Family Man: "Our goal is to keep kids in line."
Family Man: "Our goal is to keep kids in line."

Desert riddim



The last original Wailer steers his ship to Dubai, writes Maya Khourchid.
Aston Barrett has been playing bass for the Wailers (best known by an older name, Bob Marley and the Wailers) since the late 1960s. "I've been playing before Bob, with Bob and after Bob," Barrett tells me after the Wailers finish their set at the Desert Rhythm Festival in Dubai Festival City last Friday. The event saw a mildly Jamaican side of Dubai emerge: blankets spread on the floor, lighters swaying to the rhythm and audience members of all ages grooving to hits like Is This Love and Jamming.

Barrett speaks lyrically, with a thick Jamaican accent, and dresses the Rastafarian part by donning a round knit hat striped with the colours of the Jamaican flag. He acts the part too: "We give thanks to Jamaica, and we are here to spread the message globally, we are all earth people," he notes. But Barrett is less a cliché and more the original on which contemporary Rasta stereotypes are based. Marley and the Wailers were central to the popularisation of reggae, and Barrett is the sole remaining member of the group's original line-up.

He's "the captain of the ship", says Elan Atias, the band's current lead vocalist. Barrett's friends and fans know him by another nickname: Family Man. "The family thing doesn't go over with a lot of people," says Michael Hernandez, the Wailers's current production manager. "But to him family is the most important thing." Family Man certainly lives up to his name - he has over 50 children (Hernandez emphasises that he takes care of all of them). Tan Miller, age 16, is one of the seven children Barrett has with his current wife, and he's along for the current leg of the Wailers' tour. In Dubai, he was selling Wailers memorabilia at a stand inside the arena.

A group of 10 or so boys in their very early teenagers crowd around Miller's stand, checking out T-shirts and bracelets. Half an hour previously they had been waiting anxiously outside the concert's "meet and greet" area, desperate for a chance to meet Family Man or Elan. They don't realise they are bargaining over the price of T-shirts with one of their idol's sons, and Miller doesn't seem like the type to broadcast the fact. He says it is "pretty cool" to have a famous father, but he is far more interested in playing with his cell phone than talking about it further.

Atias is a different story. He's a relatively recent addition to the Wailers (he first performed with them in 1997), and is clearly enthralled at being a part of the iconic group. He also obviously reveres Family Man. While Barrett quietly sips his beer, breaking silence now and then with brief comments on "spreading the love" and "the message", Atias eagerly sings his captain's praises. "Family Man is the only man in the world, the only bass player where you can tell its him just from the bass-line, there's no other artist in the world," he says. He runs this by Hernandez, who agrees. "A lot of hip-hop wouldn't be here, you wouldn't hear those rhythms if it wasn't for this guy, it's unbelievable how hip-hop developed out of Jamaica..."

As did the Rasta reggae scene, which tends to include smoking substances slightly stronger than cigarettes and highly illegal in the UAE. But neither Attias, Barrett nor Hernandez take issue with the local laws. "We think everywhere should be like Amsterdam," Atias says. "But to each their own... Obviously we don't want people to be crackheads." "Our goal is to keep kids in line so they don't walk on the wild side," Barrett adds in his relaxed Jamaican drawl.

Besides, points out Hernandez, the comparatively strict laws have their upside. "It gives some of us the time to dry out for a little bit."

COMPANY PROFILE

Company name: Almouneer
Started: 2017
Founders: Dr Noha Khater and Rania Kadry
Based: Egypt
Number of staff: 120
Investment: Bootstrapped, with support from Insead and Egyptian government, seed round of
$3.6 million led by Global Ventures

Company Profile

Company name: Namara
Started: June 2022
Founder: Mohammed Alnamara
Based: Dubai
Sector: Microfinance
Current number of staff: 16
Investment stage: Series A
Investors: Family offices

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Company name: baraka
Started: July 2020
Founders: Feras Jalbout and Kunal Taneja
Based: Dubai and Bahrain
Sector: FinTech
Initial investment: $150,000
Current staff: 12
Stage: Pre-seed capital raising of $1 million
Investors: Class 5 Global, FJ Labs, IMO Ventures, The Community Fund, VentureSouq, Fox Ventures, Dr Abdulla Elyas (private investment)

Company Profile

Name: Ovasave
Started: November 2022
Founders: Majd Abu Zant and Torkia Mahloul
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: Healthtech
Number of staff: Three employees
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Investment: $400,000

Sarfira

Director: Sudha Kongara Prasad

Starring: Akshay Kumar, Radhika Madan, Paresh Rawal

Rating: 2/5

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RESULTS

6pm: Mazrat Al Ruwayah – Group 2 (PA) $40,000 (Dirt) 1,600m
Winner: AF Alajaj, Tadhg O’Shea (jockey), Ernst Oertel (trainer)

6.35pm: Race of Future – Handicap (TB) $80,000 (Turf) 2,410m
Winner: Global Storm, William Buick, Charlie Appleby

7.10pm: UAE 2000 Guineas – Group 3 (TB) $150,000 (D) 1,600m
Winner: Azure Coast, Antonio Fresu, Pavel Vashchenko

7.45pm: Business Bay Challenge – Listed (TB) $100,000 (T) 1,400m
Winner: Storm Damage, Patrick Cosgrave, Saeed bin Suroor

20.20pm: Curlin Stakes – Listed (TB) $100,000 (D) 2,000m
Winner: Appreciated, Fernando Jara, Doug O’Neill

8.55pm: Singspiel Stakes – Group 2 (TB) $180,000 (T) 1,800m
Winner: Lord Glitters, Daniel Tudhope, David O'Meara

9.30pm: Al Shindagha Sprint – Group 3 (TB) $150,000 (D) 1,200m
Winner: Meraas, Antonio Fresu, Musabah Al Muhairi

Rajasthan Royals 153-5 (17.5 ov)
Delhi Daredevils 60-4 (6 ov)

Rajasthan won by 10 runs (D/L method)

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COMPANY PROFILE

Name: DarDoc
Based: Abu Dhabi
Founders: Samer Masri, Keswin Suresh
Sector: HealthTech
Total funding: $800,000
Investors: Flat6Labs, angel investors + Incubated by Hub71, Abu Dhabi's Department of Health
Number of employees: 10

Company profile

Company name: Twig Solutions (with trade name Twig)
Started: 2021
Founders: Chafic Idriss, Karam El Dik and Rayan Antonios
Based: UAE
Sector: FinTech
Initial investment: bootstrapped (undisclosed)
Current number of staff: 13
Investment stage: pre-seed — closing the round as we speak
Investors: senior executives from the GCC financial services industry and global family offices

LIVERPOOL SQUAD

Alisson Becker, Virgil van Dijk, Georginio Wijnaldum, James Milner, Naby Keita, Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah, Joe Gomez, Adrian, Jordan Henderson, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Adam Lallana, Andy Lonergan, Xherdan Shaqiri, Andy Robertson, Divock Origi, Curtis Jones, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Neco Williams

Racecard:

6.30pm: Mazrat Al Ruwayah (PA) | Group 2 | US$55,000 (Dirt) | 1,600 metres

7.05pm: Meydan Sprint (TB) | Group 2 | $250,000 (Turf) | 1,000m

7.40pm: Firebreak Stakes | Group 3 | $200,000 (D) | 1,600m

8.15pm: Meydan Trophy | Conditions (TB) | $100,000 (T) | 1,900m

8.50pm: Balanchine | Group 2 (TB) | $250,000 (T) | 1,800m

9.25pm: Handicap (TB) | $135,000 (D) | 1,200m

10pm: Handicap (TB) | $175,000 (T) | 2,410m.

What should do investors do now?

What does the S&P 500's new all-time high mean for the average investor? 

Should I be euphoric?

No. It's fine to be pleased about hearty returns on your investments. But it's not a good idea to tie your emotions closely to the ups and downs of the stock market. You'll get tired fast. This market moment comes on the heels of last year's nosedive. And it's not the first or last time the stock market will make a dramatic move.

So what happened?

It's more about what happened last year. Many of the concerns that triggered that plunge towards the end of last have largely been quelled. The US and China are slowly moving toward a trade agreement. The Federal Reserve has indicated it likely will not raise rates at all in 2019 after seven recent increases. And those changes, along with some strong earnings reports and broader healthy economic indicators, have fueled some optimism in stock markets.

"The panic in the fourth quarter was based mostly on fears," says Brent Schutte, chief investment strategist for Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company. "The fundamentals have mostly held up, while the fears have gone away and the fears were based mostly on emotion."

Should I buy? Should I sell?

Maybe. It depends on what your long-term investment plan is. The best advice is usually the same no matter the day — determine your financial goals, make a plan to reach them and stick to it.

"I would encourage (investors) not to overreact to highs, just as I would encourage them not to overreact to the lows of December," Mr Schutte says.

All the same, there are some situations in which you should consider taking action. If you think you can't live through another low like last year, the time to get out is now. If the balance of assets in your portfolio is out of whack thanks to the rise of the stock market, make adjustments. And if you need your money in the next five to 10 years, it shouldn't be in stocks anyhow. But for most people, it's also a good time to just leave things be.

Resist the urge to abandon the diversification of your portfolio, Mr Schutte cautions. It may be tempting to shed other investments that aren't performing as well, such as some international stocks, but diversification is designed to help steady your performance over time.

Will the rally last?

No one knows for sure. But David Bailin, chief investment officer at Citi Private Bank, expects the US market could move up 5 per cent to 7 per cent more over the next nine to 12 months, provided the Fed doesn't raise rates and earnings growth exceeds current expectations. We are in a late cycle market, a period when US equities have historically done very well, but volatility also rises, he says.

"This phase can last six months to several years, but it's important clients remain invested and not try to prematurely position for a contraction of the market," Mr Bailin says. "Doing so would risk missing out on important portfolio returns."