How negotiable is a fact? As a journalist, even asking that question is considered sacrilege. And yet, we live in an era of increasing misinformation, half-facts and politicised narratives.
How facts can constitute the truth is being challenged daily. In the play The Lifespan of a Fact, which recently opened on Broadway and is based on the book by John D'Agata and Jim Fingal, there are two central arguments. One is that facts are non-negotiable and collectively make a singular truth.
The second argument is that a single fact does not always reflect the whole truth. Rather, sometimes facts can be misleading.
The protagonist in the play argues that the measurements of a chair do not always add up to the space needed to put it through a tight space. Does that mean that its measurements are wrong or is the truth that the design of the chair would make it impossible to fit through some door frames? This is a simple and tangible example of the daily challenges we are faced in assessing what is passed off as “fact” and what we believe to be true.
Centuries of writing about the “truth”, whether religious or political, articulate similar questions.
However, it is the flood of information and the multitude of opinion writers, influencers and government spokespeople, in addition to the trolls and algorithms that dictate much of what we read online, that have changed how modern day “truths” emerge.
Google processes close to 3.5 billion searches a day. Of course, many of those searches are related to where the closest petrol station is, or what time a local restaurant might open.
But what about those searches that produce incorrect information posted as facts?
Sitting in the pockets of the world’s 2.5 billion owners of smartphones is an infinite amount of information – all posited as fact. And to each narrative, there is a counter-narrative.
In her book The Death of Truth, Michiko Kakutani says that "the possibility of anonymity on the web has promoted a toxic lack of accountability and enabled harassers and trolls".
That lack of accountability has meant that misinformation and distorted facts can be spread quickly.
While Kakutani’s book is centred on the current White House and Donald Trump’s presidency, it provides insights into how information can be manipulated.
Fake news and alternative facts are all intended to make individuals question all that is presented – and thus ignore the greater realities of what is happening.
The Syrian regime has perfected this technique. For example, the truth is that thousands of children have been killed in the war in Syria.
Does it matter that a child reportedly killed in Idlib by regime air power was actually in Raqqa?
It does of course matter, in the same way that all facts matter. However, if there is a discrepancy, that doesn’t take away from the bigger truth.
As conflicting sides cherry-pick which “facts” they choose to focus on, the narrative of the truth is inevitably impacted.
The fact in itself might be wrong but the essence of the truth is still there: that a child was killed. And getting information from the ground that proves the child was killed by air power means that the only side of the war with air power is responsible for that death.
However, if every detail of the death is picked apart, that truth is itself questioned.
Journalists are inundated with statements that convey positions of countries, while leaks seek to influence how those statements are covered.
Most editors and journalists are very familiar with the subjective way in which a story is approached and formulated.
Which headline is chosen, what photo accompanies a story and which quote is given prominence are all subjective daily choices that we make to give emphasis to a particular stance or argument.
There is simply no getting away from that. Popular images are shared online that show pictures being manipulated, depending on the angle they are shot from.
And yet all of that can end up being a distraction from the reality that there are hard facts that cannot be ignored or overlooked.
The daily decisions we make about what we accept as fact, and what comprises our truth, impact our lives, both personally and professionally.
At its heart, that acceptance is linked to our convictions. The trustworthiness of the source of that statement is central to our belief in it.
The ability to change someone’s opinion in the current climate is becoming more and more difficult. Each person’s convictions become increasingly entrenched as a defence mechanism to protect against a deluge of information and those seeking to manipulate our perceptions.
Hence, the lifespan of a fact becomes intricately linked to who is relaying the fact and how it fits into a greater truth.
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-final, first leg
Bayern Munich v Real Madrid
When: April 25, 10.45pm kick-off (UAE)
Where: Allianz Arena, Munich
Live: BeIN Sports HD
Second leg: May 1, Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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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
Spider-Man: No Way Home
Director: Jon Watts
Stars: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Jacob Batalon
Rating:*****
Kandahar%20
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more from Janine di Giovanni
Company profile
Name: Steppi
Founders: Joe Franklin and Milos Savic
Launched: February 2020
Size: 10,000 users by the end of July and a goal of 200,000 users by the end of the year
Employees: Five
Based: Jumeirah Lakes Towers, Dubai
Financing stage: Two seed rounds – the first sourced from angel investors and the founders' personal savings
Second round raised Dh720,000 from silent investors in June this year
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
How green is the expo nursery?
Some 400,000 shrubs and 13,000 trees in the on-site nursery
An additional 450,000 shrubs and 4,000 trees to be delivered in the months leading up to the expo
Ghaf, date palm, acacia arabica, acacia tortilis, vitex or sage, techoma and the salvadora are just some heat tolerant native plants in the nursery
Approximately 340 species of shrubs and trees selected for diverse landscape
The nursery team works exclusively with organic fertilisers and pesticides
All shrubs and trees supplied by Dubai Municipality
Most sourced from farms, nurseries across the country
Plants and trees are re-potted when they arrive at nursery to give them room to grow
Some mature trees are in open areas or planted within the expo site
Green waste is recycled as compost
Treated sewage effluent supplied by Dubai Municipality is used to meet the majority of the nursery’s irrigation needs
Construction workforce peaked at 40,000 workers
About 65,000 people have signed up to volunteer
Main themes of expo is ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’ and three subthemes of opportunity, mobility and sustainability.
Expo 2020 Dubai to open in October 2020 and run for six months
Company%20Profile
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
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SPECS
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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.”
From Zero
Artist: Linkin Park
Label: Warner Records
Number of tracks: 11
Rating: 4/5
