Tokyo Dub page 42
Rugby World cup page 50
Secrets of Modelling page 27
Issue 277 Monday 13th October 2014 www.epigram.org.uk
A year on: rape culture at Bristol Uni still prominent 46%
of students think a rape culture exists
Rajitha Ratnam
Cheeting evolu tion page 50
Women in Sport page 28-29
Arts Introducing page 39
Issue 269 Monday 9th December 2013
Although many universities in the UK are taking steps to tackle sexual harassment and assault among students, do they need to do more to influence the way nightclubs and event organisers promote themselves? It emerged recently that Freshers at Cardiff University had been given ‘shagcharts’ by South Wales based events company Climax Promotions (!). This was accompanied by a ‘shagchart’ and ‘chunderchart’ on
the handout, which encouraged students to keep a tally of their sexual partners and the amount of times they were sick after drinking too much during Freshers’ Week.
full story on page 10
Sexism at Br 45%
istol
of Bristol studen ts have experience d sexism
Epigram investig
ation reveals sex
ism is alive at
Permanent home for ‘Bark at Ee’
Bristol, page 3 Students and lecturers battle it out in BBC qui z show, page 4
Markéta Brabcová
full story on page 3
Deputy Features Editor covers ‘Shagcharts’: a step too far for student events promoters?
Flickr: FDWR
On 26 October 2013, a motion ending rape culture at the University of Bristol (UoB) was passed by Student Council. However, according to an Epigram survey only four per cent of students believe that this has begun to be achieved. In fact, 62 per cent of those who responded were not even aware that the motion was ever passed. Last year’s motion included resolutions such as committing union resources to ‘debunking’ widespread myths concerning rape and consent and replacing song lyrics which ‘reinforce’ rape culture with an instrumental version. University of Bristol Union (UBU) also gained the ability to ‘disaffiliate an affiliated society’ if it is proven to commit ‘rape apology’ and refuse to express regret for this.
Univers Univer ity Bristol of Bristol Indepen sity of www.epigram Independent dent Student .org.uk Newspa Studen peraper t Newsp
Epigram
13.10.14
News Editorial Inside Epigram Features 8 Bristol’s creationist zoo Investigations Editor George Robb explores Bristol’s controversial Noah’s Ark Farm Zoo
Comment 14 Big Debate
Anastasia Taylor-Lind
Alex Green and Tom Horton discuss whether or not you should study a degree for enjoyment
Style 27 The Dirty Secrets of Modelling Georgina Wottonn highlights the dark side of the industry and its treatment of models
Deputy Editor Anna Fleck
Deputy Editor: Tori Halman
editor@epigram.org.uk
anna.fleck@epigram.org.uk
tori.halman@epigram.org.uk
“
A note from the editor
Our front page story this issue highlights the continued presence of rape culture in and around Bristol University. Since Epigram’s report last year which showed that 45 per cent of Bristol students had experienced sexism or sexual harassment from fellow students, it appears that the situation has scarcely improved. While acknowledging that, it is important to first make the point that many students here at Bristol have been working extremely hard to change this. Not only those in Feminist Society but a range of others who have participated in initiatives such as the No Excuse campaign, or Mythbusters, which both challenge rape myths; and organisers of the Reclaim The Night march, which this year takes place on 7 November. And also anyone who has stood up to a fellow student making a joke about sexual harassment – rape ‘jokes’ are unacceptable in any form, whether at a comedy gig or at a society social. But the statistics show how much work is still to be done, across the UK, before the focus on the behaviour of the perpetrators of rape rather than victims is ensured. A study recently found that a third of Brits believe a woman who acts flirtatiously is partially or completely to blame for being raped. It found that more than a quarter of Brits believe a woman is at least partly responsible for being raped if she is drunk. This worrying ignorance is hardly helped when it is peddled by public bodies such as the police and the NHS. West Yorkshire Police recently put out a poster aimed at women which said ‘Go
out and enjoy yourself but think before you drink’. A joint NHS and Home Office poster also placed a focus on alcohol, implying that women were responsible if they had been drinking excessively.
around 90% of rapes are committed by men who know the victim
Similarly outrageous bouts of victimblaming have been witnessed here in Bristol. At the Mayoral hustings in Wills Memorial Building in November 2012, one candidate responded to a question about sexual harassment by saying that ‘Women shouldn’t drink too much’. Nightclub promoters have run marketing campaigns such as Itchy Feet’s infamous ‘Drunk Women Deserve Jail’, which saw posters with those words on stuck around campus earlier this year. ‘Casual sexism’ and demeaning language that you may expect to hear at a UKIP conference fringe is also worryingly common in certain societies and sports clubs in British universities. The men’s rugby team at LSE handed out leaflets last week which called women ‘Slags’. LSE rightly disbanded it for the year almost immediately. One sports club social ‘game’ at Cambridge features the rule ‘No speaking to a female unless she is your waitress. If you break this, you get punched in the face.’ A ‘game’ at Durham, meanwhile, is the hideous ‘It’s not rape
if…’. Sexist jokes and comments can be one of the main symptoms of some initiation events where students are also intimidated into drinking excessive amounts of alcohol. The recent front page of Exeposé, Exeter University’s student paper, featured shocking undercover footage of the University Football Club’s initiation and also raised the small number of students – at Exeter and elsewhere – who even died as a result of alcohol intoxication at initiation ceremonies. These horrific cases highlight the amount of work still to be done in educating people leading such activities about the hazards. Another common myth is that women are most likely to be raped outside, by strangers in dark alleyways. Actually, around 90% of rapes are committed by men who know the victim. Our report into the extent to which ‘a rape culture’ still exists at Bristol goes to show that we have a long way to go before the many myths and misconceptions that plague sections of universities and society as a whole are eradicated. Bristol last year became the first city in the South West to be awarded ‘White Ribbon’ status for its commitment to ending violence against women. Every one of us should help ensure that both our university and Bristol as a city lead the way in tackling a set of issues which are too often marginalised. In 1876, Bristol University was the first higher education institution in England to admit women on equal basis to men. It would make many of us prouder still to graduate with Bristol degrees if it were to take a lead on the hugely important issue of eliminating rape culture here.
Writers’ meetings
Zaki Dogliani
Every fortnight, our editors hold meetings for anyone who wants to write for Epigram. If you’d like to get involved, or simply want to find out more information, come along to any one of the following meetings or contact the relevant editor via their email address below. It’s never too late to get involved - we look forward to meeting you! News Living Film & TV Science & Tech Tuesday 21st Oct at 1pm The Hawthorns
Tuesday 21st Oct at 12pm The Hawthorns
Monday 20th Oct at 5pm The White Harte
Thursday 16th Oct at 4pm The White Bear
Features
Travel
Music
Sport
Wednesday 22nd Oct at 1pm Highbury Vaults
Music
40 An Interview with Sylvan Esso
Editor: Zaki Dogliani
Gunseli YalcinKaya gets some valuable life lessons in feminism and internet trolls
Comment
Thursday 23rd Oct at 1.15pm The White Bear
Editor Zaki Dogliani Deputy Editor Anna Fleck anna.fleck@epigram.org.uk
Deputy Editor Tori Halman tori.halman@epigram.org.uk
Managing Director Stephanie Rihon stephanie.rihon@epigram. org.uk News Editor Editor Sarah Newey Tom Flynn news@epigram.org.uk editor@epigram.org.uk Deputy News Editors Deputy Editors Issy Bull Jon Bauckham issyb@epigram.org.uk jon@epigram.org.uk Hannah Stubbs Ivana Scatola hannah@epigram.org.uk iscatola@epigram.org.uk
e2 Editor News Online Editors Matthew McCrory Oscar Cunnington e2@epigram.org.uk ocunnington@epigram.org.uk
51 Will Tavaré Edward Henderson-Howatt speaks to Gloucestershire’s rising cricket star
Tuesday 14th Oct at 6pm Highbury Vaults
Style
News Editor Alex Evans Alice Young newsonline@epigram.org.uk news@epigram.org.uk
comment@epigram.org.uk Deputy Comment Editor Adam Becket abecket@epigram.org.uk
Tuesday 22nd Oct at 2pm The Hawthorns
Online Beth Laverack styleonline@epigram.org.uk What’s On Editor Sam Mason-Jones whatson@epigram.org.uk
Science & Tech Online Editor Alfie Smith scienceonline@epigram.org.uk
www.epigram.org.uk For the latest news, features and reviews
Sport Editor Daniel Thacker sport@epigram.org.uk
Comment Online Editor Arts Editor Matt Field commentonline@epigram.org.uk Millie Morris Deputy Sport Editor arts@epigram.org.uk Benj Cunningham Letters Editor deputysport@epigram.org.uk Deputy Arts Editor Olivia Petter Sam Abreo letters@epigram.org.uk Sport Online Editor sabreo@epigram.org.uk Edward Henderson-Howat Living Editor sportonline@epigram.org.uk Arts Online Editor Morwenna Scott Jude A’Bear living@epigram.org.uk Crown Court Editor jabear@epigram.org.uk Alex Cawthron Deputy Living Editors crowncourt@epigram.org.uk Music Editor Sofia Gymer Guy Barlow sofia.gymer@epigram.org.uk Investigations Editor Comment Editor music@epigram.org.uk Science Editor George Robb Becki MurrayPatrick Baker Nick Cork g.robb@epigram.org.uk Deputy Music Editor becki.murray@epigram.org.uk comment@epigram.org.uk science@epigram.org.uk Gunseli Yalcinkaya gyalcinkaya@epigram.org.uk Letters Living Online Editor Editor DeputyPhotographers Science Editor Philip Bruland Jordan Kelly-Linden Emma Corfield Emma India Sackville Castle-Gibb Music Online Editor livingonline@epigram.org.uk letters@epigram.org.uk deputyscience@epigram.org Jonny Hunter Cartoonist Culture Editor jonny@epigram.org.uk Sport Editor Travel Editor Alan McAlpine Rowena BallCalum Sherwood Tom Burrows Film & TV Editor travel@epigram.org.uk culture@epigram.org.uk sport@epigram.org.uk Chief Proofreaders Matthew Floyd filmandtv@epigram.org.uk Deputy Deputy Travel EditorCulture Editor DeputyJennifer SportBell Editor jbell@epigram.org.uk Rosie Quigley Zoe Hutton David Stone Deputy Film & TV Editor deputytravel@epigram.org.uk deputyculture@epigram.org.uk deputysport@epigram.org.uk Hannah McGovern Hannah Price hmcgovern@epigram.org.uk hannah.price@epigram.org.uk Music Travel Online EditorEditor
Puzzles Editor
Constance Malleret Nathan Comer Lily Buckmaster Webmaster Film & TV Online Editor travelonline@epigram.org.uk music@epigram.org.uk Derek Bekoe Manvir Basi Head Sub Editor web@epigram.org.uk filmandtvonline@epigram. Style EditorDeputy Music Editor Emma Corfield org.uk Maddy Streets Pippa Shawley Sub-editors Sub Editors style@epigram.org.uk deputymusic@epigram.org.uk Catherine Blom-Smith Science & Technology Editor HarrietOlivia Layhe, Hains emcmullin@epigram.org.uk Molly Hawes FIlm & TV Editor Adrian Kumarajothy Deputy Style Editors Kate Moreton, Rosemary Wagg Features Editor scienceandtech@epigram. Isabel Mattar Hattie Bottom Will Ellis Tristan Martin Features Online Editor Rianna Mezzullo org.uk Illustrator hattie@epigram.org.uk filmandtv@epigram.org.uk Leanne Moore Laura Davidson features@epigram.org.uk SophieLily Sladen Owens-Crossman ldavidson@epigram.org.uk Science & Tech Editor Emma WardDeputy Film & TVDeputy Victoria Roskams Deputy Features Editor Web Designer Editor Lily Staunton-Howe eward@epigram.org.uk Anthony Adeane Andrew White Comment Editor Ben Parr Phoebe Williams Rob Mackenzie deputyfilmandtv@epigram.org.uk Alexandra Heal deputyfeatures@epigram.org.uk bparr@epigram.org.uk Style Online Editor Features Editor Deputy News Editors Holly Jones Abigail Van-West features@epigram.org.uk avanwest@epigram.org.uk Jenny DeputyAwford Features Editor Emily McMullin jawford@epigram.org.uk
Monday 20th Oct at 4:30pm The Hill
Arts
Friday 24th Oct at 12.30pm ASS Library Café
Editorial team editor@epigram.org.uk
Sport
Wednesday 22nd Oct at 1:15pm The Refectory
facebook.com/epigrampaper twitter.com/epigrampaper issuu.com/epigrampaper Online Editors Rachel Hosie
rachel.hosie@epigram.org.uk
Ciara Lally ciara.lally@epigram.org.uk
Epigram is the independent student newspaper of the University of Bristol. The views expressed in this publication are not those of the University or the Students’ Union. The design, text and photographs are copyright of Epigram and its individual contributors and may not be reproduced without permission.
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News
Epigram
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@epigramnews
Editor: Sarah Newey Deputy Editors: Ivana Scatola; Issy May Bull Online Editors: Alex Evans; Oscar Cunnington news@epigram.org.uk iscatola@epigram.org.uk ; issyb@epigram.org.uk newsonline@epigram.org.uk; ocunnington@epigram.org.uk
BBC Bristol turning 80 Billy Gore News Reporter
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continued from page 1 Perhaps not surprisingly then, when asked, 46 per cent of respondents said that they believed that a rape culture exists at Bristol University. Despite the fact that 55 per cent of students surveyed further went on to say that they were not aware of the Students’ Union’s efforts to tackle rape culture at Bristol University, UBU’s Student Officers insist that ‘A highly visible and exciting city wide campaign’ is running across Bristol.
“ Rape culture has been accused of normalising sexual violence and spreading myths about rape
Megan Armstong, UBU’s Women’s Officer, has helped bring about a new campaign called ‘Good Night Out’, which was organised by ‘Hollaback!’. ‘This is a campaign to end harassment in pubs, clubs, bars, and venues, with supportive venues
signing a pledge that states they will not tolerate harassment in their spaces… UBU have signed the pledge, staff have been trained and posters are up in visible areas around the union. As well as this there was a great workshop put on by UBU during Welcome Week by Hollaback! about street harassment, where students found out more about what is being done to tackle it’ she said. Alice Philipps the Equality, Liberation and Access Officer for the Students’ Union, expressed a great desire to fight against rape culture in her election manifesto; she too is doing a lot to eliminate its presence around campus. ‘This year we’re organising a Reclaim the Night march on the 7th November, to reclaim our right to walk the streets at night and to protest against sexual violence and street harassment. ‘We’re also developing our Take Pride in UBU Sport initiative, which aims to embed a culture of equality and diversity across sports clubs by tackling behaviour such as homophobia, sexism and racism, to ensure all students feel welcome and accepted … We are encouraging all our sports clubs to take this opportunity to become accredited ‘Take Pride in UBU Sport’ clubs. ‘Another priority for both me and Megan this year is getting compulsory consent workshops for students, like the ones currently being held in Oxford and Cambridge’ she confirmed. Florence Cullen-Davies, last year’s president of
Jordy Turl
Issy May Bull Deputy News Editor
Bristol University’s Feminist Society, highlighted the difficulties in alleviating rape culture when speaking to Epigram. She was clear on one thing though: efforts should be channelled into raising ‘awareness among perpetrators – which are primarily men – rather than burdening women with the dos and don’ts on a night out’.
55% of students were not aware of the Union’s efforts to tackle rape culture at Bristol
According to UBU, a rape culture can be defined as ‘A culture in which people are surrounded with images, languages, laws, and other everyday phenomena that validate and perpetuate rape’. Rape culture has also been accused of normalising sexual violence against women and spreading myths about rape. Some of the most widely believed are that false accusations of rape are numerous, that rape cannot occur within a relationship, and that it isn’t rape if she was too drunk to consent. All are dangerously misguided, as is the assumption that most rapes are committed by strangers. The issue of rape culture is a national problem which has long attracted the concern of the NUS. NUS president, Toni Pearce, recently said that UK universities should do more to tackle ‘Lad Culture’, which exacerbates rape culture, on their campuses. This comes after new research has revealed that over a third of female students have said that they have endured unsolicited sexual advances. As for the prospect of Oxbridge-style consent classes; we will just have to wait and see.
Nimisha Raj
Jordy Turl
Rape culture at Bristol University
September marked the BBC’s 80th anniversary, and a host of celebrations have been planned around the city to emphasise Bristol’s role as a major base of the BBC. Events are being held all over Bristol to mark the celebration. Highlights include a special screening of the upcoming BBC Natural History series, Life Story, along with an introduction by Sir David Attenborough and a Q&A session with the crew behind the series. Other events that have already been held include Countryfile’s John Craven speaking with Points West presenters David Garmston and Alex Lovell. Craven started his career as a presenter on Points West but became well known for presenting Newsround and later, Countryfile. Earlier in the month, BBC Bristol also opened its doors to the general public. Lucky ticket holders were able to get a tour of Broadcasting House and view antique broadcasting equipment used over the years at the BBC. The BBC started its partnership with the city of Bristol in September 1934 with the opening of the Broadcasting House on Whiteladies Road. Initially, the building housed four radio stations with one big enough to house a full orchestra. With the onset of the Second World War, Bristol’s role as a base for the BBC greatly increased. Heavy bombing of London meant the BBC decided to transfer its Entertainment Unit to Bristol where the risk from air raids was lower. BBC Bristol now produces many well-known programmes including The Antiques Roadshow, The Natural History Unit, Gardeners World and The Hairy Bikers. Writing on a media blog, Peter Salmon, the head of BBC England said, ‘For the next financial year alone…[BBC Bristol can] expect to produce nearly 500 hours of network television output, worth over 70 million pounds in programme budgets. I doubt any other European city can claim such a public service payback... This city is disproportionately creative – it’s in the water, beer, cider, whatever.’ ‘Our short celebratory season of events to reflect an astonishing eight decades is called BBC Bristol at 80, but the spirit of its host city keeps this octogenarian youthful and energetic and much looking forward to a bright digital future.’
The BBC in Bristol has had a significant role in television and production since the war
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Bristol school-girl believed to be in Syria Polly Hember News Reporter
Avon and Somerset Constabulary
Yusra Hussien is believed to be in Syria
Yusra Hussien, a 15 year old school girl from Bristol, has disappeared. It is thought that she has flown via Heathrow to Istanbul, Turkey, with another girl (17) from London. Their whereabouts are currently unknown, but officials have raised concerns about the possibility that the two young girls may be attempting to make their way to Syria. News of Yusra Hussien has dominated the media since her sudden disappearance. She was last seen on the morning of 24 September, but was nowhere to be seen when her father came to pick her up from her school, the City Academy in Easton. The South East Counter Terrorism Unit have taken over the investigation from the Avon and Somerset Police, using their international links to trace the steps of the two missing girls, who are feared to be travelling to the dangerous warzone. There have been emotional appeals from the girl’s family, conveying their
Peter Whitelaw News Reporter In 2013 Bristol was crowned European Green Capital for 2015 as recognition for its environmental achievements of the past and vision for the future. But now with 2015 just around the corner, the running of this has been called into scrutiny. Hundreds of millions of pounds worth of investment into environmentally friendly infrastructure such as public transport has been channelled into creating this vision. Along with this inward investment, Bristol Council has also made available £2 million from which companies can apply for a grant. Stephen Williams, Liberal Democrat MP for Bristol West secured an additional £7 million from the government to invest in the project. The intention of this government funding, in Stephen Williams’ words is to ‘See the vast majority of it spent
on helping Bristolians to have warmer homes and lower fuel bills.’ Not all are convinced this good intention will be delivered though. This is why the leader of Bristol’s Lib Dems, Councillor (Cllr) Gary Hopkins, has written an open letter to the Mayor of Bristol condemning the management of Bristol’s role as European Green Capital in 2015. In this open letter, Cllr Hopkins highlighted his fears over ‘the lack of financial planning’ and consequently threatened to call in auditors to, in his words, ‘sort this mess out’. It is clear to see whom Cllr Hopkins believes is to blame for what he describes as a ‘sorry state of affairs’: the Bristol Mayor George Ferguson. Hopkins accused the Mayor of ‘refusing to engage’ with the Lib Dem councillor, having councillor briefing sessions ‘cancelled at the last minute’. One of Bristol’s Liberal Democrats’ key fears is that the public have been
Joe Dunckley
Bristol has been named European Green Capital for 2015
‘kept in the dark’ about public affairs and the £2 million grants for companies to apply for. This seems to suggest, according to Cllr Hopkins, that ‘Only those in the know will be able to take advantage of the bidding process’. The Lib Dem calls for more transparency and accountability in the way the Green Capital project is being run are also echoed in the Green Party. However this is where the party consensus ended. Cllr Martin Fodor of the Greens believed that the issues the Lib Dem councillor raised were being addressed, and that the ‘negative sniping’ found in this open letter could lead to large sponsors being ‘scared off by divisive negativity’. Fodor also praised the fact that there are ‘500 plus businesses, organisations and groups active in the Green Capital Partnership’ which, in his view, will ‘Allow long term change [in Bristol], not a “show” for a year.’
Air strikes in Iraq have been approved
deep running fear and distrust in the West of non-white and non-Christian individuals and communities. There is a clear racist undercurrent to how this word is being used.’ Indeed, the Bristol Muslim Cultural Society expressed concern for Yusra’s family via social media, rebuking the media’s tendency to go into ‘insensitive overdrive’. Dr Athanassiou reminds us of our ‘Responsibility to push beyond this and to question how such framings work’, and likewise Dr David Shankland, a specialist in the social anthropology of Islam at the University of Bristol avers to Epigram the ‘importance of studying the diversity of Islamic movements – we really do need to learn as much about this phenomenon as we can’. University lecturers place importance on understanding the full picture in situations such as these, and the overwhelming response felt from the university is one that wishes for the safety of the young girls. Mohammad Ajmal, President of the Bristol University Islam Society states that their ‘thoughts and prayers are with the family’.
Official U.S. Air Force
Bristol’s role as European Green Capital ‘In state of disarray’, says Lib Dem
shock and distress, begging for her return home. There has been much speculation as to whether there has been extremist religious involvement in Yusra’s disappearance, and terms such as ‘radicalisation’ and ‘jihadi bride’ have been rife in the media, something Haras Rafiq from the Quilliam Foundation expressed consternation about to Good Morning Britain that, ‘at the age of 15, [she] will marry someone she considers to be a holy warrior’. However, these speculations could be detrimental in themselves. Speaking to Epigram, Dr Cerelia Athanassiou, a Research Associate in Sociology, Politics and International Studies at the University of Bristol, articulates the dangers and ramifications of assumptive speculation, ‘There has been fascination in the media with what has been driving young people, and especially young girls, to travel to Syria. The word “radicalisation” keeps coming up, as a symptom that is seen as particularly relevant to Muslim communities […] which simplistically foregrounds
Bristol MPs vote for air strikes Ivana Scatola Deputy News Editor MPs from Bristol and the wider Avon area voted in favour of the motion to join U.S. led air strikes against the Islamic State militant group. The Prime Minister recalled parliament on 26 September for an emergency debate to seek approval for military action. After a seven-hour debate, the motion was passed with an overwhelming majority of 481 votes (524 in favour and 43 against). The recall was prompted by the request made by the Iraqi government to London for military assistance in their fight against the ISIL (formerly known as ISIS), as well as the progressively evident factor that the UK is under increasing threat from the militants’ growing presence. Stephen Williams, Liberal Democrat MP for Bristol West explained, ‘There can be no doubt that ISIL are a barbaric organisation who have murdered and raped thousands of civilians across Iraq. I believe it is right that we support the Iraqi Government, who have appealed directly to the UK for our help, and that we bring relief to communities suffering at their hands. ‘Intervention in this instance, unlike the Iraq War a decade ago, has a legal
basis and will be carried out alongside diplomatic and humanitarian efforts to promote lasting stability in the region.’ Kerry McCarthy, Labour MP for Bristol East, explained the difficulty in making the decision to Epigram, ‘It was needless to say one of the most difficult decisions an MP will ever have to make. Constituents have rightly emphasised that the UK could not turn our backs on the people of Iraq – or Syria for that matter – and that we have a duty to assist where possible. ‘Of course, we hoped that the international community would not need to resort to military intervention and the initial focus was rightly on the humanitarian support the UK needed to provide.’ Speaking ahead of the vote, North Somerset Conservative MP Liam Fox had stated that the Government needed to be clearer in its message to impressionable young British Muslims considering taking up arms to fight with ISIS. ‘The full force of the law will be applied should they come back to this country and you cannot take a jihad gap year and come back to the UK with impunity.’ RAF planes have since started their military campaign against Islamist extremists in Iraq and have directly engaged ISIL in a number of attacks.
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Flagship Life Sciences Building opened by iconic figure, Sir David Attenborough
‘There can be no more important area of knowledge for humanity at the moment than the life sciences’
He also commented, ‘We’re delighted that Sir David has helped us mark this significant milestone in the University’s history. ‘Many of the most significant advances will come from the Life Sciences and it is fitting that Sir David joined us for the launch of this magnificent building, which will put Bristol on the map for world-renowned research and teaching in this area for years to come.’ But it was the former Deputy Vice Chancellor, David Clarke, who explained the building and its perks, describing the high quality teaching environment
After his speech, Sir David had a tour of the new building
it will provide. The 13,500 square metre building comprises of a brand new library and computer facilities, seminar rooms and social spaces. There is also a fivestory laboratory wing, fitted with state-of-the-art teaching and research laboratories, fully furnished with notebook computers, spectroscopy and microscope rooms, and controlled environment rooms for plant studies. 2,000 people have worked on the project since it began in the summer of 2011, replacing a collection of derelict buildings that originally formed part of the Old Children’s Hospital complex. Professor Gary Foster, who has been leading the project on behalf of the School of Biological Sciences, said, ‘We have waited a very long time for this building but it has been well worth
the wait. The building is stunning inside and out, and finished to a very high standard. ‘This investment in Life Sciences is a major move by the University of Bristol in this field, showing strength and ambition, with Bristol being an exciting and ideal place to carry out research over the coming years.’ One of the Wow! Gorillas, ‘Going Going Gone’ , will also be housed within the new building. The Gorilla was part of the trail set up to celebrate Bristol Zoo’s 175th anniversary in 2011, and is a fitting addition to the main atrium. The project’s work has also involved extensive landscaping to link the new Life Sciences building on St. Michael’s Hill and Tyndall Avenue to Royal Fort gardens, with a new flight of steps connecting the two locations.
“
© Sam Duckerin
Nick Smith/University of Bristol
was improved by the new building. She also emphasised how excited she was about hearing Sir David Attenborough speak. ‘Attenborough’s inspirational love for science reflects student feeling and the excitement about this new building. He’s made me really think about what I want to do and achieve in the future.’ The University’s Vice Chancellor, Professor Sir Eric Thomas, also said a few words, describing the building as a ‘fantastic achievement’.
Nick Smith/University of Bristol
There was great excitement as Bristol University’s flagship Life Sciences building was finally opened on Monday 6 October, by none other than Sir David Attenborough. The project cost £56 million, and is Bristol’s biggest construction project
to date. It is set to transform teaching at the University, and will become one of the UK’s leading facilities for research into the Life Sciences. Attenborough gave a passionate and inspirational speech, highlighting the importance of the project for increasing understanding of the global environmental problems which the world is facing today. ‘It’s places like this that are going to provide the answers’, he argued. He went on to suggest that ‘It has never been more important, ever, that human beings should understand the working of the world which is our home. We know that we’re in trouble, and we know that it’s going to get worse, and the only way we will actually deal with the problems that are facing this planet of ours, which we have created, is to understand what goes on.’ Attenborough also alluded to the work he has done at BBC Bristol, where the BBC’s Natural History Unit is based, and his fondness for the city, before officially opening the building. Not only is Sir David a freeman of Bristol, he also holds an honoury degree at Bristol University. Third year Biology student, Daisy Dunne, who was at the opening, told Epigram how much her learning experience
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Sarah Newey News Editor
F = My exAm result: Physics paper chaos Zaki Dogliani Editor
anticipated’, while another said that they are ‘Disappointed about the way the physics department handled the situation’. Classical Physics is a core module within the Physics course, and the department describes it as including ‘threshold concepts’ which must be understood before moving on to third year. Yet many of the students affected feel like they have the understanding needed to progress, but that the exam did not give them the opportunity to prove this.
‘I would advise anyone to never take Physics as a degree, least of all at Bristol’
In a meeting with Epigram, Professor David Smith, Science Faculty Education Director and Dean of Undergraduate Studies, explained, ‘Science degree programmes are very, very linear. If you don’t master the core material in the first year, maybe if I put it slightly stronger: you’re doomed. Likewise to second year. Likewise to third year. It would be absolutely unfair of us to allow students to progress until we were very confident that they have
‘It might be unfortunate. But it isn’t inherently unfair’
Classical Physics is a ‘must-pass unit’ for second years
that understanding. ‘I’m very confident that the exam is to the right standard, and not only does the School think it is, the external examiners think it is to the right standard. Once I had an appeal from a student who claimed the external examiner “Would side with the school”, and I thought “I wish they always did”. They don’t. They’re really robust, and if they think there’s a glimmer of anything wrong, they’ll say so.’ Professor Smith then went on to
Wikimedia Commons: Rept0n1x
Second year Physics students have suggested that a retake of a Classical Physics exam was unreasonably difficult, leaving many facing a supplementary year. 14 students have been impacted by the decision. Some only narrowly missed their grades in June and others were sitting the exam for the first time due to extenuating circumstances in the summer. One student, who asked to remain anonymous, described their experience to Epigram, ‘The first exam wasn’t too tough. However, the second was incredibly difficult. In the first exam I got a mark of 38 where 40 was needed to pass. Then you can imagine my annoyance at how difficult they then made the resit exam. ‘The fact that I have been made to take a supplementary year given that I failed by two marks is quite frankly ridiculous. Based on this I would advise anyone wise enough to listen to never take Physics as a degree, least of all at Bristol.’ Other students went on to tell Epigram of ‘A common feeling amongst those that sat the exam that it was much more difficult than could have been
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Sarah Newey News Editor
suggest that the cost of a supplementary year is worthwhile if it means coming out with a 2:1 or a first rather than a 2:2 or a third - statistics suggest that receiving a 2:1 over a 2:2 adds £2,000 a year to income after graduating. When asked about the difficulty of the exam, Professor Smith added ‘It is rigorous and demanding, yes, and that’s why students have Bristol degrees. Unfair? Students naturally – I understand why they do it – when things go wrong think it’s unfair. When I talk to them, I will persuade them that
it’s not unfair. It might be unfortunate. It might be all sorts of things. But it isn’t inherently unfair.’ A Physics student told Epigram, ‘It’s bizarre that they don’t just look at the paper and how many people failed and adjust it accordingly. When the average mark for an exam is 45 they should realise that something is wrong.’ When asked why marks were not adjusted to reflect what many students felt was a more difficult paper than in previous years, Professor Stephen Dugdale told Epigram that ‘Over 20% of the material on both papers, I could have asked in a first-year exam.’ Professor Smith added, ‘Low-mark and high-mark distributions are not reasons to scale. Scaling is something that we do where something has gone wrong and you know what’s gone wrong. In some years we get relatively high proportions of failures. But this, when fewer students pass, does not mean something has gone wrong, like one question being badly-worded or something. We looked and could see no indicator of what was wrong.’
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Epigram
13.10.2014
37
News catch-up Student houses: burglar’s dream Alison Ralph News Reporter
“ break-ins have left students feeling shaken, but also more viligant
The brand new, £1.2 million boathouse
The official opening of the new boathouse facility for the University of Bristol took place 27 September in Saltford. Hundreds of alumni, some of whom had rowed back in the 50s, current crews, sponsors and most of the hierarchy of British Rowing were present at the event to witness the inaugural by double Olympic medallist, Alex Partridge. The project first came into discussion in 2003 when days after the arrival of current director of rowing and full time International coach, Gordon Trevett, the women’s boathouse was victim of an arson attack. It became the first collaborative mission between the University, the Avon Country Rowing Club, the Monkton Combe School in Bath and the Duchy of Cornwall, who leases the land to the club. This highly improved clubhouse, replacing 100 year old buildings, offers large and modern boat facilities, as well as better access, a big kitchen, a gym, changing rooms for both males and females and a balcony overlooking the Avon. Hannah Walton, the Women’s Captain said, ‘the new facilities are great, it’s such a difference to boating out of a field on cold, miserable mornings. It means our sessions are now much more efficient and effective.’ The University of Bristol and the Monkton Coombe School initially contributed £400,000 each to the project, the Avon County Rowing Club with £200,000 - including its services as head leasing actor - and a Sport England bid securing £150,000. The final cost totalled £1.2 million due to certain complications in the building work, which involved the reinforcement of the building as deeper foundations were needed than initially predicted. Funds for the University of Bristol were raised with the support of UBBC Alumni, friends of the University and the John Rutley Sports Fund.
John Rutley is a Bristol buisnessman who has been fundamental both financially and through other avenues of support in the last ten years. As a token of gratitude, the new building was named ‘The John Rutley boathouse’ in his honour. The three clubs raised money in an effort described by Gordon Trevett as ‘communityspirited,’ considering that together they attract participants ranging from eight to eighty years old, of all abilities. It is hoped that the modern aspect and technical potential of the boathouse will attract the younger generation and convince them to join the club. Many young, promising rowers often visit the facilities before beginning their higher education studies, so the new boathouse will hopefully increase the number of novices and future international competitors for future years.
“ the Rowing Club has been extremely successful, with 50% of top teams winning regattas
Stephanie Harris, first woman Captain of the club said: ‘UBBC has a long and proud reputation of producing high quality oarsmen and women throughout its 100-year history but recently it has become harder to attract and retain members and to be able to train to a high level due to the crumbling facilities. Rowing as a sport has becoming highly professional even at university level due to large investments made by British rowing. However, rowing at Bristol has been stuck in the 1900’s - now we have one of the best
Sophie Van Berchem News Reporter boathouses around.’ The University’s Rowing Club has been extremely successful over the years with 50 per cent of its top teams winning regattas in various European University championships. Gordon Trevett added, ‘Top rowers have learned at Bristol University and we can carry on this tradition today with better facilities that will hopefully bring more successes in the future. Everytime we win, the University of Bristol benefits from the publicity and it increases the amount of support from the alumni when they see this.’ Many team members have rowed for Great Britain at European University Championship level or Great Britain U23 level, a huge achievement given that most rowers only learnt to row at university. The club’s next project will be to acquire additional brand new boats, preferably made out of carbon fiber, a very strong material that will allow current and future crews to achieve performances at the highest university level, such as winning the next Henley Royal Regatta. The club will also turn its focuses to recruiting and training as many novices as possible.
Inauguration day at the boathouse in Saltford
Amelia Butler
A fellow student, who has recently moved in to another common student area, Redland, commented that fresh break-ins have left her and her housemates feeling slightly shaken, especially considering the tenants before them were victims of a break in last year. Boyce also pointed out that students are increasing their risk of break-ins due to the warmer weather which is not common for this time in the year. Statistics have shown that between 16th30th September there were 13 houses of multiple occupancy broken into, of which nine out of 13 were classed as walk in burglaries due to open windows and doors. Doug, another student who is living in student housing for the first time, claims the recent break-in has ensured he is more vigilant with his possessions. Boyce further encouraged students to like the University of Bristol’s Police Team Facebook Page: Bristol Uni Team (ASPolice) - www.facebook.com/ ASPBristolUni, to keep up to date with statistics and any recent criminal activity in the area. He stressed that students should not hesitate to contact their landlords if they feel their locks are particularly weak. He also suggests registering valuabe proberty on ‘Immobilise.com’.
Amelia Butler
With the start of the new academic year at Bristol University, students have flooded back to the city, and with them have provided opportunists ample openings to strike. In recent weeks a man has been charged with burglary after a break-in at a student house in the Cotham area. Reportedly a laptop and bicycle were stolen from the student’s house. Bristol University’s police officer Nick Boyce said: ‘It’s a burglar’s dream as shared houses have the potential of multiple phones, laptops, bikes etc., whilst also lacking decent security. However, students should be aware that we are working hard to combat this.’
Olympic medallist opens new university boathouse
UoB and UWE students share accommodation pain Sophie Cait-Davis News Reporter
India Castle-Gibb
Freshers adapt to sharing a room
This year many first year students have had to deal with the overhanging dilemma of sharing a room with someone they have never met before, as Epigram reported in the last issue. Many students have already been moved out of temporary shares to new rooms. According to the accommodation office 66 students will have been moved by Monday 6 October. Yet many more are still in limbo not knowing whether they or their roommate is going to be moved. Last week alone there were 97 applications for room sharers to be moved. This issue is new to this year as the university continues to expand with a bigger intake than expected. It will also most likely be a problem in the future too, with the University claiming to be exploring accommodation options for 2015 already for some time.
One first year student shared his experiences with Epigram, ‘The whole experience has been poorly communicated by the University, awkward with my roommate in terms of discussion and, overall, infuriating. ‘Freshers is such a huge change and being constantly social is intense. I just want some of my own space.’ Yet the issue isn’t unique to Bristol: the University of West of the England (UWE) and Bath Spa have both had similar problems this year as their campuses continue to expand also. For example, according to the UWE website, its Matthias Campus was supposed to have been closed in July of this year in an effort to move all students to the Frenchay Campus. However, this has backfired, with the University having delayed construction for new accommodation. This has resulted in many new
students placed in the Matthias Campus being without wi-fi. Ample accommodation hasn’t been properly prepared for the new intake of students. While they have been compensated, like those sharing at Bristol, their accomodation is still being prepared for demolition. Thus this is not just an issue for Bristol University but for many across the South West, with some forecasts predicting that over the next few years 50,000 students will be looking for accommodation in Bristol alone. Some parents have even been turning to buying property to secure their child has a guaranteed place to stay over the course of their studies. Over the next few years, the issue is likely to become even more prominent, with UWE and Bristol University both competing for more student housing. This is something that both universities need to pre-empt to prevent people being placed in rushed sub-par accommodation or forced to share once again.
Epigram
13.10.2014
Features
@epigramfeatures
Editor: Holly Jones
Deputy Editor: Emily McMullin Online Editor: Laura Davidson
features@epigram.org.uk
emcmullin@epigram.org.uk
ldavidson@epigram.org.uk
Bristol’s creationist zoo: rare animals and rarer Christians George Robb delves into the thick of it to find out the truth behind the controversial Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm George Robb Features Writer Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm is a place where fire, brimstone, tigers, capybaras, indifferent atheists and goggle-eyed Christians live in illogical harmony. It’s a charming realm where children can milk plastic cows after a hard day’s play on one of Bristol’s best climbing frames; a place where elephants and vultures live just a stone’s throw away from one another, as depicted in the story of Noah’s Ark. It’s had its run-ins with the media: for example, Vice and The Guardian published deterministic opinion pieces condemning the place. Similarly, the BBC discovered that it had a link with a company which produces circus animals, resulting in its banishment from the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums (BIAZA). Everyone I spoke to described the zoo as a great place to work and for Marc Roberts, a 23-year-old zookeeper,
in a building otherwise marked as ‘PRIVATE’, you will find an exact replica of the real-life ark, scaled down by 30. No one knows exactly how the designer knew what the ark might have looked like, but according to the replica there was definitely a trap-door for feeding the big cats, and the giraffes lived next to the tyrannosaurus rex. Orbiting the ark are several posters outlining the theory subscribed to by Bush and a small collection of geologists, which is as follows: • Noah was alive sometime during the Hadean period. Modern science claims this was 4 billion years ago and during this period the solar system was still forming, thus making the Earth uninhabitable. Bush begs to differ, and claims that contemporary geologists’ dating methods are highly inaccurate. • During the Archaean period there was a great flood. Noah collected representatives of the main bodyforms (primitive versions of animals and dinosaurs) and put them on his massive, handmade, 150ft ark. • During the flood, all technology
Photo: George Robb
The BBC discovered it had a link with a company which produces circus animals, resulting from its banishment from BIAZA
it even changed his life. He joined the zoo as a volunteer and quickly found Christianity, although not the controversial form outlined by zooowner Anthony Bush. ‘I wasn’t the healthiest of people,’ Thomas said. ‘I did some pretty stupid things in the past… ‘A lot of drinking, playing around with drugs, lots of girlfriends and getting in trouble all of the time. Being a Christian changed that. I’m very lucky to be where I am now.’ It sounds like a nice place – and so it is, until you stumble upon the zoo’s secluded, ideological hub: the Noah’s Ark Room… Behind a nondescript yellow door
was lost. When Noah and his guests repopulated the earth, they regressed to the technological era known as the Stone Age. Such a large wooden boat was never built again by hand until over a million years later. During this period, humans and dinosaurs coexisted, with Noah living to the ripe old age of 600. • There was a period of several million years when humans left no fossil records because they lived in Africa. The human population here would have been small and the conditions required for fossilisation are specific. Fossil evidence could exist but would be sparse. • And that roughly leaves us where we are today. Sounds ridiculous? Bush compares
Fun for even the most militant of atheists
The theory, like the incoherent mixture of animals around the zoo, is a hodgepodge of inconsistencies, contradictions and oddities. Asian tigers live next door to African lions in the same way that evolution lives by Genesis. That doesn’t make the zoo evil, just formless.
Have you been to Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm? What do you think? Tweet @EpigramFeatures
Photo credit : flickr / tom1231
“ ” Holy cow!
himself to Alfred Wegener, who was mocked for his continental drift theory in the 1920s. 45-year-old Mandy Patch, one of the zoo’s many atheist keepers, said, ‘My belief is that everyone’s entitled to their own belief,’ which is a very good point. But when such a belief, which is neither mainstream Christianity nor national curriculum science, is targeted towards children, the argument fails. An uncomfortable silence descended when this point was put to Erica Jones, a 46year-old atheist zoo keeper. ‘Was it smelly?’ one interactive display in the ark room asks in a ridiculously child-friendly manner. ‘What do you think?’ it answers. ‘With 2000 animals, very smelly. But the air vent kept the air changing. And you get used to the smell.’ ‘Was it dark on the ark?’ another display read, tapping into an inquisitiveness not accessed since the age of nine. School field trips and classes are based solely on the national curriculum and I was constantly assured by staff that children wouldn’t understand the complex, pseudo-scientific posters dotted around the zoo. ‘Let’s be honest, how much time do children spend looking at signs in the zoo?’ zoo-keeper Patch said. 20,000 school children visit each year and they have had no complaints from teachers. But just because they are unsuccessful does not mean they’re blameless. Conversion is very much a part of Bush’s agenda and he considers it a ‘success’ when people are swayed by his theory. Jon Woodward, the zoo’s marketing professional and a University of Bristol biology graduate, said ‘Giving [the children] a taste of it is definitely one of the goals.’ The ark room is inappropriate and potentially harmful, but does that make the zoo insidious? Should we take arms against the zoo in order to obliterate it from the face of the earth? On both counts, probably not. The ideology behind it is as much an exhibition as the animals – it is something to be understood, not embodied. The theory we see on the boards are Bush’s genuine beliefs. From his perspective, he’s not trying to trick anyone, he’s simply sharing his honest opinion, albeit one founded on pseudoscience.
Further inconsistencies and oddities (but by no means evils) • Anthony Bush told me that there were around 500 species on the ark. The ark room told me there was a whopping 2000. Another poster said there was even more. • The zoo was founded upon a very rigid, definite ideology. However, no one I spoke to who works there believes in it, except for Anthony Bush. • Marc Roberts said that one of the saddest times is when they lose animals. Bush then said that they killed chickens because ‘We don’t want to… have chicken which are not good show animals.’ Their death can’t have been that sad. • The ark room and the religious theory within it are described as something you can look at if you’re interested. Anthony Bush, however, describes it as ‘the hub’ of the zoo. • The ark is presented as an exact replica of Noah’s. However, we’re also told that all of Noah’s technology was lost, leaving no records or blueprints, and that the model was actually based on a design drawn by a student in London.
Epigram
13.10.2014
9
Was it right to shut down Exhibit B? Antonia Odunlami offers her valuable insight October is Black History Month in the UK. UBU is running a Black History Month Quiz Night in the Anson Rooms, Richmond Building on Monday 27 October 7:30pm - 11pm. Breathing Fire theatre company is running an afternoon of Playback Theatre in honour of the late Maya Angelou on the Saturday 25 October 2.30 - 4pm - location TBC.
Antonia Odunlami Features Writer
Photo credit: flickr / davebass5
A week after the Barbican announced the closure of the controversial Exhibit B, London is still reeling from this delicate topic of debate. The show kicked off its UK appearance in Edinburgh, at the Fringe festival earlier this year. Director Brett Bailey has toured with this piece in several other European cities, including Berlin and Brussels. In the exhibition there are 12 tableaux figures. Some were a critiqued representation of non-fictional characters who were objectified during the craze of human zoos in Europe and the Americas; others represented modern day race relations. Exhibit B has previously been shown in 12 cities, involved over 100 performers and been seen by approximately 25,000 people around the world. So why, in 2014, in the city coined the ‘cultural melting pot’ of the world, has this piece been shut down? Tensions began to mount after race activist and journalist Sara Myers started a petition calling for the withdrawal of Exhibit B. Many agreed with her, regularly protesting outside the Barbican, and the hashtag ‘#boycottthehumanzoo’ started to trend on Twitter. On Tuesday 23 September, over 100 protesters rallied up outside the venue,
whole run. These protesters are upset because they claim that the irony gets lost in the message Bailey sets out to project. ‘I want my children to grow up in a world where the barbaric things that happened to their ancestors are a thing of the past. If Brett Bailey is trying to make a point about slavery this is not the way to do it. The irony gets lost and it’s not long before the people behind the cage begin to feel like animals trapped in a zoo,’ says Myers.
“ ” I was lucky enough to see the dress rehearsal...before it was shut down
blockading the entrance. The Barbican could not guarantee the safety of cast members and audience members, thus resulting in the cancellation of the
Laura Davidson Online Features Editor
“
If we’re going to censor anything that is offensive, we are inviting an authoritarian, illiberal society I must admit my scepticism towards the piece when initially hearing about it, but I felt that it was an extremely powerful and uncomfortable piece. It was a critiqued account of some of the horrors involved in colonialism and how it is still present in Europe today. The whole exhibition was viewed in
Exhibit B was an installation at the Barbican in London. It included live actors dressed as 19th century slaves, mimicing the human zoos of African tribespeople captured by European colonists. It was closed after protestors argued it fetishised Black people and provided the exact same entertainment now as then. silence; every few minutes, the voices of a Namibian choir were heard. Despite my scepticism, I left the venue feeling moved and enriched and I could only urge petitioners to follow suit by seeing the piece before committing to their stance on the matter. Some of the actors and facilitators of Exhibit B claim to have swayed the opinions of the protesters before the run was due to start and encouraged them to see the piece before drawing conclusions. Now, this will not come to pass and the censorship of offensive art remains a contentious issue.
Uncovering the link between tax justice and human rights
equates to £200 for each UK household. Furthermore, a recent Oxfam poll found that over two-thirds of British citizens consider that ‘The rich have too much influence’ over the country and its future. Only recently has research and campaigning been carried out into the inherent link between tax justice and human rights. There is growing concern about how multinational corporations are technically able to move profits between different jurisdictions to avoid paying the full amount of tax due, to the detriment of the economy and society around them. For instance, the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) reported last year that tax abuse is ‘heavily implicated’ in poverty,and infringe on governments’ duties to allocate maximum resources to human rights commitments. These can range from providing adequate
education to the right to clean drinking water and shelter. Lawyers for Better Business (L4BB) is an organisation dedicated to bringing lawyers together to encourage corporate responsibility. Adrienne Margolis, director of L4BB, says that recent conferences led by the Economic and Social Research Council have highlighted the fact that tax inequality is linked not only to poverty, but to rights such as education, health and social welfare. She emphasises that all citizens should be individually concerned by the state of tax justice as it has a massive impact on shared resources in all countries. An initiative by Oxfam is targeting the G20 leaders to put tax inequality on their agenda for this year’s conference. The charity states that, currently, ‘The rules are rigged in favour of the rich’ but that the G20 has the power to drastically
improve human rights problems by cracking down on tax dodging. This would lead to far more revenue being collected by governments each year to then be reinvested into the country, giving resources to those most in need and helping to eradicate poverty. Oxfam acknowledge that, while wealth is in many instances used to support individual good causes, this is no excuse for governments failing to
tackle the problem of unfair tax rules in both developed and developing countries. The project calls for greater transparency and accountability in the global tax system and a change in the legal loopholes that enable corporations and individuals to move money between jurisdictions and avoid paying their taxes in full. The G20 summit will be held in Brisbane, Australia this November. Photo: flickr / blogplanalto
Tax evasion and tax justice are concepts that have spent a lot of time in the headlines recently, not least because of allegations of tax avoidance by wellknown figures such as Gary Barlow and Jimmy Carr. Similarly,news coverage on significant tax dodging by Amazon, Starbucks and other massive corporations has provoked outcry from campaigners and taxpayers. Last year Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) reported an increase in the value of tax lost through non-payment and avoidance schemes, totalling at least £35bn. But last year, the Guardian reported that this was likely to be a huge underestimation of the true ‘tax gap’, with a spokesman from the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) assessing that it was probably closer to £120bn for the 2011-12 tax year. And it is not only corporations who play a role in the tax gap – Oxfam estimates that at least £5.2bn a year is being drained through the use of tax havens by wealthy individuals. This
On the other side of the debate are the actors involved and other members of the arts world, who are concerned
about the censorship of this piece and the wider implications it could raise for the politics of freedom of speech. Claire Fox, Director at the Institute of Ideas, says, ‘If we’re going to censor anything that is offensive, we are inviting an authoritarian, illiberal society.’ If we look at the effects of communism, it is no wonder why some believe we should tread carefully around the issue of censorship. Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is an apt example of communist censorship. He has been arrested and has had his possessions seized by Chinese authorities for his outspoken attitude and critique on the Chinese government’s stance on human rights and democracy. This issue surrounding Exhibit B was soon followed by the similar controversy after the Banksy piece, which appeared in Clacton-On-Sea, was removed by the local council on the basis that it caused offence. The piece featured pigeons sitting on a wall, holding up placards
which read ‘Go back to Africa’ and ‘Keep off our worms.’ The actors feel as though their voices have been silenced by protestors. ‘My freedom of expression was taken the moment the protesters decided to attempt to storm the venue, causing it to be evacuated and deemed unsafe. It was at that moment that the protesters retained their right to free speech and I had mine taken away’ says Stella Odunlami, one of the actors. I was lucky enough to see the dress rehearsal of Exhibit B, the night before it was shut down.
The UN: putting the humanity back in humanitarianism
Margot Tudor Features Writer
“ ‘Months of work can crumble under the veto of one country’
their work. How can we ever hope to dent these figures? Nearly 2 million people fled the brutal and seemingly never ending conflict in Syria in 2013; that’s four times the population of Bristol. The strain on the local communities and organisations such as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and UNHCR is immeasurable. According to António Guterres,
Emily McMullin Deputy Features Editor
continued from page 1 While the ‘chunderchart’ has become somewhat popular amongst students, particularly Freshers who probably find it a more entertaining decoration in the communal kitchen than a washing up rota, the ‘shagchart’ appears to be a newer invention. Most of us will have overheard or participated in a conversation about the number of people ourselves and others have had sex with, but is it a step too far to encourage young students to keep an actual tally? Some people, students included, will have found the chart amusing, but its distribution caused quite the outcry, to the extent that Cardiff University Students’ Union released a statement in which they asserted that they do ‘not support, endorse or encourage this sort of promotional material.’ They also said that they ‘Do not have and would not consider a relationship with the company in question’ and claimed that
‘Companies of this type try to gain access to university campus without consent, especially during Freshers’ Week.’ Some would respond to the complaints by disregarding the chart as simply a joke, but the unfortunate truth is that many students would be made to feel uncomfortable and isolated if it were given to them.
“ Many students would be made to feel uncomfortable and isolated if the ‘shagchart’ were given to them
Anyone could feel overwhelmed and awkward by this pressure to drink copious amounts and sleep with a lot of people, but those who have a faith, have come from abroad, haven’t had sex yet or are in a long-term relationship can feel particularly sidelined during Freshers’ Week. In contrast to the ‘shagcharts’,
education, are invaluable to protecting those who are most vulnerable. The UN provide this help to save lives by preventing exploitation and forced recruitment of child soldiers and providing documents to prevent statelessness later on in life. They are often financed by fundraising and charities; volunteering and small scale events like bake sales can change people’s lives even if the immediate improvement isn’t seen in mainstream news. If we always think numerically it is easy to forget about the some colleges at Oxford and Cambridge have implemented compulsory workshops on consent for Freshers as a result of increasing evidence that students at universities all over the country are frequently subjected to sexual harassment. In the NUS’ 2010 report ‘Hidden Marks’, it was revealed that ‘68 per cent of respondents had been the victim of one or more kinds of sexual harassment on campus during their time as a student.’ Four years later, their most recent report, ‘That’s what she said’, told how students felt that ‘Sexual harassment and violence were also very much related to ‘lad culture.’ This included verbal harassment and catcalling as well as physical harassment and sexual molestation. Groping in nightclubs was viewed by some as part of a ‘normal’ night out. The pressure on students to have sex and drink a lot undoubtedly plays an important role in ‘lad culture’ and can result in people not respecting the boundaries of what kind of sexual behaviour is appropriate and when. Rape and the myths that surround it has been a
individual in the refugee camp or the internally displaced person (IDP) who has benefitted from our charity. There are thousands of success stories lost in the midst of conflict and without organisations such as the UN and Amnesty International these situations would be drastically worse. It’s more difficult to calculate lives saved rather than lost, but looking at estimations for returnees and reunited families is a start. Politically, it is a game of patience for the UN. They cannot put enforcement safeguards with
certain policies or the countries simply won’t sign up at all. It’s the Catch-22 of diplomacy. They rely heavily on political pride and the responsibility of the heads of state so often it takes years to complete an addendum to an agreement. The veto power of the UK, USA, France, Russia and China prevents a significant amount of progress, particularly when it comes to debating nuclear weapons. However, when it comes to human rights violations there are some steps the UN can take, such as trade embargoes, and in the case of war crimes the
International Criminal Court works with the research collated by the UN departments to secure convictions. As I discovered this summer, sometimes it is the absence of statistics that work in their favour. Despite the numbers of refugees soaring higher than ever before, the efforts of the UN, NGOs and charities are increasing alongside. As long as we keep the idea of the displaced individual as our focus, rather than a pie chart of numbers, the humanity remains.
‘Shagcharts’: a step too far for student events promoters? particularly frequent topic of conversation in and outside of universities over the last couple of years, but too often nightclubs and event organisers do the opposite in terms of promoting consensual sex and a positive, respectful attitude towards members of the opposite sex, or anyone for that matter. Examples of this include Leeds’ student night Tequila holding a controversial event called ‘Freshers Violation’ last year, which was successfully shut down by the University of Leeds Feminist Society, and Itchy Feet’s ‘Drunk Women Deserve Jail’ Bristol event, which provoked huge outcry on
campus. Although the binge-drinking culture of student life and everything that comes with it is unlikely to drastically change or disappear anytime soon, universities have a responsibility to protect their students, a large proportion of whom have not long been legal adults.
‘Perhaps the consent workshops introduced to some universities would be a good place to start’
Students’ unions may not be directly affiliated with nightclubs or event organisers,but asserting that they have nothing to do with their inappropriate events and promotions isn’t enough. They need to prevent people being pressured into doing things they don’t want to or don’t agree with and feeling like they don’t fit in with their new peers and environment just because they aren’t drinking alcohol and having sex. In doing this, unions might also reduce sexually aggressive behaviour. Perhaps the consent workshops introduced to some universities would be a good place to start.
Photo credit: flickr / michael_swan
There were 42, 876, 586 persons of concern to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in December 2013. As a result of the events of 2014, a year of catastrophic violence and conflicts in all corners of the world, that number is growing bigger than ever predicted. This statistic includes all of those whose lives are nowhere near as comfortable as ours; refugees, asylum seekers, returnees (internally displaced people) and stateless people, all of whom are often grouped together in popular media which fails to differentiate between them. I was introduced to these facts in August during a work experience programme at the United Nations and struggled with the hopelessness and cynicism that accompanied
UN High Commissioner for Refugees, in just five years Syria has transformed from being the second largest refugee hosting country in the world into the second largest refugee producing country. That is an astonishingly rapid turnaround for Syria and one that still requires unimaginable quantities of humanitarian aid. The neutrality of the UN can become frustrating; it would provide medical aid to an IS militant and a British soldier equally. This neutrality serves well for them as mediators in large-scale negotiations with international communities that have their own agendas, but when I spoke to some of the delegates from the UNHCR they expressed an understandable fury when simple policies took decades to materialise. In many cases, months of work can crumble under the veto of one country and as I witnessed, disillusionment with the possibility of progress can become endemic in the corridors of the UN. With few enforcement protocols available, what is the UN actually able to do, both politically and on the ground to hinder the growth of displaced people? Can students help in any way that will actually make a difference? It isn’t all doom and gloom; there are efforts being made that often don’t make the front pages. These services aren’t particularly glamorous or controversial,after all.Protection services on the ground, which include basic aid such as food, water, shelter, health care and
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Emma Watson mobilises men into feminism with #HeForShe
Chloe Maughan Features Writer
Aged eighteen, I found myself renting a spare room in a dodgy converted warehouse looking onto a market street in one of the busier areas of Hackney. In the mornings, I was forced to push my way through the market to the tube, a continual source of discomfort. Every day, without fail, I would find myself subjected to stares and sexualised comments. Whilst this bothered me I’d often shake it off. The evenings were generally easier - I’d often come back to find the street deserted. One night, however, I became aware of a gang of around 15 men, crowded just 30 metres from my flat. They made audible sexual remarks, but in the absence of any other bystanders, these comments permeated my skin with fear. I began to walk more quickly down the further side of the road, but one of them crossed towards me. When I tried to pass him, he grabbed hold of me. I tried to free myself, but vastly outnumbered, I felt too scared to put up a fight. I remember those moments, as he ran his hands across my body, his friends all the time watching, considering whether I would live to see the following morning. I remember the feeling of relief, when after a 20 minute struggle, he finally let me go but only because he thought I was pregnant.
That evening, I sat shaking in shock. I didn’t tell anyone about the incident. At the time it wasn’t something anyone really talked about; it wasn’t until the Everyday Sexism Project began to gain traction in 2012 that I first spoke about my experience and realised how normalised instances like mine had become. And yet, as Emma Watson, UN Women Goodwill Ambassador, stated in her recent address to the UN, feminism is still an ‘unpopular’ word. Watson states that ‘fighting for women’s rights has too often become synonymous with man-hating’, something UN Women seek to address through the #HeForShe campaign. The campaign seeks to mobilise men in the fight against gender inequality, which has long been labelled a ‘women’s issue’, rather than a ‘human rights issue.’ And already, only two weeks since its launch, nearly 170,000 men worldwide, including Harry Styles and Jared Leto, have signed the pledge to put a stop to violence and discrimination faced by women. However, opinion is split as to whether Watson’s speech, and indeed the campaign itself, delivered something ‘ground-breaking’, as some commentators have claimed. Her words do nevertheless echo some claims that unite both backers of the movement and
“ ‘No country in the world can yet say they have achieved gender equality’
Photo credit: flickr / artcriminal
UK where it is often suggested that feminism has no current relevance. Whilst the feminist movement is often criticised for focusing mainly on the inequalities experienced by women, Watson points to the fact that men are also disadvantaged by prescribed patriarchal gender norms. Citing suicide as the highest killer among young men, many of whom refuse support for psychological illness due to pressures to appear ‘macho’, Watson tells men that ‘gender equality is your issue too.’ The inclusion of men in the dialogue of gender inequality is for many uncontroversial: however, the #HeForShe campaign takes this a step further and puts men at the centre of the campaign. This contentious move has merely had the effect of alienating some feminist women, as the campaign that seeks to empower women actively excludes them from discussions on issues that permeate their own lives. One such example of this is a UN organised conference, due to take place in Iceland, at which an all-male delegation will discuss violence against women, an issue of which the delegates have no first-hand experience. But what is more disconcerting is that Watson states she wants men to join the fight against gender inequality so that their ‘daughters, sisters and mothers can be free from prejudice.’ Perhaps this appears uncontroversial, but this protective discourse has the effect of classifying women by their relation to men, when surely a better approach is to ask men to step up because women are people. On the night when that man grabbed me on the street, he didn’t let me go when I, as a young woman, asked him to. He let me go because he thought I was pregnant. The problem with engaging men in feminism by asking them to consider their female relations is that this is a dichotomy misogynists buy into too, albeit for differing
Photo credit: flickr / UNWomen
“ ” ‘Fighting for women’s rights has too often become synonymous with manhating’
the more sceptical. For example, Watson emphasises the amount to be done before gender equality becomes widespread, stating that ‘No country in the world can yet say they have achieved [it].’ This serves as a much needed reminder, particularly in the
• #HeForShe encourages men to pledge to do what they can to achieve gender equality • Equality means not only raising the respect levelled for women but abolishing gender norms
• This means men should not be pressured to be ‘macho’ and women should not be presumed to be weaker • Men suffer from depression less than women yet are more likely to commit suicide and not seek treatment • ‘Gender equality is your issue too’ reasons. The simple instance of a man ignoring a woman asking him to leave her alone in a club, but then obeying her when she says she has a boyfriend, shows
us that we have a problem where women in their own right are not respected, but respected for their ties to men. In order to truly overcome
gender inequality we need to address this specific hurdle, so that women are respected for their humanity.
Epigram
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FemSoc clash highlights wider tensions Alexandra Heal Comment Editor I am white. Being a student at Bristol, famously lacking in diversity of its intake, it will not surprise you that I also come from a middle-class family. Having ticked these two boxes, it is now easy for me to identify with a third category: feminism. To me, in our liberal society, any woman or man professing to have any sort of intelligence should also tick that box. After all, as a short test on areyouafeminist.com reminds us, if you believe all humans are equal and that women are humans…you have little choice but to believe that women should have equality. And there are still so many examples of where equality is lacking - for example, the 22 per cent pay gap in the UK, and everyday sexism. Yet, more and more people are questioning whether the women’s movement, as it stands, can resolve outstanding issues for every woman.
Ever since its inception, feminism has traditionally consisted of the likes of me: white, Western, middle-class and often reasonably well-educated. Think of Mrs. Banks, singing gaily and wearing a sash, as she returns from her Suffragette meeting to her grand London townhouse. It is easy for women who have a secure financial background, and a Mary Poppins to look after the children, to think about protesting for enfranchisement. But what about those who not only suffer from sexism, but a number of other handicaps and prejudices too? The women who want to escape domesticity and pursue a career, but face racism as well as sexism in the interview, or simply have no money to secure an education. The girls who are born into poverty and broken families, and turn to prostitution to fund lifestyles that they could not help but fall into. There are those who want to fight forced marriage and ‘honour’-based domestic violence, but have little choice due to their cultural heritage. What about those from the LGBTQ community, trying to battle judgement in that area? Take, for example, young Malala Yousafzai. She was shot in the head for campaigning for education for girls in Afghanistan. Can white, Western and financially better-off women even start to
comprehend such issues and depravities? Let us remember that feminism is a movement which is trying to fight for roughly 50 per cent of the world’s population. That includes a lot of different cultures, and a lot of different problems. Marginalised feminists have been pointing out the need for diversity in the movement since the ‘third wave’ began in the 1990s. Yet of late, internal discontent has been brewing even more. I was reminded of this by a recent dispute on the Bristol University
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Is it not possible that women from other cultures may want different things to me?
Scots 16s help case to vote
Nick Herbert Comment Writer The Scottish independence referendum was clearly an emotionally charged vote; the voter turnout of 84.6 per cent dwarfed that of previous general elections and the Alternative Vote referendum that had a miniscule turnout of 42.2 per cent. The voter turnout itself, whilst impressive, was not the only interesting aspect to come out of the referendum. For the first time, 16 and 17 year olds were allowed to vote in a national election. It is too simplistic a statement to say young people are too ‘rash’ to be trusted to vote. Not all young people are swayed by simple slogans. At the age of 16 you are entrusted to leave school, get a job and even join the army but not trusted to vote. Those in work and in education have matters that concern themselves debated by the highest levels of government, but can have no say in who is arguing for them.
I think the type of ‘slippery slope’ argument that says ‘if we lower it to 16 then why not 14?’ is a poor one. You can ask where we draw the line but surely if we can draw a line at taking on social responsibilities at the age of 16 then why not voting at the same age? 80 per cent of 16 and 17 year olds registered to vote in the Scottish referendum, showing us that claims that the young do not care about politics are simply not true. Which side they voted for is not important. What is important is that they did vote. The idea of apathy can no longer be used to describe a generation. As young people we cried out against student tuition fees, as young people we challenge and argue against authority. As young people we think, ‘How can the government claim to have the interests of the young at heart if they are not willing to listen to them until they are 18?’ In the last general election less than two thirds of those eligible to vote did so. It is not just the young who are apathetic. Lowering the voting age gives us a chance to introduce interest in politics in a younger generation. The next generation of society is just as important as the current. This needs to be recognised. We cannot belittle the intelligence of those who are younger than us. It’s time 16 year olds had the vote.
Flickr/Walterlan Papetti
Flickr/London South Bank Centre
FemSoc Facebook page, which is usually a platform for smart and interesting debate. A user was accused of using unacceptable racial slurs and being generally dismissive of racial issues in her contributions. After an aggressive spat naturally broke out, the moderator banned the member who was calling out the discrimination. This was likely a simple mishandling of the situation by one member of the Bristol Feminists, and does not by any means indicate that the group supports racist attitudes. However, without
doubt the clash highlights the internal aggression, and lack of cohesion and empathy, which is prevailing in the wider feminist movement today. This threatens to derail it completely. Therefore, there is a mounting call for more ‘intersectionality’ in our clan. This term, coined by an American scholar in 1989, is now becoming mainstream terminology. It simply suggests that all women, who may suffer multi-faceted prejudices (not just sexism), should be understood and included in the feminist movement. For example, I myself am guilty of accusing other cultures of being oppressive, without ever consulting the women themselves on what they really want. I have many a time branded the Muslim veil as sexist, and simply answered, ‘Indoctrination!’ when asked why many Muslim women actively choose to wear it. How patronising of me. Is it not possible that women from other cultures may want different things to me? Karl Lagerfeld stole headlines last week, turning his Paris Fashion Week catwalk into a manifestation feministe. Thumbs up for bringing the cause to an audience who might normally dismiss it, but the creative director of Chanel – a label that once lit the path with its bolshie female founder and practical trouser suits – has clearly not received the ‘intersectionality’ memo. Most of the models were white. All of the models were twig thin...and the price of his clothes is unattainable to most. There is still so much feminism needs to achieve, with so many women demanding equality the world over. Now, more than ever, intersectionality is vital for the future of the movement, through inclusion, understanding and diversity. Feminism needs to be more than Cara Delevingne armed with a placard and a loudspeaker.
The future of FemSoc Jess Sartenaer VP of Bristol FemSoc The Bristol Feminist Society wholly supports the growing need for more intersectionality in feminism, and so when asked by Epigram to write an article on the subject, we were very keen to express our concerns. As many will have noticed, the Bristol FemSoc Facebook page became a battlefield a matter of weeks ago regarding this contentious matter. We wish to apologise and assure all of our members, and in fact anyone who may have been affected by the misunderstanding, that we have since updated and clarified our moderation policies. When it arose that our Feminist Committee was being accused of feeding the stereotype that modern feminists are but ‘white, middle-class, cis-gendered and able-bodied women’, we were shocked and highly disappointed in ourselves for leading our supporters to this conclusion. We stand firmly on the matter that to be a feminist in this day and age should not be a ‘privilege’, but an absolute necessity. As well as modifying our moderating policies on the Facebook page, the Bristol Feminist Society have made plans to take great steps towards proving ourselves to be exactly what we are: an allencompassing, non-discriminatory society with the aim of achieving equal rights and opportunities for all persons globally. This will become apparent throughout this year and hopefully years to come through an active
effort to send clear warnings to people who appear to be threatening and aggressive on the Facebook group, as well as an immediate removal if members continue to behave out of bounds. We feel that by stepping up our game in this area, we will continue to encourage the involvement of our members in very interesting discussions and debates. We do, of course, have some more tangible attributes to the society this year with the aim of promoting the importance of intersectionality in feminism. We feel that having a BME (black and minority ethnic) officer will enable us to concentrate even more on the black and ethnic minority feminists amongst Bristol students. Our upcoming event joint with LGBT+ society will involve a viewing of Paris is Burning, an invaluable documentary film which chronicles gay black and Latino men and black and Latina trans women in New York in the 1980s. This will be held during trans awareness week (14th-20th November) and FemSoc are really excited to get involved because, although the film explores more of an LGBT+ rights issue, it must not be forgotten that it also affects women, especially trans women of colour. We are also hoping to tackle female genital mutilation (FGM) with force this year through either a campaign next term, or funding a charity with the money we hope to earn through Boobie Nights, our club night, which will be back in November. Feminism is a work in progress, and the growing need for intersectionality is a huge part of the struggle. The Bristol Feminist Society recognises this and under no circumstances will we allow the erroneous stereotype that feminism is a ‘privilege’ to prevail.
Epigram
13.10.2014
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MGM: time to leave children’s genitals alone Patrick Galbraith Comment Writer
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non-therapeutic circumcision also removes equally normal and healthy genital tissue Unsurprisingly, the topic is a difficult one. The World Health Organisation notes that FGM has ‘no health benefits’ and involves the removal of ‘healthy and normal female genital tissue.’ Well, by its very definition, non-therapeutic circumcision also removes equally normal and healthy genital tissue. Whilst FGM can be so brutal that in some senses, it may be incomparable with the removal of the foreskin, both practises constitute the non-consensual mutilation of a child’s genitals, performed at the behest of the parents.
It is important to note, when making the comparison, that there are various degrees of FGM, which differ greatly in severity. ‘Type I a,’ for instance, is defined as the removal, or partial removal, of the clitoral hood. Granted, this practice is utterly abhorrent but how different really is it to male genital mutilation (MGM)? Biologically speaking, not very. The latter is also the removal of erogenous tissue which has been shown to cause a loss of sexual sensation. You are probably aware that the Jewish community circumcise as a sign of their covenant with God. Similarly, Muslims practise circumcision for it is demanded in the Hadith and the Sunnah. But perhaps unlike FGM, MGM has been legitimised by its potential health benefits. In the West it has been found to lead to a 10 per cent reduction in the spread of STIs, still almost 90 per cent lower than the reduction found when condoms are used. It is equally said to prevent penile cancer; this is generally agreed upon but the disease is exceedingly rare. It is estimated to take 300,000 circumcisions to prevent one incidence of penile cancer annually.
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There is some small proof of benefits of MGM but the British Medical Association (BMA) has concluded that the health benefits ‘are insufficient for these alone to be a justification.’ In spite of this, the BMA respects the right of parents ‘to make
In 2008, 34 boys died from ritual circumcision in South Africa
choices about how best to promote their children’s interests.’ Whilst everybody is aware that FGM is often carried out in unsanitary environments with unthinkably cruel tools, many believe that MGM is a safe clinical process. Unfortunately, this is frequently not the case. In 2008, 34 boys died from
Flickr/brunosan
Imagine that I have just had a baby boy. I’m taking him off tomorrow to have his little foreskin cut off. I’m not quite sure what you think about my hypothetical plan but unlike its female counterpart, it’s entirely legal in this country and frequently funded by the taxpayer. Many are increasingly beginning to wonder whether we can compare non-therapeutic circumcision with female genital mutilation (FGM). Or does such a comparison undermine the sickening violation of human rights regularly inflicted on girls globally with shocking regularity?
ritual circumcision in South Africa. A little closer to home, in Birmingham, in 2011, 11 boys were brought into hospital ‘for life-threatening haemorrhage, shock or sepsis’ as a result of non-therapeutic circumcision. Currently in the United States, 56 per cent of males who undergo neo-natal circumcision do so for seemingly no medical or religious reason. This comparatively high rate of prevalence is often attributed to the procedure becoming a routine ‘cureall’ in the 19th century. Notions of moral degeneracy and insanity tormented the medical profession on both sides of the Atlantic and they deemed MGM a satisfactory cure for such ‘behaviour.’ At the same time, in relation to the same ‘diseases’, Dr Isaac Baker Brown championed a resurgence of interest in clitoridectomies. Baker Brown was ultimately expelled as a surgeon on the basis that he carried out these operations without the patient’s consent. Perhaps there’s a painful irony here. We live in a world where Baker Brown’s work is seen as Victorian, moralist madness but an arguably not so dissimilar operation is being carried out every hour, of every day, equally without the patient’s consent.
Flickr/Akuppa
Greens: so much more than a protest vote Speakers’ Corner: In the wake of the People’s Climate March, the President of Bristol Green Soc explains how a vote for Green is a vote for a fairer society Lily Fell President of Green Soc Most people know that the Green Party is committed to strengthening green policies in the UK and reducing the effects of climate change. Their environmental policies and values are refreshing and bold, especially when compared with the policies of the other main parties. The current Conservative-Lib Dem government bills itself as ‘the greenest government so far’, yet it rampantly supports nonenvironmentally friendly and potentially catastrophic programmes such as fracking. Naturally, the Green Party opposes this. However, many voters are not aware that the Greens also oppose the harsh austerity measures brought in by this government, and are
as focused on social equality as they are on the environment. Many of their policies would directly benefit students and young people; they have called for an end to university tuition fees, they want to raise the minimum wage to a living wage level of £10 by 2020, and are in favour of the re-nationalisation of the railways and other public services, which would result in cheaper fares and more employment. Another vital issue that they are tackling is the need for more genuinely affordable housing, a major concern for many students and young people. The Green Party believes that great change is necessary in order to create a more egalitarian society in the UK today. Despite support for their policies, many worry that a vote for the Green Party will be a waste. This is not true. Firstly, every vote for the Greens sends a message to those in power – more and more people are dissatisfied with the current political situation and want change. A
vote for the Greens signifies desire for a fairer society. Secondly, in the general election of May 2015 the Greens have a good chance of winning in the constituency of Bristol West (made up of nine wards including Cotham, Redland and Clifton, a constituency with a high proportion of students); a recent poll shows a 2 per cent lead. This proves that students believe in the Green Party’s ethos and want to take part in the movement for political change. The candidate is Darren Hall, the project manager for the team that won the European Green Capital Award 2015 for Bristol. The fact that Bristol won this award proves that we live in an independent, vibrant city that is already enacting many of the Green Party’s policies. If you believe in social justice and political change, ensure you are registered to vote in Bristol, and then show your support for the Green Party on 7 May 2015.
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The Big Debate: Yes
Alex Green Comment Writer
Why did you come to university? Did you come to get a decent degree which will lead you to a job and make you some money? Or did you come to study something that you have a passion for? A subject with which the likelihood is that you will flourish anyway, enjoy your three years, and likely progress into a job that you relish? And all that, despite not choosing a subject based on its economical prospects. Surprise, surprise. My first consideration as to why you should study a subject you enjoy is a practical one. If you dislike your subject how do you expect to make it through your three years at university, where your day-to-day is geared mainly towards your joyless vocation? To quote the platitude, university is the best, most free time of your life. Submitting yourself
13.10.2014
commentonline@epigram.org.uk
Epigram asks: should you study a degree purely for enjoyment?
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to a subject which gives you no joy is an obvious waste. In some cases it represents a throwing away of both money and happiness. It could be otherwise. You could spend three years involving yourself in what university is, and has always been, about: academic enrichment and intellectual growth. So many people with so much enthusiasm for their subject will never again surround you. If you think that being the odd one out, being the one here for that elusive Swiss bank account, is the best use of your time, then think again. Your progress in your future career could be stunted if you do not have the motivation that comes from enjoyment. Study a subject for its prospects and you will end up with a potentially lucrative, but wholly unsatisfying job. If there was no enjoyment there from the offset, then do not expect it to magically appear after 10 years in the game. I am not advocating that you discard your job prospects in favour of academia, that is what summer internships are for. Rather, spend your three years growing as a person and acquiring the skills that you will need when you leave university and enter the so-called ‘real world.’
Pleasure in your subject and being successful are not mutually exclusive, and doing something you enjoy will only in some cases reduce your chances of a job.
frivolity before entering into the ‘real world.’ Spend your money on a degree that fails to enhance your career prospects and you will find yourself with a large bill for a worthless document. It is all too easy to have a ‘money isn’t everything’ attitude towards university and careers as either a student or a prospective student, but it is important to remember that there is rather a big debt to be repaid at the end of it all.
degrees that lead into employment need to be vocational; employers recognise the value of skills obtained through more abstract and intellectual pursuits. History, an Arts subject, being an entirely abstract discipline with very little connection to any area of employment, has 80 per cent of Bristol graduates in work in a managerial position. This shows that it is possible to reconcile career prospects with all kinds of academic interests and skill sets. However, it must also be noted that only 54 per cent of History graduates were in full time employment after six months with an average starting salary of just £18,000. Furthermore, education does not have to be something that does not progress beyond your mid-twenties. Studying for pleasure can be a private pursuit reserved for later life. Having secured yourself a reliable job you could then continue to learn in your own time. This may even allow you to enjoy studying even more, as you are not worrying about getting a job at the
pleasure in your subject and being successful are not mutually exclusive
My own subject, Philosophy, has a relatively low employment rate compared to a subject like Economics. The average starting salary for a Philosophy graduate from Bristol is £20,000, compared to £28,000 for Economics, with 60 per cent of those in employment in a professional or managerial job from Philosophy, to 84 per cent from Economics.
In reality, however, being at university in the first place ups your chances vastly. The divide between the two is not, I feel, enough to warrant the staleness that follows. You could, I guess, say that to be happy one needs to be successful, and to be successful one must study a subject with obvious financial prospects. I think we have the wrong definition of happiness here. I do not deny that many people enjoy vocational subjects and revel in Law, Economics and Politics. But I believe that if you study those subjects without a passion for their subtleties and strengths, then you may as well not study at all. A genuine love for your subject should be your most important consideration. The happiness we should all be looking for should come from enjoying your degree, your job, and the personal growth that comes with both. Look on the Russell Group website and you can see the motto ‘A Passion for Learning.’ Not, I note, ‘A Path to a Job.’
Kowal Flickr;Flickr/Matt Pragmagraphr
No
Tom Horton Comment Writer
University presents a once in a lifetime opportunity to purchase a brighter future to all of those school leavers who have obtained good grades. However, not all degree programmes are a golden ticket into graduate-level employment; in November 2013 almost half of recent UK graduates were in jobs that did not require a degree. Given the uncertain jobs market, it therefore seems vitally important that would-be students choose a degree that will not confine them to a lifetime of lacking employability. Unlike in bygone eras, higher education in England and Wales is a commodity that has to be paid for. It is therefore reasonable to think of a degree as a form of an investment and not a few years of
Only 54% of History graduates were in full time employment after six months Medicine and Law are among the best courses to study in terms of employability and starting salaries, but that is not to say that all worthwhile
end of it. Part-time degrees can be taken alongside a regular job, as well as lots of adult classes. You could, of course, always read on your own in your spare time, like many students who have thought about their future and taken a Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics (STEM) subject. It therefore seems that the best advice for prospective students when choosing a degree programme would be to carefully research the career prospects they might reasonably expect and to balance these with their particular interests and skills. Better to invest in a degree when you leave school which will secure you a worthwhile job, rather than sitting around wasting your six hour Arts degree week, worrying about what to do at the end of it all.
Epigram
13.10.2014
Letters
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Am I a Feminist? I never liked the word feminist and I have never called myself that either. I simply do not like the sound of the word. But what I dislike even more are the connotations that are attached to it. It is mostly assumed that only women can be feminists and that those who call themselves feminist are manhaters who desire to eradicate the entire male population. I never wanted to be associated with these ideas because I disagree with them which is why I have never called myself a feminist. Then I watched Emma Watson’s speech at the UN and it made me realise a few things about my own conception of feminism and equality; it made me realise that even though I believe that all men and women are equal, I still have to adjust my way of thinking because I too have certain stereotypes about how men and women are supposed to be. It made me realise that being a feminist
is not a bad thing, quite the opposite actually. It made me realise that it is up to us to redefine the meaning of the term ‘feminism’ and that everyone who believes in the equality of men and womenshouldcallthemselvesafeminist. So I too have some changing to do, but changing the way we think is a difficult and arduous process. I believe that every one of us has to start that process on our own before we can expect others to do so. So I am changing the way I think today. From now on I will define feminists as people (male and female) who simply believe in the equality of the sexes and I will pay more attention to the way I think about how other people are supposed to be. And I will start calling myself a feminist too.
Ana Ziegler
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Some Freshers need to learn to use their ‘indoor voice’ when conversing in the ASS #grumpythirdyear #UoBproblems #thisisinfactalibrary
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Bristol uni student on the phone in Sainsbury’s: “I’m on a rage, I’ve got camembert and nibbles” #bristoluniproblems my bin smells strongly of truffle oil
A Solidarity Movement for Gender Equality
With an increase in over-capacity lecture theatres, students are having to improvise.
Bye Bye Summer Body: The Diet Grump It is certainly safe to say that I did not embark on a ‘beach bod’ diet this Summer. In fact, I did quite the opposite. I spent two months in the food heaven that is Italy eating some of the most indulgent food on the planet. On average, I spent a ludicrous 7 hours a day sat around a supper table (more hours were spent eating than sleeping…that has to be wrong). On returning to the UK it was no surprise that my jeans were a little tight…ok, very tight, but I don’t think my penchant for Percy Pigs during exam time helped either. I mentioned this to a friend who told me that after she’d been on holiday she went on a ‘post pig-out plan’ a.k.a. a diet. I pointed out to her that if I followed suit I would be dieting all the time as I frequently ‘pig out’. Feeling totally baffled as to how and why people constantly feel like they need to be dieting, I decided to throw
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So what if you don’t have a stomach like Jessica Ennis?
on my leggings (with an elasticated waist), grab a slice of my Mum’s best banana cake and remind myself of the reasons why I don’t and won’t ever embark on one of these ludicrous plans. 1) Food is fuel. Your body needs food to function. You wouldn’t attempt to drive your car up Constitution Hill with no petrol in it would you? So why would you attempt to walk up Constitution Hill at 8.45 am on little or no food and then expect to concentrate for a full day of lectures, or half a day if you’re an Arts student, ok, not even half, but that’s beside the point. If you want to power up all those hills and your brain to function
then you need to feed your body. 2) Food makes you feel good. There is little that beats that post-Sundayroast feeling when you are so full and content you can barely move, yet one hour later you find yourself with your head in the fridge contemplating a cold beef and horseradish sandwich. Then at 10pm you slink down to the fridge in a Nigella-esque fashion and devour a bowl of crumble and cream...no? Just me then. Not eating or denying yourself foods makes you feel rubbish. There are already enough things in the world to frustrate you, like all the people who go to Waitrose just for the free coffee, making the queue REALLY long (if you do that, don’t.) You don’t need to add to the list of frustrations by denying yourself food! If you’re having a bad day or even a good day and you fancy a big cake then have it! (within reason, cake 3 times a day, every day isn’t good).
3) Food is medicine. I know it’s a bit of a hippy statement but it does carry some truth. Not eating enough is as bad as eating a Jason Donervan for supper every night. If you want to stay well through the Winter and avoid things like flu then you need to eat well. And girls, you need to make sure that your male flat mates eat well too because YOU WILL suffer if they get man flu. 4) Take time to eat. I’m not suggesting a full blown 3 hour Italian lunch (although it would be nice) but just take a bit of time to enjoy eating. Taking 30 minutes to sit down and enjoy a meal is way more beneficial than spending that extra 30 minutes in the library starving. Let’s be honest, no one does much work in the library anyway thanks to the unbelievable sexual tension that fills the air, so attempting to work in the library when you’re both hungry AND sitting next to a really gorgeous
engineer is just going to exacerbate lack of productivity. Plus, you don’t want to annoy him with your growling stomach. 5) Be Healthy. The most important thing is that you are healthy, both in your mind and in your body. You won’t have much energy, you’ll probably feel pretty rubbish, getting work done will be even more of a chore and you might miss out on a date with that engineer from the library because your diet doesn’t allow you a big fat pizza. So what if you don’t have a stomach like Jessica Ennis or legs like Cara Delevigne, it’s far better to enjoy yourself and be happy. We all have the odd day when we feel like we’re carrying a little more than we ought to be but I can assure you, you are the only person that will notice and hey, what are baggy jumpers for!?
Alice Bennett
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Illustration by Millie Morris
Epigram
13.10.2014
Arts
Editor: Millie Morris
Deputy Editor: Sam Abreo
Online Editor: Jude A’Bear
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Frock and roll: female comedy hits Colston Hall What The Frock!, according to its website, is ‘an award-winning series of comedy events celebrating fantastically funny women’. Since its conception in Bristol two years ago, the most recent show marks the brand’s ascent in putting on a gig at the city’s premier venue, Colston Hall. ‘Well the Lantern isn’t quite the same as Colston Hall, is it?’ Jayde Adams, the evening’s compère, wryly remarks. Unlike expat Londoners such as myself, Adams is a genuine Bristolian. With a West Country twang in her accent, red horn-rimmed glasses, and Smarties print trousers supported by suspenders, she is a just representative of the city’s arts scene. Her sardonic tone never falls short, whether calling out Megabus as a ‘sanitary towel on an oven tray’ or caricaturing the weepfactor of Britain’s Got Talent contestants. After inviting an audience member up to the stage to assist her in a duet of a song ‘as well known as “Happy Birthday”’, she offers a sublime rendition of Puccini’s ‘O Mio Babbino Caro’. The facetiousness with which she drifts between
Lauretta’s Italian and Bedminster’s English is magnificent. Though the operatic schtick recurs throughout the evening to the point of feeling slightly overdone, Adams really is a delight to listen to. I suspect musical talent has endowed her with an ear for timing and delivery as she proves herself a worthy MC. The nude suit she wears to the bar at the interval is equally impressive. Rachel Parris begins her routine uneasily. She speaks with an ambiguous desperation; not quite persona but not real nervousness either. Nevertheless, after a lame song about a trip to Las Vegas – following Hunter S Thompson, any satire on Sin City appears contrived – her act picks up. Parris is at her best when mocking the feminist pretensions of divas such as Beyoncé: ‘I really admire “Single Ladies” as a women’s anthem because it’s true – if you wanted possession over me, you should have first bought me jewellery’. Whereas Parris targets the bigger-thanfeminism celebrities who make a fortune selling their own farts as perfume, Luisa Omielan explores
www.whatthefrockcomedy.co.uk
Liam Marchant attends Bristol-borne What the Frock!
the antithesis – modern female insecurity. A gift for mimicry enlivens her storytelling, notably an anecdote about taking a friend’s advice to have a one night stand after a breakup: ‘[sobbing] I’m in a really good place to be doing this’. The punch line is that her lover tells her mid-sex that he’s thinking of getting back with his ex-wife. I don’t doubt that ‘you have never known humiliation until you’ve had to ask a man to remove himself from you, fumble around his living room for your pants, and find the bus ticket to take you home from Wales’. For a female comic to author this Chaucerian bawdiness is refreshing. It dissipates the patronising image of women as ‘the fairer sex’. Amid Daily Mail headlines which decry the ‘sexualisation of modern culture’ with all the fervour of Mary Whitehouse, Omielan presents sex as it really is – a fact of life. Hardly the hourly bacchanalia of amorality that the tabloids depict, Omielan’s act confirms that modern promiscuity is casual and, if anything, a bit awkward.
From jokes about speed dating in a wedding dress to the shame of not challenging her manicurist over homophobic remarks (she had, after all, ‘only done one hand’), Omielan’s is the tightest set of the night. In fusing the personal and the political with masterful subtlety, it is also the most radical. It would be axiomatic to say that making an audience laugh is the chief priority of a comedy night. What is often left unsaid, however, is that this is not its only priority. In providing a platform for comediennes, What The Frock! has bolstered female representation in an industry dominated by men and, in the humour itself, undermined patriarchal prejudice. It is a credit to the city that spawned it.
Eat My Heart Out (but leave the offal): Zoe Pilger’s daring debut ego, appears as the complicated antithesis of that archetype. She is destitute and broken but determined and fiercely intelligent too. Having walked out of her Cambridge finals, we track her progress as she shags her way through London, determined to find love. Pilger spoke of her worry that the novel might be regarded as excessively and deliberately obscene. In some ways her concerns seem justified. It is difficult to read of Ann-Marie running ‘into Tesco on Clapham High Street’ and using a stolen bit of offal to satisfy her ‘urgent need to masturbate’, without raising one’s eyebrows just a little. Yet, the ‘Tesco episode’ can be seen to aggressively challenge the reader’s notion of feminity, and is just one incidence of the subversion of gender paradigms which occurs throughout. For example, Pilger gives Ann-Marie that ultra-masculine appetite of Joyce’s Leopold Bloom: ‘Big, bouncy hearts that crunch like an apple when you bite into them and stuff kind of spews out. And kidneys, smelling of piss’. Yet, for all this, she remains strangely likeable. In fact, in a remarkably refreshing Credit: Emma Hope Allwood
At the end of September, Spike Island at the Harbourside welcomed Zoe Pilger to discuss and read from her debut novel, Eat My Heart Out. I opened it the following morning in the bath and emerged four hours later, two thirds of the way through, delightfully disgusted and prune-like. I was a little surprised to be the only male member of the audience. One likes to think that there were lots of men who were planning on coming but their bicycles broke or something. Or is it just the case that men still fail to engage with women’s writing to the extent that we should? Pilger spoke f a s c i n a t i n g l y, discussing her qualms with those self-deprecating Bridget Joneslike characters who exist in rom-com films and literature. In many ways, AnnMarie, Pilger’s protagonist and alterZoe Pilger
way, it is because she is so brutally real and so unfeminine that one feels drawn to her. From bourgeois liberalism, to installation art, to public school hipsters, there is very little that escapes Pilger’s often hilarious, crushing satire. Whilst Ann-Marie is determined to let everyone know that she in fact ‘went to a comprehensive school’, it often feels that the rest of her crowd should be in some outrageously messed up edition of Made in Chelsea.
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it is because [AnnMarie] is so brutally real and so unfeminine that one feels drawn to her
Some of Eat My Heart Out’s darkest moments come when Ann-Marie gets taken in, as a sort of project, by cult feminist Stephanie Haight. Steph is determined that by locking Ann-Marie in her ‘torture-chamber of healing’and blasting her with Beyoncé’s ‘Halo’, she can cure the post-feminism plight of women everywhere. In Pilger’s own, candid words, ‘Stephanie is f*cking nuts’, and her theories are largely absurd, yet the world seems to adore her. It feels as though Pilger is taking a swipe at the often ridiculous cult following of
MARGARET ATWOOD (1939 - present)
A Canadian novelist and poet, at the forefront of female empowerment in literature and one of the first writers to attack the issue of female suppression in the 1960s. Winner of the Man Booker Prize for The Blind Assassin (2000), as well as numerous other awards for her writing, which is famous for shocking and exciting people by its often controversial and harrowing nature.
Flickr: Thompson Rivers University
WHO
public-intellectuals. It seems telling then that Zizek is mentioned more than once. I said to a friend the other day that I’m going to stop recommending books because no one ever gets round to reading them, but for Pilger’s Eat My Heart Out I’m going to make an exception. It’s mad, very funny, frequently shocking and more than worth a read.
Patrick Galbraith
WHAT Atwood’s most well-known and groundbreaking novel is The Handmaid’s Tale (1986). Set in dystopian America, which has become the republic of Gilead, it not only addresses the issues of female subordination and oppression, but also casts a stark light on the equally contentious concerns of religious fanaticism and the power of politics.
Epigram
13.10.2014
35
Arts Introducing: Leticia Blakiston Houston
‘I spent a year working on the vast theme of life.; a personal life and the biological side of life, and how they are separate from each other. The portraits are a study of emotions.’
Second year History of Art student
Revu-ing Bristol’s finest sketch troupe
See more of Leticia’s work at www.blakistongalleries.com Normally the thought of seeing clever young people trying to be creative and funny in front of an audience fills me with a certain dread, as so many sketch shows are uncomfortable, poorly put together and overly reliant on gimmicks. However, the second the lights go up for Bristol Revunions’ August and Everything Before, I know I am in for a surprisingly great evening. The Wardrobe Theatre, housing the show tonight, is a petite but comfortable room above the White Bear pub, and proves itself the perfect venue: it is as charming and friendly as our unpredictable and hilarious troupe are onstage.
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The Revunions whirl at lightning speed through a host of bizarre scenarios – from a soap opera in a tie shop to an Australian news report; from freestyling Devon hip-hop lovers to a man with birds for eyes (Captain Bird-eyes – a lot funnier than it sounds). I feel that it wouldn’t be unkind to say that the show makes
WHERE
WHEN Flickr: colorado art studio
She published her first collection of poetry, The Circle Game in 1966, which won the Governor General’s Award. Famous for breaking boundaries, her revolutionary streak continues today, with Atwood being the first contributor to the Future Library Project. To this purpose, she is currently writing a story that cannot be read until 2114.
Atwood was born in Ottawa, Canada, which has had a dramatic influence on her writing. In 1972, she published a work of literary criticism called ‘Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature’, in which she identifies Canadian writers as both victims and survivors. In 1980, she became the vice-chairperson of the Writers’ Union of Canada, and was President of PEN Canada in 1984-86.
little to no sense, and it is this fast-paced insanity which makes it so outrageous and hysterical. The actors perform their sketches with conviction, and put on a great show, despite a notable lack of scenery, costumes and other elements usually seen onstage. However, this simplicity works in their favour as it means there is even more scope for creativity, and that every member of the cast works even harder to assuage the audience’s thirst for entertainment. While all fantastically talented at portraying the implausible,Will Pope and Will Blok deserve special mention for playing characters who may not have had all the wittiest lines, but who are consistent in their ability to make the audience laugh – in my case, far too loudly and for far too long. It is clear why the group were such a hit at the Edinburgh Fringe this year. The cast clearly love what they do, growing redder and redder with the amount of laughter they try and fail to stifle towards the very end. I have never seen such a well-received sketch show, and am grateful that I got the chance to see this one. Revunions take simple ideas and run with them, adding just the right amount of collective self-deprecation (‘we’re not funny enough to be spontaneous, that’s why we don’t do improv!’). I would see them again in a heartbeat.
Claire Murgatroyd
WHY Margaret Atwood is truly unique in that her novels manage to achieve the impossible by being both sidesplittingly funny as well as utterly devastating. She is also not afraid to subvert a genre, with her novels touching on the gothic, the detective, the science fiction and the historical, often all at once. Without a doubt, Atwood has rightly earned her place as Canada’s most distinguished writer.
Ellie Freedman
Epigram | 13.10.2014
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Flickr: milena mihaylova
L I M E L I G H T
spoken word piece by Isaak Lewis-Smith
Celebrities fucking piss me off. Why do people care for some trustifarians getting a tattoo of a moth, Or taking his virgin toke on a joint, Subsequently descending into a catchy pop song cough? Forget about limelight-seeking celebrities. Fair enough, she may possess an arse that resembles Mars, But underneath the tightly pulled-back skin, all that remains is a farce, A car with brand new rims, body art, but no parts. But then again, maybe it’s not the celebrities. Maybe it’s the people and the paps who should perhaps learn to say please. Concentrate on your own lives; Bees contemplate nothing but their own hives So tear your hand from the honey pot, Before your mind begins to rot, I’m not trying to tell you how to live your life and how to not, It’s just a little retrospective thinking from the coffin to the cot. Still... Is this generation vehemently narcissistic, Or are we just able to show it? Cos the internet has become a tool to demonstrate how big your dick is, or how many buff joints you’ve lit. Then to have strangers leave passing comments of “what is ur number ur too fit.” I want to escape this facade Until there’s nothing left to omit, But still it’s difficult not to fall into this mythical bottomless pit, so, when I’ve finished doing this little bit, Maybe I’ll comment on your picture, And wonder what’s your number, Cos you’re fit.
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Boycotts and banned books: has artistic censorship gone too far?
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Banned Books Week. Nonetheless, Highland Park high school in Dallas, Texas, apparently unconscious of the seven day salutation to works affected by censorship, resolved to ban numerous texts from its library. Amongst the works restricted on the grounds of ‘obscenity’ were Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye and Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha. Such a clampdown demonstrated that the campaign for freedom of expression is far from historic. Certainly, this was reinforced by a controversy in London the same week. Exhibit B is a dramatic piece which recreates the Victorian phenomenon of human zoos. It employs black actors, dressed in loincloths and chains, to stand or sit motionless as the audience m e a n d e r through the theatre space and explore our colonial past. I did not get the opportunity to see Exhibit B for myself as its scheduled run at the Barbican Protesters condemn Rushdie’s infamous novel was cancelled following
bondage equated to condoning it. They did not entertain the idea that the black actors involved with the project wanted to tell the story of their ancestors’ pathos and expose the brutality of ‘civilised society’. Boycotters didn’t even consider that the piece might resonate on a contemporary level; the legacy of colonial rule being apparent still in the systematic racism of police stop and search, or the objectification of black bodies in music videos. What is frustrating in this controversy is not that some dismissed the piece as racist -- they are of course entitled to their opinion -- but that this interpretation is being imposed upon everyone else. No one holds a monopoly on interpretation in art, it is purely democratic in allowing for a plurality of meanings. Campaigners such as Kehinde Andrews are of the same totalitarian mindset as the Ayatollahs and Texan school boards who would censor creativity. It is not enough for them as individuals to dislike Exhibit B; everyone else must be just as outraged or else protected from their own moral bankruptcy. In forcing the cancellation of the piece, the protestors have denied a discourse that the piece would have fostered about racism in Britain past and present. Instead the affair will cause a greater degree of self-censorship amongst artists, fearful of offending the community they depict. In this climate of nervousness and reserve, the arts are sure to die a slow, painful death. c Fli
On Valentine’s Day 1989, the death sentence was issued against one of the most potent writers in the English language, Salman Rushdie. The decree, or fatwa, had been ordered by the Ayatollah Khomeini, Iran’s religious and political Supreme Leader. Rushdie’s crime? Authoring The Satanic Verses, a literary novel. The controversy, then as now, is unintelligibly obscene. Aside from the fatwa’s illegality – Khomeini was an unelected despot and Rushdie has never been a citizen of Iran – it was completely immoral. What right has anyone to try and suppress art (ultimately an object of enjoyment) with the threat of murder? The charge of blasphemy, ‘the one victimless crime’ as Richard Dawkins has quipped, only made the case more grotesque. It personified a great ideological gap between a man who had so far forced women to cover their heads, banned alcohol, and executed thousands of protestors, and another who had spurred a renaissance of postcolonial literature. Sadly, many ‘liberals’ in the West were hesitant in defending freedom of expression in the face of this reaction. Some even went as far as to blame Rushdie for offending Muslims worldwide, as if they are a homogenous group of extremists. The fatwa and the consequent attacks on Rushdie’s publishers and translators were tragic, though hardly unique. Perhaps second to reviewers, an artist’s most loathed critic is the state. This struggle of novelists, poets, and playwrights for the right to artistic freedom was commemorated by the literati on 21 - 27 September. Libraries and schools held readings of works ranging from Whitman’s Leaves of Grass to Solzhenitsyn’s The First Circle, in an international series of events marking
protests. ‘Art is not beyond censorship when offensive in nature […] Exhibit B is offensive because it perpetuates the objectification of the black body that is a standard trope in society’, rails Kehinde Andrews in the Guardian. Not that he ever saw Exhibit B. Andrews decides that rather than engaging with the piece and making up his own mind about it, organising a boycott would be more constructive. The campaigners were certain that every punter’s reaction to Exhibit B would be joy as opposed to a horror, that presenting
Liam Marchant
Epigram
13.10.2014
Film & TV
@epigramfilm Editor: Matthew Floyd
Deputy Editor: Hannah Price
Online Editor: Manvir Basi
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A student’s guide to Bristol’s independent cinemas Everything you need to know about the best places to see a flick in the city
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Watershed has been open on Bristol’s sceneic Harbourside since 1982
Watershed Lloyd Maliphant It was in this cinema in 1989 that Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg first unknowingly shared a room, where they attended the Bristol premiere of Akira. A landmark piece of Asian animation and a haunting vision of an apocalyptic future, it’s the sort of film that struggles to find a home in most multiplex cinemas. It was Watershed that provided a platform for this masterpiece and allowed its lofty ambitions to be appreciated by an audience who otherwise may never have been able to experience it. And this is a service that Watershed is still providing, a chance to see the films that would normally slip through the cracks unnoticed. In my time as a patron of the fine institution, I have been fortunate enough to witness a diverse plethora of cinematic gems, from home-grown British comedies to
powerful foreign dramas and everything in between. Many of these films have become favourites of mine and I owe it to Watershed for bringing them to my attention and inspiring my appreciation. Watershed also plays host to a variety of events including film discussion groups, workshops for aspiring
perfect symbol for Bristol’s independent spirit. A non-profit co-operative that has been run by volunteers for the last eighteen years, Cube in many ways feels like the antithesis of wealthy cinema chains. At £4 a ticket for students (reduced to £3 on ‘Ticket Tout Tuesdays’) you can’t go to the flicks in Bristol for cheaper. Membership is required to watch films there but costs the princely sum of £1.
Cube Microplex
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It manages what no big cinema could - to inspire a sense of community
filmmakers, and even the occasional film festival. Watershed reaches its maximum potential annually during the Encounters short film festival, where it drowns the Bristol cinephile in a flood of experiences that stretch far beyond just film, encompassing many other art forms. Situated on the picturesque Harbourside and complete with its own bar and café, it provides the perfect atmosphere to mull over your experience and express yourself – they actively encourage feedback and have an opinion wall for any budding reviewers. It manages what no big cinema possibly could, to inspire a sense of community in what it does, showcasing the work of local filmmakers and really interacting with and valuing its customers. Even now it has an ambitious schedule on its horizon, playing a part in BFI’s celebration of science fiction cinema, Sci Fi: Days of Fear and Wonder, by showing a series of classic, high concept science fiction films including The Fly and Moon. It is a place that really goes the extra mile for its customers, offering experiences far beyond any other cinema I know of, a real haven for the discerning cinema-goer who wants something a little bit more. You might not be able to catch all the latest blockbusters here but with prices lower than your standard cinema, and bonus discounts for students, Watershed makes going to the cinema a viable option for any day of the week, not just Wednesdays.
Ben Hickey Cube Cinema is a very idiosyncratic kind of cinema experience. Tucked away in a secluded, inauspicious corner of Stokes Croft, it has developed into one of Bristol’s great success stories during its eighteen-year existence and is perhaps the
Find The Cube at : Dove Street South, Bristol BS2 8JD
Epigram 13.10.2014
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Cube feels like the antithesis of wealthy cinema chains
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Find Orpheus Cinema near Clifton Downs
Helena Elliott The Orpheus Cinema can be found at 51 Northumbria Drive in Westbury Park. To put that into ‘student language’, that is ‘just off of the Downs’ for freshers, and ‘somewhere above Redland on a map’ for everyone else. It is a small cinema with just three screens, but in a fantastic location for anyone living in either Stoke Bishop halls or the Redland/ Clifton area – no more than a twenty minute walk from either. In spite of having only three screens, Orpheus will still deliver all your favourite latest movies. A note of warning that if you have geared yourself up to go and watch a hotly anticipated film, then you may need to book in advance. With popular new releases, the ticket office queue can be right down the stairs and out the door due to the smaller screening rooms. However, I do not encourage the cinema to add more, the intimate and thus friendly atmosphere between cinemagoers and the staff is a uniquely pleasant feature I’ve never quite experienced before. This particular Bristol cinema also participates in ‘Scott Cinemas Arts & Events’, which means that the cinema is no longer being used to just show the latest movie blockbusters, but brings a range of cultural productions to the big screen, such as plays
live from the National Theatre, filmed Bolshoi ballets and West-End musicals. I can also tell you that the prices are slightly steeper than normal at around £6.00-£9.00 for student tickets, but the whole project seems pretty impressive. You don’t get the ‘full experience’ of the hustling and bustling crowds and encores, but you do get to transport yourself to London, watch the same thing for a fraction of the price and be fresh for lectures in Bristol the next morning. Sounds like a good deal to me. Prices are £3.50 with a valid student ID, cutting at least a pound or two off of multiplex cinema pricing elsewhere in Bristol - ‘every penny counts’ as they say. Indeed, half this price on Orange Wednesdays – yes they do offer 2 for 1 on Wednesdays – is the best ticket price I think I will ever see in my lifetime. The cinema comprises of a decent range of snacks and drinks (I’ve heard rumours the coffee is sold in mugs) and they aren’t as overpriced as the multiplexes who must give their sales teams some great entertainment with looking at numbers for bottled water sales every day. There is a Waitrose right next door if you have a ‘thing’ for buying food at the cinema, or their range isn’t big enough to satisfy that sudden overwhelming feeling of ‘wanting everything sugary that has ever been made’, that seems to be associated with going to the cinema. But let’s face it, Waitrose is no Aldi when it comes to prices and when you are paying pennies for a cinema ticket you might as well treat yourself to large popcorn there (or their whole range available). A review would not be complete without its negative comments too. So, while only a minor problem, the air conditioning can be a bit bipolar at times. Check out the cinema on my recommendation but my advice is (especially if you’re going in winter) to be fully kitted out for all weathers: hat, scarf, gloves, jumper, t-shirt, swimming trunks, sun cap and the lot.
Arnolfini Amy Harris This Bristolian harbourside institution has been floating every true filmophile’s boat for nearly 50 years now and there are
no surprises as to why. Striking a balance between the delightfully vintage and suspiciously contemporary, this 19th century tea factory stands; housing a plethora of theatrical, musical and visual exhibitions on a seemingly sporadic basis, sure to suit all tastes. The designated screening room, however, relishes in the Avante Guarde and is brimming with visually progressive works that are pretty much impossible to view in any other venue not only in Bristol, but more often than not, the country. Whether that be a rare 1970’s British road-trip movie, soundtracked entirely by new wave bands of the era, or a documentary recounting the Italian Automnia Movement, there is always something to sate even the most culturehungry of appetites.
of Bristol’s independent coffee shops. It has the large selection of herbal teas, soup of the day (butternut squash and parsnip when I was there) and homemade hummus you would expect from a Bristol café. But, head downstairs into a room full of rickety old armchairs, and dilapidated sofas which have a comfortable, welcoming air, to discover a truly unique place. Having ordered my apple juice I went
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brimming with works that are pretty much impossible to view elsewhere
Talking about appetites... with all these cultural happenings, it is easy to forget that the Arnolfini has an oh so alluring cafe bar! This place serves some of the best local (and not so local) cider, Mediterranean food, and awesome cupcakes for the more peckish filmgoers out there. Yet if that isn’t enough, plenty of outdoor seating is provided, permitting a pre-movie sun soak or a general marvel at Bristol’s historic Docks. Offering discounts and free memberships to students this multi-faceted cinema is well worth a thorough gander and a place in your list of all time top Gallery-come-Studio-comeCinema-come-Tea Factories!
it was as if I’d been sat in my own living room downstairs, picked up a helpful timeline of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and settled in an armchair, a little unsure of what to expect. A friendly, older man sat facing us inquiring as to what had brought us along – everyone else was on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict newsletter for Bristol, or something like that - I felt a little ashamed to admit I was just here because I wanted to visit The Arts House. He explained that along with two
The Arts house Naomi Knight If you’re looking for the mundane thrill of the latest blockbuster, content to sit and drool over Hollywood’s current sweetheart then ‘The Art House’ is the chalk to your cheese, the pink to your red and the iPhone to your android. The traditional Odeon cinematic experience; popcorn, uniform-seating, bright orange printed ticket-is a far cry from the homely downstairs room at The Arts House café, which acts as a cinema a couple of times a week. Situated in the heart of Stokes Croft, The Arts House is so much more than just another
The Arts house - a Stokes Croft curiosity
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Orpheus Cinema
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the intimate and friendly atmosphere is a uniquely pleasant feature
Entrance to the Arnolfini’s building and exhibition spaces is completely free
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Cube’s utterly unique feel may be down in part to the history of the building itself. On the cinema’s website there is an exhaustive list of all that the space has been used for in the past: ‘a glass recycle depot, an am-dram theatre, a gay avant-garde 70s art centre, an extension of the Chinese Overseas Assocation, a girls’ school, a deaf and dumb institute, a secret gig venue, an illegal gambling den.’ And now a cinema, naturally. While patrons of Cube may love it for its eccentricities, it must be recognised that Cube’s rough-and-ready approach to cinema has largely been forced upon them by financial constraints. Last December their
fifteen year lease on the building expired and the volunteers faced a race against time to raise the £185,000 necessary to buy the property outright. Eventually, through a combination of public and arts council donations, the target was met and now plans to improve the cinema, with the addition of disabled access and a larger foyer area (if you’ve ever been to a sold out event there you will agree that it is a necessity), are currently being discussed. While you would have been able to catch American Hustle and Inside Lllewyn Davis there last year, a visit to Cube is often more rewarding when you are prepared to go off the beaten track. I tend to go for documentaries on subjects which I never thought I had an interest in; last year I learned about tax evasion, the Czech philosopher Slavoj Žižek and post-hardcore band Fugazi on three consecutive trips. Gigs are frequently put on there as well as a regular open-mic standup comedy night which yields sometimes hilarious, sometimes hilariously bad results. This is not an argument for why small and independent is more worthy than large and corporate. I love going to large multiplexes to watch films and they are where my earliest cinema-going memories come from. What Cube undeniably offers is a different experience, one that is less about hellaciously expensive popcorn and more about the films themselves, and indeed the people behind them. Run not for profit but for a love of cinema, Cube is well worth a visit.
danielthornton
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Stepping into the auditorium is a little like going back in time; the seats sigh as you sink into them and a potent, musky smell abounds. Films are screened onto a projector that sits behind a simple wooden stage; lights from films reflect off the wood and project a strange, eerie aura around the space.
Epigram 13.10.2014
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Spotlight The film you probably haven’t heard of but should definitely go see...
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‘71 follows a young British soldier who is accidentally cut loose from his unit in the midst of an intense riot on the perilous streets of 1971 Belfast. Jack O’Connell takes the lead role in a performance which continues to showcase his ever-increasing talent as a British actor. To follow closely - long past are his days starring as Cook in E4’s Skins. Despite the relatively unheard of cast and crew, a considerable buzz has developed around the film as a result of it being nominated for the highest award - the Golden Berlin Bear - at the 2014 Berlin International Film Festival in February. Be sure to see it at Watershed in October so as not to miss out on this fantastic piece of British cinema.
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Flickr/canburak
other friends he was putting on a series of informative conflict related films. When I was there the documentary was entitled ‘The Iron Wall’ – the friendly man said ‘this includes everything you will need to know about the history of the West Bank situation.’ The whole thing was comfortable, as if I’d been sat in my own living room. The film began late due to the warm pre-amble, and the fact someone had to pop to the loo! It was special because it wasn’t commercialised. Neither did I feel strange because I was on my own. There was no more, but no less than one passionate man and a documentary he thought was brilliant. I sat back, drank my apple juice and let myself be educated. Leaving The Arts House I felt enlightened, albeit slightly depressed at our dispute ridden world, resolving to come back for another film. Although not to everyone’s taste, what with the slightly heavier content, I couldn’t recommend ‘The Arts House’ more. Perhaps the best way to describe it is ‘very Bristol.’ And if you don’t know what I mean then please take a break from the triangle once in a while.
to his television counterpart Barney Stinson, that you ponder if he will come out with a quick quip at any given moment he is on screen (no spoilers – he does not). The narrative is complex and demands that Ben Lewis you sit and think rather than have the plot A trailer’s purpose is not to spoil any spoon-fed to you. The ending will surely have critical plotline details but to sell the movie, you talking to your friends like so many trailers these days seem to have forgotten. Refreshingly, Gone Girl’s trailer expertly sells the film. There are no spoilers. What you think is, actually isn’t and you come out of the cinema: mind blown. David Fincher’s filmography includes Fight Club as his most iconic film, Zodiac and it’s methodical approach yet edge of your seat scariness, and The Social Network which is expertly crafted and wittily written. Gone about it for a long time afterwards. Critics Girl is no exception. The script comes from the original novel writer Gillian Flynn, who usually use the term ‘film of the year’ loosely writes in such a way that leaves the audience and all too freely, but given it is ten months with no idea that they have just sat through a into the year and with only a few more notable movies to come out (Intersellar, we two and half hour long movie. The plot is essentially told from two are looking at you especially), this could just perspectives but saying any more than that claim the title. See this if… you are a big David Fincher would spoil the movie. Ben Affleck plays against type as Nick Dunne who hides a few fan (this film does not disappoint), prefer secrets but is also believably naïve, leaving your movies to be more than just stopping a you baffled about who to trust. Rosamund bomb, or prefer your characters to have a bit Pike (who is in her best role yet) is Dunne’s more depth than the 3D glasses giving you wife, Amy. The supporting cast also give that depth. Gone Girl is out now and it is a great performances, although it is a shame must see! Neil Patrick Harris plays a character so close
Gone Girl - Review
the ending will have you talking to your friends about it for a long time afterwards
Editors’ Picks Our personal choices of what to watch over the next two weeks Matthew Editor
Hannah Deputy Editor
Manvir Online Editor
Palo Alto Friday 17 October
How to Get Away with Murder Universal Wednesday 22 October
The Judge Friday 17 October
James Franco is such a prolific ‘artist’ that you can hardly turn around without tripping over one of his films/books/poems/seminars/other underwhelming projects. Nevertheless, this adaptation of his collection of interlinking short stories of teenage vice looks morbidly engrossing.
As soon as I saw created by Shonda Rhimes it was a winner. So this week’s pick is heavily influenced by my unhealthy obsession with Greys Anatomy and Scandal. A law professor and her students represent clients, while they find themselves entangled in a real life murder. There’s no doubt they’re putting their degrees into practice...
I’m excited to see Robert Downey Jr paired up with Tom from the The Godfather trilogy in this film. The plot revolves around Hank (Robert Downey Jr), who returns home to where his father and the town’s judge (Robert Duvall) is suspected of murder.
The Best of Me Friday 17 October
After an explosive finale in which my favourite character was killed off, I vowed never to watch this show again. This new season shifts focus in favour of Carrie (Clare Danes), thus becoming a rip off 24. Despite my misgivings, I am still intrigued to see if they can pull this off.
The Walking Dead - Season 5 FOX (UK) Monday 13 October Channel 4 Pictures
Watch this for the superb Andrew Lincoln - he of the Love Actually ‘to me you are perfect’ signs -- in his most unromantic role to date, as he continues to not be a zombie in a post-apocalyptic world where everyone else is. Plus, where the f**k is Beth?
Okay so admittedly not an award winning choice, but if you’re a romantic there’s nothing wrong with a soppy film now and again. We still love The Notebook so why not.
Homeland - Season 4 Channel 4 Sunday 12 October
Epigram
13.10.2014
Music
@epigrammusic
Editor: Guy Barlow
Deputy Editor: Gunseli Yalcinkaya
Online Editor: Jonny Hunter
music@epigram.org.uk
gyalcinkaya@epigram.org.uk
musiconline@epigram.org.uk
‘Fuck 4chan’: An interview with Sylvan Esso
Gunseli Yalcinkaya gets some valuable life lessons in relationships, feminism and internet trolls ‘Do you like my shoes?’ The airy voice of Sylvan Esso’s Amelia Meath echoes across the Louisianna dressing room as she lifts her legs in a childish wave of excitement to reveal a pair of 10ft platform boots. To her left, her partner Nick Sanborn shakes his head, laughing as if to apologise for her giddy demeanour. Sylvan Esso are an electro-pop duo from North Carolina. Having recently released their debut album, the duo first came into the public on the Jimmy Fallon show with their single, ‘Coffee.’ How would you spend your ideal weekend? N: I don’t even know what that’s like anymore! We’d grill out, right? A: I would find a body of water, warm water. N: A quarry? A: No, a water hole – a spring! I’d get into it – I’d be naked – and be surrounded by delicious snacks like roast chicken, chocolate and red wine! It’d be marvellous. What’s your song, ‘Coffee’, about? A: It’s about a lot of things, but mostly about living life in cycles; just as you drink coffee every day, you go in and out of relationships your whole life. The beginning of the song is about falling in love for the first time; you feel like you’re going to explode, right? Further on, you end up ruining it, but end up falling in love again a year later. The feelings you felt the first time come back again and you feel euphoric, but they’re tainted; you realise the feeling maybe wasn’t special, that the feeling is replicable. Is that love then?
A: It still is love, but it’s sad. When you’re learning, when you’re growing up, it’s hard. Once you make peace with that, the cycle takes a whole different meaning. Can you break out of the cycle? A: I think you can either think and feel sad your whole life, or you can lift yourself out of that. N: The more happy and content you can be in seeing beauty, the more you can embrace the human experience. How did you both meet? N: We met at a show in Milwaukee. I was booked to open for Amelia’s show Mountain Man. I was playing loud electronic music and she was in an acapella group; she asked me to do a remix, but then we were like, ‘let’s do this again!’ A: It snowballed really fast, and it wasn’t long till we were living in the same city. How is your sound different from other electro-pop acts about? N: We’re not trying to be any particular kind of band. This is what naturally comes out when we hang around together. A: We make chameleon music – we don’t try to fit into certain genres. In an interview with Drowned in Sound, you talked about embracing your dorkiness. Were you dorky in school? A: Oh yeah... I wore frog anatomy shirts until I was twelve. I had one with seven different types of salamanders. N: Awesome. A: Yeah, it was really cool. I think it’s
important not to watch yourself living your life and just live it. It’s really easy to be preoccupied worrying how you’re being perceived. How can you resolve that? A: Just stop it! (laughter) N: I’m 31 and I’m still working on it. I think consciously letting go is a real thing. It’s a constant negotiation - just like trying not be an asshole. In ‘Hey Mami’, you talk about being cat called. What are your thoughts on sexism in light of recent campaigns such as ‘he for she’? A: I haven’t read the transcript yet, but I think it’s a really exciting campaign. I think there’s a way of opening feminism up into the realms of humanism. Women are so often shown as people who need to be helped, when in fact, if we want to empower both men and women, we should just encourage everyone to feel as they want to feel; that is how we should carry the light of humanity. There is a lot of work to be done on both sides; it’s a weighted wheel. If there’s sexism against women, there’s also sexism against men. N: And fuck 4chan! A: Fucking isolated environment filled with teenage boys. In terms of ‘Hey Mami’, I wrote that song about being catcalled, but also wanting to catcall other people. There’s a part of me that wants to tell people they look good: ‘Hey girl, your tits look great!’ There’s a way of catcalling people that is bad, and there is a way which is just socially misunderstood. N: We take something that is a black and white issue, like catcalling, and maybe admit a sense of personal fault; it’s not a distinct linear thing, it’s more complex then that. Should people be more accepting of
their emotions? A: We should be okay with people feeling how they want to feel. In fact, I think people are doing a good job of talking a lot. More so than ever! However, we should be sensitive to each other and take care of everyone, not just ourselves. Do you think musicians should use their position of power as a platform to support feminism? A: We should lead by example. I think that’s really in vogue right now. It’s awesome in some ways, but the best thing for any cause is to lead by example. N: In regards to feminism, we are a band made up of a woman and a man; two people of equal rights acting as a whole. If anyone listens to our songs, the messages are there. We are doing the job, it’s there to be heard if anyone chooses to listen. That being said, there are some causes that we are very supportive of. In the States, reproductive rights are very important to us. A: We live in a purple state: a blue city in a red state. It’s a weird time. There are franchised conservative bills which try to limit people’s access to all sorts of care – women’s reproductive rights from low incomes especially. Being just the two of you, do you ever have domestics?
two weeks ago and never voiced it. Also, wanting the argument to have a resolution.. How many fights have you had when you get the impression the person doesn’t want the fight to resolve, they just fight for the sake of it? A: All our fights are about something; you have you work together to fight well. What’s the key to friendship? A: I think the fighting thing is really important. How many friendships get ruined when you hold onto some bullshit from fucking years ago? N: I have a handful of friends I’ve been friends with since I was young, and when I think back to why I’m friends with them, it’s because our friendship didn’t start out being contingent to our interests at the time of being friends; we just liked the cores of each other. I guess I just realised that the friends I hung onto, I did so because I liked the person they were inside, even though the outside variables keep changing. What are you listening to at the moment? N: The new Dentel record. It’s instrumental, electronic music, with the same energy as Gold Panda; it’s not the same, but encapsulates the same kind of mood. A: The Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire soundtrack. Favourite Harry Potter book?
A: We’re pretty good at arguing! We only argue about the thing we’re arguing about. If we go off topic, we bring it back to its core reason. Most fights usually begin because someone is irrationally angry about something else. N: Or something they didn’t talk about, something they were angry about
A: The third was my favourite, but the seventh was really good. I’m really obsessed with the idea of getting a tattoo saying, ‘My Luna.’ Oh, it’s such a beautiful scene! (Starts reciting) Gunseli Yalcinkaya, Philosophy
Second
year,
Epigram
13.10.2014
41
Back to Bristol: The Pop Group Zaki Dogliani interviews lead singer Mark Stewart ahead of Anson Rooms gig
Photo: Chiara Meattelli & Dominic Lee
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Stewart (far right) has also collaborated with Massive Attack, Primal Scream, Factory Floor and Keith Levene
‘I had this lyric on the new Pop Group album about “The arms dealers laughing like hyenas on their way to the next merchant bank.” They’re arming all the different militias; flooding these places with arms. And someone’s making lots of money. It’s wrong. Bristol’s got such a strong tradition of protest, going back to when there riots down in the centre centuries ago.’ Stewart, whose mum used to live in St Paul’s, went to Bristol Grammar School but ‘Would leave school early
on a Friday to get pre-releases as they were delivered in a van from the Revolver record shop on the Triangle’. He adds that he ‘Found out more stuff from interviews of
‘We tried to get Tony Benn to rap on a record back in the day’
bands than at school.’ Stewart makes some particularly interesting points about the way in which the corporate world is in some ways increasing its dominance but how ‘alternative’ people also find themselves in important roles these days. ‘The idea of alternative is quite bizarre. In London, there’s a huge ‘Big Brother’ type agency. I saw this guy the other day coming out of the building in a Sonic Youth t-shirt and Converse… ‘This whole story at the moment is bizarre. But, while it was a bit of a class war in the 70s, the thing that really encourages me is that right across all different stratas of society, there are now cool people, with really open minds, way up in positions of power. Like the guy that wrote The Simpsons who kind of got The Pop Group to reform [Matt Groening]. In Japan there are guys like that way up in web-ware or hardware companies. ‘Corporate is trying to co-opt. Sometimes the “independent” festivals are more corporate than ever. We’ve really, really fought for independence and freedom, and
with capital comes censorship. Everybody in the band could have made a lot of money doing all sorts of other things. Gareth [Seger: guitarist] wrote the original MTV jingles. But we always wanted to do what we want to do. We’re going to stick by our guns. Now, at last, we’ve got control of all our stuff, we’re setting up our own independent distribution across the world. For me, it’s quite exciting knowing that there are cool people in Japan. There’s really interesting performance art and music right across Europe and South America. I find the “independent” people in England, and even America, a little bit cynical to be honest. Know what I mean? You’ve just spent a year in Italy, right?’ The Pop Group founder recalls his experiences of going out in Bristol as a teenager. ‘I was 14 in 1975 but could get into clubs because I was six foot five. We were still going to school but we’d go to the Lokano, which is now O2 Academy. I remember when my brother got me a ticket for David Bowie at Colston Hall. We’d go and see Iggy Pop at the Hippodrome and then, coming out afterwards, I remember seeing Iggy and Bowie having a burger by the Hippodrome. They were sat in a burger bar. I think it’s a milkshake bar or something now.’ Bristol is a brilliant place for gigs. I think the reason that there’s such a melting pot of all these different sounds mutating - ‘“the Bristol sound” or whatever they call it is because you can’t really get ghettos. Everybody lives next door. It’s small enough that people have to get hold
of each other. It can’t be segregated like London or Birmingham. ‘Being 15 or 16 and being energised and enabled by punk, which blew everything open.. The thing about punk is that suddenly you could just make bands. None of us ever thought we were. Suddenly it was “You be the drummer”. It was really enabling. ‘I’d been washing up at a restaurant in Clifton to make money to go to [Malcolm] McLaren’s shop in King’s Road. This is before punk happened. I remember someone coming up to me and saying ‘Can you be in a band?’ Later on, I realised it was someone from The Damned.
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Next week, hugely influential post-punk outfit The Pop Group will play at The Anson Rooms, in our students’ union. I spoke to lead singer Mark Stewart, one of the many band members from Bristol, ahead of the concert. He starts off telling me about his memories of the venue, ‘When we were kids, The Anson Rooms was our favourite venue. I saw John Cale there, I saw Cockney Rebel there, I saw Dr. Feelgood there. The union circuit back in the day, even before punk, was huge. The Pop Group played one of our best gigs ever there. We’re really up for it. It’s kind of our party for the year.’ The Pop Group’s upcoming tour is to raise money for Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT). Stewart explains, ‘I first got involved with CAAT back in the CND times. The last ever Pop Group concert was the huge rally at Trafalgar Square which 500,000 people were at. I’d been volunteering in the CND office and we wanted to have some music. So I volunteered our services, and we got a couple of other bands [including Killing Joke] involved. Tony Benn was there. He was our local MP [Bristol East]. We were trying to get him to rap on a record back in the day.
I then asked him about his activism and the politics in many of his lyrics.
‘I saw Iggy Pop and Bowie having a burger by the Hippodrome’
‘I don’t separate politics from anything. It’s every action we take. All it takes is for good people to do nothing for evil to prevail.’ He stands by the notion of ‘There are no spectators’ [a Pop Group song on seminal album Y]. ‘You participate whether you like it or not’. He goes on to speak about zero-hour contracts, the power of the rich and the decline of the left in Italy, where he had been ‘radicalised in Bologna’. Aware that he had spoken about some heavy topics, Stewart then adds, ‘I don’t want to put people off coming to these gigs. Have a beer and jump up and down.’ ‘Sometimes in interviews it sounds a bit dry. The whole point of The Pop Group live, and especially in Bristol, is celebratory. We’re a band. For us, it’s going to be our big Pop Group party for the last couple of years because we’re coming to Bristol, seeing loads of our mates and stuff. We’re really looking forward to it. We feed off the audience. We’re a dance band.You’ve got me moaning about things over the top, but you can’t get rid of me.’ Tickets for the 23 October gig are available at ubu.org.uk/ansonrooms.
Epigram
42
13.10.2014
Summer’s Last Hurrah: Tokyo Dub
Festival junkie Alex Schulte raves goodbye to 2014’s most jammin’ season
Alex Green
New York Transit Authority and DJ Zinc on the Pulse Stage
Summer’s over, the nights are drawing in and groggy 9am seminars abound. What better way to see out 2014’s festival season than a good old fashioned skank-out in a park near the M32? The second incarnation of Tokyo Dub, relocated from the sound restrictions of Castle Park to Eastville, already makes a good claim for the title of Bristol’s favourite event. Spawned from a long running Motion night, the event drew 15,000 students, reggaeheads and 11 hour party people to bust gunfinger and down Red Stripe to chest-rattling bass frequencies. The change of venue has certainly been for the best - last year’s crowd congestion, technical problems and sound bleed were thankfully absent, leaving the event to run smoothly with an air of ramshackle professionalism and appreciative screwfaces all round. Kicking off proceedings on the main stage was minor Grime celebrity P Money, fresh from his already infamous truncated clash with Big H earlier this year, who spent his set shouting about hurting people over some severely ill-judged Brostep clangers that really should have been left in 2011. It was no hard choice to immediately drift over to the Pulse stage to watch Bristol don Pinch show the halftime pretenders how it’s done with the kind-of eyes-down, moody bassweight that would probably find a more natural home in a dingy
warehouse than a park at 3pm. Up next was another fixture on the city’s scene, the ever cherubic Buggsy. Though much of his material suffers from the same hammed attempts at social criticism that make most UK Hip Hop so eminently ghastly, he’s a man who’s very hard not to like.
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Ed Solo’s infuriatingly formulaic DJing proved diverting for a few minutes before build-up-breakdown boredom set in London’s System crew, probably the last bastion of old school Dubstep sound, were once again given a stage at this year’s event, with their System Roots resident DJs regaling the afternoon crowd with some Reggae classics before the heavy sounds got started. Ed Solo’s infuriatingly formulaic DJing proved diverting for a few minutes before build-up-breakdown boredom set in and it was time to see Jungle’s greatest one hit wonder General Levy saying words very fast. Levy, on fantastic form, packed in an hour’s worth of material at the Reggae Roast stage, yet of course everyone was only really there to hear ‘Incredible’, which he obligingly played three times. The real highlight of the day came soon after as Dubstep
Jaime T Carry on the Grudge Virgin 29 September 2014
originator and digital mystic Coki took to the System stage with a visceral, military barrage of LFOs formed out of the darkest depths of skunk paranoia. Unfortunately Artwork, another of the Croydon old guard, was a less interesting proposition, playing the kind of textbook bassy house that’s been done to death on sound systems across the country. Fortunately, Joker’s fluro-crunk rounded off the event admirably, sending the masses to trudge down Stapleton Road in search of buses. I imagine they’ll be back next year. Alex Schulte, Second year, English
WANT TO READ MORE? Check out all the great stuff we’ve got online: • Q&A with Goat • An Interview with Spandau Ballet’s Tony Hadley (it’s ‘True’) • FRESHERS: 5 Music Venues I Wish I’d Found Earlier - City Centre Edition • A Review of Tribe of Frog • Album Reviews: Flying Lotus, Catfish and the Bottlemen, Caribou and The Drums
Goat Commune Rocket 22 September 2014
Marmozets The Weird and Wonderful Marmozets Roadrunner 29 September 2014
Weezer Everything Will Be Alright In The End Republic 7 October 2014
Bands like Marmozets were only ever going to be compared to Paramore. It’s understandable, especially as Becca Macintyre fronts the fivepiece from Yorkshire: a redhead. Yet Marmozets, with their debut album The Weird and Wonderful Marmozets, are a unique alternative-rock outfit that would leave Hayley Williams quivering in her bob-cut and converse. With punchy riffs and vocals that spit bile, Marmozets radiate pure sass and a genuine punk-vibe that other like-minded bands have rarely managed to pull off. They get you stomping your feet with ‘Born Young and Free’, ‘Weird and Wonderful’, and ‘Love You Good’ – good old fashioned venomous punk-rock anthems. Yet it’s in ‘Cry’ and ‘Vibetech’ where we see Marmozets’ diversity; swinging from punk-power-ballad in the former to something akin to a raw Dream Theater’s more sinister material in the latter. Such a varied record leaves us hooked on Marmozets; a band as infectious as Paramore but a whole lot more grown up.
‘Kick in the door, more hardcore. Rockin’ out like its ’94’ sings Rivers Cuomo on lead single ‘Back to the Shack’, and he’s not lying. The return of The Blue Album producer Ric Ocaskek, lengthy guitar solos and punky choruses all suggest Weezer have ditched their recent foray into overproduced pop and returned to the heavier sound of their early years. These components come together to create some great moments, including the heavy bridge in ‘Cleopatra’, instrumental track ‘The Waste Lands’ and stand out song ‘Foolish Father’. But overall, Everything Will Be Alright in the End just comes across as…alright. No new ground is made musically, and the album is littered with Weezer-by-numbers tracks that are nothing more than filler. However, anyone looking for a standard alternative rock album, with more than a gentle nod to Pinkerton will be satisfied with Weezer’s latest effort, and it will no doubt introduce a new generation of fans to the band.
Across the country, Jamie T captured the hearts and imaginations of a generation back in 2007 amidst the release of his debut album. Coinciding with the success of his second album two years later, the pressure for the ever dangerous number three is certainly on. When viewed as an entire piece, Carry on the Grudge sits together quite well. Track one ‘Limits Lie’ sets the overall tone for what’s to come; emotional, and considerably slower than his previously released material. Regrettably, certain numbers seem as if they were forced into the track listing, simply to please those fans searching for the up-tempo Jamie T of years gone by. Whilst such examples are scarce, songs ‘Trouble’ and ‘Rabbit Hole’ unfortunately stick out from the rest, and feel somewhat misplaced. Some won’t, but let’s hope a mass of fans will embrace the new direction of Jamie T. Having the bravery to, on the most part, reinvent his musical persona, and not fall entirely into the cliché trap of simply digging up old roots after such a long period of silence is admirable. Welcome back Jamie.
The slightly surreal sounds emanating from Goat’s latest release have a lot to live up to, after their first album was hailed by the Guardian as one of the best of 2012. Commune certainly opens with patterns reminiscent of Django Django’s first self-titled album, with ‘Hide From The Sun’ fluctuating with the same tribal beats and repetitious African bass structures. The band hails from a town in Sweden with a history of ‘voodoo worship’, and the sense of indigenous ritual is evident in the band’s music. The lead singer sounds near ethereal; her voice is on the verge of a hoarse yell throughout, and the passion is clearly audible. What the band sadly lacks, however, is the originality of Django Django, with the album entering strong and becoming dull by the end. Despite Goat’s attempt at mysticism, as they perform only in masks, it isn’t quite pulled off; they have instead become a subject of their own esotericism.
Jethro West, Third year, Maths
Joshua Price, First year, Economics
Micheal Cousins, First year, Politics
Caitlin Butler, First year, English
Epigram 13.10.2014
25 43
The Horrors @ O2 Academy - 01.10.14 Sam Mason-Jones was far from horrified...
Sam Mason-Jones
‘If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, or they’ll kill you.’ So spoke one Mr Wilde, and as I can offer little in the way of comedy other than regurgitated Peep Show references, I ask you, dear reader, to forgive me. The truth is that, as much as I am truly pained by tardiness, and as disrespectful as it may seem, I was running pretty bloody late for The Horrors. And as I was pounding down Park Street at ten to nine on Wednesday evening, I was getting increasingly worried that I might pay the price for my negligence of time. As it was, I made it into the cavernous O2 Academy in enough time for a friend to sum up the support-act in two words (‘average’ and ‘Welsh’), before the band strolled onstage for the shimmering introduction to ‘Chasing Shadows’. It was a good two minutes before Faris strutted on to return The Horrors to a full complement and begin tearing down the brimming soundscape with a snarled vocal and a shake of the hips. ‘In and Out of Sight’, another track from latest LP Luminous, followed in a more mesmeric vein. There have always seemed to be two distinct groups of people who attend Horrors gigs. There are those who recognise the subtle science of a Tom Cowan synth, who fix the stage with a fierce stare defying a gently nodding
head or the tap of a foot. And then there are the cats who just want to dance. The latter were scattered in pockets throughout the crowd until Mr Badwan ushered them together just in time for the banger ‘Who Can Say’. The cathartic heart of the song, Faris’ spoken respite, still retains its electricity, the crowd providing a chanted reply of ‘She cried’ to each of his lovelorn laments. As does ‘Sea Within a Sea’, which remains the best thing that the Horrors have ever produced; a slow-burning behemoth with a convulsing, threefold jerk that courses toward massive crescendo. It also remains best realised live.
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‘You don’t need to clap; its just a fact’
The front-man offers a rare moment of ‘banter’ as he, smirking, tells the crowd off for applauding despite their two-song warning - ‘You don’t need to clap; it’s just a fact’ - as he leads his band into ‘Still Life’, a brief glimpse into 2011’s Skying. An arm-aroundyer-mate, beer-in-the-air moment, it’s a lot of fun to behold, a deep breath before the raucous ‘I See You’ heralds
the band’s first departure from the stage. Encore complete, they return for an airing of recent single ‘So Now You Know’, and consistent closer ‘Moving Further Away’ in which Faris cuts loose to cut some pretty wild shapes against a seizure-inducing display of lights. Without missing a step, the band waltzed through all aspects of the back catalogue (Strange House excepted), showing off a new capability for tenderness that was found in the anguished delivery of ‘Change Your Mind’, the slower curve-ball thrown up by Luminous. Particularly impressive was just how easy this seems to be becoming for a band, who with this record have switched their gaze from their shoes to the celestial. Later, at Start the Bus, bassist Rhys Webb took to the decks to unleash a formidable collection of classics as Joy Division, Primal Scream and The Kinks reverberate around the closer walls. Outside, I work up a Red Stripe-infused courage to timidly request a quick interview with Faris and his brother Tarek - a request he politely palms off with the promise of answering some questions via a gmail account. Interview to follow. Probably.
Sam Mason-Jones, Second year, English
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Epigram
13.10.2014
Science & Tech
Editor: Molly Hawes scienceandtech@epigram.org.uk
@EpigramSciTech Deputy Editor: Ben Parr deputyscienceandtech@epigram.org.uk
Online Editor: Alfie Smith
How bacteria influence body weight through behaviour Aoife Hannon Science Writer
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Flickr: Eric Parker
In an article published in ‘Bioessays’, researchers have been exploring the prospect that bacteria within the human gut may well be influencing what we eat. The different bacterial species present in the gut depend on different nutrients: some on carbohydrates, others fats, simple sugars, or cellulose. Even microbes with a general ‘diet’ seem to thrive better on some nutrient combinations than others. These particular bacteria, in order to achieve nutrient combinations favourable to them, can manipulate host behaviour through the use of signalling molecules (such as hormones). As the gut is connected to the endocrine, nervous and immune system, these signalling molecules can affect our behaviours and influence cell function. For example, microbes can change our perception of taste, secrete toxins to create unpleasant sensations and release chemical rewards to encourage eating a particular food. They not only affect taste, but can influence mood; in one human clinical trial, a probiotic drink containing Lactobacillus Casei enhanced the mood of those in the lowest mood interval. Furthermore, in some recent studies, a link between inconsolable crying due to infant colic with changes in the bacteria in the gut, has been found. If an infant crying acts to increase parental attention and feeding, colic
may enhance the nutrient load to the gut and therefore allow greater access of a specific nutrient to a particular bacteria. This amount of manipulation by bacteria in the gut may have major implications medicinally, as we in turn can control the bacteria that inhabit our bodies and this can have important consequences on conditions like obesity. In fact, evolutionary conflict between bacteria of the gut and that of the host - in this case your body - may actually contribute to obesity. In a study of mice genetically predisposed to obesity, when raised without microbes in the gut, they remained lean. But, when fed a faecal pellet from a standard obese mouse, they were transformed into obese animals. Further to this, inoculating germ-free mice with bacteria from an obese human produced obese animals. This kind of information, along with further studies, could be used to change how we traditionally treat obesity and other conditions such as diabetes. However, we are only really scratching the surface in terms of the developments that could come from studying the microbes within our guts. Luckily, we are not pawns to these microbes and we ourselves can easily manipulate them! Through the use of antibiotics, probiotics, diet, and faecal transplants, we can determine which kind of bacteria will thrive, and possibly encourage us to lead healthier and less obese lives.
Event review: Steven Pinker on good writing Ben Parr Deputy Science Editor In an oak panelled venue, with a golden Rolex clock upon the wall, and two red leather armchairs upon the stage, there is excited murmuring as the audience trickles in. The event, organised by Intelligence Squared, is ‘Steven Pinker on good writing with Ian McEwan.’ Steven Pinker, professor of Psychology at Harvard and a bestselling author of such books as The Language Instinct, is here to discuss his latest publication, The Sense of Style: a style guide for ‘the thinking person.’ The audience applauds as the two
legends, one of the sciences and the other of the arts, stride up to the stage. McEwan, an award-winning novelist who has written such books as Atonement, takes his seat in one of the armchairs. Pinker takes his place on the podium and the audience falls silent in anticipation. Why, Pinker asks, is so much writing impenetrable, impossible to follow, and so difficult to understand? In his typically scientific style he considers the alternative hypotheses to his own. Many claim that digital media has been the downfall of good writing, and that once upon a time we wrote better before the era of text language, 140character tweets and hurried Facebook messages. Pinker argues that this is not the case - writing has always been notoriously bad in fields such as academia. Furthermore, it was not so long ago that phones and televisions were taking over everyone’s time, and it was feared that no one would write any more. Clearly, with social media, email and texting, we are writing more than ever, so this is not the cause. Pinker concludes it is simply the case that good writing is inherently difficult. The room is full of people listening intently and I notice a couple of audience members reaching for a pen and paper, as Pinker gives his prerequisites for good writing. The requirement he names is an
obvious one probably found in every style guide ever written. Read. Read lots. And when reading, linger over the styles you think are good and ask yourself why this is the case. He does not, however, give this advice in the simplistic way most style guides would do so. Instead, he explains how the brain will try and find logical rules in language. This can be as simple as the possessive apostrophe. e.g. ‘The cats’ implies multiple cats, whilst ‘the cat’s’ refers to what is owned by the cat. The possessive apostrophe is a misleading rule, as there is the exception of ‘it’s’ and ‘its’, in which the former means ‘it is’ and the latter is the possessive. The only way, Pinker argues, to understand how language works properly is through an ‘immersion in the world of print.’ The other major prerequisite he puts forward is ‘overcoming the curse of knowledge.’ That is, humans find it incredibly difficult to imagine what it is like not to know something, and this comes across in their writing. A neat demonstration of this problem is shown in the ‘Smarties task.’ In this experiment the researchers show a child a box which looks as if it contains Smarties. The child guesses the box contains Smarties, yet when opened it is revealed to contain pencils. The child is then asked what they think another person will think is inside the box. If
The only way to understand how language works properly is through an ‘immersion in the world of print’
they say ‘Smarties’ they pass, if they say ‘pencils’ they fail. Until about the ages of four or five, children will fail the test, demonstrating a difficulty in understanding what it is like not to have a piece of information. The curse of knowledge, as Pinker calls it, is what he believes is one of the greatest impediments of clear writing. Academics, he continues, are among the biggest culprits for sticking in jargon and unnecessarily confusing the reader: something I am sure most students can relate to. Pinker receives an enthusiastic applause as he ends his talk and sits down on the second armchair, facing McEwan. The conversation begins. McEwan, in his slow, almost strained voice, questions Pinker on what he, as an empirical scientist, thinks he can add to the discussions on writing style. Pinker’s response is typical of a scientist: he can back up his claims with evidence. He uses the example of the
objections to splitting infinitives. Why are there objections? What evidence is there to suggest this is wrong? Pinker claims that by looking at the usage of the English language it can often be found that these so-called ‘rules’ are ignored by fantastic writers throughout history. It is through this interweaving of observation and theory that Pinker believes the scientific method can be applied to improve writing. The conversation moves on to specifics of writing techniques. One of the most agreed-upon stylistic techniques they discuss is the use of invoking visual images in writing: McEwan claims that when writing a scene, especially violent ones, the most effective thing to do is to get the visual facts clear and prominent, and the rest will take care of itself. Again, Pinker puts this into psychological terms by explaining how the brain is largely visual. The discussion winds up with talk of specific pet hates, rumours about writing, and even audience members question the use of commas. By the end, it seems most audience members have been convinced that to really excel at writing, an awareness of psychology and a scientific approach is needed.
Epigram
When humans make the earth quake Induced seismicity refers to earthquakes occurring as a result of human activities like oil fracturing and installing and running geothermal systems. Some of the highest magnitude events stem from the unintended consequences of reservoir creation, with over 100 quakes in the 60 years before 2002 attributed to this activity. Other unintended causes of induced seismicity are waste water disposal, carbon capture and storage (CCS), and mining. Induced seismicity has been notably observed in the US, with events sharply increasing in frequency since approximately 2003. This is particularly attributed to the increase in hydraulic fracturing (fracking), used in the gas industry to enhance permeability. Fluids can migrate away from the site of injection, increasing pore pressures in existing rock faults inducing failure. Seismicity is induced by shale gas exploration (where CO2 and H2O are injected to depths of up to 3km to induce failure in the rock) and enhanced geothermal systems (EGS, where the rock is intentionally fractured using high-pressure water injection to allow heat extraction). Induced seismicity is politically controversial. For example an EGS project at Basel, Switzerland
“ Quakes have increased dramatically and some have exceeded magnitude 6
induced 4 quakes strong enough to be felt by humans in 2006-2007, for which there is ongoing litigation. However, lower emission targets have been used by countries such as the USA as justification for increasingly aggressive gas exploration. Their emissions per unit power produced have dropped as previously inaccessible reserves of gas now contribute cleaner power to industry and homes. This is in contrast to Germany, which has banned fracking and seen its emissions rise due to the subsequent necessity of buying in cheap foreign coal, which is much more environmentally harmful. Shale gas exploration was tried in the UK at Preese Hall. It induced a magnitude 2.3 quake in April 2011 which was eventually linked to the injection site (after much debate). Drilling stopped, losing the company money. Public support fell dramatically after the quake. Another example of a setback to
the industry following induced seismicity is the vast increase in insurance costs to those living in states such as Texas, Colorado, Arkhansas, Oklahoma and Ohio in the USA. Since 2010, magnitude 3 quakes have increased dramatically and some have exceeded magnitude 6. Public support for the drilling (otherwise generally accepted as necessary for energy security reasons) has dropped. Generally, and in these states, proving induced seismicity can be hard where new techniques have overtaken old ones, meaning quakes may simply be being detected where they wouldn’t have been seen in the past. Baseline data may also be poor if the site was not previously monitored. It is very hard for claimants to prove that structural damage was caused by induced earthquakes.
“
Molly Hawes Science Editor
Lower emission targets have been used as justification for aggressive gas exploration
Factors affecting intended induced seismicity include injection rates and volumes, ambient stress conditions (e.g. fault orientation in relation to tectonic stresses), connectivity between injection zone and basement, basement faulting regimes, and triggering by other quakes. However, causalities are not universal; for example, high injection rates do not always imply higher frequencies of induced quakes. Proving induced seismicity can be hard where new techniques have overtaken old ones, meaning quakes may simply be being detected where they wouldn’t have been seen in the past. Baseline data may also be poor if the site was not previously monitored. A recent paper shows that induced quakes tend to occur below the injection site due to faults in the basement and good connectivity encouraging downward fluid migration under gravity, resulting in fault failure. Most activity occurs within 15km of the site of injection. Following the public relations disaster at Preese Hall, the UK plans to implement a traffic light system. However, orange (low alert level) will be triggered by a magnitude 0 quake, which occur frequently as part of the background seismicity. This means implementation of the scheme may be expensive and provide too much of a financial burden for companies.
“ PQUOTE
13.10.2014
46
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WIN Hungry House vouchers! Do you have a repertoire of delicious recipes you use to whip up those amazing dinners? We want to read them! Email abest@epigram.org.uk with your favourite recipe by Tuesday 21st October. The winner will be featured in the next issue of Epigram AND ÂŁ20 vouchers to hungryhouse. co.uk
Epigram
Sport
13.10.2014
49
Why can’t America win the Ryder Cup? Ben Whitman Sport Features Writer
Flickr: Scottish Government
Over two weeks have passed since Europe’s dominant 16½-11½ victory at Gleneagles in the 2014 Ryder Cup. This should have proved enough time for Team USA to have sat back and analysed yet another defeat in a competition which has become a one-sided farce. Indeed, eight of the last ten cups have escaped the hands of the Americans. Following that infamous European win at Medinah in 2012, the golfing icon Tom Watson was trusted with the USA Captaincy for the latest instalment of this historic competition. It was hoped he could reproduce his 1993 victory at the Belfry, the last American victory on European soil. It was a task which proved beyond him. The US Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) have devised many strategies over the years in an attempt to boost American chances. These include the introduction of four Captain’s picks, extensive ‘13th man’ crowd advertising campaigns, and even a tendency to create short-grassed courses suited to their big-hitting players. Despite such efforts, the US team continues to fail and patience is running out. Many experts have concluded that this losing pattern stems from a tactical naivety, with many putting Watson’s management at Gleneagles under scrutiny. Webb Simpson and Keegan Bradley were questionable Captain’s picks, and their lack of form showed over the weekend. Even more confusing was Watson’s decision to exclude the in-form Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed from the Friday fourballs, which Europe won 3½-½. In a quite stunning press conference following defeat, Phil Mickelson, one of Watson’s on-course leaders, produced a savage attack on his Captain’s tactics. He argued that Watson had ‘strayed away from a winning formula’ of four-man ‘pods’, the successful system Paul Azinger put in place for the 2008 Ryder Cup at Valhalla. Mickelson claimed that, unlike under Watson, the players were ‘invested’ in the strategic process, rather than simply
following instructions. In many regards these were the bitter remarks of a man reeling from his exclusion from much of the competition. One must surely ask where these words of wisdom were following defeats in 2010 and 2012. In any case, it proves an irrelevant argument. The European team employ no complex tactical system. They simply rely on a strong team ethic and mental strength. In fact, on paper they are usually the weaker team. At Medinah the US boasted the strongest Ryder Cup team of the century, with 11 of the world’s top 17 players. They lost. Contrastingly, Europe won the 2002 Ryder Cup with the Century’s weakest team, including two players outside the Top 100. Team USA seem to lack the strong characters of old, men such as Arnold Palmer, Ben Hogan and Sam Snead. The crop of recent years is undoubtedly talented. Tiger Woods, Rickie Fowler and Bubba Watson are all capable of producing ethereal golf on good days. But these types of players alone don’t win you Ryder Cups. The careers of Lee Westwood, Graeme McDowell and Ian Poulter are not littered with major silverware. Yet on a consistent basis at Ryder Cups they have played the right golf at the right time, producing surges of European momentum. That Sunday at Medinah, when they fought back in the singles from 10-6 down, is the ultimate example. America lacks these reliable players. At Gleneagles, faced with exactly the same situation as the Europeans in 2012, the US barely uttered a whimper as they crumpled to an ignominious defeat. Talk of tactics and systems is all very well, but for 2016 the Americans would do better to identify the players capable of providing the crucial backbone necessary for the ultimate team event in golf.
More Bolts from the blue Patrick Jones Sport Features Writer
After Dennis Kimeto’s smashing of the world marathon record at the end of September, Epigram Sport looks at which other athletic records may be broken over the next year... Usain Bolt = 200m; Current holder = Usain Bolt (19.19s) It is only fair that we begin with the perennial mention of Usain Bolt. Record breaker, record holder, woven into the immortality of athletics. His current ambition is to go below 19 seconds in the 200 metres, a mind-blowing yet completely possible feat. Already holder of the record, Bolt’s far-reaching, all-embracing stride illustrates that this is no pipe dream. A perpetual man-ofthe-moment, his ability to absorb and empower himself with the electric atmosphere of a major championship proves anything is possible. Yohan Blake = 100m; Current Holder = Usain Bolt (9.58s) Perhaps it is inconceivable that a Usain Bolt record can be bettered, but the man dubbed ‘The Beast’ is a world champion in his own right. Yohan Blake broke the acclaimed 10 second barrier when just 19 and he is the youngest ever athlete to become a world champion. Factor in several defeats of Bolt, Blake, at just 24 years old, has the perfect pedigree. A personal best of 9.69s is complimented by a style of running which evokes hunger to win and determination. What is certain is that without his famed Jamaican compatriot, Blake would already hold multiple world records.
Jamaica vs USA = Women’s 4 x 100 relay; Current Holder = USA (40.82s) Now to the Galacticos of the sprinting world and to what was the second oldest record in the athletics amphitheatre until 2012. Seemingly like David and Goliath, one former colony took on a global superpower. Incompatible population sizes yet near identical world-class sprinting talent. Rather like a tug-of-war, the USA took the world record at the London Olympics, yet just one year later the Jamaican quartet gained their revenge, albeit just outside the world record. With starstudded quartets, featuring Veronica Campbell-Brown and Allyson Felix, one thing is for sure: the current record will not take another 26 years to be broken. Caster Semenya = Women’s 800 metres; Current Holder = Jarmila Kratochvilova (1:53.28) In all probability the chances of this happening are rather acute, but that opportunity alone pays testament to Caster Semenya’s precocious talent. Recently, Semenya has become something of an outcast in the athletics arena. A world champion at just 18 years old, Semenya had the world at her feet. Since the gender scandal of 2009, which thrust the young South African into the global spotlight, her form has taken a noticeable drop. Natural progression was stunted but innate talent quietly continues to glow. Semenya, at only 23 years old, has time on her side with recent performances meriting cause for hope. Even if, in years to come, the 800 metres will be an insufficient test of stamina, Caster Semenya is a name not to forget. Don’t forget to follow us!
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Flickr: David Pilbrow
David Rudisha = 800m; Current Holder= David Rudisha (1:40.91) Arguably the greatest moment at the London Olympics of 2012 was the dazzling display from David Rudisha. He became the first person to run under 101 seconds which left the spinetingling quandary of whether he can run under 100 seconds. Very much a rhythmic runner, but possessing a deadly but
subtle turn of pace, Rudisha calmly puts his rivals to the sword. However, he will have to prove his fitness in 2015 after an injuryblighted campaign. After all, going where no man has ever gone before requires every sinew of mental and physical strength.
Epigram
13.10.2014
50
Rugby World Cup: 15 for 2015
Benj Cunningham Deputy Sports Editor @BenjCunningham1
With under a year to go until Rugby World Cup 2015, Epigram Sport ponders who will form England’s starting XV against Fiji at Twickenham on September 19 2015...
14. Marland Yarde - This summer’s tour to New Zealand was a real coming of age for the Harlequin. Although he was found out a couple of times defensively by Corey Jane and Julian Savea, he possesses extraordinary power and pace. There are very few people who can brush through Richie McCaw as he did. His summer move to ’Quins from London Irish will really aid Yarde’s development, and he could become a special player. 13. Manu Tuilagi - England’s Jonah Lomu. There is plenty wrong with his game technically, but he is the gamebreaker every world-class team needs. With an alleged bench press of over 200kg, Tuilagi is one of the few players in the northern hemisphere who genuinely scares the southern sides. When a centre is matching a South African forward for physicality, you know you have quite a specimen on your hands. Wasted on the wing against New Zealand, and a centre partnership of Tuilagi and Sam Burgess is a terrifyingly mouth-watering prospect. 12. Sam Burgess - Some say he will
Compfight: rileyroxx
Backs 15. Mike Brown - The dominant full back, not just in England, but in world rugby over the last couple of years. He has really come into his own, developing into a world-class attacking talent. Has always been defensively sound and technically good, but the intent with which Stuart Lancaster has this young England side playing has allowed his offensive game to flourish. First name on the team sheet.
not have had enough time in Union to be truly effective, some say he is too big to be a centre, some say he will be too one-dimensional a partner for Tuilagi. These people are wrong. He is 6 ft 5” and weighs about as much as a small bungalow - and runs a lot faster. You cannot underestimate the physical impact Burgess will bring. Rugby League provides plenty of transferrable skills to Union, and his hands are still better than those of Billy Twelvetrees. 11. Jack Nowell - The weakest position in this side. Lancaster has tried a number of options, including Jonny May, who decided that running sideways was the best way of scoring a try. That may work at Kingsholm, but try that in a World Cup semi-final against the Springboks and you will be battered. So, we are left with Jack Nowell. He has had a solid, if unremarkable, start to his England career, but, provided his recovery goes as planned, he should fill the vacant winger’s berth.
Flickr: Sum_of_Marc
10. Owen Farrell - A hotly contested position, but, for me, Farrell should be England’s fly half. Cipriani is, and always will be, a magician, but he is far too inconsistent to be a World Cup winning number ten. There is a moment on Lions Raw - the review of the 2013 Lions tour - where, after an intense fitness session, Owen Farrell is given a 50-metre kick. If he misses, the whole team has to do the
drill again. It sails straight through the middle. He is my fly half. 9. Danny Care - For a long time, Care was the ‘bad-boy’ of English rugby. Too much time spent on his lid and too little time spent on the training paddock was the general consensus. However, he has clearly worked hard on his game, especially his tactical kicking, and has seized the scrum-half jersey with both hands. Electric pace coupled with a brilliant knowledge of the game has put him firmly at the front of the queue. Forwards 8. Billy Vunipola – The Number 8 shirt is one of the toughest to call, with Ben Morgan having been outstanding in New Zealand. However, as a gamebreaker in the same vein as Manu Tuilagi, Vunipola has size and strength to frighten any team. His hands are improving every game, and he adds ballast to an impressive English back row. 7. Chris Robshaw (c) - My favourite rugby player. Does all of the dirty work that nobody sees, and rarely gets the plaudits, à la Richard Hill in the 2003 side. A superb leader of men, Robshaw is the man to lead England to World Cup glory. Whenever England come up against a team with a known ‘pilferer’ at openside, Robshaw always shuts them down. How many turnovers did
Richie McCaw generate in the first test this summer? None. Who stopped him getting any? The England captain. 6. Tom Wood - Properly mad, which is always a plus for a blindside flanker. Thinks nothing of throwing himself head first into pretty much any situation. Matches southern hemisphere sides physically, and has the added bonus of being a decent lineout technician. No one can doubt his passion for the game - it is not a rare sight to see Dallaglioesque tears roll down Wood’s face during the anthem. 5. Courtney Lawes - Lawes has really come into his own over the last 12 months. He has always been ferocious in the tackle - see his hit on Ruaridh Jackson for Northampton recently - but he has added proficiency in the lineout and a tactical nous which belies his youth. Calling the lineout for England has really benefited his game and he is undoubtedly one of the best locks in the game. 4. Joe Launchbury - His gargantuan size 15 feet have a habit of finding their way through rucks and turning priceless ball over for his side. Another big lump who is actually very adept at the technical side of rugby, Launchbury provides a big presence at the breakdown - especially important given that Robshaw is not what one would call
an ‘out-and-out seven’. Excellent player. 3. Dan Cole - Fingers all over England are crossed for Dan Cole. A serious neck injury kept him out of England’s summer tour, but he is an absolute rock at tight-head prop. A prolific scrummager, yet his main asset is the limpet impression he does so well at the breakdown. Once he clamps on to the ball, very few people in the world can shift him. 2. Dylan Hartley - I love Tom Youngs as a rugby player; I think his game round the park is absolutely exceptional, but he just is not good enough at throwing in to the lineout. This is where Hartley has the edge. Abrasive, offensive and unapologetic, Hartley fulfils the role that Steve Thompson created in the England 2003 World Cup winning vintage: wind up the opposition so they focus more on punching you than winning the game. 1. Joe Marler - Widely regarded as one of the funniest men in rugby, his dry sense of humour is legendary. On the pitch, however, he is a seriously good rugby player. Excellent at the little things, a wonderful tackler, and a solid scrummager. Having been given the captain’s armband for Harlequins this season will hopefully see him grow as a figurehead.
Captain’s questions: hear from watersports and squash Waterski and Wakeboarding Name: Charlie Brotherston Age: 19 Course: History, 2nd year
Best advice for Freshers: Try something new, you have very little to lose and a lot to gain. Oh, and always lock your door. Most inspiring sportsperson: Olympic cyclist Laura Trott, she had a collapsed lung and asthma from birth and yet she’s an Olympic and world Champion. Huge respect for that. How can Freshers contact you? Our email is uobwwc@gmail.com or our facebook page is University of Bristol Waterski and Wakeboard Club. Why should they join your club? Our Club offers beginners and pros
the opportunity to get into two hugely enjoyable sports. Where and when are training sessions? Trips are every Wednesday afternoon, except during the winter. Where and when are socials? We will have a few socials a term.
Squash
Name: Chris Baller Age: 21 Course: Engineering Mathematics, 3rd year Best advice for Freshers: Don’t waste time on Netflix! Month of eating nothing but Jason Donervan or sober night in Lounge? Jason Donervans. A sober
night in Lounge would taint three years of magical memories. How can Freshers contact you? Our webiste, www.uobsquash.co.uk and our facebook page. You can also email us at uob.squash@gmail.com. Why should they join your club? Talented players can compete against the top squash players in the Bristol area and the country. Beginners and intermediates are offered free coaching with players of a similar ability. Where and when are training sessions? We run Sunday sessions at Bristol Grammar School. 12:30-1:30 beginners, 1:30-2:30 intermediate, 2:303:30 advanced. Team training takes place on Monday evenings also at BGS. Where and when are socials? We go to Wednesday sports nights on a
fortnightly basis and usually meet at the W.G. Grace beforehand. We also have other events from pub quizzes to watching Premier Squash League matches at Welsh Back squash club.
Windsurfing
Name: Louis Morris Age: 21 Course: Chemistry, 4th Year Best advice for Freshers: Have fun. Learn to windsurf.
What’s your favourite pub in Bristol? Big Chill, they have cool music. How can Freshers contact you? president@ubwc.co.uk Why should they join your club? Learn a really fun sport, get out on the water, epic socials and even more epic Student Windsurfing events. The quest for perfection will keep you occupied for the rest of your life. Where and when are training sessions? For beginners: every Saturday at Bowmoor Lake (meet at the SU). Everyone else: every time it’s windy, wherever it’s windy. Where and when are socials? Every week, usually Tuesday.
Epigram
13.10.2014
51
Will Tavaré: Gloucestershire’s rising star
After a remarkable debut season, the Bristol-based batsman speaks to Edward Henderson-Howat training mentality and leadership skills playing first grade cricket and captaining his club team in Melbourne. A man of modest demeanour, it is telling that he confessed ‘I think for an English bloke to captain in Australia, especially playing first grade is a big thing’. In spring 2014 he nervously began first-team Gloucestershire training and was selected to bat at three, on debut, in their first championship game of the season. ‘I was basically bricking myself for two days, I wouldn’t really talk, I was absolutely petrified… I got home and all I was thinking about was letting my mates down, my family down’. All the years of work had come down to this crux moment. For years he had struggled from fear of failure but then something changed.
Flickr: Peter Lowe
He is a local boy. Born in Bristol and educated at Bristol Grammar School, Will Tavaré didn’t have far to travel when I met him at The Penny on Whiteladies Road last Friday. But the ordinarylooking chap could just be the next big thing in English cricket. The 24-year-old has just won Gloucestershire Young Player of the Year award in his debut first-class season after scoring over 1,000 runs and notching up four centuries, a tally bettered by only four other players in the country. He comes from a notable family. His father, Jeremy, is a Professor of Biochemistry at Bristol University whilst his uncle, Chris, played 31 Test matches for England. The younger Tavaré has been jibed before for having the longest name in cricket (Will, nephew of Chris) and he revealed that ‘early on in my career I found it quite tough, the first game of my school I got picked before any training session or anything, definitely on my surname’. However, he seems set on blazing his own trail through the game. At Gloucestershire he is the only university graduate. Despite admitting ‘I didn’t particularly enjoy my degree [in human biology at Loughborough]’ he happily conceded that when it comes to high-performance university sport ‘Loughborough is obviously the best way… I loved the university life… it’s definitely a blessing for me’. However, he was still a long way from any real cricketing success at that stage. On debut for Loughborough he managed only a duck and 11 making him ‘realise how tough it [first-class cricket] was going to be, getting nought opened my eyes to what I had to do if I did want to make it… I thought I was working hard but compared to what I’m doing now I realise I was way off the pace… I didn’t have a very good first year, I absolutely loved it but probably took it a bit for granted but then in second year… that’s when I probably first started to really knuckle down.’ Tavaré spent winters playing in Australia where ‘the toughness of it was incredible’. He sharpened up his
‘I just suddenly thought I’d worked so hard for this, so many of my mates have worked as hard if not harder than me to get the opportunity I’ve got and even if I balls it up and only face one ball then I’ve done things that so many people won’t do. Then Steve Snell [wicket-keeping coach and friend], just said “enjoy it” ’. ‘I thought I haven’t really got anything to lose… I have little expectation on me, people are obviously very proud for me and want me to do well but if I fail it’s not like I’m taking a step back, I’ve still got that... so that just released all the fear of failure… the pure thought of ‘enjoy yourself’ has helped me out massively.’
It clearly worked. Tavaré seized his opportunity; scoring 139. From there it has been a whirlwind of success, ‘I’ve scored four hundreds this year… I was struggling in club cricket last year, I can’t believe it. I don’t think it’ll ever settle in.’ As the consummate professional, he was far keener to praise Jack Taylor’s efforts in a one-day game this summer rather than laud over his own innings of 77, ‘he [Taylor] is a real good mate of mine, and for him to be getting all the cheers, all the plaudits for getting wickets; that was incredible’. Equally, while many fans may feel betrayed by the hugely experienced Alex and Will Gidman both leaving the club, Tavaré argued ‘it’s completely the right move for them, they’ve done it for the right reasons, they haven’t done it for money, they’ve just done it to see what they can do with their cricket and see where it can take them… Obviously it’s devastating to lose them both as they’re so good but no, it’s really exciting…there’s more pressure on us to score more runs but being such a young squad we know that we can do it.’ Tavaré won’t be going anywhere in a hurry and having penned a new three-year contract his future at Gloucestershire seems well-set. Surprisingly he admitted that ‘four-day cricket can get boring’ but continued, adding ‘I just love the battle and the mental challenge of four-day cricket, there’s nothing like succeeding in four-day cricket because it’s such a test of ability’. England love a cricketing purist and Tavaré seems to fit this mould. When asked if he would rather make his millions in the Indian Premier League (IPL) or represent England, he immediately replied ‘Oh, Test match for England… The IPL is amazing and big crowds and stuff but I don’t think it could rival playing for your country’. He was more defensive when challenged on Kevin Pietersen’s absence from county championship this summer, stating ‘It’s his choice really; if he just wants to play Twenty 20 and earn money then it’s fine by me’. However, he revealed his true colours when questioned on his alliance to England Captain Alastair Cook or Pietersen. Immediately he answered, ‘I absolutely love Cook. Again I don’t really know what happened behind the scenes so it’s obviously hard for me to comment but I love Cook.’ Perhaps this is unsurprising given Tavaré’s international ambitions, but his affection for Cook seems genuine as his feet are firmly on the ground. ‘I’d love to play for England, obviously. I haven’t really thought about it too much but the only way to get there is by succeeding for Gloucestershire.’ After a single season of success in Division Two, he still has a long way to go. But with a full winter and threeyear contract ahead of him there is no reason why this Bristolian cannot build on his remarkable summer. The university graduate is more approachable than a rising football star could ever hope to be. He appeared an everyday guy as he reservedly posed for a couple of photos and walked back up Whiteladies Road. But make no mistake, he is an everyday guy who is set for a big future.
This much I know: I loved the uni life. It teaches you a lot whilst you’re able to enjoy yourself. People tell me I’m intelligent which is definitely not true. I never sledge, I’ve got terrible chat. I keep quiet and let the other lads do it. Denty [Chris Dent] is hilarious in the slips. In Australia someone sledged me about my uncle. My mate said ‘well at least he’s heard of your uncle - we don’t have a clue who you are, mate.’ We love a night at Mbargo. Lizard Lounge more when I was at school. In the off-season I’m going to Sri Lanka. I’ll be playing one-day first class cricket for three months. I literally can’t wait, it’s supposed to be beautiful. On my days-off I try and chill out. We often go for a coffee and end up in Clifton. My least favourite part of the job is the travel. You’ll finish the game quite late drive home and might have to play or train the next day. The worst dressing rooms are Derbyshire or Leicestershire. Lord’s has the best match teas. Starters, mains and ridiculous amounts of puddings. We played a uni game there and we destroyed it. I’m proud of what Chris did in ‘Botham’s Ashes’ but 2005 Ashes were amazing. Bradman’s stats speak for themselves. I love watching Tendulkar but to average 99 it’s unbelievable, absolutely outstanding. I’d rather read a broadsheet than a tabloid. The bowler I’d least like to face is [David] Masters from Essex. I think my scores against him are 0, 0, 1 and 100 not out. Quickest bowler I faced this season was Tymal Mills. He is a serious talent. I absolutely love Alastair Cook, he didn’t give any sledging. He threw himself about when we played Essex, he was training just as hard as anyone. I’m pretty stingy. But I’ll always buy a round when it’s my turn. Football is our favourite thing to do during warm ups. I played hockey for the West of England but rugby is the sport I like to watch the most outside of cricket. Hopefully England can win the 2015 Rugby World Cup on home soil. But New Zealand are always in with a shout. I hadn’t heard of the varsity series before. My dad is a lecturer at Bristol so I’ll have to support Bristol Uni. One-day cricket is so exciting whereas four-day cricket can get boring. However, there’s nothing like succeeding in four-day cricket, it’s such a test of ability. I see the future of the game in Test cricket. I don’t think Test cricket will ever be overtaken by Twenty 20. I’d rather play Test matches for England than the IPL. The IPL is amazing and big crowds and stuff but I don’t think it could rival playing for England.
Epigram
13.10.2014
Sport
Editor: Daniel Thacker Deputy Editor: Benj Cunningham Online Editor: Edward Henderson-Howat sport@epigram.org.uk @danieljthacker
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Looking for a new England?
Flickr: nicksarebi
Conor Gogarty Sport Features Writer
Amidst an atmosphere of indifference, the England squad assembled this week for a double-header of Euro 2016 qualifiers against San Marino and Estonia. The prospect of watching such lowly opposition was never likely to induce a wave of frenzied anticipation, but public interest in the England team has been conspicuous by its absence for some time. Last month’s
dreary 1-0 win against Norway represented a nadir, attracting a record low attendance at the new Wembley. ‘Things Better Than Being At Wembley Right Now’ trended on Twitter during the game and ITV’s coverage received 3.8 million fewer viewers than Great British Bake Off. It is difficult to remember when last the England team was a subject of such national apathy. Why, then, have the public turned their back? Roy Hodgson, England manager,
stated after the Norway game that it would be ‘hard to bring attendances back, because the opponents we’re playing won’t excite the public.’ Yet, though upcoming opponents may not exactly be box office, the problem runs far deeper. The last decade has been one of almost uninterrupted failure, certainly for a footballing nation of England’s supposed pedigree. Performance at major tournaments and the quality of football have both been consistently dire. The entertainment value has resided wholly in tracking the evolution of forward Wayne Rooney’s hairline. Most dispiriting, perhaps, has been the appointment, and subsequent tenure, of Hodgson. His predecessor, the overly pragmatic Fabio Capello, had made England hard to beat, but also hard to watch. When he left in 2012 over a dispute about the captaincy, it was an opportunity for the Football Association to bring in a progressive manager, somebody who would champion attractive football, or at least make the experience of watching England something
other than a chore. Instead, the experienced but uninspiring Hodgson was appointed, and performances have remained much the same. The team’s play is characterised by minimal chance creation and an over-reliance on set-pieces. They edge past minnows, usually without looking like the better team, and are visibly out of their depth against any side of note, as shown in the summer’s dismal and winless World Cup campaign. It would be unfair to lay the blame for England’s misfortunes solely at Hodgson’s door. He is not working with Brazil’s team of 1970. Rooney has been the great hope of English football for over a decade, and yet few would argue that he has ever fully delivered on his early promise. His performances at major tournaments have been particularly underwhelming, and this trend continued at the recent World Cup. Rooney did nothing to justify his ailing reputation as a special player, whilst his team-mates did nothing to defy their burgeoning reputation as mediocrities. The squad is badly
lacking in world-class quality, and, though Hodgson has under-achieved, it is doubtful that any manager could bring England to contend with international football’s elite. It is hardly surprising, then, that the public have given up on the England team; the only curiosity is that it has taken them so long to do so. Their suffering has been relentless, and worst of all is that the gruesome carousel of failure shows no sign of coming to a halt. For years the Football Association has talked of radical long-term solutions, from overhauling football at ‘grass-roots level’ to increasing the number of home-grown players in the Premier League. However, there has been very little evidence of positive change. Perhaps England will get their act together at some point and produce a generation of players to rival Spain’s little magicians or Germany’s ruthless juggernauts. As it stands, though, the nation has lost all faith in its football team and there are plenty of things better than being at Wembley.
Issue Two Contents Page 51 After an outstanding debut season for Gloucestershire, cricketer Will Tavaré, speaks exclusively to Epigram Sport.
Page 50 Benj Cunningham predicts the England XV for the Rugby World Cup starting in just under a year.
Page 49 After Europe’s victory in the Ryder Cup, Ben Whitman examines why America still can’t win the Ryder Cup.
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