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EDITOR'S LETTER I
have a very limited amount of power. In fact, most people who know me would say I have no power at all. Those people (‘friends’) are wrong, as I have the power of this column every month, a platform that allows me to connect with more than two million Emirates’ passengers who (we hope) read this magazine. And what do I do with this power? Do I weave lyrical spells of profundity and intelligence? Do I solve pressing international problems? Do I use logical mastery to bring the geographically diverse readers closer together? No. I do nothing of the sort. I usually start off with a misguided attempt at humour, followed by a patchy run through of the issue’s contents. It’s a weak brew, I admit. A futile attempt to bring cohesion to the contents with two hundred well chosen words. As I now confess, the words are rarely well chosen, and this column has been cohesionfree since I started, way back in March 2011. This is a fact not unnoticed by my Senior Editor, Mark Evans, who, when he saw my original column for this issue, told me to start again. Now that’s real power. And so I did. And here it is. And if you don’t like it, blame Mark.
CONOR@OPENSKIESMAGAZINE.COM
Emirates takes care to ensure that all facts published herein are correct. In the event of any inaccuracy please contact The Editor. Any opinion expressed is the honest belief of the author based on all available facts. Comments and facts should not be relied upon by the reader in taking commercial, legal, financial or other decisions. Articles are by their nature general and specialist advice should always be consulted before any actions are taken. PO Box 2331, Dubai, UAE Telephone: (+971 4) 282 4060 Fax:(+971 4) 282 4436 Email: emirates@motivate.ae
89,396 COPIES Printed by Emirates Printing Press, Dubai, UAE
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Obaid Humaid Al Tayer GROUP EDITOR & MANAGING PARTNER Ian Fairservice GROUP SENIOR EDITOR Gina Johnson • gina@motivate.ae SENIOR EDITOR Mark Evans • marke@motivate.ae EDITOR Conor Purcell • conor@motivate.ae DEPUTY EDITOR Gareth Rees • gareth@motivate.ae DESIGNER Roui Francisco • rom@motivate.ae STAFF WRITER Matthew Priest EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Londresa Flores EDITORIAL INTERN Jeric Rodriguez SENIOR PRODUCTION MANAGER S Sunil Kumar PRODUCTION MANAGER C Sudhakar GENERAL MANAGER, GROUP SALES Anthony Milne • anthony@motivate.ae DIGITAL DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Helen Cotton • helenc@motivate.ae GROUP SALES MANAGER Jaya Balakrishnan jaya@motivate.ae ADVERTISEMENT MANAGER Murali Narayanan SENIOR SALES MANAGER Shruti Srivastava EDITORIAL CONSULTANTS FOR EMIRATES: Editor: Siobhan Bardet Arabic Editor: Hatem Omar Deputy Editor: Andy Grant WEBSITE • emirates.com. CONTRIBUTORS: Michael Mateyko, Hans Thiessen, Clint Witchalls, Mitch Blunt, Zane Lowe, Alison Castle, Matt Naylor, Artie Ng, Noah Davis, Ryan Heffernan, Laura Powell, Sam Falconer, Raúl Gómez COVER ILLUSTRATION by Komboh
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA REPRESENTATIVES: AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND Okeeffe Media, Kevin O’ Keeffe; Tel + 61 89 447 2734, okeeffekev@bigpond.com.au, BENELUXM.P.S. Benelux; Francesco Sutton; Tel +322 720 9799, Fax +322 725 1522, francesco.sutton@mps-adv.com CHINA Publicitas Advertising; Tel +86 10 5879 5885 FRANCE Intermedia Europe Ltd; Fiona Lockie, Katie Allen, Laura Renault; Tel +33 15 534 9550, Fax +33 15 534 9549, administration@intermedia.europe.com GERMANY IMV International Media Service GmbH, Wolfgang Jäger; Tel +49 89 54 590 738, Fax +49 89 54 590 769, wolfgang.jager@iqm.de HONG KONG/MALAYSIA/ THAILAND Sonney Media Networks, Hemant Sonney; Tel +852 27 230 373, Fax +852 27 391 815, hemant@sonneymedia.com INDIA Media Star, Ravi Lalwani; Tel +91 22 4220 2103, Fax +91 22 2283 9619, ravi@mediastar.co.in ITALY IMM Italia Lucia Colucci; Tel +39 023 653 4433, Fax +39 029 998 1376, lucia.colucci@fastwebnet.it JAPAN Tandem Inc.; Tel + 81 3 3541 4166, Fax +81 3 3541 4748, all@tandem-inc.com NETHERLANDS GIO Media, Giovanni Angiolini; Tel +31 6 2223 8420, giovanni@ gio-media.nl SOUTH AFRICA Ndure Dale Isaac; Tel +27 84 701 2479, dale@ndure.co.za SPAIN IMM International, Nicolas Devos; Tel +331 40 1300 30, n.devos@imminternational.com TURKEY Media Ltd.; Tel: +90 212 275 51 52, mediamarketingtr@medialtd.com.tr UK Spafax Inflight Media, Nick Hopkins, Arnold Green; Tel +44 207 906 2001, Fax +44 207 906 2022, nhopkins@spafax.com USA Totem Brand Stories, Brigitte Baron, Marina Chetner; Tel +212 896 3846, Fax +212 896 3848, brigitte. baron@rtotembrandstories.com
29
CONTENTS OUR MAN IN DAKAR EXPLAINS WHY SENEGAL’S WRESTLERS ARE SUPERSTARS (P38)
ONE OF EUROPE’S COOLEST CITIES, AMSTERDAM, IS GIVEN THE MAPPED TREATMENT (P46) Westerdoksplein
Grachtengordel West De Wallen
Nieuwmarkt en Lastage
Burgwallen Nieuwe Zijde
Windroosplein
Oostelijke Eilanden en Kadijken
Grachtengordel Zuid Weesperbuurt en Plantage
Indische Buurt West
Dapperbuurt Vondelbuurt
De Weteringschans
POLITICAL POWER BROKER MORRIS REID TALKS CLINTON, GORE, OBAMA AND PUTIN (P55)
OUR GRAPH SHOWS THE POWER OF CELEBRITIES, EVEN AFTER THEY HAVE PASSED ON (P56)
31
CONTENTS NORMAN MAILER’S CLASSIC ACCOUNT OF ALI AND FOREMAN’S RUMBLE IN THE JUNGLE (P64)
TONY BLAIR’S FORMER RIGHT-HAND MAN, ALASTAIR CAMPBELL, ON HIS POLITICAL PAST (P78)
AN ILLUSTRATED TOUR OF THE MOST POWERFUL CITY IN THE WORLD, WASHINGTON DC (P100)
POWER ILLUMINATED IN A SELECTION OF PHOTOS FROM AROUND THE WORLD (P110)
32
PEACE OF MIND STARTS WITH PROOF OF QUALITY. Carat Weight 1.53
Color Grade E
Clarity Grade VS1
Cut Grade
Excellent
Laser Inscription Registry Number GIA 16354621
Natural Diamond Not Synthetic
A GIA report is certainty from the source. GIA is the gemological research institute that created the 4Cs and the International Diamond Grading System.™ It is globally recognized as the unbiased expert for professional, detailed gem evaluations. Before you buy a diamond, ask your jeweler for a GIA grading report. To learn more visit www.4cs.gia.edu
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CONTRIBUTORS
ALISON CASTLE: An American photographer and book editor who has worked with TASCHEN on books such as Linda McCartney’s Life in Photography and Kubrick’s Napoleon: The Greatest Movie Never Told. She currently lives and works in Paris. NORMAN MAILER: One of the greatest writers of the 20th century, Mailer wrote a number of acclaimed fiction and non-fiction books, including The Naked and The Dead and The Armies of the Night. He won the Pulitzer Prize twice and the National Book Award once.
NOAH DAVIS
: A freelance writer based in New York, he has contributed to The Wall Street Journal, Sportsillustrated.com, NYMag.com and Wired.com. He writes frequently about football, and the occasional coup.
ZANE LOWE: The New Zealand-born radio DJ and TV presenter has made a name for himself on both MTV and BBC Radio 1 as an arbiter of musical taste for more than a decade. This can be deduced from his picks in this month’s Skypod.
LAURA POWELL
: Laura Powell is a Washington-based journalist who has covered travel for more than 20 years. Her work has appeared on CNN, in The Washington Post, USA Today, and Good Housekeeping. She blogs at Dailysuitcase.com. 34
INTRO P. 38 • SENEGAL’S WRESTLERS
P. 43 • ZANE LOWE’S TOP TUNES
P. 51 • KUBRICK VS NAPOLEON
P.60 • CHICAGO HATS
37
ILLUSTRATION: MITCH BLUNT
f you’re ever in Dakar on a weekend and the city appears to be deserted, head towards the Yoff district. There you will hear a cacophony of sabar drums, horns and cheers coming from the 60,000-seat Léopold Sedar Senghor stadium. If this was anywhere else in Africa, you might assume that a football match was underway, but this is Senegal, a nation of wrestling enthusiasts. During big events, Dakar, a city of nearly three million, becomes a ghost town. Those who aren’t in the stadium are at home, watching the tournament
I
on TV. Traditional wrestling, or laamb, as it’s known in the local language of Wolof, goes back centuries, with the earliest recorded wrestler being the 14th -century fighter Boukar Djilak Faye. There are two competing ideas of how
OUR MAN IN
DAKAR FORGET FOOTBALLERS, SENEGAL’S WRESTLERS ARE THE COUNTRY’S REAL SPORTING HEROES
Clint Witchalls is a freelance writer living in London. 38
the art developed. One is that it was a means of preparing for war among the warrior classes; another is that it was an activity practised by farmers at the end of harvest to determine who was strongest. Back then, the only prize was kudos.
TWITTER Wrestling became a professional sport in the 1920s, thanks to a Frenchman who organised fights at his cinema in Dakar. For the first time, wrestlers were paid to compete. It was around this time that striking (‘ frappe’) was introduced to the sport. Soon it became a bloody spectacle with headbutts, elbow strikes, eyegouging and even biting allowed. One wrestler became famous for biting opponents’ ears off with his filed teeth. Legend has it that he wore the grisly trophies on a string around his neck. The sport is much less bloody today. Although punches and slaps are employed, they are mainly used as a distraction to get a better hold of the
The country's top wrestlers can earn more than 200,000 per bout
$
opponent. There are two versions of traditional wrestling. One is lutte traditionnelle sans frappe (traditional wrestling without striking), a sport practised throughout West Africa. The other is lutte traditionnelle avec frappe (wrestling with striking), which is only practiced in Senegal. Sans frappe can be likened to amateur wrestling and avec frappe to professional wrestling, with the exception that the wrestlers aren’t faking it. West African wrestlers have formidable physiques. It is contentious science, but some researchers have found differences between East and West African physiques. East Africans tend to do well at endurance sports – such as long-distance running – with their
lean, ectomorphic physiques and high proportion of slow-twitch muscle fibres. West Africans tend to have powerful endomorphic frames and lots of fast twitch muscle. Few wrestling matches last more than four minutes (most are over in mere seconds), so endurance is less important than explosive power. The current, undefeated champion is a man-mountain named Yékini. The son of a fisherman, he stands at 6 foot 4 inches tall, and weighs 141kg. He has beaten all challengers, including Bombardier, Gris Bordeaux, Lake Guiers, Tyson, and Mohammed Ali. (Senegalese wrestlers tend to have exotic monikers, such as Manga II, Elton and Bazooka.) Over the past decade, wrestling has started to attract sponsors, especially in the telecom, banking and food industries. Magatte Diop, communication director for Orange in Senegal, says interest in football in Senegal has declined in the past ten years. Wrestling is much more accessible. “Though we have these big events, you can see these wrestlers on the beach, in the gym, you can see them in your daily life,” Diop says. “We sponsor football, but it doesn’t have the same interest.” Orange doesn’t sponsor wrestlers; instead it gives money to the promoters to put on events. Today, top wrestlers can earn $200,000 per bout. In fact, Yékini’s next bout is said to be worth $395,000. But lesser wrestlers can make a living from the sport. About 30 per cent of Senegal’s 400,000 licenced wrestlers are able to make a living from the sport alone. Go down to any beach at sunset and you can see men and boys engaging in impromptu wrestling matches. In a country where the average weekly income is just $20 and 50 per cent of the population is unemployed, wrestling is seen as a ticket out of poverty.
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The Clubhouse A first-of-its-kind, members-only social club in Buenos Aires’ chic Palermo Soho neighbourhood, where guests have privileged access. @ theclubhouse
39
ROOM ROOM
203
HOTEL SIXTYTWO
BARCELONA INTERNET SPEED: 1MB, free PILLOWS: Four IPOD DOCK: Yes CLUB SANDWICH DELIVERY TIME:
18 minutes COMPLIMENTARY SNACKS: Water,
sweets, chocolate TOILETRY BRAND: Etro DAILY NEWSPAPER: All the Spanish
dailies in the breakfast room EXTRAS: Bang & Olufsen TV, Nespresso
There is not much to dislike about Barcelona – it has charm in spades, great weather, great architecture and great people. So how does a hotel stand out in a city full of great properties? Discretion, that’s how. The Sixtytwo gives new meaning to the word ‘discreet’ – there is no doorman, no smiling elevator boy, no gaggle of staff chirpily calling out your name as you enter and exit the property. This is a hotel for grown-ups, and is all the better for it. The room was beautiful – minimal, but with enough quirky touches to make it memorable. Design heads will love the Jacob Jensen phones (and the Philip Starck in the lobby), while the electric blackout blind will block out any noise from the Passeig de Gracia below. The Sixtytwo epitomes everything an urban boutique hotel should be.
coffee machine TV CHANNELS: 22 VIEW: 3 /5 RATE: From $220 WWW.SIXTYTWOHOTEL.COM
JULY CALENDAR
JULY 1 TO SEP 25
JULY 4
JULY 4 TO 15
JULY 6 AND 7
Summer Ballet Festival
US Independence Day
Toronto Fringe Festival
Schlagermove Festival
It’s ballet season in the Russian capital, Moscow, with some of the most prestigious schools putting on a whole host of classic concerts.
Fireworks, star-spangled banners and traffic-stopping parties are on the menu for the biggest holiday on the American calendar.
Youthful wannabe entertainers will be running amok in every conceivable performance space all over Toronto.
Hamburg’s famous Schlagermove street party includes parades and fancy dress as revellers dance their way through the St. Pauli district.
summerballet.ru
usa.gov/Topics/Independence-Day
fringetoronto.com
schlagermove.de
40
The Leading Teppanyaki Restaurant in the World —Pioneer since 1964
U.S.A, Honolulu Hilton Hawaiian Village 808-955-5955 CANADA, Toronto Fairmont Hotels 416-368-2511 U.K., Piccadilly 44-20-7494-2525
SLOVAKIA, Bratislava 421-232-186-240 AUSTRALIA, Surfer’s Paradise Marriott Resort & Spa 61-7-5592-9700 THAILAND, Pattaya Marriott Resort & Spa 66-38-412120 ext. 1395
U.K., Chelsea 44-20-7376-7799
THAILAND, Bangkok Anantara Riverside 66-2-476-0022
U.K., St. Paul Grange Hotel 44-20-7074-1001
INDONESIA, Jakarta Grand Indonesia East Mall 62-21-2358-1067
ROMANIA, Bucharest Howard Johnson Grand Plz Hotel 4021-201-5030
INDONESIA, Bali De Opera Bali LEBANON, Beirut Le Commodore Hotel 961-1-734-734
‘‘We prepare your food right before your eyes. Please enjoy our culinary performance. Domo Arigato (Thank you).’’ Keiko Ono Aoki, Ms. Benihana/CEO
JORDAN, Amman Le Meridian Amman Hotel 962-569-6511 U.A.E., Abu Dhabi Beach Rotana Hotel & Towers 971-2-697-9122 U.A.E., Dubai Al Bustan Rotana Hotel 971-4-428-2000 U.A.E., Dubai Amwaj Rotana Hotel 971-4-705-4632 SAUDI ARABIA, Jeddah Sands Hotel 966-2-668-6014 KUWAIT, Kuwait City The Avenues Mall 965-2259-7096 Coming Soon: SAUDI ARABIA, Riyadh
Benihana of Tokyo
www.benihana-of-tokyo.com
BOOKED
THE 48 LAWS OF POWER ROBERT GREENE
Robert Greene is an unlikely rap icon. Bespectacled, Jewish and in his fifties, Greene has built a career for himself as an author, speaker and consultant on power. This, his first book, was an immediate success, mixing maxims about power with examples from European and Asian history, which gave Greene an edge over most ‘self-help’ authors. The book was embraced by popular culture, with everyone from Jay-Z to Kanye West referencing it in their songs. It is also – unsurprisingly - the most requested book in American prison libraries. So is it any good? Well the maxims, or ‘laws’ as Greene refers to them mix the obvious (‘Never outshine the master’) to the devious (‘Pose as a friend, work as a spy’). Despite the rather flippant nature of some of these, the historic references are fascinating and relevant, and Greene’s background in classical history shines through. Whether this book enables you to get, or hold onto, power, is another thing. However as Greene is now working as consultant to everyone from Hollywood producers, Fortune 500 companies, and, yes you guessed it, rap stars, he may know what he is talking about. An Art of War for the 21st century. Viking Press, 1998
JULY CALENDAR
JULY 6 TO 9
JULY 8
JUNE 14 TO JULY 14
JULY 27
Dies de Dance
Rio Marathon
Dubai Summer Surprises
Olympic Games
The streets of Barcelona will transform into an impromptu stage, as squares and parks will host some astounding dance acts.
Thousands of feet will pound the Rio de Janeiro pavement during the annual Rio Marathon.
The 14th annual festival of shopping gets underway in retail outlets across the city. Discounts on offer and some prizes.
All eyes will be on London, as after years of anticipation, the Olympic Games kick off with an elaborate opening ceremony.
marato.com
maratonadorio.com.br
dubaievents.ae/en/dss
london2012.com
42
SKYPOD DJ, VJ AND MUSICAL CURATOR ZANE LOWE GIVES US HIS TOP TRACKS TWITTER: @ZANELOWE
THE INVISIBLE – THE WINGS A lovely moment from a beautiful and deeply personal new album called Rispah. An incredible listen. Awards and acclaim will certainly follow.
THE VACCINES – NO HOPE Longer, stronger and confident from the success they achieved with their debut album, the UK’s premier indie rock ‘n’ roll band return strong.
NAS – DAUGHTERS One of music’s longest-standing and quality-assured rap artists shows wisdom and maturity on this lovely tribute to fatherhood.
THE 1975 – THE CITY Out the blue comes this new band with big pop ambitions. Reminiscent of The Killers’ sound.
43
WE ARE THE OCEAN – BLEED An essential part of the UK’s fastdeveloping hard rock scene. Bleed is one of those records that sets a band up and stays with them for life. Really strong.
LIANNE LA HAVAS – IS YOUR LOVE BIG ENOUGH? There is a reason why Prince and Stevie Wonder are amongst the many fans of this singer/songwriter. A total natural.
NETSKY – LOVE IS GONE Following on from Rudimental’s recent UK Number One single, Feel The Love, Belgian producer Netsky delivers a new single big on dynamics and full of summer. The next to go.
HAIM – FOREVER One of the biggest buzz bands around, this could be an undiscovered 1980s classic yet it holds enough modernity to sound referential and not reverential. A great song. 44
MATT PRIEST OUR WRITER reflects on an early brush with teenage power politics hen I was 16 years old, I quipped to a friend of mine that our boarding school housemaster was the lovechild of Genghis Khan and Niccolo Machiavelli. It was an astute comparison I thought – he was a large, heavily bearded man who understood that the power of reigning over a 100-odd pubescent teenagers lay in ruling by fear, and fear alone. After we had finished our sniggering, my friend murmured that, through a rather rigorous game of chinese whispers, he’d heard a rumour that I was an early front runner for my school’s prestigious College Lion award (more on this later). It all sounded terribly secretive, and the fact that I was privy to this rumour so early on added extra gravitas. Plus, it was said in a hushed voice, which immediately quadruples the importance of the rumour – one of the many unquestioned schoolyard rules. Now let’s be clear about one thing. When I say boarding school, it was not a Hogwartsesque castle tricked out with dungeons and secret passageways, nor a hideaway for the forgotten children of pompous politicians and captains of industry. It was a renovated wartime hospital tucked away in the sleepy depths of Norfolk, on the East Coast of England. There was no figgy pudding here, just apple crumble with a dollop of thick Bird’s Eye custard. And, while having masterfully familiar-
W
ised myself with the canteen’s sweets station in the eight months since I’d been enrolled in the school, I was yet to learn what a College Lion award was. What I did know was that it was hugely important. The students voted for it (a popularity contest if ever there was one), and without any work whatsoever, I was somehow top of the exit polls. Just imagine what I could do if I put some real effort into it. My mind was made up – it was time to go on the charm offensive. In order to maximise exposure, I exploited my position on the school’s football team and booked more gigs for the rock band that I was in. I lobbied support with the lower school by becoming the figurehead for an anti-bullying campaign. I even tried to demonstrate my versatility by being cast as Pharaoh in the school’s production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. I stopped short of knocking door to door, but only after serious talks with my roommate/campaign advisor. By ‘election day’, I had drummed up so much support that if I were in an American high-school I’d be disappointed had my peers not burst into song, teamed with a perfectly choreographed cheerleader routine, complete with a pom pom or two. I had run one hell of a campaign. Richard Nixon would have been proud (although I never orchestrated any break-ins, and certainly did not record anybody’s telephone conversations, honest). Truth be told, however, I don’t remember who won that year’s College Lion – all I know is that it wasn’t me. What I do recall, though, was the look that accompanied the almighty smirk spread across my housemaster’s face when he read out someone else’s name. Rumour had it, he’d overhead the one about Genghis Khan.
D. L R O W THE E L U R . ES O H S E H WEAR T
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MAPPED AMSTERDAM
Westerdoksplein
Grachtengordel West Nieuwmarkt De Wallen en Lastage Burgwallen Nieuwe Zijde
Grachtengordel Zuid Weesperbuurt en Plantage
Vondelbuurt
46
De Weteringschans
AMSTERDAM
Amsterdam has long shed its ‘sin city’ reputation. While legalised drugs and the counterculture vibe remain, it’s the graceful architecture, great art and fine dining that really draw the crowds. The clichéd beauty of the canals could almost be forgotten after a day spent mulling over the masterpieces at the Rijks, eating nasi goreng at one of the city’s surprisingly numerous Indonesian restaurants and dancing the night away. WWW.HG2.COM
Windroosplein HOTELS 1. Canal House 2. Hotel Roemer 3. Hotel de l’Europe 4. Lloyd Hotel
Oostelijke Eilanden en Kadijken
Indische Buurt West
Dapperbuurt
RESTAURANTS 5. Blauw aan de Wal 6. Blue Pepper 7. La Rive 8.Visaandeschelde BARS / CLUBS 9. Bubbles and Wines 10. De Engelbewaarder 11. Panama 12. Café Shiller GALLERIES 13. Hermitage Amsterdam 14. Foam Fotografiemuseum 15. Rijksmuseum 16. Rembrandthuis
47
MAPPED AMSTERDAM
HOTELS 1 CANAL HOUSE
Made up of three converted merchants’ houses knocked into one boutique beauty, Canal House comprises 23 individual rooms that exude old-world charm and a very contemporary glamour. Delightful.
2 HOTEL ROEMER
3
A slick and modern change to the 18th- and 19th-century surrounds, Roemer is all dark wood and white linen, with flashes of pop art colour. A boutiquey small chain with a beautiful terrace that catches the daytime sun.
HOTEL DE L’EUROPE Old-fashioned style and class (think doormen in high hats and shimmering chandeliers) with modern comforts like steam showers and flat-screen TVs. Set between the university and the Canal Belt.
4 LLOYD HOTEL
LA RIVE For a taste of hedonism from gentler times, this grand old hotel spot delivers with ornate décor and French fine dining prepared by Edwin Kats, Michelin-starred for several years; it’s expensive, but exquisite.
8
A design hotel with a range of one- to five-star rooms done out to give arty and design types mild palpitations of pleasure. The ‘cultural embassy’ hosts regular artists in residence, as well as a library.
RESTAURANTS 5 BLAUW AAN DE WAL
One of the few places in the Red Light District where you can find true love; love for food, wine and hospitality. In a courtyard sealed off from its surrounds, this FrenchMediterranean restaurant serves delicate, classic fare.
6 BLUE PEPPER
A slick, modern restaurant that knocks the city’s bland, faux-Javanese-trinketdisplaying spots clean off their rijsttafel (rice table) with thoughtful, contemporary twists on Indonesian dishes.
7
VISAANDESCHELDE Possibly the best seafood restaurant in town, it’s worth the trek to the southern reaches of Amsterdam to munch on a menu of aquatic treats, all prepared in styles from Japanese to French.
BARS/CLUBS 9 BUBBLES AND WINES
Tucked away near the tourist mania of Dam Square, this softly-lit, chicly designed spot is a wellkept secret. As the name suggests, it’s all about the grape here, and it boasts an impressive selection plus good-quality nibbles.
10 DE ENGELBEWAARDER
A delightfully tatty old café with real character, De Engelbewaarder was originally known as a literary café and still plays host to literary types and students enjoying the selection of beers on the canal-side benches.
11 PANAMA
A vast club, music venue and restaurant in an atmospheric centuriesold port building – this slickly presented operation is worth a trip to the newly developed waterfront, and its club attracts big-name DJs.
12 CAFÉ SCHILLER
This authentic art deco bar with dark wood and comfy booths has a youthful, if not slightly arty, vibe with plenty of hipsters loafing about the place and random DJs occasionally playing later on in the evenings.
GALLERIES 13 HERMITAGE
AMSTERDAM Linked to St Petersburg’s State Hermitage Museum, this is the only place in the West where you can see such a detailed collection of the Russian museum’s works. A must-see. 48
14 FOAM
FOTOGRAFIEMUSEUM This photography museum runs exhibitions showcasing technical excellence and carefully chosen subjects from fine art to documentary to contemporary trickery. A fascinating look at this contemporary medium.
15 RIJKSMUSEUM
Amsterdam’s best-known museum and certainly its grandest – it has some glorious works on display. The Vermeer and Rembrandt collections rightfully get the most attention, while the Masterpieces offer many more Golden Age gems.
16 REMBRANDTHUIS
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn bought this in 1639 at the height of his Golden Age powers. It’s been recreated as it would have been when Rembrandt lived here, and exhibits a collection of 250 sketches by him, his peers and pupils.
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KUBRICK VS. NAPOLEON AL IS ON CAST LE, AUTHOR OF STANLEY KUBRICK’S NAPOLEON: THE GREATEST MOVIE NEVER MADE , SAYS THE DIR ECTOR AND T H E EMPEROR HAD A LOT IN COMMON
hough Stanley Kubrick was probably keen on Napoleon Bonaparte from quite a young age, his interest turned into obsession around late 1967. While 2001: A Space Odyssey was still in post-production, the director had already begun working on his next film project: a massive epic period piece about the life of the French emperor. His feelings about Napoleon were complex: a mixture of admiration, incomprehension, incredulousness and even disgust. He was endlessly fascinated by this enigmatic figure, down to the smallest details about his daily life. Inside one of the many books from his Napoleon library, which numbered at least 500, he wrote, “I don’t claim that he is the most honourable man in history, just the most interesting.”
T
Over a period of two years, Kubrick worked feverishly on the Napoleon project. He hired Oxford historian and Napoleon specialist Felix Markham to be his advisor on all matters historical; with the help of Markham – whom he queried at length, both in person and by post – he hired a team of two dozen Oxford students to put together a card file, organised by date and keyword, tracking the actions and movements of all historical characters that might potentially appear in the script. This database, combined with the chronologies detailing every recorded event in Napoleon’s life that was already available, allowed Kubrick to quickly access the whereabouts and activities of any character at any given moment. Armed with these troves of information, as well 51
as the more than 15,000 location scouting and research photos taken throughout Europe, and the image database of almost 17,000 slides of Napoleonic illustrations he had commissioned, he drafted his original screenplay. MGM green-lighted it and pre-production began, but before shooting could commence, MGM, fraught with changes in management and production strategies, pulled the plug. Kubrick was devastated – it was his Waterloo. Though he tried for several years to resurrect it, the project would never come to fruition. What is irresistible when considering, in retrospect, this pairing of geniuses is how much they had in common. Though Kubrick would probably not have admitted it, considering
how Napoleon’s inflated hubris and the irrational acts it prompted caused untold death and destruction, it is worth pointing out that on certain counts he did identify with the emperor: particularly his unusually thorough and innovative methods of organisation, but also, more generally, how he compartmentalised his entire existence. Kubrick had a notebook in which he jotted down early ideas and items of interest, probably in preparation for his interviews with Markham. Here we can read: “Things you want to know about N. in all situations. 1. Routine of daily life. 2. Who are the people around him. 3. Where is he sleeping, eating, working. 4. His amusements.” Then at the bottom of the page a short list reads: “servants, staff, friends, women, enemies.” On this page of notes for
A BRIEF HISTORY OF POWER BALLADS Total Eclipse Of The Heart
I Want To Know What Love Is
1
Skewen (it’s in Wales) girl done good Bonnie Tyler totally eclipsed any other Welsh singer with this track, hitting number one on the US Billboard chart – something not even ‘The Voice’, Tom Jones, has achieved in a career spanning almost 60 years – and selling more than six million copies worldwide. Nice one, Bonnie.
2 52
No less than 35 musicians can say that they were members of
Take My Breath Away
Foreigner at some point between 1976 and 2009, but only the six members that made up the band in 1984 can claim to have been part of their biggest hit.
3
The video for Berlin’s chart-topping hit features the band’s singer, Terri Nunn, wandering around a windy junkyard in a pair of overalls covered in what looks like crusty baked beans, interspersed with clips of tiny Tom Cruise scoring with Kelly McGillis in Top
If I Could Turn Back Time
Gun, which give away pretty much the entire plot.
4
If Cher could indeed turn back time there are a couple of things she probably wouldn’t do the same – name her child Chaz for a start – but she would, without question, still release this comeback hit.
5
Shaven-headed Irish songstress Sinead O’Connor is known for
questions to ask Markham, Kubrick wrote, “1. Napoleon’s daily routine in detail as cadet, officer, etc....”, and then he starts to get very specific with his questions, “Where did the secretaries work while on the road. What system did he use with his notebooks...” A couple of passages Kubrick underlined in Napoleon SelfRevealed, a collection of the emperor’s journals and letters, are also similarly revealing. Napoleon wrote, “I intend to adopt a totally different plan as regards my baggage-train from that which I followed in the last campaign. I wish to have a much smaller suite, a reduced kitchen staff and less plates – not merely to save trouble, but also to set a good example.” Kubrick must have found this interesting because
Nothing Compares 2 U
(Everything I Do) I Do It For You
he, too, strove to keep his film crews as small as possible so as to retain the greatest amount of control. Ultimately, though, what Kubrick perhaps most admired – and wished he possessed – was Napoleon’s great capacity for tactical thinking. The following passage from a page of Kubrick’s notes is very telling: “General notes about N.: He had no plan. He was intoxicated with power, and did what he thought necessary from day to day, totally free from the emotional limitations of patriotism. His enormous mental powers were at their best when they encountered problems, which required action. He would crisply deal with more things at one time than one would think possible.”
I’d Lie For You (And That’s The Truth)
being, shall we say, a little bit odd. But this early 1990s hit is actually a cover of a 1985 song written by Prince, for his funk band side project, The Family. There’s no disputing that O’Connor made it her own, though, with one of the most iconic videos of all time.
dumped in the middle of a sun dappled forest as Kevin Costner did playing a semi-fictional medieval British folk hero, but Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves did the business at the box office and Everything I Do sold 10 million copies worldwide.
6
Multi-talented rocker Meat Loaf belts out a ballad like nobody else, and this 1990s effort is one of his best, proving that ridiculous lyrics
The king of Canadian rock, Bryan Adams, sporting double denim and accompanied by two backing musicians and a pianist, looked as out of place
7
I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing
won’t hold you back if you give them enough oomph. How can you trust a man who says he’ll lie? Who cares! Look at his face, look how much he means it. Legend.
8
Aerosmith performed this Oscar nominated song for Armageddon in which a group of oil workers save the world from a meteor. Audiences didn’t want to miss a thing either, and the song and movie were both hits. 53
MY TRAVELLED LIFE MORRIS REID, POLITICAL STRATEGIST, 42
ON PRESSURE
powerful people] is totally overrated. If you’re
respect. If both parties respect each other,
It’s not pressure when you love what you
a player, you enjoy spending time with your
everything will be fine. That is something I
do. The stress comes from pushing yourself
peers. Game recognises game. But the biggest
learned time after time.
to the limit. President Clinton lives for the
misconception about power is that it will
moment. Even now. I recently saw him
last forever, and the most important thing to
speaking to a group in Jacksonville, Florida
understand about power is when not to use it.
ON THE INTERNET The nature of power has changed since the
and it was a vintage Clinton performance. But
emergence of the web, for sure. Every ‘Tom,
politicians are all different. As far as Al Gore is concerned, I am not sure he always enjoyed
ON NEGOTIATING
Dick and Mustafa’ thinks he’s God’s gift because
the attention. I found him to be at his best
Negotiations must be a two-way street. Once
of the web. The internet has really “dumbed
in small settings or on Air Force Two. He’s a
you understand that everyone can win and
down” the world.
really great guy.
walk away from the table happy, then you understand how to resolve problems. If you don’t get that, walk away now. It’s never about
ON DIFFICULT SITUATIONS
ON PERSONALITIES
you and, frankly, it’s never about the individual
The trickiest situation I’ve found myself
If I had a daughter, President Obama would be
president. It’s about the institution. Keep your
in is a protest in the Gaza Strip. Very
the perfect son-in-law. And if I had to sum up
ego in check and enjoy the ride. It’s all about
scary stuff.
President Clinton, I would say, “Elvis has left the building”. But the politician who is most different in person to how he is perceived is Vladimir Putin. I love him.
ON POWER I love politicians. Most get into the business of politics for all the right reasons. However, when things go wrong they really go wrong. Working with the president is crazy, but amazing all at the same time. The POTUS [president of the United States] is the biggest rock star on the planet. There’s nothing like playing at that level. But that stuff [the aura surrounding 55
GRAPH INFORMATION ELEGANCE
The ANNUAL INCOME of DEAD CELEBRITIES
56
ILLUSTRATION: MATT NAYLOR
Adapted from Top-Earning Dead Celebrities by Forbes magazine.
PLACE PARLIAMENT HOUSE •
CA N B E R RA
•
YEAR BUILT: 1988
PHOTO: ARTIE NG
A RC H I T E C T U R E M APPED
58
STORE U R BA N C ARTO G RA P H Y
• OPTIMO HATS
•
CHICAGO
•
MILLINERY
A
s a teenager, Graham Thompson fell in love with panama hats during a trip to Ecuador. More than 20 years later, that infatuation borders on obsession. While he now prefers fedoras and pork pies to sit on his own head, Thompson spends his days matching people with the perfect hat. “My favorite hat is one that fits who a person is,” the 40-year-old Chicagoan says. “It becomes an iconic hat for them.” As the owner of Chicago’s Optimo Hats, Thompson oversees the production of roughly 4,000 handcrafted hats a year. He took over the business from his mentor Johnny Tyus, one of the city’s last traditional hatmakers, in 1995. Thompson transformed Johnny’s Hat Shop into Optimo (the most famous type of panama), moved the entire operation to the South Side, and set about producing his art. Optimo makes a dozen hats a day, from $395 Milan straw hats to felt ones that cost thousands of dollars. But the store is more than shop; it’s a museum dedicated to the art of hatmaking. Thompson serves as curator, tour guide and inspirational force. Antique equipment dots the store, testaments to the owner’s dedication. “I’ve been in a laboratory these past 20 years, collecting machines and collecting every bit of knowledge I could from hatmakers all over the world,” he says. “I’m trying to collect the pieces of the puzzle to make great hats again.” The focus on quality begins before the raw goods reach Optimo. Thompson directly sources the material he uses from all corners of the globe. He travels to Ecuador three times a year to ensure the panamas have the right weave, brim width and crown height options. The connoisseur also goes to Europe on a regular basis to examine the felt mills. These personal interactions are as essential to 60
TEXT: NOAH DAVIS // IMAGE: RYAN HEFFERNAN
Optimo’s success as are the people who work on each hat in the Chicago shop. Thompson learned that hiring experts produced a better product than one made by a single person. He has 11 staffers, including four who specialise in sewing and three working on blocking and finishing. (Thompson is one of this trio.) The hats are expensive, but they are obtainable. And Optimo works with customers to help them find solutions. “We’ll do whatever you want if you’re serious about hats.” Of course, there is the other end of the spectrum: “We also get the billionaire who wants four.” A revival of late 1800s style – “the rocker/gunslinger thing,” Thompson says – as well as the obsession with the speakeasy culture of the 1920s has increased interest in hats. Fedoras, bowlers and top hats are the new skinny jeans for certain hipsters. Optimo is breaking into pop culture in other ways as well. The store supplied the gangster-style hats for Johnny Depp’s Chicago crime epic Public Enemies, as well as straws for The Rum Diary. Optimo could feature in more films soon. “Steven Spielberg came into our store the other day. He was filming something in Chicago. That was really cool,” Thompson says. “Maybe he’ll use us for one of his gangster movies.” The luxury hat business is booming. Optimo opened a second store in downtown Chicago and the company sees a growing market from overseas, specifically Japan. Thompson would love to expand, but for now, he will continue focusing on his craft: “I’m obsessed with hats and making great hats. That is my passion.” Optimo Hats, 10215 South Western Avenue, Chicago, IL (773) 238-2999; www.optimohats.com
61
OWN A PRECIOUS PIECE OF PROPERTY IN PARADISE Designed by Kelly Hoppen, LUX* has made the 12 Villas at its flagship LUX* Belle Mare hotel available for sale.
STEP INTO THE LIGHT WITH YOUR OWN LUX* VILLA In December 2011, LUX* Island Resorts unveiled a fresh, new approach to island resort holidays with the launch of their show-stopping ‘Island Light’ concept. Lighter, brighter and pleasingly original, LUX* Island Resorts has done away with the excess baggage to offer a new kind of luxury with a heightened, more sensory touch: an authentic celebration of island living that’s as unconventional as it is exhilarating. Now, for the first time, LUX* has made the 12 Villas at its flagship LUX* Belle Mare available for sale, giving aficionados of the new luxury the chance to own a precious piece of paradise. Perched on the exquisite east coast of Mauritius, the Villas at LUX* Belle Mare are a collection of exclusive residences designed to provide the signature LUX* take on luxury island living, in one of the most serene locations in the world. Situated within the five star LUX* Belle Mare resort, the Villas merge traditional Mauritian style with modern interiors designed by world renowned interior designer, Kelly Hoppen.
To unlock your door to island living, LUX* style, call +230 208 8558/38, email murray.adair@iorec.com or visit luxvillasmauritius.com.
Available through the Invest-Hotel Scheme, the Villas benefit from all the ameneties of their resort setting. Amazing beach front location, mouth-watering cuisine, the LUX* Me
spa, private and personalised 24h butler service, all form part of your villa experience. A projected net return of rental income at five and a half percent per annum is also included as part of the purchase. Along side this, owners enjoy 25 days a year at their property; with peace of mind that their villas works for them as part of the resort-managed rental programme. Beyond your front door, Mauritius awaits. Renowned as a paradise on earth, with turquoise sea, white sandy beaches and pristine lagoons, the island’s tropical landscape provides a natural playground, whether you’re into hitting the heights with hiking or diving the coral-fringed submarine world; or taking on some of the world’s best golf courses, we have something exquisite for you.
THE BENEFITS AT A GLANCE: • Complimentary use of the villa 25 nights a year, or swap at any LUX* resorts • Projected R.O.I of 5.5% per annum • 20% discount on food and beverages during the stay • Starting from $ 875k for a beachside villa • US $ loan set up via our partner Afrasia Bank (up to 60% of the investment)
MAIN P. 78 • ALASTAIR CAMPBELL ON POWER
P. 88 • THE NEW POWER OF CROWDS P. 100 • AN ILLUSTRATED WASHINGTON TOUR
IGHT THEAF M N AILER’S
NORM COUNT OF CLASSIC AC IN THE RUMBLE LE G N THE JU
P64
63
64 ALI
ALI 65
eorge would. George was certainly going to hit him in the belly. What a battle was to follow. If the fiveminute warning had just been given, it passed in a rush. There was a bathroom off the dressing room and to it Ali retired with his manager, Herbert Muhammed, a round-faced benign-looking man whose features offered a complete lack of purchase. He was now dressed in a white robe which ran from his shoulders to his feet, a costume appropriate to his function as a minister, for they had gone into the next room to pray and their voices could be heard reciting verses of the Koran – doubtless such Arabic was from the Koran. In the big room, now empty of Ali, everybody looked at everyone and there was nothing to say. Ferdie Pacheco returned from Foreman’s dressing room. “Everything’s okay, “ he stated. “Let’s roll.” In a minute Ali came out of the bathroom with the son of Elijah Muhammed. While he shadowboxed, his manager continued to pray. Solemnly, Bundini handed Ali the white African robe, which the fighter had selected. Then everybody in the dressing room was on their way, a long file of twenty men who pushed and were hustled through a platoon of soldiers standing outside the door and then in a gang’s rush in a full company of other soldiers were racing through the grey cement-brick corridors with their longgone echoes of rifle-shots and death. They emerged into the open air, into the surrealistic bliss and green air of stadium grass under electric lights, and a cheer of no vast volume went up at the sight of Ali, but then the crowd had been waiting through an empty hour with no semifinal to watch, just an empty ring, and hours gone by before that with dancers to watch, more 66 ALI
dancers, then more tribal dancers, a long count of the minutes from midnight to four. The nation of Zaire had been awaiting this event for three months, now they were here, some sixty thousand, in a great oval of seats far from that ring in the centre of the soccer field. They must be disappointed. Watching the fighters would prove kin to sitting in a room in a housing project studying people through a window in another
housing project on the other side of a twelve-lane freeway. The fighters would work under a big corrugated tin shed roof with girders to protect the ring and the twenty-five hundred seats from tropical downpour, which might come at any minute on this night so advanced already into the rainy season. Heavy rains were overdue by two weeks and more. Light rain had come almost every afternoon and dark portentous skies hung overhead. In America it would speak of quick summer storms, but the clouds in Af-
rica were patient as the people and a black whirling smoky sky could shift overhead for days before more than a drop would fall. Something of the weight of this oncoming rain was in the air. The early night had been full of oppression, and it was so hot for so early in the morning, eighty degrees and a little more. Thoughts, however, of the oncoming fight left Norman closer to feeling chill. He was sitting next to Plimpton in the second row from the ring, a seat worth travelling thousands of miles to obtain (although counting two round trips, the figure might yet be twentyfive thousand miles – a barrel of jet lag for the soul). In front of them was a row of wire service reporters and photographers leaning on the apron of the ring; inside the ropes was Ali checking the resin against his shoes, and offering flashes of his shuffle to the study of the crowd, whirling away once in a while to throw a kaleidoscope-dozen of punches at the air in two seconds no more – one-Mississippi, two-Mississippi – twelve punches had gone by. Screams from the crowd at the blur of the gloves. He was all alone in the ring, the Challenger on call for the Champion, the Prince waiting for the Pretender, and unlike other fighters who wilt in the long minutes before the titleholder will appear, Ali seemed to be taking royal pleasure in his undisputed possession of the space. He looked unafraid and almost on the edge of happiness, as if the discipline of having carried himself through two thousand nights of sleeping without his title after it had been taken away from him, without ever losing a contest – a frustration for a fighter doubtless equal in impact to writing A Farewell to Arms and then not being able to publish it – must have been a biblical seven years of trial ALI 67
through which he had come with the crucial part of his honour, his talent and his desire for greatness still intact, and light came off him at this instant. His body had a shine like the flanks of a thoroughbred. He looked fully ready to fight the strongest, meanest man to come along in Heavyweight circles in many years, maybe the worst big man of all, and while the Prince stood alone in his ring, and waited out the minutes for the Champion to arrive and had his thoughts, whatever they were, and his private communion with Allah, however that might feel, while he stood and while he shuffled and while he shadowboxed the air, the Lord Privy Seal, Angelo Dundee from Miami, went methodically from ring post to ring
post and there in full view of ringside and the stadium just as methodically loosened each of the four turnbuckles on each post which held the tension of each of the four ropes, and did it with a spoke and wrench he must have put in his little carrying bag back at Nsele and transported on the bus and carried from the dressing room to this ring. And when the ropes were slack to his taste, loose enough for his fighter to lean way back, he left the ring and returned to his corner. Nobody had paid any particular attention to him. Foreman was still in his dressing room. Later Plimpton learned a detail from his old friend Archie Moore. “Just before going out to the ring, Foreman joined hands with his boxing trust – Dick Sadler, Sandy Saddler, and Ar-
chie – in a sort of prayer ritual they had practised (for every fight) since Foreman became Champion in Jamaica,” Plimpton wrote. Now they were holding hands again in Zaire, and Archie Moore, who had his head bowed, found himself thinking he would pray for Muhammad Ali’s safety. Here’s what he said: ‘I was praying, and in great sincerity, that George wouldn’t kill Ali. I really felt that was a possibility.’” So did others. Foreman arrived in the ring. He was wearing red velvet trunks with a white stripe and a blue waistband. The colours of the American flag girded 68 ALI
his middle and his shoes were white. He looked solemn, even sheepish, like a big boy who as Archie said “truly doesn’t know his own strength.” The letters GF stood out in embossed white cloth from the red velvet of his trunks. GF – Great Fighter. George had time to reach his corner, shuffle his feet, huddle with the trust, get the soles of his shoes in resin, and the fighters were meeting in the centre of the ring to get instructions. It was the time for each man to exhort a measure of fear from the other. Liston had done it to all his opponents until he met Ali, who, then Cassius Clay at the age of twenty-two, glared back at him with all the imperative of his high-destiny guts. Foreman, in turn, had done it to Frasier, and then to Norton. A big look, heavy as death, oppressive as the closing of the door of one’s tomb. To Foreman, Ali now said (as everyone was later informed), “You have heard of me since you were young. You were following me since you were a little boy. Now you must meet me, your master!” – words the press could not hear at the time, but Ali’s mouth was moving, his head was twelve inches from Foreman’s, his eyes were on the other. Foreman blinked, Foreman looked surprised as if he had 70 ALI
been impressed just a little more than he expected. He tapped Ali’s gloves in a move equal to saying, “That’s your round. Now we start.” The bell! Through a long unheard sigh of collective release, Ali charged across the ring. He looked as big and determined as Foreman, so he held himself, as if he possessed the true threat. They collided without meeting, their bodies still five feet apart. Each veered backward like magnetic poles repelling one another forcibly. Then Ali came forward again, Foreman came forward, they circled, they feinted, they moved in an electric ring, and Ali threw the first punch, a tentative left. It came up short. Then he drove a lightening-strong right straight as a pole into the stunned centre of Foreman’s head, the unmistakeable thwomp of a high-powered punch.
A cry went up. Whatever else happened, Foreman had been hit. No opponent had cracked George this hard in years and no sparring partner had dared to. Foreman charged in rage. Ali compounded the insult. He grabbed the Champion around the neck and pushed his head down, wrestled it down crudely and decisively to show Foreman he was considerably rougher than anybody warned, and relations had commenced. They circled again. They feinted. They started in on one another and drew back. It was as if each held a gun. If one fired and missed, the other
was certain to hit. If you threw a punch and your opponent was ready, your own head would take his punch. What a shock. It is like seizing a high-voltage line. Suddenly you are on the floor. Ali was dancing. Rather he was bouncing from side to side looking for an opportunity to attack. So was Foreman. Maybe fifteen seconds went by. Suddenly Ali hit him again. It was again a right hand. Again it was hard. The sound of a bat thunking into a watermelon was heard around the ring. Once more Foreman charged after the blow, and once more Ali took him around the neck with his right arm, then stuck his left glove in Foreman’s right armpit. Foreman could not start to swing. It was a nimble part of the advanced course for tying up a fighter. The referee broke the clinch. Again they moved through the invisible reaches of attraction and repulsion, darting forward, sliding to the side, cocking their heads, each trying
to strike an itch to panic in the other, two big men as fast as pumas, charged as tigers – unseen sparks came off their moves. Ali hit him again, straight left, then a straight right. Foreman responded like a bull. He roared forward. A dangerous bull. His gloves were out like horns. No room for Ali to dance to the side, stick him and move, hit him and move. Ali went back, feinted, went back again, was on the ropes. Foreman had cut him off. The fight was thirty seconds old and Foreman had driven him to the ropes. Ali had not even tried to get around those outstretched gloves, so ready to cuff him, rough him, break his grace, no, retreating, Ali collected his toll. He hit Foreman with another left and another right. Still a wail went up from the crowd. They saw Ali on the ropes. Who had 72 ALI
talked of anything but how long Ali could keep away. Now he was trapped, so soon. Yet Foreman was off his aim. Ali’s last left and right had checked
him. Foreman’s punches were not ready and Ali parried, Ali blocked. They clinched. The referee broke it. Ali was off the ropes with ease. To celebrate, he hit Foreman with another straight right. Up and down
the press rows, once exclamation was leaping, “He’s hitting him with rights.” Ali had not punched with such authority in seven years. Champions do not hit other champions with right-hand leads. Not in the first round. It is the most difficult and dangerous punch. Difficult to deliver and dangerous to oneself. In nearly all positions, the right hand has longer to travel that extra space, alarms are ringing in the opponent, counterattacks are beginning. He will duck under the right and take off your head with a left. So good fighters do not often lead with their right against another good fighter. Not in the first round. They wait. They keep the right hand. It is one’s authority, and ready to punish a left which comes too slowly. One throws one’s right over a jab; one can block the left hook with a right forearm and chop back a right in return. Classic maxims of boxing. All fight writers know them. Of these principles they take their interpretation. Ali is on his way to the moon. Right-hand leads! My God! In the next minute, Ali proceeded to hit Foreman with a combination as rare as plutonium: a straight right hand followed by a long left hook. Spring-zing!
went those punches, bolt to the head, bolt to the head; each time Foreman would rush forward in murderous rage and be caught by the neck and turned. His menace became more impressive each time he was struck. If the punches maddened him, they did not weaken him. Another fighter would be staggering by now. Foreman merely looked more destructive. His hands lost no speed, his hands looked as fast as Ali’s (except when he got hit) and his face was developing a murderous appetite. He had not been treated so disrespectfully in years. Lost was genial George of the press conferences. His life was clear. He was going to dismember Ali. As he kept getting hit and grabbed, hit and grabbed, a new fear came over the rows at ringside. Foreman was awesome. Ali had now hit him about fifteen good punches to the head and not been caught once in return. What would happen when Foreman finally caught Ali? No Heavyweight could keep up the speed of these moves, not for fourteen more rounds. But then the first was not even over. In the last minute, Foreman forced Ali to the ropes, was on him, broke loose, and smashed a right uppercut through Ali’s gloves, then another. The second went like a spear through the top of Ali’s skull. His eyes flew up in consternation, and he grabbed Foreman’s right arm with his left, squeezed it, clung to it. Foreman, his arm being held, was still in a mood to throw the good right again, and did. Four heavy half-smothered rights, concussive as blows to the heavy bag, went up to the head, then two down to the body, whaling on Ali even as he was held, and it was apparent these punches hurt. Ali came off the ropes in the most determined embrace of his life, both gloves locked around the back of Foreman’s neck. The whites of Ali’s eyes showed the glaze of a combat sol74 ALI
dier who has just seen a dismembered arm go flying across the sky after an explosion. What kind of monster was he encountering? Foreman threw a wild left. Then a left, a right, a left, left and a right. Some to the head, some to the body, some got blocked, some missed, one collided with Ali’s floating ribs, brutal punches, jarring and imprecise as a collision at slow speed in a truck. With everybody
screaming, Ali now hit Foreman with a right. Foreman hit him back with a left and a right. Now they each landed blows. Everybody was shaking their head at the bell. What a round! Now the press rows began to ring with comment on those right-hand leads. How did Ali dare? A magnificent round. Norman has few vanities left, but he thinks he knows something about boxing. He is ready to serve as an engineer on Ali’s trip to the moon. For Ali is one artist who does not box by right counter to left hook. He fights the entirety of the other person. He lives in fields of concentration where he can detect the smallest flicker of lack
of concentration. Foreman has shown himself a lack of quiver flat to the possibility of a right. Who before this had dared to after all to hit Foreman with a right? He was not ready for a man to come into the ring unafraid of him. That offered its beauty. But frightening. Ali cannot fight every round like this. Such a pace will kill him in five. Indeed he could be worried as he sits in his corner. It has been his round, but what a force to Foreman’s punches. It is true. Foreman hits harder than other fighters. And takes a good punch. Ali looks thoughtful. Foreman sits on his stool listening to Sadler. His face is bemused as if he has learned more than he is accustomed to in the last few minutes and the sensation is half agreeable. He has certainly learned that Ali can hit. Already his face shows lumps and welts. Ali is also a better wrestler than any fighter he has faced. Better able to agitate him. He sits back to rest the sore heat of his lungs after the boil of his fury in the last round. He brings himself to smile at someone at ringside. The smile is forced. Across the ring, Ali spits into the bowl held out for him and looks wide awake. His eyes are alive as a ghetto adolescent walking down a strange turf. Just before the bell, he stands up in his corner and leads a cheer. Ali’s arm pumps the air to inspire the crowd, and he makes a point of glowering at Foreman. Abruptly, right after the bell, his mood takes a change. As Foreman comes out, Ali goes back to the ropes, no, lets himself be driven into the corner, the worst place a fighter can be, worst place by all established comprehension of boxing. In the corner you cannot slip to the side, cannot go backward. You must fight your way out. With the screech that comes up from a crowd when one car tries to pass another in a race, Foreman was in to move on Ali, and Ali fought the
good rat fight of the corner, his gloves thrown with frantic speed at Foreman’s gloves. It became something like a slapping contest - of the variety two tall kids might show when trying to hit the other in the face. It is far from orthodox practise, where you dart out of a corner, duck out of a corner, or blast out. Since Ali kept landing, however, and Foreman did not, George retreated in confusion as if reverting to memories of fights when he was ten years old and scared – yes Ali must have made some psychological choice and it was well chosen. He got out of the corner and held Foreman once again by the head in a grip so well applied that Foreman had the apprehensive expression of a steer being dogged to the ground by a cowboy. Once the referee separated them, Ali began to back up across the ring. Foreman was after him throwing fast punches. “Show him,” George’s corner must have instructed, “that your gloves
are as fast as his.” Suddenly Foreman hit Ali with a straight hard right. Ali held onto Foreman to travel through the shock. After the fight he would say that some of Foreman’s punches went right down to his toes, and that must have been one of them. It seems like eight rounds have passed yet we have only finished two. Contemplate them as they sit in their corners between the second and third rounds. The outcome of the fight is not yet determined. Ali has an enormous problem equal to his enormous confidence. Everybody has wondered whether Ali can get through the first few rounds and take Foreman’s punch. Now the problem has been refined: can he dismantle Foreman’s strength before he uses up his own wit? Foreman has another problem; he may not be as aware of it as his corner. There is no fear in his mind that he will fail to win the fight. He does not think about that anymore than a lion supposes it will be able to destroy a cheetah; no it’s just a question of catching Ali, a
maddening frustration. Still the insult to his rage has to worry his corner. They can hardly tell him not to be angry. It is Foreman’s rage after all which has led him to knock out so many fighters. To cut it off is to leave him cowlike. Nonetheless he must contain his anger until he catches Ali. Otherwise he is going to wear himself out. The bell. Once more Ali comes out of the corner with a big and threatening face as if this round for certain he will bring the attack to Foreman and once again sees something wrong in the idea, profoundly wrong, shifts his plan instantly, backs up and begins to play the ropes. On comes Foreman. The fight has taken its formal pattern. Ali will go by choice to the ropes and Foreman will chase him. Now in each round Ali will work for forty seconds with his back no more than a foot or two from the top rope, and he is on the rope as often as not. When the strength of the mood suggests that the virtue of one set of ropes has been used up, he will back off across the ring to use another set. He will spend on average one-quarter of each round on each of the four sides of the ring. Sooner or later Foreman is always on him, leaning on him, banging him, belting away with all the fury George knows how to bring to the heavy bag. Ali uses the ropes to absorb the bludgeoning. At the end of the round, Ali hits Foreman with some of the hardest punches of the fight. A right, a left, and a right startle Foreman in their combination. He may not have seen such a combination since his last street fight. Ali gives a look of contempt and they wrestle for a few seconds until the bell. In the corner Sadler was massaging Foreman’s right shoulder and George was gagging a bit, the inside of his lips showing a shocking frothy white like the mouth of an overgalloped horse. ALI 75
Nonetheless, he looked jaunty as he came out for the bell. He was even beginning to jam a number of Ali’s rhythms. All the while Ali was talking. “Come on, George, show me something,” he would say. “Can’t you fight harder? That ain’t hard. I thought you were the champion, I thought you had punches.” At the end of the round Foreman caught him with the best punch he had thrown in many a minute, and as he turned to leave Ali, he said clearly, “How’s that?” It must have encouraged him, for in the fifth round he tried to knock Ali out. Even as Ali was more confident on the ropes, Foreman grew convinced he could break Ali’s defence. Confidence on both sides makes for war. The round would go down in history as one of the great rounds in Heavyweight boxing. Foreman came out in the fifth with the conviction that if force had not prevailed against Ali up to now, more force was the answer, more force than Ali had ever seen. They sparred for the first half-minute. Then the barrage began. With Ali braced on the ropes, Foreman came on to blast him out. 76 ALI
Neither man moved more than a few feet in the next minute and a half. Across that embattled short space Foreman threw punches in barrages of four and six and eight and nine, heavy maniacal slamming punches, heavy as the boom of oaken doors, bombs to the body, bolts to the head, punching until he could not breathe, backing off to breathe again and come in again, bomb again, blast again, drive and steam and slam the torso in front of him, wreck him in the arms, break through those arms, get to his ribs, dig him out, dig him out, put the dynamite in the earth, lift him, punch him, punch him up to heaven, take him out, stagger him – great earthmover he must have sobbed to himself, kills this mad and bouncing goat. Somebody in Ali’s corner screamed, “Careful! Careful! Careful!” and Ali flew back and just in time for as he bounced on the ropes Foreman threw six of his most powerful left hooks in a row and then a right, it was the centre of his fight and the heart of his best charge, a left to the belly, a left to the head, a left to the belly, a left to the head, a left to the belly, another to the belly and Ali blocked them all, elbow for the belly, glove for the head, and the ropes flew like snakes. Ali was ready for the lefts. He was not prepared for the right that followed. Foreman hit him a powerful punch. The ring-bolts screamed. Ali shouted, “Didn’t hurt a bit.”
The punches got weaker and weaker, and Ali came off the ropes and in the last thirty seconds, threw his own punches, twenty at least. Almost all hit. One punch turned Foreman’s head ninety degrees, a right cross of the glove and forearm that slammed into the side of the jaw; double contact had to be felt; once from the glove, then from the bare arm, stunning and jarring. When it was over, Ali caught Foreman by the neck like a big brother chastising an enormous and stupid kid brother and looked out to someone in the audience, some enemy, for Ali, holding George around the neck, now stuck out one long white-coated tongue. With twenty seconds left to the round [and it would turn out, the fight], Ali attacked. By his own measure, that measure of twenty years of boxing, with the knowledge of all he had learned of what could and could not be done at any instant in the ring, he chose this as the occasion and lying on the ropes, he hit Foreman with a right and left, then
came off the ropes to hit with a left and a right. Into this last right hand punch he put his glove and his forearm again, a head-stupefying punch that sent Foreman reeling forward. As he went by, Ali hit him on the side of the jaw with a right, and darted away from the ropes in such a way as to put Foreman next to them. For the first time in the entire fight he had cut off the ring on Foreman. Now Ali struck him a combination of punches fast as the punches of the first round, but harder and more consecutive, three capital rights in a row struck Foreman, then a left, and for an instant on Foreman’s face appeared the knowledge that he was in danger and must start to look to his last protection. His opponent was attacking, and there were no ropes behind the opponent. What a dislocation: the axes of his existence were reversed! He was the man on the ropes! Then a big projectile exactly the size of a fist in a glove drove into the middle of Foreman’s mind, the best punch of the startled night, the blow Ali saved for a career. Foreman’s arms flew out to the side like a man with a parachute jumping out of a plane, and in this doubled-over position he tried to wander out to the centre of the ring. All the while his eyes were on Ali and he looked up with no anger as if Ali, indeed, was the man he knew best in the world and would see him on his dying day. Vertigo took George Foreman and revolved him. Still bowing from the waist in this uncomprehending position, eyes on Muhammad Ali all the way, he started to tumble and topple and fall even as he did not wish to go down. He went over like a six-foot sixty-yearold butler who has just heard tragic news, yes, fell over all of a long collapsing two seconds, down came the Champion in seconds and Ali revolved with him in a close circle, hand primed to hit him one more time, and never the need, a wholly intimate escort to the floor.
The referee took Ali to a corner. He stood there, he seemed lost in thought. Like a drunk hoping to get out of bed and go to work, Foreman rolled over. Foreman started the slow head-agonizing lift of all that foundered bulk God somehow gave him and whether he heard the count or no, was on his feet a fraction after the count of ten and whipped. In the ring Ali fainted. David Frost was crying out: “Muhammad Ali has done it. The great man has done it. This is the most joyous scene ever seen in the history of boxing. This is an incredible scene. The place is going wild. Muhammad Ali has won.” The Fight by Norman Mailer, 1975 Copyright The Norman Mailer Estate ALI 77
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air’s right-hand Bl ny o T s a w l el pb m Alastair Ca ajority of his eight m e th ut ho ug ro th n ma Rees about th re Ga to s lk ta He . years in power ing to win war, feuds, and play
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pril 10, 1992. Thirty-fouryear-old Today journalist Alastair Campbell arrives with his wife Fiona Millar – also a journalist – at the London home of British Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock. The house should be empty, it’s owner on his way to the palace to accept the Queen’s invitation to become Prime Minister of Great Britain – the first Labour Prime Minister in more than a decade to hold the highest elected office in the land. Instead, Kinnock and his wife Glenys, downhearted and grieving for what could, and should, have been, answer the door. “The night after [the defeat], Fiona and I went around to see Neil and Glenys, and it was so sad, because they still had all the scaffolding from where the media had been the night before, and there were a couple of photographers – that was it,” Campbell recalls. “I think that was almost like a bereavement.” Yet just five years later, Campbell, now 38 and about to be named press secretar y to the soon-to-be Prime Minister Tony Blair, found himself in a room, standing beside fellow Blair cohort Jonathan Powell, watching in silence as his boss took a call from Conservative Prime Minister John Major. “Tony was dressed like a tramp. He had a ridiculous pair of slippers on, a rugby shirt and tracksuit bottoms,” Campbell says with a look of horror on his face. “Jonathan and I would normally mess about, no matter what was going on, but we were just totally still. Then Major comes on the line, and you do have this sense that ‘this is a moment in history’ – one Prime Minister is saying to another ‘you are the next Prime Minister, and I accept that. You’ve won. I’ve lost’.” Today, perched on a stool in the back of a noisy, generic café just off
London’s Fleet Street – fittingly the former home of the British newspaper industry – the 55-year-old Campbell is dressed in a well-tailored blue suit and crisp white shirt – the successful media player’s uniform. At over six foot, but trim – he likes to swim, as his diaries will attest – he looks more like the captain of your local rugby side than a former king of spin. But, although a confident and imposing presence, he is a calm and charming character – perhaps the result of two years out of ‘the game’ – and it’s easy to see how he kept the British press ‘on side’ for so long. But prior to becoming the new Labour Party leader Tony Blair’s spokesman in 1994, Campbell had battled alcoholism and depression – an illness he has suffered from since and tackled in his book The Happy Depressive – and was by no means certain he wanted to enter the frenetic world of politics. “There’s nothing like it,” says Campbell. “That’s why it took so long to think about it. I had these two images coming into my head all the time. One was of Tony Blair going into Downing Street and me down behind the fence with all the other journalists covering it, thinking ‘I could have been part of it’, and the other one was John Major going back in, and I’m thinking ‘I could have stopped that’.” That “moment in history” in Tony Blair’s office, then, is one that Campbell could easily have missed. So why, knowing how tough it would be on both him and his family, did he agree to work for the demanding Blair? A man who he knew would come to rely on him heavily in the years ahead. “A real, deep desire to see the back of the Tories and get Labour in, and also that sense that… Something about Tony as well,” he muses. “Going to work for him – the idea definitely had
something that drew me to it.” Campbell goes on to say that the death of John Smith, Tony Blair’s predecessor as leader of the Labour Party, in 1994 was the defining moment in his life. “At that moment, I sensed that Tony would be the next leader, and that I would work for him,” he says. Tony Blair has also talked about this “sense” that he was the right person to lead Labour to victory over
Tony was ike a dressed l eartramp, w of ing a pair nd slippers a tracksuit bottoms
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John Major’s Conservatives and end his party’s years in the political wilderness. It’s a strange term to use, and it plays in to the argument put forward by critics of what Campbell later helped to rebrand the “New Labour” project that Blair saw himself as a messianic saviour, a champion destined to lead his part y and his country. But the idea that choosing a leader should be based on a feeling, a “sense”, rather than simply ideas, is also a distinctly modern one, argues Campbell. What a person or a political party stands for, the ideas and the policies, are paramount – in Blair’s case modernisation of a party still linked to the old socialist rhetoric of class struggle – but the modern voter doesn’t elect ideas, he elects people. “I attended a conference recently and somebody presented this piece of research,” explains Campbell. “This group of people in America had been showed 100 pairs of pictures; the pictures were of two candidates who had stood in elections that had already happened, and they asked these people who they thought had won. They got something like 92 per cent right. Based on a photo.” A die-hard fan of Burnley Football Club, he admits that his support for Labour has always been tribal. He wanted his team to win. Victory was everything, and in 1994 Campbell saw the fresh-faced former lawyer Tony Blair as the party’s best hope of victory – his team’s star player, with the sort of face people might vote for. “I never felt compromised in my principles,” he says. “This is an ageold problem that tends to affect people on the left of politics, rather than the right, which is the idea that somehow there is something impure about the pursuit of power.”
For Campbell it is simple. Without power you can’t do anything, no matter what you believe. “Look at what’s going on now with the coalition government [the current Conservative-Liberal Democrat alliance formed after the inconclusive 2010 election, which saw 13 years of Labour government come to an end], all the cuts they’re making, we can do nothing about it,” he continues. “They haven’t even got a majority, but they’re in power. And so we can oppose their
There is an idea on the left that there is something impure abo ut the pursuit of power
policies, we can shout and bawl, but unless we win an election, we can’t actually do anything about it.” The fact that the unelected Campbell was able to play such a key role in winning the 1997 election for Tony Blair and Labour and then help it hold on to that power for a further two elections (in 2001 and 2005) has been heavily criticised by some. Campbell’s defence starts off pretty weakly. He stumbles over his words slightly before claiming that any power he had was not his but Tony Blair’s. But he’s soon back on form. “Look, I don’t deny that I was in a senior position, I was part of the small number of people that he [Blair] totally trusted, and I had abilities that he respected, and that gives you, I don’t call it power, it gives you a position that allows you to make things happen, but I was always conscious of the fact that I was working to his agenda.” “All this thing about ‘the real Deputy Prime Minister’, it’s nonsense, because somebody like John Prescott, he was an elected MP and the elected deputy leader, and that gave him power that was independent of Tony. Gordon Brown had power independent of Tony. I didn’t. Any power I had was his power, not mine.” Whatever Tony Blair’s ‘agenda’ he was certainly never a tribal Labour suppor ter like Campbell. Despite Campbell’s claim that he and Blair shared a “similar analysis of politics, a very similar analysis of the party”, his boss’s obsession was to always occupy the hallowed ‘centre ground’ of politics. The only position from which to win. “It’s Tony’s strength,” says Campbell. “There’s a bit in the diaries where he says to me and [former Blair speechwriter] Peter Hyman, who’s a bit like me [a tribal Labour supporter], and he UK POWER 83
says, ‘the difference between you and me is I am not as Labour as you lot’. That was his strength in the end.” Campbell goes on to explain that Blair’s comments were an articulation of the fact Labour had to persuade people to vote for the party who had never voted for it before. The Labour Party’s 1997 election slogan “New Labour, New Life For Britain” sums up the winning strategy adopted by Blair, Campbell and fellow New Labour architect Peter Mandelson perfectly. It links right back to Campbell’s idea that elections are won not only with political
Part of what you learn is about teams, that people should have complimentary strengths
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ideas and argument but by creating a “sense” that the personalities involved can “do the job for the country” and, having criticised Britain’s current government for lacking “big characters”, Campbell lists the New Labour team like a coach rattling off a team sheet. “We had Tony, Gordon [Brown] – huge figures – JP [John Prescott], Robin [Cook], [David] Blunkett, Donald Dewar, Mo Mowlam, Margaret Beckett; and then the next lot come in, [Alan] Milburn, [Steven] Byers, [Charles] Clarke, [Patricia] Hewitt…”. “Part of what you learn is this thing about teams, about understanding that a good team of people… it doesn’t mean they are all going to go on holiday to-
gether, it doesn’t mean that they are going to go to each other’s weddings, it means that they have complimentary strengths that make up for each other’s weaknesses.” The internal conflict between Tony Blair, once he had become Prime Minister, and his Chancellor Gordon Brown is well documented, but reading Campbell’s diaries it is not just the power struggle between two men that stands out, it is the seemingly constant, and childish squabbling amongst the members of New Labour’s winning team. Tony Blair’s speechwriters, strategists and communications team – Jonathan Powell, David Miliband, Anji Hunter, Sally Morgan, Peter Hyman
and Campbell himself – weren’t rivals, according to Campbell. But the star players, the politicians – Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, John Prescott, Robin Cook (“the big four”) and Peter Mandelson – were not quite so easy to handle. “It was very rare that all those relationships were good at the same time… sometimes it would be John, sometimes it would be Peter, Robin could be very, very tricky at times,” he explains, admitting that he often acted as a sort of minder. Then, of course, there was team New Labour’s star player – the Prime Minister himself. At one point in his diaries Campbell quotes Blair’s former mentor from his days as a pupil barrister and Lord Chancellor between 1997 and 2003, Derry Irvine, who had suggested that Blair, back in 1997, had started to believe he was invincible. Campbell says that Irvine was concerned about Blair’s “sense of his own rightness all the time”, but attributes this impression to Blair’s “outward confidence” and his sense that “ultimately the big decisions had to be taken by him.” In fact, Blair saw himself as anything but invincible, and Campbell betrays the former Prime Minister as a bit of a worrier in his diaries. “I think there were very few people who he kind of fretted with openly,” says Campbell, making it quite clear that he was one of those Blair did confide in. “Tony and I used to have this discussion about whether actually it was possible once you reached the level he was at to have new friends. I’m not sure. I’m not sure…” Blair’s reliance on Campbell often created a lot of pressure for the former spin doctor, but he says it was in Blair’s nature to expect a lot from his team – part of his successful management style. 86 UK POWER
“There are loads of times in the diaries where he phones up and says, ‘you’ve got to have a rest, you’re very tired’, then he gives you ten things to do,” recalls Campbell. “That could be infuriating but I’d do them because I’ve always had a slight workaholic tendency – I can’t see a problem without wanting to sort it…” The topic of sorting out problems leads nicely on to the Iraq War, the event that many would say ultimately proved the undoing of Tony Blair, if not the New Labour government, and the following question: if you have the power to end a dictatorship, do you have a responsibility to use that power? Campbell points to the fact that Britain never went to war with Robert Mugabe’s brutal Zimbabwean regime, because “there are a couple of nations that wouldn’t have tolerated it, including South Africa”, seemingly suggest-
ing that the answer is no – it depends entirely on circumstances. Before adding, “I think in relation to Iraq, there’s no doubt Tony had a sense of mission about that.” There it is again, that ‘sense’ that something is right, that conviction that something needs to be done and they, Tony Blair, Campbell and the winning New Labour team, were the ones who needed to do it. So what does it feel like now the power is gone, and Blair, Campbell and the Labour Party can no longer do anything? Even though he voted for David Milband in the leadership contest that followed the election defeat of 2010, which Miliband’s brother Ed won, Ca mpbell believes t hat t he party, and its new leader, has what it takes to win the next election in 2015 – even if he feels it needs to stop relying on old hands like himself.
I think in relation to Iraq there is no doubt that Tony had a sense of mission
“There was a moment in the last election campaign where there was something going on and I can remember being in the room and people were looking to me, to Peter Mandelson and to Philip Gould, and I was thinking there have got to be some young people coming through,” he says. “It’s taken a long time to get used to the idea of being in opposition. You see Ed Miliband, [current Shadow Chancellor] Ed Balls, these guys, they’ve only ever known a winning environment, really – they came in really in the mid-1990s.” From reading Campbell’s own account of his time in power – The Blair Years and the four instalments of The Alastair Campbell Diaries currently in print – you are left with the sense that, having made the decision to work for Blair, power was not something he enjoyed at all. “If you ask me am I happy I did the job, the answer is yes,” says Campbell.
“Was I happy doing it? No.” For now, he seems happy to be out of politics. As he points out, he has written seven books in five years, blogs and t weets on a daily basis, gives speeches and lectures at schools and colleges and is involved with numerous charities. So would he ever go back? Maybe if his old friend and boss Tony Blair’s recent announcement that he was ready to “re-engage” with the British political debate turns out to be something more than just a juicy bone for the press to chew on? “It would depend. I’m not gagging for any job,” Campbell says. Only time will tell if his beloved Labour Party can regain power in 2015, and whether one of its most loyal supporters can be lured back to play for the winning team again. The Burden Of Power, the fourth volume of The Alastair Campbell Diaries, is out now UK POWER 87
TEXT BY ERIC M. BLATTBERG
ILLUSTRATION BY RAUL GOMEZ
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hen Apple released the iPhone 4 , Dan P rovost and Tom Gerhardt were working at design firms in New York City. Entranced by the device’s high-quality camera, the two designers envisioned the Glif, a plastic tripod mount and stand for the iPhone. But they faced a significant financial hurdle: the injection molding process to produce the Glif would cost about $10,000 upfront. Too small for venture capital and too risky for a bank loan, the Glif was just right for Kickstarter, an online platform where ‘the crowd’ funds creative projects. Over the course of a month, Provost and Gerhardt raised more than their initial goal — a lot more. When the project’s funding period closed on November 2, 2010, Provost and Gerhardt waited for Kickstarter to transfer a cool $137,417 into their joint bank account. That was more than enough money to create the Glif; it was enough seed capital to finance their design company,
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Studio Neat. “Because the Glif was a much bigger success than we thought it would be,” said Provost, “we realised we should probably jump in all the way.” Without the crowd’s approval — and money — Provost and Gerhardt would never have been able to launch their business. Crowdsourcing is an online activity in which an individual or an organisation proposes a task — like funding an iPhone tripod — to a group of individu-
als (“the crowd”) through a flexible open call. These tasks are nearly limitless in diversity and scope: finance a project, design a website, author an encyclopedia entry, create a green energy initiative, and so on. Like any kind of community, crowds vary in size, skill, knowledge, and homogeneity. Wh ate ve r for m it m i g ht t a ke, crowdsourcing is always symbiotic. In exchange for their work, money, or knowledge — sometimes a combination of the three — crowd members receive some type of reward: social recognition, financial compensation, the development of new skills, even a simple self-esteem boost. Meanwhile, crowdsourcers use the crowd’s participation to improve or otherwise benefit their ventures. In addition to the poor, for whom crowdsourcing platforms often function as a primary source of income, the highly educated middle class is increasingly receptive to this webbased phenomenon. While most college-level jobs funnel graduates into highly specialised positions, the vast majority of these individuals received a liberal education. On the web, an accountant with a passion for chemistry — or a chemist with a penchant for graphic design — can find meaningful (and sometimes quite profitable) work outside the office. As Jeff Howe puts it in his book Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd is Driving the Future of Business, “Crowdsourcing capitalises on the fact that our interests are more diverse than our business cards would have one believe.” Industry experts generally agree upon five distinct categories of crowdsourcing: dist r ibuted k nowledge, crowdfunding, crowd creativity, open innovation, and cloud labour. With the exception of cloud labour, which involves sterile tasks like data min-
ing and transcription, the various applications of crowdsourcing allow the crowd to showcase and support its immense creativity, empowering everyone involved. If you’ve ever read a Wikipedia page, you’ve reaped the benefits of crowdsourced knowledge. And if you’ve ever updated or created a Wikipedia page, you’ve actively participated in this type of crowdsourcing. Chances are you know more than this one distributed knowledge platform, though: news aggregator Digg, social news site Reddit, discovery engine StumbleUpon, and question-and-answer service Quora all fall under the collaborative umbrella. But Wikipedia, the Internet’s sixth largest website, is undoubtedly the web’s most important distributed knowledge platform. A holy grail of information on everything from Plato to Play-Doh, the site is the largest single repository of human knowledge in the world. Today, it hosts more than 20 million articles — and counting — written solely by volunteers. It wasn’t so eminent early on, however, when it began life as Nupedia.
com. Laden with strict contributor restrictions and an onerous sevenstep review process, Nupedia failed to attract many contributions; after a year of operation, it hosted a pathetically small collection of articles (about a dozen). To rescue the withering website, site co-founders Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger needed to implement a dramatic change. The open-source “wiki” technology saved the site. A wiki allows an unlimited number of users to edit a single webpage, with no permission necessary to add, alter, or delete text; crowd participation is key. While wikis give mischief-makers access to the same tools as everyone else, as easy as it is to vandalise a wiki, it’s even easier to reverse the damage. Originally envisioned as a Nupedia side-project, Wikipedia quickly supplanted Nupedia. The millions of wiki-
e d it o r s d o n’t receive a cent for their efforts, but the ser vice they provide is invaluable for the site’s 250 million monthly visitors. The satisfaction of improving entries is rewarding in and of itself, while contributing also gives people an opportunity to better their writing skills and learn about the topic at hand. “Wikipedia is best understood not as a product with an organisation behind it, but as an activity that happens to leave an encyclopedia in its wake,” notes CROWDSOURCING
91
Clay Shirky, a member of the Wikimedia Foundation’s advisory board, in a Guardian article celebrating the site’s 10th anniversary. The crowd, it turns out, is as adept at forecasting future events as documenting past ones — particularly when there’s money on the line. The Iowa Electronic Markets, an online futures market operated by the University of Iowa, routinely outperforms the most accurate polls at predicting political outcomes, company earnings, stock price returns and more. Prediction markets reward wisdom and punish ignorance, whereas polls give equal credence to both.
92 CROWDSOURCING
The platforms mentioned above only begin to scratch the surface of distributed knowledge; its potential forms and applications are near boundless. While there’s ample room in the world for individual innovators and geniuses, this generation’s most elucidatory source of knowledge will likely be the collective mind. The web’s democratisation of knowledge foreshadowed a coming change in the world of finance: crowdfunding. A revolutionary way to fund non-profit projects and for-profit enterprises, crowdfunding allows campaign creators (“crowdfunders”) to solicit funds from the masses. It’s an old concept, to
be sure, but the newly social web enables crowdfunders to garner financial support for their ideas from all corners of the globe. There are three basic types of crowdfunding models: pledge-based crowdfunding, where there is no financial return expected; peer-to-peer lending, where the crowd loans money to an individual at an established rate; and crowdfund investing, where crowdfunders offer equity in their ventures in return for capital. While crowd lending and investment platforms are on the rise, pledge-based crowdfunding is by far the most prevalent, in part because it’s the least heavily regulated. Launched in April 2009, Kickstarter is currently the world’s largest funding platform for creative projects. Like most other pledge-based platforms — Indiegogo and RocketHub, to name a few popular alternatives — Kickstarter encourages its campaign creators to offer rewards in exchange for funds. The Kickstarter model allows entrepreneurial crowdfunders to put their yet-to-exist products up for rewards, effectively transforming pledges into pre-orders. “We don’t have the money right now to do a production run, so through Kickstarter we can raise the money first, and actually make money on pre-orders rather than having to produce [the Unlimited Electric Guitar] first and then sell them,” said Unplugged Instruments co-founder Ari Atkins, who is using Kickstarter to raise the funds to manufacture an electric guitar with a built-in amplifier. “Since we only raised $50,000 [in seed capital], which we used to start the company and do all of the development, we don’t have any money to foot the bill on production.” Initially dismissed as trivial by members of the established business
ecosystem, crowdfunding is beginning to attract the attention of prominent angel investors and venture capitalists. One recent success story continues to reverberate around Silicon Valley: in May, Pebble Technology founder Eric Migicovsky raised $10.2 million dollars through Kickstarter — a crowdfunding industry record — to create the Pebble Smartwatch. Cumulatively, crowd94 CROWDSOURCING
funders raised $1.5 billion worldwide in 2011, according to a recent report from Crowdsourcing.org and Massolution — a figure on track to double this year. That figure should rise yet again in 2013, when the United States will legalise and regulate equity-based crowdfunding. Though crowdfund investing is in its early days when compared to established financial markets, it al-
ready has a firm foothold in Europe and Australia. The first-ever crowdfund investing platform, the Australian Small Scale Offerings Board, has helped fund nearly 200 companies since its 2005 launch. Notably, 86 percent of those companies remain in operation today. Meanwhile, UK-based SEEDUPS has raised $65 million for tech startups since it launched in February 2011, making it the world’s largest equitybased platform. Crowdfunding is not immune to like dangers like fraud, but there’s some degree of fraud in every financial market; for now, pernicious troublemakers appear no more prominent in the crowdfunding space than elsewhere. What is crystal clear, however, is crowdfunding’s enormous capacity for good. It enables artists, philanthropists, and entrepreneurs to follow their dreams — and the rest of us to benefit from their labour. With so much creative talent in the crowd, it’s unsurprising that hundreds of organisations harness and capitalise on the crowd’s artistic capacities. Popular sites like online audio distribution platform SoundCloud or user-made artwork community DeviantArt provide a hub for artists to collaborate and
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share their work online. Other business-oriented platforms, which provide venues for crowdsourcers to post project proposals, offer work to creatives involved in photography, film and video production, graphic design, and marketing — altering those industries’ traditional business models. 99designs, a prominent web marketplace for graphic design, demonstrates the paradigm shift occurring in the creative ecosystem. The site hosts over 5,000 contests a month to design logos, t-shirts, websites, and the like, which translates into more than $1.5 million a month for its community of designers. 96 CROWDSOURCING
But given the speculative nature of the work, some graphic artists grumble that 99designs and similarly structured platforms degrade the market quality and devalue the work of professional designers. 99designs community director Jason Aiken fervently disagrees. “To some degree, businesses are always trying to get more efficient, but if anything, the value that people place on good design is only growing,” Aiken said. Anyone complaining about the state of the industry “is either not targeting the right customer, or not explaining the value of what you do well enough in order to justify that cost. “If you can’t explain why what you [create] is worth what you charge for it,” he continued, “then it’s not worth that. If anything, now there are just more options.” While 99design’s 150,000-strong community is comprised largely of amateurs and aspiring designers, who are typically content to practice and submit their work for review with minimal expectations, thousands of professionals earn their living through the service. The shrewd ones tend to think long-term, maintaining relationships with satisfied clients after each indi-
vidual contest. If they’re good enough, spec work leads to contract work. Scores of sites use a similar contestbased structure to satisfy businesses’ diverse breadth of creative needs: Poptent’s crowd produces video content for brands like Netflix, PayPal, and American Airlines, while Slogan Slingers’ writers pen catchy taglines for companies and political campaigns. Some platforms, like iStockphoto and Shutterstock, utilise a different business model; they allow creatives to upload photos, footage, and illustrations, and then earn a commission each time a client downloads their work. The Internet democratises the playing field; though internal teams and established agencies will continue to
serve the needs of large corporations, the creative crowd is essential to small and midsize businesses. With so many on the lookout for high quality work, cash in hand, talented creatives have reason to be optimistic. Creativity isn’t exclusive to design; it’s also an integral part of business and government, albeit in a different form. In a world of widely distributed knowledge, companies cannot rely solely on their own research and ideas to maintain a competitive advantage. Wisely, many forward-thinking firms now solicit external partners to contribute to their internal innovation processes. Open innovation allows them to create new products and services, improve the customer experience, and eliminate
R&D or innovation barriers that stumped their internal teams. Meanwhile, the crowd’s innovators delight in the intellectual challenge, as well as the possibility of receiving a lucrative payout for a successful idea or solution. Open innovation platforms routinely tackle scientific and technologic quandaries: InnoCentive’s solvers crack problems that stump the world’s best corporate scientists; TopCoder’s programmers and hackers participate in CROWDSOURCING 97
bi-weekly design and development competitions to create or improve corporate software, for which they subsequently receive royalties; even the United States federal government sees the value of open innovation, partnering with OI firm ChallengePost to operate Challenge.gov. “We now have 276,000 developers, designers, and tech enthusiasts who subscribe to us to stay informed about 98 CROWDSOURCING
i nter es t i n g, mea n i n g fu l competitions,” said Brian Koles, business development manager at ChallengePost. “We’ve [hosted contests around] ideas to promote healthy habits, proposals to fix healthcare, Apps for Energy, a Beat Down Blood Pressure competition — lots of cool healthrelated ones.” Late last year, ChallengePost worked with New York City’s Metropolitan Transit Authority to host the MTA App Quest, which challenged software developers to improve the transit experience for the city’s 8.5 million daily commuters. It’s natural to assume the winner would be a New Yorker — but the winning app was actually developed by a 20 year-old from California. Open innovation contests habitually surprise; the people you’d least expect to participate often contribute the best
ideas. Indeed, unlocking the hidden talents and resources of individuals is what makes crowdsourcing at large so appealing. Barring a complete collapse of the World Wide Web, crowdsourcing is here to stay. As Internet penetration spreads, the entire populace will benefit from the educational and financial opportunities inherent in crowdsourcing ventures. It will be impossible for future generations to imagine a time when vast swaths of human knowledge, plentiful employment opportunities, and truly democratised capital generation weren’t accessible with the tap of a touchscreen. The new economy is changing everything. Is it not about time you got involved? Eric M Blattberg is an editorial coordinator at Crowdsourcing.org
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A tour of the world’s Most powerful city
by laura powell illustrations by sam falconer
A
mericans are known for employing hyberbole. Everything in the USA is the biggest, the best or the shiniest (according to us, at least). Therefore, if you ask the typical American what the most powerful place in the world is, said citizen will answer: “Washington, DC.” Whether this is true may be open to debate, but there is little doubt that omnipotence oozes out of the nation’s capital, which is chockfull of powerful places, powerful ideas, powerful people and powerful egos. Now, Washington, DC wasn’t always the capital of the United States. In fact, it was once a rather unpleasant quagmire (some might say it still is, especially during the humid summers). Philadelphia served as the first capi102 WASHINGTON DC.
tal of the newly established country way back when. But during the 1780s, it was decided by the powers that be that the capital city should not be part of any state. Instead, it would be a district unto itself. The founding fathers, not known for their property expertise, settled on a piece of swampland carved out of pieces of Maryland and Virginia. Voila, the District of Columbia, the only place in the United States proper that does not have proper representation in Congress (hence, the DC licence plate slogan ‘Taxation Without Representation’). President #1, George Washington, hand picked Pierre L‘Enfant, a Frenchborn American Revolution veteran, to design the new capital city. Key in L’Enfant’s design was a green espla-
nade running east from the site of the hill on which the US Capitol was to be built. That strip is now the National Mall. Meanwhile, L’Enfant created a grid pattern of streets downtown, while broad avenues, named after states, were to stretch diagonally through the city. Roundabouts were placed where those avenues intersected. Perhaps these were efficient traffic tools in horse and buggy days, but the city’s many circles regularly confound car-bound visitors to this day. Therefore, the best advice for outof-towners is to ditch the car and take Metro. After all, Washington’s subway is super easy, fast and relatively inexpensive. What’s more, Metro conveniently has stops by nearly all major tourist attractions.
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the President of the United States. George Washington never slept here, as it was finished in 1800. But it’s been the home of every president since. Unless you are a friend of whichever prez resides under its roof, spontaneous visits inside America’s House simply do not happen. If you don’t plan well in advance, the best you can do is get a decent glimpse of the mansion from its Pennsylvania Avenue side. However, for pre-planners, you can get in without an invitation to a state dinner. Wh i le a l l US cit i zen s have to apply for passes from members of Congress, foreigners must contact their embassies in Washington for help with
submitting tour requests. Once you cross that threshold, there’s a self-guided tour of the main floor ahead. Among the rooms one can saunter through are the Red, Blue and Green Rooms, the State Dining Room, the China Room (where White House tableware is on display) and the East Room. Sorry, no Oval Office. But if you’re lucky, you might spot Bo, the First Dog, or see a Secret Service agent staring at you behind dark sunglasses. Whether you get a look from inside or out, you will note that The White House is likely smaller than you imagined. Not that it’s chump change. In all, the house contains 132 rooms, 35 bathrooms and eight staircases, plus grounds that encompass 18 acres.
If you are lucky you might see bo, the first dog, or spot a secret service agent in shades
WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON DC. 103
THE CAPITOL
the tour will allow you to see the innards of that towering capitol dome 104 WASHINGTON DC.
Next stop on the Washington power grid is the US Capitol. There was a time, not so long ago, when visitors waiting for a tour of the building had to bide their time in line outside, with nary a bathroom nor a bench in sight. But in 2008, the Capitol Visitors’ Center opened, making for a much more we-the-people-friendly experience. Aside from plentiful bathrooms and a restaurant, the centre also houses exhibits providing context to the legislative branch of the US government. No reservations are needed for the visitors Centre per se, but reservations are required to tour the Capitol. It’s best to reserve a spot at visitthecapitol.gov, although same-
day tour tickets sometimes become available on-site. During an hourlong tour, you get to see the innards of that towering dome (it’s lined with a mural called the Apotheosis of Washington); Statuary Hall, jampacked with likenesses of famous Americans; the old US Senate chamber; the first Supreme Court; and a few other nooks and crannies. If you actually want to watch the House or Senate in action (or inaction, as is often the case), then Americans have to first contact their representative or senator for gallery tickets. International visitors can ask about gallery passes at the House and Senate Appointment Desks located in the visitors centre.
After studying up on Congress, take the underground tunnel leading to one of those DC institutions that showcases the fact that knowledge is power. The Library of Congress is the research arm of the legislative branch. Well, that description makes the place sound quite drab, doesn’t it? But it’s not, really. The largest library in the world houses millions of books, recordings, photographs, maps and manuscripts, including a Gutenberg Bible and a 1507 map of the world. When it opened its doors in 1897, the Library of Congress represented an unparalleled national achievement, the “largest, costliest, and safest” library in the world. Its elaborately decorated Great Hall, embellished by the work of dozens of American artists, links the United States to classical traditions of learning and depicts the
country’s technological and cultural achievements. But the Great Hall is only a preview of what’s to come. It is the Main Reading Room that is the star of the show. The domed expanse, surrounded by looming statues of the
the largest library in the world houses millions of books, maps and ancient manuscripts
muses and of literary and scientific icons, seems like something straight out of a movie. And, indeed, you’ll probably recognise the room from films like
J. Edgar, National Treasure and All the President’s Men. Guided tours are available without a reservation, but you can also wander around and check things out on your own. If you manage to take in the White House, the Capitol and the Library of Congress in one day, good on you. Now, polish off your political activity by staking out a table at Charlie Palmer Steak. You may actually discover Republicans and Democrats chewing the fat together at this power dining chophouse. Once night sets in, walk off dinner by strolling the National Mall. Nothing is quite so spectacular (there we go again, with our superlatives) as the Lincoln Memorial and
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS WASHINGTON DC. 105
THE SMITHSONIAN
THE scope of the smithsonian is huge; with space travel to hollywood covered the other monuments on the Mall illuminated against the darkened sky. As you might have already ascertained, the National Mall is most certainly not a giant shopping centre. But there’s a lot in store here aside from monuments. The span between the Capitol and the Lincoln Memorial is lined by the museums of the Smithsonian, plus an interloper known as The 106 WASHINGTON DC.
National Gallery of Art. The Smithsonian is the foremost Washington institution, where knowledge is power. It was established with funds from James Smithson, an 18th century British scientist who desired to establish in “Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge.” For his money, he got 19 museums (17 in the Washington area), plus the National Zoo. The total count of objects, works of art and specimens in the Smithsonian is about 137 million. The scope is mind boggling. You can see the world’s largest coin or find 3.5 billion-year-old fossils. You can go from the moon (the Apollo 11 lunar landing module) to the stars (Judy Garland’s ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz, celebrity likenesses at the National Portrait Gallery).
Walk into the National Air and Space Museum, the most popular in the Smithsonian galaxy, and you are in an orbit of famous flyers and their crafts. The Spirit of St. Louis, the Wright Brothers flyer, and jet-age vehicles are literally hanging out here. Of course, the museum has plenty of space devoted to the space age. After petting a moon rock, go star gazing in the Albert Einstein Planetarium or take flight in a simulator. Be sure to purchase some astronaut ice cream on your way out of this space. It’s not out of this world, but it is a tantalising novelty. (Incidentally, if you are really into planes, pilot yourself to the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Dulles Airport. An adjunct of the Air and Space Museum, the centre has a haul of aviation and space artifacts that are too large for the Mall’s halls. For exam-
ple, both the Space Shuttle Discovery and the Enola Gay reside here). Before heading across the Mall for further exploration, grab lunch at the Museum of the American Indian. Its Mitsitam Native Foods Cafe features the favoured foods of original American tribes. It’s the best Mall food court around. Next, wander across the Mall to the National Museum of Natural History. If you dig bones and stones, you’ve come to the right place. Upon entering, you will be greeted by a giant elephant. If you fail to spend a few hours exploring artifacts and oddities like dinosaur fossils, the Hope diamond and the largest giant squid ever found, well, tusk, tusk to you. The elephant on display at the National Museum of American History is Dumbo. The flying elephant, circa 1950s Disneyland, is one of hundreds of pieces of American pop culture stored here. While the museum also houses television, movie and sports memorabilia, it isn’t all fun and games. You can learn about presidents and their first ladies; the history of the Civil Rights movement; and good old American ingenuity in the form of innovations in agriculture, electricity, engineering, transportation and technology. If you have the energy to tackle more than three museums in one day, pop into the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery for a wealth of Asian art. If you like this, the Freer Gallery of Art next door has even more Asian art, plus 19th- and early 20th-century American art. Whistler’s Mother
Grill. The oldest saloon in town (albeit in a new incarnation) can be touristy, but locals, including notables, love dining and drinking in the middle of history. Don’t miss the oysters. After a good snooze, start the day’s sightseeing downtown. Head over to the historic HayAdams Hotel, right across the street from the White House (pre-President Obama stayed here before moving into their official digs on Inauguration Day). The Lafayette Room serves up breakfast to DC’s power brokers. If you eavesdrop on neighbouring tables, you might even find yourself ahead of the day’s news. If you are behind on the news, pick up The Washington Post (or read it on your tablet). If any publication proves the power of the press in the US, it’s this newspaper. Considered one of the nation’s top dailies, The Washington Post has taken down presidents (read Watergate and Richard Nixon) and has taken on a wide range of political controversies. While tours of the
newspaper’s nondescript headquarters on 15th Street in downtown DC are not available, you can pop by the main entrance and take a look at an historic printing press dating from the 1800s. As readers and reporters walk by, they can only hope that this
in the paper’s lobby you can see an historic washington post printing press from the 1800’s
ST O P N HIN GTO
AS W E H T
sits on one of the Freer’s walls. Another option is The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, with a focus on modern art. Whichever one you choose, all Smithsonians are free and open every day except Christmas. Thus edified after a day at the museums, it’s time for eats at Old Ebbitt WASHINGTON DC. 107
dinosaur does not presage the future of this illustrious newspaper. To get the real inside scoop on American journalism, head to the Newseum across the street from the National Mall. Not surprisingly for a journalistic endeavour, this museum knows how to tell a story. To draw you in, today’s front pages line the entryway. Galleries are devoted to all types of subjects, from the First Amendment of the US Constitution (which guarantees the freedom of the press and is itself enshrined in the National Archives up the street) to the history of television, radio and the Internet. The display devoted to September 11, centred by an antenna from the World Trade Center and highlighted by the September 12 front pages of hundreds of international newspapers, inevitably leads strangers to connect while sharing stories of their memories of the fateful day. Other poignant set pieces include the largest section of the original Berlin Wall existing outside of Germany
CIA HEADQUARTERS and a memorial to journalists who lost their lives while covering the story. The bulk of history here, however, is enshrined in The Story of News. The dimly-lit gallery is framed by eight display cases tracing trends in news history. Read about the birth of CNN, the genius of political satirist Stephen Colbert and famous women in
THE NEWSEUM 108 WASHINGTON DC.
print. The room is bisected by a repository containing thousands of historic newspapers and documents dating as far back as the 14th century. There’s a 1603 English broadsheet showing the coronation of James I, along with front pages featuring everything from President Lincoln’s assassination to D-Day to the moon landing. Unlike the Smithsonian, this museum costs. But newshounds will gladly fork over the $21.95 plus tax entry fee, which is good for two consecutive days. Speaking of forks, by now it’s time to eat again. Fortunately, celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck’s The Source is located right at the Newseum. The upscale Asian fusion restaurant is pricey, but that’s the price you pay to dine among newsmakers and some of the people who cover them. Of course, there’s knowledge and then there is intelligence. The two, as defined in Washington, DC, aren’t always one and the same. For in DC parlance, when talking intelligence, the key initials are not IQ, but rather CIA and NSA. Unless you are some securitycleared big shot, you won’t be see-
ing any of the Central Intelligence Agency campus. But it’s there, hidden away behind trees, fields and fences in the bucolic suburb of McLean, Virginia. The George Bush Center for Intelligence (George #1 was a former CIA director) is the headquarters compound, a conglomeration of the Original Headquarters Building and the New Headquarters Building. You can take a peek behind the scenes online and discover that the compound displays a chunk of the Berlin Wall, several spy crafts designed to monitor the Soviet bloc during the 1960s and artwork ranging from official portraits of past directors to one mysterious sculpture. Kryptos, designed by James Sanborn, is a encrypted sculpture containing four secret messages. Of the four, three have been solved. However, the fourth continues to flummox CIA employees, including even the most expert cryptanalysts. If that last word leaves you puzzled, discover its definition at the National Cryptologic Museum. This is the only public museum in the country devoted to the decoding of secret codes (although the International Spy
The museum is a collection of the nation’s cryptologic history. You can even test your skills
NSA HEADQUARTERS Museum in Washington is well worth a snoop). It’s also the only museum officially hosted by a US intelligence agency. The Cryptologic Museum sits adjacent to the National Security Agency (NSA) in remote Fort Meade, Maryland. As befits a museum adjacent to a place otherwise known as No Such Agency, this gem is a well-kept secret. You do have to be somewhat of a sleuth to find it, but if you brave the 35-mile drive to the ‘burbs, a secret world is uncoded. In reality, it’s a priceless collection of the nation’s cryptologic history. It includes early (16th century) texts on cryptology; American Civil War signal honours flags; and code-breaking and intelligence tradecraft from all of the major wars of the 20th century. Wouldbe spies can even test their skills at encryption and deciphering code on a
German Enigma machine dating back to World War II. To cap off a day of intrigue, head back to the city and spy on the city’s beautiful or powerful people (the two are usually mutually exclusive) at Café Milano. Keeping with the theme of the day, note that this Georgetown eatery was recently the site of some foiled international chicanery. Last year, there was purportedly a plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador here. But an intelligence agency saved the day, leaving Café Milano a safe house for neighbourhood notables like George Stephanopoulos and John Kerry, along with Hollywood hoi polloi and social climbers seeking a taste of power, Washington, DC style. Laura Powell is a travel writer who lives and works in Washington, DC WASHINGTON DC. 109
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Power brokers
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THE END OF THE AFFAIR A businessman walks to work at dawn on Wall Street in the Financial District of Manhattan, New York on November 14, 2008. Over the course of 2007 and 2008, banks lending sub prime mortgages created a crippling credit crisis which forced the closure of various banks and investment firms. The recession which followed the crash is being speculated as one of the worst America has seen since the Great Depression. Photo by Ashley Gilbertson/VII. 112
FIELD OF DREAMS Members of the Tremper Trojans High School football team are seen warming up before a game in in Kenosha, Wisconsin, November, 2008. Photo by Ashley Gilbertson/VII.
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AIMING HIGH Afghan female police are trained at a firing range by Italian Carabinieri outside of Kabul, Afghanistan, April 13, 2010. Few Afghan women train to be police in the country, mostly because of cultural and familial restrictions. Many of these women are widows, and the breadwinners for their families. Out of the 26 women that initially signed up for training, only 16 have gone through with the course. Photo by Lynsey Addario/VII. 114
POWER LUNCH Yves Saint Laurent having lunch at home in Paris, the day before his last haute couture show at the Georges Pompidou Centre, on January 21, 2002. The show marked the retirement of Yves Saint Laurent after 40 years of designing haute couture for the rich and famous. Photo by Alexandra Boulat/VII.
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SLASH AND BURN African Union (AU) soldiers find the village of Tama freshly burning more than a week after it was originally attacked by Janjaweed nomads, backed by government forces, in Tama, South Darfur, Sudan on November 3, 2005. The AU made several attempts at patrolling and conducting an investigation in the village of Tama after it was attacked, but nomads blocked the AU from entering and fired at approaching vehicles. Hundreds of villages have been pillaged and burned throughout Darfur by nomads, leaving hundreds of thousands of civilians displaced throughout the country. Photo by Lynsey Addario/VII. 116
THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS A US soldier from 3rd Platoon, Apache Company, 2nd Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat team, 10th Mountain Division, surveys a road with a long range acquisition sight, on an observation post in the Tangi Valley, Wardak province, Afghanistan on September 4, 2009. The Tangi Valley, an area in southern Wardak devoid of central government presence, had not seen a permanent coalition force until the arrival of the US Army’s Apache Company on July 12, 2009. In the weeks before late August of 2009, this 102-man company had seen 26 soldiers injured and one killed in action, all from improvised explosive devices. Photo by Adam Ferguson/VII. 117
JUNGLE WARFARE Burmese national boxer Soe Linn Oo, left, takes a blow to his head from his heavier opponent Shwe Min Yar Zar, in a match watched by spectators from all the nearby towns and villages in this part of Mon State, southeast Myanmar on April 6, 2012. Soe Linn Oo won the match in four rounds, taking home 2.2 million kyat ($2,500). He enters about 10 fights a year and usually wins or draws. Soe Linn Oo has managed to use his boxing career to break out of rural poverty and help his family end its history of landless labour on other people’s farms. Photo by Sim Chi Yin/VII Mentor Program. 118
LIFT OFF A contestant at the Danish Bodybuilding Championships in Roskilde, May 5, 2001. The world of bodybuilding is, for some, a surreal vaudeville sideshow. For its participants it is a passionate way of life. Photo by Joachim Ladefoged/VII. www.viiphoto.com 119
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P. 130 • ROUTE MAP
CREATISVE HUB NSORS
PO EMIRATES SORLD NEWS W C B B NEW AMPIONINYG SERIES CHC EATIVIT L GLOBA R
P123
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FLY MORE, EARN MORE, ENJOY MORE
OPENING OUR EYES
ON AVERAGE, TWO people join the Emirates’ frequent flyer programme Skywards every minute. That means PHOTO: PARTH SANYAL/SIGHTSAVERS
that during a three-hour flight, 360 people will have joined Skywards. Already
boasting
impressive
membership numbers, the benefits on Skywards offer more than the average loyalty programme. Simply put, a Skywards member gains a Mile for every flight mile travelled on Emirates. The more points they
treatments to prevent or cure blindness.
accumulate, the more advantages they
IT IS ESTIMATED that there are 39 mil-
are entitled to.
lion people in the world who suffer from
Earlier this year, British television
As well as cabin upgrades, luggage
blindness. A staggering statistic, especial-
actress Sunetra Sarker visited the Sky-
allowance and flight rewards, Skywards
ly when you consider that 80 per cent of
wards charity partner in Calcutta to raise
also looks to reward the loyalty of its
blindness is preventable or curable.
awareness and witness the life-changing
members with priority check-ins and
International charities such as Sight-
work of the organisation. Despite multiple
access to Emirates lounges depending on
savers, an Emirates Skywards charity
previous trips to Calcutta to visit family
their tier of membership (Blue, Silver or
partner, work to combat impaired vision
members, the actress – who stars in the
Gold). New members can also earn up to
in developing countries. Last year, India
BBC’s long-running drama Casualty –
5,000 bonus Miles for their first flight.
Sightsavers examined over two million
said that the trip to visit the organisation’s
To further tailor membership to
people’s eyes for potentially blinding con-
projects to restore sight to people living in
individual needs, Skywards offers more
ditions and provided a massive 689,461
some of the city’s poorest slum areas felt
flexibility to their tiers, by offering
like visiting “another world”.
a rolling 13 month period for tier
“Those living there in such poverty are
qualification. This allows members to
almost insignificant in the big world but
maximise their Miles by taking into
they need to know they matter, and that
account their busiest time of the year.
there are organisations like Sightsavers
But it doesn’t end there: the award-
who can transform their lives, by restor-
winning Miles Accelerator programme also allows members an 11-month foresight into flights on which they can earn extra Miles. If you are not yet a Skywards member, you can ask the Cabin Crew for an enrolement card, as sign up straight away. 122 EMI RATES BRIEFING
NEWS
ing their sight,” said Sarker.
Perfect timing.
Emirates supports charities such as Sightsavers through the donation of Sky-
Don’t miss your next Emirates flight.
wards Miles from Skywards members.
Be at your departure gate no later than 35 minutes before your flight departs. Passengers reporting late at the departure gate may not be accepted for travel.
donate your Miles to Sightsavers, Emir-
If you are a Skywards member, you can ates Airline Foundation and other partner charities at skywards.com
TWICE AS NICE BIGGER, WIDER AND more digitally
ice Digital Widescreen (Information,
premium-quality entertainment package
enhanced screens – this is the latest step
Communication
with high-definition resolution.
in Emirates’ on-going plan to revamp its
system have seen new hardware installed
The screens are now some of the largest
on-board entertainment systems.
on Emirates’ latest Boeing 777 deliveries,
in the airline world and range from 12.1
ensuring that every seat has access to the
inches in Economy to a huge 27 inches in
Recent upgrades to the award-winning
and
Entertainment)
the First Class cabin. Each of the new screens comes with an enhanced Graphical User Interface (GUI) designed to make the system easier to navigate. The screens are now touch sensitive, meaning that passengers can scroll or swipe through the choice of over 1,300 channels of entertainment, including over 300 movies, as they would on an electronic tablet. The system also enables passengers to send SMS and email messages while on the aircraft.
CREATIVE HARMONY WHAT HAPPENS WHEN some of the
Bollywood dancer and an Arab-American
world’s most creative people are put
classical composer, each episode of the
together to work on never-been-done-
series will focus on a different location
before projects? That is the subject of a
and explore how different creative people
new BBC World News seven part series,
work together.
Collaboration Culture.
In the fourth episode of the series, Ger-
The Emirates-sponsored television
man artist Christian Jankowski is shown
series explores what happens when
around the city of Dubai by local artist
leading personalities from fashion,
Rami Farook, the twist being that he is com-
dance, music and art are paired togeth-
pletely blindfolded. Farook takes Jankowski
er to combine forces on new, innova-
on a tour around the city, and without the
tive projects. The series travels around
use of his eyes the German directs which
the globe to Mumbai, Ghana, Trinidad,
parts of the trip he wishes to document.
New York, Dubai, Lima and Tokyo, to
The collaboration, as both as a performance
putting people from vastly different
work and as a film event, celebrates Dubai
backgrounds together to create one-of-
in all its glory. Collaboration Culture will
a-kind global cultural collaborations.
broadcast weekly on BBC World News from
From a British conceptual artist and a Ghanaian coffin sculptor to a leading
30 June on Saturdays at 00:30; 07:30, and Sundays at 12:30; 18:30 (all times GMT). NEWS
EMIRATES BRIEFING 123
78%
Globally, the average occupancy of
1,365
aircraft is around 78 per cent greater
The amount of tonnes of timber recycled
than rail and road transport.
by the Emirates Group in 2011-2012
EMIRATES CELEBRATES GREEN SUCCESS OVER THE PAST year Emirates’ fleet has burned 22.5 per cent less fuel, in litres per passenger kilometres, than the IATA global average, according to the group’s latest annual environmental report. It also found that the group’s 163 wide-
RIO+20
bodied jet fleet emitted 18 per cent less
With an average fleet age of 6.4 years
WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY 2012
TWENTY YEARS AFTER the original Rio
(versus the global average of 11.3 years),
EVER AT THE forefront of environmen-
Earth Summit in 1992, the United Nations
the airline credits these environmen-
tal issues, Brazil was the host of the an-
Conference on Sustainable Development
tal performance figures primarily to its
nual World Environment Day celebrated
(also known as the Rio+20 Summit) was
young and advanced fleet. Key to this is
on June 5.
held at the end of last month with world
the sheer number of Boeing 777-300ER
Every year sees a different country
leaders meeting in Brazil to discuss issues
aircraft, Emirates’ most fuel-efficient air-
host the official United Nations sanc-
regarding sustainable development.
liner, of which, during the measured pe-
tioned day, with each year focusing on a
riod, it had 67 in service and 84 on order by
different theme. This year’s theme was,
the end of the year.
Green Economy: Are you part of it?
The summit, which was attended by 180 delegates from 193 UN member coun-
CO2 per passenger kilometre than the IATA global average..
tries, and thousands of business leaders
The past year has also seen Emirates
The UN defines a Green Economy
and NGOs, was based around two themes:
going into partnership with air navigation
as one that results in improved hu-
a green economy in the context of sus-
authorities around the world to test the
man well-being and social equity,
tainable development and poverty eradi-
most eco-efficient flight routings.
while significantly reducing environ-
cation, and the institutional framework
An example was Emirates participa-
mental risks and ecological scarcities.
tion in the INSPIRE Programme (Indian
In its simplest expression, a green
Subjects such as food security, extreme
Ocean Strategic Partnership to Reduce
economy can be thought of as one that
climate events, green jobs, sustainable
Emissions). Emirates’ three test flights
is low carbon, resource efficient and
cities and access to clean water were also
resulted in savings of seven tonnes of fuel
socially inclusive.
discussed in more than 500 side events.
and 22 tonnes of CO2 emissions.
for sustainable development.
124 EMI RATES BRIEFING
ENVIRONMENT
www.unep.org/wed
BEFORE YOUR JOURNEY CONSULT YOUR DOCTOR BEFORE TRAVELLING IF YOU HAVE ANY MEDICAL CONCERNS ABOUT MAKING A LONG JOURNEY, OR IF YOU
IN THE AIR
SUFFER FROM A RESPIRATORY OR CARDIOVASCULAR CONDITION. PLAN FOR THE DESTINATION – WILL
TO HELP YOU arrive at your destination feeling relaxed and refreshed, Emirates has developed this collection of helpful travel tips. Regardless of whether you need to
rejuvenate for your holiday or be effective at achieving your goals on a business trip, these simple tips will help you to enjoy your journey and time on board with Emirates today.
SPECIAL MEDICATIONS? GET A GOOD NIGHT’S REST BEFORE THE FLIGHT. EAT LIGHTLY AND SENSIBLY.
AT THE AIRPORT
SMART TRAVELLER DRINK PLENTY OF WATER
YOU NEED ANY VACCINATIONS OR
ALLOW YOURSELF PLENTY OF TIME FOR CHECK-IN.
TRAVEL LIGHTLY
AVOID CARRYING HEAVY BAGS THROUGH THE AIRPORT AND ONTO THE FLIGHT AS THIS CAN PLACE THE BODY UNDER CONSIDERABLE STRESS. ONCE THROUGH TO DEPARTURES TRY AND RELAX AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE.
REHYDRATE WITH WATER OR JUICES FREQUENTLY.
CARRY ONLY THE ESSENTIAL ITEMS THAT
DRINK TEA AND COFFEE IN MODERATION.
YOU WILL NEED DURING YOUR FLIGHT.
MAKE YOURSELF COMFORTABLE
DURING THE FLIGHT CHEWING AND SWALLOWING WILL HELP EQUALISE YOUR EAR PRESSURE
KEEP MOVING
DURING ASCENT AND DESCENT. BABIES AND YOUNG PASSENGERS MAY SUFFER MORE ACUTELY WITH POPPING EARS, THEREFORE CONSIDER PROVIDING A DUMMY.
LOOSEN CLOTHING, REMOVE JACKET AND
EXERCISE YOUR LOWER LEGS AND CALF
GET AS COMFORTABLE AS
AVOID ANYTHING PRESSING AGAINST YOUR BODY.
MUSCLES. THIS ENCOURAGES BLOOD FLOW.
POSSIBLE WHEN RESTING AND TURN FREQUENTLY.
WEAR GLASSES
USE SKIN MOISTURISER
AVOID SLEEPING FOR LONG PERIODS IN THE SAME POSITION.
WHEN YOU ARRIVE TRY SOME LIGHT EXERCISE OR READ IF YOU CAN’T SLEEP AFTER ARRIVAL.
CABIN AIR IS DRIER THAN NORMAL THEREFORE
APPLY A GOOD QUALITY MOISTURISER TO
SWAP YOUR CONTACT LENSES FOR GLASSES.
ENSURE YOUR SKIN DOESN’T DRY OUT.
126 EMI RATES BRIEFING
COMFORT
CABIN L BE CREW WIL LP HE HAPPY TO D E IF YOU NE
E C N A T S I S S A PLETING COM THE FORMS
TO US CUSTOMS & IMMIGRATION FORMS WHETHER YOU’RE TRAVELLING to, or through, the United States today, this simple guide to completing the US customs and immigration forms will help to ensure that your journey is
as hassle free as possible. The Cabin Crew will offer you two forms when you are nearing your destination. We provide guidelines below, so you can correctly complete the forms.
CUSTOMS DECLARATION FORM
IMMIGRATION FORM All passengers arriving into the US need to complete a CUSTOMS DECLARATION FORM. If you are travelling as a family this should be completed by one member only. The form must be completed in English, in capital letters, and must be signed where indicated.
The IMMIGRATION FORM I-94 (Arrival / Departure Record) should be completed if you are a non-US citizen in possession of a valid US visa and your final destination is the US or if you are in transit to a country outside the US. A separate form must be completed for each person, including children travelling on their parents’ passport. The form includes a Departure Record which must be kept safe and given to your airline when you leave the US. If you hold a US or Canadian passport, US Alien Resident Visa (Green Card), US Immigrant Visa or a valid ESTA (right), you are not required to complete an immigration form.
128 EMI RATES BRIEFING
CUSTOMS & VISAS
ELECTRONIC SYSTEM FOR
WILL EXPIRE ALONG WITH
TRAVEL AUTHORISATION (ESTA)
YOUR PASSPORT.
IF YOU ARE AN INTERNATIONAL
APPLY ONLINE AT WWW.CBP.GOV/ESTA
TRAVELLER WISHING TO ENTER THE UNITED STATES UNDER THE
NATIONALITIES ELIGIBLE
VISA WAIVER PROGRAMME,
FOR THE VISA WAIVER *:
YOU MUST APPLY FOR
ANDORRA, AUSTRALIA,
ELECTRONIC AUTHORISATION
AUSTRIA, BELGIUM, BRUNEI,
(ESTA) UP TO 72 HOURS PRIOR
CZECH REPUBLIC, DENMARK,
TO YOUR DEPARTURE.
ESTONIA, FINLAND, FRANCE, GERMANY, HUNGARY, ICELAND,
ESTA FACTS:
IRELAND, ITALY, JAPAN, LATVIA,
CHILDREN AND
LIECHTENSTEIN, LITHUANIA,
INFANTS REQUIRE AN
LUXEMBURG, MALTA, MONACO,
INDIVIDUAL ESTA.
THE NETHERLANDS, NEW
THE ONLINE ESTA SYSTEM
ZEALAND, NORWAY, PORTUGAL,
WILL INFORM YOU WHETHER
SAN MARINO, SINGAPORE,
YOUR APPLICATION HAS BEEN
SLOVAKIA, SLOVENIA, SOUTH
AUTHORISED, NOT AUTHORISED
KOREA, SPAIN, SWEDEN,
OR IF AUTHORISATION
SWITZERLAND AND THE
IS PENDING.
UNITED KINGDOM**.
A SUCCESSFUL ESTA
*
APPLICATION IS VALID
** ONLY BRITISH CITIZENS QUALIFY UNDER THE VISA WAIVER PROGRAMME.
FOR TWO YEARS, HOWEVER
AD
80 mm wide x 224 mm high
SUBJECT TO CHANGE
THIS MAY BE REVOKED OR
THE AVERAGE NUMBER OF MEALS PRODUCED DAILY ON EMIRATES FLIGHTS
115,000 80
THE WINGSPAN IN METRES OF AN EMIRATES A380.
CUSTOMS & VISAS
EMIRATES BRIEFING 129
130 EMI RATES BRIEFING
ROUTE MAP
ROUTE MAP
EMIRATES BRIEFING 131
132 EMI RATES BRIEFING
ROUTE MAP
AD ROUTE MAP
EMIRATES BRIEFING 133
ET INS E L F THE NTA
CO OF LEET ADE UP F R S OU ES. M PLANE LAN R E P S 7 G E 7 N 1 N ASSE GO PLA 169 P R A 8C AND
Boeing 777-300ER Number of Aircraft: 72 Capacity: 354-442 Range: 14,594km Length: 73.9m Wingspan: 64.8m
Boeing 777-300 Number of Aircraft: 12 Capacity: 364 Range: 11,029km Length: 73.9m Wingspan: 60.9m
Boeing 777-200LR Number of Aircraft: 10 Capacity: 266 Range: 17,446km Length: 63.7m Wingspan: 64.8m
Boeing 777-200 Number of Aircraft: 9 Capacity: 274-346 Range: 9,649km Length: 63.7m Wingspan: 60.9m
Boeing 777F Number of Aircraft: 4 Range: 9,260km Length: 63.7m Wingspan: 64.8m 134 EMI RATES BRIEFING
FLEET GUIDE
FOR MORE INFORMATION: WWW.EMIRATES.COM/OURFLEET
Airbus A380-800 Number of Aircraft: 22 Capacity: 489-517 Range: 15,000km Length: 72.7m Wingspan: 79.8m
Airbus A340-500 Number of Aircraft: 10 Capacity: 258 Range: 16,050km Length: 67.9m Wingspan: 63.4m
Airbus A340-300 Number of Aircraft: 8 Capacity: 267 Range: 13,350km Length: 63.6m Wingspan: 60.3m
Airbus A330-200 Number of Aircraft: 26 Capacity: 237-278 Range: 12,200km Length: 58.8m Wingspan: 60.3m
Boeing 747-400F/747-400ERF Number of Aircraft: 2/2 Range: 8,232km/9,204km Length: 70.6m Wingspan: 64.4m AI RCRAFT N UMBERS AS OF 3 1/ 0 7/ 2 0 1 2
FLEET GUIDE
EMIRATES BRIEFING 135
NEXT MONTH
N
ext month we are taking a voyage though this aquatic life with an issue dedicated to water. We enjoy a very modern phenomenon: a cruise ship journey around the Mediterranean. We talk to a remarkable Cuban lady who plans to swim from Miami to Havana. We check out one of the best dive shops in the world and we get the lowdown on the controversy surrounding Hong Kong’s harbour reclamation. We also chat to the Jamaican Olympic team’s secret weapon (and the daughter of a musical legend). So grab those flippers and meet us here next month.
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Amazing camera. Authentic sound.
Shot on Nick’s HTC One X while free falling at 126 miles per hour
As recommended by Nick Jojola Freefall fashion photographer
Watch Nick’s personal experience at htc.com
| Capture HD video and photos at the same time | | Includes HTC Sense |
cartier.com
ballon bleu de cartier CHRONOGRAPH 8101 MC
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