She produced her first film on tick in 1973 and straightaway it won her a German Film Prize. Now, in 2008, Regina Ziegler is considered Germany?s most successful film and television producer, and this year marks her production company?s 35th anniversary....
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The Chronicle of Higher Education | Le Nouvel Observateur | London Review of Books | Il Foglio | Nepszabadsag | The Economist | Przekroj | The New Republic
The Chronicle of Higher Education 25.01.2008 (USA)
Laurie Fendrich, fine arts professor at Hofstra University on Long Island, describes in a very amusing article the confusing effect Jean-Jacques Rousseau's "Letter to d'Alembert on the Theatre" has on her students. Particularly Rousseau's thesis that women shouldn't go to the theatre because this would cause vanity to replace their natural modesty outrages her students: "In class discussion, when my students invariably protest that Rousseau is an outdated chauvinist, I ask why most women in contemporary society wear makeup and most men don't, and why there isn't a store called 'Victor's' Secret. We talk about Jane Austen's women, their trade-offs between true love and men who, however repellent, provide security, and how much of that kind of social survivalism is still practiced today. These discussions are unsettling, I admit, even to me. But whether by habit or nature, I unfailingly wear lipstick to class."
Le Nouvel Observateur 17.01.2008 (France)
In an interview entitled "How can Islam be healed?" Tunisia-born professor, writer and poet Abdelwahab Meddeb presents some key ideas from his new book "Sortir de la malediction. L'islam entre civilisation et barbarie" (Seuil). Only with a "permissive" critical reading of the Koran can Islam overcome Islamism, Meddeb maintains. He also sees no chances for a political victory over Islamism, which he compares with fascism, even in Iran: "This country can free itself of fascism and totalitarianism which the Islamist ideology forces on it, because the works of its artists, filmmakers, photographers, sculptors, poets and thinkers of both sexes clearly situate it in modernity. The Kiarostamis, Panahis and Satrapis are numerous. In addition, every Iranian, even the most dogmatic mullah, maintains a bond of attachment to pre-Islamic Persia." See our feature "Islam's heritage of violence," an interview with Meddeb.
London Review of Books 24.01.2008 (UK)
The Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm, born in 1917, reviews Eric Weitz's "brilliant" book "Weimar Germany: Promise and Tragedy" (Princeton). Above all, however, he looks back to his own schooldays during the Weimar Republic: "Even its few years of 'normality' rested on the temporary quiescence of a volcano that could have erupted at any time. The great man of the theatre, Max Reinhardt, knew this. 'What I love,' he said, 'is the taste of transience on the tongue – every year might be the last.' It gave Weimar culture a unique tang. It sharpened a bitter creativity, a contempt for the present, an intelligence unrestricted by convention, until the sudden and irrevocable death."
Il Foglio 19.01.2008 (Italy)
One very popular brand of Mexican pop music is very close to the world of drug smugglers. Maurizio Stefanini explains why more and more pop stars have been murdered recently. "The Tucanes, for example, have had themselves photographed with Kalashnikovs, and one of their most popular songs deals with a historic gunfight. The song's refrain: 'Mafias of the north and the south – which is the most powerful?' Police say the cartels have adopted various singers, regardless of whether they are 'narcos' or not. They side with their favourites and use the most hardcore means against their enemies' darlings. People say there are videos circulating on the Internet showing criminals torturing and killing to the sound of popular hits."
Nepszabadsag 19.01.2008 (Hungary)
Archaic communities arise wherever people participate in shared everyday activities, experience unchanging and common notions about ways of living, religion and the world and where they play an active role in shaping this community. Similar tribal-societal ways of living can also be observed in large state-run enterprises which accordingly are not only inefficient and burdensome to the state, but also particularly resistant to restructuring, believes behavioural researcher Vilmos Csanyi. "Naturally this is not due to evil lurking in the background but comes from the institutional existence itself, which allows an in-house 'culture' to develop – and this is as likely to happen within the postal service, the justice system or the police. As soon as these have been established, shared views and actions emerge, and with them a set of interests which are to be defended against the outside world. Existence-justifying concepts are rapidly formulated, as is the belief that insiders should never be able to talk their way into this world. (...) It outrages them when outsiders try to get an insight into, or worse still, try to get involved in things that they could never understand. And then these views are also spread by the media. This is the moment when society should wake up and smell that something has gone awry: that one of its institutions is trying to throw off the yoke which forms the secure link between control, performance and resources used. Now is the time to push through reform, later it will only be more difficult."
The Economist 19.01.2008 (UK)
How to combine ethics with and economically efficient trade? Daniel Franklin looks into what sparked off the boom of CSR or corporate social responsibility. "Scandals at Enron, WorldCom and elsewhere undermined trust in big business and led to heavy-handed government regulation. An ever-expanding army of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) stands ready to do battle with multinational companies at the slightest sign of misbehaviour.... And, more than ever, companies are being watched. Embarrassing news anywhere in the world - a child working on a piece of clothing with your company's brand on it, say - can be captured on camera and published everywhere in an instant, thanks to the internet." The special report covers the victory march of CSR in general and also follows a number of social projects launched by various companies and Larry Brilliant the head of Google.org.
Przekroj 17.01.2008 (Poland)
Milena Rachid Chehab has discovered a new breed of Polish immigrant worker: Expats in Ukraine! "These are experts who bear the free-market flame eastwards. Our previous knowledge of this species was limited to foreigners who, at the beginning of the nineties, took on top management jobs in western firms entering the Polish market. Now the domino effect is kicking in: Poles who have gathered experience over the years are passing it on to Ukrainians who, in economic terms, are standing at dawn of transformation." Why move from Warsaw to Kiev? "Better to be a big fish in a little pond than the other way round," as one manager put it.
The New Republic 30.01.2008 (USA)
Irene Nemirovsky is now officially a literary heroine in USA. Following on the successes of "Suite francaise" and "The Ball" US publishers have just brought out her novel "David Gobler" about a greedy oil magnate. Ruth Franklin is appalled by the anti-Semitism and reactionary thinking demonstrated by this novelist who was killed in Auschwitz. "It is true that Némirovsky said in 1935 that 'if there had been Hitler [at the time], I would have greatly toned down David Golder, and I wouldn't have written it in the same fashion.' So she knew what she had written. And she reiterated this in 1939: 'How could I write such a thing? The climate is quite changed!' Nemirovsky's repudiation of her own novel makes it all the more shocking that anyone is still trying to defend it. Anyway, a thoughtful contemporary observer might have noticed that 1929 was already a rather dangerous time to be fanning the right-wing flames."
RSS
In Die Welt, Victor Erofeyev collects his thought on Solzhenitsyn's life and work. The New Republic laments the Europeanisation of American cities. In the Gazeta Wyborcza, theatre directors Monika Strzepka and Pawel Demirski are pining for the equality that neoliberalism has abolished. Prospect magazine covers the re-emergence of character in Britain. Przekroj magazine covers both Sarkozy and heavy metal, albeit in separate articles. And Roberto Saviano tells us in L'Espresso why Italy's boxers will be packing a punch with Southern gusto.
The London Review of Books finds one point on which to agree with General Franco. Rue89 asks: How anti-Semitic is the cartoonist Sine? The Wall Street Journal reports on a Dutch cartoonist who landed in jail for making anti-Muslim jokes. In the New York Times Thomas Schweich looks at myopia, corruption and poppies in Afghanistan. Al-Ahram watched the Egyptian remake of 'Cabaret'. In Espresso, Umberto Eco uses taxi drivers to justify the rise in global security. And political scientist Seyla Benhabib tells ResetDoc why we need blogs.
In the Hungarian Quarterly, Magda Szabo remembers how her first manuscript was smuggled out of Hungary and into the hands of a German publisher's reader by the name of Hermann Hesse. Portfolio portrays the new publisher of the Washington Post, Katherine Weymouth. The Financial Times portrays the editor of the New Yorker, David Remmick. In Espresso, Robert Saviano meet actors who would never join the Mafia. The Economist is amazed to see that the music industry is starting to wise up at last. And in the New Yorker, Chinese students ask why they need democracy.
"Hands off Lech Walesa!" demands Adam Michnik in the Gazeta Wyborcza. Polityka also defends the Solidarnosc leader against the hatred of the Kaczynski brothers. La vie des idees introduces a resistance programme against the dominance of English. In The Nation, Naomi Klein explains the neat rationale for pillaging Iraqi oil. Suketu Mehta encourages slum tourism in Espressso. Martina Navratilova lobs and smashes her way into the art world in the Spectator. And Elet es Irodalom can't get over the Dutch in Hungary.
In American Scholar, Yale professor William Deresiewicz sees the downside of his elite education while standing opposite his plumber. Wired welcomes in the Petabyte Age. Tygodnik Powszechny visits the "Sacroexpo" to look at camouflaged chalices. In the New York Review of Books, Zadie Smith analyses the supra-Kafka. In L'Espresso, Umberto Eco explains the vocative to Italian ministerial officials. Merkur recommends that art critics take a leaf out of Theocritus' Fifteenth Idyll. And the New York Times goes out in search of children in Europe.
The New Republic portrays the last hero of Tiananmen, the surgeon Jiang Yanyong. In Tygodnik Powszechny, historian Jochen Staadt explains why Polish lustration is anything, but not a witch hunt. Polityka says Poles just wanna have fun. The Spectator fears that the Catholic Church is on the brink of civil war. Espresso portrays Italy's two most famous fugitives. The TLS reads Prokofiev's diaries. And the best English-language books of the moment, Outlook India claims, all come from Pakistan.
In Lettre International, philosopher Michail Ryklin explains how power functions. In Le Point, historian Patrice Gueniffey explains the revolutionary passion of the French. In the London Review, psychogeographer Iain Sinclair watches on as Olympic preparations destroy London's East End. In Polityka Adam Krzeminski is irritated by the Polish neo-National Democrats and the German Left. Atlantic hears the music in Rupert Murdoch's plans for the Wall Street Journal. The New Statesman remembers Austrian football hero Matthias Sindelar. Elet es Irodalom asks why we need literature?
The Economist watches the evolution of the book market. Theatre director Pawel Demirski tells Tygodnik Powszechny that Lech Walesa is a dead symbol for Polish youth. The TLS tells us why we're all geeks now. Espresso looks into the female face of India's future labour market. The New York Review of Books has the latest on the love affair between dopamine and the human brain. In Nouvel Obs anti-globalisation network Attac explains the effects of globalisation. In ResetDoc Zygmunt Bauman tells us what to do about it. And the New York Times takes us down to PigCity.
The London Review wishes Elfriede Jelinek's novel "Gier" had never been translated. Polityka provides a history of Polish anti-Semitism - in German too. In Clarin, Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava is confident that our cities will soon become pleasant places to live. In Gazeta Wyborcza, political scientist Ivan Krastev assuages ex-Yugoslavian fears that the end of the EU is nigh. In the Guardian, Ian McEwan pours cold water on apocalyptic belief. Al Ahram looks back at the history of the Jews in Egypt. And the New York Times admires Pakistan's strongest democratic weapon: men in black.
The New Humanist observes the rise of Muslim Creationism. Nepszabadsag wonders how democracy should deal with covert racism. The New Yorker introduces Dr. Fadl, a reformed terrorist and one of al-Qaeda's fiercest critics. In the New York Review of Books, the head of the Harvard library explains why the news is only a story. Caffe Europa describes the xenophobia of Italian politicians. Die Weltwoche warily watches the vicious hoodies in the new Justice video.
In the London Review of Books, Kevin Kopelson spills the beans about his plagiarism-littered path to professorship. Elet es Irodalom is green with envy over the independence of the Polish press. The Christians had it better under Nasser and Saddam Hussein, claims Coptic priest Giuseppe Scattolin in Resetdoc. In Le point, Bernard-Henri Levy spits out a colourful array of adjectives to describe the regime in Burma. And in L'Espresso, Umberto Eco analyses how the Mafia is murdering with the times.
In Eurozine the 69-year-old Catalan philosopher Xavier Rubert de Ventos admits to his growing radicality. In Nepszabadsag the 75-year-old writer György Konrad declares: remembering is rebellion. In Artforum the 84-year-old philosopher Artur C. Danto thinks about art and revolution. In The New Republic Anne Applebaum takes a hammer to Nicholson Baker's pacifist polemic "Human Smoke". In Folio Christian Demand sends out a distress signal for art criticism. And the Spectator portrays the Anglican Church's only openly gay Bishop.
In the TLS, tenor Ian Bostridge writes about music under totalitarianism. The New Yorker introduces the millionaire-nerd-led group "Intellectual Ventures". Caffe Europe describes Aldo Moro's attempt to reconcile Church and communism. Nepszabadsag and Elet es Irodalom analyse the frequently misundertood concept of "competition" in Hungary. The London Review of Books explains Thabo Mbeki's motivations for backing Mugabe. And in the Weltwoche, violinist Julia Fischer demonstrates how to put up a wall.
Literaturen searches in the giant haystack of literature on '68 for a book on equal rights. The TLS rediscovers the man who sexed the English language. In Outlook India, political scientist Kishore Mahbubani closes the lid on Western cultural dominance. The New York Review of Books looks at the dominance of the national conservatives in Putin's Russia. Le Monde des livres reports on a clash of historians over the role of Islam in the Middle Ages. The Economist fears for freedom of the press in Eastern Europe. And the New York Times portrays Egyptian author Alaa Al Aswan.