Samuel Ching Growing up in Hong Kong, I am used to living in a fairly conservative culture. Many people, particularly teenagers, avoid alcohol. The thinking goes: if you drink alcohol, you are a bad guy. And they avoid clubbing altogether, thinking there is no point to jumping up and down to music. But what really…
Category: opinion
Remember the Value of Freedom
Basti Schnorrenberg “We live a privileged life”. “The current situation in Europe is historically unprecedented”. Phrases like these ones which are often repeated tend to lose their meaning over time. We simply get used to them and, sooner or later, just like the sound of the crickets here in Cyprus make, they become a kind…
A defence of expression: the importance of the ‘other’ side
Eshitha Vaz UCL Population Health Student George Orwell’s ‘1984’ seems increasingly relevant to the society that is being moulded around us. Once written in his original preface to Animal Farm, Orwell poignantly writes: ” If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear”. The right to…
The left’s elephant in the room
Samuel Heath Political Science and Government Student, Dartmouth College Immigration; there are few topics in British politics as likely to generate as much discussion and controversy. It is approached, perhaps, only by education and the NHS. Yet discussion about immigration has often been conceptualised as an ideological face-off between a vaguely defined “left”, consisting of those…
Arguments for a Compensated Organ Donation Scheme
Alexandra Booysen UCL Laws Student Scientific advances have made the transplant of, and therefore trade in, human organs a reality. This raises questions of ethics, law and human rights. The death of about 500 people annually in the UK because of insufficient donor organs has made these questions more pressing.[1] In practice, this debate mostly…
A Cuban Thought Experiment: Applying Philosophies of the Revolution to Leadership Today
The Cuban Revolution effected drastic change in Cuba that remains in place today. This article identifies some key philosophies underlying the revolution and their manifestations, and applies them to current national leaderships. Antonio Beatrice UCL Law student and part-time Fidelista On the second of December 1956, a young and idealistic Fidel Castro did the unthinkable….
Terrorist Suspects in the Media
After the attack on Finsbury Park Mosque last Monday, the inconsistence of the media’s portrayal and discussion of terrorist attackers has once again become apparent, propagating islamophobia and shifting social norms Gianna Seglias UCL Law Student After another in a series of recent devastating attacks took place on Monday at the Finsbury Park Mosque, much of London has come…
May’s Threat to Scrap Human Rights That Stand in Her Way
May’s campaign pledge to change human rights laws that “get in the way of” increased counter-terrorism efforts in response to pressure to act reveals a fundamental lack of understanding of the ECHR
POLICY EXPERT: How relevant is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the twenty first century?
We thought we’d go a bit high brow this Monday evening, and have our resident legal and all things serious buff Ben Cartwright (incoming UCLU Amnesty Pres. Hoorah) shares his thoughts on the relevance of the UDHR in the twenty first century… Introduction In 1946, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was…
The f word and the oh-so dirty truth
“Does my feminism make you uncomfortable? Great, I’ll shout louder”: Augusta explains, why the f word shouldn’t compel people recoil into a shell of isolation, but should be celebrated. The f word. A dirty word. A divisive non-issue, if you would believe the rhetoric espoused by some. But in a year where the funding of…
The Truth about Ukraine
Guest Contributor and Ukrainian Native Anna Tarasenko writes this telling and controversial piece on the falsities of the Ukrainian reality from her perspective…. As early as 5 years ago, responses to “I am from Ukraine”, would usually see me hear things like: “That’s part of Russia, right?” Ukraine as a country was unknown, despite gaining its independence some 25…
10 things they didn’t tell you about Ukraine: Crimea and its relationship with Russia in the West
Ukraine is such a vibrant and bustling nation, and whilst its present may look slightly hazy as it remains embroiled in civil war, Annie Komorova, makes it clear that its history was and remains to be a vibrant one. Fact 1- The Truth about Crimea Contrary to popular belief (presented by the Western…
