Hannah Cann tells us why she loves political correctness.
Do you have swine flu? No. Do you know anybody who does have swine flu? Probably not. So what's all the fuss about?
Can't afford ethical clothing but can afford a night out at Ziggy's? Jennifer Heyes discusses where students' priorities should really lie.
Three of The Yorker's blogs team have had a hard think about what general rules they live their lives by and written them down in the form of their own Personal Philosophies.
I'll tell you what I look for in a summer holiday: poor people. I bloody love them. And I'm not talking about the locals down Tang Hall. No, I like my poor to be really poverty-stricken. As far as I'm concerned if you can't see their ribs I'm not even interested.
Hell, for my next break I'm off backpacking in Ethiopia. And over there they're proper poor, I mean you really get your money's worth. I've even bought a shiny new 500-superpixel digital camera to take along with me and capture all the best bits. I suppose I want to go and see the world. Just get away from all those Yuppies in York and experience what Africa is really like. I think it'll open my mind to what's happening. Plus I've done tons of research into all this famine malarkey. Seriously, I've bought all three Band Aid singles...even the shit one with Kylie Minogue. And as for that Bob Geldof, well, he's a bloody hero isn't he?
For my next break I'm off backpacking in Ethiopia. And over there they're proper poor, I mean you really get your money's worth. I've even bought a shiny new digital camera to take along with me and capture all the best bits.
Sound ludicrous? Well at least I'm being honest. But the truth is that it must be what is going through the minds of students that go travelling. They all take their little gap years (hell they need a break after getting 10 A*s in their A Levels) and fly off to Africa to help build some homes or teach English to school kids. And then, having seen how awful it is, they piss off back home a few weeks later. Because you wouldn't want to catch any diseases now, would you?
Now here's a thought for all those of you who have taken such a gap year. Maybe, just maybe, if you used all that money on your expensive flights to actually fund professional projects, it would be a damn site more useful. Africa is not some sort of theme park where you can go on all the rides. Maybe, if you really cared, you wouldn't just gawp at how bad it is and then run back home to start your degrees in Politics and Art History.
And, here's the big irony, ever notice how all the students that go travelling are all the rich kids that are bankrolled by Mummy and Daddy? And there is one place on campus that they all go to live: Alcuin.
Yes, Alcuin is the home of the gap year student. That, of course, is the college with the big en-suite rooms and the newly furnished kitchens. Well at least there the dash to clean water is quicker than before.
The point is that students love a bit of charity. They wallow in the thought that they've made a difference. But what actually happens is that they come back home to their suburban lives and carry on as usual. Probably pissing most of their money away on clothes made in sweatshops, playing Pro Evo on their shiny next generation Playstations and polluting the environment in their flashy cars. But apparently they still really care about what's going on south of the equator. Yeah right. Excuse me but my bullshit-o-meter has just exploded.
The truth is that all the most popular gap year destinations have nothing to do with the poverty of the area or making a difference. In fact none of the five most poverty stricken countries in the world feature in the top five gap year destinations. Incredibly, all the top places feature beautiful landscapes or hot weather. Funny coincidence that.
As for me, Well this year I'm off to Lazarote in July for my holiday. All inclusive, full board and with a massive swimming pool. But at least I'm being honest. Anyways, I can't chat any longer, I'm off to watch my Live 8 DVD box set.
Yet again Thorn misses the point. What a prat.
I'd argue that the rooms in Alcuin aren't actually that big compared to Derwent and Langwith...
anon1...what point is Thorn missing?
To claim someone misses the point implicates that you are the beholder of the definitive view on something, please enlighten us all with your opinion.
Adam Thorn comes from an upper middle class family. His parents own a second house on the continent. He is by all accounts, the man who regretting not applying to PPE and taking a gap year. He once said "Lanzarote is for the working class, and I don't do working class".
Isn't that exactly what he's establishing here...being upper middle class he's fully aware of the hypocrisy that these gap year trips entail.
I don't think at any point he claimed to be working class and representative of the down-trodden masses. In fact, the guy's very honest as to which demographic he belongs.
Correct me if I'm wrong but I think he may just have hit the nail on the head. I think Lanzarote may have just been an example destination; not one that's full of poverty and the gap-year hypocrisy he describes.
Couldn't agree more. It's as if charity's just contained neatly into one part of their life and then they don't have to think about it the rest of the time. At the end of the day, most people are just looking out for number one, some just like to pretend they're making a difference while others (such as Adam) are fully aware and unashamed of the way their lifestyle largely perpetuates the injustices of the world.
I think this blog just serves to perpetuate a stereotype that's only true of a minority.
ad - what the fuck man! if it wasn't for the fact i now know you're just "out to be hated by everyone" in your own words, i might have taken a little more offence. not only have you slated a number of gap year projects that actually do good in communities in india and africa, but this comes after your fusion slander - fair enough you have your own views on fusion, but to publish them in a campus newspaper like that is a bit stupid. if people adopted your view from that article (hopefully they'd have the sense not to) they wouldn't pay for tickets which are raising money for charity (you like charities, don't you?) so by writing that article you are an antagonist to the raising of charity funds. what a muppet. don't make out you care about 'real charities' when all you're really doing is using campus media to publicise your grudges.
I think above is a little harsh. I think what Adam is suggesting is that instead of flying round the world spending money (and leaving a heavy carbon footprint), maybe this money could be invested into already up-and-running established charities that don't need 'workers' to fork out thousands of pounds to be used as a CV enhancer.
I think to suggest he is anti-charity is a little extreme; it's just the sometimes gauling aspect of rich kids trying to do their bit but not actually roughing it out that is being explored here, not the charities themselves.
A lot of people find charidee a little cringe-worthy, I don't think it is unreasonable to state this.
To add to what #9 has said, I'd like to point out that Adam Thorn is expressing deliberately controversial, extreme views to get people to question the I-want-to-be-a-better-person-and-make-the-world-a-better-place -thing.
Whilst I *do* think that charity projects to which students on gap years participate are helpful, as volunteers are always needed, we ought to be honest about the motives behind them, that's all!
Seriously what's your problem Adam!? Is this article meant to be taken tongue in cheek or do you whole heartedly believe in the view portrayed. After reading your regular column in vision it appears to me that your views are designed to provoke a reaction and little else; they hardly ever appear to have any balanced or sensible comments.
I think the vast majority of Gap Year Students realise that their not going to be able to save the third world but can you really have a go at people for at least trying to make some kind of a difference!? Yes maybe using all the money they spent could have just been given to charities but maybe just maybe people want to try and actually do something constructive as opposed to buying a 20 quid gift voucher from Oxfam.
In regards to your ground breaking research that "none of the five most poverty stricken countries in the world feature in the top five gap year destinations" can people at the same time be blamed for wanting to experience beautiful landscapes!? Unsurprisingly one of the major bonuses of travelling is being able to visit exotic countries which are vastly different to their own. Furthermore there are a huge amount of people who just travel for six months and do no charity work at all but I guess all people all take Gap Years just come under the same heading to you?
Oh and pointing out that Alcuin is the home to the Gap Year Student is I imagine largely down to the fact that deferred students get 1st choice of college and therefore pick one with better facilities. But I guess it makes no sense to go with a college that has an actual kitchen as opposed to the poor excuse that you get in Derwent.
While I can understand the sentiment of your article your apparent grudge regarding Gap year students invalidates any valuable argument you have. Yes people who take Gap Years are extremely fortunate and those who do charity work are making little real difference in the grand scheme of things. But at least they do something as opposed to just travelling round the world. Why don't you just forget your prejudices for just once and appreciate people trying to make some semblance of a difference.
"not one that's full of poverty and the gap-year hypocrisy he describes"
thats a loaded sentence if i ever saw one
yawn. i was falling asleep but was awoken by the galloping hooves of the one trick pony that is adam thorn.
a blog awash with poorly constructed arguments with blatant holes in. a career in a mediocre local rag awaits...
Oh dear Adam, I think that gap year students do a lot of good. They've built a shit load of schools, and taught them lot how to play football and stuff. Look at Didier Drogba for example. He was just a skinny black guy, living in abject poverty. Then one gap year student saw him take a bomb on the chest and half volley it out of his village. He was taught by this gap year student to play football and now he's banging in the goals week in week out in the premier league: an African success story.
I think you should read these lyrics and think about what you've written,
Feed the world make it a better place for you and for me and the entire human race, there are people dying but if you care enough for the living, to make a better place for you and for me.
That is all.
comment deleted by a moderator This whole article is utterly ridiculous! Yes the majority of places students go to make a difference also have stunning views - surely going somewhere beautiful AND helping a community or an animal home or something; is better than NOT DOING ANYTHING. so what if some of the motives are selfish. some aren't.
You are being so ignorant! do you really think that the work of gap year students does nothing for people living in poverty?
I think you need a reality check and to learn not to be so prejudice.
Adam is right. Many are Tories with a conscience problem which is alleviated by a brief trip to Africa or South America, with Jack Wills' galore and a panama hat. Not that I condemn the latter. I just prefer not to go to Africa or other hell-holes on earth to wear them.
I find this utterly amazing from these people 'up in arms' and uncontrolled fervour at what Mr. Thorn has written. You may all criticise his writing style, content and indeed motives but you are playing directly into his hands at second-slip! His aim is to be ironic, play on people's views of him and let them chomp at the bait resulting in this reaction. Put simply, he is being a darn sight cleverer than most commenting on this blog.
As for the content of the article, it is to some degree true. The hypocritical nature of some people is indeed just that. It is more for their own life-expereince and self-elevation than anything else [and take that from someone who had 99% of his year mates take a gap year from the stereotypical background].
They really don't address the issues of poverty in Africa which are caused by brutal and corrupt dictators, tribal factions vying for power and civil wars driven by the self-interest of the few. What the continent could do with is not a few hundred York gap-year students to sort it out, but one or two brigades of the King's African Rifles to create a bit of stability and order allowing for the development and blooming of Africa's natural resources into the hands of the many- not the corrupt.
Dan Taylor
I have to say I think this blog, if serious is a bit silly; however, I'm sure everyone here will appreciate this masterful satire on a similar issue:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=F4T7jYDHhGA
Go to 5.55 minutes in!
edit: I'm not sure of the legality of the clip, but I'm sure a moderator will remove the ling it if there are any problems, apologies if so!
Let’s consider the options, in order of praiseworthiness:
(1) You do a substantial amount of charity work (in your gap year/holidays) *and* still “care about what's going on south of the equator” during the rest of your life.
(2) You are ethically aware and do a bit of voluntary work here and there, but no specific charity-based trips to unfortunate countries.
(3) You do a one-off stint of charity work, but you don’t trouble yourself with world issues most of the time.
or (4) You just don’t bother, because it would be “hypocritical”.
Are you seriously advocating that (4) is preferable? It may make you more ‘honest’ than option (3), but it would certainly not be of much use to the world.
You must log in to submit a comment.
Report