Download Rakhim Look At Me Habib
Ronnie Isackson
But Facundo will look to stop either guy if they step in his path of winning a third age-group world medal. He won U17 world bronze medals in 2018 and 2019 but has his sights set on reaching the world finals and claiming gold for the first time in his career.
Azarpira heads into Bulgaria with an unblemished 8-0 international record and is looking to add a second world title to his resume. Last year, he claimed gold in Belgrade at the U23 World Championships.
Gevorgyan, the reigning three-time age-group European champion, is looking for his third world medal. He finished with a bronze and silver, respectively, at the 2019 and 2021 age-group world championships.
I declare open this congregation of the University of Sussex. I'm delighted as Chancellor to welcome you formally to this ceremony. A warm welcome to our honoured guests, our distinguished faculty members, and to those of the professional services here at Sussex. But the warmest of welcomes are for you, our students, and your families and friends who join you here today. To all of you I say, bonjour, buongiorno, guten tag, hola, dobrý den, privyet, marhaba, salamun alaykum, jambo, shalom, namaskara, ni hao, konnichiwa, hey, hi, howdy, and hello. [Audience Laughing] Aside from showing you my phenomenal skills at Google Translate, it indicates how proud we are that students from all over the world choose to study at Sussex. And I'm very aware that the schools we have today look in the other direction as well. This is my first year back since 2019, I think. So I'm really chuffed that Global Studies and IDS are sharing my first day back. If that's for me, don't answer it. Because a couple of times at WOMAD, I've been down to the Global Studies tent and sort of joined in and talked there. So thanks, this is special for me. One of the guiding principles of the university when it was set up was that it should be a forum for ideas beyond more conventional lines, embracing concepts and experiences from different backgrounds, cultures, and belief systems, and then combining these with the best of our own thoughts. realising that invention and innovation has no colour, gender, or greed, hence the... creed, hence the breaking down of barriers between subjects and the interdisciplinary approach to teaching. It's the simple fact that all of you study together, live together, celebrate together, and solve problems together that continues to give me the greatest hope and total belief that we are always, always stronger together. In the nearly decade and a half, I know I don't look that old, sorry, that I've been privileged to be Chancellor, these ceremonies have for me always been the culminating celebration of the efforts, sacrifice, and tenacity that have brought you here today. The wedding reception when you can let loose a little bit, share the joy, and have a dance as opposed to the solemn registry do. And wow, am I aware of the efforts and sacrifices that you've made. In addition to the pandemic and the current cost of living crisis, many of you have had to struggle your balance with, and you balance your studies with home life. And in some cases, whilst raising children, being carers, experiencing loss and sickness, trying to survive on overdrafts, loans, or family help, battling not just self-doubt, but sometimes even the doubts of others, but here you are. You persevered. And it is that very perseverance and focus overcoming all of those challenges that we are celebrating here today. And that really worth is, it's really worth celebrating, isn't it? Although you were once freshers, and Freshers Week is a great time for the university, welcoming all the new students, and although those first few weeks of watching you all wondering about, wondering where your next class is, or looking confused as you stand motionless in a corridor wondering where you are, are indeed entertaining, these ceremonies are the highlights of our year. For many of you today, it will mark the end of your academic adventures. The odyssey that began all those years ago with your first faltering steps at nursery or kindergarten, and culminates here, just a short walk across this very stage. A name will be read out, hopefully approximating to yours, and you will take the mere 20 or so steps, terrified that you're going to lose your mortarboard or your hat, wondering whether the heels were such a good idea after all, wondering whether your flies are open, and praying that you don't trip over your gown and land, end up in the lap of someone in the front row. But what an array of laps we've arranged for you this afternoon. Take a look at that. It's like Downton Abbey meets Love Island. The later years. These ceremonies I now know live long in the memory, and a special kind of thank you to family and friends. I know it takes a great effort to come down here and come down here as a family and celebrate, and it's amazing for us as well. These memories live long, for student staff and families alike. So please, feel free to express your joy about this moment, because that's what it is when you come up here, as long as it's within the bounds of decency and legality. Over the years, we've had handshakes and we've had hugs and high fives and fist bumps and dabs and dancing and press-ups and just a smile, and I've gone along with all of them. Actually, please don't do press-ups. I know I can get down at my age. I'm not sure I can get back up again. But, hey, look, you can even ignore me if you want. It's your day, okay? And no selfies on the stage, I'm afraid. I'm very, very shy. Family and friends, as I mentioned, it's your day too, and it's so glorious that you're part of this. And this is a fantastic opportunity for you to really embarrass your epic hero as he, she, or they cross this stage. They did it enough times to you when they were growing up, so this is payback time. So when the time comes, do have your cameras ready, and I challenge you, families, to seriously make some noise. I call upon the Vice-Chancellor to address the congregation.
Chancellor, I would like to ask you to cast your mind's eye to a familiar scene. A glorious sunny day in Twickenham, London. Crowds gather to watch England's players against their fierce rivals. But today, there will be no rugby. A group of protesters swarm the pitch. But this is not just stop oil or extinction rebellion. The year is 1970. The match is between England and the all-white South African Springboks. And the group is led by a 20-year-old man, Peter Hain. 'Hain the Pain' organised protests to undermine the perceived legitimacy of apartheid South Africa. The rugby match was cancelled, as was the South African cricket tour that followed. Born in Kenya, raised in South Africa, Peter Hain witnessed the horrible reality of apartheid firsthand. And after his arrival in England, dedicated his time and energy to dismantling the racist regime. But apartheid was not the only cause that Peter Hain took on. His awareness in the mid-1970s of the evils of homophobia drove him to campaign for LGBT rights. Efforts which rewarded him with the title of Honorary Vice President of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality. Chancellor, esteemed guests, there are further highlights in Lord Hain's path to this point. Including his roles as a Cabinet Minister for Wales and then for Northern Ireland. In which he worked to facilitate peace, to outlaw discrimination against LGBTQ+ community, and his elevation to the House of Lords in 2015. But instead of expanding on this list, I'd like to reflect on what those achievements and those struggles mean, or perhaps should mean. What, in other words, is Lord Hain's legacy? For me, two such legacies jump out. Both crucially relevant to us as educators, and hopefully for our students as they step out into the world. The first is his legacy of disrupting. Not only cricket matches, but mindsets. You may know that here at Sussex we have a teaching prize category of teaching to disrupt. Judging by this afternoon, Global Studies is doing a pretty good job. Doing so requires waking people up from their dogmatic slumber. To open people's minds, eyes, and to refuse to accept things as they are. As Lord Hain's example shows, the fact that people don't agree with you sometimes simply means that it will take them time to catch up. The second is the value of empathy. Lord Hain dedicated his time, energy, and passion to speak for communities that suffered harm that he did not endure. He could have looked the other way, but he didn't. As my famous fictional lawyer, Atticus Finch, said, "Empathy is understood as the effort to consider things from someone else's point of view, when you climb into their skin and walk around in it. It holds moral promise. But empathy is not only moral, it is political. The empathy that one feels towards another is a skill, a muscle that can and should be developed." Professor of Law, Robin West, claims that law, at its best, can bring about an empathetic and loving community. Lord Hain, in his actions and indeed in his life, has embodied this commitment. The 21st century unfolds with new challenges, some of which were alluded to. Other challenges and realms we thought were dealt with in the previous century have been resurrected in chilling backlash. For example, and reflecting on my own Jewish heritage, I find it fitting that following this ceremony, Lord Hain is rushing off from here to vote on the appropriately titled "Illegal Migration Bill." Indeed, in these trying times, we would do well to reflect, honour, and act upon Lord Hain's legacy of disruption and empathy. Chancellor, I present to you for degree of Doctor of Laws, Honoris Causa, Lord Peter Hain.
Well, I haven't received as many notes as I have today since my first play. Congratulations, everyone. And although Lord Peter Hain isn't here, an extraordinary honoris causa. You know, he started really pushing his activism in the '70s. And I'm guessing a lot of you are too young to know what the '70s was like. But I had the dubious privilege of growing up in the '70s. And you couldn't help be drawn into the politics of the time. So many a time I remember as a child, my parents having to paint over swastikas and slogans on their front door, trying to protect me and my sister as children from it. And you couldn't avoid it. And recently I was doing an interview, I was doing a podcast, and they were asking me about racism in the '70s. And I said something like, "Well, you know, the people were pretty liberal with their kind of racist insults and their racist opinions." And someone said, "When you were at school?" I said, "Yeah, when I was at school." And they said, "Well, children are like that." I said, "I'm not talking about the children. I'm talking about the adults." I was talking about some of the teachers. I remember bus drivers and all the rest of it. So the fact that Peter was doing it in that particular cauldron and seeing where the impact of those very targeted and very smart actions and protests he did and where it took us through, I think is a huge lesson. Anyway, I digress. Well done, family and friends. Gosh, some of you were truly embarrassing. Respect. So students, as your time here at Sussex draws to a close, we hope that you will keep us in your hearts and thoughts and remain connected to us as alumni. There are a number of graduate and postgraduate schemes that may be of interest. And, of course, you could be a fantastic resource for current and future students coming to Sussex. So it would be great if some of you would consider becoming mentors on the mentoring scheme. Whether your next step is gainful employment, the search for it, further academic study, or some time out, I wish you the very best. At the closing of these ceremonies, the Chancellor is supposed to leave you with some words of wisdom. Good luck with that. But here are some thoughts that I've had which you can ponder or ignore or improve, hopefully. It struck me that as your Sussex chapter ends, the future begins again. And it's imperative that you get to write it, that you have some say in your story, because if you don't, someone else will. And I believe the ultimate way to control your narrative is to consistently, improvingly, and unconditionally be you. I often hear, I'm sure you've heard people say things like, "Well, if they're nice to me, I'll be nice to them. "I'll listen to them if they listen to me. "If they show me respect, absolutely, I will show them respect." All of these are conditional. What it says to me is that you'll act based on the way that someone else acts. So who's controlling the narrative there, then? Be nice, listen, respect, because simply that's just who you are, irrespective of someone else. That traditional phrase, "Treat others as you wish to be treated," it's pretty simple, but it's exactly that. Otherwise, the phrase would have been, "Treat others after you've waited to see how they're treating you, "and making sure there wasn't a misunderstanding "or that you hadn't misheard, "and made sure it was you they were talking to, "and not some other random person, and then do the same as them," which, let's face it, isn't as catchy. I do believe that emotional intelligence is the essential component of wisdom, incorporating empathy, compassion, and kindness. And those attributes, better than any others, I feel, are going to see you through the good times and the challenging ones. I would add a sense of humour, not just because it's fun, which is kind of important, but because irony can give you perspective. When we get overwhelmed by something, whether it's tragic, scary, anxious, beautiful, emotional, whatever, even momentarily, we can lose perspective. And if we then have to make a decision, we're trying to find solutions from the same head that is overwhelmed. The quickest way, I think, to get perspective is to talk to someone. Get another viewpoint. Or get a sense of humour about it. Because if you can find that that scary or tragic, anxious thing is also, can be funny, silly, or ridiculous, it doesn't make it less scary or less tragic, but it also doesn't make it just one thing anymore. And that's perspective. I think I'm hardwired about finding a solution. I really don't care if I come up with it, or someone else does, as long as we find it. And also, I think about finding common ground. Disagreeing after agreeing feels very different to agreeing after disagreeing. A couple of thoughts about the future. I think we're brought up socially to fear the unknown future. It's why we plan. What's your plan? Have you got a plan? Got to have a plan. You haven't got a plan? Where's your plan? Planning is good. It's kind of important. It allows you to see and build small steps towards an ultimate goal. But planning is linear, right? I mean, it has to be. One rung of the ladder leads to the next. But life is anything but linear. It bounces you around all over the place. It's full of curveballs and the unexpected and weird coincidences and the WTFs, World Tennis Federation, in case you were wondering. And recently, I was thinking about the phrase, "Better the devil you know." And breaking that down, it means, "I'll accept this horrible thing now because there may be an even more horrible thing out there in the future which hasn't happened yet." So what happens when you get to that unwritten future and the even more horrible thing isn't there and it doesn't transpire? You're then stuck with the thing that you knew was horrible from the beginning. So what would happen instead of seeing that future, the one that hasn't happened yet, filled with unimagined worse things? You see it as a world of possibilities. Some worse, of course, but maybe some better. And you're suddenly making a decision that's not based on fear. You're making it based on hope. And when life throws you the curveball, it's not unexpected. And I think you can adjust to it quicker. I've got two lived experiences of this, which I'll tell you very briefly. You may be aware that Sussex was my first choice when I applied to universities many years ago. I didn't get in. Apparently, my grades weren't good enough. So I waited 25 years until all those who had prevented me from getting in had either moved on, retired, been deported, were in prison, or just became dead. And I got in as Chancellor. So my point is, "Hey, hey, hey!" [Audience Laughing] I know that's childish. I know. The point is, take that linear planning. I could have planned that. And also, I wanted to act and write since I was five years old. And I know this because when I was five, an uncle came to our house and said to me, "Well, young man, what do you want to be when you grow up?" And I said, "Actor." And my dad said, "It's pronounced doctor." [Audience Laughing] It's true. And I didn't go to drama school. I didn't even do GCSE drama. But the dream was still sitting there, pushed behind a sea of fear and impossibilities. At the age of 30, I found myself in litigation, suing the last company I worked for breach of contract. Couldn't get any kind of job for two years while that rattled through the legal process. And I could not have foreseen that within two years of that ending, that I would be on television in a successful show and have been lucky enough to have a sustained career in something I absolutely love. And take that, again, linear planning. You know, you just have to bounce around and adapt to it. I do believe that through those experiences, I've discovered one really important thing about myself that I urge you to please adopt and find, which is I cannot fail. Sorry. I can't. The word no longer applies to me. Every experience I have, I've decided that I either enjoy it or I learn from it. That's it. Or both, obviously, which is better. It means that that self-sabotaging kind of inner monologue that we have, that's not trying to get me down. There may be plenty of other things in society that are, but it's not going to be the inside of my head saying, "You failed." It'll be saying, "What have you learned?" So I think that also allows me to adapt and change my plan, either the steps or the goal. We've all got so obsessed, society's got so obsessed with winning and losing that we've overlooked improving as being the most valuable marker. That's nuts. I do believe that who we are is always, always what we do next. What just happened to us may have been down to us, may have been down to circumstances beyond our control. Our response to it is us all the time. Process, learn, move on. I leave you with some proper wise words from some proper wise people. Mahatma Gandhi said, "Freedom is not worth having "if it doesn't include the freedom to make mistakes." He also said, "Be the change you want to see in the world." If you believe in equality, you have to start expressing it yourself first. If you feel you have a voice worth listening to, and I believe every one of you does, then you have to listen first. Martin Luther King said, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Maya Angelou, the great American poet, said, "People may forget what you said. "People may forget what you did. "People will never forget the way you made them feel," which I think is very true. I read kind of not that long ago a really lovely little fable about a Native American who was chatting to his grandson about a debate that goes on inside people. He said, "The battle between two wolves is inside all of us. "One is evil. "It is anger, envy, jealousy, greed, arrogance, self-pity, "guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, and ego. "The other wolf inside us is good. "It's joy, peace, love, hope, humility, kindness, empathy, generosity, "truth, compassion, and faith." The grandson thought for a minute and then asked, "Well, which one wins?" And the grandfather replied, "The one you feed." And finally, the ancient Sanskrit proverb, "Too many cooks still won't make enough food for an Asian wedding." [Audience Laughing] That's personal experience. At the end of the day, what we do, I think, need from each other is compassion, acknowledgement, the space to make mistakes and evolve, and that means being kind towards ourselves too. So write your life stories with kindness and grace, with compassion and humour, adapting to the unpredictable, filling each page with a better you, an unconditional you, the best you. May all your stories contain one simple thread that you added to the love and compassion for and on this planet in small ways every day, and I look forward to reading them. I officially declare this ceremony closed.
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