concrete - issue 182

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Issue 182

THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA

November 9th 2005

www.concrete-online.com

The democratic procedures of Union Council were put into full force last Thursday as a proposal to remove the £25 sports fee was overwhelmingly voted through.

A new working group, com-prising two Union executives, four sports club representatives and two further council members, has been elected to re-examine the whole fi nancial situation and re-port back to the Union Council.

Although the ruling will not take affect until the next academic year, and it is still possible that the £25 fee will be reintroduced, this new resolution assures that the process will take place in an open forum with the entire Union reaching an informed, democratic decision.

Ben Williams, the Union Fi-nance Offi cer explained to Con-crete that although the introduc-tion of the £25 fee was probably unavoidable, he believes that;; “it is fundamental to the democracy and status of the Union of UEA Students that the students get to decide on the best course of ac-tion.” Indeed it is not the fee itself, but the fact that the decision was made over the summer without public warning that has caused the most upset.

The issue of Sport Club fund-ing is a long running one and over the last year the relationship be-tween the Sports Clubs’ Peer Sup-port Groups (CPS) and the Stu-dents’ Union has been analysed closely.

In November 2004 the pre-

vious Finance Offi cer sent out a memorandum to all clubs and societies highlighting the prob-lems. It reminded members that;; “the relationship between the Un-ion and the CPS is two way” and explained that, as Sports Nights were increasingly hosted off cam-pus, not enough money was being fed back into the Union.

The memorandum concluded that;; “if the present situation of diminishing numbers attending Union nights was continuous, be it LCRs, Sports Nights, Society Nights, etc then the lack of rev-enue as a result will develop into a serious issue”. This matter was also reported on the front page of Concrete.

However, despite further ne-gotiations between the CPS and the Finance Offi cer, including the introduction of Union funded Sport Nights, there were still sig-nifi cant fi nancial short falls. On January 24th 2005 the Sports Sub-Committee discussed this situa-tion and recorded in the minutes of the meeting that unless the sit-uation changed, “the Union would be unable to continue its current level of funding for Sports Clubs and would have to introduce a charge for membership of the Sports Association or withdraw from BUSA”.

The minutes from the meet-ing were made available in Union House and were also reviewed and approved by the Executive Committee the next day. However, the actual issue was not discussed and no record of the Sports Sub-Committee meeting was brought before Union Council.

The actual decision took

place over the summer when the fi nancial forecast revealed that a solution was needed immedi-ately, but the Union Council were not present. The full-time offi cers recommended the introduction of a Sports Association Member-ship Fee as the only other choice was to withdraw from BUSA and therefore pull out of all national sporting competitions. The Man-agement Committee approved and the £25 fee was set.

The subject was brought up at the fi rst Union Council meeting in October and members were so troubled by the circumstances that when Union Council met again on Thursday 3rd. Two different mem-bers had separately proposed a motion to rectify the matter.

After initial confusion, the two proposals were effectively

combined so that one could be dropped. The Union could then vote on an amended version of a proposal from Jack Guest (Athlet-ics representative). The vote was almost unanimous and the fi nal ruling has removed the fee, taking effect next academic year. No re-funds will be offered for this year’s fee.

The proposal also established a working group of eight Union members to fully investigate the fi nancial details and bring all pos-sible solutions back before council by the end of the year.

The Council’s chair, Leigh Bis-sett, explained after the meeting: “The council recognised that the Union has a fi nancial defi cit but felt that it was unreasonable to introduce a system of collecting money to fi ll this black hole with-

out a full consultation process.” There was some hesitation on

the resolution that removed the £25 before the working group had made a decision, as it may prove necessary to bring the fee back anyway. Yet it was agreed by most that to set the situation right, the proceedings needed to start from scratch and by scrapping the fee the process could begin demo-cratically.

Martin Jopp, the author of the proposal that was dropped and combined into the fi nal resolution, was elected onto the new work-ing group. Speaking to Concrete he said that along with the seven other chosen members;; "I will be working hard to fi nd a range of so-lutions to sports funding in the fu-ture, but the fi nal say will be made by Union Council."

The Event

2 Wednesday November 9 2005

Rob Castell, a third year Eng-lish Literature student at UEA has won the Guardian Travel Writer award at this years an-nual Guardian Student Media Awards ceremony in London.

The prize consists of two re-turn flights to any Easyjet destina-tion, £500 and one week’s work experience with the Guardian.

The award was judged by Andy Pietrasik, the travel edi-tor of the Guardian, as well as Toby Nicol and Joe Queenan.

Rob said: “I feel slightly overwhelmed that I have won an

award of such intellectual mer-its, judged by journalists that I hold in the highest esteem.”

He plans to use his flight tick-ets for a trip to Sweden, which he hopes will not just be a holiday but will be an enlightening and investigative trip with a little bit of dog sledding thrown in as well.

He is also excited about the week’s training with the Guard-ian, he said: “I see it as an op-portunity to do more writing, to learn a trade and improve myself.”

Rob has been writing for Concrete for over a year and is currently planning his next arti-cle about a recent trip to Rome.

To view the award winning articles go to www.concrete-online.com

An over-hanging feeling of con-fusion surrounded the annual SportsMart on 28th September this year as the usual buzz of stu-dent sporting enthusiasm was drowned out by the mysterious escalation in sports association fees.

The accustomed fee of ‘£1.20 insurance’ took an almighty leap to ‘£25 sports association mem-bership’. Such a rise took UEA students by surprise and equally amazed fresher students who knew no different. The result of the mysterious fee led exasperat-ed students to reach deeper than ever into their pockets and the poorer students left with no alter-native but to turn their backs on sporting activities for the year. As a result there has been an inevita-ble plummet in sports club mem-berships this year, an estimated ten percent drop.

When facing this contentious issue it must be clear what we students have now come to inces-santly complain about. The fact is that this is not just an ‘insurance’ charge but really a £25 member-ship to the Union of UEA Students Sports Association (UUEAS) which in previous years incorporated the insurance charge. The UUEAS will now use this hefty income to fund coaching, room hire, equipment and transport – the latter being of most significance.

Despite the reasoning behind this it isn’t clear why there has been such a sudden, huge rise in charge. There are two reasons for the subjection to such an in-

crease: one being external of the university and one being internal. The external reason relates to the decisions of the British Universi-ties Sports Association (BUSA). BUSA has decided to replace the basic sports fixture day of every Wednesday at all universities to a ‘merit league’ system which means matches are played on other days of the week.

Although this may seem in-significant it actually has a vast impact of the finances of the UUEAS. The additional match days means that numerous small minibuses are required rather than big coaches that could take more sport teams who may all be playing at the same time and thus increasing expenditure. To compound these woes the intro-duction of regulations regard-ing the requirement for qualified minibuses drivers has also meant the forced hiring of professional drivers.

The internal reason is that the Sports Clubs, Peer Support groups (CPS) and Society Com-mittees still prefer to hold socials in town and therefore the Union misses out on revenue from the Union bar and any Union nights. The circular chain of money is broken as the Union provides the clubs with funds but the clubs ne-glect to return the favour, inevita-bly resulting in drastic measures that have now emerged.

Although the majority of us may have been stunned by the charge there has been previously published material that warned of such extreme measures. On 11th November 2004, the Finance Of-ficer sent out a memorandum that highlighted the escalating sport-

ing expenditures. It stated that: “The relationship between the Union and the CPS is two way;; we support the CPSs with money, fa-cilities, equipment etc and at the same time the CPS need to sup-port the Union.”

Despite this plea it was still the outcome that “the lack or rev-enue develop(ed) into a serious issue”. It also showed that the Union spent £213,802 on sports clubs activities in 2004 – a mas-sive 81.4% of the entire grant giv-en to the Union by the University to fund all of its activities.

It seems clear that a form of action was necessary due to the depleting funds but the question remains as to whether there were any other options for The Man-agement Committee who held the power of a final decision. Press re-leases about the Sports Member-ship fee have revealed that there were two main alternatives;; one being that the services provided by the Union be reduced and the second was to pull out of BUSA and therefore remove competitive sporting activities with other uni-versities.

Both options seem unfavour-able to all budding sportsmen and threaten to damage a key aspect of university life which so many enjoy. It was therefore chosen to introduce a membership fee in-crease.

The key issue surrounding this debate is not solely with the fee but also the lack of awareness and poor guidance that students were given in respect to this im-portant alteration. What is more significant is that the confusion is further enhanced as the Student Union Council was left totally in

the dark over the case and was not consulted at any stage of the process.

The decision for the raised charge was carried out on 23rd June 2005 when the majority of students were not present at the University to voice a choice. This caused much anger throughout the Union Council in the first meeting of this semester on18th October. A motion was passed to condemn the undemocratic way that the Sports Association Mem-bership Fee was introduced.

In a Council Meeting held on 3rd November, a motion was passed that called for the removal of the £25 sports fee with effect from September 2006. Until this time an alternative funding meth-od will be investigated by a work-ing group – defined in the motion as constituting both council and executive members. At the Coun-cil Meeting it remained evident that council members are still very much in the dark when it comes to the financial details behind the scheme.

The general consensus amongst students at UEA sur-rounding the lack of awareness is that the introduction of the Sports Association Fee was an undemo-cratic development and uncharac-teristic of the democratic workings of the UEA Student Union. Though figures have been given to show that other universities are adopt-ing similar Sports Membership charges, £20 at Woverhampton, £25 at Brunel and £30 at Glasgow, it does not excuse the shambolic way that the new scheme was imposed and many students feel a full review of proceedings must surely follow.

Government attention has been focused on binge drinking in recent months as drink related crime and disorder has reached new levels. Particular concern has surrounded the number of sexual assaults related to alcohol con-sumption. According to the Port-man Group, one in three young women say they have been sexu-ally assaulted after consuming al-cohol on a night out.

Recent figures from the Fo-rensic Science Service show that in over 1,000 claims of date-rape, alcohol was detected in half of the cases.

Doctors are also seeing an in-creasing number of young people with alcoholic liver disease, a con-dition that was once only seen in older people who had been drink-ing for many years. These issues, coupled with a surge in drink re-lated violence and theft have lead to various government-led initia-

tives, including a recent proposal for a blanket ban of alcohol on all forms of public transport.

Norwich City Council has re-sponded by introducing Operation Enterprise, designed to prevent theft. The city centre’s pubs and clubs will be filled with serviettes baring the logo “Don’t become a target for thieves- look after your property”. Some clubs will also be displaying the reminder on televi-sion screens.

Toby Middleton of Mercy nightclub commented: “People like to go out, have a drink and relax, but the thieves don’t. At Mercy all our staff are trained to be vigilant and we support this ini-tiative wholeheartedly as a proac-tive campaign to get clubbers to look after their belongings and to prevent any unnecessary opportu-nities for thieves.”

The binge drinking culture which has developed among un-der-25s in Britian has become an even greater concern for those in-volved. One second year UEA stu-dent said: “I am concerned about

the amount of alcohol I drink each week and the long term effects it might have on my body, but every-one drinks a lot when we go out.”

Many under-25s do not be-lieve their actions are dangerous and are in denial over their drink-ing habits, refusing to class them-selves with a problem because they do not believe that they rely on alcohol.

A binge drinker is classed as someone who drinks more than double the recommended amount of alcohol in one session. For men this would mean drinking four pints of beer or eight spirits and for women four glasses of wine or six spirits.

With university students be-ing highly exposed to the dangers of excess drinking, the NUSSL has partnered with the Carling group to encourage students to take a more sensible approach to alcohol. ATMs at nineteen institu-tions around the UK will display an advert from Carling baring the message: “Enjoy your night. Take it easy.”


When the subject of drugs is ad-dressed we immediately think of the illegal substances of Mari-juana, Cocaine, Ecstasy and even on occasion ‘Acid’. However, in today’s society legal and prescrip-tion drugs such as Viagra and Rita-lin are in just as high demand and are increasingly in circulation.

On a typical night out at UEA, whether it be in the bar or a heav-ier one in the LCR, there are many students who are not content sim-ply with alcohol and, as the recent drugs survey reveals, do want to get hold of drugs.

The consummation of illegal substances obviously warrants a lot of discretion and although UEA has a well-established stance and level of security concerning drugs, many students judiciously vio-late this. The perception that the stumbling revellers after a night in the LCR are solely intoxicated with alcohol is questionable.

After talking to various stu-dents during the week that the drugs survey was in The Hive, it appeared that in the days when Waveney Terrace still stood, drugs

were easily accessible. One fourth year student said: “One request would take a short trip to Waveney Terrace and between your mates £50 was all it took to score - de-pending on your choice of high of course.”

However, discussions re-vealed that there are not so many on-campus students willing to deal drugs as obviously as some of the Waveney Terrace residents were, making it harder for Fresh-ers to indulge in both illegal or legal drugs on campus.

One example arose of an ex-student who wishes to remain anonymous, who on a regular basis filled his bag with fifty Via-gra pills alongside his university essentials. For a fiver boys who wanted to get lucky could rely on more than just a condom in their wallet.

It is astonishing to think that at any time there could be a source available to get hold of a diverse selection of chemical substances;; apparently someone somewhere knows who it is and with seem-ingly little threat of security on a very public campus, whatever it is that you are looking for, you could very likely attain.

It is not just student suppliers that are in very close proximity to campus. One man who requested

anonymity was jailed for posses-sion and intent to supply drugs. The man was reportedly a regular face on campus and he was willing to supply students on request.

The man explained that he made a very large percentage of his profits from the student popu-lation. He said that they didn’t buy the harder, more dangerous drugs but described them as “easy and regular customers.” He explained that;; “you could simply drive into the university, do your business and leave. There was no worry about who was watching, It was quick, easy and profitable.”

The thorny issue rises through the fact that UEA is a very public campus and the availability of drugs both on and off campus is seemingly higher than it would appear.

However, frustration will inev-itably rise should levels of security be increased. The widely cherished social ease of the atmosphere at UEA would be lost.

It seems that although drugs are available, they are not a no-ticeable problem at UEA and the declining availability on campus would suggest them to be even less of a problem than previous years. It is obvious that at this point in time, students should be aware but not worried.


Renovations to Norfolk Terrace will mean that the proportion of shared-bathroom accommoda-tion on campus is going to fall to 21% in next year. With top-up fees adding a heavy burden to already indebted students, this reduction of shared-bathroom accommoda-tion is unwelcome news.

Jenny Ballard, Director of Resi-dences and Services, has said that there is justification for both the ratio of en-suite to shared-bath-room accommodation and the rates that students are charged.

At £81.69 per week for the majority of UEA’s en-suite rooms, rent on campus seems high, though Jenny Ballard said that “the Accommodation Office does not make a profit.” She explained that “student accommodation is self-funding. This means that income from rents must cover all costs associated with Resi-dences. These costs include loan repayments and interest, similar to a mortgage, heat, light, water, repairs, refurbishment and staff salaries.”

Ballard emphasised that stu-dent finances are taken into ac-count when price-ranges are set: “Each year, prior to setting rents for the following year, I hold meet-ings with representatives of the Students’ Union and the Dean of

Students office. As well as look-ing at the cost pressures on the residences budget, for example increases in utility costs, salary increases above inflation etc. we look at affordability, rents charged by other universities and rents for private houses in Norwich.” Bal-lard said that she disagreed with a previous article in Concrete that claimed UEA is one of the most expensive British universities at which to live.

The decision to make all ac-commodation built since 2003 solely en-suite seems surprising given the perpetual lack of money that most students suffer. How-ever, Ballard said that “an analysis of the previous year’s demand for different categories of accommo-dation is also taken into account when setting the rents for the coming year.”

Student Doug Randall, FTV 4 raised the question: “Why was Waveney demolished? It meant the loss of a lot of cheap rooms and seems to have been an unnec-essary cost.”

Ballard explained: “Waveney Terrace was ‘budget-built’ in the early seventies with a design life of thirty years. The University in-vestigated the possibility of refur-bishing these residences but this proved to be impractical and very expensive. The loan required to cover the cost of this work would have meant a significant increase in rent, well beyond what a student

would expect to pay for standard accommodation.”

An ex-resident of Waveney wondered whether all of the refur-bishments considered were nec-essary. Bigger kitchens and better bathrooms would have improved Waveney, but cheap accommo-dation costs less just because it is not as luxurious. Students ap-ply for standard accommodation knowing they will sacrifice some comfort for the convenience and reduction in cost. Some students believe that UEA is making it dif-ficult for future students to make

that choice.Top-up fees make it likely that

the demand for shared-bathroom accommodation will increase, particularly if the government is successful in its aims to get more people from lower-income fami-lies into higher education.

In response to this, Ballard said: “Over the last 12 years de-mand for en-suite accommodation has grown steadily with just over 73% of students wanting en-suite rooms in 2005/06. Most people believe that the majority of stu-dents taking up a University place

in 2006/07 will expect high qual-ity services but understand that some students will wish to keep living costs to a minimum. This will be discussed at my meetings with the Dean of Students’ office and the Students’ Union in Janu-ary and February of next year.”

While there may be a change in demand, this is not the only consideration that affected the decision to build en-suite rooms only.

Jenny Ballard explained that “the University investigated build-ing a mix of standard and en-suite

rooms but found that the cost of building standard rooms was only marginally less than for en-suite rooms.

We know that those students who live in standard accommoda-tion elect to do so primarily be-cause of reduced living costs. To build standard rooms and charge almost as much as the rents for the more expensive en-suite rooms would not satisfy the needs of students.” There seems to be no obvious solution if the incom-ing students of 2006/07 do need cheap accommodation at UEA.

It’s hard to know whether to dress for sun or snow in Norwich these days. While we enjoy the afterglow of the warmest October since Vic-torian times, meteorologists warn a chilly winter may be on the way.

Last month was exceptionally sunny thanks to clear skies and Southerly winds bringing Mediter-ranean heat. October 27th was the hottest since 1888 with tempera-tures in Scotland soaring above those of Istanbul and balmy wa-ters luring a (harmless) Porbeagle shark to Bournemouth beach.

Meanwhile, the Met Office suggested we should be on “am-ber alert” for a colder-than-aver-age winter because they expect icy westerly winds from Europe and Russia to bring dry air and low temperatures. Don’t order your snowboard yet, though, as their long-range weather predictions, which are based on complex statis-tical and climate models, are cor-rect only two out of three times.

Is there more behind these apparent extremes of weather than unusual wind direction? James Wilby of WeatherQuest, the fore-casting agency based at UEA, told Concrete the October heat wave “could not itself be attributed to

global warming because it was a single event and to see evidence of climate change you have to look at long term trends.”

This autumn blackberries ripened, conkers fell and ivy flow-ered up to a week earlier than last year, while gardeners reported butterflies and blooming flowers well into October. UEA ecology postgraduate Hannah Mossman speculated that the lack of season-al golden autumn leaves around campus might be due to the mild weather, although she noted that leaves tend to drop later in Nor-folk than elsewhere because the county is sheltered from frosts.

As individual events, these changes might be taken as quirks of nature but they are happening against a backdrop of steadily ear-lier springs, sooner ripening and milder winters. Such long term changes may well be due to man-made climate change.

Sadly, now it is November and the sunny skies are giving way to storms and high winds, weather that James Wilby says is “totally normal for this time of year” – ex-cept perhaps on the west Sussex coast at Littlehampton where rough seas washed up container loads of plastic hippopotamuses, turkeys and Christmas decora-tions.

First Bus has received criti-cism for neglecting the needs of its customers yet again.On 2nd October First Bus im-plemented changes to the 25 and 26 bus routes, leaving thousands of students and lo-cal residents disadvantaged.

The number 25 no longer runs to the Norfolk and Norwich hospital, not only making access to the hospital more difficult but also leaving no stop opposite the University Village.

Students living in the Village must now walk from the main

campus for the nearest bus stop. This is potentially dangerous at night, especially along University Drive which has seen a number of disturbing incidents in the past.

The prospect of struggling with bags of shopping is also un-appealing to students, particularly as the winter draws in. One first-year Village resident commented: “I sometimes find it physically difficult to carry all my food shop-ping back to the Village, especially when I buy heavy things like tins and bottles”.

The 26 now takes the same route to UEA as the 27, depriving those living on the part of Earl-ham Road between the ring road and the Fiveways of a local service.

The unpopular alterations have prompted action by the Green Party who have launched two peti-tions calling for these changes to be revoked.

At last Tuesday’s City Coun-cil meeting, Green Party Coun-cilor Adrian Ramsay successfully proposed a motion calling for a Quality Bus Contract to be imple-mented to give greater democratic control over future route changes.

Councilor Ramsay comment-ed that the changes “make the service less efficient for thousands of local residents. Many people have already signed our petitions and I hope First Bus will listen to the calls to reinstate the previous routes of the 25 and 26.”

It seems that it has happened again in the Labour government. A minister who obviously has enormous talent has been forced to resign for the second time. Like him or loathe him David Blunkett has been a prominent figure in

New Labour and the governments under Tony Blair for a very long time. But as his ministerial career ends with a whimper maybe it is a time of reflection for the govern-ment and the public.

Many have been saying that with Mr Blunkett gone from the cabinet it seems as though the Prime Minister has lost one of his few remaining allies and become

a lame duck. This is probably not true because Mr Blair has run his governments in a presidential fashion, in that he has dominated every department and area of the government since he has been in power. The best example of this is the Northern Ireland issue where he took control from Mo Mowlem.

Mr Blair still has allies in the

cabinet and the alleged handover of power to the chancellor is not a foregone conclusion as there are others who may feel that a corona-tion is not the way to bring in Mr Blair’s successor. This is going to be more evident with the level of interest in the Conservative lead-ership election, which may be long winded but is at least democratic.

It remains to be seen if Mr

Blunkett will be given another job in government: most politi-cal commentators have said that his career is over and he will now serve only as a loyal Blairite back-bencher. However, it is worth bear-ing in mind that most people said that of a certain Peter Mandleson who also resigned from the cabi-net twice and who is now the EU Commissioner for Trade, one of

the most important portfolios in Brussels. It is possible that Mr Blunkett could return for a third time, but the media frenzy and public reaction that would accom-pany such a return would likely be very strong. This would reaffirm assertions that the Prime Minister only has room for close friends in the cabinet, honesty and integrity taking a back seat.


The nominations for the Stu-dent Radio Awards 2005 were announced simultaneously on Saturday October 22nd to re-gional parties across the UK.

The University Radio Sta-tions and Individuals Nominated now have to wait nervously until November 24th for the 10th An-niversary Awards Ceremony spon-sored by BBC Radio One, held at the New Connaught Rooms in London, where the winners of each category will be announced.

UEA’s Livewire has made it into the shortlist of two awards. Greg James has been nominated as Male Presenter of the year and Simon Williams for Station Sound.

With over 450 entrants com-peting for pole position in the twelve categories, the competition

this year for the Student Radio Awards is fiercer than ever before.

The Student Radio Associa-tion has a veteran of The Awards at the helm of the judging;; Steve Lamacq of BBC Radio One. He is a long-standing supporter of the Awards and is keen to support new talent:“This is a very special year for the Student Radio Awards in many ways. For starters it’s our 10th Anniversary Ceremony, marking a decade since the first Awards launched with the help of Radio One back in 1996.

But also this year we’re pleased to welcome back many former winners and nominees, who we’re delighted to have en-listed among our prestigious pan-el of judges. For me this speaks volumes about the success and

respect the Awards have earned over the past ten years.

Not only has the event now become a major showcase for radio industry and talent-spot-ters looking for the future stars of presentation and production. We can feel at least a little pleased with ourselves for helping several key radio figures on their way al-ready.”

The awards are being held at six regional venues through-out the UK on Saturday the 22nd October, the Nominations Parties kicked the Student Radio Awards off in style.

Each member of the Student Radio Executive took a sealed en-velope containing the details of those that made it through to the final cut.

The nominations were an-nounced simultaneously at 8pm by a wealth of radio industry tal-ent at each party.Those who have made it through to the final stage must now wait for the 24th No-vember when BBC Radio One’s Colin & Edith will preside over the ceremony at the New Connaught Rooms in Holborn.

When Tony Blair became Prime Minister on that tension filled night in May 1997, I doubt he envisaged still being in the job over eight years later. Neither would he have envisaged the unprecedented number of Cabi-net Ministers he would have to sack or force to resign during his reign – a number never reached under any past Prime Minister and one which no future Prime Minister will ever want to reach.

The long list began in Oc-

tober 1998 with Welsh Secretary Ron Davies and his ‘excursion’ to Clapham Common. This was fol-lowed by Peter Mandelson later in the year due to financial troubles, Cabinet Office Minister Jack Cun-ningham in October 1999, and then Mandelson again in January 2001 after he helped the Hinduja brothers gain British passports.

In 2002, Stephen Byers and Estelle Morris both resigned after making blunders in their respec-tive jobs as Transport Secretary and Education Secretary. 2003 saw protest resignations over the Iraq War by both Robin Cook and Clare Short, as well as the resigna-

tion of Health Secretary Alan Mil-burn who wanted to “spend more time with his family”.

Then last December we had the resignation of then Home Secretary David Blunkett after he fast-tracked a visa for his nanny, only for him to rejoin the Cabinet after the General Election in May as Work and Pensions Secretary. And now he has been forced to resign again. So why this time? As ever in politics the answer is complicated. The crux of the mat-ter was that after being sacked as Home Secretary in December 2004 Mr Blunkett took paid work at DNA Bioscience without seek-

ing advice from the Independent Advisory Committee on Business Appointments.

The ministerial code of con-duct says that the committee should be consulted before ex-ministers take up any private sec-tor role within two years of leaving office. A succession of Westmin-ster standards watchdogs said he had clearly broken that code. De-spite claiming that he had made a mistake and thought that it was voluntary to seek advice, mount-ing pressure from both the press and the other political parties has forced him to resign.

After his resignation, Mr Blun-

kett said he is “deeply sorry” for the embarrassment he has caused Tony Blair. “What I am clear about is that I have made a mistake,” he said and that he was “paying the price for it”. What he will do now is not clear, however a return to the Cabinet seems impossible. His resignation was followed by that of Lucy Siddiqi, a director of DNA Bioscience who stepped down due to the “pressure caused by intense media attention” on her and her family.

This latest resignation has once again tarnished Blair’s gov-ernment, just as similar resigna-tions did to the government of

John Major – a government de-scribed as ‘spin and sleaze’. Con-servative leader Michael Howard has said that David Blunkett’s resignation leaves Tony Blair as a “lame duck” with few allies in his Cabinet. This is only in part true as the new Work and Pensions Secretary John Hutton is an ar-dent ‘Blairite’ and besides, Blair is soon to step down as Prime Minister anyway. Hutton now has an important job to do in the Cabi-net – that of dealing with the ever growing pensions funding crisis – a crisis that affects us all as we think about leaving university and going out to work.

Two environmentally positive pro-posals were successfully passed through Union Council on Thurs-day 3rd November. The Council, which some say has been more progressive than it was in previous years, agreed almost unanimously to officially oppose the Universi-ty’s plans to build a multistory car park. In a second proposal, which again was almost unanimous, it was agreed that we should be-come part of the national Go Green campaign.

The anti car-park proposal was put forth by Jack Guest, who sits on the Union Council as the representative for athletics but also chairs the Sustainable Trans-port Action Group. The car-park issue has featured regularly in the pages on Concrete and has been condemned informally by many students. But this is the first time that the Union has chosen to take an official stance. This move will put serious pressure on the Uni-versity to reconsider a project which has been rejected by the student body that the administra-tion is here to serve.

Jack Guest described the mo-tion as sending a clear message to the University that students be-lieve in the very real need for more sustainable transport alternatives on campus.

At the same meeting Yasmine Dialdas, representative for SEED

(Society for Everything Environ-mental and Developmental), pro-posed that the Union of UEA Stu-dents becomes part of the national Go Green campaign. The cam-paign has already been embraced by many other Students’ Unions around the country, including the London School of Economics, Im-perial College, Nottingham and Sussex. The movement draws on the fact that schools, colleges and universities comprise more than 5% of all buildings in the UK, and that it is therefore crucial that these institutions adopt appropri-ate environmental practices.

The proposal, as passed through Union Council, resolves to put pressure on the Univer-sity until the four aims of the Go Green campaign have been real-ised. These include a comprehen-sive review of the University’s cur-

rent environmental impacts and the creation of a detailed environ-mental policy. The campaign also calls for an environmental man-agement position to be created among the full time members of staff. Yasmine Dialdas explained that “the money required to pay for the role would easily be made back with the energy savings that the University would make”.

Jenny Gellatly, the Union’s Environment Officer, was there to second both the car park and the Go Green motions. Speaking to Concrete she explained how signif-icant these proposals were. “The fact that both these proposals were almost unanimously voted through shows that the environ-ment has become one of the core concerns of the student body”. This fact is important, especially within a Union that has already

appeared so assertive at such an early stage of the academic year. Previously the Union Council has behaved more conservatively, and motions involving opposition to the University administration may have proved unpopular. Now the signs are that the students of UEA plan to lobby the administration on a number of issues.

The Council meeting, which ran half an hour over schedule, witnessed six proposals in all. This represents the members’ ea-gerness to take part in the demo-cratic process and proves that stu-dents are not afraid of asking for what they want. It is clear that this is going to be an important year for 14,000 strong Union, and with the continued dedication of its representatives it could prove to be a powerful force in University procedures.


Thousands of people converged on the House of Parliament to lobby their MP to change unfair trade rules on 2nd November.

Thirteen members of the UEA Make Poverty History society trav-elled down to London and met with the Home Secretary, Charles Clarke and MP for Norwich.

The Make Poverty History stu-dents asked Charles Clarke several questions, requesting his support of the Early Day Motion for trade justice and of removing trade bar-riers.

Mr. Clarke denied the connec-tion between trade injustice and terrorism, claiming education to be the best preventative method. He chose not to elaborate on how developing countries were sup-posed to fund education or the prevalence of terrorism in first world countries despite high lev-els of education. The Make Poverty History Society

hopes to follow up the discussion at a later date.

After meeting their respec-tive MPs, groups from school children to nuns gathered around the Thames waving banners and calling for changes in trade legis-lation.

Hundreds of UEA students had signed a banner in the Hive the Tuesday before the lobby to show their support for the cause. A minute of silence was held to reflect on trade injustices and a giant white loop was formed around Westminster.

The event received national and international attention. Or-ganizers and participants hope the success of the event will influ-ence MPs into making the neces-sary changes.

Trade minister Alan John-son wrote a letter on the day of the lobby stating: “We want to ensure better access to Western markets as well as removing the hidden barriers to trade faced by developing countries and other inequalities that remain in the

world trading system” as well as pledging support for many of the campaigners’ objectives.

Union Communications Officer Andy Higson has become the first ever UEA representative on the NUS National Council.

In a hard fought day of cam-paigning at NUS Regional Confer-ence, he managed to poll a mas-sive forty-eight percent of first preference votes against five other candidates.

NUS National Council’s main

role is to hold the National Ex-ecutive to account. In his speech, Andy said of the Executive: “They are generally doing a good job but it’s essential that we have a strong, democratic National Council to hold them to account if this changes.”

As members of the Union of UEA Students we are all members of the National Union of Students NUS. This entitles us to submit policy to NUS National Council, get discounts and be linked to al-most all student unions across the country.

Students on campuses across the UK have been taking part in fundraising activities to generate desperately needed aid money for victims of the Southeast Asia earthquake.

The Earthquake Day of Action was organised by NUS in part-nership with ActionAid and took place on Thursday 27th October. All monies generated by Day of Action activities are going to sup-port ActionAid’s on-the-ground relief projects.

Many universities and colleg-

es took part in fundraising activi-ties raising thousands of pounds, including UEA.

Commenting on the success of the Earthquake Day of Action, NUS Black Students’ Officer Pav Akhtar said: “Thousands upon thousands of pounds have been raised by students for victims of one of the most destructive earth-quakes ever to hit Pakistan and India. The success of the day is a testa-ment to the type of coordinated, collective action that students ex-cel at. I’d like to thank all students who took part in the day.”

The Students’ Union will shortly be holding a campus-wide ballot on whether UEA should continue the boycott of all Nestlé products in its outlets. Campaigning will start on Tuesday of Week 9 (22nd Nov) with the ballot being held on Monday and Tuesday of Week 10 (28-29th Nov).

The Union strongly recom-mends students to do some back-ground reading on the issues sur-rounding Nestlé. It’s an important issue for the UEA Union to debate and reach a conclusion based on pure democracy – every student at UEA can vote on this issue.

To kick off the campaign on Tuesday 22nd November there will

be a debate in Union House ad-dressing the issues surrounding Nestlé with representatives from all sides of the debate.

Nestle website: www.nestle.comBaby Milk Action Group : www.ba-bymilkaction.org

Overseeing this referendum is Dan Pearson, Academic Officer. Con-tact him on [email protected]

Andy Higson is running the “YES” campaign: [email protected] Williams is running the “NO” campaign: [email protected]

The swimming pool at the UEA Sportspark will be closed from Monday 7th November to Friday 11th Novemeber. As a result of a minor mechani-cal failure recently, whilst moving the central boom the pool liner was damaged, resulting in a small seepage of water.

To solve both these problems before they become unmanage-able the Sportspark staff must drain the pool.

Although the repair work will only take a few hours emptying, refilling and heating the pool will take up to four days.

During the four days the Sportspark are to take advantage and upgrade the showers and other maintenance work which had previously been scheduled for later in the year. The Sportspark staff apologise for the inconven-ience to customers while the pool is out of action.


The ongoing Mental Health Cam-paign and the efforts by both the Dean of Students Office and the Student Union to get services im-proved and press for a university Mental Health Policy is still un-derway at UEA. Whilst the hope that stigma and prejudice are de-creasing towards those experienc-ing difficulties and distress with mental health, sadly on a national level society is a long way off from having adequate provisions and enough wide-spread awareness of the various issues involved.

A study by the Royal College of Psychiatry shows that students are significantly impacted by such issues, and it is by no means the minority whose lives are affected whilst studying at university.

UEA is no exception. A recent document produced for the men-tal health campaign includes per-sonal accounts from UEA students who describe their own experi-ences of such health matters have had a direct impact on the day-to-day and academic aspects of uni-versity life. Some have had poor

mental health themselves and some have been affected by the health of a friend or housemate. Unfortunately, although there are many useful services already in place at UEA, the university has no Mental Health Policy to ensure fair treatment and adequate train-ing and provisions and there is lit-tle co-ordination between services and departments to ensure that sufficient information and help is circulated.

However, as part of the con-tinuing work being done to im-prove the situation the Dean of Students has recently employed a Mental Health Co-ordinator, Beckie Davies. Her job will be to act as a point of first contact for anyone throughout the university who may have questions or prob-lems surrounding mental health issues, whether they are a student or staff member.

Beckie will also be liaising between services on campus and through Norwich, with individual schools and faculties, to maintain better links and communication to ensure that everyone has access to the relevant information and can be directed towards the right support-systems or procedures.

As a part of these duties, Beckie has started up a set of reg-ular drop-in sessions at the Dean of Students Office, located out-side the Hive and Waterstones. The sessions are open to students and resident tutors and Beckie will be offering to talk through difficul-ties, offer information and advice and liaise with or show people to-wards other useful services.

Beckie said: “No appointment is needed, people can just come into the Dean of Students Office and I will see them as soon as I can. If people want to talk to me at other times of the week, I will do my best to see them immedi-ately or arrange a convenient time as soon as possible. If people are unsure if it is me they need to talk to about a concern they have, they are free to phone or e-mail me to discuss it a bit more.”

An international study of the cost for higher education has revealed that it’s more expensive to get a degree in the United Kingdom than in the United States. The Global Higher Education Report 2005 was carried out by the Wash-ington and Toronto based Educa-tion Policy Institute (EPI) found that in only two other countries, New Zealand and Japan, total

costs were higher for students. The reason was placed on

high costs of living and the lack of bursaries or other similar funding. With the coming of top-up fees, British students’ situation will soon be far worse and the prob-lems are intensified for those from poorer families.

With many students suppos-edly spending excessive money on drinking and junk food, public perception is often that they are not concerned by debt. Recent studies have found however, that debt-pressures can affect both the degree-level that a student gets and the quality of job that they take upon graduation.

Nick Smith, CMP 3 said: “Debt can lead to lots of pres-sure upon students. They end up working and studying and get burnt out and very stressed. Having a job can seriously affect students, but being in debt is just as bad: it’s a no-win situa-tion.”

Many students get term-time jobs and this has been linked by a government study to lower degree results and subse-quent worse employment oppor-tunities after graduation. Emma

Kelly, Union Welfare Officer, said: “It is recommended that students work no more than fifteen hours per week, otherwise it could seri-ously interfere with your studies.”

Mathew Elliott, a final year student said: “Most third or fourth years feel that they can’t cope with the pressure of studying and work-ing and end up giving up their job rather than risk their degree. Ox-ford colleges ban term-time jobs for good reason;; it gets in the way of learning.”

Even with good results on graduation, debt can still impact upon the salaries that students end up earning. Although interest rates on loans from the Student Loan Company are tied to inflation and repayments are not required until the student is earning above £15,000, many students feel pres-surised to take the first job that they are offered.

In 1999 graduates earned ten percent less than in 1995. Prices are increasing and wage-levels after graduating are getting lower. With top-up fees set to exacerbate the problem, universities need to act decisively to ensure that they remain a worthwhile investment for students.

Wednesday November 9 200510

David Cameron, the favourite to

win the Conservative race for lead-

ership is finding it hard to shake

off accusations that he experi-

mented with drugs at university.

The media have called into

question David Cameron’s time

spent at Braesenose College, Ox-

ford, where he allegedly revelled

in recreational drug use. Cameron

has refused to comment on the is-

sue, but is reported to have said:

“I am a politician. I had a normal

university experience. I did lots of

things before I came into politics I

shouldn’t have done. We all did.”

David Cameron who went to

Eton before studying at Oxford

has had to face one of the hardest

months in his political career. If he

wins the battle for Tory leadership

it will doubtless prove a valuable

lesson for the future. Cameron

has faced enormous amounts of

unwanted attention from Britain’s

tabloids who have taken to nick-

naming him Cannabis Cameron

as well as other criticisms from

his party members. When he ap-

peared two weeks ago on Ques-

tion Time he refused to answer

any of the questions concerning

this issue.

David Cameron follows a

long list of names of public fig-

ures who supposedly took drugs

during their University days. The

list includes Kenneth Clarke, Mo

Mowlem and notably Kate Moss.

George Bush’s youth was also

surrounded by speculation over

cocaine and cannabis use during

a supposed hedonistic lifestyle.

Cameron’s rival David Davies

has denied ever taking drugs and

has expressed his concern about

young people experimenting with

drugs.

As Cameron claims to have

had a normal University experi-

ence, the issue of his drug taking

and the general concurrence of

politicians to claim the consump-

tion of drugs as a normal Universi-

ty experience is perhaps instilling

an irresponsible message regard-

ing the lifestyle of students.

The drugs questionnaire this

week that Concrete conducted

on campus at UEA, shows that

a large majority of UEA students

have at some experience of taking

drugs. Perhaps one good thing to

come out of the Tory leadership

race is the emergence of a need

for a new category of leader who

is more in touch with the experi-

ences of young people and has

gone on to accomplished greater

personal goals.

It is yet to be determined

what effect Cameron’s suspected

drug-taking past will have on his

Conservative race for leadership.

If David Cameron does win he

has said that he would downgrade

cannabis and introduce more drug

education for young people.

A marked decline in the number of

Chinese students studying at UK

universities is set to compromise

both the financial security and the

international reputation of British

higher education.

Chinese students contribute

roughly eighty million pounds to

British higher education each year

and constitute nearly one third

of all international students at

UEA, although according to UCAS

the number of applicants has

dropped by a quarter this year, cre-

ating concern for some academic

institutions.

The cause for the fall in Chi-

nese students is thought to have

occurred for a number of reasons.

A major factor is the number of

student visa applications that

have been denied by the British

government.

Between 2002 and 2003,

34,701 Chinese students applied

for visas, 27,379 of which were

approved. Despite an increase in

applications between 2003 and

2004 to 37,577, there was a drop

in the number of visas secured to

only 25,560.

In addition to these figures,

many potential students are dis-

suaded by the increasing cost of

having a British visa and studying

in the UK. In today’s maturing ac-

ademic market there are also few

work experience opportunities af-

forded to Chinese students.

Competition is increasing rap-

idly from Chinese universities and

particularly from America, who

has taken over as the favoured

country of study for Chinese stu-

dents this year. One second year

Chinese student said: “America

already has a better reputation for

university education”

Chinese government officials

have warned that this ebb could

be permanent unless British uni-

versities take drastic action – an

alarming prospect because Chi-

nese students bring a huge major-

ity of fees to British universities.


Role and Responsibilities of a Door Supervisor:

Appropriate behaviour for door supervisors - Civil and Criminal Law - Searching and arrest procedures - Drugs awareness - Recording incidents and crim

Communication Skills and Conflict Management:

How to refuse entry and how to eject in a way that reduces risk fo confict - Identifying the types of incidents that could happen inside a venue and how to deal with them - Understanding the law about arrest

How often has a night out been ruined by bounc-ers? It’s a fairly familiar story most of the time: you decide to go out with a group of friends,

hit a few bars and enjoy the odd pint. But when you queue for the club, finally get to the front of the line and are on the brink of getting in-side, a huge, shaven-headed bouncer proclaims that “you’re too drunk mate, you ain’t comin’ in ‘ere”. Some of us, after a moment to com-pose ourselves, would simply slink off into the darkness, maybe to get an early night. Others may take the other extreme and argue the toss, perhaps resulting in being restrained for taking their objections too far.

There are plenty of people out there who have tales of this sort. The question is, why? Is it because all bouncers have a serial dislike for students, or is it just that in our alcohol fuelled euphoria an incident with a bouncer seems like an event of incomparable consequence? Con-crete has heard a number of complaints about bouncers in the City, and went to one of Nor-wich’s more popular clubs, Optic, to find out how their bouncers operate and if the students have legitimate gripes.

Firstly, it may interest you to know that the term bouncer is no longer applicable to many of Norwich’s club guarders. They are door-men. While many of you might think that this is merely a technical formality, the General Manager at Optic, Tom Webster, informed us that it was not simply a matter of language. In fact there is a considerable difference between a ‘bouncer’ and a ‘doorman’, and this is seen most explicitly in the qualification one needs to become a doorman. Candidates have to take a week long course, which results in a City & Guilds certificate. The course is highly inten-sive, involving fire training, first aid training and lessons in conflict resolution - with the empha-sis on peaceful. Passing this course is now the only way to become a licensed doorman in the United Kingdom, and even after taking it, the candidates still have to secure a license from the Security Industries Authority, which com-pletes several background checks to find if they are suitable. It is now the law that all doormen have to have this license in order to work, with penalties for individuals and clubs that don’t

adhere to the rules. This is not to say that your stereotypical bouncer does not exist in Nor-wich, or anywhere else for that matter, because he does. However, in most of Norwich’s clubs the doormen are now certified and licensed, as it is simply too risky to try and get away with it. In any case, Optic does not employ unlicensed doorman, and is similar to Mercy in this respect as both are privately owned enterprises which cannot afford to lose their licenses or their in-come because of dodgy bouncers.

Fair enough, you might think, but what of all those occasions mentioned earlier? If door-men are properly trained, how is it that we find ourselves aggrieved because they do not let us into a club? The answer to this, which may seem obvious, is that we drink before we go to a club. Some of you may have a vodka red bull or two beforehand, whereas others might sink seven pints. The point is that by the time we get to whichever club we have chosen, we are not in a position to assess our own abilities. Alcohol has the funny effect of inhibiting our percep-tions of reality, which in some cases leads to inexplicable drunkenness which practically eve-ryone has at least one story about. Whether it is falling off a wall or puking in the toilet of a club, any of us that go clubbing will probably have experienced a horrendous event whilst drunk. This is because we do not really know what it is we are doing.

Put yourselves in the shoes of a club owner. Would you want to cope with masses of out-of-control youths every night, getting rowdy and being ill after consuming vast quantities of Stella, or would you rather have a crowd that is enjoying the benefits of a few shots of Sam-buca without resorting to punching passers-by or throwing ashtrays? It is not a difficult ques-tion to answer, but it is a necessary question. Club proprietors, particularly in the wake of new legislation on the subject, have got to ad-here to police guidelines on under-age drinkers and those who exhibit clear signs of drunken-ness. Failure to do so will result in “court ac-tion where offences under the new Licensing Act are discovered which will be combined with requests for license reviews where necessary” (Police letter sent to all clubs concerning the new licensing laws). For the club owners, this would mean inevitable closure and the effective loss of a job.

It is also for this reason that nightclubs across the country are clamping down on se-curity issues. In the wake of the London bomb-

ings, managers at clubs are now required to carry out checks to ensure that no incendiary devices get into clubs. This is on top of other items, like guns, knives and drugs, whose cap-ture forms a large part of a doorman’s respon-sibilities. It is fairly obvious that any of these items inside a nightclub is wholly undesirable, but people still attempt it. This fact should il-lustrate that doormen are responsible for the welfare of themselves and those customers al-ready in the club, and are therefore meticulous in their approach to any potential problems. This may seem overbearing to some, but in contrast to being stabbed it is a fairly minor oc-currence. Optic for example, conducts random searches to root out anybody with illicit items, but anyone who is searched is offered a com-plimentary drink as a result. They also employ a student – ‘Smily’ – on the door, and a team of doorwomen to make this process easier and more affable.

This should enforce the point that the clubs are not looking to ban people or ruin nights out. They are simply in a business which compels them to observe any number of security

and safety concerns. Optic’s camera system cost approximately £30,000 and encompasses some 44 cameras. It covers every area of the inside, and also the areas directly outside the club. This ensures that no incidents occur in Optic without being recorded digitally on a computer server. Mercy has a similar system, with roughly 70 cameras, and this is to the ben-efit of customers, doormen and owners alike. In Optic’s case, it has allowed the club to dis-credit many accusations made against it, from sexual harassment to assault. Consulting the tapes reveals very quickly that these incidents did not occur, or were grossly exaggerated by those who made them. It seems that alcohol really can convince even the most honest that we were in the right, even when evidence to the contrary is freely available. Most of the time, the doormen deal with people in the correct fash-ion, and no evidence of any assaults on cus-tomers is apparent. Optic has never once been convicted of any such offence despite a number of court actions brought against it.

This is not intended to portray doormen as angels, as it is quite clear they are not, and in-deed would not want to be. Their job requires them to adhere to rigid safety restrictions, and therefore it is inevitable they will carry this out

with an air of serious professionalism. While we are enjoying our night-off revelling, they do not even finish work until about 4am. The fact we have been drinking means we interpret door-man as sinister, but this is part of the process to root out drunken individuals and those with something to hide. We also complain about not being let into clubs because of not wearing the requisite clothes, but this is a rather lame ex-cuse as clubs make it very explicit as to what can and can’t be worn in their establishment. Their choice merely reflects the mood they wish to create in their club, and the fact of the matter is, if the clubs do not permit baseball caps, then do not wear one.

Essentially, the best policy is to act with re-straint. Going clubbing on a diet of alcohol is a well-known and enjoyable part of British culture, but there are limits. The new licensing laws rep-resent two sides of the same coin: on the one hand they liberalise drinking as we can now do it for longer and in more flexible periods, but on the other hand they come with a significant increase in police powers to deal with excessive drunkenness and anti-social behaviour, and pubs and nightclubs are at the forefront of this effort as they facilitate the process. It may come as a surprise to some, but it is no longer OK to be drunk in public, and clubs have to adhere to this law just as much as individuals.

At the end of the day, if you act with respect and treat doormen accordingly, the likelihood is that you will have an enjoyable night out without any problems. Taking things to excess, however, will only result in your night being cut short and the inevitable whinging about it the day after. It is a simple choice, and one that is in the interests of all concerned. It would suit a doorman to allow everyone who queues up into the club he is responsible for, as it keeps trouble to a minimum. Surely all of us can agree with this, as any trouble in a club is the fault of the doormen for not spotting it sooner. It makes our nights safer and more fun, and it eliminates those who wish to cause trouble. The message is to drink responsibly, for the good of your-selves and the doormen.

www.optic-club.co.uk


For over thirty years, a collection of Bushmen artefacts from South Af-rica has been on display in UEA’s School of Development Studies. However, after so many years on display, the story behind this col-lection has been lost, until now.

On Saturday 29th October a collection of Kalahari Bushmen artefacts, thought to be the most comprehensive collection of its kind, was unveiled at UEA. Es-ter Leah, currently studying for a Masters in the School of PSI, and Environmental Sciences gradu-ate Rachel Dunmore, undertook research on the collection, which led them to its original owners Martin and Margo Russell, who were reunited with the collection at its unveiling.

In 1973 Martin and Margo Russell set out on an expedition to study the Afrikaans people of Botswana from their home in Wy-

mondham. Little did they realise that this trip would prove to be more than a mere academic ex-cursion.

During their time in Bot-swana, they became attached to the people and the continent and soon moved on to South Africa where they lived with the Kalahari Bushmen – one of the oldest sur-viving tribes in the world.

During their time with the Bushmen they gained a rare in-sight into this people, dispelling the myth that their way of life is primitive and incompatible with modern ways. Today the couple split their time between Africa and their home in mid-Wales, spend-ing six months a year in each.

At the unveiling the couple were reunited with a lasting re-minder of their early trips to the continent;; a collection of some 250 Bushmen artefacts which had been traded for tobacco, jam and tea. This is thought to be one of the most comprehensive col-lections of its kind and includes painted ostrich egg shells used as water containers, bow and arrows,

toys, weapons and jewellery. For Mr Russell there was one

particular favourite amongst the collection - a tin can fashioned into a rudimentary musical instru-ment. Speaking about the collec-tion he said, “I’m a historian and my wife is a sociologist. We never set out to study the Bushmen, but just found ourselves immersed in their culture and set about collect-ing as many items as possible to represent a snapshot in time.

We were pretty indiscrimi-nate in what we collected, we just found it fascinating and wanted as much as possible.” Part of the col-lection is on display at the School of Development Studies and the remainder is housed at the Sains-bury Centre for Arts.

The project undertaken by Esther and Rachel was funded by UEA’s Travel and Expeditions Committee, and resulted in a re-port bringing back to life the his-tory of the lost treasures.

The Committee welcomes ap-plications from all UEA students who wish to travel as part of their research.

An exiled West Papuan chief is to visit UEA as the Green Party invite him for an evening of cultural in-sight.

West Papua is the western half of the island of New Guinea. With one of the most remarkable envi-ronments, it is swathed in tropi-cal rain forest and studded with mountain glaciers. The country is home to hundreds of rare species, including birds of paradise and tree kangaroos.

It is also home to some of our planet’s last tribal people, some two hundred tribes, each with their own unique culture and language, living small scale, sus-tainable lives that have remained virtually unchanged for thousands of years.

However concerns have arisen in West Papua as it has emerged as the scene of a hidden genocide – an ongoing tragedy that threat-ens its people with extinction.

West Papua was handed over to Indonesia on condition that they held a referendum allowing the Papuans to choose between being part of Indonesia or inde-pendence. When it finally came in 1969 it was a sham. The Indone-sians, who were already occupying West Papua, declared that its peo-ple were “too backward” to cope with democracy. Instead, with the UN looking on but doing noth-

ing, Indonesia rounded up 1,000 Papuans and forced them at gun-point to vote to join Indonesia.

Since then the Indonesian military occupation of West Papua has been brutal and horrific. Su-harto’s dictatorship embarked on a campaign to wipe out ‘primitive’ Papuan culture, banning tradition-al dress, songs, the Morning Star flag or any talk of independence.

Nearly a million Indonesian settlers were shipped in to West Papua to “Indonesianise” it and make the indigenous Papuans a minority in their own land. Any-one who resists Indonesian op-pression is killed, tortured, raped, beaten or ‘disappeared’.

At least 100,000 Papuans (ten percent of the population) have been murdered by the Indonesian military since the occupation be-gan. As you read this, the hidden genocide is still happening.

A UEA researcher is embarking on a two year project to protect inter-nationally important habitats in Rwanda. Dr Adrian Martin, a lec-turer in Development Studies, will work with local people, the Rwan-dan government, private compa-nies and conservationists to save the species-rich mountain forests in the war-torn country.

In the past forty years, two-thirds of Rwanda’s conservation areas have been lost. This problem has been exacerbated by the de-mand for land during resettlement following the 1994 genocide.

In post-conflict Rwanda, acute poverty has increased pressure on forest resources, and mountain gorillas remain under threat of extinction. The forests have been cleared for farming, wood fuel, bush meat hunting, charcoal pro-duction and to help provide liveli-hoods for returning refugees.

The difficulties have been compounded by weak political in-stitutions, a decrease in native con-servationists following the 1994 genocide, and poorly integrated conservation bodies. Dr Martin is a specialist in rural development

and hopes to create partnerships for managing Rwanda’s national parks that will involve local people and ensure that they benefit from conservation.

Dr Martin said: “This is an exciting and challenging project

for all those involved in the UK and Rwanda. There are major ob-stacles but there are also signs of hope, such as the bravery and tenacity that led to the protection of gorilla populations during and after the genocide, at a time when

government and other conserva-tion agencies were barely func-tioning.”

Over recent years Rwanda’s conservation areas have dimin-ished severely. Prior to 1994, 417,000 hectares were covered

by this network and this has now been reduced to just 220,000 hec-tares. In the last forty years, sixty- five percent of protected areas have been lost.

The fate of Rwanda’s forest reserves may be even worse with an estimated eighty percent of forest resources lost. The project is funded by the MacArthur Foun-dation and partner organisations include the University of Rwanda and the International Gorilla Con-servation Programme, whose di-rector Eugene Rutagarama was a postgraduate student at UEA in 2002-03.

The project will focus on both Nyungwe National Park and Vol-canoes National Park, which are located in the Albertine Rift moun-tain range in the Great Lakes re-gion of Rwanda. Dr Martin will visit Rwanda later this month for preliminary planning meetings, and will return to host a series of workshops over the coming months.


How many people out there would consider themselves a drug user? If you toke the oc-casional joint once in a while, should you be lumped in with the heroin addicts in the Chris-tian Right’s one-size-fits-all ap-

proach to illegal substances – if they’re illegal, then taking them makes you a criminal?

This logic is probably the reason why most peo-ple, after trying cannabis, will not graduate to the next level of drugs, that is to say, taking pills such as speed or ecstasy, or eating hallucinogenics like mushrooms or acid? Although many of us would claim it is our right to take such substances, there is a line that needs to be crossed before we do. As noted above, the establishment view will affect us in some way, but perhaps the reason for it is that pills are something of a mystery. We all remember the story of Leah Betts, just one example of a teenager who took an ecstasy pill and died as a result. While most of these pills con-tain 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), the active ingredient in ecstasy, they can also contain a vast array of other more sinister substances. You may be lucky and get a pill that has only been cut with chalk, but what of the tablets that have been found to contain traces of strychnine, a toxic rat poison. More recently, a number of so called ‘super-ecstasy’ pills have been released on to the market, some contain-ing roughly twice as much MDMA as a normal pill. Others, sometimes called ‘polos’ are ecstasy pills laced with heroin.

These all sound rather disturbing, particularly as most of us would not take even a normal ecstasy tab-let. The knowledge that you do not know what exactly is going to happen to you, and (for those with a less than hedonistic attitude) the niggling fear that you might die, is usually enough to put most people off the drug. At least when smoking marijuana, if you feel a little queasy, you can simply stop smoking. Once the pill is swallowed, you are in for the long haul. Lorna Spinks would not have ended up bloated on a hospi-tal trolley if she could have flicked a switch to turn the experience off for a few minutes. The ecstasy she took resulted in both liver and kidney failure, which seems like an awful lot of trouble to go to for one night of serious clubbing. Although it was initially suspected she had eaten a pill cut with a poisonous substance, it was later found that she simply took one of the ‘super ecstasy’ pills mentioned above. The MDMA si-multaneously raises the body’s temperature, but also inhibits the mechanisms used by the body to regulate heat, which meant her internal organs collapsed as she exceeded 40 degrees centigrade in temperature. The general upshot is that the more MDMA you have

in your system, the more likely you are to become ill due to heatstroke. Therefore it would be quite a comforting thought to know how much MDMA is in the pill you plan to take, and whether it is cut with anything suspicious.

There is an alternative, which comes in the form of herbal ecstasy capsules, available in ‘head’ shops up and down the coun-try, including Norwich’s own Head in the Clouds. Rather than containing MDMA,

which is of course illegal in this country, they are made using only legal substances that have been used across the world for various things, like sha-manic rituals for example. While not being the real thing, you can be completely sure that these legal highs are not going to land you in trouble with the law, and, more to the point, are not going to result in a night of dancing followed by death for breakfast. Indeed, this is precisely the reason why these drugs exist as an alternative to real ecstasy;; for those people who have any of the concerns outlined above. In fact,

the only lingering fear that is not dealt with, i.e. you are still not sure exactly what will happen to you, is catered for by this new ‘Head Fuel’ range.

Each packet contains three capsules. You are instructed to take one at first, a couple of hours af-ter eating. An hour later, when the effects should be kicking in, you can take the second capsule, which essentially consolidates the first while adding more potency to the experience. If after another hour you still do not feel the complete throes of ecstatic pleas-ure, then you can take the final one. What this means, especially for first timers or people who are scared of the drug’s effect, is that you can limit the amount you take. If the first ‘Orange X-tra’ (as the ecstasy capsules are known) makes you feel unpleasant, then do not take the second one. It’s really that simple. Instead of taking a pill bought in a club from an un-known individual containing a plethora of mysterious substances, you can buy herbal ecstasy from licensed shops and regulate exactly what is going into your system at the same time. While substances such as ‘cordifolia extract’ or ‘agryria nervosa’ are not exactly well known, they sound rather more appealing than a

dose of strychnine. While the herbal ecstasy capsules are a safer way

to enjoy a night of clubbing, what about those of us who would rather have a more spiritual and laid back experience? Herbal pills can help here as well. Rather than take the ecstasy or speed versions of the cap-sules, you can instead take the ‘Purple Ohms’ that offer a trip similar to that achieved when taking magic mushrooms. Until very recently (19th June 2005 to be exact), it was legal to take shrooms as long as they were fresh – that is, that they look like actual mush-rooms that had not been tampered with in any way, rather than coming dried or in the form of a powder. However, the government has now made these ille-gal too, meaning that the active ingredient, psilocy-bin or psilocin is now outlawed. However, the herbal mushroom capsules are, like their ecstatic cousins, completely legal. They too come in threes, meaning that people who are unnerved by the consequential effects do not have to worry so much. If you like what you experience after the first hit, then you can take more to enhance the trip. There are a variety of old wives tales that circulate about such hallucinogenics, among them being the infamous “well, you might think you can fly and jump out of a building.” While the chances of this happening are slightly above zero even when on a serious mescaline trip, the fact that you can limit the effects is a key factor in why taking the legal versions of psychedelics is advantageous.

Taking illegal substances is always going to be a tad risky. Just like a multinational corporation who cuts corners to maximise their profit, drug dealers are in it for the money. There is no institutional frame-work to govern drug use in this country, making it en-tirely possible, and indeed probable that a drug dealer will cut his MDMA or cocaine with whatever he has at his disposal – anything from chalk to talcum powder is fine. This differs from say, the Netherlands, where some coffee shops and clubs have pill testers which can tell exactly what purity each E tab is, and whether it is cut with something nasty. The Dutch attitude is that people are, whatever the government might do, going to take drugs so there might as well be an envi-ronment that allows them to do this safely. We do not take the same approach in Britain. While this does not apply to mushrooms, as its easy to tell if it’s a mushroom or not, most people would be loathe to eat them as they taste so disgusting that retching is an inevitability. Taking the herbal capsule is a much easier way to ingest the chemical, and the safeguards are there so that if you dislike the sensation, you can stop taking the pills and it will subside after a while. Essentially, the legal highs are not better just because they are legal – they are better because they are a saf-er way to experience the effects of drugs.

The drug dealer has been around for cen-turies. Years ago, nomads would travel for months carrying sacks full of opium or marijuana to sell in the village markets of Africa or Asia. If people needed a fix, there

would always be someone around to sell it to them.UEA is similar in this respect, as any desperate

pothead will testify. Within about half an hour, you can sidle up to any number of dealers around town and purchase a wide variety of drugs that you might wish to take. Obviously, some only sell cannabis, but others are quite willing to keep you in heroin if that’s what you want.

With this in mind, Concrete went to visit one of the dealers who sells to students from the Golden Tri-angle, to ask him what it is all about. Obviously the identities of the interviewer and the interviewee are not going to be disclosed.

Well it ain’t really nothing special. Most of the time I just sit about in my room, waiting for the phone to ring. It usually starts at about 9am, which is a little annoying for me as I usually don’t get to bed until, like, 3 in the morning. Still, usually when my first cus-tomer of the day comes round, I smoke a joint with ‘em, which is always useful for getting out of bed. Ba-sically the rest of the day is spent with the occasional visitor until the evening when it starts to get busy.

Well, it depends - you know it’s reading week next week so I’ve had the usual amount of people, but they’re just buying in bigger amounts to take it home with them. It’ll be a bit quieter next week though. On a typical week I get like twenty people a day or so

coming round.

Well usually I’m at home, but I always carry some in my bag just in case someone wants some on campus whenever I go there. I put it in my sock to go to the clubs, cos then I can make a little cash to get drunk on, which is always useful - its fun partying with stu-dents.

Well some of my customers are a bit unhinged. I mean I probably shouldn’t even be dealing to some people, but it’s not exactly a legitimate business, so anything goes. Some people do come here on a daily basis, which shows they’ve got a pretty bad habit, and sometimes they can barely even speak properly.

It’s pretty funny really, as I wouldn’t say I encourage that kind of behaviour. I just enjoy the company re-ally - you meet quite a diverse group of people in my business.

Well yeh, clearly, but that’s just a side effect. I mean I usually have a joint if someone comes to buy off me but that’s about it. I mean, who ever heard of a drug dealer who doesn’t do drugs? That’s a miscon-ception.

So there you have it, a drug dealer’s day. Not re-ally that interesting, as this one had not, at the time of the interview, had any dealings with the police in Norwich. Concrete had hoped for some kind of high speed chase scenario, but obviously drug dealing in the real world is not the same as in Hollywood.


“Get some... sour cream and on-ion chips, with some dip man, some beef jerky, some peanut butter. Get some Haa-

gen-Daaz ice cream bars, make sure chocolate man, gotta have chocolate. Some popcorn, bread, popcorn, some Graham crackers with the little marshmallows. Also, celery, grape jelly, some captain crunch with the little crunch berries. Pizzas, we need two big pizzas, man, everything on ‘em with water. Whole lot of water and...funyuns.” This classic line from the movie Half Baked illustrates what many marijuana smokers go through on a typical night.

The mystery of “the munchies” is one that has baffled ganja lovers and scientists alike for decades. For those of you who have never had to resort to stuff-ing your face with a bowl of tikka masala-laced pasta at three in the morning, the effect of smoking weed on one’s appetite can be intense.

Just take your local 24 garage as an example, a great beneficiary and supporter to the joint-smoking student population. Its image represents a beacon of hope for any stoner, unprepared to deal with the sud-den wave of insatiable hunger. Be sure to look out for the bleary-eyed pothead shuffling down the con-fectionary aisle with a look of deep concentration on their face.

The munchies have the tendency to break down even the most dedicated health conscious eater, sending them into a downward spiral of gluttony. As the Pringles advert goes, “once you pop, you can’t stop”. In the case of cannabis-induced starvation, the slogan goes for pretty much anything, from chocolate biscuits to entire jars of mayonnaise.

So why does smoking the reefer inspire you to gorge on any consumables within sight? Is it a ran-dom occurrence, one that we should just accept, or is there a more insightful physiological reason for why cannabis use turns people like myself into frantic

snack heads?This is where things get a bit complicated. Ac-

cording to scientists, our bodies contain a number of proteins known as cannabinoid receptors that re-act to certain stimuli. Delta 9 tetrahydrocannabinol, more commonly known as THC, is the active organic ingredient in cannabis, responsible for the blissful high associated with the drug.

The cannabinoid system resides in the hypotha-lamus, the area of the brain primarily responsible for appetite and metabolism regulation. THC replicates a naturally occurring process within the body caused by internally produced cannabinoids known as endo-cannabinoids, leading to over-stimulation of the ap-petite.

In other words, the munchies is not a side ef-fect that can be ignored or avoided. No matter how large a meal you eat prior to a smoking session, the uncompromising grip of starvation will undoubtedly creep up on you without warning.

Scientific research into the properties of marijua-na have resulted in some interesting medical applica-tions for the munchies. Smoking weed is particularly

beneficial to patients suffering from chemotherapy-induced nausea, as it combats the loss of appetite caused by such treatment. It provides a natural alter-native to synthetic THC pills, which many find hard to swallow.

The knowledge gained from such research has led to the development of drugs that can be used to reverse the effect of the munchies. Such drugs act to suppress the appetite by blocking the cannabinoid receptors in the brain, suggesting great potential for the treatment of obesity, something that should go down well in this country.

Whilst the munchies can be an incon-venient and potentially bankrupting by-product of getting stoned, it ain’t all so bad. If everyone smoked a joint a day, anorexia would no longer

exist, another fine example of the wacky baccy’s me-dicinal use. The economy would benefit too, bearing in mind the money spent on all that junk food. Smok-ers plagued with a late night attack of the munchies

are essential to the booming takeaway industry.As the 2004 film Harold and Kumar get the

Munchies portrays, the cravings that come with this side-effect can be overly specific, to the point where once you have a particular food in mind, nothing else will satisfy that urge. The probability of finding a full Christmas dinner in the middle of the Golden Trian-gle, at 4 o clock in the morning is extremely unlikely, and that realization can be tormenting, especially af-ter you have been looking for it for a couple of hours.

With the munchies, accessibility is key so pre-packaged foods are usually more fulfilling. To avoid getting caught out and struck with pangs of hunger, in your laziest state, it is essential to have some fore-sight and prepare for the inevitable. Cover all bases and get a mixture of both savoury and sweet;; because when you’ve got one, you will always yearn for the other. It’s never a good idea to over compensate, however, as the temptation to devour it all, is often too much to resist. At the end of the day, delivery pizza is always an option, albeit a fairly expensive one. Although there are obviously countless options, here is a selection of common munchie foods in no particular order:

1.Haribo Tangfastics. Satisfies the sweet tooth but can be demanding on the jaw.5/5 for taste, 4/5 for accessibility, 1/5 for health

2.McCoys. Just a damn fine crisp.4/5 for taste, 4/5 for accessibility, 2/5 for health

3.Ben ‘n’ Jerry’s “Half-Baked” ice cream. How appro-priate.5/5 for taste, 2/5 for accessibility, 0/5 for health

4.Maryland Cookies. As addictive as crack, but much more appetising. 3/5 for taste, 4/5 for accessibility, 2/5 for health

5.Pre-packed sandwiches. Hassle free and fairly sub-stantial.2/5 for taste, 2/5 for accessibility, 4/5 for health

Surely everyone has played Dope Wars? This ingenious free download has been a cult favourite for years, played by people all over the world, from spotty teenagers to hoody-wearing youths to managing di-

rectors. As addictive as the substances it deals with, the game enables you to take on the persona of a drug dealer, who is trying to make as much cash as he can.

The game could not be more simple. You start off with $2000, and $5,500 in debt to ‘Honest Harry’ the loan shark. At first, you can only afford cheap drugs, like speed or ecstasy, but when the money starts rolling in you can up your level to heroin or cocaine where the serious money is to be made. The aim is to accumulate as much cash as possible within the month.

Each time you buy a drug, say 50 ecstasy tablets from Camden in London, you click on the next place you want to go, which could be Kensington or Hyde Park in the same city, or alternatively you can hop

on a plane and visit other cities around the world, from Chicago to Johannesburg. Each time you move somewhere new signifies a day in time, and you have thirty of them to make as much as possible. There-fore, it is imperative that you find the best deals. For example, you receive little messages throughout the game, such as ‘the Marrakech Express has arrived.’ This means a load of cheap hashish has just arrived so you would do well to buy as much as you can since then you make more profit when you sell it. The real money comes when you buy cocaine and ‘the cops have made a huge coke bust’ comes up – this means that cocaine is rare wherever you are, and therefore incredibly expensive.

And so you go on, sometimes running into ‘Of-ficer Hard-ass’ who you can either run from, or fight if you have any weaponry, which ranges from a handbag to a real live banana-throwing monkey. Sometimes though, he will shoot you enough to kill you, meaning game over. Other than that, the game is incredibly easy to get into, and after a couple of practice goes

to understand how it works, you’ll be clicking away for hours.

So to the tournament. Concrete is giving away a £10 voucher to Head in the Clouds for whichever UEA student (or lecturer, cleaner, security guard etc.) who gets the highest score. This is measured in dollars. The rules are as follows:

Use the ‘Dope Wars 2.2’ version. Just type this in to google and there are plenty of places from which to download it.

The tournament is only for the 30 day version, not the 60 or 120 days that you can play if you really want to.To register your score, you cannot simply tell us you got $60 million – you need to prove it. Here’s how:

When you finish your thirty days, your score will go up on the scoreboard. When this appears, simply press the ‘Print Screen’ button on your keyboard, and then paste it into MSpaint. All you do is open up paint

from the accessories menu and press paste. Nothing could be simpler.

This can then be emailed to [email protected]., but if you could save them as a ‘jpeg’ as it is a lot smaller. Please put the subject as ‘Dope Wars’ when you send the email. The winner will be notified in two weeks so get out there, download it and get dealing. The voucher awaits.

Wednesday November 9 200514 15

It appears at first glance that practically every-one at UEA likes to get high. Of the completed surveys, 95% of you have taken an illegal drug at some point in your life. Slightly less, 87% of people have taken drugs whilst at the Univer-sity of East Anglia, still a rather large amount.Just to be clear, this survey cannot be, and does not attempt to be, an all-embracing representa-

tive sample of the drug habits of UEA students. It is sim-ply designed to establish the general trends in drug use by the people who study and work here. Only people who a) take drugs or b) are so completely ideologically op-posed to them that they’d rather cut off their own hands than take something illegal, will have filled out the survey. There are obviously countless others who had no interest whatsoever in filling out the questionnaire.

Nevertheless, this does not make it uninteresting, as many of the results reveal some compelling facts about the use of illegal substances at universities, and in the country more generally. For example, it was to be expected that of 61 surveys filled out, the vast majority of people (95%) would have taken cannabis, or indeed still do. However, it came as something of a surprise that 43% of people have taken cocaine, and even more (57%) have taken some form of hallucinogenic substance, be it magic mushrooms, LSD, or salvia. This would seem to indicate that drug use is now not limited to your ba-sic weed, E, coke or heroin. A vast array of bizarre and wonderful chemicals have been tried by students here, some of which not even Google could find any informa-tion on. The couple of people who have tried ZCB, could you email Concrete and let us know what exactly it does?

Other popular drugs at UEA are, not unsurprisingly, ecstasy (46%), speed (36%) and LSD (25%). Although not strictly illegal, poppers (which can be bought in sex shops as well as head shops) were the third most popular drug after cannabis and magic mushrooms. This would suggest that the most popular drugs are also the easiest to obtain. Cannabis can be found pretty much anywhere, particularly on campus where a large number of dealers operate. Only recently, you could purchase shrooms at such shops as Head in the Clouds, until a few months ago when they were made illegal by the Home Office un-der the supervision of our very own MP, Charles Clarke. It is to be expected then, that their being made illegal will limit people taking them, possibly opening the way for other psychedelics, such as salvia or peyote to fill the void.

Contrary to what the government and many parents would have you believe, only 10% of respondents report-ed any medical problems from drug use, which ranged from mental health problems such as depression to in-creased asthma. This is however offset by the question, “Has anything bad happened to you or a friend after con-suming drugs.” While the ‘No’s were still in the majority, 28 respondents claimed something bad had happened to them or a friend, although these ranged from the very

serious to hilarious. However, two friends had died of drug taking which should be noted as some students have obviously had a very bad time on drugs. Many of the other responses to this question made Concrete gig-gle, particularly the reported ‘cheesecake overdose’, and a number of broken bones.

It also seems that drugs enhance the general lives of many students. A lot of you like to have sex whilst on your substance of choice, and you also seem to prefer seminars when stoned. Some daredevils even like to go for a drive

when high, something that we cannot condone. Anyone who is familiar with the DJ Shadow song ‘Mashin’ on the Motorway will be aware of this. It can only be hoped that you don’t, as 50% of respondents do, drive whilst under the influence of more than one drug at a time.

It appears Norwich is a hive for illegal activity. Cam-pus is a veritable honey-pot of drugs, with 75% of people being offered drugs somewhere, in halls being the most common location. Half of you get your drugs from deal-ers, who operate around town and campus, but most ap-pear to get your hit from friends (admittedly, your dealer can also be your friend, and it is in fact in their interest to be). It also seems that taking drugs is not an individual activity, as only two respondents claimed that none of their friends take drugs. Of the people who completed the survey, 48% claimed that ‘most’ of their friends were also drug users, indicating that drugs are socially cohe-sive, and not divisive like alcohol. Concrete assumes that this refers mainly to sitting in the kitchens or bedrooms of the accommodation blocks sharing a joint or two with some of your flatmates. However, it is probable that a few groups of friends indulge in some rather more serious drug taking, like a psychedelic barbeque for example.

The most compelling part of the survey, and indeed the only part with any proper relevance to most people, is the section concerning the legalisation of cannabis. 77% of respondents believed that marijuana should be legalised but the majority (59%) believed that it was also harmful to health. This flies in the face of those who wish to keep it illegal, or as Charles Clarke is proposing, re-classify cannabis from class C to class B. Young people know that it can be harmful, and yet they want to take it anyway despite this knowledge. The government’s stance on the issue, that people should not be able to take harm-ful drugs, is basically made redundant due to the fact that people are not really that bothered about it. After all, you are clearly going to suffer a lot more from drinking for 24 hours than smoking a few joints. It seems that de-mocracy is not being maintained when considering our government’s stance on the drugs issue.

Anyway, have a peruse of the results – they are in-credibly interesting, and for those of you who like a laugh, have a look at the stories of what some students have been up to when stoned. You might even recognise some of them. Enjoy!

• Brain damage as a result of years worth of acid taking • Collapsed after ketamine• Cheesecake overdose• Psychosis• Friend committed suicide• Friend was put in a mental hospital • Lost myself• Was caught in possession• Went to the Priory• Friend had a white-out and collapsed whilst pissing and fractured his nose on the toilet seat• Became a recluse• Got lost in a field• Walked in front of a car

• Ate a live rabbit• Car crash whilst high• Friend died, sectioned• Family member died• Kicked out of home• Friend couldn’t remember any of the Reading Festival despite paying a small fortune for the tickets• Got kicked out of UEA due to schizophrenic episode after shrooming• Depression• Backpain• Increase in asthma• Got stuck in an upside-down room from which there was no escape• Can’t remember who I am

5 12 15 11 7 4 2 6

11 22 23 4 2

58 3

36 25

21 40

53 8

2 7 11 14 8 7 7 2

58 28 4 26 15 33 22 3

35 6 4 6 2 1 2 2

10 51

6 55

20 41

25 36

28 33

48 13

43 26 8 17

18 43

16 30 15

11 49

46 14

36 15 20 31

49 17 26 8

26 35

19 42

22 39

6 5 8 17 14 5 3

61

47 14

36 25


The idea of being legally allowed to drink 24 hours a day sounds like paradise to most students, how-ever the new laws have caused a lot of controversy throughout the country. The new licensing law will allow Britain’s 113,000 pubs, clubs and bars to apply for the new long-

er opening licenses. The aim of these new laws is to follow Europe’s model and encourage a new drinking culture, however it has sparked a new fear that Brit-ain’s infamous binge drinking culture will simply be amplified by them. Many opinions have been raised regarding the issue and by interviewing James Wear-ing from the St Johns Ambulance service and several students I have been able to explore them.

The law states that venues can officially change their licenses over to the new system on February 7th 2005 with the new law coming into full affect in November 2005 just in time for Christmas this year. There will be flexible opening hours for bars and pubs with the potential to open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Venues will be able to apply for a licence, but have to inform the local community and police to give them 21 days to object. Any pubs that become disorderly as a result of the new opening hours will be given two months to sort out the situation or they will be billed for the extra policing costs. In reality however it is unlikely pubs will stay open around the clock because of the huge costs involved in keeping a venue open and staffed all day. A survey from the Brit-ish Beer and Pub Association who represent 30,000 pubs in England and Wales has confirmed that not a single venue has expressed interest in staying open 24 hours a day and the only days most venues want to extend their licenses are Thursday, Friday and Satur-day with the majority expected to close at 1 am.

The government and supporters of the new law believe this is a good strategy to reduce booze relat-ed crime and anti social behaviour. They believe the changes will reduce the problem of post pub violence associated with big groups of people leaving differ-ent venues at the same fixed closing time. The law is not designed to encourage 24 hour drinking but to introduce flexibility giving both customers and land-lords more of a choice. Combined with the new laws strict new powers for the police are being introduced. The police will be given much more flexibility on how they deal with drink related violence in an attempt to control it. Most alcohol related crime occurs between 11pm and 3am when everyone is thrown out of the pubs at the same time. The new law will introduce staggered opening times ensuring that there is no peak time for the violence to occur.

Rory Budden, a second year management stu-dent, agrees with the new laws. He believes they are positive because they ‘give the consumer more choice

and there is no pressure on people to consume a cer-tain amount of alcohol by a fixed time.’ There will be no drinking up or throwing out time, therefore reduc-ing the potential for drink related violence.

Britain took the idea for 24 hours drinking laws from Europe, which for many years has had these laws in place. The drinking culture in Europe is far more relaxed than it is in Britain and there is no such thing as binge drinking. Britain aspires to have this drinking culture and the new laws will hopefully en-courage this.

Carly Collins, a second year biology student, also agrees with the new law but feels other factors should be considered, like tougher regulations on ID, to make sure younger people are not allowed into pubs and bars. She believes ‘Britain’s drinking culture is a disgrace’ and it should follow the role model of fel-low European countries where customers have the choice of going out at any time of night and enjoying drink socially instead of having a time limit in which to drink to excess.

Sally Byrne, a second year English Literature stu-dent, takes a more neutral stance on the new laws. She believes that they are too relaxed and will not de-crease alcohol related violence but they are a step in the right direction. She thinks people will no longer ‘feel the urge to binge drink and get all their drinking out of the way by 11’ but that alcohol related violence will still continue. Sally thinks the government should look for some kind of middle ground in between the new and old laws to deal with the problem properly.

The government predicts that this change along with others in the bill will save the 180,000 licensed premises in Britain almost 2 billion pounds a year in the first 10 years. The law is also hoped to boost live entertainment as landlords can apply for a public en-tertainment licence at the same time for no added cost. All these factors considered, the law does seem to be looking quite positive and does seem to have the public’s interest at heart. Most students agree that it would be very beneficial, however there are also a lot of arguments against the law that need to be considered.

Binge drinking is a serious problem in Brit-ain and it is feared that the new licenses will promote this culture of excessive drinking instead of reducing it. Licensing spokesman of The Association of Chief

Police Officer has said ‘experience has showed us that an increase in opening hours tended to be fol-lowed by a sharp increase in alcohol fuelled violence and anti social behaviour’. Britain does not have the same drinking culture as Europe and therefore will not react in the same manner. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism defines binge drink-

ing as “having five or more drinks in one session” and in recent years this type of drinking has become a major concern in young people. This amount of drinks may not seem like much on an average night out to most students but combined with the later opening hours it could reach dangerous amounts. It is socially acceptable in Britain to drink excessively and it is believed the new laws will simply promote round the clock binge drinking. Charlotte Laid, sec-ond year physiotherapy student strongly disagrees with the new laws and believes they are completely unnecessary. ‘People already have the option of go-ing onto clubs after the bars close so later licenses will not make any difference’. In reality most bars will only apply to be open until 1 am and so the prob-lem will still remain as this will become the new peak time for drink related violence. Charlotte also believes that ‘drink fuelled violence cannot be solved through police enforcement alone and that the government needs to first deal with the culture of excessive drink-ing by encouraging the drinks industry to adopt more of a responsible attitude’.

There are also several other factors to consider, including the extra costs the laws will create. Public transport will find it difficult to cope with the increase in people out later and will not be able to meet this

demand. The SOS bus that operates in Norwich will not be able to extend its hours if the law is introduced as it does not have the funds to keep running in these extra hours. If people are being encouraged to drink later this will also see a knock on effect of people call-ing in sick for work the next day and performing badly at work. Natasha Keech, a second year management student, disagrees with the law and she is worried that the number of road accidents will increase the following day due to people still being over the limit. ‘If people are drinking till the early hours of the morn-ing there will be a much larger number also driving to work the next day.’ This is already a major concern in Britain and will, she fears, only increase due to the new laws.

Whatever the final decision may be, the new laws are likely to come into place in the not too distant future despite the controversy they have provoked. It is unlikely that they will make that much difference as most bars and clubs will only stay open an hour later but it is at least a step towards lowering alcohol related violence. Hopefully the laws will introduce a new drinking culture to Britain that will encourage social drinking instead of drinking to excess, however we shall have to wait until the end of the year to find out what the outcome is.

To find out more about how the 24 hour drinking laws will affect students in particular, Concrete met up with James Wearing, member of the St Johns Am-bulance LINKS team to see what his thoughts on the issue were.

Most of our duties take place at the LCR during gig and club nights. We have a medical centre in the Hive and operate out of there. A large amount of duties also come from our coverage of the sports matches.

LINKS often provide members to assist with the First Aid provision on the SOS Bus in Norwich City Centre. Through this duty anti-social behaviour can be seen on a regular basis. Aggressive behaviour, fighting and other antisocial activities are a much less common

sight in our own LCR, however, it does happen and can be observed at a number of events.

I think many of our members believe that respon-sible drinking and knowing your own limits are the only way to control drinking habits and possibly put an end to drink-fuelled anti-social behaviour. If the pubs are open 2 hours or 24 hours people will still get drunk. It’s the responsibility of the drinker to ensure they do not cause problems. Obviously, these views may not be shared by the whole society and definitely not St John’s Ambulance as a whole.

I would say that kicking out time causes problems as far as lots of drunk people being in the same place at the same time. On the other hand the Emergency Services can co-ordinate response and be sure of times and places where problems can arise. With 24 hour drinking we may lose the crowd-associated problems but put a much greater strain on an Emer-gency Service that has to co-ordinate a 24 hour con-stant response.

Most certainly, we would have to incorporate breaks into our duties and consider the possibility of having two teams to cover one night. This of course involves much more organisation and effort from our volun-teers.

In all honesty I can’t say if it will or not. It yet again de-pends on people’s attitudes to the new laws. If people take the longer hours as an opportunity to drink more or an opportunity to relax and drink more steadily over the night, that will be the deciding factor.

It is clear that the laws will have a big effect on the work of the LINKS team and overall it seems that James believes it is up to the individual to con-trol their drinking and to know when they have had enough. UEA LINKS does a fantastic job helping out at UEA events and in the city, and their members are always there for students when they are most needed. I would like to thank James for giving me his views on this subject and the whole of the LINKS team for do-ing such a brilliant job for UEA and Norwich.

Seven distinguished scientists have just com-pleted a £5 million high-tech experiment and con-firmed that the consumption of crack cocaine may have adverse affects on humans. Speaking to the Enquirer, Professor O’Nolan explained: “We basi-cally just gave a hamster some crack.”

A 259 page report is due to be published this month, which details the experiment that lasted just over a week. The paper chronicles the rodent’s de-cline into addiction, crime and eventual death, ana-lyzing the results with the latest super computers. “On day one we gave him the pipe,” explained the Professor, “but at first he was more interested in his wheel”. But as the paper notes, by the third day Her-man the hamster had sold his wheel for another hit.

By the forth day he had completely alienated his friends and was ignoring the attention of his closest family. This behavior was noted as being particularly remarkable, seeing as twelve of his friends and fam-ily shared a two square foot cage with him. Condi-tions only worsened for the young hamster after he stole one of the scientist’s radios and flogged it for some more of that sweet tasting blow.

The victim of the theft, Dr Waffle, informed The Enquirer of the benefits that this experiment has of-fered in the way of scientific advancement. “We now know,” he said, “that this narcotic deteriorates the cell membranes of the cerebral cortex in a matter of weeks and that the over-stimulated synapses re-sult in severe rodent paranoia”. Waffle then added: “We have also learned that you should never, I mean never, turn your back on a junked-up crack crazed

hamster.”The subject was found dead on day 9, but wheth-

er the cause of death was an overdose or something to do with the fact he hadn’t eaten for four days could not be deduced. It is also known that, hav-ing owed money to various rodents all over the lab, Herman had resorted to drug dealing to support his habit. His untimely death could very well have been the result of a big deal gone sour.

The whole episode has sparked vicious condem-nations from many animal rights groups;; they claim feeding harmful drugs animals is inappropriate and have called for a ban on all similar research. How-ever, it was the well established campaign group, the Organization of Users of Crack and Heroine, which raised the most objections. In a press release issued last week, an OUCH spokesman declared that “it’s a waste of perfectly good crack”.

Overall the research team were pleased with their results and the experiment has been widely re-garded as a success. Yet all agreed that ideally the test should be repeated on at least one monkey and a couple of geese. After the formal interview Profes-sor O’Nolan confided: “Personally, I won’t be happy until we’ve got a cow with a smack habit.”

It is still not clear where these new findings will lead us. With the dangers of crack now conclusively revealed, it may be possible to test the adverse af-fects of nuclear weapons. One thing should be made clear though, this sort of experimentation is best left to the experts. We can’t have every hamster on crack.

The historic day has arrived. People up and down the country are rejoicing as the government has legalised all drugs in a shock move that has come about as a result of significant new research into il-legal substances. Apparently, drugs are not as bad as people think. Tony Blair announced the new leg-islation at a press conference from Downing Street this morning, which involved the entire cabinet. He began by explaining his reasons for the new law, tell-ing journalists that people could take drugs if they wanted to as the body was clearly meant to have them. “Why on earth would I have a cannabinoid receptor in my head if I wasn’t supposed to smoke cannabis,” he said, whilst snorting some coke off the blade of a knife. The deputy Prime Minister, who until this point had his head stuffed firmly inside a bumper pack of Walker’s Cheese and Onion crisps, popped up to say, “this weed makes you a bit hungry don’t’it,” before summarily returning to his glutton-ous feast.

Of interest to UEA students will be Charles

Clarke, who surprisingly had nothing at all to say on the matter and seemed more concerned by the back of Ruth Kelly’s head. When asked a question by a journalist from the Guardian, who could not believe Clarke’s turn-around on the drug issue, he appeared rather agitated and look as if he was trying to swipe a huge bat out of the sky. This caused some raucous laughter from further along the table, as Alan Milburn and Gordon Brown fell off their chairs as a result of Clarke’s disconcerting behaviour. This however, did not amuse the Prime Minister, who proclaimed rather too loudly, “have you two dropped that joint again?”

The new laws look to have some startling conse-quences for modern life. After the press conference, a few of us journalists wandered down to the local JD Wetherspoon, who now appear to be selling buy-one-get-one-free on a shot of opium laced absinthe. Thinking it was a little too early for chasing any drag-ons, Concrete instead opted for the methadone ‘n’ mixer, a bargain at £1.50.


Everybody has an opinion about

food. Everyone has their own

favourite dish, and something

they wouldn’t touch with a

barge pole (for me it’s toma-

toes). Most people enjoy go-

ing out to dinner as a social

event, and many get excited by

cooking new recipes or trying

new foods. Yes, it’s probably

fair to say that we’re all a bit obsessed with food. And

so we should be. After all, it’s food that provides us

with the energy to go about our daily lives. But some

people become so obsessed with food that it begins

to run their lives. It stops being an enjoyable way of

getting energy, and instead becomes either some-

thing hateful that must be avoided, or something so

addictive that they cannot stop eating even when they

are in pain. These people are suffering from eating

disorders, Anorexia and Bulimia Nervosa.

Anorexia Nervosa literally means “a loss of ap-

petite for nervous reasons”, but what it essentially

boils down to is that sufferers cannot bring them-

selves to eat as much as their body needs. They will

restrict the amount they eat and drink very rigidly,

often to a level that is extremely dangerous to their

body, causing them to suffer from the symptoms

of starvation. In serious cases, even at the point of

starvation they still cannot force themselves to eat,

with fatal consequences, although it is important

to note that anorexia is not an elaborate attempt to

commit suicide. Even if the starvation is not severe

enough to cause death, it wreaks havoc on the body,

affecting fertility in women, making the bones more

fragile and more likely to break, and reducing blood

circulation. Although the trend for stick-thin models

has been blamed for the increase in anorexia, there is

more to the illness than a desire to be thin. The focus

on controlling eating is an attempt to control a life

that may otherwise feel chaotic. It enables sufferers to

prove that they are in control of their weight and body

shape, even if they are not in control of other things

like work, family or relationships. Anorexics are often

high-achieving perfectionists, and often there is a

parent or another member of their family who is also

affected. Anorexia has become particularly common

in the western world, and in the UK it affects between

1 - 4% of women, and around 0.2% of men.

Although anorexia is probably the most well-

known eating disorder, other less well-recognised

ones have an equally devastating effect on people’s

lives.

Bulimia Nervosa has only been officially de-

scribed as an eating disorder for around 25 years. It

manifests itself as an insatiable need to eat, binges,

followed by a need to purge the body of what has

just been eaten, usually achieved by vomiting or tak-

ing laxatives. These episodes are often followed by

periods of starving or excessively exercising to try to

counteract the large calorie intake. This binge-purge

cycle is very dangerous to your body and can lead

to health problems such as increased risk of heart

problems, throat corrosion and tooth decay caused

by excessive vomiting. Just as with anorexia, bulimia

is linked to emotional problems. It seems that binge-

ing is an attempt to satisfy an emotional hunger with

food. However, since this need cannot truly be satis-

fied by eating, as it is not food the body is hungry for,

there is never any sense of ‘fullness’ and the eating

continues uncontrolled until no more food can physi-

cally be fitted in. Binges tend to be precipitated by

events which cause emotional stress or tension, such

as a family argument or a stressful period of work,

and people can be so desperate to find something to

fill themselves with that they will shop-lift for food, or

eat things like uncooked pasta, frozen meat or even

pet-food. After a binge, especially if what has been

eaten is unacceptable to the body, the person feels

sick and bloated, and with this comes a sense of guilt

that can only be purged by getting rid of the food they

have just eaten by vomiting or taking laxatives, com-

pleting the binge-purge cycle.

Another eating disorder, which has only recently

been recognised, is binge-eating. There are no reli-

able statistics available, but it is thought that binge-

eating disorder is much more common than anorexia

or bulimia combined, and many people reading this

article may recognise the symptoms in themselves.

Binge-eating shares some of the characteristics

of bulimia, with the difference that uncontrollable

binges are not usually followed by purges. If you are

a binge eater you may notice that you eat extremely

fast, and do not know how to stop when you are full.

You may also find that you feel uncomfortable eating

in public as you associate eating with feelings of guilt,

and you don’t want people to look at you and think

that you are eating a lot. You may have put on weight

as a result of the bingeing, but that really depends

on how often you do it, and how much you exercise.

Binge eaters are not always overweight, but they al-

most always think that they are. Again, binge-eating

seems to be linked to emotional problems, and bing-

es are usually precipitated by stressful events, when

it seems like eating till you are stuffed is a short term

way to at least feel some satisfaction.

Eating disorders are a serious problem in the de-

veloped world, and aside from the physical damage

they cause the sufferers, the mental anguish spreads

far and wide, severely affecting the sufferer, but also

their family and friends. People close to the sufferer

usually have to deal with their own eating habits being

constantly scrutinised as the person becomes more

and more obsessed with food, and they also have to

cope with the mood swings and personality changes

that are happening to the person they love.

At a conservative estimate, there are

around 500-1000 people at UEA

who are affected by eating disorders,

many of whom will have not admit-

ted it to themselves. It was with

this in mind that Susie Phillips of the Norfolk Eating

Disorder Association decided to bring a counselling

service to UEA.

Susie says that the idea of the counselling serv-

ice is to start tentatively. Since she understands that

many people use their eating disorder as a way of

controlling their lives, she does not want to make any-

body feel out of control. The idea is just to make con-

tact with people who are suffering from eating disor-

ders of any kind, and to give them the chance to talk

about it openly. This is an opportunity to talk to peo-

ple with experience of coping with eating disorders,

and if you so wish, to make appointments for more

formal counselling sessions. The association hopes

to be able to build trusting relationships both with the

counsellors, but also between fellow sufferers, as this

can be a valuable area of support. Susie particularly

wants any men who might have a problem with food

to come to the counselling service, as this is a group

who are all too often ignored. In fact around 10% of

sufferers are men, and the number is higher in the

gay community or amongst people who work in thea-

tre or the media. With men it often takes the form of

obsessive exercising combined with a need to control

food, but it is still an eating disorder;; it can still dam-

age the body and men still need help.

The earlier you seek help the better. Eating dis-

orders are treatable, and the physical effects such

as brittle bones and infertility are largely reversible.

However, the longer you have the problem, the more

damage you do to your body and the more chemi-

cal changes affect your brain. These lead to distorted

thinking, making it almost impossible to make ra-

tional decisions about food. If this is allowed to go

on into adulthood, you may be able to manage your

illness by forcing yourself to eat regularly, but you will

find it hard to truly ‘recover’. You will never really be

able to enjoy eating and think about food normally

again. Use the incentive that if you are brave enough

to ask for help now then you have every chance of

recovering fully.

If you are even in the slightest bit interested, Su-

sie and the other counsellors would love to see you,

so look out for the posters, or just turn up. If you

know of someone who may benefit from this type of

support then you might want to gently drop it into

the conversation. And if you cannot make any of the

sessions on campus then the Norfolk Eating Disor-

der Association have their headquarters on Colegate,

just round the corner from the Playhouse, where you

can drop in. They run the place as an open house, a

low-key relaxed space, away from any pressure. They

also run self-help groups and one-to-one counselling

sessions with ongoing support.

You can contact them to find out about

any of these services on 01603 767062 or email

[email protected] .

Its all too easy to get carried away when you go to visit America, particularly if its New York or Boston, two of the largest and liveliest cities in the U.S. Everyone knows the major sites and at-tractions, and its hardly difficult to find them. It

is not as if the Empire State Building is easy to miss.But what if you want something a little different?

While it is fun doing the tourist thing, how about get-ting to know the real NYC?

For a start, you will never be able to try as many different foods as you can in the Big Apple. New York is awash with restaurants from every corner of the globe, run by people that are actually from the place their eatery claims to represent. For example, over here every kebab house is the same, serving a kind of hybrid Turkish recipe which involves trimming fat soaked meat off a big stick. However, in New York you can try kebabs from many different places, such as Greece, Lebanon, Morocco and of course, Turkey.

You can also be sure they will taste a damn site better than the English versions.

Boston is similar in this respect. Although there is a distinct Englishness to the place, other cultural manifestations are welcomed, most obviously in the Faneuil Hall where any cuisine you wish can be pur-

chased to eat in the massive dining hall. This really is a great place for holidaymakers, backpackers and people on the tightest of budgets, as a huge meal, for example chicken tikka masala, rice, lamb tikka, veg-etable curry and a drink costs roughly $9 – a bargain as it’ll keep you going for days.

The best way to get to know any place is to walk. There are rather a lot of misconceptions about New York, one of them being that if you venture out of the tourist areas you’re likely to be mugged and possibly murdered. This is about as likely as it is in any big city, so it isn’t worth not visiting places of interest just to feel safe. In this respect, Harlem in New York is a great place to visit. Admittedly, it may be better not walking the streets at 3 in the morning, but during the day this area is buzzing with day to day activity. You can also revel in the birthplace of the beatnik move-ment, as Jack Kerouac himself spent some of his time in the Jazz clubs in Harlem.

In short, do not follow the guide books. It is great being able to say you’ve been up the Empire State Building, but this is the New York that we see on the silver screen. To truly go to New York, you have to get a feel for the city itself, and to do this, you should ex-plore, not follow the itinerary from Lonely Planet.


New York, New York, a wonderful town…well I won’t disagree with that. Ever since I was a kid I have wanted to go to New York City and it did not disappoint. From JFK airport, a taxi

to anywhere in Manhattan is $49 with tolls and then any tip, which you would be advised to pay. If you’re on a tighter budget, there are the airtrain and subway or bus services.

Even though it is a tad touristy to take a tour, we thought it would be a great way to get our bearings as New York is so massive, it’s very difficult actually de-ciding where to go first. Gray Line Tours run 4 differ-ent tours and a combined ticket for all of them over 2 days is $49 a person. You can also buy tickets for the individual tours.

We started off taking the Downtown loop get-ting off at Battery Park where you get the ferry for the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island Museum of Immi-gration. Be warned that even after you have bought your tickets there is another queue for the ferry, which in our case was an hour long. If you are short on time do not worry about getting off at the Statue of Liberty as the views are as good from the ferry. Ellis Island however is a must. The restored immigration centre now houses a museum charting the history of immi-gration into the American melting pot. As you chug towards the Statue of Liberty on the ferry, you can al-most empathise with all those people who have made the same journey, but for very different reasons.

Both islands also provide fantastic views on clear

days of the city skyline, which everyone knows but it never ceases to amaze close up. After getting back into Battery Park we walked the short distance back to Ground Zero, where the World Trade Center used to stand. Whilst not a tourist attraction there are signs explaining the history of the towers and their destruc-tion as well as plaques with the names of those who lost their lives.

The next morning we walked to the Empire State Building. There may be a short queue outside the door but this is simply getting people in. Once in there is a queue for security, tickets and the lifts. Tickets can be pre-bought but this only saves a little time. A fast pass is on offer for $35 compared to a normal ticket price of $14. We were in line for just over an hour. Time can be saved by walking up the last six floors instead of waiting for the second lift. However the view once up there on a clear day is totally worth it as you can see for miles. Do be prepared for it to be very windy though.

Making the most of the tour tickets we took an uptown tour as well which takes you up the Upper West side and Columbia University, through Harlem and back down past Central Park. Not really so many places that you might want to get off on this one but is does take you round some sights and areas you may not have bothered with otherwise so definitely worth doing if you have the time.

There is way too much to New York City to do in a single weekend but you can do the major sights and pick up ideas about what to do on the future trips.

After a ride on the smallest commercial plane I have ever seen we arrived in Bos-ton, Massachusetts, possibly the most English place in the United States.

As we were on a budget we were staying at the Sheraton Braintree hotel about 8 miles out of Boston. A shuttle bus from Logan Airport to Braintree is $11 each way and the hotel picks you up from there.

We had decided to go to the Skywalk Observatory in the Prudential Tower on our first afternoon. It cost us $5 for a round trip on the subway. The Prudential stop comes out directly under the Prudential Centre, unfortunately Skywalk was closed for a private func-tion. However we did discover an alternative. Two floors higher is the Top of the Hub restaurant with amazing views and it’s free to go up. Its the perfect place to spend a couple of hours, maybe indulging in a drink or two. For all those under 21’s, the law means it’ll be non-alcoholic. For dinner we went to China-town. For those of you who have been to Chinatown in London or NYC, Boston’s can be a little disap-pointing as it doesn’t have the same atmosphere, but there are plenty of restaurants there all packed with people - always the sign of a good eatery.

The next morning we headed to Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market. The main part of Quincy Market is filled with food counters doing everything from sushi to cookies. If you’ve been away for a while and are dying for that most British of meals - curry - then this is the place to find it. There is also a great if slightly expensive smoothie bar and a place that sells really

nice stacks of large pancakes. We decided to take a hop on, hop off tour with

City Tours partly because of the rain. As with most of these types of tours the trolley drivers provide in-formation as you go round. Stops include most sites on the Freedom Trail as well as places like the Cheers Bar. If a normal tour sounds a tad boring, then you could decide to take a ride on a duck. These are converted WWII vehicles which can drive on roads and water, which is good as Boston is practically sur-rounded by the stuff.

You get to see quite a few places on the tour, though be aware that the Massachusetts State House is only open at certain times of the year and we were unfortunate enough that the Old State House was also closed for another private function. For those of a slightly morbid disposition there are the Copps Hill and Granary historic burial grounds. There is also the U.S.S Constitution, an old tall ship that is still com-missioned in the US Navy.

For shopping head to Quincy Market and the Prudential Centre. Around Quincy Market there are touristy shops selling t-shirts, hats and lobster relat-ed merchandise mixed in with many American stores such as American Eagle, Abercrombie, Urban Outfit-ters, and Victoria’s Secret.

Boston despite its proximity feels very different to NYC but is still worth a visit. Any British person will feel right at home here, as the influences are star-tling. You can also brag about taking a trip on the old-est subway system in the world - The T - which goes round corners at angles of 90 degrees.


One Friday evening last year panic broke out in Flat 6 Oak House. I was hor-rified. I ran into my flatmate Shkow’s room yelling: “Oh no! What are we go-ing to do? We’ll all die!” What was the

cause of this apocalyptical possibility? Yes, the micro-wave had blown up.

Anyone who has never lived in campus residenc-es will not know why this is such a catastrophe. Those who have, or still do, will completely understand. And sympathise.

“There’s no oven!” This is what my mum yelled with horror when she first walked into our kitchen on my first day. She couldn’t believe it. And let’s be fair, you do expect there to be an oven.

This situation breaks up all students into two dis-tinct groups: those who take control of the situation and learn to cook just about everything in the blessed microwave – and those who stay alive by eating pot noodles and pasta, on a rotational basis.

What needs to be understood is that it is not merely a microwave. It is a microwave-oven. Yes, there is a difference. You can even grill food in a mi-

crowave oven.What I can’t comprehend is that more often than

not, students will learn how to cook a frozen pizza in their microwave-oven. If you can do this, you can do many other things too, and it really isn’t that much effort.

After settling into university life my friends and I realised that there was one reason we just couldn’t feel completely at home. We really missed our Sunday roast. We even resorted to going to Wetherspoon’s

for one once – but they had already sold out. We were devastated.

However, being the wonderful domestic god-desses that we thought we were, we came up with a solution: thus began the creation of the microwave-oven roast.

Now, there are two options: you buy a whole chicken that will take hours to roast in the microwave, or you make it easier for yourself and buy chicken

breasts and follow my instructions (this is if you like chicken!). You must also invest in a pot of dried Rose-mary (about £1 from all good supermarkets).

A glass baking dish would be ideal, but if you don’t have one, any microwave and oven-proof bowl will do. Cut the chicken breasts into strips and lay them side by side in the dish or bowl. Drizzle olive oil (sounds strange, tastes great) all over the chicken. Sprinkle rosemary and pepper all over the chicken too, both sides, making sure that all the chicken has been covered in oil.

This will need to go into the microwave-oven for twenty minutes on the oven’s highest setting. Settings do differ from microwave to microwave, so I suggest that you take it out and test it every ten minutes. Make sure you put it into oven mode - if you’re not sure, look in the manual. Remember to cut the biggest piece of chicken in half to make sure it is white all the way through.

To make life easier you could buy a bag of new potatoes. These will only need washing and cutting in half, or if you prefer buying larger potatoes you may need to employ a peeler. New potatoes are fine just being boiled, but bigger potatoes can be quite dry like this so it might be better to make mashed potato with them (Cook, then add a little butter, pepper and a smidgen of milk).

Start cooking the potatoes as you put the chicken into the microwave-oven. Once the chicken is almost done, you could even drain the new potatoes and add them to the dish – you will probably need to add some more oil, rosemary and pepper.

A good roast needs at least two different vegeta-bles, and these can normally be cooked towards the

end. Just remember that carrots do take a lot longer than most other vegetables. Use the hob.

Don’t forget the gravy granules. There’s a knack to mixing gravy. My best friend, Victoria, should be rented out for this very job – as she’s very good at this highly complex task. After all, no one likes lumpy gravy. This is why I’m not allowed to make it.

The last things you will need, and some may find this strange, are Yorkshire puddings. I know, I know: they’re meant to go with beef. But they are really nice. And don’t forget the condiments – the afore men-tioned Victoria has half a jar of cranberry sauce with her roast.

So we’ve got Sunday’s sorted. I’m sure the majority of students will agree that ready-meals really do get quite boring after a while. But how about recreating a ready-meal classic – lasagne? See the recipe be-

low for instructions.The thing to remember is that microwaves are

definitely not confined to cooking ready-meals. At the very simplest of uses, it can be used for cooking vegetables. The Food Standards Agency recommends microwaving vegetables rather than frying or roasting them as they are a lot healthier this way.

Jacket potatoes are also a very quick and filling meal, and can be paired with nearly anything – a wel-come alternative to beans on toast! Don’t forget to prick the potatoes with a fork before putting them in the microwave (you don’t want any explosions!).

Cooking times vary: in the microwave I would recommend 5 minutes either side – remember that if there are more potatoes in the microwave at the same time they will need more time. A lot of micro-waves have a specific potato setting, this does take a lot longer but it comes down to personal preference.

This is all very well, and microwaves are undeni-ably quick and easy. If you live on campus there re-ally is no choice but to use a microwave to cook with. Even if you go to a pub for something to eat, chances are it will have been warmed up in an industrial mi-crowave.

However, there have been a few health scares when it comes down to the safety of microwaves and risks to health. Google offers a range of microwave-hating websites but they all say one similar thing: health risks can be greatly decreased by following a few simple rules. Use bowls/dishes/plates that actu-ally say they are microwavable – don’t use PVC con-tainers. And it goes without saying (I should hope) that metal should never be put in the microwave!

Serves 4You will need: Lasagne pasta sheets Olive oilA jar of white sauce (or you could always make your own) Two cans of chopped tomatoes Cheese to top An onionThree mushrooms A pepperA courgette Pepper, basil to season450g of either minced beef or minced meat-substitute, e.g. Quorn.

If you have made Bolognese before then you will have no trouble with this. Take a large saucepan, add olive oil and allow it to heat for a minute on a hob. Chop the vegetables and add to the saucepan.

Once the onions have turned slightly translucent add the minced beef (or Quorn) and mix until the red meat has turned completely brown. Turn down the stove to a medium heat and add one tin of chopped tomatoes, stirring regularly.

Allow to simmer for about ten minutes and gradually add the other tin of tomatoes. Simmer for an-other ten minutes. Add seasoning: a pinch of basil, and pepper. A pinch of nutmeg is sometimes quite nice too. You could add salt, or leave it to the individual to add at the time of eating.

Layer Bolognese and pasta sheets alternately and top with white sauce. A good helping of cheese on top is always nice.

Put in the microwave, on the oven setting, for about 35 minutes. Most microwaves come with a grilling stand, which can be used if you want to put in a garlic baguette at the same time.

Pulse is everything you expect a vegetarian restaurant not to be. There are no peace symbols and absolutely no hint of tie-dye. It is warm and inviting and beautifully designed. The juxtaposi-tion of old light oak beams and classic retro fur-niture provides a sleek yet extremely comfortable setting in which to enjoy your meal, although the atmosphere would definitely benefit if the lights were turned down.

Both my culinary companion and I decided it necessary to sample the wine. I tried a glass (small 175ml £3.95) of organic white that tasted delicious. Unlike any other wine I’d tried before it smelled really fruity and tasted the same. Very refreshing, and with no sour aftertaste, the wine was perhaps the highlight of the evening.

The starters were quite big and could perhaps be eaten if you need a small snack on a Saturday afternoon while you’re shopping. I had a Tomato, Mozzarella and basil salad that was refreshingly cool and had a satisfyingly rugged look about it.

My friend started with the courgette and mint fritters with basil dipping sauce – an idea which sounds very nice and could indeed be very tasty. However, we both agreed that it was somewhat overcooked. There was no hint of mint, and it wasn’t actually served with a basil dipping sauce at all – although the tomato salsa accompany-ing it was very nice, we had not been told of this menu change.

After the starters alone we were quite full, but just about managed to squeeze in a main course too. I had heard about Pulse’s pizzas, so thought I would try one out. I had a pizza with roast winter vegetables, feta and rocket. It was filling and a welcome change to the local takeaway’s mass produced margarita.

We also tried the roast vegetable pie with lemon, thyme and ricotta. The lemon and thyme sauce tasted like quite a strange combination. However, with the pie it was a perfect accompani-ment. The pie was full of chunky vegetables and really tasted homemade.

All in all this was a lovely evening out. Even those of you who aren’t vegetarian will enjoy it, and you will leave feeling very pleased with your-self for eating so many vegetables.


The place to start making a dif-

ference is at home, so take on

board some of these handy tips

that will save your money and our planet!

Fridges/Freezers:

* Check door seals - these should be

able to grip a piece of paper tightly.

* Keep fridge temperature at 2-3oC and

freezer at -15oC. Check fridge is not near

cooker or any other heat sources.

* Defrost fridge/freezer regularly.

* Use old newspaper to fill gaps in the

freezer when you are not storing much

food - this improves efficiency.

Washing

* Use low temperature washes when-

ever possible.

* Try to dry clothes naturally.

Appliances

* Turn televisions and other appliances

off at the mains - standby is not off as

energy is still being used

* Home computer - turn off completely

when not in use.

* Lagging pipes can save £5-£10 from

heating bills.

* Energy efficient light bulbs are more

expensive than standard bulbs. but will

last up to 10 times longer, conserving

significant energy. They are most effec-

tive when used for lights that are left

switched on for long durations.

* Try placing foil behind radiators.

Household foil will do, although it is

possible to buy foil specifically for this

purpose from DIY stores.

At first glance it seems that the term ‘Carbon Neutral’ is thrown around too often, this may be true but it encompasses a whole range of approaches in reaching this goal.

HSBC have recently an-nounced that they have achieved

carbon neutral status. Many question marks still rest over what this actually means, but essentially they have bought into renewable energy and alternative energy projects, to offset their emissions of C02 into the atmosphere.

For a project to count towards a corporation’s carbon offsets the project needs to be new, thus en-

suring that it makes a global difference to their emis-sions.

Their move to carbon neutral status started due to an alumni link with Newcastle University with a meeting between HSBC chief executive Sir John Bond and the head of the WWF catalysing the process. They decided to involve UEA due to our climatic research reputation. The Chief Executive of HSBC wrote to UEA’s Vice Chancellor inviting us to become carbon neutral, so forming the Environmental Technology Partnership between HSBC, Newcastle University and us here at UEA.

On the 17th of November UEA will be officially announcing that they are beginning the process to change energy usage and earn the prominent stance

of a carbon neutral university.There are different methods to gain carbon neu-

tral status, they can be roughly divided into two cat-egories;; reduction of emissions and offsetting carbon produced. The steps that HSBC took were a mixture, firstly they looked at how energy was used in their 10000 offices and the energy used in transport to and from their offices and implemented schemes to reduce these, they then turned to offseting their emis-sions with investment in renewable energy transpor-tation systems and buying into new initiatives and projects.

UEA however, have a different scale of budget in our hands so buying into initiatives will not be as vi-able. Our emphasis here as Simon Gerrard, manager of CRed, says “will initially be to reduce then switch to alternative energies where appropriate”.

From August 2003 to July 2004 the university used 65,638,594 kWh in total costing them £1,458,372. These figures can be viewed at UEA’s Sustainability working group website:

http://ewg.webapp1.uea.ac.uk/pages/energy-data1.php

Since new buildings have been constructed on campus there is an increased demand for energy, consequently the university are currently assessing the feasibility of a biomass CHP (Combined Heat and Power) unit in addition to the gas heaters. This would be a massive move in the right direction for carbon neutrality. The wind turbines at Thickthorn will also be used where possible.

UEA are still unsure where to draw the line with respect to travel;; staff and student journeys will be included but there are still visitor and delivery traffic that the university generates. The University is still in the planning process of creating the steps that UEA will take to carbon neutrality.

With CRed running the 60% reduction challenge Simon Gerrard says it is “definitely a positive step that the university is taking here and it is an achiev-able goal so long as people accept that this is an on-going process”.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina – the worst natural disaster to hit America in re-cent memory – an unquestioned outbreak of news reports declared that sheltering survivors in the super dome had turned upon each other. Armed gangs were alleg-edly roaming the dark arena raping and killing. It made a great news story except

for one thing, it was not true. We all rely on the me-dia for daily information, but is it a reliable source? On Monday 14th Nov 5-6pm in the Zicer seminar room there will be a workshop called ‘Challenging Mainstream Media’ by Amanda Roll Pickering, head of media from the Centre of Alterative Technology . It will examine who is controlling the media industry and how it colours our very perception.

If your environment is being threatened, how do you make your voice heard? The film ‘Undercur-rents News Network’ explores environmental activ-ism around the world. Showing in Lecture theatre 4, Monday 14th at 7.30pm.

You do not have to leave the shores of the UK to play a part in safe guarding the globes future. There are literally thousands of local and national organisa-tions which you can champion, from butterflies to bats to fair-trade bananas. Tuesday’s ‘Big Green Bonanza’ in the LCR 10.30am – 3.30pm will have Environment and Development organisations from across the UK at UEA. Exhibiting a range of films, electric cars and scooters, a bicycle powered smoothy maker, eco-art, the carbon gym, live bananas and many more weird and wonderful opportunities to find out how to make a difference. From 1-2pm a Workshop on Make Pov-erty History by Christian Aid, will be held in Room 1.33 Union House and at 5-6pm Environmental Campaign Techniques will be the focus of a Workshop by People

& Planet, also in Room 1.33 Union House.Wednesday 26th of October 2005 was the hot-

test 26th of October ever recorded in the UK. Global Carbon Dioxide emissions are increasing, the climate is changing and most climatologists agree that global warming is here. There are questions over the real threats and whether it is fair that the biggest impacts will fall on developing nations and those least able to cope. As we in the first world continue to use our ever increasing sized cars with their growing thirst for fossil fuels to get us to work and go on exploiting the currently cheap energy prices at home, what can we do to prevent such a potential catastrophe? What will you miss when it’s gone? On Thursday 17th 11-12am Paul Mobbs, independent researcher and author of Energy Beyond Oil will hold a lecture and discussion entitled ‘Energy Beyond Oil’ in the Zicer Seminar Room.

Many are still asking whether we are actually pre-pared to independently change our life styles but oth-ers think that Government should enforce legislation to combat climate change, which many believe is the biggest threat facing human kind. Wednesday 16th 4-

5.30pm, Zicer seminar room, ‘Climate Change - the biggest threat facing human kind’ Lectures and dis-cussion by Sue Pollard of Friends of the Earth, Mike will address such issues.

Over the last part of UEA Environment week this series of lectures and discussions aims to highlight the concerns which face us all, but you can make a start. On Friday 18th November The Community Carbon Reduction Programme, CRed, will be leading UEA Energy Action Day 2 a chance for all students and staff to switch on to the ‘switch off’. Leave the car behind and bike to UEA and you could get a free breakfast.

‘Lighting an empty office overnight wastes enough energy to heat 1,000 cups of coffee’ (figures from the DoE). On Friday turn off all unnecessary electrical appliances and save unwanted carbon di-oxide and make your own commitment to combat cli-mate change by pledging on line at www.cred-uk.org.

This packed out week provides a wealth of op-portunities for all, by starting with small scale com-mitments in our homes we can preserve the future for our environment.

Food is one of the most defining points of any lifestyle, and it is always assumed that the environ-mental choice is too expensive for most students. This is frankly not true for the majority of products. For the purpose of example we looked at the cost of a typical student meal: pasta, sauce and cheese. We compared the price of the ingredients at the UFO to the Green Grocers.

The UFO may be more conveniently located but its stock is non-organic and a lot of it comes from far abroad. The Green Grocers, situated on Earlham road, speciales in organic and locally produced food. There a number of other places that provide an en-vironmentally friendly diet, such as Rainbow situated in town, and Eostre organics in the market.

Buying organic food stops chemical pesticides and fertilisers reeking havoc on wildlife. Buying local-ly grown food reduces the amount of fuel needed for transportation, which reduces carbon dioxide emis-sions as well as general air pollution. It also takes the strain off our roads, as currently 40% of British freight is food travelling needlessly from one county

to another. So the environmental benefits are clear, but what’s the financial drawback?

As the table below shows, there really isn’t much in it. A pasta dinner is twelve pence more expensive if you go green. The only major price difference be-tween local organic and mass produced items is to be found in the dairy and meat range. It will always be cheaper to cram five chickens in a cage than to give them the space they need to lay healthy eggs. But then you get what you pay for, and not just ethi-cally.

You are likely to pay twice as much for organic eggs compared to battery eggs, but once you do you won’t go back. They are completely different in col-our, taste and health. But if ethics is your main agen-da then remember, organic milk is just ten pence per pint extra and means the cows udder don’t drag on the floor and their ankles aren’t routinely broken by the concrete stalls.

Eating with a conscience does not generally have a significant cost, but the difference can be environ-mentally and ethically huge.


Amount of money NASA is cur-rently seeking from congress to pay for essential space station repairs =

The amount called for to save 13 million people facing starvation across southern Africa =

The amount spent on creating the first four Harry potter films =

Volume of beer drunk in the UK last year = Volume of petrol used every year by US truckers leaving their engines on idle overnight so that they can keep the heating or air conditioning on =

Amount of oil it takes to manufac-ture 1 million tonnes of clothing (75% of which are recyclable and thrown away) =

Area of rainforest chopped down every 3.5 seconds =

The total area of the UEA Campus (including the broad and wood-land) =

Area of agricultural land that would be lost if the Gatwick airport expansion went ahead =

Energy use is an easy one. More and more busi-nesses are realising that greening up their energy consumption saves money and the same is true of normal households: there’s no selfless sacrifices here. It’s a simple pattern really;; if you use less en-ergy it costs you less money.

Take energy efficient light bulbs for example. If everyone in the UK swapped just three normal bulbs for energy efficient ones the savings would be equiva-lent to the electrical output of typical power station. And also, if you pay £2.50 for an energy saving light bulb, it will likely reduce your electricity bill by £5 a year. There’s no catch.

And where does your electricity come from? Have you ensured that your electricity comes from a renew-able source? If you haven’t it can’t be because of the cost. There are many green electricity suppliers who promise to match your current tariff, and most offer competitive rates anyway. Each new customer helps in the construction of new wind farms and switching supplier is as simple as one phone call. The Friends of the Earth website has a good break down of the dif-ferent suppliers and allows you to find the authentic and cheap companies.

Then there are all the common sense methods of keeping energy costs down. As winter comes we

should be wearing jumpers around the house, not knocking up the thermostat. The average household heating bill comes down by £30 a year for each de-gree you turn down the heat by. Showering instead of bathing saves you plenty too and as many of us students have not dealt with utility bills before, we are only now learning that all forms of energy are just like any commodity that needs to be paid for.

It is easy to see why the ethos of an environmen-talist aligns so well with that of the student: every aspect of our life needs to be analysed to make sure we are not over consuming, damaging our wallets and our world.

Transport is an important issue. Very few of us students own cars, and they are so impractical both environmentally and financially that they are not part of the equation here. The choice for those regu-larly travelling between the city, the Golden Triangle and campus is either the bus or the bike. Although the Norwich bus service is expensive for individual journeys, it is assumed that regular users will have bought an annual ticket with the student discount. At £110 this should cover your transport needs for the year, and as motorised transport goes the bus is one of the more environmentally friendly options.

But what about bikes? If you spent £110 on a bike you’d expect it to last many more years than a bus pass. A decent second hand bike can be picked

up in Norwich for around £50, though you can ex-pect to spend half that again on lights, a lock and a helmet. So price wise the bike is usually going to be the cheapest option. Environmentally there is no con-test, as cyclists enjoy the most energy efficient form of transport known to man.

In a city like Norwich it is convenience that sees the bike trump the bus. I once raced my flatmates from the bus stop on campus to out house on river side road in the centre of town, me on my bike and my housemates on the bus. I waited for their bus to start before I set off and I still got home first by a good thirty seconds.

The point is that when waiting times are taken into account the bike will get you from your house to

campus much quicker than the bus. It is a leisurely fifteen minute cycle ride from the Golden Triangle to the University, and congestion and bus stop queues won’t hold you back.

The health implications cannot be ignored ei-ther. Half and hour’s exercise a day is exactly what the doctors recommend for a healthy heart. It’s two birds with one stone really. Why sit idle on the bus when you can travel and get your daily workout at the same time. Waiting for the number 25 when your running late for your nine o’clock is likely to raise your blood pressure if anything.

So the most environmentally friendly form of transport costs you slightly less, and is more conven-ient and healthy besides.

As this examination of the options out there has revealed, living green is not a financial burden. In the majority of situations it is actually cheaper to adopt the environmentally friendly option. Aside from the knowledge that you are doing your bit for the planet, most ethical alternatives offer further practical advantages too.

In some cases it isn’t even effort that’s re-quired, just a little bit of thought. Claims that main-taining a green lifestyle is just too difficult suggest nothing but ignorance and laziness. As technology adapts to the earth’s needs it is becoming easier every day to reduce the harm your actions exert on the planet. There really is no excuse anymore. Bet-ter for the planet doesn’t mean a selfless sacrifice, it means better for your wallet, better for your health and better for your life.

Wednesday November 9 200524

It’s great! You get to university, and meet all your flat-mates. They seem cool, if a little different to you. You all go out, have a few drinks, and get to know each other. Soon you discover random facts, like they used to own a pet lizard called Jack or they eat salad cream with their chips, and before you know it you’ve got nine ready-made friends from all over the country.

But what happens then? What happens if you, inexplicably, find yourself falling for one of these al-most-strangers who now burn your saucepans on a daily basis? First year life is hectic enough, without the added stress of trying not to make a fool of your-self in front of a gorgeous flatmate. They will be the person who sees you in your old pyjamas, who laughs when your hair resembles an un-pruned hedge, and who you have to live with for the next eight months.

So what should a lovelorn fresher do? Should they declare their undying love at the first possible instant in a drunken moment of truthfulness, or keep it to themselves, whiling away the year with a nag-ging feeling of “but what if they feel the same”?

The romantic in all of us longs for the fairytale ending, where you both feel the same and go on to live together forever in matrimonial bliss. However, we all know that it could end in disaster, when your much-loved flatmate, now knowing your feelings, runs and hides at the very sight of you for the rest of the year.

So is there a balance? One that stops you drool-ing when Mr or Mrs X accidentally touches your hand when doing the washing up, but that also doesn’t turn you into an embarrassed recluse, only venturing into the kitchen after everyone else has gone to bed.

The fact is that there is no right answer to cope with this potentially awkward situation. You have to look for little signs, glimpses that they might want more than just a relationship over the shared use of a kettle. Of course, everyone is different, and espe-cially if the object of your affection is a particularly quiet brand of undergrad, you may have to take the first cautious step. Everyone has met someone who found the “love of their life” at university. Some stay together, some don’t. Maybe just ask yourself, do you want to be one of them?

The beginning of an academic year is always exciting for all concerned, a chance to make new beginnings and a fresh approach to education. UEA has certainly worked hard in its rigorous pursuit of self-improve-ment, with new schools being opened, old buildings being demolished and new buildings being built. Perhaps next time you enjoy a summer’s walk by the lake, or watch a football match in the blue bar or take your place at the front of the lecture theatre or even climb a flight of stairs, you might stop to ponder how our disabled students manage around campus. How difficult is it for them to enjoy the day to day activities that other students take for granted?

I’m sure many of you are familiar with the pres-tigious UEA Law School at Earlham Hall, a beautiful, grandiose country manor which is certainly fitting for this highly academic degree. A Law qualification is a more than ideal degree for any disabled student, as the employment rate is through the roof and it requires almost no physical demands. However, if you were to visit Earlham Hall how many ramps, lifts, colour coded walls, disabled toilets or level surfaces would you find in this school of study? The answer is none. “Surely that’s illegal under the new anti-de-scrimitory legislations?” you may ask, but no, it isn’t. Technically, Earlham Hall is a listed building, which protects it from any development or modernisation. This is all well and good for English heritage but try

explaining it to any budding disabled Cherie Blair wannabes.

Let us stop to consider this scenario for a sec-ond: You go to the paper shop to collect a paper, pop into Mango to get a coffee, drop by the post office to buy a book of stamps and then perhaps enter Wa-terstone’s to buy a book for your flatmate’s birthday. Now think, how would I accomplish this in a wheel-chair? The answer is you wouldn’t. Why wouldn’t you? Because all the doors are heavy swing set doors and not designed for disabled access. Sceptics would argue that someone will open the door for you, which is a good point, but why should disabled people be dependant on other people just to buy a paper? And what if you decide to go to shops at 8:00 on a Sunday morning? Finding someone aimlessly wandering the street opening doors for the needy is wishful thinking indeed!

There are few people who would argue that UEA is not a concrete jungle, so it is not surprising that the lake is such a popular feature of the campus. A place of natural beauty to stroll around, even in the winter. But you’ve guessed it: if you’re disabled you might as well not even attempt to take this walk. The path (if you can call it that) is just worn away grass and dirt where other walkers have trod before. To add insult to injury there is a small expanse of beautifully crafted nature walk planking laid down on the far side of the lake to allow walkers to cross the marshes, but how might a disabled student get to this planking? By trav-elling several hundred yards through mud and dirt to finally reach it and enjoy it before it stops abruptly in

the middle of nowhere!Let us walk on an imaginary journey from the

Chaplaincy to the School of Biology or the Sainsbury Centre. Here is an excellent example of why it is so nice to be at a small campus university, and I’m sure the walkway would be an excellent route for any disa-bled student to take, if there weren’t two flights of stairs stuck along the walkway just next to the School of Mathematics. So any disabled biology student or art lover they would have to choose a less than idyllic route through the underbelly of UEA along a “disa-bled path”. All you have to do is peer over the right hand rail of the walkway to see the bright blue tarmac path that UEA has kindly provided for its disabled stu-dents so they don’t get hit by a car!

And finally, the crème de la crème of all disabled situations, the fire alarm. Next time you’re caught in a fire alarm and have to find your way to the meeting point, you might like to stop and consider how disa-bled people get out during a fire alarm. The truth is they don’t. During a fire alarm the lifts will automati-cally switch off, so that nobody can enter them and become stuck. For disabled students there are two options: either sit and wait for the fire service to arrive and help you out (which may result in you being burnt to death before they arrive) or hope that some of your friends or colleagues may be kind enough to carry you all the way down the stairs to safety. So the next time you hear the warble of the fire alarm and think “yes! I have an excuse to dodge this course test or lecture”, please consider it from a disabled perspective: “Am I gonna make it out of here alive?”

The harsh reality is that UEA still has a long way to go before it can even start to consider itself a disa-bled friendly university. The points listed throughout this article are merely the tip of the iceberg. Let us not forget that disability is not an option, and being disa-bled is non-negotiable. Tomorrow, next week or next year may be a distant thought, but let us not forget that events outside our control could have the misfor-tune to leave us disabled;; a frightening thought if ever there was one, but one we can do nothing about.

Perhaps some of you are thinking it’s a shame that UEA is like this, but as I’m not disabled it doesn’t affect me. Perhaps some of you who aren’t disabled are wondering if there is something that could be done;; something you could help with. It is to these people that I would like to appeal now. UEA students have decided that enough is enough, and we intend to speak out against this inequality by coming to-gether and applying pressure on the University so that changes can be made for the future of UEA and its students. Even more important that the money we need to secure to fund these changes is the support of the student body: even though disabled students are in the minority we need a overall student majority before we can accomplish anything.

An action group called AFA (Access For All) has been created this year to address the issue of access for all students. It not only concerns itself with physi-cal disabilities but also problems such as dyslexia and colour blindness. By bringing these issues to the Uni-versity’s attention we can change its policy and make a positive difference for everyone.

Match of the Day, that quintessential British institu-tion, is rubbish. Instead of watching an edited game of football, the flagship BBC sports programme is now a seamless collection of highlights, showing only the goals and major incidents from all the day’s games. Not only can this get rather tedious, but it also grossly undermines the actual football that is be-ing played.

Football, believe it or not, is a sport. Although goals are the most important aspect, it is the com-petition between two teams that has made it the global sport it is today. How on earth are we to view the competition if all we get to see is a list of goals shown in video, and not the actual interplay between the sides? This is made worse by the constant replays that Gary Lineker et al force us to watch. Take an ex-

ample: the Arsenal vs. Sunderland game was clearly a very lively affair. The first goal was scored by Arsenal’s Dutch striker Robin van Persie in what was, to be fair a very good strike. However, after seeing the goal in highlight mode, the beeb then replayed it a total of six times! This was supplemented by another three replays in the post-match analysis. Therefore, we got to see this goal ten times in the space of the show. Quite frankly, this is just lazy. Obviously the editors at the BBC cannot be bothered anymore, as it is clearly much easier to find the goals than any genius passing movements. It is simply not good enough, and the show has suffered as a result.

Previously, Match of the Day used to show the two big games of the day, followed by very edited highlights of the others. This allowed us to relax and actually watch a game of football, rather than just see-ing the goals. It was much more fun to appreciate the entire game, rather than a few moments from it.

At the end of the match, you could then look for-ward to Alan Hansen’s usual tirade about defending, and nod your agreement when he went off on one about the state of today’s referees. In the new version of Match of the Day, we are not even allowed this. The once amusing ‘analysis’ section is now a watered down recording of Hansen’s points from earlier in the day. In fact, I fail to see why either pundit, or for that matter Lineker are there at all. The lively discus-sions of the past are now boring and repetitive, to the point where I want to rip Lineker’s ears off just to cover my own.

It is not a lot to ask. All I want from a Saturday evening is to kick back and enjoy what, in my opinion, is the best sport in the world. However, I am being denied this pleasure for, to put it bluntly, no reason at all. It is endemic of the BBC as other programmes, like News 24, now resemble a tabloid newspaper. Maybe I should start witholding my license fee...?


The figures from the Concrete

drugs survey, revealed in this is-

sue, confirm that cannabis is

still the most widely used illegal

substance on campus. What is

surprising about this result is the

controversy that appears to sur-

round its use, despite the drug’s

apparent popularity. While the

majority of respondents thought

that cannabis should be legal-

ised, they also believed the drug

was harmful to health.

Such apparent discrepancies

are not confined to the casual

drug habits of UEA students: they

are enshrined in the laws that

govern their use. The difference

between declassification and de-

criminalisation of a drug may be

pronounced in legal terms, but

for many of the people Concrete

questioned it is little more than

a semantic distinction. The cur-

rent penalties of confiscation and

a formal warning are taken to be

less a deterrent than an active

statement of police disinterest.

Is it possible, they ask, for some-

thing to be a criminal activity if no

one is criminalised for it?

Similar confusion looks set to

surround the government’s intro-

duction of the new licensing laws

later this month. The claim that

allowing pubs to open for longer

hours will enable drinkers to pace

their alcohol consumption has al-

ready been undermined by senior

members of the drinks industry.

For them, longer hours mean

higher profitability, and the race

to keep punters in bars until the

small hours is well underway.

By making ambiguous state-

ments on drugs and alcohol, the

government implies that these

are matters of personal choice,

albeit a choice they may later re-

tract at will.

The Union’s policy against

ID cards was passed by the

Sovereign body of the Union,

Union Council. It instructed the

Executive to campaign against ID

Cards and publicise the Union’s

opposition. It would be negli-

gence on my part to do anything

else and it would show contempt

for this Union as a democratic

student-led organisation.

One of the reasons I believe

Union Council voted for our cur-

rent policy is because students

will have to buy a new ID card

every time they move house. It is

not like students have that kind of

money to throw around.

The last issue of Rabbit to

feature a story on the front page

about ID cards was in the week

it was due to be voted on in the

House of Commons. I can hardly

think of a more appropriate week

in which to have it as the main

story in Rabbit and encourage

students to contact their MPs.

Proponents of ID cards are

more than able to come to Union

Council and argue that this Union

should change its policy.

The letter in the last edition

of Concrete refers to my member-

ship of the Liberal Democrats and

the job which I was elected to do

by UEA students, as Communica-

tions Officer. After reading the let-

ter several times I can not see any

specific issue that was brought

up. There is a clear distinction

between my own beliefs and the

job I was elected to do.

If people would like to talk

to me about any aspect of the

Union’s work then please get in

touch or they could use the dem-

ocratic structures of the Union if

they has an issue with me.

We all have ideas, beliefs and

opinions. Some of us choose to

further those things in which we

believe by joining organisations

and political parties. I am not

sure why membership of a politi-

cal party means that someone

is unable to be an officer of a

Students’ Union.

For three years and as Com-

munications Officer I have con-

sistently argued and campaigned

for a more democratic Union,

greater accountability of the Ex-

ecutive and more direction of the

Union from our members.

If people have an issue then

come to Union Council and make

me answer for myself. Are we

to have another year in which

Concrete publishes Labour and

Tory Party members’ letters who

simply dislike that I am a member

of the Liberal Democrats but

don’t come and say so?

To counter some of the

one-sided information being dis-

tributed by Andy Higson, Martin

Jopp and other Liberal Democrats

in the pages of UEA’s student

media, I would like to explain

some reasons why many people

in my party (New Labour) and

others outside the party think that

ID cards are a good idea.

Firstly, they will better enable

the immigration and border

control services to know who is

legally in the country, why they’re

in the country and how long they

may remain here.

Simultaneously they will help

to crack down on unscrupulous

people who illegally employ im-

migrant workers, pay them below

the minimum wage and refuse

them the most basic employment

rights.

ID cards will help the poorest

and most vulnerable in our soci-

ety to access public services more

easily – surveys show that they

are often hindered because unlike

upper and middle class people

who have superfluous forms of

identity (professional credentials,

driving licences etc) they are un-

able to prove their identity.

On the issue of cost, the

government has indicated that

the price of ID cards will be cut

for pensioners and the poorest

in society. The provisions of the

Act allow for multiple addresses,

so I cannot see why students will

need to change their card outside

of term time.

There are many reasons to

support ID cards, whether it is

helping society’s most vulnerable,

the ability to better control our

borders or any other. I hope that

I may have allayed the fears of

some and that opponents of the

scheme may be less alarmist in

the future.

Martin Jopp wrote a column

in the last issue of Concrete

suggesting that ID cards may be

the lasting legacy of this Labour

government. I would like to take

issue with him, firstly because he

neglected to mention that he is

an active Liberal Democrat and

that his article was basically a

means of championing his party’s

policy under the guise of impar-

tial journalism. But then, that’s

hardly a first for UEA’s Liberal

Democrats – the word “Rabbit”

springs to mind!

There is another reason

for taking issue with Mr Jopp’s

column, namely his ludicrous

claim that ID cards will be La-

bour’s legacy. I am a member of

UEA’s Labour Students because I

believe that this government has

made a hugely positive difference

to this country. New Labour in-

troduced the National Minimum

Wage, negotiated the Good Friday

Agreement, created Sure Start

to help the poor families in our

communities, equalised the age

of consent for gay men, increased

the overseas aid budget to more

than double what it was, devolved

power to Scotland, Wales and

London – the list goes on and on.

The Labour government will

leave a positive legacy in a huge

range of social, economic and

international affairs.

Mr Jopp’s failure to acknowl-

edge those achievements while

focusing on a single policy which

he finds disagreeable is a clear

example of partisan politics at its

worst.

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Chris Hoy, Ben Ainslie, Shirley Robertson. These names may ring a bell in your mind, but I would be happy to wager a fair few quid on the fact that the bell sounds very distant and somewhat un-memorable, when compared to the cacophony of noise that might be stimulated by the mention of Kelly Holmes, or the British 4x100m team. The point here is that despite the immense exploits of British competitors to bring home gold in the velodrome, on the water or in any other Olympic arena for that matter, it is always the athletics stadium that takes centre stage and seems to create the most lasting image of any Ol-ympiad.

As such, the state of British athletics, exemplified this year by the poorest World Championship display ever, is becoming some-thing more than a mild concern. When Britain takes its place in the spotlight in 2012, Paula Radcliffe, Kelly Holmes and Darren Camp-bell will no longer be around. Is there a distinct possibility then that the joy of hosting the ultimate

sporting spectacle in the world may be tempered by a lack of Brit-ish presence in the major athletics finals?

Fear not, as hope springs eternal in the guise of two six-teen-year-olds, Emily Pidgeon and Harry Aikines-Aryeetey. Pidg-eon, a long distance runner, im-pressed many in 2005 by claiming the 5000m gold at the European Junior Championships, whilst Aryeetey was perhaps even more impressive in executing the sprint double (100m and 200m) at the World Youth Championships. However, British victory at junior level has been witnessed before;; Tim Benjamin won the 200m at the Youth Championships in 1999 and Mark Lewis Francis secured victory in the 100m a year later. Since then neither of these ath-letes have exactly set the athlet-ics world alight. Indeed, the only thing Lewis Francis appears to have been setting alight are spliffs – he tested positive for cannabis earlier this year, displaying a side to his character which may pre-vent him from becoming a medal winning prospect.

So should we expect anything different from Aryeetey? Or will he be another big talking, gun toting

sprinter who, when asked to duel against the world’s best blinks, is that split second too slow and therefore receives a fatal bul-let wound to his confidence that shatters a fragile career before it even truly begins. Evidence, so far, suggests the contrary. Aryeetey is remaining at school to study for his A-levels, indicating a sound-ness of mind that Lewis Francis evidently lacks. Furthermore, even when winning races, Lewis Fran-cis never ran startlingly quickly, whereas Aryeetey’s winning time of 20.91s in the 200m suggests a genuine pace that will inevitably serve him well.

His compatriot Pidgeon per-haps has an even harder task, battling the normal mental and physical demons which confront any athlete and then attempting to overcome the formidable bar-rier provided by African runners, which always blocks the path to success at any distance event. Nonetheless, she has already re-ceived high praise from Paula Rad-cliffe and as distance runners tend to peak later in life than sprinters, by showing such early promise perhaps she will indeed be joining Aryeetey in forging some lasting memories for us in 2012.

It is the end of the final session of a hard-fought test series. The Eng-land players are celebrating deliri-ously on the pitch after a monu-mental series victory. However, this isn’t the scene at the Oval in September: it is the last time Eng-land toured Pakistan, snatching a one-nil win amidst the gloom of Karachi. This was five years ago, when England were beginning their long climb back towards the top of test cricket. The question now is, can England repeat their success this time around from the lofty position of Ashes victors?

Certainly, England will go into the series with more momentum than their hosts. England have a successful summer of cricket be-hind them. They have a settled team, and the curse of the batting collapse appears to have been largely eradicated. In Andrew Flin-toff, England finally has a genuine world-class player with the ability to turn a game with both bat and ball. Pakistan’s last taste of test cricket was back in May, when they had to come from behind to draw the series against an average West Indian side. There are also concerns about the form of their

captain, Inzamam ul-Haq, who looked distinctly out of touch for the Rest of the World side against Australia last month. Their side has the potential for brilliance, but too often falls below the standard expected of them.

However, I would suggest that Paul Collingwood’s recent claims that England will win the series by a three-nil whitewash are slightly optimistic. Whilst the weather is unlikely to be a major factor, the pitches themselves are likely to be to Pakistan’s advantage. They will be flat and conducive to spin, which will help the recalled veter-an Mushtaq Ahmed and the rising star Danish Kaneria, Pakistan’s frontline spinners.

In contrast, the England at-tack is built around the pace of Harmison and Flintoff, who will find it hard going on flat pitches. It is a huge blow that Simon Jones is unavailable for the tour;; on roughed-up pitches, his reverse swing had the potential to cause substantial damage. Ashley Giles is our only spinner with any test match experience, and his role has always been to contain, rather than to hunt for wickets. I feel Alex Loudon is not ready for the inter-national arena, whilst Shaun Udal will not cause the Pakistani bats-men many sleepless nights.

It has been described as the chang-ing of the guard, as the end of an era, as irrefutable evidence of a shift in power at the top of British tennis which has been underway since Andrew Murray burst onto the scene at Wimbledon. A first round match at the Swiss Indoor tournament became the most talked-about tennis match since Murray’s fitness betrayed him against David Nalbandian, when he was drawn against his boyhood hero and British number one Tim

Henman. The first set presented the last

tennis year in a perfect and suc-cinct demonstration of the play-er’s varying fortunes. The energy and enthusiasm of Murray was too much for a distinctly ring rusty Tim Henman, who, having just re-turned from injury, looked off the pace as Murray dominated and took the first set 6-2. Henman’s experience came to the fore in the second set as he dug in and cut the errors out of his game. Some uncharacteristic errors from Mur-ray gave Henman the chance to break, which he took, taking the

second set 7-5.The tense third set went to

and fro, with neither player be-ing able to take control. As the match went to a final set tie-break, it seemed that Henman’s experi-ence and know-how would be too much for the youthful energy of Murray. However, it was Mur-ray who stepped up to dominate the tie-break, producing some of his best shots since the first set. As the ball agonisingly bounced over the net to leave Henman no chance of returning and 3-0 down, it became clear that this was Mur-ray’s day. He showed just why he

is so highly regarded as he com-fortably took the tie-break 7-4.

Anyone watching this final set could be forgiven for thinking that it was Andrew Murray who had been Britain’s number one player for years. As more people start to question how much longer Hen-man has left at the top, Murray’s star continues to rise. He looked visibly shaken at having beaten his boyhood idol, but if he continues to defy his years and so impres-sively dispatch his more-expe-rienced opponents, Murray will soon find himself an idol to a new generation of British tennis fans.

It has not been a good couple of weeks for Norwich City football club. The Canaries are lagging in 17th place in the Championship after losing four of their last five games. They have also been knocked out of the Carling Cup by Birmingham City. The idea of reaching the play-offs seems like a distant dream.

Wolves compounded an awful month for manager Worthington as they ran out easy winners on

Saturday. First half goals from Seol and Ganea sealed victory to end Wolves’ own six match winless run. It was another lacklustre performance by City;; they created very few chances and struggled to find any rhythm.

There have also been losses to Sheffield Wednesday, QPR and Luton. The performance at home to fellow strugglers Sheffield Wednesday was particularly disappointing. The Canaries created a number of chances, with Ashton posing a constant threat. They just failed to get that vital goal and Wednesday scored with

11 minutes to go. The fans showed their dissatisfaction at the final whistle as Worthington’s former club heaped even more pressure upon him.

The only respite for the club was a home win against Cardiff City. The three points came courtesy of a comical own goal from visiting keeper Neil Alexandra. It seems the majority of fans didn’t care how the result came in the end.The recent defeat by Wolves has left the vultures circling over Worthington. Many sections of the fans have already showed their distaste for some of

the Norwich performances this season.

In support of Worthington, he has previously done an extremely good job. He has signed a number of good players at bargain prices and helped establish Norwich as a top club. However, results need to start improving very quickly. Sheffield United and Reading are running away with the league;; the automatic promotion places already seem out of reach. If Norwich continue in the vein of recent performances then it seems safety will be more of an issue than promotion.

Wednesday November 9 2005 27

The UEA men’s badminton team played their first away game of the season against De Montfort 1st, Leicester. De Montfort were gifted a 2-0 headstart becuase UEA were a man short and to further exac-erbate matters, playing conditions were not of a great standard due to a low ceiling and hall tempera-tures of 26 degrees centigrade.

The match took another turn for the worse after UEA’s singles player, Matthew Reay, lost his first game to their number one. UEA then needed to win all their remaining five games to secure victory, a particularly daunting task after captain Ian Bayes’ initial comment that ‘they’re amazing, they’re going to win the league’.

UEA looked all but down and out but their two doubles teams, Iain Bayes playing with Ian Jame-

son and Chris Armstrong playing with Joe Webb, played admirably and won their first round of dou-bles matches. With the score now 3-2 to De Montfort, the reverse doubles were played: victory in both was essential. With mounting pressure on both sides and nerves on the sidelines jangling, Joe and Chris showed their superior prow-ess on court to beat their doubles oppponents, leaving the two Ians to gain the advantage.

Tempers were high and the air was warm with anticipation. After a marathon struggle, UEA overcame their opponents with an amazing array of deft dropshots and sublime smashes. UEA, now 4-3 up, sealed victory when Mat-thew Reay cruised through his singles match and claimed an his-toric comback. It was a victory of epic proportions and leaves spirits high for their next match against De Montfort 2nd next week.

The UEA cross country team continued their domination of the East Anglia Cross Country League (EACCL) by winning both the men’s and women’s races last Wednesday.

Andy Whetstone made it an

impressive two wins in a row, while club president Jess Trow-bridge enjoyed victory on her first race of the season. Andy was fol-lowed home by Glen Watts who improved on his performance two weeks ago to finish in an excellent second place.

The team of 16 athletes pro-duced some excellent perform-ances in the second fixture of the

EACCL at RAF Wattisham, Suffolk. Despite being made to wait 40 minutes in wet and windy condi-tions while the organisers sorted out problems with the course route, the team managed to pro-duce some outstanding perform-ances.

Cross country captain Calum Nicol used the delay to inspire his team with a pre-race speech. He

offered more words of wisdom after the race, saying that “it was another wonderful performance from the team”.

In the men’s A team Andy and Glen were backed up with good runs from Calum (7th) and Johnny Lee (12th). It was good to see Johnny back to full fitness after he struggled in the last race with a heavy cold.

Meanwhile, in the women’s A team Jess was joined by Sarah Ain-slie (4th), Jemma Thake (7th) and Francessca Lee (13th). Despite it being her first race of the season, Sarah ran well to finish in fourth.

Sprint finish of the day went to Rob Green, who finished strongly in the last 100 metres to hold on to 17th position. Another good in-dividual performance came from

Paul Smart (14th), who is improv-ing with every race. The team are back in action on the 16th of No-vember when they travel to Great Yarmouth for the third competi-tion of the league.

Other results: Men – Glen Richardson (25th), Ally McGeocth Williams (34th), Borgel Greena-way (57th). Women – Emily Wildon (16th), Lisa Sammons (22nd).

After leaving it late to snatch all three points last week against Ox-ford Brookes, the UEA 1st XI found solace in similar tactics against De Montfort (Bedfordshire) with a penalty two minutes from time to give UEA a well-deserved 2-1 victory.

In all honesty it could have been far more comfortable for UEA, who went off like a fire-cracker, striking the bar within the first minute. Striker Duncan White began to make life particularly un-

comfortable for the De Montfort defenders, as he harassed and harangued them at every avail-able opportunity, but UEA were unable to convert their pressure into any clear cut chances. It was therefore left to Andy Matlock to create something out of nothing, which he very nearly did with a thirty yard bullet which demanded an impressive save from the home goalkeeper.

As is so often the case with a team under pressure, a set piece provides relief. A rare foray into UEA territory saw De Montfort win a corner, from which a well directed header saw the Bedford-shire side take the lead.

It was to be a lead that they maintained until the final ten minutes when Adam Hibbert slid the ball to Duncan White and his peach of a lob restored parity. Sensing victory, UEA threw men forward and De Montfort pan-icked, resulting in a rash tackle by one of their defenders in the area. The referee quite correctly pointed to the spot and Nicki Young non-chalantly tucked the ball home to seal the victory.

Victory is something that has eluded the 2nd XI in the past week as they followed on from two frus-trating 1-1 draws with a 3-2 defeat to Northampton. On a pitch upon

which Subbuteo players would not have felt out of place, the team never played to their potential, falling behind to a header from a corner.

By this stage Nick Gaskell had already missed a header from six yards and as such he felt it neces-sary to remind us that he can in fact score as he converted a sump-tuous cross from Chris Gunn. There was an element of fortune to the goal as the ball had gone out of play before Gunn executed the cross. The Northampton play-ers, who managed to sustain a constant and exceedingly tedi-ous whine throughout the match were, for once, understandably

upset leading Craig Boyle-Smith to predict that the referee might try and even things up in the second half. It seems that Craig is clearly wasted on his law degree and should take up fortune telling im-mediately as his prediction proved sadly correct.

UEA really ought to have crushed Northampton early in the second half, but they simply never strung more than three passes to-gether. What was even more per-turbing, though, was the fact that Northampton regained the lead with a carbon copy of their first goal – worry not, set piece train-ing has already been scheduled for Monday.

Northampton’s third came on the counter attack as UEA pressed forward for the equaliser. Although the goal was well taken, the scorer was patently offside but the referee chose to ignore this and the enthusiastic flag waving of linesman Paolo Cerroni and he awarded the goal.

UEA did score a second through Marcus Jones but it was academic and after the final whis-tle they were forced to endure a rather tuneless and lyrically poor chant by the victorious North-ampton players. If only to prevent this torture ever being inflicted on them again the 2nd’s must return to their winning ways, quickly.

After an excellent win against Not-tingham University last week, the UEA ladies knew that to continue form and get a result today would mean a lot of hard work and a little bit of luck against a strong Lough-borough 2nd team on their home turf.

Loughborough went into the game top of the league with a goal difference of 22 in just 2 games. Injuries hit the UEA team hard with at least 4 first choice players unable to play. Much of the UEA team were playing together for the first time but still they travelled to Loughborough with the hope of giving a good game and with the opportunity to force a big upset.

It was an uphill battle from the start, however, against a team that had clearly been playing together for years. Loughborough used their wide players well. Switching

the play created space and split the UEA defence with excellent passes through midfield to the strikers.

It wasn’t long before they scored the first goal, with a cross

from the left over keeper Kather-ine Parry finding an unmarked Loughborough striker. UEA looked to create their own chances with good movement between Marisha Nozdryn-Plotnicki and Nat Janu-

ary down the left wing and Sophie Clarke and Fai Msellem down the right.

Strikers Sally Hammerton and Jo Woodger worked hard but had little to do for much of the

first half with the Loughborough defence cutting out many of the through balls. The best chance of the half for UEA came from a move down the left wing;; good link up play from Nat let Sally in

on goal and, under pressure from the Loughborough defence, a shot across goal went just wide of the far post.

However, that was the only real chance and despite battling on UEA conceded a further 9 goals. Following a grilling at half time from Coach Simon Norton UEA came out fighting. Abby Rotwein and Lisa Earl in Defence both put in strong performances, cutting the Loughborough strik-ers out of the game. Captain Linda Chilton and Lisa Caswell played some excellent balls from midfield to the strikers and substitute Fran Cripps had a shot saved by the Loughborough keeper.

UEA kept much of the play in the Loughborough half and were unlucky to let in a further 3 goals as the balance of play had clearly tipped in UEA’s favour. Following this second half performance UEA should feel confident going into next weeks match against Worces-ter.

It’s not the Olympics, it’s not the FA Cup, it’s not even BUSA, but it is fun. What am I talking about? It can only be the wonderful, the fantastical and the ever eventful Ziggurat challenge!

For those not in the loop I am here to beckon you into the homely world of Ziggurat compe-tition. The premise is this: every Tuesday from 5-7pm (normally at the Sportspark) the various schools of the University compete in a new sporting endeavour in order to win pride, prestige and, most importantly, points. The real beauty of it is that anyone can get involved, even if you’re more Ken Hom than Kelly Holmes in the sporting arena. In fact, you can even gain points just for coming along to support your school.

Teams get to play one joker, which doubles your points on one event during the year, so it is im-portant to pick wisely. Your team’s cause can also be greatly helped if your Head of School is sportily inclined, as they can acquire some serious points on the depart-ment’s behalf.

Combat has already taken place in a fun-run round the lake, volleyball and table tennis, with swimming, archery, athletics and much more to follow. I’m sure all of you can spare a couple of hours on a Tuesday evening (and you can still make the LCR afterwards), so if you would like to get involved try and find out who your sports rep is in your school or alterna-tively contact Rachel Tomes at [email protected], who I am sure will be able to answer any queries you may have. And remember its not zzzzzzzzz, its Ziggurat!

Leaders Board

Ziggurat Inter-School Challenge 2005/2006 (updated 27th Oct)

Position School Joker Total points1st CAP 2402nd ENV 2203rd MED 2154th BIO 2045th = DEVPSS & MGT 1967th LIT & AMS & FTV 1948th MUSIC & ART Table Tennis 1919th LAW & ECO 18810th MTH & NAM 18411th EDU 18012th AHP & CMP 17913th HIS & LLT 15514th PHI & PSI 106


ACROSS1. Heavy wind and rain (5)7. Creatures from another planet (6)8. Unwell (3)9. Detective (6)10. White liquid of infected tissue (3)13. Hormone-producing organ (5)15. Raw fish (5)18. Colour of environmentalists (5)22. Eat food greedily, Banquet (5)24. Unit of computer data, used one’s teeth (3)25. Leather around an animal’s neck (6) 26. The Australian’s term for an Englishmen (3)27. Wool, to rip off or rob (6)28. Containing nothing (5)

DOWN1. An insect’s attack (5)2. The reason we went to war in Iraq (allegedly) (3) 3. A fungus growing on food (5)4. Principles, numbers (6)5. Rub a lamp & you get three (6)6. Star of Blade, Wesley ____ (6)9. Serpent (5) 11. Travel over snow with sticks (3)14. Scornful facial expression (4)16. Below (5)17. The noise made by 9 down (4)18. Mouth, spit (3)19. Glorify, honour virtues (6)20. Metallic element, US coin (6)21. Murderer (6)22. Comedy based on satire or ridiculous situations (5)23. Rock opera by The Who, a sub-machine gun (5)26. American fizzy soft drink, mainstream music (3)

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The UEA Futsal club recently trav-elled to Rotherham to take part in a tournament organised by a local college-based club, Rotherham Athletic. While official BUSA futsal does not exist, despite endeavours to introduce it, such events are crucial to university sides. They provide a competitive outlet, and a useful forum to discuss develop-ments and plan future meetings.

After a lengthy journey and a late arrival on Friday night, the two UEA teams were still able to put in an improvised training session to gain some last minute practice and work on tactics before the start of the competition proper.

The tournament’s participants were divided into two groups, sep-arating the UEA teams. Each squad would be able to watch the other play, spying out potentially strong opposition and identifying play-ers who could pose a threat later on. Neither UEA team got off to a winning start, the As losing out to the hosts despite having taken the lead, and the Bs being denied a win over old rivals York University by an equaliser in the dying sec-onds. However, results improved dramatically as the teams settled into their respective tactical plans. The As, with an attacking lineup, drew their next match and then beat York’s other entrant 2-1, both goals coming from newcomer Tim Wilson. Meanwhile the Bs set out a solid defensive base and looked to counter. This paid off with a

3-2 win over Rotherham B, this time the last-minute goal going in UEA’s favour. They followed this with a satisfying 2-0 win over York in the return game, and ran out comfortable 3-0 winners in the last group game. This meant they qualified for the final having conceded only three goals in four matches.

The As initial defeat put them under more pressure, but they re-sponded in the best possible way, gaining their revenge over Rother-ham with an emphatic 5-1 victory and reaching the final in style. It was therefore an all-UEA tourna-ment decider, a clash between the creativity of the As and the counter-attacking of the Bs. The loss of the Bs keeper at the end of the group stages forced the loan of a York stand-in, equally able, but this upset the Bs team ethic and rhythm. Perhaps fittingly for a sport designed to reward flair and spontaneity, the As made the most of their opportunities, eventually cruising to a 6-1 victory. Honours were evened out somewhat as far as overall goal-scoring was con-cerned, Wilson and the Bs Gary O’Donoghue sharing the golden boot with 6 each during the com-petition.

Both teams were impres-sive representatives of the club, and the first tournament success brought the trophy back to Nor-wich. Hopefully this will spur the club onto even greater achieve-ments on the court in future, and will encourage the development of the game within the university structure.

concrete - issue 182

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