All the members of the European Union espouse the common value of fair and efficient cooperation, which in turn involves smooth communication on as equal a footing as possible in business, politics, the arts and the EU institutions. The large linguistic communities, whose languages are often learned as foreign languages, also have particular interests....
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Observator Cultural | The New Statesman | Elet es Irodalom | Nepszabadsag | Magyar Narancs | Semana | Mediapart | Gazeta Wyborcza | The Guardian | Le Monde diplomatique | L'Espresso | The Spectator
Observator Cultural 14.07.2008 (Romania)
The Romanian magazine launches an ambitious translation project. Important authors from the country are to be translated into no less than seven languages, from Polish to Spanish, and English too. In the first edition, Paul Cernat portrays writer Stefan Banulescu (1926-1998) who "stands among the most distinguished Romanian writers of the post-war period" and characterises his works thus: "Although he sets out from a point that might be called 'the heart of the real' and although he doesn't avoid a reportorial tone, or a diarist's or memoirists either, Banulescu is not a realist, nor is he (to the end) a writer of the fantastic. His prose nevertheless contains a dose of the self-referentially ineffable. Call it mystery. One might say that Banulescu desires to emphasize the unsaid. His characters speak allusively, talk in circles full of pregnant pauses."
Also, there is a translation of an excerpt from the first volume of the unfinished project of 'Men In Winter: The Boars Were Mild'.
The New Statesman 11.07.2008 (UK)
Vic Motune describes the difficulties of female Muslim rappers like Neelo fer Mir, Muneera Rashida (more here), Poetic Pilgrimage, Lady Dizzla, Angel MC Shay, Lyrical Lailah or Deeyah, a Muslim girl born in Norway. Despite huge success in Norway, she had to leave the country after she and her family were threatened because she is seen as a bad role model and dresses too provocatively. "She came to London, hoping that things would be different, but the problems were soon to return. When the video for her single 'Plan of My Own' was aired on an Asian music channel, featuring the singer dancing seductively with a man, the death threats and harassment started again. She is now based in the US and needs the constant protection of bodyguards. 'People have said to me, if you wore more modest attire, toned your act down a little, you'd be OK. Well, you know something? I've tried wearing traditional costumes onstage and I'm still the whore.'"
Also: Ryan Gilbey is bored by the Abba musical film "Mamma Mia!" And Roger Scruton recommends the Schönborn Riesling.
Elet es Irodalom 11.07.2008
Christopher Street Day in Budapest ended in fighting. Stones and Molotov cocktails were thrown at homosexual marchers and at least eight people were injured. Why weren't the paraders in London and Madrid beaten up, asks Istvan Vancsa and concludes that Hungarian Nazis are ahead of their European colleagues in some things: "Are there no hooligans in London? You bet there are, they are an English invention after all. Have Spain's upright fascists just disappeared? On the contrary, they are in good health, and if one wanted to count up their different groups and parties, we'd soon answer that question. How is it then possible, that the homosexual processions provoked no resistance in either London or Madrid ? It is possible because the links to patriotism in England and the related idelogical basis in Spain are missing," scoffs Vancsa. Only in Hungary do people believe that homosexuals are not fighting for their own rights, but "to bring down Hungary".
Nepszabadsag 12.07.2008 (Hungary)
Aside from the unparalleled violence against homosexuals, the worst thing about the Christopher Street Day parade for media studies expert Peter György, was that so many of those who protested against it were from Hungary's middle classes. György tells his interviewer Dora Matalin: "These are consolidated people with families and jobs who went on to the streets on Saturday afternoon to humiliate others. Their problem is not that people are gay. No problem, they can be gay if they like, says the Hungarian, but they shouldn't be so happy about it, let alone proud. Because this annoys anyone who is frustrated and the the Hungarian middle classes are pretty frustrated. They are frustrated because they live in permanent fear of poverty after losing their former security. Because they once lived in a closed, culturally comprehensible country whose standards have now collapsed. Which is why this Hungary can only tolerate otherness as long as it keeps itself hidden."
Magyar Narancs 11.07.2008 (Hungary)
In the wake of the violence against homosexuals in Budapest, Hungary's Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany is now calling for society to close ranks in defence of democracy. He also announced a large demonstration for the autumn to protest against the insufficient protection for minorities provided by institutions and the law. The weekly periodical Magyar Narancs agrees with this diagnosis, but is sceptical about the proposed treatment. "The legal stance on incitement to hatred in Hungary gives a long rein to hate speech. It is permissible as long as it does not lead directly to violence or that no clear or present danger of this violence exists. But the courts' interpretation of the criterion 'clear and present danger' is extremely narrow. If one demands accountability from them, they point to the legislators, the legislators point to the constitutional court, and the constitutional court points to somewhere behind or above them, who knows." But it is not the job of civil society to protect others from violence. "On the contrary, the problem is precisely that a section of civil society wants to impose "law and order" itself: for a while now it has claimed the right to exercise violence unpunished and unchallenged - while the republic's institutions shove the blame back and forth" and do nothing.
Semana 12.07.2008 (Columbia)
"I don't believe that newspapers will disappear," explains Juan Luis Cebrian in an interview. Cebrian is the co-founder of El Pais, the president of the PRISA Group, and the most powerful man in the Spanish-language media world. "But they will certainly be pushed from their current dominant position further to the margins. If I had to found El Pais again today, I'd do it on the Internet, and I'd publish a paper edition based on the online edition. Why? A daily newspaper in print is still something that you can't get online. The digital society tends to eliminate any kind of mediation process and it will stay like that for a long while yet. But mediating between reality and citizens, interpretations and analysis, that will all come back. I still believe that a journalist is someone who tells other people what is going on."
"After the kidnapping, the next drama begins." Ana Maria Catano Blanco gives an account of a soldier who was taken hostage for several years by the FARC as an example of the insufficient psychological care afforded to many Columbian soldiers after their liberation.
Mediapart 12.07.2008 (France)
Not since Empress Eugenie has a premiere dame so preoccupied the French like Carla Bruni. The new French internet paper Mediapart even abandons its strict subscriptions-only policy to give free access to an article about her. In her analysis, which is full of quotes, links and videos, Marine Turchi is astounded by the mixing of the spheres that Bruni has caused in French politics. Salt was added by Bruni's CD about her 30 lovers before Nicolas. Turchi sees a mixing of "private and public, music and politics, information and PR, weighty dossiers such as the founding of the Mediterranean Union on 13 July with lighter events on the 14 July, and the Order for Ingrid Betancourt right through to celebrity events like Carla Bruni's record release on 11 July." Turchi also decries the gleeful cooperation of the media from state TV to the Liberation: "Carla Bruni is not selling her record, but her spouse, the president." (Eugenia - painted here by Franz Xaver Winterhalter also had a talent for such things.)
Gazeta Wyborcza (Polen), 12.07.2008
Sixty-five years after the massacre in Volhynia the wound between Ukrainians and Poles is still gaping. At the end of WWI, Poland signed the Riga Peace Agreement with the Soviet Union on a new Eastern border. This gave the Polish state areas which were inhabited by a Ukrainian majority whose subsequent attempts to gain independence were suppressed by the Poles. The Germans occupied East Poland in 1941 and in 1943-44 Ukrainian nationalists massacred the Polish civilian population - mainly in Volhynia - claiming as many as 50,000 lives. This resulted in acts of retribution by the Polish Home Army which left several thousand dead. (More here and here) The murders have not been forgotten. Lviv historian Taras Wozniak writes: "The Ukrainian elites have been very serious about discussing their own history." But in Poland, "remembering the events in Volhynia seems to have become ritualised. The historical context, the reality at the time is forgotten. There is no search for causes, for understanding. It just remains the Ukrainian crime."
The Guardian 12.07.2008 (UK)
Author Adam Thirlwell has reread "Les Miserables" and come to the conclusion that its length, slowness and endless digressions are not a drawback but the book's existential foundation: "When the book was finished, Hugo tried - and failed - to write a preface. The preface would have begun like this: 'This book has been composed from the inside out. The idea engenders the characters, the characters produce the drama, and this is, in effect, the law of art. By having the ideal, that is God, as the generator instead of the idea, we can see that it fulfils the same function as nature. Destiny and in particular life, time and in particular this century, man and in particular the people, God and in particular the world, this is what I have tried to include in this book; it is a sort of essay on the infinite.'"
Le Monde diplomatique 11.07.2008 (Germany / France)
Colette Braeckman sends a reportage from Congo's Katanga province where investors from round the world are descending upon its deposits of copper and cobalt: "Every month new shops open in Lubumbashi, fast food stalls and shops selling cheap Chinese goods and a rotgut liquor which is cheaper than beer. But in the poorest areas of Kenya, people are still dying of cholera. The air is filthy. Everybody coughs perpetually. Since the government banned the export of raw materials to Zambia, the tiniest businesses are shooting out of the ground like mushrooms. The owners come from China, India or the Gulf states. They have often bribed officials to avoid the lengthy licensing procedures."
Raf Custers reports that a number of countries in Africa have agreed to change their legislation on the extraction of raw materials: "There is much at stake: 57 percent of the world's strip-mining cobalt, 46 percent of its diamonds, 39 percent of the manganese, 31 percent of the phosphate, 21 percent of the gold and 9 percent of the bauxite come from Africa. And prices have been rising steadily since 2002. The states themselves rarely see the profits, let alone their populations. Worse still, the natural resources mostly mean these countries get a low ranking in the Human Development Index of the UN Development programme, the UNDP."
L'Espresso 11.07.2008 (Italy)
Umberto Eco returns, after half a year's consideration, once again to Pierre Bayard who claims in his book 'How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read' that reading a book is at least as creative as writing it and that there are therefore as many versions as Emma Bovary as there are readers. Eco disagrees. Of all places, in the world of fiction, relativism has its limits, he thinks. "It's just like this: the stories as they are, are accepted by the readers as immovable truths, naturally always within the realm of possibility of a novel. That is also the terrible beauty of every story. Emma Bovary dies at her own hand, and however much one loathes this fact, we cannot do anything about it. We could naturally write another novel in which Bovary is murdered, as Doumenc has done, but what constitutes the appeal (or dilemma) of this alternative literature is indeed the fact that we are all agreed - and Bayard can say what he likes - that in Flaubert's world, the poor girl commits suicide, and that we are all talking about the 'same book'."
The Spectator 12.07.2008 (UK)
Charles Leadbeater nominates the Internet as the planet's most conservative power because more things are archived than ever before. The outsourcing of our memory to hard drives and social networks also carries unknown risks: "The expansion of our shared memory in millions of mini-archives should be an unalloyed good, especially for an ageing society in which millions of people will be losing their memories and, as a result, their sense of themselves in the decades to come. Yet a growing group of thoughtful sceptics - the neuroscientist Susan Greenfield, the technology critic Nicholas Carr - argue that far from supporting our minds, the web is rotting them, including our capacity for memory. Carr argues that the web is engulfing us in a culture of distraction in which it becomes impossible to focus and think clearly."
Recently, two of England's "pillars of society", the Lord Chief Justice Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, and the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams advocated the introduction of certain aspects of sharia law. But the majority of British Muslims don't want that at all, explain Stephen Schwartz and Irfan Al-Alawi, who have just carried out a field study on the subject: "The overwhelming majority of our sample - we estimate a minimum of 65 per cent - brusquely repudiated the imposition of sharia in Britain and even expressed resentment at the interference of individuals like the Archbishop in British Muslim affairs."
RSS
The Internet is changing our brains, philosopher Joaquin Rodriguez Lopez explains in the French magazine, Books. David Hockney shows his new iPhone drawings to the Spectator. In the New York Review of Books, historian Timothy Snyder calls for a new understanding of the Holocaust, that begins not in Auschwitz, but deep in the forests of Eastern Europe. In Literaturen, Aleksandar Hemon remembers an empty reading that turned out to be a success. Dawn introduces Michael Jackson as internalised by the Pakistanis. In the Weltwoche, pedagogy professor Georg Feuser calls for a ban on Ritalin for kids. The NYT witnesses the end of the black middle class in Detroit.
The Economist is impressed the by the hybrid of old and new media in the coverage of events in Iran. Outlook India looks at racism at home. In Le Point, Bernard-Henri Levy rallies support for the Iranian opposition. In Salon.eu.sk, Zygmunt Bauman continues his thoughts on the effects of totalitarianism in Poland. In the Guardian, Wallace Shawn explains why sex is still shocking. Al Ahram sings the praises of the Pakistanis who chased the Taliban out of their villages. In Nepszabadsag, Lajos Parti Nagy explains why he doesn't want to be Hungarian. And the TLS holds its nose in Versailles.
MicroMega wants nothing to do with the ritual of 1000 women – especially if it involves Gaddafi. Outlook India explains how Berthold Brecht put the fun into Hindu theatre. Polish author Pawel Huelle savours his vote while riding his bike. The Guardian learns from Abbas Kiarostami where to find the beauty in art. In Nouvel Obs Breyten Breytenbach wonders what went wrong in South Africa. Elet es Irodalom is irked by intellectuals who won't go to the theatre. The NYRB reads books about Darfur, the Nation reads books about Cuba. And the New York Times is very excited indeed about the new Grand Paris.
Al Ahram asks what the Arabs can do for Obama. Outlook India says the US president should have talked to non-Arab Muslims instead. Charlie Kaufman's film "Synecdoche, New York" plunged the London Review into a thick fog of existential questions. Polityka discovers a republic of soloists in Poland. The Economist loses itself in the life of an American dreamer who is pinned down by a 483,000 dollar debt. In Clarin, Beatriz Sarlo asks: What does Buenos Aires want to be? In Elet es Irodalom, Ignac Romsics describes the difference between the Western and Eastern European right. NZZ Folio travels the coast of the Black Sea. And in the Guardian, sculptor Alexander Stoddart reaches for his pistol. 
Al Ahram witnesses Tunisians hitting the roof at the Arab Theatre Festival in Cairo. Alaa Al Aswany assures the Observer that democracy is coming to Egypt soon. Polityka complains about the grumblers who have rained on the June 4 parade. The New Statesman, Prospect and The Nation discuss China. In Nouvel Obs, Michel Pastoureau describes the fine line between man and pig. In Salon.eu.sk Zygmunt Bauman criticises Slavoj Zizek for not looking "beyond the barbed wire". Bookforum is excited by the boom in African literature.
Wired explains what Google really is: an auction house. The New York Review of Books sees Pakistan near the brink of anarchy. Elet es Irodalom introduces a new Hungarian magazine about culture on the periphery. The Nation turns to the Kundera Affair. In Literaturen, novelist Barbara Vinken compares sex stories by children. The LRB is impressed by a wiki. In El Espectador, Hector Abad describes the potentially fatal consequences of reading. Espresso portrays the fascists of the third millennium.
What makes us happy?, the Atlantic asks. Outlook India celebrates the victory of secular politics in India. The Spectactor finds itself in the hour of the medievalist. The Economist explains why Perlentaucher is essential reading. Magyar Narancs asks what happened to May 8th in Hungary. In ResetDoc, Nasr Abu-Zayd explains why Afghan marriage laws have nothing to do with the Qur'an. And jazz is fading into the background in Poland.
The Nouvel Obs features an interview with Imre Kertesz about survival after survival. The New York Review of Books celebrates the affluent and brilliant Madame de Stael. Tygodnik Powszechny welcomes the first film of a Stasiuk book. In the Guardian, Elaine Showalter asks why America's women writers are so notoriously underrated. Le Point profiles Dieudonne, who has declared his anti-Semitism as art. Rue89 asks whether it's left-wing to block Internet access. And in the New Republic, John Banville reads Samuel Beckett's letters.
The Nation portrays Bulgarian mafioso and author Georgi Stoev, who met the same death as many a victim in his books. In Nepszabadsag, poet Akos Szilagyi explains why outlawing Holocaust denial would not restrict freedom of speech. The New Yorker wants to see more command responsibility. In the Gazeta Wyborcza, Roza Thun wants to see more Polish passion for the EU. Andrew Orlowski in the New Statesman has lost his belief in Long Tails on the Net. And in the New Yorker, Russell Shorto explains the difference between the Dutch and the Americans.
In Merkur Ralf Dahrendorf speaks out for the stakeholder. In the Guardian, Kazua Ishiguro warns writers not to "fart about" in their thirties. In Literaturen, Peter Sloterkijk tells it like it is: you have to put in at least 10,000 hours of practice to become even a passable craftsman or musician. The London Review explains the appeal of sharia-compliant banks. In Le Monde, philosopher and theologian Mezri Haddad talks about the vampirisation of Islam. The NYT fathoms the sub culture of drug smuggling.
In Espresso, Suketu Mehta calls upon his fellow writers to save the world from the banksters! In the Guardian, Julian Barnes reads the only poem Arthur Hugh Clough ever received a penny for. The Polish language does nothing but express distrust, Tygodnik Powszechny complains. In Commonweal, Terry Eagleton describes the clash of culture and civilization. Observator Cultural throws a spotlight on Norman Manea. And Google's clairvoyant, the Economist discovers.
In Eurozine, Serbian artists refuse to be reminded of their past. La vie des idees shows how the skirt has become a symbol of emancipation in France. In the Boston Review, Evgeny Morozov tells cyber-utopians that bloggers can be as anti-democratic as anyone else. The Spectator wants a "muscular Christianity" on its side. In Beszelö, the poet Akos Györffy sees a new Golem approaching. Paper money is confetti, Dr. Doom tells the NZZ Folio. And Douglas Adams cries on his bed in the Guardian.
Google Street View provides the London Review with the key to understanding, finally, Stendhal's description of realism. Le Figaro reads Cioran's juvenilia. Outlook India salivates over food blogs. Babelia observes the divorcees in the Teatro Colon. Vanity Fair gloats over the promiscuous micturition in the Bohemian Club.
In the Spectator, John Cleese tells a critic what a critic is. In Tygodnik Powszechny, philosopher Jean-Luc Marion has no problem proving the existence of God. In Prospect, Hanif Kureishi wishes authors had more balls. In the New Yorker, Seymour Hersh outlines the sort of sophisticated diplomacy that the Obama team needs. Espresso watches the Calabrian mafia using PTT. Wired visits a prison to hear the tale of the world's biggest diamond heist. n+1 is glad that the weirdness has been put back into German sex. The Gazeta Wyborcza drowned in the earnestness of a Berlin production of Dorota Maslowska's new play. And in the NYT, Freeman Dyson heats up the climate.
Lettre International prints Bela Hamvas' 1960 essay on direct morality and bad conscience. The Nation demands state subsidies for old media. In El Pais Semanal, Javier Cercas waits for a novel about Hitler's moustache hair. In the Guardian, Mary Beard dispels all hopes for a good death. In Novel Obs, Alain Finkielkraut does not mention the Kundera Affair. In the New York Review of Books, John Gray learns all about debt from Margaret Atwood. Elet es Irodalom dwells on otherness. The TLS celebrates Josef Skvorecky. Umberto Eco eyes up the bodies of Mussolini and Berlusconi for L'Espresso. And Carlos Fernando Chamorro sheepishly tells the New York Times how he opposed his mother.