Features

Born A Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood

Trevor Noah

UK: John Murray, 2017

Pp. 288

Watching Trevor Noah host “The Daily Show”, one gets the impression of a rather cosmopolitan young man, but yet not one who is jaded. One might assume that his being cosmopolitan is a result of his successful career in the West, but his memoirs, as recorded in “Born A Crime”, attest to the roots of his sophistication as being genuinely South African.

Being born the son of a black mother and a white father made him something of an anomaly in a highly racialised society, but being an outsider also allowed him to move between various subcultures, racial categories, tribes and languages. How he navigated these makes for an exciting and sometimes hilarious story, full of adventure, danger and small, unexpected triumphs.

The book’s title stems from the fact that sexual relations between blacks and whites were strictly forbidden in apartheid South Africa, but the “crime” did not stop at birth. He and his mother had to sneak around to even visit his father, and he was out-of-place in both black and white society. Growing up in Soweto and different suburbs in the Johannesburg area, he was often treated as white in black society, and black in white society; the only category he appeared to belong to was coloured, which he actually had nothing in common with. At an early age, the illogic, arbitrariness and injustice of apartheid and its categories became obvious to him. His critique of the government’s Bantu education system designed for blacks is particularly searing, as is his condemnation of black-on-black violence, particularly the abuse of women.

The overwhelming presence in his memoir is his mother, and his early insights are almost solely attributable to her upbringing. Not only was she his primary caregiver, since his father could not live with them, she was simply an indominable woman who refused the limitations of apartheid to an unprecedented degree. This caused Trevor to identify with black society, even though he stuck out like a sore thumb. As a young woman, Patricia Nombuyiselo Noah fled her family in the township to live illegally in downtown Johannesburg, took a secretarial course, obtained a job normally ruled out for blacks, and met Trevor’s father. All this was forbidden, but she was intrepid.

Trevor’s memoirs are a case study in how apartheid laws trickled down to policing simple everyday things like who you walked in the park with. Just mother and son walking in the street could be cause for trouble, whether from the police or passersby. Anyone “born a crime” lived in constant peril. “A million things had to go right for us to slip through the cracks the way we did for as long as we did.” (p. 22)

Patricia was also deeply religious, and this sharpened Trevor’s debating skills when he did not share her literalist interpretations of God and Jesus. Due to his mother’s strict beliefs, he had little exposure to popular culture. Rather, he spent whole days at church activities and read voraciously, making him a self-taught intellectual.

Noah was five when Nelson Mandela was released from prison, so his growing up was a time of great upheaval and transition from strict apartheid to limited reforms and later relative democracy. His portrayal of these events is not in line with the usual overarching themes of popular struggle and democracy. While he does not dispute them head-on, his concern is over the deep tracks left in people’s consciousness by the racist system. “The genius of apartheid was convincing people who were the overwhelming majority to turn on each other.” (p. 3)

Indeed, many of the problems he faced were from his fellow blacks — the legacy of apartheid’s divisiveness, enforced poverty and ignorance. 

As a child and teenager, he was always in trouble and there are many graphic chase scenes, where he is running from his mother or the police. Each phase of his life was filled with new obstacles and problems which Trevor most often depicts with sly humour and irony. Yet, he was also perpetually inventive, earning pocket money and more by selling pirated CDs and being a DJ for street parties, a business conducted in the school yard, which grew exponentially on the streets when he graduated with no prospect for university or a better job. In his sidewalk business, he benefitted from international trends. “The walls of apartheid were coming down just as American hip-hop was blowing up, and hip-hop made it cool to be from the hood” — comparable to the townships of South Africa. (p. 204)

He continued making a living in this way until a policeman destroyed his computer and CD-writer.

Noah has a way with words, and his narrative is lively, street-wise lyrical and charming. Many terrible things happened to him and those around him, but this is not a sob sorry. Rather, it is a critique of apartheid and others forms of injustice from a very personal and down-to-earth angle. As the book ends, he is still in South Africa; he does not write about how he launched his successful international career, but the inspirational message of his rags-to-riches story is clear. Most admirably, he expresses only compassion for those victims of apartheid and other violence who did not make it to the top. 

“Born a Sin” is also available in audiotape, read by the author.

Patients with arthritic knees can add hip-strengthening exercises to their workout to improve the ability to walk and maybe reduce pain, according to a research review. 

Based on pooled data from eight clinical trials with a total of 340 patients, the study team concludes in the British Journal of Sports Medicine that hip strengthening exercises involving weights or elastic bands would help the most. 

“Despite knowing that exercise is beneficial, what type of exercise should be included in a thorough exercise programme remains largely unknown,” said lead author Andrew Hislop of the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. 

Most international guidelines recommend exercise in the conservative management of knee osteoarthritis, a bone and cartilage disease that affects one in four people over age 55. However, many doctors do not follow up on this advice with patients or refer them to the proper physiotherapist for an additional appointment, Hislop noted. 

“With a growing population and increasing number of lower limb injuries, there is going to be an ever increasing burden on the health system to manage knee osteoarthritis,” he told Reuters Health by email. 

Hislop and colleagues conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials that investigated the effect of adding hip-strengthening exercises to a regimen often prescribed to strengthen the quadriceps muscles at the front of the thigh for people with knee arthritis. 

The researchers looked at whether aspects of knee and walking function improved, as well as whether pain and quality of life were affected by the added hip-strengthening routine. 

They also evaluated three types of hip exercises to see which had the greatest effect: Resistance weight-lifting, functional neuromuscular exercises such as single-leg squats or stepping, and so-called multimodal exercise that combined these two. 

Overall, adding hip-strengthening significantly improved walking function, though it did not have a statistically meaningful effect on pain, stair function or the ability to stand from a sitting position. 

When researchers looked at individual types of hip exercise, however, they found that resistance exercises in particular were more effective than functional neuromuscular exercises for improving pain and functioning. Multimodal exercise had no added effect. 

“Strengthening the hip muscles, particularly the hip abductors, might improve pelvic drop and trunk control, lightening the load on the knee,” Hislop said. 

“Many health professionals are concerned only with the site affected by the disease, forgetting the regional consequences of the disease” at the hip or beyond, said Dr Jamil Natour, chief of rheumatology at the Federal University of Sao Paulo in Brazil, who was not involved in the study. 

“We should verify that the ‘normal’ hip of a patient with knee osteoarthritis is evaluated and possibly rehabilitated,” he told Reuters Health by email. 

Researchers also want to understand exactly how exercise influences knee osteoarthritis pain. The effect be physical, but could also stem from other factors such as a general improvement in wellbeing, attention from a healthcare professional or a placebo effect. 

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“Over the last decade or so, many researchers have looked for the optimal exercise program, but unfortunately, without luck,” said Marius Henriksen, head of the Physiotherapy and Biomechanics Research unit at Copenhagen University Hospital in Frederiksberg, Denmark, who wasn’t involved with the study. 

“To me, that suggests that the exercise that is effective is the exercise that is being done”, he told Reuters Health by email. “Go out there and exercise and be physically active, and do something that you find fun and meaningful.”

LONDON — Developed countries could add trillions of dollars to their economies by increasing women’s participation in the workforce and ensuring they earn as much as men, global accounting firm PwC said in a study on Tuesday.

Closing the gender pay gap could swell economies in Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries by $2 trillion, the study found.

Increasing the female labour force to match that of Sweden — where 69 per cent of women work — would add a further $6 trillion to countries in the OECD, which is made up of 36 states with advanced economies, it said. 

“There are long standing societal reasons behind the gender pay gap in countries across the world,” said Laura Hinton, chief people officer at PwC, in a statement. 

“Businesses play a key role in solving this important problem by improving opportunities for women. From recruitment through to retirement, it is vital employers support all staff fairly at every stage of their career.”

The PwC report ranked 33 OECD countries according to how they fared on gender pay gaps, female employment rates and how many men worked compared to women. 

Iceland came out on top, followed by Sweden, New Zealand, Slovenia and Norway.

Iceland last January become the first country to make it illegal to pay men more than women, introducing fines on any company or government agency with over 25 staff without a government certificate demonstrating pay equality.

Italy, Chile, Greece, Mexico and South Korea were the worst performing countries, PwC said. 

Globally, women earn about half as much as men, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF).

It will be 202 years before women can earn the same as men and have equal job opportunities, according to the WEF’s 2018 Global Gender Gap report, which found there were fewer women working than men last year, mostly due to the lack of childcare.

South Korea has one of the worst gender wage gaps among developed nations, and is ranked 115 out of 149 countries in the WEF’s 2018 gender gap report.

South Korean women could earn over 50 per cent more if the gender pay gap was closed, the highest proportion across the OECD, the PwC report said.

“There is still a long way before we can achieve a gender-equal workplace,” the report said.

PARIS — Between distractions, diversions and the flickering allure of a random suggestion, the major computer platforms aim to keep us glued to our screens come what may. Now some think it is time to escape the tyranny of the digital age.

Everyone staring for hours at a screen has had some exposure to “captology” — a word coined by behavioural scientist BJ Fogg to describe the invisible and manipulative way in which technology can persuade and influence those using it.

“There is nothing we can do, like it or not, where we can escape persuasive technology,” this Standford University researcher wrote in 2010.

All of us experience this “persuasive technology” on a daily basis, whether it is through the endlessly-scrollable Facebook or the autoplay function on Netflix or YouTube, where one video flows seamlessly into another.

“This was not a design ‘accident’, it was created and introduced with the aim of keeping us on a certain platform,” says user experience (UX) designer Lenaic Faure. 

Working with “Designers Ethiques”, a French collective seeking to push a socially responsible approach to digital design, Faure has developed a method for assessing whether the attention-grabbing element of an app “is ethically defensible”.

In the case of YouTube, for example, if you follow the automatic suggestions, “there is a sort of dissonance created between the user’s initial aim” of watching a certain video and “what is introduced to try and keep him or her on the platform”, he says.

Ultimately the aim is to expose the user to partner advertisements and better understand his tastes and habits. 

Dark patterns

UX designer Harry Brignull describes such interactions as “dark patterns”, defining them as interfaces that have been carefully crafted to trick users into doing things they may not have wanted to do. 

“It describes this kind of design pattern — kind of evil, manipulative and deceptive,” he told AFP, saying the aim was to “make you do what the developers want you to do”.

One example is that of the newly-introduced EU data protection rules which require websites to demand users’ consent before being able to collect their valuable personal data.

“You can make it very, very easy to make people click ‘OK’ but how can you opt out, how can you say ‘no’?”

Even for him, as a professional, it can take at least a minute to find out how to refuse.

In today’s digital world, attention time is a most valuable resource.

“The digital economy is based upon competition to consume humans’ attention. This competition has existed for a long time but the current generation of tools for consuming attention is far more effective than previous generations,” said David SH Rosenthal in a Pew Research Centre study in April 2018.

“Economies of scale and network effects have placed control of these tools in a very small number of exceptionally powerful companies. These companies are driven by the need to consume more and more of the available attention to maximise profit.”

Faure suggests that for a design to be considered responsible, the objective of the developer and that of the user must largely line up and equate to the straightforward delivery of information.

But if the design modifies or manipulates the user, directing them towards something they did not ask for, that should then be classed as irresponsible, he says.

French engineering student Tim Krief has come up with a browser extension called Minimal, which offers users a “less attention-grabbing internet experience” on the grounds that the internet “should be a tool, not a trap”. 

The extension aims to mask the more “harmful” suggestions channelled through the major platforms. 

An open source project, the extension should “make users more aware about such issues”, Krief says. 

“We do not attribute enough importance to this attention economy because it seems invisible.” 

Design as a defence

But is this enough to fight the attention-grabbing tactics of powerful Internet giants?

Brignull believes some designers can bring about change but are likely to be restricted by the wider strategy of the company they work for. 

“I think they will have some impact, a little impact, but if they work in companies, those companies have a strategy... so it can be very difficult to have an impact on the companies themselves.”

Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin, former head of the French Data Protection Authority, also believes that design can be used to effect positive change. 

“Design could be another defence whose firepower could be used against making individuals the ‘playthings’” of developers, she said in January in a presentation on the “attention economy”.

Faure says he has seen a growing demand for an ethical approach to digital design and thinks his method could help “bring better understanding between users of services and the people who design them”.

This type of initiative “could be a way to tell the big platforms that such persuasive designs really bother us”, Krief says.

When parents of boys do not enjoy parenthood or do not spend a lot of time playing or talking with them, their sons may be more likely to use guns in adolescence, a US study suggests. 

Among 503 teen boys in Pittsburgh public schools, one in five reported carrying a gun at some point during adolescence, researchers found. 

Parental disengagement — caregivers who did not play with kids, participate in daily activities, discuss things with children or enjoy parenting — was directly linked to teen gun carrying. 

Some of this connection — about 29 per cent — could be explained by related factors like childhood behaviour problems or friendships with delinquent children, the study found. 

“One reason that disengaged parenting in childhood promoted gun carrying in adolescence is that parenting in childhood sets the stage for conduct problems and delinquent peer networks to emerge in early adolescence, and these early adolescent risk factors place youth at risk for gun carrying in later adolescence,” said study leader Jordan Beardslee of the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Arizona State University in Phoenix. 

“However, only some of the effect of parental disengagement was due to the emergence of early externalising problems and early affiliation with delinquent peers,” Beardslee said by e-mail. “The remaining impact of parental disengagement could be due to continuity of parenting practices in later adolescence or to... factors in adolescence.” 

More than 7,000 youth are injured or killed by guns in the US each year, Beardslee and colleagues note in “Paediatrics”. 

Teens who live in disadvantaged neighbourhoods, have behaviour problems or have friends who get into trouble at school or with law enforcement are more likely to carry guns, previous research has found. But less is known about which childhood experiences might contribute to adolescent gun violence. 

Almost all teen gun use involves boys, and the current study focused only on males. 

Starting when boys were about seven and a half, researchers surveyed them every six months for four years and then annually for nine years. The boys reported any gun carrying, as well as exposure to peer violence, theft or drug dealing. 

During the earlier years of the study, researchers also surveyed parents about engagement levels. During adolescence, researchers surveyed teachers about any conduct or behaviour problems they observed. 

The study was not designed to prove whether parenting styles directly impact the risk of teen gun carrying, and it also did not examine whether having weapons on hand might lead to firing these weapons. 

Even so, previous research suggests that childrens’ relationships with their parents can impact their success in school and the odds that they will get into trouble or have friends who are a bad influence and encourage antisocial behaviours, said Alex Piquero, a professor of criminology at the University of Texas at Dallas who was not involved in the study. 

“This study clearly shows that strained parent-child relationships early in life lead to a myriad of negative behaviours that ultimately lead to an increased risk for gun carrying,” Piquero said by e-mail. “It shows the long-term damage that parental disengagement has on their children and others around them.” 

This also means parents can play an outsize role in preventing teen weapon use, Piquero said. 

“The take-home message for parents could not be clearer: monitor your children’s behaviour, develop strong emotional and interpersonal connections with them, and help establish their ability to control their impulses and consider the long-term outcomes of their decisions,” Piquero advised. “The earlier and more frequently that parents can do this, the better for their children and their children’s long-term life success.” 

Children who see young social media influencers promote junk food may consume more unhealthy calories, a new study suggests. 

Advertising aimed at children has long been linked to an increased risk that children will make unhealthy food choices and press their parents to buy them more processed, sugary and calorie-loaded foods. Studies also suggest children can be easily swayed to try junk food endorsed by celebrities and cartoon characters. Less clear, however, is how their eating habits are impacted by social media influencers. 

For the current study, researchers in the UK recruited 176 children, ages nine to 11, and showed them Instagram profiles for two of their age group’s most popular YouTube video bloggers. The children were randomly assigned to view three types of Instagram profiles: healthy food marketing, junk food promotions or endorsements unrelated to food. 

After children saw the Instagram profiles, researchers served four snacks — jelly candy, chocolate buttons, carrots and seedless white grapes — and let kids eat as much as they wanted for 10 minutes. None of these foods were the same items kids saw on Instagram. 

On average, children who saw junk food promotions consumed 448 calories, compared with 389 calories for children who saw healthy food marketing and 357 for those who did not see any food promotions, the study found. 

While all of the children ate much more candy than carrots or grapes, kids who saw junk food promotions consumed more sweets than the other children: An average of 385 calories compared with 320 calories for kids who saw healthy food marketing and 292 calories for those who did not see food promotions. 

“Children look to social media for role models, and are likely to imitate the behaviour of media characters that they look up to and admire,” said lead study author Anna Coates of the University of Liverpool in the UK. 

“Unlike adults, children are more impulsive and are less motivated to resist food marketing as they are not driven by long term health goals,” Coates said by e-mail. 

One of the YouTube stars shown to children in the study was a 26-year-old female with about 12.1 million subscribers on YouTube; the other was a 23-year-old male with about 4.1 million subscribers. 

There was not a meaningful difference in the total calories consumed or the amount of candy eaten by children who saw healthy food promotions or no food marketing at all, researchers report in “Paediatrics”.

One limitation of the study is that many of the children were already familiar with the two video bloggers featured in the experiment, and it is possible that their food choices were impacted by how much they liked or disliked these “vloggers” before they joined the study, researchers note. 

Another drawback is that the experiment did not look at how children may actually engage with social media content, the study authors note. It didn’t assess how children might be influenced by content “liked” or shared by their friends in the real world.

Even so, the results offer fresh evidence of how social media can negatively impact childrens’ eating habits, said Jennifer Harris of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at the University of Connecticut in Storrs.

“We already knew that food companies spend a lot of money to popular social media influencers to appeal to teens and increase the ‘cool’ factor for their products,” Harris, who was not involved in the study, said by e-mail. “But this is the first study to show that this type of marketing increases children’s consumption of any available junk food — not just the advertised products.”

I’m sure we all like to unwind after a long day by watching our preferred action drama series. Whether it’s the romantic entanglements between the characters, the fight sequences or the mystery solving, one gets a dose of entertainment and escape.

But add a school for assassins in to the mix and you have a perfect setting that intensifies the experience. Which brings me to a new series released and still running called “Deadly Class”. Based on the comic book series of the same name, created by Miles Orion Feldsott and Rick Remender, and aired on the SYFY channel, it is one of the most promising series presented this year. 

The story takes place during the 1980s in San Francisco where an orphaned homeless young teen Marcus Lopez, played by relative newcomer Benjamin Wadsworth (“Teen Wolf”), disillusioned by the state of the world gets recruited by the mysterious Master Lin, played by Benedict Wong (“Doctor Strange”, “Avengers: Infinity Wars”), to go to a school for the deadly arts called Kings Dominion. 

He quickly finds out that it is not easy to hold on to his moral code while being targeted by the schools different factions and learning the violent curriculum required. Marcus joins a group of fellow misfits and social rejects in the school that band together to survive the trials ahead. At every turn he must fight to survive and defend the people he cares for the most.

Saya Kuroki, played by the talented Lana Condor (“X-Men: Apocalypse”, “Alita: Battle Angel”), both a trainee for the Japanese criminal organisation, the Yakuza, and part of the merry band of outsiders, keeps a distant eye on Marcus as he navigates through the schools social structure while keeping her growing feelings for him a secret due to the schools dominant politics. 

Each character is well formed and has an interesting backstory which is explored in every episode which makes you feel and empathise for each character, and understand the complex and colourful histories that put them on the path to Kings Dominion. 

The interactions between these wonderful characters feels natural and drizzled with instances of comedy that mix well with the serious, dark and gruesome moments.

The show’s costumes bring the punk rock anti-establishment rebel fashion back in style along with other diverse attires of the era while the set designs bring the Reagan 80s back to life, with the still-ongoing Cold War which makes its presence known in Kings Dominion. Nothing seems out of place or out of time as the show fully commits to the authenticity of the period that only manages to complement the amazing story.

The series is filled with the right mix of drama, action and romance expected from a young adult series. It does not bore you by lingering in a moment too long, but is choreographed in such a way that keeps you interested in the characters and focused on the story being told. Most importantly, I think, the story of “Deadly Class” is a fresh idea and concept that has not been explored to death yet, which makes it stand alone among other series. 

The first season has not ended yet so you still have time to catch up, but in my opinion, from what I have seen, I would say there is a high chance that it will gain lots of fans by the time the season is over. So if you are looking for a new show to add to your list of good entertainment, I suggest you consider “Deadly Class” as one of them.

The old stereotype of a heart attack patient being a middle-aged man no longer applies. Young women are now joining those unwanted ranks.

American women are increasingly susceptible to heart disease at a younger age — and they are getting inferior care compared to men, a recent study shows.

A report in the American Heart Association’s journal “Circulation” revealed the rate of patients ages 35-54 who were hospitalised with heart attacks in the US increased from 27 per cent in 1995-1999 to 32 per cent between 2010-2014.

Among those, the incidence for women rose from 21 per cent to 31 per cent, compared with men going up from 30 to 33 per cent.

Just as strikingly, women are less likely to receive guidance-based treatment when they suffer these life-threatening incidents because they often do not fit the profile of a patient in cardiac distress.

“The ever-deteriorating lifestyle of the American populace, with obesity and diabetes, is changing the face of medicine,’’ said Joseph A. Hill, a University of Texas professor of medicine and editor-in-chief of “Circulation”. “We’re seeing lifestyle deterioration in younger women starting in college. The face of cardiovascular disease in our society is changing.’’

According to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, every year about 735,000 people in the US have a heart attack — an episode where the heart muscle does not get enough blood flow. Heart disease is the nation’s number one  killer, claiming about 635,000 lives a year and accounting for one of every four deaths for both men and women.

But while women typically develop heart disease 10 years later, and are believed to get a protective benefit from hormones released during the menstrual cycle, the latest study indicates they are now at risk at a younger age.

The CDC says only about half the women realise heart disease is their most likely cause of death, 10 times more so than breast cancer.

“We have to recognise that, now in 2019, women in their 30s have heart disease, whereas 20-30 years ago that was quite rare,’’ Hill said. “The changes that have occurred in the last 20 years are astonishing.’’

The study looked at nearly 29,000 hospitalisations for heart attacks from 1995-2014 at four spots in the nation, in Washington County, Maryland; Jackson, Mississippi; Forsyth County, North Carolina and the Minneapolis suburbs.

The patients ranged in age from 35-74 and the group considered young — 35-54 — made up 8,737 of the total hospitalisations, or 30 per cent.

Harlan Krumholz, professor of cardiology at Yale University, said the study has some limitations in part because its last data point was gathered more than four years ago, but it provides an important warning nonetheless.

“This study is a signal flare that we need to double down on promoting healthy heart lifestyles and preventive strategies — and, in particular, focus on younger women,’’ Krumholz said. “We may be in danger of losing the substantial gains we have made in earlier decades.’’

Researchers also found young women were less likely to receive treatments to open clogged arteries or to be recommended blood-thinners and cholesterol medication to prevent a future heart attack.

Hill and Krumholz emphasised the disparities in treatment were not due to intentional discrimination, but rather the occasional differences in symptoms between men and women experiencing what is known as an acute myocardial infarction or, more likely, different expectations from health providers.

Krumholz pointed out that when he was in med school and the lesson was about heart attacks, the images used to illustrate them always showed men.

“When doctors see young women with risk factors, they are not necessarily thinking of them as being at high risk for heart disease. In general, that is not the typical profile,’’ Krumholz said.

“We have to get it out of our minds that there is a typical profile. In a society where obesity is getting more common and many of these risk factors are returning, if we continue to gain weight, that is going to complicate our risk for heart disease.’’

A seminal comeback car for American luxury car maker Lincoln, the re-born Continental first debuted in 2017 touting a “quiet luxury” approach to the premium automotive segment with an emphasis on comfort, interior appointment and meticulous attention to detail.

Harking back to the Continental nameplate’s service as a car fit for presidents and kings, and a long line of Lincoln US presidential state cars from Franklin D. Roosevelt to George H.W. Bush, the current Lincoln Continental Presidential is the model’s and brand’s flagship offering with top spec refinement, materials, design, equipment, technology, safety and drivetrain.

A modern interpretation of the American luxury car, the yet stately looking Continental ostensibly competes against the likes of the handsome yet anonymous Cadillac CT6 and fashionably unconventional electric Tesla Model S. Its tastefully opulent and seemingly well-constructed cabin and superb refinement — especially in Presidential guise, as test — are more reminiscent of a European luxury saloon. Given its particular emphasis of a classy yet contemporary cabin, transverse turbocharged engine, front-drive derived four-wheel-drive and confident driving dynamic, the Continental Presidential seems to better resemble a distinctly American flavoured take on an Audi or Volvo.

Sleek and swift

Styled with a sleek and aerodynamically yet unapologetic saloon car body with a level waistline and big grille treatment taking centre stage — like they do at Audi too — the production Continental may seem slightly taller and conventional, but closely interprets the low, wide and stylishly modern Continental concept circa 2015. Designed with smooth flowing lines featuring subtly muscular rear haunches, full-length ridge across its flank and tapered in rear quarter and descending boot, the Continental well reconciles a conservative saloon design with contemporary elements, and features huge standard multi-spoke 20-inch wheels in Presidential guise.

Featuring slim full-length rear and browed front lights, the Continental Presidential is powered by punchy twin-turbocharged 3-litre direct injection V6 engine positioned behind its wide chrome honeycomb grille. An efficient and effective power unit in place of yesteryear Continentals’ big displacement V8s, the Presidential’s range-topping V6 develops and even 400BHP at 5750rpm and 400lb/ft torque at 2750rpm, driving all four wheels through a 6-speed push-button operated automatic gearbox. Responsive and quick from standstill, with short gasflow turbo piping and tenacious traction, the Continental Presidential blitzes through 0-100km/h in an estimated 5.5-seconds despite a hefty 2,062kg mass.

Thrusts and peaks

Regardless of Lincoln’s overt emphasis on “quiet luxury” being its chief selling point over performance, the Continental Presidential is nevertheless an effortlessly rapid and confident mover. Its 3-litre V6 is a gem among modern turbo engines, with particularly good low-end response and broad rich torque-rich mid-range complemented by a sense of urgent and punchy delivery afforded by having torque peak at a specific point rather than over a flat wide band. Similarly athletic, intense and seemingly relentless as it reaches for its relatively low-revving peak power point with a subdued snarl, its delivery is otherwise smooth and quiet. 

Quick and confident accumulating pace and settled, stable and refined at speed, its generous thrust works well with its smooth and slick shifting 6-speed gearbox, and doesn’t seem to quite need a more closely spaced 10-speed gearbox like its in-line engine Navigator stable-mate, despite the latter being smoother shifting and having a broader range of ratios for performance and efficiency benefits. Effectively putting power to ground through all four wheels, the Continental Presidential generates plenty of traction for all-weather driving and seeming bolts away from standstill without torque-steer and eagerly pounces out of corners.

Control and commitment

Developing a very high level of lateral grip through fast sweeping corners and tighter bends owing to its four-wheel-drive, sticky 245/40R20 tyres and long wheelbase, the Continental Presidential also proved to be unexpectedly nimble during test drive on mostly smooth straights and fast curved roads. With light, quick and direct steering mated with taut front grip and good body control from its adaptive MacPherson strut front and integral-link rear suspension, it well reconciles lateral body control with ride comfort, it remains settled and stable over imperfections and only feels slightly firm over jagged low speed bumps, where it would benefit from high profile tyres.

A surprisingly but pleasantly agile car that seems to shrink around the driver in most circumstances, the Continental’s size, length and weight are, however, more clearly evident through very tight, narrow and slower corners where under-steer can elicit electronic stability intervention, and where it is not designed to easily shift weight like a smaller, lighter and nimbler sports car that it doesn’t seek to emulate. Thoroughly insulated and refined from harshness, noise and vibration inside like a true luxury car, the Continental provides a solid and stately feel, but remains a more direct and connected drive than can be expected of such a car, and doesn’t feel disconnected.

Indulgent interior

Refined, spacious and comfortable for front and rear passengers alike, the Presidential puts particular emphasis on the rear seat experience than garden variety Continentals, and features standard 40/20/40 split massaging, reclining, heated and ventilated rear seats with 4-way lumbar support, inflatable seat belts and fold-down centre armrest with various controls. Front occupants meanwhile benefit from Lincoln’s 30-way adjustable massaging seats with split backrest adjustability. Supportive, comfortable and ensconcing, the Continental’s good driving position is complemented by good visibility for a car of this size owing to a level waistline and slightly descending, yet generously sized boot. 

Indulgently luxurious yet elegantly classy, the Presidential is offered in three interior themes from luscious and rich old school to a fresh, cool and modern styling, and incorporates high grade leathers, wood and metals, including a suede-like roof lining. Sensibly styled with user-friendly minimalism and subtle harmonisation, the Presidential is probably the classiest contemporary American car inside, and features seemingly through build quality and soft textures and materials in prominent places. Thoroughly well-equipped with convenience, comfort, safety and driver assistance systems including voice-activated infotainment, heads-up display, 360 degree reversing camera and 19-speaker sound system, it also includes pedestrian detection, active park assist, lane-keeping, adaptive cruise control, and blindspot warning systems.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Engine: 3-litre, all-aluminium, twin-turbocharged, in-line V6-cylinders
• Bore x stroke: 85.4 x 86mm
• Compression ratio: 9.5:1
• Valve-train: 24-valve, DOHC, variable valve timing, direct injection
• Gearbox: 6-speed automatic, four-wheel-drive
• Ratios: 1st 4.48; 2nd 2.87; 3rd 1.84; 4th 1.41; 5th 1.0; 6th 0.74
• Reverse/final drive: 2.88/3.39
• Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 400 (405) [298] @5,750rpm
• Specific power: 135.3BHP/litre
• Power-to-weight: 194BHP/tonne
• Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 400 (542) @2,750rpm
• Specific torque: 183.3Nm/litre
• Torque-to-weight: 262.8Nm/tonne
• 0-100km/h: 5.5-seconds (estimate)
• Length: 5,115mm
• Width, including mirrors: 2,090mm
• Height: 1,938mm
• Wheelbase: 2,994mm
• Track, F/R: 1,605/1,628mm 
• Legroom, F/R: 1,127/1,049mm
• Luggage volume: 500-litres
• Fuel capacity: 68-litres
• Kerb weight: 2,062kg
• Steering: Electric-assisted rack & pinion
• Turning circle: 12.73-metres
• Suspension, F/R: MacPherson struts/integral-link, anti-roll bars, adaptive dampers
• Brakes: Ventilated discs, 350mm/discs, 345
• Brake calipers, F/R; Twin/single
• Tyres: 245/40R20