Why do teenagers find SchülerVZ, flickr or YouTube so fantastic? What are they finding in the communities on the internet that doesn't exist in real life, and what exactly are they doing with it? The JFF- Institut für Medienpädagogik (Institute for Media Education) looks into these questions and learns from a 15 year-old "I think the future will just be one big Second Life."...
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Prospect | Merkur | Magyar Hirlap | The New York Review of Books | Outlook India | Literaturen | Al Ahram | Le point | The Economist | Le Figaro | Gazeta Wyborcza |
Prospect, 01.01.2006 (UK) 
Robert Skidelsky, professor of Political Economy and Keynes biographer, has travelled to China and visited the city of Harbin in Manchuria, where his family - "one of the leading Jewish-Russian families in the Far East" - once lived. In 1916 they owned residential, industrial and mining property in eastern Siberia, had 3,000 sq km of timber concessions in Russia and Manchuria. "We drive to the Skidelsky house on the Bolshoi Prospekt in Harbin. It is bigger and grander than it appears in the photographs, but a shadow of its former glory. Whereas before it was set in spacious lawns and looked out on to open fields, now the town has crept up on it and it is closed in by skyscrapers. The house was looted in 1945, and like so many similar properties, minimally maintained as an institution—in this case a People's Liberation Army leisure centre. I meet several of these ancients sitting on white sofas around what must have been a sumptuous drawing room. When I am introduced by the director as the 'former owner', they greet me warmly. One 'veteran' thanks me very politely for letting them use my house! I refrain from saying that it is not with my permission."
Noam Chomsky, recently celebrated in this magazine as the world's top public intellectual, answers charges by Oliver Kamm, who accused Chomsky of "a particularly dishonest handling of source material" in the last issue. "I turned with interest to Oliver Kamm's critique of the 'crude and dishonest arguments' he attributes to me, hoping to learn something. And learn something I did, though not quite what Kamm intended; rather, about the lengths to which some will go to prevent exposure of state crimes and their own complicity in them."
Merkur, 31.12.2005 (Germany) 
In his economics column, Rainer Hank as usual is hot on the trail of the shock waves made by the managing partner of the British TCI hedge fund, Christopher Hohn, when he ousted the big cats of the German stock exchange, Werner Seifert and Rolf Breuer.
"All of a sudden the chairmen and the boards of directors of German
stock corporations became aware of what can happen to them when the
shareholders rebel. It is new for Germany that the owners of a company
can actively assert their rights. Of course they have always threatened
to sell their stocks when they were unhappy with the performance of
share value, but that they are now voicing dissent, chasing the bosses away while opting to stay put themselves is highly unusual. 'Shareholders are stupid and impudent.
Stupid for buying the shares and impudent for wanting to see dividends
on top' - the legendary dictum of the banker Carl Fürstenberg has
reflected the assumptions of top management in this country until very
recently."
Magyar Hirlap, 24.12.2005 (Hungary)
In the Christmas supplement, the writer Peter Nadas tells in an interview about the years he spent working on his new novel "Parallel Stories": "The most exciting part, of course, was being a woman.
There were weeks when I suddenly would feel very odd, as if my body was
changing. A writer has to be a good actor. Women and men have identical
organs in physiological terms, it's just that a few genes
pointed us in different directions in the early phase of embryonic
life. Whether we become men or women, we still carry the same germ of both sexes within us." Towards the end of the conversation, he suddenly announces that "Parallel Stories" might be his last novel,
because "I can't write anything better. There are certainly better and
still better qualities in reach but I am neither a civil servant nor an
employee and I can stop writing any time. The mechanics of writing a novel, the whole role playing of the author no longer interests me."
The New York Review of Books, 12.01.2005 (US)
Ian Buruma is gobsmacked by David Margolick's book "Beyond Glory" about the boxing fight between Joe Louis and Max Schmeling. The book evokes the fight so vividly that Buruma himself felt the joy of sweet revenge that took Harlem in 1937 as the "Brown Bomber" knocked out the "Übermensch": "Joe Louis had told his trainers that he wouldn't need more than one round to exact his revenge on Schmeling. He was as good as his word. The fight barely lasted more than two minutes. In the words of Ernest Hemingway, 'The Negro swung, hooked, swung and hooked at [Schmeling] as though he were the big bag.' He hit him everywhere, on his face, his jaw, his head, his body. Louis later said: 'I thought in my mind, How's that, Mr Super-race?'"
Outlook India, 09.01.2006 (India) 
This year India was the scene of many catastrophes, from the Tsunami on the east coast, to the floods in Bombay, the earthquake in Kashmir to the deadly bomb blasts in New Delhi. For this reason, writes Rohit Brijnath in the lead story, the last issue of the year is dedicated to the "heroes" who acted as helpers in the wake of the catastrophes: "We see a bomb, we flee, it is not the coward's response but an answering to the instinct of self-preservation. But Kuldip Singh, the bus driver in Govindpuri, will pause, and in itself that makes him unusual. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said: 'A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is braver five minutes longer.'"
Literaturen, 01.01.2006 (Germany) 
Literary couples are the main focus of this edition. We can read online Sigrid Löffler’s description of the new novel by New York wunderkind pair Nicole Krauss and Jonathan Safran Foer. "The History of Love" by Krauss and Safran Foer’s "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" are "so similar
in social setting, style and narrative perspective, characters and mood
that it would be easy to think that they come from the same hand." Both
books have child heroes, and both "mine the Shoah as a readily
accessible source of literary raw material, in which to blithely embed
their sentimental, bizarre, melodramatic and kitschily emotional stories, as befits the American zeitgeist... As long as there is a receptive market for naively spun Holocaust fairytales, Kraus and Foer will be pampered as the double darlings of the literary scene," writes Löffler frankly.
Al Ahram, 22.12.2005 (Egypt) 
Rania Khallaf reports from the "Sharjah International Book Fair" in the United Arab Emirates, where various events have reflected the state of literature and publishing in the Arab countries. One seminar was dedicated to the lack of translations into Arab: "Said Al-Barghouti, a translator, asserted that there is an undeniable crisis in translation in the Arab world. 'For example,' he said, 'Israel translates annually more than what all Arab countries put together translate in a given year.' He attributes this crisis to the limited resources of publishing houses and the absence of a vision or integrated policy of translation."
Heba M. Sharobeem gives an interesting review of the book "Opening the Gates - An Anthology of Arab Feminist Writing" (Indiana University Press).
Le point, 22.12.2005 (France) 
In a highly entertaining interview, the doyen of the Nouveau Roman, Alain Robbe-Grillet (more here)
talks about his books, his work, his stubborn relationship with the
Academie Francaise, and his status as "someone who is famous for being
famous". When asked how he would describe himself in a nutshell, the
now 83-year-old writer gave the following reply: "I'm an atheist, whom
God visits occasionally. A non-existent God of course, more of a
quark-like being or a bit of anti-matter... And when he visits me –
which he mostly does when I'm in the bath – he gives me bits of advice and talks about my genius.
I have him to thank for the solution to my technical problems – a
difficult choice, or a certain side – and I'm delighted by this little
co-operation. My mother – I must admit – also thought I was a genius.
But have I really answered your question."
In his "notebook" Bernard-Henri Levy asks whether it's possible to hold back the "Fascislamists" in Teheran. In view of the ever-growing atomic threat from Iran, we cannot "as we did in the case of other totalitarians
like Hitler, Stalin, the Khmer Rouge who told us what their intentions
were, fail to do everything in our power to stop them." And "since
America is embroiled in its absurd Iraq war, it's up to us, the Europeans, to ask questions – and we have very little time left."
The Economist, 23.12.2005 (UK) 
Why are the Japanese so endeared with robots? Because they are the perfect answer to their own communication difficulties, answers the magazine: "Although they are at ease with robots, many Japanese are not as comfortable around other people. That is especially true of foreigners. Immigrants cannot be programmed as robots can. You never know when they will do something spontaneous, ask an awkward question, or use the wrong honorific in conversation. But, even leaving foreigners out of it, being Japanese, and having always to watch what you say and do around others, is no picnic."
Le Figaro, 22.12.2005 (France)
The debate seethes on in France over state intervention in historical interpretation. The creme de la creme of French historians have now written a petition entitled "Freedom for history!" (original here). Le Figaro reports that the historians are not only arguing for the abolishment of a law decreeing that the "positive sides" of French colonial history should be taught in schools. The petition also calls for laws to be abrogated that render denying the Holocaust or the genocide of the Armenians a criminal offence.
In an interview, Pierre Nora acknowledges the good intent of these laws, but argues that the multiplication of such "commemoration laws" bring out their "perverse repercussions".
"Commemoration is not history. Twenty years ago it was still a question
of acknowledging the rights and legitimacy of certain social, religious
and sexual minorities. That was a modest form of commemoration. But
today, certain proponents of commemoration have a penchant for
aggressiveness. They assert a tyrannical, even terrorist form of commemoration,
especially vis-a-vis the academic community. Serious historians are
being thrown as fodder to the hungry lobbies, who are now threatening
to bury the truth with laws. The guardians of certain historical
interpretations have to be prevented from taking academic research hostage."
Gazeta Wyborcza, 24.12.2005 (Poland)
"A spectre is haunting Europe, the spectre of the Polish plumber". So begins an article by Polish-Swedish historian and author Maciej Zaremba on occupational migration
in today's Europe – from the Swedes who work in Norway to the Latvians
and Poles who work in Sweden to the Ukrainians who do unwanted jobs in
Poland. "150 years after the 'Communist Manifesto', the worker has once
more become a haunting spectre. This time he is not waving a flag, nor
does he want to topple systems – he just wants to work. And
that's the scary thing." From the Swedish unionists who protest against
Latvian competition to the British Minister for Europe ("Oh, we love
the Polish plumber!") - everyone is faced with the problem. "750 zlotys
for a professor from Kiev, and 40 times that much for a Swedish packer
in Norway – the difference has nothing to do with what the work is
worth, but with history, borders and artificial exchange rates." The
article originally appeared as part of a series in the Swedish paper Dagens Nyheter.
RSS
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.
In the Weltwoche, Tom Ford makes the case for full, natural pubic hair. Vanity Fair blames Bill Keller for the diminishing Timesness of the New York Times. In Espresso, Umberto Eco mourns the diminishing importance of the newpapers all together. The Times waves its fork about over the English breakfast. In L'Express, über ad-man Maurice Levy wants to give the industry a complete rehaul. The LRB experiences the joy of French painting, the TLS the joy of German Romanticism, the Economist the joy of Japanese "infantile capitalism and Al Ahram, the joy of Russian photography. The New Yorker conquers English with Li Yang.
Elet es Irodolam knows that 'minor literature' doesn't have to be political to be political. World Affairs defends Hirsi Ali, Bruckner and Berman against Buruma, Garton Ash und Ramadan. Rue 89 works through a black book of censorship. In the TLS professor of geriatric medicine, Raymond Tallis, argues that too much brain is the death of literary criticism. Hector Abad speaks out against literary protectionism in Semana. Outlook India is thoroughly put out: revolution is simply not cricket. And Vanity Fair plunges into icy water with the Russians.