Neue Zürcher Zeitung 20.08.2007

Historian Wlodzimierz Borodzej asserts that the Kaczynski brothers, whose term is nearing its end, are largely to blame for the "culture of mistrust" in today's Poland. It is characterised by "confrontation and polarisation based on animosities and conspiracy theories.(...) Conservative modernisers? Not really. The Kaczynski brothers belong to a tradition of Polish politicians who are best described with neither of these labels. From the old Polish right – the national democracy which was wiped out by the Germans and Soviets in the Second World War – they have inherited national Darwinism: Poland can only survive as a major power in the midst of European states, which they see as a jungle. There are occasional alliances, always with the enemies of our enemies; but communities of common interest are considered the pipe dreams of cosmopolitan, liberal or at worst leftist intellectuals."


Süddeutsche Zeitung 20.08.2007

The commemoration of the slave trade, which was abolished by England two centuries ago, is expected to bring more tourists to Africa. Historian Andreas Eckert comments that there is little historical precision at work here. "The most intensive conflict took place around Goree Island, off the coast of Senegal, which is where the first African memorial to the slave trade was placed. The island was named a world heritage site by Unesco in 1978 and has been visited by countless celebrities, from Bill Clinton to Pope John Paul II, who wanted to recall the forced migration of Africans to the 'new world.' But roughly ten years ago, American and French historians put forward the well-defended thesis that in quantitative terms, Goree did not play a significant role in trans-Atlantic slavery, at which point the Senegalese press compared the historians to Holocaust deniers."

Dirk Meyrhöfer is wholly impressed by the media archive designed by Neutelings Riedijk in Hilversum, calling it an architectural milestone of the post-Kolhaas era. "On the city side of the roundabout of the campus stands an iconographic media shrine: a four-sided screen whose 'icons' seem to blend with in the background. One expects them to turn into a colourful television program or an internet site at any minute. But that's precisely what doesn't happen. The shell itself is a gigantic media archive whose images are 'frozen' as artwork. It might seem trivial and random from a distance but when you get closer, you see how graphic designer Jaap Drupsteen has made the glass façade: out of 374 frozen television images which show the highlights of Dutch television history."


Die Tageszeitung 20.08.2007

Jewish artist Charlotte Salomon, who was murdered in Auschwitz in 1943, averted a nervous breakdown by expressing the horror of her predicament in paintings and drawings. Katrin Bettina Müller went to see a moving exhibition of her work at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. "'Life? Or theatre?' is a unique testimony to the educated Jewish bourgeoisie in Berlin in the 1930s; it unmasks the illusion that a tradition of German-Jewish humanism defied political danger; and it is testimony to the stigmatisation of German doctors and artists as Jews as well as their repression, the long journey into emigration."


Saturday 18 August, 2007

Die Tageszeitung 18.08.2007

Samir Grees reports that ever more secular writers and thinkers have become the target of Islamic fundamentalists in Egypt: "Gone are the days when fundamentalists tried to accomplish their goals with spectacular bloody attacks; the last assault in Egypt happened in 1997. Today, they try to control society by other means. After having been elected in relatively free elections, they represent about a fifth of the seats in parliament; a well-functioning social network enables them to reach the poor, who have been abandoned by the corrupt state. Islamic fundamentalists undercut the police and the law (see the trials on forced divorce and the Higazy case - more); they appeal to human rights and civic society whenever they like it, and otherwise consistently brand their enemies as 'secularists'."


Neue Zürcher Zeitung 18.08.2007

Sociologist Ralf Dahrendorf is concerned about freedom and security in times of terror and tells resolute ministers of the interior where to get off. "Neither anarchy nor dictatorship provide a ground on which freedom can prosper. It is, however, important to be precise in the way we talk about freedom. Those who first aim at something else in order to then achieve freedom declare freedom a luxury good and will presumably never achieve it. This holds for all those who insist that certain social conditions first be given ('freedom through socialism'); it also holds for those who turn their attention first to security."