Amidst the cut-backs and funding crisis throughout third level education, the government’s proposal to upgrade certain Institutes of Technology (IT) to technological universities has been met with a lot of criticism and a unanimous outcry from the country’s seven university presidents. Suggested in the Hunt Report, this move could see a whole new type of university emerge with a different focus from traditional institutions.

Regions where the suggested reforms are being considered include the Southeast (Carlow and Tralee ITs), the Border Midland and Western (BMW) region (Athlone, Dundalk, Galway-Mayo, Letterkenny, and Sligo ITs), and Dublin (DIT and Tallaght IT). The idea has also received strong support from several senior Cabinet figures, including Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin, who represent Kilkenny and Wexford in the Dáil.

Athlone Institute of Technology President, Prof. Ciarán Ó Catháin, explains the ambitions of the project. “We are looking to create a differentiated institution, one that will be known for the excellence of its teaching and learning, and for its close collaboration with industry. Such a technological university will be much more than the sum of its parts, it will be a powerful agent of change in higher education for all the communities and stakeholders involved.”

However, the plan is still in its infancy according to Higher Education Authority spokesperson Malcolm Byrne. “First of all there’s no decision that has been made about giving university status to anybody yet. What’s provided for in the National Strategy for Higher Education, the Hunt Report, is for the concept of a technological university and it’s essentially a university along the lines as we know it but it would be more focused on technology and indeed industry.

“What has happened is that the HEA has drawn up the criteria for what that technological university should be. Those criteria will be published in February and it will then be up to either individual institutions or groups of institutions to come together and to apply to become a technological university,” he says. “It’s not just going to be a name change from X Institute of Technology to X Technological University, they will have to meet the very rigorous standards that will be set out and that will be checked by both an Irish panel and an international panel … if it’s determined that they reach the standards that are set out in the criteria then a recommendation will come from the panel that the combination would be able to be a technological university.”

The debate on what exactly these criteria will be is ongoing, and rumoured to now be involving various ministers. So far it has been accepted that the new universities would be expected to move away from the arts and humanities courses and focus on technology and the sciences. But what actually is the difference between a university of the type that currently exists, and one that is ‘technological’?

Gerard Casey, UCD Professor of Philosophy, is sceptical of what he says is politically- fuelled “creeping universityitus” and claims there has always been a fundamental gap between the two kinds of institutions. He says that one of the traditional variations has always been in the way a student is trained to think. “The main difference, let’s say in relation to something like engineering, because they both do that, was that the ITs, whether they’re designed to do this or not, were producing people who were employment-fit almost immediately. That is to say they fitted into the existing employment structure, they went out into the job market with the skills they needed for that job market. The difference [with] a university education, however, in engineering is that you’re training people to devise the solutions to problems that don’t yet exist.”

The proposed promotion then seems at variance with a view President Michael Higgins echoed last week when speaking about the “intellectual crisis” he believes Ireland is facing. He spoke about the special role of the university; “And were universities not special places, the citizens of the future may ask, for the generation of alternatives in science, culture and philosophy? The universities have a great challenge in the questions that are posed now, questions that are beyond ones of a narrow utility.”

However Professor Joe Carthy, principle of the UCD College of Science, does not agree that technological university can’t make a contribution to thought and development. “I think there’s a good tradition of technical universities in other countries, in Germany and in the United States, the best known being Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and no one would dispute its contribution to global education so I wouldn’t be too concerned. I think university status would mean that the university academics would have the freedom to do the kind of research that they need to do. I think, and one assumes, that they would be able for excellence in their areas.”

Assurances by Byrne that “the standards that would be expected in academic terms would be the same as any other university” lend weight to this appraisal.

Outside of the debate over educational approach, the way upgraded existing ITs to university status would benefit rural areas is also something that has been highlighted. Irish universities are currently very urban-centric, and there has long been a desire by some to alter this. It is hoped that new university status will promote and develop rural regions, not only by keeping students in the area, but also through the work that they hope to carry out.

“How a BMW Technology University will best serve the needs of this region is at the heart of our discussions,” according to Dundalk Institute of Technology President, Denis Cummins. “Research and innovation that supports indigenous and multinational industry will be central to its operation, which will be a catalyst for job creation. This will build on our substantial track record of supporting enterprise.”

Yet research is another topic that causes controversy. Byrne says that “One of the requirements [to becoming a university] is in the area of research and there is that issue between research and learning, so those criteria are going to have to be set out. I’m not going to pre-empt what the criteria are because they still need publication, but obviously research would be one of them. Clearly anyone who wishes to apply for designation as a technological university would have to reach or exceed the criteria that [is] set out.”

If the extra funding required to research and publish is considered, Casey believes that these reforms don’t make sense right now. He points out the much larger teaching involvement in ITs means that they currently don’t have time to research, and questions whether the new dispensation would result in more staff being required to provide time to do both.“It’s not like waving your magic wand, like Cinderella’s fairy godmother turning the mice into horses, it doesn’t quite work like that. You have to think it through. It’s a change in emphasis, it’s a change in what you do. A significant change. It’s not just a name, it’s a different reality.”

He passionately outlines the real crux of the issue as he sees it. “Has anybody thought this through? We’re being systematically cut in here, right now we literally have an embargo on tea and biscuits … soon they’ll have us out cleaning the floor. The universities in Ireland are plummeting down the rankings for whatever they’re worth, which is not much as far as I’m concerned. The bottom is falling out of the market. There’s an embargo here on buying books for the library. We cannot buy books for our library. This is in a research institution. It’s pathetic.”

Carthy, while supportive of the overall idea, echoes this sentiment. “There’s almost an implicit thing that it’s not going to cost anything, and it’s difficult to believe that that could be the situation … Some people kind of think it’s almost like you’re just changing the name plates, like the current institutes become universities and there’s no cost change. I suspect that’s not the case.” He continued by saying that there was a certain snobbishness associated with gaining university status and that the plan could affect CAO choices, even if no structural or budgetary changes were introduced. University status, even as just a name, can affect an institution’s ability to attract top students.

It is likely that real reform will require investment in existing ITs and the question is, do we need to spend to aid recovery? In a joint press release by the Presidents of DIT, IT Tallaght and IT Blanchardstown it is suggested that perhaps these new institutions would respond to what Ireland is currently lacking, which could in turn aid the economy. “In the context of Ireland’s national recovery plan, we will work towards building a new and exciting civic and technological institution, providing a world-class experience for our students, and developing graduates who will respond to the needs of society.”

However the issue of cost will not simply disappear. The exact criteria for the upgrades will be revealed in February, when we can expect the funding debate to reach a climax. Technological universities exist successfully worldwide, and lend to the production of a more diverse and skilled workforce. The benefit that would be brought to rural areas is also undeniable, but it is a sad fact that in Ireland education cannot function or compete internationally without substantial money coming in. Without funding these new technological universities could not get off the ground and into the rankings. Without substantial funding and genuine re-organisation, a superficial change in label will do little to paper over the cracks emerging across the Irish higher education system.

With the Christmas trees abandoned, work resuming, and the nights still enveloping the days, you’d be forgiven for believing January to be the most depressing month of the year. It is therefore fitting that the National Gallery of Ireland’s annual JMW Turner exhibition is entitled ‘A Light in the Darkness’.

This exhibition is a commemoration of two men; the collector and the creator. Henry Vaughan bequeathed the gallery this watercolour collection in 1900, stipulating in his will that it was only in January that Turner’s works could be displayed, because it was the month when they were least likely to be damaged by the presence of any natural light.

Though electricity has done much to make sunlight completely avoidable since Vaughan’s day, the gallery still honours his last request. Niamh McNally, assistant curator in the NGI states that “it has become something of an occasion in people’s annual calendar to come and see the Turner watercolours.” This makes sense. Turner’s works focus on the beauty of nature, which visitors must find uplifting in the darkest days before spring.

Running alongside this is another exhibition, ‘Fables and Fairytales – Illustrations from the Collection’, featuring prints and drawings dating from 1870-1920. This was “a golden period in children’s book illustration”, according to McNally. Goblins, elves, fairies and dragons are all represented, as imagined by John Butler Yeats, Harry Clarke, and Richard and Charles Doyle (Arthur Conan’s brothers) among others, and thus far has “proved extremely popular with the public”.

The ongoing presentation ‘Masterpieces from the Collection’, featuring “the cream” of the gallery’s acquisitions, is also on display. The focus is on a selection of European art from the early Renaissance to the twentieth century, which is rotated on a regular basis, and currently includes works by James Barry, William Orpen and Charles Jervas. Also to be seen here is a range of Byzantine and Russian icons dating from the 1390s to the 1550s, which demonstrate an alternative and interesting approach to religious art in the West.

The National Gallery is the ideal January destination. Your wallet won’t mind because entry to all exhibitions is free. Your spirit won’t mind, because inside you can escape the cold and gloom. With the natural world in hibernation embrace the artificial light, and use this time of darkness to admire the works of man.

Further information on exhibitions, free talks and tours can be found on www.nationalgallery.ie.

Turner: A Light in the Darkness runs until January 31st.

Fables and Fairy Tales – Illustrations from the Collection runs until the March 25th.

I once asked Mary Raftery for tips on being a good journalist, and she said to always start your articles with a short sentence. So here it goes:

Former UCDSU Education Officer and UCD student Mary Raftery has passed away.

Student politician turned journalist, last September she spoke in an interview of her time in UCD, which she spent “doing a lot less engineering than I should have and getting a lot more involved with the Students’ Union and the student newspaper.”

She worked as a sub-editor and writer for the In Dublin magazine, before moving on to work for the current affairs publication Magill in 1984, and later for RTÉ until leaving in 2002.

The word that has been mentioned again and again in tributes to her is “relentless”. This relentlessness led to her producing and directing States of Fear, a documentary series that revealed the physical and sexual abuse suffered by children in Irish industrial schools and residential institutions.

Such was the immediate reaction to the programme that before the third part had even been broadcast, the then Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, publically apologised to victims of institutional abuse on behalf of the State. The Ryan Commission and the Residential Institutions Redress Board, which has to date compensated approximately 14,000 victims, were both set up as a result of her work.

Cardinal Secrets, her 2002 exposé on which she worked alongside Mick Peelo, examined the cover-up of child sex abuse allegations, and led to the establishment of the Murphy Commission of Investigation into clerical abuse in the Dublin Archdiocese.

Her last documentary Behind the Walls, which she worked on while she was ill, was broadcast in September 2011, and examined the history of Ireland’s psychiatric hospitals.

During her career she also exposed the plight of residents of Magdalene laundries, deaths in Garda custody, medical negligence and the activities of property developers.

Probably the most remarkable Irish journalist of the last twenty years, Raftery’s works instigated huge changes in our society. She shined a light on the darkest corners of this country, fearlessly fighting against both injustice and ignorance, while giving a voice to those who had been silenced. And despite all that she uncovered, she never lost faith in the goodness of humanity. “The most refreshing thing about what I do is the fact of how good people are”, she said in September. “It’s amazing to see how they are fundamentally driven to help others, and that they will do so by revealing themselves and their adversities and their challenges. And it’s wonderful. You really do see the best of people … The most important thing you can do is to give a voice to people who have been silenced …what else would I be doing?”

Mary Raftery is survived by her husband, David Waddell and their son, Ben.

Along with both his father and Bertie Ahern, Kim Jong-il had that lucky knack of knowing when the right time to exit is. On the 17th of December, exactly two weeks before his declared deadline of making the DPRK a “strong and prosperous nation”, the Dear Leader finally succumbed to his suffix and died. Whilst blue flashes blinded, ice exploded, storks sympathised and a holy mountain glowed, the world woke up to the fact that the hermit state was in unknown hands, and they didn’t like it.

Kim Jong-il was a known enemy. He was wildly eccentric in the way only a totalitarian dictating megalomaniac can be. A film fanatic, he ordered the kidnapping of South Korean film director Shin Sang-ok in 1978, who, during his eight years in captivity, was charged with the creation of a North Korean Godzilla. Despite propagandist assertions of a diet of potatoes and rice-balls, his former chef claims Kim had a penchant for roasted donkey, caviar and fresh Thai papayas. The world’s greatest golfer, he shot thirty-eight under par in his maiden round including five holes-in-one, or so attested seventeen of his bodyguards.

His hubristic behaviour could be confined to the realms of real-life comedy if one was to ignore the ground level suffering that it resulted in.

Google satellite pictures of the DPRK at night would produce a bewildering darkness. That’s not censorship, it’s the result of no electricity. North Korea faded to black during the early 1990s. Power stations rusted. People stole electrical wire to exchange for food and Kim Jong-il became the leader of the first industrialised country to lose the capacity to not only light itself, but feed itself too.

An estimated 500,000 to two million people died during this famine, a direct result of Kim’s obstinate promotion of the Juche Idea, which advocated complete self-sufficiency. His noted fearlessness in the face of international sanctions was an indication of either complete delusion or an utter absence of human compassion, as his subjects perished.

The Communist state failed with the food crisis. Many DPRK defectors noted that it was the good and loyal citizens that were the first to succumb to starvation, whilst illegal markets and small businesses sprung up out of necessity for everyone else. Even in 2011, long after the famine’s formal end, the average official monthly income was less than €2. A further €10 came in on the side, as capitalist practices are employed to keep families alive.

The increasing inequality is dashing Southern hopes of successful future reunification. The South’s economic power is at least thirty times stronger than the North’s. This is equivalent to four times the disparity that existed between East and West Berlin when the wall fell. The average North Korean is three inches smaller than their Southern counterparts due to malnourishment.

Apart from the welfare of its citizens internally, the huge international concern is in regard to the nuclear weapons held by the state. In his eulogy the songun, or “military first” policy adopted by North Korea was the most praised achievement of the elder Kim, whilst the issue of the economy was avoided in almost a “don’t mention the war” manner. Parliament chief Kim Yong-nam instead gushed that his legacy was the foundation of a “proud nuclear state”.

Pride is certainly a distinguishing factor in a personality-cult fuelled nationalistic regime. The North has conducted two nuclear tests, and could have a working nuclear missile in as little as one or two years. This poses both a threat to regional security, and supplies the DPKR with a powerful bargaining tool to use when seeking aid for its economy.

As the action rises, a pudgy Swiss-educated twenty-eight-year-old with very little political experience enters central stage, and instead of a double rainbow, a huge question-mark hangs over his head. Kim’s older sons were rejected for the leadership role, one after embarrassing his father by being arrested in a Japanese airport using fake passports to gain access to Disneyland, the other for being “too feminine”. Kim Jong-un brings new hope.

One move that should be wished for is the decriminalisation of the currently underground private economy. Another is that the younger Kim will be more willing to make concessions in international negotiations.

Both his international education and his experience as a basketball team player may make him more open to change than his father, according to the former deputy governor of the North’s Korea Reunification Development Bank. But with his uncle Jang Song Thaek supervising the transition period and the new Supreme Leader being encouraged by the rest of the military elite, this is far from a certainty.

Meanwhile, millions pray to the new leader for another kind of mercy. It is likely that he will be the last man with the power to reunite estranged families that still hold memories of each other. Countless relatives were torn apart during the Korean War in the early 1950s, and with no postal, email or telephone service between the two factions, many do not know if their long-lost are still even alive.

Family reunions were agreed to at the landmark summit in 2000 and so far 20,000 Koreans have been allowed once-off face-to-face or video contact with their parents, children and siblings on the other side. Fathers have faced elderly offspring that have a lifetime of their own completed. Brothers and sisters have strained to recognise each other after sixty years apart.

Of the 130,000 South Koreans that signed up for reunions, a third have since died without even this satisfaction. With the war fading from memory, connections are extinguishing and the severance of Korea has reached the final stage of completion. Whether his compassion will extend beyond propagandist reportings is questionable. And so Koreans wait, as they have done for sixty years.

It’s not every day you get the chance to chat to one of Britain’s top 300 intellectuals. This was Otwo’s first notable thought this morning, even more so, because this intellectual is most definitely Irish.

Colm Tóibín is rankled about the recent Observer list too, but for a different reason. “I thought 300 was a lot of people, and some of the other people were not very smart at all. If they had said I was one of fifty I would have been happier. They should have ranked us!”

It is twenty-one years since Tóibín wrote The South. His first novel dealt with the topics of immigration and sense of self, themes that are recurring throughout his subsequent works. It is set in Barcelona, where Tóibín himself moved in 1975, immediately after graduating from UCD. A cyclical market and an unprecedented global downturn have ensured that our generation are fleeing the fatherland just as hastily. At the recent Irish Economic Forum Tóibín called this a “tragedy.”

Whilst noting the mind-expanding benefits of spending anything from a year in Sydney to two weeks in Costa da Brava, he points out the serious detriment of the “disaster” of relocation in the longer term. “The entire business of permanent migration, of losing your roots and your relationship to the place you were brought up in, and you suddenly think twenty years later that everyone drinks in the same bar as they did twenty years ago. You think everyone at home is the same age as they were when you left, when in fact they’ve got two kids.

“Your dream of home now doesn’t equal the reality. Your entire relationship to your peer group and your family begins to dissolve and change fundamentally, and you end up a decade later coming home less and less, and having less and less connection to home.”

Upon his return to Ireland after three years he found it backward in every way. “To give you one small example, in 1978, when I came back to Dublin, there was one coffee machine in the entire city.”

Now Dubliners are besieged by the epitome of the American coffee dream itself, in the form of Starbucks and its various competitors. However for Tóibín, modern Ireland is still founding wanting. “I think in most families there’s an absolute innate racism where you learn not to say things, but if your son or daughter came home with somebody from a different race you would be very concerned about that”.

The same applies to sexuality, negative attitudes to which still lie latent, the explicitness of which, according to Tóibín, we’ve learnt to “disguise”. “There’s no overt homophobia in political discourse, or the newspapers, or on radio, but it doesn’t mean that anybody longs to have a gay baby.”

Tóibín’s laugh is as infectious as his books are miserable. During our brief time talking Otwo chuckled, giggled, chortled and guffawed. His latest work is a film script. “I can’t write comedy. This really was a comedy, I swear to you. But I looked at it yesterday and thought ‘we’ll have to get sad music for it now.’”

As a patron and producer of the arts, he is delighted about the recent election of Michael D. Higgins to the Presidency. “He is stylish, he is cultured, he is articulate, and as he said himself, being old was not a secret he was keeping. So [I’m] very pleased with the result, I think he’s a most civilised human being. Perhaps more civilised than most of the people who elected him.”

Having said that, he did wonder if these voters deserved Dana instead. “I think it was a good idea to accuse Martin McGuinness of something, but it was hard to think up of the others. Dana had American nationality, who cares? Mary Davis was on some state board. Yeah, well, I’m on the Arts Council, I was appointed by Fianna Fáil. They needed someone competent, they appointed me. She didn’t defend herself enough by saying ‘would you shut up’.”

Sensing a prime chance to shape the political future of Ireland, Otwo slyly suggests President Tóibín for 2018. “You think I would tour around the country telling everyone that I thought I had qualities that were presidential? I think self-deprecation is actually fundamental to citizenship. I would hate the National Ploughing Championships. I would hate getting into wellies!”

Three times a Booker Prize potential, Tóibín also has no interest in the “theatre of cruelty” that are awards ceremonies. “I actually knew Anthony Burgess, and he wouldn’t go to the Booker ceremony unless he was sure he had won. It was that year that his wonderful novel Earthly Powers was beaten by some novel by William Golding, and Burgess just said ‘why does anyone think I’m just going to go and travel all the way over from Monaco and sit there and not win?’”

Though never previously renowned as a breeding grounds for British intellectuals, with the year of the Queen, the times they are a-changing. “UCD is a great place. I kneel down every morning and thank God I didn’t go to Trinity.”

Otwo tells Tóibín to not give up on the comedy.

Colm Tóibín will speak to UCD’s English and Literary Society on Wednesday 23^rd November in Theatre O (Newman Building) at 6:30pm

On October 31, amidst widespread applause, a denial of the wishes of the United States, and a threatened cut-off of funds, Palestine became the 195^th full member of UNESCO. The motion was overwhelmingly passed at one hundred and seven votes to fourteen, with fifty-two abstentions.

This step will cost the United Nations Educational, Social and Cultural Organisation a quarter of its yearly budget: twenty-two per cent (about $70 million) contributed by the US, along with at least another three per cent from Israel and Canada.

The seemingly petulant American behaviour grounds itself in 1990 legislation prohibiting funding to “the United Nations or any specialised agency thereof which accords the Palestine Liberation Organisation the same standing as a member state”, and a 1994 law banning payments to “any affiliated organisation of the United Nations which grants full membership as a state to any organisation or group that does not have the internationally recognised attributes of statehood.”

Presumably then the same response will also be applied to additional situations. Admission to UNESCO presages Palestine’s possible acceptance into other agencies and sections of the UN that could include the World Health Organisation, the World Intellectual Property Organisation and the International Atomic Energy Agency. The Security Council is already due to vote on their application next week, with the US desperately trying to find allies so as to avoid using their own veto.

Furthermore, there have been suggestions that UNESCO membership could set a precedent for acceptance into the International Criminal Court. This would have interesting consequences considering the US and Israel’s refusal to partake in it. If Palestine was recognised it is possible that thereon all crimes committed by Israelis on Palestinian soil would come under the jurisdiction of the ICC.

Israel certainly is assessing the possible implications of its change in position, with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu immediately moving to build 2,000 new homes in settlements around Jerusalem, withholding tax monies Israel collects for the Palestinian Authority and cancelling ‘VIP passes’, which enable senior Palestinian officials to travel freely. These actions have been met with anger by opposition leader Tzipi Livni, who says that Netanyahu is not focused on peace or prepared to make the concessions that it would entail.

UNESCO states its purpose as being to contribute to peace and security by promoting international collaboration through education, science and culture in order to further universal respect for justice, the rule of law, human rights and fundamental freedoms. The organisation enjoys official relations with 322 NGOs, encourages the “free flow of images and words” through support for the freedom of press, and designates World Heritage Sites. However worthy this may seem, considering its diverse membership it is to be expected that controversy and conflicts will arise throughout the course of its decisions.

This is not the first time the US has threatened funding cuts to get their way within the organisation. In 1974 UNESCO voted to exclude Israel because of alleged damage done during archaeological excavations in Jerusalem, which were labelled a “cultural crime against humanity”. Israel was readmitted in 1977 after the US threatened to withdraw contributions worth $40 million.

Enhancing a fraught relationship, in 1984 the US itself completely withdrew because of alleged Communist sympathies displayed by the organisation towards Soviet Russia, only rejoining in 2003 under George Bush. UNESCO and Israel also came into conflict again when, in 2009, the former named Jerusalem the Arab Capital of Culture.

Good work done by the body is not disputed however. In a visit to their Paris headquarters this year, Hillary Clinton announced; “I am proud to be the first secretary of state from the United States ever to come to UNESCO, and I come because I believe strongly in your mission.”

However, like the long defunct League of Nations before it, the UN is constantly fighting questions as to its relevance and questionable power. Its highlighted reliance on the temperament of its funding members threatens to belittle any strong statements it may make, whether through words or actions such as state recognition.

The November 2^nd statement by UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova merely serves to highlight this incapacity, as she speaks of the global losses that will immediately result from the US funding withdrawal, and asks Congress and the American people to look for a way forward.

The extent to which the US is ignoring popular global opinion must also be assessed. The resounding support for Palestine included countries in which the US has an interest, such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait and Libya, and many perceive the recent development as just another blow to America’s image abroad. Considering the $6 billion reputedly given annually to Israel by the US, $70 million is insubstantial. It remains to be seen whether the US will reconsider its position, and until then, how exactly UNESCO will manage its budget is also unknown.

At some stage even the most hardhearted amongst us feel the urge to better the world we live in. While societies such as St. Vincent de Paul offer opportunities to volunteer in Dublin on a regular basis, more and more students are being drawn to bringing their goodwill overseas. Sun, sea and service can appear to be a winning combination for an alternative summer.

Each year droves of unskilled idealistic students head from the West to the developing world for between two weeks and two months. Tour operators have recognised growing demand for the feel-good factor, and ‘voluntourism’ trips, combining sightseeing with charity work, are becoming much more prevalent. Cynics call it ‘poverty tourism’. Building houses or teaching in orphanages can certainly feel very rewarding, but is such a short period of time long enough to make this much revered ‘difference’, or are we simply adding to existing problems?

UCD Volunteer Overseas’ (UCDVO) auditor Sinead Hughes recognises that there are positives and negatives to having such a limited time abroad. “I think short-term volunteering is more intense. You get a lot more done in a short time, I think if you were there for longer it would be more relaxed so in that way it’s good to go out and be efficient with your time,” she says. “But then I guess if it’s a case where you’re going into a country for four weeks and then not coming back then it has negative effects on the whole community, but with VO, I think the way we’re coming back year after year has a positive aspect.”

After working in a centre for children in Delhi the summer before last, third year medical student Rachel Rynne-Lyons admits she did consider whether it was unreasonable to become close to the children when she was only going to leave them again. “I thought, ‘was it fair?’ But I think a lot of the places that VO sends people to have a continuous system of volunteers and they’re used to it, and it’s really exciting for them because they get to meet new people, and new things to teach. We’re such a different culture and I think we try to be really caring with kids, I think it’s just natural instinct, to girls especially, and then to become really close to the kids and then leave isn’t fair but I think it’s good for both of us to have, to make a connection even if it’s just for a month. You see that they do have someone all the time. And also the kids are really clever and as much as you think that you’ve made them fall in love with you they’re very smart kids and they kind of know how to win everybody over, they’re really cute.”

During the course of their studies at UCD approximately twenty-five per cent of students undertake a course in some area of development, a statistic that demonstrates a legitimate and commendable interest in the field. However, Dr Patrick Walsh of the UCD Development Studies Department sees volunteering overseas as an extension of this education, more of a benefit to the student who embarks on it than to the locals that are their target.

“I think it is what it is, to give relatively privileged students in Ireland the chance to see firsthand the conditions people have to live. It’s an important thing for people to see. When we’re giving money to students to do that I think we understand that this is for the development of the UCD student,” Dr. Walsh explains. “It’s not just about having an impact in Africa; it’s also about the education of the UCD student to have a more global mind. You could have views on a person’s trade and whether aid works in a big macro sense but this is not about that, this is just about UCD students broadening their horizons. I think you’re looking at a different return to the money.”

Foreign aid has arguably caused more harm than good in many regions when benefactors fail to properly research the local economy and examine the potential knock-on effects of their efforts. There are arguments with a sound basis that suggest that free volunteer work can lead to local unemployment, or free food to an exaggerated inflation of local farmer’s prices, and thus result in far-reaching negative impacts for the local community. Dr Walsh also notes that aid volunteers are setting the required spending, rather than letting locals or a government do it themselves. “You’re enforcing a curriculum, a kind of value setting in the way you do things.”

Dr Walsh believes that if small projects are undertaken and tackled effectively, these can be far more useful than trying to surmount grand tasks. “Obviously the volunteer work is very community based, it can be very so-so, but they’ve done clever things. [UCDVO] brought second-hand computers, they fixed them, they’ve shipped them into Tanzania, and they brought them up to Eritrea. They have the skills. These are probably relatively small projects but they do them very effectively.”

Dr Walsh says that avoiding negative consequences can be best done by keeping your aims measurable and targeting those who need it most. “In general, if you go to an area [that] is the poorest of the poor, they genuinely have nothing. Nobody’s coming to build the road, nobody’s coming to fix the hospital. It’s more about going inside a community where you do this little job. It’s like going to an old person’s home, and you fix the shower or you fix the gate for them. It was not going to be done by someone else. And I think once the project is careful that you’re not displacing people, that you’re doing something that was otherwise not going to be done then I think it’s ok. [With] any development project, or any intervention, you should be very careful that you’re not causing unintended bad outcomes. You should test yourself against these kinds of questions.”

Auditor of the UCD World Aid Society, James Mac Mahon reiterates the need to take care when picking your project and says “you can’t blame someone for being optimistic and wanting to help, but people need to know where they can apply themselves and where they are needed”. The World Aid Society is a well-known supporter of fair trade, and are also currently in the foundation stages of their own alternative travelling scheme, an exchange option with Africa. Aeshi University in Ghana encourages African graduates to remain in Africa, an anti-brain drain that is vital for sustainable development. “It’s encouraging Africa from the inside and promoting things like the middle class, and working it up, helping establish companies and businesses.” Bringing their students to UCD for a term could be very empowering, giving them experiences and skills that they could use later to enhance their own region, whilst UCD students attending Aeshi could likewise learn a great deal from their African counterparts.

Changing attitudes and enhanced understanding are essential for global interaction and sustainable development. Hughes points out that in the long term a student can be suitably moved to dedicate further time, or even their profession, to improving the areas they’ve witnessed. “There are so many of our past volunteers who have focused their career on it, which greatly benefits that country. That’s really positive. And as well sending the money across could create a dependency that you don’t want to create in the country. If you just feed money into them, when you stop what happens then?”

UCDVO holds information evenings annually, encouraging applications and holding interviews to guarantee they have the best teams possible. Eagerness, diversity and skills are all components that can secure you a place on a future project. As Hughes says, “Things like enthusiasm, people who can work on their own initiative. Obviously people who have done construction or teaching before would be a benefit, or if they’ve got languages, exposure to working in hard conditions. But I think the main thing is to get a diverse group from different schools and characters.”

Finding the money necessary to fund a student’s time abroad is another issue with temporary volunteerism. A lot of providers will often charge inflated prices, with no encouragement or suggestions to aid potential volunteers. However, with UCDVO there is a lot of support in place. “They have to raise €2,500 and there’s the student committee that provides support for them so I think it’s daunting at the start, but once you get going it’s fine. People do bag packs, we have Rás UCD, we did the Wicklow 200 cycle and got sponsorship for that, so there are a lot of generic events that they can latch onto, and then they can do their own things as well so it’s very doable. Most people reach beyond their targets.”

Most volunteers recount a similar tale of gaining a new insight and understanding of the plight of others. Rynne-Lyons’ experience taught her to focus on a more global picture. “It sounds a bit ridiculous but you become more realistic about things you would have usually worried about when you come home. It puts things into perspective a little bit more.” This sentiment is echoed by Hughes. “I think on a personal level it teaches you a lot about yourself. How to deal in situations that push you outside your boundaries, and you appreciate everything once you come home.”

Though it is noble and commendable to want to change the world you live in, opportunities to volunteer abroad should always be tested for unintentional harms. Sustainable projects that operate on a manageable scale without displacing locals should be focused on, and volunteers should always be aware of keeping their agenda in line with what is best for the locality. Meanwhile a willingness to learn as much as you teach will ensure that you gain the best personal return on your investment, and realise that the difference you aim to champion will be as much to do with yourself as with anyone else.

Shoeless and serene, Otwo sits in front of a fifteen foot high Golden Buddha. Hundreds of people rise and fall in front of us whilst emitting a constant indecipherable chant. This is BongEun Sa, an oasis of tranquillity in the middle of one of the largest and most eclectic cities in the world.

The Yin-Yang symbol’s presence on the South Korean flag is absolutely apt. Seoul is a city of opposites. Samsung headquarters neighbour an ancient palace, the raucous bustling streets give way to the quietness of a Buddhist temple, and on the radio traditional Korean bamboo flute music is interjected with K-pop, the nation’s more modern creation.

This is a country in which to forget Western superiority pretensions and accept that English is not always the language of favour. Carry around a card in Korean with the address of where you are staying. Go into a restaurant, pick a symbol off the menu and hope it’s not the braised silkworms. Don’t be the tourist who thinks that the louder your voice is the more likely you are to be understood.

Spend a day (or night) in Namdaemun market, a tented metropolis of clothes, homeware and electronics. This 24 hour conurbation never rests, and when lost under fluorescent lighting in one of the adjoining vast jewellery workshops, 4am and 4pm are interchangeable.

If you prefer your shopping trips to be those of a more air-conditioned variety, Lotte World is the shopping centre empire for you. Inside this indescribably vast construction you will find shopping-centre essentials such as an ice-rink, several rollercoasters, and the building’s own custom-built island. Most memorably, and also serving as a reminder that South Korean health and safety legislation may not be quite as stringent as in Ireland, the basement also boasts a shooting range. Walk in, show your ID, pick the rifle of your choice, and fire ten bullets at a paper target, all for less than €25.

Korean cuisine is delicious but perhaps not appealing to the Western palate, especially not before 9am. Avoid the sushi and grilled fish breakfast, but treat yourself to shared hot-pots for lunch and Korean barbeque for dinner. Chopsticks are unavoidable, Kim-chi (fermented cabbage) is served with almost every meal, and it is rude to pour yourself a drink.

A few hours at the Korean War Memorial serves as a reminder of the world’s most secretive nation, the South’s lost half, which lies just one hundred miles away. National pride and the echoes of a war not yet won emanate from all aspects of the exhibition, which features drawings by the South’s school children on the theme of conflict and reconciliation. Google map North Korea and your screen will display a blank. Still curious? Spend €50 on a day trip to the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), stare across the void and try and fill in the gaps for yourself.

Apart from an occasional kidnapping (the last was in 2000), in Seoul you could be forgiven for forgetting that the war ever happened. With Soju (tastes like watered down vodka) for 1000 won a bottle (that’s 80c to you and me) and a huge student population, head to Hongdae if you’re keen to sample Seoul’s nightlife. Just be sure to make it clear you’re not American. The US military have been a regular presence since 1950, and have made some local enemies, not for their politics, but for their drunken bad behaviour.

Seoul is a city where barber shop poles signify brothels, StarCraft is revered as a sport, and a bus driver will bow to you in apology if the bus is late. The exclusively female Ewha Women’s University champions gender equality, producing Korea’s first female judges, politicians and leaders, yet wishes visitors luck finding a good husband. Starbucks is open all night, arguing is barely socially acceptable and street fashion is on a par with Tokyo. Seoul is certainly a world away from D4.

Back outside the temple, meditation in the humid heat is disturbed by a sudden downpour of rain.Ying-yang: an Asian philosophy of complementary opposites. Even the weather understands.

2001 was the year that changed global politics forever; the first cloned monkey was born, George Harrison died, Ireland didn’t win the Eurovision and (luckily for the compilation of this sort of unsystematic list) Wikipedia was launched on the internet. It was also the year that “a huge metaphysical overturning” of Mick Pyro’s value system provided the catalyst for a young troop of fortune hunters to become united with the aim of creating beautiful, funky music.

Ten years later and Republic of Loose are still very much together. Bono has called them “trailblazing sophisticated soul bootboys”, and Gary Lightbody, “the best band in the country.” Sinead O’Connor asked could she abandon her solo career to become a member, and Irvine Welsh said ‘Comeback Girl’ was “one of the greatest songs ever recorded”. With four albums and fifteen singles behind them, their fervour shows no sign of abating. However, it would be easy to see why, perhaps, a decade without properly progressing beyond the Irish market might create some level of despondency amongst the band.

“The hustle never stops”, as Benjamin Loose puts it to Otwo. “I think we’re going to release ‘Comeback Girl’ in the States in November and we’re looking to release another single around February and then to go over around Paddy’s Day and tour the east coast.” In addition to these plans, they’re soon creating a compilation album, to be available worldwide online and physically in France and Germany, along with recording several new songs in Ireland with the aim of releasing another single here in October.

Grand designs aside, the band are also currently promoting their involvement in the First Fortnight Student Tour, which has been organised by First Fortnight, a non-profit charity aiming to challenge mental health prejudice and discrimination through the arts. Loose doesn’t claim that the band are in any way experts in the area of mental health, but emphasises that their support for the cause is sincere.

“Well it was an exciting idea to play a bunch of colleges in a short period of time. And it is a good cause, so it’s something to be involved with. It’s not something that we know a whole lot about but it’s a crazy world we live in so anything that wants to give help to people or give solace to people has got to be a good thing.”

Their gig at the Student Bar next week marks a regular return for the lead singer to his alma mater. “Mick and one of our guitar players both went to UCD for years. Mick did a Masters in Renaissance Literature and, I think, English and Spanish”. Loose, however, studied theology in Trinity. “I try not to mention that too much.”

With competing ideas, growing egos and close quarters, many musicians fail to find the perfect working relationship within their bands, leading to tumultuous public break-ups that can put Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston to shame. “We hate each other,” Loose laughs. “I’m only kidding, we’re pretty tight. It’s kind of like a family. You get so used to each other that you don’t even need to do the usual things that friends usually do, you know each other that well.”

Loose also admits that the State of Loose isn’t always a democratic republic but then again,  democracy isn’t always all it’s cracked up to be. “We know when someone’s got a vision for something, whether it’s a song, or a gig, or an idea for a link in a live set. Sometimes democracies don’t work. Sometimes you need visions and sometimes visions can’t be compromised and can’t accommodate another opinion. I remember reading an interview with your man from Bell X1 saying that their band is very democratic and as a result he feels that an idea can be compromised. Sometimes things need to be unadulterated and seen through to their bloody end whether for good or for bad.”

Internal politics notwithstanding, is there life outside of funk-rock for this musician? “If I wasn’t making music, I’d be in trouble,” Loose declares emphatically. And Otwo has to agree; if you have someone to listen, there are certainly worse ways to spend ten years than playing in a band, whether your location be Belfield, Paris or Miami.

Wherever the next decade takes them (Loose thinks a duet with Cee Lo Green would be cool), Mick, Ben and their confusingly assorted associates will always be counted among our own, but hopefully they’ll have more of a chance to escape their poor meteorological luck once they’re abroad. “Usually when we play outdoors it rains, it’s the ‘Curse of the Loose’. It’s happened to us in every country.” Sounds more like the curse of the Irish to Otwo.

Republic of Loose play the Student Bar on October 10th as part of the First Fortnight Student Tour, which aims to challenge mental health prejudice and discrimination. For more information see Firstfortnight.com

Picture the scene. Exactly eighteen months ago there I was: a bright-eyed UCD fresher, new to the world of clubbing (at least on weeknights) and drinking (well, legally). But the principal hurdle that required triumphing over in this coming-of-age fairytale was not one of substances or debauchery, but was in fact the solo taxi journey.

Long had I been accustomed to the stories of the raping, pillaging and looting taxi men, elevated to piratey bus-lane roaming figures in my imagination. Lucky for me, the mothers’ warnings have thus far proven unfounded. What I have learnt about taking taxis since that fateful day, however, are a few home truths that none can deny.

Many taxi drivers are inherently racist. May I refer to the lovely gentlemen who, upon me getting in his car remarked that it was lucky that I hadn’t chosen the vehicle of one of those “blackxies” instead, because Lord knows then where I’d have ended up.

The constant suggestion that Camden Street will always be the fastest route home starts to feel a little insincere when you realise that that same direction is being suggested in every cab across the capital come 2am. Somehow you are never quite as astonished as the driver appears to be, when you become yet again another link in a traffic jam that even Moses couldn’t part.

Countless drivers are intrinsically and insatiably unsatisfied. Case in point: the taxi driver who spent the entire duration of a 40 minute journey telling me in minute detail about the lessons he was undertaking to leave his current job and become a driving instructor.

Taxi drivers keep striking. If they hate their job, why not leave?  I refer again to my worthy comrade of the paragraph above. One can’t help but believe that, since their main quandary is that there are far too many of them, they’re really hoping that their brothers in solidarity will give up and quit first. Also: is blocking my chosen method of public transport really going to entice me to pay higher prices to reach my chosen destination? Definitely not.

Complaints aside, there is also something cleansing about the conversation with the driver at the end of an epic night, a time when you’re happy to bare your innermost soul in exchange for some sagacious guidance. Maybe that fare is worth it after all.