Monday June 20, 2005

Der Tagesspiegel, 20.06.2005

Katajun Amipur explains why the youth in Iran put less stock on radical reformers than on the pragmatic Ali Akbar Rafsanjani, who served as president of the Islamic Republic from 1989 – 1997. From him young voters at least hope for an economic upswing and the retention of their modest liberties. Rafsanjani came first in the preliminary round on Friday, and will go into a run-off this coming Friday with Tehran's right-wing Mayor Mahmood Ahmadinejad. "There is no such mood of change as we saw in the election eight years ago (when Mohammad Khatami was elected president). Because the experience of recent years showed the youth that participating in the election brought them no influence at all in politics, not to mention setting the Islamic Republic on a reform course. Most of them think: we've voted for the reformers four times in the last eight years. But reform from within isn't possible, because there's nothing to be done against the bulwark of conservatives. That's why so many of them escape. Either inwardly, into the private sphere where they throw wild parties and take all kinds of drugs, or they flee the country. For years the citizens of the Islamic Republic have voted with their feet. Each year 200,000 people leave Iran, and more would go if they could – mostly well-educated young people. The brain drain does no end of harm."


Neue Zürchner Zeitung, 20.06.2005

Hoo Nam Seelmann takes a glance at the literature scene of South Korea, the official guest country at this year's Frankfurt Book Fair in October. "'Land of Morning Calm' is what Koreans call their country, although in the last century it has been anything but peaceful. The violent invasion of the West was followed by Japan's colonisation, the division of the country, the Korean War and the military dictatorship. This is why the poet Ko Un terms Korean literature the 'Literature of Wounds'. The rupture which is now visible everywhere between the generations of writers follows a dividing line drawn out by how directly the writers experienced these historical events. The luminaries of Korean literature today experienced the 'wounds' first-hand. And the colonisation, the division and the war became the literary subjects of an entire generation of writers. Then came the struggle for democracy. Many politically involved writers were imprisoned during the military dictatorship or forced into exile."


Frankfurter Rundschau, 20.06.2005

Theater in Germany is wrong to seek intimacy, writes Peter Michalzik. He finds it more interesting to search out the unknown and the strange, such as he found on his expedition to the Stuttgart Theater der Welt (world theatre festival). There he saw the piece "Paradise", put on by the MAU group of dancers and singers from the Pacific Islands. "It's been a long time since people have occupied a stage like that - it's their bodies that make up the space. A dusty figure covered in white powder slaps and claps in a crescendo like a full-bodied 'Schuhplattler' Bavarian folk dance. It's a climax of activity, yet it impresses less for its technical brilliance than for the easy power that flows through the dancer's body. His illuminated, slowly moving back looks at times like a plucked bird, at times like a mask – the sheer energy becomes tangible, visible."


Süddeutsche Zeitung, 20.06.2005

The wealth of the foundation behind Bern's Zentrum Paul Klee (which has an excellent website) is matched only by that of the Picasso Museum in Paris, writes Gottfried Knapp in an article celebrating the undulating architecture of the building designed by Renzo Piano and the inaugural exhibition which starts today. In the central "hill" 160 paintings are housed in amazingly "luxurious conditions". "In this cooly modest devotional room you can erase from memory all other presentations of Klee's works in other museums. Bern sets new standards – not just for the presence of the paintings in the graduated width and height of the exhibition space, but primarily for the dense succession of existentially first-class objects from all Klee's creative and crisis periods."


Saturday June 18, 2005

Frankfurter Rundschau, 18.06.2005

A wind of change is blowing through Germany, where the ruling SPD/Green government looks set to be ousted by the conservative CDU/CSU in September. This leads the FR to ask author Thomas Hettche: "Are you conservative?" He admits that giving a straight "no" to the question would cause him stomach pains. But he is critical of what he sees as a new conservatism and chastises his colleagues: "The products of this intellectual movement – for example the type of literary snapshots by Uwe Tellkamp (author of 'Der Eisvogel', more here) – are utterly incapable of expressing what is really happening. That's all conservative tinsel. But the fundamental extent of the change that's taking place is shown by the fact that the crucial question can, and even must be asked again: "What is your view on religion?"


Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 18.06.2005

Chemist Carl Djerassi, inventor of the Pill, delivers a cutting reply to Peter Liese's fears that therapeutic cloning will lead to baby cloning. Downright dishonourable is "Liese's conclusion that 'it is impossible to clone human embryos without female egg cells.' This is obvious. But it is also impossible without semen cells. Should masturbation be punishable as a form of killing 'potential' babies? ... As no woman is capable of producing an embryo on her own, only egg cells, Liese's conclusion that women will automatically be exploited as egg producers is at best a form of phallocentric moralising."

Only an announcement but interesting nonetheless. Apparently Gregor Schneider's artwork that was banned by the authorities in Venice (more here) "does not injure the religious feeling of Muslims. 'It is not forbidden to represent the Kaaba. There are endless images of it', the Chairman of the Central Committee of Muslims in Germany, Nadeem Elyas, told the German news agency dpa. The artist's portrayal was planned with 'honour and dignity'. There are no grounds for concern."