Oxford's biggest student newspaper, produced by and for members of the University of Oxford, since 1991.
Image Description: monochrome image of Fela Kuti with his arms raised. No musician has ever so suicidally walked the revolutionary walk as Fela Kuti in 1979, when he drove to the entrance of military head of state Olusegun Obasanjo’s barracks with a coffin, under gunfire, and demanded that the Nigerian Government take accountability for his […]
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Image Description: Jin Ha as Song Liling The fetishisation of Asian women is well-documented. Just one example, of many, is an article written by Jessie Tu for the Sydney Morning Herald. She describes the fetish of men who expect her to be ‘submissive, docile, compliant, accommodating, sweet in the kitchen, tiger in the bedroom’. Similarly, […]
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TW: Mentions of Islamophobia The term ‘moderate Muslim’, although commonly used without malicious intent, is a label I have always silently disagreed with. At a glance, it appears to be a vague, rather wide-ranging umbrella-term, invoking a range of perceptions; From imams making condemnations towards militant extremists yet again after each terrorist attack, to ‘Westernised, […]
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Image description: A figurine of Lady Justice. The Court of Appeal’s ruling last week offers hope for Shamima Begum. The so-called ‘Jihadi Bride’ left the UK aged fifteen to join Daesh. She was found, four years later in a refugee camp. She explained to The Times that, after giving birth to two children and watching […]
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Image description: A cup of coffee and a name tag. For as long as I can remember I’ve had a very complicated relationship with my name: Nupur (nūpur). It was gifted to me by my mother; she always taught me to be proud of it. In the very beginning, before being wrapped up by the […]
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Image description: Stormzy at Glastonbury festival 2019, wearing a stab-proof vest designed by Banksy While re-watching the momentous Brit awards performance by South London Grime artist Stormzy, I was asked by a friend “I get what he’s saying, but why does he have to sound so angry?” Because he is, and because he has every […]
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18,584 people working in the NHS are of Filipino heritage. They make up 1.8% of the 1.5 million strong work force- the third largest ethnic group following White British and Indian. The latest estimates place the death toll of NHS workers at 190, with Filipinos making up 13% of all COVID-19 related deaths in the […]
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I saw one of my close friends – who importantly is one of my POC friends – the other day, and I expressed the unshakeable feeling I had of being rubbed the wrong way by some friends’ silence, in the recent outcry against the murder of George Floyd. She immediately validated my feelings and I […]
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The Minneapolis police department has only very recently arrested and charged Derek Chauvin with murder in the third degree concerning the death of George Floyd. Despite this – suprisingly at the beginning of this article, but not quite by the end – the technique which he used is actually permitted in Minneapolis police rules. The […]
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One of the beautiful things about living in the age of social media is the speed at which news can travel and spread, irrespective of what part of the world you are in. Never has this been clearer than now – as the story of George Floyd has gripped a world struggling in the throes […]
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Home Secretary Priti Patel recently announced that freedom of movement will end, in a bid to ‘open up Britain to the world’. Aside from the ludicrousness of this slogan, the move towards an Australian points-based system marks a stage of Brexit that begins to pander to the anti-immigrant and xenophobic attitudes that washed over the […]
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Soy sauce, sesame oil, minced garlic, whole garlic, onions… If this new social distancing lifestyle has taught me anything, it’s that one should never run out of these ingredients. Few Korean dishes can be made without them—garlic, especially, is so important to us Koreans that our national founding myth is about a bear that became […]
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Throughout the whole of Hilary Term I suffered a debilitating illness that severely affected my mobility, alongside my ability to do work and socialise. Each week I found myself constantly declining invitations to one activity after another, missing out on dinners with friends or going to bops, and always having to shamefully request extensions for […]
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What does the Netflix documentary ‘Becoming’ reveal about Michelle Obama’s current role in a despairing society? ‘Becoming,’ a documentary directed by Nadia Hallgren, follows Michelle Obama on the tour of her eponymous 2018 memoir. After just 15 days, sales of ‘Becoming’ soared, earning the title of the best-selling book in the US for the whole […]
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Ever since I was old enough to be aware of the cultural differences between me and my classmates, I’ve been asked how many hours I had been forced to study, how long I had been locked in with the piano – even told that my parents would stop loving me if I got a B. […]
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Book Review: ‘This is London,’ by Ben Judah In A-Level History I was introduced to the well-used quote from L.P. Hartley that ‘the past is a foreign country.’ Yet, at times, it is the present that feels alien. The imperial splendour of the 200-year old buildings on Strand, Drury Lane, Kingsway and Charing Cross Road […]
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Britain has a problem with immigration, but probably not the one we are led to believe. The current emergency has thrown a spotlight onto the misguided rhetoric and contradictory policies and attitudes concerning the movement of people into and out of the UK. Unfortunately, it is unlikely to change attitudes to immigration in the future. […]
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‘Not a good start Boris!’ Shouted about a million years ago means something different now. For all the noise about the start, and the necessity of getting it right, anyone who tried to judge what Boris’ premiership would be about based on in the beginning would’ve been way off. First impressions can be deceiving. Jurgen […]
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Ramadhan. To the naked eye, it could show weary, famished and thirsty faces. To the learned eye, it could suggest showing solidarity with the less fortunate. To the theological eye, it’s a kaleidoscope of entwining elements. Yet, when this month is expected to unveil itself during a global pandemic, what do our eyes envision? For […]
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