WELL-BEING FIRST: THINKING HEALTHY IN THE TIME OF COVID-19

Posted on May 7, 2020 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged abuse, action, apathy, Boris Johnson, Brexit, conservative, coronavirus, covid, covid19, crisis, featured, health, Infection Control Today, jeremy corbyn, Joseph Stiglitz, left, liberal, media, mental health, MSM, NHS, NPD, PPE, psychology, Tory, Trump, uk, well-being, wellbeing.

by Sunetra Senior

A couple of weeks ago we were told of the extent of the Tory government’s negligence during a time of intense international crisis. They disregarded important information provided by advisory committees at critical moments as well as the crucial COBRA Meetings themselves, which are specifically held to ensure strong leadership at times of national emergency. According to the article in The Times, Boris’ earlier inaction has resulted in the number of deaths reaching six figures with the estimated mortality predicted to be 400,000. Of course, in addition to patently disregarding hundreds of thousands of lives, Johnson’s administration has also put the physical health of millions at risk with the virus running uncontrolled throughout the population for a whole month between 24th Feb when the recorded number of deaths skyrocketed, and the announcement of effective lockdown measures in mid-March.Continue Reading

EXTINCTION REBELLION – HEADING FOR EXCLUSION AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT

Posted on April 13, 2019 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national, Perspectives and tagged air pollution, apathy, capitalism, climate change, deforestation, earth, environment, extinction, Extinction Rebellion, extreme weather, featured, government, nature, neoliberalism, non-violent direct action, norwich, protest, Rebel for Life, UEA, XR.

by Craig Wilson

This year’s War of Words – The Progressive Media Conference welcomed a panel of four activists to discuss direct action and concerns surrounding the current activist scene. While noting that the Extinction Rebellion (XR) is in some way appreciated, one major theme of the discussion was that XR is failing to take along vulnerable and minority groups. There’s a feeling that the movement is too white and middle-class, and is unsettlingly weak on climate injustice messaging. As someone on the radical left but also actively on board with XR locally, I wanted to write this piece to largely reaffirm those criticisms, but from an insider’s viewpoint. Far from being single-minded and unreflexive, discussions within the group show that XR is very much seeking to learn and grow.Continue Reading

REBEL FOR LIFE: AN INTERVIEW WITH EXTINCTION REBELLION NORWICH

Posted on December 7, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national, Student and tagged air pollution, apathy, capitalism, climate change, deforestation, earth, environment, extinction, Extinction Rebellion, extreme weather, featured, government, nature, neoliberalism, non-violent direct action, norwich, protest, Rebel for Life, UEA, XR.

by Jess O’Dwyer

The Earth is our nurturer, inspirer and protector, yet we are actively and consciously driving ourselves towards her (and our) oblivion. Extreme weather is the new normal: we’re chopping down trees faster than we’re planting them and we’re still burning fossil fuels despite the common knowledge that they are damaging to the atmosphere and are causing our own children to struggle to breathe.

ON ANARCHY, ANTIFA, AND APATHY

Posted on September 20, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged action, anarchy, anti-fascism, antifa, apathy, Bannon, Berkeley, Brexit, Civil Rights, Community, cooperation, direct action, Elisee Reclus, equality, featured, hate, justice, left wing, Milo Yiannopolous, Natasha Lennard, Peter Kropotkin, politics, Richard Spencer, Unite, volunteers, white supremacy, xenophobia.

by Sarah Edgcumbe

In a left wing social media group I am part of, a member recently asked whether anybody supported Antifa, before continuing on to state that he personally feels that “they sound like the fascists they are trying to rid the world of” and harming the potential of the left. This sentiment was unexpected given the online location. Why do the words “anarchist” and “Antifa” provoke such strong negative reactions?Continue Reading

FREEING EDUCATION FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS – BEYOND TUITION FEES #5

Posted on April 25, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged academic staff, activism, apathy, Beyond Tuition Fees, borders, Community, consumerism, culture, diversity, economy, elitism, Free Education, government, higher education, individualism, international students, internationalism, jeremy corbyn, Labour, learning, lecturers, maintenance loans, marketisation, migration, politics, privatisation, solidarity, stress, student debt, tef, theresa may, Tories, tuition fees, UCU, UEA, USS strikes.

By Lotty Clare

It is a time of extraordinary potential for change in UK Higher Education. Labour’s promise to end tuition fees has defied the critics and united many behind Corbyn’s political project. But what will the implications for universities be if this comes to pass? And what can we do to leverage this progress? In this series, the Norwich Radical and Bright Green are bringing together perspectives from across the sector to explore these questions.

We face many challenges as students in 2018. Painfully high tuition fees along with eye-watering maintenance loans means that lower income students will leave university with over £50,000 of debt. Bafflingly, Prime Minister Theresa May only recently came to the realisation that poorer students are getting deterred from going into higher education. By contrast, the Labour Party’s promises to scrap tuition fees and bring back maintenance grants are of course a welcome relief for many prospective students – UK national students that is. Labour have seemingly barely considered the possibility of doing the same for international students. At the University of East Anglia, non-EU international students pay about £14,800 annually, on top of having to prove that they have access to thousands of pounds for living costs. If education is a right, why are we privileging wealthier international students in this way? What would Britain look like if we abolished or at least dramatically reduced fees for international students?

PERSPECTIVE

Posted on May 27, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged apathy, cognitive development, communication, Community, couple, creative criticism, egoism, elections, empathy, GE2017, mental health, people, perspective, Piaget, politics, pov, technology, writing.

by Alice Thomson

CW: abuse

Point of view is surprisingly important. As a child, I was always being told by my mother to ‘put my feet in another’s shoes’. It’s surprisingly difficult for children to actually do this.

According to Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, children between the age of 2 and 7 are in the preoperational stage. During this stage, children are egotistical in the purest sense. They display Centration and Egocentrism which means the child has a tendency to focus on one aspect of a situation at one time and they have an inability to see a situation from another’s point of view.Continue Reading

STUDENTS NEED A REVOLUTION – STUDENTS AND THE ELECTION #1

Posted on May 11, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged #GE2017, 1848 revolutions, 1968 protests, abstention, academic freedom, anti-apartheid, Apartheid, apathy, BDS, boycott, catch-22, collective action, desperation, direct action, divestment, erosion of the state, fossil free, Free Palestine, general election, government, healthcare, higher education, hope, insecure employment, israel, jeremy corbyn, Labour, marketisation, minimum wage, misrepresentation, national student survey, non-voters, politics, power structures, privatisation, property ladder, protest, public sector, rebellion, sit ins, snap election, student as consumer, student debt, student loans, student politics, student vote, students, Students and the Election, tef, tony blair, Tories, trade unions, tuition fees, universities, voters, voting.

by Bradley Allsop

In the midst of multiple crises faced by students, universities and schools, the outcome of the snap general election will be a major indicator of the future of the UK education sector. Each week until the vote we are featuring perspectives from our regular contributors and guests on what the election could mean for students.

Students have been at the forefront of progressive politics and change throughout the centuries. We were engaged in the 1848 revolutions that shook Europe, and front and centre of a wave of radical protest that shook the world in 1968. We played a part in challenging apartheid in South Africa and the continued Israeli abuse of the Palestinian people. Most recently we are leading the way on fossil fuel divestment.

WE ALL LOVE STUDENT ELECTIONS!

Posted on March 11, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged apathy, conservatives, democratic procedure, environment, healthcare students, House of Cards, paper, politics, student, student bubble, student elections, student manifesto, student politics, student unions, UEA, UEA SU, union bubble, union election, Union of UEA Students, UUEAS.

by Sam Naylor

It’s over, people. Candidates and students alike will be breathing deep the post-election buzz. Well not everyone and probably not even most people. Though a record breaking year for UEA elections, still only 23% of those who could vote did — there was a total of 3404 votes. Granted this is student elections and across the country it appears engagement at this level is struggling to grab the majority’s interest but it still supposes a democratic deficit. Negativity aside for a sentence, it was great to see the highest turn out ever for the voluntary position of Ethical Issues officer. However, letting the gloom resume, the positions for mature and post-graduate students received a shockingly low turnout — only a 7% turnout for mature students and an even lower 4% turnout for post-graduate students. This begs to question: are our democratic procedures within university effective?

Without diminishing the achievements of candidates, student elections are in part a glorified popularity contest. Policies are an important aspect of the elections, but people play a much larger part of the parcel. You know how it is — voting for friends, or friends of friends or that girl that you met at a house party once and she kind of seemed like a decent human being. I can’t see a way for this to move beyond the realm of people politics or the ‘Union Bubble’ with its internal divisions and machinations.Continue Reading

apathy

WELL-BEING FIRST: THINKING HEALTHY IN THE TIME OF COVID-19

EXTINCTION REBELLION – HEADING FOR EXCLUSION AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT

REBEL FOR LIFE: AN INTERVIEW WITH EXTINCTION REBELLION NORWICH

ON ANARCHY, ANTIFA, AND APATHY

FREEING EDUCATION FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS – BEYOND TUITION FEES #5

PERSPECTIVE

STUDENTS NEED A REVOLUTION – STUDENTS AND THE ELECTION #1

WE ALL LOVE STUDENT ELECTIONS!

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