If you were to reconnect with the person you were at the time Covid-19 was declared a pandemic on March 11, 2020, would you have dared to believe that the world would be more complicated today than it was back then?
It is virtually impossible to argue that we live in easier times now, given the unceasing conflict in Gaza, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives since the October 7 attacks on Israel. The contours of conflict also run through Lebanon, where a Hamas commander was killed in the south of the country on Wednesday, and through Yemen, where the Houthis continue to attack and disrupt global shipping. Sudan’s warring parties flexed their muscles again this week. Further afield, the Ukraine war has entered its third year and Haiti has experienced a new round of violence. Conflict simmers and boils all around the world.
But, back then in March 2020, when World Health Organisation director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that his organisation was “deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity” and declared a pandemic, it felt that this was a moment in history that was without equal or precedent.
The collaborative novel Fourteen Days, published last month by Chatto and Windus, which is set over two weeks of the first period of the pandemic, provides persistent reminders of that period, of which the anniversary is upon us again.
It charts the experiences of a group of New Yorkers “left behind” in the city in the grandly named but thoroughly downtrodden Fernsby Arms, a tenement building that has survived long past its sell-by date. The volume is edited by Margaret Atwood and Douglas Preston, and features contributions from John Grisham, Emma Donoghue, Dave Eggers, Sylvia Day, Atwood and many more.
We may have clung to the idea that a short sharp shock was all that was needed before life returned to normal. It turned out to be a far longer journey
As the pandemic progresses, the building’s occupants gather on its roof each evening and the reader slowly slips back into the lingua franca of 2020 with its clapping for carers, the practice of deliberate social distancing and even the binge-watching of Netflix’s Tiger King, released just as the world was shutting down.
The book is, as a note at the beginning articulates, an attempt to “make sense of the senseless and bring order to disorder”. Critics have called it a mixed bag, as befits a multi-author effort, and an “enjoyable product of an unenjoyable time”. It’s both, but it’s also a time capsule and an aide memoire to the reader to recall their own pandemic experiences.
As a loose piece of historical fiction, Fourteen Days sent this reader back to what was happening in this country at that time. In the UAE, schools had been placed on early spring break recess at the beginning of March 2020 and public places were being gradually closed. The government announced the first of a series of economic stimulus packages in mid-March 2020. Response mechanisms were being mobilised by the hour.
There were less than 500 cases in the country at that point, but as the WHO’s Dr Tedros had said the week earlier about the direction the world was heading in, “we have rung the alarm bell loud and clear”. All passenger flights were halted to and from the UAE from March 25, 2020. The world was shutting down.
The last picture I have on my phone from an all but empty Khalifa Park newsroom in Abu Dhabi is a snatched frame taken on the same day as the first mandatory shelter-in-place orders were about to be introduced. There is an end-of-era feeling about the image. It would be months before we returned.
Returning to 2024, on the anniversary of the Wuhan lockdown in January, this newspaper asked whether we would ever see a return to similar-style measures? The unsigned leader that answered that question was written amid concerns about the existence of Disease X and following comments made by Dr Tedros about pandemic preparedness at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Our editorial concluded that “the 2020 Wuhan lockdown is a warning from history, and it is up to all of us to learn the lessons from those dark days”.
As the title of Fourteen Days hints at, back then we may have clung to the idea that a short sharp shock was all that was needed before life returned to normal. It turned out to be a far longer journey with far more bumps on the road than had been anticipated. Not many would ever argue the case for blanket lockdowns in the future.
The pandemic was not deemed to be “over” by the WHO until May last year. That was an announcement made without fanfare and will almost certainly be an anniversary that passes unnoticed in a few weeks from now.
That is how it should be. There is too much else to be concerned about in the world right now.
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
Calls
Directed by: Fede Alvarez
Starring: Pedro Pascal, Karen Gillian, Aaron Taylor-Johnson
4/5
First Person
Richard Flanagan
Chatto & Windus
ABU DHABI ORDER OF PLAY
Starting at 10am:
Daria Kasatkina v Qiang Wang
Veronika Kudermetova v Annet Kontaveit (10)
Maria Sakkari (9) v Anastasia Potapova
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova v Ons Jabeur (15)
Donna Vekic (16) v Bernarda Pera
Ekaterina Alexandrova v Zarina Diyas
What is graphene?
Graphene is extracted from graphite and is made up of pure carbon.
It is 200 times more resistant than steel and five times lighter than aluminum.
It conducts electricity better than any other material at room temperature.
It is thought that graphene could boost the useful life of batteries by 10 per cent.
Graphene can also detect cancer cells in the early stages of the disease.
The material was first discovered when Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov were 'playing' with graphite at the University of Manchester in 2004.
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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United States
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China
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UAE
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Japan
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Norway
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Canada
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Singapore
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Australia
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South Korea
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The specs: 2018 Chevrolet Trailblazer
Price, base / as tested Dh99,000 / Dh132,000
Engine 3.6L V6
Transmission: Six-speed automatic
Power 275hp @ 6,000rpm
Torque 350Nm @ 3,700rpm
Fuel economy combined 12.2L / 100km
How does ToTok work?
The calling app is available to download on Google Play and Apple App Store
To successfully install ToTok, users are asked to enter their phone number and then create a nickname.
The app then gives users the option add their existing phone contacts, allowing them to immediately contact people also using the application by video or voice call or via message.
Users can also invite other contacts to download ToTok to allow them to make contact through the app.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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Who was Alfred Nobel?
The Nobel Prize was created by wealthy Swedish chemist and entrepreneur Alfred Nobel.
- In his will he dictated that the bulk of his estate should be used to fund "prizes to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind".
- Nobel is best known as the inventor of dynamite, but also wrote poetry and drama and could speak Russian, French, English and German by the age of 17. The five original prize categories reflect the interests closest to his heart.
- Nobel died in 1896 but it took until 1901, following a legal battle over his will, before the first prizes were awarded.
In Praise of Zayed
A thousand grains of Sand whirl in the sky
To mark the journey of one passer-by
If then a Cavalcade disturbs the scene,
Shall such grains sing before they start to fly?
What man of Honour, and to Honour bred
Will fear to go wherever Truth has led?
For though a Thousand urge him to retreat
He'll laugh, until such counsellors have fled.
Stands always One, defiant and alone
Against the Many, when all Hope has flown.
Then comes the Test; and only then the time
Of reckoning what each can call his own.
History will not forget: that one small Seed
Sufficed to tip the Scales in time of need.
More than a debt, the Emirates owe to Zayed
Their very Souls, from outside influence freed.
No praise from Roderic can increase his Fame.
Steadfastness was the Essence of his name.
The changing years grow Gardens in the Sand
And build new Roads to Sand which stays the same.
But Hearts are not rebuilt, nor Seed resown.
What was, remains, essentially Alone.
Until the Golden Messenger, all-wise,
Calls out: "Come now, my Friend!" - and All is known
- Roderic Fenwick Owen
Indian construction workers stranded in Ajman with unpaid dues
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Batti Gul Meter Chalu
Producers: KRTI Productions, T-Series
Director: Sree Narayan Singh
Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Shraddha Kapoor, Divyenndu Sharma, Yami Gautam
Rating: 2/5
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Qosty Byogaani
Starring: Hani Razmzi, Maya Nasir and Hassan Hosny
Four stars
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
Skoda Superb Specs
Engine: 2-litre TSI petrol
Power: 190hp
Torque: 320Nm
Price: From Dh147,000
Available: Now
Tamkeen's offering
- Option 1: 70% in year 1, 50% in year 2, 30% in year 3
- Option 2: 50% across three years
- Option 3: 30% across five years
