Last week, British legislator Jo Cox, 41, was murdered on a street in her constituency. She became a parliamentarian a little more than a year ago. Before this, she worked for the international humanitarian charity Oxfam, where she made a name for herself on matters such as immigration and the Syrian refugee crisis. A mother of two children aged five and three, she also founded the Friends of Syria parliamentary group.
I was shocked by her murder. We were at similar stages in life and our children are about the same age.
My husband gave me an emotional hug when we first met after hearing the news. “I don’t want to lose you,” he said. The weight of a potential loss hung in the air. It remained unsaid that the intensity of working and raising young children had wrapped us up in our own responsibilities, obscuring our bigger aspirations and blinding us to our individual and communal goals.
There’s a reason that we are with our beloveds – for companionship and fulfilment of life. Such a relationship also means that the other person will be admired, supported and respected.
It was amid this psychological turmoil that I read the statement from Ms Cox’s husband, issued hours after the murder. It’s elegance and poignancy continues to move me. The statement climaxed with the declaration: “She would have wanted two things above all else to happen now.” His words demonstrated clarity and certainty about her legacy.
What do people leave behind? Would those around me really know what I would have wanted above all else? Do many of us have such a clear commitment to a cause that we ooze it from every pore and in every breath?
We are always told that humans have an inclination towards leaving a legacy. But today, more than ever, we teeter between the paradox of desiring immortality (and believing we can have it) and leaving behind a legacy. Having prodigious offspring was once a key marker of legacy. But today we prefer to have fewer children. For some it’s even preferable not to have any children.
Perhaps longevity is no longer an aspiration. Perhaps we have started to believe that we can be immortal, with the lifespan rising, the talk of freezing brains, of 50 being the new 40 and 60 being the new 50. We no longer think about death and beyond; instead, we embrace and live in the moment, revelling in our belief in everlasting youth. Who wants to get old, the precursor to death? But then, we don’t want to believe that people die young.
The biggest legacy we might leave behind these days is our digital archive, our social media feeds. These can live on, unless memorialised or deleted by those who outlive us – a creepy virtual hand from beyond the grave.
For those whose legacy is clear, even death is not an end, but merely an intervention in an continuing story. The funeral of Muhammad Ali showed how a man even after death continued his work extolling love, belief, building bridges and speaking out for the oppressed as a proud black Muslim man.
I am neither Ali nor Cox, but I’d certainly love to leave behind the kind of legacy that everyone knows that I would have wanted, above all else.
Shelina Zahra Janmohamed is the author of Love in a Headscarf and blogs at www.spirit21.co.uk
Singham Again
Director: Rohit Shetty
Stars: Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Deepika Padukone
Rating: 3/5
Barbie
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SPECS
Engine: Two-litre four-cylinder turbo
Power: 235hp
Torque: 350Nm
Transmission: Nine-speed automatic
Price: From Dh167,500 ($45,000)
On sale: Now
My Country: A Syrian Memoir
Kassem Eid, Bloomsbury
Where to Find Me by Alba Arikha
Alma Books
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Tree of Hell
Starring: Raed Zeno, Hadi Awada, Dr Mohammad Abdalla
Director: Raed Zeno
Rating: 4/5
Schedule for Asia Cup
Sept 15: Bangladesh v Sri Lanka (Dubai)
Sept 16: Pakistan v Qualifier (Dubai)
Sept 17: Sri Lanka v Afghanistan (Abu Dhabi)
Sept 18: India v Qualifier (Dubai)
Sept 19: India v Pakistan (Dubai)
Sept 20: Bangladesh v Afghanistan (Abu Dhabi) Super Four
Sept 21: Group A Winner v Group B Runner-up (Dubai)
Sept 21: Group B Winner v Group A Runner-up (Abu Dhabi)
Sept 23: Group A Winner v Group A Runner-up (Dubai)
Sept 23: Group B Winner v Group B Runner-up (Abu Dhabi)
Sept 25: Group A Winner v Group B Winner (Dubai)
Sept 26: Group A Runner-up v Group B Runner-up (Abu Dhabi)
Sept 28: Final (Dubai)
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Thank You for Banking with Us
Director: Laila Abbas
Starring: Yasmine Al Massri, Clara Khoury, Kamel El Basha, Ashraf Barhoum
Rating: 4/5
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GULF MEN'S LEAGUE
Pool A Dubai Hurricanes, Bahrain, Dubai Exiles, Dubai Tigers 2
Pool B Abu Dhabi Harlequins, Jebel Ali Dragons, Dubai Knights Eagles, Dubai Tigers
Opening fixtures
Thursday, December 5
6.40pm, Pitch 8, Abu Dhabi Harlequins v Dubai Knights Eagles
7pm, Pitch 2, Jebel Ali Dragons v Dubai Tigers
7pm, Pitch 4, Dubai Hurricanes v Dubai Exiles
7pm, Pitch 5, Bahrain v Dubai Eagles 2
Recent winners
2018 Dubai Hurricanes
2017 Dubai Exiles
2016 Abu Dhabi Harlequins
2015 Abu Dhabi Harlequins
2014 Abu Dhabi Harlequins
if you go
MATCH INFO
Newcastle United 3
Gayle (23'), Perez (59', 63')
Chelsea 0
Opening Rugby Championship fixtures:Games can be watched on OSN Sports
Saturday: Australia v New Zealand, Sydney, 1pm (UAE)
Sunday: South Africa v Argentina, Port Elizabeth, 11pm (UAE)
In numbers: China in Dubai
The number of Chinese people living in Dubai: An estimated 200,000
Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2018/19: 120,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000
Percentage increase in visitors in eight years: 500 per cent
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
More from Janine di Giovanni
Joker: Folie a Deux
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Brendan Gleeson
Director: Todd Phillips
Rating: 2/5
The specs
Engine: 2.7-litre 4-cylinder Turbomax
Power: 310hp
Torque: 583Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh192,500
On sale: Now
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Spare
Profile
Company name: Spare
Started: March 2018
Co-founders: Dalal Alrayes and Saurabh Shah
Based: UAE
Sector: FinTech
Investment: Own savings. Going for first round of fund-raising in March 2019
COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
APPLE IPAD MINI (A17 PRO)
Display: 21cm Liquid Retina Display, 2266 x 1488, 326ppi, 500 nits
Chip: Apple A17 Pro, 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
Storage: 128/256/512GB
Main camera: 12MP wide, f/1.8, digital zoom up to 5x, Smart HDR 4
Front camera: 12MP ultra-wide, f/2.4, Smart HDR 4, full-HD @ 25/30/60fps
Biometrics: Touch ID, Face ID
Colours: Blue, purple, space grey, starlight
In the box: iPad mini, USB-C cable, 20W USB-C power adapter
Price: From Dh2,099
The Bloomberg Billionaire Index in full
1 Jeff Bezos $140 billion
2 Bill Gates $98.3 billion
3 Bernard Arnault $83.1 billion
4 Warren Buffett $83 billion
5 Amancio Ortega $67.9 billion
6 Mark Zuckerberg $67.3 billion
7 Larry Page $56.8 billion
8 Larry Ellison $56.1 billion
9 Sergey Brin $55.2 billion
10 Carlos Slim $55.2 billion
