Features

PARIS — It has been dismissed as the straitjacket of the wage-slave salary man. But the suit and tie is far from finished if Thursday’s Paris men’s fashion week catwalks are anything to go by.

Having been propelled to the top of fashion as the king of streetwear, Virgil Abloh turned his magpie gaze on the boring old business suit for Louis Vuitton.

Under a Magritte sky to symbolise the surreal blue-sky thinking that was involved, the hyperactive American designer set out his thinking on “reprogramming traditional dress codes”.

“Tailoring”, he promised, was about to be dragged out of its “corporate comfort zone”.

Abloh was taking scissors to tradition, and to hammer home the point he had a huge silver pair plonked down in the middle of his runway with a Magritte dream key and an eyeball.

Yet apart from the odd little detail, it was hard to see how the first dozen looks differed from anything you would have seen in a department store window anytime in the last half century.

Suited and shiny booted in shirts and ties complete with clips, his models looked at first glance like straightish young city slickers.

Look again, however, and you began to see the “surreal” details that Abloh — who showed his own Off-White label’s suit-led show Wednesday — said “make the ordinary extraordinary”.

Vintage brass Vuitton buttons were used to fasten the top of the wool gabardine jackets. Blink and you would miss a sawn-off waistcoat worn as a kind of cummerbund.

Powder blue braces that were somewhere between a harness and a holster gave another look a subtle and unexpected edginess.

Abloh said he was twisting and turning “the dress codes of an old world... reappropriated and embraced for a progressive joie de vivre”.

Zoot suits

There was real joy and oodles of invention at Issey Miyake, which took the basic forms of the classic suit and frock coat and gave them a colourful modern zoot suit twist.

In fact, the Japanese pleat-master turned its show into a jazz jam session, with musicians press-ganged onto the podium as acrobats whizzed around on cyr wheels.

Valentino had given a masterclass in romantic tailoring the previous evening, with slits down the side of its suit jackets to make reaching into the pocket easier.

With such tailoring aces as Kris Van Assche at Berluti and Kim Jones, his successor at Dior Homme, to come on Friday, this could be the week when the suit reemerges from streetwear’s shadow. 

There was even a touch of formalism about the American avant-gardist Rick Owens, who can usually be counted on to push the boundaries.

After a series of body-hugging cashmere knits inspired by Ziggy-era David Bowie’s collaborations with Japanese designer Kansai Yamamoto, Owens sent out a series of cropped felt jackets with high sharp shoulders.

If that was not eye-catching enough, the Los Angeles creator topped that with hulking blanket coats “mimicking Le Corbusier’s Modulor Man”, one of which he wore himself.

British designer Clare Waight Keller also took on the suit in her fledgling Givenchy menswear line.

Her jumping off point was the natty Maharaja of Indore who was a style icon in Paris between the wars and who went on to build a modernist palace back home in India. 

By Fiachra Gibbons

PARIS — The suspicion that World Athletics could ban Nike's Vaporfly shoes over fears they give runners an unfair edge gave a boost to the performance of some of the sportswear giants' rivals on Thursday.

A World Athletics spokeswoman said that a committee composed of officials, athletes, doctors, scientists and legal experts, was still looking at the shoes, which athletes have worn to set a string of records in recent months, but is expected to make recommendations by the end of January.

"The panel is still deliberating but we hope to be able to make an announcement by the end of the month," the spokeswoman told AFP, adding that any changes to the rules would then have to be approved by the World Athletics council.

After renewed speculation on Wednesday that the Vaporfly could be banned, Japanese sports shoe makers Asics, which has launched its own elite running shoe, and Mizuno surged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Thursday before sinking back. Asics still closed up 2.52 per cent. 

Later in Frankfurt, Puma shares jumped more than half a per cent in the morning but German rivals Adidas, after an early bounce, fell back.

The basic Nike Vaporfly has a carbon blade in the sole, which stores and releases energy on each step, and air cushions. 

On October 12, Kenyan marathon world record holder Eliud Kipchoge broke the two-hour mark for the distance in Vienna wearing a new Vaporfly prototype with three carbon blades in the sole and four air cushions.

The next day, his compatriot Brigid Kosgei broke Paula Radcliffe's women's marathon world record with a time of 2hr 14min 04sec wearing the basic one-blade version that has been available in the shops since 2017.

Kipchoge has responded that he ran the time, not the shoes.

"I trained hard," he told British newspaper the Daily Telegraph this week. "Technology is growing and we can't deny it — we must go with technology."

"In Formula 1, Pirelli issues the tyres to all the cars but Mercedes are the best one. Why? It's the engine. It's the person.

"It's the person who is running, not the shoe. It's the person driving, not the person making the tyres."

The New York Times analysed statistics from more than a million marathons and half marathon runs since 2014 and calculated that the various Vaporfly models bring, on average, a 4 per cent to 5 per cent improvement in performance, with slower runners showing the biggest gains, around 6 per cent on average.

By Taimaz Szirniks and Fiachra Gibbons

PARIS — A giggly white rabbit called Molang who loves nothing more than cuddles and helping his friends has become a global children's megastar.

The ever-smiling character began as an emoji in South Korea before the French animation studio Millimages gave him new life as the star of his own quirky kids series four years ago.

It has since become a global sensation not just for pre-school children at which it was first aimed, but also among teenagers and adults who have been swept up in its fluffball of cuteness.

"Molang" now shows in 190 countries including China and has been picked up by both Disney and Netflix. 

"Molang is a big round rabbit, who is extremely positive, imaginative and enthusiastic," said Marie-Caroline Villand, who developed the animated character from the emoji created by Yoon Hye-ji.

Molang and his best friend, a chick called Piu-Piu, are kindergarten Laurel and Hardys, forever getting themselves into a tizz in bite-sized five-minute adventures that always end with a smile.

Piu-Piu is "smaller, a little more nervous and shy", Villand told AFP at the Millimages Paris studio near the picturesque Canal Saint Martin, where some 100 animators work on the series.

She also helped come up with the very particular language that the characters speak, which although utter nonsense is actually quite easy to understand.

Molangese is a mix of French, Italian and Russian with a smattering of gibberish, which means anyone anywhere can understand it without need for dubbing.

"The words are very clearly said and they come back all the time," said Villand, meaning fans quickly get the drift.

Speaking Molangese 

"'Bah kah ki kou?' means either 'What is it?' or 'What are you doing?', depending on what is going on on the screen," she said.

"And 'Ko te ta da ki!' means 'I have an idea!'," she added, a key phrase in Molang's problem-solving lexicon.

Drawing the rabbit is "both easy and difficult", chief animator Nicolas Marrocco told AFP in his glass-roofed studio.

"It's easy because they are all just little balls — but because of their shape some actions are very difficult to do," he added.

"For instance, how do you touch your head when you have such tiny arms?" (The answer is by cleverly moving the arms around Molang's back.)

Millimages managing director Roch Lener picked up the worldwide rights for Molang in 2014 and the first series aired on France's Canal+ the following year.

But at the time his decision was met with scepticism by many of his peers.

"People said that children weren't interested in empathy and friendship," Lener said.

But he believes its global success — with the audience now heading north of 200 million — is down to Molang's very clear identity and his strong association with "happiness and friendship".

"When Roch Lener showed up, the character, its potential was obvious, but there was still a lot to do," said Nathalie Leffray, who is head of developing children's programmes at Canal+

Grown-up appeal 

She is convinced that its wide family appeal is based on the way it is written, with lots of clever cultural references.

"It is very modern and the writing means it also speaks to a more grown-up audience," she added. 

All of which has won Molang a place at the top table of children's entertainment alongside Peppa Pig, Hello Kitty and the Moomins in record time. 

But Lener is clear that the series itself is not where the money is.

"Making cartoons earns you nothing," he said, "but some that are worldwide successes can make considerable sums with toys."

Millimages have high hopes for Molang franchising with hundreds of "super soft" toys of the rabbit and his friends decorating their studio.

Its "My Best Friend" merchandising brand goes from toys to towels.

McDonald's have also adopted the character for their children's menus as have Korean railways for their express trains. 

In the meantime, the storylines are getting a little longer in the fourth series, which began screening in November, allowing Molang to get involved in more complex stories and even to travel through time.

In one episode the friends go to the court of "Sonny El Magnifico", a rabbit version of the French "Sun King" Louis XIV who built the Palace of Versailles. 

LAS VEGAS — In the not-too-distant future you could ride one, two or three wheels... or maybe none at all.

Tech-inspired solutions for mobility — on land, air and water — featured prominently at the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show this week.

Some innovators played with long-established ideas like the bicycle or scooter by adding artificial intelligence, electric power and other technologies. 

With bold and striking designs, the new transportation gadgetry suggests a wild ride ahead:

Autonomous and shared

Autonomous and shared vehicles intended to curb traffic and emissions were front and centre.

Swiss-based group Rinspeed showed its latest “modular mobility” vehicle “Metrosnap”, which is built on a skateboard-like chassis and looks like a futuristic minibus. Different components can be swapped in to accommodate passengers, deliveries or even a mobile retail outlet.

Germany’s Bosch showed a similar autonomous shuttle bus-style vehicle that can offer “customised on-demand mobility”.

“If there is demand, it can transport people, and then if there is a need to move goods, it can be adapted for that as well,” said Bosch’s Andrew Yip.

Juergen Reers, a mobility analyst with Accenture, said people are looking for flexible solutions.

“People want something more than [transit] where they are tied to rigid schedules and pickup stations,” he said.

Pedal power, with extras

Adaptations of the bicycle, infused with new tech for the connected generation, appeared at CES. 

French startup Wello showed its open-sided, three-wheeled car-bike that relies on pedalling, electric power and solar panels on the roof, already in use by French postal services.

“It’s taking the best from the bicycle and the best from the car,” said Arnaud Chereau, co-founder of the group, which is based in Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean.

“It’s 100 per cent sustainable because it produces energy from the solar panels.”

Also seen at the show was an off-road electric cargo bike from Sweden-based startup Cake, which riders can customise for various kinds of trips.

“You can commute to work, pick up your groceries and then grab your surfboard and head to the beach,” Cake spokesman Garin Fons said of the two-wheeler.

Another electric-assisted tricycle concept from Italian startup Measy adds another dimension: a cargo bay for a small delivery robot that can be set free to bring goods inside buildings.

“This is a concept for multimobility,” said Measy engineer Matta De Santis, demonstrating with a robot from fellow Italian startup Yape.

China-based Smacircle offered a simpler, lighter electric bicycle designed as two small, connected rings that fold up and fit a backpack or commuter case.

“If you take a train to work, you can use this for the first mile or last mile,” said Smacircle’s Darren Pike of the e-bike, which is only 53 centimetres high and weighs just over 10 kilogrammes.

Breaking the mould

Some models presented a more outlandish way to get from A to B.

Ninebot Segway, which makes personal transporters and scooters, unveiled its S-Pod, a self-balancing armchair designed for urban streets.

“We are looking at different solutions for urban mobility,” said company spokeswoman Julie Tang.

According to Segway, the new personal transport pod can travel up to 39 kilometres an hour and is designed with intuitive controls to avoid tipping over.

New Zealand startup Manta5 presented its water bike, which also uses electricity.

“Our founder had a dream that he was riding a bicycle, and he saw dolphins, and that’s how this started,” said spokesman Louis Wilks.

The Manta5 hydrofoiler, with variable electric power assistance, is “a new category of water sport” that is quiet, environmentally friends and allows you “to see directly into the water”, Wilks said.

Flying above the crowd

Some CES exhibitors said the best way to cope with traffic on the ground is to rise above it.

Aeronext unveiled a scaled-down model of its “flying gondola” designed as a personal transporter. The gondola uses so-called “4D gravity” to keep the passenger compartment stable even during turbulence.

“This is original technology. Conventional air mobility drones are not stable,” said Keisuke Toji, chief executive of the group, which has offices in Japan and China.

Toji said the company hopes to have a working prototype in the next year as it moves towards commercialisation.

South Korea’s Hyundai meanwhile announced it would begin mass-producing flying cars for Uber, moving the idea of aerial robo-taxis closer to reality.

Putting it all together

The vast array of new transport options could lead to a more sustainable future, but only if coordinated, Accenture’s Reers said.

Hyundai proposed a network of hubs to connect various forms of personal and mass transit with stations for its drones. 

Toyota said it would create a “woven city” in Japan, powered by hydrogen fuel cells, where it would test autonomous driving and related technologies.

At the moment, Reers said cities have resisted new modes of transport like scooters because they don’t fit into the ecosystem, highlighting the need for better planning.

“These new developments create huge opportunities to manage the system in a more sustainable way,” he said.

“Instead of looking for the next big thing, we should be thinking about making things work together.”

One of the most affordable modern SUVs, the Renault Duster offers plenty of practicality and functional off-road ability even in its most basic front-wheel-drive variant. Representing real value for buyers on a budget, the Duster is more about attainability rather than aspiration, it is designed a tough yet comfortable, spacious, convenient, and economical SUV that is easy to drive and manoeuvre.

First launched in 2009, face-lifted in 2014 and ostensibly replaced by a more spruced-up successor for the 2019 model year, the long-running original Duster remains relevant.

Rugged looks

Either still available as a current model or available as unsold stock in other markets, the old Duster shares the same technical and design basics with the incoming model. Rugged looking, yet inoffensive in design, the original Duster has a likably unpretentious and somewhat playful sense of charm. With its muscularly bulging wheel-arches, long bonnet, contoured surfacing, pert rear, front skid plate chunky roof rails big browed and framed headlights and grille, the Duster looks very much the tough SUV, but without projecting the overbearing or sometimes obnoxious image of other much larger and pricier SUVs.

With is that value, ability and practicality underpinning its charm, the Duster is designed to be cost effective for Renault, its Dacia brand that developed the Duster and the consumer, and so shares a basic platform with other related Renault and sister Dacia models. Spacious inside with a comparatively long wheelbase, yet relatively small on the outside, the Duster sits at just over 4.3 metres long, 1.8 metres wide and 1.6 metres tall, and is highly manoeuvrable in tight city streets and parking places, and along the narrowest off-road trails where larger SUV fare more clumsily. 

Just right engineering

Engineered for reliability and cost efficiency, the entry-level Duster is powered by a familiar 1.6 litre naturally-aspirated 16-valve four-cylinder engine, combined with a four-speed automatic gearbox, to make the most of its power and return the best possible fuel efficiency. Producing 103BHP at 5,750rpm and 109lb/ft at 3,750rpm, the Duster isn’t exactly very powerful, but weighing in at under 1,200kg in 4x2 guise, this is perfectly sufficient to move at a decent pace in traffic, on high way or in limited off-road use. Meanwhile, 7.6l/100km combined cycle fuel efficiency is good for an SUV, and especially so on the highway.

Smooth operating and progressive in delivery, the driven Duster’s 11.5-second 0-100km/h in 11.4 seconds and 165km/h top speed means that it has no problem keeping up with various driving conditions. Confident if not especially quick, the Duster is responsive and flexible enough for its class but one does have to make full use of the Duster’s full power and torque output at higher revs for keeping a good pace on steep inclines or for higher speed over taking manoeuvres. That said, the Duster’s 5-speed manual is pleasant and more engaging than an auto, and combines with a light user-friendly clutch pedal.

Comfortably capable

Available in four-wheel-drive guise for more extensive off-road and low-traction driving, the Duster is, however, considerably more capable than expected in front-drive guise. Lighter than the 4x4 version, and with its engine weight pressing down on the front wheels, the Duster 4x2 benefits from the same generous 29.3 degree approach, 23 degree ramp and 34.9 degree departure angles, and almost identical 205mm ground clearance, and is easily capable of overcoming pebbly, dusty and rutted inclines, while its compact dimensions allow to manoeuvre well in narrow trails and roads alike. The Duster also proved quite comfortable and capable over quicker but still rutted dirt roads.

Comfortably capable of absorbing rutted unpaved roads or the cracked and lumpy stretches of highway, the Duster is supple and takes such imperfections in its stride, and seemingly glide over some speed bumps. Settled and refined at speed for a small and affordable SUV, the Duster is comfortable over long distances with good directional stability. Through winding roads the Duster 4x2 is tidy into corners, and grippy and reassuring throughout despite some body lean. Riding on less sophisticate rear torsion beam suspension compared to the 4x4 version’s multi-link set-up, the Duster 4x2 nevertheless feels competent, manoeuvrable, settled and fluent. 

Spacious and supple

Designed for user-friendly predictability, the Duster is set-up for understeer, rather than oversteer, when pushed too hard, and is for reassuringly grippy at the rear rather than agile, easy to flick and adjustable like a small hatchback though tight hairpin corners. Its steering initially feels slightly, but through corners it hydraulic assistance soon seems more natural, better weighted and textured than quicker more modern and artificial systems. Meanwhile its 215/65R16 tyres provide good grip, ride comfort, steering accuracy and rugged durability. Driving position is well adjustable and comfortable, but firmer lumbar support and steering reach adjustment would be nice.

Efficiently packaged inside, the Duster’s relatively long wheelbase makes it spacious inside with good legroom and headroom, especially when driven without a sunroof. A utilitarian family car able to accommodate five passengers and generous luggage in its 475-litre boot, the Duster’s cargo capacity can be increased to 1,636-litres with the rear seats folded. Rear seat access is meanwhile easy through long and wide swinging doors and driving visibility is good for manoeuvring and parking. Reasonable well equipped, the Duster’s cabin features user-friendly layouts and hardwearing – if not particularly luxurious – plastics and fabric upholstery.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Engine: 1.6-litre, transverse 4-cylinders
• Bore x stroke: 79.5 x 80.5mm
• Valve-train: 16-valve, DOHC
• Gearbox: 5-speed manual, front-wheel-drive
• Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 103 (105) [77] @5,750rpm
• Specific power: 64.5BHP/litre
• Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 109 (148) @3,750rpm
• Specific torque: 92.6Nm/litre
• 0-100km/h: 11.5-seconds
• Top speed: 165km/h
• Fuel consumption, urban/extra-urban/combined: 9.9-/6.6-/7.6-litres/100km
• CO2 emissions, combined: 177g/km
• Fuel capacity: 50-litres
• Length: 4,315mm
• Width: 1,821mm
• Height: 1,625mm
• Wheelbase: 2,674mm
• Track, F/R: 1,559/1,560mm
• Overhang, F/R: 816/825mm
• Weight: 1,160kg (est.)
• Minimum ground clearance: 205mm
• Approach/break-over/departure angles: 29.3/23/34.9 degrees
• Headroom, F/R: 905/894mm
• Shoulder room, F/R: 1,387/1,400mm
• Cargo volume, min/max: 475-/1,636-litres
• Suspension, F/R: MacPherson struts, anti-roll bar/torsion beam
• Steering: Power-assisted rack and pinion
• Lock-to-lock: 3.3-turns
• Turning circle: 10.44 metres
• Brakes, F/R: Ventilated discs/drums
• Tyres: 215/65R16

High achievers tend to hold one’s self and others to high standards. The problem is when the need to be perfect gets in the way of one’s mental health, well-being and relationships.

Signs to perfectionism

• Having an incessant need to always achieve more and never make mistakes 

• Not being satisfied with what one accomplishes

• Setting high standards for themselves, others and the world, yet, those standards are not possible to achieve, resulting in a high level of stress that affects daily functioning 

• Experiencing a dysfunctional way of thinking — seeing things in black or white with zero tolerance for an in-between option 

• Having (for some people) recurrent, intrusive thoughts of getting things done perfectly (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder or OCD)

The costs of being a perfectionist

Feeling stressed can affect one physically (headaches, pain, sleeping difficulties, muscle tension) and psychologically (depression and anxiety).

It is not easy for a perfectionist to accept the fact that things can’t always go the way they want to, which is why they get more stressed than others when dealing with negative life events like a death of a loved one, or a major change in their lives, which they don’t easily bounce back from.

Common characteristics of perfectionism

• Self criticism: Perfectionists tend to be highly self critical, feel they’re not good enough and doubt their abilities, all reinforcing feelings of worthlessness and shame. A perfectionist’s self worth is usually determined by her or his accomplishments

• Procrastination: The tendency to procrastinate tasks and errands is common among perfectionists. They fear being unable to complete a task perfectly, so they put it off as long as possible

• Conflict avoidance: Perfectionists tend to avoid conflicts by doing things to meet others’ expectations, pleasing people and being liked by them, all efforts to deal with their feelings of insecurity and inadequacy. Perfectionists do not express their thoughts and needs to avoid being rejected by others so they can feel better about themselves

Why do people become perfectionists?

A combination of genetics and environmental factors predispose a person to think or behave perfectly. Parenting styles and childhood experiences can play a great role — the unrealistic expectations from parents, culture or even one’s self. Having demanding parents or families where there are strict rules and high expectations of children can also affect the tendency of individuals to be perfectionists.

Perfectionism can also be learned. Having perfectionist parents can affect children and make them embrace these traits, as parents are role models for children, especially at an early stage of their lives.

Dealing with perfectionism

• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) with a therapist: CBT focuses on the pattern of thoughts a person has — recording negative perfectionist thoughts, identifying thinking traps or cognitive distortions and fighting these thoughts by replacing them with more realistic thoughts

• Self compassion: Be gentle on yourself

• Self forgiveness: Forgiving yourself for the things that you think you could have done better

• Self assertiveness: Focusing on the ability to say no to others, prioritising yourself and putting your needs before others

• Strategy to circumvent procrastination: Following the five-minute rule; allow yourself to spend only five minutes doing a task that you have been procrastinating. Then, after five minutes, it is up to you to decide to continue the task or stop. Getting started is always hard so those five minutes can serve to motivate you

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine

By Haneen Mas’oud

Clinical Psychologist

Harvest

Jim Crace

New York: Vintage Books, 2013

Pp. 243

“Harvest” is a novel of transition, set in a small English village at the time when the effects of the Industrial Revolution are expanding into the remote countryside. This can mean replacing traditional farming with raising sheep, their wool prized by the expanding mills — the marriage of agriculture and industry in the rising capitalist system.

Author Jim Crace doesn’t tell the reader this directly, but pens a personal story to illustrate how the change can affect society. He matches his prose to the transition, infusing deliberate, elegant and well-rounded sentences reminiscent of classical English novels with the stark emotional impact of modern literature.

The other theme in “Harvest” is that of “the outsider”, a recurrent motif in modern writing. Again, Crace matches style to theme by designating Walter Thirsk, a relative newcomer to the self-contained village, as narrator. The arrival of a number of newcomers to the village in the first few pages of the novel catalyses the plot.

While Thirsk had arrived twelve years prior with Master Kent and his wife, who had inherited the farm from her father, most of the villagers have been there for generations. Illiterate and distrustful of strangers and change, they cultivate barley, but harvests are decreasing, threatening the self-sufficiency they have known for as long as they can remember. Justice is swiftly meted out to those who don’t belong. Thirsk understands the villagers: “It makes sense in such a distant place as this, where there is little wealth and all our labours are spent on putting a single meal in front of us each day, to be protective of our modest world and fearful for our skinny lives.” (p. 16-17)

Yet, Thirsk also harbours empathy for the three outsiders who light a fire on the perimeter of the property, which under prevailing laws is the same as staking out a claim to stay. Their arrival reminds him of his own outsider status. While he loves the rhythm of nature and outdoor work on the farm, their arrival also reminds him that “there is another world clear of the forest tops, a world beyond the rule of seasons, a redrawn world… I stand at the threshold of the gleaning field and wonder what the future has in mind for me”. (p. 58)

Thirsk feels his tenuous status in the village even more with the arrival of another group of strangers. Master Kent received the farm through marriage and his wife is now dead, leading her cousin to come with plans to repossess the property and make it profitable by replacing subsistence grain farming with sheep raising. Since Thirsk has old ties to the Master, he is privy to these plans and feels guilty about not sharing his knowledge with the other villagers, for the plan “involves the closing and engrossment of our fields with walls and hedges, ditches, gates. He [the cousin] means to throw a halter around our lives. He means the clearing of our common land. He means the cutting down of trees… Our final harvest may have come and gone”. (pp. 36, 59)

Clearly, the village risks losing its autonomy, and villagers who aren’t useful in the new scheme may be let go.

The plot is further complicated when another fire breaks out, destroying one of the master’s stables, and igniting a chain of events which spin out of control: in the course of a single week, the transition is accomplished, clearing the way for the cousin’s plan to be implemented. 

Thirsk stands as a Hamlet-like figure, wanting to take decisive action but paralysed by self-doubt. His descriptions of village life and the surrounding natural world are charming and lush with precise details, as are his musings about his loves and lusts. He is a keen observer of human behaviour and the subtle and not-so-subtle signs of class privilege. But Thirsk is not an omniscient narrator; he doesn’t know for sure who started the fires; neither does the reader. This murky cause-and-effect relationship shrouds many pivotal events in the story and is one of the author’s main techniques for building suspense and making the reader think twice.

What is clear, however, is that the villagers, when facing an unexpected situation, do not always act in their own interests, and their lack of class solidarity plays into the hands of the rich and powerful. Ironically, the three “newcomers were fugitives from sheep themselves, exiles from their own commons”, but the villagers don’t bother to find this out before reacting negatively to their presence. (p. 203)

The shift from grain to sheep could be a metaphor for the many dislocations that are still happening under the banner of progress and profit, just as the outsider theme is predictive of today’s world refugee crisis and the negative reactions it has evoked in some quarters. Like Thirsk, we should be weighing our responsibility to humankind and the world we inhabit. Unlike Thirsk, we should take action before it is too late. Crace has written a compelling story about a small place that has enormous, timeless implications.

Thinking about your heart health? Consider pouring yourself a cup of tea — hold the milk and sugar.

A study published in the peer-reviewed European Journal of Preventive Cardiology suggests that people who drink tea three or more times a week may live longer and suffer a lower risk of cardiovascular disease than their non-tea drinking counterparts.

Researchers in China tracked self-reported tea consumption as part of the China-PAR project, monitoring the cardiovascular health of more than 100,000 Chinese adults with no prior history of heart attack, stroke, or cancer.

Overall, they found that, on average, consistent tea drinkers were diagnosed with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease 1.41 years later and live 1.26 years longer than those who drink tea rarely or not at all. Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, or atherosclerosis, is caused by high cholesterol levels, causing plaque to form and arteries to harden and become blocked.

Among these, a subset of 14,081 participants surveyed twice over an average of eight years found a more definitive correlation between tea drinking and cardiovascular health. Individuals who habitually drank tea in both surveys had a 56 per cent lower risk of fatal heart disease and stroke and a 29 per cent decreased risk of all-cause death, per the report.

Dongfeng Gu, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and co-author of the study, said in a statement that tea’s “protective effects” affected consistent habitual tea drinkers the most.

“Mechanism studies have suggested that the main bioactive compounds in tea, namely polyphenols, are not stored in the body long-term,” he said. “Thus, frequent tea intake over an extended period may be necessary for the cardioprotective effect.”

What about tea makes it so heart-healthy?

“Tea is rich in flavonoids, a natural, plant-derived antioxidant that has been shown to reduce inflammation and improve heart and vascular health,” said Dr Benjamin Hirsh, the director of preventive cardiology at Northwell Health’s Sandra Atlas Bass Heart Hospital in Manhasset, New York. He is unaffiliated with the study.

The type of tea might make a difference, researchers noted. Green tea was linked with approximately 25 per cent lower rates of heart disease, stroke and death. However, no significant associations were observed for black tea.

This might merely be due to the number of people in the study drinking black tea. Only 8 per cent of those surveyed primarily consumed black tea, while nearly half drank green tea. The study also raises the possibility that the polyphenols in black tea could be deactivated during the fermentation process, and that black tea tends to be consumed with milk — possibly counteracting tea’s health benefits.

Since the study only surveyed people in China, these benefits may or may not extend to people of other races or ethnicities, Dr Olujimi Ajijola, a cardiologist at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Centre, told USA Today.

The study also acknowledged that the positive benefits of tea were more robust in men than women. Dr Eugenia Gianos, the director of women’s heart health at New York City’s Lenox Hill Hospital, said that may be due to the lower levels of habitual tea consumption and the lower risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease in the women surveyed, compared to men. She is unaffiliated with the study.

It may also be attributed, however, to differences between sex, noted Dr Jordan C. Ray, a cardiologist at the Mayo Clinic who is unaffiliated with the study. Atherosclerosis is complex and can be varied by sex hormones and genetic differences, he said.

Ray further cautioned that the consistent tea drinkers in the study tended to be older men who were heavy smokers and heavy drinkers. Age and tobacco use, he said, increase cardiovascular risk, while drinking lowers it.

“Anytime there are population differences you have to ask if the tea is the source of the decreased number of events or [if it’s another] common reason,” Ray told USA Today.

Nevertheless, tea may help reduce inflammation and be a good part of a heart-healthy diet and a steady exercise routine, Ray said, which continue to be the best routines to limit cardiovascular disease.

By Joshua Bote