Features

Agile, frisky, committed, adjustable and direct, the Peugeot 208 GT Line ekes a lot of fun from just 118BHP and a four-speed automatic gearbox. Highlighting the core compact car qualities of manoeuvrability, accessibility and frisky lightweight handling the GT Line is a new hot hatch-like appearance package for garden-variety version of a face-lifted Peugeot 208 line.

Aping the feisty design detail of the range-topping and formidably swift and sporty 208 GTI hot hatch, the affordable GT Line underscores the basic 208 platform’s clarity and little diluted and nippy thrills. Best driven with a heavy foot through winding roads, the 208 GT Line is nonetheless a comfortable, practical and well-equipped compact city car.

Contemporary and complex

A gem among a resurgent Peugeot line-up, the sporty yet classy 208 has always stood out in a competitive compact segment. Most closely rivalling the much-acclaimed Ford Fiesta and somewhat upmarket Mini Hatch, the 208’s attention to elegant detail and chiselled design has been little altered, but instead subtly refreshed and now includes the sporty GT Line. 

With a wider and dramatically hungry low-slung grille with red accents, sharper bumper design with aggressive recessed lower side foglights, visible chrome-tipped exhaust and LED light elements, including claw-like rear elements, the 208 GT Line cuts an assertive, dynamic and eager profile. Large 43cm alloy wheels with 205/45R17 tyres complete the faux-hit hatch appearance and provide high grip through corners. 

Elegant yet urgent in demeanour, the 208’s contemporary concave and convex surfacing is complex and classy canvas, with a bold bonnet groove mounted emblem and liberally tasteful smatterings of chrome. Athletic and brimming with dynamic tension, the 208’s body seems tightly wrapped and ready to pounce, with short overhangs, wide track and firmly planted road stance.

Ready to rev

Powered by a carryover naturally-aspirated 1.6-litre four-cylinder engine under its sculpted bonnet, the driven 208 GT Line variant develops 118BHP at 6000rpm and 118lb/ft at 4250rpm. Mated to a four-speed gearbox, this allows for 10.7-second 0-100km/h acceleration and a 190km/h top speed, while returning 6.7l/100km combined cycle fuel efficiency.

Buzzy, eager and revvy, the 208’s 1.6VTI engine is progressive in delivery, smooth and refined when cruising, and somewhat guttural when pushed hard. Nippy rather than outright quick, the 208 1.6-litre is responsive, confidant and flexible in mid-range. With four gear ratios, the automatic version is best when revved hard to gather momentum and ensure upshifts into the engine’s sweet mid-range spot.

Entertaining and rewarding to rev right to its rev limit and use its’ gear lever actuated sequential shift mode, the 208 GT Line 1.6VTI is a car that would be best in 5-speed manual guise. An additional gear ratio would allow one to better utilise its’ power and torque for improved versatility, performance, efficiency and lower engine speed during highway cruising.

Frisky and fun

Rising to the occasion when wrung hard and high, the 1.6VTI engine is well mated to an agile and eager chassis, and provides the 208 with the inimitable thrills of a light and responsive yet modestly powered small driven hard for brisk progress. With progressive engine and grippy tyres, the 208 digs in hard when one comes back on power early, and maintains a committed cornering line. 

Alert and ready to manoeuvre the Peugeot 208’s quick ratio steering is well-weighted direct responsive, slack-free on centre and delicately nuanced through turns. Turning in crisply with flickable fun eagerness, the 208’s wide track and short overhangs provide a stable footprint, while compact size and short wheelbase make it manoeuvrable, nimble and agile.

Slick, swift, darty and agile through switchbacks, the lightweight 1090kg 208 is composed and poised through corners, with good body control and little by way of lean, and is stable but alert at speed. Finding a happy medium between handling ability and ride comfort, the GT Line’s well-chosen 205/45R17 tyres provide good cornering rigidity and decent suppleness over imperfections.

Elegantly upbeat

Generously accommodating larger drivers even with optional panoramic sunroof, the GT Line features good front and side visibility and supportively bolstered height adjustable sports seats, for an alert and comfortable driving position. With quick ratio small steering wheel ensuring most manoeuvres are executed from quarter-to-three grip. Meanwhile, an unorthodox layout with the instrument binnacle viewed from above the low-set steering soon becomes second nature.

Stylishly recapturing the allure of its now iconic 1980s 205 predecessor with elegantly urgent design lines, the 208 GT Line’s cabin features a measured and up-market sense of style. With sparingly tasteful use of metallic chrome-like details, glossy black panels, coned instruments and a modern, elegant upbeat ambiance, the 208 features intuitive user-friendly layouts and a practical cabin.

As much at home through winding roads as on city streets, the darty 208 is practical and manoeuvrable in fast-paced yet congested urban settings, and conveniently features dual zone climate control, front electric windows, keyless entry central locking and 60:40 split folding rear seats extend boot volume from 285- to 1076-litres. Well-kitted, the GT Line features a user-friendly touchscreen infotainment screen with satnav and USB slot.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 1.6 litre, transverse 4 cylinders

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

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

Top gear/final drive ratios: 0.85:1/3.94:1

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 118 (120) [88] @6000rpm

Torque lb/ft (Nm): 118 (160) @4250rpm

0-100km/h: 10.7 seconds

Top speed: 190km/h

Fuel consumption, combined: 6.7l/100km

CO2 emissions, combined: 149g/km

Fuel capacity: 50 litres

Length: 3973mm

Width: 1739mm 

Height: 1460mm

Wheelbase: 2538mm

Track, F/R: 1470/1472mm

Overhang, F/R: 783/652mm

Headroom, F/R: 882/861mm

Legroom, F/R: 874/818mm

Luggage capacity, minimum/maximum: 285-/1,076 litres

Kerb weight: 1090kg (est.)

Steering: Variable assistance, rack & pinion

Lock-to-lock: 2.9 turns

Turning circle: 10.4 metres

Suspension, F/R: MacPherson struts/torsion beam

Brakes, F/R: Ventilated discs, 266mm/discs, 249mm

Tyres: 205/45R17

In the Wake of the Poetic: Palestinian Artists after Darwish

Najat Rahman

New York: Syracuse University Press, 2015

Pp. 190

Najat Rahman is professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Montreal and has authored or edited several books on Mahmoud Darwish. In this book, she addresses the effects of his poetry on subsequent Palestinian artistic production — poetry, cinema, visual arts and song. Focusing on the period after the Oslo Accords, which radically altered the parameters of Palestinian struggle, she contends that the new artists “refuse to adhere to predetermined notions of aesthetics and politics, but they all claim a common historical legacy: historic Palestine, ‘national poets’ such as Darwish, the Nakba of 1948, Beirut 1982.” (p. 2)

“These Palestinian writers and artists, who live between many countries and languages, resist a fixed identity while expressing a desire for home and for belonging.” (p. 4)

In Rahman’s view, they “continue the legacy of Darwish without being derivative”. (p. 3)

Darwish considered poetry to be political when it is concerned with community and the future. In this sense, the new generation’s works are political but in new ways. Often they contest the injustices inflicted on the Palestinians — and the world’s seeming oblivion — via dark humour, irony and the absurd.

The strongest chapter in the book is the one on poetry in which Rahman compares the themes and aesthetics of Darwish with other Palestinian poets, chiefly Suhair Hammad, Liana Badr and Ghassan Zaqtan. Like Darwish, Hammad focuses on the themes of dispossession, loss, fragmentation, and the link between language and identity. Born in Brooklyn and mixing Arabic with English slang, shouting out what usually remains unspoken, she challenges preconceived notions and indicates new passages and identities, going beyond the strictly national to a transnational scene. “The diasporic poet through her voice gathers fragmented selves into new possible collective identities.” (p. 39) 

Similar themes, plus multiple exiles and the role of memory, mark the poetry of both Badr and Zaqtan. Each in their own way, they revisit history and combine the poetic, the political and the personal, often via small daily details which evoke the bigger tragedies and existential dilemmas of Palestinian lives.  

The films of Elia Suleiman, Hany Abu Assad and Rashid Masharawi have elicited international acclaim and brought new attention to the Palestinian issue. The sense of irony and the absurd, often present in Darwish’s poems to convey the Palestinian experience, reaches new heights in their cinematic imagery that, especially in the case of Suleiman, also includes fantasy. Rahman sees their films as “visual counterparts to Darwish’s poetics of loss, belonging, dispersion, and dispossession”. (p. 53)

Among the Palestinian visual artists noted in the book are not many painters, but mostly creators of conceptual art who work in a wide range of media: video, collage, photo documentation, mapping and performance, where the artist uses his or her own body to express the Palestinian experience. Rahman focuses on well-established artists like Kamal Boullata and Mona Hatoum, as well as more recently recognized ones such as Emily Jacir, Eman Haram, Rehab Nazzal, Sharif Waked and the artwork Till Roeskens developed with Palestinians of Aida Camp, near Bethlehem. While unmasking Israel’s ethnic cleansing and occupation, their artwork constitutes a struggle against the erasure of Palestinian history, memory and existence. 

Music is closely linked to poetry and many musicians have based their songs on lyrics drawn from Darwish’s poetry, from Sabreen to the hip-hop and rap groups such as DAM, which began in Lyd, and inspired other Palestinian rappers from Ramallah to the US. Tamer Nafar of DAM (of “Who’s the terrorist?” fame) acknowledges the impact of Darwish’s poetry on the group, naming other influences as: “30 per cent Hip Hop music; 30 per cent literature; and 40 per cent the political situation.” (p. 121)

Notably, Rahman counts hip-hop as the most directly political of all the new Palestinian art forms. 

“In the Wake of the Poetic” links literary criticism with Palestinian reality to give a fascinating panoramic view of Palestinian artistic production in the past two decades. Rahman succeeds admirably in her stated purpose: “to show how artists in different media and in different corners of the Palestinian diaspora innovate uniquely, and join the poetic legacy of Mahmoud Darwish in reassembling a disappearing homeland.” (p. 76)

The most important date on the regional motoring calendar for motoring enthusiasts and automotive industry professionals, the Dubai Motor Show is the Middle East’s biggest auto expo is held every other year in rotation with the Abu Dhabi Motor Show. Home to the region’s most spectacular reveals and debuts of the latest road cars, futuristic concept cars, industry announcements, brands and automotive technologies, the Dubai Motor Show is held at the Emirate’s sprawling 85,000-square-metre Dubai World Trade Centre from November 10th to the 14th.

Among the 157 cars making regional and global debuts in Dubai, Jaguar’s unexpected and sporty F-Pace SUV is set to play a major role in Jaguar’s regional portfolio. Commenting on Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) sales success during 2015 despite regional tensions, Managing Director for the Middle East and North Africa Bruce Robertson indicated that the F-Pace is expected to be a “volume seller” and become Jaguar’s “market leader.” Meanwhile, managing director of Jaguar’s high-end luxury, performance and capabilities skunkworks special operations division, John Edwards, was also on hand to unveil the brand’s most luxurious Range Rover SV Autobiography to the Middle East.

Offering visitors a live and steep obstacle course experience demonstrating their vehicles’ off-road prowess British brand JLR’s centrepiece exhibit was however its’ Spectre film cars. Starring as the antagonists’ car in the latest James Bond film and as an extension of the brand’s “good to be bad” campaign, the JLR Spectre trio included a spectacular repurposed 2010 C-X75 hybrid supercar concept and battered post-production Land Rover Sports SVR performance SUV and Land Rover Defender off-roader.

With a rich heritage of accessible performance cars and motorsports success, including all-podium 1966 and subsequent Le Mans victories to 1969 for the GT40, the recently established Ford Performance wing sets the Blue Oval for a major comeback into this segment. Commenting on performance aspirations, Middle East and Africa President Jim Benintende said that Ford was “not going to be shy about it” anymore, and with US rally driver Ken Block on hand, unveiled Ford’s GT supercar and 2016 Le Mans hopeful. Also unveiled for the Middle East was the high performance flat-plane crackshaft Shelby GT350 Mustang. 

While Ford announced that it expected 30 new products for the Middle East and Africa region by 2020, Dubai was also an occasion for the regional reveal of its’ luxury Lincoln sister brand’s Continental Concept model. Expected to be launched globally by 2017, the Continental Concept flagship is elegantly smooth, low-slung and voluptuous design. Not revealing driveline details during roundtable discussions, Lincoln Motor Company President Kumar Galhotra however described the Continental as taking a “quiet luxury” approach.

A first for Cadillac, the US luxury brand debuted its’ XT5 crossover successor to the SRX at the Dubai Motor Show. Meanwhile hot hatch enthusiasts were treated to regional unveilings for the prodigious high performance Peugeot 308 GTI and brutally mighty Audi RS3 Sportback. A big day for Audi, the four-ring German luxury brand also unveiled the all-important next generation A4 compact executive saloon and R8 supercar, described by Director of Audi Middle East, Enrico Atanasio as the “dynamic vanguard of Audi”.

Away from the big players and new high tech models, the Dubai Motor Show also served as regional debut for the resurrected Alvis brand. A supercar in its era, Alvis plans a production run of 77 continuation Series cars built from original 1930s parts. Alvis makes build their own engines and “still makes cars how they used to be made”. according to chairman Alan Stote. Meanwhile, the Motoring Nostalgia Museum of classic cars memorably included the radical, purpose-built and diminutive 1976 Lancia Statos mid-engine rally car.

Jaguar F-Pace

With snouty bold mesh grille, squinting headlights and bulging bonnet similar to Jaguar’s elegant saloons and rear lights inspired by the F-Type sports car, the F-Pace seamlessly translates the British brand’s character into crossover SUV form for the first time. Expected to be a big regional seller, the F-Pace is built on light and stiff aluminium architecture and powered by Jaguar’s growling, consistently muscular and progressively urgent supercharged 3-litre V6 engine in 335BHP or 375BHP tune. Driving all four wheels, it should prove agile and sure-footed when launched. 

Ford GT

Celebrating the Ford GT40 sensational all-podium 1966 24-Hours of Le Mans victory 50th anniversary, the 2016 GT features a 600BHP+ mid-engine version of Ford’s acclaimed 3.5-litre direct injection twin-turbo V6 Ecoboost engine. Based on race-proven engine architecture, the GT is built on stiff lightweight carbon-fibre and aluminium construction. A post-retro design paying homage to its iconic ancestor, it features up-swinging doors, curved windshield and advanced active aero aids, while radical air tunnels direct airflow along a narrow fuselage-like cockpit.

Range Rover SV Autobiography

Ready for all comers in the emerging ultra-luxury SUV segment comprising the Bentley Bentayga and upcoming Rolls Royce SUV, the original luxury off-road just got plusher, courtesy of JLR’s special vehicle operations. With high quality dual tone paint, higher grades of leather and trim, more extensive features, optional long wheelbase and reclining seats with footrests, the SV Autobiography also features an upgraded 542BHP supercharged five-litre V8. Effortlessly muscular, extensively capable off-road and serenely comfortable on-road, the Range Rover is also built on stiff lightweight aluminium architecture.

Lincoln Continental Concept

Combining the elegant and emotive with an athletic demeanour, the Lincoln Continental Concept flagship is expected to catapult the American brand back firmly to the premium luxury segment as a 2017 model. With snouty but recessed grille, smatterings of chrome, huge alloys, low profile roof, muscular haunches and slanted low-slung boot, it features faint flavours of Maserati Quattroporte V and Pininfarina’s Fiat 130 Coupe and Rolls Royce Camargue in its C-pillar slant. Spacious inside, its cabin is swathed with lush blue leather and suede and features highly ergonomic seats.

Audi RS3 Sportback

A muscular yet agile brute, the Audi RS3 Sportback is not a garden-variety hot hatch but with a turbocharged five-cylinder engine producing 362BHP and 343lb/ft torque, is more aptly described as a hyper hatch. Expected to go on sale regionally by January 2016, the RS3 cracks the 0-100km/h benchmark in 4.3-seconds and can top 280km/h. Directing its power through all four wheels, the RS3 can vary power between front and rear and left and right for nimble and eager cornering agility, tremendous grip and tenacious traction. 

Peugeot 308 GTI

Peugeot’s long-awaited and elegant Ford Focus ST- and Volkswagen GTI-rivalling 308 GTI hot hatch features a choice of 247BHP or 266BHP high efficiency 1.6-litre turbocharged engines. With claimed best-in-class power-to-weight and 243lb/ft torque throughout 1,900-5,000rpm, 0-100km/h acceleration is dispatched in 6.2-seconds in 247BHP guise and six-seconds by the 266BHP version. Driving front wheels through a six-speed manual gearbox, the 270HP version additionally features a Torsen limited-slip differential for added agility.

MIAMI — Some obese children as young as eight show significant signs of heart disease, according to research presented Tuesday at a major US cardiology conference.

Researchers compared 20 obese children and teenagers to 20 normal weight peers and found that 40 per cent of the obese children were considered at high-risk for heart disease because of thickened heart muscle, which can interfere with the muscle’s pumping ability.

Overall, obesity was linked to 27 per cent more muscle mass in the left ventricle of their hearts and 12 per cent thicker heart muscles — both signs of heart disease, according to the findings presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions in Orlando, Florida.

Some of the obese children also had asthma, high blood pressure and depression. 

The children studied did not report physical symptoms of heart trouble, but the damage to their hearts was found during a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan.

And researchers warn that heart problems in youth may lead to even more severe disease in adulthood, and a higher likelihood of dying prematurely.

“Parents should be highly motivated to help their children maintain a healthy weight,” said lead author Linyuan Jing, a researcher at Geisinger Health System in Danville, Pennsylvania.

“Ultimately we hope that the effects we see in the hearts of these children are reversible; however, it is possible that there could be permanent damage. This should be further motivation for parents to help children lead a healthy lifestyle.”

Obesity was measured in the children using the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention standard growth charts, which use body mass index, a calculation derived from a child’s height and weight. Those above the 95th per centile were considered obese. 

Children with diabetes, or who were too large to fit in the MRI machine, were excluded from the study.

“As a result, this means the actual burden of heart disease in obese children may have been under-estimated in our study because the largest kids who may have been the most severely affected could not be enrolled,” Jing said.

Nationwide, about one in three children aged 2-19 are considered either overweight or obese in the United States.

Finding that children as young as eight may show signs of heart disease was “alarming to us,” Jing said.

“Understanding the long-term ramifications of this will be critical as we deal with the impact of the paediatric obesity epidemic.”

Imagine being in your living room with other people. Music is playing through a pair of speakers, but only you, sitting in that cosy armchair, are listening to the incoming sound — and no, not through headphones, but normally, via the open airwaves. For the other people in the room it’s all very quiet, there is no incoming sound at all. Enter directional speakers.

The latest in audio technology has nothing to do with improving the intrinsic quality of the sound. Instead the efforts of the industry and of independent researchers consist of “doing more” with sound than just hearing it, like for example directing it like one would precisely direct a beam of light for instance, a laser beam.

Though some sonic frequencies, particularly the higher ones, are more or less directional, sound in general goes in all directions once it is generated. In some instances this non-directionality, or omni-directionality to use a term that means the same thing, can be seen as a disadvantage, even as a nuisance sometimes — noise pollution for many.

Directional speakers are the new craze and open the door to some very interesting applications. From military to commercial, medical and personal, the possibility to direct the sound to precise areas in a zone is nothing less than a technological audio revolution. As UK-based Audionation company puts it, directional sound is “designed to target a specific listening area”.

Sennheiser, Mitsubishi, Soundlazer, American Technology Corporation and Audionation are some of the companies working on the new technology. Some haven’t yet really commercialised their products and still are in the research phase or have lab prototypes ready, while others (Audionation for one) already have such avant-garde speakers available for you to order and to buy on their website.

From there it’s only a matter of imagination. Throw a party, let the music play out loud at 120 decibels till 4:00am, all this without your neighbours even suspecting anything. Walk before a painting in a museum and be the only one to hear what the audio stream explains about it, just because you are the only one standing before the painting.

Airports will be able to make flights announcements only to relevant passengers’ zones, without affecting the other areas in the airport, thus drastically reducing the annoying echo effect heard in most airports halls. Watch your favourite TV programme without bothering the other family members in the house with the sound. The list of possible applications goes on and on…

There’s another, less obvious application for perfectly directional speakers, and this one is absolutely spectacular. Yamaha now have their YSP-5600 3D speaker ready for you. By incorporating, in one single enclosure, multiple small speakers and focusing the sound going out of each of these speakers to a specific, different area in the room, the company achieves better than surround effect — true 3D sound. It does so without the hassle of going through the cumbersome multiple wiring that is usually associated with a traditional surround audio system and that typically ends up with too many physical speakers’ enclosures encumbering the room.

The mere pursuit of fidelity and definition is behind us. Most systems, including those reasonably priced, now offer a quality of audio that easily surpasses what even demanding ears expect to hear.

From 1960 to 1980 the focus was on getting sound, in recording, storage and in playback, as closely as possible to the real thing, that is to the original natural sound. From 1980 to 2000 the industry reached its goal thanks, mainly, to computers and digital technology, and has since been able to record and reproduce sound that is undistinguishable from the original airwaves it naturally starts with. After 2000 the name of the game changed and the industry started looking at other challenges in terms of sonic thrills. Now the thrill is on, and it’s for your ears only.

AMMAN — Music, vocal or instrumental, is almost audible in the halls of Wadi Finan Art Gallery where Fadi Daoud’s evocative works stimulate senses.

Titled “Love and Music”, the paintings are a natural progression in Daoud’s artistic career that now sees him in Florence, the city of love, ready for his MFA degree.

Music has been this artist’s inspiration for a long time. Representations of iconic Arab singers are almost his signature, but in Italy, naturally, opera added another layer to this theme, and “Daphne”, the Greek mythology character in love with nature with whom Apollo fell in unrequited love, seems to preoccupy him most.

His technique, using fascicles of colours that create features, give depth and fascinate with their painstaking minutiae, is Daoud through and through. So is the theme, yet one never gets tired of watching the characters of his paintings.

Round open mouths, hands poised over instruments and eyes closed or staring at a hidden, secret, world suggest music, a magical world of beauty and serenity where people can pursue finer things in life, away, often, from the drab or unpleasant reality.

If the facial expression and gestures are not suggestive enough, the artist reinforces the audio aspect through undulating, whirling or blowing lines that seem to be on the same wavelength with the music, in harmony with the musicians and the world around them.

One expects the sound to come out of the open mouths, but it is fine if it does not, for, this way, one can hum one’s own favourite music — unless told by the artist what aria the singer is playing (which in actually Daphne).

Departing from the musical world, a male portrait — contrasting light and dark lines define almost anatomically his strong features — peers into the horizon, probably seeing the woman of Sufi inspiration on the opposite wall.

Caught in a twirling movement, the graceful woman clad in white is surrounded by diaphanous wisps of colour, like a billowing veil that surrounds the closed-eye woman who seems lost in her own world, a world one would love to enter and understand.

Pomegranates – revered as a symbol of health, fertility and eternal life – dark red and ripe, burst open to hold enigmatic heads.

“Strings” vibrate under the strumming hand in a fiery vibration that engulfs player and viewer.

Colourful, powerful, in motion and strongly suggestive, Daoud’s works create a symphony of sound and colour.

His characters levitate, lifted by “love and music”, tap, play instruments — flute, pipe, lute, accordion, violin — sing immersed in their feelings, enjoying company and audience, but mostly enjoying the music, enrapt, in love and in harmony with the universe.

“Sound and Heaven” or “Love and Music”, suggests the artist in some paintings.

He does not need to do that. The imagery is evocative, transporting the viewer to heavenly heights, leaving him to figure out the story of love between a man and a woman or feel the love for music.

Daphne is a recurrent theme. And whether celebrated by a loving couple playing musical instruments or by two ladies in grand opera costumes — magnificent feather fans and all — Daphne, maybe for the choice she made, seems to have captured the artist’s attention.

Daoud’s lines, by now making him easily distinguishable, are ubiquitous. If not in their “typical” clustered form, they flow freely and fluidly to form images and movement.

Bold, vibrant colours rend passion, reinforce movement and stir feelings.

Universal with an Oriental touch (inevitable perhaps for someone who studied Islamic art), these latest Daoud’s works show unfailing upswing growth and evolution. They are also proof of his imagination and mastery of the line and technique that make his unique.

The works are on display until November 28.

While switching channels on television the other day I came across an old movie. I was in a semi comatose state that generally creeps upon me when I watch too much of the ongoing US presidential debates. Listening to the Republican Party candidate Donald Trump makes me wonder if he is for real. The amount of gibberish he speaks can make my skin crawl. I do hope in the near future I don’t have to witness him as a brand new resident of the White House. But politics is a dirty game and who can tell what will unfold in the next several months. As they say in my home country India, “democracy is like that only”.

So, the old film that suddenly lit up my television screen was from a black and white era. The hero was serenading the heroine who was standing on a first floor balcony, swaying gently, for no apparent reason. A close-up shot of her face revealed that she was extremely beautiful, in an ethereal sort of way. The shadow and light fell at an angle on her cupid-bow painted lips, giving her a luminous glow. The hero had a Charlie Chaplin moustache and a dainty physique, quite unlike the hefty gym sculpted muscular bodies of the actors today. I think there was also a hint of kohl lining his eyes and if you took the moustache away, he was almost as pretty as his leading lady. 

But what caught my eye was the earring that the actress was wearing. Shaped like a peacock, with tiny bells on it, the piece of jewellery looked extremely familiar. I jumped up from the sofa and went rummaging into my locker and immediately took out the box that contained my ornaments. Separating the necklaces and bracelets I found the earring and ran to compare it with the one the woman was sporting. The song was still going on, the hero had somewhat switched his position and was now near the rose bushes, but the heroine continued to be rooted to the same spot. She was blinking her impossibly long lashes and giving coy glances to the hero. As the camera panned on her face again I held up my earing next to hers. It was identical. 

Both my mother and my mother-in-law were very fashionable women. Their generation did not have any fancy fashion designers, so they mostly copied what the popular actresses wore in their films. From the hairstyles, clothes, shoes, handbags to the thickness of the eyeliner, they imitated the celluloid look to perfection. I knew this because I was witness to the umpteen trips to the tailor where my mom would explain the flair of a particular trouser to the flustered guy, carrying a picture of a famous heroine in it. 

However, what I did not realise was that they managed to duplicate the jewellery too. Unfortunately, I could not remember whether it was my mum or my mum-in-law who had given me the peacock earrings. Feeling bad at not having paid more attention when it was gifted to me, I decided to wear them instantly. 

“Wow mother, lovely earrings,” our daughter said walking into my room. 

“Thank you, like that one,” I pointed to the TV. 

“Identical! Who gave you?” she asked. 

“Either your Nani or Dadi, I forgot,” I said miserably. 

“Why you wearing them with your track pants?” she changed the subject. 

“I am like that only,” I smiled. 

BEIJING — For someone who cites his “oriental identity” as a source of inspiration, China-based artist Tao Hongjing is remarkably white.

According to the biography distributed at his exhibitions, Tao is a stereotypically Chinese man.

“The big change came when his father bought a TV, the first one ever in the neighbourhood. From then on, Tao could see the world and understand his country,” it read.

Except that China was not his country. Tao Hongjing was the fictional creation of French artist Alexandre Ouairy, born in Nantes, who assumed the pseudonym a decade ago to sell more art as an unknown foreign name in China.

He lays his conception to rest with an exhibition that opened at Beijing’s Red Gate Gallery over the weekend titled “Death is Going Home”.

Ouairy’s art trades on digestible Chinese symbolism familiar to foreign audiences: gold-plated Buddha statues, prints of bowdlerised funeral currency, Chinese characters in neon lights, and scenes of heavy industry stamped in red ink with signature chops on rice paper.

The “Tao Hongjing” idea was based on a suggestion by his gallerist in Shanghai a decade ago, when the country’s contemporary art market was soaring but the Frenchman’s early exhibitions proved flops.

“Public interest was limited, zero even,” he recalled, offering a simple explanation: “It was because I was a foreigner.

“The collectors were primarily foreigners and they wanted to buy Chinese work, because for them it was a good investment.

“In Shanghai, I saw all that counterfeit Louis Vuitton and Prada, and I said to myself: If they make fake bags, why don’t I make a fake Chinese artist?”

The name was taken from a fifth-century Chinese philosopher “who was a bit of a jokester”, he said.

Humour aside, it worked. He began to sell one or two works a month, rather than one or two per exhibition.

“Presenting myself as Chinese, it made a difference,” he said. “There’s a whole economy and financial interests that aren’t the same.”

But attention and press interest have had to be handled carefully. He avoided the openings of his own exhibitions, or described himself as “Tao Hongjing’s assistant”, while media interviews were carried by phone, said Ouairy, “and my Chinese gallerist pretended to be me”.

Chinese contemporary artists have risen to global prominence in recent years, their auction prices driven up by newly wealthy compatriots.

According to the Artprice databank, 17 of the 50 top-selling artists in the year to June were Chinese, and Chinese artists accounted for 21 per cent of total global turnover in contemporary art, second only to Americans.

Yang Yang, founder of Beijing’s Gallery Yang, which exhibits both local and foreign work, said: “Contemporary art is tied to a territory, and the so-called ‘internationalisation’ of art doesn’t really exist.”

“Nationality is obviously very important.”

Different perspective

Ouairy’s exhibition comes after white US poet Michael Derrick Hudson triggered heated debate when he admitted a poem of his, rejected for publication 40 times under his own name, was only accepted for this year’s edition of “Best American Poetry” after he submitted it under the pseudonym of a Chinese woman, Yi-Fen Chou. A New Yorker contributor termed it “Orientalist profiteering”.

The prices at the Beijing show range as high as 200,000 yuan (more than $30,000), a far cry from the 1,500 yuan that works signed in Ouairy’s own name used to sell for.

He said he was going public with his Tao Hongjing identity because he felt he had exhausted its potential. Having intended at first to “play on the market and stereotypes”, he said, he did not need Tao any more to open up a dialogue.

“Cultural differences between Chinese and foreigners are smaller now,” he said. “And I’m sufficiently well known.”

Critic Luo Fei, curator of the TCG Nordica gallery in Kunming, said that Ouairy was “playing a very interesting game with identity”.

“His sensibility towards China is different from that of a Chinese person; his mode of expression is one that’s looking in from the outside.

“If it were a Chinese artist, they’d avoid making art like this, because if they did, people would say that they’re copying others.

“But if you’re a foreigner, then people will know that you’re looking at things from a different perspective.”

In a 2009 blog post, Evan Osnos, author of the critically acclaimed Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth and Faith in the New China, praised a Tao Hongjing work in neon lights called “To Get Rich is Glorious,” a reference to comments by Deng Xiaoping as he began to reform China’s economy.

“I’m not really shocked that the artist was not as advertised,” Osnos told AFP. “It seems like this French artist truly absorbed the determination to get rich. We can call it performance art — but not Chinese art.”

The first car bearing Infiniti’s new “Q”-based nomenclature, the Q50 first launched in 2013 as the world’s first car with advanced steer-by-wire technology. Succeeded the superbly sporty, smooth and capable but sometimes unsung G-Sedan, the Q50’s sharply styling and urgent and striking design lines well-suited the premium brand’s association with the then Formula One championship-winning Infiniti Red Bull.

An innovative, strikingly assertive and refined compact executive saloon pitched against cars like the Audi A4, BMW 3-Series, Mercedes-Benz C-Class and Jaguar XE, the Q50 2.0T is among the sportier in its class. Complementing the Q50’s more powerful V6 models, the turbocharged 2-litre 2.0T version driven offers improved fuel efficiency and confident mid-range ability.

Sculpted and sophisticated

Founded in 1989 with US market in its sights and recently relocated to Hong Kong for a more global repositioning, Nissan-owned Infiniti shares conceptual similarities with Toyota’s Lexus brand, but with dramatic design, luxurious execution and sporty instinct, is closer to BMW. Discrete and not beholden to outdated preconceptions as some rivals, Infiniti enjoys a dark horse sense of appeal.

A complex but uncomplicated and fluidly assertive design, the Infiniti Q50 is slightly larger in dimension to its predecessor, and features distinctly muscular and sculpted surfacing, with low 0.26 aerodynamic drag co-efficient and zero lift. Moodily aggressive, the Q50 features squinting browed headlights and wide honeycomb grille, which are separated by ridged lines trailing to the A-pillars. 

Emphasising its’ rearwards cabin and classic front-engine, rear-drive layout, the Q50 features short front overhang and a generous distance between A-pillars and wheel-arches. Sophisticated and urgent with a demeanour brimming with dynamic tension, the Q50’s chiselled front bumper, rear window kinks, dual tailpipes and built-in rear spoiler create a sporty sense of forward motion even when motionless.

Confident and efficient

Offered with either 3.7-litre or 3.5-litre hybrid V6 engines when first launched, the Q50 2.0T however arrived last year with a 2-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine. Intended for China and developing markets like Jordan, the 2.0T is confident, efficient and downsized and is part of a more diversified and globally-minded Q50 model range that was offered by its’ G-sedan predecessor.

Sourced from Mercedes-Benz as part of technological partnership and used by its Mercedes C250 rival, the Infiniti Q50 2.0T’s direct injection 2

-litre engine produces 208BHP at 5500rpm and a versatile 258lb/ft throughout a 1250-3500rpm mid-range. Driving its rear wheels via a smooth and quick shifting 7-speed automatic gearbox, the 2.0T delivers modest 6.3l/100km combined cycle fuel consumption.

Responsively muscular, the 2.0T suffers scant turbo lag from tickover and pulls hard from low-end. A wide, early-arriving and healthy torque band provides consistently solid mid-range ability and versatility for confident hill climbs and overtaking. Dispatching the 0-100km/h dash in 7.2-seconds, the 2.0T’s delivery is consistent and generous as accumulates maximum power, and is capable of a 230km/h top speed.

Finesse and fluency

Riding on fixed-rate double wishbone front and multi-link rear suspension, the Q50 is refined, smooth and settled at speed. Through winding roads, the 2.0T version driven offers agile, pointy and responsive handling. With lighter front-end, drift-friendly instinct and near ideal weight balance, the Q50 delivers neutral, predictable, adjustable and progressive at-the-limit handling. 

Best finessed through hill climbs and switchbacks with tidy inputs and an intuitively technical driving, rather thrashed against electronic stability thresholds, the Q50 proved rewardingly exploitable and accessible. Quick, refined and fluent mechanical steering rather than optional steer-by-wire provides crisp and eager turn-in. If entering too fast or tight, slight understeer is easily corrected by pivoting weight transfer to the outside rear and tightening the cornering line. 

Controlled and taut through sprawling switchbacks, the Q50 is confident and precise, turning in smoothly, swiftly and gripping well at the rear when leaned on. Precisely driven, the Q50 is fluent, tidy and swift out of corners, as one comes smoothly back on throttle by apex, to maintain traction, and simultaneously begins smoothly unlocking the steering.

Sophisticated and spacious

Reassuring and convenient the Q50’s 225/55R17 run-flat tyres free up boot space for a 500-litre total volume. And with its’ stiff run-flat sidewalls and sporty suspension, the Q50 rides slightly firm, but is settled, smooth and refined from harshness, noise and vibrations, and remains buttoned down over imperfections and on rebound.

Sophisticated and well-appointed, the Q50’s cabin features quality leathers, soft textures and rear passenger room better than most competitors. Luxurious but not overstated, the Q50’s well-adjustable seats and steering provide an alert driving position, and instrumentation and controls are intuitively driver-oriented, and include two large infotainment touch screens, from which driving mode menus are accessed.

Well-equipped, the driven Q50 2.0T featured Active Lane Control driver assistance, reversing camera, parking sensors and Active Trace Control, which uses selective braking for enhanced cornering agility. Fitted with dual zone climate control, USB and Bluetooth connectivity, cruise control, sunroof and Isofix childseat latches, the 2.0T also features other standard and optional equipment.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

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

Bore x stroke: 83 x 92mm

Compression: 9.8:1

Valve-train: 16 valve, DOHC, direct injection

Gearbox: 7 speed automatic, rear-wheel-drive

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 208 (211) 155 @5500rpm

Specific power: 104.5BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 121.28BHP/tonne

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 258 (350) @1250-3500rpm

Specific torque: 175.79Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight: 204.08Nm/litre

0-100km/h: 7.2 seconds

Top speed: 245km/h

Fuel consumption, urban/extra-urban/combined: 8.6/5/6.3 litres/100km

CO2 emissions, combined: 146g/km

Fuel capacity: 80 litres

Height: 1445mm

Width: 1820mm

Length: 4790mm

Wheelbase: 2850mm

Track, F/R: 1540/1570mm

Aerodynamic drag co-efficient: 0.26

Kerb weight: 1715kg

Luggage volume: 500 litres

Steering: Electric-assisted rack and pinion

Turning diameter: 11.4-metres

Suspension, F/R: Double wishbones/multi-link, twin tube dampers, stabiliser bars

Brakes, F/R: Ventilated discs, 330mm/308mm

Tyres: 225/55R17

Price, as tested: JD47,900 on-the-road, no insurance

War Against the People: Israel, the Palestinians and Global Pacification

Jeff Halper

London: Pluto Press, 2015

Pp. 340

The myriad of facts and insights contained in Jeff Halper’s new book are nothing short of mind-boggling. While one may be familiar with the origins and development of the Israeli arms industry, “War against the People” covers the exponential expansion and diversification of its production and sales to become a humongous network reaching every corner of the world. Crucially, Israel has not simply increased, but qualitatively retooled its weapons manufacturing to match evolving global conditions. 

Halper is an anthropologist and anti-occupation activist who heads the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions. As he points out, human rights activists like himself have not focused on the details of how armaments and security systems work. Yet, as he began wondering how Israel gets away with continuing the occupation of Palestine despite the international community’s professed opposition, he found the answer in its military industries. In short, Israel has succeeded in turning its military and security prowess into political influence by using occupied Palestine as a laboratory for testing new weapons, security and surveillance systems and counter-insurgency tactics, selling these to others, from the US to China. As countries benefit from Israeli goods and expertise in such vital fields, supportive political relations usually evolve and the beneficiaries are less likely to vote against Israel at the UN, for example.

What Halper terms securitisation means securing global capitalism, ensuring the flow of capital, resources, and being able to deal with resistance. With the ever-widening gap between rich and poor, escalated by neoliberal privatisation and cutbacks in public services, resistance is increasing. While inter-state wars are becoming less frequent, they have been replaced by civil wars, asymmetrical wars involving non-state actors, insurgency and counter-insurgency, or a combination of the above. 

“In these conflicts, that admittedly can’t be won and which entail prolonged periods of occupation, core militaries are by necessity being ‘policized’.” (p. 24)

Meanwhile, police are becoming more militarised, even in countries that espouse democracy. The aim is not so much victory as pacification of whatever forces challenge the status quo, whether Palestinians under occupation, slum dwellers in Brazil who are “in the way” of gentrification, impoverished Africans caught in a struggle over scarce resources, or marginalised ethnic or religious communities. As Halper points out, civilian casualties predominate in such warfare that is fought in urban areas, “among the people”.

Pacification involves standard armed forces, but police, security agencies, elite forces, paramilitaries and prison systems assume pivotal roles. Israel has all these types of forces, much experience in this kind of permanent conflict, battle-tested weapons, and security and surveillance technology that other countries need—all by virtue of continuing the occupation. From this angle, the occupation is a major source of profit and political clout, giving Israel zero incentive to seek a solution with the Palestinians. 

To prove these points, Halper painstakingly shows how Israel reached its status as the most militarised country in the world and the seventh largest arms exporter, tracing the development of its battle and security doctrines and major weapons systems. He applies a precise analysis to subjects that are often oversimplified, such as how Israel manages to maintain its strategic relations with major imperialist powers, chiefly the US, but also leverages its prerogative to act independently. Subsequent chapters describe the nuts and bolts of Israel’s military and security cooperation with countries around the world.

Central to his analysis of how Israel successfully markets its model of long-term pacification, Halper outlines what he calls the Matrix of Control derived from military rule over the Palestinians since 1948, controlling every aspect of their lives with laws, military orders, repression and surveillance — whether by drones or nanotechnology, in between unleashing rounds of overwhelming military force. It is here that the descriptions of advanced surveillance technology are truly mind-boggling, far too complicated to be covered in this review, and very scary in terms of how such devices disrupt and endanger, not only people’s privacy, but undermine their humanity and lives. 

However, Halper’s intent is not to scare. He believes that pacification and “war against the people” can be resisted but first progressives must put this misuse of technology on their agenda. In the meantime, his analysis is very useful for understanding not only the ongoing occupation of Palestine, but also the other wars raging in this area, where the Israeli role is only indirect, but nonetheless influential.