Thousands of people will have taken part in carrying a baton along its almost 8,000-kilometre relay through 18 countries from Glasgow, which hosted Cop26, to Cop27 host Sharm El Sheikh by the time it arrives for the summit in early November.
But organisers of the Running Out of Time relay to raise climate change awareness say people are literally running out of time to take part and there are still spaces open for the 275-kilometre Egypt segment.
Only eight people have registered so far for the 27 stages in the Sinai Peninsula that start at the Taba border crossing with Israel and end in Sharm El Sheikh, the site of the UN climate summit that is set to begin on November 6.
Running Out of Time’s operations director Hetty Key said she is not concerned and that “by and large, we see sign-ups fairly close to the event”.
Participants can run, cycle or sail in their stage, with the minimum number of people per stage being one and the maximum 25.
The organisers have dealt with many logistical challenges during the non-stop relay that started on September 30 — from “last-minute drop-outs at 1 am” to navigating a glacier crossing in the Alps.
“It is never a dull day,” Ms Key said.
On November 4, the baton will cross the Israeli-Egyptian border, which organisers have co-ordinated carefully “to make sure there aren’t any issues” and that “we have everything in place”, she said.
Sinai desert run
The main challenges in the Egyptian section of the race are the heat and remoteness of Sinai, a sparsely populated desert region with few roads and barren mountains.
The relay will pass through small fishing towns along the Red Sea’s Gulf of Aqaba. The only places that attract some tourists are Dahab and, to a lesser extent, Nuweiba and Taba further north.
After finding out about the relay through Running Out of Time’s Twitter account, James Scanlan, an Arabic-English translator, registered for three stages of the race and will complete 27km near Dahab on the morning of November 5.
“I loved the idea and I love running, [especially in] support of alternative, human-powered means of travel”, Mr Scanlan told The National.
Mr Scanlan lived in Cairo in 2017 and worked for the American University in Cairo Press before deciding to relocate to Dahab with his Egyptian wife.
“We moved out of Cairo to Dahab to be in nature, by the sea, by mountains,” said Mr Scanlan, 31.
He is an avid long-distance runner who has completed marathons and ultra-marathons. A few years ago, he decided to walk from Morocco to the UK over the course of six months.
In 2018, he and his wife walked a total of around 100km from Cairo to Tanta along the Alexandria railway line.
Last year, they walked more than 130km from Cairo to Mansoura as they followed the Damietta branch of the Nile Delta.
He applauds the effort to raise environmental awareness and believes “change does come from activism”.
Caroline Ouko, a senior climate research scientist and training co-ordinator from Kenya, signed up for a 9km stage in Sharm El Sheikh.
Her focus at Cop27 is on the theme of Ace, or Action for Climate Empowerment, which covers education, training, public awareness, public access to information, public participation and international co-operation.
“That is why I joined [the relay] because it is calling for climate action,” said Ms Ouko, 49.
She attended her first Cop summit in Kenya in 2005 as a student and went to Glasgow’s Cop26 last year.
Quoting Kenyan Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai, she said “we should always be like a hummingbird” to make a difference in climate change.
Ms Maathai told a story of a forest consumed by fire as the animals watched helplessly, except for a hummingbird that filled its small beak with water and went back and forth trying to put out the flames.
“Whatever little we can do will add up somehow,” Ms Ouko said. “You take action, you address an issue. And if we are a critical mass, then we will make a difference.”
The Egypt Green Building Council will also be holding side events along the relay route to talk about its projects, the built environment and climate change action people can take.
The non-profit organisation was founded in 2012 and is an emerging member of the World Green Building Council, a global network that aims to establish green buildings around the world and bring about change.
For the grand finale that runs along the Naama Bay walk in Sharm El Sheikh on the evening of November 5, Ms Key said they are considering ideas to make it an “incredibly special moment” while taking into account security clearances and other considerations.
It is then that the baton's message — which would have been taken over glaciers, mountains and deserts — will be shared with climate leaders.
“We want to make sure that we are, despite the remoteness and the challenges, really celebrating what [the relay participants] have been doing,” Ms Key said.
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Silent Hill f
Publisher: Konami
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Rating: 4.5/5
Results
Stage Two:
1. Mark Cavendish (GBR) QuickStep-AlphaVinyl 04:20:45
2. Jasper Philipsen (BEL) Alpecin-Fenix
3. Pascal Ackermann (GER) UAE Team Emirates
4. Olav Kooij (NED) Jumbo-Visma
5. Arnaud Demare (FRA) Groupama-FDJ
General Classification:
1. Jasper Philipsen (BEL) Alpecin-Fenix 09:03:03
2. Dmitry Strakhov (RUS) Gazprom-Rusvelo 00:00:04
3. Mark Cavendish (GBR) QuickStep-AlphaVinyl 00:00:06
4. Sam Bennett (IRL) Bora-Hansgrohe 00:00:10
5. Pascal Ackermann (GER) UAE Team Emirates 00:00:12
Wicked: For Good
Director: Jon M Chu
Starring: Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Jonathan Bailey, Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh, Ethan Slater
Rating: 4/5
Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
BMW M5 specs
Engine: 4.4-litre twin-turbo V-8 petrol enging with additional electric motor
Power: 727hp
Torque: 1,000Nm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 10.6L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh650,000
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-finals, second leg:
Liverpool (0) v Barcelona (3), Tuesday, 11pm UAE
Game is on BeIN Sports
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Lamsa
Founder: Badr Ward
Launched: 2014
Employees: 60
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: EdTech
Funding to date: $15 million
Company%20profile
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COMPANY PROFILE
Initial investment: Undisclosed
Investment stage: Series A
Investors: Core42
Current number of staff: 47
The biog
Name: Marie Byrne
Nationality: Irish
Favourite film: The Shawshank Redemption
Book: Seagull by Jonathan Livingston
Life lesson: A person is not old until regret takes the place of their dreams
The Prison Letters of Nelson Mandela
Edited by Sahm Venter
Published by Liveright
Book%20Details
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AT%20A%20GLANCE
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Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
OPTA'S PREDICTED TABLE
1. Liverpool 101 points
2. Manchester City 80
3. Leicester 67
4. Chelsea 63
5. Manchester United 61
6. Tottenham 58
7. Wolves 56
8. Arsenal 56
9. Sheffield United 55
10. Everton 50
11. Burnley 49
12. Crystal Palace 49
13. Newcastle 46
14. Southampton 44
15. West Ham 39
16. Brighton 37
17. Watford 36
18. Bournemouth 36
19. Aston Villa 32
20. Norwich City 29
Huroob Ezterari
Director: Ahmed Moussa
Starring: Ahmed El Sakka, Amir Karara, Ghada Adel and Moustafa Mohammed
Three stars
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.”
Key findings of Jenkins report
- Founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al Banna, "accepted the political utility of violence"
- Views of key Muslim Brotherhood ideologue, Sayyid Qutb, have “consistently been understood” as permitting “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” and “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
- Muslim Brotherhood at all levels has repeatedly defended Hamas attacks against Israel, including the use of suicide bombers and the killing of civilians.
- Laying out the report in the House of Commons, David Cameron told MPs: "The main findings of the review support the conclusion that membership of, association with, or influence by the Muslim Brotherhood should be considered as a possible indicator of extremism."
Superliminal%20
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The Outsider
Stephen King, Penguin
Our legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
A little about CVRL
Founded in 1985 by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, the Central Veterinary Research Laboratory (CVRL) is a government diagnostic centre that provides testing and research facilities to the UAE and neighbouring countries.
One of its main goals is to provide permanent treatment solutions for veterinary related diseases.
The taxidermy centre was established 12 years ago and is headed by Dr Ulrich Wernery.
The specs: 2018 Maxus T60
Price, base / as tested: Dh48,000
Engine: 2.4-litre four-cylinder
Power: 136hp @ 1,600rpm
Torque: 360Nm @ 1,600 rpm
Transmission: Five-speed manual
Fuel consumption, combined: 9.1L / 100km
Our legal consultants
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Virtual banks explained
What is a virtual bank?
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority defines it as a bank that delivers services through the internet or other electronic channels instead of physical branches. That means not only facilitating payments but accepting deposits and making loans, just like traditional ones. Other terms used interchangeably include digital or digital-only banks or neobanks. By contrast, so-called digital wallets or e-wallets such as Apple Pay, PayPal or Google Pay usually serve as intermediaries between a consumer’s traditional account or credit card and a merchant, usually via a smartphone or computer.
What’s the draw in Asia?
Hundreds of millions of people under-served by traditional institutions, for one thing. In China, India and elsewhere, digital wallets such as Alipay, WeChat Pay and Paytm have already become ubiquitous, offering millions of people an easy way to store and spend their money via mobile phone. Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines are also among the world’s biggest under-banked countries; together they have almost half a billion people.
Is Hong Kong short of banks?
No, but the city is among the most cash-reliant major economies, leaving room for newcomers to disrupt the entrenched industry. Ant Financial, an Alibaba Group Holding affiliate that runs Alipay and MYBank, and Tencent Holdings, the company behind WeBank and WeChat Pay, are among the owners of the eight ventures licensed to create virtual banks in Hong Kong, with operations expected to start as early as the end of the year.
