VxM Magazine Issue 7

cover1

ISSUE7The EDL: English Disco Lovers

Global Warming

The Misadventures of North Korea

AlunaGeorgeReview

2IO Radio Ad

3Contents

Contents04 The Stylings of Tommee

18 AllunaGeorge

06 Are You Cool or Warm?

20 Global Warming

08 Poem: Imagined Reality

22 The Bra Burners

10 Restuarant Review

24 Misadventures of North Korea

14 The EDL: English Disco Lovers

16 illkoustics

Thank You!

VxM promotes media education,

wisdom, participation, production

and dissemination initiatives tar-

geted at 16 to 25 year olds, focusing

particularly on cultural identity.

Issue 7

ISSUE7The EDL: English Disco Lovers

Global Warming

The Misadventures of North Korea

AlunaGeorgeReview

On the Cover

Contributors

Read about how the

tragic slaughter of

Drummer Lee Rigby

continues to have grave

repercussions, fueling

ammunition to provided

far-right groups such

as the EDL with the

ammunition which they

need to preach their

Islamophobic doctrines,

and frighteningly, it

appears that they may

have had some success.

26 The Olympics: One Year Later

Darren Mann, VXM Project Coordinator

Claudia Parrino, Project Officer

Tonia Wilson, Youth Engagement

Shannon Noy, Page Designer

Wiktor, Writer, Page Designer

Ben Driver, Writer

Rosey, Writer

Mica Hamilton, Writer

Sam Rothwell, WriterShannon, Page Designer

Eva Avrillon, Writer Ellen Lear, Writer

Mason, Writer

Tommee, Writer

Shane Davidson, Photographer Mark Davidson, Photographer

Nargiz, Writer

The Stylings ofWith a mixture of jazzy chord progressions and folky/bluesy vocals that re-semble a fusion of The Artic Monkeys with a Bossa Nova, Tommy Malone, a.k.a Tommee, is a wiz kid on guitar, using advanced chord shapes and croon-ing out sweet melodies over them. Having songs such as, “Higher Than the Sun” and “See the Truth” broadcasted on BBC introducing Essex radio, and with his innate ability to produce acoustic Jazz tinted pop with upbeat melo-dies and catchy hooks, in addition to heavy funky bass lines and lots of varied drums and percussion, Tommee is definitely one to watch.

Tommee’s music is influenced by a plethora of artists’ from different genres, new and old, including 80s bands such as The Smiths, The Cure and Orange Juice as well as new underground indie bands such as Little Comets, Palma Violets and Fleet Foxes. During his formative years, it is clear that Tommee was heavily fed doses of jazz, Soul, House and Disco music, and by the age of 6, he was already playing the guitar for a school club and local church events. The turning point in Tommee’s life was in high school when a teacher asked him to write his own songs. He saw this as a clear and absolute key oppor-tunity to do something constructive with his passion. At the same time came across Newcastle indie band, Little Comets on YouTube, and was inspired by this rhythmic, percussive way of playing guitar. He then started playing dif-ferent chord progressions, and writing lyrics and melodies, for his first song “So Much Time”.

Born and raised in Bury St Edmunds, Tommee has produced five songs with local Rockabilly singer-songwriter and producer Mark Harman, and is cur-rently in the process of recording more tracks that will soon be released via his YouTube channel Tommeeize. Many music venues, including The Apex, in Bury St. Edmunds have witnessed this young talent. If you haven’t had the chance to listen to Tommee’s music, visit his youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/Tommeeize.

The Stylings of TommeeI am Mason and I am a contradic-tion. A happy go lucky, positive, creative, sarcas-tic human being. I like humans.

Born and raised in Bury St Edmunds, Tommee has produced five songs with local Rockabilly singer-songwriter and producer Mark Harman, and is currently in the process of recording more tracks that will soon be released via his YouTube channel Tommeeize. Visit his youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/Tommeeize.

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5Tommy 2

The Stylings ofThe Stylings of Tommee

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Are you cool or warm? Know what colours suit you the best

Have you ever wondered why some colours look fab on some people but perhaps not so good on others? There is an explanation to this. Apparently, every sin-gle of us fall into one of the four types of colours of the seasonal colour theory. So people can either be Spring, Autumn, Winter or Summer. Getting to know what co-lour you are is absolutely essential to look stunning

even with minimal grooming. First of all, identify if you are a cool or warm colour. To do this, it is important to take into consideration the tone and undertone of your skin, the colour of your hair, eyes and even veins – only if they are visible. Does blue (cool) or orange (warm) compliment you the best? Which colour metal suits you more: silver (cool) or gold (warm)?

By Nargiz

By Rochelle Grimes

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Summer

Eye Colour: Gray, Blue

Hair Colour: Mousy Brown, Blonde, Dark Chestnut

Skin tone: Pink Beige, Ivory

If you think you fall in the Sum-mer category, then wear cool colours such as blue, which will compliment you. Most pastels like soft pink and grey will look great on you. Avoid bright, clear and overpowering colours such as golden brown, yellow or or-ange. Black is also unflattering on Summer types.

Winter

Eyes: Striking blue, striking brown, dark brown

Hair colour: dark brown, black brown, white blonde

Skin tone: cool, very light and clear, olive

People who fall under this category look great in black, white, turquoise, blue and red. Remember that high level of contrast is key. Avoid pastels, browns, camel and orange.

Spring

Eye colour: Blue, Green, Aqua, Amber, Golden Brown

Hair colour: strawberry blonde, golden blonde, chestnut, dark brown (common amongst Afro Hair), dark chestnut

Skin Tone: peach, golden beige, pink beige, ivory

Springs need clear warm co-lours, so choose lively tones like salmon and turquoise. Pick those colours that remind you of sunshine and stay away from white or black as they will make you look washed out.

Autumn

Eye colour: amber, hazel, green, dark brown

Hair colour: Brown, Red, Coo-per, Chestnut

Skin Tone: ivory, warm beige, olive, golden brown, dark brown

Golden like autumn…

People who fall in this category should opt for muted and vivid rich warm colours such as gold, brown, khaki, orange, mustard and olive. Avoid fuchsia, hot pink, pastels and black.

The cool types The warm types

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We Can...

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09

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By Sam Rothwell

I recently visited Rios with a large group of people from work, unsure what to expect but the premise sounded appealing, as an all-you-can-eat meat feast with a South American feel. Sign me up.

From the moment you walk in Rios feels inherently different to your standard all-you-can-eat buf-fet. For one it’s Brazilian, tastefully furnished with idyllic beach scenes peppering the walls, exotic plants and the must-have Brazilian flag as a centrepiece. This creates a warm and relaxed atmosphere from the offset that is a pleasure to be a part of. The focus of the room, how-

ever, is the grilling area allowing a glimpse into where the magic hap-pens-The Rodizio (Rotation) oven. A cavernous open-fronted monster easily surpassing heats of over sev-en hundred degrees Celsius! There are numerous other shelves and hanging areas spotted about the oven to allow the two-foot meat packed skewers to be carefully placed and cooked to melt- in-the-mouth perfection.

As we stepped through the door we were immediately greeted by one of the bubbly, smiling South Ameri-can waitresses; leading us around the deceptively spacious dining area to our table. Upstairs boasts

RIOS BRAZIL

CHURRASCARIAGet some Samba in your life!

Photography By Shane Davidson and Mark Dawson.

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additional seating and another bar, but being smaller looked to have a very intimate vibe; not to say the downstairs was lacking at all, we all still had a very personal experience, which is no mean feat considering we were a party of seventeen.

So, the food. On being led to our table you are faced with five things -fork, steak knife, tongs (that I could not for the life of me master), plate, and a mysterious block of wood, painted half green and half red. This was to be at the core of my meal especially. The rest is up to you. Next is a trip to the salad bar, a respectable selection worth digging into as a meal unto itself. On the itinerary are your staple sal-ad essentials -cucumber, tomatoes, greens, peas, sweetcorn and beet-root to name a few; but you get the idea, you want for nothing. Along-side this lies an extensive array

of tasty pasta dishes and chunks of banana, fried and wrapped in breadcrumbs, offering a refresh-ing and unique side twist. Once the salad bar had our attention, and my word did it take a number of assaults, we returned once again to our seats and the strange little wooden blocks. Having gone in blind I didn’t know what to make of these identical wooden ornaments strewn across the table, thinking they were nothing more than odd decorative pieces. All became clear however, as we were then greeted by two chaps sporting what can only be described as machetes, or ‘choppers’ as they became affec-tionately known. Oh, and a skewer each of the most fragrant and juicy slabs of meat I have ever laid eyes on. I could hear the meat still hiss-ing and crackling from the intense grill it had literally just moved from.

Our friendly hosts moved around the table distributing their delights to everybody. Except me. Twice. Now after the second time I was asking people to smell my breath, adjusting my hair, anything to get noticed. Then after a minute or so one of our party saw me in obvi-ous distress, picked up the wooden block in front of me, turned it one hundred and eighty degrees so the green half was facing upwards and turned away muttering “amateur”. It’s a simple system really when you’re not as dense as I seemed to be; keep the wooden block green side up and your plate will be con-stantly replenished, swap to the red side up when you are so full you can barely lift your arm to do so.

More than a touch embarrassed, all was resolved and the meat kept on flowing. There was chunky pieces of chicken breast wrapped in ba-con, this being the favourite of the day by consensus. Chilli chicken, a personal favourite of mine-suc-culent chicken wings marinated in quite a spicy but surprisingly flavoursome coating. Parmesan Lamb. You guessed it; lamb smoth-ered in distinctive- tasting parme-san cheese, matched perfectly with the meat to create a rich and tangy dish. We were also served a gor-geous rump steak, cooked suitably to your requirements. A straight-up lamb skewer that was tremendous, a gammon joint and an individual chorizo sausage. All surpassed my expectations of the small out-of-the-way South American food para-dise.

Two hours on, and what felt like two tonnes of lip-smacking meat later, the red sides of our wooden blocks got their turns once again. Though none of us had the minerals, there was a nice selection of sweets and desserts for afterwards that I most definitely will be trying next time. We certainly got our money’s worth however; and coupled with a relax-ing and airy atmosphere, had a re-ally enjoyable evening to savour. I would whole-heartedly recommend ‘Rios’ to anyone and everyone for a great night with that Latin some-thing. Outstanding.

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14The tragic slaughter of Drummer Lee Rigby contin-ues to have grave repercussions- it has provided far-right groups such as the EDL with the ammu-nition which they need to preach their Islamopho-bic doctrines, and frighteningly, it appears that they may have had some success. In the week after Rigby’s death alone there was a sharp rise in hate-crime, with over 200 islamophobic attacks reported. 136 anti-Muslim incidents were reported online to the police online in the following week- 5 times the number reported in the previous week, bearing in mind that many incidents would have gone unreported. Rigby’s family has explicitly stat-ed that they don’t want his name to be used as “as an excuse to carry out attacks against others”, but xenophobic groups continue to exploit his death as an opportunity to demonize Islam.

The EDL stance appears to be that this bloody violence is representative of all branches of Islam and all of its fol-lowers, with organization leader Tommy Robinson stating ‘They’re chopping our soldiers’ heads off. This is Islam.’ It is clear that the murderers of Rigby aren’t representative of Islam, and that not all Muslims advocate violence, in the same way that the EDL with their chants of ‘Burn the Mosque’ and ‘Scum, Scum, Scum’ (referring to Muslims) do not speak for all British citizens. He has also directly compared Islam to Nazism, declaring ‘I hate Nazis as much as I hate Islamists, but Nazism isn’t a problem in this country.’ The fact that he can relate all of the 1.57 billion followers of a religion, representing a multitude of different beliefs, to the perpetrators of the holocaust, belies the ignorance of the EDL.

There has been a disturbing increase in the support for the EDL and its jingoistic ethos- before Rigby’s murder the organization had 20,000 likes on its Facebook page, but a week afterwards this number had exceeded 130,000; it is now 151,000 and rising. However, the organization is now beginning to

The EDL: English Disco Lovers

My name is Rosy and I’m doing work experience at CSV; I am cur-rently doing my A-levels. In my spare time I enjoy eating, sleeping, watching TV and listening to music.

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face equally vocal opposition- the English Disco Lovers have decided to reclaim the acronym in a bid to overtake the ‘other’ EDL in Facebook likes and to gain the most hits on Google. While the original EDL’s tactics- let’s call them the ‘shouty’ EDL- have included death-threats to journalists covering their marches, arson attacks on mosques and intimidation, the ‘dancey’ EDL counters with demonstrations of disco dancing and humour- some of the mantras on their Facebook page include ‘Don’t listen to Nazi sympathizers, dance along to synthesizers’, ‘Don’t hate, gyrate’, and ‘We don’t like your fascist stance,

now it’s time to disco dance!’ While the ‘shouty’ EDL throw fireworks, smoke-bombs, bottles and bricks, their namesakes are throwing Dance parties.

The disco theme is particularly apt for an organization promoting tol-erance- the first wave of disco in the ‘70s faced opposition in the

‘Disco Sucks’ movement, culminating in ‘Disco Demolition Night’, which many have described as a racist and homophobic back-

lash against the popularity of a movement closely affiliated with non-white and non-heterosexual cultures as well as

feminism. The free-spirited group of gender-benders, feminists, homosexuals and fun-lovers made it clear

that they didn’t need this fascist groove thang, and the ‘dancey’ EDL are showing us how Disco’s message of tolerance is still relevant in the new millennium. The group’s rise has coincided with 2013’s disco reviv-al- Daft Punk and Disco legend Nile Rodgers had immense success with the ludicrously enjoyable ‘Get Lucky’- it has become the UK’s first million-selling single of the year.

The ‘shouty’ EDL’s violent protests and snowball-ing support following Rigby’s murder makes it clear that racism has not been eradicated; intol-erance is still present and can’t be ignored. The EDL is gleefully aggravating tensions, reveling in this opportunity to isolate and alienate Muslims. They aim to widen social divisions and to cre-ate incurable animosity within multicultural com-munities, actively encouraging tensions and vio-lence to support their stance that it isn’t possible

for people of different races and religions to live peacefully side-by-side. There is little doubt that

the EDL has an inherently bigoted, racist ethos- a number of its members have been found guilty of ra-

cially aggravated attacks, they are closely linked to the BNP, a political party which reluctantly ended its ‘whites

only’ membership policy in 2009, and members of the EDL have been in contact with and have voiced support for

the anti-Islam-motivated mass murderer Anders Breiveik. It must be made clear

that the EDL do not speak for the majority of the UK’s population. The ‘dancey’ EDL’s

motto ‘Unus mundus, Una gens, Una disco’ –the Latin for ‘One world, one race, one disco’- out-

lines perfectly their message, that community cohesion is attainable and that things might improve if the members of

the EDL just calmed down and ‘grooved on down to the discoteque.’ They aim to ‘subvert their hatred with humour… to promote equality, respect and the utopian vision of disco’, and it is an example to be followed- the way to combat the violence and hatred of such organizations as the EDL is with good-humour and a determination not to resort to their brutal methods.

The EDL: English Disco Lovers

by Mica Hamilton

When it comes to modernizing acoustic music, illkous-tics (un-capitalized by request) sets a fine example at doing so.

Mason, front man/vocalist/guitarist/, and TMR, Gui-tarist/arranger/composer, are wizards at combining hip hop with acoustic guitars, alternative chord voic-ing and percussive guitar skills. illkoustics first estab-lished themselves in 2012, after knowing each other as friends from studying at college together in Lon-don. Life has brought them to Ipswich where they have decided to expand their musical ability and ex-perience beyond what education had to offer. They do, however, both strongly encourage all musi-cians to go and study music properly and accumulate contacts as, in their words “contacts are among the most essential assets to have as a musician.”

One of their goals after releasing their first EP is to complete an album featuring other instrumentalists to accompany them on different tracks. So if you happen to have musical abilities and run into them, be sure to ask them for a jamming session. “We’re always happy to jam with a variety of musicians, as we believe all active performers should be. Doing so can push you into areas you wouldn’t normally approach, which can increase musical abilities for all parties involved”

illkoustics have a broad musical background, from classical guitar to playing in metal bands and per-forming in churches. They believe that what helps make them a band is the range of music they both consume. This makes organizational planning stuff a lot easier.

Mica - What are your musical inspirations?

Mason - Everything and anything. I’ve listened to and enjoyed. Drawing inspiration from just one or two particular genres limits the scope of musicality you can reach. Boundaries are made to be broken, not enforced.

TMR - Me. That’s it, no one else. Only joking, I agree with the Mason, which is unusual. To give yourself

limits when it comes to music is a silly thing for a musician to do. If you only stick to one genre, you put yourself into one category either a head banger metal head or a drum and bass raver. When you open up to all genres, you can only categorise yourself as a musi-cian, which sounds much better to me.

Mica - What are you plans for the music industry, like what do you intend to do as a band to make ‘it’ better/different? What are your views on the music scene in London compared to Ipswich and what do you think they both need?

Mason - My plan for the industry? That’s a difficult question. I think music has stagnated and there’s no real message involved anymore in the mainstream

illkoustics16

scene, especially within hip hop and rap. I don’t want to be that guy who has no real substance, views or beliefs. It’s all well and good having brainless lyrics over simple music but that’s not my style. So if the industry doesn’t want to let us in because of that, we’ll kick down the back door instead!

I think the music scenes in London and Ipswich are pretty similar. Except for the fact Ipswich is a few years behind; they have some catching up to do. I kid, I kid, but seriously I think both IPS and LDN need fresh blood.

Music is a constantly evolving entity, but I’m of the opinion that if we don’t incorporate what we’ve done in the past to what we’re doing now, a little piece of that soul and energy will be lost.

TMR – I think London can accommodate a far more diverse variety of musical acts. Ipswich is a small place and seems to have a lower demand for alternative acts. Having said that, Ipswich is more intimate and friendly, everyone seems to know each other, which is definitely something London lacks. We are here in Ipswich to set the scene and get people to open up to alternative music.

Special thanks to Mica Hamilton, music journalist from London.

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AlunaGeorge

Electric Brixton, London – 20th June 2013

The stage at Electric Brixton lay empty with blue spot-lights swaying from side to side and the occasional glow of exposed hanging light-bulbs. The venue itself had a great mix of old and new keeping some of the original Edwardian features and coupling them with bright neon bars and modern architecture. The stage lights suddenly dropped and the background music si-lenced. Everyone knew it was about to begin.

The Drummer and Bassist walked on and started the beat for AlunaGeorge to step out in front of their sold-out gig crowd and go straight into ‘Just A Touch’. They looked a tad nervous, but who wouldn’t be play-ing their to-be-released album* in front of a pumped up crowd.

They stormed through their set, with a great mix of slow, chilled tracks and upbeat danceable numbers. Of course the known tracks ‘You Know You Like It’ and ‘Attracting Flies’ rippled excitement through the crowd. Because of their singles some may have been expecting up-tempo beats all night but their diversity shows off their understanding of good music and their potential as artists. It was also great to hear ‘Diver’ again, a track they had premiered on BBC Radio 1 a few months ago now. They also did a pretty sweet cover of Montell Jordan’s ‘This Is How We Do It’.

You cannot doubt that they know their tracks down to the last detail. It’s difficult not be hypnotised by Aluna and the way she moves to the music, echoing and re-sponding to that sound perfectly. While George silently led the tracks in his box that illuminated white against the drifting blue and red stage lights.

After a brief break they came back to finish with three strong songs; their own version of Disclosure’s ‘White Noise’ (which of course they feature on),’ Superstar’ from their forthcoming album and lastly the awesome tune ‘Your Drums, Your Love’ which was a great way to end.

I’m Ben Driver. I write mostly about art/culture in its broadest sense, expressing my own views and ideas where I can. I think the expression of ideas is incredibly important as they enable us all to understand the world or space in which we live. If we understand something fully and genuinely we can then develop it.

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I think they are still figuring out the intricacies of performing live and with confidence but let’s not be too hasty. Though there wasn’t a great deal of crowd interaction I think this gig will prove to be a stepping stone for them to develop their own “live style”. Once they have the release of the album behind them I hope it will give them that extra boost in stage pres-ence. Anyway the gig was a blast and if the dance moves around me were anything to go by, the gen-eral feeling was one of ecstasy. And plus you don’t get good moves without good music.

Setlist:

• Just A Touch

• Outlines

• Bad Idea

• Kaleidoscope Love

• You Know You Like It

• Diver

• Lost and Found

• Attracting Flies

• This Is How We Do It (Montell Jordan Cover)

• Body Music

• Best Be Believing

• Friends to Lovers

• White Noise (Disclosure Cover)

• Superstar

• Your Drums, Your Love

*Their album Body Music comes out on July 29th, you can pre-order it here: http://store.universal-music.co.uk/restofworld/alunageorge/albums/icat/alunageorgealbums/

Trickeries and small arrangements World leaders and Global warning management

Eva Avrillon

I know. By reading my articles you may have the impression I am obsessed with power and I want to prove that everything in this world – even the organisation of the

Olympic Games – is a matter of power. I don’t try to make you as paranoid as some conspiracy addicts I knew. But it is a fact that some important issues

that concern the whole humankind are submitted to the good will and the dealing of our dear leaders. I am particularly thinking of deal-

ing with global warming – or climate change … It is funny – if you have a dark sense humour – to notice that they all

agree to declare the situation is terrible, that it is their responsibility to do something to prevent it, and that

it is an opportunity for everybody around the world to work together... Because on the other hand,

they obviously deeply disagree about how they will manage it. So they will change every-

thing – but not their habits.

As we say in my country – and it perfectly fits the situation: “Are they waiting for the Flood?” What prevent the rulers of the world from doing anything to save the planet, as it is proved that global warming is the result of hu-man activity and that it has nega-tive consequences on climate and populations?

Some facts about global warming (you probably know)

The phenomenon affects the whole planet: it is defined as the rise of the average tem-perature of Earth’s atmo-sphere and oceans since the late 19th century. The main cause of it is the emission of greenhouse gas like the car-bon dioxide and the methane, which retain on Earth warmth that sunlight is carrying. Most of those gas rejections are due to human activity, industry and petrol consumption (for cars, heating…), and sometimes ani-mal farming (most of the meth-ane emissions of New Zealand are due to… sheep’s farts). So an industrialised and developed coun-try pollutes more than a poor and

less developed one. There are differ-ent factors: the size of a country, the

number of inhabitants because they are likely to consume and reject pet-

rol, the climate because in some colder places people need to heat their homes,

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the environmental policy of a country which can tax the gas emissions of the companies.

But the atmosphere is the same everywhere: global warm-ing affects every part of the world. Ice in Antarctic is thaw-ing. In some regions of the world, the “permafrost” – a part of the soil that is permanently frozen – is beginning to melt, what produces methane – which is more dangerous than carbon dioxide for the environment. The sea level is rising, the natural catastrophes like hurricanes or storms are stronger. Some areas in the world are becoming dryer. Consequently pollution has effects on poor or less devel-oped countries, which often already are hot places and which don’t pollute much: it has a negative impact on the agriculture and people, who cannot feed themselves and provide for their needs, have to migrate. This phenomenon is called “migration of climate change”: but people leaving their place of origin because of global warming have still no “refugee” status in the international law.

What does exist on the international to deal with the global warming?

There are different organisations and laws about the emis-sions of greenhouse gas. It can seem complicated, but I resume it simply, because it is very important to know it to understand the existing tension between world lead-ers about climate change issues. In 1992, United Nations signed the Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC or FCCC). It had to deal with the responsibil-ity issues, implementing to classes of countries: the an-nexe I gathers the biggest polluters like industrialized countries and countries in transition who have to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions below their level of 1990 (United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Russia…), and the annexe II gathers developed countries – members of the annexe I too – who agree to pay for the adaptation of the developing countries (France, Austria, Germany…). Remaining countries are called the “Non-Annexe I” coun-tries. The main problem of this classification is that it has not been changed: it is true that for twenty years United States, Europe and Japan remained the main polluters… But some countries knowing a huge economic growth and a quick organisation like China reject more and more greenhouse gas. In 1997 the Kyoto Protocol was signed: its purpose is to reduce the gas emissions of the biggest polluter of 55%... But it took 8 years to ratify it, and it expires at the end of 2012. In 2011 an agreement was signed by different countries in Durban: they give them-selves three years to decide what their own objectives in greenhouse gas emission reduction are and to make them vote by their national Parliament… So as you can see, although most countries has ratified agreements and treaties, no serious decision about it has been taken, and as you can imagine the emissions of greenhouse gas has not reduced… What are the reasons for it?

Different countries, different interests

Main problems impair the management of global warming: the lack of trust between world leaders, the lack of political will, the national laws concerning the gas emissions in cer-tain countries… and the costs of the adaptation…

Indeed, as I mentioned in the first part of the article, pollu-tion is linked to the industrialisation and wealth of a coun-try. I could give two example of it: China and Russia’s lead-

ers are not particularly keen to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, because they fear it is a mean for rich Western countries to impair them in their development. For instance, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared in 2003 – what a good joke! – that a warmer climate could be advantageous for Russia, especially for the consump-tion of energy during the long Russian winter, and for ag-riculture… Even if it is true that 2 more could allow better crops in Russia, it would cause other damages on Russian territory… For instance the melting of frozen soils could endanger industrial and residential building in some north-ern towns. Since then Russia ratified Kyoto Protocol. Fur-thermore, United States, the biggest polluter in the world, never signed the Kyoto Protocol and never engaged to re-duce their emissions: indeed there is a law in USA forbid-ding the ratification of international agreement impairing the growth of American wealth and reducing greenhouse gas emission is considered having a negative impact on it. If the USA don’t give the positive example, who will do it? A lot of countries try to avoid being too much involved in climate change management issues because they don’t want to have to pay for the adaptation of their energy sources into producing less greenhouse gas, and to help developing countries to purchase clean sources of energy.

There is a huge problem in dealing with the share of re-sponsibility, because nobody is ready to pay anything and to change its habits in terms of consumption and emissions. The biggest polluters of the world – now USA and China – con-tinue to increase their emissions, as small insular countries of Indian Ocean could disappear if sea level rises, although they try to find solutions to produce energy without polluting.

Conclusion – And now?

Yet reports of climate and economics experts tend to prove that cost of adaptation will higher if we wait too much for it, and that the future generation will be dramatically af-fected by global warming, financially and in their way of life, if nothing is undertaken NOW. The technologies we have nowadays allow us to see how our activities could affect our planet or to reduce our greenhouse gas emis-sions. If governments can spend a lot of money in prestige programmes, why could they not pay into adapting energy production, for instance?

I don’t want people to panic because whatever happens, I am sure that individuals will find a way to adapt. But if we want to adapt as “softly” as possible, things have to be done collectively and fairly. Furthermore, in certain parts of the world, it is not only becoming a matter of food security or migration, but a matter of cultural survival. To conclude, I would like to mention the example of Shishmaref, a village on an island off Alaska. Maybe you don’t know the name of this place, but the picture is known worldwide: you can see a house collapsing because the frozen soil melted under its foundations. Native inhabitants feel unsecure because of it, and because they’re still dependant on a quickly changing nature to live. A few years ago, they were worried about leaving their village to live on the mainland. We have to keep in mind that on some small islands in Indian Ocean or Pacific, if the population can be evacuated in case of a major catastrophe, they can have to abandon what their ancestors let them as a heritage, concrete realisations as a particular way of life they probably cannot reproduce where they could have to move.

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1. ‘Feministshatemen’- No, that’s misandrists; here, the dictionary definition of feminism: NounThe advocacy of women’s rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men.There.

2. ‘Theyhateeachother’- There are some who believe that the debate and disparity between different feminist groups, and the fact that there is not one universal agenda, which is car-ried by all feminists undermines the movement and shows that there is a lack of unity, because, you know, all men have always agreed on ev-erything ever in the history of history. Women can never disagree, ‘that’s, just, like, the rules of feminism!’ If there is ever debate between two female feminists they are accused of be-ing ‘unsisterly’ or ‘catty’. If male scientists and academics weren’t able to provide new ideas or criticism of their fellows without being seen as ‘b**chy’ how would there ever be any progres-sion? What must be taken into account is that feminism doesn’t belong to any one person;

there is no sacred altar with a pyre of burn-ing brassieres at which Queen Boudicca sits with Germaine to her left and Miss Pankhurst to her right, where she sacrifices chauvinist pigs and dictates the 10 co-womandments by which all ‘sisters’ must abide. Feminism is not a religion; it is a collective of movements with diverse beliefs and philosophies, which have just one core principle in common, for which I refer you back to the definition of feminism.

3. ‘Braburners’ - At the Miss America demonstra-tion of ’68 some protestors threw mops, false eye-lashes and bras, amongst a number of other ‘femi-nine’ products into a rubbish bin, with the intention of burning them. The police intervened so the fire was never lit, but this didn’t stop the New York Post from running the headline ‘Bra Burners and Miss America’. Ever since, the term has been used as a derogatory trope to depict feminists as hys-terical and raging and to trivialize the movement.

4. ‘Theyarelesbians’-Well, some of them are, some of them aren’t; in fact some of them are men, which might make that difficult.

5. ‘Theycan’tbepretty’- There are some who maintain that if a woman wears make-up or

The Bra BurnersAfewpopularmisconceptionsaboutfeminism,innoparticularorder...

My name is Rosy and I’m doing work experience at CSV; I am cur-rently doing my A-levels. In my spare time I enjoy eating, sleeping, watching TV and listening to music.

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dresses she is presenting herself as an object just to be admired by men, and that ‘true’ feminists can never indulge in such satanic, oppressive aids to the patriarchy as handbags and shoes. This myth, in its most toxic form, dictates that a woman who is dressed in a man-ner, which is deemed too attractive is ‘asking for it’, or ‘inviting rape’. Kurt Cobain, inciden-tally a feminist, has riffed on this paradoxical contradiction before in the song ‘Rape me’, and once again, I urge peddlers of the ‘asking for it’ myth to refer back to a dictionary. Rape is never invited. Women should have the pow-er to dress as they like without people assum-ing that they are dressing that way for any-one other than themselves; feminism is about giving women choice to be themselves, not trampling over their right to self-expression.

6. ‘Feminists don’t care about families’- The notion that feminists make bad parents seems to stem from that whole ‘liberation for women signifies the breakdown of the family’ doctrine. Now that it is the common consensus that domestic chores should be di-vided fairly there is less room for bitterness between couples; many fathers now have a closer relationship with their children follow-ing the revelation that child-care is not just a feminine pursuit, and women have access to family planning to provide a stable basis for their family. Women can work so that men needn’t bear financial stress alone. The stigma around divorce and single parenting has been removed so that parents can dis-tance themselves and their children from an abusive partner. Feminism has also brought to light issues such as female infanticide and the favoring of sons over daughters-now hopefully parents will strive for a bright fu-ture for their children regardless of their sex.

7. ‘Wedon’tneed feminismnow thatwehaveequality’- A woman will still be called a slut for the same behavior that would earn a man the title of ‘lad’. Facebook pages such as the Lad Bible are rife with rape jokes, and the tired ‘make me a sandwich’ jibe doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon; pictures of women breast-feeding or with mastectomies are removed, whereas groups such as ‘Sum sluts need their throats slit’ and ‘Its Not ‘rape’ If They’re Dead And If They’re Alive Its Sur-prise Sex’ are permitted. Although career

women account for 57% of the professional workforce, just 25% are chief executives; there are only 2 female FTSE 100 executives, and 93% of the executives of the 100 largest UK firms on the London Stock Exchange are men. According to the Fawcett Society wom-en earn on average 14.9% less than men for the same job, and the lack of female repre-sentatives in governments world-wide means that men are still making decisions over what women may or may not do with their bodies- see recent legislation on abortion in Texas and the Republic of Ireland. Rape victims are still asked what they were wearing, and 97% of rapists will never spend a day in jail-esti-mates suggest that 75-95% of rapes are nev-er reported. Last year then 15 year-old Malala Yousafzi was shot in the head and neck by the Taliban for her vocal support of education for girls; she has since recovered and recently made a speech to the UN about the universal right to education. She refuses to be fright-ened into silence, stating that her attackers ‘were, and...are afraid of books and pens….they are afraid of women.’ The attempted murder of a teenage girl who threatened to take control of her own future and encour-aged others to do the same proves that the fight for equality is far from over, and that feminism is in no way obsolete.

32 North Korea is angry. Very angry. In fact, it is an angry child throwing a tantrum. This small Asian country near China engages in a wide range of pretty unmoral behavior ranging from slavery and kidnapping to nuclear threats and assassination attempts. Ever since their liberation in 1948 after the fall of the Japanese Empire, it has been led by the Kim family. The Kims have never been happy that there is a South Korea and a North Korea instead of one whole Korea and their dream of a unified nation may or may not have led to the Korean War.

And that’s why between the two have the world’s most heavily fortified border. As a matter of fact, the Korean War never ended - “to give up” is not a phrase known to the Kims, but rather there was an armistice going that has lasted over 50 years. Since then, North Korea has done numerous things to annoy the world, and is currently trying to create nukes (nuclear weapons) this very moment, with somewhat questionable success.

North Korea has always enjoyed the friendship and protection of the Soviet Union and China – just like the South has always hung out with the United States of America. With a guarantee of safety, they have engaged in some rather controversial acts during the Cold War. This includes kidnapping of over four hundred South Koreans and dozens of Japanese citizens. Kim Jong-un, the latest Kim, has ordered the abduction of a Japanese movie director to recreate Godzilla as a part of his regime’s propaganda. In this adaption Godzilla was meant to symbolize the (obviously) evil capitalism of the West and South Korea.

As for the Kims themselves, they are a little narcissistic . The country’s media refers to Kim Jong-un as none other than the Great Leader, and all his predecessors as Eternal Presidents. In kindergarten, North Korean children are shown tales about how birds sung songs when Kim Jong-un was born, and how he jumped over the moon on the back of a cow (this might be false.) The media always makes sure to remind its people how blessed they are to live in North Korea.

The Misadventures

of NorthKorea

My name’s Wiktor (Victor), I’m a work experience guy at CSV. I like to cover politics, especially the exploits of world leaders. Besides that, I love to do graphic design for a range of things. At some point in my life I want to be a published author with a good journalistic career.

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Unfortunately the reality is exactly not that. Currently, the Great Leader sees it fit to spend over a quarter of the nation’s GDP on his army, leaving a large portion of the population in poverty and starvation. This excess funding has allowed Kim Jong-un to conduct an underground nuclear test just this year (and proceed to announce to the world that he will nuke America). In case Kim’s intentions weren’t clear, he then decided to declare in March that North Korea “at a state of war” with the South and dissolve the fifty-year old non-armistice treaties. In response, the South and the US began military drills – clearly unprovoked, which Kim took no time condemning.

This exchange of rhetoric (oddly similar to high school banter and name calling) has elevated the relations to what is commonly known as the 2013 Korean Crisis, a mini Cold War of a sort. This is not to say the relations were good before that – in 2010 North Korea saw it fit to bomb the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong, killing four people and injuring nineteen. The same year they sunk a Southern ship and killed over forty people. Any of this could potentially be a reason to finally invade North Korea and remove the Kims from rule. After all, Iraq is still occupied after the World Trade Center bombings.

Unfortunately, China is fond of North Korea (they both identify as communist) and actively gives it protection and food. An all out war with the world’s most populous country is not an option – simply

because China is an economic powerhouse that supplies just about everything we use in our lives. The Chinese even send back those who escaped from North Korea (once returned, their fate is worse than (death.) The Kims also employ an unmoral policy for those who do manage to escape – it forces the escapee’s relatives into slavery. North Korea currently has over two hundred thousand in their labor camps. From the accounts of the few escapees and a few stealthily made films, the conditions there are comparable to the death camps of the Holocaust.

Will the Kim regime ever be brought down? In the nearest decades, it’s unlikely. With China at its side, Kim Jong-un is free to shout his threats and occasionally sink some ships. I think there is a slim and crazy chance that he will nuke someone. If he does it’ll be Seoul, the capital of South Korea. It’s very densely populated – and a nuclear strike could wipe out over thirteen million people. But I think it’s more likely that the North Korean missile will simply malfunction and fall into the ground after a minute of flight. It’s even more likely that he’ll simply continue oppressing his nation and kidnapping movie directors.

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34Olympics1 - waiting

A Year After The Olympics

An amazing event - with a ticket shortageI’m Ellen Lear and I have been doing work experience at CSV Media. I love painting, singing, playing guitar and doing terrible dancing to embarrass my mates, tea and Doctor Who but I’m not whovian. I’m studying Spanish, Graphics, Art, Music and Hisotry. I’m really into fashion. My favorite film is ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’.

The 2 weeks of sport last year in London had really got the nation going. Heart raising moments and some easy wins, it really is a let down that it’s all over. Over 10,000 participants and 204 nations competing, it’s a wonder how they all fitted into our tiny little island. With Britain coming in 3rd, China 2nd and the U.S coming in 1st overall, we were proud to get up that high in the rankings whether it was 3rd or 1st. I think we did so well last year because it was in our home country, so that there would be many more British supporters to encourage the athletes and push them just that little bit further. 79 countries in total were to achieve at least one medal out of the 204 nations an extraordinary achievement considering all of the people participating. But with difficulty getting tickets for events because of sponsors (who had tickets put aside for them) that were unable to come, had caused an up raw with the people of GB not being able to be there to support their country.

Some really bold fashion choices made for the sports wear shown off in the opening ceremony: clashing colours, neon and some crazy patterns as shown by the Russians; a nice change from the flag colours usually used. But there was a lot of controversy about the team GB kit because the red was taken out of the flag and made it different

shade of blue although red was used elsewhere on the kit; people were angry that the English and Irish flag were taken out which isn’t true just the colours were taken out but the design was left to its original form. Designed by Stella McCartney, she had said that she wanted to modernize the kit and in her defense the kit shows more of the

flag than any kit has done since ’84. Because of the cross displayed across the men’s track kit, people were mocking it and saying things like “is X-factor a sponsor?”

The top five nations with the most gold medals

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35Olympics 2 -

waiting

A phenomenal 32 world records broken within the two weeks of spectacular sport and five of them belong to British cyclists along with five from the U.S. With thanks to BBC Olympic channels, you would never miss a thing, whether it would be the GB boys at the gymnastics or the people who would dance with horses.

A really surprising opening ceremony, I thought it was going to be absolutely terrible as Great Britain doesn’t have a lot of culture but we do have a lot of history. Seeing the set for the ceremony before the count down and the beginning of the performance; I was getting rather worried about the scene of a field and the farmer thinking: “great, this looks like everything we are not as a country and what people think we are who have never been here before!” but I was soon proven wrong, a spectacular view of the history of Britain and making the industrial evolution really quite interesting. It brought tears to my eyes.

Since the Olympics, there has been a boost in the amount of people participating in sport, especially cycling, athletics and swimming. The encouragement needed for people to get off the

sofa and start doing exercise had come and people leapt at the opportunity to do so, it was a great hope to get the figures of obesity down in this country. It was also a plan that no other country had succeeded in but I think it was mainly down to the success of our country in the Olympics compared to others who have hosted. It’s not all good news though, due to the wet summers and extended winters, sports such as Cricket have suffered intensely. As a result of this, spending will be reduces by 2% this year for the Sports England foundation.

A transformation of Stratford over the two weeks and now still because of the stadium and Westfield’s shopping Mall; Stratford has a more positive light shining over it. London’s still buzzing about the Olympics; it will always be a proud moment for us in the history of Great Britain, it will be missed very dearly.

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