Awaaz December edition

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HHeelllloowwoorrlldd Established 1982 No.347 December 2011

Distributed to... Huddersfield, Wakefield, Halifax, Bradford, Leeds, Batley, Dewsbury

Awaaz Goes

Live Pg3

Electric speed Leeds to Manchester

You Tube sensation and comedian Humza Arshad answers Editor’s and readers questions as he visits Bradford on his nationwide tour.

Full story on page 13

1 on 1 with Badman

As the Chancellor outlines £30bn of public and private money to be spent on road and rail projects, plans to electrify the North TransPennine Express rail route will cut train journey times between Leeds and Man-chester, making it a realis-tic alternative to the M62 and a pleasant change for commuters.

Full story page 3

Public sector strikeslocally Thousands of public sector workers were out in force to protest the against government plans to further cuts across the sector. One protestor carried a banner saying, ‘stop the pension death’ on the biggest protest since Thatcher years.

Full story on page 3.

exclusiveLies damn lies

Page 2

Lets uniteInterfaith

Page 7

Halal part 30

LowkeyPolitical vibes

Page 12

Kids pageBy kids

Page 20

December 2011 [email protected]

To contact Mike or for informationabout advice surgeries:

9 Cross Crown Street, Cleckheaton, BD19 3HW

Tel : 01274 335233


Mike Wood MP Lies, lies and damn liesSetting the record straight

TWO MUSLIM women from Batley and Dewsbury have been the focus of false rumours of a same sex marriage. The only problem is that one of the women is a happily married mother of three, whilst the other is her best friend, cousin and also a mother in her own right. The pair approached Awaaz to set the record straight. The rumours started following an innocent photograph on social network-ing site Facebook which featured the two sharing a kiss on the cheek at the registry office in Dewsbury.

One is a 31-year-old mother who doesn’t wish to be named, she said: “It was my brother’s registry marriage, so obviously we took their pictures and we took our pictures, just for a laugh, after that I went home and put it on Facebook.”

Her friend is a 40-year-old mother of three, who also wishes not to be named said: “What it was, was I was congratulating her, because it was her brother and gave her a kiss on the cheek, whereas I gave a kiss to the bride as well, and they’ve literally taken that off.”

The pictures were put up on a private Facebook account in an album that featured images of the whole wedding. The pictures were taken out of context of the album, and looked as if the pair had gotten married when in fact it was one of the friend’s brother’s marriage. It has caused a great deal of grief to the women.

The pair have put pictures up on Facebook before, but have never had issues. The mother of three said: “It’s a joke gone too

far, whoever’s done this is malicious and it looks like they’re out to get us.”

It sparked a chain of Chinese whispers, the mother of one said: “Even today I had a phone call from my mami [auntie], she had a phone call from one of her uncle’s who teaches in Bury, he got a phone call from somebody else in Bolton saying that they’ve done a bayaan [public speech at a mosque] in Bolton, regarding two Islamic girls. “Two Muslim girls have gotten married, obviously my surname was mentioned, her surname was mentioned.”

The two women feel strongly about this and the rumours have had an affect on them, the mother of three said: “It’s abso-lutely ruined our lives, we’re not sleeping, we’re not eating. Don’t judge us, we never talk about anybody, we do our own thing, we get on with our own lives.”

Wanting to set the record straight she said: “I would say whoever has done this [spread the rumours] should just concen-trate on themselves instead of talking about somebody else.”

The emotional 31-year old added: “How would you feel if this was your sister?”

The pair brought the photographs in question to Awaaz and the editorial team has seen the photographs, confirming the picture had been taken out of context. We have also contacted the registry office who confirmed to us that no marriages had taken place, under the two girls names, in the time period in question.

Volunteers in the market By Mohamed Ansar

SOME 30 volunteers helped to distribute ‘Be clear on cancer’ leaflets as part of a cancer awareness drive by Dewsbury based ‘Kumon y’all’.

The volunteer group took up a stall at the famous Dewsbury market and members aged between eight and 45 wondered the markets handing out the leaflets, outlining signs to look out for, as well as help and advice.

The following day the volunteer group ran a ladies only event on cancer aware-ness with sessions delivered by Dr Joan Mearkins and Jennie from the Hub. The event was attended by some 51 women and proved to be a successful programme just as the men’s sessions the previous month.

Farook Yunus, from Kumon y’all said"Helping people - regardless of faith, colour or creed - live a better quality of life and using the youth to help deliver is what it'sall about, so Kumon y'all let's make this world a better place."

Cancer awareness stall in Dewsbury market

Newly refurbished community centre unveiled

Councillor Asghar Khan delivered the opening speech at the official opening of the newly refurbished Richmond Hill Community Centre. Local councillors were joined by around 50 members of the public, from children to the elderly eager to see the improvements and to find out more about the new events

and activities that will be taking place there.

Cllr Khan (Burmantofts & Richmond Hill), who later helped to unveil a special plaque dedicated to the refurbishment said:“The number and range of people who turned up for the official re-opening of the Richmond Hill Community Centre demon-strates the value of this centre to local residents and the local community. It was fantastic to see so many people of all ages turn up to the opening event who will all undoubtedly benefit from this fantastic refurbished facility, now and in years to come”

The refurbishment was undertaken by Leeds City Council after they invested £250k to modernise the facility. The improvements include a new extension, a new computer suite, a refurbished kitchen, as well as a crèche and a specific support room for adults with learning disabilities.

Leeds Fraud

By Mohamed Ansar

A COUPLE from Leeds have been ordered to pay back over £500,000 after being convicted of mortgage fraud offences. Anthony and Samantha Nixon aged 46 and 41 of Morley were subject of a confiscation hearing at Leeds Crown Court.

In 2006 the police started to look at the lifestyle of the Nixon's. This included the purchase of substantial residential proper-ties and buy to let properties in and around the Leeds area, the purchase of high

powered prestige motor cars, holidays abroad, and with an income that was not compatible with the lifestyle and general wealth.

The pair obtained several fraudulent mortgages by over declaring their earnings and provided false information in order to inflate the value of these houses to make a profit from the resale

The couple have been given six months to pay the fines otherwise face prison sentences.

£500,000 to be paid in six months

December [email protected] 3

By Ismail MullaTHE NORTH TransPennine Express rail route is to be electrified, cutting train journey times between Leeds and Manchester. The announcement of the plans was made in the government’s autumn statement.

In the autumn statement Chancellor George Osborne outlined £30bn of public and private money that is to be spent on road and rail projects, in a bid to help kick start the economy.

Simon Reevell MP for Dewsbury, Conser-vatives welcomed the news, he said: “It just gives people a few more options when they’re looking around for jobs. It also makes it easier if they want to go see friends and family so it’s got to be good news for a town like Dewsbury that’s got the railway line running through it.

“It also makes it easier for people to come to us, so what we’ve got to do is make sure we’re talking all the time about what Dewsbury has to offer. Talking about the market, getting people to get on a train to come and do their shopping here, come and see what we’re about.”

The chairman for Metro (West Yorkshire’s

public transport provider), Cllr James Lewis welcomed the news. He said: “Research has shown that the result of bringing journey times between Leeds and Manchester down from around an hour to under 45 minutes would be a £6.7bn boost in productivity. “Electrifying the route would make it an attractive alternative to the M62 reducing congestion on the often overcrowded motorway.”

Leeds City Council Leader, Cllr Keith Wake-field said: “This is fantastic news which will bring tens of thousands of jobs and much-welcome reductions in journey times between our two great northern industrial and economic powerhouse cities”.

But what do commuters think of the news? Mohammed Bulbulia, 20, Dewsbury who uses the route regularly said: “25% off my journey time is a lot for me as I use the

route every day, most of the time I hardly get a seat so I’m standing, and now if I don’t get a seat then I’ll be standing up for less of a time and hopefully in the future they’ll put on more trains.”

Richard Greenwood, 22, who commutes to Leeds from Stalybridge said: “It’s great news that the journey times will go down and I think it will undoubtedly persuade traveller’s to go via rail, but overcrowding is already a problem on that route so as long as they combat that too.”

The upgrades are set to take place over the next decade and will cut down journey times by 25%.

High speed rail electric dreams

Leeds to Manchester together in electric dreams

By Ismail Mulla

BATLEY SMILE is an initiative designed to promote Batley’s credentials and in turn attract investment, jobs and a strength-ened community, by being positive about the town.

One of the people involved in looking to promote Batley is local resident Mark Griffin. He said “Batley Smile is conceived as a 'collective voice,' a concerted community PR campaign to shout about the best of Batley and make Batley better.

“We hope that we can use the Batley Smile project to stimulate debate, discussion and positive economic outcomes for the town. On a personal level, it's given me the opportunity to meet so many inspiring people who achieve so much and wish to achieve so much more for the town.”

The group is currently looking for comments on the initiative from people and organisations, “Clearly, if the project is to be successful, we need to build support and finance and, 'I support BatleySmile' emailed to [email protected] would help us to provide evidence of support.”

Making Batley smile again Public sector strikes over pensions

PUBLIC sector workers across West Yorkshire went on strike over cuts to their pensions. According to the government 21,500 state schools were shut nationwide and over 7,000 operations cancelled. Around 2,000 people took part in the rally in Hudders-field. There was also a picket line outside Dewsbury Hospi-tal, where there were over 50 people striking, despite a cold day.

Emma Crowther, UNISON representative for Dewsbury said: “I think it is a culmination of things really, I think every-body is just a little bit fed up with how things have been over the past couple of years.

“The recession and things and this has just been the final straw. They can only cut so many things before they start putting peoples lives at risk really, what more can they cut, they’ve cut everything else education, health service.

“I think people generally decided to make a stand and say right we’ve had enough.People are behind us, so there is obviously a lot of support for us so it’s just about making a stand and saying enough is enough. “

The PM David Cameron was defiant and of the strikes he

said: “looks something like a damp squib.”

Greg Paisley, chief steward for Children and Young People’s Service took part in the rally in Huddersfield. He said: “The demonstration symbolises the solidarity between the trade unions, the members of the trade unions

and the opposition to the governments plans to destroy our pension’s scheme.”

On if he felt striking would make a difference he said: “I feel if everywhere has been as solid. As we have produced a good demonstration of popu-lar support, yes I think they’ll have to take notice.”

Picket line outside Dewsbury Hospital Protestor in Huddersfield

www.awaaznews.com

FOUR men from Bradford have been arrested in connection with criminal use of firearms and supply of drugs across the north of England.

The four men aged 39, 37, 32 and 29 were arrested by West Yorkshire Police as part of a joint operation with Mersey-side Police.

DI Noel Devine of West Yorkshire Police Crime Division said: “These arrests show that we are not prepared to tolerate the presence of firearms and drugs on our streets and within our communities.

“We have worked closely with our colleagues in Merseyside to ensure an effective and robust approach to this illegal and dangerous activity.”

Four arrests in Bradford

Batley On 11 November, a 21-year old woman was walking along a path from Lady Ann Road towards the Yorkshire Mill Village shopping centre when she was approached by a man who exposed himself. A member of the public approached and the suspect ran away. The suspect was described as being Asian, 5’4” tall, in his thirties and with short dark hair. Any information call Batley NPT on 01924 295301.

30serving you for

Relaunch!Friday 2nd DecemberFor all the latest News and articles check out our new website

years


Dowry (dahej)- Payment for a happy married life?

Gifts wrapped to be given as dowry

By Sana Abubacar

MORE AND MORE British Asian women are fighting to get their dowry back, Society of Asian Lawyers has revealed.

They say with around 33% of Asian marriages now ending in divorce the need for solicitors to offer dowry special-ist advice is increasing and the dowry itself is becoming more frequent.

Dowry, generally known as dahej is the payment in cash or some kind of gifts including jewellery, furniture, electrical appliances, etc, given to the groom’s family by the bride’s family.

This is not what people typically watch in Hindi movies or dramas, but it is a reality

happening in our country, where many families have been victims of such offences. According to one source from Dewsbury, some people ask for British citizenship as dowry. They get married to women from here and as soon as they are settled they start treating those women badly.

Talvinder Penaser, from Leeds Family Law says, there is no legal position within the matrimonial laws in the UK relating to the practice of dowry, which means the woman has no legal right in respect of the return of the dowry when divorced. If this is a case of money, the financial settlement that a court can award is based on the amount of money available for distribution and if that is less than the dowry amount given then it will be lost.

According to a BBC report dowry abuse is a widespread problem amongst Sikh and Hindu communities in Britain, leading to women to being vulnerable to domestic violence.

“This system of the practice of dowry should be addressed and it is important that Parliament debate this issue. It is clear that as more and more modern Asian couples marry, the brides often seek the return of the items that they have seen their parents work hard to provide for them if the marriage breaks down”, said Talvinder Penaser.

Lib Dems demand business zones By Ismail Mulla

KIRKLEES Liberal Democrats are putting forward proposals to turn brownfield sites into ‘Business Action Zones’ as part of the Local Development Framework Core Strategy.

The Lib Dems feel bringing some of the 58 hectares of brownfield sites back into use will help kick start the Kirklees economy and create jobs.

Under the proposals businesses looking to set up in these identified ‘Business Action Zones’

would get support from the council in the form of potential and financial incentives.

Cllr Kath Pinnock, Leader of Kirklees Liberal Democrats said: “There are numerous disused industrial sites lying vacant and unused across the borough and we want the council to be taking positive steps to bring some of these back into use. “More than ever, the council needs to work creatively to attract businesses to our available sites and a package of support and financial incentives we believe can help achieve this, creating jobs for local people, improving the local environment and protecting Greenfield land from further development.”

The Lib Dems have identified some initial sites which they feel could be brought back into use including a site on Bradford Road between Batley and Dewsbury.

Cllr Kath Pinnock

By Mohamed Ansar MEMBERS of the Seacroft Junior Wardens, were treated to a behind the scenes tour of Killingbeck Police Station as part of a reward for the work they do to benefit the community.

During the visit the children had their finger prints taken before being booked into the custody suite and shown the inside of the police cell.

The five and six year old pupils from Cross-gates and Parklands Primary Schools, under a scheme supported by the police, fire service and local housing provider East North East Homes, are given a uniform and ID badge and undertake

work aimed at benefit ing the local community. This includes reporting graffiti, broken street lights and helping to spread safety messages among their peers.

Inspector Steve Emmett, who leads the Killing beck and Seacroft Neighbourhood Policing Team, said: "Schemes like this help to integrate local young people with organisations includ-ing the police and fire service, projects like the Seacroft Wardens also helps young-sters to develop a sense of pride in the area they live. In the longer term this can help prevent localised anti-social behav-iour and hopefully those involved with the scheme will take many of the positive aspects with them throughout the rest of their lives."

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By Ismail Mulla

SHADOW Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Hilary Benn gave a talk on political engagement at the Al-Hikmah Centre in Batley on Friday 4 November.

The Labour MP talked about why it was important to engage with politics and taking an active role in society. The speech was followed by a Q&A which sparked a lively

being the main talking point. Issues dear to local people’s hearts such as social deprava-tion and education were also debated.

After the event Benn speaking exclusively to Awaaz said: “I accepted a very kind invitation to come. What we did for this evening was to talk about what was on people’s minds, the state of the economy, of what’s happening in the world, the continuing failure to solve the Middle East problem.”

One of the issues with politics is apathy and a lack of interest amongst young people Benn said: “It is not true that young people don’t care about what’s happening in their community that they’re not interested, they are interested.

expression to that and there’s nothing that’s more important because they’ll be taking decisions when people like me are dust in the ground, and it’s important that they seize the opportunity that they’ve got to deal with the things that we haven’t yet done, and build on the things we have achieved.”

Ed Miliband’s leadership was also put under the spotlight with many in the audience questioning his ability to lead Labour back into power. But Benn, MP for Central Leeds gave his backing to the Labour leader, expressing the importance of the party to

On the subject of political engagement he said: “We stand a better chance of dealing with these things if we get stuck in, use our political process because the alternative is to sit back and things won’t change and fall

prey to cynicism or despair and that isn’t going to solve the problems of the world.

“It’s not going to solve the problems of this -

ences of view, but hey that’s exactly as it should be and I enjoyed it enormously.”

Benn was on top form at the event hosted by the IMWS, but it was mention of his father veteran Labour MP, Tony Benn who got the loudest cheer, clearly still very popular with the public.

Hilary Benn engages the community

-ences of view, but hey that’s exactly as it should be and I enjoyed it enormously.”

Hilary Benn

By Mohamed AnsarSATURDAY 26th November saw the very

Muslim Girls High School (ZMGHS) in Batley. The school, soon to celebrate its

girls’ high school of its kind in Europe.

The day presented the opportunity for parents of the 180 girls studying at the school as well as prospective parents to look around and view what each subject

display.

Mrs Waheed, one of the two Deputy Heads said, “wanted prospective parents to have the opportunity to look at their child’s future school before they make their decision,” and in the words of Ms S Patel, the Pastoral Deputy Head, “To allow the community to view what our school

educational opportunities and to partake

in our school.”

School Manager Aqeela Ashaq told Awaaz “I don’t think parents truly appreciated the

an opportunity for them to see the many changes we’ve made to the school to continue to provide a positive education”

True enough, ZMGHS continue to improve with 86% 5A*-C grades, 70% 5A*-C includ-ing maths and English and 100% A*-C in religious education, making the schools achievements above the national average and one of the best in the region.

Feedback from prospective parents and pupils was very positive, Mrs Bham,

leadership showed the school has reached another milestone towards excel-

achievement was apparent.’

The school hopes to continue with an annual Open Day.

First Open Day for Zakaria A CAMPAIGN to construct and maintain links

with sporting venues is being launched by Viva Palestina.

across Gaza, in an attempt to help the Pales-tinian people rebuild their lives. A large proportion of Gaza’s population is made up of youths.

The group are hoping to raise £350,000 and the aim is to get work on the venues started by next spring. The campaign is hoping to raise the money to help build four playing surfaces and a gymnasium/sports hall. The appeal launched on 1st December and Viva Palestina will be looking to hold various fund raising activities.

PRESIDENT of Turkey, Abdullah Gul visited the UK and met with Prime Minister David Cameron. Turkey is seen as a vital ally to the west, sitting between Europe and the Middle East, of his meeting with Cameron, Gul said:

“We discussed how we can help Arab people on the road toward democracy, freedom, and the rule of law.”

The PM reiterated the importance of Turkey to the west at a joint press conference with Gul, he said:

“Turkey is a great friend of Britain, a vital trading partner, a strong NATO ally, and an

unique position at the meeting point between East and West.”

Turkey premier visits UK

FORGET Facebook, that's so 2010. These days President Obama prefers to gets down with the kids on Google+. Yes, The President of the United States has joined the search giant’s new social networking site.

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Barack Obama page on Google+.The White House is an active user of Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Flickr, Foursquare and other online services.


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Interfaith dinner showcases the weekBy Mohamed Ansar

A SPECIAL dinner was held by the

celebrate the week of events during the national interfaith week. Dignitaries included the Mayor of Kirklees Cllr Eric Firth and Barry Sheerman MP for

Hosted by Chair of HIC Kiran Bali MBE, the evening included representation from the Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian, Jewish, Baha, Buddhist and Quaker faiths and the attendees were enter-tained with contributions through dance, song, recitals and speeches.

The dinner was held at the Sikh Leisure

speech Cllr Firth said “These events have given us all the opportunity to learn

people who live and work in Kirklees” he went on to add “these events celebrate the contribution of faith based activities

to all our life’s”

The week began with the AGM of the Kirklees Faith Forum at the Dewsbury Town Hall where 150 people gathered to share an evening of interfaith celebration to launch this year’s Interfaith Week in Kirklees.

the Equality and Human Rights C o m m i s s i o n , addressed the audience about her experiences working with faith commu-nities and other groups, commenting that ‘there is more that binds us than divides us’ and inspiring those present to ‘gather our energies together’.Bishop Tony Robinson, chair of Kirklees

Faiths Forum, said ‘Our third Annual General Meeting was a great success. People from so many organisations and individuals came together to celebrate the work of the Forum over the past year. "The Big Society" which the Prime Minster David Cameron has often talked about is being proclaimed here in Kirklees through the work of the Faith Communities.’

Hannah Taylor from Kirklees Faiths Forum said: “The week has certainly demonstrated the rich diversity the faith communities contribute to life in Kirklees. We had so many colourful, fun and exciting activities going on throughout the week, which many people from all faiths and none came and enjoyed immensely. Ultimately, I believe, this open dialogue and interfaith cooperation is key to a safer, healthier and happier Kirklees for us all.”Attendees at the dinner not only enjoyed the contributions from each faith but also joined in. Particularly in the traditional dancing from the Hindu community, which saw Cllr Firth and Mr Sheerman enjoy a relaxed and informal evening with representatives of the community. Cllr Firth, speaking to Awaaz about the

success of the evening said, “Its nice to

eating, sitting, talking together. I wish all society was like this, the world would be a better place”

Spreading the love: Dr Hasni & Kiran Bali MBE

Groovy: Mayor gets his dancing shoes on

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By Mohamed Ansar

In 2009 Sughara Aziz and Hawa Khadbai of Dewsbury had an idea to run a mental health support group, two years on the two days a week group now has over 60 members and proven to be a big success for the community.

‘Women First’ is a volunteer based therapy group for women suffering from issues such as depression, anxiety, stress and gives the attendees an opportunity to meet with others with the same issues. Sughara told Awaaz “Hawa and I had an idea to run a women only self help group with the aim of the well being of women. Through the group we can help to increase their self esteem and confidence. We called it ‘Women First’ because women tend not to put themselves first” Hawa added “but in the home women play a very important role and often don’t recognise it”

To turn the idea in to a reality was another thing altogether. With no funds the first

obstacle was to find a premises. Kindly, the Addas Centre on Huddersfield Road Ravensthorpe rose to the occasion.

The Addas centre saw a necessity for the community and offered the group a room and an office to run the project from and with the help of Kirklees community worker Laila Ahmed, the idea turned into a reality.

Now the self help group run a variety of programmes including Yoga and Martial Arts living up to their slogan ‘Working with Mind, Body and Soul’. Sughara told us “we have women from Batley, Saville Town and Ravensthorpe attending and find the groups really positive and helpful”. Still working as volunteers, Sughara and Hawa hope to continue the support the group offers to so many local women.

For more information contact Sughara on 07943 399 488 or email [email protected]

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Occupy movement reaches LeedsBy Ismail Mulla

THE MOVEMENT for change to the politi-cal and financial system continues to grow across the globe and has now found its way to Leeds.

The Occupy movement started in New York with Occupy Wall Street in Septem-ber and has continued to grow with camps now outside St Paul’s Cathedral in London; one outside Sheffield Cathedral and now one in Leeds City Square has also been set up.

‘Cosmic’ Claire who didn’t wish to give her second name said: “Everybody prob-ably has different views, but we all believe the current world situation is desperately bad, in terms of economy.

“Clearly the establishment is not going to cave in immediately to the demands of the Occupy movement, just like that. “But I think that it’s part of the larger process, it’s not just about addressing the

government it’s about trying to draw the attention amongst the young population to the broader issues that are going on.”

Although she wasn’t camping out, she had brought with her some food and other provisions as a show of support. She said: “As much as anything else you could say this is a publicity exercise.

“Certainly the fact that the Occupy move-ment has spread across the entire globe I don’t know how many cities now I think it’s a hundred, with places like New York, London, the Stock Exchange, St Pauls are prominent. It is about starting a debate.”

Claire said recently that she gave up her TV licence in protest against the BBC who she felt was misrepresenting the world. “We’ve been lied to by the government and the media, the mainstream media.”

Another activist said: “What we’re trying to do is raise awareness, by showing the devotion to the cause that we’re willing

to give that will certainly spread the word and allow people to think more about the problems that we’re facing.

“We’re here because we want change we don’t like the way things are being run, we don’t like the way our taxpayer’s money is bailing out ban- ks, we don’t like the way our taxpayer’s money is again going to wars in other countries.

“I would say there are a lot of people who feel estranged by the political system a lot of people who feel like their vote is not represented correctly by who is in power.”

At the site on City Square was an elderly lady called Gay she said: “Well I think it’s a fantastic world movement, people becoming aware of obviously being exploited.”

The group don’t know how long they are going to be there but one activist called Ellen said: “The aim is to hold a space that the public can come into and that feels like a safe space for discussion.”

Last month musician and advocate of the movement Billy Bragg also paid a visit to the site, playing a small acoustic set.

PYF Homework Club Wins Princes Trust Award

By Mohamed Ansar

HUDDERSFIELD pupils Feeling embar-rassed because they couldn’t keep up in class and struggled with their home-work have won the ‘Princes Trust award in Yorkshire and Humber’ for the Best Community Impact Award due to the success of their ‘Homework Club’.

Pakistani Youth Forum (PYF) based in Huddersfield ran the club after they were approached by a group of under-achieving pupils worried that if they

didn't get good GCSE results, they couldn't go to college and would struggle to find a job. A further disad-vantage was their parent’s spoke little English and the cost of private tuition meant all roads seemed closed. Until the group approached The Prince's Trust in February 2009 through the help of their youth worker, Sofia Buncy of PYF.

The club was set up in a local internet cafe in April 2009 with support from The Prince’s Trust, and the results were incredible. A qualified tutor helped 30 young people with their homework in each session. The sessions were free and all the students learnt to work together as a team.

The group's founders worked hard to get the club off the ground and the project has now helped more than 125

young people, raising their self esteem and aspirations. After struggling at college originally, the founders of the group managed to get the A levels results they wanted and are planning to go to university or continue their college courses.

Compost found at a canna-bis factory in Kirkburton last month has been given to a local school after it had some of it’s own soil stolen! Local schools were contacted and offered a bag for their gardening clubs. 13 schools took the police up on the offer.

Pot to Plant


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THE Association of Non Stun Abattoirs (ANSA) was launched in May 2011 as an industry body to represent the non-stun Halal meat and poultry suppliers.

ANSA only accept full time non-stun abattoirs. They said: “out of 42 Halal abattoirs only 7 are fully non-stun, whilst others are either part time non-stun or fully stun”.

Muslim consumers have very much trusted the retailer, but when asked, have often stated a preference for non-stun meat and poultry, an area where many consumers feel confused. The consumer’s main concern however also includes mechanical slaughter and the recitation of the Tasmiyah, largely due to the fact these are issues that have gained great aware-ness over the last 15 years or so.

ANSA said: “Our aim is to create clear awareness to the unsuspecting Muslim what our members produce, therefore giving to them the opportunity to freely decide on what they would prefer to consume.”

But how do customers know whether their product is from an ANSA abattoir? ANSA

members stamp the carcasses with their logo ‘ANSA non-stun’ and their plant number or E.C number. To gain this information the consumer will need to be well versed with the E.C number, which can be found on their website

The need for a product to be confirmed as non-stun has arisen because consumer’s lost trust in the word of the retailer, as well as the slaughter houses.

This leads to the question of the abattoir vouching for itself, ANSA said: “Not only do ANSA members have to be fully commit-ted to supplying 100% Non- Stun Halal meat, 100% of the time, they will also have to meet the High standards outlined in the ‘New’ Abattoir and Cutting Standard. Its members will be audited independently, to ensure that its members meet the highest standards for Animal Welfare, HACCP, Food Safety and product traceabil-ity.”

We asked ANSA as to who will conduct the ‘Independent audit’, at the time this publi-cation goes to print we have not received an answer. Another issue is regarding the mechanical slaughtering, something that doesn’t feature in the ANSA criteria.

Spot of trouble for drug gangSnookered by their own CCTV

From left to right : Zafar Iqbal, Ibrar Iqbal and Jabar Hyder

FOUR men from Batley and Dewsbury were found guilty of dealing drugs. Hot Spot Snooker Club on Bradford Road, Batley was used as a front for dealing cannabis by Zafar Iqbal, Jabar Hyder, Ibrar Iqbal and Akhlaq Khan.

All four men pleaded guilty to class-B drug offences. Zafar Iqbal, 51, of Head-field Road, Dewsbury was sentenced to six-years imprisonment, Hyder, 29, of Saville Street, Batley got four years in prison, Ibrar Iqbal, 31, of Aire Street, Batley was jailed for three years and Khan, 31, of Oxford Road was jailed for a year.

An undercover operation was conducted by officers from Kirklees police between May 2008 and April 2009. They found that in addition to using the snooker club an adjoining property and a prop-erty on Saville Street, Batley was also being used by the dealers.

DCI Andy White of Kirklees police said: "These men were so blatant in their

offending that they allowed their drug dealing to be captured on their own CCTV cameras in the Hot Spot club. This arrogance only helped us to secure even more evidence against the quartet however and we are very glad to see each of them behind bars.

"Their stupidity or disregard for the law notwithstanding, this was a very large and sensitive undercover operation and the officers involved put themselves at potential risk to uncover the extent of the drug dealing that was taking place and to secure the extra evidence required to put this group before the courts.”

During the operation £40,000 worth of cannabis was seized and £13,000 in cash. The police also recovered a stun gun and bullets. A confiscation hearing is set to take place at a later date to discuss what should happen to £1million of property and assets belonging to the gang seized by the police during the operation.

Halal part 3

ANSA, the alternative?

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By Mohamed Ansar

TWENTY FIVE years after privatisation the general public could well be sitting on a potential goldmine. British gas shares sold in 1986 created millions of first time share-holders, 25 years later the shares have increased over 12 times there original price.

Whilst some of the newly created share-holders cashed in and sold their shares straight away, there are still many people today who have shares from the 80s and are unaware of how much they may be worth.

For example if 100 British Gas shares were bought at floatation in December 1986, at a total cost of £135, today they would be worth £1686, a remarkable return, not bad for 25 years of investment.

At a time when the recession is hitting people hard, this could well be a silver lining for those who locked up their share certificates and threw away the key.

John Douthwaite the CEO of Simply Stockbroking Ltd said, “Millions of people will be sitting on share certificates issued in the 1980s, which will now be worth a consider-able amount of money. Many have shied away from selling largely due to ignorance and fear of brokerage fees eating into profits from the sale, others may have inherited the shares and simply forgot they had them.”

So if you did throw away the key get looking! or call a locksmith, it could be what you’ve been looking for.

Don’t Forget to Tell Sid!

Add campaign:Infamous privatisation of british gas

By Mohamed Ansar

CYCLING sessions for local women have proven so successful that now four regular sessions are taking place across Kirklees.

Over 30 women take part in the Kirklees council project, supported by Sport England’s Sportivate Scheme and the organisation Street Bikes. The project is aimed at young women aged 16-25 and are a women only cycle coaching sessions.

Sessions are free and take place weekly

from four locations. On Tuesdays at Saville Town Children’s Centre (9.30 -11.30am) and Thornhill Community Centre (1.15 - 3pm) and on Wednesdays at Ravensthorpe Community Centre (10 -12pm) and Fartown Primary School (1pm). Some crèche facilities are also available.

Gill Greaves, cycle coach and leader, commented, “The scheme has been a tremendous success so far and has offered the women the chance to learn cycling skills in a fun and safe environ-ment.”

Women get on their bikes!

CYCLING ALONG:taking part in Sportivate Cycling Sessions at Oldroyd Park, Ravensthorpe, Dewsbury

By Ismail Mulla

KIRKLEES COUNCIL won an award for its response to the economic downturn at the Local Government Yorkshire and Humber ‘Make a Difference Awards’.

The awards celebrate the achievements of local authorities in Yorkshire and Humber.

The council’s Recession Board set up in 2010, won in the ‘Outstanding responses to the economic downturn’ category.

Leader of Kirklees Council, Cllr Mehboob Khan, said: “I am absolutely delighted with this news.

“Cllr Kath Pinnock and myself set up the Recession Board in 2010 and it has proved an invaluable source of funding for innova-tive and entrepreneurial activities which will help lessen the effect of the economic downturn locally.”

Cllr Kath Pinnock said: “I am pleased with the recognition that the award brings but the bigger reward was that the council made dealing with the effects of the reces-sion a priority and was able to help keep businesses afloat and save jobs as a result.”

Kirklees Recession Board wins award

A JOINT initiative between West Yorkshire Police and the British Oil Secu-rity Syndicate (BOSS) to tackle forecourt crime such as driving off without paying, deception, fraud and theft, has been launched in Wakefield. DI Steve Norman, Wakefield District Division said: “This partnership provides a commitment from Wakefield District Police to work with petrol retailers to do

all we can to catch and prosecute fuel thieves, whilst providing a safer environ-ment for their staff.

“Forecourts are often seen as a soft target by criminals. Hopefully this initia-tive will change that perception.” Filling stations across Wakefield are being encouraged to take part in the scheme which involves signing up to a special protocol with the police.


Rihanna nets a sixth week as number one in the Official Singles Chart, to take the title of artist with most weeks at Number one so far this year, exceeding Adele’s official singles performance of five weeks.

Rihanna’s achievement comes courtesy of her current Number one single ‘We Found Love’ featuring Calvin Harris. ‘We Found Love’ has now spent a total of five weeks at the summit in two separate runs at the top, having first claimed the official singles title six weeks ago.

Rihanna is also the featured artist on erstwhile collaborator Drake’s new single ‘Take Care’ which is straight in at Number 12. Her sixth studio album ‘Talk That Talk’ was released on Monday 21st November.

Lady Gaga has recently made not one but two, desi remixes of her hit single "Born this way."

One is rearranged with sitar, dholak and dhol by top Bollywood music composers Salim and Sulaiman; and the other was punjabified by British desi producers Culture Shock.

If there's one thing Gaga knows best it's how to deliver to a specific target audience, and she's going after the global South Asian market with a divide and conquer strategy: one track targets British desis and the other, Bollywood fans.

Post Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in South East London and is now becoming part of the mainstream. One to look out for is James Blake a British electronic music producer and singer-songwriter from London.

In January, Blake was announced as runner-up in BBC's Sound of 2011 poll. His self-titled debut album was released in the UK on 7 February 2011. His new single “Fall Creek Boys Choir" featuring Bon Iver has gone down a storm on the post Dubstep scene.

Rihanna rules the charts

Going Gaga for BollywoodDubstep is dead, long live Post-Dub

Arts&CultureBy Rabab Hussain

Google Is axing services

Google has announced the closure of some of their products and services. This is the third time the US giant has announced a cull on services of its products at the same time after they had failed to take off.

The list of products includes Google Wave, Google Bookmarks List - a service which allowed users to share bookmarks with friends; Google Friends Connect - allowed webmasters to add social features to their sites by embedding a snippet of code; Google Gears - much-hyped effort to main-tain web browser functionality when working offline; Google Search Timeline - a graph of historical query results and Knol - a Wikipedia-style project, which aimed to improve web content. Many of these products, when launched, created a buzz in the cyberspace, especially Google Wave which was thought to revolutionise e-mail and instant messaging for real time collaboration. But did people continue to use them after?

Launching a product or service is extremely tough in the current economic climate, as well there being a huge competition in the technology industry to be at the top. Many industry experts say Google have lessons to be learned, and that Google should take an approach like Apple’s whereby they release a few new products every year, rather than announcing a bulk load where many of them, except the most-hyped ones are usually forgotten. It would also allow them to focus and allocate more resources to products so they can be improved quicker.

Other experts think that Google is streamlining in order to concentrate on its Facebook rival, Google+. The network gained 10 million users within the first 16 days after its private launch, and 40 million within the first 100 days, making it the fastest-growing social network in the history of the web.

Google having an unseasonal Spring CleanBut G+ is safe

By Mosh

Gaga wrote on social networking site Twitter: “I worked with some Indian producers on ‘Born this way’ to show all the little monsters in India that I appreciate you!

“We collaborated with Indian music producers from across the globe to show our respect and appreciation for our desi fans and music commu-nity. We’re looking forward to more desi collabora-tions in the near future.”

Lowkey hits high note

Lowkey isn’t a name you hear on BBC radio 1 or a face you see on the music channel MTV. But his political views mixed with lyrical genius, has seen his name and music spread the globe.

Touring his ‘Soundtrack to the Struggle’ album which debuted at number #1 in the iTunes hip hop chart, he performed live at the iconic Cockpit in Leeds.

Pulling in a crowd of over 300 people Lowkey put on a lively and vibrant show and an energised crowd sang along to the words of freedom and justice, with probably the best political hip hop artist both sides of the Atlantic.

‘Hand on your gun ’proved to be a crowd favourite on the night, the song attacks the arms trade and the unethi cal values practiced by arms dealers such as BAE systems and the Lockheed Martin. Sampling an old western, the song provides emotion with a mix of knowledge fully appreciated by the audience.

Lowkey is far from reaching airtime or TV appearances with his political views and is one not to be missed. Letting an artist of Lowkey’s calibre go unnoticed is surely a crime Not for the light hearted but an excellent educator and role model to the youth in such turbulent times, a pioneer in social commentary.

By Jameel B

Bill Smith JR

Arnold Schwarzenegger's character in the 1984 movie, ‘The Terminator’, had superhuman abilities, such as being able to see through walls due to a cybernetic eye. Well guess what? It’s here.

A prototype contact lens, capable of providing the user with hands-free information update, has been devel-oped by scientists at the University of Washington and Aalto University, Finland.

Currently the lens only contains a single pixel, but it is seen as ‘proof-of-concept’, meaning if it is possible to produce a lens with one pixel, it is possible to produce lenses with multiple pixels (in their hundreds) that could potentially display short emails, messages and real-time information across our field of vision.

If this is actually developed it could have a number of uses like navigation systems, gaming devices, or anything to overlay computer-generated information on to the real world. I guess the phrase ‘glued to the TV’ might have a different meaning in a few years.

Terminator Vision


On Monday 21st November 2011, The Dorchester Hotel was brimming with dignitaries, VIPs, celebrities, and BBC News, who had all turned out to pay homage to exemplary members of the Asian community at the 36th Asian Who’s Who Awards 2011, which is set to coincide with the Asian Who’s Who International publication.

Asians may only constitute less than 7% of the British population, but 10% of the world’s richest Indians live in the UK, with Asian businesses contrib-uting 10% of the UK GDP and thou-sands of jobs., with Asian businesses in London supporting 200,000 jobs alone. Asian Who’s Who International is a publication that is almost the official UK index for the most inspir-ing and influential Asians in the world, recognising those who have made a great impact of society.

This year, there were three notable award winners.

Dr Diwan Rahul Nanda, the global chairman of TOPSGRUP, the second largest security services provider in India, with revenues in excess of £150 million and over 90,000 employees, was awarded the International Business Award.

The International Media Entrepreneur award was awarded to the CEO and MD of Sterling Media, Natasha

Mudhar. Sterling Media, founded by Teji Singh, is one of the UK’s leading full service communication agencies. Natasha is the architect who is cred-ited with creating the Bollywood Boom in the UK.

And Finally, Rajesh Agrawal was awarded the Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award. From earning £63 a month, he is now the Founder and Chief Executive of Rational FX, the world’s fastest growing independent foreign exchange companies, worth over £250 million.

Awaaz would like to congratulate all those awarded for their outstanding achievement that night.

The founder of Asian Who’s Who International and one of the most respected leaders of the Asian community, Mr. Jasbir Singh Sachar, had this to say, “It is with great honour and pride that we are about to celebrate the unparalleled accom-plishments of a community I am so proud to be a part of”

“The Asian communities must be identified and recognized for their success and achievements. I am very pleased that our work has continued ever since our launch year, going from strength to strength to reflect the continued celebration of achieve-ments among our communities."

Who’s Who

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“What’s going on Bladrins?! Big up to the West Yorkshire fans, you always make me feel loved whenever I come up. Yeah Boi!!!”

Why did you start 'Diary of a Badman'?

Well first of all I was bored. Second of all I needed to be famous so I could get rich and buy a Lamborghini. But my main reason was because all I’ve ever wanted to do is make people laugh and smile and to enter-tain people. I wanted to create a comedy for the youth who could relate, connect and learn something from it. Where do you get your ideas from?

From my head, once my teacher told me that I have a very wild imagination, that I’m very creative, but I don’t want to talk more about her because she looked like my uncle, he’s a man.

Do you feel Diary of a Badman could make it on national TV?

Yes I do because it’s amazing. I also think that it would be great for the Asian commu-nity to have some form of entertainment which they can relate to and understand. Also I want it represent the Pakistani Muslim community and make them proud as there’s not anyone else like me on main-stream TV, plus I would look so good on TV.

Diary of a Badman 10 is the finale. Is this the end of Badman? And will there be a new character show starting?

I have no idea but only time will tell. I don’t want to give too much away at this point, not because I want to keep it a secret, but because I genuinely don’t know, but just stay tuned and see what happens in Badman 10…

Will ‘Amme’ (the mother), who has been missing in the last couple of episodes be in the finale, and will the Imaam also be returning?

I can’t give too much away but I’m pulling out all the stops for Badman 10, it’ll be a real treat for all Badman fans! I’m aiming for a Christmas / New Years release when everyone’s at home watching rubbish TV, re-runs of old Christmas films from 1987.

The latest tour is organised by ‘Azme Alishan.’ What made this organisation appealing to Humza?

When they approached me they realised that I was extremely good-looking and that this tour would be a success. What they want to do is to inspire and motivate the young Pakistani community which I feel strongly about because there are a lot of talented young Asians out there who need to realise that with a bit of hard work, focus and dedication, they can achieve anything. I hope I can be a prime example of that.

Diary of a Badman includes wisdom from Islam and moral values. Is this something you will be continuing in future projects?

I have no idea about the future but when I made Diary of a Badman, I wanted to instil morals and messages from Islam to spread positivity. In recent years the media has portrayed Islam in a negative light and I want to challenge that stereotype with what I do.

How does it feel to have seven year olds memorising and singing your rap songs in school play grounds?

I know for a fact that the teachers must hate me by now, but I think it’s very cute. I’ve had so many young fans coming up to me and doing my rap, I’ll be honest with you – they’re better than me! Knowing that these kids look up to me is one of the best feelings in the world and I hope that I can be a good role-model for them.

‘Bladrin’ as well as other slang remarks have made it big amongst people who never knew them before. Did you ever think Diary of a Badman would have such an impact on everyday life?

I had no idea that it would be this big and I owe it all to God for giving me this oppor-tunity and I’m extremely grateful for all the support and love I get from all of my fans.

Humza Arshad is currently on tour until 10th December. For more info go to www.badmantour2011.co.uk

Comedian and Youtube sensation Humza Arshad of the widely popular ‘Diary of a Badman’ kindly agreed to speak exclusively with Awaaz and we were delighted.

Questions for Badman, Humza Arshad from readers and editors of Awaaz News

For pics of Badmans Tour check out our website

www.awaaznews.com


Outstanding StudentsOVER 80 local students were honoured at Kirklees College's annual student award ceremony with College Outstanding Learner Success awards.

The ceremony, held at the Galpharm Stadium, was attended by senior college managers, local business people who sponsored the awards, the tutors who nominated the winners and guest of honour Huddersfield Town manager Lee Clark, who present the awards.

Amongst the winners was Aqeel Sallu from Batley, who was nominated by two of his tutors. Aqeel studied ‘IT at work’ at the Dewsbury campus and overcame difficulties to succeed in his course.

Principal Peter McCann, addressing an audience of around 250, said: “You should all feel extremely proud tonight. It’s no mean feat to be nominated for a college award.

You have been picked out from 15,000

students at college because you are special.”Other winners included Arif Mamaniat, Asifa Ahmed, Shanana Rafiq and Zinab Daji all from Batley. Sameerah Shaffique, Misabah Chaudhry, Khuram Saeed and Damenjeet Kaur from Huddersfield. Mohammed Qasim, Mohammed Uzair and Hashim Mulla from Dewsbury, and Salman Khan from Heckmondwike.

With a 95 per cent pass rate from the last academic year, the College has moved into the top 15 per cent of colleges in England.

Picture:Aqeel Sallu with his award

Kirklees College Recognises achievements

Leeds Station fills with Christmas Comedy

RAIL passengers were provided with some festive cheer with pantomime personalities entertaining travellers passing through Leeds Station. The pantomime characters also gave away two pairs of CrossCountry rail tickets for any CrossCountry journey, to lucky passers-by. Roughly 22 million rail passengers use Leeds Station every year and has the largest number of platforms (17) outside of London.

By Ismail Mulla

A LOCAL Tenants & Residents Association received funding for a local sports partici-pation project in Central Batley thanks to players of a charity lottery.

The Batley Central Estate Tenants & Residents Association (BCETARA) was awarded £1889 by People’s Postcode Trust in August, a grant-giving charity, funded entirely by players of the People’s Postcode Lottery.

The organisation has used the money to

run a sports participation project called Sports Massive for young people aged 8-16 and has so far seen 35 young people take part in sports ranging from cricket, football, netball, athletics and tag rugby.

Secretary of BCETARA Cllr Amanda Stubley, Labour, Batley East, said: “This project has been a long time coming for this estate. We are proud to be supported by the People’s Postcode Lottery to help young people on our estate get active and participate in a range of sports.”

Postcode lottery win for young people

Getting active: Young people’s delight from postcode lottery.

By Mohamed Ansar

Around 26.4 million working days were lost in total during 2010 and 2011 accord-ing to the latest survey from the Labour Force, 22.1 million due to work-related illnesses.

Stress, depression or anxiety and muscu-loskeletal disorders accounted for the majority of days lost due to work-related ill health.

School teachers in particular have a high risk of developing disorders in the neck, back and shoulders according to the study. The report found that stressful working conditions due to large classes, a lack of educational resources, and limited

reward for their work was a likely cause of the high prevalence rates of self-reported musculoskeletal disorders among teach-ers.

Female teachers are more likely to suffer from musculoskeletal problems than male teachers. The study states that “MSD among teachers has been positively associated with female gender in a number of studies. It has been suggested that women might be more likely to report pain than men because women have lower physical strength, pressure from family and career prospects; or simply the fact that men and women have different traditions and thresholds for when and how they report pain.”

Working days lostStress, depression, anxiety


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British Muslims Pay Tribute Armed Forces at Eid Gathering on Remembrance Day THIS YEAR Eid-ul-Adha and Remembrance Day fell on the same week. To mark both occasions the MOD, Muslim Chaplin to Her Majesty’s Armed Forces and the Armed Forced Muslim Association hosted an event.

The programmes saw speeches and presentations from Director of Muslim women’s organisation Inspire, Sara Khan and BBC London news presenter Asad Ahmad.

Muslim Chaplain to HM Armed Forces, Imam Asim Hafiz MA, said: “Not many

people are aware of the enormous contri-bution Muslims have made to the Armed Forces over the years.

“Thousands served in the British Armed Forces in India and many continue to serve today; indeed over 600 Muslim men and women are currently serving in the British Armed Forces.”

The event took place at RAF Northolt in Aylesbury to help raise awareness of the contribution made by British Muslims over the years in addition to honouring those who had served and contributed to the British Armed Forces

British Muslims Pay Tribute To Armed Forces at Eid Gathering on Remembrance Day

Kirklees Outstanding Women’s Awards 2012

Kirklees Womens Alliance is looking for nominations for their ‘Outstanding Women’ 2012 awards.The awards are designed to honour individuals of outstanding merit who have

gone that extra mile to help others. Nomi-nations are open to women of all ages and backgrounds who remain invisible but vital contributors to the community of Kirklees. In total five categories are up for awards; Personal Achievement, Young Women, Carer, Business Women and Service to the Family and Community.So if you know someone who plays a vital role in their families, work, communities, businesses and society, nominate them now. The awards ceremony is due to take place in 2012 and nomination forms can be obtained from Awaaz or the Kirklees Womens Alliance. For further details contact Awaaz.

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GOOD news for energy-conscious music fans -- scientists claim to have created the world's first water-powered radio.

Inventor, Vivian Black, who helped turn the Wind-Up Radio into a global success, says his water-proof radio is powered by the motion of water flowing into a shower,

'The Daily Telegraph' reported.

The H20 water-powered radio clips onto the water pipe that runs up to a shower head. Using micro turbine technology, the radio is powered by the water pressure running up a pipe, says its inventor.

ITS OFFICIAL. Women in the UK are the fattest in Europe, according to the European Union.

It's data agency Eurostat, which looked at 19 countries, found nearly a quarter of UK women -- 23.9 per cent – were

recorded as being obese in the year 2008 to 2009. Just over 22 per cent of UK men were classed obese coming second to Malta.

PEOPLE who get painful migraine head-aches may be at a higher risk for devel-oping clinical depression, suggests a new study from Canada.

The research, published in the journal Headache, also hints that the relation-ship may go both ways and that people with clinical depression could have a higher risk of developing migraines, but

that finding could have been due to chance, the researchers say.

Nonetheless, lead author Geeta Modgill, who was at the University of Calgary while conducting the work, told Reuters Health that migraine and depression sufferers should know the signs of both ailments since each might be at a higher risk for the other condition.

BY 2017, a quantum phenomenon known as the tunnel effect will help reduce energy consumption of consumer electronics, such as computers and cellular phones, by up to 100 times less than now, experts have claimed.

The next revolution will likely come from tunnel-FET, a technology that takes advan-

tage of a phenomenon referred to as “quantum tunneling.”Research is well underway at the EPFL, and also in the laboratories of IBM Zurich and the CEA-Leti in France.Today’s computers have no less than a billion transistors in the CPU alone. These small switches that turn on and off provide the famous binary instructions.

Computers could be 100 times less energy-hungry by 2017 Migraines may raise depression risk: study

UK women 'fattest in Europe'World's first water-powered radio

Seeing 2011 out with a bang, the most cutting edge Indian film of all time raises the bar higher than ever before as Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan, reclaims his elusive avatar in ‘DON 2’, releasing in cinemas worldwide on 21st December 2011 by Reliance Entertainment. The buzz continues to build across international territories in anticipation of ‘DON 2’, Indian cinema’s most awaited sequel, which is set to dominate box offices globally. ‘DON 2’ combines two of the biggest new cinema trends in Indian cinema – 3D visual effects to bring audiences closer to the action; and the rise in Bollywood hit film sequels. Audiences will be gripped by the most cutting edge stunt sequences in Bolly-wood, as they jump out of cinema screens in

spectacular 3D and 2D experiences! Farhan Akhtar sets a whole new benchmark in Indian filmmaking, combining, state-of-the art technol ogy, high tech action sequences and the most gripping and stylish narrative to steal out of Indian cinema in recent years. Teasing audiences with a taste of what is to come and building on the suspense and expectations among cinema goers the world over, this month celebrates the launch of its new film poster, song promo by music trio Shankar Ehsan Loy and trailer. Fans of Shahrukh Khan are already spellbound by the megastar’s menacing new look in the film.

The film also stars Priyanka Chopra and Boman Irani who return to their earlier roles as ‘Roma’ and ‘Vardhaan’ respectively, and Om Puri, Lara Dutta and Kunal Kapoor who enter the sequel in new roles to add further twists and layers to the intelligently calcu-lated plotline. And with iconic dialogues like “Don ko pakadna mushkil hi nahi, namumkin hai” having set a worldwide craze among audiences, director Farhan Akhtar launched an innovative marketing stunt to continue spreading the hypnotic charms of ‘Don’

worldwide with a series of 11 witty, tongue-in-cheek quotes by the Don himself. Each week he will take some don-ism to audiences, continuing to draw them into the forthcoming release of the most anticipated Indian film sequel ever!


DON 2 WOWS AUDIENCES GLOBALLY WITH NEW FILM POSTER,TRAILER AND SONG PROMO!

Rockstar – Movie Review

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“Rockstar” is the journey of Janard-han Jakhar (Ranbir Kapoor) rising from being an ordinary boy with big dreams to a rock idol, while lstrug-gling with the fame and the emptiness that such a life brings as well as the sometimes beautiful, sometimes hateful force that is romance.

The film starts well, taking the time to build the character and set the scenario, effortlessly creating authen-ticity that seems far different to the

usual Bollywood marsala that goes into films. The first opening scenes are in fact the most dynamic in the film. It soon becomes apparent that everything starts to fall apart the minute the film shifts location to Prague.

One of the main issues is that it feels almost as though Janardhan or Jordan's rise to popularity and stardom is unjustified. The films shows nothing of his struggle to rise

within the industry, only of the struggle to get a foot into the door in the first place. Here, I believe, is a missed opportunity to create a film that would have been different from other tales which are cut from the same cloth.

Similarly, though the film claims that Jordan is becoming more and more unpopular, the narrative contradicts itself constantly. It would seem that the only people Jordan becomes unpopular with would be executives and paper-pushers.The media clearly love Jordan thanks to the fact that they can always get a headline out of him and the fans certainly don't seem to think of Jordan as a pain either, screaming for him and continuing to buy his records even while he's sitting in a jail-cell for the duration of a song. His pain seems unprecedented, though Kapoor acts wonderfully, and the strength of his emotions is well captured

Perhaps the worst aspect of the film was the sub-plot involving Heer (Nargis Fakhri). Though again, it starts well enough, with plenty of chemistry and Heer holding a healthy love for fun, by the second half Heer, and the romance aspect of the film has transformed into a chore rather than something pleasant, thanks to the unwise choice to add unneccesary drama in the form of a fatal illness.

Rockstar could have presented with an authentic view of the music industry, in a way similar to Fashion and the inner world of modelling. Indeed, A.R Rehman's music never fails to delight, even during the film's darkest and most inane scenes. But Imtiaz Ali seems to have been afraid to depart too much from Bollywood roots. It is because of this that the film ultimately fails and descends into the sheer nonsense the audience is presented with by the final act of the film.

Rated!

Articles by Simi Seghal


With an undeniable nostal-gia to his tunes, Parichay belongs to the league of extraordinary musicians who is spreading the unique music fever all over the globe!

PARICHAY - AN INTERNATIONAL MUSIC MOVEMENT IN HIMSELF

With more than a decade in the global music industry, Parichay, a critically acclaimed music artist who is capti-vating audiences across geographies, is fast becoming a recognized name in the international scene, with his pioneering fusion style of mixing Hip-Hop, Rock, Reggae with South Asian and Hindi Classical influences. One of the major producers of Desi Urban music in Canada, Parichay believes in creating a sound unique to today’s generation which all can connect to.

As a ‘triple-threat’ artist, Singer/ Producer/ Songwriter, Parichay’s earlier released single ‘Tum Habibi’ featuring DTP Rapper Joe Louis had already created a sensation in the UK Music charts and his track ‘Tum Habibi’ was featured at the No 1 postion for three consecutive weeks and Top 20 for over 20. He’s a young and fresh bhangra artist with an international fan base already locked in place.

Parichay’s musical journey began at the age of 12, as a winner of the most popular Bollywood music show -‘Antakshari’ - aired on Zee TV. Ever since then, Parichay has gone onto perform and headline at over 300 live shows and festivals worldwide, includ-ing several high-profile events such as the, Miss India-Canada Beauty Pageant, desiFEST Toronto/ Vancouver and UK Asian Music Awards to name a

few. Recently named ‘Artist of the Month’ on Worldspace Satellite Radio and having been featured and interviewed on India’s top Radio Stations ‘Mirchi 98.3FM’ and ‘FEVER 104 FM’ as well as the hugely popular Friction show on BBC Radio in the UK, Parichay’s ‘No Boundaries’ entered the charts at India’s biggest music store chain, ‘Rhythm House’ at Number 7 as well.

Parichay then went on to collaborate with RDB on the House Mix of the title song of the Bollywood blockbuster hit, ‘Yamla Pagla Deewana’, featuring the Deol acting dynasty of Bollywood – Dharmendra, Sunny Deol and Bobby Deol. He performed this single live at the highly prestigious IIFA Rocks event as part of the IIFA Awards in Toronto in June this year. Parichay’s smooth vocals have quite simply created a magical effect on this club track currently hit, championing the clubs and radio airwaves across the world.

Parichay has had an amazingly succesfull 2011, with one of the highest viewed MySpace and

YouTube profiles amongst Indepen-dent South Asian artists in Canada, and the huge success of the tracks ‘Qween of Spades’, ‘Deewana Tera’, ‘Kasam Se’ and ‘Tum Habibi’, which have reached top spots on several charts in the UK and North America such as Sabrang 94.7FM Radio (Calgary), Red FM 93.1 (Vancouver) and BBC Radio (UK).

Having featured on RDB’s forthcoming album ‘Worldwide’ as well as on several soon-to-be- released Bollywood projects, thereisno doubt that this collaboration is set to leave a mark in the industry for years to come. Parichay continues to produce records for Asian artists as well as mainstream acts such as the single ‘Fly Away’ for Toronto/ DC rapper, Hennesseyy. All in all, this Canadian, desi-urban artist is here to stay and bring the music industry a breath of fresh air with his recently released sophomore album ‘All New Everything’.

At a recent party for a major player in Hong Kong, RDB performed exclu-sively at the party with other perfor-mances from the likes of Akshay Kumar and King Khan aka Shahrukh

Khan. RDB were also seen having solid fun with bollywood’s latest superstar Ranveer Singh, as seen in the photos .

RDB with Ranveer singh

Parichay Ready to produce

India’s most prominent Showbiz company, ‘Morani Brothers’ invited RDB brothers & Parichay to the shooting of the brand new Golden Awards on India’s Colours TV station, where they rubbed shoulders with Bollywood’s top actors and actresses. The likes of Sajid Khan, Ritesh Deshmukh, Javid Jaffery, Sonali Bedre, all praised RDB's work, including Bollywood superstar Salman Khan.

RDB and Nindy Kaur along with Parichay will head straight to Dubai today for some more power packed shows and then straight off to Hawaii for more exclusive perfor-mances.

Partying: Ranveer Singh with Parichay

RANVEER SINGH CHILLING WITH RDB AND PARICHAY IN HONGKONG!

RDB & PARICHAY CROSSING

INTERNATIONAL STARDOM

RDB and Parichay with Salman Khan

Nindy Kaur


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The Cooking CornerVegetarian stir-fry Japanese miso soup

Ingredients for vegetarian stir-fry

1⁄4 cup (125 ml) salt-reduced vegetable stock2 tablespoons lime juice2 tablespoons salt-reduced soy sauce2 teaspoons sugar2 teaspoons cornflour2 tablespoons vegetable oil4 cloves garlic, crushed1 tablespoon peeled and finely chopped fresh ginger2 long red chillies, seeded and finely sliced1 carrot, thinly sliced1 red capsicum, seeded and sliced4 spring onions, thinly sliced1 zucchini, thinly sliced125 g fresh baby corn125 g Chinese cabbage (wong bok), shredded

Preparation for vegetarian stir-fry

1 Whisk the stock, lime juice, soy sauce, sugar and cornflour in a small bowl until smooth.2 Heat only 2 teaspoons of the oil in a large non-stick frying pan or wok over medium–high heat. Add the garlic, ginger and chillies. Stir-fry for 30 seconds, then add to the stock mixture.

3 Heat the remaining oil in frying pan. Add the carrot, capsicum, onions and zucchini, then stir-fry, until they are crisp but tender, about 2 minutes. Add the baby corn and cabbage; stir-fry for 1 minute. Add the stock mixture, then stir well to coat all the ingredients. Cover and simmer for about 2 minutes.

Ingredients for Japanese miso soup

25 g dried kombu1 tablespoon soy sauce2 teaspoons caster sugar½ teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger1½ tablespoons miso4 spring onions, sliced6 fresh shiitake mushrooms, thinly sliced85 g tofu, diced3 cups trimmed watercress, about 85 g

Preparation for Japanese miso soup

1. Put the kombu in a saucepan and pour in 1 litre of water. Bring slowly to the boil, then remove from the heat and cover the pan. Set aside for 5 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to remove and discard the kombu.

2. Stir the soy sauce, sugar and ginger into the broth and return to the boil. Reduce the heat and stir in the miso until it dissolves completely.

3. Add the spring onions, mushrooms, tofu and water-cress. Cook very gently, stirring, for 2 minutes without allowing the soup to boil. Ladle into small bowls and serve at once.

• Kombu is a sun-dried edible seaweed that is very popular in Japanese cook-ery. Wipe the surface with a damp cloth before using. It can be finely shredded or snipped into fine strips with scissors and returned to the broth, if you like, to add an interesting texture contrast.

• Miso is a fermented paste made from soya beans. If your supermarket does not stock it, try a health-food store.

• For an intense herb flavour, add 1½ tablespoons finely chopped fresh coriander leaves with the watercress.

Cooking Tips

A taste for the orient

When stir-frying vegetables, cook the toughest and thickest vegetables for a longer period than the softer, leafy vegetables. Vegetables such as broccoli, carrots, and cabbage need to be cooked longer than bok choy, which in turn is cooked longer than snow peas or bean sprouts.

Stir-frying Tips!


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It’s that time of the year girls: sure, your chunky jumpers looks cute with your new boots, but why look cute when you can look glam?? Nails that match your outfit make you look more polished and act as the perfect accessory to your outfit.

This month I have easy nail ideas that will help you dazzle any outfit

and with the snow right around the corner this has to be the most fashionable indoor activity.

Follow me on twitter to keep track of the latest beauty trends (@minhafayoom) all product review requests are welcomed Minha Fayoom

This new DIY nail art culture is going to see a new major trend.

This month, a few nail lacquer brands like Nails Inc and 17(at boots) have introduced the magnetic effect nail polishes.

It’s really easy to do apply your chosen base coat, and then apply one coat of magnetic polish to your nails. Create the magnetic effect one nail at a time by immediately holding the magnetic cap over each nail and taking care not to touch the nail. Move cap away to reveal the effect. Allow nails to dry and finish with a top coat. 17 magnatized Nail Polish in Lilac is retailing for £5.99 at boots in store and online.

Bargain BuzzThere are great Christmas nail polish gift sets available at asos.com. Get 5 Barry M nail polishes for £10.00.

All the colours included should be a staple in your nail polish collection. From asos best of best by OPI is a number one on my wish list for just £27.50 it comes with miniature sizes of their most popular nail polishes including, taupe tone ‘You Don’t Know Jacques’ and soft pink ‘Bubble Bath’ alongside the classic ‘Big Apple Red’ and the inky blue ‘Lincoln Park After Dark’.

Remember students can get a 10% off asos.com with their NUS card.

All that glitters is girly- I am obsessed with Revlon nail enamel in Facets of Fuchsia. Now I have to admit that one was a guilty buy at £6.49 (not an investment just amuse-ment). But, I was so happy when it didn’t disappoint. Yes, you need minimum two coats of the polish to get the purple stars in a night sky effect but it totally works. Apply a high shine top coat and enjoy counting all that glitter on your nails before bed. Try the Miss Sporty high shine top coat (£1.99).

Let’s pretend their perfect-My number one manicure secret has to be a base coat. Base coats fill all the ridges and make your nails even to polish. They give the illusion of a £30 manicure with any polish on top. Especially, when the base coats aren’t half as expensive as the mentioned manicure. Now that’s a bargain! I just ran out of my Sally Hansen nail growth miracle. It works really well and I did notice that my nails grew faster than usual. The polish is not too thick, just the right consistency to apply easily with your left hand without making a mess around your fingernails. The only thing that bothers me is the price of £9.65. However,

It’s a really smart investment. There are cheaper base coats available in the market like the Sally Hansen maximum growth base coat (£4.75) which I tried before I invested and the Barry M base coat (£.2.99).Wow everyone with vintage-For artistic salon looking vintage nails paint a coat of any dark polish. After the polish is dry paint on a single coat of the Barry M instant nail effects in Silver foil, also avail-able in gold. Let the polish dry, then take a cotton pad drenched in nail polish remover and gently pat random areas of your nails. This will give your nails a tarnished look. Apply the Rimmel pro matte nail coat (£4.59) and unleash your inner drama queen (sigh!).


Ahmad and Suleman from Hyrstmount Junior school came up with the ideas for this months ‘Kids Page‛, we would like to thank them for all their hard work and great ideas. If you and a friend would like to design a Kids Page ask a parent or teacher to contact us and we‛ll tell you what to do !

DID YOU KNOW?A cheetah can run 46 miles per hour - that's pretty fast! The fastest humans runs only about 18mph

Just one square centimetre of the Sun's surface shines with the brightness of 232,500 candles

About 10% of the worlds population is left handed

Elephants are not really scared of mice. Compared to an elephant, a mouse is so small that an elephant does not even know that there is a mouse close to it.

DOTTODOT

Connect up the dots andcolour it in.

My School Day I wear my uniform and leave my house

I carry my lunch box and walk like a mouseI get to school and see my friendsI join my class in a line that bendsI hear my teacher say one by one

My smart penguins everyone!After my lesson of numeracy

I then join the school for an assemblyI then meet my friends, in the playground

We laugh and run and mess aroundThen back to class for literacy

We write some facts and some storiesWe tidy our tables and then have lunch

Mum has packed my favourite munch bunch!I eat and play then go back in

We throw our rubbish in the binWe sit on the carpet for story time

I wear my coat and join the lineAt ten past three I’m going home

Waiting for me is my mumThat is how my school day ends

Tomorrow morning it starts again.

WinterSnowball

IceSledge

SnowmanArcticSeal

Polar bearCold

Snow lakeScarfBoots

HatCoat

Gloves

Word Search

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Contact Awaaz

By Ahmad Saloo (7years old) and Suleman Nabi (7years old)

GamingDecember [email protected] 21

Unboxed Nintendo Wii Games Console

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6 Games

Nunchuck and Controller!

It's a well known fact that every story must have a begin-ning and with The Legend of Zelda : Skyward Sword, fans and newcomers alike can finally see how Hyrule came to be, with the main focus on a version of Link and Zelda who start off as childhood friends before things go awry, forcing Link to set off on a journey with the world and his friend's future at stake.

Nintendo has long been a company that sacrifices story-telling for game-play, though many would argue that the Zelda games have always had a decent narrative. However, Skyward Sword's predecessors are put to shame in the face of this latest release, which follows in the foot-steps of other modern video games by featuring captivating cinematics and drama. As usual, there is little to no voice acting, save for maybe some nonsense babbling ala Midna from Twilight Princess, but the characters are rich with emotion and there are many of them who will leave a lasting impression. One such character is Fi, a spirit who has much to learn about the human race. Her role is to advise the player and give hints but also to add some humour to the proceedings with her inability to understand human customs.

The combat system has been rehauled, requiring skill and patience. Since Link's sword is controlled by how you move the Wii-mote, it might be tempting to randomly swing the remote about in a bid to defeat enemies. Don't be fooled; most enemies are programmed to punish you for this sort of behaviour. Many of them can anticipate your moves and counter effectively, adding a new dimension to the combat system previously not found in past Zelda games. It's fun rather than frustrating, and you'll have a blast trying to find out which tactic works best for each enemy.

Dungeons have always been a staple of Zelda games, but again evolution has played a part here, bringing us smaller dungeons with more creative puzzles that often require multiple weapon changes in one process. They also get progressively harder and more difficult, present-ing players with the best designs seen thus far in the franchise.

However, the game does have its flaws. My main issue is

that the game seems to fall prey to an awful lot of padding. Skyward Sword requires you to travel back repeatedly to previously visited locations but alters some pathways and forcing you to use newly acquired weap-onry. Though it helps to make the experience somewhat less stale, it feels somewhat unnecessary, and like a desperate move to drastically increase the length of the game.

Another issue that some players will take umbridge with is the franchise's new look. Though this reviewer person-ally feels that the Zelda series has finally found a look that suits the game, combining the maturity of Twilight Princess and the vividness of Windwaker, many will feel somewhat put out by the new direction. The main issue however, is the remote's constant need for calibration, always choosing the least convenient time to play up. But none of these issues are game-breaking and there is a wealth of things to do and explore in what will soon be recognised as a timeless classic.

The Bottom Line: The Legend of Zelda : Skyward Sword has finally achieved what was never thought possible; it has revitalised a 25-year old franchise and more impor-tantly, provided Wii owners with a game they can be proud of owning. With perfect pacing, stunning diversity and near perfect game-play, Skyward Sword has raised the bar and will prove to be a very tough act for future Zelda games to follow.

For Sale

Rating :

Xbox 360 - The Elder Scrolls V : Skyrim –The Review

Fighting dragons is common in video games. But only in Skyrim do these encounters feel truly epic and earth-shattering, far from the “beat the boss so you can proceed” mentality that plagues most games of this era. Unbelievably, these battles may not even be the most memorable moments in your Skyrim experience.

And that's the real beauty of the game; every experience is different. Every player will create their own game thanks to the plethora of things to do. The side-quests alone have enough story that would serve as the main plot of a lesser game and the amount of discoveries there are to uncover are countless.

You don't have to necessarily follow the story. In fact, it's better if you don't so then you can truly enjoy the universe this game has to offer though the story is no less enjoyable, which puts you in the role of a Dragon-born. You alone hold the key to understanding why the beasts have returned to terrorize Skyrim's population, though the plot's twists and turns soon weave a tale more involved than anyone could guess.

But if you choose to take a break from the main quest, it will always remind you of its central importance. An innocuous trip to a small village may end unexpectedly when a dragon attacks without warning, causing the people to fight alongside you, though not everyone may survive such an encounter. Despite the fantasy setting, such scenes can be incredibly realistic in driving home how important your quest is. It effects everyone and the game reminds you of this constantly. Not many games allow you to feel as if you're a hero who can make a difference the way Skyrim does. However, there can also be an ulterior motive to defeating dragons; they bear a strong role in your characters' development, particularly in learning “shouts”, Skyrim's most powerful

spells but this is just one part of the process:finding words written in the dragon’s tongue is the only way tolearn of the shouts' existence.

Developing your character is a joy rather than a chore and the combat system has also been revamped to show off your character's skills, giving you the opportu-nity to dual-wield magic spells, throwing fireballs with one hand and summoning whirlwinds with the other. The same holds true for melee weapons. When you first create your character, you can choose from a list of races but in a departure for the series, you can't choose whether to be a mage or a warrior or a cleric, with these roles developing as you find battle tactics which are best suited for yourself as a player. It's not fully automated though and you still get some say as to what direction your character will take; stats are given to you each time you level up for you to spend as you choose.

The Bottom Line: Though Skyrim has been released at a time when there are many good-quality RPGs on the market, none of them come close to competing with the atmosphere that Tamriel offers or the sheer scope of the game. You'll find yourself somehow losing hours to the game without even realising it and though you may walk away or even try and play something else, Skyrim will keep you coming back for more.

Wii - The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword – The Review

Rating :Articles by Simi Seghal

Tel: 01924 510512 Mob: 07846336284 Email: [email protected]

Awaaz December edition

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Transcript of Awaaz December edition