Jimmy Carter, who has died aged 100, once famously said that “I am a better ex-president than I was a president.” It was a typically self-deprecating and charming comment, but also one that wasn’t true. His White House years have been reassessed several times over the decades and many former critics have come to view them with more benevolent eyes than they did in the 1980s.
He won the 1976 election, beating incumbent Gerald Ford, despite entering the presidential race as a little-known former governor from Georgia. Ford had presided over America’s months-long bicentennial celebrations earlier that year and later remarked that the “nation’s wounds had healed” in the act of marking the country’s 200th anniversary. In truth, the scar tissue left by the humiliating retreat from Vietnam and the scandal of Watergate was still very evident in US society.
As Carter’s campaign gathered pace through the autumn, it helped in that febrile moment that he was a Washington outsider and, perhaps, the world's most famous former peanut farmer. He carried the popular vote by the narrowest margin, winning 50.1 per cent of the ballot.
His four years in office delivered key diplomatic wins, notably the Camp David Accords, a regional peace deal between Egypt and Israel, and the Salt-II treaty with the Soviet Union to set limitations on nuclear weapons. He was also an early champion of renewables during the energy crisis of the 1970s, placing him decades ahead of his time, and an honest and compassionate leader who sought consensus in government and progressive change in society.
Above all, he exuded the type of dignified and calm leadership people so often yearn for in politicians today, but ultimately, foreign and domestic woes would hasten his departure from Washington DC in 1981.
The US economy stagnated in the late 1970s, which he tried and failed to fix through Congress, but the 39th president was almost certainly undone by the long-running hostage crisis in Tehran and the unsuccessful mission to rescue the 52 Americans held captive by revolutionaries who had earlier stormed the US embassy in Iran.
Above all, he exuded the type of dignified and calm leadership people so often yearn for in politicians today
The power of Ronald Reagan’s charismatic campaign to “make America great again” at home and abroad swept Carter out of office after a single term. Reagan won 44 of the 50 states in the 1980 election with a little under 51 per cent of the popular vote, while the hostages were eventually released minutes after he was sworn into office in January 1981.
After leaving the White House, it would have been easy for Carter to retreat from public life rather than rush towards it, which he did, with vigour.
Carter Centre work
The Carter Centre, which he co-founded in 1982 with his wife Rosalynn, became the hub for his four decades of work following his four years in DC.
He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 and led the centre’s work with energy and purpose.
It is hard to put a number on how many people the Carter Centre has helped since it was established. Its peace programmes have monitored more than 100 elections in 39 countries. The centre works ceaselessly on conflict resolution.
Its health programme has led the fight to eliminate preventable diseases, including Guinea worm and river blindness. The centre’s mental health programme has improved access to treatment, and its mental health journalism fellowship scheme has trained and supported reporters and editors around the world on how to report fairly and accurately in that field.
The National is the Carter Centre’s country partner in mental health journalism in the UAE and it has been my honour to administer the fellowship programme in the Emirates for the past six years.
Carter led a life of devoted service and leaves an enduring legacy.
Long into his nineties, he exhibited a clarity of thought and expression that many of us struggle to find even in our best moments.
The last time I saw him speak was at the Carter Centre in the immediate pre-Covid period when the term “in-person meeting” would have been considered a redundancy.
Carter's legacy
He and Rosalynn, who died in 2023, hosted A Conversation with the Carters and fielded questions from an audience of a few hundred guests in Atlanta.
Even from seats far back in the centre's auditorium it was possible to detect the twinkle in his eyes as he discussed everything from married life – he and Rosalynn wed in 1946 – to the turbulent White House years of Donald Trump, as well as the urgent foreign policy solutions that were required for Iran, Syria, Yemen and North Korea.
On every issue he had a thoughtful and fair perspective. There was neither bitterness nor rancour towards those who succeeded him in Washington DC.
Most presidents end up consumed by the burdens of office when they are in power. So often, too, the post-White House years are a short postscript.
Carter, of course, disrupted that convention, finding fresh spirit and purpose after returning to Georgia and living a long and fulfilling life. He was thoroughly reconciled to the slings and arrows of his presidential years.
As it transpired, his presidency was a mere prelude to one of the most successful and longest running second acts ever in the US. In hindsight, the first act seems very good, too.
The world has lost one of its great post-war western leaders this week and a tireless campaigner for social justice.
Jimmy Carter's life – in pictures
THE BIO
Age: 33
Favourite quote: “If you’re going through hell, keep going” Winston Churchill
Favourite breed of dog: All of them. I can’t possibly pick a favourite.
Favourite place in the UAE: The Stray Dogs Centre in Umm Al Quwain. It sounds predictable, but it honestly is my favourite place to spend time. Surrounded by hundreds of dogs that love you - what could possibly be better than that?
Favourite colour: All the colours that dogs come in
Attacks on Egypt’s long rooted Copts
Egypt’s Copts belong to one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, with Mark the Evangelist credited with founding their church around 300 AD. Orthodox Christians account for the overwhelming majority of Christians in Egypt, with the rest mainly made up of Greek Orthodox, Catholics and Anglicans.
The community accounts for some 10 per cent of Egypt’s 100 million people, with the largest concentrations of Christians found in Cairo, Alexandria and the provinces of Minya and Assiut south of Cairo.
Egypt’s Christians have had a somewhat turbulent history in the Muslim majority Arab nation, with the community occasionally suffering outright persecution but generally living in peace with their Muslim compatriots. But radical Muslims who have first emerged in the 1970s have whipped up anti-Christian sentiments, something that has, in turn, led to an upsurge in attacks against their places of worship, church-linked facilities as well as their businesses and homes.
More recently, ISIS has vowed to go after the Christians, claiming responsibility for a series of attacks against churches packed with worshippers starting December 2016.
The discrimination many Christians complain about and the shift towards religious conservatism by many Egyptian Muslims over the last 50 years have forced hundreds of thousands of Christians to migrate, starting new lives in growing communities in places as far afield as Australia, Canada and the United States.
Here is a look at major attacks against Egypt's Coptic Christians in recent years:
November 2: Masked gunmen riding pickup trucks opened fire on three buses carrying pilgrims to the remote desert monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor south of Cairo, killing 7 and wounding about 20. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.
May 26, 2017: Masked militants riding in three all-terrain cars open fire on a bus carrying pilgrims on their way to the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, killing 29 and wounding 22. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.
April 2017: Twin attacks by suicide bombers hit churches in the coastal city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta. At least 43 people are killed and scores of worshippers injured in the Palm Sunday attack, which narrowly missed a ceremony presided over by Pope Tawadros II, spiritual leader of Egypt Orthodox Copts, in Alexandria's St. Mark's Cathedral. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.
February 2017: Hundreds of Egyptian Christians flee their homes in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, fearing attacks by ISIS. The group's North Sinai affiliate had killed at least seven Coptic Christians in the restive peninsula in less than a month.
December 2016: A bombing at a chapel adjacent to Egypt's main Coptic Christian cathedral in Cairo kills 30 people and wounds dozens during Sunday Mass in one of the deadliest attacks carried out against the religious minority in recent memory. ISIS claimed responsibility.
July 2016: Pope Tawadros II says that since 2013 there were 37 sectarian attacks on Christians in Egypt, nearly one incident a month. A Muslim mob stabs to death a 27-year-old Coptic Christian man, Fam Khalaf, in the central city of Minya over a personal feud.
May 2016: A Muslim mob ransacks and torches seven Christian homes in Minya after rumours spread that a Christian man had an affair with a Muslim woman. The elderly mother of the Christian man was stripped naked and dragged through a street by the mob.
New Year's Eve 2011: A bomb explodes in a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria as worshippers leave after a midnight mass, killing more than 20 people.
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From Europe to the Middle East, economic success brings wealth - and lifestyle diseases
A rise in obesity figures and the need for more public spending is a familiar trend in the developing world as western lifestyles are adopted.
One in five deaths around the world is now caused by bad diet, with obesity the fastest growing global risk. A high body mass index is also the top cause of metabolic diseases relating to death and disability in Kuwait, Qatar and Oman – and second on the list in Bahrain.
In Britain, heart disease, lung cancer and Alzheimer’s remain among the leading causes of death, and people there are spending more time suffering from health problems.
The UK is expected to spend $421.4 billion on healthcare by 2040, up from $239.3 billion in 2014.
And development assistance for health is talking about the financial aid given to governments to support social, environmental development of developing countries.
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
Five famous companies founded by teens
There are numerous success stories of teen businesses that were created in college dorm rooms and other modest circumstances. Below are some of the most recognisable names in the industry:
- Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg and his friends started Facebook when he was a 19-year-old Harvard undergraduate.
- Dell: When Michael Dell was an undergraduate student at Texas University in 1984, he started upgrading computers for profit. He starting working full-time on his business when he was 19. Eventually, his company became the Dell Computer Corporation and then Dell Inc.
- Subway: Fred DeLuca opened the first Subway restaurant when he was 17. In 1965, Mr DeLuca needed extra money for college, so he decided to open his own business. Peter Buck, a family friend, lent him $1,000 and together, they opened Pete’s Super Submarines. A few years later, the company was rebranded and called Subway.
- Mashable: In 2005, Pete Cashmore created Mashable in Scotland when he was a teenager. The site was then a technology blog. Over the next few decades, Mr Cashmore has turned Mashable into a global media company.
- Oculus VR: Palmer Luckey founded Oculus VR in June 2012, when he was 19. In August that year, Oculus launched its Kickstarter campaign and raised more than $1 million in three days. Facebook bought Oculus for $2 billion two years later.
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The biog
Born November 11, 1948
Education: BA, English Language and Literature, Cairo University
Family: Four brothers, seven sisters, two daughters, 42 and 39, two sons, 43 and 35, and 15 grandchildren
Hobbies: Reading and traveling
More from Neighbourhood Watch
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.”
