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What can books say that we can’t?

By
Ananya Parakh
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alt= books illustration
CC 1.0, via. RawPixel

As people, we love to talk – to other people, to ourselves, to the mirror (don’t lie, everyone does it!) We all have opinions and that’s fun. We can leave comments and choose to like and dislike things for the world to see, with emojis to help. We can smile, shed a tear, gift a flower, hug someone dear. But I believe that despite our self proclaimed greatness as a human race, there are some things a book can say or do that we simply cannot.

A blanket draped over my bunk bed, in the darkness with a torch in her hand, my mum would read fairy tales to me. Hansel and Gretel and the gingerbread house, Red Riding Hood and her wicker basket, all from the same book passed down thirty years from my father’s childhood. Tattered edges and a big shiny painting of Goldilocks eating the perfect porridge connected me and my mum through tales of magic and kindness and a shared appreciation for Cinderella’s gorgeous glass slippers. Cue to my best friend from second grade forcing me to read Harry Potter. The feeling of excitedly anticipating a letter in the mail, chocolate frogs and binge-watching movie nights was exhilarating (we all know the books are better) and a shared grief for Dumbledore’s death brought us together in a way that nothing else could.

From exploring feminism through the eyes of Austen and Woolf to feeling accepted in the world of Walker and Camus, books took me through a journey through time and the lives of people I wouldn’t have met otherwise. Being gifted All the light you cannot see by Anthony Doerr let me experience the world of a blind girl through descriptions of tactility and olfactory perception; I was with her as she found joy in a city struck by bombs during World War Two, and met a boy that liked birds more than bullets when he wasn’t supposed to. In turn, gifting one of my favorite books, The Color Purple by Alice Walker, allowed me to share my love for the freedom and happiness found by an African-American girl in circumstances that weren’t aligned for her joy. The scene of running through a meadow, perhaps a meadow of hope, filled me with an appreciation for friendship that I have now passed on to my friend.

Feeling the angst of Orwell and Plath and the audacity of Nabokov and Miller was transformative and challenging, leaving me brimming with enough questions to make me rethink my own rationality and beliefs. I embraced the idea that there are things more important than money, love or fame. Things of interest beyond what we see, so fundamentally human yet perplexing and impossible to comprehend, some that made me smile and others that caused confusion. And yet, while I’ve got books, I’ll never see the world the same.

A game of numbers and sleuths, I devoured Agatha Christie’s books as a race to the suspect before the pages would dwindle to an end. Raymond Chandler and Sam Spade showed me who was cool and what was real, and that a book of great one-liners was enough to make a good book great. Under a tree on a windy day, on a picnic by the river engulfed by stress for a collection we didn’t study for, sharing Before the coffee gets cold with my best friend taught me love when you’ve got no time or reason. 

With a book, a line of poetry or even a word that perfectly encapsulates how you feel, you are alive, understood, and have discovered something that only exists here. 

Labour loses Oxford City Council majority after nine resignations

By
Martin Conmy
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Image credit: Kobi Mohan

Labour have lost their majority on Oxford City Council as a result of resignations over Keir Starmer’s refusal to condemn Israeli policy in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. A new Independent Group in the Council has since been formed by two of the resigned councillors. 

Saturday saw six councillors join Shaista Aziz and Dr Amar Latif, who had resigned last Friday, in giving up the Labour whip to sit as independents. These eight were joined this Thursday by Councillor Barbara Coyne – although she informed Council Leader, Susan Brown, that “she does not wish to join any other groups on Oxford City Council an [sic] intends to vote with the Labour Group.”

Labour woes were further deepened on Thursday, when the first two councillors to resign, Dr Amar Latif and Shaista Aziz, announced the formation of a new Independent Group in the council. Aziz said that: “Overwhelmingly working-class people and communities feel that they have not been consulted properly and their needs and the reality of their lives have not been factored into the creation of these policies.” Latif, meanwhile, told the Oxford Mail: “We’re trying to change the direction of the ruling of the city council.”

In order to pass legislation, Labour councillors will now be reliant on receiving votes from any of the nine Liberal Democrats, six Greens, or nine independents also part of the council. All the vacated positions will be up for election in either 2024 or 2026. It marks the first time since 2010 that the Labour group has lacked a majority on the Council.

In a statement, the six councillors who resigned on Saturday, said: “At a time when it’s been crucial to call for an immediate ceasefire and a de-escalation, and to insist Israel abides by international law, Keir Starmer and the shadow Foreign Secretary have instead endorsed collective punishment, blockade, siege and mass civilian casualties.

“As Starmer has said, ‘Israel has that right’ to continue deadly attacks on Gazans. This is complicity in war crimes.” They continued by stating: “In a choice between serving our parties or justice, we have chosen justice.” 

Councillor Nala-Hartley, one of the six councillors who resigned, also spoke at a pro-Palestine protest on Tuesday. 

The accusations around Starmer refer to the Labour Leader’s appearance on LBC Radio, where he said that: “Israel has the right to do everything it can to get those hostages back safe and sound. Hamas bears responsibility.”

He later backtracked on these comments, stating: “I was not saying that Israel had the right to cut off water, food, fuel or medicines. On the contrary. For over a week now, I have been leading the charge calling for that humanitarian aid to come in.”

Starmer’s initial comments attracted criticism from the Labour Muslim Network last week. In an open letter published on X, the Network urged Starmer to “retract your comments, apologise to Palestinians, and meet urgently with Palestinian organisations in the UK, Labour Muslim Network and the Muslim Council of Britain.”

The Labour leader of Oxford City Council, Susan Brown, responded to these resignations by stating: “While I am disappointed that they have chosen to do this, local residents can be assured that the Oxford Labour administration on the council will continue to deliver for residents as we have done since our election.

“Keir Starmer reiterated today that Israel has the right to defend itself, but must act in accordance with international law.”

The Liberal Democrat group leader, Chris Smowton, also responded, saying: “Labour has lost its majority on Oxford City Council. If they can’t get a grip, then the Liberal Democrats stand ready to get on with the job of governing in the best interests of our city.”

The resignations and the creation of the new independent group will have implications both local, reducing the ease with which the Labour group can pass legislation, and national, deepening divisions within the Labour Party and increasing the pressure on Starmer to endorse calls for a ceasefire. 

A letter to Sir Keir, signed by 39 academics, including experts in international law, argued that Starmer’s comments amounted to a tacit approval of collective punishment, a war crime.

Starmer and Deputy Labour Leader Angela Rayner met Muslim MPs and peers after Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, discussing the party’s position on Israel and Palestine – although no change in policy has been announced.

Oxford Labour Club have been approached for comment.

Global Commission on Modern Slavery & Human Trafficking to lead international battle to end forced labour

By
Faris Firoozye
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Image credit: Imagens Evangélicas/CC BY 2.0 via Flickr

An Oxford History Professor, Dr Andrew Thompson, met with survivors, activists, business leader, and international diplomats as commissioners of a government backed global initiative confronting modern-day slavery. This was led by former UK Prime Minister Theresa May MP. 

Modern-day slavery is a growing phenomenon. With an increase of 10 million people being forced to work or marry since 2016, the estimate of people living in modern slavery reaches over 50 million. 

The Global Commission of Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking has been funded and supported by the UK and Bahrain governments. The aim of the organisation is to “exert high-level political leverage to restore political momentum towards achieving UN Sustainable Development Goal 8.7 to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking” as said on the website. 

Professor Andrew Thompson says, “This new Global Commission has been formed to restore lost momentum to global efforts to end modern slavery and human trafficking – one of the greatest human rights issues of our times.” Dr Thompson told Cherwell that his involvement “grows out of a major investment I secured when I was the head of a U.K. research funding agency and  International Champion of U.K. Research & Innovation —  which led to the setting up of a new £10 million multidisciplinary Policy and Evidence Centre to tackle human trafficking and modern slavery.” 

As a specialist in Global and Imperial History, Professor Thompson goes on to convey that the task of the commission “will be to make a real difference around the world in helping governments, businesses and civil society to reverse the recent alarming increases in slavery and trafficking.”

Further, Professor Thompson has worked alongside NGOs before as the principal investigator on an Arts & Humanities Research Council funded project, “International NGOs and the Long Humanitarian Century: Legacy, Legitimacy and Leading into the Future”. This produced two major reports and collaborated with the UNDP, UK Disasters Emergency Committee, Oxfam, Save the Children and CAFOD. He has also worked closely with leading museums and galleries in the UK and US.

Additionally, the Commission’s own Scoping Study, funded by the UK, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, is designed to work across global and regional intergovernmental bodies, international human rights groups, survivor organisations, civil society organisations and businesses. The study is a literature review of evidence looking at potential priority areas of intervention and a wide consultation on how best to embed people with lived experience in the work and governance of a potential Global Commission.

SU Rules of Council reverted to Trinity version due to constitutional concerns

By
Bintia Dennog
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Image credit: Quintin Sanders via Pexels

Student Council has resolved that the Rules of Council will be the same as they were at the end of Trinity Term, with the exception of meetings being held twice a term, down from four. This follows accusations of the SU Trustee Board acting unconstitutionally by changing the rules without the consultation of the Student Council. 

The SU Trustee Board – which looks at the SU’s “strategic overview” – is made up of twelve board members: the Student Trustees, External Trustees, and Sabbatical Officers, including the SU President. The motion stipulates that the Student Council believes that the Board had acted “ultra vires” in its amendments and that the rules at the end of Trinity “stand as the authoritative rules.”

The SU told Cherwell: “As a charitable organisation, the Trustee Board is responsible for making decisions on the governance of the Student Union and therefore acted within its own remit and power to adopt rule changes.” They added that the rule changes were “driven by a need to protect staff welfare, align with financial implications and crucially, to increase student engagement.”

Following the motion’s passing, the president is now mandated to inquire into the process behind the decision to amend these rules and report towards the next Ordinary Meeting of Council. This includes whether the decision was “know [sic] to be ultra vires.” It further invites the Trustee Board to “propose amendments properly, so the changes can be debated openly.”

The proposer of the motion, Niall Pearson-Shaul, stated that he was not concerned about getting a full answer from the president, but rather knowing what the mindset behind the decision was. He added that “the vast extent of the rule changes… goes beyond the scope of [the trustee boards’] legal and financial duties in English Law.”

He explained that “Student Council is the way we hold you to account,” emphasising that they can only do so in so many ways. 

Joe Bell, who seconded the motion, further stated that the change from four to two meetings was “by no means the only change”. Cherwell understands that changes were made to remove extraordinary council meetings after 7th week, to invoke a two-to-three-month grace period for a no-confidence vote of Trustees, and to abolish emergency motions. 

The motion also notes that the newer rules were “very different and much vaguer”, containing incomplete sentences and grammatical errors. It emphasised that “changes to the Rules must be done through the proper channels.”

Bell further stated that “there was no obstacle for them having the meeting in Council in first week.”

The VP for Activities & Community, Mia Clement, added that “the SU does what it’s meant to do”, encouraging the society to have “two good student councils a term.” The motion was subsequently amended to keep two meetings a term, rather than changing this back to four. 

It was also mentioned that about 20 hours of work goes into preparing each Student Council meeting.

The SU told Cherwell: “Most importantly, we were grateful and open to hearing feedback on the motion during Student Council and we are fully supportive of the democratic function of this body in providing a space to listen and platform student voices and views.”

Procrastination: title pending…

By
Nina Naidu
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Alt= "Procrastination"
Artwork by Yuan-Yuan Foo.

In today’s high-pressure society, it is no secret that we all fall prey to procrastination. Whether it’s that looming essay deadline or last-minute revision before an exam, we have all experienced the relentless torment of too much work and too little time. Yet, strangely enough, I find myself thriving in this perpetual chase, engulfed in constant anxiety knowing there’s an essay due in two hours and the chaos will ensue if I miss the deadline. This façade, of course, can only last so long – but I persist nonetheless. Will my life end if I don’t get this essay done? No. Will it be absolute carnage? Perhaps, but for whatever reason I keep teetering on the edge of my deadline time and time again. This cannot be healthy. Why subject myself to such a masochistic lifestyle?

At first I thought I was lazy. I am at a university where my whole existence revolves around my frenzied need for academic validation and yet here I am, casually tossing my work aside in favour of my fiftieth miscellaneous hobby this term (if you can count watching trashy 2000s shows as a hobby). When I blankly stare at my Word doc, contemplating how much more I could possibly churn out about 14th-century Tuscan banking, even folding my laundry seems more enticing. Suddenly, I would conjure up a million other things I could be doing instead. It seems wonderful to live with the delusion that I am busy, just to avoid the task at hand. Writer, speaker, intellectual, and procrastinator Fran Lebowitz (the last is her own words) says that writers often have the cleanest apartments. I’m afraid that I have proved her right – for the only time my room has ever been clean was when I had a mountain of reading to do.

Then, as if by chance, I was diagnosed with ADHD last term. Years of scatterbrained disorganisation were now explained by this diagnosis. Naturally, I was in denial about it. So I’m not lazy? Then how can I stop procrastinating if it’s in my genes? It almost seemed easier to accept that my procrastination was simply a result of my own loafing tendencies, rather than my brain not getting its hourly dopamine kick from my linguistics essay.

Regardless of my ADHD, procrastination takes its toll on everyone at some point. Studies have suggested that at least one in five adults struggle with procrastination, and it impacts up to 85% of individuals at some point in their lives. There’s no escaping it, but it’s easy to wonder, though perhaps this is the procrastination talking, why it still happens even when we’re terrified of the consequences. I can’t stop worrying about getting a task done, yet I still find myself unable to get on with work. Spending one a hundred and twenty three minutes scrolling through Oxfess brings little satisfaction, as it turns out.

What I’ve come to realise is that procrastination has become the “Voldemort” of academia. Everybody knows it exists, and acknowledges its existence, but nobody wants to talk about it. It’s only recently that I’ve noticed the extent of a negative impact procrastination has had on my life despite it happening to everyone. In reality, procrastination arises because we fail to allow ourselves to enjoy free time in the first place. It’s no wonder terms like ‘revenge bedtime procrastination’, which many of us are undoubtedly guilty of, have gained popularity of late. Procrastination is a silent rebellion against something we’re conditioned to feel unworthy about. It is a small but simple way to defy the world, shirking our responsibilities in exchange for a fleeting but illusory sense of freedom. We should be allowed to have fun without feeling guilty, but procrastination certainly doesn’t improve anything.

The solution seems straightforward, yet it has been sorely neglected: permit yourself to indulge in your free time. As long as you don’t mind a messy room.  

Artwork by Yuan-Yuan Foo.

The Not So Secret History: Healthy Habits

By
Flora Symington
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Alt= "dinner"

As this is the first instalment of my column, it would be natural to give a little bit of background to what I’m going to be writing about. For the uninitiated – by which I mean the presumably tiny portion of the population that did not read my article in last week’s Cherwell-  I have recently moved out of college and into a house in Cowley, and I haven’t really been able to stop talking about it since. The purpose of this column, therefore, is partially so my friends don’t have to suffer my endless ramblings on the highs and lows of our lovely house, and partially to serve as sort of guide to those who might be considering (or being forced by their colleges) to live out. 

With the residents having arrived in dribs and drabs over the course of the last month, our house only reached its full capacity last week, so we decided to celebrate by having our first so-called ‘family dinner’ on Saturday night. This is a weekly tradition agreed upon long ago, when the house was nothing more than a group chat and our friendships barely formed. The aim was to create a bit more of a normal household dynamic than you get in the kinds of huge college buildings we have occupied for the last two years. It’s perfectly possible of course that once term starts our weekly schedules will never again align for long enough for us to sit down to a meal, so I thought it would be good to record this first, and possibly only, occurrence.

I think my housemates would agree (and if they don’t – tough, it’s not their column) that we all came to the dinner with something of an agenda in mind (on the subject of my dearly beloved cohabitants, they agreed to this column on the proviso that they would not be named in it. To make things less confusing I am allowed to refer to them by nicknames. They did not, however, think to ask me if they would get any say in what these pseudonyms would be. I will henceforth be referring to them as: The Poet, The Cook, The Thespian and The Classicist. I’m sure it won’t take them long to work out who’s who…). Back to the dinner and the various expectations placed upon it: The Cook, professing to be distressed by the constantly chaotic state of the kitchen despite being responsible for at least half of the chaos, wanted a cleaning rota. The Classicist wanted us all to appreciate their vegetarian take on smoked salmon blinis. The Thespian just wanted that godforsaken tap in the upstairs bathroom to stop screeching so they could hear themselves rehearse – or if that was too much to ask, for The Poet to stop swearing at it each time it made a noise. The Poet wanted to drink red wine and enjoy some pleasant intellectual conversation. It goes without saying that all I wanted was material for this column. 

I think it is a good omen for the next nine months that almost all of us got what we wanted out of the evening. The blinis were delicious, the wine and conversation flowed in equal measure, and the cleaning rota was drawn up, albeit at 3am with slightly wine-addled brains. I got my column’s worth of material, and The Poet agreed to stop swearing at the bathroom facilities – the whine is persistent, but you couldn’t really expect a dinner to solve that. The plumbing problems did precipitate the kind of conversation we have been quick to learn occurs only among housemates, however: a lively debate about whether it was normal to brush your teeth whilst on the toilet. The result was a 40/60 split, with two of us maintaining it was a perfectly reasonable time-saving hack whilst the other three called this group unhygienic cave people. The argument was only settled when I promised to ask this paper to conduct a student survey to prove at least some of us right. 

Going into the next dinner, discussion of each others’ sanitary habits is firmly at the bottom of my agenda. At the top: music. Why does The Poet need to listen to Kanye West when they wash up?  What is The Cook’s obsession with Radio 2? Knowing my housemates, I’m sure everyone will have plenty to say in their own defence. I can’t wait to tell you all about it.

Sir Bobby Charlton: A True Gent of the Beautiful Game

By
Adam Saxon
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Image Credit: David Dixon/ CC BY-SA 2.0 Deed Via Geograph

On Saturday afternoon, amidst the regular chaos of the 3pm kick-offs, the news of the death of one of football’s all-time greats spread from crowd to crowd. The death of Sir Bobby Charlton is a sad moment for all football fans. He was one of the last remaining representatives of a different, gentlemanly era of football that has long since been lost. 

No more so was his gentlemanly persona better represented than in his response to winning a BBC lifetime achievement award in 2008. Charlton was quick to deflect praise to the friends he made along the way in his footballing journey, stating he couldn’t have done it without them. He was characteristically humble, downplaying his achievements and saying it was a dream to have played for a football league club and to have played for England.

Though he was arguably one of the most successful players of his generation, Charlton’s journey was not an easy one. He was one of the Manchester United players present on the plane in the Munich air disaster of 1958, a tragedy which killed 23 people, including eight United players. The disaster stuck with Charlton through his life, and he later remarked that though he felt ‘lucky’, it sometimes didn’t feel right to still be around when so many friends had been lost to the tragedy. 

Sir Bobby Charlton was a hero for many because of the era of football that he represented, an era that stands in stark contrast to the ultra-sensationalised stars of today. In interviews and other public appearances, Charlton always seemed so down to earth and like any ‘normal bloke’ in a way that made him seem so genuine in comparison to the pampered millionaires we see on our screens today. Money in football is not inherently bad, but it is undeniable that it has to some degree been a corrupting force on the nature of the stars we see in front of us. 

In contrast, Charlton was a man of his era: paid to play the sport he loved and grateful for that opportunity. He stuck with Manchester United through their darkest days and became a legend for both club and country. He was loyal, and that loyalty paid dividends, with Charlton getting the honour of captaining the team who won the European cup for United in 1968. 

We celebrate the heroes of today for what they can do with a football. The likes of Messi and Ronaldo are rightfully praised for the monstruous records they have set in their careers that have spanned twenty years. However, it is often forgotten the extent to which the technology has changed since the likes of Charlton were playing. To score the screamers Charlton scored with a ball that has a closer resemblance to a modern bowling ball than a football is a near-unfathomable achievement. The legacy of such players must live on, and it will, because of the way in which they wrote themselves into the history books. Charlton’s goalscoring records for Manchester United and England stood for over forty years before being beaten by Wayne Rooney, again demonstrating the level of company that Charlton should be mentioned alongside.

Sir Bobby Charlton, 1937-2023.

Quickfire with Martha Lane Fox

By
Freddie Evans
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Image Credit: gdsteam via Flickr.

Martha Lane Fox studied at Magdalen College. She co-founded lastminute.com with Brent Hoberman in 1998, offering late holiday deals online, and was a pioneer of the dotcom industry. Now she has a very broad portfolio in public service, business and charities.

A Member of the House of Lords since 2013, Chancellor of the Open University since 2014, President of the British Chambers of Commerce since 2022, Martha Lane Fox is on the boards of several commercial companies, including Chair of Lucky Voice Group and We Transfer, and Director of Chanel.

She is a leading advocate for human rights, women’s rights and social justice, founder and patron of a number of charities including Reprieve (which campaigns for justice, defending marginalised people facing human rights abuses, often by powerful governments), Just for Kids Law (providing legal advice and representation to young people in contact with the criminal justice system to ensure their legal rights are respected and promoted, and their voices heard and valued) and the Tessa Jowell Foundation (inspiring ambitious, long-term change to improve quality of life and longer-term outcomes for brain cancer patients).

You studied Ancient and Modern History at Magdalen, what impact did this have? 

MLF: History taught me to ask questions.


How would you characterise your career trajectory thus far? 

MLF: Diversity, sustainability and responsibility. I have had incredible opportunities but always been tilting to entrepreneurism from LastMinute.com to GOV.UK to Lucky Voice. I want to lend my small voice to things that matter.

Please could you talk about the charities and causes you support, and what they do. What are the toughest challenges?

MLF: I am very lucky to have worked in the public, private and charitable sector. I have supported criminal justice causes such as Reprieve and Just for Kids Law and big institutions like the Open University.

What is it like to be a Member of the House of Lords? 

MLF: Complex!

Can being a Member of the Lords make a difference? 

MLF: Yes, it is an incredible legislative and public platform.

What are your main policy interests? 

MLF: I am a Crossbench peer and so independent and try to get involved in topics I work on – digital, education, business.

What do you see as the future of the Lords?

MLF: Complex!

What would you like to change?

MLF: How people get there – I applied and had an interview and everyone should do this.

What would you like to see in terms of the UK’s relationship with the EU? 

MLF: Re-engagement.


Are Horizon and Copernicus pointers to future engagement? 

MLF: Fingers crossed.

Has the public mood in the UK shifted? 

MLF: Marginally – I think we should be a Member of the EU but I think that most of the country is tired of the debate.

What does being Chancellor of the Open University involve?

MLF: Being a symbol and an ambassador and doing the amazing degree ceremonies. 

How would you single out the OU from other universities in the UK and worldwide?

MLF: Access to anybody to study as flexibility as they want.

You have been a great business pioneer and advocate. What started your interest in and passion for business?

MLF: I’m not sure I’m very good at business but I love thinking about how to solve problems and I love working with brilliant people.

What are the biggest challenges UK businesses face now, what needs to happen to help businesses grow and prosper, and what can you do, as Chamber of Commerce President and more widely, to support that process?

MLF: Being a globally trading country, moving to net zero, solving our skills crisis and keeping up with technology.


Do your board roles focus more on strategy and oversight, or can you get into the detail of what is going on in each firm?

MLF: Depends – some smaller companies you are in the detail. At Twitter for the six months before sale, we were just upholding the law!

What advice do you have for students and young professionals who aspire to make a positive impact on society?

MLF: I’ll quote Martin Luther King “If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”

‘We must viscerally disrupt our comfort zones to create opportunities for evolution’: In conversation with Philippa White, Founder and CEO of TIE

By
Sophie Magalhaes
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Image Courtesy of Philippa White

Founder and CEO of TIE discusses her global background and how it has influenced her mission to connect disparate people.

Philippa White’s mission is to help companies create “people-centred leaders” by introducing talented employees to different cultures and challenges, helping them better understand their own unique qualities and potential.

Over a Zoom call I greet Philippa, who is all exuberance. An enthusiastic and open-minded conversationalist, she tells me of her myriad cultural influences growing up. We bond over identifying as “global citizens.” Born in South Africa but raised in Canada, it was the South African side which had the most influence. The niece of Nelson Mandela’s personal doctor during the first round of negotiations with the Apartheid government in 1990, her uncle was trusted implicitly to ensure that Mandela stayed healthy and well during these important discussions. White’s uncle risked his life to fight apartheid. His fascination with perspective and possibility sparked her own drive to breach global barriers and find common humanity with disparate people. 

I ask about her time working at an advertising agency in London. “Was it the creative job you’d hoped for?” She replies, “it was an innovative and creative work environment.” Yet there was still something missing. “It was often the same conversations. (…) A middle class bubble. People who saw the world in similar ways.” I tell her that I have had a similar experience in Oxford. Whilst conversations are engaging, they are insular. People stick to what is familiar. 

Hearing this, it’s unsurprising that White veered away from the London corporate world to create a life in the Northeast of Brazil. Being half-Brazilian myself, I am curious why Brazil was the ideal place to establish TIE. “It’s a bit like the wild west. The independent way of life is so entirely different.” Despite having contacts in South Africa, Cape Town was not good enough. “It’s quite European, it’s quite comfortable. You can see the disadvantaged areas if you want to. But it’s very easy to stay in the posh lovely part.” White is adamant that we must disrupt comfortable ways of living if we are to see the world differently. “It’s that visceral feeling which creates that change. It’s taking people to the edge and not quite tipping them over yet. And then you create an opportunity for evolution.”

For the first few years TIE programmes were primarily in Brazil. Early experiences hosted employees from the communications world for 30 days, working in various environmental and educational social initiatives, developing professional leadership competencies. An early project included an awareness raising initiative for an HIV and AIDS organisation. As the business progressed, programmes became widespread. When I ask about a favourite TIE experience, White tells me of a designer from New York who spent 30 days in Malawi, using his communications background to bring fuel efficient clay stoves into the hands of Malawians. Through his work, the new stoves not only lessened high rates of infections caused by smoke inhalation, but decreased deforestation in the region. Before the private sector made it to Malawi, only 500 stoves were sold in two years. However, 30 days after the TIE programme, 10,000 clay stoves were sold. Such impactful change transcends our communities. “It provides a necessary global perspective and opens the minds of those within the corporate world.” By developing more human focused leaders from the private sector, TIE programmes humanise the corporate world, making it more competitive. The experience immerses professionals in real global challenges, demonstrating how the world works beyond their bubbles. She says: “through this you not only impact people but you yourself become more interesting and more valuable to businesses and their clients.”

White describes the Covid-19 pandemic as an “atomic bomb.” For a business model which depended on international borders being open, the TIE model had to be completely rethought. Staying authentic to TIE’s values, White had to bring worlds together virtually. TIE transferred briefly to a business – consumer model, pulling together ten cohorts of professionals globally to develop professional skills and expand horizons. Throughout our conversation White repeats: “necessity is the mother of invention.” A phrase that has always been the basis of all TIE programmes, but also became the TIE motto when having to re-think their business model. The constraints of the pandemic paved the way for revolutionary development solutions. Since the pandemic, White has returned to the original business focus. Now TIE has a host of options available for companies, both in person and virtual, as well as a scaled programme that involves up to 500 people around a business and is executed once a month throughout the year.

TIE has also expanded into a podcast and, most recently, a book: Return on Humanity, Leadership lessons from all corners of the world.  Written by White, she draws on stories of inspirational leadership from around the world and encourages readers to approach business with a human focus. When I asked White why she’d chosen to write a book, her answer did not surprise me. “I’d had people for years telling me that I should write a book.” No doubt a natural storyteller, Return on Humanity stories show that leadership potential doesn’t depend on your educational background or income level. People from all walks of life can use their human assets to impact businesses and the world around them.

Our conversation ends with a piece of advice. White says that well-educated and worldly students must seek the companies that share their set of values. “It’s a two-way system.” You have to be qualified to get the job, but the job must also deserve you. “Ask yourself what fulfils you, identify your idea of success. And find a company that fits that.”

Tie Unearthed podcast is available to listen to on Spotify. ‘Return on Humanity: Leadership Lessons from all corners of the world’ is now available for pre-order. To find out more about TIE, visit their new website.

‘Hamlet’ in the Modern World: Interview with Cast and Crew

By
Kiaya Phillips
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alt= the cast of Hamlet at the Keble O'Reilly
Image credits: Freddie Houlahan

Shakespeare is making a return to Oxford’s Keble O’Reilly and it’s a big one, Hamlet is back and fresher than ever!

When I heard there was a new production of Hamlet in town my ears immediately perked, as an avid Shakespeare fan, and a more avid Hamlet lover, I was excited to see what this was all about. I always find with any Shakespeare play that it can be difficult to tackle, that the director and actors need to bring something new to the table to be able to gain traction. Therefore, my first question upon meeting the cast and director at Mansfield college last week, just ahead of their regular rehearsal slot, was; Why Hamlet, and why now?

Carys Howell (Director): Shakespeare has kind of exploded again in oxford drama after covid, and loads of people are doing lots of the same productions especially garden plays, and I thought what about Hamlet? Because no one had really done it at that point. So, I had the idea to do it because I did it at GCSE and thought it’s a really cool play! But the main reason why is because I was watching what was going on with our own royal family, the death of a monarch, the instillation of a less popular monarch, and also the young royals being in the spotlight in the way that Hamlet and Ophelia are, and I thought that tracks quite nicely. I thought I can make that relevant, entertaining, new, and a bit fresh; which is always what you want to do with Shakespeare. That was the impetus and from there it exploded outwards with interest. The crew have made it their own with the press angle, including paparazzi and social media and thinking about how the modern world could affect these characters if they lived today.

Are you actively taking a more modern approach? Are you keeping the original text? How are you altering it to fit this more modern vision?

Carys: We are keeping the original text, but merging the folio version and the quarto version. The quarto version gives the women a bit more to do, as well as changing where ‘to be or not to be’ comes, meaning there is more preceding it instead of more action before it. So I’ve modernised it in that way but the text has stayed the same. But in terms of modernising the context, it could happen today. If something happens in the news in the next couple of weeks that’s relevant to it, I’m going to find a way to reference it in the play, trying to make it as contemporary as possible. 

Tell me about yourself, what your interest in drama is, and why you wanted to do this play in particular?

Josh Sneddon (Hamlet): My main impetus for getting involved was the fact that I also did Hamlet at school and really enjoyed it. After the first audition, speaking to Carys and seeing where she was taking it was really interesting with the influence of the news. I also really like the Andrew Scott version, so that was another reason for me doing it. 

Carys: Yes! It was a huge inspiration for this production, the Andrew Scott version, as well as the David Tenant version. Taking set and design inspiration from those ones, and then making it our own thematically.

Nic Rackow (Claudius): I have never acted in a Shakespeare play before, but I vaguely knew Hamlet. I wanted to try it out and I think the role of Claudius in particular was quite an interesting one. He is obviously a villain but I think he is often played quite straightforwardly, as a “pantomime villain”, which I think is quite boring. I think, as Carys said, there’s lots of relevance to the current royal family, the power grabs and what power does the people have, which is always relevant particularly with the way we are putting this one on, it’s quite fun to draw the parallels.

Was it important in your casting to have people from different acting backgrounds?

Carys: I was really keen to have people like Nick, who havent done Shakespeare, or even people that have not acted in OUDS drama before, put in roles that perhaps they have not been considered for before and create a new group of actors that are trying something different. By putting it in Michaelmas and having it be such a recognisable play, it’s really good for encouraging freshers to get involved with drama. We had over 60 auditionees and half of the impetus of it wasn’t just who would fit the character but who wouldn’t the audience expect to fit this character. So that was a lot of my casting decision. It’s been really cool seeing people shine in ways they perhaps have not done before. It’s also my first time directing. 

Is it? Wow that’s interesting, you really went in hard with Hamlet!

Carys: Yeah I chose a big one. I have only been doing drama for a year, I never did GCSE or A level. But the drama I have done over the last year has been amazing. So, I thought why not just put something on and just have people who are just as passionate as me do it. It’s been really fun. The rehearsal room has been ecstatic. We are having a blast!

How long have you guys been rehearsing? And when is the performance?

Om Muthukumar (Laertes): We are performing from the 25th to 28th. We did a lot of zoom rehearsals because the play was so early. I think our first rehearsal was last Wednesday, so we have really hit the ground running. Obviously there’s that pressure, but we have still been having fun and getting to know each other, it’s been great.

Nic: It was really nice over the summer that by the time we came back to oxford we already had done a run through of the whole play on zoom. We knew everything that was happening, who everyone was, who they were playing, and what people wanted to do with their characters. We discussed with Carys quite a lot before we started about characterisation and relationships between characters in particular, which now means that now we are actually together it’s pretty easy.

Carys: We started rehearsing in August, which feels like ages ago. We did a month of nothing with the script. I would just pick pairs and trios of characters and we would all sit and talk about how these characters relationships worked and then we would put what we’d done in August into the script in September. And then we did the final run through in first week and we started in person this week. The first time everyone met was for the poster shoot and everyone was in costume! It was a bit weird but it was the nature of the show. 

Kiaya: What are some unique directing, tech and set ideas you are implementing?

Carys: Shoutout to the crew, who have been impeccable from the beginning. Libby, our lighting designer, is going crazy! They did the lighting for midsummer night’s dream last term and Magdalen, and they used UV lights and it looked amazing. We aren’t using UV but we are going really heavy on depictions of cameras in various ways. We have backstage lights that are going to act as camera flashes as characters come on and off stage. We also have a permanent security camera on the stage that’s blinking in the back, to enforce the idea that you are always being watched. They are also using wireless lights that they are putting around the auditorium that they are going to control at different points to make it feel more like the audience is part of the action. They are amazing at what they do,as are the whole crew. Tech is a really big part of it, it’s definitely going way more in a modern direction! One thing that is definitely worth mentioning is that we’re having a proper fencing match with foils. It’s actually being choreographed by a blues fencer who has nothing to do with the drama scene here, which is just one of those cool ways that theatre can expand out and include pretty much anyone in different ways!

Funky Jumper Productions’ Hamlet will take place at the Keble O’Reilly from the 25-28th October, performances are at 7:30pm every evening with a 2pm matinee on Saturday. Tickets are £6 for concessions and £7 general.

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