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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Edge.org |The Spectator | Il Foglio| Nepszabadsag | DU | The Economist | L'Express | Die Weltwoche | Folio | Le point | The New York Review of Books
Edge.org, 30.05.2006 (USA)
The best essays about the disconcerting media revolution known as the
Internet continue to come from the USA. A fortnight ago in the New York Times Magazine, Kevin Kelly (more here) set out
his euphoric vision of the Internet-based collective and the universal
book. Almost immediately, although without direct reference to Kelly, Jaron Lanier (more here) penned an acerbic counter argument, criticising the collective spirit kindled by projects such as Wikipedia which believes a collective intelligence will aggregate by itself on the net without responsible authors. Lanier talks of a "new online collectivism"
and the "resurgence of the idea that the collective is all-wise". "This
idea has had dreadful consequences when thrust upon us from the extreme
Right or the extreme Left in various historical periods. The fact that
it's now being re-introduced today by prominent technologists and
futurists, people who in many cases I know and like, doesn't make it
any less dangerous." Lanier does not believe in erasing authorship:
"The beauty of the Internet is that it connects people. The value is in the other people.
If we start to believe that the Internet itself is an entity that has
something to say, we're devaluing those people and making ourselves
into idiots."
Lanier's essay provoked many people to enter into the debate at edge.org, Kevin Kelly among them.
The Spectator, 12.06.2006 (UK)
Peter Oborne reports from Darfur: "When we visited the scene of the battle we found that bodies had been shoved hastily
into mass graves. An arm stuck out from under one bush, and the flesh
had been eaten by wild animals. A human foot obtruded from another
grave. Dried pools of blood stained the ground. The stench of human
putrefaction was heavy in the air. Bits and pieces of clothing, spent
bullets and the protective amulets used by African fighters lay
scattered on the ground. One body still lay exposed. The dead man had
evidently climbed a tree to escape his attackers, but been shot down
from his hiding place."
Il Foglio, 10.06.2006 (Italy)
The Golf GTI was, sociologically speaking at least, the forerunner of the now controversial SUV, writes Maurizio Crippa, and also the perfect symbol of the 80s. "If cars have a spirit, then it is certainly an evil one, demonic. The enemy is inside them, a man like in Stephen King's 'Christine' of 1983. Christine might have been a Plymouth Fury of 1958, but its cursed spirit uncovered the ghastly depths of the GT decade and all the souped-up, turbo-boosted and drilled-out
engines. That all came to an end in 1989, famously the year of
salvation. The Golf, in particular the GTI, the black one - and we are
not talking about the one with rabbit's foot in the back – was
aggressive, demanding, loud."
Nepszabadsag, 10.06.2006 (Hungary)
After substantial renovation, the legendary New York coffee house, one of the most important literary coffee houses of the Danube monarchy has reopened. The writer Ivan Bächer recollects:"Once
upon a time, not only the coffee house but the whole palace, even every
room, every corner every nook and cranny of the the entire block of the
surrounding houses was full of journalists, writers, publishing houses
and editorial offices." The new Italian owners have redeveloped the literary spirit to death,
Bächer states disappointedly: "On the wall is a box of reinforced glass
in which a dozen beautiful old books are hermetically sealed. A book safe.
At the opening celebrations in 1895 the playwright Ferenc Molnar threw
the keys to the coffee house into the Danube so that the splendid
institution could never be closed again. After the reopening, perhaps
someone should take the precaution of throwing the keys to the
reinforced glass box into the Danube to prevent anyone from
entertaining the idea of ever opening a book in these rooms. (Here and here photos of the coffee house in its heyday, Here, here and here after the renovation.)
DU, 1.6.06 (Switzerland)
DU magazine focusses on Germany for the World Cup and has its
correspondents report from every corner of the Bundesrepublik. As usual
only a very small selection is available online, but Albrecht Tübke's photographic portraits which accompany the pieces of writing can be viewed here.
The lengthy discursive
essays are less illuminating than the small atmospheric pieces such as
the one by Svenja Leibe on the village where she grew up. "Drive off the motorway, on and on through the scattered settlements,
none of which you will find surprising. Drive through them, but do not
hope to see anything through the panorama windows of the bungalows,
drive on down the curvy streets, past the pig farms, past the silver
bunting of the car show rooms. Follow the neon coloured invitations to
'foam parties and barn raves'. Look out for people, you won't see many
of them. Don't think the red lantern in front of the family house is a
forgotten Christmas decoration. Drive. Drive down the pretty hill, on
past the hidden building sites in the garden of the old pheasantry,
down to the 'tank resistant' bridge that stoutly spans a tiny stream.
The road runs directly into the heart of the village and to a little
house behind a metre-long curve sign where it turns very sharply to the
left. Don't look out of the window with too much interest here, you
will only make them suspicious. There is nothing to buy any more. Leave
them in peace. Let them file away at their gardens, take that seriously."
The Economist, 09.06.2006 (UK)
Inspired by Isaac Asimov's futuristic vision "I, Robot", The Economist asks in its Technology Quarterly how secure our future will be among robots. Do Asimov's three laws
for the protection of humans hold today? "Regulating the behaviour of
robots is going to become more difficult in the future, since they will
increasingly have self-learning mechanisms built into them, says Gianmarco Veruggio,
a roboticist at the Institute of Intelligent Systems for Automation in
Genoa, Italy. As a result, their behaviour will become impossible to
predict fully, he says, since they will not be behaving in predefined
ways but will learn new behaviour as they go."
Other articles dealing with new fuel cells, artificial neural networks in car motors and the victory march of Bluetooth (wireless personal area networks) are unfortunately not online. Not in the magazine but also topical here is Robocup, the world robot football championships taking place this week in Bremen.
L'Express, 09.06.2006 (France)
Does globalisation make Karl Marx a "pioneer of modern thinking"? The question is tossed around in this issue by two indiviuals who are convinced the answer is yes: English historian Eric Hobsbawm and Jacques Attali, economist and former advisor to Francois Mitterand, whose book "Karl Marx ou l'esprit du monde"
was published last year. Hobsbawm finds a renewed interest in Marx
entirely natural: "Today we are seeing the globalised economy that Marx anticipated.
Still, he didn't foresee all of its repercussions. For example, the
Marxist prophesy whereby an increasingly numerous proletariat topples capitalism
in the industrial countries did not come about." Attali comments: "The
Socialist International was a remarkable attempt on Marx's part to
think the world in its entirety. Marx is an extraordinarily modern
thinker, because rather than sketching the outlines of a socialist
state, his writings describe the capitalism of the future."
Die Weltwoche, 08.06.2006 (Switzerland)
Daniel Binswanger portrays Segolene Royal, the promising presidential candidate whose conservative views are pushing French socialists into an identity crisis. "Re-education camps for criminal youths controlled by the army,
state paternalism of parents with authority problems, cutbacks in
funding for people with delinquent children: for the last week people
in France have been discussing a whole catalogue of measures aimed at
coming to grips with youth violence in the banlieues. But for once the
debate has not been set off by the hyperactive Minister of the Interior
Nicolas Sarkozy. The French are rubbing their eyes in disbelief: as if
in a political mirage, the discourse on law-and-order has changed camps."
Folio, 06.06.2006 (Switzerland)
What's become of lunch? A sandwich gulped down while you're walking. Folio presents this rule and exceptions to it.
Stephan Israel visits Michel Addons,
cook for the Italian EU Commission: "Today there's lobster tails on
spring rolls with ginger and oyster sauce. For the main course there's veal sweetbreads
with new potatoes and green asparagus from Provence. For desert there's
strawberries on creme brulee. Today is the yearly visit of the
much-feared auditors from Luxembourg."
Italian author Andrea Camilleri commiserates with those who have to swallow down a hamburger on the street, reminiscing about how his grandmother used to cook at noon. "As primo there was mostly pasta, as a gratin or with meat sauce, sometimes there was also melanzane alla parmigiana. As secondo there was poultry, lamb or fish, then cheese and sausages. Of course a lunch like that took its time. No one went back to work before four in the afternoon."
In his "Duftnote" column on fragrances, Luca Turin voices his amazement at a new summer perfume: "This is so wretched that it almost sets new standards in the matter." (Here the English version.)
Le point, 12.06.2006 (France)
Bernard-Henri Levy is up in arms that no one in France has said a word about Simone de Beauvoir, who died 20 years ago. In his "notebook"
column, he pays homage to seven women, all of whom are "proof of the
timelessness of de Beauvoir's tremendous work": Hillary Clinton,
Condoleezza Rice, Chilean president Michelle Bachelet, French
politician Segolene Royal, women's rights activist Fadela Amara,
Burmese Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and – German chancellor Angela Merkel. Levy writes: "Angela Merkel, 'that woman' as Gerhard Schröder,
Putinist and world record holder in matters of corruption under a
democracy, called her; that 'girl' who peeved him no end at the time of
his election defeat... She, the specialist in quantum physics
(elementary particles are not Michel Houellebecq's terrain, but hers),
enjoys a popularity that has her predecessor, and all of
Europe's heads of government, green with envy. And on top of that she's
rehabilitating the finances of an economy that thanks to her is once
more becoming what it always has been and should definitely be once
more: the moving force in the European equation."
The New York Review of Books, 22.06.2006 (USA)
Five years after the American victory over the Taliban, Ahmed Rashid sees Afghanistan
once more on the verge of collapse: "A revived Taliban movement has
made a third of the country ungovernable. Together with al-Qaeda,
Taliban leaders are trying to carve out new bases on the
Afghanistan–Pakistan border. They are aided by Afghanistan's resurgent opium industry,
which has contributed to widespread corruption and lawlessness,
particularly in the south. The country's huge crop of poppies is
processed into opium and refined into heroin for export, now accounting
for close to 90 percent of the global market."
Further articles: Alan Ryan presents three books in which renowned philosophers – Kwame Anthony Appiah, Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum – address concepts of cultural diversity and cosmopolitanism. Freeman J. Dyson reviews Daniel C. Dennet's philosophical treatise on religion, "Breaking the Spell",
in which Dennett pinpoints the real problem as "belief in belief": "He
finds evidence that large numbers of people who identify themselves as
religious believers do not in fact believe the doctrines of their
religions but only believe in belief as a desirable goal."
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.