8 ★ FT Weekend 19 October/20 October 2019
I may do a little dance on
turning 43 next month
Simon Kuper (“How to cope with
turning 50”, October 12) reminds me of
a quote from Dostoevsky’s novelThe
Idiot, where it was proclaimed: “As to
age, General Epanchin was in the very
prime of life; that is, about fifty-five
years of age — the flowering of time of
existence, when real enjoyment of life
begins.”
I turn 43 years old next month. If
what Dostoevsky says is indeed true,
then I should shout for joy and do a
little dance in my office, as now I have
something to look forward to after
years of chasing commas in loan
documents and pressing F9 on excel
spreadsheets as both a lawyer and an
investment banker.
Kwame Nkrumah Cain
New York, NY, USQuite a lot of people
find Greta irritating
I am a middle-aged man and confess to
disliking Greta Thunberg, but I have to
take issue with Robert Shrimsley’s
framing this as an exclusively middle-
aged, rightwing issue (“Greta, guilt and
how to defuse a Thunberging”, October
12). Greta provokes the same reaction
from my wife, middle-aged and liberal,
as well as my two sons (aged 16 and 15,
apolitical as yet). And these views are
shared widely across a spectrum of
ages and politics based on my own“research” (yes, I began to feel guilty
about not liking her, despite supporting
her cause).
My conclusion is that, on the whole,
people don’t like a petulant,
precocious, holier-than-thou,
preaching evangelist — whatever their
age, gender, race etc.
Middle-aged white men take the rap
for quite a lot these days, but please
don’t single us out for finding Greta
somewhat irritating in her manner.
That’s far more general than you think.
James Preston
Madrid, SpainWhisper it
Holly Peterson (“Tracking down the
shy Trumpians”, Life & Arts, October
12) touched on a subject I never
expected to see in print.
In December 2015 I went to an
elegant housewarming party on the
Upper East Side of Manhattan.
Towards the end of the evening I
happened to mention that I liked
Donald Trump. With that, a woman
jumped up, stood about eight inches
away from me and shouted: “No, no,
it’s Hillary, Hillary!” I replied that I
thought he’d be good because “he gets
things done”. This brought on more
rage so I stopped and I haven’t said I
was for Trumponcesince.
Except that I am — I just want to live
a little longer.
Shauneen Henrick
New York, NY, USWhy the citizens of truly
nowhere are optimists
Janan Ganesh (“The last days of the
middle-class world citizen”, Life & Arts,
October 5), is feeling very pessimistic
precisely because he is a citizen of the
developed west and not a “citizen of
nowhere”, as his column states.
Donald Trump, Brexit, climate
change and the gig economy can
make for depressing reading. Though
Mr Ganesh does not mention the first
two, which are purely idiosyncratic to
the US and Britain, these do contribute
to the environment of pessimism.
Climate change’s cult status and its
associated guilt-tripping exist largely in
the developed west but spell
opportunity in places such as China
(for solar and batteries for electric cars,
for example). The gig economy is
aspirational for many in developing
economies who otherwise don’t get a
chance to participate in the economy.
If Mr Ganesh were to reacquaint
himself with the emerging economies
he would realise that some of these
phenomena, sources of pain in the
developed world, are growth
opportunities for the rest. As growth is
additive and not a zero-sum game, this
will create new avenues of progress in
the developed world, as has happened
for every decade since globalisation
started. A citizen of truly nowhere
would find it easier to see this.
Amit Kumar
SingaporeThe only thing for Simon Kuper to do
— stopping the planet rotating around
the sun — is clearly not a proposition
(“ How to cope with turning 50”,
October 12). Nor is planning; as John
Lennon said: “Life is what happens to
you while you’re busy making other
plans.” And sometimes great things
happen to one aged well over 50.
I was a 27-year-old visiting professorfrom Soviet Russia in the UK in 1990
when I saw a plaque in Hull
commemorating Robinson Crusoe’s
sailing from that port. In a nearby shop
I found the book in English, to learn in
the preface that its author, Daniel
Defoe, shot to prominence after
publishing it aged 60.
Unlike events unpredictable, our
bodily ageing can be greatly mitigatedby moderation in sugar and salt
consumption and not using the lift,
while our mental one by reading more,
learning a foreign language and even
occasionally daring to send a letter in
that language to a newspaper abroad.
I can vouch for all that as it’s my
personal experience.
Mergen Mongush
Moscow, RussiaGreat things can happen well past the age of 50
Letters
SATURDAY19 OCTOBER 2019Email: [email protected]
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Prospects for a second Brexit referendum
Another public vote would hinge on ‘Bregret’
and new voters, writes atthew GoodwinM
http://www.ft.com/opinionThe oddest moment of a surreal week
even by Donald Trump’s standards was
when the US president extolled Amer-
ica’s ties with ancient Rome. Mr Trump
surely did not mean to spark thoughts
of Caligulan dissolution. His actions
this week nonetheless conjured up
images of a capricious Roman emperor.
The peak was the release of a letter in
which Mr Trump begged Recep Tayyip
Erdogan not to kill thousands of Kurds.
“Let’s make a deal!”, Mr Trump urged
his Turkish counterpart, “Don’t be a
tough guy!” Mr Trump proclaimed the
next day a great one for civilisation
after he persuaded Mr Erdogan to call a
brief pause n Turkey’s invasion of thei
Kurdish-held areas of Syria.
In reality, Mr Trump wasabandon-
ing America’s hardiest regional ally,
which has lost 11,000 lives fighting Isis.
The Kurds “were no angels”, he said.
What happened on a faraway border
was of no concern to America. It would
be tempting to mark Mr Trump’s
abject manoeuvre as his nadir. As Mitt
Romney, the Republican senator, said:
“What we have done to the Kurds will
stand as a bloodstain in the annals of
American history.” But there is little
basis to suppose the president has hit
the bottom. There are two reasons to
fear things will continue to deteriorate.
The first is growing signs of a White
House at war with itself over how to
handle the Trump impeachment
inquiry. The White House has said it
will refuse to co-operate with Congress.
A growing roster of current and former
officials, including Gordon Sondland,
Mr Trump’s ambassador to the Euro-
pean Union, and Fiona Hill, Mr
Trump’s former Russia adviser,testi-
fied nyway. Each added to an increas-a
ingly detailed picture of a president
who sees the levers of US power as tools
for his personal and political benefit.
Mr Trump’s decision to host next
year’s G7 summit at one of his Florida
resorts was an open and shut breach of
the constitution’s emoluments clause,
which forbids gifts from foreign lead-
ers. It is the most egregious instance so
far of funnelling US taxpayers’ money
into the Trump Organization’s pockets.
By releasing the transcript of his call
with Volodymyr Zelensky earlier this
month, moreover, Mr Trump had
already removed much doubt that he
threatened to withhold US military aid
unless the Ukrainian president sup-
plied dirt on a rival, Joe Biden. Any lin-
gering uncertainty was removed on
Thursday by Mick Mulvaney, the presi-
dent’s chief of staff, who admitted Mr
Trump had indeed been seeking a quid
pro quo. His comments were slapped
down by White House lawyers. Mr
Mulvaney then tried to reverse him-
self, by saying he had not said what he
had been recorded on camera as having
said. It exposed a White House that is
unable to co-ordinate even the sim-
plest of messages.
The second cause for concern is Mr
Trump’s tendency to bypass the
machinery of US government alto-
gether. This week’s testimonies have
reinforced the view that Mr Trump is
running a shadow foreign policy
through Rudy Giuliani, his personal
lawyer, who simultaneously represents
a rogue’s gallery of shady foreign busi-
ness clients. Mr Giuliani has refused to
testify to Congress. He must be com-
pelled to do so.
In the past week, Congress took sev-
eral steps closer to drawing up articles
of impeachment against Mr Trump. Mr
Trump, meanwhile, has turned US for-
eign policy into a sad travesty of how it
should be conducted. This week, Wil-
liam McRaven, the US admiral who
headed the hunt for Osama bin Laden,
wrote in the New York Times: “Our
republic is under attack from the presi-
dent.” He was right. The US republic
has no choice but to resist.The republic must stand up to the wanton misuse of American power
On first hearing, “Lego as a service”
sounds like an April Fool’s joke or a PR
parody. But the 87-year-old toymaker’s
exploration of a rental servicefor its
products is rooted in sensible sustain-
able thinking. In an era of dwindling
resources, changing how products are
treated is good for consumers, compa-
nies and the environment alike.
Lego’s sustainability drive stems
from the formula behind its multi-
hued bricks. Themajorityof the pieces
produced each year are made from
ABS, a plastic which gives them the grip
which allows them to stay secure, but is
reliant on petroleum. Renting Lego
rather than allowing them to gather
dust in attics could reduce the produc-
tion demands. As the company itself
admits, however, the idea is still only a
proposal. Young customers and pieces
known for vanishing under sofas do not
make for an auspicious combination.
Yet the core ideas of the circular
economy — reducing waste and
improving product lifespans — are
applicable across other sectors such as
clothing. Fast fashion chains have
played to the “aspirational thrift” of
millennials eager for the garments
celebrities appear in on Instagram. But
critics argue that an endless stream of
cheap clothing, much of which cannot
be easily recycled, is unsustainable
from an environmental perspective.
News organisations including the
Financial Times have also shown that
working conditions in fast fashion
factories can beabysmal.
A2017 report n textiles and theo
economy by the Ellen MacArthur
Foundation suggests ways to make
fashion more circular. Companies such
as New York-based Rent the Runway
already lease out designer wear which
consumers might only use once or
twice. The report suggests expanding
rental subscription services for daily
clothing, and calls for more ways to
resell used clothes, both earning
money for customers and helping to
keep products in circulation.
The furniture industry is also consid-
ering similar ideas.Ikeabegan leasing
out furnishings this February to test
the viability of “scalable subscription
services”, which could see everything
from office chairs to kitchen tables
available to rent. The world’s largest
furniture retailer said it aimed to
cut its climate footprint by 70 per cent
per product by 2030. Other measures
included improved recycling and cre-
ating a spare parts service to allow cus-
tomers to repair furniture at home.
Expanding the circular economy will
need a rethink of priorities by manu-
facturers. Rather than producing goods
as rapidly and cheaply as possible,
durability and sustainable manufac-
turing will be key. Products need to
be designed for easy recycling if they
are to avoid ending up in landfills.
Companies will have to work on devel-
oping environmentally friendly supply
chains, too. Emissions from shifting
products between consumers could
undermine the sustainable ethos.
Perhaps the hardest part will be con-
vincing customers to change their
purchasing habits. Subscription rental
services will be competing with
monthly bills from Netflix, Spotify,
Peloton and others. That it can be
cheaper and more convenient to pick
up a new model rather than buying a
used item or repairing a broken one is
another hurdle to overcome.
For now, those looking to remain
both eco-friendly and thrifty have
recourse to charity shops. It is a happy
coincidence that second-hand clothes
can be more sustainable than new
items, and are often the kind of vintage
which is much in vogue. Some even
have Lego on their shelves — perhaps
sent there by parents tired of trying to
find space at home to stash their bricks.Recycling and rental schemes could keep products in use for longer
The Trump presidency’s
bizarre degeneration
Circular economy can
bring benefits all round
Twenty years ago, I developed a love-
hate relationship with the television
seriesSex and the City. Like many
women, I was mesmerised by this saga
of New York dating, friendship and
career dramas, based on a book by the
columnist Candace Bushnell.
But I also found it irritating that the
four sassy female protagonists rarely
discussed anything other than men.
“Is this really what feminism is
about?” I would grumble, before
switching on the TV for the next
addictive SATC fix.
Having recently turned 60, Ms
Bushnell is back and giving the idea of
female friendship a new twist. Her
own life did not always stick to the
script: she divorced from her “Mr Big”
and, exhausted with Manhattan, left
for the countryside. But, still
fascinated by the dating game, she has
now written s There Still Sex in theI
City?, which is about a middle-aged
female divorcee embarking on
romance.
In some senses, this is grim stuff. Ms
Bushnell realised that men of her
vintage like to date younger women,
and that middle-aged divorce is often
costly. “In many cases [divorced
women] go back to the same social
and economic situation that they
spend all of their thirties and forties
trying to crawl out of.”
Some of her older, single female
friends struggle to find an income.
Others grapple with illness. Many
suffer from what Ms Bushnell calls“Middle-Aged Madness”, a wrenching
period of anxiety about dashed
expectations. “There are psychic
moments in MAM that will make you
want to scream,” she writes. “When
you stare in the mirror and see no
reason for going on.”
Despite these woes, I found the
book rather cheering — even though
I’m over 50, live in New York and am
single. Her account shows that if
women (or men) accept that life does
not follow a script, they can discover a
new sense of independence and the
joy of living on your own terms.
This is because female friends can
be as important in middle age as in
your thirties. And, a vocation or
passion can deliver huge pleasure in
later life. Then there are simple
pleasures. By 60, bike rides can be as
thrilling as endless shopping.
Another positive surprise is that
dating becomes more relaxing in later
life. After divorce, Ms Bushnell tried
Tinder, before bumping into a new
64-year-old boyfriend at a party. But
searching for romance is no longer the
stressful competitive sport it was in
SATC, perhaps because there is less
expectation of a happy ending.
“In middle-aged dating and beyond,
people aren’t partnering up to get a
life,” she observes. “They already have
a life — children and exes and parents
and work — so this time round a
relationship is about enhancing your
life.” Amen.
Cynics might argue that this onlyapplies to people who are lucky
enough to be financially and
emotionally self-sufficient. Fair point:
Ms Bushnell’s world is elite by most
American standards. But when you
look at history, most western women
today have lives that are better than
their forebears could have imagined.
Even just 50 years ago, divorced
women of 50 did not have many
employment options, let alone being
able to buy a home, redefine
themselves or date younger men.
Today, middle-aged women in parts of
the non-western world lack choices
too. (My early career was based in
Pakistan and Tajikistan, where
unmarried women have brutally
limited options.)
So, yes, the generation reared on
Sex and the Citymight moan about life
with girlfriends over brunch; and yes,
juggling the stresses of middle age can
be tough. But compared to women in
the past, these are challenges born of
luxury.
The fact that Ms Bushnell has
managed to write her book asking, “Is
there still sex in the city?”, is not just a
testament to the miracles of modern
medicine but to contemporary
feminism too. So perhaps another
secret to enjoying a vibrant middle age
as a woman — whether single,
divorced or dating — is to feel thankful
for that. Even if gratitude does not
always make for great TV.[email protected]Sex, middle-aged
madness and
the city
Notebook
by Gillian Tett
Trade misinvoicing is
a pernicious problem
Among other excellent points he
makes, Edward Luce underscores one
of the most pernicious problems vexing
the global economy today — unabated
trade misinvoicing as a way of moving
money illicitly in and out of countries
and hiding it offshore (“Twilight of the
economists”, Books essay, October 12).
Mr Luce points out that in today’s
globalised economy “one of the easiest
ways to hide the proceeds of graft is to
under-invoice exports and over-invoice
imports. By deflating your export
earnings and inflating your import bill,
you can make your ill-gotten gains
disappear.” The process also
contributes to worsening economic
inequality within and between
countries — a critical global problem
highlighted in all three books reviewed.
Since 2006, Global Financial Integrity
has pioneered efforts to measure and
monitor the magnitude of the problem
of trade misinvoicing. Inour latest
annual study ooking at 2006-2015,l
trade misinvoicing is estimated to be
the primary means for illicitly shifting
funds between developing and
advanced countries, amounting to
between 19 and 24 per cent of the value
of total developing country trade, on
average. This directly results in tax
revenue losses in the billions of dollars,
significantly affecting a country’s
chance of achieving the UN Sustainable
Development Goals by the 2030
deadline. These numbers underscore
the magnitude of the problem of trade
misinvoicing, and why it is essential
that governments in both developing
and advanced countries take steps to
stop it.
Rick Rowden
Senior Economist,
Global Financial Integrity,
Washington, DC, USOCTOBER 19 2019 Section:Features Time: 18/10/2019- 18:58 User:alistair.hayes Page Name:LEADER USA, Part,Page,Edition:USA, 8, 1