P&P campaigner profile: Stephen Halpin
Every month People & Planet profiles an individual campaigner, in order for us to celebrate and highlight what P&Pers are doing. If you think one of your friends should be displayed on this page then then get in touch with us. This month's offering is...
Stephen Halpin
Name: Stephen Halpin
Age: 21
School/university: Leeds University
What are you studying? Medicine
What inspired you to start campaigning? Having always been vaguely interested in international issues and annoyed by unfair things in the world, during my first year at uni it suddenly became not just the regrettable state of affairs but actually a completely unacceptable thing, and I needed to do something about it! About a week later Leeds P&P happened to reform and were looking for a new committee! It all went from there really.
Describe your most memorable P&P experience: The band with the accordion at the Shared Planet social ‘05!
How did you first hear about P&P? What’s the best thing about being involved in a P&P group? First heard of P&P through a friend at the end of my first term of uni. The best thing about being involved in a P&P group is that it works! Also, it can sometimes be isolating when you are surrounded by people who seem to see the world completely differently to you. People & Planet is one place where I feel a really strong connection with other students, through the fact that we’re all affronted and driven to action in the same sort of ways. It makes me really happy being part of that energy!
With many commentators suggesting that apathy is rife amongst young people, what can be done to engage young people in the campaign for social justice? There’s so many answers to that question, I ask it a lot. I reckon getting exposed to some kind of political thought in a meaningful way at school age is really good cause you’re young enough to expect that the world should be fair.
But on campus, it’s tough, I think all you can do is make it easy for people to come into contact with things that’ll broaden the way they see the world. It’s easy to start thinking along the lines of if people don’t care they’re just awful people, but I don’t believe that’s true very often.
What do you think is the most pressing issue in the UK today? In terms of which particular campaign- I really don’t know. But I think a pretty overriding thing is that there’s something deeply unsustainable about the way our society thinks about (or doesn’t think about) its own place in the world. We seem to think we can just go on expanding, consuming and oppressing like we’ve always done, and somehow it’s our right to do so. Maybe it’s already started to come back to bite us in the ass.
What was the last album you listened to? Radiohead, Kid A
Where would you most like to visit? So many places, Ireland, New Zealand, Nepal, Malawi, Sweden… there´s loads of cool places in the UK I havent got to yet too!
What are your ambitions for the future? I’m quite hopeful that it involves being a doctor, but I’ll take it as it comes really :)
