In the grips of a crime wave, London is a city on edge.
At the mid-point of 2017, the British capital was on the receiving end of multiple terror attacks by Islamic extremists.
Since crowded public areas were targeted primarily, the attacks sowed uncertainty over personal safety in the city's streets.
Thankfully, there has been some respite from that threat, but 12 months on citizens of the city feel no more secure.
In recent months, scores of mainly young and black men have died in violent stabbing incidents. The finger of blame has been pointed at Drill music videos: self-uploaded gang-based music productions on YouTube, filled with violent lyrics.
But this music, along with another scourge, drug abuse, make for a deadly combination. Increasingly, users are combining illegal and prescription psychotropic substances into strong cocktails of drugs.
The specific state of absorbing materials that make the user paranoid, while listening to music filled with threats of stabbing, heightens substantially the temptation to go out and stab someone.
The link between these two forms of violence – gang-related and extremist – is that the menace essentially comes from the same sources.
There was a myth about Al Qaeda that it was a product of the middle class and tertiary-educated. In fact, it drew from the same well as gangs.
A database run by the French expert, Olivier Roy, showed that 50 per cent of extremists between 1994 and 2016 had criminal records. But the myth, nevertheless, took hold in popular thinking.
Studies of those recruited to ISIS show the latest generation of extremist fighters are, like the assailants caught up in London street crime, from the lowest rungs of the social ladder.
ISIS exploits the social grievances prevalent in streets gangs and crime syndicates.
An illuminating report issued on Thursday by King's College International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR) looked at how the very youngest are cultivated and exploited by ISIS extremists.
Its main theme centres on “hyper-normalised” attitudes to violence and brutality. The structural blueprint used by ISIS is to recruit from infancy through to adulthood. While the study concentrated on the children recruited into ISIS ranks, there were wider lessons on the importance of desensitisation.
ICSR points out that ISIS cultivates anger and violence from the very outset. From mothers raising the so-called ISIS Cubs, the group demands ideological myth telling. Fairy tales are replaced with propaganda. Adult influencers of the Cubs instill in them a warped and simplified piety.
When it comes to young men, an intensely masculine outlook on the world accelerates recruitment.
Studies of the foreign fighters that have joined ISIS underline the group’s appeal to those that are ill-educated and often have had trouble with the law. “[ISIS recruits are] male, young and disadvantaged economically, educationally, and in terms of the labour market,” said a report by the UN Office on Counter-Terrorism.
Jeremy Moss, a British policeman who wrote an earlier ICSR report, said almost half the British recruits to ISIS were from criminal backgrounds.
An Italian analysis of its citizens who travelled to join ISIS found that 88 per cent had low or no educational qualifications. It revealed that 45 per cent had menial or manual jobs, while another 35 per cent were unemployed.
Meanwhile, it found that only 47 per cent regularly attended a mosque before leaving the country to fight in the Middle East, demonstrating how loosely the ISIS recruitment pool was associated with religion.
With so many obvious crossing points, experts are turning to the tools honed in fighting radicalisation as a counter to the gangs behind London’s stabbings wave.
The British Prevent programme that is supposed to counteract the extremists preying on the young or the vulnerable is now seen in many quarters as a model for dealing with the grooming, incitement and violent thrill seeking of gangs.
The key is finding counter narratives to the “death rhymes” that exploit the vulnerable, those with mental health issues and other frustrations.
Shifting the emphasis to “real-world” loyalties within families, social peers and the local community has proved an effective tool to reverse radicalisation. It can also be used as a means of fighting gangs that use the latest music fad as a recruitment tool.
This is remedial because policing is no longer effective. Crime is being sold as a career opportunity in plain sight. The gangs use the shooting of videos as recruitment opportunities on the housing estates of London. All the hallmarks of professional film-making sets are there, with lights, boom mics and food wagons. When set-ups are not challenged by police, locals are drawn on to first step on the ladder of deviancy.
Fighting the incitement was a key lesson from the ISIS trajectory and it now has much a wider role in societies challenged by brutality.
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
If you go
The flights
The closest international airport for those travelling from the UAE is Denver, Colorado. British Airways (www.ba.com) flies from the UAE via London from Dh3,700 return, including taxes. From there, transfers can be arranged to the ranch or it’s a seven-hour drive. Alternatively, take an internal flight to the counties of Cody, Casper, or Billings
The stay
Red Reflet offers a series of packages, with prices varying depending on season. All meals and activities are included, with prices starting from US$2,218 (Dh7,150) per person for a minimum stay of three nights, including taxes. For more information, visit red-reflet-ranch.net.
The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
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.”
The Disaster Artist
Director: James Franco
Starring: James Franco, Dave Franco, Seth Rogan
Four stars
Company profile: buybackbazaar.com
Name: buybackbazaar.com
Started: January 2018
Founder(s): Pishu Ganglani and Ricky Husaini
Based: Dubai
Sector: FinTech, micro finance
Initial investment: $1 million
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cylturbo
Transmission: seven-speed DSG automatic
Power: 242bhp
Torque: 370Nm
Price: Dh136,814
The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
The view from The National
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
THE SPECS
Engine: 3.5-litre V6
Transmission: six-speed manual
Power: 325bhp
Torque: 370Nm
Speed: 0-100km/h 3.9 seconds
Price: Dh230,000
On sale: now
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4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
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7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
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