Elon Musk has found a rich seam of worldwide division to work with since he took over the Twitter mines.
When treasure maps used to declare that "X marks the spot", I’m not sure political power was the prize but it is now.
Social media creates new channels of these divisions every day and Mr Musk as the proprietor of X, formerly Twitter, has what is proving to be the most effective force to shape the landscape.
It is important to say that this peculiar mix of Mr Musk’s talents and background is a perfect amalgamation to exploit the seams of the new political scene.
When a South African-born serial entrepreneur decided to revive the Maga project this year, he brought not only the powerful X machine, but also a perspective that chimed with the basic Maga grievance of displacement. Mr Musk was practically displaced from his own first country after the rainbow nation took shape in the 1990s and now offers America lessons in holding out against transformational change.
After having helped Donald Trump secure a second term, Mr Musk has in recent weeks seems to want give a shove to Mega (Make Europe Great Again) and Muga (Make UK Great Again).
The tragedy in the town of Magdeburg on Friday gave immediate bite to Mr Musk’s broadcast on X the day before, that only the AfD (the far-right party second placed in the polls) could save Germany.
Never mind that the AfD populists had campaigned against his billion-dollar battery project in Germany. Then came the attack on a Christmas market, allegedly by a Saudi-born doctor who was, among other things, a supporter of the AfD.
Yet the crosscurrents of Taleb A’s views were forged in the rebellion he was carrying out against his own background, religion and culture.
It will be no surprise to anyone that intelligence channels between Saudi Arabia and Germany saw the dangers he posed and Saudi officials warned German police about him. But the idea that he was a dissident granted him wide latitude in the German mind.
Those ignored warnings made headlines after the attack and now frame the public and media reaction to the disaster. Germany mourns Andre Gleissner, the nine year “teddy bear” boy who did no harm to anyone, and four unsuspecting women.
Their loss and the cultural significance of the Christmas market raise the stakes for Germany’s February election.
The AfD can prosecute the argument that a weak state machinery in thrall to a culture of inclusivity was the fundamental cause of the deaths. The basic problem is the origin of the perpetrator and how Germany faces threats brought into its midst. The Magdeburg attack has supercharged the issue of Angela Merkel’s 2015 open-borders policy.
Remember, Mr Trump is promising millions of deportations. And Mr Musk is playing on Mr Trump's idea of America first as well as Europe's open borders. AfD has coined the innocuous-sounding term "remigration" for its deportation policy.
In hosting the UK Reform Party’s Nigel Farage and his treasurer Nick Candy at Mar-a-Lago, under a portrait of a young Mr Trump wearing a Ralph Lauren-style cricket jumper, Mr Musk was open to the possibility of bankrolling the anti-establishment upstart. It is a picture to tell a thousand words.
In the UK, Keir Starmer is a relatively new prime minister with a massive majority. But so too was Boris Johnson in 2019 and that majority got wiped away within five years.
Mr Farage is a veteran of tearing up the political script and Mr Musk clearly has ill will towards the UK. It is said his own English-born grandmother would stand up when Queen Elizabeth II was broadcast on South African television. His grandmother hailed from near Stockport, the town that was the focus of the summer’s race riots.
Mr Musk's intervention has seen him cold-shouldered by Team Starmer. The animus between Downing Street and the businessman runs deep and bitter. This is something that augurs well for Mr Farage but not for the UK's relations with the Trump White House.
Mr Musk may be a South African who made his fortune in the US, but he is deeply engaged at an emotional level with the currents of politics and history in the UK – and, by extension, Europe.
The trends in both places challenge the idea of the country in which he grew up, in a way that acts as motivation to back the political outsiders. For those who hold the levers of power, Mr Musk's interest represents an uncomfortable challenge. In the fallout from Magdeburg and Mr Musk’s doubling down on his intervention over the weekend, the consequences of promoting this type of politics are only just being glimpsed.
A force ripping through politics and society has only just started its work and X indeed hits the spot.
THE BIO
Born: Mukalla, Yemen, 1979
Education: UAE University, Al Ain
Family: Married with two daughters: Asayel, 7, and Sara, 6
Favourite piece of music: Horse Dance by Naseer Shamma
Favourite book: Science and geology
Favourite place to travel to: Washington DC
Best advice you’ve ever been given: If you have a dream, you have to believe it, then you will see it.
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
Labour dispute
The insured employee may still file an ILOE claim even if a labour dispute is ongoing post termination, but the insurer may suspend or reject payment, until the courts resolve the dispute, especially if the reason for termination is contested. The outcome of the labour court proceedings can directly affect eligibility.
- Abdullah Ishnaneh, Partner, BSA Law
Scoreline
Real Madrid 1
Ronaldo (53')
Atletico Madrid 1
Griezmann (57')
Normcore explained
Something of a fashion anomaly, normcore is essentially a celebration of the unremarkable. The term was first popularised by an article in New York magazine in 2014 and has been dubbed “ugly”, “bland’ and "anti-style" by fashion writers. It’s hallmarks are comfort, a lack of pretentiousness and neutrality – it is a trend for those who would rather not stand out from the crowd. For the most part, the style is unisex, favouring loose silhouettes, thrift-shop threads, baseball caps and boyish trainers. It is important to note that normcore is not synonymous with cheapness or low quality; there are high-fashion brands, including Parisian label Vetements, that specialise in this style. Embraced by fashion-forward street-style stars around the globe, it’s uptake in the UAE has been relatively slow.
UAE squad
Esha Oza (captain), Al Maseera Jahangir, Emily Thomas, Heena Hotchandani, Indhuja Nandakumar, Katie Thompson, Lavanya Keny, Mehak Thakur, Michelle Botha, Rinitha Rajith, Samaira Dharnidharka, Siya Gokhale, Sashikala Silva, Suraksha Kotte, Theertha Satish (wicketkeeper) Udeni Kuruppuarachchige, Vaishnave Mahesh.
UAE tour of Zimbabwe
All matches in Bulawayo
Friday, Sept 26 – First ODI
Sunday, Sept 28 – Second ODI
Tuesday, Sept 30 – Third ODI
Thursday, Oct 2 – Fourth ODI
Sunday, Oct 5 – First T20I
Monday, Oct 6 – Second T20I
The biog
Family: wife, four children, 11 grandchildren, 16 great-grandchildren
Reads: Newspapers, historical, religious books and biographies
Education: High school in Thatta, a city now in Pakistan
Regrets: Not completing college in Karachi when universities were shut down following protests by freedom fighters for the British to quit India
Happiness: Work on creative ideas, you will also need ideals to make people happy
What is blockchain?
Blockchain is a form of distributed ledger technology, a digital system in which data is recorded across multiple places at the same time. Unlike traditional databases, DLTs have no central administrator or centralised data storage. They are transparent because the data is visible and, because they are automatically replicated and impossible to be tampered with, they are secure.
The main difference between blockchain and other forms of DLT is the way data is stored as ‘blocks’ – new transactions are added to the existing ‘chain’ of past transactions, hence the name ‘blockchain’. It is impossible to delete or modify information on the chain due to the replication of blocks across various locations.
Blockchain is mostly associated with cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Due to the inability to tamper with transactions, advocates say this makes the currency more secure and safer than traditional systems. It is maintained by a network of people referred to as ‘miners’, who receive rewards for solving complex mathematical equations that enable transactions to go through.
However, one of the major problems that has come to light has been the presence of illicit material buried in the Bitcoin blockchain, linking it to the dark web.
Other blockchain platforms can offer things like smart contracts, which are automatically implemented when specific conditions from all interested parties are reached, cutting the time involved and the risk of mistakes. Another use could be storing medical records, as patients can be confident their information cannot be changed. The technology can also be used in supply chains, voting and has the potential to used for storing property records.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
A list of the animal rescue organisations in the UAE
Asia Cup Qualifier
Venue: Kuala Lumpur
Result: Winners play at Asia Cup in Dubai and Abu Dhabi in September
Fixtures:
Wed Aug 29: Malaysia v Hong Kong, Nepal v Oman, UAE v Singapore
Thu Aug 30: UAE v Nepal, Hong Kong v Singapore, Malaysia v Oman
Sat Sep 1: UAE v Hong Kong, Oman v Singapore, Malaysia v Nepal
Sun Sep 2: Hong Kong v Oman, Malaysia v UAE, Nepal v Singapore
Tue Sep 4: Malaysia v Singapore, UAE v Oman, Nepal v Hong Kong
Thu Sep 6: Final
Asia Cup
Venue: Dubai and Abu Dhabi
Schedule: Sep 15-28
Teams: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, plus the winner of the Qualifier
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The Africa Institute 101
Housed on the same site as the original Africa Hall, which first hosted an Arab-African Symposium in 1976, the newly renovated building will be home to a think tank and postgraduate studies hub (it will offer master’s and PhD programmes). The centre will focus on both the historical and contemporary links between Africa and the Gulf, and will serve as a meeting place for conferences, symposia, lectures, film screenings, plays, musical performances and more. In fact, today it is hosting a symposium – 5-plus-1: Rethinking Abstraction that will look at the six decades of Frank Bowling’s career, as well as those of his contemporaries that invested social, cultural and personal meaning into abstraction.
The%20team
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Temple numbers
Expected completion: 2022
Height: 24 meters
Ground floor banquet hall: 370 square metres to accommodate about 750 people
Ground floor multipurpose hall: 92 square metres for up to 200 people
First floor main Prayer Hall: 465 square metres to hold 1,500 people at a time
First floor terrace areas: 2,30 square metres
Temple will be spread over 6,900 square metres
Structure includes two basements, ground and first floor
Company profile
Name: Dukkantek
Started: January 2021
Founders: Sanad Yaghi, Ali Al Sayegh and Shadi Joulani
Based: UAE
Number of employees: 140
Sector: B2B Vertical SaaS(software as a service)
Investment: $5.2 million
Funding stage: Seed round
Investors: Global Founders Capital, Colle Capital Partners, Wamda Capital, Plug and Play, Comma Capital, Nowais Capital, Annex Investments and AMK Investment Office
