Sunday, April 27, 2025
Blog Page 315

Significant reductions in COVID-19 infections found after single dose of Oxford-AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine

Anvee Bhutani
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Significant reductions in COVID-19 infections found after single dose of Oxford-AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine

The COVID-19 Infection Survey, a partnership between the University of Oxford, the Office of National Statistics (ONS) and the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC), has released data that shows the impact of vaccination on antibody responses and new infections in adults aged 16 years and older.

Researchers analysed nose and throat swabs and found that 21 days after a single dose of either Oxford-AstraZeneca or Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines (with no second dose), the rates of all new COVID-19 infections had dropped by 65%, symptomatic infections by 72% and infections without reported symptoms by 57%.

Dr Koen Pouwels, senior researcher in Oxford University’s Nuffield Department of Population Health, says, ‘The protection from new infections gained from a single dose supports the decision to extend the time between first and second doses to 12 weeks to maximise initial vaccination coverage and reduce hospitalisations and deaths.

“However, the fact that we saw smaller reductions in asymptomatic infections than infections with symptoms highlights the potential for vaccinated individuals to get COVID-19 again, and for limited ongoing transmission from vaccinated individuals, even if this is at a lower rate. This emphasises the need for everyone to continue to follow guidelines to reduce transmission risk, for example through social distancing and masks.”

The second study compared how antibody levels changed after a single dose of either Oxford-AstraZeneca or Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, or two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. In individuals who had not had COVID-19 before, antibody responses to a single dose of either vaccine were lower in older individuals, especially over 60 years. 

David Eyre, Associate Professor at the Big Data Institute at the University of Oxford, says, “In older individuals, two vaccine doses are as effective as prior natural infection at generating antibodies to the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 – in younger individuals a single dose achieves the same level of response. Our findings highlight the importance of individuals getting the second vaccine dose for increased protection.”

Sarah Walker, Professor of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology at the University of Oxford and Chief Investigator and Academic Lead for the COVID-19 Infection Survey added, “We don’t yet know exactly how much of an antibody response, and for how long, is needed to protect people against getting COVID-19 in the long-term – but over the next year, information from the survey should help us to answer these questions. “

The group will continue to monitor the pandemic on a weekly basis to look for warning signs of infection rates rising within specific regions and groups in order to monitor the immunity against COVID-19.

Health Minister Lord Bethell said, “Studies like the ONS COVID-19 Infection Survey are critical to helping us build a picture of COVID-19 infections across the UK and I thank all those who took part and conducted this vital research.”

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said, “With over 33 million first jabs already in arms, saving lives and cutting the risk of infection, it’s vital everyone gets their second dose when invited, to protect you and your loved ones against this disease. The vaccine programme has shown what our country can achieve when working as one, it is our way out of the pandemic. When you get the call, get the jab.”

Cherwell Explained: Local Elections

Matilda Gettins
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Cherwell Explained: Local Elections

Local elections will be taking place across the UK on Thursday 6th of May, with polling stations open from 7 am to 10 pm. Oxford residents (including students and EU nationals) can cast their votes for Oxford City Council, Oxfordshire County Council, and the Police and Crime Commissioner for Thames Valley. Cherwell has put together a list of 8 reasons why local politics matter.

1) Sustainable travel

Perhaps the most obvious way local politics affects everyday life in Oxford is mobility. Larger transport projects, including building new roads and cycling paths are the responsibility of Oxfordshire County Council. The City Council plays a role in transport as well and can suggest emission-reducing initiatives such as pedestrianising Oxford City Centre. 

2) Clean, safe and inclusive streets

Making streets safe is mainly the responsibility of the County Council, which takes care of street-lighting, traffic lights and kerbs, and so can also play a significant role in making Oxford’s streets inclusive and accessible to all. Small street maintenance issues, such as bollards and gullies, are covered by the City Council. The City Council also ensures streets are clean and can impose fines of £80 for dropping litter – including chewing gum.

3) Parks, and leisure and sport facilities

Oxford wouldn’t be the same without its parks. Oxford City Council takes care of eight parks as well as Port Meadow. This includes keeping them clean, regulating opening hours and taking action on biodiversity, e.g. planting only native plant types or supporting wildflower growth. The City Council can also provide or support leisure facilities, such as tennis courts, gyms or punting.

4) Housing

Oxford University estimates the range for housing costs for students to be between £650 and £790 per month, significantly above the national average. The City Council is responsible for regulating housing in Oxford, and can supply social housing or support affordable housing. It also collects property-based Council tax. However, full time students are exempt from this tax, and if you are paying it, you can apply for exemption. 

5) Homelessness

The number of rough sleepers has increased by 400% since 2012 in Oxford. The City Council is responsible for tackling homelessness in Oxford, by providing emergency beds, long-term support and prevention programmes. 

6) Rubbish and Recycling

Oxford City Council takes care of rubbish, recycling and food collections in Oxford. They are the point of contact for requesting new/larger bins if your bins are often already full before collection, or if there are issues with bin collection. Oxfordshire County Council runs recycling centres and are a key figure in supporting waste reductions schemes.

7) Markets and Shops

Oxford City Council runs markets such as the Covered Market or Gloucester Green Market, working in cooperation with the stalls or organisations. The City Council is also responsible for collecting business rates (taxes on businesses) and can help support businesses during a crisis as well as normal times, through financial and personal support. 

8) Addressing crime in Oxford

The local elections are also a possibility to vote for the Policy and Crime Commissioner of Thames Valley. The candidates’ policies on the much-discussed Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts bill have been reviewed by Cherwell. Local police also address issues such as Oxford’s high number of bike thefts.

Image Credit: Jill Cushen

Meet the St Peter’s student running for the Liberal Democrats in the local elections

Matilda Gettins
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Meet the St Peter’s student running for the Liberal Democrats in the local elections

Matilda Gettins speaks to Theo Jupp, a second-year French and German student at St. Peters. Theo is standing for the Liberal Democrats in the Cowley Ward in the upcoming Oxford City Council elections, and in Iffley Fields and St. Mary’s in the Oxfordshire County Council election.

MG: A lot of Oxford students choose to go into student over ‘real’ politics. What made you interested in local politics?

TJ: When I came to Oxford, I dabbled in student politics. And very quickly, I realised that actually, local politics is the most important in terms of being transformative to people’s lives: things like housing, the amount of money we pay for council tax, the local services that are provided to us. And even things as broad as the way we are viewed as inhabitants of this particular city, they really fall under the remit of local politics and local elections. 

[Being] a proper student voice and actual student voice, a student who will be in Oxford, and who will act on behalf of students on the local level, so that we can stop this vicious cycle of students being pitted against local residents. That’s my motivation.

MG: The first point in the Liberal’s manifesto is “Vote Lib Dem for a Greener City”. If I want a greener city, why not just vote for the Green Party? 

TJ: Simply put, because we have first past the post in this country. Obviously, that’s something that Lib Dems and the Greens want to change. But the fact is, if you vote Green, your vote is wasted. The parties that came first or second last time, have the largest probability of coming first or second this time. Unless you vote for those two parties, your vote is effectively lost. 

And at the Lib Dems, we also have an extremely green manifesto. We want to green local spaces, we want to institute a target so that all buildings that are built carbon zero, we want to decarbonize public transport, and we want to make sure that community initiatives can flourish through volunteer networks and activists. Voting Lib Dem when you’re green is not really a compromise.

MG: You promise to “put Zero Carbon front and centre of all policies” while new developments should be “Net Zero”. So is it zero carbon or is it net zero? There’s a difference, you know.

TJ: Yes, there is a difference. It’s the net zero definition of the UK building body, which has a three letter acronym. I think it’s GB or GD something.

(A quick check after the interview reveals: GBC, who have a net zero definition which includes construction and operational energy)

MG: You proposed a motion that the St Peter’s JCR voice their regret about Oxford SU’s adoption of the Academic Hate Speech motion, which recommended expanding the University’s free speech policy so that hate speech on the grounds of gender identity, disability, and socioeconomic status are treated equally to groups protected by criminal law. 

TJ: That’s right.

MG: Why?

TJ: My issue is not in any way with the motivation for the motion, which I share, and which I think is absolutely the right one. My issue is with the fact that the motion was so poorly devised and put together that it left us in a situation where we were open to attacks from the sorts of people who would want to do harm to trans people, to LGBTQ+ people, to people of a particular ethnic minority or religious minority.

You see, the motion was so broad as to suggest that tutors should stop teaching particular texts or exempt students from reading particular texts, which may contain material which was harmful to them. Now, that in itself is not a bad thing. …

[The issue is that it] enabled the right-wing free speech warriors types of this country to pounce on us. And it gives further fuel to the fire that our students are anti free speech, and that students are intolerant of this and that and the other and should be kept in check. Once they gain the upper hand on that level, then they can introduce things like free speech warriors, as the government wants to, which would really shut down debate on important issues like trans rights, where we really shouldn’t be having much of a conversation, because trans rights are human rights. And if we allow them that kind of wiggle room to get in, and if we allow the government to kind of impose its side of the culture war on us, then the people who the motion sought to protect will be hurt even more. And that was my motivation.

MG: What would you to to prevent discrimination against these groups in Cowley ward?

As an example, regarding transphobia and trans rights: the most effective thing, first and foremost, is to be a visible ally. … [If] elected, I would be a visible ally. I am already a visible ally. I don’t accept a lot of the debate that’s going on in the press, and that the government’s trying to perpetuate, because maybe there really shouldn’t be a debate at all. And in my view, we should be shutting the debate down because these are cut and dried issues.

MG: In 2019, the Liberal democrats proposed to revoke Article 50 immediately and stop Britain leaving the EU without another referendum. What effects has Brexit had on Oxford and the wards you’re running in in particular?

TJ: For British home students, the single most important thing, apart from any political concern or apart from any, you know, particular attachment that people have to the EU, is the loss of Erasmus. That’s not a problem for the University of Oxford, which is extremely rich, and can support students for a year abroad. But for other universities, this has been an issue. I know of many modern linguists at other universities who it’s not that they haven’t been able to access equivalent funding. In future years, obviously, Erasmus is going to be replaced by the Turing programme, but this really doesn’t cover as much as Erasmus did. 

I am an international myself. The issue has been for students applying for settled status and obtaining settled status. They’ve been continually messed over by the pandemic, because the pandemic meant that many returned home, and they couldn’t fulfil the required time requirements to gain pre-settled status or even settled status. I think that situation has since been rectified for the majority of international students, but it took a long time.

Image credit: Chris Reynolds / CC-AS 2.0

The Undercurrent: the ‘Leaders of Tomorrow’ look suspiciously like the ‘Arseholes of Today’

Lucas Jones
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The Undercurrent: the ‘Leaders of Tomorrow’ look suspiciously like the ‘Arseholes of Today’

Three members of the current White House are Oxford alumni, as well as nine members of the British cabinet (a further five went to Cambridge). Boris Johnson’s new worst enemy, Dominic Cummings, also went to Oxford. Keir Starmer did his BCL here, and six other members of his Shadow Cabinet attended in some capacity.  The current editors of The Daily Telegraph, The Daily Mail, The Guardian, and The Sunday Times all went, as well as notable television presenters including Ben Browne, Fiona Bruce, and Reeta Chakrabarti. Two winning films at the 2021 Oscars were written or directed by Oxford alumni. 

An impressive record, and one that our University is undoubtedly proud of. Public discourse, regardless of its medium, is dominated by Oxonians (blurgh). That is indisputable. Whether this dominance is a force for good is a totally different question. In light of this week’s political debacle, perhaps it’s time to stop pretending that Oxford’s obsession with producing ‘the leaders of tomorrow’ is in any way healthy.

In theory, it almost sounds like a good idea: Oxford is an incredibly selective institution that prides itself on stretching its students to breaking point. Logic maintains that it should produce the most hard-working, dedicated people, so it makes sense that alumni should be found in high positions in every aspect of public life. The reality, however, is that the people that ‘make it’ to these positions aren’t your regular, hard-working students who enjoy a night out at Bridge or a pint in Spoons. The people that are poised to dominate the political, cultural, and economic landscapes of our future are the people who were funnelled straight from elite boarding schools to the Oxford Union. In other words, we’re totally screwed. 

Don’t get me wrong, I like to laugh at student politics as much as the next man. Recently, however, it seems like it’s starting to seep into the real world. Take the latest calamity in Downing Street, which has seen Johnson scrambling to cover a trail of corruption and obscenity by spraying blame on Cummings like a threatened skunk. In response, the latter published a searing tell-all on his WordPress blog, revealing disastrous allegations of corruption and sleaze to the surprise of precisely no one. My immediate response was, admittedly, the profound nausea I always get when I see a photo of these two men. However, as the urge to vomit receded, it was quickly replaced by a nagging sense of déjà vu.

Let’s look at the facts: a blustering, offensively posh leader of a political bloc makes atrocious comments to friends in semi-private settings. When these comments are made public, he seeks to blame a previously close friend who, in many ways,is just as odious. That ex-friend then responds with a vicious, online statement which will likely damage the leader’s prospects in an upcoming election. Sound familiar?

Oxford’s ability to propel it’s most vile students into the stratosphere of British public life has left the UK at the mercy of a dispute between a “career psychopath” who looks like he’d be more comfortable praising the Death Star’s construction from under a hood, and a sex-obsessed buffoon whose best PR moment in the last ten years was rugby-tackling a Japanese child. If this were just another student-society tantrum, fine. We’d get some atrocious speakers, no one would go to the events, and the disgraced couple would slink into the shadows of consulting or investment banking when their terms were up. But this is not student politics. This is real life. Their ignorance and hunger for power have contributed to one of the worst disasters in Britain’s post-war history. 

It’s starting to dawn on me that graduating will not be the end of the mortifying political spats that grace our Facebook feeds every other week. I had assumed that the preposterous volume of scandals at Oxford was a result of public school boys suddenly coming into contact with normal people in an environment with an unhealthy level of media coverage (there are FIVE student newspapers!). This assumption now seems laughably naive. I’m slowly coming to terms with the fact that we’re destined to relive the same sordid scandals for the next 30 years, each time with higher stakes, until Russia finally puts us out of our misery with a well-placed nuke. 

There are only two possible solutions to the problem. The first is simple: a total moratorium on hiring Oxford graduates in the media, politics, and the City. Forever. As effective as that would be, as a prospective graduate who is rather keen not to starve to death in his early twenties, I selfishly think that it might not be the best way forward. The second is more complex: actually teach the skills and attributes these people will need when they reach high office. 

Perhaps Oxford students know enough about Keats, The Iliad, and Keynesian economics. Maybe it’s time to replace that Roman Law module with “Apologising 101” or “Introduction to Guilt, Shame, and Embarrassment”. If Oxford is going to keep stuffing itself with children whose parents abandoned them in the wilderness of boarding school to grow up like Spartans, it needs to realise that it has a duty to teach them the values that most people learn from their family and friends. Otherwise, we can look forward to more porcine antics from our Latin-spewing classmates in Number 10.

Art by Justin Lim.

Oxford University criticised for its tracking of Israel’s vaccine delivery

Jill Cushen
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Oxford University criticised for its tracking of Israel’s vaccine delivery

The University of Oxford has been criticised for its tracking of Israel’s coronavirus vaccine delivery numbers on Our World in Data, a scientific online publication affiliated with the University.  

In an open letter signed by organisations, rights groups accused Oxford University of using “politicised” numbers and “misleading” figures as well as “celebrating” what they describe as “one of the oldest regimes of military occupation.” The number of vaccinated people published on the website does not include Palestinians. 

Our World in Data is an online research and database which aims to make the knowledge of the world’s largest problems accessible and understandable. The website tracks international covid-19 cases, deaths and vaccination doses. The open letter acknowledged its status as a “leading tool for tracking vaccination delivery.”

The open letter has been signed by groups such as Amnesty International, Physicians for Human Rights Israel and a coalition of Palestinian human rights groups. Citing the Fourth Geneva Convention, 19 NGOs said that the 4.5 million Palestinians living under Israel’s military occupation should be included in the figures. The letter’s signatories have called for the site “to accurately include all Israelis and Palestinians living under Israeli control as a denominator when calculating Israel’s percentage of vaccination coverage”.

On their website, Our World in Data notes that “Israel has conducted the fastest campaign to vaccinate its population against COVID-19 so far”. Over 10 million vaccine doses have been administered in Israel according to the World Health Organisation. 

However, in the open letter, rights groups said: “it omits the fact that, as an occupying power, Israel has failed to fulfill its obligation under the Fourth Geneva Convention to provide vaccines to all 4.5 million Palestinians living under its military occupation, as affirmed by leading Palestinian, Israeli and international health and human rights organizations.” 

The letter also reads: “With the ongoing devastating effects of the coronavirus pandemic and the impending hope for a better future in sight, it is more crucial than ever for scientists and policy makers to accurately track and follow vaccination coverage.” 

United Nations experts quoted in the letter stated: “International human rights law, which applies in full to the occupied Palestinian territory, stipulates that everyone enjoys the right to ‘the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health’. The denial of an equal access to health care, such as on the basis of ethnicity or race, is discriminatory and unlawful.”  

In a written response shared with The Independent, Our World in Data said it agreed with the concerns of the signatories of the letter but declined to change its way of tracking the rollout. 

A spokesperson from Oxford University told Cherwell: “The international COVID-19 vaccination dataset is designed to help with understanding how the pandemic is evolving worldwide. The data is drawn from the most recent official numbers from governments and health ministries worldwide up to the previous day. This follows the approach of other international organisations monitoring the epidemic, including the World Health Organization (WHO) and Johns Hopkins University.” 

They added: “Figures for Palestine and Israel are shown separately, as they are reported separately by the Government of Israel and the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Again, this follows the approach of other international organisations monitoring the epidemic.”

Our World in Data has been contacted for comment. 

Local election candidates reveal views on climate action

Matilda Gettins
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Local election candidates reveal views on climate action

Communities for Zero Carbon Oxford, a collective of local environmental groups in Oxford, has created a twelve-question survey for Oxford candidates in the May 6th local elections, covering a range of environmental issues. The responses have been published on their website, organised by ward.

The questions cover active travel, energy, nature, the importance of the climate emergency for local authorities, and how candidates will contribute to a green and just recovery. The survey asks candidates to indicate their agreement to a range of statements and offers the opportunity to candidates to explain their answers in their own words. 

40% of all candidates have responded (105 out of 260) as of writing. Nearly all respondents heve indicated that they “agree” or “strongly agree” with the importance of the environmental issues highlighted in the survey. Some who have expressed disagreement did so because they believed the statements did not provide enough environmental protection. The strongest support is for the statement “The climate emergency should be an explicit and integral consideration in all local authority decision making”, with 92.5% of respondents indicating that they “strongly agree”, and the remaining 7.5% saying they “agree”.

Rebecca Nestor, Chair of Low Carbon Oxford North, said: “We’re thrilled that so many candidates are engaging with this survey. The responses so far show that there is near universal recognition of the climate and ecological emergency we face – and the need to take action. We urge more candidates to respond. Voters can help by encouraging their local candidates to add their views.”

Oxford Climate Society has also released a Voting Guide for the May 6th elections. The guide details how to sign up for elections, what the key competences of the Councils and Police and Crime Commissioners are and why local elections matter: “Policy and action for climate change does not just happen at a macro national level – local actions are just as important”. The guide also mentions Communities for Zero Carbon’s survey tool, calling it a “fantastic tool” which “gives great insight into key environmental issues that should be paramount to these local elections”. 

Image credit: JimKillok / Wikipedia Commons / CC-AI 4.0

Concerns raised over Oxford Law Faculty’s new £2,500 summer programme

Jill Cushen
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Concerns raised over Oxford Law Faculty’s new £2,500 summer programme

Oxford University’s Law Faculty has launched a new online summer programme which will offer participants who are not eligible for access and outreach programmes the opportunity to find out more about studying at Oxford and practicing law in the UK. Members of the Law Faculty and of the wider University have expressed their concerns over the consequences of promoting this course from the Oxford Law Access and Outreach account.

The summer course ‘The Oxford Introduction to Law in the UK: Thinking Deeply about Law’, will be held online in July 2021 and is open to anyone at university level. The cost of the programme is £2,500 per person. Students enrolled on the course will engage in “enrichment activities” and will have the opportunity to write an essay and receive feedback from Oxford tutors. The course will include more than 50 contact hours made up of lectures, seminars and tutorials. 

The new course, offered directly by the Faculty of Law, was advertised by the Oxford Law Access and Outreach account on Twitter but the post has since been deleted. Members of the University have responded with concerns over the impact of promoting the programme on wider access efforts. 

The course outline on the faculty website reads: “The programme is not connected to the extensive work the Faculty of Law does to promote access to University and its outreach activities to encourage the best to attend University, read law or study at Oxford. The Faculty offers free dedicated summer programmes for students who are under-represented at Oxford, as part of our commitment to attracting the very brightest students regardless of their background.”

Course Director and Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law, Matthew Dyson, wrote: “The Oxford Introduction summer programme is a specialist course designed to engage the best students with key aspects of law, its context and its place in the UK. It is unique in its combination of lectures, seminars and tutorials, giving an insight into the best that the Faculty of Law at the University of Oxford has to offer. If you are looking for a summer school to really stretch your mind, you’ve found it.”

Amy Gregg, Contract law tutor at Exeter and Balliol, and DPhil Law student, told Cherwell: “I sincerely hope that prospective Oxford law applicants do not look at the ‘Introduction to Law in the UK’ summer school (and its price tag) and be put off from applying to Oxford. If you are bright and hardworking, there is a place for you here at Oxford. It is absolutely not necessary to attend that summer school; when I was applying for undergraduate law, I certainly could not have afforded it. The Law Faculty and Oxford University offer a huge range of other fantastic and free resources dedicated to widening access to Oxford (including a free summer school) which I strongly encourage prospective applicants to look at.”

Dr Rebecca Menmuir, a non-stipendiary lecturer at the English Faculty, told Cherwell: “It actively goes against the idea and goodwill of outreach and access programmes to advertise a summer course at £2,500 per head, whether or not this is a reduced fee or not. It’s beyond disappointing to see such an elitist programme promoted through an account and programme which nominally should be working against such educational inequality.” 

Law student at Worcester College and UNIQ summer school alumna, Eleanor Bennett, told Cherwell: “Seeing the Faculty not only organise the summer school but then promote it on the access and outreach Twitter page was incredibly disappointing. If aged 17 I had seen that the Faculty was promoting a £2500 course, I think it would have put me off applying. I would have thought that others were able to purchase an advantage and that I didn’t really belong in a university where £2500 was seen as an ‘access-friendly’ fee. As someone who has spent the past 3 years volunteering to push the narrative that Oxford is for people from all socioeconomic backgrounds, I felt let down – it feels like the Faculty are jumping on the access bandwagon without real commitment or an understanding of how to support social mobility.” 

Arun Smith a final year undergraduate reading law at Christ Church told Cherwell: “As an undergraduate student of the faculty and a volunteer outreach ambassador at my college, it is disheartening and perplexing to see official channels being used to promote courses that are prohibitively expensive and perpetuate inequalities of access to education.” 

He added: “It is understandable (although regrettable) that the current state of higher education funding and the marketisation of universities has led to the creation of ‘cash cow’ courses to generate additional revenue. However, marketing such courses under the pretence of ‘outreach’ and promoting them to prospective students is deeply problematic and will have caused offence to many students who have relied upon and valued genuine access and outreach support.”

A spokesperson for the Law Faculty told Cherwell: “The Faculty of Law is piloting a summer programme to give people around the world a chance to engage with the research and teaching for which Oxford is famous. This pilot is a non-profit enterprise. Applications are not yet open and the final details of the programme are still being finalised.”

“We apologise that an announcement was made about the programme via the @OxLawOutreach Twitter account. This should not have happened and we have made steps to ensure this channel remains focused on our access and outreach activities in the future – activities to which we remain wholeheartedly invested in. The original tweet has been deleted to avoid the risk of confusion.”

“The Oxford Introduction to Law in the UK programme will be open anyone who to is currently at university; has graduated from university; has an offer to study at university; or is at least 19 years old by 12 July 2021. This programme is not suitable for those looking to apply to study law at undergraduate level.”

Image Credit: Simon Q / CC BY-NC 2.0

5/5/21, 16:53 – edits made to wording, changes to statement requested by Law Faculty after initial right of reply was requested

The Map to Happiness: Sweden and ‘Lagom’

Beth Proctor
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The Map to Happiness: Sweden and ‘Lagom’

As I stepped into the freezing cold water of the Thames I wondered whether this was such a great idea after all. What had started out as a fun, harmless experiment suddenly seemed like the very real risk of hypothermia. Wading further into the river I called back to my friends shivering in the shallows. It’s fine (it wasn’t), Honestly it’s not too cold when you get in (it was). But even though I was lying through my chattering teeth, I felt a huge grin spreading across my face as we began to swim. Maybe, I thought, the Swedes are onto something here. 

Our trip to Port Meadow had been inspired by the Swedish idea of lagom, or more specifically by the Scandinavian Winter Bathing Championships. Held in the town of Skellefteå every year, competitors in the race must plunge into 0.3⁰ water wearing nothing but swimming costumes and a hat. Our version of wild swimming was more Butlins than Bear Grylls, but that was what made it lagom. It was enough but not too much. A perfect balance. 

When I spoke to Dr Kersti Börjars she described lagom as “not too little, not too much”, saying “lagom is not just an upper boundary it’s lower boundary as well, it’s important to have a little of [everything]”. The phrase itself is derived from the Swedish word for law and so originally meant “(according) to the law”. However, in folklore it’s origins are said to date back to Viking times, when warriors would pass a horn of mead between them, with “lag” meaning team and “om’ meaning around, so that it literally meant “around the team”.

After our conversation she lent me a Swedish game called Kubb, which involved a different kind of teamwork. Getting out and about, she explained, was important in Sweden and many people enjoyed spending time together outdoors. That afternoon we played Kubb in Uni Parks, which consisted of flinging wooden sticks at a row of blocks belonging to the opposing team in an attempt to knock them all down. It was very fun, and as I gleefully watched the other team’s blocks topple I could understand why the game brought so many people happiness. 

As part of lagom I also decided to wake up at 6:30 every day this week, in what can only be described as a peculiar form of self torture. I’m someone who values their sleep, and so waking up at this time didn’t exactly ‘spark joy’ as Marie Kondo would say. However, in “The Atlas of Happiness” Helen Russell writes that there is a particular Swedish word for the kind of happiness generated by waking up early. Daggfrisk means ‘dew fresh’ or “the kind of pure, clean feeling one might have from waking refreshed in the early morning at sunrise.” and so I felt that it was only fair to give it a go. 

Every morning I dragged myself out of bed and began the day hours earlier than usual. Once I’d gulped down a strong cup of coffee, I found that I could actually get quite a lot of work done. There was something very peaceful about starting the day with the early morning light streaming through the blinds, and it was satisfying to feel like I’d managed to get a chunk of work done before 10am. The only problem was that by the afternoon I was flagging and struggling to concentrate. In the evenings I often ended up collapsing into bed with the sinking feeling of having to do it all over again tomorrow. 

All in all, I decided that daggfrisk probably wasn’t for me but otherwise lagom had made me happier. Getting outside and going wild swimming had definitely boosted my serotonin levels and I was glad I’d made the time to try something new. I might not be signing up for the Scandinavian Winter Bathing Championships anytime soon, but I’ll definitely be heading back to Port Meadow this summer.

Artwork by Rachel Jung

WATCH3WORDS: Black Bear – Funny.Stifling.Psychodrama.

Millie Butler-Gallie
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WATCH3WORDS: Black Bear – Funny.Stifling.Psychodrama.

Despite being set in a vast and remote mountainous region in North America, the atmosphere of Lawrence Michael Levine’s psychological drama, Black Bear, is stifling. As the film explores what it means to be an artist – from ego and behaviour to  influences, creative process, and even chosen medium – the line between artifice and reality becomes blurred in a wildly original display of metanarrative. Claustrophobic, erratic, and prickly all at once, Black Bear is an experiment in film which entangles its audience deep in its intellectual web.

At its centre is Aubrey Plaza as Allison, a witty young filmmaker who, having fallen prey to writer’s block, goes in search of inspiration at a lakeside cabin. Once there, her presence becomes a point of contention in the relationship between her two hosts, Gabe (Christopher Abbott) and Blair (Sarah Gadon), who happen to be expecting a child together. Plaza is probably best known for playing the offbeat queen-of-awkward April Ludgate in the office comedy Parks and Recreation. Some might also know her from her brilliant performance as a psychotic stalker in Ingrid Goes West (2017), or perhaps even from that time she accepted an award on behalf of Amy Poehler and proceeded to thank the devil himself before jokingly being pulled away from the mic. Plaza’s characteristic dark humour certainly bubbles under the surface in her portrayal of Allison, and the role almost feels as if it was created with her in mind. Black Bear’s comedy isn’t gimmicky, though. It’s too ominous and calculating for laugh-out-loud humour. Rather, the film borders on the absurd in the way it makes you feel so very uncomfortable, especially when the social blunders we are supposed to laugh are revealed to have toxic consequences.

When Blair becomes increasingly suspicious that Gabe is falling in love with Allison, tensions boil over, and all social etiquette is thrown out of the window. At dinner, conversations about film and feminism quickly turn personal as accusations of artistic failure and misogyny are thrown around. Black Bear’s oppressive atmosphere is also aided by its original soundtrack, composed by Giuio Carmassi and Bryan Scary. There aren’t any really ‘recognisable’ songs or, even voices – only very rarely are the mysterious instrumentals infused with some more melodious jazz. The result is an intensely insular focus on the loaded words, actions, and silences of the love triangle at the story’s centre.

Without revealing too much of the dramatic plot twist of the second act – which is well worth waiting for – it is at this point that the artistic anxiety and social discomfort which dominate the film’s first half become explosive. Passion, fury, and self-destruction take over as what some might first perceive to be a bit of a slow burn gets set on fire.

Black Bear is one of those rare films that doesn’t treat its viewer simply as the passive voyeur. It gleefully toys with its audience as much as the characters it pits against one another but, most impressively, you won’t realise what’s happening until it’s too late. 

Black Bear is available to purchase on Amazon Prime Video.

Art by Sasha LaCômbe.

“Well-behaved women seldom make history”: Hills, Poetry and Protest

Jaimini Patel
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“Well-behaved women seldom make history”: Hills, Poetry and Protest

At Joe Biden’s inauguration I, along with the rest of the world, watched Amanda Gorman reignite a marriage of unparalleled power: poetry and politics. Described by commentators as being the tenth Greek muse, this time not of history or poetry but of democracy, one line of Gorman’s poem The Hill We Climb particularly resonated with me:

‘being American is more than a pride we inherit. It’s the past we stepped into and how we repair it.’

Gorman’s poem promises salvation through struggle, and it is this willingness to step into the darker aspects of America’s historical struggle that makes this poem whole. You’ve probably learnt about some of the injustices Martin Luther King and Malcolm X fought against in this struggle. You’ve also probably read To Kill A Mockingbird, which addresses the injustice of false-rape accusations against black men. 

Cue, now, Ida B. Wells, a significantly less known figure, yet one who was instrumental in exposing and campaigning against violence against black people. Above all, Wells was a potent orator and writer whose fearless, raw, poetic speeches paved the way for women like Gorman to address the nation. 

Born into slavery during the civil war (1862), Wells had many-a-hill to climb during her life, but her primary struggle was against the institutionalised lynching and mob violence against innocent black people, primarily men, during her life. 

The first incident where Wells’ commitment to equality was demonstrated was when, aged 21, she was ordered by a conductor to move from her first-class carriage to a ‘coloured only’ one, despite having bought a first-class ticket. Wells refused, biting into the conductor’s hand when she was forcibly dragged out and eventually launching a legal battle against the train company, Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad. Despite winning the court case, the verdict was overturned by a higher level court. 

Undeterred, Wells’ turned her eye to a new method of protest: journalism. In 1889 she became editor and co-owner of The Free Speech and Headlight, a black-owned newspaper in Memphis, Tennessee. Enraged by the People’s Grocery Lynchings, the first mob killings since the Civil War, in which three successful black businessmen were murdered, Wells began to investigate the shameful prevalence of unjust lynchings. 

Wells denounced the People’s Grocery Lynchings, then embarked on a journey across the south to investigate hundreds of mob-killings committed against innocent black people. What is so extraordinary about this is that Wells conducted all this research in a time when women did not even have the vote, and a black woman would certainly not have had the protection of law enforcement in towns where law enforcement would have been involved in the killings. Armed with only her pen and her pistol, Wells walked straight into a battleground where black people had been quite literally mutilated for no good reason. 

One of Wells’ most famous phrases is that ‘the way to right wrongs is to shine the light of truth upon them’, and this still rings true for investigative journalism today. Years before To Kill A Mockingbird was published, Wells had proof that rape was not alleged against black men in two thirds of the cases which she looked into, and even then it was only alleged after a consensual relationship. 

The irony of Wells’ situation is that, whilst her reporting aimed to hold violent perpetrators to account, the offices of her newspaper in Memphis were burned down by violent opponents of her reporting. Wells continued her work from New York and actually travelled to England, Scotland and Wales to try and gain a sympathetic audience to speak to her pamphlets, and she succeeded as the Londonn Anti-Lynching Committee was established: the first of its kind. 

In 1895 Wells married civil rights lawyer and activist Ferdinand L. Barnett, and became more involved in the national civil rights campaign from her new home of Chicago. Wells was an egalitarian in more than one aspect, however, showing her proto-feminist streak by adopting a double barrel surname rather than just taking her husband’s name. 

Wells’ involvement in the national civil rights movement can perhaps best be epitomised by an excerpt from one of her speeches to the 1909 National Negro Conference:

‘During the last 10 years, from 1899 to 1908 inclusive, the number lynched was 959. Of this number 102 were white, while the colored victims numbered 857. No other nation, civilized or savage, burns its criminals; only under that Stars and Stripes is the human holocaust possible. Twenty-eight human beings burned at the stake, one of them a woman and two of them children, is the awful indictment against American civilization – the gruesome tribute which the nation pays to the color line.’

It’s here that we see how the true power of Wells’ activism is a forerunner of Gorman’s, as she combines statistics from her own fearless research with poetry of the vanquished. The haunting synecdoche of the ‘Stars and Stripes’ which Wells links to a ‘human holocaust’ cuts right to the heart of the American identity at a time when such rhetoric could have cost Wells her life. 

Wells was a trailblazer in many ways, and perhaps one of her most relevant battles was that of intersectionality. As well as raising awareness of racial injustice, Wells was greatly involved in the women’s suffrage movement. The white female suffragists did not always see eye to eye with Wells, however, and at one suffrage parade organised for Washington, D.C. the day before the inauguration of Woodrow Wilson Wells, she was informed that she, alongside other black women, would walk at the end of the parade in a coloured delegation. Undaunted, Wells stepped into the middle of the march to link hands with her white colleagues: yet another symbol of her progressiveness, even within current civil rights movements. 

Ida B. Wells is not a textbook figure associated with civil rights, yet now more than ever she seems to be relevant to our world. Her strategies of investigative journalism and speech-making even when faced with violence remain admirable, but most of all it is her courage as a black woman without the protection of the society she was in that deserves to be celebrated.

Artwork by Emma Hewlett

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