It’s been almost a year since moving into our brand new building, which not only allowed the school to make

room for the growing student body, but also gave the IB students a quiet-er environment to study or relax with friends. Moving in, there was still work going on around us that we hoped that would be sorted out swiftly. However, ten months on and there are still some problems with the building which are, luckily, not impacting us too seriously, but nonetheless we would love to get them fixed.

Firstly, the main entrance to the south campus still has a double door that is out of order. This may not be a big issue, however with the expanded school, traffic is a big problem during lesson changes, which only makes get-ting to lessons take that much longer. This is not only hindering our learning but also stopping teachers from getting through all of their lesson.

Additionally, the walls of the school are just bland and the lack of colour makes us feel as though the building is just unfinished. When the scaffolding ap-peared opposite the snack bar, it was hard to contain our excitement, because we thought that the wall may finally be getting painted, but two months on, with the scaffolding still there, we are still waiting for this to happen.

It is not just the existing problems that are still there but new ones that have been causing complications too. In the music room there was leak, which is something that should not have hap-pened so soon after building it. In ad-dition, one of the physics labs suffered from a cracked floor, causing the door to be unable to close, which may have been a problem for a room where ex-periments take place. Fortunately this problem got solved fairly quickly and everything could resume to normal.

Furthermore, the new stage in the au-ditorium, which was considered to be the centrepiece when being built, is al-ready facing some minor issues. It has only been 10 months, yet the stage is already covered in scratches. This is something that was caused by only one production so we just have to hope that it will be able to withstand many more.

Shivani Patel gets heated about the flaws in the new building.

Editors in ChiefJocelyn Kwan,

Meghana Mortier

February 5th, 2016Issue 56

Cracking Up Is Not FunnyFinally, the news that the heating was not working hit the IB students while they were studying for their exams. Luckily we had the empty north campus to work in, but even now the heating has yet to be fixed. Instead there is a large generator that is being used to keep the school warm. This happened at the worst possible time - during the middle of winter, with snow outside, and made the exam process a little more unbearable than it should have been.The south campus is still in its first year, so maybe these problems were to be expected. However, for the time and money that the campus took to build, we should not be experiencing these problems. It could be said that better planning of the building may have pre-vented some of these problems, but it feels as though even now there is not much being done to fix these matters.

EditorsJohn David Villarino,

Ruby Griffiths, Chetan Khanna,Lyndon Kwan

2

As if five months of hard work on personal project was not enough… The week dedicated

solely to personal project has arrived, amidst all the fun ski trips of years 7 to 11 and the abominable mock exams of years 12 and 13. Writing and activities, an equal balance of both, occupied us year 11 students throughout the whole of the week. All of this would not have been possible without Ms Smiley, our awesome Personal Project Coordinator.

From day one, we were greeted by a hole in the wall. Every homeroom had to pass through a hole of their own and hilarious physicalities ensue. After rig-orous methods of transporting people through the wall, the homeroom who eventually had the fastest time won the competition (which happens to be yours truly’s homeroom). This absolute-ly fun mood set the rest of the week’s entertaining, yet productive, atmo-sphere. We also got to know what type of workers we will be - or we are at the moment - through a fun, mini-team-building workshop with Mr Harrison. We then got to start writing our reports right after the rather engaging warm-up with, of course, the utmost productiv-ity. The day was topped off with a mo-rose yet heartwarming story about the lives of the children in Kinderblock-66 during the Holocaust. The story of their survival under the wing of a very com-passionate and selfless supervisor cap-tivated our hearts with feelings of hope and faith in humanity being restored. If only, people actually watched rather than slept…

The next day started with a puzzle that left us puzzled. Reading between the words was an essential strategy that helped us finish the game while rack-ing up the most points we could. This activity was then followed by a circle-time facilitated by Ms Varga and Dr Kim, the contents of which I cannot talk about as whatever is in the circle, stays in the circle. This was followed by a pre-sentation by Mr Anderson, the MYP co-ordinator, that was very helpful in guid-ing us in the writing of our report. Then came the most fun part of our day: the writing of our reports. We got to do this from 11 to 4 which was rather amusing as it is chill.

The third day caught most of us up in mixed feelings. Some were dissatisfied by how long the week was taking to write our (extremely fun) reports and were looking forward to the week be-ing nearly over. Some wanted the week to last longer, as it is basically a toned down ski week without all the fun of ski-ing...and there is a report to write at the end of the week, yet it was still a good escape from actual schoolwork, that we normally get. Either way, we started the day by doing a nostalgic homeroom activity in which we all got to compete in building the best paper airplanes that we could and see which one went farthest. Being a parallel to writing our report drafts and seeing which one went the furthest, we started writing our reports right after this activ-ity. We then spent some of our day run-ning around in entertaining and rather physically taxing activities, organised by Mr Kaddour and Mr Friend. We were given a presentation by Mr Foley, thereafter, presenting a presentation about presentations that will help us present our presentations. This was ex-tremely conducive to the effectiveness of our product demonstrations the week after. We ended the day with Mr Ribas helping us create QR codes for our PP products that people absolutely took the time to scan on the evening of the presentations.

On the fourth day of PP week our co-ordinators gave to us a thrilling game of coming up with exceptionally vague names of animals; aardvark is one of my favourites. We proceeded to have activities to loosen us up, expedited by Monsieur Fazan, and it was exciting and quite lively to say the least. This was succeeded by another circle time with our amazing counsellors, again the contents of which I could not men-tion. This was again followed by the re-laxing, yet gratifying, remainder of the day, with students determined on finish-ing their reports before the end of day, so as not to have too hectic a Friday.

Finally, came the end of Personal Proj-ect Week when everyone, students and teachers alike, were either tired from all the productive work they have been do-ing, sad because the week was ending, or extremely hectic, in order to finish work before the 11 o’clock deadline. I, for one, was all three. The day started with a traditional activity, an educa-tional one at that. This game involved

John David Villariño gets per-sonally involved with his project

Yes Week Canbeer cans and science, which explains the crate of beer and soda cans lying beside the elevator in the top floor of the North Campus. Another fun, yet rather physical, set of activities were given which involved a whole lot of running. Students came to the activities all relaxed as it was preceded by the last hour in which we could write our reports. We had our final session, and it was either the most chill or the most frantic one of the week (depending on how productive you had been during the week), right before the deadline. Amidst the chiming of the school bell that warned the students of the impend-ing deadline and the deadline itself were the sounds of relief and the sounds of ravenous typing echoing throughout the hallways of the school. Then came 11 o’clock when students came out of their classrooms, or cells, to talk about how much they wrote and how much of a relief submitting the first draft of the report was. Then came the realisa-tion that it was just the first draft they submitted and they still have to make whatever pile of repeated words they put together into something that makes sense in the next month. To add salt to the wounds came our preparations for our presentations, where adults and students alike will be watching us talk about our projects with the most strik-ing of eyes. We have overcome the battle, but not the war. To all Year 11’s out there, hang on, redemption is nigh.

3

Not Playing Ball

Oh wow, really? You’re not go-ing?” This seemed to be the uni-form reaction to my choice not

to attend this year’s winter ball. But, it’s much more than being cheap and want-ing to avoid the inevitably inane music.

It is rejection of such limited clothing op-tions for both boys and girls. It seems drag or any other slightly alternative option have been completely wiped out. Outfit requirements have been clearly stated for both genders. I am vexed, partially on behalf of any seri-ous Priscilla Queen of the Desert fan. As if a formal wear requirement isn’t enough, clothing limitations have been drawn up in black-and-white, boy-girl terms, meaning I could not wear a col-lared shirt and smart pants, meaning a boy couldn’t wear a dress or a skirt. Not only does it enforce societal norms, but sends the message that how we identify ourselves should be defined by, frankly, out-dated gender expectations. The event propagates gender norms and materialism in an already materi-alistic environment. These events, en-dorsed by the school, should be gender neutral, which should definitely extend to the dress code.

It starts here. It starts with these expec-tations. It starts with maintaining our safe environment, in which we learn, find ourselves, and discover how to get along with others. How are we sup-posed to be open-minded and accepting of difference when the rules state oth-erwise? It leaves a much smaller space for individuality, which seems ridiculous in a school where we can choose (to an extent) what we wear in the morning. The archaic clothing conditions extend even further to the expectation of “ball gowns”? I certainly would not arrive in my pyjamas. However, glass slippers and tiara aside, a ball gown has the im-plication of excessivity to which I would not want to adhere.

But why do clothes matter? After all, it all may seem arbitrary, particularly in comparison to patriarchal problems we all face each day. Clothing and dress are said to be “modifiers of body processes” (these processes being the interactions between our bodies, and our physical and social environment) and as “mediums for communication”.

Therefore, I suppose it is because identi-fying oneself through clothing is incred-ibly important when choosing how the world sees you and how you feel about yourself. Placing restrictions that are so gender binary, by nature, enforces further conscientious dedication to mak-ing sure one looks to a certain explicit yet implicit standard. The gaze of the outsider becomes more important than how you feel about yourself, an issue that women have dealt with on a more dramatic scale for a long time. Being free of expectations and limitations of what is socially acceptable would en-courage creativity and exploration as to how we represent ourselves. For it is through mediums such as stories, characters, self-portraiture, films, and clothing etc. that we can begin to find ourselves.

Although, I suppose it does make you feel like an adult going to such a formal evening, with such civilised dining ac-tivities - with even the dancing remain-ing a semi-sober sway. This is the only school party event of the year to which most students attend, yet I’m not sure it could be classified as actual ‘fun’. Not in the way it could be, for I am find-ing myself jealous of sock hops or a good old karaoke bar. There seems a certain insistence to push formality and

Ruby Griffiths gives the Winter Ball a dressing down

a nouveau-riche attitude onto students at ISL, whether it be parental or institu-tional. After all, I’m sure soon enough we will be attending plenty a posh par-ty – maybe at father’s next office do? ISL’s ball is more akin to the opulent events of Gossip Girl, a show focused on Manhattan’s elite high school. At-tending our ball would be an accep-tance of my bourgeois fate. I realise the conditioning has already begun, as my father likes to point out regularly in smugness. The clothing restrictions set the tone for the event; exclusivity stan-dards decided by ticket price, outfit ex-travagance, etc. all contribute to what we encourage and accept as a school. Let’s take the focus away from parent-controlled, ball gown filled events that push us into wearing the badge of ex-clusivity and tradition when we should be having more fun.

The theme itself is not completely lame. There’s a level of glamour that is ap-pealing. At least it was not an under the sea theme… It could be, however, a dance event that is beyond the mas-querade of “trying to forget the people you see everyday” theme. The mas-querade, in some senses, is inadver-tently dragging us back to the carni-vals of the 1700s, where the aristocrats party and the peasants weep.

4

The statement above was put there not just because there were funny skiing moments, which there were,

but thanks to a bunch of before and after skiing started moments. A sign of the week? Everyone laughed really hard on a daily basis...and only a cou-ple of injuries led to the premature end-ing of some people’s ski trip. Not too bad. Read on to find out what were the top funniest moments of our ski week, with the best at the end. I will not men-tion any names but refer to them as the ‘person.’First of all we should begin with a group 4 incident; this involved a person trying to do a ‘daffy all day’, and when that person finally managed it successfully and were in the midst of their euphoric celebrations...they had a huge fall, in-volving a head first crash, with a tum-ble, down the rest of the park.Then there was a person who loved try-ing ‘ground 180°s’, failing badly once. While the instructor and the rest of his group were lining up, instead of follow-ing the group and lining up, he tried to show off with his 180 skills but, while

doing so, he encountered a small strip of ice - he slipped badly in front of ev-eryone, and left another funny memory in everyone’s minds.Then there was a cheeky instructor mo-ment, where the instructor decided - just for fun - to snatch one of his student’s skis and ski away with it down the slope, while that person struggled to get down the slope on one ski, regular-ly losing his balance and falling down harshly. Often.Then came karma: that same instructor had a huge fall while trying to show off in front of his ski group on a steep off-piste section just by a black run. There lay a big jump, but instead of manag-ing a perfect jump, his skis sunk into the soft snow, his body fell and and one of the skis skyrocketing way into the air, leaving him lying in the snow looking daft.Then we had another group 4 incident, with a person boasting, saying that they were the fastest ski racer, all week - when the time came to prove this, he went onto a ski race piste and, after everyone else had gone and set their times, he decided to show his superiori-ty. While going down the grand slalom, he first hit a left gate (which attached to him)...but he still continued racing

Year 10 Has SaasShrey Mittal lets his tongue loose on the ski trip

down. He then took out a right gate, which combined with the left gate, al-most blinding his view as he continued down. If that wasn’t enough, he lost his ski on the jump...but carried on, with 2 gates and only 1 ski. And the miracu-lous thing? He still got the fastest time in his group. Proving that he was the fastest.And the best moment? Drum roll, please! One morning, even before ski-ing had started, one of the people de-cided to see what happens when you place a nice warm tongue against a very, very cold metal pole (it was -11). It was 9am and one Year 10 person found themselves with their tongue fully glued onto the aforementioned pole! Each time he tried desperately to pull it off, the tongue stretched and stretched, but stayed on the pole. After several stretchy tongue tries, a super teacher poured water onto it and their tongue was finally released. The person then got on all fours and shoved his abused tongue in the snow, to ease the sting-ing. And on the pole? Three or four little pink patches remained, testament that ISL had visited Saas Fee this year.And that was our ski week - a lot of fun and an enjoyable week!

5

Treasure ISLand: Going Home

A common trend around ISL is that we are all from different places, meaning most of us have moved

before. I’ve never been in a place be-fore where the majority of my friends have a completely different life in an entirely different country from the one I know them from, and it was crazy hear-ing about all of the places they would be going over last Christmas. Personal-ly, I got the chance to visit to my home town in the US.

Every trip back home is different, and the complete scale of emotions come with each one. Leading up to the visit I’m overjoyed, I can’t wait to see my friends and being able to stock up on all my favorite food I’ve been missing is great. The day we leave is exciting to say the least, and I usually end up spending the entirety of the eight hour flight fidgeting in my chair because I’m too antsy to actually turn on a movie or read a book. The first day we arrive home is always my favorite. Everything just seems new, but comfortable at the same time to the point where even the drive home from the airport is enjoy-able. Within an hour of getting back to my house I’m with friends and, from that point onwards, I’m constantly busy. However, as the days in Minnesota pass by, my emotions begin to change, and that’s where each visit differentiates. My first real, planned trip home was during Easter break last year. At that point I hadn’t been home for nearly eight months so I was extremely ex-cited, and there was not a single part of me that thought that things may be different in Minnesota. I remember sit-ting on the plane and thinking without a doubt in my mind about how amazing that trip would be.

However, the visit wasn’t what I was expecting it to be at all. I loved seeing my friends, but it felt like there was just something missing. I think the initial di-vide was that our lives had all changed, but in totally different ways. My friends had moved forward together where I on the other hand had progressed into a whole new life. The friend groups and the gossip from before were old news and our inside jokes were now eight

months old. The Minnesota I knew pre-move had evolved, and I wasn’t apart of that evolution.

Not knowing how to act was another issue between me and my friends. There was constantly this underlying awkwardness of “I don’t know how to treat you because you may or may not be the person I knew last year.” The truth was that some people had changed, I being one of them, and oth-ers simply hadn’t. Trying to figure out who those people were was the hard-est part I think. Discovering all of this took a toll on me. It made me want to come home permanently even more; I couldn’t stand being so out of the loop and I was worried that as time went on I would get further and further away from my friends. Overall, by the end of our visit I was probably even sadder going back to Switzerland because I was completely aware of everything I was missing.

The next time I went home was for six weeks during the summer. Going into the trip I was obviously excited but part of me was a bit worried. I knew how the last visit went, and I wasn’t sure if I would feel the same divide between me and all of my old friends. After about a week I realized that I had nothing to fear. Now that it was summer people didn’t see each other every day, and so it wasn’t like I had missed the biggest and latest thing that had happened

during school. That alongside not hav-ing the same awkwardness of seeing friends for the first time after I moved made a big difference. People treated me entirely normal; it felt like I was liv-ing my old life again.

It wasn’t until the last few weeks that I began to feel weird about everything. I realized that soon enough I would be leaving Minnesota behind to go back to Switzerland, and I would be out of the loop yet again. For a while I was up-set about this, but eventually I came to the understanding that while it may be hard for the time being, my home and friends will still be there for me when I eventually move back. This epiphany has really allowed me to move forward with my life, because now I know that even as things change in Minnesota I will still be able to jump back into ev-erything when the time comes.

As I said before, my most recent trip home was over Christmas. Although it was short, this trip was most definitely my favorite of all of the times visiting. I think it was because this time I not only knew what to expect, but I also understood that it was simply a visit. I wasn’t going to go home and immedi-ately be back to my old life, but I did get to have a chance to reconnect with friends and soak up everything I miss about Minnesota, which is exactly what going home should be.

Lauren Nudi starts a new regu-lar feature about the life of an MYP student

6

Will You or Won’t You?

Will Straughan is the repre-sentative of Freedom from Chemical Dependency, FCD,

who was here last week to talk about alcohol and drug use, which I learnt, are the same thing.

He tries to display confidence in his pos-ture and in his body language, but you can tell that no matter how long he’s been doing this job, he’s definitely still nervous. To be fair, we are a big group of people. Still, he seems like a very outgoing guy. As a student though, it is hard to imagine the sort of things Will must have gone through.

As soon as he starts talking though, you know this isn’t some sort of conventional drug talk nor a guy with a PowerPoint yelling in your face that drugs are bad

for you! See, the problem with those kind of talks is always the thought that, “I’m not average. Whatever happens to everyone else won’t happen to me.” They’re not relatable and they always force their opinion on you.

Will takes a lighter approach, but in my opinion, one that resonates more effec-tively amongst students. He starts off really relatable. He was just a normal student, did well in school, got good grades and was accepted into Universi-ty at a very early stage. He didn’t men-tion any traumatic event that led him to his affiliation with drugs, but rather just pressure. Pressure from wanting to fit in. It wasn’t peer pressure, no one forced him. Just the need for him to fit in with the others, and I feel like today, that’s more relevant than ever. It’s dis-appointing, yet so true for teenagers around the world. However, there are conflicting opin-

Shardul Bansal starts his jour-nalistic career on a high

ions about his effectiveness in school. Lyndon Kwan, a Year 12 student be-lieves he passed on the message very well and was very influential, however Will’s impact on Lyndon will not last. He was very effective in his approach, however his message will not last. Oth-ers believe he had no effect on them at all, maybe because he didn’t enforce any rules or maybe because he didn’t take the orthodox approach, also known as the scare tactic just to remind us that society chastises drug-users very harshly. Nonetheless, almost all agree that Will Straughan is a big step up from last year’s FCD specialist, whose impact on our lives was so miniscule no one remembers her name.

All in all, Mr. Straughan’s visit was met by different opinions and mixed reac-tions but I definitely thought he was ef-fective, even if it was of short term ef-fectiveness.

Emily Coyne is not waiting for the midnight hour

Following the season “to be jolly”, the population of the western world finds themselves in a dazing

limbo, caught in a haze between not knowing what day it is or knowing how many selection boxes they have con-sumed. The days become less of a blur as the novelty of Christmas wears off, and a new countdown begins, that of New Year’s Eve.

New Year’s Eve. If watching creepy family members get exceedingly drunk on Christmas is not enough, New Year’s Eve is notorious for the ideal moment to binge drink the last moments of the year away. In fact, 25% of all cham-pagne bottles sold in the US are pur-chased in the days between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, leading to 360 million glasses poured throughout the season in America alone. Seemingly, the population enjoys waking up to the joys of crashing head aches and acid parched throats, starting the year on a wonderful foot. The pressure to create the “best night ever” escapes a select few, as 22% of the American popula-tion falls asleep before midnight, miss-ing the countdown and the champagne

New Year’s Griefshowers, followed by the hours of accu-mulating drunk mistakes, slurred resolu-tions, upturned stomachs, and walks of shame.

Of course, through the drunkenness come the resolutions that even the sober can not escape. The infamous claim “I’ll be hitting the gym every day!” leads to a surge of unfit and over-ambitious party goers paying for a yearly subscription, learning how to use the equipment within the first week of January, and profiting of the sauna every other month for the rest of the year just to show their face around. If we thought it was impossible to find a resolution that could be broken quicker than that of the gym, then look no fur-ther than the festivities carried out on the night, as the next two most common resolutions to be broken include drink-ing less and quitting smoking.

The climax of the night often comes from the build up to the actual countdown to midnight. Different countries celebrate in different ways, for example the Span-ish custom of eating 12 grapes, one for each second of the countdown to mid-night. With midnight comes the famous New Year’s Eve kiss. If dodging the mis-

tletoe was not enough, midnight brings the anti-climatic and overrated need to kiss a stranger, an idea made popular by hundreds of Hollywood films glori-fying the moment. The reality, far from the Hollywood dream, is that most of us end up kissing either the floor, the rim of a bottle, or another drunk party goer who, if you squint hard enough, looked sort of decent in very, very dark lighting.

Without even mentioning over-crowded squares, exorbitant drinks, unfavour-able music, and shameful dancing, it is seemingly clear that New Year’s Eve is easily the most anti-climactic night of the year. Nonetheless, we all choose to participate in the festivities, convincing ourselves that a great night will lead to an even better year. Why all the pres-sure? With the looming dread of work or school nearing, and the knowledge that the happiness and joy of Christmas is over, most people find themselves grasping for events to look forward to. The need to compete over who stayed out the latest, who drank the most, who got into the best club fill the empty void in which the lack of upcoming celebra-tion and early, cold mornings back in an office simply can not suffice.

7

Hair To The ChiefJason Li makes ISL great again

As a white supremacist, I have always appreciated honesty. A good, hardworking, honest man

–not woman mind you– is exactly what the USA needs. I am tired of million-aire, business men running this country. What we need is a billionaire. Some-one who really knows what the Ameri-can public wants and can best repre-sent the American people as a whole.In my opinion, Donald Trump is the epitome of the American dream. Born from humble beginnings, he strived his way to success on the real-estate mar-ket with only moderate aid from his multi-millionaire father (who also found success on the real-estate market). His company, “The Trump Organization” (that name is not a joke), has invested in many lucrative ventures such as the Miss Universe competition, Trump In-ternational Hotel, Trump World Tower, Trump Marina, and of course, Trump Taj-Mahal.People don’t become billionaires by sheer luck. His immense risk-taking skills

rival that of a world champion poker player. His majestic hair is only compa-rable to that of a Nordic god. America needs him to fix the USA’s problems like the ISL south campus needs a struc-tural renovation.Problem 1: More than 98% of the US population is descended from immi-grants. Fortunately, Donald Duck said he would fix this problem by deporting refugees as soon as he is elected. After all, why should those less fortunate in life be granted the same opportunities as those fortunate enough to be born in a politically and economically stable country? Problem 2: According to Trumpty Dumpty, Mexico is a massive threat to the US economy and illegal immigrants are only “rapists” who are responsible for “bringing drugs and crime” into what would otherwise be a criminal free country. Once again, Ronald Mc-Donald’s superior education at the Uni-versity of Pennsylvania has enlightened him of successful historical means of promoting world peace. Looking back at the history of wall building with the

Iron Curtain and the Korean DMZ, it is clear the Stormtrumper knows what it takes to make America the great na-tion it once was. He will build a giant wall between the US and Mexico and he will “build them very inexpensively.”Many Republicans and wall enthusiasts are wondering “how will he build these walls cheaply?” Don’t worry, Supreme Leader Trump has thought of every-thing. He “will make Mexico pay for that wall.” Problem 3: ISIL or Daesh is an oppres-sive, terrorist regime that needs to be stopped. When asked about how to fight these terrorists while minimizing civilian casualties, Donaldbert Trum-perdinck adequately responded with “you have to take out their families.” After all, there cannot be anymore ci-vilian casualties if we kill them all first. Here, the solution is to kill these civilian family members to prevent more terror-ism and hatred towards the West. Truly, if only more business savvy peo-ple ran the US government, then Amer-ica would really see some changes by the end of 2020.

Meghana Mortier

On the 28th of January, the sev-enth Republican debate was held. Although the American

presidential race may not be of utmost importance to some of us, the figure that Donald Trump strikes has brought more attention to it than usual. For those who have been following the events, the recent debate incorporated events that can teach us a lesson that applies all the way over here, in our little school in Switzerland. Donald Trump was not present at the seventh Republican debate. The rea-son? The debate was being hosted by Fox News and was being moderated by three of their news anchors. Among them was Megyn Kelly, the sole reason for Donald Trump’s absence. He has stated that he does not like her, that he finds her biased and dishonest. For these reasons, Trump declared that he would not the attending the debate, unless Megyn Kelly was removed as a moderator. In essence, Trump did not want to be in a situation where he would be asked

In Defence of Free Pressquestions by a person he didn’t like. In turn, Megyn Kelly had shown that she was not particularly fond of Mr. Trump, but as of yet she has not done anything that is out of line in her role as a journalist, as has been supported by Fox News (although Fox News it-self isn’t the epitome of political cor-rectness). He doesn’t like her because she doesn’t like him, and that poses a danger to him. He doesn’t want to be questioned by someone who he knows does not have the highest opinion of him because if he were, he might get asked harder and more controversial questions. The questions, if requiring difficult answers, may have painted him in a negative light. Donald Trump’s ac-tions leave one with the uneasy feeling that he is trying to control the image of him that the media displays. What it all boils down to is a want to control the media. He wants the media to concede to his conditions of who will be involved in presenting his image or he will refuse to be involved. In ISL, the writers of the newspaper are given free rein; we are not held back by those who are higher up in the hier-

archy. Where Donald Trump is trying to control what is going to be asked of him, the heads of ISL do not try to make the newspaper write in a solely positive manner about ISL. Our press is free in ISL, and that has benefits. With the freedom to say what we want, our readers can actually trust what we write about. There are definitely times when what we write is not what the heads of ISL would want to hear; there have been criticisms of our culture, building, and programs. Even so, we do have an editing process and a sense of constraint. We aim to report truths and our opinions - whether positive or not - without just being a forum to spew out whatever thoughts we have. But since we are free to express our-selves, our expressions of appreciation of things within our school can continue to be perceived as genuine. In this way, the freedom of press we possess actual-ly paints a more positive picture of our school than a controlled press would. Not only can you rest in the comfort that what we read is not censored, but when you read something appreciative, you can know that we really mean it.

8

Deconstructing An Eyesore

At the beginning of the year, the ISL newsletter’s design was up-dated. However, “update” is not

the right word to describe what hap-pened. “Regressed” would be better.The new newsletter does not hold a candle to the older newsletter design. From what I’ve heard over the past few weeks, it’s a sentiment echoed by many students and staffWhile I do support the idea that you need to “stay with the times”, I don’t support the idea that you “stay with the times” by regressing. In recent days the newsletter has become a terrible and jumbled mess of text and pictures of various font sizes and colours. Not only is there no design continuum with the website, but there is absolutely no continuum within the newsletter itself.At first glance, you think the bulletin is simply too cluttered. And you’d be right. It goes deeper, however. It starts from the very top, with the large im-age in the header, to the right of the ISL logo. Not a bad idea, right? Well, here’s the problem: it’s too bright and it contrasts too much with the vanilla white background.Making matters worse is the font type and size for the titles. Titles, of course, have to grab the attention of the read-er: they will often be larger, of a differ-ent colour or font and in some cases of a different font size in an attempt to dis-tinguish themselves. However, it’s rare to see all three elements combined to-gether like they are in this case. Worse

Chetan Khanna has some ad-vice for our school newsletter

is the choice of a serif font, which con-trasts with the sans serif font of the body text in the main section and also the body text in the sidebar. Why not use a somewhat more subtle font? It still dis-tinguishes itself from the body text just fine and is far more pleasant. Italicising the titles also seems a little excessive; especially considering they’re already bigger and of a different font, it seems pointless and just leads to more clut-ter. Titles are essential; and ill-designed titles just cause the entire newsletter to look like one great chunk of indecipher-able text. Rather than titles separating the newsletter here, however, they at-tract too much attention to themselves. In fact, they attract so much attention that it becomes almost difficult to read the body text.However, the crux of the issue is the colour scheme. There is one word to describe the colour scheme: atrocious. The earlier colour scheme, consisting of light grey and cobalt blue was far more restrained, elegant, and exquisite. It was easy on the eyes: things were uni-fied and different sections and elements were clearly distinguishable. Titles were in blue on a grey or white background: they didn’t harshly contrast with the rest of the design. The header was not a bright picture (as explained above): but rather a minimalistic global map (perhaps representing the schools inter-nationalism). The colour scheme is now red, blue, white, and light grey. There are two problems here: the choice of colours, and the placement of these colours within the design. Regarding the new and so-called better palette, one of the most mystifying choices is

bright red. It’s featured heavily in the titles of the contents menu, and it con-trasts sharply with the background and body text. There’s no reason it needs to be there: red is used to portray love, urgency, war or youth. Frankly, it’s a rather jarring colour. The other colours are well-picked - an array of attractive and appropriate colours that work well in harmony with each other. Currently, the colour scheme is one of the big-gest downfalls, and making even minor changes will greatly refine the entire design, making it far more welcoming.The newsletter, in its entirety, has also been narrowed. The entire text and design is simply narrower and longer. While this doesn’t necessarily sound like such a major point, it actually makes reading the newsletter far more laborious. After all, imagine reading your essay on paper that is the width of a bookmark. It’s not exactly a byword for “pleasant”.Numerous erroneous and ill-judged de-sign decisions make this newsletter not just inferior to the previous design, but a major departure from the design de-cisions our school has typically made. It’s not horrible – but it’s simply harsh on the eyes. In 2016, it’s understand-able that the school wants to update to a more modern design and keeping it unique. It is also seemingly avoiding the idea of minimalism. Achieving a good design that stands out and avoids almost all minimalism is a herculean task in today’s world, and doing that successfully is almost impossible. As a design, it’s a worthy effort, but it’s not quite there yet.

9

SPOILER ALERT!!!10 years after the release of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the

Sith, J.J. Abrams decided to take on the duty of directing the next segment in the Star Wars series, Star Wars Epi-sode VII: The Force Awakens. As I sat down next to some of my biggest, dork-iest, friends in the packed theatre with our plastic lightsabers and Star Wars themed soda cups, the lights began to dim as we all stared at the screen with our eyes wide open and our jaws dropped to the floor. I honestly never felt so excited/ nervous/ freaked out in my life! And thus, the music began as we all heard the iconic theme written by the legendary John Williams and we set out on our two hour journey of excitement, nostalgia and pain.

Star Wars the Force Awakens was a movie that wanted to bring back the memories and emotions of those who most enjoyed the sci-fi fantasy long ago. I can definitely say that this movie did its job, although it did pay a price for it. If you want to write a sequel that has the same effect as the original, just write the same movie. It is clear to me that J.J. Abrams was so pressured with this movie that he dared not venture to broaden his creativity as the base of this movie had recycled material from Star Wars IV: A New Hope. The evil empire in search for a droid, a gang of nobod-ies find the droid and attempt to keep it out of the hands of the bad guys, a giant death planet gets blown up by a

Lyndon Kwan is not the droid you are looking for

Good, This Movie Wassmall weakness in the design. There’s a lot more that if you’ve seen both movies you’ll definitely know. When Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace was released, many fans backlashed the movie and hated it. Many said it was a great disappointment. So I can under-stand why J.J. Abrams was fearful of writing a brand new plot.

Although the movie had a very similar plot to that of the original, it did not fail to bring back old nostalgic memories of some of the greatest moments in Star Wars history. One particular moment was when they revealed the Millennium Falcon for the first time as Rey called it a “Piece of Junk”. Throughout the mov-ie, it hints to many of the best moments of the original trilogy that will make you smile, laugh and cry. Another be-ing when Han Solo asks if there was a trash compactor on the planet that they could put Captain Phasma in. It was definitely one of the funniest Star Wars movies, as there are many mo-ments that just make you want to gig-gle, and it added a bit of comic relief to the movie. Then, there were the not so funny moments. One being the moment when the great Han Solo falls to his son, Kylo Ren. That was by far the most painful scene in the movie and I remem-ber sitting in my seat trembling as my friends and I. It’s difficult to say what I think of it. Han Solo being one of my favourite characters, it was obviously difficult for me to deal with this because I imagined a whole trilogy with him in it, and to fall to his own son was just not what I was expecting. J.J. Abrams may

however, use this to create a much big-ger plot for the next two movies.

Finally the characters. The new char-acters are a great addition to the Star Wars family. I thought Reys character was written especially well, and Da-isey Ridley did justice to her charac-ter. I feel they are eluding back to the original Luke Skywalker chracter that many loved. It also gives us insight into how she will develop in further movies. A kid left on a desert planet with no memory of her family, who has secret untapped force abilities meets an old man who’s been through a war and together they take on the communist empire. We get the feeling that Rey is going to get trained by an old jedi mas-ter and becomes the new saviour of the galaxy. Which also tells us that Luke is probably going to die soon. Although it seems like her character is very simi-lair to Luke, she does have a more inde-pendent strong character that was not a thing with Luke Skywalker at first. The other characters were not as well writ-ten as Rey was in my opinion however they did add some contrast to the other characters of the movie. The movie was one that I had extremely high hopes for. It did not let me down, however it did not exceed my expecta-tions either. I feel that this movie is just a piece of the puzzle that will create a masterpiece once everything is added, and I feel that there are great plans for this movie that will cause this one to make much more sense. I’m not sure. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

10

Bear Food or Oscar Fodder?Luca Adams exits, pursued by a bear

J-Law and the Miracle Mop

Joy is a David O. Russell film pro-duced by 20th Century Fox and starring Jennifer Lawrence, Robert

de Niro, and Bradley Cooper, released on Christmas Day of 2015.

The film is based upon the real-life sto-ry of the title character, Joy Mangano, with the plot first focusing on the diffi-cult life of hers, although stretching the truth for the sake of the plot (for exam-ple, the real Joy Mangano graduated from Pace University, whereas the mov-ie’s character did not go to college at all, due to family troubles). However, a majority of the movie is true to her life, as she did struggle to provide for her family, working several jobs in order to do so. This was until the late 1980s to early 1990s, when she invented a convenient and ergonomic “Miracle

Paul Baroudi did not find this movie joyous.

Mop”. From then on, she attempted to base a living off the invention of this, facing challenging circumstances in at-tempting to do so.

The film has already been nominated for a Golden Globe for the Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, and won the award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical (Jennifer Lawrence) and is in line for an Acad-emy Award for Best Actress (again, Jennifer Lawrence).

However, regarding the film itself, I am sure that some would find it a great movie to watch. I can see the potential for the plot, but I simply do not think that it is one that the age demographics of this school would enjoy. The plot is mostly based in the world of business, and fits into the genre of drama, so I do not think that a majority of the people in ISL would find it entertaining; they

might even find it a little bit boring. The whole movie, both the problems and the solutions, are essentially based around the so-called “Miracle Mop”. Therefore, the main problem of the plot is not life-threatening and does not keep the audience at the edge of the seat as much as other movies, which is what I think the movie is lacking; excite-ment. This lack of excitement also some-what causes the problem that the movie is not very memorable.

I understand that the movie wanted to show the evolution and legacy of the entrepreneur, but I think that a docu-mentary would have been a better platform for the story than this sort of movie. Not many people know who Joy Mangano is, and therefore don’t con-nect with the story in the way that they can with the biographical film about Steve Jobs, which was also nominated for Academy Awards.

Leo has taken on many people in his time: The FBI, Django and that rich guy in Titanic. This time though, he

tried to take on a bear. Yeah, didn’t go so well.

Leo is trying to get away from a party of Native Americans after they attack his camp and kill pretty much every-one. As he makes his way south, he spies some young bear cubs. He de-cides to shoot them but Momma Bear ‘ain’t having any of that, and Leo gets torn to pieces. His friends try to carry him back, but it’s too difficult, so some people stay behind with him until he dies, while the others make their way to the camp they’re trying to reach.

The film is all about Leo’s rage and thirst for vengeance after someone very close to him is murdered. The men leave him soon after and he must try and head south all on his own, not even able to walk. The only thing that’s driving him is the need to kill the murderer. The story is very much like The Centurion, if any of you have seen

that: going north, suddenly not want-ing to go north, returning south as you get chased by the locals… And the film is actually based on a true story. Un-like most films based on true stories, it keeps pretty much all the details from the story and only “Hollywoods” it a little.

The film has some stunning shots and it cleverly uses sound, lighting, and cool sets to bring the film together and make it feel super edgy. A trick I no-ticed the film used a few times was to raise the sound and suddenly cut it. For example, there were some men trying to make their way down the side of a waterfall. The sound of the waterfall slowly built up without the viewer even realising it because they were listen-ing to important dialogue. Suddenly the scene changes and puts the viewer right in the action somewhere else. The sound of the waterfall is gone, but you feel almost like you NEED the sound of the waterfall again and this made me extremely uncomfortable.

All in all, this is a really good film. The music isn’t memorable, but it’s re-ally effective at setting the mood. The

photography is amazing and the act-ing is top notch with an awesome cast. The film actually stars Will Poulter, the guy who played Eustace Scrubb in the third Narnia movie, The Voyage of The Dawn Treader… and this time he’s not a whiny little brat! I know you’re re-ally only hyped because DEADPOOL CAME OUT YESTERDAY IN HONG KONG! But I would still recommend you see this film. It’ll leave you looking like this!

11

The Academy Awards have forever been a very prestigious awards ceremony recognising some of

the greatest in film. This year’s event celebrates the 88th Annual Academy Awards and will be hosted by a previ-ous Oscar host Chris Rock on February 28th (early in the morning on the Mon-day, the 29th here in Switzerland). And yes, that is in fact on the day we get back from February break – how fortunate, I know…

Because mentioning over 120 nomina-tions might take just a little too long, the nominations for Best Picture for the 88th Academy Awards are: The Big Short, Bridge of Spies, Brooklyn, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Martian, The Rev-enant, Room, and Spotlight. This year there have been some very impressive films which have received numerous nominations, namely The Revenant be-ing nominated an astounding 12 times.

One of these nominations was for Best Actor, Leonardo DiCaprio; this year might just be the year for Leo.

Despite the immense size, acclaim, and prestige of the Academy Awards, there has been an uproar over the diversity gap in the nominations and winners of the Oscars, especially in recent years. Last year’s Oscar host Neil Patrick Harris even kicked off the show joking about how it was the whitest Oscars in almost 20 years. And hopefully, just hopefully Chris Rock will make some sort of nod to this growing problem. Un-fortunately this seems to be a recurring theme among award ceremonies like the Golden Globes and Tony Awards in California, the home of Hollywood and “heart of entertainment”. One of the most critically acclaimed films The God-father awarded Marlon Brando with an Oscar for Best Actor in 1973. However, the actor did not accept the award but rather sent Sacheen Littlefeather, an ac-tivist for Native American civil rights, to respectfully deny the award due to the unfair treatment towards Native Ameri-

cans in the entertainment business. And yes, before you ask, there were indeed many non-white actors and actresses in some pretty amazing roles this year. Will Smith in Concussion, O’Shea Jack-son Jr. in Straight Outta Compton, Idris Elba in Netflix’s Beasts of No Nation, and Michael B. Jordan in Creed. And no, that isn’t the same Michael Jordan you might’ve heard of before. And though Michael B. Jordan wasn’t nomi-nated for his role in the movie, white guy and co-star Sylvester Stallone was nominated – so that’s good. This year the nominees for Best Actors & Actress-es in Leading Roles and Supporting roles are all white. So, ultimately, there isn’t even a chance for any non-whites winning an Oscar this year for those categories, which is frankly just unfair.

Oscar Is a White Guy’s Name

Horoscopes

AriesDo you have an upcoming event? Are you nervous? You may be finding your-self dreading an inevitable incident. Anxiety and fear has become a recur-ring feeling lately, and this may be in-terfering with a project that you have been working on. It is important for you to stay calm in these times of stress.TaurusYou have noticed yourself becoming more distant from those who were once close to you? You have been too focused on schoolwork lately. You need to make some more time for your friends and family. Gemini You are worried that your relationship with a close friend could be shifting. You need to confront this person about your feelings despite being afraid of what they may think. You can better understand your friend by confronting them about your relationship.

Alannah Wilson finds the fault in your stars

Edward Fraser is white enough to be a nominee

CancerRecently someone has revealed some-thing personal about you, which has left you feeling insecure about yourself. You must forget what was said, and don’t let your insecurities stop you from making new connections.LeoRecently you have noticed yourself be-coming bored with your surroundings. You feel like it is time for a change. But, what now? Embrace all new opportuni-ties presented to you! VirgoYou have been feeling suspicious about a close friend; they have been sharing things about you to others that are pri-vate. Be careful!LibraEverything around has been chang-ing; this is making you uncomfortable. It is important that you remember your values. Stay focused on your original goals!ScorpioYou are losing your patience. Teachers have been frustrating you recently. It is essential that you remain calm during

these situations; you have a short tem-per. Consult another teacher that you trust.SagittariusSomeone close to you may suddenly disappear. Even though this will be un-expected, you will be understanding and accepting of your future.CapricornYou have been acting aggressive to-wards friends and family members. Al-though, you believe that these relation-ships are too strong to be broken, don’t underestimate the people you can push away with anger.AquariusYou’re head is in the clouds! Wake up! You may be finding yourself daydream-ing more often. Don’t let this interfere with your studies; concentrate on fulfill-ing real you’re real dreams.PiscesYou are letting people get the best of you. You need to stand your ground. People are taking advantage of you for your skills. You must be stubborn and strong; stand your ground!

12

Adela Sahraoui

IBeat Poem

Time at ISL trying to excel attempting not to dwellon all this work, it’s hell

Maths and science compulsoryFour extra subjects obligatoryWhere’s the time for mastery?The pressure alone is absurdity

Will I fail in every subject?Will my answers not be perfect?Will my essay be a reject?It’s half what I expect

It’s better to laugh than cry Keep your head held high and sighBecause however hard you tryYou can wave good grades goodbye

The Three Masketeers

As the workload crushes us And we students can’t make a fussThough we might just quietly cussAs we always have to rush

We listen to the teacherSounding more and more like a preacherBecoming meaner and meanerWhilst the class is not any keener

After Hours of listening, the mind drifts away Thinking of all things to do the next dayMore deadlines to meet, no time to delayI think that my hair’s already gone gray

When school is finally overWe go back to our shelterOnly to rememberTwenty essays to write for laterALL THIS FOR ME, JUST TO GET THE IB!