ADEN // Early one morning, nine-year-old Ahmed Al Zikri collapsed at home with stomach pains and vomiting. His mother gave him milk to settle his stomach but it only made him worse.
When hours passed with no improvement in Ahmed’s condition, his father Ali borrowed a neighbour’s car and took his son to hospital in Al Maafer, 50 kilometres away their home in Al Zakera, Taez province.
“At the hospital, the doctor told me that my son had food poisoning, and then I realised that it was because of the expired foodstuffs that I buy for my children,” said Mr Al Zikri. The doctor confirmed Mr Al Zikri’s fears.
After two years of war in Yemen, food has become scarce and expensive. Food items which have passed their expiry date cost less and with little or no quality control, they are openly on sale in shops. Impoverished families sometimes have no alternative but to consume food which may be unsafe because it is a couple of months past its use-by date.
As a low-paid labourer in the construction industry, money is tight at the best of times for Mr Al Zikri and his family of six children. The war has stopped construction so there is no work for him and the family is dependent on charity for food. But when that is not enough, Mr Al Zikri resorts to buying food which is past its use-by date.
“I cannot buy fresh milk or juice for my children but when they beg me for them, I buy milk, juice, biscuits and other things which have expired because they cost less than a quarter of the usual price,” he said. “I’ve been buying expired food for a year and my children never suffered any illness. Until now.”
Mr Al Zikri said shopkeepers had always told him it was safe to eat food that was two months out of date. “But I will not buy out-of-date food any more because I’ve seen the effect on my son.”
Ahmed had to stay in hospital for seven days and Mr Al Zikri had to sell his wife’s jewellery to pay for it. It cost far more than the food he had bought s treats for his children.
Lying in a hospital bed close by was four-year-old Ameer Aqlan. He too had food poisoning.
“It’s his older sister’s fault,” said Ameer’s mother, Iqbal, who never leaves his side. “ She got him juice and biscuits which were past the expiry date. We’ve been here three days.”
The director of paediatrics at the Motherhood and Childhood Hiospital, Ibtesam Taha, confirmed that the number of children who suffer from food poisoning has greatly increased in the last year because more people are eating unsafe food.
“We used to receive about 20 cases a year. In the last year we’ve had more than 60 children come into the hospital with food poisoning. Other children have died at home because they live too far away or couldn’t get to hospital in time,” she said.
The local markets in Taez are full of expired foodstuffs. One trader in Al Nashama, a village close to the hospital, said he and other merchants sold out-of-date goods because there was no one to stop them.
“Before the war, markets were inspected and we couldn’t sell expired goods,” he said. “But now we sell them openly for reasonable prices and there is a huge demand.”
foreign.desk@thenational
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
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
Specs
Engine: Electric motor generating 54.2kWh (Cooper SE and Aceman SE), 64.6kW (Countryman All4 SE)
Power: 218hp (Cooper and Aceman), 313hp (Countryman)
Torque: 330Nm (Cooper and Aceman), 494Nm (Countryman)
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh158,000 (Cooper), Dh168,000 (Aceman), Dh190,000 (Countryman)
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
Company%20Profile
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In-demand jobs and monthly salaries
- Technology expert in robotics and automation: Dh20,000 to Dh40,000
- Energy engineer: Dh25,000 to Dh30,000
- Production engineer: Dh30,000 to Dh40,000
- Data-driven supply chain management professional: Dh30,000 to Dh50,000
- HR leader: Dh40,000 to Dh60,000
- Engineering leader: Dh30,000 to Dh55,000
- Project manager: Dh55,000 to Dh65,000
- Senior reservoir engineer: Dh40,000 to Dh55,000
- Senior drilling engineer: Dh38,000 to Dh46,000
- Senior process engineer: Dh28,000 to Dh38,000
- Senior maintenance engineer: Dh22,000 to Dh34,000
- Field engineer: Dh6,500 to Dh7,500
- Field supervisor: Dh9,000 to Dh12,000
- Field operator: Dh5,000 to Dh7,000
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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The%20specs
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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.”
Company%20profile
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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.
Specs – Taycan 4S
Engine: Electric
Transmission: 2-speed auto
Power: 571bhp
Torque: 650Nm
Price: Dh431,800
Specs – Panamera
Engine: 3-litre V6 with 100kW electric motor
Transmission: 2-speed auto
Power: 455bhp
Torque: 700Nm
Price: from Dh431,800
What's%20in%20my%20pazhamkootan%3F
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THE BIO: Martin Van Almsick
Hometown: Cologne, Germany
Family: Wife Hanan Ahmed and their three children, Marrah (23), Tibijan (19), Amon (13)
Favourite dessert: Umm Ali with dark camel milk chocolate flakes
Favourite hobby: Football
Breakfast routine: a tall glass of camel milk
Directed: Smeep Kang
Produced: Soham Rockstar Entertainment; SKE Production
Cast: Rishi Kapoor, Jimmy Sheirgill, Sunny Singh, Omkar Kapoor, Rajesh Sharma
Rating: Two out of five stars
