
on BBC Two. Following the actor as
he carries out humanitarian work
for Unicef, this film highlights how
countless families in impoverished,
isolated areas of the world cannot
have their children vaccinated
against serious illnesses.
Nowadays, it’s fairly common
practice for celebrities, and especially
film actors, to raise awareness of
social issues in this way. You could
say it’s a shame our attention is often
drawn to war zones or poorer regions
only once we have seen photos of
celebrities there. Indeed, it’s doubtful
the same number of people would
tune in to that documentary if Ewan
McGregor’s name didn’t feature in
the title. Nevertheless, as Unicef
states on its website: “Celebrities
attract attention, so they are in a
position to focus the world’s eyes...”
So, when individual players from
the acting world have this great an
influence, it comes as no surprise
that the film industry is capable
of packing an even bigger punch.
Whilst buying a cinema ticket can’t
achieve outright change or alter the
past, films such as Hotel Rwanda,
The Last King of Scotland and
Schindler’s List are all acclaimed
works that effectively raise awareness
and keep the memory of important
events alive.
Despite tales of diva
antics and gross
expenditure, the
film industry does
have some form of
conscience
A film which received an
astonishing amount of attention
for its message was Edward Zwick’s
Blood Diamond. Set during Sierra
Leone’s civil war, this movie explores
the conflict financed by the illegal
mining of precious stones. Warner
Bros. spent almost no money on
advertising Blood Diamond, due
to the unexpected amount of free
publicity it received. The furore
surrounding Zwick’s film was
such that De Beers chief Jonathan
Oppenheimer expressed concern
that diamond sales would dip,
should people believe that steps
had not been taken to ensure the
eradication of blood diamonds
from the market. Here, the film
industry’s decision to veer from the
usual stream of lukewarm, apolitical
rubbish certainly paid off.
However, movies don’t always
get it right. When it comes to
combining social and humanitarian
issues with storytelling, there’s a
fine line between triteness and
poignancy. Tugging on heart-strings
and hamming-up the script keeps a
film mainstream; it brings in the big
bucks. As a result, what is sometimes
intended to be a commerciallysuccessful way of delivering a
‘history lesson’ can turn out to be
something quite different. The 2011
movie The Help was supposed to
pay homage to those women who
had suffered terribly in the racist
South of 1960s-America. Director
Tate Taylor smugly expressed a
desire to “incite conversation”. It was
a commercial success, but incited
the kind of conversation he probably
hadn’t expected. Many Americans
were outraged, claiming the film
was not an honest reflection of the
racial prejudice which characterised
the era. Similarly, Paul Haggis’ film
Crash, – perhaps one of the biggest
Edward Zwick’s Blood Diamond
cases of ‘Emperor’s-New-Clothes’
in film history, won the Academy
Award for Best Motion Picture in
2007 - pat on the back for those
who had tried to explore racism at a
‘deeper level’. Crash was a superficial
offering that fooled the Academy,
but not so much the critics. To
quote Stephanie Zacharek: “[it] only
confirms what we already know
about racism: It’s inside every one of
us. That should be a starting point,
not a startling revelation.”
A film which seeks to raise social
awareness or ‘make the world a
better place’ is hardly a novelty.
Some film-makers will always have
more arrogance than sense, setting
out to impose views on others with
the belief that inducing tears can
induce change. However, for every
trite Crash, there is always a Babel.
For every film like The Help, there
is a far more beautiful, subtler
alternative, such as Rabbit-Proof
Fence. Despite tales of diva antics and
gross expenditure, the film industry
does have some form of conscience.
Nevertheless, just as celebrities
don’t have to dress up to the nines
to publicise their humanitarian
work,
film-makers
shouldn’t
underestimate the importance of
casting historical schmaltz aside,
and letting the facts speak for
themselves.
reviews
Lasse Hallström
12A
112 mins
Lasse Hallström, director of Salmon
Fishing in the Yemen, is a known
purveyor of schmaltz, from Chocolat
(2000)
to the dire Dear John (2009).
★★★☆☆
The sickly-sweet moments in his most
recent rom-com were to be expected, but his collaboration
with screenwriter Simon Beaufoy, better known for Slumdog
Millionaire and 127 Hours, brings a refreshing tartness to the
palate. The quips and one-liners that litter this film certainly
echo that strain of British wit.
Based on Paul Torday’s novel, we follow Fred (Ewan
McGregor), a fisheries expert and fishing anorak, and Harriet
(Emily Blunt), an asset manager who involves him in a
ridiculously far-fetched project to irrigate the Yemeni desert
and introduce salmon fishing as a sport. Despite clear obstacles
- “water,” McGregor intones in his smooth Scottish accent a series of unfortunately believable disasters in Afghanistan
leave Kristin Scott-Thomas’ Downing Street press secretary
(the stand-out star of the piece) determined that Anglo-Arab
relations gain a PR makeover.
It’s humour that saves this film. Scott-Thomas’ satirical
streak had me laughing out loud in places, whereas the
attempts at heavier material felt underexplored. There’s not
enough uncertainty and grief when Blunt’s soldier boyfriend
is missing in action, though the film does offer an impressively
prickly, unpleasant depiction of McGregor’s unremarkable
marriage gone stale. A fun soundtrack and kinetic, ultramodern editing style keep it pacy, but fail to hide how skindeep the film really is.
This incredibly charming and undemanding film is unlikely
to stand the test of time, but as a break from revision it’s easygoing and enjoyable. Davina Moss
22| Film
Avengers Assemble
Joss Whedon
12A
142 mins
Getty Images
Getty Images
Is TV better than film?
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
Film adaptations of Marvel Comics
have had their hits and misses over
the years. But by looking to emulate
comic book crossovers, Avengers
★★★★☆
Assemble had a lot riding on it.
Bringing together four major franchises (Iron Man, Captain
America, Thor and The Incredible Hulk) and supporting
characters, the film sees S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Nick Fury (Samuel L.
Jackson) assemble the title gang in order to save Earth from
an invasion of unprecedented proportion orchestrated by
Loki, the villainous brother of demigod Thor. If that sounds
confusing, then don’t worry – despite preaching to the choir,
and being unashamed of the comic book roots, the enjoyment
of watching the film makes it work even for the sceptic.
Fortunately, Joss Whedon has applied a lightness and wit,
and prevents the film from collapsing under the superhero
heft, with no one hero dominating. However, it still strains
a little, with the squeeze falling on the development of
previously peripheral characters such as Scarlett Johansson’s
Black Widow. The dialogue sparkles with off-beat humour,
helpfully cloaking some of the script’s cheesier moments.
Despite arguably not having the thematic depth of Chris
Nolan’s comic book output, this is a different beast that
achieves highly as a cinema-going experience whilst not
taking itself too seriously.
It is also to Whedon’s credit that, in an ensemble piece, he
has created easily the best film about Hulk yet committed to
the big screen. Mark Ruffalo’s turn as the witty but constantly
on edge Banner is the film’s most surprising delight. Good
action, great wit and the style of Whedon mean the Avengers
have assembled the best Marvel Comics adaptation by some
margin. Jim Ross
Warner Bros.
Lizzy Donnelly wonders whether films intended to raise social awareness do more harm than good
Film has spent decades as television’s far superior counterpart. In the past, television studios’ tiny budgets simply
haven’t been able to keep up. However, in the last eight or
nine years, things have radically, and deservedly, changed.
People have been raising questions about film’s dominance
over television for quite a while now, and this year so far
has certainly raised the stakes.
Television in 2012 has been fantastic, a superb pick ‘n’
mix of fantasy, history and drama. Little gems from Scandinavia – Borgen and The Bridge - have successfully made
their way onto British television sets, whilst Mad Men and
Game of Thrones have returned to great acclaim. CGI is
no longer the preserve of wealthy film studios, and many
screenwriters now prefer to flex their narrative muscles
over ten hours’ worth of footage, rather than two plot-restricting rounds of the clock. We have entered an era where
studios shell out tens of millions for the filming of TV epics
(The Borgias; The Tudors) and key Hollywood figures set
out to produce polished TV dramas, such as Martin Scorsese with Boardwalk Empire.
Of course, people aren’t trying to set up some kind of
comparison between Eastenders and Indiana Jones, here.
But there’s no denying that when it comes to good storytelling and high-end cinematography, film now has serious
competition. As James Wolcott wrote in Vanity Fair: “Does
anyone think The Artist is better than Mad Men?”
Admittedly, a multi-episode series can’t always carry off
a narrative with as much panache as a feature-length film;
elegance can always be achieved through brevity. One need
only compare James Cameron’s seemingly untouchable Titanic with ITV’s atrocious three-part series of the same title
- those critics who, in 1997, had expected Cameron’s film to
flop, finally got to use all their ship-sinking metaphors after
all. In this instance, film definitely came out on top.
Still, as Mad Men protagonist Don Draper continues
to fascinate far more than James Bond, and viewing figures become as scrutinised as box office takings, the film
industry should watch out. TV is no longer its puny little
sidekick – it’s a rival, and more than enough talented writers and actors are happy to migrate from the big screen to
make a name for themselves in television instead.
The
CambridgeStudent
Swords just got sexier
television
TV watch
BBC iPlayer:
Florence Smith Nicholls considers how Game of Thrones has made fantasy fashionable
it as part of television history)
which is better demonstrated than
described, resembling a clockwork
map coming to life.
The real merits of GOT are twofold: brilliant casting and canny
writing. Sean Bean plays Lord
Eddard Stark in the first series. He’s
joined by a multitude of talented
British and Irish actors, including
Lena Headey as the poisonous
Cersei, and Aidan Gillen of The
Wire. “A very small man can cast
a very large shadow”- truer words
could not be said of the brother of
the Queen, Tyrion Lanister, played
by Peter Dinklage. Tyrion may be
similar to a hobbit in stature, but the
similarities end there. He’s a wineswilling, silver-tongued survivor
who steals every scene he’s in, as
Emmy and Golden Globe awards
attest to. Plus, he’s a gift for the
writers with terrific one-liners.
No summary can do this
juggernaut justice. The first series
ended with a game-changing climax.
With a second series currently
airing on Sky Atlantic and a third in
the pipeline, this looks like a trend
which will demand more than just a
shallow interest. In Britain, summer
may be on its way, but in Westeros
“winter is coming.” Be prepared.
Ewan McGregor: Cold Chain
Mission – Documentary following Unicef ambassador McGregor as he travels to remote
locations to provide vital vaccinations for young children
The Bridge – All new Scandinavian murder mystery drama.
Highly recommended!
The King & the Playwright:
A Jacobean History – Three-part
series exploring Shakespeare’s
life and work at the time of King
James I
4oD:
2 Broke Girls – New comedy series about two girls from
completely different backgrounds
who end up working together,
and form an unlikely friendship
Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares
USA – More uncouth hysteria
from Gordon Ramsay’s infernal
show
Sean Bean as Lord Eddard Stark
Where: Cambridge Complementary
Health Centre, 8 Rose Crescent,
Cambridge.
Booking number: 07739 840014 or
email [email protected]
When: Wednesday 2nd May 9.00am
to 5.30pm
Offering: 20 minute sessions for £20
in either Reflexology, Acupuncture or
Naturopathic Nutrition or a free
consultation on how Acupuncture can
help.
Complementary therapies are
recommended by Mind to help reduce
stress and promote relaxation.
Reflexology - a deeply relaxing foot
treatment, its non-invasive and can
achieve great results with a short
session, and you’ll gain a few tips on
how to achieve this blissful state
when anxiety begins to rise. Jo Ella
and Rebecca are both very
experienced and would love to help
you.
Do you feel your stress levels rising?
Finding it difficult to concentrate?
Feeling the need for a reward or study break?
Do you feel you need some help relaxing to
achieve the results you want?
Acupuncture is great at
increasing energy flow, sharpening
your mind and senses, just at the
time you need to be at your optimum.
Come for a free consultation with
Laura to discuss how it can enable
you to achieve the results you
deserve, or book a 20 minute
appointment with Kim.
HBO
Game of Thrones - heard of it? If
you think I might be talking about a
rather regal version of musical chairs,
it’s probably time you left the rock
you’re living under. It’s HBO’s stellar
fantasy television show, adapted
from the cult fantasy series A Song of
Ice and Fire by George R.R.Martin,
and now in its second season.
Following the intricate tale of seven
feuding families all vying for the one
Iron Throne, Game of Thrones is less
Lord of the Rings, more ‘Sopranos
with swords.’ With more smut, gore
and political intrigue than you can
shake a grimy medieval weapon at,
this programme has set an unlikely
precedent: it’s made fantasy cool.
With the original books also
functional as door-stops, it’s highly
impressive how David Benioff
and D.B. Weiss, who executively
produced and wrote the series, were
able to handle the heavy-weight plot.
And the estimated US$ 50-60 million
budget for the first series clearly
played its part. The investment can be
seen in the huge attention to detail:
lavish costumes, sumptuous sets and
a fully formed Dothraki language,
thanks to the proficiency of a hired
expert language creator. That’s not
even mentioning the iconic opening
sequence (a Simpsons parody marks
Silent Witness – New series of
long-running crime drama
Channel 4
Naturopathic Nutrition can help us
give our bodies optimum nutrition to
promote good sleep, good digestion,
clear thinking and relaxation, during
stressful times.
With Glenys’ substantial experience as
a Naturopath specialising in diet and
stress related disorders such as IBS,
anxiety and insomnia, she can help
you to achieve your goals.
Glenys will be offering a student
special of £20 for 20 minutes through
the month of May and will be
available Tuesday mornings 9.00-1.00
or Friday afternoons 2.00pm 6.00pm.
Alpha Stim microcurent therapy
www.themicrocurrentsite.co.uk has
been shown to relieve anxiety,
insomnia, depression - Alpha Stim
treatments available exclusively at
Total Health Clinics.
Cambridge Complementary Health
Centre is a nurturing environment and
is open Monday to Saturday from
9am.
It offers a wide variety of treatments,
so if you feel you need something
more please check out our website to
see how we can help you.
www.totalhealthclinics.com/ourclinics/cambridge-clinic/
The
theatre
A Doll’s House
CambridgeStudent
Want to get involved in Theatre?
★★☆☆☆
Corpus Lateshow, 9.30pm
until Sat 28th April
A Doll’s House
Despite a brave effort and an innovative concept, Laura Peatman was underwhelmed by this improvised attempt at Ibsen
F
orgive me, cast and
crew, if I am merely
being thick. But I’m
afraid I just didn’t
get the point of this
production. Based on the plot,
characters and themes of Ibsen’s
great work, Rosie Robson’s A
Doll’s House did away with that
essential part of the play: the
lines. Instead, a cast of six worked
through the plot by improvising
each scene around the framework
of Ibsen’s script, supposedly using
props from the audience, although
these made little to no impact.
Unfortunately, in losing Ibsen’s
words, nothing was gained. It was
a risky endeavour to replace the
script with the cast’s own words,
and what emerged did not feel
worth the loss of Ibsen’s powerful
prose. Particularly early on,
there were some uncomfortable
pauses, or moments when the
actors spoke across each other.
Small plot errors inevitably crept
in, notably Christine (last night,
Freddie Poulton – the casting is
decided each night by the toss
of a coin) declaring she would
fetch Krogstad’s letter back – a
letter which both the audience
and Nora (Claudia Grigg-Edo)
had seen him put into Torvald’s
briefcase onstage moments before.
James Ellis gave the strongest
performance, adapting the best
to improvisation, yet I could see
little of Ibsen’s Torvald in his
characterisation for the majority
of the play. Rather than treating
Nora like the ‘Doll’ of the play’s
title, this Torvald seemed more
interested in his wife as a sexual
toy, rather than a childish one.
Having said this, this dynamic
Look Back in Anger
J
ohn Osborne’s 1956 play
‘Look Back In Anger’ tells
of the strange, and for
the most part unhappy,
marriage of Jimmy Porter
(Anna Isaac) and his much-belittled wife Alison (Sarah Malcolm).
Jimmy is intelligent, opinionated
and fervently working-class, highly disdainful of upper and middleclass life.
Director Stephen
Bailey claims that
gender can simply
be an attribute like
any other played by
an actor - and to this
end he undoubtedly
succeeded
His wife Alison is young
and beautiful, but stoical in the
face of his tirades against the
world, and we soon find that she
hails from the wealthy English
background Jimmy so despises.
24| Theatre
I applaud the bravery
and creativity of
the idea behind the
production - yet,
overall, it was flawed
For the most part however,
effective emotion was lacking as it
felt as if the actors were thinking
too hard about what to say, rather
than how to say it. Grigg-Edo’s
repeated “Oh my God!” did
not adequately portray Nora’s
distress, and she resorted to highpitched squealing and simpering
to show the childishness of her
character: Torvald’s assertion
that she was ‘more like a crazy
bird than a songbird’ seemed apt.
This shallowness was effective
in the earlier scenes, but made
her hinted-at contemplation of
suicide and her eventual decision
to leave Torvald appear unlikely.
Furthermore, this production
was incongruously funny: with
innuendo emerging in bucketfuls,
the audience became rather
giggly. This is not to say I didn’t
appreciate some humour: even
Grigg-Edo couldn’t help laughing
at Ellis’ declaration of “I thought I
told you to put away my dolls after
I’ve used them for a metaphor!”.
But there should be much more to
this play than comedy.
The modern updates to the
setting and plot were successful:
Torvald’s position as a banker
and his constant use of laptop
and Blackberry showed that this
play could work just as well in
the 21st century as in the 19th.
Given that the most fluid moments
were those at which the cast were
closest to the script, a modernised
version of A Doll’s House would
have proved far more successful
than this attempt at improvised
Ibsen. I applaud the bravery and
creativity of the idea behind the
production – yet, overall, it was
a flawed idea that would never
produce the quality of drama
of which this cast are obviously
capable.
Corpus Mainshow, 7pm
until Sat 28th April
Jenni Reid thoroughly enjoyed an unexpectedly all-female take on the classic ‘Angry Young Man’ drama
The play explores their life together, and the influence of their
Welsh lodger Cliff (Siân Docksey), and Alison’s best friend from
home Helena (Ailis Creavin). All
four principal actors gave confident and mature performances
and, although the play was noticeably rather long, managed to
keep up the energy throughout, at
times creating moments that were
electric with tension.
The most notable directorial
decision of this production is
clearly that of having an all-female
cast in a play that relies heavily on
the dynamic between men and
women. On first appearance one
couldn’t help but wonder if Anna
Isaac was up to the job of playing
a lead character who demands
such a strong and overpowering
presence. However, it did not
take long for any concerns about
gender to become the last thing
on the audience’s minds, in the
performances of both Isaac and
Docksey. Whilst all the actors were
strong, especially vocally, Isaac’s
misogynistic and loquacious
Jimmy verged on stealing the
show. Her whole characterisation
was underplayed with a mix of
passion and sarcasm which was
just right for the part. Director
Look Back in Agner
★★★★☆
proved effective in the climactic
scene in which his anger and
sexual desire nearly drives him to
attack his wife – this provided a
rare moment of palpable tension
and emotion.
Stephen Bailey claims in the
programme that his aim was not
to make any sort of weighty
feminist point in casting women,
but to show that gender can simply
be an attribute like any other
played by an actor – and to this
end he undoubtedly succeeded.
The play was polished for a first
night performance despite some
tiny set malfunctions, although
some of the lighting changes
seemed a little arbitrary. Some
scenes (chiefly those without
Isaac) could find themselves
feeling a little slow at times,
although Malcolm certainly did
well at holding the audience’s
attention during quieter
moments. All in all this was a
highly successful production in
which all of the risks and choices
made by all those involved seem to
have paid off.
The
Thursday, April 26th 2012
CambridgeStudent
Preview: Richard II
theatre
ADC Mainshow, 7.45pm, Tues 1st - Sat 5th May
The team behind this week’s ADC Mainshow talk to TCS about the challenges and joys of putting on this lesser-known Shakespeare.
TCS: George and Charlotte –
what made you choose Richard II
in particular for this project?
George: I went for Richard II
because I personally have a very
strong affinity with the play and
with the text: I saw it recently
and when I left there were lines
which just stuck in my head. Also
I felt it was something I could
personally give something to. As
a director you need to be able
to answer any question an actor
can ask you about what the play
means: a lot of it is about divine
right of kingship, what it is to be
king and what it is to lose your
kingship, and because I study
history I felt I had the knowledge
to contextualise that.
Charlotte: I wanted to join as
assistant director partly because I
saw a production as well, five or
six years ago, and the monologues
in it are seriously exceptional.
The sense of the individual in the
play is really interesting too, and
I think it’s a play that more people
need to know.
TCS: It’s not necessarily the most
well-known of Shakespeare’s works
– for you, how does it stand out in
the canon?
George: It does stand out to
me on two grounds. One is
irrefutable: it’s written entirely
in verse, which none of his other
plays are. I think the language
also has a lyrical quality, a beauty
to it, a rhythm to it, and a subtle
playing with words. And I think
it has tragic elements which other
histories lack. That’s why people
are surprised by it because they
approach it as a history, then it
has this really lovely, enthralling
tragical depth.
Danny: You come to it thinking:
early history, kings, wars etc – it
sounds like one of Shakespeare’s
drier things and it just took me
completely by surprise.
Charlotte: There’s no perfect
heroic figure who saves the day;
there are two imperfect men who
balance each other throughout the
play. Richard’s so unconventional
as a king, as a hero of the play,
and as a character of war and of
history. He’s so unique and so
fascinating.
George: If you were to search
for a character in the canon that
was most like Hamlet, it would
be Richard II. He has the poetical
expression and the wit…
Charlotte: ...and the not quite
fitting into the mould that he’s
supposed to be in. Hamlet’s
supposed to be the king, the
rightful heir, in the same way that
Richard’s meant to be the king.
But neither of them are kingly
characters.
Danny: They’re nerds in a world
of jocks! Hamlet and Richard are
getting their lunch money stolen
while Bolingbroke and Claudius
are taking the throne.
Richard II
George Johnston (Director), Charlotte Quinney (Assistant Director), Alex Gomar (Richard) and Danny Rhodes (Duke of York)
TCS: Do you feel extra pressure
in staging Shakespeare, with the
precedent and expectation that
comes with that?
George: The biggest thing about
Shakespeare is that it is just more
difficult than directing a modern
play, as there are so many things
that weigh against you. You’ve
got to master the verse or you’re
not going to get anywhere, and
you just don’t have that in, say,
Pinter.
Alex: But also with Shakespeare
there’s SO much precedent.
Playing a character like Richard,
you’re so acutely aware that
you’ve got people like Derek
Jacobi, Ian McKellen, Fiona
Shaw, Eddie Redmayne, Mark
Rylance… All these big, huge,
British household, dinner table
names! You get people coming
up to you and saying: ‘this is my
favourite Shakespeare’, which
obviously says so much. I’ve had
people saying, ‘I’m not going
to come to see you because this
thing that you’ve undertaken is so
big…’. And OK, sure – but please
come!
TCS: And how do you deal with
the really famous passages?
George: Well when I saw Rory
Kinnear’s Hamlet I didn’t know it
as a play at all, and I remember
when he said “To be or not to
be, that is the question”. I didn’t
know it was coming, and I just
went ‘Fuck, that is a famous line!
He just said that line!’. And there
must be audience members every
night who do that.
Danny: It’s like in the readthrough when Alex said “For
God’s sake, let us sit upon the
ground. And tell sad stories of the
death of kings”. I was like, that’s
in Blackadder! It’s Shakespeare?!
Charlotte: But when we’ve done
the scenes we’ve gone – ‘Oh, that’s
nice, that’s a line we recognise’.
But we haven’t thought that we
need to focus on it or treat it
differently.
George: I think my role as
director is to make people forget
about all of that. Forget they’re
in a rehearsal room, forget Ian
McKellen, forget they’ve seen a
production of the play before.
And just do it. Then you get a
truth and a naturalism in it.
Charlotte: The style of the
workshops we’ve been doing
is mainly letting the actor do
what the actor needs to do, to
have that freedom. For different
people it means a lot of different
things. So there’ll be a uniform
performance style, but it’s
going to be achieved by fifteen
extraordinary individuals who
are achieving one fluid thing. It’s
really awesome.
Alex: And they’re all so lovely!
TCS: A lot of the talk surrounding
productions
of
Shakespeare
nowadays is on how to make it
‘relevant’. Is that something you
felt the need to consider?
George: That word relevant
is so tenuous – in what way is
it relevant? How do you decide
what’s relevant to you? I think so
many Shakespeares in Cambridge
are really compromised by the fact
that directors think they need a
concept, think they need to make
it relevant, and they forget about
the actual story which is why
people are watching. If people
care what happens to the tragic
protagonist, it doesn’t matter
where they are.
Danny: Yeah, this doesn’t have
to be about the expenses scandal.
Charlotte: Although it could be!
But it’s more about an audience
watching it and enjoying it, that’s
what’s relevant to them.
Alex: It’s fascinating to take the
play at face value in the time that
it was written, in the culture that
it came from. And everyone loves
a period drama – look at Downton
Abbey!
TCS: So, give us in one sentence
a reason why we should all come to
see this play.
Danny: It’s a play that’s written
about humans, and we’re all
human.
The
columns
CambridgeStudent
Farting Around
By Alice Moore
“You know what I don’t think
Cambridge has been good for? Your
sense of humour.”
These were my dad’s words to me
this holiday as I
reflected on my
two and a half
years here and
told him what
I thought it had
given me.
The comment stung. I’d spent the
past week rationalising my term –
spent hiding from my bedder and
surviving on a diet of chocolate
digestives and Haribo Tangfastics
– into a narrative of scholarly
struggle and ascetic endurance. As
ever, one interjection from my dad
demolished that idea.
All this may say more about my
relationship with my father than
anything else, but as I watched
my little deflated balloon of adult
independence drift mournfully to
the ground I had to admit the man
had a point. We take ourselves very
seriously here.
I really don’t blame us. In this
squish or be squished environment
there’s little space for open selfmockery (probably because there’s
so much room for internal selfdoubt). Instead, we get through
the trauma with trite phrases like
“the Cambridge experience” and
still hold reassuring conversations
about our A levels and what a big
deal it was to get in here even in our
third years!
This is a serious place for serious
people and we keep ourselves going
by thinking of ourselves as such.
We don’t do hobbies, we do career
development. I’m not going to kid
myself that as I write this I’m not
imagining what it would be like to
do it for a living or thinking about
how a nice little column in a student
newspaper my add some sparkle to
my otherwise lacklustre CV.
This place’s reputation for
creating stars has robbed countless
student societies of the joy and
uncomplicated enthusiasm with
which they were set up.
Even our comedy is serious. The
ghosts of Footlights past haunt our
smokers and our revues. The faces
of Fry and Laurie, and Mitchell
and Webb bear down on our little
comics armed with hammers, nails,
and a ready-framed portrait to add
to the Cambridge Comedy Hall of
Fame.
As we enter the most serious term
of all, the whole city is heady with
this self-reverence. It’s intoxicating.
I was captivated by it one
lunchtime as I sat eavesdropping
in the UL tearoom (one of my
favourite
pastimes).
Intense
conversations about the politics of
book reservation were interrupted
by one man’s despair at having not
“distinguished” himself (presumably
he’d failed to attach some words like
“Boat Club Captain” to his name).
Amid these earnest interactions,
however, I could not find one
‘important’ dialogue that was
actually about something of import.
Most notably absent, however,
was any note of humour or
acknowledgement of the ridiculous
construction in which we live.
Our particular obsession with
a very niche brand of first-world
problems has blinded us to the
crucial fact that, to quote Kurt
Vonnegut, “we are here on Earth to
fart around, and don’t let anybody
tell you different.”
The furry hoods, the exam papers
with “University of Cambridge”
watermark in the top right-hand
corner, the historic Cambridge
Union: all farting. This whole
institution is just a product of many
years of cumulative farting and if
we can’t find anything funny in that
then there’s something wrong with
us.
Insanitabridgians by Clementine Beauvais
The Final Entry in the Diaries of Sir Alan Crunkwaugh:
March 28th 2028 By Sir Alan Crunkwaugh
There comes a time in every man’s
life (and I dare say woman’s, not to
be presumptuous) when he must
come face to face with the moment
of his own mortality. Even I, Sir Alan
Crunkwaugh, Cabinet Secretary to
no fewer than 11 Prime Ministers
(a record), later King of the Civil
Service, and later still than that the
Administrative Pope, must look
my maker square in the eye. And
so it comes, dear readers, to that
moment. I have terminal bum-poo
disease and there is nothing that
can be done about it.
Sir A. Crunkwaugh, 1944-2028,
around about Tuesday. I hope that
my life brought as much pleasure
to you dear reader as it did both of
my wives, who survive me and 14
children in our marriage. Sometimes
I consider the disestablishment
of the Church of England and the
Establishment of the Church of
26| Columns
Latter Day Saints my most fabulous
achievement. Sneaking that one
past Prime Minister Jedward, and
in the final year of my life too,
certainly ranks up there.
I never thought, however, that I
would be outlived by Her Majesty,
Liz 2. Wonderful woman though
she is, and excellent constitutional
arrangement her preserved head
might be (in preventing her son
Charles from taking the throne
it has single handedly saved
Constitutional Monarchy), it lends
a rather macabre new meaning
to the flurry of pubs called ‘The
Queen’s Head’.
And who would have thought that
Charles could become even more
unpopular? Admittedly, killing
the Duchess of Cornwall in that
tunnel in Paris, Texas with his own
bare hands was a popular move.
But marrying that flowering shrub
that he had taken up with, talking
to it about ‘ghastly’ architecture
cluttering up where the once fine
building The Bluewater Shopping
Centre (burned to the ground if
you remember by the Marks and
Spencer riots of 2014) stood all day,
has antagonised Jon Q Public like
not even his baby-eating scandal of
2023 could.
Yes I have lived through some
interesting times, filed some
interesting documents. But I have
my regrets too. I regret not backing
Cat Weddings when I had the
chance. I mean, I was offended at
the way that the EDL government
equated it with gay marriage, but
dammit I should have stuck to
my comedic rather than ethical
principles. Cat Weddings are
brilliant. Also all those people that
died in the Austerity Famines. That
wasn’t good. And the people that
died in the Overspending Crush
that followed. The Bank of England
warned that too much borrowing
would create problems, but the
18,000 people in Kensington that
died under piles of their own
wealth, gasping for air as it rained
coinage, deserved better.
Most of all though I regret that I
didn’t shag more schoolgirls.
Ah yes, Crunkwaugh, you’ve lived
a good life, as you wretch out your
innards through a bum feeding
tube you can take solace from that.
Many people would not be alive
today were it not for you Crunky.
Of course many would also be alive
today were it not for you. But, well,
all that a man can ask for when he
shuffles off this mortal coil is the
chance to look God, my junior
partner, square in the eye, and say “I
did my best. And I shagged
a lot of schoolgirls.
And I did my best.”
Ah yes, dirty Crunky they’ll call
me. And boy, life eh? Isn’t it just
wonderful.
The
Thu
26
Fri
27
Sat
28
Sun
29
Mon
30
Glen Duncan at St. John’s College (Boys Smith Room)
20.00
Join Glen Duncan, acclaimed author of The Last Werewolf & Talulla Rising, introduced by poet and novelist
Tracy Ryan, for an evening of reading and discussion.
The event is free and open to all.
CambridgeStudent
Swimmers by Quentin Blake at Clare Hall
The Art Committee at Clare Hall is very
proud to present new work by Quentin Blake
who has chosen to show drawings made for
the maternity unit at Angers Hospital France,
titled Swimmers. Open 9am to 6pm daily.
listings
Alfred Wallis talk at Kettle’s Yard 13.10
This lunchtime talk about Alfred Wallis is a
great introduction to the works in the gallery
and to Wallis’ work. Wallis, a primitive poet
discovered by Ben Nicholson in St. Ives,
forms a major contribution to the Kettle’s
Yard collection.
Strawberry Fair Cambridge Band Competition Final at
Junction 19.00 £7
After battling it out in the heats, the best of new Cambridge bands will bring The Junction to boiling point in
the final of the one and only Cambridge Band Competition. The competition is a hugely popular showcase of top
musical talent from the region.
‘Writing in a post-literary age’ at the Faculty of Asian
and Middle Eastern Studies 13.00
Dror Burstein is, among other things, poet, culture critic,
teacher, and most importantly, an exciting and profound
young author whose works deal with the legacy of Hebrew literature. Burstein won several prestigious awards
in Israel.
Sounds of Latin America at the Michaelhouse Centre 15.00
£10
Settle down for an hour of authentic Latin American
music featuring Venezuelan Waltzes by Antonio Lauro,
Choros, Brazil’s Joao Pernambucco and Latinas. The perfect way to spend an hour.
Terra Nova at the ADC 14.30/19.45 £8
Lys Hansen: across the divide at Murray Edwards
The Cosima Piano Quintet, Fitzwilliam Museum 13.15, free
Lys, a former President of the Society of Scottish Artists,
is a colourful, dynamic artist, known for her powerful
figurative and expressionistic style. She is a prolific artist
and has had many exhibitions. Her parentage is partDanish. The exhibition opens today.
With Evelina Puzaite (piano), Katerina Mitchell (violin I),
Algirdas Galdikas (violin II), Jenny Lewisohn (viola), Angelique Lihou (cello) this concert takes place in Gallery 3
Take the time off to go and relax in beautiful surroundings.
The Artist at St. John’s Films
19.00/22.00 £3
Does gender matter to sustainable development? at Helmore 201, Anglia Ruskin University, 13:00
The Race to the White House at Clare 20.45
With Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland who will
speak about both leading US parties’ in the run-up to
this year’s election; Professor Badger will examine what
it is about the American political system that, after the
promise of 2008, has made Obama’s presidency and his
battle for re-election so difficult.
Cambridge Handel Opera at West Road Concert Hall
19.30 £5
Featuring Sarah Power (soprano)
with the Cambridge University
Collegium Musicum, directed by
Margaret Faultless (violin).
Yes, Prime Minister at
Cambridge Arts Theatre
14.30/19.45 £15-30
Following two sell-out West
End seasons, Yes, Prime Minister comes to Cambridge for 1
week only.
This is one of the Global Sustainability Institute’s lunchtime seminars and in this they will be discussing gender
and development. The speaker is Professor Clare Griffiths,
from the University of Chester. Lunch is provided.
Terra Nova is a study of British pride and upper-class
resolve and of the bravery and suffering of Captain Robert
Falcon Scott’s historic expedition to the South Pole. Based
on journals and letters written by Scott and his colleagues.
Last night.
This is one of the unmissable
films of the year – almost silent;
the film charts the rise and fall
of a couple in early Hollywood.
Il Faut Que Je Sois at King’s College Art Centre
The photography explores the concept of time, the
necessity of being, and ancestry. The photographs will be
presented alongside a critical review from the viewpoint
of photographic theory, delivered by Simeon Koole, a
Cambridge graduate researcher in photographic theory.
Tue
Richard II at the ADC Theatre 19.45 £6
Lost Prophets at Corn Exchange 19.30
Fight the Bear at Portland Arms 20.00 £4
Drawing inspiration from the famous revival of
the play shortly before the Essex Rebellion in 1601,
CUADC present Richard II – a mesmerising and
enthralling beginning to Shakespeare’s History plays.
Lost Prophets have announced the release of
their brand new album Weapons and their
first headline UK tour in two years. The new
album is released on April 2nd and is followed by a tour of the UK. Modestep support.
Fight The Bear fuse Ska, Punk and Indie genres, with
catchy Ska riffs and cool vocal harmonies e, it’s no wonder that they have received a near cult-like following…
During the summer they added ‘BBC Introducing Stage
- T in The Park’ to their massive list of gigs.
Wed
Selwyn Jazz at the ADC theatre 23.00 £5
1
2
For one night only, Selwyn Jazz are performing this
auditory feast for your toe-tapping enjoyment. Fresh
from the Edinburgh Fringe, Selwyn Jazz are a 20-piece
big band made up of some of the finest jazz musicians
in Cambridge.
Cambridge International Piano Series with Jin Ju at West
Road Concert Hall 19.30 £12
Jin Ju plays with thrilling virtuosity, great beauty and
tenderness, and has been described as ‘the Chinese
Martha Argerich’. She plays works by the three greatest
Romantic composers.
10 Comedians and a Mic at 5-7 Norfolk Street 20.00 £3
10 Comedians and a Mic returns for another night of
fantastic stand-up comedy! With host Andy Higson
plus The Royal Society for the Preservation of Nutters
Andrew St. John Gary SouthamJames MurphyIndia
MacleodGeorge Cassavetti and some more!
ACROSS
DOWN
1. Goal’s beginning to stir up game (6)
4. Ray waits nervously for flight (8)
9. Tart performs turn to entice (7)
11. Takes permanent possession of building
extensions (7)
12. Runs into policeman with whip (4)
13. In discussion, brought up money (5)
14. Caught old king with Ecstasy and
another drug (4)
17. Take back a sum fellow distributed to
earn money quickly (4,1,4,4)
19. He said I’ll test new TV receiving
equipment (9,4)
22. Chap providing article about Los
Angeles (4)
23. Edible bulb used in canneloni only (5)
24. Sick son takes seat in church (4)
27. Search for drink before playing game
(7)
28. I plunged into one river then another
with lack of success (7)
29. Exciting tale involved her till end of
November (8)
30. He needs new teacher for London area
(6)
1. In Georgia a locum cured eye disease (8)
2. Viewpoint of striking appearance (7)
3. Slovenly woman is scum (4)
5. Angrily remove football shirt and give
reprimand? (4,1,5,3)
6. For starters, it’s now no smoking in pubs
(4)
7. Increase labour of one in Tussaud’s (7)
8. Enemy’s confused by sycophants (3,3)
10. Pretend not to have seen Annie belt
Rudy viciously (4,1,5,3)
15. The world is heartbroken (5)
16. Accepting rule finally, leave in peace (5)
18. Food, reportedly chief Chinese dish
(4,4)
19. M-master possibly showing this speech
defect (7)
20. Take legal possession of one thousand
quid (7)
21. Repeat standard codswallop (6)
25. Bucket gives Penny trouble (4)
26. Concealed English leather (4)
set by Alberich
Bridge cover (p.15): Dainis Matisons
Listings |27
Last Issue’s Answers:
Across: 1 London, 5 Desktops, 9 Blood-red, 10 Anthem, 11 Olympic Games, 13 In absentia, 15 Goal, 16 Whig,
17 Graphology, 19 Balance beams, 23 Knight, 24 Evildoer, 25 Charades, 26 Silver. Down: 2 Oslo, 3 Doodlebug,
4 Nuremberg, 5 Dadaist, 6 Slang, 7 Totem, 8 Press gangs, 12 On the bench, 14 Athletics, 15 Gold medal, 18
Ageless, 20 Luger, 21 Noted, 22 Gene.
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SPORT
The
CambridgeStudent
Interview: Boris Becker
Olivia Lee
Sports Co-Editor
Andreas 06
sport after their retirement, Becker
didn’t feel compelled to concentrate
solely on tennis at that point either.
“Usually by the time you are
30-35, your first profession, sport,
is over and you have to look for
something else,” he says. “There
would have been many possibilities for me to play on the senior’s
tour, and just work in the field
of tennis as a commentator or
journalist but I just wanted to
get away and do something that
had nothing to do with tennis.”
But did he miss the fame and
adulation of pro tennis? Did life
after sport take some adjustment?
“Not so much with the attention. I
was in my sport because I wanted to
win, and I thought I was good at it.
Attention was something that came
with it, but it didn’t really matter.
“Scheduling and the discipline
you have to bring is a different
story. I loved the fact that afterwards I didn’t have a tight schedule, I could sleep in more, I could
eat what I wanted to, I could have
a glass of wine or five at night and
it doesn’t matter the next day.”
All that being said, Becker’s
desire to win and prove himself
against the best remains. He admits
that had he had the chance to play
against the stars of the current era,
he would have taken it in a heatbeat.
“I would have loved to play Nadal
on grass, absolutely. I would have
loved to play Djokovic on grass,
absolutely. And guess what, I’m
talking here for Stefan Edberg, for
Patrick Rafter, for Goran Ivanisovic, for guys that were all natural
grass-court players. Not many of today’s players would have beaten us.”
Despite his insistence that the
Olivia Lee
Olivia Lee
In recent years, it’s been more
likely that you’ll stumble across an
article relating to Boris Becker’s
private life, his wife and children,
than anything related to tennis.
It is easy for the younger generation of tennis viewers to forget the
impact that this man had on the
ATP tour during his stellar career.
After winning Wimbledon in
1985, at the tender age of 17, the
German had broken three records
as the youngest winner, the first
German to win the title, and the first
unseeded player to do so. And while
many people might assume he must
have trained meticulously from
toddlerhood as so many of today’s
top players have, Becker didn’t actually play tennis competitively until
the age of eight. He readily admits
that dreams of tennis stardom were
far from his mind as a youngster.
“The plan from my parents
for me was to finish school, go to
university, get a proper degree
and learn something respectful. The last thing on everyone’s
mind was me becoming a tennis
professional,” he says candidly.
Relaxing in a lounge area of one
of London’s private member’s clubs,
Becker is surprisingly soft spoken.
Despite his quite imposing frame,
something which doesn’t quite
come across on television, the
former world number one appears
unexpectedly shy, but is happy to sit
down for a few minutes to discuss his
experiences in the world of tennis.
Despite his early lack of dedication
to the sport, Becker soon found that
it was the only sensible way forward:
“I became a professional at 15,
and I happened to win a lot of
junior tournaments early on, so
it was bound to be the next step.
I decided to give it a try for two
years at 16, and take a break from
school. But nobody could have imagined that I would win my first
Wimbledon the first time I played.”
Most tennis players spend their
entire career struggling to reach
the ultimate goal, a Grand Slam
title. Yet Becker had achieved it on
his first attempt, and evidently it
wasn’t a fluke. He went on to make
another six finals, winning in 1986
and 1989. He also won an Olympic
gold, the US Open, the Australian
Open (twice) and a number of other
tour titles. He’d reached the number
one spot by 1991. But all this success came so quickly that a lesser
player might have lacked the motivation to continue. Even Becker admits that there were times when he
wasn’t fully committed to the sport.
“I had won so much by 22, a
number of Wimbledon titles, US
Open, Davis Cup, World number
one. You look for the next big
thing and that isn’t in tennis.”
And while many athletes stick to
their comfort zone and remain in the
standard of tennis today is no better than his own era, the Slam
winner does have high respect for
the way in which this era’s players,
particularly Federer and Nadal,
have put tennis back on the map.
“The reason that tennis is so
successful today is because of the
rivalry between Nadal and Federer. They really took tennis to another level. Just the way they look,
the way they behave. One is left
handed, one is right handed. You
see the calculated Swiss, and you
see the passionate Spaniard. There
couldn’t be more contrast, and yet
they both play amazing tennis.”
And what of Andy Murray?
Last year Becker indicated that a
lack of success in Grand Slams is
down to a weak mentality. I pose
the question of whether, given
the consistent lack of tennis talent
among British men whilst Spain
and France regularly dominate the
top 100, there is something in the
British mentality that holds sportsmen back. This quite depressing
suggestion is met with agreement.
“You see it in the national football
team. You have great talented players, but for some reason in tournaments you’re not as successful as you
should be. It’s partly because of this
mentality that winning isn’t everything. Spain and France have a different motivation, a different point
of view, a different structure altogether in sports, and I think that’s
why they’re a little more successful.
Of course we can’t ignore Djokovic, who had a 2011 tour performance that put his rivals to shame.
Becker predicts that he will be a
likely candidate to end the year as
number one. While he feels that Federer will emerge “rejuvenated” for
the year, there are doubts in his mind
as to the longevity of Nadal’s career.
“How much can a man run, how
much can he grunt, how much can
he fight?” Becker ponders. “Nadal is
the most incredible tennis warrior
out there, but there is a limit to it.”
Admittedly, Nadal did take his
eighth Monte-Carlo title just last
week, temporarily silencing the
doubters once again. But with a knee
niggle having forced him to retire
from the Miami Masters at the beginning of the month, it is unlikely
that the critics will stay quiet for long.
The last question that has to be
asked of Becker, now that he’s had
time to reflect on his achievements,
is whether there are still regrets
that plague him. His answer is typically philosohpical.
“I think I was the type of player
that, if there was a way to win, I
usually found it. And if I didn’t, the
other guy was better. I think one of
the most important rules in tennis,
maybe in life, is that you cannot win
all the time. There are a number of
reasons when you meet somebody
else that is just a bit better in whatever you’re doing. And you have
to learn to accept it, that it’s ok.”
Five minutes with
Robbie Savage
Do you think Capello was right
to walk away from the England
job? Who should take over?
I think Harry Redknapp will take
over. I think when the captaincy
was taken out of Capello’s hands
he obviously felt undermined
and didn’t see that there was really any way forward. I don’t think
there’s a right or wrong answer as
to whether he should or shouldn’t
have walked away. The public
perception probably wasn’t that
he was their favourite and I think
Harry probably would be more
more suited to the public.
Who is going to win the Premier
League? Will United hang onto
their lead?
I think United will win the league,
City slipped at Swansea and I think
that really made United strong favourites.
Who do you think should be the
next Chelsea manager?
Who do you think?
I was hoping for Mourinho
Yeah I think everybody would
love to see Mourinho back in the
Premier League, he’s doing so well
at Real Madrid. He loves London.
But I’d love to see someone like
David Moyes being given a chance,
he’s done great stuff at Everton, so
I’d love to see him given a chance
at a big club.
What do you think of Scott Parker as England captain? Should it
have been Gerrard?
Should have been Gerrard 100%.
Parker is good player, he’s done exceptionally well at Spurs, but Gerrard can win games almost single
handedly, he’s proven that with
Liverpool. He’s the leader of Liverpool and he should have been the
leader for England.
After Mark Hughes’ complaints,
what do you think about goalline technology?
I think it’ll be brought in on the
goal-line. The confusion is part of
what we love about football. The
fact that you can go to the pub and
discuss whether it was over the line
or not, but for teams its the difference between going up or down so
I think it will be brought in on the
goal-line definitely.
The
CambridgeStudent
30| Sport
Cambridge spot on despite letting lead slip
Cambridge
2
Oxford
2
Felix de Gray
In truth, Cambridge should
never have let the game get as
far as the shoot-out. Driven by
the surging runs of Captain Paul
Hartley, they played relentless
football throughout. Yet for all their
dominance, and just when it looked
like they would cruise to victory,
David Hardeman
In early March the Light Blues
tasted Varsity victory for the first
time in four years, edging Oxford
4-3 on penalties after a 2-2 draw
at Cambridge City’s Pro-Edge
Stadium.
Already
promoted
from the BUCS League, the win
will be received as the crowning
glory of the Blues’ fine season.
the otherwise impressive Totten
provided the game’s flashpoint.
At 2-0 up his headed own goal
proved to be the catalyst for an
almighty shift in momentum.
After Oxford had swept back,
it was fitting that his winning
penalty should then prove the
difference between the two sides.
Cambridge struck first blood in
the match when James May slipped
a ball through to Danny Kerrigan.
Although the forward appeared to
scuff his shot, it had just enough
momentum to take it past Tom
Haigh, the visiting goalkeeper.
Shell-shocked, Oxford became
increasingly ineffective and last
year’s player of the year Ezra
Rubenstein cut an isolated figure
on the right. Cambridge were in the
ascendency, doubling their lead ten
minutes later. A throw in from full
back Ant Childs on the right was
chested down by Haitham Sherif.
He placed a deft touch into the path
of skipper Hartley who arrived on
the edge of the box to curl home.
With a two-goal cushion
going into the second half, the
Light Blues looked to continue
where they left off. A rare lack
of composure from Kerrigan
when through on goal prevented
a third while Totten hit the bar
soon after. Down at the other end,
Oxford were creating little of note.
But the match took a dramatic
turn when the Dark Blues won
an innocuous looking free-kick
in their own half. As had been
their tactic for much of the game,
they used this opportunity to send
over an early cross. Totten was
the unwitting victim. With ball
arriving at pace, he could do little
but divert it beyond his own keeper.
Suddenly Oxford were back in
the contest and it was Cambridge’s
turn to panic. The Light Blues’
passing was interrupted by an
increasingly
scrappy
playing
surface and their confidence
appeared to be sapping. Both teams
were tiring as the game opened up,
but, inexplicably, it was Oxford
who profited when it mattered.
Having looked solid for the
previous 80 minutes, Cambridge’s
defenders
somehow
allowed
substitute Sam Donald to dance
through a series of weak tackles. Just
when the angle looked against him,
he squeezed a low shot past the Blues’
Stef Karakashian at the near post.
For all their dominance,
Cambridge had exposed their
soft underbelly at the most
inopportune
moment.
Extra
time depleted, it was straight to
penalties. So often referred to as
a ‘lottery,’ it was not luck but an
amalgamation of nerve and skill
that saw Cambridge through. After
Oxford’s Anthony Beddows had
missed his side’s fifth, responsibility
fell to Totten to send the home
fans and players into rapture.
Dynamic Life
D r aw i n g
Mon 20th August - Mon 27th August 2012
Visit us on
www.vallico.net/tti/art12/
Email: Mike Towler
<[email protected]>
In the summer of 2012
the Apuan Alps Centre
for Physics in Tuscany,
Italy will host a one-week
course featuring classes
in Dynamic Life Drawing,
using both male and female models. The classes
will employ a variety of
performers, sound, lighting, props, visual effects,
drawing methods and
physical theatre techniques to create a memorable artistic experience.
During the week, there
will also be excursions to
the nearby cities of Lucca and Florence where
we will appreciate the efforts both of the Renaissance masters and of local chefs.
Vacancies for 2012 Michaelmas Editor-In-Chief
and Michaelmas Section Editors
For Editor-In-Chief Applications: Please send us a personal statement of around 400 words detailing
your vision for the newspaper, including details of any relevant experience.
Editor application deadline: 17 May 2012
Interviews for Editor-in-Chief will take place on 20 May 2012
For Section Editor Applications: Please confirm the section of the newspaper you wish to work on
(News, Sport, Music etc) and send us a personal statement of around 400 words detailing your vision for
the newspaper, including details of any relevant experience.
Section Editor application deadline: 18 June 2012
To apply email: [email protected]
The
CambridgeStudent
Sport |31
Green Lions crushed in end of season mauling
Cambridge
28
Bedford Tigers 52
Cambridge
0
Oxford
48
Chris McKeon
David Hardeman
After disappointment in the Varsity
Match, the Green Lions wrapped
up their season a few weeks later
than usual with a friendly run-out
against a Bedford side one week
away from the start of their own season in the East of England league.
Capitalising on a knock-on right
from the kick off, Rupert Grace ran
in Cambridge’s first try and then
kicked the conversion to make the
score 6-0. This was to be the only
time Cambridge led as their own
coach Andy Champ, playing for
the other side, levelled the scores.
For the rest of the half, Cambridge
found it difficult to hold onto possession and Bedford could capitalise on a sterling but tired defence.
Things were by no means easy for
Bedford. Cambridge clawed their
way back into the game in the second half, Andy Winfield and Tom
Elton moving the ball around with
the skill they have shown all season.
However, 28-22 was as close as the
scores were going to get and Bedford,
aided by some deft running from
their slippery fullback Jamie Lau,
managed to increase the margin.
Cambridge scored one final try
as prop Freddie Bromley finished
off a breakaway move. Captain
Matt Commin intercepted the
ball in Cambridge’s own 20 and
broke through the defence only
for his pace to fail him as he was
dragged down yards short. Fortunately, two passes saw the ball reach
Bromley who powered through.
This had been a friendly affair - a
warm-up game for the Tigers and
a winding down for the Lions. Six
weeks earlier under the lights at
the Richmond Athletic Ground,
things had been entirely different and Cambridge had learned
that, in rugby as in life, you don’t
always get what you deserve.
Even the crowd had been Oxford-dominated and, despite a
tightly contested opening, so was
the scoreboard. Cambridge found
themselves outplayed in defence
and outmuscled in attack with
the resulting score line the heaviest defeat in Varsity history and
the first time Cambridge had
failed to register a single point.
It was not, it should be said, the
worst performance ever put in by
a Cambridge side. The spirit and
ability the Green Lions had shown
throughout the season was still
there, but they were beaten by a better side. Still, in the second half, they
had their moments. Fullback Cushing broke down the right wing, of-
floading to Elton who played a swift
one-two with Grace before, with the
whitewash looming, playing the ball
inside to Bromley. It was their best
opportunity, but it was not to be.
Other chances came, but passes
were a split-second too late and,
despite a period camped on the Ox-
ford line, Cambridge left with nothing but a burning desire for revenge
next year. It was unjust, but sometimes that is just the way it goes.
Shaun Brooks
United enjoy solid season Varsity: Round Up
Brendan Shephard
HOCKEY (WON)
The men triumphed 5-3 in a
thrilling encounter. A fast-paced
and riveting match was won
courtesy of goals from Harrison, Parkes, Styles and two from
Salvesen. Three times Cambridge
fought back from behind to grasp
their first win in four years. In the
women’s affair there was no way to
separate the two teams, the match
ending in an entertaining 0-0 draw.
JUDO (WON/LOST)
The men’s city team secured a 5 -3 win
Ian Buxton
With only this Saturday’s visit to
Tamworth remaining this season,
Cambridge United sit firmly in
the middle of the Blue Square Bet
Premier Division. A campaign that
initially promised a sustained push to
the play-offs has fallen away to leave
Jez George’s men in a comfortable
if
unspectacular
position.
The last lingering hopes of a
return to the Football League were
extinguished in recent weeks.
Despite an impressive win over runaway champions Fleetwood Town,
defeat at home to York City only a
few days previously killed off any
hopes of a sudden surge up the table.
However, four victories in
April will encourage George
when looking ahead to next
season. With a variety of players
weighing in with goals, U’s fans
can take heart from a succession
of professional team performances.
Nevertheless the team desperately
lacks a genuine goalscorer. Berry
and Carew lead the way with eight
apiece, a somewhat dismal return
when you consider that Jamie
Vardy of Fleetwood has banged in
31 to sit as the division’s top scorer.
United have struggled for goals at
times, despite their often impressive
approach play. The addition of an
out-an-out goalscorer over the
summer would make Cambridge
serious challengers in the division.
A settled team early in the season
contributed to the U’s sitting pretty
in a play-off position, but until
recently that form had deserted
them as injuries and the thin nature
of the squad began to take their
toll. However, the strong finish to
the season has made it a successful
first full one for Jez George; the
feeling remains that in promoting
to the manager’s office a coach from
within the club Cambridge have
created a solid basis for the future.
Home form has been particularly
impressive, with the team losing
only six of their 23 games at
the Abbey, giving Cambridge
supporters plenty to shout about.
Indeed, the players and manager
have worked hard off the pitch to
consolidate fans’ support: after the
recent trip to Barrow (270 miles
away), George paid for the 80
travelling supporters to attend the
game out of his own pocket, whilst
the players bought pizza to sustain
the fans on their long journey
home. Added to the often positive
football that has been played this
year, this has ensured that a mood
of optimism prevails looking
forward to next season. Last year’s
fight against relegation is now
little more than a distant memory.
while the men’s A eventually yielded 2-6 to a far heavier Oxford outfit.
In the male B match one bout
was refought to break the tie, resulting in a close 4-3 victory for
Cambridge. Weakened by graduations, the women’s squad suffered a 4-0 loss against the far
more experienced Dark Blues.
MODERN PENTATHLON (LOST)
In the women’s competition Oxford claimed victory by 22,116
to 21,736 points - one of the
narrowest margins on record.
However, the Light Blues won four
of the five events while Henny Dillon’s points score of 4,388 meant
that she was the only athlete to
achieve a full Blue. The men’s battle was equally tight but an unfortunate riding phase saw Cambridge
edged out by 30,008 to 27,748
points. Notable performances were
Brad Dixon winning the swimming phase with a new Varsity
record and Josh Radvan winning
the fencing phase, both of whom
achieved the Full Blue standard.
ORIENTEERING (LOST/WON)
For the men Matthew Vokes finished 4th, but Oxford’s 1-2-3 gave
them the victory by 78 minutes. It
was the opposite story for the women: Mairead Rocke, Andy Strakova,
and Katrin Harding had brilliant
runs, giving Cambridge a 1-2-3 and
the women victory by 76 minutes.
P.29 Interview:
Boris Becker
The
CambridgeStudent
SPORT
P.30 Varsity
Football
Cambridge claim controversial victory
Ollie Guest
Sports Co-Editor
Women triumph
at Henley races
Despite stopping completely dead
with the finishing line in sight
when number two Caroline Reed
caught a crab, the Light Blue women beat their Dark Blue rivals in
March’s Henley encounter. Cambridge were far stronger throughout and appeared to be cruising to
victory until the incident but they
recovered well to secure the win.
The Lightweight men also won,
rowing valiantly to cross the line
three quarters of a length ahead of
their Oxford counterparts.
Olivia Lee
Never has there been such a
controversial race. Extraordinary
scene
after
extraordinary
scene
unfolded
before
our
eyes
on
Easter
Saturday.
For just the second time in
its 158-year history the race
had to be re-started when antielitist activist Trenton Oldfield
swam in between the two boats,
intentionally interrupting the race.
Despite his criticism of “elite public
institutions”, Oldfield was himself
educated at the London School of
Economics, where he gained an MSc
in Contemporary Urbanism. Smiling
broadly as he was led away by police,
he appeared utterly unrepentant.
Oldfield, an Australian, has
since appeared in court charged
with causing a public nuisance. He
was granted bail with restrictions
preventing him from entering the
City of Westminster for the state
opening of Parliament or coming
within 100 metres of the roads that
form part of the Olympic torch route.
In further drama, Dr Alex Woods,
Oxford’s bow and the oldest rower
in the competition, collapsed in the
boat at end of the race, requiring
urgent medical attention. According
to reserve umpire and four-time
Olympic gold medalist Matthew
Pinsent on Twitter, he didn’t
remember anything past the restart.
The crews were level-pegging
before they were dramatically
halted, over halfway through a
duel that was shaping up to be
the most thrilling encounter since
the neck-and-neck finish in 2003.
When the boats prepared to do
battle once more, not only did they
have to reset themselves mentally,
but, as umpire John Garrett
dictated that half the course had
to be re-rowed, they had to hope
that their bodies were prepared to
complete a gruelling sprint finish.
Yet thirty seconds after the restart, the race was over. Despite being
warned numerous times about their
line, Oxford strayed too far into
Cambridge water, resulting in a clash.
The Dark Blue’s number five Hanno
Wienhausen lost the blade from his
oar, giving Cambridge the advantage.
Despite an appeal from Oxford
for a re-row, umpire Garrett decided
that Cambridge had won fairly. “The
decision that I took is that crews have
to abide by their accidents,” he said.
The Oxford cox, Zoe de Toledo,
left the course in tears given the
devastation of the race-altering
collision. “You can’t have a race
that ends like that. I was steering
as I saw fit,” she complained.
Before the race, there had been
much talk of the difference in
weight with experts questioning
whether Cambridge’s massive 62.8kg
advantage was enough to overcome
their ‘underdog’ status. Many
thought that the Light Blues’ decision
to row bow and stern on the same
side of the boat in a tandem rigging
system could prove to be their
undoing. Yet after the initial stages
there was nothing to split the rivals.
Cambridge had won the toss,
electing to row from the Surrey side
where they hoped to exploit the
long Hammersmith bend. Having
kept in touch with their opponents
at that stage of the course, the tactic
appeared to be proving beneficial,
but they were unable to pull away.
Then, just past the Chiswick eights
came Oldfield’s interruption. Just as
the race looked to be building up to
a showpiece finish, the crews were
forced to halt and turn back the way
they had come to restart the race.
Amidst the controversy, the
atmosphere as Cambridge crossed
the finishing line was subdued.
Cambridge may have cruised to
victory but their first thoughts were for
collapsed Oxford bow, Dr Woods. “It’s
a huge relief but it’s a bit shocking to
see Alex in such a state,” said dignified
CUBC President David Nelson.
Yet OUBC President Karl
Hudspith couldn’t hide his anger
with his (swiftly removed) tweet:
“Unfortunately I cannot congratulate
Cambridge as they decided to
mock us after the finish line,
even though Alex had collapsed.”
Nelson said at the press conference:
“I feel bad, I guess. In finishing the
race there was a lot of raw emotion
and some of our celebrations
might seem a bit unsympathetic in
retrospect, but I wasn’t aware of the
broken oar and Alex at the time.”
For all of Cambridge’s joy in victory
and Oxford’s despair in defeat, this
race will forever be remembered for
the actions of one ridiculous man.
Hudspith summed it up with his
tweet:
“Finally
to
Trenton
Oldfiled [sic]; my team went
through seven months of hell,
this was the culmination of our
careers and you took it from us.”
While the Light Blues were left
unable to celebrate their win, there
was further disappointment for the
Goldie boat, who lost out to Isis as the
Oxford boat rowed to a comfortable
victory in a course record time.
Comment: Light Blues showed spirit worthy of win
Chris McKeon
The pundits are all in agreement
– Oxford did not deserve to lose.
The interruption, restart and broken blade all combined to turn
the 158th Boat Race into a farce
in which neither crew could truly
claim to be the victor and Oxford
were denied their shot at glory.
The pundits are wrong. Yes, the
circumstances of Cambridge’s win
were bizarre, and Oxford may well
feel aggrieved, but that does not
mean that the result was not the
right one. Cambridge deserved to
win and Oxford deserved to lose.
The antipodean interlude itself mattered little. Umpire John
Garrett was right to call a halt to
proceedings and with little to separate the two crews before the stoppage, neither really lost ground.
What mattered was how the two
crews dealt with the interruption,
and Cambridge handled it better.
By running through a few practice
starts, the Light Blues ensured they
kept their heads and were ready for
the race when it was resumed. By
contrast, the Oxford crew seemed to
be milling about the river to little pur-
pose. Cambridge kept their focus and
won, Oxford lost theirs and did not.
Then came the real controversy
– the crash. In this instance, Oxford can have even less ground for
complaint. Garrett’s warnings made
it clear that it was the Dark Blues
who were at fault. What cost them
the race was not the interruption,
but their handling of the restart and
their straying from the racing line.
It may seem unduly harsh, but
that is the nature of this particular beast. Anyone who has taken
part in competitive sport will tell
you that what matters is which
side handles the conditions and
events better on the day, and that
is what makes sport so interesting.
The truth is that on a perfect day Oxford may well have won. As the result
of the reserves’ race shows, CUBC is
by no means dominant on the water,
and the Dark Blues had been slightly
ahead for parts of the main event.
But this is all irrelevant. Competition rarely takes place in ideal circumstances, and the best teams are
the ones who can deal with whatever fortune throws at them. Cambridge could, Oxford couldn’t. The
result rightly demonstrated this.

NUS President snubs Cambridge Union

Transcription

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