I regularly have blueberries for breakfast. I buy them frozen and either blend them with bananas for a smoothie or let them thaw and eat them with a dollop of yogurt on top. Somewhere I read an “eat healthy, live longer” article that claimed blueberries were one of those “superfoods” that help slow down the ageing process.
At least I think that’s what a superfood does. I can’t really remember. I read the article a while ago and lately (read: the past few years) my memory ain’t what it used to be. Neither, for that matter are my knees. Or my eyes: I’ve taken to enlarging the document screen to 150 per cent when I have to work on my laptop.
Welcome to midlife, my friends. Or as I like to call it sometimes, my very late mid-forties (I'm 51). My midlife is a nice place, the various creaks and fuzzy outlines notwithstanding: healthy family, work I like, a marriage that seems to be weathering the test of time. I need only to scan the news headlines, with their relentless litanies of despair, to realise how lucky I am and how easily, but for an accident of birth, I could be one of the millions of refugees seeking somewhere – anywhere – to call a safe haven.
And yet. The other day, as I took long walk with a friend (because that’s what we midlife ladies do: we walk), we reminisced about our early 20s, about bad hairdos and even worse boyfriends. We laughed at our misadventures but the laughter was mixed with the vague sense of loss that undergirds nostalgia. We both like our lives as they are, but at the same time, we remembered how full the world seemed when we were 19, 20, 21. The horizon seemed limitless, the opportunities endless and even something as simple as a trip to see a friend meant that anything could happen.
Now when I say “anything could happen” I mean things like “you could get hurt” or “you’ll break it/lose it”, and it’s probably in the context of explaining to one of my children why I am denying them permission to do whatever it is they’re asking to do. I know my response bores them, and sometimes, I confess, I even bore myself. When did it happen, I wonder, my sense that the world needs to be guarded against, the awareness that possibility comes with risk? I’m not sure it can be explained only by being a parent, although I’m sure that’s part of it. But another piece of my caution may come from my vantage point, perched as I am under 60 but way over the limitlessness of my 20s.
I’m old enough to know that none of us (not even children, sadly) are immortal but not old enough to have the luxury of choosing to do only exactly what pleases me.
Don't get me wrong. I wouldn't want to be 20 again, not really. Among other reasons, the hairdos and the boyfriends were too dreadful to relive (although both have a cringe-inducing tendency to surface occasionally on Facebook). But is there any way for the youthful sense of panoramic possibility to coexist with the weight of history that comes with midlife? That's where the cliché of the middle-aged man in the red convertible comes from, I suppose, and why 50-year-olds suddenly start training for marathons: they are (we are) trying to reclaim the right of reinvention that comes with being young. None of us want to end up like the character in TS Eliot's The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock, who compressed all his inchoate midlife longing into wondering if he dared eat a peach.
I don’t want a red convertible, and I never want to run a marathon, but don’t we all hear some version of the siren song that beckons us beyond the boundaries of work-home-family? Maybe that’s what leads me to eat blueberries for breakfast and to buy kale whenever I can find it: sure, I like the taste of both, but more from obligation than pleasure. It’s hard to follow the siren song of discovery if your knees are shot.
Deborah Lindsay Williams is a professor of literature at NYU Abu Dhabi
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
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.”
'Nope'
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The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
From Europe to the Middle East, economic success brings wealth - and lifestyle diseases
A rise in obesity figures and the need for more public spending is a familiar trend in the developing world as western lifestyles are adopted.
One in five deaths around the world is now caused by bad diet, with obesity the fastest growing global risk. A high body mass index is also the top cause of metabolic diseases relating to death and disability in Kuwait, Qatar and Oman – and second on the list in Bahrain.
In Britain, heart disease, lung cancer and Alzheimer’s remain among the leading causes of death, and people there are spending more time suffering from health problems.
The UK is expected to spend $421.4 billion on healthcare by 2040, up from $239.3 billion in 2014.
And development assistance for health is talking about the financial aid given to governments to support social, environmental development of developing countries.
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Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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
RESULTS
5pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 1,200m
Winner: Ferdous, Szczepan Mazur (jockey), Ibrahim Al Hadhrami (trainer)
5.30pm: Arabian Triple Crown Round-3 Group 3 (PA) Dh300,000 2,400m
Winner: Basmah, Fabrice Veron, Eric Lemartinel
6pm: UAE Arabian Derby Prestige (PA) Dh150,000 2,200m
Winner: Ihtesham, Szczepan Mazur, Ibrahim Al Hadhrami
6.30pm: Emirates Championship Group 1 (PA) Dh1,000,000 2,200m
Winner: Somoud, Patrick Cosgrave, Ahmed Al Mehairbi
7pm: Abu Dhabi Championship Group 3 (TB) Dh380,000 2,200m
Winner: GM Hopkins, Patrick Cosgrave, Jaber Ramadhan
7.30pm: Wathba Stallions Cup Conditions (PA) Dh70,000 1,600m
Winner: AF Al Bairaq, Tadhg O’Shea, Ernst Oertel
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
