Car on burning car symbolises the razing of French democracy to the ground, as violence flares across the republic. Last weekend saw the introduction of curfews by city authorities as part of the emergency legislation implemented by the French government. The fifty year old law was originally brought in as an attempt to counteract the guerrilla efforts during the algerian war of independence, but, as of last week, is now being used for the first time in mainland France.later, the British summer became unusually hot when the northern towns of Oldham, Bradford and Burnley were set ablaze after alleged provocation by the British National Front-inspired race riots.As well as allowing local authorities to put curfews into place, it has some potentially far more unsettling features. Measures can be imposed upon the whole country, restricting people’s movements in even completely unaffected areas. authorities have the power to assume control of the media. police are free to carry out raids on homes as they deem necessary. The latter was intended to act upon suspicion of stockpiling weapons, but is currently in use to freely search for suspected participants in the violence. it is now illegal to meet publicly with the perceived intention of causing disorder. This in practice could mean as little as peaceful protest.Firm and swift action may be needed, but the suspension of civil liberties may go unquestioned by parliament for up to twelve days. democracy is on hold. it is not without irony that France, which still prides itself on its revolutionary principles of liberté, égalité and fraternité and annually celebrates the storming of the Bastille, can dismiss liberté so quickly and show little concern towards the effects such action will have on any remaining sense of fraternité. admittedly, this violence seems to lack political purpose, but the revolution too was first and foremost an uprising against inequality. Britain, at least, seems more consistent. On 5 November, the majority of the population celebrated, once again, the prevention of an attack upon our democracy. in doing so, we ritualistically burned an effigy of our most notorious terrorist to the sound of shouts and cheers. keeping with such aggressive tradition, our government is responding to the risk of terrorism with excessive legislation. while for us fire and explosions mark the preservation of democracy, for France it marks its suspension.The first of the riots took place on the evening of 27 October in clichy-sous-Bois following the deaths of two boys. The teenagers had run into an electricity substation under the assumption that they were being chased by police after being found at the scene of a break-in. authorities have since denied this. Nevertheless, the belief spread that the police were to blame, helped by the silent march which took place two days later where marchers wore tops emblazoned with the slogan ‘dead for nothing’.Regardless of the specifics, the fuel for the fire has been mounting for a long time. Many of the post-war immigrants have never fully integrated into society and since the 1980s the hLMs (habitations à Loyer Modéré), state-provided accommodation, home to large groups from ethnic minorities, have become symbols of social exclusion. Visible monuments to separation between the inhabitants of the cités and the rest of society have also purportedly become the source of discrimination in job application. For years, stories have circulated of employers at interview, on sight of the address on the head of the form, informing applicants from HLMs that the position has already been filled. whether completely true or not, there are undoubtedly still racial tensions in the banlieues of cities throughout France. it could be argued that class provides the greatest social divisions, but the importance of cultural differences must not be ignored either. skin colour or religious symbolism, such as a headscarf, merely supplies a visual stimulus with which to pigeonhole people, typically as criminals and never victims.Hence, it was not with applause that the unsympathetic comments made on 25 October, two days prior to the first troubles, by interior Minister, Nicolas sarkozy, were met. His suggestion to take a "power hose" to areas with high crime was both insensitive and incendiary. after all, it has been his decision to substantially reduce the number of community police officers, only for them to have to return charging in full riot gear.Even François Massenet, secretary general of uNsa-police, the union for French expressed malaise over sarkozy’s comments, which he implied was a part-timer’s response. Too often have the French government responded to situations on a short-term, reactionist basis, rather than considering long-term plans for such enormous problems. But what democratic government is not guilty of the same?Riots are, of course, nothing new. in 1991 the beating of the african-american rodney King sparked race riots in Los angeles. Ten years Indeed, the recent violence has been compared to the events of May 1968, which spread throughout the population gaining support from all demographics. The increasing unrest over the last couple of weeks is, unlike the student revolts, unlikely to spread from its current lone demographic. while people of the same social class and ethnic background may show solidarity in not condemning the random acts of violence, there can be no such support in other areas of society, when it lacks a political or ideological focus. On the contrary, the acts have been solely an expression of anger. There is little political motivation behind beating elderly men to death or setting disabled women alight, although these are only isolated incidents and the far-right have been also been active attempting to incite further divisions along racial fault lines.There are uncanny parallels between the very real and very awful events of the previous weeks and the fictional ones of La haine. in Mathieu Kassovitz’s 1995 film, a boy dies after sustaining injuries while in police custody. rioting ensues and, ultimately, Vinz, the young Jewish protagonist, seeks his own retribution for the injustice. his anger, or hate, appears slightly self-indulgent, but is, symbolically, uncontrollable and indiscriminate; he does not seem to care who he hurts, employing an us-against-them mentality. The consequences are bloody and tragic. Police react with extreme force.Of course, a policeman’s job in such a situation is of inestimable difficulty and the fictional police are portrayed rather unsympathetically. It has, nevertheless, been alleged that police officers have referred to suspects as "dirty arabs" and told families of children thought to be involved in the violence, in their own homes, to "go home". This just goes to show what bubbles under the surface, even when tensions are not so high.So, while it remains difficult to discern protest from wanton destruction and aggression, which would seem to support the actions of the French administration, handing over more power to the police is not necessarily a sensible idea. The allegations against police, even if untrue, present more provocation. As one youth is quoted by Le parisien as saying, "More repression means more destruction."Immigrants who would once have been proud of their individual heritage now often refer to themselves just as Muslims, adopting religion, a potential source of radicalism, as the part of them that binds them with the largest number of people. Feelings of social isolation and hopelessness may lead some to extreme measures, partly because it creates an unbreakable solidarity between themselves and others like them.Media groups fail to agree on whether, as the Le Figaro reports, "tous se disent solidaires des violences urbaines de ces derniers jours" (‘everyone claims solidarity with the instances of urban violence in recent days’) or whether in fact, as patrick Sabatir of Libération stated, "most inhabitants of these ghettos do not approve of their [those involved] senseless destruction". continued to claim that, since there is no political motivation behind the actions of youths, the violence is purely "blind rage against injustice and inequality".When even French rappers, such as the social lyricist, shurik’N, disseminate awareness of the ever-present aggression within the cités, it beggars belief that the government are yet to act for the long-term. Not that it is likely that dominique de Villepin listens to rap music in between cabinet meetings, but this fact is, nonetheless, demonstrative of the administration’s ignorance of or, worse still, insensibility to the burgeoning social conflicts in their own country. in fact, it is completely deaf to such problems, as it collects no information about issues such as academic success or failure of distinct social or ethnic groups under the impression that they are preserving égalité. as such, it is impossible to know the full extent of the current divides between social groups and so even more difficult to solve them.Quite simply, the government have, for whatever reason, failed to move for preventative, or at least containing, actions. This is surely a fault of government. They have surely let down the people who they represent. Yet, this is sadly not the case. democracy, far from representing the people, represents only those who elect the government or, in fact, only those who will vote for them next time. with this in mind, long-term plans are rarely implemented. Moreover, social divides are maintained, as some groups will always be neglected by an elected government. even a Labour government, albeit a New Labour government, has increased the gap between rich and poor.So, while we might bandy about the idea of democracy as the route to social freedom, even invade a country or two on our crusade of ideals, let us stop for a moment, perhaps longer, and reflect on the limitations of the system we share with the rest of the western world. Of course, enjoy your personal freedoms, while the wheels of democracy still turn, but appreciate that they are driven by someone else, who can stamp on the brakes at any moment.ARCHIVE: 6th week MT 2005

Fraser Campbell, a
former president of the Oxford Union, has become one of the few students who
attended a state school to be admitted as a Fellow of the prestigious All Souls
College.Campbell,
who graduated from Pembroke this year with a first in Law, was unanimously
elected by the existing Fellows of to hold a seven year Fellowship. He said, “I’m
delighted to have been elected a Fellow, as it gives me a great opportunity to
combine my legal training with continuing research in broader fields.”The
College Warden, Dr John Davis, said, “We are full of self-congratulation at
having elected Fraser Campbell to the Fellowship.” Despite reports in The Times
and The Mirror newspapers that Campbell had been
the first state-edu­cated pupil to be admitted, Davis told Cherwell that this was not
the case.All
Souls does, however, remain dominated by Fellows with public or private school
backgrounds. Davis
said, “We have seventy Fellows. Of these am pretty sure ten or a dozen or so
went to state schools immediately before coming to Oxford and then becoming
prize Fellows.” This would mean that about 16% of Fellows had a state school
background.Campbell’s
old school, St Ninian’s high school in Glasgow,
is a state comprehensive which rarely sends pupils to Oxbridge. Campbell’s former English
and guidance teacher, Camilla Sheridan, said that despite attendance of target
schools conferences, “some years no-one even applies to Oxbridge”. Last year
only one student applied, but failed to gain a place, and this year the only
applicant is Fraser’s younger sister. Sheridan described as an
“inspiration” to students, who are famil­iar with his success story, especially
after he was invited back to present prizes at the annual prizegiving ceremony.Campbell said: “too many
students from ordinary backgrounds convince themselves that they will face
discrimi­nation at Oxbridge and so don’t apply: in fact, when they apply they
do very well in the admissions process. If my appointment at (and previ­ously
my post at the union) shows that comprehensive school pupils can do well at Oxford, then glad, but
certainly don’t want to be seen as the exception that proves the rule.ARCHIVE: 6th week MT 2005

Serious equal
opportunities concerns have been raised over the announce­ment of a blanket ban
on wearing headgear at St Catz’s JCR bar.The
new rule was communicated to students in an e-mail sent out by Peter Eleveld,
the college’s domestic man­ager. In it he said, “have been asked to inform you
that there is now a JCR Bar policy that NO HeadGear will be worn whilst you are
being served at the Bar.” The reason he gives is, “As licensees we must be
absolutely certain that we are able to identify those that we actually serve.”Crucially,
students who have to wear ’headgear’ for religious reasons will be included in
the ban as well; they will have to ask permission to be exempted. It
is, however, unclear how the policy will be applied to guests to the bar from
outside the college if they have not had prior approval to purchase drinks. OUSU
VP (Welfare & Equal Op­portunities), Aidan Randle-Conde, said,
"refusing to offer services to students and staff who wish to wear a
headscarf or burqa is discriminatory and irresponsible. St Catherine’s col­lege
should seriously reconsider their policy of who they can and cannot serve in
their bar. whilst am not in a position to give legal advice, the College may
find itself in violation of the race relations amendment 2000 which states that
public authorities have a responsibility to ’promote equality of opportunity
and good relations between persons of different racial groups’.”Eleveld
defended the new policy stating, "believe the ban is necessary for the Jcr
bar because it is after all a busy bar, we do get lots of guests, and incidents
do occur from time to time.” Arzoo
Ahmed, VP (sisters) of Isoc said, “The security concerns of the College relating
to the bar are under­standable. However, the action that has been taken in the
form of a ban of headgear isn’t practical enough and should be given serious
thought. The implementation of an indiscriminate ban would be worrying as
students wearing headgear for religious reasons from outside the College would
be unable to get clearing beforehand and would therefore be refused service. I would
urge those involved to carefully consider the implications of such a
prohibition.”Rosalie
Hooke, St Catz Equal Opportunities rep, said, “the past week an e-mail
circulated to the JCR introduced a new rule concerning bar regulations. Major
concerns over the content and implementation of the new rule caused the JCR
committee to report the matter to the college authorities. An internal official
investi­gation has since been launched and we await the results of this.ARCHIVE: 6th week MT 2005

Oxford
daredevil David Kirke is planning to fly a giant inflat­able winged horse from
the base of Mount Olympus in Greece,
across the Mediterranean, to Tripoli,
Libya.The
fifty-nine year old hopes to recreate the mythical flight of Pegasus on a forty
foot high white stallion, with a wingspan of 80ft, following his successful
attempt in 1986 to ‘hop’ across the English Channel in the pouch of an inflat­able
kangaroo.Kirke
founded the Oxford University Dangerous Sports Club in the late seventies,
along with Chris Baker and Ed Hulton. The Club first came to public attention
when Kirke became the first person in the world to do a bungee jump, on 1 April
1979, from the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol. His maiden jump earned him arrest
for ‘disturbing the peace’ and a £100 fine.Kirke
described his latest endeav­our as an “engineering nightmare”. Asked whether he
had an ETA or a rough idea of when Pegasus would be ready, he laughed and
replied, “No ETA. ETAs are a luxury.” He explained that “even a simple thing
like bungee jumping took a great deal of Maths beforehand.”“It
will be a real engineering challenge to build, but no one has ever done it
throughout history. There are hundreds of thousands of images of Pegasus, but
no one has actually seen one fly through the air. In theory it should not turn
over because the wind should hit all the surfaces at the same time. That’s the
theory.”When
completed, Pegasus will be entirely inflatable, made of a specially-designed
fabric, combin­ing strength and lightness. Helium gas will be used for
inflation, rather than hydrogen burners, and the horse will gain height by
offloading ballast and descend by releasing helium. Kirke plans to pilot his
equine companion from a position somewhere near its head, but he will be very
much dependent on the trade winds blowing down through Africa
for direction.The
veteran daredevil and pioneer of ‘extreme sports’ said, “There will be plenty
of nights leading up to it sipping horlicks and biting finger­nails but worries
are just something you have to sort out before you go because otherwise it
spoils the fun when you do.”The
attempt could cost up to £100,000. However, Kirke is encouraged by the fact
that a large number of companies around the world use the Pegasus name and
image, and he believes that this will increase the likelihood of secur­ing
sufficient sponsorship for the projectARCHIVE: 6th week MT 2005

A former Balliol student who was
arrested and detained in custody for a night after calling a police horse “gay”
is now to face court. Sam Brown, who graduated with an English
degree from Oxford this year, is to appear
before a City Magistrate’s Court in London
next month after he failed to pay his fixed penalty notice of £80. He has been charged with “threatening,
abusive or insulting words or behaviour or disorderly behaviour within the
hearing or sight of a person likely to be caused harassment or distress” under
the Public Order Act. On the night of the incident
Brown and his friends left the Cellar bar and came across two mounted
policemen. Brown asked one of the policemen, “How do you feel about your horse
being gay?” and was arrested after repeated comments about the sexuality of the
police officer’s horse. Brown’s offer of an apology had
been rejected. He told Cherwell that he didn’t
pay his fine because at the time he had just graduated, “I had no money, had
just finished my Finals and I was skint. It wasn’t all about principle or about
the police being stupid: basically I didn’t think I should be fined.” He received his summons around
two weeks ago when he returned to Oxford
to visit friends and found that it had been left in the pigeon hole of a first
year at Balliol, also called Sam Brown. “I didn’t know it was coming, I thought
they might have dropped the charges.” Brown described the situation as “pedantic
and ridiculous” and said that the police were “relying on the point that could
have offended any passers-by at 2am on a Sunday morning. We pretty much had the
street to ourselves.” Brown said that he plans to plead not guilty. Brown said, “feel very strongly
about it, don’t want a criminal record.” said he said that he has obtained
legal advice from a barrister who feels he has a “solid” case. Daniel Konrad-Cooper,
former JCR President at Balliol who was with Brown at the time of the incident,
said, “It’s pretty ridiculous. It’ll be interesting to see how it bears up. I didn’t
think it warranted him being arrested, didn’t think it warranted six police
officers and I didn’t think it warranted a night in the cells.” The current JCR of Balliol, Triona
Giblin, agreed, “I think it’s a bit of a shame that something so obviously a
joke which was not meant to be offensive was taken out of all proportion.”ARCHIVE: 6th week MT 2005

Students from St Hilda’s College
have this week reacted angrily after Cherwell’s Passé Notes last week contained irreverent comments
about the College.The article, written by Simon Akam,
Cherwell Features Editor, described the
college as perennially placed “in the Vauxhall conference of the Oxford academic league”
due to the fact that “they just haven’t got any boys to get Firsts for them.”The article also stated that “few
of the beasts grazing the banks of the Cherwell are particularly leggy or
graceful, unless they happen to be an errant deer from Magdalen.” Akam’s
comments have provoked a barrage of letters to the Cherwell editors. In a joint letter Sophie
Brighouse and Sophie Griffiths, both students at St Hilda’s, described the
article as “superficial, sexist and utterly pointless.”They added: “would like to
suggest that an Oxford
University college is
perhaps more than an institution in which to find the ‘particularly leggy’. I would
even go so far as to claim that lumping people together by sexuality may not be
the most mature or politically correct thing to do.”Alice Ramsay, another student at
said: “Last year, in Literature alone, seven people from got a First in their
Finals. So, it seems that students at St Hilda’s don’t need ‘boys to get Firsts
for them’ after all.” Georgie Edwards and Tamsin Chislett, Entz Reps, added “Obviously,
we generally wish to avoid being hypocritical about expressing stereotypes, but
the author may wish to ask LMH what it feels like to be at the bottom of the
Norrington Table, because frankly, we Hildabeasts wouldn’t know.”Akam also informed his readers
that “contrary to popular belief, and the pictures in the alternative prospectus
of drunken girl-on-girl twister action, not all students are lesbians. With
such a foreign legion present many of them are bi…lingual.”To this, Edwards and Chislett
retorted: “is it our fault that we enjoy the occasional naked pillow fight?! If
we didn’t feel that such activities were met with the current level of
negativity within the University, we’d invite more of you to join in.”Simon Akam said “is unfortunate that
the students of are perhaps not taking the column in the manner in which it was
intended. I, however, have absolutely no desire to get involved in further
discussions.”Cherwell editors, Luke Alexander and
George Davies, defended their decision to print last week’s Notes, saying in a
joint statement: “Clearly the piece itself was just a bit of banter. All
colleges suffer some form of stereotyping, for example Jesus as ‘sheepshaggers’,
St Hugh’s for its close proximity to Birmingham, but apparently some take these
things more seriously than others. We hope that at some point in the future,
the good women of St Hilda’s will find it in their hearts to forgive us.”ARCHIVE: 6th week MT 2005

The Oxford City NHS Primary Care Trust
(PCT) is looking to create a unified health centre in Oxford
by 2012 to replace GP practices around Oxford.The PCT is a health trust that
works on cases outside hospitals. It is currently in talks with the local
community to decide upon the best site for a local health centre. The OUSU Vice
President (Welfare and Equal Opportunities), Aidan Randle-Conde, has been
requested to find out where students wish to have the central health centre
located. Aidan has sent an email to all JCR
Presidents and college Welfare Officers asking them to discuss the PCT plans at
their next JCR meetings. He wrote, “The plans are to move local GP practices
from across Oxford (Jericho, Beaumont Street etc) to a central site on
the Radcliffe Infirmary site.” There are currently four plans
under consideration: to move all facilities to a) the Radcliffe Infirmary (RI)
site; b) to the RI site and the Wellington Square site; c) to the site and the Tidmarsh
Lane site; or d) to renovate existing facilities. The PCT hopes to use feedback
from the local community, including students, whom they feel should be integral
to their decision making process, to decide between one of these four options. Melanie Proudfoot, Communications
Manager for the PCT, said, “Many current GP practices are in old buildings
which need to be replaced.” The PCT is “planning to put them onto the Radcliffe
Infirmary site or onto another site so that we can develop their facilities and
allow other facilities to expand.” This will also prevent students
and patients from having to “travel around different locations,” and will
provide “many different health services in one complex.” She added that
therapies, such as psychotherapy, currently provided in Churchill or Headington,
and X-rays provided by the John Radcliffe, would be on one site and so save
people an extra journey. The closer health care facilities
will be welcomed by many Oxford
students who currently have to travel long distances to get to their GP. Laura Callaghan-Pace,
a second year at St Hilda’s, said that the Oxford health care system was “horrendous”
after she spent much of last term trying to cope with illness. “I had to trek
all the way to the Radcliffe Infirmary and then up Banbury Road to see my GP, and then to Headington.”
Laura thinks it would be “beneficial and very useful to have everything on the
same site”. However, Adam Kelly, Welfare Representative
of St Anne’s College said, “believe students are quite happy with the current
system as our local health centre is a one minute walk away from the College.”The JCR President of St Peter’s College
Omar Shekwini, said he was pleased that the health care trust was consulting
students “if this is a genuine means of determining what students think.” Oxford students will have
to wait to see whether their opinions do affect the PCT’s decision.ARCHIVE: 6th week MT 2005