Never before have there been so many private collectors making extensive acquisitions of contemporary art. Are they the real key figures of a global art business?...
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Vanity Fair | Le Monde diplomatique | The Spectator | Le point | The New Republic | The New Yorker | Przekroj | The New Statesman | Outlook India | The Atlantic | L'Espresso
Vanity Fair 15.09.2008 (US)
Over a nine month period, Michael Wolff spent his Tuesdays with Rupert Murdoch. A ideal opportunity to get the inside story on the media mogul's latest plans – now that he has the Wall Street Journal under his belt - to get his hands on the New York Times. While others have interpreted this as a liberal-shift in the Murdoch image, Wolff knows better: "It's obviously irresistible to him. I've watched him go through the numbers, plot out a merger with the Journal's backroom operations, and fantasize about the staff's quitting en masse as soon as he entered the sacred temple. It would be sweet revenge - because the Times for so long has made him the bogeyman and vulgarian. And wonderful to own not just one of America's most important papers but both (he believes in monopolies)."
Further articles: Reporter and writer Sebastian Junger revisits a US unit in a remote outpost of Afghanistan which is fighting a losing battle against the Taliban despite having the upper hand, militarily. But the Americans are persisting with their small-base strategy, in order to better access local hearts and minds. Junger speculates: "This is not a war where soldiers are taken prisoner; if a position were to be overrun, virtually every American in it would be killed during the firefight. The wounded would probably be executed where they lay, or worse. The Taliban would take astronomic casualties, but they may have calculated that one or two such incidents would cause the American public to demand an end to the small-base strategy in Afghanistan."
Le Monde diplomatique 15.09.2008 (Germany/ France)
In a text from a posthumous collection of essays, Jaques Derrida thinks about rogue states – and finds echoes of Niccolo Machiavelli's descriptions of the animal in StratCom's (US Strategic Command) guidelines on how the USA should deal with them: "We should not show ourselves as too 'rational', the guidelines recommend, when it comes to defining what is most valuable to the enemy – and therefore how best to threaten him. In other words, one should not show that one is in full control of one's senses, one should make it understood that one can take leave of one's senses and act like an animal in setting targets, in order to create fear and make the other believe that one is willing to stop at nothing, that one will go beserk when vital interests are at stake. One has to give the impression that one can go crazy, irrational, in other words become animal. 'It hurts', says one of the Stratcom recommendations, "to present ourselves as too rational and controlled.' In fact it is even is 'beneficial for our strategy, to make certain elements seem out of control.'"
The Spectator 13.09.2008 (UK)
Tom Parfitt tells a story from Russia's war in Ingushetia: "Among the first-class passengers who flew into Ingushetia's Magas airport from Moscow on the afternoon of 31 August were two grey-haired men in suits. The pair avoided each other's gaze. One was Murat Zyazikov, 50, a former KGB officer and president of Ingushetia, the small Muslim republic which borders Chechnya in southern Russia. The other was Magomed Yevloyev, 36, an outspoken critic of Russia's brutal rule in Ingushetia, founder of the ingushetiya.ru website, and Zyazikov's great nemesis. The fates of the government bureaucrat and the government critic, which had been so closely bound up with each other, were about to diverge. Once the plane had touched down and the passengers offloaded, Zyazikov was ushered into a waiting Mercedes and swept away. Yevloyev meanwhile was met by a team of armed police. They bundled him, protesting, into their vehicle and drove off. Within 20 minutes Yevloyev had been shot in the temple. His near-lifeless body was dumped at a hospital where he died hours later. Officials in Moscow and Ingushetia's police say that Yevloyev’s death was the result of an accidental shot when he tried to grab an officer's weapon. But too many unarmed people have died in Ingushetia while 'putting up armed resistance' for this to be at all believable."
Le point 11.09.2008 (France)
In an interview with Elisabeth Levy and Franz-Olivier Giesbert, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel talks about his new novel "Le cas Sonderberg" (Grasset) about a New York journalist of Jewish origin who is searching for his identity. His story converges with the trial of a German student during which the Nazi past of his grandfather is dredged up and and who pleads "guilty but not guilty" to killing his uncle. In the novel, Wiesel reaches out a hand to the innocent "children of slaughterers" who feel themselves guilty nonetheless. It is also a reaction to his altered relationship to Germany. "It's true that I have always kept my distance from Germany. Not because I believed in the criminal character of an entire people or culture. That would be to banalise evil again. If everyone is evil then no one is evil. But this is how it was. I didn't understand Germany. (...) People didn't use to talk much about the past. Now it is taught everywhere, dealt with in books and films. Germany has retrieved its memory."
The New Republic 24.09.2008 (USA)
In a paradoxical way, the Bush administration is also to blame for the hard-hearted reactions of many so-called liberals to Russia's punitive action against Georgia, writes David Greenberg in the New Republic. When it came to taking sides in the Caucasus conflict, they defended the sort of crude realism that they once considered anathema. "After September 11 and during the run-up to the Iraq war, the Bush administration hijacked the liberal vocabulary of democracy, liberty, and human rights. It then proceeded to make a mockery of this rhetoric by thumbing its nose at the United Nations, curbing civil liberties at home, and torturing suspected enemies. Ashamed of the deeds done in the name of their principles, liberals turned not just on Bush but on the very espousal of those principles. They ceded them to the neocons, and ran as far away from foreign policy idealism as they could."
The New Yorker 22.09.2008 (USA)
David Remnick describes the difficult situation of one of the last bastions of free media in Russia: the radio station Ekho Moskvy and its editor-in-chief Aleksei Venediktov. In 2001 Putin invited Venediktov to a meeting in the Kremlin library. By way of embracing him and warning him simultaneously, Putin spoke at length about the difference between enemies and traitors. "It's a crucial distinction for Putin,' Venediktov said. 'He said, >Enemies are right in front of you, you are at war with them, then you make an armistice with them, and all is clear. A traitor must be destroyed, crushed.< This is his philosophy of the world. And then he said, >You know, Aleksei, you are not a traitor. You are an enemy.> ' Foolishly, perhaps, I asked Venediktov if Putin smiled when he said this. 'Smile?' Venediktov said. 'Putin never smiles. He was just making it clear in what sense I existed for him.'"
Przekroj 11.09.2008 (Poland)
Adam Michnik was never one to endorse the Kaczynski brothers. But all of a sudden, he is saying not only that the Polish president did the right thing over the Georgian crisis, but that it filled him with pride. In a conversation with his former pupil Piotr Najsztub, he does, however, speak out against a confrontation with Russia. "It is dangerous and stupid to abandon the future project of democracy in Russia. And the same goes for speaking the Cold War language again. Perhaps Russia is going in this direction and will force this language on us, but we should not comply. Putin is not Stalin, he is a KGB sub-lieutenant whom many Russians believe is effective. We should know whom we are talking to, but we should keep talking."
The New Statesman 15.09.2008 (USA)
The new issue explores Iran. In one article Aseih Amini reports on the blogger scene which, over the last seven years, has spawned a number of citizens' and women's rights initiatives- such as "Change for Equality" - and provided a reliable source of independent journalism. But Amini and her fellow bloggers are increasingly preyed upon by full-scale state repression and censorship. President Ahmadinejad might have his own blog, but the pressure on the free bloggers increases by the day. "In July the government began to consider a bill against 'online crimes'. Parliament is yet to vote on the bill, but if it is approved, bloggers and webmasters found guilty of 'promoting corruption, prostitution and apostasy' may find themselves facing the death sentence."
Further articles: In Tehran, Maziar Bahari collects impressions of his divided country and talks to Akbar Etemad, a long-term advisor to the Shah, who shows understanding for the Iranian nuclear programme. And Robert Tait explains that it's only the money bubbling up from the oil business that is staving off economic collapse in Iran.
Outlook India 22.09.2008 (India)
In an unusually patriotic tone, Outlook India celebrates the official recognition of India as the world's sixth nuclear power, in what it describes as an historic shift in global political power relations: "Those who gaze only at their own political navel do not appreciate how tectonic a shift it is in the calcified thinking of the status quo world where the already powerful rarely accept the newly emerging and advantaged rivals work hard to pretend, postulate and pontificate against the one outside the door ... Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, mysteriously patient and quietly firm, prevailed in the end, winning the confidence vote. He has earned his place in history as the leader who wears two crowns - unshackling India at home through economic reforms and liberating it abroad from nuclear apartheid."
The Atlantic 01.10.2008 (USA)
Jed Perl bids farewell to Philippe de Montebello who is retiring at the age of 72 and whose formula for success as head of the New York Metropolitan Museum was not to underestimate the public: "This has in many respects been an unlikely golden age, unfolding as corporate and government support shrinks and the conviction grows among cultural arbiters that the public will invariably gravitate toward the latest pop sensation rather than the art of the past. De Montebello, however, isn't among the pessimists. Rejecting the idea that a museum lives or dies on the basis of a few heavily marketed blockbuster events, de Montebello operates, as he told me in May, under the assumption that 'the public is a lot smarter than anybody gives it credit for. The public as a whole has intellectual curiosity. These are people who know the difference between a serious show and pure sham.'"
Further articles: James Fallows travels through the Western China with two Taiwanese businessmen, who have taken it upon themselves to catapult this backwater and its 300 million inhabitants into the 21st century. Benjamin Schwarz rubs his hands together in anticipation of Christian Lander's blog, "Stuff White People Like", which tracks trends in the camp of progressive white middle-class liberals. And Eric Hanson collects great moments in the history of man, from Proust's first asthma attack to Hitler's first Lohengrin and Ronald Reagan's entry into the Republican party.
L'Espresso 12.09.2008 (Italy)
In the film of Roberto Saviano's reportage, "Gomorra", which hit German screens last week, one of the stories follows the Comorra's lucrative waste disposal business, where toxic waste is dumped in illegal landfills around Naples. Now the man who started this dirty business twenty years ago, Gaetano Vasallo, has revealed all. Gianluca Di Feo and Emiliano Fittipaldi cite from the confession dictated by the former Mafia boss-turned-penitent. "I fear for my life which is why I have decide to work together with the law and reveal everything I was involved in, including illegal activities. In particular, I want to go into the illegal disposal of special, toxic and health-damaging waste from 1987/88 to 2005. The waste was disposed of in caves and undeveloped areas of land and not in certified land fills."
RSS
The New York Times investigates the new hunger for reality. In Salon, Andrzej Stasiuk sees only individual realities. In the Gazeta Wyborcza, the ethnologist Tomasz Rakowski describes the reality of the Polish poor mines. Sometimes you can turn reality on its head, El Pais reads in the Financial Times. Le Monde diplomatique gives the low-down on the ACTA talks. And the New Yorker dreams of less polish and a bit more grit.
In Magyar Narancs Agnes Heller demands more civil courage of the Hungarians. Mohammed Ali Atassi explains in Qantara, why conservatives in Egypt see women as candy: either wrapped or covered in flies. Oliver Roy outlines in Resetdoc, why's there not so much as a hair's breadth between the Christian right and the secular left. In Magazin, the philosopher Ludwig Haslar tells the Swiss that if they want mediocrity today, they cannot expect the superman tomorrow. Jonathan Safran Foer tells Prospect why he neither wants a chicken in his bed nor on his plate. The NYT embarks on a human-flesh search and finds a kitten killer.
The New Yorker tells the story of how corrupt podiatrists almost brought down the US health system. In Polityka, the Kapuscinski biographer Artur Domoslawski explains how he thinks the legendary reporter should be read. In Tygodnik, Zygmunt Bauman calls for more understanding for Kapuscinski. Magyar Narancs celebrates the ban on Holocaust denial in Hungary. In Le Point, Jorge Semprun asks whether Claude Lanzmann is the only person who's allowed to talk about the Holocaust. Wired describes how Google learned how to tell the difference between a hot dog and a poached pooch.
In Eurozine, the Transylvanian-Hungarian-Armenian writer Kinga Kali tells the story of a "virgjinesha". Prospect celebrates the next art superstar, Argentinian painter Guillermo Kuitca. The Gazeta Wyborcza explains how young people use the web. The New Yorker sends out a message to the depressed: stay away from psychiatric literature. Outlook Indian learns to play Carnatic music online. The London Review swims with the salmon sages.
The Atlantic finds out why the Chinese are not enemy number one in cyberspace. Elet es Irodalom asks why no one in Hungary is interested in former informers. In New Statesman, Tariq Ramadan can't tell us what a moderate Muslim is. The Guardian hearkens to the ticking bomb in Emily Dickinson's bosom and links it to the shards of crockery on the floor. And if it can't smoke, El Pais Semanal wants everything painted black.
In Prospect, Tim Berners-Lee invites the world to play with the British government's data. England, not Nigeria belongs on the terrorist list, literary Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka informs The Daily Beast. In Rue 89, Beppe Grillo explains why Sarkozy is more dangerous than Berlusconi. In Tygodnik Powszechny, Stefan Chwin mourns for the Polish idealist. Polityka reveals where a Pole turns to when he's not allowed to marry. Olga Tokarczuk walks her Polish tangle around Amsterdam for Salon. And the Guardian thinks about Armenian women rubbing their soft breasts on a stone.
In Wired, Chris Anderson celebrates the next industrial revolution - taking place in garages near you. The Boston Globe serenades the camel - Nabati style. In El Pais Semenal, the sociologist Edgar Morin complains about European lethargy. Outlook India asks why the Australians hate the Indians. Odra and Tygodnik are still debating the impact of freedom on literature. In OpenDemocracy, Salome Zourabichvili mourns for the wilted petals of the rose revolution. In Prospect, Martin Amis divides the literary sheep from the goats, according to the pleasure principle. The NYT profiles a dyed-in-the-wool jihadist from Alabama.
Das Magazin reports on the dramatic increase in the number of pupils who have threatened to gun down their classmates. The Spectator warns City bankers about gun-wielding dominatrices in Switzerland. In Sinn und Form, Marc Fumaroli remembers the man whose name shall not be mentioned: Mario Praz. In the New Humanist, Laurie Taylor remembers the holy men who sexually abused him as a child. The Guardian asks why Theo von Doesburg slipped into avant garde oblivion. And in the NYRB, Garry Kasparov asks why computer chess programmers are so uninspired?
OpenDemocracy explains why a novel called "Paranoia" suddenly disappeared from Belarussian bookshops. Prospect fears that a ban on Islam4UK could undermine British democracy. The Gazeta Wyborcza explores Polish-Jewish relations. Le Monde diplomatique watches the carving up of Africa. In El Pais Semanal, maths whizz Marcus du Sautoy explains the sex appeal of suduko. And Gerhard Richter manages to surprise the Nation.
The New Yorker buries itself in the Arab novel. In Le Monde, Bernard-Henri Levy heaps scorn on the state-run caricature of a debate. Qantara points to the person responsible for all the misery in the Arab world: Daddy. In L'Espresso, Umberto Eco takes a pin to the overblown daily paper. The Nation has earmarked 30 billion dollars to save journalism. In Tygodnik Powszechny, the writer Wojciech Albinski explains what makes Poland exotic. And the Spectator waves a tear-stained old hanky as shabby chic fades into the past.
In Merkur, art historian Wolfgang Ullrich defines a new type of artist: the contractor. In Nepszabadsag, writer Peter Nadas considers the crisis in Hungary and how it might end. In NouvelObs, Francis Ford Coppola explains why DVDs should be free. Eurozine introduces Lithuanian literature. In the New York Review of Books, Wyatt Manson asks why Pleiade is omitting Celine's anti-Semitic trilogy from the collected works. In Express, Philippe Gavi reminds us that Mohammed was not a crazed killer. A Californian marvels in NZZ Folio, at the reincarnation of an Indian factory worker. And confronted with the recent proliferation of literary cuddling, the New York Times yearns for a bit of Philip Roth.
Wired tracks James Cameron's 32-year quest to out-Lucas Lucas. In Nouvel Obs, Alain Finkielkraut and Alain Badiou tear each other apart over immigration and national identity. Tygodnik Powszechny introduces the pioneering artist Miroslaw Balka. Andras Bozoki asks why Hungarians are undermining democracy. In The New Statesman, Leo McKinstry explains why the bombing of Coventry was an inspiration to the British Air Staff.
Vanity Fair goes in search of a superpartner. Elet es Irodalom reads a new collection of essays by Imre Keresz. Outlook India complains about journalistic corruption. The New Yorker reads a new Koestler biography. Nepszabadsag foresees the next French revolution. Rue89 wonders about the provenance of prawns. And in the New Republic, Moshe Halberthal celebrates the sublime humility of Amartya Sen.
In Wilson Quarterly, the economist Tyler Cowen sings an ode to multitasking. Prospect has seen the monsters of the left. The Boston Globe follows James C. Scott to the new Shangri-La in the mountains of Tibet. Weltwoche is up in arms about the criticism of Switzerland's anti-minaret vote. In the Novel Obs, Pierre Nora applies his mind to the bestseller. New Criterion knows why the Pop art bubble won't pop. NZZ Folio examines the chicken nugget. Al Ahram asks what political Islam wants. The Walrus mourns for the first victim of the C-58. In Resetdoc, Joseph Massad explains why Arab homosexuals are an invention of the West.
Slovenian poet Ales Debeljak argues for a fusion of cultures in Eurozine. Umberto Eco agrees in Le Monde. The Nation portrays the Salvadorian author Horacio Castellanos Moya, who himself explains in Babelia why 200 years after independence there's nothing to celebrate in a number of Latin American countries. Polityka lies Poland down on the couch. La vie des idees reads a book on Jews and the resistance in France. Americans read more than Europeans, writes historian Peter Baldwin in Merkur. And in The New York Review of Books Robert Darnton makes two bold proposals for a new Book Settlement.