Noisy Neighbours

1. Do you live in a quiet neighbourhood? In what way is your neighbourhood different from others?

2. How much has it changed over the years? What things have changed for the better and what for the worse?

3. Do you get on with your neighbours? If you had a problem with them, who could you approach? If you report an incident of noisy behaviour, do your local police react to it?

4. Which of the following facilities would you object to being built in your neighbourhood? Order them from most to least acceptable. Why would you object to the ones you dislike most?

a new motorway

a casino

an airport

a landfill (rubbish dump, garbage dump)

a prison

a primary school

a homeless shelter

student accommodation

a centre for the treatment of drug addiction

a mosque, a synagogue or a church

a centre for teenage youths with problems

5. Are you a NIMBY? (NIMBY is the acronym for Not In My Back Yard). It describes someone who is against any kind of development in their neighbourhood. Do you have such groups in your country?

Read article here: Noisy Neighbours Reading

6. What is your reaction? 

7. If you lived in that area of Bristol, what would you do? Tell me about soundproofing, moving to a different area, appealing to the university authorities, starting a campaign on social media etc.

8. Are you surprised that Bristol universities are paying the police to patrol areas where students live?

9. Do you see a connection between bad student behaviour and private accommodation? Do you see a connection between the students' social class and their behaviour?

10. Do cities in your country have districts that are mainly for students? Who offers them accommodation - is it universities, or do private landlords provide it?

11. Do students in your country party like their UK counterparts, or are they more serious about their studies? Is this a generational problem - are the young less respectful of social norms?

12. Did your university provide a 'Guide to Community Living'? Did you read it? What guidelines were included? Did it include advice on 'hiring DJs, sound equipment and door staff'?

13. What do you understand about 'pre-loading' (paragraph 9) for party-goers? Does this play a role in bad behaviour? What measures could counter this?

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Situation

You have been appointed head of student services at Bristol University. You've called a press conference to announce new measures against late-night noise, and you're updating the 'Guide to Community Living'. Answer any questions from the awaiting journalists (your teacher).

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Discuss quotes

“No man should live where he can hear his neighbour's dog bark.”

― Nathaniel Macon

“In my Paris apartment, when a neighbour drives nails into the wall at an undue hour, I "naturalise" the noise by imagining that I am in my house in Dijon, where I have a garden. And finding everything I hear quite natural, I say to myself: "That's my woodpecker at work in the acacia tree." This is my method for obtaining calm when things disturb me.”

― Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space

“People don't want to listen to their thoughts, so they fill the world with noise.”

― Erin Entrada Kelly, Hello, Universe

“Every song may be someone else's personal implement of torture.”

― Francine Prose, Goldengrove

Student Handout PDF: Noisy Neighbours

Financial Crime: Robin Hood

 

1. What do you know about Robin Hood? Give a brief synopsis of his life with the following words: Sherwood Forest, the Sheriff of Nottingham, to rob, rich/poor, a man of the people

2. Has your country had any 'Robin Hoods'?

Read article here: Robin Hood Reading 

3. What was your reaction to the article? Is Duran irresponsible?  Do you think he is genuine, or has he got caught up in something that is beyond his control? Does his anti-capitalist movement not understand how the world works? Or are they going to be the catalyst that will lead to fairer financial outcomes?

4. Duran called what he did an act of 'financial civil disobedience'. What would a bank manager call it?

5. Where do your sympathies lie? With the banks or Duran?

6. How can banks effectively screen for fraudulent loans such as Duran's? Should all loan applications come with a series of questions about your politics? Should banks have knowledge of your other demands for loans?

7. His lawyers' primary defence was that people cannot be imprisoned in Spain for not paying their debts. What is the situation in your country? Can you be imprisoned for not paying your debts?

8. Duran fled Spain in 2013 because he feared the 8-year jail sentence that the prosecutor wanted to impose. Would you ever consider leaving your country in order to support a cause?

9. In 2014, Duran joined the movement 'Faircoop'. Faircoop's policies are based on using cryptocurrencies as a means of addressing global inequalities. Do you think that cryptocurrencies will lead to greater equality and new economic systems? Do you own/use any cryptocurrency? Would you?

10. How easy is it to borrow money in your country? Money lending in the UK is big business - personal debt is encouraged by numerous financial institutions - the recent measures against Covid have only increased the trend of borrowing.

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Situation

You are the hard-nosed Spanish judge appointed to hear the initial court hearing of Enric Duran. His representative is a recently qualified lawyer (your teacher) who thinks that Duran's case should become a 'cause célèbre'. Decide whether the case should be dismissed or sent to a higher court.

...........

Discuss quotes

"A bank is a place where they lend you an umbrella in fair weather and ask for it back when it begins to rain."

--- Robert Frost

"I was mischievous. I wasn't bad. I stole food so we could eat. My mother didn't know. I used to tell her some man gave me $10 to sweep out the yard. I was like Robin Hood. I took from the rich and gave to the poor. Me."

--- Mr. T

“Currency is like God, it exists as long as people believe in it.”

― Abhijit Naskar

"It’s a fraud” and “worse than tulip bulbs” (speaking of cryptocurrency)

 – Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan Bank

"Before borrowing money from a friend it's best to decide which you need most."

---Joe Moore

Student Handout PDF: Robin Hood

Photo: Mihail Nilov