When we thought back to the start of the year we could remember three main things: budget nights out on the Triangle, serious posturing in an attempt to snare some friends, and retreating to our rooms when being friendly and charming had taken its toll. Those, and the ominous warnings against being dogged senseless whilst [...]

May 20th, 2013 Read more

Imagine having to flee from your home because your life is at threat. Imagine having to leave your family, your friends, your traditions, your culture, and then being forced to adapt to a new and different world before you’ve even caught your breath. Imagine being a refugee. For millions of people around the world, running [...]

May 7th, 2013 Read more

What happens to us when we die? In the days before the internet, death was a relatively straightforward affair: photos, journals and other physical heirlooms were divided up and distributed between friends and family, a funeral or memorial service was held, and the body was, one way or another, laid to rest. That, as they [...]

May 7th, 2013 Read more

On 22nd August 1939, Adolf Hitler, said ‘they have already forgotten the Armenians’ in the same speech he decided to implement the Final Solution. Unfortunately, these words hold great truth for several million people. Every year, on 24th April, Armenians mark the anniversary of the Armenian Genocide by holding vigils and rallies to raise awareness. [...]

May 7th, 2013 Read more

In 2007, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, in collaboration with two dozen international universities, issued a statement on Academic Freedom which they defined as ‘the freedom to conduct research, speak and publish, subject to the norms and standards of scholarly inquiry, without interference or penalty, wherever the search for truth and understanding may lead.’ [...]

May 7th, 2013 Read more

The Boston marathon ‘bombers’ have been identified as Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Tamerlan Tsarnev. The two brothers – of Chechen origin and Muslim faith – are naturalised U.S citizens. Whilst the arrest of these suspects has been met with joy by the majority of the American population, for the American-Islamic community, this arrest is a bitter-sweet [...]

May 7th, 2013 Read more

Beyoncé – the queen of pop, worth $300 million, whose ‘if you like it then u shoulda put a ring on it’, causes me to wildly wave my left hand around in the air, is supposedly the independent woman. Declared as ‘the official face of female empowerment’ by the Evening Standard, she is co-creative director [...]

May 7th, 2013 Read more

Last weekend, I unwittingly attended a Socialist Worker’s Party conference, hosted by the Socialist Worker Student Society. I was under the impression that this was a day of talks run by SOAS under the broad title ‘The Crisis of Capitalism’. Given SOAS’s political reputation, I was under no illusion as to the angle from which [...]

March 18th, 2013 Read more

English history has had a long affinity with Druids and their enigmatic nature. Interest in this order has remained because of the lack of any historical facts about them, or Holy book, and because of the secretive nature of the Druids themselves. This makes defining what a Druid is particularly difficult. Perhaps the most concrete [...]

March 18th, 2013 Read more

Howard Marks should be a very bad man. A former drug kingpin who dealt in the murky waters of the international cannabis trade, he has been associated with the likes of the FBI, the Mafia, the IRA and the MI6 throughout his somewhat dubious career. Marks gained notoriety in the 1970s and 80s through his [...]

March 18th, 2013 Read more