.: The Red Brick – Dubai College's Student Newspaper :.

Today I’m five. I was four last night going to sleep in Wardrobe, but when I wake up in Bed in the dark I’m changed to five, abracadabra. Before that I was three, then two, then one, then zero

In many ways, Jack is a typical five-year-old: he likes to read books, play games with his Ma and watch TV but not too much as it ‘rots our brains’. Yet Jack is different in a big way… he has lived his entire life in a single room sharing the entire space – just 11 by 11 feet – with his single mother and an unnerving night-time visitor known as Old Nick. The reader knows only what Jack knows, since the novel is strongly planted in the narrative restrictions; thus, the drama is immediate as is the reader’s sense of disorientation over why these characters are confined in this place. The main objects in Room are capitalised – Rug, Bed, Wall – which not only serves to highlight their importance to the narrator but also indicates the way that to Jack, they are named beings. In a world where the only other companion is Ma, Bed is his friend as much as anything else. Through this personification, Jack is able to relate to his world, defining the only world that he knows.

Jack’s days were ‘filled with thousands of things to do’ as for him, life was good purely because he knows nothing else; empty egg shells become a snake when threaded together, toilet rolls become a maze and Physical Education is sometimes Track which goes around Bed from Wardrobe to Lamp. However, for Ma, life is filled with the knowledge of what she is missing outside the room before her captivity. Room presents two different perspectives, two different ways of looking at life. Room is the only world that Jack knows; but for Ma, it is a prison in which she has tried to craft a normal life for her son. Room focuses on the relationship between mother and child; the way in which she manages to create a magical childhood for him engenders sympathy in the reader and makes the novel a compelling read.

‘You must feel an almost pathological need-understandably- to stand guard between your son and the world’ says the puffy-hair woman. ‘Yeah, it’s called being a mother’ says Ma 

Emma Donoghue has not been so crass as to make light of their plight; in fact, at times, it is almost impossible not to turn away in horror. When Old Nick comes into the room at night, Ma makes Jack hide in the wardrobe where he hides ‘till he makes that gaspy sound and stops’. Ma even has days where she is ‘gone’ to blank-eyed depression. However, Donoghue explores the indomitability of the human spirit, balancing the grotesque with the uplifting making even the most vile of circumstances something absorbing, truthful and beautiful.

Room is a book about the smallest of worlds, and the biggest. Small ones (such as couples, families, workplaces) have their pleasures as well as their irritations; big ones (cities, nations, the Internet) both attract and alienate. Some days we all feel trapped in our particular life circumstances, and other days we find there is more freedom inside their limits, and room inside our heads, than we ever knew.

(Emma Donoghue)

 Inspired by the likes of Elizabeth Fritzl and Jaycee Dugard – both of whom were held for many years by captors by whom they bore children – Donoghue has explained that to frame the story through a mother’s eyes ‘would be too obviously sad’. Therefore, told entirely in the language of a child, Room is the celebration of resilience and the limitless bond between a parent and a child. Despite its profoundly disturbing premise, Room is rife with moments of hope and beauty combined with the determination to live even in the most desolate of circumstances.

According to the annual statistics released by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in Dubai, there has been a noticeable drop in the number of Britons arrested in the UAE. Perhaps it was the effect of the British Consul visit to schools (like Mandy who visited DC in April) or the impact that the arrests had on the headlines back home, but undeniably British behaviour in the UAE has improved.

The number of Britons arrested on drug-related offences in the UAE has fallen by 79%, whilst the number of arrests overall (including drug-related offences) fell by 18%. One million Britons visit the UAE each year, however, last year they were most likely to be arrested in the Emirates than anywhere else, second only to Thailand. In response to this, the British Embassies in the UAE increased their outreach programme activities, providing educative talks at schools such as DC, advice through the media and travel advice published in British newspapers.  As a result, the UAE has moved into seventh place as Britons travelling abroad are now most likely to be arrested in Spain and the US, highlighting the raised awareness that Britons have when on holiday here.  

Clearly the message has finally got through… When living abroad, Britons need to respect the local laws and culture.

Here is this month’s quiz… See how many you can get right – and don’t cheat!!

1. What battle was fought in 1066 in Britain?
2. What is the oldest religion in the world?
3. Who was the first man to step on the moon?
4. Name the Seven Dwarfs from Snow White
5. How many Olympic Gold Medals did Mark Spitz win in the 1972 Olympics? (Clue: He is a swimmer)
6. I’m running a race. I overtake the person in second. What position am I now in?
7. Bilbo Baggins is a character is which trilogy?
8. Where is the smallest bone in the human body?
9. Which famous celebrity’s true name is ‘Curtis Jackson’?
10. If instructed to play a piece of music “allegro”, what pace would you play: fast, marching-beat or slow?
11. What is the currency of Oman?
12. If you fly into the airport with the three-letter code, CDG – what city are you in?
13. Which film won the 2011 Oscar for Best Picture?
14. Chiffon, Marble and Bundt are types of what?
15. What is geniophobia a fear of?
16. Who wrote ‘The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe’?
17. What was the score in the most recent Manchester United vs. Arsenal match in the Barclays Premier League?
18. What was the name of the ship that fired the first shot to signal the beginning of the Russian Revolution in 1917?
19. What is the binomial name of a lion?
20. What is the name of David and Victoria Beckham’s youngest child?

The People's Princess

Diana, Princess of Wales, was killed after her car crashes in a Paris underpass. The driver and herfriend, Dodi Al Fayed, were also killed in the collision in a tunnel under the Place D’Alma in the centre of the city after the Princess’ car was being pursued at high-speed by photographers. Dodi Al Fayed – son of Harrods owner, Mohammed Al Fayed – and the chauffeur were killed at the scene but Princess Diana and her bodyguard were cut from the wreckage and rushed to hospital where they later died.

September 1^st 1939: Germany declares war on Poland

German forces attacked Poland across all frontiers as its planes bombed all major cities – including the capital, Warsaw. The attack came without any warning or declaration of war. Britain and France were forced to mobilise their troops and declare war on Germany on the 3^rd September 1939 after Hitler ignored their separate ultimatums, demanding the withdrawal of German troops from Poland – World War II had begun. 

Lennox Lewis

September 2nd 1965: Birth of Lennox Lewis, English professional boxer and 1988 Olympic Gold medallist

Around 335 people – half of them children – died after a 3-day siege at a Russian school came to a bloody end; the exact number will probably never be known as 100 people are still listed as missing. Many of the bodies were so badly burned that they were deemed unrecognisable. The siege began early on 1^st September when a group of masked men and women, wearing bomb belts, stormed into the school, opening fire in the courtyard where students had gathered for a ceremony to mark the beginning of the school year. The attackers demanded the release of fighters seized in neighbouring Ingushetia in June during a raid on the region, threatening to blow up the school if troops stormed the building. An agreement was reached to remove the bodies of the dead yet as the troops drew closer to collect them, there were two loud explosions and then automatic gun-shot as heavily armed soldiers ran towards the building. The shooting went on for several hours as witnesses stated that piles of dead bodies could be seen in front of the gym doors. The only hostage-taker to be captured alive, Nur-Pashi Kulayev, a Chechen carpenter, was sentenced to life imprisonment in May 2006.

September 4^th 1985: Titanic wreck captured on film for the first time

The first pictures of the Titanic were released over 73 years after the liner sank with the loss of over 1,500 lives

September 5th 1698: Russia’s Peter the Great imposes a tax on beards

September 6^th1915: First Tank is produced

Little Willie

In  1915, a prototype tank nicknamed Little Willie rolls off the assembly line in England. Little Willie was far from an overnight success. The British developed the tank in response to the pre-existing trench warfare of World War I. In 1914, a British army colonel named Ernest Swinton and William Hankey, Secretary of the Committee for Imperial Defence, championed the idea of an armoured vehicle with conveyor-belt-like tracks over its wheels that could break through enemy lines and traverse difficult territory. The men appealed to British navy minister Winston Churchill, who believed in the concept of a “land boat” and organised a Landships Committee to begin developing a prototype. It weighed 14 tonnes, got stuck in trenches and crawled over rough terrain at only two miles per hour. However, improvements were made to the original prototype and tanks eventually transformed military battlefields around the world.

   ‘It’s the quality of one’s convictions that determines success, not the number of followers’… Whilst this may be so, Professor Lupin, JK Rowling’s Harry Potter has found success on both fronts and will surely be missed… The seven films to date have earned almost a billion dollars each; therefore it is obvious that their followers are legion. However, dark times lie ahead… yet not for Harry Potter but rather for the millions of fans across the world that have grown up alongside The Boy Who Lived. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 stands as a spectacular closing chapter to the wizard saga, packed with breath-taking action sequences and moving performances from Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint. An emotional farewell for the devoted fans of JK Rowling’s fantasy world, the film surpasses all expectations. Simply magical! Following the release of the film, here are ten weird and wonderful facts that you perhaps did not know…  

1. In Harry Potter and the Philosopher Stone, Harry sees his parents in a mirror which Dumbledore refers to as the ‘Mirror of Erised’ – does this ring any bells? Interestingly, ‘Erised’ is an anagram of DESIRE
2. Not only is Voldemort a keen follower of the Dark Arts, it appears that he also has a knack for languages as his name – as well as being an anagram of Tom Marvelo Riddle – means “fly from death” in French and Voldemort’s sole goal is to achieve immortality. Similarly, ‘Morsmorde’  (the command that makes the Dark Mark appear) means “take a bite out of death” in French, making it an appropriate call for Death Eaters.
3. In the second book, there is a picture of Gandalf the Grey from Lord of the Rings in Dumbledore’s study
4. As every Harry Potter fanatic knows, Dementors are deadly, wraith-like creatures. JK Rowling revealed that they represent depression and were based on her own experiences with the disease; interestingly, the remedy to lighten the effect of a Dementor is chocolate!
5. The driver and conductor of the Knight Bus from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Ernie and Stanley, are named after Rowling’s grandfathers
6. Numbers are symbolic in the series, especially 2, 3, 4, and 7. For example, the trio of Harry, Ron, and Hermione suggest the power of three and the spiritual trinity. Harry fatally wounds the basilisk on its third strike, and Hagrid knocks on the front door of Hogwarts three times. Students attend Hogwarts for seven years and there are seven players on each Quidditch. Sirius is also imprisoned on the seventh floor of Hogwarts.
7. Natalie McDonald, who appears as a first year student in Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire, was a real person. She was a nine-year-old girl from Toronto, Canada, who was dying of leukemia. She wrote to Rowling asking what was going to happen in the next Harry Potter book as she would not live long enough to read it. Rowling emailed back, but Natalie had died a day earlier. In tribute, she became a first-year student at Hogwarts sorted into Gryffindor House by the Sorting Hat.
8. In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix when Arthur Weasley takes Harry and his pals to the Ministry of Magic they must first dial a secret code into a telephone keypad. He enters the number 62442. The letters underneath those numbers on a standard mobile phone spell out the word “magic”.
9. Twin jokers, Fred and George, the owners of the joke shop Weasley’s Wizard Wheezers celebrate their birthdays on the stupidest day of the year – April Fool’s Day
10. JK Rowling, Harry Potter and actor Daniel Radcliffe all share the same birthday, July 31. Coincidental – I think not!

If you’ve heard someone ask the question, ‘have you seen it yet?’ or ‘wasn’t it soo good?’ lately, chances are they’re referring to the recent release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The final instalment (part one) of what is considered the most famous book-and-movie franchise in history has had fans across the world re-reading the entire series and searching for suitable round glasses and black cloaks in anticipation of November the 18^th for the past few months. And the fans’ excitement and enthusiasm for the premiere showed. The film raked in $330.1 million worldwide in its opening weekend, ranking fifth on the all-time chart and a little more than a week later has earned more than $363,532,000 across the world. Grossing $24 million for its midnight showing only.

For those few out there who haven’t read the book or seen the latest adaptation, the film continues to follow Harry Potter and his two best friends Ron and Hermione as they begin their treacherous quest to destroy the dark wizard Lord Voldemort once and for all. This time, however, the three friends leave Hogwarts behind and embark on a hunt for Voldemort’s horcruxes, which need to be destroyed in order for him to be able to die, something which becomes increasingly urgent with the escalating power of the dark wizard and his followers. The film depicts a new stage in the characters’ lives and the absence of the famous and comforting school and the more prominent inclusion of issues such as love, death and violence give the film a more dark and adult tone. As the characters dodge death eaters and make numerous narrow escapes, new information on the myth of the Deathly Hallows, the three legendary objects that unite to become the master of death, is woven into the story and more is slowly revealed about Voldemort’s intentions and his, Dumbledore and Harry’s past.

Although the movie adaptation of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows sparks the usual protests and mourning over moments from the book that did not make it to the big screen, the two part structure of the tale enables it to follow the book much more closely than previous films and is much more successful in capturing the complexity of the story than the last few chapters of the Harry Potter movie franchise. The fact that this film is only the first half of the story also means that loose ends are not tied, the audience is left desperate to know how things end and the story never reaches the climax. Luckily, we only have until July to wait and although the end to the story that our generation has grown up reading, watching and loving will no doubt bring tears, it doesn’t take magic to predict that the tale of Harry Potter will live forever.