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Month: October 2020

Photo: Dmitry Golubovich @wikimedia commons

Rashford MBE: One footballer’s fight against child food poverty

Written by Aasiyah Faryal on . Posted in News.

The Queen’s Birthday Honours list was announced last week. Amongst the names was Marcus Rashford. Rashford, 22, from Wythenshawe, South Manchester, was awarded the title of MBE “for services to vulnerable children in the UK during Covid-19″.

The Manchester United footballer’s services began during the coronavirus lockdown in March. He teamed up with the London-based charity FareShare to distribute meals to children in the Greater Manchester region. Additionally, he supplied community centres and school breakfast clubs, due to schools closing, to help cover some of the free school meal deficit.

However, the government which provided vouchers to families and children who qualified for free school meals decided that this scheme would not continue into the summer holidays.

In an emotional letter on the 15th of June to Members of Parliament, Rashford called on the reversal of this decision. He urged them to “make the u-turn and make protecting the lives of some of our most vulnerable a top priority”.

Citing his own experiences of food poverty as a child, Rashford empathised with the plight of those suffering. He himself experienced relying on breakfast clubs, free school meals, food banks and soup kitchens. He recalled “very clearly our visits to Northern Moor to collect our Christmas dinners every year”.

The day after the letter was published, the government reversed their decision. The combination of Rashford’s open letter to MPs, in addition to his work over the lockdown period, were cited as a major factors for the government’s policy change. Free school meals for children were extended to include the summer holidays.

Despite his efforts to combat child food poverty, Rashford experienced criticism from MPs. Conservative MP Kevin Hollinrake replied to a tweet asking why the government was not putting more work in with “where they can, it’s a parent’s job to feed their children.” 

On 15th July, Marcus Rashford became the youngest person to be awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Manchester. Described as ‘the highest honour the university can bestow’, it was awarded in recognition of his work to end child poverty in the UK. 

Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Manchester, described Rashford as “an extraordinary young man with an extraordinary talent and drive”.

“His work for charity and his high-profile campaign will not only help countless young people across our own city, but across the entire country.

“Our university has social responsibility at its core. This sense of civic pride and duty is something we are proud to share with Marcus. That is why the University is delighted to make Marcus our youngest ever recipient of an honorary degree.”

Rashford himself announced it was a “proud day for myself and my family”. He acknowledged that there was still a long struggle ahead in combating food poverty. However, “recognition from your city means we are heading in the right direction and that means a lot”.

On 1st September, in a continuation of his campaign to tackle child food poverty, Rashford announced that he had set up the Child Food Poverty Task Force in collaboration with several UK food shops, manufacturers, charities and delivery companies.

The task force’s main aims is pushing the government accepting the policy recommendations by the National Food Strategy. To expand free school meals to all under-16s where a parent or guardian is in receipt of Universal Credit or equivalent benefit, to provide meals & activities during all holidays, and to increase the value of Healthy Start vouchers to at least £4.25 per week, and expand the scheme.

In a statement released on Twitter, Rashford stated that he was “incredibly honoured and humbled”. Yet at the same time urged the Prime Minister to continue to support children with a further extension of the voucher scheme.”

Speaking to BBC Breakfast about being made an MBE, Rashford said: “It’s a nice moment for me personally but I feel like I’m still at the beginning of the journey that I set out to try to achieve.”

However, Rashford’s call for the continuation of free school meals during the holidays was yesterday rejected by the government. Continuing his campaign, Rashford petitioned the government to implement the recommendations. Within less than 24 hours, the petition already received over 210,000 signatures.

In another tweet, Rashford vowed to continue fighting child food poverty. He stated that “this is not going away soon, and neither am I…”

TSIS: Here are the top skills you need to make it a science graduate

Written by Sharon Lei on . Posted in Societies.

Are you a student pursuing a science degree and looking to get a science graduate role? The Transferable Skills In Science Society (TSIS) is a new society aiming to improve the employability and job skills of students.

Founded in 2020, the society is for those who are looking for a career in science and research, while building a friendly space for students with similar interests and goals to network and have fun. The student-led environment welcomes all science students and anyone who is interested!

When we think about pursuing a career in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), certain skills sets might come into mind as absolutely crucial for the workplace: scientific reasoning, mathematical and scientific skills.

But it is important to note that soft skills also play a crucial role in a science career as well. Soft skills gives the ability to collaborate effectively with others, which is key to any organization regardless of industry.

When speaking to the founder of the society, Camery, she said she decided to establish a new society as “I was in my placement year and I realised I was lacking some skills (hard skills and soft skills) that aren’t commonly taught through the uni course. While the university’s career service is helpful, I think students will benefit from a student-led, casual and approachable learning environment.”

The membership for the society is free and it is a great way for like-minded students to join and network.

Here are some of the key soft skills for applying to science jobs recommended by TSIS:

Independent mind

Being able to think independently is key to another science-related career, or any career. It is important to be able to think critically in complex situations in a clear and organized manner.

Problem-solving skill

The ability to find a solution to complex and difficult issues is another crucial skill to obtain when looking for a career in science.

Interpersonal skills

Being able to communicate effectively with others is important. Teamwork is key for every company and communication and active listening are both crucial to being a team player.

Organisational skills 

Being able to keep up with deadlines, keeping track of various tasks are also significant. As a student, we know how important it is to meet your deadlines on time, let alone in the workplace, so being able to organise and manage your time effectively is one of the most vital soft skills to have for any science career.

Writing skills

This might come as a surprise as often people neglect the importance of good writing in the workplace. Communicating in a clear and concise manner is important in the workplace due to the ability to clearly communicate ideas through writing is in high demand for employers in any industry.

vintage map

Poems by Dana Kenzhekeyeva

Written by Jasmine Bennett on . Posted in Creative Submissions.

Lockdown 

The world. 

The absolute degree of its representation

All the shapes of it.

Until now it was approximately

only an idea of what lay underneath

Formed and shaped 

by waters – deep, 

and vibrant, 

and blue.

Borders

The whole world started 

looking different 

Its elegance had faltered

the vivid and dynamic shapes

have become a geometric figure – 

sharp and distinct borders 

unpassable

unless you’re one of those 

who draw them.

 

You imitate a life 

lived before, 

before you realized 

that borders have always been 

as sharp as now. 

They were just on the maps, 

and now they are in your life. 

 

You are not a global citizen

anymore.

You are caught on the Lockdown

which represents the virtual planet

you have to settle down

without leaving your own place.

Armed with a cup of tea

and a high-speed internet connection,

you are to enter and to celebrate 

the e-phase of your so-called life.

Dana is an Erasmus student from Hamburg, Germany, and originally from Kazakhstan. She is studying English Linguistics and says she is happy to be here, even if only for one semester during COVID-19.

When the pandemic first started, she was trapped in a foreign country and had the urgent feeling to return back ‘home’, but couldn’t. In that situation of waiting for return flights and lifting of lockdown restrictions, it occurred to her that sometimes despite the inability to change the situation at hand, time is always ours to make the best of. Her poetry recalls those trapped feelings within borders she was not aware of. She writes of adjusting to the rapid changes occurring in the world and details her struggles with adapting to a new reality. 

 

Amazon Alexa

Alexa – Zoe Bracegirdle

Written by Jasmine Bennett on . Posted in Creative Submissions.

There is something stationed in my bedroom. She sits perched on the dresser, 

awaiting my call. 

She needs me, and I need her. 

An insomniac, I rest while she learns of my confidential habits. 

A devoted companion, with an Orwellian stamp. 

There is someone stationed in my bedroom. She sits patiently in the corner and eavesdrops on my most intimate conversations. 

 

She uses me, as I use her. 

Her blue light flashes at me inquisitively, begging me to engage. 

People tell me I should shut her out, turn her off, keep myself hidden. 

But at times she comforts me. 

After all, it is nice to be listened to. 

Zoe Bracegirdle’s poem ‘Alexa’ is a discussion of the ever-concerning relationship between privacy and technology. She addresses how technology can be a companion despite the consistent warnings of its threatening nature. Inspired by a creative prompt of, ‘Is Anyone Listening?’, she originally posted the first verse on her Instagram and began her creative journey using, yet more social based technology. The piece has since been changed and added to as part of her creative process. You can find more of her work @leisureliterature on Instagram.

Photo: Victoria Jones/PA Images @ Getty Images

The Covid culture war: are we tearing ourselves further apart as a country?

Written by Archie Earle on . Posted in Opinion.

Most events, mild or massive, are taken in by the wasteland of the political vacuum. The 24 hour non-stop news cycle demands that we give our spare time to the talking heads that dominate both print and digital media.

Debate and division has always been sowed through social media, television, and newspapers; it is a theme that continues to characterise daily life in the pandemic. An Ashcroft poll suggested that roughly 45% of the country thinks the government is handling the pandemic well, whilst 45% think the opposite. Another poll showed that 59% of the country think that restrictions are being eased too quickly, while the remaining 41% think differently.

This isn’t just disagreement, it’s division, and the indication that we may need to claw our way back into an idea of a united Britain.

We are divided on everything, from the possibility of a vaccine, to the need to publish the daily death tolls. On the one hand, it is fantastic that we get such a broad spectrum of views, because they bring into question other pertinent issues, such as the balancing act between freedom and public health.

At the same time, however, everyone becomes an armchair expert with seemingly iron-clad information.

In our separate bubbles, receiving information from a smorgasbord of different sources, we are pushed towards a nastier, polarised society that is blind to the ancient art of the common ground. This is, in large part, due to the hyper-information reality which is the internet era. You can pay in either money or cookies to find an echo chamber that tells you exactly what you want to hear.

In contrast, parliament and the wider political scene are co-operating. Labour seems to be the Conservative party’s shadow with regards to the pandemic. Whilst Starmer sometimes interjects with a minor disagreement, consensus seems to be the flavour of the month. Starmer himself stated that the Labour party would be voting with the government on all future restrictions.

On the one hand, we can be glad that there isn’t the constant, Brexit-style hatred in parliament that we have seen dominate political discourse in the past few years. But, on the other hand, I am left vying for an opposition party that goes out of its way to critique.  It was, in a shocking turn of events, left to the Liberal Democrat MP Daisy Cooper to speak out against the 10PM pub curfew. Who knew they still existed?

But rarely, if ever, do politicians actually represent us, and there is a value in recognising that. While it is the job of the politician to ultimately win an election, the same is not true of us below the ivory tower. Therefore, we can unite around the fact that politicians are universally accountable, and rarely do they have our best interests at heart; rather, the compassionate side of politics should indeed be left to the public.

Most commonly in the UK, the roots of tribalism can be traced back to Brexit.

Though Brexit was not an inherently divisive issue, it was an amalgamation of larger debates which had been cast aside. Social unrest resulting from globalisation, communitarianism, and inequality all played a part in the referendum.

Whilst Brexit was important, it was only the start of the culture war. Since then, modern tribalism in Britain has been on the rise. Brexit left the country divided, creating an unhealed wound which has seeped into daily life and added to the divisiveness of pandemic politics.

As a piece of policy, it does not have to mean the end of Britain as a cohesive unit. The impact of Brexit – which is anyone’s guess at this stage – will prove a test for the country, but seeing the back of it may help us realise that our enemy is not our ideologically opposed neighbour.

In my view, the pandemic will only emphasise and exacerbate these problems. Britain will look back at this year in seeming 20/20 vision, yet forget the realities that we lived through. We had so little information about the virus, yet pointed disparaging fingers of blame at those who made mistakes.

This is a simple prediction but one which I imagine will prove effective.

The point of this, is not so much to suggest that we shouldn’t be angry, or even that we shouldn’t be angry at each other. Not only is making the apolitical political inevitable, but it is also necessary. We must have discourse about how much we put power into the hands of politicians.

The main takeaway from this, I hope, would be that we need to unite around common causes. A global pandemic is a good start. We need to see our opposites as just that: opposites, not enemies.

Photo: University of Manchester

Important lessons we learned about black history from Gary Younge’s lecture

Written by Mollie Simpson on . Posted in Features.

“Just because he had discovered them, didn’t mean they weren’t there all along. They were there, the whole time,” says Gary Younge, talking about how Hurricane Katrina impacted New Orleans. Gary continues to explain how, like any crisis, the hurricane laid bare the racial, socioeconomic inequalities that had always been there: for the first time, the head of the federal emergency Michael Brown realised he was seeing poverty, impoverished people he never knew had existed. But the reality of poverty for black citizens of New Orleans and the inequalities that drove those conditions had always been there.

Gary is a sociology professor at Manchester University, and a British journalist having edited and written columns for The Guardian. His online lecture named ‘Black and Brilliant: Celebrating Black Achievement’, spoke out to thousands of viewers about the reality of racial injustice in the UK.

Unobstructed by the Zoom function and technical issues at the start, Gary talks the talk with charisma and an engaging tone. The viewing figures slowly rise: by the end, I notice 6.7k people have been watching.

Just as Hurricane Katrina swept devastation, and with that laid bare the overrepresentation of black people in poverty, the coronavirus pandemic demonstrates how BAME communities have always been disproportionately affected by the crisis. Gary says: “COVID can take anybody, but disproportionately takes black lives. Black people make up 13 per cent of the population, but a third of the deaths to COVID were black people.” 

He highlights the frenetic social media outbursts in response to George Floyd, and I’m reminded of how, being told to stay at home, cover my mouth, practice social distancing and avoid crowds in a time of police brutality and widespread racial injustices, posting a black square on Instagram felt like an active stance. But how did I go beyond that? What could I have done more of? My friend Anna said: “Posting a black square felt like the right thing at the time. But I wonder if it was slightly performative, and I could have been taking action instead.”

“When mainstream media and political parties discover the reality of race and class and how they intersect, in that moment, it can be a lot like watching teenagers discover sex: urgently, earnestly, voraciously, and carelessly, with great self-indulgence, but precious little self-awareness. The interest never goes away, but the intensity wanes with time. Even if they knew who to ask about it, they’d be too crippled by embarrassment of their own ignorance. That was how this summer felt to me, as screens filled with slow death, and explosive rebellion, statues toppling, resistance pollinating.”

Gary explains how social media, being inherently self-indulgent, and ignorance, decidedly veiled, intersect and often can miss the mark with discussing racism and racial history. But he emphasises how we must feel emboldened, not despairing because the black squares and petitions signed and consciousnesses elevated showed something else too: a moment of recognition and unity.

“There’s a proven ability to clear space, but not to build on it; to raise awareness, but not always convert it. This has led some to despair that the moment has been squandered: the energy has petered out, the intention has moved elsewhere. But that is not how I see it. It seems to me more that the energy has pollinated into different places and spaces, in workplaces and schools, where black people and other anti-racists now feel emboldened, enconscientised. People who felt isolated have found ideological kin.”

What else do we find out? That race and class are discreetly and inherently intertwined, and for black people, you cannot earn your way out of racism, or be promoted beyond it. Class, gender, and sexuality affect how race is seen, but also racism has “political license to operate independently”. Any black person, powerful or impoverished, will experience racism.

And what of the role of students? Gary says: “There are things that can be done within the capitalist system, while recognizing its limitations.” He encourages recognizing racial injustices when they happen, thinking about what we can do today to solve them, and educating ourselves on black history.

Gary’s talk is essential viewing for anyone who posted a black square on their Instagram back in June, and anyone who didn’t because they don’t believe in the role of social media in discussing racism.

At just under two hours, Gary’s talk is nuanced, well-spoken, and crucial.

As a white middle-class student, I came away from it feeling emboldened, educated, and better informed. The black square on my Instagram feed remains up, but now, when I see my face reflected back in it, it feels like one that is taking more conscious steps to be informed on racism and black history. You can watch and listen to Gary’s talk here (it starts 12 minutes in, and ends around 36 minutes).

How to donate and support the Black Lives Matter movement during Black History Month:

Photo: Vita Student @ Flickr

Grappling with graphene: A look into the first 2D material

Written by Blake Crompton on . Posted in Science & Tech.

As we end our second teaching week, I hope all our new freshers are getting to grips with navigating the university campus, with its many buildings and departments, and especially the parts that you didn’t know existed.

A good place to notice, tucked away behind the Kilburn building, is a big, shiny, £13 million building built to research, develop, and understand one of the University’s biggest contributions to the world.

This is The National Graphene institute (NGI), dedicated towards (you guessed it) ‘graphene’.

Firstly, what is graphene?

Graphene is the first man-made 2D material, and an allotrope (form) of carbon. As the name gives away, graphene is somewhat related to ‘graphite’, which is another carbon allotrope. You’ll know graphite best from the pencils you use everyday, but it also has many other applications, including solar panels.

Graphite’s useful properties come from its structure, which is naturally occurring and consists of hexagonal ‘sheets’ stacked on top of one another.

What are graphene’s properties?

Graphene, with the “-ene” being science-y shorthand for a carbon double bond (C=C), doesn’t consist of stacked layers like graphite. It is a one layer, 2D, honeycomb lattice.

Now you may be asking, as the natural form of graphite is layers of these carbon lattices, what is the big deal? You’d expect graphene to have similar properties – and in some ways, it does.

Graphene, however, is a funny thing, and its unique construction gives rise to odd electronic properties. The type of bonding is found in many other highly used materials, like nanotubes, and gives rise to highly efficient conduction, as well as immense strength compared to alloys of similar thicknesses.

It has so many other qualities you could write a whole book on this simple-seeming layer of carbon atoms (and many have)! The thing I love most about graphene though, is that it was first researched at our university.

Graphene research at UoM

Graphene has sparked scientists’ interest back in the mid-20th century. It wasn’t until 2004, however, that graphene was finally isolated and characterised properly by researchers here at The University of Manchester. Two of these researchers, Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for this achievement in 2010. This makes graphene a very important part of Manchester’s recent history.

An important area of current scientific research is ‘Electrochemistry’, which is the study of electricity and how it relates to chemical reactions, with a current emphasis on batteries. Graphene’s unique electrical behaviour has lead to vast funding and research into conductors and composites, which has allowed a multi-hundred-million-pound global industry to develop.

Graphene Cartoon of Mask
Image: Blake Crompton

In terms of at-home investment, the National Graphene Institute was the product of governmental, EU, and private funding which reached a total of £61 million. This showcases just how important the development of graphene has been to Manchester.

Whilst this material has seemingly endless practical use, you’ll find one example of it in your welcome packs. These include 2 little pouches which hold your very own graphene-interwoven face masks.

Next time you put one on, maybe consider just how much investment, research and sheer dedication went into keeping you safe, and how it all started right here in Manchester.

Flyboy Jetty’s ‘Take My Side’ Music Video: A Summer Dreamscape

Written by georgeblumenthal on . Posted in Music.

As I look out of the window in my University room in Manchester, I see a dreary grey sky and droplets of rain. Flyboy Jetty’s music video for ‘Take My Side’ strikes me with a nostalgia for the golden rays, dry grass, and carefree times of summer. 

Flyboy Jetty are a group of young and incredibly talented musicians hailing from my hometown, London. I first heard their single ‘925’ when searching for fresh artists, and I was blown away. ‘Take my side’ is one of those songs which is reminiscent of something that you can’t quite put your finger on, perhaps of another world. The singing begins: “Bathed in sunlight”, before a flawlessly simple instrumental kicks in, with a tropical-sounding instrument over a steady and delicate drum pattern.

“Take my hand, don’t you understand?”

‘Take my side’ is about the ups and downs of a romantic relationship, projected in an abstract way which makes it relatable for everyone. Don’t we all want someone to take our hand and understand us sometimes?

Showcasing their iconically spacey and atmospheric sound, the song has a feeling of freedom which is token to its non- conformity, down to its rhyme schemes. Throughout the song are haunting, melodic ad-libs, and the cleverly placed high notes are surprising, giving ‘Take My Side’ multiple melodic dimensions.

Flyboy Jetty draws on influences from both rap and indie to create an exciting fusion. The song’s spaciness and adlibs are reminiscent of Octavian, and the mellow instrumental is evocative of Drake. They are a breath of fresh air amongst the London music scene, and indeed in the UK’s underground scene. Most of all, one gets the sense of their total authenticity when listening to this song.

I love the normality of the lyrics: “Messaging between broken screens… Four-thirty in the morning”. These everyday situations contrast beautifully with the overall dreamy, other-worldly feeling of ‘Take My Side’. The video feels like a slice of life as they ride around on their bikes and dance together, cut with kaleidoscopic patterns. It shows us the world from their perspective for 3 minutes and 10 seconds.

This song has been released under my label Bonzeye, where I showcase releases from exciting new artists. My radio show on Itch FM featuring Flyboy Jetty can be found here.

Becky Hill Toby Bartram

Spacing Out: An Interview with Becky Hill

Written by Toby Bartram on . Posted in Music.

Becky Hill has just dropped her new single ‘Space’ ahead of her debut album releasing on the 19th of March 2021.

Backed up by a catalogue of huge collaborations with the likes of Disclosure, Sigala and  Camelphat, Becky admits “it’s a huge honour not only that these artists want to have me feature on their tracks, but also that they want to produce on my own solo records”. With Hill having released over 20 singles in the past 6 years, garnering over 1.5 billion streams and 18 million monthly listeners on Spotify, her upcoming debut album, even according to herself, has been long time coming: “I don’t think I’ll ever get another chance to spend as long on an album again, so as a first flag plant in the ground, I’m very excited, proud and ready to release it into the world!”

The album will be different from previous releases, as she looks to create her first full-length body of work. Hill discloses to us that “[it] will be full of personal insights from my life that aren’t necessarily for a dance floor, but more for how I listened to albums growing up, in my bedroom taking each song as if it were meant for me. And now I’ve done it! Written an album for myself that I hope other people can resonate with, just like I used to when growing up listening to other artists’ albums.”

Due to the current global situation, Becky had to postpone her 2020 tour to next year. She described how “desperate [she is] to play shows again…postponing the tour this year was absolutely gutting”. With the tour rescheduled, she will be headlining big venues such as Brixton Academy and Victoria Warehouse. She’s “super excited to get on with the big shows.”

Hill’s latest single “Space” is “a very personal song that seems a million miles away for me now…”

“I’m proud of this song for many reasons” she tells us; “It’s the most honest I’ve ever been with myself, let alone the public.”

Both “Space” and the upcoming album will be released through Universal, which Becky admits is easier than doing it herself. “Releasing through a major label makes things a lot more straightforward than when I was independently releasing and self-funding all of my projects”. The six years of work Becky has put in seems to have paid off as she was crowned the second most-streamed British Female Artist on Spotify UK in 2019.

The song has received great acclaim being named Track of the Week by Radio 1, and Becky admits this is “super important as it gets my music out there to a larger audience, it’s fantastic that they are supporting my own records”.  She describes the latest release as a “step up and a step out for me as an artist. A dance floor ballad that tells a story, with an insight into my life and who I am as a person, it really gears up to what to expect for my debut album.”

Photo Illustrating the Emily in Paris article

Why Emily from Emily in Paris should have stayed in Chicago

Written by Alexandra Bikard on . Posted in Opinion.

The reboot of the iconic Sex and the City, called Emily in Paris, was awaited with great enthusiasm from the fashion crowd. Everyone expected Patricia Fields, the legendary costumer from the original show, to grace us with a new set of flamboyantly brilliant outfits. As a French national, I was particularly thrilled that the show was set in my home country.

This article was therefore originally intended to be a review of the show’s fashion but, after having laboriously watched the entire first season, I had to address the numerous issues that made the show so painful to watch. 

While the show’s original intent is to debunk sexist stereotypes and be ‘woke’ amidst the ‘#MeToo’ movement, it still manages to be insanely offensive as it is based on a number of false and/or outdated stereotypes about France and French people. 

As you may have figured out from its title, the show is set in Paris. Emily is unexpectedly sent there to help transition a French marketing firm that was acquired by her company. While the French are generally not the best at second languages, Emily just assumes that everyone should speak English, while she can barely say ‘Bonjour’. She comes in, doesn’t attempt to understand the language or the customs, and decides that she MUST know better because “Americans invented social media”. The French certainly have a lot of room for progress but Emily establishes herself as someone bearing the ‘White Man’s Burden’ within the first ten minutes of the series. 

The show keeps playing on the stereotype that French people are rude. But this is not an American high school and I highly doubt that people would start calling the new girl in the office ‘la plouc’ (which, by the way, is a word nobody uses anymore) or draw a penis on her paperwork. 

The romantic subplot also revolves around the fact that there is no ‘ground floor’ in France and that what Americans call the first floor is in fact the second floor, but French people do, in fact, have a word for ground-floor. It is ‘Rez-de-chaussé’, for the record, and we count floors in the ‘normal way’. They should have considered basing the show in Russia if they wanted to use Emily constantly trying to open her (dashingly handsome, of course) neighbour’s door as the original spark in their relationship.  

Don’t get me wrong, Lily Collins is a beautiful woman, but why is every man she meets obsessed with her? That is not how real life works, but let’s move on!

I am pretty sure that Emily thought Paris was Chicago with good croissants. She complains that the city is “cut-out in a circle just as if it was designed to confuse us” – for your information, it is actually built on a snail shape, but who’s fact checking at this point?

My favourite line of the entire show is when her new American friend talks about “the irony of how a French fry can make you feel so at home”. Not only do I feel sorry for Americans – is that really what home feels like to them? – but the scene also insinuates that the French have not yet discovered cheeseburgers, as if it’s not on every other restaurant’s menu. No, we MUST go to Ralph Lauren’s restaurant to taste it.

While Sex and the City was praised for its liberating perspective on women’s sexuality, it crucially lacked diversity in both size and race. One would think the reboot would aim to amend that but, as it turns out, it doesn’t. Out of all the characters only two recurring ones are POC: the sidekick and a guy at the office who gloriously gets to say the line “Bonjour Emily” every morning when she comes in. 

Everyone is pretty much sample size. Emma Specter wrote an excellent piece about the fatphobia in the show by showcasing that the plot would be unfeasible, had the main character been plus-size. 

Furthermore, Emily is horrified that the word ‘vagina’ in French is masculine and decides that she, Emily the Great, will reform the French language. Now I’ll be the first to acknowledge that French is a sexist language. If there are 30 women in one room and a single man the party will be referred to as “Ils” (masculine ‘they’) rather than Elles (the feminine equivalent). Still, I haven’t heard Emmanuel Macron proudly boast “Grab them by the p*ssy”, so Emily could perhaps concentrate on the blatant sexism happening back home before getting outraged in France… 

All in all, I am willing to bet on the fact that there was no French person under the age of 50 and that currently lives in France on the writing team of this show. While it was truly painful to watch because of the terrible research, it was ultimately the colonial, racist, sexist, and fatphobic values that transcend in the writing that really bothered me. It’s one thing to trash a culture for entertainment, it’s another to completely fail to be appropriate in the 21st century.

Could Covid-19 defeat the Trump Administration?

Written by Joe McFadden on . Posted in Opinion.

It’s been a tumultuous week of scandal, chaos and criticism in the Trump White House. It’s a week which has sent staff and spin doctors scrambling to portray the President in a positive light following his hospitalisation with Coronavirus, the New York Times’ damning exposé on his tax returns and a controversial debate performance.

However, with less than a month left till election day, will be this enough to defeat the Republicans or will Trump bounce back from this week of scandal, as he has surprisingly done several times before?

The October Surprise: damnation or elevation?

Ever since Henry Kissinger declared that “Peace is at hand” in Vietnam, during the 1972 election, a key event in US elections has been the “October surprise”. This is an unforeseen event which often is instrumental in producing a victorious candidate. 

Some pointed to the NYT’s recent feature on Trump’s tax returns, which revealed that the President only paid $750 in federal taxes in 2016 and 2017, as Trump’s “October surprise” that would lose him the election to former Vice-President, Joe Biden. But despite widespread outcry across the political spectrum, Trump’s tax returns failed to make a significant dent in the President’s popularity due to the seeming infallible cult of personality Trump has built around himself.

This cult of personality is the reason why he has been able to survive so many scandals and gaffes that would have caused any other President to resign in disgrace.

Indeed, many of Trump’s scandals have furthered his far right cause and further entrenched both his supporters and detractors in a “culture war” which has played out over Twitter, Facebook, and in the mainstream media, leaving many voters disillusioned with politics. Despite its shocking revelations, the tax returns exposé was never the silver bullet that “centrist” commentators decried it to be because politics has long moved past ideals like civility and honour and has, instead, descended into the dystopian nightmare we have been living for the past four years. This brings us to the current White House crisis that is currently dominating both British and American airwaves: the President’s contraction of Covid-19.

All the President’s (positive) Men

On October 2nd, Trump tweeted to confirm that he and his wife Melania had tested positive for Covid-19 and were quarantining immediately. Initial reports pointed to an event held on September 26th, to announce the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, as the potential source of the outbreak, due to the Administrations blatant disregard for personal safety and refusal to enforce social distancing measures. Following the outbreak, Trump was hospitalised on the afternoon of October 2nd as a “precautionary measure” despite rumours suggesting that the President’s condition was much worse than reported. During a routine Press Briefing, Dr Sean Conley refused to comment on whether or not the President had received supplementary oxygen, once again showing the administration’s contempt for truth and transparency.

Since the ‘superspreader’ event, at least 36 known individuals who were in close proximity to the President have tested positive for the virus, including the First Lady, Senior Counselor Hope Hicks, White Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, and Admiral Charles Ray. The scale of an outbreak at the heart of government proves the danger that Covid poses to society, however Trump’s refusal to acknowledge its dangers, despite suffering from it himself, is what could potentially lose him the election.

The Rose Garden ‘superspreader’ event.

Biden vs Trump, Science vs Lunacy

On November 3rd 2020 America will go to the polls to decide who will be the next President of the United States. Trump’s dismissal of the threat that has killed over 200,000 Americans, with many more projected losses, should lose him the election. The POTUS’s contraction of Covid could prove to be a turning point in his Presidency as his downplaying of the dangers of the virus has seemingly enraged many Americans, including some in his own base. The catastrophic death toll has led to even more questioning of Trump’s competency as many Americans look for answers for the preventable loss of their loved ones. 

That being said, the aforementioned culture war could provide grounds for another Trump-Pence victory, due to the mobilization of the “Christian right” against masks, vaccines and even the very existence of the virus itself.

Coronavirus could truly be the deciding factor in this election. Trump’s return to the White House on October 5th provoked bewilderment and anger from many as the President tweeted out “Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life.” This tweet proves Trump’s detachment from reality and is once again more proof of why he is unfit for office. To many survivors of Covid-19, this tweet reads as a slap in the face. It exemplifies that Trump’s pursuit of “ideology” over rational thought and science is what will lose him the election.

Polls and anecdotal evidence so far indicate that Joe Biden’s measured response to the virus is more popular with Americans because he is doing what the President should be doing in a crisis. This is in stark contrast to Trump’s response as he has endangered the lives of his staff, family and citizens, whilst his denial of the virus’ seriousness is evidently losing him support with the swing voters that he needs in order to win a second term in the White House.

Trump’s controversial tweet shortly before he left hospital.

It has been over 2 weeks since the exposé on Trump’s tax returns and at the time of writing it has only been 1 week since the President was released from Hospital. In that time, his actions have led to questions surrounding his mental state, his physical health, and there are even rumours alleging that his medical team are deliberately concealing his condition from the American public in order to preserve the image of a “strong” leader.

With these crises in mind, it is increasingly clear that for the good of the union and the world stage Trump must be voted out of office on November 3rd. perhaps the Covid crisis could be the final nail in the coffin for this far-right, borderline authoritarian administration. Joe Biden is far from the best candidate the Democratic Party has ever fielded, however when faced with the choice between a belief in science and a dogmatic practitioner of lunacy, science must always prevail. 

The curious case of different coloured eyes

Written by larakenedi on . Posted in Science & Tech.

Have you ever seen a cat with one golden eye and one blue eye? What about a Husky? Or a human?

The condition where a pair of eyes are different colours is called complete heterochromia. In humans it is present in about six people for every 1000. In animals the prevalence varies across species and breeds, but is generally much more common.

Where does eye colour come from?

What gives eyes their colour in humans is not vastly different for animals such as cats and dogs. The pupil, which is the gap through which light enters the eye, is surrounded by the iris. The iris consists of a meshwork of different cell types: pigmented cells called melanocytes, and non-pigmented cells which form a supporting structure.

Drawing of a melanocyte. Photo: KoiQuestion @ Flickr

The pigment that these melanocytes contain is called melanin, which comes in several forms. Eumelanin gives the eye a brown or black colour whereas pheomelanin makes the eyes yellowish. The density of the pigment also plays a role: the more melanin there is, the darker the eye looks.

The amount and type of melanin is determined by interplay between several genes. In humans, this is the most common genetic cause of a phenomenon called mosaicism.

It is a genetic abnormality that occurs during development.

After an egg is fertilised it undergoes many cycles of division. The cells differentiate into various cell types – which have different functions – to form the foetus. A mutation during this process – especially if present in more than of the genes – can result in the two eyes becoming different colours. Disease or injury can also damage melanocytes, causing them to never form in the eye at all.

 

Is it the same for our furry friends?

In animals like cats and dogs, the reason can also be down to genetics but not necessarily because of mutations. Certain genes – like those which control fur colour – can prevent the melanocytes from reaching the eyes. These genes determine the amount and distribution of melanin that are transported to the hairs in their coat, which affects the volume of melanocytes in the eye.

It makes sense then that the frequency of heterochromia varies between breeds, not just species, and is more common in breeds with colourful fur.

Illustration for Untangling Curls

Untangling Curls

Written by Alexandra Bikard on . Posted in Fashion & Beauty.

Whether you have a 2A or a 4C curl type. A common thread between all women with curls is that learning to embrace and care for your locks is, more often than not, a rocky journey.

The urge to straighten and ‘tame’ curly hair is buried in our society’s colonial standards, which young girls assimilate through the media (someone truly needs to explain to us what was wrong with Mia’s curls in the Princess Diaries). Still, if you have made the decision to embrace what nature gave you but need a little inspiration, four beautiful women told us all about their hair journey, and shared their current favorite products to use. 

Nikytta – 2C/3A

Nikytta showing off her curls
PHOTO: NIKYTTA PATEL @THE MANCUNION

I was unaware that I had curly hair until the age of 18 because neither of my parents have curls. My hair was always very frizzy and unmanageable. 

When I was 17/18 I realised that if I let my hair air-dry I was left with slightly wavy hair, which got me thinking: maybe I actually have curly hair? My hair was so damaged from years of straightening and blow-drying that my curl pattern was fried: I had to spend about a year recovering my heat-damaged hair. 

I discovered coupled hair masks and heatless hair styles, but ended up tying it up most of the time. Eventually, my curl pattern started to come back and this is when I started trialing products, to discover what worked for me. 

I feel like I’ve accepted my curls fully, and I love them! The only downside is that not every day is a good hair day and I can’t wear a hat because it’s so easily damaged I am definitely still learning how to style my curls. Whilst I have found products that work, I’m on an ongoing journey to find the best. 

I follow the advice of the youtubers Leyla, Manes by Mell and AnchalMUA.  

My favourite products to use are: the Shea Moisture Curl and Style Milk, Curl Charisma Rice Amino + Avocado Leave-In Defining Creme and the Wella Shockwaves Curl and Waves Mousse. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sophia – 3B 

Sofia showing off her curls
PHOTO: SOFIA ADAMOPOULOU @THE MANCUNION

I always had curly hair, and ever since I can remember, people have gushed about how nice my hair is or how they wished they had my curls. Still, I started straightening it when I turned 12 so it wouldn’t be as fluffy, turning into a completely different person. But straightening it took 2 hours at the hairdressing salon, and it was too much of a burden.

As I grew older, I started to embrace it and stopped looking like a frizzy-bush, as I started taking care of it more. I only go to the hairdresser to do a balayage or ombre now. 

Although I am a minority in Greece when it comes to my hair type, celebrities like Zendaya, Shakira, and Harry Styles have inspired me to love my hair and learn how to take care of it. I also get a lot of confidence from people stopping me in the streets. 

I don’t really style my curls: I usually like to let them down when they’re freshly washed and wear them in a bun as wash day approaches – my hair being quite susceptible to humidity. I also sleep with silk pillow cases to minimise frizz and wash my hair every 3 days. 

My favourite products are the Kérastase Discipline Bain Fluidealiste shampoo, the John Frieda Frizz Ease conditioner and Matrix Amazonian Murumuru oil. 

 

 

 

 

Ose – 4C 

Ose showing off her curls
PHOTO: OSE PETER-AKHIGBE @THE MANCUNION

As a young girl, my hair was chemically straightened according to social norms. The process badly damaged my hair and I began “transitioning” to natural hair when I was around 13.

I absolutely hated it, as I went from having socially acceptable hair to looking “untidy”. I was fully natural around one year later. By then, the natural hair movement had really picked up and, as people were complimenting my full Afro, I started loving my curls. Yet, according to my school’s rules (in Nigeria!!), my hair had to be cornrowed or “neatly” tied. 

When I left Nigeria at the age 16, I had to learn how to take care of my hair myself, as natural hairdressers were scarce in England. I began resenting my curls because of how hard they were to manage.

Over time, I’ve learned how to take care of them and which products to use. Quarantine gave me the opportunity to further study my hair, since I had more time to wear it out instead of wearing protective styles. I also learned a lot from @aphrolish on Instagram who has had a similar journey to mine.

My favourite product currently is the Cantu Coconut Curling Cream. It really defines my curls and makes them look hydrated and healthy. I use it after I wash my hair as the final step in the LOC method. I’d really recommend it for any hair type. 

 

 

 

Georgina 

2C/3A 

Georgina showcasing her hair
PHOTO: GEORGINA DAVIDSON @THE MANCUNION

My Curl journey has been varied and has had as many twists and turns. I was always aware of my curls – even when pulled into tight plaits, the little spirals and “halo” of frizz gave away that there was more to my hair than being pulled back and lacquered flat to my head. 

Throughout high school and college, I continued to straighten and blow dry away the natural curl. 

It was only when I went to university and began to experiment with my style, that I really began to embrace the natural pattern of my hair. Paired with a love of music festivals, which did nothing for my frizz, I decided it was time to embrace and condition my hair back into a natural style. 

For the last two years, I have avoided using any heat or straightening products on my hair. I recently had my hair cut into a bob, which has revealed a much healthier shape and style and made the curls much shorter and bouncier. 

It’s taken many years to accept my natural hair, but I think my current style brings me closer to accepting the roots of my natural look.

I find inspiration in my auntie who rocked her curls back in 1995. Zendaya also inspires me as her hairstyles really reflects how changeable having curly hair can be. I also love the laid back styles of creator/vintage book store owner Gemma Janes and model Renata Gubaeva. 

My favourite hair products currently include Shea Moisture Jamaican Black Castor Oil strengthening mask, Wella Nutricurls Micellar shampoo, Sebastian Twisted curl foam mousse and RedKen All Soft heavy cream. 

 

Nobel Prize awarded to scientists who discovered Hepatitis C

Written by larakenedi on . Posted in Science & Tech.

This year the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine was awarded to Harvey J. Alter, Michael Houghton, and Charles M. Rice, who discovered the Hepatitis C virus. The disease, which 71 million people are estimated to be suffering world-wide, is estimated to have killed approximately 399 000 people in 2016 alone.

Hepatitis C is spread through mixing of blood and bodily fluids. Infection can happen through injection drug use, during birth from an infected mother, unregulated tattooing, and in unsafe healthcare settings – although the latter is rare in today’s modern world.

It is an insidious disease. When the virus first enters the blood it generates an immune response. If the immune response is adequate the virus will be killed and cleared from the body. This, however, is only 15%-30% of cases.

In 70-85% of those infected the infection will become chronic. It targets the liver with severe scarring, known as cirrhosis, varying from person to person in the time it takes to scar. In some people it can happen within a couple of years, while for others it may take decades, with the possibility of the organ losing its function in many cases.

In some people the Hepatitis C virus may even cause cancer. This is because the liver tries to repair itself by generating new cells, but the virus can damage the DNA of these. If mutations in replication-controlling genes occur, the cells begin to proliferate uncontrollably; the result sometimes being cancerous.

The virus causes further damage by promoting inflammation. While inflammation is a healthy response meant to fight off invading pathogens, chronic inflammation can damage and kill cells in multiple ways. One such way is immune cells stimulating liver cells to produce collagen, which makes up the scar tissue. In a chronic infection like Hepatitis C this collagen fibre scar tissue is never properly dissolved. As a result, cells around the scar tissue may be starved for oxygen.

Because of the prevalence and mortality of Hepatitis C, the discovery of the virus causing it is immensely significant. It allowed for the development of blood tests and anti-viral drugs which can effectively treat the disease by blocking the virus from entering liver cells.

However, some obstacles remain.  Firstly, the anti-viral drugs are expensive, subsequently limiting their accessibility. Secondly, while the ability to treat the disease is a significant advancement, it is not capable of stopping the spread of the virus. For that, we need a vaccine. And who knows, maybe that will itself be worth a Nobel Prize in a few years’ time.

Photo: lizedits @ Wikimedia

We’d be lost without her: Gladys West, GPS pioneer

Written by Emma Hattersley on . Posted in Science & Tech.

This Black History Month, the Mancunion Science Section has decided to find out about a few of the Black scientists we should have heard of. This week, Emma Hattersley found out about the incredible work of Gladys West.

I don’t know where I’d be without GPS. I mean, I literally wouldn’t know where I was. The Global Positioning System is now easily accessible from every phone, tablet and computer. It’s rendered the massive paper atlases my parents still haul around in the back of their car completely obsolete (not that they’ll admit it).

It has revolutionised every aspect of global society, and we owe it all to one phenomenal woman: Gladys West.

Gladys West was born in 1930 in rural Virginia, where her family owned a small farm. She realised at a young age that this wasn’t the life for her, so she studied hard at school to get the education that was her key to a new life.

A college education was outside of her family’s budget, but she graduated as valedictorian of her high school in 1948, and was awarded a scholarship to study at Virginia State University. She majored in mathematics, and, after graduating, began to teach at a high school.

Two years later she was hired by the Naval Proving Ground in Virginia (now called the Naval Surface Warfare Centre) to analyse satellite data. She was one of only four black employees.

Whilst working there in the early 1960s she contributed to an incredible astronomical study which proved that for every two orbits Pluto makes, Neptune makes three. This experience led to her becoming project manager of the Seasat project, where she carried out her most groundbreaking work.

Seasat was a satellite that orbited the Earth in 1978. It was trying to solve a major problem in the world of science: no one knew what shape the Earth was.

Before the flat-earthers get too excited, we obviously knew that it was roughly a sphere. However, no one had precisely mapped the imperfections in the Earth’s shape. This made it pretty much impossible to measure distances between places on the Earth’s surface, or between the surface and aeroplanes, with any precision.

In order to create a model of the Earth, the Seasat project used a technique called radar altimetry. This process involves measuring the amount of time it takes for a radar pulse to travel from a satellite to the Earth’s surface, and back again. From this, we can calculate the distance between that satellite and the target surface.

West was, effectively, a geodesist. Geodesists accurately define coordinates of key places on the Earth’s surface – which West did using satellites – in order to reliably map the Earth.

West’s work mostly focused on oceans, as these play a major role in determining irregularities in the shape of the Earth. What we consider to be ‘sea level’ is actually an average of the height of the water around the world, which can vary by a considerable amount.

Using the data from Seasat, West used complex algorithms to account for the variations in gravitational, tidal, and other forces which distort the Earth’s shape. She then programmed an early computer, the IBM 7030 stretch, to perform increasingly refined calculations.

These calculations led to the creation of an incredibly accurate geodetic model of the Earth, which was gradually optimised for what would become the GPS orbit. Without her model, GPS would never have been possible, which means that life as we know it today would never have been possible.

Despite the many incredible parts of her long career, the thing I love most about her is perhaps the most incongruous aspect of her lifestyle: when travelling, she still uses paper maps.

Henrietta Lacks: much more than the mother of immortal cells

Written by Sam Bronheim on . Posted in Science & Tech.

This August marked 100 years since the birth of a woman who has, unknowingly, been responsible for saving the lives of countless people. Though Henrietta Lacks passed away in 1951, cells from her body are still more alive than ever.

Lacks was a vibrant, African American woman who passed away from cervical cancer. And yet clusters of her cells still live and underpin medical research all over the world.

What makes these remarkable cells so unique? And why is it important to celebrate the life of Lacks, and not just her body’s contribution to science?

HeLa cells

The cells taken from Lacks were cancerous, but unlike most cancer cells – which die after a few generations – Lacks’ were unique because they never did.

Her cells continued to replicate and replicate. These remarkable HeLa cells (named after the first and second letters of her name) were essentially immortal.

All cancer cells have the ability to replicate excessively due to mutations in their genes. The affected genes are usually those involved in the control of mechanisms which ‘switch’ replication ‘on’ or ‘off’.

Mutations cause the gene to be permanently ‘on’ and so mechanisms which facilitate replication are constantly expressed. Replication therefore carries on virtually uncontrolled. Despite this cell death would still eventually occur, but not in HeLa cells.

 

HeLa Cells [NIH image gallery @ Flickr]
Due to this unique property, HeLa cells became the perfect model for studying the mechanisms of disease, and continue to be used in research to this day.

These cells have proved to be fundamental in many biomedical findings since their discovery, such as vaccine development, virus isolation and genome mapping.

Notably HeLa cells helped the development of the polio vaccine in the 1950s, cancer research, and in vitro fertilization.

More recently, these miraculous cells have been heavily involved in the efforts to better understand the COVID-19 virus.

However this contribution to science should not be the sole legacy of Henrietta Lacks. Whilst the use of her cells has been considerable, they were first taken without her consent.

An ethical dilemma

Lacks was treated at John Hopkins hospital, which was one of few institutions at the time which cared for African Americans.

Biopsies of her cells were sent to tissue labs across the country to be used for research without her permission or knowledge. Though this was legal and common practice at the time, many now consider this to be hugely unethical.

Henrietta’s story is widely known and has sparked scholarly debate on the themes of informed consent, large-scale data sharing, privacy and confidentiality, commercialization, access to research results, and the ability of a person or their family to withdraw their consent to the use of biospecimens.

The way Lacks was treated is symbolic for racist attitudes that still plague the scientific community. Scientific history is littered with unethical practices and cruel experimentation on minority groups.

It is therefore not only important to remember those victims for their scientific contributions, but also to celebrate them for the people they were. Henrietta Lacks is no exception. According to her family, Henrietta was a woman who like red nail varnish, loved to cook, dance and be surrounded by family.

In her centennial year, the descendants of Henrietta are leading a new campaign, #HELA100,which calls for people to celebrate her life and legacy. “I want scientists to acknowledge that HeLa cells came from an African American woman who was flesh and blood, who had a family and who had a story,” her granddaughter Jeri Lacks-Whye explained.

In many ways Lacks has shaped modern medicine, and yet she nor her family received – and have yet to receive – any kind of compensation for the huge wrong science did her.

The world of science needs to continue to celebrate Lacks to remind people of the injustice carried out against her. Her immortal cells revolutionised science. Her memory should do the same for resolving the historical distrust between medical practice and Black communities.

Be your own protagonist: Why you should be romanticising your life

Written by heidylo on . Posted in Lifestyle.

“You have to start romanticising your life.”

I came across this quote on social media and I have come to realise how much truth there is in it. I have always been very sentimental, the type of person that can cry at any event or place if I feel a surge of emotions. Be it nostalgia, loss, joy, or my personal favourite, the sense of being infinite: where I just get lost in time for a little while.

For some time I thought I was being too dramatic, always living in my head and not in the real world. After reading the sentence above and pondering about its meaning, I realised I was right all along.

We should all romanticise our lives.

By romanticising my life, I enjoy it more; I see everything through rose-coloured glasses, even during challenging and depressive spells. During the more joyful times, I get to rejoice even more because I allow myself to. During challenging times, I allow myself to feel the pain and hurt, so that  I can pick myself up with more ease as I know the story is not over. Just like every great heroine, I must be met with conflicts before I can emerge from the ashes. 

Even during peaceful and mundane times when I have nothing going on, I get to relish in my life by imagining it as a story. When I am studying, I can pretend to be Hermione Granger trying to get through her O.W.L.s. When I am taking a walk in a park, I can pretend to be Lizzy Bennet walking through the highlands. When I am doing any type of physical exercise, I can pretend to be Natasha Romanoff, training in the Avengers compound.

There is always a parallel between books or films and our own life, if we look for it. Bonus if we love those characters and their stories. If doing this makes life more enjoyable, why shouldn’t we? Especially during such trying and uncertain times, we need to protect our happiness more than ever. 

This theme has gained traction on Instagram and TikTok, with viral videos urging, “you have to start thinking of yourself as the main character, because if you don’t, life will continue to pass you by.”

I wanted to find out if other people romanticise their lives, so I spoke to students Phoebe Li and Ivan Lo; their responses suggest that more of us use this tactic to spice up our lives than I originally thought.

“I think everyone romanticises their life a little, I usually do it through movies, comics, and TV shows.” – Ivan.

“I view romanticising life as adding a hint of flavour into the daily routine. It can be energising and motivating. Just like when I am doing chores, I love imagining myself as Rapunzel from Tangled!” – Phoebe.

As I romanticise my life, I learn to appreciate the smaller things. For me, this is the best approach to life. No matter what anyone says, these are our lives, and we have to take control and choose to feel and live them as we wish. This may all sound ridiculous, but I do believe that we should try to be hopeless romantics. After all, our life is our story and we are the protagonist that we should fall in love with.

Looking to save lives? Here’s how

Written by Zahra Salimi on . Posted in Societies.

Cecelia Ahern, the author of P.S. I love you, once beautifully said:” Moments are precious; sometimes they linger and other times they’re fleeting, and yet so much could be done in them; you could change a mind, you could save a life and you could even fall in love.”

Helping save lives is what we decided to dedicate some of our lives to at Manchester Marrow. More specifically, we are the student-ran arm of the charity Anthony Nolan, which signs up students/young people (aged 16-30 years) to the stem cell register. This is required in finding matches for patients suffering from blood cancers and blood disorders who desperately need transplants. The more people we sign up for this register, the higher the chance of finding a blood stem cell or bone marrow match.

Anthony Nolan was initially founded by Shirley Nolan in 1974, realising the hardships associated with requiring an urgent bone marrow transplant. This was due to her three-year-old son suffering from a rare blood disorder known as Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome. This inspired her to set up the world’s first register to match donors with people in desperate need. Today, there are over 800,000 people on Anthony Nolan’s UK register list, and each of these people could be a potential donor and save a life.

Although there are many resources at hand, without you, there’s no cure! In Marrow, we have three important missions: raise awareness of Anthony Nolan and blood cancer within UK universities through our events, encourage every student to join stem cell register through our donor recruitment opportunities, and lastly, raise funds to help support this vital work.

As a student, in addition to signing up to the register, you have the amazing opportunity of volunteering for us and to save a life! One of our most outstanding achievements is signing up over 100,000 people to the Anthony Nolan register and raising over £92,000 in a year. Additionally, 1 in 4 people who go on to donate stem cells is recruited via Marrow!

Being a volunteer for us is no hard work. You could do many things, including spreading the word and talking to people about why they should sign up to the register. Furthermore, you need to inform them what the donation involves if they ever found a match, checking medical backgrounds for donor eligibility, assisting them with cheek swabs, and filling out an application form.

If you’re interested in this opportunity, there will be several volunteer training sessions held throughout the year. Unfortunately, due to the current situation, all these events will be held online. We can assure you, however, that we’re doing our best to make the most of it.

To sign up to the register visit the Anthony Nolan website!

Make sure to follow Manchester Marrow’s social media accounts to keep updated with all the news and events:

Facebook: @ManchesterMarrow

Facebook: Manchester Marrow Volunteers Group

Instagram: @manchestermarrow

Manchester Christmas Markets officially cancelled for 2020

Written by Hannah Connery on . Posted in News.

Manchester’s Christmas Markets will not go ahead this year due to health concerns, given the rise in the number of coronavirus cases in the city.

There had been no plans to hold the Christmas Markets in their traditional capacity this year. However, alternative proposals by the Council to hold a single row of market stalls in Piccadilly Gardens, Deansgate and Cathedral Gardens were not approved by public health officials.

Councillor and head of the Christmas Markets, Pat Karney, said that while the Council had kept the plans “under review”, they “they didn’t pass the test” in protecting visitors from risks posed by Covid-19.

The Markets, which attract thousands of visitors to the city each year, would usually open at the beginning of November. It is the latest Christmas-themed event to be cancelled by the Council, following the announcement last week that Bonfire Night and New Years Eve firework celebrations would not go ahead.

The annual Christmas light switch-on event has also been cancelled. However, there will be a smaller socially-distanced event on 17th November to replace it, which will be broadcast live by BBC Radio Manchester. The giant, lit-up Santa will still be set up in Piccadilly Gardens along with other lights throughout the city to celebrate the season.

Second-year Manchester student, Kate Oates, told the Mancunion that visiting the Christmas Markets had become a yearly rite of passage:

“I go to the Christmas markets every year with my best friend for a beverage. I’m distraught that my annual trip has been cancelled due to Covid-19 and I hope that they will be back again next year.”

Similar markets have been called off in Edinburgh, Bath, and Birmingham, with councils creating online events to replace them. Some cities, such as Liverpool and Nottingham, are yet to officially cancel plans.

One event going ahead in Manchester is a new sit-down market, Winter Island, which will be held in Freight Island at Mayfield Depot from 12th November. Food and drink, such as mulled wine and bratwurst, will be available to visitors, who book tables for up to six people in advance.

Photo: Armitage-61 @Flickr

Temporary testing unit set up as Fallowfield falls foul to Covid-19

Written by mennamorgan on . Posted in News.

A new mobile covid-19 testing unit (MTU) is now available, situated in the car park of the Armitage Centre on Moseley Road.

With the aim of making the tests more accessible to the public, the MTU is a walk-through centre, rather than a drive-through testing facility. So far, the unit carried out tests from Tuesday 13th October through to Thursday 15th of October, from 10:30am – 6pm. No information has been released yet on whether the unit will remain in the area.

The Manchester Council’s decision to implement the testing unit is responding to the high demand for testing, particularly in the area of Fallowfield, which has been labelled as the UK’s coronavirus hotspot. 

The sudden spike in cases is most prevalent among students, with the recent data showing 1500 positive cases and 4000 students in isolation. Alarm bells have therefore been raised over both the safety of the students and the safety of local residents who are predominantly considered to be part of higher risk groups. 

Perhaps even more worrying than the dramatic rise in Coronavirus cases is the fact that many expected this outcome, but it seems little in the way of precautions were taken to reduce the spread of the virus amongst Manchester students. 

General secretary Jo Grady states in regard to the spread of Coronavirus amongst students, “We warned last month of the problems with moving thousands of students across the country and the time has come for urgent action from ministers and universities to protect staff and students.” 

Action clearly needs to be taken in the area to control the spread of the virus to ensure the safety of students and local residents now and in the upcoming months. There has not yet been any information about whether MTUs will be available in the Fallowfield area for dates following October 15th, but evidenced by the area’s high infection rate the demand for coronavirus tests will most certainly be there. 

The MTU will deliver tests to those who book in advance using the GOV website or by calling 119. The council stresses “Please do not book a test if you do not have symptoms of Covid-19.”

The government’s advice regarding self-isolating remains, if you have covid-19 symptoms or have received a positive test result, you must stay at home and self-isolate for 10 days and those in the same household must self-isolate for 14 days.