Featured

Domestic Violence

•62% of children in households where domestic violence happens are also harmed. •Between 2007 and 2017, over 20 children were killed by violent fathers who had been allowed to see them through formal and informal contact arrangements. But a lot of people don’t seem to care. There are usually other problems at court, like insufficient […]

Read More Domestic Violence

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year Everyone! (13 hours late for Nuku’alofa!) Here’s the promised story! The ancient Mesopotamians celebrated their 12-day-long New Year’s festival of Akitu on the vernal equinox, while the Greeks partied around the winter solstice, on Dec. 20. The Roman historian Censorius, meanwhile, reported that the Egyptians celebrated another lap around the sun on […]

Read More Happy New Year!

NEW YEAR

It’s the end of the year: time to start fresh, make resolutions and get ready for 2019. But as the world counts down to midnight, let’s take a moment to question why people around the planet are celebrating the new year at that very moment. It turns out that the new year wasn’t always on […]

Read More NEW YEAR

Origins of hip-hop

Hip-hop originated in the Bronx area of New York in the 70s. Its vocal origins lie in the Jamaican ‘toasting’ tradition. Toasting is a cross between talking and rhythmic chanting which was originally practised by Jamaican MCs. Black DJs such as Grandmaster Flash and the Jamaican-born ‘father of hip-hop’ Kool Herc extended the instrumental sections […]

Read More Origins of hip-hop

The Christmas Story

Long ago, about 2000 years, when King Herod ruled Judea (now part of Israel), God sent the angel Gabriel to a young woman who lived in the northern town of Nazareth. The girl’s name was Mary and she was engaged to marry Joseph. The angel Gabriel said to Mary: ‘Peace be with you! God has […]

Read More The Christmas Story

More Brexit

Has the Irish border issue been solved? The UK’s 310 mile land border with the EU – between Northern Ireland and EU member the Republic of Ireland – might not have been everyone’s big issue during the 2016 referendum campaign, yet it has come to dominate Brexit talks. Neither side wants to see a return […]

Read More More Brexit

BREXIT

What does Brexit mean? It is a word that is used as a shorthand way of saying the UK leaving the EU – merging the words Britain and exit to get Brexit, in the same way as a possible Greek exit from the euro was dubbed Grexit in the past. Why is Britain leaving the European Union? A […]

Read More BREXIT