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Month: March 2016

Is anti-Semitism to blame for the rise of the ‘Jewni’?

Written by Georgie Hines on . Posted in News.

Last week, The Telegraph published an article on ‘Jewniversities’—listing a collection of higher education institutions across the UK that the young Jewish community flock to. According to the Union of Jewish Students (UJS), 61 per cent of UK Jewish students attend just six universities: Birmingham, Leeds, Nottingham, Oxford, Cambridge and Manchester.

Emily Deaner, former President of Manchester’s Jewish Society (JSoc), explains that Manchester can not necessarily be counted as a top ‘Jewniversity’ any more: “Manchester has historically been a university that attracts large numbers of Jewish students, however in recent years these numbers have fallen massively.”

But when Jewish students do decide to come to Manchester, Deaner insists that it not the large community of Jewish students that is a deciding factor:

“When I chose to come to Manchester I was attracted more to the city and the university than the number of Jewish students that would be there,” adding that this is a general consensus amongst Manchester’s JSoc.

Still, “Manchester as a city has the second-largest Jewish population in the country, and so has great resources for more religious students” if that is what they are looking for.

“It is an added bonus that there is a great community but I think that if someone was thinking about being with lots of Jewish students they wouldn’t necessarily pick Manchester.”

One explanation behind this growing trend is the fear of anti-Semitism on campus. According to the National Jewish Student Survey taken in 2011, 38 per cent of Jewish students reporting concerns of anti-Israel movements at their university.

Concerns over this matter grew last month after claims of anti-Semitism in the Oxford University Labour Club (OULC). The Chairman of the group admitted that “a large proportion of both OULC and the student left in Oxford more generally have some kind of problem with Jews.”

Miss Deaner is certain that this isn’t the reason that the Manchester JSoc community is depleting, saying: “I’ve never experienced any anti-Semitism on campus” and “that all my friends are really interested in my religion.”

As well as the OULC controversy, several universities are in talks to boycott Israel due to human rights abuse against Palestinian people. University College London made this decision last week.

Speaking on the matter, Emily Deaner explains that “it’s quite obvious that JSoc do not agree with the BDS movement and as someone who is pro-peace I do not think it’s really going to achieve any good.

“I think that a lot of people are misinformed and do not truly understand the Israel-Palestine situation and there should be a conversation about what is happening rather than a mere boycott of everything Israeli.”

Apart from 15 lecturers from the University of Manchester who signed up to join the national boycott of Israel last year, the university has not officially taken the stance on the conflict.

Royal Mess Up: Papers misreport anti-racism campaign

Written by Elizabeth Oakley on . Posted in News.

Both The Sunday Times and The Independent were forced to remove articles which claimed that the ‘I, too, Am Royal Holloway’ campaign advocated the removal of a statue of Queen Victoria on campus.

The campaign intended to promote the inclusion of Black. Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) students by raising awareness of casual racism present at the university. This was inspired by previous movements such as ‘I, too, am Oxford’ and ‘I, too, am Harvard’, which similarly used a compilation of photographs of BAME students holding up quotes of racist slurs or micro-aggressions they had experienced.

Confusion of its purpose arose when The Tab in Royal Holloway reported the campaign with the headline ‘BME students ‘feel excluded’ by Queen Victoria’s Empress of India statue’. The Sunday Times followed on the 6th of March with ‘Anti-Imperialist Students Turn Fire on Victoria’, whilst The Independent claimed ‘Students Have Demanded That a Statue of Queen Victoria at Royal Holloway Be Removed’.

Royal Holloway’s Students’ Union responded with a statement denouncing the the headlines, asserting: “the campaign does not call for the removal of the statue of Queen Victoria in Founder’s North Quad” and that this alleged purpose of the movement was “completely untrue”.

In addition, Grace Almond, who was thought to be at the forefront of the ‘I, too, am Royal Holloway’ campaign later tweeted: “There are no plans for a #Victoriamustfall campaign at Royal Holloway. The articles written by @Independent and @thesundaytimes are false”.

All three articles have now been deleted.

The controversy over the misreport of the anti-racism campaign comes at a time where the colonial pasts of several universities are being disputed through student protest. This was initially sparked a year ago with the Rhodes Must Fall (RMF) campaign at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, where a statue of Cecil Rhodes—a Victorian Imperialist who supported Apartheid-style measures—was defaced before being taken down.

RMF then spread to the University of Oxford, where a number of students began to challenge the presence of a Cecil Rhodes statue at Oriel College. Despite unsuccessful attempts to remove it, the attention provoked a ‘Mass March for Decolonization’, which occurred on Wednesday the 9th of March. This saw over 100 students take an ‘alternative walking tour’ of sites linked to Oxford’s colonial past.

A number of other universities have also faced anti-colonial action. On Wednesday, Jesus College Cambridge pledged to remove a bronze cockerel from its dining room. This was looted from Nigeria during a British colonial expedition in the 19th Century. A college spokesperson on Tuesday stated that the rightful location of the ‘Benin bronze’ was a complex matter requiring further discussion.

Meanwhile in the United States, the Harvard Law School Committee has put pressure on the University to remove its crest that has ties to 18th century slave traders. The image, which depicts three sheaves of wheat, is based on the family crest of Isaac Royall Junior, the son of a wealthy slave owner and trader whose bequest endowed Harvard’s first law professorship. This comes after the successful campaign for the removal of the term ‘master’ from academic titles due to the word’s contentious connection with slavery.

Amherst College Massachusetts has also faced scrutiny due to its link with informal mascot, Jeffrey Amherst, an 18th century general accused of permitting the infection of Native Americans with smallpox.

Princeton is another, whose school named after Woodrow Wilson has been questioned, due to the former President’s allegedly racist views and contempt for ethnic minorities.

Review: JustFest 2016

Written by Madeleine Jones on . Posted in News.

Organised by the Student Development and Community Engagement Division (SDCE) and its programme Ethical Grand Challenges (EGC), JustFest 2016 is the university’s annual social justice festival. Despite it only being its second year running, this year’s JustFest’s comprised a main stage, stalls and exhibitions, a film ‘igloo’, a talks tent, and a number of local food stands. Associate Vice-President For Social Responsibility, James Thompson, informed The Mancunion on how the idea of JustFest was first established:

“The university, as part of a social responsibility goal, is trying to create a series of programmes that all students can access, which complement people’s curriculum but also extend the learning and interests they might have. We’re piloting this over the next few years.

“We’re looking for a way to attract students to come to debates and be confronted with issues of social justice, so JustFest is an attempt to think about a different form of engaging students, rather than putting on a series of lectures.”

Its outdoor main stage boasted a range of cutting-edge artists engaged with social justice issues, including the legendary Don Letts, spoken word artist and rapper George the Poet and Akala’s Hip Hop Shakespeare Company. Thompson said that the SDCE and the Students’ Union worked closely together “and there’s a whole series of staff involved with aspects of the music industry working to get a number of [the] artists. A lot of people have given their time for free, [while] we’ve paid some artists to come.”

In the talks tents, speakers had just five minutes to talk about their chosen social justice topic. The short but sweet approach worked well—each speaker got straight to the heart of the issue. Inside, the stalls and exhibitions held in Academy 1 were full of of interested crowds all afternoon.

Prior to the festival, a short film competition was opened up for students to submit a film on an issue they are passionate about. A shortlist of nine was announced about a week ago, with the winner announced on the main stage at the end of the festival. The judges chose two winners: Spot The Difference by Ben Capener, and Social Justice, Mental Health by Vay Whittaker. The People’s Choice winner was To Refuge by Hanna Krabchi. The Grand Prize was given to Ollie Thomson for his film When I Say I—a look at sexual abuse. All shortlisted films can be watched here.

The festival aims to make social justice accessible and relevant to all, instead of just the interest of a minority as it is often portrayed. “There seems to be a big call for students now,” Thompson told The Mancunion, “and people generally, to be both real experts in what they know—their core discipline, and to have wider areas of interest and be engaged with other issues. So that you can be a pharmacist, say, who’s got a great understanding of sustainability and social justice. So what we’re trying to do here in Manchester is give students that opportunity.”

The festival has seen support from a range of people and groups. “The Students’ Union have been brilliant in supporting this. In the long term, we see it as a really important partnership between the Students’ Union to engage students with a range of issues. We’ve got loads of local campaigning groups, the student groups and staff research representatives—it’s a really good combination of all those things.”

Regarding the future of JustFest and similar events, Thompson stated, “we’re going to evaluate this year’s festival. The idea eventually is to make it a much bigger event and think about where on campus it might happen.

Already this year, almost organically, a number of fringe events started appearing, such as the Debating Union’s Fossil Fuel debate. So eventually I’d like to see, you might have a festival day, but perhaps a week on social justice issues.”

You can follow updates from the Ethical Grand Challenges here and on their Facebook and Twitter pages.

The Whitworth strikes gold in VisitEngland Awards

Written by Tori Blakeman on . Posted in News.

The Whitworth has won yet another gold award, this time from Visit England in the large visitor attraction category. The University of Manchester’s art gallery beat an array of renowned competitors—including Chester Zoo and Salisbury Cathedral.

The Whitworth reopened its doors to the public in February 2015 after a £15 million redevelopment, which doubled the size of the building—the largest renovation in the gallery’s 125 year history. Since then, the gallery has scooped multiple national and international awards, including Europe’s Best Emerging Culture Destination, Museum of the Year 2015, and North West Building of the Year.

The most recent gold award for the The Whitworth is from the VisitEngland Awards for Excellence, which represents the highest accolade in English tourism. The Awards are firmly established in recognizing the highest excellence in practice and customer service, celebrating businesses of supreme quality and innovation.

Sally Balcombe, CEO of VisitBritain and VisitEngland, said: “These awards are the highest accolade in the industry, recognising the world class tourism experiences that can be found throughout England. As ever competition has been fierce, with winners from the regions coming through to compete at a national level so my congratulations to all our winners, especially the Gold Award winners who are the standard bearers for English tourism.”

Gallery Director Maria Balshaw said: “It has been a momentous period for the gallery—and winning this award, one of several now, is again a wonderful way to say thank you to all those who made it possible.”

The Whitworth is located on Oxford Road, and is open 7 days a week from 10am until 5pm, and on Thursdays until 9pm. For more information on upcoming exhibitions and events, visit www.manchester.ac.uk/whitworth.

Review: Pat Flynn: Half-life of a Miracle

Written by Neil Greenhalgh on . Posted in Arts.

Manchester Art Gallery’s ground floor, The Manchester Gallery, has been transformed into a white cube space for this, the largest solo show of Manchester-based artist Pat Flynn, to date. Unless you’re familiar with his work, which I wasn’t, they look on first glance like they could be photographs or hyper-realistic paintings. They are, in fact, created entirely using 3D computer graphics software. The represented scenarios do not exist in the physical world; in other words, they’re all made up.

At least, most of them are. Some of the works on display contain representations of pre-existing images, such as Wise Man/Shining city upon a Hill, which is a recreation of the side of the Wizard’s throne in The Wizard of Oz. The Wizard of Oz is, of course, also made up; a movie adaptation of a fictional novel. So how real is this throne? Is a representation of a pre-existing fabrication still a fabrication, or does the movie provide some concrete standing in the physical world? There is an interesting paradox of fact and fiction at play here: we see the familiar shapes of everyday objects in some of these works and we recognise them, but they are simply digital pixels, ordered and manipulated to create illusions of these familiar objects, questioning the reliability of our system of perception. The analogy of smoke and mirrors was used by Flynn in his Untitled (Smoke) series and sums up his concept nicely.

We can remove ourselves from the smoke and mirrors and enjoy these works on a purely aesthetic level. There is a sort of cleanliness to their aesthetic, a clean cut, straight-lined utopic purity that resonates through them. The colours are bold, the palettes small and the works are easy to look at. There’s a certain beauty in simplicity that draws comparisons with minimalism; some showing the influence of Donald Judd; others the forms of Dan Flavin. There is also an awareness of, and nod to, certain other areas of art history with the chiaroscuro of Caravaggio and the symbolism of Bruegel both subtly but clearly referenced.

Manchester Art Gallery until the 17th of April.

For more information about the exhibition and Pat Flynn’s work visit: Half-life of a Miracle

University of Buckingham brings in sniffer dogs to improve mental health

Written by Rossy Natale on . Posted in News.

As part of a move to rid their campus of drugs and “improve the well-being of students,” the University of Buckingham has invited in a group of drug sniffing dogs to parole the campus. The initiative was established by the university’s Vice-Chancellor, Sir Anthony Seldon. The University of Buckingham is the only private university in the UK that does not generate a profit.

Seldon is an outspoken advocate of students’ wellbeing and healthy student culture. Drugs, he argues, are a major contributor to poor mental health. Much of this is based on his own experiences with alcohol and drug consumption during his time at university.

Under Seldon’s guidance, the university has devised a ten-step plan to help improve mental health on campus. Drug sniffing dogs have been used as a kind of warning to deter against illegal drug use. The local police have also been given access to the campus at any time.

“Universities must start embracing the problem, and stop ignoring and even exacerbating it by failing to engage fully with best practice, and by permissive policies which turn a blind eye to alcohol abuse and other causes of distress,” Seldon explained in a press release by the university earlier this year.

Alistair Alcock, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University, describes to The Mancunion how “having sniffer dogs on the campus sent a strong visual message that we do intend to enforce the [zero-tolerance] policy.

“Allowing the police to walk through the campus and into our public spaces is not just about deterring drugs. It is to emphasise the general safety of the campus and as much, if not more, to make clear to non-students that the campus is not a police-free zone as to deter any wrongdoing students may be engaged in.”

A four-year report from the Higher Education Funding Council for England has found an increase in more than 50 per cent of the number of students seeking counselling services in their university. Seldon has deemed this a nationwide “crisis in University mental health.”

Alcock explains how “we do not wish to be expelling students for involvement in drugs, but we do wish to deter any from considering such involvement and force those that have become involved to engage with our Welfare Department to get away from them… the University’s Welfare Department has an active programme to help those who realise that they do have a problem, to overcome it, but we will take action against those who do not come forward and engage.”

The University of Manchester has a less strict policy towards drugs and alcohol, and it is undeniable that students in Manchester face the same issues with mental health. However, the measures initiated at the University of Buckingham may not work everywhere.

“I’m not really sure everyone would be comfortable with that,” one Manchester student who requested anonymity said to The Mancunion. “It seems like an invasion of privacy.”

Review: All Rise

Written by Mritunjay Sharma on . Posted in Film.

All Rise follows a story based on six talented individuals from different parts of the world, facing different kinds of socio-economic problems, with one goal in mind: to win Jessup. Jessup or Philip C. Jessup International Moot Court competition is the largest moot court competition with participants from over 550 law schools in more than 80 countries.

The film in the first part follows these six individuals, where they talk about their aspirations and their expectations from Jessup, as well as discussing the hardships that most of them go through in the regular scheme of life—the pressure mounted on them from different people to go and do something miraculous in the competition. In the second part, the rigorous competition starts in a football World Cup-style format, where in the beginning there are 80 teams that compete against each other in different groups which lead to next round of 32, where teams start to get eliminated in a one on one match. The two teams competing have to defend two fictional countries on an international dispute; they have to remember every case, every international law and have to make sure that the opponent does not get a hold of them in any case. In this process the six individuals that are followed have to take the pressure on. During this process some will falter, and some emerge as winner.

Petition made for Piccadilly Gardens revamp

Written by Alexandra Bickell on . Posted in News.

Given the general dislike for Manchester’s Piccadilly Gardens, as well as its extremely high crime rate, the Manchester Evening News has put forward a petition to Manchester City Council to revamp the whole area and take it back to the glory days of the 1950s.

Currently, the area consists of a small playground, tired grass patches and a huge concrete wall that dominates the scene. On the review site TripAdviser, the area has been described as “the dumping ground of Manchester” and “stale and lifeless”.

The area’s crime rates are unusually high, with 87 separate incidents recorded by the Greater Manchester Police in December 2015 alone. Piccadilly Gardens is widely known as a hotbed of drug use and dealings, with one TripAdvisor user stating that the area has “more drugs than Boots.” From August 2013 to 2014, 80 separate arrests were made in the area in connection with drug dealing alone.

A recent Manchester Evening News survey found that over half of the participants did not feel safe in the gardens at night—The Tab reported similar findings, with one Manchester student adding “I don’t travel anywhere on my own.”

The gardens in 1949. Source: HistoryMe

The heyday of the gardens was the 1950s, when the area saw tended flower beds, trees, and a working fountain. One commentator on the Chorlton History website described the area has having an all-around “friendlier” atmosphere than today.

The current fountain is out of action and has been broken on at least 5 separate occasions since its installation in 2002. The city centre was rebuilt that year after the 1996 Manchester bombing, but the design has proven very unpopular.

The petition to makeover the “scruffy” gardens was released on 2nd March of this year and within 24 hours, it has received over 10,000 signatures—only 4,000 are required to demand that the city council publically discuss the issue. Once the petition has gathered 20,000 signatures the Manchester Evening News will present it to the council leaders to show the outpouring of the support it has received, hopefully prompting them to take action.

There have been several ideas put forward for the renovation already. The concrete wall and what to do with it features heavily in all of these suggestions, from demolishing it entirely to turning it into “something that everyone can enjoy.” This could include turning part of it into a backdrop for new restaurants and bars, to create a “flourishing night-time economy” or covering it in creeping plants and creating extra green space for the city.

If you would like to sign the petition, go to petitions.manchester.gov.uk/petitions.ti/piccadillygardensmen on the Manchester City Council website.

Review: London Has Fallen

Written by Sarah Jane Thoms on . Posted in Film.

In Babak Najafi’s London Has Fallen, the action takes a trip across the pond from the White House to the City of London as this adrenaline fuelled sequel to Olympus Has Fallen brings Gerard Butler and Aaron Eckhart face to face with a mass act of terrorism once again. With an event in the British capital that requires all major leaders of the Western world to attend, a terrorist attack is able to leave London injured and down on the ground—forcing the President of the United States and his trusty bodyguard Mike Banning onto a two-man crusade against, what appears to be, the world.

Scenes of fiery explosions, ferocious fist fights and nail-biting shootouts bring back the feel of a classic Hollywood action film. The film has been criticised in regards to the use of poor special effects. But when wanting to show London’s greatest landmarks being blown to smithereens, how realistic can you make it look? It gives off this old-school action effect—a Die Hard notion with a hint of the aesthetics from The Expendables—minus the comedy. London Has Fallen gives you the chase scenes that drive an action film and unlike its prequel, allows the President and Mike to work together as a team, leaving viewers to turn to social media to refer to the pair as an onscreen ‘bromance’.

Some of the original cast members from Olympus Has Fallen come back for more in the next round of the action. Morgan Freeman returns to his role as the Vice-President to watch the action unfold from the safety of the White House and uses his famously known ‘God-like’ voice to fiend the attackers off from afar. Angela Bassett reprises her role as the Director of the United States Secret Service, who joins both the President and Banning on their journey across the Atlantic and feels the heat of the attack personally to say the least, claiming that “it’s one thing to plan for this… it’s another thing to live through it.” Both provide plausible supporting roles in the film and by choosing to keep several of the same actors for this sequel, a somewhat saga is created.

Aaron Eckhart’s performance is stunted due to the helpless characterisation of the President and likewise, Gerard Butler provides an admirable performance as Mike Banning as much as the narrative and genre of the film allows him to. There were moments of Butler’s performance within London has Fallen that reminded me of his performance during his role as Clyde Shelton in F. Gary Gray’s Law Abiding Citizen. It is these moments of Mike’s pure anger and hatred that are portrayed by Butler in London as Fallen that stem from certain catalysts. The film touches on some controversial matters as the plot revolves around the Western world being attacked by the Middle East—a topic relevant in current affairs at the moment. In a scene which shows Mike Banning in a head to head with one of the leading attackers, Gerard Butler’s character refers to the home country of the terrorists’ as ‘Fuckheadistan’, which leads me to question what sort of message this film emits to its audience members. The West is presented as the hero and the East as the enemy. In a highly anticipated Hollywood blockbuster, is this really what needs to be presented given the current circumstances of global politics?

If you like the non-realistic stereotypical cheesy action film, then London Has Fallen may be just for you. But if you are into an action film with a little bit more of a thrilling and stimulating drama to the narrative, then you may need skip the trip to the cinema to see this one. The White House has fallen and the City of London has fallen but is there really any need for anywhere else to take the fall?

3/5

TV Binge: Cuckoo

Written by Elena Gibbs on . Posted in Film.

Back as an online exclusive, the late Cuckoo’s unlikely son Dale is played by Taylor Lautner, who has just returned from a business trip in China. Naïve innocence dressed in a suit and aviators provides instant comedy as he prepares ‘di shui-dong ribs with braised eggplant’, exotic fruits and chicken chop suey for the family.

Meanwhile Lorna (Helen Baxendale)—pregnant and convincing Ken (Greg Davies) to take six months paternity leave—oversees the household and acts as the beacon of normality that clashes with her husband’s new scarlet corduroys. Dylan, the all-grown-up Jake (Tyger Drew-Honey) from Outnumbered, is left unquestioned to his teenage boy pursuit of sleeping with his girlfriend as many times as possible before she goes abroad: “9 more shags to go”, slipping out of the door before a chance of reprimand from the family.

Daughter Rachel (Esther Smith) is still seeing the clingy two-shoes Ben, Matt Lacey from her ‘gap yah’, and is searching for something more than the sit down office job with the uninspiring target goal of promotion to manager. Perhaps a volunteering scheme in Perah.

Easy to plunge into without the prerequisites of the first two series, each episode begins with a brief recap of what happened before so you’re not left completely clueless.

A surprising hit from Andy Samberg’s series debut in 2012, Cuckoo has progressed to involve familiar characters with ups, downs and frankly hilarious cameos gracing the screens after children’s bedtime (if you haven’t seen the clip of ‘Ken on E’ you haven’t lived).

With Twilight star Taylor Lautner in a new, playful light as he bounds around the family home like an untrained bunny, the gold of the show shines from his kind soul and misguided actions. Unaware of his romantic competition with Ben, his every move wins over the hearts of Rachel and the viewers as he jogs the 12-mile journey to the hospital after getting excluded from Ben’s car.

With Dale’s tribal upbringing so removed from the stereotypical indirectness of English emotional awkwardness, the contrast provides hilarity as the foreign bird settles in to nest.

With plenty of back story, character development and plot twists, Cuckoo is an easy-watching experience with intermittent laughs and without fear of the implausible. Settle in for kidnapping, drug barons, Shanghai brides and above all, Greg Davies in magenta trousers.

Public support for junior doctors stays strong as third strike is carried out

Written by Charlie Spargo on . Posted in News.

Support for junior doctors in their dispute against the government’s imposed contract changes remained high as medical professionals went on strike for the third time on the 9th of March.

A 48-hour strike began at 8am on Wednesday, with junior doctors walking out again in the hopes of reversing the decision, though yet again emergency cover remained as more than 5,000 appointments and surgeries had to be postponed.

A poll by Ipsos MORI for the BBC in fact showed that opposition to the strikes had fallen from 22 per cent to 17 per cent since before the February walkout. Support remained strong at 65 per cent.

In the same poll, opinion that the government was the party at fault remained the highest at 57 per cent, though this has fallen from above 60 per cent, with an increased number saying that both parties were equally at fault—up 10 per cent to 28 per cent.

The three walkouts have caused a total of 19,000 treatments to be postponed and two more are planned for April. The strikes, beginning on the 6th and 26th of April 2016, will both last 48 hours and emergency care is planned to remain.

However, worries have been raised that momentum may begin to drop off the longer the dispute carries on, particularly after the imposition by the Health Secretary of the unpopular new contract.

However Dr Max Thoburn, an FY2 doctor from the Central Manchester University Hospitals, says “If anything, I think the imposition has made things easier, as people have become even angrier and more determined. In a sense, we have absolutely nothing to lose now. The worst has already happened and so we can only achieve improvement from this point.

“I think that the reason for such strong public support has been our clear and honest message that this is about the future of a sustainable NHS and certainly not greedy doctors trying to grab money. As we go into the future, we are looking to again emphasise this message and further tie in to issues such as cuts in social care, disability benefits and health education, each of which  serve both to persecute the vulnerable and put an ever greater burden on the NHS.

“By showing our solidarity with their plight, I think the public see that the entire dispute is, at its core, for their benefit. For that reason, they will stay on our side.”

Dr Anne Rainsberry, of NHS England, said: “This is clearly going to be a difficult couple of days. A 48-hour strike will put significantly more pressure on the NHS and the cumulative effect of these recurring strikes is likely to take a toll.

“The safety and care of patients is always our number one priority and staff across the NHS are doing all they can to minimise the impact on patients of the action.”

Helen Pankhurst speaks to The Mancunion

Written by Georgie Hines on . Posted in News.

Continuing the commemoration of women throughout the week, The Global Institute held a special screening of British historical period film Suffragette—starring Carey Mulligan, Helena Bonham Carter and Meryl Streep.

Suffragette follows the story of Maud Watts, a working class woman with a family, who, along with a small but determined group of women, loses everything in the fight for a woman’s right to vote. Whilst most action portrayed in movies is dramatised, the militancy shown by the women in this film and the horrendous treatment they received is real.

The film is inspired by the suffragette movement—spearheaded by Manchester’s own Emmeline Pankhurst. Whilst her appearance in the film was fleeting, her speech made sure that her presence was felt. The action of suffragettes can be described by one of Pankhurst’s most famous quotes: “I’d rather be a rebel than a slave”.

The screening was followed by a Q&A session chaired by Professor Uma Kothari, Director of the Global Development Institute. The panel consisted of three experts on women’s rights and its history: Penny Summerfield, Professor of Modern History at the University of Manchester, Sohela Nazeen, Professor of International Relations at the University of Dhaka and Helen Pankhurst, CARE International UK’s campaign ambassador and great-granddaughter of Pankhurst.

After the Q&A, The Mancunion spoke with Pankhurst personally about why this story is important to be told. Ms Pankhurst said: “I think it’s still relevant today, a lot of the issues they were campaigning about still apply here and globally.

“It’s really important that it doesn’t get forgotten,” and we should remember “how much our ancestors, not just mine” sacrificed for the rights that UK women have today.

She spoke about the perspective of the movie and why it was significant that the suffragette movement was told by an average working class woman. “It universalises it”, she said. It’s “told about somebody that anyone can relate to, rather than just a biopic.”

But just because women now have the right to vote does not mean that the issue of gender equality has ended. There are many problems still to solve and Ms Pankhurst says that “it’s up to each one of us to decide which ones we feel most passionately about.

“I think the wonderful difference between the world we live in now and a hundred years ago is social media” and “you can make a difference to both local causes and to more global ones.

“We want to get there this generation [but] there are so many issues to still campaign about”, she said. “If each of us just tackle a little bit, we’ll get there.”

Ms Pankhurst has spent her life dedicated to international women’s rights after witnessing the situation in Ethiopia during her childhood. “[It] made me particularly interested in international feminism, which is relevant to us more and more because we live in an interconnected world.

“If we don’t listen, if we don’t care what’s happening in other countries it will come back and haunt us” because “we don’t exist in isolation.”

This belief led to her disagreeing with the comments of minister Priti Patel, who likened leaving the EU with the suffragette movement.

After being asked why she spoke up about the issue, Ms Pankhurst replied that “I objected to the name being used in a way that I felt was so opposed to what I felt and I stand for,” and “I just felt I couldn’t be silent about it.”

But if she were to say anything more about the EU, it would be to vote. “This is probably the most single important vote you could use as women and youngsters.”

The event highlighted that with the referendum just around the corner it is important for women not to waste the vote that the suffragettes fought so hard for us to have.

The University of Manchester Jiu Jitsu club’s Randori success

Written by Will Kelly on . Posted in Sport.

The University of Manchester Jiu Jitsu club enjoyed a successful outing at the Randori nationals the weekend of the 27th of February, an event that celebrates the Judo heritage of the Jiu Jitsu style.

For those who do not know much about Jiu Jitsu, it is a sport that encompasses a wealth of throwing techniques from both Judo and Aikido. The latter involves a lot of arm locks and wrist techniques, which were essential to samurai combat, since the goal was to land the opponent on their unprotected neck or to break a joint such as their arms or knees.

Over the years, Japanese Ju Jitsu has existed in many forms under various other names before it settled at ‘Shorinji Kan’ in the 1950s. It was this that reshaped traditional techniques to form a more realistic self-defence, using them to defend theirselves from bottle attacks, knives, batons and chains. This is the current style of the University of Manchester club.

The goal is to throw your attacker to the floor, whilst staying on your own two feet to stay safe and keep control of the fight. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu differs from this style in the sense that it’s essentially a 1v1 sparring sport dominated by ground pins and holds.

Ten of the club’s members travelled to Wolverhampton to compete against sixty other clubs from around the country. Those below the green belt (3rd belt) did ground fighting, aiming to pin their opponent to the ground, while those above did both ground fighting and standing judo.

Ged Parkinson enjoyed notable success, winning silver in the ground fighting and bronze in the green belt standing Judo competition, while Joshua Buckingham-Bostock put up a good enough fight to secure bronze in the purple belt standing Judo competition. Kamila Polujanski also showed she was no pushover as she competed against grades two belts higher than herself and still managed to secure silver.

Kamilla recognises that there are significantly less women involved in the sport but was pleased to see that at least a third of participants competing at the Randori were women. Team captain Tom Rosso explained that grappling martial arts has not been a sport that traditionally attracts women but, due to the recent success of many female fighters, he believes that womens’ participation is on the up because the fighters are showing that women can be successful.

“It’s becoming socially acceptable for women to actually go out and fight”, Kamilla added, “It’s a big thing at the moment because it’s not feminine really”.

An increase in female participation at the club is certainly on the agenda, with James Sharples even going as far to say that they were looking into creating a women’s officer role for the club. In fact, increasing overall participation has been Tom’s target since the start of the year so he is delighted to hear that more members of the club are competing.

“Last year we only had 2 members of the club travelling down for the Randori Nationals so to get 10 people going down this year was great to see! Martial arts is growing in popularity but the end goal is really more about getting people to feel secure enough to compete”.

There is certainly a real community feel for Jiu Jitsu in the north-west of England, whereby members of the University of Manchester club often join up with other universities to train together. James recently attended a training session in Liverpool where he made new friends with members of their club. At the Randori nationals he lost against one of these friends and, although he had wanted to win himself, said that, “it was great to have that sense of camaraderie between the clubs”.

James met members of the Liverpool club again Saturday the 12th March, as the Manchester club underwent its grading, an assessment to demonstrate all the available techniques and to prove that you can apply them under pressure. While in Judo you can gain your belts through competing, Jiu Jitsu requires that you be graded before you are promoted to another belt, despite being able to win medals at competitions.  “If you do particularly well in the grading, you will get a particular stripe on your belt called a mon”, added James.

It is the rise of Manchester’s club that has caused concern amongst Christie cup rivals, Leeds and Liverpool. Tom tells us that the other clubs are trying to have the rules changed to favour them. “Many of our members have been successful at the ground fighting aspect of the sport and some of the clubs want to limit that aspect. I assume it’s because they don’t feel confident”. The team is certainly one to look out for in their quest to bring home the Christie cup.

An overview of the decline of Aston Villa

Written by Kyle Huggins on . Posted in Sport.

To paraphrase Lemony Snickett, if you are interested in stories with happy endings, you would be better off reading something else… The rollercoaster of turmoil which Aston Villa Football Club have ridden for the last five years appears to almost be at an end, with even the most optimistic of Villa fans embracing our impending relegation.

A lethal combination of poor football, lacklustre performances and the draining of confidence have led to the manifestation of the current position of the club. However, these are the factors displayed on the pitch, yet only represent the tip of the iceberg in terms of the deep-rooted problems faced by Villa. Further analysis reveals a complex, multifaceted combination of variables behind the demise from potential Champions League qualifiers to bottom of the Premiership, nine points from safety.

The times of Young, Downing, Milner, Barry, Mellberg, Laursen, and Carew hailed quick, aggressive, attacking football, and goals were never amiss at Villa Park—the combination of Agbonlahor, Downing and Young being a central feature of an explosive attack, Barry and Milner controlling in midfield and Laursen and Mellberg solid in defence a long with many others who played a role.

These times came at an extraordinarily high price fiscally and psychologically. 120 million in four seasons with a net spend of £81 million, and a wage-to-turnover figure that reached 85 per cent. Yet many argue it wasn’t the signings of the stars of the show which led to the degradation of this wage situation, but instead the carelessness of O’Neill investing in players rarely used on large wages who were hard to remove subsequently. Nonetheless the seeds of doubt were sowed into Randy Learner’s mind around the extent to which the Villa project could be a success.

A change in tactic ensued, with cost-cutting starting up front replacing spending to success, despite the proven record of Chelsea and the rising success of Man City at the time. O’Neill jumped ship days before the start of the 2010 season, with the holes which had started to appear in the hull unable to be repaired thus proliferating the sinking ship that Remi Garde inherited.

Firstly, the loss of quality players, with the instalment of various incoherent transfer policies starting with ‘young’, ‘hungry’, and ending with ‘foreign flair’ players, in essence gutted the squad of all quality. Out went Milner, Downing, Young, Petrov and others. In came Holman, El Ahmadi, Sylla and Tonev along with a raft of others who simply have not made the cut for the Premier League.

Undoubtedly, Vlaar—when fit—managed to put in good performances, Delph came of age and started to look like a world beater on his day and Benteke, being the cream of the crop, putting in many ‘unplayable’ performances. Yet even with these three in the team, Villa limped to safety each year, consistently holding on to a below-mid-table finish since 2012.

Yet the recruitment policy of the last two transfer windows is indicting of the board’s reluctance to fight for survival and re-establish the club. Upon the back of an extremely lucky escape last season, the club took the position to sell the spine of the team. The extent to which they had a choice is unknown. And they further gambled with signing untried and untested players from Ligue 1, a player from Barcelona B, and put pressure on 19-year-old Jack Grealish, who undoubtedly has talent, but is not ready for the weekly strains of the Premier League as yet. Needless to say how this gamble worked out. The board’s reluctance to spend a penny in the January transfer window despite being stone bottom, clearly signalled to the footballing community the intentions of Randy Learner.

Lacklustre, recruitment of managers further encapsulates Villa’s woes. Although finishing ninth, Gerard Houllier’s short tenure at the club was also poor, characterised by the inability to score goals or win games. A flurry of last minute wins at the end of the 2010/11 season temporarily covered the cracks in the hull left by O’Neill.

The replacement with Alex McLeish who had just been sacked by Birmingham City, however, was the first nail in the coffin and a great insult to the fans. Renown for defensive football, and sacked by local rivals, it was inevitable the Villa faithful would never take to him. The football was poor, and he admits himself he was “drained from the Birmingham City experience.” His management signified the loss of the reminisce of the ‘old guard’.

Paul Lambert started his career with a slight optimism due to the good job he had performed at Norwich, yet it was clear that the board did not back him as they had failed to financially back McLeish, and even more clear after two seasons that he was not the man for the job, yet there was the insistence for him to remain, and in congruence the football quality was degraded. Lambert’s sacking being poorly timed should have happening sooner after scraping survival two seasons running.

When we were finally put out of our misery as relegation looked like a certainty, enter the fray with his cockney swagger Tim Sherwood. And possibly the most cliché and predictable footballing stories, Sherwood getting a short-term reaction from the players but quickly being found out for his lack of tactical knowledge this season, giving away a plethora of winning situations and leaving us dead bottom of the Premiership.

This left Remi Garde, personally recommended by Arsene Wenger himself, a potential bridge to the French players in the squad; yet without backing; with a squad of such poor quality; without Premier League experience; a cynical person may say he was doomed to fail from the get go, with Learner reportedly choosing Garde over David Moyes. It would not be unfair to say that although to a certain extent Garde’s hands are tied, his inability to inspire passion or a bit of fight from the players is his largest shortfall. All the managers were betrayed by the lack of support from the board with financial management being priority over team management.

Ultimately, any blame, any criticism and all accountability lies at the feet of the board and Randy Learner. It is not a secret Learner has tried and failed to sell the club for a few seasons, but his disdain for the club has become its largest hindrance to the development of the club. And the owner’s apathy towards the club and lack of empathy for what the club means to the fans. Until we are rid of Learner and the rest of the misfits on the board we will not be able to re-establish ourselves. Revelations from inside the club reveal the firing of staff who had worked at the club for years and replaced with agency staff, players being held back an hour after the game to avoid fans, bodyguards being hired for board members, staff being sent home from matches at half-time to save money. Relegation is hard, but it’s the manner and timing of relegation which is most hard hitting with a £5.41 billion TV deal for the Premiership commencing next year. Teams of the calibre of Blackburn, Bolton, Fulham and others who were once staples of the Premiership have been incapable to return.

“We want our Villa back” are the calls from Holte End, representing the voice of the fans who look around and just see mediocrity and decay of a once great club all around. But no matter how hard we hold onto being one of the founding members of the league, one of the most successful English clubs in history, our European cup win, or the fact that we haven’t been relegated since 1987—before my own birth no less—no team has a divine right to inhabit the Premier League. The last five years undoubtedly have tarnished any fond memories of Villa, and when pondering whether we will be missed, the answer is unquestionably no.

91 per cent of Manchester life scientists concerned ‘Brexit’ could impact research

Written by Tori Blakeman on . Posted in News, Science & Tech.

A opinion poll by The Mancunion exploring the impact of Britain’s European Union membership status on life science research received 56 responses in less than 20 hours, with the majority of respondents expressing concerns over an EU exit. The 56 respondents included both academic and research staff from the Faculty of Life Sciences here at the University of Manchester.

73 per cent of respondents expressed concerns that leaving the EU would result in reduced funding for their research, with one staff member stating: “The UK is among the largest beneficiaries of European funding for research. If we lose this funding source these amounts will most certainly not be matched by the UK government.”

However, nine per cent were not concerned about potential funding reductions, with belief that research funding would be more wisely spent if Britain were to separate from the EU: “For life science research the British government would get better value funding spending its money in the UK, through the UK research councils, as opposed to contributing to EU research funding”, said one.

Others commented on the bureaucracy of the EU: “UK funding is merit-based, whereas other factors such as politics play a greater role in dictating how research funding is spent in the EU. The EU funding schemes are also extremely bureaucratic.”

More, however, seemed to be concerned over the potential disruption to the “collaborative endeavour” of science, with 82 per cent worried that an EU exit could damage Manchester research partnerships with European universities.

One correspondent stated that an EU exit could portray Britain as a nation unable to collaborate: “We should undertake [science] for knowledge and subsequent understanding to benefit as many as possible. We are best able to do this in international collaborations [EU or not], and leaving the EU at a time it is expanding has the potential to portray Britain as an insular, petulant nation unable to partake in effective collaborations.

“We are better in the EU, as we will then be able to partake in meaningful discussion about issues, funding—anything that concerns us, instead of just having it imposed on us.”

Further respondent comments considered the impact of tighter border control that would implemented if Britain left the EU: “Leaving the EU would restrict free movement of people and would make it more difficult for academics, postdocs, and Ph.D. students to enter the UK.”

“I think that the attractiveness of Britain for European scientists could decrease [with an EU exit]. Now many scientists are highly motivated to come here to develop their research, but leaving the EU I think this will change.”

When asked whether Britain should stay in or leave the EU, from a solely scientific perspective, 94 per cent stated that they’d prefer for Britain to remain within the EU.

Despite the results being significantly skewed in favour for EU membership, interestingly, responses in the opinion poll were very all-or-nothing. The large majority of respondents were either completely concerned that an EU exit would impact life science research, funding and collaborations, or wholly sure that an EU exit would not impact any of these things.

Researchers and academics from the Faculty of Life Sciences are clearly concerned that ‘Brexit’ could impact research, however, it is apparent that there are opinions that life science research could go on as normal despite Britain’s membership with the EU.

Manchester Film Festival Diaries

Written by Nicole Tamer on . Posted in Film.

After receiving my press pass and having made acquaintance with two film directors from New York and Sydney on my way, I found out that I only had one hour left to get ready for a Gala night at Cloud 23 at the Hilton Hotel. Since I just came from the university, I had my most comfortable clothes on and was as bare-faced as could be. I realised that going home to change was not an option and decided to buy a whole new outfit and to put some glamourous makeup on within that hour.

Surprisingly, I succeeded and managed to spend less than £35 on the whole outfit (thanks to sales at Primark and H&M) and apparently looked presentable in the end—a skill that clearly should be added to my resumé. After meeting up with a film contributor, we were escorted upstairs to the high echelons of Manchester society. After shuffling around intimidated by the vast amount of well-dressed and important people, awkwardly clinging onto our champagne glasses, we started a conversation with two guests who looked somewhat approachable.

As it turned out, they were directors from Italy and one of them—Giuseppe Oliverio—directed the short documentary A Conscious Dream which featured at the festival. He had also been at the Academy Awards Ceremony the weekend before—which must have made the Manchester Film Festival experience a tad underwhelming. We then went over to the red carpet into the AMC which was a very surreal experience, and the camera flashes made my eyes hurt. I don’t want to imagine how strained the eyes must be of actors at big award ceremonies.

Dennis Violett—A United Man premiered on that day and it was a very informative documentary. Though it was not my cup of tea since I am not much of a football fan. The short film selection shown before the documentary on the other hand, was captivating. Break and Strange Weather were especially well-received and starred big names such as Sir John Hurt and Maxine Peake. These short films were moving and featured breathtaking scenes set in beautiful locations. The buzzing evening ended with a Q&A session with the directors.

The rest of the festival was not as glamourous but still as enjoyable. I made acquaintance with incredibly inspiring people who have worked hard to showcase their talents and network with people at this weekend. Some of the nominees complained that some things did not go as smoothly during the projection of the films and there had been some uncertainties about accommodation arrangements. A lot of the films were not very well visited and the Q & A sessions turned out to be a bit meagre, too.

Overall, the festival was highly enjoyable and brought culture into this very scientifically minded city. Films from all over the world inspired like-minded people with the aim to enjoy and discuss documentaries, shorts and feature films. Since the film festival is not as established, there is a lot of room for development but it was still an unforgettable experience which proved once again that Manchester is a city of substance instead of mindless superficiality.

Manchester takes in £47m as universities announce record £1.8 billion surplus

Written by Paul Scott on . Posted in News.

In 2015, universities across England gathered a collective surplus of £1.8 billion, which has largely been attributed to the rise in tuition fees in the 2012/2013 academic year.

The highest ever surplus figure published by the Higher Education Statistics Agency for 2014/2015—up £0.7 billion from the previous year—preceded a record number of successful university applications in August last year. Over 400,000 students were accepted onto higher education courses starting in Autumn 2015 after the government lifted a cap on university places.

However, while overall university enrollment is on the increase and universities are enjoying record surpluses, part-time and mature student applications are down. As news of the record £1.8 billion sum was announced, the Open University declared a deficit of £7 million as well as falling applications.

As a largely “distance learning” institution, the Open University is primarily used by those unable to attend university full-time—often by those already in employment or with families. Despite being a non-taught university, where degree programmes are studied for solely using academic materials and resources, students still incur a payment of £1,393 per module.

The Open University prides itself on its accessibility and their “mission,” according to their website, is to “promote educational opportunity and social justice by providing high-quality university education to all who wish to realise their ambitions and fulfill their potential… We are committed to promoting equal opportunities for all.”

The drop in numbers will certainly be cause for concern for the Open University and for proponents of equal access to higher education.

Conversely, like many English universities, the University of Manchester has seen an increase in student numbers and currently has the highest student population in the UK, with a total of 37,925 enrolled.

However it is Oxford University that tops the surplus table, registering a considerable £191 million; Imperial College London also gathered a healthy surplus, with £143 million; Liverpool behind them, posting £65 million and the University of Manchester retained a surplus for 2014/15 of £46.9m (4.6 per cent of income) according to a university spokesman.

A University of Manchester spokesperson added: “Our surplus is used for investment in the University, such as funding our capital investment in new facilities. Until a few years ago we used to receive formula capital funding from the Higher Education Funding Council of around £30/35m per annum, however this is no longer the case, so universities need to generate surpluses to fill this gap.”

Development works are well underway in Manchester, as the university sets out to transform the campus through its “£1 billion Campus Masterplan.” Recently the university outlined plans to revamp its Oxford Road campus by creating “a parkland at the heart of campus to benefit staff, students, visitors and the local community“.

While universities like Manchester say they’ll be able to invest in new facilities, more widely accessible institutions like the Open University are struggling to even break even. The university being £7 million in the red attests to the precarious future of part-time and adult higher education in the UK, while mainstream universities reap great financial rewards.

The dark side of the pharmaceutical industry

Written by Heather Jackson on . Posted in Opinion.

On Wednesday February 19th, Manchester Youth Stop AIDS society hosted the 10th annual Speaker Tour. Manchester Youth Stop AIDS is part of a national network of groups and societies who are passionate about campaigning to bring about an end to AIDS. There is currently no cure for HIV, however, with the currently available treatment, the continuous spread of HIV could be prevented. This is why one of the three targets Youth Stop AIDS wishes to achieve by 2030 is zero new infections. The other two goals are zero AIDS-related deaths and zero stigma and discrimination.

The Speaker Tour visited 17 different locations over a three week period, eventually finishing in the Houses of Parliament. George and Brian were the two HIV-positive speakers that spoke in Manchester. Brian, who was born HIV-positive in Uganda, spoke about the shame he felt when his teacher asked him—in front of his entire school class—about the pills his teacher had found. Those pills were Brian’s HIV medication, and after that day he felt ashamed and excluded from the rest of his class. George, from England, told us about the drastic side effects he had experienced when he first started taking his medication and about his feelings towards his status—both now and when he was initially diagnosed. Both George and Brian told us about their desires to turn their HIV statuses into something positive. They believe that, through speaking out about their own personal experiences with the virus, they will inspire more people to do the same—but not just those living with HIV.

There is a myriad of problems surrounding HIV and AIDS. The stigma that has historically been associated with the virus still remains today, meaning that many people are incorrectly fearful of HIV-positive people based on how they believe the virus is transmitted; the consequences of a diagnosis; and the types of people that can catch it. By speaking out about HIV, we are helping to reduce this stigma so that a HIV diagnosis does not come attached with other non-health-related problems.

Over 36 million people are currently living with HIV, however only 15 million of them have access to the treatment that they desperately require. This treatment reduces the chance of transmission by 97 per cent, meaning that it could essentially be used as a prevention method. Not only that, the life expectancy of a patient on treatment can be the same as someone without HIV. It seems completely counter-intuitive that, given its efficacy, this treatment is only accessed by few. The reason for this inequality is based on the current system of biomedical research and development.

Currently, more money is invested into research for treatment for Male Pattern Baldness than HIV and AIDS, this is due to the enormous discrepancy in the amount of revenue that can be generated from the subsequent drugs developed. This situation does not apply to HIV alone. The first Ebola outbreaks occurred in 1976. However, there was limited research into the means by which Ebola could be treated, due to the epidemiology of the virus. Consequently, the most recent Ebola epidemic killed five times as many people as all the previous Ebola epidemics combined. Is it even worth speculating about the number of lives that could have been saved if pharmaceutical companies had been interested in developing treatment for Ebola back in 1976?

The stringent patents applied to the drugs in question also mean that treatment for HIV, and other diseases, can be extortionately expensive due to certain drug companies having a monopoly over the prices of the drugs. As a result, even if the appropriate drugs did exist, the possibility of being able to afford them is completely out of the question for many people. This is especially the case in Sub-Saharan Africa where 70 per cent of the world’s HIV-positive population live.

Until “pharma bro” Martin Shkreli hiked up the price of Daraprim from $20 to $750 per tablet, the flaws of the pharmaceutical industry have rarely been exposed in mainstream media. Daraprim is used to treat toxoplasmosis, a condition sometimes developed by AIDS patients that can be fatal if untreated. Shkreli justified his 5500 per cent price increase by comparing the medication to cars, stating that “if there was a company that was selling an Aston Martin at the price of a bicycle, and we buy that company and we ask to charge Toyota prices, I don’t think that that should be a crime.” His actions have been deeply criticised by people with varying levels of knowledge in the biomedical industry. He was subsequently considered to be the personification of the dark side of the pharmaceutical industry and was nicknamed the “pharma bro”.

An article published previously in this paper, written by Jessica Chow-Lau, defended Shkreli and his actions. In this situation, however, it is essential that the overall picture is taken into consideration, rather than simply the actions of individuals. It is completely absurd that the man who pays $2 million for a one-of-a-kind album by Wu-Tang Clan also has the control over the price of life-saving medicines. Such people like himself should not be able to prevent access of essential medicines to those who require them.

If healthcare was truly considered to be a basic human right, large companies and individuals would not be able to profit from the lives of others, as is currently the case. The entire system is focused around the ultimate profit made from the drug developed, however there appears to be some discrepancy between the real cost of drug development and that stated by pharmaceutical companies. This is exemplified by the Indian drug company, Cipla, who have offered anti-retroviral medicines (to treat HIV) at under $350 per year, per patient.

Given the complexity of the system of biomedical research and development, there is no simple solution to how the price of drugs should be determined. Despite this, a shift is urgently required so that health is prioritised over profit with respect to the reasons for drug development. Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) have been a driving force in ensuring that this switch occurs by pioneering new approaches to the ways in which affordable, essential medicines should be developed. As a result, the World Health Organisation (WHO) are holding a meeting later this month to push for reforms to the research and development systems to take place. Currently, the UK government are yet to confirm their attendance at this meeting. Youth Stop AIDS however, would like to change this. Their petition to convince the UK government to attend the meeting is rapidly acquiring signatures—indicating that people really do believe that global health should be prioritised over profits. As a result of the Youth Stop AIDS Speaker Tour, it is hoped that an increasing amount of people are aware of the issues associated with the pharmaceutical industry and are inspired to push for the essential changes that must take place in order to save millions of lives.

To find out more about the work of Youth Stop AIDS, and to sign the petition, head over to www.youthstopaids.org.

We need to talk about North Korea

Written by Joely Thomas on . Posted in Opinion.

North Korea has threatened (again) to deploy nuclear weapons, so shouldn’t we be a bit more concerned? The threat, targeted at the US and South Korea, comes after the two countries began joint military exercises that are carried out annually to test their defences against the regime. The exercises were the largest yet, following claims by North Korea regarding its fourth nuclear test in January and a rocket launch last month that supposedly sent a satellite into orbit.

It seems odd, therefore that no-one is particularly bothered. There is certainly much eyebrow-furrowing taking place at state level, mostly between white men in military uniforms talking in cinematic tones, but among the general public, no-one seems to be too panicked about this increased threat to the human race. The media successfully whips people into a frenzy over ‘terrorist threats’ from the Middle East, but dangers originating from the Far-Eastern part of the globe are frequently played down, mocked even. Like a screaming child, our reaction appears to be one of closing the door and waiting for the tantrum to end. CNN’s Paula Hancocks even gives assurance that such threats are to be “expected at this time of year”, as though the North Korean dictator was simply experiencing a particularly heavy menstrual cycle.

The questionable haircut certainly doesn’t help his case, and reassures us that in Kim Jong Un’s barber exists an ally whose scissors might one day be directed a couple of inches lower. But we are also encouraged into denial by the belief that, even if such a danger is real, there is nothing we can do about it.

Many believe that the only options currently available to the international community are more sanctions and resolutions, with the UN Security Council, last week, passing a resolution to impose the toughest set of sanctions on the country for two decades. They attack 50 per cent of the country’s export market, whilst unilateral sanctions initiated by the US and South Korea seek to completely exclude the country from the global financial system, as well as closing industrial projects employing tens of thousands of North Korean workers.

Yet many believe that such moves risk turning threatening words into devastating actions, and Andrei Lankov, a professor of Korean Studies in Seoul, argues that the regime now has “nothing to lose”. Others claim that sanctions will have little impact on those in charge but will rather starve a population already suffering under tyrannous rule.

There also exist those who believe a ‘firmer’ approach should be adopted, and talks recently took place in the US at the end of February in which a Republican Senator and the Commander of U.S. Forces Korea agreed that military action should be “on the table”.

That North Korea’s threats were issued in response to South Korean-US military exercises, however, suggests that more military bravado is the one thing we could do without. Such military exercises are a display of militarism at its most arrogant and, though they are claimed to be training exercises, they also act as shows of force to display to the opposition that violent tactics will be employed if necessary.

It is therefore understandable that such drills can be seen as being used as much for offensive as defensive purposes, and can easily be manipulated to provide an excuse for “pre-emptive” action. The security dilemma also shows that when one side increases its fire power, the other seeks to match it, leading to scenarios that can result in conflict even when previously desired by neither party.

Though many children respond positively to having their sweets banned or being threatened with a light smack, we must remember that there exist Kevins in the world who remember the time when they were given a black eye, and one day turn from sulking toddler to killer youth. While we certainly don’t want states who take the threat of North Korea less seriously to supply the country with arms (on this point, what father buys their son a bow and arrow, anyway?), to reduce the threat from North Korea, such ostentatious shows of power are not conducive, and short-sighted attempts at military action could prove fatal.