The editors of a new anthology of Gulf poetry, including work by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, hope the collection will foster a sense of unity.
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More than 70 per cent of the poems in Gathering the Tide have been translated into English for the first time.
“We hope that it will enable its readers to come to understand and appreciate differences among peoples of different regions and varying cultures even as they gain a greater sense of, and appreciation for, all that unites us,” says Jeff Lodge, the co-editor. “The poets in this anthology grapple with the same hopes and fears as we all do. They celebrate life, they contend with loss. They wonder at contradiction, they marvel at paradox. They do so in a region with a long and exceptional history, and with a fascinating and rapidly evolving present.”
The anthology includes the work of almost 100 poets, ranging from Sheikh Mohammed to a 19-year-old poet from Bahrain called Laala Kashef Alghata.
Gathering the Tide can be pre-ordered at Amazon.com and will become available in bookshops next month. It can also be ordered directly from the publisher, Garnet Publishing & Ithaca Press, at Dh92 for the soft cover and Dh220 for the hardback.
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Three stars
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
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THE CLOWN OF GAZA
Director: Abdulrahman Sabbah
Starring: Alaa Meqdad
Rating: 4/5
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
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MATCH INFO
FA Cup final
Chelsea 1
Hazard (22' pen)
Manchester United 0
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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Sui Dhaaga: Made in India
Director: Sharat Katariya
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New Zealand 15 British & Irish Lions 15
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