YEARLY ARCHIVE: 2018

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

There are many reasons for me to be hooked on this novel and not solely because the two leading protagonists happen to be table tennis enthusiasts. Not even because the central character is a blogger of some considerable merit though these facts do help to endear me to the novel. No, the fundamental reason that I warmed to this work is that it is a fine polemic on both race and class and all the thousands of interweaving connections and nuances between the two.

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Is the European Union Over rated ?

Theresa May’s mantra should fool no one. While the prime minister insists repeatedly that her Brexit blueprint will mean the UK controlling its borders, laws and money, the real aim of the government is to…

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The KX Table Tennis Tribe: Self-Management at its Very Best

Ping England started with a wizz-bang promotional show in the beautifully renovated St Pancras Railway. Eight years later, one of the very best examples of Ping England would spontaneously emerge just a few metres away at the back of the stunningly revamped Kings Cross Railway Station.

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FIFA’s Russian Roulette

Shoot the stray dogs and lock up the gays, We’re playing FIFA’s Russian Roulette. Vilify those who dare criticise, It’s the World Cup we’ll never forget. Monkey chants ring out from the stadia, We’re enjoying FIFA’s Russian Roulette. Unleash the thugs with their fascist regalia. It’s the World Cup we can hardly forget.

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Aussie Ball Tampering – Symbolic of a larger malaise?

Australia, like every nation, has enmeshed itself in an intricate web of self-deceits, half-truths and outright lies. And that is no surprise given that modern ‘European’ society in Australia was founded on one gigantic lie – that the Australian landmass was empty of human settlement when the first European invaders arrived.

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Ping Pong for Peace & Rollnets for Refugees

Playing Table Tennis at the Za’atari Refugee Camp 4th – 6th April 2018

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Facebook and Cambridge Analytica – Business as Usual

This it would be a much bigger story if we discovered that no such manipulations were taking place. The clever and the cunning and the outright disreputable have always sought to mould and manipulate the general populace

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Anti-Semitism claims against Corbyn – It’s got MI5’s grubby fingerprints all over it

For those in power who fear Corbyn’s radical socialist agenda, to falsely brand him complicit in anti-Semitism is the perfect ideological stick with which to beat him.

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Corbyn’s Response to the latest British anti-Russian hysteria

Corbyn has been a rare sane voice for diplomacy, negotiation and international law.

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Table Tennis is good for the brain

There is a lot going on in table tennis, says Wendy Suzuki, a tenured professor of neuroscience at New York University and author of Healthy Brain, Happy Life, a new book exploring how sport generally and table tennis specifically can affect the human brain.

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March4Women – Sunday 4th March 2018

Organised by a charity called Care International, you could tell immediately by their selection of speakers that this was indeed an organisation with a clear and conscious international dimension.

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Hammersmith Ping Pong Parlour – A Joy to Behold

This was to be an experience close to the very essence of not only West London Ping but of Ping England itself. Three tables in a disused shop in the Kings Road shopping mall with nobody in charge and a queue for every table.

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Human Flow, a Documentary by Ai Weiwei

One sign of a modern society might be its ability to generate its own thoughtful critics. In China, the only name that comes readily to mind to the Eurocentric media, is that of Ai Weiwei.

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Table Tennis England – Still asking the wrong questions.

The governing body of table tennis are in the midst of a root and branch examination of their governing structures. A token consultation that will not ask the key question: How is it that of the thousands of youngsters who have been drawn into the sport over the past years, only a tiny handful are still playing?

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Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine

Reading Claudia Rankine’s Citizen, I get the distinct impression that for Black people living in predominantly European societies, the prejudice never really stops because they are always, first and foremost, in the eyes of the European, Black.

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Oxfam Report – How the neo-liberal, corporate elite hate it

Nearly a billion of our fellow citizens are without clean and safe drinking water. Two billion of must make do without proper sanitation. Disease is rife. lives are cut short. One in five girls don’t get a primary school education.

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Brexit Blues

Brexit, Brexit from May to December, Brexit scheming is all I remember, Productivity rising, trade flat-lining, A time for cheering a time for crying. Brexit, Brexit from Monday to Sunday, Brexit plotting for a pumped-up payday, Opportunities opening, trade door slamming, The predictions are rosy, the forecasts are damning.

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Brexit Blues

Brexit, Brexit from May to December Brexit scheming is all I remember Productivity rising, trade flat-lining A time for cheering a time for crying.

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The Greatest by Matthew Syed

The central theme of Chapter 4 is the corrosive role of the State when it comes to sport. Nothing about how capitalism has transformed sport and its elite competitors into commodities to be bought and sold like cattle in the market place.

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The Crown: Series 2

The Crown is right up there with the very best in terms of script, direction and acting. But it is the delicate balancing act between a devastating critique of the monarchy and a sympathetic portrayal of the Windsor’s, which gives this particular production its special quality.

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