He terrified the world as an indestructible android; then he became governor of California, and now Arnold Schwarzenegger, the muscly Austrian, is sowing the seeds of a greener future by embracing the global environment campaign. Stephen Robinson tells his story
It may be true, as F Scott Fitzgerald maintained, that there are no second acts in American lives, but an Austrian-born son of a Nazi police chief has been testing that old saw ever since he went AWOL from basic army training to compete in an iron-man contest.
But can that really be Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger, bodybuilder, sexual athlete, driver of ludicrous and ludicrously thirsty Hummers, strutting the stage at Copenhagen this week?
Can this central-casting central European really be lecturing the world about emissions, and discussing carbon trading with the likes of Governor Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan of Delta state, Nigeria, and other emerging stars of the global environmental campaign?
Yes, it can be. And the strangest thing is that this man who, 41 years after he emigrated to the United States, still speaks like an Alpine ski instructor, cracks "inappropriate" jokes, yet is taken seriously by the sort of liberals he has spent much of his life lampooning.
Six years into his tenure as governor of California, Schwarzenegger is seen by many environmental activists as a figure on the same elevated plane as the sainted Al Gore, only with charisma and a sense of humour.
When he announced he was to run for the governorship in 2003, it was regarded as something of a joke, particularly by Schwarzenegger himself. "It's the most difficult decision I've made in my entire life, except the one I made in 1978 when I decided to get a bikini wax," he declared on Jay Leno's television show as he launched his campaign.
Not a great gag, for sure, but when the corpus of your film work includes Conan the Barbarian and The Terminator, in which you appeared on screen smoking a spliff, it is best not to be seen to take yourself too seriously.
And boy, does Arnie have baggage, and does he like to talk about it. "I have inhaled, exhaled everything," he once said, artfully mocking Bill Clinton's famously inept admission that he had once smoked marijuana, but not inhaled.
He also freely admits that steroids were an integral part of his bodybuilding regime as he rose to the pinnacle of the world of muscles, winning the Mr Universe and Mr Olympia titles. In the field of body worship, it doesn't get more distinguished than that.
Inevitably, after his move to America, his body brought him fame, fortune, and girls - many of the latter.
There should always be a statute of limitations on a young man's indiscretions, and what is amusing and rather endearing about Schwarzenegger, now aged 62, is his refusal to deny what he is, or bend his knee to political correctness.
"I wanted to be part of the small percentage of people who were leaders, not the large mass of followers," he once said. "I was always fascinated by people in control of other people." This is an interesting explanation for why he ultimately chose to run for office, and perhaps a brave thought for an Austrian to voice given that nation's disproportionately large contribution to the Nazi cause.
Schwarzenegger's father was an enthusiastic Nazi, but no war criminal, it turned out, and Arnie is now an assiduous donor to Jewish causes in America. "Every time he does a movie, he writes a cheque," says Rabbi Marvin Hier, of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre.
Perhaps that is why he gets away with things other men do not. When draconian anti-smoking policies were introduced in California, he had a tent constructed outside his gubernatorial office so he could continue to indulge his fondness for large cigars.
He has always refused to be apologetic about his Austrian heritage. The guest of honour at his wedding in 1986 was Kurt Waldheim, the former United Nations secretary general, whose shameful role in the wartime SS was just becoming known.
"My friends don't want me to mention Kurt's name because of the recent Nazi stuff," he told the guests in his groom's speech, "but I love him." Depending on your disposition, that comment could be interpreted as loyal to an old friend, or contemptuous of the memory of the millions who died in the Holocaust as a result of that "Nazi stuff".
His marriage to Maria Shriver, John F Kennedy's niece, reinforced his political credentials as a Republican who could conquer the Democrats too. They have four children, but occasional (unproven) suggestions that he continues to chase women when he gets the chance suggest she might not entirely have tamed his youthful excesses.
But what of his new-found environmental credentials? To be fair to him, he is not all talk, but has acted on his concerns - unlike Prince Charles and Gordon Brown who, it was noted in Britain this week, took separate private jets to Copenhagen to warn delegates of impending planetary catastrophe.
It was Arnie who in the early 1990s triggered the craze among a certain type of American for the civilian version of the Hummer, the 6,300lb environmental despoiler whose fuel consumption is so off the scale that it is classified for regulatory purposes as a large truck.
In a masterstroke during his first campaign for governor, he showily paid $21,000 to have one of his four Hummers converted to run on hydrogen. Thus he conveyed the impression of a man remaining true to himself as he ran for political office yet concerned about the future of the world. Since then his other three Hummers have been converted to run on biofuels.
But it is his political record rather than his personal conduct that has astonished and impressed the environmental lobbyists. Delegates in Copenhagen this week fuss about what they should commit themselves to in the future, while it was Schwarzenegger, a full three years ago, who signed America's first law of its type that mandated California to reduce its greenhouse gas production to 1990 levels by 2020.
He has pledged himself to block any moves towards drilling for oil off the Californian coast; he fought spirited battles with the Bush administration over its refusal to allow individual states to regulate vehicle emissions and limit their output.
Part of his skill is the way he deploys his reputation for political incorrectness as a foil. During the 2004 Republican convention, he brought delegates to their feet by accusing Democrats of fretting about the economy like "girlie men".
He talks tough, the macho man of his movie persona, as he spirits laws mandating the most fashionable California concerns on to the statute book. Californian liberals will just about put up with him speaking out against same-sex marriage in exchange for his delivering on the environment.
He presents himself as somewhat apart from his own party. A "sane Republican" he calls himself, who is a fiscal conservative and pro-business, and who therefore cannot be stereotyped as "the tree-hugger, the crazy guy out there who wants to live on the moon and talk about the spirits and all this holistic stuff".
On one point, Schwarzenegger is surely right, which is that where California leads, America follows, and then the rest of the world follows too. He likens it to the craze for bodybuilding, which he did so much to popularise in an earlier phase of his life.
"We promoted bodybuilding here, but it went all over the world, and now in every town no matter where you go in the Middle East or Africa or China, everybody is working out, lifting weights, in the garage at home or in the bedroom, pulling out equipment from under the bed."
Term limits prevent him extending his governorship beyond next year and the US constitution requires that any president be born in America, so his options are limited. Schwarzenegger has said he will not be seeking any further elective office, but that has not stopped speculation that he might run for a US senate seat next year.
Schwarzenegger, for all his adolescent attitudes to women and for the dreadful moments in his acting career over the years, stands as a living embodiment of the American dream. He arrived in America unable to speak English, and still hasn't entirely mastered it, yet he has risen to the highest office that his foreign birth allows him to occupy.
One could not imagine him being entirely happy in Washington - a city full of "girlie men" if ever there was one - so a return to movies should not be ruled out. What gravitas, what irony, he could bring to his craft after seven years in the governor's office, mixing with politicians, lobbyists, and tree-huggers.
"I like the colour red because it's a fire," he once said, "and I see myself as always being on fire."
* The National
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Electoral College Victory
Trump has so far secured 295 Electoral College votes, according to the Associated Press, exceeding the 270 needed to win. Only Nevada and Arizona remain to be called, and both swing states are leaning Republican. Trump swept all five remaining swing states, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, sealing his path to victory and giving him a strong mandate.
Popular Vote Tally
The count is ongoing, but Trump currently leads with nearly 51 per cent of the popular vote to Harris’s 47.6 per cent. Trump has over 72.2 million votes, while Harris trails with approximately 67.4 million.
Imperial%20Island%3A%20A%20History%20of%20Empire%20in%20Modern%20Britain
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The specs
Engine: Dual 180kW and 300kW front and rear motors
Power: 480kW
Torque: 850Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh359,900 ($98,000)
On sale: Now
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.
Breast cancer in men: the facts
1) Breast cancer is men is rare but can develop rapidly. It usually occurs in those over the ages of 60, but can occasionally affect younger men.
2) Symptoms can include a lump, discharge, swollen glands or a rash.
3) People with a history of cancer in the family can be more susceptible.
4) Treatments include surgery and chemotherapy but early diagnosis is the key.
5) Anyone concerned is urged to contact their doctor
TEACHERS' PAY - WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
Pay varies significantly depending on the school, its rating and the curriculum. Here's a rough guide as of January 2021:
- top end schools tend to pay Dh16,000-17,000 a month - plus a monthly housing allowance of up to Dh6,000. These tend to be British curriculum schools rated 'outstanding' or 'very good', followed by American schools
- average salary across curriculums and skill levels is about Dh10,000, recruiters say
- it is becoming more common for schools to provide accommodation, sometimes in an apartment block with other teachers, rather than hand teachers a cash housing allowance
- some strong performing schools have cut back on salaries since the pandemic began, sometimes offering Dh16,000 including the housing allowance, which reflects the slump in rental costs, and sheer demand for jobs
- maths and science teachers are most in demand and some schools will pay up to Dh3,000 more than other teachers in recognition of their technical skills
- at the other end of the market, teachers in some Indian schools, where fees are lower and competition among applicants is intense, can be paid as low as Dh3,000 per month
- in Indian schools, it has also become common for teachers to share residential accommodation, living in a block with colleagues
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
From Zero
Artist: Linkin Park
Label: Warner Records
Number of tracks: 11
Rating: 4/5
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What drives subscription retailing?
Once the domain of newspaper home deliveries, subscription model retailing has combined with e-commerce to permeate myriad products and services.
The concept has grown tremendously around the world and is forecast to thrive further, according to UnivDatos Market Insights’ report on recent and predicted trends in the sector.
The global subscription e-commerce market was valued at $13.2 billion (Dh48.5bn) in 2018. It is forecast to touch $478.2bn in 2025, and include the entertainment, fitness, food, cosmetics, baby care and fashion sectors.
The report says subscription-based services currently constitute “a small trend within e-commerce”. The US hosts almost 70 per cent of recurring plan firms, including leaders Dollar Shave Club, Hello Fresh and Netflix. Walmart and Sephora are among longer established retailers entering the space.
UnivDatos cites younger and affluent urbanites as prime subscription targets, with women currently the largest share of end-users.
That’s expected to remain unchanged until 2025, when women will represent a $246.6bn market share, owing to increasing numbers of start-ups targeting women.
Personal care and beauty occupy the largest chunk of the worldwide subscription e-commerce market, with changing lifestyles, work schedules, customisation and convenience among the chief future drivers.
The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre turbo
Power: 181hp
Torque: 230Nm
Transmission: 6-speed automatic
Starting price: Dh79,000
On sale: Now
If you go
The flights
Return flights from Dubai to Santiago, via Sao Paolo cost from Dh5,295 with Emirates.
The trip
A five-day trip (not including two days of flight travel) was split between Santiago and in Puerto Varas, with more time spent in the later where excursions were organised by TurisTour.
When to go
The summer months, from December to February are best though there is beauty in each season
The Case For Trump
By Victor Davis Hanson
TO A LAND UNKNOWN
Director: Mahdi Fleifel
Starring: Mahmoud Bakri, Aram Sabbah, Mohammad Alsurafa
Rating: 4.5/5
If you go
- The nearest international airport to the start of the Chuysky Trakt is in Novosibirsk. Emirates (www.emirates.com) offer codeshare flights with S7 Airlines (www.s7.ru) via Moscow for US$5,300 (Dh19,467) return including taxes. Cheaper flights are available on Flydubai and Air Astana or Aeroflot combination, flying via Astana in Kazakhstan or Moscow. Economy class tickets are available for US$650 (Dh2,400).
- The Double Tree by Hilton in Novosibirsk ( 7 383 2230100,) has double rooms from US$60 (Dh220). You can rent cabins at camp grounds or rooms in guesthouses in the towns for around US$25 (Dh90).
- The transport Minibuses run along the Chuysky Trakt but if you want to stop for sightseeing, hire a taxi from Gorno-Altaisk for about US$100 (Dh360) a day. Take a Russian phrasebook or download a translation app. Tour companies such as Altair-Tour ( 7 383 2125115 ) offer hiking and adventure packages.
Why your domicile status is important
Your UK residence status is assessed using the statutory residence test. While your residence status – ie where you live - is assessed every year, your domicile status is assessed over your lifetime.
Your domicile of origin generally comes from your parents and if your parents were not married, then it is decided by your father. Your domicile is generally the country your father considered his permanent home when you were born.
UK residents who have their permanent home ("domicile") outside the UK may not have to pay UK tax on foreign income. For example, they do not pay tax on foreign income or gains if they are less than £2,000 in the tax year and do not transfer that gain to a UK bank account.
A UK-domiciled person, however, is liable for UK tax on their worldwide income and gains when they are resident in the UK.
Disclaimer
Director: Alfonso Cuaron
Stars: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline, Lesley Manville
Rating: 4/5
Book%20Details
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The%20specs
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COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
'My Son'
Director: Christian Carion
Starring: James McAvoy, Claire Foy, Tom Cullen, Gary Lewis
Rating: 2/5
Company profile
Name: The Concept
Founders: Yadhushan Mahendran, Maria Sobh and Muhammad Rijal
Based: Abu Dhabi
Founded: 2017
Number of employees: 7
Sector: Aviation and space industry
Funding: $250,000
Future plans: Looking to raise $1 million investment to boost expansion and develop new products
The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre 4-cylinder petrol
Power: 154bhp
Torque: 250Nm
Transmission: 7-speed automatic with 8-speed sports option
Price: From Dh79,600
On sale: Now
UAE’s revised Cricket World Cup League Two schedule
August, 2021: Host - United States; Teams - UAE, United States and Scotland
Between September and November, 2021 (dates TBC): Host - Namibia; Teams - Namibia, Oman, UAE
December, 2021: Host - UAE; Teams - UAE, Namibia, Oman
February, 2022: Hosts - Nepal; Teams - UAE, Nepal, PNG
June, 2022: Hosts - Scotland; Teams - UAE, United States, Scotland
September, 2022: Hosts - PNG; Teams - UAE, PNG, Nepal
February, 2023: Hosts - UAE; Teams - UAE, PNG, Nepal
How to help
Send “thenational” to the following numbers or call the hotline on: 0502955999
2289 – Dh10
2252 – Dh 50
6025 – Dh20
6027 – Dh 100
6026 – Dh 200
Stamp duty timeline
December 2014: Former UK finance minister George Osbourne reforms stamp duty, replacing the slab system with a blended rate scheme, with the top rate increasing to 12 per cent from 10 per cent:
Up to £125,000 - 0%; £125,000 to £250,000 – 2%; £250,000 to £925,000 – 5%; £925,000 to £1.5m: 10%; Over £1.5m – 12%
April 2016: New 3% surcharge applied to any buy-to-let properties or additional homes purchased.
July 2020: Rishi Sunak unveils SDLT holiday, with no tax to pay on the first £500,000, with buyers saving up to £15,000.
March 2021: Mr Sunak decides the fate of SDLT holiday at his March 3 budget, with expectations he will extend the perk unti June.
April 2021: 2% SDLT surcharge added to property transactions made by overseas buyers.
Why does a queen bee feast only on royal jelly?
Some facts about bees:
The queen bee eats only royal jelly, an extraordinary food created by worker bees so she lives much longer
The life cycle of a worker bee is from 40-60 days
A queen bee lives for 3-5 years
This allows her to lay millions of eggs and allows the continuity of the bee colony
About 20,000 honey bees and one queen populate each hive
Honey is packed with vital vitamins, minerals, enzymes, water and anti-oxidants.
Apart from honey, five other products are royal jelly, the special food bees feed their queen
Pollen is their protein source, a super food that is nutritious, rich in amino acids
Beewax is used to construct the combs. Due to its anti-fungal, anti-bacterial elements, it is used in skin treatments
Propolis, a resin-like material produced by bees is used to make hives. It has natural antibiotic qualities so works to sterilize hive, protects from disease, keeps their home free from germs. Also used to treat sores, infection, warts
Bee venom is used by bees to protect themselves. Has anti-inflammatory properties, sometimes used to relieve conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, nerve and muscle pain
Honey, royal jelly, pollen have health enhancing qualities
The other three products are used for therapeutic purposes
Is beekeeping dangerous?
As long as you deal with bees gently, you will be safe, says Mohammed Al Najeh, who has worked with bees since he was a boy.
“The biggest mistake people make is they panic when they see a bee. They are small but smart creatures. If you move your hand quickly to hit the bees, this is an aggressive action and bees will defend themselves. They can sense the adrenalin in our body. But if we are calm, they are move away.”
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
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The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)