As if I needed further reminding that I'm old and hopelessly out of step with modern sensibilities, I attended UFC 129 in Toronto, Canada, a few weeks ago. My ears were pounded by loud, what-I'm-assuming-was-heavy metal music, I was cramped and sweaty in a stadium best reserved for baseball and, more importantly, I was bored to tears by the fights. Boxing, as has been chronicled ad nauseam in recent years, is on the wane and mixed martial arts (MMA) ascendant. Ironic then that the only fight that provided sustained excitement was the featherweight title match between Brazilian champion Jose Aldo and Ontario, Canada's truly heroic Mark Hominick; it was more exciting than the rest of the snooze-fests simply because it better emulated a boxing match. The main event - between the UFC's most famous athlete, a Quebecker named Georges St Pierre, and Jake Shields, of the US - only served to prove that neither combatant could punch their way out of a wet paper bag.
But it matters not one iota that it wasn't my cup o' tea. For the 55,000 screaming MMA fans - the biggest crowd in UFC history - that filled Toronto's Rogers Stadium to the rafters, it was pure, unadulterated delirium. And even if their enthusiasm was fuelled by just a tad too much Red Bull, it was genuine; what a spectacle UFC 129 turned out to be.
Anyone deriding the UFC as mindless violence is only right on one count. There is absolutely nothing at all mindless about the UFC marketing machine, and its president, Dana White, may well be a genius. Whether it's the fast-paced timing between the numerous bouts that never lets the adrenaline of the attention-deficited generation dwindle or the way that all of the athletes, no matter how rich or famous, acquiesce to each and every fan's request for a hug/picture/autograph, the Ultimate Fighting Championship is a well-oiled marketing machine that has completely enthralled the 18 to 34-year-old demographic.
Which is exactly why Harley-Davidson is a title sponsor of the championship (full disclosure here, Harley took me to the event, but considering what I wrote above, one could hardly consider it a bribe). Harley, like virtually every other motorcycle manufacturer, is facing one huge, looming crisis; the ageing of its core clientele. Like every other market they touch, Boomers dominate the motorcycle industry, especially for those expensive road kings that generate so much profit for corporate coffers.
The problem is that, depending on whose study you're attributing, the average age for a North American motorcyclist is between 40 and 50 years old. The American Motorcycle Association, for instance, says the average age of its members is 48, while the American Motorcycle Industry Council's most recent survey, in 2008, had the average age at 43 years old, up five years from 1998 and a whopping 19 years older than the average biker was in the 1980s. JD Power and Harley-Davidson peg the average age for an American motorcyclist at 49. Even in Europe, traditionally more bike mad than North America, motorcycling is no longer a young man's sport.
Essentially, the industry has failed to attract new customers and has relied almost entirely on the same - albeit more aged - clientele for the past quarter of a century. Perhaps even more troubling is that we ageing motorcyclists seem particularly prone to injury, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, recently found a 145 per cent increase in fatalities among motorcyclists age 65 and over. Anyway you cut it, we're an ageing bunch, perilously close to trading in our bikes for RVs, and that has motorcycle manufacturers scrambling for a new, and younger, clientele.
Hence, Harley-Davidson's association with UFC. As loud and testosterone-fuelled as the audience may have been, they are definitely Milwaukee's new target market. Every time Harley was announced as a title sponsor, it was cheered. The whole time the cameras were looking down on the combatants in the octagon, there again was the Harley-Davidson logo. And although Harley officials would never admit it out loud, I'm sure that both MMA and Milwaukee enjoying reputations as hardcore rebels only adds to the mating.
It's all part of a plan, say company officials, to lure the young and freewheeling. Indeed, after a few misfires (does anyone remember the Buell Blast? More importantly, does anyone want to?), the motorcycle company has been quite effective in attracting a younger audience. New products such as the Iron 883, Cross Bones and the 48 are mixing the right proportions of retro sentimentality with modernistic aggressiveness and then selling them at prices North America's young (that should be read poor) can afford.
It seems to be working. Despite its image as catering to balding dentists and corporate CEOs, Harley-Davidson claims it is also No 1 in the all-important 18 to 34-year-old demographic in the over-650cc category. According to Paul James, Harley USA's communications manager, it's all part of a Facebook and UFC-led onslaught to woo Generation Y.
Perhaps the most novel programme, however, is Harley's new "Jumpstart" demonstration. Realising that both its image and its motorcycles can be intimidating to neophytes, the company has set up demonstration booths in selected dealerships - including in Dubai, as detailed in last week's Motoring - that sees a working motorcycle strapped down in a stationary frame allowing customers to start the engine, run through the gears and gun the throttle (for enthusiasts, imagine a "dyno" without the horsepower measurement) until their heart's content.
Personally, I don't care what encourages the young to ride. If social media and Ultimate Fighting Championships convince youngsters that swinging a leg over a motorcycle is a good thing, then personal antipathies be damned. The young, after all, are the future of motorcycling. And, it seems, boxing-loving, magazine-reading old fogies like Yours Truly are its past.
The specs
Engine: four-litre V6 and 3.5-litre V6 twin-turbo
Transmission: six-speed and 10-speed
Power: 271 and 409 horsepower
Torque: 385 and 650Nm
Price: from Dh229,900 to Dh355,000
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Three ways to limit your social media use
Clinical psychologist, Dr Saliha Afridi at The Lighthouse Arabia suggests three easy things you can do every day to cut back on the time you spend online.
1. Put the social media app in a folder on the second or third screen of your phone so it has to remain a conscious decision to open, rather than something your fingers gravitate towards without consideration.
2. Schedule a time to use social media instead of consistently throughout the day. I recommend setting aside certain times of the day or week when you upload pictures or share information.
3. Take a mental snapshot rather than a photo on your phone. Instead of sharing it with your social world, try to absorb the moment, connect with your feeling, experience the moment with all five of your senses. You will have a memory of that moment more vividly and for far longer than if you take a picture of it.
Our legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
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The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
Soldier F
“I was in complete disgust at the fact that only one person was to be charged for Bloody Sunday.
“Somebody later said to me, 'you just watch - they'll drop the charge against him'. And sure enough, the charges against Soldier F would go on to be dropped.
“It's pretty hard to think that 50 years on, the State is still covering up for what happened on Bloody Sunday.”
Jimmy Duddy, nephew of John Johnson
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Book%20Details
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In numbers
1,000 tonnes of waste collected daily:
- 800 tonnes converted into alternative fuel
- 150 tonnes to landfill
- 50 tonnes sold as scrap metal
800 tonnes of RDF replaces 500 tonnes of coal
Two conveyor lines treat more than 350,000 tonnes of waste per year
25 staff on site
Can NRIs vote in the election?
Indians residing overseas cannot cast their ballot abroad
Non-resident Indians or NRIs can vote only by going to a polling booth in their home constituency
There are about 3.1 million NRIs living overseas
Indians have urged political parties to extend the right to vote to citizens residing overseas
A committee of the Election Commission of India approved of proxy voting for non-resident Indians
Proxy voting means that a person can authorise someone residing in the same polling booth area to cast a vote on his behalf.
This option is currently available for the armed forces, police and government officials posted outside India
A bill was passed in the lower house of India’s parliament or the Lok Sabha to extend proxy voting to non-resident Indians
However, this did not come before the upper house or Rajya Sabha and has lapsed
The issue of NRI voting draws a huge amount of interest in India and overseas
Over the past few months, Indians have received messages on mobile phones and on social media claiming that NRIs can cast their votes online
The Election Commission of India then clarified that NRIs could not vote online
The Election Commission lodged a complaint with the Delhi Police asking it to clamp down on the people spreading misinformation
Quick pearls of wisdom
Focus on gratitude: And do so deeply, he says. “Think of one to three things a day that you’re grateful for. It needs to be specific, too, don’t just say ‘air.’ Really think about it. If you’re grateful for, say, what your parents have done for you, that will motivate you to do more for the world.”
Know how to fight: Shetty married his wife, Radhi, three years ago (he met her in a meditation class before he went off and became a monk). He says they’ve had to learn to respect each other’s “fighting styles” – he’s a talk it-out-immediately person, while she needs space to think. “When you’re having an argument, remember, it’s not you against each other. It’s both of you against the problem. When you win, they lose. If you’re on a team you have to win together.”
'Lost in Space'
Creators: Matt Sazama, Burk Sharpless, Irwin Allen
Stars: Molly Parker, Toby Stephens, Maxwell Jenkins
Rating: 4/5
The specs: 2018 BMW R nineT Scrambler
Price, base / as tested Dh57,000
Engine 1,170cc air/oil-cooled flat twin four-stroke engine
Transmission Six-speed gearbox
Power 110hp) @ 7,750rpm
Torque 116Nm @ 6,000rpm
Fuel economy, combined 5.3L / 100km
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
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
THE SPECS
Engine: 6.75-litre twin-turbocharged V12 petrol engine
Power: 420kW
Torque: 780Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh1,350,000
On sale: Available for preorder now
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.
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, Leon.
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
More on Quran memorisation:
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GREATEST ROYAL RUMBLE CARD
The line-up as it stands for the Greatest Royal Rumble in Saudi Arabia on April 27
50-man Royal Rumble
Universal Championship
Brock Lesnar (champion) v Roman Reigns
Casket match
The Undertaker v Rusev
Intercontinental Championship
Seth Rollins (champion) v The Miz v Finn Balor v Samoa Joe
SmackDown Tag Team Championship
The Bludgeon Brothers v The Usos
Raw Tag Team Championship
Sheamus and Cesaro v Bray Wyatt and Matt Hardy
United States Championship
Jeff Hardy (champion) v Jinder Mahal
Singles match
Triple H v John Cena
To be confirmed
AJ Styles will defend his WWE World Heavyweight title and Cedric Alexander his Cruiserweight Championship, but matches have yet to be announced
What is an ETF?
An exchange traded fund is a type of investment fund that can be traded quickly and easily, just like stocks and shares. They come with no upfront costs aside from your brokerage's dealing charges and annual fees, which are far lower than on traditional mutual investment funds. Charges are as low as 0.03 per cent on one of the very cheapest (and most popular), Vanguard S&P 500 ETF, with the maximum around 0.75 per cent.
There is no fund manager deciding which stocks and other assets to invest in, instead they passively track their chosen index, country, region or commodity, regardless of whether it goes up or down.
The first ETF was launched as recently as 1993, but the sector boasted $5.78 billion in assets under management at the end of September as inflows hit record highs, according to the latest figures from ETFGI, a leading independent research and consultancy firm.
There are thousands to choose from, with the five largest providers BlackRock’s iShares, Vanguard, State Street Global Advisers, Deutsche Bank X-trackers and Invesco PowerShares.
While the best-known track major indices such as MSCI World, the S&P 500 and FTSE 100, you can also invest in specific countries or regions, large, medium or small companies, government bonds, gold, crude oil, cocoa, water, carbon, cattle, corn futures, currency shifts or even a stock market crash.
Bharatanatyam
A ancient classical dance from the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Intricate footwork and expressions are used to denote spiritual stories and ideas.
German intelligence warnings
- 2002: "Hezbollah supporters feared becoming a target of security services because of the effects of [9/11] ... discussions on Hezbollah policy moved from mosques into smaller circles in private homes." Supporters in Germany: 800
- 2013: "Financial and logistical support from Germany for Hezbollah in Lebanon supports the armed struggle against Israel ... Hezbollah supporters in Germany hold back from actions that would gain publicity." Supporters in Germany: 950
- 2023: "It must be reckoned with that Hezbollah will continue to plan terrorist actions outside the Middle East against Israel or Israeli interests." Supporters in Germany: 1,250
Source: Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution
Veere di Wedding
Dir: Shashanka Ghosh
Starring: Kareena Kapoo-Khan, Sonam Kapoor, Swara Bhaskar and Shikha Talsania
Verdict: 4 Stars
Company Profile
Company name: OneOrder
Started: October 2021
Founders: Tamer Amer and Karim Maurice
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Industry: technology, logistics
Investors: A15 and self-funded
The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
On sale: Now