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Day: 4 March 2013

Live: Clinic

2nd March 2013

The Deaf Institute

 

Where most bands shout “Yes”, Clinic have always intoned with a resounding “No”. Having recently put out their seventh long-player, Free Reign, and counterpart remix album, the imaginatively titled Free Reign II, the Liverpool band continue to stride in their own awkward and angular direction, as ever unfettered by the pressures of selling records, selling out or settling down and calling it a day.

In comparison to tonight’s support act the excellent Mugstar, Clinic look frankly like spritely novices, however. Post-rock and post-the-age-it-should-be-possible-to-rock-this-hard, Mugstar aren’t going to win many plaudits with today’s 1D-touting generation. Showcasing a distinctly dystopian lightshow, a fierce blend of krautrock, industrial and psychedelia and some ferocious drumming they are more than deserving of note here.

With the venue filled with an audience befitting no particular demographic, the giant disco ball spinning from the ceiling and Clinic clad in their usual stage attire (surgeons’ scrubs and face masks), the stage almost looks set for some bizarre and very avant-garde horror flick. Alas, the band quickly dispel this notion, launching into a set that includes several choice cuts from the last album and a number of ‘old favourites’ (if Clinic qualify as a band where you could have such a thing). Songs such as the urgent ‘IPC Subeditors Dictate Our Youth’ and ‘See Saw’ definitely benefit from an airing in the live arena, the latter’s clarinet enveloping the room, where on the album, it simply hoots brashly.

Clinic specialise in that head-nodding style of ‘60s grooves and riffage, but played in their own eccentric manner. On songs like ‘Lion Tamer’ and ‘Children of Kellogg’, this translates very well, though it does become repetitive and a little trite on others. Further, it’s a shame that tonight’s set omits the haunting ‘Misty’. That, however, leaves their signature ‘Walking with Thee’ to be received with some aplomb, as the band deliver a scintillating encore.

‘I was right to secretly record vile homophobia on campus,’ says Cortbus

This month I recorded the vilest homophobic discussion imaginable at a public meeting of the ‘Global Aspirations of Women’ Society.

The meeting chair told me that in the Islamic State she was striving for thieves would have their hands cut off, adulterers would be stoned and homosexuals would be executed. She even told me that if I kissed another man outside of the Students’ Union, she would personally and morally feel comfortable to kill me. This was laconically followed by ‘no offence to you’ as if telling someone you’d be prepared to kill them could ever not be hurtful.

Showing off the sophisticated critical thinking facilities that will make her highly employable, another attendee lamented that if gays ‘can’t have kids, why didn’t they die out ages ago’.

Ever since, I have been subject to a strange mixture of praise and criticism. Douglas Murray in The Spectator called me a ‘reasonable sort of chap’ and even criticised me for being ‘too kind’ to Islam on the issue of stoning, which I had argued is not part of Islam. Even a BBC report reflected positively on what I had done. There are however those who feel I have somehow breached journalistic ethics by exposing this homophobia. Quite predictably the society chairperson, Khadijah Afzal, accused The Mancunion of deciding to ‘sneakily record’ the event and attempting to ‘malign Islam’ arguing that ‘the discussion on the punishment system in Islam shows that you are ignorant of Islam as a political system’, which is an ‘ideology just like any other ideology’. In this immensely telling statement she also appeared to advocate theocracy, urging a government on the basis of ‘obedience to the rules’ of ‘Quran and the Sunnah’, which she said would be quite ‘unlike’ Capitalism where ‘sovereignty belongs to man and he has the freedoms’. Quite ultimately she stated that it was all just a ‘hypothetical discussion’ where the views expressed ‘may or not have necessarily been that of the society’.

Some have accused me of pandering to Islamophobia. Others have expressed their ‘deep concern’ over my covert filming. To them I say the following: you should get your priorities right. Carefully pre-considered, legitimate filming of what was disgusting homophobia at a public meeting is fully in line with British law and our long tradition of investigative journalism. At a public event, where there is no expectation of privacy. The public interest here was and is clear. Rather than appearing to come to the trivialisation of anti-gay extremists, we should stand with those who, like the 5 out of 8 Muslim MPs who voted yes to equal marriage and Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed, founder of the LGBTQ-inclusive mixed-gender mosque in Paris, demand genuine freedom, progress and equality. Let us unite to oppose all anti-humanist, anti-individualistic, anti-secular and intolerant thought, whether from Global Aspirations, the Far-Right, the Marxist-Leninists, or Fundamentalist Christians.

The least the Union ought to do after this is to work with organisations such as Imaan UK to set-up a support society for openly gay Muslim students. I stand for a tolerant, secular, free and democratic society. I hope you stand with me. I have no apology to make for being free.

Exec officer stranded in Pakistan after passport blunder

A member of the Students’ Union Executive has been on leave for over five weeks, two weeks more than his allowed holiday time.

University of Manchester Students’ Union Diversity Officer Saad Wahid applied for three weeks of leave at the end of January to visit his family in Pakistan, but at the time of going to print had gone over that time by two weeks.

Each elected officer is allowed 30 days paid leave a year. Mr Wahid has currently recorded 46 days of holiday time.

When contacted on Facebook Mr Wahid said, “I am on leave and in Pakistan to visit my family as I have been away for a year now. I will be back in early March.

“I have gone over by 2 weeks. I am not getting paid for this and I did not anticipate this delay which is due to visa processing.”

Mr Wahid, an international stu­dent from Pakistan, has not been able to return to the country after handing over his passport to the British High Commission in Paki­stan in an effort to obtain a visa for his entire family to live in Britain.

General Secretary of the Students’ Union Nick Pringle told The Mancu­nion, “At the end of the three weeks leave, Saad was unable to return to the country because he wasn’t in possession of his passport because he had sent it away to obtain a visa for his entire family to return to the UK.”

Mr Wahid said he did not antici­pate the visa application process taking so long.

“It is something I could not avoid,” he said. “I didn’t realise that it would take such a long time for the visa to be processed and now I am stuck.

“I never intended to apply for this category of visa from outside of UK ,and not take any additional leave to which I was not entitled to, however on 13th Dec 2012 visa rules were suddenly changed by [the UK Border Agency] restricting Inter­national students only to apply for visa from their respective countries rather than from inside the UK.”

“It is stated by UKBA that the outcome of the visa should be an­nounced within 15 working days.

“My new visa application along with my family member’s applica­tion was filed in a few days imme­diately when I arrived in Karachi i.e. 29th January 2013 and to date I await my passport to return from the British High Commission and therefore am unable to travel in the meantime.”

Mr Pringle added, “Given that Saad is not here, therefore he is on leave and he is over his allocation, that leave will be unpaid.

“All officers are entitled to 30 days leave and anything over that is unpaid.”

As an elected member of the Exec Team, Mr Wahid is also a trustee of the Students’ Union and sits on the Trustee Board, which oversees the finances, operations, services, and strategy of the Union. They are therefore partly responsible for 80 permanent staff and 250 student.

The position of Diversity Officer is new this year and its responsibilities include “promote and campaign for equal opportunities within the University, Union and wider community,” and “campaign to increase the di­versity of the student body,” according to the Students’ Union website. Like all Exec Team roles, the Diversity Of­ficer is contracted to work 35 hours a week and paid a yearly salary of £16,600.

In response to Mr Wahid’s absence, the Students’ Union have not put any information on the website and did not make a statement to let stu­dents know he was away for an extended period of time. Mr Pringle defended this.

“As an organisation I don’t think we should have a poli­cy that every time an officer takes a holiday we have to inform everyone about it, be­cause I think that is a bit over the top,” he said.

“We all take leave from time to time. If students would like us to start tweet­ing when we are on holiday, we can think about that.”

He added that the fact Mr Wahid is a parent and an in­ternational student should be taken into account when assessing his situation.

“There certainly are some mitigating factors in terms of Saad’s status as a parent – he has a family in Pakistan,” he said. “As an employer we have to take into account that people have family lives and have a right to see their kids.

“Also, because he is not a UK student, going home to see family is a lot different to when you or I go home to see our family.

“So something that we have to take into consideration is the fact that he is in Pakistan and he is dealing with visa restrictions that we wouldn’t have to.”

Mr Wahid is also running for General Secretary of the Students’ Union in this year’s elections, voting for which takes place from the 8th to the 14th March.

When asked how Saad’s work, outside of his regular duties such as reporting to union assemblies, was suf­fering while he was away, Pringle said:

“Although we try and keep up to date with what eve­ryone is doing and I try my best to know what everyone is working on, it is quite hard when they are not in the of­fice to know. Because he has been on leave he would not be expected to do any work from Pakistan.”

When asked how to Exec Team were coping without Saad, Pringle said: “Anything that is exec business or trus­tee business that would be shared with no individual re­sponsibility, we are still doing all that work between us.”

Election Hustings began last week, with separate debates for each position where students have the op­portunity to ask candidates questions. The event for Gen­eral Secretary is scheduled for this Thursday 7th March, between 6-8pm, on the 1st floor of the Students’ Union.

‘Reclaim the Night’ cost Union £7k

The successful ‘Reclaim the Night’ event cost the Union £7,000, figures obtained by The Mancunion show.

This means that the event cost £1,200 more than the £5,800 ‘maximum amount’ originally proposed for the event.

‘Maximum’ figures seek to evaluate the risk posed by an event to the Union finances if no sales – in this case, t-shirts and tickets – are made.

A new, higher ‘maximum amount’ of £8,000 was requested in the Executive meeting on the 18th February, just three days before the march was set to take place.

Women’s Officer Tabz O’Brien-Butcher, who organised the Reclaim the Night march, cited “costs that had not been taken into consideration” as the reason for the budget rise.

The largest contributing factor to the cost was the road closures and police presence at the event – just over £3,700 was spent to close part of Oxford Road and have two officers present at the march.

“Obviously, organizing an event of this scale has cost implications,” explained O’Brien-Butcher.

“The largest cost incurred was traffic management and ensuring participant safety, which should be a key priority for any large scale event such as this.”

The statistics also show that artist fees for the after-march party cost £1,770.

The headline act was former Manchester-born X Factor contestant Misha B.

“Bringing Misha B in brought a whole new demographic to the event,” said O’Brien-Butcher.

“It opened the march up beyond feminist campaigners, and ensured that the awesome vibes of the march continued late into the evening.”

Overall, says O’Brien-Butcher, the figures show “not even half of the picture”.

“Reclaim the Night has never been envisaged as a for profit event”, she said.

“From thousands of pounds worth of press coverage, national exposure for the union and the impact the march had on students and the local community […] I’m very proud of the event we delivered.”

UK’s biggest Model Arab League to convene

The University of Manchester Arab society is hosting the UK’s biggest model Arab League this weekend.

Arab societies from twelve different universities across the UK have organized for delegates to be sent to act as ambassadors and foreign ministers in the model league, based on the popular Model United Nations concept.

Besides one that has previously taken place in Birmingham, this will be the only model Arab League in the country.

The real Arab League is a regional organization of Arab states in North Africa, Northeast Africa and Southwest Asia.  It seeks to improve relations between member states.

Ibrahim Olabi, Vice President of the University of Manchester Arab Society, will be chairing the event.

He told The Mancunion of the importance of the model league in getting people interested.

“Arabs themselves don’t get involved with politics a lot, enough Arabs don’t know about the politics in that area,” he said.

“After the Arab spring, things became a little more loosened and people are more willing to know what’s going on in that region.”

“More Arabs are going into politics, and non-Arabs are learning about the politics and widening their [knowledge] about an area that they’re not from.”

The selection process for the Manchester delegates was tough, says Ibrahim.

“Doing interviews will make you the most hated person on campus,” he said, “because you have to reject some people – and then they know your face.”

“It was an extremely difficult choice,” he continued. “Most people who applied were very passionate and very competent – but ultimately we had to give it to the best [candidate].”

Of the four candidates from Manchester, Ibrahim explains, “there is not one Arab between them”.

“It’s not based on experience, it’s based on passion and skills,” he said.

“I don’t want a guy [having done] a thousand model United Nations and for us to be a thousand and one. I want to give someone who doesn’t have that opportunity to put it on his CV and increase his skills.”

Topics discussed during the model Arab League will deal with real-life current issues – like the ongoing Syrian conflict.

“The Syrian government, given what has happened, has been banned from the Arab League,” Ibrahim explained.

“So one of the topics [discussed] is that the Syrian National Coalition have a seat.

“The Syrian National Coaltion is the opposition – they have a seat in the model arab league.”

Ibrahim hopes that the event will become an annual tradition.

“The agenda we have is based on what is going on now in the Arab world,” he explained, “and these things change every year.”

The model league will take place in Samuel Alexander building, from 11am to 8pm on Saturday 9th March. The event will take place in two-hour blocks, and is open to anybody interested.

“We’re planning to get as many students involved as possible.”

‘I am not the only member of staff who has been under attack at MMU,’ says Parker

World-renowned psychologist Professor Ian Parker has told students that he is “very sorry” about the situation they face following his resignation from Manchester Metropolitan University.

In an open letter published in full by The Mancunion addressed to students in MMU’s Psychology department, Prof Parker said: “My colleagues in the Department of Psychology tell me that you have not been told exactly why I was suspended or why I resigned.”

He continued: “I have been unable to contact you to explain what happened, and I am very sorry that I have not been able to continue teaching and supervising work for your degree courses.”

Prof Parker was suspended by MMU in October on charges of “gross professional misconduct”, but students were not informed and he was prevented from accessing his emails.

China Mills, a PhD student at the time, described how “he just disappeared overnight”.

A campaign was started calling for his reinstatement and an online petition received almost 4,000 signatures from around the world, including from American philosopher Noam Chomsky.

Following a disciplinary hearing he was allowed to return to work in December, but he resigned at the end of January, stating: “My professional work as an academic has been undermined to the point where there is now nothing left to return to in the psychology department.”

Owen Dempsey, one of Prof Parker’s PhD students, has now officially suspended his studies and plans to ask for his fees to be refunded.

He said: “I was not impressed by the lack of communication I had from MMU since Ian was suspended, which was zero until he resigned.

“My own view is that the University has lost a leading light and this reflects the University’s obsession with being a corporate business – must make money at all costs – even if this means losing a world leading academic. It is such a shame and such a loss for the students.”

Prof Parker’s letter ends: “I wish you well in your studies, and hope that through your union and by supporting the lecturers union you will find a way to address the desperate situation in your department.”

MMU have been refusing to comment on the issue but have maintained that Prof Parker’s PhD students were offered alternative supervision.

 

Ian Parker’s letter in full:

[pullquote]

Dear students on the psychology programmes,

You may know that I was suspended from work and locked out of my email on 3 October last year, and that I eventually resigned from MMU at the beginning of February this year. My colleagues in the Department of Psychology tell me that you have not been told exactly why I was suspended or why I resigned. I have been unable to contact you to explain what happened, and I am very sorry that I have not been able to continue teaching and supervising work for your degree courses. A full account of what happened is available at www.parkerian.com/asylum I am not the only member of staff who has been under attack, and you may have noticed that there are no professors, apart from the head of department, now left in psychology. I was a representative of UCU the university and college union, and the local branch is now doing its best to defend our education system here at MMU. I wish you well in your studies, and hope that through your union and by supporting the lecturers union you will find a way to address the desperate situation in your department.

Yours sincerely,

Ian Parker

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