Food from my childhood - emel

I was asked by emel magazine's Lifestyle editor Fatema Zehra to write for a section of the magazine called Food from my Childhood. The issue was just published and here's what I wrote:

Every time I return to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, my senses are reinvigorated, my palate hungry with anticipation. Although I only lived there for two years – and that when I was only three – I don’t think I can ever forget the land. For me, Dar es Salaam has always been a place of happy memories. I remember how I would run down the 147-odd stairs (I might have counted…) from my grandparents’ apartment and towards the street sellers. I knew exactly what I wanted, and they would have it ready, expecting my arrival. My choice of fruit? Keri, a raw and, more importantly, sour mango peppered with chilli pepper and lemon. I would have a limit on the number I could eat per week, leaving a dejected version of me upset that my throat couldn’t handle the utter sourness.

Fortunately, Dar es Salaam has plenty more to offer. I remember the trips we would take to Oyster Bay, then a buzzing market with a plethora of sellers; our car would be crowded with vendors the moment we opened the door: amongst a large number of goodies were barbequed corn on the cob, fresh coconut juice (madafu), banana crisps and my favourite of the lot would always be the fried cassava chips. You haven’t tasted cassava chips until you eat them immediately after they have been fried; steaming hot but you don't stop eating because they’re just too good. I’m almost sure the Pringles creative team had just eaten these when they thought of their slogan: Once you pop, you can’t stop.

Finally, there was the time we spent at the beach. Huddled away far from the depths of the city is Kunduchi beach. Having to follow a path made of sand for half the journey made for a bumpy ride but it was never a tiresome one. When we had arrived, my grandfather would shout: Ame pooonchi, ponchi ponchi pooonchi. Before I rushed out towards the glorious beach, I would collect little fruits from the floor, when the tree was still alive, and look forward to eating them later; the skin, a creamy-brown colour, would give a slightly bitter taste while the inside, a deep purple, would be delightfully sweet. And then I would go and eat some blackberries. I don’t think I’ve salivated this much in a while…

Cameron vs. Merkel: Watching the Champions League final

Official White House Photo by Pete Souza

This first picture is great, really telling. Just look at the reactions as Prime Minister David Cameron, President Barack Obama, Chancellor Angela Merkel, José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, President François Hollande and others watch the overtime shootout of the Chelsea vs. Bayern Munich Champions League final, in the Laurel Cabin conference room during the G8 Summit at Camp David.

Cameron appears to be the only leader with his sleeves rolled up carrying on the theme of "chillaxing" that's been floating in the media (he's clearly not working, is he?), Merkel looks like she's about to shout at someone, Obama is just casually enjoying the sport and Hollande appears to have no idea of what's happening.

Here's what happened next:

Official White House Photo by Pete Souza

Cameron and Merkel hug to express no hard feelings (although Cameron is obviously whispering "And you claim to never lose penalties.") Hollande, meanwhile, still has no idea what's happening.

Originally published in The Student Journals.

Hollande: est-elle la nomination de Vallaud-Belkace le premier pas dans la bonne direction?

Le nouveau président a apporté un air d’espérance avec lui, particulièrement pour la grande communauté musulmane en France. « Le changement est maintenant », a déclaré François Hollande plusieurs fois pendant sa campagne présidentielle et il a rapidement tiré un trait sur la présidence de Sarkozy.


Par rapport a Sarkozy, qui a montré ses cinq enfants au monde pendant son investiture, les enfants d’Hollande n’étaient pas là. Hollande veut être vu comme un président qui fait le travail et il veut recréer la ligne entre la vie publique et la vie privée. En plus, c’est la première fois en France que le nombre des femmes et des hommes du Gouvernement est égal.

 Le fait que la porte-parole du Gouvernement est Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, aussi la ministre des droit des femmes est révélateur. Elle est jeune, 34 ans, et elle apporte encore sa nationalité marocaine, où elle est née- ce qui vraiment énerve la droite. Peut-être qu’elle ne veut pas être un « icône de la diversité » mais elle peut devenir un symbole d’aspiration pour tous les immigrés en France.

Entre les deux tours, au Mans, j’ai parlé avec un jeune homme français, d’origine marocain. « Bien que j’ait grandi en France, je sens pas français. On me traite jamais comme un français, » Mehdi m’a dit. Il m’a donne une exemple, aussi confirmé dans le étude par Amnesty International, « Si un français de souche et un français d’origine marocain postulaient pour le même boulot, il serait offert au français de souche. » Une des traditions les plus fortes en France, c’est que tout le monde est égal. Ce n’est pas vrai ni pour les immigrés musulmans ni pour les musulmanes qui sont nés en France. La nomination de Vallaud-Belkacem donne l’espoir aux Musulmans qui pense comme Mehdi, dont il y a plusieurs.

Des musulmans étaient vraiment touchés par les années Sarkozy et maintenant, ils attendent beaucoup de Président Hollande. S’il veut gagner leur confiance, il doit faire plus. Puisqu’il y ait été beaucoup de politiques qui a ciblé les musulmanes, qu’est-ce qu’il va faire Hollande ?


Dans le débat contre Sarkozy, il a dit qu’il serait très strict en ce qui concerne l’interdiction de burka (sans donner aucune raison pour cette position). Une étude récente montre que deux tiers des femmes qui ont été arrêtée en relation avec cette loi sont célibataires ou divorcé ; qui a forcé ces femmes de porter le burka ? Quand Sarkozy l’interdit, c’était dans la guise de protéger les femmes. Il semble que la loi plutôt empiète sur leur liberté d’expression. Il faut qu’Hollande annule cette loi et que son gouvernement change les lois d’emploi, pour que les femmes qui portent le voile ne soient pas discriminées pendant qu’elles cherchent un travail.

En outre, l’idée que Sarkozy a lancé un débat national sur le rôle d’Islam en France est absurde. Il-est où, l’idée de laïcité, quand le président mène un débat sur une religion ? C’est difficile de soutenir que les musulmans n’étaient pas discriminés par Sarkozy mais est-ce que Hollande fera pour corriger les erreurs de son prédécesseur 


La devise de la République française démontre comment Sarkozy était un président injuste. La liberté d’expression et la liberté de pratiquer leur religion ont été prises des musulmans ; ils ont été ciblés sans justification – ils ne sont pas traité comme les égaux, surtout quand il cherche un travail ; et enfin, dans l’esprit de la fraternité, les français, même plus, c’est vous qui devez aider les musulmans d’habiter leur vie comme un français ordinaire, pas comme une troisième classe de citoyen avec des droits différents.


Le procès d’intégration est difficile mais quand les gens demande que tous le monde est traité égal, ça devient beaucoup plus facile. On espère donc que la nomination de Vallaud-Belkacem était le premier pas dans la bonne direction.

Manchester United’s season was a failed experiment in youth

Will United make it a 20th Premier League victory this season? Photography: Paolo Camera

As many of my friends will know, I am a staunch supporter of Manchester United (here come the calls of 'glory hunter'.) I don't want to go in to that now though, there is too much to be said about people supporting certain teams; we all have our reasons and so long as we stick by our team through thick and thin, we are faithful to our club. In this post, I want to try and appraise the team’s performance this season.

Monday night's derby match against Manchester City - unquestionably one of the biggest in recent years - spoke volumes. Let's start with the team put forward: De Gea, Jones, Smalling, Ferdinand, Evra, Nani, Scholes, Carrick, Giggs, Park, Rooney. The most obvious change from that line-up was the absence of Danny Welbeck, one of United's most promising forwards and a player who has formed an effective strike partnership with Wayne Rooney in recent weeks. He was replaced by attacking midfielder Ji-Sung Park, while you can hardly decry Park for not working hard enough, his lack of match-time was evident.

Delving in to the midfield a little further, we find veteran United players Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs, whose presence has been felt at the club for longer than I can remember. Yet that's part of the problem. The former, aged 37, came out of retirement over the Christmas break and rekindled life into a team that was performing ever so drearily. Yet while they bring with them magnificent experience, they also carry older, slower pairs of legs and when faced with the likes of 27-year-old Yaya Touré, who was a Champions League winner last season, and 24-year-old Samir Nasri, they simply could not keep up - and neither would you expect them to.

Although Sir Alex Ferguson declared in advance of the match, "I've never sent a team out to block in my life," the team that started against Manchester City did not reflect that whatsoever. It was a team that was crowded in midfield, set up to attempt to stop the opposition from playing their football, and indeed this tactic worked for large parts of the game. However, youth, creativity, and a determination to attack (and score) prevailed.

If anything can be said about the United squad this season, it is that the manager has done a fantastic job in leading a rather average team so close to victory in the Premier League. This is the same squad that was knocked out in their first round of the Champions League and destroyed when they played Athletic Bilbao in the Europa League, a competition previously mocked by United supporters.

Since the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo for £80m to Real Madrid in 2009, and coupled with the buyout of the club by the Glazer family, Manchester United have struggled to replace the quality Ronaldo brought to the club. The strategy laid down for Ferguson appears to be clear: develop a team. Indeed, the team he has been building is young, and it failed. It required the reintroduction of Paul Scholes. The problem with this United squad is that it is a mediocre team dotted with world-class players. Look back only five years and it was a team full of world-class players.

This season’s biggest controversy was when Wayne Rooney declared that the club needed to invest in experience if they wanted him to stay. Rooney fulfilled his part of the deal, signing his contract and continuing to play fantastic football. The club meanwhile has not delivered. While it has certainly spent a significant amount recently, with the additions of Ashley Young, Phil Jones and David de Gea totalling £49.5m, what they all lacked was experience at the highest level.

While youth is important for the long-term prospects of a team, it cannot be expected that they would adequately replace the likes of Scholes and Giggs so quickly. Throughout the season, particularly at the beginning, the lack of a strong, experienced, and energetic central midfielder has been evident.

Of course, the season is not yet over. The current set of fixtures favours Manchester United and there is still a chance that they will walk away Champions. Yet could a second-place finish, with their most bitter rivals as the victors, be the shock the club needs to change their strategy? A Premier League title may allow the club to wallow in a sense of complacency that they’re not entitled to. With the coming of age of the last of “Fergie’s Fledglings”, should the gaffer trust his tactics of old by playing a mainly young team? In my eyes, this season was the failed experiment, and investment in experience is necessary. But then again, a United fan would say that, wouldn’t he?

So I was wrong: Marine Le Pen got 20%

Marine Le Pen: Smiles All Round. Photography: Remi Noyon

Most recent results of the first round (they are still being fully released as I write):
Hollande: 28.8%
Sarkozy: 26.1%
Marine Le Pen: 18.5%
Mélenchon: 11.7%
Bayrou: 8.8%
Joly: 2.3%
Others: the rest...

Would you know it? As I predicted, my predictions were wrong. And how wrong they were.

After all the support that Mélenchon appeared to have, and all the noise being made about him in the media, he must be disappointed with his result. I truly thought that he may catch the protest vote but even then, there was an abstention rate of nearly 20%, particularly shocking when you consider the wide depth of thought within the different candidates.

And then Marine Le Pen received nearly 20% of the vote. I repeat, nearly 1 in 5 French people voted for the National Front, a xenophobic and Islamophobic party, entirely against immigration, and a party that claims that it is the "only opposition to the left". Marine Le Pen's new approach has certainly brought in more youth and it is certainly worrying. No wonder there are immigrants (like those in my previous blog) who want to get out of the country.

And the top two; it's the first time since 1958 that a non-incumbent has won the most votes in the first round so it's certainly a little shocking, even if Hollande was expected to win. Where does this leave the two?

Hollande has already reached out to the voters of Mélanchon, from the Left Front, and the Green candidate Éva Joly in his victory speech. Sarkozy's reaction is clear, and he will be making even further moves on the right to try and seduce Le Pen's voters. However, a poll from TNS Sofres show that only 40% of Le Pen's voters will vote Sarkozy in the second round and 33% will abstain.

In a rather strange 'victory' speech, Sarkozy challenged Hollande to three debates; Sarkozy still believes that he can show off Hollande's lack of government experience in these debates. Yet polls for the second round are putting Hollande far ahead at 56% and Sarkozy at 44%. Hollande needs to continue to work hard, but it's certainly his to lose.

Update: Hollande has rejected the three debate challenge, insisting that the traditional one debate is sufficient.