Simon Chadwick, University of Salford Football’s top brass are heading to Miami as FIFA’s Council gets together for one of its regular meetings. Generally, these gatherings are tepid affairs as football’s world governing body works through the minutiae of governing a game that has an official membership of more than 200 countries. But this meeting will be different, as almost two years of high stakes manoeuvring should culminate in a decision that will not only determine what format the 2022 World Cup will take, but may influence the nature of country relations across the Gulf region for years to come.…
Author: Pride Team
Hannah Brown, South Australian Health & Medical Research Institute and Louise Hull, University of Adelaide If it’s not you, perhaps it’s someone you know. You don’t look infertile, you don’t feel infertile, but after many months (or years) of trying to start a family, followed by several months of monitoring your cycle in a fertility clinic, it’s time to discuss IVF. This is a big decision. It will impact your time, your finances, your emotions, your relationships and your dreams of being a parent. Despite the language of “falling pregnant”, inferring absolute simplicity, infertility is a reality for one in…
Samuel Greiff, University of Luxembourg and Jonas Müller, University of Luxembourg It’s no longer enough for children just to be able to read, count or multiply. With computers now doing many mundane repetitive tasks for us, many jobs in today’s world require analytical skills and the ability to solve unexpected problems. For the first time, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has attempted to measure countries’ progress at teaching children how to do this. The OECD hosts one of the major large-scale assessments of student competencies in the world, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). More than…
Our new column, Traditional and Contemporary, focuses on the Ankara fabric spliced with contemporary designs. African fashion has taken a spike in creative designing over the years and we are ultra-excited to be documenting its progress one stylish picture at a time. Every Fashion Friday, we’ll be surfing through social media streets to find design inspirations for our Pride Woman (which is you, by the way). See our weekly style catalogue. View this post on Instagram Loving this gorgeous outfit Ankara highneck two side split top #africanfashion#africanfabrics#ankarafashion#highnecktop#fashion#fashionblogger#fashioninspiration#stylebyesteesheridan#shakaramoments#bellanijastyle#style#model#fashionaddictfa#faboutfits#9naijafashiongallery A post shared by EsteeSheridan (@esteesheridan) on Oct 25, 2018 at 9:54am PDT…
The American sitcom, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, is the perfect example of on-screen 90’s fashion worth emulating. The 2019 version of the old school adaptation was sufficiently slathered on the runway as proof of fashion’s recycling abilities. Owing to the ’90s as a wellspring of fashion inspiration, this weekend take a cue from Will’s print clashing, Ashley’s boxy outerwear and Hillary’s classic style – there’s something for everyone. Print clashing To cop Will Smith’s (aka Fresh Prince) style, pair clashing prints, but for the sake of style sanity, skip shorts with a dog-print or just don’t have those in…
Laugh Quote Love is free, but the diapers are expensive… Wise Guys Answer To Stupid Question Question: Don’t you know that being fat is unhealthy? Wise Guy: My fat body is amazing and requires no justification. Your rudeness, on the other hand, is inexcusable. Corny Chat Up Line Smoking is hazardous to one’s health… and baby, you’re killing me! Business Joke Risen from the dead My boss asked me today, “Do you believe in life after death and the supernatural?” I replied, “Yes, I think so.” “I thought you would,” he said. “Yesterday after you left to go to your…
Hiu Man Chan, Cardiff University As China demonstrated its space credentials by landing a lunar probe on the far side of the moon in January 2019, a science fiction movie was hitting mainland cinemas that could also redefine China’s credentials as a maker of global cinema. The Wandering Earth, directed by Frant Gwo is the world’s highest-grossing film so far in 2019 with box office takings of almost US$700m at last count – mainly from China itself. The film is based on the novela of the same title, written in 2000 by Chinese science-fiction author Liu Cixin, about Earth’s migration…
Esmée Hanna, Leeds Beckett University and Brendan Gough, Leeds Beckett University There has been a lot of alarm in recent years about the declining fertility rates of Western men and the potential problems this may pose. It is estimated that infertility affects one in six heterosexual couples, making it a common issue for those of reproductive age. For 40% of couples who can’t conceive, the problem lies with the man. But despite this, fertility remains something that is traditionally viewed as a “woman’s problem”, with male infertility rarely spoken about. This focus solely on women’s bodies and perspectives, often leaves…
Andrea Brady, Queen Mary University of London Last week, Claudia Rankine’s book, Citizen, won the Forward prize for Best Collection. Rankine, a Jamaican poet living in the US, was the only non-white poet on the shortlist. The list for best first book was more diverse. It may be significant that it is with this particular collection that Rankine broke through to a wider audience. Citizen – with its searing anecdotes of everyday aggression and the murder of black people by white cops, delivered in clear and remarkably restrained prose poems – reflects more directly on racism than her previous books,…
Ainsley Newson, University of Sydney The details of a surrogacy case involving an Australian couple commissioning a pregnancy in Thailand have created outrage in all sorts of quarters. But the father’s admission that he would have asked the surrogate mother to terminate her pregnancy if he’d known baby Gammy had Down syndrome didn’t cause indignation in anywhere the same scale. The notion of disability – and how we value or devalue people with it – makes many uncomfortable. Nevertheless, the screening most pregnant women choose to determine whether their child will have Down syndrome, and the terminations that result from…