After Donald Trump was inaugurated as president in January, George Orwell's seminal book, 1984, shot to the top of the bestseller list nearly 70 years after it was first published. We turned to fiction to help navigate a world where Orwellian terms had become reality. We had Orwell's "newspeak" expressed as "alternative facts". And just like in 1984, one day we had been enemies with Eurasia, which included Russia, and the next, we are friends with them but enemies with East Asia, which includes Korea.
The creative arts are making a resurgence now that we are experiencing the shifting tectonic plates of history and we should be using them as a way to understand and tackle an era of radical change.
The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel about a future in which women have no rights and whose purpose is to manufacture babies, has been revived with a recent award-winning drama series that swept the Emmy Awards. Women around the world felt terrified at how we are teetering on the precipice of life imitating art. Atwood's vision is all the more poignant when you learn that she says she only included things that had already happened somewhere in the world.
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Historical dramas can trigger and enlighten our consciousness
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I was in Madrid this week on a fleeting overnight visit punctuated by one extraordinary moment. Inside the Reina Sofia museum, I walked the passageways and turned a corner to find roaring into the room the enormous black, white and grey mural called Guernica. It is 7.7 metres wide and 3.49 metres high.
Painted by Picasso in 1937, the painting has a ferocious energy that is so intense it could have been painted today. Its message is just as relevant. It celebrated its 80th anniversary earlier this year.
Picasso had been living in exile in Paris during the Spanish civil war. On April 26, 1937, he received news of the destruction of the town of Guernica in the northern Basque province of Spain. Franco had invited the Nazis to bomb it as punishment for being the centre of Basque republican resistance and culture. By June 4, the painting was completed. It has been called one of the most powerful anti-war paintings ever.
The dark mural depicts a combination of searing images and symbols: the bull and the horse, screaming women, a dead child. Death oozes like blood from the canvas.
Staring at the painting, I felt I had been sucked through a vortex back into the cusp of the Second World War. I could taste the horrors and hear the screams.
These works were not only powerful social commentary and extraordinary interventions, their creators feeling compelled to produce them as protests. They were a means of release for the artists; their very beings needing to express their rage.
It is works of art like these that helped me to understand how I came to be an author. I can't compare to their extraordinary level of talent, of course. Orwell explains in his essay, Why I Write, that it was the era of intense political distress in which he lived that led him to make political writing into an art.
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His commentary about his own art – and his motivations for it – helped me better understand not just our own era, but my own reaction and creative response to it. I don’t know if I would have picked up a pen to write had it not been for a visceral compulsion to intervene creatively in a social and political arena that needs change.
Orwell says that “the opinion that art should have nothing to do with politics is itself a political attitude”. So I wonder, is it dangerous for a Muslim woman author to explicitly state that she was radicalised into writing?
I take cover for my own humble art, in the shadow of Picasso's visceral response, to a world that is terrifyingly similar today. He continued to live in Paris during the city's Nazi occupation. One day, a Gestapo officer barged his way into Picasso's apartment and noticed a photo of the Guernica painting. "Did you do that?" asked the officer. And Picasso's answer explains how creativity is an expression, an intervention and a protest all in one. He replied, "No, you did."
Shelina Zahra Janmohamed is the author of Generation M: Young Muslims Changing the World
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MATCH INFO
Azerbaijan 0
Wales 2 (Moore 10', Wilson 34')
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
Match info
Bournemouth 1 (King 45 1')
Arsenal 2 (Lerma 30' og, Aubameyang 67')
Man of the Match: Sead Kolasinac (Arsenal)
World Series
Game 1: Red Sox 8, Dodgers 4
Game 2: Red Sox 4, Dodgers 2
Game 3: Saturday (UAE)
* if needed
Game 4: Sunday
Game 5: Monday
Game 6: Wednesday
Game 7: Thursday
COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
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MATCH INFO
Norwich City 0 Southampton 3 (Ings 49', Armstrong 54', Redmond 79')
TRAP
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Saleka Shyamalan, Ariel Donaghue
Director: M Night Shyamalan
Rating: 3/5
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Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
Essentials
The flights
Whether you trek after mountain gorillas in Rwanda, Uganda or the Congo, the most convenient international airport is in Rwanda’s capital city, Kigali. There are direct flights from Dubai a couple of days a week with RwandAir. Otherwise, an indirect route is available via Nairobi with Kenya Airways. Flydubai flies to Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, via Entebbe in Uganda. Expect to pay from US$350 (Dh1,286) return, including taxes.
The tours
Superb ape-watching tours that take in all three gorilla countries mentioned above are run by Natural World Safaris. In September, the company will be operating a unique Ugandan ape safari guided by well-known primatologist Ben Garrod.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, local operator Kivu Travel can organise pretty much any kind of safari throughout the Virunga National Park and elsewhere in eastern Congo.
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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CREW
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Jigra
Starring: Alia Bhatt, Vedang Raina, Manoj Pahwa, Harsh Singh
The specs
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Transmission: ten-speed
Power: 420bhp
Torque: 624Nm
Price: Dh325,125
On sale: Now
Thank You for Banking with Us
Director: Laila Abbas
Starring: Yasmine Al Massri, Clara Khoury, Kamel El Basha, Ashraf Barhoum
Rating: 4/5
Three trading apps to try
Sharad Nair recommends three investment apps for UAE residents:
- For beginners or people who want to start investing with limited capital, Mr Nair suggests eToro. “The low fees and low minimum balance requirements make the platform more accessible,” he says. “The user interface is straightforward to understand and operate, while its social element may help ease beginners into the idea of investing money by looking to a virtual community.”
- If you’re an experienced investor, and have $10,000 or more to invest, consider Saxo Bank. “Saxo Bank offers a more comprehensive trading platform with advanced features and insight for more experienced users. It offers a more personalised approach to opening and operating an account on their platform,” he says.
- Finally, StashAway could work for those who want a hands-off approach to their investing. “It removes one of the biggest challenges for novice traders: picking the securities in their portfolio,” Mr Nair says. “A goal-based approach or view towards investing can help motivate residents who may usually shy away from investment platforms.”
Breaking News: The Remaking of Journalism and Why It Matters Now
Alan Rushbridger, Canongate
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