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Irish Independent
an hour ago
- Irish Independent
‘The recipe has been made in our city for 100 years' – 27-nation cookbook celebrates immigrant families with a taste of home
The 44-year-old moved to Carlow in 2018 with her son Albert (18). They are from Targu Jiu in south-western Romania and made the move for better educational opportunities for Albert. Ms Panescu said: 'I had everything I needed back home, the move was his future. I had worked as a secondary school teacher for 12 years and was an authorised translator for the Ministry of Justice.' After the move, Ms Panescu retrained at Maynooth University and now works as a project co-ordinator for a telecoms company. Although relocating was challenging, Georgiana had the support of friends she knew who were based in Carlow who also have children. She also took comfort in the similarities between Ireland and Romania. 'We were occupied by the Roman Empire and Ottoman Empire. Not to mention we were under communism until 1999. So the attitudes are similar. In spite of this occupation, we are very optimistic – just like the Irish people. 'In temperament, we are truly similar. Romanians and the Irish people like to laugh and to make fun of the negative things in their lives.' The international-themed cookbook, written by Tusla senior communications officer David Lawlor, celebrates the stories and food of 27 immigrant families from all over Ireland. From Mauritian to Iraqi to Zimbabwean cuisine, the 66-page book – which will be distributed in Deis schools as a multicultural educational tool and is free to read online – was launched late last month and is an A-Z of countries around the world. Georgiana and Albert chose Romanian sarmale, which are stuffed cabbage rolls, as their recipe for the cookbook. ADVERTISEMENT Learn more In Targu Jiu it is often served with a jelly made from pork juices and vegetables, while in other areas in Romania it's served with cream cheese. 'It is an old Romanian recipe, people eat it at Christmas, Easter, weddings, and all sorts of special occasions. There is not a Romanian on earth that wouldn't recognise it.' The weather here is great, you never know what's going to happen Another contributor to the cookbook is William Saucedo and his wife Laura Ximena Justiniano. Mr Saucedo, originally from Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, came to Ireland in 2022 along with, his wife and their kids: Franco (14), Raphaella (11) and four-year-old Zamira. In their home city, William's car was hijacked while working as a taxi man and the family feared for the safety of their children in school. In search of asylum and better opportunities, the family then moved to Kilkenny, with William's daughter Adriana (13) from a previous marriage still living in Bolivia. Mr Saucedo's wife Laura and their children had no English when the family settled. But now the kids speak with a Kilkenny twang and Ms Ximena Justiniano is taking lessons. She is a homemaker while William works as a security night porter. One thing that surprisingly hasn't been an issue for the family is the weather. At times it can be difficult to sleep in their home country at night, with average temperatures of 25C. Ireland's cooler temperatures are welcomed. The couple's son Franco said: 'The weather here is great, you never know what's going to happen. It could rain one minute and then be sunny.' William describes his new-found home city as very 'welcoming to outsiders' and prides itself in its hospitality. The recipe the family chose for the cookbook is hot corn cake, similar to a tea cake but with cheese, and passed down by Mr Saucedo's grandmother. 'The recipe has been made in our city for 100 years .'
Yahoo
15 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
The Chagos Islands: Starmer's 'lousy deal'
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. "Keir Starmer has secured his legacy," said The Daily Telegraph: his "shameful surrender of the Chagos Islands will go down as this nation's foreign policy nadir". Last week, the PM signed a long-dreaded treaty that officially hands control of the Indian Ocean archipelago to Mauritius – effectively ceding a strategically vital territory that sits in an area of interest for China. To add insult to injury, once the treaty is ratified by MPs, we will pay Mauritius £101 million a year for the next 99 years to rent back a key UK-US military base on the largest island, Diego Garcia. "This lousy deal essentially amounts to a massive gift from British taxpayers to the Mauritian government," said Andrew Tettenborn in The Spectator. So why sign it? The answer, I'm afraid, "is legalism": the UN's top court had issued a non-binding ruling calling on the UK to give up control of Chagos – and the PM, ever the lawyer, eagerly bowed to international law. Perhaps he was hoping to set a "shining example" to other countries; instead, they will "regard us with contempt for being a pushover". The deal looks "odd" on the face of it, said James Landale on BBC News. But there were plenty of "practical" reasons to sign the treaty. Multiple UN bodies have ruled that the islands belong to Mauritius; had the UK continued to ignore those rulings, the operation of the base could have become "unworkable". Diego Garcia's satellite communications would have been threatened because the UK relies on a UN agency in Geneva to maintain access to a particular electromagnetic spectrum; aircraft might not be able to fly in or out, for fear of breaching international law. As for national security, said Sean O'Grady in The Independent, without this deal, Mauritius could have lawfully granted China permission to establish a military base on another of the islands, sparking a serious crisis. The deal specifically forbids it. This is all true in theory, said John Rentoul in the same paper. But in reality, Mauritius' claim to the islands was "weak" – Chagos has never been part of its territory – and UN courts have "no powers of enforcement". The base wasn't threatened in any meaningful way. And yet Starmer's government doubled down on a deal that will outrage the British public, given the nation's dire finances. I suspect the biggest driver of this decision was "postcolonial guilt", said Matthew Syed in The Sunday Times – that sense that, as a nation, we must self-flagellate to atone for the sins of the empire. But Starmer's conscience-cleansing comes at "extravagant expense" – and will help "no one but our rivals".
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Everything We Know About The Chagos Islands Deal Between The UK And Mauritius
The United Kingdom has finalized a historic £3.4 billion agreement to transfer sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. The deal allows the UK to secure a 99-year lease and maintain control of the strategically vital Diego Garcia military base. The BBC reports that Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced the deal on May 22, 2025. This ends decades of international legal disputes over the remote Indian Ocean archipelago. The controversial agreement will cost British taxpayers approximately £101 million annually. However, it ensures continued access to the joint US-UK military installation that Starmer describes as 'right at the foundation of our safety and security at home.' Mauritius Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam hailed the arrangement as completing 'the total process of decolonization.' At the same time, critics, including some displaced Chagossians, express concerns about their right to return to their ancestral lands. The agreement comes after years of mounting international pressure on Britain to relinquish control of the territory it separated from Mauritius in 1965, before Mauritian independence. The Chagos Islands are about 1,250 miles northeast of Mauritius and nearly 6,000 miles from the UK. The islands became a focal point of controversy when Britain forcibly removed approximately 2,000 islanders between the late 1960s and early 1970s. This deportation occurred to accommodate the construction of a US military base on Diego Garcia, the largest island in the archipelago. A leaked Foreign Office memo infamously referred to the Chagossians as 'a few Tarzans and Man Fridays,' highlighting the colonial attitudes that facilitated their displacement. Under the new agreement, the UK will pay Mauritius an average of £101 million annually for 99 years to lease Diego Garcia. The payment structure includes £165 million for each of the first three years. This is followed by £120 million annually for years four through thirteen, with subsequent payments indexed to inflation. The deal also establishes a £40 million trust fund to support Chagossian communities. The agreement creates a 24-mile exclusion zone around Diego Garcia where nothing can be built without UK consent. Foreign military and civilian forces are banned from other islands in the archipelago. There are also provisions to prevent Chinese influence in the region. Furthermore, the UK retains veto power over access to the islands. Starmer confirmed that all 'Five Eyes' security alliance partners, the US, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia, support the agreement. Meanwhile, Russia, China, and Iran oppose post Everything We Know About The Chagos Islands Deal Between The UK And Mauritius appeared first on Travel Noire.
Telegraph
4 days ago
- Business
- Telegraph
China backs Starmer's Chagos deal
The Chinese government has welcomed Sir Keir Starmer's Chagos Islands deal as a 'massive achievement', despite his claim that Beijing had opposed it. Beijing's ambassador to Mauritius talked up the deal in a speech on Tuesday, after Sir Keir signed away the Chagos Islands and agreed to pay Mauritius £30 billion over 99 years. Huang Shifang told guests at the Chinese embassy that her government offered 'massive congratulations' on the deal, and that China 'fully supports' Mauritius's attempt to 'safeguard national sovereignty'. She also confirmed that Mauritius would soon join Beijing's Belt and Road initiative, despite claims from the UK Government that the East African island nation was not under Chinese influence. The relationship between Mauritius and China has been a point of contention for Sir Keir, who faced accusations he was giving away British territory to an ally of one of the UK's enemies. The Chagos Islands, known in the UK as the British Indian Ocean Territory, host the Diego Garcia military base which is jointly used by British and US forces. Under the terms of the Prime Minister's deal announced last week, the UK will pay billions of pounds to rent back the military base after sovereignty of the islands has been transferred to Mauritius. The Government argues that the deal creates legal security from the base, which was under threat from a territorial dispute from Mauritius in the international courts. Addressing his critics, Sir Keir told a press conference that Conservative and Reform opponents of the deal were in a 'column' with Russia, China and Iran, who he said had all opposed it. 'In favour are all of our allies: the US, Nato, Five Eyes, India,' he said. 'Against it: Russia, China, Iran. Surprisingly, the leader of the opposition and Nigel Farage are in that column alongside Russia, China and Iran, rather than the column that has the UK and its allies in it.' But that argument was contradicted by the Chinese government five days later, when their ambassador welcomed the deal. According to the local newspaper Le Mauricien, Ms Huang told party guests on Tuesday that China offered 'massive congratulations' to Mauritius for securing the disputed territory with the UK. Dame Priti Patel, the Tory shadow foreign secretary, told The Telegraph: 'Once again, Keir Starmer has been caught peddling a lie. 'He claimed that those who opposed his mad plan to surrender the Chagos Islands were in league with hostile powers – whilst himself handing over control of our own sovereign territory to a nation firmly in China's grasp. 'And now China itself has welcomed the deal – knowing that Labour weakening our national security is at their benefit – Keir Starmer must apologise, and retract his baseless slander.' A Mauritian government statement said that the Chinese ambassador pointed to 'Mauritius's firm adherence to the One-China policy', the political doctrine that Taiwan is part of China, and drew comparison between China's dispute with Taiwan and Mauritius's dispute with the UK. The government statement said she 'commended the recent achievement regarding the Chagos Archipelago'. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not mention the Chagos Islands in its own statement, but said: 'China expects Mauritius to join the Belt and Road Initiative as soon as possible and work together to promote the building of an all-weather, China-Africa community with a shared future in the new era.' It comes after The Telegraph revealed that Mauritius was building a closer relationship with China, Russia and Iran, all of whom have sent ambassadors to meet the Mauritian prime minister in the past six months. Critics of the Chagos deal said those diplomatic ties would endanger the Diego Garcia base by allowing the UK's enemies to build spying installations on nearby islands. The final text of the agreement says that neither China nor any other country can build installations on the outlying islands without the UK's consent, and that all civilian or military security staff are banned from entering the archipelago.
Epoch Times
6 days ago
- Politics
- Epoch Times
Court Halts Conclusion of Chagos Islands Deal With Injunction
The government has temporarily been banned from concluding its negotiations on the Chagos Islands deal by an injunction granted in the early hours by a High Court judge. Downing Street insisted the deal is the 'right thing' but would not comment on the legal case. A hearing is expected to take place at 10:30 a.m. In the injunction granted at 2:25 a.m. on Thursday, brought against the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Mr. Justice Goose granted 'interim relief' to Bertrice Pompe, who had previously taken steps to bring legal action over the deal. 'The defendant shall take no conclusive or legally binding step to conclude its negotiations concerning the possible transfer of the British Indian Ocean Territory, also known as the Chagos Archipelago, to a foreign government or bind itself as to the particular terms of any such transfer,' Mr. Justice Goose said in his order. It requires the government to 'maintain the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom over the British Indian Ocean Territory until further order.' Related Stories 2/27/2025 2/5/2025 According to the order, the judge granted the injunction 'upon consideration of the claimant's application for interim relief made out of court hours' and 'upon reading the defendants' response.' Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer had been expected to attend a virtual ceremony alongside representatives from the Mauritian government on Thursday morning to sign off on the deal. Britain would give up sovereignty of the island territory to Mauritius under the deal, and lease back a crucial military base on the archipelago for 99 years. A government spokesperson said: 'We do not comment on ongoing legal cases. 'This deal is the right thing to protect the British people and our national security.'
