I had planned on doing a lengthy piece getting all my views down on the protests and such like on campus. However, due to waiting to think things through and order things in my mind everything died down thus rendering the post unless and possibly even counter-productive (why dig up dead issues?).

However, with the conflict beginning again in Gaza and the next issue of the |Rabbit comes out Friday which is including coverage of the events at least in the comments section (which is likely to upset some people again).

Not all bad news. I've been introduced to two new distractions, the Evil Overlord list and Servants of the Imperium both of which I'm finding highly entertaining.

And to answer the question on some peoples minds' of the purpose of this post. None at all beyond keeping my blog alive again.

QOTD:

O'Neill, opening a door only to find it blocked by a wall: "Damn cost cutting."

Still not posting properly as I'm interested in watching some developments so instead I thought I'd lighten the mood slightly and avoid offending anyone with this video.

(sorry to anyone who has recent been hit in the head with a boot)

QOTD:

Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits.

I am not going to comment myself on today's events as once again I wasn't part of them (though I could actually see it this time). Instead I'm going to link to a selection of other comments and allow you to digest the information yourselves (apologises for the lack of the 'other view' but I don't know many/any of them so don't have access to their comments).

The one thing I will say is that whilst watching the protest today from the St John stall at refreshers (newyears) fair I did become concern by the appearance of the crowd at one point. Thankfully my suspicious mind was proven wrong and I didn't have to help clean anything up.

Adam

Nik

Mat (I personally consider this to be the most important for people to read and is largely why I'm not saying anything yet as I wish to hear what develops)

QOTD:

[an alien bug is crawling inside Block's leg]
Dr. Allison Reed: What are you gonna do?
Dr. Paulson: We might have to amputate.
Harry Block: Whoa, Doc! Don't take the leg! Ira, don't let them take my leg.
Ira Kane: Isn't there anything else you can do? He thinks he's an athlete.
Nurse Tate: Doctor, look!
Dr. Paulson: It's headed for his testicles.
Harry Block: Take it! Take it! Take the leg!

First off can I quickly hold up my hand and apologise for my mistakes in my previous blog. Namely talking about the 'commies' This was just me ranting and not really thinking about what I was writing. Anyway, the more I read around current issues on campus and look into things the more I pause and have to wonder what on earth is going on over certain aspects of it.

First up lets look at their demands (I hadn't initially seen this but the letter has now been published on facebook for people to see). I'm directly copy and pasted it as there may be some who haven't seen it yet and deserve to make up their own minds and I don't want to be accused of misquoting (though I doubt my rants are important enough to earn that sort of attention).

Dear Vice-Chancellor Colin-Riordan
In the past 2 and half weeks the world has watched in horror as Israel has bombarded Gaza city, killing over 1000 people including 284 children. These atrocities cannot go unchallenged. We have decided to show our support to the people of Gaza and we have a list of demands which we would like the University to sign up to. There are as follows:
1. The University of Essex should release a statement condemning the Israeli attack on Gaza which has killed 100 people in the last 2 and a half weeks. In a recent article ,world renowned journalist John Pilger said " Then there are the academics, the deans and the researchers. Why are they silent as they waych a university bombed and hear the association of University teachers in Gaza plea for help?"This shows the role we can play at a University in stopping conflict and providing help for those in war situations.
2. The University of Essex must provide 5 full scholarships to students from Palestine, beginning next academic year.At a University with such a diverse student body, Palestinian students are hugely unrepresented when compared with other groups.
3. The University of Essex should facilitate a "fundraising day" where buckets willl be in every lecture and seminar to collect money for the charity Medical Aid for Palestinians.
4. The University of Essex should help rebuild the University of Gaza , which was bombed 6 times on the 28th of December 2008.It should send any surplus books , computesr or other resources as a way of helping the suffering students and staff in Gaza.,
5. The Vice-Chancellor , or nominated representative, should meet the signatories of thisa petition by 4.30 pm on Friday 16th January 2009 to adress these demands.
6. Finally , any and every student involved in this campaign will not face victimisation or reprisals as a result of their work. Students have a right to protest and voice their opinions trough peaceful means. A University should in fact encourage freedom of expression.
Yours Sincerly,

Lets ignore points 1, 2 and 4 for now other than to say that I disagree. This rant isn't about their demands but aspects of recent events I've found confusing and am looking for clarification on. In fact the entire argument against them has nothing to do with their politics just how they tried to achieve things. I can fully support point 3 (their one sensible 'request' in my opinion). However, points 5 and 6 and just ridiculous. For a start I don't see why they were making demands at all, it's not like the university has been withholding anything from them that they wish in this nor is the matter really anything to do with the university. And as for point 6 that leads nicely onto the next aspect of curiosity.

http://www.essex.ac.uk/academic/docs/regs/disreg.shtm This is the universities rules regarding what isn't acceptable to the university of essex. Just flicking through I believe the activities on Friday the 16th can be viewed under sections:

• 3.2 f 1 i - violent, threatening or intimidating behaviour,
• 13.2 f 3 - conduct amounting to harassment. (The University will take harassment to include any behaviour that appears or feels offensive, intimidating or hostile, which interferes with individuals’ academic, working or social environment; or which induces stress, anxiety, fear or sickness on the part of the harassed person. The defining features are that the behaviour appears or feels offensive or intimidating to the recipient and would be so regarded by any reasonable person), [being stuck in the library and my assumptions on the feelings of Israeli students, possibly they feel unaffected by the protesters but I can't imagine that]
• 13.2 f 4 i, iii - publishing of any matter (including expressed orally or in any writing, sign or visible representation, including electronically) which is threatening, abusive or insulting or constitutes harassment or makes others fear violence, including: (i) by printing or displaying within the University and (iii) by using in any form of instruction, meeting or gathering (including social and sporting activities), [as I'm mentioned I wasn't present but I add this due to talk of an anti Semitism during the decoration of the wall]
• 13.2 f 5 i, ii, iii - conduct which obstructs, frustrates or disrupts: (i) any lecture, class or other instruction, or any laboratory work, or any examinations, authorised to be held, given or undertaken within the University, (ii) any meeting or other function (including social or sporting activities) authorised to take place within the University and (iii) the satisfactory conduct of the administrative work of the University or its public or official functions, activities or legal duties, [I know of at least one lecture moving rooms due to the noise (which would have cut class time and probably been difficult given the limited teaching space available on campus) and then there's the library]
• 13.2 f 6 - interfering with or impeding any officer, member or employee of the University in carrying out his/her duty or proper function as such, [this is one I'm more than happy to be told to shut up about as I just added this in over library staff having to keep people out of the library (rather than help with the books and library service) and having members of the university dragged down to negotiate].

No wonder they asked not to be 'victimised' over it. I'm not saying they knew they were going to be breaching so many regulations but still. I really hope that point wasn't agreed to or the decision is over-ruled.

Now several of the points above I'm sure can be waved off and technicalities and given that I'm not a lawyer or anything I suspect several may be explainable but just simply looking at it it doesn't look too good does it?

---update between starting this blog and finishing. Apparently the university agreed to demands 3, 4 and disgustingly 6---

Final thought. Just how peaceful does this look as they charge back at the library? It's like watching Braveheart with less beards and ginger.

QOTD:

[Colt and Luger's car blows up]
Colt: Good thing we took valet.
Wes Luger: Taxi!
[the taxi blows up]
Colt: I guess we're making somebody nervous. But I'll tell you this: It's gonna take a helluva lot more than a couple of car bombs to get us off of this case.
Wes Luger: Not a helluva lot more.

I still feel slightly bad to be resurrecting my blog just because of this post (seems much to stereotypical, 'I don't like that... to the Internet to complaint!') but it's happening anyway as it seems a fairly drastic event on campus and I suspect will have a long series of after affects (never know, might keep me blogging this time).

To start with I'll try and set the scene. At the last student elections on campus a group called 'viva essex' (basically a bunch of commies in my opinion but I only gave a quick glance over the elections before making my decisions) achieved a clean victory with all 5 of their members winning their positions. I voted against them all the way but fair do's to them they gained the popular support and won. They started the job some time over the summer 2008 but for me weren't noticed until the start of this academic year which is when things started going wrong. The current sabbs seem highly politically motivated (but not overly politically savvy as it's been put) which you might argue is good but they're following their own personal interests seemingly exclusively.

Before I go further I'm going to draw attention to 'seemingly'. Given that very few people will read this and I know them I won't waste their time with a definition of the word. I say seemingly as for the most part I have no interest in what they're up to unless it effects me, unfortunately I feel this year most things they seem to have done have effected me in some way or another. Possibly I'm just growing up and generally showing an interest or they are interacting (interfering, whichever you prefer) with the average student life. Equally, to my opinion they seem to be wasting a lot of time on international issues of little or no concern to the majority of the student body which is what current events are concerning.

I could go on and go but 3 months is a bit of a pain to cover and detracts from current events. I didn't witness these events myself so advise these notes by Mat specifically for a view of what happened and a good read (The SU: How did it come to this? and Kavakeb: What he said vs What he meant). In short they've brought the university to the brink of a civil war (for lack of a better term) and I still haven't worked out the most defensible position on campus once the fighting breaks out.

Now the protesters are perfectly free to have their opinions and protest though I really would prefer it if they didn't or at least thought through what they were doing and picked a better strategy rather interfere with lessons and piss off a lot of people (though it gives me hope that we're finally going to witness the counter-attack against the commies/socialists which seem to have taken over the majority of campus' across the country). However, just because they have a right to do this doesn't mean I'm going to happily stand aside and let them (despite how apathetic I generally am to causes on campus). I half hope they try something stupid like putting up a picket line in front of the lecture theatre building (which they're currently 'occupying'/'squatting' in over the weekend though never word really describes what they're doing as they booked it out) which I can then run and I have no problems with forcibly barging my way past these people even though I know it'll just make matters worse.

All this is once again encouraging me to consider running in the up coming elections. However, I fear that despite the best efforts of the SU they still haven't raised my selling point sufficiently high to have a chance of winning (equally there's still the risk of some of them winning and I might find myself winning and being required to work with 4 people I don't agree with).

As a parting question (for now) I'm still wondering whether those who are arguing against the SU and these recent protests count as revolutionaries or counter-revolutionaries due to the SU's own stance. The leaning seems to be towards the former in which case the SU should be dropping to their knees and worshiping us as we are what they appear to idealise most.

QOTD:

'I do the jokes,'  snapped Varl.

'Yeah, why is that?' asked Laydlly.

'Because... I'll shoot you,' said Varl.