I don't normally use this blog for plugging articles I've written elsewhere, but this one I'm a bit proud of and the interview itself was very exciting to do - because I love Raja Shehadeh's work, and because it was the same day Sharyn and I appeared at Edinburgh International Book Festival ourselves with an almost sell-out audience for Gaza: Beneath the Bombs.
ei: Seeing the land as one: Raja Shehadeh interviewed
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Cool project and crap press
My friend Kolya just sent me a very cool project - a Gazan recipe book being put together by Madrid-based translator Maggie Schmitt and Gazan writer Laila el-Haddad, of Gazamom fame. They're currently in Gaza and the initial posts about the research they're doing look absolutely mouthwatering...
The book is also interesting because it's using Kickstarter to help fund the research - a donations website which allows people to put money into one-off projects they want to support.
The crap press part of the heading is a reference to the common practice of reporting the exciting/shocking/dramatic bit of an event, and failing to report the more mundane downside. This is a widespread phenomenon - I remember reading some research years ago about how newspapers were much more inclined to print the titillating (to a distressingly large number of revolting men) details of rape trials, but then rarely followed up with boring details like, y'know, verdicts and sentences. The main culprits, shock horror, were various tabloids and the vile Torygraph. Posh blokes getting their rocks off at the idea of women being assaulted? Shurely shome mishtake.
But an example I came across today via the blog of an American blogging from Sanaa rather shows up the political agenda behind a lot of our media.
You may remember news agency stories last month of an audacious gun attack on the British Embassy in Yemen, rapidly attributed to al-Qaeda (obviously). What you may not recall are any follow-up reports of the fact that the attack never happened. What actually took place was a squabble between two security guards who were meant to be defending said Embassy, but who got in a row and opened up on one another, and then were too embarrassed to 'fess up to the origins of the gunfire. Read all about it here.
Genius.
The book is also interesting because it's using Kickstarter to help fund the research - a donations website which allows people to put money into one-off projects they want to support.
The crap press part of the heading is a reference to the common practice of reporting the exciting/shocking/dramatic bit of an event, and failing to report the more mundane downside. This is a widespread phenomenon - I remember reading some research years ago about how newspapers were much more inclined to print the titillating (to a distressingly large number of revolting men) details of rape trials, but then rarely followed up with boring details like, y'know, verdicts and sentences. The main culprits, shock horror, were various tabloids and the vile Torygraph. Posh blokes getting their rocks off at the idea of women being assaulted? Shurely shome mishtake.
But an example I came across today via the blog of an American blogging from Sanaa rather shows up the political agenda behind a lot of our media.
You may remember news agency stories last month of an audacious gun attack on the British Embassy in Yemen, rapidly attributed to al-Qaeda (obviously). What you may not recall are any follow-up reports of the fact that the attack never happened. What actually took place was a squabble between two security guards who were meant to be defending said Embassy, but who got in a row and opened up on one another, and then were too embarrassed to 'fess up to the origins of the gunfire. Read all about it here.
Genius.
Monday, August 09, 2010
Claremont Road Kurdish bakery
Despite the shite weather, less-than-marvellous waste disposal and occasional pissed/gouched neighbours staggering past at all hours, sometimes I love living in Moss Side. One of the best things to pop up in our neighbourhood recently is the new Kurdish bakery on Claremont Road, between the Natwest Bank on the corner with Lloyd St and the old Maine Road ground.
There are no complicated choices to make here. You walk in and give the guys at the desk the number of hot, fragrant flat breads you want (in multiples of four). One young man flips the fat balls of dough waiting on the side with his hands until they're about a foot wide and flat, then the other uses a kind of cushion to slap them onto the inside of the oven and tongs to whisk them back out, seconds later. They come out a bit like a nan bread, but lighter, and absolutely delicious. And at a pound for four, a total bargain.
There are no complicated choices to make here. You walk in and give the guys at the desk the number of hot, fragrant flat breads you want (in multiples of four). One young man flips the fat balls of dough waiting on the side with his hands until they're about a foot wide and flat, then the other uses a kind of cushion to slap them onto the inside of the oven and tongs to whisk them back out, seconds later. They come out a bit like a nan bread, but lighter, and absolutely delicious. And at a pound for four, a total bargain.
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