Monday 5 December, 2005

Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 05.12.2005

With marked bitterness, the Iraqi poet and publisher Khalid al-Maaly comments on Saddam Hussein's appearance in court. "The executioner, who like other executioners before him seeks a haven in oblivion, is now claiming that he no longer knows anything of his deeds and other carryings-on. He's now demanding his rights, including the right to a lawyer. Saddam has committed every crime you can think of – and any number of others which are unthinkable. It's astounding that he now enters court with the Koran in his hand. One inevitably thinks of all those tragedies in the course of history, in particular Arab history. The worst massacres are committed when holy books are brandished, or they have been committed already. And the victims, who can never forget, can only watch the spectacle."


Frankfurter Rundschau, 05.12.2005

Finally! The republic is honing its response to the rioting in the banlieues. French politicians have charged seven rappers and handed in a draught law to combat all forms of "injury to the dignity of France and the state". Martina Meister can only shake her head. "Hip Hop is answering the accusations thrown at the rioting youth from all sides: it is articulating the unease and the hate. Because this is precisely what France's intellectuals were complaining about, that this 'blind hatred' was not coupled with demands of any sort, that it was not a means to a political end. The rappers have answered this cultural witch trial. Axiom First, a rapper from Lille, followed the example of Boris Vian and composed a letter to the president. With the Marseillaise in the background, he raps out a condemnation of 30 years of racism, 30 years of blindness and 30 years of discrimination: 'My grandparents defended this country in the War, my parents helped rebuild it,' the lyrics say."


Die Welt, 05.12.2005

Is the German Wikipedia being taken over by communist nostalgia? Guido Heinen lists several pertinent cases: "In the article on Fidel Castro, for example, there is practically nothing about violations of human rights. All phrases that could ruffle the feathers of the maximo lider have been systematically deleted by an apparently intractable Castro fan. The crude rationale: as long as they are not discussed in detail, listing them is 'not neutral'. The disbelief many users expressed in the accompanying discussion board has yet to have any effect on the article's wording." Meanwhile, the advertising industry is also attacking Wikipedia: "A few days ago in Spain, marketing expert Steve Rubel published a detailed guide on how to manipulate Wikipedia."


Saturday 3 December, 2005

Die Welt, 03.12.2005

Andrea Seibel is full of admiration for Polish reporter Ryszard Kapuscinski's new book, "Travels with Herodotus": "At the age of 73, his body weak from recurrences of malaria, tuberculosis and ravaged by six bypasses, he is still as restless as ever. For him the time remaining is a luxury, and he reveals the secret of his life and work: Kapuscinski had a travel guide by the name of Herodotus. His book, 'The History', written two and a half thousand years ago, was given him by his boss, Mrs Tarlowska ('From me, for your travels', what a clever boss!). He began to read it in India. That's where 'I started developing a strong liking for him', because Herodotus, the first chronicler of antiquity, took a 'kindly view of humanity, was curious about the world, full of questions and always ready to travel thousands of kilometres' to find the answers."

Thirty years after the death of philosopher Hannah Arendt, Hannes Stein talks to Green MEP Daniel Cohn-Bendit, who even back in the seventies understood what a great thinker this friend of his parents was. When asked how he explained the love between Hannah Arendt and Martin Heidegger, he replied, "There can be no philosophical or rational explanation for love and sex. I always say that Hannah Arendt is the Madonna of philosophy. Madonna is a woman who says: I will have the man I want. Whether this means Christ, who she famously took down from the cross in one of her videos, or her sports instructor – she can just take her pick."


Der Tagesspiegel, 03.12.2005

The Berlin cabaret singer Max Raabe and his Palast Orchester evidently brought the house down in the New York Carnegie Hall. According to Matthias B. Krause, "The audience was putty in his hands after only a few bars, they adored his introductions to the songs, the way he chews through the select English words, stretching them out and cloaking them in such pregnant pauses, that by the time he's done, he only needs to raise half an eyebrow and the audience is in stitches. Meticulously dressed as ever in 20s and 30s chic, Raabe oscillates around the mike stand like a bean pole, using only the most minimal of gestures to accompany the extensive baritone vocal gamut he handles with such ease. The finale unleashed a thunderous storm of applause which didn't subside until after the fourth encore. Extatic 70-year-old New York ladies threatened to go through the floor with all their feet stamping, while au pair girls clapped their hands raw."


Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 03.12.2005

After Andrea Breth's much acclaimed version in May (see "In Today's Feuilletons" of May 2), Jürgen Gosch has staged Anton Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard" in Zurich. One by one the critics have panned the production, among them Barbara Villiger Heilig, who writes that Gosch's staging not only missed the point, it "missed the entire play": "The expectations, and the pressure, were running high. Before Gosch's directing debut in Zurich, reports had been circulating for some time about the successes the 62-year-old East German had booked up in other theatres, for example in Bochum while Matthias Hartmann was artistic director. But theatrical success cannot be programmed, and Zurich tends to be unlucky. Chekhov's plays cannot stand up to the nervous pressure here that weighs down new productions and bullies them into submission from the first moment. They explode like over-inflated balloons."