Page 6 - The Malvernian - Autumn Term 2020

THE MALVERNIAN
6
Societies
Meade Read Society
This term the “Meade Read” society was created and had its first meeting. This society is the student lead economics society, led by Tiwa Adejuyigbe (SH), Pablo Dorai Raj (No.5), Tom Cox (No.5) and Tom Hughes (No.5). In our first meeting we debated the costly yet effective US economic response to the Covid-19 pandemic compared to the UKs response. The society features statistics for comparison and mostly just general discussion between students. In the future the society will be held every two weeks and we will be covering subjects like “Modern Monetary Policy” and the effectiveness of relatively new policies like “Quantitative Easing”.
Tom Cox (No.5) Aston Society
Nelly Farenski (No.4) in the Pre-6th kicked off this year’s Aston Society with a presentation on the History of Dance. Starting with 1920, Nelly discussed the dance popular in each decade, linking her discussion of the dance styles to the historical context in Germany and the US in each decade. Her discussion drew on themes such as the increased freedom enjoyed by women after the world wars. Nelly accompanied each explanation with a recording of herself performing the dances, leading to one of the most lively Aston meetings we have ever had.
Giles Hopkirk
Director of Teaching & Learning and Teacher of Geography
Politics, Modern History and Foreign Affairs Society
The Politics, Modern History and Foreign Affairs Society is a society which is run for the 5th year at Malvern College under the student leadership team of Anastasia Wlaschek (No.8) and Agueda Ortiz Flores (No.8).
The Society meet once a week for 45- minutes to discuss current affairs. For the first time they have incorporated modern
history into the society as it impacts the decision-making of many politicians and it also gives the attendees an insight to how the past shapes our present. During the first half of the Autumn term the society has had two meetings. In the first meeting we discussed whether Trump or Biden should be elected in the 2020 elections and Putin’s aim to exercise influence in Cuba. In the second meeting we discussed Brexit and the UK-EU trade deals in 2020.
Wheeler Bennett Society
This term was our first term back in school and the Wheeler Bennett Society had to contend with many logistical challenges so that our talks met the social distancing guidelines set out by the school.
Despite these we had many excellent talks on topics ranging from Language and economics, to computer safety and Genetic mutations. Each of these talks was well received by the attending audiences and we had many questions from those tuning in via Teams and those who were present. Our first two talks were from Felix Olschewski (No.7) and Lottie Williams (EH) who both did a tremendous job of explaining a complex topic in a way that everybody could understand. This of course caused some amazing discussions and questions to be brought forward that really stretched the knowledge of our presenters who were able to find a well-thought through answer on the spot. Similarly, Jojo Baldota’s (No.7) and Tiwa Adejuyigbe’s (SH) talks also made a complex topic more understandable to students specialising in other fields. Both of their talks were particularly exciting because they dealt with somewhat controversial and very new ideas.
Peter Urbahns (No.7) Geography Society
Recently the Halford Mackinder Professor of Geography at Oxford University, Danny Dorling, held a presentation via Zoom on his new book titled “SLOWDOWN: The End of the Great Acceleration and Why It’s Good for the Planet, the Economy and Our Lives”. In his presentation he displayed many graphs that demonstrated the rate of speed at which certain things are increasing or decreasing. However, the graphs were not familiar straight line or curved graphs but rather most of them had a zig-zag motion with a pendulum swinging in the middle. At first this was a bit confusing, but it showed the speed of which the fertility rate, for example, is slowing down, very clearly. Interestingly, he stated that these slowdowns have been happening since the 1970s and are not just a result of the current COVID-19 pandemic, as many may think. Surprisingly, what is also dropping is the rate of technological progress, as many of the things we use in our day-to-day life have just been modified over the years but are not completely new inventions.
This was a very thought-provoking presentation, highlighting that the world is indeed slowing down in many aspects that we would have never expected it to.
Elizabeth Lusser (No.8)
Anastasia Wlaschek (No.8) and Agueda Ortiz Flores (No.8)
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