Saturday 5 March, 2005

Frankfurter Rundschau, 05.03.2005

The Goethe Institute in Cairo invited German and Islamic intellectuals to participate in a discussion in the Egyptian desert oasis of Bahareyya in mid February. As Markus Meßling's report shows, there were substantial differences between the two parties: "It became clear that fundamentally different concepts underlie what it means to understand. Whereas from a European philological standpoint, reading always represents an active process from which even the Bible is not exempt, on the Egyptian side the reading of the Koran means passive comprehension of a manifest truth." Moreover, for the advocates of Islam, "the massive and total rejection of Western culture in Islamic thinking, as in Arab society as a whole, is intrinsically linked to the traumatic experience of political impotence both before and after the colonial period. Similar sentiments were also expressed at the public podium discussion in Cairo which rounded up the events."


Die Welt, 05.03.2005

Jan Philipp Reemtsma, head of the Hamburg Institute for Social Reseach, presents "Abgesang '45", the last volume of Walter Kempowski's ten part collective war diary "Echolot" (more). "Echolot" is a vast collection of quotes telling the story of the Second World War in a myriad of individual, unrelated voices. Reemtsma comments on the simultaneous joy and despair in spring of 1945. "No single perspective could bring together all these events, no history could tell all these stories. Not even compassion can do that. Arno Schmidt once wrote that you cannot tell the nationality of a screaming man. But those who make others scream know who they are dealing with and why. Murderers always have good reasons for what they do, even if it is only to kill time. Not even the absurd is simply absurd: it is the realm between meaninglessness and meaning."

In a joint contribution on the opinion page, SDP politician Markus Meckel and Matthias Wissmann from the CDU share their concerns about the planned festivities for the celebration of the end of WW II in Moscow. However much suffering Germany inflicted in the Soviet Union, "it cannot be ignored that the peoples of the Soviet Union and half of Europe continued to suffer oppression and confinement under a communist dictatorship. Poland's ex-minister of foreign affairs Bronislaw Geremek hit the nail on the head: 'If on 9 May the whole historical truth is not heard, nothing good will come of the commemorations.'"


Die Tageszeitung, 05.03.2005

In the taz author Else Buschheuer tells the "story of her disillusionment" as intern in a Mother Theresa Home in Calcutta: "Most interns are Christians. But isn't Christianity (practising charity to get to heaven) completely different from altruism (individual sacrifice to secure the continuity of others, for example in ants and chimpanzees)? Already on the second day the morning mass started getting on my nerves. This endless esoteric standing, sitting, kneeling, sitting, standing... The guest preacher, an American, said 'United States of America' about 30 times in his sermon. Then he put a biscuit on everyone's tongue – except mine."


Sunday 6 March, 2005

Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, 06.03.2005

Dagmar Zurek speaks with conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt about Monteverdi, making art pay, and the comedy in 'Carmen'. Asked whether the international careers of the most successful conductors could result in the world's top orchestras all sounding the same, Harnoncourt replies: "For me the real danger is that the top orchestra positions are so rare that musicians from all over the world apply for them. Orchestras used to recruit from their immediate surroundings, and that's how they preserved their instrumental traditions over many years... I want to be very clear: for me this is a real danger. Greater mobility does not at all guarantee a higher quality of sound. Orchestras with a very distinctive sound are few and far between. In my conducting, I want to limit myself to orchestras that have such a specific tonal 'personality'. The Staatskapelle Dresden, for instance, has retained the pure quality of its sound until today."


Monday 7 March, 2005

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 07.03.2005

Jürgen Müller visited the exhibition "Mannes Lust und Weibes Macht" (Man's Desire and Woman's Power) of erotic renaissance engravings in the Copperplate Engraving Cabinet in Dresden, and was very taken by what he saw. "Cleverly, the exhibition begins with sin, and shows a whole series of works that show from a Christian perspective that sexuality and shame emerged simultaneously. Here the most beautiful engraving is by Hans Baldung, also known as Grien. His Eve is not content to seduce Adam, but locks eyes flirtatiously with the viewer as well."


Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 07.03.2005

Why on earth would anyone come here? Uwe Stolzmann visits the last vestiges of European wilderness where the last wild people of the old continent live by Lake Inarijärvi (more) in Finnish-Lapland. "It is midsummer, the nights are white, there's only a little snow between the moss and the rocks, and the mosquito plague has just begun. On the way a street sign says: 'Inarin Porofarmi, a reindeer farm at Lake Inarijärvi, two kilometres.' On arrival, a woman says in harsh German, 'I am Heidi, your leader. You can feed the reindeer, then we will go and throw lassos, and then we will go to the Kota Lapp tent and drink coffee and sing Joiks.' A crash course in Sami culture, twenty franks, to be paid in advance at the cash desk."

The NZZ printed a translation of American poet Charles Simic's journey through Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia "Down there on a visit". "I was told that the more run-down the town, the better the music and spareribs. Unfortunately it's not true. The majority of poor people eat bad food, and the good musicians move to towns where the audiences have money."
The story was originally printed in the New York Review of Books in August 2004.