Azad Essa

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Azad Essa
News and Features writer | Qatar
Biography

Latest posts by Azad Essa

By Azad Essa in Africa on August 31st, 2011

 

 

It always makes sense to revisit a story, as the adage goes, to deepen one’s sense of time and space and to forcefully interrogate events from a first encounter or journey in a bid to separate one-off incidents from purposeful patterns. But in this brave new world of mass production and consumption journalism -  where stories often have the lifespan of a tweet - revisiting a story is often a mere exercise in luxury.

So naturally, when the opportunity arose to revisit Dadaab, the largest refugee camp in the world, albeit very briefly, a month-and-a-half after we had first explored the humanitarian crisis unfolding there as the worst drought in six decades hit the Horn of Africa, it seemed like one worth embracing.

By Azad Essa in Africa on July 7th, 2011
Photo by GALLO/GETTY

Gerissa, Kenya - It takes a while to weave your way through the dusty streets of Nairobi and surface from the coagulated gunk that is the city's air.

The city confuses me.

In one moment it takes me home, further south the African coast, to Durban. And in the the next moment it startles me with an air of Delhi.

The orchestrated chaos of informal traders unwrapping their bright, fresh vegetables onto wooden tray tables beside oversized football shirts and mobile phone batteries would pass easily for a scene from Durban's central business district where messy informality and sneaky formality contest each other for the remaining vestiges of crucial business space.

But then, the area around Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta monument, opulently wide, with an affectation of stateliness, together with the perennial haze that hangs over the city skyline like a soiled sheet, takes me back to the Indian capital.

Tags: Kenya
By Azad Essa in Asia on March 28th, 2011
Reuters

Think of cricket as you would Lady Justice: a blindfolded woman with a sword at her side, scales in hand, and an almost insatiable thirst for being the moral and material leveller of man.

Think of cricket as that nagging marriage: survival is based on partners seeking and successfully servicing the whims and petty needs of each other to maintain the grand mirage of compromise, partnership and long-term planning. 

Think of cricket as a return to simplicity where fancy footwork up and down tall orders takes you nowhere without a still head.

It’s little wonder then, that people stumble on cricket on television and wonder not only what the hell is going on, but what commentators might mean by ‘stance’, ‘timing’ or ‘fine leg’.

Whichever way you choose to look at it, cricket, like life, though unfair in itself, levels the playing field.  

By Azad Essa in Asia on March 12th, 2011
Photo by AFP

 Walking through the corridors of Al Jazeera, I bump into our sports editor who immediately lowers his gaze and begins drumming his fingers on an imaginary key board only to peer up and give me the look: "Where is your new cricket blog mate?"

I defensively interject the silent Beethoven with "Dude, have you been watching the cricket ... I've been busy, you know with revolutions happening all around, people begging, dying for freedom, and well, the cricket has just been so dull," I try to argue, sheepishly.

"I don't know what you're talking about mate," he replies with a wry smile. "I was just practising my piano keys," and he continues playing his air-keyboard.

"Well - did you hear what happened today," he stops-states-questions. "Taylor made a 100 of 29 balls - is that even possible?"

"Twenty-nine balls? Are you serious?" I quiz back nonsensically.

By Azad Essa in Asia on February 25th, 2011
Sri Lankan cricketer Chamara Silva stretches during training [AFP]

Rewind some 10 months to June 2010 and Mexico is about to take on hosts South Africa, in the opening match of the Football World Cup in Johannesburg.

Despite being rated poorly, the South African football team turned on the style, courageously holding their own against a highly rated Mexican side. In what has since become one of the defining moments of the 2010 World Cup, Siphiwe Tshabalala in the 55th minute, pulled the trigger and sent the ball careening into the Mexican net.

All of South Africa erupted with an infectious ecstasy.

By Azad Essa in Asia on February 19th, 2011
Photo by AFP

It is being described as the most open World Cup in the competition’s short history. While the last four tournaments always began with the fair speculation on who would face Australia in the final, this year’s tournament has no clear favourite.

The current edition of the tournament is really a three-way throng of a race between South Africa, India and Australia.

Pakistan, England and Sri Lanka are the dark horses of the tournament.

Of course, if you had to put money on one team – as in – if you were hung upside down, a gun placed to your head and forced to make a bet – Team India would probably be your best option.