Hello 2022, you're looking fresh and fantastic. And I like how you arrived, waking me in Kyiv's twinkly pre-dawn with fireworks and live music. Mind if I ask a few favours? Don't worry, I'll start small.
Please deliver us from Covid confusion. I mean, what gives? First there's no need for masks, then we must mask up. Close all businesses, now re-open – oh sorry, shut down again. The same with children and schools. The vaccines are here to save the day. Except many folks prefer horse de-wormer, and anyway here comes an explosion in breakthrough cases.
New case numbers are the best metric to gauge the pandemic. Actually, it's deaths. No, hospitalisations. Most recently, Omicron is either the harbinger of the apocalypse or Noah's dove, heralding a new dawn. So, could you please help somebody stand up and explain what in the world is going on? Thank you.
Also, it would be fantastic if this is the year we in the media are able to find our groove again. No story in my lifetime has been as complex, multi-layered and ever-changing as Covid-19. It's health and public safety, it's politics, society and culture, travel and business and the global and local economies. Every week it develops a new appendage, and every week some top news outlet seems to miss the boat. They say one can never step into the same river twice because it's always moving and evolving – that's been the case with reporters and Covid-19.
Assuming we cannot stop it, grant us the will to better mitigate climate change. In particular, I'd like a sharp reduction in the negative impact of the years-long drought in the formerly Fertile Crescent, which has ravaged a sizeable chunk of the Middle East. In northern Syria, the drought and political inaction have crushed farming and impoverished millions, driving many to join ISIS just to put food on the table.
Similarly in Turkey, the number of farmers has fallen by one third and farmer debt has leapt nearly 100-fold since 2003. In Iraq, countless farmers have given up as lakes and rivers have dried up. "The land that we had, it was our gold. Now look at us: no salaries, nothing," a farmer in Diyala province told the LA Times.
Please stop Russia and Ukraine from going to war with each other. More death, danger and destruction seem unlikely to resolve the differences between Moscow and Kyiv, or our global problems more broadly.
Continuing on foreign policy, it would be great if Turkey's rapprochement with a slew of former regional rivals continues. With any luck, by the end of the year we'll see a regional drilling operation in the eastern Mediterranean that involves Turkey, Egypt, Israel, Greece, Cyprus and France.
Staying in the neighbourhood, please help Lebanon, a country that has blessed me with countless delights and some of my best work, halt its tumble into the abyss. If you're Lebanese these days, there's a decent chance you've recently left for somewhere more stable, such as nearby Cyprus, or bought a gun to protect your family as chaos grips the neighbourhood. The parallels with pre-civil-war early-1970s Lebanon are significant and troubling, yet the economic freefall continues amid rampant corruption and inflation.
Which reminds me, could you maybe take a minute to curb the inflation that's been bedevilling the globe? The US is struggling with its highest inflation in nearly 40 years. Britons are said to be facing a "cost-of-living catastrophe". Sky-high inflation is driving renewed protests in Tunisia. Even countries seeing economic growth are feeling the bite: India's wholesale inflation hit a record high in November; while bakers in Turkey – the world's highest per capita consumer of bread – can barely afford to make their daily loaves. Thankfully, we've already started to see some signs of recovery, so you're off to a decent start, 2022.
Meanwhile, please allow for broader and faster delivery of vaccines to the world's poor. It's been more than a year since wealthy countries started vaccinations and eight months since countries such as the US had huge stockpiles. Yet, while more than three out of four citizens of high-income countries have been vaccinated, less than 9 per cent of people in the poorest countries have received their first jab. The world has produced 12 billion doses, but almost half the global population (3.4 billion people) remains unvaccinated. This needs to be remedied.
Speaking of which, let's make this the year we're able to achieve something resembling an end to the pandemic. That might mean it becomes an endemic, permanent feature of our health landscape, like influenza, or that it's somehow snuffed out entirely by a brilliant new vaccine. Whatever the case, it's time to start devising ways to move forward. Humans are social creatures and we need to be able to move about our cities, towns, countries and continents with relative freedom or our sense of civilisation begins to crumble.
In fact, it's probably already begun. Please, 2022, remind us how to discuss, debate and even argue, rather than assume, insult and dismiss. Pick a country, just about any country – maybe outside the relative stability of the Gulf. India, Turkey, the US and the UK. France, Poland, Australia, Indonesia, the list goes on and on.
All face rampant political polarisation, a yawning gap between supposedly conservative voices on one side and purportedly progressive views on the other. They no longer hear each other because they're no longer listening. And they're no longer listening because each side now sees the other as capable of little more than distortion and hyperbole. Efforts to bridge the divide tend to come off as cloying or patronising. A good case in point is the recent Kurdish art show in Turkey, which generated too much heat and was shut down early by the government, just as debates began to rage.
So let us engage in argument. Arguing with, rather than dismissing, one's foe is a sign of respect, a sign that you take their opinion seriously enough to sincerely consider. Tolerating those with whom we disagree is OK, but it falls short of the mark. It's through committed, mature and even passionate debate that we'll most likely be able to wade through very real and significant differences and find a path toward understanding, even connection. That's how we'll begin to address some of the hurdles I've detailed above.
Show us the way, 2022.
Results:
5pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 1,400m | Winner: Eghel De Pine, Pat Cosgrave (jockey), Eric Lemartinel (trainer)
5.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 1,400m | Winner: AF Sheaar, Szczepan Mazur, Saeed Al Shamsi
6pm: Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan National Day Cup (PA) Group 3 Dh500,000 1,600m | Winner: RB Torch, Fabrice Veron, Eric Lemartinel
6.30pm: Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan National Day Cup (TB) Listed Dh380,000 1,600m | Winner: Forjatt, Chris Hayes, Nicholas Bachalard
7pm: Wathba Stallions Cup for Private Owners Handicap (PA) Dh 70,000 1,400m | Winner: Hawafez, Connor Beasley, Ridha ben Attia
7.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh 80,000 1,600m | Winner: Qader, Richard Mullen, Jean de Roaulle
'Outclassed in Kuwait'
Taleb Alrefai,
HBKU Press
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Terror attacks in Paris, November 13, 2015
- At 9.16pm, three suicide attackers killed one person outside the Atade de France during a foootball match between France and Germany
- At 9.25pm, three attackers opened fire on restaurants and cafes over 20 minutes, killing 39 people
- Shortly after 9.40pm, three other attackers launched a three-hour raid on the Bataclan, in which 1,500 people had gathered to watch a rock concert. In total, 90 people were killed
- Salah Abdeslam, the only survivor of the terrorists, did not directly participate in the attacks, thought to be due to a technical glitch in his suicide vest
- He fled to Belgium and was involved in attacks on Brussels in March 2016. He is serving a life sentence in France
Country-size land deals
US interest in purchasing territory is not as outlandish as it sounds. Here's a look at some big land transactions between nations:
Louisiana Purchase
If Donald Trump is one who aims to broker "a deal of the century", then this was the "deal of the 19th Century". In 1803, the US nearly doubled in size when it bought 2,140,000 square kilometres from France for $15 million.
Florida Purchase Treaty
The US courted Spain for Florida for years. Spain eventually realised its burden in holding on to the territory and in 1819 effectively ceded it to America in a wider border treaty.
Alaska purchase
America's spending spree continued in 1867 when it acquired 1,518,800 km2 of Alaskan land from Russia for $7.2m. Critics panned the government for buying "useless land".
The Philippines
At the end of the Spanish-American War, a provision in the 1898 Treaty of Paris saw Spain surrender the Philippines for a payment of $20 million.
US Virgin Islands
It's not like a US president has never reached a deal with Denmark before. In 1917 the US purchased the Danish West Indies for $25m and renamed them the US Virgin Islands.
Gwadar
The most recent sovereign land purchase was in 1958 when Pakistan bought the southwestern port of Gwadar from Oman for 5.5bn Pakistan rupees.
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Who has been sanctioned?
Daniella Weiss and Nachala
Described as 'the grandmother of the settler movement', she has encouraged the expansion of settlements for decades. The 79 year old leads radical settler movement Nachala, whose aim is for Israel to annex Gaza and the occupied West Bank, where it helps settlers built outposts.
Harel Libi & Libi Construction and Infrastructure
Libi has been involved in threatening and perpetuating acts of aggression and violence against Palestinians. His firm has provided logistical and financial support for the establishment of illegal outposts.
Zohar Sabah
Runs a settler outpost named Zohar’s Farm and has previously faced charges of violence against Palestinians. He was indicted by Israel’s State Attorney’s Office in September for allegedly participating in a violent attack against Palestinians and activists in the West Bank village of Muarrajat.
Coco’s Farm and Neria’s Farm
These are illegal outposts in the West Bank, which are at the vanguard of the settler movement. According to the UK, they are associated with people who have been involved in enabling, inciting, promoting or providing support for activities that amount to “serious abuse”.
Oppenheimer
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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
Things Heard & Seen
Directed by: Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini
Starring: Amanda Seyfried, James Norton
2/5
Tour de France 2017: Stage 5
Vittel - La Planche de Belles Filles, 160.5km
It is a shorter stage, but one that will lead to a brutal uphill finish. This is the third visit in six editions since it was introduced to the race in 2012. Reigning champion Chris Froome won that race.
Quick%20facts
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Key findings
- Over a period of seven years, a team of scientists analysed dietary data from 50,000 North American adults.
- Eating one or two meals a day was associated with a relative decrease in BMI, compared with three meals. Snacks count as a meal. Likewise, participants who ate more than three meals a day experienced an increase in BMI: the more meals a day, the greater the increase.
- People who ate breakfast experienced a relative decrease in their BMI compared with “breakfast-skippers”.
- Those who turned the eating day on its head to make breakfast the biggest meal of the day, did even better.
- But scrapping dinner altogether gave the best results. The study found that the BMI of subjects who had a long overnight fast (of 18 hours or more) decreased when compared even with those who had a medium overnight fast, of between 12 and 17 hours.
Barings Bank
Barings, one of Britain’s oldest investment banks, was
founded in 1762 and operated for 233 years before it went bust after a trading
scandal.
Barings Bank collapsed in February 1995 following colossal
losses caused by rogue trader Nick Lesson.
Leeson gambled more than $1 billion in speculative trades,
wiping out the venerable merchant bank’s cash reserves.
What is the definition of an SME?
SMEs in the UAE are defined by the number of employees, annual turnover and sector. For example, a “small company” in the services industry has six to 50 employees with a turnover of more than Dh2 million up to Dh20m, while in the manufacturing industry the requirements are 10 to 100 employees with a turnover of more than Dh3m up to Dh50m, according to Dubai SME, an agency of the Department of Economic Development.
A “medium-sized company” can either have staff of 51 to 200 employees or 101 to 250 employees, and a turnover less than or equal to Dh200m or Dh250m, again depending on whether the business is in the trading, manufacturing or services sectors.
Where to apply
Applicants should send their completed applications - CV, covering letter, sample(s) of your work, letter of recommendation - to Nick March, Assistant Editor in Chief at The National and UAE programme administrator for the Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism, by 5pm on April 30, 2020.
Please send applications to nmarch@thenational.ae and please mark the subject line as “Rosalynn Carter Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism (UAE programme application)”.
The local advisory board will consider all applications and will interview a short list of candidates in Abu Dhabi in June 2020. Successful candidates will be informed before July 30, 2020.
Results
5pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 (Turf) 1,000mm, Winners: Mumayaza, Fabrice Veron (jockey), Eric Lemartinel (trainer)
5.30pm: Wathba Stallions Cup Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (T) 2,200m, Winners: Sharkh, Pat Cosgrave, Helal Al Alawi
6pm: The President’s Cup Prep - Conditions (PA) Dh100,000 (T) 2,200m, Winner: Somoud, Richard Mullen, Jean de Roualle
6.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh90,000 (T) 1,600m, Winner: Harrab, Ryan Curatolo, Jean de Roualle
7pm: Abu Dhabi Equestrian Gold Cup - Prestige (PA) Dh125,000 (T) 1,600m, Winner: Hameem, Adrie de Vries, Abdallah Al Hammadi
7.30pm: Al Ruwais – Group 3 (PA) Dh300,000 (T) 1,200m, Winner: AF Alwajel, Tadhg O’Shea, Ernst Oertel
8pm: Maiden (TB) Dh80,000 (T) 1,400m, Winner: Nibras Passion, Bernardo Pinheiro, Ismail Mohammed
THE BIO
Favourite car: Koenigsegg Agera RS or Renault Trezor concept car.
Favourite book: I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes or Red Notice by Bill Browder.
Biggest inspiration: My husband Nik. He really got me through a lot with his positivity.
Favourite holiday destination: Being at home in Australia, as I travel all over the world for work. It’s great to just hang out with my husband and family.
