The Danger of the Single Story

Last night a car rigged with explosives targeted Le Jardin restaurant in Kabul. The explosion killed two people, and wounded 15 others.

AFGHANISTAN - QUE LIRE, QUE REGARDER?

Outre le blog de Peacock House, de nombreux ouvrages/documentaires de qualité soulignent différentes facettes de l'Afghanistan. Ce pays a fait couler beaucoup d'encre au sujet de ses guerres, dont ...

WHY MAKING MAKES US FEEL GOOD

I have recently taken up carpentry classes. I have no talent for making things with my hands, and the few things I’ve been able to make are very poorly put together. But for three hours a week I s...

FROM TRASH TO TABLE: SYRIAN REFUGEE'S SOLUTION TO LEBANON'S RUBBISH CRISIS

Stepping out of Beirut airport you are immediately hit by the smell of rotting rubbish. It is a heady reminder of the rubbish crisis which hit Beirut a few months ago. With landfill sites overspill...

Goodbye Peacock House, Hello ISHKAR!

When we set up Peacock House last Christmas, we only intended to sell a handful of cufflinks in order to fund a nice post-Kabul holiday. The response we received was phenomenal, and we sold ten tim...

The Journalism of Things

Every now and then a short video or article pops up on our newsfeed which tells a captivating story about Afghanistan or Syria that has nothing to do with war. For a couple of minutes we are remind...

Want to help Afghanistan? The case for buying over donating

The World Bank has ranked Afghanistan, as the 177th easiest country in which to do business with in the world. Unfortunately that was out of 188 economies. Here’s a quick barrage of some more disma...

Can 'crafts' really drive serious economic growth?

Yet we would be wrong to think of crafts as a small sector at the fringes of the global economy. Far from it, crafts are in fact the second largest employer in the developing world, and have a prov...

GUEST EDIT | CARMEN DE BAETS

Lebanese-Dutch Carmen Atiyah de Baets is CARMEN’s co-founder, a multifunctional guesthouse, kitchen, gallery and shop in the heart of Amsterdam.

Sicilian Street Food: Arancini

  Sicily is famous for its street food, from freshly cooked calamari to crisply fried panella. One of our favourite Sicilian streets are Arancini. Here is a short recipe to evoke the smells of Sic...

GUEST EDIT: JAMES SEATON

We invited James Seaton, co-founder of TOAST, to cast his well trained design eye over our collection and to be our very first guest editor.

Timbuktu: A wild story of Myth, Renaissance, Rescue & Ruin

‘I don’t care if you’re in Timbuktu,’ we might say. ‘You’ll be here tomorrow or else!’ Or perhaps, ‘He’s flirted with every girl from here to Timbuktu!’ It means something like God Knows Where, or ...