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Snoop Dogg and Ooberfuse rally for the UK’s homeless this Christmas
There's great news, as our good friends at Ooberfuse have teamed up with US rap royalty Snoop Dogg , to take on the prejudices surrounding homelessness here in the UK. Their new single -out December 1st - is also aiming to raise much needed support for those helping the homeless on the streets of London this Winter. While this is great news, if you live here in Manchester and want to get involved, there are two excellent organizations who will also be working extra hard this Christmas to assist those living on the streets of the city …
In the bleak midwinter, let books be your guide
Are you looking for something new to read? If you are, check out ‘Frankenstein in Baghdad’ by Ahmed Saadawi and 'The Watermelon Boys’ by Ruqaya Izzidien. According to the New York Times; “In the 200 years since Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein, her monster has turned up in countless variations - but few of them have been as wild or politically pointed as the monster in Ahmed Saadawi’s Frankenstein in Baghdad .” BookFabulous described The Watermelon Boys by Ruqaya Izzidien as an “intricate tapestry of Iraq during WWI stitched up from the …
Armistice. What can we learn from the Christmas truce of 1914?
The Christmas Truce has become one of the most famous events of the First World War. But what was the real story behind the truce? Why did it happen and did British and German soldiers really play football in no-man’s land? Late on Christmas Eve 1914, men of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) heard German troops in the trenches opposite them singing carols and patriotic songs and saw lanterns and small fir trees along their trenches. Messages began to be shouted between the trenches. The following day, British and German soldiers met in …
Join the journey to a different Iraq
As winter sets in and people try to keep warm, nothing beats getting under a thick blanket and curling up on the sofa with a good book. Have you read any of these titles? They are all available in bookshops and will deepen your knowledge on Iraq. Each of these books will also provide you with fascinating insights into subjects rarely discussed here in the West. Everything you thought you knew about Iraq, will certainly be challenged but in a very good way.
When the Middle East meets the West. Books to read this Winter
In ’ The Merchant of Venice ’, William Shakespeare challenged the Anti-Semitic prejudices of Tudor England by asking the question: “I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons”. These books take us back to the 20th century and explore the various “dimensions” of Middle Eastern and Western Jewish communities. These are all available in bookshops and also see ‘ Iraqi Jewish Writers ’ by Banipal, a unique feature magazine on Iraqi Je…
