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Month: February 2019

Photo: UNICEF Ethiopia @ Flickr

Measles outbreaks threaten public health

Written by Ella Gerry on . Posted in Science & Tech.

This month the World Health Organisation (WHO) reported that in 2018, there were 82,596 confirmed cases of measles across 47 countries worldwide, a 50% increase from 2017. This re-emergence of the disease is not only a grave cause for concern, but has also highlighted weaknesses within public health infrastructure across the globe.

Measles is a highly contagious viral infection transmitted via droplets from the nose, mouth, or throat of an infected individual. In addition to the characteristic rash, symptoms of measles include a high fever, a runny nose, and bloodshot eyes. Babies, young children, and immunocompromised people with measles infections are particularly vulnerable to fatal complications such as pneumonia and encephalitis — the swelling of the brain.

In recent years outbreaks of measles have been declared in countries across Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas. Experts are attributing this worldwide resurgence of measles to complacency, collapsing health systems, and the dissemination of false information by anti-vaccination groups.

The Philippines is currently grappling with a series of severe measles outbreaks. Over 130 people — mostly children and unvaccinated people — have died, while 8,443 others have fallen ill. The government has blamed the outbreaks on decreased vaccination rates, caused by a recent controversy surrounding Dengvaxia, a vaccine being used as part of the government’s vaccination campaign against dengue fever.

In November 2017, the manufacturer of Dengvaxia announced that the vaccine may have risks for those with no previous exposure to the disease. Whilst other countries adjusted their anti-dengue programmes accordingly, the news caused an eruption of public outrage and political chaos in the Philippines. In December 2017, the government’s anti-dengue campaign was terminated and both the Department of Justice and Public Attorney’s Office filed negligence and corruption cases against the government.

Heightened anxiety surrounding vaccines following the Dengvaxia scare has seen vaccination rates across the Philippines plummet, which is considered to be the main reason for the current measles outbreaks. A study carried out by The Vaccine Confidence Project found that in 2015, 93% of those surveyed ‘strongly agreed’ that vaccines are important. This number dropped to just 32% in the same survey carried out in 2018. In a recent television appearance addressing the current measles pandemic, President Rodrigo Duterte warned of the fatal complications of the disease and pleaded that parents vaccinate their children.

In 2018, a report by the WHO European Region stated that measles had killed 72 people and over 82,000 had contracted the disease. Despite reports that immunisation rates amongst children are at an all-time high in Europe, experts warn that such reports can often mask immunisation gaps at sub-national levels. These clusters of unvaccinated individuals allow the measles virus to persist within a population. They pose a particular risk to those who cannot be vaccinated, such as young babies and the immunocompromised, who include HIV-positive individuals or those receiving chemotherapy.

“Each and every preventable death is unacceptable to me. And these numbers should alarm us all,” said Vytenis Andirukaitis, the European Commissioner for Food and Health Safety. Andirukaitis warned that “increased distrust, misinformation, a fear of possible side effects, and increased complacency about the benefits of vaccinations are all sadly playing a part.”

Aided by social media and right-wing populist groups, the growth of anti-vaccination movements across Europe and the rest of the world concerns many public health officials. Facebook has come under fire from health experts for not doing more to curb the spread of false information by so-called ‘anti-vaxxers’ operating in closed groups on the site.

One such group is Stop Mandatory Vaccination, which currently has over 155,000 members, and claims on their website that “vaccines are full of poison.” Experts worry that these undiluted echo chambers are playing a major role in the rising distrust of vaccines, and WHO have recognised vaccine hesitancy as one of the ten threats to global health in 2019.

Twelve years and counting

Written by The Mancunion on . Posted in Opinion.

If you’ve ever read Stop All the Clocks by W.H. Auden, then you’ll understand where I’m coming from.

If we took seriously what some of the most respected scientists were saying about how long we have left to ‘save the world’, then we’d all be screaming from the rooftops, rushing the guards at Number 10, holding up our so-called leaders by the scruffs of their necks, and demanding our government take action right now.

Yet here we are, carrying on as usual, because we have learnt to accept what the media says as the truth. It is because we have grown up believing that we can ‘solve’ climate change by recycling our yoghurt pots.

Scientists are now saying we are in the 6th mass extinction, with rates of CO2 levelling those of the worst extinction episode in history, where 96% of all life on Earth was lost. The latest IPCC report gave us 12 years to limit the effects of climate breakdown.

That’s not 12 years to decide what we’re going to do about it; it’s 12 years to entirely reverse our policies and processes to alter our current direction if we are to have any hope of saving ourselves. Yet even the IPCC is conservative in its estimates, and has a publication lag of around three to four years. That’s three years of further destruction to our ecological systems, three years of even more thousands of species going extinct, and three years closer to the possibility of human extinction.

Let’s take a step back, and see how we got into this situation in the first place. We’ve known about climate change for the past century – honestly. Fossil fuel companies wrote in papers 30 years ago that they were aware of the effects of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, predicting – with a high certainty – that the effects this would lead to (global warming, melting ice caps, etc).

They saw what would happen to their businesses if this knowledge became public, so spent millions investing in smearing campaigns to confuse the public and get them to question the media, all in the name of capitalist greed.

And what did we do? We bought into it because consumerism is so deeply ingrained into our society that we’d rather believe corporations over scientists. These bottom-up and top-down effects are so inextricably linked that it’s often difficult, on the reverse, to see where to focus our energy in the fight against the systemic issue that has led us to face the extinction of our own species within the next two generations.

So what do we do now? Many environmental organisations up to this point have been encouraging us to reduce our energy usage, to limit our plastic consumption, to help us to reduce our carbon emissions – but they haven’t got us anywhere near where we need to be. These are all vital issues in themselves, but are sticking plasters to the greater systemic problems, and all point towards our broken, individualistic society.

We need to target our governments and the huge corporations that are ultimately responsible for putting us in this mess. And there are some amazing student organisations who are doing exactly this: People & Planet are one, Extinction Rebellion are another. Mission Lifeforce are building a case to hold the Government accountable for their criminal inaction on climate breakdown by trying to make ecocide law. And you, as an individual, can join them.

But there’s a question that still hangs in the back of my mind about all this – do I think this will make any difference? Can we really beat the system, and turn things around in a decade? The thing is, it’s not about whether or not we think we can change things.

We must face up to the fact that the obstacles in our way are undeniably huge and powerful, and that in all honesty we probably won’t succeed. But we are never going to get there if we don’t do it for the one reason that might give us a chance; that we believe it’s the right thing to do. Because, in the end, that’s all we have.

This is a guest submission from SU Activities Officer Lizzy Haughton.

Photo: Hannah Brierley. Reclaim the Night march

Exclusive: SU Officer concerned over lack of trans inclusion at Reclaim The Night

Written by Ethan Davies on . Posted in News.

Students’ Union (SU) Liberation and Access Officer Sara Khan has described the lack of inclusion of trans people at this year’s Reclaim The Night march as concerning.

In an exclusive statement obtained by The Mancunion, Khan said that she had seen many “cis-normative” signs around the SU, and also expressed concern that the LGBT+ bloc was not an official part of this year’s march, citing them as some of the groups most vulnerable to street harassment.

Khan also took issue with Reclaim The Night’s call to increase police presence in student areas, saying that “the police as an institution systematically abuses women of colour and trans women on the daily.’’

Khan also remarked that the police themselves were responsible for many incidents relating to sexual assault: “The reason I feel this way is that, firstly, a significant portion of sexual assaults both reported and unreported come from police officers themselves.”

She argued that a range of measures were needed to prevent Greater Manchester Police form further aggravating street harassment and violence, including political education, awareness training, and institutional reform of the organisation.

Despite raising issues with the inclusivity of the event, Khan said that constructive dialogue was needed to improve the platform: “Nothing is as inclusive as it could be, and we should always strive to seek out and take on constructive criticism, and to do better.”

Khan further outlined steps that could be taken to improve the effectiveness and outreach of the event: “Especially in the context of TERF (Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist) organising on the rise, we need to build an intersectional understanding of what a campaign for “safer streets” should be about.

“We need to platform the voices of trans people, and provide political education about cis-normative violence and police violence.”

In a statement, a spokesperson for the SU Executive Officers said: “We completely acknowledge the concerns raised by the Liberation and Access Officer. However we would like to emphasise that the opportunities to be involved with the planning, organisation and execution of Reclaim the Night have been open to all students and officers for many months.

“The concerns raised have not been voiced before today. If any concerns had been raised at the various stages of consultation and planning by any elected representative or student, we would have taken the necessary measures to ensure that their concerns were addressed in the right way.

“The SU Executive Officer team would also like to express that no concerns were raised during the executive team meetings when discussions about Reclaim the Night were brought up. The Exec team are surprised about the claims and concerns raised just before the march but are determined to address the concerns the best we can do with the time that we have, and then will look to further improve future events.

“We would like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude to all of the 20+ student volunteers for all their time and efforts, and would also like to clarify our stance that none of our volunteers are paid.” 

A look inside ‘proofreading services’ – a one stop shop for academic malpractice

Written by David N Rose on . Posted in Investigations.

As academic pressure remains an ever present issue for students across Manchester, it’s no surprise that “essay mills” have become a widely available and widely used service.

I spent some time at what branded itself a proofreading company – checking, editing and even rewriting scores of academic pieces for students in dire need for reasons of crisis, ability or simple laziness.

On any given day there might be a few documents available, and more when there are upcoming deadlines.

Irregular emails arrived from the top brass at the agency, and I replied by putting in a request for certain documents based on their length and the kind of proofing/editing required.

The agency provides a mixture of academic and business translations, but I’ve only ever translated one business document. The rest have been sections of essays and dissertations or whole pieces of academic work.

On the lowest paying end, there is a basic proofread. That involved focusing my grammatical gaze on each sentence and clearing up the language. It also required reworking some sentences, and for a higher fee, clients can pay to have their work rewritten. Supposedly the ideas remain the same, it’s just the language and style which have been adapted by the proofreader.

Generally I stayed away from this kind of work, partly because it’s too time-consuming and also because I found it ethically unsound. Even in the course of editing, I am aware that I am enhancing the work that I read. I am to a certain extent reproducing the text and creating something new, something that original author did not intend.

I have read what look like final year dissertations that barely make sense in English, let alone meet the standards for academic work at UK universities. In these cases, I had to considerably rework the language and thereby (re)interpret the author’s meaning. That can mean exercising enormous creative license in order for some paragraphs, indeed whole pieces, to read coherently.

Throughout university I have done quite well on academic essays. But the point isn’t that I know how to write well; it’s that I’m writing well on someone else’s behalf. I’m fully aware that my writing style and vocabulary will improve the quality – if only for the fact that some work is of an appalling quality to begin with.

I ended up taking on this route because I was fed up of working for other people and wanted to be my own boss and go freelance – a yearning that strikes many of us millennials. I struck out into editing, proofreading, copywriting, tutoring, translating, because these were the jobs I could do from my laptop and for which I had the skills.

During my freelance stint, I even came across roles that seemed to good to be true, like getting paid to write essays. I love writing, and I actually quite like writing essays, so this type of work would have been ideal.

It turns out that these essays become the products of what is euphemistically known as the “model answer industry”, or more accurately as the “essay mill”. The editing work I’ve been doing is on the lighter end of this industry, but still dubious enough to prick some ethical sensitivities. Essay mills, however, are laughable in their flaunting of anti-plagiarism.

You simply enter the parameters of your essay into a capture form (word count, desired grade, necessary sources, title, discipline, deadline) and the essay mill will pay a writer to hash out your coursework or dissertation in a week, for a substantial fee, potentially hundreds.

Agencies and companies market these pieces of work as examples of a first class or 2:1 essay, which the client will then use to guide the writing of their own essay. It requires a certain amount of idealism (or naivety) to swallow that one.

Some agencies are less coy, for example the unashamedly named essaymills.com, which declares of higher education “every paper would require you to explore a different set of sources and study a different subject”. They therefore invite clients to pay for their assignments to be written for them, to relieve the pressures of academic life.

This is a specific type of plagiarism known as contract cheating. A Swansea University study of 50,000 students reported by the BBC in 2018 found that 15.7% of respondents admitted using essay mill services. Unsurprisingly, a post on the Fallowfield Student Group asking for students’ experiences with using essay mills was met with resounding silence.

In many of the essays I’ve proofread, clients want their academic English spruced up, especially if they are international students. In some pieces, however, you wonder if and how the author has been admitted to a higher education institute with such a low grasp of language. Even at MA level, there are some students who struggle to function coherently at postgraduate level. I admire the determination to undertake a Masters in a second language, and while conversational English may not be a problem, the academic work requires a different level.

You hear other stories about students who lose their dissertations and turn to essay mills to meet a deadline that would otherwise be unrealistic.

How can these practices, which undermine the credibility of UK higher education institutions and devalue degrees, be prevented? Not easily, due to the fact that essays produced by mills won’t show up on anti-plagiarism software such as TurnItIn. These are original essays, just not original by those who submit them.

TurnItIn posted on their blog about the efficacy of the marketing strategies that these companies use: “Essay mills have learned to meet the very particular, seasonal needs of students and have seamlessly adapted to new technologies, reaching potential and repeat customers through online advertising, emails, and even phone calls.”

Moreover, there may be little incentive for universities to really do anything about the problem. Higher education is a business, and therefore students represent custom. Essay mills, model answers, proofreading, all of these private services facilitate the academic success of students (read: customers).

This is especially true in the case of international students, who represent big money for the University. As one mill writer put it, “You have a UK system reliant on foreign students while, through the backdoor, companies are devaluing the very degree certificates that attract all that foreign money in the first place”.

To be clear, international students are not to blame. Neither, really, are the mills themselves. Linguistically unequipped students and private essay services are symptomatic of the deeper problem with higher education: money. Universities are under pressure and want to attract as many customers as possible, from where ever possible.

The stakes are so high for both international and home students that a few hundred quid extra for a decent grade makes the tuition fees and living costs worthwhile. No one wants to pay over £9,000 a year just for the opportunity to study: customers want results.

As bleak as it may sound, I cannot see the model answer industry going anywhere. As long as the ideology of university-as-business remains in place, there will be essay mills offering privatised services in the name of assisting education.

As for me, I think my time as a morally suspect freelance editor may have just come to an end.

 

Photo: Ppojke @Wikimedia Commons

Turning Point UK: a dangerous agenda

Written by nimoomer on . Posted in Opinion.

Turning Point UK (nothing to do with the charity Turning Point) is the new bad boy on the political block. The self-proclaimed grassroots organisation launched at the start of February forcing its way into the public consciousness.

TPUK is the British arm of the already established Turning Point USA, an organisation that has in some ways poisoned political discourse with its vitriolic and anti-facts stance.

The point of both organisations is to kick university campuses out of their lefty liberal haze and force them to see the “light”. A pinned tweet by TPUK says it’s for “free markets, free speech… limited government and personal responsibility” while it opposes “socialism, racism… identity politics and nativism”.

They are sick of the cultural Marxist agenda afflicting campuses all over our good pure nations. Adorno and Marcuse be damned, they just want to turn our countries into a multicultural cesspits with people being… nice to each other? The liberal agenda in their minds is a disease and they are the only ones who have been smart enough to mastermind the cure.

In all seriousness, TPUK is currently considered a bit of a joke; the website looks like something that I crafted in a Year 8 IT lesson. Their social media launch went up in flames as some geniuses made dozens of fake TPUK Twitter accounts, each one identical to the real accounts making it impossible to tell which was real and which wasn’t.

What’s more, their slogans aren’t exactly winning hearts and minds. To most people their existence is a nostalgic nod to conservative youth groups past, like Activate, the conservative youth organisation that spent most of its short life being mocked, parodied and eventually hacked.

The history of doomed young right-wingers and their flaccid attempts at rallying people perhaps has given many of us a sense of confidence and comfort knowing that they too will probably just be another funny anecdote.

But the truth is TPUK isn’t an isolated organisation with a few overzealous young Tories who are trying to catch the eye of their local MP. It is a part of a much wider, far more sinister syndicate. One with seemingly infinite funding, an established membership, and an intoxicating ideology that in times like these can be effective.

Unsurprisingly, upon contacting individuals involved in the organisation I was met with either silence, hostility or fruitless conversation. This organisation could quite easily billow into obscurity, an awkward sub-chapter and symbol of our political climate, or they could mobilise people by pandering to a victim complex that I think a lot of young conservatives have.

The bunker mentality of right-wing students is visible on campuses across the country. For the act of requesting a conversation with the head of UoM Conservative Society, I was removed from the Facebook group where events and meetings are posted, and subsequently deleted off Facebook by the individuals themselves.

Let me be clear, I have no real qualms that the Conservatives on campus don’t want to chat with me. I can survive another day without their insights into free market economics. However, the important thing is the meaning behind their exiling me from their inner circle. Clearly, among even relatively mainstream right-wing groups, there is a perception of persecution.

Whilst it is true that certain conservative groups have distanced themselves from TPUK, it would take little effort on the part of TPUK to effectively exploit this victim complex. What would have been an annoying but relatively harmless group could quickly become a vehicle for more dangerous, vitriolic and hateful views on our campuses. We need to stay vigilant against it.

Photo: Flickr @ Garry Knight

City council is guilty of anti-social behaviour

Written by sophiemarriott on . Posted in Opinion.

Manchester City Council has recently revealed a genius new initiative to tackle homelessness; they are going to start imposing fines on the pesky men and and women forced to sleep in doorways and beg to survive.

Supposedly responding to real concerns from Mancunians about ‘anti-social behaviour’ in the city centre, the homeless could face up to £100 in fines, with an escalation to £1,000 if they fail to cough up, and even eventual incarceration.

It’s absurd, unacceptable and cruel. And it’s blatantly putting the sensitivities of the most privileged in society above anyone else.

Those living on the streets do not have access to £100, just as they don’t have access to regular healthcare, central heating, full bellies, or emotional support networks of family and friends.

How dare we accuse the very people we have excluded from our cosy and privileged society of anti-social behaviour?

The legislation will come under the ‘Public Space Protection Order’ (PSPOs) in attempts to make the city centre safer (read as more visually appealing) for locals. Again absurd.

As if the centre of Manchester, a city which has seen its fair share of unpleasantness, needs protecting from the weakest and most vulnerable. How about a ‘People Protection Order’ which distributes £100 to every poor soul without a roof over their heads?

Over 50 other local councils across the country have similar orders, since Theresa May as Home Secretary introduced the PSPOs in 2014. They are intended to target so-called ‘Anti-Social Behaviour’ to clean up city centres.

However, they serve only as a tool to criminalise behaviour which otherwise it is not justifiable to punish individuals for. PSPOs lend local councils a lot of discretion as to what they deem ‘Anti-Social’; one UK council banned 16-year olds from gathering in groups of three or more.

The very invocation of anti-social behaviour in this context is almost Orwellian. It includes urinating or drinking in public, setting up camp in disruptive places, sleeping in doorways, and ‘aggressively begging’.

In a city without public toilets and that systematically moves its homeless away from the most tourist saturated areas like Market Street and Chinatown, how exactly is this supposed to encourage for homeless men and women to find other options?

What is particularly striking about this list of unacceptable behaviour is that it creates a vague nostalgia for some students’ Freshers’ Week. Are the police also about to start patrolling Fallowfield on a Friday night, looking out for students laden with Strongbow Cans taking advantage of a strategically placed Grundon bin whilst waiting for a bus?

The council has claimed that they will not use the legislation indiscriminately, but perhaps they should. Arguably, those living in abject poverty have more of a reason to be drinking in the streets and being loud on buses than anyone else.

The utter ridiculousness of the policy shows just how unaccountable government and councils have become. Of course, there has been an uproar against the experimental measure, with the Liberal Democrat opposition leader in Manchester, John Leech, describing it as “social cleansing”. Yet, has there been any move to abandon this archaic idea? Not that I have seen.

Photo: Sophie Brown @ Wikkimedia Commons

The Independent Group: A naive return to a rejected politics

Written by George Walker on . Posted in Opinion.

On Monday seven Labour MPs resigned from the parliamentary Labour Party in protest of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership on key issues such as Brexit and the anti-Semitism scandal.

These members are: Chuka Umunna, Angela Smith, Chris Leslie, Luciana Berger, Mike Gapes, Gavin Shuker, and Ann Coffey. They have not yet formed a party but will sit in parliament as the ‘Independent Group’ of MPs.

They have made extraordinarily scathing claims on the Labour Party as one that is “institutionally racist” and “hijacked by the machine politics of the hard left”.

Such claims draw shock and awe, and they perhaps make supporters of the Labour party question the integrity of their party as one that champions anti-racism and progressive values.

Let me be clear: the issue of anti-Semitism is not something to be taken lightly, and in light of the Chakrabarti report I fully respect the will of members such as Luciana Berger to resign over the pockets of anti-Semitism in the party. Pockets which must be taken with adamant sincerity by the leadership of the party. However, the official statements made by the members of the Independent Group by no means tell the full story.

For example, you’d be forgiven for making light of Mike Gapes’s comments about the “institutional racism” of the Labour Party given that on the same day the Independent Group was announced, Angela Smith described some BAME people as having a “funny tinge”.

Furthermore, there has been controversy over whether the Independent Group should allow ex-Labour MPs Ivan Lewis and John Woodcock, who have been accused of sexual harassment, into their new party.  

There is also controversy surrounding the structure of the group. Its donation policy says that they’re not a political party but a company established to support independent MPs, therefore they don’t have to abide by official rules on revealing those who have funded the group.

Given that they’re not an official party there’s also no complaints procedure or “party” definition of racism, therefore Angela Smith’s comments cannot be officially critically challenged and therefore reprimanded. Evidence suggests that the Independent Group has a long way to go before it can call itself a decisively progressive force for a new brand of politics.

They represent a brand of politics that has been rejected across Europe: bland boardroom europhilic centre-ground politics. Politics where no-one knows where they stand except on the faces of real progress.

The Independent Group seems to think that they embody a spiritual renewal of politics of the 1990s: that “moderation” of Blair, before the economic crash, which is still wholly viable for sorting society’s problems.

In reality the group offers no palpable radical solutions to the huge problems of economic inequality and poverty in British society today, they instead serve the interests of the tabloid press, the hard Brexit bandwagon and the Conservative Party.

If their leaving represents a real twang of courage and integrity they ought to call by-elections, stand on their own policy platform; whatever that actually is. Give their constituents the opportunity to have a Labour MP as they voted for in the first place.

Photo: GameAssist

Interview: Game Assist

Written by Jeremy Bijl on . Posted in Games.

Having successfully kickstarted Game Assist earlier this year, Errol Kerr and Sara Khan were full of enthusiasm for the project. The upcoming multimedia platform, which aims to review and critique all things representation in gaming, will launch on the 22nd of February, with a website earmarked for mid-March.

Sara and Errol, a self-described “pair of gaming enthusiasts and liberation activists” have an impressive C.V. in these areas, having been involved with National Union of Students LGBT+ Campaign, Autistic UK, Newcastle University Students’ Union, and the University of Manchester Students’ Union. I sat down with them to find out more.

“Initially Game Assist was a platform to review just game accessibility. I was looking at basically only at how you play the game,” Errol explained.

“Sara got in contact with me in December, saying this is a great idea but why don’t we go one bigger? So now the aim is looking at representation as well as accessibility in video games.”

Sara expanded on this, noting her own formative experiences with video games and the transfigurative effect that looking back on them retroactively had had, saying, “the reason I came to Errol with the idea of expanding it to include general representation is because ever since I was a kid I used to play games with my older brother and never really caught how people of colour are represented.”

“I grew up on a lot of Call of Duty video games until it got to the point I couldn’t play anything but zombies because it made me really uncomfortable having to shoot nameless populations of brown people for no discernible reason.”

Call of Duty was just the first game of many that came up in my conversation with Errol and Sara, a list including – but not limited to – Wolfenstein, Life is Strange, Until Dawn, Anthem, Mass Effect, Apex Legends, Detroit: Become Human, Kingdom Come: Deliverance and Resident Evil.

Indeed, Errol and Sara’s insight on issues around depictions of sexuality, race, disability, and mental health was borderline encyclopedic, so numerous were the case studies they were able to talk about.

“Once you start thinking about it, you can’t unsee it, but it doesn’t ruin the experience. Rather than spoiling the content, it allows you to see it through a new lens,” remarked Errol.

In an era where the games industry is still in a period of adjustment when it comes to matters related to accessibility and representation, Errol and Sara did acknowledge that positive change was taking place, but advocated that there was still much important work to be done in a medium that is perhaps more psychologically impactful than some give it credit for.

“As someone who is autistic, I learned most of my social cues from video games,” explained Errol.

Although he was half joking, Sara went on to stress how important games are as cultural artefacts, and how influential they can be, saying that “games have a potential to influence our way of thinking in a really unique way because of their interactivity.” Indeed, when our conversation turned to some of the more offensive games found in Steam’s deepest recesses, she noted that “someone can access those, play those, and think its acceptable and take that to heart. And that in itself can be violent.”

Their vision, therefore, is to create a platform where people can “analyse and talk about video games in the way people do about films and books; to realise that games are just another form of media, just significantly more interactive.”

However, their emphasis was not just on criticising the games industry where it is deficient, but on highlighting positive depictions.

Indeed, Errol, as someone who described himself as “more broken by the day,” spoke about the power of games that really engage with subject matters around disability, citing the frustration felt in games like Wolfenstein II and Mass Effect 3 as thought-provoking examples of characters who got on with their missions and were still essentially heroes, but who struggled with the perceived injustice – or simple inconvenience – of living with a disability.

Sara, too, spoke about how Life is Strange inspired her interest in exploring issues around sexuality in video games, saying, “as a gay woman, I never thought I’d see myself in a game in that way and that really opened my mind to the potential of gaming.”

Whilst their purview with Game Assist will primarily focus on these in-game depictions, they also spoke about the importance of engaging with issues lying outside games themselves, looking at issues like staff rights within development studios and audience discourse on social media platforms.

Speaking about the former, Sara said that, “people rarely think about the process of production. You’re paying £60 for this game and people are being systematically abused to create it; you have something that needs to be talked about.”

On the latter, they were understandably more refrained, Errol saying that, “addressing the so-called toxicity within the community is something that I want to do, but something that I will do carefully and sensitively. Firstly, to make sure we don’t get too much hate, but also, we want to address it in a way that the wider community can look at it and learn from it. We don’t just want to tell people, ‘you’re shit’.”

This commitment to remaining discursive without being didactic was a sentiment that was echoed a number of times throughout our conversation. Given that conversations about social politics in any direction – and especially in gaming – can quickly become quite heated, Errol and Sara’s desire is to affect positive change without being overbearing, remaining constructive even when being critical.

“One thing that we do want to really pin down is if we’re talking about games that are good and saying ‘this is how they could do better,’ we’re not saying they’ve done badly,” said Errol.

“For example, Apex Legends has fantastic accessibility options; its representation is pretty damn good. What it could do is actually give those characters back stories.”

Sara explained exactly why this was, saying, “even though we might be seeing minority characters, I think most of the time it’s done in an arguably tokenistic way. You don’t feel like you engage with their stories, so I’d suggest something a little more nuanced.”

This approach to opening a reasoned discourse was very much what Errol and Sara aim to do with Game Assist. Whilst they admitted that “progress sells,” in the games industry, they were aware that it would take a lot of work to really bring it up to scratch: “To change an attitude throughout an entire culture, which is what playing games has created, it’s not just going to take people like me or Sara. It does take the publishers, the distributors; everyone needs to be involved in recognising when things are great and promoting those.”

For now, Sara and Errol will hope Game Assist can eventually be a major influencer in that directive.

photo: wokandapix @ pixabay

The cure to hate speech

Written by alexandercandlin on . Posted in Opinion.

“If you’re in favour of freedom of speech, that means you’re in favour of freedom of speech precisely for views you despise” – Noam Chomsky.

DISCLAIMER: I do not condemn or praise the actions or views of anyone mentioned, but use them only as case studies.

In England, hate speech is defined under the Public Order Act 1986 as, “A person who uses threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour, or displays any written material which is threatening, abusive or insulting”.

The debate on free speech is the debate on how to confront those who spout hatred or intolerance against others. I, as I’m sure many readers are too, am against fascists, bigots, racists, supremacists, intolerance, and bullies of every type. So, this is one of the most relevant issues facing society today.

Some groups have gone so far as to disrupt or shut down debates and speeches of those who they deem controversial. In 2017; political commentator Ben Shapiro was targeted by rioters at the University of California, Berkeley who shut down the event.

In March 2018, MP Jacob Rees-Mogg was confronted by protesters whilst attending the University of the West of England, the resulting altercation spread across social media and increased tensions over hate speech, and non-platforming.

I neither praise nor condemn either sides of these incidents, but I do think there are better methods of confronting those with whom we disagree.

When faced with bad ideas or opinions, the most productive thing to do is to put them on display, and highlight what they really stand for. Most debates can be put to rest by superior arguments. We should find out what is good and bad about the views we oppose and try to find common ground.

It is too easy to go off what others say about someone without having actually heard them speak. We should be more open to listening to everyone first hand and forming our own judgements based on this. And if a person is not permitted to speak then how can anyone determine, for themselves, if their ideas are good or bad?

Non-platforming does not change anyone’s mind, nor does it end the debate. Silencing others treats the symptoms of but not the causes of hate speech. It prolongs dialogue and makes resolutions harder to achieve. Anyone who has been shut down or interrupted will not merely drift away or never have the chance to speak again, so deal with the argument where it stands and listen to what others say.

Tell someone they are wrong and why you think that, and then explain a counterpoint of your own. Don’t be disrespectful to them because it will only hinder your own cause by allowing your opponent to frame you in a negative light.

Speech that is deemed too controversial to be heard is more likely to be sought after and found in the dark corners of the web by those who wish to hear someone who has been silenced. Debate is the only way to defeat hate speech without harming free speech, because when someone says something hateful or outrageous you have the right to say why they are wrong. The cure to hate speech is more speech.

Photo: Shardayyy @ Flickr

Binge culture destroys our concept of time

Written by lilyrosenberg on . Posted in Opinion.

Like my grandmother handing over the next plate of food as I barely finish the last, Netflix delivers me the next episode before I barely can think about the content I just watched.

As I finish the new Netflix series, a day after its release, I’m struck with the same recurring thoughts: I count the amount of time I have lost, down to the minute. I note the lack of social interactions I’ve had within the past 24 hours, and I worry about whether my flatmates would realise if I were dead. Most deeply felt, however, is the overwhelming feeling of shame for, once again, satisfying my binge behaviour.

Was this a problem for the water cooler generation? Did that generation have better self-control over television, or were they just not provided with enough content to even think about overindulgence? The only show I wait weekly to watch is RuPaul’s Drag Race, and even that I watch on streaming and I curse RuPaul for forcing me to be patient.

Is there a hidden message about life within my weekly wait? The importance of time, perhaps?

 Modern day binging streams from an addiction into a distraction. An interruption of time passing. The fascination with binging is encouraged by student life which embraces us to binge drink, binge a new diet or workout routine, binge social media, and binge Netflix shows. All of these are trying to give us refuge from our responsibilities and insecurities, by allowing us to fully ignore them.

Whenever I am on the bus, I walk down the aisle and instantly see a handful of individuals glued to different social media platforms, earphones in, blocking the world out and staying within their own bubble. Such a scene is not that different from wandering through a pub on a Friday night, where I see those same people drinking to drink, excess being the only way to give themselves a break.

Social media was designed to be a distraction, just like alcohol, consuming the time one needs to think beyond themselves. Scrolling through Instagram for an hour, or even hours, allows us to step away from our responsibilities. This emotional break from our burdens, however, hinders us from actually growing up. External factors become the problem, not ourselves.

Binging gifts individuals with the privilege not to think, but addictive qualities perpetuate ‘breaks’ so that they go on for much longer than intended.

Binging is also prevalent in some students’ attitude towards studying or trying to maximize the productivity of their time, by cramming tutorial readings for the night before or even the bus ride before the class. Starting an essay a few days before it’s due, is itself a binge, and an incredibly painful and intense experience, albeit a short-lived one. 

At the end of the day, binging creates young people who do not know the concept of time or how to prioritise it. Students manipulate time to try and ignore themselves and their responsibilities. Simultaneously, when responsibilities need to be done we have no idea how much time we really need to get a task done properly. Streaming Netflix all day allows me to have a new definition of what a day can be, while slowly the phrase ‘carpe diem’ loses all of its meaning.

Photo: Hannah Brierley

Everything you need to know about Reclaim The Night 2019

Written by Ethan Davies on . Posted in News.

Reclaim The Night, the annual march which aims to improve student safety on nights out, is back again for its 2019 edition. Continuing the same route of starting in Owens Park and finishing at the Students’ Union (SU), The Mancunion have compiled everything you need to know about the march.

Kicking off at 6:30pm at Owens Park, marchers will set off on their route down Wilmslow and Oxford Road to the SU from 7:00pm. It’s expected the march will last an hour, with protesters arriving at the SU at 8:00pm. When they arrive, a rally will take place, with the main goals of this year’s event including: “Improv[ing] the street lighting provisions in student areas. We also call for an increased police presence”, “stop[ping] the cuts to Women’s shelters and increase funding for local services that support victims”, and doing “more to increase awareness of where victims can report acts of harassment, assault and violence.”

The event to encourage more organisations to become third party hate crime reporting centres. Organisers are hoping that the number of these will double by 2020.

A petition, lobbying Manchester City Council to make implement these necessary changes, has also been distributed across Reclaim The Night’s social media platforms, and has currently been signed by almost 1,000 people.

An overview of the march on the Students’ Union website reveals that cases of sexual harassment have risen by 64% since 2016, and further, that 74 officers were lost as a result of the closure of the Serious Sexual Offences Unit at the council in 2017.

An after party will follow the rally from 8:30pm in Club Academy, with a quieter space available in Black Milk on the ground floor.

The march will also affect some bus services, with TfGM tweeting: “Travelling around #MCR tonight? Please allow more time for travel as Reclaim the Night is taking place down Oxford Rd from 6.30pm to 9.30pm. The following bus services will be affected due to the march: 15, 18, 41, 42, 42A, 42B, 43, 53, 111, 142, 143, 147, 197, V1 and V2.” The 50 service will be unaffected by the march.

The march will be divided into three blocs – one for women, one for family and youth, and one ‘mixed’ bloc, in which marchers are encouraged to form their own blocs within the mixed area.

The event first came to the UK back in 1977, triggered by a police warning that advised women to stay indoors amid the Yorkshire Ripper murders. The Students’ Union now organises a yearly event in Manchester, taking place towards the end of February.

Last year’s march saw over 2,000 participate, travelling down Oxford Road, from Owens park to the SU, bringing the often-busy curry mile to a near standstill.

People of all genders are welcome to attend the march.

More information about Reclaim The Night 2019 can be found here.

Opinion: The 1960s, ‘The Man’ and where it’s all gone wrong

Written by kitdelamain on . Posted in Music.

59 years ago, the most formidable cultural epoch of Western culture began. For 10 years, the 1960s brought a generation who rocked, rolled and rallied to a psychedelic rhythm that had never been heard before. Genres were formed and merged.

Musicians were united in their staggering drug habits, urine-soaked fans, and aversion to razors. Music was peoples lives, not just a soundtrack to it. Lyrics scared authorities, guitars screamed the indescribable and crowds remembered without recording a second of it.

I haven’t been around for the majority of the 49-year interlude, but I can’t quite work out what the on Earth has happened. You probably think this is sounding a touch pretentious? Well strap in, you’re in for a treat.

My guess is that at some point in the late 50s someone decided they didn’t want to be like everyone else and decided this was the fault of ‘the man’. They threw on some denim, picked up a guitar, and then with a few friends got up on a stage, and told everyone about ‘the man’.

This provoked a reaction. ‘The man’s BS was no longer to be tolerated. Under the shared banner of music, hippies, rockers, mods, beatniks, rude-boys, skinheads, black panthers, squares and geeks all formed as slots any wayward teenager could fall into. It was a collection of subcultures, so defined in their aesthetic and behaviour, that any youth could fit into a mould of their choosing.

“It sounds like none of them had an identity of their own” I hear you cry. You’re wrong. These were people that stood for something: If they wanted to listen to music they would do it together out of a speaker. If they went to a concert, they didn’t leave a seat spare.

Musicians, elevated to the status of prophets, would go to parties with their fans. Friendship, love, hate, progress, all of it tangible, everyone present to witness this universal sense of rightness. The authorities were scared of the power a leather jacket, or Day-Glo poncho could imbue, and this power was not squandered.

Remember Jack Black’s evocative preaching about “sticking it to the man” in School of Rock?

Well, the one thing uniting them all was their aversion to ‘the man’ and his doctrine, and together they got shit done. While they weren’t putting people on the moon, they were marching on Washington, a swirling maelstrom of peace and unity.

James Brown, the godfather of funk, showed the world black musicians were not there to play at the pleasure of white audiences. Jazz, soul and rock’n’roll lost its whitewash to singers and instrumentalists not because they were black because they were the best. Without light shows, auto-tune, and fancy staging, you could rest easy knowing the music you listened to was produced on nothing other than merit.

Women too were no longer tied down by the surly bonds of tradition. Although problematic, Janis Joplin didn’t need to ‘rely on her sexuality’ to rock a crowd. Stevie Nicks didn’t write every other song about a break-up. These front women kicked ass in their own right, and are the female role models we should all look up to.

Liberation wasn’t just confined to the streets and stadiums, but the bed sheets as well. And rivers. And fields. There was a lot of love flowing through the 60s, and plenty of places to have it. No longer was sex a vulgar act of depravity, but a finger to the stuffy generations before. There was no room for anyone who wasn’t on the programme, and the programme was beautiful.

With all that exercise to be done, it is also unsurprising that drug use rose higher than the stratosphere, along with anyone taking them. LSD and speed were rife, smashing down the doors, windows, and letter-boxes of perception. You could argue for the negatives of taking these substances, but I would call on John Lennon, Bob Dylan or Eric Santana, as people who may describe them as necessary. The amount of music we owe to drugs is staggering, and it was none other than the 1960s that lit that fuse.

Now it is not that we are now devoid of culture (we are) or that most music is mass-produced unoriginal crap (it is), but any part you enjoy of being a young person today, is thanks to the efforts of those 59 years ago. To paraphrase Hunter. S. Thompson, the 70s, and every decade up until now have been riding the high and beautiful wave that erupted from the 1960s. The momentum has all but died, and now, with a shallow puddle, lapping at our feet, I ask you: where the f*** has ‘the man’ gone.

 

Photo: HammerandTusk @ pixabay

Film brings home the reality of hate crime

Written by Jay Darcy on . Posted in Opinion.

Greater Manchester Police recently released a virtual reality film allowing people to ‘experience’ hate crimes. The film sees two groups of men demand a Muslim woman remove her headscarf and hurl racist abuse at her.

The video was not particularly startling for me. At 15-years-old, I was verbally and physically attacked by a racist couple. I also became my Catholic school’s first Muslim head boy, a decision deemed a “PR” stunt by internet trolls, with one keyboard-warrior asking how many heads I decapitated to get the role. From calling me an “illegal Mexican immigrant” to an “Arab terrorist”, I’ve had everything, so the fictional attack was not that distressing.

Non-Muslims volunteers, however, were shocked by the experience, particularly the moment when one attacker squares up to your face. In particular, they remarked on how passers-by in the video who did nothing.

This is too real. Last year, a passenger on the train I was on suggested removing Muslim passengers to make room for his friends. My mother answered back, but not a single non-Muslim passenger did, even the clearly disgusted women near us. We ended up getting free upgrades to First Class! But not everyone is so lucky. Many attacks are physical and cause lasting psychological trauma.

In part, a direct response to the reported 500% rise in Islamophobic hate crimes since the Manchester Arena bombing, the purpose of the VR experience is to raise awareness of how horrific hate crimes are. Future plans include giving this technology to other police forces and working on new films about other hate crimes.

I attended a conference at Greater Manchester Police headquarters where Jude Limb, managing director of Mother Mountain Productions which made the film, said her Christian faith was one of the reasons she wanted to raise awareness about hate crimes.

For all the slack they get for not doing enough to turn Manchester into a liberal, progressive, cosmopolitan, metropolitan, crime-free, gluten-free utopia… they sure seem determined to do the best they can (despite massive cuts in government funding) to make Greater Manchester safer.

The film’s star, Fatiha (who does not want her surname revealed), was contacted by Mother Mountain after her Facebook post criticising Boris Johnson’s inflammatory comments about the burqa went viral. She received thousands of likes, comments and shares; mostly racist and Islamophobic. Fatiha has said the attack in the film is mild compared to other attacks she and people she knows have faced, for example, last year, her mother was urinated on.

Both Fatiha’s fictional and real-life abusers attack her for being Pakistani; she is actually Moroccan, but one cannot expect racist, jogger-wearing park inhabitants to know the difference between two groups of brown people with equally delicious cuisines… Fatiha is a comedian, and as you might realise by my sardonic wit, comedy is a great way to get through the horrors of hatred.

Photo:Peter Wormleighton @ Wikimedia Commons

From Manchester Met to London Fashion Week: Nabil Nayal

Written by Alice Porter on . Posted in Fashion & Beauty.

Nabil El-Nayal (commonly known as Nabil Nayal) graduated from Manchester Metropolitan University in 2008 and since then, he has well and truly made a name for himself within the fashion industry. Nayal’s designs are inspired by the Elizabethan period and although much of his work is informed by history, it is also distinctly modern through its innovative nature. He has won many awards including the Royal Society of Arts Award and the British Fashion Council MA Scholarship Award, as well as critical acclaim from designers such as Christopher Bailey and the late Karl Lagerfeld.

Nabil Nayal’s Autumn/Winter 2019 collection is called Let Them Revolt and the presentation took place in the BFC’s Discovery Lab space for emerging talent, on the final day of London Fashion Week. The brand’s signature Elizabethan silhouettes were very much present, from a Marie Antoinette-inspired dress to a graphic puffer coat, exemplifying Nayal’s effortless ability to combine the historic and the modern.

With strobe lights and large shards of glass hanging from the ceiling, the presentation aimed to unsettle, as its title would suggest. With two queen figures sat at the centre of the presentation with the rest of the models crowded around them, looking at themselves in the shards of mirror and fixing the hair of the queens, the show’s themes of self-reflection and power exemplified how fashion can affect change.

The video accompanying the presentation, created in collaboration with Hunger Magazine, reflected this also. The short film’s black and white colour palette eventually transformed into something much less uniform, with deep reds and bold, graphic prints being incorporated, much like the palette of the A/W19 collection.

Despite the disruptive nature of this collection, the historical references ensured it was distinctly Nabil Nayal. The brand collaborated with The School of Historical Dress on this dreamy partnership was clear from the detail applied to the exquisite, signature dress of the collection, as well as many of the other pieces.

My personal favourite piece from the collection was the black Elizabethan-style corset-like puffer coat. To be able to transform a piece that has been created in thousands of different ways and is often seen as practical and boring in such an innovative and stylish way is genius. Plus, it would be an extremely practical piece for the Manchester weather.

You can keep up with the brand on Instagram at @nabilnayal. It is definitely one to watch!

Photo: Comma Press

Manchester’s Comma Press launches new podcast

Written by Gurnaik Johal on . Posted in Books.

Manchester-based independent publisher, Comma Press, has just launched a brand new podcast, creating a new space for readers to further engage with their work.

The first series of the podcast focuses on the best-selling short story anthology Protest: Stories of Resistance, which features writers like Kit de Waal, Alexei Style and David Constantine.

The collection offers a wide range of content and styles and this breadth will be reflected in the podcast’s diverse and interdisciplinary set of guests. From scientists and philosophers to historical consultants and the authors themselves, the podcast will be a space to discuss the writer’s influences, and the themes of contexts of each of the stories.

The first episode focuses on LGBTQ rights and is released on the anniversary of the Section 28 march in Manchester. In it, Em Temple-Malt, Louise Wallwein and Juliet Jacques, author of Trans: A Memoir, discuss gay culture in Manchester.

With long episodes and in-depth discussions, the podcast brings out another side to each story and is a welcome addition to a growing number of podcasts from Manchester.

For readers looking for other similar podcasts, Manchester’s The End Of All Things podcast is a good place to start. In each episode, hosts Rob Cutforth and Kate Feld interview a writer about their work. Examples of guests include Joanna Walsh, author of Worlds From Word’s End, Sophie Mackintosh, author of The Water Cure and Jon McGregor, author of Reservoir 13.

If the discussion-based format of the new Comma Press Podcast sounds good to you, you might also like the Mostly Lit podcast. Each week, hosts Alex Reads, Raifa Rafiq and Derek Owusu discuss a new topic within literature. Highlights include guest appearances from Arundhati Roy, Guy Gunaratne and Yrsa Daley-Ward.

For anyone looking for something shorter to listen to, American Public Media’s The Slowdown is a great podcast to subscribe to. Each day, US poet laureate Tracy K. Smith reads and discusses a contemporary poem from poets like Ada Limón or Safia Elhillo. With each episode about five minutes long, it’s a great opportunity to take a moment to yourself and get to know a diverse range of new poetry.

Photo: Alastair Grant, File/Associated Press

Andrea Levy, author of ‘Small Island’, dies aged 62

Written by Gurnaik Johal on . Posted in Books.

Andrea Levy, who wrote extensively about the Black British experience in novels like Small Island and The Long Song, has died of cancer at the age of 62.

She started writing in her thirties and created a space for stories of the Windrush generation in a time when they weren’t being heard. Her first books, Every Light in the House Burnin’, Never Far From Nowhere and Fruit of the Lemon were well reviewed but received little commercial success.

It was her next novel, Small Island, that made Levy a household name. After years of grafting with little recognition, the 2004 novel won her the Women’s Prize for Fiction, The Whitbread Book of the Year, the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize and the Costa Book of the Year Award. The story of Gilbert and Hortense continues to capture audience’s imaginations, with a BBC adaptation coming out a few years after it was published and a stage adaptation coming to the National Theatre this year.

For those interested in her biography, the BBC ran an Imagine episode about Levy’s life. However, the best way to get to know Levy is through her work. Her writing is compassionate and moving, but stares hard and unflinchingly at injustices.

There has been an outpouring of admiration for Levy online. Sharmaine Lovegrove, head of Dialogue Books wrote on Twitter that Levy “was the centre of my Black British reading experience. My world is richer for her stories and I am stronger in my convictions because her characters nourished me.”

Described by Malorie Blackman as “a warm, funny and generous spirit” and “gracious, kind, pioneering” by poet, Jackie Kay, it is clear that Levy’s influence was wide-reaching and deep-rooted.

Her books remain important anti-racist explorations of post-war Britain. In her last novel, The Long Song, she went even further back in time, writing about the last years of slavery in 19th Century Jamaica. The novel, alongside her other books, is an insightful look at the reverberating effects of Empire.

We have lost a great writer, yes, but we have been left a great many of her books. For readers new to Levy’s work, I’d recommend starting with Small Island.

Photo: theglobalpanorama @Flickr

Opinion: What Netflix‘s big BAFTA wins mean for the future of cinema

Written by Adrian Kanyoli on . Posted in Film.

If you’re like me, you didn’t watch the BAFTAs to see host Joanna Lumley’s jokes crash and burn, or to see celebs who wouldn’t lend each other a spoonful of sugar pretend they’re best mates. Granted, there were some memorable moments, like Cirque du Soliel’s acrobatic reinterpretation of the moon landing and future James Bond hopefuls Richard Madden, Jamie Bell, and Taron Egerton sharing an awkward podium, each one trying to edge the others out of the spotlight. However, this year’s results were bigger than the BAFTAs; frankly, they were bigger than predicting the Oscars — this year is about whether Netflix is going to win its battle with movie theatres.

As consumers, we’ve been enjoying the fallout of premium filmmaking and artistic experimentation that has come from the rise of streaming services and their war with cinema owners. Writers are getting paid more, directors are being lured to Netflix on the promise of creative freedom, and television and film has never been so good.

While less of us are going to the pictures because in 12 months we can watch any new release on our laptop in our knickers, movie theatres are fighting to avoid the same fate as Blockbuster. The loudest salvo was when the Cannes Film Festival effectively banned streaming films from competition in support of French theatres and their rich cinematic heritage. Netflix retaliated by pulling their arthouse features from film festivals completely and drawing filmmaking titans like Alfonso Cuarón to make more premium content. Now, every award for Cuarón is a win for Netflix and each win secures Netflix’s future as a media giant.

Even though streaming isn’t a lucrative industry just yet, the important thing is it will be. This is why Netflix CEO Reed Hastings is valued at $3.6 billion, it’s why his company is willing to accumulate so much debt for new content ($21.9 billion as of September 2017, up from $16.8 billion the previous year) and sign 9-figure deals with Shonda Rhimes and Ryan Murphy to come on board.

What Roma‘s numerous accolades tell us is that Netflix has won over the hearts and minds of Hollywood decision-makers. Remember, it’s not the public that votes for BAFTA winners, it’s actors, writers, directors and, most importantly, producers — producers who have financed Netflix films. What we’ll see in the future is more financing in streaming films, more streaming services popping up (such as Disney+) and less and less cinema-exclusive releases.

Event Preview: The So-So Show

Written by Chloe Hatton on . Posted in Societies.

If you’ve ever found yourself wondering just what the societies of the University of Manchester have to offer, wonder no longer. Fuse TV are here, bringing you The So-So Show, which promises to be anything but so-so.

So, I hear you ask, what actually is The So-So Show? The concept is a late-night variety show that wants to showcase the very best of Manchester’s society talent. The line up will include swing dancers, comedians, barbershop singers, you name it. It will be hosted by Jenna Brannock and Hannah Wardle from Fuse TV, who will supply what is sure to be some excellent chat in between the acts. Get ready for a night of laughs that will be bold and a little bit outrageous, but one that will certainly be a whole lot of fun.

In total there will be three shows, with the first one taking part on the Thursday, 28th February, in the Council Chambers in the Students’ Union. Performing on this first night will be Craig Rose from the Comedy Society, the Swing Dance Society, the Barbershop Swingers, and the Women’s Theatre Society.

Jordan Vincent, President of the Comedy Society, says that Craig’s performance will certainly be one to watch.

“He invites you in, gets you comfortable, and then hits you with his hyper-Northern, hyper-bizarre childhood tales. Get ready for opportunist pigeons, playground tooth trade-deals, and an unseen twist to second-hand smoking. He’s too young to have seen so much. Don’t miss it!”

The whole thing is going to be filmed in front of a live audience, so if you want to grab yourself a ticket, make sure you head over to the event page. The best part is that it won’t even set you back a penny, so there’s no excuse not to go along.

Cachella Smith, a fourth year English Literature and French student, told me that “it’ll be a really great opportunity to see all the hard work that students in societies get up to, especially in such a fun format!”

Fuse TV, as part of Manchester Media Group, focuses on all things TV-related. To find out more about what they get up to, watch their videos, and to find information about how you can get involved, have a look at their Facebook page.

A cappella group Fantastic Beats go to the ICCAs

Written by Maurits Bekkers on . Posted in Societies.

The A Cappella Society’s competition group, Fantastic Beats and Where to Find Them, have recently got through to the quarter-finals of the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella (ICCAs).

Fantastic Beats and Where to Find Them were founded in 2016 by Jamie Davis, a former PPE student at the University of Manchester, with the dream of competing in a cappella competitions. Since then, the group has noticeably improved. In 2016 they first auditioned for The Voice Festival UK, a national competition in which different a cappella groups across the country compete, but, unfortunately, they were unsuccessful. However, in 2017 they qualified for the semi-finals of the festival, after which they went on to the finals. They won two Outstanding Choreography awards and received an Outstanding Soloist commendation.

This academic year has been their greatest achievement so far. They managed to progress to the quarter-finals of the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella, which took place in Birmingham on 17th February 2019. The ICCAs is a competition of collegiate a cappella across the UK, USA and Canada, a competition best known for its feature in the popular film Pitch Perfect. The group sang three mashups, containing songs by Prince, Frank Ocean, Daft Punk, and Arctic Monkeys, all arranged by their Musical Director Courtney Levy. Unfortunately, they did not get through to the next round. However, looking at the progress they have made in such a short time-span, it definitely will not be long until Fantastic Beats will be known by all a cappella enthusiasts.

Ruby Campbell joined Fantastic Beats in September 2018. Looking back on the academic year, she comments that “it was an amazing experience to compete in the ICCAs, and it has definitely brought us closer together as a group. Aside from performing, it was a chance to socialise with other university a cappella groups, and make new friends. The trip was the highlight of my time in Fantastic Beats so far, and I am excited to see what next year has in store!”

The group, now comprising fifteen members, is still hosting concerts and is available for bookings via [email protected]. Alternatively, have a look at their Facebook page to keep up to date with their future progress. They’re certainly a group to watch.

If a cappella is something you might be interested in, the A Cappella Society are a friendly and inclusive group, made up of singers of all abilities. There are five groups within the society that sing in their summer and winter showcases. For more information on auditions and showcases, join their Facebook group.

Team Mem & Em pose in Disneyland - a world away from Chained For Charity's Scottish experience. Photo: Manchester RAG

The best societies you can’t find at Manchester

Written by Ellie Martin on . Posted in Societies.

Following on from last week’s article about everything you need to know about starting a society, I’ve searched high, low, and across the UK for the best societies that we don’t currently have at Manchester. Take a look, and maybe there will be something here you think you’d love to attend. If so, what’s stopping you from bringing the idea to the doors of the SU and adding it to the list of Manchester’s societies?

First of all, let’s take a look at the University of Kent’s Competitive Eating Society, which was recently mentioned on the BBC News website because of its crazy challenges. Apparently the idea came from the TV show Man vs Food and, in line with this, the society meets every month or so to eat as much as they possibly can. The challenges aren’t limited to pure mass of food, but they range from spice tolerance to speed of consumption as well. Events include the ‘Chicken Nugget Centurion’, ‘The Big Boy’ burger challenge, ‘One Metre Pizza’ and a ‘Triple Thread Hotdog’, plus various spice tests.  

Staying with the food theme, students at St Andrews in the Tunnock’s Caramel Wafer Appreciation Society meet to partake in the glorious tea time treat that is the Tunnock’s Caramel Wafer, and who can blame them? Meetings are held every week to enjoy the biscuits, alongside the promise of plenty of laughs and banter. Can anyone else envision a Manchester version to celebrate the Greggs Sausage Roll? Vegan or regular, as you like.

The University of Warwick’s Jailbreak Society isn’t unique to Warwick, but their event is probably the most infamous. The idea of a jailbreak is for groups of students to get as far away from campus as possible while not being allowed to spend any money on transportation. The event is usually run to raise money for charity. With only 36 hours to complete the challenge, Warwick students have a pretty impressive record, with some participants having managed to get to Poland, Morocco, even crossing the Atlantic Ocean to New York. Here in Manchester, we do the same challenge through RAG, so if this sounds like it’s right up your street, keep an eye on their Facebook page for more details.

The University of Anglia’s Beekeeping Society is absolutely one of my favourite societies I’ve come across in the course of writing this – can someone please take one for the team and start this in Manchester? The Beekeeping Society gives students the opportunity to look after some fuzzy lil’ honey bees without having to invest in all the equipment themselves. It’s definitely a relaxing way to get back to nature and take the sting out of studying, plus I’m sure the members get a real buzz from the society! The hives are on campus and, as well as being cared for by the student members, the bees are used as a tool to reach out to the wider community around the university. What a sweet way to reach out to their neighbours!

Staying loosely with the theme of animals, the University of York boasts its Kigu Society. Kigus are a Japanese style of onesie made to look like different animals. In a similar vein to our very own Pirate Society, the group is mostly focused on socials and hanging out together, but dressed as their favourite cute animal. They want to share the joy that wearing a kigu can bring, which they explain in their mission statement, saying “we believe there is no occasion or activity that is not improved by a Kigu.” We’re very much inclined to agree.

Next up, not to far from the hearts of our own Larping Society (Live Action Role Play), who meet on Saturdays in Whitworth Park, Plymouth University’s Viking Society meet weekly to learn and educate about Viking life. Meetings can include playing traditional Viking games, or walks dressed in full Viking gear (of course). Reenactments of battles are on the cards, but the social elements of Viking lifestyle are also celebrated, including plenty of traditional Viking banquets and other historical entertainment.  

Another one of my favourites, the Extreme Ironing Society at the University of Nottingham, aims to inject some fun into the ordinary day-to-day task of ironing. Their tagline on their Facebook page states that “the sport combines the thrills of an extreme sport with the satisfaction of a well-pressed shirt.” The rules are loose – you can combine any extreme sport you’re interested in with some clothes in need of pressing to participate. Members have been seen ironing in busy main streets, strung up on climbing walls, on the top of cliffs or mountains, up trees and, in my opinion most impressively, while scuba diving and skydiving! Other ways in which international enthusiasts have completed the challenge have been while water skiing, in the North Pole being pulled by dogs, or in the Australian outback. Honestly, for the first year of university I didn’t even own an iron so this is definitely something I’d love to see come to Manchester.

Which of these brilliant societies would you like to see come to Manchester? Could you be the one to lead the way?