RAG Week Launches

So we’ve been hearing the cries of some people asking us why we haven’t spared a word for RAG Week. Have no fear, coverage is here!

In case you hadn’t noticed the near-catatonic Dan Dolan drooling across his sound mixing board in the Quad, PuLSE has begun their Rag-a-thon broadcast, carrying on 24/7 throughout the length of RAG week with a combination of music, appeals for donations, games and general blather. If you want to take a look, you’ll be able to see what they’re on about and catch glimpses of the elusive PuLSE crew sitting up there on that stage where the perennial ‘last day’ poster sale is usually going on.

The events range from a game of ‘Assassin’ (one can only imagine the mayhem that would ensue if contestants burst into this week’s rehash of the highly controversial Motion on Apartheid/Israel Divestment vote and began plugging various members of either side of the debate with water balloons) to a version of Hands on a Hard Body where contestants vie for a plasma screen tv by outlasting the others in an endurance game and the inevitable food contests (this Observer is highly tempted to join in the biryani eating contest tomorrow, but don’t count on it) and of course Hack Idol, where the various SU officers will humble themselves before the student body through various depreciating acts, all in the name of charity, culminating in the ‘gunking’ of the sabb officer chosen by the most donations made into tins bearing their mugs. Now that’s something this Observer can support!

If you’re looking for the most comprehensive schedule of events for RAG Week, take a look here, and don’t forget to give generously. At the very least, why not donate your library fees to RAG?

Elections Nominations Open

Right, so today is the official opening for nominations to the various offices in the Students Union. Unofficially Hack Attack posted a list of candidates on Friday, and we can only expect that it will likely prove to have been reasonably comprehensive and accurate. The major change that jumps out at us is the removal of Abz Hussain from the running for Gen Sec (he’s said to be bidding for Comms instead), and the addition of Women’s Officer Daisy O’Brien to the race for GenSec.

Returning Officer James Bacon, meanwhile, having lost his bid to introduce new rules governing campaigning online, has decided to at least attempt to maintain some control by creating a Facebook Group for the elections. Many of the candidates have already signed up, so take your chance to scrutinize their pages and discover all of the embarrassing photos that have been tagged to them – if you have the opportunity, a lot of the candidates have put up rather heavy security over the general LSE populace seeing their pages which is either quite smart or rather paranoid. Those who haven’t put up fences (or have taken them down) have surely been agonizing over their pages to make sure that they don’t TOO contrived.

What’s On

Nothing says “I Love You” more than a jacket-less and well-thumbed copy of Bourdieu’s Distinction. Who needs red roses or chocolates? The Library book sale is going to be the place to pick up your Valentine’s Day gifts for your beloved. And at 1 pound a book, it’ll be the cheapest Hallmark Holiday yet!

When, Where: Tuesday and Wednesday at the Library

There remains a panic among Western nations about the rise of China as a global powerhouse. They’re not worried enough to stop buying cheap manufactured goods from China, but they are concerned enough to host academic discussions like this one: “Africa and China: Charting Africa’s Chinese Future”. Given all the investments made in African nations by China of late, and the influx of Chinese merchants and goods, China appears to be making a bid for the friend of Africa. What are the potential ramifications for geo-politics, and particularly for Western interests?

When, Where: Tuesday, 6:30pm in Z329 (St Philips North)

Europe is faced with multiple fronts of anxiety, and not only from Chinese expansion into Africa. It is also struggling to develop the European Union and absorb a variety of nations on the fringes. Albanian Foreign Minister Lulzim Basha will speak this week about Euro-Atlantic Integration of South-East Europe and the Balkan nation’s efforts to join the EU and NATO.

When, Where: Tuesday, 3pm in the Old Theater

Tickets, Get Your Tickets

This week seems to be a week of ticketed events. Often these are some of the more illustrious events going down at the LSE, but also sometimes there are notable non-ticketed events that get ignored as a result of the attention on the big boys. So, to give everybody a chance to shine, the Observer is going to split this week’s What’s On into two sections, ticketed and non-ticketed.

First, the big boys – tickets are available in the Student Union reception unless otherwise stated.

LSE alumnus Stelios (as far as I am concerned the man goes by one name only), founder of EasyJet and various other Easy brand extensions, will be giving a chat to LSE students on, what else, branding. The event is in fact not until next Tuesday, but tickets are on offer as of this morning, so snatch em up!

We referred briefly to Muhammad Yunus in our first post this morning, but to give you all a better understanding of what he’s on posters around campus for, let’s spell it out some more. Yunus, a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for his “efforts to create economic and social development from below” through his Grameen microfinance bank will be attending a reception for students at the Senior Common Room in the Old Building on Friday. Limited tickets will be released at the Students Union reception beginning Wednesday at 10am.

The Everyday Struggle for Houghton St. Real Estate

Mercifully, the Observer has never had to promote itself through fliers on Houghton Street, but obviously a lot of other societies and groups have to subject themselves and their members to early morning (and not so early) fliering campaigns. These are helpful for catching student attention and drawing people to events, but the struggle for prime real estate on the walls of the Old and East Buildings is intense. This morning, amidst a grip of new fliers promoting everything from this week’s UGM (I feel a bout of deja vu coming on, by the way) to Shakespeare for Clowns (literally), I found this Bangladesh Society Flier. Who knows it this is a viral campaign to raise interest in some upcoming event, or simply a craven attempt to attain a position of prominence beside the Nobel prize winning Bangladeshi microfinancier Muhammad Yunus, but it has piqued my interest!