Features

NOVI SAD, Serbia – It is the peak of the Cold War, a secret agent has launched nuclear weapons and a small team of sleuths has one hour to prevent the end of the world.

The team has a single clue: a coded message left in a typewriter by a secret agent.

With 60 minutes ticking down on the large electronic wall clock, they must unravel dozens of codes, clues and leads to discover the keys that can stop the blast.

“Escape Room” –– the real-life adaptation of a classic 1980s video game –– is a new craze popping up around the world.

Having already made its mark in London, Paris and Bangkok, games are being organised in some unlikely spots around central Europe, including the picturesque Danube city of Novi Sad in Serbia where it has reached the number three spot for “things to do” on travel website Trip Advisor.

“This is a complex game that requires ability, intelligence, education and team work, much more than the online version,” said Boban Melkus, a 36-year-old high school teacher who set up the game in Novi Sad.

Melkus and his wife Nina began offering the game in December in a rented apartment. Teams pay 4,000 dinars (35 euros, $45) to play in one of two rooms that have been given a Cold War makeover.

There are old-fashioned telephones that act as “hotlines” to Berlin, Madrid, Athens; a decades-old typewriter, and walls plastered with military maps and photos of Cold War-era leaders.

The business was profitable from the very first day, even though they only put a small ad on their Facebook page, said Melkus.

“We have two rooms: players can save the world from a nuclear catastrophe or rob a bank,” Melkus explains.

He says players can get their money back if they are not satisfied, but “so far, nobody has asked for it.

“We even had a team from a computer games company, but it was difficult for them and they only just saved the world,” joked Nina.

It attracts all ages –– from 15 to 60 –– but fans of the former computer game in their 30s and 40s are the most common, she added.

Zorica Ljubicic, a 53-year old clerk who had no experience with the virtual version, came out beaming with satisfaction after she and two friends averted the apocalypse.

“This was such good fun –– everything was so exciting, we saved the world!”

Her friend Zarko said their team skills were key to their success.

“Next we will rob a bank,” she said.

The game was first transferred from the virtual to the real world in Asia, appearing in Bangkok under a variety of names including ClueQuest and HintHunt.

The Melkus couple first played it in Budapest in Hungary, where it has seriously caught on, with over 40 companies organising the game in more than 100 rooms around the city.

The couple plans to take the game next to the Serbian capital Belgrade, as well as Geneva and Zurich in Switzerland.

It’s become a popular team-building event for businesses –– in contrast to the original version of the game which was a purely solo affair.

“Here, you are nothing without a team,” Nina said.

Building on this part of the business, the Meldeks have even engaged the services of a psychologist to make a profile of each player based on their response to the puzzle.

NEW YORK — Samsung on Friday unveiled a new free music service for its phones that it touts as a significant improvement from the apps already on the market.

The South Korean gadget maker’s Milk Music service, which launched in the US on Friday, includes over 200 stations and 13 million songs. It’s designed to be extremely fast, easy to use and highly customisable.

But the new service enters an already crowded space. There are numerous streaming music services, including Pandora, Spotify and Apple Inc.’s iTunes Radio.

“We feel that while the music space is very competitive there is room for improvement,” said Daren Tsui, vice president of music at Samsung Media Solutions.

Samsung’s app features a large wheel reminiscent of an old-fashioned radio tuner. Users can spin through various genres of music to find something they like. Favourite stations can be added to a “My Stations” section, while individual songs can be tagged as favourites or put on a list never to be played.

Milk is powered by Slacker, which operates its own streaming music service. But unlike Slacker, Milk is ad-free at no cost. While Slacker does offer a basic service for free, it charges users $4 a month to remove advertising.

US users can now download the Milk app from Google Play. It works on most of Samsung’s Galaxy line of phones, but isn’t compatible with devices made by other companies.

Why Yemen Matters: A Society in Transition

Edited by Helen Lackner

London: Saqi Books, 2014, 334 pp

“Why Yemen Matters” is a remarkable book in terms of its comprehensiveness, accessibility and ethical approach. Comprising articles by 18 scholars, many of whom have spent extensive time in the country, it covers Yemen’s politics and economy from the early 20^th century to the 2011 uprising and its aftermath, with social issues woven into the overall analysis. Located at the crossroads of two continents and strategic waterways, Yemen’s geopolitical importance is highlighted, as are the regional and international factors that impact on its internal situation. 

For a small country, Yemen has a relatively large and diverse population. Its politics are complicated by a range of factors, not least its former division and subsequent unification, and its status as the poorest among oil-rich neighbours, but the contributors navigate these complexities with clearly explained facts. There is sufficient coverage of the past to make the current situation understandable without an overload of historical data. An excellent chronology is provided for those not well versed in Yemeni history, as well as several good maps. The articles are impeccably objective, yet one senses that the authors write out of concern for the Yemeni people’s welfare, not only as academic.

 Editor Helen Lackner begins with an overview that, inter alia, traces the roots and special characteristics of the 2011 uprising, and evaluates its outcome, noting, “The peaceful political movement in Yemen was more widespread and long-lasting than anywhere else in the region.” (p. 12) In a tone that can only be described as feisty, Sheila Carapico critiques US “anti-terrorist” attacks on Yemen as “patently contrary to the pursuit of justice, respect for human rights and cultivation of the rule of law” for which Yemenis activists were struggling by peaceful means, despite regime violence. (p. 44) Laurent Bonnefoy gives a fascinating account of the various forces involved in the uprising at different times and places, especially the “shabab” or youths –– very representative as youths account for almost 75 per cent of the population, and the Islamists. Moving to the cultural field, Katherine Hennessey stresses the role of artists, musicians and actors in the 2011 demonstrations, asserting that prior to that, “one of the places that sociopolitical discontent was being most powerfully expressed was on the Yemeni stage” (p. 70). Her review of the topics of contemporary Yemeni plays is eye-opening.

By analysing civil-military relations, Adam C. Seitz explains why the army fractured in 2011, as the regime’s participation in the “war on terror” and divide-and-rule policies backfired, alienating large segments of its political and tribal support base. In a similar vein, Marieke Brandt makes sense of the recurring wars in the Sa’ada area, clarifying the motives of the Huthi revolt after the regime recurrently used tribal militias from the North to fight its battles. In her view, “it was not tribal involvement per se, but rather an erosion of tribal norms that contributed to the brutalisation of the conflict.” (p. 107) Noel Brehony addresses the legacy of the People’s Democratic Republic and how it relates to today’s independence movement in the South.

Successive articles address employment, which is especially acute among southern youth; water scarcity which has reached crisis proportions; land-related disputes –– the most common cause of armed violence; limitations on economic development; and the woefully inadequate healthcare system. Gerhard Lichtenthaler provides a ray of hope by telling how people in some areas have applied tribal customs to enact “local solutions and community self-regulation in dealing with water stress”. (p. 183) Addressing women’s reproductive health, Christian Hellmich contends that contraception is not the solution if not coupled with augmenting women’s social status and decision-making power. This entails revision of laws and state policy since, after unification, “In the bargaining process that has dominated the political sphere since 1994, women’s rights have become the first casualty of politics in a fragile state.” (p. 262) 

Two chapters on migration round out the book. The first covers Yemeni migration historically from traders of old, who reached and settled in Indonesia, to more recent labour migrants to Gulf states — and the impact of their return. Less well-known is that Yemen is a migrant receiver state, offering asylum to Somalis fleeing war and chaos, and job opportunities to Ethiopians. The second article covers the Yemeni community in China, seen as facilitators for Yemenis doing business with China — all in the context of substantial Chinese development aid to Yemen over decades. 

 This book is a must-read for those wanting to go beyond the headlines proclaiming Yemen a “failed state”, in order to learn about people’s daily realities, needs and aspirations. It dispels misconceptions about the causes of Yemen’s problems, such as exaggerating the role of qat, tribalism, Islam or Al Qaeda, to reveal Yemenis as wrestling with problems often beyond their control, but who persist in struggling for a better future. 

Sally Bland

LONDON — Tuberculosis (TB) is becoming concentrated among immigrants, drug addicts, and the poor and homeless in Western Europe's big cities despite progress in reducing national rates of the disease, experts said on Friday.

The contagious lung infection, once known as the "white plague" for its ability to render its victims pale, skinny and feverish, is being well tackled at national levels, they said, but is persisting in high-risk, marginalised groups.

In a study of EU cities with populations of more than 500,000, the researchers found that on average the rate of TB  in big cities was twice the rate of the national incidence.

In Britain, data from the government's health agency, Public Health England show that more than 8,750 TB cases were reported 2012, and 3,426 of them — or 40 per cent of the national total — were in London.

"Although we have long understood that TB affects specific groups and is often concentrated in urban areas, what we are now witnessing is a marked change, where rates of TB are showing an overall reduction nationally while still increasing within big cities," said Ibrahim Abubakar, a professor of infectious disease epidemiology at University College, London.

His study found the highest TB rates in big cities in countries with generally low rates of the disease were in Birmingham and London in Britain, followed by Brussels in Belgium and Barcelona in Spain.

These cities' rates were all "higher or considerably higher compared to their national TB notification rates", it found.

TB is often seen as a disease of the past — but the emergence over the past decade of "superbug" strains that cannot be treated even with numerous drugs has turned it into one of the world's most pressing health problems .

Of all infectious diseases worldwide, only HIV — the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS — kills more people.

In 2011, 8.7 million people fell ill with TB and 1.4 million died of it. The World Health Organisation, which declared TB a global emergency in 1993, says up to 2 million people may be infected with drug-resistant strains by 2015.

In the relatively wealthy countries of western Europe, TB mainly affects certain high risk urban groups such as those who originate from high TB burden areas of Asia and Africa, homeless people and people who abuse drugs or alcohol.

TB symptoms include fevers and night sweats, persistent coughing, weight loss and blood in the phlegm or spit and it is spread though close contact with an infectious person.

GENEVA – Brew an espresso, watch a movie on a large screen, surf the Internet or simply sit and chat with friends?

As automakers and technology firms steer towards a future of driverless cars, a Swiss think tank was at the Geneva Motor Show this week showing off its vision of what vehicles might look like on the inside when people no longer have to focus on the road.

“Once I can drive autonomously, would I want to watch while my steering wheel turns happily from left to right?” asked Rinspeed founder and chief executive Frank Rinderknecht.

“No. I would like to do anything else but drive and watch the traffic. Eat, sleep, work, whatever you can imagine,” he told AFP at the show, which opens its doors to the public Thursday.

Google is famously working on fully autonomous cars, and traditional carmakers are rapidly developing a range of autonomous technologies as well.

With analysts expecting sales of self-driving, if not completely driverless, cars to begin taking off by the end of this decade, Rinderknecht insists it’s time to consider how the experience of riding in a car will could be radically redefined.

Patting his shiny Xchange concept car, Rinderknecht says he envisages a future where car passengers will want to do the same kinds of things we today do to kill time on trains an airplanes.

So Rinspeed has revamped the interior of Tesla’s Model S electric car to show carmakers how they might turn standard-sized vehicles into entertainment centres, offices and meeting spots wrapped into one.

The seats can slide, swivel, and tilt into more than 20 positions, allowing passengers to turn to face each other or a 32-inch screen in the back.

Up front too, an entertainment system lines the entire length of the dashboard, and the steering wheel can be shifted to allow passengers a better view of the screens.

Espresso anyone?

And of course there is an espresso machine.

While brewing coffee, video conferencing and keeping an eye on your e-mail at 120 kilometres an hour may sound like a fantasy today, Rinderknecht is convinced it could happen in the not too distant future.

“We think this is what things could look like in a few years time,” he said.

Driving, he said, is on the cusp of being redefined, allowing people to take the wheel for pleasure, for instance while going over an Alpine pass, but handing over control of the car on tedious stretches.

“If I have to go three hours from Geneva to Zurich and it’s congested, I’m not doing anything... I want to be doing something else,” he said.

Carmakers at the Geneva Motor Show seemed to agree that vehicles that drive themselves, at least to a certain extent, are on the horizon.

“Autonomous driving is an inevitability that we are approaching very rapidly,” Hyundai Europe Chief Operating Officer Allan Rushforth told AFP.

He stressed though that “full automation” was not a priority.

Ford Europe chief Stephen Odelle also said  the technology was speeding forward, but added that he believed “the technology will be ready before legislation and consumers are”.

“How comfortable will consumers be with fully automated cars?” he asked, adding that legislating for liability would be quite tricky with no driver behind the wheel.

Rinderknecht acknowledged there are obstacles, but insisted “they can be overcome.”

He pointed out that accident reduction is actually a major argument for automation, since once the technology is finalised the machines should be far more reliable than humans.

And while it will be an upward battle to redefine liability legislation, “I think it can be done, because laws must adapt to life, and life as we all know changes,” he said. 

PARIS — Global warming will expose millions more people to malaria as parasite-bearing mosquitoes move to higher altitudes, according to new research into the health perils from climate change.

Tropical highland areas in Africa, Asia and central and southern America are particularly at risk, according to a study published in the US journal Science recently.

Malaria, which killed an estimated 620,000 people in 2012, is among a host of diseases that researchers warn will spread more easily thanks to global warming.

For Ethiopia alone, “a one-degree-Celsius increase in temperature will lift the area where malaria can occur by 150 metres,” Menno Bouma of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine told AFP.

“In this band, there live about six to nine million people. These people will be additionally affected, but also people that live a bit lower, where malaria is present but at a lower level. For those people, the malaria intensity is likely to increase.”

Bouma and a team scrutinised malaria records from the highland regions of Colombia from 1990 to 2005 and Ethiopia from 1993 to 2005.

They found that in warmer years, people living at higher elevations experienced more malaria infections than they do in cooler years.

“This is indisputable evidence of a climate effect,” said University of Michigan ecologist Mercedes Pascual.

“The main implication is that with warmer temperatures, we expect to see a higher number of people exposed to the risk of malaria in tropical highland areas like these.”

People in areas previously unaffected by malaria never built up immunity, and will be particularly vulnerable.

Bouma said other tropical highland areas surrounded by malaria-endemic regions “are likely to be affected by a similar principle” as found in the study.

These included parts of Peru, Ecuador, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Madagascar, Pakistan, India, Nepal and Papua New Guinea.

But Bouma said the study did not automatically imply a higher malaria risk for all countries at higher altitudes, as a special mix of climate and socio-economic conditions had to be present.

Transferred by a parasite transmitted through mosquito bites, malaria can be prevented with nets, insecticides and medicines.

Symptoms include fever, headache and vomiting. If left untreated, it can kill by disrupting the blood supply to vital organs.

Malaria is not the only threat to human health receiving a boost from global warming.

“Many of the major killers such as diarrhoeal diseases, malnutrition, malaria and dengue are highly climate-sensitive and are expected to worsen as the climate changes,” according to the World Health Organisation.

Dengue, which is a mosquito-borne disease like malaria, is spreading at an alarming rate and had “epidemic potential”, according to the UN agency.

It causes high fever, headaches, itching and joint pains, and can lead to haemorrhaging and death.

Scientists warned in 2012 that the warmer, wetter climate in northwestern Europe and the Balkans was becoming suitable for the Asian tiger mosquito which spreads dengue, West Nile fever, yellow fever and chikungunya, an East African disease which attacks the joints.

The mosquito is an invasive species first spotted in Europe in Albania in 1979 — possibly having arrived there in a shipment of goods from China, investigators believe.

The health risks from climate change loom large in an upcoming report by the UN’s Nobel-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

A draft document to be vetted at an IPCC meeting in Yokohama, Japan, at the end of March, warns that climate change this century “will lead to increases in ill-health in many regions”.

“Examples include greater likelihood of injury, disease and death due to more intense heat waves and fires; increased likelihood of under-nutrition resulting from diminished food production in poor regions’ risk from lost work capacity and reduced labour productivity in vulnerable populations; and increased risks from food- and water-borne diseases,” it says.

SAN JOSE, California — Arwin Buditom guards some of the most successful high-tech firms in America. Joseph Farfan keeps their heat, air and electric systems humming. But these workers and tens of thousands like them who help fuel the Silicon Valley’s tech boom can’t even make ends meet anymore. 

Buditom rooms with his sister an hour’s drive from work. Farfan gets his groceries at a food pantry.

“It’s unbelievable until you’re in the middle of it,” Farfan said, standing in line at the Sacred Heart Community Center in San Jose for free pasta, rice and vegetables. “Then the reality hits you.”

Silicon Valley is entering a fifth year of unfettered growth. The median household income is $90,000, according to the Census Bureau. The average single-family home sells for about $1 million. The airport is adding an $82 million private jet centre.

But the river of money flowing through this 1,800-square-mile (5,000-sq. kilometre) peninsula, stretching from south of San Francisco to San Jose, has also driven housing costs to double in the past five years while wages for low- and middle-skilled workers are stagnant. Nurses, preschool teachers, security guards and landscapers commute for hours from less-expensive inland suburbs.

Now the widening income gap between the wealthy and those left behind is sparking debate, anger and sporadic protests.

Rants against the rich were spray-painted last month on walls, garages and a car in the Silicon Valley town of Atherton, home to many top tech CEOs that Forbes magazine last year called the nation’s most expensive community. In Cupertino, security guards rallied outside Apple’s shareholder meeting on February 28 demanding better wages. “What’s the matter with Silicon Valley? Prosperity for some, poverty for many. That’s what,” read their banner.

Farfan, 44, a native of the valley, said he figured he must be mismanaging his $23-an-hour salary to be struggling with what seemed like a decent paycheck. But when he met with financial counselors, they told him there was nothing left to cut except groceries because rent, child support and transportation expenses were eating away the rest of his money.

Buditom, also 44, said the reality of working for some of the nation’s richest companies has sapped his belief in the American dream. For the past four years, he has been living in his sister’s apartment, commuting an hour in stop-and-go traffic for a $13-an-hour security job.

“I’m so passed over by the American dream, I don’t even want to dream it anymore,” said Buditom, who immigrated from Indonesia 30 years ago. “It’s impossible to get ahead. I’m just trying to survive.”

From the White House to the Vatican to the world’s business elite, the growing gap between the very wealthy and everyone else is seizing agendas. Three decades ago, Americans’ income tended to grow at roughly similar rates, no matter how much they made. But since about 1980, income has grown most for the top earners. For the poorest 20 per cent of families, it’s dropped.

A study last month by the Brookings Institution found that among the nation’s 50 largest cities, San Francisco experienced the largest increase in income inequality between 2007 and 2012. The richest 5 per cent of households earned $28,000 more, while the poorest 20 percent of households saw income drop $4,000. To the south, Silicon Valley’s success has made it a less hospitable place for many, said Russell Hancock, president of Joint Venture Silicon Valley, an organisation focused on the local economy and quality of life.

“We’ve become a bifurcated valley, a valley of haves and have-nots,” Hancock said. “The economy is sizzling any way you slice it, and it’s about to get hotter. But having said that, we are quick to point out there are perils to our prosperity.”

Once a peaceful paradise of apricot, peach and prune orchards, the region is among the most expensive places to live in the US Those earning $50,000 a year in Dallas would need to make $77,000 a year in the Silicon Valley to maintain the same quality of life, according to the Council for Community and Economic Research; $63,000 if they moved from Chicago or Seattle.

Housing costs are largely to blame. An $800-a-month, two-bedroom apartment near AT&T’s Dallas headquarters would cost about $1,700 near Google’s Mountain View, California, headquarters. Dental visits, hamburgers, washing machine repairs, movie tickets — all are above national averages.

ALBANY, New York — Under pressure from gun control advocates, Facebook agreed Wednesday to delete posts from users seeking to buy or sell weapons illegally or without a background check.

A similar policy will be applied to Instagram, the company’s photo-sharing network, Facebook said. The measures will be put into effect over the next few weeks at the world’s largest social network, with 1.3 billion active users.

“We will remove reported posts that explicitly indicate a specific attempt to evade or help others evade the law,” the company said in a statement.

The move reflects growing alarm that the Internet is being used to sell banned weapons or put guns in the hands of convicted felons, domestic abusers, the mentally ill or others barred under federal law from obtaining firearms. Gun control advocates say Facebook has become a significant marketplace, with thousands of gun-related posts.

Google Plus and Craigslist already prohibit all gun sales, legal or illegal.

Facebook said that instead of patrolling its network for violators, it will rely on reports from users and police.

The new policy was worked out in an agreement with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who has been pressing the company along with Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a group backed by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Moms Demand Action. Moms Demand Action collected more than 230,000 signatures on petitions calling on Facebook to act.

“Responsible social media sites know that it is in no one’s interest for their sites to become the 21st-century black market in dangerous and illegal goods that place our families and communities at risk,” Schneiderman said.

Chris Cox, executive director of the National Rifle Association’s legislative policy arm, portrayed the new policy as a victory for the NRA, saying Bloomberg and those he supports tried — and failed — to shut down discussion of gun rights on Facebook.

“NRA members and our supporters will continue to have a platform to exercise their First Amendment rights in support of their Second Amendment freedoms,” Cox said.

But Tom King, president of the NRA’s New York affiliate, warned that the policy could be used to silence gun rights organisations on Facebook.

“This is something that could greatly get out of control very quickly,” King said.

The new policy was crafted to deal with the patchwork of laws around America. New York, for example, has some of the nation’s toughest gun laws. It prohibits the sale of weapons such the AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, and it is one of 16 states that require background checks on buyers making private firearm purchases.

Under the new policy, Facebook would allow a user to list an AR-15 as long as it wasn’t offered for sale in states where the weapon is illegal.

It will also remove any posts in which a gun seller offers to skip a background check, even if such checks aren’t required in the seller’s state.

“This is one of many areas where we face a difficult challenge balancing individuals’ desire to express themselves on our services and recognising that this speech may have consequences elsewhere,” Facebook said.

The company already has systems in place to remove advertising that is false and deceptive, and it prohibits ads for illegal drugs, tobacco products and prescription drugs.

Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, complained that Facebook hasn’t gone far enough.

“They are talking about a community-based reporting system. Do what these other companies did and shut it down. Shut down the private sales of guns,” he said.

There’s no way to know how many guns are sold via Facebook, because the transactions are actually completed offline, said John Feinblatt, chairman of Mayors Against Illegal Guns. But such sales have occurred.

In Kentucky, for example, federal authorities in February charged an Ohio man with illegally selling a 9 mm pistol to a Kentucky teenager in a transaction arranged through Facebook.

Feinblatt said there are “virtual gun shows” online. His group issued a report in December showing 66,000 active ads on a popular gun sales website called Armslist.

We are now device-independent.

The notion dates back to the late 1980s, computers don’t really matter, only data does. The first are disposable, the second is not. The professionals who take care of IT infrastructures and setups in large corporations and businesses know it all too well. And of course Google, Facebook, Twitter, not to mention Microsoft and the like, they all live by it. 

Today the notion is put forward again, this time with a particularly strong stress, in the realm of personal computer usage, because of the Internet and of the multiplicity of devices that, in the end, do more or less the same thing: put all your data at your fingertips, show you info, allow you to connect and to communicate, and to share audiovisual contents.

Laptops, desktops, tablets, phablets, smartphones and now smartwatches; aren’t you lost? Are you able always to make the right buying choice, to learn your way around, to keep the devices in good shape, updated, virus-free and with a safety backup set aside?

The “larger” laptops and desktops machines have a reasonable average life time of four to five years. Tablets and smartphones, all these“smaller” devices that have captured users’ attention the last couple of years more than any other computer-related hardware, these smaller machines are changing faster than you can save money to buy them. Once a year, at least, there are new models.This leaves you no time to catch your breath between models. It’s like haute-couture, there’s an annual fashion show that sets the upcoming trend.

Take heart. Again, the machine is not that important. In a certain way you can ignore it. Or, to put it in a milder way, stop losing sleep over it.

On one hand the large array of machines and the many hardware choices are overwhelming, as if the industry were making your life harder and more expensive. On the other hand, devices now communicate much better than before with each other, with a dominating insistence on the Web, a place that has become the focal point of most everything we do. The devices, therefore, are making your life easier in many ways.

What makes users machine-independent?

Whether it is to check your e-mail, to send or receive a photo or a music file, to place a voice call on the several free networks, to read the news or to do your daily e-banking work, you can do it whatever the device you have at hand. The same is true for writing, working on a spreadsheet or a database.

Moreover, if you happen to store your files in the cloud (DropBox, SkyDrive, Google Drive, etc) you become even more machine-independent, for understandable reasons. Open, save and read your files on any machine, whatever it is and wherever it may be, including a friend’s device.

Naturally there are differences between the machines in terms of speed and comfort. I wouldn’t like starting a serious audio recording project on a tablet or a smartphone for instance, or processing very large spreadsheets full of numbers, columns, rows and graphics on such small machines. But I guess I could…

Go back to a good laptop for raw power, use smaller devices for convenience and while on the go.

For example, think of Word and Excel — there are virtually no limitations in terms of devices on which these essential applications work. Docs-To-Go by DataViz, for one, is a Suite that is compatible with Microsoft’s Office Suite (up to a certain point…) and that lets you process Word, Excel, PDF and PowerPoint documents on an Android or Apple smartphone. Despite the reduced screen size and also the somewhat reduced features, Docs-To-Go is an extremely useful application, one that, like so many others, frees you from devices. You have your Word documents “somewhere” in the cloud, now use them on any machine you want.

There are countless other examples of software applications and ways to work that make you device-independent today. Focus on your files and on what you want or need to do. The machine matters less.

Some people have a natural gift. They can be bilingual or even multilingual, and it is fascinating to watch them switch from one language to another without pausing for breath. 

Almost like being ambidextrous, you know. This term is used for individuals who are adept at using both hands equally well.  Very few persons are born ambidextrous and research shows that only one in a hundred people could be instinctively so. But here I digress. 

Being linguistically proficient in at least two languages is not so tough. Most countries of the world have an official language that is used for conducting business and imparting education. English, Spanish and French would fall in this category. Then there is the mother tongue, which the child learns, literally in the lap of its mother. 

Picking up several vernaculars and speaking them to perfection, is an art that is gifted to a chosen few. For that one has to have a keen ear, sharp powers of observation and an ability to talk incessantly. The last one is important, according to me, because academic knowledge is okay but proficiency in a language is only obtained by speaking it. The grammatical irregularities also smoothen out with constant vocalisation. But one has to have conversations with a native speaker; otherwise the finer nuances of enunciation cannot be perfected. 

Where pronunciation is concerned, the most learned of theoretical scholars also have a tough time. English, say the non-English speakers, is a funny language. Here, even the two and three lettered words with almost the exact same spelling, have a different diction when spoken aloud. For instance, “put” is made to sound like “foot”, and “gut” is rhymed with “shut”. “Go” is like “show” but “do” is like “flu”. This is even before we come to the difference between the words starting with “w” or “v”. 

When I was little, the Catholic nuns in my school could not stop emphasising over this. For the words “vase” or “violin”, I had to bring my upper teeth over my lower lip, and for say, “window” or “water” I had to sort of stretch my mouth into a round circular shape while articulating it. Nothing escaped their eagle eye and in an elocution competition, our diction mattered as much as the content of what we were delivering. 

Despite being trained in this manner, some problem words would send me into a quandary. “Schedule” for example. Phonetically, should it be “shed-yule” or “sked-yule”? Ditto for “issue”. Should it end in a “shoe” or “sue” sound? 

But when it came to “epitome” my confusion was complete. This charming word depicted a person or thing that was a perfect example of a particular quality or type. From the moment I came across this interpretation, I wanted to generously use it in my vocabulary.

But I was unsure whether to rhyme “happy-comb” with “epi-tome” or go with the “epiphany” sounding “epi-tummy”.  The other day I got a lesson for free. 

“It’s amazing how Petra has survived for two thousand years,” I said to the anglophile guide who was escorting me. 

“Yes, the fabled city is half as old as time,” he agreed. 

“How perfect was the ‘red-stone’, also sounds like ‘epitome’,” I exclaimed.

“‘Epic-symphony’ is what rhymes with ‘epitome’,” he corrected me. 

“Minding my language?” I teased.

“Only dotting the ‘i’s’ and crossing the ‘t’s’, my fair lady,” he emphasised.

“I picked the wrong issue?” I asked

“Shh, it’s alright,” he smiled.