As a reconstructive plastic surgeon specialised in conflict medicine, British-Palestinian Doctor Ghassan Abu Sitta has seen every ugly face of war in the halls of the hospitals where he volunteered to treat the wounded since the first Intifada in Palestinian Territories and Gaza strip in 1987.
Though he had treated hundreds during the first and second Intifada in Palestinian territories and for four wars in less than a decade in Gaza strip, the intensity of the Israeli bombardment and daily casualties in the most recent offensive on the enclave made it different from previous conflicts, despite its relatively short term.
"You're watching man-made humanitarian catastrophe. This is not a natural disaster. This is not a volcano or an earthquake or a tsunami. This is an area that's been kept under siege and kept in humanitarian crisis by design," Dr Abu Sitta told The National in a side meeting room between non-stop surgeries in crowded Al Aoudeh hospital in Jabalia.
Dr Abu Sitta entered the battered Mediterranean coastal enclave as part of the international Medecins Sans Frontieres’ (MSF) medical dispatch through the Rafah border crossing a few days after the offensive started.
MSF is one of the world's leading independent organisations for medical humanitarian aid, providing medical treatment to people caught in the crisis.
He has been moving between Al Shifa and Al Aoudeh hospitals for the past week to treat the wounded and try to save their limbs or restore their movement as much as possible.
The nature of the injuries was more related to buildings collapsing on top of people, blast burns, shrapnel wounds and people's bones crushed under the walls of their houses
“Cyclical wars have kept Gaza strip and its people at a level of life that is beneath what is a proper life, it's closer to death than it is to life,” he said.
An Egypt-mediated ceasefire on May 21 ended an 11-day war between Gaza militants and Israel that killed 253 Palestinians, including 66 children, and wounded more than 1,900 people, the Gaza Health Ministry said.
Ten Israeli civilians including two children were killed and 119 were wounded by rocket fire from Gaza, medics say.
The Gaza conflict was preceded by weeks of violence in Jerusalem, in which hundreds of Palestinians and dozens of Israeli police officers were hurt. Protests initially focused on eviction orders against Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah and a ban on gatherings at the Old City's Damascus Gate during Ramadan.
During the conflict, Gaza's housing ministry said 1,500 housing units were completely destroyed, another 1,500 housing units had been damaged beyond repair and 17,000 others suffered partial damage.
“The nature of the injuries was more related to buildings collapsing on top of people, blast burns, shrapnel wounds and people’s bones crushed under the walls of their houses,” he explained.
Since Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007, the enclave has been under a crippling air, sea and land blockade, imposed by Israel and Egypt, which has only made the situation more catastrophic.
“This is a health system that has been put under so much pressure, the equipment that's well beyond its use, and needs to be replaced. But the pressures of these continuous cyclical wars and Covid-19, let hospitals barely provide the basic services,” he said.
But despite his lifetime of experience treating conflict injuries and operating on children, knowing their long and agonising path to healing still shakes him up.
Children constituted 40 per cent of those injured in the recent Israeli offensive on Gaza.
“I've been doing this for quite a while and I know that this wounded child will require a lifetime of surgeries because their body is growing and therefore they need continuous reconstructive surgery until they reach the adult body,” he explained.
A diabetic young girl was one of these cases. She had lost half of her nose and one side of her face by a shrapnel.
“That's what the war does and that's what the siege does, it maintains people in this zone of diminished life,” Dr Abu Sitta said.
ASSASSIN'S%20CREED%20MIRAGE
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Brief scores
Day 1
Toss England, chose to bat
England, 1st innings 357-5 (87 overs): Root 184 not out, Moeen 61 not out, Stokes 56; Philander 3-46
The%20specs
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%201.8-litre%204-cyl%20turbo%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E190hp%20at%205%2C200rpm%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20320Nm%20from%201%2C800-5%2C000rpm%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETransmission%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESeven-speed%20dual-clutch%20auto%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFuel%20consumption%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%206.7L%2F100km%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20From%20Dh111%2C195%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EOn%20sale%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ENow%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Where to apply
Applicants should send their completed applications - CV, covering letter, sample(s) of your work, letter of recommendation - to Nick March, Assistant Editor in Chief at The National and UAE programme administrator for the Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism, by 5pm on April 30, 2020.
Please send applications to nmarch@thenational.ae and please mark the subject line as “Rosalynn Carter Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism (UAE programme application)”.
The local advisory board will consider all applications and will interview a short list of candidates in Abu Dhabi in June 2020. Successful candidates will be informed before July 30, 2020.
Scorline
Iraq 1-0 UAE
Iraq Hussein 28’
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.”
The specs
Price: From Dh180,000 (estimate)
Engine: 2.0-litre turbocharged and supercharged in-line four-cylinder
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 320hp @ 5,700rpm
Torque: 400Nm @ 2,200rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 9.7L / 100km
Game Of Thrones Season Seven: A Bluffers Guide
Want to sound on message about the biggest show on television without actually watching it? Best not to get locked into the labyrinthine tales of revenge and royalty: as Isaac Hempstead Wright put it, all you really need to know from now on is that there’s going to be a huge fight between humans and the armies of undead White Walkers.
The season ended with a dragon captured by the Night King blowing apart the huge wall of ice that separates the human world from its less appealing counterpart. Not that some of the humans in Westeros have been particularly appealing, either.
Anyway, the White Walkers are now free to cause any kind of havoc they wish, and as Liam Cunningham told us: “Westeros may be zombie land after the Night King has finished.” If the various human factions don’t put aside their differences in season 8, we could be looking at The Walking Dead: The Medieval Years.
