Friday, April 25, 2025
Blog Page 321

Climate change makes repaying COVID-19 debt harder

Angela Eichhorst
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Climate change makes repaying COVID-19 debt harder

In an article for Nature, the Oxford Sustainable Law Programme (OSLP) warned that 77% of sovereign-bonds in 2020 did not adequately disclose climate risk. As global temperatures and sea levels rise, OSLP predicts that countries might face lower production, as well as be at increased risk of one-off weather disasters. As sovereign-bonds issued during the Covid-19 pandemic mature over the next 30 or even 100 years, governments will “either have to invest to mitigate climate change as part of their commitments under the Paris climate agreement — or face the costs of global warming directly”, according to the report. 

OSLP calls a scenario where countries fail to understand the economic risks concurrent with climate change a “climate crash.” 

The news comes as the International Monetary Fund and World Bank convene their spring meetings where environmental issues are featured on the agenda. OSLP has some solutions of its own to propose. In their three-step framework, OSLP’s report first recommends that researchers create better tools for funds to understand climate risk as they take on investors. 

Secondly, governments should use credit from their Covid-19 funds to prioritise greening their economies by increasing spending on clean energy which will create jobs in the process. 

Thirdly, richer countries (and their finance development institutions) should buy back debt from poorer countries on the condition that poorer countries use the money to invest in their climate resilience, as seen in the debt-for-nature swap in the Seychelles.

Out of all the countries OSLP looked at, only three (Bermuda, the Dominican Republic and El Salvador) acknowledged a risk of more frequent natural disasters in their sovereign-bond prospectuses. Only two (Bulgaria and United Arab Emirates) identified risks in their transition to greener economies. 

Despite Boris Johnson’s initial promise to “plan a green recovery,” OSLP reports that the UK has so far failed to capitalise on the opportunity to utilise Covid-19 credit to build a more environmentally resilient economy.   

Image Credit: Marcus Spiske via unsplash.com

Cyclists and Liberal Democrats protest against closure of cycle route on Parks Road

Matthew Schaffel
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Cyclists and Liberal Democrats protest against closure of cycle route on Parks Road

A protest was held on Tuesday, 20th April by a group of local cyclists and Liberal Democrat activists to oppose the temporary closure of a cycle path outside the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. The group feel that the closure of the path adds a greater element of risk to their journey along the road and wished to convey their opinion on this to the University and Oxford County Council.

The cycle path has been closed to allow for repair works on the two-storey basement under the Museum Lawn, along Parks Road. Temporary cycle barriers have been installed so that cyclists do not mix with pedestrians on the narrow path. Instead they are asked to dismount or divert onto the carriageway.

The organiser of the protest, James Cox, the Liberal Democrat candidate for University Parks told Cherwell: “We’ve had weeks if not months of this barrier being up on Parks Road…this was an active cycle path up to this point on a really dangerous road. We quite often just up the road see flowers and memorials for incidents that have happened here in the past.

“For the University and the County Council to be passing the blame to each other, not coming to a constructive solution, meaning that cyclists are having to drive straight into quite busy traffic a lot of the time, putting their safety and concerns at the bottom of the pile – it’s just unacceptable.” 

In response to how he wanted the County Council to respond to the issues cyclists face in the city more generally, Mr Cox commented:

“It’s about ensuring there are facilities that make people feel cycling is safe and accessible to them, so having those cycle lanes separated from busy roads so that people don’t feel they’re taking their life into their hands every time they go out on their bikes

“It’s for us about improving cycling facilities, promoting cycling and active travel as a real alternative for getting around Oxford, and to protect cyclists when they’re out on the road or in segregated cycle lanes and putting the concerns and safety of cyclists much higher up the agenda than it has been”

Local cyclist Joanne Bowlt also added: “My biggest concern is the lack of priority given to cyclists and pedestrians…I feel this is the wrong way round and we ought to be looking at the priorities of road users the correct way – the way of the future: pedestrians, cyclists and then cars. That’s not what’s being demonstrated by a decision like this and on other junctions further up the same national cycle route

“Cyclists are just being pushed straight onto the road in front of traffic, plenty of children use this route to cycle to school and I think it’s incredibly dangerous. This was already a dangerous junction.

“The University is limited in what it can do, but there are options like opening a route through University Parks as a temporary trial option, given that they can’t keep this cycle route open. I appreciate this is a courtesy cycle route, but it is a national cycle route.”

Benjamin Nicholson, another local cyclist said:

“I have never really liked this part of the road here, it’s so much worse when you have to go onto the road because drivers don’t look…a lot of people just assume that it’s safe and they won’t look, and that’s when accidents happen.”

In response, a spokesperson for the University told Cherwell: “The change in the bike lanes is due to the redevelopment but it was done for cyclists’ safety and it is temporary and only live until December 2021.
 
“There has been a lot of communication about the changes – there are boards up to the north and south of the cycle way diversion that indicates the diversion as a temporary condition to enable the essential maintenance works.”
 
A spokesperson for the County Council also added: “Due to the nature of the work by Oxford University to repair and waterproof the two-storey basement beneath the Museum Lawn along Parks Road, it has not been possible to do anything other than stop cyclists from using this section of the footway/cycleway. It is too narrow to be safely shared by the high volume of cyclists and pedestrians that use it.
 

“The section is owned by Oxford University and leased by Oxfordshire County Council, but both parties have been working closely together to find a solution for cyclists who have to use the road while the work takes place.

“The suggestion to use University Parks as an alternative cycle route during this period would be a matter for Oxford University, as would the possibility of encouraging cyclists travelling from Parks Road to South Parks Road to follow the internal site access routes through the Science area campus. These options though do not cater for people wanting to cycle along Parks Road into the city centre.”

Image Credit: Matt Schaffel

 

Police and Crime Commissioner candidates share views on ‘Kill the Bill’

Flora Dyson
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Police and Crime Commissioner candidates share views on ‘Kill the Bill’

Police and Crime Commissioner candidates for Thames Valley have published their manifestos for elections on 6 May. Cherwell asked them for their views on the new Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill and ‘Kill the Bill’ protests.

The bill seeks to place greater restrictions on protests and gives police the power to place constraints on demonstrations, including their time span and noise levels. It seeks to increase sentences for serious criminals and sexual offenders.

Since it passed its second reading there have been ‘Kill the Bill’ protests across England which demand the government drop the bill. Protestors argue the bill targets Black Lives Matter activists, the Gypsy Roma Traveller community, and activists for women’s rights.

Clashes with police at a peaceful vigil for the murdered Sarah Everard has sparked opposition to increased police powers by the Labour and Liberal Democrat parties. No Labour MPs voted in favour of the bill at its second reading. Labour party leader, Kier Starmer, has said the bill would have a severe impact on Black communities which is “real cause for concern.”

Matthew Barber, the current Deputy Police & Crime Commissioner for the Thames Valley and Conservative Party candidate, welcomes the bill. He believes the “new legislation will be a big step towards ensuring punishments fit the severity of the crime.”

Barber is “particularly pleased to see the introduction of long awaited measures to help the police deal with illegal encampments that can cause harm, disruption and distress to our local communities.”

Laetisia Carter, the Labour Party candidate, states she is “wholeheartedly [opposed] the police bill” and is “against it for so many reasons. It takes the country in a worrying anti democracy direction”. Carter urges the electorate to “remember this is not the police’s bill” in a Facebook statement.

John Howson, candidate for the Liberal Democrats, has voiced opposition to the bill. He believes new protests restrictions “are part of the Conservative Government’s anti-democratic attempts to silence any opposition to its policies, and the Liberal Democrats will fiercely resist them.”

Howson states the policing of ‘Kill the Bill’ protests “should not be to raise tensions. Police forces should debrief to learn from outcomes for management of future protests.”

Alan Robinson, an Independent candidate, states that his “concern is with the brave officers who were trying to police a very difficult situation” following violent ‘Kill the Bill’ protests.

“It is long overdue for people to realise that officers are people [too], and deserve exactly the same courtesy as everyone else. Just because they are in uniform doesn’t give anyone the right to be abusive towards another person.”

The election for the Police and Crime Commissioner takes place on 6 May. You must register to vote to take part.

Image Credit: Lawrence OP / CC BY-NC 2.0

“Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History”: Freedom Fighting, Queen Jezebel and India

Jaimini Patel
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“Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History”: Freedom Fighting, Queen Jezebel and India

Christina Rossetti’s poetry is often coloured with feminist insights, as she handles conditions ranging from that of the unmarried Victorian women to so-called ‘fallen women’ with remarkable sensitivity. Yet there is one fallen woman who even under Rossetti’s pen cannot escape traditional sexist and racist narratives: Rani (Queen) Lakshmibai of Jhansi, hailed by British colonialists, such as Thomas Lowe, as the “Jezebel of India”. 

Rani Lakshmibai’s infamy in British narratives is closely linked to her involvement in the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 against colonial rule by the British East India Company. The mutiny began with rebels from the 12th Bengal Native Infantry, who were enraged after 85 Hindu and Muslim soldiers were sentenced to 10 years of hard labour and imprisonment for refusing to fire rifle cartridges they believed to be contaminated with pork and beef (offensive to both religions). Rossetti’s portrayal of the mutiny in her poem In the Round Tower at Jhansi reflects typical British contemporary narratives of the rebellion in numerous Indian cities. She focuses on two lovers forced to kill themselves before they are slaughtered by the rebels: 

‘A hundred, a thousand to one; even so;

Not a hope in the world remained,

The swarming, howling wretches below

Gained and gained and gained’

Indeed, the rebellion was a brutal affair, as rebels killed many wives and children of officers in the city of Meerut. When the rebels approached Lakshmibai’s city of Jhansi, however, the Rani assured the British that no harm would befall them under her watch. Nonetheless, a violent massacre of the British at Jhansi did ensue, as portrayed in Rossetti’s poem. Despite the Rani assuring the British that these rebel sepoys did not answer to her, and writing to two British officials that she hoped they would ‘go straight to hell for their deeds’, her title as Jezebel of India was confirmed. The Rani and the sepoy rebels were homogenised as the animalistic other: Rossetti’s ‘swarming, howling, wretches’.  

History has not been kind to Rani Laskhmibai of Jhansi, yet it is a serious disservice to conflate her story with the violence of one group of sepoys. The Rani was not born into royalty, but married Maharaja Gandaghar Rao, ruler of Jhansi. 

She was ahead of her times in more than one way, having learned to ride and fight by her teenage years and refusing to abide by norms of purdah, in which women were veiled from public view. Instead, she spoke to British and Indian advisers alike face to face.

The Maharaja and Rani gave birth to one child, who died in infancy. Still keen for an heir, they adopted a 5-year-old son. When the Maharaja died, it seemed as though the kingdom of Jhansi was in good hands as the Rani was more than capable of ruling due to her progressive, self-styled education, and she had an heir to pass her skills onto. 

However, the East India Company, hoping to consolidate their grip on Jhansi and expel traditional rulers (however effective Lakshmibai was) in favour of British officials, hailed the obscure Doctrine of Lapse, giving them the right to control any territory without a natural born male heir. They offered the Rani a generous sum of 60,000 rupees to give up her kingdom, but she remained resolute in the face of their political manoeuvring, speaking words which have become immortalised as poetic resonances of freedom in Indian history: Meri Jhansi nahi doongi (I will not give up my kingdom). 

Soon after Lakshmibai refused to give up her kingdom under the Doctrine of Lapse, the violence of the Sepoy Mutiny began to sweep through her kingdom. Grouping her with the rebels, the British laid siege to her fortress at Jhansi and she was left with no choice but to fight back and eventually escape with her son. The British spared nobody over 16 in Jhansi, and the beloved Indian Rani was forced out. 

Lakshmibai, realising she had no British allies and would be blamed for the mutiny at Jhansi, decided to take up the cause of freedom against the British empire from the neighbouring town of Gwalior. During the failed siege before this, the Rani had already demonstrated her commitment to egalitarianism; according to Rejected Princesses (2016) she had coats made for a thousand of the poorest soldiers and enlisted both men and women for the fight. When she escaped the siege with her son and fought in a number of battles against the British in Gwalior, she fought her last battle dressed like a man in a turban, and her fatal adversary, General Rose, paid tribute to her, saying that ‘the Indian mutiny produced one man, and that man was a woman’. 

Rani Lakshmibai and her words ‘Meri Jhansi nahi doongi’, have become integral in teaching about her in modern-day India, as she is hailed as one of the country’s first and most courageous freedom fighters. If Rossetti is to be on the A-level English British curriculum, it is high time that narratives such as Lakshmibai’s begin to appear on the History syllabus. The implications of her narrative about working against institutional power and gender structures are vast: Rani Lakshmibai may not have been able to save Jhansi from the British East India Company, but her actions can still help save us from failing to engage with a complex imperial past where there are always two sides to a story too often portrayed as one dimensional.  

Labelling her as Jezebel, homogenising her as one of a number of ‘wretches’ or, worst of all, forgetting her entirely, robs, not only Lakshimbai but, history of its richness. The Rani must be recognised as someone engaged in violence yet not for violence’s sake, a freedom fighter championing local over colonial power structures and a woman who often had to assume the guise of a man to do as she wished. 

Artwork by Emma Hewlett

 

 

C’est La Vie: the importance of multilingual representations in art and literature

Emily Rosindell
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C’est La Vie: the importance of multilingual representations in art and literature

Some hidden gems of the artistic world lay in works that employ multiple languages in a purposeful manner. Algerian singer-songwriter Khaled intertwines both Arabic and French into his hit song, ‘C’est la vie’. The song begins with a French intro, leading us through a journey of subsequent Arabic verses and back to a French chorus. He brings energy, excitement, and pure joy to this 2012 pop-dance anthem. 

The title, translating into English as “this is life”, perfectly demonstrates what Khaled is attempting to create. His art is a direct reflection of his worldview: multilingual in nature. The song exists in both French-speaking and Arabic-speaking spaces, as does its author. Art that holds a cross-cultural value, such as Khaled’s, is becoming increasingly pertinent in our rapidly evolving world, where inter-continental exchange is an essential part of daily life for many. The vast majority of the world operates in a multitude of spaces; over half of humans proficiently speak at least two languages. 

Inspired by Khaled, up and coming singer-songwriter Bahjat performs in Arabic, English, and Swedish. Born in Libya but now based in Sweden for music school, Bahjat adapts his writing to reside within his multiple identities. His song ‘Istanbul’ in particular uses both English and Arabic to convey the overall message that no matter where he is geographically located, his heart remains in the same position. 

What is special about these artists is not their ability to utilise multiple languages, but their boldness to employ them in the same piece of art. Both ‘C’est la vie’ and ‘Istanbul’ integrate the seemingly separate worlds into one in a way that allows for an expression of multilingualism as a facet of everyday life. A person who speaks multiple languages does not exist in multiple worlds, they exist in one; art and literature deserve to exist in this same multifaceted world as well. 

Some artworks have been modified after their initial release to become multilingual. João Gilberto’s ‘The Girl from Ipanema’ – or ‘Garota de Ipanema’ in Portuguese – was originally written in Gilberto’s native Portuguese by Vinícius de Moraes in 1964. The English version was written later by Norman Gimbel, an American whose love of Portuguese drew him to Brazilian bossa nova composers. Artists like Gimbel utilise language in a way that is perhaps different to artists who sing in their native tongues, as he fell in love with Portuguese later in life. It was not his mother tongue, but he was able to appreciate its beauty anyways. Art and literature are often a point of access for linguistic and cultural appreciation for foreign language learners.

‘Girl from Ipanema’ also makes an important point in its use as a trope for background or ‘elevator’ music in the world of cinema. This highlights the relegation of multilingual music to the background of the artistic world. While arguably a more creative use of language, multilingual music is very rarely given the forefront. 

An important facet of multilingual approach is the ‘macaronic verse’ – a primarily poetic device that utilises multilingual puns or sayings that work in multiple languages. Hybrid words are commonly used, and single sentences can switch between two or more languages – a common facet of decolonised communities that use their native language and the language of an ex-colonising power. The lack of support multilingual art receives speaks to the Western-centric nature of much of the artistic world, as English-speaking countries – mainly the United Kingdom and the United States – have a significantly lower percent of the population that consider themselves multilingual. 

Early examples of the macaronic verse within the scholar and clergy incorporate both Latin, the conventional language of the learned, and newly arising vernacular languages, such as in the Gospel book of Munsterbilzen, which mixes Latin and Old Dutch. Rumi, a widely known 13th century Persian poet and Islamic theologian, utilises Arabic and Persian blends as well as occasional Greek and Turkish languages to represent the varying experiences in his view of the world through the lenses of these different languages. A more modern example of macaronic verse is employed in the Beatles’ ‘Michelle’ from their Rubber Soul album. The song employs both French and English, inspired by a French teacher that McCartney knew well; he was fascinated by her deliberate use of French phrases that she felt did not translate well into English. The macaronic verse holds power in the journey to understand that languages do not exist in separate spheres for the majority of the world; some expressions don’t have the ability to be translated from a mother tongue to the same effect. 

Children’s books rarely use a multilingual approach to provide authenticity to the storylines set in the non-English speaking world. A prominent example of this approach includes the Chalet Girls series, set partially in Austria and Switzerland, which utilises German throughout the series. Encouraging children to see and read about people switching between various languages as a facet of everyday life allows for their development as learners, ready to partake in a world where linguistic ability is increasingly valued and necessary.

An estimated 60% of the world’s population speaks two or more languages – so why does the majority of the art world feel the need to comply with one language instead of representing their own multilingual view of the world? The platform for creating art and literature in several languages needs to grow; the majority of the world operates in multiple languages, and so too should the creative world. 

Image credit: Michael Gaida via Pixabay.

Meet the students running for the Green Party in Oxford

Matilda Gettins
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Meet the students running for the Green Party in Oxford
Image of Rosie Rawle infront of brick building.
Image of Rosie Rawle, candidate for Green Party, in front of brick building.

Rosie Rawle

Rosie Rawle is a PhD student on worker’s rights at Queen Mary University of London. Rosie is Co-Chair of the Young Green Party and is standing for election in both Donnington City ward* and St. Clement’s country division.

MG: Which political issues motivated you to run for election in Oxford whist obtaining a PhD?

RR: I think there are a number of issues that led me towards this…. The thing about Oxford is [that] it’s an amazing city, but you can’t walk down a street without recognising and noticing the scale of rough sleeping, the scale of inequality and the scale of injustice in the city.

MG: From your studies of International development and on Social Movements, you seem to be quite a big picture person. Is running for office part of the classic slogan “think global, act local?”

RR: Yes, in short. 

The interesting thing about the current political landscape is that there is so much unharnessed power and potential of local government to transform our communities and start building an alternative society; one which is much more democratic, socially just, and environmentally just. 

MG: The first point in the Green’s manifesto is #qualityhomes. What would you do to ensure affordable accommodation for students who cannot stay in university accommodation?

RR: It is shocking that, outside of London, Oxford is the most expensive city to live in. It is a disgrace quite frankly that the private rental sector is allowed to charge sky high prices for what is, basically, poor quality accommodation. 

The kind of actions that we’re hoping to push forward if elected include making sure we have a living rent, that means affordable living for all students and young people, and trying to start up a lettings agency run by the Council … stop these astronomical random fees and charges that students face. 

MG: In a speech during the Greens’ spring conference you spoke about “Students packed into campuses to protect the bottom line of increasingly privatised universities”. Do you think students on non-practical courses should not be allowed back for trinity term?

RR: I think this is a really tricky one. 

The reality is that in September, university campuses weren’t ready to manage students travelling from across the country, forced and packed into accommodation, and that did cause a load of outbreaks. But there has been nine months of learning. I think we ought to be listening to the students, the unions and the Student Union.

MG: Many people think that voting for the Green party is a lost vote – how would you respond to this? 

RR: I’d say we have won in Oxford, we can win at Oxford, and, hopefully, we will win in Oxford. The truth is that greens have had seats on the city council and on the county council for over 20 years back and forth … In the one ward where we have two greens elected, we’ve held those seats year on year on year on year. I don’t think we’ll see [that ward] go anytime soon.

Image of Kelsey Trevett, candidate for Green Party, in front of brick building.
Image of Kelsey Trevett, candidate for Green Party, in front of brick building.

Kelsey Trevett

Profile: Kelsey Trevett is a first year PPE student at Trinity College, co-chair of the young greens disability group and running as candidate for the Green Party in the coming elections. 

MG: What does Green Socialism and grassroots organising look like at a local, Oxford level? 

KT: Grassroots organising is making sure that what was actually wanted by people is achieved, and that there’s full representation, and not a disconnect that is patched up – or pretended to be patched up – every couple of years when there’s an election and people want to win votes. 

MG: How will the new Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts bill affect green grassroots activism? 

KT: It’s a really scary time. [Protesting] has been a fundamental part of how grassroots organising has taken place for so long. Historically, but also more recently, massive, massive things have relied on protest. It’s important to highlight that that bill basically criminalises Roma and traveller communities as well, which is just awful. … It’s really important that we stand up for those rights which the bill aims to squash.

MG: You talk about the importance of equality for the LGBTQIA+ on your own blog. What would you change to make Oxford more inclusive for members of the community?

KT: I think I feel like a broken record: again, it’s about representation and about listening to the communities. We have this national debate about trans rights. It’s about listening to trans people, it’s about looking at things like gender neutral toilets, and public toilets, all sorts of sorts of small things.

It’s hugely about listening to those communities, making sure that they’re safe and that they’re comfortable, and that they have exactly the same rights as everyone else,…  [and] that they aren’t spoken over by people who don’t have those lived experiences. I think that’s really important.

MG: You have been part of the BBC Children in Need’s Rickshaw Challenge and even advised the local council on how to work with disabled children aged 8. What measures would you implement in Oxford to make the town more open to disabled people?

KT: There’s so much discourse about some of the decarbonisation measures …  there’s a lot of concern that they might not be accessible to all disabled people. And I think, a), that’s not true, and they can be completely accessible, and they will be, but b) that really highlights the need to engage in dialogue with disabled communities and making sure that their concerns are raised and listened to. Because they are genuine concerns…. [We need] representation, but dialogue and communication over time as well.

MG: How could the measures to pedestrianise Oxford City be made more inclusive ?

KT: Speaking from my own experience – someone with no sight –  pedestrianisation removes the risk, to put it kind of extremely, of being hit by silent electric cars. That’s always a good start. 

I think it’s about making sure …  that there is space for people who are using wheelchairs, people with assistance dogs. … I think it’s [about] looking at things like that and making sure that everyone has been consulted and that concerns have been raised properly. It’s not just a tick box exercise.

MG: On your blog, you also argue that “apolitical climate movements” are counterproductive, failing to address the problem at the “root” which you identify with “capitalism”. Given the climate emergency, why shouldn’t we get support from as many groups in the political spectrum as possible? 

KT: The root of the climate crisis isn’t individuals. It’s the system under which we live, it’s capitalism. The exploitative nature of capitalist systems causes a huge part of the climate crisis. I completely agree that getting as many people on site as possible from across the political spectrum is hugely important. But if we also have to simultaneously address the fact that capitalism isn’t compatible with preserving the biosphere and preventing the climate crisis.

*a ward is a city district, used for electoral purposes

Oxford Brookes Union organises Black Students Careers Week

Matilda Gettins
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Oxford Brookes Union organises Black Students Careers Week

Oxford Brookes Student Union is currently running a Black Students Careers Week. It is part of the Brookes Student Union’s commitment to “tackling racial inequality on campus as a matter of emergency”. Black Students Careers Week offers online networking events with successful individuals in the finance, law, music and technology industry, as well as recruitment and interview coaching. The events have been curated by Brookes Union Black Officer Iman Tadu, but are open to all.

Brookes students are invited to join the talk with Amanda Mapanda about her experiences as a lawyer at Freshfields, or to register for a talk with chartered accountant Thelma Matsaira on the financial sector. They can also sign up to listen to Radha Medar share her experiences co-managing Skepta or popstar Mabel, or listen to Andrew Osamyemi outline his successful launch of the Netflix series ‘Meet the Adebanjos’. Events to improve recruitment skills include “Write Job Applications That Work”, “Ace Your Assessment Centre” and “How to level-up your LinkedIn bio in 1 hour”. 

Black Students’ Officer of Brookes Student Union, Iman Tadu, says: “My vision for the Black Students Careers Week was to bring a light to the faces of individuals that are from the backgrounds of students who are not always given a platform to share the story of their career journeys … visibility can empower someone and help them believe in themselves where they were not able to before.”  The event series is a collaboration between Brookes Union, ACS, Brookes Enterprise Support, Oxford Brookes University Careers, and Oxford Brookes University Alumni office. 

Oxford Student Union (OSU) runs a permanent Campaign for Racial Awareness and Equality (CRAE) dedicated to “creating a more just and inclusive student experience at the University”, though the last report uploaded on the CRAE webpage is over 5 years old. OSU also supports the University-wide Race Equality Taskforce, launched November 2020. The taskforce is “in the process of establishing our own equality, diversity and inclusion action plan” which will be presented in September 2021. In the past, OSU has run BAME Leadership in Oxford conferences.

Oxford University Careers Service told Cherwell: “Our research strongly indicates that there is statistically minimal difference in the graduate level employment outcomes of our students of different ethnicities, but we are working hard to speed up the pace of change outside the University.”

On its website, it provides resources on BME recruitment schemes as well as on the Equality Act (2010). It “[offers] a number of more target activities to support Black students” including the “10000BlackInterns initiatives” and “delivering careers sessions for Black Boys Cant”. 

Image credit: Jpbowen / CC BY-SA 3.0

Risk of blood clots from COVID-19 seven times higher than from vaccines

Charlie Hancock
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Risk of blood clots from COVID-19 seven times higher than from vaccines

A report from the University of Oxford has found that the risk of developing rare blood clots from a COVID-19 infection is seven times higher than the risk from vaccines. COVID-19 also increases the risk of rare blood clots by 100 times compared to normal.

The international rollout of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has been dogged by concerns about whether the vaccine is linked with rare blood clots in the brain called cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT). In the UK, 44 CVT cases had been reported in patients who received the AstraZeneca vaccine as of March 31st. 14 of those patients died, although it is not certain whether the clots caused their deaths. 20.2 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine had been administered in the UK by this point.

In early April, the Joint Committee on Vaccines and Immunisation (JCVI) advised that healthy 18-29 year olds who were not at high risk from the virus should be offered an alternative to the AstraZeneca vaccine. The decision was made because three cases of blood clots were found in patients in this age group, who are generally at a lower risk from COVID-19 than older people. 

Researchers at Oxford University’s Department of Psychiatry and the NIHR Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre compared the number of CVT cases diagnosed in patients two weeks after they were diagnosed with COVID-19 or had received a vaccine, and compared it with the background level in the general population.

Over 500,000 COVID-19 patients were included in the study, along with over 480,000 people who had received either the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines. CVT occurred most frequently in COVID-19 patients, at a rate of 39 per million. 30% of these cases occurred in patients younger than 30. The rate is 100 times higher than the background level of CVT in the general population.

The reported rate of CVT in patients who received the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine stands at about 5 per million. This rate of CVT after contracting COVID-19 is about 8 times greater than the risk from the AstraZeneca vaccine. For patients who had received the Moderna or PFizer, the rate is about 4 per million. The rate from contracting COVID-19 is about 10 times greater.

It is unclear whether COVID-19 increases the risk of developing CVT via the same or different mechanisms as vaccines.The researchers advised that the data should be interpreted with caution, since the rates could change as more data is gathered. There is also uncertainty in the data surrounding whether CVT is under-reported in medical records.

The Head of the Transneural Biology Group at Oxford University, Professor Paul Harrison, said: “We’ve reached two important conclusions. Firstly, COVID-19 markedly increases the risk of CVT, adding to the list of blood clotting problems this infection causes. Secondly, the COVID-19 risk is higher than we see with the current vaccines, even for those under 30; something that should be taken into account when considering the balances between risks and benefits for vaccination”.

Patients who experience unusual bruising around the injection site, new or persistent headaches, confusion, seizures, blurred vision, shortness of breach, chest pain, and leg swelling after receiving a vaccine are advised to seek medical attention.

Image: Vacunació Professionals / CC0 1.0

Student Profile: Luke Bateman

Issy Kenney-Herbert
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Student Profile: Luke Bateman

Joining this zoom call, Luke is sat in his childhood bedroom with a bookcase overflowing in the background. Luke immediately starts chatting and smiling, with a clear ability to put anyone at ease, even in online setting. This site is familiar to me as we both took a History module together last Trinity. Little did I know that lockdown had been such a creative time for him beyond those two-hour long classes we had each week – while I was binge watching Gilmore Girls for the umpteenth time, Luke was producing copious amounts of poetry and short stories…

Luke Bateman is a second year History student studying at Merton College, who also happens to be a prolific writer. He has been published in several journals for poetry including CP Quarterly, Jupiter Review and the Broad Street Humanities Review, and was also the winner of the Short Fiction Prize by Oxford Review of Books in December 2020 for a piece that he produced in the first lockdown.

Having read many of them, I start the interview asking about the multiple Tolkien references I found littered throughout his work. He lights up in delight when saying ‘I think anybody who is interested in fantasy has a massive debt to Tolkien. One of the major reasons I chose to apply to Merton College was because I found out that Tolkien had been there. I think the man’s incredible, obviously there are problematic elements to his work, but the sheer imagination of it. The poetry of the way he writes has always really appealed to me.’

When I ask what he is working on currently, he discusses a fantasy novel that is ‘very much Tolkien inspired with wizards and witches and a strong theme of environmentalism’ and continues to state that Tolkien has very much influenced his work. His passion for all things Tolkien is clear from the start. Yet, that passion does not subside throughout the interview. From discussing the topics of lockdown and the intensity of Oxford terms, to his aspirations for the future, he never once fades in his enthusiasm and optimism.

He mentions that poetry is a relatively new medium for him, which I didn’t expect – his poetry is the main body of his work that I read. He smiles and says ‘poetry is really something that I’ve got into as a result of being in Oxford. Before coming to University, I wrote maybe three poems in my entire life’, he laughs to himself as he recounts one of those times being for a poetry competition at his sixth form, which they eventually cancelled to his disappointment. However, as seems to be a theme with Luke, he managed to turn this situation into a golden opportunity later on: ‘I just put it away and didn’t think about it for a couple of years. When I got to Merton, I discovered the Merton poetry society and thought that since I had this poem that had been sitting there, it would just be silly to not take this opportunity. I submitted it and they were really kind about it, I went along to a meeting and met lots of really lovely people and thought – huh, poetry is kinda cool? And just got into it like that. If I hadn’t have come to Merton, I don’t think I would have pursued this route.’

We also discuss the viability of poetry with an intense Oxford term, with Luke saying ‘it is a lot easier to write a little ten line poem then sit down with the intention of writing the latest scene in a novel – poetry provides a creative outlet between essays’.

Whilst during Oxford terms, Luke mainly finds time for poetry, during the vacs he takes every opportunity to continue his lengthier projects: ‘this vac I have written two chapters of the novel I am working on, and it has been so lovely to disappear and be like “I’m going to pretend to be a witch!”‘

I ask if he finds his subject inspiring for the writing process – usually you would expect writers to study English and read novels. His reply is that of someone who has endless passion for everything he sets his mind to, and the ability to find creativity everywhere he looks: ‘we live in this world where so much has happened, the breadth of human creativity is so large, as a historian you read things and think that can’t possibly have happened, but it has. I come away thinking, well yes these are some great ideas for an essay but imagine putting them into a fantasy context…’

I explained to Luke that when starting student profiles, part of the idea was to spotlight the amazing work of students but also to help make some more things accessible. Luke is an incredible writer, has been writing throughout his life, but as he himself states, his degree at Oxford has changed the direction of his writing immeasurably. From inspiration from his degree to the environment of Merton College and the exploration of the medium of poetry to being published in the Oxford Review of Books. When asked what others could do to pursue a creative outlet whilst trying to get to grips with the Oxford workload, he suggests looking up and finding societies, such as the Merton Poetry Society: ‘you don’t need to constantly commit to doing absolutely everything, just take a chance. You might be led to the most creative thing you have ever done, or you might never think about it again. But just take that chance – what have you got to lose?’

Luke’s work is well worth a read and you can find it through his LinkTree.

Beyond the 9-to-5: In Conversation with Chelsea Fagan

Irene Zhang
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Beyond the 9-to-5: In Conversation with Chelsea Fagan

Chelsea Fagan’s videos are credited for making me finally understand stocks — no small feat, since both economics teachers and my dear parents had been unsuccessful at cracking my skull. With just the right number of pastel pillows and aesthetically pleasing plant combinations, her YouTube presence combines an impossibly chic visual appeal with deep cuts into the intimidating world of budgets, credit cards, and investing.

All very inspirational: naturally, I rolled out of bed 20 minutes before the interview and failed to get out of pyjama trousers before logging on, feeling like the absolute opposite of the accomplished woman I am about to call. Outside of being YouTube’s honest, feminist financial voice, Chelsea Fagan is the founder of The Financial Diet (TFD), a Manhattan-based, all-women media company dedicated to talking about money: what it does, how it intersects with our lives and social structures, and how to best cultivate a relationship with it.

One technical mishap later, we rolled into a conversation about TFD’s 2021 vision. Fagan’s followers on Twitter are familiar with her frequent updates on TFD’s workplace policies, and I was curious to learn more about flexible work-from-home and 35-hour work weeks from the perspective of a CEO. Fagan’s voice lit up, and I could sense palpable pride in her tone. ‘Before COVID we had a very flexible work-from-home policy where employees were only required to be in the office three days a week. We had a relationship to work-life balance that I think was already […] skewed more towards life than many employers, especially in media.’ Pre-COVID, TFD employees enjoyed ‘Summer Fridays’ in addition to flexible remote-work arrangements, and Fagan noted that neither productivity nor company revenue dipped.

However, she is hesitant to exaggerate the impacts of her workplace culture experiments. ‘The model that we have, which is essentially having leadership that feels very strongly about these issues and makes these choices, is unfortunately not very scalable, because quite frankly a lot of employers don’t feel that way.’

Fagan has made no secret of her politics: she supported Sen. Bernie Sanders in the 2020 Democratic primaries, and our conversation frequently circled back to systemic ills in American capitalism. On the subject of exploitation, she does not mince her words. ‘Especially when you get to large corporations and, of course, publicly traded corporations, their loyalty ultimately is to their shareholders and their bloated executive packages, it’s not toward their workers. And in many cases their workers’ interests can be diametrically opposed with what is profitable.

‘[…] I do believe that when implemented properly, a lot of these practices are very good for the health of the business. My business […] operates this way and it’s been fantastic for the overall health and sustainability of the project, but I know that it doesn’t scale. I think the answer in a much broader sense is, of course, worker empowerment [and] unionisation. It’s really grassroots, and unfortunately I can’t do that for every worker in America, but I hope that by, in a very small way, setting an example, at least in our own industry of media, we can start to shift the narrative a little bit.’

Why run a business helping individuals get good at money, if the problem lies with an entire system rigged against much of her young audience? Fagan says that this dilemma is ‘the tension at the core of everything we do.’ Referring to TFD’s expansion into Spanish-language content for Latino communities and her experiences working with underprivileged individuals, she adds a game metaphor for explaining American society’s unspoken financial pain. ‘As the game in which you’re operating becomes more and more rigged and more and more difficult, it’s very, very hard to put too much of the emphasis on individual choices and individual responsibilities. You don’t want to get into […] victim-blaming someone if they happen to be in a tough financial situation, because the majority of what determines our financial outcomes in the US is the family to which we’re born and the circumstances to which we were born.

‘Most of wealth is inherited and poverty is very difficult to escape once you’re in it. Especially as the communities […] get more and more marginalised, it’s quite frankly very difficult to to find the right balance between personal responsibility and social awareness.’ Nevertheless, her work has convinced her that individual leveraging power through financial literacy is meaningful. ‘If I had to sum up the ethos of how we frame this information and how we communicate to our audience in a soundbite, it would be to say: the game that we’re playing is rigged. All of us are playing a rigged game here in the United States when it comes to building our financial stability, there’s no way around that. However, while we’re playing this game, it is in your best interest to play the best game you can possibly play.’

The decision to make accessible financial media her life mission was an intensely personal one for Fagan. In video essays, online articles, and public talks, she frequently harks back to her own money-troubled young adulthood. Rarely can anyone talk about sinking credit scores and being arrested for debt with such refreshing clarity, and it’s clear that Fagan has moved past financial shame. ‘I’m someone who went from experiencing pretty substantial poverty early in my life to becoming more financially stable, and it’s not an exaggeration to say that having money and financial security is like playing with a cheat code in life. It’s very difficult to get over that hump when you’re on the other side of poverty or not having enough. But ultimately, it is not going to help you and it’s not going to help your family if you abandon the game and just say, “well, I’ll never win.” I understand that; I think that’s a very human reaction and it’s very, very hard to find motivation to make the right choices when you’re working with so little. But you’re still better off making those better choices.

‘And in the meantime, especially [for] those of us who do have financial privilege, we can walk and chew gum at the same time. We can advocate for people to improve themselves in terms of their financial literacy and the choices they’re making, and simultaneously advocate for better policy and for better social responsibility with regards to quality of life.’

Where and how do we find the capacity to ‘do both’ — seek both individual and systemic change — at the same time? I ask Fagan about ‘selling-out’ for graduate jobs and ethical conflicts in careers choices. She isn’t familiar with the phrase: Fagan dropped out of college in 2010 to start her career and never obtained a degree. Nevertheless, is it possible to balance the pursuit of financial wellbeing with values?

To Fagan, the answer depends on who you are. ‘I do believe that as people achieve higher and higher levels of financial stability and freedom themselves, it becomes something of an ethical obligation to […] do whatever you can to make sure you’re not just getting on the hamster wheel of hoarding money for yourself.

‘Quite frankly, especially at elite universities, many of the most privileged children who come from wealth and really would have a lot of options will often go to extremely high paying jobs that are probably pretty detrimental to society. That’s not good, but it’s understandable if people’s central values and self worth […] is centred around how much they have and how much they can afford.

‘And then on the flip side, especially in more progressive circles, you have the opposite pressure […] which is to do something that is true to your values but perhaps will keep you trapped in a cycle of poverty, because a lot of these jobs that are very important are also terribly paid. If you have a massive debt burden, which you likely would if you’re coming from an elite school and you didn’t come from a wealthy background, you could be signing yourself up for a pretty hand-to-mouth life for some time and not be able to do any of the things that you would want to do, like maybe own a home […].

‘So I don’t think there’s a right or wrong answer to the choice of how you position living up to your values versus achieving financial stability for yourself, but I will only say to people who are […] struggling financially, who come from a disadvantaged background, [and] who don’t have a lot of resources: you do not owe purity to anyone. You are allowed to prioritise your stability. You are allowed to prioritise your financial security. And you don’t have to explain that to anyone.

‘It’s often the people who have the financial security who are going to really drill down on someone for opting to do the same thing. But I will say again: once you do have financial stability, resources, and choices, I do believe that if you care about living in a more financially just society, that it is an ethical obligation to some capacity to make sure that you’re paying that forward.’

We return to the emphasis on life beyond work, and Fagan believes that such a shift can also be value-based. ‘It is important to remember too that your nine-to-five job is not the only place that you can have an impact on the world around you. You can have a job that is stable and allows you to live a functional life, and with your additional time you can do things that are contributive [to] building the community around you and helping improve the situation in which you’re operating; it doesn’t have to always be through your job.’

In terms of the future of work for Gen-Z, Fagan, a self-proclaimed millennial, is cautiously optimistic. ‘When it comes to the concept of work, we have seen over the past century that human productivity has increased by leaps and bounds. A lot of that is a result of our ability to synthesise our human capabilities with all of this technology. We’re producing more than ever, but we’re still stuck in a very old-fashioned concept of what it means to work; it’s really about an arbitrary number of hours that was decided a century ago.

‘I think the broader question is: how do we get to a place where we are not centering our lives around work? It can be an important facet of our personality, of our identity, of our validation and all of those things — I think it probably always will be for certain people — but it shouldn’t be the absolute centre and majority share of your life. And I don’t think it needs to be, because productivity as we’ve seen has skyrocketed, people are producing more than ever, and that’s completely decoupled with their average wages.

‘[In] professional managerial class jobs, if you’re even remotely competent at the job, you don’t need to be sitting at your desk for nine-plus hours a day. You just don’t.’ Her line of argument shaping up around some echoes of David Graeber, Fagan laughs a little as she pictures a potential future that allows ‘automation and technology to […] liberate workers, and to liberate people and to free up more of our time and resources. […] It will only be a net positive for society, because right now we are forcing people to waste not just a lot of their time, but a lot of their identity and a lot of their potential on planting their ass in a chair for fifty or sixty hours a week at many of these jobs, if not more.’

For one last question, I ask that classic aspiring-creative query on the values and limitations of unpaid work. Fagan sees social media advocacy and websites like Glassdoor as having had important impacts on workplace transparency, but also recognizes the internet’s inherent complexity. ‘The internet has had [an] inherent effect of devaluing a lot of work, because so many people can produce it, and a piece of work can be lifted and manipulated and repurposed and reproduced in seconds for all kinds of purposes. It’s not always clear who is the victim of that versus who is the beneficiary of that.’

She raises the example of one of TFD’s recent clients: a young woman whose Twitter video went viral. Her work was ‘repurposed left, right and centre’ by major media corporations, but she received no monetary compensation. Fagan sees more nuance in the story: ‘the original viral video she made no money from, but […] as a result of that virality and as a result of that ability to reach an audience, she has been able since to build a very lucrative career off of that attention. Certainly, it doesn’t work like that for everyone; there are shades of it.

‘We as a company at TFD do not do any unpaid internships […]; people don’t work for us for free. However, I got my career start in media distinctly by working for free, and had […] a similar experience to that young woman who went viral, in the sense that the visibility that that work, and that the internet was able to give me, I was able to [then] parlay to my own benefit and eventually start my own company through it.’

While recognizing the visibility economy’s many possibilities, Fagan makes thoughtful counterarguments. ‘We have to understand that it’s a double edged sword, the exposure and the transparency and the communication of the internet versus the inherently devaluing of it.

‘My biggest piece of advice to anyone starting out in their career is to be an opportunist. Look at everything as an opportunity, [and] weigh it as a cost-benefit analysis in terms of its future possible benefits for you. If you do something unpaid or underpaid, be very clear about why you’re doing it and what leverage it might give you in the future.’

Fagan ends on a resonant and honest note, on-brand as always. ‘Remember that these employers and companies that are leveraging you for free or for very little, they don’t care about you. So use them in the same way: use them for a byline, use them for a connection, use them for a step up.

‘I’m glad I did the things that I did when I was at the beginning of my career because I did leverage them as opportunities. I think having that real opportunist mentality is the only way to square the circle of the simultaneous level of visibility and devaluation that you will find in a digital job marketplace.’

In no way is the tension between individual action and collective problem-solving resolved; indeed, it seems that Fagan does not anticipate such a resolution. We haphazardly survive the ethical chaos of money in an inherently unjust world, hopefully doing all we can to pick the system apart. Such an idealistic, transformative task calls us to analyse employment as an honest tradeoff while imagining identities beyond work. I leave the call with questions still, but more interesting ones for the coming years and decades: how do we balance the need to cope, financially and otherwise, in the present with planning for a radically unpredictable future? What about the looming horizon of climate change? At the very least, I’ll be tuning in to TFD for more advice.

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