ISTANBUL // When Bartholomew I, the spiritual leader of 300 million Orthodox Christians around the world, recently addressed hundreds of followers in an open-air mass in the ruins of an old monastery in north-eastern Turkey, it was not only a spiritual event, but a political one as well.
"I feel very proud and happy to be here and to conduct this mass," Bartholomew, the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople, said during the service on August 15 in the monastery of Sumela, set spectacularly in a cliff about 50km south of the city of Trabzon on Turkey's Black Sea coast. "After 88 years, the tears of the Virgin Mary have stopped flowing." The service in Sumela and an Armenian mass planned for September in south-eastern Anatolia are seen as strong political gestures by the government in Ankara towards the small Christian communities, who feel under pressure in this overwhelmingly Muslim, but secular, country.
Bartholomew's mass at Sumela was an effort by the state "to refute scepticism concerning the sincerity of the democratic and humanitarian 'signals of opening' in Turkey", Dositheos Anagnostopoulos, the patriarch's spokesman, wrote in an e-mail. Sumela, whose history dates to the fourth century, used to be one of the most important places of pilgrimage for Christians in Anatolia, but it was turned into a museum after the Greeks in the region were driven out during a war between Turkey and Greece in the 1920s.
The mass, marking the feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and attended by about 2,000 Christians from Turkey, Greece, Russia and Georgia, was the first religious service to be held in the monastery since 1922. As the monastery square could only hold several hundred guests, others watched on large television screens nearby. From now on, there will be a mass every year at the monastery, a local official said.
Ozan Ceyhun, a Turkish-born German politician who works as a consultant for companies doing business in Turkey, said the approval of the church service was no coincidence because the government in Ankara is keenly aware of how much its standing in the international arena depends on the way Christians are treated here.
"Turkey's image abroad is closely connected to questions of how the church does," Mr Ceyhun said in a telephone interview from the southern city of Adana. Government ministers in Ankara "see that steps like [allowing the mass at Sumela] are welcomed abroad".
Turkish nationalists said the mass was a tool used by Orthodox Christians to resurrect dreams of a Greek republic in the region, thereby threatening Turkey's national unity, but Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister, dismissed those fears. "What happened? They came, celebrated mass and went home again," Mr Erdogan said during an iftar in the south-eastern city of Gaziantep.
Mr Erdogan, a pious Muslim accused by his opponents of following a secret Islamist agenda, said allowing the church service to go on was good for Turkey, both domestically and internationally. "What did we lose? We have gained something, really. If you trust religion, you do not fear religious freedom. If you trust ideas and thought, you do not fear freedom of expression."
The prime minister added that allowing Turkey's small Greek Orthodox community, estimated to number 2,000 to 3,000, to hold the mass in Sumela, also strengthened the country's standing in the world and its position when dealing with issues of religious freedom with Greece.
Referring to Turkey's demand that Greece build a mosque in its capital, Athens, Mr Erdogan said that more freedom for Christians in Turkey made the Turkish position more credible. "I am one step ahead," he said.
George Papandreou, Greece's prime minister, welcomed the mass at Sumela as a "historic and important event". It was a sign of bilateral rapprochement with Turkey and reflected "a spirit of co-operation and peace between us and our neighbour".
Mr Erdogan's government has also granted Turkey's Armenians permission to hold a religious service on September 19 in an old Armenian church, recently restored by the state, on Akdamar, an island in Lake Van in south-eastern Anatolia.
The event has triggered excitement among Turkey's estimated 80,000 Armenian Christians and is seen as a gesture of reconciliation by the state. Up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed in massacres and death marches during the final years of the Ottoman Empire during the First World War. Armenia and many international scholars say the deaths constituted genocide, a term Ankara rejects.
Mr Ceyhun said Turkish ministers also favoured opening an ancient church in Tarsus in southern Turkey, the birthplace of the apostle Paul, one of the most important figures in early Christianity, for religious services. "Erdogan himself is very open and flexible in this respect, but there are people within the bureaucracy that take a different view."
One of the most difficult problems is that of a seminary for Greek Orthodox priests on Heybeliada, an island in the Sea of Marmara close to Istanbul. Because the school has been closed since the early 1970s, the Orthodox clergy in what once was Constantinople is in danger of dying out. The Erdogan government has said it is in favour of reopening the school, but secular groups fear that such a step would lead to the opening of Islamic schools as well.
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Started: December 2016
Founder: Ibrahim Kamalmaz
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Dr Afridi's warning signs of digital addiction
Spending an excessive amount of time on the phone.
Neglecting personal, social, or academic responsibilities.
Losing interest in other activities or hobbies that were once enjoyed.
Having withdrawal symptoms like feeling anxious, restless, or upset when the technology is not available.
Experiencing sleep disturbances or changes in sleep patterns.
What are the guidelines?
Under 18 months: Avoid screen time altogether, except for video chatting with family.
Aged 18-24 months: If screens are introduced, it should be high-quality content watched with a caregiver to help the child understand what they are seeing.
Aged 2-5 years: Limit to one-hour per day of high-quality programming, with co-viewing whenever possible.
Aged 6-12 years: Set consistent limits on screen time to ensure it does not interfere with sleep, physical activity, or social interactions.
Teenagers: Encourage a balanced approach – screens should not replace sleep, exercise, or face-to-face socialisation.
Source: American Paediatric Association
Frankenstein in Baghdad
Ahmed Saadawi
Penguin Press
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Expo details
Expo 2020 Dubai will be the first World Expo to be held in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia
The world fair will run for six months from October 20, 2020 to April 10, 2021.
It is expected to attract 25 million visits
Some 70 per cent visitors are projected to come from outside the UAE, the largest proportion of international visitors in the 167-year history of World Expos.
More than 30,000 volunteers are required for Expo 2020
The site covers a total of 4.38 sqkm, including a 2 sqkm gated area
It is located adjacent to Al Maktoum International Airport in Dubai South
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What drives subscription retailing?
Once the domain of newspaper home deliveries, subscription model retailing has combined with e-commerce to permeate myriad products and services.
The concept has grown tremendously around the world and is forecast to thrive further, according to UnivDatos Market Insights’ report on recent and predicted trends in the sector.
The global subscription e-commerce market was valued at $13.2 billion (Dh48.5bn) in 2018. It is forecast to touch $478.2bn in 2025, and include the entertainment, fitness, food, cosmetics, baby care and fashion sectors.
The report says subscription-based services currently constitute “a small trend within e-commerce”. The US hosts almost 70 per cent of recurring plan firms, including leaders Dollar Shave Club, Hello Fresh and Netflix. Walmart and Sephora are among longer established retailers entering the space.
UnivDatos cites younger and affluent urbanites as prime subscription targets, with women currently the largest share of end-users.
That’s expected to remain unchanged until 2025, when women will represent a $246.6bn market share, owing to increasing numbers of start-ups targeting women.
Personal care and beauty occupy the largest chunk of the worldwide subscription e-commerce market, with changing lifestyles, work schedules, customisation and convenience among the chief future drivers.