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Day: 2 October 2014

Students join in Hong Kong Solidarity

Written by Marina Garvey Birch on . Posted in News.

Over 300 students joined together in Piccadilly Gardens on Wednesday evening in solidarity with the Occupy Central Movement in Hong Kong. The event was organised by Louis Yuen and five other second year students at the University of Manchester and UoM Business School.

The aim of the protests in Hong Kong is for China to withdraw plans to decide on candidates for the next Hong Kong leadership election in 2017. Beijing opted last month that Hong Kong people could elect their next leader with the compromise that the candidates would be screened by a pro-Beijing committee based in China.

Beijing does not want to escalate the protests in Hong Kong with a strong response, worrying what the effect could be on Mainland China. In Hong Kong, however, police responded to the protests on the weekend with tear gas and pepper spray, although since Monday the police have stopped using forceful action and the protests remain peaceful.

The Occupy Central Movement aims to achieve universal suffrage: genuine political rights with no unreasonable limitations. It has been argued that back door diplomacy may have been a better option but the students have taken to the streets to express their views.

The UoM students orchestrated the event in Piccadilly Gardens as an evening of speeches and singing, including Les Miserables’ Do You Hear The People Sing?, and they provided yellow ribbons and banners to all attendees.

Yuen has not told her family in Hong Kong about this event because they are pro-Beijing, but this did not distract her focus for the evening:

“The people in Hong Kong are suffering from the pepper spray and tear gas… so we wanted to get all the people together to speak out and show support for Hong Kong democracy.

“I think the government have to listen, because we are not going to give up this time, because for Hong Kong people we all think it’s the last time to strive for democracy.”

University and Colleges Union threatens further boycott

Written by Charlie Spargo on . Posted in News.

Lecturers from a total of 67 universities across the country, including all 24 members of the Russell Group, are threatening industrial action in response to a proposed pension cut.

Academics may boycott the marking of students’ courseworks and exams, causing a large amount of disruption, after proposals by universities which would affect the Universities Superannuation Scheme.

This proposal involves forcing lecturers to pay more into a pension fund, a £40000 salary cap on benefit entitlements, and an end to final salary pension schemes.

Models show that the proposed pension shakeup would cause up to £20000 per year knocked off academics’ pensions.

The union estimates the changes would affect a 40-year-old professor on £75000 per year to lose out on £230000—the worst affected individual, facing a total of a 27 per cent cut.

The University and College Union is now asking members to support a marking boycott in response to this. The ballot opened on the 1st October and runs until the 20th.

According to the UCU, “the action would stop students being set coursework or receiving formal marks and feedback, as well as halting exams.”

However, universities see this move as rash, since talks about the changes have not yet started.

Similar industrial action was proposed earlier in 2014 in response to a level of pay that had, in fact, seen a 13 per cent fall in real income since 2009. This failed to materialise after successful talks between universities and academics.

However, lecturers staged six one-day walkouts over the dispute earlier in the year and in 2013. The UCU has not ruled out further strikes and boycotts in the future in response to unfair pay.

General secretary of the union, Sally Hunt, said, “if members back industrial action, and there is no negotiated solution, we will be looking to quickly move to an assessment and exam boycott.

“Staff see their pension as deferred pay and are understandably angry.”

Students battle myth that Arts degrees are an unaffordable luxury

Written by Jennifer Sterne on . Posted in News.

A Student-led branch of the Arts Emergency Service aims to encourage arts and humanities subjects as degree options for Manchester students from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds.

The Arts Emergency Service, co-founded by the comedian Josie Long and campaigner Neil Griffiths, is a charity set up in response to increasing tuition fees and the abolition of public funding of arts subjects in British universities.

Stewart Lee, comedian and writer says of the charity, “Arts Emergency are highlighting the reversal of decades’ of social access to the arts, and by association the possible disappearance of whole strands of discourse and the loss of educational enfranchisement to future generations. Save the thinker!”

Arts Emergency Manchester is a student branch of the Arts Emergency charity, working to encourage arts and humanities subjects as future options for pupils from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds, through mentoring in schools.

The Manchester branch is in the process of creating a ten-week volunteering program which will begin in schools early next year.

They are looking for mentors in many different subject areas such as; Sociology, Criminology, American Studies, Journalism, Politics, Economics, Philosophy, Social Anthropology and History of Art.

The student volunteers plan to teach and encourage interest and excitement around subjects like criminology and philosophy which the students probably haven’t encountered before.

Joanna Harris, co-founder of the Manchester student branch said of the project “Arts Emergency Manchester came about as a reaction to the increasing marketisation of higher education. Education should be a right for all, not a preserve of the privileged.

“We want to show that the arts should not be viewed as luxuries that only few can afford to study. These subjects are intrinsically important in their encouragement of critical and analytical thinking, and allow students invaluable insight into society and the world. The idea that arts and humanities subjects do not lead to jobs is a myth.”

Earlier this year Arthur Baker, founder of the society, wrote an article in The Mancunion explaining why he believed in the importance of promoting arts and humanities subjects.

Baker wrote “more and more, a university education is seen as a commodity to be bought and sold. The government has axed teaching grants and trebled fees, imposing a free market system on our universities. Students from disadvantaged backgrounds are encouraged to choose a degree based simply on how clear the career path from it is, and to see Arts and Humanities degrees as a luxury they cannot afford.”

Baker added that a university education “should be about widening your horizons, developing as a person, and studying something you love. We chose our degrees largely because they interested us, and we think everybody should be able to do that. Education for its own sake shouldn’t simply be the preserve of the rich.”

If you would like to help with the project, get in touch or come along to the next meeting. You can also visit their Facebook group, Arts Emergency Manchester, for more information.

For more information on the Arts Emergency Charity see their website http://www.arts-emergency.org/.

Preview: TEDx Salford

Written by Andy van den Bent-Kelly on . Posted in News, Science & Tech.

TED conferences are well-known to many students. Many of us will have watched a video of a certain speaker from one of these events, which attract crowds of thousands every year. Here in Greater Manchester, we are fortunate enough to have one of these events on our doorstep.

TEDx Salford returns to The Lowry on Sunday 5th October, two years after the first event took place in the complex, which sits across the road from MediaCityUK in Salford Quays. Now in its fourth incarnation, this year’s event will see a whole host of prominent figures from the worlds of science, technology, art, media and business take to the stage to deliver talks to what is sure to be a sell-out crowd at the Lyric Theatre.

The event will start at 10:00 and finish at 20:30. Each speaker will be allocated an 18-minute slot in which to present their ideas to the audience. The programme will be split into a morning and afternoon session, with tickets available for both right up until the day of the event.

TEDx first arrived in Salford in January 2012 and has since grown into the largest TEDx event in the country. Almost 2000 people attended last year’s conference. TEDx Salford is a non-profit, voluntary iniative, which gives the local community the opportunity to hear the thoughts of experts from many different fields.

Photo: TEDx Salford

Although each speaker will bring something unique and interesting to the table, there will be some particularly notable figures gracing the stage. The Italian mathematician and computer scientist Professor Massimo Marchiori will be one of the first speakers of the day. Marchiori is perhaps best known for inventing the HyperSearch algorithm, a technique that later inspired Google’s PageRank system.

Regular viewers of the BBC technology programme Click may be interested to hear that Kate Russell will be speaking during the morning session as well. The journalist, who has been reporting on and writing about technology for the best part of 20 years, is set to make her first appearance at the event.

Tawakkol Karman, the youngest ever recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, will also be on stage at The Lowry. Karman, who became a Nobel laureate at the age of just 32 following her tireless efforts to secure rights for women in her native Yemen, is a prominent human rights activist and journalist. Her talk promises to be hugely inspiring and motivational.

Many other icons, including two teenage scientists, the founder of the World Toilet Organisation, and a global leader in hacking and information security, will be presenting their ideas as well.

Tickets are available from the event’s website, for which there is a link at the bottom of this page. It is worth noting that students qualify for concessionary tickets, meaning you can save up to £20 for a whole day pass.

For more information about the event, or to buy tickets, visit www.tedxsalford.com/

Chanje Kunda – the Renaissance Woman

Written by Nicole Tamer on . Posted in Theatre.

I met up with Chanje on a chilly morning and it was really exciting as well as intimidating to meet her since she seems to do everything an artist could do. She is originally from Zambia and moved to Manchester when she was seven, where she was the only black child in her class. She later studied in Canada and spent one year in Amsterdam which inspired her to write a poetry collection published by Crocus Books. Her upcoming innovative show Amsterdam is a mix of various different performance styles. We talked about the city of Amsterdam, poetry and society pressure.

She lived in Amsterdam for a year and loved the proximity to the water. “I got to live on a house boat and through those circular windows, I could see the light reflecting on the water and a duck gliding by. Sitting on a deck on a canal surrounded by all those bridges was gorgeous.

“Amsterdam is a story of love, I met a man there and he became my lover. Before I went to Amsterdam, I owned a car and a house. I left my house and everything and moved there. It’s about abandoning your responsibilities and chasing your dreams.”

When I asked her if her dreams ever turned out to be nightmares, she laughed and meant that I have to see her play to find out. “I don’t want to spoil it for you. It’s an adventure.”

“When I decided I want to be a poet, people said to me ‘you can’t be a poet because it is not a job’. When anyone tells me I can’t do anything, it annoys me. I make a living with being a poet. But a careers advisor would never suggest that.”

She then tells more about her past: “I was just a bit wild anyway and left home when I was 16. I was partying and later went to college and university in Canada and studied theatre and music. I never wanted to do anything else than performing and did it regardless of what other people thought. I’ve been self-employed as an artist for over ten years—I’ve never had a proper job.”

In her poetry and website, she talks about how women should be free to explore their sexuality and not to be objectified and I wondered if she targets especially women when she teaches at schools through the Global Link programme. “When I do my performances for young people, I don’t do anything related to gender. But because I’m a woman and I’m doing performances and not being at home in the kitchen or a pop star wearing revealing clothes, as often represented in the media. When they see a woman who is passionate, creative, thought provoking and inspiring it already shows a different way of representation.

“Crocus books first didn’t like the manuscript I’ve sent them and I wrote a journal in Amsterdam and he found it really interesting. It is like a part of my life, it is autobiographical and about my experience in Amsterdam. It was quite scary because there are very intimate parts in my journal. I then dramatised it and made it into a play.

“I was working with Juliette Ellis and she comes from a life art background and her directorial style is very pictorial and abstract and the language of my poetry is also very abstract and we used to really marry together. And by working with her, I became more interested in life art and received life art training. It’s quite unusual because you don’t normally see poetry combined with dancing.

“She is amazing and incredible, especially because she worked in film, she has a strong visual style. In poetry it’s all about the meaning of words, with her it’s more about visual poetry and creating pictures with your body. It’s like creating a world on stage, a visual world. which is really exciting. I also have a set and costume designer and I can put a more visual aspect to it and also with a choreographer, it’s very physically intensive.”

I asked her if it was difficult to talk about intimate topics on stage and she said that the abstract style makes it more beautiful and gives people a different perspective on intimacy. It is a contrast to media, where it is more superficial and clumsy and she hopes to establish an emotional connection with the audience. From the videos I’ve watched, her interaction with the audience seems very refreshing and I wondered if she’s got a stage persona, but because of her autobiographical story, she performs her ‘past self’ instead of someone different.

“When you do a performance, it’s about your imagination, you’re imagining you’re Romeo or Juliet or Macbeth. When I’m performing a piece, I’m there in Amsterdam and I can see how it was. I’m in my imagination, I’m having an experience and going on an emotional journey.

“I feel a lot of gratitude because I’m living my dream, but it takes a lot of stamina. It’s good because I’m building towards something.” She doesn’t feel it is very straining because she sees it as an adventure—like climbing a mountain, about to reach the summit, having a goal to get there and she will probably feel tired after reaching the top, but she never feels empty afterwards. She is momentarily focussing on her national tour and putting a lot of work into it, but she’s hoping to do an international tour in the future.

To wrap up, I asked her why students should see her play: “The play is something very innovative. This style of performance is very progressive by putting different art styles together. You’re going on an emotional journey, the sound design is amazing and with the theme, it will really stay in the memory. It is relatable because everyone has probably been in love before and it’s about following your dreams and going on an adventure. And the closeness to Contact Theatre of course!”

 

See the play at Contact Theatre on Friday, 3 or Saturday, 4 October at 7:30pm