Supermarkets are brilliant at ensuring that cherries from Tasmania make their way to the UAE, but less than great at teaching kids that the food we put on our plates isn’t just another commodity. That’s unless you turn the aisles into a classroom. My daughters spent three wonderful weeks in Austria with friends last summer, for example, and they were easy-going guests. Except in the local supermarket, the mum told me with a laugh, where they examined food labels for evidence of palm oil. Shopping became quite a long drawn-out process and Nutella was immediately off the breakfast table. I was amazed that my children had taken conversations about deforestation to heart, but it gave me hope that other discussions around food and the consequences of the choices we make would also stick. Next up: how to build on the message that what we eat counts.
Good cooks are better eaters
Bringing food out of plastic wrapping and turning it into the ingredients that make up a tasty meal is an important part of creating a healthy curiosity for home-cooked food. Start gently by choosing an easy-to-make dish that contains ingredients you know your kids like. Let them lead the process from cupboard to chopping board to table, and with any luck they'll at least taste what they've prepared – they might even like it. The Best-Ever Step-by-Step Kid's First Cookbook by Nancy McDougall is a great place for 5- to 12-year-olds to start.
Find a guru
Children are good at absorbing information – and even better at rejecting good advice from their parents on subjects such as why broccoli is better for you than Turkish delight. Instead of enjoying a family movie, sit down and watch a really good TV show that explores (and sells) the role that good food plays in a healthy growing body. Make a plan on how you can put what you have learnt into practice as a family.
Remember the tips from toddler training
Whether or not you followed bestselling author Annabel Karmel's advice on how to wean your baby, a legion of mums swear by her genius at smuggling carrots into spaghetti Bolognese. Try Karmel's recipe for spiced apple, squash and carrot muffins from her newest cookery book, Real Food Kids Will Love, and see if your kids rumble the squash beneath the sweetness of the apple.
They’re watching. All the time
Asking your children to eat healthily demands that parents and carers lead by example. Don’t expect your kids to relish their extra-large portion of greens, if you are having a handful of peanuts and half a packet of grated cheese for supper as you police the dinner table. Eating together, discussing what’s not to love about Brussels sprouts, helps children to develop a vocabulary for tastes and textures. It also encourages them to engage with food and build a less passive, more considered relationship with what’s on their plate.
What’s for lunch?
School dinners are a boon for busy parents, removing the stress of grubbing around in the fridge to conjure up an appealing packed lunch at 6.30am every weekday morning. And there’s no doubt that schools in Abu Dhabi and elsewhere are trying much harder to provide balanced meals, often made with organic ingredients. If your child comes home grey-faced and spoiling for a fight, demanding something chock-full of carbs to snack on, however, it’s likely that they haven’t eaten what’s on the canteen menu. Packed lunches are a better bet for slightly fussy eaters, and cannot be beaten if you want to know exactly what and how much your kids are eating at school. It’s a giant pain to prepare, but a packed lunch, tailor-made to your child’s taste buds, is the best way to guarantee that a healthy balanced meal with a mix of proteins, carbohydrates, fruits and veggies, cheese, milk or yoghurt meets its intended target. Forget juices and go with water to wash it down.
Ban fast food
This is a really tough one because life seems to make a point of conspiring to bust well-made plans and good parenting intentions. But don’t succumb to cheap, easy meals on the go. Far better to pack so many healthy snacks that the bag on your shoulder is full to bursting point, and hand out slices of apple, rice cakes and dates like confetti, instead. There’s nothing like the occasional bucket of fried chicken to confuse and undermine a healthy-eating message.
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Read more:
Your guide to navigating the new digital classroom
Top tips for beating those back-to-school blues
UAE parents angry at rising cost of 'poor quality' school uniforms
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The specs: Hyundai Ionic Hybrid
Price, base: Dh117,000 (estimate)
Engine: 1.6L four-cylinder, with 1.56kWh battery
Transmission: Six-speed automatic
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The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
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Winner: Dasan Da, Saeed Al Mazrooei (jockey), Helal Al Alawi (trainer)
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Winner: AF Saabah, Tadhg O’Shea, Ernst Oertel
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7.30pm: Handicap (TB) | Dh100,000 | 1,600m
Winner: Juthoor, Jim Crowley, Erwan Charpy
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
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%20specs
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Women%E2%80%99s%20T20%20World%20Cup%20Qualifier
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About Tenderd
Started: May 2018
Founder: Arjun Mohan
Based: Dubai
Size: 23 employees
Funding: Raised $5.8m in a seed fund round in December 2018. Backers include Y Combinator, Beco Capital, Venturesouq, Paul Graham, Peter Thiel, Paul Buchheit, Justin Mateen, Matt Mickiewicz, SOMA, Dynamo and Global Founders Capital
The specs
Engine: Dual 180kW and 300kW front and rear motors
Power: 480kW
Torque: 850Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
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On sale: Now
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
Dubai Bling season three
Cast: Loujain Adada, Zeina Khoury, Farhana Bodi, Ebraheem Al Samadi, Mona Kattan, and couples Safa & Fahad Siddiqui and DJ Bliss & Danya Mohammed
Rating: 1/5
Company%20Profile
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
BIGGEST CYBER SECURITY INCIDENTS IN RECENT TIMES
SolarWinds supply chain attack: Came to light in December 2020 but had taken root for several months, compromising major tech companies, governments and its entities
Microsoft Exchange server exploitation: March 2021; attackers used a vulnerability to steal emails
Kaseya attack: July 2021; ransomware hit perpetrated REvil, resulting in severe downtime for more than 1,000 companies
Log4j breach: December 2021; attackers exploited the Java-written code to inflitrate businesses and governments
MATCH RESULT
Al Jazira 3 Persepolis 2
Jazira: Mabkhout (52'), Romarinho (77'), Al Hammadi (90' 6)
Persepolis: Alipour (42'), Mensha (84')
