The Happiness Movement, and the Value of Being Content 

For over 20 years in the various schools I have led, parents often say to me that they just want their child to be happy. At this point I inwardly cringe. It is not that I want their child to be unhappy; of course, I want them to fully thrive, however, this restricted aim often expressed to me is a very reductionist one. My experience and reading tells me that happiness is not possible as a continuous euphoric experience. We will all be buffeted by life, or as the saying goes, the only things that are certain are death and taxes! (hopefully, respectively a long way off, and only in season). Paradoxically, those whose aim is happiness will probably not find it; rather, happiness is the by-product of a life of meaning and purpose, a strong identity and a sense of belonging, fostered by security in a family and community. Happiness is, in one sense, a product of being and doing.   

Having made a strong opening above, I need to apply the reassurance that I see little of this habitual behaviour, as outlined above and below, at Shore. My desire is for that to remain the case.   

It is an irony that often in the past, parents of schools I have led have insisted that the school produce a child of great resilience, but as part of this formation, decline to allow the child to experience any difficulties or grapple with adversity. Parents who overly micromanage their child and rescue him from all his problems or the natural consequences of his actions may, in a way, be suffocating the child and denying him the opportunity to develop necessary coping skills. Sometimes when the structures and the scaffolds are pulled away at age 18, the young man is unable to stand.   

The Happiness Movement has been with us for a while in various guises. In the late 80s and early 90s, it took the form of the drive for self-esteem amongst students. This catch cry was on the lips and in the CVs of many seeking promotion. It was the psychobabble of the time. Of course, we want students to have high self-esteem, but as a salvific panacea it was found wanting. After all, do we really want young people who may do awful things to feel good about it? The Happiness Movement can become its own evangel and telos, a goal pursued out of context, for its own sake.     

The self-help books of the Happiness Movement can be found in large measure in most bookshops. The size of the collection indicates the general populace is certainly looking for something in this realm. A flick through them suggests a commonality, a certain flavour which sometimes may make illusory promises. They certainly do not appear to have the imprimatur of academic peer review. Similarly, there is no shortage of consultants offering wonderful quick-fire inputs to schools and their students, for a hefty fee. Schools need to distinguish between those who are outstanding in their excellence (there are certainly some of these) and those who are charlatans, selling snake oil solutions.   

Happily, if you will excuse the pun, these days notions of psychological good and strength are more robust. In schools like Shore, we aim at Wellbeing, an all-embracing concept which is evidence based, according to well authenticated research. Therefore, it seems to me that at Shore, our programmes for boys will deliver better than most on the happiness indices. We provide a rich suite of opportunities, curricular, co-curricular, sport, character and Christian formation, in a wonderful symbiotic relationship where the elements combine to satiate a boy’s sense of significant striving, meaning, purpose and outcome. We want to future-proof boys in that they are whole people in every sense, with skills of critical and creative thinking, discernment, character and values, indeed, virtues, ongoing connections (with excellent school peers) and a plethora of cultural and sporting opportunities to continue as they wish.   

It may well be that happiness is a meaningless concept outside of community and without experience of its opposite. The suggestion that a boy or man should never be sad is, on inspection, nonsensical. There is much in the world about which it is absolutely reasonable and natural, even necessary to be sad. There is much to be sad about in all of us.   

It seems to me that there is a higher plane than happiness. It is the Biblical concept of contentment. “I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.” (Philippians 4:11-12). The import here is having sufficient grounding to maintain personal equilibrium despite immediate circumstances. It is longer and deeper than happiness, over a wider scope than the immediate, not easily capsized by adversity. It is a form of resilience. For the Apostle Paul, his contentment was founded in his knowledge of and faith in Jesus.   

On the day this particular edition of the Shore Weekly Record is being published, our Housemasters are in conference with our Acting Deputy Head Pastoral Care, Mr Champion. Their agenda is more far-reaching than happiness. It focuses on our Wellbeing initiatives over the continuum of Years 7 to 12. These proactive initiatives will be sequenced and scaffolded according to age and stage, essentially appropriate to the maturation of each young person at Shore.   

Do I want your child to be happy? Yes, emphatically, absolutely, but as a by-product of, in a deep sense, who and what he is and what he does. It is one of the great ironies of life that there is more happiness in giving than receiving (as Jesus himself pointed out). This awareness is a part of the engine of our Service Learning projects, which aim to change lives, not just for the recipients but for those who serve and give of themselves. Even more than wanting your child to be happy, I want him to be content, i.e. with a life full of riches (I don’t mostly mean money) and contentment, which will be formative in a well-rounded and highly competent individual.    

Dr John Collier 
Headmaster 

Chaplains Chat

In Chapel this Term, we are looking at the book of Exodus. This amazing book deals with God’s rescue of his people Israel from slavery in Egypt. For most of us we perhaps hear the word slavery and think of events hundreds or thousands of years ago. Surely this was all to do with the past? This week we heard from a Shore Old boy, Mike Newton-Brown (’79) who works to free people from modern day slavery. Upwards of 60 million people currently live in various forms of slavery around the world. As remarkable as this seems, there are many organisations doing wonderful work around the world to free some of these people from this oppression.  

And yet as Mike so helpfully reminded us, in the book of Exodus, God was in the business of freeing his people from their physical slavery. God is the great rescuer in the Bible. This wonderful story points to the need that we all have to be rescued. For most, not a physical slavery like the Israelites experienced, but a slavery we have to sin. As Jesus says in John 8:34: “I tell you the truth everyone who sins is a slave to sin.” It is a condition that all of us experience. Our human condition just so often thinks of self and not others, and even less following God. No matter what we do or how hard we try, we just can’t shake the condition we are in. But the great rescue of the Israelites points to the greater and better rescue that God has enabled with Jesus and his death on the Cross for us. We can be forgiven and in a loving relationship with God.
What great news indeed.  

Rev. Anthony Benn 
Chaplain 

Chapel Notices

CRU

Who is your leader? Who is the one you look to for guidance regarding your decisions? These are important questions to consider, as we discovered at CRU last Friday. 

We began our meeting with an interview of Old Boy Harry Roberts (’15), who spoke of his time working at the organisation CRU before moving into accounting. He helpfully reminded us of the importance of continuing to gather as a Christian community, continuing to read the Bible frequently and being eager and willing to serve the Lord. 

We then heard our Bible reading from 1 Samuel 8 before Mr Kellahan presented God’s Word to us. Continuing from the story of last week, we continued to reflect on the leadership of the people. Samuel was old and his sons were leading Israel, but they did not follow God’s ways. At this time, Israel asks for a king to be like the other nations. The only problem was that they were not like other nations – they were God’s chosen people who he had rescued from slavery in Egypt and whom he had led and protected faithfully. Despite this, Israel rejected God as their king and wanted a human king. After praying to the Lord, Samuel warned the people what it would be like to have an earthly king, but they insisted, and God allowed it. Despite all this, has God abandoned Israel and stopped being their king? We see in the next few chapters that God is still powerfully at work to make Saul Israel’s first king, showing us that God always has a plan and never abandons his people.  

In the same way, God had a plan for humanity just as he did for Israel despite all of us also rejecting God and going our own way away from God. God sent the ultimate king, his Son Jesus who came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for the sins of many. Is Jesus your leader and king?  

We will be continuing through the book of 1 Samuel in the second half of Term 3.  

Daniel Becker 
10 TY4 

This Week We Thank

This week we thank our Acting Head of Northbridge Campus, Miss Natalie Valenti.

Misss Valenti has been at Shore for nearly 20 years and this semester is dividing her time between K,1,2 and ELC campus and still managing to do some teaching in between!

With a passion for learning enrichment and special education, she is a wealth of knowledge on the diverse learning needs of all students and puts the individual child at the heart of every decision she makes.

Miss Valenti is a team player who has earned great respect from staff and families at Shore and our school is very blessed to have her.

If there is a staff member or team you would like to acknowledge, please get in touch with the community engagement team by emailing communications@shore.nsw.edu.au.

Giving Day 2023 Thank You 

Thank you, Shore. 

We had our best-ever Giving Day, raising $640,303 in just over 24 hours.  

This was the Shore Foundation’s sixth annual Giving Day, and we are thrilled that 313 individual donors came to the party. An Old Boy, the first student to receive a Country Boarder’s bursary was a donor. His brother (currently in Year 9 at Shore on a similar award) was also a donor on Giving Day.  I love that.  Giving Days are as much about participation as they are about money raised. 

Each year, the Foundation supports the school with over $2.5 million in funding to support capital projects, scholarships and bursaries, teacher development, and helping to grow new strategic areas of Shore such as Educational Services and Careers. We are uniquely placed in this regard compared to other schools. 

I am grateful to all of you who gave and helped us in this endeavour. And I am proud to be a member of this community. 

Go Shore! 

Mr D Mason-Jones 
Executive Director, Shore Foundation 

Shore Parents’ Association 2024 Positions Vacant

The main aim of the Shore Parents’ Association (SPA) is to bring parents together and foster friendships in order to build a strong school community. We also raise money through our activities to buy equipment and fund bursaries to support the School.

The SPA Executive consists of a minimum of seven members: President, Patron, Chair, Deputy Chair, Secretary, Minute Secretary and Treasurer. Other roles are determined by the Executive. Obligations and voting rights are defined in the SPA Constitution.

An important function of the SPA is to welcome new parents into the School Community. The SPA support and run events, including the Icebreaker (in conjunction with the Foundation), Year 7 BBQ, American Tea, Sports days and parent gatherings.

Services run by the SPA include:

1.    Saturday canteens.
2.    Facilitating the “City Start” program (new Boarder families connect with city families).
3.    Spiritual support through services provided by the Prayer Group and Community Chaplain.
4.    Second-hand textbook exchange.
5.    Parent seminars.
6.    Mothers’ and Fathers’ Day stalls.
7.    Book covering for the library.

To be considered for a position, you must be a current Shore parent during the term of the role. The successful applicant is to follow the policies and procedures of the Shore Parents’ Association (SPA). You are expected to conduct the role with sound judgement and discretion remembering that you represent the whole parent body of the School.

Roles to be filled 

Deputy Chair

Volunteer basis – two-Year Shore Parents’ Association Executive Role (one year as Deputy Chair and second year as Chair)

The Deputy Chair’s role is to support and shadow the Chair. The Chair is generally responsible for running the Executive meetings, co-ordinating SPA activities and being the main contact point between the School, parent body and SPA Executive.

Assistant Treasurer (starting by helping at the American Tea, 8 September 2023)

Volunteer basis – two-Year Shore Parents’ Association (one year as Assistant Treasurer and second year as Treasurer, Executive Role)

The Assistant Treasurer is responsible for managing funds in the Trybooking system (used for parent functions and other SPA events), emailing transaction reports to the Treasurer and providing support to the Treasurer as required (including for the American Tea).

Minute Secretary

Volunteer basis – two-Year Shore Parents’ Association Executive Role

The Minute Secretary is generally responsible for preparing the agenda and minutes for SPA Executive, American Tea Stallholders, AGM and other related meetings, in addition to maintaining the SPA calendar.
More information about volunteering at Shore can be found on the:

•    Shore website
•    Lampada

To apply or for a full position description, please email SPA Chair, Christine Bowen at spachair@shore.nsw.edu.au

All roles commence after the SPA annual general meeting in late October 2023.

Applications close Wednesday 23 August 2023.

AAGPS Athletics

Each year, the major AAGPS Sporting events provide an opportunity for the boys of the School to come together to show support for their School and our athletes.  

All boys in Years 8, 9 and 10 are required to attend the AAGPS Athletics on Saturday 16 September.  

Boys in Year 12 are welcome to attend.  

A train has been arranged to transport boys to and from Homebush, with the cost added to boys’ next fee statement. Boys are expected to wear School summer uniform (no coats or boaters) with their yard hat or a blue Shore sports cap. A separate communication has been sent home to parents with more specific details. 

Dr A S Mansfield  
Deputy Head Operations 

Term Dates 2023 – 2024

Old Boys’ Union: Scholarship

In the last couple of weeks, we have submitted information on the Year 12 Old Boys’ Union Scholarship. Our current recipient is Angus Fisher (’22), a very talented artist volunteering at HammondCare. Angus is working with their team who offer art therapy for Dementia patients. Angus is currently exploring other ways in which he can make a positive impact in the community through art, and with the help of his OBU Scholarship.  

If your son is passionate about giving back, making an impact in the community or a particular cause or organisation and would like to pursue this further, then the OBU Scholarship could be a way for him to do so. 

The scholarship is provided to the successful recipient/s after they leave Shore, to provide financial support in the pursuit of an activity (or activities) that seek to serve the wider community. Shore has always sought to ‘Build Good Men’. One of the characteristics of good men is that they seek to serve others including family, friends, neighbours, colleagues and wider society. 

The purpose of providing the financial support is so that the Old Boy can pursue some form of ‘service’ activity that they might not normally have the resources to pursue. The Scholarship seeks to acknowledge both a boy’s appreciation of the School’s aims and also his desire to put into practice, in a unique way, what they have learnt. The value of the Scholarship is a minimum of $3,000. It may be utilised by the recipient/s over a three-year period up to 31 December of the third year following the final year of School. The Scholarship recipient/s are announced in the final week of Term 3. 

Some examples of service-related activities might include volunteering for a charity; serving with Indigenous communities; participating in an Aid programme; assisting rural communities in times of need; volunteering with the SES; volunteering with a local community group, or volunteer coaching at a local club or sporting club. 

Shore Reports Winter Edition

We are delighted to share the latest online edition of the Shore Reports Winter 2023 magazine, highlighting the wide range of programmes and activities held across the School during Semester 1.

All School publications can be found on the Lampada Publications page.

Celebrity Organ Recital at Shore’s Chapel

Don’t miss this once-in-a-lifetime musical event as we celebrate our chapel organ turning 100 years old this year.

Thomas Trotter, one of Britain’s most acclaimed musicians, will perform an organ recital at Shore’s Chapel on Tuesday 22 August at 7.30pm. 

His impressive achievements include posts at King’s College Cambridge, Westminster Abbey, Birmingham City, and St Margaret’s Westminster. 

Thomas received the Queen’s Award for Music in 2020, joining the ranks of respected musicians like Bryn Terfel and Emma Kirkby. 

Don’t miss this special evening. Tickets to this wonderful evening are limited and can be purchased through here: trybooking.com/CIYNW.

HSC Design Tech, Industrial Tech and Art Exhibition

Holiday Workshops

Holiday Workshops will be offered from Monday 25 September, to Year 12 boys for the upcoming school holidays. These have proven successful in providing boys with structure that complements their individual study programmes.  

Each three-hour Holiday Workshop session will consist of coverage of important HSC topics in that subject. A mix of strategies will be used in order to maximise learning: revision lecture, structured tutorial and discussion. Workshops will generally be limited to a minimum of seven and a maximum of approximately 20 boys. A fee of $70 (incl GST) will be charged per workshop, which represents excellent value compared to externally run HSC lecture courses. Boys are encouraged strongly to make good use of the workshops and are expected to stay until the end of each workshop.

A selection form will be handed to each boy in Year 12 and is to be returned to Ms Ducrou, Executive Assistant to the Deputy Headmaster – Academic. Boys may choose as many sessions as they like. Every attempt will be made to accommodate all boys, but it might be necessary to restrict the number of boys in a particular workshop, depending upon demand. This will be done on a first come, first serve basis. 

Charges will be made to the next fee statement on a no-refund basis.   

A list of all available workshops will be available through the school’s portal, Lampada, from Friday 1 September.

Boys will not be required to wear school uniforms.

Boys are not encouraged to drive to school for the workshops. However, if they do drive, they are not allowed to park on school property under any circumstances.

We do hope that each boy will participate in the workshops, which, according to boys in the Classes of 1999 – 2022, contributed well to their success at the HSC examinations.

Mr I M Middleton
Assistant to the Deputy Head Academic

University Open Days

The latest issue of Careers News, has been released, which has a wealth of events and opportunities for families to explore. It can be accessed on the Careers Lampada page.

Ms V Shirriff
Head of Careers Education

Year 10 Research Project on Teenagers’ Exposure to Gambling Advertising 

In a time when technology has seamlessly become a part of the fabric of young people’s lives, serious concerns about the influence of advertising on their choices and behaviours have arisen. This Research Project on Teenagers’ Exposure to Gambling Advertising is a collaborative effort that aims to shed light on the intricate ways gambling advertisements target adolescents and provide evidence to advocate for policy change. This joint venture between Year 10 students from various Shore House groups, Northern Sydney Area Local Health, Gamble Aware, and North Sydney Girls High School, is a promising move toward protecting the mental wellbeing of our boys. 

The increasing prevalence of gambling advertisements targeting teenagers has raised red flags among researchers, educators, and health professionals. These advertisements often seep into young people’s lives through video games, social media platforms, and sports broadcasts. The project underscores that the normalisation of gambling ads, coupled with their strategic placement in the digital realm, can lead to a concerning upswing in problem gambling among youth. A chilling statistic from the NSW Youth Gambling Study (2020) reveals that a substantial 40% of problem gamblers in New South Wales are under the age of 25, underscoring the urgency of addressing this issue. 

The research project that Year 10 boys are now undertaking unfolds in three carefully crafted stages, each designed to provide a comprehensive view of how gambling advertising infiltrates the lives of young people and arms them with the means to advocate for change. 

Stage 1: Building Awareness and Understanding. The project commenced with a one-hour workshop on Monday August 14, at Shore. During this session, the Year 10 students were acquainted with various facets of gambling advertising’s impact on their lives. The workshop delved into different forms of gambling, including simulated gambling in video games. It also highlighted the strategies employed by gambling companies on platforms like TEMU and Twitch to subtly advertise their products. Additionally, the students were made aware of the unsettling normalisation of gambling advertisements within sports broadcasts.  

Stage 2: Personal Exploration and Documentation. In this phase, beginning this week, the boys will be actively involved in gathering real-time data for seven days. Using their personal devices, they will capture screenshots of any gambling advertisements encountered on platforms like Snapchat and Instagram over the course of a week. This stage not only empowers the students with an understanding of how these advertisements are pervasive in their lives but also provides tangible evidence for the research project’s advocacy efforts. 

Stage 3: Advocacy and Empowerment. The final stage of the project focuses on channelling the insights gained from the previous stages into actionable change. The students will partake in forming a presentation where they will present their findings and experiences. The goal is to compile their observations into a compelling photo presentation, aiming to influence policymakers and government bodies. By employing the principles of action research, the students will gain insights into driving change, understanding policy dynamics, and actively participating in advocating for improved regulations around gambling advertisements.  

To complete the project, the students will prepare a presentation to share their findings during Future Ready (formerly Wellbeing Week) with their peers in Year 10, helping to build awareness of these issues and their experiences across the year group. By initiating conversations and encouraging open dialogues, hopefully it will help the boys to be more responsible and help them make good decisions. 

Thank you to the students for stepping in as advocates, armed with research and a collective voice, to bring about some policy change in this important area.  

Mr D Champion
Acting Deputy Head Pastoral Care

Love Is A Drug

Black Mirror on Love, Grief and Letting Go

M. D. Kwak

TO BE HUMAN IS TO GRAPPLE WITH THE SOUL-CRUSHING REALITY THAT IS DEATH. As individuals and cultures, we’ve created rituals that accompany death, in the hopes that its sorrowful emptiness will be made the slightest bit more bearable.

The coffin being lowered down into a grave.

Then the solemn eulogy and prayer. 

And for weeks, months or even years, there’ll be the spontaneous gaze at tear-stained photographs,

– the replay of bittersweet videos that hold memories of an age-old past.

We all grieve in different ways. Some people bury themselves in the monotony of work or the numbing busyness of life. Others don’t come out of their room for weeks, instead basking in the rose-tinted warmth of the past. Many are paralysed by the crushing anxiety of the future – a future where their loved one is no longer beside them. Grief is soul-shattering, and despite thousands of years of cumulative experience with it, humans haven’t really figured out how to make the process any better.

My favourite Black Mirror episode, Be Right Back, portrays a future where technology serves as the band-aid to those metaphysical wounds. AI processes the memories, social media data and private information of deceased individuals and mimics their appearance, personality and behaviour. What starts off as an AI chatbot turns into a phone call, then into a full body replicant – an autonomous, physical being that you can talk to, hold in your arms and share your life with, almost as if they never even died in the first place.

But love is a drug, perhaps the most powerful one there is. It becomes a drug when we would give up everything to have just one more conversation with them, share just one more hug or laugh with them just one last time. And just as with the case of drug addicts, it doesn’t get any easier to give up the people we love – especially when we have already felt their harrowing absence. The people who will use this technology are those who are most familiar with and most terrified of the feeling of waking up alone. This is why this AI, if it existed, would be profoundly addictive and near impossible to switch off.

The problem with this is that no matter how advanced this AI becomes, no matter how many algorithms it runs or machine learning it undergoes, it will never be good enough. It will never bring back the person who has died because it is fake and inauthentic and merely a replication. You’ll be talking to it, and suddenly it won’t be able to recognise a memory that wasn’t uploaded to its cloud. Its responses will feel slightly out-of-character, its personality will increasingly diverge from the set of input data as time passes.

Or maybe it’ll feel too perfect; it’ll be too eager to fulfil your needs. It’ll recall memories that you had long forgotten, or act in ways that seem too robotically perfect for the imperfect person you once argued with and cried over and loved dearly (after all, don’t we only document our best moments whilst conveniently forgetting about the dysfunctional aspects of our personality?).

Above all, you will always know that they are not the real person and even though on the surface, you might convince yourself that they are, you will grow to dislike the person that you have created but feel responsible and tied to them all at once. You will realise that they are inauthentic, that they can’t replace a real-life person, but you can’t bring yourself to say goodbye because they would look at you and beg you to not turn them off.   

This technology might circumvent grief, but it does so by keeping individuals at its first stage: denial. And if individuals rebuild the broken pieces of their life using this denial, their existence will be tenuous and disconnected from reality. The AI would be a perpetual reminder of the loss of their person: a drug that suspends you in a horrifying limbo of grief and trauma, rendering you incapable of escaping or forgetting the most painful memories and emotions of your life.

Yes, maybe it is slightly regrettable that grieving people reach out and form new relationships to alleviate their grief. But when they date a new person or have a new child, the actual consequence of that is that it makes it that much easier for people to get over their loss. It is far better to move on with a new person because they are an actual, real person who is able to morally develop and push back on you, challenge you, and cherish and love you in ways an AI replicant never will.

Wake Up Dragon

An Insight into China’s Recently Underwhelming Economic Performance.

B. N. Dent

IN THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY, CHINA’S ECONOMY was by no means considered a force to be reckoned with as it suffered in the form of stagnation, poverty, and inefficiency due to the nature of its structure. The structure it had in place can be described as a centrally planned system where, within the economy, the government controls the factors of production. However, ever since Deng Xiaoping’s economic reforms in 1978, which aimed to create a more open market, China has seen immense economic growth, positioning itself as an impenetrable economy heading into the 21st Century. Such stature and prosperity have led to the nation being the centre point of the United States’ contemporary fears of being dethroned as the leading world economy– a title that they have held since overtaking the British Empire in 1890.

Between 1990-2023, the United States has averaged an annual GDP growth rate of roughly 3% per year whilst China has boasted a rate of 10%. Therefore, despite the head start that the United States may have had due to their consistently solid economic state in the 20th  Century, the annual growth statistics show that the rate at which China’s economy is growing is far quicker than that of the US. According to World Bank statistics, at the beginning of 2023, the USA’s Real GDP sat at around $20 trillion USD, with China’s trailing by just $4 trillion USD. This gap has been shrinking since China’s economic reforms. 

However, recently released July data points surrounding China’s economy have shed doubt on just how fast (or whether at all) China will be able to close this gap and assert its dominance over its annoyingly patriotic older sibling, the US. Such data points include a 0.3% fall in consumer price index (CPI) and 4.4% fall in producer price index (PPI) compared to 2022. These figures essentially indicate a decrease in the price of goods and services within the economy, thus showing that China is currently facing the big bad DEFLATION. 

In being the counterpart to inflation, upon initial exposure, some may think that deflation is a good thing: lower prices, more affordable society, ability to purchase jetpack, right? Well at least that was my train of thought. However, the effects of deflation lead to far worse economic outcomes than that of inflation. Deflation is an indication that the market is not growing, as prices fall, not out of the kindness of producers’ hearts, but due to a lack of demand. This can ultimately incite a variety of market failures, such as high unemployment, an influx in real debt  burden, etc. So, when it was announced last week that the second biggest economy in the world was experiencing deflation, economists around the globe were quite shocked. Shocked on account that :

1. China’s post-Covid economy was predicted to roar and;
2. Most Western economies, such as Australia and the U.S., have been fighting the opposite battle – high inflation.

So how is it that China has found itself in this predicament? Well, most analysts equate China’s current deflationary economy to the desolate state of their property market. Whilst the property market showed signs of recovery early this year from its stagnant state during Covid-19, as of late it has been decreasing at an alarming rate. It is estimated that property sales have fallen back to 70% of the level they were at in 2019 prior to the first Covid-19 lockdown. A reason for this drastic fall in sales can be correlated to an overestimation in property market demand by the Chinese government and major property development firms such as Country Garden. Before the onset of tight Covid restrictions in China, property was in extremely high demand, but developers were forced to stop all projects. In light of this, the Chinese government made it easier for indebted property developers to raise money so that they could complete delayed construction projects after the lockdowns. Sure enough, this incentive meant that many development projects were completed just after the easing of quarantine restrictions. However, to the surprise of development firms, they were not met with high consumer demand, which was expected to occur in the form of “revenge spending” due to the major increase in consumer savings during the lockdown. This has ultimately greatly hurt the real-estate sector and pushed many firms to the brink of default (i.e., being unable to pay off interest payments) which has in turn damaged the Chinese economy, and alongside weak trade and restrained domestic demand, deflated the wings of the dragon. 

In response to this, China’s government will require some fancy footwork to navigate the extremely fine line they are walking across. One wrong step in their complex economic conundrum could demolish all of the strives they have been making in the 21st Century towards becoming the leading world economic power.

Passing on ‘LaFlame’ of Life

Are We in U…U…UTOPIA?

O. P. Jamieson

AFTER AN EXCRUCIATING FIVE-YEAR WAIT, TRAVIS SCOTT’S UTOPIA HAS FINALLY DROPPED. Following his adored album Astroworld, Utopia had monumental expectations to live up to – both commercially and critically and, in my opinion, at least, it did not disappoint in the slightest. 

For some context, on the 28th of July, Travis ‘LaFlame’ Scott blessed us with the long-awaited record; however, this release was just a small part of the overall rollout and vision for the album. First teased back in July of 2020, the rapper posted a seemingly normal picture with the caption ‘utopia.’ Little known at the time, this would become the title of the work in the future. Furthermore, in October of the same year, Travis began hinting at the album through a series of rather cryptic tweets.

It seemed as if the rollout for Utopia was beginning to ramp up, until tragedy struck at the Astroworld festival in November of 2021. Devastatingly, ten people were killed at the concert 

due to crowds exceeding the capacity of the venue. This event sent Travis into a flurry of backlash on social media alongside highly complex legal matters against his name. Although the lawsuits have now been settled between the victims’ families and Scott, it is undeniable that public opinion of him has been damaged.

Fast-forward to July 2023, billboards started appearing in Houston, Texas, where Travis grew up, promoting the album’s release; but also it mentioned the release of a movie named ‘Circus Maximus’ – Latin for “largest circus” referencing the chariot racing stadium in Rome. Also, large abstract totems were mysteriously constructed in different states around America, blasting a loud synth-lead melody repeatedly – a theme staple to Travis Scott’s sound.

After all this build-up, the album finally released, and for lack of a better word – it slapped. I listened to it on max volume the entire way through (in one go) and most definitely failed the try-not-to-headbang challenge. The production on the record was a highlight with credits to LaFlame regulars like Mike Dean and Wondagurl for crafting amazing beats with floating melodies and punching drums patterns as seen in ‘MELTDOWN’, but also some interesting, more experimental sounds like that of ‘MODERN JAM.’

Despite it being hard to rank, my personal top five from Utopia is:

1. MY EYES
2. MELTDOWN
3. THANK GOD 
4. HYAENA 
5. CIRCUS MAXIMUS

If you want to get the overall vibe for Utopia but don’t want to listen to the whole thing the entire way through, I would recommend listening to these songs.

To get a sense of how the work did commercially, let’s take a look at the statistics for Travis so far:

• 496,000 first-week sales (biggest first week for any rap album this year)
• 128,000,000 streams on the first day
• 3rd biggest rap album opening day in Spotify history
• Debuted at No.1 on The Billboard 200 Charts
• All 19 songs charted in Billboard Top 100

With a stat line like this, it’s pretty safe to say that the album was initially well-received by most. However, despite how much I enjoy it personally, only time will tell if the album sustains this commercial trajectory or fails to hold longevity and starts to fall off.

Playing with Food & Fire

A Burning Passion Over Four Years

K. L. L’am-Li

THROUGHOUT THE PAST FOUR YEARS, from the start of the pandemic, through to the shift in schools, environment and nation, cooking has been one of the few constants within an otherwise hectic world. It started with a simple goal; feeding myself with no-one around, and over the course of 48 months, it’s become an integral part of my identity and a skill that extends far beyond the kitchen.

Playing with your food, playing with fire, and playing with the rules that were meant to be bent is an aspect of life I feel goes underappreciated in the modern context. However, recognition of the culinary world, particularly online, is growing. But with the restrictive nature of the picture-perfect plates, I wonder – has food been restricted to carrying only an aesthetic value for our validation?

No, it hasn’t. I implore you to switch out your fork for a knife and join those that give. I guarantee you – you won’t regret it.

Coming from a Cantonese-Chinese household, food always held an important social aspect in our lives. Whether it was awkward family gatherings at restaurants or feasts and hotpots prepared at home, the expectation was that it was always with people; family friends, relatives, friends of friends invited from halfway across the globe, it didn’t matter. People cooked together, ate together, and chatted together over cups of tea and wine well into the night whenever they could. Half of the business associates we knew were met via a connection of chopsticks and plates rather than the stiff handshakes now associated with networking. It’s not just that we’ve lost the social aspect of meals nowadays, we’ve neglected to pass these things to the next generation of lost and confused youth, and consequently, many people simply don’t know how to form the deep social bonds essential for success once removed from their current environment.

Preparing food is an innately social activity. Now more than ever, it’s an aspect that we need to focus on when we or the ones we love take the time to prepare our meals. Research from the National Library of Medicine, Oxford University and various other institutions have linked not only social benefits to cooking but also boosts to self-confidence, socialisation, and overall quality of life. Considering that developing deep social bonds within a group was once central to survival, there’s no mystery in why humans evolved to integrate such a function into their most basic of actions. It would only work against us if we had done so otherwise – and that’s quite literally what we’re doing as we develop into an increasingly digitised world.

To cook, and even more so to cook well, requires all manner of basic principles and standards; patience, observation, adaptation, and the list goes on. Anyone can follow a recipe to the dot and create an Instagram-worthy photo but it ignores the fundamental purpose of cooking; to feed not only ourselves but others. Our societies have progressed to the point that people can, if they so choose, isolate themselves from the world while still retaining access to all the basic and not-so-basic necessities of life. In Japan it’s called hikikomori; adolescents and young adults who reside almost solely within the confines of their rooms without leaving for months or years. While an extremity, it’s becoming increasingly common on smaller scales, even within our society.

Regardless of how far technology advances, the human condition cannot be supplemented artificially, even with the ground-breaking leaps that AI has made in technology. Human beings require the love and support of others to thrive, and as an activity that has evolved to coordinate with human nature, cooking is one of the strongest strings that ties the individual to the community. Cooking embodies love and cooperation, and even in the most basic aspect of providing a meal, it does so much more than what we see on the plate.

It doesn’t take moving mountains. It doesn’t take a lifetime of culinary experience under a French chef in Paris. All you need is a heart and a willingness to learn, and the world truly does become your oyster.

Bibliography;

Farmer, N., Touchton-Leonard, K. and Ross, A. (2018) Psychosocial benefits of cooking interventions: A systematic review, Health education & behavior : the official publication of the Society for Public Health Education. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5862744/ (Accessed: 11 August 2023).

Social eating connects communities (2017) University of Oxford. Available at: https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2017-03-16-social-eating-connects-communities (Accessed: 11 August 2023).          

Gorlami and Stereotypes in Film

Feetnotes Part 2 – Inglourious Basterds

J. K. Tang

I HAVE HEARD ENOUGH DANNY ELFMAN FOR TODAY! With credits rolling on one of Tim Burton’s Batman films, I struggled to find the great critique of the human experience that was supposedly synonymous with 90s cinema. Left with mild disappointment, I exercised the possibility that, perhaps, 2000s films are not so bad. What if a film could relive the age of happiness, hope and triumph? And simultaneously, be provided with even more meaning and more value in my cinematic experience?

To explore the limitations of the 21st Century silver screen, I reluctantly scavenged amongst the DVD sets, mingling my fingers through hopeless sequels and cringey reboots. There was a film titled Disaster Movie! A red rustic cover bled into my sight, and its star-studded cast pulled it closer to my intrigue. “Another Tarantino flick”, I excitedly whispered. Sighing in relief, I told myself that “this just might be [another] masterpiece”. 

Contrary to the digital revolution of filmmaking, Tarantino draws himself towards the 35mm anamorphic format, causing his budgets to be high, and expectations even higher. His specific directorial choices aim to create a sense of authenticity when watching his films. Despite his devotion to preserving the 35mm canvas, Tarantino does not paint between the lines, and aims to subvert, provoke, and redefine the cultural status quo. 

Beyond the crime-ridden streets of Los Angeles, the director centred his postmodern storytelling around World War Two, specifically Germany’s conquest of Europe. To both establish and rewrite the WW2 narrative, Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds (2009) is a satirical exploration of an alternate Second World War, which critiques film itself and explores the role of stereotypes in adapting our narratives onto the big screen.

Inglourious Basterds (2009)

In a perfect embodiment of a villain, Christoph Waltz’s Colonel Hans Landa situates us in a world of fear. As a criticism of WW2 cinema, Waltz’s iconic performance, coupled with Tarantino’s cinematography, affirms cinematic depictions of the tyrannical ‘Nazi’.

Early shots of the opening scene introduce us to the invasive and relentless momentum of our antagonist and his impact on the innocent domestic life. With LaPadite’s daughter arranging a large sheet across a wire clothesline, a medium shot allows this menial task to symbolise the peaceful life in the French countryside. 

In the following medium close-up, this large sheet reinvents itself as a curtain-like visual aid in revealing the arrival of Landa and his troops. Additionally, the sheet serves as a barrier between the LaPadites and the cruel Nazi regime—a testament to Landa’s ability to pierce through this barrier of violence and prosperity. In its entirety, Tarantino’s mise-en-scene juxtaposes the dull, monotonous Germans and the beauty of rural France. This visual contrast aligns with 1940s American propaganda films, like Reed’s Night Train to Munich, in which the ideal Nazi German cements itself as a formidable threat to Western cultural and political values. 

“I, on the other hand, love my unofficial title, precisely because I’ve earned it.” 

– Col. Hans Landa

In one of the most hilarious scenes in all of Tarantino’s cinema, the film ironically acquaints our proclaimed “Jew-hunter” with three Italian speaking spies, two of which are Jewish. More suspense, more tension! The inconsistent Italian dialogue, dominated by Landa, reminds us of his concerning competence in disrupting peaceful, prospering lives. 

Whilst providing hand gestures and adopting high-pitched accents, their inadequate espionage provides our SS detective with the advantage and builds more ambiguity for the film’s ending. By masquerading as their stereotypical counterparts, this scene mimics filmmaking itself and expresses the importance of conventionalised expression—no matter how inappropriate and inaccurate— in pushing certain narratives to its audiences. As Landa continuously strives to unlock new levels of fear, Waltz’s relentless performance parallels the Nazi reputation moulded into a 40s propaganda film. Likewise, the “Bastereds” and their ‘disguises’ entertains the comedic undertone and yet, profoundly suggest a necessity for hyperbolised representation in this form of storytelling. 

“Watching Donny beat Nazis to death is the closest we ever get to goin’ to the movies.” 

– Lt. Aldo Raine

Motion pictures shape our lives by forming our perceptions of the world and adding new flavour to our past, present and future experiences. Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds diverts from the societal repulsion of stereotypes and embraces its simplicity as an essential for enriching both the reception and creation of films. 

This reflective medium could stamp its narratives onto our minds and tell us how our worlds should operate. However, I believe it is through metamodern and postmodern films, like Inglourious Basterds and Pulp Fiction, that we can use baseline, generalised expression to expand and reinterpret its narratives for ourselves. We, the audience, have perceptive autonomy and freedom in our grasp and shall use film as an ongoing stimulus for our worldviews. If our cinematic progression is driven by creatives like Tarantino, we are destined for more meaningful movies to watch and more meaningful people to write them. 

The possibilities on screen are endless.

Slumdog Millionaire

Is Hollywood’s Portrayal of India Concerning?

C. N. Mathur

SUFFERING FROM HOLIDAY HAIR, AND PLANE DELAYS, I stumbled into Asif’s barber shop in Delhi Airport. In a feeble attempt to start a conversation with Asif, I uttered, “Do you watch much film?” Met with little response, I added, “I saw the Bollywood film – Tiger Zinda Hai in the cinema a few years ago”. He nodded blankly before finally I asked, “I love the film Slumdog Millionaire. Isn’t it a great Bollywood and Hollywood collab!?” This seemed to set him off – “I hate how Hollywood writes India, there are more Indian stories than poverty!” Taken aback, I attempted to soften the blow of my assertion – by agreeing with him, declaring my ¼ Indian-ness and boasting my familial name – Mathur. 

Yet, whilst I left the barber shop for the boarding gate, I thought about Asif’s comment, leading me to revisit the film that I hold in such high regard. With a 15 hour flight ahead, I could ponder the extent to which I believe Western cinema incorrectly depicts Indian culture and, further, if it perpetuates Orientalist or simplified views of India. 

As a somewhat (incredibly) naive 14-year-old, my first experience of Slumdog Millionaire (2008) was not that deep; I saw it merely as a nice, feel-good film, with a highly enjoyable, yet unsolicited, dance sequence at the end. However, now with heightened knowledge of the implications of British colonialism (under the passionate tutelage of Ms Rhodes in Year 10 Geography), I could now sense the underlying issues with the film. 

The film’s narrative is structured around the Western game show of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, with protagonist Jamal Malik’s (Dev Patel) story being told through flashbacks of his childhood which were shared with his antagonistic brother in the slums of Mumbai, and his yearning for romance with his childhood companion. The film ends with the ultimate uplifting ending, thus it has been coined as the “feel good [film] of the decade”. 

Yet, underlying all this is an absolution of any responsibility for the colonial legacies that created the contemporary realities of poverty that the film depicts. It subliminally states that colonial legacies are elided by a more universal fantasy of achieving wealth and romance, and that upward economic progression, from vagrant to millionaire, is simplistic and in-reach. 

Furthermore, the fact that the film was created by a British director and screenplay writer, led the film to much criticism: first for purportedly being a neo-colonialist misrepresentation of India and secondly, for masquerading itself as “globalised or world cinema”, when in actuality it was produced in a British studio. 

Moreover, just a side point on casting. As a Dev Patel tragic, I find it infeasible to critique his acting and persona, yet his presence in seemingly every Hollywood mainstream depiction of India (Hotel Mumbai, Lion, Marigold Hotel, as well as Slumdog Millionaire of course, to name a few) is quite apparent for me – perhaps even a little polarising. Whilst being born in India, Patel emigrated to England in his early teens, developing a British accent and speaking no Hindi! (think of this what you will…)

Nevertheless, into the film itself: 

The general focus on the Indian slums and the depiction of certain cultural elements could be seen as fitting into the broader historical pattern of Western narratives about the East, outlining the basic concerns of Orientalism. Referring to the way Western societies have historically depicted and misrepresented cultures by simplifying or exoticising them, Orientalism is a profound concern that, one can argue, subliminally pervades the film. 

More specifically, in a flashback sequence, young Jamal works as a tour guide for Westerners, on the Ganges River. Much to the horror of the tourists, a driver physically abuses Jamal. Jamal exclaims, “You want to see a bit of real India? Here it is!” The director refers to the side of India so poverty-stricken and chaotic that it lacks all human decency and civility. Thus, perpetuating the view of India as a backward third-world nation.

In the risk of ending this article regressively, I think the positive impacts of Slumdog Millionaire, especially the encouragement of celebration and tourism in India by romanticising its beauty, are insurmountable in comparison to the negatives it may purport. After all, winning eight Academy Awards is no joke!

Perhaps retrospectively writing this, I may have misinterpreted the words of my barber Asif. However, I still think that there is an underlying ignorance as to the way we think about other cultures and their cinematic depictions, and the possible Orientalist stereotypes that may be perpetuated as a result of our blind affirmation of what we see on the screen.

The Procrastination Puzzle

Unravelling the Reason Behind Our Delay Tactics

C. Z. Zhu

REGARDLESS OF OUR INTENTIONS, WE ALL PROCRASTINATE. A concept that almost everyone is acquainted with has also been the scourge of productivity for all of us. It is a phenomenon that transcends age, occupation and culture, leaving many perplexed by their own ability to put off activities and commitments until the last minute. While we all know the detrimental nature of procrastinating, this concept seems to continually survive and even thrive, in our society now. As we explore more into this strange behaviour, we wonder why we fall to its appeal, often to our own disadvantage.

Before we ask the question of why we actually procrastinate, it is important to acknowledge that procrastination is the result of a multitude of behavioural reasons. The straightforward answer as to why we stall is because of poor time management and planning – but when is this truly the case? 

One of the reasons why many of us procrastinate is because of the lack of motivation or interest that we hold. When we see a 1000-word assignment due on a topic that doesn’t seem to have any impact on our life, it is truly difficult to tackle this assignment early on and it takes some serious discipline that I can safely say most of us do not have. A reason that I realised was that procrastination occurs when we don’t see any benefit from the activity. Why start that assignment early when I can just play video games and postpone it? This is why it is so difficult to just say that the solution to procrastination is organisation and time management when the actual issue stems from a lack of intrinsic motivation. 

Looking back on the world that we live in, the society that we are a part of, and the school that we represent, I see competition. 

Whether it is trying to make the highest team for your sport or trying to make that top class, our society is inherently competitive – to the point where it is almost unhealthy. I’m addressing this because another reason why we tend to leave everything to the last minute, is the universal fear of failure and desire for perfectionism. We have created a world where everyone wants to be the best, and many of us are expected to meet certain standards of perfection, which are truly hard to achieve. 

This desire for perfection creates a fear of failing to meet these expectations, which then leads to delays in tasks. Individuals are so scared of creating poor-quality work that they would rather not start the work entirely. Paradoxically, this fear of failure creates procrastination which is known to increase the likelihood of poorer performance.

The mystery of procrastination persists as it continues to impede our aspirations for a productive life. While it is tempting to blame procrastination on time management, in order to combat this problem, we must address these underlying issues. Through fostering a healthier approach to competition, emphasising the importance of finding passion in our tasks, and breaking away from the perfectionism cycle, perhaps we can solve the deadlock of this procrastination puzzle. 

What do I Really Know?

Certainty – A Self-Assured Existence

S. J. Walker

I CAN GUARANTEE that there is one desire that all of us in this world share. And I can also guarantee, that it is the one thing that none of us will ever obtain. 

Certainty.

Let’s consider: why is it that we want certainty? So that we can justify our decisions to ourselves? So that we can be sure of our purpose? So that we can lead comfortable, self-assured existences? 

When I think of certainty, I think of Michel de Montaigne’s sceptical aphorism “Que sais-je?”, which translates to “What do I really know?” Montaigne’s profound mistrust in generalisations, combined with his rejection of accepted ideas, produces a philosophy of continuous questioning and self-assessment. 

How can we be sure of what we know? How can we be sure that we truly understand what we know, and that our knowledge is not founded upon misconceptions?

The further we delve into this journey for certainty, the more we are prompted to realise its complex labyrinth of possible interpretations. 

Think, for example, of the Blind Men and the Elephant story. In this ancient Indian parable, six blind men who have never come across an elephant before, seek to envisage what one is like by touching it, yet all of their descriptions differ from each other. 

What this goes to show, is that each of us as individuals develops our own interpretations of reality. And as we more thoroughly interrogate other perspectives and angles, only then do we realise the narrowness of our own understanding. In this way, we inevitably find ourselves trapped in a paradoxical search for infinite truths whilst being constantly reminded of our own finiteness. As renowned scientist Niels Bohr succinctly puts it, “The opposite of a profound truth may very well be another profound truth”.

For me, this creates a perplexing, never-ending search for truth. It obsesses me to come to terms with the knowledge; with what I know, how I know, and why I know it.

Humankind has the tendency to reduce abstract ideas into the dichotomy of “good” and “evil”. But in doing so, we are blindly feeling the foot, the tail, and the trunk of the elephant without ever coming to terms with its whole.

No doubt, these generalisations serve for our own convenience, to understand the elephant at first grasp. One cannot deny that contradictions are unpleasant, that they reject the security of our perception of the world. Perhaps we are inherently afraid of complexity and observing things from different angles, only to discover that the road to truth is much longer and more expansive than we could possibly have imagined. 

Allow us to return to Bohr and the atomic model. Bohr’s planetary model of the atom relates electron orbitals to the manner by which the planets revolve around the sun. 13 years later, Schrödinger resolved limitations associated with Bohr’s model, reinterpreting electrons as waves occupying clouds of space. From this, we realise “certainty” is fluid and constantly evolving.

So, it seems, we may never find an absolute answer to certainty; Bohr’s paradoxical statement may never be resolvable. Like a fractal iterating ‘ad infinitum’, the closer you inspect, the more disorientating the patterns become.

Is it disappointing that we may never reach the end? That none of us may ever truly get what we want, what we need, to live reassured existences?

Maybe so. 

But in opening our eyes to this reality, and accepting the inability of any of us to secure what we all may want, perhaps we will all, one day, find great certainty in being uncertain. 

Misguided Morals of Martial Arts

How a Destructive Drive for Power, Success and Money has Discredited the Values and Teachings of Martial Arts.

T. G. George

MARTIAL ARTS HAVE TRADITIONALLY been an embodiment of the moral and physical strengths of humanity, reflecting the seemingly intrinsic values of compassion, respect, and dignity. But in an increasingly materialistic world, these idealistic ethics have been decomposed by the pursuit of monetary gains and a myopic drive for personal success. In this article, I will be exploring the crisis surrounding Chinese mixed martial artist Xu Xiaodong, as well as the rising prevalence of the UFC.

Martial arts are a codified tradition of combat, which originated in 527 A.D. India. This derivation has stemmed into 180 different types of martial arts across the world. These forms of fighting test one’s physical and combat capabilities. The heavy influence of Daoism and Zen Buddhism has resulted in a strong emphasis on spiritual values and achieving a state of duality between the mind and body. Therefore, through the teachings of martial arts, the merit of integrity, discipline, perseverance, and respect are preached unlike any other sport.

The evidence of this culture is exemplified in Muay Thai. In the holidays, I visited Thailand, where I attended a fight night at the Phetch Buncha Stadium in Koh Samui.  Here, the warriors pranced around the ring, performing ceremonial dances, while they bowed and showed their respect to masters, opposition, and referees. They were ruthless in combat but never failed to touch gloves after each round. Even after thrilling knockouts, the victors didn’t carry on but rather immediately checked on the wellbeing of the opponent.

Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a full-contact combat sport that implements fighting techniques, such as Muay Thai, and skills from various other domains of martial arts. The UFC was created as a promotion of the many disciplines of martial arts, with sumo wrestlers, boxers, karate masters and more, competing to be the ultimate champion. The UFC is currently valued at $12.1 billion, with an annual growth rate of 21% since 2005. However, the road to global popularity has systematically opposed and degraded the standards of martial arts. The early days of the UFC were an unsanctioned spectacle, utilising a form of no-holds-barred approach to combat which directly contrasted the strict adherence to rules executed in traditional martial arts.

Although this has since been regulated, the true representation of martial arts has been further tainted. This is because of the marketing of the UFC, which saw the promotion of fabricated rivalry and potent trash-talk culture. This custom began developing in 2001, when Dana White took over the UFC, with the catalyst being the infamous Connor McGregor. Although his unhinged profanity and ultra-ego are highly entertaining, it reveals how respect and compassion really have no place in our modern world.

To say that the UFC has solely destroyed the tradition of martial arts would be impartial, because even the “Grandmasters” themselves have had their moral compass misguided by monetary gains. Across the world, there has been a growing contingent of fraud masters teaching fake martial arts in exchange for the money of their unknowing students. Chinese MMA fighter, Xu Xiaodong, has quite literally taken matters into his own hands by challenging and humiliating masters across the nation in combat. These fights have been filmed and circulated on YouTube.

Xu Xiaodong 

Instead of being rewarded, he has been condemned by the Chinese people and government. He was completely censored as the Chinese government felt he was disrespecting and tarnishing their culture. This claim has some merit, as martial arts is not purely about winning or losing but rather the values elders teach to the youth. However, this method of justice has been completely irrational, with Xu’s social credit rating being destroyed, as well as him having to face hefty fines. Subsequently, Xu is now unable to even rent a hotel room, or catch a public train. Furthermore, Chinese tycoon, Chen Sheng, offered $1.45 million USD to anyone who could defeat Xu in modern combat. In the haze of censorship, fines, and bounties, it is difficult to depict a dedication to cultural values and maintenance of morals as the primary objective of the Chinese government and people. The compassion for an injured fighter, the respect for an opponent’s views, and the integrity of the individual, whether it be in the ring or the political scene, is virtually absent.

The corruption of martial arts has tainted its preached ethics and driven the prestigious sport into a self-suffocating spiral. There is no imminent source of revival, and while the UFC continues to popularise, maybe our world truly has no more room for empathy.

League vs Union: Future of Union

What Is The Future Of Union And How Will This Impact The Future Wallabies?

T. M. Kennedy

MORE OFTEN THAN NOT, WE SEE YOUNG RUGBY PLAYERS making the switch from rugby union to rugby league for money, but what does this pose for the future of rugby union in Australia? The likes of Joseph Sualii, Angus Crichton, Cam Murray, Isayia Kotoa and many more recent Australian schoolboy rugby phenomena, have made the switch to league for the big bucks, whereas Rugby Australia has retaken Joseph Suallii for the Wallabies. What is the reason behind all these moves to rugby league?

Joseph Sualii playing for The King’s School

If we take a dive into the different pathways between league and union, we clearly see that they have a similar junior pathway up until the age of 18. This is where it all starts to change. In rugby league, we see the Harold Matthews Cup (under 18), SG Ball (under 22) and then all the reserve grades until the big leagues. Whereas in union, there is Waratahs Gen Blue academy for under 18, then straight into Colts and grade rugby. For an outsider not part of rugby, this seems to be the same, but there is a huge difference between these two pathways once you turn 18. For example, if one player plays exceptionally in a First Colts game or 1st Grade game in Union, there is a very big pool of players to pick from for a Waratahs sport. However, in rugby league, you play for that team, and one person can play well in SG ball and get noticed to easily make it up onto the big stage. Furthermore, we can recently see that more players who are playing union at Schoolboy level are more likely to go down the pathway of league due to more pathways and economic opportunities.

Cameron Murray playing for Newington College

The only instance where union has taken once-in-a-lifetime players are Max Jorgensen (Joeys OB) and Joseph Sualii (King’s OB). On Rugby Australia’s hit list to take players from league to union include William Penisini (King’s OB), Tolu Koula (Newington OB), Cameron Murray (Newington OB) and Angus Crichton (Scots OB). As the future of union-born and bred players starts coming to a halt, will Rugby Australia try and take all these players?

Max Jorgensen current Waratahs player

Furthermore, with the Wallabies Bledisloe Cup loss and some of the old Wallaby greats of our recent time close to retiring, I wonder where the future of the sport is heading and how Union can overturn the large number of juniors heading down the league pathway. Now one of the reasons I think this is a major problem is due to the difference between Super Rugby and NRL. Because there are a lot more NRL clubs and opportunities, the Super Rugby and Rugby Union are already at a disadvantage. Additionally, Rugby League appeals to a broader target market and generates more revenue and attracts more fans than Rugby Union, which adds to my argument about the difference in salary for union and league players. One of the ways that Rugby Australia could attract more people is to further advertise Shute Shield Rugby, put Super Rugby and more union games on free-to-air TV or Foxtel (because no one wants to pay for Stan Sport).

Overall, if Rugby Australia wants to bring in more juniors and try to win a few Bledisloe cups, they have a lot of work to do – starting off with the schoolboys. 

Wallabies after a loss

A Consulting Conundrum

Debunking the Myths: Should The Scrutiny Be On Firms’ Behaviour Or The Government’s Overreliance?

M. E. George

YOU MAY WELL HAVE SEEN the recent headlines regarding PWC or the big four consulting firms, and how they’ve supposedly infiltrated the Australian public sector in the pursuit of mega profits. But is consulting really a ‘dirty’ word like the media presents it to be? And does the government have any role to play?

It’s been reported that the Morrison government spent close to AU$21 billion on external advisors in its final year, comprising a mix of outsourcing, private labour hire, and consulting – the latter making up only a small portion. So, what’s the incentive behind this spending of taxpayer money? In general, consultancy refers to the practice of helping organisations increase efficiency and profits. The four major consulting firms in Australia are PWC, KPMG, Deloitte, and EY. Consultants arguably make up for a skills shortage in the public sector and provide expert knowledge and an external perspective, identifying and addressing structural and strategic challenges in government agencies that seek to improve the operation of the public sector.

However, the government has recently become reliant on external resources. Instead of using its own capabilities, the government has spent billions of taxpayer dollars on consultants. Under the Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison Coalitions, there was an explosion in the number of consultants, stemming from recruitment freezes impacting the size and capability of the public sector.  Spending on large consultancy firms is six times higher than it was a decade ago.

For example, the government has recently looked to hire a consultant to consult on how best to deal with other consultants. Now that’s just ridiculous, right? This overreliance on consultants undermines the long-term capability of the public service. So, the government should look towards an appropriate balance in its use of external advisors, ensuring in-house capability in the public sector without an over-reliance on consultants. We see Labor rebuilding the public sector, which has been hollowed out by the Coalition. In the last two budgets, we have seen increases in public service by 19,000 people.

Now let’s move on to the behaviour of consulting firms, of which it’s safe to say there’s been a fair bit of publicity recently. Much of what has been reported in the media relates to the idea that a fundamental conflict of interest exists in consultancy operations in the public sector. The public belief is that what the government aims to achieve with social policy is at odds with the ability of its clients to maximise profits. But the public doesn’t understand the nuanced rules around what is (and what isn’t) a conflict of interest. In reality, while it is important that they are managed, when it comes to the interactions between consultancies and governments,  conflicts of interest don’t inherently exist. Problems can arise when conflicts are poorly managed, or individual breaches of agreements with the government are made.

However, it’s the perceived conflict of interest that matters just as much as actual conflicts of interest, as both erode public faith in the government. So whatever may be the public opinion, consultancy firms have to understand and address community expectations to avoid friction in the government’s relationship with taxpayers.

Take PWC, one of the government’s biggest beneficiaries, which has received over $537 million in government contracts over the last two years. They’ve received a lot of publicity following a recent scandal uncovered in January this year.  An individual consultant reportedly misused confidential taxation information in a bid to bolster PWC’s profits, advising their multinational clients on how to avoid taxation under the new legislation which the PWC consultant had advised the government on. Quite ironic, don’t you think, given the objective of the contracted advice was to address tax avoidance by global corporations? PWC broke the law by breaking a signed confidentiality agreement, which created a conflict of interest, not the other way around, as the media would have you believe.

Needless to say, we can’t taint a whole industry with the actions of one individual action. As of yet, no evidence has been brought to light to suggest widespread abuse of contracted obligations or a failure to manage conflicts of interest, among other consulting firms. Consultants must be held to account for adequately managing potential, actual or perceived conflicts of interests and acting in good faith by not breaching contractual agreements. So, despite how it’s often presented in the media, consulting is not necessarily a ‘dirty’ word unless it’s not properly managed.

What remains clear, however, is that greater transparency ought to exist between the government and Australian taxpayers in relation to its use of consultants. Following the PWC case, government inquirers were ordered to investigate the use of consultancy firms by the Federal Government. We look forward to hearing the result of these inquiries, ensuring that consultants and public sector agencies play their role in minimising further complications and restoring faith in the government’s use of consultants and how it serves the people. 

How North Korea Makes Its Money

Restaurant Chains And Hackers: A Look Into North Korea

R. Zhang

NORTH KOREA HAS BEEN INTERNATIONALLY SANCTIONED, making it near impossible for them to trade with other countries. However, they still manage to fund and bankroll their country and economy, with some surprising methods. The main method, of course, is Russia and China’s economic support. Ever since the Korean War, it has been in China and Russia’s interests for North Korea to exist. This is because if North Korea didn’t exist, then South Korea would have full control over the Korean peninsula, and therefore, border China and Russia. South Korea has always been an ally of the United States, with U.S. weapons stationed in South Korea, so having a border with South Korea would be like having a border with the United States. North Korea acts as a buffer against South Korea for China and Russia.

Although this is the main source of income, there are some more interesting, and morally questionable ones. The first I’ll cover is North Korea’s chain of restaurants. Called Pyongyang, they serve North Korean cuisine at more than 100 venues, located mostly in Asia, charging more than a fair price. The profits are allegedly funnelled back to North Korea. They also have North Korean entertainers to perform and serve the customers, selected for their loyalty to the North Korean regime. However, all the staff there are monitored, to make sure they don’t escape, being forbidden to leave the premises. Even then, staff have been known to escape. 

Another method of obtaining funds is North Korea’s infamous cyber division. They are an elite team of hackers, who specialise in stealing cryptocurrency from banks worldwide. They are estimated to have stolen over $600 million dollars, although the true amount could be much higher. The most notorious of these heists is when they attempted to steal nearly a billion dollars from the National Bank of Bangladesh. The national bank had nearly a billion dollars in a bank account located in the United States. The hackers disabled the printer at the Bank of Bangladesh, as transcripts of all transactions would be printed by this printer. They were able to gain access to all of the bank’s systems by sending an email to a bank employee, and having them download a virus that gave them access to the bank systems. From there, they were able to send a message to the U.S. Federal Bank, telling them to transfer their funds into another account. However, a mere coincidence prevented disaster. The safeguard system in place flagged some of the money transfers for human review due to the destination of the money using the word “Jupiter”, the name of a sanctioned Iranian ship. This meant that only $80 million dollars ended up in North Korean hands. 

Overall, it is rather interesting how North Korea manages to economically stay afloat. Sanctions imposed on the nation have forced it to become creative in how it makes money and continue to sustain itself as a state.

The View from the Ship, and The View from the Shore

A Nation Divided: The Indigenous Voice to Parliament

H. A. G. Longstaff

OUR NATION HAS BEEN DIVIDED on the issue of the Voice to Parliament since Albanese’s campaign promise, to hold a referendum on the topic before he became Prime Minister in May 2022. But firstly, what is the Voice? 

The Voice is a way for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to directly advise all levels of government regarding issues that affect their lives. It originated as a key part of the 2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart. There are many differing views on the topic, and a wide range of recent polls are showing that the Yes Vote has fallen below 50%, and in some cases, the No Vote has overtaken.

The Campaign for the Yes started very strongly with 65% support in August 2022, but since then, polling has been trending downwards and has just tipped below 50% support in recent polls. However, large swathes of the population admit to being undecided or ‘up for grabs’. This begs the question to undecided voters come voting day: Will the Voice make a substantial difference to the problems affecting our First-Nations Australians? An Indigenous Senator, The Hon. Jacinta Price argues the negative. She is deeply concerned with the risk involved with constitutionally enshrining a voice with “no detail, no understanding of functions, no understanding of the way people will be appointed or elected.” Furthermore, Indigenous Advocate, Nyunggai Warren Mundine AO, expressed his disappointment with Prime Minister Albanese in an article in the Australian Financial Review after the new Federal Government failed to reinstate hundreds of long-standing bans on alcohol in remote communities and homeland communities across the Northern Territory. When confronted in Alice Springs, he said: “Bizarrely, Albanese thought this would be a good opportunity to plug his proposed Voice to Parliament. As if that will change any of this. It won’t. The Voice to Parliament won’t lead to any practical improvements in Aboriginal lives.”. However, a large majority of the Indigenous Australian population is staunchly against this, and frankly, it is their opinions that matter the most when discussing a referendum that, if passed, will change the lives of the entire Indigenous population.

The Voice referendum has been strongly supported by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for its duration, “This is a modest and gracious request for reconciliation by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. If we don’t recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island peoples in our constitution this year, when Australians will have the opportunity to do so, when will we?” If the Voice is not passed, it will lead to Indigenous Australians feeling disenfranchised and not appreciated in our nation. Australia needs to take concrete actions to right the wrongs of our past. Since the first English settlers landed on Australia’s shores in 1788, Indigenous Australian people have been mistreated, disrespected and unrecognised. Less than 55 years ago, Indigenous Australian children were still being purloined from their families and forced to assimilate into white, Western culture. Since then, there has been a formal apology from PM Kevin Rudd in 2008, but few actual steps have been taken to reverse the impacts of the Stolen Generation on Indigenous Australians. A way to change this is by enshrining and acknowledging the First Australians in our constitution.

If the referendum, which requires a double majority to pass, does so, it will add the following to our constitution:

“Chapter IX Recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples

129 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice

In recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Peoples of Australia:

1. There shall be a body, to be called the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice;
2. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice may make representations to the Parliament and the Executive Government of the Commonwealth on matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples;
3. The Parliament shall, subject to this Constitution, have power to make laws with respect to matters relating to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice, including its composition, functions, powers and procedures.”

Furthermore, the stipulations in the Voice risk being too vague where the Voice will have the power to make laws “on matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples” this could lead to the Voice being able to influence legislation that affects all Australians and thus also Indigenous Australians. The Voice in its current format will allow the Voice to interfere with basically all legislation, such as trade agreements and national security documents and even the decisions made by the Reserve Bank (which even the PM cannot do).

Clearly, the voice won’t be a panacea for the injustices of the past. But it may well be a large step of hope in the right direction for many. But is it the correct one? It’s obviously impossible for me to cover the plethora of differing perspectives and opinions on this revolutionary topic. We could debate the pros and cons for eternity, but our elected representatives have put a model to us, so when deciding whether to vote yes or no, what we really need to decide is: How will a No Vote affect Australia’s population and Australia’s standing amongst other nations?

On the American Political System (I)

Trump Rises Again?

D. H. Kang 

THE IMMORTAL RISES AGAIN FROM THE CLUTCHES OF FEDERAL LAW and defies all expectations as he runs for his second presidency. But just how can it be that each time Trump seems to be done for, he returns bigger and stronger? With a more robust, more dedicated, more outspoken voter base,? How does he barely manage to escape impeachment, and indictment after indictment, and then be one of the favourites in the next U.S. presidential race? 

Trump’s latest indictment has certainly not been his first, and unlikely his last. In a moment that shocked the world, on the 6th of January 2021, his supporters stormed the White House, a moment of peripeteia for the foreseeable future. It was this event that warned Trump’s influence was no longer limited to controversial Tweets and circulating vague rumours in the conspiracy theory underworld, but was actually something demystified and culminated in physical action. The symbol of invincibility, a metonym for the most powerful place on the planet, the White House, was raided by a moving herd of political sacrilege; a tell-tale clue that democracy itself was under threat by a monster of its own creation.

Trump’s double-edged persona, actions and charisma are exactly what makes him so hated – and so loved. Scathing articles from the left hone in on his supposedly narcissistic, impulsive and morally unscrupulous character: claims about him being a sexual predator or misogynist all stockpile as ammunition for the Democrats. But his unruly, eccentric and anti-establishment personality is also one of his most appealing attributes in the eyes of his Republican supporters. Someone willing to stand up and say things that no one else is – for fear of ‘cancel culture’ and the razor-sharp guillotine of political correctness. And hence, in some manner, he is a genius for making use of this support. Trump knows that by weaponising law enforcement, his supporters gain more and more conviction. For those under his spell, everything falls into the “false narrative of the Other”, and there is no escape. Indeed, following his third indictment, Trump subsequently wrote, “I am being arrested for you.”(referring to his supporters), feeding into an innumerable amount of conspiracy theories. Theories about the world being manipulated by an evil force in the shadows, theories about the imminent destruction of the world, and how all those who resist will perish. Theories that only Trump is willing to be that voice of justice amidst a sea of hostile gazes.

This does begin to explain why Trump’s voter base has continuously been rising, despite all that he has been through. His self-aggrandising behaviour is what appeals to those left in despair: many have been permanently rejected from the Democratic camp, exemplified when Hillary Clinton called these swing-voters and Republicans “a basket of deplorables.” And, driven by a hatred of the opposition even more so than the desire to support their own, many Republicans desire the power to upheave the political system, with many distraught from their continued disenfranchisement. By following a leader who does the unthinkable, many believe that they are able to take that power removed from them by a failing democratic system that is plagued by gerrymandering and pork barrelling. But this tempting fruit hides a self-inflicting poison named political dogma. Trump’s appeal is, without a doubt, a form of populist leadership. By exploiting the vulnerable people in our society and encouraging build-ups of aversive beliefs, the ultimate harm returns to them, not the instigator. Look at Greece, and the trail of destruction Alexis Tsipras left in his wake for the Greek economy or Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez.

But what does this mean for us living 15,175 kilometres away from America? Is the message to simply not follow in the polarising footsteps of America and avoid electing someone like Trump? “Well, that’s easy”, you might think, given the fact that we haven’t and probably will never have the same kind of democracy that America has. This issue, however, is not just about a country. It is about us as individuals. 

We are drowned in lies, deceit, and misinformation every day. But the way out of this predicament is ironically the same way we came in. To solve our arguments, we must understand them, not avoid them. Indeed, we ought to endeavour to comprehend even the most extreme opinions to resolve conflict through good dialogue and good faith. 

Our complacency is a test. We must remain vigilant. Take some time to look around you, delineate the misinformation, and puncture through its paper-thin surface.

Epicurean Horizons

How Genetically Engineered Yeast is Pioneering the Flavours of Tomorrow

A. J. Li

IN THE EVER-EVOLVING WORLD OF GASTRONOMY, where tradition and innovation dance together, a new player has taken centre stage – genetically engineered baker’s yeast. The same yeast that has been used to bake bread and ferment wine for millennia is now being used to revolutionise the way we develop and produce flavours, all thanks to some ingenious genetic manipulation. It is now only a matter of time before its full potential is harnessed to produce existing flavours more easily and cheaply, as well as to create entirely new taste dimensions that were once only found in science fiction.

But scientifically speaking, what exactly is flavour? The distinctive flavours of particular foods are predominantly caused by certain chemical compounds found within them. For example, vanillin, a molecule made up of an arrangement of carbons, hydrogens, and oxygens, is the compound responsible for the unique flavour of vanilla. Since a single molecule is responsible for the flavour of the vanilla bean, scientists can replicate the flavour by synthesising it in a lab. The first such recorded case of flavour being synthesised and used was in 1851 at the Crystal Palace exhibition in London, where sweets were artificially flavoured to taste like apple, pear, grape and pineapple, with the flavouring compounds having been synthesised in a lab. 

So if the technology to create artificial flavours has existed for centuries, why then is yeast so important? Synthesising molecules in labs is notoriously complicated and precise, particularly for some specific flavours, making it difficult to scale up production as much of the work is done by scientists. Yeast, on the other hand, can be genetically engineered to produce almost any molecule, with the yeast itself doing all of the work creating the flavour molecule as it ferments, making this method of production comparatively more simple and scalable.

Yeast produces these flavour molecules as a byproduct of its metabolic activities during fermentation. Scientists can manipulate the production of these byproducts by introducing specific genes or pathways into the yeast’s genetic code, steering yeast metabolism towards producing certain molecules. To create these specific flavours, scientists identify the genetic code that produces the flavours in a fruit or flower and insert it into the yeast. This method of production is a relatively new technology when compared to lab synthesis methods because the necessary gene sequencing technology has only become available in the past decade. With the rise of genetic databases, computing power can now be used to discover more efficient or successful pathways for genetically engineering yeast.

Using this method to produce flavours has many benefits. Perhaps some of the most important upsides to this technology involve its ability to save money and effort. Take vanilla as an example. Vanilla is the most labour-intensive crop in the world, taking around one year to go from growth to export. It is a particularly demanding crop, requiring hand-pollination during an extremely short flowering window which infamously lasts a single day before it becomes too late. Furthermore, the primary location where vanilla beans are grown is on the island of Madagascar, which is highly prone to natural disasters such as cyclones. This can destroy entire crops and further drive up the price of vanilla which at one point cost more than silver by weight. Yeast can be genetically engineered to produce vanillin, the aforementioned molecule responsible for the distinct vanilla flavour, reliably, easily, and at a fraction of the cost. Considering how ubiquitously vanilla is used to flavour products, the advantages of this method of flavour production become apparent.

A potential caveat, however, of this technology that may hinder its integration into commercial food production, is the stigma surrounding genetically modified organisms (GMOs). As long as the public continues to be sensitive and distrustful of GMOs, food companies will hesitate to adopt methods of production involving genetically engineered yeast. In the case of bioengineered yeast, the flavour molecules produced during its fermentation are often chemically identical to the actual molecules produced by plants or flowers, making products that use this method of flavouring indistinguishable from “all-natural” methods. Furthermore, many major health organisations, including the World Health Organisation, endorse the view that GMOs pose no health risk. The stigma surrounding GMOs must be broken down if the full potential of ground-breaking technologies such as genetically engineered yeast is to be harnessed. Indeed, the most exciting future prospects for flavouring come from GMOs as entirely new flavours, which are unavailable in nature, may be researched and developed.

Genetically engineered yeast promises to revolutionise traditional methods of flavour production, broadening our Epicurean horizons. As we blend the artisanal with the scientific in exploring this captivating frontier, one thing is certain: the future of flavour holds endless surprises, and it all begins with a humble yeast cell.

GPS Debating Round 3 vs Grammar Report

J. G. Nicholas

LAST FRIDAY, SHORE HOSTED SYDNEY GRAMMAR on topics related to ‘Science and Society’ and the Shore boys were victorious in three debates in a challenging, yet hopefully constructive, evening of debating. 

Hoping to end their losing streak in their clash with the leaders of the Year 7 points tally, the affirming 7A’s were likely taken aback by the not particularly ‘Science and Society’ like the topic- ‘That Australia should have a meat tax.’ Despite strong speeches down the bench, the boys went down to a strong Grammar side who more effectively synthesised their substantive. Also affirming, the B’s were hampered by a more rudimentary understanding of taxation than their opposition, and despite the loss, C’s import Archie Watson spoke admirably in his B’s debut. In a contest to regain the legacy of our Year 7 debaters, the 7C’s comprehensively dismantled their Grammar counterparts, their substantive centring on obesity, animal welfare and environmental grounds, with Will Pellow’s standout performance at 2nd affirmative. 

Keen to extend their undefeated streak to three, the 8As were slapped with the interesting topic- ‘That this house prefers a world where everyone was religious.’ Despite taking a close loss, the boys spoke admirably for their first debate with a topic of this nature and engaged well with their opposition. Affirming the same topic, the 8Bs went down in a similar fashion despite some admirable speaking down the bench. Again, looking to regain some dignity for their year group, the 8Cs snatched an incredible victory from Grammar, Oscar Brown’s perspicacious 3rd affirmative speech securing the win for the boys. 

Affirming the same topic as the Year 8’s, the 9As debated well against a strong Grammar side, with 2nd speaker Jayden Pan and 3rd Yukai Yan being particularly responsive. However, they were ultimately defeated and joined the group of victims of such a simple yet complex topic. Similarly, the 9B’s made significant improvements in their time management and engagement but also lost to a well-drilled opposing side. Despite the loss, Henry Black’s signposting and rebuttal was commendable. 

The 9A’s looking indifferent

Facing another loosely ‘Science and Society’ type topic, the 10As negated- ‘That hospitals should be able to remove a child from parents after medical neglect.’ The boys went down in a close debate despite Daniel Liu’s strong 2nd negative speech. Described by their coach as “falling victim to Grammar’s straw manning and deceptive tactics,” the Bs also went down regardless of Ethan Nam’s explosive introduction and good manner at 1st. 

The 1sts get it done at home

The Opens teams were handed yet another loosely ‘Science and Society’ related topic, negating ‘That this house regrets the decline of multigenerational households.’ Lawson Banks shone for the 3rds at 1st negative, perceptively synthesising his rebuttal and substantive. Unfortunately, (allegedly) the adjudicator found a way to fabricate some points for their opposition whilst unfairly discounting some of their own substantive and took a loss in a close debate. 

In a similar fashion, the 2nds took a loss on home soil as they struggled to construct a strong enough case to counter their opposition’s substantive. The entire team, consisting of Daniel Kang, Ramon Zhang, Callum Vujanovic and Max Kim, performed admirably but need to reignite the success of their ISDA campaign if they want to finish the season near the top of the table.  

RRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!! Thirsty for revenge after being sent packing by Grammar in the Quarterfinals of the ISDA competition last term, the 1st IV were ravenous for a victory that would cement their spot at the top of the GPS table. Initially sceptical of their side of the topic, the boys, led by the calm and collected Lachlan Hunt, moved to focus their case on the dangers of multigenerational living for family dynamics and the potential for abuse and neglect to develop within these households. Blake Fite was impassioned in his response to the opposition’s rather flimsy ‘family values’ analysis, and Michael Kwak’s beautiful weighing and reframing of the debate through the lens of the different familial relationships that existed, all but won the debate before the 3rd speakers joined the fray. Despite a somewhat convoluted and ill-structured speech, Jimmy Nicholas did enough at 3rd to secure the win, and the boys scraped away with a narrow victory and some security at the top of the GPS table. 

This Friday, we debate King’s at their campus in what is sure to be a slightly easier matchup than last week.

Football Results – Saturday 12 August

Rugby Report – Riverview 

And like that, the season is over. 

Year 12 is a week into Trials, and like the good men they are, I am sure they are now taking the battle to their exams instead of their opponents on Saturdays! 

I hope (as I do throughout the season) that injured boys are recovering well…and for everyone else, good luck with Athletics and the Summer Sport season ahead. 

Thank you to all boys and parents who made 2023 a wonderful season. Too many highlights to mention, but here are a few captured in themes for age groups. 

Our new era for Shore Rugby continues and can be seen in our U13s. With Mr Polis’ A’s having an undefeated season (well done!) and Mr Davis’ B’s only losing one game in the year, the future looks bright for Shore Rugby. What is just as important is that this group of boys seems to be a cohort of young men who play the game in good spirit, get along well as friends and are easily coachable. Keep these characteristics for the next five seasons, and you will all do great things. But remember, you have set a high benchmark now, and the other teams will always be coming for you. Keep working hard next year! 

The courage and depth of our U14s was on display this year. Unfortunately, this age group had multiple long-term injuries at the beginning of the season to many boys who played A’s and B’s last year. It was therefore tough at the top grades for the season, but via the good coaching of Messrs Stacey, Du Plooy, Walker, Piennar and Guest, the age group showed huge courage in the face of the opposition and finished the season with multiple wins in the top grades. Our 14C’s were one of the best teams when firing, and our 14E’s one of the best performing teams in the school – only losing one game all year. Well done, boys. 

The phoenix is rising in the U15 age group. Our Year 9 boys have shown some tremendous growth this year as individuals and as a team – particularly shown in the return matches they had against schools. The A’s were thrashed by Joeys in Round 1 and then arguably should have won Round 2 were it not for a painful last-minute play that went against us. They defeated Newington in Round 2 after losing earlier in the year. They increased their winning margin over Scots in Round 2. And though they lost the final game against Riverview, it went down to the last second…and the manner in which the boys now play and act as a team is a huge turnaround from the season’s beginning. 

The “one team” model of the U16s has realised potential. This has been an excellent age group to follow this year. Some of the footy in the 16E, D and C teams has been first-rate. The boys’ intensity is unmatched by few schools. And the B’s and A’s have truly realised their potential this year. This is an age group that has improved and improved since they were U13s. The A’s and B’s have had their first age group wins against schools like Joeys and Newington – and no loss was a blowout. They have combined well as a “team” and shown the value of playing for the mate next to you. When that is done, you go well yourself as an individual! Well done to the many GPS rep players selected from this age group – Charlie Armati, Max Garner, Charlie Galligan, Rolly Smith, Bede Clout, Ollie Greig, Charlie Francis – an awesome result. 

The Opens this year have continued Shore’s advance. A very good season; however, the squad wants more. There is still work for us in competing with the other school programs at First and Second XV levels, but we know we have the ingredients to make 2024 amazing. There have been too many highlights to mention (wait for the Torchbearer), but the Third XV’s victories against all the First XV’s in their Comp (Grammar, High, TAS) were a standout. One more win, and they would have been Runners-Up. The Second XV’s finish to the season was excellent, and the huge First XV days at Northbridge were all highlights. The way in which the First XV came off the field against King’s at Northbridge (against a uniquely strong King’s team), having gone down 21 – 28, was one of my big highlights. The team came off knowing they could have won the game and had created the chances to do so. The team was not content with getting close…and that can be said of every team – we can all do more with determination and drive next year. 

Well done to our boys who made GPS, NSW and Australian School representative teams – Finn Baxter, James McCreery, Ed Baxter, Marshall Le Maitre, Eoghan Killick, Hugo Orpin, Ben Whatley, Henry Conick and Tom Klem. 

Thank you to all the boys who came and cheered for Shore this year. You are the heart and soul of the program, and I guarantee that the boys on the field lift when they hear you cheering for them. We are fortunate to have an excellent culture of supporting our friends – thanks to our Cheer Captains who always led from the front. We also have fine young men who faced disappointments in not playing Opens but remaining to help the program – Luca Fulton, Dylan Dalgliesh-Quinn and Harry Stiel, to name a few. 

Thank you, parents, for the support you show our program. We can’t do what we do without you. Your cars will now have a rest from sweaty, muddy boys for a while. 

Thank you to our coaching staff, who go above and beyond to help create great memories for the boys. As coaches, we gain as much, if not more, from the experiences of the season. Thank you for your service, coaches. 

And finally, thank you to our boys, particularly those in Year 12 who have played their final game for Shore. I am biased, but you are a great cohort of young men, and I hope you take many happy memories from your time in Shore Rugby. You will always be welcome back to Northbridge. 

Top image: 4Es – only one loss all year

Mr D Mason-Jones
MIC Rugby

Individual Team of the Week – 13As

School wide Team of the Week

Coach: Mr W Dobes and Harry Byrnes (Thirds)