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A favourite among many driver learning centres in many parts of the world since its introduction, the Nissan Micra is renowned for its affordability, practicality, reliability and user-friendly accessibility.

Driven by this writer for the first time since passing a driving test in its second generation iteration many years ago, the current Micra proved just as versatile and easy to drive as ever. But more so, the current Micra proved to be more fun car to drive than it has ever been, with its lightweight agility, quick reflexes and uncomplicated nature.

Engaging character

First launched in 2010 and joined by a fourth generation model sold in wealthier markets, the third generation Micra ‘K13’ remains current and very relevant in many developing markets. Going by the name Nissan March in some countries, the Micra has been face-lifted since, and looks all the better for it, with a bigger, wider and more prominent lower intake and new signature Nissan V-motion grille to better visually integrate it in the brand’s current design identity. Also gaining sharper front boomerang-style headlights the current Micra looks sportier and feistier than predecessors.

Neither overtly aggressive nor quirky or passive in its demeanour, the Micra however sits on the road with a wide, eager and athletic stance at the rear, accurately hinting at an engagingly sporty handling ability and crucial fun factor that makes this compact runaround such an appealing car. A tiny 987kg lightweight that delivers huge thrills without having to push it to high speeds, the Micra makes even the smallest driving chore an interesting and rewarding one with its sharp reflexes, darty direction changes, willing nature and little diluted driving characteristics.

Agility and adjustability

With quick, light and direct steering delivering good feel and feedback, the Micra is driven with small finger tip and wrist movements, as it zips through corners and in traffic. Eager and crisp pouncing into a corner, the Micra’s front tires dig in with commitment and resilience to under-steer even when pushed hard into a corner. Well-communicating position, textures and dynamic limits, the Micra is brilliantly agile and capable of effortlessly turning on the proverbial dime. Body lean is meanwhile well controlled, and its rear finds a happy medium between reassuring grip and playful adjustability.

Rewarding, entertaining and visceral yet confident driven pedal to metal through winding country lanes exploiting its talented chassis and nimble handling, the Micra is however in its element in busy city streets and very narrow and remote snaking lanes that flummox larger, less wieldy and less agile cars. Easily placed on road with its excellent visibility and supportive, attentive, alert and well-adjustable driving position, one always feels connected and in perfect command. In the city it is effortlessly easy to maneuver with its tight 9.4-metre turning circle, while parking is a doddle even without the optional reversing camera.

Progressive pace

Settled on rebound and in vertical movement, the Micra nonetheless rides comfortably, and easily dispatches imperfections and larger city speed humps in its stride, taking advantage of its good 150mm ride height and short wheelbase. That said, jagged temporary style speed bumps can feel slightly firm, and can slightly disrupt its otherwise very refined driving experience. Surprisingly stable and sure-footed at speed, the Micra damps road and wind noise well, without being disconnected. Is engine thrum is un-intrusive at most speeds, but engagingly evident when pushed to its rev limit. 

Available with many engine and gearbox options across its production span and various markets, the Micra however receives a single specification for Jordan, powered by an eager naturally-aspirated 1.5-litre 4-cylinder engine driving the front wheels through a 4-speed automatic gearbox. Developing 99BHP at 6,000rpm and 99lb/ft at 4,000rpm, the lightweight Micra keeps a quick pace with eager responsiveness and progressive delivery from idling to redline. Responsive throttle control accurately exploits its delicate and nimble handling abilities with exacting and incremental delivery, while 0-100km arrives at a good pace in second gear, and top speed is estimated at 170km/h or more.

Consistently practical

A change from many Nissans’ usual use of smooth and efficient continuously variable transmission, the Micra’s traditional automatic gearbox instead provides fixed ratios and consistency with a three gear plus overdrive set-up. Gear changes are quick, smooth and responsive to throttle input and allow good driving versatility and on-the-move acceleration even at highway speeds. On steep inclines one has to rev quite high in first gear to maintain revs and momentum for second gear, but perhaps the 5-speed manual gearbox available in some markets would provide closer ratios for still better performance and an even more engaging driving experience.

Practical, fun, user-friendly and affordable to own and run, the Micra returned frugal fuel efficiency even during untypically demanding test drive conditions. Though small and narrow, it is superbly packaged, with good space and better rear access and head and legroom than many larger cars. If not palatial in the rear, it however readily accommodates large, tall adults seated in tandem. Its 265-litre boot is also well packaged and expands with the rear bench folded. Pleasant and airy in ambiance with good but not luxurious in-class plastics, fabric and appointment, the Micra’s equipment includes electric front windows, remote central locking and a powerful A/C, but no USB ports.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 1.5-litre, transverse 4-cylinders

Bore x stroke: 78 x 78.4mm

Valve-train: 16-valve, DOHC

Compression: 10.1:1

Gearbox: 4-speed auto, front-wheel-drive

Gear ratios: 1st 2.861; 2nd 1.562; 3rd 1.0; 4th 0.698

Reverse/final drive: 2.31:1/4.081:1

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 99 (101) [74] @6,000rpm

Specific power: 66.2BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 100.5BHP/tonne

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 99 (134) @4,000rpm

Specific torque: 89.7Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight: 136Nm/tonne

Fuel capacity: 41-litres

Length: 3,825mm

Width: 1,665mm

Height: 1,535mm

Wheelbase: 2,450mm

Track, F/R: 1,460/1,465mm

Minimum ground clearance: 150mm

Minimum luggage volume: 265-litres

Kerb weight: 987kg

Gross vehicle weight: 1,425kg

Suspension, F/R: MacPherson struts/torsion beam

Steering: Power-assisted rack & pinion

Turning circle: 9.4-metres

Brakes, F/R: Discs/drums

Tyres: 175/60R15

Price, on-the-road, no insurance: JD13,600

By Ruba Al Far
Pharmacist 

In its natural form, your body uses blue light from the sun to regulate your natural sleep and wake cycles. Artificial sources of blue light, such as electronic devices, can have a profound, harmful effect on many aspects of our health.

Artificial sources of blue light

We all expose ourselves to indoor blue light through our television, computer, laptop, smartphone, tablet as well as indoor lighting (fluorescent and LED lights). If you search for blue light photos over the Internet, the most common picture is someone holding a smartphone in the dark.

Why be concerned?

In its natural state, blue light is beneficial. Your body uses blue light to regulate your natural sleep and wake cycles and it boosts mood and alertness. With mobile and digital devices attached to our hands all the time, physicians, researchers and health policymakers are sounding the alarm on this growing public health concern.

What you need to know

Blue light affects the skin: We are all serious about protecting our skin from Ultraviolet A (UVA) and Ultraviolet B (UVB) rays but what about protecting our skin indoors? Potential long-term harmful effect is associated with blue light emitted from mobile devices that penetrate the dermis in the skin where collagen and elastin are present, leading to skin ageing. Blue light affects eye and vision: Our eyes’ natural filters do not provide sufficient protection against blue light. Prolonged exposure may lead to retinal damage and vision disturbances.

Blue light may lead to digital eye strain: We blink about 15 times per minute, but while reading, watching or playing on the screen, we blink less, leading to digital eye strain, dry and irritated eyes, blurred vision and headaches.

Blue light affects sleep: Night exposure to blue light may disrupt our sleep cycle and affect our sleep

Blue light affects mood: Prolonged exposure to blue light, especially at night, may lead to depression, disrupt alertness and may also lead to food cravings.

How to protect yourself

• Limiting the use of smartphones before sleep

• Some studies suggest putting away our devices one hour before sleep

• Using the night mode light

• Using computer filters or glasses

While we connect to the world through our digital devices, let us also be serious about protecting our health. We can be wise in our use of technology and reduce the harmful effects of blue light; let’s prevent the harmful effects of blue light to safeguard the health of our children, and ours too!

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine

PARIS — The upcoming release of a ninth generation of video game consoles by Sony and Microsoft is set to be a sales slam dunk with consumers seeking entertainment during pandemic confinement, but could it also be their swansong as the habits of gamers change?

Both companies have been dripping out information for months about the PlayStation 5 (PS5) and the Xbox Series X to build excitement, and gamers will be able to start getting their hands on them next week.

In a sign of the keen anticipation of gamers, the allotted pre-orders for the consoles at major retailers were quickly snapped up and both companies expect high demand in the run-up to the end of the year.

Sony has said it expects to sell 7.6 million PS5 consoles through the end of March, beating the sales performance of the PS4.

And it will be a major upgrade in terms of hardware — the current generation of consoles were released back in 2013.

Both new consoles will offer much more powerful central and graphics processors, support 4K televisions, as well as offer ray tracing, which allows for better rendition of how light behaves. 

“When one looks at the technical specifications of the new consoles, they are 10 times above the current generation. We’re going to have games that are more beautiful, more realistic, more immersive. People are going to be blown away,” said Charles-Louis Planade, a video game expert with Midcap Partners.

Dark cloud in the sky?

Sony sold 110 million PS4 consoles over the past seven years, more than double the number of its competitor the Xbox One.

“For Microsoft, the challenge is to not let Sony get too far ahead — maybe even the game with them,” Planade told AFP.

Taking into account the growing number of players, the analyst believes they could even match their previous success.

Others aren’t so sure given the changes in the industry, which is already beginning to move away from big expensive machines to cloud gaming. 

“This generation could be the last physical consoles. It’ll be the last time we’ll hear talk of teraflops,” said Audrey Leprince, co-founder of the independent game studio The Game Bakers.

A teraflop refers to the capacity of a processor to calculate a trillion operations, and both Sony and Microsoft have been vaunting the speed and power of their new consoles. 

Leprince said there haven’t been any major innovations with game interfaces or with the games themselves.

But “the stone in the pond... is the shift to the subscription model” which means the console makers are becoming a “Netflix of video games”, she said.

The subscriptions — Game Pass for Microsoft and PlayStation Plus for Sony “are going to completely revolutionise the industry as was the case for films and music,” said Leprince.

“The challenge for the console manufacturers is to hold onto their subscribers so as not to give an opening to challengers” such as Google or Amazon, said Planade.

‘A transition phase’

The two web giants are betting on cloud gaming which allows them to dispense with consoles. The games can run on a variety of devices such as smartphones and tablets. 

Because the servers in the cloud do the heavy lifting in terms of processing, there is no need for powerful and costly consoles.

But both firms have also taken a step towards cloud gaming by offering lower priced versions of their new consoles without drives. Games have to be downloaded from the web or streamed, and have dedicated xCloud and PlayStation Now services. 

“We’re in a transition phase” said Laurent Michaud, an analyst specialising in the video game industry, who expects consoles and cloud gaming to coexist for a while.

The “trends indicate that this won’t be the last generation of consoles,” he believes.

Many gamers value playing on big, high resolution screens, and publishers are going to want to exploit 8K televisions which offer a much superior experience.

“Networks, even in a few years, won’t be rapid enough to transport” images for 8K screens, noted Michaud.

With “technology putting all the manufacturers on the same level” it is the catalogue of games “that will be even more important than in the past for the success of this generation.”

Both Sony and Microsoft have lined up a number of eagerly awaited games to launch with the consoles.

PARIS — Women exposed to high temperatures and heatwaves during pregnancy are more likely to have premature or stillborn babies, researchers said on Wednesday.

Such outcomes — closely linked to poverty, especially in the tropics — will likely increase with global warming, especially during more frequent and intense heatwaves, they reported in BMJ, a medical journal.

Even small increases "could have a major impact on public health as exposure to high temperatures is common and escalating," the study concluded.

Each year, 15 million babies are born premature, the leading cause of death among children under five, according to the World Health Organisation.

That mortality is concentrated in the developing world, especially Africa.

To quantify the impact of higher heat on pregnancy outcomes, an international team of researchers led by Matthew Chersich from Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute in Johannesburg looked at 70 peer-reviewed studies of 27 rich, poor and middle-income nations.

Of the 47 studies that concerned preterm births, 40 reported they were more common at higher temperatures.

The odds of a preterm birth rose, on average, by five per cent per one degree Celsius (1C) increase, and by 16 per cent during heatwave days, according to the new findings.

Global warming has seen Earth's average temperature rise by 1C over the last century, with greater increases over large land masses.

The number of exceptionally hot days are expected to increase most in the tropics, according to the United Nations’ climate science advisory panel, the IPCC.

'High risk' for heat

Extreme heatwaves — made more dangerous by high humidity — are projected to emerge earliest in these regions as well.

Limiting global warming to 1.5C instead of 2C — goals consistent with the Paris Agreement — would mean around 420 million fewer people frequently exposed to extreme heatwaves, the IPCC said in a 2018 report.

The new study also found that stillbirths increased by five per cent per 1C increase in temperature, with the link most pronounced in the last few weeks of pregnancy.

The impact of warmer days and heatwaves on low birth weight, which is associated with a host of health problems later in life, was smaller, but still significant, the researchers said.

As expected, adverse pregnancy outcomes associated with rising temperatures were strongest among poorer women.

Because other factors such as pollution might play a role in stillbirths and premature babies, the role of warmer temperatures is hard to pin down, the researchers acknowledged.

Nonetheless, the findings are strong enough to suggest that pregnant women "merit a place alongside the groups typically considered as at 'high risk' for heat-related conditions," they concluded.

More research and targeted health policies should be a high priority, they added.

PARIS — The world's biggest iceberg is on a collision course with a remote South Atlantic island that is home to thousands of penguins and seals, and could impede their ability to gather food, scientists told AFP on  Wednesday.

Icebergs naturally break off from Antarctica into the ocean, but climate change has accelerated the process — in this case, with potentially devastating consequences for abundant wildlife in the British Overseas Territory of South Georgia.

Shaped like a closed hand with a pointing finger, the iceberg known as A68a split off in 2017 from Larsen Ice Shelf on the West Antarctic Peninsula, which has warmed faster than any other part of Earth's southernmost continent.

At its current rate of travel, it will take the giant ice cube — which is several times the area of greater London — 20 to 30 days to run aground into the island's shallow waters.

A68a is 160 kilometres long and 48 kilometres  across at its widest point, but the iceberg is less than 200 metres deep, which means it could park dangerously close to the island.

"We put the odds of collision at 50/50," Andrew Fleming from the British Antarctic Survey told AFP.

Many thousands of King penguins — a species with a bright splash of yellow on their heads — live on the island, alongside Macaroni, Chinstrap and Gentoo penguins.

Seals also populate South Georgia, as do wandering albatrosses, the largest bird species that can fly.

If the iceberg runs aground next to South Georgia, foraging routes could be blocked, hampering the ability of penguin parents to feed their young, and thus threatening the survival of seal pups and penguin chicks.

Release of stored carbon 

"Global numbers of penguins and seals would drop by a large margin," Geraint Tarling, also from the British Antarctic Survey, told AFP in an interview.

The incoming iceberg would also crush organisms and their seafloor ecosystem, which would need decades or centuries to recover.

Carbon stored by these organisms would be released into the ocean and atmosphere, adding to carbon emissions caused by human activity, the researchers said.

As A68a drifted with currents across the South Atlantic, the iceberg did a great job of distributing microscopic edibles for the ocean's tiniest creatures, said Tarling.

"Over hundreds of years, this iceberg has accumulated a lot of nutrients and dust, and they are starting to leach out and fertilise the oceans."

Up to a kilometre thick, icebergs are the solid-ice extension of land-bound glaciers. They naturally break off from ice shelves as snow-laden glaciers push toward the sea.

But global warming has increased the frequency of this process, known as calving.

"The amount of ice going from the centre of the Antarctic continent out towards the edges is increasing in speed," Tarling said.

Up to the end of the 20th century, the Larsen Ice Shelf had been stable for more than 10,000 years. In 1995, however, a huge chunk broke off, followed by another in 2002.

This was followed by the breakup of the nearby Wilkins Ice Shelf in 2008 and 2009, and A68a in 2017.

Hydrofracturing — when water seeps into cracks at the surface, splitting the ice farther down — was almost certainly the main culprit in each case.

The new smart TV I just bought myself is trying to outsmart me. In a nice way.

Considering the evenings we are spending at home these days, getting a new set to replace a 12-year-old one made sense to me recently. The vendor was in short supply last September, confirming the unusually high demand in Jordan for such items. He promised the delivery of a “great new model” in October, and he kept his promise.

The actual brand of the set is irrelevant here, suffice to say that it is the latest generation of smart TVs, one that was manufactured just a few months ago. The user manual — I correct that, the e-manual — is 188-pages long. The size of the manual and more importantly its contents, say a lot about what technology is doing to us.

Needless to say, that the e-manual was not supplied as a hard copy document but was to download on the web, and is also available online on the TV screen itself. This has been the trend for the last few years, whether your TV is smart or not.

The functionalities and the features are overwhelming, even for a tech-head or someone who enjoys IT. The e-manual of my powerful laptop computer is about half of the TV’s. Which easily leads us to the clear conclusion that smart TVs are now more like full-fledged computers, and that dummy sets belong to the past. We have turned that page for good.

Smart TVs are computers in their own right, just like smartphones are. This means that you have to feel comfortable with intricate menu layouts, IT terminology, settings, networking, apps, wireless connectivity and the like. The old notion of traditional TV is gone for good. “Old” is understood here as “before 2010!”

If you are not comfortable with the new TV technology, you can still watch simple satellite broadcasts and stick to that. But this would be ignoring 90 per cent of what your smart TV set can do for you. The built-in Internet features, like Netflix, YouTube, and Apple TV, to name only three of them, make a huge difference.

To navigate through the menus, the settings and the options, the hand-held remote-control unit is just not friendly enough. A real, full-size keyboard and a mouse are a must. Yes, computers again. Virtually all new smart TVs allow to easily connect a keyboard and a mouse, wirelessly or through regular USB cables. Performing a search on YouTube or Netflix without a keyboard, just by using the remote-control unit, would be frustrating and would take out the pleasure.

Fortunately, even if you are not particularly tech-savvy, a good part of the whole concept is intuitive — up to a certain point that is. Perhaps the trickiest, the least intuitive part is the way your smart TV would connect to the home router and through it automatically discover and talk to all the other connected devices like smartphones, tablets, laptops computers and Bluetooth speakers.

Just after the new TV was installed, set up and ready to go, one member of the family, upon tried to play music on his smartphone, was prompted on the screen: “Do you want to playback the music on the [brand] TV or on your phone?” All devices connected to the router were communicating and displaying an astonishing range of possibilities.

As for me, and without pressing any button, clicking any mouse, or asking the TV to do anything at all, I was treated on the large screen with this invitation that popped-up all of a sudden: “A music collection was found on your DLNA-enabled [brand] computer, do you want to play it here?” It was trying to outsmart me, obviously. Not only was my laptop discovered by the TV on the home network, via the router, but all the functionalities that could be shared between the multiple devices were already activated and ready to operate.

Understanding the basics of networking has become a critical notion. It should be part of any educational system, not just to be able enjoy TV, music, or video, but also to make a better use of remote learning. How many families are still struggling with some aspects of the network to help their children do their e-homework?

GENEVA — Swiss glaciers have continued to shrink at an alarming rate this year, while snow accumulation on the largest glacier in the Alps reached a record low, a recent study showed.

Although 2020 has not been a year of extremes, the glaciers in the Swiss Alps are still in steady decline, losing a full 2 per cent of their volume this year alone, according to an annual study on the state of the glaciers published by the Swiss Academies of Science.

That is in line with the average over the past 10 years, but the numbers are still “very concerning”, report author Matthias Huss, in charge of the Glacier Monitoring Network, told AFP.

“They are a bit lower than the last three years, when we had extremely high temperatures... but still the glaciers lost a lot of mass,” he said, adding that a 2 per cent loss per year “is really a lot”.

In the past 60 years, Swiss glaciers have lost enough water to fill the massive Lake Constance, which straddles the Swiss-German-Austrian borders across 63 kilometres, the report said.

The most concerning finding this year was perhaps that snow accumulation on the mighty Aletsch — the largest glacier in the Alps — hit its lowest level on record.

The measurement point, near the Jungfraujoch peak 3,466 metres above sea level, is so high up that it consistently shows the glacier gaining mass.

‘A bad sign’

But since measurements began there more than a century ago, “this year it was the smallest ever snow accumulation,” Huss said.

“It is cold up there, but there was very little snow that was retained even at this elevation, and this is of course a bad sign for the biggest glacier in the Alps.”

The glacier, which covers 86 square kilometres and is estimated to hold around 11 billion tonnes of ice, has already seen its tongue recede by about 1 kilometre since the turn of the century.

Aletsch is one of more than 4,000 glaciers — vast, ancient reserves of ice — dotted throughout the Alps, providing seasonal water to millions and forming some of Europe’s most stunning landscapes.

In a study last year, the ETH technical university in Zurich published a study indicating that around 95 per cent of those glaciers will disappear by 2100 if greenhouse gas emissions are left unchecked.

Even if the world were to step up and fully implement the 2015 Paris Agreement, which calls for capping global warming at well below 2ºC, two-thirds of the Alpine glaciers will likely be lost, according to that forecast.

“But at least we would still have some glaciers left to admire,” Huss said.

A recent arrival to the Jordanian market, coinciding in a change of official local importer, the Geely Azkarra made quite the impression during a recent test drive, and signals a huge leap in quality, technology refinement, drivability and design for the Chinese manufacturer. Designed and engineered in collaboration with Geely’s wholly-owned Swedish manufacturer Volvo, the keenly-priced Azkarra is far from the “budget” Chinese cars of yesteryears. It is instead more of an accessible high value product with “premium” overtones and is much on par with practical mainstream Korean, Japanese, American and European compact to mid-size crossover SUVs.

The Swedish connection

Known as the Boyue Pro in its home market and as the Azkarra for export, the current iteration launched in the second half of last year, and bears much stronger resemblance to its distant yet significantly different Volvo cousins. Designed by former Volvo design chief Peter Horbury, the Azkarra’s broad, protruding and snouty grille and squinting heavy browed headlights are its most Volvo-esque aesthetic characteristics. Meanwhile, its jutting lower lip, big side intakes, scalloped and ridged bonnet, and floating roofline with blacked-out pillars and sharply extended tailgate spoiler, lend more up-market and sporting flavours.

Not quite as Volvo-inspired at the rear, the Azkarra features high-set horizontal lights, rather than the vertically-aligned Swede style. However, the Azkarra’s Scandinavian relationship is more evident under the bonnet, where a jointly developed turbocharged direct injection 1.5-litre 3-cylinder engine powers all four wheels through a front-based transverse layout. Developing 177BHP at 5,500rpm and 194lb/ft throughout a broad 1,500-4,000rpm range, the Azkarra’s prodigious three-pot unit is aided by a 48V mild hybrid starter/generator motor, which recovers kinetic braking energy and assists for improved output and longer fuel-saving coasting time, to achieve low 5.8l/100km combined consumption.

Powerful three-pots

With the Azkarra’s mild hybrid system pitching in more than similar systems from other manufacturers, integration is nonetheless similarly smooth, with much less lift-off delay than full hybrid systems. Producing a maximum combined 190BHP and 221lb/ft, the Azkarra carries its 1.7-tonne mass through 0-100km/h in a reasonably quick 9.9-seconds and onto a 200km/h top speed. Robust and flexible in mid-range for confident over-taking and driving on inclines, the Azkarra’s electric boost helps provide an over-arcing reservoir of torque than is easily accessed. Meanwhile, its turbocharger spools up and provides boost from as low as 1,000rpm. 

Smooth and refined in operation, if ever slightly gruff near its rev limit, the Azkarra does its best work in mid-range and doesn’t like to push past around 5,500rpm. With four driving modes available, the Azkarra takes on slightly, but noticeably different driving characteristics, with Sport mode proving most responsive from standstill and with the most succinct shifts from its 7-speed automated dual clutch gearbox. Comfort mode is tuned for smooth delivery and less snappy shifts, but cog changes are slightly less responsive at high revs. Eco mode is meanwhile most efficient but isn’t as responsive.

Eager handling

Dynamically impressive all-round, the Azkarra’s driving modes also fine-tune its driving characteristics through its electric-assisted steering and adaptive dampers. At its most comfortable, supple, forgiving and with lightest steering, Comfort is best suited for daily driving, especially in the city, where some bumps and potholes can feel slightly firm side in most modern cars. Through quick and winding switchbacks, it can lean in and tighten its steering angle somewhat quickly in comfort mode, while understeer is — quite normally — apparent only at the very limit of its accomplished handling abilities. However, the Azkarra truly shines in Sport mode.

With dampers and body control becoming subtly tauter and its steering taking on a discreetly meatier but more natural and direct profile, the Azkarra proved an unexpectedly eager and agile drive through snaking country lanes. Delivering better road feel and steering nuance than many crossovers, it felt tidy, adjustable and rewardingly nimble in and out of corners. With good lateral control and chassis balance in Sport mode, such roads are dispatched with fluent confidence. Four-wheel-drive meanwhile allocates power rearwards as needed, and locks in at lower speed in Off-road mode, where dampers relax further for improved wheel travel.

Spacious and smooth

Settled, stable and smooth at highway speeds, the Azkarra is also manoeuvrable and user-friendly in town, with mostly good visibility, parking sensors and rearview camera. Providing a good, comfortable and adjustable driving position, one felt perhaps slightly firmer side seat bolstering would be welcome given the Azkarra’s adept handling. Spacious in front and rear, the Azkarra seats large and tall passenger in a row with ease. Meanwhile its 377-litre boot expands to much bigger volume with the split-folding rear seats down, while its spare tyre fits below the boot floor, unlike some electrified crossovers with a space-wasting, strap-down, above-floor spare.

Contemporary and classy inside, the Azkarra features good quality trim, finish and leather upholstery. Its integrated infotainment system is intuitive, while numerous convenience features include multiple USB ports, panoramic sunroof, cooled centre console box, dual zone climate control, rear armrest, and more. Safety equipment includes lane departure warning and multiple airbags, but no blind-spot warning yet. Available in two specifications, from JD25,000 to JD26,000, on-the-road, the better equipped version includes ambient lighting, automatic tailgate and wireless phone charging, but both feature a generous 6-year or 200,000km warranty, 2-year or 30,000km service package and comprehensive insurance.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 1.5-litre, transverse, turbocharged 3-cylinders

Electric motor: 48V electric starter/generator

Valve-train: 12-valve, DOHC

Gearbox: 7-speed dual clutch automated, four-wheel-drive

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 177 (179) [132] @5,500rpm

Specific power: 119.8BHP/litre

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 194.5 (265) @1,500-4,000rpm

Specific torque: 179.4Nm/litre

Combined power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 190 (193) [142]

Combined torque, lb/ft (Nm): 221 (300)

Combined power-to-weight: 111.6BHP/tonne

Combined torque-to-weight: 129.7Nm/tonne

0-100km/h: 9.9-seconds (estimate)

Top speed: 200km/h

Fuel consumption, combined: 5.8-litres/100km (estimate)

Fuel capacity: 58-litres

Length: 4,544mm

Width: 1,831mm

Height: 1,713mm

Wheelbase: 2,670mm

Luggage volume, minimum: 377.8-litres

Unladen weight: 1,705kg

Suspension, F/R: MacPherson struts/multilink

Steering: Electric-assisted rack & pinion

Brakes, F/R: Ventilated discs/discs

Tyres: 225/60R18

Price, on-the-road, with insurance: JD25,000-26,000

Your gut will thank you if you start to feed yourself with the right foods to promote the right kind of gut bacteria.

Eating fruits and vegetables is a sure way of promoting the growth of the right kind of bacteria in our stomachs. It’s the kind of bacteria that will make you crave more fruits and vegetables instead of the wrong kind that makes you crave more sugar. Whichever one you feed is the one that will grow inside you and will dictate what your brain will crave. 

These days I have found it a lot easier to eat my veggies when I picture my gut bacteria inside my stomach. Plus, the choices we make for one meal affect how we digest our next meal based on the kind of bacteria that grows as a result of what we feed it! I notice the days I include more beans and legumes as well as fruits, that I benefit the next day as my body will crave more of those foods and feel a lot more satiated.

Keeping gut bacteria healthy 

Some people take probiotics to keep things running smoothly, but the body also needs prebiotics to work hand in hand with the probiotics and the best way to get that is by eating a diet that is rich in fruits, vegetables, beans and lentils. These foods are not only fresh, but they help keep us feeling fuller for much longer than foods with empty calories.

Scientists refer to our gut as the second brain for a good reason. The bacteria inside our gut send a message to our brain that they are hungry. They also dictate what kind of food they are hungry for depending on what kind of bacteria they are. Each meal we eat makes a big difference in how our body will digest the food later on and what kind of cravings we will get for the next meal.

Food order

Scientists have even discovered that the order we eat our food in also makes a difference. Eating our vegetables first results in our body absorbing fewer of the total calories of the rest of the meal.

Experts also suggest combining foods so that we give ourselves a healthier chance even if we are eating something like a pancake. If we add fresh blueberries to it, our body will absorb less of the unhealthy calories simply because the blueberries at that meal will slow down the digestive process and not break down as quickly as the simple carbs and sugars found in the pancake. When I treat myself to a small dessert, I make sure to have my veggies first and perhaps add some berries on the side to slow down the insulin spike that my body produces as a result of eating sweets. 

More importantly, fruits and veggies provide many essential vitamins and minerals. The body recognises these vitamins and minerals when they are taken in their natural form in food. Hence, whenever possible, make sure to get your daily vitamins from food. These vitamins include calcium, magnesium, iron, potassium, fibre, Vitamins A and C and folate, just to name a few.

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine

History Has Begun: The Birth of a New America

Bruno Macaes

London: Hurst and Co., 2020

Pp. 189

The title of this book seems to be a retort to Francis Fukuyama, the American political scientist who proclaimed the end of history in his famous 1989 article. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the concurrent spread of liberal democracy and free-market capitalism, Fukuyama postulated that humanity’s sociocultural evolution might be coming to an end (though he later modified this claim). Now, thirty years later, Bruno Macaes, researcher and political commentator, argues quite the opposite. Interlacing a host of historical, philosophical, political and cultural sources with his own observations, he enters the debate on whether the American empire is on the decline or not. He postulates that rather than declining, the US has been reinventing itself over the past several decades: “perhaps the United States is only entering its highest period, where its individual possibilities will be realised”. (p. 11)

In his words: “This book is an attempt to examine the subtle processes by which a new way of looking at the world slowly extends to every facet of individual and collective life... My second and more ambitious task is to attempt to decipher the logic of this new [American] civilisation.” (p. xiv)

Starting with the country’s beginning as an extension of Europe, Macaes traces how it gradually embarked on its own independent trajectory. In this context, he critiques French diplomat and historian Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) for being unable to see “that America is meant to outgrow Europe and create its own distinctive path”. (p. 35)

Noting that American society, in some respects, has more in common with Asia than with Europe, the author goes on to say, “If ever the United States becomes convinced that the West belongs to the past, it could leave Europe living in the past, but it will not be inclined to remain there itself, especially if that would entail sacrificing the thing to which it is most addicted: global primacy.” (p. xiii)

Macaes chronicles the rise of US manufacturing and military prowess, highlighting the results of the two world wars, the Marshall plan, the Cold War and Americans’ increasing cosmopolitanism, as the US began to decisively influence Europe rather than the other way around. He explains why the US is more ready to use blunt military force than Europe, and why it is wary of the principles of international law and multilateralism that Europe advocates. The author’s writing style is saucy and often humorous as well as to-the-point, as when he writes, “Americans see the world as an action movie, Europeans as a documentary.” (p. 67)

Macaes’s most original and provocative assertations are those linking American politics to culture, citing many philosophers, novels and films to prove his claims. With the worldwide spread of American television and Hollywood movies, reality and unreality began to merge in politics, aided by the birth and growth of high-tech in Silicon Valley. “For the next four decades [the 1970s and beyond], American politics and American business would never cease approaching the ideal point where they would be indistinguishable from Hollywood. Reagan said that politics was just like show business.” (p. 80)

The ever-widening gap between reality and fantasy generated many crises, most notably the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Still, with the aid of television and then the internet, America seems to offer unlimited choices, new possibilities, dreams and meaning. According to Macaes, the “principle of unreality is an answer—specifically an American answer—to the shallowness of life in a modern liberal society”. (p. 138)

In trying to pinpoint the new American civilisation, the author offers his own explanations for several particularly American traits which diverge from European values, such as clinging to guns, the death penalty, prisons, religiosity and lack of universal health coverage. 

One inevitably connects the subject matter of this book to the current American administration and presidential elections, but Macaes insists that the unreality principle began decades ago. He concurs with those who say that “Trump is not really about Trump or the product of a fluke election, but a vivid example of the world of contemporary American, where commerce and the media reward performance above truth-telling... the pleasure principle above the reality principle.” (p. 115)

“History Has Begun” is both interesting and provocative to read. While Macaes’s characterisation of contemporary American culture rings true in many if not most respects, his book does not cover issues like income inequality, changing demographics, persistent racism, gender roles, etc., that preoccupy Americans today and may keep them from experiencing “the shallowness of life in a modern liberal society”. The book is rather about the idea of America, as it was launched and developed by what was originally (and in most cases still is) an all-male, white-dominated, upper- and middle-class leadership.