Issuu

International Honi Week 7, Semester 1, 2020 / First printed 1929

Lost In Macau / p. 9 Advance Australia fare? / p. 4

Sydney job market investigation / p. 6

愛是壹只著陸的鳥 / p. 10

Acknowledgement of Country Honi Soit is published on the stolen land of the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation. For over 230 years, First Nations people in this country have suffered from the destructive effects of invasion. The editors of this paper recognise that, as a team of settlers occupying the lands of the Bidjigal, Darug, Gadigal, Wangal and Wallumedegal people, we are beneficiaries of these reverberations that followed European settlement. As we strive throughout the year to offer a platform to the voices mainstream media ignores, we cannot meet this goal without providing a space for First Nations people to share their experiences and perspectives. A student paper which does not acknowledge historical and ongoing colonisation and the white supremacy embedded within Australian society can never adequately represent the students of the institution in which it operates. We seek to resist colonial violence and the racist power structures that serve to oppress those who are Indigenous to this land. Sovereignty was never ceded. Always was and always will be Aboriginal land.

Contents What’s on / 2 Letters / 3 Perspective/ 4 Analysis / 6 Culture / 9 Creative / 11 Puzzles / 13 SRC Reports / 14

Editorial Editors in Chief: Lei Yao, Zhiquan Gan Editors: Ranuka Tandan, Chuyi Wang Contributors: Shrawani Bhattarai, Shania O’Brien, Karen Ji, Mariessa Lai, Kigen Mera, Jiaqi Shi, Max Tao, Meng Seng Ieong, Anjia Zhou Artists: Shrawani Bhattarai, Meng Seng Ieong, Benny Shen, Max Tao Puzzles: Nina Dillon Britton Cover artist: Shrawani Bhattarai Back cover artist: Meng Seng Ieong

The beginning of this year has been unbelievably difficult for all international students. International students are seen as outsiders, according to the current policies of the Morrison Government. Despite universities charging billions of dollars each year, many international students are deeply disappointed by the federal government’s behaviour, which shows little mercy and understanding to the situation of non-citizens. This has meant that our international students have had to face many challenges; a lack of financial support and the increased risk of insecurity and uncertainty of the future being just a couple. At the same time, racism is a problem which has been significantly increased by COVID-19. The fears towards this virus have escalated to both implicitly and explicitly include the rise of sinophobia in western countries. International students are supposed to stand together against sinophobia and deliberate attacks from the far right. COVID-19 is an unexpected disaster for everyone who is living on the Earth. It is beyond nationality and political conflicts. The COVID-19 crisis teaches us

how to raise awareness of health protection, and prepare for every possible fight. The truths shall never be buried under any circumstances or, in the name of maintaining the stability of the country. We will remember every hero who may be a doctor, a nurse or an anonymous volunteer attempting to relieve the physical and mental suffering of victims. This is a year for us to highlight internationalism, which is a political principle that transcends nationalism and advocates a greater political or economic cooperation among nations and people. International students are not outsiders. We are living here, and we build close friendships with local residents here. Many of us have been staying in Australia for years, Australia has become our second home country. We study, love and hope for a planned future. 我们记得1939年去世的白求恩，也记得李文亮医生。人道主义精神无国界，心里的蜡烛永远为这般的战士点燃。这是艰难的一年，也会是在史册上被记录下来的一年。而我们在史册上的模样，由我们的行动来书写。写于04.04.2020 Lei Yao and Zhiquan Gan

Disclaimer: Honi Soit is published by the Students’ Representative Council, University of Sydney, Level 1 Wentworth Building, City Road, University of Sydney NSW 2006. The SRC’s operation costs, space and administrative support are financed by the University of Sydney. Honi Soit is printed under the auspices of the SRC’s directors of student publications: Maia Edge, Peiqing Fan, Nina Mountford, Roisin Murphy, Mikaela Pappou and Maxim Vishney. All expressions are published on the basis that they are not to be regarded as the opinions of the SRC unless specifically stated. The Council accepts no responsibility for the accuracy of any of the opinions or information contained within this newspaper, nor does it endorse any of the advertisements and insertions. Please direct all advertising inquiries to publications.manager@src.usyd.edu.au.

What’s on this week No Worker Left Behind: Digital Town Hall

Emergency help for crisis relief for refugees

When: TUE, 7 APR AT 10:00 - 12:00 Where: on Facebook, https://actionnetwork.org/ forms/no-worker-left-behind-digital-town-hall/ Price: The hours you spend softly crying on hold

When: Anytime if you wish Where: on Facebook

There are over 1.4 million workers in Australia on some form of visa. They are spouses, partners and workers who have been here many for years and paying taxes. In the current #COVID19Aus crisis we must make sure there is a safety net for all workers. COVID-19 doesn’t discriminate by visa status neither should government support for those in need during this pandemic. Support equal access to welfare and medicare for all workers including temporary migrants.

At the height of the current crisis, we must not forget about the refugees struggle. Refugees are at a heightened risk to see medical help. They have been left in the dark about vital information regarding regarding the COVID-19 crisis. With many refugees who have settled in this country being unable to legally work and government payments simply not enough to sustain a living many have lost their livelihoods and are facing destitution. We must rally behind our community’s most vulnerable. Please donate so that more telephone interpreters can be hired to provide critical legal aid and support to refugees across the country as they struggle with the increasing precarity of work, income, and housing.

The Mind on Psychedelics: Drug Law Reform Society Watch Party When: THU, 9 APR AT 8:00 PM - 9:00 PM Where: Online zoom meeting

What happens to the brain on psychedelics? Join Drug Law Reform Society on our trip to explore the history and effects of mind-altering substances, and their potential medicinal capacities. Download the (free) Netflix Watch Party chrome extension and tune in with us from 8pm. We will be watching and discussing ‘The Mind Explained: Psychedelics’. A link to the watch party will be provided on the day

LETTERS

Letters

A letter from a potato

From SUCSA

Dear Editors, Love,

Dear readers, Greetings! My name is Joey and I am currently the president of Sydney University Chinese Student Association (SUCSA). SUCSA is an interesting club, we held the responsibility of both providing Chinese international students a comfort place on a foreign land and connecting them to our local community. So far, we are still working on improving the second part. (P.S. That being said, please contact us if you have an idea of how to hold an event that would attract students from different cultures. A cultural festival perhaps?) We have been in the centre of storm, several times in fact, in the past few years. I am not going to lie being a Chinese international student is hard, it becomes harder when you are an association. Certain groups of people simply can’t get rid of the Fu-Manchu impression on us. If you Google, the top results from major media streams still portrait us as either ‘evil spy’ or ‘spoiled rich kids’. But what I can assure you is the majority of kids here are for the knowledge and for the friendly Aussie environment. (The rest of them might be here on a vacation I assume based on the attendence rate of tutorials, but I am not here to judge) All jokes aside, don’t let stereotype ruins a potential friendship between you and a mate who may be a math genius or a LOL master. At this point I am sure 70% of you might say:’I tried to but that poor kid can’t talk in English at all! He just stick with him mates and never talk to the group’. Think of it this way, you have just turned 18, your parents decided to send you to Russia for the next 4-5 years. The only words you know are ‘Davalish’ and ‘Dasvidaniya’. You were even told that bears would appear in your apartment. Would you be frustrated? Would you prefer to chat with, not even Australian, but simply English-speaking groups? All I am asking is, if you could have a little bit more patience and a little less ‘presumption, you will find working or hanging around with Chinese international students are more interesting than you thought it would be. My suggestion? Try asking them some questions you are curious of about China, see what they have to say. (But try stay clear of political sensitive topics, unless you want your small boat of friendship sink like Dow Jones Index, leave those discussions for the professional politicians. It’s not worth it.) You might be wondering why on earth have I not been talking to Chinese students in this whole time, that’s because I am most certainly they are spending their time on Animal Crossing right now. Long live our friendship. Best regards, Preferred name: Khadgar Lothar Actual name: Joey Zhu President of SUCSA

Thank you for always bringing in the great feed! Lovely to still have Honi with me during this self-isolation time. Any possibility I can still get a physical copy of each edition? Looking forward to more amazing illustrations so I can add to my collection wall in the room.

an anonymous potato

From Supra President Today, SUPRA wants to remind all students we stand with you through these anxious and uncertain times. We must work together to support each other and ensure we all stay strong. We have to protect our values, preserve our friendships and safeguard the hard-earned diverse community that we value so much.

well aware of how important a sense of belonging and being a valued member of the University of Sydney is to us all. It is time to draw together again. Reach out to your friends, peers and family. Check in with each other daily. Take care everyone.

I became part of our student community almost ten years ago as an international student and I am

Write, create and produce for Honi Soit

Interested in reporting or making art for Australia’s only remaining weekly student newspaper? Email us at editors@honisoit. com or message us over on our Facebook, Twitter or Instagram pages.

Nudes, declarations of affection and hate mail may be sent to: editors@honisoit.com

Other letters from anonymous readers We recieved these letters from our dear anonymous readers. 亲爱的Honi编辑：我是你们的忠实粉丝，爱穿校服的Murphy Gan和爱穿淡黄色的长裙留着蓬松的头发的Iris Yao令我印象深刻。你们做主编的那两期报纸我甚是喜欢，翻来覆去看了好几遍，报纸都被我翻厚了。我还在那篇讨论中国婚姻观的变迁的的文章里见到了两位朋友熟悉的身影，尽管他们未被其他人认出。愿你们的报纸越做越好，头发越来越蓬松！你们忠实的粉丝米。 Dear editor: Honi Soit 是一个内容丰富的，题材多样的校刊。很感激你们一直给读者们带来最新鲜的校园报道。作为国际生，你们multilingual的内容让我意识到我们这个群体是被重视的。如今我在Facebook上也在持续关注着你们，希望以后可以在honi 看到更多华语内容。期待疫情过去后能在纸质版的honi上继续我的填字游戏！来自悉中辩的匿名读者

Dear editors: 我为我们的每一期报纸感到由衷的鼓舞和雀跃。从国际学生在媒体上没有自己的话语权，到如今有了两个国际学生主编进入媒体团队，也正应证了这是个全球化的时代，澳大利亚是一个如此多元文化的国家。在COVID-19危机之际，即使学校已经关闭，各位编辑仍然坚守在线上的岗位，做每期的报纸，十分值得学习。要一直保持着这么好看的文章和艺术作品哦！真的很喜欢你们的报纸！纸媒衰落的时代，作为澳大利亚最后一份学生刊印的周报，你们是情怀的象征，也是可爱的精神净土！Honi Soit这个名字是我们悉尼大学的文艺创作者的一处归乡。我爱你们！不管是中文还是英文，都很喜欢哦。加油加油。来自SUUNS的读者

Hey Honi Soit: 很开心能够看到你们持续为大家带来多元的声音，中立客观的报道，以及精彩的内容。这些，都在丰富着我们的校园生活。感谢Honi Soit 的陪伴，愿我们都越来越好。会继续关注你们在各个平台的动态疫情期，take care and stay well. 等它结束，一定会去Wentworth拿上一份Honi Soit，到躺椅区好好读上一阵。来自CDS的苞芦

Hi Murphy (and team) “I’ve noticed how many of you have been struggling through these last three weeks; that so many of you are facing challenges, both with your uni studies and in your lives outside; that for quite a few of you, this has completely up-ended your dreams. While the University as a whole has sought to put up a façade of normal-but-online stability, please do not think that your tutors and lecturers do not care. I and many others are trying our best to ensure that no one gets left behind. This was not simply flicking a switch for anyone. Please reach out to your tutor/ lecturer/course coordinator if you’re having trouble, even if it is something as minor as a spotty internet connection. Don’t be afraid to ask for extra time on an assignment, or saying you need to miss a tutorial.

Most importantly take care of yourselves, there is no shame in saying you’re struggling, no shame in wanting to take a few days away from online. We are all in this together.” Best wishes, Letter from an anonymous tutor

PERSPECTIVE

Advance Australia Fare? Kigen Mera unfolds the exploitation of international student rights in the past decades. Australia has a long history of relying on international students for revenue and for a variety of reasons, is one of the most popular destinations for studying abroad. As of 2017, NSW alone had 350 000 international students enrolled in the higher education sector, making up 20% of the total Australian student population . Within the University of Sydney, the international student population accounts for two-fifth of all students enrolled. Regardless of nationality or financial capability, each international student pays an annual tuition fee of $40 000, equivalent to the amount paid by roughly 4 domestic students. International students however, are not able to access study loans, and must pay the fees up-front.. To say that international students have helped the growth of the education sector into one of the largest industries in Australia is an understatement - we play a core role in the Australian higher education sector as it exists today. So why did we choose Australia? Some chose to study here because of the belief that Australia provides quality education, that Australia fosters a multicultural environment where they will not be alienated or that Australia has advanced infrastructure. However, these stereotypical understandings of Australia come with great costs, and it is because of these ideas that international students time and time again have passed their money over to universities and nurtured the unfathomable appetite of institutions and governments. Despite paying so much for tuition, international students in NSW are also subject to forms of inequality in society, one of the most noticeable being public transport.

NSW, being home to the largest international student population in Australia, is one of the only two states currently not offering student concession to international students. As early as 1989, the NSW government stopped issuing travel concessions to international students. The debate around this topic kept building, and finally a movement towards a fair fare system emerged in 2006. The Sydney University Postgraduate Representative Association (SUPRA) brought the matter to the courts. Unexpectedly, the NSW government decided to pass the Travel Administration Amendment (Travel Concession) Bill 2006 to legalise the discrimination against international students, and which gave travel concession only to certain scholarship holders. In 2015 however, the government decided to revoke even the travel concession offered to scholarship students. In 2017, the Student Council at Western Sydney University, along with a number of university student bodies including the USyd SRC, organized a campaign to collect thousands of signatures in an effort to change the policies. While this issue attracted the attention of the state parliament on a few occasions, the matter has largely died down due to the lack of follow-up campaigns and petitions. As the situation sits right now, the law remains intact after some two years of inaction. Excluding international students from the travel concession scheme is incorrect in many aspects. In fact, the foundational bill upon which the travel concession was passed in 2006 had a very irrational explanation. At the time, the justification given by the

former deputy premier John Watkins was that these resources are to be given to “those considered most in need.” He added that being able to pay $40 000 every year for tuition is a gesture to the government that international students are “fully self-sufficient and able to meet their own living expenses.” First of all, saying that all international students are wealthy is an ignorant generalisation. Being able to pay the tuition fee does not mean we are capable of covering the enormous living expenses that we must incur to live here. An investigation done by Destination NSW in 2017 showed that an international student visitor spends on average $15,837 every year in addition to the notoriously high tuition fee. For students living further away from campus, this figure could be even higher since they have to commute across Sydney a few times a week. In order to pay the tuition fee, many international student families had to make great sacrifices and are barely meeting the fee demand. Furthermore, it fails to account for international students with poor financial backgrounds that are supported by scholarship programs. Some students have tried to survive through working, but the requirements that come with a student visa limits the hours an international student can work to only 20 hours per week, making it impracticable for us to sustain living and studying expenses without family assistance. If anyone is considered “most in need” of travel concessions, it would be the international students who sacrifice so much and yet have negligible returns. Secondly, international students enrolled in a course that is longer

than six months will be considered an Australian resident for tax purposes, meaning that we will be taxed at the same rate as Australians. As we know, one of the primary purposes behind taxation is to use this revenue to generate public services for the taxpayers. However, as taxpayers, international students are deprived of these basic public services. This alone is outrageous and discriminatory. In 2018, the NSW government had a budget surplus of $1.2 billion dollars. The amount required to cover all international student concessions is but a fraction of this enormous income. What this tells us is that the government has the capacity to include international students in the concession scheme, but that it cannot care less about helping international students. While the outbreak of COVID-19 has effectively put a pause on all forms of physical activism, online activism may still be an option. At this time of crisis, the top priority is taking extra care to protect our health, but we should not forget the rights we have been deprived of. Once the outbreak is under control and society is restored to the way it was before, the government will continue to exploit the rights of international students, as they are doing now To build a fair Australia, it is by no means righteous to take from certain groups of people just because of their nationality and not expect to give anything in return. For too long, international students have been treated as cash cows and exploited at the government’s will. This has to end. t’s time to give international students a fair go at fares.

‘人人平等’ 谎言的背后留学生 = 摇钱树？Kigen Mera 向我们介绍留学生与政府数十年没有硝烟的战争。 2017年，新南威尔士州高等教育领域录取了共计35万名留学生，占据了全澳学生的20%。对于悉尼大学来说，国际学生人数占学生总数的五分之二。在这里，无论国际学生拥有什么样的家庭背景或来自什么国家都需要支付每年高达四万多澳币的昂贵学费，这等同于4个没有学生贷款的本地学生的学费。保守的说，国际学生帮助澳大利亚教育行业成长为该国最大的产业之一，但实际上我们在如今的澳大利亚经济中扮演着核心角色。那么为什么我们要选择澳大利亚呢？澳大利亚拥有得天独厚的自然生态和多所历史悠久的学府，可以说是现在许多留学生出国的首选。很多同学们相信澳洲能够提供高品质的教育、相信澳洲有着发达的基础设施、相信澳洲的多元化社会能使自己更快融入等等。然而，这些信念伴随着巨大的代价，他们驱使着政府任意践踏国际学生的利益。尽管支付了这么多学费，国际学生仍然面临着各种形式的社会不平等。在新州，最能体现此类问题的便是州政府通过公共交通剥削留学生利益的行为。新州是澳洲千千万万留学生的第二家园，也是目前仅有的两个不对国际

学生提供交通优惠的州之一。早在 1989年，新州政府就停止了向留学生提供交通优惠的政策。围绕这一话题的争论持续了许多年，直到2006年悉尼大学研究生代表协会（SUPRA）将这一问题诉诸法庭。令人意外的是，新州政府为了继续压榨留学生的利益，决定通过了一条交通行政法案，使歧视国际学生合法化，并只给予个别奖学金持有者交通优惠。为了使利益最大化，州政府于2015年又决定取消了对奖学金学生的优惠。 2017年，西悉尼大学学生会与包括悉尼大学学生会在内的多个学生团体一起发起了一场征集数千人的请愿，试图改变这些政策。虽然这一问题曾几次引起州议会的注意，但因缺乏后续的维权运动而被慢慢淡忘。如今，州政府仍然依赖着法案持续践踏着留学生。将国际学生排除在交通优惠政策之外在许多方面都是不正确的。事实上，政府于2006年通过法案时给出的解释是非常不合理的。当时，前副总理沃特金给出的理由是州政府应当把些资源提供给那些他们“认为最需要帮助的人”，并表示留学生能够每年支付 4万澳币的学费是对州政府的一种声

明，表明所有留学生都可以“完全自给自足，有能力支付自己的生活费用”。首先，将所有的国际学生都认定为富有是一种无知的概括。有能力支付学费并不意味着我们有能力支付住在澳洲必要的巨额生活费用。2017年 Destination NSW的一项调查显示，一名国际学生每年平均需要花费15837澳币的生活费用，此外还有贵到离谱的学费。对于住得离学校较远、需要每天通勤的学生来说，这个数字可能还会更高。为了支付学费，许多留学生家庭做出了巨大的牺牲才能勉强满足学费的需求。此外，州政府并没有考虑到奖学金项目资助的经济背景较差的国际学生。一些学生试图通过工作来维持生活，但是学生签证将国际学生每周工作量限制到了20个小时，得许多留学生在没有经济扶持的情况下更加无法维持生活。如果说有谁应该在政府眼里被认为是“最需要帮助的人”，那就应该是国际学生。我们付出了如此之多，但回报却微乎其微。其次，在税务方面，课程时长超过 6个月的国际学生便会被视为澳大利亚纳税居民，这意味着我们将与澳大利亚人以相同的税率纳税。税收的主要目的之一是为纳税人提供公共服务，

然而，作为纳税人，国际学生被剥夺了这些基本的公共服务，仅这一点就令人发指并具有歧视性。2018年，新州政府预算盈余12亿澳币，支付所有国际学生交通优惠的费用只是这笔巨额收入的一小部分。这告诉我们，政府有能力将国际学生纳入交通优惠政策中，但却选择了忽视国际学生应有的权利。虽然新型冠状病毒的爆发阻止了游行等维权活动，但网络维权仍不失为一种选择。在这特殊时期，我们的首要注意事项是保护自身健康，但我们不应该因此忘记我们被剥夺的权益。长期以来，国际学生一直被当作新州政府摇钱树，任由政府摆布，一旦疫情得到控制，社会恢复常态，政府将继续剥削国际学生。若是想建设一个真正公平的澳大利亚，因为他人的国籍而抽取他们的利益而又不指望给予回报的行为是可耻而且绝不能被容忍的。

International students and international labour in the face of COVID-19 Abbey Shi explores the systematic failure that leaves millions in difficulty facing COVID-19 With the Australian government announcing its first and second stimulus package in response to the COVID-19 outbreak in mid-March 2020, international students and temporary working visa holders have not been included in the response of the current government. This leaves 2.17 million temporary working visa holders in unsupported realm during the COVID-19 outbreak. Previously for international students who have been affected by travel ban from multiple countries, are now facing further lack of institutional support. Many temporary migrants have been left with no option but to remain in Australia due to international travel restrictions. In the Federal Government press conference held in the afternoon of April 3, Scott Morrison announced ‘it is time to go home for international students. Under current policy framework of complicated international travel arrangements for all countries and mass suspension of international airline services, it is negligent for government not to provide support or advice to the community in an early manner. With the development of current pandemic, it has become dangerous to travel internationally. This unactionable advice by government has made many international students with financial difficulty face further distress and complication. Without guarantee of social security and proper access to Medicare system, students who are on a visa face incredible amount of emotional and financial distress in the face of pandemic happening in the nation, especially for

working students who lost their jobs. Under current regulation, international student must pay for Overseas Student Health Cover provided by private insurers to ensure the validity of their visa. But this does not equate to access to proper and immediate medical assistance with insurance coverage due to the deliberately-designed complicated nature of some private insurers. Lost in the navigation to proper advice from the private insurer, international students are left in a void cared by few. Some students are even hesitate to get emergency support in hospital when experiencing high fever due to economic distress and non-coverage of private insurance. It is urgent for government to recognise that international students are also worker and are entitled to working rights in the community. Many international students pay income tax in Australia, fulfilling their civic and legal duty in compliance with tax residency regulation. They volunteer to community organisations, donate from their own pockets at the time of bushfire crisis. However, for the past decade the government have been neglecting the underrepresented and exploited status of temporary visa holder community, offering few to non-existing support from institutional level. International students have been historically exposed to wage exploitation, unsafe working environment and unstable employment. For the working international students who remain to commit themselves to be working in supermarkets, aged care, medical, delivery and other industry,

they are putting themselves at risk in the combat with a pandemic. More than 60% have lost their employment due to Coronavirus outbreak, and nearly 95% have had their employment status affected and are temporarily suspended from their job with informal notices. Over the past decades there have been a massive trend of Australian university funded through international student tuition fees in the education sector, but in the times when international students need the government assistance the most, the least support they get in return. At the time now under Federal Government’s JobKeeper welfare scheme, the government neglects the temporary visa holder community as part of working community in total. The JobKeeper scheme are only available to Australian PR and Citizens, leaving workers on temporary visa behind. The impact does not only effect employee, but also the small business owners, whose business model survive on employing international students and temporary visa holders as their part-time or casual staff, leaving business in hazard of claiming permanent closure or even bankruptcy. Employers or entities, who are unable to claim JobKeeper on the behalf their international students and temporary visa holder employees, are on a tied interest chain with workers. Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, many thrive in migrant community and contribute to diversity and economic vitality. Internationally, some countries do not leave workers behind in a situation similar to Australia. In Canada, for temporary visa holders who have

been resided in Canada that lost their employment are provided with financial aid of CAD$2000 per month for up to 4 months (approx. AUD $2347/month). In Ireland, Students, non-EEA nationals and part-time workers can apply for COVID-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment for €350 a week, which equates to €1400 per month (approx. AUD $2522/month). A recent survey conducted by Union NSW has unveiled the statistic support in the international student and temporary working visa holder condition: 66 per cent of migrant workers have lost their job in the economic shutdown to COVID-19; One quarter can’t afford rent; 43 per cent are now forced to skip meals to manage their finances. According to the numbers provided by the Department of Home Affairs here are around 2.17 million temporary visa holders in Australia. It means millions are quietly suffer from systematic discrimination as part of labour forces, bear hunger and are encouraged to ‘leave Australia’ in the middle of a pandemic despite the given international travel condition and their intention to stay in Australia, contribute to society with their labour, build a home and mutually supportive community. On April 8, the Federal Parliament will vote on a new legislation for support on wage subsidy policy. It leaves a question mark in the air as if the proposed bill will include temporary visa holders. The hidden crisis for international students is still happening.

国际学生，国际劳工与 COVID-19 疫情 Abbey Shi 探讨数以百万计的人民在疫情中陷入孤立无助的原因伴随澳洲政府自三月中旬来公布第一轮与第二轮COVID-19经济刺激计划,国际学生与临时签证持有者并未包含在此轮经济刺激计划中。这使得217万临时签证持有者陷入排除于体制支持开外的困境。之前已被旅行禁令影响的国际学生群体，现面对更加匮乏的政府支持。许多临时签证者别无选择而被迫滞留于澳洲。在4月3日联邦政府的新闻发布会中，总理斯考特.莫里森称‘国际学生现在应该回到自己国家‘。按现行国际情形下，大规模国际航班取消与复杂的国际旅行限制已使得国际学生回到自己国家非常困难。政府应当于更早时机提出此番建议，因为按现行疫情发展旅行已非常艰难。这无法执行的建议使得陷入财务困难国际学生陷入更深的困境。在没有社保与公共医保系统支持下，许多国际学生面对疫情的同时失去了他们现存的工作。根据现行移民法，国际学生必须持有国际学生医保

才可使得签证有效。而此国际学保则皆由私有化保险公司提供。在疫情蔓延的情形下，许多私营医保公司的一贯人为设计的复杂系统使得国际学生难以得到及时与全面的医疗保障。这些难以得到医疗建议与保险报销建议的国际学生们陷入了无医疗保障的真空之中。一部分发高热的国际学生甚至因无法得到医疗保障而犹豫采取急诊治疗。政府需要意识到国际学生同时也是社区中的工作群体, 拥有法律赋予的工作权利。许多国际学生在澳洲支付收入税以及各项税种，根据税务居住地要求执行他们的公民与法律责任。他们在社区组织中贡献志愿服务，在山火中从自己口袋中捐钱。但是，政府一贯忽视这部分受到系统偏见的签证群体，给予近几为无的关怀与支持。国际学生市场面临劳工压榨，雇佣歧视，不安全工作环境与不稳定工作。在疫情环境下，在超市，养老，医疗与外送行业工作的国

际学生面临高危感染压力。而更有超 60%持有工作的国际学生因疫情直接失去了工作，近95%的学生临时工的因疫情而遭停薪。根据澳大利亚政府现有的JobKeeper 失业金计划，政府并不包含临时签证工作群体。这并不仅影响持有临时签证的雇员群体，同时也影响了许多中小企业主。根据现行失业金计划，雇主由员工代领失业金并将其交给员工。对商业模式依赖临时签证工作群体中小企业主而言，此番不包含临时签证群体的JobKeeper失业金计划使他们更近一步永久停业甚至宣告破产的危机。在疫情面前，中小企业雇主与雇员的战线是一致的。在疫情爆发前，许多此番中小企业在移民社群中为澳大利亚经济活力与多元文化主义作出持续的贡献。从国际角度而言，并非所有的国际学生都面临身处于澳大利亚的相同困境。在加拿大，因疫情失去工作的临时签证持有者可得到不超过4个月的

每月2000加元的失业金（约同2347澳元/月）。在爱尔兰，由于疫情失去工作国际学生，包括非欧盟居民，可申请每周350欧元，近每月1400欧元的失业金（约同2522澳元/月）。根据新南威尔士州总工会的最近调查显示，66%的国际移民临时签证工作群体由于疫情中经济下滑失去工作，1/4无法承担房租，43%因经济压力而跳过一餐。根据澳大利亚内政部提供的现行数据，现有大约217万临时工作签证持有者在澳。这意味着近百万人口正在遭到劳工补助歧视，由经济压力忍受饥饿且在严重疫情中被建议“离开澳洲”，即时他们当中许多人愿意留在澳洲，为社会添砖加瓦，建立一个家庭与支持的社群。在4月8日，联邦政府即将投票立法经济补助草案。对于经济补助是否包含临时签证持有者，这依然是个悬而待决的议题。国际学生与临时签证者面临的危机依然将持续，情势不容乐观。

ANALYSIS

Whiteness, counter-narratives and inclusive art Shania O’ Brien narrates her personal experience to unlearn the anglocentric influence. When I was ten years old, my father lived in Hong Kong. Whenever I visited him, a whole month every summer, I’d stay up all night watching TV. This was, of course, before I believed in words like ‘jetlag’ and ‘healthy sleep cycle.’ I stayed up late because Totally Spies would come on at 2am every night. But, one night, I slept through Totally Spies. I awoke to a pre-teen crime show, Sally Bollywood: Super Detective. It wasn’t until that moment that I realised my identity affected how I consumed popular culture. My first thought was: it’s so exciting to see a brown girl on television outside India. My second thought was: this is the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen. I had so many questions about the show. Why was her last name Bollywood? How did this twelve-yearold Indian girl have so much agency? Why couldn’t I, a ten-year-old Indian girl, relate to her character on levels more profound than the colour of our skin? Did my anglo heritage make me ‘inauthentic’? Sally Bollywood’s description states that she lives in a city “where people of

different nationalities and ethnic groups make up the population.” I found it peculiar that this was something they needed to specify, as if people of different nationalities and ethnic groups didn’t make up the population of almost every city. It almost sounded like the only reason such a character was allowed to exist and be the protagonist of a French-Australian television show was to showcase that other ethnicities existed and were allowed to have their stories told in an industry that was predominantly Anglo-Saxon. Such descriptions are not commonly found for other shows. These feelings permeated other aspects of my life. From then on, every piece of western media I consumed was tainted. It was really easy to see how much I wasn’t being represented. Hannah Montana disappointed me, Wizards of Waverly Place disappointed me, Barbie disappointed me. It was odd that I was looking for validation in these places when I had an ocean of Indian content to choose from. I don’t know why Son Pari and Shararat

didn’t matter to me; why they didn’t feel enough. But I think I am able to see more of the picture now. I thought these shows reflected real life; that American high schools had floor-to-ceiling length posters of their basketball team, that Miley Cyrus went to high school with a wig on, that it was possible to be a teenager and save the world. While one of those things might be true, the lack of brown representation in the media created all these spaces I wasn’t welcome. When I wrote my first story, all of my characters were white. They had common white names, lived in New York - a city I wouldn’t visit for eight more years - and were royalty. It was a terrible story, the plot was in shambles, and the characters barely had a second dimension. It was a while before I realised I was writing about characters I assumed people would want to read about, rather than characters who were authentic, tangible, and present in my everyday life. I genuinely thought that every aspect - supporting roles included - had to be white and that there could

only be one token character of colour. The internalised racism I harboured was so intense that the presence of more than one person of colour offended me. I felt indebted, uncomfortable even, with the space they took up. As artists and people of colour, the capacity of art to challenge and progress society depends upon the lengths we go to be true to ourselves. Our work should reflect our values, not anglocentric methods of storytelling. I robbed myself of hundreds of tales born in my country in favour of New York city lights, Venetian balconies, and London rain. The process of unlearning so many years of indoctrination was exhausting. There are moments even now where I find myself slipping. The only way, I think, is to be an active observer and critique everything put in front of me, no matter how tiring it may be. There are millions of stories that aren’t for me, ones that I am allowed to enjoy. And I have learned that if I find gaps in either Western or South-Asian stories, it is up to me to try and fill them.

The dark side of Sydney’s job market Mariessa Lai reveals the lawbreakers of the Fair Work Act and the brutal side of Sydney’s job market. In recent years, the graduate job market is becoming increasingly competitive. According to the Graduate Outcomes Survey, the proportion of graduates securing full time employment after finishing their degree has plummeted from 85.2 percent in 2008 to 72.9 percent recently. It is a tough market out there for fresh graduates, especially international students. In the beginning of their job search, new graduates are often confronted with the tough paradox of entry level jobs demanding at least two years of experience. An international student graduate may soon discover that lurking under the hustling and bustling streets of Sydney’s CBD, the lawbreakers of the Fair Work Act run wild. There are employers who attempt to utilise free labour and exploit fresh graduates. Some even have the audacity to post fake job ads online, or even in the University job portal. These employers will advertise along the lines of a paid full time job promising a $50,000-$60,000 starting salary but when the candidate turns up to the interview and the employer realises they are just a fresh international graduate, the employer will use various excuses such as “being inexperienced,’ verbally re-framing the role as a three-month “unpaid internship” or an “unpaid probationary period. ” Only after passing this “probationary period” or “unpaid internship” will the candidate will start getting paid. Unfortunately, a lot of these “job offers” are done verbally without signing a formal agreement. Being inexperienced, some students are willing to accept these “opportunities” as useful work experience. However, towards the end of the 3-month period, the employer will use various excuses such

as “underperformance,” “not meeting expectations” or make claims that the company has insufficient funds to pay them the promised wage. The candidate is then fired, leaving the candidate with no pay, and no reference. This experience often triggers a negative downward spiral for the candidate, as they are left with no verifiable work experience to find another better job. According to Fair Work, this scenario is a breach of Fair Work legislation, as there is an established employment relationship. Fair Work’s website states that: “Any period beyond what is reasonably required to demonstrate the skills required for the job must be paid at the appropriate minimum rate of pay”. Moreover, unpaid internships which act as a probationary period are not legal, as it is not part of the vocational course requirement to perform such internships or unpaid probationary period - hence, it is deemed as illegal. Sue* was a victim of such a situation. Newly graduated, she applied to a company as a Marketing and Administration assistant. The role was advertised online as a paid position but when Sue arrived at her interview, she was told that since she was a fresh graduate, she would have to work three months for free and that if her performance exceeded the employer’s expectation, they would start paying her at the end of the three-month period and confirm her as permanent staff. For the first three months, Sue worked extremely hard, going above and beyond in handling everything from administration enquiries to marketing tasks such as graphic design and copywriting. However, towards the end of the 3-month tenure, the employer claimed the company was unable to

employ additional staff as they weren’t performing well financially. Sue was dismissed without reason. She also found it hard to fight back, as initially, the employer only verbally offered employment without signing any contract. As a result, this outrageous employment scam left her with no pay, despite working hard for almost three months. Another victim to this scenario is John*. Achieving stellar results throughout his Finance degree in University and successfully completing internships at various coveted firms, John applied for a full-time paid role in a financial company. In the interview, John was informed that the role was unpaid for the first three months and, provided that he passed the probation, he would then start getting paid. Knowing his rights as an employee and that unpaid trials for a prolonged period are against Fair Work regulations, John refused the job offer. He reported this company, which had advertised unlawfully on the University careers site. As a result, the employer was banned from posting any further job ads on the University website. Another insidious element to Sydney’s employment market for graduates is the common situation of being overworked and underpaid. Bob* works in an educational institution as a graphic designer. Despite his excellent work ethic and skills, the owner is not willing to pay him more than $120 per day, and he is expected to work at least 10-12 hours a day and even overtime on weekends. As Bob is not a permanent resident of Australia and under a temporary work visa, it is difficult for him to find a job elsewhere. The majority of job ads require candidates to be Australian Citizens

or Permanent Residents. With few established networks, Bob felt he had little choice but to continue working for this exploitative company just to gain experience. He could only hope to secure a better job with less exploitative working conditions once he was granted Permanent Residency. The emerging reality is that many international graduates find themselves caught in similarly distressing employment binds, ironically unable to secure work upon graduation without the unreasonable additional requirement of work experience. Many will, sadly, continue being exploited by these types of unethical companies. Small companies, in particular some Chinese-owned businesses are guilty of performing such vile acts in the labour market, deliberately exploiting fresh graduates, especially international students. The remedy to this situation is to understand your rights as an employee and job seeker. Be confident of your rights and report to the appropriate channels such as your University career centre, University legal service and Fair Work Ombudsman should you find any employer breaching employment legislation. As international students, we must not be afraid of exposing these unacceptable practices, so that these employers do not continue to operate lawlessly, thinking themselves invulnerable and invisible. They must understand they can be exposed - and by the very people they seek to exploit. *To protect their identities, all names of persons interviewed for this article are fictional.

ANALYSIS

International student issues amid COVID-19 Karen Ji provides insights into the lives of international students during the COVID-19 outbreak. The outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has affected every aspect of daily life. Having already reached 203 countries, the number of cases of COVID-19 continues to grow by the minute. Following the outbreak in Australia, the federal government imposed strict travel rules limiting both inbound and outbound travel in an effort to stop the spread. States across Australia have responded to the crisis by imposing lockdown measures to prevent interstate travel and gathering of people. As a result of these measures, international students studying in Australia have been especially affected. When the initial travel ban from China was imposed right before the beginning of the new semester, many students were unable to return to Australia to continue their studies. At the beginning of the ban, it was reported that approximately 100 000 international students were stranded in China. The travel ban quickly extended to the rest of the world , effectively blocking all international students from returning to Australia. Despite the university moving all courses online on the 23rd of March, many international students who are taking their courses remotely still face many painstaking issues. At the same time, the outbreak in Australia has posed new threats for international students who are onshore. The article will briefly outline some of the biggest challenges faced by international students as a whole in this crisis. In many faculties, some courses are only offered in one of the two semesters each year. If international students with a course structure requiring prerequisites decide to suspend for a semester, they will have to suspend a year due to the semester-specific nature of classes. For some of us, the purpose of studying in Australia is to one day apply for skilled immigration to work and live here. While for others, Australia might not be the destination in the long-term. Having all these plans delayed for an entire year may be very difficult in that it will incur an extra year of temporal and financial costs. This extra year of loss will not be compensated in any way and this has driven many international students to continue their online study despite not physically being in Australia. Many international students chose to enter a private rental agreement or shared rental agreements with friends, and this gives rise to a situation where the student outside Australia having to pay an occupancy fee over the period without actual occupation. There are no financial remedies to this issue and the temporary solution to this is to negotiate with the landlord. Arthur, an international student who is currently overseas, has told us that in an attempt to sublease his room to reduce loss, he has reduced the lease price to half of the original, and yet no one is willing to take the offer. Students who are living in colleges and have already paid for the semester are also suffering financially. Out of the concern that the outbreak will happen in

Photo by Benny Shen Australia, many international students in Australia chose to return home. Galahad, a student currently living in one of the residential colleges, has told us that in returning home, he was not allowed a refund of the rent already paid since moving out is a “personal decision.” A few weeks ago, the sudden increase in the number of cases has caused many people to stock up large amounts of daily necessities. This made the lives of international students in Australia particularly difficult as many of us do not own a vehicle that can ensure smooth transportation of groceries back home. Having to purchase groceries without a vehicle also increases the chance of contact, making international students particularly vulnerable. As a result of the lockdown in multiple countries, the social wellbeing of international students may be impacted in many ways. Being far away from home and family, many international students are very socially reliant on friends and tend to share a very deep emotional connection with them. The lockdown policies can potentially affect students’ social wellbeing in that it limits this sole source of consolation for international students who are still in Australia. Gareth, an international student currently in Australia, has proposed that the physical distance has also opened up a psychological distance, which may harm interpersonal relationships. When sharing the experience of personal life, Tristan, an international student who is particularly fond of sports, has told us that the restrictions made it impossible to attend the sports he usually played. Having no recreational activity may also cause international

students to be more stressed and further affect their mental wellbeing. Additionally, the rising tide of racism again threatens the social wellbeing and personal safety of many international students in Australia. In the past few weeks, there have been many reports of racially fuelled violence specifically targeting people of a certain ethnicity. Last week, there was also an incident where a lecturer at our university spilled racial comments about certain ethnic groups. This may potentially harm the social wellbeing of international students. Regardless of the geographic location, all students are facing the issue of online teaching. There has been a lot of contention, from both international and domestic student communities, about the quality of online teaching. From our understanding, student’s satisfaction in their courses depends very much on the course content. For students who are in science, medicine or engineering degrees, there has been great dissatisfaction with the online materials delivered. What these courses have in common is that they all have laboratory sessions where students have first-hand experiments with the equipment provided by the university. These opportunities are now deprived and instead replaced with videos of the experiment or online simulation, which significantly degrades the quality of teaching. Guinevere, an international student in veterinary science, has said that having videos online has limited the opportunity to communicate with classmates. Having English as our second language, this is particularly stressful as we may need more clarification than domestic students. This downgrade impacts

international students particularly because international students pay so much more for these experiences compared to a domestic student. Many international students chose to go to a third country to return to Australia just so they can ensure that they can ensure the teaching quality is up to standard. However, by moving all courses online, many students came back to Australia for no purpose. Although the university has offered financial hardship support, most are still being processed and this made international students who have applied for the support very anxious about the result. International students currently in countries requiring a VPN to access university materials also complained that the VPN that the university has provided is malfunctioning, making them unable to access the material. Lancelot, a student currently in China, has provided that the VPN server is sometimes ‘unreachable’ in China. He has also said when there are a lot of users using the same page at the same time, the server gets so crowded that it takes a very long time to even access a page with VPN. This can be particularly stressful for international students overseas especially in the middle of examinations. Speaking of the exams, there have also been ongoing debates around the use of ProctorU, which is now widely used for online examination purposes. Mordred, a science student, has expressed his concern that having a program that takes full control of your computer poses significant harm to personal information. He also raised that being monitored by software during an exam can be very stressful and can affect performance.

FEATURE

A warm escape: A journey in Thailand

Words by Lei Yao and Photos by Benny Shen

Lost in Macau : photography

Words and photos by Meng Seng Ieong

What these photos want to express is the strong comparison between the luxurious night city view and people who are alone on the street.

A bokeh (out of focus) photo of a person walking on the pawnshop streets. A refection of the bustling urban night city view near casinos. Shot in Macau, 2019

An old man walking alone in the residential area at midnight. Something the old solitary people will do as a pastime. Shot in Macau, 2018.

A Southeast Asia labour worker walking alone on the tourism district after work. Lots of people come to Macau for the high salary. They usually work until midnight to earn as much as they can and send it to their families. Shot in Macau, 2020.

An old junkman was collecting discard papers in front of a Japanese restaurant. The poor live under the surface of the luxurious city. Bright yellow with dark blue tones show comparison. Shot in Macau, 2018. 9

CULTURE

在古漢語中，愛是壹只著陸的鳥 Max Tao 向我们展示汉字的变迁历史。如今，汉字中的“爱”通常被直译为英文中的“love”，一如其在现代中国社会中所普遍表达的含义。但是，司空见惯了以后，就会产生好奇：在几千年以前，“爱”和现在的含义，大概是不一样的吧？在读完柏拉图的《会饮篇》后，我便迫不及待地想要找寻“爱”在古汉语中的解释。本想再翻阅以前读过的中国各家流派解读与爱相关的概念，恍然间觉得从这些刻意为之的著作中去感受一个文字的原始创意似乎是南辕北辙，于是我最终来到训诂书的门类。中国古代的训诂书，我所了解到的门类一般分三种。第一种是在其他古书上直接进行文义注解，注解的文义基于上下文乃至全书的意义。第二种是将其他古书上使用的文字整理下来，统一注解，作为训诂的工具书。第三种是对过去的训诂作品加以补充订正。完成这篇文章，我依托的还是第二种类型中经典的“汉小学四种”，即《尔雅》、《方言》、《说文解字》和《释名》。这里面，《说文解字》是我最常用的，便主要从这里开始。为了方便理解字形，要将简体字变回完整的繁体字。 “爱”在繁体字中写作“愛”，在《说文解字》中的解释非常简单，两个字——行皃。“行”在东汉时期的含义大概相当于现在的“走”，包括慢走和快走两种状态（步趨）。“皃”相当于今天的“貌”，但是它的含义实际上是“ 一个人主观形容的样貌（頌儀）”，隐

含的意思是形容出的样貌添加有观察者的主观感受。“行皃”简而言之，就是一种用来主观形容走路模样的词。这种走路的模样是什么样的主观感觉呢？在小篆中，“愛”上声下形，下半部分的“夊”，字形是一个人的两条小腿在磨磨蹭蹭的样子，又有用这个字比喻狐狸小心翼翼，鬼鬼祟祟的步态。也就是说，当人们说一个人是“ 愛”的样子的时候，尽管对方可能只是正常地走路，但是别人看过去，总觉得有点怂怂的，犹犹豫豫的感觉。真可爱！但是根据《说文解字注》的补充，其实人们在东汉使用“愛”的时候，还用它表示它的上半部分，因为组成它上半部分的字已经被人们弃用了。所以，“愛”还包含了另一个字的含义——“㤅”。 “㤅”上声下形，上面的部分是一个古字误写的产物，下面的“心”代表人的心脏。可惜的是，上面的古字原字已经失传了。根据《说文解字注》的推测，可能是“欠”字的反写字形。不过无伤大雅，“㤅”在《说文解字》里的解释是“惠”，也就是“用心去惠”，搞懂“㤅”，主要去搞懂“惠”。 “惠”的完整小篆，头顶是一个花卉的“卉”，用来形声，中间是“叀”，意思是谨小慎微，下面是“心”，合起来就是“用心地谨小慎微”。用心地谨小慎微去做什么？《说文解字》的解释是“ 仁”。这里不是儒家说的“仁”。“仁”在小篆里有三种写法。一种是左边“人”右边“二”。“人”代表人，“二”代表“兼”，“

兼”的字形是手持两棵等长的禾苗，意思是“需要顾及两个平等的对象”，也就是说，需要顾及两个平等的人。另一种写法，“人”替换成“尸”，而且起源更早，大概是形容人死而平等，或者合葬吧。第三种与第一种则大不一样，上边“千”，下边“心”，“千”是一个人在拿着一个标准工具计数，大概的意思要用心顾及数量很多的相同的对象，或者是成千的人心。这是什么？《说文解字》的解释是“親”。 “親”左声右形，左边虽然有甲骨文，可惜只是形声，右边是“見”，意思是“不仅去看，而且看到了”。《说文解字》说“親”是“至”。“至”是最初的汉字之一，保持着它在甲骨文中的原始形态。看来，我似乎找到最初的创意源头了！关键就在“至”！ “至”在甲骨文中是一幅画，描绘着一只高高飞翔的鸟儿主动冲落至地上着陆。这样的情景，为什么是“親”的含义呢？甲骨文所处的殷商，鸟儿象征着神，进而象征着神性，进而象征着国王。或许，它隐含象征着一种高于真实自我的身份。或许，“至”形容的，是一个具有特定身份的人舍去这种空悬的面孔，回到地面上，回到真实的自己。为什么要舍去？因为“親”让这个人看到了他想要去的真实，于是一定要去。为什么一定要去？因为“仁”有这个人需要顾及的，要视作平等的对象，对方或许只是另一个人，也或许有很多人。怎么样去？要用心地，谨小慎微地，专心地去，不要把平等伤害到，不要把自己顾及的对象伤害

到。或许，正因如此，才要舍弃自己现在翱翔的高空，才要舍弃自己空悬的其他身份。感觉还不够，怎么办？那就再用一下心！这就是“㤅”的感觉吧。或许人们觉得“愛”正适合比喻“㤅” 那种用心至微，平凡至真的可爱的模样，就将它们合二为一了吧？孤证不立，我又查了一下《尔雅》，“愛（㤅）”在《释诂》中，与𢜮、怜和惠在当时官方语言中是同义词。𢜮的意思是用心抚摸，用心安慰。怜的意思是用心同情，用心悲恸。主动，贴近，平等，谨慎，万千的感情无不用心感受，用心释放，用心用心再用心，只要能和所爱的人在一起。这就是“爱”在古汉语中的理解吧。但是，古人是怎样联想到鸟儿与“爱”的呢？也许，是他们看见了吧？有着陆的，还有依旧飞在高空的。也许他们会在心中默念：着陆的鸟，是自己心爱的人，是心爱自己的人。飞在高空的，还有许多，他们顶着各种各样的名字——有国君、有贵族、有父亲、有丈夫——他们高高在上，真希望他们也能着陆下来，真心地爱我们一下。时至今日，好像还是有很多飞在高空的鸟儿，许久不曾着陆——有性别的名字，有辈份的名字，有职位的名字，有关系的名字，有各式各样生活在这个社会中的名字。希望有一天，他们可以低一下头，看看陆上的鸟儿——他们也许也会想起——爱是一只着陆的鸟。

Art by Max Tao

The living goddess of Nepal Shrawani Bhattarai tells the story behind the living goddess of Nepal The year was 2005, I was visiting my Aama who lived in Kathmandu, the city of temples. It was the beginning of Autumn and the time for one of the most impressive and revered festivals of the Newar community of the Kathmandu Valley. Hundreds of devotees assembled at the Palace Square and other temples in the vicinity. I held on to my motherâ€™s hand as she led me through the crowd to get a better view of the Kumari. The Kumari, a young girl of six, was clad in luxurious clothes and carried on a golden palanquin, surrounded by masked dancers known as the Lakhay. The crowds of devotees waited e x p e c t a n t l y, desperate to get a glimpse of the Goddess, wishing that she would look down at them and bestow them with good fortune. A century-old tradition, that the people of Nepal believe, endows them with harmony, faith, and strength in times of adversity. As for how the story goes, Goddess Taleju agreed to appear in the body of a virgin girl to bless the people of Nepal with prosperity and hence, the veneration was established. Worshipped by the politicians and the president himself, the Kumari receives royal treatment from the nation. Few people are fortunate enough to visit Kumari in her chambers, where she sits upon a gilded iron throne. Kumari is assumed to have healing powers over illness and disorders. While she receives her visitor, her actions are

closely watched and interpreted as the prognostication of the oracle. Kumari is believed to be the manifestation of Goddess, that symbolises power and protection of the country. Revered by Hindus and Buddhists alike, a Kumari

supreme in conscious beings. It is said that Kumari is chosen to understand the power of divinity in every human being, especially females. The selection process of the Kumari is not any less than an orthodox

is a prepubescent girl chosen from the Shakya caste or Bajracharya clan of the Nepalese Newari community. The Goddess Taleju is said to have conceived the entire cosmos from her womb, and hence is thought to have resided in both animate and inanimate objects. Worship of a human being over the worship of inanimate objects represents reverence and recognition of

one. A Kumari must be a virgin, in exceptional health. She should have never shed blood, neither should she be afflicted by any disease, disfigurements or wounds. Once nominated, she is rigorously examined for â€œBattis Lakshanâ€? 32-body perfections. The young girl is put through a series of austere tests, to ensure that she indeed has the qualities of the Goddess. In the

final test, known as the Kalratri, the young girl must spend a night alone in a courtyard, where numerous heads of dead animals are arranged around her. If she demonstrates courage and fearlessness in such an environment, then she becomes the next Kumari of Nepal. Thereafter she receives the royal treatment, as she is always carried on a chariot and her foot is never set on the ground. When the girl begins her first menstruation cycle, she is replaced by her successor as it is believed that the goddess has relinquished the body. While the life of a Kumari might be royal and regal, this transition back to a normal child is the most difficult part. A Kumari is just a child, isolated from her parents at a very young age. Her parents have to earn visitation rights, 13 times a year if they are fortunate. She is placed in confinement, in an old palace with meagre lightning. Previous Kumaris did not receive any education, as they were considered as omniscient. This made it particularly challenging for them when they ultimately transitioned back to a normal child without the royal titles. After strict criticisms, the Kumari now gets access to the internet and a private tutor. Some exKumaris describe the transition as difficult, as they learn to become independent or take criticism of their work. Human Rights and Child Rights Activists have strongly condemned this ritual, as they believe it is an exploitation of the child in the name of the culture. While the Kumaris get a pension from the municipality and the government every year, it is hardly enough to restore the childhood that she lost.

Art by Shrawani Bhattarai

Connection 連接 CREATIVE

Designed and written by Anjia Zhou I go everyday to observe the wizard who lives behind the glass at a safe distance. Emerald lips, a green smile, white ears, and silver sounds. He lives in a world shimmering with gold, everything perfect to every centimeter. I arrive punctually at nine every morning to always be the first to see him before everyone-else arrives. He welcomes me with endless melodies, blooming flowers and paintings of beautiful people and places. Yet this morning I heard a scream, I am sure from behind the glass, but sounding like a very faint one from afar, desperate. I feel an obligation. Do you need help? I asked the wizard. I do not know if this is love or addiction or merely some unknown glitch of jealousy but I cannot help. I feel a connection. I lived up to the routine every morning. I start to look forward to the encounter every night before. I think and think and rethink about the flawless world, only separated from me by an inch of glass. I can touch the glimmering gold, the soft petals of blooming flowers. I turn around and see a pair of empty eyes. A skeleton. I scream behind the glass.

这是一个全球化的时代，处处都被连接著。全球商业被国际贸易的往来连接著，全球的人们被社交媒体连接著。在当代中国人的生活中，微信已然成为我们与家人，朋友，同学，甚至陌生人建立连接的基本方式。但是很多时候忙于回微信，忙于建立连接的我们却往往没有意识到我们丢失了一些更加重要的connection，比如与自己内心的连接。我们很多时候感觉真实的，能紧握住的连接实际上却是转瞬即逝的。在二零二零年开端，疫情的来袭让我对于真实与空虚之间的连接又有了些思考。一般被视为不可动摇的诸多产业，像房地产业，餐饮业，都在几个星期之内因为这一个看不见摸不著的小小病毒而摇摇欲坠。到底什麽是不变的？什麽是真实的？或许真和假本来就是一样东西，只是因为我们的念头才变得不一样。往更宏大的方面去想，生和死亦是如此。就是所谓生死在一念之间。我用微信带给我们的连接作为引子，来尝试探索真实与空虚之间的连接，以及生死之间的连接。用这幅画来表达我对于 Connection 的理解，希望更多人能找到与鲜活真实的自己的连接。

PUZZLES

Target

Quick

L W D R D O I E W

10 words: The United States 20 words: The United Kingdom 30 words: The USSR

Sudoku

1 5 8 10 13 15 17 18 21 23 25 27 29 31 36 37

Arise (6) Labourers (7) 2013 Villeneuve flick (9) 10 Desire (4) Uprising (6) 15 Roars (8) Sycophantic (7) Abundances (6) Surface (4,2) Amalgamate (7) Associates (8) Combine (6) Final (4) A provocation (9) Humankind (7) Combined (6)

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 14 16 18 19 20 22 24 26 28 29 30 32 33 34 35

Conflict (3) Jaw-dropping Greek island? (3) Prefix expressing absence (3) German for “we” (3) Distinct period of time (3) A collection (3) Browse (6) Viscous liquid (3) Reduces (5) Maiden name indicator (3) The third most populous country (3) Italian composer, mainly of opera (5) Bludgeon (4) A type of seaweed popular in Bikini Bottom (4) Hebrew for “truth” (5) Suffer from hunger (6) Precise (5) Flying expert (3) Degree awarded on Abercrombie street? (3) Everything (3) Overtake (3) Our local orchestra (3) Possesses (3) Currency of Romania (3) Biblical first name (3) American graduate school admissions test (3)

Week Six Editions Solutions Sudoku

This Way That Way 1

1 2 3 4

Connection Middle Eastern Country European and American military alliance Tangle

Quick Target: Asparagus. Find the connection: Their first names are shared with Sesame Street residents: Bert Newton, Gordon Ramsay, Oscar Wilde, Zoë Wanamaker, Ernie Dingo, St Elmo.

Puzzles by Ms Eel Kink. Solutions next week.

SRC REPORTS

President

Note: These pages belong to the Office Bearers of the SRC. They are not altered, edited or changed in any way by the editors of Honi Soit.

Liam Donohoe The SRC has had yet another busy week, with staff and student Office Bearers swiftly responding to a range of COVID-19-related issues. Though many things are being brought to our attention, the University’s use of the ProctorU invigilation system has generated significant grassroots outrage and energy. The system uses students’ webcams to livestream and record their exam process so invigilators overseas can ensure they’re not cheating, and students have expressed considerable concern about its privacy implications through USyd rants and other online fora. The SRC is just as alarmed by ProctorU as the student body, and has taken a number of steps to push back against its use and impacts, including: Assisting students as they network with others in their Units of Study and pressure their UoS Coordinator to abandon ProctorU (a strategy which has been incredibly successful). This has been through both the new Say No to ProctorU and SRC COVID-19 response groups, respectively. Using our communications channels to create public pressure on the University, including through our social media channels and stories in the mainstream media. Organising and sharing a petition through our

Education Action Group and Education Officers. Raising concerns at the University Executive’s Education Committee meeting, on Monday the 30th of March, and again on a Zoom call with senior figures at the University on Friday the 27tth of March and 3rd of April. This is in addition to countless emails, statements, and intermittent calls. Undertaking an extensive survey which indicated significant concern about the use of ProctorU. Unfortunately the University is certain that exams are necessary in certain cases, and there has always been significant bureaucratic momentum behind the use of ProctorU in those circumstances. The SRC has been trying to achieve a few things in light of this, and has had some success in: Getting the University to encourage / assist UoS coordinators with devising alternate assessment, so that exams (and therefore ProctorU) are only used where absolutely necessary for professional accreditation purposes. This has succeeded, with many courses switching away from exams, though we do not know whether subjects that remained with exams did so for professional reasons. We will continue to fight to minimise the number of

exams being set. Encouraging students to pressure their UoS coordinators to abandon preexisting or recent plans for exams and / or the use of ProctorU. This has also been successful, with many UoS coordinators recently announcing new, non-exam assessments. Getting the University to recognise wellfounded conscientious objection to the system as legitimate grounds for special considerations. We want students who cannot get an alternate examination arranged through special considerations to have the option of Discontinuing without failure (DC) and a full fee refund. This will take longer to achieve, but we are making progress. Aside from ProctorU, the student body has been caught up in questions around grading systems, particularly the pass / fail debate. Here, again, the SRC has been actively prosecuting the student case for the past few weeks, and we are now throwing our support behind a system where students have their WAM calculated with and without their semester 1 2020 marks and get the superior result. This would directly and proportionally correct for the worst-case instances of unique disadvantage that concern people

now, while also preserving merit and success in this period. We understand that this approach is achieving a lot of support within the University, and we will continue to push for it until it alongside the introduction of “Result Incomplete” grades and an overhauled, more compassionate special considerations regime. Finally, we have also been supporting campaigns to suspend rent and rental evictions in University accommodation over the past week. We are pleased to report that the campaign has achieved some of its demands, with ViceChancellor Michael Spence agreeing not to evict any students in an email. We will continue to support this campaign as it calls for rent reductions and suspensions, and play an active role in housing defence initiatives. This week our new mutual aid working group should make further progress on our essentials packs, and we will also focus on demands concerning International Students, deadline extensions, and fee refunds. I wish all students the best over the coming weeks, and encourage any of them to reach out to me at president@src.usyd. edu.au if they have any concerns or ideas.

One of our top priorities has been advocating for students academically. Due to the inviability of in-person exams, the University has chosen to outsource online exams to ProctorU, an independent contractor whose software raises serious privacy concerns. ProctorU gives its proctors access to students’ computers, giving the company access to private data which could be sold to third parties. Naturally, the SRC opposes this breach of student privacy, and has been working to pressure the University to find an alternative. We’ve been regularly meeting

with University staff to raise these concerns and advocate for the academic needs of students in general. We’ve also been working to organise support for students whose financial situation has been impacted by the Covid-19 crisis. The casualised nature of many student jobs in hospitality has led to many students suddenly losing their main source of income with little support. We’ve been working with other SRC office-bearers to develop mutual aid programs to support students who are suffering due to Covid-19, such as distributing

food packages to students. A feeling of shock is a natural response to the situation we’re currently seeing. Institutions that many students rely on for support and comfort have ceased to function in a matter of weeks. However, it is important that we do not lose hope. As jarring as it is, this crisis cannot last forever. This period of quarantine will end, things will return to normal, and we will once again step out into the world. The work now is to envision the type of world we want to return to, and work to build it.

to the situation. We have raised a number of concerns that students have identified in the switch to online learning, predominantly the implication on students’ performance, special consideration and the use of ProctorU software for exams. We are pleased to report that these meetings have been largely productive, with the University implementing, or in the process of implementing, a number of measures to better support students.

We do however still share the concerns of the SRC more broadly concerning the use of ProctorU software and are incredibly disappointed that the University refused to listen to students and push back the census date. With mid-semester exams still to come, we will soon get a better picture of how ProctorU is going to be implemented across different faculties and units. If you’re interested in more information on

the software and how to fight back against the use of it make sure you check out the ‘SRC COVID-19 RESPONSE GROUP’ and the ‘Usyd - Say No to ProctorU!’ groups on Facebook. Make sure you also follow the SRC on social media for updates on all the stuff we’re doing to help students at this difficult time.

assist them in funding telephone interpreters so they can provide legal aid for refugees who have been largely neglected during this crisis. It is in times like this we must stay strong and stand in solidarity with our community’s most vulnerable

citizens. To keep up-to-date with our collective, you can follow us on our Facebook page, Twitter, and Instagram.

Vice Presidents Charlotte Bullock and Felix Faber As the situation surrounding Covid-19 rapidly changes, we’ve been doing our best to address the manifold issues occurring. Students’ lives have been dramatically altered in almost every way; academically, socially, and financially, our lives are radically different to how they were only two weeks ago. Our priority has been to ensure that the wants and needs of students are kept at the forefront of decision-making - both by the University’s administration and in wider society. To that end, we’ve been working with other officebearers to support students on a number of issues.

General Secretaries Abbey Shi and Liam Thomas Over the last fortnight we have been incredibly busy working closely alongside the President, Vice-Presidents and General Executives to respond to the ongoing COVID-19 situation, and the implications this has had for students. We have been in regular Zoom meetings with Susanna Scarparo (Pro Vice-Chancellor, Student Life) and Peter McCallum (Director, Education Strategy) regarding the University’s response

Ethno-cultural Officers Altay Han, Kedar Maddali, Virginia Meng and Anie Kandya Over the last few weeks, the escalating crisis has resulted in a shift to online activism for ACAR as we continue our work off-campus in supporting marginalised students and communities. We have been at the helm of helping set up several mutual

aid groups for different areas of the South-West and the Greater Western Sydney regions, assisting in any way we can to combat the crisis. In addition, we have also created a fundraiser for the Refugee Advice & Casework Service (RACS) to

Student Housing Officers Klementine Burell-Sander and Julie Zhang did not submit a report this week.

SRC CASEWORK HELP STUDENTS’ REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL, UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY

Centrelink support & payment changes in the COVID-19 moment.

SRC CASEWORKER APPOINTMENTS ARE NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE

There have been many recent changes to Centrelink payments following the COVID-19 outbreak. If you would like upto-date information on recent changes to all Centrelink payments and additional $ support go to the information produced by the community legal centres who specialise in social security law at: http://ejaustralia. org.au/wp/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/ COVID-19-and-Centrelink-24-March.pdf.

Do you need help with CENTRELINK?

Ask the SRC! The SRC has qualified caseworkers who can assist Sydney University undergraduates with Centrelink questions and issues, including: your income, parents’ income, qualifying as independent, relationships, over-payments and more. Check out the Centelink articles on our website or book an appointment if you need more help. srcusyd.net.au/src-help/

Students’ Representative Council, University of Sydney Level 1, Wentworth Building (G01), University of Sydney NSW 2006 PO Box 794 Broadway NSW 2007

p: 02 9660 5222 e: help@src.usyd.edu.au w: srcusyd.net.au/src-help

/usydsrc @src_usyd

STUDENTS’ REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL, UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY

SRC CASEWORKER APPOINTMENTS ARE NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE

If you or your family or partner have lost a job or if you just need financial support then you might now consider applying for a student payment if you don’t already receive one. If you are a full-time student (¾ load 18 credit points or more) and not currently on a Centrelink payment (such as Youth Allowance/student, Austudy or Abstudy) then do investigate if you might be eligible. Start by going to the SRC information at: http://srcusyd.net.au/src-help/centrelink/ centrelink-student-payments/ A number of changes in rules or your circumstances might now make you eligible. These include: If you are considered ‘dependent’ and your parents’ income has changed then Centrelink can look at their current financial year income for the ‘parental income test’. If one of your parent’s starts receiving a Centrelink income support payment that might also help when they look at the parent income test. There have also been a temporary suspension of the Newly Arrived Residents Waiting Period and changes to the Liquid Asset Waiting Period.

If in doubt, apply. Do so as soon as possible as payments can only be backdated to the time you apply. If you have any questions email the SRC’s caseworkers at help@src.usyd.edu.au To remain eligible for a student payment [such as Youth Allowance(student), Austudy or Abstudy] you normally need to be enrolled full-time (with a ¾ load of 18 credit points or more). If you are ill you may be exempt from the ‘full-time’ requirement for the semester due to having a ‘Temporary Incapacity’. This needs to backed up by a medical certificate. If there are other Covid 19 related reasons (such as accommodation problems or caring duties) then recent changes allow for some relaxation of the Activity Test. We await more information on this. Seek advice from a caseworker at the SRC if staying full-time is not possible.

Ask Abe SRC caseworker help Q&A

Ask Abe: Tenancy & COVID-119 Dear Abe, With all of the COVID stuff happening I am really unsure about my rights as a renter. Could you please tell me where I can get more information?

Do you need sharehousing or tenancy advice?

Renter

Dear Renter,

Ask the SRC!

The two main issues that have arisen as a result of COVID-19 are having lost income, and needing to return overseas. There are so many different laws and principles that

Students’ Representative Council, University of Sydney Level 1, Wentworth Building (G01), University of Sydney NSW 2006 PO Box 794 Broadway NSW 2007

p: 02 9660 5222 e: help@src.usyd.edu.au w: srcusyd.net.au

apply, depending on your circumstances. For example, do you rent from a real estate agent or live with your landlord, or in a boarding house, or at Urbanest, or the Regiment Building. Each one has a different set of rules around moving out. There are some changes in legislation that may happen soon, around evictions due to nonpayment of rent. At the moment, we don’t know what that will mean. So, if you have a specific question, please email help@src. usyd.edu.au, explaining your situation, and attach your rental agreement or contract, so that we can give you the best advice available. Abe

facebook.com/usydsrc @src_usyd

Contact an SRC Caseworker on 02 9660 5222 or email help@src.usyd.edu.au