The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| Smile or grimace? Royal Kate portrait splits opinion Posted: 11 Jan 2013 05:11 AM PST LONDON, Jan 11 — The first official portrait of Britain's Duchess of Cambridge, popularly known by her former name Kate Middleton, was unveiled in London on Friday, and opinion was sharply divided over an image many deemed unflattering. The 31-year-old, who as a glamorous future queen is one of the world's most photographed women, is portrayed in the large canvas with a faint smile, long, copper-tinted hair and shadow under her eyes. Award-winning artist Paul Emsley, surrounded by a scrum of international news crews at the National Portrait Gallery where the work was revealed, described the duchess as a "wonderful subject" and "generous as a person. "The brief was that it should be a portrait which in some way expressed her natural self rather than her official self," he said. "  The Duchess of Cambridge on her wedding day. — Reuters pic National Portrait Gallery staff said the duchess and her husband Prince William visited earlier on Friday and were "very pleased" with the outcome of a painting based on photographs taken at two sittings in May and June last year. "Her family are also very pleased," Emsley said. "To me that's the ultimate test in a way, because they know her better than anyone else." Widespread criticism Public reaction was less positive, however, with views on Twitter and newspaper websites overwhelmingly negative. Many comments focused on how the image had aged the duchess, herself a graduate in art history, while others took the artist to task for portraying her smiling slightly. One Daily Mail reader from Canada summed up broader opinion in an unnamed comment. "OMG, how awful! Rather than being overly flattering as many royal portraits are, this one is the extreme opposite. She's barely recognizable! Poor Kate, forced to say she's 'thrilled' when in all likelihood, she is as horrified as the rest of us." Sunday Times art critic Waldemar Januszczak called the portrait "pretty ordinary ... He (Emsley) made her look older than she is and her eyes don't sparkle in the way that they do and there's something rather dour about the face." Glasgow-born Emsley, whose previous commissions included former South African President Nelson Mandela, knew he would be in the public eye when taking on a subject of the duchess's stature as a royal and global celebrity. "It's probably the most important portrait I'll ever do, and when you realise that, you do start to think rather carefully about what you're doing perhaps more than you usually do, and that made me more cautious than I normally am." The duchess has recently been in the headlines after spending four days in hospital being treated for acute morning sickness having announced she was pregnant. The National Portrait Gallery commissioned the painting of its patron, and it was given to the gallery by Hugh Leggatt through the Art Fund. — Reuters |
| Half of all food thrown away, report claims Posted: 10 Jan 2013 10:58 PM PST  A customer selects vegetables at a supermarket in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, January 11, 2013. Every year, four billion tonnes of food is produced, but between 30 per cent and 50 per cent is never consumed. — Reuters pic The waste is caused by poor infrastructure and storage facilities in the developing world, and "buy-one-get-one-free" offers, and the fussiness of consumers in the developed world, the report by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers said. Every year, four billion tonnes of food is produced, but between 30 per cent and 50 per cent is never consumed, according to the report entitled "Global Food; Waste Not, Want Not". One of the worst offenders is Britain, where as much as 30 per cent of vegetables are not harvested because they are misshapen and supermarkets will not sell them. The report also suggests that half of the food that is bought in Europe and the United States is thrown away by consumers. Dr Tim Fox, head of energy and environment at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, said: "The amount of food wasted and lost around the world is staggering. "This is food that could be used to feed the world's growing population — as well as those in hunger today. "It is also an unnecessary waste of the land, water and energy resources that were used in the production, processing and distribution of this food. "The reasons for this situation range from poor engineering and agricultural practices, inadequate transport and storage infrastructure through to supermarkets demanding cosmetically perfect foodstuffs and encouraging consumers to overbuy through buy-one-get-one free offers." The report also found that 550 billion cubic metres of water is wasted globally in growing crops that were never eaten. The institution said the demand for water production could reach between 10 trillion and 13 trillion cubic metres a year by 2050. Fox said: "The UN projects that the global population will swell to 9.5 billion by 2075, meaning there will be three billion more people to feed. "As water, land and energy resources come under increasing pressure from competing human demands, engineers have a crucial role to play in preventing food loss and waste by developing more efficient ways of growing, transporting and storing foods. "But in order for this to happen governments, development agencies and organisations like the UN must work together to help change people's mindsets on waste and discourage wasteful practices by farmers, food producers, supermarkets and consumers." — AFP/Relaxnews |
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