The interview had been slated for late November, when the Palestinian musician Jowan Safadi would offer his unique perspective on a rock music that transcends all borders. The story of an avant-garde Arab rock artist who has played in both the Arab and Jewish worlds could not, after all, be less than revealing – about perspectives and tensions and the language of song. We were setting it up, but he had a gig in Jordan and said he might briefly be off the grid.
Then, radio – or rather, Facebook – silence. For two weeks. No communication. What, had the guy flaked?
And then the story broke out. Safadi had played in Amman with his band FishSamak, the first of two scheduled shows. “The gig was really good,” he says now. The after-show, not so much. Safadi had been hauled into a police station on November 27 before an acoustic gig in the Rainbow Theatre and jailed for 26 hours, having run afoul of authorities for “insulting religion” with a song, The Believers, deemed blasphemous. He had been shunted about the Jordanian prison system.
A “Free Jowan” campaign burst forth on the internet, as the Twitterati fought back under the hashtag #FreeJowanSafadi. Combined with pressure from lawyers, the campaign worked. Now back home in Haifa, he says: “It was a nightmare, man.”
“The uncertainty … they take your phone and your connection to the world and you’re in a cage with all these other people, not knowing where you’re going next,” he says in impeccably thoughtful English. “You’re transferred from place to place with chains on your hands. That was scary. And then you’re supposed be ‘a star’, to go on a stage with a guitar in front of people.”
Yes, you are, and yes, you do, because you are a musician with a complex and challenging trajectory. You have a history that challenges both spheres, and you are in more ways than one a man without a country. “For many years,” Safadi says, “that was the case.”
Both territorially and musically, Safadi’s story is a singularity – even for a Palestinian avant-garde rock songwriter. Born in Nazareth, his father was – surprise – a carpenter. “We even used to live on the same street as Mary and Joseph,” he jokes. And so even then, he was straddling boundaries.
Safadi started his career in Beersheba at the dawn of the new millennium, with an accidentally radical idea. He was a musical neophyte – “I hadn’t been much of a guitarist or singer back then” – so he enlisted some of the local players, who happened to be Israelis. Lenzez, the band, or “musical project” as he describes it, may have been the first and only Arab-Jewish group in the Middle East. “I didn’t really think about it then,” he says. “I was living in Beersheba and eager to make music. I didn’t question backgrounds or nationalities or religion. The people who were there were open enough to go through that experience with me.”
With a rotating line-up driven by Safadi’s songs and ideas, Lenzez played on the indie, underground Israeli scene, in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. He says the challenge was “mainly musical, combining punk and Arabic music with experimental, lo-fi. With that Arabic vibe”.
The audiences were tiny, but for the most part receptive. “Alternative listeners are a little more aware.” But there was controversy when he intersected with the mainstream. “Whenever I gave interviews in the Israeli press, they tried to make a big deal out of me being an Arab making indie music.”
Eventually, they ran out of steam for the expectedly complex reasons. “Anyway, we couldn’t make it bigger in Lenzez – not on the Arab scene, with songs in Arabic with Israelis in the band. The band was too avant-garde for them anyway. And not on the Israeli scene, singing in Arabic.”
And there was something else, he said. “After the Second Intifada I became much more politicised. I wanted to return to my Arabic roots and culture.” He had already released an album sung in Arabic, pointedly entitled I?D. “Given the political situation, I no longer had the privilege of not choosing a side. And I felt that I was involving the people around me beyond being just players in my songs.” Lenzez dissolved after three albums in 2007.
But there were new issues to face. In rock terms, one can be without a country even in one’s own. “There are still no real Arabic rock venues in all of Palestine. I think there might be one in Ramallah. You have to use an Israeli place. Sure, there are theatres, but it’s not the same feeling or environment or acoustics as a club.”
He adds: “It’s not because of the Israelis, it’s because this whole thing is so new to us. It’s all improvisation. We take a place that’s a restaurant or a bar and create a stage.”
Safadi calls the music he’s making now “Free Arabic Rock” or “Hafla (Party) Rock”. The latest album title, Namrud (Troublemaker), indicates he has no intention of backing down, despite the recent hardships. And in any case, he’d already experienced the same, from the other side.
The Jordan incident has exposed Safadi to a larger audience, but has also compromised his freedom to take advantage of it. He’s been offered gigs in Egypt and Tunis but “there is tension now”, he says. The hate mail he’s receiving proves it. A man without a country? Maybe he should go to New York.
“Oh, I don’t know about that,” he says, and given his background, one might see his point.
Brief scores:
Juventus 3
Dybala 6', Bonucci 17', Ronaldo 63'
Frosinone 0
Company%C2%A0profile
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How green is the expo nursery?
Some 400,000 shrubs and 13,000 trees in the on-site nursery
An additional 450,000 shrubs and 4,000 trees to be delivered in the months leading up to the expo
Ghaf, date palm, acacia arabica, acacia tortilis, vitex or sage, techoma and the salvadora are just some heat tolerant native plants in the nursery
Approximately 340 species of shrubs and trees selected for diverse landscape
The nursery team works exclusively with organic fertilisers and pesticides
All shrubs and trees supplied by Dubai Municipality
Most sourced from farms, nurseries across the country
Plants and trees are re-potted when they arrive at nursery to give them room to grow
Some mature trees are in open areas or planted within the expo site
Green waste is recycled as compost
Treated sewage effluent supplied by Dubai Municipality is used to meet the majority of the nursery’s irrigation needs
Construction workforce peaked at 40,000 workers
About 65,000 people have signed up to volunteer
Main themes of expo is ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’ and three subthemes of opportunity, mobility and sustainability.
Expo 2020 Dubai to open in October 2020 and run for six months
Ain Dubai in numbers
126: The length in metres of the legs supporting the structure
1 football pitch: The length of each permanent spoke is longer than a professional soccer pitch
16 A380 Airbuses: The equivalent weight of the wheel rim.
9,000 tonnes: The amount of steel used to construct the project.
5 tonnes: The weight of each permanent spoke that is holding the wheel rim in place
192: The amount of cable wires used to create the wheel. They measure a distance of 2,4000km in total, the equivalent of the distance between Dubai and Cairo.
'Saand Ki Aankh'
Produced by: Reliance Entertainment with Chalk and Cheese Films
Director: Tushar Hiranandani
Cast: Taapsee Pannu, Bhumi Pednekar, Prakash Jha, Vineet Singh
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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88 Video's most popular rentals
Avengers 3: Infinity War: an American superhero film released in 2018 and based on the Marvel Comics story.
Sholay: a 1975 Indian action-adventure film. It follows the adventures of two criminals hired by police to catch a vagabond. The film was panned on release but is now considered a classic.
Lucifer: is a 2019 Malayalam-language action film. It dives into the gritty world of Kerala’s politics and has become one of the highest-grossing Malayalam films of all time.
Company%20profile%20
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Company profile
Name: Dukkantek
Started: January 2021
Founders: Sanad Yaghi, Ali Al Sayegh and Shadi Joulani
Based: UAE
Number of employees: 140
Sector: B2B Vertical SaaS(software as a service)
Investment: $5.2 million
Funding stage: Seed round
Investors: Global Founders Capital, Colle Capital Partners, Wamda Capital, Plug and Play, Comma Capital, Nowais Capital, Annex Investments and AMK Investment Office
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre, six-cylinder
Transmission: six-speed manual
Power: 395bhp
Torque: 420Nm
Price: from Dh321,200
On sale: now
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
The%C2%A0specs%20
%3Cp%3E%0D%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E6-cylinder%2C%204.8-litre%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETransmission%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E5-speed%20automatic%20and%20manual%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E280%20brake%20horsepower%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E451Nm%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3Efrom%20Dh153%2C00%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EOn%20sale%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3Enow%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
The biog:
From: Wimbledon, London, UK
Education: Medical doctor
Hobbies: Travelling, meeting new people and cultures
Favourite animals: All of them
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
The Porpoise
By Mark Haddon
(Penguin Random House)
The specs
Engine: 2.7-litre 4-cylinder Turbomax
Power: 310hp
Torque: 583Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh192,500
On sale: Now
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Overview
What: The Arab Women’s Sports Tournament is a biennial multisport event exclusively for Arab women athletes.
When: From Sunday, February 2, to Wednesday, February 12.
Where: At 13 different centres across Sharjah.
Disciplines: Athletics, archery, basketball, fencing, Karate, table tennis, shooting (rifle and pistol), show jumping and volleyball.
Participating countries: Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Qatar and UAE.
If you go
The Flights
Emirates and Etihad fly direct to Johannesburg from Dubai and Abu Dhabi respectively. Economy return tickets cost from Dh2,650, including taxes.
The trip
Worldwide Motorhoming Holidays (worldwidemotorhomingholidays.co.uk) operates fly-drive motorhome holidays in eight destinations, including South Africa. Its 14-day Kruger and the Battlefields itinerary starts from Dh17,500, including campgrounds, excursions, unit hire and flights. Bobo Campers has a range of RVs for hire, including the 4-berth Discoverer 4 from Dh600 per day.
Winners
Best Men's Player of the Year: Kylian Mbappe (PSG)
Maradona Award for Best Goal Scorer of the Year: Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich)
TikTok Fans’ Player of the Year: Robert Lewandowski
Top Goal Scorer of All Time: Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United)
Best Women's Player of the Year: Alexia Putellas (Barcelona)
Best Men's Club of the Year: Chelsea
Best Women's Club of the Year: Barcelona
Best Defender of the Year: Leonardo Bonucci (Juventus/Italy)
Best Goalkeeper of the Year: Gianluigi Donnarumma (PSG/Italy)
Best Coach of the Year: Roberto Mancini (Italy)
Best National Team of the Year: Italy
Best Agent of the Year: Federico Pastorello
Best Sporting Director of the Year: Txiki Begiristain (Manchester City)
Player Career Award: Ronaldinho
