Wow, it has been a long time since I wrote anything here, 20 days to be exact. Truly this is a testament to just how busy my existence has become! (I truly enjoy kidding myself don't I).
Truth be told, I have a massive back log of things that I want to post about, but haven't really had the motivation to write them up. Instead, I've been busying myself with the following things:
Learning the Android API (which is actually very nice, and generally a pleasure to work with),
Huge tracts of University work, which unlike last term feel more soul destroying than fun challenges to improve my knowledge
Playing Just Cause 2, and both Mass Effect games (which have rapidly become new favourite games, despite trepidations I had about them before playing).
So ultimately an average day over the past 20 days or so has consisted of getting up at about 6:30, getting to Uni for 8:30 lectures from nine until one, then staying on campus until about five either drinking in Falmer bar, or working on various projects, getting home about 7 and then gaming/learning Android until roughly 3am, before collapsing in bed ready to start it all over again in three hours time.
Hopefully, however, this should change over the next couple of weeks as I head into the time of year where exams loom their ugly heads; freeing up more of my day to spend on other things (such as this place).
Wow, its been ages since I last updated, things have been ludicrously busy for me, as of my last update I was supporting the protests against the cuts at Sussex University. Well, not much has changed there, Michael Farthing and his cronies are still bloated plutocrats, we're still protesting and we'll keep doing so.
Over the past 48 hours, very interesting events occurred, on March 2nd, students at Westminster Uni occupied the offices of their Vice Chancellor, and brought the proposed cuts there to a halt. 24 hours later, a protest was held at Sussex, while the UCU voted on strike action against the uni. The full details of the ballot can be found here, but to summarise quickly, there was an overwhelming majority in favour of strike action against the proposed cuts.
Meanwhile, at the protests, the well reasoned and tactful response of the University to the peaceful occupation of Sussex house (details here), can be summed up by the following:
a ridiculous level of police presence, for at a relatively minor protest. In total, present on campus where six riot vans, thirteen police cars, policemen in full riot gear, dogs, CCTV vans, and the gigantic evidence gathering camera of fail. The mind boggles at what the cost of deploying all of this equipment cost, and how many crimes took place in central Brighton, because the majority of the police were occupied in the needless task of defending a group of people who only want protection because they refuse to be held accountable for their actions.
This, however, was not the end of the heavy handed response,as certain of the officers escalated their response culminating in violence against the protesters.
The BBC has published an article on the protest and occupation, and mentions that the police arrested two students for "allegedly" shoving a security guard. Yet there is no mention in the article about the blatant police brutality on display above, and there is nothing alleged about the massive overreaction that was displayed by the police throughout the entire incident; from bringing enough equipment to fight a small war, to provoking peaceful protesters with dogs, all the way up to violently assaulting people exercising their right to self assembly, the entire incident is a stain on the reputation of Sussex police.
I'm a student at Sussex University, I take pride in this fact. Over the last few months, however, my feeling of pride has waned as a mercenary element has made itself incredibly apparent in the form of the University's vice-chancellor Michael Farthing.
This is a man who earns over £120000 pounds a year yet claims that there isn't enough money to continue the University at it's current level. A man who is cutting my departments funding gave away one of my labs (oh yeah it's personal now) and seems to feel that he's the messiah.
I'm not going to go into a major amount of detail over this, for more information, just go here, but protests having been ongoing for a long time. What I am posting about the statement below, about what is quickly becoming a Crowning Moment of Awesome for the protests, just read on:
This is a statement from the group who have occupied the conference room in Bramber House:
We have occupied the top floor of Bramber House, University of Sussex, Brighton. There are 106 of us.
The decision to occupy has been taken after weeks of concerted campaigning during which the university management have repeatedly failed to take away the threat of compulsory redundancies and course cuts.
We recognise that an attack on education workers is an attack on us.
The room we have occupied is not a lecture theatre but a conference centre. As such, we are not disrupting the education of our fellow students; rather, we are disrupting a key part of management’s strategy to run the university as a profitable business.
They’re occupying everywhere in waves across California, New York, Greece, Croatia, Germany and Austria and elsewhere – and not only in the universities. We send greetings of solidarity and cheerful grins to all those occupation movements and everyone else fighting the pay cuts, cuts in services and jobs which will multiply everywhere as bosses and states try and pull out of the crisis.
As the entrance for people to come in has been blockaded, people will be meeting in solidarity with the occupation at 5.30 today outside Bramber House so come along and show your support!
If you know any members of the press, copy the following statement into an email and send it to them!
Contact: Solomon Schonfield
Telephone: 07906 565 925
Email: sussexstopthecuts100@googlemail.com
STUDENTS AT UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX OCCUPY CONFERENCE CENTRE
Over 100 Students occupy in protest against proposed cuts in Higher Education
After a demonstration attended by over 300 staff and students, with speeches from Simon Burgess Labour candidate for Brighton and Kemp Town, Tom Hickey of the UCU National Executive, Paul Cecil President of the UCU Sussex branch, Jon Mason of Unison and Pat Hawkes of Brighton and Hove City Council, students at Sussex University have occupied the main conference centre of Falmer Campus in protest against the proposed cuts of over 100 jobs and dozens of courses. Students have taken this action in solidarity with those staff and students who will undoubtedly be effected by these cuts. Over £250 pounds have been raised to support the strike that UCU will be balloting on in a week's time. The police have been called to eject the peaceful protesters, the second time this has happened in the last month. Students outside of the conference centre who have tried to join the occupation have so far been refused entry by the police.
Photos will follow.
The occupation continues.
ENDS
If you would like more information about this topic please contact Solomon Schonfield at the details given above.
Damn I wish I hadn't had a lecture at the time they had headed in.
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