Features

By Dina Halaseh
Educational Psychologist

With back-to-school season upon us, parents prepare for the school year: They buy new bags and uniforms, making sure their children are academically prepared. This year, consider helping your children plan, organise and manage their time effectively.

Children who can manage their homework, plan for their assessments, finish all assignments on time, prepare for the next day and who work things out throughout the school year, are more resilient and successful. They put effort into achieving their goals and how they need to adjust, change and adapt along the way. 

The science of time management

Logic and reasoning refer to one’s ability to plan, organise and solve problems. With time management, we have so many tasks to finish in a short time. We spend time trying to organise all these tasks into different time slots according to their importance, due date, the effort needed to finish them and their degree of urgency. Logic and reasoning are also required to figure out how to use our resources and time to reach our goals. In doing so, we realise the ultimate goal, provide the needed resources to achieve it, prioritise it over other plans or activities and adapt to any sudden changes or adjustments.

That kind of understanding and the effort that goes into planning are not easy. Yet reflecting on how we do things and what we can do to improve, helps children do the things they dislike, knowing full well that those things will help them improve. You can help your children realise that the time spent doing their homework or studying is getting them somewhere even if they can’t see it now.

The link to problem solving

The stronger your child’s logical thinking skills are, the easier it will be to come up with beneficial solutions. Problem solving doesn’t just happen at school; it also affects a child’s ability to navigate through personal and social problems. Whenever children encounter a problem at school or in life, they usually analyse the situation and data provided to help find a solution that results in a positive outcome. 

Many children struggling with logic and reasoning find it hard to stand up for themselves or are overly dramatic in dealing with the issue. Many students try to shy away from the problem they face at school to only be very frustrated and angry at home or with other siblings, reacting strongly and not appropriately to the situation itself. This has many consequences in their daily lives and not just at school. So, logic and reasoning are essential for us to help cultivate, for ourselves and for our children.

Developing the skills

Share with your child your thinking process as you make conclusions and come up with solutions in your day-to-day life. Playing games, such as chess and Tic-Tac-Toe, are great ways to raise your child’s level of logic and reasoning. 

Using patterns and visual teasers is another way to help children analyse what they’re seeing and figuring out the next solution or the answer to the pattern. 

Finally, don’t forget that proper brain training can help rewire the brain to enable any person to gain an edge and increase logic and reasoning skills.

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine

LONDON — A partially shredded canvas of one of Banksy’s most celebrated works sold at auction in London on Thursday for £18.58 million ($25.38 million), a new record for the British artist, three years after the artwork was bought for a fraction of that price.

The artwork — now called “Love is in the Bin” — sold for nearly £1.1 million at the same Sotheby’s auction house location in October 2018, before it dramatically passed through a shredder hidden in the large Victorian-style frame moments later.

The surreal prank was orchestrated by the elusive and irreverent Banksy, whose identity is said to be known to only a handful of friends, and caused a global sensation.

Thursday evening’s sale, which saw nine bidders battle for around 10 minutes for the work formerly called “Girl With Balloon”, beats the previous record of £16.75 million set for Banksy in March. 

Bidding for “Love is in the Bin” quickly climbed from the starting price of £2.5 million, with auctioneer Oliver Barker revelling in the drama.

“I can’t tell you how terrified I am to bring down this hammer,” he said as the final bid went unchallenged.

The work was reportedly sold to a private investor. The seventh lot in a wide-ranging contemporary arts offering, it had an estimated selling price of between £4-6 million. 

“It is almost three years to the day since one of the most ingenious moments of performance art this century made auction history,” Alex Branczik of Sotheby’s said following the record haul.

“Banksy is no stranger to making headlines and this latest chapter in his story has captured imaginations across the world — we can only begin to guess what might come next.” 

Unpredictable

The 2018 stunt, which poked fun at the traditionally staid world of fine art, is typical of the graffiti artist’s disruptive style evident since his work first began appearing on the streets of Bristol in southwest England in the 1980s.

It was the latest in a long history of unpredictable moves for the provocative guerilla artist, whose work has appeared across Britain and around the world. 

The part-shredded canvas, bought in 2018 by an unnamed European woman and exhibited for a month at a museum in Germany in 2019, depicts a small child reaching up towards a heart-shaped red balloon.

The original, which first appeared on a wall in east London, has been reproduced endlessly in prints and online, and appropriated by some of the world’s best-known brands.

It had been called one of the most significant artworks of the early 21st century in the British press, before the shredded version was granted a new certificate and date by Pest Control, Banksy’s authentication body, and given the new title.

‘Game changer’

Banksy’s latest works have appeared in several British seaside towns over the summer, with the country’s most famous street artist confirming they were his creations in an Instagram video entitled “A Great British Spraycation”.

It showed him taking a summer road trip in a beat-up camper van with cans of spray paint stashed in a cooler.

In recent years, he has kept the attention of the contemporary art world with his social commentaries and causes — migrants, opposition to Brexit, denunciation of Islamist radicals — while still stirring the excitement of the moneyed art markets.

In March, the work that had broken his previous sales price record honoured caregivers during the coronavirus pandemic, with the proceeds donated to the state-run National Health Service.

The painting, “Game Changer”, sold to an unnamed buyer for £14.4 million plus costs after fierce bidding at Christie’s auction house in London.

Contemporary art auctions have rebounded to an all-time high over the last year, boosted by online sales and the arrival of digital art in the form of “NFTs”, an annual report by Artprice said on Monday. 

PARIS — The effects of climate change could already be impacting 85 per cent of the world's population, an analysis of tens of thousands of scientific studies recently said.

A team of researchers used machine learning to comb through vast troves of research published between 1951 and 2018 and found some 100,000 papers that potentially documented evidence of climate change's effects on the Earth's systems.

"We have overwhelming evidence that climate change is affecting all continents, all systems," study author Max Callaghan told AFP in an interview.

He added there was a "huge amount of evidence" showing the ways in which these impacts are being felt. 

The researchers taught a computer to identify climate-relevant studies, generating a list of papers on topics from disrupted butterfly migration to heat-related human deaths to forestry cover changes.

The studies only rarely established a direct link to global warming — so Callaghan and teams from the Mercator Research Institute and Climate Analytics, both in Berlin, took on the task themselves. 

Using location data from the studies, they divided the globe into a grid and mapped where documented climate impacts matched climate-driven trends in temperature and precipitation.

For each grid cell they asked "is it getting hotter or colder or wetter or dryer outside of the bounds of natural variability?" said Callaghan. 

Then, he said, they checked if this kind of heating matched expectations from climate models. 

They found 80 per cent of the globe — home to 85 per cent of the world's population, had generated impact studies that matched predictions for temperature and precipitation changes due to global warming.

Crucially, he said, research has disproportionately documented climate impacts in richer nations, with fewer studies in highly-vulnerable regions.

For example he said that trends in temperatures and rainfall in Africa could be linked to climate change. 

"But we won't have many studies documenting the impacts of those trends, he said, calling it a "blind spot in our knowledge of climate impacts".

Machine learning

Climate-related research has grown exponentially in recent decades.

Between 1951 and 1990 "we have about 1,500 studies in total," Callaghan said, "Whereas in the five years or so since the last [UN] assessment report we have between 75,000 and 85,000 studies — a phenomenal increase."

Callaghan said the sheer volume of research has made it impossible to individually identify all the studies that reliably link observed impacts to manmade climate change.

"In the first UN climate assessment report a team of authors could simply read all of climate science," he said. "Now you'd need millions of authors."

The machine learning technique now offers a global picture that could help experts trying to synthesise huge numbers of studies, Callaghan said, although he added that "it can never replace human analysis".

AALSMEER, Netherlands — While the rest of the world literally looks up to the Dutch, the tallest members of the loftiest populace on earth insist it’s not easy being big.

So an official study by the Dutch national statistics office finding that they appear to be shrinking might be construed as good news — even if it could threaten The Netherlands’ number one spot.

At a meeting of  the Klub Lange Mensen, or Tall People’s Club, the lowlanders say there are drawbacks to towering over most of the rest of humanity.

“I’ve always struggled with my height. When I was 12, I was already the tallest in the class, also taller than my teachers,” club chairman Helen Keuken, 57, tells AFP.

“And when I came in contact with the club it was a revelation. I felt like an outsider and now I belong somewhere,” says Keuken, who is 1.90 metres tall.

In a bar in the Dutch town of Aalsmeer near Schiphol airport, members of the club dance and chat over a drink, glad to have a place to gather where they don’t stand out.

Even by Dutch standards they are tall, with male club members needing to measure at least 1.90m and women at least 1.80m.

“We can have a conversation at eye level. You don’t have to bend, you can look straight,” said club secretary Rob Leurs-Kout, an imposing 2.11m tall.  “That’s very nice.”

Many of the members say that being tall in The Netherlands has become “less exceptional” than when they were younger, notwithstanding the study by the national statistics office, CBS.

Dutch men born in 2001 are 1.829m tall on average, one cm shorter than the generation born in 1980, the CBS says, while women born in 2001 measure on average 1.693m, 1.4cm less than 1980.

Even so, the Dutch remain the world’s tallest — they still surpass on average the men of Montenegro, Estonia and Bosnia and the women of Montenegro, Denmark and Iceland, says the CBS — but that could change.

At the start of the 19th century the Dutch were small by European standards and only started to shoot up in the 1840s, before finally becoming the tallest with the generation born in the 1950s.

The reasons are “very difficult to pinpoint”, says Gert Stulp of the University of Groningen’s faculty of behavioural and social sciences.

“We know if a country gets wealthier with better healthcare and better nutrition and fewer diseases that increases height, as it has done for the Netherlands,” says Stulp, who stands two metres tall.

“Our diets are believed to be one cause, the Dutch drink a lot of milk.”

A widely quoted theory that natural selection is responsible — with taller Dutch people having more children than shorter people, and their children then repeating the pattern — leaves Stulp “not convinced”.

As for the shrinkage? Migration to The Netherlands is one main cause, with people from non-Western backgrounds generally being shorter, both the CBS and Stulp suggested.

But migration doesn’t account for everything, as growth has also “stagnated” among people with both parents born in The Netherlands, and people with both grandparents born in The Netherlands.

Men without a migratory background have not got any taller since 1980, while there was even a “downward trend” among women in that category, the CBS said.

“It might be a signal of increasing inequality, it might also be a signal we... had less healthy food,” says Stulp, with fast food and high-sugar diets particularly to blame.

Humans may also have simply reached a “physiological limit”, with similar levelling off seen in other European countries, he said.

Back at the Klub Lange Mensen, they are not convinced that the Dutch are getting smaller.

“I don’t see that, no,” says Nico Verhoef, 66, who is over two metres tall. “Most people have remained very tall in my view.”

Instead, they are pleased to see how the Netherlands has adapted to its status as world’s tallest nation.

Clothing and shoe shops for tall people have sprung up around the country, while the Dutch even changed building codes to raise minimum ceilings of new houses from 180 cm to 200 cm.

“When I was little, there was only one store in the Netherlands where I used to buy my shoes. Now you have stores with plus sizes everywhere,” Verhoef says.

Members insist the rest of the world have little reason to be jealous.

“I don’t see many benefits,” Verhoef says. “Only if I am in a crowded area — then my wife can find me easily.”

SAINT-HYACINTHE, Canada — When Canadian conservation enthusiasts head out to find monarch eggs, it’s always with a magnifying glass and a notebook. They are volunteers taking part in a summer census of the iconic, endangered butterflies.

July and August are the best months, when the monarch is visible in Canada at all stages of its development: Eggs, caterpillar, chrysalis and adult butterfly.

It is also the reproduction period for the generation which will take off in a few weeks for a 4,000 kilometre journey to Mexico.

But it’s complicated research. “The monarch lays one egg per leaf. There are insects which can lay a dozen eggs all together while the monarch lays one. So we are looking for something very small,” explains Jacques Kirouac, who is among the hundreds of people who take part in the citizen science programme Mission Monarch.

The eggs of these creatures known for their striking orange and black colours are off-white or yellow and about the size of a pinhead, with ridges that run from the tip to the base.

The species’s dire situation led to the creation five years ago of this program set up by the Montreal Insectarium to document monarch breeding grounds. The data is used by researchers, in particular to determine zones in need of protection. There are similar programs in the United States.

Monarchs of the eastern side of the continent are in a difficult situation: their population has decreased by more than 80 per cent in two decades. Western monarchs — which hibernate in California — are even worse off: fewer than 2,000 were reported in the last census by Western Monarch Count, down 99.9 per cent since the 1980s.

More generally, the disappearance of insects — less spectacular and less striking for the public than that of large mammals — is just as worrying, say the scientists.

They are essential to ecosystems and economies because they pollinate plants, recycle nutrients and serve as staple food for other animals.

‘Not enough data’

“It’s a beautiful butterfly. It would be a real loss to lose it,” says Renald Saint-Onge, also a volunteer for Mission Monarch.

This 73-year-old former carpenter and ornithologist feels driven to “save this butterfly”. So he decided to let grow at his home as many milkweed plants as possible. Often considered a weed, this perennial plant is the only one on which the monarch butterfly lays. But we find it less and less.

“The natural fields where we had milkweed and nectar-bearing plants are increasingly rare,” says Alessandro Dieni, coordinator of the Mission Monarch programme. And the plants are “of lower quality because we have fields with monocultures everywhere” and an intensive use of pesticides in the country that killed them off.

Logging has also devastated forests in Mexico where the monarchs spend the winter.

Faced with the catastrophic decline of this insect, the Canadian government has decided to get involved in helping the monarch by seeking to protect its breeding grounds. “However, there was not enough data in Canada to know where to go to protect the monarch,” says Dieni.

The decline of insects, which represent two-thirds of all terrestrial species, dates back to the beginning of the 20th century, and accelerated in the years 1950-60 to reach alarming proportions over the last 20 years.

“Thanks to the censuses, we can now do more precise research,” explains Marian MacNair of McGill University.

“This allows us to better determine the routes taken, the conditions that the monarch particularly like,” adds the biologist who expresses amazement over this small, emblematic butterfly’s ability to fly thousands of kilometres.

The monarch butterfly makes a good study for scientists because often “we have great difficulty in observing the evolution” of populations of insects. But the monarch’s territory is rather small and therefore it is easy to do calculations and observations and document “the extent of the disaster”, explains MacNair.

Pitched as the SUV interpretation of Mercedes-Benz’s often and consistently class-defining S-Class luxury saloon, the GLS-Class is a highly refined, extensively equipped and massively luxurious big brute that packs plenty of punch. 

A different sort of animal than Mercedes’ long-serving, iconic and more off-road oriented G-Class, the 7-seat GLS-Class is a significantly bigger and more luxurious endeavour that first launched in 2006. Mercedes-Benz’s answer to the full size Range Rover, the third generation GLS-Class arrived in 2019, and now counts the segment late-comer BMW X7 among its chief rivals.

As imposingly large as ever, the new GLS-Class is, however, the most elegant yet, with a more harmonious overall design that incorporates softer yet more defined curves and smoother surfacing than its predecessors. Employing more subtle bulges and creases than previous incarnations, the current GLS-Class is a more refined and somewhat more understated design. Nevertheless, the current GLS-Class evokes a more assertive and athletic impression with slimmer and more heavily browed headlights and a larger, taller and snoutier grille, while greater horizontal emphasis lends it a more grounded and potent stance.

Brisk brute

More assertive with AMG Line exterior styling, the driven GLS450 4Matic featured twin slat faux side bumper intakes and a deep lower mesh pattern intake, and staggered alloy wheels shod with 275/45R21 front and massive 315/40R21 rear tyres for a wider and more athletic stance, and additional road-holding useful for low traction tarmac. Equipped with many mod cons, safety features and driver assistance tech, the GLS450 features a standard 48V mild hybrid system, which scavenges kinetic energy through regenerative braking and powers electrical and ancilliary systems to reduce fuel consumption.

In a model range that encompasses European market diesels and three V8 petrol engines including ultra luxury Maybach and high performance AMG GLS-Class versions, the GLS450 available in Jordan is effectively the mid-range variant, but is far from being a slouch. In fact, it is quite the authoritatively brisk mover. Powered by Mercedes-Benz’s new twin-turbo direct injection 3-litre engine — marking a return to a smoother, inherently balanced in-line “straight” six cylinder configuration rather than the outgoing V6 — the GLS450 develops 362BHP at 5,500-6,100rpm and 368lb/ft throughout a broad 1,600-4,500rpm band.

Smooth and seamless

Silky smooth and willing from tickover to redline, the GLS450’s straight-six engine spools swiftly and is responsive off the line, building swiftly to a muscularly versatile and easily accessible mid-range sweet spot. Seamlessly rising to redline to a distant but viscerally urgent staccato soundtrack, the GLS450 belies its hefty 2,445kg mass as it sprints through 0-100km/h in 6.2-seconds, en route to a 246km/h maximum. Discretely un-intrusive, well-integrated and near imperceptible in its efforts, the GLS450’s 48V starter/generator hybrid system meanwhile pitches in for short bursts of performance enhancement when necessary.

Developing a further 21BHP and 184lb/ft, the GLS450’s 48V hybrid system operates various systems to unburden the combustion engine, and allows for longer top/start capability and fuel savings that allow for comparatively restrained 9.9l/100km combined fuel efficiency. Channelling its power, the GLS450’s 9-speed automatic gearbox much improves on Mercedes’ outgoing 7-speed unit, with a broad range of rations and swift and smooth shifts. Driving all four wheels with a seeming rear bias for rear-drive agility under normal circumstances, the GLS450 can however apportion power between front and rear as necessary.

Sporting side

Best driven in its sport mode settings with air sprung ride height lowered and adaptive damper taking on a firmer profile, the GLS450 feels more hunkered down and settled thus, with less exaggerated lateral movement over choppy roads and harsh bumps and cracks. At first impression, the GLS450 feels big and heavy as it is, but driven with more intent with sport modes engaged, it starts to feel smaller, more agile and even lighter. Meanwhile its electric-assisted steering was light and accurate, if somewhat clinical regarding feel and texture.

Turning into corners with rear-drive like agility, the GLS450 was adjustable and even willing to briefly flick out the rear in its sportier, less intrusive driving modes to pivot weight, before its front wheels tenaciously dug back traction and catapulted it onto the straight. Well controlling its significant weight from leaning too much through corners, GLS450 felt more dynamically resolved and even more comfortable in its lower and sportier suspension settings, where a slightly firmer ride proved worth the cost for a more vertically buttoned down ride quality on imperfect local roads.

Cavernous comfort

Comfortable despite its massive 21-inch alloys and low profile runflat tyres, the GLS450 is at home on the highway, happily crunching long distances with greatly reassuring stability and superb cabin refinement. Thoroughly equipped with almost innumerable gadgets, the GLS450 however usefully features an extensive driver assistance tech suite with active braking, blind spot assistance, 360° camera and parking assistance to manoeuvre easily. The GLS450 also features multizone climate control and huge configurable twin infotainment and instrument screens, panoramic sunroof and a terrific sound system.

Accommodating seven passengers, the GLS450 provides excellent front and luxury car like middle row space, in addition to useable third row seating. Driving position is highly adjustable while the middle row features electric slide and tilt adjustment. Spacious inside, the GLS450 allows for a minimum of 355-litres luggage volume with all seats in use, but expands to a cavernous 2,400-litre maximum when all seats are folded down. Classy and comfortable, its cabin is decked with quality leathers and trim, and well-padded soft textures. Design is luxurious but not overly ostentatious, and emphasises width with its horizontal lines, layouts and orientation.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 3-litre, twin-turbocharged, in-line 6-cylinders

Bore x stroke: 83 x 92.4mm

Compression: 10.5:1

Valve-train: 24-valve, DOHC, direct injection

Gearbox: 9-speed automatic, four-wheel-drive

Gear ratios: 1st 5.35; 2nd 3.24; 3rd 2.25; 4th 1.64; 5th 1.21; 6th 1.0; 7th 0.86; 8th 0.72; 9th 0.60

Reverse/final drive: 4.8/3.27

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 362 (367) [270] @5,500-6,100rpm

Electric starter/generator motor, power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 21 (22) [16]

Specific power: 120.7BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 148BHP/tonne

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 368.8 (500) @1,600-4,500rpm

Electric starter/generator motor, torque, lb/ft (Nm): 184.4 (250)

Specific torque: 166.7Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight: 204.5Nm/tonne

0-100km/h: 6.2-seconds

Maximum speed: 246km/h

Fuel consumption, combined: 9.9-11.4-litres/100km

CO2 emissions, combined: 206-215g/km

Fuel tank: 90-litres

Wheelbase: 3,135mm

Track, F/R: 1,669/1,692mm

Loading height: 824mm

Boot capacity, min/max: 355-/2,400-litres

Cargo capacity: 785kg

Unladen weight: 2,445kg

Steering: Electric-assisted, rack and pinion

Turning circle: 12.52-metres

Suspension: Double wishbone/multilink, air springs, adjustable suspension

Brakes: Ventilated discs

Tyres, F/R: 275/45R21/315/40R21

NEW YORK — Meal delivery services became essential during the pandemic, when millions of Americans were under lockdown and restaurants were shut to visitors.

But these days the platforms are increasingly finding themselves under fire, with politicians seeking to regulate the industry and restaurateurs accusing the likes of DoorDash, Grubhub and Uber Eats of freeloading. And they are looking for ways to do without them.

In just the first nine months of this year, DoorDash has likely filled over 1 billion orders, most of them in the US, where the company is the market leader.

But Mathieu Palombino, founder of the New York-based pizza chain Motorino, calls the boost provided by delivery apps a “big illusion” because more orders don’t bring bigger profits to restaurants.

“When you receive thirty or forty orders a day, you are happy. But the problem is that it does not translate into profits,” Palombino told AFP.

Food delivery services can charge restaurants fees of up to 30 per cent of the bill for a meal, according to their web sites.

To address that problem, in August the New York city council passed a law, capping third-party delivery fees at 15 per cent.

“Small businesses should not be pressured into accepting these fees in order to remain viable and competitive,” said New York City Councilman Francisco Moya, who initiated the bill. A similar law was passed in San Francisco in June.

Food delivery giants have challenged the laws in courts, and some analysts think they have a point.

“We believe DoorDash will have a strong legal case against the permanent fee caps,” Bank of America said in a research note last month. 

DoorDash, Grubhub and Uber Eats argue that the cap is unconstitutional and that restaurants are free to negotiate their commissions with delivery platforms.

The delivery giants also say they have made huge investments during the pandemic that led millions of customers who had never ordered meals online to get started.

And DoorDash says that restaurants that used its platform during the pandemic had a survival rate eight times higher than the industry average. The company also says that even before the laws were passed it already offered a 15 per cent fee formula.

Put Palombino, the pizza chain founder, is unconvinced. 

“The problem is that they have become so established that there no longer is a way back,” he said. “If you’re not on Seamless [one of the most popular delivery services in New York], you no longer exist.”

As for the 15 per cent commission, Palombino said that a successful restaurant can “only hope” for a profit margin of 15 or 20 per cent. 

“So at the end of the day, they take it all.”

‘The only real solution’

In court, the food delivery platforms have argued that the cap will trigger higher fees for consumers, who have been relatively spared for now.

Collin Wallace, managing director of the marketing firm ZeroStorefront and former head of innovation at Grubhub, says that so far it’s the restaurants who have had to bend.

“The only way to get this resolved is going to be by the technology platforms, using the same engineering and innovation they used to get their companies to this point,” Wallace said.

Some businesses are already trying to get around the all-powerful delivery apps by creating their own platforms.

One such start-up, ChowNow, helps restaurants launch their own order-taking applications, so as not to have to pay any commissions at all.

Another company, LoCo, creates delivery cooperatives owned by restaurants, where they get to choose their own commissions, often half of what delivery giants charge, said LoCo founder Jon Sewell.

Sewell, himself an owner of a restaurant in Iowa, added that this arrangement also allows restaurants to keep their clients’ data to themselves.

Sewell admits that the concept is not easy to sell.

“It’s difficult to get the people convinced that they need to start to work as a collective.”

But, Sewell added, “to me, that’s the only real solution.”

Places of Mind: A Life of Edward Said
Timothy Brennan
London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021
Pp. 437

Much has been written about Edward Said, but this is the first comprehensive biography in English of the renowned scholar, covering his personal, professional and political life. The author, Timothy Brennan, teaches in the humanities at the University of Minnesota and has written several scholarly books on world literature, making him well-informed on subjects close to Said’s heart. Brennan is obviously an admirer of Said but the book does not simply sing his praises. Rather, it is a critical review of the development of his thinking, writing, and influence over the years. 

It is his on going influence which is perhaps most important: “Long after his death in 2003, Edward W. Said remains a partner in many imaginary conversations… A Palestinian American critic, intellectual, and activist, Edward Said is now considered one of the most transformative thinkers of the last half century… More than anyone he moved the humanities from the university to the centre of the political map.” (xi-xiii)

Having been a graduate student at Columbia University, where Said taught most of his life, Brennan knew the man personally and academically. This did not, however, keep him from undertaking extensive, additional research for this book, interviewing members of Said’s family, friends, fellow activists and colleagues, some of them also towering intellectuals in their own right, such as Noam Chomsky, Eqbal Ahmed, Ibrahim Abu Lughod, Nubar Hovsepian and Sadiq Al Azm. Besides analysing many of Said‘s thirty-five published books and the context in which they were written, Brennan addresses his role as unofficial spokesman for the Palestinians, the philosophers that influenced him, and how his thinking changed time, as well as his youth, his love of sports and music, and the shifts in his academic focus from medicine to poetry to novels and, finally, to literary criticism.

Most interestingly, Brennen points out that music was not simply a pastime for Said, but part of the intellectual scaffolding he employed to analyse the world around him, including political trends. Brennan also highlights the importance of teaching for Said as a way of working through issues that concerned him.

The curiosity of those who have read Said’s memoir, “Out of Place” (1999), will be piqued as Brennan quotes family members who give a somewhat different picture of Edward’s relationships with them than he depicted in his memoir. The point is not to expose, but to portray Said as a complex human being, who most often felt himself to be an outsider. Brennan also covers Said’s earliest political influences and awareness of being Palestinian, such as his aunt, Nabiha, who often recounted her experience providing relief for the many Palestinian refugees who arrived in Cairo after the 1948 Nakbeh in a miserable state.

He was also deeply affected by learning that one of his boyhood friends had been beaten to death in prison for his communist ideas in the late 1950s. An early role model for Said was Kamal Nasser, a poet and PLO cadre, assassinated by an Israeli hit squad in Beirut in 1973. All in all, Brennan’s narrative shows that “Said was never really the detached, apolitical man that many supposed him to be until the 1967 war forced him into activism”. (p. 30)

Born a US citizen by virtue of his father, Edward had an equivocal relationship to American culture, and was disturbed at how many leftists shared US imperial notions, not to mention identifying with Israel. Some of his most important influences were European leftist philosophers, as he began to develop his principle that to be ethical demanded taking a political stand on injustice. Despite his vast familiarity with Western thinking — or maybe because of it — he was constantly seeking to map out “an indigenous Arab culture, politics, and aesthetics”, as was most apparent in his book, “Beginnings”. (p. 145) 

With many examples from art and fiction in particular, his most famous book, “Orientalism”, showed how the humanities have political consequences, and led to Said being considered by some the father of post-colonial studies, though he was not an unconditional supporter of this theory. “For Said, the East-West divide was never etched in stone… but rather geostrategic. To have mastery over the Orient, Europe felt it had first to master the subject matter, and because knowledge is power, that mastery took the form of determining the essence of the Orient… [as if there were only one].” (p. 192-3)

The sequel to “Orientalism,” “Culture and Imperialism” was Said’s tribute to the Third World writers, artists, and activists who answered colonialism with their own creativity. It also attested to Said’s enduring optimism and belief in historical progress, which was mirrored in the tireless energy he expended in propagating the Palestinian cause in the US and internationally.

Despite never advocating violence, Said had an extensive FBI file dating from at least 1970, initially focused on his activities with the AAUG (Arab American University Graduates). In another negatively motivated tribute to his influence, a conservative anthropologist testified to a US congressional committee in 2003 that “Said’s post-colonial critique had left American Middle East Studies scholars impotent to contribute to Bush’s ‘war on terror’”. (p. 159)

Among many acknowledgements at the end of the book, Brennan writes, “Mohammad Shaheen’s poetically precise work on Said’s legacy is the most important to be found in Arabic”. (p. 417) 

Shaheen, of the University of Jordan, can be proud of having contributed to this groundbreaking book. “Places of Mind” is available at Books@Cafe.

By Nashwa Beheiry
Digital Banking Expert

By now, young adults should have some knowledge about payments and budgeting. Here are some of the payment methods you can use to cover their financial needs during this stage.

The time has come. Children are young adults going to university and you must make decisions together: What to study? Which university? Where? Here in Jordan or abroad? Will they be staying at home or going to live on campus? Will they be renting their residence? And many more matters to tackle. In any case, you need to decide on how you will be providing them with financial support: 

Cash

Traditionally, cash might be appropriate if your adolescent stays with you and goes to college in the same city. Disadvantages are: 

•They will not get the chance to explore banking services to prepare them for post-graduation

•Controlling expenses and budgeting will be difficult

•Parents will not be able to monitor their financial behaviour

Linking a debit card to a bank account

Opening a bank account and issuing a debit card for your kids will allow you to transfer money from your account to theirs, especially if they are studying abroad. Then they can use the debit card at the merchant’s point of sale. 

If they need cash, they can withdraw directly from the bank or ATMs. This option will help kids: 

•Get familiar with banking services

•Manage their spending using statements of account and card

•Think about the choices they make as well as the consequences

•As a parent, it will help you monitor their spending

However, the disadvantage here is that the cost can be slightly higher than other means. 

CliQ Instant payment system

CliQ is a new payment method launched in Jordan under the supervision of the Central Bank of Jordan that enables money transfers between participating banks in Jordan instantly and at no cost. Using this facility can be handy if you and your child have accounts in different banks. The benefits in this case are:

•You send money at no cost

•You’ll get confirmation of receipt

•Your child can send you a request to pay

E-wallets and mobile money

A convenient local method for executing money transfers and payments is to use ‘’Electronic Money’’. The Central Bank of Jordan has been encouraging such payments in the last few years, especially since the pandemic. 

Most banks in Jordan, along with seven other institutions, provide the service of ‘’Electronic Wallets’’ whereby you can transfer money from person to person using their mobile phone number on an application and not depending on a bank account, at no cost.

The recipient can use the money to pay directly from the wallet to merchants for their purchases, pay bills, transfer to another person, or withdraw cash from any ATM. This payment method is:

•Safe

•Easy 

•Convenient 

•Enables you to monitor and analyse spending behaviours and budgeting

International instant payments

Several international payment institutions represented by Jordanian banks and money exchange offices are available across the country. 

You can transfer money locally or internationally by going in person to the representative and handing cash, transferring the money from your bank account, online, or using the mobile application of the desired payment institution. Then your kid can receive the money in cash at the nearest representative branch of a financial institution. This option has the same disadvantages as handling cash. 

Finally, no matter what method you use, it is essential to stress caution about identity theft — never sharing personal identification, account/card numbers, passwords, or financial information with anyone to protect them from all types of fraud.

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine