Red Cross

Big Politics Pub Quiz: one day to go!

Patrick Corrigan on November 19, 2012, 2:11 pm

| Readers 62

There’s just a day to go before the Great Big Politics Pub Quiz, so we hope you’re busy swotting up from Schott’s Almanac of Political Trivia, BBC Democracy Live, Hansard, 1996 Forum Election manifestoes and your box-sets of The Thick of It / The West Wing (delete as applicable). Some of our legislators will be among us, laying down the law from the quizmaster’s chair from 7:30pm or thereabouts in The Black Box. This year, we’re raising money for the emergency work of the Red Cross …

Big Politics Pub Quiz: one week to go

Patrick Corrigan on November 12, 2012, 9:59 pm

| Readers 58

There’s just one week to go before the Great Big Politics Pub Quiz, and as Malcolm Tucker once memorably said: “I’ve got a to-do list here that’s longer than a f#cking Leonard Cohen song.” The politicians are coming down from the hill and they’re headed for The Black Box. Tuesday 20 November, from 7:30pm to be precise. Currently confirmed to take a turn in the quiz-master’s chair are UUP leader, Mike Nesbitt; Environment Committee chair, Anna Lo MBE; Policing Board …

Red Cross reaches besieged Homs. You can help.

Patrick Corrigan on November 5, 2012, 9:51 am

| Readers 11

All war is terrible. But there is something particularly terrible about a city under siege. Think of Derry, Leningrad, Sarajevo. That’s been the fate of Homs in Syria since Spring 2011. It was there that reporter Marie Colvin was killed by Syrian government shelling in February of this year. Who knows how many residents, whose names we don’t know, have shared her fate before and since. Most of the city is now under government control but fighting continues in certain …

Hopes fading for Syria ceasefire

Patrick Corrigan on October 26, 2012, 1:50 pm

| Readers 57

A four-day ceasefire to mark the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha has come into effect, albeit patchily, in Syria. The BBC’s Lina Sinjab reported this morning from the capital: Damascus hasn’t had a quiet morning for a long time, but so far, the ceasefire is being honoured. During the Eid holiday people visit cemeteries where their beloved are buried and put flowers on their graves. There are thousands of new graves to be visited today Yet, almost as soon as …

Great Big Politics Pub Quiz 2012

Patrick Corrigan on October 22, 2012, 1:17 pm

| Readers 90

For those who missed the Slugger for Syria post, this is an event announcement to confirm that the Great Big Politics Pub Quiz is back, this time to raise funds for the Red Cross / Red Crescent Syria crisis appeal. In Syria the need is desperate and the situation is deteriorating. Syrian Arab Red Crescent volunteers are risking their lives to provide a lifeline for everyone in Syria caught up in the conflict, supplying emergency food, shelter and medical care. …

Slugger for Syria

Patrick Corrigan on October 15, 2012, 4:51 pm

| Readers 46

“An artillery shell had just landed and the hospital entrance was a grotesque tableau of blood, bodies and tears. A small team of doctors set to work against a soundtrack of bombs and bullets.” So began Ian Pannell’s BBC report from Syria last week. His words and pictures were moving, distressing, enraging: “Two-year-old Ahmed screamed in terror and agony as a surgeon sewed his scalp back into place. His head had been torn open when a rocket landed on his house …