Zombies, paper cranes and peace
Apparently, I'm going to be Tony Blair. In Titus Andronicus. And then a zombie. The link between Tony Blair and a 'Stop the War' demonstration seems obvious. The zombie link must be a little more subtle. You see, there's green on the 'Stop the War' badge and the colour of zombies is usually... Okay, maybe not.
On Thursd
Features: As American As Mom's Pumpkin Pie
Close to four autumns ago, drifting asleep on my favourite sofa, I was rudely awoken for the second time that evening by a loud and urgent knocking at the door. Opening the door and inclining my head almost vertically downwards, a mixture of irritation and resignation effused through me. The Trick-or-Treat kids were back. Our conversation ran like this:...
Features: Hilly battlefields
Puskar is proud of the war he is fighting. He has been a Maoist rebel since 1996, that is since when the 'People's War' was launched in Nepal. "The hills of Nepal are a battlefield. They control most of the towns; but we have most of the villages in the countryside. Now we have declared popular governments in five of the Western regions. Those are liberated areas"...
Features: Chocolate boxes hurt fairness
The Proctors and Assessors Memorandum makes it clear: entry to Oxford is on the basis of academic ability alone. Yet a brief glance around Oxford would reveal few students with disabilities studying here. The Special Educational Needs Act 2001 (SENDA) means that an application from a disabled student must be treated no less favourably than an application from an non-disabled student, and that the University must make reasonable adjustments to meet their needs including, by 2005, adjustments to physical premises that put people with a disability at substantial disadvantage. If the academic standards for admissions are the same, then this must mean that there are fewer applications from students with a disability. Only the number of students with dyslexia has increased in recent years. For others, the figures have remained more or less static. So where do the problems lie?...
Features: Dude where's my tute?
Yay! The students have stirred and now cry for revolution! Well, not quite, but a large enough proportion of our blessed alumni are slightly miffed, and rightly so, about the timely death of the Oxford tutorial system. The powers that be have aggravated the sleeping dragon that is the Oxford student body with their lack of consultation and clarity, and by their darn right rudeness by ramming through fundamental changes to the way that undergraduates are taught. So, quintessentially Brideshead, or essentially beneficial? Well, that argument rages on, but permit me to entertain you with first hand insight into the weird and wonderful world of the new and all improved 'Oxford Class System'....
