TWO BILLION BEATS BY SONALI BHATTACHARYYA – REVIEW

Posted on March 4, 2022 by Norwich Radical in Arts and tagged Anoushka Chadha, B.R. Ambedkar, British South Asian, Dalit, featured, Gandhi, history, immigration, islamophobia, left-wing theatre, Leicester, momentum, Orange Tree Theatre, people of colour, racism, representation, review, Safiyya Ingar, school, SOAS, Sonali Bhattacharya, Sylvia Pankhurst, teenagers, theatre, Two Billion Beats, uk, war on terror, young people, youth politics.

By Ananya Wilson-Bhattacharya

The presence of South Asian characters in British theatre is not the extreme rarity it once was. Whilst South Asians and people of colour more widely are still hugely underrepresented in theatre – as actors, writers, directors and in storylines – there has undoubtedly been some progress in recent years. What remains less visible, however, is South Asian characters engaging in rich discussions of history in all its complexity, from a questioning, left-wing perspective. If this is not for you, you should probably avoid playwright and Momentum activist Sonali Bhattacharyya’s Two Billion Beats, showing now at London’s Orange Tree Theatre.

PROBLEMATIC “PEACEBUILDING”: WHEN THE POWERFUL DON’T ASK AND WON’T LISTEN

Posted on September 12, 2019 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national, Perspectives and tagged 9/11, abuse, Afghanistan, Afghanistan war, Balkh, capitalism, David Roberts, democracy, ethics, Everyday Peace Indicators, featured, Herat, justice, militia, neoliberalism, peace, peacekeeping, Taliban, terrorism, Trump, war, war on terror, Western, women, women's rights.

by Sarah Edgcumbe

Afghanistan, a country that has been in and out of the news since the 9/11 terror attack and subsequent U.S.-led coalition invasion, is once again at the forefront of media attention this month, as a result of Trump’s decision to cancel peace talks with the Taliban on 9th September. The relentless violence and bombings conducted by Afghan state forces, U.S.-backed Afghan militias, Taliban, religious extremist groups, career criminals and other groups are no longer considered to be remarkable events; they happen so frequently that the international audience has become desensitized to them. Continue Reading

ISLAMOPHOBIA IN THE UK – ‘TOMMY ROBINSON’ IS A SYMPTOM NOT THE PROBLEM

Posted on August 10, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged 2016 London Mayoral Elections, Akala, Alex Jones, alt-right, anti racism, anti-fascism, Baroness Warso, bbc, bigotry, Boris Johnson, British Muslims, child abuse, contempt of court, court system, demonstration, Donald Trump, EDL, extremism, Ezra Levant, far right, fascism, featured, fox news, freedom of speech, Geert Wilders, hatred, islamophobia, Katy Hopkins, law, LBC, london, Matthew d'Ancona, Nazir Afzal, Nigel Farage, Owen Jones, prevent, racism, Raheem Kassam, Richard Price, sadiq khan, Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, Steve Bannon, tommy robinson, Tories, Tory Islamophobia, Tory racism, war on terror.

by Scott McLaughlan

Content warning: mentions Islamophobia, racism, paedophilia, sexual abuse, fascism

The sentencing in May this year of Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon (stage name ‘Tommy Robinson’) to 13 months for contempt of court has caused quite a reaction from his fellows on the far right. On Saturday 9th June, an estimated 15,000 people turned out for a mass rally in London in support of Yaxley-Lennon, Trump and ‘free speech’. The sinister focal point of the rally was to link rape and child sexual exploitation with migration and Islam.

THE UNSPOKEN OCCUPATION

Posted on January 8, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged Africa, AFRICOM, al-Murabitun, al-Shabaab, Ansar al-Sharia, army, Boeing, boko haram, Burkina Faso, coltan, corporate, daesh, Djibouti, Drummond, Ethiopia, featured, Halliburton, Islamic Magreb, Kenya, military, neoliberalism, Niger, occupation, Raytheon, somalia, South Sudan, terrorism, the Lord’s Resistance Army, the Seychelles, US, war on terror, WEIRD, Yemen.

by Stu Lucy

With all the madness that has been taking place across the pond on a near daily basis since the 2016 inauguration of the comb-over-in-chief, it is all too easy to overlook many of the less sensational affairs carried out by the United States. While we are familiar with the war on terror, defined by US military occupation of significant areas of the Middle East for almost all of the 21st Century, there are areas of the world in which the US remain equally as active in this same regard, despite much less public awareness.

In October of last year, the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara attacked a small group of Nigerien and US soldiers in the Tonga Tonga region of Niger, killing three Americans and five Nigeriens. Although the incident was indeed broadcast by the mainstream media, the event represents a far greater issue developed on the continent: the increasing military presence of the US in Africa.Continue Reading

THE POWER OF THE FARCE: THREE THINGS ABOUT ROGUE ONE

Posted on January 6, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Arts and tagged Alan Tudyk, alt-right, anti-fascism, black hawk down, british empire, cGI, darth vader, Diego Luna, Donald Trump, donnie yen, Ender's game, fascism, Felicity Jones, film, Guardians of the Galaxy, Hammerhead Class Corvette, Houthi rebels, islamophobic, jedda, jeddah, middle east, movie, rebel, resistance fighters, review, Riz Ahmed, Rogue One, Saudi Arabia, sci-fi, star wars, stereotype, Stormtroopers, The Empire Strikes Back, war on terror, wen jiang, women.

by Zoe Harding

Warning: contains spoilers. Also mentions fascistic, militaristic imperialism, Trump, and ‘Nazi dickheads’.

I know it came out last year, I was on holiday damn it.

The first I properly heard about Rogue One was that some Trump supporters wanted to boycott it because it was rumoured to contain anti-Trump themes. Seemed like a good reason to go and see it. Incidentally, the finished product contains no giant smug orange aliens inexplicably allowed out without supervision groping women – perhaps people were getting confused by Star Wars’ underlying anti-Nazi overtones. I can’t imagine how anti-fascism would seem anti-Trumpist at all. Those ‘Alt right’ (read: Nazi) dickheads really don’t like it, of course. Tough. They can fuck off back to Ender’s Game.

With that decent start in mind, I went to go and see it just before New Year. You know what? It’s pretty decent.Continue Reading

war on terror

TWO BILLION BEATS BY SONALI BHATTACHARYYA – REVIEW

By Ananya Wilson-Bhattacharya

PROBLEMATIC “PEACEBUILDING”: WHEN THE POWERFUL DON’T ASK AND WON’T LISTEN

ISLAMOPHOBIA IN THE UK – ‘TOMMY ROBINSON’ IS A SYMPTOM NOT THE PROBLEM

THE UNSPOKEN OCCUPATION

THE POWER OF THE FARCE: THREE THINGS ABOUT ROGUE ONE

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