Features

Space and Mobility in Palestine

Julie Peteet

US: Indiana University Press, 2017

Pp. 239

In her newest book, anthropologist Julie Peteet analyses the closure and separation regime, imposed by Israel on Palestinians under occupation, from every possible angle — moral, human, social, economic, legal, political, gender, corporal and psychological. Based on almost a decade of research and first-hand observation of the Wall, closed-off villages, curfews, identity card and permit requirements, checkpoints, terminals and segregated roads, she examines “the intersection of mobility and space, looking specifically at how access to space and thus to mobility devolve from racialised categories of ethnicity, religion and nationality”. (p. 2) 

Peteet’s mode of analysis is relational, allowing her to draw sharply defined conclusions as to what exactly Israel wants with this system, and how it impacts on Palestinians’ daily lives and their political future. Simply put, whenever the space available to Israelis expands, that available to Palestinians shrinks. “In this context, time, like space, is decidedly relational as well as polyrhythmic. Piece by piece, an infrastructure that immobilises Palestinians and enables Israelis to move with relative ease and speed has taken shape.” (p. 144)

With Israel, Jerusalem and much of the West Bank mainly closed off to most Palestinians, they are not only separated from Israelis, but also from each other, and confined to limited enclaves, Gaza being the extreme example. “Palestinians are simultaneously locked in and locked out, stranded in a web of immobilising devices.” (pp. 63-4)

The book shows with multiple examples how this lack of mobility constricts and sometimes rules out Palestinian access to jobs, education, health care, political organising, and even their own land, and highlights the less obvious effects, such as the disruption of family and social ties — and of peace of mind. As much as the closure system seems highly regimented with strict rules as to where and how one can go, what permits are needed, etc., it is also unpredictable. Never knowing if a checkpoint will be open, or how long one will have to wait, wreaks havoc on daily schedules and plans, and has caused the death of patients seeking medical care. Indeed, a new form of control has been instated: “Control through the creation of calibrated chaos, the changing of rules and procedures with no warning or explanation, is enacted daily at checkpoints and in applying for permits… Unpredictability is the new norm.” (p. 38)

So is interminable waiting. This reinforces the perception that closure is not so much about security, as a form of collective punishment.

Much has been written about the Wall and other aspects of closure, but “Space and Mobility in Palestine” distinguishes itself by placing this system in a historical, regional and global context. Closure is framed as the current phase of the Israeli settler-colonial project in Palestine. In the post-Oslo period, Israel has eyed the chance to control all the land and resources of historical Palestine, but must grapple with the demographic issue. By making Palestinian lives so difficult, even impossible, Israel hopes to push them to emigrate, enacting gradual, “voluntary”, ethnic cleansing. “In essence, Palestinians inhabit a prison from which they are encouraged to escape.” (p. 9) 

Enclosed and basically abandoned in their scattered enclaves, Palestinians resemble other “unwanted” population groups the neoliberal world over. Peteet compares the fortified Israeli colonies to gated communities, which are “flourishing globally as elites and states partition and barricade space in an attempt to exclude and lock out the anticipated violence of the have-nots, cast alternatively as criminals or terrorists”. (pp. 61-2)

She compares and contrasts the Palestinian situation with that of Native Americans, Afro-Americans under Jim Crow laws and today’s mass incarceration system, and apartheid South Africa. 

Regionally, Peteet draws parallels to the reorganisation of space according to sectarian lines as happened in Iraq in the wake of the US invasion, in Lebanon during the civil war and most recently in Syria.

Though elements of the closure regime were put in place in the 1990s, Peteet points out that its development into a totalising system corresponded with the US-proclaimed “war on terror” and Israel’s enhancement as a high-tech “anti-terror” arms and security equipment supplier and trainer in the global arena. With its arms industry flourishing like never before, Israel has less interest in entering into Arab markets or peace. Conflict management has become the order of the day. By bringing in these regional and global parallels, Peteet sets the ever-growing overlap between Israeli and US strategies in relief. 

Perhaps most importantly, Peteet gives voice to the Palestinian perspective: how coping with closure affects their lives and their thinking, how they analyse Israel’s aims, what they expect in the future, and what possibilities they see for resistance. To get this perspective, Peteet not only interviewed scores of West Bank and Jerusalem Palestinians, she travelled with them from one town and village to another on trips made long and arduous by having to circumvent settler-only spaces and roads. She waited with them at checkpoints, and attended protests against the Wall and land confiscation. Extensive quotes from those she interviewed and her first-hand impressions are interspersed throughout the text, adding vitality, authenticity and a deeply human dimension to her incisive analysis.

People with heart disease have better long-term survival odds when they are married, a recent US study suggests. 

Compared to divorced, widowed and never-married peers, who were up to 71 per cent more likely to die during a follow-up of several years, married patients also had fewer heart risk factors like high blood pressure and were more likely to be on heart medications. 

“We measured biomarkers including cholesterol, high blood pressure and presence of diabetes. True, unmarried patients are dying more because they have these conditions. But just the marital status in and of itself is an independent risk factor,” senior study author Dr Arshed Quyyumi of Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta told Reuters in a phone interview. 

Quyyumi and his team looked at the relationship between marital status and incidence of cardiovascular death, heart attack and death from any cause in 6,051 men and women who had their clogged heart arteries cleared at Emory Healthcare hospitals between 2003 and 2015. Follow-up ranged from 1.7 to 6.7 years, averaging about three and a half years. 

Overall, the unmarried patients were 1.45 times as likely as the married patients to experience a cardiovascular event leading to death, 1.52 times as likely to have a heart attack and 1.24 times as likely to die from any cause during the follow-up period, the researchers report in the Journal of the American Heart Association. 

Widows fared the worst, with a 71 per cent higher likelihood of heart attack or cardiovascular death compared to married patients. Divorced, separated and never-married patients had about 40 per cent higher odds for those events. 

Past research has found that being married is associated with better health and survival overall, the study team notes, although the mechanisms involved need further study. 

“It’s a culmination of factors,” said Dr Rahul Potluri of Aston Medical School in Birmingham, UK, who was not involved in the study. “Benefits of marriage include the impetus to look after one’s health.”

People who live close to gyms, pools and playing fields weigh less and have smaller waistlines than their counterparts residing farther away from exercise facilities, a UK study suggests. 

Living far away from fast food outlets also appeared to help people maintain a lower weight and trimmer waist, although this connection was not as strong as the proximity of gyms, researchers report in the Lancet Public Health. 

“It is likely that communities without the neighbourhood resources needed to encourage a healthy lifestyle put their residents at a higher risk of obesity,” said senior study author Steven Cummins of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. 

“This could be improved by restricting the number of new fast food outlets in a neighbourhood and how close they can be to people’s homes, incentivising operators of physical activity facilities to open in residential areas with few facilities, or funding local authorities to provide such facilities,” Cummins said by e-mail. 

Globally, more than 1.9 billion adults are overweight or obese, according to the World Health Organisation. The condition contributes to a variety of common medical problems including heart disease, diabetes and certain cancers. 

For the study, researchers examined data on weight, waist measurements and body fat for more than 400,000 men and women ranging in age from 40 to 70. 

The study used data collected between 2006 and 2010 that included demographic characteristics like household income, as well as what types of eating and exercising options were available near people’s home addresses. 

To determine exercise opportunities, researchers looked for indoor and outdoor facilities for sports and leisure activities such as gyms, swimming pools and playing fields. They did not consider public parks or cycling and walking paths. 

On average, people had just one exercise facility within 1 kilometre of home. And almost one-third of participants had no options this close to where they lived, the study found. 

People typically had to travel just 1.1 kilometres to reach a fast food outlet. Nearly one in five people had a fast food restaurant within a half-kilometre of home. 

Better access to exercise options translated into a healthier weight. 

Compared to people who had no facilities near home, people who had at least six places to work out weighed less, had a 1.22 centimetre slimmer waistline, and had a body fat percentage that was 0.81 per cent lower on average. 

At the same time, people who lived at least 2 kilometres from a fast food outlet had a waistline 0.26 centimetres smaller than individuals who lived less than a half-kilometre away, the study also found. 

One limitation of the study is that not all fast food restaurants may have been included in the database, the authors note. The study also did not account for the proximity of healthy dining establishments near home, or the type of food and workout options close to where people worked. 

The study was not a controlled experiment designed to prove whether or how neighbourhood characteristics like the availability of gyms or greasy spoons might impact obesity rates. 

It is hard to rule out the possibility that healthier people may choose to live near the amenities they need to stay healthy, said Pablo Monsivais, author of an accompanying editorial and a nutrition and exercise researcher at Washington State University in Spokane. 

But the study still suggests that where we live matters, Monsivais said by e-mail. 

“Individually, each of us makes choices that affect whether we maintain a healthy weight or put on pounds, but these choices are shaped by the environments we inhabit,” Monsivais added. “This study looked at just a few features of the environment, but research shows that things like green space, walkability, noise, air quality and the availability of healthy food choices all seem to matter for our health and body weight.”

People who drink hot tea daily may be less likely than others to develop glaucoma symptoms, US researchers say.

Compared to coffee, soft drink and iced tea drinkers, study participants who consumed a cup or more of hot caffeinated tea daily had 74 per cent lower odds of having glaucoma, the study authors report in the British Journal of Ophthalmology.

“Glaucoma can lead to blindness, and it would be great if it could be prevented because there is no cure,” said lead author Dr Anne Coleman of the University of California, Los Angeles.

“The best way to prevent it is to get your eyes checked,” Coleman told Reuters Health in a telephone interview. “But we are also interested in lifestyle habits and what we can do to make a difference.”

Glaucoma is the second leading cause of blindness worldwide, according to the World Health Organisation, affecting an estimated 58 million people. That includes more than 3 million Americans, only half of whom are aware they have the disease, according to the Glaucoma Research Foundation.

Coffee, or caffeine in general have previously been linked to increased glaucoma risk, although recent studies do not agree, Coleman and her colleagues write.

To evaluate the relationship between specific caffeinated drinks and glaucoma, Coleman and colleagues analysed data on a sample of more than 10,000 people in the US who were representative of the entire population. Participants in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey during 2005-2006 answered questions about their diets and lifestyles, had medical exams and blood tests and also underwent eye examinations.

About 1,700 participants were over age 40, had no other known eye diseases and had full eye examination results from the survey. In this group, Coleman’s team found that just over 5 per cent, 82 people, had glaucoma.

Almost half of participants reported drinking coffee often, but less than 10 per cent drank hot tea daily. The research team found no associations between coffee, iced tea, decaffeinated tea or soft drink consumption and the likelihood of having glaucoma.

“Tea drinkers should keep drinking and don’t need to stop because of a fear of glaucoma,” Coleman said. “This makes sense, but we’ll see if it holds up in future studies.”

Future studies should look at the habits, activities and nutrition that affect lifestyle and glaucoma risks, said Idan Hecht of Tel Aviv University in Israel, who was not involved in the research.

“In the past few years, there has been a tremendous increase in interest, and subsequently research, into the ways lifestyle changes can influence diseases,” Hecht told Reuters Health by e-mail.

Recent research indicates that vitamins C, E and zinc can help vision. Other studies indicate that antioxidants in tea could have similar effects, he noted.

“Patients can and should be involved and take an active role in the management of their ailments,” Hecht said. “Exercising, eating healthy and trying novel ways to improve your health is something you should definitely explore and bring up with your physician.”

Environmental factors could play a role in glaucoma risk as well, said Dr Ahmad Aref at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

“As our population grows older, we need to think about the other factors that could help, particularly when it comes to the health benefits of physical activity,” he told Reuters Health by phone.

Overall, both medical and non-medical approaches are key to treating the disease in the future, Aref added.

“It’s a tough disease because we don’t have a way to bring vision back once it’s lost,” he said. “All we can do is prevent it from getting worse, and we want to help patients do that.”

Visions of doomsday are not what they used to be. Forget about the Earth being wiped out by an environmental disaster caused by the dire consequences of global warming, and forget about an all-out nuclear war that would bring civilisation as we know it to an end. Even visions of large meteorites thrashing the Earth are not what would scare us most. The way things are going, it is more likely that global mayhem will take place because of a major crash of the Internet. This is hardly an exaggeration.

When you think of all that is done through the web today, a major crash of it certainly is the worst nightmare you can envision. The world will freeze as surely as in a new ice age. Airlines, banks, transportation, security, e-mail, medicine, government institutions, telecommunications, traffic, audio-video streaming, and of course, the most critical of them all… Whatsapp! They all would come to a standstill, with all the obvious, terrible consequences that we can easily imagine.

How likely it is to happen is not something that can be accurately estimated, except that it is not excluded at all. Human errors, technical failures, accidents and hacking are always possible. 

For the last ten years or so, Europe has been trying to “decentralise” the Internet backbone that is still mainly located in North America. The Internet backbone consists of the computer servers and fibre optic cabling that make the global network. Even if you are in Jordan, for instance, and you send an e-mail to someone in a neighbouring country, you still have to go through the backbone.

To avoid a digital doomsday, Europe is increasing the number of Internet servers and fibre optic cabling on its soil, in an effort to break North America’s almost exclusive monopoly on the web. It is working, up to a certain point, but a lot remains to be done to reduce the global crash risk. Spreading the Internet backbone evenly over continents is one way to reduce both the eventuality and the consequences of a major catastrophe.

Enki Bilal is a leading, successful author of science fiction “bandes dessinées”, the French equivalent of American comics. He has just published the first chapter of a new series very aptly titled “Bug”, which tells precisely of what would happen if a major bug was to bring the Internet down. Bilal’s fiction actually covers more than network failure and also tells of how dehumanising the Internet has become, even without a doomsday scenario. But this is another story.

So far we have all experienced short and very local network failures. However frustrating they can be, such limited incidents, of course, have little to do with a major failure of the web, if it was to cover the world and last for a period exceeding four or five days, for example.

There is little doubt that everything is being done to avoid a big failure to happen. Systems are being made redundant and as safe as possible. Cyber and network security has become one of the most important specialities within the domain of Information Technology.

So far we have only had a “taste” of what a big break down would do. In “mid-2017, two major and intertwined ransomware attacks spread like wildfire across the globe, shutting down hospitals in Ukraine and radio stations in California, and that was when ransomware became an existential threat”. (csoonline.com).

Till now we have been praying that no world leader will ever push the button to start a nuclear war. We can now update our prayers for a safe, always-up Internet.

When patients misunderstand commonly used medical terms, communication and decision making may suffer, UK researchers say.

In a survey of London oral and maxillofacial surgery clinic patients, more than a third of participants did not know the meaning of terms like “benign” or “lesion” and more than half could not define “metastasis” or “lymph node”, the study team reports in the British Dental Journal.

Communication between patient and practitioner is essential, the researchers write, but it may not be happening as often as doctors think it is.

“As a result, ill-informed patients tend to neglect timely treatment which can lead to very bad — sometimes disastrous — outcomes,” said Dr Sidney Eisig of Columbia University’s College of Dental Medicine in New York, who was not involved in the study.

“I’ve seen patients with premalignant lesions turn to cancer that otherwise might not have occurred had surgical treatment not been so delayed,” he told Reuters Health in a telephone interview.

Emma Hayes of King’s College Hospital, London, and her colleagues recruited 123 patients waiting for their appointments at the hospital’s outpatient clinic to anonymously answer questionnaires about the meanings of several medical terms. Participants also provided background information about themselves, including education level and whether English was their first language.

In a multiple-choice section of the questionnaire, they were asked to define: blister, ulcer, malignant, lesion and benign. In a free-written answer section, they were also asked to describe in their own words the meanings of: biopsy, tumour, lymph node, pre-malignant and metastasis.

Hayes’ team found that 90 per cent of respondents correctly defined blister as a bubble of fluid under the skin. Ulcer came in at a distant second with just 70 per cent choosing the appropriate definition as an open sore or break in the skin.

“The words blister and ulcer are frequently used in medical areas unrelated to dental care, which may explain why the two are the most recognised medical lexicon,” Eisig noted. “For example, a patient experienced foot or hand blisters in the past. A friend or family member once had a stomach ulcer.”

Forty-five per cent of patients were able to define a biopsy as a test involving taking a sample, but 30 per cent wrongly defined it as a test specifically for cancer.

Benign and metastasis were the least understood terms, with 33 per cent of patients responding “Don’t know” for the meaning of benign and just 6 per cent correctly defining metastasis as the spread of a cancer to other areas of the body. Many patients also seemed to mistake “metastasis” for other words, offering responses such as “foot bone” (metatarsal) or “breast condition, very painful” (mastitis).

The researchers found that nearly 27 per cent of participants did not speak English as a first language, which is a higher rate than London as a whole, at 22 per cent, they note. But when the researchers looked just at those whose first language was English, they saw no differences in the number of correct answers based on educational level.

The study authors did not respond to a request for comments.

According to the US National Institutes of Health, providers in many fields, including emergency room settings, surgery requiring anesthetics and breast cancer clinics, grapple with how best to effectively communicate with patients.

Efforts to bridge this gap include encouraging the use of plainer language in written materials and providing interpreting services for non-English speakers.

Eisig notes that some of the biggest challenges to effectively communicating with patients stem from growing bureaucracy within healthcare and are not so easily remedied.

“Over the past decade or so there have been many changes to healthcare, many of which are driven by finances. Some of these changes aren’t always beneficial,” he said.

“Frequently the doctor’s back may be to the patient as entries are being made into the electronic health record. Doctor-patient communication is now being done increasingly through e-mail. These are just two examples that may lead to communication failures because practitioners are spending less time with patients, which results in diminished relationships thus increasing the likelihood for patient misinterpretation.”

Volvo’s follow-up to its popular premium mid-size SUV, the new XC60 is the third in a new generation of high tech Volvos that place just as much emphasis on design, drivability, dynamics and aesthetic as the Swedish maker has always placed on safety. Launched regionally back in September — just weeks before Volvo officially relaunched in Jordan — the XC60 is available in three trim levels and with two petrol engine options, including the range-topping T6 AWD R-Design model, as driven on southern Turkish roads, not too dissimilar from Jordanian conditions.

Stylish Swede

Hot on the heels of its larger XC90 SUV and S90 saloon sisters, the new XC60 shares the brand’s new Scalable Product Architecture platform, and the same sharp, classy and fresh design language. Longer, lower and wider than the previous XC60, the new model has a greater sense of presence and momentum to its wide and urgent stance, and features a jutting tailgate framed by slim vertical lights. Its long bonnet and long ratio between wheelarches to rakish A-pillars lends it a sportier and more premium profile.

Distinctly Scandinavian in its design, approach to luxury and character, the XC60’s fascia is dominated by a wide and jutting grille, flanked by slim and browed headlights stylishly bisected by Volvo’s current “Thor’s hammer” LED signature. With sculpted bodywork and a sharply angled kink at the rear of its waistline, the XC60 is at its aesthetic best in sportier R-design specification with slim and wide dual tailpipes, bigger more aggressive bumpers, and silver mirror backs, in addition to other details, including vast 255/40R21 tyres to fill out its wheel-arches.

Consistent and confident

The third model line built on Volvo’s versatile and new, the XC60 is built on a lightened, yet, more rigid frame. Its platform is a transverse front engine layout, yet enjoys a luxurious cabin-rear design with long bonnet, short overhangs and big footprint for stability, space and comfort. Powered exclusively by compact forced-induction two-litre four-cylinder engines, the XC60 petrol range includes the turbocharged T5, range-topping T8 hybrid and mid-range T6 with both turbo and supercharger for instant low-end responsiveness, meaty mid-range and punchy top-end delivery.

Refined and responsive, the XC60 T6 launches eagerly from standstill, with its mechanically driven supercharger eliminating turbo lag and ensuring consistently progressive yet prodigious delivery. 

Meanwhile, an exhaust gas driven turbocharger build up boost and power, and allows for an urgent top-end delivery. Producing abundant 295lb/ft torque throughout a broad 2200-5400rpm range and 316BHP at 5700rpm, the T6 is effortlessly versatile, with slick 8-speed automatic gearbox aiding performance, flexibility, refinement and efficiency. Capable of 0-100km/h in 5.9-seconds and 230km/h, the T6 AWD returns restrained 7.7l/100km combined cycle fuel efficiency.

Composed comfort

With 30 per cent stiffer springs and thicker anti-roll bars, the sportier R-Design specification XC60 well-manage its height and weight through corners. More agile vehicle than its size suggests, the T6 R-Design turns tidily into corner with direct steering. Rides on double wishbone front and integral-link rear suspension with optional adaptive air suspension, as tested, it is smooth and refined with good body control through corners. 

Four-wheel-drive ensures tenacious traction at launch, and allocates power between front and rear reassuring on the move road-holding. 

Stable at speed, capable through switchbacks and comfortably fluent on smooth roads, the R-Design’s optional 255/40R21 low profile tyres were somewhat firm but offered improved grip and a sportier drive in theory. However, in practice, and on rougher rural roads during test drive, one found that the slimmer 235/55R19 base R-Design tyres were more suitable. Well complementing air suspension, the slimmer tyres with higher sidewalls proved noticeably more forgiving, comfortable and supple, and with better steering and road feel communication — if not better outright grip — allowed for more intuitive and confident driving.

Sporty and classy

Composed, settled and refined, the XC60 is classy, elegant and stylish inside, with a distinct design sensibility and attention to detail and use of quality metals, leathers, suedes and soft touch plastics. With darker tones, chunky steering wheel, contrast metallic trim and supportively body hugging, yet, comfortable and highly adjustable seats, the R-Design has a sportier ambiance. Well-packaged and ergonomic, the XC60’s driving position is high but car-like and offers good visibility, but its driving mode selector is position somewhat far back in the centre console.

A practical SUV with good storage and cargo capacity, the XC60 also offers good passenger space, including generous rear head and leg room. Well-equipped, features include nine-inch smartphone-integrated, voice-activated infotainment system with WiFi hotspot. An emphasis on technology and safety, the includes Pedestrian, Cyclist, Large Animal Detection, Run-Off Prevention, Blind Spot Information System with Steer Assist and Oncoming Lane Mitigation for preventing head-on collisions. Steer Assist, meanwhile operates with City Safety and can initiate steering input to avoid collisions at 50-100km/h, and can brake individual wheels at the same time for stability.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: two-litre, supercharged and turbocharged, all-aluminium, transverse four-cylinders

Bore x stroke: 82 x 93.2mm

Compression ratio: 10.3:1

Valve-train: 16-valve, DOHC, direct injection, variable valve timing

Gearbox: eight-speed automatic, four-wheel-drive

Ratios: 1st 5.25:1; 2nd 3.029:1; 3rd 1.95:1; 4th 1.457:1; 5th 1.221:1; 6th 1.0:1; 7th 0.809:1; 8th 0.673:1 

Reverse / final drive: 4.015:1 / 3.329

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 315 (320) [235] @5500rpm

Specific power: 160BHP/litre

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 295 (400) @2200-5400rpm

Specific torque: 203.15Nm/litre

0-100km/h: 5.9-seconds

Top speed: 230km/h

Fuel consumption, urban / extra-urban / combined: 9.7- / 6.6- / 7.7-litres/100km 

Fuel capacity: 71-litres

Length: 4688mm

Width: 1902mm

Height: 1658mm

Wheelbase: 2865mm

Track, F/R: 1649 / 1653mm

Overhangs, F/R: 872 / 951mm

Ground clearance: 216mm

Approach / break-over / departure angles: 23.1° / 20.8° / 25.5°

Aerodynamic drag co-efficient: 0.32

Headroom, F/R: 994 / 988mm (w/sunroof)

Legroom, F/R; 1055 / 965mm

Shoulder room, F/R: 1478 / 1430mm

Luggage volume, min/max: 505-/1432-litres

Unladen weight: 2002kg

Steering: Speed sensitive electric-assisted rack and pinion

Turning Circle: 11.4-meters

Suspension, F/R: Double wishbones / integral-link axle, active air suspension

Brakes: Ventilated discs

Braking distance, 100-0km/h: 36-meters

Tyres: 255/40R21 (optional)

LOS ANGELES — In a battle of box office heavyweights, Luke Skywalker just managed to hold off Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as the world rang in another year.

Disney and LucasFilm’s “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” retained first place for the four-day New Year’s holiday weekend despite steep competition from Sony’s “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle”. “Last Jedi” picked up an estimated $68.4 million, bringing its domestic haul to $533.1 million.

Don’t weep for “Jumanji”, however. The fantasy reboot, which finds Johnson, Jack Black, and Kevin Hart transported into a video game world, has outperformed expectations, picking up a lordly $66.5 million over the holiday weekend. It now has a hefty $185.7 million domestic gross and should continue to draw crowds in 2018. The “Jumanji” sequel has also done well internationally, racking up $350 million worldwide, and has provided a much-needed hit for a studio that has struggled to keep pace with the Disney’s and Warner Bros.’s of the world. Sony claims the film has a $90 million budget. Those alleged production costs have raised eyebrows around town as to their veracity given the film’s Hawaii location and starry cast, but regardless of creative accounting and aggressive spinning, the result is impressive. A sequel seems preordained.

“Star Wars: The Last Jedi” closed 2017 as the year’s highest-grossing release and the seventh highest-grossing domestic movie of all time with $517.1 million. It will bypass its fellow franchisee “Rogue One” at some point on New Year’s Day to take the seventh spot on the stateside charts and has already blown past the $1 billion mark globally. The film carries a $200 million price tag, and has generated controversy for a series of creative decisions by director and writer Rian Johnson that have, depending on your perspective, either infused new energy into decades-old series or deviated dangerously from the Jedi canon.

It is been a dismal year for the domestic box office, which ends 2017 with $11.12 billion in sales, down 2.3 per cent from last year’s $11.38 billion and off slightly from 2015’s $11.14 billion, according to comScore. After a bruising summer, when revenues plummeted more than 6 per cent in the wake of costly flops such as “The Mummy” and “Transformer: The Last Knight”, the gap did narrow. Fall and winter hits such as “It”, “Thor: Ragnarok”, “Coco”, and “Murder on the Orient Express”, helped make up the difference. The industry was also aided by record ticket prices. Empirically, fewer people made it to the multiplexes. Attendance is expected to hit a 27-year low when official numbers are tallied.

Universal’s “Pitch Perfect 3” took third place on the stateside charts, grossing $22.7 million for the four-day period and pushing its domestic total to just under $70 million. The a Cappella comedy carries a $45 million production budget and has been billed as the final installment in the franchise.

Hugh Jackman’s musical drama “The Greatest Showman” is finishing a close fourth with $20.7 million. The Fox-Chernin Entertainment production chronicles the rise of circus impresario P.T. Barnum. It got a boost from the holidays, and showed the biggest gain in the top 10 movies from the Christmas Eve weekend with an impressive 73 per cent surge. The domestic total should hit $54.3 million through Monday. It’s a pricey movie, though. All that singing and dancing did not come cheap and “The Greatest Showman” cost $84 million to make.

Fox’s second weekend of “Ferdinand” rounded out the top five with $14.6 million, giving the animated comedy $56.8 million domestically.

Not every film was feeling the holiday spirit. Paramount’s “Downsizing” is a costly bomb. The comedy about a man (Matt Damon) who shrinks to the size of thimble in order to live in a materialistic utopia collapsed at the box office, eking out $6.1 million over the long weekend. Its total stands at $18.5 million — a paltry result given its $65 million budget. It also prolongs a box office losing streak for Damon. The actor also struck out with “Suburbicon” and “The Great Wall”, both of which opened during and flopped in 2017.

Warner Bros. and Alcon’s comedy “Father Figures” was another casualty of the Christmas crunch. The story of two twin brothers (Ed Helms and Owen Wilson) on a quest to find their biological father netted $5.1 million over the four-day weekend. Its total tops out at $14.1 million, making it unlikely that it will recoup its $25 million production budget as well its marketing costs.

And Sony’s “All the Money in the World” struggled to appeal to older audiences. The drama about the kidnapping of John Paul Getty III attracted lots of attention for the filmmakers’ last minute decision to recast a key role played by disgraced actor Kevin Spacey. The breakneck reshoots took place in a matter of weeks, with Christopher Plummer assuming the Spacey part as parsimonious billionaire J. Paul Getty, and added $10 million to the film’s $40 million budget. Alas, audiences failed to show up. The movie grossed $7.5 million over the holiday weekend, bringing its domestic total to $14.7 million.

Foreign audiences picked up the slack as domestic attendance sputtered in 2017. The global box office is projected to hit $40 billion for the first time in history, propelled by the return of China. Total ticket sales in the Middle Kingdom grew by 22.3 per cent, ending the year with $8.6 billion in revenues. That, at least, gives a beleaguered movie business some cause for celebration.

I Don’t Want This Poem to End

Mahmoud Darwish

Translated by Mohammad Shaheen 

US: Interlink Books, 2017

Pp. 242

This is a book to be treasured. Titled after Mahmoud Darwish’s last poem, it includes previously unpublished poems found by his friends at his house in Amman, soon after his death, as well as older ones. The poetry is supplemented by Darwish’s essay on exile, a letter to his brother when he was first imprisoned in 1965, an interview and commentary by his peers which sheds light on Darwish as a poet and human being. Two of these fellow intellectuals are resident here in Amman: Mohammad Shaheen, Professor of English at Jordan University, who translated the poems, and the respected literary critic, Faisal Darraj, who tells of his last meeting with Darwish, only thirteen days before the latter’s death, sharing their dialogue on Arabic literature.

As translation is increasingly recognised as an art in itself, the translator’s notes are becoming more and more interesting, and Mohammad Shaheen’s are no exception. He begins by recalling that Darwish never aimed to have his poetry translated, saying, “I am quite happy with the boundaries of Arabic as the language of my poetry”. (p. 1) Luckily for the world at large, he did accept good translations. Shaheen refers back to Darwish’s earlier translators, like Denys Johnson-Davies, an acknowledged pioneer in translating Arabic literature to English, to remind that as much as he was acclaimed, Darwish was also controversial. According to Johnson-Davies, the public failed “to see the poet’s development from the direct lyricism of his early poetry… to a more sophisticated form of poetry where the motif of politics is now obliquely expressed”, as in this collection. (p. 5)

Edward Said, on the other hand, clearly saw Darwish’s trajectory as “an epic effort to transform the lyrics of loss into the indefinitely postponed drama of return”. (p. 12) 

A mingling of anticipation and grief is palpable in Lebanese novelist Elias Khoury’s introduction, telling how Darwish’s friends entered his Abdoun house to find the poems he had said he left there — the novelist not really believing the poet was dead. After some searching, they found “I Don’t Want This Poem to End”, the main component of this book, along with other poems. Of the time spent arranging them for publication, Khoury writes: “I was able to get to know Darwish better, and I came to understand why his death had struck us with such tragic intensity. This man was not just a poet; he breathes words, he makes rhythm part of the circulation of his blood, his heart throbs with images; it is as if he were painting with rhythm…” (p. 30)

Rhythm is indeed the decisive momentum in the poems in the book. However much one intends to savour every word, to ponder the poet’s meaning, one finds oneself racing through the lines, propelled onward by the irrepressible rhythm. This applies even when reading silently to oneself — one can only imagine the effect of the readings for which Darwish was so famous and beloved, and which were enthralling even for those who did not understand the language. If one has been so fortunate to attend such a recitation, reading these poems will recreate the experience.

In the interview conducted four years before the poet’s death, Shaheen speaks of “an accentuated Darwishi rhythm which is quite exceptional in Arabic poetry”, asking about the purpose of that style of reading. In answer, Darwish identifies rhythm as “the element which makes a unity of the other elements”, but goes on to say: “I admit that the authority of rhythm sometimes pushes the poetic phrase in unexpected directions.” (pp. 224-5)

This means the rhythm also sparks innovation, another hallmark of Darwish’s poetry. 

In these poems, much seems obvious, for Darwish’s imagery is very concrete and often nature-based. The words he uses are mainly quite ordinary, but it is how they are used, juxtaposed to each other and bound by the rhythm, that gives them extraordinary connotations, evoking complex emotions and multiple interpretations. The themes are too many to innumerate; some are vintage Darwish from new angles: love of homeland, of the land itself, of particular places and people and times; the meaning of exile, absence, return and freedom; the subversiveness of poetry. There is a strong undercurrent of belief in the permanence of Palestine, but also of disillusionment, even bitterness, which could be understood as a reaction to the ongoing injustice perpetrated against the Palestinians. 

Death is arguably the predominant motif, reaching a climax in the long poem, “I Don’t Want This Poem to End”, where the word “poem” becomes synonymous with life. In the interview, Darwish acknowledges a growing preoccupation with death after his heart surgery in 1998. The ensuing decade is considered to be his most productive period wherein he explored death in his writing and tried to use language to resist non-existence. Yet, this is not the poetry of someone who feared death, but of someone who loved life so intensely.