Remembering Grenfell

Rastamouse - is it really irie man?

How many of you have seen the new CBeebies children's programme Rastamouse? It features a Jamaican Rastafarian mouse and his crew of 2 (Scratchy and Zooma) aka The Easy Crew. They solve mysteries in their native Mouseland. Now when I first saw this I thought it was hilarious. Hearing these characters speaking patois on a children's programme was amazing to me and a sign of how far we had come in this country, accepting and promoting diversity. At the same time I knew it would only be a matter of time before the complaints came in. I could just hear hordes of parents saying "but this isn't teaching the children to speak real English", "I don't want my child pretending to be a gangster" (because believe it or not there is a blinged up gangster mouse on the show and he may not be behaving like a gangster but he is dressed as and speaks like one). It may sound like I don't approve of the show, don't get me wrong I actually like it. The thi...

Double Standards!!!

Don't you just hate them? Like, people say one thing, either about themselves or a certain situation but it's the total opposite for them, like it's not ok for you but it's all good for them. The term double standard , coined in 1912, refers to any set of principles containing different provisions for one group of people than for another, typically without a good reason for having said difference. A double standard may take the form of an instance in which certain concepts (often, for example, a word, phrase, social norm, or rule) are perceived as acceptable to be applied by one group of people, but are considered unacceptable or taboo when applied by another group . Taken from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_standard . I've recently been in a situation where a double standard was applied. I didn't even realise it at first and the truth is we are all faced with double standards every day in our lives. For example, people will s...

Review: Tayyabs Restaurant

People thought it was an odd choice for Christmas dinner when we told them we were going to Tayyabs in Whitechapel. Of course we actually went at the end of January so it wasn't really a Christmas dinner afterall. I've heard a lot about Tayyabs. It's very popular, particularly amongst the Muslim community because all of the food is halal. If you don't book a table at the weekend you could be queuing for ages before you get one. I'd also heard some famous faces had been seen eating there, the likes of Heston Blumenthal and comedian Hardeep Singh Kohli. Ok so I'm impressed so far. When we approached the restaurant which is located on a quiet side road, I was a little surprised. It looked quite quaint inside. I dont know what I was expecting, some big, shiny, sparkly palace but it was just a restaurant. The staff were very friendly and obliging, particularly when we asked if we could move tables (they had seated us very closely to some random people. I don...

Ayeshah Rose Reclaimed

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