The Gaudie 12th February 2020

Is Aberdeen really so different? Out-growing friends A Tribute to Kobe Bryant He's a real romantic! Features p.5 Opine p.12 Satire p.15 Sports p.16 University staff to strike from February to March The action will start on Thursday 20 February and escalate each week, culminating with a week-long walkout from Monday 9 to Friday 13 March The University and College Union (UCU) announced on Tuesday 3 February that 74 UK Universities would be hit by strike action from February to March. The dispute between the UCU and the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) centres on proposed changes to the USS pension scheme, which, according to the UCU, would leave the average member £240,000 worse off in retirement. In addition to the dispute over the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), staff at many universities, including UoA, are striking over universities' failure to make significant improvements on pay, equality, casualisation and workloads. Speaking to the Gaudie, a spokeswoman for Aberdeen UCU said: “The strike is over two disputes, in both of which members voted overwhelmingly in favour of taking action. The first is to protect our pensions. We pay a portion of our salary into these throughout our working lives, in the expectation of a guaranteed income we can live on after we retire. “Proposed changes to the pension scheme will make it unaffordable for staff, remove the security of knowing how we will cope in old age, and threaten the long-term survival of the scheme itself. “The second dispute is over a bundle of issues: not just pay but also equality, casualization, and workloads.” UCU members at 60 universities walked out for eight days in November and December last year in action that affected around one million students. This next wave of strikes will affect another 14 universities and an additional 200,000 students, as more UCU branches crossed a 50% turnout threshold required by law for them to take industrial action. Professor Karl Leydecker, Senior VicePrincipal at the University of Aberdeen, said: “These are national negotiations over pay and pensions. The University is committed to a fair and affordable pay settlement and pension scheme for our staff. Universities UK and UCEA have made a positive offer to address casual employment: workload/mental health, and gender/ ethnicity pay gaps and we as a University have also made a number of commitments in these areas. We are disappointed that the UCU has announced 14 days of strike action.” Continued on p. 4 by Anttoni Numminen Photo courtesy of AJN “Proposed changes to the pension scheme will make it unaffordable for staff, remove the security of knowing how we will cope in old age, and threaten the long-term survival of the scheme itself." NUS Scotland slams Scottish Government budget NUS Scotland “disappointed” by draft Scottish budget for 2020-21 The Scottish National Union of Students (NUS), a student lead organization which ‘lobbies for and promotes the rights of students’, has criticized the recently published draft budget of the Scottish Government as lacking in funding for students and higher education in general. The President of NUS Scotland, Liam McCabe, responded to the Scottish Government’s draft budget plans for the year ahead by saying: “Students have been waiting to hear the Scottish Government's plan for delivering student support equivalent to the real Living Wage, and the message from today’s budget is that we must continue to wait. “Despite the rising cost-of-living, the support on offer to Scotland’s students remains largely unchanged, leaving them increasingly out of pocket and many struggling to get by, especially the most disadvantaged.” The draft budget for 2020-21 was published just hours after the Scottish finance secretary was forced to resign after reports he had sent hundreds of messages to a 16-year-old boy. Derek Mackay, the former finance secretary had been tipped as a possible successor to Nicola Sturgeon, as leader of the Scottish National party, before the scandal broke. McCabe went on to say of the budget: “Scotland’s colleges and universities have faced significant financial pressures, undermining their ability to deliver the day-to-day services our students rely on. We welcome the announced real-terms increase to further education resource funding, but remain concerned at the lack of investment in buildings and classrooms that our college students learn in. We are also disappointed that there has been no attempt to restore funding to the level that our universities and students need. “Overall, today’s budget will be disappointing for Scotland’s students, and we will continue to fight for the funding they need and deserve.” AUSA is also a member of the NUS and it is set to hold a referendum on its membership of the organization later this semester. by Johnny Cyclops IV Magazine Inside

12.02.20 Note from the Editor: Radical Self Care p.2 HEAD EDITORS [email protected] Fanny Olsson & Parel Wilmering NEWS ([email protected]) EDITOR Rosie Benny DEPUTY EDITOR Anttoni Numminen SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER Natasha Doris ([email protected]) FEATURES ([email protected]) EDITOR Emilia Nuotio DEPUTY EDITOR Jodie Cumming INTERNATIONAL ([email protected]) EDITOR Floriane Ramfos DEPUTY INTERNATIONAL EDITOR Robass Zia SOCIETY ([email protected]) EDITOR Dillan-James Carter SCIENCE & ENVIRONMENT ([email protected]) EDITORS Anton Kuech & Natalia Dec OPINE ([email protected]) EDITOR Tamara Rennison DEPUTY EDITOR Amy Richmond SATIRE ([email protected]) EDITOR Blythe Stockdale SPORTS ([email protected]) EDITOR Tom Molnar Editorial Team PRODUCTION Mathilde Communal, Monica Ferreira, Isti Miskolczy, Fanny Olsson & Parel Wilmering COPY EDITORS Jenna Fults, Sally Heneghan, Mia Sommer & Matilde Zoppi ONLINE ([email protected]) EDITOR Amy Smith SOCIAL MEDIA CO-ORDINATOR Finlay Macleay EVENTS TEAM Matthew Angell & Shona Boyd PHOTOGRAPHERS Malwina Filipczuk & Alistair Swan MARKETING ([email protected]) Monica Ferreira & Lea Rattei Production Team We voluntarily adhere to the Independent Press Standards Organisation (www.ipso.co.uk) and aim to provide fair and balanced reporting. The Hub Elphinstone Road Old Aberdeen AB24 3TU Tel: 01224 272980 The Gaudie is printed on 100% recycled paper. University launches £100,000 Europe fund The fund is intended to help boost the Institution’s ties to its partnerships in Europe The University of Aberdeen has set up a fund of £100,000 to maintain its links to the institute’s partners in Europe. University Principal George Boyne and Ruth Taylor, Vice-Principal for education, announced the fund during a drop-in session at the Sir Duncan Rice library on the 31st of January. “I recognise that many of my students and colleagues are sad, but we are not despondent. We are celebrating our connections to Europe, which have been in place since the University was founded” said Professor Boyne. The University has stated that the fund is intended to strengthen and maintain its links to its collaborators in Europe through partnerships such as the AURORA network, which is a group of nine European universities working to promote international development and sustainability, and tackle societal challenges Professor Boyne added: “As the UK leaves the EU, our commitment to continuing to work closely with our European partners is undiminished and this fund will help us to make the most of the new circumstances we find ourselves in.” The University is a noted contributor among multiple pan-European projects and has over the last decade received over £47 million in EU funding for its collaborations and research projects with universities and other institutes across Europe, which have resulted in almost 1500 joint research publications. “We intend to continue those connections and to remain linked to our European partners and colleagues. As we approach our 525th anniversary, it’s important that we reaffirm our links to Europe with a clear message that our shared story of success will continue.” by Natasha Doris AUSA unveils draft sustainability plan The new plan was unveiled following Student Council AUSA unveiled a draft of a new sustainability plan following Student Council’s January meeting. The plan, released by Student President Cecilia Wallback was originally supposed to list 10 practical steps for the following year but has since become a much more ambitious plan. The plan lists a plastic bottle free campus; reducing the amount of waste going to campus; reducing the carbon footprint in catering; improving the commitment to sustainable travel and limiting pollution on campus as just some of the desired outcomes. Principal and Vice-Chancellor George Boyne encouraged the release of the draft and for students and AUSA to add more items to the document at Student Council in January 2020. The current draft also lists a full divestment from tar sand, coal and fracking by 2023 despite the fact that Boyne declared at the very same student council meeting that University would continue to invest in fossil fuel companies. The University and AUSA are beginning ot take steps to become a more sustainable environment, including a proposed ‘Meat Free Monday’ effecting AUSA food services and a 35p charge on all disposable cups in the Sir Duncan Rice Library. by Leslie Knope Photo courtesy of Rosie Benny Radical self-care: the idea that selfcare should be a priority rather than an afterthought. I think most people have an idea of what self-care is. You may think of taking a bath, meditating, burning incense or candles or eating an entire tub of ice cream. In a time when self-care, like everything else, from love (hey, did you buy some Valentine’s Day chocolates?) to LGBT+ pride is commercialised, the difference between self-care and self-destructive behaviour can sometimes be quite vague. Buy weirdly expensive gifts! Spend 10 pounds on a bath bomb! Retail therapy! It’s self-care! I’ve felt a lot recently and I was in need of some radical self-care. So, I took a few days off, didn’t schedule any meetings with friends or plan to do any uni work. I stayed at home and watched Sex Education. I went for a walk through Seaton Park and saw a squirrel and a seal, which was pretty neat. The next two weeks, a lot is going to happen, and I think we all might use a little extra radical self-care. There’s Valentine’s Day coming up, which can be a stressful time if you’re single or if you don’t like it for any other reason. A few days later, Mercury will be in retrograde which means that it looks like Mercury is travelling back in the sky. According to astrologists, this affects everything to do with communication as Mercury is the communication planet. Expect miscommunications and confusion and plan extra time for travel. Okay, I’ll take off my witches’ hat now. With these events coming up, as well as just the general existential dread most students deal with, it is so important to take care of yourself! So I hope you can see this copy of The Gaudie as a motivation to take a bit of a break. Take some deep breaths, maybe light a candle, make yourself a cup of tea. And read this wonderful copy of The Gaudie. Once again, we’ve worked very hard writing, editing, copy editing, and designing the paper. We hope you’ll enjoy the result. “As the UK leaves the EU, our commitment to continuing to work closely with our European partners is undiminished..."

12.02.20 p.3 NUS election results announced Turnout remains low The outcome of the AUSA’s National Union of Students delegate elections was announced on the 31st of January, with 7 delegates in total being nominated. Five of these chosen delegates will represent the University at the NUS Scotland Conference in Dundee in March this year. One of these same delegates and two others were chosen as representatives for the UK conference running from the 31st of March to April 3rd in Liverpool. The turnout in this election from Aberdeen University’s student population, based on a conservative estimate of around 11,000, constitutes a low of 0.64% and a high of 0.73%. The candidates themselves made up just under 10% of total voters across all elections. All candidates ran for both delegations, with the exception of winner Julius Lajtha and Rahul Chaure, who was eliminated from the Scottish delegate election. This turnout signifies a decline in student voting in recent years, falling short of the prior turnout of 1.25% in the 2017/18 NUS elections. AUSA’s single transferable vote system delivered a number of narrow election results. The reserved positions at the Scottish conference saw Zofie Hobzikova and Sophie Levine tie on 24 votes each in the third round of voting, securing victory for both. The regular positions for the conference were filled by Alexandra Vodentzis who won 18 votes in the third round, and Anttoni Numminen and Florina Birkert who each won 17. All three narrowly surpassed Martin Le Brech who fell short of victory by just three votes. Five candidates battled on the ballot paper for the reserved delegate position at the UK conference, with two finding themselves locked in a tie by the fourth round. Alisa Koester and Alexandra Vodentzis were even on 24 votes each and, with only one spot up for grabs, the result was forced to decision by random electronic selection; handing Koester the victory. A second electronic selection was required in the ballot of the two remaining delegates to the UK conference with Anttoni Numminen and Sophie Levine level on 19 votes each after Julius Lajtha was elected in the fourth round with a technical 24.67 votes. Levine was the beneficiary of the random selection, becoming the final addition to AUSA’s representation at the NUS conferences. The delegates will travel to partake in the conferences in late March. by Alastair Lockhart The candidates themselves made up just under 10% of total voters across all elections. Delegates at last year's NUS Scotland Conference - photo courtesy of Lawson Ogubie Scottish Lib Dem leader vows not to go into coalition during event at UoA The Party leader also said the UK had become an “international embarrassment” as a result of Brexit by Anttoni Numminen On 27 January, Willie Rennie, Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats attended an event on campus hosted by the Students for Britain society. The event, titled “Why Scotland Should Remain in the UK”, saw the party leader give a wide-ranging talk on unionism, Brexit and the future election prospects of the Scottish Liberal Democrats. During the talk, which focused on the advantages of Scotland remaining in the UK, Rennie said he “found it offensive” that Nicola Sturgeon took his vote for remaining in the EU as a vote for Scottish independence. On the prospect of a second independence referendum in Scotland, Rennie said he didn’t think a country should be broken up on “a cynical calculation of when you can get over 50% of the vote”. ”We should be moving on from the Indy debate, focusing on the basic issues and creating a positive agenda for change”, said Rennie. Instead of a second independence referendum, he said he was in favour of a federalised UK with a written constitution where the centre of power is redistributed. Brexit was touched on several times and Rennie said the UK had become an “international embarrassment” as a result of it. “I think it was a failure on my part, not convincing people we should remain [in the EU]. I want to reach out and I understand the feeling of frustration, I just feel Brexit isn’t the way to solve it.” Speaking to the Gaudie after the event, Rennie spoke of the Scottish Liberal Democrats election prospects in the 2021 Holyrood elections, vowing not to go into a coalition with other parties. “We want to work on an issue by issue basis and make sure that we deprive the SNP and Greens of a majority”, he said. When asked by the Gaudie what he thought of elected Labour councillors going into coalition with the Conservative Party in Aberdeen City Council, he commended them for their “bravery in moving away from the centre-ground.” Rennie said he “found it offensive” that Nicola Sturgeon took his vote for remaining in the EU as a vote for Scottish independence. Photo courtesy of Students for Britain

p.4 12.02.20 During the February meeting of student council, councillors debated motions calling for the minutes of AUSA Trustee Board meetings to be released and for AUSA to lobby the University for increased security in order to help prevent sexual assaults. However, the meeting got off to a more than usually heated start when communities Vice-Chair, Tomas Pizarro-Escuti raised a point of order saying: “Angus Hepburn made a threat regarding our protesting in the library and said if we continue, he would walk over our faces. I would like it noted in case he decides to take violent action against us”. Pizarro-Escuti was informed by the Chair, Lea Rattei, that he could raise the matter through an AUSA complaint but could not do so during the student council meeting. A motion aiming to prevent sexual assaults, proposed by Jack Boag, was in part a response to the rise in sexual assaults at Glasgow University. Boag’s motion suggested having a code word in the student union building which students could use if they felt unsafe and wanted to speak to someone in private. The motion also suggested security patrols and increased lighting as well as encouraging students not to walk home after dark. However, some members of the council argued that it was perhaps excessive, creating an environment of fear on campus. This included Derek Gardiner, who asked whether the motion would not create an “unsafe atmosphere” to which, fellow student councillor Ivana Dradkova responded: “this is the motion that will create an atmosphere of safety.” However, as some members of the council including the representative for CASE, were unhappy with the wording of the motion, a procedural motion to have it rewritten was submitted and subsequently passed by student council. As such, the motion will appear before council again in March. In addition to this, the rules and regulations for the referendum on AUSA’s membership of the National Union of Students (NUS) were also announced. The referendum will pose the question to students of whether or not AUSA should remain a part of the NUS. In order for the referendum to be binding, at least 10% of the student population must vote. Considering an estimated 1% turned out for the NUS delegate elections, it is questionable whether such a threshold will be met. All of the campaigns will be student lead and the official campaigns for each side are yet to be designated. The councillors also voted to release the minutes of all future trustee board meetings. The next meeting of the Trustee Board will be on 7 Aprill. The next student council meeting will take place in March. Continuing from front page: On Thursday 6 February, the University sent an email to all undergraduate students regarding the strikes. The email states: “Even if industrial action does take place on these days, teaching will continue during this time. Some staff may choose to take strike action, which may lead to some classes being cancelled. However, the Aberdeen UCU spokeswoman said: “Here is a snapshot of what these issues mean for our own University. On workload: in the last staff survey, 83% of academic staff said they frequently have to work more than their contracted hours to keep up with their workload—and in humanities disciplines, this figure rises to 91%. “[…] On casualization: 38% of our academics do not have permanent contracts. This includes staff who have worked here for ten, twenty, sometimes twenty-five years, on a succession of fixed-term contracts, never knowing what the future would hold for them. On equality: the gender pay gap here, according to the University’s latest report, is more than 22%. “Your teachers are taking a stand on issues which affect not just university staff, but everyone who works in the public sector now, and everyone who will do so in the future—which will include many of you.” The strikes will begin on 20 February and will occur on the following dates: 20 and 21 February; 24-26 February; 2-5 March; 9-14 March. Student Council discuss sexual assault and NUS Referendum The meeting opened with a confrontation between councillors by Rosie Benny & Matthew Angell Torcher Parade 2020 cancelled For the first time in over a hundred years, the parade will not take place Raising and Giving (RAG) has announced that it will not be putting on the Torcher Parade in 2020. The moves comes after the student show quit RAG, who provide an estimated 90% of the fundraising for the group. Student show has since become their own charitable entity. The cancellation is in part due to what Chair of RAG, Laura Szabo described as ‘poor student engagement,’ as well as the stress of organising an event on those in the Raising and Giving committee many of whom have other commitments. Szabo has confirmed however that the parade will take place in 2021 and the committee has already taken steps to work with Robert Gordon University for the next event. by Rosie Benny Photo coutesy of ASP “Your teachers are taking a stand on issues which affect not just university staff, but everyone who works in the public sector now, and everyone who will do so in the future—which will include many of you.” University walks back change to Grading System Plan would reduce 50% of weighted student grades by one level by Jake Roslin The University of Aberdeen has walked back the policy of rounding down student grades by insisting the new system is only being ‘considered’ rather than as previously stated in an email to undergraduates already in place. The change would mean, for instance, a module in which a student scored 17.90, once individual assessment marks had been weighted and averaged, would result in a Grade of B1 (nominally 17 points) rather than, as previously, A5 (nominally 18 points). This would mean on average half every undergraduate’s results, excluding modules with a single form of assessment, would be one Grade lower than previously. Students had expressed concern about the changes, especially as Grades are printed on final degree transcripts. Although the university has stressed Grade Point Averages (GPAs) would continue to appear alongside the alphanumeric Grades. In the email, sent by the university’s Student Life department to all undergraduates and taught postgraduates, it was stated the change had ‘been implemented for 2019/20’ and applied ‘to all students, regardless of when you started your degree’. The new policy was said to have been ‘discussed and approved by the University’s teaching committees’. However, the university muddied the waters on Friday afternoon by issuing a statement to The Gaudie saying the change is ‘currently being considered by the University’. They also confirmed they have received questions from students confused about the change. Universities in the UK use a variety of systems to grade students prior to their final degree classification, which is standardised between institutions. At Aberdeen, A Grades correspond to First Class Honours, B to an Upper Second, C to a Lower Second and D to Third Class. Students’ degree classifications themselves would not be affected by the rounding policy, since these are calculated using unrounded GPAs, not Grades. A spokesperson for the University confirmed a further email would be sent to all students during Week 5 to clarify the situation. This would mean on average half every undergraduate’s results, excluding modules with a single form of assessment, would be one Grade lower than previously. A spokesperson for the University confirmed a further email would be sent to all students during Week 5 to clarify the situation. At Aberdeen, A Grades correspond to First Class Honours, B to an Upper Second, C to a Lower Second and D to Third Class. Students’ degree classifications themselves would not be affected by the rounding policy, since these are calculated using unrounded GPAs, not Grades.

12.02.20 p.5 The University of Aberdeen is very international, with some courses even having 50% of their students coming from outside the UK. With the news of the UK leaving the European Union, it is especially relevant to see what international students think about studying at the University of Aberdeen and how it differs from their home countries. I interviewed five European students that study full time at the University of Aberdeen to find out, from Hungary, France, Sweden, the Netherlands and Slovakia, and also a student from the USA who can provide a non-European perspective on our University and Scottish life. Firstly, I was interested in why these students applied for the University of Aberdeen. Most of them agreed that the lack of tuition fees was very appealing to them. The fact that it is English-speaking was also a prominent factor, as it is the language in which they are most confident second to their mother tongue. They also found the University itself very appealing, with the student from Slovakia saying “I really liked the fact that Aberdeen Uni is very international, which made it seem less intimidating. It is primarily a student city, and of course the beautiful campus.” The student from the USA went as far as to say, “Scotland seemed like this magical fantasy land of misty mornings on rolling hills where nothing bad could happen,” clearly viewing going abroad as an escape from her home country. Adjusting to life in Scotland, especially for students who had never visited the country before, must have been challenging. Most feel they have adjusted to Scottish culture, the French student saying “I just feel more at home here than back at home. But I think that’s just the friends I’ve made, not especially because I’m in Scotland.” However, another student said “I feel really comfortable here, but I am aware that I am Dutch and not Scottish” In general, the students feel that Aberdeen is quite different from the cities back home. It can also be said that Scotland still has a European feel but also has many differences to other European countries. The Hungarian student who went on an exchange for a year in high school to the USA said, “I would stay UK culture is kind of half-way to American culture but it’s still Europe, so the main things are still the same.” It would seem that our student society culture at Aberdeen is unique, as the Dutch student recollected: “In the Netherlands they have an initiation which is quite extreme and like people even get injured and it’s quite intense. Here it’s a lot more relaxed and it’s just connected to a sport or a common interest, so I prefer that.” Interestingly, the Hungarian student said that university societies don’t exist at all in Hungary. Student accommodation is also a big difference, with most Scottish students moving into either Hillhead Halls or a private student accommodation company. One French student pointed out that “student accommodation isn’t really a thing in France - people don’t really move out as much or at least don’t go to different cities” The Hungarian student agreed, saying that Hungarian students “keep on living at home throughout uni and usually move out after uni”. Another topic that came up a lot was Scottish drinking culture, with all the interviewees agreeing that it is different from that of their own culture. The French student said, “I feel like people enjoy drinks more in France but here it’s like binge drinking.” The student from the USA jokingly commented that “in the USA everyone at Aberdeen would be considered an alcoholic,” adding that “Americans binge drink at parties and get really drunk but we don’t socialise in pubs. You don’t go to the bar for lunch with your friends and get a drink that turns into four.” A Swedish student commented that the main difference is more on the price and availability of the alcohol, “no off-licence store is permitted to sell anything with more than 3.5% alcohol in it except for the State owned Systembolaget. This store may only sell to people over the age of twenty and closes at 7pm weekdays, 3pm Saturdays and is closed on Sundays.” He also added that “Swedish on-licence alcohol is highly taxed and a pint will range between [the equivalent of] £5-7 for a mediocre beer”. I especially wondered how the international students managed to overcome the difficulty of understanding Scottish accents and slang. The French student joked that “I feel like at the beginning I remember thinking, how does it come out of their mouths naturally?” However, now she has met a range of people she feels used to the accents. She also added, “some lecturers have quite strong accents though. It maybe affected my learning a little at the beginning but then I was fine. It’s just adaptation.” The student from the USA, who is a native English speaker and has some Scottish family, didn’t find it as difficult, however, she joked saying “old men and taxi drivers don’t speak English and you can’t convince me they do.” The Slovakian student said, “I guess it depends on the regional accents, but I do have a housemate from Glasgow that I fail to understand fully every single time we talk, even after five months of living next to each other.” Brexit is also a relevant topic, especially for European students. There still seems to be a lot of uncertainty about what will happen and if they will be able to stay for their Masters or get a job in the UK. The Hungarian student explained that “at this moment I’m not especially anxious but it’s always something that’s there that I’m not really sure about the future. I wouldn’t say it put me off from wanting to stay. I like it here and if it works out financially then I would definitely want to stay.” Contrary to this, the Dutch student said “I think for me [Brexit] just put me off the UK, it’s so conservative and I can’t imagine that people would actually vote for it. I’ve never met people that are in favour of it, so it shocks me that that is the overall outcome.” The Slovakian student felt that “it has not really hit me yet, I believe that the university has provided me with all essential info and they really seem to care and make sure everything will run smoothly.” Finally, when asked if they feel they would want to stay in Scotland after graduation, there were mixed responses. The Hungarian student said, “if I can I would like to stay cause I really love Edinburgh so I would love to do my Masters there and eventually even get a job here and see where that takes me.” The Slovakian student also feels she would stay as “I genuinely feel like here I would be able to have more opportunities, choices, and better standard of living,” but also added, “my culture is very family-based and I could never call any other place home.” The student from the USA also wants to stay: “my long-term goal is to move into the deepcountryside and start a sustainable farm and I think Scotland is the perfect place to do it.” However, the Dutch student said that she probably wouldn’t stay “because of Brexit and I just think I like home too much. I’m very attached to Dutch culture”. Similarly, the Swedish student said that he probably won’t stay as “Scotland has treated me well, but I wish to travel around to new places whilst I still have the opportunity.” University unveils 2040 Strategy The strategy reveals the University’s goals for the next 20 years The University of Aberdeen has launched its new 2040 strategy, listing its policy priorities for the next 20 years. Despite Principal George Boyne’s refusal to declare a climate emergency, the strategy does include an entire section on sustainability. The strategy on sustainability promises to dedicate the University’s time to making it more environmentally friendly, although it lacks any specific goals. The University has received considerable critique, especially from student-lead environmental groups, over its links to major oil and gas companies. The other key themes of the strategy are titled international, inclusive and interdisciplinary. The international section of the strategy takes into account recent developments such as Brexit which will likely affect many people within the university as well as those hoping to study at the University of Aberdeen. The focus of this section of the strategy is on recruitment but also focuses on how external political influences and cultural factors can impact whether new students plan to study at the University. The strategy states that the University plans to stick to its founding principle set in 1495 by Bishop Elphinstone to be “open to all and dedicated to the pursuit of truth in the service of others”. A group that is playing a major part in the implementation of the strategy is the steering group which plans to stick to being inclusive, interdisciplinary, international and sustainable. As part of the ‘inclusive’ section of the strategy, the steering group plans to increase involvement with many thirdparty organisations (political and cultural) including working with the local community which will mean many secondary and primary schools. The strategy also includes a plan on encouraging the commercialisation of research that may be conducted within the university. Each section of the strategy is overseen by a steering group, with 5 spaces for student representatives. In none of the working groups are all five of these spaces filled. The University of Aberdeen and AUSA were contacted for comment but did not respond by the time of publication. by Logan Machell Is Aberdeen really so different? International students' recounts of a life within the Granite City by Eloise Osborne Photo coutesy of Kyle Glenn via Unsplash Each section of the strategy is overseen by a steering group, with five spaces for student representatives. In none of the working groups are all five of these spaces filled.

p.6 12.02.20 Poor mental health in students is a rising issue across the UK and it is shown to affect not only a student’s studies but also their student life and experience at university and college. A study of 38,000 UK students concluded that the rising rates of poor mental health are “alarmingly high”. Some staggering statistics that they found within this study are that half of the students who took part reported thoughts of self-harm, almost 9 in 10 struggled with feelings of anxiety and more than 1 in 5 said they had a current mental health diagnosis. I interviewed a close friend dealing with long-term mental health issues who dropped out of higher education a few months ago. His interview allows those without these issues to have an insight into what it is like to live daily whilst suffering from anxiety and depression. He has been living with his diagnosis for a few years but has just made the transformation into student life in the past two years. During this time, he also began living alone and got a full-time job to provide for himself. This sudden change in lifestyle was overwhelming and he quickly began seeing fewer people and spending more time alone. What is your diagnosis? Social anxiety disorder and moderate to severe depression. Do you think your diagnosis contributed to your decision to drop out? Yes. If I was in a different situation without my diagnosis, then I would probably still be in college. What was student life like with your diagnosis? Absolutely horrible, I hated it. Going out to clubs was terrifying due to the number of people everywhere and it was the same with college. I don’t do many of the typical things someone does with student life and if I do go out, I sometimes come home early. It is frustrating because part of me wants to have a fun student life and the other part doesn’t want to leave my room and so I feel very conflicted most of the time. Do you get worried over the costs of student life and so feel forced to have a job? Yes. I ended up having to work for five days and go to college for two days every week. This was both mentally and physically exhausting. What kind of help were you offered and did it make a difference? Everyone tells you that the easiest way to get support is to talk to someone, yet my anxiety makes this so difficult to do that it seems impossible. From going to counselling every week, the moment I turned eighteen I was put on a list for seven months - and I’m still waiting. During this time there has been absolutely no contact and so it feels pointless even asking for help because of this. It was so difficult to actually reach out and be open to going to the doctors again, but that seems like so long ago now. Would you recommend asking for help as a student? Truthfully, no. I can’t say that it helped me personally, but that doesn't mean it won’t help others. After all, everyone finds that different things help them, but this wasn’t what helped me. What advice would you give teachers and lecturers about interacting with students who have a diagnosed mental illness? Really just be aware of the symptoms and signs, always make sure you’re checking on your pupils. However, don’t try to single them out as when people did this to me, I found it very stressful and uncomfortable. What do you think about universities setting up more modern activities for dealing with mental illness and stress, for example, dog therapy? I have never personally tried it as the thought of how many people would be there is a little bit intimidating, but I think it sounds brilliant. Spending time with my dog is much easier than spending time with people so I think this could really help people like me. What is your opinion on Mental Health Awareness Day? It’s good because it spreads awareness. However, you do see a lot of contrast between people’s actions and the kind of posts they share on social media during this time. You see maybe not the nicest people sharing things about “not being alone”, but it doesn't really make a difference and you still feel just as alone. What do you like to do to calm yourself down and relax? I like to play Animal Crossing because I think the music is comforting and if anything goes wrong I can just turn it off without saving and it doesn't matter. I also find spending time with my dog really helps me unwind. I have missed her a lot since I moved out but I do look forward to seeing her. In an attempt to tackle these issues here, the University of Aberdeen provides numerous forms of support for students suffering from mental health issues in different ways. These programs are targeted towards students and are highly used and recommended. The Nightline service is a student-run program, made available for students of the University of Aberdeen. It is open 8 pm-8 am during term and Easter break and provides anonymous listening, information, and support. They can be contacted via 01224272829, [email protected]. ac.uk or instant messenger through their website: http://aberdeen.nightline.ac.uk/ The Student Counselling Service is more suitable for those who want to talk in person as they aim to offer appointments within 2-3 working days. They can be contacted via + 44 (0)1224 272139, [email protected]. The Big White Wall provides 24/7 peer and professional support (with trained counselors online at all times). This service is also anonymous and can be accessed via https://www.abdn.ac.uk/toolkit/productivity/ big-white-wall/ The Feeling Good App is widely used within the NHS and provides an effective program for positive mental health training. This app can be downloaded from the app store for free. The Multi-Faith Chaplaincy Centre provides a warm welcome, support, and advice to members of the community. They have numerous events taking place, for example, every Wednesday they provide donuts to Hillhead Halls of residence from 7 pm-9 pm. ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT Katrina NevinRidley and Neil Ridley by Ivana Drdáková How did you start your journey of being part of the Gaudie team? Katrina and I were both editors of Gaudie (never THE Gaudie back then), in the 1992- 93 academic year - editors back then were by term and non-sabbatical. We both started Uni in 1991 and we've been great friends ever since. We wouldn't have met had we not decided to join up in Freshers’ Week. We took termly turns to be Music Editor, Arts Editor, Features Editor etc - Sports was always the tricky page to cover as most of the stories that came in were more about the alcohol consumed after an away match as we'd desperately try and find a 1970s photo from the filing cabinet to illustrate these debauched affairs. How do you think your production system was different to that which we have now? At some point in my time on Gaudie, around 1993, the American exchange students that wrote for the paper would go into the Computer Room on campus (we both graduated largely by writing everything on paper with a biro) and they would talk to other Americans via a computer. Back then I genuinely thought that this was very strange and just something that Americans did. Production was totally different. We had a paid typesetter and we'd lay out the pages on gridded paper, with a calculator in hand to work out words per column inch. I loved this, it was all art and jigsaw puzzle-like to do. Pre-digital photographs meant that the offices had a dark room where the smell of developing (and other more illegal things) would emit. I was a paid paste up artist, scalpel in hand, to ensure that the tiles that came out of the printer were assembled for the printers in Montrose. I still love the smell of spray mount. I think that my proudest moment on Gaudie - and it's quite a humble one - was campaigning to keep the typesetter on when the Student Council wanted to make him redundant, as a trio of us felt it was fair that he worked an extra couple of years to retire and pay off his mortgage. What career path did you and your Gaudie colleagues go on to after university? A few folks who wrote for Gaudie in the early 1990s went on to great things - reading the news on Channel 5, writing for The Times and The New York Times, editing Radio 4's Today programme, and writing columns for the Radio Times. Others didn't go into journalism but ended up getting great jobs in other fields. I concentrated on jobs nearer to my degree in History of Art and ended up working in heritage, where I've always needed my writing skills for exhibitions, publications, social media etc. I'm now a Deputy Head of Engagement at Historic Environment Scotland. Katrina's now Director of External Relations, Communications and Public Engagement at UK Research and Innovation, having directed communications at VSO, the Wellcome Trust and Genomics England. The impact of mental health on student life What is life like as a student with a diagnosis? by Kendra Clark Photo coutesy of Andrew Neel from Pexels

12.02.20 p.7 Why did they fight? The historiography on the participation of Latin America in the First World War has been scarce in both the European and Ibero-American academia despite the significant number of Latin Americans who volunteered in the War. Thousands of young Latin Americans embarked between 1914 and 1918 to join either the Allies or the Central Powers and fight alongside British, French, Italian and even Ottoman soldiers. In fact, Argentina alone sent around 40,000 combatants. Why did they leave the comfort of their homes and cross the ocean for a War that apparently was not theirs? On the one hand, I want to put into perspective their participation by analysing the reasons that led the Latin American volunteers to join the conflict in hope to determine - or at least open a dialogue - about Latin America’s rightful place in the Great War, and, on the other hand, rescue these soldiers from oblivion as they have almost disappeared from collective memory. Two groups of volunteers must be distinguished: those volunteers with a direct connection with the belligerents who held a transnational identity and were motivated by a sense of national duty, the case of the British, French, Italian and German diasporas in Latin America; and those volunteers with no direct connection to Europe who were mostly inspired by cultural affinity and western values. Well-known is the arrival of the first Spanish conquistadores in the Americas during the 16th century and the establishment of their colonial Empire. However, the movement of people between 1860 and 1915 was equally unprecedented. The economic crises that afflicted Europe during this period forced millions of Europeans to leave their homes in the hope of a better quality of life; indeed, around 41 million Europeans left their countries to settle in the New World. Latin American policymakers were enthusiastic about this migratory wave, which would “modernise” and “civilise” their countries; hence, the immigrants were well received by the locals. Indeed, this positive reception enabled the migrants to integrate civically while keeping their ethnic identity as the hosting states did not perceive their European identity as an obstacle because the newly formed Latin American Republics tended to have a civic form of nationalism. In turn, this allowed migrants to naturalise in the country of residence without sacrificing their ties to their country of origin, thus developing a transnational identity. Transnational identity substitutes singular national loyalties with the capacity of belonging to multiple states; this was the case of the Latin American volunteers of European origin who fought in the War. It is important to highlight that there are no rigorous estimates that would allow us to differentiate between those who were firstand second-generation immigrants from those who were born in Europe; however, both subgroups resided and were well settled in Latin America. The Great War echoed in Latin America, especially among immigrant communities as their states of origin became involved in the conflict. In cities such as Valparaiso, São Paulo and Montevideo, the volunteers converged in mass - “Our streets are now the forum of the war” - reported the Argentinean newspaper La Nacion. Waves of mobilisation followed, dictated by the rhythm of the conflict to defend their "distant homeland". In many countries of Latin America, the European migrants established communities with numerous social institutions such as clubs, churches, and schools. These associations generated a platform which was highly important during the War as they shifted from a societal nature to one whose main purpose was to foment the patriotic spirit of the migrants, recruit volunteers and aid the families of the combatants. European communities also devoted themselves to propagandistic tasks through the ethnic press, newspapers like the Franco-Chilean Le Journal du Chili, La Patrie; or the German-Argentinean, La Plata Zeitung and Argentinisches Tageblatt; or the British-Latin American Los Aliados; and the Italian La Nazione Italiana and L'Operario Italiano - justified the position of their countries. Mobilisation was also encouraged through institutional coercion. For example, those who rejected the call of their “homelands” were pressured by their employers with threats of dismissals or even with expulsion from societies and clubs. These communities played a substantial role in encouraging volunteers to join the War, their strong cohesion and dynamism favoured conscription by appealing to the migrants’ sense of patriotism. Indeed, as we can see, the mobilisation was also inspired by loyalty to the diasporas, and as such, it should have been more a consequence of allegiance to their local peers than of adherence to their homeland of origin. More limited in number - but equally important - are the Latin American volunteers who did not have direct premigratory ties with countries at war. In order to understand their motivations, it is essential to consider that the young Latin American Republics, especially Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, adopted cultural models distinctive from those of Spain for the construction of their national identity, shifting towards the more “enlightened” civilisation of Northwest Europe. Consequently, Latin American society relied upon European cultural and social values and was not indifferent to a War that put these into question. Among Latin Americans, there was a division between the vast Allied majority and the Germanophile minority. These groups were represented in newspapers and magazines of the time which generated a great ideological debate between “liberal” Allied-supporters and the more “conservative” Central Powerssupporters. This ideological struggle, argue historians like Michaël Bourlet, ultimately inspired numerous cases of Latin American volunteers to fight. A remarkable case is Eduardo Alfaro, a young Chilean who faked his age to join the war when he was 16. “I have a duty to help in this war for civilisation because as a Chilean, I want to repay England for what it did for us during the war of independence [..] The advantage that we have is that we know that we are fighting for a just cause” The Uruguayan writer, José Rodo, wrote in the Pacific Magazine: “Germany’s ambition is to restore feudal Europe, this represents a struggle between the principles of liberal governments and the divine right of kings.” In other words; it was the defence of the enlightenment and the Rights of Man that prompted some Latin Americans to fight. These same ideals were the ones that inspired a group of Argentine doctors to open a hospital in Paris to treat warwounded in 1917. The hospital was two kilometres from the Eiffel Tower, and 150 beds were installed on its seven floors. Reconstructing the experiences of these volunteers with a collective biography is a task for future historians. Questions remain unanswered: how significant were these volunteers for the overall global effect of the war? What expectation did the belligerents place upon Latin America? What was the experience of the returning volunteers who had to live with the enemy in the Latin American cities where they resided? However, what is undoubtedly clear is that they must not be forgotten because their heroic effort was not in vain - such was the case of the thousands of Latin Americans who gave their lives for the Old World. In other words; it was the defence of the enlightenment and the Rights of Man that prompted some Latin Americans to fight. Argentinian hospital in Paris, 1917 Photo courtesy of Wikicommons In remembrance of the Latin Americans who fought in the Great War by Tomás Pizarro-Escuti Vicente Almandos, Argentinian War Hero, Knight of the Legion of Honour and who was awarded with the Croix de Guerre 1 Photo courtesy of Wikicommons Vicente Almandos, Argentinian War Hero, Knight of the Legion of Honour and who was awarded with the Croix de Guerre 1 Photo courtesy of Wikicommons

p.8 12.02.20 Platypus on the brink of extinction The platypus is in rapidly approaching danger of extinction due to habitat destruction Despite their secretive and nocturnal lifestyles, platypuses were once commonly seen across Tasmania and the Eastern Australian mainland. However, a new study by the UNSW Sydney’s Centre for Ecosystem Science, supported by Taronga Conservation Society and funded by an UNSW-led Australian Research Council project, has revealed the risk of extinction for this group of animals. Published in Biological Conservation earlier this month, the study looked at the threats presented to the platypus population such as land clearing, climate change, and water resource development, as well as increasing number of droughts. All of these could prove to be potentially lifethreatening. Dr Gilad Bino, lead author of the study and researcher at the UNSW Centre for Ecosystem Science, says that now is the time for action, as platypuses are in danger of disappearing from our aquatic environments. "There is an urgent need for a national risk assessment for the platypus to assess its conservation status, evaluate risks and impacts, and prioritise management in order to minimise any risk of extinction," adds Dr Bino. The study estimated that platypus populations have almost halved due to changes in climate, land clearing, and fragmentation by dams, amounting to a 40% decrease across the whole species. Under the current climate change predictions, species losses were forecast to be even greater, taking into consideration recent drought frequencies. "These dangers further expose the platypus to even worse local extinctions with no capacity to repopulate areas,” says Dr Bino. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) recently changed the ranking for platypuses, pushing their conservation status to ‘Near Threatened’. Professor Richard Kingsford, study co-author and director of the UNSW Centre for Ecosystem Science, said that it was unfortunate that platypus populations were present in areas where there was ongoing extensive human development, which ultimately threatened their lives. "These include dams that stop their movements, agriculture which can destroy their burrows, fishing gear and yabby traps which can drown them and invasive foxes which can kill them," Professor Kingsford says. "Even for a presumed 'safe' species such as the platypus, mitigating or even stopping threats, such as new dams, is likely to be more effective than waiting for the risk of extinction to increase and possible failure," Professor Wintle, study co-author from the University of Melbourne, adds. "We should learn from the peril facing the koala to understand what happens when we ignore the warning signs." The research team is continuing its investigation into the ecology and conservation of the platypus, as well as working alongside the Taronga Conservation Society, so as to provide novel information for effective management of local policies. Dr Bino adds that the current paper added to the increasing plethora of evidence that the platypus, similar to many other Australian species, was on the path to extinction. by Natalia Dec Photo courtesy of Jason Edwards Astronomers discover unusual monster galaxy An international team of scientists has found a monster galaxy dating back to 12 billion years ago, when our universe was only 1.8 billion years old. The monster galaxy, dubbed XMM2599, formed stars at a fast rate and proceeded to turn inactive—why it stopped the formation of new stars remains a mystery. "Even before the universe was 2 billion years old, XMM-2599 had already formed a mass of more than 300 billion suns, making it an ultramassive galaxy," says Benjamin Forrest, researcher at the UC Riverside Department of Physics and Astronomy and lead author of the study. "More remarkably, we show that XMM-2599 formed most of its stars in a huge frenzy when the universe was less than 1 billion years old, and then became inactive by the time the universe was only 1.8 billion years old." Spectroscopic observations from the W. M. Keck Observatory’s Multi-Object Spectrograph for Infrared Exploration (or shortened, MOSFIRE), were used by the team to take detailed measurements of the galaxy and more precisely quantify its distance, with results presented in the Astrophysical Journal. "In this epoch, very few galaxies have stopped forming stars, and none are as massive as XMM-2599," says Gillian Wilson, professor of physics and astronomy at UCR. "The mere existence of ultramassive galaxies like XMM-2599 proves quite a challenge to numerical models. Even though such massive galaxies are incredibly rare at this epoch, the models do predict them. The predicted galaxies, however, are expected to be actively forming stars. What makes XMM-2599 so interesting, unusual, and surprising is that it is no longer forming stars, perhaps because it stopped getting fuel or its black hole began to turn on. Our results call for changes in how models turn off star formation in early galaxies." The team has found that XMM-2599, at the peak of its solar activity, formed more than a thousand solar masses a year in stars, which is an exceptionally fast rate of formation—in comparison, our Milky Way forms about one new star per year. "XMM-2599 may be a descendant of a population of highly star-forming dusty galaxies in the very early universe that new infrared telescopes have recently discovered," says Danilo Marchesini, co-author of the study and associate professor of astronomy at Tufts University. XMM-2599 remains unclear in terms of its evolutionary pathway. "We have caught XMM-2599 in its inactive phase," Wilson says. "We do not know what it will turn into by the present day. We know it cannot lose mass. An interesting question is what happens around it. As time goes by, could it gravitationally attract nearby starforming galaxies and become a bright city of galaxies?" Professor of astronomy at UC Irvine and study co-author Michael Cooper said that this prediction could prove to come true in future years. "Perhaps during the following 11.7 billion years of cosmic history, XMM-2599 will become the central member of one of the brightest and most massive clusters of galaxies in the local universe," he says. "Alternatively, it could continue to exist in isolation. Or we could have a scenario that lies between these two outcomes." Currently, the research team has been given more time at the Keck Observatory in order to continue their enquiry into the XMM-2599. by Megan Sinclair Photo courtesy of NRAO/AUI/NSF/ B.Saxton/Nasa/ESA/R.Foley/StScI/PA

arts culture fashion lifestyle food i gaming V technology What am I looking at? An inquiry on conceptual art Arts p. 5 Gaming and Tech p. 12 Kentucky Route Zero: An ode Life and Style p.14 Fur: The perfect Valentine’s gift

p. 2 Wither the arts? facebook/thegaudie | @thegaudie Valentine, Oh Valentine Why are you so far away? In time and space and all dimensions Just too far away for me to reach Valentine, Oh Valentine I miss your face and yellow glasses The cuddles and inside jokes The Netflix and chill Valentine, Oh Valentine It’s all coming together now Demons! That’s the crunch! It’s so silent without you With love, Team iV Editors Fanny Olsson Parel Wilmering IV Editors ARTS ([email protected]) Editor - Alba Lopes Da Silva Deputy Editors - Daniel Mohr & Rory Buccheri GAMING AND TECH ([email protected]) Editor - Martin Hare Michno Deputy Editor - Dillan-James Carter LIFE AND STYLE ([email protected]) Editor: Maurice Alexander Deputy Editor - Jess Downey Production Mathilde Communal Parel Wilmering Copy Editors Jenna Fults Sally Heneghan Mia Sommer Matilde Zoppi Front page Julia Vallius iV Wither the arts? The ethics of corporate sponsorship are more topical than ever by Jake Roslin Oil giant BP’s sponsorship of the new exhibition space at Aberdeen Art Gallery has again brought into focus the prickly issue of corporate arts subsidy. Art rarely funds itself, unless it is populist and unchallenging, or unabashedly aimed at the very rich. Whether a benevolent state prudently ensuring consecutive generations are culturally rounded, a corporate entity polishing its public image, or even on a personal level – the struggling artist or musician who Deliveroos after dark. If you aren’t Sheeran or Glyndebourne, subsidy of some form is inevitable. In the UK, government support of the arts has withered decade on decade from a 1970s peak. The National Lottery, introduced in 1994, relieved it of some of this burden but brought its own controversies – research shows that ticket buyers are on the lowest incomes and have little interest in the usually middle class projects they help build – Robin Hood-ism in reverse. Meanwhile the corporate logo has become ubiquitous in the poster’s corner and even in the naming of venues, often somewhat at odds with the artistic content. Stage drama in particular is often socially or even socialist-ly minded; very few of its sponsors are. Corporate subsidy is no altruist act. These are investments, shrewd business decisions which last only as long as the company believes it is indirectly boosting their balance sheet. Sponsors often target the audiences who may repay them for their perceived philanthropy for the longest: see the preponderance of graduate recruiters, see sponsored tickets for students. Contracts are inked only after maximum market research and incorporate careful social media campaigns. The behemoth hopes the association will give the street cred, or increasingly green cred they naturally lack. Sometimes the union is so established we don’t even notice. Does the word Tate suggest art to you, or sugar? Henry Tate, founder of Tate & Lyle and endower of the most important chain of art galleries in the UK, lived too late to be a plantation slave-owner, but even the galleries themselves acknowledge the sugar industry in Britain would not have existed on the scale it did when their founder made his fortune had it not been built on previous centuries’ slavery. Like the debate over repatriation of colonially plundered pieces like the Parthenon/ Elgin Marbles, viewing art can be as morally profound as making it. British Petroleum gets special attention. As well as the new AAG attic, they sponsor aspects of the Royal Opera House, the National Portrait Gallery and the British Museum, where only last week a four metre crowdfunded Trojan Horse was wheeled into its courtyard by campaign group BP or Not BP followed by a day of protests and performances entitled BP Must Fall. The oil giant no longer, however, sponsors the Royal Shakespeare Company. And that’s because the very 16-25 year olds the BP-subsidised £5 ticket scheme was meant to attract organised a boycott of the prestigious theatres instead, leading the RSC to cancel the deal last October, two years early. BP are criticised by environmentalists on a depressingly long list of grounds, from climate change, to pollution, to worker safety, to its attitude to indigenous rights. But when the multinationals pull out or are hounded out, when what they call Corporate Social Responsibility is exposed as mere greenwashing, the state must step in. Cultural education aside, time and again research show that every pound spent on the arts brings far more pounds into the local economy’s restaurants, hotels, shops and public transport. From the earliest days of making art for others, patronage has reared its inevitable head. Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn would have left us less symphonies without a certain Baron Gottfried’s deep pockets. Many of Michelangelo’s greatest works were financed by the Medici family. Picasso famously paid his Montmartre bar tab with a quick portrait of the owner until Gertrude Stein took both Pablo and Matisse under her wealthy wing. These days it is the corporates, not individuals, who have cash to flaunt at the arts. But that doesn’t mean we always want it. Without art, humans wouldn’t entirely be human. Yet, millennia have shown that art rarely pays its way. Whether we compromise our ethics to help it thrive will divide communities and universities in the years to come. But the bottom line must ultimately rest with the state, for without culture the cultural identity of which nations are so proud of flounders. illustration by Jake Roslin

p. 3 arts | home collage by the beautiful and ridiculously talented Parel Wilmering Losing a room of one’s own by Parel Wilmering I t was the autumn semester of 2019 when I took Tim Baker’s thirdyear English course on Women’s Literature between 1920 and 1970. We started the course with Virgina Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own, a book that would end up following me for the rest of term: a story of women and physical space. I had a room of my own, that term, in an old granite house near the train tracks that form the border between Berryden and Kittybrewster. I’d painted the walls of my room blue and I’d filled it with plants and art. But the room was small, so I didn’t have a desk or a chair to sit in. The space I had I used to store clothing, and when I wanted to sit down I’d sit in bed, so most of the time I ended up going to the living room instead. This wasn’t a room of my own, but one I shared with a flatmate. A room where she made me feel less and less welcome. I read some gay books (in the free time I had) and a lot of books about trapped women and mental illness (for Tim Baker’s English course) during that time. The more of Tim Baker’s books I read, the more I related to the entrapment of the women in the stories. The more gay books I read, the more I related to the feeling of having to hide a part of yourself in a place where you’re supposed to feel comfortable. My family at home has always been very accepting of who I am, but the walls of the granite house in Kittybrewster weren’t so forgiving. The part of A Room of One’s Own that spoke the most to me personally was the promise of the essay (the title, basically) and everything Woolf writes in the very first part of her essay. What was relevant to the life I led in the old granite house was the idea of a room of one’s own offering the much needed peace and the quiet to create. So what do you do when the whole house feels hostile? When the safe space of your room feels unsafe as soon as you slightly open the door? I didn’t write a single poem or story that semester. A room of one’s own, I learned, is important, but a room is not one’s own when it’s surrounded by hostility. If you lived on an island and needed to use a boat to get food from somewhere else, but the island was surrounded by massive, dangerous sharks and the only boat you had is a small canoe, would you feel like creating art? I wouldn’t. I left the house and finally moved to a place where I could breathe. My current room is bigger and has a desk. We have a large pride flag hanging on the living room wall. There are no sharks here, and the 19th century house near the Kittybrewster train tracks is now history. It seems like a million years ago since I lived there and I barely remember what the days were like. I remember a semester of hiding in my room hours upon hours. I remember being scared of text notifications and of coming home. I remember being overjoyed with being home alone, even if it was for only an hour. I remember the false promise of picking bowls full of blackberries at the beginning of term, the jam that brought the sweetness from a different time into a grim house. Now it all feels like a vague memory from a past life, because I have no record of how I felt those days. I struggle to relive the memories. I don’t understand time or space at all.

p. 4 arts | theatre Frankenstein has often been misunderstood. Famously, the name of the monster is often conflated with his creator. Similarly disregarded is the fact that the core of science fiction is owed to the mind of a nineteen-year-old girl. Selladoor’s theatrical interpretation of Frankenstein leaves no margin for ambiguity, as it puts writer Mary Shelley at the forefront. Shelley, played by Eilidh Logan, is a fervent spitfire. There is no romantic frailty as her pearly portrait would have you believe. Instead, she is a steampunk heroine in a dark brown leather coat. Shelley is seen on stage for the entirety of the performance, furiously scribbling notes, meditating on her plot, and coming to terms with fear of the monster she created, just like her protagonist Victor Frankenstein. Becky Munro triumphs in set and costume design. The set is skeletal, cold, contemporary. When needed, the space transforms into a cosy study, with shelves of white nameless books. The second level stage is held up with white trees for pillars. These trees are at once a dynamic prop for characters to climb and swing and a reminder of Shelley’s reverence and respect for nature. While set design highlights the twilight borders of god’s nature and man’s science, the lack of the ‘iconic lightning bolt and electricity’ so prevalent in the text (and in other interpretations of the novel) were missing from the show. The overbearing presence of authorial intent is always a concern, especially when the author is omnipresent as the action unfolds. At times, the explicitness of the themes resembles a lecture on literature. The parallels of Shelley and her protagonist raise questions of the creative grappling At times humorous, Shelley’s confidence with the audience hammers home the culpability of ‘great men’ to own up to the consequences of their daring but morally ambivalent deeds. As Shelley herself comments, the genre of her work is horror. For that, the show peppers in some shock value and jump scares for the audience. The play ends in a dramatic flash of red. However, a mention of the real ‘great men’ Shelley knew and their ghostly tales around the fire would add impact. Worth considering for the audience, similarly, would be the many more barriers she would have had to consider in order to become a serious writer as a woman in the 19th century. This production, and the original text, make it known that the true monster is men’s ego. Frankenstein - a Selladoor Productions Frankenstein - a Selladoor Productions by Theresa Peteranna Theatre Review images courtesy of visitscotland

p. 5 arts | concepts What is art? Does it need to have a purpose? Does it all boil down to the aesthetic pleasure it produces in the viewer? Experts and amateurs alike have been struggling to come up with a universal and exhaustive answer to this dilemma for centuries now. Some go as far as to think they have found the ultimate answer. Well, whatever the answer, conceptual art will always be ready to pose a different question. This is why, unlike every other short-lived movement, conceptual art is ever-changing and always relevant. Unlike a fresco on a ceiling commissioned in the 17th century, created and displayed for the gaze of the rich, conceptual art is malleable and it spills in every fold of society. It’s art that feeds on who stumbles upon it, on who engages with it and when and, quite often, on the artist’s own agenda. Conceptual art lives on the back of the society surrounding us. As masters like Cuban artist Félix González-Torres have demonstrated, you can stage pieces that are, in their absolute simplicity, heartbreaking and full of meaning. His 1991 masterpiece Untitled (Ross in L.A.), consisting of a pile of candy shoved against a bare corner, proves how much genuine and engaging content can lie behind something that appears essential and unchallenging. 175 candies. Every visitor is invited to approach the work and take one. Quite simple, isn’t it? Yet, far from being trivial, the work is a true act of spiritual communion. 175 pounds was the healthy weight of Ross Laycock, González-Torres’ partner who lived through the infernal days of the spread of HIV, and died shortly after because of AIDS. 175 candies. One for each pound. The viewer approaches the artist by approaching his work. The viewer takes part in Ross’s funeral by bowing and taking a piece of him. It is spiritual communion in its truest and rawest form, and González-Torres channels it in a work seen by the American government with the same political weight as ‘giving free candy’, ignoring its true and viral impact. In an era when male gay artists were subject to heavy censorship, GonzálezTorres offered a way out, a light and meaningful gesture for the viewer whose experience resonated with his, and an intimate insight on his own life as an artist and homosexual man living through the AIDS crisis. “While the candy is eaten, while the body begins to disappear, the love remains.” Conceptual art is not always social and it is not always political. Instead, it has a lot to do with storytelling: how well can you tell a story without saying any word? How can that story touch you, follow you home, and yet stay still, sitting in the corner of an art gallery? Whether you find it aesthetically pleasing or not is hardly the point. The point of contemporary visual and performative art is the way you engage with what you’re presented with, the way you’re capable of speaking to it and letting it speak to you. Conceptual art is immersed in an everchanging, unruly context. There’s more to conceptual art than meets the eye: it’s an art that demands to meet the mind. by Rory Buccheri What am I looking at ? An inquiry on conceptual art images courtesy of The Felix Gonzalez-Torres Foundation

p. 6 arts | film reviews The Personal History of David Copperfield by Amy Smith The Personal History of David Copperfield (2020) is a comedy-drama film and a retelling of the David Copperfield novel by Charles Dickens. Directed by Armando Iannucci, this film has a huge cast list including Dev Patel, Hugh Laurie, Gwendolyn Christie, Ben Whishaw and Peter Capaldi. Going from birth to adulthood, the film tells the story of David Copperfield (Dev Patel) and the friends and enemies he meets along the way. With a cast of such calibre, this film is filled with wonderful performances. Not only are they given fantastic material to work with, with characters written with many dramatic and comedic moments, but several of them actually vanish into the film’s world. Dev Patel is able to feel grounded in a role so prominent as Copperfield and adds a layer of humanity and realness into his performance. From the first minute, you are sucked into this Victorian world that comes to life on screen, due to the incredible work done on the production and costume design. The costumes help enhance each character’s personality and give real charm to their roles. The production design feels authentic, taking you straight back into the 1800s. Although seemingly wacky and unusual for the time period, the costumes blend together with the setting and bring some element of fun to place the audience into the locations themselves. The script impresses by managing to pack a full story of an extraordinary person’s life into two hours and not make it feel rushed. Focusing on the key moments that defined Copperfield’s life, it is nice to see the narrative take time to breathe and reflect on previous events, making the entire story feel concise and equally important. It does, unfortunately, start to go downhill in the final third, when a secondary storyline involving two of Copperfield’s friends takes a much larger section. Not only did this storyline feel unnatural, it never really added anything to the story of David Copperfield either. The Personal History of David Copperfield is a charming little film that will certainly have its fans. The film wavers off by the end of the runtime, but there is enough heart there to keep the audience’s interest throughout. Queen and Slim is the feature film debut of director Melina Matsoukais., from Bringing to life a script by Lena Waithe and James Frey, that Matsoukas provides an inner look at the lingering social issues faced by African Americans in contemporary America. The feature begins with an awkward date in Ohio with an awkward date between defence attorney Queen (Jodie Turner-Smith) and Slim (Daniel Kaluuya), who are subsequently pulled over by an aggressive cop. In an act of self-defence, after witnessing Queen get shot, Slim in turn kills the cop with the very same gun. Knowing they will receive a harsh sentence; , our protagonists are forced to make an unplanned road trip to Florida in the hopes of escaping to Cuba. Along the way, they meet encounter an array of memorable characters whilst evading the authorities. Queen and Slim exposes the prevalence of institutional racism in the US police force that African Americans still experience. Trust is another Another central theme of the film is trust. with While on the run, our characters are forced to rely on the kindness of strangers. It is this kindness that provides light in an otherwise serious narrative. Use of natural lighting, close up shots and panoramic shots sceneries all giveprovide the film with a raw, realistic style. Monologues by both protagonists in certain scenes without in which they are not seen seeing them speak encourages audience viewers to listen and interpret the tone, thereby distinguishing the differing personalities of Queen and Slim. Moreover, TurnerSmith and Kaluuya effectively employ method acting to display the range of emotions from shock, through anger, and to sadness, as they gradually overcome their differences and fall deeper in love with each other. The soundtrack is a tribute to a wide range of Africa-American music including Soul, R&B Rap and Pop that links the dramatic and emotive sequences. Therefore,In conclusion, Matsoukais’s modern-day retelling of Bonnie and Clyde deserves five stars and leave you with feelings of hope, sorrow and awareness. Queen and Slim by Liam Martin There is nothing to say about Parasite that hasn’t been said before. It is not only one of the best movies of last year but also arguably the most important one. You should go watch it and delight yourself with how good movies can get. Parasite starts of as a heist movie, with a family of petty hustlers with barely any future prospects, who successfully infiltrates the rich Park family; a westernised, prosperous household that, despite the business-savvy patriarch at its head, turns out extremely easy to manipulate. Still, as writerdirector Bong Joon-ho has done for most of his career, the expectations we form in the first half of the film are used only as a jumping board into the stress-inducing second half that takes the characters and spaces we have come to know, and uses them to comment on the social and historical issues hidden beneath the surface of both our lives and the film. The film is brilliant in too many ways to recount. Sound design, directing, acting, photography, editing, production design, are all impeccable, but I want to draw attention to two factors that haven’t gotten enough recognition. First, appreciate the long shots. The film is filled with them, but they are hard to notice. These shots are director Bong’s trademark; he zooms in and out of the fore and background, weaving stories and details together, connecting ideas and controlling the rhythm in a majestic and immersive manner that makes the plot hit you in unexpected, but welcomed ways. Second, the script. The film spends almost an hour to set up the stage, boasting carefully constructed environments, which are perfect examples of how well-crafted the film is. The latter half builds on all that we are introduced to at the beginning. There are no loose ends, every detail serves a later purpose and is tied together at the end. Parasite is fantastic. I wish I could talk more about the plot, its political commentary or the characters, but not even the whole newspaper worth of text would do it justice. It is good. It is very good. Go see it. Parasite by Miguel de la Cal Moreno

p. 7 arts | album reviews Since their self-titled debut album released in 2015, the music of Algiers has always felt important. Combing the unlikely elements of angular post-punk and bustling gospel music, with a light dash of industrial severity, the band have remained unique in their fire and brimstone approach. Never satisfied with the status-quo, their music is a blistering storm of politically fuelled cries of outrage spurred on by gnarly synths, harsh guitars, booming drums and powerfully preached vocals. This formula has earned the band an awful lot; a strong following, critical success and an incredibly strong platform for their views on the world as it stands to be heard. Algiers’s third album, There Is No Year, built around a poem written by frontman James Franklin Fisher, shares the same stylistic qualities as its predecessors and is full to bursting with a terrifying sense of dread. The album opens up with relentless intensity, as the rampant synths of the title track carry you into the grandiose performance of Fisher, whilst the fierce percussion of Dispossession thrust you in all directions. It is in these moments of unrelenting force that There Is No Year is at its best, as Algiers create huge sonic palettes that perfectly support the vocals that holler atop them. The experience can feel overwhelming but can also cause ecstatic and visceral euphoria. However, to its detriment, the album does mellow out after the opening tracks. The songs begin to drag their feet a touch, not featuring the same immediacy as beforehand, save on the synth pop thrill of ‘Chaka’ and its disorienting saxophone solo. This material doesn’t feature the same direct sense of purpose and as a result there are a few songs that one could even call dull. Algiers will continue to make important music, music that passionately stands up for itself. However, There Is No Year lacks the razor-sharp edge of their past projects and suffers greatly as a result. Algiers – There Is No Year by Benjamin Wooldridge With The Pet Shop Boys’ latest album out this month, it’s a jump back to the 80’s and 90’s. Their new release,Hotspot, will have you reminiscing about an era from before your birth, where electronic synthesizers, raving clubs, disco balls, bright neon lights and avant-garde fashion reigned supreme. 2020Hotspot is the 14th studio album and third in a “back to basics” trilogy alongside 2013 Electric and 2016 Super, including vocals by Neil Tenant and with Chris Lowe’s storic bassline. The Synth-pop genre may be familiar territory for the duo, but nevertheless it successfully combines retro Hi-NRG with a modernday commentary. All the tracks on this album are unique in their own way but for the length of this article I highlight six of the most outstanding singles to listen to. ‘Will O’ the Wisp’ deals with an individual recalling his past life as “free spirit” before settling down with a family and job in local government; ‘You are the one’ gives us an Alphaville vibe with Tenant’s melancholic and passionate tone. Thirdly ‘Happy People’ is a catchy tune, a hymn to always think positive “even in a sad world” that’s oversaturated with technology and soulcrushing jobs. Proceeding further in the record,‘Dreamland’ is the product of the collaboration with Years & Years that will also have listeners humming along to the chorus whilst driving or studying. On another note,‘Burning the Heather’ is a notable folk song intermixed with synthesizers highlighting and going back to the duo’s Northern English origins. Finally, ‘Wedding in Berlin’ with its beats and wedding music is modern comment on the changing nature of marriage. In effect, Hotspot is the definitive album to conclude Pet Shop Boys’ return to their 80’s synthpop roots whilst still providing original content for newcomers to their work. Pet Shop Boys – Hotspot by Liam Martin The return of Eminem to the mainstream rap landscape from 2017 till present has been a fascinating, tumultuous, hilarious and bitterly disappointing ride. From the Donald Trump diss track, to the Machine Gun Kelly beef, with two albums loathed and laughed at by critics and consumers alike in between, the world as of late has not been kind to him. However, he has not been very kind to it in return, constantly perpetuating his angry has-been persona through his confrontational stance towards modern hip hop and social issues. Eminem has found a myriad of ways to knock on a door that no one wants to open, arguing all the way that he deserves the keys to the city because he can of course… rap fast. His latest album Music To Be Murdered By is his latest attempt to seek some of the appraisal he was once lavished with, and arguably his most successful in recent years. In comparison to his past two full-length efforts, Music To Be Murdered By, is an improvement in almost all areas. The production, completed largely by my Eminem himself, has far more poise and bounce than in the past, and it finally appears that Eminem has fully embraced the benefits of the contemporary trap approach. This provides a far better platform for Eminem’s usual flow and delivery to get to work in crafting memorable moments, and for the first time in years there are a small handful of these moments. The greatest of these, ‘Darkness’, features an Eminem rapping from the perspective of a mass murderer as he commits his atrocities, and paired with a few smart references and sound effects he uses this character to create a thoughtful and horrifying track. However, for all of the growth Eminem shows on his latest LP it is still marred by the same bad habits; the multitude of cringe inducing and corny bars, the odd thoughtless and distasteful line, his nonsensical fast delivery and bitter attitude all remain. Music To Be Murdered By is the most enjoyable Eminem album in years, but still not an enjoyable experience in and of itself. Eminem – Music To Be Murdered By by Benjamin Wooldridge Since their beginnings in the late 80s/early 90s, Anti-Flag have worn their political beliefs on their sleeve, and this album is no different. The first of 11 songs, ‘Hate Conquers All’, opens with a bang: an excerpt from an infamous Donald Trump speech in which he calls for protestors to be beaten like ‘in the good old days’. It immediately sets the scene for the rest of the album: this is an antiTrump zone. Although Anti-Flag had previouslystated that they did not want to take aim at any specific people with their music and keep their protesting more general, it is clear from one look at the cover of 20/20 Vision that they’ve broken this rule. At the beginning of the new year and with the presidential elections on the horizon, this album couldn’t come at a better time. In the words of the band’s vocalist and bassist, Chris #2, the record is a statement against Trump’s ‘racist, islamophobic, homophobic, transphobic and bigoted’ policies. It’s a call for us to ‘be in the streets daily, demanding an end to racial, social and economic injustice’. So, if you feel the same anger and frustration at recent developments around the world as I do, this album is for you. It is, however, not all bleak: ‘20/20 Vision’ and ‘Don’t Let The Bastards Get You Down’ have a more hopeful tone to them and you can feel the band’s hymn to save things, by banding all together. With the sentence ‘No one is free until the war is won’, they state that we cannot stop fighting for change until everyone is treated equally and there is ‘No more hate, no division’. While that is all well and good, there is a sense of urgency in ‘Un-American’, that this change needs to come about sooner rather than later. A personal favourite is ‘Christian Nationalist’, a song which aims at the far-right wing movement, at white nationalism, neo-Nazism, fascism and warns about the dangers of a theocracy – definitely a nod to right-wing claims that Trump is ‘heaven sent’. ‘You Make Me Sick’ is an excellent musical outlet for your frustrations at Trump All in all, there is a good balance between urgency and despair, and hope and positivity, and the album ends on an up note with ‘Resistance Frequencies’. The questions remains, ‘which side are you on?’ – Anti-Flag are quite clear on their stance. 20/20 Vision – Anti-Flag by Debbie Stebens

p. 8 The perplexed student’s Contemporary Korarts | cinema “We have no guns in our society, our gangsters have sushi chef’s knives, it is scarier and more personal and extreme […] everything is extreme”. Parasite director Bong Joon-Ho got that right. The troubled experiences of South Korea during the 20th and beginning of 21st century have shaped a unique cinema, extreme in its plots and style, that deals with very universal issues in a personal, fascinating style that is only now getting widespread recognition. I’m not really sure what I said in this sentence so let’s back up a bit. Korean cinema has been on everyone’s mouth this last year. Thanks to the success of Parasite in Cannes and more recently at the Golden Globes, Oscars, and literally every single ‘top movies of 2019’, mine included, film-buffs all over have had their first contact with South Korean filmmaking. It is not the first time that this happens: back in 2003, Oldboy, “the most Tarantino film Tarantino never directed”, won the Un certain Regard in Cannes (the second most prestigious award at the competition), and it remained a cult classic for anyone with an interest in world cinema. Oldboy opened the gate for a new stream of Korean Films that, while widely known in your local arthouse movie theatre, have since remained under the radar for too long to tolerate. Ever since Oldboy, two impeachments, one economic crisis that hit the Republic of Korea hard, and a long list of trouble with their neighbours above have been added to the almost endless line of political instability this country has suffered in the last hundred years. In turn, the Korean filmmakers have always remained politically active, insurgent and engaging, using the troubles they faced to feed into a tradition of over the top, exaggerated style, tracing back to, at least, Japanese Kabuki theatre. In turn, the flourishing film industry bellow the 28th parallel has given us an enormous selection of films, that on top of the carefully crafted, eye-catching spectacle in the foreground they are known for, remain every bit as cynic and aware about what the people watching them worry about. Other filmmakers have opted for another way - a less aggressive, introspective approach, offering stories just as important and empathetic, conscious of the society they live in, but immensely less flashy and fast paced. Both tendencies share the same core attributes and recognise the important power films have to shape how we see ourselves and the ones around us. Something else common among all contemporary Korean Movies is how universal they are. Thanks to, or despite, US intervention after WWII and the Korean War, some failed IMF-induced austerity policies, and a heavy dose of untrusty politicians, many of the sociopolitical issues facing contemporary Korea feel very universal. Once again, Bong Joon-Ho said it best: “I think maybe there is no borderline between countries now because we all live in the same country, it’s called capitalism”. This is not necessarily a bad thing (although it is), but it entails that the struggles these films are directly or indirectly representing, feel familiar. Maybe not as extreme or visceral as you can see them here, but every tiny bit as infuriating and emotional. Theirs are the struggles of living in a capitalist system, where otherwise similar workers live alienated from each other; their characters suffer identity crises in the form of violent beating or art-induced cathartic journeys; the people fail to connect with each other and look for answers in the same places you and I would. A big part of their success and the biggest question why this hasn’t happened before, is how relatable they are. Further than the mastery of the craft of filmmaking they all show, these are relatable films widely accessible to anyone willing to read subtitles. by Miguel de la Cal Moreno

p. 9 introduction to rean Cinema If you don’t know where to start, here are 12 films and one short series to begin with - 3 categories, each in descending order. Korea in the west: Snowpiercer (2013), Okja (2017), Little Drummer Girl (2018), Stoker (2013). Extremist: Parasite (2019), Burning (2018), The Handmaiden (2016), I saw the devil (2010), The Wailing (2016), The Good, the Bad, the Weird (2008). Introspective: Right Now, Wrong then (2015), Poetry (2010), Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter … and Spring (2003). These are all great films, and there are so many more I cannot get into, so, here is my advice: find something that you like, look it up, watch another one. Trust me, you won’t regret it. arts | cinema images courtesy of flickr users Nadja MH and future15pic THE CREATIVE WRITING SOCIETY FEBRUARY COMPETITION We are currently OPEN for submissions for our first writing contest! Enter your stories, poems and prose for the chance to win a cash prize. Winners and runners-up will also be invited to have their pieces printed in our annual anthology. The theme this year is Valentine’s Day, so send us your traditional tales of romance, or dark, twisted stories of love and revenge (it doesn’t need to be sappy!) We’re accepting prose entries up to 3000 words or 60 lines of poetry. Please contact [email protected] for more details and to enter. The entry fee is £3, which contributes to the overall prize. The deadline for all submissions is the 29th of February. Your ad here. { } Would you like to advertise with us? We offer many different advertising opportunities for various budgets. Contact us at [email protected] for more information.

p. 10 gaming and tech | spectacle The above fragment is number 28 in Guy Debord’s collection of 221 theses originally published as La societé du spectacle. The collection of aphorisms reflects on the conditions of life in the postmodern, late stage capitalist world from a Marxist perspective. Arguably his most famous work, Debord poetically identifies that our capitalist society is a society of spectacles – a ‘spectacular society’ – designed and tailored to produce, reproduce and reinforce a constructed reality. This idea of a constructed reality can be understood as a society in which all actions, spaces, identities, movements, beliefs, and histories are formed by a false understanding of reality. It is the materialization of ideology itself. But what is the spectacle? One might think of the ‘mass media’ to begin understanding what the spectacle is: advertisements, television, radio, celebrities, films. While mass media comes close to describing the spectacle, Debord describes the spectacle not as a collection of images, but ‘a social relation among people, mediated by images.’ The spectacle is not merely a public service like the mass media, it is instead a capitalist tool for pacifying and distracting the masses – as much of a platitude as that may sound. The spectacle, simply put, is thus a constant flow of images, films, shows, advertisements, songs, which legitimise and naturalise the dominant ideology which forms our society. However, what does it have to do with technology? Why is this Frenchman being featured in Gaming & Tech, canonically the most avant-garde section of The Gaudie? Perhaps he himself answers this question: ‘But the spectacle is not the inevitable consequence of some supposedly natural technological development. On the contrary, the society of the spectacle is a form that chooses its own technological content. If the spectacle, considered in the limited sense of the “mass media” that are its most glaring superficial manifestation, seems to be invading society in the form of a mere technical apparatus, it should be understood that this apparatus is in no way neutral and that it has been developed in accordance with the spectacle’s internal dynamics.’ If Debord were alive today there is no doubt he would extend his analysis to include the Internet. Digital technology has become an essential proliferator of the spectacle. From social media to virtual assistants, the spectacle is disseminated ceaselessly. Moreover, the personal data collected by Big Data means that the spectacle becomes personalised, tailored to suit everyone individually. The consequences of this personalisation of the spectacle is that it becomes increasingly more difficult to identify it. It rolls passed us as we scroll down our screen almost seamlessly, disguised as a tweet or post. In fact, it is within such subtleness that the spectacle works best – almost invisible, one can confuse it for the natural order of things. Perhaps the most sinister truth about digital technologies is that we ourselves have become active proliferators and broadcasters of the spectacle. All of our activity on social media is monitored and translated into data which will then be sold to third party companies interested in learning what grabs your attention. All of our online relations and identities become commodified. In essence, our voluntary participation in social media feeds the spectacle, which serves to reproduce and reinforce a constructed reality designed to oppress us. In this sense, digital technologies are the ultimate mediator of the spectacle. In Thesis 28, Debord writes that ‘[t]he economic system founded on isolation is a circular production of isolation.’ If we decipher Debord’s language, we find this to THESIS 28: the lonely crowds by Martin Hare Michno

p. 11 gaming and tech | spectacle “ The economic system founded on isolation is a circular production of isolation. The technology is based on isolation, and the technical process isolates in turn. From the automobile to television, all the goods selected by the spectacular system are also its weapons for a constant reinforcement of the conditions of isolation of “lonely crowds.” The spectacle constantly rediscovers its own assumptions more concretely.” Thesis 28, Chapter 1: The Culmination of Separation, Guy Debord, La Societé du spectacle, 1967 mean simply that capitalism, as the reigning economic system, is a vicious circle of isolation. The technologies used to maintain capitalism, as well as the technologies produced under it, are based on isolation. Even the Internet and all social media has failed to become the web of connectivity we were told it would be. Rather than connecting us to people, the Internet has connected us to commodities, facilitated the movement of such commodities and even commodified our identities and activities in turn. The Internet and all digital technologies have fallen victim to the logic of capitalism. Debord claims that all technologies, from the automobile to the television, selected by the spectacular system are weaponised in order to reinforce the conditions of our isolation – what he refers to as ‘lonely crowds’. We exist within the same masses, walking to and fro, but separated. At the centre of the mass is the spectacle, to which all individuals are connected to. Indeed, what binds the spectators together is the spectacle, but unites them only to itself and never to one another. It is a one-way world. Lewis Mumford in his book The City in History: Its Origins, Its Transformations, and Its Prospects (1961) writes: ‘With the present means of longdistance mass communication, sprawling isolation has proved an even more effective method of keeping a population under control”. To assimilate workers into the capitalist system – in order to subjugate workers into maintaining the very system that oppresses them –, the system requires that isolated individuals be captured and isolated together: ‘The spectacle subjugates living men to itself to the extent that the economy has totally subjugated them. It is no more than the economy developing for itself’. The spectacle thus acts as a certain panopticon. Not so much because it is allseeing, but rather because it is always present, always making itself heard; the spectacle ‘concentrates all gazing and all consciousness’. Like the guardroom at the centre of Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon, which caused inmates to interiorize the prison guards’ gaze and thus behave always as if being watched, so does the spectacle intensify its own presence and alter our consciousness and behaviour, without actually gazing at us. In Bentham’s Panopticon, it was not necessary for guards to watch the inmates, only that the inmates saw the every-present guardroom. Similarly, the spectacle needs not to gaze upon us, it needs only for us to gaze upon it. ‘This is why the spectator feels at home nowhere’, writes Debord in thesis 30, ‘because the spectacle is everywhere’. Separation is the alpha and omega of the spectacle. The capitalist system relies on this one-way world for its survival. We work for it, not for one another. We exist for it, not for one another. Our relation this world is one of isolation; isolation from ourselves, our people, our labour, our Earth. We work isolated from one another on the same project; a project which has designed itself to keep us working in isolation. It is the vicious circle of isolation. Perhaps this is what Debord meant when he wrote thesis 28: ‘The economic system founded on isolation is a circular production of isolation.’ Technology has been weaponised, a tool towards our subjugation. It has isolated our existence; it has atomised the crowds. The lonely crowds cannot fathom selfemancipation. But within technology – the very tool of our subjugation – always lies the potential of our emancipation.

p. 12 gaming and tech | review Kentucky Route Zero (2013-2020) is a magical-realist mix between choose-your-own text adventures and point-and-click games. Serialised over seven years it begins with Conway, an ageing delivery driver, attempting to find the address ‘5 Dogwood Drive’, for delivery of antique furniture. This means travelling the eponymous Route, a subterranean road beneath the state of Kentucky. From here the game expands, fragment and diverges, like a kaleidoscope. You sing with ghosts; you ride on giant eagles; you choose the flow of a song, a poem. Here is why I think it is the defining game of the 2010s. A Modulating culture. In the 2010s text no longer had to remain static. Texts became fluid, augmentable, malleable to the current whims of the wider social sphere. Homestuck (2009 – 2016) told its gnostic creation myth over webcomic instalments spanning years; Lil Nas X stayed relevant with a constant stream of deep-fried memes and remixes; the ‘waterfall’ strategy (releasing most songs of an album as singles, prolific and constant) became commonplace. Algorithms, meanwhile, evolved and served us more and more bizarre online esoterica. Kentucky Route Zero was not dissimilar, though maybe a more intellectual – or arthouse – exercise in modulating culture. Four of the five acts came out within three years, though the last took four to create. Over this span, KRZ witnessed the beginnings of Obama’s second term to the end of Trump’s first. Like attuned antennae, the video game stayed relevant in its episodic structure, continuing to the brim of the next decade. B Recession Gothic. Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl (in both guises) pivoted a dark tale of strained marriage and murder on the backdrop of an America ruined by the 2008 financial crash. The reverberations of this collapse resonate through KRZ, too. The player comes across defunct shops, the absence of company. There are old dogs, weathered mechanics, wistful artists, a breaking steam-ship. The game is amidst contemporary ruin – something which becomes especially apparent in the climate anxiety of Act V’s setting. If Gone Girl was thrilling, then this is a more reflective, glittering melancholy side to the recession gothic. C Capitalist realism. All characters are haunted here, compounded by a strange timelessness, ‘60s to near future, and (to paraphrase Derrida) no other spectre hangs larger than Marx. Towards the end of the game there are mentions of a ‘power company’, authoritarian but now long-gone. There is even a Bureau of Reclaimed Spaces – no future is in sight; we are after the After. In the midst of these absences the potential for the community after crashes - economic and environmental – is offered. In breaching into slipstream speculative, moments of fantasy amid emotional and enigmatic backstory, KRZ allows for the possibility to enunciate impossibilities - and so, from that imaginative project, works towards something real, some hard-earned social progress. D Posthuman. Now climate anxiety is (or should be) on everyone’s mind, it is becoming very apparent humans are not the only entity on Earth worth life and happiness, much to conservative chagrin. KRZ imagines a world with candid interactions between animals is common-place. Ezra’s older brother is a humongous eagle; a crow works for the community television studio and in Act V a cat becomes crucial to the narrative. There are even two robot musicians, Junebug and Johnny, celebrated for their alien-ness. Their flexibility leads to the most pivotal moment of the entire game, in Act 3. In KRZ peoplehood is expanded to more than just the human. E Abstract Fantasy. KRZ is textheavy. This allows for untold dimensions and potential beyond graphics; the player chooses text options, allowing for multiplicity in options, and meanings to tesselate. The game is ergodic and interactive on a higher cognitive level than simply button-pushing (though this is no simple walking simulator, the player is invited to be enveloped in gorgeous pixel environments, too). This is the lateral ability of video games. Beyond concepts of design, KRZ makes a cerebral argument for games-as-art, something pertinent when considering it emerged from a decade which contained the ‘indie boom’, i.e. a renaissance of independent video game design, pushing the boundaries of the medium in unprecedented ways. To paraphrase a YouTube comment, in KRZ you do not make choices - you tell the game who you are. F Empathy. Villains exist off-screen, or as abstract entities. The group of characters the player gradually forms over the five episodes are gentle with each other. Not always positive (in fact, each character has haunting moments of acute melancholy) but there is always tenderness, a call for community. This is entwined with the game’s attempt to break stereotypes of the southern USA - here, mechanics do not dismiss installation artists. If anything, they work together. G Panthanatos. In this decade I think it is fair to say death – of individuals, of planets – rocketed into everyone’s subconscious, regardless of age or stature. I also tend to get anhedonic – I adore art of all kinds but often feel unfulfilled, not due to an artist’s limits, but because of some craving within me, one which compels me to create myself (mainly through writing). I.e. the fear of death pushes me to make something that can last at least an iota beyond my flesh. But for me, the best art makes me accept death; it fills me to the point I feel no compulsion to create, to fill, and Kentucky Route Zero is an acute example of that. Maybe such totalising joy emerged from adolescent glee, but I cannot deny that this game has followed me for five years (I started playing just before Act IV was released, from the age of 16 to 21). It has altered my sensibilities, expanded the scope of my soul, and perhaps for that reason alone it is the game of my 2010s. THE GAME OF THE 2010s (AN ODE) by Ian Macartney

p. 13 life and style | gaudie gourmet method Rosewater is a perfumed elixir synthesized by the alchemy of steam distillation of fragrant rose petals soaked in purified water. Think of it like rose extract, comparable to common vanilla or orange extracts. Highly potent in both taste and scent, it is to be used sparingly by the drop. I always invest in the highest quality ingredients to fully exercise the pleasures culinary duties have to offer, which is why I recommend Nielsen-Mattey’s, ‘Rosewater’. Brightly labelled in hot pink, the glass vial holds 118ml of liquid roses and can be found online, at supermarkets and at specialist shops for a reasonable price. Do not be put off buying due to the volume, as it permits you to make a year’s worth of enrosened dishes. Measure out 500ml of whole milk and place it into the microwave on a medium heat for two minutes to warm it through. The milk must be warm, as cold milk will cause the chocolate to seize up. In a small saucepan, finely grate in the squares of dark chocolate and warm gently on a very low heat. Carpeting the bottom of the saucepan, the chocolate will melt in a few seconds, at which point you should increase the heat slightly and gradually add the warm milk while whisking continuously. Do not attempt to heat the milk in the saucepan and then add the grated chocolate from a plate, bowl or chopping board, because the fine shavings will become a mist if a draught passes over them. When all the milk is added, the mixture should be a pale emulsion with no chocolate sediment. At this point, increase the heat whilst whisking until the contents of the saucepan are steaming. Do not allow it to boil, or a film of milk fat will form on the liquid’s surface and spoil the drinking experience. If this does happen, pass the mixture through a fine strainer to catch and remove it. At this point, the rosewater can be added according to your own personal taste. To those newly introduced to this botanic delight, I would recommend adding a drop at a time, stirring, and tasting with a teaspoon until the taste of the milk-chocolate mixture is pleasing to you. The flavour profile you are attempting to achieve should be a chocolate sweetness at the beginning, followed by a richness provided from the milk before finishing with a lingering rose flavour. An indicator that you have used just slightly over the optimum amount is that the rose flavour at the end has a metallic hint to it and excessive rosewater instils a dominant perfume flavour to the hot chocolate. Either scenario can be resolved by adding more warmed milk and chocolate shavings. Divide the contents of the saucepan between two cups and serve. by Maurice Alexander Rose hot his floral beverage T is a bouquet of roses contained within a single cup. Along with the classical act of giving roses to one’s Valentine, invite them round to enjoy this fun gastronomic rendition of the gesture - a wonderful opportunity to impress them with a demonstration of your culinary expertise. Simple and light, this recipe is more similar to heated chocolate milk than the irresistibly thick, traditional French ‘chocolat chaud’, which is more for dipping toasted baguette into than the drinking chocolate we are familiar with. However, the lightness of the drink should be welcomed, especially considering all the other chocolate treats we will all hopefully be receiving during this celebration of love and romance. Ingredients - Serves 2 6 to 8 squares of 70% cocoa chocolate 500ml whole milk Rosewater to taste chocolate

p. 14 life and style | fur image courtesy of cashadvance6online The biting chill of the January wind causes us to cling to embrace of coats and jackets of all materials; nylon padding, wool, goose-feathers- none of which compare to the warmth provided by fur. Fur was the fabric of choice for most of our history, from animal pelts utilised by prehistoric hunter-gatherers for protection against the elements, appearing in royal portraiture in the form of ermine capes and is typically an integral part of a nation’s traditional outfits, as with the sporran in Scottish highland dress. However, despite this continuous presence in our historical wardrobe, few, if any, will be wearing fur is one was to peer into window displays or glance at the clothing of commuters on the Highstreet. The absence of this gorgeous material originates in the creative exhaustion of the world’s fashion houses paired with the activities of anti-fur activists in the mid-to-late 20th century. With fur falling out of fashion, people were neutral whether articles of clothing did or did not feature fur, allowing fur to be tossed out of our wardrobes via banning and restrictive legislation ushered in through emotive political motivations. However, the year 2020 marks two decades since we emerged from that century and it is time we leave to it the stigmas surrounding fur. Perpetrated by the media, these negative connotations have been planted and flourished within peoples mind long after their relevancy. The principal stigma that needs addressing is the supposed misery that animals subjected to during their captivity in the fur-farming process. Again, I bring to your attention that we are live in the year 2020 in which the industries of developed nations are thickly laid with regulation to safeguard the quality of rights all involved. ‘The British Fur Trade Association’ is working alongside ‘The International Fur Federation’ to launch a new industry standard of quality titled ‘FURMARK’, guaranteeing the fur supply chain is replete with animal welfare enforcement, using globally recognised standards of welfare and environmental sustainability. Integrity of the FURMARK programme is buoyed by three principals; sciencebased evidence being the motives for further industry protocols, third-party inspections independent of the governing fur-industry authority, the place of inspection or any other individual/ institution who may have financial interests in omitting from the report activities incongruent to the FURMARK award standards, with the report itself being made publicly available for all to view. In essence, the 2020 FURMARK award programme aims to secure consumer confidence when purchasing fur products by fostering independent animal-welfare standards in the accomplishment and maintenance of fur traceability alongside full operational transparency in the supply chain. The moral argument against the use of fur as a clothing material because it results in the death of an animal. However, the death of an animal for our pleasure is not an outlandish proposal and is a part of our everyday lives. Despite the extensive media coverage of veganism, ‘The Vegan Society’ reports that the United Kingdom’s vegan population is composed of only six-hundred-thousand people. Not even 1% of the total population, this means that just over sixty-five-million people in Britain consume animal-derived products irrespective of overt media attention and tacit promotion. My rebuttal to the anti-fur moral argument that fur usage causes an animal’s death is that we rebuff these emotional concerns like we do with deaths resulting from our consumption of meat. End the double standard and indulge in all our fashion pursuits just as we do with our culinary desires. A final word in the proposal of a furlined wardrobe is fur’s sustainability. Through measured and responsible breeding, fur is a purely natural resource produced independently of fossil-fuel chemicals like polyester, allowing products to last generations. Fur coats continue to be gifted from one generation to another, with coats and other articles of clothing from the Victorian era still capable of being worn today, permitting proper care and maintenance. As lustrous and soft from 1820 to 2020, fur is an environmentalist hidden ally. When your fur clothing eventually takes on a tired, hackneyed appearance warranting disposal, feel at ease that it naturally degrades into the ground unlike faux-fur, which is an enormous contributor to the microplastic epidemic. Fur ticks all the boxes for a resource that can provide a solution to the pressing issues of fast-fashion, oildependent materials and environmental pollution. These issues combined with faux-furs popularity in present fashion, now is the perfect time to make the leap from the faux to authentic. Fur on a student budget seems like an impossibility, but its all about knowing where to shop. Listed below are three items offered by Fursource, an online retailer providing a variety of garments incorporating American and Canadian fur of the highest quality with prices lower than typical European vendors. When visiting their website, www.fursource.com, ignore the garish, brightly dyed pieces. A general rule I have for fur is that it must be undyed and in possession of the natural hues of the animal in question. For myself, dyeing a coat, for which over twenty foxes perished, hot pink, electric blue or luminous yellow is disrespectful to those animals and the craft of a furrier. Let us now explore your soon-to-be favourite garments. Red Fox Stroller Jacket. It is impossible to think of fur clothing and not promptly envision a stroller jacket. Shoulders swathed in blood-orange, the coat is a cascade of red fur flowing down to the wearer’s ankle. Its magnificence absorbs all the attention of the room; timeless, classy and luxurious, the sunset extravagance of this piece will make you memorable to everyone when attending events, parties and celebrations. Priced at £3,000, in the approach of Valentine’s Day, this ravishing coat would make the most fantastic gift for the one you love. A heart-warming backstory to her new wearable family-heirloom. Rabbit Mittens. Leather mittens coated in a thick cloud of a rabbit fur. These are juxtaposed to the previous item, as fur is typically associated with luxury and the high prices items this commercial realm commands. With the historical status, popular media and quality of the material, it is understandable that this is stereotype persists. In actuality, fur accessories like these mittens are very accessible to the average person. Fur-lined products will always be priced higher than their synthetic equivalents, but you pay a higher price for fur’s lasting appeal and durability. Priced at £54, these hazel or by Maurice Alexander image courtesy of Yaroslav Domnitsky More than material

p. 15 silver rabbit-fur mittens would be the perfect gift for him; subtle, tame and exuding quality. Eucalan Fur Cleaner and Brush Kit. Despite the wondrous, unsung qualities of fur, it does require a degree of low-level maintenance. This kit is an essential complementary purchase for all fur products and at £15, there is no excuse to not throw this in along with your newly purchased garments. The cleaning elixir is enriched with lanolin, a secretion made by wool-bearing animals, to promote health of the garment’s fur. Following the instructions, mix with water within the included spray bottle for ease of application before rinsing with warm water, brushing with the included brush and allowing to dry. The wire brush is designed to add volume to the fur’s fibres, ridding them dirt particles to keep the fur blossoming with health and vigour. Lastly, you do not have to seek out specialist vendors for fur clothing. You can augment any wardrobe item with a single animal pelt and the skill of a tailor. Speaking from experience, I purchased a standard, dark-brown, faux-leather jacket during the post-Xmas sales for £30. It came with a detachable collar made of felt in identical colour to the leather. Searching eBay ‘fox pelts’, I was presented with a bank of pelts to choose from. I purchased one from Lithuania for £35 and, upon its arrival, I brought both the jacket and the pelt to local Aberdeen tailor, ‘King’s Stitch’ of 326 King Street. The seamstress here possesses over thirty years of experience in the European fashion industry and her wealth of ability shows in her skilful alteration of clothing. I explained to her that I wanted the felt of the detachable collar to be replaced with the fox fur. A small fee of £18 and a three days wait, I was the owner of a jacket whose collar is a luxurious frame of vibrant reds and oranges. A total cost of £83, a fox pelt and the work a master seamstress have combined to provide me a beautiful faux-leather jacket, which due the inclusion of real fur, everyone assumes to be of real leather, and therefore appears much more expensive than my actual investment. Do not be put off clothes alteration by having to employ the talent and skill of a seamstress on the grounds of price. Most people never think of having clothes altered because of the impression that alteration is so costly that it is not worth contemplating. However, as you can see by my own example, clothes modification is very affordable, even for students, with the addition of fur to a garment to add a lasting impression of elite wear. Alterations are typically around the £15 range and if you were to procure a price list of tailors local to you, I am sure you would be surprised by the affordability. Providing this brief history of fur, its numerous environmental benefits, updates on the present developments of the industry, showcasing of a few modern fur clothing items, and explanation on using pelts in reviving the appearance of your everyday clothing, I hope that this article functions as the start of your wonderful adventure in the world of fur. image courtesy of Yaroslav Domnitsky image courtesy of Forestfox life and style | fur

GAUDIECROSSWORD Look out for the solutions in our next issue! GAUDIECROSSWORD p. 16 puzzles SIMPLESUDOKU ADVANCEDSUDOKU LOOKING FOR ANSWERS? Across 1. Therapeutic (11) 7. Sans serif (4, 5) 12. Gravitational (13) 13. Pickett (7) 14. Tit for tat (3, 3, 3) 15. Chant (5) 16. Emcee (5) 17. Ordnance (8) 19. Je ne sais quoi (2, 2, 4, 4) 21. Empyema (7) 23. Astute (6) 25. Brutal (6) 27. Here today gone tomorrow (4, 5, 4, 8) 29. Moiety (6) 31. Exists (6) 32. Denudes (7) 35. Neutron bombs (7, 5) 37. Superman (8) 40. Amass (5) 41. Elite (5) 42. Clothiers (9) 44. Unicorn (7) 45. Outboard motor (8, 5) 46. Emendates (9) 47- Residential (11) Down 1. Tightrope (9) 2. Exalted (7) 3. Aviso (5) 4. Elastic bands (7, 5) 5. Thirty (6) 6. Conscientious objector (15, 8) 7. Selvage (7) 8. Naphthas (8) 9. Successor (9) 10.Reencountered (16) 11. Father-inlaw (6-2-3) 18. Alert (5) 20. Larynx (6) 22. Particularise (13) 24. Theism (6) 26. Goodhumoured (4-8) 27. Human nature (5, 6) 28. Ounce (5) 30. Threshold (9) 33. Sinistral (9) 34. Internet (8) 36. Ominous (7) 38. Maestri (7) 39. Across (6) 43. He-man (2-3) SIMPLESUDOKU ADVANCEDSUDOKU 1. Until now (8) 2. Showing great enthusiasm or interest (4) 3. Aquatic crustaceans also known as shrimp (5) 4. Referring to the colours of bruised skin (5-3-4) 5. Halt, desist (4) 6. More than expected, extra (10) 7. Troublemaking (8) 8. A young member of a wealthy or influential family (5) 9. Numerous nations or peoples ruled under a single sovereign authority (6) 10. Unable to be comforted (12) 17. (Not frequently used) A woman who is an author (9) 19. The conditions of a contract (5) 21. To draft someone into compulsory service (9) 22. Having three aspects or parts (9) 25. Prepared to the specifications of physicians’ prescription (9) 27. Altruistic concern or efforts to improve human wellbeing (12) 29. Large van used to remove furniture, named after a British warehouse company (12) 33. A workman who builds or designs mill machinery (10) 34. A light shade of yellowishbrown, often used for army uniforms (5) 36. Dependable (8) 38. A lengthy digression, a detailed discussion of some point in a book (8) 40. AKA a young urban professional (6) 43. A sweet glaze used to decorate cakes (5) 44. An officer of middle rank in the armed forces, above a captain (5) 47. Range of mountains in Europe (4) 49. The loud sound of bells ringing (4) 11. Thinly coated in silver (6-6) 12. Arriving (8) 13. Closely observe or follow someone (6) 14. Freeform instrumental composition (9) 15. A sacred image (4) 16. Church instrument (5) 18. Inflammation of the stomach lining (9) 20. An abundant meal, a banquet (5) 23. In rock climbing: a place to support one’s foot (8) 24. Average, ordinary (3-2-3-4) 26. Bath crystals which are used in soaks to treat sore muscles (5, 5) 28. A temporary decline (5) 30. (British spelling) Sailing manoeuvre in which the stern of a sailboat crosses the wind (4) 31. Thin thread of metal, often used for coat hangers (4) 32. Watery mucus discharge from the eyes and nose (5) 34. Small, brightly coloured bird with a long, dagger-like beak (10) 35. Tropical plant of the genus smilax, its root is used to treat psoriasis (12) 37. Photographic equipment used to make photos bigger (8) 39. Type of alcohol used as biofuel (5) 41. A boxer who weighs no more than 112 pounds (9) 42. A thinly cut piece of something, such as bread (5) 45. To enclose in paper (4) 46. A decorative chain, Bavarian costume jewellery (9) 48. Strive towards an ambition (6) 50. Not compulsory (8) 51. Large semi-aquatic animal found in sub-Saharan Africa (12) Down Across

12.02.20 p.9 A new North Sea cod crisis is looming on the horizon North Sea cod population levels are at a critical level, following advice by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) to lower catches to 13,686 tonnes, equalling a 61% reduction of total allowable catch (TAC) from 2019. Cod is considered an iconic and ecologically important stock in the UK, with long traditions of fishing dating back to the Viking period. In the 1960’s to 70’s the cod population rose dramatically followed by a return to normal levels during the 80’s and 90’s. The increasing cod abundance was followed by a steady increase in fishing effort (i.e. the amount of fishing), rising until it reached a peak in the early 2000s. Unlike the unwavering fishing effort, cod abundance faced a stark decline in the same period. The cod stock was decimated from 270,000 tonnes in the 1970s to only 44,000 tonnes in 2006 and is currently predicted at 81,224 tonnes. Current population levels are well below safe biological levels (as defined by ICES), increasing the risk of a stock collapse. The population decline has caused the stock to lose the vital Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) sustainability certification in September 2019. Erin Priddle, UK & Ireland Programme Director of the MSC, stated "While we understand that the outcome of today's advice is disappointing for the sector, we look forward to industry introducing a suite of measures to secure the long-term sustainability of this iconic and ecologically important stock. Protecting North Sea cod for this and future generations must be a key priority for all involved." Without the sustainably certification, fishermen will have a hard time finding suitable buyers. Since 2017, the total allowable catch (TAC) of North Sea cod has been set above scientific advice, with recruitment levels remaining low since 1998. In addition, historical data has been subjected to retrospective bias, which comes from overestimating biomass in conjunction with underestimating fishing pressure. Retrospective patterns have concluded that the cod stock was not on projection to reach safe biological limits in 2016 and therefore, fish was caught at unsustainable levels. The latest advice by ICES following the substantial decline of the North Sea cod stock lists climate change as an important factor that needs to be investigated for understanding the population decline. Warming rates in the North East Atlantic are nearly three times faster than the global warming rate (at 0.2-0.6 °C per decade) and available literature has identified a northward movement of cod. Furthermore, earlier spawning times of North Sea cod (2.3 weeks per decade in the central North Sea) have been found to be attributed to increasing sea temperatures with possible far reaching consequences to species interactions. Earlier spawning periods of the stock are predicted to increase a mismatch between cod larvae and their prey source (plankton). The outlook on North Sea cod stock recovery looks dire, whereby the term “hysteresis” has been introduced to describe the stock, a term formally used to explain the decimation of the Atlantic cod population crash near Newfoundland Canada, which hasn’t recovered to this day despite drastically reduced fishing pressure. Some fisheries scientists argue that the recovery of the North Sea cod stock may require a prolonged period of reduced fishing pressure or may not occur at all. by Anton Kuech Warming rates in the North East Atlantic are nearly three times faster than the global warming rate (at 0.2-0.6 °C per decade) and available literature has identified a northward movement of cod. Photo courtesy of Ingrid Maasik via Shutterstock Why are adolescents so vulnerable to mental illnesses? Neuroimaging study on brain changes in adolescents shed light into development of mental illnesses Adolescents go through immense change and it is a well-known fact that it is a period of development in the brain. A recent study conducted at the University of Cambridge and University College London published key findings linking rapid brain development and mental illnesses. 298 healthy participants between the ages of 14 to 25 were recruited in this functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) study, after which their brain patterns were scanned at resting state. The scientists found that functional connectivity changes in brain through adolescence. They mainly found two types of development between the ages of 14 and 25. The areas of the brain responsible for vision, movement and other functions went through a ‘conservative’ pattern of change. Meaning, the connectivity between brain regions got stronger over time from adolescence through adulthood, where they peaked. Meanwhile, brain areas like the association cortex, responsible for more complex tasks such as social skills and ability to make inferences about other people’s thoughts, go through a different kind of development. ‘Disruptive’ change as seen by the brain imaging results show that connections that were once strong at an early age actually get weaker through adulthood, while previously weak connections grow to be stronger. Disruptive changes in the brain show signs of high metabolic activity due to active remodeling of neurons in the brain. “We know that depression, anxiety and other mental health disorders often occur for the first time in adolescence – but we don’t know why”, says Professor E.D. Bullmore, one of the authors the paper and head of the Department of Psychiatry at Cambridge. “These results show us that active remodeling of brain networks is ongoing during the teenage years and deeper understanding of brain development could lead to deeper understanding of the causes of mental illness in young people.” Similarly, a previous study conducted in 2016 at Cambridge found, using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), that the outer regions of the brain known as the cortex, in fact, shrink during adolescence. At the same time, the protective layer insulating nerve fibers known as myelin also increases. Moreover, it was found that myelin resided within the cortex, altering previous perceptions that it was only found in ‘white matter’, or brain tissues that connect various areas of the brain. Particularly, myelin increases in the associative cortical areas, which are known to go through disruptive changes. This region is important for forming connections between various brain areas. The researchers compared the MRI scans with the Allen Brain Atlas, which maps regions of the brain through gene expression. They found that the genes associated with schizophrenia risk were particularly expressed during adolescence, linking mental illnesses and development in teenagers. by Nidhiyaa Anagananthan Photo courtesy of Zephyr via Science Photo Library

p.10 12.02.20 Diplomatic dispute over captured Colombian prisoner Last Tuesday, Venezuelan special forces have captured former Colombian senator Aída Merlano in the Venezuelan city of Maracaibo. Diplomatic tensions between Colombia and Venezuela now complicate the extradition process. Aída Merlano escaped prison in Colombia in October 2019, where she was serving a 15-year sentence for vote buying. During the 2018 parliamentary elections, Merlano kept around 268 million pesos (£60,000) in cash at her campaign office, leading an electoral fraud vote-buying network. She also used a QR code system in order to control if voters that she bribed actually voted for her. She was the first Colombian politician to be jailed for election fraud. However, Aída Merlano did not stay in prison for all too long. In fact, a video of her movie-like escape has gone viral in Colombia. On 2 October, she had been allowed to visit a dental surgery. From there, she slid down a rope and landed on the pavement, where confused passers-by watched her get on the back of an accomplice’s motorcycle. The head of the prison has been hugely criticised for allowing her to leave the prison, and ended up being fired. After her capture in Venezuela last week, the former Congresswoman has been brought to the Venezuelan prosecutor’s office and is now being held in a prison close to the Colombian border for identity theft, using fake documents and conspiring to commit crimes. In such a case, where a Colombian national who escaped from Colombian prison has been captured in a neighbouring country, this country would theoretically be expected to extradite the person. Colombian president Iván Duque would indeed like to see Merlano in a Colombian prison, but there is one slight problem: His government does not recognise Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and his government as legitimate. Instead, he recognises opposition leader Juan Guaido, before whom he made the extradition request. Even though Guiado is recognised as interim president by 50 countries, he has no control over Venezuela’s police or judiciary. President Maduro still remains in control of all state institutions. He was the one breaking off relations with Colombia in February 2019, in reaction to Colombian president Duque helping the Venezuelan opposition to deliver humanitarian aid into Venezuela. Maduro recently offered to resume diplomatic relations for the extradition, but Duque declined. Maduro is now threatening to use Merlano to publish insider information about more corruption cases in Colombia. by Sarah-Marie Thomas Photo courtesy of Luis Argerich via Wikicommons Iowa Causus 2020: first step towards the presidential election The Iowa 2020 Democratic Caucus was held on Monday, February 3, 2020. Despite delays in the announcement of the results, Pete Buttigieg came out on top in this first round with 26.2% of votes (results from the 9th of February). He is ahead of the three headliners of the Democratic campaign: the 38-year-old candidate was closely followed by Primary favourite Bernie Sanders, with 26.1% of the votes in Iowa. Next came Elisabeth Warren (18.0%) and, surprisingly, former Barack Obama Vice President Joe Biden, only fourth therefore (15.8%) despite being a ‘national figure’ candidate. The Iowa vote which will be followed by the New Hampshire vote very quickly on February 11. The Iowa caucus receives a lot of media coverage every four years, ahead of the U.S. presidential election held later this year (caucuses are held every two years although the most closely watched are held before the presidential elections, every four years.). Indeed, since 1972, Iowa has been the state that is inaugurating (for both major parties) the long process for nominating candidates for the election of the American president. It serves as an early indicator of which candidate can hope to win the nomination of his political party at the national convention of the latter, despite the relative low weight (1% of national delegates) of this rural state of three million inhabitants. The Iowa caucus differs greatly from the primary elections used by most of the other states, since Iowa is one of 12 U.S. states to nominate its delegates by caucus and not by a traditional vote in primary elections. Caucus is generally defined as a "neighbours' meeting": rather than going to polling stations and voting, Iowans gather at a specific location in each of the 1,784 ridings. Typically, these assemblies take place in schools, churches or public libraries. The presidential election in the United States will take place on Tuesday, November 3, 2020. by Floriane Ramfos Photo courtesy of DonkeyHotey via Flickr Death of the doctor who told the world about the coronavirus Days after the World Health Organisation declared the coronavirus to be a global health emergency, suspicions arose that the Chinese may have known about the virus longer than the rest of the world, and failed reports incidences in a bid to save face and maintain an image. The virus, named 2019-nCoV, has now claimed upwards of 700 lives. According to the World Health Organisation, ‘[the virus] has the potential to spread to countries with weaker health systems’. This has led to quarantines globally. The reason the W.H.O was able to declare the emergency was because of Li Wenliang, a doctor in his early thirties, who passed away on February 6th from the pneumonia triggered by the coronavirus. The biggest proof that the Chinese were aware of the virus comes scientific publications; the medical journal The Lancet published an article describing in depth the clinical features of patients infected with the disease as far back December 1st 2019. With more than 31, 000 cases in China, there is reason to believe that the Chinese covered up the true extent of the virus’ impact from global eyes, playing down figures for confirmed cases. Similarly suspicious activities took place during the SARS (2003) and MERS (2018) outbreaks. by Robass Zia According to the World Health Organisation, ‘[the virus] has the potential to spread to countries with weaker health systems’. Photo courtesy Centers for desease control and prevention of Flickr

12.02.20 p.11 Why Immanuel Kant’s line of thinking has failed us, and how Rousseau’s ideology can save us I n light of recent events, we ought to ask ourselves how the coronavirus is affecting people around the world. In other words, is the virus only affecting those contaminated? And if not, then how exactly? There is barely anyone around the world who has not heard or read about this new virus in China that resulted in a worldwide pandemic. However, for psychologists, this is an interesting opportunity to observe and study people’s behaviors in adversity situations. How is this pandemic influencing human relation and is there a correlation between the global rising of the new coronavirus and the hostile attribution bias in terms of social behavior? Hostile attribution bias is based on the inclination to translate certain individual behavior or action as having a negative outlook. Although, sometimes that might not be the case at all. Think about when you passed by someone from work or school and waved energetically at them but they appeared clueless to you. Would you initially assume it was because they did not like you or because they were simply distracted, thinking about their own life, listening to music? This is an example of ambiguity. When considering the virus, it is essential to question whether ambiguity is present and how it can be avoided or diminished. Ambiguity is a confounding variable - meaning our research would consist of incorrect data. Pandemics like this contribute to learning about and understanding our modern society through the impact they have on it. Nonetheless, to fully understand, it is important to compare this case with previously researched instances. A study by Liao et al. (2014) observed the cognitive (perceived risk) and affective (anxiety and worry) during the Influenza pandemic wave. Scientists called random numbers to enquire people with a set of questionnaires. They found that during periods of heightened tension, specifically during the late epidemic periods, people tended to take protective measures. Similarly, Cheng and Tang (2004) concluded that cultural differences in perception lead to discrepancies in behavior. Finally, Xie and colleagues (2011) noted that during the outbreak it was not the level of exposure that caused anxiety but rather the subjective interpretations. All these studies propose that anxietydriven behaviors are likely to dominate and reasons are rarely related to the virus itself. Moreover, pandemics often permit us to witness many circumstances of a significant rise in racism and xenophobia. In turn, social and business relationships among countries are hampered. Is a season of virus outbreak really worth destroying decades of useful links? For instance, the World Health Organization might be praising China for its efforts of stopping the coronavirus distribution. Nevertheless, many nations are still avoiding and treating the Chinese people badly and even fearing their presence due to contamination. This leads to another potential variable – the mass media. Through its worldwide influence, mass media affects people – making them wary, eliciting prejudice, and twisting things into sounding a lot scarier than they actually are. Additionally, we need to take into consideration the aspect of living in a world ruled by manipulation. Fear is how the media keeps us controlled. It is not worth lying in bed at night, lost in thought, questioning whether you have it or could contract it next. Unfortunately, regardless of the origin speculations of the coronavirus and its level of excessive fear, the question still remains unclear. All in all, perhaps the dread surrounding this situation should be first leveled against the probability of its outcome and the authenticity of sources. People should not dwell too much on the information they are daily bombarded with but remember the fact that it is just a matter of personal interpretation. An interpretation mostly inside our heads – a virus created by us with the sole purpose of alienating and frightening us more than protecting. Therefore, regardless of the many conspiracy theories, lack of trust in local physicians, and the actual undeniable results, we must not forget that we are all humans and our humanity towards each other is the quality that separates us from any other species on the planet Earth. Spot the virus – poisoning our bodies and minds? The modern political world is filled with angst and hatred towards the opposite side. Take one glance at any political news online and you will have two pulverising sides in the comment section battling it out as if their honour and livelihoods depend on it. Most adults find themselves aligned with one side of the political spectrum, and they believe truly that their alignment and vote is what is not just best for them, but everyone else, and others should follow in their footsteps to be right. This line of thought is similar to that proposed by German Enlightenment thinker Immanuel Kant, who suggested that one should live their lives as if their actions will become universal law. This is a very overpowering and limiting way for one to live their life; yes, one should always be considerate of others, but to live in a way that forces us to think that anyone who disagrees with us is somehow bad is an extremely closed-minded and sad way to live, regardless of where you find yourself on the political spectrum. This is where Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s ideology can actually be helpful. Though not completely different from Kant’s beliefs, Rousseau suggests a more liveable alternative. Unfortunately, most historians remember him as a recluse, but Rousseau did understand that society cannot move back to a time where we can simply hide away in a cave, away from responsibility and expectations. He said that our decisions should be based on what is good for the society as opposed to what is good for just us. Though this may sound similar to what Kant says, it is not; Kant’s beliefs lay in the thought that one’s own actions should be the ones that we believe everyone should take, while Rousseau suggests that we think about everyone, their situations, privileges, and experiences when we do something like voting. Too many people today behave as if their political affiliation is the right one and everyone else is wrong for disagreeing with them; not enough are thinking whether their vote is helping the society as a whole, not enough are thinking about who their vote helps most, not enough people are thinking about others. We must learn to ask ourselves whether we are doing what we are doing for selfish reasons, or because we want to improve the world we live in. We live in a very divided age, a time where political parties are more like sports teams, where we pick one and do not budge, we must learn to open our minds to both sides and think about how our actions benefit not just our immediate world, but the entire society we live in. Kant’s ideology fails us as it places us in the perception that we know better than everyone else, it makes one believe that others’ life experiences are invalid or not valuable enough to consider. To live in a world where we can really understand each other and grow together, we need to consider others before we consider ourselves. by Adam Y. Christian Photo courtesy of Getty Images by Bianka Dakova Photo courtesy of Anthony Kwan Through its worldwide influence, mass media affects people – making them wary, eliciting prejudice, and twisting things into sounding a lot scarier than they actually are. References used can be found by contacting us at society@ thegaudie.com

p.12 12.02.20 A person’s 20s, any person regardless of gender, comes with limitless ups and downs. We go through different phases (bless my cringe-worthy goth phase!), learn new things, try to unlearn other things and go on adventures all in the bid to discover ourselves. And some of us ultimately convince ourselves by 22 that we have in fact, learnt it all and, have grown into the final version of ourselves. Which is why it’s painful to accept further down the line that our ‘grown-up’ friends are quite distinct from us and do not perfectly fit into our lives. As I came off a FaceTime call with a ‘close’ friend yesterday, it suddenly dawned on me that our friendship had an expiration date. No, this was not a sudden decision, it was a long time coming. I have had this nagging feeling since at least March 2018. Yes, that long! So why were we still friends then? Well, she was generally a lovely person whom I used to look up to. She inspired me during tough times and was really the reason I finally decided to pursue a degree after 21. I met her through a mutual friend and at the time, I was 20, and she was 22 in the first year of her degree. Her resilience in getting the degree made me decide to give university a try, hence I inadvertently grew attached to her. Being an outgoing person, I had a lot of friends growing up, especially in school, however as we all parted ways afterwards, some of us moving to different parts of the country (and others, world), we grew apart. So, over time, all the chimes of ‘’best friends forever’’ over Facebook dwindled and eventually became obsolete. Which is why I really believed that whatever friends I made in my 20s would be “forever” as I assumed, I would be smarter, therefore making better choices. Like so many others in their early 20s, I failed to realise that just like everything else, I’ll continuously change. And as cliché as it sounds, change truly is constant and so many of us fail to truly grasp the reality of this. The reason so many others like me fail to embrace it, is because we imagine it’ll be bad and are afraid of it. The reason I vehemently refuse to let go of my ‘precious’ friend, ignoring the glaringly obvious bridge between us, is because I keep thinking it’s bad that we’re now different people. And I keep wondering if I’m a bad person for feeling this difference and wanting to part ways. However, neither of those are necessarily true. Sometimes we out-grow people and that’s okay. Other times people out-grow us and that is okay too. We’re all innately different and our 20s, along with the rest of our lives are for evolving. Sometimes, we just evolve apart. That doesn’t make us bad people nor do the breakups have to be sour, it is okay to come to an amicable conclusion that you now lead different lives. So dear readers, if like me, you have come to the realisation in your mid 20s that you in fact know nothing (thank you wise Ygritte of the Free Folks), then please find solace in knowing that you’re not alone. It is okay that you have outgrown friends you thought you’d have forever. Or that other friends have moved on with their lives and no longer have room for you. We all grow at different rates and that’s okay. Because eventually, we’ll all find our people. Out-growing friends Sometimes it is good to let people go by Gift Clement Photo courtesy of Ninian Reid Bouquets of multi-coloured, manufactured roses; jewellery so shiny, fragile and expensive, it’ll burn a hole in your wallet and your economic soul; dinners with wine that must have been bottled by the God himself, although questionable based on the taste, are but a few of the expectations that Valentine’s day brings with it. Adverts, jokes, posters, cards from when we were so small, we had no idea what love even was, have ingrained the idea that if you’re going to show your affection, February 14th is the best, if not the only day to do it. I’ll admit, when I was a single teenager in high school, pining over the hot sixth year boys, Valentine’s day seemed like a dream come true. The moment my crush could profess the love they’d been hiding all year with some grand, or secret, gesture – the stars would align, and life would be perfect. What Valentine’s really meant? Disappointment. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if someone doesn’t like you for a whole year – they don’t like you on valentine’s, and if they’re acting like they do, they probably just want a cute bracelet. The expectations on new relationships to buy the perfect gift and dish out potentially hundreds of pounds on a great night out for their new guy or gal is obscene, to say the least, and the idea that singles should, of course, celebrate the day with friends! Go out, have dinner, drink, spend. And failing having any friends, buy your mum something to show your love, buy a goodie bag specifically designed for your dog with heart shaped biscuits and a bright red chewtoy. News-flash – red isn’t actually in a dog’s colour spectrum, so you just bought them something yellowish/brown. A corporate technique, which is tragically working wonders due to increasing materialism, is all valentine’s day is, to the point that I’ve heard stories of girls who will get a date or a boyfriend, right in time for the 14th, just to get a free meal before ditching the guy a few days later. Yes, this isn’t the days fault specifically but honestly it should act as a warning to all people likely to be under the pressure of paying for said meal. I might sound like a bitter, single student, but I’m actually in a really good relationship, and before you call me a hypocrite, here’s what we’ve opted to do for our second valentines… nothing. He’s going to come to my place, we’ll cook dinner, maybe buy a £5 bottle of cheap white to share (which is more a regular thing than I’d like, but certainly not special for the day) and probably watch a garbage movie on Netflix. No gifts, no dressing up, no hectic scrawling out a card last minute because the day came so much faster than we thought. And I can’t wait. It’s still a date, we’ll still love each-other, only I won’t wake up on the 15th and start applying for jobs – at least not for that reason, rent is still expensive. We’re all students, we’d don’t have mountains of cash to waste on a day like this just to feel like we love our partner or our parents or our pet enough. If you want to buy them flowers and chocolates (not for the dog please), then by all means show your love that way, but if you’re doing this to either prove something, or to buy your way out of not having to spend the whole night with them, or paying them a compliment – please just don’t. You’re not doing them or yourself any favours by trying to buy affection, and a person doesn’t love you any less if they don’t have the money to treat you in the stereotypical fashion. Just love who you love and tell them that. That’s all the day’s about, and trust me, that’s all they really want to hear. The vanity of Valentine's How materialistic culture is hurting hearts and wallets by Millie Barkley Photo courtesy of borodinova via Pixabay Photo courtesy of Smilla4 via Flickr

12.02.20 DISCLAIMER All opinions expressed in the opine section are those of the authors of the articles and do not necessarily represent views held by The Gaudie, AUSA, or any company which advertises in The Gaudie. p.13 “To play devil’s advocate, Hitler did reduce unemployment…” How, under any circumstances, is this an appropriate comment to make? And painfully, it is a real statement someone said to me when I was discussing a book on the course I’m studying that looks at Holocaust literature. I do not care if he reduced unemployment, he devised the genocide of six million Jewish people. I do not care if he did what he promised to do as leader, he put into action the murders of two-thirds of Europe’s Jewish population. He could have saved six million puppies from a burning building and it still wouldn’t change the fact he is responsible for six million deaths. Because, to reiterate so it gets in your head, Hitler orchestrated the Holocaust. So, in the dictionary the phrase to play devil’s advocate implies that the person in that role does not believe what they are saying. So why say it at all? The annoying thing is that some people just enjoy playing devil’s advocate and being the voice of controversy. And to some extent I get it, it can be fun adding another side to a debate. And even I will admit some areas need there to be a balance in the debate in order to see all sides of the issue. Take the legalisation of drugs for example. On one hand it poses a risk to the health of a population and could be difficult to police, on the other, many drugs have medicinal benefits and could add a new industry that creates jobs. Debates like that one requires that voice of controversy or a counterargument in order to see the full picture. But there is a way of going about it that is respectful of the issue at hand. You need to be aware of the scale and cultural impact of the topic at hand before you present an argument that might not be appropriate. There are certain topics of discussion that do not need another side to the debate. The Holocaust. Any genocide for that matter. Climate change. Equal rights. There are so many more. And if you don’t know enough about an issue to make a sound argument based in facts, then probably keep quiet. You have to have knowledge and respect about the issue you are discussing. Playing the controversial card in these situations hides the suffering of victims and puts focus not on the tragedy at hand, but on other areas of the situation. In these circumstances, the voices of the victims are too often silenced, and their stories are not told. By studying a course on trauma literature, I am witnessing the untold horrors of the Holocaust and other traumatic events. The impact of violence on a person should not be downplayed or ignored. Trauma is a terrifying companion that forces the victim to relive and relive and relive their worst moments until they have processed it, often with the help of a therapist. But some people never get through their trauma and it haunts their lives until the day they day, sometimes by their own hand. By playing devil’s advocate in discussions about traumatic and life-ending events, you play into the narratives that drown out the voices of the inexpressible trauma and render their stories unimportant. There are times where playing devil’s advocate and presenting a counterargument is appropriate. Discussing a mass-genocide is not one of them. When it is a situation like the Shoah, or any other event that caused mass-murder or mass-trauma, it is not appropriate. So, before you play devil’s advocate for the sake of being edgy and controversial, grow up and don’t be disrespectful. Photo courtesy of Ralph A. Clevenger To play Devil’s Advocate… Some issues don’t need a counterargument by Amy Richmond Photo courtesy of Creative Commons Zero Re: “Man Chat - a new hope for men in Aberdeen” (The Gaudie, 15/01/2020) by Lilidh Jack Luke McCoy’s January article came with a nominal disclaimer; noting the disapproval of cis men-only meetings. This acknowledgement belies worse things about Man Chat. Namely, that Man Chat’s transphobia was understated, that Man Chat cannot claim to functionally help men and its false charity status. The disclaimer notes that “Man Chat has been questioned” for its cis-only policy. This is not wrong, but it obfuscates the online abuse from Man Chat and its members that was directed at trans people who called them out. During this, Wray, the main organiser, called a trans man who visited Man Chat “a girl who identified as a man” and doubled down on the cis-only policy. Wray then took to the press to play the victim (“Aberdeen’s Man Chat group almost folded after trans debate.” Evening Express, 04/07/2019). I will not mention unchallenged things said by Man Chat members online. e-Transphobia aside, Man Chat cannot claim to achieve its goals. Any group or means to challenge toxic masculinity in men’s mental health support, which excludes ideas of gender that are foreign or uncomfortable to them, is doomed to fail from the offset. Uncomfortable is the word Wray used to describe how cis men at Man Chat felt about trans men attending. If trans men make Man Chat members uncomfortable, who else would? Would a gender non-conforming cis man be asked to leave? A black man struggling with outdated Scottish notions of black masculinity? While Man ChatCoy’s article supposes “there is no judgement of any kind from anyone attending, and you will feel right at home,” Man Chat’s attitudes towards gender diversity suggests otherwise. Man Chat meets in the Brewdog along my commute and what I see is a reasonably homogenous assortment of cis guys in a pub. And can men in a pub challenge our mental health crisis? No. In Scotland, the greatest risk factor for men with mental health concerns is alcoholism. While Man Chat operates a “don’t get drunk” policy (McCoy), a slightly inebriated former me, going home after exposing all that ails me, would absolutely get smashed so I don’t think about what I’ve just revealed and miss work the next day. Further, Wray boasts no training or experience to deal with this kind of support. Were Man Chat to become a charity, this situation would become dubiously legal. An unqualified mental health support group in a pub is not one on a path to success. Man Chat asserts that it’s applying for charity status. This application is non-existent or will fail for two reasons. First, Man Chat has supposedly misled people into thinking it is a charity, whilst not having charity status. Charity status is regulated and registered in Scotland and claiming or implying you are a charity without status almost always causes your application to fail. Second, charities are bound to the Equality Act (2010). The act allows organisations to exclude certain protected characteristics (i.e. trans people) if they can prove that it is a “proportionate means to achieving a legitimate aim.” Excluding trans men, who have poorer mental health outcomes on average than cisgender men, on the basis that their presence would make cisgender men uncomfortable would not qualify as a proportionate means towards a legitimate aim. Indeed, the legal precedent for trans exclusion is vanishingly small (restricted mostly to churches and sports), whereas the legal precedent for trans inclusion is broad and strong. Man Chat, despite its statements online, cannot become a charity. Its continued suggestion that it is trying to and will achieve charity status is deceitful. Inclusive and functional mental health support groups exist. Living in Aberdeen all my life, it upsets me to see people settle for poorly run groups and organisations, merely because they are the first of their kind to operate. Mutual support will always be what you make of it. AUSA Trans Students’ Forum will run a trans legal rights workshop on February 28th, at 18h, in room MR251 (MacRobert), for anyone wanting to learn about the Equality Act and other legal mechanisms that protect trans people. Photo courtesy of Scott Richards

p.14 12.02.20 “The second oldest girl must snog the boy she likes the most for five seconds!” On TV, islanders have traveled to South Africa to find love. They have flown far away from our beloved UK in the hope to find the love of their lives, or possibly just to win a significant amount of money. I would never say no to some extra money to pay off student loans, but I don’t need to go anywhere to find my love. I know exactly who he is and where he lives and it is far away from me. Much like the islanders, I would have to fly to see him and even though it is not as far away as Africa, it is far enough for us to not meet each other unless I have a break from uni. Long distance relationships are hard on the best of days, but when Valentine’s Day comes around, it hurts just a little bit more. The commercials are urging you to buy gifts, there’s chocolate and flowers in stores and you can’t help but feel low. It’s a hard feeling to embrace - that you have someone, but that you don’t have them with you. This is the fourth Valentine’s since my boyfriend and I became a couple, and we have “missed” three of them. I have sent him a card, but that is about as much as I can do from where I am. I know that there might be objections like “at least you have someone!”, so what about all the singles? I would argue that it is not the same thing. When I was single, Valentine’s didn’t bother me too much, at least not since high school, where it was hyped up. I was single, I was happy, I could joke it off with my single friends. Even back then there were plenty of memes about going on dates with Ben and Jerry’s instead. I think the difference now lies in knowing what you are missing. You are not missing something, you are missing someone. You know what you could have, if only you were together and I think that most couples take it for granted that you are with your loved one on February 14th. I try to not let it bother me too much. I will be alright. After all, it’s just a made-up holiday to give a starting boost to the materialistic industry before Easter celebrations fully take over. But I would not mind a nice candlelit dinner. A night at the movies. Watching Big Mouth on Netflix wearing cosy clothes, snacking on popcorn. To just be together. If you google “Valentine’s Day long distance” you will be met by lists upon lists of ideas on how to celebrate the day even if you are not together. They all have some good ideas, but the most common are to text in the morning, text before bed-time or have a dinner date over Facetime. To me those are just things that you have to do anyway when you are long distance, so how do you make it more special? One list suggested celebrating when you next see each other, catching up on all the holidays you missed, and I do like that thought. However, the idea that you can be all cute and celebrate it later doesn’t stop all the commercials from glaring at you. This will be our last Valentine’s Day living in different countries, so I am very thankful for that. If nothing else, I think living apart has taught me not to take things for granted, so when we do get to spend the day together, I will appreciate it more. And with this I hope that if you are in a couple, you will make sure to really cherish the day and the time you have together. If you are single, I hope that you still have an amazing day, perhaps celebrating with your friends, and if you can spare a thought to all of us just pining for our distant lovers, please do. I think that love can conquer any distance, but some days are inevitably harder than others. When hearts are far apart An insight into celebrating Valentine’s Day without your loved one by Fanny Olsson Photo courtesy of Ninian Reid There’s nothing like a controversial royal announcement to catch the attention of the British mainstream media. When Prince Harry and Meghan Markle stated that they intend to ‘step down’ as members of the senior royal family, critics and journalists were quick to unleash their harsh opinions. While The Daily Mail emphasised the “Queen’s Fury”, The Sun reported the story as resembling a “Civil War”. In fact, very few articles expressed support for the couple, or even sympathy for why they had made the decision. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have stated that their intention is to ultimately become financially independent by cutting ties with the Sovereign Grant, and therefore any public funding. They also want to balance their time between the UK and North America throughout the year. That’s it. So, can somebody please explain what all the fuss and chaos is about? To a lot of people, their decision to step back from life as modern royalists shouldn’t have come as a surprise. The British media have taken an intense interest in their love story, following the couple’s every move since Harry introduced his new brideto-be back in 2016. While Harry was born into royalty, the intense scrutiny, and in Meghan’s case, racism, that the couple have been subjected to throughout their marriage and pregnancy has put a considerable strain upon them, which could not have been predicted prior to Meghan marrying into the family. In fact, the couple have openly spoken about their struggles with the British media, with Meghan admitting that “not many people have asked if I’m okay” to an ITV interviewer last year. This was specifically heart-wrenching to hear, as it is apparent that Meghan has frequently been cornered and blamed for the seeming rift that has occurred between Harry and his brother, William. Piers Morgan jumped at the chance to claim that Meghan merely “ditched her family, ditched her Dad, ditched most of her old friends, split Harry from William (and) has now split him from the Royal Family.” Why he felt the need to share another opinion, I have no idea. The Sun was also quick to rephrase the couple’s decision, which they made together, into the term “Megxit”. It really seems like the girl can’t catch a break, doesn’t it? It soon became apparent that their predominant reason for intending to step down is to regain some of the control and freedom in sharing personal information with the public, as opposed to through the Royal Rota - specifically, since the tabloid newspapers involved include The Daily Mail, The Daily Mirror, The Sun, and The Daily Express, to name but a few. In fact, last October it was revealed that Meghan felt obliged to sue The Daily Mail after the paper published a handwritten letter she had sent to her father without her knowledge or consent. This misuse of private content meant that understandably Harry supported her decision while emphasising his respect for objective and truthful reporting. He stated that for much of the media “this is a game, and one that (we) they have been unwilling to play from the start”. Harry further compared the treatment of his wife to that of his mother, Princess Diana, expressing his fear that this is “history repeating itself.” And so, it became no secret that their relationship with the British media had become quite toxic. So, who can truly blame them for making this decision? Harry and Meghan are completely within their rights to have made this decision, and ought to be commemorated for valuing their privacy and for prioritising their mental well-being. They’re simply a young couple who want to pave their own way through life, without the constant fear and anxiety that their every move will be twisted into yet another horror story that makes the headlines. With the recent addition of their son, Archie, it is no wonder that Harry claimed the pair were left with “no other option.” Being the first to ‘quit the royal family’ and relieve some of their senior responsibilities, it is understandable why this story has blown up within the press. The Queen’s statement acknowledges the “challenges they have experienced” and offers the Sussexs’ her support and well wishes for their future. Fundamentally, this decision emphasises the severity of the scrutiny they have experienced, specifically their lack of privacy as they have adjusted to their new roles as parents. So, while there remains a lot of uncertainty about what this means for the Royal Family moving forward, it is clear that Harry and Meghan value their freedom primarily and are simply striving to protect their family from any further constraints. I for one, hope that they get the happily ever after that they deserve. Meghan and Harry - nothing to see here The struggles of newly-weds wanting to live their lives on their own terms by Megan Haf Donoher Photo courtesy of Sue via Flickr Photo courtesy of Gigi Engle

12.02.20 p.15 DISCLAIMER All opinions expressed in the satire section are written primarily for the sake of comic value and therefore do not necessarily represent the honest views held by the author, The Gaudie, AUSA, or any company which advertises in The Gaudie. He’s a real romantic! by Eileen, The Gaudie’s new resident agony aunt Dear Eileen, Last week I went on one of the most bizarre dates of my life. I’d just been complaining to a friend that I was getting sick of swiping through the conveyor belt of Tinder profiles and wished I could just cut out the awkward messaging stage and fast-forward to the actual dates. My friend suggested I meet up with a guy she knew through Lit Soc poetry nights. “You’ll really like him,” she said, “he’s a real romantic.” Desperately in need of a little romantic excitement in my life, I jumped at the offer and asked her to set us up on a blind date. A few days later I found myself on my way to the Bobbin for the first blind date of my zoomer life. I arrived fashionably late, partly because I like to make sure that I’m not in any position to get stood up, and partly because I had entered into a sort of wrestling match with my eyeliner while I was getting ready. I spotted him from across the room: a little hunched figure scribbling into a moleskin journal. Things felt off from the start. I was somewhat taken aback when I clocked his appearance. He was pale, deathly pale, and dressed very eccentrically. I mean, I’m pretty open-minded, but I couldn’t help thinking to myself, “what sort of person wears breeches and a cravat to the Bobbin??” It wasn’t a huge deal breaker though, so I made my way over to the table and introduced myself. He insisted on pulling out a chair for me and told me that his name was John. Our conversation progressed and I learned that he’d recently abandoned a medical career to focus on composing poetry instead. When he asked me to read some odes he’d been working on, I began to get serious art school boy vibes off of him. It was like meeting every character that Timothée Chalamet has ever played all rolled into one person. I looked over a few out of politeness and was about to tell him how much I enjoyed a piece he’d written about a nightingale’s song when suddenly he yanked a handkerchief from his pocket and started violently spluttering into it. This wasn’t just regular coughing… my date sounded like he was wheezing up a chunk of lung and I noticed flecks of blood beginning to cover his cuff sleeves. It was so awkward, I tried to shoot an apologetic glance to the horrified people sitting across from us but I don’t think it helped. The rest of the date was pretty confusing. I took him down to Tunnels for a dance but he said it was the worst ball he’d ever witnessed and spent most of the night sulking in the corner. He asked to walk me home, but when we got to my door and I turned around to say goodnight he just vanished into thin air. As in, quite literally, he dematerialized right in front of me. It was so rude of him. I can’t understand why the date ended up going so badly. Was it something I said? Am I reading too much into things? What have I got to do to find someone right for me? Dear anon, This sounds like a classic case of ‘accidentally going on a date with a long-dead 19th century poet’. The signs are all there! I think there’s been a little misunderstanding between yourself and your friend over what she meant by ‘romantic’. I’m sorry if you were expecting flowers and long walks along the beach, my dear; what you’ve ended up with is the ghost of John Keats. It sounds like the pair of you weren’t particularly well suited to each other. Perhaps it just wasn’t meant to be? Don’t dwell on it- there’s plenty more fish in the North Sea. Why not try hitting up the spirit of William Blake? I hear he’s the perfect mixture of Keats in the streets and Byron in the sheets. Photo courtesy of Victoria_Borodinova via Pixabay My last date took ghosting to a whole new level Photo courtesy of un-perfekt via Pixabay Make your own 100% British Union Jack cocktail The perfect recipe for a big Brexit piss-up Some say that we are a politically divided nation. Others may go as far to argue that the whole concept of Britishness is a problematic crock of shit in which the ever-centralized powersthat-be try to pawn the public off with a selfmythologizing fantasy of national identity in order to rodger us all senseless with their disastrous policies. What a load of poppycock! Now that we’ve finally fought our way out of the tyrannical clutches of the European Union, it’s time to unite and appreciate all the things that make old Blighty so great. Chiefly: booze, Bo-Jo, and the melodious BONG of Big Ben. Where else can you find an island with such a rich history and culture? Nothing quite compares to our EXCELLENT Engurland, wearisome Wales, and stressful Scotland. Does Ireland count? I hope not. If, like me, you plan on celebrating our successful escape from those bloody Europeans, then read on to find out how to create my specially designed, extrascrumptious, 100% British Union Jack themed cocktail. I find our collective dependency on alcohol to help us navigate the majority of our social interactions a particularly endearing and inspiring aspect of British culture. A little bit of Dutch courage (henceforth referred to as ‘Durham courage’ in the new post—Brexit Utopia) never hurt anybody. In the spirit of this I’ve tried to make this drink strong enough to put some fire in your belly and some hairs on your chest. This spiffing 100% British Union Jack cocktail has been created by exclusively using locally sourced ingredients to show the EU that we’re more than capable of standing on our own two feet- even if we have lost a shoe somewhere along the way on our Brexit bar crawl. You will need: • Blue Curaçao • Grenadine syrup • Malibu rum • To garnish: Sparklers (optional) and Union Jack flag (not optional) Blue Curaçao: To represent the lustrous navy hues of our flag you’ll want to use Blue Curaçao. I must admit that the name of this drink does look a bit suspicious. I’m not one for using foul language, but there are times when one must resort to using the f-word and this is one of them. This drink sounds awfully…. foreign. I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about though- it’s most likely just a whimsical made-up Welsh word. This liqueur makes for a beautiful choice for the blue section of this cocktail. It’s the same shade as the blood of our muchloved resident despots at Buckingham (and Balmoral, and Windsor, and Kensington, and- good LORD they have a lot of houses, don’t they?). Grenadine: Pleasantly invokes the British Empire’s global campaign of violence and bloodshed throughout the centuries. Ah, take me back to those halcyon days! I was born in the wrong era. The grenadine produces a gorgeous red within the cocktail and, despite some fake news online which claims that ‘grenadine’ is derived from the French word for pomegranate, I can honestly certify that this syrup is a classic British product. Malibu- A delightful white rum which originated in Stoke-on-Trent. Flavoured with the native fruit of North Staffordshire - the coconut - this rum will make your cocktail as sweet as our kingdom’s victory over those metrosexual bureaucrats in Brussels. A few glugs of this mixture and it won’t be long before you and your mates are having a banterous time capering about in your living room. Why not try carrying out a jolly Mexican wave (henceforth referred to as a Milton Keynes wave) or become a dancing queen and boogie to the classic hits of the famous Yorkshire-based band ABBA. Make your get-together extra delectable by laying out a spread of some traditional British party food such as stuffed olives and vol-au-vents. Tally-ho! Bottoms up! Let the Brexit blowout begin! Photo courtesy of TheDigitalArtist via Pixabay

p.16 12.02.20 by Alessandra Puglisi AUWFC: standing up for the future of the sport The Aberdeen University Women’s Football Club is a large team based on campus that counts more than 60 members and is always ready to welcome more. After an astounding season in 2017, in which they won both the Granite City Challenge against RGU and their first ever Conference Cup, the club was promoted to Scottish 1A and is now currently playing their 2019/2020 season in the BUCS league. In an exclusive interview, the president of the club, Iona Fotheringham, enlightened us with what their main goals are and future plans for the team for this season, also giving a fresh perspective on how the role of women’s football is contributing to her life at the moment. Iona revealed that football has been a constant in her life since she was little. Growing up she played for the local team of her hometown Dunfermline, but she has not been able to continue through her high school years because of the lack of a girls’ team. However, Iona believes “now the sport has really turned a corner”, mentioning how essential it is for big companies to participate in the growth of the women’s game. In fact, Barclays has recently invested a considerable amount of money in the development of the FA WSL English League. Nonetheless, Scotland continues to struggle to gain the possibility to raise its voice in the women’s game. The president of the AUWFC talked in depth about how the main aim of the team is to welcome all the girls that want to play football, regardless of their skills and talent; the club does not hold trials and girls from every year and background are encouraged to pursue their love for the sport. The team also benefits from excellent facilities at the Aberdeen Sports Village for training and an experienced coach who has been with the club for about ten years, developing players and their abilities. Iona reiterates that winning is important, but it is definitely not the only thing the team is searching for. They welcome the challenge given by other universities in the Scottish 1A and strive to get better, but they further value the sense of inclusivity and family built with time, which is their ultimate goal: “A lot of people are in the competitive side of the squad, but a big group of us just trains for the fun of it, and it is great because in the end everyone just comes together.” She highlighted how being a member of the club is also a big opportunity for international students to make new friends and to experience something that they will carry with them for life. Iona proudly recalled the steps forwards that the club has made in these last years, gaining investments and sponsorships, upgrading the facilities to play the games and holding two big fundraisers all year around to sustain themselves. The main goal for the club remains to keep growing and improving, upholding the values of teamwork and perseverance. Lastly, Iona talked about how important it is for members to get involved in the committee in order to guarantee the continuity of the club: “There is a lot to do, I want a real strong future generation for the committee so the club can continue to thrive. We have a real strong group of people now, but I think the freshers will step up to the role.” A skilled and strong leader, Iona revealed that one of her wishes would be to keep on being involved in women’s football and pursue a career in sport journalism. By persevering in her role as president, she is already being an excellent example, raising the standards for the game and investing all the resources and energies to make sure the AUWFC will have a bright future. An exclusive interview with the President of Aberdeen University Women’s Football Club by Tom Molnar On the morning of January 26th, news broke out of a tragedy. NBA legend Kobe Bryant and his 13-yearold daughter Gianna were among the passengers who died in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California. Alongside the Bryant-duo were family friends, including college basketball coach John Altobelli and his wife and daughter, as well as the pilot. The group of nine were en route to Bryant’s basketball academy, Mamba Academy, when the helicopter crashed. The fivetime NBA champion frequently used the helicopter as a preferred mode of transport to avoid Los Angeles traffic, but on this specific day conditions were foggy and this was supposedly a factor for the accident. The news of Kobe’s death comes less than 24 hours after Lebron James overtook him for third on the all-time scoring list. The former NBA star took to Twitter to congratulate James on the accomplishment: “Continuing to move the game forward @ KingJames. Much respect my brother #33644”. For most, this will be the last we’ll hear of Kobe Bryant, and the world is in shock that this is the case. Everyone is truly shaken that the long-time Laker is no longer with us. People simply cannot believe it; they will not believe it. But it is the devastating truth that he and Gianna and the others were taken from us too soon. It was only a few years ago that Kobe Bryant scored 60 points in his final NBA game, culminating an illustrious career in which he enlightened NBA fans with some of the greatest plays of all time. 20 years earlier, Bryant was drafted 13th overall in the 1996 NBA draft, going straight into the league out of high school. Still a teenager, he began his career with the LA Lakers wearing number eight and rocking an afro, becoming a fan favourite by winning the 1997 Slam Dunk Contest. In his third year in the league, he was named an All-Star for the first time in his 18-straight All-Star stretch and named also as a member of the All-NBA Team 15 times. He went on to be a three-time NBA champion with teammate Shaquille O’Neal from 2000 to 2002. Once O’Neal left, Bryant was the backbone to the franchise, leading the league in scoring twice in back-to-back seasons. During that time, he had one of the greatest games of all time by an individual, scoring a career-high 81 points against the Toronto Raptors, the second most points scored in a single game. He changed his number to 24 and success continued to pile in, winning the league’s Most Valuable Player award in 2008 as well as leading his team to two consecutive championships in 2009 and 2010, named NBA Finals MVP on both occasions. He remained as one of the top players in the league through 2013, when he suffered a torn Achilles tendon at age 34. Despite a successful recovery, the next two seasons saw Bryant suffer more injuries and he decided to retire after the 2015-16 season due to his physical decline. Although his last few years in the NBA were struck with setbacks through injury, no one can deny that Bryant is one of the greatest players of all time and possibly the greatest Laker ever. The two-time Olympic gold medallist was nicknamed ‘Black Mamba’ and known for his great work ethic. He often would work out at 5am and have a two-hour session before his teammates arrive in the morning. There’s no doubt that he’d also be the last to leave practice, getting in that extra shot so he gets the final word. His mentality was that if he works the hardest, he will be the best on the court. And it showed. Over the course of his 20-year career, he has demonstrated his sheer ferocity on the court. He famously took two shots from the free-throw line after a foul on him that tore his Achilles tendon. Against the Houston Rockets, he called out Dwight Howard for being “soft” and repeatedly said “try me”. There is simply no fear in his eyes and Bryant wants everyone to know that. Just go back to 2010 and a game against the Orlando Magic. Kobe and Matt Barnes were at each other all game, so much so that Barnes tried to fake a pass to Bryant’s face. Black Mamba didn’t flinch at all, not even an inch. The commentator couldn’t believe this play, exclaiming: “He didn’t even flinch!” And that’s just who Kobe Bryant was. The guy is so tough that nobody could get in his head. He shut down Matt Barnes and countless others who tried to challenge him over the years. Determination to win every battle. That’s the ‘Mamba Mentality’. You can try and beat Kobe, but you never will, so might as well walk away. When the news broke out that Kobe Bryant and Gianna were among the victims of this helicopter accident, tributes flooded in from all over the world. Neymar celebrated his second goal for Paris SaintGerman that day by raising up 2-4 with his hands to honour Kobe. Similar takes were done in the NFL’s Pro Bowl, as players received the news shortly before kickoff. Others took to Twitter to share their feelings, all agreeing that it was too soon. Sports broadcasters had to battle through tears to talk of the tragic accident, often breaking down from the emotion. Despite the loss, the NBA did not cancel the games that were scheduled for Sunday. It was clear, however, that players were not ready to go back on the court after such news. Images of Tyson Chandler and other NBA stars upset by Kobe’s death was heartbreaking to see. Some question whether all games should’ve been cancelled out of respect for the man that loved the game, but each game started with a 24-second run out to honour Bryant. On a special TNT pregame show, Shaquille O’Neal was understandably an emotional wreck talking about his long-time friend, struggling for words throughout the segment: “I haven’t felt a pain that sharp in a while.” He had such a huge impact on basketball and sport worldwide that his first name is simply enough. Kids would throw crumpled-up paper into a bin and yell “KOBE” because that’s just what you do. When he retired, he went on to become an Oscar winner in 2017 for his poem ‘Dear Basketball’. He concentrated on his family and being a dad to his four kids and husband to wife Vanessa. The 41-yearold was just getting started on life outside of basketball, with his induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2020 being his final touch to the game. But he won’t be there to enjoy it. None of the passengers of the helicopter crash will be able to see what the new decade has to offer, and this is so painful to bear. Although there is an on-going investigation into the crash, mainly pointing to the weather conditions on the day, all we can do is remember those who sadly died on that Sunday, too soon for their time. Before their first match since the helicopter crash, the LA Lakers paid tribute to Kobe and Gianna and the other passengers in a huge ceremony in which the whole stadium wore Kobe Bryant jerseys. Among the tributes was a moving speech by Lebron James. Whilst wearing Bryant’s number 24 jersey, he threw away his prepared speech to speak from the heart, making it clear that there will be a memorial for Kobe but the night should be a celebration. Just before these powerful words, James could be seen in tears whilst Boyz II Men sung the US national anthem. Laker Nation showed huge unity in remembering Kobe Bryant, and Lebron James’ speech echoes what Mamba would’ve wanted from his teammates, fans, family and friends: “So in the words of Kobe Bryant, “Mamba out”, but in the words of us, “not forgotten”. Live on brother.” Remembering the basketball legend and his legacy A Tribute to Kobe Photo courtesy of Keith Allison via WikiCommons