WORK|OUT European Students’ Review

SHORT NEWS INTERNATIONAL

If you don’t study, I’ll cut your ears!
That’s what happened to some children, aged between six and nine, this month in a school in the town of Bogra, in Bangladesh. Mr Abdul Mazid Sardar was a teacher in an Islamic school. Now he has been fired and sent to hospital because he snipped the ears of 17 of his students to make them learn religious verses. After parents and relatives of children attacked him, he said to a journalist: “I think an evil force must have overcome me”. (em)

An endless supply for European universities
Thousands of Chinese students are invading English universities. They can improve their English and enhance their CVs so that they can find a better job and earn more money in China, or elsewhere. Coming to Europe is easier than going to the United States, and even less expensive. The Chinese middle classes are now wealthier and parents want to invest money in their children, universities are glad to welcome these students because they can charge fees which are double what a student from Britain would pay. (em)

Deaths in Nigerian cult clashes
Gangs of students with bizarre names such as Black Axe, Vikings and Black Beret Secret have gained power in Nigeria’s universities, using a mixture of black magic and violence. They are called cults and have been accused of many murders, mutilations, rapes and other types of violence. Recently, 17 have been killed in clashes between rival student cults in Enugu. In Ondo, cult members, angry at the abduction of one of their female colleagues, invaded the campus of their enemies, captured five of them and burnt them to death. Cults have permeated Nigerian higher education institutions since they came to prominence in the late 1980s. Although many suspect that they are in fact a façade for crimes, police have not succeeded in disbanding them, the Spanish news agency EFE reports. (mt)

I’m too sexy for my class
Student leaders at a Ugandan university want some of their fellow students to stop wearing miniskirts, crop tops, hipsters and tight trousers in the belief that scantily dressed schoolgirls provide too much temptation for their teachers. They have asked their classmates to wear skirts that fall just below the knee and shirts which cover the stomach and waist. The move was instigated in the Mbarara University of Science and Technology, in the south-west of Uganda and has been a great success. “Our ethical requirements mean we must dress as required by some of the professions we will engage in”, said the student leader Mr Rwakamuna, who is likely to be given an award for his actions. The crusade has spread to Mombasa (Kenya) where leaflets hit the streets warning that women wearing revealing clothes risked being stripped in public. A similar measure was taken by Swaziland’s government, which banned miniskirts in school last July. If these strike you as drastic measures, consider the fact that many African nations are home to the majority of the world’s 34.5 million people infected with HIV and are naturally trying anything to alleviate the crisis. (mt)

Middle ages
Students are bringing shame on lecturers that they claim are financially and sexually exploiting them. The students say they are made to buy pamphlets, which have been written or produced by the lecturers, in order to pass their exams. Sometimes a bribe paid to the lecturers beforehand is required. In addition, female students are encouraged to have sexual intercourse in order to get the papers marked. It is ignominy which has become the norm, some lecturers overtly tell women students “they know what to do”. A list of 31 names was displayed on the walls of the University of Yaounde, the Cameroon capital, on Wednesday 9/29. It was also handed to the campus’ Rector, who has not yet commented on the student action. So far, the students’ protest has not shamed the lecturers into silence: they still complain of being poorly paid.

Kinshasa, the Imaginary City,
oder, wie auch eine Institution erschüttern und Klischees erzittern lassen kann. Bei der 9. Internationalen Biennale für Architektur von Venedig wurde, als beste Installation eines Landes der Belgische Pavillon für das Projekt „Kinshasa — The Imaginary City“ mit dem Goldenen Löwen ausgezeichnet „its provocative and outstanding way of showing the public that the traditional strategies and typologies of architecture may not always be the best answer to the big challenges of world. The project argues that the question of identify, community and infrastructure are undergoing such heavy metamorphosis that new definitions and solutions are to be developed.“
Eine politisch starke Entscheidung der Jury (der unter anderen der Korrespondent der „Repubblica“ Vittorio Zucconi angehörte) und ein präzises Signal in Richtung derer, die heute noch an eine Kunst glauben, die losgelöst von der Welt gemacht und rezipiert wird: es ist die Welt, die hier prämiert wurde. (tt)

| em = Erika Maddalena; mt = Mauro Turrini; tt = Tommaso Tagliabue | translations: Richard Wright, T. Brömme