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gair rhyddFREE
ISSUE 849 OCTOBER 08 2007 CARDIFF’S STUDENT WEEKLY
free word - EST. 1972
CRACK DOWN ON CRIME
Police presence in Cathays increases as
concerns rise over student safety
INSIDE...NEW LOOK GR/FEATURES/JOBS&MONEY/NEWS
SPORT/TELLY/POLITICS/LONELY HEARTS/LISTINGS/GRAB
PHO
TO: E
d Sa
lter
IT’S A free-for-all for the burglars currently at large in Cathays, as police continue to find front doors left wide open day and night, gair rhydd has learned.
This week, Cathays police found 13 houses with their doors unlocked in the space of just 30 minutes.
The local police have warned resi-dents that they are leaving their valu-ables, including wallets, laptops and TVs, on an easy-to-reach platter for Cardiff’s criminals.
It is thought that the streets sur-rounding both Cathays and Roath are inhabited by heroin addicts who
will go to great lengths to fund their addictions.
The offenders are usually so desper-ate for money to buy drugs that they will steal the smallest of items, such as shoes and jackets and sell them on for a meagre 50 pence.
Often drug addicts, the thieves will have the sole goal of stealing enough goods to exchange for their next £10 bag of heroin.
Head of Roath and Cathays CID, Detective Inspector Keith Joshua, said: “We are not talking about premises be-ing ransacked. These are opportunist thefts carried out by criminals who will walk into homes and within 30 seconds will have picked up a laptop and be gone.”
Earlier this week PC Bob Keohane
was checking doors in Cathays and managed to walk into one house and shout ‘hello’ from the hallway three times before anyone came downstairs.
gair rhydd spoke to the occupants of the house and they responded by saying: “It’s hard to remember to lock our door because last year it locked automatically when it shut.
“We wish our landlord would make the locks on our door more secure but they don’t seem to worried with our security to be honest.”
The Cathays and Roath area is pop-ular with burglars because it is densely populated with multi-occupancy homes that almost guarantee the opportunity of repeat steals.
With the return of around 40,000 students to Cardiff in the last month,
laptops have become popular stolen items on the streets of the city, with 14 stolen in the last fortnight alone.
Local police sources have said that on average more than one property is burgled every day. This means Cathays and Roath’s burglary rates are far and beyond those for the rest of the city.
It is thought that residents leaving their doors and windows wide open cause at least half of these burglaries.
Police estimates suggest that there are around 400 frequent drug addicts in Cardiff, who each need to make up to £100 a day to fund their illegal habits.
With a potential £33,600 worth of stolen goods needed to fund their ad-dictions each year, there is a real and ongoing threat to homeowners.
Drug dealers will swap stolen goods
in return for drugs, and so with the knowledge of this, burglars will con-tinue to swamp the student areas of Cardiff.
In light of this, DI Joshua said: “We recognise that burglary is a terrible crime that can have a traumatic im-pact on victims, but I would appeal to people to limit the opportunities put in front of burglars.
“We are working hard targeting those responsible, but the public have to look after their property and need to be locking doors even when they are at home.”
DI Joshua also urges anyone with in-formation on any burglaries, or the sale of stolen goods, to call Cathays CID on 029 2052 7267 or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
William TaylorNews Editor
NEWS02 gairrhydd
OCTOBER.08.2007
5
...in pictures
The last week...
16
39...in numbers
the number of kids Britney Spears has custody of
1 in 20students have cheated on their personal statement
11 5 - Cardiff students team up to create the original ‘Freshers’ Crew’
News 16 - Jenny Williams looks at the history of India and Pakistan in light of the recent 60 year anniversairy of independence
39 - Cardiff University RFC take another step forward in developing links with Cardiff Rugby Club
Features Sportfast forward
>>>
400people at the media recruitment party
0
weeks until Christmas
exclusive web
content
Go to gairrhydd.com for more student news
quote of the week“”
One should always play
fairly when one has the
winning cards
(Oscar Wilde)
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
19ºC 17ºC 17ºC 17ºC 16ºC
PHO
TO: A
dam
Gas
son
NEWSgairrhydd 03
OCTOBER.08.2007
Charlotte Church is ready to turn her back on fame after discovering the joys of motherhood, says her mum.
The Cardiff-born 21-year-old singer and her boyfriend Gavin Henson are celebrating after the birth of their daughter Ruby Megan last week.
Charlotte’s mum Maria, 42, said: “All she cares about now is being a good mother.”
She added: “She has hung up her partying shoes for good. You won’t be seeing her out on the town for a long while – and she is totally off the booze.”
Groundbreaking new research at Cardiff University could one day result in a test to detect the earli-est forms of cancer.
A team at the University’s School of Medicine has just published a
study on telomeres – small structures at the end of human chromosomes which play a crucial role in the onset of cancer.
The researchers discovered how chromosomes can fuse together once they lose the protection of their telomeres.
Chromosomal fusion causes the
chromosomes to disintegrate, which can result in the formation of cancer-ous growths.
The study means that there is now a system which can detect chromo-somal fusions from single DNA mol-ecules, opening up the possibility for an ‘early-warning’ test for cancer.
Project leader Dr Duncan Baird, of
the School of Medicine’s Department of Pathology, said: “This study threw up a number of significant results. Our long-term aim with this research is to develop a clinical test to detect early cancers.”
He added: “The fact we can now detect chromosome fusions at the single molecule level offers hope that
we will be able to achieve it.”Dr Lesley Walker, director of
cancer information at Cancer Re-search UK, praised Cardiff’s School of Medicine, saying: “Dr Baird and his team are making great strides in increasing our understanding of the very earliest stages of cancer.”
Samantha ShillabeerNews Editor
Cardiff researchers come closer to cureBreakthrough research could lead the way in the cancer fight, a Cardiff University study has found
A world-leading Cardiff University research centre will receive its of-ficial opening from Wales’ First Minister this week.
The University’s new Gas Turbine Research Centre is to be formally opened in Port Talbot by Rhodri Mor-gan on Wednesday.
It is thought that the Centre will become a groundbreaking site for re-
search into power generation and emis-sions, helping to create cleaner power.
The Centre is one of a small number of similar projects around the world.
But the Cardiff University Gas Tur-bine Centre will contain better equip-ment, as well as offering commercial contracts to outside companies.
Research contracts have already been secured in the search for alterna-tive and cleaner fuels.
The opening will take place at 9.50am.
Charlotte leaves the limelightCharlotte Church will leave par-tying behind to follow her maternal instincts
DEGREEStudents Welcome
A company has become the first in the UK to be given the power to award Higher Education degrees.
Part of training company BPP Professional, BPP College, which offers law and business courses, was awarded the right by the Privy Council.
Established in 1992, BPP College already has more than 5,000 post-graduate students in four different
locations: Leeds, Manchester, and Holborn and Waterloo in London.
The College is not the first private institution to have degree-awarding powers, but is the first avowedly commercial enterprise with such.
Until now only publicly funded universities and colleges have had this right.
The College is owned by BPP Holdings plc which is a publicly quoted company on the London Stock Exchange with shares that recently rose by 10%.
Abigail WhittakerNews Editor
Degrees are up for grabs after UK company awarded power to sell
Higher Education goes to highest bidder
Powering Cardiff’s futureCorinne RhoadesNews Editor
CHURCH: Yummy mummy
GAS TURBINE: Going green
NEWS04 gairrhydd
OCTOBER.08.2007
Cardiff graduate loses fight for lifeFormer English Literature student dies 10 days after plane crash in Thailand
Controversial plans for UK lecturers to boycott Israeli universities suffered a potentially deadly blow last week.
The University and College Union (UCU), whose members backed boycott calls at its annual conference last May, have been told by their lawyers that such a move would be in breach of anti-discrimination laws.
The legal advice received stated: “It would be beyond the union’s powers and unlawful of the union to call for or implement a boycott of any kind of Israeli universities or other academic institutions.”
As a result, the UCU are not allowed to spend any of its funds promoting a rejection of any Israeli academic institutions.
Sally Hunt, the union’s general secretary who opposed the boycott,
said: “I hope this decision will allow all to move forward and focus on what is our primary objective – the representation of our members.”
The initial boycott decision caused outrage among the Jewish community and many academics alike, with Jewish leaders calling it a ‘frightening’ assault on academic freedom.
This latest news was last week welcomed by university vice-chancellors.
Professor Rick Trainor, President of Universities UK, which represents vice-chancellors, said: “This is good news. Our view was, and remains, that any such boycott would be inimical to academic freedom – including the freedom of academics to collaborate with other academics, regardless of nationality and location.”
It is thought that individual lecturers will still refuse to work with Israeli universities, although such action is likely to be limited.
Alarmed at noticing a syringe discarded in a bush, a Cardiff University student phoned the Council to arrange its disposal, but was unimpressed by their response.
Rob Walters was walking back from town with a friend last Wednesday around 3pm.
On Richmond Road, close to the area where the footbridge crosses to Rhymney Street, a beetle in a nearby ivy bush caught the pair’s attention and they stopped to look. It was at this point that they also noticed a syringe protruding from the ivy.
Mr Walters, third year Computer Science student, said that the syringe appeared to contain a white substance but he could not see the needle.
He immediately called Connect2Cardiff (C2C), the Cardiff City Council contact centre, to
inform them.Mr Walters said: “The Council
had no idea how to handle the situation.”
After 10 minutes on the phone and still without a solution, C2C informed him that they would call back with more information.
Mr Walters remained where he had spotted the syringe as he feared for the safety of children passing the area.
Approximately 20 minutes later, C2C rang saying that Street Cleansing was responsible for the disposal, but that the collection may not happen that evening.
Mr Walters insisted upon staying in the area, pressurising the Council to take immediate action. He commented: “The syringe was at a low height within reach of a small child. I have a two-year-old daughter myself and therefore would not leave until it was collected.”
In the meantime, Mr Walters also called 101, Cardiff’s non-emergency
police telephone, to notify them of the public safety risk. But he was informed that they could take no further action; the responsibility lay with the Council.
Shortly after, Mr Walters was informed that a Council manager had instructed the immediate collection of the syringe.
Despite confusion as to the exact location of the discovery, soon after 4pm the syringe body was collected; however, no attempt was made to check the surrounding ivy for further syringes.
Mr Walters concluded: “I was disgusted by the events. I was shocked that I had to explain the implications of a used syringe being present in a public place and the fact that Cardiff City Council would be open to lawsuits.
“The police didn’t want to know, and I felt they considered it run of the mill and not their problem. I’ll be complaining in the strongest terms to both the police and the council.”
Something as simple as a belly button piercing nearly killed an art student.
Jessica Collins was in a car crash in Munich when the seatbelt forced the stud through her stomach and almost to her spine.
According to her mother, Amanda, who lives in Cardiff, Jessica is lucky to be alive and compares the belly stud
to a bullet.Jessica, aged 19, is still in hospital in
Germany, where her family have flown to be by her side.
Chris Beadle, Jessica’s stepfather, has said that his step daughter is adamant that she didn’t want the same thing to happen to anyone else.
He said, “It was a freak accident. I can’t say I’ve ever heard of anything like this before, but for a decorative bit of jewellery, it’s not worth the risk.”
Samantha ShillabeerNews Editor
Corinne RhoadesNews Editor
Abigail WhittakerNews Editor
Israel boycott plans slammed
William TaylorNews Editor
A Cardiff University graduate who suffered severe burns from a plane crash in Thailand has died.
Bethan Jones, a 22-year-old English Literature graduate, was three days into a round-the-world trip with her boyfriend when she was injured in the fatal crash of a budget-flight in Phuket.
She died in hospital just over a week later.
Bethan’s boyfriend, Alex Collins, also became one of the 81 victims
who died in the incident.Dozens of messages left on the
social networking site Facebook described how they hoped that the two would now be reunited.
Nick Brown, of London wrote: “Whilst you are no longer with us, may you always be together.”
Bethan, from Porth, Rhondda, received 50% burns when the jet in which she was traveling slid off the runway and burst into flames.
Her family flew out to Thailand to be with her, but it is thought that she may not have regained consciousness to be told of her boyfriend’s death.
The funeral of Alex was due to be held last Monday in his hometown of Maesteg.
Friends of Bethan paid tribute to her memory, praising the former English student as ‘intelligent, down to earth, beautiful and funny’.
After the Foreign Office and the West London Coroner had confirmed her death, it was said that an inquest would be opened when her body had been repatriated.
Full inquests into all the British victims’ deaths will also be held by the West Lincolnshire Coroner.
Passing the buck
Navel bar nightmare
Cardiff Council claim it’s not their responsibil-ity to collect a used syringe from the street
“The syringe was at a low height with-in reach of a small child”
BETHAN JONES: A tragic loss
USED SYRINGE: Whose responsibility?
NEWSgairrhydd 05
OCTOBER.08.2007
UCAS cheats set to beexposed in 2008
7,000 new students received a warm Freshers’ welcome after be-ing greeted by the Students’ Un-ion’s fi rst ever Freshers’ Crew.
Team Cardiff are Cardiff’s newly recruited Union awareness team, made up of 55 student volunteers.
With the support of the University’s Residences and Catering division, 55 members of the team spent time in Talybont, Senghennydd, and Univer-sity Hall welcoming fi rst year students and their parents, and answering any questions they might have had.
Students’ Union Vice President, Ro-wena Vassallo, said the scheme, which is in its fi rst year at Cardiff University, was well received.
She said: “Parents and students were coming out of the halls to talk to the team and ask them questions, it went down really well.”
As well as visiting halls of resi-dence, the Freshers’ Crew helped with
stewarding on Union nights and with events promotion.
Rowena said: “It’s all part of the Love Cardiff initiative, to celebrate the Union, raise awareness and increase communication between fi rst years and second and third year students.
“It’s good to have that face to face contact,” she added.
But Cardiff is not among the forerun-ners in university welcome projects.
Universities such as Birmingham, Nottingham and Newcastle have been running similar schemes in the recent years.
Despite this, the Union’s Love Car-diff project will become bigger and better.
Volunteers are still being recruited via the Students’ Union website, and training will begin sooner next year to make sure the ideal people are selected.
Over the coming semesters, stu-dents can also expect to see the team at University-wide events such as Varsity and Students’ Union elections.
Greetings from the Freshers’ CrewCorinne RhoadesNews Editor
William TaylorNews Editor
As a result of increased copy-ing from the internet for Uni-versity applications, sixth form students are being warned not to cheat.
The warning comes from the Universities and Colleges Admis-sions Service (UCAS), who say that cheating on the forms could affect students’ chances of gaining a place at University.
Some half a million forms from students looking for entry in 2008 will be scrutinised by plagia-rism detection technology called Copycatch.
It has been revealed that one in 20 applicants have cheated on their personal statements.
Steve Harrop, head of technol-ogy and strategy at UCAS said: “A personal statement should be the student’s own work.
“The new system will compare every application submitted for en-try next year with thousands posted on websites and 1.5 million from previous years.”
Forms that appear to be more than 10% copied will be passed onto UCAS for investigation.
UCAS checked 50,000 forms this year and say they found around 5% of applications showing “some element of plagiarism”.
They found that 234 wannabe chemistry students had all begun by saying their interest in the subject has started when they burnt a hole in their pyjamas.
Lollipops to combat late night chit-chat
The digital age has taken a step into Christianity, as believers will now be able to download the Bible directly onto their mobile phones.
The controversial move is part of a range of religious services and products available for mobiles, as a company gives users the chance to communicate their faith through their phone’s wall-paper and ringtones.
Wallpapers that are already proving popular are ones of Noah’s Ark and Jesus walking on water.
Being marketed as ‘The only Bible you can read in the dark’, the service provided by Ecumen will deliver daily prayers and the
whole Bible can be downloaded for a meagre £6.
Pastor Robbie Howells of Newport City Church said: “Our mission is to get the good news out there through every medium we can.
“Mobile phones are such a great way of telling people about the Gospel, and it gives me a new way of communicat-ing with members of the church, es-pecially young people. It’s getting the message across in a fun, funky way.”
The Bible goes digitalIn an attempt to combat stu-dent noise, Swansea University has unveiled a new campaign where students are given lol-lipops to keep them quiet.
The SSHH! Campaign launched by the University’s Students’ Union this term comes after local residents complained that undergraduates were keeping them awake on their route home after nights out.
SSHH! is an acronym for ‘Si-lent Students, Happy Homes’.
A Students’ Union spokeswom-an said: “Those students leaving pubs and clubs at the end of the night will have the campaign’s message reinforced and a lollipop to keep their mouths busy.”
Cardiff University has its own
version of the same campaign entitled Save Our Union License (SOUL).
In previous years the Union has given out lollipops or bottled water in an attempt to reduce the noise made by students leaving the Union late at night.
It is expected that this cam-paign will be reintroduced later in the year again once the Freshers rush has settled down.
Jonny Cox, Union President, said: “We’re lucky in Cardiff that very few complaints are made about our students, and of those complaints, few are regarding noise.
“But the Union still recognises the need to attempt to reduce late night noise in the student areas to ensure that community rela-tions are kept in the best possible state.”
Abigail WhittakerNews Editor
Download the Bibleon your mobile now
FRESHERS’ CREW: We love you
William TaylorNews Editor
PHO
TO: R
owen
a Va
ssal
lo
WORLD NEWS06 gairrhydd
OCTOBER.08.2007
World News in brief
Olympic trickery
Your leg or mine?
Bridal Assessment
A man in China has been accused of tricking people out of thousands of dollars by creating a fake clone of the official Beijing Olympics website.
The man, named Liao Pequi, made around 400,000 Yuan (£25,000) through the false web-site by running fake prize draws.
Pequi eventually confessed to the police after being arrested for fraud.
The official 2008 Olympics website, www.beijing2008.cn, is very popular, often receiving more than one million hits a day.
A pair of Americans are at log-gerheads over the custody bat-tle for a man’s amputated leg.
The North Carolina pair are fighting for custody of the leg that was stored in a barbecue smoker and later auctioned off.
John Wood says he would like his leg back that was amputated after a plane crash in 2004, so that he can be buried as a whole man when he dies.
However, Shannon Whisnant says he has a receipt for the smok-er’s contents and wants to share ownership.
Officials were shocked when a Romanian woman turned up in her wedding dress to sit her firefighter exam.
Alina Modoran, 25, had come to the exam directly from the church, as the wedding had been booked a year in advance.
Alina said: “I came in my wed-ding dress because the priest told me not to take it off all day because it brings bad luck.”
William TaylorNews Editor
A village in Argentina has placed its teenagers under quarantine in an attempt to combat crime and disorder.
Fort Mborore, an indigenous com-munity in the north-east of the country, are isolating all youngsters under the age of 20 for a trial period of 60 days.
The project comes after two teen-agers killed themselves and a third attempted suicide in the space of a week.
It is thought that the isolation will help to limit the ‘spiritual disorienta-tion’ of teenagers, which is thought to be a negative effect of the modern society that surrounds them.
The leader of Fort Mborore, Silvino Moreyra, said the adoption of typical Western customs was corrupting teen-agers in the village, adding that the indigenous Guarani people were im-mersed in a crisis of white man’s sins.
A team of 70 volunteers have been chosen to patrol the village perimeter to ensure that the residents abide by the rules, such as not consuming alcohol, and not trying to escape.
It is thought that if the scheme is successful, the 60-day quarantine will be extended.
Compared to other countries in Latin America, Argentina has very few indigenous people.
But those who remain are often mar-ginalised, live in extreme poverty, and are constantly struggling to maintain their languages and customs.
An Indian home furnishings com-pany has been slammed after the release of a ‘Nazi’ bedding collection.
The owner of Kapil Kumar Todi, a home furnishings company, has defended his business’s new line of bedspreads which bear the swastika symbol.
After anger amongst India’s Jew-ish community sparked an outcry, Mr Todi said the bedding is not meant to be anti-Semitic.
Despite the presence of the swastika next to the word ‘Nazi’, he claimed the acronym actually stands for ‘New Arrival Zone of India’.
Mr Todi also said that the name, which ‘just came to him’, will not
be changed.But the Jewish community in
India remain unconvinced by the company’s defence and are now considering the launch of a protest campaign against them.
With around 5,000 Jews living in the country, a protest last year saw another company in the capital of Mumbai forced to change its name from ‘Hitler’s Cross’ to ‘Cross Cafe’.
But Ralphy Jhirad, of the India Jewish Congress, said this most re-cent incident was ‘totally unaccept-able’ to Jews all over the world.
Mr Jhirad, who hopes to meet with the Kapil Kumar Todi boss to convince him of wrongdoing, also blamed the company’s deci-sion on ignorance and the need for publicity.
A Roman Catholic convent in southern Italy is being forced to close after a vicious fight broke out between the last three nuns residing there.
After attending a Mass at the Santa Clara Convent near Bari, Sisters An-namaria and Gianbattista scratched their mother superior in the face and threw her to the ground, apparently upset by her authoritarian ways and nasty habits.
The incident, which left 82-year-old mother superior, Sister Liliana, in hospital, occurred in July but has been hushed down by religious authorities till now.
Local Archbishop Giovanni Battista Pichierri intervened in an attempt to reconcile the nuns but in August con-cluded that the sisters had “clearly lost their religious vocation”.
He subsequently requested permis-sion from the Vatican to close the convent.
However, Sister Liliana, who has been living at the convent since its foundation in 1963, has barricaded herself inside and is refusing to accept that the convent is being shut down.
She has written directly to the Pope informing him that she has no intention
Lock up your teens
Sleeping withthe enemy
Brawling nuns cause convent demise
Argentine village places all teenagers under quarantine for two months in an attempt to combat wild behaviour
of leaving until God decides it is time for her to go.
Since then she has declared a vow of silence making it difficult to reason with her.
Meanwhile the other two nuns have moved into another nearby convent.
Abigail WhittakerNews Editor
Samantha ShillabeerNews Editor
Corinne RhoadesNews Editor
Italian convent closes after riot between sisters breaks out
UNDER LOCK AND KEY: Teens given extreme curfew
NUNS: Not acting very holy
LETTERSgairrhydd 09
OCTOBER.08.2007
Welcome and croeso to gairrhydd’s letters page, the place for students to have their say about the things they care about. So, if you have an opinion on any topic we would love to hear from you, whether it be a student issue, in the news, or one of your own. Contact us at [email protected], or you can voice your opinions on specific articles at gairrhydd.com. We look forward to hearing from you.
Letter of the week
Students on the beatDear gair rhydd,
I was especially pleased to read your article ‘students on the beat’. Having unfortunately been victim to a recent attack in Car-diff I am so pleased to hear that the University and the police are working together in conjunction to protect students and keep them safe.
People are unaware of the danger-ous situations that they can place themselves in without even thinking. For example, walking home alone through Cathays, there are unfortu-nately people out there who will take advantage of young students because of their naivity and it is high time the university stepped up and made safety a key issue for all students to be aware of.
However I would like to see more done, like have self defence lessons
set up to give students the confidence and awareness they need to both be and feel safer when walking through Cardiff.
Students also need to work with the police, if they witness or are vic-tim to a crime, they have to report it if only for the safety of others and the prevention of it happening again. The police in Cathays were sympathetic and attentive when I informed them of the incident that happened to me, and even though luckily I was able to defend myself and wasn’t hurt or actually robbed, they still took it ex-tremely seriously.
Students have to look after each other and by neglecting to inform the police about incidents they can indi-rectly place others at risk. I’m very glad that I informed the police and would urge others to do the same if they become victim to crime.
Nia Prince2nd Year Law and Criminology
To ALL the people having birthdays this wk, HAPPY BIRTHDAY. Now none of you can moan I haven’t wished u happy bday! Why are there so many bdays in October anyway???
Chim chiminee, chim chiminee, chim, chim, cheroooooo
WHY DOES CHEWING GUM COME IN SUCH BIG PACKETS THESE DAYS?
gahhhhhhhhh!
Who were the bunny girls in factory last week?
i think the chuckle brothers should be knighted.
rubber duck, dubber ruck
What a catastro-phe, it’s raining cats and more cats, catch 22, too much pussy, pussy galore!
Wales are out of the rugby world cup. Wooooo!!!
what time is it? it’s chico time.
tex
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Eye-SpyDear gair rhydd, I am writing in response to the arti-cle ‘University to take disciplinary action against Facebook users’ in issue 846 of gairrhydd.
Whilst the article was well-written and really informative, it worries me slightly the extent to which we, as stu-dents, are being monitored by everyone and anyone.
First it was national news articles on how employees check our online profiles, whether Facebook, MySpace, Bebo or any of the others, in order to get an idea of who we are as a person ,and now this.
Personally, my Facebook page is a way of communicating with close friends and people I have not seen in years and isn’t representative of who I am. Whilst I’m intelligent and edu-cated and maybe capable of perform-ing a role in a job interview, my online profiles don’t necessarily show this!
Everyone writes in slang, makes spelling mistakes, talks about com-pletely non-relative social events, es-pecially getting drunk, but that doesn’t make me stupid, lazy, an alcoholic or unreliable!
It’s a social life, and that should be kept totally separate from working lives. Yes the argument exists that the
internet is public space and we should not put anything on there we don’t want people to see, but there is a dif-ference between coming across some-one’s online profile and reading it, to actively searching out another person’s business, like an employee would do, to make a judgement on them as a per-son based on a tiny part of their life and representativeness.
Besides, what do lecturers think we do when we’re not on the internet? Whilst it might be a bit silly to talk about details of coursework online, if it wasn’t done on Facebook, it would have been done via texts, conversations at the pub, or when we meet up to help each other out with work anyway!
University is a place of freedom, making your own decisions and choic-es, and having a personal life that bal-ances with studies. The fact that lectur-ers are going onto our online profiles to check up on us is a little bit freaky.
In the world of big-brother politics, its obvious everyone is watched and we are all a lot more open with our per-sonal details; often leading to worse-case scenarios. But actively seeking out another’s profile has been left to paedophiles and the government in the past media view, and yet now it seems acceptable for employees and lecturers alike. Where is this going to end?
Beth
Whatever Happened to Guilt-Free Life?Dear gair rhydd,
What ever happened to guilt-free life? Guilt-free life used to be the number one attraction of being a university student.
Sleeping through your lectures and buzzing online to get the notes meant that you never had to feel guilty about missing anything or lying around being lazy.
I know I know, not all student life is like this and most of us actually do some work in one form or another, but today more than ever, it is becoming more and more impossible to live a guilt-free life; even as a student.
Start by walking down Queen Street, a fabulous way to avoid a boring after-noon or pouring over some overdue coursework.
Now you can’t move more than five meters without being grabbed by a stu-dent, on ten pound an hour mind, trying to rope you into sponsoring a grandma with the last £5 left in your account.
Of course you find some excuse as this is definitely reserved for that pint which is much needed after your foot-ball training.
But you can’t help walking away feeling slightly guilty about some old lady struggling to eat on the other side of the world.
Once you’re over that one you get
back to your university house and sit down to watch neighbours. But some-thing is always nagging you at the back of your head…yes, its those darn online accounts. Facebook, MySpace, what-ever it is you use, you know that in the 12 hours you haven’t checked the thing there are going to be messages posted all over your profile that need replying to, and pictures of last night’s drunken antics which need serious scrutinising. But can you be bothered? Can we hell!
Instead we want to sit and watch mind-numbing television..but we can’t leave it. No because we feel guilty not replying to friends who we know are going to be checking every hour to see if you’re updated on the posted-plans.
Even when we leave university to go home for summer, we seem to be plagued by guilt. Surely, after the
dreariness of exams and finished dead-line, there can’t be anything else we have to do before next September rolls around.
Wrong. My little conscience kept nagging me that maybe I should start looking at my dissertation and doing some research or at least some plan-ning. Something.
Guilt sucks. But unfortunately, thanks to whoever created us, our bod-ies have been blessed with a conscience which we unfortunately seem to need to follow to feel better. What happened to those guilt-free days of childhood?
James
gair rhyddFREE
ISSUE 849 OCTOBER 08 2007 CARDIFF’S STUDENT WEEKLY
free word - EST. 1972
CRACK DOWN ON CRIME
Police presence in Cathays increases as
concerns rise over student safety
INSIDE...NEW LOOK GR/FEATURES/JOBS&MONEY/NEWS
SPORT/TELLY/POLITICS/LONELY HEARTS/LISTINGS/GRAB
PHO
TO: E
d Sa
lter
IT’S A free-for-all for the burglars currently at large in Cathays, as police continue to find front doors left wide open day and night, gair rhydd has learned.
This week, Cathays police found 13 houses with their doors unlocked in the space of just 30 minutes.
The local police have warned resi-dents that they are leaving their valu-ables, including wallets, laptops and TVs, on an easy-to-reach platter for Cardiff’s criminals.
It is thought that the streets sur-rounding both Cathays and Roath are inhabited by heroin addicts who
will go to great lengths to fund their addictions.
The offenders are usually so desper-ate for money to buy drugs that they will steal the smallest of items, such as shoes and jackets and sell them on for a meagre 50 pence.
Often drug addicts, the thieves will have the sole goal of stealing enough goods to exchange for their next £10 bag of heroin.
Head of Roath and Cathays CID, Detective Inspector Keith Joshua, said: “We are not talking about premises be-ing ransacked. These are opportunist thefts carried out by criminals who will walk into homes and within 30 seconds will have picked up a laptop and be gone.”
Earlier this week PC Bob Keohane
was checking doors in Cathays and managed to walk into one house and shout ‘hello’ from the hallway three times before anyone came downstairs.
gair rhydd spoke to the occupants of the house and they responded by saying: “It’s hard to remember to lock our door because last year it locked automatically when it shut.
“We wish our landlord would make the locks on our door more secure but they don’t seem to worried with our security to be honest.”
The Cathays and Roath area is pop-ular with burglars because it is densely populated with multi-occupancy homes that almost guarantee the opportunity of repeat steals.
With the return of around 40,000 students to Cardiff in the last month,
laptops have become popular stolen items on the streets of the city, with 14 stolen in the last fortnight alone.
Local police sources have said that on average more than one property is burgled every day. This means Cathays and Roath’s burglary rates are far and beyond those for the rest of the city.
It is thought that residents leaving their doors and windows wide open cause at least half of these burglaries.
Police estimates suggest that there are around 400 frequent drug addicts in Cardiff, who each need to make up to £100 a day to fund their illegal habits.
With a potential £33,600 worth of stolen goods needed to fund their ad-dictions each year, there is a real and ongoing threat to homeowners.
Drug dealers will swap stolen goods
in return for drugs, and so with the knowledge of this, burglars will con-tinue to swamp the student areas of Cardiff.
In light of this, DI Joshua said: “We recognise that burglary is a terrible crime that can have a traumatic im-pact on victims, but I would appeal to people to limit the opportunities put in front of burglars.
“We are working hard targeting those responsible, but the public have to look after their property and need to be locking doors even when they are at home.”
DI Joshua also urges anyone with in-formation on any burglaries, or the sale of stolen goods, to call Cathays CID on 029 2052 7267 or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
William TaylorNews Editor
OPINIONgairrhydd 11
OCTOBER.08.2007
Patriotism is one thing that, as a nation, keeps us to-gether as a people. However,
should patriotism be as simple as supporting our fellow countryman, or should there be a more moral-istic base to it? More specifi cally: should we still support the fi gure-heads of Great Britain when they move abroad to avoid paying taxes in the country of their birth?
We live in a country in which the rich are taxed more. This is so that, in theory, wealth can be distributed to the poorer in our society, who do not earn as much. Perhaps it is unfair for those working hard to bring home the bacon who end up giving a proportion of their money to the slobs on benefi t so com-monly gracing the sofas of Trisha God-dard. Yet there seems an inconsistency when some of the people heralded as ‘Great’ Britons (excuse the pun) make an exodus from our shores and in turn break the ideals of the distribution of wealth.
Most recently, Lewis Hamilton has risen to be a potential world-beater and star in the motor-racing sphere. On the brink of victory in his fi rst season of Formula One, the nationwide support Lewis Hamilton is receiving from all corners of our isle is astonishing for an otherwise unknown only a year ago.
Hamilton hinted a few weeks ago that ‘press intrusion’ could well lead him to relocating to Switzerland. Hamilton, raised in Stevenage, has ap-
parently been dissuaded from living in London because of the media attention he receives. This is forgetting that con-centration on him in the papers did not cease during a month off in the Côte d’Azur, where he was remorselessly tracked by photographers.
It is more accurate in my view that the superstar plans to relocate in order to avoid paying British taxes. Becom-ing a tax exile is a trend very much as-sociated with F1 drivers. Hamilton has the potential to become one of the high-est earning sportsmen in Britain and is estimated to hit, and probably exceed, £50 million. His possible plan to live overseas has created a black cloud over supporting someone who has benefi ted from growing up in Britain. Representing one’s nation would be
an intensely proud moment for many of us, yet avoiding paying taxes in the aforementioned country is not giving anything back from the astronomical wage he earns.
Sport has forever been an arena where supporters pick and choose the positives from the negatives in their backing. The question we need to ask is whether being born in the same country is enough to merit our support, regardless of any other mal fait in his life. Had Hamilton stuck his middle fi nger up to the national anthem whilst swigging champagne on the number 1 podium, his credentials as a Brit-ish patriot would have been shelved. For someone having lived in, been schooled in and received the support from those in Britain, it seems he does
not consider himself to be the most na-tionalistic-minded if he is considering such a great escape to the mountains.
Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones are representative of music scenes in the 1960s and 70s for which Britain is still remembered. Jagger was knighted, in fact, for his contribution to the Brit-ish music scene. However, in 1971 the
Stones notoriously became averse to paying taxes after setting up home in the south of France to record ‘Exile on Main Street’, one of rock music’s biggest fi nancial hits. Using offshore trusts and companies Jagger, Keith Richards and Charlie Watts paid only 1.6 per cent in tax on earnings of £81.3 million in 2005. Considering the band as British greats when they are so eager to avoid redistributing wealth back to those who have supported them does not quite add up. Taxing a mere 20% of their earnings still leaves a hefty £65 million for them to deal with. I do sup-pose, however, that this would be such a hard fi gure to live off for the year. Sarcasm, by the way.
What is worse, many people look down their noses at the Eastern Eu-ropean migrants coming to Britain in order to work. People who come to our shores to boost our economy by paying taxes are people who should be respected, not rejected. After all, many work longer hours than the typical em-ployee and so their tax contributions are greater. Yet still our favourite red-tops tar the reputations of such hard-working credits to our social order in the xenophobic mass-hysteria to which we have become accustomed. Many would consider any comparison be-tween the nation’s most popular sports and music fi gures and Joe Pole down the factory ridiculous. Yet if anything they are putting back more into British society.
Do the superstars of our genera-tion need such exorbitant amounts of money that they can justify having to tax-dodge? The high-earning fi gures that are so heavily encouraged in our society are giving back nothing to the place they so ceremoniously represent. Support and herald them with caution.
Right. You’re at home, in bed, thinking about going to that nine o’clock lec-
ture, with a third glass of water and a second aspirin for that cracking hangover.
Let’s be honest: you aren’t going to go in, are you? So what are you going to do instead? The age-old stu-dent pastime of daytime TV. GMTV is a bit too serious, so you’ll be start-ing your day with Britain’s – if not the world’s – best show dedicated to confl ict resolution, The Jeremy Kyle Show.
If you’ve bought or stolen a news-paper at all in the last week or so, you’ll probably have read about the Jeremy Kyle backlash. It’s all hap-pening because one of the contestants (can you really call them contestants? All they really win is abject humili-ation and a piece of paper saying, “I lied to Jeremy Kyle but he caught me
out and shouted at me on live televi-sion”) – OK, make that participants – got headbutted by his love rival at a taping of the show.
This led to the judge of the case describing the show as “no more and no less than titillating members of the public who have nothing better to do with their mornings than sit and watch” and “a human form of bear-baiting which goes under the guise of
entertainment”. So yes, this judgement created
a backlash against the show, with advertisers pulling the plug on con-
tracts and every single opinion writer with access to a word processor and a national newspaper giving their two cents.
Funnily enough, the sponsor who pulled the contract was the Government-funded adult education service Learndirect. The reasons for the sponsorship are clear, with day-time TV long being the preserve of students, the unemployed and kids who aren’t in school, whether ill or bunking off. Their effort to reach out to the unemployed is admirable, but it’s not really in the best taste, is it?
Let’s be honest: the entertainment value of the programme comes from the comic appeal of former DJ Kyle giving these people absolute hell for cheating, lying and cheating again but this time lying about it. Is it really the kind of programme that an educa-tion service wants to be seen encour-aging learners to watch? Shouldn’t they sponsor This Morning or even the schools’ programmes instead?
Though don’t get me started on when This Morning served to demonise a professional escort to promote a show on later that night.
It’s the entertainment value of the show, though, that’s most important here. We already know that it comes from people being immoral. But we all do it. I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t been dishonest or even cheated be-fore. So why don’t we see subjects on Jeremy Kyle like “It’s time to face facts – you plagiarised that disserta-
tion!” or “Don’t deny it, I saw you pull him in Come Play!”
Because as harsh as it sounds, it isn’t nearly as fun. It seems to be more concerned with class than anything else. There’s a perception of the ‘underclass’ in today’s British society, whether you typify them as chavs, scallies or townies. Seemingly it’s this group of people represented on shows like Jeremy Kyle and the
numerous predecessors it, like Trisha and the one that started it all: Jerry Springer. When did you last see a doctor or a teacher taking the lie de-tector test on Kyle’s show?
So at the end of the day, it’s very easy to lay the blame on Jeremy him-self. After all, he’s the one shouting at guests and telling them to “SHUT UP” and saying that “some people need to be stripped bare before we can help them” (according to his latest press comments). However, as anyone who watches the wonderfully brilliant Charlie Brooker’s Screen-wipe on BBC4 will know, he’s just the talent. The guy who stands there, looks handsome, talks clever and makes you want to get angry or feel for these people. I severely doubt he handpicks his participants for every show somehow.
So if you want to get angry at someone, get angry at ITV for giving the thing airtime, the producers of the show for thinking up the format in the fi rst place or even the media in general for giving us these stere-otypes of the ‘underclass’ as the ones who cheat and lie, when actually the rest of us do that really well too.
Bear baiting?
When did you last see a doctor or a teacher taking the lie detector test?
Learndirect’s effort to reach out to the unemployed is admirable, but it’s not really in the best taste
The question we need to ask is whether being born in the same coun-try is enough to merit our support
Heroes and extra zeroesOnly a nation of hypocrites would revere tax-dodgers and revile hard-working immigrants. Matt Cutler warns against idolising heroes just for being British.
Being a tax exile is a trend very much associated with F1 drivers
By Lee Macaulay
LAUGHING: All the way to the bank
OPINIONgairrhydd 13
OCTOBER.08.2007
M iL o rDL oLw
Like most stereotypes, the ‘typical student’ typecast is extremely diffi cult to shirk.
We’re all binge drinkers. Our culi-nary skills stretch no further than beans on toast – some mild ched-dar grated on top if we’re feeling particularly adventurous. We’re lazy. We’re permanently ill (albeit, predominantly with self-induced conditions). We’re anti-establish-ment and willing to stand up to the authorities regardless of the consequences…
Ah. Until that last perception of students, I was sickeningly conform-ing close to the stereotype. I am a little ashamed to admit that I have never at-tended a rally to protest a worthy cause, or a march or even the most genteel of demonstrations over the price of Crispy Bacon Wheat Crunchies going up by three pence in my local corner shop.
Controversial banners, handcuffs and railings, the sweet righteous sense inspired by eyes burning with tear-gas, being blasted by a water-jet or pelted with rubber bullets – all of these things are alien to me, part of another world; a world which I fear is shrinking.
At last year’s National Union of Stu-dents’ (NUS) campaign against top-up fees, Admission: Impossible, the much-publicised protest in London attracted approximately 10,000 students. 10,000 students from the entire country! The march was heralded as a success by the NUS, but when you consider there are 26,000 students at Cardiff University alone, the line between success and failure dramatically narrows.
More recently, in August of this year, the NUS supposedly claimed a new scalp in a campaign to get nasty bank HSBC to revert its proposed pol-icy to end interest-free overdrafts for students. With over 7,000 signing up to the Facebook group, ‘Stop the Great HSBC Graduate Rip-Off’, the bank back-tracked on its plan. The Head of Product Development, Andy Ripley, admitted: “We are not too big to listen to the needs of our customers.”
But while everyone sent a virtual ‘high fi ve’ to each other on Facebook, I couldn’t help but wonder whether online campaigning, if this is to be the way of things to come, is evolution or devolution.
The truth is that students in the UK, despite the perpetual myth to the con-trary, are not the revolutionary political force of yesteryear. More and more of us, myself included, have let ourselves become engulfed in apathy and over-whelmed by the notion of ‘what dif-ference can I make?’, which has led to inertia. So where did this apathy come from?
Perhaps, as oft has been claimed, politics has grown stale. However hard Gordon Brown and David Cameron try to differentiate their parties, Labour and Conservative (and, less signifi cantly, the Liberal Democrats) have blurred into one and the same middle-ground entity, so very few of us have a defi ned political identity.
Although I hate to be one of these people who blames the woes of the
world on technology, I think this is another factor which has had a massive impact. As shown by the HSBC-Face-book stand-off this summer, the inter-net has come not only to be a quick and readily-accessible means of commu-nication, but now the central weapon in fi ghting our battles – distancing us from each other and our causes.
What I don’t understand is why this
move away from active protest seems to have been isolated to Britain. Although monks initiated the recent demonstra-tions in Burma, thousands of students took part in last month’s revolt, despite the all-too-recent memory of the mas-sacre of student protestors there in 1996. In August, the military-backed government of Bangladesh imposed a curfew on the country’s major cities due to student uprisings against the
interim government, which many feel is corrupt and has taken advantage of emergency rule to consolidate power and quash opposition. In France, last year, over 250,000 protesters (mostly students) took to the streets to oppose a controversial new labour law. So why are so few of us British students rat-tling our own sabres?
Of course it is not all doom and gloom. There are many students in the UK who are making a difference, or at least trying bloody hard to. And I have the utmost respect for those who stay up all night painting signs and T-shirts, only to cram into a battered coach in the early hours and go to fi ght on be-half of an honourable cause – in fact, any cause in which they truly believe.
Well, now I have a cause of my own, which I plan to make my new (academic) year resolution: Bring back a little passion to student politics; fi nd something you care about and fi ght for it.
Conforming to a stereotype isn’t necessarily always a bad thing.
I don’t predict a riotDaily Express
I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when I read about fears of a chemical attack in Soho last
week, sparked by a batch of chil-lies cooking in a Thai restaurant.
The police cordoned off streets and
evacuated homes in central London
due to suspicious ‘noxious smoke’ in
the area. However, when fi re-fi ghters,
wearing breathing apparatus, inves-
tigated the source of the fumes, they
arrived at the kitchen of Thai Cottage
restaurant.
It turns out the chef was preparing
nam prik pao, a traditional, fi ery dip-
ping sauce served with prawn crackers.
He was ‘a bit confused’ as to why his
cooking had caused such a commotion.
This incident is without a doubt
a sign of the times, but whether it
tells of emergency services which are
extremely well prepared for terrorist
attack or too quick to jump to conclu-
sions, I am undecided. Either way, it’s
rather sad.
The Times
The best-laid plans of mice, men and, now, TV chefs often go astray, as Jamie Oliver has
discovered, as the popularity of school dinners across the country takes a plunge.
Although the healthiness of school
food has made a considerable improve-
ment due to new government legisla-
tion, the number of pupils buying
school meals has dropped, in some
schools, by up to 25 per cent.
However, according to Ofsted, it is
not the food that has put students off,
but long queues, short lunchbreaks and
higher prices. Ironically, this has led
to many pupils purchasing unhealthy
snacks from tuck shops and vending
machines out of convenience.
It seems there’s a long way to go
before the school dinner situation is
‘pucka’ by Jamie Oliver’s standards.
But with obesity levels on the rise,
solutions have to be found, and soon.
The government can fund more money
at this stage to avoid the problem, or in
the long-run, an already overstretched
NHS will have to deal with the conse-
quences. Defi nitely food for thought.
the...
October 13 is a date for everyone who is jaded/a columnist/Jeremy Pax-man to mark on the calendar as it is International Skeptic’s Day.
I don’t think I’ve always been a sceptic. Like learning to walk or pu-
berty, it just sort of happened. I think it probably all began that fateful day which every inner child never forgets: The Day You Find Out That Father Christmas Isn’t Real. After that, all the magic began to disappear – and,
I mean really disappear, not disappear up a sleeve or in a secret compartment like in a cheap magic show.
If Father Christmas didn’t ex-ist, then… neither did tooth fairies, money trees, talking animals… It was
endless. On the fi rst week of my jour-nalism degree, I discovered, in horror, that reporting works nothing like Lois and Clark at The Daily Planet – is nothing sacred?
That’ll be the day...
...in the papers
The truth is, UK students, despite the perpetual myth to the contrary, are not the revolutionary, political force of yesteryear fggfgdgfgffgfgfggfgfgfggf
STUDENT PROTEST: (clockwise) NUS beats bank online; August march in Bangladesh; French riots in 2006
FEATURES14 gairrhydd
OCTOBER.08.2007
Kite flying, singing, pa-rades, balloons, sweets, flags and fireworks are
just some of the celebrations that took place in August this year to celebrate Independence Day for India and Pakistan. Cardiff students Rohan Arora, Saquib Ahmad and Shreenivas Raju understand the impor-tance of celebrating Pakistan and India’s independence: the partition that divided India af-fected their grandparents and relations and built the founda-tions of their home countries.
The past few months of media cov-erage has been dominated by televi-sion programmes, radio reports and newspaper articles about the partition that divided India into two nations. This year marks 60 years since the division of India and the anniver-sary of the devastating effects of the bloodshed that followed the partition. British rule had reigned in the In-dian subcontinent since 1858. All Indian states were granted local autonomy but were forced to accept British representation concerning international affairs. However, the people of the British Raj w a n t e d i n d e -pend-
ence and they achieved it in 1947.
The painful partition
It seems that the only option was partition. In 1947, all of Britain’s at-tempts to preserve India’s unity and protect the large Muslim minority had failed, leading to the partition of India and the mass migration of 14.5 million people, which resulted in huge vio-lence and bloodshed. Lord Mountbat-ten, the last Viceroy of British India, uttered the words “the only alternative to coercion is partition” on the 3 June 1947. Ten weeks later independent In-dia and Pakistan had been born.
Saquib Ahmad, third year Bio-sciences student, comments, “I was lucky that my family were living in Saudi Arabia at the time of the parti-tion and moved to Pakistan afterwards. I know a lot of people affected who lost their families and homes.”
British judge, Cyril Radcliffe, was appointed to decide upon the border between India and Pakistan. Radcliffe had never visited India before; his hasty decision left millions aggrieved
and also en-sured that he never returned again. It was not as simple as creating a Muslim
West, East Pakistan (now
Bangladesh) and the Hindu-ma-
jority India in between: the break up of re-ligious groups created mass m i g r a t i o n .
Coupled with the collapse of law and order, there were casualties of 200,000 up to 1 million, 12 million were home-less, thousands were raped, and as men were killed, families of women and children were left to fend for themselves. As photographer Margaret Bourke-White said, the migration was “a massive exercise in human misery”, which left a scar upon world history.
It is unclear who can bear the blame. Many critics believe that the British pulled out of the nation too quickly, with no definitive borders and a failed plan to manage migration.
It is unclear who can bare the blame. Many critics be-lieve that the British pulled out of the nation too quickly,
The migration was “a massive exercise in human misery”
It is unclear who can bare the blame. Many critics believe that the British pulled out of the nation too quickly, with no definitive borders and a failed plan to manage migration. However, Britain argued that they were forced to act quickly due to the collapse of law and order, also blaming their limited resources following World War Two and claiming that the situation could have been worse.
Saquib Ahmad, also the president of the Pakistani society, continues, “We needed our own country. It needed to happen. Despite the difficulties, in many ways India and Pakistan fought together to escape the rule of colonial Britain.”
Gaining independence
On the eve of independence, In-dia’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru made an historic speech titled ‘Tryst with Destiny’: “at the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom […] We end today a period of ill fortune and India discovers herself again.”
The India Independence Move-ment challenged the British Empire to achieve political independence. Beginning with the rebellions of 1857, the movement climaxed during the Second World War with the Quit India Movement, Red Fort Trials of officers of the Indian National Army and the Bombay Mutiny involving a strike of the Indian sailors of the Royal Indian Navy. In 1947, India remained a Do-minion of the British Crown despite gaining independence until January 1950 when it adopted a constitution and proclaimed itself a Republic.
Pakistan also became a Republic in 1956 but faced a series of internal power struggles and the Pakistani Civil War in 1971 culminated in the separa-tion of East Pakistan into Bangladesh. Pakistan also had its own independence movement when the Muslim League fought to gain a separate homeland for Muslims. The head of the movement, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah stated that the “Hindus and Muslims belong to two different religious phi-losophies, social customs, literatures. They neither intermarry nor interdine together and, indeed, they belong to two different civilizations which are based mainly on conflicting ideas and conceptions.”
It is clear that despite the promise of a prosperous and independent future,
The promise of peace could not ensue between the conflicting religious groups
peace could not ensue between the conflicting religious groups. Divided by the dispute over the border of the Himalayan territory, Kashmir, India and Pakistan went to war, which left a lingering sense of tension and conflict among their relations. This continued into the 1990s after fears of nuclear war escalated and continue to loiter until the last confrontation at the India-Pakistan border in 2002 in Kashmir. The region remains divided by a Line of Control, which is often violated by separatist militants.
Regardless of the previous ten-sions, the Independence Day celebra-tions demonstrated a display of unity when Pakistan allowed 134 Indian prisoners to return home and 72 Pa-kistani prisoners returned from India. Saquib Ahmad believes that “if you ask anyone from my generation they will agree that the tensions between India and Pakistan have moved on over the past decade. Things are a lot calmer. The politics of war are left to the cricket ground.”
Independent celebrations
Shreenivas Raju, President of the Indian YUVA society, tells of his Independence Day celebrations: “me
Human misery: Margaret Bourke-White captures the mass migration.
With the recent 60-year anniversary of the independence of India and Pakistan, Features editor, Jenny Williams looks at the history of their creation.
FLYING THE KITE FOR FREEDOM: Future generations: Looking towards an united future
Kite-flying in India: Part of the Independence Day celebrations
India, Pakistan and the Partition
FEATURESgairrhydd 15
OCTOBER.08.2007
1947 India and Pakistan gained indepen-dence
60 year anniversary this year
Up to 1 million recorded casualtiescasualties
14.5 million migrated
12 million lost their homes
89 years under British control
3 wars between India and Pakistan
the worst for thirty years. In Pakistan there was also high security after previ-ous weeks of bloodshed and violence.
Shreenivas Raju is keen to celebrate India’s achievements rather than dwell upon the past and negative events: “We are the largest democracy, a country of 31 states, nine different main languag-es, 1352 dialectics. All religions and beliefs live together in one country. We are also on the way up economically; change is coming. We are embracing modern approaches to life yet still maintaining our culture and traditional ways of life. The only way we’re going is up.”
Pakistan appears to have fallen in the shadow of India’s economic growth. In the face of the challenges of the future, Saquib Ahmad,comments that ‘you have to remember that Pakistan has only had independence for 60 years, so we’re doing well. We aren’t suffering from such widespread poverty as India. With some good leadership, I hope that Pakistan will continue to prosper and be forever free.’
Celebrations are now more about celebrating progress rather than the independ-ence gained
It seems that if you talk to any Pa-kistani or Indian student, he or she is keen to reinforce the same message. As Shreenivas Raju articulates, “life can be unpredictable in India and Pakistan, especially with the presence of funda-mentalists and
terrorists. It’s time, irrespective of culture, religion or home country, to stand together and recognise that we’re all human beings and face our problems with courage and integrity”. Rohan, Saquib and Shreenivas are all proud of their home countries and keen to emphasise their generation’s determination to supplement memories of the partition and any current unrest with positive recognition of India and Pakistan’s achievements and hopes for the future.
The prevailing message amongst Pa-kistani and Indian students at Cardiff University is that the Independ-ence Day celebrations are less about remembering and dwelling upon the past and more commemora t i ng their achievements and looking forward to a brighter united future.
British Raj: India before the partition
FLYING THE KITE FOR FREEDOM:
Proudly parading: A parade in India celebrates their independence
and some of my friends got together; we sang the national anthem. It is a day to be proud of our country’s achieve-ments and ask ourselves what we can do to help our country move forward. We also had a minute’s silence to re-member not only all the leaders but every common man who gave us our independence and continues to im-prove India.”
Saquib Ahmad talks about the celebrations in Pakistan, “Everyone decorates their houses with fl ags, wears their best clothes, wears face-
paint and everyone spends the day singing the national anthem
and saluting and watching the cheesy programmes on TV. You also have a big dinner. Also at the Wagah border (running between India and Pakistan), two army offi cers march up
and down either side and knock the gate but it’s all in jest. It’s basically like the American Independence Day, but Asian.” Rohan
Arora, a third year law student, also comments on the comparison to Western culture; however, he believes that in India “there is a hang-over of living off British culture and model-ling itself on the Americans”. Despite the concern of the Western infl uence, Rohan emphasises that “India is a massive melting pot of cultures, peo-ple and histories. We take any success of any Indian in the world to be our own success.”
“Things are a lot calmer now. The politics of war are left to the cricket ground”
However, it is clear that the 60-year anniversary of Independence Day was not celebrated more than any other year. Rohan Arora continues and sug-gests why when he comments that “there was more emphasis upon the 50-year anniversary but, with emo-tions running high, it was followed by a big war between India and Pakistan two years after. Things have mellowed now; the celebrations are now more about celebrating the progress that’s been made rather than the independ-ence gained following the partition.”
A free future
Spirits across India and Pakistan have been high following the cel-ebration of 60 years of independence. However, many of the celebrations were shadowed by recent unrest in both countries. In India, a huge secu-rity movement was enforced after four explosions in Assam and the day was labelled a ‘Black Day’ in some areas. There was also the looming devasta-tion of the fl oods on Northern India, Flying the fl ag for freedom
The Partition
India, Pakistan and the Partition
Today’s map: Pakistan, Nepal, India and Bangladesh
POLITICSgairrhydd 17
OCTOBER.08.2007
It may sicken trade unionists to hear it, but conferences are not really about party
members getting together and debating policy. Nor are they about bringing senior MPs closer together with their party’s com-mon faithful. They are simply a 3-week marathon advert for the leadership circles of the Big Three.
Following the insomnia cure that was the Lib Dem conference, the big-gest two of the Big Three squared off in what was shaping up to be a pivotal fortnight.
With a snap general election not yet off the cards, Brown and Cameron were under pressure to set their parties on the right footing.
Brown took the honour of going first a fortnight ago, giving his inaugural conference display as PM.
The excitement seemed to bring out the patriot in Mr Brown, who used the word ‘Britain’ or ‘Britishness’ well over 70 times in a speech leaden with values but light on details.
In between the nationalist zeal, the PM promised the country he wouldn’t let us down, though the press were cer-tainly disappointed to find no word of a snap election in Brown’s script.
As with much of this new Brown
era, the PM used the spotlight to talk about himself – it’s all part of getting to know Gordon. But it wasn’t all friendly, as Brown showed his rougher edges with talk of hard discipline and social responsibility. That’s the Tory vote covered then.
The Gordon outreach programme is perhaps the greatest testament to the Blair years. Tony’s cult of personal-ity politics has forced his successor to establish his own persona, and to show that he is a new character, not an old sidekick.
Aside from The Brown Show this Labour conference had a few eyebrows rising elsewhere. Hip young thing David Miliband seemed to have had an adverse reaction to his new job as For-eign Secretary; gone were Miliband’s easy expressions and bright words, re-
placed by a serious twitch and gloomy observations.
Miliband drew the most attention of the week with his references to ol’ Tony. With words that summed up the mood of Labour’s week, the Foreign Secretary spoke of learning from the Blair years, but moving past them.
Such progressive talk was cheered by grassroots members, but the fact that Tony Blair is still at the centre of the Labour mindset over three months after he stepped down says something about the shadow he’s cast.
Despite this, Labour emerged in rea-sonably good spirits from conference week, with Gordon still bathing in the glory of an 11-point poll lead.
Though the pressure to perform on his debut had been high, it was left to the Tories to feel the real heat.
Over the last few months of those flagging poll figures and endless bad publicity, the Conservatives have been reacquainted with that familiar sinking feeling briefly subdued by Cameron but now alive and kicking once more.
The Tory chief’s speech was thus a make or break moment; the shaky ground Cameron found himself on has been well trodden by those before him, and a lacklustre performance may have sealed his fate.
You wouldn’t have guessed at his precarious state, however, when Mr Cameron strode onto the stage minus
notes or autocue. What followed was 80 minutes of stage-roaming chitchat, which despite its informality was nev-ertheless a polished display.
The young pretender attacked the newly crowned Brown, as had most of his party all week long.
The PM’s attempts to make friends with the electorate were singled out for abuse, with Cameron telling his audience that he didn’t have “some hard luck story” about his upbringing to tell.
Instead, they were given a speech that featured surprisingly detailed policy, particularly on education and social breakdown.
Tories and tabloids alike were left contented and even a tad impressed, and though it may not be enough for Cameron to leapfrog Brown, it should be sufficient to prop up his leadership for another year.
Having said that, if Brown does call an early election and the Conservatives lose, Cameron may still find himself joining that crowded blue dustbin of ex-Tory leaders.
Much has been spoken about the Burmese crisis in recent weeks,
although despite what can best be described as heroic acts by the monks, the fright-ful situation is far from a solution.
The problem lies with the geo-political stalemate, with its fault line yet again a fissure across East and West. It has been argued that China is the main player in this incident. China desires deeply to become a global power, in not just economic mould, while the West still shuns her and is uneasy at an-other Communist power.
The short sighted answer would be a united front from the West and China as this would convey a sense of respect by Western powers and strength on China’s part as a mediator.
However, China has not just an external face to save; her skewed form of Communism may be po-tentially at stake.
By allowing Burma, a country
firmly in her sphere of influence, the chance at overthrowing its military regime, China indirectly signals the green light to allow the seed of de-mocracy to flood the region.
China has a population of over 1 billion, none of whom can vote. Subsequently, China’s government is extremely uneasy at the prospect of sponsoring a democratic spirit that will be knocking at its front door.
China’s continuing impotence of having her hands tied will only fuel America’s belief that China can’t be trusted to act on such a global stage.
As a permanent member of the UN Security Council, China has the ability to veto any action taken on Burma, which will not go down well with the West. China’s UN ambassador, Wang Guangya, last week reaffirmed China’s predict-
able position that this crisis was not a threat to international peace and that sanctions would not be helpful.
However, Russia’s veto could also come into play with its anti-West rhetoric being tuned up by Comrade Commissar Putin and a desire to sell Burma a nuclear research reactor. Twinned with America and the EU slowly over time severing economic ties with Burma; Burma is left with two neighbours who will favour the Communist dictatorship presiding over her rather than the steady hand of democracy.
It is also worth noting the Bei-jing 2008 Olympics on the horizon. Many readers will argue sport should have nothing to do with political tensions, but it would be
naïve to assume the power sport now holds over the world to be meaningless.
Taken, gone are the days of true imperialist posturing; it now takes the form of sporting achievements. Hitler’s 1936 Munich Olympics were a huge political ploy to show the world the Nazi dreams in full glory; they even had foreign sports-men show Hitler the Nazi salute.
Candidly, China uses the Olym-pics as a political device. With her past isolationist stance to the world cast off, the world will visit in a state of uneasy awe upon an emerg-ing global power.
So, a card the West could play is to contaminate the diplomatic chatter with whispers of boycotting
Beijing 2008.This would be disastrous for
China, as it would embarrass her and ruin her global ambitions. An Olympics without, say, the US or Australia, would make a mockery of China. Granted, using sport as a political weapon may be underhand, but using the ability to boycott might shape up to be as powerful as China’s veto power at the UN and ultimately nullify China’s influence over the country.
The sombre note is that while all this political blustering continues, the Burmese monks and innocent individuals are being slaughtered in this archetypal battle between oppression and freedom.
Boycotting the Olympics may shape up as being as powerful as China’s UN veto
Burma’s geo-political stalemate again has its fault line across East and West
CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS
The Tale of Two CitiesWith bucket and spade in step Andy Rennison compares the seaside conferences of Labour and the Tories
In between the nationalist zeal, Gordon promised he wouldn’t let us down
Cameron may still find himself joining that crowded blue dustbin of ex-Tory leaders.
COMEDY AND TRAGEDY?
IS VICTORY ON THE HORIZON?
Tim HewishPolitics Editor
China must play Statesman
Whether you’re terrified at the thought of graduating at the end of this year or
sitting in Talybont nursing your freshers’ flu, debt is a universal student head ache.
A report by USwitch this summer claimed that students graduating in 2007 racked up a total of 3.2 billion pounds worth in debt and, with the in-troduction of top-up fees, things look set to become even more expensive.
One of the ways students are at-tempting to deal with this burden is by applying for a credit card.
40% of students in Wales have one and an increasing number of big name banks such as Barclays, NatWest and Halifax are now targeting students specifically with schemes as part of their student banking package. And the applications process couldn’t be
simpler.As long as you hold a student ac-
count with the relevant bank, you can walk right in, pick up a leaflet and send off your application form.
Two to three weeks later, your shiny plastic fantastic turns up with anywhere between £250 to £600 just waiting to be spent.
Because for many students this is their first experience of using credit, the process really is this easy. The ma-jority have no credit background to be checked. But it is this which makes us-ing your student credit card potentially
tricky. Mess up and you have a bad credit rating from the word go.
Student credit cards appear attrac-tive not only because you can buy stuff when technically you don’t have the cash in hand, but also because many of them offer freebies as part of their introductory offers.
Barclays for example offer free cin-ema tickets, discounts at Blockbuster, as well as prize draws to win MP3 players and festival tickets.
But try to look past these seemingly generous offers. It’s the boring figures and percentages that they should be telling you about.
The first thing you’ll come across will be the interest rate, or APR: Annual Percentage Rate.
The interest rate is what it will cost you to borrow from the bank. The APR is this amount plus any other compulsory charges. Unless you pay everything back in full each month you will always pay back more than you borrowed.
“Interest free” periods are often advertised, but don’t be fooled. This is dependent on you paying off your bal-ance before the due date every month.
The most frequently cited pitfalls for students trying to manage their
credit are the non-compulsory charges; fees charged for missed payments, or going over your credit limit.
Credit limits vary from bank to bank, and you can request a personal limit that is tailored to your individual need.
But be warned; “limits” are not im-possible to exceed, and the bank will charge you for the pleasure of doing just this.
Late payment fees are equally dif-ficult to navigate. If the minimum payment is not paid in time you will
be charged a late fee, normally around £12.
I t takes three days for most payments to be processed. So even if you do make the effort to pay on time, you may still get charged. It is often these charges that can cause you to go over your limit, causing you to be hit with yet another fine.
Keep an eye out for banks like Hali-fax that provide a text service as part of the package reminding you when your payments are due.
Some banks also allow you to set up a direct debit so that the minimum amount is automatically transferred each month, avoiding those late pay-ment problems.
Minimum repayments, normally around 5% of your total debt, will keep the fees at bay, but settling your debt this way will take a long time.
Interest payments on your debts are payable from the moment you make a purchase until the debt is paid off in full. On top of this you will be charged interest on the interest you are already paying at the beginning of each new
month, and this is where banks make their money.
According to Moneyfacts.co.uk, a £500 debt at 18.9% APR would take 12 years to pay off and cost £487.27 in interest if the minimum payments were the only ones paid.
And that’s assuming you never make a late payment or exceed your limit, so always try to pay off a little bit more than the minimum.
The safest way to deal with credit is to never spend what you cannot afford to repay. For students that is fairly im-practical advice. Our need to borrow is born out of the lack of cash to pay for items in the first place, and what may seem like a “student friendly” deal could turn into a nightmare.
So boring as it looks, and as nice as 20% off a Domino’s pizza would be, read the small print. That’s what pays.
JOBS & MONEYgairrhydd 19
OCTOBER.08.2007
Setting up a student credit card can seem confusing, and it is easy to get caught out. Jess Best guides you through the basics
In 2007 graduating students racked up a total of £3.2 billion in debt
Worried about life after uni? Jobs and Money finds out what happens when the party stops...ssssjsbfjdbfjbbjsbjdbjbbjbjdbjbjsb
The most frequently cited pitfall for students are the non-compulsory charges
Barclaycard Student CardCredit limit: Maximim £600APR: 14.9%Perks: Lots of discounts and free stuff, text reminders for repay-ments, direct debit payments.
Halifax Student Credit CardCredit limit: Maximum £500APR: 15.9%Perks: Text reminders for repay-ment and weekly balance update.
NatWest Student Credit CardCredit Limit: Maximim £500APR: 18.9%Perks: Payments by direct debit.
Lloyds TSB Student MastercardCredit limit: Mimimum £250.APR: 19.9%Perks: Online access to your account.
We all know how hard it is to make ends meet at university, especially after
freshers’ week. Jobs and Money is bringing you a
new feature on some of the more unu-sual ways people are going in search of those elusive pounds.
Many students out there have thought up wacky, ingenious and prob-ably downright scandalous money making schemes.
None however, were probably quite like the idea that can be found at Mil-liondollarpubes.com.
Created by an anonymous female from our very own UK, it was set up to finance the laser hair removal of her bikini area.
Her blog describes how she tried many other ways to gain that silky smoothness including waxing, shaving and creams but nothing proved suc-cessful and so Milliondollarpubes was born.
This daring entreprenuer is offering-
her pubic hair at the bargain price of $200 each in return for a direct link to advertising space.
. Although it is optional as to whether you actually want to receive the hair, the buyer gets a 10 x 10 pixel advertisement on the Milliondollarpu-bes homepage which then links to the buyers own website.
To gain the benefits of all this all you need to do is click on the ‘Buy pubic hair’ link.
With over 58,000 hits and 190 hairs sold so far, the website has become hugely popular on the net.
For the even more adventurous shopper, additional merchandise in the website’s own shop includes T-shirts, mugs and thongs with slogans such as ‘Smooth All Over’ or ‘Million Dollar Pubes’ to choose from.
If these don’t take your fancy then maybe the half naked woman who wel-comes you to the homepage will.
With $1,000,000 to make and 4810 pubic hairs left to sell, a ‘hair today - gone tomorrow’ scheme it isn’t. Origi-nal and funny it is.
Hair today, gone tomorrow
Would you credit it?
Have you had a good or bad experience with student credit cards? Let us know at [email protected]
Student Credit Cards in Brief
Graduate...
Jo a n n e D i n g l e graduated
from Cardiff in 2007 with a BSc Marine G e o g r a p h y
(Hons). She now works as an international sales executive in Cardiff.
What is your full job title?International Sales Executive
for GDS International. They are an events managment company.Where are you based?
Cardiff.Briefly describe what your job involves, i.e. your day to day responsibilties.
Calling CEOs and bosses inviting them to attend business to business summits - at the moment the project I’m working on is a telecom-related event to be held in Nairobi, Kenya
in October. The next project involves finan-
cial services technology and will be held in Dubai next year. How did you apply for your job? Briefly describe any interview/assessment process that you went through.
Having no real idea of what I wanted to be ‘when I grew up’ I attended the graduate careers fair at the end of the summer term to browse around the kind of work op-portunities on offer.
I approached one stall - GDS - and after finding out about the job, gave them my contact details.
A couple of days later I was in-vited for interview, then following that a second group interview where we did presentations.
At the end of July, I had a week’s training before being formally employed.What is the best/worst thing about
your new job?The best thing is the people. The
atmosphere in the office is fantastic, and my team is great .
There’s a lot of support if you ever feel out of your depth, and the social aspect of the job is a real bonus.
I guess the worst thing is the fact that you have good days and then rubbish days, but you just have to keep going and know that if you keep the effort up a good day is just around the corner! What advice would you give to students thinking of entering a similar field of work?
Talk to as many people as you can in the company before you start, and then once you’re in the job, hang in there.
You’ll have some days that are better than others, but keep smiling, keep working and make the most of your weekends!.
Jamie JonesJobs and Money Reporter
