Features

We Are Iraqis: Aesthetics and Politics in a Time of War
Edited by Nadje Al-Ali and Deborah Al-Najjar
New York: Syracuse University Press, 2013, 266 pages

It is very life-affirming to see a book of such beauty about Iraq, but this is not art for art’s sake or an attempt to avoid ugly reality.

On the contrary, the writers and artists who contributed to this volume are determined to turn the trauma they face from the violence and destruction of their country into an impetus for creativity — to show the truth, to heal, to resist and build hope for the future.

In the words of Rashad Salim, “Art the world over gives body to the senses, memory to consciousness, and a door to articulate our humanity, understand our tragedies, and imagine deliverance.” (p. 249)

“We Are Iraqis” shows that Iraqis are ready to reclaim their own voice in order to counter the false images spread by the (former) US occupation authority and international media.

Their resistance via various art forms powerfully refutes racist notions about theirs being a culture of violence. Though dispersed around the world, they are coming together to resurrect and enrich their culture, using classical symbols of ancient Mesopotamia or more modern forms to portray their heritage, the ravages of war or both.

This is part of what the book title denotes. It also reasserts a united, but not monolithic, national identity in the face of the sectarian identities that have come to the fore in the last decade.

Few of the writers even refer to their religious background though it may come out in their story, as when Sinan Antoon recalls, not without irony, how he was asked to write about Iraqi Christian literature — a genre he didn’t know existed.

Yara Badday, who is of mixed Shiite-Sunni descent like many Iraqis, addresses the issue head-on while recounting her travels around all parts of Iraq in 2004 and 2009: “I do not see this battleground as a civil or sectarian war. Rather it is an amalgamation of violence and greed with innumerable players both inside and outside Iraq.” (p. 92)

An interview with Ella Habiba Shohat, “Arab-Jews, Diasporas and Multicultural Feminism”, gives a global perspective on racism and sectarianism.

Most of the contributors now live in exile. Some were born abroad; some left Iraq only recently, others during earlier waves of repression, war and sanctions.

Their contributions are diverse: Poems, essays, paintings, even a mini-play expressing the terror elicited by violence. They give voice to memory, outrage, loss, but also coping strategies for surviving chaos or the alienation of exile.

Humour is also used to unmask hypocrisy or the ironies of living in the comfort zones of the very countries that waged war on Iraq.

Art historian Nadia Shabout writes about “The Bifurcations of Iraq’s Visual Culture” — the destruction of artworks, museums and educational infrastructure, the emigration of artists, the isolation of artists who remained in Iraq as opposed to the cosmopolitanism of those in exile.

Maysaloun Faraj finds hope in the innovative art that has emerged in exile, which she gathered into an exhibition called “Strokes of Genius”.

Nadje Al Ali writes about a joint exhibition in London, “Sophisticated Ways: Destruction of an Ancient City”, bringing together Hana Malallah, who has always lived in Baghdad, and the more cosmopolitan Rashad Salim, who began to lose faith in modernity after the US invasions. “Modernising Iraq has come to mean ‘sophisticated ways of destruction’.” (p. 154)

Particularly innovative is Wafaa Bilal’s performance art: “I was sequestered in a Chicago gallery with a paintball gun aimed at me that people could shoot over the Internet.”

Acting on his philosophy “of using art to get people to examine their own attitudes… and hence hopefully reach new levels of understanding themselves and others”, he conceived the project “as a way to provoke Americans to consider the technologically remote and removed nature of modern warfare”. (pp. 95-96)

In “A Tale of Two Exiles”, Sama Alshaibi, who inscribes her art on her body, tells of reuniting with the Palestinian branch of her family when it was impossible to visit her Iraqi one.

There are other links to Palestine as when Maysoon Pachachi uses her experience of teaching filmmaking to young Palestinians to start a free, filmmaking centre in Baghdad to document reality and instil critical thinking in the new generation.

The book also includes personal narratives of trying to make a difference. In “The Assassination of Iraqi Academic Life”, Saad N. Jawad gives a moving account of teaching in Iraq for 30 years (1978-2006) “while living through one crisis after another”. (p. 48)

Maki Al Nazzal of Fallujah writes of harrowing trips to Jordan to bring children for medical treatment.

Ferial J. Ghazoul recounts poet Saadi Youssef’s lifetime of cultural resistance, calling him “a beacon for a better tomorrow”. (p. 230) In contrast, Ali Bader’s brilliant account of a conference of 600 Iraqi intellectuals in Erbil leaves little hope for the communists turned capitalists he describes.

Like art itself, this book combines the personal with the political, the material with the visionary, in order to address reality.

Rooted in history, it presents new perspectives for the future. For Iraqis to reclaim their humanity has global implications.

As pointed out by Rashad Salim, “the Iraq situation maps out the worst political, social, and environmental fears that threaten us and our planet. It is not an isolated reality but the extreme of a global trend. Unless understood… as such it won’t change, thus making the locus of the birth of Old World civilisation the herald of our New World civilisation’s end.” (p. 249)

PARIS — Vitamin D supplements have no significant effect on preventing heart attack, stroke, cancer or bone fractures, according to a review of scientific evidence published over the weekend.

Researchers led by Mark Bolland of the University of Auckland in New Zealand looked at 40 high-quality trials to see if supplements met a benchmark of reducing risk of these problems by 15 per cent or more.

Previous research had seen a strong link between vitamin D deficiency and poor health in these areas.

But the new study, published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, strengthens arguments that vitamin D deficiency is usually the result of ill health — not the cause of it.

Its authors say there is “little justification” for doctors to prescribe vitamin D supplements as a preventive measure for these disorders.

“Available evidence does not lend support to vitamin D supplementation and it is very unlikely that the results of a future single randomised clinical trial will materially alter the results from current meta-analyses,” they write.

Vitamin D is a key component for healthy bones, teeth and muscles.

It is produced naturally when the skin is exposed to sunlight or derived from foods such as oily fish, egg yolks and cheese.

In March last year, British scientists, in a comparison of 4,000 women, found that vitamin D supplements taken in pregnancy made no difference to the child’s bone health.

And in September 2012, researchers at New York’s Rockefeller University saw no evidence that vitamin D supplements lowered cholesterol, a factor in heart disease, at least over the short term.

In contrast, a November 2012 investigation into pregnant women who lived in high-latitude, northern hemisphere countries with long, dark winters found a link between low levels of natural vitamin D and an increased risk of multiple sclerosis in their offspring.

For these women, taking vitamin D supplements to offset the effects of long periods without sunlight could be advisable, according to that research.

SAN FRANCISCO — Bitstrips may seem like a sudden sensation now that the app maker’s comic vignettes are all over Facebook and other social networks. But the Toronto start-up’s success was a drawn-out process.

The concept for a mobile application that lets people turn their lives into comic strips took shape as a high school diversion more than 20 years ago. That’s when Jacob Blackstock drew a profane spoof of Charlie Brown and Lucy Van Pelt from the “Peanuts” comic strip and passed it to Shahan Panth, who sat behind him in 12th-grade English class. Even though a teacher reprimanded them for boorish behaviour, a snickering Panth encouraged Blackstock to continue expressing his irreverent take on life through comics.

The two friends remained in touch after high school, often relying on comics as a way to communicate and needle each other. When Panth landed his first job out of college at an insurance company, Blackstock made it a point to fax a crude comic featuring his friend each day.

“I can’t even repeat some of the things that he would say in those comics, but it was as about bad as you can possibly imagine,” Panth says.

Goofing off eventually turned into a business. In 2007, Blackstock and Panth decided to start Bitstrips in an attempt to create a comic-strip version of YouTube. Bitstrips remained a novelty service confined to customising comics within Web browsers until October, when the company released a mobile application for iPhones, iPads and devices running on Android software.

But Blackstock, 38, and Panth, 39, are getting the last laugh as their once-quirky pastime turns into a worldwide phenomenon. More than 30 million people in 90 countries have turned themselves into comic-book characters on Bitstrips’ mobile applications. Google, which tracks people’s interests through its widely used search engine, rated Bitstrips as the trendiest app of 2013, eclipsing the likes of Twitter’s Vine video app, Facebook’s Instragram photo app, King.com’s Candy Crush game and SnapChat’s ephemeral messaging app.

“A ridiculous amount of people have been loving Bitstrips so much that many of them are sharing their comics to the point that it can be overwhelming to those that aren’t into it,” said Blackstock, who is Bitstrips’ CEO and creative director.

With hopes of preventing a backlash to its application, Bitstrips recently added options that allow users to share their comics with a limited group of people instead of broadcasting through their Facebook networks or other digital hangouts.

Bitstrips’ free mobile apps triggered the craze by making it easy for anyone with a smartphone or tablet computer to quickly create and post comics featuring themselves and a friend depicted in different scenarios. The apps provide thousands of comic scenes to choose from, then allows each user to create their own captions.

The overwhelming response surprised Blackstock and Panth, who had to scramble to increase Bitstrips’ computing capacity to keep with the intense demand. They now have a staff of 17 workers and have raised $3 million from Horizons Ventures in Hong Kong.

The seed money will help keep the service running until Blackstock and Panth figure out how to generate revenue from Bitstrips’ rapidly growing audience. One possibility: The company could charge users for extra Bitstrips features that would allow them to do things like insert themselves into comics that also feature characters from their favorite TV show or movie.

Horizon Ventures’ backing of Bitstrips is notable because it is run by Li Ka-shing, whose track record includes early investments in other now-popular digital services such as Facebook, Spotify, Skype and Waze. Facebook now boasts a $144 billion market value while Skype sold to Microsoft for $8.5 billion and Waze sold for nearly $1 billion to Google. Spotify remains a privately held company that doesn’t disclose its finances, but the market value of its music streaming service has been pegged above $4 billion.

Blackstock, who is nicknamed “BA” in reference to a sound he made as a child, thinks Bitstrips will prove his ideas weren’t quite as goofy as they seemed when his high school English teacher caught him drawing cheeky comics a few decades ago.

“We don’t see this as a joke engine,” Blackstock says. “We see this as a new medium for self-expression.”

Intel’s recently released figures may prompt you to think that people have been buying fewer computers. How is that possible?

Sales of computer processors by Intel in 2013 have been down from 2012. Does this mean that people are buying fewer computers now? Intel is the main manufacturer of computer processors, holding an impressive 16 per cent market share (2012 figures), sitting at the very top, well above Samsung, Texas Instruments, Toshiba and other chip manufacturers. Therefore Intel’s figures are always taken as a significant, reliable market indicator. Still, Intel posted a sizable seven billion dollar profit for last year, though this is somewhat down from the previous year the company said.

To better understand how the trend is shifting a little re-definition of the word computer may help. Typically when we say computer we tend to think desktop or laptop machines. However, at the higher end we find servers and at the lower end tablets, smartphones and a variety of portable, mobile devices we have become familiar with. At the end of day they all are computers.

When Intel say people have bought fewer computers in 2013 perhaps this can be translated as “fewer desktops and laptops”, and indeed all market indicators confirm such a trend. On the other hand, the trend is towards more computer sales when it comes to big size servers and to smaller devices like tablets and smartphones.

Large businesses have been acquiring more servers for even these muscular, powerful machines are now affordable. Dell for instance supplies small- and medium-size businesses with excellent servers costing between $2000 and $6000. Therefore companies and organisations are encouraged to buy servers and aren’t afraid of investing in them anymore. You don’t necessarily have to be a large corporation with a staff of 500+or to have a turnover in millions or billions of dollars to buy a server computer today.

In parallel, it is mainly the soaring sales of tablets and smartphones, those extremely mobile — and terribly attractive — computers that are negatively impacting on sales of desktops and laptops. And since tablets and smartphones often run on non-Intel chips, the conclusion is obvious! Overall, and taking into consideration all kinds of computers, people are not buying fewer computers overall, but more; definitely.

This being said, one has to acknowledge that there is at the same time a shift in consumers’ habits that has to be taken into consideration. Because computing is gradually but irremediably shifting from local to online, and from fixed to mobile, this will certainly continue in the coming years, almost any computer today would do the job you want to do online.

Besides, it is plain logic that mobility will eventually reduce or stabilise sales of fixed (i.e. non-mobile) equipment.

Twenty-first century usersseem more concerned about applications, online storage, privacy issues, data backup and security, and worry less about hardware per se. They seem to be saying “Just get me connected to the Web and I’ll take it from there, the rest does not really matter to me, as long as my connection is working, is fast, reliable and safe.”

Indeed, regardless of whether sales of machines are down or up, this depending on the physical size of hardware and the degree of mobility, the one single demand that is common to all users today is to have faster and more reliable connectivity. Intel certainly would not mind.

LOS ANGELES — The largest object in the asteroid belt just got more attractive: Scientists have confirmed signs of water on the dwarf planet Ceres, one of the few bodies in the solar system to hold that distinction.

Peering through the Herschel Space Observatory, a team led by the European Space Agency detected water plumes spewing from two regions on Ceres.

The observations, published in Thursday's issue of Nature, come as NASA's Dawn spacecraft is set to arrive at the Texas-sized dwarf planet next year.

It's long been suspected that Ceres is water-rich, but previous detections have been inconclusive. This is the first definitive evidence of water on Ceres and confirms that it has an icy surface, said lead author Michael Kuppers of the European Space Agency.

"It makes Ceres a more exciting target" for exploration, he said.

The latest finding puts Ceres in a special class of solar system objects with active plumes of water, a key ingredient for life. The company includes Jupiter's moon Europa — where an underground ocean is believed to exist — and the Saturn moon Enceladus, where jets have been seen venting from the surface.

The source of the water plumes is still unclear. Scientists think there may be a layer of ice just below the surface that gets heated by the sun or the plumes could be spewed by ice volcanoes.

Dawn won't be in the best position to witness any water activity since it'll arrive at a time when Ceres is far from the sun. But the spacecraft carries instruments that can detect water and it will map the dwarf planet in detail, said Dawn deputy project scientist Carol Raymond, who had no role in the research.

Launched in 2007 and powered by ion propulsion, Dawn is the first spacecraft to orbit two space rocks.

Ceres is different from Dawn's first target, Vesta, the second largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The zone is littered with rocks left over from the formation of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago, allowing scientists to study how Earth and the other planets evolved.

Unlike Ceres, Vesta is dry and rugged. Its scars reveal it got whacked twice by smaller asteroids. Some of the debris was cast into space and rained on Earth as meteorites.

SEOUL, South Korea — If ever in doubt about your guy’s commitment to a relationship, ask him if he would commit to an app.

A growing number of young couples in Asia are sharing special moments in the privacy of Between, a tight networking app that links only two people.

In an age of social media overload where tweets, Instagram and Facebook postings can invite unwanted attention from parents and employers, Between feels like a digital safe haven that blocks outside noise and keeps memories just for two.

Created by Seoul-based start-up Value Creators & Company, Between hit 5 million downloads in two years. About two-thirds of the users are in South Korea with their average age in the mid-20s. Between has attracted more than half a million users in Japan and is expanding in Thailand and Singapore. Hundreds of thousands of Chinese and American couples have also joined.

Value Creators CEO Park Jaeuk said social media fatigue is the main driver behind Between. As more people join Facebook, Twitter, and chat-based services such as Line and Kakao Talk, Between sees a bigger chance to grow its user numbers.

— How it works

You install Between on your Apple or Android device and provide the mobile number of the person you want to use the app with. Most use the app, which is free, with someone they are romantically involved with, though that’s not required. Once the request is accepted, the two can use instant messaging, keep journals, exchange voice messages, post pictures and leave comments. Between also offers a blog-like space where the two users can create photo albums and long notes. Pictures can be tagged to a “Memory Box”, which arranges them in a stream of tiles. Reminders for anniversaries, birthdays or any special days such as the day the couple first met can be set in the app’s calendar. The content created is private to the two users and the app can be password protected.

— Digital couple ring

CEO Park said the company envisioned a closed social network akin to a “digital couple ring”. While any two people can use Between regardless of their relationship status, Park said many users see the app as a sign of commitment and loyalty, similar to rings that South Korean couples wear even before promising marriage. Agreeing to use the app or asking someone to join the app shows affection. A shy Korean may prefer saying “Do you want to do Between with me?” to ask someone out, he said.

While some mobile apps have given rise to exchanging naked pictures or hooking up with a stranger nearby, Between’s design encourages an exclusive and lasting relationship. The one-account-per-e-mail rule supports the idea of monogamy, although Park laughed saying the company wouldn’t deter a person managing multiple accounts. Ham Yoon-seok, a 29-year-old finance professional in Seoul, said he writes poems and letters of apology on Between after a quarrel with his girlfriend.

Between will never add a location-tracking feature, Park said, because the app maker believes that trust is key in a relationship.

— Dating culture

South Korean couples often expect each other to follow romantic customs, a source of big business here. In addition to Valentine’s Day when women give chocolate to men, there is White Day on March 14 when men give sweets to women. It is easy to guess what to give on Rose Day and what to do on Kiss Day. Some businesses exclusively serve couples by selling identical looking T-shirts and other apparel that can be paired. Some offer special discounts for couples. The list goes on.

Korean couples celebrate not only a one-year anniversary, but also 100 days since meeting. Between keeps a count, serving as a reminder for people like Ham, who marks such occasions by writing a poem, giving a gift or dining at a fancy restaurant. Ham and his girlfriend have been together for more than 1,000 days.

— Hands on

Since I started using Between with my boyfriend, it has become the primary way we chat, save photos, plan vacations and keep to-do lists. We have stopped talking on Kakao Talk or iMessage. While I ceased to post pictures on Facebook, dozens of pictures accumulated on Between. Between feels like keeping a blog between the two of us with an instant messaging feature as an added benefit. I can tell when my boyfriend sends an instant message because Between alerts with a unique beep sound. Even for couples like us who sniff at anything excessively lovey-dovey such as wearing a couple ring, Between’s simple design and features have a great appeal.

As a winter chill descends over Amman and the temperatures dip to the lowest of lows, one strives to make the best of the cold bonanza. Crisp sunshine marks our mornings and afternoons, and it is a delight to walk outdoors under the clear blue sky. Evening approaches earlier than intended and by six, the envelope of darkness is near complete. Dinner parties start commencing at a reasonable time and it is no longer scandalous for the invite to read 7pm, or the guests to turn up on the dot of the appointed hour.

Watching movies in winter also has a different charm because matinee shows become easily manageable. Why so? Well, if it gets dark earlier one goes to bed earlier and after the requisite eight hours, one surfaces earlier, so you see how well it all works?

If I have to recommend “Charlie Wilson’s War” or “A Beautiful Mind” as the top two most rented movies of all time, I’m afraid I will urge you to see both. If the former has Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts, the latter has Russell Crowe in one of his finest and most exceptional roles, playing John Forbes Nash Jr, a Nobel Laureate and genius mathematician who suffers from schizophrenia.

There are some films where the actors enacting certain characters perform to such a high level of perfection that they almost replace the original in the eyes of the viewer. I do not exaggerate when I say that if I were to picture the real John Nash, who is till today a senior research mathematician at Princeton University, I’m sure I would have him look like Russell Crowe.

His walk, talk, mannerisms, gestures, his shyness or arrogance, his mutterings, his vacant look, all of it is done brilliantly. Crowe does not act the character, he becomes this character. The movie, when released in 2002, won four Oscar awards and was nominated for another eight. The only regret is that the Academy did not deem it fit to award Russell Crowe for his performance of a lifetime. But as DVD’s go, this is the most borrowed movie according to my rental library, and one has to book the film well in advance if one wants to have a chance at viewing it.

On another note, I was invited for a simulated flight recently.

A trip to this side of the airport is a first for me and upon entering the building I am immediately taken around the training classrooms, briefing rooms, CBT-computer based instruction rooms, and refreshment area. Then I continue to the spot where the three flight simulators are housed. Training is in progress in two of them. I am requested to enter the third empty cabin.

Gary, who is an engineer by profession, takes me on my first simulated flight. The interior of the cubicle resembles an airplane cockpit. The screen projections, the visual systems and the computer graphics are identical to the original ones to provide a realistic environment during training, says Gary.

With the turn of a switch or the push of button difficult scenarios like engine failure, system malfunction, sudden turbulence, extreme weather conditions, bird hits, or emergency landing, can be simulated.

I am an amateur pilot for the next hour and discover a number of hidden talents. I take an uneven u-turn, almost crash the flight thrice, and then proceed to make the smoothest landing on autopilot.

Born to fly? Yes, I know! 

PARIS — Surging air pollution from China and other fast-growing Asian economies has intensified winter cyclones in the northwest Pacific, scientists said Tuesday.

Winter cyclones in latitudes including northwestern China, Korea and Japan have packed stronger winds and more rain as a result of rising levels of particulate pollution, they said.

The dusty fallout affects how moisture develops in clouds and how heat is distributed in storm systems, said Yuan Wang of the prestigious Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology.

"The significant change of the Pacific storm intensity was estimated to start in the middle of the 1990s," Wang told AFP by e-mail.

"(This was) when industrial plants, power plants and automobiles produced huge amounts of air pollutants, along with the booming economy, in many Asian countries like China."

The study, published in the journal Nature Communications, is the latest probe into the environmental hazard from particulates, which are mainly the sooty residue from burning fossil fuels.

Aerosols accelerate the formation of droplets because they provide a nucleus on which water vapour condenses, according to Wang's investigation.

Clouds influenced by aerosols carry as much as four times more droplets, leading to a roughly 7 per cent increase in rainfall across the region, it found.

The aerosols are also likelier to encourage the formation of brighter high-altitude cirrus or "anvil" clouds.

These are a type of cloud that help to warm the sea surface, thus providing heat to fuel cyclones. The additional warming effect can be as much as 11 per cent.

The scientists drew up a computer model to simulate aerosol pollution flowing downwind from east Asia to a cyclonic breeding ground east of Japan in January and February, a zone lying north of 30 degrees latitude.

They found a good match with two decades of satellite data: 1979-1988 — before the Asian economic boom got underway — and 2002-2011, when growth really hit its stride, especially in China.

In the latter period, there was a clear rise in cyclone intensity but no change in frequency of storms or location, said Wang.

On January 16, a study led by Chang-Hoi Ho from Seoul National University in South Korea found that China, Korea and Japan had been hit by more powerful cyclones between 1977 and 2010, due to a warming of water in the tropical western Pacific.

The two investigations are not comparable, Wang said.

The first looked at cyclones forming in winter time in mid-latitude in the northwest of the ocean, and the second examined cyclones in the summer and autumn that form in tropical latitudes.

Research into the effect of aerosols on clouds has returned highly variable findings — indeed, it is considered to be one of the biggest areas of uncertainty in climate science.

WASHINGTON — Forever thin, effortlessly chic, a culinary goddess with well-behaved children raised on broccoli — a certain image of French women thrives in the United States, or at least in its bookstores.

“French Women Don’t Get Facelifts” is the latest addition to an ever-growing list of self-help books that lay bare the secrets of the sophisticated French mademoiselle to her awkward American sister.

For American women, “France has always been a country of chic, fashion, seduction, savoir-faire and charm,” said the author, Mireille Guiliano, whose previous book “French Women Don’t Get Fat” was a best-seller in 2004.

“I don’t want to give the impression of saying that we’re better or superior,” added Guiliano, 67, a former chief executive of Veuve Clicquot champagne who is married to an American and lives in New York, Paris and the south of France.

“It’s not a matter of who’s right or wrong,” she told AFP. “I just try to say that there are other options. I make suggestions. The American woman is curious to know how to make something better or different.”

Guiliano is something of a pioneer in the genre of self-help books with a French accent, having built on the success of “French Women Don’t Get Fat” with cookbooks and lifestyle guides for Americans forever wrestling with their work-life balance.

From other writers, the past year has seen such titles as “French Twist Cupcakes: 32 Recipes for that Ooh La La Experience” by Lyon-based baker Lucinda Segneri, “How to be Chic and Elegant: Tips from a French Woman” by Marie-Anne Lecoeur, and “Forever Chic: Frenchwomen’s Secrets for Timeless Beauty, Style and Substance” by Tish Jett.

Last year, American author Pamela Druckerman touched off something of a minor national debate when she came out with “Bringing Up Bébé”, which celebrated the upbringing of French children who, she argued, learned how to say hello and eat vegetables.

‘Look for simplicity’

“We aren’t envious, but curious,” said Jennifer Scott, whose 2012 book “Lessons from Madame Chic: 20 Stylish Secrets I Learned While Living in Paris” was inspired by her stint as an exchange student in the French capital.

French women, Scott said, “don’t appear to be worried about trends or what other people think of them. In fact, with regard to style, living and ageing, they don’t appear to be worried at all. I think that’s something we can all admire.”

Jean Beaman, a sociologist at Duke University, said it’s true that many American women perceive their French counterparts to be “fashionable and stylish (and) beautiful in an sort of effortless way”.

By way of example, she cited photographs of former French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, who was born in Italy but grew up in France from the age of seven.

But Beaman, who studies immigrants who settle in France, added: “As an American, it’s sometimes a little bit frustrating that these books sort of paint a very idealised version of France to Americans, and don’t necessarily reflect the multi-ethnic diversity that exists in France.”

Indeed, the kind of French woman who informs these self-help books is typically Parisian and living in the capital’s better neighborhoods.

“Of course, there are French women who are fat and who undergo cosmetic surgery,” said Guiliano, “but not to the scale that’s seen among American women — far from it.”

Guiliano is known as “the high priestess of French lady wisdom” and her latest book — which comes as American baby boomers settle into middle age — is subtitled “The secret of ageing with style and attitude.”

She’s horrified by the notion of Botox (“I say ‘non’ to the needle”) and proposes in its place robust skin moisturising, daily exercise and an “anti-ageing food prescription” that includes beet mille-feuille, tartare of cucumber and tomatoes, and chocolate souffles with piment d’Esplette.

Most of all, she tells American women, just shift your attitude, stop living in extremes, and start accepting yourself for who you are.

“My advice is first of all to look for simplicity,” she said. “The older you get, the more you appreciate that less is better.”

With the new 2015 generation Mercedes C-Class just revealed and due to go on sale later this year and to then be followed by high performance AMG and coupe version, the current Mercedes AMG C63 Edition 507 Coupe, is in fact the swan song for both the outgoing C-Class and is the last car expected to retain its glorious 6.2-litre naturally aspirated V8 powerhouse. Launched last year, the Edition 507 version of this most inspired of Benz bruisers is the second most powerful version of the C63, considerably more powerful than the common, garden-variety C63 and falling just short of the Black Series version’s output and performance.

Designated to reflect its 507PS continental European horsepower rating, the 507 Edition’s burly large displacement V8’s output translates to 500BHP developed at a haughty 6,800rpm, while a gut-wrenching 450lb/ft of torque twist force is generated by 5,200rpm. Mercedes’ in-house tuner AMG’s first specially designed engine, the 6.2-litre V8 brute was first introduced in 2006 to combine copious power and torque output with a racier engine speed and more precise throttle control, but is now being phased out in favour of more efficient but lower-revving and smaller twin-turbo V8s, including an expected four-litre unit for the AMG version of the forthcoming C-Class.

Unrelenting surge

While there have been more powerful iterations of Mercedes AMG’s 6.2-litre powerhouse motor, the Edition 507’s 500BHP output is a healthy dose more powerful than the standard C63’s 451BHP and the performance package version’s 480BHP. Additionally the C63 Edition 507 benefits from a new engine control system and the use of engine internals borrowed from the AMG SLS-Class supercar. Fitted with the SLS’ forged pistons and lightweight crankshaft, the Edition 507’s benefits from a three kilogramme weight reduction and reduced mass inertia, which makes it even more eager to be revved hard, and would be expected to translate to slightly more precise and responsive engine speed control.

Brawny and brutal, the Edition 507’s vast and muscular V8 mill responds with whip-crack eagerness and lunge the smart executive-class super coupe from standstill to 100km/h is a scant 4.2-seconds. With deep-lunged and metallic bark developing into a bass-heavy growl and relentless howl, the Edition 507 pulls with a ferociously progressive consistency from idling to its high rev redline. Effortlessly versatile and with electrifying responsiveness, the C63 Edition 507 overtakes with finger-snap swiftness and ease when on the move, and indefatigably charging past the 200km/h mark, as tested at Abu Dhabi’s Yas Marina Formula One circuit — with driver’s package, top speed is derestricted from 250km/h to 280km/h.

Connected and controlled

With such explosive power delivered to the rear wheel, it is all too satisfyingly easy to chirp the fat rear 255/30R19 tyres if launching aggressively, before a combination of electronic traction and safety controls and a mechanical limited-slip differential modulate power and traction. Best launched with a smooth and consistent throttle application, the Edition 507 is phenomenally quick off the line, while through hard and fast corners, its limited-slip differential distributes more power to the driven rear wheel with more traction, to avoid slippage and ensure power is effectively translated to forward momentum. Electronic stability control interventions were as effective as ever, but however seemed to be more subtle.

A personal favourite among AMG’s prodigiously powerful line-up, the C63 Edition 507’s high-revving engine allows for long-legged reach within each of its’ gearbox ratios, and with greater consistency and linearity than a surging turbocharged engine, allows one to more precisely dial in power through corners. The result is a more connected and intimate driving experience, where one better manages power and mechanical traction, to drive at the edge of the C63’s handling and grip, rather than rely on electronic stability interventions. The big high-revving naturally aspirated engine is also better suited to AMG’s seven-speed automatic gearbox’ manual paddle shift function and can drive so with greater fluidity, consistency and intuitiveness.

Lively and consistent

The consistent low-end delivery and tall redline mean one doesn’t unintentionally downshift into a turbocharged engine’s lag-prone low-rev engine speeds or run into the rev limiter easily, and help make the Edition 507 AMG’s most involving and engaging driver’s car, next to the SLS-Class flagship. Gearshift response levels including “comfort” and “sport” settings for road driving, but “Sport+” automatic mode is most aggressive, with early downshifts and late upshifts keeping the engine on boil and ever-ready in its high rev sweet spot. Large, powerful ventilated and perforated disc brakes well contain the enormous forces available, shaving speed with stark promptness, and during the demanding track-based driving session, seemed better fade-resistant than heavier AMG models.

Impeccably stable at high speeds as is to be expected, the C63 Edition 507 is however a livelier, more responsive and connected cornering driver’s car than it more powerful and four-wheel-drive AMG stable-mates, and relies more on intimate detail and finess than sheer grip. Eager and crisp into a corner, the Edition 507’s steering is quick, well-weighted and precise, while body control is superbly taut, and remains so even through the sudden oscillitating weight transfers of a tight slalom circuit. Agile yet reassuringly planted, the Edition 507 delivers faithfully high levels of grip when coming back on power mid-corner or through long sweepers. Ride quality is firm and smooth, with buttoned-down vertical control.

Muscular and classy

A handsome and high-class hell-raiser, the AMG C63 Coupe strikes an athletic and vigorous stance, with its bulging wheel arches, gaping bumper air intakes and fat low profile footwear sit well with and complement its smooth and rakish roof arc, long bulging bonnet and curt boot. Though not as aggressively decked out as the 2012 Black Series, the Edition 507 does incorporate the said model’s prominent dual bonnet vents designed to help extract engine heat to the atmosphere. The Edition 507 also receives special alloy wheel designs, side graphics and high gloss black grille surround, rear spoiler and mirror covers to distinguish itself from the regular C63 Coupe.

A 2+2 coupe with better than expected rear accommodation, the C63’s cabin features supportive front sports seats and good space, but the low roof line does limit headroom for taller drivers if a helmet is worn during track driving. Ergonomic and classy inside, the Edition 507 features large speedometer dial and a grippy suede-like flat bottom and top steering wheel, while seat and steering adjustability is extensive. Safety and mod con amenities are extensive, including an optional Bang & Olufsen sound system, while function and control layouts are user-friendly. Sporty and classy, the Editon 507 features quality interior fit and finish, with contrasting leather upholstery stitching, piano black panels and metallic accents.

SPECIFICATIONS

Mercedes-Benz AMG C63 Edition 507 Coupe

Engine: 6.2-litre, V8-cylinders

Bore x stroke: 102.2 x 94.6mm

Compression ratio: 11.3:1

Valve-train: 32-valve, DOHC, variable timing

Gearbox: 7-speed wet-clutch automatic, rear-wheel-drive, limited-slip differential

Gear ratios: 1st 4.38:1; 2nd 2.86:1; 3rd 1.92:1; 4th 1.37:1; 5th 1:1; 6th 0.82:1; 7th 0.73:1

0-100 km/h: 4.2-seconds

Maximum speed: 280km/h (electronically governed)

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 500 (507) [373] @ 6,800rpm

Specific power: 80.5BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 289BHP/ton

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 450 (610) @ 5,200rpm

Specific torque: 98.2Nm/litre

Fuel consumption, combined: 12-litres/100km

CO2 emissions, combined: 280g/km

Fuel capacity: 66-litres

Length: 4,707mm

Width: 1,795mm

Height: 1,391mm

Wheelbase: 2,765mm

Track, F/R: 1,569 / 1,525mm

Headroom, F/R: 1,019 / 901mm

Boot capacity: 450-litres

Kerb weight: 1,730kg

Steering: Variable power assistance, rack and pinion

Turning circle: 11.1-metres

Suspension: Multi-link, coil springs, gas-charged dampers, anti-roll bar

Brakes: Ventilated & perforated discs

Tyres, F/R: 235/35R19 / 255/30R19