Start of Term, 800th Anniversary Preparation and Gaza

So on Thursday morning, the Lent term kicks off with three hours worth of lectures. What a way to get into term mode and distinguish the illusion that we can still relax a bit.

The night before, I went to King’s College for a fundraising event about Gaza. On the way, I saw some things being projected on the Senate House. It turns out that Cambridge will start its 800^th anniversary celebration this Saturday and there will be some bell ringing at the St Mary’s church (with the rings being composed by a Cambridge alumnus) and some light shows as well, with pictures related to Cambridge achievements being shown on the Senate House walls. So on Wednesday night they were setting up the projector equipments and everything… and here’s a glimpse of it:

Now, on to some more serious world issue… the events in Gaza are of course unforeseen, for us Cambridge students at least. However, ISOC (that’s the Cambridge Islamic Society) was brilliantly swift in organizing a fundraising event. On the Wednesday night, there was a film showing titled ‘Occupation 101’, which is an award winning documentary about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, followed by a talk by the chairman of Interpal. There were also stalls selling food made in Palestine, and the profits will go towards aids for Palestinians.

Of course, on a short notice, ISOC only managed to book a venue that can hold about 150 people. The turnout, however, was amazing with about 200 plus people showing up. Partway through the film showing, the King’s porters came and asked for some of the audience to leave the hall for health and safety reason, since it was quite crammed. They were very nice about it, though. As an ISOC member, I had to give up my seat since the priority is to reach out to the general people who want to know more about the conflict. It was alright, though, because when the film was resumed the Interpal chairman gave an informal talk and Q&A session just outside for the people who had to leave the hall.

I think the reason why I went to the event was that I have met a lot of obnoxious people. Granted, most of them are anonymous commenters on the internet (and we all know how everybody, including uninformed ignorants can spout nonsense on the internet) but it sure is annoying to see them freely spewing out words like terrorists and anti-semites around. It’s irritating, but I don’t think I have enough knowledge to provide effective counter-arguments, so that’s why I’m going to these events.

I mentioned the Gaza fundraising event to a Korean friend of mine during lunch today. What started as a simple mention escalated into a discussion about Middle East, sustainability, free market, voting, and the US political scene. For someone who is considered quite apathetic about world issues, that sure is the most socio-politically intensive lunch I’ve ever experienced.

Well, now excuse me while I put the weight of the world off my shoulders for a while and focus on the next fluids mechanics example sheet like a normal chemical engineering student.

Yaz.