Features

People with diabetes who take soluble fibre supplements have slightly lower blood sugar levels than diabetics who do not add this type of fibre to their diets, a research review finds. 

Researchers focused on supplements containing viscous fibre, a type of soluble fibre that forms a thick gel when mixed with water. Foods like legumes, asparagus, oats and flax contain viscous fibre; supplements with this type of fibre include guar gum, psyllium and pectin. 

To examine the connection between viscous fibre supplements and blood sugar, researchers examined data from 28 clinical trials with a total of 1,394 participants with diabetes. People were randomly chosen to take viscous fibre supplements, or to use other types of supplements without viscous fibre, or no supplements at all. 

Among the people taking viscous fibre supplements, half consumed doses above 13 grammes daily, for periods ranging from three weeks to a year. Compared with participants who did not take viscous fibre, those who did had better blood sugar control. They had lower levels of hemoglobin A1c, which reflects average blood sugar over about three months. They also had lower blood sugar levels on an empty stomach, known as fasting glucose levels. 

These results “suggest that intake of around 1 tablespoon of concentrated viscous fibres such as konjac, guar, pectin or psyllium would result in reductions in A1c and other diabetes risk factors”, said senior study author, Vladimir Vuksan of St Michael’s Hospital and the University of Toronto in Canada. 

People with diabetes have long been advised to consume more fibre as one way to help lower their blood sugar. But many, particularly those who follow a typical Western diet with lots of meat and potatoes, do not get anywhere near enough fibre to make a meaningful difference to diabetes, the study authors note in “Diabetes Care”. 

Supplements have become an increasingly common way for these patients to get more fibre. While the reason viscous fibre seems to lower blood sugar is not clear, scientists think that it might work in a variety of ways, including improving microbial health in the gut. 

Most trials in the study focused on haemoglobin A1c levels. Readings above 6.5 per cent signal diabetes. Fibre supplements were associated with average A1c reductions of 0.58 per cent, which is greater than the minimum 0.3 per cent reduction the US Food and Drug Administration looks for in evaluating new diabetes drugs, the study authors note. 

In addition to HbA1c, other markers of diabetes, including fasting glucose and insulin sensitivity, were also improved. 

One limitation of the analysis is that some studies were too small and brief to draw broad conclusions about the long-term impact of fibre supplements on all patients with diabetes.

It is also possible that so-called publication bias, or the disclosure of only positive trial results, may have made fibre supplements appear more effective than they really are, the study authors note. 

“These results suggest that viscous fibre supplements could be considered in the management of type 2 diabetes,” said Nour Makarem, a researcher at Columbia University Irving Medical Centre in New York City, who was not involved in the study. 

“However, additional studies are needed to further examine the effects of different types of fibre on blood glucose regulation and to comprehensively study the health effects and the optimisation of incorporating viscous fibre supplements into a healthful diet pattern,” Marakem said by e-mail. 

ROME  — The pesticide exposure, antibiotic resistance, air and water pollution and other factors caused by industrial food production could kill 5 million people a year by 2050, a new report said. 

That is four times the number of deaths caused by traffic accidents globally.

Preventing that from happening requires producing food locally, using eco-friendly methods, eliminating waste, and designing and marketing healthier products, said a foundation set up by record-breaking British sailor Ellen MacArthur. 

Redesigning the food industry into a so-called “circular economy” model would reduce health costs, save land and water and create new business opportunities, said the report, launched on Thursday at the World Economic Forum. 

Cities could be important catalysts in this change as 80 per cent of all food is expected to consumed in cities by 2050, it said. 

Under the current linear system, food enters cities where it is processed or consumed and only a small portion of the resulting organic waste, in the form of discarded food, byproducts or sewage, gets used again. 

In a circular economy, raw materials and byproducts are reused and very little is wasted. 

Cities would need to source food produced locally in ways that regenerate the ecosystem, distribute the surplus to those who cannot afford it, and turn byproducts into new products from fertiliser to feed to materials for bioenergy. 

The benefits “could be worth $2.7 trillion a year to the global economy”, according to the report. 

In contrast, the “extractive, wasteful and polluting nature” of current food production costs society $5.7 trillion a year globally, through costs to human and environmental health, the report said. 

“What you eat matters, but how it has been produced matters as well. You could very well be eating healthy, but still be exposed to the negative impacts because of the way food is produced,” said Clementine Schouteden, the report’s lead author.

“We are at an absolutely critical point,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation from Davos. 

Scientists are increasingly calling for systemic changes to the way food is being produced and consumed, saying industrial farming has led to a food system that contributes to climate change, cripples the environment and causes a malnutrition crisis. 

Agriculture, forestry and other land uses are responsible for a quarter of the greenhouse gas emissions heating up the planet, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). 

Meanwhile, one third of all food produced, worth nearly $1 trillion, is wasted globally every year, FAO figures show, even as 821 million people go hungry and one in eight adults are obese.

Last week, scientists unveiled for the first time what they say is an ideal diet for the health of the planet and its people, recommending a doubling of consumption of nuts, fruits, vegetables and legumes, and a halving of meat and sugar intake.

PARIS — A French public health watchdog warned on Wednesday about the risks of several chemicals found in disposable nappies, leading the government to demand that manufacturers withdraw them from their products.

The Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety (Anses) health body stressed there was no medical study which had proved health problems caused by disposable diapers.

But “we cannot exclude a risk... because we have recorded some substances that are above healthy limits,” the depuby director of Anses, Gerard Lasfargues, told AFP.

The chemicals identified in the study — described as the first of its kind — include two artificial perfumes, as well as other complex aromatic products that are refined from oil, and potentially dangerous dioxins.

The investigation by Anses came after a report in January 2017 from French consumer magazine 60 Millions de Consommateurs (60 Million Consumers) which sounded the alarm about chemicals in diapers.

The magazine reported that toxic chemicals had been found in the majority of the 12 brands tested, including glyphosate, which is used in weedkiller and is feared to be cancerous.

The French government called a meeting of nappy manufacturers on Wednesday morning and gave them 15 days to present a plan to withdraw the products identified by the watchdog.

“I want to reassure parents: Anses says that there is no immediate risk for the health of our children,” Health Minister Agnes Buzyn said after the meeting.

“Obviously we should continue putting nappies on our babies. We’ve been doing that for at least 50 years,” she said, while adding that the report did not exclude “a health risk for children in the long term”.

“That’s why, as a precaution, we want to protect our children from possible effects,” said Buzyn, who met the manufacturers along with the economy and environmental ministers.

She said that she wanted companies to stop using the chemicals within the next six months at most.

In a statement on Wednesday, market leader Pampers, which belongs to US consumer products group Procter & Gamble, said its diapers “are safe and have always been so”.

A group representing French manufacturers, Group’hygiene, also issued a statement to “reassure parents”, saying they could continue using disposable nappies “in complete safety”.

Scientists working for Anses tested 23 types of nappies in real-life conditions as they were worn by children, which it said was a world first.

“We calculated the amount [of chemicals] absorbed, calculated according to the time a nappy is worn, the number of nappies worn by babies, up to 36 months, and then we compared the results with toxicology standards,” Lasfargues said.

By Umberto Bacchi

LONDON — Developing countries swapping paper documents for digital identification systems could see their economies grow up to 13 per cent by 2030, researchers said on Wednesday in the first study to assess the technology’s economic value.

But the report’s authors and rights campaigners warned such systems also raised privacy concerns as they could be misused to track and profile people. 

More than 1 billion people globally have no way of proving their identity, according to the World Bank. 

This makes it almost impossible for them to open a bank account, get credit or start a small business, said study co-author Anu Madgavkar, of the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), the research arm of global consultancy firm McKinsey.

“[They] can’t really participate in the modern economy,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone.

Another 3.4 billion people worldwide have some kind of identification but can not use it to securely prove their identity online — something that curbs their economic potential, according to the report.

Digital identity systems are already in use in numerous countries, linking biometric data, such as fingerprints and iris scans, to a unique digital code allowing for remote identification.

In Estonia, for example, digital ID cards are used for everything from voting to submitting tax claims and signing documents, while India launched the world’s biggest biometric database in 2009 to streamline welfare payments. 

MGI researchers said they analysed how, from increasing access to financial services to preventing identity fraud and reducing the time needed to vote or register a business, digital IDs could benefit the economy. 

The study focused on seven countries — Brazil, China, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, the United Kingdom and the United States.

It found that if these countries were to extend digital ID coverage to a large part of the population, they could expect to “unlock economic value” equivalent to 3 to 13 per cent of GDP in 2030.

Benefits were higher in developing countries, where they averaged around 6 per cent of GDP against 3 per cent in developed nations, it said.

“Digital signing alone saves every working Estonian at least an estimated five business days every year, amounting to a total efficiency gain of 2 per cent of GDP annually,” said Estonia’s Prime Minister Juri Ratas. 

“As they say, time is money,” he added, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where the study was launched. 

But the report warned that, if improperly designed, digital ID systems could be abused by governments and private companies.

“History provides ugly examples of misuse of traditional identification programmes, including to track or persecute ethnic or religious groups,” the authors wrote.

Tom Fisher, of London-based advocacy group Privacy International, added that the economic benefits of digital ID systems were often over overestimated. 

“Practitioners have learnt to take projected savings and benefits with a grain of salt,” he said.

“No system can become universal, denying people access through issues including biometric failure, bureaucratic problems or lack of Internet access.”

In India, campaigners have raised concerns about privacy and the safety of the data, the susceptibility of biometrics to failure and the misuse of data for profiling or increased surveillance.

People without heart disease who take a daily aspirin may lower their risk of a heart attack or stroke, but a new study confirms they also have an increased risk of severe internal bleeding. 

US doctors have long advised adults who have not had a heart attack or stroke but are at high risk for these events to take a daily aspirin pill, an approach known as primary prevention. Even though there is clear evidence aspirin works for this purpose, many physicians and patients have been reluctant to follow the recommendations because of the risk of rare but potentially fatal internal bleeding. 

For the current study, researchers examined data from 13 clinical trials testing the effects of aspirin against a placebo or no treatment in more than 164,000 adults. 

People who took daily aspirin had a 0.38 per cent lower absolute risk of heart attacks, strokes or deaths from cardiovascular events than people not taking this drug, researchers report in JAMA. 

However, aspirin was also associated with a 0.47 per cent higher absolute risk of severe internal bleeding. 

“The results demonstrate that there are cardiovascular benefits, but that they are quite closely matched by increased risks of serious bleeding,” said lead study author Sean Zheng of King’s College London and Imperial College London. 

“This seriously questions whether people who have not previously had heart attacks or strokes should be taking aspirin with the aim of reducing future cardiovascular events,” Zheng said by email. 

Already, guidelines on aspirin for primary prevention of heart disease in the US, Europe and Australia have incorporated a need to balance the potential benefits against the risk of bleeding. For elderly people, who have a greater risk of bleeding than younger adults, the risks may be too great to recommend aspirin. 

For adults 50 to 59 considering aspirin to prevent heart attacks and strokes, for example, the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommends the pill only for people who have at least a 10 per cent risk of having a heart attack or stroke over the next decade and who do not have a higher-than-average risk of bleeding. 

People in the current study were 62 years old on average, and ranged in age from 53 to 74. Half of them were followed for at least five years in the smaller clinical trials used for the current analysis. 

Aspirin was not associated with a lower risk of premature deaths from all causes or from events like heart attacks and strokes in particular, the study found. 

The pill was associated with a 15 per cent lower risk of heart attacks and a 19 per cent lower chance of ischemic strokes, the most common kind that happen when a clot blocks an artery carrying blood to the brain. 

One limitation of the analysis is that the smaller clinical trials examined a variety of aspirin doses ranging from 50 to 500 milligrammes, the study authors note. Doctors today typically do not prescribe doses higher than 100mg. 

Still, the results reinforce the need for doctors and patients to have a thoughtful discussion of the benefits and harms of aspirin for primary prevention of heart attacks and strokes, Michael Gaziano of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston writes in an accompanying editorial. 

“Clinicians must consider other interventions in addition to aspirin, such as smoking cessation and control of blood pressure and lipid levels, to lower risk,” Gaziano writes. 

“In places of the world in which cardiovascular disease risk is rising or where preventive strategies, such as statins, are less available, aspirin as a low-cost intervention may have a more important role,” Gaziano adds. “Aspirin remains an important medication for acute management of vascular events; for use after certain procedures; for secondary prevention” — that is, for preventing a second heart attack or stroke — “and, after careful selection of the right patients, for primary prevention”. 

If one is relocating to Mauritius, the first thing one must do is purchase a drill along with a tool kit, and the second thing one should do is take some basic carpentry lessons. 

It is necessary to hone these life skills because it is easier to put a man on the moon than to get hold of a carpenter on this Paradise Island. Believe me, it’s true. 

Carpenters are people that specialise in woodwork. The term used to describe them has been around since the 14th century and originates from the Latin carpentarius, “wagon maker”, with its root word carpentum, “wagon”. It is also a common last name; like Richard and Karen Carpenter of the musical group The Carpenters with hits such as “Yesterday once more”, “Top of the world” and “A kind of hush”. 

So, I was saying that the busiest people in Mauritius are the carpenters who, for some strange reason, spend more time in Madagascar than they do here. 

The two countries are very far apart with the shortest distance between Madagascar and Mauritius being 1,134km. 

If you travel in an airplane, it takes 1.26 hours to arrive. The sea route is erratic and takes three days to cross one way, but the cruise ships operate only once a month, which is not very user friendly, so to speak. 

However, once the Mauritian carpenters are in Madagascar, there is no telling when they are expected be back home. Nobody knows, least of all the company these specialists work for or the listed number one calls for such services. I do not have the faintest idea why they keep visiting the neighbouring country when there is such a drastic requirement for their services locally. But “gone to Madagascar” is supposed to be a self-explanatory statement that brooks no further argument and there is nothing one can do about it, other than wait for them to return. 

And this can be a long interval, mind you because the concept of waiting, on the African continent, can quickly stretch from a couple of hours, to a few months. 

Eventually — after months of persistence — when they do turn up, one must have a proper “scope of work” lined up for them. I mean, asking them to put some nails on the wall or to paint the chipped corner of a table is a strict “no no”. 

Since there is such a shortage of them, they are a very sought after lot, sometimes more so than a heart surgeon, and work on an extremely tight schedule. In retrospect, I think if my parents had sent me to a carpentry school instead of a journalism one, I would have had a more successful career in Mauritius. 

To avoid the manipulating carpenters, a lot of the residents pick up the drill themselves. Or train their gardeners to do so by paying them extra for the additional work. I became accustomed to this bit of reality, but my new Chinese neighbour was in for a surprise. 

“Guess what happened today”, she said to me through her fence. 

“A carpenter came to the house”, she said. 

“Wow!” I exclaimed. 

“I needed some pictures to be hung”, she continued. 

“You know what happened next?” she asked.

“He said he was going to Madagascar?” I joked. 

“How did you know?” she was shocked. 

“A kind of hunch”, I improvised the Carpenter’s song. 

Women with breast cancer who get newer genetic tests to estimate their risk of recurrence may not be any more anxious about their test results than their peers who get older tests that focus on fewer genes, a recent study suggests. 

Researchers surveyed 1,063 women with early stage breast cancer who had genetic tests between 2013 and 2015, a period when testing evolved from focusing on two genes — BRCA1 and BRCA2 — to examining a dozen or more genes that play a role in breast cancer. 

The newer tests have been slow to catch on, in part because many doctors are concerned about how women might react to the results, researchers note in JCO: Precision Oncology. 

“There are concerns that more ambiguous findings from more extensive testing versus BRCA only testing may lead to unnecessary patient worry and unwarranted aggressive interventions,” said lead study author Steven Katz of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. “Indeed, some have argued that multi-gene panel [MGP] testing should not replace BRCA one half-only testing, even in patients with higher pre-test risk of a pathogenic mutation, because of these concerns about testers’ negative reactions and the potential for overtreatment.” 

Overall, 11 per cent of the women in the study said worrying about cancer made a big impact on their life, and 15 per cent said they were often or almost worried. But how much this worry impacted their life and how often it happened didn’t appear to vary based on whether women got older two-gene tests or newer multi-gene tests. 

“We found that test type [more versus less extensive testing] or test results did not foment strong patient worry about future cancer,” Katz said. 

“This finding is reassuring that MGP testing does not appear to cause harm with regard to patient overreactions to test results,” Katz said by email. 

About 60 per cent of the women in the study had the older genetic tests that only looked for BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations, while about 40 per cent had the newer multigene tests. 

With newer multi-gene tests, it’s more likely a patient will have a positive test or a variant of unknown significance, the study authors note. This means women have something unusual happening but that doctors do not necessarily know how the abnormalities impact cancer risk. 

Virtually all of the patients surveyed received some form of genetic counselling, which may have helped them prepare emotionally for whatever the results might bring. 

“Availability of genetic counsellors to explain potential results prior to testing helps patients to make a well-informed decision regarding the choice to pursue testing, and the timing of testing,” said Lisa Newman, chief of the division of breast surgery at Weill Cornell Medicine/New York Presbyterian Hospital Network in New York City. 

“Pre-test counselling can also address other factors that may influence this decision, such has cost and how or whether to share test results with relatives,” Newman, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by e-mail. 

The study was not a controlled experiment designed to prove whether or how the decision to get genetic tests, the type of test or the results might directly impact the outcome of cancer treatment or women’s degree of worry about their diagnosis. 

Still, the results should reassure doctors and patients that women will be able to handle results from newer multi-gene tests as well as they could with the older BRCA tests. 

 “I think that the majority of our patients are quite sophisticated when it comes to processing the information that we provide, as long as we take the time to discuss relevant issues thoughtfully and empathetically,” Newman said. “Explaining the fact that we have made advances with genetic testing and therefore have a broader panel of tests to offer is one example of a relevant issue; patients that appear to be at risk for harbouring hereditary susceptibility for cancer have a right to be informed of these testing options.” 

The Ingolstadt automaker’s first fully electric vehicle (EV), the Audi E-tron just might be the most well-rounded production EV. Walking a fine line between the futuristic and the familiar but with a distinct flavour and dedicated model line the E-tron naturally slots in Audi’s extensive SUV line-up in terms of design, character and size. 

Technologically advanced and thoroughly well thought out the E-tron posts impressive technical achievements including range, energy recuperation and thermal management, but what most impressed was its versatility, energy management at heavy load and how normal yet accomplished it feels to drive.

Assertive and grounded

Seemingly slotting in somewhere between an Audi Q5 and Q8 in terms of size and design, the E-tron also shares the same basic design language as its conventional SUV sister models. The E-tron does, however, carve its own unique themes starting from its sharp and squinting LED headlights and how light itself is incorporated into the fascia and grille slat design, which are also reflected in the alloy wheel styling. Octagonal like other Audi SUV grilles, the E-tron’s single frame unit features multiple small slats and a unique platinum grey finish.

Assertive on the road, the E-tron features a long roofline with a big rear tailgate spoiler. Blistered wheel arches hark back to the original Quattro and hint at its four-wheel-drive and are complemented by wraparound haunches for a more muscular appearance emphasising its width. 

Contoured black sills meanwhile emphasise the E-tron’s grounded appearance and weighting, and even feature exterior elements alluding to its heavy 700kg batteries low and central under-floor position for a low centre of gravity within a long wheelbase for stability and interior legroom.

Aero aesthetic

Built on a heavily modified platform originating from the long wheelbase Audi Q5 and featuring rigid aluminium-intensive construction, the E-tron is, however, a unique car among the Audi line-up. Its low mounted batteries are liquid-cooled for efficiency and are contained within an enclosed aluminium structure to help improve the E-tron’s structural rigidity for handling, ride and safety.

Underneath, the batteries are protected by a flat and tough aluminium plate. With battery and suspension covers underneath, the E-Tron also achieves excellent aerodynamic efficiency, which is also aided by variably opening cooling vents and even specially designed underbody bolts.

Achieving low 0.28 aerodynamic drag coefficiency in standard guise, the E-tron can be optionally fitted with a virtual mirror system, which comprises slim side ‘mirror’ stalks with cameras replacing the actual mirrors and projecting rearview images on two high definition screens located in the interior door panels.

Virtual mirrors reduce aerodynamic drag to 0.27, and account for up to an additional 35km range or the equivalent of a half tonne weight reduction. Positioned close to where normal mirrors are positioned, the virtual mirror screens provide excellent night time visibility, with the passenger side screen being particularly intuitive to view.

Seamless surge

Putting power to tarmac through a modern interpretation of Audi’s defining Quattro four-wheel-drive in the form of two separate but electronically fully integrated and networked motors and single-speed gearboxes driving the rear and front wheels, the E-tron delivers confident all-weather road-holding and tenacious traction, as expected. 

Driving with a rear bias in normal conditions, with the front wheels pitching in when more power or road-holding is required through quick corners or on low traction road and off-road surfaces, the E-tron develops a combined output of 355BHP and 413lb/ft torque constantly for up to 60-seconds, and is thus capable of achieving 0-100km/h in 6.6-seconds and an electronically-limited 200km/h top speed.

The E-tron can harness a combined boosted maximum of 402BHP and 489lb/ft for 8-second bursts in S drive mode, during which 0-100km/h acceleration drops to a brisk 5.7-seconds, with front motor power rising from 167BHP and 182lb/ft to 181BHP and 227lb/ft, and at the rear from 187BHP and 231lb/ft to 221BHP and 261lb/ft. With its deep, near instant and seemingly ever present and deep well of torque and seamless surge of power, the E-tron’s off the line response and eager, consistent and muscular delivery on steep inclines and in overtaking manoeuvres proved impressive during test drive in Abu Dhabi and on the demanding Jebel Hafeet hill climb.

Range and regeneration

Swift, smooth and versatile in how it drives, the Audi E-tron’s electric quoted 417km and real world driving range is impressive, and especially in how comparatively little electricity is used during hard driven, high altitude hill climbs, which usually leads to a significant surge in energy consumption in most EVs. 

In terms of recharging its batteries, the E-tron can be fully charged in as little as 30-minutes using a high capacity 140kwDC charger, or in 8-hours and a half using an 11kw 400v charger. Capable AC/DC charging the E-tron’s domestic charge time can also take less or more time, depending on charger and output available.

Meanwhile, the E-tron’s regenerative brakes can recuperate up to 220kw of electric power and operate without conventional mechanical brakes at up to 0.3g. However, the E-tron can be driven in different modes of energy recuperation, and unlike many other electric cars, this includes a free coasting mode useful for highway driving and more intuitive sporty driving when lift-off deceleration is not desired.

For town driving and descents, one can opt for more regenerative braking, and can ease off the accelerator pedal to reduce speed in most circumstances, while temporary brakeforce recuperation levels can be adjusted from a steering column stalk.

Smooth and silent

Smooth and stable at speed, the near silent Audi E-Tron is a comfortable and capable long distance cruiser, and is meanwhile easy to drive and comfortable in town, where its sophisticated five-link air suspension compensates for huge 20-inch alloy wheels and provides a comfortably absorbent yet settled ride.

With so much weight concentrated so low and within the wheelbase for near perfect 50:50 weighting and a low centre of gravity, the E-Tron seemed to belie its 2.5-tonne mass through winding hill climbs where it felt balanced and grounded, with little comparative body roll. Entering corners with little hint of understeer, the E-Tron’s steering was direct and well weighted.

With selective braking torque vectoring helping the E-Tront tuck tidily into corners and its quick response electronic four-wheel-drive apportioning power between front and rear, the E-Tron was confident through switchbacks. 

Refined, quiet and classy inside, the E-Tron’s adaptive air suspension can meanwhile raise ride height to 207mm for improved off-road angles and ability. 

Extensively equipped with comfort, convenience, safety and driver assistance systems, the E-Tron’s stylishly high tech cabin features dual infotainment screens, configurable instrument panel and quality upholstery and trim. Spacious inside despite the battery position below, the E-Tron also accommodates a minimum of 660-litres of cargo, which expands to 1,725-litre.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: Front- & rear-mounted electric motors

Gearbox: single-speed automatic, four-wheel-drive

Transmission ratios, F/R: 9.205: /9.083:1

Final drive: 9.205:1

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 402 (407) [300]

Power-to-weight: 161.4BHP/tonne*

Torque lb/ft (Nm): 489 (664)

Torque-to-weight: 266.6Nm/tonne*

0-100km/h: 5.7-seconds

Top speed: 200km/h (electronically governed)

Driving range, combined WLTP: 417km 

Charging time, high capacity fast charger: 30-minutes @150kW DC 

Home Charging: 8-hrs, 30-min @11kW, 400v

Other charging options: 2.3kW @230v, @22kW @400v, AC/DC charging

Battery: Lithium-ion, 95kWh

Battery weight: 700kg

Length: 4,901mm

Width: 1,935mm 

Height: 1,616mm

Aerodynamic drag co-efficiency: 0.27 (as tested)

Unladen/Kerb weight: 2,490kg/2,565kg

Towing : 1,800kg

Cargo volume, min/max: 660-/1,725-litres

Steering: Electric-assisted speed sensitive rack & pinion

Turning circle: 12.2-metres

Suspension: Five-link, anti-roll bars, air suspension Brake, F/R: Ventilated discs 375mm/350mm, kinetic regenerative braking

Tyres: 255/50R20 or 265/45R20 (both optional)

*Unladen

A Palace in the Old Village

Tahar Ben Jelloun

Translated from French by Linda Coverdale

New York: Penguin, 2011

Pp. 183

Renowned Moroccan writer Tahar Ben Jelloun’s novel, “A Palace in the Old Village”, is the story of Mohammed, a Moroccan who worked on the assembly line of a car factory in France for virtually all of his adult life. 

Since he is a rather average character, this might seem to be a rather simple story, but it is not, for it deals with existential questions and can be read on several levels. 

In one sense, it is a parable of what has become an archetypal experience in the modern world, that of the immigrant who spends most of his life working in a foreign country to give his children a better life, but in the process loses them to assimilation in said country. 

On another level, it is a very personal, stream-of-consciousness narrative of a man facing retirement, who revisits his whole life wondering what went wrong, thus diverging from parable which is usually quite abstract. 

Mohammed’s premonition that retirement leads to or is equivalent to death may be extreme in his case, since he did little in life to develop friendships or interests outside of work that could have filled his time in retirement. Still, his feelings mirror a human dilemma that exists not only for Moroccan immigrant workers: fear of death or of being useless.

The generation gap which he bemoans, separating him and his children, is also a near-universal phenomenon, though accentuated in his case by the importance Arabs attach to family. 

Another layer is added to the story by Ben Jelloun’s imaginative capacity for writing about dreams and surreal, mental images, which occur more and more often in Mohammed’s mind as the story progresses.

Two things are important to Mohammed: his Muslim faith and his family. He is a firm believer in mainstream, moderate Islam. The Koran “was everything to Mohammed: his culture, his identity, his passport, his pride, his secret”. (p. 9)

He abhors violence and racism, whether French against Arabs or Arabs against black Africans. He is always gentle, if slightly detached, from his wife and children. Some of the more entertaining passages of his narrative are his ridiculing of hypocrites and charlatans who spread superstition in the name of religion.

The passages about his relations with his children are less funny: “not that they’ve noticed that I’ve fallen into ‘tirement. They ask me no questions, drop by briefly and head out again without paying any attention to how I feel … Everything changes. It’s hard to accept that we can find ourselves so quickly in a different world. Our forefathers didn’t prepare us, told us nothing. They’d never have imagined that men would leave their land to go abroad”. (p. 65) 

For his part, “Mohammed couldn’t imagine, much less accept, that his children’s lives could slip through his fingers.” (p. 116)

For this reason, one feels apprehensive when he announces his plan to build a big, new house in his village in Morocco, where he anticipates that his whole family, including all his children, will assemble for the Eid al Kabir. It was a “stubborn dream, but he knew that one day he would make it come true”. (p. 8)

Ben Jelloun is not making fun of Mohammed for his dreams, but rather forewarning of the pending tragedy. The only one who joins him at the house, aside from his wife, is Nabile, his loveable nephew with Down’s Syndrome, whom Mohammed’s sister entrusted to his care, thinking the boy would have more opportunities in France. 

Ben Jelloun portrays Mohammed as both wise and naïve. He never got in trouble because he followed all the rules, went to work even if sick, did not drink or indulge in women, and stayed clear of politics in France and Morocco. 

On the other hand, he missed out on many of the joys of life, not just because he was working so hard, but because it was not in his mind set. For example, he realises that he never really laughed with his wife, much less told her he loved her. Though he was kind, marriage mainly meant that his wife agreed with him on everything.

Through Mohammed’s stubborn, yet gentle, and sometimes bewildered spirit, Ben Jelloun critiques the harshness of modern society: workers whose life is little more than their work, and rulers and bureaucrats who are indifferent to the needs of poor, rural Moroccans, whether they stay in their village or are returning from working abroad. 

But most of all, he pays tribute to this generation of workers who literally gave their lives for the next generation, often getting little in return.