culture
Miriam Hicklin, BA Arabic and Persian I have recently embarked upon a journey that has necessitated my being fearless in the face of judgement, throwing away my old inhibitions, and falling in love with Taylor Swift’s music. Blank Space is the killer track on the new album 1989 – mocking
centrism
Kenneth Noronha, LLB (Law) Here’s a sweeping, potentially controversial, and wholly amusing statement: people who exist on political extremes do so only because they have no sense of perspective. No, the Tories aren’t all trying to steal your welfare to build estates made of gilded peasant children. By
Cleaners
Shadia Edwards-Dashti, Msc International Politics SOAS Justice for Cleaners (J4C) re-launched their campaign this year with a series of successful events over the past week. Over 40 students mobilised outside SOAS yesterday, for a protest against the exploitation of the cleaners, urging the SOAS management to directly hire and bring
Opinion
Sai Englert, NUS PGR rep When I saw Luke McManus’ piece, Does the Political Correctness of Students’ Unions Undermine their Decisions? in the online edition of the SOAS Spirit, I almost stopped reading there and then. The juxtaposition of an attack on the ‘Political Correctness’ of unions with a picture
bouattia
Luke McManus, BA Arabic and Social Anthropology I quite like the idea of a Students’ Union. Knowing that I can have a say in the affairs of my university makes me feel included, valued and proud of what we are – a fantastically diverse body of students that can democratically achieve
Opinion
Harriet Freeman, Bsc Economics In our world today it’s becoming increasingly easy and common to isolate human input from economic activity. While commerce has been digesting the leaps and bounds we have made digitally since the late 1970s, consumer service has, in many cases, morphed into arms-length automated assistance.
Paloma Rao, LLB A few weeks ago, Rupert Murdoch, business magnate and CEO of News Corporation, tweeted the possibility that his newspaper, The Sun, may soon follow the example set by its Irish edition in August 2013 where ‘traditional’ Page 3 content – topless glamour models – was replaced with more tasteful
career
Amy Ashenden, BA French and Spanish (University of Southampton) Coming into my final year, I know by now that my degree subject isn’t exactly what I want to work in. But French and Spanish are hugely helpful skills that open doors in any career, including the option for me
Jordan
Lily David, BA Arabic and Politics Moving abroad is a big deal. Don’t believe anyone who tells you that it isn’t. It’s exhausting, exciting, and at times, bewildering. Around this time last year, approximately thirty SOAS students headed off to Amman, Jordan on their year abroad. I
Jonny Morrison, BA Chinese A trip to an Asian supermarket is always dangerous for me. However, a recent trip to four(!) has left me with a large box now brimming with spices (apparently, as a fresher, I will need amchoor powder), rice, lentils, two free and ambiguous-looking goodie bags, and
election
Tom King, BA Politics As Labour strive to be in opposition for just one term, the party leadership has walked a tightrope between opposing unpopular cuts which have battered working class people and largely backing an ‘austerity-lite’ package to wipe out the deficit and run a budget surplus in a
Opinion
By Mohammad Tahboub, BA Poltics and Law The aims of both the Justice for Cleaners and lecturers campaigns are legitimate and it is their right to fight for equality and a higher standard of life and in no doubt the majority of students support this. However, it’s time that