Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Retch, student, retch

"Got so fucked last night, mate": the world of UK universities and the big business behind it.

Breaking news. The Daily Mail seems to have finally caught up with what goes on at those fine academies known as British universities. A piece called "Carnage UK: The company cynically turning student binge drinking into big business" reports on a typical student pub crawl organised by the 'UK's number one student event promoter' featuring drunken dares, vomiting undergraduates and a 'Dirty Porn Star' fancy dress party.

And the zombies just go along. Often students who are terrified of being left out as the year goes on are more than happy to show that they can keep up with the cool guys and gals, which is why a great chunk of the conversations revolves around "I got proper rat-arsed, mate, last night", tales of vomiting on one leg or other. This has been happening on such a mass-scale for at least fifteen years (hence our surprise at the Daily Mail's sudden discovery) that people with a keen eye for the easy buck have decided to make a business out of it.

This is what the promoter, who does that as a full-time job all year round (he also organised this), said in response: "We are not irresponsible or promoting binge drinking, our events are heavily focused on group identity and social and ethnic cohesion". Social and ethnic cohesion. Perhaps he means that all of the undergraduates vomit in unison. Or, better, that they're all equally wasting their hefty student loan on lining his 'entrepreneurial' pockets.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

God forbid some people may want to have fun