Jane Goodall, the primatologist and anthropologist whose research changed the way we look at primates, died last week at the age of 91. She once said she believed in a “higher power”. That higher power, Dr Goodall said, was what we found in nature.
In a world where heroes are so scarce – where so many right-wing leaders call climate change a hoax or a fairy tale, and where cuts to scientific research are sometimes becoming punitive – Dr Goodall stands as a model of integrity and perseverance.
A scientist who began her work in 1960 with no formal degree, no laboratory and no institutional funding, she ventured into the Tanzanian wilderness with little more than a notebook, binoculars and her mother for company. Mentored by the great Kenyan palaeoanthropologist Louis Leakey, she later earned her doctorate at Cambridge. But much of her pioneering fieldwork was done alone, guided by instinct, patience and profound observation. To me, Dr Goodall represents science as a vocation, not a bureaucracy.
She is mourned by countless fans in the scientific community in the US, which has been suffering lately. The National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health face constant cuts and political interference. Environmental and climate research has been frozen or defunded. Programmes on biodiversity and renewable energy are deemed “nonessential”. The assault is not just on budgets but on truth itself – on the idea that facts, data and evidence can guide moral action. In this case, climate change and conservation.
In recent years, particularly under Republican administrations, entire research initiatives have been gutted. The Environmental Protection Agency’s climate division saw its funding slashed, the Department of Energy’s renewables programmes were rolled back, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration lost projects that monitored rising sea levels and Arctic melt.
Goodall represents science as a vocation, not a bureaucracy
What was terrifying for me was that even during the Covid-19 pandemic, basic public health research became politicised, with scientists harassed or silenced for publishing data that challenged political narratives. President Donald Trump has singled out Dr Anthony Fauci, who led the country through the pandemic as director of the National Institute of Health, as an object of derision. The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, once a gold standard for global health, fights for autonomy against political appointees editing its reports. The Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F Kennedy Jr, has demonstrated a distrust for long-accepted science and vaccines.
America is about innovation – but knowledge is being punished and seen as resistance, or troublemaking. To do what Jane Goodall once did in the forests of Africa – to persist quietly, to observe with integrity and to keep faith in the truth even as the world turns away – seems impossible in today’s America.
By contrast, Goodall’s camp at Gombe National Park in Tanzania was hand-built, funded by small donations and driven by imagination rather than bureaucracy. Her lab was the wild forest; her instruments were patience and intuition. She lived with the risks of storms, wild animals and disease, but also with the rare clarity that comes from purpose. She endured isolation, malaria and the scepticism of her peers, yet she persisted. She reminded us that knowledge is not something acquired just in laboratories, but something earned through humility, attention and devotion – field work. Well into her eighties, she travelled more than 300 days a year – a woman who refused to slow down because the planet she loved could not afford her rest.
Long before #MeToo, she operated in a male-dominated, often condescending world. Like many of us who had no option, she just put her head down and worked. She was dismissed as “a secretary playing scientist” and accused of being too emotional. When she finally won support from the National Geographic Society, it was conditional: they sent a man along to ensure the reliability of her work. That man, the filmmaker Hugo van Lawick, later became her husband.
There was loneliness, too – the solitude that comes from living by your own rules. She raised her son, Hugo, in the open forest, balancing motherhood with fieldwork, torn between her child and her chimps. “It was the constant pull between the chimpanzees and my child,” she said – a tension between personal love and global responsibility.
Even after she secured funding, Dr Goodall was told to strip the empathy from her observations. She refused. She loved her chimps. In an era obsessed with control and conformity, she showed that real discovery begins with defiance. She learned that chimpanzees made tools, fought, hunted and grieved. Shattering taboos, she gave them names and emotions. “The chimpanzees helped to open science’s closed mind,” she said.
As a conservationist and a UN Messenger of Peace, she spent her life warning us that the survival of our planet depends on humility and wonder. She taught that reverence for nature is not romanticism – it’s realism.
As a woman who came of age also working in a male-dominated world, I loved Jane Goodall for what she symbolised. In a world in short supply of heroes, she is mine, and I gain inspiration from her every day. What can we learn from her now? For me, it’s her patience, endurance, and moral clarity – her refusal to despair. In a world where attention spans are the length of a TikTok video, she embodied persistence. She sat quietly in Gombe, notebook in hand, bearing witness for years.
She taught us that science, like compassion, is an act of faith. And above all, she taught us to never give up. As she once told her granddaughter, Angel: “Never lose hope.”
How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE
When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.
The President's Cake
Director: Hasan Hadi
Starring: Baneen Ahmad Nayyef, Waheed Thabet Khreibat, Sajad Mohamad Qasem
Rating: 4/5
BMW M5 specs
Engine: 4.4-litre twin-turbo V-8 petrol enging with additional electric motor
Power: 727hp
Torque: 1,000Nm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 10.6L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh650,000
Who's who in Yemen conflict
Houthis: Iran-backed rebels who occupy Sanaa and run unrecognised government
Yemeni government: Exiled government in Aden led by eight-member Presidential Leadership Council
Southern Transitional Council: Faction in Yemeni government that seeks autonomy for the south
Habrish 'rebels': Tribal-backed forces feuding with STC over control of oil in government territory
NBA FINALS SO FAR
(Toronto lead 3-2 in best-of-seven series)
Game 1 Raptors 118 Warriors 109
Game 2 Raptors 104 Warriors 109
Game 3 Warriors 109 Raptors 123
Game 4 Warriors 92 Raptors 105
Game 5 Raptors 105 Warriors 106
Game 6 Thursday, at Oakland
Game 7 Sunday, at Toronto (if needed)
GOLF’S RAHMBO
- 5 wins in 22 months as pro
- Three wins in past 10 starts
- 45 pro starts worldwide: 5 wins, 17 top 5s
- Ranked 551th in world on debut, now No 4 (was No 2 earlier this year)
- 5th player in last 30 years to win 3 European Tour and 2 PGA Tour titles before age 24 (Woods, Garcia, McIlroy, Spieth)
Bio:
Favourite Quote: Prophet Mohammad's quotes There is reward for kindness to every living thing and A good man treats women with honour
Favourite Hobby: Serving poor people
Favourite Book: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Favourite food: Fish and vegetables
Favourite place to visit: London
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
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TOURNAMENT INFO
Women’s World Twenty20 Qualifier
Jul 3- 14, in the Netherlands
The top two teams will qualify to play at the World T20 in the West Indies in November
UAE squad
Humaira Tasneem (captain), Chamani Seneviratne, Subha Srinivasan, Neha Sharma, Kavisha Kumari, Judit Cleetus, Chaya Mughal, Roopa Nagraj, Heena Hotchandani, Namita D’Souza, Ishani Senevirathne, Esha Oza, Nisha Ali, Udeni Kuruppuarachchi
Zidane's managerial achievements
La Liga: 2016/17
Spanish Super Cup: 2017
Uefa Champions League: 2015/16, 2016/17, 2017/18
Uefa Super Cup: 2016, 2017
Fifa Club World Cup: 2016, 2017
VEZEETA PROFILE
Date started: 2012
Founder: Amir Barsoum
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: HealthTech / MedTech
Size: 300 employees
Funding: $22.6 million (as of September 2018)
Investors: Technology Development Fund, Silicon Badia, Beco Capital, Vostok New Ventures, Endeavour Catalyst, Crescent Enterprises’ CE-Ventures, Saudi Technology Ventures and IFC
Profile box
Company name: baraka
Started: July 2020
Founders: Feras Jalbout and Kunal Taneja
Based: Dubai and Bahrain
Sector: FinTech
Initial investment: $150,000
Current staff: 12
Stage: Pre-seed capital raising of $1 million
Investors: Class 5 Global, FJ Labs, IMO Ventures, The Community Fund, VentureSouq, Fox Ventures, Dr Abdulla Elyas (private investment)
Company%20profile
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Klipit%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202022%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Venkat%20Reddy%2C%20Mohammed%20Al%20Bulooki%2C%20Bilal%20Merchant%2C%20Asif%20Ahmed%2C%20Ovais%20Merchant%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Dubai%2C%20UAE%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Digital%20receipts%2C%20finance%2C%20blockchain%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunding%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%244%20million%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Privately%2Fself-funded%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder MHEV
Power: 360bhp
Torque: 500Nm
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Price: from Dh282,870
On sale: now
Biog
Mr Kandhari is legally authorised to conduct marriages in the gurdwara
He has officiated weddings of Sikhs and people of different faiths from Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Russia, the US and Canada
Father of two sons, grandfather of six
Plays golf once a week
Enjoys trying new holiday destinations with his wife and family
Walks for an hour every morning
Completed a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Loyola College, Chennai, India
2019 is a milestone because he completes 50 years in business
Islamophobia definition
A widely accepted definition was made by the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims in 2019: “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.” It further defines it as “inciting hatred or violence against Muslims”.
Graduated from the American University of Sharjah
She is the eldest of three brothers and two sisters
Has helped solve 15 cases of electric shocks
Enjoys travelling, reading and horse riding
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
Saturday's schedule at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
GP3 race, 12:30pm
Formula 1 final practice, 2pm
Formula 1 qualifying, 5pm
Formula 2 race, 6:40pm
Performance: Sam Smith
Friday's schedule at the Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
GP3 qualifying, 10:15am
Formula 2, practice 11:30am
Formula 1, first practice, 1pm
GP3 qualifying session, 3.10pm
Formula 1 second practice, 5pm
Formula 2 qualifying, 7pm
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Keep it fun and engaging
Stuart Ritchie, director of wealth advice at AES International, says children cannot learn something overnight, so it helps to have a fun routine that keeps them engaged and interested.
“I explain to my daughter that the money I draw from an ATM or the money on my bank card doesn’t just magically appear – it’s money I have earned from my job. I show her how this works by giving her little chores around the house so she can earn pocket money,” says Mr Ritchie.
His daughter is allowed to spend half of her pocket money, while the other half goes into a bank account. When this money hits a certain milestone, Mr Ritchie rewards his daughter with a small lump sum.
He also recommends books that teach the importance of money management for children, such as The Squirrel Manifesto by Ric Edelman and Jean Edelman.
The specs
Engine: 3.6 V6
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Power: 295bhp
Torque: 353Nm
Price: Dh155,000
On sale: now
