NEW YORK // The Tunisian actress Hend Sabry, who has made some of the most forceful films in modern Arab cinema, will address a high-level aid meeting in Dubai today in her new role as a celebrity ambassador for the United Nations' World Food Programme.
After a string of forthright movies about women's rights, extremism and sexual repression, Sabry, 31, will highlight the plight of impoverished Palestinians, Yemenis and Iraqis during her keynote speech at the Dubai International Humanitarian Aid and Development Conference and Exhibition (Dihad).
Sabry, who starred in the big-budget Arabic thriller The Yacoubian Building, will unveil plans to visit Yemen this month and urge Dihad delegates from the Gulf to help their cash-strapped neighbour.
"The Arab media doesn't give too much attention to what is happening in Yemen, and what is happening there is a disaster," she said in an interview.
"The Yemeni people are suffering. There is drought, not enough food and water shortages.
"We want to try to mobilise the Gulf wealth. They are doing a lot, and Dihad is a very good opportunity to show how much the wealthy Gulf companies and families are doing for charity in the Arab world. But Yemen is the forgotten cause."
The UN appointed Sabry as an "ambassador against hunger" in January. The actress already had a history of working with the World Food Programme (WFP) after visiting Iraqi refugees in Syria and making a controversial trip to the West Bank last year.
Colleagues from Egypt's arts scene criticised Sabry for visiting the Palestinian territory in November, part of a long-running debate among Arab intellectuals over whether such trips "normalise" ties with Israel. "There was a whole polemic about Arabs going to the West Bank and whether it is normalisation or not," said Sabry.
"I said, 'I don't care.' It was not a political visit, it was a humanitarian one. All my visits in the future will be humanitarian.
"I don't have the tools to talk about politics. I'm not interested in politics. I'm interested in kids suffering and going to bed hungry, whether they're from Afghanistan, Palestine, Haiti or anywhere else in the world."
Sabry joined her fellow actor and UN ambassador Mahmoud Yassin in January to launch the Arab appeal to help the victims of Haiti's devastating earthquake.
The star, who promoted Arab designers by wearing locally produced gowns on the red carpet of the Middle East International Film Festival in Abu Dhabi last year, said she wanted Arab philanthropists to extend aid-giving beyond the region's borders.
"I don't like this feeling that my heart should be aching more for an Arab child than a Haitian child. A child is a child, and a suffering child is a suffering child," she said.
"It was always something I found very bizarre. When there was a huge natural disaster like Haiti or the tsunami, I felt that the Arab region didn't really feel damage in other parts of the world. Now, Arab youth is starting to get more involved in what's happening on the other side of the world."
Sabry won the Rotterdam Arab Film Festival award for best actress for the 2008 film The Aquarium, in which she played a late-night radio talk show host taking calls about the secret sexual and political lives of Cairo residents.
She will begin filming the latest of her challenging films, Asmaa, later this year, dealing with the prejudice endured by an HIV-infected woman in an Arab society that has not yet, she said, come to terms with the scale of a growing Aids threat.
The actress, who recently began writing columns for the liberal Egyptian daily Al Masry Al Yom, praised the work of the WFP, whose 10,000 staff aim to feed more than 90 million people in 73 countries this year.
After her visits to Middle Eastern trouble spots where the WFP was working last year, Sabry's recommendation for providing food handouts to Iraqis and Palestinians is simple - treat recipients with respect.
She lauds the food coupon schemes that allow Palestinians to buy milk, bread and other staples in regular supermarkets, and the importance of ensuring that Iraqi refugees are able to maintain self-esteem despite hardship.
"We always confuse hunger with poverty," she said. "We think the people who live with less than two or three dollars a day are considered poor. It was very painful to see educated people depending on an international organisation to survive. So preserving personal dignity is the issue I want to convey to the audience in Dubai."
jreinl@thenational.ae
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
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.”
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
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
Schedule:
Pakistan v Sri Lanka:
28 Sep-2 Oct, 1st Test, Abu Dhabi
6-10 Oct, 2nd Test (day-night), Dubai
13 Oct, 1st ODI, Dubai
16 Oct, 2nd ODI, Abu Dhabi
18 Oct, 3rd ODI, Abu Dhabi
20 Oct, 4th ODI, Sharjah
23 Oct, 5th ODI, Sharjah
26 Oct, 1st T20I, Abu Dhabi
27 Oct, 2nd T20I, Abu Dhabi
29 Oct, 3rd T20I, Lahore
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TRAINING FOR TOKYO
A typical week's training for Sebastian, who is competing at the ITU Abu Dhabi World Triathlon on March 8-9:
- Four swim sessions (14km)
- Three bike sessions (200km)
- Four run sessions (45km)
- Two strength and conditioning session (two hours)
- One session therapy session at DISC Dubai
- Two-three hours of stretching and self-maintenance of the body
ITU Abu Dhabi World Triathlon
For more information go to www.abudhabi.triathlon.org.
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
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.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
Britain's travel restrictions
- A negative test 2 days before flying
- Complete passenger locator form
- Book a post-arrival PCR test
- Double-vaccinated must self-isolate
- 11 countries on red list quarantine
Pakistan Super League
Previous winners
2016 Islamabad United
2017 Peshawar Zalmi
2018 Islamabad United
2019 Quetta Gladiators
Most runs Kamran Akmal – 1,286
Most wickets Wahab Riaz –65
The specs
Engine: 4 liquid-cooled permanent magnet synchronous electric motors placed at each wheel
Battery: Rimac 120kWh Lithium Nickel Manganese Cobalt Oxide (LiNiMnCoO2) chemistry
Power: 1877bhp
Torque: 2300Nm
Price: Dh7,500,00
On sale: Now
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League quarter-final (first-leg score):
Juventus (1) v Ajax (1), Tuesday, 11pm UAE
Match will be shown on BeIN Sports
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The low down
Producers: Uniglobe Entertainment & Vision Films
Director: Namrata Singh Gujral
Cast: Rajkummar Rao, Nargis Fakhri, Bo Derek, Candy Clark
Rating: 2/5
The six points:
1. Ministers should be in the field, instead of always at conferences
2. Foreign diplomacy must be left to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation
3. Emiratisation is a top priority that will have a renewed push behind it
4. The UAE's economy must continue to thrive and grow
5. Complaints from the public must be addressed, not avoided
6. Have hope for the future, what is yet to come is bigger and better than before
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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