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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Damned to expertocracy
The end of democracy? Philosopher Peter Sloterdijk talks with Marius Meller about French revoltism, British phlegm and Europe's national hallucination chambers.
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Friendly takeover
In response to the French 'no' to the European constitution, France's new Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has proposed a new kind of union between France and Germany. Historian Gustav Seibt argues that this would be a disaster for Germany and insists that Europe be considered in a broader historical perspective.
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The victory of Euro-nihilism
The French no is standing guard on the frontiers of the old European Community. The referendum on the constitution became a retrospective referendum against the enlargement from fifteen to twenty-five member states. Formerly Euro-skeptics, the French who recklessly promoted the no on May 29 have become Euro-nihilists. By André Glucksmann
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"I can't live without Europe"
Both France and the Netherlands have rejected the European Constitution. German-Iranian author Navid Kermani reflects on what this means to him, as someone who wanted to become - or thought he was - a European.
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In full knowledge of the facts
The
practice of holding a referendum on a subject like the European
constitution is suicidal. It is an electoral absurdity that puts in
question the political intelligence not only of the French president,
but also of his immediate entourage and communication advisers. By Paul Virilio
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The illusionary "Leftist No"
To
the French naysayers: A Left which aims to tame and civilise capitalism
with a "No" to the European constitution would be deciding for the
wrong side at the wrong time. By Jürgen Habermas
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Europe demands courage
An open letter to French voters from German intellectuals, artists and academics warns the French public that voting "No" to the EU constitution would mean betraying progress and abandoning the ideals of the Enlightenment.
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Wake up, Europeans!
Or you will find yourself subjected to a constitution you never wanted, discussed, or decided on. By Oliver Eberle
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RSS
Thirty years of superficial reporting by the Western press neglected the build up to the current turmoil in Tehran. Iranians are not risking their lives because of an alleged election fraud last June, but because they have endured thirty years of brutality, humiliation and frustration. By Haideh Daragahi
To advocate the Swiss minaret ban with the arguments of Anne Applebaum, Henryk Broder and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, is to apply to the sort of fundamentalist logic which the west left behind - historically speaking - an amazingly short time ago. If we don't want to return to a pre-1648 world, Gustav Seibt argues, what we need now is two-way tolerance.
Claus Leggewie and Harald Welzer have written a book about the end of the world as we knew it. Jan Feddersen grills them on climate change and the role of democracy in a political system that has had no new ideas since the fall of the Wall.
UPDATE: Herta Müller wins the Nobel Prize for Literature 2009. Twenty years after Ceausescu's execution, his secret service is still active - only its name has changed. Secret files are being manipulated; shadowing and smear campaigns continue. For the first time, Romanian-born German writer Herta Müller describes her long history of Securitate persecution, uncertain of how much she has yet to endure.
In local elections at the beginning of the month, the Austrian state of Carinthia effectively granted a governing majority to a dead man. Eva Menasse looks at an idyllically beautiful corner of the world that has been dumbed-down to death. Photo by 
The fatwa against British Indian author Salman Rushdie was issued 20 years ago. Today, says Thierry Chervel, Islamism has the West more firmly in its grip than ever before – thanks to our left-wing intellectuals.
Tunisian-born writer Abdelwahab Meddeb depicts the pain and sadness afflicting Gaza, where the horror of the human race appears in all its nakedness.
The age of privatisation is over. Politics not the market is responsible for promoting the common good. Philosopher Jürgen Habermas talks to Thomas Assheuer about the necessity of an international world order. (Photo: Wolfram Huke)