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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L'Espresso | Le Nouvel Observateur | The Atlantic | Outlook India | Commentary | London Review of Books | La vie des idees | ADN cultura | The Economist | Elet es Irodalom
L'Espresso 17.10.2008 (Italy)
Politics and religion, groans Umberto Eco in his Bustina di Minerva, is not only disastrously linked on the far side of the Atlantic. In his own Catholic homeland, fundamentalists are gaining ground among the Christians. "Whereas in the past, American fundamentalists drew a thick line between themselves and the Catholics, Catholics today are moving ever closer to fundamentalist positions – and not only in America (just look at the bizarre return of anti-Darwinism after years of a Church-orchestrated ceasefire on the evolutionary theory front). That the Italian Church did not join sides with a practising Catholic like Prodi, but jumped into bed with a confesssionless, rakish divorcee, raises the suspicion that, in Italy too, the voices of the believers are now being offered to the first politician who, independent of any religious values, is prepared to make maximum concessions to whatever dogmatic powers support him."
Le Nouvel Observateur 16.10.2008 (France)
It is absurd to present religious fundamentalists as a counterforce to modernity, Islam expert Oliver Roy tells the Nouvel Obs, when they are actually more like agents of modernity. "Globalisation has strengthened fundamentalist forms of religion, whether we are talking about Islamic Salafism or the Protestantism of the Evangelicals. For the fundamentalists, the worldly cultures - traditional or modern - are pure heathenism. They are opposed to culture because it does nothing for religion and is therefore useless, or it is even seen as a hindrance to authentic religious practice. The fundamentalists do not only not suffer from culture's retreat under the sign of globalism, they are actually profiting from it." Roy has just published a new book in France, "La Sainte Ignorance" (Seuil)
The Atlantic 01.11.2008 (USA)
In an detailed and illuminating article, Andrew Sullivan, former editor-in-chief of The New Republic explains "Why I Blog". As he sees it, the hotly disputed question of whether blogs will replace long newspaper articles, is a redundant one: after all jazz did not take out classical music. "This is actually a golden era for journalism. The blogosphere has added a whole new idiom to the act of writing and has introduced an entirely new generation to nonfiction. It has enabled writers to write out loud in ways never seen or understood before. And yet it has exposed a hunger and need for traditional writing that, in the age of television's dominance, had seemed on the wane."
Further articles: James Fallows asks: "How can official China possibly do such a clumsy and self-defeating job of presenting itself to the world?" Jeffrey Goldberg explains why airport controls are a waste of time, after he successfully smuggled two cans of Budweiser Light though the metal detectors in a neoprene beer belly. Paul Bloom presents the latest findings from the neuroscience of identity (in the first person plural).
Outlook India 27.10.2008 (India)
Sanjay Suri is a little peeved that the Booker Prize went to Aravind Adiga's novel "The White Tiger" (excerpt): "There is truth in what he says, both about the anger in the underbelly and the unmindful middle class. The difficulty many have with the book is in the tone, the calculated coinciding of an observation with what a Western eye would like to see."
Commentary 01.11.2008 (USA)
Financial journalist John Steele Gordon sees the current finance crisis not as the fallout of rampant capitalism but, to the contrary, as the result of the failure of the so-called "government sponsored enterprises" of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. "By 2007, Fannie and Freddie owned about half of the 12 trillion dollars in outstanding mortgages, an unprecedented concentration of debt - and of risk." Thanks to the regulations adopted in 1995 under Clinton, "Fannie and Freddie were now permitted to invest up to 40 times their capital in mortgages; banks, by contrast, were limited to only ten times their capital. Put briefly, in order to increase the number of mortgages Fannie and Freddie could underwrite, the federal government allowed them to become grossly undercapitalized - that is, grossly to reduce their one source of insurance against failure. That was bad enough; then came politics to make it much worse. ... Unlike other large, profit-seeking financial institutions, they were headquartered in Washington, D.C., and were political to their fingertips. Their management and boards tended to come from the political world, not the business world. And some were corrupt. ... Moreover, both companies made generous political contributions, especially to those members of Congress who sat on oversight committees."
London Review of Books 19.10.2008 (UK)
John Lancaster has a very different take on the financial crisis: "A huge unregulated boom in which almost all the upside went directly into private hands, followed by a gigantic bust in which the losses were socialised. That is literally nobody's idea of how the financial system is supposed to work. It is just as much an abomination to the free marketeer as it is to the social democrat or outright leftist. But the models and alternatives don't seem to be forthcoming: there is an ideological and theoretical vacuum where the challenge from the left used to be. Capitalism no longer has a global antagonist, just at the moment when it has never needed one more – if only to clarify thinking and values, and to provide the chorus of jeering and Schadenfreude which at this moment is deeply appropriate. I would be providing it myself if I weren’t so frightened."
La vie des idees 17.10.2008 (France)
As the markets crash around us, everybody keeps harping on about the return of the state, notes philosopher and civil society theorist Bruno Bernardi, but it's not that simple: "The nationalisation we are seeing at the moment, whether part or full, open or disguised, is limited to financial companies. It neither represents the return of a state-run economy, nor the return of the state as employer, but something fundamentally new: the institution of the state which runs a financial market. This means restructuring the market as a state institution or restructuring the state as a market facility."
ADN cultura 19.10.2008 (Argentina)
Susana Reinoso conducts an interview with author Paolo Coelho who was celebrated at the Frankfurt Book Fair for selling his first 100 million books. "I have no idea what an Argentinian, a Norwegian and a Chinese have in common, but they all read my books. This gives me hope that culture can still function as a bridge. While everything else collapses – the economy and politics, people can still communicate, with the help of stories, of literature, painting and music. As for internet piracy, it can't be turned back. But not to worry, when everyone is a pirate, a new system will come into being. The illegal will become legal. It was like that with the English: first of all they were pirates, then lords, and that's how they created an empire. The internet is a very positive and strong instrument for social activity. I spend three hours a day on the internet. The only danger I see is in the search engines, where the potential for manipulation lies. The book still has a special value in the internet: what you can't find on the market, you can find there."
The Economist 17.10.2008 (UK)
The Economist comments rather drily on the discovery of Milan Kundera's signature at the bottom of a letter denouncing a Czech spy. "As Mr Kundera himself has written so eloquently, 'the struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.' Under totalitarianism, fairy tales good and bad often trumped truth. Some heroes of the Prague Spring in 1968 had been enthusiastic backers of the Stalinist regime's murderous purges after the communist putsch of 1948. Mr Hradilek [the man who found the incriminating file -ed.] surmises that Mr Kundera probably acted out of self-interest, not malice or conviction. Millions faced such choices in those times. Some have owned up; many have not. Countless episodes like that linger over eastern Europe like an invisible toxic cloud."
The Economist has been sending out warning signals about the credit crunch since December 2004 - on its font cover. Gawker has compiled these images of doom.
Elet es Irodalom 17.10.2008 (Hungary)
Since the fall of communism, more and more foreigners are moving to Hungary. But the Hungarian state has yet to find a strategy to help these immigrants integrate into their new surroundings – and the population is not always open to new arrivals, as Gabor Michalko, of the Geographical Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA), explains in an interview: "The Hungarians tend to be rather wary of outsiders, sometimes even suspicious and hostile, they are slow to open up and make friends. Unfortunately this in an inherited pattern. In the past two decades since the end of communism, there have undoubtedly been countless changes for the good, basically because of the new generation which, despite economic difficulties, finds it much easier to travel abroad and learn about new customs. But the process is achingly slow. On the language skills front, there has been no clear improvement, and the Hungarians continue to be – literally and mentally – immobile."
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.