Features

Portrait of a Turkish Family

Irfan Orga

London: Eland, 2004

Pp. 316

Irfan Orga’s memoir of growing up in Istanbul is written with such elegance that, at times, it approaches poetry. “Looking back, it seems to me that the whole of early childhood is linked with the sound of the sea and with the voices of my parents and grandparents as they sat eating breakfast on the terrace overlooking the gardens. Still can I feel the content of childhood’s awakening in the low, sunny room filled with the reflected white light from the sea.” (p. 7) 

Orga’s family was wealthy, their life cushioned by devoted household servants. His mother was veiled and seldom left the house. Yet, all this was to change, battered by the forces of history — the ravages of World War I and the break-up of the Ottoman Empire. After Irfan’s father went missing in action, a dramatic change hit the family’s fortunes, most obviously affecting the role of his mother. 

Orga records charming childhood memories —visiting the coffee house and the mosque with his grandfather, before he died, and the bathhouse with his impervious grandmother. There is also his circumcision and his first day at school—a district school from which his parents quickly withdrew him when they found he had been beaten. He then attended the French school, where the students were mainly turkish. As he recalls, “It was the fashion to ape our elders and to speak French in public, a rather grand and adult thing to do.” (p. 54)

This was the fall of 1914; and pleasant childhood memories are soon replaced by the privations of Istanbul’s civilian population during the war. Irfan’s father sold his business, moved his family into a smaller house, let go two of their servants. Food was hoarded, and the French school closed. His uncle was conscripted and the same was expected for his father. His mother prepared a shoulder bag for her husband. “I think she sewed her heart into that bag too for after my father had gone we who were left saw nothing of her heart.” (p. 72)

The family somehow adapted except for the autocratic grandmother who could simply not fathom the need for reducing the lifestyle to which she was accustomed. After her son was called up for the army, she shocked everyone by remarrying an elderly, very rich man whose grudging help was to shield the family from dire poverty for a time. Especially vivid are Irfan’s memories of “that night, when the enemy spies set fire to the wooden houses of Istanbul, when they burnt like matchwood under a summer sky! The street was daylight for all the houses on both sides were a lurid, blazing mass”. (p. 102)

The family lost everything and were forced to rely on the charity of the grandmother and her rich husband. They moved into the upper floor in a house he owned, but Irfan’s mother was never really the same: “Ever since the fire she had been unapproachable, far away from us, and several times I had caught her remote eye fixed on Mehmet [his brother] or myself, as though she asked herself what we had to do with her.” (p. 109)

However, with the new house, his mother gained a new lease on life. For the first time, she went out in public alone to secure food for her children and inquire about the fate of her husband. She got a job sewing and did needle work for sale. She helped her neighbours and achieved their respect and gratitude so that they helped her in turn. A truly remarkable aspect of the book is the immense empathy Irfan displays with his mother, at his young age, even as her growing mental imbalance and desperate survival tactics cut him to the core. “She was an odd contradiction, one moment spineless and the next bounding with immense vitality. In one way, her own unobtrusive way, she was the forerunner of Kemal Ataturk — for she emancipated herself years before her time.” (p. 110) 

Orga’s descriptions of the last years of the war are heartbreaking as his family slips into abject poverty along with most of the population and disintegrates in many respects. The end of the war brought new tensions, but the Orga brothers were able to enrol in the Military College, which paved the way for Irfan to set sail for England in 1941, where he spent the rest of his life.

Just as fascinating as this memoir itself is the afterword written by Irfan’s son, Ates Orga, who had the memoir published in 1950, to much critical acclaim; since then, it has been reprinted twice. As much as “Portrait” is filled with dramatic events, it exhibits a fairly representative trajectory for a family of that social class at that particular time. The afterword, on the other hand, reveals the very atypical life led by Irfan, his wife and their son in post-war England and Ireland.

GENEVA — Four in five adolescents worldwide do not get enough physical activity, to the detriment of their health, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Friday, warning that girls especially need more exercise.

In its first ever report on global trends for adolescent physical activity, the UN health agency stressed that urgent action was needed to get teens off their screens and moving more. 

“We absolutely need to do more or we will be looking at a very bleak health picture for these adolescents,” study co-author Leanne Riley told journalists ahead of the launch.

The report, which was published in the Lancet Child & Adolescent Health journal, is based on data from surveys conducted between 2001 and 2016 of some 1.6 million students between the ages of 11 and 17 across 146 countries.

It found that 81 per cent did not meet the WHO recommendation of at least an hour a day of physical activity such as walking, playing, riding a bike or taking part in organised sports.

This is worrying, since regular physical activity provides a host of health benefits, from improved heart and respiratory fitness to better cognitive function, making learning easier.

Exercise is also seen as an important tool in efforts to stem the global obesity epidemic.

‘No improvements’

But despite ambitious global targets for increasing physical activity, the study found virtually no change over the 15-year-period it covered.

“We are not seeing any improvements,” Riley said.

While the report does not specifically study the reasons for adolescent physical inactivity, she suggested that the “electronic revolution... seems to have changed adolescents’ movement patterns and encourages them to sit more, to be less active”.

The report authors also pointed to poor infrastructure and insecurity making it difficult for adolescents to walk or bike to school.

The study found that levels of physical inactivity among adolescents were persistently high across all regions and all countries, ranging from 66 per cent in Bangladesh to 94 per cent in South Korea.

“We find a high prevalence pretty much everywhere,” lead author Regina Guthold told journalists, noting that in “many, many countries, between 80 and 90 per cent of adolescents [are] not meeting the recommendations for physical activity”.

Girls less active

And the situation was particularly concerning for adolescent girls, with only 15 per cent of them worldwide getting the prescribed amount of physical activity, compared to 22 per cent for boys.

In fact, girls were less active than boys in all but four countries — Afghanistan, Samoa, Tonga and Zambia.

And while the situation for boys improved somewhat between 2001 and 2016, with inactivity levels dropping from 80 to 78 per cent, girls remained at 85 per cent. 

In a number of countries, the gender gap appeared to be linked to cultural pressure on girls to stay home and shun sports, as well as concerns over safety when moving about outdoors.

But Guthold also pointed out that “a lot of physical activity promotion is more tailored towards boys”.

This, she said, seems to explain the fact that the biggest gender gap could be found in the United States and Ireland, where the difference in activity levels between boys and girls was over 15 percentage points.

“In the United States, we see that since 2001, levels of insufficient activity have decreased in boys by 7 per cent, while there has been no change in girls,” she said.

The US for instance put in place an ambitious national plan for physical activity in 2010, but the efforts “for some reason only seem to reach boys”.

In a bid to encourage healthier living, countries have set a target of reducing physical inactivity among adults and youth alike by 15 per cent between 2018 and 2030.

But Riley noted that meeting that target would be a challenge after driving down adolescent inactivity by a mere percentage point over the past 15 years.

“We need to do more if we want to halt the rise in obesity in this age group and promote better levels of physical activity,” she said.

PARIS — It is well known that human hubbub can have a negative impact on some animals, but a new study on Wednesday says the noise we make should be treated as a “major global pollutant”.

“We found that noise affects many species of amphibians, arthropods, birds, fish, mammals, molluscs and reptilians,” scientists at Queen’s University Belfast said in the Royal Society’s Biology Letters.

Human noise pervades the environment, from vehicles and industry in dense urban centres, to planes flying overhead, to ocean going vessels whose propeller is thought to interfere with whale sonar communications and may be implicated in mass beaching as the disorientated animals lose their sense of direction.

Reviewing a series of individual studies in what is known as a meta-analysis, Hansjoerg Kunc and Rouven Schmidt said the issue should be seen as the “majority of species responding to noise rather than a few species being particularly sensitive to noise”.

“The interesting finding is that the species included range from little insects to large marine mammals such as whales,” he Kunc told AFP. 

“We did not expect to find a response to noise across all animal species.” 

The paper said that an animal’s response to the clatter of human activity is not necessarily straightforward, and cannot be easily termed as positive or negative.

Manmade noise, for example, has been shown to interfere with the sonar detection systems that bats use to find their insect prey, making it more difficult for the flying mammals to catch insects.

But that may be good news for the bugs: “Potential prey may benefit directly from anthropogenic noise,” the paper said.

Kunc cautioned, however, that the big picture is still one of serious disruption across the natural environment.

“In the bat example, the predator might suffer because they cannot locate their prey... but in species where potential prey rely on sound to detect predators, the prey might suffer because they might not be able to hear them early enough to escape.”

Human sound pollution and the animal response to it must be seen in the context of an ecosystem, especially when considering conservation efforts, the authors note.

“Noise must be considered as a serious form of environmental change and pollution as it affects both aquatic and terrestrial species,” they said. 

“Our analyses provide the quantitative evidence necessary for legislative bodies to regulate this environmental stressor more effectively.”

It is an often-heard joke amongst IT professional, that it takes a PhD in Science just to know what the right version of Microsoft Windows to buy for your computer is!

Thirty-four years ago, almost to the day, back in November 20, 1985, Microsoft launched its first Windows operating system for personal computers. The rest is history.

There is no argument about the prevalence of Windows over all other similar systems for desktop and laptop machines. According to recent figures released by hostingtribunal.com it now holds an impressive 80 per cent share of the market (April 2019). The remaining 20 per cent are held by Apple OS, Linux and Android.

It is also commonly acknowledged by most that Windows 10, the latest version that was released in July 2015, has ironed out a great part of the imperfections found in previous versions. Whereas perfection is still an elusive dream, users’ satisfaction overall is high and Windows 10 can certainly be seen as an undisputed winner, a powerful and stable system, and a significant improvement over all previous releases.

It is interesting to note on the way that Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, the main software architect of Windows, and formerly the company’s chairman for many years, has just overtaken Amazon’s chief Jeff Bezos this week to reclaim, once more time, the title of the richest person in the world (fortune.com). He remains one the major stockholders of the company and its prime adviser.

Still, users’ life with Microsoft is not entirely free of woes. Perhaps their main complain today is not about using Windows per se, or about any technical or operational aspect of it, as much as it is about licensing Windows, the way they would pay to use it.

So back to buying Windows, or to be more precise, to buying the right to use it, for indeed in the world of software you never actually buy the product, you just pay for the right, the license to use it.

The various licensing options stem from a legitimate reason to offer the best price and set features to each and every one, taking consideration that different users have different needs and different budgets.

It starts with the usual Home, Business, Student and Pro versions (to keep things somewhat simple). Students benefit from significantly reduced pricing — definitely a good thing – and home users also pay less than Pro users for they generally need less complicated networking and advanced features. This much is understood. Pros need every single feature and are willing to pay for that.

Things becomes complicated when you get to the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer), the OLP (Open Licensing Programme) and VLP (Volume Licensing Programme) licensing formulas, to name only these three main types.

If yours is an OEM licence (the least expensive of them all) and the computer on which it is installed is to discard or to retire, for whatever reason, your Windows licence is lost with it, you have to buy it again with the new machine you would get.

If it is an OLP, then the license can be “transferred” to another computer, a new one for example. If it is a VLP, then it is most likely a type of license provided to corporations or businesses who usually buy a large number of licences and therefore benefit from good discount.

Most of the time home and private users settle for the simpler and cheaper OEM version; the Home edition of Windows 10 is about JD60. You just have to be aware of what you are paying for. You can also ask your vendor to advise you about the best licence to get — provided they do understand the different possible ways! Not every salesperson holds a PhD in Microsoft Windows licensing science.

By Elizabeth Donovan

PARIS — Some soups may be good for more than just the soul. 

A new study suggests that certain homemade broths — made from chicken, beef or even just vegetables — might have properties that can help fight malaria.

Researcher Jake Baum of Imperial College London asked children from diverse cultural backgrounds at state-funded Eden Primary School to bring in homemade clear soup broth from recipes that had been passed down across generations to treat fever. 

The samples were filtered and incubated with cultures of Plasmodium falciparum, a parasite that accounts for an estimated 99.7 per cent of malaria cases in Africa, according to the World Health Organisation. 

Of 56 soup samples tested, five were more than 50 per cent effective in curbing growth of the parasite, two with similar success as one drug currently used to treat malaria, Baum and his team reported Tuesday in the Archives of Disease in Childhood. 

Four other soups were more than 50 per cent effective at blocking parasites from maturing to be able to infect mosquitoes, which transmit the disease. 

“When we started getting soups that worked — in the lab under very restricted conditions, I should add — we were really happy and excited,” Baum told AFP in an e-mail. 

But he noted that it was unclear which ingredients had the antimalarial properties. 

“If we were serious about going back and finding the magic ingredient, like good scientists, we’d have to do it in a very standardised way,” he said. 

The soups came from families from diverse ethnic backgrounds, including Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, and had a variety of base ingredients, including chicken, beef, beetroot and cabbage. 

Much to the pleasure of the vegetarians involved in the study, Baum noted, the veggie-only soups showed similar results to the meat-based ones. 

Baum said he had wanted to teach children the process through which scientific research can turn an herbal remedy into a synthetically produced medicine. 

He pointed to the success of Professor Dr Tu Youyou of China, who in the 1970s was instrumental in isolating and extracting an antimalarial substance from quinhao, an herb used in Eastern medicine to treat fever for some two thousand years. 

This research led to the synthetic production of artemisinin — a drug now widely used to treat malaria — and won Tu the Nobel Prize in 2015.

Emerging resistance to drugs treating the disease — which kills some 400,000 people a year — means scientists have to “look beyond the chemistry shelf for new drugs”, Baum noted in a press release. 

“The lesson from me was more that there may well be golden recipes out there in the world for disease that remain untapped.”

By Sébastien Duval

WASHINGTON — A plane crash in Texas, a deadly explosion in Iowa, a massive fire in Arizona — elaborate baby gender reveal parties, a growing trend among parents in the US, have taken a nightmarish turn.

“It’s a girl!” After dropping 350 gallons of pink-coloured water, a small plane flying at low altitude suddenly stalled, crashing in a Texas field.

There were fortunately no victims in the early-September crash, but another such party — where expecting parents stage elaborate events to reveal their future child’s sex — turned fatal when an Iowa woman, 56, was killed the following month by shrapnel from a pipe bomb.

American parents are no longer satisfied with the traditional gender reveal method: cutting a cake to reveal, after much suspense, a blue interior (for a boy) or a pink one (for a girl).

With the rise of social media, gender reveals have become more and more sophisticated and “extreme”, according to Carly Gieseler, a professor of gender and media studies at City University of New York.

She has studied the gender reveal trend since its birth at the end of the 2000s.

What started as an “intimate, small gather” has become a “much larger spectacle, a much more grand affair”, Gieseler told AFP.

“We’ve gotten to the point where you have explosions and fireworks, skydivers” appearing all over Instagram or YouTube.

In Gieseler’s opinion, gender reveal parties are “kind of filling a void for these communal gatherings that we don’t really have as much anymore”.

They have become so trendy in the US that “it’s almost an expectation of all parents at this point”, she said.

And specialised businesses have begun to pop up, all too eager to meet the demand.

‘Who cares?’

Baseball and golf balls that burst into puffs of pink or blue powder when hit, shooting targets, balloons, garlands, pastries... “There’s a huge market,” said Gieseler.

It complements another American custom, that of the baby shower — a party, primarily for women, where an expecting mother is showered with gifts of baby supplies.

Although gender reveal parties may have managed to get men involved in the pre-birth festivities, they are also accused of reinforcing gender stereotypes.

“Even though the gender reveal seems to be something light-hearted, it does have implications in terms of reestablishing the gender binary, really imprinting a foetus that hasn’t even been brought into the world yet with that idea of being either male or female and then all those gender roles and assumptions that go with it,” said Gieseler.

Even the woman credited with inventing the trend — lifestyle blogger Jenna Karvunidis, who wrote a blog post about her party in 2008 when she was pregnant with her first daughter — today feels she created a bit of a monster.

“I’ve felt a lot of mixed feelings about my random contribution to the culture,” she wrote in a post on her blog’s Facebook page.

“It just exploded into crazy after that.”

“Who cares what gender the baby is?” Karvunidis asked in the post, which has racked up more than 35,000 likes.

“I did at the time because we didn’t live in 2019 and didn’t know what we know now — that assigning focus on gender at birth leaves out so much of their potential and talents that have nothing to do with what’s between their legs.”

She ended the post with a carefully styled family photo, including her husband, dog and children, and a final revelation: “PLOT TWIST, the world’s first gender-reveal party baby is a girl who wears suits!”

STOCKHOLM — The number of Minecraft Earth territories grows to 10 as the augmented reality version of Minecraft is made available across the USA on iOS and Android mobile devices, while three global public events were planned for three global cities — New York, London, and Australia —on Saturday.

Minecraft Earth is now ready to play across the USA thanks to the AR mobile game’s November 12 update.

Players in the United States can play an early access version of the game on iOS and Android, joining a growing worldwide community that’s officially supported in Canada, Mexico, Iceland, the UK, Sweden, the Philippines, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

The iOS game is distributed through Apple’s App Store, while the Android equivalent is hosted on Google Play.

Its players can create and superimpose interactive Minecraft scenes on top of real-world surroundings using the familiar cuboid blocks from the original computer, console and mobile game.

Viewing the world through their mobile device’s screen and using its geolocation features, they can collect virtual materials and creatures by interacting with Minecraft Earth when they are out and about, then combine resources to make impressive virtual constructions — preferably with the help of other players.

Microsoft, which owns Minecraft developer Mojang, is planning on having demonstration versions of Minecraft Earth installed in its US, Canada, London and Sydney retail stores at some point in the near future.

More immediately, a series of pop-up events has been scheduled for specific public spaces in three global cities.

Called Mobs in the Park, a reference to the generic term for Minecraft creatures known as mobs, the free experiences are planned for Hudson Yards in New York City, USA, The Queen’s Walk in London, UK, and Campbell’s Cove in Sydney, Australia.

They’re to run 10am to 7pm local time over the weekends of November 23 and 24, November 30 and December 1, with a bonus New York City day on November 29.

Life-size Minecraft statues will let players access a customised Minecraft Earth adventure, through which they can obtain a wintry Jolly Llama mob in advance of more general availability in December.

While Minecraft Earth expands its focus to building rather than virtual creature collection and territory control, as with Pokemon Go, the Mobs in the Park events further strengthen similarities between the two.

The enormously popular Pokemon Go has been holding Pokemon Go Fest events in public parks since June 2017 and Safari Zone shopping mall events since September the same year.

Pokemon Go developer Niantic launched another licensed AR game, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, in June of this year.

A sleek, stylish and brutally quick compact three-door coupe that will go down in history as last great hurrah for Britain’s Vauxhall brand, the GTC VXR was first introduced as part of the previous generation of the C-segment Astra line.

Out-muscling competitors like the Volkswagen Scirocco R and others, the then dubbed Vauxhall Astra VXR dropped the Astra nameplate once the latest generation Astra family hatchback was introduced in 2015. With no new performance Astra on the horizon, it soldiered on virtually unchanged as the GTC VXR, to differentiate and distance it from the less exciting and less glamorous model line.

Soon to be sought after

Having survived the introduction of a new model line, the GTC VXR remained in production until recently, when Vauxhall’s new owners, the French PSA Group finally put Vauxhall’s VXR performance sub-brand freeze, pending future resurrection.

With VXR expected to return at some point utilising some element of electrification and more closely linked to other PSA brands Peugeot and Citroen, the GTC VXR and its German and global market Opel Astra OPC twin are among the last great cars from Vauxhall’s and Opel’s long General Motors era, and well worth the investment whether nearly new or if unclaimed examples remain available.

Arriving in the Middle East only as recently as the 2017 model year in Opel guise, and without sufficient time to truly establish itself, this compact brute, however, always had greater lustre in the British market under the Vauxhall nameplate. Differentiated from the Opel only by its Vauxhall Griffin badge and British market right-hand-drive, as pictured, the GTC VXR otherwise shares the same wide low stance, swooping roofline and dramatic appearance as its German counterpart. Hunkered down, moody, and charismatic, the VXR’s wide gaping lower air intakes, aggressive side skirts, huge rear tailgate wing and chrome-tipped dual exhausts telegraph its performance potential.

Smooth brute

Smooth and sophisticated but with muscular curves and surfacing, broad rear haunches, L-shaped side character line and rakishly low roofline, the muscular GTC VXR’s performance however punches above the rest of the segment, with its 2-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine developing 276BHP at 5,500rpm and vast 295lb/ft torque across a broad 2500-4500rpm band. Slightly larger and heavier than prime rivals, the Astra VXR’s greater output nevertheless allows for swift 6-second 0-100km/h acceleration and a 250km/h top speed. A lower-revving car than rivals, the VXR rides a rich and generous torque sweet spot, and can return impressive 8.1l/100km combined cycle fuel efficiency.

Smooth and refined in operation, the mighty VXR never sounds rough or stressed, with its huge output channelled to the steered front wheels. To mitigate the torque-steer often associated with powerful front-drive vehicles, the VXR’s MacPherson-type suspension employs a separate HiPerStrut steering axis knuckle. Meanwhile, a limited-slip differential — backed by electronic traction control — diverts power to the wheel best able to use it and to reduce wheel-spin through corners. The result is a sophisticated and refined, but with its electronic nannies off and when launched aggressively, the VXR can still send its tyres momentarily scrambling and clawing before rocketing forwards.

High speed express

With but a moment of turbo lag, the VXR’s quick-spooling turbo spins into action to deliver a volcanic wave of mid-range torque. Seemingly indefatigable and relentlessly bludgeoning, the VXR is effortlessly versatile on inclines and in overtaking at speed. A natural motorway performer, it accumulates speed like a true grand touring coupe. Driving briskly at lower speeds, the VXR quickly works through revs as it reaches maximum power, whereupon needs to quickly shift gears before hitting the rev limiter. Meanwhile, its slightly long yet well-defined gear lever and intuitive clutch pedal and biting point enable one to launch from standstill with ease.

As much a high-speed express as any high-end German autobahn stormer, the VXR is reassuringly planted, with motorway confidence reminiscent of great continent-shrinking large Vauxhalls and Opels of past, like the Monza coupe. Quiet, refined and comfortable, the VXR, however, rides more firmly and has tauter vertical and lateral body lean control. Featuring three damper settings, the VXR is most comfortable in default setting and firmest in VXR mode, with Sport being the best compromise. Wide and squat, the VXR is also confident, precise and reassuring, with high grip levels and the ability to well carry speed through corners.

Hunkered down comfort

Tidy into corners, the VXR’s limited-slip differential ensures it effectively puts power down and turns with poise and agility. Body control is flat and taut in Sport and VXR modes, where other driving parameters also become more focused, but default mode is best for comfort. Meanwhile, steering is precise and light for urban driving, but slightly better feedback would be welcome. Riding on optional Aero Pack 245/35R20 tyres, the VXR is best on smooth roads, but is nevertheless comfortable on the highway. At medium speed the firm low profile tyres absorb imperfections fluidly, but are a bit firm over rough and slow city roads.

While standard 19-inch tyres would have been slightly more forgiving in ride quality, the VXR was, however, roomy and refined inside, and featured wonderfully comfortable, supportive and highly adjustable optional sports seats. Even rear passenger and boot space is comparatively good for such a low roof coupe. However, the VXR’s width, high waistline and thick rear pillars reduce visibility when parking and keep one mindful to not kerb the large alloy wheels. Front visibility is otherwise good and equipment levels generously high, while chrome accents and good quality textures lend the VXR an air of quality and a sporting but business-like character.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 2-litre, transverse in-line turbocharged 4-cylinders

Bore x stroke: 86 x 86mm

Compression ratio: 9.3:1

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

Gearbox: 6-speed manual, front-wheel-drive, limited-slip differential

Gear ratios: 1st 3.92:1; 2nd 2.04:1; 3rd 1.37:1; 4th 1.05:1; 5th 0.85:1; 6th 0.74:1

Final drive ratio: 3.9:1

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 276 (280) [206] @ 5,500rpm

Specific power: 138BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 178BHP/tonne

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 295 (400) @ 2,500-4,500rpm

Specific torque: 200Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight: 271lb/ft/tonne

0-100 km/h: 6-seconds

Top speed: 250km/h

Fuel capacity: 56-litres

Fuel economy, urban/extra-urban/combined: 10.4/7.3/8.1 litres/100km

Fuel requirement: 98RON

CO2 emissions, combined: 189g/km

Length: 4,466mm

Width: 1,840mm

Track, F/R: 1,584/1,588mm

Luggafge volume, min/max: 380/1,165-litres

Kerb weight: 1,475kg

Payload: 495kg

Aerodynamics: CD 0.328

Steering: Electric-hydraulic rack & pinion

Turning radius: 10.9-metres

Suspension, F: HiPerStrut (MacPherson struts with independent steering axis pivot)

Suspension, R: Watt’s link semi-independent

Brakes, F/R: Ventilated discs, 355 x 32mm/315 x 23mm

Tyres: 245/35R20

Educated

Tara Westover

London: Windmill Books, 2018

Pp. 384

Veering between gruesome scenes of violence and inspirational heights, Tara Westover takes the reader on the virtual rollercoaster of her highly unusual, often tortuous childhood, adolescence and young adulthood. One of seven siblings, she was born and raised in rural Idaho by devout Mormon parents, whose interpretation of their faith precluded sending their children to school, going to doctors, taking standard medicine, or having any contact with government. Yet, Westover is careful to state in the beginning: “This story is not about Mormonism. Neither is it about any other form of religious belief.” (p. xiii)

Indeed, the deeper one gets into her memoir, the more one sees that her all-dominating father is more than a strict Mormon: He is possibly bipolar and definitely a megalomaniac, sharing much of the prejudice, fundamentalism, paranoia and conspiracy mentality of the extreme right and the National Rifle Association. In his obsession with self-reliance in preparation for the “Days of Abomination” (the End of Days), he exposes his family to many dangers and near-deadly accidents as they work together salvaging heavy metal from junkyards and undertaking risky construction jobs. Total obedience to his every word and taking insane risks are seen as tests of faith. “Dad always put faith before safety.” (p. 244)

In this world view, gender roles are strictly delineated, with women being totally subordinate to men, and super modest in order not to tempt them. This is the rationale for the father allowing one of his sons — clearly a psychopath in need of professional help — to abuse Tara, her sister and mother. One of the saddest aspects of the memoir is watching Tara’s mother gradually subvert her own ideas in total obedience to the father — a double irony since it is her successful midwifery and homeopathic cottage industry that become the family’s mainstay.

To be fair, there are positives in their life, from the natural beauty of the mountain they live at the foot of, to the horses they raise and the survival skills they learn. The crux of the matter is that this is Tara’s family and she loves all of them, even the abusive brother. Her memoir chronicles her long, drawn-out battle with them and especially with herself to reclaim her life and be the person she wants to be. “My life was narrated for me by others. Their voices were forceful, emphatic, absolute. It had never occurred to me that my voice might be as strong as theirs.” (p. 229)

When she was sixteen, one of her brothers encouraged her to go to college. Thus began a long and difficult journey whereby she acquired an education, beginning at Brigham Young University in Utah and culminating in a PhD from Cambridge with a thesis entitled “The Family, Morality, and Social Science in Anglo-American Cooperative Thought, 1813-1890,” Mormonism being one of the four intellectual movements analysed — a previously unexplored topic. The price she paid, however, was immense, being branded a devil and a traitor by her father who convinced most of the family to cut all ties with her. The only support she got was from her three brothers who had themselves left the community on the mountain.

What holds the often-chaotic narrative together is Tara’s lucid and honest prose. The number of obstacles she had to surmount went way beyond the lacking educational background she had to make up, from getting used to living in the noise of a city, to making friends. At first she reports: “My loyalty to my father had increased in proportion to the miles between us. On the mountain, I could rebel. But here, in this loud, bright place, surrounded by gentiles disguised as saints, I clung to every truth, every doctrine he had given me.” (p. 183)

Gradually, via her college education, especially extensive reading in psychology, philosophy, history and feminism, she gained confidence in herself as a woman, to the point that at age nineteen, she “decided to experiment with normality”, adjusting her life style to better sync with her fellow students and friends and her own ideas. (p. 245) 

Still, she made many attempts to reconcile with her family, only to discover that it was not only a question of stated beliefs but of how different family members remembered pivotal incidents in their life together, particularly her violent brother’s abuse. “All I had to do was swap my memories for theirs, and I could have my family.” (p. 345)

She considered “surrendering my own perceptions of right and wrong, of reality, of sanity itself, to earn the love of my parents”, but finally understood that: “What my father wanted to cast from me wasn’t a demon: it was me.” (p. 346, 350)

Tara’s journey is not only about acquiring intellectual knowledge, but more deeply about the connection between intellect and emotions. She was forced to confront very elementary human questions about family, love, betrayal and responsibility. In the end, her journey seems to confirm the Biblical quote: The truth shall make you free.

Totally unexpectedly, one of the last chapters of the book finds Tara in Jordan where she has travelled to meet a friend, and they huddle around a campfire in Wadi Rum!

“Educated” is available at Readers.

By Ruba Al Far

Pharmacist

Did you know that we have two different ages? Every year we celebrate our birthday is our chronological age. But the number of candles on our cake may not be a true indicator of our body’s actual biological age. 

Although we consider chronological age to be our real age, the reality is that everyone ages at a different rate. Some people seem to age very rapidly, while some age in a more graceful and healthy pace. We all encounter people who appear to be much younger or older than they are. 

With advances in aesthetics and dermatology, women and men can look younger. This is what we call skin age. Biological age is not about reducing crow’s feet around eyes, laugh lines, lifting your face and reducing the spots on your hands. Biological age is a true state of health.

Factors that affect our biological age

• How we age is beyond our control in terms of genetics and race, for example, but it can be influenced positively by: 

• Quitting smoking

• Exercising regularly at least 30 minutes, five days a week

• Getting quality sleep, at least six hours of a good night’s sleep

• Eating plenty of vegetables, fruits and grains

• Avoiding refined sugar, salt, alcohol, saturated fat and processed food

• Keeping blood pressure, cholesterol and blood glucose levels within normal values

• Being social and engaging in activities with friends

• Improving your cognitive skills to exercise your brain

• Avoiding depression and anxiety (consulting a specialist if you suffer from any psychological symptoms)

• Getting a physical every year

•  Maintaining a ealthy weight and eating a balanced diet 

Why biological age matters

People with a biological age lower than their real age have a lower mortality risk and lower risk for chronic diseases like cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer, many other old-age related diseases. 

People with a biological age higher than their real age have a higher mortality risk and are more prone to chronic diseases associated with old-age related diseases. 

Controlling the way we age is partially in our hands since we cannot control genetics but we can still lower our biological age by implementing the golden rules mentioned earlier.

Nobody loves to live a long life associated with poor health and chronic diseases. 

By delaying the onset of diseases, especially cardiovascular, mental and physical problems, you will enjoy being healthy, active and you will continue to fully engage in society without putting a burden on family members.

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine