A plant-based diet and a life with purpose are at the core of conservationist Jane Goodall’s mantra to keeping fit at 90.
A vegan diet keeps her active and alert as she travels about 300 days a year.
The award-winning environmentalist, who will turn 91 on April 3, has a jam-packed calendar, visiting international conferences and green projects she has launched around the world.
Dr Goodall told The National she had little time for meditation and keeps busy with tours, meetings and business calls.
Here is some insight into how the British primatologist keeps up the pace and shows no signs of slowing down.
“I’m vegan and I’m fit as a fiddle,” she said. “A plant-based diet is really, really important and, luckily, more and more people are becoming vegetarian or even vegan.”
'Don't have time to meditate'
When asked about her daily routine, if she meditated or did yoga, she spoke of how immersed she is in her life work of protecting the natural world.
“I just get through each day as best I can. I don't have time to meditate,” Dr Goodall said. "I do what I have to do, catch up with emails, videos, do zoom, do interviews and meet people and give talks, lectures. And that's my life. The other thing is I don't think about my health, I just be.”
I didn’t become vegan just because of my health, I became vegan for ethical reasons
Jane Goodall,
renowned conservationist
She said between speaking tours that keep her on the road “about 300 days in a year,” she gets a few weeks and Christmas to spend with her family.
Knowledge about the cruelty and suffering animals undergo in factory farms where they are slaughtered made her turn vegan.
“I didn’t become vegan just because of my health. I became vegan for ethical reasons,” she said.
“I became vegan when I realised the horror of the factory farms but then I realised the other benefits to our health. Our gut is not made to eat heavy meat and we can get lots of digestive problems.
“Now we also know that animals in these horrible factory farms are intelligent and how they are cooped up is absolutely terrible.”
Cutting out meat and dairy products is a path to reduce the impact on the environment, climate scientists have long said. Her advice is to lead by example and not harangue people into giving up meat.
“I’m vegan for the environment because of the amount of grain that is grown to feed animals that we breed to eat,” she said.
“Huge areas of land are destroyed and cleared to feed animals and more grain is grown to feed these animals than food produced for humans.
“Pesticides are used and this is killing off the biodiversity of areas. Cattle produce lots of methane which is a vicious greenhouse gas.”
Message to young people
The United Nations Messenger of Peace is famous for her groundbreaking research on wild chimpanzees in Gombe, Tanzania, that gave insight into their emotional behaviour, how they used tools and revolutionised understanding between the link between animals and human beings.
Dr Goodall visited Dubai last week to launch a bee park named in her honour at Expo City Dubai, called Jane Goodall’s Pollinator Garden.
She met with school pupils and young people involved in the Roots & Shoots programme in the UAE, one of 70 nations where the Jane Goodall Institute spreads the word to care for the Earth, protect nature and fight the climate crisis.
“The most important message for every young person and every adult too is to remember that every day you live you make some impact on the planet,” she said.
“What you buy, did it harm the environment? Was it cruel to animals? Is it cheap because of unfair wages? Do they cost a little bit more? Maybe. But then you will value them more and waste less because waste is tremendously important. Also young people can influence their parents and grandparents, I know that for a fact.”
There was no sign of flagging energy levels as she posed for photographs, signed books and took questions.
At the end of her visit to Dubai, during a Q&A session open to the public, a spirited Dr Goodall urged the crowd to stand up and chant: “Together we can, together we will, together we must change the world.”
Jane Goodall through the years - in pictures
MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW
Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman
Director: Jesse Armstrong
Rating: 3.5/5
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Conversions: Farrell
Who's who in Yemen conflict
Houthis: Iran-backed rebels who occupy Sanaa and run unrecognised government
Yemeni government: Exiled government in Aden led by eight-member Presidential Leadership Council
Southern Transitional Council: Faction in Yemeni government that seeks autonomy for the south
Habrish 'rebels': Tribal-backed forces feuding with STC over control of oil in government territory
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The more serious side of specialty coffee
While the taste of beans and freshness of roast is paramount to the specialty coffee scene, so is sustainability and workers’ rights.
The bulk of genuine specialty coffee companies aim to improve on these elements in every stage of production via direct relationships with farmers. For instance, Mokha 1450 on Al Wasl Road strives to work predominantly with women-owned and -operated coffee organisations, including female farmers in the Sabree mountains of Yemen.
Because, as the boutique’s owner, Garfield Kerr, points out: “women represent over 90 per cent of the coffee value chain, but are woefully underrepresented in less than 10 per cent of ownership and management throughout the global coffee industry.”
One of the UAE’s largest suppliers of green (meaning not-yet-roasted) beans, Raw Coffee, is a founding member of the Partnership of Gender Equity, which aims to empower female coffee farmers and harvesters.
Also, globally, many companies have found the perfect way to recycle old coffee grounds: they create the perfect fertile soil in which to grow mushrooms.
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Manchester City 2 (Mahrez 04', Ake 84')
Leicester City 5 (Vardy 37' pen, 54', 58' pen, Maddison 77', Tielemans 88' pen)
Man of the match: Jamie Vardy (Leicester City)
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Ammar 808:
Maghreb United
Sofyann Ben Youssef
Glitterbeat
The biog
Favourite film: The Notebook
Favourite book: What I know for sure by Oprah Winfrey
Favourite quote: “Social equality is the only basis of human happiness” Nelson Madela. Hometown: Emmen, The Netherlands
Favourite activities: Walking on the beach, eating at restaurants and spending time with friends
Job: Founder and Managing Director of Mawaheb from Beautiful Peopl
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Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 248hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 400Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 9.1L/100km
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Price: From Dh149,900
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Tonight's Chat on The National
Tonight's Chat is a series of online conversations on The National. The series features a diverse range of celebrities, politicians and business leaders from around the Arab world.
Tonight’s Chat host Ricardo Karam is a renowned author and broadcaster with a decades-long career in TV. He has previously interviewed Bill Gates, Carlos Ghosn, Andre Agassi and the late Zaha Hadid, among others. Karam is also the founder of Takreem.
Intellectually curious and thought-provoking, Tonight’s Chat moves the conversation forward.
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Ziina users can donate to relief efforts in Beirut
Ziina users will be able to use the app to help relief efforts in Beirut, which has been left reeling after an August blast caused an estimated $15 billion in damage and left thousands homeless. Ziina has partnered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to raise money for the Lebanese capital, co-founder Faisal Toukan says. “As of October 1, the UNHCR has the first certified badge on Ziina and is automatically part of user's top friends' list during this campaign. Users can now donate any amount to the Beirut relief with two clicks. The money raised will go towards rebuilding houses for the families that were impacted by the explosion.”
Avatar: Fire and Ash
Director: James Cameron
Starring: Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana
Rating: 4.5/5
How to donate
Send “thenational” to the following numbers or call the hotline on: 0502955999
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Engine: twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V6
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Price: From Dh450,000, Autograph model from Dh510,000
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Uefa Champions League semi-finals, second leg:
Liverpool (0) v Barcelona (3), Tuesday, 11pm UAE
Game is on BeIN Sports
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Director: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck
Starring: Brie Larson, Samuel L Jackson, Jude Law, Ben Mendelsohn
4/5 stars
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What the law says
Micro-retirement is not a recognised concept or employment status under Federal Decree Law No. 33 of 2021 on the Regulation of Labour Relations (as amended) (UAE Labour Law). As such, it reflects a voluntary work-life balance practice, rather than a recognised legal employment category, according to Dilini Loku, senior associate for law firm Gateley Middle East.
“Some companies may offer formal sabbatical policies or career break programmes; however, beyond such arrangements, there is no automatic right or statutory entitlement to extended breaks,” she explains.
“Any leave taken beyond statutory entitlements, such as annual leave, is typically regarded as unpaid leave in accordance with Article 33 of the UAE Labour Law. While employees may legally take unpaid leave, such requests are subject to the employer’s discretion and require approval.”
If an employee resigns to pursue micro-retirement, the employment contract is terminated, and the employer is under no legal obligation to rehire the employee in the future unless specific contractual agreements are in place (such as return-to-work arrangements), which are generally uncommon, Ms Loku adds.
'Tell the Machine Goodnight' by Katie Williams
Penguin Randomhouse
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The Bloomberg Billionaire Index in full
1 Jeff Bezos $140 billion
2 Bill Gates $98.3 billion
3 Bernard Arnault $83.1 billion
4 Warren Buffett $83 billion
5 Amancio Ortega $67.9 billion
6 Mark Zuckerberg $67.3 billion
7 Larry Page $56.8 billion
8 Larry Ellison $56.1 billion
9 Sergey Brin $55.2 billion
10 Carlos Slim $55.2 billion