People Who Eat Darkness
Richard Lloyd Parry
Jonathan Cape
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In 2000, Lucie Blackman stepped into "the vastness of Tokyo in summer" and disappeared. The following winter her dismembered remains were found buried in a seaside cave.
In the months separating these events, the search for the 21-year-old, the investigation and the arrest of Joji Obara, who was charged with Lucie's rape and murder, played out across the world media.
The journalist Richard Lloyd Parry recalls how Lucie became "the symbol of a certain kind of victimhood: the young woman who comes to a ghastly end in an exotic land".
She was a hostess in Roponggi and her story spoke of the seedy underbelly of a little understood culture.
Lloyd Parry attempts to reconstruct the life led, as well as the death met, by Lucie. He notably resists moral judgement of Lucie's father Tim's acceptance of blood money.
He is meticulous, but his bid to restore Lucie's status as a "normal person ... complex and loveable in her ordinariness" can only ever be partial. The fact of her victimhood is unavoidable. However noble his efforts to excavate her from it, it alone justifies this biography of a complex place, a riven family and a brutal crime.
Other workplace saving schemes
- The UAE government announced a retirement savings plan for private and free zone sector employees in 2023.
- Dubai’s savings retirement scheme for foreign employees working in the emirate’s government and public sector came into effect in 2022.
- National Bonds unveiled a Golden Pension Scheme in 2022 to help private-sector foreign employees with their financial planning.
- In April 2021, Hayah Insurance unveiled a workplace savings plan to help UAE employees save for their retirement.
- Lunate, an Abu Dhabi-based investment manager, has launched a fund that will allow UAE private companies to offer employees investment returns on end-of-service benefits.
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
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- Ovarian tissue surgically removed
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COMPANY PROFILE
Summer special
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PLAY-OFF%20DRAW
Emergency
Director: Kangana Ranaut
Stars: Kangana Ranaut, Anupam Kher, Shreyas Talpade, Milind Soman, Mahima Chaudhry
Rating: 2/5
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- Stay invested: Time in the market, not timing the market, is critical to long-term gains.
- Rational thinking: Breathe and avoid emotional decision-making; let logic and planning guide your actions.
- Strategic patience: Understand why you’re investing and allow time for your strategies to unfold.
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Directors: Avinash Arun, Prosit Roy
Stars: Jaideep Ahlawat, Ishwak Singh, Lc Sekhose, Merenla Imsong
Rating: 4.5/5
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
THE BIO
Born: Mukalla, Yemen, 1979
Education: UAE University, Al Ain
Family: Married with two daughters: Asayel, 7, and Sara, 6
Favourite piece of music: Horse Dance by Naseer Shamma
Favourite book: Science and geology
Favourite place to travel to: Washington DC
Best advice you’ve ever been given: If you have a dream, you have to believe it, then you will see it.
The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
The biog
Name: Abeer Al Bah
Born: 1972
Husband: Emirati lawyer Salem Bin Sahoo, since 1992
Children: Soud, born 1993, lawyer; Obaid, born 1994, deceased; four other boys and one girl, three months old
Education: BA in Elementary Education, worked for five years in a Dubai school