Features

Maybe the Peanuts gang hasn’t been on the big screen in decades because they’ve had so much success on the small one, with specials like “The Great Pumpkin” and “A Charlie Brown Christmas” that have been annual TV traditions since the 1960s.

Thankfully, “The Peanuts Movie” isn’t just a small-screen special writ large. The filmmakers take advantage of their cinematic scope with a bigger story, more sophisticated animation and effective use of 3-D that gives new depth to the Peanuts world. But the characters loved by generations of fans — Lucy, Linus, Snoopy, Woodstock and beloved blockhead Charlie Brown — are as charming and timeless as ever.

It’s been nearly 40 years since the last Peanuts film, 1977’s “Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown”. The gang’s other theatrical outings were “A Boy Named Charlie Brown” in 1969 and “Snoopy, Come Home” in 1972.

“The Peanuts Movie”, written by the son and grandson of Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz, doesn’t cover new thematic territory, but it doesn’t really need to. Relying on 50 years of character development, the Peanuts gang stays true to their original selves — there’s no new edge or post-modern snark in the mix. The central concepts (be honest, be yourself, do your best) are as gentle as the curves of Charlie Brown’s silhouette.

There are two simultaneous stories at play in the film: one set in the “real world” of Charlie Brown and his friends, and a more fantastical tale of Snoopy as his alter-ego, the Flying Ace.

“The Peanuts Movie” opens during wintertime, and a snowy introductory scene with Woodstock sets viewers up for the 3-D experience. Charlie Brown and the gang are excited about a new kid moving into their neighbourhood. She turns out to be the Little Red-Haired Girl, and Charlie is instantly smitten.

School starts up again, bringing a series of challenges. First of all, the Little Red-Haired Girl is in Charlie’s class.

“I just came down with a serious case of inadequacy,” he says.

Then there is the talent show, school-wide tests, book reports and other kid-sized hurdles to overcome. The story follows the gang through the school year, focusing on Charlie’s foibles. Sally Brown plays a supporting role. Everything looks as colourful and round as the comic strip.

Meanwhile, Snoopy types himself into a high-flying adventure atop his doghouse as he battles his nemesis, the Red Baron. These sequences are distinguished by more realistic background animation — snowy mountains and grassy landscapes that look more like the world outside the movie theatre. Snoopy’s Flying Ace, aided by a team of Woodstock mechanics, flies off in pursuit of his love, Fifi, just as Charlie Brown tries to work up the nerve to introduce himself to the Little Red-Haired Girl.

Director Steve Martino cast child actors to voice the Peanuts gang, and used vintage recordings of late actor-producer Bill Melendez to realise Snoopy and Woodstock’s inimitable expressions. A catchy new song contributed by pop star Meghan Trainor is a bouncy bonus.

While “The Peanuts Movie” may lack the wink-wink wisdom aimed at adults often found in Pixar releases, it retains the wholesome appeal of those stalwart TV specials. The 3-D makes it look modern, but the Peanuts’ sweetness is satisfyingly old-fashioned.

New York — A Luke Skywalker doll for $18,000, a Darth Vader helmet or a cuddly Yoda for $100: “Star Wars” fans will dig deep to splash their cash on some of the rarest merchandise on the planet.

More than 600 items will go on sale in an online auction organised by Sotheby’s and eBay on December 11 — one week before the release of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”, the seventh movie in arguably the world’s biggest film franchise.

The space epics have grossed billions of dollars at the box office worldwide since the first film came out in 1977 and spawned a pop culture phenomenon, drawing legions of hardcore fans.

All of the items in the auction come from the private collection of Japanese designer and creative entrepreneur Nigo, who started collecting toys and figures decades ago at just six years old.

Bids are expected across the globe when the three-hour auction goes live at 10am (1700 GMT), says James Gallo, Sotheby’s consultant and owner of store “Toy and Comics Heaven”.

“It’s a really large assortment of stuff. It’s an impressive auction both in rarity and scope of items,” he told AFP.

Sotheby’s, set up in 18th century London and best known for selling fine art masterpieces, called in Gallo to value the collection, which he spent a week and a half sorting through.

From the United States, to Russia, China and Saudi Arabia, “Star Wars” has a fan base spanning generations. The films’ psychology has even found its way onto university syllabuses.

“It’s by far the strongest franchise,” agreed Gallo. “It’s been around longer than most, it’s merchandised more than most... There isn’t much that can compare.”

A Luke Skywalker doll, which would have been sold in 1978 as a children’s toy, goes on sale at the auction with an estimated value of $12,000 to $18,000.

The figurine, with a rare two-piece telescoping lightsaber, was quickly withdrawn from the market “due to the propensity for the lightsaber to snap off,” Sotheby’s said.

Never removed from the packaging, itself in pristine condition, it is one of only 20 confirmed examples of the doll, the auction house said.

“The very high end of the market is like that,” Gallo explained.

“When you’re talking about something that there’s 20 or 30 known in the world and there’s however many millions of ‘Star Wars’ fans, when you put it in that perspective, it’s quite rare.”

Neither is there any chance that someone paying that kind of money is going to pop the doll out and play with it.

“That would not be a good idea,” said Gallo, unamused. Instead it is much more likely to go on display.

“It’s up to each individual how they enjoy the items they have. It’s just like anything else, whether it be fine art or sports collectibles — it’s kind of all the same thing,” he said.

The most expensive items are two complete sets of “Power of the Force” coins, valued at $25,000-35,000 and which were available only by special request from the manufacturer Kenner.

Highlights go on display Friday in a private exhibition at The Conde Nast Gallery at One World Trade Centre in New York.

Gallo says he is tempted to bid on a couple of items himself, but that his favourite is a 1.06 metre hairy Chewbacca from Canada valued at $3,000 to $5,000.

“It’s a really neat item,” said the Pennsylvania-based aficionado. “It’s a rare item to find.”

The printed business card still has many years to live. Despite widespread use of digital contents everywhere, in all fields, despite the generalised do-not-print advice you see everywhere, at the bottom of e-mail messages more particularly, the little die-hard card bravely takes up the digital challenge and proves that there is still a place for traditional means of communication. In a world where everything pushes you to work with soft copies and websites, the hard copy business card is an exceptional survivor.

The fact is plain to see. Understanding why is another story.

When building a simple website to introduce yourself to the others is simple, easy and inexpensive, when sending personal or business contact info from smartphone to smartphone is wireless and virtually instant, what good is a business card for then? Especially that in most cases the first thing you do with a business card that has just been given to you is to rush and enter the info in a digital database, only to get rid of the card after that, or file it somewhere where it will be archived forever and never taken out again!

In many instances you would scan the card and have it optically read by the scanner with data automatically fed into the digital database. There are even free apps for smartphones that do the trick. CamCard and ScanBizCards are two apps for Android that work very well, using the phone’s camera as a scanner to take a picture of the card, and then read it (i.e. convert it to digital) and feed the info into a database.

The world is desperately trying to be kind to the environment, and the COP21 global conference this week in Paris, France, comes as a strong reminder of the trend, of the movement. Isn’t a printed business card kind of a sin in a way, a blatant contradiction?

Fashions come and go. A few years ago you were invited to give up on business cards and instead to have the same information saved on a tiny giveaway CD drive, the size and the shape of a business card, and that was supposed to replace the latter. Of course some found it trendy, fun, but it was nothing but a fad and people quickly realised that it was nonsense. It was complicated, expensive and downright ridiculous.

Having a one-page simple website with your personal information is hardly more expensive than a pack of 500 business cards, which is the average quantity that a person consumes per year. Moreover there are countless tools available off the web today that can design the site for you and have it up and running in a couple of hours — no technical knowledge required at all. Wordpress is such a service.

However, a printed card needs no Internet to be read, is immediate and constitutes a physical reminder. Even if you invite people to take a look at your website to get to know you, they may forget or be reluctant to do so, and besides, they have to memorise your website address anyway or write it down on some piece of paper or on … a business card! A real printed card is the best reminder; you’ll find it there once you empty your pockets in the evening or when you go back to your office.

I recently spoke to the owner of a printing press in Amman and he told me that he has not seen any significant decline in his clients’ request for business cards printing over the last few years. People still like to give a card, complementing it by indicating their website address on it, for those who would like to go there to find more information.

Logic and common sense say that traditional business cards should be on their way out, but social and business habits do not always follow logic. Perhaps it is about this instinctive need for a physical contact with objects that matters so much to us human beings and that the digital world is depriving us from. The good old card will take some more time before it bows out.

LOS ANGELES — When “Star Wars” audiences were blown away four decades ago by its thrilling battles in space, they were also witnessing a big bang in special effects that is still felt today, as fans await the next installment in the blockbuster saga.

The original 1977 movie — which introduced the world to Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader and a mysterious power known as The Force — changed the way science-fiction films were made, paving the way for innovations in the field.

“It woke up the visual effects industry,” Mike Fink, a Hollywood effects heavyweight who won an Oscar in 2008 for his work on “The Golden Compass”, said of the first film.

“One of the things that’s always been true in films is that the story drives the technology. It took a film like ‘Star Wars’ to show that”, Fink told AFP.

The script for the first film set “in a galaxy far, far away” confronted creator George Lucas with seemingly insurmountable technical challenges.

“With ‘Star Wars’, I want to do an action picture. I want to do something where I can pan the space ship. I want to do quick cuts. There’s a lot of rhythm, a lot of pace,” Lucas recalled in a documentary several years ago.

“There’s a lot of movement on the screen. I want it to be very cinematic, and at that point in time, that was impossible,” he added.

The creative impasse led him in 1975 to found Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), devoted to modernising the special effects industry’s techniques. The company is now the standard-bearer in the sector.

A group of young engineers and students worked day and night in a warehouse north of Los Angeles, letting their imaginations run wild.

Engineers worked with mock-ups and miniatures to bring to life the space epic that Lucas had envisioned. They experimented and came up with new animation, photography and graphic techniques that resulted in cutting-edge effects.

Among the most revolutionary breakthroughs was the computer-controlled robotic “Dykstraflex” camera system.

Named for its lead developer, John Dykstra, it allowed for seven axes of motion and the creation of flawlessly synchronized composite images — fantastic for those memorable space battle scenes.

Dykstra and his team landed an Oscar for best visual effects.

For Fink, the first “Star Wars” film “really revolutionised things by [having] machines operate other machines and using that to control cameras that make pictures”.

The adventures of Skywalker and Han Solo opened the door to a golden age in science-fiction filmmaking, a decade that included “Alien”, “Blade Runner”, “The Terminator”, “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” and “Back to the Future”.

Later on, “Jurassic Park”, “Titanic”, “Independence Day” and “Avatar” from directors such as Steven Spielberg and James Cameron pushed the boundaries of what could be achieved.

What lies ahead?

In 1999, “Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace”, also written and directed by Lucas, made new headway in technological achievement.

The team had a rough time recreating the surface of the planet Tatooine. At the time, standard operating procedures would have been to make giant models, or matte paintings. But neither was good enough.

In the end, it came down to a method that blended real photography and digital graphics — a technique that would later be used by Cameron to bring to life the world of Pandora in “Avatar”.

Now, the industry is watching closely to see what innovations director J.J. Abrams will bring to the table in “Star Wars: Episode VII — The Force Awakens” opening around the world next month.

Die-hard fans are hoping for major surprises, but so far, trailers for the film have given little away in terms of the special effects to come.

The suspense will be over for fans in mid-December.

When I was younger I did not like going to the movies. The theatres by themselves were inviting enough, with the soda fountain, the popcorn machine and the candyfloss counters beckoning me from a distance. But the moment I walked into the cinema hall and the lights dimmed for the film to start playing, I wanted to turn around and run home. The darkened room scared the living daylights out of me. 

The result was that I was never taken to the pictures, which suited me just fine. But on the rare occasion that my baby-sitter had taken the day off, my mother would drag me along. After promptly getting bribed with enough treats, I trooped in most reluctantly, balancing my Coca-Cola bottle in one hand and a humungous cotton candy in the other. Right after the newsreel (yes, those days, every film began with a newsreel and ended with our national anthem) I would turn my back to the big screen and sit facing the audience. The next three hours was pure torture and sometimes, when the music became too disturbing, I even shut the sound out by putting my hands over my ears. For the longest time, even the thought that we were going to the movies, gave me an imaginary stomach ache, almost instantly. 

However, quite contrary to this, if my family was taking me to the circus I would be over the moon because I simply loved everything about it. In fact, from the moment the gypsy like people of the troupe marched into the colony, I was filled with excitement. The road to the spacious sports ground, where they usually pitched their tent, went past my house and I would stand by our gate for hours, waving at everybody and everything that went by. 

The various acts of the juggler, the trapeze artists, the tightrope walker, the unicyclist, the lion tamer, the elephant ringmaster, the fire breather, the knife thrower, the gymnast, the monkey trainer, the magician, the trapeze artist, the sword swallower, the trampoline jumper, the plate spinner and the leotard wearing somersault experts, mesmerised me. I sat up straight, kept my eyes peeled and refused to blink for fear of missing out. But in all these routines, the one I really looked forward to, was that of the clowns. 

Oh! How I adored those clowns. The tall ones and the short ones, the fat-bellied ones and the scrawny ones, I loved them all. With white and red paint on their faces, pointy hats and exaggerated mannerisms, they made me giggle throughout the evening. 

When our daughter was five years old I took her to meet some clowns who were performing at a circus in Abu Dhabi. I was writing a story for the local paper and I thought she would like to interact with them. One look at their antics, as they jumped up and tried to sit on my husband’s lap, had her screaming in terror. My spouse had to carry her away immediately and I had to the conduct the interview the next day. 

Recently the Jumbo Circus came to town.

“You want to go to the circus?” my husband asked. 

“Yes!” I said. 

“No!” our daughter said. 

“I want to see the clowns,” I wailed. 

“They will jump on Dad’s lap again,” she warned. 

“You can sit facing the audience,” I suggested. 

She made a face at me. 

“Ok, both of you sit facing the audience,” I decided. 

WASHINGTON — The new Barbie doll is “intelligent” and connected. Too connected for some privacy activists.

The high-tech “Hello Barbie” doll unveiled earlier this year by toy giant Mattel and likely to be a holiday hit allows children to speak and get a response from their favourite toy.

But to make that happen, conversations travel over Wi-Fi networks to Internet “cloud” servers that use artificial intelligence to deliver a personal reply.

For the activist group Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, the privacy risks of the intelligent Barbie outweigh the benefits.

“Children confide in dolls and reveal intimate details about their lives, but Hello Barbie won’t keep those secrets,” the group said in a statement. 

“When Barbie’s belt buckle is held down, everything your child says is transmitted to cloud servers, where it will be stored and analysed by ToyTalk, Mattel’s technology partner.

“Employees of ToyTalk and their partner corporations listen to recordings of children’s conversations — and ToyTalk won’t even say who their partners are.”

The consumer group says the new Barbie could become a marketing tool even though the makers have pledged not to do that. And it argues that the high-tech toy could undermine creativity.

“Children should use their own initiative and creativity to hold conversations with a doll, impart a personality and build their relationships,” the statement said.

“With Hello Barbie, Mattel and ToyTalk’s programmers and algorithms drive the conversation, undermining the creative play that is so critical to children’s development.”

To make matters worse, the organisation says Hello Barbie “could be a tempting target for hackers, who could access data stored by your family on home devices and networks through the doll”.

#HellNoBarbie

The group is urging parents to shun the new doll and earlier this month launched an online campaign with the hashtag #HellNoBarbie.

Mattel did not respond to requests for comment. But ToyTalk pointed in a blog post last week to the “many safety features that have been integrated” into the design of Hello Barbie.

“We are not aware of anyone who has been able to access your WiFi passwords or your kid’s audio data,” the company said.

ToyTalk says passwords are stored in a hardware-encrypted section of the doll, and no conversation history is stored on the toy.

It added that stored data “is never used for advertising purposes” and that the doll has been certified as compliant with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.

To address security concerns, Mattel and ToyTalk have launch a “bug bounty programme”, where security researchers are rewarded for responsibly disclosing potential vulnerabilities.

ToyTalk said it expects kids to warm to the new connected doll.

“Mattel and ToyTalk built this doll because the number one request from kids is to talk to Barbie,” the company said.

The car that launched Jaguar’s fresh contemporary design language in 2007, it seems not long ago that the XF succeeded the now defunct S-Type as Britain’s gambit into the hotly competitive and German-dominated executive saloon segment. Now gaining aluminium construction — like other Jaguar models — the second generation XF was introduced globally in September and arrived in Jordan last week.

Marginally smaller yet roomier and up to 190kg lighter owing to aluminium construction, the new XF also features a comprehensively modern infotainment and driver assistance technology suite. Driven in current range-topping guise at the global launch in northern Spain, the XF 3.0 Supercharged V6 380 AWD (All-Wheel Drive) offers brisk performance, lithe rear-drive-like handling but with reassuring four-wheel drive roadholding. 

Sculpted successor

An evolutionary design, the new XF is a classier yet sharper successor this more sculpted and with sharper. Featuring a snoutier more jutting and upright honeycomb grille it also receives a more muscularly ridged bonnet, bigger side air intakes and slimmer browed headlights with ‘J’ LED motifs, while a lower waistline with prominently defined ridges lend better visibility.

While short front overhang and long rear boot emphasise classic proportions, the XF’s strong shoulders and rakish roofline lend it a road-huggingly alert stance. Weighing in at 1,760kg — as tested — the XF is also 11 per cent lighter and 28 per cent stiffer owing to 75 per cent aluminium content construction. With 51mm longer wheelbase the XF benefits from better stability, rear legroom and 27mm more rear headroo, despite being 7mm shorter and 3mm lower. 

Nestled below its elegantly long bonnet, the driven XF S is powered by Jaguar’s now familiar 3-litre direct injection supercharged V6 engine, mated to a slick, smooth and swift shifting 8-speed automatic gearbox. Developing 375BHP at 6500rpm and 332lb/ft at 4500rpm, the XF S pounces off the line with immediacy and no lag, owing to mechanical supercharged induction, rising with progressive urgency to its rev limit.

Fast feline

Putting power down through all four wheels when necessary for improved traction, the 50kg heavier XF S 3.0 AWD is marginally quicker off-the-line than its rear drive sister model and while 0.1-second quicker in 0-97km/h acceleration. The difference, however, closes in by 100km/h at 5.3 seconds for both versions. Topping an electronically-governed 250km/h top speed, the XF S AWD returns restrained 8.6l/100km combined fuel efficiency.

Ostensibly operating as a rear-wheel-drive car for traditional feel, handling balance and 10 per cent efficiency improvement, the XF S can divert between 100 per cent power rear wards and up to 80 per cent frontwards to maintain traction and roadholding when necessary. Using a lightweight chain-driven four-wheel drive transfer, the XF S variable on-demand system is 16 per cent lighter than its predecessor. A limited-slip differential to actively distribute power along the rear axle is, however, not available.

With variable four-wheel drive and low traction electronic driver assistance systems the XF S AWD’s advange is most evident on low traction surfaces, and proved its mettle in aggressive tight wet obstacle course driving exercise. Squiggling and clawing back traction through tight turns and heavy low gear throttle inputs, the XF S AWD was manoeuvrable and controllable, where a similar rear drive car would have been out of its depth.

Clawing and pouncing

Built on a stiff and light aluminium platform and with balanced weighting, the XF S is dynamically eager and intuitive in, through and out of corners. Riding on sophisticated front double wishbone and rear integral link suspension, the XF S features independent dynamic tuning, including supple longitudinally settings for ride comfort and stiff lateral camber and castor settings for confident handling. 

Driven at the winding 3.93km long Circuito de Navarra, the XF S AWD was smooth, refined, confident and supple in a straight line, with its indefatigable supercharged engine pulling with consistently urgent progression to well above 200km/h. With adaptive damping system it conversely proved well-controlled in dealing with lateral weight transfer and body lean, through corners.

If not as pure or intuitive as its non-AWD sister, the all-paw nevertheless proved agile, effective and reassuringly capable at Navarra. Peeling back speed confidence as one hit the brakes, the XF S tidily turns into corners, its steering direct, quick and refined. With its engine digging deep and finding a muscularly versatile mid-range, the XF S AWD clawing hard into tarmac, tightens its line and pounces out onto the straight.

Uncluttered clarity

Refined and well-insulated inside, the XF’s cabin has a sophisticatedly contemporary and classy ambiance of uncluttered clarity, with quality leathers, real metals and supple textures aplenty. Roomier and with better visibility than before, the XF features a supportive, comfortable and ergonomic driving position with highly adjustable seats and steering, along with user-friendly controls.

Thoroughly well-equipped, the XF features a choice of two intuitive 10.2-inch infotainment system options. Along with standard gesture and voice control and text-to-voice tech, the optional smartphone-like InControl Touch Pro adds a quad-core processer, 60GB solid state drive, Ethernet connectivity, various apps, smooth crisp graphics and approach view and dead reckoning interactive satnav even able to position the vehicle without a GPS signal.

In addition to extensive driver assistance systems, the XF features All Surface Progress Control, coupled with Adaptive Surface Control (AdSR) for AWD versions. Derived from sister brand Land Rover’s extensive off-road expertise, the former acts as sure-footed low-speed cruise control, operating between 3.6-30km/h on low friction surfaces and the latter identifies and adapts engine, steering, stability controls and steering for surfaces such as snow or gravel.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 3-litre, supercharged, in-line V6 cylinders

Bore x stroke: 84.5 x 89mm

Compression ratio: 10.5:1

Valve-train: 24-valve, DOHC, continuously variable valve timing, direct injection

Gearbox: 8-speed automatic, four-wheel drive

Ratios: 1st 4.714; 2nd 3.143; 3rd 2.106; 4th 1.667; 5th 1.285; 6th 1.0; 7th 0.839; 8th 0.667

Reverse / final drive: 3.317 / 3.23

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 375 (380) [280] @ 6500rpm

Specific power: 112BHP/litre

Power -to-weight ratio: 213BHP/tonne

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 332 (450) @4500rpm

Specific torque: 150.25Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight ratio: 255.68Nm/tonne

0-100km/h: 5.3 seconds

Top speed: 250km/h

Fuel economy, combined: 8.6 litres/100km

CO₂ emissions, combined: 204g/km

Fuel capacity: 74 litres

Length: 4,954mm

Width: 1,880mm

Height: 1,457mm

Wheelbase: 2,960mm

Track, F/R: 1,605 / 1,594mm

Ground clearance (fully laden): 116mm

Headroom, F/R: 991/970mm

Boot capacity: 540 litres

Kerb weight: 1,760kg

Suspension, F/R: Double wishbones/integral link

Steering: Variable electric-assisted rack & pinion

Turning circle: 11.61 metres

Brakes: Ventilated discs

Tyres: 255/35R20 (optional)

Arab Dawn: Arab Youth and the Demographic Dividend They Will Bring

Bessma Momani

University of Toronto Press, 2015

Pp. 163

This book is like a breath of fresh air, injecting optimism into the dismal picture usually painted of the Arab world in the wake of the 2011 popular uprisings. Based on surveys and interviews in Morocco, Egypt, Jordan and the UAE, and among Syrians, Qataris and Saudis studying in Canada, Bessma Momani contends that the transformative power of Arab youth, so apparent in these uprisings, has not been depleted, but is just beginning. Momani is Associate Professor at the University of Waterloo in Canada. Of her encounters with Arab young people, ages 15-24, she writes, “I was frankly surprised that, despite their differences, youth from across the socio-economic and educational attainment spectrum often shared much of the same outlook.” (p. 5) 

“Arab Dawn” musters powerful arguments and a vast array of statistics to delineate this new outlook, how it differs from that of previous generations, and how it can be a powerful force for much-needed political, economic and social change. The book examines what Arab youth want and how they think about the world, covering attitudes towards education, work, politics, women’s role, social relations, modernity and faith. Momani leverages their outlook to counter Western myths about Arab exceptionalism, such as that Arabs want a strongman as leader or, unlike the rest of the world, are adverse to democracy and modernity. Arab youth’s outlook also challenges governments in the region, for it must be matched by new policies if the demographic dividend heralded by this highly educated, creative and internationally connected generation is to be actualised. 

“Arab youth are more politically engaged than their elders ever were… they are using new tools, including digital technology, to further the conversation about the need for political reform.” (p. 71)

They want their government to be accountable, not autocratic; they expect it to promote the prosperity they feel they deserve in light of their accumulating educational credentials. Having grown up amidst rapid urbanisation, globalisation, economic liberalisation and a surge in higher education, not least for women, they are less reliant on state employment, and more highly skilled and entrepreneurially inclined than past generations. 

Momani also examines the meaning of young people’s increased religiosity as connected to their search for dignity and justice. “With so much corruption and inequity surrounding them, religion provides a useful moral compass to redirect their energies and faith in society.” (p. 73) Significantly, they aspire to be both modern and religious. “Unlike previous generations, today’s Arab youth are more apt to reject binary views of their identities as Western versus Eastern, secular versus religious, and individualistic versus family oriented.” (p. 95)

Particularly interesting is the concept of circularity as opposed to past immigration patterns. Momani sees benefit in the fact that “Arab migration exceeds the global average”. (p. 98)

This need not mean brain drain since today’s immigrants tend to keep connections to their country of origin, visit often and be involved in its political and economic life. With circularity, immigrants don’t just send remittances, but “bring back knowledge, capital, experience, and professional networks that benefit their home countries”. (p. 110) 

The overall thrust of Momani’s analysis is right on the mark, but a few of her conclusions are a bit facile, such as directly linking the development of critical thinking with the amount of time spent online (p. 56) or contending that in the past, outside the Gulf region, “Discrimination against people of faith was felt in all levels of society.” (p. 71)

The serious flaw in her analysis, however, is completely discounting the negative impact of Israeli and US policy when discussing sectarianism. It is also inexplicable to state that “one should take comfort in the knowledge that the vast majority of Arabs have negative views of movements such as ISIS [Daesh], Al Qaeda, Hizbollah, and Hamas,” lumping together two patently terrorist groups with the two latter ones, which arose in response to Israeli occupation. (p. 128)

Fortunately, these analytical flaws do not impinge on the veracity of the book’s main argument that “Arab youth are tackling economic, political and social failings in creative and innovative ways” that can catalyse positive change in all fields. (p. 10)

This timely and relevant message needs to be heard by educational institutions, governments, planners and the private sector if youth’s potentially revolutionising contribution to society is to be realised.

FRANKFURT— If Elon Musk’s vision of millions of households producing all their own power becomes a reality, it will probably happen first in Germany. But he will face a battle for market share against local firms with years of experience in renewable energy.

The South African-born entrepreneur’s company Tesla, best known for its electric cars, sparked global interest in the idea of self-powered homes in April, when it said it would start selling lithium-ion batteries for households next year.

The batteries, called Powerwalls, connect to solar panels on the roof of a house and aim to store enough power during the day to drive kettles and washing machines at night, raising the prospect that households one day will be able to rely fully on clean energy and become independent of the power grid.

There are big challenges.

The technology does not yet allow most users to disconnect from the grid — the German solar industry association BSW estimates batteries currently raise solar power self-sufficiency to at least 60 per cent.

Then there is the price. Buying and installing solar panels and batteries costs around 10,000 euros ($10,600) or more.

But the technology is improving, and costs falling, and some analysts think Germany — with more solar panels than anywhere in the world and sky-high power prices — could become the industry’s first mass-market.

“The business model of power batteries is becoming increasingly attractive,” said Norbert Schwieters, global utilities leader at consultants PwC, noting market estimates that sales in Germany could reach half a million within a decade, up from around 25,000 now.

‘Lifestyle gadget’

If the market does take off, Musk will have a fight on his hands against German companies with established retail networks and years of experience managing solar equipment.

While acknowledging Musk’s slick marketing — Powerwalls are made at his “Gigafactory” in the Nevada Desert — some of these rivals think he has created a buzz around home power storage batteries that will ultimately work in their favour.

“Tesla has made sure that they’re seen as a lifestyle gadget,” said Volker Wachenfeld, in charge of hybrid energy and storage solutions at SMA Solar.

SMA Solar is one of a number of German companies with ambitions in the market, including Sonnenbatterie, SENEC.IES and Varta. Daimler Accumotive is also due to launch a product, while Solarwatt, owned by major BMW shareholder Stefan Quandt, says it is ready to join the fray.

Sonnenbatterie, whose backers include Germany’s E-Capital and Czech firm Inven Capital, has already sold around 8,500 batteries in Europe, mostly in Germany, but its ambitions go further.

“The biggest challenge of our generation is the move to renewable and inexpensive energy supply,” said its 32-year-old managing director, Philipp Schroeder. “I started this vision and now want to take it to global success.”

Schroeder knows Tesla well — he worked there until earlier this year, leading its German and Austrian operations with a brief to roll out a network of charging points for Tesla cars in Germany. He jumped ship for his old employer Sonnenbatterie just as Tesla was gearing up for its European home-battery push.

Tesla, which has made Germany one of its three launch markets for Powerwalls, is ready for a fight, however. It has struck partnerships with German companies Beegy and LichtBlick in order to benefit from local expertise.

“Tesla is working with leading German and international solar PV [photovoltaic] distributors and installers to offer complete solar PV solutions including PV panels, a solar PV inverter, and installation,” it said.

Is the price right?

With the second-highest retail power costs in Europe, partly the result of the government’s break-neck push into renewables, Germany’s economy stands to gain massively if it can take a chunk of its back-up grid capacity offline.

Germany boasts about 39 gigawatts (GW) of installed solar capacity, bringing its total capacity to nearly 200 GW, more than twice the level it theoretically needs.

Vast amounts of costly back-up power are required to kick in when the sun doesn’t shine. If homes, offices and factories can store their solar power, many of the country’s power stations can be scrapped and transmission systems do not have to be extended at billions of euros of cost.

Incentives for solar power producers to feed surplus supplies into the national grid are set to end in 2021, providing a reason for them to store more power themselves.

“First it was technology aficionados, today it is a broad number of home owners,” Herbert Schein, CEO of Varta Microbattery, said of the growing interest in power batteries.

Schein estimates sales at Varta’s energy storage unit have doubled this year. “In the future we will add small companies and farmers,” he said.

Battery systems of various suppliers may differ, but costs overall have fallen and lithium-ion battery packs are the norm, having pushed aside lead batteries.

With a slim, curved appearance and made to be wall-mounted, Tesla’s Powerwall is designed to appeal to style-conscious consumers who agree with co-founder and CEO Musk’s statement that traditional batteries “suck”.

The batteries offered by most German providers can be placed in basements, common in German homes and take up no more space than a small refrigerator. Smaller batteries can be wall-mounted too.

The batteries start selling at about 1,000 euros per kilowatt peak (kWp) — the level at which experts say the technology makes economic sense for buyers — with an average four-person household usually needing a 5 kWp system.

Tesla says the 7 kWp Powerwall will cost 3,615 euros wholesale, including value added tax.

Sonnenbatterie this week announced a 3,599 euro small battery and offers a full home solar power and storage system at 9,000-13,000 euros.

JAKARTA — The trendy café looks like a typical coffee shop in the Indonesian capital Jakarta, but in fact it sells herb-infused brews promising to fix every ailment from coughs to impotence.

Indonesians have for generations taken herbal medicine, known locally as “jamu”, as a remedy for common ailments, and many children’s early memories include being forced to gulp down concoctions of ingredients such as ginger and turmeric.

Now entrepreneurs have fused the age-old love of tonics made from the archipelago’s vast selection of herbs with the younger generation’s desire for a fashionable setting, and come up with beverages that focus on modern-day problems.

And as demand for alternative medicines grows from the Middle East to Africa, Indonesian jamu manufacturers hope the country can use its expertise in the sector to become a major player in the global herbal medicine industry.

A resurgence in domestic popularity is being driven by hangouts such as the Jakarta café, which welcomes young professionals and students to a retro setting that mixes old-fashioned furniture with touches of the past, such as black and white prints and vintage bicycles.

“Potent!” exclaims the menu, which features a picture of a beaming man wearing a traditionally patterned cap and a smart suit as he promotes a “stamina-boosting aphrodisiac”, named the Ginseng Prakoso Plus.

Next to him is a picture of a woman with her hair meticulously styled into a bun, offering a drink called the “Tight Cavity”, which aims to help improve a couple’s sex life after a woman has given birth.

‘Wives always smiling’

Other brews at the café, named “It’s a long time such we had jamu,” tantalisingly promise to “keep husbands at home” and “wives always smiling”.

The café, which opened two years ago, also offers a range of lighter, more palatable jamu, such as drinks made from the herb rosella to recharge the immune system, turmeric to boost stamina, and ginger to fight colds and coughs.

“Initially the bitter taste put me off, but I have grown accustomed to it,” said graphic designer Io Woo, 23, who gets her particular amu fix at the café three to four times a month.

“It’s less dreadful to consume it with friends here, where it’s cosy and comfortable.”

It is not just hipster cafés seeking to breathe new life into jamu. Traditional healer Retno Widati has since 2011 been teaching people seeking to open their own businesses how to make jamu ice cream from green beans, rice and galangal, a herb related to ginger common in Indonesia.

“Young people are not taking jamu as often as in the old days, they fear the bitter taste,” she said, adding her aim was to re-introduce it to people in a “more modern form”.

The “jamu movement” has some high-profile supporters, notably Indonesian President Joko Widodo, who reportedly starts his day with a glass of boiled turmeric and ginger.

The government has thrown its support behind the industry, which currently employs 15 million people and boasts more than 1,000 manufacturers, including some listed on the Jakarta Stock Exchange.

Industry Minister Saleh Husin in September urged more exports of jamu products and said the sector aims to generate revenue of up to 20 trillion rupiah ($1.45 billion) this year, up from 15 trillion rupiah in 2014.

The old ways

Producers of jamu products see great opportunities abroad. Asia remains the stronghold for herbal remedies but their popularity is growing around the world, according to experts.

But Jamu Entrepreneurs Association Chairman Charles Saerang said Indonesia, which is home to around 6,000 varieties of herbs, was still punching below its weight and remained a small player in the $50 billion herbal remedy industry, which is dominated by countries including China and India.

He said the sector should focus on exporting good quality, cheap raw ingredients instead of simply ready-made products, as it mainly does now, which could increase annual earnings four fold.

Despite the arrival of hip cafés seen as key in driving jamu’s modernisation, there remains a hardcore of Indonesians who prefer the old ways — tonics served at streetside stalls, or in unpretentious, inexpensive local shops.

“Why should I pay five times more for something that’s essentially the same? I’d rather save my money because more money means more jamu to enjoy,” said school handyman Agustinus Martanbaim, 38, who buys his herbal drinks from local vendors.