Thursday 3rd July 2025
Blog Page 2009

Scenic View: Malaysia

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The Republic of Malaysia likes to brand itself as “Truly Asia”, a veritable smorgasbord of different cosmopolitan cultures and communities mixing together in coherent unity. To my surprise, the country seems to live up to its slick branding. From the orchestrated chaos of capital city Kuala Lumpur, to the peaceful northern Cameron Highlands, to the sand-swept beaches of biologically rich Borneo, the country offers an absorbing plethora of different opportunities to the average (and cash-strapped) nature enthusiast or culture junkie. On a week-long break from a brief research project in Singapore, I was eager to sample all that this mysterious country had to offer.

Given my proclivity for natural areas and innate tendency towards avoiding clogged urban sprawls, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the clean metropolis of Kuala Lumpur. Whether it was a visit to one of the many parks dotted around the city, a ride on the embarrassingly fun indoor roller coaster at the sprawling Times Square shopping centre, or a tour of the famous Petronas Towers, there is no shortage of interesting activities within the city limits. In addition, the nearby National Zoo offers the opportunity to see some of Malaysia’s endangered biodiversity up close, including the mythical Malayan tiger and the quirky Malayan tapir.

However, the most striking feature of all is the food. Anywhere one travels in Malaysia, the incredible variety of different food-stuffs will be on full display. In particular, the region south of Kuala Lumpur provides some of the most amazing dishes on the planet. Spice aficionados will crave the aromatic blending of different flavours in the various Malay dishes, while those who seek fare from neighboring ASEAN countries will not be disappointed by the selection. As an added bonus, food is often made from scratch, with wholesome, unprocessed ingredients. What more could a perpetually starving twenty-something ask for?

Malaysia is a cool country. It still lags far behind the proximate prosperous island of Singapore in terms of purchasing power and GDP, and is justifiably considered a newly industrializing country. It brims with potential, offering universal health care, flexible capital markets, and a relatively stable political situation. I enjoyed my time here and look forward to returning soon.

 

Oxford blue as Cambridge come from behind to win Boat Race

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Oxford University Boat Club have had their hopes of a Boat Race hat-trick denied today. 

Thousands lined the shores of the River Thames to see Cambridge come from behind and claim victory in the 156th Annual Boat Race.

Despite being the bookies’ favourites to win, having two Olympic veterans in the crew, and rowing on the preferred Surrey side, Oxford failed to clinch their third title in three years. Their strong start propelled them into an early lead, which at one point saw them 3/4 of a length in front of the light-blue boat, and lasted for most of the race.

However Cambridge pushed hard to catch up after the Hammersmith bridge, raised their stroke rate and crossed the finish line with Oxford trailing by at least a length and a half.

Cambridge lead Oxford in the overall rankings by 80 wins to 75, with one dead heat.

More to follow.

Review: Ellie Goulding at the O2 Academy

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Ellie Goulding walked onto the stage of the Oxford O2 to a wildly supportive, chanting crowd. Fans continued to proudly, fervently sing along to every song. The effect of the fame machine of the major record labels is evident on her growth in popularity. The worry with such accelerated performers is that they will lose their artistic integrity.

Ellie, however, has the makings of a superb musician. Her voice is as individual as it is captivating; she sings with startling detail and expression. She told me before the gig, ‘I’ve never been taught how to sing, although I used to pretend to sing opera a lot when I was younger’. Very few artists with ‘top ten’ singles sound better singing live than on their recordings, but Ellie is one refreshingly quirky vocalist. Even her speaking voice is silky smooth, which was sometimes a hindrance, as it proved very difficult for the audience to hear what she was saying between songs, thanks to a poor microphone set-up. Charlie Atlantic, of local band Inlight, insisted however, that the sound of her voice was ‘exceedingly pleasant to listen to, regardless’.

On stage Ellie plays the acoustic guitar, the instrument she grew up with. But with the full band she’s able to have her own percussion set up. Whilst she’s mostly relatively static, locked to her microphone and guitar, her own drums on stage allow her to occasionally add significant dynamism to her performance. Playing drums, she moves for the music and not for the crowd. She is very comfortable on a stage. ‘I don’t get nervous before shows anymore; that idea is so alien to me now. I only really get nervous when I’m on the television’.

As might be expected from a tour based on a first album, the gig slightly lulled in the middle, with chunky brackets of hits at either end of the performance. Most important to the show was the encore, which featured a compacted trio of songs which illustrated her rise to fame. Ellie seemed especially emotionally involved with the final set, which started with the poignant fully acoustic ‘Wish I Stayed’, followed by her new-age cover of Midlake’s ‘Roscoe’ with stripped down band, condluding with her big new single ‘Starry Eyed’ with full band and electro-pop backing track.

Many music fans will turn their nose up at Ellie Goulding, put off by her seemingly artificially rapid rise to fame and glossy publicity, but there’s such quality there, in both compositional skill and lyrical ability. ‘So we burst into colours and carousels / Fall head first, like paper planes in playground games’ is not the type of lyric that you’d expect to hear from a ‘manufactured artist’, and the way that her words are presented live, makes it very clear that they are her own. Her first album has been a significant move towards the mainstream, and though she definitely has the talent and potential for appreciable longevity in the music industry, she will perhaps soon need to take a step back from Starsmith, successful as they may have been together, to ensure that she preserves her own individual style.

Interview: Ellie Goulding

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It’s very easy to dismiss Ellie Goulding as another artist manufactured by the major record labels. But this is a girl who, before a major record deal was even on the horizon, was driven to drop out of a successful degree to pursue a career in music. This is a girl who has gigged every week for years at Kent University and at home in Hereford, juggling two jobs while developing her style and waiting to be noticed.

It’s been a rapid few months of growth, culminating in her first studio album, which went straight to number one following its release in early March. Ellie’s style has since undergone huge transformation, from her fully acoustic iTunes Single of The Week ‘Wish I Stayed’ in late December, to the electro-pop reworked tang of her album, Lights.

Responding to criticism of transition in style, she says that she’s ‘written acoustic music for a long time, but always wanted to do something more exciting’. Soon after leaving Kent University, Ellie met the producer Finlay Dow-Smith (Starsmith). Both of them had been individually influenced and inspired by Frankmusik, and together they began working on Ellie’s new sound. The pair are now close friends, and each contributed significantly to both the composition and production of Lights. ‘We work very well together, and we agree on a lot’, Ellie claims. ‘Fin and I really connect, and the songs are now how I always wanted them to sound.’

Ellie, now 23, maintains that it’s very important for her to feel academically alive. ‘I was very engaged with my degree, and now I sometimes worry that I’m lacking stimulation’. The singer claims a steering hunger for what she’s passionate about, and a fixation on her goals and interests, perhaps explaining her courageous move away from university. ‘I get very into single artists. I have listened to the Noah & The Whale album almost every day since it was released’. Ellie says that nowadays, she and Starsmith write a lot during the recording process, sometimes writing, producing and completing songs within the space of three days. ‘Sometimes you get very caught up in the song that you’re writing, and it comes very easily’.

Ellie is not controlled by her manager or label. She insists that she has total musical freedom, despite criticism of Universal Music Group for frequently pushing young artists in a ‘more sellable’ direction. She adds, speaking genuinely, ‘Polydor are the best label in the world’. Her management are, on the most part, in awe of her musical drive: ‘the success is all down to Ellie’, said one of her promoters for gigs in the south. Ellie intends to keep writing with Starsmith in the near future, but hinted at perhaps also collaborating with band-mate Max Cooke, lead singer of the now defunct four-piece Goodbooks. Max is currently joining Ellie on tour to play keys and synths.

The songwriter thinks that she communicates significantly more effectively through music and performance, and sometimes worries that she comes across as tame in media interviews. Ellie is a very positive, friendly and down-to-earth girl; character which is evident in her attitude to where she is going with her career: ‘I don’t really think about the consequences; I just like writing songs’. If Ellie weren’t doing music, she’d like to be ‘a fitness instructor or a teacher: I love to give advice’, and hopes that life will one day lead her to having her own chicken farm in Powys. Were there to be an Ellie Goulding Machine, baring the Ellie Goulding seal of approval, it would not only ‘recommend books and films’, but would, like most important machines, ‘dispense Percy Pigs and fresh smoothies’, and perhaps ‘lend a full body workout from time to time’.


Read Cherwell‘s review of Ellie’s gig in Oxford last week.

Swot Shop: Belle Of The Ball

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Ball season may not be kicking off in earnest until Trinity but every savvy fashionista worth her Louboutins knows that you need to hunt down that all-important dress before the covetable ones become extinct and you’re stranded in a fashion desert with the vultures of bridesmaid frumpery and drag queen bling circling ever closer. The metaphor may be extreme but if I see one more shapeless lilac silk sack-clad maid of honour or wannabe Strictly contestant across a moonlit quad then I am going to commit fashion suicide.

With a little help from your fairy godmother here at Cherwell you are going to look and feel fabulous on your special night (without having to secretly remortgage your parents’ house for some Dior couture). I am going to show you how to rock the single hardest item of clothing to get right, the floor length gown. Compulsary wear for those of you lucky enough to have begged, borrowed or stolen tickets to the white tie Commemoration Ball, and a real style statement for any black tie event, the perfect dress can have a truly transformative effect and elevate your style to the A list.

You shall go to the ball!

Elita One Shoulder Maxi Dress, £150, Coast
The draping cleverly cinches in your waist in this figure-flattering asymmetric design.

 

Diamante Hoop Split Front Maxi Dress £45, asos.com
Try this Asos gown for an astonishingly inexpensive alternative that also comes in coral and an incredible shade of teal.

 


Reagan Swarovski Maxi Dress, £209 (was £310), Gorgeouscouture.com

Still on the asymmetric theme but with a Grecian twist, this dress is a real summer show-stealer. Gorgeous Couture is an undiscovered goldmine (or rather Swarovski crystal mine) of red carpet-worthy dresses. Handy videos mean that you can see how a dress fits and moves when you walk, purchases arrive in luxe packaging to make your shopping experience just that bit more special, and they have a free couture customising service so if you love a dress but fancy it in a different shade or with extra bling, they’ll make your gown truly unique.

 

 

I will be wearing the Bosworth Maxi dress, £189 down from £299, Gorgeous Couture

French Connection plait front maxi dress, £110, asos.com.
Feeling this season’s obsession with all things utility? Unleash your inner urban goddess.

 

T Bags Halter-neck jersey maxi dress, £195, netaporter.com
Think netaporter.com is beyond your budget? They have some highly affordable pieces like this simple yet stunning dress by T Bags- glam it up with some fabulous statement accessories. Their outlet site, theoutnet.com, is definitely worth a look for you avid designer bargain-hunters. 

 

 

Allepo maxi dress, £180, Monsoon.
Give a nod to the trend for burnished metallics, stunning with a tan if the sun smiles on us this Trinity!

 

Now you have the dress – just the shoes, bag and earrings to go. NB: we do not recommend glass slippers.

 

Infamous animal activist on trial again

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The notorious Oxford animal rights activist Mel Broughton will stand trial once again for the alleged firebomb attacks against the University in 2006 and 2007.

Broughton, age 48, appeared at Oxford Crown Court on Monday. He denied  charges of conspiracy to commit arson and possession of articles with intent to destroy property.

These charges relate to a fire in the Queen’s College sports pavilion in November 2006 and the explosive devices found in Templeton College in February 2007.

Broughton was granted by bail by Judge Julian Hall, who imposed “stringent conditions” on his bail application. Broughton is banned from entering Oxfordshire or from conducting any animal rights activities. Further bail conditions were not revealed to the public.

The re-trial is set for 15th June 2010. This will be the third time that Broughton has been tried for the attacks. This comes after Lord Justice Thomas quashed Broughton’s previous conviction last Wednesday in the Court of Appeal.

The first trial collapsed in November 2008 when the jury were unable to come to a verdict.

Broughton was sentenced to ten years in prison in February 2009. He was told he must serve at least five years before being eligible for release.

However, Lord Justice Thomas ruled that an error in the way the trial judge had summated the evidence to the jury meant his conviction was “unsafe”.

Oxford welcomes first ever Aboriginal students

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Oxford is to welcome two Aboriginal students for the first time this October.

The students are the first recipients of the Charlie Perkins Scholarship, an award which exists solely to allow those of Aboriginal descent to study at Oxford.

Christian Thompson, 32, and Paul Gray, 26, were announced as the inaugural recipients of the prestigious postgraduate scholarships. They will be the first two Aboriginal students to be matriculated at Oxford University.

OUSU Access and Academic Affairs Officer, Jonny Medland, praised the news, stating, “Access to postgraduate study is incredibly uneven with many talented students not being able to come to Oxford because of a lack of funding.

“It’s great to see the most gifted students being able to come here as a result of scholarships and the university should continue striving to improve funding for graduate students.”

However, the scholarship has received criticism, as some see it as “discriminatory”.

One student said, “Why would Oxford associate itself with such a discriminatory scholarship [one that is for Indigenous Australians only]. Would it do so in the case of a scholarship only available to non-indigenous Australians? Discrimination is discrimination.”

Medland disagrees. He commented, “It’s mistaken to argue that these sort of scholarships are discriminatory – any funding which helps the best students from underrepresented groups come to Oxford should be welcomed”

Charlie Perkins was the first indigenous Australian to graduate from University, with a BA from Sydney in 1966. He was a prominent Aboriginal activist and footballer. Perkins turned down an offer to play for Manchester United in order to return to Australia to continue with his education.

Perkins died in 2001, and the Charlie Perkins Scholarship was created in his honour. It is now available for two postgraduate students to study at Oxford each year.

Mr Thompson, one of the recipients of the Charlie Perkins Scholarship, is currently the Amsterdam School of Fine Arts in the Netherlands. From October, he will be studying Fine Art at the Ruskin School of Art. He described this as a “life-changing opportunity.”

“To be one of the first two Aboriginals to ever go to Oxford is pretty wild,” he told The Times. “It’s going to be exciting to be in an environment which is all about the pursuit of knowledge.”

Mr Gray, the other recipient of the scholarship, will be researching neurobiological processes in children as a result of traumatic events in early life, as part of postgraduate degree in experimental psychology at Oxford.

The scholarship is jointly funded by the British and Australian governments.

Thailand: away from the bloodshed, the patience.

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Bangkok is not a city that lacks colour and vibrancy; a quick tuk-tuk ride can expose you to a whole host of visual sensations. Yet the sea of red that confronts you, particularly in the areas around the Grand Palace, starkly contrasts the rest of the city. It is a hot Sunday afternoon and vast swathes of people in red shirts lie on the road under ramshacked tarpaulins, snoozing in the hazy heat of the day. The only sense of foreboding is the roadblock guarded by men decked in black, their faces covered by balaclavas. They are themselves flanked by riot police but even these men cannot resist a sly smile to a foreign stranger as I pass.

Protests emanate from the microphones of United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (the UDD) members. They are demanding new elections be held against what they consider to be the illegitimate government of Abhisit Vejjajiva, who originally came to power after a military coup in 2006 ousted the popular Prime Minister Thanksin Shinawatra under claims of corruption and power abuse. Yet there seems to be little reaction from the crowd. This is certainly not what one would expect from a political ‘protest’; there is no wild frenzied mob, just a quiet, dignified crowd playing a patient waiting game.

The western media has failed to see the virtue of the patient masses that have, thus far, refused to relinquish to throes of passionate violence. Instead, the media has focused on the UDD’s resorts to sacramental curses, making the streets run red with their own blood outside the Government House and residence of the Prime Minister. Such actions have been branded irresponsible, unhygienic and inevitably futile by western onlookers. They believe that no amount of peaceful blood spilt on the streets will shake a government. The only effectual political method of change would be to attempt to form a coalition government to shift the balance of power away from Vejjajiva.

However, the essential issue which the west seems to have overlooked, is that Vejjajiva was never directly elected. In the Thai elections of 2008 the pro- Thaksin People’s Power Party achieved a landslide victory but was condemned by the Supreme Court for electoral bribery and banned from politics for five years. It was only after this, and the defections of some previously pro-Thaksin supporters, that Vejjajiva was able to form a coalition government and become Prime Minister without calling fresh elections. So whilst the protest methods of the UDD may appear somewhat medieval, their argument is one that should appeal to any politically-conscious witness. It seems then, that the disdain with which the western media has viewed the protests of the UDD to effect change are somewhat callous.

Perhaps the contempt for the political methods of the UDD is the result of improper analysis of their plight through a western framework. In a secular country where religion and politics can no longer be conflated, the use of religion to invoke misfortune on a political regime will of course seem ludicrous. But one only need behold the temples in Thailand to realise that these are an intensely religious people. Indeed, the Thai authorities themselves were quick to suggest the freak rainfall, which aided their clean up operation of the protestors’ blood, as an indication of divine condemnation of the UDD. Moreover, it is no surprise that a group of peasants fighting against what they believe to be the illegitimate and corrupt monopoly of the bureaucratic and military elite, should find their only source of justice and recourse in that of the divine.

It is only western arrogance that renders the attempts of the UDD as futile. Of course the UDD are entertaining high hopes; effecting the change of any political regime is not easy. But if we all only worked when the odds were with us we would live in a terrifying world, a hopeless world no less. The UDD has a good point about the election of Vejjajiva and whatever the west thinks of their expression of that point, as far as I can see, they had sufficient conviction to pursue their hopes of new elections. One protestor claimed she had camped in the streets of Bangkok for thirty days and was determined to remain until change was achieved. The only thing which may well dent the crowd is the onset of the farming season, due to start in a few months, which will deflect some attention away from Bangkok as the peasants will have to consider their own subsistence living. Only time will reveal the course of the UDD’s plight, but until then, they should be able to cherish and express their hopes without invoking the contempt of others.

photos by Kate Hodge

 

Man Collective hits the big city

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The Oxford-based Man Collective hosted an event called “The Gathering” in London last weekend. 

The Man Collective was founded by a student at Merton last year to enhance the status of men and celebrate masculinity. With the motto, “Men going beyond mediocrity”, the Man Collective hopes to give men the tools to “step up to their innate brilliance”.

The event welcomed “any man committed to offering other men greater possibilities in the ways they live – through whatever means”. Men were asked to “bring [their] ideas, inspiration and integrity”.

The Gathering was held at East House in Camberwell, London on Saturday 27th March. It began with a request that all women-haters vacate the premises.

Man Collective founder, Alex Linsley (pictured), said, “We had about 25 leaders of ‘men’s work’ in the UK attend The Gathering. We took time to explore the development of ‘men’s work’ and examine the status quo for guys today. The rest of the day was given over to discussion and idea generation.”

Men’s group leaders, therapists, policy makers and charity leaders attended The Gathering.

Lansley commented, “the day was a great success. It has reinforced my belief that men’s groups, or any other resource, are merely a means to the end of getting people inspired by life and offering their full potential.”

One attendee, Glen Poole, chairman of the Men’s Network and a former spokesperson for Fathers for Justice, said, “it was fantastic to meet people from around the UK who share our vision and are already working to make a difference in their individual fields”.

When asked about The Gathering, Ceri Goddard, Chief Executive of the Fawcett Society, gave a positive response. “Gender equality is crucial to the well being of both men and women and organisations that work to break down the barriers to achieving this are important.

“However, whether these organisations work on issues of particular interest to men or to women, it is critical that the focus is always placed on achieving equality and not on promoting one gender over another.”

It has, however, met with some feminist backlash. Of organisations like the Man Collective, Olivia Bailey, national Women’s Officer of the NUS, commented,  “discrimination against men on the basis of gender is so unusual as to be non-existent, so what exactly will a men’s society do?”

When first created in November of last year, the Man Collective received a huge amount of media attention. 

Since then, Linsley has been running a weekly men’s group in Oxford. He described the number of men attending these weekly sessions as “varied” but added that “with all the guys currently involved, we have a group running at about capacity.”

However, a male second-year at Merton claimed that, beyond Linsley, he knows of no other person involved in the Collective, which he stated has a “negative profile” in college. “I think it’s a load of rubbish,” he said. “There’s no need for it.”

The organisation’s Facebook page has just four fans.

 

 

Review: Kick Ass

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The Australian Family Association has used the words ‘offensive’ and ‘inappropriate’ to describe Kick-Ass; they forgot to mention that it’s bloody brilliant!

Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson), is an average geeky teenager, but whereas his friends just read comic-books about superheroes, he goes one step further and dons a costume to become ‘Kick-Ass’. After a somewhat less than successful first attempt at crime-fighting he soon finds fame thanks to YouTube. This new-found celebrity brings with it some problems however, most notably when he gets caught up in the attempts of two rather better trained vigilantes, ‘Bid Daddy’ (Nicolas Cage) and his daughter ‘Hit-Girl’ (Chloe Moretz) who seek revenge against the local crime boss (Mark Strong).

Director Matthew Vaughn has gathered together an outstanding cast, and it says a lot about the sheer quality of the ensemble that Nicolas Cage, by far the biggest name, takes a backseat role as the younger generation dominates the screen. Aaron Johnson, a leading-man in the making, manages to take what could have been a pretty standard role of ‘awkward teenaged kid’ and turn it into something that actually provides an engaging leading character. But, whilst Johnson’s ‘Kick-Ass’ may give the film its title, it is 13 year-old Chloe Moretz as the adorable but deadly ‘Hit-Girl’ who undoubtedly steals the show. To describe her performance as ‘grown-up’ seems rather patronising, nor does it do justice to the sheer brilliance of her portrayal of a miniature assassin.The film’s combination of humour, outlandish action, and emotional drama really does owe a massive amount to her performance. Indeed, it is her role that has generated much of the aforementioned controversy. In the course of two hours she uses words that would get most children her age grounded for a decade and slaughters a few dozen heavily armed gangsters using a combination of handguns, kitchen knives and acrobatics, all whilst wearing a purple wig and matching cape. Offensive? Perhaps. Inappropriate? Maybe. Entertaining? Definitely.

If the action I’ve just described sounds a bit crazy then you’re right, it is, and I loved every minute of it. Whilst some would try to make one feel guilty for this, those with the ability to actually distinguish between a film and reality are in for a treat. Kick-Ass controls its craziness, unleashing it at just the right moments to create spectacular action sequences and some really quite surreal scenes; watching a father and daughter practising getting shot whilst discussing ice cream is brilliantly bizarre, and disturbingly funny.

Underlying all of this of course is the script, which finds the perfect tempo; there wasn’t a single moment where I felt my attention waning. The writers have pulled off something special; the film stays true to its origins, whilst simultaneously mocking recent comic-book adaptations, most obviously with lines such as; ‘with no power comes no responsibility’. There are some dark and even disturbing moments in this film but it never takes itself too seriously; it doesn’t try to justify the violence like The Dark Knight, another brilliant but very different film.

I’m not exaggerating when I say that Kick-Ass is the most entertaining film I have ever seen. Not only is it top-quality entertainment, on every level it’s a wonderful piece of cinema. My only regret upon reviewing Kick-Ass is that convention limits me to giving it only five stars.

 

five stars