Thorsten Brinkmann is a passionate collector of everything that is bulky, ageing, and somewhat musty. A book now offers the first overview of the Hamburg artist?s work....
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Radovan Karadzic might be on trial in The Hague, but he can sit back in his Hugo Boss suit, confident that his work is done. His heirs are young, healthy and full of hate. And as far as they are concerned, the war is far from over. Croatian author Dubravka Ugresic dreams of a procession of collective shame and a ritual of repentance.
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The dead body of Russian artist Anna Alchuk was pulled out of the river Spree in April this year. She and her husband, philosopher Michail Ryklin, had moved to Berlin in November 2007 after life in Russia became intolerable as a direct consequence of Alchuk's participation in the exhibition "Caution: Religion!". Michail Ryklin looks to his wife's tormented diary entries to help him approximate the causes of her death.
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At the Durban Conference against Racism in 2001, anti-colonialism bared its anti-Semitic face. The UN is planning a follow-up conference next year in Geneva. Pascal Bruckner tells democracies to keep their distance.
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Advocates of Ukrainian democracy are motivated by old desires for independence from Moscow and, now that political autonomy has been achieved, by the need to get under the protective umbrella of Nato and the EU. From an objective point view, though, there are plenty of arguments against Ukraine turning its back on Russia. By Richard Wagner (Photo: Lothar Deus)
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On the 60th anniversary of the state of Israel, exiled Iraqi writer, Najem Wali, decided to go and survey the "enemy" territory with his own eyes. What he found was an explanation for the reluctance of Arab leaders to let their people make the same journey: the stagnation of Arab societies and economies cannot be blamed on Israel.
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Dragan Klaic arrived in Skopje on the day that Greece vetoed Macedonia's bid to join NATO at the summit in Bucharest. He found a nation reeling from this unexpected slap in the face.
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Dragan Klaic returned to Belgrade to give a theatre seminar. It happened to be on the same day that rioting and protests against Kosovo's independence flared up in a replay of a scenario from the late eighties. An eye witness account of self-destructive Serbian theatrics.
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Since the 19th century Ukrainians have been dreaming of a return to the paradise lost of Europe. But Ukraine's rich and painful history remains a blank spot in the European collective consciousness, or a mighty underground river flowing out of Europe's cellar, littered with corpses. By Oksana Zabuzhko
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No sooner were the fires put out reelected the government that bore the than Greek votersbrunt of responsibility for the tragedy. Did those who suffered so much learn no lesson from their distress? Crime writer Petros Markaris looks at why the Greeks have failed to find their way out of the political crisis rocking their country.
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Russian journalist and Putin critic Grigori Pasko talks with Tobias Goltz about the North Stream Pipeline, Russia's state-controlled media and how his like-minded colleagues are dropping off like flies.
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The resounding electoral victory of the Islamic Justice and Development Party bodes a conservative turn with Muslim undertones in Turkey. Since Atatürk's reforms in the 1920s, Turkey has been held by a corset of modernisation along Western lines. Long-established elites have fostered nepotism and a general dumbing down. Yet this corset has also had a healing effect, failing which the AKP's victory would look very different indeed. By Zafer Senocak
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The Arab League has imported from Europe the idea of a cultural capital and Algiers has the honour this year. Money and political will abound. But what culture has survived the years of terror, and who dares speak his mind in the increasingly Islamic regime? By Sonja Zekri
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Despite a serious blow to the Kaczynski twins' lustration law by Poland' s Constitutional Court this May, the country will continue to x-ray its past. Ryszard Kapuscinski, prize-crowned author and reporter who died this year, is the latest of a string of intellectuals to have their secret police past uncovered. By Thomas Urban (Photo: Irmi Long)
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Russia has long since degenerated into morally bankrupt totalitarianism. Europe used to take a proud stand on freedom. So why isn't it doing anything? By Andre Glucksmann
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"In America I learned that Europe is possible." A conversation with Bernard-Henri Levy about his trip through the USA, the neo-conservatives after the disaster in Iraq, the fascist roots of Islamism and France before the elections. By Thierry Chervel (Photo: R. Escher)
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